Main character issues

[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?

[Mirage]

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!

[Moon Rabbits]

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?

Might I point you HERE!

[Slothy]

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.

[Mirage]

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

[Slothy]

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

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.

[Mirage]

Kiros, man. ;)

[Moon Rabbits]

Reddas!

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

[Mirage]

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.

[seiferalmasy2]

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.

[line_genrou]

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!

[Rostum]

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.

Oh noes!

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

[Shiny]

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*

[nik0tine]

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.

[Dignified Pauper]

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