Could it be said that this is a pattern or that someone who comes to this conclusion is exaggerating?

For example, in many animes the characters are Asian and right-wingers don’t seem to mind. Maybe because most of the characters appear to be white, or because many Japanese animes have an actual cast of white characters. They don’t seem to mind if in a fictional world all the characters are white or Asian, but on the other hand they would mind if in the fictional world all the characters were black or had dark skin. Is this really a fact or an exaggeration?

  • Zonetrooper@lemmy.world
    57·
    2 days ago

    “Every time” is certainly an exaggeration. Just off the top of my head in a minute:

    • The Dragon Prince - nobody gave a damn.
    • Star Wars [pick any of several releases] - we’ve had various people of color, both human and alien, as protagonists. I don’t remember much of a fuss over that in particular.
    • Various MCU things - Brave New World just came out, again featuring Mackie as Wilson - taking the place of the stereotypically WASP Steve Rogers, no less.
    • Hazbin Hotel: Vaggie is heavily coded as latina.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch From Mercury - okay, not a non-white lead, but the first Gundam series with a female lead, and a lesbian romance front and center. Once again, no attack.

    If I looked around further, I’m sure I could find more. All of these have variously been critiqued for writing, characterization, or pacing, but failed to draw attacks based on the ethnicity (or orientation) of their protagonists.

    Is this kind of attack a thing that happens? Absolutely. Is it “every time”? No. I’d suggest it’s more often when a series goes out of its way to bludgeon the audience with a message related to it, or tries to sell a newcomer as a superior replacement for a legacy character, that people can get riled up.

    • njm1314@lemmy.world
      2·
      23 hours ago

      Isn’t the dragon Prince’s lead a white guy? I’m almost positive. Also a lot of these are probably too obscure to really raise a stir. I’m kind of shocked even brought up dragon Prince much less the Gundam show you mentioned.

      Also your ability to wall yourself off from the Star Wars “controversies” is rather impressive.

      • Zonetrooper@lemmy.world
        1·
        21 hours ago

        TDP has two main leads, one white and one black.

        I’m not walled off from Star Wars’ controversies, merely pointing out that “every time” isn’t accurate.

        • njm1314@lemmy.world
          1·
          20 hours ago

          We can quibble about whether or not a second character merits the title lead or not, however it’s still inaccurate to use it as an example of a counter to the raised point. The show’s main lead was a white male character. That’s inarguable.