Fair enough. I wasn't trying to throw shade at your pick. I think Cherry is a very cool character. I just wanted to give my appreciation for Adam as he is my favorite character in the series (specifically his SOR4 incarnation).
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A Celebration of Black Characters in Games
- Thread starter Neoxon
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Fair enough. I wasn't trying to throw shade at your pick. I think Cherry is a very cool character. I just wanted to give my appreciation for Adam as he is my favorite character in the series (specifically his SOR4 incarnation).
OP
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Oh no, Adam's still cool. I just appreciate Cherry more for a number of reasons.
Really the only character I play with in Streets of Rage 4. I somehow had the chance to play with Dr. Zan somehow one time, but he disappeared, but out of all the characters I have available Cherry is the only one I play with. She's too unique. A black girl with dreads and an electric guitar. Shiiiiiit.
She's also the fastest character and when I switched to anyone else they felt hella slow. Like damn near impossible to play the game.
OP
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Couldn't find a post on her, so here's Aveline.
DAY 20: AVELINE DE GRANDPRÉ (ASSASSIN'S CREED)Like with Activision Blizzard, I have a number of choice words for Ubisoft in recent years. But let it be known that I can give credit where it's due. On that note, Assassin's Creed hasn't had a ton of black assassins throughout its history. That said, in addition to Aveline, we did also get Bayek of Siwa from Freedom Cry (a DLC story for Black Flag). And don't get me wrong, he's a damn great character. In fact, this was another tough decision between him & Aveline. But ultimately I ended up going with Aveline for two reasons. One, I wanted to give the nod to more black women. Two, I find that Liberation is really underrated in the Assassin's Creed series. Also, one of the keys on my keyboard broke while writing this, so now I have to use a separate keyboard until the replacement key comes in the mail, so that'll be interesting. With that being said, let's dig into her story.
For a little kid (at least at the time), Aveline sure caught on quickly.
Borin to a French father (Phillppe de Grandpré) & an African mother (Jeanne), Aveline de Grandpré had it easier than most black kids of the time thanks to her dad's side of the family. And with her mom disappearing when Aveline was 10, she ended up being raised by Madeleine de L'Isle (her step-mom whom her dad married 5 years before Aveline's mom disappeared). Despite her privileged upbringing, it didn't take Aveline long to notice the stark contrast between her bubble & the injustices that occurred outside of said bubble (which awoken her strong sense of justice) & decided to do something about it (all of this was when she was 12, no less). She was then trained by Agaté (an assassin originally from West Africa) to possess the skills necessary to achieve her goals, with Agaté originally saving Aveline from being caught after one of her first attempts to free a slave (an act that inspired Agaté to teach her). Upon being formally accepted into the Assassins Brotherhood (which should probably be renamed the Assassins Fellowship, but whatever), she didn't waste any time in freeing as many slaves as she could by shutting down the Templar's slave-trading operations (one in particular going by the name "Company Man") at the age of 18. Along the way, she met a would-be Templar (Baptiste) who knew Aveline's mother & tried to poison her mentor, participated in the Louisiana Rebellion behind the scenes, reunited with her mother (which scared her initially given Aveline's current profession, but that was later sorted out), & eventually took down the "Company Man" (who was actually Aveline's step-mother). That said, said defeat did come with its own complications upon the reveal of the Company Man's identity, as it led to Agaté killing himself out of shame of what he thought was his student aligning with the Templars. But outside of that tragedy, it was through Aveline's actions that New Orleans was freed of Templar control. And even then, Aveline continued with her original mission to free as many slaves as she could (even recruiting Patience Gibbs into the Brotherhood when Aveline was 34 during a slave-freeing mission). So yeah, Aveline continues the trend of black action characters getting a lot done in a relatively short amount of time from them starting their professions.
Even if the situation works out, Aveline's kindness sometimes overrides her mission (not that it's entirely a bad thing).
As mentioned before, Aveline has a strong sense of justice even at a young age, one that left her emotionally torn when she noticed the contradictions of her world. Aveline is also quite the actress, being able to inhabit various roles such as noblewoman & slave with extreme levels of accuracy (or at least enough to fool the ones she has to trick). Though while she's serious as hell on the job, she's more than willing to let her guard down & crack a joke around those she trusts (which helps alleviate the colorist stereotype of black women typically being angry & overly serious). With that sense of humor also comes kindness, something that has come into conflict with her job in the past as she spared the life of de Ulloa (who she was supposed to kill) out of sympathy for him & his pregnant wife. Aveline did ultimately get a decipher to decode some Templar documents (which did further help in her mission), but this move did go directly against her mentor's orders. Though if nothing else, this is a testament to her strong will, which isn't really a bad thing.
Not too shabby of an assassin's outfit, Aveline.
Aveline's design is primarily navy blue with bits of white & red thrown in. Her vest, pants, & boots are primarily navy blue (which end up looking kinda gray in certain lighting), with a warm colors for the sash (red, yellow, & orange) to act as separation between all the cool colors (plus the red trim for her buttons). Said vest is worn over a white shirt adorned with navy blue dagger holsters with a gray arm guard on her right arm. Plus there's the Assassins Brotherhood symbol as her belt buckle, tying her into the group. The design is pretty typical for the assassins of the series, which is honestly a good thing as they didn't go to lengths to sexualize Aveline's main design (again, another colorist trend regarding black women in media, one that Aveline thankfully dodges). Plus it's personalized just enough to fit her setting (especially the sash). It's actually one of my favorite designs of the assassins, even if there isn't a ton to dissect with regards to certain design elements. I guess the colors chosen tie back to what Aveline typically wore before she joined the Brotherhood, but that's really about it.
The only real complaint I have regarding Aveline is concerning her English voice actress. Granted, I can give credit where it's due in that Amber Goldfarb puts up a great performance. However, as mentioned in the past, it would have been ideal to have a black actress take up the role. Unfortunately, this remains an issue even today, so it's something you see me bring up quite often in this thread. Outside of that, Aveline was handled really damn well. So again, gotta give credit where it's due.
Thanks for taking the time to read today's post. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the next character in the Action Section of Black Characters of Gaming Celebration. As for tomorrow, I guess this character can join Alyx in the companion-turned-protagonist club (& for good reason).
Just gonna plug Marlow Briggs on Steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/249680/Marlow_Briggs_and_the_Mask_of_Death/
Diverse cast in a solid, pulpy God of War-like adventure.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/249680/Marlow_Briggs_and_the_Mask_of_Death/
Diverse cast in a solid, pulpy God of War-like adventure.
Aveline sounds quite interesting. Thank you for sharing.
And oh my gosh, Marlow Briggs looks like dumb fun, and I meant that in the best possible way.
And oh my gosh, Marlow Briggs looks like dumb fun, and I meant that in the best possible way.
Cooper -- the main protagonist of Arma 2's story campaign (that game you originally had to buy in order to play DayZ): https://armedassault.fandom.com/wiki/Matthew_Cooper
I have no idea if his VA is actually a black dude but I was surprised they put a black dude in the game who could speak fluent Czech.
I have no idea if his VA is actually a black dude but I was surprised they put a black dude in the game who could speak fluent Czech.
Week 3: Action Game Characters
OP
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Another week done, another compilation of the characters talked about. Of course, there's a poll at the top of the thread where you can vote for your favorite. So with that said, here are the characters this week.....as well as the poll results.
WEEK 3: ACTION GAME CHARACTERS
DAY 15: SHEVA ALOMAR (RESIDENT EVIL)
Let's be honest, Resident Evil hasn't had very many (if any) leading black characters, let alone black women. Even with the women available, they haven't done a lot with the likes of Jill Valentine & Claire Redfield in the mainline games outside of remakes (though I'm at least somewhat optimistic for Jill's future prospects). So it's kinda funny how Resident Evil 5, the infamously racist game in the franchise, is the one to give us our first black woman as a playable character. In a way, this makes sense given the setting. And real talk, she's actually a solid character in her own respect.
Sheva got more shit done in the field early on in her BSAA career than most. Gotta give her props there.
Sheva Alomar was the sole survivor of the containment failure of Umbrella's No.57 Plant somewhere in West Africa when she was eight. You would think that this is because of a BOW (Bio Organic Weapon) infecting everyone, & there were BOWs running rampant. But what actually killed them were the Umbrella anti-BOW troops sent to silence the witnesses. Left alone, Sheva's uncle took her in, only to leave her malnourished. This led Sheva to run away to head back home, but she didn't get far. A guerrilla fighter group got a hold of Sheva & became their errand girl (be it laundry or, when she grew up, getting materials from nearby towns). Eventually the US government cut Sheva a deal to uncover the bio-weapon deal that the guerrilla group were involved with. She got the information, all parties involved were captured, & the US official Sheva worked with ended up becoming her guardian. It didn't take long for Sheva to adjust to American life, even learning English in 6 months. After she was accepted into an unnamed university 2 years later, her guardian recommended her for the BSAA (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance). It only took 8 months of training with Josh Stone for her to become a full agent, though her prior experience with the guerrillas helped her case. From here, we get into the main events of Resident Evil 5. She, along with longtime series protagonist Chris Redfield, set out to Kijuju to help the BSAA Alpha Team to apprehend Ricardo Irving for the Uroboros project. The situation went sideways right when Sheva & Chris got there as not only were the residents infected in a similar manner as Los Iluminados' residents in RE4, but the Alpha Team in question were killed by an unknown BOW. Sheva felt that they were outnumbered (after killing two of Irving's bio-weapons, one of which wiped out most of the BSAA Delta Team) & wanted to head back, but Chris had both of them keep going due him wanting to find Jill (who was presumed dead by this point). With the help of Josh Stone, they were able to corner & defeat Irving (even with him injecting himself with a Dominant Species Plaga). From there, they would eventually find Albert Wesker & a brainwashed Jill. Sheva & Chris both were able to free Jill from Wesker's control & subsequently kill Wesker. Unfortunately, this is the only time we see Sheva in the field as of when this was written, as the only other reference to her was when she wrote a letter to Piers Nivans following Chris' disappearance in Resident Evil 6. Which is a shame, actually. Sheva really did establish herself despite mainly being Chris' field partner for one game.
In spite of everything, Sheva's as loyal as they come.
Despite being a newer member of the BSAA as of RE5, Sheva is plenty capable with her turbulent upbringing proving instrumental in her skills as an agent. While Sheva is smaller than Chris, she's also more flexible, allowing her to perform moves that Chris couldn't dream of doing. But the biggest thing about Sheva is her loyalty. In spite of her own fears, she stuck by Chris through the entire mission & was instrumental in finally taking down Wesker. Even years after the mission, her loyalty to Chris remained, as shown by her concern over Chris' disappearance. It makes me wonder what she'll think of Chris in recent years……something we could see if Capcom would use Sheva more often.
Even if Sheva's alternate costumes are sexualized to hell & back (more on that later), she has a solid default design.
You gotta give Capcom props, they know how to design characters. Sheva rocks a sleeveless purple shirt with green pants & brown boots (with the boots looking pretty similar to Jill's in the original Resident Evil 3). Her outfit is a bit more practical, as she's strapped with gun holsters with her wavy hair being tied back. The main stand-out parts that aren't functional are Sheva's necklaces & the tattoo on her left arm. The latter of which says "shujaa", which can translate to "warrior" or "hero" in Swahili (a dialect more commonly spoken in East Africa, not West Africa). Though if you were to translate the word from Arabic, you'd get the translations "brave" or "courageous". Either way, these are pretty fitting of Sheva's character. And while the languages aren't exactly from West Africa, it's not entirely unheard of in various African cultures. Speaking personally, my real name is Arabic in origin despite me being of East African descent. So yeah, Sheva has a simple but effective design, with just enough unique elements to not have it feel too plain.
Seriously Capcom, what the shit!?
If you could tell from my commentary throughout this section, you can tell that my main complaint is that Sheva is woefully underutilized in the Resident Evil franchise. You have a great black woman who was playable on one of the best-selling games in the Resident Evil franchise, yet they leave her high & dry. They even moved away from using her in the CG movie Resident Evil: Vendetta, opting for Rebecca instead. Seriously Capcom, don't let her go to waste. Not to mention that Sheva was sexualized in a number of instances in-game (even right when she as introduced) as well as with her alternate costumes. But at least the RE team learned their lesson with the sexualization part, as they've moved away from sexualizing their women to egregious degrees. That aside, most of my other complaints are with how racist Resident Evil 5 itself. But I'm not the first (& likely not the last) to critique the game about this. In fact, there are two articles/research papers that I highly recommend you ready on the topic.
www.theatlantic.com
www.researchgate.net
Outside of all that, I don't have many issues with Sheva herself, She's a great character with a solid design & a talented black actress (Karen Dyer) voicing her. Capcom, bring her back for RE9. It's been too long since we last got to play as her.
DAY 16: RODIN (BAYONETTA)
When PlatinumGames first hit the scene, they made two games alongside Sega: Bayonetta & Vanquish. The former of which ended up being a recurring franchise with the help of Nintendo directly funding later two games in the franchise (we're still waiting for the third game as of when I wrote this, which we haven't seen since its initial reveal back in 2017). Bayonetta came roaring into the spotlight with fun combat & even more fun characters. One of them was Rodin, the fallen angel turned merchant/bartender/weapon smith in the Gates of Hell. You see him quite a bit across the two Bayonetta games that are out, but you can actually get to fight him if you amass enough cash. Full disclosure, this was probably the hardest section I had to write due to the circumstances. As for when this was written, there was an internet outage for both my home & mobile (Sprint) internet. To circumvent this, I had to use my dad's phone (Verizon is still working despite the cold snap-induced outage) to do the research I couldn't do in Bayonetta 1 & 2. But fortunately, my internet is back now, so no delays to worry about. So let's get to Rodin's story.....or at least what we know of it.
Behold, this is boss fight Rodin! The last thing you will ever see......at least it was for me within the context of Bayonetta 2.
