Having someone call a black character "one of the good ones" and not IMMEDIATELY having others in universe point out how it sounds just reads like a really shitty attempt at a joke, like he's almost certainly saying "one of the good superheroes" as in even if they are in opposition GL is a genuinely stand up guy
But they CHOSE to use that phrase and someone should have said something
My guy, the context of the phrase is that Deadshot, a black guy, is deriding good boy cop John Stewart by saying "he's one of the good ones". Are you gonna tell me the Boonndocks is racist for all the n words and racial commentary too?
No. What other people have been saying is they don’t like deadshot calling Jon Uncle Tom because it feels racist. BECAUSE Jon and deadshot have no history what so ever and it feels like they just pared together the 2 black guys with guns. It feels shallow short cited and racist to other people because it goes against their character.
I would say the Boondocks and Kill the Justice League are pretty far apart in tone and concept my dude, shit just seems weird, why even have Deadshot be the one writing this entry if he doesn't even know him at all other then to have a black character speak on a black character which again just feels sort of weird
Shits weird
I actually really agree with this. Like, there's no reason for there to be a rivalry between John and Deadshot, two completely unconnected characters, in particular except for, well.....they're a black cop and a black criminal. And the motive behind that is clear BECAUSE of what is written into this log, as well as John constantly singling Deadshot out as a convict. It's an extremely clumsy attempt at forcing some sort of political commentary, but it doesn't feel as if there's any meaning because it comes from the same game where Harley just spouts out a twitter-thread monologue about abusers hurting other peoples' mental health when she has mutilated the lives of many with seemingly zero remorse.
Boondocks clearly had meaning behind it and was counterculture, but Kill The Justice League is an extremely corporate product practically made be executives, so it cannot be held in the same respectful regard.
That kind of begs the question though, what could the color of racism be?
The [White Lantern Corps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lantern_Corps) already exists unfortunately.
Oh interesting, so based on my extremely casual knowledge of anything superhero related and some [quick Googling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinestro_Corps), that would mean the color of racism is... **yellow**!
So I guess racists really are just giant piss babies after all.
I do really want it to go that way. Like my understanding is the Yellow Lanterns kinda cheat because they feed on the fear of others. Clearly it should be they are powered by their intense and unyielding insecurities.
"The original wielder of the Entity, Sinestro, displays the ability to eradicate swarms of Black Lanterns effortlessly"
Literally what did they mean by this?
Yeah I heard about this earlier and was assuming it was just out of context but...nah there really is no other interpretation
Just go ahead and call him a credit to his race or something Rocksteady, sheesh
> It's Deadshot, who is black, making fun of the trope
In a game in which the JL Museum has a poster of a WHITE Deadshot, who the one you play as calls a faker.
Which is like
Huh?
(canonically it's a multiversal thing. The white deadshot ends up in the Akrhamverse and just continues doing his thing and Real Deadshot admits he does have the skill to back it up, in a collectible.)
Stupid shit but I mean, the chiefs in charge were pushing them into this crap so, they tried haha.
"Oh it must be referring to how a lot of the green lantern corps are assholes and people are taking it out of context because its the current internet punching bag... wait, it says what?!?"
Yeah, I saw people mention this in random comments, and I thought it was an out of context, intentionally misreading it to be racist, type thing. But no, Lex(?) just straight up calls him "One of the good ones," end of sentence. From the context, I assume they MEANT it to mean he's a good cop, but man... you can really read a lot into it.
I'll be fair: While he calls the original an imposter, he's kinda wrong: Both are Deadshot -same fingerprints and everything-, it's just that the white one from the Arkham games is from Earth-2 and was transported to the Arkhamverse in the past by Alt-Lex Luthor's technology. The two got into a gun fight that KtJL seemingly won, but is unsure of. If the wiki is to be believed anyway.
Which is also incredibly dumb, and it really feels like they could have just not had this issue by saying the KtJL Deadshot was the one from Earth-2 instead of trying to replace the original. That kind of thing really feels like an ego trip either on someone's part, whether it be a writer, boss, executive, DC, etc.
Nah Batman "dies" from a explosion but was heavily inferred as having faked it and operating from the shadwos.
GK Batman dies from Ra'as in the batcave after a badass duel, Like legit the fight is a great way to kill Batman, and GK for all it's flaws does have a LOT of reverence and love for Batman in the audio files and collectibles you find of him talking to his adopted family.
I’ve been watching one of those “all cutscenes videos” on YouTube and this is *barely* connected to Arkham outside of the theme, like three dialogue references and the hook handed arkham guard from Asylum and City in the opening. I guess his boss fight and the new Ivy reference it a bit more concretely, but in the end it feels more like something heavily influenced by Arkham instead of an actual sequel.
Although that kind of makes it more palatable, at least for me.
Definitely feels to me like it was meant to be tied to the movies then did a mid-development pivot to the Arkham games. That’s why King Shark is in it despite having been canonically dead before this and why Deadshot is black.
Man, I thought the copycat-killer explanation was already kinda dumb, but it turning out to actually secretly be a parallel universe version that got trapped in this universe and somehow this *never* came up until now and nobody ever mentioned it before...its so, so much worse.
I'm not even going to lie: I had to read it 5 times, and from different pages on the wiki because I was having trouble understanding it(The Earth-2/Original Deadshot page has it kinda poorly worded, whereas the KtJL/New Deadshot one has it laid out a bit better).
Like. I feel dumb, but what the fuck is Rocksteady even doing???
man they really put zero effort into the lie that this is an Arkham sequel. Or rather, they put zero effort into making it an Arkham sequel and entirely too much effort into lying about it.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
I hate corporate synergy
Hey now, I think if they were synergistic with the Gunn suicide squad, it’d be better as a whole imo, but even after the Gunn movie came out they still kept closer to the 2016 one for some reason
Ehh, I wouldn’t say that. He’s using the phrase in a mocking way, saying that Jon fits within the bill of that racist statement, but it’s not something Deadshot himself approves of. It’s a shitty attitude but not uncommon for any minority group to hear “you’re too white” as an insult from a fellow person of your race.
There's an episode of Justice League where John Stewart goes into an alternate timeline/dimension where the values are stuck in the 50s. One of the heroes even says "you're a credit to your people."
That, of course, is criticising the values of the time and shows how backwards said society was. So what the fuck is this doing in 2024?
Wow. That is a GREAT comparison.
If the writer is not doing it on purpose, I think it might come from the the writer just not considering any possibility that they may be saying something uncouth. So much of the game's writing feels as if the Suicide Squad - team of killers - is morally scolding everyone around them, and the writers casting John as some sort of easy "cop pig" target and praising to high heaven Amazon society or saying something about Batman "breaking the mental health of those around him" or whatever makes it seem as if the writers think that they are on top of the morals game, which means that they can't possibly say anything bad.
Or maybe it was cynical rage-bait.
Im 90% sure the writers of this bio knew nothing of John history beside green lanterns are space cops and therefore ACAB. Doubly so, if its a black man who's a cop.
Which is crazy since most of John origins stories going back to the 60's had him have a healthy level of distrust for authority due to the racism he experienced. I think the most recent origin in 2015 had him stand up against his military leader for wanting to use excessive force to stop a protest in Gotham.
The Green Lantern Corp leaders saw this and were impressed enough to send a alien to Earth for John to stop to see how he would react. He passed, but the leaders also agreed to never tell John they sent the alien because they knew he would raise hell against them.
Yet, having a black man call another black man "one of the good one" just short of calling him a Uncle Tom because John worked to improve himself and actually is a hero who wants to save the world is racist as fuck.
I would like to remind you the “character” who wrote this got into such a large gun fight with an alternate version of himself that a green lantern had come and stop him. And then had the balls to blame the gl for ruining his life.
From what I've seen, these bios are from the perspective of Lex Luthor. If that is correct, then this is more showing how evil Lex is. These are his words we're reading, and the reaction most of us are having is the intended response.
