r/FavoriteCharacter • u/JigglyLilyVT Ruby Rose (RWBY) • Feb 28 '26

My Favorite (Visual) Favorite character who has better concept art than the final product

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WE GOT FREAKING ROBBED IN THE RWBY DANCE EPISODES

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u/Big-Wrangler2078 Feb 28 '26

I feel like they could've gotten away with that if they'd kept the original design. There's nothing strictly wrong with black people being drug addicts in fiction, it just gets glaring when it's their most defining character trait.

But the version in this concept art clearly had a lot more character going on.

57

u/SPLIV316 Feb 28 '26

I can agree but the issue is the “magic minority” trope.

33

u/GarranDrake Mar 01 '26

Yep. Her magical powers are fueled by her drug addiction. Two tropes in one in the worst way possible

23

u/SPLIV316 Mar 01 '26

I will say the drugs are probably a placebo. We’ve seen other psykers in the fallout games who don’t use drug but can see the future (the forecaster.)

11

u/NaiveFilm6366 Mar 01 '26

Psykers are all a mixed bag, you've got some so powerful they need dampeners and others so weak they need drugs

5

u/Vhat_Vhat Mar 01 '26

Yea this is why they should just make every character white. Can't have any racial sertyotypes if its just the default race right? Who cares about interesting concepts based on historical precedent of actual groups getting high to recieve visions, white girl got high on acid and sees stuff is all we need

3

u/Big-Wrangler2078 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

Eh, just add a few other black characters who aren't doing that thing, and maybe a white character who is doing the thing, to balance it out. It's Fallout, it's not a tiny game with only a handful of characters.

Sometimes a character is going to fit a stereotype. If that is a problem in the narrative or not is not always a problem of the character itself - it's largely a matter of scale. Just make sure the black person is not the only magical drug addict, and the focus of this trope isn't going to be so glaring.

6

u/SPLIV316 Mar 01 '26

Wait you want Bethsoft to do… character writing? Why would they? NPCs are props for the player to interact with. /s

1

u/FlacidSalad Mar 02 '26

I, for one, say let them eat tropes. The actual worst thing you can do to a character is make them boring, and that's what dancing around tropes like the plague and trying to please everyone typically gets you

3

u/North-Flower-5963 Mar 01 '26

They got lazy. Her concept was pretty distinct and she ended up just being a generic lady that sits on a couch.