To many who may not know any better, Rodin is just a powerful demon who can freely walk between the human & demon realms and is really damn good at making weapons, using his Gates of Hell bar as a front for his actual job as a weapon smith. And while the most of that is very much true (he did create most of Bayonetta's weapons, after all), the part about Rodin being a demon isn't entirely accurate (he has a demonic form, but there's a reason behind it). In truth, Rodin is actually a fallen angel who used to be in charge of a sizable portion of Paradiso & was in charge of creation. The ironic part of this job is something that is instrumental to his current job as a weapon smith with regards to how Rodin creates weapons in the first place, that being that Rodin had to destroy in order to create. That said, the weapons he did create even at the time allowed for outnumbered soldiers to mow through the demonic forces they faced. Rodin was & still is a master class in his craft. But he eventually turned his back on Paradiso when he joined an insurgency against the very realm he held power over. And before you ask, no, I couldn't find anything on what the insurrection was about, how it came to be, or any of the other specifics about it. What we do know is that the insurgency failed, with Rodin being stripped of his power (ruing power, not necessarily his strength power) & cast out of Paradiso. From there, Rodin would roam Inferno for a while before going to the human world to set up shop (I.E. his Gates of Hell bar/weapons store), leading to the Rodin we know today. Not much else is known about Rodin beyond this, as the information that's already known is pieced together from excerpts that can be obtained throughout the Bayonetta series. But it does give a decent amount of insight as to how Rodin got to where he is now. Going into Rodin's personality, he's actually a very chill individual, as not much actually phases him. Though given how long-lived & powerful Rodin is, that's not unjustified at all. That said, he's very much passionate about his work (both bartending & creating weapons), & gets motivated when he finally gets to flex his muscles on any front. Yes, this extends to when you actually fight him in Bayonetta 2. Rodin doesn't really act too extravagantly, often letting things happen as they will & generally does only what he has to get the job done to the best of his ability. This approach also extends to his fighting style, as he just prefers to keep things straightforward. This is actually a nice change of pace from black guys in games being overly bombastic (which is a common stereotype in media), even if the aloof black guy archetype also isn't rare. And like I said, it all makes sense within the context of Rodin's story (or however much we know about it, anyway).
Rodin has had a ton of designs over the years. I wonder if he'll get a new one for Bayonetta 3.
Rodin has a number of designs from his canon appearances (plus his famous Santa outfit he wears at the beginning of Bayonetta 2), putting aside his appearance in The Wonderful 101. Those designs are his Bayo 1 & 2 looks as well as his Father Rodin & Infinite One forms (basically his fallen angel forms). Rodin's Bayonetta 1 design has a lot more going on than the outfit he would eventually wear in the sequel. His human appearance is that of a black man with tattoos all around his body (more on that later) & sunglasses that hide his glowing red eyes. Clothing-wise, he rocks long light brown leather jacket lined with black fur that also has the collar popped up & sleeves rolled up (can't have your movement be inhibited while making weapons, after all). This is paired with a similarly-colored pair of leather pants, with the red scarf & light gray shirt (featuring diamond patterns) to break up all the light brown. His Father Rodin look isn't too far removed from Father Balder, with just a bit more black & red to let you know that it's Rodin. Otherwise, lots of individual feathers, as well as white & yellow dominating the palette. Both designs are solid & do what they set out to do, but I feel like his base form design in Bayo 2 ended up sticking with me more. Speaking of which, his Bayo 2 design is much more simplified in its look due to the more Japanese-inspired outfit. Not to mention that it was actually the one used for his assist trophy appearance in Smash Ultimate. Funny enough, it's thanks to Smash Ultimate's spirits that I got to write this section first as a result of the internet being out where I am (damn you, Texas cold snap). Anyway, Rodin has 2 main colors for his Bayo 2 design, black & gold. He wears what appears to be a vest with a jacked draped over it, paired with gold pants (including black knee padding within the pants) & black boxing shoes. He's also decked out with bling, be it his gold chain necklace or his bracelets. But what draws your attention the most are the tattoos across his body. And since he's bald to begin with, there's nothing on his skin that takes your attention away from them, beyond him wearing his sunglasses. It's weird, it kinda looks like he has a mustache & goatee from a distance, but it's actually just his tattoos. There's a reason for these patterns, as they actually correlate with his Infinite One form (the optional boss fight in Bayonetta 2). The once-black tattoos turn red, as do a good chunk of his body, as an accent color to the dark gray skin. The jacket carries over from the base form, but in a more demonic style. But the main things that sell the fallen angel look are the huge wings, the tail, the arms having extra spikes coming out near the elbow area, his bird-like feet (which line up with the angels of Bayonetta), & his single horn. The horn in particular was actually outlined in his base form's tattoos, which is a neat touch. And while the Infinite One form is more "fallen" than angel, Father Rodin is more "angel" than fallen (even though he still has the demonic red parts of his design going for him. As I mentioned earlier, I prefer his outfit from Bayonetta 2 of the two base form looks. It's generally easier on the eyes & has a more clear silhouette. But that's not to say that his Bayo 1 design is bad by any means. No matter how you slice it, the man has style to spare.
Damn right, Rodin. Damn right.
Ultimately, I don't really have any complaints about how Rodin is handled. If anything, they did a good job in going against the typical "overly hyped black guy" stereotype, as I brought up earlier. I guess Rodin being a fallen angel would open up a whole other can of worms regarding his blackness, but it's not like they pulled an Elma with Rodin (god, that situation sucked). Plus his English voice actor (Dave Fennoy) did a fantastic job conveying Rodin's personality perfectly, from his aloof lows to his motivated highs. And he only got better with each appearance: gaining a more iconic silhouette, a wild boss fight in Bayonetta 2, & even playable status in Bayo 2's multiplayer mode. If anything, it makes me sad that he only got in Smash as an assist trophy. He'd be great as fully playable character. Maybe next time. But all the same, great job PlatinumGames.
DAY 17: CHERRY HUNTER (STREETS OF RAGE)
I was about to start writing Cherry's section in the thick of the winter storm. But thankfully my internet is back now, so I can continue with my research with no roadblocks. Anyway, Streets of Rage 4 ended up being a breakout hit & a solid-ass revival for the franchise. Along with that were a number of newcomers, one of which is actually the daughter of a series veteran. I'm talking about none other than the rock-&-roll pogo brawler Cherry Hunter. To be honest, I didn't really pay too much attention to the game when it first came out. But once people sang the game's praises as well as seeing Cherry as a character in action, I knew I had to start paying attention. And I'm glad I did, because both her & the game as a whole are great. Granted, I could have gone with Adam Hunter (her father), who's been around since the first game. But on top of there not being a ton of black women in games, her not being a police officer (more on that later) gave her the edge over her old man automatically. Also, I would normally wait until 8-9 AM CST to post this. But since I have no idea if Xfinity is gonna maintain their internet or not in the morning, I figured it'd be best not to risk it & post this section now. This won't be a regular thing, but more of a preventive measure so you can enjoy Cherry's section on schedule. So anyway, let's get to the write-up.
You seriously thought they would take you bribe, Mr. Y? Really?
The story section is probably gonna be shorter than you're used to since Streets of Rage doesn't have a shit-ton of lore. But I should probably preface this with a bit about her father, series veteran Adam Hunter. Adam was in the original Streets of Rage game & actually quit his police force due to the corruption within. Though ironically enough, he returned to police work via Special Forces despite now having a daughter. Cherry actually inherited a lot of her father's fighting prowess, but didn't really want to follow in her dad's policing footsteps despite being quite the daddy's girl (good on you for not joining the police, Cherry). Until the events of Streets of Rage 4, Cherry was a guitarist for Wood Oak City's. Though when Blaze sent the call to fight the new incarnation of the Syndicate to Adam, it was Cherry who ended up answering due to her dad being busy with another assignment. If this scenario of Adam being busy & someone else in his family taking up the call sounds familiar, it's because her uncle (Eddie "Skate" Hunter) did the same thing in Streets of Rage 3 after rescuing his brother in 2. And I guess this makes sense within the context of Streets of Rage 4, as Cherry actually has more in common with her uncle mechanically than her father in the sense that she's a fast-but-weak character (A.K.A. right up my alley)……which would explain why Skate didn't return but Adam did (he's an unlockable character). Anyway, being the only character in the game who can run, the game-plan with Cherry is to get in & out of trouble with quick strikes when you do get in close. It's actually quite a rush (no pun intended) playing as Cherry & it complements her energetic personality well. It was alongside the team of old & new fighters that they were able to take down the Y Syndicate (the name of the new group), led by Mr. Y. So yeah, not too bad for her first outing.
Her design is just too good, plain & simple.
Beat-em-ups take a lot after fighting games in their design logic in that they have to communicate everything you need to know about the character at a quick glance, originally out of necessity since you need to decide to who play quickly since you spent a quarter to play. Obviously that's not very common these days now that everyone's moved to console & PC play, but those same mindsets are very much in play today when it comes to the genres that dominated the arcade scene. And even though Cherry Hunter is a child of the console era when it comes to the beat-em-up genre, she's very much one of the best examples when it comes to character design in the genre (or in general, honestly). Everything about Cherry's outfit, from her loose & torn yellow t-shirt to the black tube top underneath to her ripped jeans to her black shoes, everything about Cherry's design screams "rock star". Though the bandages around her arms & her pleasantly-surprising amount of muscle remind you that she's still a very capable fighter. Actually, this is something that I appreciate about Street Fighter's women, as sexualized as they tend to be (especially as of recently). I even love Cherry's hair, which are big poofy dreads with a magenta fade down to the tips (living up to her namesake). She even rocks her guitar into battle, which adds to the rock star look. Even the use of yellow & black is a uniting element between the other playable members of the Hunter family throughout the series, which is a cool touch. If you're expecting me to tear into a specific element, I don't really have anything. It's just a fantastic design. Granted, I'm not too sure about he significance of her black necklace, but it looks great & lines up with the black tube top. Not to mention that she isn't objectified in a way that takes away from her character, so that's a plus. Either way, the devs fucking nailed it with Cherry's design. And the sprite work done for Cherry is top-tier, which I didn't expect to be any different given how well the other characters were handled.
Case in point about yellow & black being the uniting Hunter family colors. But yeah, welcome to the Streets of Rage family, Cherry.
I have literally no complaints about Cherry, none. Like I said, normally I'd give some sort of critique about the game, be it some instance of colorism or the voice actor not being black. But here, nothing. Granted, the lack of a VA mention is due to the lack of voice acting in the game, but that's besides the point. They absolutely fucking hit it out of the park with Cherry Hunter, & I couldn't be happier. I did warn you this would be shorter than usual. But honestly, I'm glad it was. There's not much more I could add without feeling like it drags on. Go play Streets of Rage 4 if you get the chance, you'll thank me later.
DAY 18: SHINOBU JACOBS (NO MORE HEROES)
It takes a lot to become a ranked member of the United Assassins Association. It takes even more do hit the Top 10 when you're only 18 years old (as of the first No More Heroes game). That describes none other than the young assassin Scarlet Jacobs, better known by her pseudonym Shinobu Jacobs. And before you ask, no, I didn't pick her for today just because we got more information on No More Heroes III yesterday. Seriously, I was already planning on doing her write-up today (I was writing it the night before the Direct & was planning to finish in the morning, but then the internet temporarily went out). So yeah, one hell of a coincidence. Anyway, let's get to her lore.
Even if her rage was pointed at the wrong person, I could understand Shinobu's fury.
Shinobu herself was an 18-year-old student at Santa Destroy High School during the time of No More Heroes 1 (likely as a senior given her age). Shinobu's father was Master Jacobs, Travis Touchdown's assassin idol (to the point where Travis wore out all the tapes he had of Jacobs Sr.). When he was killed (likely by Travis' twin brother, Henry Cooldown), Shinobu mistook her father's actual killer for Travis. And given that Shinobu was both impatient & hella bloodthirsty as of NMH1, she was obviously ready to serve a nice slice of vengeance. And funny enough, Travis almost defuses the situation with a reasonable explainer. But the second he showed his beam katana, Shinobu was committed to killing Travis' ass (since his sword looked like Henry's). Shinobu did end up losing the fight as well as her right forearm, but Travis ends up sparing her life since he isn't comfortable with killing female assassins (a fact we learned in his win against Holly Summers). Shinobu eventually recognized that Travis wasn't the real culprit of her father's death & wound up helping him against Jeane (with a new prosthetic right arm) & got her to let go of Travis' heart…..but cutting off the hand that was grabbing it. From then on, Shinobu shadowed Travis to learn his secret to ranking up. By the time we get to No More Heroes 2, a 21-year-old Shinobu had already graduated high school. In fact, she's actually playable in this game for two levels, which was nice to experience. It was also by this point where Shinobu begins to refer to Travis as her mentor (much to his dismay). Her desire at this point is to become as strong as Travis, going as far as to train & become a champion in Asia to make the that happen. She returned figuring that Travis could use some help with the battle royale's ever-increasing difficulty, something she figured that Travis would be overwhelmed with (which annoyed Travis). Even though Travis initially rejected her help, Sylvia did eventually have Shinobu take over for Travis for two of the ranks, those being Million Gunman & the recently-resurrected Destroyman (now New Destroyman). It was actually after the defeat of the former that she visits the grave of Bishop Shidux, leading to her meeting a mystery man who gives her a sheath to give to Travis. Shinobu then offers to take down more people for Travis while also flirting with Travis, but Travis shoots down both offers, saying that he would feel too much like a pervy teacher in a porno (probably the first time he recognized Shinobu as his student) & not wanting to take advantage of her. Heartbroken, Shinobu leaves & doesn't return for the rest of the game (besides a fake head Jasper Batt Jr. uses to trick Travis into thinking she's dead). Between NMH2 & Travis Strikes Again, Shinobu (who's 28-years-old as of Travis Strikes Again) establishes a dojo meant to teach Bushido to kids that she pays for with assassination jobs. When she eventually tracks down Travis to his trailer to let him know of various challenges from other assassins, Travis recommends that she not tell the kids how Shinobu pays for the dojo (which came up because Shinobu suggested the dojo as a place to fight Henry's underlings).
I couldn't find a good full picture of her Travis Strikes Again design, so bear with me on this.
Shinobu's consistent design elements are her white hair (an unfortunately-common trend for black women in Japanese games), her black scarf &, from NMH2 onwards, her prosthetic right arm (often covered by a glove). Her hair is often poofy & unkept, but more in a straightened way. As for the game-specific designs, her NMH1 design is a modified version of her white-&-purple school uniform paired with patterned fingerless gloves & thigh-high tights? (I'm not sure about the correct term, they're basically what Female Byleth wears). They're paired with black 80's style shin-high socks & black shoes. White, purple, & black end up being her main colors for this design, & it does its job of communicating who she is pretty well (a student moonlighting as an assassin). Obviously this wouldn't work for NMH2 now that she's older (something Capcom took until SFV to learn for Sakura), so she now rocks black dress in the place of her high school uniform alongside her tights being held up by whatever those thigh holders are (someone please help me out with this) & high heels instead of school dress shoes. This sadly veers more into the objectified direction for Shinobu (more on that later), a trend that would be further iterated on for Travis Strikes Again. She now rocks a yellow-&-black look that appears as if it was pulled out of Game of Death or Kill Bill (which was inspired by Game of Death). She wears yellow sleeves, an exposed yellow bra, & yellow pants with one leg exposed. This is all paired with black trim & a black left shoulder guard (featuring silver trim), keeping in line with the glove & her scarf. If it weren't for the overly sexualized elements, I'd be down for this look in terms of the colors used since it stands out much more than black-on-black-on-black. If nothing else, I respect that Suda51 tries something new with each appearance of Shinobu, even if I'm not super-fond of how she's being more & more objectified with each subsequent appearance.
