Hey bro, as a black man I would like to explain the REAL definition of "woke" since woke is a particular word in AAVE. Woke is to be socially aware of injustice. Republicans/Right Wing have co-opted the word as the new catch all word to describe their dislike for progression or basically anything having to do with black people. To be woke is to be enlightened, and you shouldn't take offense of the word. They calling you woke is the equivalent of calling you a "N-word lover."
I think that guy called you a woke because you kinda fencesitted on the answer, which was a "maybe" while "probably not" is closer to the truth. Just playing devil's advocate here.
Woke is a political slang adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights.
@@airwaves9611and those same people never cared about their games or videogames as a whole until now. And what is even funnier is the same crowd currently defending Ubisoft have known to be corporate haters and hate rich people, and now they are are defending a corporation.
@@airwaves9611 They're not defending Ubisoft, they're defending the image of Yasuke along with the pop culture image of him developed in modern Japan against white right wingers who have nothing to do with Japan
Problem getting glossed over is two big elements. A 家来 and a 小姓 is not defined as a samurai historically. The classical application of Kosho in the Sengoku era in the first place was one who "took charge of secretarial affairs". It was not strictly a page fulfilling a military role, but a much broader term for someone close to the daimyo, directly serving them.
Similarly, the records state Yasuke was provided with a wakizashi (short sword), not a daishō (sword set with a katana (longsword)). He could arguably be military nobility based on that, but you'd have to get more fiddly on rationale of samurai since it's missing the katana that was the combined status symbol of a samurai. Cycles back on the point on ashigaru vs samurai there.
But the Limey who cites his own Wikipedia page that references his own fictional historical novel who "made up parts to fill in the gaps" has assured everyone that his Japanese skills are at or above the greatest native Japanese speaking Historians on the island and he is unassailable in citing the 4-6 notes made in journals used as references that have ZERO articulation of rank or social standing, just rumors and hearsay from second sources. How could he possibly have gotten it wrong?
Ubisoft has always been the least competent of the big publishers, but now they seem to want to take the crown as the most greedy from the likes of Take 2 and EA.
I hate them for what they did to the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise. Killed it and now they are trying to milk it's corpse with stupid pay to win mobile games.
I mean, it's a little unlikely that someone has a YT channel like Metatron's channel without playing videogames. These days, many of us who love history love it because video games sparked out curiosity earlier in life.
You are neither "woke", nor anti-woke. You are *neutral* . You are about HISTORICAL FACTS, not about modern politics. QUICK EDIT: My gosh, that's a lot of Likes and Replies! 😲😳 Please, *please* keep it civil, though, folks? ❤️ Thanks 🙏
Just a girl who LOVES history of all kinds - really appreciate your videos and your approach. There's too many people in this world that have their own agenda and can't appreciate TRUTH for the sake of TRUTH. I'm not one to comment much and I subscribe even less - but your kind of voice needs all the help it can get. Proud subscriber here. :)
I will say I love Metatrons channel. And I'm usually right with him. This one though idk. I have a minro in history and live reading about Feudal Japan. Nothing in source documents describe yasuke as a samurai. Plus he was only in Japan for three years. Only knew Obu for 2. It's extremely unlikely he would have attained the skill and status to be considered a samurai. He was never in line to own a castle. Obus gave him residence in a very nice temple. But yasuke didn't own it. Yasuke was useful because he was a latge black man in a time where Japan barely knew black people existed. They were extremely rare. So Obu paraded him around. Raising his own influence among his people.
I hate the tendency to automatically associate close male friendships with being gay. Like it's not possible for two guys to have a friendship that isn't sexual, and there are people whose worldviews revolve around sex. It's really stupid.
It doesn't help that vapid fandom women think that too. And then they have the audacity to say that feminism has made it possible for men to be close friends without gay connotations. Like make up your mind.
People used to have closer friendships and would talk more all throughout history than they do nowadays. So yeah, really stupid to equate it to being gay.
13:45 That kind of reminds me of, how Joseph Fourier’s proof of the irrationality of the number e (that e cannot be represented, as a fraction a/b, with a and b positive integers) relies on the fact that e can be approximated by fractions better, than fractions can be approximated by fractions. 😅
“Do you even play video games?” We’re talking about a guy on the internet with a Mortal Kombat cabinet in the background of every video… Like, is that person serious? Do they have eyes?
Lets be real like 90% of ppl only listen youtube videos so i kinda get that he missed that one but still what a awesome comeback for that "do you even play" statament, thats one hella cool mancave
I am a little weirded out by Yasuke being a playable character, but not for the reason everyone else is. Assassins Creed characters meet historical figures but are not historical figures themselves, having a real person from history as a character in the series is not how the series has worked.
Absolutely. And i think in this case it would have worked WAY better as well. Do two shinobi main chars so you have one playstyle instead of two different ones where you are going to miss the other ones strengths every time you switch. Maybe have yasuke help you get out of jail or something, because he knows how awful it is to be at someones mercy. Playing yasuke and openly opposing nobunaga makes zero sense.
I feel like this is the main reason everyone else is weirded out by Yasuke. Well, that, plus the irony of the most standing out person in Japan of that time being an assassin. Meeting Yasuke would have always been cool, but being Yasuke?
This is the real issue people should be pointing out. Not his race or his status as samurai. Both are irrelevant to the fact that Ubisoft forcing us to play as actual historical character for the first time which feels weird.
@@cirescythe Blame that on Ubisoft writers and game directors. Yasuke would have been a wonderful antagonist as African man ready to die for the one who granted him honour (Nobunaga). Plus, why not play a bit about the Jesuits priest being also hidden assassin who trained Yasuke. Cheesy, loosely based on history, maybe but could fits the AC lore a bit more.
Do You remember Might & Magic RPG series which was the base of the world building for Heroes games (HoMM1-3, the HoMM4 was a disaster due to bankruptcy of the 3DO and then being bought by Vivendi and HoMM5-7 happened)?
Welcome to the final stage, where the extremes of both sides come for you. Thanks for keeping us informed, neutrally and factually. We need more like you.
@@redsimonyt If you think one side is always right and another is always wrong it sounds like you might be brainwashed, my friend... So yes, Metatron is doing it right drawing his own conclusions rather than reciting the talking points of one side or the other.
@@optick3554 He's hardly the worst among TH-camrs, but him being an online presence itself influences what he says. It's almost inevitable. I give him credit for resisting better than most would. But his softness on this issue is sad to see.
I think the easier way to oppose this ubisoft game is to point out that they never based their games on historical accuracy and now they shield themselves with historic trivia to push their agenda. I think your strongest point was that Yasuke was not raised in Japan, and he didn't have time to develop their fighting skills, so he shouldn't be used as a represntative of Samurai fighting skills. From what ou provided it looks like Yasuke was given some priviledges that would be of samurai level, but he wasn't directly titles samurai.
As a gamer is it wrong of of me to still play and enjoy their games despite my dislike for ubi management and publisher. I fell in love withe Clancy games and I still enjoy AC and FC.
@HusbandOfManyWives1776 no you're perfectly normal & should be more worry bout if a game from them is good or not. That's what matters the most n if you like shadows, grab it. If not don't. Make a choice & stick with it
To be fair, I think he is unintentionally catering to a "side." I'm sure there are a lot of people who probably watched the trailer, cringed at a black Samurai and then found out he was a real person and that it's at least reasonable for them to depict him like that (combat style aside) and went "Oh, neat. Still probably chose it for DEI reasons, but if it's a real person I don't care." Which just so happens to be exactly what I and some others I know did, but you wont hear from people like that much because they've already moved on.
I hate how standing your ground and maintaining a neutral position on a lot of divisive matters is often labelled as being some sort of fence-sitter or worse. There is a point in pausing for once in your life to think and ponder first that maybe some things are, in fact, a bit more complicated than we'd like to admit. Not everything has to be just one way or the other. Glad you're sticking with what you believe in and understand while also being open to civil discussion, Metatron! Also, I hate Ubisoft for what they did to Tom Clancy games, the Assassin's Creed franchise in particular, and the Far Cry games. And I'll always find it funny how people mock me for being disinterested in a new game "just because of a trailer". And I'm like, bro. Look at Ubisoft's fricking track record. You don't need four eyes or more to figure things out easily. And the intentions are clear with their newest games. I'm not being catered to as a customer... so, I'm not going to purchase their products. CAPISCE!?!!
He is not neutral, he is just a coward, one of those who apologize for having an opinion. When there is a fight between good and evil, there is no such thing as 'neutrality'. But of course TH-cam pay well, so 'neutrality' is more profitable than standing your ground.
People hate "fence sitters" because they didn't take a stance one side or the other. Or to quote a couple of morons who insist that everything is binary "You stand for nothing." as opposed to being a person with your own thoughts and opinions instead of a programed drone. Humans are so tedious and vexing.
I mean politics as in affairs of the city (wiki... jeyyyy) is basically everything. What I ate for breakfast is politics if enough people are determined it is. That's what historians are also well aware of and the historical-critical method exists. It is basically a defense mechanism against political manipulation while still making it possible to judge bad things in history (like the Shoa). Especially in an age where history gets used by dictators to justify wars it's ever more important zo judge history in a historical critical way. So in other words the only truly neutral history is digging something up and then locking it away without analysation.
@@wakkaseta8351you know the irony of that saying. In this case all it really would take to send a message to Ubisoft is literally for good men to do nothing. Not buy the game.
I started watching when this channel focused more on Language, but stayed for his stance on historical truth. Specially if it's something new, or I was taught/got to learn/find new subject to read up on.
It is true, I am frustrated at seeing Ubisoft hide behind all these other excuses when the real reason for picking Yasuke as a protagonist is not because he was an interesting or historical character. They picked him because he was a black man and they 'needed' diversity in their game.
That's probably true, but let's be honest it doesn't feel like a lot of people online are angry about Ubisoft's cynical corporate reasons for putting Yasuke in the game in this online war about it. So many are focusing on whether Yasuke was a real samurai or just "a jester or toy" as some comments put it, making this about the culture war, about the "woke" mob ruining their video games they probably weren't gonna play to begin with. Like it's highly unlikely I'll play AC Shadows because I hate Ubisoft, hate the direction they're pushing AC in, so I ain't playing AC unless I get Classic Creed gameplay that looks well executed. The boat for getting angry at Ubisoft for ruining AC sailed a long goddamn time ago. AC's been ruined in various ways about like 3-4 times since 2014 and this is hardly the worst offense.
I believe it was two fold. Ubisoft chose him for his skin colour for DeI but also as a shield for when people complained about the pricing and as a PR move so people would stop talking about that stupid pricing scheme.
@@Meleena2218 I'd say it was probably even more motivations than that. If we go back to when the game was first announced as AC: Codename Red various departments at Ubi both corporate and developer took a look at the landscape and thought simultaneously: "Okay let's distinguish ourselves from Ghost of Tsushima somehow since everyone's clowning on us for not making it", "Okay let's do something that gets people talking about AC again", "Okay let's do something that's good for the optics since we're in hot water for a lot of our business decisions", and "Okay so there's this giant dude with the strength of 10 men who might've been a samurai and hasn't been the protagonist of any game yet maybe we should look into that"
Great explanations! I’m suddenly reminded of Yahiko from Rurouni Kenshin. When i was young I always wondered how a samurai’s kid would have ended up an orphan But as you said not all samurai were like princes or dukes in wealth. Yahiko’s family was probably a humble one under the patronage of a clan, only to be upended by the revolution. By bow i figured as much, but low rankers and halfsamurai pretty much explain it Neat
here's the thing for those of us who isn't on any political extreme. We don't care if he is or is not a samurai. it's just stupid to pick the one black guy in Japanese history to represent Japan
I’m conservative, but I kind of would have liked showing a really unique story if it was more accurate. Also if this game came out say 10 years ago or whatever and if it was accurate-showing a warrior instead of an expert samurai-I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. And again if it was more accurate then I’d still like it today. But I still of course want to see Japanese samurai stories too. Essentially I agree with this guy’s ending statement. It’s just the politics and not personal creative inspiration. They’re not creating for love of a good story. But instead an agenda.
@@cipherthevcuber They already did that. Several times. Far Cry 2 with nine playable characters and only one of them was black, and not even from Africa at that (but of course there were multiple white dudes playable, as well as Resident Evil 5, starring Chris Redfield.
Right? Image AC Odyssey where you play as a dude from Gaul cosplaying as a Spartan or Valhalla with an Arabic protagonist... Save the black main character for Assassin's Creed "Mali Empire" edition or Assassin's Creed Zulu, there is absolutely 0 point in introducing a black protagonist inside a culture that is 99% Asian
Man, I regret not having kept my old gaming stuff. Seeing that arcade booth sure is a huge blast to the past. I used to play those whenever I'd go to the movies. Huge waiting line? No problem! Arcades were there to help many kids pass the time. Man, I miss the late 80's and the 90's.
I think that the most correct answer for Yasuke would be that he was a Gokenin which is a low ranking samurai, a.k.a a samurai in training similar to what a squire is to a knight, since Yasuke didnt have enough training to be more than that and proof shows that he may have been a Samurai and also getting picked by a lord + the achievements of Yasuke prove that he most likely was a Gokenin.
I think you could also compare him to someone with honorary degree. Do they technically have 'a degree'? Yes. Is it the same as degree of someone who went to university? No. Is it essentialy someone powerful saying 'I like you enough'? EXACTLY. [Nobunaga likes curiosities and pissing off the court - he was not above making someone 'technically a samurai' (in contemporary meaning of servant of a nobles) solely to provoke people. Lack of record would even be in support of that interpretation - just like nobody cares you got an honorary degree, people would see trough Yasuke's title and either not care forit or try to ignore it. It's like when you mother has a new boyfriend every month - you don't really put them in family album! It's still interpretation. We can't know for sure cause there isn't enough information. There is no answer to be had!] The way this all continues to hyper-focus on 'say yes or no, was Yasuke a samurai' while ignoring everything else wrong is the true travesty.
Metatron's response to "I don't believe that you are interested in computer games." Had the Simpsons "Stop! Stop! He's already dead." Meme playing in my head. 😂🤣😂
I think the benefit of using a fictional character over a real person as the protagonist is preventing arguments like this. I just thought it was obvious why they chose Yasuke, Ubisoft chose him based on the color of his skin. In the beginning, the main character was suppose to be a japanese monk named Taka, then all of a sudden it's Yasuke and Naoe? Every youtuber and people who use youtube are chronic internet users, yet there are those who still can't pick up on what game developers are doing.
Basically. You can do whatever with Ezio Auditore because Ezio didn't exist and the concept of the Assassins in the first place really does give a good explanation for why. You can do your alt-history romp without begging historical questions unless you do something really insane. By making this about a character that we know existed IRL, you can subject that character to scrutiny, and it does come up pretty lacking IMO. And then the devs released a statement that they wanted to tell "their" story instead of a Japanese one and the respect is just gone here.
I thought it was obvious why they chose Yasuke. Ubisoft chose him because having a prominent outsider character offers multiple possibilities for plot points and conflict to drive story forward. This is the same reason why Anime about him was created. Because he’s an interesting historical figure.
@@mina86 lol yes out of the countless other historical figures in Japan, I'm sure a company that has openly embraced identity politics just so happened to choose the only black man to be mentioned in samurai history.
