Can't believe there are people who saw the Minecraft trailer and their biggest issue was a black woman existing. Instead of the bad comedy, bad acting, bad lines, bad CGI, bad everything.
@omeganichtdieuhrsondernder6906 he showed it near the end of the vid. Tho it is still a fairly small group, they exist unfortunately. And some even have big platforms.
Back when there were only 8 avatars for 8 players on xbox, there was black avatars for Minecraft (8 players). It doesn't even make sense to criticise it even from an "accuracy" standpoint.
Lycoris Recoil had one of the best representations i know in media. Mika being her guardian figure that just happened to be gay. This was no big topic. It was not like he acted any different because he is gay. It was just a small detail: "Oh this two had a relationship." This is the perfect way to include it in my pov. The same counted for the fact that he was a poc. at no point they make a big topic out of the fact that he is poc. He just was and this was totally normal and not made him act any different as her father like a white men.
@@Otaya_2024 I think the only critic you could say is that main heroine can manage to keep up her pazzifismus without conzequenzes and without any morally challenge. It misses a little bit of struggle where her approach of not killing seriously threatens someone or someone is harmed because she not killed a target. At no point we see a real character flaw for her. We never see her past of a ruthless killer or some kind of grey area. And I think the reason for that is sadly that they are not making a second season apparently. Because they kept a lot of plot threats open. So we never will see if they would tackle this issue of main heroine being the only one in the show sho not shows flaws.
@@mrcaos999A new Lycoris Recoil proyect was announced shortly after S1 ended. We don’t know if it’s a S2 a movie or what, but we can safely presume its some sort of continuation
This video stands tall above a sea of resctionary and downright anti-art content. I think the part of the sentiment that art should "not be political" that angers me the most is that it bodly states that the stories of some groups are inherently more valuable to write and read about than those of other groups. That the experiences of colored people or the LGBT community being reflected in a work of fiction inherently make it more political and dangerous than it would be without those elements. In general, I think that people should realize that art doesn't soley exist to entertain or be consumed. Most art exists both as a product to be consumed by an audience and as a vehicle of expression by the artists, and telling artists that some of their experiences are simply too "political" to be expressed shows a lack of understanding of why we create art in the first place.
It's wild how hard people will fight back when you point out how representation can matter and how certain groups have had less for questionable reasons. I'm reminded of the recent Genshin Impact skin color discourse. Long story shorter, the game's regions draw inspiration from all over the real world -- Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, Oceania. In the game's 4 years of life, ppl had taken note of how darker skin was barely present in its characters while white & light characters are galore. Then, when darker skin is present, it's usually light tan if on important characters, and most of the medium-and-darker shades are relegated to NPCs. With the playable characters, the ones who matter the most, the ratio is like 9/95 with tan-or-darker skin if we count some known upcoming characters, with only 3 of those having skin at least medium brown. Back in July when teasers for the now recently added region based on the Americas (mixed with some Africa and Oceania) dropped, people were vocal about being frustrated because they hoped Genshin would take the opportunity to deliver on darker skin there in a major way, but instead what we got is the same as usual -- barely any brown/black in the important characters, with decent amounts of darker shades only present in the NPCs. While generally HoYo actually does decent with the inclusion of the cultures they work with (certainly not perfect, but decent), they clearly hold back when it comes to skin color, and given colorism is a known phenomena (including in China where the company that made the game is based), it's not hard to see why people have been annoyed and desire something different. It feels like some people of some of the taken-from cultures are essentially being told "we like so much about your culture... but not you." And the response to people's fair complaints there has been *maddening* . Over the last two months I have seen *so many* iffy or even asinine takes in that whole discourse with people either casually dismissing the idea that having more darker skin here would be acceptable or even desperately fighting against the idea of more darker skin being present. If you look up videos discussing the discourse, overwhelmingly the popular ones favor the narrative that it just "isn't that big of a deal" and spends way more time pointing out iffy behavior from some people on Twitter who desire more darker skin, rather than focusing on the meat of the fairer arguments people have been making. People are ignorant and want to stay ignorant, and it's sad to see. It's really as simple as you say -- people want to see people who look like them doing cool shit. Shouldn't be as objectionable as people have made it out to be.
To me, re zero has amazing character diversity sexuality wise. Roswall, Felix, Crusch and Subaru to an extent are amazing examples of people dealing with gender roles and the things a man or a woman have to do. But to me diversity is very subjective. To me people need to be able to see thekselves personality wise, not sexuality or race. Even though im not japanese or dealing with gender issues i can relate to subaru and felix just because of the stuff they go through
I think the most frustrating aspects of the representation "debate" (aside from any new property that doesn't do well being seen as a failure due to diversity or wokeness or whatever new nonsense buzzword reactionaries decide to use rather than poor planning from the top so they can extract more money from the masses without putting any eniugh effort) is the poverty of imagination when it comes to completely ficitional settings. People are so quick to say that something is unrealistic or impossible whenever a brown or queer person is involved but are able to accept literally impossible things like superpowers and fantasticsl creatures. It is quite exhausting having to justify my own existence and place in these spaces. Appreciate the video, very well done!