I'm so critical about certain parts of Shinobu because I genuinely love her character.
I do have a few complaints about how Shinobu's character is handled. For one, she's often sexualized to the point of objectification, which falls into the various colorism concerns regarding black women in games. Not to mention her romantic infatuation with Travis, something that even Travis felt uncomfortable with. My issue with this mostly stemmed from the circumstances of which they met, their master-student relationship (at least in Shinobu's eyes), & the age gap. This was dialed back a decent bit in Travis Strikes Again to be in a more playful way. It was nice to see, as it shows that she clearly does grow as a person over the course of the series & is shown to be plenty capable in her own right. Plus it's not often that you get a dark-skinned black woman in a Japanese-made game, so Suda51 deserves credit where it's due. That plus the stellar performance of long-time career black voice actress Kimberly Brooks, who's been at the role consistently since 2007. So I guess it's one of those things where you take the good with the bad. And honestly, I really do like Shinobu in spite of it all. I'm glad she was playable in NMH2 & Travis Strikes Again (albeit as DLC), and I hope that she's playable again in No More Heroes III. Not to mention that Suda51 actually isn't afraid to have Shinobu age & grow, which is a plus (especially considering how a number of Japanese games are afraid of aging up their ladies). So yeah, you rock, Shinobu.
DAY 19: CERE JUNDA (STAR WARS)
Look, I can explain. Yes, she is a Star Wars character, a franchise that started as a movie series. But despite the franchise's origins, Cere herself is in fact a video game character given that she didn't take her debut until Jedi Fallen Order. She wasn't even a minor character in Clone Wars or Revenge of the Sith. So yeah, she's fair game. And even if she wasn't a Star Wars character, Cere is a fascinating character in her own right who I feel could have easily carried the game on her own if given the chance. Not to mention that black women who are Jedi are hard to come by. With that being said, let's get to Cere's lore. However, since Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order is a relatively recent release, I'll put spoiler tags over any text that may imply plot elements out of respect for those who may not have played the game yet but plan to in the near future.
For what it's worth, she tried her best to protect or Padawan.
It's actually refreshing that we get these kind of character sheets. I was worried at first when I couldn't find any PNGs for Cere.
Back when the Jedi Order were a thing, Cere wore robes not unlike other Jedi masters (such as Obi-Wan Kenobi). Basically tan on tan on tan, with dark brown knee-high boots & a belt around the stomach. Her main signifier are her braids, which she adds blue & brown clips to for a bit of color contrast. It fits perfectly with what was expected of Jedi Masters of the time while adding a bit of her own personal flair to set herself apart where she can. In a post-Order 66 world & Cere having her crisis of faith, she would adopt an outfit not to dissimilar to other rebels of that era. She ended up cutting her hair short, which later grew into a bit over the years. Likewise, she now wears dark gray pants with black boots, but also a black vest with a yellow underside for a bit of color contrast. The tan shirt she wears kinda acts as a visual anchor to her Jedi Order days, as does the darker tan leather belt. And her emerald necklace tops off the design, which serves to give her a bit of personal flair. Said necklace also ties into her lightsaber, as it also has triangle for the clip's shape. The lightsaber even ties into Cere's belt with the leather hilt, which was actually an intentional design decision (was was the triangular clip). Everything about her two outfits & her lightsaber are practical while also allowing Cere's character to shine through where they can. A lot of work went into nailing her character, & all parties (Respawn Entertainment & Lucasfilm) involved deserve props for sticking the landing.
Cere trying to reconnect with her former Padawan, doing her best to make up for past mistakes (too bad the cause of said mistake cut it short).
I know this may make for a short section, but I have no complaints about Cere. Her character arc is great, I love her designs, & Debra Wilson's performance is fantastic (not that I expected anything less from a talented Hollywood actress like her). Plus she avoids the typical pitfalls of colorism that plague black women in games worldwide (not just in Japan). I can't sing the praises of everyone involved in Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order enough. My only gripe is that we didn't actually get to play her. All due respect to Cal, but a game focused on Cere would have been much more exciting from the get-go. Hopefully this is something that can be rectified with a sequel…….please?
DAY 20: AVELINE DE GRANDPRÉ (ASSASSIN'S CREED)
Like with Activision Blizzard, I have a number of choice words for Ubisoft in recent years. But let it be known that I can give credit where it's due. On that note, Assassin's Creed hasn't had a ton of black assassins throughout its history. That said, in addition to Aveline, we did also get Bayek of Siwa. And don't get me wrong, he's a damn great character. In fact, this was another tough decision between him & Aveline. But ultimately I ended up going with Aveline for two reasons. One, I wanted to give the nod to more black women. Two, I find that Liberation is really underrated in the Assassin's Creed series. Also, one of the keys on my keyboard broke while writing this, so now I have to use a separate keyboard until the replacement key comes in the mail, so that'll be interesting. With that being said, let's dig into her story.
For a little kid (at least at the time), Aveline sure caught on quickly.
Borin to a French father (Phillppe de Grandpré) & an African mother (Jeanne), Aveline de Grandpré had it easier than most black kids of the time thanks to her dad's side of the family. And with her mom disappearing when Aveline was 10, she ended up being raised by Madeleine de L'Isle (her step-mom whom her dad married 5 years before Aveline's mom disappeared). Despite her privileged upbringing, it didn't take Aveline long to notice the stark contrast between her bubble & the injustices that occurred outside of said bubble (which awoken her strong sense of justice) & decided to do something about it (all of this was when she was 12, no less). She was then trained by Agaté (an assassin originally from West Africa) to possess the skills necessary to achieve her goals, with Agaté originally saving Aveline from being caught after one of her first attempts to free a slave (an act that inspired Agaté to teach her). Upon being formally accepted into the Assassins Brotherhood (which should probably be renamed the Assassins Fellowship, but whatever), she didn't waste any time in freeing as many slaves as she could by shutting down the Templar's slave-trading operations (one in particular going by the name "Company Man") at the age of 18. Along the way, she met a would-be Templar (Baptiste) who knew Aveline's mother & tried to poison her mentor, participated in the Louisiana Rebellion behind the scenes, reunited with her mother (which scared her initially given Aveline's current profession, but that was later sorted out), & eventually took down the "Company Man" (who was actually Aveline's step-mother). That said, said defeat did come with its own complications upon the reveal of the Company Man's identity, as it led to Agaté killing himself out of shame of what he thought was his student aligning with the Templars. But outside of that tragedy, it was through Aveline's actions that New Orleans was freed of Templar control. And even then, Aveline continued with her original mission to free as many slaves as she could (even recruiting Patience Gibbs into the Brotherhood when Aveline was 34 during a slave-freeing mission). So yeah, Aveline continues the trend of black action characters getting a lot done in a relatively short amount of time from them starting their professions.
Even if the situation works out, Aveline's kindness sometimes overrides her mission (not that it's entirely a bad thing).
As mentioned before, Aveline has a strong sense of justice even at a young age, one that left her emotionally torn when she noticed the contradictions of her world. Aveline is also quite the actress, being able to inhabit various roles such as noblewoman & slave with extreme levels of accuracy (or at least enough to fool the ones she has to trick). Though while she's serious as hell on the job, she's more than willing to let her guard down & crack a joke around those she trusts (which helps alleviate the colorist stereotype of black women typically being angry & overly serious). With that sense of humor also comes kindness, something that has come into conflict with her job in the past as she spared the life of de Ulloa (who she was supposed to kill) out of sympathy for him & his pregnant wife. Aveline did ultimately get a decipher to decode some Templar documents (which did further help in her mission), but this move did go directly against her mentor's orders. Though if nothing else, this is a testament to her strong will, which isn't really a bad thing.
Not too shabby of an assassin's outfit, Aveline.
Aveline's design is primarily navy blue with bits of white & red thrown in. Her vest, pants, & boots are primarily navy blue (which end up looking kinda gray in certain lighting), with a warm colors for the sash (red, yellow, & orange) to act as separation between all the cool colors (plus the red trim for her buttons). Said vest is worn over a white shirt adorned with navy blue dagger holsters with a gray arm guard on her right arm. Plus there's the Assassins Brotherhood symbol as her belt buckle, tying her into the group. The design is pretty typical for the assassins of the series, which is honestly a good thing as they didn't go to lengths to sexualize Aveline's main design (again, another colorist trend regarding black women in media, one that Aveline thankfully dodges). Plus it's personalized just enough to fit her setting (especially the sash). It's actually one of my favorite designs of the assassins, even if there isn't a ton to dissect with regards to certain design elements. I guess the colors chosen tie back to what Aveline typically wore before she joined the Brotherhood, but that's really about it.
The only real complaint I have regarding Aveline is concerning her English voice actress. Granted, I can give credit where it's due in that Amber Goldfarb puts up a great performance. However, as mentioned in the past, it would have been ideal to have a black actress take up the role. Unfortunately, this remains an issue even today, so it's something you see me bring up quite often in this thread. Outside of that, Aveline was handled really damn well. So again, gotta give credit where it's due.
Despite everything, from the betrayal to the attempted murder, Billie was still able to walk away from it with her life.....at the cost of the life she wanted to live as an assassin.
Born to a foreigner in a small isle off the cost of Pandyssia, Billie Lurk was born on the Month of Hearths' 2nd day in 1813. She grew up in Dunwall with a drunk mother in her early years, having to endure abuse to the point where Billie left her home. It was here where she turned to a life of crime, stealing & killing where she could in order to avoid child prostitution in the hopes of one day becoming a ship captain. Along the way, she met & subsequently fell in love with Deirdre (Billie is bisexual, with her being attracted to women the most often). But unfortunately, said love ended up not lasting when she was murdered by Radanis Abele. Out of vengeance, Billie murdered Radanis to avenge her girlfriend, only to find out his identity later. Because of this, she ended up becoming a wanted fugitive with powerful individuals trying to catch her, making it impossible to hide anywhere. Billie then trailed Daud after being enamored with his triple-assassination. Given his skill, Daud noticed that he was being tailed immediately, but offered to teach Billie anyway after noticing her courage. After she joined the Whalers in 1829, her dream to become a ship captain was replaced with the dream of becoming a professional assassin. She actually ends up assisting Daud in all of his missions in The Knife of Dunwall. But over the course of the story, she begins to doubt Daud's strength & stability, leading Billie betraying Daud to Delilah. It was actually to the point where she actually dethroned Daud as the leader of the Whalers & revealing their hideout to Delilah. After Delilah made contact with the Overseers to compromise the assassins, Billie was ordered to kill Daud. Ultimately, Billie couldn't bring herself to kill Daud, realizing his strength & that he deserved better. She ended up surrendering herself to Daud, who ultimately spares her life in exchange for Billie leaving the assassins & the city (which she agrees to). Going from here, she would assume the identity of Meagan Foster, captain of the Dreadful Wale.
Billie while she assumed the identity of Megan Foster in Dishonored 2.
Following her life being spared, Billie (now Meagan Foster) started a business from her ship, the Dreadful Whale. She later befriended Anton Sokolov, who was invited to live on the ship. Billie/Meagan still cared for him despite the strained relationship. Billie/Meagan also regularly visited Aramis Stilton until he disappeared. But when she tried to check Aramis' manor to see what happened, she lost her right eye & right forearm fighting the Grand Guard. About two years afterwards, Anton was abducted by the Crown Killer (Alexandria Hypatia under the influence of a toxic compound, unaware of her actions while acting as the Crown Killer) investigating her killings. Billie/Meagan tried to save Anton, but was unsuccessful. From there, she honored his wish to go to Dunwall to warn Emily Kaldwin & Corvo Attano of an impending coup. But by the time Billie/Meagan got there, it was too late. After either Emily or Corvo get the message & escape, Billie/Meagan works with the protagonist of Dishonored 2 to rescue Anton & defeat Delilah (both of which they were ultimately successful in doing). And after opening up to the protagonist about her past, Billie would then set out to find Daud. Said search is actually the premise of Death of the Outsider, the DLC story where Billie ends up being the protagonist. She ends up finding an ill Daud at a fight club, agreeing to help him destroy the Outsider as his final job. Though along the way of getting the sword needed to finish the job, Daud passes away on the ship (the ship is burned by Billie as a funeral pyre) & left a message for Billie giving her one last goodbye. Despite Daud's death, Billie would still try to see the job through (with the help of Daud's spirit). But when Billie finally has the Outsider at her mercy, she spared his life. What happens to Billie after that is unknown, but the final passing of Daud's spirit likely marked the end of that chapter of her life.
Billie is a pretty serious & straightforward person, something I can relate to in a number of ways. Because of this, she's laser-focused on whatever job she's doing & does it to the best of her ability. Likewise, said straightforwardness results in Billie being very bluntly, both about her interests & dislikes. And as an extension of her seriousness, Billie has a strong sense of justice which can be morphed into righteous anger & a thirst for vengeance for those she sees as evil. But despite this, Billie does value life & (in the canon choices) will spare the lives of her opponents when she can. The serious & angry parts do go into some colorist stereotypes for black women in media, but her wanting to spare lives where she can does kinda alleviate some of the concerns (even if a number of them still remain). Though at the very least, she's not angry all the time & only really towards those who deserve it. Of course, she does have her own insecurities & doubts (as shown by her initial betrayal of Daud). But her moral compass usually points her back in the right direction in the end.
Billie has had quite a few designs over the years.
Billie has had 3 designs over the years, her initial one from The Knife of Dunwall, her as Meagan Foster in Dishonored 2, & Billie as herself again in Death of the Outsider. For her first appearance, Billie rocks a red coat over a white button-up shirt with tan sleeves (which don't feel out-of-place thanks to all the belts & pockets she has on her) & long black gloves. This is paired with black pants to offset the red. It's nothing outstanding, but it does firmly establish red as Billie's main color. Plus it not really being sexualized helps. Going into Dishonored 2, we see Billie under the identity of Meagan Foster. By this point, she's seen some shit & went through a lot. This is made evident by the missing eye & right forearm. That aside, she trades her red jacket for a tan one over a pale green button-up inner jacket. As for the pants, she trades her black pants for tan ones & those are paired with brown boots. And on top of that, Billie/Meagan cut her hair short to further distance herself from her old identity. This marks a considerable departure from Billie/Meagan's previous design, but that's kind of the point considering that she's under a new identity. But when Billie embraces her old identity once again in Death of the Outsider, her outfit follows suit. Though to be more accurate, her design in this story is a half-way point between her old look & her Meagan look. Bringing back the red coat (albeit a shorter, fully-buttoned-up coat) while retaining her Meagan pants, boots, & short hair. The missing forearm & eye are replaced with Void artifacts so she won't be inhibited in her role as a playable character, which is a solid way of giving her full mobility of having both arms while also reminding the player of what happened prior (though part of me was kinda sad that I couldn't play as a one-armed Billie). This design is actually my favorite of the three, not just for its story significance, but also because of just how much it stands out. When I think of Billie Lurk, her Death of the Outsider look is what comes to mind.
