I was avoiding reading this cause I didn't want any spoilers... but now that I have... how the fuck is this being woke?
Like, wtf is wrong with people these days, throwing labels on everything? Just as bad as being woke to begin with.
I mean, the guy did a thing, and ended up not getting what he wanted... which is totally understandable considering what he did to begin with. So what is the issue? Would this story have been better if he got fogiven? Or if it was a man instead of a woman? If he wasn't indian?
Like, call it a bad story all you want, but I do not see anything woke about this. I don't even think it's a bad story... I mean its not my cup of tea... but it's not a bad story.
Honestly... where I blame devs whn it comes to this stuff is that hey have too much faith in their audiences and trying this whole weaving intricate thought-provoking stories. They would have been better off just making it about a man trying to find a stone that would give him eternal life and the power of a god so he can take revenge on a business man that killed his wife. It's like those are the only kinda stories that can safely fly with gamers.
It can't be a coincidence that some of the most loved characters in gaming are those that can't talk and in a world with barely any story. Eg the Doom guy.
I agree the superficial "things" about the story don't really equate to it being "woke". Or, if that would in some people's definition, I'd not care.
Examples- Arjun's race, or a "diverse" cast; that shit is par for the course. That's not the issue at all - if someone is truly mad he is Indian and British, they can suck a doorknob.
The "woke" shit is the plot - every modern western piece of major media does approximately the same tired trope on masculinity and aims to portray an straight male in a very particular way.
Does trauma and drama make for a more interesting protagonist? Sure! But look across modern media, especially western media, and tell me this isn't what "they" do; You surely can't argue there isn't an agenda, can you? ESPECIALLY coming from Sony's studios.
I'll end my useless diatribe with a anecdote that I feels like it encapsulates this whole situation.
Maybe you've seen this commercial on YouTube or whatever, I don't have cable so I don't know if it's there lol, but this girl is sitting in her car and she's browsing on cars.com for a new car because she just got a promotion. She's sitting there with her boyfriend and he asks her what she's doing, she says because of her promotion she wants to upgrade. So she swaps to some cutesy little Italian car, turns in her seat and there's a suave looking Italian guy who says Bongiorno in a flirty way, and she bats her eyes and says Bongiorno back.
Do you think if that was reversed it would ever be allowed? The man just replacing his girlfriend for something "" better? No. The whole western calculus is to degrade and lesson men. This is seeped in in major and minor ways and it's calculated and plotted.
So the fact that Arjun was developed to be this way it's just part of that calculus because they all think like this - the cherry on the cake with SAROS is that the end the whole thing with his wife, turning out to be a lesbian, or having been Bi the whole time, and deciding it's time to fucking start doing the ol' clam slam is just their obvious way to dial up the "inclusion".