04-23-2018, 10:01 AM | #21 |
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Barring extreme exceptions, no, I don't think ancient Japanese ninja clans would be very... indiscriminate or secular.
Japanese and Japanese Americans who are vouched for by "old family." Nobody else.
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04-23-2018, 11:38 AM | #22 |
Overlord
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Only Asians are really good at martial arts, especially in a deadly clan, so it should only be Japanese.
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04-23-2018, 11:42 AM | #23 |
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It's not about ability, it's about people they can absolutely trust, absolutely. "Old school Japanese" don't really do that with any gaijin... like, at all. And we know The Foot is an ancient Japanese clan because we've literally seen its formation in Feudal Japan. You don't see any random dudes in the Yakuza.
It's when we get into stuff like (versions of) the Foot having, like, open recruitment for random white dudes off the streets of New York, or things like having Karai or Saki openly employing characters like Bebop and Rocksteady in their ranks that I lose any ability to take it seriously. I mean, think about it. If you're Oroku Saki, who are you going to trust? Are you going to trust Jason Anderson, who you trained for a couple weeks and is now one of your Foot Soldiers, isn't going to rat out your whole criminal organization the first time he gets caught by the police (or worse, go in with a wire and bust you directly)? Are you going to trust Kenshin Hayabusa, whose grandfather in Japan vouches for him, whose whole family you know and trust from the old country, is probably going to slit his own wrists before doing that? It'd be the latter. It would always be the latter. It would never be the former.
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04-23-2018, 11:43 AM | #24 | ||
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2.If you were trying to gain intelligence in say an eastern European country it would make more sense to send in someone who can blend into a background which you can't really do if you see in a full bloodied Japanese. 3. Most of the time the Foot are used as cannon fodder so there is only so many of Japanese or Japanese Americans who are vouched by "old family". Quote:
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04-23-2018, 01:05 PM | #25 |
Overlord
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In the Mirage comics in Tales they did show "white" New Yorkers being recruited to become Foot. The same thing happens in the first two movies, where Keno goes undercover to join the Foot Clan, and Casey did the same thing in the first movies. In 4kids/Nick it was also pretty much stated Purple Dragons or other street punks in New York were recruited to become Foot Soldiers eventually.
I mean if you have a NY branch of the Foot, logically you wouldn't expect them to all be Japanese. It's easier to infiltrate businesses and to do drug/weapons trading with native New Yorkers who know the area than some foreign Japanese. |
04-23-2018, 02:11 PM | #26 |
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I've never thought about it, but I guess I don't care. I mean, with Shredder living in NYC and all it's hard to amass a huge army of foot soldiers with just Japanese nationals. Plus, he often forms alliances or cooperates with other underworld groups. Hun was one of his most trustworthy men in the 2k3 series, for example.
And it's not like you really know what 99.9% of the foot look like behind their masks, anyway. |
04-23-2018, 02:16 PM | #27 | |
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The idea that a fictional clan of ninjas has to be discriminatory in a historically/culturally realistic manner in a world where we are also asked to believe in aliens, sentient robots, and talking animals that teach each other martial arts through books and muscle memory is kind of...funny, to say the least.
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04-23-2018, 02:21 PM | #28 | ||||
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But I guess the foot could have non-Japanese people in it but only in the lower ranks. The higher ranks would be exclusive to Japanese people. Quote:
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04-23-2018, 03:21 PM | #29 | |
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04-23-2018, 03:26 PM | #30 |
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I think of it as "depends on which sector".
Of course in Japan, they're going to be more Japanese on account of the population being so homogeneous. But, in an area like New York, it's probably going to be a lot harder to find people with Japanese ancestry (which is part of why I think a Los Angeles-centered alternate universe would be pretty interesting) - and a lot easier to find "White Nerds" who would jump at the chance to join a ninja clan - even if they mostly end up cannon fodder, and the dozens of street gangs that would probably agree to being part of something bigger and more powerful than them. It makes sense that they'd be diverse out of necessity, rather than the "just because" factor.
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04-23-2018, 03:34 PM | #31 | ||
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Ninjas blend.
There are certainly benefits to having folks in your organization that can blend into a variety of situations and locations. With that in mind, I'm not particularly bothered by The Foot recruiting folks from a variety of backgrounds. From a writing perspective, if the Foot Clan was going to be ethnically homogeneous, then I'd be sure to add some other characters of that ethnicity who aren't bad guys. Otherwise you get Season II Daredevil, and...we deserve better than that.
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04-23-2018, 03:38 PM | #32 | |
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Could they have included "Ryu, the helpful supporting Japanese character" that season to counterbalance the evil Japanese ninja clan? Sure. But they didn't, and who cares.
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04-23-2018, 06:00 PM | #33 | |
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I personally think that would't work, it would be very hard to have a Japanese person representing the "France" branch or the "Dubai" branch also I doubt the non-Japanese Foot would be happy that the higher up positions would only be open to people of Japanese blood.
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04-23-2018, 10:00 PM | #34 | |
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Well the upper ranks would be... Shredder and Karai basically. Doubt most of the foot clan members, Japanese or not, would want to rule it and become the next Shredder. So I doubt there'd be much tension among them. |
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04-24-2018, 12:35 AM | #35 |
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First off, the idea of the modern
Foot clan being around is ridiculous, no ninja clan survived the meji restoration, period. Second, the whole don't trust gaijin this is historically B.S... Japanese clan employed, befriended, and trusted gajin, and even adopted them into thier clans throughout Japanese history. "Honor"in Japan and the surrounding countries wasn't really about what you did and how you acted, it was how people thought you acted. You adopt bob the samurai into your clan? Perfectly fine, as long as you hide it from the other clans. Avenging cousin Ryus death? You hated cousin ryu, but you make the effort to make the appearance of trying to avenge him. In Japan, clan honor was never about duty and obligations, it was about the appearance of duty and obligation, "saving face". So the foot eould, at best, only pay lip Service to "dont trust gaijin" |
04-24-2018, 12:51 AM | #36 | |
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04-24-2018, 12:54 PM | #37 |
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Widening their sphere of influence by absorbing their clients directly? Just a guess.
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04-24-2018, 02:35 PM | #38 | |
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Things are never black and white. Even if a clan on principle would be against gaijins joining, they'd always make an exception to the rule or two if they felt they really needed to. Making some connections with local New Yorkers only seems wise to me. In the Sopranos I think Tony didn't like black people much, but yet he had some black business associates, for example. |
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04-24-2018, 02:39 PM | #39 | |
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Or these guys?
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04-24-2018, 02:39 PM | #40 | ||
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I mean in most incarnations the Foot absorbs The Purple Dragon so why not them.
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