I'm a Tekken fan, I enjoy most of them, the ones I've played at least (1-3, 6, Tag2 and 7 since I didn't own a PS2 until 2 years ago), but their are a few characters in the series I don't care for. Bryan Fury for example I just find dull and generic, I've seen random evil edgy man with a gun before for example. However their is one character from the series that I just find uncomfortable because of what he's done in the series and what he reminds me of, Marduk.
(To be clear, this is not directed at anyone in particular on Era, this is not me doing a take that at anyone, this is just my feelings on the character.)
For those not familiar with Tekken's lore, Marduk was a Vale Tudo fighter before being expelled because of a "minor scandal" and then because he was in a bad mood at a bar, got into a fight and (accidentally in fairness) Armor King.
Okay let's get the worse thing about him out the way because it's the reason I'm writing this and I only realised this a week ago reading his trivia on the wiki because it seems like it's completely ignored by the fandom:
Even without that though, I just find Marduk just loathsome of a human being. Despite going to prison for his reckless behaviour, he doesn't care, in fact he takes glee in endangerouring people, hurting people, getting into fights and seriously injuring people like jumping into a boxing match and beating the fighters up to unconsciousness for no other reason but because he wanted to.
But the act that made me dislike him just completely was in Tekken 5, because he was petty and mad that King 2 beat him in a Tournament so he decides to just beat an entire tournament worth Vale Tudo fighters up to near death and bloody while wearing a black jaguar mask (aka, the mask worn by Armor King, the man he murdered and was King's tutor) and then declared, " King! You're next!"
Ignoring the assine logic of how he was allowed to continue his career after that, it just proved how much of an utter monster he was, to take glee and mock those he both murdered and those close to them because he couldn't accept he was beaten in a fair fight, why? What's appealing about that?
And yet, despite all this, we're somehow supposed to like him because he has a family (a family he himself has shown no care over I might add):
Not saying I want to see King become a murderer but it bothers me so much that games seems to downplay the horridness of his continued actions, that we should WANT King to become his friend and Marduk to get his career back. No, simply no, I'm not going to ignore it.
And the big thing that makes me uncomfortable about him is how his behavior is seen in both the fighting game fandom and the gaming community in general. Sexism, assault and other horrid things treated as normal from Competitive players because of the fandoms want for "drama" and because they play well therefore they should be forgiven, it's only been recently behaviour has finally being addressed seriously and even then, it makes me uncomfortable that the games themselves normalise this behaviour and characters like Murduk are treated as some of the most popular characters in the franchise (at least in the west).
Hell just in gaming in general, his type of petty, selfish attitude and personality is seen throughout the toxic side of gaming.
The character just bothers me, even if he was portrayed as a villain, it would be slightly better but, no, he's someone we're supposed to route for despite his awful actions.
(To be clear, this is not directed at anyone in particular on Era, this is not me doing a take that at anyone, this is just my feelings on the character.)
For those not familiar with Tekken's lore, Marduk was a Vale Tudo fighter before being expelled because of a "minor scandal" and then because he was in a bad mood at a bar, got into a fight and (accidentally in fairness) Armor King.
Okay let's get the worse thing about him out the way because it's the reason I'm writing this and I only realised this a week ago reading his trivia on the wiki because it seems like it's completely ignored by the fandom:
Marduk is a rapist and sexual abuser. he's sexist and It's heavily implied that the "minor scandal" that got him expelled was him sexually assaulting a woman and in Tekken 5, they had his sub-boss be Anna Williams and it's implied he rapes her after the fight.
I am honestly stunned by that, one that the Tekken dev thought putting that in was in anyway good, funny or didn't make themselves look horrible, but that the fandom ignores this, that it's treated as acceptable behaviour that should be ignored. WTF. No seriously, WTF! Like I'm going to to explain why I didn't like him that much before finding this out but, just WTF.
I am honestly stunned by that, one that the Tekken dev thought putting that in was in anyway good, funny or didn't make themselves look horrible, but that the fandom ignores this, that it's treated as acceptable behaviour that should be ignored. WTF. No seriously, WTF! Like I'm going to to explain why I didn't like him that much before finding this out but, just WTF.
Even without that though, I just find Marduk just loathsome of a human being. Despite going to prison for his reckless behaviour, he doesn't care, in fact he takes glee in endangerouring people, hurting people, getting into fights and seriously injuring people like jumping into a boxing match and beating the fighters up to unconsciousness for no other reason but because he wanted to.
But the act that made me dislike him just completely was in Tekken 5, because he was petty and mad that King 2 beat him in a Tournament so he decides to just beat an entire tournament worth Vale Tudo fighters up to near death and bloody while wearing a black jaguar mask (aka, the mask worn by Armor King, the man he murdered and was King's tutor) and then declared, " King! You're next!"
Ignoring the assine logic of how he was allowed to continue his career after that, it just proved how much of an utter monster he was, to take glee and mock those he both murdered and those close to them because he couldn't accept he was beaten in a fair fight, why? What's appealing about that?
And yet, despite all this, we're somehow supposed to like him because he has a family (a family he himself has shown no care over I might add):
Not saying I want to see King become a murderer but it bothers me so much that games seems to downplay the horridness of his continued actions, that we should WANT King to become his friend and Marduk to get his career back. No, simply no, I'm not going to ignore it.
And the big thing that makes me uncomfortable about him is how his behavior is seen in both the fighting game fandom and the gaming community in general. Sexism, assault and other horrid things treated as normal from Competitive players because of the fandoms want for "drama" and because they play well therefore they should be forgiven, it's only been recently behaviour has finally being addressed seriously and even then, it makes me uncomfortable that the games themselves normalise this behaviour and characters like Murduk are treated as some of the most popular characters in the franchise (at least in the west).
Hell just in gaming in general, his type of petty, selfish attitude and personality is seen throughout the toxic side of gaming.
The character just bothers me, even if he was portrayed as a villain, it would be slightly better but, no, he's someone we're supposed to route for despite his awful actions.
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