Zenryverse 🤝🏾 Thunderbolt Alliance

See this Instagram post by @thejadahmarie https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da5lhIMJYNF/?utm_source=ig_web_button_native_share

Why does this franchise hate Iko? Why can't Iko have nice things? She could have very easily given her I mean, anything tbh. Some random guy in a lobby would be better than this. Marissa is never beating my allegations she don't fw Black people. Having Iko sweat this raggedy bitch.

I didn't think that I would have the levels of hatred towards a kids thing that I had for Descendants, but I definitely loathe what was done to this Black presenting girl in this book.

Wakes up from hypnosis where he was about to marry a woman he’s never seen before with his mystery girl’s voice, the instant he wakes up then the cute girl he’s actually fallen in love with now has that voice. Then she drops to the floor and has a fish tail, and then the first girl is suddenly cackling “too late!” and bursting out of her skin. So it turns out she’s actually an octopus woman who drags herself over to the real mystery girl - who’s a mermaid?! They’re real?! - and taking her back into the ocean. And Eric has no idea what’s going on here but okay, one of these women is clearly evil and he needs to go after his mystery girl.

And all of this happens/he realizes what he has to do within like, a single minute.

Prior to this he was just living out a sweet romance after having a Meet Cute with a shipwrecked girl, but okay, guess he’s involved in whatever the fuck this is. Acting first, questioning later.

I'm bringing it up here because something that happened in the Rapunzel based book (Cress) was she eventually met her biological father. I didn't care for his character the entire time. And after not liking this man, we eventually learn that his name before he left his home, was Sage Darnell.

This really upset me, as I thing Sage Darnell is such a dope name, but it was gifted to such a raggedy character!! Furthermore (on a petty note) that sounds like a Black person's name. Honestly, whether on the front or if its a last name "Darnell" is a name that invokes Blackness. Idc what nobody say.

For that reason, when I gave Punzie a familiar and knew they would need a name, I named him Sage (not Darnell, unfortunately that rockin ass name already exists). But, he's Sage Blossom, because I was always gonna call him Blossom, but I tacked on the "Sage" thanks to my upset with that doctor in the books.

THEN, Learned that there are massage parlors in my area called "Sage Blossom Massage," SO. It is very possible I will change his name so it won't be that.

Maybe I'll go full Deep in the Heart of Texas on him and change it to "Sage Bloom"

Now that my brain is in Texan mode, maybe Sage Bluebonnet. Meh. Not as pretty maybe. For right now, I think I'll just tag him as "Sage the Familiar"

Why does this franchise hate Iko? Why can't Iko have nice things? She could have very easily given her I mean, anything tbh. Some random guy in a lobby would be better than this. Marissa is never beating my allegations she don't fw Black people. Having Iko sweat this raggedy bitch.

Okay, this one is going to be half lesson and half a thought experiment- it may get a bit frustrating, as conversations like this often do- but remember, discomfort is not always a bad thing! So I ask that you walk with me for this one.

It’s also interesting, because I’m going to direct this towards everyone (readers included!), but specifically towards my fanfic writers of media with no visual medium, as I’ve noticed this pattern there, and it makes up a good amount of creators on this site. Okay? Okay.

Behold! Many shades of brown!

I had to wade through a lot of colorism for this, and even this link is subtly racist in its introduction- the idea that brown is ‘unexciting’ 🙄.

Anyway, you know where I’m going with this:

"Chocolate and Coffee"

Even the link above pulled this! Writers who use this... they’re not ‘wrong’ per se but… often uninspired. It feels... Lazy. When you can tell an author has put no thought into the brown of choice, it makes Black readers feel like you believe these are the only shades of brown- that that’s all we look like. Even chocolate is more diverse (white, milk, dark, marbled, cookies and cream?) Coffee can come in numerous shades as well (light, medium, dark roast? Type of bean?)

My first direction to help with this: make it a point to know what shade that character is (whether canonically, or if you're the original creator, look at a reference and write it down) and find a name! Be consistent! Find similar browns to one another. If the canon Black character's skin color is done poorly, find something similar and use that! (I'll get more into this in the next lesson!)

Our skin colors may modify as we age, it changes over the seasons/presence in the sun, and some people even have vitiligo! But we're not gonna be “dark roast coffee” one morning and “light milk chocolate” suddenly. We're not chameleons lmao.

