If Cloud was black..

[Dee]

Honey, I wasn't spamming; I was being seri0s. Using African American stereotypes, yes, but those were legitimate observations that tend to be quite true. Oh, he might also be very loud. Black people can be loud; especially black women. Barrett's loud, isn't he?

 

[Masamune]

I think we'll be going around in circles, Android. Barret isn't going to look like Mr.T because they're both black, that's their basic ethnicity. His hairstyle, beard, and general demeanour are evocative of B. A. Baracus.


This is the usual pic used to compare Squall & Gackt - http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/5504/lasquackt02bs1.jpg
I take it you were talking about something else though. Btw, who's the other character you mentioned? Not Genesis?

 

[Max Payne]

Jesus Christ Gackt looks like a huge faggot in those pictures.

Japanese women have weird taste in how they want to see their men.

 

[Masamune]

You can say that again, Dacon.

Don't forget the Wapanese either.

 

[ForceStealer]

Well if you take away their black skin color, what's left? Because there is seriously not much between Barret and Mr. T in terms of appearance. There's plenty of other large, buff and angry characters in media. Mr. T doesn't have a patent on it XD. What about Arnold Schwarzenegger? He's buff, has a crew cut, and if you give him a good beard, like in Predator, there you go

Exactly! If Barret were white but otherwise looked and acted EXACTLY the same, would you make the comparison, Masamune? I'm willing to bet a large sum of money you wouldn't, so how much could his hair and personality really be contributing to the similarity?

And I guess you meant only central character, but Barret is not the only black person in FF7.

 

[Max Payne]

You can say that again, Dacon.

Don't forget the Wapanese either.

I have no idea why that double posted.

 

[Makoeyes987]

@Dee

If that's what you think is true, then I'd rather you were spamming, because that's just fucking stupid.

@Masamune

Dude, Barret's hair is a crew cut! Mr. T has some ugly, bizarre mohawk. Barret has more hair than him. Barret's got a fuller beard too! And then that just leaves them being abrasive and angry, and that's about it. Too few for a similarity to me. Stop takin' the crazy pillz!

And yeah, that pic doesn't really evoke much of a similarity between Gackt and Squall. They look nothing at all alike in the face. And their outfits are only vaguely similar. The only real similarity you'll find between them is Gackt while he was in Malice Mizer, doing the Illuminati video. THAT makes me think of Squall. Not...that.

Forcestealer is again, echoing my sentiments.

 

[Masamune]

Exactly! If Barret were white but otherwise looked and acted EXACTLY the same, would you make the comparison, Masamune? I'm willing to bet a large sum of money you wouldn't, so how much could his hair and personality really be contributing to the similarity?

But Barret isn't white is he?

 

[ForceStealer]

But you said you could safely say the comparison isn't based on race. I say that it is.

 

[Masamune]

I'm not going to compare two characters based entirely on their skin tone. I never said anything to the contrary. That's the equivalent of saying all black men look the same.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I think Forcestealer is trying to say, is that the reason you are tying their loose similarities together is because they are black. Not that because they are black, they look similar, but because their color is the same, you seem to be looking for connections between them. If they weren't black, and were white guys, or hispanic, or one was black, and the other was not, then you'd never even see much of a comparison in the first place.

 

[ForceStealer]

Yeah, thanks Mako, lol.

But as far as personality goes, was Mr. T ever portrayed to actually be a softy underneath it all? I'm not an A-Team expert, but I saw the show and never got that impression, and it's a fairly large part of Barret's character.

 

[Masamune]

I'm not looking for anything. I guess the next time someone says I look like Zac Efron, I should ask 'But if I wasn't white, would you still think I look like him?' Sometimes race involves similarity, sometimes it doesn't.

If Barret wasn't black, would people compare him to Mr.T? I doubt it. His ethnicity is where it starts, but not where it ends. I guess that is the point I want to end on.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Well fair enough, but I still think you're crazy

 

[wayfarer]

well first off, black emos don't exist so AC gets thrown in the can.

 

[Ⓐaron]

First off I know at least one black emo, and secondly anyone who'd gone through what Cloud went through in FFVII would be 'emo' about it.

 

[Username]

is this black cloud debate still going on? lol. Cloud would have been wicked if he was black, prob better.

 

[wayfarer]

First off I know at least one black emo, and secondly anyone who'd gone through what Cloud went through in FFVII would be 'emo' about it.

Black emos are as rare as non-confusing episodes of LOST.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Lost episodes are only confusing if you watch them out of sequence, i'maho Now that doesn't mean you'll know everything that's going on until you watch the entire series a second time, but I haven't had any problems keeping track of most of what's going on without outside help

And just because something's rare doesn't mean it can't be portrayed in a work of art

 

[Username]

i watch LOST.

 

[Ravynne Nevyrmore]

Okay I'm not reading 7 pages of this thread because tbh it doesn't interest me that much. So forgive me if this has already been said.

But if Cloud had been black he probably would have made an even bigger impact because that would have been pretty unconventional for a Squaresoft RPG hero. Assuming the Japanese didn't just disregard him because he's black.

HOWEVER, if he was black, Square most definitely would have fucked up his personality "because he's black," so it's kind of a self-defeating issue. Case in point: Barret. I guarantee you that if Square had made Cloud black he'd be basically the same character as Barret and throw around the word "yo" every five lines, minimum. Not because black people do that, but because Square thinks black people do that.

And most importantly:

Spoiler

:hugeblackmonster:

 

[Makoeyes987]

Uh oh, here we go with the "Barret is a stereotype" again.

SE doesn't think that shit. Look at Kiros from FFVIII. Xehanort from KH, Reddas from FFXII, General Leo from FFVI and Lani from FFIX. Give me a break. SE is the last company you can call racist or racially insensitive. Just because Barret is urban, kicks ass and is aggressive, doesn't mean he's a stereotype. There ARE urban black people, and that doesn't make them any less intelligent or real. Just because a black character is aggressive and urban doesn't automatically make him a stereotype. There's more to it than that. It has to be the sum total of his character. Making an asian character intelligent, or a Jewish person rich in a work of media isn't an automatic racial no-no. Likewise making an urban black character isn't one either.

 

[ForceStealer]

Thank you Mako. I was disappointed at first to see you were participating and keeping this inane discussion bumped, but I wholeheartedly agree with you. I wouldn't usually make special mention of that but I happen to like Barret. I've liked Barret ever since I first played FF7 and I'm sick of people slamming him.

 

[Max Payne]

I happen to agree mako.

 

[Valerious]

LOL! I think if cloud is black it would totally be a whole new thing.. absolutely different setting!

anyway cloud is not even yellow, brown, white, or black..
they're jus a race that can onli be seen in the japanese anime world -.-'