#Asian characters can exist in a modern setting they can exist in a Western setting

[idkthisismyusernameiguess]

Could the Ace Attorney fandom stop pretending that Phoenix Wright or Miles Edgeworth or any of the main cast is white? Idgaf if the localized version is set in America. Asian Americans exist. You are consuming a piece of Asian-made media, not everything is about white people

[muchanmocha]

Y'know seeing the toxic reactions after Wiege about how it's toxic romance apologism and apparently racism allegations cuz "yeah the POC lady get killed cuz of white man" from fans is what's so bad for me cuz I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of what the creators wanted to convey, yes I hated Luka cuz to be fair, he was a fairly destructive villain and he was terrible to gaslight Mizi during their performance like that but it doesn't mean he can't have a core understanding perspective as a character cuz now we know more than enough that this man is broken and he wasn't raised to be any better but he has the potential to change

Okay I heard about Studio Lico producing works like Manhwas where they sometimes have racist writing but it's definitely not the case for ALNST and I don't think racism has anything to do with Hyuna and Luka's story, it's just the bullshit modern western audience has been having on Twitter

I also want to say that ALNST drives down the realistic horrors of trauma and love, the so-called toxic romance fits but what Hyuna and Luka have aren't just about romance, it's about two people who are deeply hurt and are major victims of a hurting system and it ended up ruining their relationship one way or another, we see how it screwed up Luka and it ended up costing his relationship with Hyuna, but I want to say that Hyuna is honestly great that in the end, she accepted that Luka really is just another victim like her and he's not the real villain here but the shitty life they were born into, I think that's what matters more

ALNST is what I call a true story of Love in the face of the horrors and the unknown and I mean this quite literally

As someone of Asian heritage myself who's lived both outside and inside the US, I've been exposed to both worlds for most of my life (the TV in my household quite literally had no English channels). On top of that I started consuming copious amounts of East Asian media including the obvious manga/anime/light novels/webnovels/webtoons/games/etc across JP, KR, CN so believe me when I say I know how racist it can be. In fact my biggest pet peeve is the depiction of foreign characters and I have a whole essay I can write on this topic.

...Which makes the Alnst racism allegations hilarious because oh man, the sweet summer children have no idea what racism in East Asia(n media) looks like if they think Hyuna dying for Luka is a solid example.

Not to mention, Hyuna is one of the few characters explicitly Korean (as shown in her and Hyun Woo's names) and there seems to be a built in assumption in this accusation that brown skin means she's... not Korean. Which in and of itself reveals a lot of issues.

Generally I think outrage over Wiege are the result of a few factors:

Hatred for Luka (understandable considering he is purposefully set up to be hated for Round 5 and 7)

Misdirected Western social justice warrior-ing

Just general upset/denial over Hyuna dying

But also you'd notice that none of these things... speak to the quality of writing. And there's a reason for that.

Because the writing is good.

What you want for the story ≠ what's good for the story

Something makes you upset ≠ it's bad writing

I want all of the characters to have never died or suffered and live happily with each other in the AU world.

But if canon didn't exist why would I want that so desperately?

The fact that canon exists and ripped my heart out and stomped it to pieces is necessary, and believe it or not, objectively good writing.

-

Toxic romance apologism is even more hilarious considering

Firstly — *waves hand at the entire Alnst lineup* Why would you choose now to speak up on that 😂

Secondly — apologism implies Alnst is defending toxic romance.

When.

It is clearly not.

As proven by: [Insert link to every official art ever of characters in Alnst fked up bc of love and/or another character]

But also this , this , this , and this.

If there's any romanticisation, I'd argue it's from the fandom rather than creator intent.

Alnst explores unhealthy love, absolutely. But it never once defends it or pretends it isn't what it is. Just read any of the creator commentary on the characters and you'd see that.

Tl;dr the fact that someone has interpreted Alnst as toxic romance apologism implies a shallow read on the story imo

Also just gotta say

People shouting that Hyuna has been treated unjustly, yet not seeing that the entire video of Wiege is a love letter to Hyuna and her worldview is quite ironic

[maximuswolf]

I would like to respectfully add to the AC protagonist Drama

I would like to respectfully add to the AC protagonist Drama First off I'd like to say that I am an older straight white male who played video games for over twenty years and an Assassin's Creed Fan since 2007. I'm not black or Japanese. But I also like to think that I'm not a raving racist either. So my credibility is basically like hearing Sauron's opinion on the enslavement of the Shire. I get it I do. But I'd like to hopefully add some nuance. To me, this entire controversy is disingenuous from both sides. I know after reading that, you have your chubby cheeto-crusted gamer finger hovering over the downvote button wondering how can someone who's being racist and someone who's against it both be disingenuous. I'd like to explain myself a bit as I do think this is more nuanced than people are making it out to be. I think both are arguing about very different things and neither are relevant to the actual content.I don’t like the new Japanese Assasin's Creed game having a black protagonist because it doesn’t make sense for the trend Ubisoft already set. Almost all protags have been from the region they’re depicted. It’s like having a white protagonist for a game set in sub-Saharan Africa in 1100 AD. I’m sure some dude like that existed but it seems a bit counterproductive if your goal is inclusivity which many have already pointed out. That being said, it makes more sense to have Yasuke as a character you meet or as a companion. I'm not against him having a major or even primary role in the story. It would absolutely make sense for him to be a part of a group of assassins given the position he had in Nobunaga's court. Dope, cool, makes sense. But, shouldn’t the protag in this new game be a Japanese male and a Japanese female? I don’t think this is unreasonable to say when the Japanese are already underrepresented even in media about them, which many have also pointed out in Western media about Japan having white protagonists.Ac1 Altair was an Arab in the Middle East, ac2 Ezio is an Italian in Italy, ac3 Ratonhnhaké:ton is a native American man in America, ac: Origins bayik is Egyptian man in Egypt, ac odyssey the two protags are Greeks in Greece, ac syndicate your protags are British people in London. You can’t deny it’s the overall trend, but, to be fair, there are exceptions to the AC culture trend for protags. In Valhalla, you’re a Viking raider in England which is a cultural difference rather than a racial one. Also, Black Flag where you are a white male British pirate during the age of piracy in the Caribbean(with a black first mate) have been noted exceptions. You could make the argument this new game is like Black Flag or Valhalla where the protag isn't from those regions the games take place in but to me, it seems unfair to have a game like AC Syndicate and AC Odyssey have native male and female protags but Japan doesn’t because Black men are underrepresented as protagonists in Japanese settings. It comes off as shallow pandering rather than actual care for inclusivity. Anyway, that's my take on why I have an issue with it. I would not have a problem to play as a black man, an Asian man, or a woman, or even an lgbt protag. I take issue with this weird mutation of what inclusivity has become within the modern gaming sphere.TLDR:Dumb internet bullshit, the real controversy is the game being $120 and probably half finished on day one. Submitted May 17, 2024 at 02:00PM by FirstBankofAngmar https://ift.tt/4o3ljhR via /r/gaming

[aspoonfuloffiction]

Seeing a lot of this:

(And this is before the Netflix tie in covers will be available mass market in the States when I can only assume Avon Books and Julia Quinn will profit even more off of POC bodies)

So if you find yourself in a situation where you’re looking for romance novels that feel Bridgerton-esq with actual South Asian representation after watching Bridgerton don’t reach for The Viscount Who Loved Me, try these:

The Marriage Game Series-Sara Desai. Contemporary Romance. Centers around a family in San Francisco. Very Julia Quinn tropey rom com vibes. My favorite is The Dating Plan, wherein the heroine enters a fake relationship with her brother’s best friend—if this sounds familiar it’s because it is.

Betting on a Duke’s Heart-Royaline Sing. Historical Romance. Set in Victorian England and follows an Indian British heroine with an affinity for horses and her enemies to lovers romance with a hero with a past that makes him hate love…listen no one has ever accused the romance genre of being original. The book also weaves in the Mahabarat story of Nala and Damayanti which I thought was really cool.

The Rajes-Sonali Dev. Contemporary Romance. A modern retelling of Jane Austen’s works but with an Indian American family at the center. Book one is called Pride Prejudice and other Flavors (gender swapped Darcy and Elizabeth archetypes! subverts a lot of P&P tropes actually) My favorite though is Recipe for Persuasion…however I also think Persuasion is my favorite Austen novels she’s adapted so your results may vary.

Two States- Chetan Bhagat. Contemporary Romance. This book was actually published in India. The author is pretty well known amongst Indian audiences. But book was written in English originally so definitely followable by non Indian audiences. The story is semi autobiographical and followed a relationship between a South Indian woman (Tamilian! Like both Simone and Charithra) and a North Indian man and the cultural differences that brings. There’s also a movie adaptation.

Those Pricey Thakur Girls-Anuja Chauhan. I actually don’t super recommend this series, especially to western audiences in the way I would recommend the ones above but in a funny Bridgerton connection that makes me laugh and thusly worth mentioning-this series follows a family of sisters that are also named in alphabetical order. Though I think they read more like the Bennets than Bridgertons.

There are other HRs with South Asian characters but literally all of them are written by white people and I really wanted to highlight South Asian authors but they do exist if you want to read them just know that they’re probably not the best representation of Desi culture

[zykamiliah]

OMG Tks to your blog i finally know who started this bullying with SNOW and the others. i can report,block them & their supporters. Those people are obsessed with the characters in a way they take everything personally. There are bloggers who professionally project themselves onto Sasuke cringe. Now apparently there are people who do this with Naruto's character. They are offended for him, for the whole japanese nation, they try to save them from fanart facepalm

And they use all of those non-sensical arguments like "Naruto set in feudal Japan" or that fanartist's style erases Japanese race from anime. They obviously manipulate to fan the situation out.

Narutoverse is not feudal Japan. It's not Samurai Champloo filled with anachronisms. It's a made-up world loosely based on the Shinobi and Bushido ideas with the elements of both modern & old japanese culture. I wonder if those ppl noticed how the Hyuga family is heavily influenced by Chinese culture, that Rock Lee is an homage to Jacky Chan's character in Drunken Master and Killer B is a black rapper. The cultural context matters in Naruto but not in a way they interpret it. They should at least stop twisting things in an attempt to find arguments (I know why they don't want tho. Admit they it's a made-up world it means everybody can be there and their case would crumble).

This thing exists either because of people's cultural experience, or it's an attempt to look woke. If it's the second case - no comments. If the first one, for them it is a matter of representation, it's 100% valid. Their experience is important and they definitely should block Snow. Or talk to her directly. But somehow specific cultural experience is not big enough for them, so they extrapolate & project, they create drama and not justice.

Whitewashing is 100% bad. But it exists inside specific sociocultural context. Whitewashing against Asians is not a thing in Japan or japanese media which anime is a part of. Even with the Naruto fanart/fandom it's mostly not a thing. It's not the case of a western show's single asian character being erased by fanartists. Japanese people consitute more than 90% of Japan. This is why it's main ethnicity in Naruto and in most animes. Those people confuse cause and effect.

What they do looks like narsiccistic obsession. They project their views and experience onto the characters, onto the whole fandom, onto the whole Japanese nation... They even write asks like "u made Asian people mad". Meaning, they are most probably white who talk for the Asians (white saviors huh?) Does any of them even fight for nikkeijin diaspora?

