#literally so many “dark skin” characters in the game are just tanned. they're literally just slightly tanned

[stargazeraldroth]

This whole Natlan situation is "funny" (/sarc) in the sense that the people who defend the designs are like "Not every Latino/South American (I genuinely cannot remember where Natlan is based on guys help a girl out) is black!!!!" and it's like... okay??? They aren't all milk white either???? Like what's your argument??? Everybody did the same thing with Sumeru when it released too. Like we get it honey, you're racist, now please shut the fuck up, you're not cool or "quirky" for discriminating against people

[transmascaraa]

random but yes my final thoughts on all the new natlan chars with a conclusion in the end lmao

mualani .

i love her she's so cute help i knew i would love her ever since her first appearance i literally can't wait for her drip marketing tmrw

the tattoo typa things on her skin help?!????!??!? beautiful?!!?!!?!??

hydro women>>

~

kachina .

SHE'S ADORABLE HELP

i love all the genshin children sm they're so precious i swear even dori /p

i love her hair a lot tho

~

kinich .

LOOK.

MY FAVORITE CHARACTER(scara) HAS COMPETITION NOW.

I WILL REFRAIN FROM SAYING TOO MUCH BUT BASICALLY I LOVE HIM. (and ajaw lmfao that little thing about to become like boothill)

~

citlali .

ANYWAYS LOOK AT HERRRR

she's so cute i love her

something about her reminds me about hsr fu xuan but either way she's probably the cutest char from the trailer imo^^

~

xilonen .

help me i can't do this anymore the women are literally top tier(offtopic but she's almost identical to one of my ocs which i won't rant about rn lmao)

THE MAKEUP AND HAIR???? MY FAVORITE WOMAN FROM NATLAN?????????

SHE'S THE DEFINITION OF SMTHN LIKE "in war rn but at least i gotta look hot" AND IT'S TRUE

~

iansan .

somebody help why did we only get like 0,6sec of her😭

still i'm very excited for her

for the design at least since i truly have no idea of her personality lol

~

chasca .

i love this woman already

also the mole she has on her shoulder bro i have the one on the same place

cowboy vibes from her btw??

~

capitano . and ororon(olorun?) .

about capitano; first, i'm very excited, and second, i wish he said more than just "hmph."

about ororon(olorun?); heard that he turned out very bad based on who he references and even his name is very messed up i'm pretty sure?? basically the same situation that happened with candace/kandake EITHER WAY i'm excited to see him more and like will he be the first tall male anemo help lol i like his design

can't wait for them although i have other preferences for now

~ ~

mavuika .

THANK GOODNESS SHE'S NOT LIKE THE LEAKS

i absolutely love her design and everything sm about her literally please don't die and yeah she's now my third favorite archon along with furina and nahida

also despite the outfit not being revealing and all and literally a 10/10, i have a feeling she's gonna get very sexualized because of that zipper😭

~

in conclusion, i absolutely love the characters.

the only problem is that there's not really many dark skinned characters aside from iansan and kinda tanned mualani and xilonen ig

here's a link to a petition to try and stop hoyo from making the skin colors as light as they always do😭 i personally didn't look into it too much at first because of which countries the nations were based off of, but now this is supposed to be africa/south america and there's not really much skin representation

yeah, sure there's representation, but not of skin color other than iansan(and mualani and xilonen too)

finally, i think that all the designs are truly 10/10 it's just the skin colors bothering me aka hoyo's typa racism due to them being a chinese company. again, don't get me wrong, shitty company and i hate racism(as a white person) but the characters are great in all honesty and all the other types of representation are great^^

~

(good thing i personally don't play the game because of my phone storage and i'm just in the fandom from it's release bro and i love the lore so that's how i know the characters and story in the first place)

~

update:

my honest thoughts on the drip marketing(no pictures)

KACHINA IS ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE SHE'S SO CUTE AND PRECIOUS TO ME THAT'S IT(what animal is she supposed to be btw??)

MUALANI LOOKS SO PRETTY!!!!!!! I LOVE HER SM PLUS HER SHARK IS ALMOST AS CUTE AS HER

KINICH JUST LOOKS SO GOOD. I LOVE THAT MAN. I AM NOT USED TO LIKING TALL MEN AT ALL BUT HEAR ME OUT...........

