Alternative Title: Is Cal less interesting a character for not being a PoC or Woman or some other type of minority?
After much anticipation, the new Star Wars game is out, following closely on the heels of the latest Star Wars movie trailer, and we have now entered into the hellscape of Star Wars internet debates.
This latest incarnation is in the form of the reveal of the Jedi: Fallen Order's protagonist, Cal. Following the reveal, one of the common criticisms was that he was yet another white dude protagonist in a franchise that has seen their full share of white dudes as leading roles. The implication of this argument being that, with everything else being the same, Cal had been a black man or woman or some other kind of minority, he would have been more interesting.
I wish to explore if this holds up.
First, lets get the obvious out of the way:
THIS IS NOT REALLY ABOUT HOW WELL WRITTEN THE CHARACTER IS, BUT HOW INTERESTING HIS PREMISE: One common mischaracterization about these arguments, particularly among alt-right thinkgroups, is that traits of a characters ethnicity or gender are valued over actual quality writing. There is a discussion to be had there, and we will get to it momentarily, but one thing I wish to emphasize first and foremost is that the discussion is not about the quality of writing in Jedi: Fallen Order. We don't know how well written J:FO is because it's not out yet. All we actually know about it is that Cal is living in hiding and the story will be one where he has to come out of hiding and be a hero. That's not so much a story as it is an elevator pitch for a story. As such, we're not really judging how well written this is or even has the potential to be, we're judging it as what it truly is - a marketing pitch to us, the consumers.
As a result, we can split what this is actually about into 2 different question that seem similar, but are different
1. Is the premise of this particular story pitch more made more or less interesting depending on how the protagonist is designed in regards to their gender/ethnicity/other minority signifiers
2. Is the premise of this particular story pitch more made more or less important depending on how the protagonist is designed in regards to their gender/ethnicity/other minority signifiers
So lets begin with the story premise itself: Imagine if Obiwan had been a padawan when he went in hiding and lived amongst people instead of in the desert and when he came out of hiding, he was the hero of the story instead of the mentor of the hero. It is, from what the marketting tells us, a archtypical story where a person who feels they have to hide their identity will reveal their identity to potentially hostile forces, but (presumably) overcome this hostility and save the day. It's pretty standard stuff and provides perfectly fine opportunities for growth and drama.
So, to explore the first question: would a minority character is better served within this framework?
Well, if we were talking about an absolute vacuum where we, as the audience, have no history or connection with any minority catergory, then it's not unreasonable to say that perhaps there isn't. This is the "I don't see race" type of response where there are no greater implications from having a woman or PoC as the hero of a story. And I would agree that, in certain contexts, that can be a legitimate position to an extent. For example, in Star Wars, we're not sure that humans in the series even came from earth, so it's possible that humans in star wars are as alien as any other, they just happen to be identical to us, the audience, and it's made that way so that the story is relatable and understandable from an earth human perspective. It's not realistic, but it's clear why they'd use this as a narrative device. However, my point here is, as far as we know, black human beings were never enslaved in the Star Wars human homeworld, so we can have a black character whose depiction is, in theory, not affected by the generations of racism that have shaped the culture we live today. And I think that is good. Works like Black Panther that acknowledge and use racism in our history for it's narrative themes are good and important too, but it's also an escapist fantasy to have a universe where that horrid shit just didn't happen.
However, even if the star wars universe exists in a vacuum (in theory. In practice, I know it's more complicated), we, the real life people, do not, and when we create a window into the SW universe, our values still influence the story we see. Meaning, if Star Wars truly didn't see race, and our viewing of it was true to that, we should have an equal number of black protagonists as we do white. We don't. So, back to the premise of the story, we are shown that stormtroopers are authority figures who will kill the protagonist if given justification. The premise is fundamentally about oppression, which is a universal concept. Everyone has felt oppressed at some point and a white man can relate to living in a society where he is distrustful of authorities as well as anyone. However, no one could reasonably argue that the average black man will relate to that particular theme more viscerally than the average white man.
And if that's true, would it be more reasonable to have a black protagonist take this role than a white man? Because even though Black people in star wars have never been canonically oppressed, black people in the real world have, and therefore a black protagonist would be an arguably greater representation of that oppression. That said, just to be clear, I am writing this from the assumption that the audience is not racist or is atleast vaguely aware that racial bias exists and would account for it. Because, of course, a black protagonists oppression will not be relatable to someone who has difficulty viewing black people as relatable human beings at all compared to a white protagonists.
