Been seeing discourse about Scott's Pantheon design being racist, and I really feel the need to give my perspective on this. Also long because brevity wasn't paying their share of the rent so I kicked them out.
TLDR: Scott's Pantheon design isn't historically accurate, but isn't racist towards Asian people either. The evidence that ties his character to Asian clothing is shaky at best, and in my opinion, doesn't support such a severe accusation. Just because you don't like something doesn't make it racist. You can just not like it, it's fine.
First of all, I've seen someone (not the other person mentioned in this post) literally say about this that 'denial of racism is racism', and that's a fallacy called a Kafka Trap that stops actual, reasonable discussion from being had. I am not defending racism, I do not believe that Pan! Scott's design is racist. Even if you believe that you are in the right, please interact with opinions that disagree with you.
Aside from posts generally being angry or unsure what is going on, I've only found one post that actually gives evidence for this that a good few of other people seem to be referencing. As such, I will be basing this mostly on a post by @betweenlands, and responding to their arguments, as they are the only true arguments for this that are backed up with evidence and don't basically just say 'it's racist/orientalist' that I have seen.
Now, I'm not going to try and say that Scott's design is accurate to Greek mythology or Ancient Greek dress. It isn't. However, neither is Shelby's, and POW generally isn't the best with time in my experience (see Vampires, where Legs and Owen were at least fifty years ahead of everyone else where Legs served in WW1 - or at least a made up war with similar tactics and technology that would still be at least fifty years ahead of everyone else. Plus V! Scott's outfit also wasn't accurate to when he was put to sleep in any way). Personally, I can forgive the historical inaccuracy, but if you can't then that's fine. If you would have preferred a more accurate design or just dislike Pan! Scott, then more power to you. But you don't have to justify that by calling it racist.
(Also for simplicity's sake, I am going to be using terms such as Asian clothing, cultures, and similar to describe the people that OP claims Pan! Scott's design was inspired by and disrespects, but I am aware that they also touched on some Middle Eastern - if that's not counted in Asia I'm not totally sure - and African cultures in part, such as Egypt)
The first piece of evidence that OP presented was the cloud design on Scott's corset, saying that it resembles Xiangyun, a traditional Chinese way of drawing clouds instead of a Greek one. And that is correct. However, using that specific way of drawing clouds isn't necessarily racist. In my cursory search for Ancient Greek art that depicted clouds, I could not find any, so it would be a lot easier for an artist to pull from a different style, and Xiangyun is a very popular way of drawing clouds that looks nice in art styles like the one the Pantheon SMP reveal art uses. I also draw clouds like that, and have done so before I ever heard the word Xiangyun. Moreover, that's how art works, we take inspiration from each other. Trying to forbid people from taking inspiration from other cultures in art would be extremely limiting and have a massive negative effect, including from marginalised cultures.
Next up, the corset. If you look at the art, both the official announcement and the art Scott posted on his twitter, you can see outcroppings in the middle of the corset. There is a button on one of these outcroppings, the second highest outcropping from the top of the corset that is also the one that goes out the furthest. It's slightly harder to see on the official release art, but it is there, and is clearer in the art Scott released on his twitter. As such, it is not any kind of sash or cummerbund like OP theorised. It is a corset inspired by Western European fashion from much further in the future than Ancient Greece, because it has a button that stands out against the swirl pattern of the cloud it is over. Other clouds do not have this white spot around the middle of the swirl, and it is where a button would logically be to open and close the corset. Is it historically accurate? No, not at all. But it also isn't inspired by Asian fashion from any time period, so it isn't racist towards those cultures because it doesn't interact with them at all.
This is the start of a concerning trend in OP's original post, where they try to prove that each part of Scott's design is inspired by Asian clothing, and often come to conclusions that they admit they aren't sure about or don't completely fit. This may be because there is a possibility the design as a whole wasn't largely inspired by Asian cultural clothes. The approach that OP seems to have taken in their research is that they were trying to prove their hypothesis that Scott's design was orientalist correct, which is not scientific. A more scientific approach would be to look for evidence to see if it did draw from Asian clothing, by looking at both traditional and modern clothes from Asian cultures from many eras, and also clothes that are not Asian. Now, I can't read OP's mind, and I can't say this for certain about everyone calling Scott's design racist, but it seems like they were trying to prove a feeling they had about Scott's design right instead of actually investigating that feeling to see if it was true, especially because we cannot read Scott's mind either about what he wanted for this design.
