Skull merchant is not only awful to the game, but it also is an awful representation of Brazil...
For starters... Yes, I am Brazilian, and no, I am not a survivor main...
With all of this in mind... Skull Merchant is by far the worst representation of Brazil I have ever seen! Not only is her lore based on something from another country, but it is also really poorly made...
Instead of acknowledging that we have our own rich histories, legends, and actual people who could inspire a killer, they looked to a japanese edgy girl and said, "Ah... Make her Brazilian, it will definitely make them feel represented."
Instead of just complaining, here are some ACTUAL ideas to showcase my country:
Historical: The bandeirantes were explorers who stole, killed, and ruined many people's lives... They could easily be portrayed as predatory hunters, stealing other people's cultures and ideas. This would create a killer who is seen in history as a hero, but is actually a highly corruptible and malevolent person.
Legend: There are numerous legends, such as a man who kidnaps children, a lady summoned when looking in a mirror, a walking predator that killed hunters inside the forest, and a headless mule. And this is just a glimpse of what can be found with a simple Google search!
Actual people: Lampião, Filho da Luz, Raposo Tavares... There are many historical figures that could be easily translated into the game as killers.
But noooo... While Japan gets 2 monsters from their culture, Chile gets a thoughtful representation of a victim of a dictator, France gets an ACTUAL soldier's clothing, the USA gets multiple characters from history, Korea gets a representation of their songs, Russia receives a representation of a myth, and Nigeria gets a character that illustrates the consequences of an internal war.
Seriously, Behaviour, make an actual decent representation of my country, a country that literally fills your pockets every day...
Comments
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Skull Merchant is one of the worst pieces of content ever added to the game. I said this a Million times and I will forever say this.
whoever designed her doesn’t play the game and has 0 basic understanding of the culture she was allegedly based of off
Also, Curupira would be a good killer tbh
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u no like dank mangas?
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I don’t really identify with the killers so it’s hard for me to weigh in, but I do want to ask: what do you think of the survivors? I know you said you’re not a survivor main, but I don’t think you have to main one side or the other in order to appreciate characters and their lore (typing this out makes me think: I know I said I dont “identify” with the killers, but I do like their lore and characterizations.)
Also, I am not Brazilian so please forgive me if I am wrong but isn’t Brazilian manga a thing? I couldn’t find much information on it myself but I have seen others say it has a pretty big fan base. I’m not saying they were justified in choosing this part of the culture to adapt, I’m indifferent because I’m not familiar with it, but I wanted to ask and get your thoughts on that as well.
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If you watch that behind the scenes video, I think her design was good in theory and I can see what they intended in making a hunter/tracker. I think it's more that they don't know their playerbase very well. This playerbase will always take the path of least resistance. Why bother putting the energy into hunting survivors down when her power is easy enough to make survivors come to you?
I agree with OP re her lore. There's really nothing that shows off her Brazilian roots in there.
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First, I appreciate your kindness in the answer.
I do think that Thalita is an excellent representation of Brazil. She takes on the role of the person who bonds the family and is genuinely willing to do so. Meanwhile, I believe that Renato was much more focused on representing autistic people (if you look into his lore in the tome, you can see clear signs of autism). But what makes them great is a simple fact – they were introduced together! The first group of related survivors that genuinely love each other and survive alongside each other. It is really fitting for our country, which has extremely large families and strong relations.
Regarding the manga part, imagine that Behaviour decided to make a chapter about Candomblé, but instead of actually going to the country where it originated, was cultivated, and is really appreciated, they go for a European country... Do you see what I mean? Instead of picking Brazil to showcase something about us, they took something from another country and just inserted the Brazilian name.
(Besides if you look at her lore, Adriana has nothing about with the manga part, she just likes it, while her father actually makes... It is the same if Huntress liked apples and her lore was about apples.)
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true true. In theory she seemed ok. In practice not even her garments make sense. Like thrift store clothes but diamond mask and nails, like whaaaaat?
Also the lore is all over the place.
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I definitely understand what you mean. It’s hard for me to pinpoint that nuance because I am used to a blend of cultures that all borrow from one another. I do think SM “becoming” a character in her father’s work is interesting, but they could’ve done it in a different way. Thank you for your kind responses and I hope BHVR will acknowledge your feedback.
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Yeah it's a shame. I'll be honest, I didn't even actually know she was Brazilian for a long time. I knew that Thalita and Renato were, but she just seemed like a random killer that randomly hated people playing with kites...
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Well, Brazil has the Largest population of Japanese outside of Japan than anywhere else in the world, so brazil has a real big otaku scene that stuff is realistic for that. so i don't understand ur hate on her being mixed raced and liking both her cultures?
sure i suppose you could be mad at another Japanese rep, but she is representing a real population
so the Brazilian Manga stuff is an actual representation of a part of Brazil....
