#fantasy racsim

[ephemeralfuture]

There’s a beat of silence. The Hero’s expression is swimming with guilt. His eyes then flick up, brow furrowing.

“769.” He says, “only 769 were worthy of being etched on your throne?”

Andras raises his eyebrow at the Hero, at his question.

“How many did you—.”

“889.” The hero grunts, his lips pinned closed to keep his expression neutral, if not guilty, “889 and I wish that each of them were unnecessary. But only 769 were worthy for you?”

Now the Hero’s eyes are blazing, as if lost in thought. He steps forward, and Andras rears himself up, waits for the Hero’s attack, but the Hero stops just at the base of his throne to stare at the etched names.

“Some of these are Lamarkian.” The Hero remarks quietly.

Andras’ eyes widen. Then he rolls them. Oh. That’s what the Hero thinks this is about.

“Yes, yes, your point?”

“Who’s Hathar Bétchrakian?”

Andras purses his lips, groans in annoyance. He pinches his brow.

“A worthy sacrifice. Worthy enough for his name to be etched on my throne.” Andras says.

The Hero clicks his throat, shakes his head.

“Yes, Hero, even Lamarkians can be bestowed with Honor in death.” Andras drawls boredly.

“But only in death.” The Hero says tightly, “and only when they’re high ranking officials, hoping to appeal to the High Kingdom, garner some sympathy, so their people can finally be allowed to feed their children.”

“You dramatize.” Andras says flatly.

“Do I?” The Hero snarls, he runs his hands over more of the names on the thrones, “Some of these High Kingdom names are familiar. Leaders of outreach programs.” He stops at a name.

“Did you know Kaeleri Lechant?”

“The name is… familiar.”

Andras thinks to the names on his list on the road to successful domination. A list that the Prime Minister of the High Kingdom granted to him. It worked, for sure.

“She made sure that Lamarkian children had access to education.” The Hero says, “she wasn’t a warlord. Or an upstart. Is that why she was granted the honor to be on your throne?”

Andras stares at the Hero, stares at his blazing scarlet eyes and pained expression. The Hero sighs.

“I’m tired of watching my people try to appeal to the likes of you.”

“Be assured, Hero. What I did is nothing personal against your people. I don’t even hail from the High Kingdom.”

“But the High Kingdom had a hand in helping you, gave you the names so you can pave your path to power.” The Hero says with a grimaced smile, “Am I wrong?”

Andras stays quiet, sits back, watches the Hero, who stares back, expectant. The Hero forcefully smiles again, barely concealing his rage.

“Of course I’m not wrong.” He says lowly, “you can’t even bring it in yourself to lie.”

“Consider adding 1,400 to your number.” The Hero says, “seeing as that’s how many were lost in the siege of my town, in your name.”

The Hero lunges, and Andras’ blade sparks up against the Hero’s.

“Have you nothing to say?!”

Andras opens his mouth, then closes it. He huffs. “It was not reported to me.”

The Hero pushes his blade harder against Andras’, pushing himself closer.

“You think that High Kingdom lieutenants would report the deaths of Lamarkians to you?” The Hero lets up, laughs hysterically, “what kind of childish retort is this?”

The Hero’s expression turns dark with unpredictable anger again. Andras raises his blade, ready to defend himself. Uncertain in the wake of the Hero’s words.

“I didn’t know.” Andras says, “I didn’t know about this…”

The Hero rolls his eyes, swings at Andras.

“You’re the ruler of the High Kingdom now.” The Hero growls when their blades collide again.

“I was supposed to be the ruler of this realm!” Andras refutes in protest, “It wasn’t supposed to be based in prejudice!”

“But it was!” The Hero roars, “Every snake in your ear has been from the High Kingdom! You just presumed based on what they said who was the superior society!”

“And you think yourself the superior society?” Andras says, “if it weren’t the High Kingdom, but instead the Lemarkians, it would have been better? Because let me tell you— it wouldn’t.”