I LOVE ALL OF THEM FR I'M SO EXCITED FOR MORE CHARACTERS

~

(is it just me but do they look like they all have the same skincolor on their drip marketings???? like are kinich and kachina a bit darker OR is mualani lighter than she looks???)

[offseason-if]

Formal character introduction post with more info on the romance options' personalities, ages, appearances, and what tropes you can expect from their routes.

Noel Watanabe [RO, they/them, 20]: Since your first meeting when you were both 12, where the judges scored you one point higher than them, Noel has claimed themselves as your 'rival'. They certainly play the part— well sometimes. Between bringing you food after practice and completely ignoring you, their hot-and-cold personality practically gives you whiplash. When they heard you were quitting the sport, they were enraged. Will you dig deeper into your relationship with your so called rival?

Appearance: Ivory skin, long straight black hair just past their chest, green eyes, a mole under their right eye, septum piercing, left eyebrow piercing, multiple upper ear piercings, almost always wearing eyeliner, 6'0. Noel's fashion style is very much dark academia. Turtlenecks, blazers, ties, combat boots, trench coats. They tend to settle for more laid back clothes (long sleeves and leggings) if they're just practicing all day.

Personality: Noel is just what you expect someone who's been playing a sport for 13 years to act like. They're abrasive, competitive, and confident. Growing up with parents who only built tension through passive aggressive comments rather the communication certainly didn't help— but that's neither here nor there, at least in Noel's opinion. What? No, of course they've never been to therapy, why do you ask?

Romance Tropes: rivals to lovers, reluctant love, afraid to commit, slow burn

Hallie/Harlow Mitchell [RO, gender selectable, 18]: After deciding to take a gap year against their parents wishes, H finds themselves spending their (would be) fall semester in Illinois. You first run into them, quite literally. A blur of bright orange knocking you flat on your back isn't he way you were looking to get your mind off of your problems but it worked. And if it hadn't the sound of H profusely apologizing certainly did. They seem to follow you everywhere you allow them to after that. Will their attempts to motivate you to skate again lead to something more?

Appearance: Tan skin, blue eyes, dyed bright orange hair, freckles, 5'8. Hallie has chin length length hair with bangs and small braids sprinkled in along with assorted hair clips, she doesn't wear makeup often but when she does it's in bright and bold tones. Harlow has his hair styled in a grunge perm that just reaches the end of his neck. H has a streetwear style; graphic tees, windbreakers, cargo shorts, crocs, (they have so many jibbitz) baggy jeans, sneakers.

Personality: What one imagines when they think of 'southern hospitality'. They're charming, outgoing, and kind. H would rather talk to someone in class than take the time to work on a project; though now in a bad way. School just never came quite easy to them, but they do make up for that in quite literally all other aspects of their life sports, cooking, art. You name it they've done it. Well, apart from ice skating.

Romance Tropes: meet cute, love at first sight, friends to lovers, obvious love

Sadie/Spencer Williams [RO, gender selectable, 19]: Your best friend since your first year in high school. They've seen all the parts of you that you keep hidden from others, for better or for worse. While never picking up ice skating themselves S has never missed one of your games as long as they've known you. S has always been loyal and supportive of you, almost to a fault, but that all changes when you tell them you're giving up skating. Will you find out why your normally laid back best friend is passionate about getting you to skate again?

Appearance: Ebony skin, dark brown eyes, chocolate brown hair, unblemished skin, ear piercing, beauty mark above their lip, 5'5. Sadie has her hair styled in butterfly locks just reaching her mid-back, usually in a half down half up style, she usually wears makeup consisting of light earthy tones. Spencer has his hair styled in twists just going past his chin. S has a cozy type of fashion style; sweaters, corduroy pants, cardigans, turtle necks, sweater vests, knitted socks, platform shoes.

Personality: The perfect picture of an introvert. S is quiet, comforting, and laidback. S is very much a closed book, trusting their small trusted circle with knowing things about them and not keen on opening up to others. If you are close to S, you know that they're quite artistic. Whether that's drawing, painting, pottery, photography, or anything else they enjoy expressing their creativity that way.

