Christi Junior on Nostr: 3/8 The second problem, relating to race, is however far more substantial – but ...
3/8
The second problem, relating to race, is however far more substantial – but really, I don’t think the problem is with Taion. Judged on his own merits, Taion is a fine character who has great synergy with the rest of the party. I can certainly sympathize with objections to the black party member being the Brains of the group, given both the actual state of IRL blacks, as well as the pervasive “Black Brainiac” propaganda we keep seeing in modern media. However, I’m willing to cut storytellers quite a bit of slack with how they portray *individuals* belonging to particular groups, because hell, even in real life people like Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas exist. Hyper-advanced black civilizations in the Wakanda mold can however NOT be defended, though you could argue to what extent Xenoblade 3 blacks are even comparable to IRL blacks – Taion himself is either a Blade (in which case he falls in the same category as Xenoblade 2 characters like Perun and T-elos), or he’s a Blade Eater, presumably of Ardainian origin (Mor Ardain did have some black inhabitants, and Taion is said to be a lousy cook, which is a core Ardainian trait). In other words, not your typical Bantu.
Let’s also note that Taion is no Gary Stu intended to outclass and embarrass the light-skinned characters; he might have the most Tactical Points of the 6 core party characters, but he actually has *less* TP than his fair-skinned mentor Isurd. Moreover, Taion is shown to be somewhat socially awkward, and even allowed to come across as downright unlikable at times (along with Lanz he’s the least cooperative and most unfriendly character when Noah and Mio initially try to bring the party together, but unlike Lanz he hasn’t had the time to earn any good will and sympathy from the player prior to this). Basically, he’s a good and well-rounded character who just happens to be black. And unlike with LGBTP characters, where I’d argue that any positive or even neutral representation is bad and unfortunate, I have no principled objection to black fictional characters, it’s all about how they’re written. Sure - all things being equal I’d rather Taion be White/light-skinned (the original concept art actually depicts him as a White guy with an Afro), but I find it hard to object to him as a character. As far as “representation” goes, Taion is up there with Barret as far as genuinely good and worthwhile black JRPG characters go.
What I CAN’T just go along with is the world of Xenoblade (both Xenoblade 1 and 2, given the nature of Aionios) suddenly, conspicuously becoming so much more “Diverse”. I’d estimate that previous mainline Xenoblade games had like 5% of its NPC be black or notably dark-skinned – in Xenoblade 3, the number has to be closer to 20%. It’s VERY obvious, and makes NO sense in terms of lore, given how quickly after the events of the first two games the merging of the worlds is implied to have happened. Or well, there IS one possible explanation, which I’ll go over in Chapter 7, which is pretty amusing, even if it surely isn’t what really happened.
No, we all know the ACTUAL reason behind this – ESG and the DIE agenda (DEI is just a meaningless acronym used by our enemies, DIE is an alternate acronym that perfectly sums up the end result of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity). Notably, several recent Nintendo releases that I've played (XB3, Zelda: TotK and Pikmin 4) all saw a sudden, dramatic bump to their dark-skinned representation. In Pikmin 4, I estimate the number of dark-skinned NPCs to be very close to 20%, while TotK also seemed to hover around that number – which definitely makes me suspect this is some sort of minimum threshold of “representation” you need to reach to get ESG money, or maybe avoid coordinated bad reviews from game journos. Yes, Fire Emblem: Engage had way less than 20% black playable characters – but that game also reviewed bizarrely poorly for how thoroughly excellent it is in most respects. My most compelling piece of evidence however is the Xenoblade 3 DLC campaign Future Redeemed (which is presumably not bound by ESG restrictions) suddenly and dramatically lowering the number of darkies, to the point where their share might honestly have been the LOWEST in any Xenoblade. Really makes you think.
(UPDATE: Okay, seems like I’ve been huffing some serious Schizo fumes for a while, because replaying Xenoblade 3 right now and nearing the end of Chapter 5, there’s no fucking way the game’s character roster is anything close to 20% black/dark-skinned, it’s probably barely even 10% - still a very noticeable increase from past Xenoblade games, but not nearly as bad as I made it out to be. I’m still keeping this section of the writeup though, because I find it funny and think a number of the points still ring true).
For the record, none of the black and dark-skinned NPCs are particularly objectionable, and in terms of how they’re written they really don’t push any form of racial agenda – effectively, they’re written in a very colorblind way, which makes sense given how Aionios works, but again, the sheer unreasonable, lore-breaking NUMBER of them is a problem. I mean, I never recall seeing any dark-skinned High Entia or black Gormotti characters before – though in the case of the latter, there ARE parts of Gormott we never travel to, and the Ardainians kinda treat the Gormotti like Cat Niggers anyway.
With the greatly boosted number of black characters, along with the colorblind writing, plenty of race-mixing and mixed-race couples was to be expected, and yeah, it’s definitely a thing. While not as omnipresent as in a show like Invincible, or in TV commercials, race-mixing is still very frequent, even among major characters. Eunie and Taion might never get physically intimate, but definitely get their fair share of ship teases – and the character Ghondor turns out to be a mulatto girl, and is actually the daughter of Monica. Now, the fact that Monica was only 15 (!) when she gave birth to Ghondor, and that the presumably black father is never seen, definitely makes for some pretty spicy Meme material, as does Ghondor’s hostile, resentful attitude towards her mother – though ultimately, assuming that we’re dealing with a PSA about Paying The Toll just seems like wishful thinking.
Ultimately, I find Xenoblade 3’s dramatically increased levels of Diversity to be a blemish, but not a major one, as it’s basically handled as gracefully as it could be while simultaneously conforming to Global Standards.