Calling people "freaks", hating on other nations in their blogs are not ok. I agree that Snow said some insensitive things...but she obviously was provoked. And nothing she says can satisfy these bullies. They want her to seize to exist because only that would please their egos. They don't even have the balls to talk with artists directly, they are not interested in healthy discussion. I don't think they want it or to change the situation for the better,or to educate people. They want to bully because it makes them feel good and righteous. So they provoke the artists and then wish them to disappear etc..

Those people should see a therapist.

And go out, and see there's real life problems more urgent than people drawing with a different style from the source material.

[itonje]

people of color in arthurian legend masterpost

hi! some people said it would be cool if i did this, and this is something i find interesting so. yeah! are you interested in king arthur and the knights of the round table? do you like to read about characters of color, especially in older lit? well, i hope this can be a good resource for people to get into stuff like that, especially poc/ethnic minorities who might feel uncomfortable or lonely getting into older media like arthuriana. this post is friendly to both those who prefer medieval lit and those who prefer modern stuff!

disclaimers: i am not a medievalist nor a race theorist! very much not so. i am just a 17 year old asian creature on the internet who wants to have an easy-to-reference post, if i’m not comprehensive enough please inform me. i’m going to stay closely to the matter of britain, as well, not all medieval european literature as a. this is what i’m more familiar with and b. there’s so much content and information and context to go along with it that it would really be impossible to put it all into one tumblr post. (however there’s always going to be overlap!) also, please do not treat me or any other person of color/ethnic minority as a singular all-knowing authority on anything! we’re all trying to have fun here and being made into an information machine on things, especially what is and isn’t offensive isn’t fun. with that out of the way, let’s get into it! (under cut for length!) 

part i: some historical context (tw for racism and antisemitism discussion)

fair warning, i’m going to start off with some discussions of more heavier history before we talk about more fun stuff. while pre colonial racism was far more different than how it is today, there still...was racism. and it’s important to understand the social mien around nonwhite people in europe at the time these works were written. 

to understand how marginalized ethnicities were written in medieval european literature, you have to understand the fact that religion, specifically catholicism, was a very important part of medieval european life. already, catholicism has violent tenets (ie, conversion as an inherent part of the church, as well as many antisemitic theologies and beliefs), but this violence worsened when an event known as the crusades happened.

the crusades were a series of religious wars started by the catholic church to ‘reclaim’ the holy land from islamic rule and to aid the byzantine empire. while i won’t go into the full history of the crusades, (some basic info here and here and here) its important to understand that they had strengthened the european view of the ’pagan’ (ie: not european christian) world as an ‘other’, a threat to christiandom that needed to be conquered and converted, for the spiritual benefit of both the convertee and the converter. these ideas of ethnoreligious superiority and conversion would permeate into the literature of the time written by european christians. 

even today, the crusades are very much associated with white supremacy and modern islamophobic sentiment, with words such as ‘deus vult’ as a dogwhistle, and worship of and willingness to emulate the violence the crusaders used against the inhabitants of the holy land in tradcath spaces, so this isn’t stuff that’s all dead and in the past. crusader propaganda and the ignorance on the violence of the catholic church and the crusaders on muslim and jewish populations (as well as nonwhite christians ofc) is very harmful. arthuriana itself has a lot of links to white supremacy too-thanks to @/to-many-towered-camelot for this informative post. none of this stuff exists in a bubble. 

here’s a book on catholic antisemitism, here’s a book on orientalism, here’s a book about racism in history that touches on the crusades. (to any catholic, i highly reccommend you read the first.)

with that out of the way, we can talk about the various not european groups that typically show up in arthurian literature and some historical background irt to that. the terms ‘moor’ and ‘saracen’ will typically pop up. both terms are exonyms and are very, very broad, eventually used as both a general term for muslims and as a general term for african and (western + central) asian people. they’re very vague, but when you encounter them the typical understanding you’re supposed to take away is ‘(western asian/african) foreigner’ and typically muslim/not christian as well. t

generally, african and asian lands will typically be referred to as pagan or ‘eastern/foreign’ lands, with little regard for understanding the actual religions of that area. they will also typically refer to saracens as pagans although islam is not a pagan religion. this is just a bit of a disclaimer. the term saracen itself is considered to be rather offensive-thank you to @/lesbianlanval for sending me a paper on this subject. 

while i typically refer to the content on this post as having to pertain to african and asian people (ie, not european) european jewish arthurian traditions are included on this post too. but, i know more about poc and they’ll feature more prominently in this post because of that, lol. 

part ii: so, are there any medieval texts involving characters of color?

i’m glad you asked! of course there are! to be clear, european medieval authors were very much aware that people of color and african + asian nations existed, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. even the vita merlini mentions sri lanka and a set of islands that might (?) be the philippines!! for the sake of brevity though, on this list i’m not going to list every single one of these small and frequent references, so i’m just going to focus on texts that primarily (or notably) feature characters of color. 

first of all, it’s important to know was the influence of cultures of color and marginalized ethnicities that helped shape arthurian legend. the cultural exchange between europe and the islamic world during the crusades, as well as the long history of arab presence in southern europe, led to the influence of arabic love poetry and concepts of love on european literature, helping to form what we consider the archetypal romance. there are also arthurian traditions in hebrew, and yiddish too, adding new cultural ideas and introducing new story elements to their literature-all of these are just as crucial to the matter of britain as any other traditions!

when it comes to nonwhite presence in the works themselves, many knights of color in arthurian legend tend to be characters that, after defeated by a knight of arthur’s court join the court themselves. though some are side characters, there are others with their own romances and stories devoted to them! many of them are portrayed as capable + good as, if not better than their counterparts. (this, however, usually only comes through conversion to christianity if the knight is not christian...yeah.) though groups of color as a general monolith created by european christians tended to be orientalized in literature (see: mystical and strange ~eastern~ lands), many individual knights were written to be seen by their medieval audience as positive heroes. i’m going to try to stick to mostly individual character portrayals such as these. 

with that all said though, these characters can still be taken as offensive (i would consider most to be) in their writing, so take everything with a grain of salt here. i will also include links to as many english translations of texts as i can, as well as note which ones i think are beginner friendly to those on the fence about medieval literature!

he shows up in too many texts so let’s make this into two bullet notes and start with one of, if not the most ubiquitous knight of color of the round table (at least in medieval lit),-palamedes! palamedes/palomides is a ‘’saracen knight’’ who (typically) hails from babylon or palestine and shows up in a good amount of texts. his first appearance is in the prose tristan, and he plays a major role there as a knight who fights with tristan for the hand of iseult-while he uh. loses, him and tristan later become companions + friends with a rivalry, and palamedes later goes off to hunt the questing beast, a re-occurring trend in his story. 

palamedes even got his own romance named after him (which was very popular!) and details the adventures of the fathers of the knights of the round table, pre arthur, as well as later parts of the story detailing the adventures of their sons. it was included in rustichello da pisa’s compilation of arthurian romances, which i unfortunately have not seen floating around online (or...anywhere), so i can’t attest to the quality of it or anything. he appears in le morte darthur as well, slaying the questing beast but only after his conversion to christianity (...yeah.) in the texts in which he appears, palamedes is considered to be one of the top knights of the round table, alongside tristan and lancelot, fully living up to chivalric and courtly ideals and then some. i love him dearly and i’ve read the prose tristan five times just for him. (also the prose tristan in general is good, please give it a try, especially if you’re a romance fan.)

speaking of le morte d’arthur, an egyptian knight named priamus shows up in the lucius v arthur episode on lucius’ side first, later joining arthur’s after some interactions with gawaine. palamedes has brothers here as well-safir and segwarides. safir was relatively popular, and shows up in many medieval texts, mostly alongside his older brother. i wouldn’t recommend reading le morte of all things for the characters of color though-if you really want to see what it’s all about, just skip to the parts they’re mentioned with ctrl + f, haha. 

the romance of moriaen is a 12th century dutch romance from the lancelot compilation, named for its main character morien. morien, who is a black moor, is the son of sir aglovale, the brother of perceval. whilst gawaine and lancelot are searching for said perceval, they encounter morien, who is in turn searching for aglovale as he had abandoned morien’s mother way back when. i wholeheartedly recommend this text for people who might feel uncomfy with medieval lit. though the translation i’ve linked can be a bit tricky, the story is short, sweet, and easy to follow, and morien and his relationships (esp with gariet, gawaine’s brother) are all wonderful. 

king artus (original hebrew text here) is a northern italian jewish arthurian text written in hebrew- it retells a bit of the typical conception of arthur story, as well as some parts from the death of arthur as well. i really can’t recommend this text enough-it’s quite short, with an easy-to-read english translation, going over episodes that are pretty familiar to any average reader while adding a lot of fun details and it’s VERY interesting to me from a cultural standpoint. i find the way how they adapt the holy grail (one of the most archetypal christian motifs ever) in particular pretty amazing. this is also a very beginner friendly text! 

wolfram von eschenbach’s parzival (link to volume 1 and volume 2-this translation rhymes!) is a medieval high german romance from the early 13th century, based off de troyes’ le conte du graal while greatly expanding on the original story. it concerns parzival and his quest for the grail (with a rather unique take on it-he fails at first!), and also takes like one million detours to talk about gawaine as all arthurian lit does. the prominent character of color here is a noble mixed race knight called feirefiz, parzival’s half brother by his father, who after dueling with parzival, and figures out their familial connection, joins him on his grail quest. he eventually converts to christianity (..yeah.) to see the grail and all ends happily for him. however, this text is notable to me as it contains two named women of color-belacane, feirefiz’s black african mother, and secundilla, feirefiz’s indian wife. though unfortunately, both are pretty screwed over by the text and their respective husbands. though parzival is maybe my favorite medieval text i’ve read so far i don’t necessarily know if i’d recommend this one, because it is long, and can be confusing at times. however, i do think that when it comes to the portrayal of people of color, while quite poor by today’s standards, von eschenbach was trying his best?-of course, in reason for. a 13th century medival german christian but he treats them with respect and all these characters are actually characters. if you’re really interested in grail stories (and are aware of the more uncomfortably christian aspects of the grail story), and you like gawaine and perceval, i’d say go for it. 

in the turk and sir gawain, an english poem from the early 16th century, gawaine and the titular turkish man play a game of tennis ball. i’m shitting you not. this text is pretty short, funnily absurd, and with most of the hallmarks of a typical quest (various challenges culminating in some castle being freed), so it’s an easier read. it’s unclear to me, but at the end of the story the turkish man turns into sir gromer, a noble knight, who may or may not be white which uh. consider my ‘....yeah’ typical at this point, but i don’t personally read it that way for my own sanity. also he throws the sultan (??) of the isle of man (????) into a cauldron for not being a christian so when it comes to respectful representation of poc this one doesn’t make it, but it does make this list. 

the revenge of ragisel, or at least the version i’ve read (the eng translation of the dutch version from the lancelot compilation), die wrake van ragisel, starts off being about the mysterious murder of a knight, but eventually, as most stories do, becomes a varying series of adventures about gawaine and co. one of gawaine’s friends (see: a knight who he combated with for a hot sec and then became friends and allies with, as you do) is a black knight named maurus! he’s not really an mc, but he features prominently and he’s pretty entertaining, as all the characters in this are. i also recommend this highly, i was laughing the whole time reading it! it’s not too long and pretty wild, you’ll have a good romp. this is a good starter text for anyone in general!

