With Apologies to Sena Bryer

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Originally Posted by Lak14

https://i.imgur.com/vOBzovf.jpeg

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My favorite part of all this is Sena is literally the opposite of Wuk's characterization.

Wuk: Nice, understanding, naive, wants to unite everyone.

Sena: Mean, bigoted, cynical, wants to divide everyone.

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Originally Posted by Lak14

https://i.imgur.com/vOBzovf.jpeg

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https://i.imgur.com/PATDy3f.png

https://i.imgur.com/7KdZ7v4.png

Out of morbid curiosity I wanted to see the responses she got and I saw this...I'm....yeah I don't have words. You got me, checkmate.

https://media.tenor.com/9AxpRD2d5d0A...g-eyes-man.gif

my knowledge of English and some cultural and social things is not enough to understand what Sena said wrong. Can you please explain in simple words?

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Originally Posted by Ashpd

my knowledge of English and some cultural and social things is not enough to understand what Sena said wrong. Can you please explain in simple words?

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So. That's NOT BLACK GOSPEL, simply put. Black Gospel is religious music that has certain particularities to it that define it as such - choruses are one of them, but there's a lot of others and I'm no music expert to give you details. But what I *can* give you is that there IS a MMO credits song made by the Japanese that basically does use Black Gospel and it's pretty great.

https://youtu.be/6nW7nqHZ7OM?si=4_WUGdXDIVcml8zF

Compare that to Smile, and you'll see that it DOES NOT LINE UP. Smile is superficially similar to christian gospel music in the most base of senses, and is far more of just a disney song than aything else.

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Originally Posted by SwadTheFrog

Hey, join the club man. I'm a South American and I've had people trying to explain to me how "ackshually, DT 100% represents latino culture and voices well by using american VAs from LA and tacos". Now you get to be black and be told by white americans that an apple is infact an orange! Feels great, eh?

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Oh yeah, it feels wonderful. :')

As someone who has attended black Southern Baptist churches from birth to adulthood, I can tell you straight up that Smile is not "Black gospel music". At least, not the traditional gospel music that is unique to black Southern Baptists.

Like, just say it sounds like gospel music, Sena. There's no reason to bring race into this.

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Originally Posted by SwadTheFrog

So. That's NOT BLACK GOSPEL, simply put. Black Gospel is religious music that has certain particularities to it that define it as such - choruses are one of them, but there's a lot of others and I'm no music expert to give you details. But what I *can* give you is that there IS a MMO credits song made by the Japanese that basically does use Black Gospel and it's pretty great.

https://youtu.be/6nW7nqHZ7OM?si=4_WUGdXDIVcml8zF

Compare that to Smile, and you'll see that it DOES NOT LINE UP. Smile is superficially similar to christian gospel music in the most base of senses, and is far more of just a disney song than aything else.

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Oh, super cool! Thanks for sharing this song.

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Originally Posted by Ashpd

my knowledge of English and some cultural and social things is not enough to understand what Sena said wrong. Can you please explain in simple words?

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Simplest I can distill it:

Sena is saying anyone who doesn't like Smile is racist because it sounds like music played in churches attended by Black People.

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Originally Posted by ronibosch

Like, just say it sounds like gospel music, Sena. There's no reason to bring race into this.

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Race was the only reason Sena brought this up. Typical DARVO tactic.

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Originally Posted by ronibosch

Oh, super cool! Thanks for sharing this song.

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I'm glad you like it! As I'm not as much of an expert, could you please confirm to me if this is actually Black Gospel inspired?

The most terrifying things is that i'm sure she convinced she's right.

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Originally Posted by Maxilor

Everyone in this video confirmed RACIST.

https://youtu.be/GhALZCOz7so

Pack it up.

https://i.imgur.com/bQAHdFC.png

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https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2...kwqt/giphy.gif

Holy. Mother. Of God.
Welp, PR disaster at most

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Originally Posted by ronibosch

Like, just say it sounds like gospel music, Sena. There's no reason to bring race into this.

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No there isn't. Every sane person knows. But without bringing race into it, how could she call everyone not liking the song or the use of the song a racist? :D

She just needed a dumb reason to incite more unnecessary drama. This is a true PR nightmare.

To me I don't even care if Smile is black gospel or not. I don't like Smile because it sounds Disney to me. This is the first time out of every discussion I've seen about Smile that race was brought into the discussion.

I'm not about to do a 180 and pretend I like the song now.

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Originally Posted by ZephyrMenodora

To me I don't even care. I don't like Smile because it sounds Disney to me. This is the first time out of every discussion I've seen about Smile that race was brought into the discussion.

I'm not about to do a 180 and pretend I like the song now.

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...I'm-
I'm talking about Brigther Day. The PSU song.
That's what I linked. Not Smile. My guy, reading comprehension. I don't like Smile Either.

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Originally Posted by ronibosch

Five seconds in, and I can already tell you it's Black gospel inspired. I'm not a music expert myself, but there's a unique style present in this particular genre of gospel that I don't find in other subgenres. I don't know how to explain it properly.

