#racism not in arcane

[jane-newby]

Why incorrectly using a supremacist label for humor/characterization is problematic

The incorrect usage of Ku Klux Klan to hate on Caitlyn Kiramman could be considered a small problem considering that she is ONLY a character. The phrased used as mockery is also ironic because there is ZERO racism presented in the show and the KKK is a white supremacist terrorist group bent on hate crimes toward black Americans, Jews, and Catholics.

Nevertheless, referencing the KKK says more about the person who uses the phrase.

They are ignorant of the dark history of the KKK, segregation, brutality (i.e murdering, torturing, lynching) used specifically against black Americans. As a person who enjoys a bit of dark humor and satire, I think it's okay to use as a humorous reference in the correct pretense. But the incorrect usage, reduces the KKK to evil boogie men in white sheets, myths, long ago horrors, fictionalized villains like Darth Vader, Joker, the Terminator. When the KKK is very much alive in the US South as a small angry faction and/or funneling into other hate groups.

If you know this already, I will be side eying you because what do you mean...either you are a troll or something else. Opinions, barbs are not always harmless. During WII, America decided to throw successful Japanese Americans into concentration camps because Japan was the enemy and therefore it meant Japanese Americans were the enemy too? A nonsensical idea steeped in racism and fear.

Continue to use the phrase if you must, but it reveals a lot about you.

[krstsole]

Just wanna say that I think Ekko and Mel slander makes sense when you understand that 85% of the Arcane fandom views both of them as characters less worthy of fandom attention.

In their eyes, they are afterthoughts to more interesting relationships, so when someone in the 15% dares to give them anything outside of dutiful lamentations ("Mel and Ekko deserved better!"), they can't help but feel those analysis would be better suited for a character they *actually* like and so they lash out.

Fans of both characters have to constantly argue that these characters have loved and have been loved. They want Mel "independent" because she doesn't "need love" and they want Ekko focused on The Tree and the unnamed Firelights because they want it to be easier to carve both of them out of the interpersonal narratives that attaches fandoms to characters in the first place.

They want Mel and Ekko to "save the day" because they don't want their roles in the story to interfere with other characters that they like. Better for them to beat the Bad Guys™ than to be given more material that would validate their personal connections with other characters in ways that the fandom would prefer to ignore.

And the fact that Ekko and Mel are completely different characters who have never once interacted with each other and yet somehow both of them are being treated the same way with how the fandom constantly diminishes their relationships with the rest of the main cast leads me to believe that it does have something to do with the One Trait they do share.

[sukibenders]

Hear me out: you can ship JayVik without falling into or using rhetoric that fits the disposable black girlfriend trope. You can ship JayVik without using Mel as some conceived ploy or antagonistic plot device that makes her out of character. You can ship JayVik without falling into misogynistic rhetoric (eg. viewing female characters as disposable or stepping tools, amongst other things). You can ship JayVik without erasing the impact Mel has had on Jayce and their relationship because, whether you shipped it or not or even gave it the time of day, Mel and Jayce did care for each other, and to deny that or say Viktor held more importance/impact than her in Jayce's life to where she's viewed as "unnecessary" just to further your ship is so wrong and, whether you intended for it or not, does carry undertones where black characters, especially black female characters, emotional impact on others is ignored or downplayed even though there's context to support just how important it is/they are. Lastly, you can ship JayVik without using anti-black and misogynoir type rhetoric because the amount that has flooded this fandom, but especially from some fans of this ship, is atrocious. Ship what you like, but be respectful and careful with certain things you say, is all I'm saying.