i’ve not read the roman van walewein, which, as it says on the tin, is a 12th century dutch romance concerning some deeds of gawaine (if only gawaine was a canon poc, i wouldn’t need to make this list because he’s so popular...). i’m putting it on the list for in this, gawaine goes to the far eastern land of endi (india) and romances a princess named ysabele. i can’t speak to ysabele’s character or the respectfulness of her kingdom or representation, but i know she’s a major character and her story ends pretty well, so that’s encouraging. women of color, especially fleshed out woc, are pretty rare in arthurian lit. i’ve also heard the story itself is pretty wild, and includes a fox, which sounds pretty exciting to me!

now the next two things i’m going to mention aren’t really? texts that feature characters of color or jewish characters, but are rather more notable for being translations of existing texts into certain languages. wigalois is a german 13th century romances featuring the titular character (the son of, you guessed it, gawaine!) and his deeds. the second, jaufre, is the only arthurian romance written in occitan, and is a quite long work about the adventures of the knight jaufre, based on the knight griflet. what’s notable about these two works is that wigalois has a yiddish translation, and jaufre has a tagalog translation. wigalois’ yiddish translation in particular changed the original german text into something more fitting of the arthurian romance format as well as adding elements to make it more appealing for a jewish audience. the tagalog translation of jaufre on the other hand was not medieval, only coming about in 1900, but the philippines has had a long history of romantic tradition and verse writing, so i’m curious to see if it too adds or changes elements when it comes to the arthurian story, but i can’t find a lot on the tagalog version of jaufre unfortunately-i hope i can eventually!

this list of texts is also non-exhaustive! i’m just listing a couple of notoriety, and some to start with. 

part iii: papers and academic analysis

so here’s just a dump of various papers i’ve read and collected on topics such as these-this is an inexhaustive and non-comprehensive list! if you have any papers you think are good and would like to be added here, shoot me an ask. i’ll try to include a link when i can, but if it’s unavailable to you just message me. * starred are the ones i really think people, especially white people, should at least try to read. 

Swank, Kris. ‘Black in Camelot: Race and Ethnicity in Arthurian Legend’ *

Harrill, Claire. ‘Saracens and racial Otherness in Middle English * Romance’

Keita, Maghan. ‘Saracens and Black Knights’ 

Hoffman, Donald L. ‘Assimilating Saracens: The Aliens in Malory's ‘Morte Darthur’

Goodrich, Peter H. ‘Saracens and Islamic Alterity in Malory's ‘Le Morte Darthur’

Schultz, Annie. ‘Forbidden Love: The Arabic Influence on the Courtly Love Poetry of Medieval Europe’ *

Hardman, Philipa. ‘Dear Enemies: the Motif of the Converted Saracen and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’

Knowles, Annie. ‘Encounters of the Arabian Kind: Cultural Exchange and Identity the Tristans of Medieval France, England, and Spain’ *

Hermes, Nizar F. ‘King Arthur in the Lands of the Saracens’ *

Ayed, Wajih. ‘Somatic Figurations of the Saracen in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur’

Herde, Christopher M. ‘A new fantasy of crusade: Sarras in the vulgate cycle.’ *

Rovang, Paul R. ‘Hebraizing Arthurian Romance: The Originality of ‘Melech Artus.’’

Rajabzdeh, Shokoofeh. ‘The Depoliticized Saracen and Muslim erasure’ *

Holbrook, Sue Ellen. ‘To the Well: Malory's Sir Palomides on Ideals of Chivalric Reputation, Male Friendship, Romantic Love, Religious Conversion—and Loyalty.’ *

Lumbley, Coral. ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth and Race’ *

Oehme, Annegret. ‘Adapting Arthur. The Transformations and Adaptations of Wirnt von Grafenberg’s Wigalois’ *

Hendrix, Erik. ‘An Unlikely Hero: The Romance of Moriaen and Racial Discursivity in the Middle Ages’ *

Darrup, Cathy C. ‘Gender, Skin Color, and the Power of Place in the Medieval Dutch Romance of Moriaen’ *

Armstrong, Dorsey. ‘Postcolonial Palomides: Malory's Saracen Knight and the Unmaking of Arthurian Community’ (note this is the only one i can’t access in its entirety)

part iv: supplemental material

here’s some other stuff i find useful to getting to know knights of color in arthurian legend, especially if papers/academic stuff/medieval literature is daunting! i’d really recommend you go through all of these if you can’t go through anything else-most are quick reads. 

a magazine article on knights of color here, and this article about the yiddish translation of wigalois. 

this video about characters of color in arthurian legend!

the performance of the translation of arabic in Libro del Caballero Zifar, and how it pertains to the matter of britain 

a post by yours truly about women of color in parzival

this info sheet about palamedes, and this info sheet about ysabele-thanks to @/pendraegon and @/reynier for letting me use these!

this page on palamedes as well

this post with various resources on race and ethnicity in arthuriana-another thank you to @/reynier! 

part v: how about modern day stories and adaptations?

there’s a lot of em out there! i’m not as familiar with modern stuff, but i will try to recommend medias i know where characters of color (including racebends!) are prominent. since i haven’t read/watched all (or truly most) of these, i can’t really speak on the quality of the representation though, so that’s your warning. 

first of all, when it comes to the victorian arthurian revival, i know that william morris really liked palamedes! (don’t we all.) he features frequently in morris’ arthurian poetry, (in this beautiful book, he primarily features in ‘sir galahad, a christmas mystery’ and ‘king arthur’s tomb’. he has his own poem by morris here.)

and some other poems about palamedes, which i’d all recommend. 

for movies, i know a knight in camelot (1998) stars whoopi goldberg as an original character, the green knight (2021) will star dev patel as gawaine. 

some shows include camelot high, bbc merlin, disney’s once upon a time, and netflix’s cursed, all featuring both original characters of color and people of color cast as known arthurian figures. 

for any music people, in ‘high noon over camelot’, an album by the mechanisms, mordred is played by ashes o’reilley, who in turn is performed by frank voss, and arthur is played by marius von raum who is perfomed by kofi young. 

i’ve also heard the pendragon and the squire’s tales have palamedes as a relevant character if you’re looking for novels, as well as legendborn and the forgotten knight: a chinese warrior in king arthur’s court starring original protagonists of color! 

part vi: going on from here

so, you’ve read some medieval lit, read some papers, watched some shows, and done all that. what now? well, there’s still so much out there! 

if you have fanfiction, analysis, metaposts, fun content etc etc about arthurian poc, feel free to plug your content on this post! i’d be happy to boost it. 

in general, if you’re a person of color or a jewish person and you’re into arthurian legend, feel free to promote your blog on this post as well! i would love to know more people active on arthurian tumblr who are nonwhite. 

this is really just me asking for extra content, especially content made by poc, but that’s okay! arthurian legend is a living, breathing set of canons and i would love love love to see more fresh diversity within them right alongside the older stuff. 

a very gracious thank you to the tumblr users whom i linked posts to on here, and thanks to y’all for saying you want to see this! i hope this post helped people learn some new things! 

[bodycountgame]

Hi!

I just had a concern about the character Rowan, namely her half-Mongolian heritage. I’m very happy that you have a diverse mix of characters in your game (as, you know, we live in a very much diverse world), but I just wanted to clarify something. It comes off to me that you adding that Rowan is half-Mongolian is a form of Asian exoticism. As Asians become more prominent in the media, especially East Asians such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people, I’m a little worried that you made Rowan half-Mongolian in an attempt to make Rowan more “unique” and “interesting” than someone who is Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Of course, I’m well aware that Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people have a disproportionate representation in western media compared to the extent of the Asian diaspora (especially when it comes to Southeast Asian people), but I just wanted to make this known since I’ve been uncomfortable about it for a while.

That’s not to say that Asian characters in media should blatantly broadcast their Asian-ness and thus end up as “that token Asian character,” but I do feel like growing up in a minority heritage shapes a character’s worldview and the way they interact with people that does need special attention. A lot of IFs appear to exist in a “post-racial” reality where race never becomes a huge factor, but since Body Count (I assume) is set in modern times, I think it’s important to note that a person of color in such a game can’t just be “another character”—the way they view the world is shaped by their cultural heritage and race, and I just want you to be mindful of that.

In any case, good luck with your game!

Hi anon!

I chose Rowan’s ethnicity to be the same as a face claim that I had always used for her. It didn’t feel right for me to change her ethnicity to an “easier” or more common one without any good reason for doing so, which is why Rowan is half Mongolian. I can absolutely see how the choice could seem strange and uncomfortable without that context, though, so I appreciate you raising it!

Body Count does take place in modern day, but I should say that it isn’t really a story where characters’ cultural heritage will be explored in any great depth. This is a sexy murder romp; it just isn’t something that will really be a huge talking point in the context of the story and events taking place.

I absolutely agree with what you’ve said about representing Asian characters in media and I really hope that none of the characters of colour in Body Count feel "token" or stereotypical. If you ever feel like I'm failing on that front, then please do let me know!

As a white writer, it’s really important to me to be willing to listen to the community that read my work and this is something that I’m totally open to discussing further if you (or any other readers of colour) have concerns/queries/comments/feelings or just feel like I’ve totally missed the point here😊

[interact-if]

Day 3 of A/PI Heritage Month featured authors interview! Please perceive... Jess!

Jess, author of A Bard's Tale

A/PI Heritage Month Featured Author

It takes place on the fictional continent of Amaran, a high fantasy setting based on Asian and Pacific Islander cultures as opposed to traditional Eurocentric high fantasy.

In the wake of a terrible war, you are a young bard just starting your journey. Will you answer the call to adventure and embark to rouse the sleeping gods?

(INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT!)

Q1: First of all, introduce us to your project! What is it about?

A Bard’s Tale is a story about a bard, and about a few more bards, and a world that is still living in the wake of war and occupation.

More specifically, it is the story of a bard (you!) and your quest to wake Amaran’s sleeping gods. The Bard has been experiencing recurring dreams prior to the start of the story, calling them to the capital city of Mahar’il – where they meet a colorful cast of companions and take the first steps of their journey.

A Bard’s Tale mixes old faithful D&D/RPG elements with dating sim-esque romance, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. The result is some good, clean fun. (Or dirty, depending on your choices.)

Q2: If it’s not too spoilery, what are you most excited about your project?

(Future scenes, can’t wait for readers to get to xyz place in the plot, etc.etc.)

I am most excited for readers to take their first steps onto the road. Mahar’il is meant to be a “home,” of sorts, and so these first chapters are adamant about familiarizing the reader with the city and the people they can expect to find here. But Amaran is so much bigger. I’m excited for people to see some of the other cities and regions that they’ve been only briefly introduced to so far, and also to get cracking on the complicated dynamics of Aspen and Tempest.

Q3: What inspired the current project you’re working on?

I’ve been working and playing in the larger world of Valia for a long time – through homebrewing D&D campaigns, and through the novel I am also working on, which takes place a continent away and a few hundred years in the past.

