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Wasn't it said that Leo was from Maranda? There aren't any black people in that area, at least not shown ingame - now unless Kefka's a crazy racist and exterminated every black person on the continent save Leo, I'm going to say he's white.

As for Dadaluma and Vargas...THAT makes things interesting. My first thought was "there aren't any black guys IN FF6, so if Leo were black it'd make no sense - why would there only be one black guy in the entire world? THAT would be the epitome of "token black guy"". I voted Caucasian, but now I'm not so sure...hmm...

I would say with all those campaigns out in the sun Leo is definatly a tanned General. Barret was the first character that was recognised as a black man in the Final Fantasy series.

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I've kinda always thought of Vargas as a really dark-skinned Hispanic kinda dude

Same here. I don't know... his face and flowing hair always just reminded me more of a tanned, perhaps hispanic, character.

Anyway, to be on topic... I consider Leo to be a young, white general. Having a greyish hue in one's menu picture doesn't make one black, I'm sorry. I mean, look at the pictures of black enemies in the game... their skin color is a completely different hue than Leo's menu picture. Therefore, I am going to stick with him being white.

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Je ne t'aime plus,
Mon amour...

Je ne t'aime plus,
Tous les jours...

Vargas is a Hispanic name, and he is dark skinned, but he's also Duncans son. And since Duncan and his wife are both white...well, I dunno.

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Blood & Fire

Well, as for Duncan and his wife being white-skinned, there are a lot of white-skinned Hispanics. And (yes, I know, this is a fantasy world) there are, as I recall, six genes that contribute to skin color, each specifying one degree of dark/light. Many Africans have darker skin because they have more than three of these genes set to dark.

Now Leo might also have three or more of these genes set to dark, according to Amano's picture. Not that I agree with this, since I think the game's sprites are more reliable in this sense (as they are with Celes's clothing), and I think that these coloration genes would be passed on with something else. Those people who know biology can talk about stuff like crossing-over and whatnot, but what surprises me is that given his skin color, Leo doesn't look anything else like an African-American. His hair and mustache are blond (like that of many white men).

I just checked his picture again (in the link that I posted) and realized this: Leo looks like a white guy with dark (brown) areas covering significant portions of his face. His hands, his forehead, and his nose are definitely light-skinned; he might have acquired his face coloration by previous combat injuries, for example. I think Amano meant him to be a scarred white/Caucasian man. It's just the menu portrait that has caused all this confusion (as well as some nice fanart!).

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I believe we are dwelling upon this WAY to much. I'll say it. WHo cares. The only FF character that ever acted the Streotypical Black Man was Barret. (Note STEREOTYPICAL) Apologies to any offended by lack of PC

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

Quote (MogMaster @ 23rd February 2004 14:38)

I believe we are dwelling upon this WAY to much. I'll say it. WHo cares. The only FF character that ever acted the Streotypical Black Man was Barret. (Note STEREOTYPICAL) Apologies to any offended by lack of PC

A lot of us care, actually. That's why this thread was created. This site was first created for FFVI, so naturally we'd like to see how other people view the characters.

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"Luck is my middle name. Mind you, my first name is Bad." - Rincewind

You can be as self-assertive as you like, just so long as you do what you’re told.” - Granny Weatherwax

"When Mr. Safety Catch Is Not On, Mister Crossbow Is Not Your Friend" - Sam Vimes to Detritus

Quote (The Raging Newbie @ 11th February 2004 19:40)

as previously mentioned there are no black people in FFVI. Unless of course you consider Leo black.

a few ppl say that leo isnt black because there arent any others
but again i must ask, why you have forgotten about Shadow? he is
(my favorite character) both black in his profile and in the sprite! ha beat that foolish mortal!

I have the official strategy guide, which has loads of amano art. But no Leo.

The General Leo amano art link didn't work for me either.

Does anyone know where I can find amano art on the internet, and especially the amano art for General Leo?

Thanx in advance.

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''The modern dictators are reviving a very ancient and encrusted way of life.''
[WHAT I THINK, Adlai Stevenson]

Hey, gang...first time poster here (on this forum, that is)...OOOooold school FFVI fan, though, and it's been a staple of my diet since the moment I first laid eyes on it...okay enough testimonial crap...

I hate to see any topic get disrupted by someone saying "why does it matter?" It sort of takes the fun out of it for starters, and second of all, it's a moot question. If people are talking about it, then that probably means that it matters to them, so why ask why? I think it's great that after all these years there is such a following for this game, and that it's still getting the respect it deserves in a world of razzle dazzle flashy next generation RPG's. A game this old, by this point in time, will have had most aspects of it discussed in one way or the other, so occasionally there will be an obscure topic like this that may not interest everyone, but it's still interesting, and it's still fun, in my opinion.