Ferris from Re:Zero is such a weird case (alongside Crusch). The author says Ferris is not intended to be a trans girl (though he doesn't seem particularly bothered if people think so), and I'm sure that's true... ...but when you dive into Ferris' and Crusch's character from the various side stories, you just see so much that cannot be explained away with a simple "They are crossdressing". Obvious spoiler warning, not for the main story, but for their origin side story and the first EX side story novel. Also, I will use "she/her" for Crusch and "he/him" for Ferris based on pronouns used in the novels themselves, but feel free to change them in your head as needed: Crusch: 1) Crusch grew up with heavy expectations that she is a girl/woman who would be married off for political reasons, but being the only heir to the Duke's throne, she studied swordplay and politics and became very competent at it, besting all her peers at an early age. Eventually, she became distraught that her gender essentially prevents her from gaining real power to change the world for the better. When Ferris offers to give her his "boyhood", she is surprised by the suggestion, but it intrigues her and she accepts. 2) Likewise, when she succeeds in becoming a respected leader (to the discomfort of many nobles around her), she refuses to wear feminine clothing and also declines to be called a "Duchess", referring to herself as a "Duke". X) The only real counterpoint to this is that when the prince finally does beat her in combat, she accepts the win condition that she wear a dress for him once, and when he dies, she wears said dress he gave her once a year in remembrance. This doesn't seem to bother her and it seems to even comfort her, so a part of me feels she may just not care about gender itselfーonly the expectations that come with it. Ferris: 1) When Crusch confides in Ferris all her worries over gender expectations, Ferris suddenly blurts out desperately that he will take her "girlhood" and give her his "boyhood", which surprises not only Crusch, but himself as well. 2) When Ferris first starts wearing girl's clothing, he thinks it's going to be awkward, but he very quickly realizes that he feels very comfortable in it, and he really likes it. Later on, when he realizes he has to wear a guy's knight uniform to become Crusch's knight, he laments it, even though he accepts. 3) When the young prince meets the two and "mistakes" Ferris for a girl, Ferris does not correct him, and actively prevents Crusch from correcting him as well. They keep this secret until the prince is older and set to get married, despite the fact that they are close friends with the prince in that entire time. Ferris finds the shocking revelation funny due to the prince having had a crush on him. 4) When the prince mishears Ferris' masculine "deadname" and calls him "Ferris", Ferris is delighted about the new name and takes the name for real, insisting Crusch to call him such as well. Whenever anyone uses his "deadname", he gets very upset. 5) There is an intro scene in the EX novel that describes Ferris' morning routine from his internal POV. This includes looking into the mirror and saying "I'm a pretty girl" over and over for motivation, checking to make sure he does not grow facial or body hair (which he is greatful to his mother's family's genes) and that his body still has feminine curves and smooth skin. He practically shudders at the thought that he might one day not be feminine enough. X) It is not stated outright, but Ferris' spite toward his father could potentially be a huge motivation for many of these things, such as fear of his fathers' genetics, dislike of his birth name, etc. There are also some funny scenes where Ferris admits to being a "boy", specifically to tease Subaru and/or the prince. In both these cases, and especially with Ferris, I'm personally of the opinion that the author originally intended to simply create them with swapped gender expression for fun, but upon writing their stories out, he felt incentivized to take these expressions to the extreme for their character development. As a result, Crusch comes off as a trans masc icon while Ferris' whole schtick feels like holding up a mirror to most trans girl readers who experience actual dysphoria. They are, of course, only fictional characters. They exist as-is in the author's head, and even if you lean into Death of the Author, they are characters who do not have feelings, so unlike real people, misgendering them or projecting your own experiences/feelings/headcannons onto them hurts no one. Thus, I think any interpretation is valid. I'm on thevfence myself. It's just really interesting to discuss.
Ferise/Felix is always a weird case were crusch is mostly just a charchter who doesn't conform to typical gender roles. Feris is weird because its unknown weather if with or without crusch's influence he would dress like a girl unlike crusch were she does it just because she wants to because it makes her happy feris does it because of crusch in a way. I think there was a quote from the author saying he didn't feel comfortable writing lgbtq charchters so he won't (witch I think is fair) so I think it works gender is a spectrum anyway so having charchters move towards there opposite gender without crossing it is just fine
@@nathankeel6667 - As I mentioned in my post, there are a lot of moments in the novels where Ferris is experimenting with gender expression for the first time and he continuously thinks "Oh wait, I actually really like this." And in the prince's case, Ferris is the one who wants to keep the secret and asks Crusch not to spoil it, so he's the one taking agency there. Not to mention, the gender swap was his idea, he blurted it out very enthusiastically, reacted shocked to his brazenness himself, and a lot of what he does to affirm his expression is done in the privacy of his room. I do believe the author isn't _trying_ to write a queer or LGBTQ+ character, but _he's doing such a good job of it anyway._ lol A lot of my point is that there's enough evidence to suggest Ferris could be dealing with gender dysphoria, so if other trans girls finds his journey relatable, it's perfectly valid to project. Same with using other pronouns. ^^
@nathankeel6667 Look up aganau if. If I'm not mistaken, we see Felix wearing male clothes because after he forgot who Crusch is (and therefore his promise to her and everything that ensued).
@@lehyplay6961 - I don't know what the author's intent was with that story, but there are a lot of trans people irl who didn't transition for years because they just didn't have the opportunity to explore their gender. You could, as a fan, still see this not as a "Ferris wouldn't have chosen to go down this road without Crusch" indication, but as a "Ferris' experience exploring their gender was erased, so they would have to start from scratch again" indication. Again, author intent nonwithstanding. It is a valid interpretation.
The thing I don't like about some of the movies these days is that they'll go "Look! We have a black woman in this movie! She's a main character!" It confuses me as to why they feel the need to say that. Well, mostly, just like how there are people who will slander a movie for having a black character, there are equally as many who will slander a movie for not having one. Overall, I don't really like either side of the argument. I don't understand why people make things like race/gender/sexuality into such big deals. An all black cast will get insulted, an all white cast will get insulted. A mixed cast will get insulted. I just want to enjoy my Japanese cartoons without hearing people screaming about how this or that anime doesn't match with their political alignment.
interesting that you bring up How Do We Relationship, i've really been enjoying it for a long time and the way it handles its sensitive topics is pretty well done if you ask me
Another defensive I’ve been seeing about “wokeism or wheatever new buzzword” is people saying. Oh I want escapism and not any force politics in my media. While 1- rant about minority groups that just exist in that piece of media. And their status isn’t a plot point in that media 2- media has always been political. Saying you want escapism is dumb when we was basically force into politics since we’re a toddler by different ways depending on our background. As the media we consume even at a young age is political
a great example of this is the guy shouting FKN PRONOUNS and losing his shit just because of an optional text prompt in a character creator Like bro you're allowed to enjoy the entire rest of the game, you don't have to get stuck up on the tiniest thing because of your insane beliefs should be a wakeup call to anyone who sees that video tbh
@@BigDBriani imagine you are talking about the video that was taken out of context but I digress. Forced diversity is a problem because it feels forced and isn’t genuine, it’s just there to score points
It goes both ways depending on culture. I can watch a show with diverse elements and it can be done well and move me. Sometimes forcing diversity can reinforce stereotypes and place groups into boxes. People call something racist or harmful when it doesn't have diverse elements or progressive values. Many corporate entities follow have pregressive values but will remove certain characters off of posters in china and hide elements to make money and appease others. The main problem is that whats considered right is what was the status quo and whats left is some great change. The fact that people consider just having heterosexual characters or that there isn't enough representation means something is right or somethings far right is what makes it easy for people to blame diversity and 'woke' ideas. At the end of the day far right and far left are both just as bad and you should be careful who controls the narrative.
