#quit whitewashing poc

[obi-mom-kenobi]

Tempted to start blocking anyone who draws poc paler than me

[eeldritchblast]

I truly wonder if white fans are even capable of understanding how hard it is just being in a fandom space when you're not white. How alienated you feel every other day. How often you're told "it's not that big a deal" or "it's just a fantasy game get over it" or "it doesn't matter" or "go save the rainforest instead of crying over a game" or etc. etc. etc. to the point where you yourself start to question if there's something wrong with you... that it's your fault for being hurt all the time. Because it's never just about one racist mod, or one piece of whitewashed art, or one offensive post... it's all of it. Together. All the time. It's so fucking exhausting and it's why POC quit fandom spaces a lot.

[dalishious]

hi! so...i saw a couple of people say that zevran isn't actually a poc he's just a white spaniard with a tanned skin so is it possible that's true? cuz it's somewhere said that the devs made him hispanic with a spanish accent and on top of that they white washed the shit out of him in da2 and in wotv2...do you know maybe one of the devs specified that he's brown hispanic and not white hispanic cuz IM FUCKING WORRIED

also i don't exactly remember the source (about the devs making him hispanic) cuz op didn't share and maybe it's just some random guy giving his impression on zevran but here:

"Thus, the developers had a very clear idea of what they wanted Zevran to be. They wanted Zevran to be charismatic, attractive, and quick on his feet. He is a lovable rogue with a troubled past. To help convey all these qualities to the player, he was given the accent of a Spaniard. It is an accent which has been used for all manner of renaissance-era heroes. Zevran is cut from the same cloth as famous heroes like Inigo Montoya and Zorro. Zevran himself will comment that his accent is one of his more attractive qualities. The dashing Hispanic archetype is quite poplar, to the point where just hearing the accent in the context of fiction implies the possession skill with a weapon of choice and suave mannerisms."

Zevran literally has the second darkest skin tone in the game. His game model uses 006 of 7 skin tints. That man is not just tanned.

Here is his vanilla head model:

Here are various vanilla screenshots in different game lighting:

Here is his most recent official artwork from World of Thedas vol 2:

Zevran has brown skin. That is FACT.

I have to assume anyone who says otherwise has been either looking at too much whitewashed fanart or playing the game with their gamma/brightness turned way up.

Finally, Gaider did indeed refer to Zevran as having "darker skin" when people compared his design to Fenris, on the old and now dead BioWare forums. Unfortunately I don't have the full conversation saved, just this part of it:

^ The "him" in context of the full conversation was Zevran.

[redwiccanrobin]

I keep seeing people say the live action show is going to be bad only because Bryke is no longer involved. Now, I’m not particularly interested in the show because live action remakes just don’t do anything for me, personally. But I think y’all are giving Bryke way more credit than they deserve. Let’s discuss.

First, I think we should acknowledge the more problematic aspect of them creating the show in the first place. While I love Avatar, Bryke are two white men who took the aesthetics of many different Asian cultures to create their world. And most of the voice cast were also white. If there were Asian voice actors, they were either a background character or a villain (besides Iroh and Zuko, of course). Now, I know that some of you may have read that and thought about how the actor playing Sokka is not only white but lied about his ethnicity. Don’t worry, I’m mad at that as well and I’m beyond frustrated that Sokka has been whitewashed not once, but twice in the name of a live action interpretation.

And speaking of live action interpretations, let us not forget Bryke’s role in the 2010 movie. They announced their decision to leave this new show due to it not matching their vision. But they had no problem with the film that casted almost exclusively white actors to play characters of color. Again, if there were POC in the movie they were either background actors or villains (again, besides Iroh and Zuko). When people bring up the movie, they blame Shamalan for every aspect of it. Yes, he did not direct a good movie. But, at the end of the day, Bryke wanted this movie to happen. Everyone else, including Shamalan, wanted a season four but they were dead set on the live action movie that whitewashed most of the characters. And they were fine with that. That didn’t clash with their vision despite relying very heavily on non-white cultures to make their show.

Outside of the whitewashed movie, their creative choices are… interesting, to say the least. And we didn’t get to see those because the writers pulled their weight and tweaked the original concepts. Toph? Bryke wanted her to be a boy and be in a love triangle with Aang and Katara. It was the writers who made her a girl. Azula? Again, Bryke wanted her to be a boy and, again, the writers made her a girl. Katara fighting sexism in the Northern Water Tribe? They wanted her to be fighting for Aang, not herself. It was the writers decision to add in Katara fighting against a patriarchal system. Many of the episodes that people point to as their favorites (Zuko Alone, The Puppetmaster, The Southern Raiders) were not written by them. Yet, they get the pats on the backs from casual viewers and even some dedicated fans.

Do you know what happens when they do have creative control? At best, it’s mediocre, at worst, it’s bad. Let’s first take a look at their continuation of this universe by looking at Legend of Korra. The writers that made those iconic and beautiful episodes in ATLA? For the most part, they’re no where to be found. And it shows. LoK was a mess from the very beginning and never quite got its footing. Yes, I will acknowledge that Nickelodeon fucked them over. Yes, I do have respect for them for sticking to their guns and making Korrasami an item and giving us not one but two bisexual women of color. But besides that? It’s just a very mediocre show with mediocre writing.