Okay...I'll shut up for now... I may as well submit my answer on this topic while I'm here...I agree with the point of view that Leo is just a very dark skinned, weathered looking "white" person. I hate the portrait too...in fact, I can't help but visit the menu screen over and over when I'm playing as him just to look at how bad it is. At least he has a nose, though, unlike the FFT crew...

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You know me, you just wish you didn't...

"Uwee hee hee! Don't tease the octopus, kids!" -Ultros-

"Don't let the smooth taste fool you..."

Welcome Majik Monkee!

I agree that the face does not look good... It does, however, seem to have the shape and form of a negro face.

One thing I've almost always thought was that the reason his sprite isn't black is because it would look extremely out of place and very odd in a game full of white sprites. Also, it goes along with the fact that his palette is the same palette as Edgar, Sabin, Celes, and the Imp (I forget who mentioned it first, but someone did before me). It's possible the game ran out of space for palette information and had to go with that one because it has blond hair.

Also, to suddenly enter an entire village of black people when everyone else you've seen throughout the game has been white, it would really appear odd, and it could potentially look as though the people have been isolated from society, since, if you look at the map from this site, the village (Maranda) is way off on its own in the South-West. That would not look good on Square's behalf.

So, there's my opinion. Perhaps if Squenix remakes this game in some form or another, General Leo and all the inhabitants of Maranda (plus some more people, possibly) will be black. But until then, we can discuss to our hearts' content!

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--sbq92 <><

I think one thing that bothers me about the portrait, even more than the strange coloration, is the fact that the portrait doesn't portray Leo's very well. By that, I mean that in dialogue and action, he seems to be a very confident and determined and powerful character, but in the portrait, he not only looks a little strange, but he looks worried or uncertain. Something closer to Sabin's portrait would have done him more justice...there's no question just looking at Sabin's portrait that he's strong willed, determined, and all that good stuff. Locke's portrait portrays him as kind of sly and charming. Leo, if you had never seen him in the rest of the game and just saw his portrait, would probably not come off looking very good. A picture says a thousand words, and a good portrait can speak volumes about a character, in my opinion. Tough luck, Leo!

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You know me, you just wish you didn't...

"Uwee hee hee! Don't tease the octopus, kids!" -Ultros-

"Don't let the smooth taste fool you..."

Quote (ShadowBlade @ 1st March 2004 19:08)

Quote (The Raging Newbie @ 11th February 2004 19:40)

as previously mentioned there are no black people in FFVI. Unless of course you consider Leo black.

a few ppl say that leo isnt black because there arent any others
but again i must ask, why you have forgotten about Shadow? he is
(my favorite character) both black in his profile and in the sprite! ha beat that foolish mortal!

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

In the flashbacks Shadow has to his life as Clyde, he doesn't look very black to me.

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Blood & Fire

Quote (The Raging Newbie @ 3rd March 2004 00:43)

Quote (ShadowBlade @ 1st March 2004 19:08)

Quote (The Raging Newbie @ 11th February 2004 19:40)

as previously mentioned there are no black people in FFVI. Unless of course you consider Leo black.

a few ppl say that leo isnt black because there arent any others
but again i must ask, why you have forgotten about Shadow? he is
(my favorite character) both black in his profile and in the sprite! ha beat that foolish mortal!

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

In the flashbacks Shadow has to his life as Clyde, he doesn't look very black to me.

*nod* I always thought that sprite was weird, but I went on the Clyde sprite. I thought it was just shadow veiling Shadow's face from his ninja hat. Or face paint. Or something.

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"Luck is my middle name. Mind you, my first name is Bad." - Rincewind

You can be as self-assertive as you like, just so long as you do what you’re told.” - Granny Weatherwax

"When Mr. Safety Catch Is Not On, Mister Crossbow Is Not Your Friend" - Sam Vimes to Detritus

I know I'm nitpicking here, but in the Amano concept drawings Shadow is dark skinned, yes. But if you look closely he is actually a dark purplish color, and not a dark brown color, like a mullato per se.

Based on that I think that shadows dark skin is more like a shadow or something like that.

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''The modern dictators are reviving a very ancient and encrusted way of life.''
[WHAT I THINK, Adlai Stevenson]

What the heck... IT IS Impossible for him to be African American Like everyone said before there is no Africa or America in ffvi.


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- The problem isn't relgion, the problem is religious tolerance -

Look... it's another way of saying "black" or "white", Dark_Kain.

Anyway, I think he's white, and furthermore, I think Square probably meant him to be reminiscent of Leon Trotsky (hence a Russian) like GM Harvey brought up in a previous thread.

