ART BLOG: @ZEPHYRINX || Zephyr || HE/HIM || 21 || Australian
Making a pinned post finally :)
I’m Zephyr, I’m 22, and I mostly post about Genshin here!!! Please send me asks about lore and the characters, I love to research and talk about my theories!!
Hi, ex LOP fan here. Black coded characters having plants for hair always rubbed me the wrong way but could you elaborate on the racism thing? (Only if you’re comfortable with it obvy)
Oh holy shit I didn’t even think of that! But yeah sure, I’ll try to make a list off the top of my head, so I may forget some things- I’m also white, so some things may not be immediately apparent to me. If any poc want to contact me and let me know of any other stuff please feel free!
(also, some of these will obviously be more/less severe than others, I’m just trying to compile Everything together. one mistake is one thing, but multiple mistakes on the same pattern show ignorance.)
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RACISM IN (AND OUTSIDE OF) GLOOMVERSE
1. The opening scene
The very opening scene shows a young black girl with… Abusive black parents, and particularly the father is drawn as a racist caricature.
2. White saviours
The people who take that young girl in and become her ‘found family’ are white. The white mother is the Perfect Example of a mother, and it’s a white person who swoops in and rescues her off the streets when her black parents kick her out. The father, however, who is shown to have abandoned the white family… Is black, and lives as a homeless man.
Bonus, the white saviour also changes the black girl’s hair without her permission. It’s never changed back and never discussed again outside of a comedic light.
3. The Sassy Black Best Friend™
The best friend of the white saviours is a sassy no-nonsense black woman, who is revealed later to wear a wig to hide her real (black-coded?) hair.
4. Black 'Tribes’
The country of Ecoverse, primarily inhabited by black characters, is depicted as being very behind in terms of technology and medicine. CQ on streams would joke about how if someone was sick, they’d be prescribed 'tree time’, which was just being in nature. On top of this, they’re shown with 'tribal markings’, and as nudists with barely any clothes.
(As anon also pointed out, black hair is substituted for leaves.)
They are, as far as I know, based off of African people, as I go into in the next part.
(There’s more examples but I don’t want to experience radiation poisoning going through the comic more than I have to lol)
5. Slavery
Thiiis is going to be a longer entry. I worked on Gloomverse behind the scenes for a couple of years (she hired me as a minor, underpaid, and now I have no rights to my work haha) so I know a few spoilered lore points- I don’t know if these are actually brought up in the comic, but I know they’re at least mentioned in some bonus side material.
The colour people, named as such because they’re all one colour, are reincarnations of slave owners. CQ has said that all the people in the world descended from Ecoversions- Bringing up my point from the last post as being based on Africa. In the bonus material, she talks about how in those days, there was an extreme level of slavery, I think between magic users and non magic users? I can’t remember entirely.
My main point is that the character Yellow ISN’T a reincarnation, and is actually just an ages old… Slave owner. However, she’s 'redeemed’ by seeing the error in her ways.
The fact still stands that a black character is depicted as once being a slave owner.
6. Fantasy North Korea
The country of Inverse is heavily based on NK- Including their laws. CQ has stated that if one of these characters commits a crime, their whole family and future generations are punished too- Which is the exact law in place in NK. She’s stated that criminal labour camps exist in this fictional country, too. Furthermore, they’re depicted as looking all the same, others are afraid of them, and their leader is a ruthless tyrant…
However, in the comic, it’s shown that said leader is actually a misunderstood uwu girl. So.
CQ also has a weird obsession with North Korea, as her old Deviantart tagline was this:
(Please keep in mind, she’s from Texas.)
6.5. Indigo
This is an addendum to the last part. The character 'Indigo’ is shown as being an abusive racist, completely unabashedly:
It’s even depicted IN CONTEXT that he is racist. That’s fine, whatever, he’s clearly depicted as a villain…
Until he’s not.
Indigo is treated as the Fandom Darling, and later in the comic, is shown to simply be 'misunderstood’ and just needing love. The ones to start teaching him this is…
The tyrannical dictator, whom he goes on a date with.
His racism is never addressed again, and Indigo is woobified even more. Nothing occured in between the two scenarios I’m talking about to 'change his mind’- It was purely that he was attracted to someone he was initially bigoted against, and because SHE shows him compassion and understanding, he apparently 'changes his mind’.
The violent racist is just a misunderstood baby, who needed a woman he was racist towards to show him the truth.
This is not the only time this happens, as Cirrus, a character racist toward Ecoversians, falls in love with the Sassy Best Friend™ which challenges his racism.
(On the other side of this, said character is meant to be the tyrannical dictator of North Korea. She’s considered to also be an uwu misunderstood softgirl who she revealed in private is slated to die, and be replaced by her sister. This is meant to be a sad scene.)
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I’m sure there’s some I’ve missed, but I honestly don’t want to comb through the comic to find it. CQ frequently talked on streams about how she wanted to 'tell the story’ of the disabled black people she knew growing up, however- She is… Extremely white. Incredibly white. She often called herself a 'hippie’. She’s white, and NOBODY who helped her work on the comic was a person of colour.
And, yes, I know some people are going to say that a story is just a story- And that’s true, I agree. People shouldn’t be penalized for mistakes that can be corrected and learned from. The problem is that CQ is openly trying to write a story about racism. Racism is a central theme to the comic itself, so these faux pas go from stupid, barely thought out mistakes to actual commentary.
kaeya being someone who clearly misses his own childhood deeply, even going as far as to say he wishes it would have never ended. klee being the epitome of childhood itself, the wonder and joy…. kaeya mentions that being around klee heals people and thats TRUE FOR HIM TOO. he gets to relive his happy days by being with klee!! he can feel her joy and allow himself to experience that too!!!!!
he gets to be the older brother who dotes on a younger sibling but this time, he can PROTECT her!!!!
auugghh it’s just so clear in the event that they’re so used to each other, from him trying to teach he things, answering her questions, knowing when shes tired and immediately moving to comfort and protect her…….
and HOLDING HER HAND AS THEY WALK…. KLEE ADMITTING KAEYA WORRIES ABOUT HER BUT IS ALWAYS KIND….. AAAUUGUGUGHGH
guy who turns into a glass of milk when he gets angry and girl who turns into a plate of cookies when she’s upset having a bitter argument with each other next to the chimney on christmas eve at 11:59 pm
