I your average weird geeky British Nigerian. Lover of video games, fantasy stuff, deserts, cute things, fine boy no pimples, fashion, steampunk and many other ish to name a few.
Post reblogged from Angry Trekkie with 32 notes
Race in Fantasy: A Primer
cross-posted from my blog, Scribbles & Sonnets
I’m writing a fantasy series. To be specific, I’m writing a multi-ethnic, supernatural, steampunk high fantasy series. If you’re not sure what I mean, I’ll give you some reference points. Think the television show “Heroes” meets “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” meets “A People’s History of the United States” and throw in some colonialism, imperialism, racism, and other -isms. I’ve always loved the fantasy genre every since I was a kid and here are some things I’ve noticed about the genre (books, film, television and video games) in regards to race:1. Dark / Brown people are bad.
Dark people are almost always the villains in high fantasy series. I say dark because notions of race are different in imaginary worlds but that doesn’t mean that racism in our world doesn’t carry over through the author’s depiction of dark people. J. R. R. Tolkien specifically stated in The Lord of the Rings trilogy that all of the men who joined Sauron were dark-skinned, and that the pirates were supposed to look “yellow” or Asian. Sound racist? That’s because it is.
In David Eddings’ Belgariad and Mallorean series, the story is told from the perspective of the Alorns (also known as white people) who fight a war with the Angaraks, a race of people with “yellow skin” and “slanted eyes.” They’re often referred to as “yellow dogs.”
In Terry Brooks’ Shannara series, which spans hundreds of years and generations upon generations of humans, dwarves, elves, trolls, etc. the dark elves are the ones who are evil. Read: dark-skinned elves.
Game of Thrones, the new HBO series based on George R. R. Martin’s series A Song of Fire and Ice has to this point (one season and four episodes of the second season in) only included three kinds of brown people: the first is a tribe of horse-lords call the Dothraki who the white protagonists view as savage, backward, and ignorant. Then there’s a cursory appearance of a black pirate, who is in the scene for approximately five minutes. In the last episode, there was a black person who is in charge of a city called Qarth (supposed to be modeled off of Egypt) and he has approximately two lines.
or…
2. Dark / Brown people don’t exist
There are plenty of other authors that wash their hands of race entirely, with token brown characters here and there or no brown people altogether. Harry Potter comes to mind, with only two or three named characters of color in seven books. A fantasy phenomenon, easily the most popular series of all time, and there are no people of color who figure prominently in it? Something about that just seems wrong.
Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles has absolutely no people of color in it at all - and this series centers around the ability of the main characters to alter reality as they see fit. So you’re telling me that a group of people who can alter the very fabric of space and are all white?
Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn Chronicles are completely devoid of any brown people. Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games only makes mention of two who are named, and they both serve as tools to help the protagonist. They don’t have inner lives or desires or anything remotely like character development because they only exist to further the plot.
3. Brown people exist to be exotified and ogled by the white protagonist.
Jaqueline Carey’s Kushiel series is guilty of this particular trend: she sets up a pseudo-Renaissance world where the protagonist is a facsimile of a white European (seems French to me) and along her travels and journey she meets strange looking yellow-skinned and brown-skinned people. She marvels at how barbaric and savage their customs are. She feels pity for them when something bad happens and feels maternalistic towards them because they aren’t civilized enough to understand what’s going on around them.
Twilight is another series very guilty of this: Jacob is Native American and a werewolf and it’s not a coincidence. All of werewolves in Twilight are Native American, further reinforcing the stereotype that Native Americans are savage, wild, and uncivilized.
and the very rare…
4. Some people are brown and that’s okay because race doesn’t exist!
My beloved Star Trek is guilty of this one, as is Star Wars, The Matrix, and many other science fiction films. Just because we’re in the future doesn’t mean we’re post-racial. As much as I love The Next Generation, there is not a single mention of race in regards to Geordi LeForge (Levar Burton) or Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg). Since Worf (Michael Dorn) is a Klingon, I guess I could see how race wouldn’t be the same for Klingons, and I can even see the argument that because there are races other than human racism within the human species no longer exists… but that’s pretty farfetched to me.
Heroes does this as well, and not only does it refuse to acknowledge race, but it kills off the majority of its characters of color in the first season and then replaces them with blonde white women!
I would put The Hunger Games in this category as well because of the way race is never discussed other than as a descriptor of appearance. Collins had the opportunity to comment on systems of oppression and offer some insight on race as a hierarchical structure but she shied away from it.
Source: angrytrekkie
Post with 17 notes
You’re too dark to be a Hobbit: Race row after British-Asian woman claims she was discriminated against on set
Quite old but whatever
Peter Jackson’s already troubled Hobbit film has become embroiled in accusations of racism after an extra claimed she was told she was too dark to play one of the diminutive Tolkien creatures.
Briton Naz Humphreys, who has Pakistani heritage, attended a casting session in Hamilton, New Zealand, last week and stood in line for three hours only to be told her skin tone was not suitable.
The Waikato Times said video footage from the audition showed the casting manager telling people they were looking for light-skinned people to play Hobbits.
