Cultural appropriation, revision of history or just appreciation of the culture. What are your thoughts on Yasuke in the new Assassin's Creed.
- Thread starter Gamernyc78
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Yet here you are, fighting tooth and nail with strangers on the internet on this crusade to legitimize Ubisoft choosing to use a black man as protagonist for an Assassin's Creed videogame set in feudal Japan.
Yet for critics of the female ninja warrior (that also didn't exist) there's zero defense on your end. You're laser-focused on the black dude.
Why?
1 - It's a set of chronicles / reports from a Portuguese missionary addressed to the Pope at the time. No one ever said the title said "chronichels".
It's also the sole description of him written near the time these historical events happened.
2 - Yes, the memoirs of one Samurai written 16 years after Oda Nobunaga died and no one ever heard of Yasuke. It's probably still a lot more credible than the ones below.
3 - That's a book from 1968. What were their sources?
4 - "Story of the Church of Japan" - lol yeah written by a guy who was born after everyone was already dead.
5 - There's nothing in there claiming he was given the title. Only thing it says is the part where they take off his clothes to see if he's painted, and then he asks the priest Alexander to keep him (yes, like a pet, because newsflash everyone back then was fucking racist by today's standards.. ever heard of slavery?).
Wow so very much samurai. Full honor.
It's just paraphrasing what Luís Fróis wrote of that particular episode, and it even mentions Luís Fróis as being the one that was accompanying Yasuke. Again proving that Fróis' and Ota's as the sole 1st-hand descriptions. All the rest is 2nd, 3rd, 4th, nth-hand of what they heard from others.
This JAPANESE wkipedia page from 2009 has one (1, singular) source, and it's called " Real Japanese History Suspense Theater Nippon Television September 18, 2007".
Wow, fuck Luís Fróis' and Ota Gyuichi's first-hand accounts. The people from this "Suspense Theater" TV show obviously know the truth.
@ToTTenTranz Tell me, did you have this same level of obsession over "minute historical accuracy" with Nioh? Or The Last Samurai, for that matter? Different medium but I digress.
The degree of refutation some of you ITT want to engage in suggests things aside a care to "historical accuracy" to me, especially for a video game. You know, a medium with works well-known for great artistic liberties towards historical accuracy in the first place.
The way some of you are going about, you'd think this were meant to be a textbook for a History majors university program. All of a sudden "exact" historical accuracy matters in a medium built on fictional stories and artistic liberties?
...
The degree of refutation some of you ITT want to engage in suggests things aside a care to "historical accuracy" to me, especially for a video game. You know, a medium with works well-known for great artistic liberties towards historical accuracy in the first place.
The way some of you are going about, you'd think this were meant to be a textbook for a History majors university program. All of a sudden "exact" historical accuracy matters in a medium built on fictional stories and artistic liberties?
...
Oh boy 
I will help you here with something very simple:
Daimyō did not throw houses and swords at random people, they gave them to their "closest" circle. I use closest loosely here because we're talking a few dozen people. However, just by virtue of having those, Yasuke was important, Samurai or not. You depicting him as nothing more than a pet and an animal not only goes against the sparse historical record, it goes against reality.
Secondly, just stop and listen about what his position meant
For real, what people fail to understand is that it can be very fun and interesting to have someone like Yasuke be the figure in a game like this. It allows for enough speculation, there's bits and pieces of information to back that up, and it can lead to a compelling history.
Conversely, it's also very interesting to have a game with a fully fictional character (Jin Sakai) set in a historical period. We can have both, it's fine!
And don't forget Afro Samurai, which was partially inspired by Yasuke and was created in the 90s. People did not give a fuck back then, it's like we're going back in time.
The bible is a collection of short stories then. You need to tell me where you found these paragraphs, they sound very interesting! Did you buy from Amazon? Or did you read it in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal? Also, press X for doubt on you fully understanding 1500s Portuguese.
Your arguments from incredulity are not my problem.
Go ask them.
Damn! Imagine all those books written by people that were born after the subject has died! This has to be your most braindead argument so far.
I didn't say that source claimed he was given a title.
I was wrong, this is indeed the most braindead argument.
