I'm having trouble with my character's story set ups, please help :(

I have this character's story I'm working on, but I don't know which is the best path to take it. In his story, it's a fighting tourney set up by his antagonistic father and antagonistic half brother, which is like a bloodsport fighting event, with all kinds of fighters, monsters and different creature hybrids.

The father is evil and abusive, was from the US, traveled through different countries in Asia, learning various martial arts from masters, then Thailand, then he goes to this fictional country, off the coast, near the boarder of Thailand and Malaysia, looking for a new master, but ends up becoming a member of this cult. He meets a woman there, has a son, which he knows nothing about until years later. Then goes back to the US, meets another woman, has a son with her (MC is born), MC at the age of 6, shows signs of symptomatic issues, which the father becomes abusive towards the MC son. The mother comes clean and says, she's a spider demon. the father, as a previous member of the cult, with the fuel and hatred he was taught, and also that the cult is at war with these spider demons, which the cult wants to eliminate, the father grows more abusiveness and hatred towards the son and mother, the father and mother duke it out to a bloody battle, and the mother takes off with the her half demon son, but the father sends a hit after them, presuming they were killed. He then goes back to the fictional country near Thailand, takes over the cult pretty quickly, then brings the base back to the US, and from there he increases his power. His other son who was born from the cult member woman, confronts his father to reveal himself and as a supporting cultist, joins the father as his right hand man. they then take over a world wide tournament, that was once a respectful contest for the best champion fighters, now turned to a bloodsport, where the evil father and the MC's half brother, took to the fights and dominated all the other fighters, taking over the competition, which they now run the contest, which with death matches. They now run this tourney, which they have contestants from all over the world, and even have hybrid creature experiments in it. This story is about this spider demon MC.

I wasn't sure if I should make the evil father, half brother, the MC and the MC's mother all white Americans? Or make them Asian from this fictional country near Thailand? Considering I'm a white American myself, would it be better if I kept them as white Americans?

And I had this one other idea, where this tourney is run by this warrior from this fictional country, near Thailand and his sidekick right hand man, is a 4 armed dragon creature champion that run this secret tournament on this island near the coast of Thailand and Malaysia. The MC of this story would be Asian from this fictional country that is near Thailand and Malaysia, who's like a warrior monk, with tiger demonic powers. This MC is the tiger demon.

Is it possible I can combine the MC tiger demon guy and the MC spider demon guy? If not I can make them separate characters, and have the spider demon MC being white and the tiger demon MC being Asian.

Any help and I would appreciate it, please

 

It would be better if you made them whatever you wanted to make them.

If you're that worried about the twitterati and social media nutjobs, why are you only considering the possibility of them being *all* one colour/race? Why can't you make the father Asian and the mother Caucasian or vice versa? Then you cover your bases and have the best of both ideas with regards to that fictional country.

 

I thought of just having the evil father Asian, being if he's from this fictional Asian country, then brings his base of operations to the US, meeting a Caucasian woman, having the MC. Or I have the evil father Caucasian and he traveled to this fictional Asian country, then returns to the US, meeting a Caucasian woman, having the MC. I don't know which is the better and more safe choice

Oh and the MC's evil half brother would be half Asian or fully Asian, who was born first, while the evil father was in this fictional Asian country. Depending on whether the evil father is Caucasian or Asian, the evil half brother would be full Asian or half Asian.

 

Unless racism or cultural differences is an important subtext in the story, it’s not that important of a decision. Not only that, but it’s relatively easy to change later. Don’t sweat it to much and just enjoy writing!

 

There is no safety from the hateful mobs. They're fragmented into so many subgroups there's one to hate everything. Ultimately you have to write something you personally believe in and are willing to take the slings and arrows for, because there's always a chance some might be directed your way no matter what you write.

The important thing is if you do get attacked don't apologize and don't capitulate. Stand your ground. Make sure you haven't written anything that you believe is racist or whatever-ist, and be ready to defend if it it does get attacked. Once you apologize the sharks can smell the blood in the water for hundreds of miles and they'll be circling before you know it. The ones who sling hate on the internet are destroyers, and aren't looking for an apology or anything but a target for their hate.

The more decent activists won't sling hate to begin with, they're far more reasonable and speak like decent human beings. It's important to understand the differences between the 2 groups.