There are ultimately two concerns I have with Billie & how she's handled. For starters, the role of the serious black woman isn't one that's uncommon in media. But given that she's not angry 100% of the time & really towards those who have truly wronged her, it's not as bad as a number of other instances. But the fact that these stereotypes have persisted in media for so long have poisoned the waters somewhat, which is a shame (& not Billie's fault). Likewise, there's the issue of her voice actor, at least at first. In The Knife of Dunwall, she's voiced by Kristy Wu who, while not white & put up a solid performance, also isn't black. This was corrected going into Dishonored 2 onwards, where she was voiced by Rosario Dawson from then on. For what it's worth, both put up great performances, even if I prefer Rosario's. But outside of those two, I have nothing else to say that I didn't already cover. Arkane Studios did a great job building up Billie's character over the years & I commend them for their efforts.
WEEK 3: ACTION GAME CHARACTERS
DAY 15: SHEVA ALOMAR (RESIDENT EVIL)
Let's be honest, Resident Evil hasn't had very many (if any) leading black characters, let alone black women. Even with the women available, they haven't done a lot with the likes of Jill Valentine & Claire Redfield in the mainline games outside of remakes (though I'm at least somewhat optimistic for Jill's future prospects). So it's kinda funny how Resident Evil 5, the infamously racist game in the franchise, is the one to give us our first black woman as a playable character. In a way, this makes sense given the setting. And real talk, she's actually a solid character in her own respect.
Sheva got more shit done in the field early on in her BSAA career than most. Gotta give her props there.
Sheva Alomar was the sole survivor of the containment failure of Umbrella's No.57 Plant somewhere in West Africa when she was eight. You would think that this is because of a BOW (Bio Organic Weapon) infecting everyone, & there were BOWs running rampant. But what actually killed them were the Umbrella anti-BOW troops sent to silence the witnesses. Left alone, Sheva's uncle took her in, only to leave her malnourished. This led Sheva to run away to head back home, but she didn't get far. A guerrilla fighter group got a hold of Sheva & became their errand girl (be it laundry or, when she grew up, getting materials from nearby towns). Eventually the US government cut Sheva a deal to uncover the bio-weapon deal that the guerrilla group were involved with. She got the information, all parties involved were captured, & the US official Sheva worked with ended up becoming her guardian. It didn't take long for Sheva to adjust to American life, even learning English in 6 months. After she was accepted into an unnamed university 2 years later, her guardian recommended her for the BSAA (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance). It only took 8 months of training with Josh Stone for her to become a full agent, though her prior experience with the guerrillas helped her case. From here, we get into the main events of Resident Evil 5. She, along with longtime series protagonist Chris Redfield, set out to Kijuju to help the BSAA Alpha Team to apprehend Ricardo Irving for the Uroboros project. The situation went sideways right when Sheva & Chris got there as not only were the residents infected in a similar manner as Los Iluminados' residents in RE4, but the Alpha Team in question were killed by an unknown BOW. Sheva felt that they were outnumbered (after killing two of Irving's bio-weapons, one of which wiped out most of the BSAA Delta Team) & wanted to head back, but Chris had both of them keep going due him wanting to find Jill (who was presumed dead by this point). With the help of Josh Stone, they were able to corner & defeat Irving (even with him injecting himself with a Dominant Species Plaga). From there, they would eventually find Albert Wesker & a brainwashed Jill. Sheva & Chris both were able to free Jill from Wesker's control & subsequently kill Wesker. Unfortunately, this is the only time we see Sheva in the field as of when this was written, as the only other reference to her was when she wrote a letter to Piers Nivans following Chris' disappearance in Resident Evil 6. Which is a shame, actually. Sheva really did establish herself despite mainly being Chris' field partner for one game.
In spite of everything, Sheva's as loyal as they come.
Despite being a newer member of the BSAA as of RE5, Sheva is plenty capable with her turbulent upbringing proving instrumental in her skills as an agent. While Sheva is smaller than Chris, she's also more flexible, allowing her to perform moves that Chris couldn't dream of doing. But the biggest thing about Sheva is her loyalty. In spite of her own fears, she stuck by Chris through the entire mission & was instrumental in finally taking down Wesker. Even years after the mission, her loyalty to Chris remained, as shown by her concern over Chris' disappearance. It makes me wonder what she'll think of Chris in recent years……something we could see if Capcom would use Sheva more often.
Even if Sheva's alternate costumes are sexualized to hell & back (more on that later), she has a solid default design.
You gotta give Capcom props, they know how to design characters. Sheva rocks a sleeveless purple shirt with green pants & brown boots (with the boots looking pretty similar to Jill's in the original Resident Evil 3). Her outfit is a bit more practical, as she's strapped with gun holsters with her wavy hair being tied back. The main stand-out parts that aren't functional are Sheva's necklaces & the tattoo on her left arm. The latter of which says "shujaa", which can translate to "warrior" or "hero" in Swahili (a dialect more commonly spoken in East Africa, not West Africa). Though if you were to translate the word from Arabic, you'd get the translations "brave" or "courageous". Either way, these are pretty fitting of Sheva's character. And while the languages aren't exactly from West Africa, it's not entirely unheard of in various African cultures. Speaking personally, my real name is Arabic in origin despite me being of East African descent. So yeah, Sheva has a simple but effective design, with just enough unique elements to not have it feel too plain.
Seriously Capcom, what the shit!?
If you could tell from my commentary throughout this section, you can tell that my main complaint is that Sheva is woefully underutilized in the Resident Evil franchise. You have a great black woman who was playable on one of the best-selling games in the Resident Evil franchise, yet they leave her high & dry. They even moved away from using her in the CG movie Resident Evil: Vendetta, opting for Rebecca instead. Seriously Capcom, don't let her go to waste. Not to mention that Sheva was sexualized in a number of instances in-game (even right when she as introduced) as well as with her alternate costumes. But at least the RE team learned their lesson with the sexualization part, as they've moved away from sexualizing their women to egregious degrees. That aside, most of my other complaints are with how racist Resident Evil 5 itself. But I'm not the first (& likely not the last) to critique the game about this. In fact, there are two articles/research papers that I highly recommend you ready on the topic.
Sometimes it's just racist...
The Atlantic covers news, politics, culture, technology, health, and more, through its articles, podcasts, videos, and flagship magazine.
www.theatlantic.com
(PDF) ‘‘When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong’’: Resident Evil 5, Racial Representation, and Gamers
PDF | Videogames’ ability to depict cultural iconographies and characters have occasionally led to accusations of insensitivity. This article examines... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
www.researchgate.net
DAY 16: RODIN (BAYONETTA)
Behold, this is boss fight Rodin! The last thing you will ever see......at least it was for me within the context of Bayonetta 2.
To many who may not know any better, Rodin is just a powerful demon who can freely walk between the human & demon realms and is really damn good at making weapons, using his Gates of Hell bar as a front for his actual job as a weapon smith. And while the most of that is very much true (he did create most of Bayonetta's weapons, after all), the part about Rodin being a demon isn't entirely accurate (he has a demonic form, but there's a reason behind it). In truth, Rodin is actually a fallen angel who used to be in charge of a sizable portion of Paradiso & was in charge of creation. The ironic part of this job is something that is instrumental to his current job as a weapon smith with regards to how Rodin creates weapons in the first place, that being that Rodin had to destroy in order to create. That said, the weapons he did create even at the time allowed for outnumbered soldiers to mow through the demonic forces they faced. Rodin was & still is a master class in his craft. But he eventually turned his back on Paradiso when he joined an insurgency against the very realm he held power over. And before you ask, no, I couldn't find anything on what the insurrection was about, how it came to be, or any of the other specifics about it. What we do know is that the insurgency failed, with Rodin being stripped of his power (ruing power, not necessarily his strength power) & cast out of Paradiso. From there, Rodin would roam Inferno for a while before going to the human world to set up shop (I.E. his Gates of Hell bar/weapons store), leading to the Rodin we know today. Not much else is known about Rodin beyond this, as the information that's already known is pieced together from excerpts that can be obtained throughout the Bayonetta series. But it does give a decent amount of insight as to how Rodin got to where he is now. Going into Rodin's personality, he's actually a very chill individual, as not much actually phases him. Though given how long-lived & powerful Rodin is, that's not unjustified at all. That said, he's very much passionate about his work (both bartending & creating weapons), & gets motivated when he finally gets to flex his muscles on any front. Yes, this extends to when you actually fight him in Bayonetta 2. Rodin doesn't really act too extravagantly, often letting things happen as they will & generally does only what he has to get the job done to the best of his ability. This approach also extends to his fighting style, as he just prefers to keep things straightforward. This is actually a nice change of pace from black guys in games being overly bombastic (which is a common stereotype in media), even if the aloof black guy archetype also isn't rare. And like I said, it all makes sense within the context of Rodin's story (or however much we know about it, anyway).
Rodin has had a ton of designs over the years. I wonder if he'll get a new one for Bayonetta 3.
Rodin has a number of designs from his canon appearances (plus his famous Santa outfit he wears at the beginning of Bayonetta 2), putting aside his appearance in The Wonderful 101. Those designs are his Bayo 1 & 2 looks as well as his Father Rodin & Infinite One forms (basically his fallen angel forms). Rodin's Bayonetta 1 design has a lot more going on than the outfit he would eventually wear in the sequel. His human appearance is that of a black man with tattoos all around his body (more on that later) & sunglasses that hide his glowing red eyes. Clothing-wise, he rocks long light brown leather jacket lined with black fur that also has the collar popped up & sleeves rolled up (can't have your movement be inhibited while making weapons, after all). This is paired with a similarly-colored pair of leather pants, with the red scarf & light gray shirt (featuring diamond patterns) to break up all the light brown. His Father Rodin look isn't too far removed from Father Balder, with just a bit more black & red to let you know that it's Rodin. Otherwise, lots of individual feathers, as well as white & yellow dominating the palette. Both designs are solid & do what they set out to do, but I feel like his base form design in Bayo 2 ended up sticking with me more. Speaking of which, his Bayo 2 design is much more simplified in its look due to the more Japanese-inspired outfit. Not to mention that it was actually the one used for his assist trophy appearance in Smash Ultimate. Funny enough, it's thanks to Smash Ultimate's spirits that I got to write this section first as a result of the internet being out where I am (damn you, Texas cold snap). Anyway, Rodin has 2 main colors for his Bayo 2 design, black & gold. He wears what appears to be a vest with a jacked draped over it, paired with gold pants (including black knee padding within the pants) & black boxing shoes. He's also decked out with bling, be it his gold chain necklace or his bracelets. But what draws your attention the most are the tattoos across his body. And since he's bald to begin with, there's nothing on his skin that takes your attention away from them, beyond him wearing his sunglasses. It's weird, it kinda looks like he has a mustache & goatee from a distance, but it's actually just his tattoos. There's a reason for these patterns, as they actually correlate with his Infinite One form (the optional boss fight in Bayonetta 2). The once-black tattoos turn red, as do a good chunk of his body, as an accent color to the dark gray skin. The jacket carries over from the base form, but in a more demonic style. But the main things that sell the fallen angel look are the huge wings, the tail, the arms having extra spikes coming out near the elbow area, his bird-like feet (which line up with the angels of Bayonetta), & his single horn. The horn in particular was actually outlined in his base form's tattoos, which is a neat touch. And while the Infinite One form is more "fallen" than angel, Father Rodin is more "angel" than fallen (even though he still has the demonic red parts of his design going for him. As I mentioned earlier, I prefer his outfit from Bayonetta 2 of the two base form looks. It's generally easier on the eyes & has a more clear silhouette. But that's not to say that his Bayo 1 design is bad by any means. No matter how you slice it, the man has style to spare.
Damn right, Rodin. Damn right.
Ultimately, I don't really have any complaints about how Rodin is handled. If anything, they did a good job in going against the typical "overly hyped black guy" stereotype, as I brought up earlier. I guess Rodin being a fallen angel would open up a whole other can of worms regarding his blackness, but it's not like they pulled an Elma with Rodin (god, that situation sucked). Plus his English voice actor (Dave Fennoy) did a fantastic job conveying Rodin's personality perfectly, from his aloof lows to his motivated highs. And he only got better with each appearance: gaining a more iconic silhouette, a wild boss fight in Bayonetta 2, & even playable status in Bayo 2's multiplayer mode. If anything, it makes me sad that he only got in Smash as an assist trophy. He'd be great as fully playable character. Maybe next time. But all the same, great job PlatinumGames.
DAY 17: CHERRY HUNTER (STREETS OF RAGE)
You seriously thought they would take you bribe, Mr. Y? Really?
The story section is probably gonna be shorter than you're used to since Streets of Rage doesn't have a shit-ton of lore. But I should probably preface this with a bit about her father, series veteran Adam Hunter. Adam was in the original Streets of Rage game & actually quit his police force due to the corruption within. Though ironically enough, he returned to police work via Special Forces despite now having a daughter. Cherry actually inherited a lot of her father's fighting prowess, but didn't really want to follow in her dad's policing footsteps despite being quite the daddy's girl (good on you for not joining the police, Cherry). Until the events of Streets of Rage 4, Cherry was a guitarist for Wood Oak City's. Though when Blaze sent the call to fight the new incarnation of the Syndicate to Adam, it was Cherry who ended up answering due to her dad being busy with another assignment. If this scenario of Adam being busy & someone else in his family taking up the call sounds familiar, it's because her uncle (Eddie "Skate" Hunter) did the same thing in Streets of Rage 3 after rescuing his brother in 2. And I guess this makes sense within the context of Streets of Rage 4, as Cherry actually has more in common with her uncle mechanically than her father in the sense that she's a fast-but-weak character (A.K.A. right up my alley)……which would explain why Skate didn't return but Adam did (he's an unlockable character). Anyway, being the only character in the game who can run, the game-plan with Cherry is to get in & out of trouble with quick strikes when you do get in close. It's actually quite a rush (no pun intended) playing as Cherry & it complements her energetic personality well. It was alongside the team of old & new fighters that they were able to take down the Y Syndicate (the name of the new group), led by Mr. Y. So yeah, not too bad for her first outing.
Her design is just too good, plain & simple.