A Bard’s Tale sprung from the thought of “What will this world look like when this is all over?” “How will these people start to heal?” And, of course, “If I wrote a dating sim, who are Amaran’s most eligible bachelor(ette)s?”

Q4: Do you pull from your own identity for inspiration? How has that been reflected in your work?

I do! I am a biracial Korean-American, and both my parents were also born in America. It comes with a lot of diaspora blues, which I try not to project onto my characters that live in a fictional high fantasy world where racism and borders don’t have to exist. I admit that it tends to project pretty heavily anyway on the half-elves, Edin and Han.

The influence from my cultural background will become more evident the farther from Mahar’il that we get – particularly in the Jinju and Kujaku regions, which are inspired by Joseon-era Korea. (Loosely, in Kujaku’s case.)

Mahar’il is a cultural melting pot, and my inspiration for it is actually, largely, San Francisco. I’ve always admired the architecture of SF, and how the juxtaposition of antique and modern, ethnic (particularly Asian) and American, creates a sort of chaotic harmony.

However, I feel that it is important to note that the perspective from which I write is that of an Asian-American, and not just an Asian. My story is not rooted in Asian mythology, nor does its structure reflect Asian media and literature, because my foundation is largely Western.

Q5: What’s been your experience so far? With writing, with the if community...

Writing has always been second nature to me. Translating that to game code has been a bit tricky but I manage. And if I get stuck, I’ve made plenty of friends in the IF community, both authors and readers, who are more than willing to lend a hand.

In terms of my readers, I feel so, so blessed by you guys. I started this for fun, truly, thinking no one would be willing to read such a niche story and certainly not clamor for more than a demo. The support I’ve gotten from the community has been astounding, and I’m truly grateful for it.

Q6: Finally, what piece of advice would you give to fellow authors?

My biggest advice is do what makes you happy, and write from your heart. Inspiration will not always be there when you want it to be, and that’s okay. Set out a pot of coffee and a nice inviting blanket for when that fickle mistress decides to appear. Don’t shy away from projects that aren’t capturing your attention, but don’t devote more time to them than you want to. No one is judging your pile of half-finished drafts, except yourself.

Go where the wind takes you, even if it’s not “profitable” or even “good,” because every minute that you spend writing makes you a better writer. And on that note, write write write. I don’t think you need to set a daily timer, or whatever Stephen King said in his self-help book, but if you make a habit of it you will see progress. And read read read. You can’t pour from an empty cup, so read voraciously – and take a scalpel to your favorite books. Learn from them, dissect them, understand what makes them tick and then sprinkle a little of that in your own work.

And finally, fix your sleep schedule. I know you need to.

[zephycluster]

Precolonial HWS SEA Rant Post, feel free to ignore

If you're still reading, then you're probably looking for evidence or some juicy tidbits to throw back at me or to try and find dirt to cancel me, like typical Tumblr/Twitter. Go ahead, I don't really care.

First off, let me just say that If you like Precolonial South-East Asia AUs, feel free to keep enjoying them. I will respectfully support your passions from afar. This post is just to explain why I don't like it, especially the way they keep insisting/portraying PH in it.

Still here? Then let me begin.

Since the recent confirmation that the ASEAN Six Majors (Can't really say ASEAN 10 atm since it's still missing some people) Were completed and the Ma-Phil-Indo Trio was included, there has been a large surge in 'Precolonial' fanarts and portrayals of South East Asians, those three especially.

Even long, long before, circa 2010's ish, a rather well-known fan universe known as 'Maaf' dealt with their story and how their Author thought their intertwined histories went. Written by (my best guesstimate) an Indonesian writer who wants to explore the old, SEA bond.

When I first stumbled across Maaf (I was in Highschool at the time, around age 16-ish), I took a casual interest in it and tried to read it through. But, I will wholeheartedly admit that at the time, Pre-Colonial cultures of South-East Asia in general, let alone Philippine, did not really interest me that much. The focus (I think) was mostly on Indonesia, a country I didn't really know back then, and the liberal use of 'ancient' names and artwork just made it feel like an entirely Original Work (that needed a degree in History to really appreciate) and not something from Hetalia. I also completely disagreed with what I could gather was the story's portrayal of PH but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Do I hate 'Maaf'? No, I don't hate it. Do I wish I never came across it or that it didn't exist? Of course not. Just because I didn't enjoy it or appreciate it that well doesn't mean I wish any ill toward it, its fans, or its creator.

Fast forward to April 2021, the long awaited inclusion of South East Asia to the canon Hetalia verse. I was happy, the other fans were happy, all was good.

Then started the questionable fanarts, fan theories and fan pairings.

Especially the expansion of Precolonial! PH.

Let's go back to Maaf for one moment. From what I understood of Maaf, PH there was a character who once was like all the other South East Asian cultures, trading with them, all around being a nice family.

But all that changed when the Spaniards attacked, so cry the precolonial buffs. They destroyed everything, ransacked and marginalized the tribes, erased everything that PH was!

Did that happen? ABSOLUTELY. The Spaniards had this vision in mind that they must spread Christianity to all of the 'savage, unchristian heathens' of their realm. :V /s

But back up a second, back to PH's portrayal in Maaf. The way she (yeah, she) was portrayed there was that she was slowly losing her memories of being a 'true' South East Asian and grew more and more westernized in the process, like some sort of Culture-specific Alzheimer's or something.

Firstly, that is seriously depressing, and secondly, I just really don't see that happening.

Here's why.

Point 1: Even before Colonial Masters, Filipinos as a people cannot agree on anything.

I'll just begin this segment with a Philippine proverb that outlines what Filipinos call 'Crab Mentality' or 'Crab Bucket Mentality'.

"You don't need a lid for a container when you're keeping multiple crabs. If you keep at least two crabs together, they will just pull each other down instead of helping each other up."

I don't know how it goes with Indonesian or Malaysian history class, but what I know of my homeland, both pre- and post-colonial history, we were never really 'united' or 'together' in the sense that Indonesia and Malaysia were (from what I assume).

Let me pull up a somewhat related question on r/AskHistorians.

The reason I brought this up as it shows the reasons why, in my opinion, a single entity that is 'Precolonial Philippines-tan' is an impossibility.

The answers are long and would extend this already long post to stupid proportions, so I'll just quote relevant sentences. The link is here for those that wanna deep-dive into the answer.

"All this to say that there wasn't a name used for the entire Philippine islands before the Philippines that people now would agree to. An interesting comparison would be the Holy Roman Empire, which might also be characterized as disparate politico-geographic groups of relatively small size that had a history of relations between each other, but one thing they had that the Philippines did not was a common language, or at least a family of mostly mutually intelligible languages, so that the name Deutschland or Germany isn't terribly offensive to anyone. If you called the Philippines the 'Lupang-Tagalog' or even 'Lupang-Tao' the other ethnic groups would protest."

For those in need of translation, 'Lupang Tagalog' means 'Land of the Tagalogs' and 'Lupang Tao' means 'Land of People', specifically. The first one is already exclusive and offensive, as the Tagalog peoples are but one of many ethnicities here.

And for the 'Lupang Tagalog' suggestion specifically, it's even more offensive as they are the majority ethnicity (not by much, just around 28%) From this chart from Geography Now! It would basically be alienating everyone else in the 72% remainder that isn't 'Tagalog'.

And even 'Lupang Tao', the most generic name in a local language you can think of, would be met with contempt because the name itself is in the Tagalog language.

Just travelling between two individual island groups today would sometimes require a translator because the words can change very rapidly and very drastically. Here's a sample of some differences coming from a friend living in Visayas (in Red) vs. the words I know living in Luzon (In blue).

Ate vs. Manang = Older Sister

Ibon vs. Pispis = Bird

Tumawa vs. Kadlaw = To laugh

Takot vs. Hadlok = Fear

Kain vs. Kaon = To eat

Ngayon vs. Subong = Now, at this point in time

Iyak vs. Hibi/Gibi = to cry

Talampakan vs. Tiil = Foot (in Tagalog, the word retains its 'body part AND unit of measurement' meaning)

Tulog vs. Tuyo = to sleep (Tuyo in Tagalog is either a dried salted fish or 'to dry')

The kicker is that just like Tagalog is just one of many languages here, so too is the language my friend speaks. Ask an entirely new person, like someone from Mindanao, they'll probably have an entirely new set of words.

It's not just Luzon vs. Visayas vs. Mindanao, either. Here's a map listing some of the ethnic groups here.

Even the way they're written differs from location to location.

While we're on the subject of Island divisions, a casual skim across Twitter and Tumblr has shown that their Precolonial PH has been one of the following ancient civilizations: Tondo, Butuan, Sugbu, Namayan. There may have been others but that was what I have found.

Notice how even today, the posters of Precolonial PH can't seem to agree on what he's supposed to be? With Indonesia it's either Majapahit or Srivijaya and Malaysia it's usually Malacca iirc.

What is the big deal? Well, let's go back to the Ask Historians post. "Why didn't the Philippines ever change its name to remove the colonial mark that being named after a Spanish King has?" The answer: "If you suggested something dating to precolonial times, the other ethnic groups would protest."

Since we're on a roll with maps, let me bring this up.

As you can see, the precolonial PH posts have a reason to not be able to agree on one thing, as there is a LOT of options. Do you also see how THAT list is also split up?

It's split up into those aligned with China (Sinified), aligned with India (Indianized), aligned with the Middle East (Islamicized), and no alignment (Animist). Now, let's go back to the main suggestions for which Kingdom/Polity/Civilization/whatever Modern Philippines used to be.

If the Filipino peoples' couldn't agree on something as simple as WHAT TO CALL THE LAND THEY'RE LIVING ON, what more a living, breathing, walking, talking entity that is supposed to be a beacon of all of their 'unified' culture? ESPECIALLY if that entity used to be a currently existing Kingdom/Polity/Rajahnate/Sultanate/whatever.

Tondo? "Of course, always the damn Tagalogs. Tagalog this, Tagalog that. First the capital city, then the language,* THE REST OF US EXIST, YOU KNOW! What about us in Visayas? Mindanao?"

*The national language known as 'Filipino' is just standardized Tagalog*

Butuan? "Wait, you want Butuan to represent us? They're they only Indian-aligned city in the Islam-majority Mindanao! They're not even that many of them! I'm not gonna change my religion!"

Sugbu, the other name for the Rajahnate of Cebu on the map? Lemme bring back my Visayan friend again. According to her, she hails from the Hiligaynon part of Visayas.

"Sure :v and the other islands are what?

Chopped liver?

Not to mention the language and writing barrier helloooo"

And Namayan? Well. I'll let this pic speak for itself.

To summarize, no matter who you pick as Modern PH's previous identity, it will not end well nor be accepted by the other Kingdoms at the time.

"So where does that leave Modern PH, he had to have been ONE of them, right?"

Well, not really. He doesn't HAVE to be one of the Ancient Kingdoms that lasted till the modern day. I mean, predecessor representatives exist in Hetalia canon, after all. Like Modern Greece is a different character from Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and Modern Egypt, heck even England and his brothers have a canon mother that was the rep before them.

