The 7.3 Armour preview is offensive

[FresaSchnee]

Bumping this as well. Also wow people are being full-faced racists here huh?

[kefesa]

Chiming in- I made my points in the main thread before it got locked, but TL;DR: I'm Latina, I loved the way my homeland was shown in Dawntrail and was emotionally moved by it. The new armor set evokes an awful part of that history, and I want FFXIV to do better and consider the aesthetic implications of their work before they greenlight it.

[Rinoa_353]

I'm Latina of Cuban (mother) and Nicaraguan (father) heritage and I dunno why people are making a big stink about this armor set..... I think it looks neat and if you're so easily offended, you're the reason why developers can't take risk anymore, especially if you're not Latino/Latina.

[Eloah]

I'm Puerto Rican, of Taino descent, you know the people famously slaughtered by Columbus, and this bit of information just came to my attention. Now, i personally don't mind the set, and I'm not going to change my opinion just because I've learned of this issue. But i can understand a bit of the backlash it is receiving.

This is just a poorly thought out issue. Spanish influences and culture are so ingrained in Latin America now that the two are usually synonymous; so much so that some people even forget the country of Spain exists. Special people, but I digress. While the timing might be a bit on the poorside, we cant shy away from every aspect of history, because there will always be an issue to find.

I don't recall anyone being upset over the Garlean Empire (Roman Empire) trying to take over Eorzea (African nations).

We just have to learn and understand our histories so that we don't repeat the worst parts of it.

[DreadCrow]

...alright, I need someone to explain something to me...

Why is it bad to give a fictional nation that's a stand in for European colonialization of the Americas and armor set that reflects that..? Alexandria is an antagonist force, for the most part. Fantasy fiction has a long history of drawing on real world imagery for visual short hand. Hell, this game does. The armor existing is no more in support of that than the Garlean armor sets from Endwalker are in support of fascism.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely understand not wanting to give hatful chuds more ammunition so they can be hurtful to people... But like, rather than focusing on things that could potentially be hurtful (but won't be even to a large number of the people you're trying to protect), you need to actually focus on hateful bigots. I mean, I'm chalk white, so maybe I don't get a say... But I think it's a bigger problem that we got people who want to get an armor set so they can upset you than the fact the armor set even exists. 'cause if it didn't, that person would still be around.

[PorxiesRCute]

In 1998, there was an anime series called Jikuu Senshi Nazca that involved reincarnated warriors from the Incan Empire. Its primary cultural legacy lies in showing up for a split-second in the opening theme to Malcolm in the Middle for some reason. In flashbacks to Ancient Times, a villainous Incan character can be seen sitting at a pipe organ playing baroque music, because that's that villains in that time period do, right?

You'd think that after 27 years, a multibillion-dollar corporation could do better in their research of indigenous cultures.

Honestly, I miss when the cultures in this game weren't lazily copy-pasted from IRL cultures. Dawntrail's just the worst example of it, but the worldbuilding's just become so freaking lazy lately.

[IcarusAvery]

...alright, I need someone to explain something to me...

Why is it bad to give a fictional nation that's a stand in for European colonialization of the Americas and armor set that reflects that..? Alexandria is an antagonist force, for the most part. Fantasy fiction has a long history of drawing on real world imagery for visual short hand. Hell, this game does. The armor existing is no more in support of that than the Garlean armor sets from Endwalker are in support of fascism.

There's three big problems with this idea.


1. It's just bad taste to be getting conquistador-themed apparel in an expansion themed around pre-contact American cultures.


2. Alexandria lost most of its medieval influences before it got thrown onto the Source.


3. These designs... aren't archeo-Alexandrian. The motifs are very Turali... which implies this gear is Turali, i.e. not representative of the culture that colonized Yyasulani.

[velkettin]

I'm Latina of Cuban (mother) and Nicaraguan (father) heritage and I dunno why people are making a big stink about this armor set..... I think it looks neat and if you're so easily offended, you're the reason why developers can't take risk anymore, especially if you're not Latino/Latina.

i don't even have a strong opinion on this set (beyond thinking it's very suspect how eager some people are to yell at indigenous people for theirs) but if you honestly think "some people being maybe too ~culturally sensitive~ online" is why devs can't take risks instead of being forced to copy previously successful formulas to please shareholders and chase profits they'll never see themselves when they'd genuinely rather be making unique and interesting games and stories you are, frankly, being incredibly silly.

[pandabuddha]

(Finally made an account for this!)

Co-signing. Other people have worded how I also feel more eloquently, but I still want to show my support.

Even if it's not a 1:1, I still find it distasteful and outright offensive to put gear inspired by the "Age of Exploration" (that included so much pain and suffering for indigenous people that reverberates to this day) in an expansion inspired by the Americas and SEA.

[Lune-crescent]

Ba-da-bump! Here for support. I had to sign up for the forum to do this because this isn't ok!