Why Genshin's, "Colorism", Doesn't Matter.

If this video ever blows up, it's gonna be highly controversial and I will be gladly awaiting the death threats 💓💓💓
#genshinimpact #colorism #drama

[@YelanSlave-Tao]

Bro I did NOT know Qishan was from Liyue, so my fucking bad ☠☠☠ I just picked two random ass NPCs I am the laziest mf on Earth

[@nabilhusainimohdkamalulabr3088]

Hi Mr Tao, to hopefully answer your question about why Sumeru NPCs do not have consistent skin tones, there is actually a consistency there, in that characters from the forest and the desert have different skin tones. Most light-skinned Sumeru characters and NPCs are from the forest, while most dark-skinned characters and NPCs are from the desert. Those dark-skinned NPCs we see in the city are almost all Eremite mercenaries, which primarily come from the desert. Saba and Khalil, the light-skinned NPCs in the desert, are both exiled scholars from the forest. Cyno, Dehya, and Candace are from the desert, so their skin tones are darker than that of the other playable characters. The skin tones of Sumeru characters may not truly reflect the countries and cultures that Sumeru is inspired from, but at least the world building is consistent

[@Wiradika1414]

@@nabilhusainimohdkamalulabr3088 Wait... you kinda Right... I appreciate that consistency

[@bluegamer4781]

I should also mention that if anyone complain about cultural appropriation in America, then they are hypocritical. cincedering America is a melting pot where the culture of many countries is taken into and assimilated.

[@superpowerdragon]

i personally dont care about the skin color or what so ever, (i am east asian myself, i cant consider myself dark skinned, so my comment may not apply) but i think that the darker skinned people being angry is somewhat understandable. people with darker skin in sumeru are generally more barbaric and the light skinned being more smart and civilized is kind of degrading. if the country of natlan has only dark skinned people but ruled by a light skinned god then it would be even worse

[@Wolf-vy7et]

​@@superpowerdragonIt just doesn't make sense to be angry about it, Sumeru Literraly have a rainforest where there the Akademiya and most of them are white because they don't have any reasons to be black, compared to the desert where most of the characters and npc's are black or tan

[@idkatthispoint-s9s]

As an Indian here, Nahida's design makes total sense. She's inspired by the Hindu god of wisdom, Saraswati, who is described to be very fair and adorned in white and gold clothes. Yet people feel the need to defend my culture on my behalf without knowing a single thing about it. Thanks but no thanks. If we felt we were being represented wrongly, we would show it. India was represented beautifully in the music, lore, archon quests, world quests and even the rainforest environment. Indian culture is more than our skin colour. Something that all these Twitter warriors fail to understand. And now they're doing it for Natlan too. Utter bs.

[@sandy_nes31]

I honestly kinda like to see how a character could look in dark skin, but if you really want proper representation then you should make a black character, not make a character black

[@NoirN3rd]

The onus should never be in the player who doesn’t have the resources to make that type of change. That’s just intellectual dishonesty and laziness.

[@Egress00]

Or maybe make the dark characters look less ashy Candace and Cyno legit look like white people standing in the shade 😭 They look so SO much better in the art I'll never get why they butcher characters in-game models so much

[@F1ll1nTh3Blanks]

Ultimately it's fiction so really they can make it look however tf they want and that's the end of it but given that they're basing the content on real places, history and all that, it would be great to see some representation visually as well. I think it's a little weird that there's such little of it but again, it's fiction so we're not entitled to any kinda realism/representation, there's no rule. If they wanted to they could literally take anything they want, make it look and say however tf they like and ultimately, that's the end of it. 🤷

[@bowenjudd1028]

THIS

[@kai-cheesecatt]

real (btw hi i think i recognise you from insta)

[@mnv9971]

As an Arabian and a Middle Eastern player, skin tone is not a concern for me or my community. We have been raised with values that reject racism and judgment based on skin color. Personally, I find satisfaction in the inclusion of Arabic names in games like Sumeru; that's all we really need and appreciate.

[@martha6773]

Crazy seeing that I’ve met racist Arabs but sure..even my Arab friend said Arabs can be racist. I wouldn’t say genshin is being racist but lack of representation yes. Your defense makes no sense though because every culture can be racist/colorist 🤷‍♀️.