[fracturedtimee]

ekko's va, reed shannon rightfully calling out caitlyn for literally gassing the undercity, exercising police brutality, and not even taking accountability or apologizing for any of the oppression and violence she did against zaunites

and in turn, the arcane fandom calls him and ekko "monkeys" and other racially motivated names and slurs

[anendtopursuit]

certain corners of the jayvik shipping community erasing jayce's love for mel and insisting it was never real is frustrating for various reasons

the first (and imo most concerning) is the casual disregarding of mel's character and relationship (a black woman as a primary love interest! something that is unfortunately not as common as it should be!), falling not only into the incredibly common misogynistic fandom tendency to dismiss/demonise women who "get in the way" of mlm ships, but also into the misogynoir of the "disposable black girl" trope - something i implore you to research and consider not only when interacting in fandom spaces but also when critiquing the show itself and its treatment of mel/sky. similar sort of issues come with people dismissing mel's affection for him as manipulation when she's arguably far less manipulative than viktor (gestures @ the whole "he was the person who set jayce on this path the entire time" bombshell), their relationship was always mutually beneficial, and we're shown her perspective multiple times without their relationship ever being portrayed as insincere. how is it not manipulative for jayce to use mel's influence to become a councillor and push heimerdinger out etc, but it's manipulative for mel to make suggestions about the usage of hextech? would you think the same way about these actions if it were viktor doing them?

second of all: insisting that jayce's love for his literal girlfriend must be fake because he's in love with a man feels so oddly strict and binary for such a queer fandom/ship. if paralleling viktor and mel's scenes leads you to interpret his relationship with viktor as romantic, then surely his relationship with mel must still be romantic too for that comparison to make sense? bisexual erasure is especially prevalent when it comes to men and male characters (due to biphobic and misogynistic beliefs about bisexuality being "a women's sexuality" caused by "female promiscuity" or some archaic bullshit like that). insisting that he can only love one and not the other, and then dismissing his affections for mel if you decide he loves viktor, also just reeks to me of the "pick a side" mentality and, again, is weirdly monogamous for such a queer fandom. i realise this may sound like a reach to some people since jayce isn't explicitly canonically bi, but i still think it's a good idea to be cautious about how you have these discussions and any implications they may have, especially if it impacts a real life community that already regularly faces erasure

tl;dr you can be a jayvik liker and also be normal about mel medarda and meljay. please for the love of god be normal about mel medarda and meljay.

[sunsis]

Fanarts like this are pure misogynoir and why I dislike jayviks. You can have your ship without mocking the Black woman that had a canonical relationship with one of the characters you like.

Portraying Mel as the unwanted third wheel in their relationship is vile as well as inaccurate. Simply don’t include her in your ship at all, leave her and other female characters alone when you obsess over white mlm ships.

[violet-moonstone]

If I had a nickel for every time I was in a fandom in which a woman of colour was either disliked or dismissed for having a crush on or being romantically involved with a someone who is shipped with another (white) character—I would have way more than two nickels, and it’s ridiculous that this keeps happening.

[q--uee--n]

It doesn't quite sit well with me when parts of the fandom act as though they don't understand why, exactly, people become so hyper-defensive/are so hyper-sensitive when people bring up Mel being manipulative. It's because this trait has been weaponized to demean and disparage her at the expense of acknowledging any other nuance/facet about her character, and this also often goes hand-in-hand with ignoring the faults of other characters as to emphasize hers. The fact that Mel is a Black woman can not be put aside as a definitive factor as to why and how she's perceived the way she is—by both the fandom and the writers of the show. I would even argue that one of the show's original sins is a lack of understanding of the real-world intersections between race, class, and colonialism.

In regards to both Mel and Ambessa, this lack of understanding is evident in the writing. Writing that ignores the real-world implications of the Medardas and their social position relative to whiteness, which is one informed by socioeconomic and sociocultural disparities as a result of racism and misogyny. Yes, I understand it's a high fantasy show where things like racism don't exist, so to speak, but Arcane, like all media, is informed by the state of affairs of the world we live in. With classism—classism, which Black people are disproportionately victims of—being a core theme of the show (ostensibly), it's disingenuous to disregard the, from a Doylist perspective, haphazard nature of Mel's function in the narrative as a wealthy Black woman in a classist society juxtaposed against poor, oppressed white main characters (this also applies to Ambessa as a warmonger).