Short answer: yeah, it's Black gospel inspired. :3

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Appreciated, just wanted the take from someone that knows more than me!

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Originally Posted by SwadTheFrog

I'm glad you like it! As I'm not as much of an expert, could you please confirm to me if this is actually Black Gospel inspired?

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Five seconds in, and I can already tell you it's Black gospel inspired. I'm not a music expert myself, but there's a unique style present in this particular genre of gospel that I don't find in other subgenres. I don't know how to explain it properly.

Short answer: yeah, it's Black gospel inspired. :3

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Originally Posted by SwadTheFrog

Appreciated, just wanted the take from someone that knows more than me!

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You're welcome! I appreciate you asking for my insight.

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Originally Posted by Aniise

This is a true PR nightmare.

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https://i.redd.it/5cc08evdxzw21.jpg

I think we are more at the God Level for PR

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Originally Posted by SwadTheFrog

...I'm-
I'm talking about Brigther Day. The PSU song.
That's what I linked. Not Smile. My guy, reading comprehension. I don't like Smile Either.

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I removed your quote. I was more responding to your earlier post that was about Smile but quoted your latest post.

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Originally Posted by ZephyrMenodora

I removed your quote. I was more responding to your earlier post that was about Smile but quoted your latest post.

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Ah, fair enough. Classification or not, it's not a particularly great song, and an extremely unfitting one.

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Originally Posted by Ashpd

my knowledge of English and some cultural and social things is not enough to understand what Sena said wrong. Can you please explain in simple words?

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She implies that people who dislike the particular song are racist towards Black Christians.

The song in question has absolutely nothing to do with Black Christians. Namely the genre/style of the song has nothing to do with gospel music, the compositor is Japanese and the singer is Asian American.

What she's doing is deliberately creating drama and friction within the community to try to distract from her own drama. She's trying to use Black people as a scapegoat shield, while painting us (collectively as a community) as racist.

woo, we posting cool black gospel stuff?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pATc...fBjsWr&index=3

go ahead and listen at 2:05.

https://media.tenor.com/fvAZJtG3XbMA...action-omg.gif

Sena needs to just remove herself from Twitter. She's doing herself absolutely zero favors, and is somehow bewildered that's she's facing backlash.

This is a kind of mentality that I cannot comprehend for the life of me.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

woo, we posting cool black gospel stuff?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pATc...fBjsWr&index=3

go ahead and listen at 2:05.

https://media.tenor.com/fvAZJtG3XbMA...action-omg.gif

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If my church had a funky baseline like that when I was growing up, I'd probably not be an atheist now.

A voice actor for a game should not be telling people that they're racist if they don't like a song from the game.

I actually like Smile a lot but I mainly like it because of AKINO
I don't know though why Sena is saying it's black gospel music because AKINO, the vocalist is literally Japanese. . .
https://www.generasia.com/w/images/b...ears_promo.jpg

They need to take her Twitter account away. It will save them (and us) headaches in the future.

I hate smile. It's not an awful song as a whole, but it certainly doesn't really fit the times it's used in-game. I mean they play this song when WE'RE BUILDING A GIANT TRAIN BOMB. I'm not going to knock people who like it though, different strokes for different folks. But basic common sense tells me going "If you hate this specific song, you're just racist" is not a good idea, especially for a VA voicing a major character in a massive MMO like FFXIV. Although given it is FFXIV twitter, wouldn't be surprised if there are a bunch of people going "true and real" or something along those lines and reinforcing the view.

After seeing that tweet though, I am actually kind of curious what the Japanese players think about the song. Do they love it? Hate it? Is it somewhat split like it seems to be for us overseas players? While the Japanese side is sometimes really blunt with feedback and criticisms, like they were with Wuk Lamat, I assume it's not as easy to get clear answers that are not lost in translation.

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Originally Posted by lolnotacat

If my church had a funky baseline like that when I was growing up, I'd probably not be an atheist now.

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I didn't even know there was such thing as black gospel music. My family would just call it gospel for obvious reasons, lol ������. It was definitely the best part of church though, it makes me sad that all it takes is a few judgmental religious people to completely ruin something that should be so positive.

I was having fun lurking and reading the thread but man I felt compelled to make a comment after seeing the “smile is black gospel” tweet like woow :’O. Like I took emotional/psychic damage or w/e cuz black gospel was what I grew up with, and “Smile” is nowhere near it.

Gospel inspired sure but black gospel specifically is such a stretch. It’s disappointing and unfortunate to what Sena is implying if you don’t like Smile.

But also, what black gospel is Sena listening to? Cuz if her only reference is, the Muses from Disney’s Hercules then I’d understand.

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Originally Posted by Vensaval

Sena needs to just remove herself from Twitter. She's doing herself absolutely zero favors, and is somehow bewildered that's she's facing backlash.

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...
wasn't she peeved about (and suspecting -phobia to be the reason) not getting too many (or as many as she saw herself to deserve) voiceactings gigs in some older some post of hers?

https://i.imgur.com/g8EThxi.jpeg

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Originally Posted by Lak14

https://i.imgur.com/vOBzovf.jpeg

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Is this specimen serious?

