@bananasfoster said:

I can empathize with people feeling as though they are misrepresented a lot of times. And those people, like yourself, are free to vocalize that. But that doesn't mean everyone should feel some ingrained need to be offended. We're not a hive mind. Individual people can have individual thoughts and it doesn't mean we lack dignity. We simply just might not take some things that seriously.

I feel like your entire premise lives and dies on itself. You take issue with how westerners are portrayed in Japanese entertainment while at the same time admit that most westerners project themselves unto the "Japanese" main characters because they don't "get it". So your issue instantly becomes a non-issue because it's a matter of individual perspective (or the viewer defines the art). Also, quite frankly, who cares what Japan theoretically thinks of the west? My life doesn't change one bit either way.

If you're asking my permission to dress up in women's clothing you have my blessing.

No, it wouldn't. I'm not oversensitive though.

Why can't he be angry? His wife is dead and he got his arm shot off. shall we talk about the angry white guy with a gun? Dyne? No? Okay.

I don't think Barrett is dumb. He's just not educated or a technophile. I guess that's racist though; having a working-class schlub in the game who happens to be black.

He likes basketball? Wow, super offensive...... he likes rap too!? I've never met a black person who likes rap and basketball.... Jesus Christ... if something is statistically likely I think you can stop calling it a stereotype.

What's funny is if they made him black and them made him act and sound like a average white guy there'd be outrage because they're oppressing black culture or some shit.

@thecitizenkaneofthings: That doesn't mean people's opinion should be discredited thought.

Ken's eyes are canonically brown (though for some reason they are blue in IV, some people think this is just an oversight). I don't think any of "stupidity, crassness, laziness, and obnoxious" apply to him either. He is just Ryu but with more flair, and the fact that Ryu obviously regards him as a peer means that he's certainly not lazy or crass...

Now you're not wrong that there is a Japanese stereotype of white (American) people that many western people don't really recognize/acknowledge, but you are wrong to pretend that every white character in Japanese-developed games embraces this stereotype. Further, I very much disagree that laughing at oneself (or a caricature of oneself) means one has no dignity. Exaggeration via stereotype (essentially, analogy) is pretty much a universal comic device, it *can* be offensive and it *can* cross the line (these are two separate things, BTW) but it doesn't make all instances invalid or "wrong".

Speedy Gonzalez eh? Why is Speedy Gonzalez offensive? I don't know if you come from a Mexican background, but Speedy Gonzales was popular when I was a kid and I remember there being an outcry from Latin communities when it was initially shelved for POSSIBLYbeing racially insensitive.

I'm not directing this to you, but there seems to be a lot of "I'm being offended on your behalf" going on in this thread. Is Barrett stereotypically black? I don't know because I'm not in a position to make that assessment. Didn't Deus Ex: Human Revolution run into this exact situation with Letitia? People were criticizing the game for her characterization, but people literally had to step forward and say, "Hi, I'm black and I know people exactly like Letitia. She's fine. Please stop being offended on my behalf."

If you guys want an non-American point of view about Barrett, I always thought he was more of an American stereotype in general and not a stereotype about black people in general.

I don't think Ken, Guile and Alex read stupid, crass or lazy. I would agree with you if you cited Rufus, as he's particularly cringe worthy but really I think that's just how they portray "joke" characters (with the exception of Rufus who is kinda gross and the fat guy [i think his name is Bob] in Tekken). Dan and Blanka also behave like that and they're not American. Paul is not the only American character in Tekken, there are other American character's who don't act that way. Also there are other joke character's in Tekken that do act that way who aren't American. You're right about them making all Americans blonde haired and blue eyed, but i think that's just a misconception about Americans that was dying out about 10 years ago. I think Japan is changing in that respect.

Also the notion that being white and "privileged" leads to less understanding of offense is crazy. Also saying that being annoyed with people being offended is a right wing reaction is also nuts. If anything it's a liberal reaction. Freedom to say what you want is a Liberal premise. Being a minority does not entitle you to have special power over what people say because you're offended.