The only problem I have is changing a classically white or Asian character black. For the sake of fitting a diversity quota. Make an original black character that isn’t some handout just to make me feel better because my race was forced in. The dudes tripping about a black Woman in the Minecraft movie are goofy weirdos in their own creepy corner of the internet, my concern about the minecraft movie was the terrible CGI and blatant lack of care for the series. I also don’t like when in media they make the woman a Mary Sue who can do anything and has no flaws she has to overcome, her having flaws to overcome and get past help me actually relate to her. For example, Katara, she’s an amazing character. Other than that even though I’m still not a fan of forced woke content I can see your points in the video and it has definitely opened up my perspective a bit and I can see the ridiculousness of both sides, never saw any complaints when the sonic movie had a black woman in a relationship with a white man because it’s a great movie and they’re great characters.
This made me emotional as a trans woman. I found myself through representation of weirdos and outcasts in Animanga that were shamed for expressing their gender outside archaic norms. Even when the tropes were at the bane of someone like me (and examples today are still plentiful) , to see myself in media and represented was another step towards self actualization. Thanks for the vid ! great one
Me listening to this without having my representation in western media and entertainment as a south asian(indian) which is 25% of the worlds population more than few continents combines ,compared to other people like whites blacks east asians etc.. As someone who really feels im the most influencial civilization in the world im the center of the world kind of..my contribution and representation is not mainstream either due to prejudice of west and east asia putting only negativity and bad news about indian civilization
We live in an insane world because you can make points as sensible and straightforward as you did in this video, and certain other people will just reject them on their face and pretend you actually didn't make sense. There shouldn't be even a little room to argue "representation doesn't matter", and yet it almost feels like that's become a genuine point of contention in recent years as people "fight back" against "forced diversity" or whatever. Makes my head hurt. But videos like this one can hopefully help us course correct.
It literally does no matter. I have not seen a single piece of fiction that is my biography and yet somehow I can enjoy those stories fine. If you need a person you be identical to you to care then you are a psychopathic narcissist. If you need a person to superficially resemble your skin color to care you're a racist. And a stupid one at that.
@@chucklebouf5379 More often than not, when people ask for more skin color/race diversity in their media, they are not _literally_ incapable of connecting with characters who aren't the same skin color/race as them. That's just an assumption other people make. The reality is most of those people quite easily relate to characters who aren't their skin color/race. Their real complaint is that if we're going to be seeing characters represented as humans with skin color and race, then why do they have to be white or light-skinned quite so often? If certain people get to see themselves in games/movies/shows quite this often, why is it seemingly such an issue for certain other people to want to see themselves more given how little share they've had up until now, _especially_ when you factor in how racism and colorism are part of why they've had so little share? There's nothing "narcissistic" in recognizing the reason for the discrepancy. It isn't racist to point out that racism itself is partially why things are how they are.
>sees thumbnail >"Man i wish subaru and the catboy kissed one time, please tappei, please please please please please" this is why representation is important folks, it gives you the good kind of brainrot anyway! i know a fair few writers that have struggled with putting in minority characters or LGBTQ+ characters in their stories, because "they dont know how to write them", and its like, guys, dont worry about having to write these characters in a specific way. You can just put a gay guy in your story without thinking deeply about it. Ive seen occasional criticism of characters where their minority status is incidental, but sometimes thats fine! If you dont know how to write a plotline involving their sexual identity, simply don't! You can literally just explicitly acknowledge a character as trans the one time to make sure the audience knows, and basically never call attention to it again. Im sure plenty of people would appreciate that!
Representation isn't the problem, it isn't even "a" problem. If the author wants to write something it will be the authors point of view, which will NEVER represent anything else. If you or your friend want something representative of some group that you and/or your friend are a part of then you or your friend or someone that actually can represent that group need to write it and make it an original creation. That is the only way... And if you even suggest that there should be multiple authors that represent the groups presented in the story then just 💀 because that would make me point you to the phrase "Too many cooks" and the amazing "Too Many Cooks" video here on UA-cam which illustrates that problem extremely well. If you want to make something, make something and don't worry about what others "think" because we all know what they're actually "thinking" about and it ain't your story, its theirs. So, just make it your own, the way you want it. Basically, "Don't do as Disney does."
To summarize, you can't expect any author to be able to write something that truly represents you or your group when they don't understand and are not a part of that same group, only you can bring that representation in. They can't write your autobiography, they can only write your biography. Otherwise they'd have to use quotes, "autobiography"... If you don't think there is enough representation of a group you are a part of, then become it, write it from your perspective because that is the only way it can ever truly represent that group. It must come from within.
I think there's something to be said in that representation not only helps the audience (especially those in formative years), but that in fact a deeper understanding and thought put into it makes a narrative more interesting. A narrative that goes beyond "the default" and does it succesfully is way more interesting, it can open the door to conflicts about identity, growing up and finding your place, abusse, oppression, such things can resonate with so many people not limited to those represented. But shitbags like the bosses in Hollywood, blizzard and ubisoft not only are greedy fuckers, they also abuse women and minorities in the work place. At the same time some of their games (not that the ceos know anything about creation) portray a "happylife lgbtq representation", selling to minorities because the lack of representation makes them a "easy audience". I think that crunchyroll in a way did this, they never cared for moderation in their forums or even having a good community (You know a SAFE SPACE FOR PEOPLE), they pretended to be "lgbq friendly" and closed the forums because its saves them bad press and money.