But we see how truly bad things can get with the ATLA comics. Now, I do need to acknowledge that they didn’t work on that comic alone. So, like the movie, there are others to blame for the mess. But Bryke signed off on everything and wrote some of it themselves. And, boy, are they bad. A large number of the ATLA fandom do not like these comics and there’s definitely a reason why. Including out of character moments, prominent sexism with how the women are written, and just downright bizarre discussions, it’s not that much of a surprise that we don’t like to acknowledge it. In my opinion, no one got screwed over more in those comics than Katara. They make her a trophy girlfriend. A shadow to Aang rather than being her own character. That girl we watched in the show, the one who was vibrant, layered, complex, was gone. In her place, a hollow shell. And they would continue to show disrespect for their own character in LoK where she has been upgraded from trophy girlfriend to trophy wife. They didn’t even care enough about her, besides her being the wife of Aang and the mother of his children, to give her a statue! All the feminism we see in the original show? It definitely wasn’t Bryke.

I don’t know how this new live action show is going to pan out. It could be great, it could be bad. It could just be meh. But none of those outcomes have anything to do with whether or not Bryke was involved. Because they may have created ATLA, but they weren’t the ones who truly breathed life into it.

[xycuro-illuminati]

Why didn’t you like the current Daredevil run?

I'll do a speed round here we go:

- Horrible character assassination on everyone especially Matt and Elektra.

- Zdarsky was v clearly inspired by the mcu Netflix show so the run had a severe case of mcu-ification

- The way he wrote women was atrocious (examples: Elektra, Kirsten, Mindy, literally everyone else)

- The shitty retcon to Elektra's backstory going from the sheltered sweet girl that loved her father sm that when he died it broke her to the point of grief and revenge that she became an assassin and it shattered her worldview to the stupid fucking backstory the mcu tried pulling of her being a spy sent by the Hand to recruit Matt.

- Whitewashed Kirsten AND gave her blue eyes

- the obnoxious way of how Matt was written in terms of religion to the point where he went from caricature to straight up crusader colonizer preaching

- Matt is so horrible in this run this is the most OOC he's ever been it legit feels like reading an mcu dd fanfic from someone who barely watched the show and only took word of fanon and saw gifsets

- Zdarsky tried grabbing story plots from previous runs and executed them horribly to the point where he only grabbed the worst shit from it (the ableism, infantalization, and sexual assault)

- Daredevil Elektra as a concept; it doesn't work. I'm sorry, cool outfit and all, but the Daredevil mantle isn't like the Spider-Man one where anyone can wear the mask. Daredevil was specifically for Matt to process his trauma of losing his father and used it to gain justice where the system would fail for his city. His upbringing fits the mantle and the only person who would fit that mantle is Sam Chung. With Elektra it doesn't work and it's on par with the whole "wife takes the husband's last name" but worse. My friend @thosemintcookies has made better points about this.

- Whitewashed Sam Chung and made him just sit at a cave waiting for the Beast or some shit

- Speaking of the Beast, the Hand being the big bad guys of the whole run sucks. Can we leave the Hand behind please the ninja clan isn't the ultimate dd villain.

- Foggy is just there. He doesn't do much and he's just THERE. It sucks. And he throws around the term catholic guilt for no fucking reason. The guilt Matt feels is regular guilt please shut the fuck up Zdarsky.

- Brought back Mike Murdock and did some decent writing on him only to kill him off. Cool, what was the whole point of that.

- Pulled a gotcha on making us think that zdarsky killed off Kirsten in a train explosion but it turned out she was fine which was so foul. Daredevil comics are NOTORIOUS for fridging female characters so that shit was just unacceptable idc argue with a wall.

- Checcetto's art style sucks I'm gonna be honest. The novelty of it being pretty ended v quickly as soon as he drew poc and holy shit he cannot draw them nor can he draw any other expression.

- Did I mention the ableism? And the infantalization? And the fetishization of Matt's disability? No? Okay well this post covers it all here.

- It gets into racist territory too with how they write Sam and the Hand

- This romantic mattelektra agenda makes my skin itch they're not romantic they're tragic their whole deal is that they could never go back to how they were as lovebirds in college. Soule broke up Kirsten and Matt and they kept it like that for this shlop I'm gonna kill you zdarsky and I'm making Elektra a lesbian now.

- Back to Elektra's character; zdarsky takes the cake in "Let's make Elektra's whole life and character revolve around Matt and Matt only". Making her quit her ways and making Matt treat her like shit by calling her a murderer despite the fact that in previous runs he would NEVER do that and has ACCEPTED that this is who Elektra is.

- Speaking of the murderer shit; Matt is a huge hypocrite in this run and not in a good or fun way. Homeboy got rescued by the other Defenders but then got mad and called them murderers bc they've admitted to killing people and it's the most fanficy thing I've ever read. Zdarsky, did you know. That Matt has known Jessica, Luke, and Danny for years now? Did you know that he already knows that they've killed people before? Did you know that he's teamed up with killers plenty of times (see: Elektra, Natasha, Frank Castle) and doesn't make a big shit about it? Did you know that Matt has killed people before in previous runs?? Did you know that zdarsky?? Bc it's clear he doesn't know.