Romance Tropes: friends to lovers, everyone can see it, requited unrequited love, slow burn

Valerio 'Val' Diaz [RO, he/him, 20]: Coach Diaz had introduced the two of you after your third lesson, convinced you would become quick friends. He was right, of course, at least for a while. Valerio was obliviously quite a bright kid; helping you with homework during breaks at practice, studying with you before lunch, spending your sleepovers going over multiplication tables rather than telling secrets. It was something you'd always admired about him until— well, you'd rather not get into it. Your old friend seems to think otherwise, if the speed he comes back into your life after hearing about your plans to quit skating is anything to go by. Will you be able to forgive and let your old friend (or more) back into your life?

Appearance: Light brown skin, short curly dark brown hair just reaching his shoulders usually in a ponytail or bun, hazel eyes, small scar on his forehead partially covered by his hair, glasses, 5'4. Valerio has a casual style of clothes; crewnecks, hoodies, sweatpants, basketball shorts, t-shirts, socks with sandals, sneakers.

Personality: After one conversation with Valerio it's obvious they view their education above all. Smart, ambitious, and mature. Valerio is not one to prioritize play over work. From student council to volunteer work, Valerio was extremely busy during high school, even more so now that he's in college. Majoring in criminal law certainly takes up his already busy schedule. Though, the little boy everyone once knew is still there somewhere.

Romance Tropes: childhood friends, second chance, exes to lovers, childhood marriage pact, childhood friends to lovers

[cryptidsmagick]

If you have the energy to answer, what's your opinion on Natlan? I'd imagine the feelings are complex

Oh dear victim, you have made some mistakes.

Where should I even fucking start.

Full Disclosure: I have kintypes consisting of yumkasaur and a natlan mythic, and after a very long internal debate that multiple people can confirm I shred myself over, choose to work with Wayob. This will be elaborated with the rest of the rant.

Why are they white?

I'm sure you know this has become Quite A Tag relating to Natlan, mainly because we have white passing Hispanics claiming that players of other ethnicities are over exaggerating the white washing.

And this isn't an over generalisation, people keep outright saying "I'm Hispanic and feel represented because [...]" or something similar, to which I respond: We Hispanics are racist shits.

I'm putting up no defense for my people—my mother actively tried to erase my black and indigenous heritage, despite the fact my (father's side) grandfather is literally visibly black and the stories & traditions of the taino people have been passed down on my mother's side.

Why? Because we're the exact same people who throw racial slurs at each other every other day and constantly try to justify it as "tradition" or "culture" or "harmless slang."

Look, between you and me, they really just want to see Americans be so naïve when they get called a gringo and follow up with the most vulgar phrases they can think of as..."compliments." I've seen it happen so many times it's just disgusting.

Cubans, Dominicans, Purto Ricans...I've seen so many Hispanics do it including my own parents. They would genuinely start calling people mulattos in disgust and still justify it as a "racial identifier" when it's the same racist bullshit of forcing people to put down exactly how black they are during Jim Crow laws in the US.

Anyhow, point being, I'm disgusted by how little my own people are putting an effort into defending the culture of the ancestors—the Inca, Aztecs, Taino, and other indigenous of South America/Carribean.

Just because modern day Hispanics have forgotten their culture, or are so Spanish they aren't even related to these tribes, doesn't mean we should replace them all with white-passing individuals. Modern day Hispanics are a diverse people with a wide range of skin tones, and characters based on our tribes should not be fucking white majority.

I'm not just "some mestizo," soy taino, and even if I'm on the cafe con leche end, I still want to see people properly represented.

On the non-hispanic indigenous side of thing, can we talk about the white washing of a Jamaican God? Some people have tried to defend Hoyo over the whole Ororon thing but not only is he one of the weakest characters in lore/meta, but he's paler than my very European friends. (In fact, most Genshin Characters are.) He's a complete disrespect to the deity he's named after.

It's not just white passing indigenous culture being used, but defined black heritage from Jamaica, Africa, Haiti, etc. No individual culture should have the right to say Hoyo isn't appropriating as they're taking from the peoples, not a people.

The darkest character we're going to get from Natlan is Iansan, to which we were expecting some darker characters but Hoyo proceeded to white wash their own characters. Xbalanque is black in all the in-game murals depicting him, but the only interaction we'll ever have of him is possessing a white child as filler text for Mavuika's fan service. Kinich is a light shade of tan in his art, then glows like the surface of the sun in-game.