I think there are legitimate grounds for offense. There are somethings you say out loud that you should be socially condemned for. I also think a lot of people take offense too far and jump at the chance to scream about being offended on the internet or elsewhere. That's what annoys me.

To the OP's point, there's a difference between Barrett, a gruff guy, dressing in drag and a transgendered person dressing to whatever gender they associate with. With Barrett the lady's clothing is funny because it's contrary to his personality and demeanor. If you were laughing at a transgendered person for dressing up cross gender then I can get how that would offend people. That's not what's going on here. People shouldn't paint everything with the same brush.

This really. Saying we should be offended at "x" thing or we have no dignity is uh... weird.

To me the distinction is that a character is a construct created by the author. If the inspiration for someone's manner of speech was clearly a stereotype that doesn't feel earned or located in the world in any tangible way then there's a problem for me. If Barret came from a place where his speech was commonplace or even existed it would be one thing. But he doesn't and so he stands out. To me it doesn't sound natural. I know plenty of people who will drop some stereotypical Italianisms, but I've never met a person who sounds like Enzo in Bayonetta in real life. Sure he's an exaggerated caricature, but considering I've seen years of caricatures that look like him it would be nice to see something else.

I dunno, as someone who's black-derivative as I was over-the-moon happy at how Barrett was portrayed. He's a bad ass mother who don't take no crap from nobody. And this train we on don't make no stops!@bananasfoster do you find all gangster style depictions racist? Like I said Barrett appealed to me as someone I knew from my life. The writing isn't great but it gets the point across. He's a thug. Why is that wrong? What would be super racist is if they turned him into another educated white-talking black person rather than having him sound like someone from the ghetto, which is his character. Like have you ever heard Ghost Face Killah speak? Why is it wrong to model Barrett on him? Most of the black characters we get are very white culture friendly in my opinion.

As to Cloud stuff... huh?

That scene is great.

1) it shows how vapid and surface-level men like Don Corneo are

2) it shows the insecurity tough guys have (Cloud being embarrassed)

3) gives you a good sense of how fabric choice and accessories are important, if you want to look good ;)

4) the idea that cross-dressing can only be approved by/for trans people IS SUPER FUCKING OFFENSIVE. Many, many, many people who do not identify as trans gender cross-dress for a variety of reasons. If you think *you* get to say what is right and wrong, well, you know where you can go (to hell).

5) What, should we ban Mrs. Doubtfire too?

6) Have you ever heard of Drag Queens? RuPaul? Men who dress up like women? They entertain and dance and sing and want to make you laugh and have a good time? Cloud in this game is in drag, effectively. Trans =/ Drag Queens, if that's not known to you (yes, there are exceptions).

@JusticeJanitor

As a cis person you don't get to decide what's offensive to a trans person. The oppressor doesn't get to decide things for the oppressed.

@thecitizenkaneofthings said:

This has nothing to do with what anyone here has said, and it just comes across like you're trying to escalate this into something it never was. People take issue with what others deem to be offensive all the time, but no one is going as far as 'deciding' what others can or cannot be offended by. Trivializing what someone else feels is offensive is one thing, and it can go too far, but anyone brazen enough to think they can tell someone they don't get to decide for themselves what is offensive or not will probably have their posts deleted pretty quickly. Mods here are good about that stuff.

@thecitizenkaneofthings: There's a difference between deciding something for someone else and people saying how they feel about something. Blocking people out of a conversation entirely instead of helping them to understand an other point of view does way more harm than good.

I mean, I'm admittedly uneducated on the subject and I'm not seeing the whole picture and I wish to know more about it be part of the conversion and help. If I say/do/think something dumb, point me in the right direction instead of antagonizing me. That doesn't make me want to help at all.

I say they keep it as is and ignore the tumblr crowd altogether.

@thecitizenkaneofthings: Frankly you're making judgements and labeling people in this thread as CIS when you don't know who in this thread is white or black or transgender

Besides, discussing issues like this is how people learn and exchange ideas with one another. To say that this issue can't be discussed because those discussing it aren't "the right kind of people" goes against the idea of discourse

@laserbolts: Everyone who thinks anything is sexist or racist has a tumblr? That's a crazy coincidence ...