[@mnv9971]

i mean a littile percentage are racist most of them are joking of bieng racist and they wouldnt do it on some one random most of them look like they are racist with there friends but publicly doesent@@martha6773

[@mathiask.5474]

@@martha6773mnv didn't say Arabs aren't racist, nor did he say the opposite for that matter, he stated that his people are raised with respect towards others regardless of their skin tone or ethnic belonging, in all cultures in did there are racist peoples and it's not because you had a good upbringing that you aren't racist and the other way around

[@TylR3gor]

​@@martha6773🎯 Thank you!

[@Saberdud]

"We have been raised with values that reject racism and judgment based on skin color." Don't let bro know about arab muslim slave trade

[@cptkilimanjaro3738]

“I won’t support such a racist and exclusionary company!” - Proceeds to spend $1000 every banner from their mother’s bank account Ah, kids these days.

[@shenshiya9474]

Alot of hypocrites these days

[@RKNancy]

Then there's me supporting the game with my playtime. 0 amount spent on the game

[@TheRealFurinaDeFontaine]

I haven’t spent money on the game, and tbh … I just can’t get enough of Genshin, I don’t care if they money hungry mongrels it’s still fun

[@spiderace7994]

This is funny but I literally saw that live during the start of sumeru on Twitter.

[@gwyddawggwyr1057]

I don't think any of the people complaining were ever planning to spend money on the game. All gacha games developers value feedback from paying people much more than free to play. If there was pushback from a majority of paying customers, Hoyo would have made changes.

[@tiagox3275]

I have an Indian friend who found this whole controvery really cringe, and ironically, the only time he complained about representation in Sumeru was when they made a joke about curry.

[@silverstrikev8868]

I'm indian and that joke just made me laugh

[@Fogz01]

@@silverstrikev8868what was the joke?

[@silverstrikev8868]

@@Fogz01 totally forgot, I just remember being a discord call and me and my friend losing our shit because of it

[@YuyuHakurei]

It's a stereotype that curry is the only dish indians have because the company doing the translations are American and as one they truly know virtually nothing about Indians in general. xD I forgot the specific quote though. If you stick any curry joke in an Arab/Indian representation of a nation it's going to be funny in general though.

[@big_cheeseE3]

@@Fogz01 I think its when Cyno says to traveller when seeing them after a long time: 'This is what I call the biryani factor... its rice to meat stew!'

[@NahIdSword]

as a slovenian i am offended that all the femboys in the game are not stated to be slovenian. being a femboy is our thing (and polish sometimes) and i want them to change their nationality to slovenia (for people who dont undrestand that this is a joke, idc, mald about it)

[@dwaynejohnson5586]

as a polish person, this is so real

[@lubiechleb.]

As a polish person, this is too real

[@NahIdSword]

@@lubiechleb. we shall stand together against this injustice, my polish cutie patooties

[@ItsTanuki0_Clock]

Or argentinan

[@probablynotafern]

casually seeing another slovenian in the comments feels unreal

[@kaga.mine.]

as an iraqi i think its extremely racist to assume we're all dark skinned (personally i am not very dark, just brown, a little bit darker than kaeya). some of us are pale, some in the middle, some darker, etc. hell my mom is about the same color as nahida, who people kept calling an unrealistic lightbulb💀. "its just a minority that have lighter skin" aka you have never been anywhere near the middle east or seen anyone from there, denying the existence of lighter skinned ppl in the middle east is the real colorism. i hate white twitter users that think they're contributing to society by opening ibis paint, using the magic wand tool on a character's skin, then making it darker. its so obnoxious and its much more racist than anything hoyoverse has done, and also offensive to the original designers. just mind your business and let me enjoy my funny anime game without your dumbass savior complex thinking you're helping me. edit: to add on, im no longer in iraq but the living situation for many people there and in some other middle eastern countries is so bad, if you really want your savior complex to take over then at least let it manifest in a useful way and take actual action to help real people. nahida will not jump through the screen and say thank you because you colored her skin darker and told someone to off themselves for liking her design. do some actual work to help people instead of sitting on your ass and complaining about something that doesnt actually affect anybody .