It is very accurate to say that you are like a samurai but not a samurai. You are absolutely right. In the complex class society of 武士, intermediate job and status between samurai and commoners can be found in old documents under several names. For example, a textbook for samurai sons called Teikin Ourai 庭訓往来from 1348 would spread to the common people's cram schools during the Edo period. This is because it was the social common sense of the time 「凡迄中間舎人雑色牛飼等」 and the occupations of those serving the buke can be confirmed. In 1591, Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a decree to determine the status of the samurai servants, the "身分統制令," "奉公人侍中間小者あらし子に至迄" The "samurai" referred to here are the wakatou,若党. 若党 is very low-ranking samurai. Thus it was very complicated. To begin with, the Japanese edition of Mr. Lockley's book that started this story clearly states that it was written based on speculation due to a lack of data, and that he also dared to use less credible references. Most of the arguments being made today ignore the assumptions, common sense, and customs of the time, which can be confirmed from the surrounding literature. And this is a common feature of the interpretation of history that Metatron criticizes. As a party Japanese, it is a very unpleasant phenomenon. Enjoying it as fiction is fine. But the editorial wars on Wikipedia and the spouting of unproven facts as if they were historical fact should be stopped.
The culture war at Wikipedia wont stop because there is a clear ideology being pushed on Wikipedia, which often disregards historical context in favor of a progressive narrative. The place is not neutral. It lost that status back when the current maintainers took it over from the person who built the site. I appreciate you bringing even more context to it with the historical record in Japanese. I often encounter the same kind of nonsense when people speak about geopolitical history, ignoring the tense relations and historical grudges between China and Russia, because my grandmother was born in China before the CCP revolution, so I have some insight there. She told me about what it was like before, had pictures her father took from then, and how the CCP erased tons of Chinese culture, which they are only now trying to regain selectively. But many would like to ignore that or give us false narratives about the historical behavior or attitudes, even the cultural memory of China, with regards to some of their biggest multigenerational grudges toward other countries. The Opium Wars with the West and Border Wars with Russia being two big ones that are often glossed over as irrelevant today, when they absolutely are relevant to understanding geopolitics, and the tense relation between Russia and China, and the attitude China has toward the west still. Are things better to a degree? Yes, but there are still shenanigans and grudges going on that find their roots hundreds of years ago, even thousands.
Whatever Yasuke was, one thing is crystal clear: He wasnt a stealthy scout. Why? due to his height and skin color which made him a visible alien in Japan.
It’s pretty obvious from the trailer and everything being said about the game that the female is the stealthy assassin. He is more likely her inside man who uses his status and connections to the samurai to get her closer to her targets. He is more frontal bruiser who straight up overpowers his opponents. Some situations call for stealth others for direct combat.
Jokes aside. It's said Nobunaga slept with a male retainer. Why isn't anyone talking about him sleeping with Yasuke. He was a retainer and Oda clearly liked the look of him
I'm glad you spoke on this. There are people out there so into this debate that they won't even say that Yasuke's story is interesting 😅 some need to go outside and breathe some fresh air, get away from internet controversy for a while
This is why I'm subscribed to you. Learning a lot about Yasuke, and understanding a little bit how Samurai hierarchy works. I was literally laughing when they called you woke, and your response when one of commentator's accused you of being not a gamer. I agree it would be silly to put/us modern terminology to describe the past in general. Three thing that stuck with me when I was taught history mainly in college by Professor at WCC in general. 1.History is bias 2. History favors the winners 3. History is constantly changing base of new Info, interpretation and/or evidence.
History doesn’t favour the winners that doesn’t even make sense. History favouring the winners would ONLY make sense if the winner had some flat earth conspiracy going on in where every person in the winners side just to agree to only report or write history one way. We know that’s not true and we know of many losers in history with nuanced writings on it thousands of years later
@voltron8375 "hack writer" dawg if youre referring to thomas lockely hes literally a professor who has studied alot of yasuke. Obviously the dude has a bias and his book is part-fictional Metatron says this in an earlier video regarding yasuke. He
The problem is people aren't taking a nuanced approach anymore because of the ever present propaganda being forced upon us daily. So, I think most of the relevant information will get lost in the sauce regardless of the side. However, I thank you for doing your best to present this situation in the most unbiased and academic way even if it isn't popular to do so.
Metatron: "I don't know, there is both evidence for and evidence against. That's how principled historians would view this" The Left: "So you're a racist who doesn't believe in black samurai?" The Right: "So you've gone woke and believe in black samurai?"
I bet 'the right' that are saying that, are a small minority. _I_ am a right-wing extremist, and I find Metatron's take on this issue to be. . . fact-based. Yes, I rate it, fact-based.
@@StupidAnon-gn8ih Agreed there. I'm wouldn't go so far to call myself extreme, but I am quite firmly in the conservative-libertarian area (swinging between the two depending on the issue) of the political spectrum and I've always found Metatron to be extremely fair and reasonable. I did think he was maybe stretching it a bit to give off a air of neutrality in that video, but I don't blame him for it or think ill of him for it. While I never necessarily considered him "one of us," because I'd never want to assume someone's entire political philosophy based on one (relatively well-curated) aspect of their life, I always viewed him as being quite reasonable and at least sympathetic to our issues with the progressive left and that didn't change with his video on Yasuke.
The comment section is cancer. That being said from what we know of Yasuke, he was in Japan for a little over a year. Show me a human who can beome a master swordsman in a year and Ill shit a gold brick. The use of him is dumb as hell and the people who actually think an adult slave can waltz into Japan (who probably spent most of the year responding to hand movements because Japanese isnt exactly easy to learn) and become a Samurai in a year are too dumb to bother arguing with.
I just don't like the decision to include Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows because of the driving motivation to have him in the game. He's there because he's black. No other reason. If you were going to make the protagonist a historical character (which has never been done until Shadows), there were certainly many more notable people to choose from. If you wanted to experience historical immersion as an Asian male samurai in the open world and go on an adventure and story consistent with that feudal Japanese fantasy, you are out of luck because now every quest, NPC, and gameplay mechanic will be altered as a consequence of this. Some people might like this, but I feel for Assassin's Creed, where historical immersion is the biggest selling point (let's face reality here, it's not the story, combat, or side quests), this is problematic for the series. We know this has disappointed many fans, even those who are not necessarily on the anti-woke side of things. To me, even if it's cool to play as Yasuke and bash skulls like he does in the trailer, you're not really playing out the samurai fantasy in this time period. So much of the gameplay, story, quests and everything HAS to be altered now. It may as well have just been a japanese-fantasy action game then. Just drop the historical pretext altogether. Why keep it for? At the end of the day, I can't help but see the DEI whiteboard sessions that made this approach a reality, and that's a big problem. If this had been done 10 years ago, nobody would have said anything. But we can all see the whiteboards with leftist writers and marketing people deciding these things, and we know most of them could care less about history or facts. They literally asked, "How can we make this game more diverse and check all the boxes that fit with our ideology?" and they stopped at nothing to make it a reality, ignoring any and every barrier to it. That's what happened.
Historical immersion??? In Assassin’s Creed???? Lmao please tell me you’re joking, you know that the assassins, templars, precursors, pieces of eden and all that aren’t real right? Not to mention that so much of the stuff presented as actual historical fact is just wrong. The AC games are about as historically accurate as a Mel Gibson movie.
Yasuke is a distinct part of Japanese culture. There are numerous anime, books, comics and etc featuring him, he is beloved by many. What's wrong with picking him? Apparently, look at Japan sales they are HYPED by Yasuke's inclusion Also, he's there for US to have his as a guide as another foreigner. There are the girl for native culture character and a foreigner for the world to indulge, to be taught about their culture from outside point of view. Loads of Hollywood and collaborations are set with at least 1 of European or American for the same reason. To be explained naturally about nuances and etc. It's literally the go to way to do that for decades. So it's not about leftists. White characters are used the same way for decades and a Yasuke is used the same way for the same decades.
So you have a problem with it not because of any factual problems, but because you FEEL like you know exactly what the creators were thinking. You sound like a snowflake.
because there were other black people in Japan, called Kurobo. theres also record of Africans and Indians (called Malabarians) fighting under daimyo ARIMA Harunobu. well if the sight of a black man in a crowd, makes you suspect assassin or criminal first, thats a you thing. Japanese people dont look at and think the same way about black people than westerners do.
@@BalorShieldgrats your an idiot. Every first hand source specifically mentions how unusual yasuke was and that obu even had him bathed repeatedly cuz he believe he was black. They were extremely rare. Also obviously yasuke was not a samurai. He was in Japan for three years. Only knew Obu for 2. Came from missionaries. It's would be ludicrous to think he reached the level and status of a samurai. He never owned land (resided in a temple at one time did not own it). Yasuke was also not a slave. It was unpopular and outlawed shortly after this time period. We also never see any example of yasuke fighting. He went ti battlefields with his lord Obu. But no historical evidence suggests he was a warrior. In fact the only possible time we have an actual record of him fighting, was for his life when Obu was killed. (It's also debated if this is accurate) because he went on to serve Obus son until he was killed by the same general that betrayed his father. And after that he was sent back to the missionaries. If he was a warrior or samurai he would likely have been asked to join the general that killed Obu. He wasn't. Everything we know for a fact shows that Yasukes real use was for marketing and raising Obus influence even more. A stipend did not mean you were a samurai. It all defended on your value to Obu. Obu had many retainers that were not samurai. He was NOT in line for a castle. No historical account states this. Again he lived in a temple at one time he did nor own it. Megatron dude. Your usually great but you clearly didn't verify your sources. He was not given a samurai sword. He was given a short sword (can't think of the name). Nothing says he was given armor. However there are some historical accounts that said he was put in a special almost ceremonial version of armor. Not to fight in but fir when Obu paraded him around a town to make him look even bigger and more imposing, making a bigger show of yasuke. There's also a very big reason we know he was not a samurai. He was never referred to as one ever. The white guy you mentioned (forgot the name) was in Japan for much longer than yasuke. In numerous historical sources it is explicity stated he was a samurai. This is common in jaoanese history as titles and tank were status symbols like everywhere else. So it's very common for samurai to be referred ro as samurai in Japanese history. Yasuke is never mentioned as a samurai. Megatron love your channel. Your awesome. Usually I'm agree with a ton of your points as iv read the same things probably from the same or similar sources. Nit this time man. Imo I'd guess you used too many contemporary sources that have skewed the story fior their own purposes, father than the older source based histories we have access too.
Calling yourself "Non-Binary" categorizes everyone as Binary or Non-Binary, thus creating a Binary System which makes you Binary again... Until Next Time...
The problem was never whether or not he was samurai, the problem is they chose to use a historical figure as a main character for the first time, only because they wanted to pander, and excluded the men the culture they are representing. I would much rather have met Yasuke and fought alongside him, as has been done with historical figures all throughout the series. This will be the first AC game I don't buy. and the "hold my beer" was epic.
@@mekosuji_facemask Ah yes, I have no access to the Internet, I never had a mother, I have no female friends or co workers. Think before you type. If you can.
I think it's important to point out that he was not in Japan for very long. I don't think the Japanese would've given the title of Samurai to a man, regardless of his accomplishments, if he couldn't fluently speak Japanese.
Addendum: The Samurai were not just warriors but also scholars, expected to master literature, calligraphy, and the complex social codes of feudal Japan.
Yeah, didn't see much people saying he was an slave and that its, most were saying he was a kosho and that due to timeframe (1 and a couple of months with Oda) was difficult for him to get a title other than kosho. That said, that was still way better than just being a commoner, though... the possibility of "serving" his master in various ways might be scary, Oda was monstruos at times, specially during the time yasuke was with him.
Yeah, while it was Tokugawa rather than Nobunaga who gave the title, there also was William Adams who was in Japan for about five years, performing MAJORLY important duties for the shogunate (rather than just being a guy who Ieyasu liked chatting with) and told he was to be forced into permanent residence before Ieyasu gave him an official samurai title. Even in context of Nobunaga, he didn't give Hideyoshi the legal responsibilities you would associate with a samurai until he had proven himself at Okehazama.
You're probably right. For most people like an authentic feel. Like Ghost of Tsushima. No one had an issue with playing a Japanese samurai, nor playing a dishonored/dishonorable samurai.
@@deltatea3192 The issue of Shadows is written into the fabric of Ghost Of Tsushima. The issue Japanese have is with outsiders coming forcefully onto their island and claiming it as their own and then running the show while the "locals" are told what's what. A nation that's been occupied by 75 foreign military bases and 50,000 foreign soldiers for 70yrs from the country that dropped 2 nukes on metropolitan cities incinerating hundreds of thousands of women and children is now being told by a British "historian" that he knows their history better than they do and that they definitely had slavery and that foreigners held the greatest position of esteem as a Samurai because the "locals" were just in awe when they saw who their betters were. Get a clue.
@@keyser021 I'm not quite sure what you are getting at with the reference to the second world war. That didn't happen in a social vacuum. There are consequences for actions taken. Even for nations. As for the topic of a foreigner educating a people in their history. I honestly don't see a problem with that provided they are actually telling the truth instead of weaving a manipulative interpretation for the purposes of a socio-political agenda. That's the problem that I see. The cultural agenda. It is no secret that the Western universities are pushing a specific view of the world.
It would be interesting it they presented it as a iskeai type deal. Fish out of water stories are always fun, it's just ubisoft doing it that messes with me.
@@keyser021 "Although he was the strongest samurai, worshiped like a god, and favored by the country's ruler, Yasuke simply watched as his comrades with the same skin color contented themselves with being slaves." Please, please think carefully.
If you don't pick sides, both sides will start attacking you. I've also gotten involved in this discussion (because I've also studied Japanese studies / Japanology in university) and then been called both a racist and a woke ideologue by people responding to the same comment. 😅
You know, I keep complaining "why is it only ever Sengoku/Edo period. Adapt a different period. Adapt the Gempei war. Adapt the Rebellion of Taira no Masakado. Do the Story of Kusunoki Masashige etc." but looking at stuff like this maybe I should be grateful they aren't. I would absolutely hate to see them butcher these historical events like they are the story of Yasuke which I think is one of the most interesting stories of Japanese history, and I translate Heian period literature for fun.
Ghost of Tsushima did the mongol invasion and brought in things from the Edo period. The only faithful attempt at the Gempei war was the Rise of the Samurai DLC for Shogun 2.
@@loadshedding_ it's not. This is such a stupid argument and shows you know nothing about AC. Why got the Crossbow removed? Why did Rodrigo survive in AC2? Why was Notre Dame so accurate they used it to rebuild it after the fire? Because it was a historical accurate SETTING. It says every time when you start up "inspired by historical events..." yes the STORY is fictional. Are you telling me all you people who argue this don't know the difference between story and setting? I explain: Setting is where the story takes place. Stop arguing just to look like a fool because you don't know what you're talking about.
@@raydafuq3570handheld crossbows had existed for centuries before Altair's time, The reason they removed it from the game has little to do with history. Borgia wasn't a templar and he didn't have fist fights with people under the Vatican. The Notre-Dame Cathedral is accurate to what it looks like today sure but it's inaccurate to what it looked like in the time of the french revolution (the spire wasn't the same and the interior got tweaked to allow better navigation) Look I get it, I also used to get very passionate about the historical accuracy of AC games, but truth is they were never 100% accurate. When they also lost the realistic side with Origins (and a bit with syndicate too) I personally gave up. Shadows is on par with the last 4 games, it's not doing anything egregious that previous AC didn't do.
The way I always understood Yasuke's story is as follows, he was physicaly much stronger than your average Japanese, something that in an era where war was a daily occurance, was really important, I don't much care if he was a samurai or not, to me his story is an incredible bit of history that expands an already rich japanese history. My problem is Ubisoft, I am sure that Yasuke for them is just another check in a list of diversity tropes (more so if everyone is gonna be LGBT), that will become a scapegoat for criticism when/if people dislike the game. The pattern is way too common to assume one of the worst videogame companies out there didn't had in in mind when deciding when to set the story of the game.
