(08-02-2015, 07:26 PM)Nero Wrote:(08-02-2015, 05:06 PM)Graeham Wrote:(08-02-2015, 05:00 PM)Kellach Woods Wrote: you seriphyn etc.
Racist characters are interesting - especially if they have a good reason to be the way that they are. A soldier who fought against the Garlean invaders and lost his comrades during the Battle of Carteanau is very likely to distrust anyone and anything related to the Garlean Empire.
So when that soldier meets a Garlean who happens to be reasonable and morally pure...there's a good deal of room for interesting conflict in my opinion.
But it's not just about creating conflict; its about making conflict that is compelling and believable. The thing with racism and prejudice in Eorzea is that as far as the general population goes, creating a character who is racist for reasons that aren't arbitrary is rather difficult because the setting emphasizes a mingling of cultures and a certain open-mindedness that comes from being constantly exposed to different races and customs.
An Ishgardian might be racist to Au Ra. A Gridanian might be racist to Keepers and Duskwight. Eorzeans in general will be heavily prejudiced against Garleans. Eorzeans might also discriminate against Ala Mhigans, particularly Gridanians and Ul'dahns. Ala Mhigans might be particularly distasteful of Ul'dah.
When you get outside of the realm of ethnic and social conflicts--of which Eorzea does not have very many with the notable exceptions above--a character's reasons for being a racist very quickly boils down into an amalgam of Freudian excuses and anecdotes, which are often as easy to dismiss in RP as they are in real life.
I'm not against racism and conflict in RP. I am very much against those things being arbitrary, poorly defined, or difficult to justify.
As someone who is, admittedly, a little bit racist in the real world, I can assure you that most prejudices are arbitrary. Example, why do I think more favorably about Chinese immigrants than Japanese immigrants? Because the one Japanese guy I know is a jackass, and the couple Chinese people I know are super nice. I based my entire perception of those races off those few people because that's just how the human mind works. So yeah, if the first Au Ra I ever met rubbed me the wrong way, I'd subconsciously start to dislike all of them until somebody changed my mind otherwise.