And you know what? That shade you choose might very well be 'coffee'! But it's not going to be because you didn't look and assumed we're all some random brown! That’s the intent showing! If we can find endless ways to describe the beauty of white/pale skin, we absolutely can for brown! Be willing to unpack why you may not believe brown to be capable of beauty, and work through unlearning that- it will show in your writing! One way is by pausing with yourself, and recognizing when you had a biased thought. Even by this, you’re learning!

Here’s where I want us to get into the thought experiment:

I want you to think about the description of characters in stories (as a whole). Challenge yourself- in the fics and stories you read, how often is anyone blatantly labeled 'White'? Read a story or fic; how long can you imagine them as not-White before it's ever clarified? Because not even 'pale' automatically implies a White person!

You know how I’ve mentioned before that 'Black people are not a monolith'? I can find you at least some examples of Black people fitting some of the common descriptions of white characters.

"Brunette with brown eyes"

(Fun fact: I actually learned back in my Masters program that genetically no one has ‘black’ hair- our eyes are processing it as black, but it’s really just dark brown due to eumelanin. Regardless, if you stand us in the direct sunlight, you will see that our hair is usually just dark brown!)

"Red hair with pale skin"

“‘tanned’ skin with hazel/green eyes”

“blond hair" (period!)

Now, I’m not saying that blond haired Black people or Black folk with albinism are overly representative of my people. What I AM saying is that it needs to not be taken for granted that a reader is automatically assuming a character is White in your piece of fiction- I can assume your character looks like anything if it's not stated! Especially if the OG source is a book or a podcast! We’re just used to assigning these features- and characters- as white until ‘proven not’! The default!

I am guilty of this too! Even still, I reread many of my works and go ‘ah, I didn’t clarify.’ And I have to work on doing better at it. This is having intent for your Black characters, but really, it’s having intent for all of them!

(This doesn't mean going “the Black man said,” the way sometimes people say “the Chinese said” (which…. Tbh we should all stop doing that anyway, it's weird and racist))

My Next Challenge:

Some people may disagree, but- Ahem:

Say BLACK!

Breathe lmao! Take the time to recognize that it's OKAY to introduce a character as Black, to say Black, it's fine! Obviously be sensitive about it, don't shove it in there to “win your diversity points”, but like… People are Black. It's not a bad word. What matters is the context in which you used it!

You don't even have to say it every single time. Really just the first, introductory sentence will do. For example:

“[Character A], a bright, young, Black girl with knotless braids to her mid back, glittering hair clips matching her bright green t-shirt, and a brilliant smile that shined against her bistre skin.”

I recognize that some might argue that by saying “bistre”, you don't need to say Black. But 1) you don't have to be Black to be brown or dark skinned, and 2) There's a social stigma behind even saying Black- of discussing race in general, because it leads to discomfort. Race (as a sociological construct) exists. When we say nothing about it, allowing Whiteness to be the default, we're still emphasizing race, however silently! If you're already doing it... Why not mention it? 🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️

(here's a good clip of Ijeoma Oluo discussing the difficulty of discussing race; while I highly recommend the whole thing, the relevant clip is 4:25-5:39)

Maybe they're in the Black student organization in a lead position, maybe they're in a Black main cast of a play- it's okay to have those things in the story to help develop the idea that your Black character is actively Black! Just do your research to make sure you’re not leaning into stereotypes!

“There’s no races in my fantasy/future world!”

That’s fair! But I want to give you an example of how people will still project these identities onto your characters anyway:

No one has an explicitly stated 'race' in Avatar: The Last Airbender (afaik); they’re all divided by element culture. YET, many people were offended that a mixed-Korean actress was cast in her role in the live action- they ‘just didn’t see it’, because subconsciously they'd imagined her ‘face claims’ as WHITE, despite it never once being mentioned in the canon! (there’s also a firm sexualization and east Asian fetishization argument to be made about it, but that’s not within the scope of this particular conversation.)

Point is, if you are including humanoid characters in your fantasy stories, fine. You don't need to say ‘Black’ outright. But, that just means that you’re going to have to be even more detailed in your description. Because if I were watching a TV show and a Black actor shows up as an elf… I know what features I’m seeing! Entire protests have occurred over the casting of Black actors in a role ‘meant for a white person’; so... everyone sees it!

