Not a single black character in this manhwa until a pale skin blonde girl needs a disguise...

Oh? What chapter is that?

Chapter 51

Sorry if this feels like an excuse
But the story mostly appears on the empire and the empire is mostly made of pale people since the theme of the story is renaissance or something and black people mostly come from the south when they are traveling for merchant thing or trade but i do agree that it’s awful that the disguise was made into a character that was black and wasn’t even explained properly why she chose that disguise as it seems insulting but i just wanted to explain why poc characters aren’t that shown in the story

Thank you for engaging in good faith I mean this respectfully but historical accuracy doesnt hold up when writing a fantasy story- because now I must cite the hairstyles, clothing, weapons and food aren't accurate for that time period at all. If authors dont want poc to exist in their stories, then whatever, idc its their choice. But having black/poc specifically show up as a stand in for their pale characters is... weird and insulting.

Even in the context of the story its bizarre because there hasnt been any black or tan characters included in the background, so wouldn't it make her disguise more conspicuous since she'd be the only one?

Overall i think many authors could be refreshing and diverse with their world building but choose not to, and in my opinion it comes across as lazy and uninspired. I'm still going to read this manhwa but I will be honest, it does make me roll my eyes when I encounter stuff like this, thats all

Honestly I get what you mean and not making any excuses for the authors when fr that's a bit messed up to subconsciously do, but you have to take into context that the authors aren't Americans or Europeans who are more exposed to diverse groups of people on a daily basis to the point that it's natural. In Korea and Japan where everyone has similar features and they love having super pale skin, POC aren't taken into any account when making casual entertainment because of the fact that they aren't by any means normally exposed to POC. Again not an excuse but do try taking it into account when coming across media that is foreign, our norms aren't their norms. They live in a relatively closeted space where people who don't fit a certain mold aren't taken into account, heavy on disabled people bc korea gives very pore fucks on people with disabilities

Oh forgot to mention it's likely that the disguise wasn't even intended to be a black character but rather a tanned character, kinda almost like gyaru characters are misinterpreted to be black but unfortunately are just tanned and following a specific dressing style

Honestly it’s true that the representation is really effed up considering it feel like mocking but then again i’m not sure if the author has poc exposure…

just letting u know this is micro aggressive.. it’s a special type of racism that works when they want to backpedal on their ignorance, and doesn’t when u realize it’s infantilization.. the only reason they can get away with their blatant racism is because people assume they’re almost child like in the brain. they have internet, they are adults, and it’s 2024. it is not that closeted, they r just overtly racist. i’m not saying much about this manhwa, i’m just saying this argument does more harm than good.

Hey, thank you for engaging, but this excuse doesnt hold up either because South Korea is actually a lot less sheltered than people think, if they dont know black/poc irl from work, then movies, music and alot of different entertainment with poc is frequently consumed over there.

Its rather strange that they supposedly don't have enough exposure to foreigners to include them in their writing, yet their entire stories are centred on white people in Europe.

Again I'm not demanding authors include black/poc in their writing and neither do I expect it - when I engage with foreign media, im fully aware im seeing a different culture's message and story telling, but if that writing takes place in a western setting im a lot more familiar with, it should definitely be critiqued why the perfect fantasy world doesn't include certain groups of people. So yeah, those are my thoughts.

Personally, I would absolutely devour one of these mid-century fantasy stories with a disabled character, ooh it would be so good to see a disabled character gain independence from their neglectful family and then absolutely flourish with 3 different guys pining for them. The regretful family trope would be delectable.

This is exactly it. And if i were to be really blunt about the "lack of poc exposure" excuse, I just need to remind people that South Korea has their own version of the n word, so yeah, they're most definitely aware of black/poc

Really!? I’m sorry if i seemed like i keep making excuses, i was just uneducated