I don't think that Yasuke is a samurai because, as you said, Yasuke didn't receive a family name like Miura Anjin A.K.A. William Adams, who is considered the first real foreign samurai in Japan. I don't think that Yasuke was a warrior who used a sword either. He could be good at sumo because of his power, but I really don't think that Yasuke was good at swords because Yasuke met Oda Nobunaga in 1581, and Nobunaga died in Honnoji in 1582. It is highly improbable that he learned some western sword art before he met Oda because western missionaries don't want to teach fighting skills to their slaves or servants. It is highly improbable that he learned Japanese sword art in one year enough to be a samurai warrior as well. If you are saying that the evidence is important, we have to blame Ubisoft for saying things without any evidence.
You know that in this situation that meme is bullshite. They dont rewrite all the samurai as black, they just choose Yasuke becase they thought it would be interesting that one of the protagonists to be a foreigner and explore discover Japan culture alongside the player. And the whole gay thing was just a fake leak.
@@ΣτέργιοςΜποπότας-ζ1μ the cope is pathetic. They chose him because he's black since modern corporations are obsessed with identity politics. If they made a game about Zulus and the main character was white, we'd have riots.
@@ΣτέργιοςΜποπότας-ζ1μ nah, they did it because he was black and knew they could fall back on the argument "he was a real person" - bearing in mind, you've never played as a historical figure in assassins creed. He looks suspiciously like the character from their most recent Skull and Bones flop, like they really wanted to use that character. There is absolutely an agenda, and I can assure you its not to see it from the perspective of an outsider.
@@airwaves9611 but a lot of complaints about how the industry do things is that they blackwash things but then they pick a historical black man and yet people complain. That looks bad
I think one way of thinking about this is the history of media that depicts Yasuke. Yasuke has been represented in japanese media primarily as a samurai moreso than any other expression. If not in the exact historical record, the social imagination of japan about Yasuke sees him as a Samurai
@@alias-wave using Google translate to write in Japanese does not make you Japanese lol, or more credible. You have no sources, and your other comments are in English, you're just pretending you know Japanese to try to seem more authoritative pretending you speak for Japanese people lmao
@@alias-waveI think it's in no small part due to the perception that in feudal societies, the knightly class, meaning knights and samurai, were the professional and well armed and armored soldiers forming the elite core of an army largely consisting of peasant levies. Usually, reality is a bit more complicated. I believe the difference between bushi and samurai is like the difference between men-at-arms and knights; all knights were men-at-arms, but mercenaries and lowborn retainers could also serve as heavy cavalry if they had the money to outfit them.
@@MrVeps1 After all, there must be a problem with the translation. The comparative theory with the West is not consistent in some parts. Samurai are those who were given official positions and ranks by the Imperial Court (Emperor). Bushi (mo-no-no-fu) are the ranks of the modern military, from second lieutenant to colonel. Can you tell from this that Yasuke is neither a Samurai nor a Bushi?
Your presentation about Yasuke is edifying and interesting. I knew nothing about this person, now, I know this person existed. your passion for facts and staying out of the turbulent waters of political controversy is inspiring. As always, thank you for sharing your knowledge with us, your audience. Blessings to you.
I'm quite left wing. And recently got canceled for spreading historical evidence about a topic. 😅 and now this is my favorite channel you tell it how it is no matter what
That's what political extremists are like, on either side. They will shun anyone who doesn't dedicate themselves to the dogmatic mission of their side.
9:50 The man depicted here is not Nobunaga. He's most likely a Gyōji (a referee) since he's standing very close to the wrestlers and he's holding a paddle that are traditionally used by Gyōji in sumō wrestling.
I think it’s obvious that it’s a referee, I thought metatron was saying that nobunaga was serving as a referee for that particular match. At least that’s how I interpreted it.
in the background, is that an original Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet, or a replica? Oh yeah, about the Assassins creed game, I find that the most offensive thing to be that the charging $120 for a piece of """AAA""" bloatware.
Tbf I think the social standards at that time would make it almost impossible for Yasuke to obtain any high "noble" rank, a minor "noble" rank I can understand but don't forget how the society of Japan worked back than. A simple lack of discipline like speaking out of turn would get most Japanese warriors ending themselves. Oda while being a very peculiar man from what we see in the historical records would be very unlikely to do something as making a foreigner a samurai as he still held onto most of the social standards of that time. I think such an action would go slightly too far and make a lot of his on retainers quite upset with such a decision. I also feel like Yasuke would have to do something huge to achieve it such a title especially given he was only there for a year and a bit. There is no way on first meeting Oda would bestow a huge role on him, he might have liked him but he was still held in check by many of his societies standards.
Oda would convert all Japan to Christianity. He was more then peculiar. He liked anythging that was exotic and foreigner. He was the first to adopt firearms as the main weapon in his army. You forgot There was a british samurai.
@@paulodelima5705Yeah and this British Samurai, William Adams earned his title. He went through numerous insane battles for many MANY years before he could even call himself as Japanese and then did more feats and achievements for again, MANY YEARS before he got the title of Samurai.
Nobunaga: Yasuke, I give you the title of samurai. Yasuke: Wow, thanks boss! Nobunaga: This also means that if I die soon, which is likely, you’ll have to kill yourself. Yasuke: Eh, sure. *doesn’t do it*
I mean lmao it's logical thinking he wasn't raised in Japan nor brought up in their culture and beliefs/religion he was a slave that escaped and was well trained in India so he's always had a nitch for surviving his whole life just to be brought to a royal guy to live with for a year and kill himself cause that guy died? Lol he's a better man than me cause atleast he went back with his son to try again
If he did get the title of samurai it was probably largely ceremonial, and didn’t have the full privilege or rights they did…… so can’t commit to suicide if I’m only partially samurai lol.
@@mowabb lol there is no evidence and he probably wasn’t but I can see Nobu giving it to him. Your joke is pretty on point. I don’t consider Yasuke nor William Samurai. It was probably an honorary title for them.
@@ironrex6979 neither of them were put on duty or participated in any war....I mean technically Yasuke did when they were ambushed by Akechi but neither actually were told to go into battle
You know?the whole "if it walks like a duck..." falls apart when you remember Dingos exist and mistaking a Dingo for a dog could cost you a hand. Then there is the platypus.
@@MidnightatMidian Geese are evil. Just plain evil. That wicked hiss they do just ain't right. They had to have descended from velociraptors or something.
I very much look forward to your video on homosexuality in feudal Japan. Ive read a couple of different books about it that, again as you said depending on era, but that for a good portion of Japanese history it was socially acceptable at least to some degree or another, and some sources even record formal events that involved homosexual activity mostly in the context of the aristocratic classes however. I want to say, as a left-leaning person who definitely would be called 'woke' by a great many people, I keep coming back to Metatrons channel because of the fact that he does his best not to let his own biases dictate the information he presents. Metatron, of course, is more than welcome to his own opinions whether or not we agree on those opinions, but as long as he keeps presenting evidence in its entirety rather than with holding information to support his own biases on topics I will gladly keep watching his videos, and donating to his patreon as should we all. No one is immune to propaganda, all we can do is try our best to overcome it.
I'm on the side of I Don't care to much about yasuke being a historical figure. Its more about the fact that Ubisoft decided we need to A BLACK mans eyes to see feudal japan. That we couldn't possible relate to the japanese because quoting ubisoft we need non-Japanese eyes. Second problem is having Yasuke as an AC MC. A tall black man killing Japanese people might stand out to the Japanese. It also might be the quickest way to be turned into a pincushion full of arrows. We know that yasuke was a jesuit slave and was given over he got a sword as well. But the only battle we know he was around for he was captured and spared. Because and to quote the man who spared him. " He was not Japanese " Being a Samurai and your enemy samurai don't recognize you as a samurai or even Japanese.
It's another example of cultural imperialism and cultural colonialism from Americans and Europeans. They love to take things from other cultures and history, twist them to suit their own agendas and claim the new version to be the truth. Look at what Netflix tried to pull with their garbage Cleopatra show, and how they insulted the entire country of Egypt. Another tactic in cultural imperialism is shaming other cultures for being different. Look at how hard Americans and European "journalists" go after anime and video games when they do something that doesn't conform to the left western worldview. These are the kind of people who, despite claiming to support diversity, hate the fact that other places on Earth have different values and different ways of thinking. It's a new form of racism which is much more insidious because it is hidden under the guise of righteousness and equality. But TH-cam will probably auto erase this comment since they don't seem to like it when people call out genuine racism.
There is a japanese character in game. There is a female shinobi but no male shinobi like other Assassins Creed game. That is the problem. Jesuits didn't had slaves but the Portuguese had. The Japanese didn't spare people because they were not japanese but they spare Yasuke because he was not a threat to them.
@@fattiger6957 Explain to me how exactly is blackwashing history a European or American cultural colonialism? Just because aggressive leftists have taken over mainstream media, doesn't mean the majority of Europeans or Americans stand behind this.
Yasuke was send in Japan as a slave. Then since Nobunaga were a collector - he wanting to have all the possible things which the rest doesnt have - Yasuke was something so exotic that was given to Nobunaga as a gift. During this period - no one in Japan were seeing a black man, so it is very likely that he were thinking from the commoners as some sort of "oni" ( a demon ) and possible even compared to Umibōzu ( a sea demon in Japanese mythology ). For Nobunaga having an "oni" on a leash was more than expression of power and might ( something which ultimately got him killed by Mitsunari ). Back to the topic. Samurai in end of the Muromachi period already had a different meaning than "bushi" - a warrior. Samurai had to have perfect speaking and at least some good writing skills. They were already deep into Chinese literature, and most likely having at least a minor job at government position. Knowing perfectly the cultural traditions is absolutely mandatory for someone been a "samurai". The time from receiving Yasuke as a gift to his death is less than 15 months. At this period is absolutely impossible for him to learn to speak properly, write perfectly, get into the culture to be able to receive the rang of "samurai". It is even questionable is he was understanding the most of the things which were happening. There were not yet "hatamoto" since well, this is something from Edo period, and no one of the main characters here is reaching it alive. As well "hatamoto" is from 1603 onward and it is granted only on HIGH RANKED Samurai close to Tokugawa. The Muromachi positions were "kosho" - a personal page to a high ranked samurai. A position which involving keeping the swords of your lord when he resting, eating or drinking, and preparing the things for some cultural events for him. Yet since Yasuke was practically illiterate, and therefore this position is as well doubted as practically not possible as well. The only one possible rank for him was "ashigaru" - a commoner which is given a TEMPRARY status as a "bushi" in order to serve for a specific task to a highly ranked samurai. So.. NOPE - Yasuke was never a samurai. This is an insult to the history and Japanese culture. And NOPE - he was not "respected" member of Japanese society. It is impossible since to be "respected" in Japan requires .. well .. HELL a lot of things to be perfectly done. As NOPE - he was not "retainer". Retainer in Japanese is "gokenin". Gokenin is given land directly from the lord, and he have to be in administration of this land - therefore he need to de quite well in the laws and customs , and well.. everything as a high ranked administration should do. So nope - been a "retainer" is an absurd. The data for him is literally 5 rows, and there is no even which is even recoded that he spoke even a word. And NOPE - You wont find him listed as a vasal. There is a list of the vassals issued at the moment someone become, and this list is spread at least to the Shogun, the Emperor's court nobles, the local daimios, and ye - there is no such name in any list anytime. So.. nope. He was more like an exotic object which Nobunaga were carried around to scare the peoples which were not seeing such a man ( look above ). And object - nothing more.
Yeah zero record of any training or ever being in any combat. But the problem isn't with yasuke or his history, the problem is doing a setting in feudal japan, which fans have been begging for a samurai for years, and not having a Japanese samurai.
@@marcel-ec6qeback then it was perfectly ok to treat people as objects. Even Aristotle compared Slaves to tools. Immanuel Kant was not around there yet to teach us that all human beings are beyond a “prize”. You shouldn’t warp history just because some Wokists can’t acknowledge facts.
@@samuraijackoff5354and he was not recorded to have been in any combat there. The only record of him there is Akemichi letting him go because he thinks he is an animal and should not be killed. He was given back to the Jesuit monks after that.
I'm not interested in history, never was really, and I sure don't care about the subject in question here but man, the way you talk and explain things is truly captivating and I love how you're so neutral and open-minded, your basis in empirical data and I respect that. Who knows, if you were my history teacher back in the day I might have picked up a thing or two. Nothing to add the conversation, just wanted to let you know these videos are great (I discovered you yesterday and already am hooked). Keep up the good work my guy🤙
He was a retainer for about a year. You don't become a samurai just like that. At most he would've had an honorary position, mostly because of being foreign and thus interesting to Nobunaga. A bit like John Blanke, the African trumpeter who got his position in the court of king Henry VII and VIII because they thought he was interesting because he was African, and kept him around.
You're describing him like he's some animal that was kept around for the novelty. You don't become a weapon bearer for the most important man in the country just by being "interesting." Nobunaga actually liked and trusted the guy.
@@blooperman1997 There is no historical record that confirms that Nobunaga liked and trusted Yasuke. Nobunaga used Yasuke as a tool for entertainment. He had Yasuke carry his baggage and walk behind Nobunaga, showing it off to the public and enjoying their reactions.
@@alias-wave No historical record, other than the fact that Nobunaga himself gifted him a sword, a home, gave him retainer status, and gave him a stipend usually reserved for samurai, and it's outright stated that Nobunaga enjoyed talking to him and having him around in general in a Jesuit letter from the time period... You can choose to ignore all of this if you want to and just push your little agenda. No skin off my back.
@@blooperman1997this is theyre fandom. A melanin man can't possibly be kept around for more than his color. Im sure those men wanted to hear him play the trumpet badly everyday. Reveals alot about those types of peoples mindset. Just cut it short and say your a supremacists😂
Gamers are pissed because they want AC with Japanese background, but the main character are not Japanese. And the representation stuff that really unnecessary.
The saddest part is 10 years ago before we all started having to worry where every idea comes from, I would have seen a black samurai as a main character and hearing that it is based on a real black man in Japan under Nobunaga, I would have been very intrigued. I still am intrigued now, but sadly I know not to trust anything anymore that has ANY veneer of trying to appease minority fringe elements and/or activists. Even trying to be objective, objectivity still gives me enough proof that none of them know how to write worth a damn.
I don't want AC with Japanese background because Japan already makes good games with Japanese background. You know who makes less good games? Everywhere else. Ubi could set AC anywhere else and it wouldn't be redundant. Are they going to make a Samurai game with combat better than a Japanese Samurai game? I very much doubt it.
I'm more pissed that they're charging $130 for this garbage and using this whole Yasuke drama as a smoke screen Ubi needs to be held responsible not just for historical inaccuracies but also for horrific price gauging tactics that are slowly driving up the prices of everything else this game needs to bomb and if it doesn't we'll soon be seeing $200+ "premium" AAAA garbage as the standard
@@magicalmagicmagician5223this again? The game is $70. You do not need to buy the ultimate edition. $130 is NOT the price. You are buying DLC packs that are not going to be released for months
@@cmdrdredd This is a very dumb take. Ubisoft's monetization practices are horrendous: for 70 euro (pre-order) you get a quest that other people won't have. For 110 euro, you also get a battlepass with additional quests and content, which by its nature will be released to everyone as an optional buyable after 1 month, at most 3. Also, 3 days early access. Finally, for 130 euro they give you cosmetics on top but also five skill points (that's if the trinket and gear don't have stats). So, to recap, they use FOMO to upsell you on pre-order with 0 day DLC, 3 days Early Access, a battlepass unlocked ahead of time and finally cosmetics possibly with stats but certainly five skill points to start with. If you don't have any problem with this, then congratulations, you're their target audience and at the same time responsible for the horrible practices of the AAA industry.