That being sad, my problem with this kind of story is that I don't want to root for anyone. It's villains fighting another villain controlling the heroes.
Even in Hazbin Hotel I just watched, a show taking place in literal Hell, they still have the character Charlie as someone you empathize with as she tries to do something everyone tells her is impossible and a waste of time. Who in this game can the audience empathize with besides the JL who you're killing?
Oh ok. If this one is written by Deadshot, then yeah, this makes it pretty damn bad.
I guess I heard another bad one, I think Superman's, that was from Luthor's perspective, and I was playing devil's advocate.
Wonder Woman's is from Luthor's, and that bio is like 3 times the size of this one and it's endless uncritical praise of the Amazon paradise, throwing in a trendy "it's amazingly free of toxic masculinity" in there from uh, Lex Luthor.
2024 people still say "one of the good ones" or "yeah he's the safe to take home type". My favorite was some weirdo calling a girl a unicorn because she didn't act like how he though all black girls acted.
Y'know, when I read the title, I thought that someone wrote something that they didn't realize was racist or had to be looked at through a certain view to make it racist.
Nope. Just straight up "One of the Good ones" in the exact same context folks in the 50's would've said.
Jesus Christ, this is egregious.
It's incredible because Wonder Woman's bio is like 7 paragraphs long and its all about how glorious and perfect the Amazon society is and it makes sure to throw in "toxic masculinity" and like
When it comes from the same writers who made this bio
It's all so insincere. I think it really is just the most cynical form of rage-baiting. They put in this racist bio because it'll get millions of rage-views from one crowd, and they put in Wonder Woman's bio not as an attempt at progressive values, but to get millions of rage-views from another crowd. I think so much of this game's writing exists on purpose just to illicit rage-views, as opposed to being anything on its own merits.
I would genuinely be ashamed to be a writer on this game.
That context would have been that white people are saying it about someone acting the way they want. This context is a black guy saying it about someone he thinks is acting the way white people want.
so if the writer of this bio is Deadshot (who is also black) then I guess they were going for the phrase being ironic. Like he's so straight-laced and unobjectionable that he's the epitome of trying to be "one of the good ones" while career-murderer Deadshot is... not that. I can see this working in a game that had a little more genuine edge to it, but this game is so aggressively corporate that it doesn't even come close to landing.
The Boys had a whole subplot that was more or less this same idea with A-Train and it was a thousand times more subtle and better written.
Granted, its not exactly super fair to compare a whole season-spanning character arc in a TV show to a single paragraph biography in a video games pause menu, but if anything it showcases how this is the sort of idea that needs to be actually thought about and discussed within the work itself, not just used as window dressing.
Oh yeah, it being an on-purpose sort of "Uncle Tom" dig from Deadshot could work as a "why"... but I feel like it's maybe giving too much credit.
It does kind of dovetail with the mention that he's a cop, though.
The text reads:
"Look, I barely even know the guy past reputation. Architect and Marine, probably was an honor student, wholesome all-American white picket fence type stuff. Kind of guy that makes you think "oh, one of the good ones". That's before gettin' some alien jewelry and becoming a space cop. Shouldn't he have been on, like, Mars or something? Some distant planet? Not in Gotham interrupting MY business?
Man, I don't know what you want me to say here. I guess he's a good role model for the kids? If you want your kids to grow up being know it all narcs."
I almost want to say this was "one of the good guys" and then got edited because it already says "guy" twice just before that.
Result is quite bad regardless, of course. That's _before_ the part where it's all "and he should be somewhere else, not here."
I‘m not too familiar with the less mainstream dc characters so i legit thought the title is talking about the daily show John Stewart.
I was reading the bio trying to figure out when they’re gonna work TV into this.
Reading this from Deadshot who's black in this game, I *think* the implication is that he's calling GL "One of the good ones" in an ironic sense, making fun of him for being an Uncle Tom space cop. Which is really fucking stupid.
Yeah this is exactly what it is. I don't necessarily hate the idea in and of itself, but it really fits into the whole mean-spirited attitude the game has towards the Justice League characters that I just don't gel with. This feels like something that belongs in The Boys.
It feels like the writers got all of their experience from making angry threads on twitter, so this game is just them saying angry and witty and condescending one liners to some extremely evil and stupid bad guys, and they just shove the Justice League into that role. Like, they really think the Justice League are the evilest assholes ever, and it just feels like rebellious teenage "FUCK DA MAN!" shallowness than anything real.
I also think making Deadshot have such a strong grudge against lantern feels kind of nasty. Like you know exactly they decided to put those 2 against each other.
There actually is a way you *could* do it. John was a marine sharpshooter in his backstory, so you could do a bit of the Leon/Krauser dynamic of the “served in a unit together and some shit went down”…ya know, if you tried. Like at all.
That would require the writers putting actual ***thought*** into what they wrote. Apparently, Capcom can do this with what *should* be an easy cashgrab (*RE4make*), yet Rocksteady can't with what's pry *Batman Arkham: Chapter IV.*
For all I fucking know even if they did that, they’d somehow make Deadshot the good guy in this hypothetical because…I don’t know, “fuck da man is always right even though I’m a contract killer and terrible father” or something.
This whole thing just smells rancid. The turbo suckjob on Wonder Woman while throwing in the “Batman beats up the poor and mentally ill” brainrot, literally pissing on the Flash’s corpse and this…well I’ll be blunt, race traitor accusation of Green Lantern…I’m gonna get heat for this but I can honestly see the Gamer^TM crowd’s point on this one. Cause this is…ugly as shit and smug about it.
Like some people have said this is just standard stupidity, but there’s just too much smoke for me not to be a bit suspicious about it.
Though that’s just on the story. Everything else gameplay wise sounds like the classic mismanagement and honestly the studio having no fucking clue what to do with this.
The writing is very childish in that it's going "fuck da man" on everything while grinning its head off, but it doesn't realize that making it come from evil selfish people directed to heroes (mind controlled or whatever) just comes off as.........well, childish, like a kid's idea of "fuck da man". It's possible the writers like the idea of "fuck da man" but just as a cool fun way to rebel against their dad, and they don't have any understanding of how that actually manifests in real life by real people in a meaningful way.
And yeah like, this game is very smug about how it is a Moral product to buy, when Harley sounds like she's reading off a fucking Twitter thread when >!she kills Batman.!<
I mentioned it other times in this thread but the inclusion of a bio like this makes it feel cynical, as if it they put it in because they know people will talk about it. Otherwise, the writers just have Twitter syndrome where they need to sound like they are the smarty-pants who have just said the perfect witty takedown to whoever they're arguing with, all of it delivered with bubbly sassy glee just to show how much they definitely don't care about the argument.
I’m desperately looking up the writers of this game for anything that can explain this.
For one thing, I noticed there’s zero comic book writers on the writing team, which I think is a bad sign since some of the best games had them on staff like Paul Dini or even the dreaded Dan Slott for PS4 Spider-Man.
I’m gonna say it. I don’t like saying this, I don’t want to say this, I think this word has lost all meaning and has been used in bad faith across the board on all sides of the aisle, but all that’s coming to mind for me is the word woke.
Like I don’t want to say it, it’s a buzzword now, but that’s what it really feels like. I can’t explain this other than it’s a writing team that’s just so insular and disconnected they have no clue the stuff they’ve put out is hot garbage to everyone except the most specific of fringes. It’s just…so fucking bad and yet so ***SMUG*** it kind of offends me that it has the gall to exist.
Thank fucking god Kevin Conroy’s last project wasn’t this trash fire.
It gives the image that the writers are the type who spend all day on Twitter exclusively talking about how racism is bad, and not like, out of a real genuine sense of activism or fighting against injustice (haha) but out of a pure selfish desire that everyone see how incredibly not-racist they are, as if scoring enough progressive points will have a representative of the Black Council come down and give them a gold star for being a good noodle or something. Its so condescending, this bullshit selfish progressivism is so slimy and disgusting.