“Don’t pull that nonsense.” The Hero hisses, “Stay in reality. High Kingdomers shaped this world. Shaped the world of Lemarkians. Every aspect of Lemarkians were either shaped by or shaped in spite of the High Kingdom. From the language we speak to the way we dress to the way we carry ourselves. It’s been dictated by High Kingdomers.”

Andras stares, notices how the Hero’s previously scarlet eyes have turned syrupy black in his rage. The Hero stares down at Andras, tip of his sword resting against the tile of the throne room.

The Hero’s expression changes at the sight of Andras’ reaction, from justified rage to exhausted pity.

Andras hates the Hero’s pity. Hates how it bores into him. Despite every reason the Hero had to look down on him. The hero held no hatred in his expression.

“Of course you wouldn’t know.” The Hero huffs, sheathing his sword, “if you’re anything like a High Kingdomer. They *never* know. That’s the comfort you’re granted. Never having to know.”

Andras inhales, a little pit of annoyance and anger blossoming at being told of his ignorance.

“Not only are you granted the boon of not knowing, it’s not a slight against you if you admit you never knew.” The Hero says. He sits on the steps to the throne, back to Andras, “That’s not a luxury I can be granted.”

The Hero is currently being a fool, with his back turned like that. Andras can strike him and be done with it. Yet, it wouldn’t be honorable to do so, especially since the Hero sheathed his weapon.

Andras sheathes his own sword, stands at the step the Hero sits at. The Hero glances up at him, looking even more exhausted than ever.

“You said that you etched the names of the people you killed in order to never forget the cost of your victory.” The Hero says, “and yet you don’t know the real cost of your victory? Your domination?”

“You could just strike me down.” Andras suggests, “In my alternate realm, ignorance is seen as a great insult.”

“But it’s influenced everything you do as a ruler.” The Hero says, “so its clearly not great enough an insult to you.”

“And that was my mistake.” Andras admits, “so you could still strike me down.”

“And what will it do?” The Hero says bitterly, “I strike you down singularly? When the ideas have seeped into the very stone of this realm? There would be no victory on my end. My brothers and sisters would starve anyway. The average High Kingdomer would be disgusted at the sight of me anyway. The High Court of the High Kingdom would see me as subservient either way.”

“You could strike them down too.” Andras suggests again.

“I could. That is the main known language of the High Kingdomer. Yet, they hope I do violence, expect violence from me.”

Andras then sits at the step with the Hero. Staring out at the unusually calm view to the rest if the kingdom.

“It is easier for the people of my realm to adopt the dominant culture when it’s time to conquer.” Andras says, “I suppose it’s not too different to that of the High Kingdom.”

“No, no.” The Hero says, “the High Kingdom either rejects or forces assimilation when they direct their colonial forces. They never assimilate.”

“Well… since my goal is to conquer the High Kingdom… maybe it’s time to start the conquering part.” Andras says, “in earnest, this time.”

The Hero looks at him uneasily.

“Consider, Hero, becoming my new advisor?”

“What?”

“How many people have died to achieve this world domination of yours?” “769.” “…What?” “769 people died to achieve my plans. I counted them, and had each of their names etched on my throne so I never forget what my victory cost the world. Now tell me, how many have you killed to see me dead?”

[spacemonkeysalsa]

"it's so weird that Astarion's racism isn't confronted in any meaningful way"

I genuinely can't tell what's bait and I don't think I am the problem, everyone else is. But I am not going to engage with people on twitter about this game any more, because it's usually just bait.

But it also could be someone who never played act three or only played act three one way, because Astarion's racism against the Gur is addressed as a bit if an arc within the story. Only as subtext and only if you don't ascend him, and keep Gandrel and Ulma alive. But it's something. There's also the interesting mechanical change of him going from disapproving of saving gnomes in act one, to approving of saving gnomes twice in act three.

And, yeah, that's subtle.

But it's a piece of the game.

It's subtle compared to what can happen with Lae'zel, or Shadowheart, if you make certain choices. But it's more than what you get for Wyll and Karlach.