 

What are they in YOUR story, do you have to define their race or can you just let it be. Sometimes the reader paints their own picture of the physical traits. Just saying you don't always have to define the race, maybe just the physical makeup example sculptured muscles, long dark hair, cold grey eyes....

 

Thank you everyone. I guess I have to learn not yo let the naysayers get to me. And while people can picture in their mind what they look like, it's implied in the story that I will be having a Caucasian MC meeting with two different woman from two different Asian countries and having kids with each. Would this be any issue?

 

This might sound racist, but I automatically thought of an African-American when I read MC.

 

All main characters are African American, so makes sense to me

 

I wasn't sure if I should make the evil father, half brother, the MC and the MC's mother all white Americans? Or make them Asian from this fictional country near Thailand? Considering I'm a white American myself, would it be better if I kept them as white Americans?

- I am asking myself why the race makes you uncomfortable? What did you envision them as when you first thought them up? Why do you want to change them now? If you are worried about what the SJW's are going to say, screw them, it's YOUR story, not theirs.

And I had this one other idea, where this tourney is run by this warrior from this fictional country, near Thailand and his sidekick right hand man, is a 4 armed dragon creature champion that run this secret tournament on this island near the coast of Thailand and Malaysia. The MC of this story would be Asian from this fictional country that is near Thailand and Malaysia, who's like a warrior monk, with tiger demonic powers. This MC is the tiger demon.

- Gonna be brutally honest here, this is Mortal Kombat. 4 armed dragon creature? Prince Goro, he's literally half dragon. Warrior from a fictional country? -Close to Shang Tsung, sorcerer from Outworld. Secret tournament? Mortal Kombat.... Asian Warrior monk? - Lui Kang, but he is more Fire based then tiger demon. Although, the tiger demon can be argued as being Kintaro.

If you want to go that route, write a Mortal Kombat fan fiction novel...

 

Um... no. I assume you're referring to the fact that the earliest ancestors of all of us came from Africa, but certainly all characters, main or otherwise, aren't
American.

 

Because if I make the evil father who runs the greatest world fighting ultimate tournament, the evil half brother and the MC son all white American,being the main characters of the story, might seem like I am making white fighters superior to others?
And if I do it vice versa and have them Asian, even if they are from a fictional country, it might come off like I'm making Asians look bad?

You're right, I'll have to change it then how can I fix it to avoid being like a wannabe MK? What if I changed the dragon creature into a giant Thai warrior with supernatural powers? The ancient warrior into some kind of old school fighting champion? And the warrior monk into some kind of muay thai/mixed martial arts fighting champion with some kind of powers?

 

Again, write a fan fiction one, that would be easier. For example, write about one of the previous tournaments that Earthrealm lost, for ecample. About a Shaolin that won all his prelim bouts but lost to and was killed by Goro... As an example.

 

But I want this to be mainstreamed, in order for that to work I have to ponder to the SJW's or can it still be mainstreamed enough if I write it the way I like it?

I'm not much of a fan of fanfics and I think that story has been told before where Earthrealm has lost, (correct me if I'm wrong), where the Great Kung Lao was defeated and killed by the monster Goro before the original MK timeline?

So maybe I can use a similar concept to the MK story, but instead I make it something more realistic with more realistic martial arts?

 

Well, from personal experience, all my characters end up being either African American or White American because well, I am biracial so I write my characters to be both my halfs. My advice is that it doesn't really matter what race or ethnicity your characters are unless it is something that plays a major role in your story. Your character can be Asian or it can be white american. Not every person living in a country has to be the majority of what the race is in that country. Once I had written a story where it was an Asian American living in Mexico.

 

That is up to you. I write what I write how I write it and how I like it. I don't particularly care what SJW's say, if they want to do it differently, they can pick up a pen and write their own stories.

As to the MK story, looking at the timeline, there were 8 other tournaments before the Great Kung Lao appeared. Write about one of them? Or, write a story along the lines of Bloodsport, which is about an underground martial arts tournament.

 

As far as I'm aware the SJW's don't really buy a lot of stuff (at least that seems to be the case with comic books), also I was under the impression that mainstream would be something more towards the center??? You know, something that left and right can read without too much issue, if you lean too far towards one side you are likely to lose the other, and in this case it seems to me that it is best to lose the left than the right, at least economically speaking.

