Race in Fantasy

[deoridhe]

So I was reading a favorite series again last night when once again, like a bolt of lightning to my brain, I was struck by how pale all of the characters were. There were many "races," but all of them were described as looking similar, with perhaps olive skin as the darkest skin could get

Comments

[aneli8]

Hi, here from meta_fandom

[anna_wing]

Here from metafandom

Judith Tarr's Avaryan Rising trilogy was interesting, in that clearly she had gone to some trouble to make all the races there quite unlike any Primary World ones. So you had the principal characters being very tall, black-skinned people with vaguely Caucasian people, and there were shorter, olive-ish-coloured people with red hair and so on. It's not something that's made much of; it's just there.

[crantz]

Man, I don't know. But I wish people would stop projecting whitey onto gods. It drives me up the damn wall.

It's just... how many gods would be McWhitey like they keep getting put as in media? I'll give you a hint: Not the ones I see being desecrated.

People make me upset. That's someone's culture, in a lot of cases, they're fucking with. A little respect.

[deoridhe]

Ironically enough, with my gods being northern european, they're likely to be pale.

The media (to make a huge generalization) often gets the gods wrong, though.

[crantz]

I'm still pissed from white native ones and a goddamn white anansi.

And the side note of Zeus and Hera not being ken and barbie.

Although, if the doll line did take that route, that would be deeply hilarious.

Which Gods are yours? I know a girl who follows Loki... (Sometimes I get the urge to do them for stuff and make them all chinese or something to see reactions, but then I get bored and wander off)

[deoridhe]

The Norse/Germanic ones. I'm Asatru, so we kind of scrunch them together a bit and hope we don't piss them off. ;)