Which race deserves to be the main protagonist?

[MrKusakabe]

"Deserving" is a strong term in that matter, but what is a "protagonist" anyways?
I have been trough many situations where the "frontman" was not doing anything, just a mere puppet to present to the public. The real deals have been done in the background.

And in that matter I think the Lalafell could be easily placed in that role. They are the underdogs, and usually only seen as small people, often connected with children and such. That they are clever, grown-up (no pun intended!) creatures is often overseen. This can go the other way round, too, when you have the big, muscly man that is basically an empty shell and useless for any task (apart from lifting weights). In almost other game, the small species (or race as you call them) is the one that has "hidden" strength that put them into an unexpectedly important role: The Asura with their technology such as waypoints that also revive, travel, general intelligence and such. In LoL, the Yordles build machines or are swift and cunning. The Mascu in bless are merchants and inventors. Try to mess with them, that's like messing with Amazon, Google and Apple at the same time. The Tarutaru were excellent mages blowing up armies with their magical abilities. The Lalafell are just widely written to be shallow and with no depth, but still waters run deep, eh?

[Ameela]

"Deserving" is a strong term in that matter, but what is a "protagonist" anyways?
I have been trough many situations where the "frontman" was not doing anything, just a mere puppet to present to the public. The real deals have been done in the background.

I mean yeah but that doesn't stop them from being the protagonists and when you think about it that's exactly who the Warrior of Light is, just the brawn of the particular group they're in, always following orders while people like Alphinaud do the actual work behind the scenes.
I play lala and never thought of her as particularly smart or cunning, just really good at hitting things with an axe which, thankfully, is all she needs to do

[Duskane]

It's really weird because it actually feels like Yugiri was kinda made to replace Thancred?
Like I'm getting into some weird conspiracy theories here but has anyone noticed the old 1.0 cast has been slowly replaced by newer characters introduced in 2.0 or after?
Like obviously Thancred and Y'shtola are still around but they've become much less prominent in the story and their roles can (and mostly ARE) being fulfilled by Yugiri and Krile respectively.

we are most likely done with yuguri for awhile now since Doma arc is over
yshtola and Thancred have had loads of time to shine and develop in Arr and HW

[SweetStars]

I totally agree with MrKusakabe, lalafell are normally seen as underdogs, which would make a very interesting and inspirational story about fighting against stereotype, having a message of "don't let anyone define you and tell you who you are, what you can or can not do". Hmm..actually why not make a story with all the races stereotype and blow all those stereotypes, showing that there is more to a book than is cover.

[Iscah]

I don't mean any offense to what I say above but video games, movies, books, etc really need to stop taking the safe route with making some uninteresting looking bland light skin guy the main protagonist/mascot of every thing. Because out of all the races in this game that get to be featured in FFXIV and all we get is the same old throw up light skin male human/Hyur with nothing particularly special or interesting about him. I still like him but at the same time, like I said before, this whole going the safe route with the same type if main character/mascot for video games such as FFXIV really needs to stop.

More diversity overall is good, but in the specific case of FFXIV’s generic Midlander guy I feel like it’s okay because he’s not meant to be a distinct character but is effectively one step above a dotted outline saying “insert your character here”. It seems to me that he’s boring by design.

Edit to add: If the “default WoL” had a distinct, interesting appearance, I think you might get a small-but-noticeable amount of people saying “oh, that’s the ‘proper’ design for the hero, so I’ll recreate it instead of making something up” (in the same way that you’re often free to rename RPG characters but many players will keep the default ones) and then you’d have lots of clones of that character. Make him boring, and it’s less likely to happen.

[ko_]

Y'shtola.

Actually what ARE the races stereotypes? I want to know. D:

[Soge01]

I'm not sure if these can be considered stereotypes but....

Elezen: Snobby elves whom think their better than everyone else.

Lalafell: Crafty little underdogs with the innocence of a child and the malevolence of a warlord.

Hyur: Default race because their humans and are ALWAYS considered the most important of all.

Miqo'te: The sexy race that appeals to everyone.

Au'ri: Japanese Pop Star Girls. The guys are clones of each other.

Roegydan: Big and brawny with usually nothing else to show besides being big and brawny.

More diversity overall is good, but in the specific case of FFXIV’s generic Midlander guy I feel like it’s okay because he’s not meant to be a distinct character but is effectively one step above a dotted outline saying “insert your character here”. It seems to me that he’s boring by design.

