Episode 52: The best game with a ginger protagonist

The Best Games Ever Podcast

Welcome to the Best Games Ever show Episode 52: the best game with a ginger protagonist.

Cal Kestis of Star Wars: Jedi Survivor is just the latest in a long line of Gaming Redheads, an esteemed group that includes such celebrated characters as Official Femshep, Joanna Dark, and what's-her-face out of Heavenly Sword. And it makes me swell with pride to see this proud tradition continuing.

Listen. I'm not even a proper ginger, but my beard has the reddish hue of muddled European stock, and I look a bit auburn with edge lighting, so I think that basically makes me part of the ginger community. Therefore I can confidently say that growing up ginger, especially in the UK, is a mixed bag. As prejudices go, it's a fairly innocuous one to be at the receiving end of: mostly just daft banter, nothing particularly harrowing or sinister. But you are relentlessly considered fair game. Barely a day goes by where you don't hear a joke about gingers on the TV. It's a feature of your genetics that marks you out for endless ribbing and bullying, but it so rarely tips over into anything more sinister that it feels almost petty to complain about it. It's not remotely like living as part of a minority that experiences real prejudice, racism, or persecution. And so, the Ginger Experience is sort of like living with a permanently stuck sneeze: a source of perennial bother that you can't do anything about.

Where we are endowed with enormous privilege, though, is in representation in the media. Loads of the coolest people alive are gingers. Bryce Dallas Howard, Conan O'Brien, Shirley Manson, Michael friggin' Fassbender? The list is endless. Nicole Kidman, there's another one. Damien Lewis. Ed, er, Ed Sheeran. Um. Ignore that one, we're not claiming him. The point is, gingers do pretty well in the media, and enjoy much more positive representation than plenty of other minority groups. This holds double true for the world of video games, where you can't swing a sporran without smacking a dozen ginger protagonists. There are more ginger video game characters than there are people in Wales. Probably. I haven't done the numbers. For a group that makes up less than two percent of the global population, we do extraordinarily well at getting ourselves on screen. But which is the best game with a Ginger protagonist? Our panellists, as we've discussed, have a bounty of options for this one. But which redheaded games stand above the rest? And how exactly is everyone interpreting the word "ginger"? Who, out of Kelsey, Connor, and Tom, is going to be this week's biggest smart-arse?

In order to find out, you need to watch or listen to this podcast here. Handily, we have an absurd number of ways of doing so below:

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