I was actually really disappointed that Flo never showed up in act three, and that Karlach's attitude towards cambions (many of whom probably had about as much a choice in their involvement with Zariel as she did) just gets dropped. Same with Wyll and his animosity towards the goblins, like why didn't we meet a goblin hanging out in Baldur's Gate, who's a huge fan of the Blade of Frontiers? Why didn't we meet any fans of the Blade? Why wasn't stop the presses about Wyll, or why couldn't the story we publish be Blade of Frontiers fanfiction?

And Gale is human and from Waterdeep, which in FR means he's the equivalent of like a wealthy white one percenter.

Like I do think the game could have done more with fantasy racism. There were opportunities not taken. But Astarion's storyline at least addressed it and called it racism. Which I kinda think might be the reason that some people treat him as "the racist" in the group, because the writers used the word, so it's harder to miss.

[patchworkcowboy-archive]

ABOUT PATCHWORK JACK'S EX-PATRON, NI'HILIZA // art credit

PJ's former warlock patron is a demilich by the name of Ni'hiliza. Ni'hilza (he/him) was once a powerful lich. However, his mind/memory was manipulated by a powerful mage (said mage was Ni'hilza's ex-husband, Ruukvlad #awkward). The rare time magic the mage used on Ni'hilza forced his mind to erode at rapid rate, resulting in him forgetting to feed on souls and retreat to his tomb. Ni'hilza then wasted away until he had nothing but his skull left (aka becoming a demilich). Still, what a powerful skull it is...

(tw: fantasy racsim & colonization) Ni'hiliza was once a tiefling wizard who was shunned from his hometown for specializing in necromancy and for marrying Ruukvlad, a hobgoblin clockwork soul sorcerer. His town also shunned him for "betraying" them and siding with the hobgoblin's. His town had built their homes on hobgoblin land, refused to acknowledge it, and then got mad when the hobgoblin's repeatedly attacked them.

Ni'hiliza moved to live with Ruukvlad amongst the hobgoblins. While there he learned a lot about their culture and about magic. He was happy there, but the peace didn't last.

Although the hobgoblins stopped attacking his hometown, his hometown kept attacking them. So many innocent people were hurt and killed in the process... Only adding to his stress was the fact that Ruukvlad got diagnosed with a rare, incurable disease that would kill him within the next 5-10 years.

After Ruukvlad got diagnosed Ni'hiliza spent all of his time researching magic and possible solutions. After 8 years of research he found one and only one solution -- turning the both of them into liches.

While he was practicing lich making on himself, Ruukvlad was busy protecting his community and trying to make some sort of peace treaty with Ruukvlad's hometown. Although peace treaty talks would fail, the two communities would temporarily unite together to fight off dragons and defend livestock.

Ruukvlad came home and saw fire, shouting, magic, weapons and assumed the worst. He was blinded by his rage and under the assumption that his hometown was attacking the hobgoblins yet again unleashed a series of ruthless attacks. He burned the tieflings' homes into ash, made it rain acid and destroyed their crops, and made it downpour with icy daggers. There was so much blood that the nearby river turned red. In the end, there was nothing left of the tieflings except their blood.

Ruukvlad was both angry and fearful of his husband. His husband wouldn't listen to reason... In his blind rage he killed armed and unarmed people alike... The elderly, the young... It was a massacre. Pre-lich Ni'hiliza would've listened. But that's the real problem. Ni'hiliza is a lich now and he feasts on souls. Every soul tastes delicious and helps him stay alive. Needless to say, Ruukvlad divorced him on the spot.

Ni'hiliza would raze the countryside, killing anyone and everyone he felt deserved it. Despite their divorce and their arguments he never touched Ruukvlad and the hobgoblins. However, with Ni'hiliza changing more and more for the worse, Ruukvlad decided to not take his mercy as a guarantee. Entering his husband's lair under the pretense he wanted to get back together, he gave him one last kiss before using his time magic to make his mind deteriorate, weakening him and turning him into a demi-lich. Sadly said magic took what little energy the sick Ruukvlad had and he died shortly afterward.