Her Visual Design i will agree is disappoint, same with Renato and thalita. most of there outfits suck
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When I think of Brazil, I think of the yellow football shirt, sugarloaf and the carnival, not an apex legends character. Woeful addition to a horror game.
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Yet its another culture. So not really representation since most of the Brazilian population is, you know Brazilian…with you know their own culture separate from other cultures?
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So Mix-Race People dont deserve Rep?
she is still Brazilian, Bi-Racial but still.. Brazilian
Just because most people are something doesn't make it not rep... I don't understand that thinking.
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Sure, but Brazil is something that goes beyond just Japanese stuff; this is what the Skull Merchant completely skips!
If they had decided to switch her to being Japanese, it wouldn't have made a difference... Brazil is composed of many people from all around the globe, and depicting us through a character that only brings Japanese stuff to the table doesn't feel right... Again, the Skull Merchant just feels like a pitiful attempt to say something like "Hey! Brazilians, look at this chapter, it has anime stuff in it, and we know that you like that, and guess what? She is Brazilian! Now you can feel represented in our game!".
Want to know good representations?
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 = Shows a gorgeous map that is inside Rio de Janeiro, depcting how pretty our country is, but also showcases the harsh reality of the slums and how powerful the criminals are.
Tekken = Eddy is a fighter that takes a fighting style that was born in Brazil.
Overwatch = Lúcio is a character that tries to showcase peace through music, guess what?! We have people that share their ideas of peace and love through music in small circles...
I am not saying that DbD should depict Brazil as something wonderful or even stereotypical; I am saying that they should show our scary and horror side better, just like they did with pretty much every single country before it.
Gosh, even the Trickster does this better, THE FREAKING TRICKSTER! He actually shows how Korean music has a powerful influence over people in Korea and all over the globe, showing how scary people like him could be if they actually existed; if you remove his music, Trickster wouldn't be successful and his lore would have less meaning. NOW, take Adriana, from her entire lore, it just says that she likes Brazilian manga, take this off, and what do you get? A character that could be placed anywhere and still wouldn't lose her meaning!
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She makes me want to pluck my eyes out lol
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Sure, but Brazil is something that goes beyond just Japanese stuff; this is what the Skull Merchant completely skips!
If they had decided to switch her to being Japanese, it wouldn't have made a difference... Brazil is composed of many people from all around the globe, and depicting us through a character that only brings Japanese stuff to the table doesn't feel right... Again, the Skull Merchant just feels like a pitiful attempt to say something like "Hey! Brazilians, look at this chapter, it has anime stuff in it, and we know that you like that, and guess what? She is Brazilian! Now you can feel represented in our game!".
Want to know good representations?
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 = Shows a gorgeous map that is inside Rio de Janeiro but also showcases the harsh reality of the slums and how powerful the criminals are.
Tekken = Eddy is a fighter that takes a fighting style that was born in Brazil.
Overwatch = Lúcio is a character that tries to showcase peace through music, guess what?! We have people that showcase their ideas of peace, boundary, and love through music...
I am not saying that DbD should depict Brazil as something wonderful or even stereotypical; I am saying that they should show our dark and horror side better, just like they did with pretty much every single country before it.
Gosh, even Trickster does this better, THE FREAKING TRICKSTER! He actually shows how Korean music has a powerful influence over people in Korea and all over the globe, showing how scary and insane people could go to reach this; if you remove his music, Trickster wouldn't be successful. NOW, take Adriana, her entire lore just says that she likes Brazilian manga, take this off, and what do you get? A character that could be placed anywhere and still wouldn't lose her meaning!
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Her race and appearance are not the point; we are talking about how her character represents Brazil (in this case, a copypaste of Japan) to the others.
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agreed, even tho I am not brazilian I am south american and we have some pretty good horror in our legends and stories, from colombia to chile there are stories that will leave you as pale as sadako, so it pains me when they adapt traditional japanese stories with a modern touch incredibly well (spirit and oni), they can make a killer a representation of the hopelessness of living in a country were you have no agency against bigger powers(artist) which suberts horror in a very unique way, to then drop the ball so hard on skull merchant.
As you mentioned they had A LOT to pick from, thats partly what scares me if bhvr makes another character from here, while I personally would want to see a subersion of horror like for example making El silbon (a very good horror tale shared by a lot of countries) not a ghost but a really twisted man that hunts in the night and collets his victim's bones, so they didn't copy paste the original tale but rather gave it flavour, instead if they say they are gonna do another south american killer I am scared of they adding a random dude that break dances and has a dark past with idk "edgy horrow music albums" and then they spew how they wanted to represent the culture.
mind you this is all only about lore and design, I havent even spoken on how HORRIBLE skull merchant is gameplay wise, honestly id say she is worst than old legion, because old legion was a dumpter fire gameplay wise but at least their lore and design while simple had a good feel about it, skull merchant is irredimable the only good aspect she has is that thanks to her the gen kick meta was removed, awfull character.
