Comments by "Seven Proxies" (@sevenproxies4255) on "The Truth About Blades' Armour in Oblivion - Japanese or Roman Inspired?" video.

  1. dreyrugr: But then again, why does FANTASY GAMES always have to contain the obligatory european styled swords like they always do? I think you're selling the inclusion of asian weaponry into fantasy gams a bit short when you accuse it of tokenism. It kind of reinforces a stereotype that "fantasy" has to imply european medieval-styled weapons and warriors, as if the fantasy genre somehow "belong" to medieval Europe. I'm not gonna call it racist, because I think the word is thrown around way too lightly in this day and age. But I will say that it's somewhat (and probably unintentionally) chauvinistic to assume that a fantasy game has to be about knights in armour, European dragons and Merlin of Camelot-styled wizards combined with elements of British and Scandinavian folklore. Any culture could form a basis of an interesting fantasy-setting. Fantasy is basically just a made-up alternate history kind of fiction, that may or may not include fictional concepts and entities like magic, dragons and leprechauns. The fact that Bethesda tries to include elements of fantasy from a variety of cultures doesn't automatically make it "tokenism". It enhances the game and bring about an illusion that there are other cultures in the world of the Elder Scrolls that aren't all about. European knights and swords like pretty much. every other fantasy game is purely focused on. In fact, Bethesda sort of breaks with traditional European fantasy norms by modelling a lot of culture, weapons and armour on ancient Roman society in the form of the Empire, rather than going with medieval European culture. I think it's a bit more refreshing than sticking to making yet another Lord of the Rings-piece of plagiarism.
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  2. I don't think The Blades or Akaviri are that overtly Japanese-inspired. I'd argue that the Dunmer/Dark Elves are more intended to be an asian analogy (although more of a combination between Japanese, Chinese and Mongols). Not only do they run around with a crapton of Katanas, Wakizashis and Tanto's on Morrowind. The city of Vivec is pretty much entirely made up of Pagodas. You have a guild of assassins calling themselves the "Morag Tong". You have the Ashlanders living a nomadic lifestyle out of yurts, clearly inspired by ancient Mongol warriors. You also have several pieces of interior decoration that might made you think you walked into a chinese or japanese restaurant. You have "Opium dens" inspired by the real world kind. Morrowind also has a lot of wizard-, and hermit type characters with a strong resemblance to ancient chinese philosophers and japanese hermit monks. Their native gods, the Daedra, bear a striking resemblance to both Shinto spirits and indian hindu gods in many of the statues and portrayals throughout TES3: Morrowind. Morrowind itself is a volcanically formed archipelago (like Japan), but it also contains features typical of many tropical coastal regions in southeast asia like mangrove forests. Facial features of the Dark Elves if you look past the red eyes, pointy ears and blue-grey to dark grey skintone also contain elements of slightly slanted eyes and other east asian features in terms of bone structure. A lot of available styles of beards and facial hair also nods to prominent chinese and japanese characters in film. A lot of things I bring up here might not be "historical" of course while others certainly are. The rest are however pop-cultural and make a lot of references to east asian cultures.
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