With that said, and harkening back to the beginning of this post, even if you're not bringing attention to Mel's flaws and complexities to demonize her, you have to acknowledge them in the context of her as a Black female character being written with little understanding of intersectionality and how they've been weaponized against her, which are the reasons people—specifically Black woman fans such as myself—are compelled to defend her (or even pretend these flaws don't exist. After all, it's never been a problem in fandom when non-black and male characters' flaws are erased/diminished. It can't suddenly become one now). It's easy to say Mel is a multi-faceted, three-dimensional character, thus, that's why downplaying her flaws is a disservice to her charcter, and this isn't an unreasonable point. However, it's harder to admit that the reason people point out these flaws is not always in the service of acknowledging her complexities but instead in the service of demonizing her due to internalized/unknown biases against Black women. In the end, no one has to like a character. No one even has to defend a character they don't like on principle. No one has to not be annoyed at the sanitization of a multidimensional character. But if those things are being done without an acknowledgement of how the perception of that character is mired by racism and misogyny—knowing or unknowing, from the writers on down—then maybe it's time to address some oversights or unpack some internalized biases before wondering why people feel the need to defend that character.

[icedsodapop]

Arcane fandom being horrible to Reed Shannon for being nice to Ella Purnell. They really trying pull the same antiblack shit as what the 2015 Star Wars fandom did to John Boyega all over again:

Like go harass Hailee Steinfeld for being a zionist or something 🤡

[todayingoodmusic]

jayvik fans when you call out their misogynistic thinking pattern of discarding both wlw and mlw relationships to ship a non-canon yaoi whose fandom is full of women - or those brought up as such - who unfortunately and subconsciously see female as the inferior sex, and hence ship two men together to fight against that power dynamic. but they make sure viktor is trans so that they can still have heteronormative sex by infantilising disabled people by giving them characteristics of the female sex due to their own misogyny.

and then to put the nail in the coffin they brush off and hate on 2 of the black women in the show for getting in the way of their yaoi by calling them slurs or implying that they are less deserving of a relationship than men are.

[nyikondlovu]

*taps the mic*

!!!FUCK THE JAYVIK SHIPPERS!!!

Nasty ass racist mf.

The show beats it over your heads that Jayce holds both Mel and Viktor in the highest of regards, but yet somehow he only cares for Viktor??

The show screams in your face “MEL CARES FOR JAYCE AND IS ALL FOR PROTECTING HIS DREAM EVEN TO HER LOSING ANY HOPE OF BEING WELCOMED HOME” and yall see “black woman manipulating man who we want our meow meow to be dating she’s a villain” or “let’s ship her with the lady she had 5 lines with” or even “let’s add her as an ornament to jayvik those idiots won’t see what we’re doing” then come tag it in the meljay tag?

FUCK YALL, I HOPE MEL AND JAYCE HAVE BABIES AND GET MARRIED GET FUCKED

[sukibenders]

The Arcane fandom, especially on TikTok is never beating the allegations because why, now, some fans act like it's too inconceivable to imagine that Ambessa was, not only, pregnant twice but gave birth twice as well? And their reasoning for this is "She looks like the type to get a man pregnant instead" or "She's too tough for that, I just can't see someone like her going through that." There are layers to these statements because, for one, just because someone, especially a woman, is a dominant force doesn't mean that they can't get/don't want to become pregnant (do you believe overtly dominant men can't be fathers?) It's also very weird because the undertones of misogyny and misogynoir and the overt masculinization of black women are there because, not only are they viewing pregnancy and giving birth, in general, to be viewed as something "weak" (even though it's grueling hours of labor that results in tearing the body apart, sometimes even death) but also attempts to strip Ambessa of her nuance. Yes, she is strong and very dominant, but she also deeply loved her children, who she birthed, and when one was taken away from her it changed her deeply. It's very gross to view a character like her in this way because it also reflects how you view dominant women in real life, pregnancy, and childbirth as a whole. Like how are you going to praise Arcane for having such a wide and diverse ensemble of female characters, but then have misogynistic takes like this? Make it make sense.

[hotmlk-rizz]

I think arcane has proved to me once and for all that a race-blind cast just does not work, because that's how you end up with almost all the minority members in the privileged class, while the oppressed group ends up as mostly white.

