feminist-fairy-princess:

nostlenne: devingelion: uselessbagge: devingelion: Why is no one talking about how they changed team Aqua’s race??? THEY WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO MAKE THESE VILLAINS HAVE DARKER SKIN. Why would they even do this?? The clothes tattering thing is one thing for pirates but like they made them distinctly black and this is just really bad and subconsciously racist and it’s really upsetting that I haven’t seen anyone say anything when talking about the new designs 1; team aqua is a group of pirates, they could be just tanned 2; if they were dark skinned does it really matter, team aqua is a strong team and they managed to bring fear into the hearts of hoenn 3; they are in Hoenn. A reigon based off of japan. Everyone there is most likely poc It’s pretty clear that they’re not just tanned, all of their features changed too, one of the admins had orange hair originally and now her hair is dark. The reason why it matters is because changing a group of villains to a dark skinned race sends a racist message Wow ½ of a villain duo team becomes tanned and suddenly you’re losing your mind. It sounds to me like you’ve got black people so high on a pedestal we can’t ever be villains, and that is some racist, white-guilt laden bullshit. Shut up and let Japan continue to actually add people with dark skin to what is literally their second most lucrative franchise, even though by all rights they have zero reason to do so because Pokemon is based geographically on Japan. i think this would make sense if the op wasn’t a poc. also, it’s not an issue for poc to be villains but when a group of villains has their race changed and is given tattered clothes, does that not send the wrong message? do they really seem ‘just tan’ to you? i’m honestly confused about your point. should there not be diversity because of the setting? is it ‘whiny’ to be weary that the villains were split into white people in nice dress and poc in ratty clothes? i don’t see how this is ‘white-guilt laden bullshit.’ is it not important to criticize media?

You invalidated yourself the moment you said poc. The world is more than white and ‘other’.

but when a group of villains has their race changed and is given tattered clothes,

You mean like pirates? Cause tattered and/or layered clothes is a common pirate visual trope.

Do they really seem ‘just tan’ to you? i’m honestly confused about your point

A better question: Does it genuinely matter? Dark-skinned fucking pirates man. It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for.

should there not be diversity because of the setting?

They would be perfectly within their rights not to yes, just like with most anime. Which are mostly set in Japan. Meaning that technically, despite all that technicolor hair and the stupid strength of any slight amount of heritage from elsewhere that automatically bestows blonde hair and blue eyes, everybody’s Japanese. Because the overwhelming majority people in Japan are fucking Japanese.

I’m still cheesed that we got the option to make a dark-skinned avatar in X/Y.

is it ‘whiny’ to be weary that the villains were split into white people in nice dress and poc in ratty clothes?

Once again, the world is more than white and 'other’, and those are pirate costumes. They are stylized far more heavily than their initial costume design to give them the rougher, more hardy look. Team magma, by contrast, still look like they’re wearing devil ear hoods and have taken the more scientific looking angle.

Why the hell wouldn’t pirates be bigger, butcher, and rougher looking?

i don’t see how this is ‘white-guilt laden bullshit.’ is it not important to criticize media?

Because a person who isn’t black talking about how offensive shit is to black people specifically is usually stemming from somebody’s white guilt complex. Sorry, that’s just how things have been on tumblr.

And yes, it is important to criticize. I just think this criticism is a stupid one. Why? Because it’s not like they made Team Magma the fucking good guys and invoked the white savior trope. Regardless of their clothes or skin color, both these teams are eco-terrorists and villians, and you pound their goddamn faces in for being idiots and endangering Hoenn.

Like were y'all mad that Lenora was a thick chick with an afro in an apron too, just ignoring that she was also an archeologist?

You’re boiling the characters down to 'black people in tattered clothes’ ignoring the context and their place in the story and calling it racist and if you can’t see the hypocrisy in that, I can’t help you.