So why don't they say that rather than the responses on the original trailer thread? And how will having a White MC also mean a story that doesn't find any unique or surprising context? It doesn't make sense, that context or story isn't down to someone's Skin. It's down to the writers or world they are creating or writing in. What you are saying comes across to me as, choosing a different Mc purely on a Visual basis, will create a unique experience, which is just untrue. It might allow them to, but it's up to the writers to make it so. Not the look of the MC.
What are these basic tropes though? And if it's so predictable, what is the expected outcome to the game? And why would the changing of a species/look or skin colour change that predictability rather than having writers that just want to explore and create?
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This I can understand, but there is representation in the trailer. We know so little, but people are saying so much.
Okay, so I'm going to do my best to explain my perception on why a white male lead is perhaps best described as a "safe" or "generic" perspective for the first narrative heavy SW game since The Force Unleashed 2. It is late my time so if my points are a little scattered I apologize.
So my first point is the concept of textual and metatextual context based on a character's race and gender, and even sexual orientation if that is known to the player/viewer. You're kind of right the the context of a story isn't often only boiled down to the gender and race of a character. However, stories are made up of a series of moments. These moments and scenes don't always progress the broader narrative, but provide characterization to the people involved. How a protagonist reacts to the people and world around them can be shaded and looked through the lens of their life experiences, and that lens often involves how people treat them due to their gender, race, or sexual preference. So, in a way, their identity provides flavor to their characterization, which in turn colors the way they interact with the story as a whole.
To use a specific example, let's look at the scene in A New Hope, where Luke is accosted at the bar. Luke is sitting quietly, trying not to draw attention to himself and Ben Kenobi, when he is insulted by two criminals at the bar. The audience understands that these criminals bother him because of a few factors. Luke is young, harmless looking, and seemingly alone. The criminals try to intimidate him because he looks like easy prey to bully. Luke flounders in this scene, and that accomplishes two things. It shows how out of his element Luke is, and provides an opportunity for Ben to be cool an use his lightsaber, further demonstrating his competence and value as a mentor.
Now imagine this scene if Luke was a woman. The scene could play exactly the same but also have different interpretations. First why are the criminals antagonizing female Luke? Due to the gender change the audience might see it as perhaps a boorish attempt at flirting, or a form of sexual intimidation. It could even just be simple Misogyny. The point is the nature of the interaction is now open to a different interpretation. None of this could even be intended by the text, but as an audience presented this scenario, we will likely look at the interaction through a gendered lens. The same would be true if we changed the race of the character. There would be an element of racial tension or fear to that interaction that is not there with a white protagonist.
There is a lot more to talk about here, but I don't want to linger on one point too long. So moving on to your second point. Specifically what tropes are common with white heroes. Well, in this situation what I meant was that Star Wars, and most heroic fiction most often use variations of what is commonly referred to as "The Heroes Journey." This is sort of the basic structure for a three act story chronicling a hero's rise to greatness.
The basic, basic gist are common tropes like: A humble beginning, a call to adventure, the loss of a mentor, a dramatic failure, generally culminating in a rise and defeat of the antagonist. These tropes and story beats should sound familiar because they are in pretty much everything. What adds spice to this outline is things like characterization, and the baggage a character brings with them when they start their journey. When people say they are tired of generic white guy heroes I think what they are trying to vocalize is that they are tired of seeing the same journey from very similar perspectives. As stated above, changing a character's gender, race, or sexual orientation can provide new lenses to view this story through, and make an archetypal journey feel fresher or less derivative.
The core of this issue lies in the fact that people are expecting a sort of pain by numbers white hero's journey here. We will likely see a sort of classic SW story, with probable callbacks to Luke's journey from overwhelmed farm boy to Jedi hero. Star Wars is a massive setting, with a huge number of stories that can be told from a large number of perspectives. That we are getting one that seems so vanilla, just from what they have shown us, is a little disappointing. Now there are lots of other reasons people are disappointed, representation, being chief among them. I am just trying to better clarify why race and gender can play a role in how a story is perceived and consumed. I apologize for this wall of text, and hope I have not strayed too off topic.