Ni'hiliza now only has the skull from his remaining body. However he's pieced himself together using bones from various wanna be warlocks and eager heroes who dare enter his lair. He uses magic armor and a magic mask to hold himself together.

NOW I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE ALL THINKING... HOW THE HELL DID THIS GUY BECOME PATCHWORK JACK'S PATRON?

Ni'hiliza tricked PJ, convincing the young, lonely boy that he was some sort of deity of wandering/lonely souls and pranks. He promised PJ everything he wanted -- the power to protect himself, a family (he's the one that introduced PJ to the gang he later joined), and adventure. An impressionable young PJ signed the contract without reading the fine print. Oh what a mistake that was...

Between PJ's handy shapeshifting abilities and antics with the outlaw gang, there was plenty of chaos for Ni'hiliza to feed himself off of. And even if PJ himself wouldn't kill anyone, sometimes an accident would happen or someone else in the gang would kill someone -- that's how Ni'hiliza got the blood and souls he craved.

However, over time, PJ came to dislike the violent nature of his gang. That combined with the train incident (see pinned) led to him cutting ties with both the gang and Ni'hiliza.

Info on how PJ forcibly broke his pact tbh.

[eremeldanin]

Fantasy often has a medieval European aesthetic and folk argue there were no black people in medieval Europe. Therefore "adding" them makes it unbelievable. They just "don’t fit".

Wrong.

Black people have had loads of influence throughout medieval Europe and before:

The Imperial Romans (31 BC - 476 AD) had many African soldiers and commanders, some stationed as far north as Hadrians Wall.

St Maurice was an Egyptian Roman military leader born in Thebes in the year 250, martyred in Switzerland.

Othello is literally a Shakespearean play about a black Italian general written about 1603

There were black knights (see the Order of Santiago) in real life and in legend; like Palamedes; a Saracen Arthurian Knight of The Round Table. Yup. King Arthur knighted an unbaptised Middle Eastern Man. Written about 1230ish in France.

These are just a few. Black people have existed throughout all of history and all time that humanity has been doing it's thing. If you have issues fitting black people into a fantasy setting it’s because your perspective is limited and badly informed and that is the only reason.

I just think fantasy is better without diversity. When you add black people to a medieval fantasy world that urbanizes it.

Black people and people of colour deserves to see themselves in fantasy media, everyone deserves to see themselves in any type of media. And if you can’t watch something just because the character has a darker skin colour that’s on you.

All are welcome here 🌸

[junkyardportal]

■DAILY CRODS■

[MatelCarrions]

We are coming in you're world.

We got no skin color and nationality or skin at all.

We are not even the same matter.

But we don't give a shit.

About

●Skin color

●Race

●Sexuality

●Discrepancies

●Nationality

●Status

And you should to.

So loves and respect everyone who is a good person, no matter what skin color, nationality or material she or he is.

Together we build a world without this bullsshit

#idontgetracism

[flodaya]

my last queer/wlw book recommendation post has been gaining some traction recently so i thought after almost 2 years i would do an updated version 

Young Adult Realistic Fiction

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé - totally addictive, it’s described as Gossip Girl meets Get Out and that is really basically it; main characters are wlw and mlm; tw: racism, homophobia

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar - wlw rivals to lovers, such a cute romcom but has some more heavy and serious aspects as well, muslim wlw representation, I also highly recommend the author’s other book Hani and Ishu’s guide to fake dating; tw: public outing, biphobia

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo - a ya historical fiction set in 1950's San Francisco, talks about lesbian culture and the coming of age of a Chinese-American lesbian; tw: homophobia, racsim

Clap when you land by Elizabeth Acevedo - it’s about two sisters, one of them is a lesbian, the story itself is about these two half-sisters meeting for the first time after their father has died; tw: parental death 

Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales - bisexual main character and a love triangle that is actually fun, super quick and easy read

Realistic Adult Fiction

Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters - this book talks about womanhood, motherhood, fatherhood in a really interesting and moving way; tw: transphobia, misogyny  