Moving on to the admittedly strongest piece of evidence that OP had in their original post, Scott's trousers and their material. Scott is wearing harem pants made of transparent fabric, yes. However, just because this style of trousers was used in an orientalist painting doesn't mean that it is orientalist to use it at all. It suits his apparent characterisation as a character who is free and flowy like the wind. Is it criticisable as being not at all historically accurate? Yes. And if you don't like it, that's fine. But you don't have to justify that any further by calling it racist just because he's wearing trousers from an Asian culture. Again, just wearing clothes from an Asian culture isn't inherently racist, and saying that it is surely only serves to separate people by race more, even if that wasn't the intention (NOT saying OP or anyone else is racist, just that I don't think their good intention is in the right place and that it would have unintended, negative consequences if society at large was to adopt that view). However, this is also the clearest piece of the outfit inspired by an Asian culture, because it clearly is and I'm not denying that.
Next up, the cloak thing. OP compared this to a bunch of different cloaks and shawls that it could be, but acknowledged that it didn't fit any singular one. They went on to say that this shows a further disrespect for the various cultures that each garment was from, as Scott allegedly took from each of them without respecting their unique, individual places in separate cultures that are often collated. I disagree, and instead think that it is instead a made up garment that is inspired by something Greek, specifically the himation, a type of robe that can also be seen in Pan! Abolish's design. Now, it doesn't look like one for the most part at all, but look at the way it falls over his elbows like sleeves. It's very similar to depictions of the sleeves of the himation, just further up. As such, I think that Scott/the artist wanted to take the silhouette of the himation's sleeves to make the design feel a bit more Greek. However, the majority of the himation robe didn't fit the vibe of the design, so they heavily altered it into a decorative cloth that serves no practical purpose, but that helps to make his very not Ancient Greek design fit in a bit more. You might think that it's not enough or disagree with my theory entirely, and you're fine to do that. However, it is possible that the design of his weird cloak thing is so unidentifiable as any Asian garment because it wasn't inspired by them at all, and so isn't oriental. Look at his Vampires SMP design, which was more inspired by the archetypical, pop culture Dracula interpretation of vampires than what a vampire from the time Scott was sealed away might historically have looked like.
Now for the top. Again, OP struggled to track this to any kind of Asian culture that it could be inspired by. I would say that that's because it wasn't. It looks more modern than anything else to me, with the very tight fit and seeming to go tight around the muscles of his chest, and the high neckline that starts to go up his neck like modern clothes do. It also looks like it's made of synthetic fabric than anything that people would have access to before the modern day. So if it looks like modern, non Asian culture specific clothes made with modern materials, then it's probably not inspired by clothes specifically from Asian cultures. Again, massively historically inaccurate, probably our worst offender here so far besides the fully made up arm cloth, but not racist towards Asian people.
In an ask I saw on OP's blog, they addressed their weak argument about the top, saying they admitted it was a stretch but that they didn't want to 'leave an obvious Well Actually on the table like that'. OP's dismissing arguments that disagree with their point aside, if the evidence doesn't support something, then maybe that should be looked into more instead of turned into a stretch that even you don't fully believe in. If there is evidence against your point, then the evidence doesn't actually fully support you, and there is at least an interesting discussion to be had here about the art were criticising instead of just accusing Scott Smajor of blatant orientalism and racism.
The final individual costume piece OP discussed was the open toed tights. OP is correct about these, they are wholly modern, and are about as historically accurate as the top. If that's not your vibe, then that's fine, but the presence of such a demonstrably modern, non-Asian culture specific costume piece surely supports the idea that other parts of the costume are the same, like the shirt, and that costume pieces that do come from Asian cultures (the trousers and maybe the arm cloth thing if I'm wrong about its inspiration) weren't necessarily chosen with racist stereotypes about Asian people in mind.
But let's actually start talking about the underlying stereotypes that OP and many others claim that Scott is perpetuating through this design.