[@cloudydeez]

As an indian I completely agree with this

[@cloudydeez]

I'd like to add that Nahida might be inspired by the goddess of knowledge in Hinduism and that goddess is really pale as well

[@TheDarkSideOfYouSoul]

The same with the Mexicans, we have pale Mexicans, ginger Mexicans, blonde Mexicans, black Mexicans, indigenous Mexicans, and so on.

[@Coconattsuu]

Yeah that goes for South America in general, we're very mixed@@TheDarkSideOfYouSoul

[@SnowxXxAngel]

@@cloudydeez There's that, but also the fact that she has been literally locked up in the Sanctuary of Suresthana for 500 years... so of course she won't have a tan.......

[@seamonkey02]

"You can't wear their clothes if you don't know the culture significant of it" I'm Thai American and used to live in Thailand for half my childhood. I still don't know jack shiz of the culture significant of the Thai clothes I had to wear for my Thai dances and other Thai culture events. All I was told was I had to wear it because I had to.

[@InTheSky521]

I think I understand and agree with your point. But if you "had to" then it's not really the same situation

[@gamerhead007]

I am an Indian who actually lives in India, and I really never cared about this "issue". However I was highly disappointed in the fact that they merged 2/3 ancient and beautiful cultures into one(they deserved their own separate nations) and for the most part, did neither of them justice. Although credit where it is due, their knowledge about Indian music, names and foo dishes(for the most part) was surprisingly deep enough to not be called "tokenization". And this is the most I can expect from a Chinese developer considering how Chinese view us Indians(Spoiler Alert: its not good). But I can understand when people say Hoyoverse are biased against non-white characters since all of them are surprisingly weak, compared to their white counterparts from Sumeru. But in the grand scheme of things, I really don't care and love playing this game as a day 1 player(yes I was here before Zhongli got buffed, and I pulled for him before his buffs, but that's a story for another time).

[@AA-cf4es]

Because they do not represent shit and that's ok. It isn't representation, this is mythology. Just like the Witcher does not represent Polish history or culture.

[@HikoRoone]

i think they merged it because of player bases, maybe? and maybe its because the middle east cultures and our culture goes well together, but im just guessing and trying to be optimistic. they still had to tie everything in with the genshin storyline, so they probably couldn't do them justice. inazuma and liyue are based off countries that are _huge_ playerbases, so perhaps they had to put in more effort for them. but anywho, in the larger picture none of this matters. its a fun game, and the developers do their research about the culture to integrate it well with the game.

[@rootedpen2]

completely agree. Sumeru had one of the if not THE best world-lore and world-music, that can only be achieved through proper and vigorous studies of those respective cultures. If anything, the amount of effort in representation will clear them of "racist" accusations. at least in my book.

[@Thanatar13]

I think you'd be surprised at how Chinese view Indians, TBH. Is your country's politics deeply messed up? Yeah, sure. And all the poverty, caste discrimination, corruption, and crime is terrible. But China has been there as well, it used to be that India was in fact somewhat wealthier (though both were dirt-poor). Both countries suffered greatly from imperialism, the difference is that Chinese institutions have since recovered or been rebuilt, whereas the rot in India was inevitably more pervasive due to direct imperial rule, post-colonial sabotage, and the retaining of the comprador/British-collaborator classes. Ethnic Chinese-Canadian (family from Singapore) and personally? I think our two cultures greatly compliment each other, and have a long and mutually beneficial history. From the transmission of Buddhism to the anti-colonial struggle, and from shared interactions in southeast Asia with the spice trade, treasure fleets, Chola empire, etc. or across the various other colonies as mutually enslaved/indentured coolie labor and then as highly educated immigrants, I'd say the current state of Chinese-Indian relations is a historical abnormality and aberration, one that the west has a long history of pouring fuel on the fire with, playing India off China nowadays, just as they played China off the Soviet Union and India during the cold war. Both sides have faults, but even still the common interests (that of multipolarity, national sovereignty, and peaceful stability and prosperity for Eurasia) are increasingly prevailing. If you look at Chinese-Indian diasporic relations across the Anglosphere, or in ASEAN, the Caribbean, South Africa, etc... clearly our cultures, while very different, greatly compliment one another. That's my take on it anyways. And- have you talked with many Chinese, whether mainlanders, diasporic southeast Asian Chinese, or diasporic western Chinese? IMO I'd say the prevailing opinion of Indians and Indian culture and history is very positive- though the opinion of the issues India faces (crime, particularly rape, corruption, poverty...) is not, and TBH that certainly seems to be the opinion of many Indians I've spoken to as well. From a (ethnic) Chinese perspective- how Indians (those living in India, specifically) view China, seems to be far more negative than vice-versa. Perhaps understandable, as the whole "Iron Brother" relationship with Pakistan would be a dealbreaker, vote bank politics always seems to lean into demagoguery and hysterics (same here in Canada, and part of why the west is in deep decline and only going to spiral further IMO) and China's rise in the past 1-2 decades would naturally inspire deep envy and insecurity from India, as a nation coming from similar circumstances.