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers - this book is what everyone lost in their 20s needs to read right now, such a comfort; it starts with the main character getting married to her one night stand in las vegas, beautiful wlw relationship

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - no wlw book recommendations list is complete without this; old Hollywood icon is ready to tell the full truth of her 7 marriages, just absolutely beautifully written

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman - Backman is one of my favourite comfort authors, this book is about a group of people being held hostage, one of the couples is a wlw, it’s just so funny and yet deep as well

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid - the story is told from the pov of 4 siblings, one of the storylines is about one sister figuring out her sexuality, TJR has such a talent for writing multi-dimensional characters and beautiful wlw representation;  

Fantasy/Science Fiction 

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - almost 900 pages of the most intricate fantasy world, the main relationship is wlw between the queen and one of her “maids”, there is a mlm side character/relationship as well

The Long way from a small angry planet by Becky Chambers - interspecies wlw relationship and such a wholesome book, lots of queer characters 

The invisible life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab - an immortal bisexual female main character who made a deal with the devil and can’t be remembered meets bisexual male character who seems to be the only one who doesn’t forget her

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri - wlw high-fantasy, morally grey lesbian characters, such a exciting and engaging story; tw: Suicidal ideation

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan - such soft wlw representation between two girls who are being forced to be concubines for the king; tw: sexual abuse 

and five of my favourite mlm books as bonus:

[bitterlybisexualbard]

A lot has been said about Fantasy stories including rape, sexism and homophobia in the name of “historical accuracy” or excusing it as okay because “that’s what it was like back then” while also including dragons/magic/balltothewall crazy shit that never happened.

I’d like to mention a few mundane things that European (usually British) medieval era inspired fantasy stories tend to be historically innacurate about to counteract claims that it’s because it’s a medieval world where dragons/ballstothewall crazy shit did happen but everything else was the same:

Fireplaces. All those early medieval hearths and extravagant mantles? Inaccurate. You’re talking Elizabethan period (late medieval, long after the usual fantasy preference) before chimneys were invented. And even then, they caught on fire and/or exploded. Like, a lot. 

Clothes. Need I say more? There are tons of amazing people on youtube who can entertainingly explain to you why corsets would not be used in medieval times, stays would not have likely suffocated women, why passionate, spontaneous love making probably wouldn’t involve (or require) naked women, etc. etc. etc.

Unemployment. Your hero, free as a bird, travels from town to town seeking his fortune, telling possible quest givers he’s looking for work... and gets arrested for being unemployed in a town he wasn’t born in. He better be in town flashing cash or with ample evidence of his successful freelancer status.

Books. More valuable than most treasure. No, your hero did not learn to read them from a friendly local mentor. Unless your friendly local mentor was Alfred the Great I guess. Great literacy program, that guy.

Armour and weaponry. Usually all wrong for the period they’re using. Not always, but often enough to show lack of serious research into the era they’re so ardently defending via constant rape apology.

Horses. They existed, but as has been pointed out more than once, if your early medieval universe is modelled on Britain or most of Western Europe then your characters ain’t gonna be seeing them all that often, if at all. Again, you’d need to be later medieval. The kind of late that writers and directors avoid because of the silly looking outfits and prelude to the industrial age.

Bedrooms. Your character does not sleep in their own private bedroom. No, listen to me, they don’t. Yes, even if they’re wealthier than average. See previous point about fireplaces. Those fuckers weren’t about to put personal space above not freezing their balls off. Unless they’re nobility (even then heavily depending on exactly which medieval period and what time of year), they’re sharing a bedroom and quite possibly a bed with multiple people. If they even have a separate bedroom from the main living area.

Racism. Sure, it happened. But it wasn’t even vaguely the kind of bullshit we got later on and was its own flavour of nasty, so maybe shut up about it if you aren’t making any new or meaningful points and are claiming historical accuracy points. Also, black people were no strangers to British shores in the medieval period. 

If a writer writes a story full of misogyny, racism and/or homophobia it is because they want to write about misogyny, racsim and/or homophobia. It has nothing to do with historical accuracy.

