Is Barret portrayed Fairly?

Daenerys

Daenerys

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i was talking about this with someone a while ago.

Is barret portrayed fairly or is he just shown as another black stereotypes?

I think that he WAS shown as being a stereotypical black man at first - but then his character developed and we got to understand him a lot more it was obvious that he was being portrated fairly.

So what do you think?

and Please, no racially offensive comments - otherwise the report button will be my new best friend ^_^
 
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I think even the idea of talking about stereotypes is pointless.
Other than that, he's one of my favorite characters.
 
Rhea said:
I think even the idea of talking about stereotypes is pointless.
Click to expand...

Then why post?

I think Barret was fairly portrayiededded. He did come off with a very Mr. T vibe... but I think they filled out his character well enough that you didn't see him as 2D. Even in the beginning of the game he made it very clear that he cared about the planet. I can't say I ever saw him as "just some black guy".
 
I don't think he was portrayed as a complete stereotype. Sure he was shown to be really big and tough and had a foul mouth but he did really love Marlene even though she wasn't his biological daughter and he was more concerned about her than anyone else in the game. He was actually pretty sweet around her. And he was very worried about Tifa in Junon and offered to be excuted first.
 
Now if he looked like this, I'd say he was a black stereotype.

Barret.jpg
 
Interesting take on a topic, but I really don't notice he's black. I'm that way with teh tons of black people I play inner-city basetball with, or the numerous Asian friends I have had throughout my life. I know their Asian or African American, or whatever, but I don't notice it. They're just human, and so am I. Barret's another FF character similar to Cloud and Auron, and Ashe. All human, color doesn't matter and I don't even notice it; real life or video games.
 
Rydia's right about the child care thing.
If he was being stereotyped, he wouldn't have been taking care of a kid...let alone someone else's child.

Sorry, but it had to be said.
He also wouldn't have a job.

I agree with Bustamo too...
The first time I played FFVII, I didn't even realize he was black.
=\
 
Most Of Y'all Are Right For The Most Part..

Barretts Part Was Pretty Stereotypical...

At THe Same Time, His Story Did Have Its Differences..

That Made Him A Special Character, They Should Have Put More Into Him..

I Don't Rememebr Much About Him After Fighting That Other Dude With The Gun On His Arm.. IN That one-on-one battle b4 you reach the gold saucer..

still.. i used him alot... MOstly Cloud, Barret, And Switch Around With 3rd Person
 
Barret actually has a pretty deep background.
He's probably one of the more developed characters.

I believe the most underdeveloped character is Tifa.
(No pun intended.)
 
Rhea said:
Barret actually has a pretty deep background.
He's probably one of the more developed characters.

I believe the most underdeveloped character is Tifa.
(No pun intended.)
Click to expand...


LMAO Tifa is far from underdeveloped! Oh you mean storyline? then yeah she is :lol: couldnt resist...

But yeah barret is perhaps the third most developed character - cloud being firstr and Aeris being second - which is pretty amazing - Barrets an awesome example of a black person in a video game :)
 
Rhea said:
If he was being stereotyped, he wouldn't have been taking care of a kid...let alone someone else's child. He also wouldn't have a job.
Click to expand...

I think that is one of the most horrible things I've ever read. I'm suprised you didn't include "And he would've been pushing smack to babies" Holy cow, Rhea....
 
Aztec Triogal said:
I think that is one of the most horrible things I've ever read. I'm suprised you didn't include "And he would've been pushing smack to babies" Holy cow, Rhea....
Click to expand...


I'm sorry, but I watch a lot of south park.
If there's something I know a lot about, it's stereotypes.
Especially jewish ones. lol.
Which is only funny when you aren't referring to a possibly jewish me. XD

But anyway.
Pushing smack to babies is too broad.
That refers to basically any race.
 
I seem to recalll an interview where they talked about this and they said their idea for Barrett was largely based off of Mr. T. So i don't think that Square was trying to stereotype ALL black people. They just largely based it off of Mr.T.

With that being said it would not fit Barret's character at all if he was this short tempered man and all that but he spoke perfect english.
 
Hahahaha I forgot about the english speaking factor.
Though I read somewhere that the characters in FFVII were supposedly designed to be english?

Don't ask where I read that, it was so long ago. o_O
 
Well Barret character model is based on Mr.T but although he as a lot of trash talk and at the begining looks like he´s mad at everyone i have prove that he ain´t that similar to Mr.T for if you remember:

Mr.T was afraid of riding airplanes in fact he couldn´t get into one unless one of the other guys drugged him and put him to sleep!
He always said: "I ain´t getting on that plane fool!"

While Barret as no problem whatsoever getting on the airship and throwing himself of the airship when necessary:O

Barret is different than Mr. T no doubt...except for the "bad tongue" part!
 
I think the problem people had with Barret (whether spoken or not) was not that he was a common stereotype of Black people, but because it was a anachronistic one. Barret talked like he was a black man stuck in the eighties, while everyone else were speaking in current verbage. It makes the writers (or translaters) look like they had no idea about black culture beyond a few popular tv icons of yester year.
 
I didn't really think Barret was stereotypical at all, especially if you looked at Cid. He acted the same way but had a lighter skin tone. ;)

Either way I just thought Barret was annoying.
 
smh at anyone complaining. Barret WAS portrayed very fairly, just as fair as everyone else. Everyone was portrayed fairly. If not, the game wouldn't have done well, as people would have jumped on the 'racist' bandwagon. The word 'Racism' is just too easilly used today. I think the people behind the FF7 characters did a great job of not being offensive towards white people or black people. But i don't see it as black or white. To me, Barret was just the same as Cloud, but with a different personality. We just have to look past the skin colour and see the personallity, just like we'd do in real life.
 
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