Also, I don't think that race is as important as you think it is, write what feels natural, my current WIP is medieval-inspired so most of my characters are white or white-ish (don't know how to describe the skin tone on the Mediterranean) there is no diversity of color because it would be ridiculous to have the same diversity we have now without the same means of transport (I do have some diversity of species but even that is restricted to species that live nearby), in this wip you'd only be able to find black people on a couple of countries on the south of the continent and only as slaves or slave traders; if I ever explored this area most characters would be either racist towards them or just don't give a damn.

Also, no matter what you do you are going to get hate for it, you have to live with it and defend it, never apologize, it does not work, I can't understand why people keep apologizing when it never works, the mob throwing insults your way are not interested in apologies, they are akin to witch hunters or an overly zealous inquisitor.

Edit

This is true, as a Mexican myself I can tell you that México has a lot of people living in it. Also, weirdly enough, the concept of "something-Mexican" does not really apply here, as long as you were born and grew up in México you are considered to be a fully-fledged Mexican, no modifiers needed, you may be mocked for your skin color or other features, but we Mexicans make fun of everything and everyone; when I see discussions about equality they tend to revolve around being nice to everybody, it seems to me that we Mexicans treat equality more as "f* it, bully everyone".

 

I agree, I don't think it'll be as big of an issue as I thought before.

I think it's true, that I shouldn't take everything that they say seriously either, thanks, I won't let them control me.

It's true, I learned this the hard way, because they just continue to attack the more I would apologize

 

I can definitely use this as inspiration

 

Do you have to define their race in YOUR tale or can you simply leave it at that? The reader may conjure up their own image of the physical characteristics. Simply pointing out that you don't always have to describe the race; perhaps just the physical appearance, such as sculpted muscles, long dark hair, and steely grey eyes....

 

I think authors confuse race with culture. To mention someone's race is like telling, plus they are assuming that a character will act a certain way. To show instead of tell you would show the culture and let the reader decide the race.

 

This seems sweeping - surely it's open to writers to do either? Show-don't-tell shouldn't be taken to such an extreme that helpful one-word details like race, age, and gender are actively hidden from the reader. Not all details matter to all stories - but putting a reader through painful contortions for the sake of show-don't-tell is neither good style nor especially sensitive.

Colourblindness can struggle to represent and engage (and it is sometimes argued to be a pernicious form of white privilege). But at a very practical level readers won't go through a whole book leaving respectful question-marks hanging over the characters - if the detail isn't given up to them early on, they supply their own, or make inferences - which may lead to them being rug-pulled or misunderstanding the story.

Will the characters have names? All names come from cultures, and all cultures started off as a race's culture (and many still are, and this deserves respect) - so as soon as a name is written, the reader can and will make an inference. Telling them the information is usually just good stewardship of the story.

The alternative is valid too - and possibly more artistically challenging. A book where the characters' race really was up to the reader could never be illustrated or have a picture of a person on the front cover. All the names would have to be true coinages - even Tolkien didn't attempt a complete separation from humanity's races' cultures. If the book's in English, every word of dialogue locates the character into one of ~190 dialects, usually our own, and usually without us realising how obvious it is. A pen-name would have to be used in case readers assume based on that. Much non-verbal communication conveys some racial data. Someone wakes up in the morning - do they pray? How does the writer fence-sit that? How does the writer check the customs of 5000-6000 distinct human cultures to make sure the character isn't excluding themselves from some of them with a hand gesture?

But that's an extreme for argument's sake - what about a story where the writer has given the character a race, or it can be narrowed down, and judiciously declines to mention it and it doesn't matter to the rest of the story?

I'd suggest to consider telling the reader a race anyway because:-

- it might matter without us realising, in any reader's mind
- if the main character is written from the writer's own racial position it is being up-front about it and aiding interpretation
- it's an opportunity to represent and engage based on research
- it might produce unexpected results (e.g. if there is some scene that the character interprets or navigates differently)

Lastly there is a whole category of fantasy stories where humanity unites against a common foe, or otherwise transcends racial differences - mentioning characters' races may or may not make it easier to show race not mattering - but it's a valid approach.

 

OP, you'll forgive me for saying so, but if you change the race of a character simply to meet what you perceive a certain section of the readership want, rather than doing so to meet the needs of the story, what you will end up with is a completely interchangeable character.

What I mean by that is, apart from a name and a mention of their race, your character might as well be a white American. He will act and react the same way that he would if he was a white American. So ask yourself, what's the point of that?

 

I'm curious to know who these SJW's are that have you so concerned.