- Whenever Spider-Man shows up Zdarsky writes him better than anyone in the run and this is a Daredevil run mind you

- Shitty ass writing. Shitty plot bc we've seen it all and there's nothing done. OOC on everyone. Misogynistic writing at its finest. Whitewashed characters. Stupid religious pandering bs that only the mcu girlies would like. Terrible run overall.

@thosemintcookies @froggynelson @faacethefacts @xuanelle @daresplaining @briefcasejuice @evileyeamulet

Feel free to add more or elaborate more on my post I'm giving yall the stage if you want it.

[anfieldroad]

beuhhh why do i keep getting that one fan artist that keeps making mo white on my feed.

like they whitewash all the POC liverpool players and it’s quite literally getting on my nerves 😭😭😭 can’t escape them

[iodrawsandtalks]

Criticism of Penacony and why i think HYV shouldve quit while they were ahead.

//vent towards the end, references to suicide while those references are quest spoilers Recently I've been doing world quests and grinding out the new region and been repeatedly finding myself walking straight into microagressions and slights to the point where it's been jarring enough for me to put my game down. As a black dude playing HYV games i know well enough not to act like the stupid billion dollar game company cares about appealing to minorities but its 2024 man.

First off, the obvious issue. Penacony has been repeatedly mentioned by the devs themselves to be based off of the Jazz Age from the U.S. a few decades ago.

The Jazz age was a period of time in American History between the 1920's and 1930s where the popularity of Jazz just boomed from being like an indie type of music to one of worldwide popularity. Obviously, Black people in that era are wholly responsible for Jazz itself.

So yeah, Penacony takes its origins from a key black history movement. Penacony, the region that released at the start of February. Black History Month. Star Rail is arguably one of the most popular games right now in terms of outreach because it's free, its new, and its colorful/futurisric etc.... And yet....

Just like with the rest of the HYV games that take real world inspirations, they fucked over black people and their stories.

In Honkai Impact 3rd, basically we had this one black girl who's like sandpaper brown and complains about how much her DARK SKIN ruins her look and how she bleaches her skin using various products to keep it lighter. She is ashamed of her DARK SKINNED mother who's a military woman. Her father is absent. Her mother is also a grown adult who is a B-rank soldier(main character white teenagers are S-rank for reference). Carole Peppers is her name if you want to go further down that rabbit hole.

In Genshin Impact, besides the fact that people with different skin tones are CLEARLY sectioned into certain regions(no seriously there's no real reason why i shouldnt see a black person in any of the existing regions.), and besides the unnecessary amount of whitewashing and besides the perpetuation of the idea of melanin NOT being natural, every single brown/black character in the game has awful playstyles and/or poor matching with weapons/artifacts, inaccessibilty, and they NEVER make it to the top of any meta tierlists. I'm not outright saying they're bad they're just harder and almost never get specialized weapons.

The only previously relevant example in Star Rail was Arlan, a lightning/destruction character. He chews through his own HP and unlike characters like blade/clara, does not have resistance or healing to handle that. Serval, the other lightning 4 star, out-dps's him veryyyyyyy easily. So yeah, the ashy black person character basically dies if you use him for too long and is never relevant TO ANY quests except where he needs to be the sidekick.

sometimes these games have dragons, animals that can understand and process english, or magic.... but then not black people...

Penacony has no black main characters. No black stories of relevance. Yesterday found an NPC whose name was detracted from chocolate and the player had the option to let commit suicide.

yeah ill get to that 💀. This large mass of at least 4 supernatural looking characters and yet no black person. NOT EVEN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM penacony itself are black.

so yesterday I was grinding clockwork quests and had to help out some apathetic shopkeeper named Cocona. Her story was almost a bit sad but midway into going through her background i realized her name is one letter off of cocoa. now imagine being on a creative team coming up with a name for a melanated NPC and somebody decides on fucking CHOCOLATE with an extra letter. before anybody implies that one was something i shoehorned, think about how itd go if i had a bunch of POC characters and one white girl named crackerella.

Cocona and her once again sad backstory reach a hard tipping point as the player follows her to the edge of a building and can either grab her to stop her from jumping or simply let her end her life jumping off the building.

Yes we've seen how this game lets you make choices and watch the consequences of your actions, but there have been established rule-breaking predecents. Take Ruan Mei's quest where you have no choice but to eat the cake she offers you and once again lose the ability to make a choice on saying anything related to her. or any time the trailblazer gets pushed into a fight and cannot de-escalate. ....with this in mind consider why was saving the cocoa girl from killing herself NOT a forced option.

normally id be the kind of silly person looking for lore bits and stuff and making theories, (like how clockie is from the path of elation :v)but as a black dude this whole region is disgusting. THEY ARE GENTRIFIYING JAZZ AND COVERING UP ITS BLACK ORIGINS idk who said HYV cared about their audiences they fucking dont.

wouldve posted this on reddit but whoop dee do i am NOT getting doxxed today.

