#grace saif

This might be a hot take considering how utterly stacked all three games are(and X as well), but David Menkin as Malos was probably my favorite vocal performance across the entire franchise. Out of all three primary antagonists, he was the only one who enjoyed being evil, and you could hear it dripping from his every word. If he wasn't angry he was having a blast, and sometimes he was doing both at once. I know Pragmata is getting rave reviews, but the main reason I'm getting it is to hear David Menkin get the chance to be a main character and thus be one of the main voices you hear for the entire runtime.

And while Manana wasn't exactly on the level of importance that Malos was, and while I had my fun memeing on her for the cooking mechanic being bugged at launch, Grace Saif turned in as good of a performance as any of the XC3 cast, and anyone who's played more than 30 minutes of that game knows just how high that bar is. Every Xenoblade game will usually have at least one example of someone not getting the Nopon style of voice right and going too far into annoying, but Ms. Saif threaded that needle to perfection, a skill that's an absolute must when you're voicing a main character who the player will be hearing for dozens of hours and who is also a young child. It's great that she's getting a chance to both expand her career beyond Xenoblade and expand her character range as well.

These are a few of many real life Black Girls/Women I saw folk harass and bully in real time over fictional characters. At least 3 deleted their social media. Two are/were literally children. One was blacklisted. One has been in the same horrific fandom for approximately a decade. There were many more, but I chose these. A wide range of skintones and ages, and I know some ofyou will see this and easily be able to sound off more names...

THIS is a Black Female Character Appreciation and Protection Space, but more importantly, it is a Black girls and women appreciation and protection space.

If you ever participated in harassing and bullying Black girls or women online, or otherwise, I wish you the worst. I hope bad things happen continuously in your life, to you and people you hold dear. I hope ancestors show up and show out and that life beats you up and turn around and beats you down.

features: dylan minnette, alisha boe.