You have to remember that We are on a early 2000 forum for a english speaking audience, for a lot People here colonization is not that of a big deal.
So an australian leader that wanted an Australia for the White Man is fine for ex
Ignoring the matter of how much validity your argument has the first place (let's not draw modly ire again), I do not see how this would be relevant anyway.
Civilization's goal is to play history, play through history, and play
with history. Not just the good parts. All the parts. Europe's colonial powers ruled almost the entire world between them, and were enormously influential through that and even after the mass independence movements across the world, the colonial history still shines through across the Americas and Africa in particular. Colonization, and it's most influential figures,
should be in the game, simply because it's so important in history.
Leaders (and civilizations) should not be picked based on how much we like them, or how moral they were, but rather the influence they had.
For example, I consider communism to be a terrible ideology that almost guarantees widespread power abuse and worse, but Karl Marx as a leader? I'd love it! Because that man has had an
incredible impact on political thought across the modern era.
I'd rather see Ferdowsi than a fictional foreign queen.
I would like to point out that the bible tends to (at least in the basics) be rather more accurate on history than most people assume - for example, there is good proof that David and Solomon existed (although Solomon's wealth is likely exaggerated), and there is even an argument to be made in favor of the Israelites having been slaves in Egypt, although that is by no means a settled debate.
That said, I agree that Esther would be a bad choice as leader of Persia. But the thing is... we don't
have leaders associated with specific civilizations anymore! And Esther
would make a good leader if you look at her association with the Jews instead.
Speaking of which, I think Civ VII's design would make it a lot more doable to represent Israel/the Jews without being too controversial than any previous game - you could either have Israel as an Antiquity civilization (thus clearly separating it from modern Israel), or indeed have Esther as a leader without any specific Israel civilization (because that doesn't need to be 1-to-1 anymore, either). Perhaps she could even have thematic bonuses towards protecting minorities or something like that - after all, her story is traditionally considered to be the first time Jewish genocide was attempted.
(I say "traditionally considered" because the bible also says that Egypt was killing all Israelite boys on birth in Moses' time, which is also a form of genocide)
This is a terrible, terrible, terrible idea
Aisha is actually quite an interesting historical character, and she was very influential in spreading Islam.
That said, it's probably far too easy for online discourse to completely degrade if she's included...
But he'd be difficult to connect to a civ even obliquely since the civilization connected to the Avesta is still uncertain, though they were probably located in Afghanistan.