[flightlessangelwings]

ahh since the reader insert whitewashing discourse is making the rounds again….the amount of times that I read the phrase “you KNOW I don’t know what that means” or “you know I can’t speak Spanish” in both pedro pascal AND oscar isaac fandom fics is just like… idk. I personally don’t even speak Spanish but something about that phrase is so white like I feel like I only ever hear white people saying stuff like that 😭 and I promise I’m not being a hater (just frustrated in general because I’m trying to avoid x reader fics that are white coded) it just becomes obvious that some people weren’t even raised around poc especially in fics that show friendships between the reader and other characters of color bc why is y/n suddenly using slang and cursing more when hobie is in the scene lmao

The whitewashing conversation never really stops it just goes quiet for a bit before people get riled up again lol

But I COMPLETELY agree with your frustration there cause I feel the exact same way!!! Like I know Spanish, I’m Latine, but I’m not fluent (bad I know I’m shame) but it still pisses me off soooo much!!! Like just leave that line out there’s no need for “you didn’t understand Spanish” or anything similar. It’s really frustrating when Latino fans feel seen in Pedro and Oscar characters and want to see themselves as loved by them only to be reminded that many writers only think of and see white readers when they write!

And yes technically not all poc know Spanish ish and not all white peoole don’t. BUT! It’s the implication that the reader is white there and I agree it’s mostly white authors who do this.

I would suggest making the line “he said something in Spanish you didn’t quite catch” or “didn’t hear” and just leave it up to the reader to determine for themselves if they do or don’t know the language or can chock it up to simply not hearing what he said or something. Or using italics to indicate Spanish or something Ike that. It’s simple and more inclusive that way!

And you’re totally right on treating interactions with poc characters differently too! I think some of it can be unconscious bias but sometimes it definitely comes across odd from a Latine/poc point of view.

[midnight-skylie]

DC's whitewashing problem is so weird. They choose to turn a completely random and already established character into black instead of admitting Selina Kyle is Cuban and give her some melanin.

DC turned Helena Bertinelli aka Huntress black to distinguish between her and Helena Wayne from earth 2, the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, that is also Huntress.

Selina is Cuban. DC are trying to erase it but she's Cuban.

Instead of giving Selina, an already poc person, the melanin she deserves, and passing it to her daughter, as it supposed to be, they choose to make a completely different character brown.

To be clear I'm not complaining they turned Helena Bertinelli brown, I'm quite enjoying it.

I just find it so stupid that DC turned a completely random character brown, only so they won't have to admit their already brown poc character they are whitewashing is brown.

[bookishfeylin]

Racebending vs Whitewashing 101

In this essay we’re going to be answering two questions: Why is it ok, from a race perspective, to make white characters POC but not the other way around? And why don’t you make original characters that are POC instead?

There are quite a few reasons, and I’ll be discussing them all below the cut for anyone who's genuinely curious about this and wants to educate themselves :)

⭕️ Firstly: most white characters have no plot relevant reason to be white. White people are considered the default human being, so their race or culture *usually* does not affect or contribute to the plot or story or game in any way. Like, pick your average piece of media with white characters in it and see if they actually *have* to be white for the story to work/make sense. Unless being WHITE plays some important role in the story, then in most cases, characters do not need to be white. This is especially true for non human characters depicted as white (mermaids, faeries, aliens, etc.). Unless being a *white* non human is important to the story for a specific reason and then they can be almost ANY race. For example: In Gremlins do Billy and his family have to be white for the story to still work? Does making the Skywalker family POC impact the plot in any way, shape or form in Star Wars? Is being white relevant to Iron Man's, Batman's, or Superman's stories at all? Why do the main characters of Jaws have to be white? Do Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler, and Claire Dearing and Owen Grady, from Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, respectively, need to be white in order for the movies to make sense? Does being white play an important role in Indiana Jones' character, or would the movies still work if he was another race? Does it impact the story if I were to change the Russels (Maddie, Emma, and Mark) in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, from white to black?

⭕️ Conversely, people aren’t as used to seeing POC in media, so often their existence is “justified” with some form of racism. It would not make sense to make a character facing racism (say, antiblackness) white (for example, in Disney's The Princess and the Frog, Tiana lives in a segregated Black community that is decidedly poorer than the wealthy white community Lottie lives in, and is denied the ability to buy the mill to make into a restaurant because it would’ve been too hard for a woman of her “background” to run a business)

⭕️ Another way POC are “justified” in western media is making something specifically about their culture. Unlike most white people in media, we cannot simply *exist* and, say, survive an alien invasion, or steal the Declaration of Independence, or get sucked into portal to a magical land, or survive a natural disaster, or have a very very very bad day, or solve a mystery about a haunted house, or worry about prom. No, our culture almost always has to play some SIGNIFICANT role to “explain” to the audience why that character is not white. Not that that’s a bad thing. For example, Mulan is about a Chinese woman overcoming the deeply ingrained sexism in China and becoming a soldier. The movie is all about China and Chinese culture, so it makes no sense to make her white.

