Characters that aren't your race that you relate to.

[mrblakemiller]

Firstly, there's only one 'race' and that's Human. What you mean is Ethnicity. But everyone makes that mistake so I'll forgive you.

From Dictionary.reference.com:

Spoiler: The definition

race2 [reys] Show IPA
noun
1.
a group of persons related by common descent or heredity.
2.
a population so related.
3.
Anthropology .
a.
any of the traditional divisions of humankind, the commonest being the caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negro, characterized by supposedly distinctive and universal physical characteristics: no longer in technical use.
b.
an arbitrary classification of modern humans, sometimes, especially formerly, based on any or a combination of various physical characteristics, as skin color, facial form, or eye shape, and now frequently based on such genetic markers as blood groups.
c.
a human population partially isolated reproductively from other populations, whose members share a greater degree of physical and genetic similarity with one another than with other humans.
4.
a group of tribes or peoples forming an ethnic stock: the Slavic race.
5.
any people united by common history, language, cultural traits, etc.: the Dutch race.

You can make the assertion, but to tell people that used the word correctly that they didn't... ENGLISH MAJOR POWERS, ACTIVATE!

I immediately thought of Mordin Solus, though I'm not really much like him, I just bawled when he died. After a few minutes, the next one that came up was Dr. Foreman from House, I guess since he's the one in the first few seasons most likely to think House is a jerk and is doing something wrong.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Sazh. From Final Fantasy 13. I know. "That game is shit! Burn it. Heretic! The characters were horrible!"
I'm not here to defend the game. Partly as I disliked it by and large.

But Sazh was one relatable character. While he seems to be a bit lost at first, we soon learn that he's trying to save his son from a fate worse than death. Even if it puts himself in danger. After becoming a L'Cie he even plans to turn himself over just to see his son one last time.

Then, he sort of stumbles into the boy, who looks ecstatic to see his father before turning into crystal. Now, confused and heartbroken, he learns that the girl with him was more or less responsible for his son's fate. And for a moment, he considers killing her. And himself.

So yeah, I understood him. Even without sharing something as trivial as skin color.

Fuck yes this. So much. Sazh is a serious contender for my favorite character in a game ever, mostly because he just wants to be a good dad, but also because he's a really well grounded character and I really like his design. He is so great. Almost everything else in that game was absolutely terrible, but Sazh was awesome.

OT- If fantasy races count, Sten, because Sten is the bestest. Otherwise Sazh, for the reasons mentioned above.

 

[Headsprouter]

I feel I relate to "monsters" more than I relate to people a lot of the time, but I suppose I identify with Louis from Left 4 Dead much more than any of the other characters, because his ill-founded optimism, panicky reactions and general "Hey, that's how any average Joe would react to the apocalypse!" kind of stuff.

Eh, it's not the best example, but I mostly came just to make the point that I actually prefer to play monsters, the more removed from humanity, the more interesting the experience.

 

[Frankster]

Dont consider race important in my characters for the most part, its more a question of there not being enough non white protagonists for me to remember playing...

Out of the top of my head i had no problems relating to Louie in l4d (he looks just like my postman ), Lee from walking dead and...I really can't think of anymore recent ones.

Ah Lee from walking dead, it would take the most hardcore holocaust denying rascist nazi to hate you.

 

[darron13]

Well I'm not white, black, American, Japanese, Heterosexual though I am male (which is one of the few things I have in common with most videogame characters), yet I still relate with many of them.
I don't think it's as hard as most people think it is, not that I'd mind having some with more matching traits.

 

[redknightalex]

If you had added in gender I could have made a whole thread based on the number of characters I can relate to/understand seeing as the majority of gaming protagonists and TV leads are men. I have no problem relating to many of the characters I play so... *shrug*

Although someone did mention Connor from ACIII and that's a good pick. Once you got along in the stories you realized things weren't as black and white as the previous entries and, by about 3/4 through the main story, I wanted Connor to join the Templars. Hell, they even seem like the lesser of two evils in that story and poor Connor got nothing but a homestead. For all it's glitches, the story did make some sense (discounting those last five minutes about Desmond....)

 

[Torque2100]

Honestly I don't see people's race when I look at them. I judge them from how they act, and how they carry themselves not what their skintone is. Probably the most relatable character from a different race was Jacob Taylor from Mass Effect 2. I found a lot to like in this character and still don't get all the hate he seems to have inspired. He was a good man with his own emotional issues but wasn't afraid to confront them.