Sometimes they have good reasons, most often they have bad, lazy, privileged reasons. But next time you excuse child brides or rape as “historically accurate” or “just how it was back then” in a fantasy world?

Look for the fireplace.

[the-sappho-of-lesbos]

Lesbians And Gays Of The Past #5: Book Review of Sword Of The Guardian by Merry Shannon

Favourite Quote:

Sword Of The Guardian is a fantastic fantasy and slow burn romance novel. It has a little something for everyone. It has your friends to lovers trope, it has your “I think my feelings are unrequited but actually we are both idiots and don’t know that we both like each other” trope, it has your strong woman and weak woman that learns to be strong trope. And of course that beautiful slow burn romance that just leaves you itching for the two characters to get together, which in my humble opinion is not nearly as common in lesbian literature as it should be.

Our story starts at the circus where Talon, who has had to disguise herself as a boy to protect herself and her younger sisters after their village was attacked, is performing in front of the royal family. While she is there an attack happens against the young prince, Deric, and his twin sister, Shasta. The prince sadly loses his life, but while trying to protect her sister, Talon ends up saving the young princess as well. After this the king finds out about Talon actually being a woman and offers her a job to be his daughters personal guard. Knowing it would provide protection for her sisters Talon accepts. To start off with Shasta is a naive and childlike sixteen year old, who is mourning the lose of her brother. But as time goes on she becomes close friends with Talon and Talon genuinely wants to protect the princess.

Throughout the story Talon has to keep her true identity a secret from Shasta, and while doing so she starts to explore her sexuality with one of the servants of the castle. The slow and tantalising friendship and romance that slowly blooms between Talon and Shasta is so beautiful to witness and it feels very genuine. They start off on unequal terms but slowly become equal to each other.

This book also explores themes such as political intrigue and war. The fight scenes were written so vividly that you often feel like you are there in them. I would truly recommend this book to anyone who is look for a good and strong romance between two wonderful women.

Also, as a side note, on the cover Talon appears to be white woman, but in the book she is described in a way that truly made me feel like she is a WOC. In the story her ethnicity is noticeably different, so much so that people can tell at one look where she was born, and there was a lot of emphasis on her dark olive skin, in a way that it came across as more then just a light tan. So I’m not really sure what to make of that, I don’t know if there was miscommunication between the artist of the cover and the publishing company, or if the author described Talon in a way she didn’t mean to. But I saw her as a WOC, so if you are looking for a story with more rep in that department I would definitely recommend this book for that too!

Trigger Warning: Racsim, homophobia, war, death, sexual assault, mentions of rape, physical abuse, murder, domestic abuse, mentions (not in graphic detail) of underage s**

Spoilers: Has a HEA ending for the couple

[johnnyclash87]

Maybe it’s just me but a few of these definitely seem to feature white people on the covers.. in one case even a white male even though Yeine (the main protagonists) describes herself as “forestwood brown”. I mean maybe in a couple of them you could say the person on the cover is her mother Kinneth who is white/pale or Nahadoth who for the most part is also described as pale. But then we’re just pushing aside a WOC protagonists just to highlight the white side characters (in one case a male). I mean imagine if all the promotional material for Wonder Woman or The Hunger Games focused on Steve or Petah. And yes this is important because diversity within high fantasy or POC characters in fantasy is far too often ignored or rejected. So in one of those cases were you have a POC protagonist and nobody can say “well the author wrote them as white” or “oh a POC character would be historically inaccurate” you need to highlight that.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms Book Covers 

[helsingvania]

/minor tfoh spoilers/

I loved the horror and story of the scorching from tfoh, like its was awful it made me cry but it was just so...interesting.

Maybe working on those points over awful fantasy racsim. Show us the horrors of what this world could make. Maybe introduce Pantala later since every event in the books seems way too crowded together. But instead have it a few months later with some staunch discoveries found in the library of the old night kingdom and have them investigate that leading to the human connection and later learning about cottonmouth and Freedom

question to the wof community, if you could choose, what would you want the third arc to be about, rather than racist slave owning bug dragons/mind controlling weed? I'm curious to hear what you all have in mind

[cinaja]

Hi😊 I've been in the anti community for a few months, and I think I can answer the racism question?