I've subscribed because you are very balanced with your historic take on Japanese feudal history, you relay what is on record and you don't make leaps of faith towards either bias when things are unknown. Totally respect that, and its the logical and honest way to cover history. And I had to subscribe after seeing the old school games.. you must remember the game STRIDER by double helix games and capcom! Used to play that and Street Fighter in the arcades back in the day. Spent a fortune Lol Thank you!
"We need a new protagonist for Star Wars" Kathleen Kennedy: "Maker her a chick, and make her gay" "We need a new protagonist in feudal Japan" Ubisoft: "Make him black, and make him gay"
It’s a choice with ac shadows at least, I can’t say it’s a choice in starwars Ubisoft game, but if you don’t want Yasuke to be gay then just don’t make a gay choice… Duhh,
@@Ailurus-Fulgens1858 to be fair it's literally disrespecting him in death when he can't say nothing about it. It's exactly the reason why you don't take a historical figure as AC protagonist or any protagonist really if you plan on doing things like this. I'm straight and I have nothing against gay people but I'd be furious if a couple of hundred years after I'm dead people say I loved sucking dicks all day. Same thing for a gay person that was proudly and openly gay his/her whole life and hundreds of years later it's said they were straight and had 10 children. It's simply disrespectful to do this without concrete evidence.
This controversy is hilarious to me because I'm happy with the conclusion of "We don't know" because we truly don't have enough evidence to sway either way. But I find entertainment in people who are fighting so vigorously on both sides of this conversation but neither side have evidence to prove their point. I think we can strongly assume that he was bushi, but it's up in the air if he had the title of samurai. All samurai are bushi but not all bushi were samurai. That fact DOES NOT push the needle in either direction.
My problem with AC is , beyond it having a repetitive gameplay and even story, that when they decided to tell a Japanese story, they passed all the established Japanese historical characters and picked a black character, and even the female character is just a gender swap, yet they claim historical accuracy. It's "Cleopatra was black" all over again. If you want ro tell the story of a black queen, then tell the story of a queen we KNOW was black, instead of a basing the story on a gap in history and say "it's not impossible".
Historical accuracy only ever mattered in AC for being able to jump around historical cities. As for Yasuke, I actually agree on their decision. It puts the player in a position of an outsider discovering Japan without being limited by the history like it would be if they'd used William Adams. It's also interesting to see that they're using an actual person this time rather than an original character.
@@nomisunrider6472 valhalla did that, you’re playing as a foreigner. But not as a historical character, the problem is that Yasuke is actually a real guy. Every other character has been fictional
No, it's not the same as "Cleopatra was black", as Yasuke *was* black. So including a black guy named Yasuke isn't contrary to historical facts. He was also a character with quite a few blank spaces in his biography, so it allows for some creative speculation that doesn't directly contradict history. BTW: may I remind you, that Yasuke was already on of playable characters in SW5, so a game by Japanese creators and intended primarily for the Japanese market. He was also an NPC in Nioh and appeared multiple mangas. So it does seem that quite a few people in Japan find the character quite intriguing.
@@Qba86 him being black was not my point, I know he was a real black person. It's basing the story on a weak technicality. In Cleopatra she was claimed to be black based on a small gap in history around her grandmother, here yasuke is claimed To be a samurai based of assumptions. Based on my understanding the chance of him being a samurai is at best 50%. They took that possibility and ran with it. Instead if a real certified samurai. Taking "creative liberties" on historical figures leaves a bad taste in mouth. What would people say if a documentary or game based on Dr king claimed he was actually gay or queer, because we can't be 100% certain he wasn't.
@@nomisunrider6472 they could have created a original character like blue eyed samurai. As I said taking creative liberties with actual historical figures is slippery slope And personally I am against it. What would be the reaction if in the next AC, during civil rights movement, dr king will be depicted as a closet gay. Will that be alright?
Also, I appreciate how you included the original text in here too. I like opportunities to practice reading and understanding very old Japanese. More please.
Even if he was a samurai, he still shouldn't be a main character. It should've been a Japanese man plain and simple. It's totally disrespectful to Japanese people. Why does everything have to have black people forced into it?
They even give him/her/they/them/attack helicopter a full-adorned armor which is usually given to high ranking samurai. Imagine if the Great Nobunaga is still alive and show him this this is like spit on his face, on his ranking as one of the well-accomplished general.
It is disrespectful. Japan has such a big history and they can only focus on the one time a black guy is mentioned and then use him instead of a fictional character like every other game.
This comment is exactly my thinking, and exactly why I won't play the game. I wouldnt give a crap if he was in the game as a character. But they dug through all of Japanese history and found the one black man that existed in Japan and said oooo let's make him the main character. It's obvious and it ruins it for me. I would have bought and played this game if we could play as an actual Japanese person from the land and traditions in which the game takes place. But being an obscure outsider who stands out like a sore thumb and isn't from the culture we are immersing ourselves into ruins the game for me and breaks immersion. So, they lost my money, and I ain't the only one.
You might say that it is was also disrespectful to make an Englishman a protagonist in Nioh... But if we're going on this route, it actually would be more disrespectful towards white people, because in that game he looks like a Japanese man with blond hair. So you are correct.
Tron, for the love of God, address what happens _after_ Nobunaga died. Thats what defines what he was. "The Fool's " Pet, or a High class warrior. If he lost his title after Nobunaga's death then it's very clear.
my thing with yasuke is the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. i'm with you 100% the fact is we just don't know weather he had the title of samurai that was my stance on it way before he became a huge talking point. and my main issue is the absolutist stance on both sides of this argument. so when ever a piece of media decides to depict him as a samurai i'm like sure fine have fun with it.but people trying to change wikipidia articles and change the neritive of actual history when we don't really have the evidence to say weather he was or was not this thing i find issue with. assfor this assassins creed game well i only ever played the first 1 so i have alot of catching up to do if i wanted to play this one. but i do feel like a famous ninja would be a better fit someone like hattori hanzo or something since your suppose to be an assassin someone who's stealthy that could easily blend into a crowd. picking someone would is literally the only black man in japan at the time he has to stick out in a crowd eacy. so i'm not opposed to the idea of a yasuke game but an assassin's creed game seems like a bad fit. and it's obvious that they made him the main character for dei reasons you'll have to be a complete fool not to see that. so that fact also rubs me the wrong way slightly aginst this game. but not nearly as much as the history-altering thats going on.
Link to my Patreon page! Check it out!
www.patreon.com/themetatron
What was that music that was playing when you were showing off how much of an awesome gamer you are.
Hey bro, as a black man I would like to explain the REAL definition of "woke" since woke is a particular word in AAVE. Woke is to be socially aware of injustice. Republicans/Right Wing have co-opted the word as the new catch all word to describe their dislike for progression or basically anything having to do with black people. To be woke is to be enlightened, and you shouldn't take offense of the word. They calling you woke is the equivalent of calling you a "N-word lover."
I think that guy called you a woke because you kinda fencesitted on the answer, which was a "maybe" while "probably not" is closer to the truth. Just playing devil's advocate here.
Really disappointed in you adding on to the incel rumors that aren't true smh. No it was never confirmed by ubisoft yasuke would be gay smh.
Woke is a political slang adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) originally meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights.
Weather you're left, right or something in between, we can all agree "Fuck Ubisoft".
I dunno, Ubi managed to manipulate a whole bunch of people into defending them.
@@airwaves9611and those same people never cared about their games or videogames as a whole until now.
And what is even funnier is the same crowd currently defending Ubisoft have known to be corporate haters and hate rich people, and now they are are defending a corporation.
i just instanly like the video when he talk about heroes might and magic and ubisoft lolll
@@airwaves9611 They're not defending Ubisoft, they're defending the image of Yasuke along with the pop culture image of him developed in modern Japan against white right wingers who have nothing to do with Japan
Fuck Ubisoft
I remember my grandmother saying to me: "I dont care what they tell you in school, The Metatron has spread his wings, and he is black".
😂😂
🤣
I remember your grandmother saying to you: "I don't care what they tell you in school, Yasuke was LGBTQAII+++
@@ImaNPCmanfacts. I can verify that. I was the chalk on the board.
I haven’t “laughed out loud” yet in 2024! You my friend broke me! Good on ya mate!
Lets be real Metatron, this setup was a way to flex that awesome and beautiful room. Great Content
Hahahahahaha. So true. It was beautiful.
lol
Loved it
Problem getting glossed over is two big elements. A 家来 and a 小姓 is not defined as a samurai historically. The classical application of Kosho in the Sengoku era in the first place was one who "took charge of secretarial affairs". It was not strictly a page fulfilling a military role, but a much broader term for someone close to the daimyo, directly serving them.
Similarly, the records state Yasuke was provided with a wakizashi (short sword), not a daishō (sword set with a katana (longsword)). He could arguably be military nobility based on that, but you'd have to get more fiddly on rationale of samurai since it's missing the katana that was the combined status symbol of a samurai. Cycles back on the point on ashigaru vs samurai there.
@brony_in_the_sticks Pretty much.
But the Limey who cites his own Wikipedia page that references his own fictional historical novel who "made up parts to fill in the gaps" has assured everyone that his Japanese skills are at or above the greatest native Japanese speaking Historians on the island and he is unassailable in citing the 4-6 notes made in journals used as references that have ZERO articulation of rank or social standing, just rumors and hearsay from second sources. How could he possibly have gotten it wrong?
@@monody
脇差を与えられたのは、貴族や特権階級である証拠にはならない。
日本には千利休と言う人が居た。
元商人で、茶人で、僧侶で政治顧問的な役割もした人だ。
脇差どころか、利休の鎧や従軍の記録もしっかりと現存している。
しかし、彼は武士、侍とする人は誰も居ない。
弥助とは違い、その功績も貰った知行もはっきりと3000石と記されて、それでも彼は茶人であり、僧侶だ。
理解できるか？
脇差なんてものは当座の褒美で与えられる事もある程度のモノでしかない。
脇差は何の証拠にもならない
Personally, I hate Ubisoft for what they did to Splinter Cell (and Tom Clancy games in general).
Personally, I hate Ubisoft.
Other than blood dragon, can't say I have much affection for anything they've done.
Ubisoft has always been the least competent of the big publishers, but now they seem to want to take the crown as the most greedy from the likes of Take 2 and EA.
Include how they left Silent Hunter V almost unplayable too because of bugs they never even bother to fix.
I hate them for what they did to the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise. Killed it and now they are trying to milk it's corpse with stupid pay to win mobile games.
"Do you even play Videogames" he says to the guy with a giant arcade machine behind him
Metatron probably played on such machines before the guy doubting his 'gamer' card was even born - long before he was born at that.
These people aren't really known for their ability to think.
Children are, generally speaking, very self centered and narrow minded
I don’t think the guy knows what an arcade machine is lol….
I mean, it's a little unlikely that someone has a YT channel like Metatron's channel without playing videogames. These days, many of us who love history love it because video games sparked out curiosity earlier in life.
You are neither "woke", nor anti-woke. You are *neutral* . You are about HISTORICAL FACTS, not about modern politics.
QUICK EDIT: My gosh, that's a lot of Likes and Replies! 😲😳 Please, *please* keep it civil, though, folks? ❤️ Thanks 🙏
He's BASED
Woke people are trying to literally change history. There is no neutral.
@@IbnRushd-mv3fp Based on what?
Correct. The "feelings don't care about your facts" crowd forget that facts don't care about sides either.
I think some people keep getting anti-woke and not woke confused a lot nowadays. He's simple just not woke, it's simple as
Just a girl who LOVES history of all kinds - really appreciate your videos and your approach. There's too many people in this world that have their own agenda and can't appreciate TRUTH for the sake of TRUTH. I'm not one to comment much and I subscribe even less - but your kind of voice needs all the help it can get. Proud subscriber here. :)
Too much money and influence to be gained with propaganda. That's mostly what it is about, in my opinion.
I will say I love Metatrons channel. And I'm usually right with him. This one though idk. I have a minro in history and live reading about Feudal Japan. Nothing in source documents describe yasuke as a samurai. Plus he was only in Japan for three years. Only knew Obu for 2. It's extremely unlikely he would have attained the skill and status to be considered a samurai. He was never in line to own a castle. Obus gave him residence in a very nice temple. But yasuke didn't own it. Yasuke was useful because he was a latge black man in a time where Japan barely knew black people existed. They were extremely rare. So Obu paraded him around. Raising his own influence among his people.
I hate the tendency to automatically associate close male friendships with being gay. Like it's not possible for two guys to have a friendship that isn't sexual, and there are people whose worldviews revolve around sex. It's really stupid.
It doesn't help that vapid fandom women think that too. And then they have the audacity to say that feminism has made it possible for men to be close friends without gay connotations. Like make up your mind.
@cog7795same. They are very horny often and take simple gestures of friendship sexually
@cog7795
Numerous gay men I know aren't hedonistic like that.
Must differ by location.
@@girlbeneaththegap6982been to Atlanta lately?
People used to have closer friendships and would talk more all throughout history than they do nowadays. So yeah, really stupid to equate it to being gay.
"That's an insult to neanderthals because even they could develop tools." 😂😂 daaayum.
Metatron is wrong here. I mean his parents did create a tool 🌝🌝🌝
Only one group of homo-sapien did not hybridize with Neanderthals, those from below the Sahara. Hybridizing with Neanderthals created civilization
Not much of an insult, neanderthals had larger craniums which means larger brains.
Then he goes on to insult Denisovans which also developed tools
@@andregon4366 having a larger brain doesn't have a causal relationship with being smarter
"You either die cringe, or live enough to become woke."
-Yasuke.
what's the difference tho 😂
That's the same thing
Nobody ever claimed Yasuke was a smart cookie or even able to make sense
lemme try.
“If you wait by the cringe long enough, the bodies of your enemies will woke by.”
comon sence is not not helpfull if you live by bushido ;)
13:45 That kind of reminds me of, how Joseph Fourier’s proof of the irrationality of the number e (that e cannot be represented, as a fraction a/b, with a and b positive integers) relies on the fact that e can be approximated by fractions better, than fractions can be approximated by fractions. 😅
“Do you even play video games?”
We’re talking about a guy on the internet with a Mortal Kombat cabinet in the background of every video… Like, is that person serious? Do they have eyes?
One can have eyes but they may not use them
It might just be decor, we all know non-gamers buy arcade cabinets just because they like the ambiance (sarcasm).
Lets be real like 90% of ppl only listen youtube videos so i kinda get that he missed that one but still what a awesome comeback for that "do you even play" statament, thats one hella cool mancave
Eyes? What eyes? He/she/they/them has none. How dare you assume his/they/ blah blah gender, he/she/they/them is transable/trnasblind
I have crochet decorations in my room. I have literally never done crochet
I am a little weirded out by Yasuke being a playable character, but not for the reason everyone else is. Assassins Creed characters meet historical figures but are not historical figures themselves, having a real person from history as a character in the series is not how the series has worked.
Absolutely. And i think in this case it would have worked WAY better as well. Do two shinobi main chars so you have one playstyle instead of two different ones where you are going to miss the other ones strengths every time you switch. Maybe have yasuke help you get out of jail or something, because he knows how awful it is to be at someones mercy. Playing yasuke and openly opposing nobunaga makes zero sense.
I feel like this is the main reason everyone else is weirded out by Yasuke.
Well, that, plus the irony of the most standing out person in Japan of that time being an assassin. Meeting Yasuke would have always been cool, but being Yasuke?
