Wow, the official Twitter account of Monster Hunter has posted this tweet showing off the Thanksgiving feast that Tasheen prepared and the reaction to this has been… quite something! Apparently, judging by the replies, Tasheen’s Thanksgiving is all set, possibly he could have just as well not done it?? Just like that, the community turned their attention to this virtual feast, and it is more dramatic than a battle between a Rathalos and a Rathian.
First off, for those who may not know, Tasheen is a character from the Monster Hunter franchise, specifically from the latest games. He is the one who cooks for the players and gives them buffs before they go hunting. But what about this Thanksgiving? That has created a horror in the comments section.
The image depicts a plate featuring what look like some pale vegetables, tomatoes, and a quite unappetizing mixture. And the gamers are NOT taking it lightly. One user, Andro Blade, instantly pointed out the bad presentation asking, ‘Why do they have to make the veggies so desaturated!?’ which is quite fair, actually. The colors are indeed somewhat washed-out, almost as if someone had forgotten to increase the saturation slider in Photoshop or something like that.
Then we have Gary Adams who openly accuses Tasheen of Thanksgiving causing food poisoning. Ouch! That’s pretty cruel, however, if you look at the plate… it does seem a bit questionable. Another player, Gian, stated ‘I’m not eating that synthetic slop,’ which actually could express half of the reactions right there.
However, there is also a bit of a twist, and some players are defending Tasheen’s cooking skill. Roms-220 from the Philippines reacted with lots of smiley emojis and said ‘Oh, yaaaaay thanks Tasheen’ so it is really uplifting to see this kind of positivity among the negativity. Besides, Moddy Ghoul thanked Tasheen in person and said that they had no food this Thanksgiving, which really gives a bittersweet real-life perspective to the whole virtual meal situation.
And while all of this was going on, things got even wilder when some players started comparing Tasheen’s gift with other in-game options. Many players expressed that they would rather go to Suja, another place in Monster Hunter games famous for serving better food, instead. Skorgrim’s statement went as far as ‘I’d rather be dead thanks. Unless Suja is also doing Thanksgiving, then I’m there.’ That shows some serious commitment to the food!
Moreover, it is a matter of a debate what constitutes a proper meal. Aaron argued that ‘Tomatoes are not vegetables, and that is not a “meal”‘ which, in fact, is correct? But then again, we are talking about a fantasy game with gigantic monsters, so perhaps the food classification rules are different. Alexander Turner mentioned the white vegetables ‘would probably be great with cheese’ which, indeed, is true because everything is better with cheese.
Some of the replies were incredibly funny as is usually the case with the gaming community’s replies. Cyxxion mentioned getting ‘their ass kicked by a gigantic world-destroying robot from another universe’ and not having time for ‘your plate of fruit and fucking lettuce’ which… mood? On the contrary, there’s a whole thread where people are discussing if it is even right to eat the Gellidrons and whether Gog’s intent to create them as nature’s candy bar is just, which is totally the kind of crazy conversation that makes gaming communities so much fun.
Criticism was not only directed towards the food but also towards the fashion of Tasheen. SS Duo made a comment about the ‘horrendously textured robe’ which, well, that’s somewhat true; fashion hunting is a really serious matter in Monster Hunter. And Practitioner777 said the whole presentation was ‘Most cringe spread ever’ and called ‘Tasheen a boomer’ which, while seeming unnecessarily tough, is representative of today’s food criticism climate.
Ironically, it’s the food issue that takes the players to talk about game mechanics. One Charge Blade user didn’t join the food debate he just pleaded with the developers at Capcom to fix his favorite weapon saying it has become a ‘savage axe spamming machine’ while SAED and counters are dead. This is exactly the case when nice things are not allowed; nowadays, even holiday meals become balance discussion threads.
The lines in the community are highly determined; one side is formed by players that enjoy any meal buffs they can get before heading out to hunt monsters, while the other side is made of gourmet chefs who demand their virtual food to look as good as it tastes in-game. It’s the classic split between casual and hardcore players, but here it is about digital vegetables instead of weapon meta.
Honestly, the players’ devotion to an NPC Thanksgiving meal as a topic of conversation is a clear sign of their investment in the Monster Hunter universe. They… This level of engagement is what makes the PlayStation and Xbox communities so special.