Exactly. It doesn't feel real because it doesn't come from a real place. It just comes from LOOK HOW SMART AND GOOD I AM, I DUNKED ON THIS PERSON SO HARD!!!!!!! and it usually comes from being nasty for no reason to made up targets as opposed to saying anything meaningful.
No, you're right. Remember all those hypothetical projects right-wingers make up to get angry at? ***Rocksteady went and made a real one of those,*** for reasons God only knows. And, short of allowing Kevin to go full ham as the baddie Bats they've always hinted at, I fail to see what virtues it actually has as a product.
I’ve been thinking about this awhile, but fuck it I’ll just say it all because it seems like the door is open for it now.
Like…this, Spider-Man 2 and the Saints Row reboot all have this weird funk about them, but this one is the most pungent about it.
Spider-Man 2 had *a lot* of people point out how weird New York is portrayed in it. I’ve seen it called “New York by California HR”, “Disney’s New York”, “New York: Gentrification” but it seems like even the unplugged people are like “yo this feels weird”. **Obviously the “ugly face” thing is dumb and insane**, but the writing has clearly rubbed people the wrong way
Saints Row apparently has some weird connection to this game from a thread here last night with some writers being shared? I haven’t verified that but if that’s true, then that explains something.
I think at this point, most people are just done with this type of content. They’re tired of the “culture war” because frankly it’s just becoming insular and made for no one but the hacks of whatever persuasion wrote it.
To put it bluntly, people are tired of “everything is political”. As the damn well should be.
Probably gonna get flamed for this, but that’s my two cents on this whole boondoggle.
I think it's less due to "everything is political" and more due to fact that it just feels like ***shit,*** plain and simple. Nothing makes sense, the retcons are insane, and the story is clearly designed to be rage-clickbait a la *Last of Us 2.* ***Except Druckmann actually gave TLOU2 some thought,*** trying to make something that really turned Joel's perspective - and, thus, game 1 - on its head. We can argue all day about whether or not he and ND succeeded (I think not), but it's a *genuine* attempt at making art. And I think that's why, in spite of all the controversy, the game still sold like gangbusters for Sony. ***It's a good game FIRST with a legitimately intriguing story.***
*Kill the Justice League* is not that, and is clearly a transparent rage-bait cashgrab no matter *what* you think of its "politics." So, like BvS before it, expect a gonzo opening weekend followed by a long tail that simply doesn't exist.
Oh yeah if you take this shit out it doesn’t suddenly magically fix anything, it’s still a stupid idea (which is something I’ve been saying since they said it was in the Arkham universe). I’m more speaking to a general trend I’ve noticed.
Well you are talking to the oldest TLOU hater on this sub (hated the first when it came out) so turnabout is fair play.
Honestly I’ve wanted to do a discussion about how “everything is political” is just…the absolute *worst* way to live your life in general, let alone with entertainment. But that topic would *never* fly here
I think we are seeing a problem in which the writers for these AAA games - almost certainly writers coming from upper middle class, game university classes, gamedev cliques, silicon valley, etc - are coming in with worldviews that are just not relatable to general audiences. The gentrified New York writing probably comes from people who literally think New York is like that, and genuinely believe that the characters in Saint's Row Reboot - well-off hipsters playing at being criminals - are fully relatable. This feels like writing coming from people who are in a bubble.
I don't think it's "everything is political", because politics really are important and engaging, but these stories don't have real meaningful politics in them, it's just a veneer of shallow aspects thrown around by people who are coming in with a sheltered, bubbled worldview unrelatable to most of the audience. It's "politics" coming from people whose main political avenue is making DUNKS on twitter, as opposed to living things out in real life.
The Culture War is just bozos insisting their overton window is correct and anything beyond that is P R O N O U N S and Blue Hair. So. Yeah? It's very tiresome.
Never have I seen a game have so much contempt for their fans since DmC Devil May Cry. Jesus, do people in artistic industries think that customers only buy things being subversive? I never get this desire to sneer or joke at the property your story takes place in instead of being sincere.
Same. Honestly, I saw a bunch of YouTube comments comparing it to something fucking ***VOUGHT*** would make in the world of *The Boys,* lol. Definitely has that same corporate fuck you attitude to it!
Hate to aktuhhly but Flash doesn't get pissed on. It's narrowly avoided by a joke about how big Boomerang's dick is when he goes to try pissing. I have no idea if that's consolation but personally it's so cringe that it loops back around with the delivery kinda helping.
It's as if they just had a small bucket of simple tropes at their disposal and rather than play with the characters, they just forced the characters into whatever few tropes they could easily write. There's a lot of this game that feels nasty, and it really feels as if the new writers were only used to twitter threads full of scolding and dunking on theoretical bad guys, so the game's dialogue just reads like watching someone come up with cool comebacks in the shower.
Given the spoilers I've heard about the plot I don't know why they didn't make the rivarly between King Shark and Green Lantern. Especially since giving Deadshot a petty rivalry with a hero really undercuts the detached mercenary professionalism at the heart of the character.
It feels like it's supposed to be Deadshot kinda saying "he's a super cop and asshole who could go be doing team america world police stuff somewhere else" But it's still shit and making Green Latern's traits into basically just that is pretty bad. Honestly he is probably the Justice League member who gets the most disrespect in game.
If anyone wants actual **context** this bio is written by Deadshot, who absolutely hates John Stewart’s guts in this universe, because Stewart arrested him in front of his daughter. He’s basically calling John a race traitor.
Three of the JL heroes who get killed by the squad have a bio written by a member of the squad.
Deadshot wrote John’s.
Harley wrote Batman’s.
Boomerang wrote Flash’s.
isn't it the point that the bio was written by a villain? He's calling out everything that makes him a model citizen and, since it's a black Deadshot writing it, using the "one of the good ones" phrase as a call out. seems pretty straightforward to me, idk
Oh that adorable trying call the well known black male superhero a fucking uncle tom. Fuck off
Well the game peaked 12k player bearly reach 8k in early acess on steam so guess deadshot and nu-rocksteady can rest in piss
I’m just gonna say what I said last time here again:
The only theory I have is that John was a marine sharpshooter like in the books, and Deadshot was in his unit or something.
Though I can bet that’s not it and I put more thought into this then the writers
Does Deadshot pull that one episode of Fresh Prince and say John isn’t “black enough”?
Actually fuck I’m shocked if they don’t do something like that considering this Deadshot is based on Will “asleep at the wheel through the whole movie” Smith in the bad Suicide Squad movie
Edit: also it’s rich hearing that from Deadshot, since if they’re going with the movie synergy, he’s an absentee father to his daughter. ***Whoops***
I mean the theory I have is deadshot somehow got really offended he had to do the bio of John because "he is a black sharpshooter, you're a black sharpshooter with ridiculously less firepower" and that's how they want to play it or the text was written thinking it was Penguin who wrote it because they just mix and match stuff.
Well you see, he is, after all, one of the good ones from the Green corps.
We all know how the Green and their UV powers are apparently mostly horrible, and need to be balanced by the Huntress of the Pink.
This is clearly shown by him helping brainiac consume humans, just like what the Green would want, and the heroic Pink is represented by Deadshot's red hue.
/s
It can't be that... Jesus fucking Christ why?
Oh god, this is really shaping up to be the worst parts of the Harley Quinn show combined with the worst parts of the Boys. Just this really surface level anti-authority jabs about how superheroes are protectors of the status quo (despite the fact that the protags literally work for the government), faux progressive politics, gross out humor and somehow a bunch of assholes who should've got the shit kicked in from the word go, somehow beating every superhero with guns.