Conclusion

This is another reason why intention in character design and writing is important! Context clues and socialization help me understand who your character is. If it works like this for white characters, it can work like that for everyone else! You just have to know enough about me to write it in (and that's where the social and societal bias lie, because how much do you really know about me?)

A way to better understand this is reading books by Black authors (for fantasy, I would highly recommend Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi) as well as Black literary classics! Finding and reading Black fic authors in fandoms with Black characters! By learning how we describe ourselves and our skin colors, you’ll learn and practice how to appropriately describe us!

Now I can't make you do any of this! But I do want you all- writers especially- to start noticing our bias, how we may default to the experience of whiteness- and how that affects the way we write. When we have Black characters, and really any character of color, we need to start paying attention to how often their features, culture, and activities are emphasized, even for what we may consider to be 'background' details. That’s how we normalize creation and understanding, and become better at writing!

It’s just something to practice; remember, it’s the thought that counts, but the action that delivers!

Did enjoy seeing Baby WInter in her lil' baby blankie. I miss babies so much. They are such a great lil' organism when they're not stinky.

HE DON'T WANT YOU NOW!

Man's wife just died. Looking at his baby for the first time. Mourning when he should've been able to celebrate. Has not EVER gave you any encouragement.

Leave him alone!

Wait.

NOT YOU FANTASIZING ABOUT HIM! HIS WIFE IS

I think... that if I had gone with the reading order that puts this story first, I could have been more attached to Cinder in Cinder. I may choose the read order that I initially found, instead of the order things were written, which was what I decided to do instead.

Why did she write that? Adri terrorized and tortured Cinder for years, spoke ill of lifeforms that we, as the audience know are not who she thinks them to be. And with no real repercussions (a short imprisonment and a mock trial). She was barely in prison and the trial was a sham. She got no justice whatsoever for being a bigot and a child abuser and she got rewarded with the royalties for a patent that she never would have even supported.

What did the author want us to learn by putting all these other characters through so much detriment and pain, but letting Adri escape with a tap on the wrist? Characters we love got choked, shot, etc. She got PAID. I hate the book Winter so much and this was another thing that pissed me off.

Especially when it could have easily been fixed if Garin left that patent to Cinder. She was the person who would respect it enough, need it enough, and benefit enough from it. Before he even got sick, he knew his wife was a cruel ass bitch. He knew that Cinder would at the very least not be well taken care of. Yeah, you told your wife to take care of her, but if you were a better person and man, you would have been realistic and left that patent in more responsible hands than that racist ass abusive demon you were married to.

They never should have trusted him with Selene. He didn't give a shit. He was more interested in his work on her, and he knew his wife didn't even respect his work. Adri is a problem, because she did the actual abuse for those years. But, Garin was a problem, too. Because I refuse to believe you thought your wife would be kind to that girl, and you had no backup to ensure her safety. They trusted a booger with the most important thing for WORLD PEACE. And you left her with the worst person you knew.

I think... that if I had gone with the reading order that puts this story first, I could have been more attached to Cinder in Cinder. I may choose the read order that I initially found, instead of the order things were written, which was what I decided to do instead.

Why did she write that? Adri terrorized and tortured Cinder for years, spoke ill of lifeforms that we, as the audience know are not who she thinks them to be. And with no real repercussions (a short imprisonment and a mock trial). She was barely in prison and the trial was a sham. She got no justice whatsoever for being a bigot and a child abuser and she got rewarded with the royalties for a patent that she never would have even supported.

What did the author want us to learn by putting all these other characters through so much detriment and pain, but letting Adri escape with a tap on the wrist? Characters we love got choked, shot, etc. She got PAID. I hate the book Winter so much and this was another thing that pissed me off.

Especially when it could have easily been fixed if Garin left that patent to Cinder. She was the person who would respect it enough, need it enough, and benefit enough from it. Before he even got sick, he knew his wife was a cruel ass bitch. He knew that Cinder would at the very least not be well taken care of. Yeah, you told your wife to take care of her, but if you were a better person and man, you would have been realistic and left that patent in more responsible hands than that racist ass abusive demon you were married to.

They never should have trusted him with Selene. He didn't give a shit. He was more interested in his work on her, and he knew his wife didn't even respect his work. Adri is a problem, because she did the actual abuse for those years. But, Garin was a problem, too. Because I refuse to believe you thought your wife would be kind to that girl, and you had no backup to ensure her safety. They trusted a booger with the most important thing for WORLD PEACE. And you left her with the worst person you knew.