He reportedly tells the would-be Hobbits: ‘I’m not trying to be… whatever. It’s just the brief. You’ve got to look like a Hobbit.’
Ms Humphreys, who is in New Zealand on a working holiday with her husband, told the newspaper: ‘It’s 2010 and I still can’t believe I’m being discriminated against because I have brown skin.
‘The casting manager basically said they weren’t having anybody who wasn’t pale-skinned.’
The would-be extra, who is just under 5ft tall, had hoped for a bit part in The Hobbit - a two-part prequel to the Oscar-winning Lord Of The Rings films.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334147/The-Hobbit-race-row-British-woman-claims-wasnt-white-film.html#ixzz1qMDSd1fg
But Hobbits aren’t White, it’s not set in our world look at the map it’s all fantasy. Does it say that the race is White European no it does not.
LOL
Post with 3 notes
You know what is one of the stupidest most annoying defenses for whitewashing in fanart and in films for Avatar:TLA/ Legend of Korra (or any type of mystical world that is not set in some pan-euro word) fandom is?
That “This is not set in our Earth, this is not our universe there is no________here”
This is really stupid and so bloody weak. These people love to ignore everything and want to pull up map and wikia bios saying that the nationalities are Air Nomad not Tibetan or what have you.
Alright let’s just forget all about context and real word influences and fucking Chinese characters written every fucking where. We can forget about architecture and mythology and names and weapons use and everything and all the attention to detail
Let’s apply this “Not set in our world” logic to something else.
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien everyone knows about this book/ films and all that stuff. We are going to forget about all the European themes, mythology and so on… and go with the “not set in our world” excuse. Let’s look at the world map of Arda.
And the middle earth continent. I don’t see no europe around these parts
And according to Wikia Bios it says nothing of any of the characters being European or ever white. according to his wikia bio Legolas is a Elf from Mirkwood not Italy so he can’t be white. I always assumed he and everyone else were just People of Colour who were light skinned probably stayed inside a lot no wonder they were so pale. (I think fan-poodles are turning rabid right now)
OH wait that’s bullshit.
It’s really stupid to think that real world cultures, prejudices and cultures have no influence in a fantasy work of fiction. (Honestly has anyone seen the racist depiction of people of colour in LOtR, the area that is supposed to be Africa the people over there are fucking demons)
This is a weak argument that needs to die, I honestly see it everywhere even in defense of Dragonball’s word. Really bitches really? compare and contrast.
The dragonball map looks like Japan flipped and rearranged
This excuse/argument is very weak, get a new one and I’ll gladly smash it.
Post with 122 notes
Fantasy Genre and POC
I find it sooo damn funny when White people use the whole “it’s historical, you darkies weren’t there” and blah blah blah reason to justify the exclusion of POC from fantasy fiction. Yet when POC have just the one fantasy book, or game about them White people want to inject themselves and find bullshit reason as to why.
Avatar the Last Airbender film had white protags even though the main characters in the series are not white and the world they live in is high fantasy mythical Asia.
“These characters are Asian”
“Nooooo they are not it says Earthbender not Japanese!!!111”
Yet a POC in something like the Hobbit is just not allowed.
“They could at least have some diverse casting if not in the main cast maybe the supporting hell even in the background”
“Shut up!111!!oneone It takes place in European magic times you darkies werent there”
“Actually there is evidence of Africans and Asian in these places-
“BLAh shut up I like my fantasy whiter than bleach on snow white”
I think the only other times I saw Black people in fantasy medieval europe other than Merlin and Dr Who was in Black Knight with Martin Lawrence (everyone thought he was just a Moor that was visiting from Normandy, France) and Morgan Freeman as a Moor in Robin Hood
Dragonball Evolution based on Chinese folklore
“This sucks man Goku is Japanese, this is based on Chinese folklore.”
“Goku is not Asian he is Saiyan1!”
“Superman is from Krypton I guess that he can be portrayed by any race too huh?”
“NOOO!!111 Superman is an all American hero!”
And of course Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys was to be made into a film but the producers wanted to remove the mystical elements and have the characters be White instead of Black but Gaiman told them Fuck no.
Earthsea was another book that had a POC main cast and world but was whitewashed in the film adaptation even in the Anime.
The Arkh project features POC in a high fantasy game whenever have you seen that? And with a Black lead hero character that is genderqueer? I mean there are so few Black females in video games to begin with but can anyone name me one that is the lead? All I can think of is Catwoman and Shinobu from No More Heroes 2 and you only get to play as her for a short amount of time then its back to Travis
Yet there were white people upset that there wouldn’t any white characters (there are 2 but very minor.)
White people have soooooo many fantasy books, films, tv shows, video games based on Europe with White people and even hijack POC fantasy be content with what you have and let us have ours. Bitching like spoiled children, really.
Photoset reblogged from Esoterica with 318 notes
Dragons by Natalia
For @brokaw22 and @brokaw26 FOR THE LOVE OF DRAGONNSSSS
Source: undarin
Video reblogged from Rewind It Back. with 3,740 notes
[Flash 10 is required to watch video]I not even going to lie I did the same thing in the car
Source: 90sjamz