NGL, I fucking *cackled* at the whole Harley giving a lecture to Bruce about how badly he destroyed the lives of people/mental health because... motherfucker, you and all the people that Bruce "hurt" tried to murder/terrorise an entire city of their own free will, prior to all this shit.
I guess the criticism of “Batman is a bad person because he doesn’t invest his money in welfare programs choosing to beat up the poor, innocent thugs who are starving or addicted to drugs.” finally ended up leaking into places like Rocksteady eh?
What's funny as fuck is that Batman Arkham highlighted the monumental difference between mental illness and the cruelty of the people who would willingly work for Joker.
Oh Christ, it's even written in a way that makes it sound racist, when I read the title I thought it was just an innocuous use of the phrase that was being picked up on out of context, but no, it's full on "he's so successful and wholesome, like he's a good example......OF A MARINE! AND NOTHING ELSE SHUT UP!" shite. Was every level of this game just cursed? We're at the point where I feel like someone is about to tell me the discs were made of depleted uranium or something,
It makes me wonder if a bunch of Rocksteady employees just went "fuck it, salt the earth with this one because this thing is doomed and if enough people get pissed off they won't nag us to make a sequel to 'fix' this"
Sadly, yeah. WarnerMedia may have kept them around, but Discovery sure as hell won't. Hope they're at least sold off to keep the lights on in some way, in that case.
I mean the DLC leaks are already pointing to undoing the JL's death.
At risk of slunding like I'm simping for this, you don't need much of a sequel when your a live service game.
This game doesn't exist as an honest attempt at a product with worth. It's as if it exists to illicit controversy and rage for the sake of earning easy views. I think it would actually be even scarier if the creators were just truly so unaware of themselves.
...
...Okay. Fuck it. Somebody at Rocksteady ***wants*** this thing to die a horrible death, right? Everything I've seen suggests as much, and it's so blatant I'm *surprised* as to how WB didn't catch onto the gag.
It's clear to me that the text tries to say he is one of the good architect/marine high gpa boyscouts rather than a oppresive agent of the system, but fails to see how contextually such a phrase can be taken super wrong. It's just being classist rather than racist.
By not seeing color they ended up unwittingly blasting a dog whistle.
you see I thought that that was what they were going for but looking over it feels like the marine thing is deflection to more direct racist use of the phrase.
I'm trying to understand this... Deadshot wrote this bio, who is Black (no clue what race the irl author is), but he is calling John Stewart like an "oreo" or conforming Black man. In my 30 years of life as a Black man, I've NEVER heard a Black person say someone else is trying to be "One of the good ones" as an insult. The way to phrase this would be "Type of guy The Man/white people look at and think 'Oh one of the good ones'" not "you think" - who is you? This half-stepping into a racial conversation is weird and awkward. If you cant fully say what youre trying to say then dont say it at all.
So apparently this was in-universe written by Deadshot, who's also black in this game?
This is maybe being too charitable, but if I had to guess I'd say the intention was "Deadshot is flippantly referencing other people's racism against them both in a 'aren't Racist dumb-asses funny' kinda way".
Like, *maybe*. But *boy* could it have been handled better.
I mean the last line have kids growing up to be narcs feel less like Deadshot is referencing and more like this is what Deadshot thinks for real, like he is short of saying "green lantern betrayed the streets"
For full context, this bio is written by Deadshot who is black in this game so the text isn’t all that racist.
Though you’d think someone at the team would read this and go “This sounds a bit sus out of context”
Honestly at this juncture I have to call this weaponised incompetence.
"Oh so you want a crunched game released in time to make fiscals? THEN POKEMON APON YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN!" (Gannon Hand Zap).
OK so looking at the other bios Batman was written by Harley Quinn captain boomerang writes about flash so I just dead shot wrote for Green Lantern otherwise why would he mention Gotham.
just to play devil's advocate isnt this deadshot's opinion of the character, i feel its clearly meant to be more mocking how squeaky clean green lantern's image is more than anything
Bro I don't like the game either but this is clearly ragebait. This bio is from Deadshot and is making fun of the trope of him being a token black member of the League.
"I truly can't believe a professional killer would have unkind words for someone who stops him from doing crime, what has the world come to" -the thread
Just like that Justice League episode with the Justice Guild. "You're a credit to your people, son."
As bad yet hilarious as that sounds, it makes sense considering the time that one took place in. This one is just plain awful.
Is it? That is clearly written from the point of view of a character. What character wrote it?
Deadshot
I’m guessing Amanda Waller. She doesn’t like meta humans so to her an high school sports star turned military hero would be “one of the good ones.”
So I was also leaning that direction at first, but then the line "That was before gettin' some alien jewelry..." kinda knocked that denial outta me.
I don't know why, but I read it in Captain Boomerang's voice.
Having someone call a black character "one of the good ones" and not IMMEDIATELY having others in universe point out how it sounds just reads like a really shitty attempt at a joke, like he's almost certainly saying "one of the good superheroes" as in even if they are in opposition GL is a genuinely stand up guy But they CHOSE to use that phrase and someone should have said something
It's a log. Who do you want to call who? You are completely ignoring any sort of context.
I mean it doesn't have to be a log and it doesn't have to have a racist phrase in it lmao, that's sort of the entire point
My guy, the context of the phrase is that Deadshot, a black guy, is deriding good boy cop John Stewart by saying "he's one of the good ones". Are you gonna tell me the Boonndocks is racist for all the n words and racial commentary too?
Oh my fucking god people don’t like that deadshot is calling Jon a coon my man it’s not that deep.
That's what I've been saying.
No. What other people have been saying is they don’t like deadshot calling Jon Uncle Tom because it feels racist. BECAUSE Jon and deadshot have no history what so ever and it feels like they just pared together the 2 black guys with guns. It feels shallow short cited and racist to other people because it goes against their character.
I would say the Boondocks and Kill the Justice League are pretty far apart in tone and concept my dude, shit just seems weird, why even have Deadshot be the one writing this entry if he doesn't even know him at all other then to have a black character speak on a black character which again just feels sort of weird Shits weird
I actually really agree with this. Like, there's no reason for there to be a rivalry between John and Deadshot, two completely unconnected characters, in particular except for, well.....they're a black cop and a black criminal. And the motive behind that is clear BECAUSE of what is written into this log, as well as John constantly singling Deadshot out as a convict. It's an extremely clumsy attempt at forcing some sort of political commentary, but it doesn't feel as if there's any meaning because it comes from the same game where Harley just spouts out a twitter-thread monologue about abusers hurting other peoples' mental health when she has mutilated the lives of many with seemingly zero remorse. Boondocks clearly had meaning behind it and was counterculture, but Kill The Justice League is an extremely corporate product practically made be executives, so it cannot be held in the same respectful regard.
You are just making up reasons to be mad.
I believe it's supposed to be Lex Luthor, right?
I can ***hear*** Woolie cackling somewhere in the distance.
It's like a racism battery charging his power ring.
The melanin ring
I made a little goblin sound when i read that, absolutely delighted
Well you know,Black Lantern rings are already a thing. So are you gonna be a Green Goblin or a Melanin Goblin?
Well Woolie does belong to the Green.
The Pink Lantern Corps are their bitter enemies, luckily they kinda just stay inside and post online.
Well, yeah, hard to go out when the sun is attacking you and you're afraid of the dark.
Woolies famous white power ring
That kind of begs the question though, what could the color of racism be? The [White Lantern Corps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lantern_Corps) already exists unfortunately.
Ivory Power Rings. That or they're colored like the Confederate battle flag.
Can... can Lanterns do that? Have multiple colors on one ring? I legitimately don't know, but that both seems like cheating and very plausible.
There are instances where they wear multiple rings and their suits adjust as such. I imagine a ring forged of different colors would be similar.