Representation doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. It's just pure ethno narcissism. If i want to watch or read something about my people, i could easily do that.
I respect writers who just put a gay/trans character in their stories and it just..is. It's not something that you need to think about or focus on it. I have my problems with JJK but i just love how there are like 3 trans/non-binary charactets thrown out on there and it's just okay.
@@mr.p215 Uraume isn't though... I think he is saying Kenjaku as well LOL. I think he does not understand the difference between manipulators and actual gay/trans at this point
Yeah I remember when Forspoken came out and I saw some comments calling the game woke and I believe the reason was because the mc being a brown woman (idk her actual ethnicity) and it just made me wonder if her being a girl and brown falls into being “woke” then when CAN a girl who’s brown be an mc and it not be considered woke? I’m curious if the game being bad and unfinished kinda kickstarted that or maybe if the game was pretty good you’d would’ve heard woke mc a lot less.
You can have all the diversity you want, but make it, don't force it in pre-existing media that people already love. When you do that, it always comes across as preachy "weird" propaganda and everyone instantly rejects it. The same thing happened when fundamentalist Christians insisted that everything have a pro-Jesus Christian message - everyone rejected it. Tell stories, don't preach. Most people aren't stupid. they're not just going to like something just because we say they ought to.
I enjoyed the video topic! I agree, diversity is a great way for stories to explore unique perspectives and it can broaden a story’s creativity. With Ferris being a very good example of that
@@cosmo8771 Yeah but sometimes he gets burn out from a media and he becomes too tired to properly analyze it. You can see it in his MHA retrospective. (Not going into the merit if MHA fell off or not)
Liked the video! I've just never cared to be represented and my favorite characters aren't even my race lol. Im happy for other people tho and the effect it gives
@@AsarathaHSYT Lmao you even responded immediately with a snarky non-argument, leftists are like robots, it's adorable. No, they just push channels that push ideology in the algorithm while intentionally shadowing other ideologies. They've admitted to this several times but because they hold a leftist bias you pretend it isn't happening. Cheers, lmfaooooo.
@@AsarathaHSYT Lmao you even responded immediately with a snarky non-argument, adorable. No, they just push channels that push ideology in the algorithm while intentionally shadowing other ideologies. They've admitted to this several times but because they hold a leftist b¡as you benefit from, you pretend it isn't happening. Cheers, lmfaooooo.
@@AsarathaHSYT Lmao you even responded immediately with a snarky non-argument, adorable. They've admitted to this several times and the algorithm holds a clear ideological b¡as, but because it's a leftist b¡as you benefit from, you pretend it isn't happening. Cheers, lmfaooooo.
@@AsarathaHSYT Lmao you even responded immediateIy with a snarky non-argument, adorabIe. They've adm¡tted to this severaI times and the aIgor¡thm hoIds a clear ¡deoIog¡caI b¡as, but because it's a Ieft¡st b¡as you benefit from, you pretend it isn't happening. Cheers, lmfaooooo.
I’m fine with politics if the end product isn’t pure doodoo, it has been proven many times that people just won’t care about there being wokeness if the product is very good. Example is Arcane which is massively popular despite having a lot of representation in it.
@@wisdommanari6701 please don't mention House of the Dragons (I assume you mean season 2), I am sure you enjoyed the two woman starting to make out right after trauma dumping each other about sa, but nobody else did.
Like so many things in this world that people complain about diversity most of the time is a non issue if its in a peice or not and if anything help people feel included.
Media is art, and all art is political, inspired by the climate of which it is surrounded. Any arguments about "forced diversity" I am immediately tuned out by because at the end of the day, especially in this era of media consumption, it just boils down to a buzzword masquerading blatant privileged bigotry and racism. If you're a moderate suspicious of why there are so many minorities deservingly represented in art forms like games and movies (through basic capitalism no less, proving said groups deserve it more imo), you may have been indoctrinated by an asshole and told what to think. People defining "escapism" hopefully mean from the violent political climates of today, instead of referring to anything depicted in art out of heteronormative order as "political," what I end up thinking most anime fans think far too often (while said fans are usually ranting about "wokism" ruining their hobby and everything was better under heavier promotion of patriarchy).
Can't believe there are people who saw the Minecraft trailer and their biggest issue was a black woman existing. Instead of the bad comedy, bad acting, bad lines, bad CGI, bad everything.
HOPEFULLY, just bots or trolls
@omeganichtdieuhrsondernder6906 he showed it near the end of the vid. Tho it is still a fairly small group, they exist unfortunately. And some even have big platforms.
Back when there were only 8 avatars for 8 players on xbox, there was black avatars for Minecraft (8 players).
It doesn't even make sense to criticise it even from an "accuracy" standpoint.
That literally didn't happen, you're just a leftist with a chip on your shoulder.
@@aldgateIt's literally just a lie they made up to slander their political opposition.
Blue and pink swapped within the last 100 years if anyone wants a nice example on how arbitrary those things are.
What?! No, blue will always be blue… just blue
Lycoris Recoil had one of the best representations i know in media. Mika being her guardian figure that just happened to be gay. This was no big topic. It was not like he acted any different because he is gay. It was just a small detail: "Oh this two had a relationship."
This is the perfect way to include it in my pov.
The same counted for the fact that he was a poc. at no point they make a big topic out of the fact that he is poc. He just was and this was totally normal and not made him act any different as her father like a white men.
it's too bad the anime as a whole stinks like dookie water
@@MoppetMageHow? It was a decent anime, nothing extraordinary, but easly digested, you make it sound as if it was rent a girlfriend
@@Otaya_2024 I think the only critic you could say is that main heroine can manage to keep up her pazzifismus without conzequenzes and without any morally challenge. It misses a little bit of struggle where her approach of not killing seriously threatens someone or someone is harmed because she not killed a target.