I also want to be clear that I used black people as a main example for how a minority protagonist could have more narrative power just so I could work with some specificity, but other representational groups are obviously valid too. In fact, I would argue the theme of hiding your true self, but then being 'transformed' in the eyes of society through the course of a story could be best represented by a gay or transgender protagonist, who (unlike black people) can hide the identity that society seeks to oppress more easily, but have to reveal their true selves in order to self actualize in the story.
The second question is: Would having a minority character in the premise of this be more important if it had a non-white guy protagonist.
So, the previous second was about whether it had an affect on the interesting aspects of the story, this is about whether that makes it important. I personally think the answer to this one is a resounding yes, but I feel it's worth acknowledging in it's own section just because we tend to get bogged down in sheer details of what makes a story more effective.
My point is this: The consensus that the reveal of Jedi: Fallen Order is somewhat underwhelming from the thread. It's not that people think it's bad, it's just that it doesn't show us too much of stuff we haven't seen before. As a consumer, this is okay. Assuming Respawn made a good game, things will get more interesting as they reveal gameplay and as we learn more story details than the barebones of a premise we got for now. But at the moment, it's "Okay, another star wars game, cool"
Now imagine the response if, even if everything else was the same, the game had been revealed staring a black protagonist. For one, a big portion of Era would have been more receptive to it while a good portion of the audience in...other places would have been significantly less. Why? Well, because black people and people who care about representation want to see black people in starring roles more and the people on the opposite end also feel representation is important and feel threatened by it. That's why there is always such a big response from them when minorities get roles, but a "Yeah, whatever" response when it's another white guy, because then the status quo isn't being threatened. No one ever celebrates more white guy representation, not even the alt right. They just hate it when it's otherwise.
It's tempting to criticize this approach because it seems like political agenda are being pushed over getting an actually good art from the game developers. I want to emphasize that the game would ultimately live and die by how good it was on release. We actually know this to be true by how people have had a lackluster reaction to Finn in the ST, since he was marketed as being the next Jedi protagonist before TFA awakens came out and it was revealed it was Rey. It's not that people going to give Finn a pass if they don't actually like him, but more people wanted to like him. That's because, in actuality, it's more about people expressing what they want out of their art. The anticipation and desire for J: FO to be good would be greater and people would be more excited for it. That would be good for both the developers, who want their games to sell and for the audience, who want to see art that reflects their values.
So that's my take on it. And apologies in advance to the moderation team.
After much anticipation, the new Star Wars game is out, following closely on the heels of the latest Star Wars movie trailer, and we have now entered into the hellscape of Star Wars internet debates.
This latest incarnation is in the form of the reveal of the Jedi: Fallen Order's protagonist, Cal. Following the reveal, one of the common criticisms was that he was yet another white dude protagonist in a franchise that has seen their full share of white dudes as leading roles. The implication of this argument being that, with everything else being the same, Cal had been a black man or woman or some other kind of minority, he would have been more interesting.
I wish to explore if this holds up.
First, lets get the obvious out of the way:
THIS IS NOT REALLY ABOUT HOW WELL WRITTEN THE CHARACTER IS, BUT HOW INTERESTING HIS PREMISE: One common mischaracterization about these arguments, particularly among alt-right thinkgroups, is that traits of a characters ethnicity or gender are valued over actual quality writing. There is a discussion to be had there, and we will get to it momentarily, but one thing I wish to emphasize first and foremost is that the discussion is not about the quality of writing in Jedi: Fallen Order. We don't know how well written J:FO is because it's not out yet. All we actually know about it is that Cal is living in hiding and the story will be one where he has to come out of hiding and be a hero. That's not so much a story as it is an elevator pitch for a story. As such, we're not really judging how well written this is or even has the potential to be, we're judging it as what it truly is - a marketing pitch to us, the consumers.
As a result, we can split what this is actually about into 2 different question that seem similar, but are different
1. Is the premise of this particular story pitch more made more or less interesting depending on how the protagonist is designed in regards to their gender/ethnicity/other minority signifiers
2. Is the premise of this particular story pitch more made more or less important depending on how the protagonist is designed in regards to their gender/ethnicity/other minority signifiers
So lets begin with the story premise itself: Imagine if Obiwan had been a padawan when he went in hiding and lived amongst people instead of in the desert and when he came out of hiding, he was the hero of the story instead of the mentor of the hero. It is, from what the marketting tells us, a archtypical story where a person who feels they have to hide their identity will reveal their identity to potentially hostile forces, but (presumably) overcome this hostility and save the day. It's pretty standard stuff and provides perfectly fine opportunities for growth and drama.
So, to explore the first question: would a minority character is better served within this framework?