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Get me off this Disciplinary Committee so I can play any FF except for FF8!!!

I'm firstly wondering why people are using real-world country names when we're talking about a fantasy world. Hohoho...I in such a sense it's probably not right to call him ANY of those terms, since they don't exist in the game.
Aron Figaro said Leo was from Maranda, so why don't we just call him a Marandan??

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Student of CCS, Grandmaster of Alternative Literature and Musical Passionista at your service!!!

For reference, here's Leo's Amano pic:



And I don't think that many, if any, black people have blonde hair. Of course, as had been said many-a-time, it seems that Amano wanted just about everyone to have blonde hair...

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Wow. 1,000 posts.

I miss you all now that I'm in boarding school! ;_;

He's Cacausion all the way. HE UISNT BLACK. I REPEAT...ISNT. his skin is wayyyyyyy to light

Leo is white. There was never doubt in my mind about that until I saw some of the fanart here (which while valid, is taking some MAJOR artistic liberties).

And yeah, Vargas is definately supposed to look Hispanic. Hell, there's a state in Venezuela called Vargas. As for why he looks that way despite his father... well, I like to think that there were a limited number of "Random NPC" sprites or they simply never thought about it.

That's all I have to say about that.

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"Nothing can beat the music of hundreds of voices screaming in unison!" - Kefka

Really, for all we can tell, Duncan may be an elderly "Hispanic" (there we go with the real world terms again) looking gentleman...it's really tough to pick out any distinct features based on just the town map character sprites and without a portrait. Vargas has always looked like a Hispanic to me, and I never thought twice about if it made any sense based on what his father was. Speaking of Vargas, one of my favorite points in the game is when he's speaking to Sabin, and he's a large, well drawn enemy sprite, and Sabin is one of the tiny super deformed FF player characters...he looks like a baby compared to Vargas, and yet the Pummel puts the smackdown on him just like that...funny!

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You know me, you just wish you didn't...

"Uwee hee hee! Don't tease the octopus, kids!" -Ultros-

"Don't let the smooth taste fool you..."

Skin color has never been mentioned in any Square game that I know of and for a reason. It's our conventions and the way we have developed as a species that have created the needs for a distinction. I'd like to assume that the world in which Final Fantasy takes place features such a rainbow of colors that it would be stupid to consider someone "white" or "black". In other words with a lack of racial discrimination has led to such a varied scale of skin colors that noone who is in that world is even aware of what their "color" would be considered. It is a fantasy world after all. Have you seen some of the square character's hair?

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"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

That is a valid way to see it within the context of the game, but we're trying to extrapolate how these characters would fit into our own little ethnic classifications in real life, be they real or subjective. (Studies of gene variation across 'races' indicates the latter to be much more probable.)

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"Nothing can beat the music of hundreds of voices screaming in unison!" - Kefka

He is white but he cant be cucasion because their are no caucus mtns. i ignor the menu pics because they all look odd in comparison to the rest of the world.

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There is a time and a place for everything, and I am niether

I voted white...and I'll tell you why.

There has never been a black character designed for a Final Fantasy by Amano.

OK Kiros? Barret? Neither were created by Amano, Amano designed the worlds for FF7 and FF8.

That's why I think Leo is white....I also think that the "moustache" in his portrait are, in fact, his lips...I've seen another Amano sketch of Leo where his lips were definitely thick and yellow.

I think General Leo had an African American mother and a Caucasian father. I've seen people who have that same basic skin color (in Amano's pic) and they had mixed parents.



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"It is a part of human nature to be evil, and it is a part of human nature to destroy evil, therefore, when evil is destroyed, so will be the human race..."
- Atma

Just to mention: there's nothing wrong with calling FF characters African, White, Hispanic, Russian or whatever. The groups of people in FF games are inspired by the groups of people here on the real earth. If we can't call Leo Caucasian then we can't even call him human, since the characters technically are independently evolved creatures that just happen to look exactly like us. Hence they're really Final Fantasians... but let's just call them humans and Orientals etc. etc. to make sense. They are based on us real folks.

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Get me off this Disciplinary Committee so I can play any FF except for FF8!!!

Maybe it's off-topic, but the dwarfs from FFIV were blacks, weren't they?

To be on-topic, I would say that Leo is hispanic, he just have Amanoism. It's a frequent illness in the Final Fantasy multiverse that affects many people. One day, they wake up with blond hair. Seriously, Amano could at least make an effort to make them with different hair color.

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«À l'aventure compagnons, je suis parti vers l'horizon! J'aurais mieux fait de rester au lit, ce donjon, il est pourri!» - Pen of Chaos

He is Caucasian.