Kotaku: "Ronda Rousey Being In Mortal Kombat 11 Is Bullshit"

[NeoRaider]

Ronda Rousey: Trailblazer, UFC Hall of Famer, and WWE star. Ah, I forgot a couple of her accomplishments: She shared an inflammatory conspiracy video about the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre to her millions of Twitter followers and made transmisogynistic and outright asinine comments about transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox. And as of Mortal Kombat 11, she's the voice of iconic character Sonya Blade. Let's take a moment to consider how messed up that is.

In 2013, Rousey shared a conspiracy video regarding the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that claimed 26 lives, including 20 children. The video suggested the massacre was a hoax carried out by the government. When called out about it, Rousey started by doubling down.

"I just figure asking questions and doing research is more patriotic than blindly accepting what you're told," she said in a reply on Twitter. The following day, she made another tweet saying that she "never meant to insult or hurt anyone" and that she was "sorry if anyone was offended."

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But it doesn't stop at her sounding like a corporate bullshit apology bot. Take her comments regarding Fallon Fox. Fox is the first openly transgender MMA fighter in the sport's history. She had undergone sex reassignment surgery in 2006 but received pushback against the idea that she could fight against other women. UFC president Dana White stated that he didn't believe Fox should be allowed to fight other women. Former NFL defensive tackle and MMA fighter Matt Mitrione called Fox a "lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak," and was later suspended for his comments. Through all this, Rousey declined to fight Fox, insisting that her fellow fighter would have a physical advantage in the ring.

"She can try hormones, chop her pecker off, but it's still the same bone structure a man has," Rousey told The New York Post. "It's an advantage. I don't think it's fair." She also commented that she was glad the UFC didn't "straight cut" Mitrione for his comments.

Thank the stars that Ronda got the pronouns right, I guess.

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I didn't write anything sooner because I thought that maybe I wouldn't have to be the one writing this. As this piece was in the middle of being edited (I've been writing this over the course of two days) my peer Danielle Riendeau at Waypoint published an article about Rousey's involvement, which is heartening. Still, I wish it didn't have to be queer folks speaking up. Where are our allies on this?

You know what I want to do? Play Mortal Kombat 11. But I would have to be wild to consider it. I'm not obligated to let bygones be bygones, and I'm just not going to. Rousey's presence in Mortal Kombat 11 is unacceptable. Sonya could have been played by any number of capable actresses, but instead, NetherRealm stunt casted someone whose very presence makes many of my friends feel completely uncomfortable playing Mortal Kombat 11.

Tl;DR, this sucks.

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https://kotaku.com/ronda-rousey-being-in-mortal-kombat-11-is-bullshit-1834446709

Edit: @Mods can "u" be added to the thread title, please?

 

[Qwerty Keyboard]

u.

 

[NeoRaider]

u.

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Yeah, people make mistakes.
Congratulations on being the first to notice it and post about it.

 

[Silky]

u.

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Soulja Boy Tell 'Em

 

[Imran]

It is bullshit and has been bullshit from the beginning.

 

[Nintendo]

Maybe I wouldn't mind it if she was good but her voice acting is so bad. There's literally no good reason for the casting decision.

 

[Geist 6one7]

I didn't need any more reasons to not buy MK11 but this might outweigh all the others.

 

[TheChungusAmongUs]

I genuinely wonder who at Warner thought having her involved was a good idea.

Not only is she an awful person, but she's a terrible VA.

 

[Poppy]

it's bullshit for many reasons and to top it all off her performance is distractingly bad

 

[Qwerty Keyboard]

Yeah, people make mistakes.
Congratulations on being the first to notice it and post about it.

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Wow, thats some passive aggresiveness right there!
I wasn't being shitty, just thought I'd point it out.

 

[Transistor]

100% agreed. Fuck her. Fuck her and her transphobic, Sandy Hook truther, domestic abuser ways.

She's the main reason I'm not picking this up

 

[Nemesis_]

It's such a bizarre choice from NRS because the character isn't really that important in the game (if I remember right.... kind of) and her performance is pretty shocking too.

And her presence on the project behind the original announce hasn't seemed to sustain any attention that hasn't been negative.

Tricia Helfer did such a good job as the character in X too which makes this decision even more baring.

 

[Prophet Five]

I keep hoping we'll get a Destiny VA switcheroo situation

 

[dancingphlower]

Reviews actively call out her performance as being the worst. Like what was even the point?

 

[scare_crow]

Yeah, people make mistakes.
Congratulations on being the first to notice it and post about it.

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Definitely the appropriate snarky tone to take and not at all oversensitive...

Yes, Rousey being in the game is dumb.

 

[Van Bur3n]

We've all talked about this here on ERA, but it's good that it's getting more recognition in gaming media.

 

[AaronMT]

Also saw Danielle's article too

https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/qv7b5w/ronda-rousey-mortal-kombat-11-transphobia

 

[saenima]

A little late to the party there kotaku. Better late than never i guess.

 

[N7_Kovalski]

Giant Bomb made a good point on the bombcast, even the audio quality for her is bad. Like, they had to come to her and record her dialog wherever she was with limited time. Terrible quality and performance. She also carries a lot of baggage and I just don't think it was worth it.

 

[Deleted member 864]

It is pretty bullshit, and her performance in the game is awful.