Beat-em-ups take a lot after fighting games in their design logic in that they have to communicate everything you need to know about the character at a quick glance, originally out of necessity since you need to decide to who play quickly since you spent a quarter to play. Obviously that's not very common these days now that everyone's moved to console & PC play, but those same mindsets are very much in play today when it comes to the genres that dominated the arcade scene. And even though Cherry Hunter is a child of the console era when it comes to the beat-em-up genre, she's very much one of the best examples when it comes to character design in the genre (or in general, honestly). Everything about Cherry's outfit, from her loose & torn yellow t-shirt to the black tube top underneath to her ripped jeans to her black shoes, everything about Cherry's design screams "rock star". Though the bandages around her arms & her pleasantly-surprising amount of muscle remind you that she's still a very capable fighter. Actually, this is something that I appreciate about Street Fighter's women, as sexualized as they tend to be (especially as of recently). I even love Cherry's hair, which are big poofy dreads with a magenta fade down to the tips (living up to her namesake). She even rocks her guitar into battle, which adds to the rock star look. Even the use of yellow & black is a uniting element between the other playable members of the Hunter family throughout the series, which is a cool touch. If you're expecting me to tear into a specific element, I don't really have anything. It's just a fantastic design. Granted, I'm not too sure about he significance of her black necklace, but it looks great & lines up with the black tube top. Not to mention that she isn't objectified in a way that takes away from her character, so that's a plus. Either way, the devs fucking nailed it with Cherry's design. And the sprite work done for Cherry is top-tier, which I didn't expect to be any different given how well the other characters were handled.
Case in point about yellow & black being the uniting Hunter family colors. But yeah, welcome to the Streets of Rage family, Cherry.
I have literally no complaints about Cherry, none. Like I said, normally I'd give some sort of critique about the game, be it some instance of colorism or the voice actor not being black. But here, nothing. Granted, the lack of a VA mention is due to the lack of voice acting in the game, but that's besides the point. They absolutely fucking hit it out of the park with Cherry Hunter, & I couldn't be happier. I did warn you this would be shorter than usual. But honestly, I'm glad it was. There's not much more I could add without feeling like it drags on. Go play Streets of Rage 4 if you get the chance, you'll thank me later.
DAY 18: SHINOBU JACOBS (NO MORE HEROES)
Even if her rage was pointed at the wrong person, I could understand Shinobu's fury.
Shinobu herself was an 18-year-old student at Santa Destroy High School during the time of No More Heroes 1 (likely as a senior given her age). Shinobu's father was Master Jacobs, Travis Touchdown's assassin idol (to the point where Travis wore out all the tapes he had of Jacobs Sr.). When he was killed (likely by Travis' twin brother, Henry Cooldown), Shinobu mistook her father's actual killer for Travis. And given that Shinobu was both impatient & hella bloodthirsty as of NMH1, she was obviously ready to serve a nice slice of vengeance. And funny enough, Travis almost defuses the situation with a reasonable explainer. But the second he showed his beam katana, Shinobu was committed to killing Travis' ass (since his sword looked like Henry's). Shinobu did end up losing the fight as well as her right forearm, but Travis ends up sparing her life since he isn't comfortable with killing female assassins (a fact we learned in his win against Holly Summers). Shinobu eventually recognized that Travis wasn't the real culprit of her father's death & wound up helping him against Jeane (with a new prosthetic right arm) & got her to let go of Travis' heart…..but cutting off the hand that was grabbing it. From then on, Shinobu shadowed Travis to learn his secret to ranking up. By the time we get to No More Heroes 2, a 21-year-old Shinobu had already graduated high school. In fact, she's actually playable in this game for two levels, which was nice to experience. It was also by this point where Shinobu begins to refer to Travis as her mentor (much to his dismay). Her desire at this point is to become as strong as Travis, going as far as to train & become a champion in Asia to make the that happen. She returned figuring that Travis could use some help with the battle royale's ever-increasing difficulty, something she figured that Travis would be overwhelmed with (which annoyed Travis). Even though Travis initially rejected her help, Sylvia did eventually have Shinobu take over for Travis for two of the ranks, those being Million Gunman & the recently-resurrected Destroyman (now New Destroyman). It was actually after the defeat of the former that she visits the grave of Bishop Shidux, leading to her meeting a mystery man who gives her a sheath to give to Travis. Shinobu then offers to take down more people for Travis while also flirting with Travis, but Travis shoots down both offers, saying that he would feel too much like a pervy teacher in a porno (probably the first time he recognized Shinobu as his student) & not wanting to take advantage of her. Heartbroken, Shinobu leaves & doesn't return for the rest of the game (besides a fake head Jasper Batt Jr. uses to trick Travis into thinking she's dead). Between NMH2 & Travis Strikes Again, Shinobu (who's 28-years-old as of Travis Strikes Again) establishes a dojo meant to teach Bushido to kids that she pays for with assassination jobs. When she eventually tracks down Travis to his trailer to let him know of various challenges from other assassins, Travis recommends that she not tell the kids how Shinobu pays for the dojo (which came up because Shinobu suggested the dojo as a place to fight Henry's underlings).
I couldn't find a good full picture of her Travis Strikes Again design, so bear with me on this.
Shinobu's consistent design elements are her white hair (an unfortunately-common trend for black women in Japanese games), her black scarf &, from NMH2 onwards, her prosthetic right arm (often covered by a glove). Her hair is often poofy & unkept, but more in a straightened way. As for the game-specific designs, her NMH1 design is a modified version of her white-&-purple school uniform paired with patterned fingerless gloves & thigh-high tights? (I'm not sure about the correct term, they're basically what Female Byleth wears). They're paired with black 80's style shin-high socks & black shoes. White, purple, & black end up being her main colors for this design, & it does its job of communicating who she is pretty well (a student moonlighting as an assassin). Obviously this wouldn't work for NMH2 now that she's older (something Capcom took until SFV to learn for Sakura), so she now rocks black dress in the place of her high school uniform alongside her tights being held up by whatever those thigh holders are (someone please help me out with this) & high heels instead of school dress shoes. This sadly veers more into the objectified direction for Shinobu (more on that later), a trend that would be further iterated on for Travis Strikes Again. She now rocks a yellow-&-black look that appears as if it was pulled out of Game of Death or Kill Bill (which was inspired by Game of Death). She wears yellow sleeves, an exposed yellow bra, & yellow pants with one leg exposed. This is all paired with black trim & a black left shoulder guard (featuring silver trim), keeping in line with the glove & her scarf. If it weren't for the overly sexualized elements, I'd be down for this look in terms of the colors used since it stands out much more than black-on-black-on-black. If nothing else, I respect that Suda51 tries something new with each appearance of Shinobu, even if I'm not super-fond of how she's being more & more objectified with each subsequent appearance.
I'm so critical about certain parts of Shinobu because I genuinely love her character.
I do have a few complaints about how Shinobu's character is handled. For one, she's often sexualized to the point of objectification, which falls into the various colorism concerns regarding black women in games. Not to mention her romantic infatuation with Travis, something that even Travis felt uncomfortable with. My issue with this mostly stemmed from the circumstances of which they met, their master-student relationship (at least in Shinobu's eyes), & the age gap. This was dialed back a decent bit in Travis Strikes Again to be in a more playful way. It was nice to see, as it shows that she clearly does grow as a person over the course of the series & is shown to be plenty capable in her own right. Plus it's not often that you get a dark-skinned black woman in a Japanese-made game, so Suda51 deserves credit where it's due. That plus the stellar performance of long-time career black voice actress Kimberly Brooks, who's been at the role consistently since 2007. So I guess it's one of those things where you take the good with the bad. And honestly, I really do like Shinobu in spite of it all. I'm glad she was playable in NMH2 & Travis Strikes Again (albeit as DLC), and I hope that she's playable again in No More Heroes III. Not to mention that Suda51 actually isn't afraid to have Shinobu age & grow, which is a plus (especially considering how a number of Japanese games are afraid of aging up their ladies). So yeah, you rock, Shinobu.
DAY 19: CERE JUNDA (STAR WARS)
For what it's worth, she tried her best to protect or Padawan.
Like many Jedi during the Age of the Republic, Cere Junda was discovered by a Jedi seeker when she was just a baby. From there, Cere was taken to Coruscant to begin her Jedi training, with her being a Padawan (I.E. student) to Eno Cordova. In time, Cere would be come a Jedi Master herself, taking on Trilla Suduri has her Padawan. Then…..Order 66 happened. Cere, Suduri, & some other Jedi younglings initially got away, but Cere was eventually captured to get the Empire's attention off the younglings. And despite Cere's best efforts, she was eventually forced to give up Suduri's position. This led to Suduri falling to the Dark Side & becoming the Second Sister of the Inquisitors (a group of Empire-sanctioned Jedi hunters, first introduced in their canon incarnations in Star Wars: Rebels). Weighed down by the guilt of what became of her Padawan, Cere ended up trying to suppress her Force connection due to the power of the Dark Side trying to claim her (leading to her crisis of faith that would serve as her main internal conflict). In that time, she would join the Stinger Mantis crew alongside Greez Dritus, with whom they would find Padawan Cal Kestis (who also survived Order 66) on the planet Bracca. Cere, Cal, & Greez went on a quest to find the Jedi holocron that would lead to more Jedi younglings in the hopes of using it to find other surviving Jedi younglings to rebuild the Jedi Order, all while Cere trained Cal as his new Jedi Master (albeit an informal one). Their quest would lead them to Fortress Inquisitorius, where the holocron in question was. It turned out to be in the possession of Suduri, which obviously led to fighting. Cere tried to make amends afterwards, but that was cut short (literally) by Darth Vader killing Suduri. Cere & Cal barely made it out of the fight alive, not to mention making it out with the holocron. Ultimately, they decided to destroy the holocron, deciding that the information on it was too dangerous to get in the hands of the Emprie. Cere is a strong-willed individual, albeit one with limits (though in her defense, she held her tongue to the best of her ability against Darth Vader). And despite her own internal struggles, she puts the needs of others over her own, & tries to do the right thing when she can. Even after all that happened, Cere still upholds the ideals that the Jedi are supposed to strive for through said internal struggles against the Dark Side (even trying to make up for her past mistakes in training Cal).
It's actually refreshing that we get these kind of character sheets. I was worried at first when I couldn't find any PNGs for Cere.
Back when the Jedi Order were a thing, Cere wore robes not unlike other Jedi masters (such as Obi-Wan Kenobi). Basically tan on tan on tan, with dark brown knee-high boots & a belt around the stomach. Her main signifier are her braids, which she adds blue & brown clips to for a bit of color contrast. It fits perfectly with what was expected of Jedi Masters of the time while adding a bit of her own personal flair to set herself apart where she can. In a post-Order 66 world & Cere having her crisis of faith, she would adopt an outfit not to dissimilar to other rebels of that era. She ended up cutting her hair short, which later grew into a bit over the years. Likewise, she now wears dark gray pants with black boots, but also a black vest with a yellow underside for a bit of color contrast. The tan shirt she wears kinda acts as a visual anchor to her Jedi Order days, as does the darker tan leather belt. And her emerald necklace tops off the design, which serves to give her a bit of personal flair. Said necklace also ties into her lightsaber, as it also has triangle for the clip's shape. The lightsaber even ties into Cere's belt with the leather hilt, which was actually an intentional design decision (was was the triangular clip). Everything about her two outfits & her lightsaber are practical while also allowing Cere's character to shine through where they can. A lot of work went into nailing her character, & all parties (Respawn Entertainment & Lucasfilm) involved deserve props for sticking the landing.
Cere trying to reconnect with her former Padawan, doing her best to make up for past mistakes (too bad the cause of said mistake cut it short).
I know this may make for a short section, but I have no complaints about Cere. Her character arc is great, I love her designs, & Debra Wilson's performance is fantastic (not that I expected anything less from a talented Hollywood actress like her). Plus she avoids the typical pitfalls of colorism that plague black women in games worldwide (not just in Japan). I can't sing the praises of everyone involved in Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order enough. My only gripe is that we didn't actually get to play her. All due respect to Cal, but a game focused on Cere would have been much more exciting from the get-go. Hopefully this is something that can be rectified with a sequel…….please?
DAY 20: AVELINE DE GRANDPRÉ (ASSASSIN'S CREED)
For a little kid (at least at the time), Aveline sure caught on quickly.
Borin to a French father (Phillppe de Grandpré) & an African mother (Jeanne), Aveline de Grandpré had it easier than most black kids of the time thanks to her dad's side of the family. And with her mom disappearing when Aveline was 10, she ended up being raised by Madeleine de L'Isle (her step-mom whom her dad married 5 years before Aveline's mom disappeared). Despite her privileged upbringing, it didn't take Aveline long to notice the stark contrast between her bubble & the injustices that occurred outside of said bubble (which awoken her strong sense of justice) & decided to do something about it (all of this was when she was 12, no less). She was then trained by Agaté (an assassin originally from West Africa) to possess the skills necessary to achieve her goals, with Agaté originally saving Aveline from being caught after one of her first attempts to free a slave (an act that inspired Agaté to teach her). Upon being formally accepted into the Assassins Brotherhood (which should probably be renamed the Assassins Fellowship, but whatever), she didn't waste any time in freeing as many slaves as she could by shutting down the Templar's slave-trading operations (one in particular going by the name "Company Man") at the age of 18. Along the way, she met a would-be Templar (Baptiste) who knew Aveline's mother & tried to poison her mentor, participated in the Louisiana Rebellion behind the scenes, reunited with her mother (which scared her initially given Aveline's current profession, but that was later sorted out), & eventually took down the "Company Man" (who was actually Aveline's step-mother). That said, said defeat did come with its own complications upon the reveal of the Company Man's identity, as it led to Agaté killing himself out of shame of what he thought was his student aligning with the Templars. But outside of that tragedy, it was through Aveline's actions that New Orleans was freed of Templar control. And even then, Aveline continued with her original mission to free as many slaves as she could (even recruiting Patience Gibbs into the Brotherhood when Aveline was 34 during a slave-freeing mission). So yeah, Aveline continues the trend of black action characters getting a lot done in a relatively short amount of time from them starting their professions.
Even if the situation works out, Aveline's kindness sometimes overrides her mission (not that it's entirely a bad thing).
As mentioned before, Aveline has a strong sense of justice even at a young age, one that left her emotionally torn when she noticed the contradictions of her world. Aveline is also quite the actress, being able to inhabit various roles such as noblewoman & slave with extreme levels of accuracy (or at least enough to fool the ones she has to trick). Though while she's serious as hell on the job, she's more than willing to let her guard down & crack a joke around those she trusts (which helps alleviate the colorist stereotype of black women typically being angry & overly serious). With that sense of humor also comes kindness, something that has come into conflict with her job in the past as she spared the life of de Ulloa (who she was supposed to kill) out of sympathy for him & his pregnant wife. Aveline did ultimately get a decipher to decode some Templar documents (which did further help in her mission), but this move did go directly against her mentor's orders. Though if nothing else, this is a testament to her strong will, which isn't really a bad thing.
