Thread by @twinstingers, Barret is treated poorly by both his canonical writing/treatment in SE and [...]

Barret is treated poorly by both his canonical writing/treatment in SE and his treatment in fandom and we literally all know why he is pushed back to the side or ignored by both

(this is a long thread sorry in advance)

He is the black male lead and our only black character in the main party, yet he’s constantly left out of merch/sets (official and fan) and he literally gets written out of his own family/put to the side in AC

He is Marlene’s FATHER. He has been established to be overprotective and hates being away from her. And what’s he doing in AC? He’s gone from Marlene. Hell, we don’t even see him together with Marlene for the whole movie until the very end where he’s holding her hand

T/if/a and C/lo/ud are part of his found family, but they are not Marlene’s parents and it’s frustrating to see people act like they are and leave Barret out of family content.

(tbh to me they fill more of an older sister and brother to Marlene but that’s not the point of this)

in OG, the party is incredibly dismissive of his feelings when they reach Corel up until they learn more about his past. He’s played off as being stupid and emotional in a negative way

He’s upset and doesn’t want to participate. And when the bodies show, his friends immediately suspect him when they hear “gun for an arm”

I understand why that was a plot point. We didn’t know about Dyne and the game wanted to surprise us with Barret’s backstory. But it was not a good look to make it look like Barret committed mass murder because he was emotional and have the party be suspicious of him for so long

(To be honest I am scared of how Remake is going to handle that part. I do hope that they go more in depth about his last and expand on this part and Dyne because this is their chance to do so)

For a lot of scenes in OG, he’s treated as a joke and he has an exaggerated, explosive temper. We’re made to see this as a hinderance and that he’s not as reasonable as other characters

T/ifa even calls him the r word in the stairs scene in the English translation at the translation’s attempt to be funny

Stop writing black men as the overly aggressive/unreasonable emotional one challenge. Yes, Barret is passionate and I love Remake’s depiction of him compared to OG and AC

It’s a great improvement, but there’s still issues with it. There’s still parts where he’s made to look stupid or a joke

T/ifa is sort of put in charge and she’s treated as being more rational than Barret at times when Barret is their Avalanche faction’s leader. He’s placed to be put in this positional of an irrational, angry man who has to listen to his more reasonable teammates

There’s a battle interaction/dialogue that I can’t really enjoy because of this, where he yells an excited “HELL YEAH!” And Tifa suggests for him to “maybe dial it back a little” and sounds slightly embarrassed

It’s so odd to me compared to their other battle dialogue where Barret yells “THINK YOU CAN STOP THE PAIN TRAIN?!” and Tifa adds “here it comes!!”

like, that’s so charming to me. They’re close friends and a team

But they don’t really have a lot of other interactions like this in fights

He does have a lot with Cloud though and I enjoy all of them very much. It’s just, why are there more with Cloud and why is the “dial it back a little” line out of place to me/feel dismissive

It’s not teasing and friendly like when she laughs and turns down Barret’s suggestion that they dance

When they’re on their way to up to go to the Shinra Building, Barret loses his temper and risks the team being found by taking the walky talky from Cloud and throwing it against the wall

He absolutely should still say what he says in that scene, but I don’t think it was the best decision for him to act like that

It’s seen as “oh he needs to be calmed down, Barret’s risking our location, etc...”

Cloud has a temper as well, but we’re constantly supposed to see Cloud acting like that as him being a cool badass

(It’s racist to have the same attitude seen as cool on a white guy but liability on a black guy)

His resolution scene with Cloud and his speech in the elevator scene are both completely optional and that holds back audiences from seeing more of this passionate, caring, emotional, and leaderly side of Barret in a light that isn’t made to look like a hinderance

Even with the resolution scene, it’s supposed to be this moment that solidifies his friendship with Cloud and their mutual respect.

It was a great opportunity to have Barret and Cloud open up to each other, but Cloud doesn’t do the same.

Not that he has to (he doesn’t even remember his friends here), but he could’ve tried offering something and failing/trailing off and that could’ve hinted to audiences unfamiliar, that hey something is up. They don’t even look at each other for most of Barret’s opening up

Again, not that they have to (especially since they’re still getting closer), but it’s just jarring compared to how Cloud is looking at and making eye contact with the other character in the resolutions with the girls

(continuing in a bit I reached draft thread limit)

Don’t get me started on how you literally have to make Cloud be the worst at his job by straight up not doing any and get the girls to not like you to get this scene. Why can we not be the best merc and bond with Barret at the same time?

We don’t even get interaction choices with Barret to help get his resolution. In OG, we were able to boost affection with Barret by giving the flower to Marlene, but we can’t even do that in Remake.

They don’t give Barret and Cloud’s developing bond the same attention they do to Cloud’s bonds to the girls. The moment in Hojo’s lab where Barret says that he cares about Cloud sounded so fond.

It would’ve been sweet for us to see their expressions and Cloud surprised hearing that and looking at Barret. He gets short cutscenes with the girls in conversations so why not this with Barret?

Regarding official merch, there are so many examples of Barret being left out, but the chibi rubber charms are specifically what I’m thinking about

You can have Cait Sith and his mog separately, two Clouds, and Ka/d/aj (who Remake audiences are unfamiliar with), you can have everyone but Barret (and Cid and Red)

Regarding Remake merch, everyone in the main cast but Barret has a plushie (ignore the first two based on WOFF)

I love Zack, he’s been one of my faves for years. But he only has, what, 4 minutes of screentime in Remake? Yet he or even Vincent replaces Barret in Remake sets people create for content. (Vincent isn’t even IN Remake yet)

I know they’re marketable and creating merch is expensive, but why is Barret not a higher priority or someone that you view as marketable? There’s even so much content for “main party” in Remake that’s just Cloud and the girls

and you can’t even say that’s for shipping reasons because I’ve seen a lot of non-ship trio merch

Even then, a lot of the fan merch of Barret has him angry or frowning compared to everyone else smiling (or in Cloud’s case just doing his default nonchalant look) which stands out

even in fanart in general, Barret is whitewashed by a lot and I don't know how people keep making the mistake of making him super light?

I know people can’t control their who their fave characters are and I’m not asking them to- but it’s so frustrating to me that I have seen more content for minor white (or perceived white) characters recently than BARRET in the past few months or more

Why is it easier for you to feel emotional,create content, and make headcanons for characters with little to no screen time, in one case a character with no face reveal, and characters with no discernible personality than a black male lead?

I’m not saying that people can’t like and expand on characters like A//ndr/ea, L//es/lie, Ro/c/he, and Ku//ns//sel. I like those characters. For the last two named, I talk about them so much in canon/AUs I have with one of my best friends- but that’s not the point of this thread

It’s just why can’t you apply this to Barret? I can’t control who you make content of and I’m not trying to. He is constantly pushed to the side or just straight up not written in fan content. The fact I did not know about him until I actually got into the game is appalling.

I knew about every single human main party member EXCEPT Barret growing up.

he and Vincent are the only human party members to not be featured in KH, and Vincent was even planned to show with Cloud, that's why Cloud has his cloak. For Barret, we just get a tan NPC with his name

Not to be mean and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or assume anything, but yeah, why are extremely minor characters more compelling to you than a black male lead?

Why do people even diminish his role in the canon story in their canon fix-its, compliant works, and AUs?

I’m not saying anyone is being intentionally racist or that their actions are racist, but it’s just something to think about and how in general black characters in ensemble casts are treated

Anyway thank you if you manage to read through all of my rambling, I just care a lot about this man and I really hope Remake continues to work on improving how canon depicts Barret

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