Main character issues

The main reason why I believe that Final fantasy is racist is not for the way they potray different people within the series but rather whom is leading the series. In all final fantasy series the central character is predominantly extremely fair skinned and blue-eyed with for the most part blonde/white hair. The central character is like this not only in square's games but in most to all RPG's if not the video game or media world. I must say does this mean that a black man may not be fit to lead and propel a storyline or that a person in the real world cannot follow emotionally a vietnamese character. The point is that there must be someone to recognize and change the way people think. You would think that we Americans would have changed the way people viewed race seeing as the leader of the free world is now black. I am a black man whom never has discriminated a man according to race for those whom must know. Do you think that young men and women of another race other than the mainstream(white/aryan) are dissapointed in that they don't see any positive role models whom can lead effectively in their own skin? But to see them acting in a stereotypical manner as if that is what they must become?

Not putting a character of a certain race in your stories isn't racist. If it was, think about how racist todays (or thorough all ages!) fiction is towards the inuits!

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Originally Posted by Gimbabwe

The main reason why I believe that Final fantasy is racist is not for the way they potray different people within the series but rather whom is leading the series. In all final fantasy series the central character is predominantly extremely fair skinned and blue-eyed with for the most part blonde/white hair. The central character is like this not only in square's games but in most to all RPG's if not the video game or media world. I must say does this mean that a black man may not be fit to lead and propel a storyline or that a person in the real world cannot follow emotionally a vietnamese character. The point is that there must be someone to recognize and change the way people think. You would think that we Americans would have changed the way people viewed race seeing as the leader of the free world is now black. I am a black man whom never has discriminated a man according to race for those whom must know. Do you think that young men and women of another race other than the mainstream(white/aryan) are dissapointed in that they don't see any positive role models whom can lead effectively in their own skin? But to see them acting in a stereotypical manner as if that is what they must become?

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Might I point you HERE!

Should I even point out the fact that Final Fantasy and most other RPG's that don't involve customizable characters are all made by Japanese people? As in, not made by white people?

Still, Japan is pretty notoriously racist in general, and has a fascination with Western culture so I don't think it's that surprising that they not only make games with a lot of white (or Asian people), but that they stereotype out the wazoo when someone of another race does appear in a game.

Stereotypes aren't necessarily racist! Though they might not always be exciting.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

Stereotypes aren't necessarily racist! Though they might not always be exciting.

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Never said they were, but when most characters a company makes of a race other than white or Asian is a stereotype it's usually an example of ignorance at the very least, and really, if they actually cared about how they were portraying other races they might be more sensitive to it.

Kiros, man. ;)

Reddas!

Also apparently Barrett's speech patterns were put in by the translators?? So I hear anyway.

he didn't talk all thug gangsta in the japanese version, as far as I know.

And tbh he looks pretty cool. If it's racist to look like Mr. T, then I want to look more like racist :p.

oh god not the old "if it doesn't have a X it must be racist" argument.

Racism is the hatred of a race, or sometimes defined as a prejudiced attitude to one.

Having a character that is aimed at westerners is not racist. In fact the Japanese being dark skinned and eastern are the ones creating the games this way.

It is just a silly argument.

As for Barrett, yes, he is MR T because of english translators. They saw the black guy and thought "oh this could be Mr T." so placed in words like "mo fo" and "sh't you bustin' up my rhythm foo'?"

As I have found, translating a game from Japanese is not straight forward, every translation is up to the person interpreting. Obviously, to translate properly you need to know what WAS INTENDED for the character. The english translators decided that Mr T was intended...

and there you go.

Oh god...
No,it's not racist.

Wait,it must be racist to arabs right? I've never seen one that even looks like a arab!

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Originally Posted by Gimbabwe

The main reason why I believe that Final fantasy is racist is not for the way they potray different people within the series but rather whom is leading the series.

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Oh noes!