Not too shabby of an assassin's outfit, Aveline.
Aveline's design is primarily navy blue with bits of white & red thrown in. Her vest, pants, & boots are primarily navy blue (which end up looking kinda gray in certain lighting), with a warm colors for the sash (red, yellow, & orange) to act as separation between all the cool colors (plus the red trim for her buttons). Said vest is worn over a white shirt adorned with navy blue dagger holsters with a gray arm guard on her right arm. Plus there's the Assassins Brotherhood symbol as her belt buckle, tying her into the group. The design is pretty typical for the assassins of the series, which is honestly a good thing as they didn't go to lengths to sexualize Aveline's main design (again, another colorist trend regarding black women in media, one that Aveline thankfully dodges). Plus it's personalized just enough to fit her setting (especially the sash). It's actually one of my favorite designs of the assassins, even if there isn't a ton to dissect with regards to certain design elements. I guess the colors chosen tie back to what Aveline typically wore before she joined the Brotherhood, but that's really about it.
The only real complaint I have regarding Aveline is concerning her English voice actress. Granted, I can give credit where it's due in that Amber Goldfarb puts up a great performance. However, as mentioned in the past, it would have been ideal to have a black actress take up the role. Unfortunately, this remains an issue even today, so it's something you see me bring up quite often in this thread. Outside of that, Aveline was handled really damn well. So again, gotta give credit where it's due.
DAY 21: BILLIE LURK (DISHONORED)
I know the Dishonored games are stealth, but those tend to be closer to action than anything else. As such, I thought I should put it here. And now that I think about it, pretty much everyone in Action Character Week have been black women outside of Rodin (not that I'm complaining). Still, Billie has had an interesting life in terms of her time in the Dishonored series. She started out as a companion in one of the DLC stories for the first Dishonored, showed up again as a companion in Dishonored 2, only to take the protagonist stage in its DLC (Death of the Outsider). Talk about a climb to the top, & I'm glad that she was able to do it. Before we start with the lore section, I should preface it with the fact that the Dishonored games tend to have multiple endings. Since the low chaos endings are usually the canon ones, I'll go off of those for the lore section for Billie. Speaking of which, let's get to it.
Despite everything, from the betrayal to the attempted murder, Billie was still able to walk away from it with her life.....at the cost of the life she wanted to live as an assassin.
Born to a foreigner in a small isle off the cost of Pandyssia, Billie Lurk was born on the Month of Hearths' 2nd day in 1813. She grew up in Dunwall with a drunk mother in her early years, having to endure abuse to the point where Billie left her home. It was here where she turned to a life of crime, stealing & killing where she could in order to avoid child prostitution in the hopes of one day becoming a ship captain. Along the way, she met & subsequently fell in love with Deirdre (Billie is bisexual, with her being attracted to women the most often). But unfortunately, said love ended up not lasting when she was murdered by Radanis Abele. Out of vengeance, Billie murdered Radanis to avenge her girlfriend, only to find out his identity later. Because of this, she ended up becoming a wanted fugitive with powerful individuals trying to catch her, making it impossible to hide anywhere. Billie then trailed Daud after being enamored with his triple-assassination. Given his skill, Daud noticed that he was being tailed immediately, but offered to teach Billie anyway after noticing her courage. After she joined the Whalers in 1829, her dream to become a ship captain was replaced with the dream of becoming a professional assassin. She actually ends up assisting Daud in all of his missions in The Knife of Dunwall. But over the course of the story, she begins to doubt Daud's strength & stability, leading Billie betraying Daud to Delilah. It was actually to the point where she actually dethroned Daud as the leader of the Whalers & revealing their hideout to Delilah. After Delilah made contact with the Overseers to compromise the assassins, Billie was ordered to kill Daud. Ultimately, Billie couldn't bring herself to kill Daud, realizing his strength & that he deserved better. She ended up surrendering herself to Daud, who ultimately spares her life in exchange for Billie leaving the assassins & the city (which she agrees to). Going from here, she would assume the identity of Meagan Foster, captain of the Dreadful Wale.
Billie while she assumed the identity of Megan Foster in Dishonored 2.
Following her life being spared, Billie (now Meagan Foster) started a business from her ship, the Dreadful Whale. She later befriended Anton Sokolov, who was invited to live on the ship. Billie/Meagan still cared for him despite the strained relationship. Billie/Meagan also regularly visited Aramis Stilton until he disappeared. But when she tried to check Aramis' manor to see what happened, she lost her right eye & right forearm fighting the Grand Guard. About two years afterwards, Anton was abducted by the Crown Killer (Alexandria Hypatia under the influence of a toxic compound, unaware of her actions while acting as the Crown Killer) investigating her killings. Billie/Meagan tried to save Anton, but was unsuccessful. From there, she honored his wish to go to Dunwall to warn Emily Kaldwin & Corvo Attano of an impending coup. But by the time Billie/Meagan got there, it was too late. After either Emily or Corvo get the message & escape, Billie/Meagan works with the protagonist of Dishonored 2 to rescue Anton & defeat Delilah (both of which they were ultimately successful in doing). And after opening up to the protagonist about her past, Billie would then set out to find Daud. Said search is actually the premise of Death of the Outsider, the DLC story where Billie ends up being the protagonist. She ends up finding an ill Daud at a fight club, agreeing to help him destroy the Outsider as his final job. Though along the way of getting the sword needed to finish the job, Daud passes away on the ship (the ship is burned by Billie as a funeral pyre) & left a message for Billie giving her one last goodbye. Despite Daud's death, Billie would still try to see the job through (with the help of Daud's spirit). But when Billie finally has the Outsider at her mercy, she spared his life. What happens to Billie after that is unknown, but the final passing of Daud's spirit likely marked the end of that chapter of her life.
Billie is a pretty serious & straightforward person, something I can relate to in a number of ways. Because of this, she's laser-focused on whatever job she's doing & does it to the best of her ability. Likewise, said straightforwardness results in Billie being very bluntly, both about her interests & dislikes. And as an extension of her seriousness, Billie has a strong sense of justice which can be morphed into righteous anger & a thirst for vengeance for those she sees as evil. But despite this, Billie does value life & (in the canon choices) will spare the lives of her opponents when she can. The serious & angry parts do go into some colorist stereotypes for black women in media, but her wanting to spare lives where she can does kinda alleviate some of the concerns (even if a number of them still remain). Though at the very least, she's not angry all the time & only really towards those who deserve it. Of course, she does have her own insecurities & doubts (as shown by her initial betrayal of Daud). But her moral compass usually points her back in the right direction in the end.
Billie has had quite a few designs over the years.
Billie has had 3 designs over the years, her initial one from The Knife of Dunwall, her as Meagan Foster in Dishonored 2, & Billie as herself again in Death of the Outsider. For her first appearance, Billie rocks a red coat over a white button-up shirt with tan sleeves (which don't feel out-of-place thanks to all the belts & pockets she has on her) & long black gloves. This is paired with black pants to offset the red. It's nothing outstanding, but it does firmly establish red as Billie's main color. Plus it not really being sexualized helps. Going into Dishonored 2, we see Billie under the identity of Meagan Foster. By this point, she's seen some shit & went through a lot. This is made evident by the missing eye & right forearm. That aside, she trades her red jacket for a tan one over a pale green button-up inner jacket. As for the pants, she trades her black pants for tan ones & those are paired with brown boots. And on top of that, Billie/Meagan cut her hair short to further distance herself from her old identity. This marks a considerable departure from Billie/Meagan's previous design, but that's kind of the point considering that she's under a new identity. But when Billie embraces her old identity once again in Death of the Outsider, her outfit follows suit. Though to be more accurate, her design in this story is a half-way point between her old look & her Meagan look. Bringing back the red coat (albeit a shorter, fully-buttoned-up coat) while retaining her Meagan pants, boots, & short hair. The missing forearm & eye are replaced with Void artifacts so she won't be inhibited in her role as a playable character, which is a solid way of giving her full mobility of having both arms while also reminding the player of what happened prior (though part of me was kinda sad that I couldn't play as a one-armed Billie). This design is actually my favorite of the three, not just for its story significance, but also because of just how much it stands out. When I think of Billie Lurk, her Death of the Outsider look is what comes to mind.
There are ultimately two concerns I have with Billie & how she's handled. For starters, the role of the serious black woman isn't one that's uncommon in media. But given that she's not angry 100% of the time & really towards those who have truly wronged her, it's not as bad as a number of other instances. But the fact that these stereotypes have persisted in media for so long have poisoned the waters somewhat, which is a shame (& not Billie's fault). Likewise, there's the issue of her voice actor, at least at first. In The Knife of Dunwall, she's voiced by Kristy Wu who, while not white & put up a solid performance, also isn't black. This was corrected going into Dishonored 2 onwards, where she was voiced by Rosario Dawson from then on. For what it's worth, both put up great performances, even if I prefer Rosario's. But outside of those two, I have nothing else to say that I didn't already cover. Arkane Studios did a great job building up Billie's character over the years & I commend them for their efforts.
- Honorable Mentions
- Nadine Ross (Uncharted)
- As mentioned before, Nadine was in my earlier lists for this week. But as the decision grew tougher, I ended up dropping her. But I at least wanted to give her a nod here. It's great to have more black women in gaming. But Naughty Dog has a ton of room for improvement, from her building on the colorist trends of angry black women to her white English voice actress (all due respect to Laura Bailey, but she should have been recast after the design was finalized). I can respect Nadine in that she was the first step, but Naughty Dog still has to improve when it comes to their black characters. The same applies to The Last of Us: Part II.
- Die-Hardman (Death Stranding)
- Not gonna lie, I mostly have him on here due to his interesting character, his awesome design, & Tommie Lee Jenkins' amazing performance. But sometimes that's all you really need for an Honorable Mention. I was actually thinking of putting him on the main list, but found that I had more to say about Billie Lurk.
- Bayek (Assassin's Creed)
- As mentioned before, the decision for the Assassin's Creed character came down to Aveline & Bayek. And while I ultimately chose the former, I knew I had to give the latter a nod. From his charismatic personality to his sweet design to Abubakar Salim giving it his all in delivering Bayek's voice, I just can't help but love the guy. Between these two, I'm surprised that Assassin's Creed didn't do a black protagonist sooner.
- Lenny Summers (Red Dead Redemption)
- A man who's been testing his luck all his life. And while it eventually ran out, he did push said luck as far as he could. Plus he stuck it to a bunch of Confederate assholes, so that automatically gives him points. But while he sadly met his end at the hands of some Pinkerton riflemen, I found his character so interesting that I knew I needed to give him a nod here.
- Helen Marshall (Control)
- Not sure why I didn't list her initially here, but whatever. Either way, I'm playing through Control right now & I'm really loving what I'm seeing of her. Plus you don't see older black women in games very often, so that deserves point. Either way, she definitely has her shit together & Brig Bennett puts up a great performance. The only reason she didn't make the final list is because I've yet to finish Control & I don't want to spoil myself on the plot.
- Nadine Ross (Uncharted)
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Because Alyx won the poll for the black characters from shooters, she took Baptiste's place on the banner. The same will apply to the winners of the next two polls.
Sheva in RE5 is dope as hell. I was young as hell when it came out and didn't catch any racist or colorist vibes when it first came out, but the second playthrough of the game was unbearable for me after having a better lens on. The sexualization was weird from jump to me, but I enjoyed Sheva's badassery, nonetheless. I guess in the end, I was just happy with just seeing something other than a full white cast of main characters.
I had a hard time choosing between Sheva and Rodin for the poll but ultimately went with Sheva despite not playing RE games (I only watch them lol). Would really like to see her (and Carlos) in another mainline RE game.
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The wait is over, my friend. Barret has arrived!
DAY 22: BARRET WALLACE (FINAL FANTASY)I mean, come on. He's quite literally one of the most iconic black characters in gaming (probably one of the most iconic characters in gaming period). Hell, I'm pretty sure most of you immediately thought of Barret when this whole thread started (& not just because of the fact that he was in the banner). And that's for a multitude of reasons, a good chunk of which is that Barret is one of the earliest party members in one of the most prolific games of all time…..a game that just got part of its story remade just last year. Granted, Final Fantasy has a decent assortment of black characters. Hell, Final Fantasy could do a decent job of carrying the RPG section on its own. But I did limit myself to one per franchise. And I couldn't pick anyone but Barret to represent the franchise in this thread. Normally I would go on a long-winded introduction for Barret. But as I said on the day I posted Billie Lurk's write-up, Barret doesn't need an introduction. So let's get to it. I better not fuck up.
I know what you're wondering, "How can anyone with a gun for an arm call themselves a parent". Well, Barret's actually a damn good father.
Before the events of Final Fantasy VII, Barret Wallace lived in Corel (a forested mining town) whit his wife Myrna. But when she fell ill to an unspecified illness, Barret agreed to help Shinra build a mako reactor just north of his town alongside Dyne (who needed some convincing). He did just that & helped the Turks sneak in, but they ended up destroying the reactor to retaliate against Avalanche. Barret & Dyne tried to escape in the ensuing chaos, but both were gunned down by Shinra troops. This left Dyne at the mercy of a cliff, grabbing onto Barret's right hand……which Scarlet proceeded to shoot. So now Barret's down a right hand & Dyne is presumed dead, leaving behind his daughter Marlene (who Barret would soon adopt & raise as his own). From there, Barret would get a prosthetic adapter from Sakaki that would allow Barret to use various weapons in exchange for his missing forearm & join Avalanche as one of its leaders to take the fight to Shinra. Originally he worked with the main Avalanche group with Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, & Tifa. But after various disagreements, Barret & Co. would split off from the main Avalanche group & establish their own cell with the people in question over in Sector 7's Seventh Heaven, all the while raising his newly-adopted daughter. From here the events of Final Fantasy VII are put into motion, but most of you know the drill by this point. Cloud is hired as a mercenary to help Avalanche with blowing up some mako reactors, becomes the first member of your party besides Cloud himself, they have a run-in with Shinra, Barret & the group befriends various party members along the way (including Red XIII in Barret's case specifically), and they chase down Sephiroth all the way from Midgar to the Northern Cave. Though along the way, Barret would eventually revisit his hometown. Or to be more specific, they would visit North Corel, which was established by the survivors of the mako reactor explosion that Barret helped put into motion. It was actually here (or at least in prison) where he would reunite with Dyne, now rocking a gun-arm on his left arm that he used to enact the Gold Saucer massacre. As it turns out, the loss of his family drove Dyne mad to the point where he just wanted to destroy the world, hence why he went on a murderous rampage. Hell, Dyne nearly pointed said rampage towards his daughter upon learning that she survived in a twisted thought process that his wife shouldn't be alone in the afterlife. Though after being defeated by Barret, Cloud, & the others, Dyne would throw himself off a cliff to his death. With his homecoming as well as the general journey of Final Fantasy VII, Barret had a long quest of his own, both literally & emotionally. And given that the remake seems to be taking a new uncharted path, there's no telling how much these events will differ in the remake.