Or you could even use the same logic that Germany does, in that each specific region has/had its own representative and that Modern!PH is just the 'mediator' between them (cause gawd does PH need one). There could be a Tondo, a Namayan, a Butuan, and a Sugbu, all arguing and this Proto-PH is just trying to make headway in making them all satisfied.

But, even after all this, there is another reason why I personally don't subscribe to the 'Precolonial PH' idea, and by tangential extension, the Indo x Phil pairing.

Point 2: Even without intending to, Precolonial Indo x Phil just comes off as patronizing

This second point is just ENTIRELY personal preference and barely has any facts to back it up.

Again, if you like the pairing and disagree with me, You do you. I will respectfully support you and your passions from a distance.

But for me, Indo being Phil's seme/bae/boyfriend and consistently bringing up precolonial times just comes off as patronizing.

Just one more time, I'd like to point out that I am NOT bashing Indonesia, its people or the subscribers of Indo x Phil. This is just how the pairing feels to ME specifically.

The way I see it, Indo x Phil as a pairing, especially if it extends back into precolonial times, reads the same way as a long-since married couple where the husband/wife CONSTANTLY brings up that ONE outing you had together, or that ONE prom night where you kissed while dancing, even it happened like 30 some-odd years ago and so much more happened since then.

Even in a platonic sense, It reads like two besties where one ALWAYS mentions stuff like 'Yeah but you looked so much cooler back in High School' or 'Back in Grade School you would've known that', or 'Remember back in Pre-school we did X? How could you forget that?'

How does one respond to the notion that no matter what you do now, it will never compare to a past you've already forgotten or barely remember? That the best version of 'you' is already long gone?

"That's because the westerners made you forget your culture! You gotta take it back!"

While it is true, yes, as a collective we barely remember the Kingdom that commissioned the Laguna Copperplate, or created the Banaue Rice Terraces, or created the millennia old bonds that we still share with Indonesia and Malaysia.

But to keep pushing the precolonial identity would be to neglect and cast aside the one REAL binding belief and culture that spans the entirety of these islands we call the Philippines.

We take on all the bad stuff that happens to us, conquer it, and make it our own. Be it natural disasters, foreign powers, or negative stereotypical mentalities.

Yes, we've forgotten the ancient kingdoms of old and are just now digging through the closet for those remnants of the past. Yes, the colonizers imposed that on us, and made us forget. But in the process we've also taken everything that they left behind, everything that they threw at us, and created something that can only come from us.

The lanterns that the Spaniards used to light the way to the morning masses they made us attend became our globally known symbol of Christmas. The junked vehicles that the Americans left behind in World War 2 are now rolling works of art that announce themselves loud and proud on the streets (for better or for worse). The iced dessert recipe that the Japanese forced us to learn while they were occupying the country is now so distinct and famous it is synonymous with us, and is so delicious even Italy has taken notice.

Even after all this? Even after all the 425-ish years total we have been under a foreign power, with all the progress we've made as a country, a people, and a nation, you would still imply our fragmented, jigsaw puzzle state of being in the past was better just because it was pure 'South East Asian' like everyone else?

We might not be as well put-together as Indonesia or Malaysia, but we made this melting pot of angry, leg-pulling, dogpiling, Native, Mestizo, Chinoy, and Fil-Am crabs OURS, damnit!

It's now 4:30 AM and I have work in 5 or so hours. I'll be going to sleep now.

[therabine]

In case you were wondering why wordbuilding for Ravka feels so random

After going down the rabbit hole in my search for answers I've stumbled across this conversation on goodreads dated back to the November of 2013, where Leigh Bardugo replied to some reasonable criticism about her 'cultural inspiration"- https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1533856-has-bardugo-talked-about-the-russian-inconsistencies This conversation is quite long and miss Leigh gave about three replies to various questions from people that were deeply bothered by the very surface level research she did on the Russian cilture. Here are the major highlights, plus the other things I've found while goodling: 1) As far as I've understood - neither she nor her publishers expected the first book to blow up like this. So even though there was obvoiusy a lack of proper research and some mistakes variying from minor to insulting, now that she's an esteemed author Leigh claims all of it to be deliberate choices adding that "deliberate choices aren't necessarily good ones". She also tries to lift the responsibility off her shoulders, mentioning that her work "was reviewed not just by my editor, but by copy editors, proofreaders, multiple foreign editors, and foreign copy editors". Not a single word about actual Russian-speaking person/expert reviweing the text or helping her out with creating the Ravkan language though. The only person she's ever credited as the one who helped her out with creating Ravkan is Erdene Ukhaasai from Mongolia that she's been friends on Facebook at the time (source on this one - https://ageofsteam.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/genre-friction-what-is-tsarpunk-by-leigh-bardugo/ ). The Facebook page under this name currently doesn't exist and the only results that Google shows on this person are the mentions that Leigh Bardugo gave in her interview, so unfortunately I couldn't reach out for clarification on this topic. Still, it's highly unlikey that someone with zero publications under their name would be a proffesional linguist and therefore qualified for such a task. 2) Within your secondary world, unless you are writing satire, things should make internal sense. That world could not arize independently of its context. The problem with the Bardugo's Ravka is that it's based on Russian Empire alone, yet she claims that "it's only Russian inspired" without acknowledging that most people that are not familiar with the culture will take it in as authentic. She takes the words and objects out of the context, misgenders names and last names and creates new 'russian-sounding" words without understanding how the grammar works. Which is a shame, given how flexible Russian language is - the possibility for the word-building is endless and with the right guidance she truly could make some unique and meaningful terms specifically for the Ravka. Also on the alcoholic kvas issue - Leigh proudly claims this as a solution to be a vodka "substitute", because vodka would be too on the nose and too common (more on the matter here -https://www.leighbardugo.com/grishaverse/the-archives/tongue-twister/). What didn't cross her mind is that instead of turning a non-alcoholic drink into strong booze for "wordbuilding" it would be much better to use less known drinks whic do contain alcohol - braga, samogon, nalivka - just to name a few.

3) To elaborate on some of the specific issues with names and last names: Leigh doesn't seem to understand how gendered surnames work in Russian. That's why we get stuff like Alina Starkov (when it's supposed to be Starkova, because she's a woman) and Alexander Morozova (Morozov would be a correct form) etc. This system is never consistent - Mal Oretsev gets to have a male surname, but so does Genya Safin and Zoya Nazyalensky has a weird non-gendered kind of in between last name (very much in fashion of Natasha Romanoff, who would be called Natalia Romanova in Russian). Also must mention Ana Kuya - poor woman's name literally sounds like "why the f*ck" in Russian, that's about just as bad as naming your Asian character Whata Phuck. Again - none of this nonsense would happen if someone bothered to find a Russian-speaking person to read the text. Other Russian words she tries to throw in seem to be the result of a bad Google Translate, rather than a conscious choice: for example the word otkazats'ya that she uses to describe non-grishas is actually a verb that translates as "to refuse". The noun with the meaning of "the refused one" would be otkaznik or otkazniki for a plural form. Same with sobachka ("small dog") - the context from the book suggests this nickname to be an insulting one, so the word we're really looking for would be shchenok ("puppy") or shavka ("mongrel", "cur"). The list of those examples, honestly, goes on and on.

4) Leigh does mention that she "can acknowledge that the choices I made in building the language and culture of Ravka came from a place of insularity and a type of privilege". However she's more keen to talk about how she has "certainly encountered critics, but I've also had Russian fans"...Which to me sounds about just as bad as stating "I do have *insert a minority racial group* friends and they say that me doing *insert a dubious act* is fine". The problem is that Russian culture has been demonized and overlooked for so long that most people (myself included) tend to praise content creators for including even the most sterytypical "insprations". Just because some people are willing to excuse her voluntary ignorance, doesn't mean that it's okay.

5) No books on Russian culture that she's mentioned as part of the resarch were written by Russian authors. And while reading the SaB it becomes crystal clear that that the major 'cultural inspiration' Leigh got was not from those books, but from the monstrosity that is her tsapunk pinterest board - https://www.pinterest.ru/lbardugo/tsarpunk-inspiration/ . About 80% of the stuff there doesn't even relate to Russian culture and the rest is a mash of modern knockoffs.

To summorize it: Leigh very much knew about the concerns surrounding her "Russian-inspired" Ravka which were respectfully brought to her consideration by her Russian speaking fans back in 2012-2013. She said "I've taken it to heart and it's something that I've tried to be conscious of as I move forward in the series and my other work", apologized and then she did nothing to do better. She marketed Shadow and Bone as "Tsarpunk", fetishisizing Russian culture and using it as a unique setting to uplift a generic "light vs. dark" fantasy plot supported by the bland narrative of the Chosen One. There was an effort and will to make a change for the better, not a single letter has been changed for us. When I think about, I can't really remember anything that would ring as a thoughtful and clever element adapted into the story from Russian culture. If everything is always altered or twisted, if there is nothing true or authentic then should you really call it Russian-inspired? Should you really make profit off it and call this aesthetic tsarpunk?

Leigh Bardugo could have fixed the most jarring problems with the material while doing the adaptation from book to screen, but she chose not to. There was no effort made to include more people of slavic descent as a major part of production team or as background actors. Almost nothing of the production design or clothing was inspired by Russian culture. To elaborate: I'm not even mad. I'm just deeply sad and hurt by the indifference.

Some might argue that this book series was not written for Russians, that it was written for the western audience. But don't they deserve respectfully researched and authentic stories too?

[aquaburst3]

I've seen countless Reddit threads about this and I want to toss my hat into the arena, so here are my unpopular TWST opinions! God, I'm gonna be roasted alive for this.

Disclaimer: Keep in mind this is all just opinion. You can completely disagree with me. This is just my own thoughts. None of this an attack on Yana as a person. I just think that she has many weaknesses as a writer like many of us, myself included. She's an adult, so I can call things out how they are.

(undercut because super long)

The whole debate about Yuu's gender is so fucking stupid: The character in the game clearly represents you—the player yourself, hence the name YUU, so they are whatever gender, sexuality, race, etc that you want them to be. Genderless and faceless MCs in genres outside of otomes are more popular in western games then East Asian far as I can tell, so people might not be as used to one being here, but they are still a thing, guys.

I wish Yuu had more of an impact on the plot and wasn't passive: I like the fact that Yuu is faceless and genderless. This gives a chance for people who are less represented in Japanese media to create their own "Yuus". Hell, I know I did this myself with mine being a latina, bisexual among other things who represents me more. People who want a lead who has a face and personality always have the manga and novels.

However, I wish they had an impact on the plot. As is, Yuu just an observer who chimes in once in awhile. That is really dragging down the immersion in the game, because it feels like you can scrap them from the narrative and have little impact.

The worldbuilding is terrible and is one of the worst I've ever seen: Okay. Maybe not the worst. It's not as bad as Descendants where it makes zero sense and makes the Disney characters super OOC, but it's still up there.

For starters, the game takes place in a modern setting. That's fine. Hell, I would've normally loved that, since that's one of the reasons why I enjoy The Owl House so much. But it wasn't excutied properly here.

Unlike The Owl House where it's a fantasy world with some modern elements, here it's exactly like real life with a few exceptions. That's not realistic. The existence of magic, mermaids, fae and furries alone would've changed things a lot, but yet they have no impact on anything. It's like the movie Bright. Instead of incorporating these elements organically into the world and considering how each of them would change things, they are just slapped on top of reality like magnates on a fridge.