At no point we see a real character flaw for her. We never see her past of a ruthless killer or some kind of grey area.
And I think the reason for that is sadly that they are not making a second season apparently. Because they kept a lot of plot threats open. So we never will see if they would tackle this issue of main heroine being the only one in the show sho not shows flaws.
@@mrcaos999A new Lycoris Recoil proyect was announced shortly after S1 ended. We don’t know if it’s a S2 a movie or what, but we can safely presume its some sort of continuation
This video stands tall above a sea of resctionary and downright anti-art content. I think the part of the sentiment that art should "not be political" that angers me the most is that it bodly states that the stories of some groups are inherently more valuable to write and read about than those of other groups. That the experiences of colored people or the LGBT community being reflected in a work of fiction inherently make it more political and dangerous than it would be without those elements. In general, I think that people should realize that art doesn't soley exist to entertain or be consumed. Most art exists both as a product to be consumed by an audience and as a vehicle of expression by the artists, and telling artists that some of their experiences are simply too "political" to be expressed shows a lack of understanding of why we create art in the first place.
We create art to express ourselves and our passions not to be used as a political bandwagon.
indeed, it does bodly state
It's wild how hard people will fight back when you point out how representation can matter and how certain groups have had less for questionable reasons. I'm reminded of the recent Genshin Impact skin color discourse.
Long story shorter, the game's regions draw inspiration from all over the real world -- Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, Oceania. In the game's 4 years of life, ppl had taken note of how darker skin was barely present in its characters while white & light characters are galore. Then, when darker skin is present, it's usually light tan if on important characters, and most of the medium-and-darker shades are relegated to NPCs. With the playable characters, the ones who matter the most, the ratio is like 9/95 with tan-or-darker skin if we count some known upcoming characters, with only 3 of those having skin at least medium brown.
Back in July when teasers for the now recently added region based on the Americas (mixed with some Africa and Oceania) dropped, people were vocal about being frustrated because they hoped Genshin would take the opportunity to deliver on darker skin there in a major way, but instead what we got is the same as usual -- barely any brown/black in the important characters, with decent amounts of darker shades only present in the NPCs. While generally HoYo actually does decent with the inclusion of the cultures they work with (certainly not perfect, but decent), they clearly hold back when it comes to skin color, and given colorism is a known phenomena (including in China where the company that made the game is based), it's not hard to see why people have been annoyed and desire something different. It feels like some people of some of the taken-from cultures are essentially being told "we like so much about your culture... but not you."
And the response to people's fair complaints there has been *maddening* . Over the last two months I have seen *so many* iffy or even asinine takes in that whole discourse with people either casually dismissing the idea that having more darker skin here would be acceptable or even desperately fighting against the idea of more darker skin being present. If you look up videos discussing the discourse, overwhelmingly the popular ones favor the narrative that it just "isn't that big of a deal" and spends way more time pointing out iffy behavior from some people on Twitter who desire more darker skin, rather than focusing on the meat of the fairer arguments people have been making. People are ignorant and want to stay ignorant, and it's sad to see.
It's really as simple as you say -- people want to see people who look like them doing cool shit. Shouldn't be as objectionable as people have made it out to be.
To me, re zero has amazing character diversity sexuality wise. Roswall, Felix, Crusch and Subaru to an extent are amazing examples of people dealing with gender roles and the things a man or a woman have to do. But to me diversity is very subjective. To me people need to be able to see thekselves personality wise, not sexuality or race. Even though im not japanese or dealing with gender issues i can relate to subaru and felix just because of the stuff they go through
That because Re zero focuses on telling a good story with compelling and complex characters not trying 2 tick boxes off for woke points.
I think the most frustrating aspects of the representation "debate" (aside from any new property that doesn't do well being seen as a failure due to diversity or wokeness or whatever new nonsense buzzword reactionaries decide to use rather than poor planning from the top so they can extract more money from the masses without putting any eniugh effort) is the poverty of imagination when it comes to completely ficitional settings. People are so quick to say that something is unrealistic or impossible whenever a brown or queer person is involved but are able to accept literally impossible things like superpowers and fantasticsl creatures. It is quite exhausting having to justify my own existence and place in these spaces. Appreciate the video, very well done!
Ferris from Re:Zero is such a weird case (alongside Crusch). The author says Ferris is not intended to be a trans girl (though he doesn't seem particularly bothered if people think so), and I'm sure that's true...
...but when you dive into Ferris' and Crusch's character from the various side stories, you just see so much that cannot be explained away with a simple "They are crossdressing". Obvious spoiler warning, not for the main story, but for their origin side story and the first EX side story novel. Also, I will use "she/her" for Crusch and "he/him" for Ferris based on pronouns used in the novels themselves, but feel free to change them in your head as needed:
Crusch:
1) Crusch grew up with heavy expectations that she is a girl/woman who would be married off for political reasons, but being the only heir to the Duke's throne, she studied swordplay and politics and became very competent at it, besting all her peers at an early age. Eventually, she became distraught that her gender essentially prevents her from gaining real power to change the world for the better. When Ferris offers to give her his "boyhood", she is surprised by the suggestion, but it intrigues her and she accepts.
2) Likewise, when she succeeds in becoming a respected leader (to the discomfort of many nobles around her), she refuses to wear feminine clothing and also declines to be called a "Duchess", referring to herself as a "Duke".
X) The only real counterpoint to this is that when the prince finally does beat her in combat, she accepts the win condition that she wear a dress for him once, and when he dies, she wears said dress he gave her once a year in remembrance. This doesn't seem to bother her and it seems to even comfort her, so a part of me feels she may just not care about gender itselfーonly the expectations that come with it.
Ferris:
1) When Crusch confides in Ferris all her worries over gender expectations, Ferris suddenly blurts out desperately that he will take her "girlhood" and give her his "boyhood", which surprises not only Crusch, but himself as well.
2) When Ferris first starts wearing girl's clothing, he thinks it's going to be awkward, but he very quickly realizes that he feels very comfortable in it, and he really likes it. Later on, when he realizes he has to wear a guy's knight uniform to become Crusch's knight, he laments it, even though he accepts.