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I have little to no knowledge of Brazilian culture but with that amount of population and geographic location, there has got to be some fantastic cultural history and legends going on there. It really is a shame we got what we did.
i usually don’t get involved in discussions like these, but they did her wrong.
The headless donkey…
I’m going to have to check that out. Thanks!
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Seems like everything about that character was a disaster lol.
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The only thing she has to offer is that she's our first mixed race rep. Sucks that she's our first though considering how everything else about her is garbage.
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Yeah I use to think Trickster was a bad Killer who didn't fit in the Dead By Daylight universe. Seeing Skull Merchant has me praising everything about Trickster. Skull Merchant should come as a warning to all of us... Things can ALWAYS..get worse... :(
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Well, I'm brazilian too and, while I agree that she doesn't really represent anything from Brazil, there are definitively some worst examples out there, since it's very common for Brazil to be represented by harmful stereotypes. Her case, while not harmful, is still a bad one: it's definitively possible to imagine a brazilian being like her, even if it is an obsessed cosplayer, but there is nothing on her design or lore that relates her to Brazil besides the brief mention that she was born in Fortaleza. She could be from any country with japanese immigrants. Just swap "Adriana", "Ceará" and "Fortaleza" in her bio with the names of a person, a city and a state in Canada and that's it, same killer, same story, different country.
To make it worse, she was associated with Shelter Woods, a map that doesn't really look like a brazilian forest. They COULD have changed the map to look a little more like an atlantic forest (since she was chasing Renato and Thalita in Rio before being taken by the entity) or a tropical forest in Ceará, but they didn't.
Or, since they wanted to make a "self made millionaire" so much, her lore could describe her shift from a poor or middle class reality to the one of a much richer person, and that could come with aspects of life in Brazil... but instead we just get "she was upper midle class, but she studied economics and suddenly she was a millionaire who devoured smaller companies!", like magic.
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I recommend you check out the legend of the Mapinguari too. It's one of my favorite creatures from brazilian folklore.
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Its not that. shes only brazillian in name. You could toss her into japan and it would make sense. her entire backstory is japanese, and is only brazillian through off hand comments that the mangas are brazillian and she lives in brazil... nothing thats authentically brazillian. Its all just japanese culture thrown into brazil. Not to say that doesnt exist, the cultural diffusion is definitely real but though only choose to represent one half of it. Which is disappointing since japanese already have so much rep in DBD.
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Well, a few things that don't work on her design and lore were done a lot better on Trickster before.
Her lore describes her akin to a calculating psycopath. She wears jewerly and a shiny mask, even when that wouldn't help her at all at stalking her victims without getting caught. Some suppose she wears them because of how vain she is, but her lore doesn't show her worried about her appearance or beauty to that point. But we already have an extremely vain psycopath who cares a lot about his image: the Trickster, and his design and lore do that much better. The lore describes like how he always enjoyed being the center of attention, how he felt like a god when being greeted by great crowds. His design and animations emphatize that: he wears colorful clothes, shows off a spin of his bat when hitting a survivor and even winks at the player in the lobby. Also, while neither of them has a scary appearance, Trickster at least somewhat compensates for that with his yellow contact lens, the blood on his clothes and, specially, his creepy behaviour, laughing as he beat people up and making a stilish presentation when mori'ing a survivor. Skull Merchant doesn't have that much personality or coherence between her design and lore.
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I don't think any killer is a good representative of any country.
What killer makes you say "the way they viciously slaughter people is such a good representation of my culture". That doesn't sound like representation you want.
Skull merchant has a lot of issues. Her nationality is by far one of the least of it
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I don't think this is entirely true, obviously being a mass murderer is not good representation but stories like those of Deathslinger and Artist highlight very real problems of their time that make them a product of their environment.
In this way just as survivors have the capability to highlight good things from their country the killers offer a chance to deliver well deserved critiques which is equally important.
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I didn't even know she was meant to be Brazilian and I am a pretty heavy DBD addict. So I assume if I don't care about lore then a lot of others probably didn't know that either...
I just think her problem is her entire design is flawed, obviously.
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Will do. Thanks!
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The game definitely needs a headless mule. I liked the horse that has blood coming out of its mouth on "Crotus Prenn Asylum".
The lore for the Skull Merchant was awful.
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