I find it interesting that Barret's dialogue could possibly be considered a stereotype of black men in comparison to other men who swear and are angry. I wonder about the relation between this and Cajuns. Surely, Gambit is not a racist stereotype for changing sides, frequently thus not being completely trustworthy. More directly, Cid Highwind swears even more than Barret, is abusive towards his wife, and smokes. I am curious about whether or not he is a racist stereotype for Caucasian American males.

In my view, Barret and Cid are angry folks with detailed backstories and Cid has less of a reason to express anger towards his wife than Barret does towards human kind.

As far as cross-dressing, I recall that the dialogue about Cloud in an outfit for women was all positive (the shop owner even expressed his interest in changing his business to accommodate cross-dressers) until Don Corneo's gang sees that he is a man there to take back Tifa.

I've just been waiting for logic to join this cluster fuck since the topic was created. Thank's #168-177. Basic answer to the topic's question is because it was 1997 and even IF every one of these terms existed then, no one cared.

To new players, you were in a world that started out at a low point of social status. You're at the ground level of Midgar, times are tough and people are just trying to get by. A woman in this locale owns and runs a bar, is strong in hand to hand combat and limit break features a slot machine wheel for her limit break. Probably a struggle, probably had to deal with rowdy customers and harassment, and depending on where you're from japan, canada, and the US can have bar arcade games.

As far as bringing race into it [Barret], okay. A large black man who lost a forearm on the job and replaced it with a receptive prosthetic that, depending on how much you played, accepts more than guns is raising a small adopted white girl in this environment. Pick something, angry to have this responsibility despite his love for her, angry that he's doing the best he can but it's the best in this shitty environment for her to grow up in ? Or he is just the stereotypical angry black man that is pissed he was never payed what he was worth and still was grievously injured on the job and the company got him the basic surgery. Hm, why not lead an uprising.

Shit hits the fan, people get poor and we resort to the basic things that make us happy. A bordello, a bar, gambling, or whatever you can do to pass the time, create happiness for yourself, or survive when you basically live either on a dirt floor or right above one. This environment is represented clearly, so is the hardship, so is the the characters trying to get by. Remember upon escape not only do you find yourself in a resort area but shortly after the Golden Saucer.

Cloud wears makeup and a dress and he's not comfortable with it. He doesn't like it, it's not at all what he's used to and most of the time whatever name you want to call her/the obvious love interest at this point in the game/the flower girl pokes fun at you the entire time because it's evident. Your goal is evident at this point that Don Corneo is a scumbag and has to be stopped, and at this point I mean because it is the other characters trying to make life better in the shit hole they currently live.

There is more than enough story in this game to explore versus trying do a thesis on the angry black man topic of Barret, focusing on an age old gimmick along the lines of bosom buddies, or basically making it painfully clear you should just stay clear from the game's remake if you're already harboring these issues.

Id love responses, but honestly, from the start I think this topic is dumb. We're talking about a very story driven game that is long, really long when you consider the optional characters. Also find it weird people target Barret considering Yuffie's in game story. But I won't lie, I do feel a lot of this is just bait to stir shit up.

@thecitizenkaneofthings said:

Nobody gets to decide what anybodyelse feels about a situation. I'll admit I haven't read every comment, but so far the only person I've seen try to do otherwise is you.

Do race/gender identity/sexual orientation/etc. hugely influence people opinions on issues like this? Absolutely! But if a person doesn't understand why something is considered offensive, should they simply pretend otherwise and reiterate what members of the oppressed group say even though they don't agree with or understand it? Nope!