 

[Zeroro]

I genuinely wonder who at Warner thought having her involved was a good idea.

Not only is she an awful person, but she's a terrible VA.

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Some corporate dope. I can't imagine anybody at NRS was excited at the decision. She's fucking terrible all around in her performance.

 

[Hanbei]

Remind me why they added her, already?

 

[bluexy]

I'm constantly thankful that these articles get written in our industry. Obviously, it'd be better if they never had to be written, if we could oust bigotry through common respect and decency, but until then...

Do these kinds of articles even get written in the professional wrestling or MMA scenes? Would we have to deal with this shit if those businesses would deplatform bigotry before they get to ours?

 

[datbapple]

the sandy hook shit should have gotten her banned from doing anything for anyone. what a fuckin stupid ass tweet. i hope her dumbass never has any children. why the fuck did they even request this dummy?? lol who in the hell was asking for ronda fuckin rousey in the year of our lord 2019.

 

[TheBaldwin]

Nobody can even say 'seperate the art for artist'

Because ronda's acting is horrendous and adds the sprinkle on the cake of her being problematic

 

[5taquitos]

Why wouldn't they publish this article before the game released?

 

[MarauderShields]

Shitty person and somehow even shittier actor.

 

[stryfee]

Maybe I wouldn't mind it if she was good but her voice acting is so bad. There's literally no good reason for the casting decision.

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This this and this. She has terrible voice acting.

 

[Mesoian]

I mean, they're not wrong.

This is late, but they're not wrong.

the sandy hook shit should have gotten her banned from doing anything for anyone. what a fuckin stupid ass tweet. i hope her dumbass never has any children. why the fuck did they even request this dummy?? lol who in the hell was asking for ronda fuckin rousey in the year of our lord 2019.

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Wrestling fans, unfortunately.

Annoyingly, disappointingly, Ronda Rousey is a draw. And that sucks.

 

[Lant_War]

Even ignoring all the shit's she's done, her performance is just terrible. No emotion whatsoever, seeing her interact with Cassie is particularly jarring.

 

[Sebalt]

Reviews actively call out her performance as being the worst. Like what was even the point?

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Star talent, maybe? But bad choice, yeah, even NetherRealmStudios and Warner Bros. Games didn't take advantage of that after the reveal, guess the negative opinion worked. Sadly, too late to replace her.

 

[astro]

Had she been a positive activist or something, then her inclusion with her bad voice acting might have been endearing.

As it stands, there's literally no upside here. I have no idea how they didn't do their research and think this was a terrible idea, especially when they realized she is a terrible VA.

 

[abracadaver]

Quoting the whole article?

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Piece of shit, and on top of that the voice acting is god fucking awful.

 

[Bunkles]

Her performance was shit anyway. Literally no reason for her to be on this game, talent wise or morally.

 

[data west]

MK 11 a disappointment across the board.

 

[Lowrys]

Yet another example of the industry's general immaturity, at least in the AAA space.

 

[BIGLukas]

A little late to the party there kotaku. Better late than never i guess.

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The author, Heather Alexandra, is trans. She explained on Twitter that she was hoping it wouldn't have to be trans gaming journalists like herself that would write about this.
Edit: Even says it in the article.

 

[Cathcart]

It's why I passed on the game. It's too bad because I thought having it on Switch day one was really cool and I had been looking forward to playing it there.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

She objectively makes the story mode worse.

 

[Deleted member 5593]

#FuckTERFs

 

[kittens]

wow I wasn't fully caught up on Rousey's comments, that shit is awful

 

[Wolfgunblood]

NRS is an organization that agrees with Sandy Hook truthers and are transphobic. How else should they be viewed?

 

[Zomba13]

Completely 100% agree. She is a terrible person and a terrible actress. I just can't understand why she was cast in the part. I mean, I know why, but she's just such a bad part of this game and it upsets me.

 

[Khanimus]

It's bad because of Ronda being a shit person.

It's bad because she's a shit actress.

It's bad because they replaced a perfectly capable actress in a role that suited her.

It's bad because her prominence in the story makes it all the more distracting.


Whatever cross-promotion boost they thought they were getting out of this - was it really worth it?

 

[AntiMacro]

Even if you didn't know anything about the stupid shit she does on Twitter, her voice work should have been enough to disqualify her from being cast as Sonya Blade. It's a 'look at us' casting move for a game that really didn't need it. Did having Ronda Rousey raise the PR awareness level of the game at all?

Get Nolan North in to redo her voice work ;D

 

[Kthulhu]

No offense to the people writing about this, but this isn't exactly super new. Why did the author of this piece and the waypoint one wait so long? The waypoint one talks about the performance so it kinda makes sense, but just mentioning that Rousey is a PoS seems like it should've been said after the announcement, not a week after the game is out.

 

[NattyBo]

Didn't know this, fuck Ronda Rousey. Disappointed that I bought the game full price now.



Also she's a shit voice actress

 

[shaneo632]

Even if you can ignore her problematic behaviour it's a fucking dogshit performance done solely for publicity.

 

[Gunny T Highway]

To quote Pat from Castle Super Beast "Ronda's voice acting is terrible in a game where there is good voice acting". She actively made Sonya appear worse as a character. Tricia Helfer who voiced Sonya in MKX is a million times better and fits Sonya's character much more. Plus Ronda being a terrible person on top of that just makes it worse.