This is the real issue people should be pointing out. Not his race or his status as samurai. Both are irrelevant to the fact that Ubisoft forcing us to play as actual historical character for the first time which feels weird.
@@cirescythe Blame that on Ubisoft writers and game directors. Yasuke would have been a wonderful antagonist as African man ready to die for the one who granted him honour (Nobunaga). Plus, why not play a bit about the Jesuits priest being also hidden assassin who trained Yasuke. Cheesy, loosely based on history, maybe but could fits the AC lore a bit more.
You mean being hidden in the shadows of history fighting for the human spirit and freedom?
ohhh damn, you made me remember Heroes....what a crime, to hell with Ubisoft
Do You remember Might & Magic RPG series which was the base of the world building for Heroes games (HoMM1-3, the HoMM4 was a disaster due to bankruptcy of the 3DO and then being bought by Vivendi and HoMM5-7 happened)?
Welcome to the final stage, where the extremes of both sides come for you.
Thanks for keeping us informed, neutrally and factually. We need more like you.
Facts
he fakes neutrality, like most fascists
Being called both Woke and Anti-Woke means you're doing something right 🙌
No, that doesn't mean anything. There are always people who call you something, but one side can be right and the other side can be wrong.
@@redsimonyt If one side is wrong, it means he is at least doing something right in pissing off that side.
It means he is neutral since they cancel each other out.
@@frankvandorp2059 Pissing off a side doesn't mean anything either. You can even piss off your own side.
@@redsimonyt If you think one side is always right and another is always wrong it sounds like you might be brainwashed, my friend... So yes, Metatron is doing it right drawing his own conclusions rather than reciting the talking points of one side or the other.
「扶持」とは米（食料）で支払われた給与を意味します。特別なものを意味するわけではありません。
「家禄」として記録されていれば「侍」と言えますが、「扶持」とだけ記録されているのであれば給与以外の意味を持たない。
Yeah, honestly I prefer to hear about Japanese history from Japanese people rather than politically-propagandizing Westerners.
@@jw6588 now Metatron is a panderer? Lol. Please.
@@jw6588
Opinion: 😐
Japanese opinion: 🤯
@@optick3554 He's hardly the worst among TH-camrs, but him being an online presence itself influences what he says. It's almost inevitable. I give him credit for resisting better than most would. But his softness on this issue is sad to see.
@@jw6588Meta is exceedingly credible, what do you even mean?
"For what they did to Heroes of Might and Magic", we think the same❤
I think the easier way to oppose this ubisoft game is to point out that they never based their games on historical accuracy and now they shield themselves with historic trivia to push their agenda. I think your strongest point was that Yasuke was not raised in Japan, and he didn't have time to develop their fighting skills, so he shouldn't be used as a represntative of Samurai fighting skills.
From what ou provided it looks like Yasuke was given some priviledges that would be of samurai level, but he wasn't directly titles samurai.
yeah its common sense , some people don't realise it.
I'm so glad I was born in a age where Metatron is here to dunk on idiots.
Lol i misread this as “…born in a rage…”
It still works
If you would be born after Metatron (Raf) died you would still see his whole content.
Only science would be more advanced, and etc.
Now we need a couple others with enough knowlege of Japanese history so all together can bukkake on idiots
I'm glad I was born in an age where this nonsense didn't exist. At least not for another 30yrs or so.😂 The 80's rocked..lol!
Idk following any one man will always lead to disappointment. No one is right on every point. And that’s evident here
Hahah love the not-so-subtle gamer flex.
when the nerds come for you G card, you're allowed a nice long flexing skit... it did make me jelly tho :3
@@julianspaghi4592 Same, esp. when I saw his NES and SNES game collection.
being a gamer is cool now?
Saga? This is gonna turn into a whole novel series. We're gonna fill a library.
Didn't expect to see you in the comments
Why not? Metatron is quite the guy :)
Total war saga games being one of The worst of theybown séries outside of total war shogun 2 and Fall of The samurai:😬
long time no see sir.
渡邊大門さんは、博士号を持つ日本の歴史学者です。
彼は「弥助は武士ではなかった可能性が高い」と述べています。
彼が「可能性が高い」という表現を使う理由は、信頼できる資料に基づいて研究する歴史学者にとって、弥助は十分な資料が残されていないからです。
有名な武士である明智光秀が、信長との戦いの際に「弥助は単なる奴隷に過ぎないから殺さない」と言って、彼を見逃したという歴史資料が残されています。（なぜなら、武士にとって弱者や非戦闘員を殺すことは恥ずべき行為だったからです）
しかし、多くの日本の歴史学者は慎重なので、この記録だけで「弥助は侍ではなかった」と断言する事はしません。どんなに信憑性の高い資料であっても、明智光秀の証言を裏付ける別の資料を確認するまでは「弥助は侍ではなかった」と断言しないのです。そのため、「武士ではなかった可能性が高い」という表現を使うのです。
そして、弥助には詳細な検証ができるほどの資料が残っていないのです。まぁ、明智光秀は弥助を「非戦闘員」と見なしていたほどですから、重要人物として記録されなかったのでしょう。
海外の歴史改竄者達は、こうした日本の歴史学者の慎重な言葉遣いを悪用して、「弥助が武士では無かったと断言しないなら、弥助が武士だった可能性もあるじゃないか！」と言ってきますが、弥助が武士に任命された記録はどこにもありません。
弥助と同時期に信長に仕えていた17歳の日本人の少年がいました。その少年は信長によって上級武士に任命されたので、彼に関しては詳細な記録が残っています。17歳の侍に与えられた領地がどこにあり、どのくらいの広さだったかまでもわかっています。
もし本当に弥助が武士に任命されていたのであれば、17歳の侍の記録が残っているのと同じように、弥助の記録も残っているはずです。
少なくとも、弥助はこの17歳の侍より身分が低かったことは確かです。UBIのゲームが描いているような、立派な鎧・兜・太刀を持った上級武士ではありませんでしたし、「封建時代の日本において最強の武士」でもありませんでした。
As a gamer who is not interested in medieval Japan, loved the part about hating Ubisoft.
As a gamer is it wrong of of me to still play and enjoy their games despite my dislike for ubi management and publisher. I fell in love withe Clancy games and I still enjoy AC and FC.
I hate ubisoft too, Thats why I always pirate their games
@@alexaalexa2308 Their games are not even worth pirating... except Anno 1800.
@HusbandOfManyWives1776 no you're perfectly normal & should be more worry bout if a game from them is good or not. That's what matters the most n if you like shadows, grab it. If not don't. Make a choice & stick with it
@@HusbandOfManyWives1776 ALWAYS, care mostly only about the quality, price and story of the game. If you get into politics, you will never be happy.
I'm oddly deflated that Raph doesn't have a Nintendo Power Glove, after seeing all that superb collection. 😂
Wait Metatrons real name is Ralph?
I didn't notice a Robotic Operating Buddy either. Remember the R.O.B for the NES? :)
Maybe it's tucked away in a cupboard somewhere
Raphael I think, or Raphaelo. Not sure@@samuel10125
@@samuel10125No, it's short for Raphael.
0:16 "always hate Ubisoft for what they done to Heroes of might and magic" brother! I have found thee!!! 😢🤗
I`m curious if metatron gonna issue correction or clearing up after what happening now with lockley.
I really respect you not catering to any one side in particular and standing by your principles
To be fair, I think he is unintentionally catering to a "side." I'm sure there are a lot of people who probably watched the trailer, cringed at a black Samurai and then found out he was a real person and that it's at least reasonable for them to depict him like that (combat style aside) and went "Oh, neat. Still probably chose it for DEI reasons, but if it's a real person I don't care." Which just so happens to be exactly what I and some others I know did, but you wont hear from people like that much because they've already moved on.
based
I agree with you. Content creators with integrity is quite rare, most would either to relent towards one side of the extreme or the other.
@@aweigh1010 well, there's a Shaka Zulu movie starring David Hasselhoff so...
@@Kat957 lying about history spaming that he was slave isn’t reasonable
Holy cow, Batman! That is one frakk of a Geek Cave!!!!!! I love you even more now!
I hate how standing your ground and maintaining a neutral position on a lot of divisive matters is often labelled as being some sort of fence-sitter or worse. There is a point in pausing for once in your life to think and ponder first that maybe some things are, in fact, a bit more complicated than we'd like to admit. Not everything has to be just one way or the other. Glad you're sticking with what you believe in and understand while also being open to civil discussion, Metatron!
Also, I hate Ubisoft for what they did to Tom Clancy games, the Assassin's Creed franchise in particular, and the Far Cry games. And I'll always find it funny how people mock me for being disinterested in a new game "just because of a trailer". And I'm like, bro. Look at Ubisoft's fricking track record. You don't need four eyes or more to figure things out easily. And the intentions are clear with their newest games. I'm not being catered to as a customer... so, I'm not going to purchase their products.
CAPISCE!?!!
He is not neutral, he is just a coward, one of those who apologize for having an opinion. When there is a fight between good and evil, there is no such thing as 'neutrality'. But of course TH-cam pay well, so 'neutrality' is more profitable than standing your ground.
People hate "fence sitters" because they didn't take a stance one side or the other. Or to quote a couple of morons who insist that everything is binary "You stand for nothing." as opposed to being a person with your own thoughts and opinions instead of a programed drone. Humans are so tedious and vexing.
"All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"
I mean politics as in affairs of the city (wiki... jeyyyy) is basically everything. What I ate for breakfast is politics if enough people are determined it is. That's what historians are also well aware of and the historical-critical method exists. It is basically a defense mechanism against political manipulation while still making it possible to judge bad things in history (like the Shoa). Especially in an age where history gets used by dictators to justify wars it's ever more important zo judge history in a historical critical way. So in other words the only truly neutral history is digging something up and then locking it away without analysation.
@@wakkaseta8351you know the irony of that saying. In this case all it really would take to send a message to Ubisoft is literally for good men to do nothing. Not buy the game.
I started watching when this channel focused more on Language, but stayed for his stance on historical truth. Specially if it's something new, or I was taught/got to learn/find new subject to read up on.
It is true, I am frustrated at seeing Ubisoft hide behind all these other excuses when the real reason for picking Yasuke as a protagonist is not because he was an interesting or historical character. They picked him because he was a black man and they 'needed' diversity in their game.
Exactly. I do not give a shit about yasuke being a samurai or not. I am just appalled that Ubisoft chose to reduce the protagonist to his skin color,
That's probably true, but let's be honest it doesn't feel like a lot of people online are angry about Ubisoft's cynical corporate reasons for putting Yasuke in the game in this online war about it. So many are focusing on whether Yasuke was a real samurai or just "a jester or toy" as some comments put it, making this about the culture war, about the "woke" mob ruining their video games they probably weren't gonna play to begin with. Like it's highly unlikely I'll play AC Shadows because I hate Ubisoft, hate the direction they're pushing AC in, so I ain't playing AC unless I get Classic Creed gameplay that looks well executed. The boat for getting angry at Ubisoft for ruining AC sailed a long goddamn time ago. AC's been ruined in various ways about like 3-4 times since 2014 and this is hardly the worst offense.
@@ArseneGray 🤔
I believe it was two fold. Ubisoft chose him for his skin colour for DeI but also as a shield for when people complained about the pricing and as a PR move so people would stop talking about that stupid pricing scheme.
@@Meleena2218 I'd say it was probably even more motivations than that. If we go back to when the game was first announced as AC: Codename Red various departments at Ubi both corporate and developer took a look at the landscape and thought simultaneously: "Okay let's distinguish ourselves from Ghost of Tsushima somehow since everyone's clowning on us for not making it", "Okay let's do something that gets people talking about AC again", "Okay let's do something that's good for the optics since we're in hot water for a lot of our business decisions", and "Okay so there's this giant dude with the strength of 10 men who might've been a samurai and hasn't been the protagonist of any game yet maybe we should look into that"
Great explanations!
I’m suddenly reminded of Yahiko from Rurouni Kenshin. When i was young I always wondered how a samurai’s kid would have ended up an orphan
But as you said not all samurai were like princes or dukes in wealth. Yahiko’s family was probably a humble one under the patronage of a clan, only to be upended by the revolution. By bow i figured as much, but low rankers and halfsamurai pretty much explain it
Neat
“Yer a lesbian, Metatron.” -Susan McHagrid, HR officer of Hogwarts
lmao
Thanks! Now I need to bang my head on a wall 😂😂😂😂
huh? :/
"I'm a wot?"
"A lursbiun."
Big respect to you for sticking to your own moral code!
Love your content keep up the good work!
NEEEEEEEEEEEEERD!!!
No seriously that is a truly impressive collection you have right there. Respect
here's the thing for those of us who isn't on any political extreme.
We don't care if he is or is not a samurai.
it's just stupid to pick the one black guy in Japanese history to represent Japan
I’m conservative, but I kind of would have liked showing a really unique story if it was more accurate. Also if this game came out say 10 years ago or whatever and if it was accurate-showing a warrior instead of an expert samurai-I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
And again if it was more accurate then I’d still like it today.
But I still of course want to see Japanese samurai stories too.
Essentially I agree with this guy’s ending statement. It’s just the politics and not personal creative inspiration. They’re not creating for love of a good story. But instead an agenda.
There is a full Japanese protagonist to play as though
@jadadedier5129 it's half the game at least.
It's like making an African game and picking a white guy as the main guy. Or half
@@cipherthevcuber They already did that. Several times. Far Cry 2 with nine playable characters and only one of them was black, and not even from Africa at that (but of course there were multiple white dudes playable, as well as Resident Evil 5, starring Chris Redfield.
Right? Image AC Odyssey where you play as a dude from Gaul cosplaying as a Spartan or Valhalla with an Arabic protagonist...
Save the black main character for Assassin's Creed "Mali Empire" edition or Assassin's Creed Zulu, there is absolutely 0 point in introducing a black protagonist inside a culture that is 99% Asian
Man, I regret not having kept my old gaming stuff.
Seeing that arcade booth sure is a huge blast to the past. I used to play those whenever I'd go to the movies.
Huge waiting line? No problem! Arcades were there to help many kids pass the time.
Man, I miss the late 80's and the 90's.
I think that the most correct answer for Yasuke would be that he was a Gokenin which is a low ranking samurai, a.k.a a samurai in training similar to what a squire is to a knight, since Yasuke didnt have enough training to be more than that and proof shows that he may have been a Samurai and also getting picked by a lord + the achievements of Yasuke prove that he most likely was a Gokenin.
I think you could also compare him to someone with honorary degree. Do they technically have 'a degree'? Yes. Is it the same as degree of someone who went to university? No. Is it essentialy someone powerful saying 'I like you enough'? EXACTLY.
[Nobunaga likes curiosities and pissing off the court - he was not above making someone 'technically a samurai' (in contemporary meaning of servant of a nobles) solely to provoke people. Lack of record would even be in support of that interpretation - just like nobody cares you got an honorary degree, people would see trough Yasuke's title and either not care forit or try to ignore it.
It's like when you mother has a new boyfriend every month - you don't really put them in family album!
It's still interpretation. We can't know for sure cause there isn't enough information. There is no answer to be had!]
The way this all continues to hyper-focus on 'say yes or no, was Yasuke a samurai' while ignoring everything else wrong is the true travesty.
Metatron's response to "I don't believe that you are interested in computer games." Had the Simpsons "Stop! Stop! He's already dead." Meme playing in my head. 😂🤣😂
I think the benefit of using a fictional character over a real person as the protagonist is preventing arguments like this. I just thought it was obvious why they chose Yasuke, Ubisoft chose him based on the color of his skin. In the beginning, the main character was suppose to be a japanese monk named Taka, then all of a sudden it's Yasuke and Naoe? Every youtuber and people who use youtube are chronic internet users, yet there are those who still can't pick up on what game developers are doing.