I haven't played FFVII, but given the quotes posted and scenarios described in here, it does sound like there are some parts I'd find racist and transphobic. However, if others found those parts acceptable, my rebuttal would not be to assume they're all cis white people who don't get it and dismiss their opinion based on that, but to try and explain why I disagree. If we don't get into the nitty gritty of what the problem with something is, people will just repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

I'm a progressive, there's a bunch of offensive stuff in games, but when people try to prove their point by dismissing everyone who disagrees with them as being blinded by privilege rather than engaging in a discussion, I can't help but roll my eyes.

Ah okay. So there's an authorial intent factor that plays into the problem? Because the game doesn't explain why he talks the way he does, you're left with the presumption that it was inspired by a stereotype?

Getting into arguing over what the author meant and what they were specifically drawing from becomes a bit of a empty dance without knowing. I dunno if there's some FF7 behind-the-scenes book or something that gets into it, but without knowing, there isn't much either of us can say about their inspiration. At least not with the confidence in its veracity for the discussion to be all that meaningful. So I guess... do you actually know what specifically went into Barrett's construction?

Midgar strikes me as a large and modern city; the like where you'd find all sorts of people. Even if we don't see anyone else who talks like him, the sort of modern place Midgar seems to be makes it so I can accept that Barrett talks a way that's different from the other characters we come across. I'm personally alright with leaving up in the air exactly the path that led to him talking the way he does. Maybe there's a specific area he came across and picked it up from, maybe it's something he developed over his travels, maybe it's just a way he felt like talking since he was young. When it comes to in-world reasons for his speech, the world itself doesn't feel so at odds with the result, unlike the way a cliché Canadian accent might if it were thrown into Game of Thrones. But that's just me, and obviously without considering authorial intent at all.

As for wanting to see something else, that's where things can get a little tricky. First of all, being tired of seeing it doesn't inherently mean it offends you. Doesn't mean you can't be tired and offended, but if it comes down to you just wanting some variety, I don't think that's the same as someone thinking the character is completely offensive. Second, variety is absolutely a good thing! Variety across the medium is great for everyone.

When it comes to that variety, I don't think Barrett is that much a part of the problem, precisely because he's more than the way he talks. Whatever preconceptions might come with the way he talks or with his angry demeanour are challenged as the story explores more of his character. I think the contrast there conveys the senselessness of those preconceptions and the greater value of his deeper qualities, whether that was intentional or accidental.

Arbitrarily detaching his cursey and attitudey speech in particular from every other part of his character is really a disservice to his character. There are things that characterization can do that in turn affects associated character design, and trying to put that design in a vacuum can do more harm than good for the analysis.

This isn't directed at you, but it would be real helpful if someone would point out the specific problematic elements of his speech, beyond "he sounds like a stereotypical angry black guy." What constitutes sounding like a "stereotypical angry black guy"?

People have a problem with Barret? Alright, so I'm not that surprised, but I'm half-black, if that matters, and I've always thought that he was awesome. Cid swears just as much as him. The ebonics? Hell, I enjoyed him having that unique flair to his speech. Plus, yeah, he's been through some shit and has a reason to be as angry as he is. Advent Children keeps everything "offensive" about Barret intact, so that gives me some hope that the remake won't mess with his characterization too much.

The cross-dressing thing I legit do not understand. You're dressing up in a disguise to rescue a dear friend from some evil mobster, or whatever Don Corneo was. It's been awhile, but I don't recall there being anything demeaning about the sequence aside from Cloud just generally not wanting to dress up like a lady, which is a fair way for a man to feel.

@theht: Quick quetion, how blatant or overt would a character's out of place accent have to be for you to see that as a stereotype or a problem in some form? It sounds like as long as the character is from a sufficiently large place and has some decent character development you don't see a problem with them having some stereotypical aspects about them.

To me Barret can be a really cool character and have some aspects about him that upset me. Just like I think Lulu is a great character, but her belt dress is a travesty against fashion. Her dress is one of the most out of place and over-designed pieces of clothing I've ever seen on an JRPG character (and that's saying something). Once I noticed it I had a hard time taking her character seriously because it was so absurd and out of place. I still really like Lulu and think she is a great character with a lot of depth, but how she's dressed still irks me. That is personally my main issue, but like I've already said even if I interpreted Barret as a reductive stereotype (I think he is a bit more complex than that as I've already mentioned) I'm not the person who would be the target. I'm not the person who would be the butt of the joke, so it doesn't really offend me on a deeply personal level.

