Bloodhound is non-binary, confirmed by respawn.
https://dotesports.com/apex-legends/news/apex-legends-bloodhound-gibraltar-lgbtq
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Is it problematic that Lifeline (Apex Legends) is Voiced by a White Woman?
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Bloodhound is non-binary, confirmed by respawn.
https://dotesports.com/apex-legends/news/apex-legends-bloodhound-gibraltar-lgbtq
This is the woman in question by the way...
I don't know if I'm just being stupid and/or blind but to me she looks like she's of dual ethnic heritage rather than white?
I'm not saying that talent should not be the most important requirement, but couldn't they selected a talented black women voice actor to voice her? Especially in a single player game with a rich story.It was asked before and it is okay
Overwatch does this for the very few lines that each character has in an MP game.
FWIW the casting was done before the character's visual design was, I believe.
The OP is singling out a specific example of something that happens across the VA industry all the time.
But sure, everyone in this thread who doesn't agree that it is problematic is alt-right.
I'd thought Che was an Asian surname. She looks like a darker Asian to me. I just looked it up, and Che is a Chinese surname.
There can be an argument for her being of mixed race, but at that point, it really wouldn't matter who voiced her I guess other than "not white." Which I think is a little shallow. I don't think it's that big of a deal in this specific case, but racial representation is an important issue. For instance, you have Aveline and Nadine.
There can be an argument for her being of mixed race, but at that point, it really wouldn't matter who voiced her I guess other than "not white." Which I think is a little shallow. I don't think it's that big of a deal in this specific case, but racial representation is an important issue. For instance, you have Aveline and Nadine.
Trivia : the son of Kratos, Atreus, is played by a woman in the french version, something common when voicing children.
No? Why would it be?
Voice actors are cast for their voice, not their appearance; or even their sex (most young boys in animation are voice acted by women for instance).
Voice actors are cast for their voice, not their appearance; or even their sex (most young boys in animation are voice acted by women for instance).
Nope. It's pretty common for voice actors to be of a different ethnicity than their characters. Kratos, for example, is voiced by Christopher Judge. Phil LaMarr has played numerous white characters including Samurai Jack, Aquaman, Gambit and Vamp. Rosario Dawson routinely voices Wonder Woman in the animated movies and she voiced Batgirl/Barbara Gordon in the LEGO Batman movie.
Her dialect, accent, and features really point to Jamaican background, "wagwan" and "seen," for instance.
Yeah the thread can't even really decide on who should be voicing her.
Only in the sense that the accent is fucking awful. Lifeline is Apex Legends' equivalent to Tracer from Overwatch, except the latter doesn't have an excuse for sounding so bad.
With EA as hands off as they were with Apex, I don't think that Respawn had the time or the budget to go past more obvious or prolific picks that work (Mela Lee has a lot of dubbing credits including dozens of videogames including Fire Emblem).
Yeah, there's definitely that need to recognise black talent but we won't get anywhere with the constant handwaving. Really, this is just symptomatic of the industry at large. It's nice that we're getting more black characters in games but to see white voices behind them is just eh. There aren't many black characters in games with speaking roles (especially so with black women) so to have white voice actors is kind of a shame. Like I have absolutely nothing against them, they're just doing their jobs at the end of the day, but more representation in voice acting is always welcomed.
Off the top of my head, the following fictional black women are all voiced by white voice actresses
- Aveline from AC3: Liberation
- Nilin from Remember Me
- Clementine from The Walking Dead
- Nadine from UC4
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One thing I´d like to add because I work in the field.
When casting VO artists you usually write a small briefing and send it out to agencies.
They will get back to you with audio files of VO talent that they think fits your brief - pictures are not involved.
So unless your briefing contains a paragraph about how the VO artist is supposed to look (you don´t do that) you will get VO snippets that don´t regard skin color or ethnicity.
You usually see the talent that you booked for the first time in the studio.
EDIT: So again, I´d call it a missed opportunity.
When casting VO artists you usually write a small briefing and send it out to agencies.
They will get back to you with audio files of VO talent that they think fits your brief - pictures are not involved.
So unless your briefing contains a paragraph about how the VO artist is supposed to look (you don´t do that) you will get VO snippets that don´t regard skin color or ethnicity.
You usually see the talent that you booked for the first time in the studio.
EDIT: So again, I´d call it a missed opportunity.
O, sorry. I only played a couple days after it came out. I did play as her but I hadn't picked up on that.
On one hand, he is "white" as american people intend it
On the other, he's mediterranean, and we're darker skinned than people not living on the coast
In this case yes. Black people voice white characters as exampled in this topic.
There isn't an issue here.
Maybe so. And that's probably my part of the conversation. I was merely pointing out that the issue of representation is an issue with the process, not with the people doing the voice acting. Nobody is blaming this woman for taking a job.
Is it problematic that the voice actor for a lot of male characters in The Simpsons is voiced by a woman?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxC1lYlmw1Q
Fuck no. That kind of skill and diversity should be celebrated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxC1lYlmw1Q
Fuck no. That kind of skill and diversity should be celebrated.
If she does fantastic job why should it be a
Torbjorn VA isn't a little person
Torbjorn VA isn't a little person
No worries, I actually went and googled it and other people have shared your opinion about her surname, some suggested she might be Indian/Chinese raised in Jamaica? I may have totally misread her.
White people/characters are not underrepresented. The playing field is not level. Some day when people realize that, and it's implications, we can maybe have an actual discussion about representation on a video game messsge board like GAF or ResetEra.
OP
OP
Honestly, not entirely, but my issue was more of Lifeline not being voiced by someone of African descent.
It is kind of up in air with her pictures.
Pretty sure they chose the VA before they actually designed the characters. In this case, no it wouldn't be problematic.
There is. When you think of voice actors, who do you think of? Troy Baker, Nolan North, Laura Bailey...there are definitely more white VAs than minority VAs.
That...isn't how VA works. Usually a concept of the character is created, with a personality, and then they cast someone.
Honestly, not entirely, but my issue was more of Lifeline not being voiced by someone of African descent.
It is kind of up in air with her pictures.
Guess she's "not black enough"...
She clearly isn't white.
And I the only person who thinks looking up voice actors and then speculating about their race is fucking weird and creepy?Honestly, not entirely, but my issue was more of Lifeline not being voiced by someone of African descent.
It is kind of up in air with her pictures.
No? Totally normal and reasonable? I apologize, I'll see myself out.
Are you really comparing the under-representation of black women with that of a white male character?
Also you wanna bring up the Simpsons, which got a bunch of direct criticism in the last year for their continued minstel act of a white dude playing a bad Indian stereotype as a pop-culture mainstay of 30 years?
The process is problematic? Yes. Do I think a lot of larger roles in video games should be done by people who match their ethnicity? Yes. Absolutely, if that can happen.
But is it problematic when it doesn't happen. At the end of the day, not really. As long as the voice is fine and I can realistically see that voice coming from that character.
Hell, this could even be me being used to how that stuff literally doesn't matter with media in Asia. It's hard for me to equate it to something like live action whitewashing of ethnic roles in TVs or Movies.
A PS2 quality CGI means what?
He is a Greek from Sparta, we vary from looking deeply tanned to pasty white. All are considered the same.
Well it turns out she's from LA according to a quick Google search, in which case her Caribbean accent becomes a bit problematic in my opinion. Get someone who actually has that accent if that's the culture you want to represent.
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