#idk then we’ll have to talk abt how fantasy writers keep ripping off other languages and cultures because they sound cool

[sharkwithfeelings]

ik there’s a lot of sarah j maas discourse rn, in general a lot of ya/na fantasy authors are getting looked at with a more critical eye, but i haven’t seen much abt the illyrians of the night court, who are undoubtedly indigenous-coded, and for the most part seem to be a mix of a lot of different indigenous cultures.

like, they live in mountain villages, they’re an old race of faeries, they have warrior cultures, and they’re generally described as being dark-haired and darker skinned than a lot of the other faeries in the series. and, i will admit, i haven’t read the books since middle/beginning of high school, but it’s kind of hard to forget that illyrians were at once portrayed as uncivilized but also extremely practiced in the art of war to a degree that they were a resource to the main characters in their times of need.

all the og members of the Valeris Squad (or whatever they call themselves i can’t remember) describe illyrians as “backwards” and “savage.” the illyrians are also known to beat kids, make them compete in blood sport, and they clip the wings of female illyrians so that they can’t fly and are reduced to only being housewives. they have a rich culture of tattooing, which most indigenous societies have. it’s an insanely patriarchal society that rhys and cassian and azriel are single-handedly fixing. their rites of passage into warrior status are centuries old and their communities have existed in the mountains for like forever. they’re undoubtedly supposed to be native, 100%.

and while there is plenty to be said abt how some cultures operate with regards so how they treat children and women (cultural relativism gets messy), i don’t think this is how you go about doing that. not to mention, the book doesn’t position “reeducating the illyrians” as a discussion on how one incorporates equality into a culture, it’s just like another thing that the Bat Boys do to seem like they’re more moral. the maybe only saving grace is that they grew up in the culture, so it’s not like they’re outsiders coming in and being like “your traditions are evil and bad, change them,” but i don’t know why they had to be constructed that way in the first place.

it’s weird, idk, i just think fiction is such a great place for exploration and education about how to deal with the real world but with much lower stakes, and i hate to see popular fantasy neglecting the fact that it should take real-world issues seriously, and that you can do that while also being a popular series. indigenous people across the world are systematically stolen from, colonized, and erased from the annals of history because other people step in and say, “hey we don’t like the way you do things, this is much better,” and again, yeah, some of the practices of the illyrians are pretty harmful, but how is their only good contribution to the world that they know how to do war good??? they don’t have anything else of value, they just fight and kill??? like that’s not accurate indigenous writing, that’s just harmful stereotypes.

there’s plenty more to say abt a lot of authors in the fantasy space, especially right now when so many ppl are getting book deals just for blowing up on tiktok, which i’m slightly conflicted by because more books getting published is good but also like, what books are we allowing to go to press? anywayyyy, just some thoughts