⭕️ Making a POC white plays into whitewashing and colorism (the basic idea that paler skin is better/more beautiful/less “savage”). For example, in slavery lighter skinned ppl were “better,” and were allowed to serve in the house because, being lighter, they were viewed as closer to white and as being “more human.” Changing or “improving” a POC by making them white is just feeding into that nasty idea that people with darker skin tones are “less than” or aren’t real humans. Conversely, there is no relevant history of white people being considered “less-than”, or, you know, NOT HUMAN for having lighter skin, in fact lighter skin tones have been promoted as desirable for centuries. White people by and large aren't harmed psychologically from seeing a character being redesigned with darker skin/being racebent, because society has never told them that their lighter skin makes them nonhuman or undesirable, unlike I, a Black woman, who’s been told all my life that darker skin is masculine and ugly on a girl and that I would be pretty if I only had lighter skin :)

⭕️ All those reasons are important, but there is one MAIN reason why racebending works but whitewashing does not: representation. Representation is very important and very powerful, impacting our own self esteem as well as impacting how we perceive groups of people who are different than us (x, x, x, x, x). Representation can help you develop empathy for a certain group, or it can perpetuate harmful stereotypes about them. White people are represented literally everywhere in Western media--books, movies, TV shows. Even most toys. It’s not taking representation away from them if we make a white character a POC--they have tons of other characters to make up for it! Even if we NEVER had a white main character in any movie or TV show ever again, white people still have the past century's worth of media with themselves as the main characters for them to watch. Conversely, we have comparatively few prominent characters that are POC in Western media, and even fewer that aren't just side characters or walking stereotypes. Making them white takes away the limited representation POC have in the west. Racebending (either in fan art or in reboots of a series/movie) is typically done by people who lack representation and want more.

Why don’t you make original characters that are POC?

⭕️ Most of us would prefer original characters. I WANT original characters of color. But when we do make new characters that are POC, or new stories with POC leads (especially if they are dark skinned POC) they are usually ignored or overlooked by consumers in favor of white characters or white-led stories (Finn and Rose vs Kylo Ren and Hux from Star Wars; and Black Lightning being wayyyyyy less popular than white-led DC shows; Still Star Crossed being, like, forgotten?). This often happens on movies and on television shows, and usually the end result is that the new characters of color are written off or are minimized in the show/following movies because they are not profitable (once again, what happened to Finn and Rose in Star Wars) or the shows are canceled (Black Lightning, Still Star Crossed). Or the story is labeled “woke” and “political” and is boycotted by the same people who said we should make original characters in the first place.

——————————————————————

I'm not saying you have to *like* racebending white characters. I am merely EXPLAINING why one way is racist and the other way around is not. But the sad thing is, all these reasons are common sense. Most people know we have a racist history, they know it’s wrong to make Tiana or Black Panther white even if they have problems articulating *exactly* why: because the point of these characters existing in the first place is to show that we’re human too. That we can be heroes and princesses and role models too, despite centuries of being told we were nothing. We still live in a world where being white is considered the default human, and nonwhite people have to be *justified* in their existence, because most of us weren't viewed as human for centuries. If it truly bothers you that much, then support original characters of color and diverse franchises instead of white characters and predominately white franchises. That way you will send a message—we all will—that we want more original characters of color. In the meantime? I, a Black woman living in a white-centric world, am going to enjoy all the characters of color I can get.

[abyssal-debonair]

hey Sky community, you have a racism problem

look at this

these are officially released promo art depicting the in-game spirits. I am also going to gesture at a few stills from the animations.

not even touching on that the spirits in-game are all various shades of blue, but yknow what, I will touch on it. they’re blue. the ancestors spirits are all various shades of dark blue, sometimes with darker brown wisps of skin or explicitly dark brown when portrayed as alive. likewise the skykids are various shades of brown or darker colors. I know y’all can see that.

so with that out of the way

why the fuck would you draw them white?

see, this has always bothered me for the year I’ve been playing Sky and interacting with its online fandom – seen it speckled in Skyblr, in the art channels of Skycord, throughout Twitter, disconcertingly prominent on Instagram – but given how immaturely the Sky community handles confronting any amount of discourse, I never wanted to say anything publicly cos I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of a deluge of harassment this oh so positive and kind playerbase is known for.

then TGC Twitter retweeted a piece of art that whitewashes the ancestor spirits.

deep breath.

I don’t want any of you racist shits to take this as confirmation that it’s somehow acceptable to make the ancestors and skykids white. sure, TGC says a lot of things in this game are “up to interpretation,” but it strikes me so strange that some of y’all look at these darker-skinned characters and immediately go against canon to give them light pink or paper white skin. why is it so hard to draw these darker-skinned characters with the dark skin they have both in game and as how TGC officially depicts them?

I’ve seen several excuses for this:

“I’m humanizing them.” okay and why does this humanization necessitate making them white? why do you have to make these nonhuman characters human? why does your brain immediately go to “white” when considering “human” and not any other palette for the many people of color who make up the majority of the human population?

“I’m projecting onto them.” you can’t project onto characters with dark skin? you don’t find characters with dark skin relatable? that’s quite racist. I, as a black child, often projected or saw myself in pale-skinned characters that dominate the entertainment media I watched growing up. surely it shouldn’t be that hard for white people to see themselves in non-white characters. surely.