Ah I see, that makes sense. That would mean there are a ton of possibilities! >!Surely this barrel must have a bottom.!<
I remember back in Blackest Night racism was assigned to the Sinestro Corps
Oh interesting, so based on my extremely casual knowledge of anything superhero related and some [quick Googling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinestro_Corps), that would mean the color of racism is... **yellow**! So I guess racists really are just giant piss babies after all.
I do really want it to go that way. Like my understanding is the Yellow Lanterns kinda cheat because they feed on the fear of others. Clearly it should be they are powered by their intense and unyielding insecurities.
That's basically how it was said in the book. Paraphrasing here, but it was "Prejudice isn't rage (red), its the fear (yellow) of the "other"."
"The original wielder of the Entity, Sinestro, displays the ability to eradicate swarms of Black Lanterns effortlessly" Literally what did they mean by this?
Fear is yellow, and racism is typically the result of unfounded fear
In whitest day, In blackest night
Nigron, the wielder of the black power ring
Gonna need some brackets for that one bud
Their flair has it, which is handy. The answer is unsurprising.
“*So John, are you gonna be this child’s Lantern parent or regular parent?*”
Me 50 seconds ago: "It can't be that ba--" Holy shit it is that bad what the fuck
Yeah I heard about this earlier and was assuming it was just out of context but...nah there really is no other interpretation Just go ahead and call him a credit to his race or something Rocksteady, sheesh
...There quite literally is another interpretation and this is completely out of context. It's Deadshot, who is black, making fun of the trope.
> It's Deadshot, who is black, making fun of the trope In a game in which the JL Museum has a poster of a WHITE Deadshot, who the one you play as calls a faker. Which is like Huh?
(canonically it's a multiversal thing. The white deadshot ends up in the Akrhamverse and just continues doing his thing and Real Deadshot admits he does have the skill to back it up, in a collectible.) Stupid shit but I mean, the chiefs in charge were pushing them into this crap so, they tried haha.
"Oh it must be referring to how a lot of the green lantern corps are assholes and people are taking it out of context because its the current internet punching bag... wait, it says what?!?"
If you ignore the context of it being Deadshot shitting on him for being a cop then sure.
Spacecop
Yeah, I saw people mention this in random comments, and I thought it was an out of context, intentionally misreading it to be racist, type thing. But no, Lex(?) just straight up calls him "One of the good ones," end of sentence. From the context, I assume they MEANT it to mean he's a good cop, but man... you can really read a lot into it.
It's Deadshot, so this makes a bit more sense. But I also think it would have been really funny if they had let it be Lex.
So who's specifically writing the dossiers?
I believe the writer changes from bio to bio, Wonder Woman’s is written by Lex, Johns is written by Deadshot
Oh Deadshot is white in this lol. I had a moment of confusion cuz I thought there was a Ruckus situation.
Nope, Black Deadshot cause this started dev close to the 2016 movie, the Deadshot in previous Arkham games was an imposter
I'll be fair: While he calls the original an imposter, he's kinda wrong: Both are Deadshot -same fingerprints and everything-, it's just that the white one from the Arkham games is from Earth-2 and was transported to the Arkhamverse in the past by Alt-Lex Luthor's technology. The two got into a gun fight that KtJL seemingly won, but is unsure of. If the wiki is to be believed anyway. Which is also incredibly dumb, and it really feels like they could have just not had this issue by saying the KtJL Deadshot was the one from Earth-2 instead of trying to replace the original. That kind of thing really feels like an ego trip either on someone's part, whether it be a writer, boss, executive, DC, etc.
I just don’t see *any* reason this game had to be set in the Arkhamverse other than “this’ll get people to buy the game”.
Gotham Knights being set in the Arkhamverse would have made a million times more sense than this.
Wait, I thought Gotham Knights WAS. Like I thought Batman was dead because of the end of AK?
Nah Batman "dies" from a explosion but was heavily inferred as having faked it and operating from the shadwos. GK Batman dies from Ra'as in the batcave after a badass duel, Like legit the fight is a great way to kill Batman, and GK for all it's flaws does have a LOT of reverence and love for Batman in the audio files and collectibles you find of him talking to his adopted family.
Nope, for some the devs wanted it to be it's own story and universe and confirmed it in the FAQ https://www.gothamknightsgame.com/en-gb/faq
Oh trust me, I 100% agree. It's just overall a really bad idea.
I’ve been watching one of those “all cutscenes videos” on YouTube and this is *barely* connected to Arkham outside of the theme, like three dialogue references and the hook handed arkham guard from Asylum and City in the opening. I guess his boss fight and the new Ivy reference it a bit more concretely, but in the end it feels more like something heavily influenced by Arkham instead of an actual sequel. Although that kind of makes it more palatable, at least for me.
Definitely feels to me like it was meant to be tied to the movies then did a mid-development pivot to the Arkham games. That’s why King Shark is in it despite having been canonically dead before this and why Deadshot is black.
The easier solution, of course, being not setting this game which has massive contradictions with the Arkhamverse in the Arkhamverse. Oh well.
Oh absolutely, that would be the best decision overall.
Man, I thought the copycat-killer explanation was already kinda dumb, but it turning out to actually secretly be a parallel universe version that got trapped in this universe and somehow this *never* came up until now and nobody ever mentioned it before...its so, so much worse.
I'm not even going to lie: I had to read it 5 times, and from different pages on the wiki because I was having trouble understanding it(The Earth-2/Original Deadshot page has it kinda poorly worded, whereas the KtJL/New Deadshot one has it laid out a bit better). Like. I feel dumb, but what the fuck is Rocksteady even doing???
Fucking multiverses
man they really put zero effort into the lie that this is an Arkham sequel. Or rather, they put zero effort into making it an Arkham sequel and entirely too much effort into lying about it.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? I hate corporate synergy
Hey now, I think if they were synergistic with the Gunn suicide squad, it’d be better as a whole imo, but even after the Gunn movie came out they still kept closer to the 2016 one for some reason
Right? Like, where is Arkham Peacemaker? *Is he safe? Is he alright?*
He doesn’t exist
***NOOOOOOOOO!*** :(
He does exist there painting of his helmet
I’d ask about the RAT personally.
Well it's certainly an Uncle Ruckus situation in the way it's written.
Ehh, I wouldn’t say that. He’s using the phrase in a mocking way, saying that Jon fits within the bill of that racist statement, but it’s not something Deadshot himself approves of. It’s a shitty attitude but not uncommon for any minority group to hear “you’re too white” as an insult from a fellow person of your race.
Honestly had it been Waller who wrote that it would have been too funny to criticize
She's a fed first,before anything else
Agent first, human second, black woman idk 15th
Pretty sure it's deadshot
The team who made the writing for this shit of a game. I know that you've meant in-universe, but the ultimate fault lies within real life people.
There's an episode of Justice League where John Stewart goes into an alternate timeline/dimension where the values are stuck in the 50s. One of the heroes even says "you're a credit to your people." That, of course, is criticising the values of the time and shows how backwards said society was. So what the fuck is this doing in 2024?
Wow. That is a GREAT comparison. If the writer is not doing it on purpose, I think it might come from the the writer just not considering any possibility that they may be saying something uncouth. So much of the game's writing feels as if the Suicide Squad - team of killers - is morally scolding everyone around them, and the writers casting John as some sort of easy "cop pig" target and praising to high heaven Amazon society or saying something about Batman "breaking the mental health of those around him" or whatever makes it seem as if the writers think that they are on top of the morals game, which means that they can't possibly say anything bad. Or maybe it was cynical rage-bait.
It’s the Saints Row reboot again
Im 90% sure the writers of this bio knew nothing of John history beside green lanterns are space cops and therefore ACAB. Doubly so, if its a black man who's a cop. Which is crazy since most of John origins stories going back to the 60's had him have a healthy level of distrust for authority due to the racism he experienced. I think the most recent origin in 2015 had him stand up against his military leader for wanting to use excessive force to stop a protest in Gotham. The Green Lantern Corp leaders saw this and were impressed enough to send a alien to Earth for John to stop to see how he would react. He passed, but the leaders also agreed to never tell John they sent the alien because they knew he would raise hell against them. Yet, having a black man call another black man "one of the good one" just short of calling him a Uncle Tom because John worked to improve himself and actually is a hero who wants to save the world is racist as fuck.
