edelclaude fans, we need to have a talk about racism.

i've seen a lot of support for this comic by @/theyoungdoyler. i get it--we're a tiny ship with little new content, and when i saw the initial one-panel preview, i was excited too!

https://twitter.com/theyoungdoyler/status/1309703267836928000

(1/?)

before i get any further, i want to make it clear that i am not posting this to bring any kind of harassment at @/theyoungdoyler's way, and i am not upset with people who are unaware of the racist implications of this comic. this is meant to be an informative thread and a (2/?)

call for us, as a fandom, to be more conscientious about this type of thing to make this community an inclusive one.

okay, now that that's out of the way, you may be wondering what the problem is.

long story short, the comic i've linked above is racist and orientalist. (3/?)

now, there's nothing /inherently/ wrong with a political marriage au, and i think that there is certainly something to be said for how both edelgard and claude are willing to chase their dreams even at the expense to a bitter end, to the point of self-sacrifice. (4/?)

with that said, we do need to be careful about how we portray such things. the media we create does not exist in a vacuum, and due to which kinds of cultures arranged marriages are often associated with, it's important that we not reenforce negative stereotypes. (5/?)

however, that's not the main issue here. the comic's narrative relies on the premise of khalid, a brown man, deliberately poisoning his white wife, edelgard, over a prolonged period of time...and when called out on it he kisses her with dubious consent and says he likes the (6/?)

taste of the poison he has been giving her. to me and to many black and brown fans, this set-up immediately jumps out as being profoundly racist. intentionally or not, it utilizes racist / orientalist stereotypes of a sinister brown man preying upon a helpless white woman (7/?)

you can find a crash course on common orientalist / racist tropes applied to claude in fandom here: https://allahrakhii.tumblr.com/post/613775977802334208/prince-khalid-von-riegan-and-the-epic-of-racism

if you want to look more into orientalism in fiction, jstor is providing expanded free access to its database, and a quick search of orientalism in (8/?)

fiction will yield many, many articles on the subject. i highly encourage a perusal of at least the very accessible tumblr link, because it's a more succinct and comprehensive explanation of orientalist tropes than i could hope to produce as someone who is not MENA at 2 am (9/?)

in any case, one need only look at what little representation of MENA folks exists in popular culture today to know, at the very least, about the sinister brown man archetype. even 3h's depiction of almyra itself is rife with orientalist / racist stereotypes...but that's (10/?)

discussion. let's focus on claude.

claude, in canon, learned what he has about poisons in self-defense. and while he jokes once or twice about using them against an enemy, he never actually does. why take this aspect of his character, this knowledge he wields only in (11/?)

self-protection, and have him use it like this, when it runs counter to his character? why have him take part in an underhanded act that his canonical self would oppose? why have him do it for such a trivial reason? why explicitly link it to sexual violence and domestic (12/?)

abuse? and no, i'm not making light of those terms. an unwanted, forced kiss is sexual assault. deliberate poisoning over time with the intent of weakening / disabling edelgard is abuse. why portray a brown man this way when it goes against his character? (13/?)

op of the comic has also discussed a headcanon of edelgard and claude using any children they may have as leverage against the other. why portray a mixed / brown family in such a manner?

perhaps op simply intended for maximum angst. perhaps that's why the people who (14/?)

enjoy this comic like it. however, as i said before, media ( yes, even fan fiction ) does not exist in a vacuum. regardless of what op intended, the effect is this: many bipoc fans, including myself, saw an artist of color reproducing racist, orientalist stereotypes (15/?)

and we are angry and tired.

3h fandom as a whole has repeatedly utilized these types of stereotypes to depict claude, sometimes even from other fans of color ( as it is in this instance ), and it is exhausting. being a poc doesn't give anyone a free pass on this. (16/?)

now, i don't blame anyone for being unaware, truly, i don't. it's okay that you didn't know. but if you've made it this far, now you do.

don't boost that comic or other works with orientalist / racist depictions of claude, a character that we all ostensibly love. (17/?)

he deserves better than to be reduced to orientalist / racist stereotypes. more importantly, fans of color deserve better than to watch these kinds of depictions gain widespread approval. black and brown fans deserve to enjoy fandom, too. racist depictions prevent that. (18/18)