“it doesn’t fit my artstyle / I’m not used to drawing POC.” then you are a terrible artist unwilling to challenge yourself or your own biases, unwilling to improve your skills or explore other palettes you may find favorable and attract a larger diverse audience. drawing with another color is not that difficult. if you do find it hard, there are a monumental amount of tutorials on illustrating people of color and darker skin tones out there online for free. you can even color pick from your reference! the only thing stopping you is your racism.

"they’re not human so it can’t be whitewashing.” true, the characters of Sky are not human, they likely don’t have human conceptions of race to them. I’ve been asked before “why are you bringing race into this?” as if I’m the one racializing non-raced characters. look, I wasn’t the one who drew them white. believe it or not, white is a race – it isn’t the “default,” it isn’t a non-race, white is a race. making these non-raced characters white is racializing them, putting race upon them that they do not have. it’s weird. for all you complain about “making everything about race these days,” why go out of your way to portray these humanoid characters with dark skin as white? fun fact: it’s still whitewashing even if the character is not a human being, especially if said character resembles humans of color.

however, I will add that is particularly insulting to see characters with explicitly black hairstyles drawn white. if I see another ancestor or skykid with an afro, afro poof(s), or dreadlocks with pale skin, I am going to bite someone. likewise, the Enchantment spirits take inspiration from Arabic cultures, Flight crew have influence from Inuit and other Northern American indigenous cultures. no, I am not invoking cultural appropriation to condemn your skykids with Lively Navigator’s hair or Cheerful Spectator’s afro or Fire Prophet’s short dreads or Indifferent Alchemist’s turban – that is perfectly okay. it’s the far too many Sky fanartists whitewashing skykids and these ancestors that is the problem.

I’m not demanding you to be canon compliant, I’m asking you to stop whitewashing, to stop erasing the little representation the players of color have overall. we do not often see people who resemble us in Western media very often, especially as the majority of the characters. it’s the same for those who ascribe gender onto these canonically agender characters, contributing to nonbinary erasure, though that is a story for another time.

and this doesn’t even touch on the afro chibi trend (how come this black hairstyle is only ever “cute” when it’s on an infantilized character? and for fucks sake do not call it clown hair or broccoli or, god forbid, cotton) or how Vault Elder’s headscarf is used to make “eggs” or “chickens.” why can’t you appreciate our hair and our headcoverings as just as fashionable as uncovered white hairstyles? why do y’all keep calling POC hair fucking food? if you do it as a joke, it’s still a racist joke. do you know how hard it is for me to exist without white people nonsense as a Black person with an afro irl? don’t get me started on the bullshit hijabi Muslims have to deal with. the best you could do is not mock their appearance.

now there are those of you who have been doing these racist things without really thinking about it. you just drew the ancestors with pale skin cos that’s where your mind goes or you’ve been a silly afro chibi for a while or you drew your white self as a white skykid. reading this, you’re doubling down now cos you don’t think you’re racist, you’re not a raging bigot, you can’t be a *gasp* bad person!

and, yknow what, I don’t think you’re a bad person either. I condemn the actions, not the person (unless you’re an asshole). like you, I grew up in a white supremacist society participating in racist institutions down to the micro level, not questioning what I was taught or socialized even if I was often on the receiving end of microaggressions. but I learned to confront the prejudices that have been socialized in me because they maintain an unjust world that hurts  people unnecessarily. even now I am still confronting prejudices that have been ingrained in me because I understand the harm they cause and the oppression they perpetuate, how bullshit have and continue to make the world a hostile place for people of color like myself. I stop doing bigoted things. it’s the least I can do.

surely, you can too.

and for those blokes who are aware of how racist you are and continue to do this shit anyways? fuck you.

sincerely, a Black Sky player

[trans-luis-serra-navarro]

Introduction post!!

Kia Ora!!!!! My name is Eric! My main account is @wisecrackingeric-2 where I am most active and post art!!!!!

This is a side account dedicated to all things Luis Serra Navarro- I’ll be posting my own analysis, theories, character explorations and other general goofy posts!! I’ll also be reblogging posts about Luis I find informative or insightful, and some art as well!!!

This blog is meant to be a space to share theories, headcannons, and general positivity around Luis Serra Navarro, but also serves as a bit of a place to house any popular analysis/headcannon posts!!! So if you’re looking for something in particular, you’ll probably find it here!! Otherwise if you have a post you really enjoy but haven’t seen here, please please please feel free to send it to me!!!! I’ll also be posting about the ship serennedy quite often, and I’ll post about trans-related stuff every now and then!!

I most likely won’t be responding to anything on here, so if you URGENTLY need me for something, go to my main account!!!!! I also do NOT give permission for my posts to be screenshotted and reposted on other sites such as twitter or TikTok!!!!!

Please don’t interact with my account if you are a t3rf/here to try and “disprove” headcannons or erase important information, super hardcore pr0sh!p/fandom discourse blog/ship discourse blog/anti queer/race discourse, if you consistently whitewash Luis in any way shape or form and/or ignore POC voices, call Luis a ‘predator’ or a creep, or if you’re just going to be racist/transphobic/bigoted in general or if you’re only here to try and ‘prove me wrong’ or start and argument!!! And most obviously, if you come here and try to spout negativity about Luis, I will simply block you!!! This isn’t a discourse/meta analysis blog, this is just for fun!!

