Avoiding Mighty Whitey.

I recently got an idea for a series of short stories, and I want to go through with them, but, sadly, Unfortunate Implications has to rear its ugly head.

Basically, it takes place in Japan during the 1800's, and deals with samuari, ninjas, and maybe a few supernatural elements here and there. The protagonist is an ex bandit who, after causing the death of a child, becomes The Atoner and starts protecting the innocent. The thing is, my protagonist is a white american cowboy who lives in Japan. His guilt was so immesnse that he tried to move as far away as possible.

I want him to be a Bad Ass gunslinger and Magnificent Bastard, like The Man With No Name and other classic Western heroes, but I also don't want play Mighty Whitey straight. How can I make him Bad Ass without accidentally slipping up?

Intro other characters that are at least as badass and magnificent bastardy as him. Trope is about how the foreigner wears the hat better than anyone else on the Planet of Hats.

If he just happens to be an outsider that's badass, alongside the other badasses already hanging around, then problem solved, non?

edited 6th Jun '16 6:18:12 PM by Eagal

Make him black?

1800s Japan was a reaaally strict and conservative country. If this is set before 1853, then Japan would also still be deeply isolationist, and would absolutely not welcome some random American, unless said American took great pains to assimilate into Japanese culture. Otherwise, he'd probably run afoul of the first samurai he met, and get his head cut off for his troubles.

If it's set post-1853, then America would have recently forced Japan to open its ports to outside trade, followed by both America and many European imperial powers forcing free trade and travel treaties on the Japanese people. Your American would be allowed into the country, but even then they'd be on very thin ice, since a lot of local Japanese lords hated the foreign powers for trampling all over their country. If your American was particularly unlucky, he might even get caught up in the Boshin War, where Japanese armies clashed with imported Western weaponry and tactics.

Moreover, this whole idea makes no sense. If you wanted to write a story about Samurai and Ninjas and "supernatural elements", the 1800s is the worst possible century to do it in. That was the century when Japan's feudal era ended, when the decadent Samurai class was dismantled entirely, when Japan put away its swords and took up mass gunnery, when ancient mysticism was swept aside by Western rationalism and progressivism. And these changes happened insanely fast, by the way: within 50 years of America forcing Japan to open its borders, the country had its own railway system, its own parliament, its own national armed forces, and had set its eyes on its Asiatic neighbours with a mind towards building an empire like those of the Western powers.

edited 8th Jun '16 1:28:26 AM by Tungsten74

Be realistic. Have the women absolutely horrified and repulsed by him.

I don't know. Periods of rapid transition are usually excellent periods to set stories in. Not to mention, under heavy threat of getting your head cut off is an excellent situation to have a traveller in a strange land type story. Tons of culture shock to explore.

As was said above, make the character black, female or native american, and make sure that the samurai and ninja are sufficiently badass and sufficiently cultured and capable and ethical as well.

Jesus, sounds like I need to do more research.

Despite the name, the Mighty Whitey trope is not restricted to white people.

The character would be just as much of an example if he were black or native american.

Also bear in mind that a mighty whitey tends to be better than the natives at their own skills, and frequently knows what's best for them, the poor noble savages. Avoiding this particular pitfall isn't all that difficult. Other than that, I'd say having the guy be a master gunslinger is par for the course, no different from how Jackie Chan can whoop any cowboy's ass. All in all, keep the guy good at stereotypical cowboy skills - gunfighting, lassoing etc. - and there probably won't be any red flags.

And yeah, you might want to set the story back a few centuries if you want a genuine cowboy in Kurosawa-land experience.

Perhaps it could be done in a manner similar to Red Dead Redemption; a story about the encroachment of modernity on society and of those who are doomed to be left behind in a rapidly changing world, something that applies both to the archetypal Western outlaw and the Samurai in this time period.