Barret's quite fun to play in the remake, actually. He's also fun in the original, but so is everyone due to the turn-based combat. The remake's combat system makes things more specific for each character, hence the more focused praise.
Mechanically, Barret focuses on long-ranged attacks with a couple of melee attacks for good measure in both the original game as well as the remake. In the original, Barret is more of a defensive character due to his weapon, stats, & Limits (at least initially). But eventually you can change this by using Barret's ultimate weapon (Missing Score), which allows for more material slots, thus opening up more options without losing his damage potential. His two Limits (Agermax & Catastrophe) add to his sheer amount of firepower. In the remake, a lot of that is still true. But given that the remake is more of an action RPG, Barret's gun-arm can be used to reach enemies that Cloud, Tifa, & Aerith otherwise couldn't. As per his initial defensive role in the original game, Barret has the highest durability of all the remake's party members & a lot of health. His unique attack varies depending on what kind of weapon you have equipped. For ranged weapons, it's Overcharge (which buffs damage & fills your ATB gauge faster). For physical weapons, it's Overrun (Barret charges forward, hitting any enemies in his way, then ending with a huge AoE ground smash). Because of his high durability, Barret can serve as a support role pretty well, especially with abilities like Lifesaver (which has Barret take on his allies' damage) & Steelskin (which makes him tank all damage coming his way). Basically the remake goes through lengths to establish Barret as the rock of the team, both emotionally & in combat. Speaking of which, Barret is very much a bleeding heart, especially once he joined Avalanche. He's fully committed to the cause of the organization & cares deeply about the teammates of whom he goes into battle with. Unfortunately, this passion can backfire depending on the situation, as it has on a few occasions. But all the same, Barret maintains a strong sense of justice Barret is also very much capable of sincerity, something he often shows with his daughter Marlene. But the gung-ho attitude part comes from the localization basing much of his personality after Mr. T, which is very much a black stereotype. The remake retains a fair amount of this stereotyping, but we do see the more sincere side of Barret more often as well as that passion being more genuine & not stereotypical. From what I've been told, this is more in line with how the Japanese performance is handled. And given that his English VA in the remake (John Eric Bentley) is very much capable of delivering such a performance, this is something that I'll chalk up more to the localizers than the actor.
The changes between Barret's classic & remake designs are a classic case of the little things eventually adding up.
Barret's design didn't change TOO much between the original & the remake. A lot of the same design elements are consistent across both, from Barret's gun-arm to his brown sleeveless leather jacket to his green cargo pants to his brown gloves & boots. He even retains the skull tattoo on his left arm, even if the actual details & placement on the left arm differs between the two (on top of a new tattoo design, said tattoo is lower on Barret's arm in the remake). Barret maintains a short flat-top, one with straight hair for some reason. I originally thought this was a quirk of the remake, but I realized that this was a thing in the original as well upon further inspection of Barret's OG concept art. Not sure why that's the case, but whatever. Lastly, the make-up of his gun-arm differs between the two. It's more of a stub with a gatling gun at the end, but the barrels are much more detailed & longer in the remake. Hell, there are even slots for Materia in the remake's take on the gun arm. Not to mention the addition of the sleeve coming from the gun arm, likely to hide whatever scars that are still there. Plus I'm liking the black sleeveless shirt he now wears in the remake. But outside of that, Barret tends to wear sunglasses for a good chunk of FFVII Remake. But honestly, I'm not a fan. Like, the glasses themselves are nice, but Barret looks great already. No need to hide those eyes behind your shades. Not to mention that they make no sense to be worn at night anyway (obviously not all of FFVII is at night, but you get my point). But yeah, as mentioned before, sometimes less is more. And Barret still stands as one of Nomura's best character designs. Though you could probably say the same for most of FFVII's major characters, so I'm glad Barret is among the better examples of this…….even if I wish his hair was curlier. I know I skipped his Advent Children design. But given that he didn't have a huge role in that anyway, I figured it'd be best to focus on his OG & remake designs. Basically he trades his brown vest for a white one, now wears a mesh shirt (kinda like what Young Zeku wears in SFV), & braided his hair back. For what it's worth, I do like the braids. But something about that version of Barret felt......off to me (not just the shirt, a design decision that I wasn't a huge fan of). So yeah, focusing on the OG & remake versions here.
I guess Cloud really did grow on Barret, though more so vice versa.
Funny enough, I covered most of my criticisms throughout this write-up. The Mr. T-inspired personality that the localizers put on Barret in the original FFVII still plague the character to this day, & it's made all the more annoying when Barret actually breaks away from the stereotype. John Eric Bentley has shown to be more than capable of a more true-to-the-JP-version performance, so I'm not sure why they don't just let John do his thing. This has actually been a point of criticism for both the original & especially the remake from black fans for a while (myself included). Hell, one of our own (Urban Scholar) actually did an article on the subject of how Barret was handled in FFVII Remake that I highly recommend you read which goes into further detail about his flaws than I could.
But that aside, Barret definitely doesn't disappoint. He's a deep character with a complicated past that shaped him into the hero he is now. He's an icon through-&-through, and he's definitely earned the title.
Decades later, these remakes haven’t fixed their racial representation issues
Final Fantasy VII and Trials of Mana both have problems portraying people of color.arstechnica.com
Thanks for taking the time to read today's post. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the next character in the RPGs & More Section of Black Characters of Gaming Celebration. As for tomorrow, get ready for this gym leader to make some waves.
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Finally caught up, and I'm glad my two favourites, Cherry Hunter and Billie Lurk, got write-ups. :3
That poll choice is sooooo hard. I mentioned earlier I wanted to gush about Cherry... and I do! But I wasn't expecting Dishonored to get mentioned in the action category haha. This makes the choice a lot tougher. In the end I very reluctantly voted for Billie Lurk in the poll but won't be mad at all if Cherry wins. I mained her in SoR4 and it was a no-brainer, she's just the coolest.
Great write-up on Barret, too. I always liked his character a lot, even if the unfortunate Mr. T stereotyping is undeniable. Too bad you didn't like his redesign much, I thought it was quite strong and one of the better ones.
That poll choice is sooooo hard. I mentioned earlier I wanted to gush about Cherry... and I do! But I wasn't expecting Dishonored to get mentioned in the action category haha. This makes the choice a lot tougher. In the end I very reluctantly voted for Billie Lurk in the poll but won't be mad at all if Cherry wins. I mained her in SoR4 and it was a no-brainer, she's just the coolest.
Great write-up on Barret, too. I always liked his character a lot, even if the unfortunate Mr. T stereotyping is undeniable. Too bad you didn't like his redesign much, I thought it was quite strong and one of the better ones.
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No, the remake. But oh, I think I misread your "not a fan" part, which, now that I'm re-reading, is just about the sunglasses part and not the full re-design?
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Correct, I actually like the remake design without his shades a lot.
Gotcha! Then I don't disagree. I think the shades look cool overall but let's be real, wearing sunglasses in the dark isn't the smartest idea... :D
With Barret my hope is that they treat the stereotyping going forward as a facade to raise the morale of his squad and keep them focused, rather than his actual personality. You kinda see what should be his true self shine through with Marlene.
His design's great though and he gets a lot of great story moments later in the game after Midgar, which is appreciated. Really looking forward to the Dyne stuff.
His design's great though and he gets a lot of great story moments later in the game after Midgar, which is appreciated. Really looking forward to the Dyne stuff.
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I felt like even in Part 1 you could tell that his battlefield persona is pretty consciously artificial, and that even when he's alone with the other party members Barret isn't entirely letting down his guard.
I was really turned off by Barrett after playing the demo. It was part of the reason I didn't end up picking up the actual game. Does he get better after the intro?
Definitely. The further you go along, the more that his actual personality shines through.
Barret is my most loved/hated character. Loved because he's fucking amazing. Hated because how he was portrayed and if you didn't get far enough in the OG game, you didn't get to see his character arc, especially how it correlates to Corel and Dyne. It really made me like him (but not his jive talk) in the '97 version of the game and was excited to see his "remake" in 2020.
I've said my piece in the topic here: https://www.resetera.com/threads/as-a-black-man-i-find-barrets-portrayal-offensive-af.287066/ but ultimately, I really do like his "remake" version, even if I do still have some gripes about his overall portrayal. I know that introducing Corel and Dyne will give the writers some room for him to breathe and I simply cannot wait until I get to play it.
As always, great write up, Neoxon
Been following this thread since it went up, just now realizing I never posted.
Excellent thread as always, Neoxon. It's very appreciated.
And +1 for including Cherry Hunter. She's such a fantastic addition to Streets of Rage 4. Excellent design and my favorite one to play as well.
Excellent thread as always, Neoxon. It's very appreciated.
And +1 for including Cherry Hunter. She's such a fantastic addition to Streets of Rage 4. Excellent design and my favorite one to play as well.
The other thing about Barrett too is why is he so physically imposing compared to the rest of the cast? That's another stereotype they need to drop for Black people in media.
But the character himself is good but he's mixed in with shit that sucks. It's like the thing Black folks have with our representation in media. Good character but something of a minstrel. But that's what it is when we aren't involved in leadership decisions.
But anyway Barrett is mostly good and bad as it's been noted.
But the character himself is good but he's mixed in with shit that sucks. It's like the thing Black folks have with our representation in media. Good character but something of a minstrel. But that's what it is when we aren't involved in leadership decisions.
But anyway Barrett is mostly good and bad as it's been noted.
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Him being super physically imposing seems to be something carried over from the original game & ended up being iconic. But yeah, my biggest hope is that he drops the Mr. T-like personality & be more like how he acts around his daughter. We got glimpses of this during the story. But with Part 2 likely covering Barret returning home, I want to see more of the true Barret.
I said a lot in my video about him. I really don't like his voice in it and that damn level part was the worst, but I also kind of like him too because of the way he plays and his character later on. It's complicated.
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I feel like that ultimately comes down to voice direction.
Supposed to be ballistic guards for his eyes
At least they serve a purpose and not just to try and looi cool
But trying to look cool is probably also a reason why he wears them
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Wow, I'm legit surprised that nobody here mentioned Nessa. Well, here she is.
DAY 23: NESSA (POKÉMON)It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of Pokémon Sword/Shield. In fact, I'd go as far as to argue that it's one of the weakest games in the mainline series. And trust me, the National Dex was the absolute least of its issues. It was really easy, the Wild Area (as it was in the base game) had a lot of missed potential, there isn't a lot to explore in a number of the towns, & the game overall felt like it was rushed out the door. But if there are two things that I'll always give Sword/Shield credit for, they're the Pokémon designs & the gym leaders (also the the DLC, but I'm mainly talking about the base game here). One of them is among the most popular of the lot (albeit not Raihan levels of popular), the second gym leader of the Galar region known as Nessa. And while Raihan stole some of Nessa's thunder post-launch, that's not to say that Nessa isn't a cool gym leader by any means. Speaking of whom, I was originally gonna cover Raihan for this section. But upon further research & consultation on Raihan, there's not enough to go off of that clearly defines him as black. This is due to his name having both Hindi & Arabic origins as well as the fact that The Pokémon Company didn't make a conscious effort to cast a black actor for Raihan from the get-go as they did for Nessa (his first VA in Twilight Wings seems to have been Arabic going off his name, while his Journeys VA is of mixed ethnicity). Don't get me wrong, Hindi &/or Arabic representation is a great thing to have in gaming and I'll never say no to more ethnic diversity in the medium (or any medium, for that matter). But this thread is about celebrating black characters in gaming. So out of precaution, I decided to go with Nessa for the Pokémon rep (who was actually the original plan before I saw Raihan's popularity, so I guess I was right the first time). With that said, let's get to her lore.
Nessa gives it her all, no matter which job she's doing.
Given that this is Pokémon we're talking about, there's not a lot of lore to speak of, at least when it comes to Nessa's backstory. I couldn't even find anything in the anime (both Twilight Wings & Journeys). So apologies ahead of time if this section is shorter than you're used to (especially compared to Barret yesterday). We do have a bit of her personality & some context about Nessa herself. Nessa was born to a fisherman father & a marketplace-working mother. It was likely because of her parents that Nessa ended up growing up around water-type Pokémon, influencing her decision to specialize in water-type Pokémon when she eventually became a gym leader. She's also close friends with Professor Sonia, with the two having met during their Gym Challenge (Nessa even gives her fresh seafood from Hullbury). As for her rival, it's kind of a one-sided rivalry with Milo (the first gym leader who specializes in grass-type Pokémon). But when asked about the topic, Milo basically said that his only rival is himself. As for what Nessa does outside of the gym, she also has a thriving career as a model (with Nessa being equally popular in both fields, which is a good thing). Though like her two contrasting jobs, she's noted to be a completely different person in front as a model compared to the Nessa we see in the arena. But there are instances where the two worlds collide. When Messa lost the first match in the Finals, there was some concern about how it would impact her modeling career. In reality, she was fine as far as her modeling life was concerned (though her gym is another topic entirely). As for her personality, Nessa is a highly motivated woman with willpower & competitive spirit to spare that she hides under a calm & composed exterior. Nessa's true personality even extends to her strategy, as she opts to suppress & overwhelm her opponents. Nessa definitely gives it her all regardless of what she's doing, be it modeling or battling.
At least TPCi made my life easier by making their characters' design sheets readily available.
Considering her water gym specialization & her father's job as a fisherman, it makes sense that Nessa's outfit is basically what you'd see someone wear at the beach. Nessa kinda veers from the usual rule-of-3 for colors by having her primary colors for her outfit are blue, white, black, & orange, but the outfit still works all the same. As for the actual outfit, Nessa rocks a mid-riff top & shorts (both skin-tight due to them being swimsuits) paired with water sandals (featuring little floatier-looking rings). This is paired with a tight necklace featuring a mossy green gem on her necklace as well as arm bands on her right arm (one blue, one neon green), a neon green waist necklace equivalent (waist-lace?) & a blue glove on her right hand (the one she throws her Poké Ball with). The mossy green gem isn't out-of-place thanks to her hair having the same mossy green highlights interchanging with her black strands, with some of her hair being tied back in a bun at the back with various parts of her hair being held in place with orange clips (outside of the clip holding the bun together, which is white). Basically her design fits the swimmer aesthetic perfectly while being pretty focused on the chosen colors. And while one could say that she's being sexualized, it's not really to the point where it takes away from her character since, in addition to her swimming background, she's also a model by trade. But I guess you could argue that it was also the rating boards holding them back. This talking point actually harkens back to the Twintelle write-up, which is fitting since they're both Nintendo (well, kinda in Nessa's case, since Pokémon isn't 100% Nintendo in the same way ARMS is). But still, I really like Nessa's design.