[@ipodtouchiscoollol]

@@HikoRoone I think the more realistic reason is they only have 7 nations in Tyvat to try to represent the entire freaking globe. There is only so much you can do.

[@chuunilord5619]

What a lot of americans tend to not understand is that most cultures will be happy to be represented in the first place even if it's not done with complete accuracy I remember when Mario Odyssey was coming out some people were up in arms about the sombrero and poncho outfit you could get while eveeyone down here in mexico was super happy about it Genshin is a Story with characters, they aren't real people and while some of them do reference specific cultural aspects they don't mean the same thing as they do in the real world by the very necessity of the story to fit both within the larger narrative and the fact that it has to not contradict the mythology of 6 other cultures that all by necessity need to fit within the same world and share some elements of how the world itself works its unreasonable to expect everything, even skin tone, to be the same

[@SeraphinaHayes]

im Polish and I got excited like a puppy when i saw pierogi mentioned in game

[@cindylilies]

people were mad about sombreros and ponchos?? the saviour complex goes crazy lol

[@TrinityBlackRoseV]

@@cindylilies It gets worse. From what I've heard, the sombrero+poncho wearing Mario was gonna be on the cover of the game, but cause of the outcry, it was changed. Mexicans were upset about it. They lost their representation on the game cover :/

[@clara5374]

exactly! I'm Swedish and i get so happy seeing Sweden mentioned in any game or movie lol, Midsummer might have turned our summer holiday into a horror movie concept but I'm just happy Sweden is mentioned lol. American's are so spoiled with representation in media due to most worldwide media being made IN America. Most cultures are happy to be included even if its not entirely accurate or a big part. :)

[@assssaaasasass]

That's easy to answer, to those people it must go "you will make representation but it must be the way I want even though I have nothing to do with certain culture or then I will accuse you of being racist".

[@atomicgrave4340]

I remember some people were offended by hillichurls' dance, and some of them were minority i think. And the whole situation just went nowhere. Because Hoyo doesn't care. Also, i'm russian, for the most part every foreign media had portrait russians as hostile enemies or evil masterminds (even before the war), funny enough no one was offended by it, though the stereotype itself became kinda annoying, it was still fun, because it gave us opportunity to laugh at people who still stuck in 80s or 90s and can't even google how to write in russian properly hence find a person who would do that for them, yet still use it in their movies or games with mistakes in spelling and all. With Hoyo i at least know that they will try to minimize mistakes when Snezhnaya will come out. Not that i care ofc. Nor any russian ever cared. Probably no one ever cared. At this point i just want to see how story will go in Snezhnaya. I want to buy recipe for borsch. I want to see how they'll do buildings, traditional outfits and every little detail if there's any. I want to see bears roaming the streets or riding unicycles. What? Stereotypes are fun sometimes. Majority of characters will be light skinned tone, even though we have "tanned" people as well, but who really cares? Games should unite people not divide them. Don't you think?

