: Re: Archetype or Stereotype? After feedback on character design for my visual novel, my grizzled Noir Detective is drifting into an Old Jazz Musician. There's a reason I post the artwork: what

@Sarah872

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When I think of archetypes, I think of universals like "The Mother," "The Father," "The Goddess," or "The Priest." I think what you're talking about, rather, are "stock characters", familiar character types that are used in many different stories by many different authors. Different cultures have their own stock characters, and so do different genres.

Stock characters are not always bad to use. Gilbert & Sullivan musicals, which I love, are almost entirely peopled with stock characters, as are Agatha Christie novels. The problem that you're dealing with here, however, is the fact that the overwhelming majority of the black stock characters in American popular culture are burdened with quite a lot of unwanted racial and racist stereotypes, and tend to call forth deeply problematic reactions from the audience.

Unfortunately there's no quick and easy way around this. As I see it, your (legitimate) choices are (a) to not use a stock character at all --that is, to create an original, non-stereotyped, multi-dimensional character -- (b) to (as @Amadeus suggests) subvert or drastically alter the stereotypes, or (c) to directly wrestle with the racial issues (the most difficult option, and one probably best embarked upon with ample help from someone who knows the black experience from the inside). In any of these cases, you might also want to stop and take the time to ponder your own motivations, and why this character appeals to you in the first place. It might also be worth tweaking your character design a bit so it doesn't so easily match people's preconceptions.

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