Why are people of color sidelined in the story of FF14?

[Gemina]

I work at my local university's diversity and inclusion office, so I do actually care, thank you very much for your troll comment.

There's your problem, right there.

[Rhysati]

I work at my local university's diversity and inclusion office, so I do actually care, thank you very much for your troll comment.

And yet they didn't teach you that Asian people are PoC's?

[Mcg55ss]

I work at my local university's diversity and inclusion office, so I do actually care, thank you very much for your troll comment.

you really don't care u just want to create spam and topics to troll people with all day on your like 8 accounts that you do the same thing on just differing topics.

[Yuella]

Raubahn lead the alliance in Stormblood. The Doma side of the Stormblood is full of Asian looking characters. Gaius took center stage in the Werlyt storyline. Shadowbringers have Lyna (definitely not white) and the Viis in Rak'tika are definitely not white. Endwalker have Erenville, Nidhana and other non-whites.

[TitanMenII]

Raubahn lead the alliance in Stormblood. The Doma side of the Stormblood is full of Asian looking characters. Gaius took center stage in the Werlyt storyline. Shadowbringers have Lyna (definitely not white) and the Viis in Rak'tika are definitely not white. Endwalker have Erenville, Nidhana and other non-whites.

I'd rather they tell a story that makes sense and feels right above anything else. Personally, I feel they have done that through the course of the story. Even now when I see new voice actors I usually just think that fits perfect. They were able to fit Barret into FF7 really well. The worst thing is to plant someone into the story just to tick a checkbox and then make them uninteresting and obviously there for that purpose. If they can pull off a character like Barret that makes you love the story being told, sure.

That said. Louisoix, Raubahn, Gaius van Baelsar (who isn't a villain when you see him out of armor), Erenville (important in the EW MSQ).



And considering this is fantasy, Roegadyn, Au Ra and Hrothgar have a variety of different colors such as blue and yellow.

Au Ra

Roegadyn

Hrothgar

And yet... none of them are main characters. All of them are supporting characters. This is what is meant when people of color are sidelined.

[Aword3213]

It was concerning to read multiple interviews with Yoshida concerning FF16, where he said that



But this design is also found in FF14. All of the Scions are light-skinned, and people of color are either depicted as villains, like Gaius, or are sidelined and forgotten quickly, like Lilja.



Square Enix,

People of color existed in Medieval Europe. They worked as traders, and there were Moors in the medieval courts of various kingdoms too.

http://www.taneter.org/moors2.html

Players of FF14 have requested more skin color diversity for ages. But there has not been a single major protagonist NPC who is dark-skinned since ARR. That's nearly 10 years of story where we do not have a single brown or black protagonist.

This is also incongruent with other mainline entries of Final Fantasy. We had

Fran in FF12



Barret in FF7



Sazh in FF13



And now with FF14 being full of light-skinned Scions, FF15 being a gang of four white men, and FF16 increasingly looking like a cast of mostly white men again... Square Enix, have you forgotten the people of color in your previous games in the FF franchise? Why are PoCs still sidelined? I hope you remember that Final Fantasy is also a Black and PoC game as its anime aesthetics are deeply popular within the PoC communities.

It’s so sad that the ones asking for representation are often racists in disguise.

It’s 2023 now and there are still people judging others by their color of skin, instead of their personality and intellectual wisdom.

[TitanMenII]

It’s so sad that the ones asking for representation are often racists in disguise.

It’s 2023 now and there are still people judging others by their color of skin, instead of their personality and intellectual wisdom.

Educate yourself

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ho...s-young-people

[Leifei]

It’s so sad that the ones asking for representation are often racists in disguise.

It’s 2023 now and there are still people judging others by their color of skin, instead of their personality and intellectual wisdom.

This right here. Agreed.

[Burmecia]

But

did medieval europe have concepts like

PoC, whitewashing, representation?

As we understand these words in 2023 through USA centric lens?

[Jeeqbit]

I'd rather they tell a story that makes sense and feels right above anything else. Personally, I feel they have done that through the course of the story. Even now when I see new voice actors I usually just think that fits perfect. They were able to fit Barret into FF7 really well. The worst thing is to plant someone into the story just to tick a checkbox and then make them uninteresting and obviously there for that purpose. If they can pull off a character like Barret that makes you love the story being told, sure.

That said. Louisoix, Raubahn, Gaius van Baelsar (who isn't a villain when you see him out of armor), Erenville (important in the EW MSQ).



And considering this is fantasy, Roegadyn, Au Ra and Hrothgar have a variety of different colors such as blue and yellow.

Au Ra

Roegadyn

Hrothgar