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Smash has 70+ characters but not 1 black or brown fighter

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Cryptosporidium

Cryptosporidium

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,624
canada
Ganondorf doesnt count, hes green

And they already got my boi Rodin as a bloody assist trophy

So who should they add?

Dhalsim?




Also this is indicative of gamings problems of representation
 
Zool

Zool

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,233
User warned: Trolling.
I see what you are saying. Should we boycot Smash for this?
 
Lotus

Lotus

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
105,861
Very disappointing.

I think the only thing we have is changing the Inkling's skin color...
 

Deleted member 2809

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
25,478
Cryptosporidium said:
Ganondorf doesnt count, hes green
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Ehhh

We need urbosa goddamnit.

latest
 
UltraMagnus

UltraMagnus

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
15,670
I think Twintelle will be on of the DLC adds, but yeah it's kinda lame. There's simply aren't that many PoC characters to chose from.
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,240
I can't think of anyone that would fit that description whose been on a Nintendo platform anyway. At least no one that isn't a throwaway NPC or something.
 
jph139

jph139

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,379
Twintelle and Octoling would help. (Does Octoling count? The default looks the same sort of "ambiguously brown" as the Splatoon 2 Inkling to me.)

Pray for DLC.
 

Deleted member 249

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
28,828
Cryptosporidium said:
Also this is indicative of gamings problems of representation
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Yup, more than anything else, I think this is what it comes down to. A who's who of gaming, with six dozen characters, and yet not a single person of color.
Goes to show you how much portrayals in gaming as a medium are dominated by white people, and only white people.
 
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Deleted member 1413

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,617
The inklings have alts, think the villagers do too.

An issue when most of their franchises don't really feature humans. Bummer they went with Splatoon 1 designs instead of Splatoon 2 ones since the Splatoon 2 girl is darker skinned and has a much better design
 
julian

julian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,786
I feel like the real issue is Fire Emblem is all white. They have so many human characters that of any series it'd make the most sense to be able to pull from there, yet they can't.

Also, I have no idea what Little Mac is.
 
Charizard

Charizard

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,905
True. Even Asians have just... Red and Ryu, right? And they are both Japanese and only one of them actually beats shit up.

Could use more diversity tbh.
 
LewieP

LewieP

Member
Oct 26, 2017
18,099
Black Barron and Garcian Smith might make good assist trophies, but wouldn't really suit being playable characters.
 
Trisc

Trisc

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Oct 27, 2017
6,488
Cap G said:
Ganondorf and the Gerufos are clearly middle eastern
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Was gonna say.
UltraMagnus said:
I think Twintelle will be on of the DLC adds, but yeah it's kinda lame. There's simply aren't that many PoC characters to chose from.
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Keep in mind that the banner of "people of color" also applies to those of East Asian descent.
Charizard said:
True. Even Asians have just... Red and Ryu, right? And they are both Japanese and only one of them actually beats shit up.

Could use more diversity tbh.
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Most of the animesque characters on the roster are East Asian, or meant to look the part stylistically. White people project whiteness onto them, but characters like Shulk and Corrin are not white.

That's def still a problem, though, since it means people of color can have a hard time identifying those characters as being POC. Thanks, white people.
 
Sedef122

Sedef122

Member
Nov 7, 2017
391
This doesn't change anything as it still only one character but as someone who is colour blind I honestly always thought Ganondorf was supposed to be Middle Eastern.
 
Meg Cherry

Meg Cherry

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,279
Seattle, WA
It's mostly an issue with Nintendo's history of non-representation. Combine a monochromatic existing roster with a slow rollout of new IP - and this is what you get.

To Nintendo's credit, two of the Switch's major early releases (Splatoon 2 & ARMS) both had black women as major lead characters - but clearly they've got miles to go before they bridge the gap.
 
Nauro

Nauro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
411
Japan
OmegaSmash said:
Where the FUCK is Elma?
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Definitely DLC. No XBX representation in the game whatsoever. Not even a single track on Gaur Plains.

Considering the pass includes a stage, character and a soundtrack, we'll hopefully see Sawano's masterpiece and the bae Elma drop down in New Los Angeles in one of the dlc pack.
 
Zippro

Zippro

Member
May 20, 2018
339
Smash is a celebration of Japanese video games. You're primarily gonna be getting characters that meet their cultural tastes and you're almost always going to get their main character. You can always do custom Mii Fighters tbh, even if that's a cop-out answer. Elma was a character a lot were hoping to see, but unfortunately, her game wasn't too popular and even then someone would probably argue that she's actually an alien and doesn't count. Little Mac's coach is seen in there sometimes, and Twintelle might get in based on pure popularity within ARMS should they get a rep. I'm not sure about alt costumes for Squid-kids, but one of them might be dark skinned like the girl on 2's cover. Which would make sense given how the squids there can be customized.
 
Giga Man

Giga Man

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Oct 27, 2017
21,227
Elma is the last hope.

We'll just have to manage with Inklings and Mii Fighters. Villagers are all white. They're only brown when they get tanned in Animal Crossing games.
 
Briarios

Briarios

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,238
Phantom Thief said:
Yup, more than anything else, I think this is what it comes down to. A who's who of gaming, with six dozen characters, and yet not a single person of color.
Goes to show you how much gaming as a medium is dominated by white people, and only white people.
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... The game was developed in Japan by Japanese people and published by a Japanese company.
 
Femme Man

Femme Man

Member
Oct 28, 2017
430
This falls along the line of how bad Nintendo has been with representation during its history. They're just now slowly coming around but only on customization options and not narrative designed characters.

As others have mentioned, Ganondorf is brown. But that's one out of 70+ characters. Not really acceptable in my book.
 
MoonGirard

MoonGirard

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Nov 4, 2017
414
julian said:
I feel like the real issue is Fire Emblem is all white. They have so many human characters that of any series it'd make the most sense to be able to pull from there, yet they can't.

Also, I have no idea what Little Mac is.
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Little Mac is Italian, Also Fire emblem does have an important to the story Black guy who uses an Axe in Basilio it's just he's another awakening character which probably won't happen.
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,240
The fact that you only replied with one character further highlights the point: there's not enough diversity, especially among the games Nintendo is pulling from.
 
5taquitos

5taquitos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,893
OR
Is this a Smash problem, or is it more indicative of Nintendo as a whole, given that the vast majority of these characters are leads in their given franchises?
 
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