Samurai Shodown’s #EmbraceDeath hashtag causes Twitter confusion

A popular fighting games player sent out a Samurai Shodown giveaway tweet with the hashtag #EmbraceDeath. Hilarity ensued when it started to trend.

How quickly and misguided things or ideas can go viral in 2019 is fascinating. Whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or elsewhere, all it takes is one small, concentrated push and something can roll downhill from a smaller community to a larger populace. The Samurai Shodown community saw this in action

Justin Wong is no stranger to fighting games, being part of the community for more than a decade and a half after being on the receiving end of the infamous “Daigo Parry” at Evo 2004. While he’s best known for playing games from the Marvel vs. and Street Fighter franchises, he’s found himself as an ambassador and professional fighting games player of a multitude of games.

As part of his notoriety, he got involved in a promotional giveaway of Samurai Shodown, taking to Twitter to ask those interested in receiving a free PS4 copy of the game to retweet and like the post below, as well as reply with a tweet including “#EmbraceDeath” in the text.

Because so many thousands of people suddenly tweeted “#EmbraceDeath,” it started to trend on Twitter. This got people who are concerned or confused about why people are embracing death and what the hell happened.

Of course, this was perfectly amusing to people within the SamSho community, who kicked back to watch the world burn.

Once Hurricane Barry started to touch down, some started to get scared that people were getting ready to embrace the worst as it unfolded.

https://twitter.com/serulean_/status/1149128248065810432

Perhaps among the more hilarious reactions were from people feigning outrage over #EmbraceDeath trending but instead throwing their shade towards Genjuro mains.

Of course, there’s no core tenet to the young millennial/Gen Z individual that ties people together than being openly depressed about wealth inequality, environmental disasters and a lack of an adequate social care net produced by the Baby Boomer generation. #EmbraceDeath became their calling card.

https://twitter.com/tinitoysoldier/status/1149138849349689345

People who appreciate metal band Death also got in on the fun.

It was funny for Justin Wong to realize the wrath he’s created on the internet spawning from a simple giveaway.

Samurai Shodown is an excellent video game, and you should definitely Embrace Death if you are interested in classic fighting games touched up with modern sensibilities here and there.