What new worldbuild there is present is completely scatterbrained. When you lay it all out, none of it is coherent. Like...

Why is overblotting a thing in this universe?

Why doesn't everyone know about overblotting by now? (Even if it's rare, most people should know about its existence.)

Why is STYKs even a thing? Wouldn't everyone figure out about it eons ago?

Why aren't most of the residents there mages like in the ATLA or BNHA universes? If mages have interbreed with nonmages for millenia, then the magic gene would eventually overtake the genepool thanks to it benefitting people the most from an evolutionary perspective. Unlike the HP universe, there was no stigma against mages intermarrying, so that's not an excuse. Why the small percentage?

Why are none of the villains like Ursula called by their real names? I know they are historical figures, but some of these happened only a few hundred years ago, so they should have records of this shit.

Why is there so little known about the Great Seven, since, again, some of this happened less than a few hundred years ago.

Why isn't everyone in this world Hellenistic if they know the Greek Gods are real?

Why is Christianity a thing in this world, despite the Greek Gods being real?

Why does the game say that transformation potions are banned, despite the mermaid characters using them to attend Night Raven and the school literally teaching the kids how to make them? Isn't that like Walter White teaching his class how to make crack?

Why is there only one country where fae live? Wouldn't they be universal? Same goes for beastman.

How the fuck can both the heroes and the villains be both honoured historical figures? It's either one or the other.

Why are the people in Bairer Valley like the fantasy version of the Amish?

What the hell is the deal with that war Lilia keeps bringing up?

Why are merfolk only located in one sea?

These are just some of the ones from the top of my head! This still goes on and on!

It reminds me of when you are planning stages of a fantasy story's worldbuilding and you toss a bunch of shit at the wall, even some nonsensical things. But usually you have to go back in and tie up all the loose ends to have things line up correctly. Twisted Wonderland doesn't. Instead it still has all of these half baked worldbuilding ideas, even when they don't add up to the large picture, and it rips a part at the seams.

There's also a huge issue of a lack of research as well like in the scene where Kalim says an explanation for his surname, but it's completely wrong.

Honestly, when I have to go back in and completely alter the worldbuilding so that it makes sense in my fanfics, you know that the game fucked up in that regard. If you want to see a fantasy world with modern elements done right, go watch The Owl House or Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Malleus is a good-looking, but bland character: While I know characters like Jamil lacked any development until their arc, thing is that despite being almost at Diasomnia arc, we still know little about him. All we know is that he is prideful, a himbo and is a bit naive. For a character that we knew since the early chapters, that is pretty bad. It's disappointing, since his character concept on paper sounds so awesome, but yet it falls flat in execution.

Malleus and Yuu's friendship isn't very believable: Don't get me wrong. I understand why Malleus sees Yuu as a friend, but why the other way around? They hardly spend any time together. He just pops up every once in a while, says a few lines and that's it. But yet the game expects us to see them as close friends? Bullshit.

I think a lot of it has to do on the instance of having Yuu not learning Malleus' identity. One of my close online friends @stormkitty97 looked back at our first interactions, and they were pretty bland like Malleus and Yuu's as well. However, over time we talked more and began to hang out, becoming actual friends. Having Yuu and Malleus grow closer after spending time with one another would make their bond relatable and allowed the game to actually develop the Diasomnia more. But again, if the game did that, then that whole misunderstanding bs would fly out the window.

Ortho and Idia are lost potential: The idea of a child on the brink of death being brought back as a robot child sounds awesome. But like many things, it falls flat in execution.

Ortho has ZERO personality and is just the obligatory kawaii child character. It also makes no sense. Ortho was a child when he died, yes. But the current one is supposed to be the same age as the first years, so why the hell is he acting like a little kid? That's like if Alfonse acted like a child instead of a young man after his soul was sealed inside of the armour.

Idia is fine, I guess. But I REALLY don't see him as a good representative of Hades, who was known for being a smooth, funny fast-talker while he's the act opposite.

There's little conflict between the brothers, so it makes their dynamic feel stale and uninteresting. All stories need conflict. There's plenty of it there if it was actually explored.

(Personally, if I wrote this I would've keep Idia as is, but made Ortho more like Claudia from Interview with a Vampire with the personality of Hades—a soul of a young man trapped in the boy of a small child, who desperately wants a normal human body. Something like that would make him grow angry and make tensions grow between them with Ortho taking actions to get his body back, even in questionable ways.)

Chapter Six is on par Savanaclaw, ie it's one of the worst arcs in the game so far: If you know me well, you probably heard me rant about this before, but I'll say it now once again. To keep things short, it added too much random worldbuilding that came straight the fuck outta nowhere, the new worldbuilding makes no sense, the pacing is terrible, everyone acts extremely OOC, a lot of the things surrounding the Shroud Brothers makes no sense and Malleus coming in as a Deus Ex Machina fairy to resolve the plot when Vil could've easily solved the problem himself makes my eyes roll.

I think the Masquerade Event is rather problematic and I wish it was done differently: My major problem with it, outside of making the worldbuilding even more nonsensical is that it not only made Frollo an honoured historical figure, but said that he was on par with the Great Seven. Look, I know none of the other Great Seven in the game are saints, and all of them did extremely fucked up shit, but those guys are written in such a way that they are still likeable with a supernatural flare. You can easily twist their stories around to make it where while they aren't saints, at least you can understand where they are coming from and think they made the right call given the circumstances. Frollo is the exact opposite. He's a villain firmly rooted in reality, especailly here in the west, with ZERO redeeming qualities about him. In his movie, he almost drowned a baby in a well for being "deformed", made a woman's skull crack open after kicking her, wanted to exterminate all of the Rroma in Paris and is an old man who lusted after an underaged woman. Having characters idolize him when he's so rooted in reality feels wrong. It's like if the game made the Coachman or Radcliff honoured figures, despite the former being the fantasy version of a human trafficker and the latter being a literal fucking colonizer. Yes, they can do it, but it's in poor taste and makes no sense from an in universe standpoint.

If the game wanted to model that school after someone, I think Mother Gothel would've been the better option. While she is problematic too with her plan essentially being blood libel, which is an anti semitic trope, at least she's less rooted in reality than Frollo. Plus, it would've made the town name make a lot more sense thanks to her being tied to a golden flower. (Seriously, what the fuck does The Hunchback of Notre Dame have to do with flowers?) I think that if Yana REALLY wanted to add a Frollo counterpart to the game, he should've been in the same camp as Vargas or Crewel where he's a character without a statue honouring the actual person.

To be honest, this event is so problematic that I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Japanese exclusive or has massive overhauls to it like what happened with Sam's design or Fairy Gala. I can't imagine how westerners would take it as is, especailly when the game inevitably becomes more mainstream after the anime adaption next year.

Vil and Neige should've been stepbrothers: I talked about this at length before, so I won't get into it too much. But for the abridged version, it would've gave the events in that arc more impact, aligned Vil with the Evil Queen more and better explained why Vil overblotted and was so angry with him than if Neige was just a former coworker. To be honest, having that not be the case is such a bizarre writing choice that I have no idea what the hell Yana was going for with those two. But either way, it fell flat.

There should've been more half fae/mermen/beastmen and human characters in the cast: You can't look me in the eye and tell me that Sebek is the only half fae in that whole school. There would be a lot more attending Night Raven, including others of the main cast. I can see Epel and especailly Vil being half fae.

Vil and Jack's friendship should've played a bigger role in the game: When I first heard about this, I was intrigued. But this is hardly mentioned outside of a few vignettes. It comes across as one of the many plot points in the game that Yana brought up, but then promptly dropped, because she simply forgot about it, which is one of her major problems she has a writer that I've noticed. But still, if she wasn't gonna do anything with this, why bring it up in the first place?

Leona should've had a Swahili name: Usually in Disney projects that centre around The Lion King characters they would ALWAYS have Swahili names like Kion, Banji, Nala, etc. Having the game break that pattern is just...bizarre. Him having a Swahili name would fit the lore more and make more sense, especailly considering he's from an African coded country and is royalty, which is huge on tradition.

Leona and Jamil should've suffered more consequences for their actions after their overblots: I love these two, especailly Jamil, but they were left off the hook far too easily. Leona stated that he learnt nothing from that whole experience. Kalim instantly completely forgives Jamil despite his betrayal without any loss of trust at all. Actions always have consequences for good or ill, and that should've been shown a lot more. Having Kalim and Ruggie being angry at them for what they did would've mitigated this a lot.

Ruggie should've overblotted, not Leona: It makes far more sense, especailly with Ruggie drinking that one potion. The fact that he doesn't is just bizarre.

The Scarabia Dou should've went their own ways: I love the Scarabia Dou's dynamic just as much everyone else, but the game implying that Jamil should continue serving Kalim's family, despite treating his family like total shit, during the Ignihyde arc is super fucked up. Instead I think it should've ended with Kalim realizing how fucked up his family is and setting Jamil's family free. Yes, it's cliche. But it's what makes the most sense for them. Plus, it would've aligned those two with the movie more where Aladdin sets the Genie free. Or least having them learn to become their own person and setting boundaries for themselves.

Azul's eating disorder and Vil fussing over his weight should've been addressed and handled A LOT better: If you read between the lines, it's clear that Azul has body dysmorphia and a eating disorder (likely Bulimia thanks to him liking "fatty foods" and hating unhealthy ones, so I can easily see him going hungry, eating a huge unhealthy meal and purging it) thanks to being constantly fat shamed as a kid. He often says lines like, "I wish they'd list calories in the school's cafeteria. It makes things difficult", and "I like tightening my belt, because it gives me a slimmer figure". Azul gets anxious when Yuu offers him candy. During the Halloween event, Jamil comments that Azul has never ate anything, but is eyeing up all of the food. Is this ever addressed? No, of course not. If anything, it's treated as the butt of the joke, including a scene where everyone laughs at Azul for being fat as a kid. Not only that, but there is a bit in one of Vil's stories where Rook encourages Vil to lose weight.

Look, I'm far from being one of those "Can someone please think of the children!?" type of people, but adding disordered eating in a game targeted at teenagers and having it be not only uncriticized, but ACTIVELY ENCOURAGED is an incredibly irresponsible writing choice on Yana's part. I'm of the mindset of that if you want to tackle dark subject matter in shoujo/YA, fine, go ahead, but be mature about it and actual treat it with respect. This, of course, doesn't. (Granted, I think some of this is cultural on Yana's part, considering being plus sized is much more frowned upon in East Asia than the west and being only 5 pounds overweight can make others bully you for being "fat", but that's no excuse and she should've known better.) Good God, I thought that Hunk from VLD was bad, but this is on a whole other level.

[howlscifer]

I didn’t think this was necessary but given some of the portrayals of east asians in the tags, I feel like I need to cover some things. Some of the issues I’ll be discussing are geared specifically to historical / period rps. Let me preface that I’m speaking on this as an east asian and this is mainly geared to the things I’ve personally seen across rps. Keep in mind that my experience is my own and I can't speak for everyone either, but it still needs to be addressed. Anyways, to read more click below. Please reblog if you’ve found this useful and spread awareness so more people can learn.