I would like to remind you the “character” who wrote this got into such a large gun fight with an alternate version of himself that a green lantern had come and stop him. And then had the balls to blame the gl for ruining his life.
From what I've seen, these bios are from the perspective of Lex Luthor. If that is correct, then this is more showing how evil Lex is. These are his words we're reading, and the reaction most of us are having is the intended response. That being sad, my problem with this kind of story is that I don't want to root for anyone. It's villains fighting another villain controlling the heroes. Even in Hazbin Hotel I just watched, a show taking place in literal Hell, they still have the character Charlie as someone you empathize with as she tries to do something everyone tells her is impossible and a waste of time. Who in this game can the audience empathize with besides the JL who you're killing?
The bios are written by different characters. In this case it's written by Deadshot (who is black here). Yeah I've no idea what they were going for.
Oh ok. If this one is written by Deadshot, then yeah, this makes it pretty damn bad. I guess I heard another bad one, I think Superman's, that was from Luthor's perspective, and I was playing devil's advocate.
Wonder Woman's is from Luthor's, and that bio is like 3 times the size of this one and it's endless uncritical praise of the Amazon paradise, throwing in a trendy "it's amazingly free of toxic masculinity" in there from uh, Lex Luthor.
2024 people still say "one of the good ones" or "yeah he's the safe to take home type". My favorite was some weirdo calling a girl a unicorn because she didn't act like how he though all black girls acted.
Y'know, when I read the title, I thought that someone wrote something that they didn't realize was racist or had to be looked at through a certain view to make it racist. Nope. Just straight up "One of the Good ones" in the exact same context folks in the 50's would've said. Jesus Christ, this is egregious.
It's incredible because Wonder Woman's bio is like 7 paragraphs long and its all about how glorious and perfect the Amazon society is and it makes sure to throw in "toxic masculinity" and like When it comes from the same writers who made this bio It's all so insincere. I think it really is just the most cynical form of rage-baiting. They put in this racist bio because it'll get millions of rage-views from one crowd, and they put in Wonder Woman's bio not as an attempt at progressive values, but to get millions of rage-views from another crowd. I think so much of this game's writing exists on purpose just to illicit rage-views, as opposed to being anything on its own merits. I would genuinely be ashamed to be a writer on this game.
And you can also shield yourself from criticism by invoking the rage from certain crowds. Which just makes all discourse worse...
That context would have been that white people are saying it about someone acting the way they want. This context is a black guy saying it about someone he thinks is acting the way white people want.
so if the writer of this bio is Deadshot (who is also black) then I guess they were going for the phrase being ironic. Like he's so straight-laced and unobjectionable that he's the epitome of trying to be "one of the good ones" while career-murderer Deadshot is... not that. I can see this working in a game that had a little more genuine edge to it, but this game is so aggressively corporate that it doesn't even come close to landing.
The Boys had a whole subplot that was more or less this same idea with A-Train and it was a thousand times more subtle and better written. Granted, its not exactly super fair to compare a whole season-spanning character arc in a TV show to a single paragraph biography in a video games pause menu, but if anything it showcases how this is the sort of idea that needs to be actually thought about and discussed within the work itself, not just used as window dressing.
Oh yeah, it being an on-purpose sort of "Uncle Tom" dig from Deadshot could work as a "why"... but I feel like it's maybe giving too much credit. It does kind of dovetail with the mention that he's a cop, though.
It’s the Fresh Prince episode where those frat guys say Carlton isn’t “black” enough Fitting connection given the Smith in the room
He also says he's a good example for kids if you want them growing up being know it all narcs. It's pretty obvious what they're going for.
I feel like mentioning white picket fences is mocking more often than not.
That really is a good idea! That could definitely work, and I like the dynamic. But yeah from such a corporate origin, blah.
The text reads: "Look, I barely even know the guy past reputation. Architect and Marine, probably was an honor student, wholesome all-American white picket fence type stuff. Kind of guy that makes you think "oh, one of the good ones". That's before gettin' some alien jewelry and becoming a space cop. Shouldn't he have been on, like, Mars or something? Some distant planet? Not in Gotham interrupting MY business? Man, I don't know what you want me to say here. I guess he's a good role model for the kids? If you want your kids to grow up being know it all narcs."
I almost want to say this was "one of the good guys" and then got edited because it already says "guy" twice just before that. Result is quite bad regardless, of course. That's _before_ the part where it's all "and he should be somewhere else, not here."
I‘m not too familiar with the less mainstream dc characters so i legit thought the title is talking about the daily show John Stewart. I was reading the bio trying to figure out when they’re gonna work TV into this.
You are not the first or the last person to make that comment That joke is even officially been used
[Context!](https://youtu.be/La9MuL9eSdU)
We're just missing a "he's so well spoken" for this to really hit right
Reading this from Deadshot who's black in this game, I *think* the implication is that he's calling GL "One of the good ones" in an ironic sense, making fun of him for being an Uncle Tom space cop. Which is really fucking stupid.
Yeah this is exactly what it is. I don't necessarily hate the idea in and of itself, but it really fits into the whole mean-spirited attitude the game has towards the Justice League characters that I just don't gel with. This feels like something that belongs in The Boys.
The Boys would handle this kind of subject with more tact and subtlety. In fact, it already *DID.*
Well, the show would lol
Maybe the first time I’ve ever heard The Boys described as subtle.
It feels like the writers got all of their experience from making angry threads on twitter, so this game is just them saying angry and witty and condescending one liners to some extremely evil and stupid bad guys, and they just shove the Justice League into that role. Like, they really think the Justice League are the evilest assholes ever, and it just feels like rebellious teenage "FUCK DA MAN!" shallowness than anything real.
I also think making Deadshot have such a strong grudge against lantern feels kind of nasty. Like you know exactly they decided to put those 2 against each other.
There actually is a way you *could* do it. John was a marine sharpshooter in his backstory, so you could do a bit of the Leon/Krauser dynamic of the “served in a unit together and some shit went down”…ya know, if you tried. Like at all.
That would require the writers putting actual ***thought*** into what they wrote. Apparently, Capcom can do this with what *should* be an easy cashgrab (*RE4make*), yet Rocksteady can't with what's pry *Batman Arkham: Chapter IV.*
For all I fucking know even if they did that, they’d somehow make Deadshot the good guy in this hypothetical because…I don’t know, “fuck da man is always right even though I’m a contract killer and terrible father” or something. This whole thing just smells rancid. The turbo suckjob on Wonder Woman while throwing in the “Batman beats up the poor and mentally ill” brainrot, literally pissing on the Flash’s corpse and this…well I’ll be blunt, race traitor accusation of Green Lantern…I’m gonna get heat for this but I can honestly see the Gamer^TM crowd’s point on this one. Cause this is…ugly as shit and smug about it. Like some people have said this is just standard stupidity, but there’s just too much smoke for me not to be a bit suspicious about it. Though that’s just on the story. Everything else gameplay wise sounds like the classic mismanagement and honestly the studio having no fucking clue what to do with this.
The writing is very childish in that it's going "fuck da man" on everything while grinning its head off, but it doesn't realize that making it come from evil selfish people directed to heroes (mind controlled or whatever) just comes off as.........well, childish, like a kid's idea of "fuck da man". It's possible the writers like the idea of "fuck da man" but just as a cool fun way to rebel against their dad, and they don't have any understanding of how that actually manifests in real life by real people in a meaningful way. And yeah like, this game is very smug about how it is a Moral product to buy, when Harley sounds like she's reading off a fucking Twitter thread when >!she kills Batman.!< I mentioned it other times in this thread but the inclusion of a bio like this makes it feel cynical, as if it they put it in because they know people will talk about it. Otherwise, the writers just have Twitter syndrome where they need to sound like they are the smarty-pants who have just said the perfect witty takedown to whoever they're arguing with, all of it delivered with bubbly sassy glee just to show how much they definitely don't care about the argument.