So your point goes from essentially "this is a modern conspiracy by all these wokes" to "oh this page from 2009 is completely irrelevant. You failed the point I was trying to make, sir. Congratulations!
I will help you here with something very simple:
Daimyō did not throw houses and swords at random people, they gave them to their "closest" circle. I use closest loosely here because we're talking a few dozen people. However, just by virtue of having those, Yasuke was important, Samurai or not. You depicting him as nothing more than a pet and an animal not only goes against the sparse historical record, it goes against reality.
Secondly, just stop and listen about what his position meant
It matters because.... I can't say it or I will be banned. I didn't say anything, MODS! Don't hit me!The way some of you are going about, you'd think this were meant to be a textbook for a History majors university program. All of a sudden "exact" historical accuracy matters in a medium built on fictional stories and artistic liberties?
For real, what people fail to understand is that it can be very fun and interesting to have someone like Yasuke be the figure in a game like this. It allows for enough speculation, there's bits and pieces of information to back that up, and it can lead to a compelling history.
Conversely, it's also very interesting to have a game with a fully fictional character (Jin Sakai) set in a historical period. We can have both, it's fine!
And don't forget Afro Samurai, which was partially inspired by Yasuke and was created in the 90s. People did not give a fuck back then, it's like we're going back in time.
I don't have a problem either, but I tell you this: if they make a Puerto Rico Assasin, that is where I draw the line.
It's the weekend, and @Gamernyc78 is out cruising the bars, so I should be safe for a bit.
@Satoru The dude's putting more effort into this than likely any other game quasi-based on historical time periods featuring characters that have no resemblance to Yusuke .
Like what fuels the heightened state of interest from people like them in this one specific case, but not others, some of which weren't even that far back?
That's a rhetorical question BTW. I already know the answer by this point.
. Like what fuels the heightened state of interest from people like them in this one specific case, but not others, some of which weren't even that far back?
That's a rhetorical question BTW. I already know the answer by this point.
Ubisoft devs always preached about Assassin's Creed games and history. they were proud about their games shown in schools for practical use.@ToTTenTranz Tell me, did you have this same level of obsession over "minute historical accuracy" with Nioh? Or The Last Samurai, for that matter? Different medium but I digress.
The degree of refutation some of you ITT want to engage in suggests things aside a care to "historical accuracy" to me, especially for a video game. You know, a medium with works well-known for great artistic liberties towards historical accuracy in the first place.
The way some of you are going about, you'd think this were meant to be a textbook for a History majors university program. All of a sudden "exact" historical accuracy matters in a medium built on fictional stories and artistic liberties?
NioH is fictional Japan, with Japanese Folklore as main theme. game has Yokai, game has souls, flying beast.
come on, man, i would have the same energy if game would be set in Africa and main characters would be whites. but you and i know, it wouldn't be the case. they never do it.
it is just virtue signalling and DEI.
and please, spare me comparing japanese creation and western. japanese has hundreds of years to portrait their history with hundreds of movies, anime etc.. so i pretty much have no problem for them exploring other roots in their own history.
Ghost of Tsushima and Rise of the Ronin are highly adore in Japan.
I find it even funnier that the typical response is either defensive (why do you want so much for this character to be X) or just plain dishonest (you wouldn't react like this if X). It's a fuckload of projection.@Satoru The dude's putting more effort into this than likely any other game quasi-based on historical time periods featuring characters that have no resemblance to Yusuke
Like what fuels the heightened state of interest from people like them in this one specific case, but not others, some of which weren't even that far back?
That's a rhetorical question BTW. I already know the answer by this point.
Ghost of Tsushima was great because it told a really good story, not because Jin was Japanese (and fictitious). This game has an interesting not explored before premise, but people are already very sad because big black dumb pet cannot be a Samurai.
(These final few words were my satire based on the very intelligent comments in this thread, and do not represent my opinion)
People had their pitchforks out when we were out fighting against the pope!
Ezio Auditore Da Firenze, yes, he was Italian, not some black or japanese.
OP
OP
Idk thts weird especially since Japan heavily embraced GOT and thought it was great even historically. It got alot of praise from Asia
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@Gediminas What outside of Yusuke is AC: Shadows doing that is supposedly so historically inaccurate?