[@VortexYoutube]

Мегахорош, my man

[@DeadVoxel]

I completely agree with this. Snezhnaya is the region I look up to seeing the most as a russian person myself. So what if they're all evil? That's the fun of it. I absolutely love the fact that Snezhnaya is portrayed as this moody, cold, dark, and villainous nation. The funniest part of it all? I doubt the Tsaritsa is even evil herself. A lot of theorists are saying that she may be the god of love, or something along the lines of. That's quite contradicting to the "evil" portrayal of her and the nation Edit: I almost forgot to add, I also love the fact that Snezhnaya holds one of the most important and massive storylines. It has authority everywhere, has the most anticipation, and even has a playable character that belongs to Snezhnaya despite the nation not being out in the first place. The power and importance it holds makes the representation feel all the better

[@GhostEmblem]

Based

[@mateeeeooo]

@@DeadVoxelim from croatia and Im beyond excited for sneznaya, by far the most anticipated region for me

[@DeadVoxel]

@@kiuscore pretty much! Focalors already challenged the Heavenly Principles by blatantly deceiving and tricking them, I would imagine that Snezhnaya's plot would be sort of similar

[@fiaschampion3379]

I am south american. My country has 120% of inflation. Crime is rampant even in the wealthiest of areas. Things are rough here for everyone regardless of skin color or religion or whatever. Every time I see these minorities on twitter making crusades about representation in fucking anime games I feel envy because their lives must be so easy compared to mine that they have the time to allow their minds to overthink and lecture others on these topics.

[@peterrj1973]

Argentina

[@khadizaanwarjolly5779]

legit @@peterrj1973

[@randomthoughts6680]

Also south american, also feel the same. And on the topic of the pyro archon being white, everyone kinda knew that she was going to be Genshin's version of Murata Himeko, so what's even the point of arguing at this point?

[@Commraderanrin]

Fr 😭like yk they never touched Hoyo’s other games when they’re actually shocked about that fact@@randomthoughts6680

[@wolfsongrising]

you're not wrong, at least where I'm at their lives are so cozy and safe compared to so many others around the world, and they don't even appreciate it. They don't understand or are grateful for how freaking BLESSED they are to be able to get on the internet and be upset about is trivial representation and people disagreeing with them, and that's the worst thing they'll see today. Meanwhile we have actual real problems happening around us that they are willfully BLIND to, but yes, please keep screaming about representation in FANTASY (who cares if its "based on" its their fantasy world bro) video games. I'm sure Nahida will thank you.

[@ThatGuyFromLI]

I don"t think a Chinese company being bad with race/color is damnable in and of itself. But colorism in Asian culture is both an issue, and an ongoing battle. A large amount of Asian cultures battle with a disparity between skin tone and wealth. So I think representing dark skinned people in Genshin is still important. I do agree that American people need to stop complaining about shiz from their personal views though lol

[@f.b.lagent1113]

can't really do anything about wealth disparity and skintone here, what are they gonna do? discriminate against pale people for being pale? prioritize darker skinner people just because of their color? these are textbook discrimination and racist, these western techniques will never ever work with its obvious hypocritical ideals

[@Frauliaowo]

Preach!

[@TeaTimeTable]

There's nothing wrong with wanting darker skinned looking anime characters in the game and I don't think people who play it are racist however. Yes we know most asians aren't well accustomed to darker skin tones but that's a problem mainly in China and I've already seen more than enough other black folks talk about their experiences and how life is like in China for black people, not to mention the evictions that happened during the pandemic where black people who owned homes or rented apartments were being thrown out into the streets for no good reason. China does indeed hold some racism towards the black community - going back to hoyo game is fine would be nice to see them included more darker characters, will it happen? prob not but it is what it is.

[@AppleCinderr]

This!

[@AndrewsMobs]

@@TeaTimeTable americans should stop projecting their racism and obsession with race towards China: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioWuh4eAZbKep5Y That's a black teacher in China btw, I wonder how blacks get treated in america.