Thank god Nessa isn't locked to either Sword or Shield.
I only really have one complaints about Nessa. Namely the fact that Nessa continues the trend of Japan-made black characters having blue eyes. I get that it fits her color palette, but having a black character with brown eyes would be appreciated since it's much more common. That plus the colorism concerns of Nessa being sexualized to a degree. But as mentioned earlier, it's fortunately not to the point where it takes away from her character. Her range of emotions from calm to 200% MOTIVATED also dodge the "angry & intense black woman" stereotype, so another bullet dodged there. And that's not to mention the great performance of Anairis Quiñones in Twilight Wings (good job for making sure you cast a black actress for Nessa, TPCi). Speaking of which, it's about time that the actual Pokémon games include voice acting. It's not like casting the character is an issue, as that has to happen for the anime anyway. But especially with the opening of the game, the lack of voices is really jarring. That aside, Game Freak/Creatures/TPCi/Nintendo did right by Nessa, so good job to them.
Thanks for taking the time to read today's post. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the next character in the RPGs & More Section of Black Characters of Gaming Celebration. As for tomorrow.....oh my god, you could grind meat on them.
I hadn't noticed this thread for ages (possibly due to the stickied thing), but all these writeups are awesome and it's cool to learn about some of these characters I'd never even heard of before.
Disclaimer: I haven't played FF7 remake, so this is pretty much all about the original game.
Barret is really, really strange to me, I've never had any character really grow on me as much as he has.
When I first played as him when I was younger (like 10 year old black kid), I absolutely hated him. He was this angry guy who spoke like Mr T, swore a lot and was just generally this abrasive jerk. I somehow ended up identifying more with Red XIII in the game, which is surreal, but that's just how it goes. Needless to say, I never used Barret and barely read his dialogue
Anyway, I grew up, and I played the PS4 version and New Threat on PC, and I was using Barret a whole lot more (mostly for gameplay reasons). However, he seemed way, way less irritating to me. He had some weird moments that I actually found really endearing/relatable. The main two I remember are him climbing the stairs and going "tell my daughter I love her" like he was actually legitimately going to die, just because he wanted the torture of running up stairs to end, and then later on when he looks at Jenova and covers up the fact he's obviously freaking out by just repeatedly calling the entire thing stupid and then just urging everyone to leave.
So what accounts for the change? Either I was more sensitive to this stuff when I was younger (I highly doubt this), or there was an actual change...
Spoiler: It's the latter.
• Barret's slang has been toned down in places or simply been rewritten. In particular, "awright" is not usually replaced with "alright". There are fewer cases of Barret saying "yo". Though the cases of Barret saying "foo" were few already in the PS version, all those instances were removed for the PC port.
Basically, I'd say in the later versions (PC/PS4 etc), he's way, way better. Part of it is him being the only person in the game above the age of 25 who isn't a personality void (Vincent) or a borderline psycho (Cid, though I sorta still like him). The other part is his original/pre-game arc is actually pretty interesting (idealist gets completely and utterly shat on by an uncaring megacorp/government, vows revenge). I almost want to say it has blaxploitation themes, albeit in the same way you could read Blade as a blaxploitation film.
PS. Barret being one of the 3(?) main FF7 characters not in KH fucking sucks.
Disclaimer: I haven't played FF7 remake, so this is pretty much all about the original game.
Barret is really, really strange to me, I've never had any character really grow on me as much as he has.
When I first played as him when I was younger (like 10 year old black kid), I absolutely hated him. He was this angry guy who spoke like Mr T, swore a lot and was just generally this abrasive jerk. I somehow ended up identifying more with Red XIII in the game, which is surreal, but that's just how it goes. Needless to say, I never used Barret and barely read his dialogue
Anyway, I grew up, and I played the PS4 version and New Threat on PC, and I was using Barret a whole lot more (mostly for gameplay reasons). However, he seemed way, way less irritating to me. He had some weird moments that I actually found really endearing/relatable. The main two I remember are him climbing the stairs and going "tell my daughter I love her" like he was actually legitimately going to die, just because he wanted the torture of running up stairs to end, and then later on when he looks at Jenova and covers up the fact he's obviously freaking out by just repeatedly calling the entire thing stupid and then just urging everyone to leave.
So what accounts for the change? Either I was more sensitive to this stuff when I was younger (I highly doubt this), or there was an actual change...
Spoiler: It's the latter.
• Barret's slang has been toned down in places or simply been rewritten. In particular, "awright" is not usually replaced with "alright". There are fewer cases of Barret saying "yo". Though the cases of Barret saying "foo" were few already in the PS version, all those instances were removed for the PC port.
Basically, I'd say in the later versions (PC/PS4 etc), he's way, way better. Part of it is him being the only person in the game above the age of 25 who isn't a personality void (Vincent) or a borderline psycho (Cid, though I sorta still like him). The other part is his original/pre-game arc is actually pretty interesting (idealist gets completely and utterly shat on by an uncaring megacorp/government, vows revenge). I almost want to say it has blaxploitation themes, albeit in the same way you could read Blade as a blaxploitation film.
PS. Barret being one of the 3(?) main FF7 characters not in KH fucking sucks.
I'm not a big fan of Nessa's design. It's mainly her having straight hair. Speaking of Pokémon though, some shout outs to black characters from this series:
Grant
Lenora
Marshall
Lenora
Marshall
Is there a single black character in Kingdom Hearts even including Disney?
Not counting ambiguous dark skinned people like "Wakka" and "Xehanort", you're pretty much looking at Tia Dalma and Wasabi, who are both Disney characters in KH3. It's really, really bad.
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Pretty bad considering this is a series where characters come from many different worlds yet black people barely exist in it and only do because they happen to be side characters in a Disney movie.
Wanted to share this, not sure how much exposure the game/characters have.
The Nurse class is a recruitable party member from Metal Max 3, a post apocalyptic jrpg for the DS that got a very recent fan translation. I believe the artist is Masaki Hirooka, same guy who did Castlevania Order of Ecclesia and Kid Icarus Uprising.
The Nurse shows up again in Metal Max 2 Reloaded and you can choose him or any of the other classes to be your main character from the get go.
The Nurse class is a recruitable party member from Metal Max 3, a post apocalyptic jrpg for the DS that got a very recent fan translation. I believe the artist is Masaki Hirooka, same guy who did Castlevania Order of Ecclesia and Kid Icarus Uprising.
The Nurse shows up again in Metal Max 2 Reloaded and you can choose him or any of the other classes to be your main character from the get go.
Barret's complicated for me. I was turned off by his voice as well initially but it initially grew on me and there are times where I feel like his overly bombastic persona he puts on for his comrades actively 'works'. I think because (at least for me) it feels more intentional rather than the localization leaning too hard into the original english depication to him for cheap 'nostalgia'. Like the scene where he gives a speech to Avalanche after the first bombing mission, it remind me of a pastor in a way - especially a lot of the southern pastors I grew up seeing so it 'worked' for me.
I think my biggest concern for the remake is that they'll hit a 'reset' with characters behaviors - ex. Cloud goes back to being cold and abrasive like how he was at the start of Part despite the changes he goes through. Hopefully that doesn't happen because I liked seeing the more 'real' side of Barret during the later chapters of the game.
Also, I haven't had a chance to read this but I saw this and figured it would be good to post it here.
I think my biggest concern for the remake is that they'll hit a 'reset' with characters behaviors - ex. Cloud goes back to being cold and abrasive like how he was at the start of Part despite the changes he goes through. Hopefully that doesn't happen because I liked seeing the more 'real' side of Barret during the later chapters of the game.
Also, I haven't had a chance to read this but I saw this and figured it would be good to post it here.
I know KH3 went initially all in on the disney worlds based off the 3D movies but I still find it really sus how they just completely skipped over Princess and the Frog, the movie that basically started this new era of disney princess movies.
Ain't no badder Bs than Olivia and Nessa in Pokemon! Look at them. They got the fucking sauce! DRIP ON DECK! AIN'T NO ONE BETTER IN THESE STREETS! REAL MOTHERFUCKING TALK!
Never really had too much of a problem with Barret but after hearing him motivate his team after the mako explosion i never stopped liking him.
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Also you've probably all watched this series, but the Tim Rogers slow translation of FF7 is also pretty good for seeing what they did to Barret in the original game. It's also a pretty good series in general if you're into original FF7 at all.
It's pretty messed up how much of Barret's bad stuff is down to translation issues and then that just becomes Barret becoming "the swearing Mr T man" because of how videogame culture and memes work.
It's pretty messed up how much of Barret's bad stuff is down to translation issues and then that just becomes Barret becoming "the swearing Mr T man" because of how videogame culture and memes work.
RE: Kingdom Hearts. I love it, every single game, every plot weirdness, well everything EXCEPT how they handle Xehanort's color. The dude is the only black man in the entire series and when he possess people their skin color can change.
Like, that's terrible. I really hope we don't see more of this past KH3. And some new dark skinned characters that are not evil masterminds would be cool too.
Like, that's terrible. I really hope we don't see more of this past KH3. And some new dark skinned characters that are not evil masterminds would be cool too.
OP
OP
Since I'm pretty sure nobody's mentioned him yet, I don't think there's anyone to quote. Either way, here's Abdonis. Another Nintendo character right after Nessa, I know. But I couldn't not give RFA a nod given how much time I've put into it thus far.
DAY 24: ABDONIS (RING FIT ADVENTURE)I've been playing Ring Fit Adventure daily since I got it back on June 20th, 2020 (seriously, I have proof) when I could find it in stock. Said stock issues have improved a lot in the months that followed, but the game in general ended up being the hit nobody expected that's probably gonna pass up Splatoon 2 in its current trajectory. And I can see why, it combines working out & gameplay in a way that even Wii Fit (RFA's spiritual predecessor) failed to accomplish. And on top of that, an interesting cast of characters that give you just enough to keep you going. Dragaux is the main antagonist, yes. But the other challengers are the Four Masters (well, after they're mind-controlled by Dragaux by taking advantage of their insecurities). One of the Four Members is Abdonis, the ab-based fitness fighter of the game's world. And like his fellow members of the Four Masters, there's a lot to him than you'd think. So let's check those aspects out.
Abdonis is but one member of the Four Masters. But unlike his coworkers (as he'd call them), we have a bit more to chew on regarding Abdonis' backstory.
Before he became the ab-based member of the Four Masters, Abdonis was just Donny, son of the Priestess (likely having grown up in Tears of Solar Plexia going by the Priestess' attachment to the place). Donny even showed his fitness prowess at a very young age, as he broke the Bank Balance top score in record time when he was only 3 years old (for reference, he's 20 when we meet him in Ring Fit Adventure's story). Donny even picked up a knack for making disguises, which we see him use later in life throughout the story. Outside of all that, we don't have a lot to go regarding Donny's upbringing, but it seems as though the two have a very close bond given how the Priestess speaks of her son. Despite this, Donny did develop trust issues, believing that only his abs will always be there for him. And usually Abdonis is able to push through life anyway, as shown when he first meets Ring Fit Trainee & Ring. But unfortunately, these insecurities were something that Dragaux capitalized on when he corrupted Abdonis as well as the other members of the Four Masters. While corrupted, Abdonis ended up doing a number of things that he wouldn't be proud of, from seemingly pushing away his mother to turning a bunch of kids in the Moppets Gong Missing world into ghosts. But despite his loyalty to Dragaux while corrupted, this wouldn't amount to much after Dragaux absorbed the life force of all the Four Masters. It was after this that Abdonis & the others were freed from the Dark Influence, realizing their various mistakes. Though fortunately, Ring pointed out that Priestess believed in her son despite everything, which helped Abdonis realize that he can believe in people other than himself…..or his abs. As for Abdonis as a person, he's more sensitive than his appearance would have you believe, believing that his abs "guard his delicate heart" (his words). Likewise, as mentioned earlier, Abdonis had trust issues, thinking that everyone will eventually abandon him in the end. So I guess it's fitting that his Four Masters nickname was inspired by Adonis (the Greek god of beauty & desire), as he clearly longed for companionship (or more specifically friendship in his case) alongside his looks. But as was pointed out, this was eventually worked past to make himself a more well-rounded person. He even helps train the Ring Fit Trainee upon being freed from Dragaux's control & eventually Dragaux himself being freed from the dark influence that made him evil. So at the very least, he (& the others) take responsibility for their actions & try to make up for them. If nothing else, his mother raised him pretty well.
Gotta respect the work he put into his abs.
Abdonis' design is a textbook case of "less is more". On top of his marquee abs, he rocks a midriff jacket, black sleeves & yoga pants, a yellow cloth around his waist featuring a light green trim tied up with a black string, black yoga pants, & black shoes with yellow soles. The design directly attracts your attention to his abs, which are……actually quite impressive. No seriously, you could probably grind meat on them. As for his general appearance, he has his braided hair tied back for the most part, outside of a few strands of hair that he dyed yellow & left poking up front. This is similar to his mother's hairstyle, so it's likely something he was inspired by her to do with his hair, indicating their bond. The yellow theming also extends to his eyes, which I guess makes sense given that core workouts are color-coded as being yellow. But it would have been nice if he had brown eyes. Still, it's a simple-yet-effective design that makes it clear that he's an ab-based boss fight while also having a hair style not uncommon amongst black guys (outside of the yellow strand up-front which, again, is likely inspired by his mother).
Maybe I shouldn't have cheesed the game by farming for EXP boosts, because the game ended up being easier than I expected (even at max difficulty). Still love it, though.
Abdonis doesn't have a lot to him, but what he does have is interesting in & of itself. It's honestly nice to have a black character with very clear insecurities & is more in touch with their sensitive side in a sea of loud & uber-masculine black men (which is in & of itself a stereotype). Given that Abdonis doesn't really have an English voice actor, there's not much I can critique there, so I'll just leave it as-is there. Abdonis was honestly my favorite of the Four Masters & I'm pleasantly surprised that Nintendo did a lot with the time Abdonis had in the story. Gotta give credit where it's due……totally not because I've sunk in what will soon be 250 days (& counting, as of the day this was posted) into Ring Fit Adventure.
Thanks for taking the time to read today's post. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the next character in the RPGs & More Section of Black Characters of Gaming Celebration. As for tomorrow, this character left quite a legacy on the franchise in question, so I'd imagine that some hardcore fans can already guess who it is.
With Ring Fit being such a huge hit makes it quite likely it might end up being represented in Smash, and for me Abdonis is the one character I think would work best there. Visually so distinctive and expressive, and a more manageable size than Drageux.