Well, if we were talking about an absolute vacuum where we, as the audience, have no history or connection with any minority catergory, then it's not unreasonable to say that perhaps there isn't. This is the "I don't see race" type of response where there are no greater implications from having a woman or PoC as the hero of a story. And I would agree that, in certain contexts, that can be a legitimate position to an extent. For example, in Star Wars, we're not sure that humans in the series even came from earth, so it's possible that humans in star wars are as alien as any other, they just happen to be identical to us, the audience, and it's made that way so that the story is relatable and understandable from an earth human perspective. It's not realistic, but it's clear why they'd use this as a narrative device. However, my point here is, as far as we know, black human beings were never enslaved in the Star Wars human homeworld, so we can have a black character whose depiction is, in theory, not affected by the generations of racism that have shaped the culture we live today. And I think that is good. Works like Black Panther that acknowledge and use racism in our history for it's narrative themes are good and important too, but it's also an escapist fantasy to have a universe where that horrid shit just didn't happen.
However, even if the star wars universe exists in a vacuum (in theory. In practice, I know it's more complicated), we, the real life people, do not, and when we create a window into the SW universe, our values still influence the story we see. Meaning, if Star Wars truly didn't see race, and our viewing of it was true to that, we should have an equal number of black protagonists as we do white. We don't. So, back to the premise of the story, we are shown that stormtroopers are authority figures who will kill the protagonist if given justification. The premise is fundamentally about oppression, which is a universal concept. Everyone has felt oppressed at some point and a white man can relate to living in a society where he is distrustful of authorities as well as anyone. However, no one could reasonably argue that the average black man will relate to that particular theme more viscerally than the average white man.
And if that's true, would it be more reasonable to have a black protagonist take this role than a white man? Because even though Black people in star wars have never been canonically oppressed, black people in the real world have, and therefore a black protagonist would be an arguably greater representation of that oppression. That said, just to be clear, I am writing this from the assumption that the audience is not racist or is atleast vaguely aware that racial bias exists and would account for it. Because, of course, a black protagonists oppression will not be relatable to someone who has difficulty viewing black people as relatable human beings at all compared to a white protagonists.
I also want to be clear that I used black people as a main example for how a minority protagonist could have more narrative power just so I could work with some specificity, but other representational groups are obviously valid too. In fact, I would argue the theme of hiding your true self, but then being 'transformed' in the eyes of society through the course of a story could be best represented by a gay or transgender protagonist, who (unlike black people) can hide the identity that society seeks to oppress more easily, but have to reveal their true selves in order to self actualize in the story.
The second question is: Would having a minority character in the premise of this be more important if it had a non-white guy protagonist.
So, the previous second was about whether it had an affect on the interesting aspects of the story, this is about whether that makes it important. I personally think the answer to this one is a resounding yes, but I feel it's worth acknowledging in it's own section just because we tend to get bogged down in sheer details of what makes a story more effective.
My point is this: The consensus that the reveal of Jedi: Fallen Order is somewhat underwhelming from the thread. It's not that people think it's bad, it's just that it doesn't show us too much of stuff we haven't seen before. As a consumer, this is okay. Assuming Respawn made a good game, things will get more interesting as they reveal gameplay and as we learn more story details than the barebones of a premise we got for now. But at the moment, it's "Okay, another star wars game, cool"
Now imagine the response if, even if everything else was the same, the game had been revealed staring a black protagonist. For one, a big portion of Era would have been more receptive to it while a good portion of the audience in...other places would have been significantly less. Why? Well, because black people and people who care about representation want to see black people in starring roles more and the people on the opposite end also feel representation is important and feel threatened by it. That's why there is always such a big response from them when minorities get roles, but a "Yeah, whatever" response when it's another white guy, because then the status quo isn't being threatened. No one ever celebrates more white guy representation, not even the alt right. They just hate it when it's otherwise.
It's tempting to criticize this approach because it seems like political agenda are being pushed over getting an actually good art from the game developers. I want to emphasize that the game would ultimately live and die by how good it was on release. We actually know this to be true by how people have had a lackluster reaction to Finn in the ST, since he was marketed as being the next Jedi protagonist before TFA awakens came out and it was revealed it was Rey. It's not that people going to give Finn a pass if they don't actually like him, but more people wanted to like him. That's because, in actuality, it's more about people expressing what they want out of their art. The anticipation and desire for J: FO to be good would be greater and people would be more excited for it. That would be good for both the developers, who want their games to sell and for the audience, who want to see art that reflects their values.
So that's my take on it. And apologies in advance to the moderation team.
