So, a couple of weeks ago, Ubisoft announced Assassin's Creed Shadows, and it was revealed that one of the main characters is going to be Yasuke, a black samurai in service of Oda Nobunaga.
Now now, I get it. It's weird when Netflix takes white characters and makes them black, it's weird and representation is forced down our throats. I mean, a black man in Japan during the Nanban in the Sengoku Jidai!? How incredulous!... OR NOT.
Yasuke did actually exist, this is a fact I hope most of you already know.
The thing is people are simply complaining because he's black, and all of you know this is true.
"They could've picked more fleshed out historical characters like Hattori Hanzo!"
They could've... But they didn't.
This is what's going to make AC: Shadows so interesting, it's a story about a Portuguese slave from Mozambique brought on by italians to Japan, who swore loyalty or at least had a likable relationship with the legendary Oda Nobunaga, all based on a real story told by the jesuit missionary Luís Fróis.
Yasuke isn't alone in being an African in Japan during the Sengoku era, but he's important, he was friends with Oda Nobunaga and allegedly saw him commit suicide in 1582. That right there is some heavy shit, and some important shit too. Yasuke was as important as any other footsoldier or servant to any Daimyou, Shogun or whatever.
And is there proof that he actually existed? Yes! Plenty. There are lists of foreigners in Japan in that era, I don't have to Google the wikipedia page for you, do I?
And what about the painting above? The 相撲遊楽図屏風 (Sumō Yūrakuzu Byōbu) that depics Yasuke sumo-wrestling with either Oda Nobunaga or Toyotomi Hidetsugu.
- But What About Muh Realism?
Okay... Then let's just ignore the fact that you fight the fucking pope, that there are holy relics that give people power, that most games are set in simulations, etc, etc.
I don't give a crap about realism, because if I did, I would hate Assassin's Creed.
Yasuke's going to be a very interesting character if Ubisoft plays their cards right. Valhalla, Origins and Odyssey were incredible games, this one has every chance to be just as good as those were.
One would think that exposing the story of lesser known figures of history would be nice and would be praised by others, but nope. It's either plain old ignorance or maybe even racism.
Thanks for reading this rant, I can't wait to see Yasuke's story unfold.
It's always the same with these things. To me, it's a mix of ignorance and people having too much time on their hands to complain. I remember the controversy that was created with the second Horizon Zero Dawn because Aloy looked "chubby".
For me the real problem with this AC is that the game ends up being a copy of the previous ones, a valhalla but in Japan, or something like that. I hope it's not like that and they really have been encouraged to go further, the Samurai theme can give a lot of play to the combat, they can create something pretty good there, I hope it turns out well.
I feel the exact same with your take on Horizon and with how they should definitely upgrade the gameplay for this installment.
[ING]
Like you I am immensely excited about the new installment of assassins creed to come, but it is true that it has controversies for the case of jusuke the simple ignorance of people for not knowing history or simply Disney and Netflix have them traumatized, but for me it is a good piece of history that finally touches in video games.
[ESP]
Al igual que tú me emociona inmensamente la nueva entrega que vendrá de assassins creed, pero es verdad que tiene polémicas por el caso de jusuke la simple ignorancia de la gente por no saber de historia o simplemente Disney y Netflix los tienen traumados, pero para mí es un buen pedazo de historia que por fin se toca en los videojuegos.