They've tossed a few black NPCs our way, but there are more black enemies in game (inflated by Natlan) than black, interactable NPCs. A lot of them are vision bearers too.

Varka, for example, is a character from Mondstadt people hoped to be playable, who's been leaked to have a vision and dark shade of tan. But he's also been leaked to use the generic NPC model and will most likely never be playable.

Refusing to represent POCs, for the second time (Sumeru), was something that firmly put me against Natlan when it released.

TL;DR: Natlan whitewashed minority groups by choosing to actively integrate their language and cultures, but making minimal effort to include diverse characters. As of currently, 5 characters are white, 1 is so pale of a tan they're nearly white, 1 is the bare minimum of black and still unreleased.

What is going on with the tribes?

When it was mentioned that the Children of Echoes had dancing as a central part of it, I expected to see traditional dances with cultural meaning. Instead, I hear fucking hip hop. And what are they doing on the stage? Breakdancing.

A lot of people with indigenous ancestry found Hilichurls fascinating due to their obviously tribal dancing and wondered if they had defined social structure back in 2020-2021. Now, we know they're from Khenr'iah and their dances are related to abyss rituals.

These Hilichurls, a human-related enemy with a "true death" animation (instead of disappearing into sand/smoke), are given arguably more accurate tribal dynamics than the "proper tribes" of Natlan.

And I just don't have words for how outright disappointing every other attempt of cultural integration was. The People of Springs (pacific islanders) having surfing but the "they're not lazy" thing being overemphasised to make them look lazy. The Scions of the Canopy and their...biblical references brings out some lovely generational trauma (can we talk about how the seelies went from fairies to fallen angels?). The Masters of Night Wind being a purely shaman/priest/spiritual tribe—that's not how it works, individuals worked as a community with multiple roles. The Flower-Feather Clan being so exaggeratedly warrior based that people are essentially useless as Wingless.

What I'm getting at here is that Hoyo failed to make them actual tribes, and their attempts at traditions were soulless. We partake in Turnfire Night, only for us to have to practice until the actual thing was soulless, and there was no real challenge (despite them repetitively stating there was). We're selected by Elder Tlapo (Claw) to help with weaving scrolls, but not only were half the voicelines barely audible, Hoyo skipped out on opportunities to explain the culture of the Masters of Night Wind, and literally cuts TWO people short as they try to tell us the different versions of the story. We partake in the flight test for the Flower-Feather clan, but the nature of the test itself has no real meaning. In fact, we're given the opportunity to advocate for abolishing it.

These soulless, unresearched attempts at culture incorporation wind up being more appropriation than anything, harming these minority groups the tribes are based on with misrepresentation.

Ancient names are also treated with less value than they're worth, with the Traveler being guaranteed the name before they have noteworthy accomplishments and being granted a high honor despite not earning it in the way dictated by tradition. They could've earned the honor themselves by partaking in the tournament, but were instead handed it. These obsidian slips are a critical part of their culture, and although IRL tribes might gift someone a tribal name, I did not enjoy how it was executed in-game, as the Traveler was only gifted the name for plot armor.

TL;DR: Natlan failed to properly incorporate tribal culture and wound up mostly appropriating it.

Sexualisation of tribal wear?

South American, Caribbean, and Pacific tribes all have minimal traditional wear due to the available materials and climate. So, something like what Mualani wears would be standard. However, proceeding to give every female enemy from every tribe a fucking cowboy hat, boots, and short-shorts is just out right sexualisation. Every's tribe clothing would and should be unique, not a copy/pasted wild west.

Chasca, isn't even an enemy and she's been subject to the same minimalistic cowboy outfit.

Mavuika is wearing a body suit, not tribal wear. To which, is incredibly sexualised for fan service, which they leant on like a crutch. (That bodysuit looks so uncomfortable.)

Male and child-like characters are covered, despite the fact if they were using minimal wear to be accurate, males would also use minimal wear. They're not using this clothing style to be accurate, they're using a "cultural thing" to excuse sexualisation.