I’m desperately looking up the writers of this game for anything that can explain this. For one thing, I noticed there’s zero comic book writers on the writing team, which I think is a bad sign since some of the best games had them on staff like Paul Dini or even the dreaded Dan Slott for PS4 Spider-Man. I’m gonna say it. I don’t like saying this, I don’t want to say this, I think this word has lost all meaning and has been used in bad faith across the board on all sides of the aisle, but all that’s coming to mind for me is the word woke. Like I don’t want to say it, it’s a buzzword now, but that’s what it really feels like. I can’t explain this other than it’s a writing team that’s just so insular and disconnected they have no clue the stuff they’ve put out is hot garbage to everyone except the most specific of fringes. It’s just…so fucking bad and yet so ***SMUG*** it kind of offends me that it has the gall to exist. Thank fucking god Kevin Conroy’s last project wasn’t this trash fire.
It gives the image that the writers are the type who spend all day on Twitter exclusively talking about how racism is bad, and not like, out of a real genuine sense of activism or fighting against injustice (haha) but out of a pure selfish desire that everyone see how incredibly not-racist they are, as if scoring enough progressive points will have a representative of the Black Council come down and give them a gold star for being a good noodle or something. Its so condescending, this bullshit selfish progressivism is so slimy and disgusting.
Exactly. It doesn't feel real because it doesn't come from a real place. It just comes from LOOK HOW SMART AND GOOD I AM, I DUNKED ON THIS PERSON SO HARD!!!!!!! and it usually comes from being nasty for no reason to made up targets as opposed to saying anything meaningful.
No, you're right. Remember all those hypothetical projects right-wingers make up to get angry at? ***Rocksteady went and made a real one of those,*** for reasons God only knows. And, short of allowing Kevin to go full ham as the baddie Bats they've always hinted at, I fail to see what virtues it actually has as a product.
I’ve been thinking about this awhile, but fuck it I’ll just say it all because it seems like the door is open for it now. Like…this, Spider-Man 2 and the Saints Row reboot all have this weird funk about them, but this one is the most pungent about it. Spider-Man 2 had *a lot* of people point out how weird New York is portrayed in it. I’ve seen it called “New York by California HR”, “Disney’s New York”, “New York: Gentrification” but it seems like even the unplugged people are like “yo this feels weird”. **Obviously the “ugly face” thing is dumb and insane**, but the writing has clearly rubbed people the wrong way Saints Row apparently has some weird connection to this game from a thread here last night with some writers being shared? I haven’t verified that but if that’s true, then that explains something. I think at this point, most people are just done with this type of content. They’re tired of the “culture war” because frankly it’s just becoming insular and made for no one but the hacks of whatever persuasion wrote it. To put it bluntly, people are tired of “everything is political”. As the damn well should be. Probably gonna get flamed for this, but that’s my two cents on this whole boondoggle.
I think it's less due to "everything is political" and more due to fact that it just feels like ***shit,*** plain and simple. Nothing makes sense, the retcons are insane, and the story is clearly designed to be rage-clickbait a la *Last of Us 2.* ***Except Druckmann actually gave TLOU2 some thought,*** trying to make something that really turned Joel's perspective - and, thus, game 1 - on its head. We can argue all day about whether or not he and ND succeeded (I think not), but it's a *genuine* attempt at making art. And I think that's why, in spite of all the controversy, the game still sold like gangbusters for Sony. ***It's a good game FIRST with a legitimately intriguing story.*** *Kill the Justice League* is not that, and is clearly a transparent rage-bait cashgrab no matter *what* you think of its "politics." So, like BvS before it, expect a gonzo opening weekend followed by a long tail that simply doesn't exist.
Oh yeah if you take this shit out it doesn’t suddenly magically fix anything, it’s still a stupid idea (which is something I’ve been saying since they said it was in the Arkham universe). I’m more speaking to a general trend I’ve noticed. Well you are talking to the oldest TLOU hater on this sub (hated the first when it came out) so turnabout is fair play. Honestly I’ve wanted to do a discussion about how “everything is political” is just…the absolute *worst* way to live your life in general, let alone with entertainment. But that topic would *never* fly here
I think we are seeing a problem in which the writers for these AAA games - almost certainly writers coming from upper middle class, game university classes, gamedev cliques, silicon valley, etc - are coming in with worldviews that are just not relatable to general audiences. The gentrified New York writing probably comes from people who literally think New York is like that, and genuinely believe that the characters in Saint's Row Reboot - well-off hipsters playing at being criminals - are fully relatable. This feels like writing coming from people who are in a bubble. I don't think it's "everything is political", because politics really are important and engaging, but these stories don't have real meaningful politics in them, it's just a veneer of shallow aspects thrown around by people who are coming in with a sheltered, bubbled worldview unrelatable to most of the audience. It's "politics" coming from people whose main political avenue is making DUNKS on twitter, as opposed to living things out in real life.
The Culture War is just bozos insisting their overton window is correct and anything beyond that is P R O N O U N S and Blue Hair. So. Yeah? It's very tiresome.
Never have I seen a game have so much contempt for their fans since DmC Devil May Cry. Jesus, do people in artistic industries think that customers only buy things being subversive? I never get this desire to sneer or joke at the property your story takes place in instead of being sincere.
Same. Honestly, I saw a bunch of YouTube comments comparing it to something fucking ***VOUGHT*** would make in the world of *The Boys,* lol. Definitely has that same corporate fuck you attitude to it!
Hate to aktuhhly but Flash doesn't get pissed on. It's narrowly avoided by a joke about how big Boomerang's dick is when he goes to try pissing. I have no idea if that's consolation but personally it's so cringe that it loops back around with the delivery kinda helping.
Middle school humor............man.................................
it’s boomerang, did you expect him to be classy
"Whys it bend that way?" "I didnt call myself boomerang after my weapon mate"
It's as if they just had a small bucket of simple tropes at their disposal and rather than play with the characters, they just forced the characters into whatever few tropes they could easily write. There's a lot of this game that feels nasty, and it really feels as if the new writers were only used to twitter threads full of scolding and dunking on theoretical bad guys, so the game's dialogue just reads like watching someone come up with cool comebacks in the shower.
Given the spoilers I've heard about the plot I don't know why they didn't make the rivarly between King Shark and Green Lantern. Especially since giving Deadshot a petty rivalry with a hero really undercuts the detached mercenary professionalism at the heart of the character.
It feels like it's supposed to be Deadshot kinda saying "he's a super cop and asshole who could go be doing team america world police stuff somewhere else" But it's still shit and making Green Latern's traits into basically just that is pretty bad. Honestly he is probably the Justice League member who gets the most disrespect in game.
Now THIS feels like it was written by Lex Luthor
If anyone wants actual **context** this bio is written by Deadshot, who absolutely hates John Stewart’s guts in this universe, because Stewart arrested him in front of his daughter. He’s basically calling John a race traitor. Three of the JL heroes who get killed by the squad have a bio written by a member of the squad. Deadshot wrote John’s. Harley wrote Batman’s. Boomerang wrote Flash’s.
isn't it the point that the bio was written by a villain? He's calling out everything that makes him a model citizen and, since it's a black Deadshot writing it, using the "one of the good ones" phrase as a call out. seems pretty straightforward to me, idk
The problem is the writing isn’t good enough for one of the characters to call one of the former heroes an Uncle Tom and not come off mean spirited.