Basically. You can do whatever with Ezio Auditore because Ezio didn't exist and the concept of the Assassins in the first place really does give a good explanation for why. You can do your alt-history romp without begging historical questions unless you do something really insane.
By making this about a character that we know existed IRL, you can subject that character to scrutiny, and it does come up pretty lacking IMO. And then the devs released a statement that they wanted to tell "their" story instead of a Japanese one and the respect is just gone here.
I thought it was obvious why they chose Yasuke. Ubisoft chose him because having a prominent outsider character offers multiple possibilities for plot points and conflict to drive story forward. This is the same reason why Anime about him was created. Because he’s an interesting historical figure.
@@mina86 That's true, but that's not why they included him. That would be an ideal scenario without Progressivism in popular culture.
Would have been a better game. Male monk turned Ninja
@@mina86 lol yes out of the countless other historical figures in Japan, I'm sure a company that has openly embraced identity politics just so happened to choose the only black man to be mentioned in samurai history.
It is very accurate to say that you are like a samurai but not a samurai.
You are absolutely right.
In the complex class society of 武士, intermediate job and status between samurai and commoners can be found in old documents under several names.
For example, a textbook for samurai sons called Teikin Ourai 庭訓往来from 1348 would spread to the common people's cram schools during the Edo period.
This is because it was the social common sense of the time
「凡迄中間舎人雑色牛飼等」
and the occupations of those serving the buke can be confirmed.
In 1591, Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued a decree to determine the status of the samurai servants, the "身分統制令,"
"奉公人侍中間小者あらし子に至迄"
The "samurai" referred to here are the wakatou,若党. 若党 is very low-ranking samurai.
Thus it was very complicated.
To begin with, the Japanese edition of Mr. Lockley's book that started this story clearly states that it was written based on speculation due to a lack of data, and that he also dared to use less credible references.
Most of the arguments being made today ignore the assumptions, common sense, and customs of the time, which can be confirmed from the surrounding literature.
And this is a common feature of the interpretation of history that Metatron criticizes.
As a party Japanese, it is a very unpleasant phenomenon.
Enjoying it as fiction is fine.
But the editorial wars on Wikipedia and the spouting of unproven facts as if they were historical fact should be stopped.
The culture war at Wikipedia wont stop because there is a clear ideology being pushed on Wikipedia, which often disregards historical context in favor of a progressive narrative. The place is not neutral. It lost that status back when the current maintainers took it over from the person who built the site. I appreciate you bringing even more context to it with the historical record in Japanese. I often encounter the same kind of nonsense when people speak about geopolitical history, ignoring the tense relations and historical grudges between China and Russia, because my grandmother was born in China before the CCP revolution, so I have some insight there. She told me about what it was like before, had pictures her father took from then, and how the CCP erased tons of Chinese culture, which they are only now trying to regain selectively. But many would like to ignore that or give us false narratives about the historical behavior or attitudes, even the cultural memory of China, with regards to some of their biggest multigenerational grudges toward other countries. The Opium Wars with the West and Border Wars with Russia being two big ones that are often glossed over as irrelevant today, when they absolutely are relevant to understanding geopolitics, and the tense relation between Russia and China, and the attitude China has toward the west still. Are things better to a degree? Yes, but there are still shenanigans and grudges going on that find their roots hundreds of years ago, even thousands.
Gaijinが混乱するネタがまた投下された感じ・・・。lol
@@alias-wave
ムカツクのはわかりますが、そういう書き方はお控えになった方が宜しいかと思います。
僣越ですが一度だけご忠告申します。
悪しからず。
@@ken-qg7bd Gaijinが混乱するであろうことを想像して楽しんでるだけですよ。誓って他意はありません。
一連の問題に不快感を表明されているのに、「若党」を持ち出したら邪推されますよ
Thanks for shedding light and truth on history it is sad the other people do not even know their own history or always quick to assume and judge
A true nerd never loses a chance to flex with his collection
Whatever Yasuke was, one thing is crystal clear: He wasnt a stealthy scout. Why? due to his height and skin color which made him a visible alien in Japan.
And from what I can tell the game reflects that as he's not going to play as an assassin
I remember when Assassins Creed was a stealth game.
And the trailer clearly shows the other character being the stalthy one while he's a bruiser.
Yeah but I think it's an intentional subversion of the Assasin's Creed trope.
It’s pretty obvious from the trailer and everything being said about the game that the female is the stealthy assassin. He is more likely her inside man who uses his status and connections to the samurai to get her closer to her targets. He is more frontal bruiser who straight up overpowers his opponents. Some situations call for stealth others for direct combat.
I heard Yasuke liked to play with balls while sword fighting.
Bravo 👏😂😂😂
Wtf
Yasuke more like YasGHEY!!!
And likes when ya sucky
Jokes aside. It's said Nobunaga slept with a male retainer. Why isn't anyone talking about him sleeping with Yasuke. He was a retainer and Oda clearly liked the look of him
I'm glad you spoke on this. There are people out there so into this debate that they won't even say that Yasuke's story is interesting 😅 some need to go outside and breathe some fresh air, get away from internet controversy for a while
Someone bring a giraffe to Rome, some people saw it, many talked about it, few doubted its existance. Sounds like an interesting story to you?
This is why I'm subscribed to you. Learning a lot about Yasuke, and understanding a little bit how Samurai hierarchy works. I was literally laughing when they called you woke, and your response when one of commentator's accused you of being not a gamer. I agree it would be silly to put/us modern terminology to describe the past in general. Three thing that stuck with me when I was taught history mainly in college by Professor at WCC in general.
1.History is bias
2. History favors the winners
3. History is constantly changing base of new Info, interpretation and/or evidence.
Correction: Meant to say "use" not "us" in put/us.
This guy definitely has history bias. He used a book from a hack writer to try and make Yasuke more than he was.
That isn't history, that is politics.
And yeah, fact-based history is pretty damned rare.
History doesn’t favour the winners that doesn’t even make sense. History favouring the winners would ONLY make sense if the winner had some flat earth conspiracy going on in where every person in the winners side just to agree to only report or write history one way. We know that’s not true and we know of many losers in history with nuanced writings on it thousands of years later
@voltron8375 "hack writer" dawg if youre referring to thomas lockely hes literally a professor who has studied alot of yasuke. Obviously the dude has a bias and his book is part-fictional Metatron says this in an earlier video regarding yasuke. He
The problem is people aren't taking a nuanced approach anymore because of the ever present propaganda being forced upon us daily. So, I think most of the relevant information will get lost in the sauce regardless of the side. However, I thank you for doing your best to present this situation in the most unbiased and academic way even if it isn't popular to do so.
Metatron: "I don't know, there is both evidence for and evidence against. That's how principled historians would view this"
The Left: "So you're a racist who doesn't believe in black samurai?"
The Right: "So you've gone woke and believe in black samurai?"
Non crazy people: It's a video game.
I bet 'the right' that are saying that, are a small minority. _I_ am a right-wing extremist, and I find Metatron's take on this issue to be. . . fact-based. Yes, I rate it, fact-based.
@@StupidAnon-gn8ih If you look at the comments section of the previous video its hard to find any "Right-Wing" people expressing that position.
@@StupidAnon-gn8ih Agreed there. I'm wouldn't go so far to call myself extreme, but I am quite firmly in the conservative-libertarian area (swinging between the two depending on the issue) of the political spectrum and I've always found Metatron to be extremely fair and reasonable. I did think he was maybe stretching it a bit to give off a air of neutrality in that video, but I don't blame him for it or think ill of him for it. While I never necessarily considered him "one of us," because I'd never want to assume someone's entire political philosophy based on one (relatively well-curated) aspect of their life, I always viewed him as being quite reasonable and at least sympathetic to our issues with the progressive left and that didn't change with his video on Yasuke.
@@Chonkulease Not surprised.
The comment section is cancer.
That being said from what we know of Yasuke, he was in Japan for a little over a year. Show me a human who can beome a master swordsman in a year and Ill shit a gold brick. The use of him is dumb as hell and the people who actually think an adult slave can waltz into Japan (who probably spent most of the year responding to hand movements because Japanese isnt exactly easy to learn) and become a Samurai in a year are too dumb to bother arguing with.
I just don't like the decision to include Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows because of the driving motivation to have him in the game. He's there because he's black. No other reason. If you were going to make the protagonist a historical character (which has never been done until Shadows), there were certainly many more notable people to choose from.
If you wanted to experience historical immersion as an Asian male samurai in the open world and go on an adventure and story consistent with that feudal Japanese fantasy, you are out of luck because now every quest, NPC, and gameplay mechanic will be altered as a consequence of this.
Some people might like this, but I feel for Assassin's Creed, where historical immersion is the biggest selling point (let's face reality here, it's not the story, combat, or side quests), this is problematic for the series. We know this has disappointed many fans, even those who are not necessarily on the anti-woke side of things. To me, even if it's cool to play as Yasuke and bash skulls like he does in the trailer, you're not really playing out the samurai fantasy in this time period. So much of the gameplay, story, quests and everything HAS to be altered now. It may as well have just been a japanese-fantasy action game then. Just drop the historical pretext altogether. Why keep it for?
At the end of the day, I can't help but see the DEI whiteboard sessions that made this approach a reality, and that's a big problem. If this had been done 10 years ago, nobody would have said anything. But we can all see the whiteboards with leftist writers and marketing people deciding these things, and we know most of them could care less about history or facts. They literally asked, "How can we make this game more diverse and check all the boxes that fit with our ideology?" and they stopped at nothing to make it a reality, ignoring any and every barrier to it. That's what happened.
Historical immersion??? In Assassin’s Creed???? Lmao please tell me you’re joking, you know that the assassins, templars, precursors, pieces of eden and all that aren’t real right? Not to mention that so much of the stuff presented as actual historical fact is just wrong. The AC games are about as historically accurate as a Mel Gibson movie.
@@RaphaelAmbrosiusCosteau51 cry more
Historical immersion died with Odyssey
Yasuke is a distinct part of Japanese culture.
There are numerous anime, books, comics and etc featuring him, he is beloved by many.
What's wrong with picking him?
Apparently, look at Japan sales they are HYPED by Yasuke's inclusion
Also, he's there for US to have his as a guide as another foreigner.
There are the girl for native culture character and a foreigner for the world to indulge, to be taught about their culture from outside point of view.
Loads of Hollywood and collaborations are set with at least 1 of European or American for the same reason. To be explained naturally about nuances and etc.
It's literally the go to way to do that for decades.
So it's not about leftists.
White characters are used the same way for decades and a Yasuke is used the same way for the same decades.
So you have a problem with it not because of any factual problems, but because you FEEL like you know exactly what the creators were thinking. You sound like a snowflake.
How is a black assassin supposed to blend into a crowd in Japan? Even in modern day Japan it'd be unrealistic
Bro, Naoe is the assassin. Yasuke isn’t..
I believe the Woman is the assassin, Yasuke is a separate character
because there were other black people in Japan, called Kurobo. theres also record of Africans and Indians (called Malabarians) fighting under daimyo ARIMA Harunobu.
well if the sight of a black man in a crowd, makes you suspect assassin or criminal first, thats a you thing. Japanese people dont look at and think the same way about black people than westerners do.
what black assassin u 🤡
@@BalorShieldgrats your an idiot. Every first hand source specifically mentions how unusual yasuke was and that obu even had him bathed repeatedly cuz he believe he was black. They were extremely rare. Also obviously yasuke was not a samurai. He was in Japan for three years. Only knew Obu for 2. Came from missionaries. It's would be ludicrous to think he reached the level and status of a samurai. He never owned land (resided in a temple at one time did not own it). Yasuke was also not a slave. It was unpopular and outlawed shortly after this time period. We also never see any example of yasuke fighting. He went ti battlefields with his lord Obu. But no historical evidence suggests he was a warrior. In fact the only possible time we have an actual record of him fighting, was for his life when Obu was killed. (It's also debated if this is accurate) because he went on to serve Obus son until he was killed by the same general that betrayed his father. And after that he was sent back to the missionaries. If he was a warrior or samurai he would likely have been asked to join the general that killed Obu. He wasn't. Everything we know for a fact shows that Yasukes real use was for marketing and raising Obus influence even more.
A stipend did not mean you were a samurai. It all defended on your value to Obu. Obu had many retainers that were not samurai.
He was NOT in line for a castle. No historical account states this. Again he lived in a temple at one time he did nor own it.
Megatron dude. Your usually great but you clearly didn't verify your sources. He was not given a samurai sword. He was given a short sword (can't think of the name). Nothing says he was given armor. However there are some historical accounts that said he was put in a special almost ceremonial version of armor. Not to fight in but fir when Obu paraded him around a town to make him look even bigger and more imposing, making a bigger show of yasuke.
There's also a very big reason we know he was not a samurai. He was never referred to as one ever. The white guy you mentioned (forgot the name) was in Japan for much longer than yasuke. In numerous historical sources it is explicity stated he was a samurai. This is common in jaoanese history as titles and tank were status symbols like everywhere else. So it's very common for samurai to be referred ro as samurai in Japanese history. Yasuke is never mentioned as a samurai.
Megatron love your channel. Your awesome. Usually I'm agree with a ton of your points as iv read the same things probably from the same or similar sources. Nit this time man. Imo I'd guess you used too many contemporary sources that have skewed the story fior their own purposes, father than the older source based histories we have access too.
I remember my grandmother saying to me: "I don't care what they tell you in school, The Metatron is woke and hates Japanese people!"
Find a new meme, kid. This one's stale.
@MagcargoMan it's an old meme sir, but it checks out.
@@MagcargoMan it's not even that old
@@octogonSmugglerstill is lame and way past it’s prime tho
@@octogonSmuggler And it's already been run into the ground. Stale as hell.
Calling yourself "Non-Binary" categorizes everyone as Binary or Non-Binary, thus creating a Binary System which makes you Binary again... Until Next Time...
🤣
Recursion.
Rainbow people don’t speak the ancient language of facts and logic 😂
Funny, but if you think it's meaningful you're missing something.
Genius 🤯
All this time and i just now realized you had a gaming channel.... i feel slow
The problem was never whether or not he was samurai, the problem is they chose to use a historical figure as a main character for the first time, only because they wanted to pander, and excluded the men the culture they are representing. I would much rather have met Yasuke and fought alongside him, as has been done with historical figures all throughout the series. This will be the first AC game I don't buy. and the "hold my beer" was epic.
You can choose to play as the other character. The one from Japan.
@@brothermartin1622 The one with the jaw wider than a car? I've never seen a woman IRL with a jaw that wide.
@@BusesAreFatCars "I've never seen a woman IRL"
there, fixed it for you
@@mekosuji_facemask Ah yes, I have no access to the Internet, I never had a mother, I have no female friends or co workers.
Think before you type. If you can.
@@BusesAreFatCarsI've seen at least 50
I think it's important to point out that he was not in Japan for very long. I don't think the Japanese would've given the title of Samurai to a man, regardless of his accomplishments, if he couldn't fluently speak Japanese.
He was a retainer at most.
Addendum: The Samurai were not just warriors but also scholars, expected to master literature, calligraphy, and the complex social codes of feudal Japan.
Yeah, didn't see much people saying he was an slave and that its, most were saying he was a kosho and that due to timeframe (1 and a couple of months with Oda) was difficult for him to get a title other than kosho.
That said, that was still way better than just being a commoner, though... the possibility of "serving" his master in various ways might be scary, Oda was monstruos at times, specially during the time yasuke was with him.