The second problem, relating to race, is however far more substantial – but really, I don’t think the problem is with Taion. Judged on his own merits, Taion is a fine character who has great synergy with the rest of the party. I can certainly sympathize with objections to the black party member being the Brains of the group, given both the actual state of IRL blacks, as well as the pervasive “Black Brainiac” propaganda we keep seeing in modern media. However, I’m willing to cut storytellers quite a bit of slack with how they portray *individuals* belonging to particular groups, because hell, even in real life people like Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas exist. Hyper-advanced black civilizations in the Wakanda mold can however NOT be defended, though you could argue to what extent Xenoblade 3 blacks are even comparable to IRL blacks – Taion himself is either a Blade (in which case he falls in the same category as Xenoblade 2 characters like Perun and T-elos), or he’s a Blade Eater, presumably of Ardainian origin (Mor Ardain did have some black inhabitants, and Taion is said to be a lousy cook, which is a core Ardainian trait). In other words, not your typical Bantu.
Let’s also note that Taion is no Gary Stu intended to outclass and embarrass the light-skinned characters; he might have the most Tactical Points of the 6 core party characters, but he actually has *less* TP than his fair-skinned mentor Isurd. Moreover, Taion is shown to be somewhat socially awkward, and even allowed to come across as downright unlikable at times (along with Lanz he’s the least cooperative and most unfriendly character when Noah and Mio initially try to bring the party together, but unlike Lanz he hasn’t had the time to earn any good will and sympathy from the player prior to this). Basically, he’s a good and well-rounded character who just happens to be black. And unlike with LGBTP characters, where I’d argue that any positive or even neutral representation is bad and unfortunate, I have no principled objection to black fictional characters, it’s all about how they’re written. Sure - all things being equal I’d rather Taion be White/light-skinned (the original concept art actually depicts him as a White guy with an Afro), but I find it hard to object to him as a character. As far as “representation” goes, Taion is up there with Barret as far as genuinely good and worthwhile black JRPG characters go.
What I CAN’T just go along with is the world of Xenoblade (both Xenoblade 1 and 2, given the nature of Aionios) suddenly, conspicuously becoming so much more “Diverse”. I’d estimate that previous mainline Xenoblade games had like 5% of its NPC be black or notably dark-skinned – in Xenoblade 3, the number has to be closer to 20%. It’s VERY obvious, and makes NO sense in terms of lore, given how quickly after the events of the first two games the merging of the worlds is implied to have happened. Or well, there IS one possible explanation, which I’ll go over in Chapter 7, which is pretty amusing, even if it surely isn’t what really happened.
No, we all know the ACTUAL reason behind this – ESG and the DIE agenda (DEI is just a meaningless acronym used by our enemies, DIE is an alternate acronym that perfectly sums up the end result of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity). Notably, several recent Nintendo releases that I've played (XB3, Zelda: TotK and Pikmin 4) all saw a sudden, dramatic bump to their dark-skinned representation. In Pikmin 4, I estimate the number of dark-skinned NPCs to be very close to 20%, while TotK also seemed to hover around that number – which definitely makes me suspect this is some sort of minimum threshold of “representation” you need to reach to get ESG money, or maybe avoid coordinated bad reviews from game journos. Yes, Fire Emblem: Engage had way less than 20% black playable characters – but that game also reviewed bizarrely poorly for how thoroughly excellent it is in most respects. My most compelling piece of evidence however is the Xenoblade 3 DLC campaign Future Redeemed (which is presumably not bound by ESG restrictions) suddenly and dramatically lowering the number of darkies, to the point where their share might honestly have been the LOWEST in any Xenoblade. Really makes you think.
(UPDATE: Okay, seems like I’ve been huffing some serious Schizo fumes for a while, because replaying Xenoblade 3 right now and nearing the end of Chapter 5, there’s no fucking way the game’s character roster is anything close to 20% black/dark-skinned, it’s probably barely even 10% - still a very noticeable increase from past Xenoblade games, but not nearly as bad as I made it out to be. I’m still keeping this section of the writeup though, because I find it funny and think a number of the points still ring true).
For the record, none of the black and dark-skinned NPCs are particularly objectionable, and in terms of how they’re written they really don’t push any form of racial agenda – effectively, they’re written in a very colorblind way, which makes sense given how Aionios works, but again, the sheer unreasonable, lore-breaking NUMBER of them is a problem. I mean, I never recall seeing any dark-skinned High Entia or black Gormotti characters before – though in the case of the latter, there ARE parts of Gormott we never travel to, and the Ardainians kinda treat the Gormotti like Cat Niggers anyway.
With the greatly boosted number of black characters, along with the colorblind writing, plenty of race-mixing and mixed-race couples was to be expected, and yeah, it’s definitely a thing. While not as omnipresent as in a show like Invincible, or in TV commercials, race-mixing is still very frequent, even among major characters. Eunie and Taion might never get physically intimate, but definitely get their fair share of ship teases – and the character Ghondor turns out to be a mulatto girl, and is actually the daughter of Monica. Now, the fact that Monica was only 15 (!) when she gave birth to Ghondor, and that the presumably black father is never seen, definitely makes for some pretty spicy Meme material, as does Ghondor’s hostile, resentful attitude towards her mother – though ultimately, assuming that we’re dealing with a PSA about Paying The Toll just seems like wishful thinking.
Ultimately, I find Xenoblade 3’s dramatically increased levels of Diversity to be a blemish, but not a major one, as it’s basically handled as gracefully as it could be while simultaneously conforming to Global Standards.