January 4, 2005
Q: "In Mark Rosewater’s articles about the new slices of the color pie (’Seeing Red’, ’The Great White Way’, etc.) he gave examples at the end of each article of people or characters who are stereotypical of their respective color. In his article, ’In the Black’ he made mention that the color black is not inherently evil. However, he did not give an example character for the color black who was not a bad guy, villan, or bad seed. My question is who would you at Ask Wizards classify as a ’good guy’ for the color black? Someone who can be classified as a hero. (Note: Bart Simpson does not count as his motives for saving the day at any point are simply to cover his own butt.)"
-- Charles
Providence, Rhode Island
A: From Mark Rosewater, Magic Head Designer:
"Charles,
"I think you’re asking something of a leading question. You’re asking me to provide an example of a black character with white motivations. I obviously can’t do that. Black is motivated by self-interest. That doesn’t mean it’s inherently evil. One’s motivation is very different from one’s actions. White villains believe they are performing a greater good. Black heroes don’t set out to do greater good, it just happens as they’re saving their own butt. This, of course, begs the larger question about which is more important: the intention of doing good or the actual act of doing good. I obviously believe the latter. This means that I can only list black heroes if we define ’hero’ by the actions of the character as opposed to the motivation. If your definition of hero is ’somone who selflessly acts to help others’ then I can’t list a black hero because selflessness flies directly into black’s center motivation. If though you’re looking for black characters that are generally perceived as positive and are viewed favorably by the public, then I can help you. And if you want examples of black heroes that save the day even while having very black motives, I can help you there as well.
"The first camp are black characters that function as protagonists. That is, while self-motivated they serve as characters that the audience likes. Examples of this are:
* Bart Simpson from The Simpsons
* The cast of Seinfeld (save Kramer)
* Daffy Duck
* Donald Duck
* The Howells from Gilligan’s Island
* George Jefferson from The Jeffersons
* Quark from Deep Space Nine
* Lex Luthor from Smallville (I’m listing this one as this incarantion of Lex is likable)
"Next are characters that perform some greater good even though their motivation was self-interest:
* Thomas Covenant
* Elric
* Toshi Umezawa (the hero of the Kamigawa story)
* Young Han Solo
* Any character in a vegeance film where he spends the entire film killing everyone involved for killing his lover ones and/or trying to kill him
"Hopefully, this has given you a better insight into black’s ’nicer’ side."
引用元
ASK WIZARDS - JANUARY, 2005 Posted in Feature on January 3, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/ask-wizards-january-2005-2005-01-03
WotCに送られた質問に答える記事"ASK WIZARDS"から、神河関連のものを見ていきます。
マローが記事（※１）の中で、「黒は本質的に悪ではない」と述べたことについて、「黒であり、かつ悪でないキャラクターは、例えばどのようなものか？」という質問がきました。
この点について、まず重要なのは「黒は自己中心的な動機を持っている。しかし、動機と行動は大きく異なる」ということです。白は善が動機ですが、その行動が善とは限りません。同様に、黒の動機が自己中心的だからといって、その行動が善でないとは限りません。
ここでマローが挙げているのは、「他人を助けるために無私の行動をする人」ではなく、「動機が利己的でも、一般の人々に好意的に見られている人」ということです。
その１つが、「自己中心的でありながら、観客に好かれるキャラクターとして機能しているキャラクター」であり、もう１つが、「動機が私利私欲であったにもかかわらず、より大きな善を行うキャラクター」です。
その後者の例として、《梅澤俊郎/Toshiro Umezawa》が挙げられています。自分の命を最優先に行動する、典型的な黒のキャラクターなのですが、様々な出来事に巻き込まれた結果、「神の乱」を終わらせる上で重要な役割を果たしました。まさに、「黒」ではあるが「悪役」ではないキャラクターと言えます。
※１
IN THE BLACK Posted in Making Magic on February 2, 2004
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr109
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