Could we have some black characters?

[Curo]

Willie!

 

William?

 

Wakeen...

[CameoAppearance]

First off, from the wiki: "The date and location of the "Final Act" video allude to the 1906 San Fransisco Earthquake".

 

Klei have confirmed the approximate era of the story elsewhere! It is in fact "1920-ish". Maxwell and Charlie are from a little earlier than everyone else.

 

The monologue Maxwell gives at the end of Adventure Mode makes it sound pretty unlikely that anyone was on the throne before him; it certainly wasn't occupied when he arrived. I suppose it's not impossible, but it doesn't seem to fit.

 

WX and Webber are indeed different colours than the rest of the characters, but one of them is a robot with a metal exterior (I think maybe it's supposed to look like brass, it looks brassy in WX's Guest of Honour skin) and the other is covered in spider fur. That doesn't really have anything to do with ethnicity. They don't look like white people, but they can't meaningfully be described as visible members of any other race either. Their character design does establish that the characters don't have to be paper-white to stand out from the background or look like they belong in the art style, but that's about it.

 

Walani's skin tone is slightly darker than the other human characters, but it's a subtle difference.

[Rellimarual]

I vote for a black character if we're voting. I think it would be cool/fun, and given the 1920s setting, what about a jazz musician of some kind? HE could come with a horn that, when played, either helped with sanity or temporarily charmed some savage beasts. It would totally make sense for him to be shipwrecked because all the big ocean liners back then had live musicians working on board.

There really isn't any good reason NOT to do it, and the excuses people offer for why they don't like the idea are tellingly thin. The idea that you might not like some of the people who would think it was a good idea, if you knew them and if they even knew about Don't Starve, seems really silly. And newsflash: There are black people in England, and there were black people in England in the 1920s.

Mostly, though, I just think it would be fun to have a black jazz musician character.

[TemporaryMan]

There's two things I see going on in this discussion that are really getting on my nerves.

 

One, the characters are not "blank."  They have European names.  They have European hair.  Maxwell has a European passport.  Wes has the Eiffel Tower in his character portrait.  If their paleness looks at all exaggerated, it's because they're cartoons.  And before anybody says cartoons can still be "blank", look at Wes' portrait again.  You can clearly see where his white skin ends and his even paler makeup begins.  The human members of the original cast of characters are all white.  Enough with the denial already.

 

Two, the stereotypical suggestions.  Cyde ninja'd my post on this one.  I'm sure Klei can think of something better.  Say, a Trinidadian painter who can bring paintings to life to assist with combat or resource-gathering or even just use ordinary paintings to confuse enemies with poor depth-perception (flups, tallbirds, anything with an eye-patch).  Just please no racial stereotypes.

[mitboy]

 Just please no racial stereotypes.

Actually, Wilson, Wolfgang and Woodie are quite stereotypical. For my taste, at least. 

[Tyzin]

Actually, Wilson, Wolfgang and Woodie are quite stereotypical. For my taste, at least. 

 

I agree. All of the human characters appear to be strongly based on stereotypes or character tropes. So in order for a black character to fit in they would have to play into some stereotype as well. Creating a stereotypical black character evidently rubs a fair number of people the wrong way, so Klei would need to be careful.

Honestly, I think they should create a solid character and then decide to make them a specific ethnicity near the end of their character development. For example, if they made Woodlegs black. You can make a stereotypical and exaggerated pirate character, then add in racial variety without subtracting from the character or having it feel forced and out of place. I think this is partially why Walani seems to fit in alright. Her character stereotype is a chilled surfer, and she would still work as a character if she weren't Hawaiian. Her polynesian descent simply adds to the character instead of being the focus.

I do feel for your situation if you are simply looking for more representation OP. In my case it's extremley uncommon to see a disabled character in a videogame who isn't an amputee (and if there is that tends to be their defining trait). I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a lack of characters I can personally identify with strongly as opposed to ones who are poorly done to shut up anyone complaining about not being included.