Never mind that, yes, the guy did exist IRL in Japan during this era. Even games like Nioh featured him in some capacity. So to me it seems most people are upset that he's more than just a background character or semi-footnote NPC. They could tolerate him otherwise, but not when they may have to play large parts of the game with them.
That's a problem with those people, not the game.
You'd have a point if there was no playable Japanese character in the game at all. Naoe exists.
You'd have a point if characters from previous games like Enzio were based 1:1 on real-life individuals. They weren't.
You'd have a point if previous AssCreed games didn't already embellish many aspects of time periods they covered. They have.
So what are people really so upset about?
My only potential qualms are that there may be some writer with past affiliation to SBI involved with the game. But one person out of a team of 1,000 does not a game make. Either that write (and by association, SBI) have SOOO much power it borders on comical villainy, or they don't and so maybe people should judge the game on its story in full before claiming an ideology's corrupted it?
Only other qualm would be, since apparently idpol toxicity is prevalent everywhere, to quell the folks who wanted a Japanese male playable character specifically, Ubisoft should've maybe tried adding one to the game. It's an odd omission, but could also be rationalized as them wanting to set their game apart from the plenty other samurai games on the market with Japanese male protagonist/leads.
Maybe kind of like how Tomb Raider in its day was partly chosen to be a woman to set themselves apart from all the male-led action games of the era and Indiana Jones. Whether Shadows has the heart, passion, or sincerity of Tomb Raider in that respect though remains to be seen. What I will say though is, at least for right now, attacking or pre-judging/accusing the game of a political narrative simply because there's a playable black guy in a lead role, is both stupid and tasteless.
Especially when people then try using "historical accuracy" or demographic statistics to back up their reasons (but ONLY to voice against things they don't want; i.e I don't see any of these people demanding there be more non-black players in the NBA or NFL).
Never mind that, yes, the guy did exist IRL in Japan during this era. Even games like Nioh featured him in some capacity. So to me it seems most people are upset that he's more than just a background character or semi-footnote NPC. They could tolerate him otherwise, but not when they may have to play large parts of the game with them.
That's a problem with those people, not the game.
You'd have a point if there was no playable Japanese character in the game at all. Naoe exists.
You'd have a point if characters from previous games like Enzio were based 1:1 on real-life individuals. They weren't.
You'd have a point if previous AssCreed games didn't already embellish many aspects of time periods they covered. They have.
So what are people really so upset about?
My only potential qualms are that there may be some writer with past affiliation to SBI involved with the game. But one person out of a team of 1,000 does not a game make. Either that write (and by association, SBI) have SOOO much power it borders on comical villainy, or they don't and so maybe people should judge the game on its story in full before claiming an ideology's corrupted it?
Only other qualm would be, since apparently idpol toxicity is prevalent everywhere, to quell the folks who wanted a Japanese male playable character specifically, Ubisoft should've maybe tried adding one to the game. It's an odd omission, but could also be rationalized as them wanting to set their game apart from the plenty other samurai games on the market with Japanese male protagonist/leads.
Maybe kind of like how Tomb Raider in its day was partly chosen to be a woman to set themselves apart from all the male-led action games of the era and Indiana Jones. Whether Shadows has the heart, passion, or sincerity of Tomb Raider in that respect though remains to be seen. What I will say though is, at least for right now, attacking or pre-judging/accusing the game of a political narrative simply because there's a playable black guy in a lead role, is both stupid and tasteless.
Especially when people then try using "historical accuracy" or demographic statistics to back up their reasons (but ONLY to voice against things they don't want; i.e I don't see any of these people demanding there be more non-black players in the NBA or NFL).
Let’s Not Pretend We’re Mad the New Assassin's Creed Shadows Samurai Isn’t Asian - IGN
Assassin's Creed Shadows is under fire for featuring a Black samurai protagonist, but let's not pretend we suddenly care deeply about Asian representation.
I read that and got brain cancer. I'm being honest. What a load of bullshit.
Let's not forget one of the worst "italian" accents ever and you should hear the "Italian" he speaks in the german dub.... Like they never heard the language before.
Are you telling me that Italians don't speak English with the cadence of Mario? How dare you!
Please no offense to Mario. The few Italian words he says are totally fine
