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hatersaurusrex t1_jdhgrwx wrote

Who has complained about this being done in a book? And which book?

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_jdhii0a wrote

I am only familiar with this rising to the level of controversy in films and video games.

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Ground2ChairMissile t1_jdho9aj wrote

The kinds of people who complain about this usually aren't big on reading.

They prefer their books at 451 degrees.

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_jdhoyqy wrote

Pratchett did diversity well in his depiction of Ankh Morpork. So did Guy Gavriel Kay in Lions of Al Rassan. I get annoyed when authors don't provide a reason for diversity, or a back story, unless the setting is an immigrant country like Australia or the US. But I am not going to publicly complain about it. It's just a pedantic nitpick in my head cannon.

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Ground2ChairMissile t1_jdi97hc wrote

> I get annoyed when authors don't provide a reason for diversity

A wizard did it.

There, now you're all set for literally any book that doesn't feature 100% white people and also doesn't feel a need to provide an explanation for why.

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IncidentFuture t1_jdhv2t1 wrote

It doesn't even need to be an immigrant country. Although mass immigration is obviously a cause. A lot of countries have different ethnic groups because of past migration and conquest.

Even in countries that people assume are homogenous, different areas have a different language used historically (if not currently) and cultural or ethnic\racial differences.

In their rush to have contemporary diversity in their setting they fail to consider why such diversity exists. Not because it cannot, but because interesting world building and stories come with answering why it's there.

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sisharil t1_jdhxs4l wrote

>In their rush to have contemporary diversity in their setting they fail to consider why such diversity exists. Not because it cannot, but because interesting world building and stories come with answering why it's there.

This, this is it exactly.

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[deleted] t1_jdhka2z wrote

[deleted]

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Skinjob985 t1_jdhnyuo wrote

I think most average readers are intelligent enough to tell the difference between self-aggrandizing virtue signaling and diversity in a story because that is the way the author wrote it. I think the issue that most people had with The Rings of Power was that the writers were incredibly lazy in implementing their forced diversity, rather than using the already established world and history of Middle Earth to write in the diverse characters.

Instead of having it make anthropological sense they are asking the viewer to suspend their disbelief that there is only one black elf, one black dwarf, a couple black hobbits and no explanation as to why this is the case. Tolkien wrote extensively about different peoples of color inhabiting his fantasy world. All the writers had to do was use this already established backstory to write in these characters in a way that made sense anthropologically and historically within the world. Instead they would rather pat themselves on the back that they are "woke".

This is the same reason they felt the need to announce the genitalia of all the directors for the second seasons episodes. As if that had anything to do with their ability to direct. It's the writers that care more about their political agenda than staying true to the source material and actually writing a good story. The idea that anyone who questions this incredibly lazy writing must be a neck-bearded basement- dwelling racist incel would be comical if it wasn't so sad and pathetic. These kinds of dismissals are made by people who have zero defense of all the honest constructive criticisms of the show. I can't help but feel like that's what the OP was referencing even if he didn't come right out and say it.

Literally no one cares about racial diversity in fantasy writing. What people care about is not having their intelligence insulted by incredibly lazy writers who care more about their political agenda than they do about remaining faithful to the foundations of the entire fantasy subgenre.

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Skinjob985 t1_jdivek7 wrote

Wish I could see what the reply to my comment says. Got to love cowards who so lack the courage of their own convictions they have to block you before you can even read their response. 🙄

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