Firstly, OP describes Scott's design as being similar to a belly dancer, an often highly sexualised and stereotyped archetype. And I half agree in that Pan! Scott looks like a dancer, but not necessarily that specific style. His design was clearly made to give an impression of grace, dexterity, and easy movement, but there is nothing that particularly reads as being inspired by balladi. There is no emphasis on the chest or stomach areas besides a corset that would only make it more difficult to belly dance from what little I know about it, nor any kind of facial veil, jewellery, little tassels, or anything else that would enhance that style of performance. Sure, sometimes they would wear harem pants, but a lot of them would also wear skirts, so it clearly isn't a vital part of the look, and isn't strong enough evidence in my opinion that Scott was trying to sexualise any particular group. The cloth thing is the only other thing that may be a part of that, but if I'm right about it being inspired by a himation, then that isn't what it was intended to be, and it looking vaguely like something a belly dancer might use on occasion isn't strong enough to accuse someone of racism in my opinion. As such, again, I think that this is OP trying to make the evidence present in Scott's design fit thier pre-made conclusion that it is orientalist instead of basing their conclusions from what is in the design and what they found in their research, or even considering alternate interpretations of the design.
Now for the sexual part. If Scott didn't usually play promiscuous/flirty characters, then this would actually be quite justified. However, this is very much what he is known to do, and I don't personally believe that the style of trousers he wears (the only part of his design that I will say is clearly based on Asian cultures because they literally, obviously are) really had an impact on that, or was primarily chosen because of that. And, in my opinion, saying that Scott shouldn't wear those trousers because of his general flirtiness that he often does in his internet persona/characters is overly limiting and almost punishing an openly gay man for being openly gay and flirty about it by forbidding what kinds of clothes he is allowed to dress his characters in. Now, I don't think that OP or everyone else critisising Scott's design was trying to do that at all, nor am I calling them homophobic. However, again, that could be an unintented consequence of their well intentioned criticism.
And on the topic of Scott being sexualised, please keep in mind that literally half of the cast isn't wearing full chest coverings (special shoutouts to Legundo and Cleo who don't have any top on at all), and Scott is not in that half. If he wanted to sexualise his character design, he could've done a lot more than wear trousers that are from a particular group of people who are often unfairly sexualised. All we have to go on right now is his design, and as far as things go his is pretty tame in comparison to the others. Maybe just wait until episode one comes out to see just how flirty he actually is in game, and how much of an effect it has on the story before you go saying that he's playing into orientalist stereotypes, because you haven't even heard the character speak a line of dialogue yet.
So, although Scott's design is miles away from historically accurate, I don't think that it is intentionally racist. And I'm not saying you have to like it or can't have a problem with him being so historically inaccurate. Personally, I like his design, but that doesn't mean everyone has to, and you don't just have to ignore it if it is genuinely a problem for you. But accusations of racism are far more serious than that, and I think that the people making them have done so far too quickly and far too easily.
You can dislike something without having to make it racist, homophobic, transphobic, islamophobic, ableist, orientalist, or any other kind of problematic to dislike it. Some things just aren't to your taste, and that's fine. A lot of things aren't to mine.
Also wow I wasn't expecting two controversies before the series was even out yet, but I guess we're succeeding all expectations now. (Artemis Martyn isn't what I personally would have gone for, but she did have male hunters in the myths and the whole female exclusivity thing was a more modern add on to specific interpretations of the character in specific media, not a part of her mythology or impact on Ancient Greek culture as a part of their religion. It's fine and I'm interested to see what he does with it)
Necessary Edit after five minutes: Scott has seen the reactions to the design and has decided to change it, which is also probably a good thing, I just felt that a lot of people felt that he had done potentially offensive things a lot more intentionally and that there was a lot of anger directed at him for that. Also sorry to betweenlands for using your post as a basis for this, I thought you had framed it as more intentional than you had in the original post that you cleared up later. As such, I used your argument as the basis for my counter argument because a lot of people who I felt thought that Scott had intentionally leaned on those stereotypes had cited you. Also sorry for the more personal criticism towards you, I've removed that part of the post now, and should've read parts of your original one more clearly