Plenty of people in this thread have already said that Barret's dialog doesn't offend them and if so, great. I have also heard other people make the exact opposite claim so my interpretation of the character takes in both perspectives.

Everyone forgets Barret has a gun arm because he was saving his friends life.

@thatpinguino: Honest question, between this discussion and what Austin wrote about the witcher, how would you like PoC to be represented in videogames? Keeping in mind that both games come from cultures that have little to no inherit acquaintance with african american, or black, culture.

I get the feeling that at some point you just can't win...

Don't include a certain culture and people will feel not represented.

Include them only superficially and there will be complaints about tokenism.

Include their culture as well and you're propagating stereotypes.

Am I wrong? And no, that's not a rhetorical question... I honestly don't know anything about this stuff. I've never played a FF game and do not personally know any PoC... if it's even ok to use that term.

Food for thought: where does culture end and stereotyping begin?

@clush: I'll echo Austin and say stuff is complicated. There can be a fine line between stereotype and authentic representation and often the people who are the closest to the culture in question are the people who notice the discrepancy the most. The distinction can even vary from person to person within a cultural group as you can see any time people discuss race and gender on this site.

In my opinion the best way to handle these things is to make sure you actually talk to people of the group you are trying to represent or travel to the place you want to re-create. If you are creating a work that seeks to include people you don't know from a place you've never been, then use that work as an excuse to grow as a person and meet those people. Expose yourself to that culture and then work from a place of understanding. Know that you might be making a mistake and have a friend or a consultant check your work and make sure you are doing justice to the people you are hoping to capture (another entirely related problem is that often times game scripts are considered the least important thing in a game and as such they are rushed through the door without the vetting that they deserve). Alternatively, you could hire a localization team to do that work for you if your original work is targeted at a local audience that can't perceive some of the more problematic stuff in your characters.

However, in the modern AAA video game industry, "we just didn't know any people from other cultures" doesn't cut it as an excuse for me anymore. These games are international million copy sellers and the corporations that make them are too huge to not do some basic research. I mean every press cycle military FPS devs tout how they hire military consultants to help ensure accuracy. Would it be so hard to hire a person of another culture to take a look at your work? Would it be that hard to make sure some of your focus groups are from foreign countries and have diverse constituents? The Witcher and Final Fantasy aren't made by tiny teams in isolated environments (the original FFVII was made in a very different cultural context that the one we exist in now so I would hope the remake gets put through some more scrutiny during localization). They are made by teams that number in the hundreds and they sell in the millions. Fly some people in!

I think the "you just can't win" defense is used as a way to excuse not trying at all, or not trying again after you make a mistake.

The two examples I gave would be noticeable to me. A cliché Texas oil baron voice coming out of an alien in Avatar, and a stereotypical Canadian accent just popping up in Game of Thrones. The scope (village, world, etc.) and type (modern, medieval, etc.) of setting factors into how much I can suspend my disbelief with something like a character's accent, and how developed a character is (and obviously in what way) speaks to whether or not they're just a stereotype. Those can relate to each other, but they're not necessarily entwined intrinsically.

And like I said before, a stereotype can be used on a character to challenge associated preconceptions. I think stuff like that, stuff that shows us more about a character than we might've expected if we'd just gone by the stereotype, can bounce back to affect ourselves and the way we view the world. It can be a great storytelling tool for bolstering empathy and even prompting self-reflection.

So it isn't a case of "well this part of him is clearly problematic, but the rest of him is okay, so I'll let it slide," it's whether or not that character works or doesn't. If some part of him is very obviously not okay, then it probably shouldn't be a part of the character. Thing is, I'm still uncertain as to which parts of Barret's dialogue are so offensive. Lulu's dress looks incredibly dumb and is pretty goddamn funny. Specific examples like that are what I'd like to see with Barret. Stuff I can actually look at to see if it crosses a line or not.