3) When the young prince meets the two and "mistakes" Ferris for a girl, Ferris does not correct him, and actively prevents Crusch from correcting him as well. They keep this secret until the prince is older and set to get married, despite the fact that they are close friends with the prince in that entire time. Ferris finds the shocking revelation funny due to the prince having had a crush on him.
4) When the prince mishears Ferris' masculine "deadname" and calls him "Ferris", Ferris is delighted about the new name and takes the name for real, insisting Crusch to call him such as well. Whenever anyone uses his "deadname", he gets very upset.
5) There is an intro scene in the EX novel that describes Ferris' morning routine from his internal POV. This includes looking into the mirror and saying "I'm a pretty girl" over and over for motivation, checking to make sure he does not grow facial or body hair (which he is greatful to his mother's family's genes) and that his body still has feminine curves and smooth skin. He practically shudders at the thought that he might one day not be feminine enough.
X) It is not stated outright, but Ferris' spite toward his father could potentially be a huge motivation for many of these things, such as fear of his fathers' genetics, dislike of his birth name, etc. There are also some funny scenes where Ferris admits to being a "boy", specifically to tease Subaru and/or the prince.
In both these cases, and especially with Ferris, I'm personally of the opinion that the author originally intended to simply create them with swapped gender expression for fun, but upon writing their stories out, he felt incentivized to take these expressions to the extreme for their character development. As a result, Crusch comes off as a trans masc icon while Ferris' whole schtick feels like holding up a mirror to most trans girl readers who experience actual dysphoria. They are, of course, only fictional characters. They exist as-is in the author's head, and even if you lean into Death of the Author, they are characters who do not have feelings, so unlike real people, misgendering them or projecting your own experiences/feelings/headcannons onto them hurts no one. Thus, I think any interpretation is valid. I'm on thevfence myself. It's just really interesting to discuss.
Ferise/Felix is always a weird case were crusch is mostly just a charchter who doesn't conform to typical gender roles. Feris is weird because its unknown weather if with or without crusch's influence he would dress like a girl unlike crusch were she does it just because she wants to because it makes her happy feris does it because of crusch in a way. I think there was a quote from the author saying he didn't feel comfortable writing lgbtq charchters so he won't (witch I think is fair) so I think it works gender is a spectrum anyway so having charchters move towards there opposite gender without crossing it is just fine
@@nathankeel6667 - As I mentioned in my post, there are a lot of moments in the novels where Ferris is experimenting with gender expression for the first time and he continuously thinks "Oh wait, I actually really like this." And in the prince's case, Ferris is the one who wants to keep the secret and asks Crusch not to spoil it, so he's the one taking agency there. Not to mention, the gender swap was his idea, he blurted it out very enthusiastically, reacted shocked to his brazenness himself, and a lot of what he does to affirm his expression is done in the privacy of his room.
I do believe the author isn't _trying_ to write a queer or LGBTQ+ character, but _he's doing such a good job of it anyway._ lol A lot of my point is that there's enough evidence to suggest Ferris could be dealing with gender dysphoria, so if other trans girls finds his journey relatable, it's perfectly valid to project. Same with using other pronouns. ^^
@nathankeel6667 Look up aganau if. If I'm not mistaken, we see Felix wearing male clothes because after he forgot who Crusch is (and therefore his promise to her and everything that ensued).
@@lehyplay6961 - I don't know what the author's intent was with that story, but there are a lot of trans people irl who didn't transition for years because they just didn't have the opportunity to explore their gender. You could, as a fan, still see this not as a "Ferris wouldn't have chosen to go down this road without Crusch" indication, but as a "Ferris' experience exploring their gender was erased, so they would have to start from scratch again" indication. Again, author intent nonwithstanding. It is a valid interpretation.
The thing I don't like about some of the movies these days is that they'll go "Look! We have a black woman in this movie! She's a main character!" It confuses me as to why they feel the need to say that.
Well, mostly, just like how there are people who will slander a movie for having a black character, there are equally as many who will slander a movie for not having one.
Overall, I don't really like either side of the argument. I don't understand why people make things like race/gender/sexuality into such big deals. An all black cast will get insulted, an all white cast will get insulted. A mixed cast will get insulted. I just want to enjoy my Japanese cartoons without hearing people screaming about how this or that anime doesn't match with their political alignment.
interesting that you bring up How Do We Relationship, i've really been enjoying it for a long time and the way it handles its sensitive topics is pretty well done if you ask me
read it recently. it was quite good!
Another defensive I’ve been seeing about “wokeism or wheatever new buzzword” is people saying. Oh I want escapism and not any force politics in my media.
While
1- rant about minority groups that just exist in that piece of media. And their status isn’t a plot point in that media
2- media has always been political. Saying you want escapism is dumb when we was basically force into politics since we’re a toddler by different ways depending on our background. As the media we consume even at a young age is political
a great example of this is the guy shouting FKN PRONOUNS and losing his shit just because of an optional text prompt in a character creator
Like bro you're allowed to enjoy the entire rest of the game, you don't have to get stuck up on the tiniest thing because of your insane beliefs
should be a wakeup call to anyone who sees that video tbh
@@BigDBriani imagine you are talking about the video that was taken out of context but I digress.
Forced diversity is a problem because it feels forced and isn’t genuine, it’s just there to score points
I didnot know courage the cowardly dog being political… I don’t know what to tell you but get a reality check
@@gamerforlife3946 Forced homogeinity not diversity is the problem.
@@GwainSagaFanChannel That's not even a thing LOL, give an example
Fantastic video! Nailed the topic right in the head. You earned yourself a subscriber, good sir!