Also very important to keep in mind, I am a minor! So please don’t follow me if you’re an 18+ blog!! I’m not comfortable with sexual jokes!

Tl;dr: I love Luis a lot and he is always on my mind, so I made a blog dedicated to posting silly stuff about him!!!! Please don’t take my stuff TOOOOOOO seriously!!!

Hashtags I use for navigation under cut!!

#othersposts: other peoples posts!

#luisposting: my own posts/text posts!

#sillyposting: posts that are lighthearted or aren’t meant to be taken seriously!

#ericsart: Art reblogged from my main account!

#othersart: Art from other people!

#reblog: exactly what it says on the tin!

#serennedy: all things Serennedy-related!

#trans: for trans related stuff specifically!

#asks: for posts answering asks!

#important: important posts!

#to do: stuff I plan on responding to!

#Don Quixote 1957: for things about the 1957 Soviet Russian film Don Quixote by Orson Wells!!

#otherstags: for tags other people have added!

And finally, if you’re looking for a good end-all analysis video on Luis, I can’t reccomended HeroFatBrett’s video ‘Luis Serra — How RE4Remake Transformed Him Into The Series’ Most Tragic Hero’, And The Sphere Hunter’s ‘Resident Evil 4 Story Analysis’ enough!!! Unfortunately it won’t let me add links but you can find it on both of their YouTube channels!!!!!

[botanylobotomy]

one of the things that I find really interesting being in different aspects of the witchcraft community is how people can be so arrogant and entitled to closed cultures. Or the outright arrogance and willful ignorance when it comes to racist terms and ideologies that cause harm in the community.

I think it's really important to do the research and find for yourself about if things you're trying to incorporate into your practice is something that's not meant for you to be part of or is inherently racist and harmful. I've gotten into quite a few arguments with people who don't think they have to put an effort into decolonizing their craft because it fits better with their "aesthetic" or they feel like because they see others not in that culture or path doing it then it's fine. It's been a struggle as a POC to fight against those kinds of things and try to educate people about what they're doing is causing harm, and majority of the time people just want to ignore it and keep going on their merry way.

I always teach those who I mentor that if you are not part of the culture in anyway you do not participate or take from it. There's some that you have to be initiated in which if you want to be then take those steps. And then there's cultures where you have to be born into and those are not to just join willy nilly. I also am very firm with them on not using the term black magic because it's racist indication that's caused a lot of hurt to people.

I dunno if anybody is going to read my lil rant but, I've attached some articles if people want to read those instead of my little rant

Is The Term Black Magic Racist Black Magic & White Supremacy: Witchcraft as an Allegory for Race and Power Racism and Cultural Appropriation in Contemporary Spirituality and Witchcraft DECOLONIZING WITCHCRAFT: RACISM, WHITEWASHING, AND CULTURAL APPROPRIATION IN WITCHCRAFT AND HOW TO DECOLONIZE YOUR PRACTICE

[three--rings]

Whale Weekly: Ch 2-3

Now we’re really getting into the story itself, I’m forcibly reminded how fucking WEIRD this novel is.  Like, I remember Moby Dick being weird but I read it VERY FAST for a class, like I think it was the whole book over three weeks or so.  And that was in the depths of my lit major speed-reading, when I had 500-1000 pages to read a night.  So my memory is extremely fuzzy, except for the parts my semi-deranged genius professor enacted dancing around the lecture hall (”Squeeze the sperm, Squeeze the sperm!”)

Anyway, god Ishmael is weird.  And it’s tough to say...is it Ishmael or Melville who is so weird...but anyway.

Obviously it is a book of its time, with its own objectionable prejudices.  But for all the racial, uh, TONE of these chapters, it’s interesting how diverse this book is already.

Like, it’s not hard to find a 19th century novel that never mentions the existence of non-white people.  Or that may mention POC only as a distant allegory, some other species of being who exists Over There.

But here our narrator accidentally wanders into a Black Church in the middle of service.  Oops.  But while there are Overtones to his reaction to this, it’s just a Thing that happens in a town, yanno.  He also talks about Native Americans quite often, in a way that implies he sees them fairly regularly?  IDK it’s something I noted. 

And then there’s Queequeg, who could not possibly be more othered by the POV, but, also, is going to be a very important character to the narrative. (Though is doubtless a very dubious kind of representation of Maori.) 

But that’s one thing I do appreciate about Moby Dick, is that it reflects a racially diverse reality of life in 19th century America, and in particular on the sea.  Too often “the past” is presented as something whitewashed and leads ignorant people to think of previous centuries as racially homogeneous ones.  But Melville wrote reflecting his own experiences in a working class setting, including all the people other writers might have left out.

So yeah, this book is always INTERESTING...

[aeternallis]

I have an honest, genuine question here, if only for the sake of the fact that I would like to hopefully inspire some polite conversation about this very sensitive topic: what genuinely makes people in this fandom believe that by "watching the live-action drama only," it enables them to think they're free of any responsibility in contributing to these authors' platform and pockets?

(Lindsay Ellis talked about this with JK Rowling and how the HP fandom are struggling with this same exact issue, and a lot of her talking points can apply to the KP fandom too, if you'd like to watch her video on Youtube.)