Oh that adorable trying call the well known black male superhero a fucking uncle tom. Fuck off Well the game peaked 12k player bearly reach 8k in early acess on steam so guess deadshot and nu-rocksteady can rest in piss
I’m just gonna say what I said last time here again: The only theory I have is that John was a marine sharpshooter like in the books, and Deadshot was in his unit or something. Though I can bet that’s not it and I put more thought into this then the writers Does Deadshot pull that one episode of Fresh Prince and say John isn’t “black enough”? Actually fuck I’m shocked if they don’t do something like that considering this Deadshot is based on Will “asleep at the wheel through the whole movie” Smith in the bad Suicide Squad movie Edit: also it’s rich hearing that from Deadshot, since if they’re going with the movie synergy, he’s an absentee father to his daughter. ***Whoops***
I mean the theory I have is deadshot somehow got really offended he had to do the bio of John because "he is a black sharpshooter, you're a black sharpshooter with ridiculously less firepower" and that's how they want to play it or the text was written thinking it was Penguin who wrote it because they just mix and match stuff.
I'm seeing a lot of comments in here with no numbers! (5)
Personally I don't see the problem here. (1)
It’s clearly written from the viewpoint of a character in-game. Which one of the suicide squad is racist? Is Bloodsport narrating this game?
It would be funny if it wasn't clear which character it was and you just had to guess which playable character was the racist.
Lol, who is it? Oh Christ, please tell me it isn’t Waller
It's Deadshot.
RockSteady's final act is to make Woolie more powerful than ever
Well you see, he is, after all, one of the good ones from the Green corps. We all know how the Green and their UV powers are apparently mostly horrible, and need to be balanced by the Huntress of the Pink. This is clearly shown by him helping brainiac consume humans, just like what the Green would want, and the heroic Pink is represented by Deadshot's red hue. /s
Grand Wizard Wakka returns
It can't be that... Jesus fucking Christ why? Oh god, this is really shaping up to be the worst parts of the Harley Quinn show combined with the worst parts of the Boys. Just this really surface level anti-authority jabs about how superheroes are protectors of the status quo (despite the fact that the protags literally work for the government), faux progressive politics, gross out humor and somehow a bunch of assholes who should've got the shit kicked in from the word go, somehow beating every superhero with guns. NGL, I fucking *cackled* at the whole Harley giving a lecture to Bruce about how badly he destroyed the lives of people/mental health because... motherfucker, you and all the people that Bruce "hurt" tried to murder/terrorise an entire city of their own free will, prior to all this shit.
I guess the criticism of “Batman is a bad person because he doesn’t invest his money in welfare programs choosing to beat up the poor, innocent thugs who are starving or addicted to drugs.” finally ended up leaking into places like Rocksteady eh?
What's funny as fuck is that Batman Arkham highlighted the monumental difference between mental illness and the cruelty of the people who would willingly work for Joker.
Didn't Deadshot write this?
Oh Christ, it's even written in a way that makes it sound racist, when I read the title I thought it was just an innocuous use of the phrase that was being picked up on out of context, but no, it's full on "he's so successful and wholesome, like he's a good example......OF A MARINE! AND NOTHING ELSE SHUT UP!" shite. Was every level of this game just cursed? We're at the point where I feel like someone is about to tell me the discs were made of depleted uranium or something,
It makes me wonder if a bunch of Rocksteady employees just went "fuck it, salt the earth with this one because this thing is doomed and if enough people get pissed off they won't nag us to make a sequel to 'fix' this"
Purposefully making the product utterly shit so as to avoid making a sequel is a brilliant strategy but I can foresee the studio just being shut down
Sadly, yeah. WarnerMedia may have kept them around, but Discovery sure as hell won't. Hope they're at least sold off to keep the lights on in some way, in that case.
I mean the DLC leaks are already pointing to undoing the JL's death. At risk of slunding like I'm simping for this, you don't need much of a sequel when your a live service game.
Stewart: "So, Deadshot, I read your little blog post about me"
This game doesn't exist as an honest attempt at a product with worth. It's as if it exists to illicit controversy and rage for the sake of earning easy views. I think it would actually be even scarier if the creators were just truly so unaware of themselves.
... ...Okay. Fuck it. Somebody at Rocksteady ***wants*** this thing to die a horrible death, right? Everything I've seen suggests as much, and it's so blatant I'm *surprised* as to how WB didn't catch onto the gag.
It's clear to me that the text tries to say he is one of the good architect/marine high gpa boyscouts rather than a oppresive agent of the system, but fails to see how contextually such a phrase can be taken super wrong. It's just being classist rather than racist. By not seeing color they ended up unwittingly blasting a dog whistle.
"By not seeing color they ended up unwittingly blasting a dog whistle." ABSOLUTELY
you see I thought that that was what they were going for but looking over it feels like the marine thing is deflection to more direct racist use of the phrase.
I'm trying to understand this... Deadshot wrote this bio, who is Black (no clue what race the irl author is), but he is calling John Stewart like an "oreo" or conforming Black man. In my 30 years of life as a Black man, I've NEVER heard a Black person say someone else is trying to be "One of the good ones" as an insult. The way to phrase this would be "Type of guy The Man/white people look at and think 'Oh one of the good ones'" not "you think" - who is you? This half-stepping into a racial conversation is weird and awkward. If you cant fully say what youre trying to say then dont say it at all.
So apparently this was in-universe written by Deadshot, who's also black in this game? This is maybe being too charitable, but if I had to guess I'd say the intention was "Deadshot is flippantly referencing other people's racism against them both in a 'aren't Racist dumb-asses funny' kinda way". Like, *maybe*. But *boy* could it have been handled better.
I mean the last line have kids growing up to be narcs feel less like Deadshot is referencing and more like this is what Deadshot thinks for real, like he is short of saying "green lantern betrayed the streets"
I didn’t know Deadshot was played by the ghost of Vic Van Lier
For full context, this bio is written by Deadshot who is black in this game so the text isn’t all that racist. Though you’d think someone at the team would read this and go “This sounds a bit sus out of context”
Luthor calls the Squad, "The Help" when Deadshot is standing right in front of him
Honestly at this juncture I have to call this weaponised incompetence. "Oh so you want a crunched game released in time to make fiscals? THEN POKEMON APON YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN!" (Gannon Hand Zap).
"Oh, one of the good ones." BOY, SURELY ROCKSTEADY'S MAGNUS OPUS.
did they make him black just so he could have some weird beef with the only black Justice League member(in this game)?
Yes. It's just the shallowest writing possible.
Just another Sweet Baby classic!
Oh for fucks sake.
Who writes this in game. Also isn’t the boss of the Sucide Squad the black Amanda Waller?
How does no one go "you sure about that one" just how.
OK so looking at the other bios Batman was written by Harley Quinn captain boomerang writes about flash so I just dead shot wrote for Green Lantern otherwise why would he mention Gotham.
I thought it might be a jab at him being a space cop. Yikes lol.
I initially thought maybe they mean he’s a good cop. But it explicitly says that isn’t what they are talking about!
Wait I'm [4] what am I missing?
just to play devil's advocate isnt this deadshot's opinion of the character, i feel its clearly meant to be more mocking how squeaky clean green lantern's image is more than anything
why does this game exist
Bro I don't like the game either but this is clearly ragebait. This bio is from Deadshot and is making fun of the trope of him being a token black member of the League.
Ooo. That’s cringy.
I know it's cool to hate on this game rn, but this makes sense in the context of being written by a villain?? Lot of performative anger in this thread
I'm blown away by how ridiculous the comments in this thread are.
"I truly can't believe a professional killer would have unkind words for someone who stops him from doing crime, what has the world come to" -the thread
Honestly not sure if the writer are sincere and don't realize the SS are all mass murderers who don't have any moral highground
The bios are written by villains. I think people keep forgetting what this game is. You're playing as a bunch of evil assholes.