001. Infantilizing east asian boys -- the soft uwu trope. ok as if this isn't already a very hot topic in real life where asian men are emasculated enough, it's really gross to see it played out in the community. i'm not saying men can't be soft and pretty, but when it's the character's (of any gender really) ONLY personality trait, it raises a lot of red flags. So stop.

002. Playing asian men as only m/m for the fetishization of gay romance. Again, I’m not saying playing asian men gay isn’t permitted but if you’re only seeking to play asian men to solely play them gay, you’re fetishizing.

003. Falling back on every cliche trope / stereotype. This ties in with the fetishizing uwu trope but I’m going to go more loosely into detail here. Not every woman is your “dragon lady”, nor are they your “go to poison lady” or your “I know literally everything because my IQ is 400+”. I could go on and on but there are asians that aren’t graceful, there are asians who aren’t smart, there are asians who aren’t badass and just want to chill? All I have left to say on this point is literally please for fucks sake diversify. If everyone can play 3,000 spinoff versions of the characters from GOT (Game of Thrones), you have the brain effort to do that with 1 asian historical character.

004. Going overboard with east asian aesthetics in every post. It’s not necessary to write gold, dragon, pearl, jade, silk to describe #every aesthetic possible in your vocabulary to make it sound more “asian”. I don’t see people writing baguette eiffel tower bonjour for french characters, so why do it with asians???

005. Choosing to use Asian FCs for ethnic representation and the visual aesthetic but actively choosing not to make them culturally ethnic while putting them in a non-Asian setting. And never addressing it either. Asian cultures are very distinct and go beyond aesthetics, clothes and food--it's in traditions, it's in our habits. I'm tired of seeing Asian faces' ethnic identities erased because you couldn't make the smallest of efforts. I'm all for diversity in all spaces, however, I feel you need to at least mention why they're there. Trade exists! Immigration exists! Make an effort. Don’t pick up POC characters and shove them into a non-asian country to avoid work so your lazy ass doesn’t have to research.

006. LANGUAGE! Google translate isn't the most accurate especially within historical contexts so please do a deeper dive of terminology. Plus some of the modern terms / slang that you might be using doesn’t make sense within the historical context of the rp. I'd suggest referencing historical period dramas from that language for proper vocabulary or else you're just going to be looking like boo boo the fool. There are some great ones to check out and, i don't know, maybe have fun and enjoy the content while learning something ???? food for thought.

007. Stop ignoring a biracial (white mixed) character's ethnic identity. Just because they're white passing or have western features doesn't mean you can erase the other half of their genetic makeup. Mixed people go through a lot of struggles, especially in historical contexts, that you can acknowledge for character depth so please do some research with your big person brain and write better. If you're going to acknowledge only the white part of a chosen fc and ignore their ethnic side, congrats you're racist!

So that sums up the general gist of WHAT NOT TO DO when you’re writing an east asian character! It’s not that hard and if you avoid all these issues, hooray keep doing whatever it is that you’re doing. 

[gopeachllama]

My hopes for the VA tv show

So i got into vampire academy when i was in like grade 8/9 i think? So i would have been in my early teens. It's a book series that is very near-perfect to me, and it is very dear to my heart bc it's been with me for so long. That being said, i will be the first one to admit that there is a serious lack of diverse representation. Like i said before, i got into it almost ten years ago, and back then, even as a poc growing up as a minority, i was aware of this however it wasn't much of an issue for me mainly becuase it wasn't a issue for the people (the non-pocs) around me. Now that va is being developed into a tv series, i think this would be the perfect opportunity to change some things up to include more diverse characters. I've seen that there's already qutie a few people on here dicussing the sexualities of the characters, and they're really great. But this conversation is about race-bending. For anyone that wants to contribute to this post, i'm all up for kind and careful dicussions, it's not my intention to offend anyone, and i'm not trashing the series or it's creator.

Also the points about diversity and race in particular shouldn't be dimissed just because it's a fantasy/paranormal genre. Yes it is a fantasy/paranormal series but it is set in the real modern world, where issues like race and prejudice are relavent! You can't just ignore it. Also im sure that a lot of va stan are like me, in that they got into it at a very young age and now are older and also find these issue important to them, whether they are a poc or not.

Just a warning there will be a lot of spoilers (also random spiderman homecoming spoilers) in this post, so for anyone that hasn't read the books proceed with caution.

So firstly, i want to talk about the characters that won't be changed. Dimitri will obviously be russian. I like the idea that the royal families originating from european countries, so alot of the royals in this series lissa, adrian, victor etc. i think should stay white. It reflects a lot of the real world issues about how the people in 'higher class' western societies are mainly white. this is more personal but i have this weird headcannon that christian is like half-southeast asian (i say south-east asian bc i am also, and i would love more representation of my race (s/o to any of my sri lankan book stans if y'all even exist on here!!)) In the later books there is a focus on the prejudice regarding his relationship with lissa. this is due to the fact that his family is shun from the other royal bc of his parents willingly turning. It was a good plot point, but there was somthing about taking the real world prejudice of interracial relationship and using here between two white characters and framing it as something else that just rubs me off the wrong way (again, i never had these feelings as i was reading it for the first time, it was only until i got older that issues like race a representations became more important to me). This way, they can keep still keep the bit about christian's parents and race-bending christian would have any affect on the overall story. Rose (my baby) she could be made fully persian but if they stick with her being biracial, then i hope when it comes to casting that they find someone that has more persian physical features rather than someone with more eurocentric features.

Now for the main characters I think should be race-bent are eddie, jill and sydeny should be black. For eddie, i first thought that mason should be race-bent but then this would be a major problem in the second book because of the harmful sterotype about black people always being the first (major character) to die (i am STILL taumatised over mason's death and its going to destroy me all over again when i see it with my own two eyes).

Sydney, as far as i know, there's nothing in the books that make is pivitol for her to be white. And while is important to be diverse with race, it's important to be diverse with black characters in itself. Sydney has always been such an interesting character to me. she's analytical and methodical, she's book smart, and she's almost the complete opposite of rose, but doesn't make her any less a compelling character. So much in books, movies and tv shows, black females characters are mainly potrayed as strong, hardass, take-no-prisoners (sometimes even hyper-sexualised) type personalities. So rarely do we see them as with characteristic like sydeny's, so i think it would be really great to show this. Also her relationship with adrian has a lot of the same points with i said about christian's relationship with lissa regarding prejudice.

With Jill, i noticed that in the books, Mead sort of goes out for her way to describe her physical appearance, so that when later it is revealed that she is lissa's half sister, the readers are able to think "oh yeah of course they look really similar" and so it doesn't seem like a telenovella style outrageous plot twist. But for this i want to quickly talk about how in spiderman homecoming, peter's love interest who is black, is revealed to be the daughter of the villan who is white. For me, it was amazing reveal and something i was not expecting at all, but at the same time, its wasn't hard for me to believe because of course birracial people exist. I think it would be really cool to do the same thing here with Jill. It a great way to subvert people's expectations and wouldn't make the plot twist any less unreasonable. Aslo from what i can remember there are no black vampires?? for some reason? that was always kinda weird to me. Also with the three of these character's being black, they can still maintain the storyline of them passing off as siblings when they're in hiding, that is if they ever adapt the bloodlines storyline too.

Whether or not these characters, or any of the characters, will be race-bent, it won't change my experince with the book series. Like I said at the start, vampire academy will always be THAT series for me. The world-building is simple and easy to follow but the plot and characters are so compelling. But this upcoming tv adaptions would be a good oppotuny to address the very few things i (and a lot of other diverse readers) have with it.

[zedecksiew]

“Exotic Warrior”

(Am writing this because it’s been bubbling over in my mind. This post is an exorcism of bad vibes over bad ideas that have held me hostage, the past few days.)

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There is now criticism on Twitter arguing that the “Exotic Warrior”, one of Troika!’s d66 Backgrounds, is racist because it is coded as Orientalist / Asian.

I would like to respectfully disagree.

(There are other arguments in the initial complaint. I am commenting the “Exotic Warrior” specifically. Because by being actually East Asian -- part of the diaspora, living in Southeast Asia -- I feel I have some standing to comment.)

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When I encountered “Exotic Warrior” in the book it stood out as a neat background and helped sell me on Troika!.

As I read it, the Background is a deft piece of work: it references the “adventurer from a foreign land” thing, but occludes said trope’s usual Orientalism -- an attempt at deconstruction.

A foreigner, in Troika!, can be anybody. This isn’t just a platitude; it’s supported by the book’s implied science-fantasy setting -- is essentially Spelljammer, but on more acid.

It is similar to Electric Bastionland / Planescape / etc in that it features a melting-pot, nobody’s-local “city at the centre of creation”-type deal. (I have Thoughts about RPG setttings that focus on metropoles, but that’s a separate post.)

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Here’s the “Exotic Warrior” ’s text, in full:

24 EXOTIC WARRIOR No one has heard of your homeland. Your habits are peculiar, your clothes are outrageous, and in a land jaded to the outlandish and new you still somehow manage to stand out.

POSSESSIONS - A WEIRD & WONDERFUL WEAPON. - STRANGE CLOTHES. - EXCITING ACCENT. - A TEA SET or 3 POCKET GODS or ASTROLOGICAL EQUIPMENT.

ADVANCED SKILLS 6 Language - Exotic Language 3 Fighting in your Weird Weapon 2 Language - Local Language 2 Spell - Random 1 Astrology 1 Etiquette 

Honestly? None of the above reads as particularly problematic. It’s a legit, characterful beginning point for a player-character.

Sure, my Western-media-battered brain jumps to Samurai Warrior -- 

But immediately also to Sufi Missionary or Varangian Guard. And indeed comes to rest at Indeterminately White Gentleperson Naturalist -- the kind of exotic visitor Southeast Asia got, a lot, those scouts of European imperialism.

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These readings are possible because of the illustration the entry is paired with. Here they are together:

Setting aside the surrealist stylisations:

The shape of the costume, the belt, the “skirt” -- these look like Europeanisms, to me. And the figure’s laughing abandon opposes the standard Orientalist tropes of wise inscrutability or red-faced savagery.

The choice to run “Exotic Warrior” with a decidedly non-Orientalist-coded illustration isn’t an unintentional piece of art direction.

(PS: any critique of an illustrated text that only focuses on the words is incomplete. Image is half the text of an illustrated text.)

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The nondescript-ness of the entry plus its accompanying image is an open door. Opening this door isn’t without risk: whatever assumptions you make about your particular “Exotic Warrior” are drawn from your own biases.

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Regarding “Etiquette” and “Astrology” and “Tea Set”?

With my biases: I don’t read these things as uniquely East-Asian. (When I first encountered “tea set” in Troika! I genuinely thought: “English tea service”, instead of: “temae”.)

The one that I did read as real-world Eastern was “Pocket Gods” -- but many human cultures had this, pocket gods are a part of Troika!’s wider fantasy setting, and “Exotic Warrior” isn’t the only Background to start with them.

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A note on “exotification”:

The criticism of “Exotic Warrior” fundamentally seems to be: “Playing a character from the Other / that is Other-ed = BAD”.

I fundamentally disagree with this notion.

