There are some words and phrases that have clear connotations and should be used sparingly and carefully, but as a progressive it's really frustrating when people grasp at anything to ether stir up controversy or use it as a tool for discussion despite potentially hurting the reputation of the person or work of fiction that they are calling into question.
Maybe I'm just a white guy who doesn't get it. Reading things like this about the use of tribal and savage makes me not take the author serious as opposed to critically thinking about the topic being addressed. It just seems like fake outrage, although outrage isn't how I would describe this particular piece.
The author is very vague in the descriptions of how it would be harmful. "might be" and "could be" are those vague statements you can insert into almost anything.
Now it's damn unpleasant when your culture and heritage is being co-opted by others for intentions you do not like. I understand the upset. It kills me to see Neo-Nazis rallying behind nordic mythology, runes, germanic scripts and other things norse. So I get it. We have a connection to our past.
Even though I am of the opinion that cultural fetisism can be dangerous (like nationalism) I sympathize. I really do.
I think clear examples of cultural appropriation when it's appropriate to be annoyed is when you see someone takes inspiration from a Tang Dynasty era warrior and calls it a Samurai. That to me would be a clear example of not even doing the minimal amount of research, and confusing things cultures- Not as a intentional mix, but out of ignorance. That sort of handling of other cultures- Like not knowing the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim. You should know these things and do the research.
Having not played Horizon I do not know if the game makes a mockery of tribe people. I've let my dissatisfaction be known in prior threads about not liking Ahoys character design. To me it looks like a weird mix of celtic, pictish, irish, icelandic, inka and aztec all rolled into one. I don't sense native American inspiration from the trailers I saw, but regardless, if the game is a big mixed pot of all sorts of different things it is what it is.
On one hand you could say that even if the tribe people in the game are not designed to be native Americans it might still hit close to home and that is a valid point I think.
The main character being white- Is that cultural appropriation or just an example of white supremacy in culture? Perhaps both? I'd imagine that a decision like that was made early and to maximize appeal. The only other native American character I can think of (in a game I've played) is Connor from AC3 and even he was half-white- Presumably to make the white majority audience feel more relateable to the characters. An argument you could probably also make for a movie like The Last of the Mohicans.
I'd imagine Ahoy working as a native American. I don't like a her plum look or hairdo. But I've not played the game- I just find her character design off putting. I am speculating if I would have warmed up to her design if she had been native American. I imagine I still would have been put off by the weird fusion of pelts, and futiristic garbage trinket and ornaments.
Over designed, busy work. Reminds me of belt buckle galore final fantasy character design. where Instead of making a more interesting basic character, they just go to town with strapping all kinds of crap and bullshit. That's not a slant specifically on Horizon, but just a lot of character designs in general and also in a lot of pop culture animated films.
