Define "Woke"

[Ronin Krieg]

I've noticed some commentary about the rather *ahem* masculine-appearing and "diverse" character you meet at the start of the game, butch/unattractive female soldiers in general, and the more "diverse" demographics of the setting overall.

I had a suspicion based on early reviewers hinting at the story, so I went ahead and confirmed my suspicion by peeking at the ending cinematic (so beware of spoilers from here forward but IMHO it's SUPER obvious where it's going from the opening cutscene...).

As I suspected, the King-Priest is the big bad, the Witches are actually good and oppressed, and we need to side with them against the evil religious patriarchy.

Most people I encounter, especially here, don't really understand what Woke means. They think it means diversity (multiracial, less/no whites, or whites being the villains), or pro-feminism (girl-bosses, men being the villains, or bumbling/weak/corrupt), or LGBTQ characters or themes.

What they don't understand is that these are all just sub-categories of a more broad definition that must be understood in the context of Cultural Marxism...that is, the school of thought that began in the Frankfurt School in Germany which was itself a critique against traditional (class) Marxism.

Basically the Frankfurt School realized that Communism as envisioned by Marx had failed to produce the class revolution they wanted, so they instead turned to the institutions of Cultural Production (The Academy, Media, Hollywood, Corporate HR policy, State Department) and shifted their focus to other identity categories: namely race (Critical Theory), Sex Politics (Feminism), and "Gender" Norms (Queer Theory).

In fact if you look into the roots of Queer Theory it's only partly about being gay/nonbinary/etc...it's about disrupting ALL social and societal norms.

So from this perspective of understanding that Woke/Cultural Marxism is about anti-establishment/anti-authority/oppressed underclasses vs oppressive hierarchies (race/sex/class etc), then this game definitely fits the bill, even aside from the Diverse and gender-bending representation.

If you're on the left or sympathetic to these themes, you're already on board. If you find the idea of tearing down or demonizing traditions and norms to be antithetical, you're most likely cognitively right-leaning.

And note that this doesn't even have to be some kind of grand conspiracy...yes we know that Blackrock made public statements about intentionally and explicitly modifying behavior with incentives (social engineering), the reality is that these Cultural Marxists infiltrated our primary institutions decades ago (Herbert Marcuse went to work for the OSS and later the State Department.,..see the work of Dr. James Lindsay for a deep dive into all the receipts).

In other words, we have literal GENERATIONS of the population that have gone through the captured educational systems until the left-leaning assumptions and priors are just now part and parcel of the zeitgeist...they are "known-knowns" as Lindsay calls them...

Meaning that for many devs these days, such themes aren't even conscious subversion, but just their accepted reality and worldview...the water the fish isn't even really conscious it's swimming in, or the air we breathe.

[krbi]

Nothing to do with the game. Blocked.

[Exibar]

vete a la mier da

[Holy]

Ugly characters just removes from the experience, I prefer the main cast to be good looking unique characters. If the cast just looks like a bunch of goblins that ads nothing.
I will like characters better if they're pretty. It's just basic attraction, and my character will always be a gigachad; if I get the option to change his appearance.

[Danse Macabre]

@retardo detected.

[Shio]

reported for clown farming

[Ronin Krieg]

Originally posted by Shio:

reported for clown farming

Not clown farming at all... sincerely bringing depth to the conversation and concerns some people have.

[Ronin Krieg]

Originally posted by olvlvl:

Nothing to do with the game. Blocked.

Has everything to do with the story of the game and why these themes are so prevalent.

[Shio]

"concerns some people have", lmao my dude. Stop with the L posting.

[Ronin Krieg]

Originally posted by Danse Macabre:

@retardo detected.

If you look into the sources I mentioned...Frankfurt School, Marcuse, Queer Theory, etc. you'll discover a rather educated and high IQ analysis of the current cultural Zeitgeist.

[Dexyu]

Nahh I hate woke ♥♥♥♥ but this is not it, good story honestly ending kinda disappointing but regardless good.

[Ronin Krieg]

Originally posted by Dexyu:

Nahh I hate woke ♥♥♥♥ but this is not it, good story honestly ending kinda disappointing but regardless good.

Was I wrong...is it not "evil religion bad, witches actually good, oppressed by evil church"?

Because that is a core aspect of cultural Marxism (as well as actual OG Marxism...Marx wrote Satanic poetry as a youth) which is the actual operational definition of the colloquial term "woke"...

[Ronin Krieg]

Originally posted by Shio:

"concerns some people have", lmao my dude. Stop with the L posting.

Sorry I don't speak brain-rot.

[null]

Originally posted by Ronin Krieg:

Has everything to do with the story of the game and why these themes are so prevalent.

Maybe 10% of your post briefly mentions the story.

The rest is you not making a point, but trying really hard to justify it with trivia that doesn't relate to story at all.

[Ronin Krieg]

Originally posted by null:

Originally posted by Ronin Krieg:

Has everything to do with the story of the game and why these themes are so prevalent.

Maybe 10% of your post briefly mentions the story.

The rest is you not making a point, but trying really hard to justify it with trivia that doesn't relate to story at all.

Yes because most posts discussing what is or is not woke lack nuance and context.

In order to properly understand what it is, and how it relates to the story of this game requires at minimum a few paragraphs. All in all I think I summarized the situation very concisely, considering the literal thousands of hours I've been researching it over the last two decades...

I'll reiterate it for you. This game's story seems to be, unless the reviews and cut-scenes I've seen are incorrect, about how the witches are oppressed and misunderstood by the true evil which is the corrupt and unjustly persecuting church. These are fundamentally left-leaning themes.

Beyond that of course you have the obligatory superficial elements like diversity of gender roles, multiracial medieval society, and female characters that (to use feminist terminology) "defy the male gaze".

All of these are part of the general post-war zeitgeist brought to America by the Frankfurt School and have become pervasive in our media and entertainment.

If anyone has already finished the game and wants to have a good-faith conversation about the story, themes, and ending, I'll be open to hearing other perspectives.

I was VERY excited for the game, but after the reviews I got that suspicion about it having this kind of story and ending, and it's made me question if I really want to invest my relatively few free-time hours purchasing and playing through it if it's going to be another generic "witches are actually the misunderstood oppressed good guys and the religious patriarchal church is the true evil".

[Ska_]

I think you are just reading too much into it.

You wouldn't write this thing about the witcher and castlevania which both share stories like this one.

Especially Castlevania which seems like to be a huge inspiration for this game (see castle with the vampire, outer wall area of the castle and mechanism room of the castle almost a ripoff from castlevania).

I will give you this small paragraph and if you see similarities then you either need to judge Castlevania as Woke or judge this as being a simple story told so many times.

Dracula (Mandragora) seen as the evil doer by the church and the religious zealots, who killed his wife (killed her) to vanquish evil.

Even Full Metal Alchemist has episodes where the Church and its archbishop is manipulating people, the one with the parrot chimeara.

I think you just looking too deep into a simple retold story.