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Originally Posted by Dictionary

rac⋅ism
  /ˈreɪsɪzəm/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [rey-siz-uhm] Show IPA
–noun
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

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:roll2

Stereotypes can be racist. In fact most of the more well-known stereotypes are really racist. Yet, I don't think they are racist for not featuring a large amount of races besides white people. However, if you look at the white characters they do have, you'll see that many of them have Asian facial features. Japan does have a weird fascination with Western culture (ganjins) as someone said and this is why they tend to focus on featuring people with blond hair and blue eyes.

They are enamored by the things they don't have naturally. Things that are so different from the way they look. I think part of the reason why the black characters they've featured; i.e. Barret and what's-his-face from FFXIII tend to be so stereotypical is because they don't really have a good perspective of blacks. They live so far away from them that they don't know any better and can only assume this is how many of the black men are. *shrug*

It's a true shame that the black community doesn't have any delusional schizophrenic lunatics they can call 'hero' like we whites do with Cloud.

Wasn't Tidus asian. I feel like all those FMV's gave them narrow eyes. Just saying.

I'm more concerned about the lack of homosexual main characters, maybe all games are homophobic?

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Originally Posted by Mirage

I'm more concerned about the lack of homosexual main characters, maybe all games are homophobic?

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That's more to do with target markets than anything else. Gay people will probably play a game with a straight main character, but I think a sizeable portion of the straight market won't play with a gay main character.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

I'm more concerned about the lack of homosexual main characters, maybe all games are homophobic?

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There's a lack of homosexual main characters in the FF series?

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Originally Posted by champagne supernova

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Originally Posted by Mirage

I'm more concerned about the lack of homosexual main characters, maybe all games are homophobic?

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That's more to do with target markets than anything else. Gay people will probably play a game with a straight main character, but I think a sizeable portion of the straight market won't play with a gay main character.

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Plus here in the southern US people would organize boycotts against Square as well as against the vendors selling the games.

It would be such a headache for Square it's simply not worth it.

I've been blasted on other forums for pointing this out.

I'm not homophobic but homosexual characters would be problematic for the game.

I don't think stereotypes are racist.They're just that,stereotypes.And every "race" has one.Not just races,everything has a stereotype.
Racism is a hatred for people from another race.

And Barret is AWSOME.

You know what would be racist? If the villain was always a black guy.

perhaps if Cloud referred to Barrett as "Yo nigga" there would be a case :D

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Originally Posted by Rad Bromance

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Originally Posted by Mirage

I'm more concerned about the lack of homosexual main characters, maybe all games are homophobic?

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There's a lack of homosexual main characters in the FF series?

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Hahahahaha I thought the same thing!

There have been homosexuals in RPG's before. Take that tranny from Enchanted Arms. ... That's all I got, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't anyone suing over that.

I don't think the games are portraying racism. I agree with what Shiny said, yeah the characters are targeted for Westerners but I saw a lot of Asian features in X, AC and a bit of XII. If they were trying to work in a racist message they wouldn't have been so subtle about it.

Wow people, the man's trying to have a serious conversation and some of these replies are a little thoughtless.

For the record, racism is the belief that one's own race is superior to all others. Prejudice, or discrimination is what most of you are referring to. For example, you can't be "nationalist" against France.

I agree that it's a general shame that so many groups are underrepresented in stories, especially as protagonists. You have to understand, though, that it's written from someone else's perspective, and it's hard for them to take that step. That's one thing I love about Spawn, Todd McFarlane, some white Canadian hockey-loving dude, in making the independent stand-in for Spider-Man or Superman, actually stepped up and made him an African American, who was an atheist republican in life, making him more complex than just a face. He also dealt with many issues as well throughout the series.

As far as FF goes, we have to keep in mind it's Japanese, and there's so many thing tied up in "race" over there that few of us on this site could paint an insightful picture. I think in recent games Square Enix maybe have gotten a little better. Tidus, for example, may have Blonde hair, but his skin tone and eyes make him seem like he has a little bit of the Pacific Islands in him. Cool amalgamations like that are a good direction.

It is a serious problem that for many groups there is a lack of exposure of positive role models. This would go a long way to diversifying the decision making process in the USA and abroad.