Yeah, while it was Tokugawa rather than Nobunaga who gave the title, there also was William Adams who was in Japan for about five years, performing MAJORLY important duties for the shogunate (rather than just being a guy who Ieyasu liked chatting with) and told he was to be forced into permanent residence before Ieyasu gave him an official samurai title.
Even in context of Nobunaga, he didn't give Hideyoshi the legal responsibilities you would associate with a samurai until he had proven himself at Okehazama.
@@TechnoMinarchistI think most people look at samurai being anybody with a sword during a certain time period. Haha
I have a hunch that people might not prefer to play as William Adams. I think people just want to play as a classical Japanese samurai in Japan.
You're probably right. For most people like an authentic feel. Like Ghost of Tsushima. No one had an issue with playing a Japanese samurai, nor playing a dishonored/dishonorable samurai.
@@deltatea3192 The issue of Shadows is written into the fabric of Ghost Of Tsushima. The issue Japanese have is with outsiders coming forcefully onto their island and claiming it as their own and then running the show while the "locals" are told what's what. A nation that's been occupied by 75 foreign military bases and 50,000 foreign soldiers for 70yrs from the country that dropped 2 nukes on metropolitan cities incinerating hundreds of thousands of women and children is now being told by a British "historian" that he knows their history better than they do and that they definitely had slavery and that foreigners held the greatest position of esteem as a Samurai because the "locals" were just in awe when they saw who their betters were. Get a clue.
@@keyser021 I'm not quite sure what you are getting at with the reference to the second world war. That didn't happen in a social vacuum. There are consequences for actions taken. Even for nations.
As for the topic of a foreigner educating a people in their history. I honestly don't see a problem with that provided they are actually telling the truth instead of weaving a manipulative interpretation for the purposes of a socio-political agenda.
That's the problem that I see. The cultural agenda. It is no secret that the Western universities are pushing a specific view of the world.
It would be interesting it they presented it as a iskeai type deal. Fish out of water stories are always fun, it's just ubisoft doing it that messes with me.
@@keyser021 "Although he was the strongest samurai, worshiped like a god, and favored by the country's ruler,
Yasuke simply watched as his comrades with the same skin color contented themselves with being slaves."
Please, please think carefully.
0:21 I didn't knew you were cultured like that, respect
If you don't pick sides, both sides will start attacking you. I've also gotten involved in this discussion (because I've also studied Japanese studies / Japanology in university) and then been called both a racist and a woke ideologue by people responding to the same comment. 😅
You know, I keep complaining "why is it only ever Sengoku/Edo period. Adapt a different period. Adapt the Gempei war. Adapt the Rebellion of Taira no Masakado. Do the Story of Kusunoki Masashige etc." but looking at stuff like this maybe I should be grateful they aren't. I would absolutely hate to see them butcher these historical events like they are the story of Yasuke which I think is one of the most interesting stories of Japanese history, and I translate Heian period literature for fun.
how can they butcher a story of someones life when they never claimed historical accuracy
AC is historical-fiction bro
Ghost of Tsushima did the mongol invasion and brought in things from the Edo period. The only faithful attempt at the Gempei war was the Rise of the Samurai DLC for Shogun 2.
@@loadshedding_ it's not. This is such a stupid argument and shows you know nothing about AC. Why got the Crossbow removed? Why did Rodrigo survive in AC2? Why was Notre Dame so accurate they used it to rebuild it after the fire? Because it was a historical accurate SETTING. It says every time when you start up "inspired by historical events..." yes the STORY is fictional. Are you telling me all you people who argue this don't know the difference between story and setting? I explain: Setting is where the story takes place. Stop arguing just to look like a fool because you don't know what you're talking about.
Rise of the Ronin did the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Boshin War, the Meiji Restoration all that jazz.
@@raydafuq3570handheld crossbows had existed for centuries before Altair's time, The reason they removed it from the game has little to do with history. Borgia wasn't a templar and he didn't have fist fights with people under the Vatican. The Notre-Dame Cathedral is accurate to what it looks like today sure but it's inaccurate to what it looked like in the time of the french revolution (the spire wasn't the same and the interior got tweaked to allow better navigation)
Look I get it, I also used to get very passionate about the historical accuracy of AC games, but truth is they were never 100% accurate. When they also lost the realistic side with Origins (and a bit with syndicate too) I personally gave up. Shadows is on par with the last 4 games, it's not doing anything egregious that previous AC didn't do.
The way I always understood Yasuke's story is as follows, he was physicaly much stronger than your average Japanese, something that in an era where war was a daily occurance, was really important, I don't much care if he was a samurai or not, to me his story is an incredible bit of history that expands an already rich japanese history.
My problem is Ubisoft, I am sure that Yasuke for them is just another check in a list of diversity tropes (more so if everyone is gonna be LGBT), that will become a scapegoat for criticism when/if people dislike the game. The pattern is way too common to assume one of the worst videogame companies out there didn't had in in mind when deciding when to set the story of the game.
I don't think that Yasuke is a samurai because, as you said, Yasuke didn't receive a family name like Miura Anjin A.K.A. William Adams, who is considered the first real foreign samurai in Japan.
I don't think that Yasuke was a warrior who used a sword either. He could be good at sumo because of his power, but I really don't think that Yasuke was good at swords because Yasuke met Oda Nobunaga in 1581, and Nobunaga died in Honnoji in 1582.
It is highly improbable that he learned some western sword art before he met Oda because western missionaries don't want to teach fighting skills to their slaves or servants. It is highly improbable that he learned Japanese sword art in one year enough to be a samurai warrior as well.
If you are saying that the evidence is important, we have to blame Ubisoft for saying things without any evidence.
He learned to fight with weapons in India before he even set foot in Japan.
@@She_namedme_DJis there evidence of that?
Japanese people literally said that he was it’s their history! People are just mad because he’s blk 🙄😒 period nothing else to it…
@@BowserStrange what Japanese person, every Japanese person? Metatron clearly explained it’s a debated topic.
@@Tyrone9256 Yes try to tell people about their own history. Only with the bright ones…
*I remember my grandmother saying to me, 'I don't care what they tell you in school, Samurai was black and gay!'.*
You know that in this situation that meme is bullshite. They dont rewrite all the samurai as black, they just choose Yasuke becase they thought it would be interesting that one of the protagonists to be a foreigner and explore discover Japan culture alongside the player. And the whole gay thing was just a fake leak.
@@ΣτέργιοςΜποπότας-ζ1μ the cope is pathetic. They chose him because he's black since modern corporations are obsessed with identity politics. If they made a game about Zulus and the main character was white, we'd have riots.
Im ded, hammer comment 💀🤣
And i love hammers
@@ΣτέργιοςΜποπότας-ζ1μ nah, they did it because he was black and knew they could fall back on the argument "he was a real person" - bearing in mind, you've never played as a historical figure in assassins creed.
He looks suspiciously like the character from their most recent Skull and Bones flop, like they really wanted to use that character. There is absolutely an agenda, and I can assure you its not to see it from the perspective of an outsider.
@@airwaves9611 but a lot of complaints about how the industry do things is that they blackwash things but then they pick a historical black man and yet people complain. That looks bad
I think one way of thinking about this is the history of media that depicts Yasuke. Yasuke has been represented in japanese media primarily as a samurai moreso than any other expression. If not in the exact historical record, the social imagination of japan about Yasuke sees him as a Samurai
Careful, you're making too much sense, which is woke.
「侍」と「武士」は別であるにも拘らず、これを混同しているのは英語に対応する語彙が不足しすぎているのと、翻訳上の問題なのだろうか？
なお、フィクションであることを明示しこれを前提としている場合、日本では創作物に一切の制約はない。
創作物であるにもかかわらず、「歴史に基づいている」とか「歴史に忠実」であると主張したので問題化している。（今回のUbisoftがこれに該当する）
@@alias-wave using Google translate to write in Japanese does not make you Japanese lol, or more credible. You have no sources, and your other comments are in English, you're just pretending you know Japanese to try to seem more authoritative pretending you speak for Japanese people lmao
@@alias-waveI think it's in no small part due to the perception that in feudal societies, the knightly class, meaning knights and samurai, were the professional and well armed and armored soldiers forming the elite core of an army largely consisting of peasant levies. Usually, reality is a bit more complicated. I believe the difference between bushi and samurai is like the difference between men-at-arms and knights; all knights were men-at-arms, but mercenaries and lowborn retainers could also serve as heavy cavalry if they had the money to outfit them.
@@MrVeps1 After all, there must be a problem with the translation. The comparative theory with the West is not consistent in some parts.
Samurai are those who were given official positions and ranks by the Imperial Court (Emperor).
Bushi (mo-no-no-fu) are the ranks of the modern military, from second lieutenant to colonel.
Can you tell from this that Yasuke is neither a Samurai nor a Bushi?
Your presentation about Yasuke is edifying and interesting. I knew nothing about this person, now, I know this person existed. your passion for facts and staying out of the turbulent waters of political controversy is inspiring. As always, thank you for sharing your knowledge with us, your audience. Blessings to you.
I'm quite left wing. And recently got canceled for spreading historical evidence about a topic. 😅 and now this is my favorite channel you tell it how it is no matter what
You are now a Far Right Nazi!! :-P thats how it works apparently anyway ha
I appreciate that and happy to have you here
Historical evidence is fascist.
imagine being liberal
That's what political extremists are like, on either side. They will shun anyone who doesn't dedicate themselves to the dogmatic mission of their side.
9:50 The man depicted here is not Nobunaga. He's most likely a Gyōji (a referee) since he's standing very close to the wrestlers and he's holding a paddle that are traditionally used by Gyōji in sumō wrestling.
I think it’s obvious that it’s a referee, I thought metatron was saying that nobunaga was serving as a referee for that particular match. At least that’s how I interpreted it.
look at the full image there is a tan man with a woman on his shoulder
thats probably nobunaga
What if Nobunaga acted as referee
Knowing how excentric and how much of a Sumo fan he was, Nobunaga might have acted as a referee from time to time.
in the background, is that an original Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet, or a replica?
Oh yeah, about the Assassins creed game, I find that the most offensive thing to be that the charging $120 for a piece of """AAA""" bloatware.
And the audacity of calling it "Quadruple A"
@@Shiftinggers that kabinet, tho
This is a fight between white supremacists vs black supremacists! VS Lord Metatron with his divine weapon of truth!
Tbf I think the social standards at that time would make it almost impossible for Yasuke to obtain any high "noble" rank, a minor "noble" rank I can understand but don't forget how the society of Japan worked back than. A simple lack of discipline like speaking out of turn would get most Japanese warriors ending themselves. Oda while being a very peculiar man from what we see in the historical records would be very unlikely to do something as making a foreigner a samurai as he still held onto most of the social standards of that time. I think such an action would go slightly too far and make a lot of his on retainers quite upset with such a decision. I also feel like Yasuke would have to do something huge to achieve it such a title especially given he was only there for a year and a bit. There is no way on first meeting Oda would bestow a huge role on him, he might have liked him but he was still held in check by many of his societies standards.
Daily reminder that even an exemplar like Toyotomi Hideyoshi needed a spectacular victory like Okehazama to advance his social status.
Oda would convert all Japan to Christianity. He was more then peculiar. He liked anythging that was exotic and foreigner. He was the first to adopt firearms as the main weapon in his army. You forgot There was a british samurai.
@@paulodelima5705Yeah and this British Samurai, William Adams earned his title.
He went through numerous insane battles for many MANY years before he could even call himself as Japanese and then did more feats and achievements for again, MANY YEARS before he got the title of Samurai.
There are zero historical records of him ever having been granted the rank or title of samurai or given a fiefdom.
@@paulodelima5705Samurai isn’t a title you just get, maybe at best he was a Ashigaru, a foot soldier who stayed close to Oda
Nobunaga: Yasuke, I give you the title of samurai.
Yasuke: Wow, thanks boss!
Nobunaga: This also means that if I die soon, which is likely, you’ll have to kill yourself.
Yasuke: Eh, sure. *doesn’t do it*
Based
I mean lmao it's logical thinking he wasn't raised in Japan nor brought up in their culture and beliefs/religion he was a slave that escaped and was well trained in India so he's always had a nitch for surviving his whole life just to be brought to a royal guy to live with for a year and kill himself cause that guy died? Lol he's a better man than me cause atleast he went back with his son to try again
If he did get the title of samurai it was probably largely ceremonial, and didn’t have the full privilege or rights they did…… so can’t commit to suicide if I’m only partially samurai lol.
@@mowabb lol there is no evidence and he probably wasn’t but I can see Nobu giving it to him. Your joke is pretty on point. I don’t consider Yasuke nor William Samurai. It was probably an honorary title for them.
@@ironrex6979 neither of them were put on duty or participated in any war....I mean technically Yasuke did when they were ambushed by Akechi but neither actually were told to go into battle
You know?the whole "if it walks like a duck..." falls apart when you remember Dingos exist and mistaking a Dingo for a dog could cost you a hand.
Then there is the platypus.
Even blue whales fear the platypus.
Or, more simply, a goose.
“A platypus?”
🎩
“Perry the Platypus?!”
@@jonathanlay8746 I had to look after some gooses a long time ago. Those birds are really nasty animals indeed.
@@MidnightatMidian Geese are evil. Just plain evil. That wicked hiss they do just ain't right. They had to have descended from velociraptors or something.
I very much look forward to your video on homosexuality in feudal Japan. Ive read a couple of different books about it that, again as you said depending on era, but that for a good portion of Japanese history it was socially acceptable at least to some degree or another, and some sources even record formal events that involved homosexual activity mostly in the context of the aristocratic classes however.
I want to say, as a left-leaning person who definitely would be called 'woke' by a great many people, I keep coming back to Metatrons channel because of the fact that he does his best not to let his own biases dictate the information he presents. Metatron, of course, is more than welcome to his own opinions whether or not we agree on those opinions, but as long as he keeps presenting evidence in its entirety rather than with holding information to support his own biases on topics I will gladly keep watching his videos, and donating to his patreon as should we all.
No one is immune to propaganda, all we can do is try our best to overcome it.
I'm on the side of I Don't care to much about yasuke being a historical figure. Its more about the fact that Ubisoft decided we need to A BLACK mans eyes to see feudal japan. That we couldn't possible relate to the japanese because quoting ubisoft we need non-Japanese eyes. Second problem is having Yasuke as an AC MC. A tall black man killing Japanese people might stand out to the Japanese. It also might be the quickest way to be turned into a pincushion full of arrows. We know that yasuke was a jesuit slave and was given over he got a sword as well. But the only battle we know he was around for he was captured and spared. Because and to quote the man who spared him. " He was not Japanese " Being a Samurai and your enemy samurai don't recognize you as a samurai or even Japanese.
It's another example of cultural imperialism and cultural colonialism from Americans and Europeans. They love to take things from other cultures and history, twist them to suit their own agendas and claim the new version to be the truth. Look at what Netflix tried to pull with their garbage Cleopatra show, and how they insulted the entire country of Egypt.
Another tactic in cultural imperialism is shaming other cultures for being different. Look at how hard Americans and European "journalists" go after anime and video games when they do something that doesn't conform to the left western worldview. These are the kind of people who, despite claiming to support diversity, hate the fact that other places on Earth have different values and different ways of thinking.
It's a new form of racism which is much more insidious because it is hidden under the guise of righteousness and equality.
But TH-cam will probably auto erase this comment since they don't seem to like it when people call out genuine racism.
There is a japanese character in game. There is a female shinobi but no male shinobi like other Assassins Creed game. That is the problem. Jesuits didn't had slaves but the Portuguese had. The Japanese didn't spare people because they were not japanese but they spare Yasuke because he was not a threat to them.