They did the same thing with other nations, including those based on Asian culture. Most female Liyue characters wear incredibly sexualised Chinese wear, and in Inazuma, Raiden's kimono was so sexualised they actually had to lengthen her skirt in the cutscene to avoid her bare bottom being distracting to the player.

This has been a long standing problem in Genshin Impact, and after a (mostly) break from it in Fountaine, it's being thrown at players in full force in Natlan.

TL;DR: Hoyo keeps using cultural wear to excuse character sexualisation, and does so exaggeratedly in Natlan by taking advantage of southern indigenous' minimal wear.

The Wayob?

Honestly, the Wayob is perhaps the only thing they might've nailed. The integration of spirits of individual lands, existing as a grand deity, the Great Spirit of This Land. Their portrayal and integration into Natlan's culture was incredibly well done until...

...the Lord of the Night came into the picture. After being colonised and losing most of their culture, what an indigenous person DOES NOT want to hear in reference to their representation is: "joke's on you, angels created the entirety of your culture and the colonists were right."

It was completely unnecessary and, frankly, most lore videos out there fail to acknowledge the confusion of this sudden change of what Seelies are. In Mondstadt, the Seelies are mentioned in their books to be fairies (as their name literally means) who ruled over Teyvat since before Celestia. Then Celestia strode in as the tyrants they are and forced these god-like beings to submit to their authority (and were punished with their memory-less selves when they failed to follow Celestia's rules).

This was a progressive change of the lore, honestly, as in Sumeru, Fountaine, etc the dragon sovereign was introduced as the "true rulers," then we have this colonisation shit being introduced in Natlan (which honestly, Celestia was from the start but they're also canonly evil-ish so...?).

Point and case is, Natlan's separation from Celestia (aside from the Archons, who which, don't follow Celestia's traditions for it) was a distinct feature of it, and suddenly, these angels who predeceased Celestia are, plot twist, suddenly created by Celestia and integrated themselves in Natlan.

So what if they're "fallen angels"? That objectively makes it worse.

When I first interacted with the Wayob I felt connected to my ancestors in a way I hadn't before as I hadn't been lucky enough to be taught my cultural traditions by my mother. I was unfamiliar with most of Dominican traditions, nevertheless Taino ones. It had been incredibly difficult to get a grasp of the Zemi'no especially seeing how my people was nearly driven out of existence, and ironically, the Wayob, a figure from pop culture, was what finally made things click.

The Wayob was the only thing that was right in Natlan and Hoyo ruined it for us.

TL;DR: The complete disregard of the Great Spirit through the integration of christian references (i.e. a supreme god and their angels) takes away from the distinct, unrelated force.

So...

In general, Natlan's just a hot mess. And unfortunately, it's not Hoyo's first, and it won't be the last.

China has incredibly absurd beauty standards that require multiple surgeries and treatments due to how extreme it is to achieve and maintain, and this shows in the game's characters—whiter than white skin, thin waist, small shape for most female characters (the tall ones all wear heels).

These beauty standards don't translate well when portraying other ethnicities as Hoyo applies them to them—resulting in the white washing and colorism. And honestly, I would more accurately describe it as racism as there are multiple characters canonly discriminated by race, and the Traveler themselves does it at times (approaching individuals from Snezhnaya and Khenr'iah with hostility, to which they eventually stop doing with the latter...mostly).

They have made a couple of changes (making it so the eremites disappear into sand rather than having the true death animation) but we are mostly going unheard in our feedback, as we're not their target audience. And to be frank, there are Chinese games with diverse skin tones that are just as successful as Genshin, so they have no real reason besides internalised racism/colourist (which isn't a valid reason).

