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you ever read something that is so mindn
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numbingly disconnected from reality that
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you actually start to question whether
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the person that wrote it even likes
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video games because once again the gamer
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yeah the gamer is back at it This time
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they are dissecting Kingdom Hearts to
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tell us that Sora a literal 15-year-old
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boy who spent most of his life fighting
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shadow monsters with Donald Duck and
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other Disney characters doesn't
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understand love And that might be
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because of compulsory heterosexuality
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I'm not joking This is real I saw this
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video on Var Dark's channel and I was
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like you know what i have to talk about
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this because this is the most ridiculous
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article I've read in a while And if
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you're tired of this type of
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manufactured outrage over innocent
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characters and want actual gaming
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discussion make sure you guys hit that
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like button drop a comment with your
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take and consider subscribing Now let's
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talk about how journalism is once again
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becoming fanfiction therapy So the
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latest target of identity think pieces
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as Sora Yeah Kingdom Hearts Sora
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Apparently there's a specific line in
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the Pirates of the Caribbean world where
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Davy Jones says "Love is a dreadful
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bond." And Sora replies with something
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that's sweet naive about sharing his
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heart And it it's it's just too much for
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the folks at the gamer though right it's
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not progressive enough It's too
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heterosexual We can't have that We
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cannot have that Their argument and
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they're saying this is that Sora's vague
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understanding of love means he might be
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struggling with his identity and is
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possibly a victim of you guess it
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compulsory heterosexuality
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Yeah Because apparently being a teenage
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boy who doesn't fully understand
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romantic love must be a political
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statement now And this article is
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ridiculous So let's go ahead and take a
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quick breakdown of it And again Veradark
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did a banger video Shout outs to her Go
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check her video out I wanted to give my
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take of this because this is nuts Okay
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so they point to a scene from a spin-off
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book where Sora ponders what love really
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is And they use that to suggest there's
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deeper repressed uh feelings that just
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have to be queer queer quoted I I don't
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even like to say the word queercoded
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you know instead of just being a normal
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adolescent character in a fantasy series
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that's aimed at a general audience And
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the article shifts okay it stops being
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about the character and it actually
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becomes about the writer's personal
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journey where they're talking about how
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they grew up as a deeply closeted
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lesbian who didn't even know gay people
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existed until they were in their teens
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What does this have to do with video
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games what does this have to do with
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Kingdom Hearts i I don't know why we
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have journalists that continue to do
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this Remember Mercante's Elder Ring
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review where she made it about herself
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with the DLC and how she struggles with
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Chuds and Gamergate 2.0 and all this
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stuff I don't know why they consider to
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use video games as their soap boxes but
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this writer apparently writes about how
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they didn't relate to Disney princesses
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growing up They even say right here
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"Something just wasn't clicking when I
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saw them I could never see myself in the
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position of Belle Ariel Jasmine Aurora
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or any of the princesses who fell in
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love with a prince Love just felt alien
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And they went on to say that Sora
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basically mirrors their personal
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experience which again cool Relate
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however you want to something I'm still
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going to call it out if it's cringe
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Let's not pretend that a teenage JRPG
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protagonist who doesn't immediately fall
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in love with someone must be confused
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about his orientation But that that's
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what the gamer wants to pretend And this
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is the kind of thing that is a core
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issue with modern game journalism
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Honestly they project personal
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narratives onto established characters
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like Link like Sora I mean at this point
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what character hasn't been uh put some
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kind of weird political commentary on
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top of it this is the core issue all
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right that we have with modern game
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journalism They project personal
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narratives onto established characters
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like Link Sora you name it And then they
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get mad when the story doesn't reflect
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that Okay you're not analyzing Kingdom
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Hearts anymore at this point when you're
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writing this kind of nonsense article
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You're rewriting it to reflect your
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personal beliefs and then calling the
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original creators wrong for not agreeing
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with whatever is your head cannon And
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anybody that doesn't agree with it are
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bigots It seems like time and time again
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all these modern journalists are just
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cosplayers that spiral into personal
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projection Again the writer of this
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article talks about growing up being
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closeted not relating to Disney romances
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And then they conclude that the c
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uncertainty of Sora must come from the
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same place which is that buzzword that
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compulsory heterosexuality
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And again I'm not here to dismiss
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anybody's personal journey But
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projecting that onto a fictional
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character and then criticizing the
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creators in the same article for not
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matching that projection is just absurd
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Okay especially when the criticism
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implies that any portrayal of
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traditional romance is inherently wrong
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or forced by society which is what they
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go on this weird tangent in this article
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And I get it freedom of speech inform
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your opinion but this is not critique
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okay this is rewriting someone else's
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story to suit your narrative and
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expecting the rest of us to sit here and
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play along with it Okay these are the
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same voices right writers like this are
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the same voices that constantly preach
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about fluid identity and respecting
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people's personal journeys and their
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proper pronouns or their preferred
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pronouns and stuff Yet somehow they feel
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entitled to define what Sora's personal
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or links or characters from any kind of
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video game that has some kind of
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character that they try to make into
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some kind of gender fluid character
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whatever And suddenly if the character
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doesn't fit their preferred mold it's
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because of oppression or corporate fear
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Oh they're homophobic They're bigots
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Whatever And they love doing this to
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Nintendo They love doing this to Disney
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Right The gamer has already previously
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claimed in other articles like one that
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I covered it literally was titled "Zelda
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has always been queer."
