242: what kind of feet do you like?

[ryanongosling]

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Comments

[(Anonymous)]

My issue with Lyse is that she's kind of boring, but it's even worse because M'naago is right there and actually looks like she's from Ala Mhigo. Instead, we have to have the blonde, blue-eyed white girl be the resistance leader because none of the brown people can help themselves, I guess.

[(Anonymous)]

or they'd created lyse way back before there even was a highlander model and it has nothing to do with racism, please touch grass

da

[(Anonymous)]

The RL development reason for Lyse and Minfillia looking the way they do doesn't make it not super unfortunate.

The weird thing is that they went out of their way to make Lyse's dad dark skinned in a flashback when they had the perfect chance to explain it right then.

[(Anonymous)]

They also could have made Ala Mhigo have more than 2 light skinned people in it that it wouldn't be out of place for Lyse to look like she does instead they made almost every other background NPC dark skinned and left the blonde main characters blonde and out of place.

Don't pretend like there isn't a huge white savior narrative in the fucking blue mage storyline that came out in Stormblood too.

[(Anonymous)]

it is extremely ironic to accuse asian devs of writing a white savior narrative in their game.

there is definitely classism/racism among asians regarding skin color, but you can't just juxtapose western values over it and declare it to be exactly the same.

[(Anonymous)]

there’s such a thing as internalized racism, anon. asian devs making a white savior storyline absolutely is an example of that. luckily they have us white allies to save them from themselves and show them the correct way to think.

[(Anonymous)]

speak for yourself yt i’m asian lol

da

[(Anonymous)]

this is the funniest possible response to this comment lmao

[(Anonymous)]

What are you talking about? The Blue Mage story is that they go to "the New World" and meet with a tribe that has a very Native American-sounding name. And then someone scams them and steals their precious resources and gives them Eorzean smallpox blankets and then a white guy who participated in this feels bad and we, the Player, are meant to sympathize with this man (instead of the stricken tribe) and help fix his problems. Because the tribe, who taught him Blue Magic in the first place, can't save themselves.

That is literally the story, anon.

[(Anonymous)]

To add to this, Japan has its own issues with treating indigenous people like shit (look up Japanese relations with the Ainu people), so them looking at American history for inspiration and believing a fucked up narrative from a country that won't even acknowledge its own systemic racism and never thinking to look any deeper than that before putting it in their game is highly likely.

[(Anonymous)]

i’m actually referring to lyse and minfillia bc who bothers with blu lmao

white people coming in and declaring that ACTUALLY THIS IS PROBLEMATIC BECAUSE THIS CHARACTER DOESNT LINE UP WITH STEREOTYPICAL TRAITS THAT I EXPECT is kind of gross! and also disregards that among races, there is a huge amount of ethnicities and appearances among them.

but there is def a attitude of paler skin being “better” in asian communities and i speak from first hand experience because people don’t realize how east asian racism is fucked up in its own way.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm the anon who brought up the BLU storyline and I'm also not white so it's weird of you to assume that, anon. The "white savior" was referring to the BLU storyline specifically and that's exactly what it is. "Who bothers with blu" doesn't meant it doesn't exist?

Lyse and Minfillia are just a bad case of obvious whitewashing, which you point out yourself is a thing. White savior might not have been the intent with those characters, but it's still a bad look and still an intentional choice. Their models predate the highlanders but Ala Mhigo's demographics looking like they do is a choice they made when they made SB.

[(Anonymous)]

great to know that you’re not white! 👍 are you familiar with the racial issues and dsyphoria of east asian cultures?

i’m also going to point out that “whitewashing” in this case is not in the western case of “bipoc are bad!” but rather “being pale skinned is just Better because it indicates you’re superior and don’t have to perform hard physical labor”

[(Anonymous)]

None of this changes the fact that the story and the design choices perpetuate racist stereotypes. You can discuss the intent of the developers, but it sounds like you're trying to defend racist content by going "but it's Japanese!" when it boils down to "this is representative of a harmful stereotype".

In addition, no one should be surprised that "blonde white girl held up as superior over these brown people" reads as a white savior trope or at the very least as racist in general to a global audience comprised of a lot of people belonging to cultures who were victims of white global imperialism. They're going to read their own experiences into it and so going "I can't believe these non-East Asian people are reading tropes on this East Asian work!". It's a fantasy story, first of all, these are not Japanese characters in Japan. Shockingly, people can relate to things and the more worrying take from this is that a global audience is reading their work as racist whatever the intent behind it and where their particular brand of local racial issues.

[(Anonymous)]

anon do you think that blonde asians don’t exist

[(Anonymous)]

aren't the ala mhigans supposed to be like fantasy middle eastern though

in which case having a light-skinned character isn't weird at all because there are plenty of middle easterners who have light skin

[(Anonymous)]

anon, for the love of god, do some research into why “stopping the imperials” is such a popular trope in Japanese media despite the fact the Japanese were the imperials in history.

like, i’m not touching whether or not the story is racist or not, but the story does not stop being influenced by Asian storytelling culture just because it’s in a fantasy setting and the characters aren’t Asian.

[(Anonymous)]

hi r

[(Anonymous)]

op: FFXIV fandom is so toxic
this thread: hold my capri sun

🍿

+1

[(Anonymous)]

this whole thread is just reminding me why i don't engage with the fandom lmf

going back to enjoying the game in peace, bye

[(Anonymous)]

"Japanese devs cannot possibly be guilty of making racist writing and design choices because they're Japanese devs" as a take wasn't on my 2022 bingo card

[(Anonymous)]

oh no i fully believe they’re capable of being racist, it’s just really funny to see a bunch of whities examining ffxiv’s issues and go HMMM… THIS IS CLEARLY A WHITE SAVIOR TROPE!

[(Anonymous)]

ye this is clearly a civilized japanese savior to koreans trope.

[(Anonymous)]

a girl returning to her home country to help in the rebellion against imperials

is a Japanese savior. when the Japanese were the imperials that did the invading.

i know stormblood discussion makes people lose their minds but good god

[(Anonymous)]

but how am i going to get my ally points now!?