Edit to add: If the “default WoL” had a distinct, interesting appearance, I think you might get a small-but-noticeable amount of people saying “oh, that’s the ‘proper’ design for the hero, so I’ll recreate it instead of making something up” (in the same way that you’re often free to rename RPG characters but many players will keep the default ones) and then you’d have lots of clones of that character. Make him boring, and it’s less likely to happen.

I see your point and agree on it. But my biggest complaint is why are default characters like him always light skin? I mean, as someone with darker skin I feel as if I'm be told I'm not included in the game's story whenever I see characters like that. I mean, considering that generic and boring is fine, but constantly using that type of character for so many things besides FFXIV's CG story telling is kind of a real pain in the butt to see all the time.

Is it too hard to ask to see a default character like this with tan skin or something and actually looking...different than a typical light skin guy you can practically pick up on the street anywhere and say "here's your main protagnist; go nuts"? I don't mean to jump into this kind of subject, but...its just upsetting to see all the time in, like, everything, you know? Especially in a game like FFXIV where there are so many different races yet the boring light skin Hyur is picked yet again to represent everyone...

[Ameela]

Is it too hard to ask to see a default character like this with tan skin or something and actually looking...different than a typical light skin guy you can practically pick up on the street anywhere and say "here's your main protagnist; go nuts"? I don't mean to jump into this kind of subject, but...its just upsetting to see all the time in, like, everything, you know?

I mean at the risk of sounding racist, it does make sense for characters in the kind of setting XIV is in to mostly be white, considering it's a fantasy game and almost 99% of all fantasy worlds are based on medieval europe, which had wayyyyy more white dudes than black.

[Soge01]

I mean at the risk of sounding racist, it does make sense for characters in the kind of setting XIV is in to mostly be white, considering it's a fantasy game and almost 99% of all fantasy worlds are based on medieval europe, which had wayyyyy more white dudes than black.

Your not being racist and I respect your thoughts. But if you really look into the lore background of games like FFXIV, you'll find that a good solid portion of the game is actually made from multiple different cultures around the world and not just European.

That, and I never give making a main protagonist light skin an excuse for automatically doing so without much thought into it other then "it's the safe/default route". I just find that lazy.

As an example, I like Lightning from FFXIII because she's an incredibly strong and goal oriented female protagonist with a decently driven enough backstory that really makes you eventually understand and feel for her and her struggles to save her sister in the first game. I never liked how people liked to point out how she was just "Cloud with Boobs" because she a serious and distant personality at first when she was just only being that way because she was worried sick about her sister and stricken with grief for having nearly lost her forever.

[Iscah]

I see your point and agree on it. But my biggest complaint is why are default characters like him always light skin? I mean, as someone with darker skin I feel as if I'm be told I'm not included in the game's story whenever I see characters like that. I mean, considering that generic and boring is fine, but constantly using that type of character for so many things besides FFXIV's CG story telling is kind of a real pain in the butt to see all the time.

Is it too hard to ask to see a default character like this with tan skin or something and actually looking...different than a typical light skin guy you can practically pick up on the street anywhere and say "here's your main protagnist; go nuts"? I don't mean to jump into this kind of subject, but...its just upsetting to see all the time in, like, everything, you know? Especially in a game like FFXIV where there are so many different races yet the boring light skin Hyur is picked yet again to represent everyone...

There are a few potential reasons, I guess:

- people write (and draw) what they know, and what they think of as normal

- people write (and draw) what they know, because they don't want to accidentally offend people from other cultures by 'doing it wrong'

- rightly or wrongly, 'white' has been the 'default setting' for characters for a long time now

- logical conclusion that a character in a "medieval Europe" fantasy setting should look European unless specifically from another location/culture in that world. Don't want to just include a "token foreigner" for the sake of diversity if it doesn't make sense.

- an extra layer for fantasy stories that "other races" tend to be things like orcs and elves rather than humans of different skin colour

- an interesting one found via TV Tropes: for Japanese media, or anime in particular, characters are intended to appear without nationality - the Japanese audience sees them as Japanese, while Western viewers will see them as looking Caucasian.

- linked from that article, the idea that people have different concepts of a 'default human being'.



In my case, I'm 'white' - Australian of English ancestry as far back as I'm aware - and although I see people of all races as 'normal people', my 'default human being concept' is still white. It just is. Whether that's because I am, or it's a learnt thing from media/society, I can't possibly say. (Edit: On further thought, my ‘default concept’ is male, which I am not, so perhaps it is more of a learned concept.)