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ignoring the actual words actions and
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developer statements about Link Link is
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a male character He's always been
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referred to as a man but apparently we
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can't have that That's too hetero right
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and now with Sora he's only straight and
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doesn't understand love because of
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compulsory heterosexuality It's being
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forced upon him How How is this not
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cringe i like I can't be alone in
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cringing on this right the wildest part
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of all this though is that by not boxing
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Sora into a romantic arc is exactly what
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makes his character more universal His
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journey isn't about falling in love with
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someone It's about loyalty connection
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friendship sacrifice Those are the
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themes that people of all backgrounds
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can connect with regardless of their
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sexuality And let's be honest if Square
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Enix had forced in a love interest in
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this game those same critics would have
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complained that it felt uh forced still
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or some kind of other buzzword that I
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can't even think off the top of my head
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Ultimately there's no winning with this
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crowd Okay because it's never been about
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storytelling It's about controlling the
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narrative which is why there's companies
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like Sweet Baby Inc and so forth that
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try to consult narratives and stuff so
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they don't offend anybody so that
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there's no compulsory heterosexuality
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right and in the games in Kingdom Heart
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Sora themselves as a character they
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literally share their heart literally
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and metaphorically with the people all
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around him Okay that's what makes his
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character beautiful I would say And it
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doesn't need to be reduced to well he's
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not kissing anyone yet so he must be
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confused about whether he likes boys or
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girls or he's you know oppressed or
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repressed or whatever the hell you want
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to call it That's absurd That's
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literally lowering the quality of a of a
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great story that Kingdom Hearts has So
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this is this is where I get frustrated
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with gaming and I think a lot of you do
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too Okay gaming media used to be about
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video games Remember that the good old
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days Now it's about turning every
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fictional story into some kind of social
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political essay that nobody asked for
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We're not asking for it You want to
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write about politics and commentary and
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stuff go write for a news site not
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gaming Okay So who is this content for
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anymore like who is this it's not
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informing gamers It's not celebrating
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developers It's not encouraging new
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players to jump into these stories It's
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basically preaching right it's literally
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alienating anyone who just wants to talk
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about what makes a game fun or
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meaningful And the gamer and outlets
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like it they keep pushing these personal
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manifestos that are disguised as think
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pieces They'll say it's about
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representation right but it's really
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virtue signaling and moral posturing and
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oh look at me and I'm pandering and and
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honestly when fans push back they call
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it harassment We've seen it time and
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time again That's their playbook If you
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don't like what they say you're toxic
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Gamers are toxic You're chuds And
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honestly most of us aren't mad at
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identity We're mad that the stories that
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we love keep getting dissected by people
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who don't care about video games That's
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the bottom line of it So fans are done
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being told what to think Okay we're
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tired of being told that enjoining
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character as they are whether it's Sora
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Link Mario is somehow problematic Okay
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gamers are always problematic right
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unless we interpret those characters
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through the right ideological lens right
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we have to oh we got to we got to make
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sure we're not going into gender norms
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and gender stereotypes and the
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patriarchy and all this right you see it
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across all the industry More and more
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players are tuning out to this Tune out
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these critics Uh Hogwarts Legacy
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remember that it broke records because
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people refused to be guilted out of
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playing this game Oh you're a bigot if
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you support JK Rowling in the Harry
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Potter Wizarding World Nope We didn't
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have any of that right and now you're
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seeing the same thing happen to games
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like Kingdom Hearts where the fan base
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we're just going to keep rolling on All
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right we're gonna roll our eyes at this
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article and we're just gonna keep
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playing anyway because Kingdom Hearts is
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a beloved franchise that lots of people
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enjoy because here's the truth guys We
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don't need game journalists to tell us
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what we should be offended by We don't
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Okay we can decide that for ourselves So
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to wrap this up no Sora doesn't need to
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understand love the way that this writer
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for this article wants him to Nope Link
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is not secretly a non-binary symbol
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that's always been queer and is against
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gender norms And no you're not a bad
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person for enjoying these characters
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just as they are The gamer is not
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serving the gaming community They're
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serving their own ideology and expecting
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us to just consume not along how they
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drag beloved characters into identity
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debates and they you know stuff that
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they were never written for They were
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never intended to be part of identity
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debates But anyways guys let me know
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what you think Do you feel like game
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journalism has lost the plot are you
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tired of articles like this that care
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more about rewriting characters than
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respecting the original vision drop your
12:10
thoughts below And as always don't
12:12
forget to like that video if this
12:14
resonated with you And don't forget to
12:16
subscribe so you don't miss the next
12:18
video Appreciate all you for being part
12:20
of my community Keep playing the games
12:21
you love Keep thinking for yourselves
12:23
And I'll catch you on the next one Thank
12:25
you so much for watching As always peace
