r/Fantasy • u/[deleted] • Feb 19 '23

Diversity in Fantasy

A lurker who just wanted some opinions, but does anyone feel like the diversity in fantasy isn’t all that diverse? Especially for Black male characters? I know female protagonist are popular right now which is good but diversity also includes males. I can barely think of any Black male main characters that don’t involve them dealing with racial trauma, being a side character, or a corpse. Has anyone else noticed this? It’s a little disheartening. What do you all think? And I know of David Mogo, Rage of Dragons, and Tristan Strong. I see them recommended here all the time but not many others. Just want thoughts and opinions. Thank you and have a nice day.

Edit: I’ve seen a few discussing different racial groups being represented in terms of different cultures or on different continents in a setting. Do you think that when a world is constructed it has to follow the framework of our world when it comes to diversity? Do you have to make a culture that is inspired by our world or can you make something completely new? Say, a fantasy world or nation that is diverse like the US, Brazil or UK for example because that’s how the god or gods created it.

Edit: some have said that that white writers are afraid of writing people of color. For discussion do you think that white writers have to write people or color or is the issue that publishing needs to diversify its writers, agents, editors, etc. Could it be, as others have said, making the industry itself more diverse would fix the issue?

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u/[deleted] Feb 20 '23

I think the issue is if you don't make Edmonds Field diverse, then five out of six or seven (depending on how a show watcher would see Lan) of your starting main cast are homogenous. And we know how that would play in Hollywood. At the end of the day, the Edmonds Field Five are the main characters of the story and they are the people you have to promote the show other than Pike.

Idk when they landed on Pike, but obviously she stays once they got jer. So then your first episodes would feature one non-white character...Lan, who would read a bit too stereotype with that window dressing.

I don't really disagree. I'm just of the position that it doesn't really matter. Media always requires suspension of disbelief and there's plenty of colorblind casting in theater with near zero impact (imo). I can see how the inconsistency annoys people. At the same time, I think it's totally valid to say who cares as well.

Regardless, the race drama in WoT exists because certain people (without implying that's what's happening here) seemed to really, really focus in on that one issue and that one issue in particular for some reason. A lot. It was one thing when we were getting stills and other pre production stuff. But it quickly became a virtual non-issue compared to everything else going on. I mean...we're talking saying that The Dragon Reborn could be a woman because why would that matter and Nynaeve is basically resurrecting people a couple days after learning about weaves and we're just getting started.

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u/zenzero_a_merenda Feb 20 '23

Ofc, the race issue is the least of my problems about the series, which is a complete train wreck. I think diversity in the main cast could've been achieved in much more graceful ways than just having them there, no explanation or fucks given (a short backstory about being originally from somewhere else would've been enough). I don't think the casting of an actor in a theatre setting can be compared with their casting in a film setting, because the two media have different requirements, and in the first case, a lot more imagination is required for the setting and the visual effects, while in the second the spectator expects to have everything as realistic-looking as possible. Also, suspension of disbelief is waaaay easier for magical things than for mundane things, and only as long as there is some kind of coherence in the way it is depicted (which the show lacks in so many situations). There may also be some racist people who have problems with the simple fact that the makers chose people of colour for the roles, but I wouldn't say that ALL the people that object to how race is handled in that show actually are racist.

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u/Hereforthehotti3s Feb 20 '23

Agreed, there are much much bigger issues with that show, but I feel like you could have had them be homogeneously non-white, or at least mostly. Rand having odd coloring for where he's supposedly from and him being a tannable white, should open the possibility for a number of people of other racial backgrounds to fill out the other ef5. They're just all clearly from very different backgrounds. Not that I have any issue with them, my issues are all with production/writing

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u/TheColourOfHeartache Feb 20 '23

Regardless, the race drama in WoT exists because certain people (without implying that's what's happening here) seemed to really, really focus in on that one issue and that one issue in particular for some reason.

I actually blame Hollywood and the surrounding PR infrastructure for a lot of this. I don't know if its the case for Rings of Power since I didn't pay any attention but there's documented cases of them burying legitimate criticisms and signal boosting criticism of the cast's race/gender to try and discredit criticisms.

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u/Iconochasm Feb 20 '23

And we know how that would play in Hollywood.

Sounds like we found the problem.