For actual racism in her books, the main points really are 1) her not really having any POC characters 2) descriptions being super ambigious and 3) the POC she does have either getting killed off (mainly in tog), sidelined or written badly (like the Illyrians). So it's basically Really Bad (sometimes harmful) Representation (and I assume you might not have been able to find as much about it bc there aren't any recent really BIG discussions about it).

However, there's also something that... I wouldn't quite refer to as racism because it's a fantasy world and so the term doesn't really apply - but rather the general approach to topics like slavery and oppression.

In acotar, the humans were enslaved for millennia by the Fae who basically considered them no more than animals and property. Slavery stopped 500 years before the story bc the humans won a war against the Fae and a wall was built to seperate them, however, most Fae still see the humans as lesser and cross the Wall to kill them. The entire conflict in the 2nd and 3rd book is about stopping the Fae from enslaving the humans again. However, in spite of that, the Fae are presented as the good guys. All of the characters are, in fact, Fae and the human point of view hardly ever gets shown. The main characters are fighting against slavery, but at the same time, they are nearly as prejudiced as the bad guy. Humans are constantly villanized and called "bigoted" for being scared/mistrustful of the Fae and trying to defend themselves against them. All the important human characters (Feyre and her sisters) become Fae and basically accept how much better it is to be Fae. There is a line by one of the main good guys where he says "neither side is innocent" about a situation where the Fae enslaved, murdered and oppressed humans for thousands of years. (And this isn't just some characters saying such things, it's the entire narrative framing it to be true.) Also, the main villains of one of the books coming out in a few days are apparently humans.

It's Similar But Worse in her other book, Crescent City, which is set in a more modern world. There, the humans' world has been invaded by the Vanir (imagine them basically like Fae) 15k years ago and the humans have been enslaved and oppressed ever since. During the time of the story, there is a human rebellion fighting against this. Those humans are presented as the villains. They are called extremists and too violent and bad for killing Vanir. One of the three named human characters in the entire book, who is part of that rebellion, gets written as a terrorist. When he gets put in jail and tortured by the government for 2 years, the narrative keeps going on about how he deserved it. Some of the important characters are cops for the totalitarian government and get applauded for torturing people to "keep the city safe". Again, the human pov is never really shown, it's all about the Vanir, who are written to be sympathized with.

Now, like I said, none of this is really about racsim, but rather about oppressor-oppressed dynamics and topics like slavery, but it is really, really bad. And it's in all of her books, with a tendency of it getting worse. Tbh, I've never seen any other book that deals with oppression worse than sjm's books do because they basically take the side of the oppressors and villanize the oppressed.

Alright now that you've gone through some of the critical posts, new thoughts?

i never really found any good racism posts? the only new thing i've found so far is that all the most violent characters are her ambiguous tan characters, which is a good point, but it's kinda weird that the anti community leads with racism in her books when the anti community talks the least about it

i never found ANY antisemitism posts so ??? idk what anon was about earlier

however, some of the violence posts were certainly...perspective changing 😶 i think i always knew to a certain extent that acotar is extremely gorey/violence/trauma-heavy, sometimes for no reason, but the violence against women posts were really good and informative. THOSE made me think sm, and i am intrigued by the anti sjm community <3 i've always been pretty neutral on her (besides the marketing thing i already talked about briefly), but considering that i only skimmed books 2 and 3...after seeing some of those posts jfc it really descends into madness after book 1, huh?

[batslime]

like they can really handle every fucking fiction/ fantasy aspect of every fucking game but if you just say “theres no racsim” they absolutely lose their mind and no joke accuse you of advocating for genocide and its people who want more gay and characters of color that are the crazy and oversensitive ones

White Supremacists/Gamergate getting upset that a black character went back in time to end the Atlantic slave trade.