It goes both ways depending on culture. I can watch a show with diverse elements and it can be done well and move me. Sometimes forcing diversity can reinforce stereotypes and place groups into boxes. People call something racist or harmful when it doesn't have diverse elements or progressive values. Many corporate entities follow have pregressive values but will remove certain characters off of posters in china and hide elements to make money and appease others. The main problem is that whats considered right is what was the status quo and whats left is some great change. The fact that people consider just having heterosexual characters or that there isn't enough representation means something is right or somethings far right is what makes it easy for people to blame diversity and 'woke' ideas. At the end of the day far right and far left are both just as bad and you should be careful who controls the narrative.
The goat is back, good to see you again
Thank you for spelling this out, mr. re zero man. Great video
There are some people that can't wrap their heads around this
Fun fact:Pink used to be considered a manly color and blue considered a feminine color
The only problem I have is changing a classically white or Asian character black. For the sake of fitting a diversity quota. Make an original black character that isn’t some handout just to make me feel better because my race was forced in. The dudes tripping about a black Woman in the Minecraft movie are goofy weirdos in their own creepy corner of the internet, my concern about the minecraft movie was the terrible CGI and blatant lack of care for the series. I also don’t like when in media they make the woman a Mary Sue who can do anything and has no flaws she has to overcome, her having flaws to overcome and get past help me actually relate to her. For example, Katara, she’s an amazing character. Other than that even though I’m still not a fan of forced woke content I can see your points in the video and it has definitely opened up my perspective a bit and I can see the ridiculousness of both sides, never saw any complaints when the sonic movie had a black woman in a relationship with a white man because it’s a great movie and they’re great characters.
Great original characters*
wtf finally a sane voice in the anime commentary nieche 💀
This made me emotional as a trans woman. I found myself through representation of weirdos and outcasts in Animanga that were shamed for expressing their gender outside archaic norms.
Even when the tropes were at the bane of someone like me (and examples today are still plentiful) , to see myself in media and represented was another step towards self actualization. Thanks for the vid ! great one
These drawing are really cool
based asrantha ‼️‼️‼️
Me listening to this without having my representation in western media and entertainment as a south asian(indian) which is 25% of the worlds population more than few continents combines ,compared to other people like whites blacks east asians etc..
As someone who really feels im the most influencial civilization in the world im the center of the world kind of..my contribution and representation is not mainstream either due to prejudice of west and east asia putting only negativity and bad news about indian civilization
You can easily find stuff made by Indians. Why does Western media have to make something for you?
We live in an insane world because you can make points as sensible and straightforward as you did in this video, and certain other people will just reject them on their face and pretend you actually didn't make sense. There shouldn't be even a little room to argue "representation doesn't matter", and yet it almost feels like that's become a genuine point of contention in recent years as people "fight back" against "forced diversity" or whatever. Makes my head hurt. But videos like this one can hopefully help us course correct.
It literally does no matter. I have not seen a single piece of fiction that is my biography and yet somehow I can enjoy those stories fine. If you need a person you be identical to you to care then you are a psychopathic narcissist. If you need a person to superficially resemble your skin color to care you're a racist. And a stupid one at that.
@@chucklebouf5379 More often than not, when people ask for more skin color/race diversity in their media, they are not _literally_ incapable of connecting with characters who aren't the same skin color/race as them. That's just an assumption other people make. The reality is most of those people quite easily relate to characters who aren't their skin color/race.
Their real complaint is that if we're going to be seeing characters represented as humans with skin color and race, then why do they have to be white or light-skinned quite so often? If certain people get to see themselves in games/movies/shows quite this often, why is it seemingly such an issue for certain other people to want to see themselves more given how little share they've had up until now, _especially_ when you factor in how racism and colorism are part of why they've had so little share? There's nothing "narcissistic" in recognizing the reason for the discrepancy. It isn't racist to point out that racism itself is partially why things are how they are.
It doesn’t because personality matters more. The different ways of thinking is more important than being representative
As always, we go Woke, we go broke
Anyway, great vid all around. Loved the way you dived into the subject as a whole.
damn you hate ricky gervais??
Bleach has badass black characters, not just those ones who are used as thugs
>sees thumbnail
>"Man i wish subaru and the catboy kissed one time, please tappei, please please please please please"
this is why representation is important folks, it gives you the good kind of brainrot
anyway!
i know a fair few writers that have struggled with putting in minority characters or LGBTQ+ characters in their stories, because "they dont know how to write them", and its like, guys, dont worry about having to write these characters in a specific way. You can just put a gay guy in your story without thinking deeply about it.
Ive seen occasional criticism of characters where their minority status is incidental, but sometimes thats fine! If you dont know how to write a plotline involving their sexual identity, simply don't!
You can literally just explicitly acknowledge a character as trans the one time to make sure the audience knows, and basically never call attention to it again. Im sure plenty of people would appreciate that!
you alright white boy
I love gantz
if it wasn't asa i would not trust this lol
Representation isn't the problem, it isn't even "a" problem. If the author wants to write something it will be the authors point of view, which will NEVER represent anything else. If you or your friend want something representative of some group that you and/or your friend are a part of then you or your friend or someone that actually can represent that group need to write it and make it an original creation. That is the only way... And if you even suggest that there should be multiple authors that represent the groups presented in the story then just 💀 because that would make me point you to the phrase "Too many cooks" and the amazing "Too Many Cooks" video here on UA-cam which illustrates that problem extremely well. If you want to make something, make something and don't worry about what others "think" because we all know what they're actually "thinking" about and it ain't your story, its theirs. So, just make it your own, the way you want it. Basically, "Don't do as Disney does."
To summarize, you can't expect any author to be able to write something that truly represents you or your group when they don't understand and are not a part of that same group, only you can bring that representation in. They can't write your autobiography, they can only write your biography. Otherwise they'd have to use quotes, "autobiography"... If you don't think there is enough representation of a group you are a part of, then become it, write it from your perspective because that is the only way it can ever truly represent that group. It must come from within.