[@AyeshuJeho]

As a Latino (half-Mexican and half-Colombian), I agree that proper representation of culture is more important than skin tones. That is why I started sweating nervously when Natlan was finally being talked about. **SPOILER WARNING?** For one, Natlan implies Aztec culture/mythology as the “tl” diphthong is part of the romanization of Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs (or Mexicas). Dragons, which Neuvillette mentions are a big part of Natlan, are not a part of Aztec mythology or culture. The closest thing would be feathered serpents (like Quetzalcoatl) or just serpents. I’m sure Hoyoverse will come up with a good reason for this decision, but with what has been mentioned/leaked so far, Aztec culture and mythology seems like it would be barely mentioned. I just hope that they can do a region with such diverse inspirations justice like they did with Sumeru. I would like more skin tones, but I still like Genshin Impact as a game with a fascinating world and a great story.

What? Do you realize that it can be simply explained in the same way they spanish discovered Quetzalcoatl: The natives explained what he was, the europeans thought they meant it was a feathered dragon and depicted some paints of it, i would need to look for it again, but there is explanation: Simply the rest of the world misundirstanding. Furthermore, while i see the certain inspiration, i have never awaited for Natlan to be like latinamerican nor any other culture,i always saw them more as the dwarfs of Tyevat

[@Unwebonnn]

I would also like more skin tones, but again, it's a Chinese game, China's super colorist anyway.

[@Unwebonnn]

@ Natlan has always been based on precolumbian latin america...

@@Unwebonnn Okey? It doesnt stop the reality of how they too resemble dwarfs and all we see point to them having more interaction with dwarfs than being put in a specific precolombian culture. The dragons and the forge and all the shit of fire. Not to mention, it isnt like tyevat isnt based too in the fantasy races

@@Unwebonnn I mean...Its not like its matter much, considering that the area of Hoyoverse that makes Genshin has more people of other parts to my knowledge

[@xiaoplush]

Now, I’m a pale Turkish girl, with culture speaking I can see why Genshin isn’t involving more colours in the game, which is obvious because Hoyoverse is a Chinese gaming company, meaning obviously they aren’t used to other skin tones, but it’s still amazing on how they include other cultures and try their best on research and features included on the character! Now, when Dori was getting released into the game, I was literally so happy, you know why? Because she was based off my culture and nationality! She is wearing traditional Ottoman Empire clothing, and basically representing my and other cultures of the Turkish individuals, (she was the reason I started to play Genshin anyway ngl) But then, all of a sudden, all the white ass teens started to whine about how its cultural appropriation, how the clothing top is revealing, and how they didn’t like her hat.. and how she was not POC?! Buddy. Have you ever saw a Turkish poc, she is fucking Turkish, otherwise if you’re mixed sure, but my point is, Turkish people are either a little hint of tan, or literally THE WHITEST MF YOU EVER SEEN Now, here is my opinion on the Mexican cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation clip shown in the video Girl. Are you actually retarded? “It’s appropriation if you wear it if it’s not your culture” my guy? Culture is a significance to nationalities all over the place, meant to enjoy, study and SHARE. Culture is something anyone can share and enjoy together with an individual, alr be the whitest guy in town but it’s not racist to enjoy another culture. I’m done, thanks to the people who finished reading this, even though ik people ain’t reading allat

[@pacificnebula4899]

I agree with you. Hoyoverse is focusing on the stories, art, and music. Creating drama for such shallow criticism is what the internet is best at. I love Genshin's music and started playing because of it. The use of instruments from different cultures mixed in with European orchestras is amazing. Cultural appropriation has seemed to lose its significance. I would say wearing cultural clothing as a "costume" for malicious or mocking intent is appropriation. But appreciating the global diversity even if you may be wrong on some details is perfectly fine and is what connects the world.

[@xiaoplush]

@@pacificnebula4899 exactly ! I strongly agree too with both of the statements you’ve also mentioned, people should start to learn not be overdramatic when a culture not even theirs, is not “represented correctly” in a game, and same with the cultural costumes, shouldn’t be worn to mock and make fun of, but understand the context, wearing it correctly and being respectful is what should be done when connecting to another culture’s significance 🩷🩷

[@hadrianhexe9603]

If genshin could expend the time and energy to research the time and energy to implement people's culture, they could have easily implemented thier skin tones as well. Also, no, not all people complaining white, and eve if they were, what they are saying isn't wrong so kindly miss me with all that.

[@ArbitraryOutcome]

@@hadrianhexe9603 I rarely see people who complain actually being "white" and I see it as disingenuous to just paint broad strokes. Literally just the James Somerton thing where he makes up "straight white women" to veil actual misogyny.

