Homophobia in rp needs to cease

Forgive me :frowning:

I was trying to find the Simpsons “Tap the sign” video, but I failed you.

Really? You must be reading some weird Tolkien critics.

He described orcs as “squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types.”

Which is a questionable framing for sure, but you could argue that he’s mostly saying that Europeans have racist views of ‘mongol-types’.

The mongolian influence/suggestion of course lives on in Warcraft’s orcs, primarily the Warsong tribe.

That Tolkien made the evil humans (easterlings/southrons) primarily non-white is questionable for sure but a) Tolkien also had bad white humans like Saruman and b) that influence hasn’t really carried over to WoW* it’s not super relevant. Then again, you can count the number of major dark skinned human characters on one hand. That’s on Blizzard though.

*for humans at least, same can’t be said about dark irons, grimtotem and black dragons, though they’re at least taking a few steps to mitigate…kinda…sorta…I mean there’s Wrathion.

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You are dangerously unfunny

That is exactly my point! Any decent Tolkien critic who wants to explore potential racism in his works would know that Orcs are described as Mongol-types, not black people :wink:

And he was actively opposed to the idea that they were all evil because a race being evil went against his faith. Imagine that; your surroundings, leadership and material conditions negatively affecting your culture rather than some mystical Evil writhing in your very blood…

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Though we do never see any good Orcs. Maybe after Sauron is gone they become less obvious evil but it seems more likely Eru hates them for being a mockery to his creation.

The implication is that with the fall of Sauron, the orcs, as driven by fear of him, lose their drive to conquer in his name.

They still kind of lack a coherent society and have been everyone’s enemy forever so presumably they won’t have a fun future. Poor orcs…

They could trade on the borders, I guess but explicitly make nothing of beauty. Maybe they’ll corner the market on cutlery?

Orcs are corrupted elves though (at least according to the most accepted explanation), so it´s possible for them to all be evil. But when it comes to men, he has stated they aren´t really evil, just under Sauron´s influence and someone from Harad can be just as good as someone from Gondor.

Tolkien was also very outspoken against racial discrimination and very publically opposed the racist & antisemitism ideology of germany during WW2 to the point of writing several angry, sassy letters when they wanted to give out a german translation during that time & asked if he was jewish or not.

So I do personally think that any questionable things weren’t really intentional at all.

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I feel like with your posts you are deliberately seeking a reaction out of people, but I will say that it is unfortunate that in media, even today, we do ‘code’ certain fantasy tropes to be satire or stereotypes of real-world people, a common one being how goblins are often harmful and negative stereotypes of the Jewish community.

That being said, does that make every goblin roleplayer an anti-semite? No. Some people just wanna play little green men and women with a gold addiction and an emphasis on scientific progress with little regard for health and safety without a care as to the coding of the race. It’s an unfortunate by-product of years of poor representation within media, but it isn’t some grand political statement by every person who’s ever chose to play a Gallywix loyalist or what have you.

Hopefully in the future, fantasy races can be done without needing to lean into harmful racial stereotypes of the past, and I think Blizzard are doing their part in that, by moving away from the idea that elves have to be this ideal standard of white beauty and allowing sin’dorei to have darker skin tones.

I admit I’ve typed a lot here for someone who’s not an expert on these matters, I could very well be incorrect with some of the things I’ve said, but despite the trollposting of Kharkov I do think there is a conversation to be had around how fantasy races draw from IRL sources, and not often for the better.

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i laughed at this so effing much

surprisingly rare, as it turns out - mostly in Warcraft and Harry Potter.

MTG usually portrays goblins with large noses, but there is such a wide variety in their depictions otherwise that it’s difficult to pin down any coding beyond ‘usually lead by a single figure’ and ‘very low regard for their own safety’.

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The HP goblins are SO bad.

I didn’t think about it while watching the movies as a kid but good grief, it’s very hard to watch now.

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Harry Potter and the Really Fascist Undertones Surrounding Every Character Oh Jeez

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Harry Potter and the depiction of gay men infecting children with HIV/AIDs.

“Werewolves are a metaphor for HIV” is one of the worst things JK Rowling ever said and I’m almost 100% certain she never thought about it. Werewolves being a metaphor for illness is fine, but when werewolves in the Harry Potter universe are depicted as willing to infect everyone and everyone (excluding special cases like Lupin) it’s a huge yikes.

Edit: I’m aware that HIV/AIDS are not exclusively illnesses transmitted to and by gay men, but when that stigma is there and how tone-deaf JK Rowling has been on other topics, I can’t help but struggle to give her the benefit of the doubt on this one.

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Harry Potter and the Creative Asian Names

Harry Potter and the Please Stop Ruining My Childhood Memories I Used To Cherish So Much By Showing It Wasn’t So Wholesome At All Aughhhhh

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