This, can someone please answer? What's wrong with a character being like Mr.T, i don't understand.
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[Kotaku] Fans are Concerned about Barret's Voice in Final Fantasy 7 remake. A "hyper-masculine cartoon" and a "Mr. T facsimile"
- Thread starter lowhighkang_LHK
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This, can someone please answer? What's wrong with a character being like Mr.T, i don't understand.
Are you asking if aping Mr. T's form of (acting) speech in an English localization is a bad look in 2019?
Yes, yes it is. It was a bad look in 1997 as well, mind.
Of course it's not impossible, but why this article exists based on two lines of dialogue in a trailer when it's a general issue with Barret that has existed since 1997 is beyond me.
He even talks about this in the article. We'll see what the final game is like but I feel that this article could have existed 10 years ago.
As soon as I heard Barret in the trailer I felt instant doom. Really sad the direction they are going.
Final Fantasy is a series who reprisentation of black people is... lacking to say the least.
And two of its most prominent black dudes is, a guy who speaks in jive and acts like mr t. And a guy who's a bit more normal but he's a generic afro and him and his son have chickens in their hair frequently. This is ontop of the developer being japaense. Its pretty clear that barret's design was based on a very limited understanding and expusure to black people. And a lot of folks could hand wave that off in 97, but its 2019, and if he still sounds like jive talking Mr.T that's a fucking problem
Mr. T is an articulate, if gruff, icon. There is very little of him in Barrett.
Barrett is a racist stereotype reminiscent of minstrel shows. It's awful.
Barrett is a racist stereotype reminiscent of minstrel shows. It's awful.
User Banned (1 Day): Vilifying media outlet
I have to say that Kotaku has mastered its faux outrage and click bait = success far better than their time honored talk out of their ass days.
Bro the video ain't a figment of Kotaku's imagination let's not get carried away here
Oh no, no, no, no.... don't do that. Poor form dude.
You win post of the day for me. Well said. I won't say anything else because I'll just put my foot in my mouth.
Mr. T vibe is tired and nobody has talked like that since the 80's. It's not common or unique anymore. Mr. T isnt a racist caricature, but to limit one of the few black characters to a dated stereotype is concerning to some fans.
Thinking of this brings a smile to my face.
I thought his voice sounded great. I honestly cant say anything else since there is little to go on
I could imagine Barrett with a working-class London accent. That would be pretty cool.
I actually liked the comparison to the church pastor in the twitter post that keeps getting spread. It was about as hammy as I would expect it to be without being a direct Mr. T drag-n-drop.
Sounds like some 70s-80s blackploitation bs, I fully expect him to start saying jive Turkey and all types of racist stereotype bs foh square
I disagree, at least from the two lines of dialogue we've heard so far. "I'm here to take the load off your shoulders" and "that's easy enough".
Like I said earlier, having an article like this because of two lines of dialogue in a trailer seems misplaced when the issues stated run as deep as the character design itself.
Maybe this is down to my history with comics, but Barrett's manner of speaking never bothered me in FF7, even as an adult. I remember back in the '90s, a lot of comics (X-Men in particular) would depict accent through stylized text.
They'd do it for Moira and Banshee's Scottish accents, Rogue's southern accent, Gambit's weird cajun one-liners etc. And I appreciated they did it, because it allowed me to "hear" those voices in my head. It was the same with Barrett. I never felt he was a lesser human being, or some dumb, uneducated off-the-street person.
Barrett always seemed like someone with a tough exterior, but a soft interior. A muscle-man whose heart and mind were both in the right place. Even having watched replays of FF7 recently, on the whole I feel Barrett comes off as one of the most mature characters in that game.
They'd do it for Moira and Banshee's Scottish accents, Rogue's southern accent, Gambit's weird cajun one-liners etc. And I appreciated they did it, because it allowed me to "hear" those voices in my head. It was the same with Barrett. I never felt he was a lesser human being, or some dumb, uneducated off-the-street person.
Barrett always seemed like someone with a tough exterior, but a soft interior. A muscle-man whose heart and mind were both in the right place. Even having watched replays of FF7 recently, on the whole I feel Barrett comes off as one of the most mature characters in that game.
meh....some people he's not black enough, some people he's too stereotypically black.
Personally, i just want the nuance that comes with his emotion to the
Personally, i just want the nuance that comes with his emotion to the
plate falling and reunion with dyne and the whole corell incident
If the developer wanted him to sound like Mr T i don't see problem in that, they can make new black characters and give them different personalities as well, all I'm saying because that what Barret was like to me and many others, and i liked him that way back then, now he is the same.
I understand the concern but I'd rather hear more from the voice actor than a couple of lines. I actually think it sounds like a decent fit for him.
Barret has some depth beyond the first impression and I expect him to speak a little differently past the Avalanche parts in the first hours.
Barret has some depth beyond the first impression and I expect him to speak a little differently past the Avalanche parts in the first hours.
I hated Barret in 97 and this remake Barret isn't inspiring confidence at all.
It's an homage.
Mr.T was big in Japan.
How is it different from a Clint Eastwood gunslinger character or a DeNiro mob character?
These are iconic figures.
I love Barrett. He's a great character, but it's in spite of the translation.
From what I understand, the, eh, colorful dialogue isn't part if the Japanese dialogue.
It'd be far less problematic if, say, Dyne, a man who was from the same area as Barrett, spoke similarly. But nope. Barrett is the only one.
It isn't, his dialogue was different in the original. The "homage" was added by the localization.