And before I go any further, I know I may come off obnoxious and mean af, but I'm really really trying not to be. :'D This is honestly just a question I'd like to present to the KP fandom at large.

This question is not meant to be a jab at any of you nonnie(s) or to be provoking in any way, but I'm really just wondering if it somehow got lost in the sauce that DAEMI's involvement with this production was quite extensive (namely, with casting and the script). While I don't know the terms of how royalties are distributed from this show towards the original authors, what they may or may not gain financially, they do gain undoubtedly in platform and notoriety.

Because the way I see it, no matter how much we hate it, the fact still remains that DAEMI are still the original authors of the KinnPorsche franchise. Not reading the novel and/or pretending it doesn't exist won't erase that. If anything, pretending this novel series doesn't exist, or that DAEMI are not the original authors, only whitewashes this IP and the way I see it, not exactly the most conductive way in actually trying to have a meaningful conversation around this series.

Let's not even delve into the fact that by trying to erase DAEMI's name from this IP, people are essentially trying to steal an original creation of POC(s), give full credit to the production company of the show (who based their script on DAEMI's novel), all in an effort to make themselves feel better about engaging with it.

And don't get me wrong; DAEMI being POC does not exempt them from criticism and outright boycott.

Having said this, I may not like DAEMI as much as the next person and do not condone any of their harmful actions, but it also doesn't mean I condone stealing what's rightfully their written work and their monumental contribution to the show.

That, to date, KinnPorsche the Series is still arguably the biggest BL show to come out of Thailand, that this novel was undoubtedly the roadmap for which the drama was based off of.

That to sabotage the success of this novel license series also means to disregard the hard work of both the translators and the artist, to take away credibility from the original cast members who made the live-action drama such a large success that this novel license is even possible today?

That to sabotage the success of this novel may also mean to potentially close an avenue for other SE Asian queer media to succeed down the line?

Because I assure you, when it comes to this sort of thing, money talks. When the execs of SevenSeas looks at the performance of KinnPorsche the novel series and how the pre-order numbers are doing, the numbers tell them whether it's viable to invest in SE Asian queer media or not.

Because believe you me, considering SevenSeas most likely has a social media team, the vitriol being thrown around right now only tells them the VERY unflattering picture that the KP fandom (or any Thai BL community that has a fairly successful IP behind it) is volatile af and also incredibly BIASED, considering at least half of the people outright condemning this license and want it gone are also Build stans.

That at the end of the day, the only real, truest way to fully take away DAEMI's platform for good is to just flat out drop KP-both the novel series and the show-and let it disappear into the annals of entertainment history?

Now, am I pressuring you nonnie(s) or anyone to spend money on the authors? HELL NO. Do whatever you want with your money, I won't judge you.

But is it really not possible for the mindset of, "I do not condone these authors' horrendous actions in the past, but I would like to support the novel series in honor of the artist and the translators, as well as help contribute in bringing in more SE Asian queer content to a wider audience in the near future. My support of this novel series is not a full reflection of my own character, and I refuse to let online randos dictate it otherwise" to exist?

And honestly, nonnie(s)? That's something you all have to figure out for yourselves.

[darlin-djarin]

Plenty of a rebels fans who loved sabine, especially woc, are unhappy about how she's written in "ahsoka". also yes, for her to be at this age and for white writer dave to think "hey this asian woman needs to behave like a brat teenager and regress as a person" just so ahsoka can train someone is ridiculous. it's insulting to who sabine really is, to asian characters and to viewers who expected better.

for all we know, this series is a separate canon because sabine and hera are unrecognizable and might as well be new characters. and if that's your cup of tea then so be it, enjoy what you like. some of us have better things to do than sit through awful writing or hype up a show starring a transphobe who assaulted someone .

okay well anon. i was going to agree with you, absolutely, and i still do, but you genuinely did not need to get that hostile at the end. i do agree that filoni doesn't know how to handle woc characters like sabine. i did not realize filoni seemed to "regress" her, but this did open my eyes quite a bit. i assume you've read my other post analyzing sabine's and ahsoka's behavior, which is why you sent this. in the end i'll just say that some people are happy with sabine's behavior because they relate to it and some are not happy because of how this east asian(-desi) character is treated by the writers. i'm (west) asian and i hate to see asian (and any poc characters in general) get reduced to scraps just to pass along the plot. it genuinely is frustrating, so i understand your feelings towards the show isn't positive at all.

as for the second bit. i do not promote the ahsoka show. if anything im more critical of it, i just try to post the very few positive things because i try to keep my blog positive if i can. i call out racism and whitewashing and criticize filoni's and lucasfilms' actions all the fucking time. if i'm being honest, i only watching ahsoka to see ezra again. other than that, i don't really give a fuck. this is a mando blog, i don't plan on dwelling on the ahsoka show for long. as for rosario dawson, i know literally nothing about her. idk anything about any transphobia, so if someone would like to explain the situation to me, i'd appreciate it.

anon honestly i'm always open to discussion and different people's opinions but if you're gonna come here to just be fucking hostile to me over things i might not know or understand or have taken into consideration yet, then please just fuck off. i literally said on my other post i'm always open to hearing people's interpretations as long as they're respectful. why can't you just grant me a basic decency