• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Anything wrong with a MC defeating a villain from a different background?

WonderingSword5

Troubadour
why a Chinese villain
Stories with evil Chinese emperors are pretty common in Chinese writings, that seems to work well in character. I would think something less offensive would be triads and civil officers.
why a white or Japanese guy? It just sounds too much like the setup for one of a hundred mass-produced crummy 80s action movies
Why not? Here's two Japanese good guys fighting against a Chinese bad guy
 

WonderingSword5

Troubadour
It's something I still don't understand why it's a problem, but I see many Japanese and white villains getting destroyed by Chinese heroes and there is no complaints?




 
Last edited:

pmmg

Myth Weaver
Sorry, but are you asking why people get upset when Chinese villain's get destroyed by white or Japanese heroes, but not the reverse?

Um....I would think the answer to that would be obvious. Just the culture we live in.

Why is this still an issue? Your baddie is gonna come from some ethnicity and Chinese is as good as any other. Ya know, sometimes the baddies are Chinese. You gotta to give the story what it needs and not what everyone thinks it needs for you.

I think you are way putting the cart before the horse here. You need to finish the work first. Most likely, very few will ever read or see this story, and all of your fears are moot. The chances that this will go before a Chinese audience are even smaller. If you manage to get 1000 people to read your story you will be way ahead of the game.

You are sweating the small stuff and you have not produced the big stuff yet. This question is not worthy. Write what you believe and don't look back.
 

Queshire

Auror
Hm, I do think it's part of human nature to have a greater reaction to tropes from your own culture. I reckon having a Japanese villain who's the head of a cyberpunk-y megacorp would be seen as cringey as well.
 

Solusandra

Troubadour
If it's classic cyberpunk rather than some random spinoff, there's a lot of japanese megacorp CEO's, and they're all chip on the shoulder minor villains where the last thing they want is the fragments of the united states to reunite.

Of course, there's also eastern dragon CEO's, western dragon CEO's, native american spirit CEO's and mexican drug cartel CEO's as well. It's a pretty crazy place.
 

Queshire

Auror
How many are from series that have been around long enough that when they were first created it wasn't seen as something one would roll their eyes at?
 

Solusandra

Troubadour
Ignoring the entire genre of japanese cyberpunk anime and manga, I was referring to the titlename tabletop game "cyberpunk" and it's rival "Shadowrun", both of which were published in the 80's complete with japanese megacorpt ceo's as antagonists with their own modules. Both of which got PC games that had more of the same.
 

Queshire

Auror
Aye, and because they're from the 80's they get a pass where trying to do the same now with a new property might be seen as outdated.

Still, that's aside from the point I was trying to make. We recognize things as yellow peril more easily because that trope is part of our cultural history where the opposite generally isn't.
 

Solusandra

Troubadour
Aye, and because they're from the 80's they get a pass where trying to do the same now with a new property might be seen as outdated.
Cyberpunk 2077 (just a year or so ago) used street samurai, asian ceo angatonists (minor) and all of the other stuff and it wasn't seen as out-dated. Nor was any of the controversy plaguing the game about that. More about the LGBT addons and how the game was published unfinished for more than the usual full price AAA shooter.
We recognize things as yellow peril more easily because that trope is part of our cultural history where the opposite generally isn't.
The opposite being "evil white colonists"? There's literally thousands of titles where that's one of or the main antagonist. Even more where "white trash" are specifically coded baddies. There's even plenty where you play as storied locals resisting whitie, rather than faceless make a charactor of most RPG's.
 

Queshire

Auror
Cyberpunk 2077? As in the game that came from the Cyberpunk tabletop game? The same Cyberpunk tabletop game that you said was published in the 80's? That Cyberpunk 2077?
 

Solusandra

Troubadour
then why were people having problems earlier with 80's martial arts films. Those would fit your grandfather rule too, but obviously it didnt work.
 

Solusandra

Troubadour
What point? Your post was saying that using anything not part of the writer/reader's culture was cringy, but your example was wrong and so was the idea. Cultures crib off each other constantly, even when they're enemies or removed by several layers of trade. always have.
 
Top