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Originally Posted by AddictedToWitches

I actually like Smile a lot but I mainly like it because of AKINO
I don't know though why Sena is saying it's black gospel music because AKINO, the vocalist is literally Japanese.

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Because it's inspired by it. Which makes no difference, people sample and are inspired by different cultural music all the time (just look at this games music in general). This, sadly, is just goalpost are being set and moved to try to make people look bad and try to rally more people to join Sena's side.

I mean The greatest Mazinger theme is inspired too and not once when someone said they preferred The Guardian did I immediately think they were racist (maybe they just like JAM Project). I grew up with this type of music in my church and do not even see what Sena is even getting on about. This is a truly horrible take.

Now I'm starting to think sena is unhinged and should be let go and her twitter taken away and not represent any company going forward. First she was calling for people to step down from roles because she thinks she can do a much better job at certain roles then more experienced cis woman who do a much better voice acting job. Now she is making claims if you don't like the Disney trash smile than apparently now she thinks your racist for not liking it.

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Originally Posted by Donoman

I didn't even know there was such thing as black gospel music. My family would just call it gospel for obvious reasons, lol ������. It was definitely the best part of church though, it makes me sad that all it takes is a few judgmental religious people to completely ruin something that should be so positive.

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Off topic but like same tbh. It was just Gospel to me for the longest time. Though I will say around when Kirk Franklin and his choir started getting radio plays on the pop stations or any non gospel or religious radio stations back in the 90s there seemed to be some more dialogues about specifying the genre under “black gospel” and not just gospel. And I think part of that was for being able to win music awards a tad bit more fairly, I think.

Omg lmfao. Like how absurd-I cant. This is so stupid its funny omg. Now its RACIST if you dont like the stupid smile song. I'm sorry. Is final fantasy all people like this have??? Why on earth is it being defended this hard. What next. If you dislike the new country housing walls, it's actually because hobbit-phobic?! We're just gonna attach races and phobics to every single thing in XIV so that THAAT waay no one can eevvver say ANYYTHING criticizing our favorite game without them looking like a terrible person


-Except that's clearly deranged, and anyone who thinks like this literally needs all of their electronics destroyed right in front of them for the sake of their spiraling mental health. The song sucks. It has nothing to do with any race-they need to just fire wuk. I'm so sorry. Yoshi, are you reading?? Do us all a favor real quick

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Originally Posted by Papayatar

Off topic but like same tbh. It was just Gospel to me for the longest time. Though I will say around when Kirk Franklin and his choir started getting radio plays on the pop stations or any non gospel or religious radio stations back in the 90s there seemed to be some more dialogues about specifying the genre under “black gospel” and not just gospel. And I think part of that was for being able to win music awards a tad bit more fairly, I think.

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Yeah, also i remember growing up that a lot of local christian radio stations in NE texas, NW Louisiana, and SW Arkansas wouldn't play Kirk Franklin's music either because it was "too hip hop".

What an odd and unfortunate situation. Sena is throwing away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and best of luck finding a different job in the gaming industry after this. There's no way she hangs onto her job.

I'm guessing there is a sizable segment of gamers who don't like Wuk Lumat simply because the VA is trans. That's just reality. But, no, Smile is not black gospel. This whole thing is just weird.

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Originally Posted by lolnotacat

I saw that on 4chan, but don't believe anything there, especially Twitter screenshots as they're easy to make. I don't have a Twitter so I con't confirm if it's real or not, but considering what Sena has previously posted, it wouldn't be hard to believe that it is real.

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Not only is it real, but she doubled down on it https://i.gyazo.com/fcd3e8a23db00731...1a83cc5393.png

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Originally Posted by Thayos

What an odd and unfortunate situation. Sena is throwing away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and best of luck finding a different job in the gaming industry after this. There's no way she hangs onto her job

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See, that'd be the case in most industries, but I work in gaming and I can say it's filled with nutjobs who will read that and go "YAAAAAS SLAY QWEEN". The only upside is that studios and publishers that support this garbage are slowly dying. Unfortunately that means that by the time this is all said and done, some of our favorite studios and IPs will go with them. If you look at Squenix's financials, it's mostly XIV propping up a lot of their other projects which keep selling "under expectations". We'll see what happens now that Dawntrail scored so poorly.

Can she stop... trying to be at war with everyone? It's crazy. I'm black, and my mind didn't jump to black gospel at all. The presence of chorus singers doesn't make something 'gospel'.

In my opinion, I may be wrong because I'm no expert... it sounds like a poor or loose imitation of it, but I would honestly call it a 'musical' piece, and yes, its very... Disney-esque. It lacks funk (slap bass, rythmic bass), and the singer is great in other places, but not here. Gospel has a lot more 'off base' singing, as in, the singer singing over the chorus at more random intervals. I think the singers pitch is too high as well. Shes not a soul singer, and thats not her fault at all. (I love Scream lol)

It's funny because Disney actually did REAL gospel way better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0eCoI87PZs

It’s funny, isn’t it? She’s trying to call people racist for disliking a song, but I think her insisting the song is “black gospel” is actually very racist.