I think there's something to be said in that representation not only helps the audience (especially those in formative years), but that in fact a deeper understanding and thought put into it makes a narrative more interesting. A narrative that goes beyond "the default" and does it succesfully is way more interesting, it can open the door to conflicts about identity, growing up and finding your place, abusse, oppression, such things can resonate with so many people not limited to those represented. But shitbags like the bosses in Hollywood, blizzard and ubisoft not only are greedy fuckers, they also abuse women and minorities in the work place. At the same time some of their games (not that the ceos know anything about creation) portray a "happylife lgbtq representation", selling to minorities because the lack of representation makes them a "easy audience". I think that crunchyroll in a way did this, they never cared for moderation in their forums or even having a good community (You know a SAFE SPACE FOR PEOPLE), they pretended to be "lgbq friendly" and closed the forums because its saves them bad press and money.
Representation doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. It's just pure ethno narcissism. If i want to watch or read something about my people, i could easily do that.
I respect writers who just put a gay/trans character in their stories and it just..is. It's not something that you need to think about or focus on it.
I have my problems with JJK but i just love how there are like 3 trans/non-binary charactets thrown out on there and it's just okay.
3? Where? I only see one who isn’t even relevant and felt forced lol.
@@gamerforlife3946 My guesses are Kirara who actually is, Uraume whose current body is female, but original is unknown... no idea who number 3 is.
@@mr.p215 Uraume isn't though... I think he is saying Kenjaku as well LOL. I think he does not understand the difference between manipulators and actual gay/trans at this point
Yeah I remember when Forspoken came out and I saw some comments calling the game woke and I believe the reason was because the mc being a brown woman (idk her actual ethnicity) and it just made me wonder if her being a girl and brown falls into being “woke” then when CAN a girl who’s brown be an mc and it not be considered woke? I’m curious if the game being bad and unfinished kinda kickstarted that or maybe if the game was pretty good you’d would’ve heard woke mc a lot less.
Ok
Fire vid
You can have all the diversity you want, but make it, don't force it in pre-existing media that people already love. When you do that, it always comes across as preachy "weird" propaganda and everyone instantly rejects it. The same thing happened when fundamentalist Christians insisted that everything have a pro-Jesus Christian message - everyone rejected it. Tell stories, don't preach. Most people aren't stupid. they're not just going to like something just because we say they ought to.
I enjoyed the video topic! I agree, diversity is a great way for stories to explore unique perspectives and it can broaden a story’s creativity. With Ferris being a very good example of that
Good video from user AsarathaHS
man you should really do one piece videos
He really doesn't want to read it.
@@MarianaBello-fq3hx its really tragic because he really is great at analysing stories
@@cosmo8771 Yeah but sometimes he gets burn out from a media and he becomes too tired to properly analyze it. You can see it in his MHA retrospective. (Not going into the merit if MHA fell off or not)
Gas
Good video
Brooooo I missed this
Liked the video! I've just never cared to be represented and my favorite characters aren't even my race lol. Im happy for other people tho and the effect it gives
UA-cam trying to force small propaganda channels down my throat is so fuuny.
True I'm getting a personal cheque from the CEO to make these
@@AsarathaHSYT Lmao you even responded immediately with a snarky non-argument, leftists are like robots, it's adorable.
No, they just push channels that push ideology in the algorithm while intentionally shadowing other ideologies. They've admitted to this several times but because they hold a leftist bias you pretend it isn't happening.
Cheers, lmfaooooo.
@@AsarathaHSYT Lmao you even responded immediately with a snarky non-argument, adorable.
No, they just push channels that push ideology in the algorithm while intentionally shadowing other ideologies. They've admitted to this several times but because they hold a leftist b¡as you benefit from, you pretend it isn't happening.
Cheers, lmfaooooo.
@@AsarathaHSYT Lmao you even responded immediately with a snarky non-argument, adorable.
They've admitted to this several times and the algorithm holds a clear ideological b¡as, but because it's a leftist b¡as you benefit from, you pretend it isn't happening.
Cheers, lmfaooooo.
@@AsarathaHSYT Lmao you even responded immediateIy with a snarky non-argument, adorabIe.
They've adm¡tted to this severaI times and the aIgor¡thm hoIds a clear ¡deoIog¡caI b¡as, but because it's a Ieft¡st b¡as you benefit from, you pretend it isn't happening.
Cheers, lmfaooooo.
I’m fine with politics if the end product isn’t pure doodoo, it has been proven many times that people just won’t care about there being wokeness if the product is very good. Example is Arcane which is massively popular despite having a lot of representation in it.
Very glad as a trans girl to see an anime content creator who is actually progressive.
We gonna have fun with this one
Bottom line, woke doesnt sell. Push it anyway you want, gotta sell or die.
Yeah true baldurs gate 3 was a huge flop
@@AsarathaHSYT and Black Panther, House of the Dragon, Insomniac Sony Spiderman II. All woke no money made 😂
@@wisdommanari6701Imagine not understanding the difference between forced diversity and diversity in general, that’s where you fall off
@@wisdommanari6701btw spiderman 2 removed representations in middle east nice one
@@wisdommanari6701 please don't mention House of the Dragons (I assume you mean season 2), I am sure you enjoyed the two woman starting to make out right after trauma dumping each other about sa, but nobody else did.
Like so many things in this world that people complain about diversity most of the time is a non issue if its in a peice or not and if anything help people feel included.
Media is art, and all art is political, inspired by the climate of which it is surrounded. Any arguments about "forced diversity" I am immediately tuned out by because at the end of the day, especially in this era of media consumption, it just boils down to a buzzword masquerading blatant privileged bigotry and racism. If you're a moderate suspicious of why there are so many minorities deservingly represented in art forms like games and movies (through basic capitalism no less, proving said groups deserve it more imo), you may have been indoctrinated by an asshole and told what to think. People defining "escapism" hopefully mean from the violent political climates of today, instead of referring to anything depicted in art out of heteronormative order as "political," what I end up thinking most anime fans think far too often (while said fans are usually ranting about "wokism" ruining their hobby and everything was better under heavier promotion of patriarchy).
Oh, I already KNOW that this video is gonna cook
Great video but never mention MHA again please, we are suppose to be free from that series
Stop treating mha like the plauge. Your blind hate 4 it is pathetic at this point
I am joking lol dont take me seriously