The flipside to that is not looking at every individual character as inherently representative. That's kinda the same way you can kill a stereotype; look at it and say "of course that's not representative of an entire group, fuck off with that dumb shit."

If you're actually trying to represent a specific culture, then yeah, fuckin learn about it so you've actually done what you set out to. If you're just making a character that's brown though, then there isn't really a brown culture, or brown beliefs, or brown behaviour. They don't automatically represent any particular group.

Unless made abundantly clear, they're characters, not flags.

I hear some form of this phrase quite often when social issues are discussed. It makes for an exciting slogan if you're trying to rally other like-minded people to your cause. It's absolute shit if your goal is literally anything else.

The oppressor gets to decide quite a bit for the oppressed, actually. It's right there in the definition of the words. If you want to affect change, you're going to have to engage with the oppressor on some level. On a message board like this, that means maintaining a dialogue. The phrase you've employed shuts down dialogue. It probably feels good to say, but that's because it assigns complete and total moral authority to only your side of the conversation, while telling the other side they aren't allowed a voice. It doesn't seek an understanding, it seeks to dictate terms.

Maybe that's your goal. But if your goal is to convince people that the oppressed deserve respect, it's worth showing a little respect toward the people you're trying to convince.

@theht: Yeah if a group of people is not meant to be representative of a real world race then go ahead and create for the most part (though you can expect people to notice if you set up power structures along racial lines).

Here are a few Barret quotes that I think could go either way though he obviously has more lines and these lines are only from a list of quotes I saw:

• Stop actin' like a damn kid. Si'down and shu'up!

  • Don't forget that your skinny ass's workin' for AVALANCHE now!

  • Shit! The hell you so calm about? You bustin' up my rhythm...

  • We'll jump from here!! Follow me, you 'spensive leech!

  • Don't need no appointment... This is a 'mergency! Anyone who don't wanna get their face bashed in better git outta the way!!

  • Da-Mn.

  • Haeey!! Baaeby!!

  • I've been here since the beginning and I still don't know what the hell's goin' on

  • I'm going, going, going, gone! And I'm leavin' the thinkin' to you!

  • I'll go upside your spikey blonde head and bring you back to normal!

  • Don't go thinkin' you so bad jes ‘cuz you was in SOLDIER.

Misclick. In the Japanese original Barret might have an accent that is right in region and "level" for a translation to that, a concept in writing more common back then. Imagine this as Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking German; being Austrian his accent is like the thickest of hick-hillbilly mountain-man German.

Haven't seen the original Japanese script or the insane "accurate translation" project some madman made years ago, still got a hunch it could be improvised adding of character to his speech due to the quick translation that was influenced by what exposure one could get to black men back then in Japan - translated film and TV.

I'm very happy the game was done back then and not sometime after Michael Bay's first Transformers film because you know what shit I found immensely questionable, if not flat out racist in that.

That's a real easy position to have when you have Dick the Space Marine super leader and Harry the Vampire Killer and a whole host of other positive examples as opposed to the majority being Tom.

@thatpinguino: lol okay some of those are just silly. "Haeey"? "Jes cuz"? "Da-Mn"? Just plain goofy.

Seems like they tried way too hard to write how he might sound in some of those cases. I can see them changing em and leaving that sort of voicing to the actual voice actor (assuming it's gonna have VO).

THAT was fuckin weird. Holy shit.

That's a really great way of putting it, thank you for this post!

Speaking as a developer, I've tried to make the projects I've worked on as accessible and diverse as possible, and I haven't gotten it perfectly yet - in fact, I may never get there. But in my experience, when you do your best, try your hardest, accept criticism graciously, and learn from your mistakes, you will find that people will be extremely understanding and appreciative in return.

After all, my goal is to make games that make people happy! :D I'm going to try my hardest to make sure as many people as possible can play them and enjoy them.

