Well, it’s high time I addressed this mentality once again. I touched on it on my previous blog but I noticed it’s starting to creep up on literally any work or IP that has nothing to do with trying to be “WOKE”. It’s beyond asinine at this point.
I have noticed a rapid increase of sad individual calling everything that does not have a white (or fair-skinned) male lead in a game, movie, book, comic and otherwise as being woke. We’re talking original works here, works that are not based on source material or previous sequels. If you’ve been following me, you’d know how I feel about IP’s that do try to be work, and are called out for it rightfully, but this is getting incredibly stupid at this point. People to to start to understand that now that we live in a more globalised world, many people are starting to take story-telling and creation into their own hands. Some will fail, while other will succeed, but this is what myself and many others have wanted. That if you want diversity, if you want to be represented or create a story for the next generation, you got to do it yourself.
So I don’t understand why a lot of people feel the need to call everything nowadays woke! And I mean everything! What spurred this blog in the first place was the reaction to the Square Enix reveals. The first was Forspoken, the newly revealed Square Enix game. This game is a brand new IP, there’s barely any info on it, yet I’ve seen quite a few people already calling it “woke”. I went back and replayed the trailer a couple of times to find what aspect of the trailer even hinted at a woke moment. The only logical conclusion I came to is that the game featured a mixed woman of African descent. That’s it! Come on, you’re really just opening yourself up to be called a racist at that point. The same happened with that Life Is Strange reveal. Again, brand new IP, featuring an Asian main lead and that was enough to be considered “woke!. Personally, I’m not a fan of the Life is Strange games, but a normal person would have just looked at the trailer and told themselves “eh not for me” and just moved on. There’s a clear line of what is woke and SJW fueled, and what is a genuinely new piece of work.
This even happened to me. I’m working on a webcomic of my own called Red Rapture (coming soon) and decided to share it online to create awareness. Literally, I found a couple of comments that called it “SJW propaganda” which made no sense. If you’re wondering what I shared, it was only the cover page! THE COVER PAGE MY GUY!!!!
Look, it would be easy for me to just call them racist and call it a day, but there’s more to it. Yes, it is true that we’ve seen an increase of works (comics, tv shows, and movies) that are clear as day SJW stuff! You know, changing gender/race etc! However, it’s gotten so excessive that people as an act of revolt are calling everything that they “think” is SJW, woke! Basically, if it doesn’t have a white male lead, then there’s a good chance it’s SJW. Of course, there are the racists too who use SJW as a cover to express their distaste for anything that paints someone in a good light, but still, it’s getting quite stupid.
Yes, there are new works of fiction that are politically motivated and SJW-themed, however, there’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t have to consume it if you don’t want to, as they have a right to exist, my friend, whether you like it or not. That’s the whole point of “do it yourself”! You remember how we said, “stop changing established characters and create your own stuff?” Now they’re doing it, wish is a GOOD thing, people.
Everyone has the right to tell the stories they want, and likewise, everyone has a right to choose to consume those works or not. So long as the source material is not tampered with, and/or it’s original, I don’t know why you’re complaining.