[dragimal]

I think what rly kills me abt Genshin is that it could be really REALLY good, y'know? like the base structure is there for something good: a world of diverse nations with deep, expansive lore, and fun, memorable characters with their own deep lore, and an elemental magic system with great "classpect" potential for fancharacters, and a MASSIVE beautiful map that you could get lost in for hours and still find new puzzles to explore

but at every level Mihoyo just REFUSES to be anything but "safe" about it all, as if they're struggling to make more money

like there are all these themes of challenging oppressive systems and teaming up with others to do the right thing... and yet so many npc enemies are either flat stereotypes of poor/oppressed people, literal red scare propaganda, or fucking 'tribal'-coded magically-cursed civilians that didn't do a damn thing wrong besides be born in the wrong place at the wrong time. the character designs are so 'complex' and overdesigned... to hide the fact that they all use the same few base structures with no body diversity and barely any shape changes to the silhouettes. there are so many characters from so many diverse nations... yet I can count the 'dark-skinned' characters on one hand, and even they are barely more than lightly tanned. Sumeru in particular could have been a beautiful representative of Dendro as a nation, with a real examination of colonialist academia's dismissal of indigenous knowledge, especially of ecology, among other themes.... but instead it's a horrific frankenstein of at least 8 different real-life countries (compared to the other present nations only representing one(1) country) with no real aesthetic/cultural commitment to anything, with lore that makes even my uninformed white ass cringe at the implications

and it kills me because like. god, Genshin is really just an accidental litmus test for popular media, because it's not even trying to hide behind "diversity indexes" like Overwatch or anything. it's so unapologetic abt its own priorities, it ends up feeling like what everything else is trying to hide, y'know?

like it's disgusting to see a game so thoroughly and unabashedly confirm the things that are considered "safe" to a wider audience. racism is considered safe. fatphobia is considered safe. sexism is considered safe. 'loli' pedophilic designs are considered safe. boring half-assed research and design and stories are considered safe.

and it's like. I feel like I have to grit my teeth through so much bullshit in popular media, y'know? obviously the answer is to support more indie works from small-time creators that actually care, which I do. but like, we shouldn't have to ignore most bigger projects, right? we shouldn't have to, and yet here we are

[lucky-clover-gazette]

thinking about how bodily autonomy is a really consistent motif in the zelda games... the amount of times link is forced into alternate forms or zelda is possessed/transformed/literally removed from her body is really interesting. off the top of my head we have wolf link, link's forms in majora's mask, link's forced aging in oot and revelation that he isn't kokiri, link doing a sort of tactical drag in botw, zelda being sheik, zelda being possessed in twilight princess, zelda preserving herself in time as the goddess in skyward sword, midna being cursed as an imp, batreaux, and the skulltula people in oot. there's also so much cross-dressing (i know that term might have a negative connotation but i don't think it should in this context) and gender nonconformity. bodies are constantly changed as a reflection of a character's arc and actions, and often a character regaining control of their own body is a resolution to their arc.

but i feel like the more you think about it, the messier it gets, both in good and bad ways. for example, i think there's a reason lots of trans, gnc, and queer people connect to zelda games because of the many ways gender and transformation are weaved into the stories. that's great. but i also think there are some huge failings on nintendo's part in terms of representation and transformation of bodies, mostly in their characters of color and lack thereof. like, tetra. just tetra. and that's not even mentioning the way they gave me the ick re: her forced gender presentation as zelda. also some designs like the gerudo esp in the earlier 3d games and holy shit the bokoblins and gorons in twilight princess (seriously they're bad) are obviously informed by racial stereotypes. and it's extra super not great bc there are not many hylian/human characters who have dark skin, or even tan skin. it sucks. it's just a shame that these fantastic games, some of which are 20+ years old, experiment with gender presentation in such a fascinating way (hell, even link was designed so that everyone could see a bit of their gender in him) but very little attention was placed on representing non-white players. in fact, some of the use of racial stereotypes and exaggerated features is just more alienating and dehumanizing, hence the not-good side of zelda's focus on bodies. holy shit, i say again, why did they do that with tetra! i mean i know why they made her white as zelda (racism) but they sidelined her in a way that seems uncharacteristic compared to sheik in oot!

just, so many choices were made in the zelda games re: bodies and some are fantastic and inspiring and some are huge disappointments. not to be blunt, but nintendo should absolutely be putting dark-skinned Black characters into their games. tetra and the gerudo are fairly light-skinned and lack many features (hair textures for example) that a large amount of poc have. it would just be nice if in future games the scale tipped from some great stuff and some bad stuff to mostly great stuff, bc the series has so much potential for future stories about bodily autonomy and the world(s) are not bound to any real-world or historical structures. they could do whatever they want and make it work, and should seek to improve! it would only contribute to the already sophisticated and nuanced themes consistent in the series.