Barrett didn't mimic Mr. T in the original Japanese script.
Replaying it a few years ago, Barrett was one of my favorite characters. But still, I was hoping we'd get something closer to his original Japanese iteration this time around. I don't mind localization taking some liberties to punch up a script, but the original translation was kind of (by necessity, admittedly) a hack job.
LOL. "Snoop Dog" Yeah I can't think of a good enough answer for that one.
But to be honest just suggested him because Idris is a current actor with an iconic voice. Basically anybody who will bring something unique.
It's kinda dated.
One of the things I look forward to with a (maybe?) expanded Midgar section in Remake is more character development with Barret.
Love his character and hated how 'nothing' he was in Advent Children.
Love his character and hated how 'nothing' he was in Advent Children.
everyone is 'nothing' in Advent Children. Even Cloud's character regressed to 'nothing' in Advent Children.
Im not here to tell you what to be ir not be offended by, I do hope it doesn't end up being a Transformers 2 deal.
We had since the first FF7, let alone the announcement of the remake, to being these topics of Barret's characterization to the forefront of discussion while the character was being developed for the remake.
Now that we are closer to an impending release and there is a voice reading these lines bringing the character to life, we need to be scanning the games providing detailed suggestions on how to improve his dialogue and asking for the voice actor to take another direction now.
Square listened when we complained about Noctis sounding too much like Batman in the early demo of FFXV. So I'm sure any voice acting or dialogue changes can still be changed as long it doesn't effect the overall work or portions of the game already finished in terms of animations or progression of events.
But this also raises the question:
Are remakes that decide to stay true to an existing story that was a contributor to an mid-early stereotype exempt from portraying their characters in the same way now? Or was his character never acceptable and should be avoided today progressing forward?
Similar to Bayonetta, in her case, the overabundance of the female fatale or oversexualized characters create an on-going problem that new female characters are still stuck following the same stereotype. (I'm half looking at you Tifa, literally). The characterization isn't entirely the problem, more so the overabundance of the same archetype creating the stereotype is the problem.
So should Barret break away from his original portrayal (with tweaks) or should any further adaption of his character be completely revamped to fit today's progression and views?
Now that we are closer to an impending release and there is a voice reading these lines bringing the character to life, we need to be scanning the games providing detailed suggestions on how to improve his dialogue and asking for the voice actor to take another direction now.
Square listened when we complained about Noctis sounding too much like Batman in the early demo of FFXV. So I'm sure any voice acting or dialogue changes can still be changed as long it doesn't effect the overall work or portions of the game already finished in terms of animations or progression of events.
But this also raises the question:
Are remakes that decide to stay true to an existing story that was a contributor to an mid-early stereotype exempt from portraying their characters in the same way now? Or was his character never acceptable and should be avoided today progressing forward?
Similar to Bayonetta, in her case, the overabundance of the female fatale or oversexualized characters create an on-going problem that new female characters are still stuck following the same stereotype. (I'm half looking at you Tifa, literally). The characterization isn't entirely the problem, more so the overabundance of the same archetype creating the stereotype is the problem.
So should Barret break away from his original portrayal (with tweaks) or should any further adaption of his character be completely revamped to fit today's progression and views?
The thing is, the stereotypical affectations were largely the result of the original game's localization, which is notoriously poor anyways. A localization closer to the original combined with the right voice direction can eliminate or at least soften the stereotypical nature of the original character.
I didn't like the voice in the trailer. It instantly stood out to me.
I want to see J Barret in the remake.
I want to see J Barret in the remake.
Wait. The source material is also bad about this.Squenix ruining another franchise and making it even worse than the source material?
What the hell are you talking about? The original game directly has to do with this
Cloud barely had a character for most of the game that was even his.going into depression isnt a "nothing" circumstance.
i dunno the source material there's some pretty bad lines of barretSquenix ruining another franchise and making it even worse than the source material?
Squenix ruining another franchise and making it even worse than the source material?
You're like the person that runs into McDonald's to remind everyone enjoying their Big Macs or Egg McMuffins that McDonald's is not good for you... 🤫
I think it's legitimate concern but a bit premature. The trailer was too short and featured what sounded like quick battle lines that just aren't enough to be worried yet. If the next trailer which will probably feature quite a bit has his voice being a constant stereotype then I think a backlash is deserved.
As for gun characters there is Laguna, Irvine, Yuna, Vincent, Balthier, King, Prompto, Lightning's gunblade, Cater and I'm still probably missing more.
Barret and Sazh are not the only two black characters. Final Fantasy should definitely have more representation but it should be noted that there is also Kiros who uses Katal Daggers, Raubahn who uses a sword and Gadot though he also uses a gun. Raijin I'm not sure his ethnicity but he is definitely not white so he might also count.
As for gun characters there is Laguna, Irvine, Yuna, Vincent, Balthier, King, Prompto, Lightning's gunblade, Cater and I'm still probably missing more.
For everyone thinking that this is just Kotaku reaching, it's not. Myself and three other black gamers noticed it and hated it as soon as it came on. Sure there isn't much to go on, but what is there sucks.
I just don't think this approaches bigotry when concerns of this matter are so commonly ignored, downplayed or worse mocked. While I understand the want to not push people out of conversation, have that same energy towards people who don't want the conversation to occur at all.
I don't think racism and cholesterol are even remotely equivalent.
Agreed, but adding... I dunno, racism "layers" isn't exactly an improvement?
Except in the Japanese version he doesn't talk like a blaxploitation film. So no, it's not an homage.