You're okay when Shogun does it though?
Well, you can just avoid playing yasuke. You are aware that Naoe is in the game, right?
@@fattiger6957 Explain to me how exactly is blackwashing history a European or American cultural colonialism?
Just because aggressive leftists have taken over mainstream media, doesn't mean the majority of Europeans or Americans stand behind this.
"Not a samurai, not a duck" is something I'm going to put on a t-shirt😂😂
Ooh,I want one
Yasuke was send in Japan as a slave.
Then since Nobunaga were a collector - he wanting to have all the possible things which the rest doesnt have - Yasuke was something so exotic that was given to Nobunaga as a gift.
During this period - no one in Japan were seeing a black man, so it is very likely that he were thinking from the commoners as some sort of "oni" ( a demon ) and possible even compared to Umibōzu ( a sea demon in Japanese mythology ). For Nobunaga having an "oni" on a leash was more than expression of power and might ( something which ultimately got him killed by Mitsunari ).
Back to the topic.
Samurai in end of the Muromachi period already had a different meaning than "bushi" - a warrior.
Samurai had to have perfect speaking and at least some good writing skills. They were already deep into Chinese literature, and most likely having at least a minor job at government position.
Knowing perfectly the cultural traditions is absolutely mandatory for someone been a "samurai".
The time from receiving Yasuke as a gift to his death is less than 15 months. At this period is absolutely impossible for him to learn to speak properly, write perfectly, get into the culture to be able to receive the rang of "samurai".
It is even questionable is he was understanding the most of the things which were happening.
There were not yet "hatamoto" since well, this is something from Edo period, and no one of the main characters here is reaching it alive.
As well "hatamoto" is from 1603 onward and it is granted only on HIGH RANKED Samurai close to Tokugawa.
The Muromachi positions were "kosho" - a personal page to a high ranked samurai. A position which involving keeping the swords of your lord when he resting, eating or drinking, and preparing the things for some cultural events for him. Yet since Yasuke was practically illiterate, and therefore this position is as well doubted as practically not possible as well.
The only one possible rank for him was "ashigaru" - a commoner which is given a TEMPRARY status as a "bushi" in order to serve for a specific task to a highly ranked samurai.
So.. NOPE - Yasuke was never a samurai. This is an insult to the history and Japanese culture.
And NOPE - he was not "respected" member of Japanese society. It is impossible since to be "respected" in Japan requires .. well .. HELL a lot of things to be perfectly done.
As NOPE - he was not "retainer". Retainer in Japanese is "gokenin". Gokenin is given land directly from the lord, and he have to be in administration of this land - therefore he need to de quite well in the laws and customs , and well.. everything as a high ranked administration should do. So nope - been a "retainer" is an absurd.
The data for him is literally 5 rows, and there is no even which is even recoded that he spoke even a word.
And NOPE - You wont find him listed as a vasal.
There is a list of the vassals issued at the moment someone become, and this list is spread at least to the Shogun, the Emperor's court nobles, the local daimios, and ye - there is no such name in any list anytime.
So.. nope. He was more like an exotic object which Nobunaga were carried around to scare the peoples which were not seeing such a man ( look above ). And object - nothing more.
Change "object" to "curiosity" and noone should be ofended
Yeah zero record of any training or ever being in any combat. But the problem isn't with yasuke or his history, the problem is doing a setting in feudal japan, which fans have been begging for a samurai for years, and not having a Japanese samurai.
@@marcel-ec6qeback then it was perfectly ok to treat people as objects. Even Aristotle compared Slaves to tools. Immanuel Kant was not around there yet to teach us that all human beings are beyond a “prize”. You shouldn’t warp history just because some Wokists can’t acknowledge facts.
@@mcw-lg2dm
Wasn't he present during the Honnji incident?
@@samuraijackoff5354and he was not recorded to have been in any combat there. The only record of him there is Akemichi letting him go because he thinks he is an animal and should not be killed. He was given back to the Jesuit monks after that.
I'm not interested in history, never was really, and I sure don't care about the subject in question here but man, the way you talk and explain things is truly captivating and I love how you're so neutral and open-minded, your basis in empirical data and I respect that. Who knows, if you were my history teacher back in the day I might have picked up a thing or two. Nothing to add the conversation, just wanted to let you know these videos are great (I discovered you yesterday and already am hooked). Keep up the good work my guy🤙
I very much appreciate thank you 🙏🏻
@@metatronyt There is no historical record of black people fighting on the battlefield as samurai.
He was a retainer for about a year.
You don't become a samurai just like that. At most he would've had an honorary position, mostly because of being foreign and thus interesting to Nobunaga.
A bit like John Blanke, the African trumpeter who got his position in the court of king Henry VII and VIII because they thought he was interesting because he was African, and kept him around.
Seeing how long it took William Adams to achieve that rank, it does seem unlikely Yasuke just got it handed to him.
You're describing him like he's some animal that was kept around for the novelty. You don't become a weapon bearer for the most important man in the country just by being "interesting." Nobunaga actually liked and trusted the guy.
@@blooperman1997 There is no historical record that confirms that Nobunaga liked and trusted Yasuke.
Nobunaga used Yasuke as a tool for entertainment. He had Yasuke carry his baggage and walk behind Nobunaga, showing it off to the public and enjoying their reactions.
@@alias-wave No historical record, other than the fact that Nobunaga himself gifted him a sword, a home, gave him retainer status, and gave him a stipend usually reserved for samurai, and it's outright stated that Nobunaga enjoyed talking to him and having him around in general in a Jesuit letter from the time period...
You can choose to ignore all of this if you want to and just push your little agenda. No skin off my back.
@@blooperman1997this is theyre fandom. A melanin man can't possibly be kept around for more than his color. Im sure those men wanted to hear him play the trumpet badly everyday. Reveals alot about those types of peoples mindset. Just cut it short and say your a supremacists😂
Gamers are pissed because they want AC with Japanese background, but the main character are not Japanese. And the representation stuff that really unnecessary.
The saddest part is 10 years ago before we all started having to worry where every idea comes from, I would have seen a black samurai as a main character and hearing that it is based on a real black man in Japan under Nobunaga, I would have been very intrigued. I still am intrigued now, but sadly I know not to trust anything anymore that has ANY veneer of trying to appease minority fringe elements and/or activists. Even trying to be objective, objectivity still gives me enough proof that none of them know how to write worth a damn.
I don't want AC with Japanese background because Japan already makes good games with Japanese background. You know who makes less good games? Everywhere else. Ubi could set AC anywhere else and it wouldn't be redundant. Are they going to make a Samurai game with combat better than a Japanese Samurai game? I very much doubt it.
I'm more pissed that they're charging $130 for this garbage and using this whole Yasuke drama as a smoke screen
Ubi needs to be held responsible not just for historical inaccuracies but also for horrific price gauging tactics that are slowly driving up the prices of everything else
this game needs to bomb and if it doesn't we'll soon be seeing $200+ "premium" AAAA garbage as the standard
@@magicalmagicmagician5223this again? The game is $70. You do not need to buy the ultimate edition. $130 is NOT the price. You are buying DLC packs that are not going to be released for months
@@cmdrdredd This is a very dumb take. Ubisoft's monetization practices are horrendous: for 70 euro (pre-order) you get a quest that other people won't have. For 110 euro, you also get a battlepass with additional quests and content, which by its nature will be released to everyone as an optional buyable after 1 month, at most 3. Also, 3 days early access. Finally, for 130 euro they give you cosmetics on top but also five skill points (that's if the trinket and gear don't have stats).
So, to recap, they use FOMO to upsell you on pre-order with 0 day DLC, 3 days Early Access, a battlepass unlocked ahead of time and finally cosmetics possibly with stats but certainly five skill points to start with. If you don't have any problem with this, then congratulations, you're their target audience and at the same time responsible for the horrible practices of the AAA industry.
This man is to uniquely involved with seeking the Truth to be labeled Woke
I've subscribed because you are very balanced with your historic take on Japanese feudal history, you relay what is on record and you don't make leaps of faith towards either bias when things are unknown. Totally respect that, and its the logical and honest way to cover history. And I had to subscribe after seeing the old school games.. you must remember the game STRIDER by double helix games and capcom! Used to play that and Street Fighter in the arcades back in the day. Spent a fortune Lol
Thank you!
He can’t sparkle in the depths of a forest. Not with this guilty conscience.
Oh man, Metatron, how do you manage to handle all this daily insanities 😂
Hes the noblest one of us
@@Lightforeverandever simping too much
"We need a new protagonist for Star Wars"
Kathleen Kennedy: "Maker her a chick, and make her gay"
"We need a new protagonist in feudal Japan"
Ubisoft: "Make him black, and make him gay"
Pretty much
Much pretty
"We need a new protagonist for a game based in ancient Greece""
Santa Monica Studio: "Make him brown and make him gay (Spartan Agoge)!"
It’s a choice with ac shadows at least, I can’t say it’s a choice in starwars Ubisoft game, but if you don’t want Yasuke to be gay then just don’t make a gay choice… Duhh,
@@Ailurus-Fulgens1858 to be fair it's literally disrespecting him in death when he can't say nothing about it. It's exactly the reason why you don't take a historical figure as AC protagonist or any protagonist really if you plan on doing things like this. I'm straight and I have nothing against gay people but I'd be furious if a couple of hundred years after I'm dead people say I loved sucking dicks all day. Same thing for a gay person that was proudly and openly gay his/her whole life and hundreds of years later it's said they were straight and had 10 children. It's simply disrespectful to do this without concrete evidence.
This controversy is hilarious to me because I'm happy with the conclusion of "We don't know" because we truly don't have enough evidence to sway either way. But I find entertainment in people who are fighting so vigorously on both sides of this conversation but neither side have evidence to prove their point.
I think we can strongly assume that he was bushi, but it's up in the air if he had the title of samurai. All samurai are bushi but not all bushi were samurai. That fact DOES NOT push the needle in either direction.
Not probably, but can't rule it out?
My problem with AC is , beyond it having a repetitive gameplay and even story, that when they decided to tell a Japanese story, they passed all the established Japanese historical characters and picked a black character, and even the female character is just a gender swap, yet they claim historical accuracy.
It's "Cleopatra was black" all over again. If you want ro tell the story of a black queen, then tell the story of a queen we KNOW was black, instead of a basing the story on a gap in history and say "it's not impossible".
Historical accuracy only ever mattered in AC for being able to jump around historical cities.
As for Yasuke, I actually agree on their decision. It puts the player in a position of an outsider discovering Japan without being limited by the history like it would be if they'd used William Adams. It's also interesting to see that they're using an actual person this time rather than an original character.
@@nomisunrider6472 valhalla did that, you’re playing as a foreigner.
But not as a historical character, the problem is that Yasuke is actually a real guy. Every other character has been fictional
No, it's not the same as "Cleopatra was black", as Yasuke *was* black. So including a black guy named Yasuke isn't contrary to historical facts. He was also a character with quite a few blank spaces in his biography, so it allows for some creative speculation that doesn't directly contradict history.
BTW: may I remind you, that Yasuke was already on of playable characters in SW5, so a game by Japanese creators and intended primarily for the Japanese market. He was also an NPC in Nioh and appeared multiple mangas. So it does seem that quite a few people in Japan find the character quite intriguing.
@@Qba86 him being black was not my point, I know he was a real black person. It's basing the story on a weak technicality. In Cleopatra she was claimed to be black based on a small gap in history around her grandmother, here yasuke is claimed To be a samurai based of assumptions. Based on my understanding the chance of him being a samurai is at best 50%. They took that possibility and ran with it. Instead if a real certified samurai.
Taking "creative liberties" on historical figures leaves a bad taste in mouth. What would people say if a documentary or game based on Dr king claimed he was actually gay or queer, because we can't be 100% certain he wasn't.
@@nomisunrider6472 they could have created a original character like blue eyed samurai. As I said taking creative liberties with actual historical figures is slippery slope And personally I am against it.
What would be the reaction if in the next AC, during civil rights movement, dr king will be depicted as a closet gay. Will that be alright?
Also, I appreciate how you included the original text in here too. I like opportunities to practice reading and understanding very old Japanese. More please.
黒人が侍として、戦場で戦い、戦果を挙げた史実は無い。
I love your historical breakdowns, You are a true Historian!
Your collection is mighty impressive!
I can't wait to see Yasuke getting buck breaked by Nobunaga.
Making both Nobunaga and Yasuke gay and in a relationship would cause an uproar of epic proportions 😭
@@UnseathedDeityNot gonna lie though, it’d be funny af as someone who knows a lot about the period. Not accurate mind you, but simply funny af
It'll be a funny sight ngl
It’d be opposite most likely
@@UnseathedDeity Wouldn't it actually be "historically accurate" to make Oda gay? Didn't he regularly do gay stuff with his attendant Mori Ranmaru?
I would enjoy learning more about the "half samurai" as i am not familiar with this concept. Thank you for your dedication to accurate history.
There is no such concept, he is full of ...it.
History doesn't care about their feelings. Keep on keeping on. Thanks for all the hard work!
How you approach history sort of does.
And by “History” you mean written records.
Even if he was a samurai, he still shouldn't be a main character. It should've been a Japanese man plain and simple. It's totally disrespectful to Japanese people. Why does everything have to have black people forced into it?
They even give him/her/they/them/attack helicopter a full-adorned armor which is usually given to high ranking samurai. Imagine if the Great Nobunaga is still alive and show him this this is like spit on his face, on his ranking as one of the well-accomplished general.
It is disrespectful. Japan has such a big history and they can only focus on the one time a black guy is mentioned and then use him instead of a fictional character like every other game.
Agree
This comment is exactly my thinking, and exactly why I won't play the game. I wouldnt give a crap if he was in the game as a character. But they dug through all of Japanese history and found the one black man that existed in Japan and said oooo let's make him the main character. It's obvious and it ruins it for me.
I would have bought and played this game if we could play as an actual Japanese person from the land and traditions in which the game takes place. But being an obscure outsider who stands out like a sore thumb and isn't from the culture we are immersing ourselves into ruins the game for me and breaks immersion. So, they lost my money, and I ain't the only one.
You might say that it is was also disrespectful to make an Englishman a protagonist in Nioh... But if we're going on this route, it actually would be more disrespectful towards white people, because in that game he looks like a Japanese man with blond hair. So you are correct.
Tron, for the love of God, address what happens _after_ Nobunaga died. Thats what defines what he was.
"The Fool's " Pet, or a High class warrior.
If he lost his title after Nobunaga's death then it's very clear.
my thing with yasuke is the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. i'm with you 100% the fact is we just don't know weather he had the title of samurai that was my stance on it way before he became a huge talking point. and my main issue is the absolutist stance on both sides of this argument. so when ever a piece of media decides to depict him as a samurai i'm like sure fine have fun with it.but people trying to change wikipidia articles and change the neritive of actual history when we don't really have the evidence to say weather he was or was not this thing i find issue with. assfor this assassins creed game well i only ever played the first 1 so i have alot of catching up to do if i wanted to play this one. but i do feel like a famous ninja would be a better fit someone like hattori hanzo or something since your suppose to be an assassin someone who's stealthy that could easily blend into a crowd. picking someone would is literally the only black man in japan at the time he has to stick out in a crowd eacy. so i'm not opposed to the idea of a yasuke game but an assassin's creed game seems like a bad fit. and it's obvious that they made him the main character for dei reasons you'll have to be a complete fool not to see that. so that fact also rubs me the wrong way slightly aginst this game. but not nearly as much as the history-altering thats going on.