I always felt Barret was over the top... And I think it's totally reasonable to for anyone-- black or not-- to be offended. I also think it's cool if it doesn't offend you (for whatever reason). I don't think this is one of those super-reprehensible cases (sorry, but Letitia in Deus Ex was way over the line), but it's worth calling out.

My personal feeling is that they should retranslate the original with a more nuanced approach to his character and speech, but they should leave the rest intact. Offensive or not, it's what the game was. It wasn't a perfect game, but people have been screaming for decades for it to be brought back, and I think it'd be a shame if they remade it into a game that is something other than it was-- offensive or not.

I think people are pretty on target about the cross-dressing scene not being a big deal. I don't think trans people are being ridiculed by characters making fun of Cloud's obvious discomfort at being in women's clothing. It's rather childish, but I think that kind of juvenile humor fits the scene. But by the same token, it's not my job to tell offended people that they shouldn't feel the way they feel.

Well put.

No matter what you do, someone somewhere will get offended. Either your game doesn't have enough representation of X or does not present Y in the way someone believes is appropriate. Characters and stories that play it safe and do not provoke any emotions are the ones we don't remember. Also with FF7, you need to consider the time it was made, Barret is basically B.A Baracus from A-Team. Him and Cid both fall in the late 80's and early 90's action hero stereotypes, Cid being the old dude played by Clint Eastwood and Barret just being the big badass with even bigger gun.

Curiously enough, I've been playing FF7 and I just passed this part of the game earlier today.

The first thing that everyone should agree on is that it isn't intended to be malicious in any way. That should be clear. We are supposed to be chuckling at Cloud's discomfort and the absurdity of the situation, not at the idea that he's representative of crossdressers or transgender folk.

And... well... it pretty much came across the intended way to me. I didn't think it was particularly hilarious or even remarkably charming, but finding it deeply offensive seems quite petty. Slightly off-putting if you're a transgender person? Sure, I'll accept that, and if you'd rather not play it because of the scene, that's perfectly reasonable. But I don't really think that a minor scene from a game released in 1997 should be the jumping-off point, or anything more than a footnote, in a conversation about proper representation of transgender people.

Barrett is... a slightly different story altogether. I'm only four hours in, but Barrett doesn't seem like he's incapable. Hell, he's probably the best characterized personality so far. I think Cloud seems like an all right guy and Tifa and Aerith aren't so bad, but I've seen the broadest range of emotions and motivations from Barrett. Back to capability - he's been organizing and leading a resistance movement for quite some time now as well as elaborately planning their raids - if that's not solid proof that he's actually fairly intelligent, then I don't know what is. He also loves his daughter and is torn between doing what he believes is right (overthrowing Shinra) and protecting her. All of that said, the way his dialog is written really does come across as insensitive, and I can't think of any other reason for him to speak that way than "because he's black". Barrett's speech should absolutely change, if nothing else in the game does.

Fuck Don Corneo. Do I get to kill that guy?

I don't have much to add to this because (a) I haven't played FFVII since shortly after it came out and (b) I'm not trans, but I thought this piece by Sarah Nyberg was worth sharing. There's a lot of nuance to it so you should absolutely read the whole thing, but I think this is the key takeaway:

As imperfect as the entire thing was, Final Fantasy VII’s crossdressing does not fall into the same trap as Fallout 4’s trailer: the joke is not simply that there’s a man in a dress. Throughout the entire ordeal, Aeris follows you and is excited, flirty and encouraging. People in the town are occasionally surprised, but never overtly bigoted or hostile. Other people in the area crossdress, it isn’t a secret, and they’re accepted among their friends.

The joke, in the case of VII, was Cloud’s (and, by extension, the player’s) sense of discomfort despite there not being any real reason to be uncomfortable in the first place. Discussions about the negative aspects of VII’s portrayal of crossdressing—the stigmatization of other queer characters, the way Cloud’s boundaries become a joke inside the brothel—are important and necessary. Nontheless, even two decades later, there are things about Cloud’s crossdressing sequence in Wall Market that I think Final Fantasy VII got right—and that modern games are still getting wrong.