Like, the showrunners would obviously like to portray it all as neutral, but the problem is it's Not Neutral. It just can't be neutral. Irl minorities will always come with context, and the context of mel being upperclass and playing into many tropes of the 'disposable black gf' and literal objectification as a plotpoint for jayvik in the end- I think their relationship deserved more respect. And it might not have been malicious, but in the end, intention doesn't matter, because there will always be the context of the history of black women's objectification.

I want to participate and make analyses, but there will always be an added ickiness to it. How do you even write stuff for jayvik without the added context that a black character was unceremoniously shafted to the side for it? Even analysis paralleling Viktor and Mel feels objectifying, the racist caricature of the oversexual, 'fertile' black body vs the impotent white body fearmongering (again, antiblack and ableist). The two main black characters are the only ones with more bitter than sweet endings, and it might not have been intentional, but again, that's how it ended up.

Mel medarda is beautiful, but it isn't all she is. And I hope the noxus sequel helps grow her into her own character fully in a manner sensitive to the current realworld climate.

Arcane, do better with your poc characters.

[cl-0v3r]

One thing I really hate about some parts of the fandom is that they make Aus where some arcane characters are homophobic.

Homophobia DOES NOT EXIST IN RUNETERRA. Neither do labels. We only see characters with flags in pride month and what not for US VIEWERS to understand who they're attracted to, people of runeterra don't give a fuck. Love who you love, thats it. Periodt.

I see so many people making Cassandra & Tobias homophobic in modern aus or any other au towards caitlyn, when in reality they literally do not give a fuck who caitlyn is with. They're just annoyed with the fact that she keeps sneaking in girls, or in arcane, sneaking in a zaunite into her room.

They care who she's with, not the gender or sexuality.

And I've seen people make JAYCE homophobic. Like excuse me??? Thats so fucking insane and abseloutely absurd. *and there is no way this man ain't at least 50% homo /hj, Bi Jayce ftw*

Its very unessecary to make characters homophobic when homophobia never even existed in the first place, its like making a character racist when in reality they genuinely don't care about such a thing in that way.

Stop giving characters a trait such as (homophobia, racism, ableism, etc) when they aren't. It's not funny, it's not a hilarious headcannon, and no none of the arcane characters give off those vibes. ESPECIALLY CASSANDRA, TOBIAS, AND JAYCE. AS DISRESPECTFULLY AS POSSIBLE, FUCK YOU FOR THAT.

And don't get me started on ableist Mel or Racist Viktor, abseloutely not.

I don't even think Racism exists in runeterra, at least not in the way it exists in reality.

Do NOT give characters problems such as these unless they were given in cannon.

I bet you the conversation between cait and cassandra was;

"When you're married, your husband needs to be,,,,"

"Mother, I like girls."

"Okay?? Your- WIFE needs to,,,,,"

I doubt she'd even say HUSBAND in the first place, just "when you're married" and so on.

[a-bit-predictable]

saying it's "caitlyn stans" and "y'all are fucking sick" directly in the main tags is so grossly and unfairly accusatory. as if whatever this shit you're talking about is coming from more than just a handful of fucking racist, trolling sickos that do this same shit with all sorts of media and online spaces. i'm sick of y'all taking the worst behavior you can find in fandoms and ascribing that to EVERYBODY on the opposite side of whatever fucking anti- BS you're on.

the level of misinterpretation and misunderstanding in this fandom, of not only they story and characters in the show but fellow FANS THEMSELVES, is fucking miserable. you all get pissed off at stupid jokes and edgy troll posts and then project it on the rest of us who simply enjoy a morally gray fictional character because we, unlike an abysmal amount of way too outspoken "fans", actually watched the show with our eyes open instead of paying 0 attention and just taking claims on social media about what happened in the show as fucking gospel.

if you hate a single character/show/fandom SO MUCH over false and exaggerated plot details, why don't you just shut up, stop fucking interacting with it, and find something else you enjoy instead of continuing to be publicly miserable about it.

[sunsis]

Glad we can finally talk about how misogynoir prevails in fandoms because a lot of fandom culture is dominated and dictated by white women who see black women as a threat to the status quo