I have no lived experience of a society where being other-ed (in terms of culture, race, class, gender expression, etc) isn't an ever-present thread in the fabric of one's life -- and therefore a crucial and profound source of conflict and insight into the human condition.

(The ethnic fault-lines in Malaysian society have become so unbridgeable today primarily because it was official policy to sweep all that other-ing under the rug of “Malaysia Truly Asia”, as opposed to working through our ugly whispered prejudices towards understanding.)

We are not all the same. Cultural, geographic, and material differences exist. The mismatch in knowledge and understanding this creates? It matters.

In fact: To insist on universal cultural-knowledge parity; To push for “nobody’s born here, everybody belongs” melting-pots as the default framing; To nudge questions of difference and arrival into ghettos (to paraphrase one of the tweets I saw: “you can only explore issues surrounding the Other in a game specifically designed to do so”);

All that comes off to me as a very neo-liberal position, designed to safeguard and disguise the privileges of “mainstream” metropolitan melting-pots.

I read it as:

“Post-modern cosmopolitan societies want to be inclusive but don’t want to pay the admission price of history and discomfort, so they generally opt for erasure instead.”  

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Throughout this post I have been careful to speak from my particular context. Because context matters.

More context:

I like Troika!. Like, a lot. I think its creator, UK-based Daniel Sell, strives and succeeds at making thoughtful work. I consider him a friend, whom I’ve had personal (albeit Internet-bound) interactions now and again.

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I have BJ Recio to thank for the following insight. Talking to him about “Exotic Warrior”, BJ brought up a crucial point that I’ll paraphrase here:

Roleplaying the outsider can be bad, especially when it is used as an excuse by the West to do fucked-up shit. But it is not default bad. Assuming it is default bad centres the discussion on “Will White people fuck this up? (Yes.)”

Essentially, the argument against “Playing a character from the Other / that is Other-ed = BAD" assumes two things:

(a) Western participants as default; (b) harm (because of ignorance or bad faith) as default.

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If your context -- your Background, hah! -- prompts you to experience Troika! with those assumptions; and therefore read “Exotic Warrior” as necessarily Orientalist, and racially-charged?

Your context is your context; I’m not going to invalidate it.

If you are located in a society where the binary of White / non-White overpowers everything, I certainly understand the whys and hows of your position.

Your context matters.

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So does mine.

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I think I’m reacting badly to this because I personally feel turned away by this RPG Discourse Around Representation (tm), supposedly done in the name of my East-Asian ass.

I resent the idea that “Playing a character from the Other / that is Other-ed = BAD”. It threatens to render verboten the entirety of my RPG work.

I am a SEA creator trying to explore and be true to my context. If there is one constant throughout SEAsian experience, it is difference.

Our peoples have ever encountered and glamourised and hated each other, all of us simultaneously Us and the Other:

Japanese and Malay enclaves in Ayutthaya; Mongol invaders in Java, who never left; Luzones mercenaries, employed by both the Sultan of Melaka and his Portuguese enemies; The reputation of the Ilanun / Bajak Laut; White conquistadors (aforementioned above); The entire history of diaspora Chinese identities (my identity!) in SEA, generally;

Foreigners from foreign lands -- feared, not fully understood, not fully understanding, simultaneously conquering and settling and finding modes of belonging, becoming a part of the land.

Always arriving.

+

That the background music of my geography, discordant though it may be, is somehow so harmful it may only be meaningfully depicted in the hermetic context of a “game specifically designed to explore that”?

This feels bad, and extremely unwelcoming. It feels like a shut gate instead of an open door.

I refuse to be turned away.

+++

(Hopefully I can finally stop thinking about this shit.)

[heartofnopal]

First of all, kudos for representing your culture ♥ I wanted to ask you though: As someone who shares a similar background with you, I was genuinely conflicted when I first saw your MC, I think I was worried about misrepresentation? Since finding out you're channeling your own culture though, I do feel a bit better, yet still conflicted... Maybe I'm still afraid of doing the same, y'know? How do you feel, genuinely, about sharing yourself like this? [1 of 2]

Going to add your part two: “And, I'm really sorry about the heavy topic of this ask. It's just been weighing on my mind for a good while now and I've only finally mustered up the courage to visit your blog and send it. I'm not sure what I'm feeling and I was hoping you might understand, haha. Please feel free to ignore. [2 of 2]”

Hey there, definitely not gonna ignore. And don't be sorry about the heavy topic. I'm genuinely glad you asked this question and it's something that had been weighing heavily on my mind before I decided to finally make content for the character I've had in mind for so long.

Gonna start by introducing Quetzalli and what it means for someone like this in the Arcana world. Because it's a fictional universe, there's no such thing as Mexica. Same goes for all other canon characters, we know the cultures they were influenced by, but the people don't actually exist in this world. But I absolutely love that characters do have influence from our real world cultures and I wanted to share that of my ancestors because all of our cultures have a right to influence fiction just as much as any other. And when I realized Nopal is influenced by modern day Northern Mexico/Southwest US, I felt so happy to think people inspired by ours could exist in this world because they're ignored in every other fantasy.

One other good example I can think of is Avatar the Last Airbender which has nations and people inspired by real-world cultures. Inuit, Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan cultures are among them yet even then there are other elements and no one nation is strictly influenced by one culture alone nor do they completely mirror them. I was also happy to notice that the Sun Warriors were primarily influenced by Mesoamerican civilizations including Mexica, Incan, and Mayan with some Southeast Asian influences as well. On the other hand there are movies like the Road to El Dorado that has established itself in a real-world setting and so I’d be very strict on how the culture is represented. 

As you probably figured, Quetzalli is influenced by the Mexica (Aztec) culture as it used to be before La Conquista. And the Mexica as the people they were haven't existed since then, but instead have changed with time. Yet I've grown up surrounded by their legacy and that of the Chichimeca people in my town in Mexico, particularly the Zacatecos, Caxcan, and Guachichil (Quetzalli's mother is influenced by Chichimeca peoples who would likely be placed in the Catclaw desert in the Arcana world). But honestly, what has pissed me off so much is the way our people are seen and treated. Even many people in Mexico are racist and still look down upon those of indigenous descent. But we should be proud and I wanted to create a character who is proud, brave and powerful because that's what I feel like when I embrace that part of me. Thus Quetzalli was born!

But integrating the character into the Arcana universe is tricky. There are many elements that I could keep and some that I couldn't because not everyone will understand some concepts. Death is a tricky subject and even in the Arcana universe, it's heavily influenced by western concepts of death in which death is like some ultimate scary thing and that's that. While of course I don't take death lightly, even as a child it wasn't ever truly scary. I was raised to believe it's a cycle and death is not feared but honored and respected. So when I was taught about Mexica sacrifice as a kid (most people only know about sacrifices like some bs to justify la Conquista while there’s SO MUCH good shit like public education and genius engineering)  although I don’t agree obviously, it makes sense to me because I could understand how a people would view it as a cycle that must continue. The sun rises and falls, seasons change, people die, people are born. Even enemy war captives who have a sliver of divinity that allowed the capture. It's all a cycle where life and divinity must be returned in order for it to be given back. There was never enough blood to give to everyone that is and will ever be and so much be returned.

This is one of the things I'm leaving out in Quetzalli because it's a delicate subject that I know people won't understand. And because she's a fictional character only influenced by the Mexica in a fantasy world, I feel okay leaving the bloodshed out (also people might vilify her and the Mexica people for it like they already do). If I was to make her a character in a real world scenario, then nope, I'll need to be strict and include everything whether everyone likes it or not. Other things about her that I've stretched is the fact that she's an Eagle Warrior. Although women had more independence over their work and finances (compared to many European women at the time) and that it was believed women could be powerful leaders (depicted in stories and history) they weren't allowed in combat, at least in the last 200 years of the empire. I'm not counting the time women joined the struggle under Huey Tlatoani Cuauhtemoc because that was a desperate last stand.

But if you read my short story "the game begins" it's known that Quetzalli cannot become a warrior and thus will listen to Huehuecoatl in hopes he'll help her get there. Another thing I stretched is her coliseum outfit. I wanted to incorporate some essential parts of the Eagle Warrior's uniform: the greaves, the chimalli, and especially the cuacalalatli and feathers lining the leather so she may embrace the eagle's fighting prowess. Those parts are there but I also wanted to keep in with the theme of the Arcana coliseum outfits in that they are very revealing and made for show over function as we've seen with Julian and Asra. I also wanted to share the cuacalalatli and I think the idea of embracing an animal's prowess is beautiful in that one looks up to nature to feel strength.

I try to add Mexica elements where I can because I love to share more and so few people know about Mesoamerican cultures. But I also try to keep it on the same level as the other Arcana characters who show their real-world cultural elements while not making that everything there is to know about them. I want her to still feel apart of this world and story, she’s a character like all the others. So sometimes I’m limited to clothing, tools and weapons, language, flowers and plants, motifs, her hummingbird familiar, even the appearance of the “Ascending Eagle” but I think references to our world’s Tonatiuh is as far as I can go while maintaining Arcana universe. 

But to summarize what I feel about it. Indigenous american cultures are widely ignored among Arcana apprentices and I honestly feel that we should not feel ashamed to include them, especially if they're our own. And I do understand the feeling of not wanting to misrepresent cultures, it IS important to avoid stereotypes even if it's a fantasy setting. Also one thing some forget is that indigenous people are PEOPLE like everyone else and have every right to exist in media. We don't have to adhere to every aspect of our culture nor should we be ashamed and hide it away. Quetzalli is influenced by Mexica but she's a normal person in this world with every right to be there like any other character, wear her clothes, speak her language, get upset, be sensual, kick some ass, hate and love... None of this says any less of her or her culture. 

The things I've included in her has been a monument to the power she feels and that of the people she's influenced by, the same pride and power I feel when I embrace my roots. It took me a while to finally get around to sharing her, but I'm glad I am. Thank you so much for this ask. 

Si quieres hablar mas, o si todavia tienes miedo de crear un personaje como este, dame un mensaje? Nuestra gente y nuestros ancestros tienen derecho a existir aqui. :D 

[shared-braincell]

so ive seen a post about how modern/highschools au fanfics of atla and lok taking place in more western settings is a form of whitewashing and,,, are yall ok?? not to mention some of the same ppl reblogging that thread also love modern au ART even though it doesnt adhere to their standards of what modern au writing should be. can people stop throwing around terms like whitewashing?? its an AU for a reason and stipulating the idea that writing a modern au based on atla/lok that is written in a ‘western way’ is racist/whitewashing is absolute bs. no, someone does not need to do hours and hours of research about a place/culture just to write about the characters of atla/lok in a modern setting. the cultures of the atla universe, despite having many real life cultural influences, does not strictly translate to our own world. there is no such thing as air nomad culture, fire nation culture, etc in our reality. therefore, theres no way to erase said cultures in a modern setting because they dont exist. obviously making the characters white and shit is an absolute NO, but please get it through your head that setting doesnt mean shit in terms of culture. asian people exist outside of asia! asian people exist in the western world! just because a work of fiction is written in an non-asia location featuring primarily asian characters, its not inherently whitewashing. pls take your god/savior complex somewhere else and stop speaking for entire groups as if youre the one who gets to determine what is and isnt ‘whitewashing’. thanks.