IGN takes issue with white male lead in Days Gone.

[pokoko]

ArchangelMadzz said:

pokoko said:

We aren't even talking about a trope, we're talking about the attempt to create a trope in order to satisfy an agenda.  "Gruff White Male Protagonist" is nothing but smoke and mirrors.  We're supposed to believe that "Gruff" is the primary descriptor?  Bullshit.  What is that even supposed to mean?  That the person fighting to survive in a living hell isn't dancing and singing as they fight zombies?  A serious character in a serious game isn't a trope, it's just common sense.  

Looking at a character and deciding that they're boring just because they look kinda-sorta similar to other characters is shallow and unimaginative.  I'm reading a really good book right now where one of the characters is a beautiful princess with long, golden hair.  Gosh, how boring--except, of course, that she's one of the best characters in the book because events turned her from a spoiled child into someone ruthless and unhinged.  

Wait so you're saying you're consuming a piece of media where at first impression the character is a boring trope but turns out to be really interesting? 

 

Man if only the article said something like that...

Er, no.  I'm saying that it would have been stupid of me to dismiss that character as a "boring trope" simply because of their appearance.

SpokenTruth said:

Kerotan said:

But why does it have to bewhite? Why can't it be a biker of any colour? He could have said this instead.   "“While I’ll admit that I initially rolled my eyes at yet another Gruff Protagonist." I removed the white and male. Gender and skin colour shouldn't be an issue. 

Because that's all part of that trope. Color and sex are part of the gruff aspect of that character trope.  If it were a gruff Asian female, well that certainly wouldn't fit the trope, now would it?  That would be something largely new and not over-saturated in the industry.

pokoko said:

We aren't even talking about a trope, we're talking about the attempt to create a trope in order to satisfy an agenda.  "Gruff White Male Protagonist" is nothing but smoke and mirrors.  We're supposed to believe that "Gruff" is the primary descriptor?  Bullshit.  What is that even supposed to mean?  That the person fighting to survive in a living hell isn't dancing and singing as they fight zombies?  A serious character in a serious game isn't a trope, it's just common sense.  

Looking at a character and deciding that they're boring just because they look kinda-sorta similar to other characters is shallow and unimaginative.  I'm reading a really good book right now where one of the characters is a beautiful princess with long, golden hair.  Gosh, how boring--except, of course, that she's one of the best characters in the book because events turned her from a spoiled child into someone ruthless and unhinged.  

But we are talking about a trope here. We're supposed to believe that gruff, white and male are the primary characteristics. It's the whole package, not just gruff.

And by the way, beautiful, white females with long golden hair as a princess is also a boring old trope.  You're literally calling his initial reaction as unimaginative without grasping the irony of the the game (book, movie, etc...) using an unimaginative trope for a character.

That's so basic as to be meaningless.  Orange cats are tropes.  Black dogs are tropes.  Fish that swim are tropes.  When you get to that point then it's just looking for stuff to call a trope.  A serious white male character is a trope only to those who want it to be a trope so they can complain about it.  Otherwise it would just be a normal character.

My point, which you seemed to miss, is that anyone who is so shallow that they look at a character they don't know anything about and think, "that's a boring trope," is a slave to their own ignorance.  The princess I described is obviously not a boring trope and I have no clue how you came to that conclusion.  Did you not read my description?  What are you even talking about?  I just explained to you that she was very well written and developed.  But I'm supposed to dismiss her because she's a blonde princess?  No.

People who think like that, "oh, that's a trope, I can just assume I understand everything about that character," are just fooling themselves with meaningless assumptions--and risking looking like fools when their assumptions are wrong.  The article illustrates that perfectly.