[@ArbitraryOutcome]

@@pacificnebula4899 Cultural appropriation actually refers to taking usually cherrypicked aspects of another culture and plopping it in a different context without actually understanding its meaning or significance. Cultural appreciation is achieved when said initial meaning is properly understood and represented in another context.

[@indiraharron]

As a black girl, I understand that chinese companies are more likely to add fair skinned characters because of their target audience. Just as if an african company made genshin, there would most likely be more darker skinned characters. This makes this argument of hoyoverse being “racist” pretty baseless. Though I do believe genshin impact itself should have more diverse looking characters, not for diversity itself but because of how massive teyvat is. I’m aware it’s a fantasy world, but how realistic is it for everyone to be pale and have SOME tan npcs? Overall I think by implementing different looking npc (not just skintone) it would definitely make the world feel more realistic. 🙃🙃

[@mikuisbetterthenyourmom]

Home girl hoyo is racist 💀, May I remind that THE ONLY BLACK CHARACTER in honkia doesn't even like her skin? Even says things like "I wish i wasn't do dark" or "I wish my skin was lighter". Don't even start on the "they're a Chinese company" bs. There are A LOT of Chinese game companies that have black characters. I don't think you realize how popular black characters are in China. Characters like xinyan and keaya(tho not black but South asian) are really liked by the Chinese fans. Even chinese fans are saying that they should be more darker characters. Hoyo themselves know this is a problem. A zzz producer said that they hope it's addressed soon. Hoyo CAN make black characters. May I remind you that the Sumeru male enemies are black.. with loc and wicks? They just don't want to make black ppl.

[@indiraharron]

@@mikuisbetterthenyourmom I agree with what you’re saying, so you can tone down the attitude. I have seen a small amount of Chinese companies make black characters but those are not the majority, but if there are “tons” more can you point me to any? I also agree with your Sumeru point, they have shown their ability to create interesting designs with darker skin characters, and yet all of those characters are “villains” or npcs that nobody talks about. Regardless, like I said in my original comment adding darker skinned characters would help the world be more realistic, I never said they “could not make more dark skin characters,” that’s an idiotic view. Also when I said I don’t believe Hoyo is racist I meant they seemed ignorant to the importance of diversity, but now that you brought up they had responded (which is something I did not know) my opinion has changed.

[@mikuisbetterthenyourmom]

@@indiraharron distyle, Reverse 1999 are both chinese games that have black ppl in it.

[@cloverbinnie]

I asked my parents about it, they are brown skin and im super light (no, its not what u thinking, im adopted) they said "oh its great to see those little charecters being darkskin, if i was ur age, i would like to see the characters being my color.. but is not a big thing actually"

[@gaiapsyche]

My problem is not that we dont have chars with darker skin, is when they choose to use it. The archons, the most popular, strong, and leaders are always the lightest skin possible, when darker skin is reserved for the npcs and enemies. And even when we have 4 star chars with a darker skin, is the least dark as possible, and kinda pale looking.

[@mitchsz]

This might be a hot take but would be awesome if Mavuika was black

[@solitaireofasstora7540]

All I'm saying is some dark skinned characters would be nice, not because of inclusiveness, but because I know those designs can go hard

[@Jellie-qd4jp]

I’m a pale skinned Latina and it makes me kinda sad now, with the natlan release, how everyone’s saying that the characters should be darker. I like getting my culture shown a bit, and I think it’s kinda sad that people are saying all the characters need to be darker, cause pale Latinos exist too. Darker skinned characters should be put in yeah, but automatically seeing the pale natlan characters and thinking “yeah no they have to be darker no South American has pale skin” is sad

[@xxcrazyclarkyxx]

They really think they are defending us, yet they are being even more racist than they think hoyo is by saying all of them should be black. Yes, it would be very good to have more dark-skinned characters in the game, helping the diversity of the characters, but gosh, this really isn't has "serious" as twitter makes it out to be.

[@NirukuKanao]

Honestly as a Mexican woman I'm dead scared for Natlan, not bc of the skin color representation, I have other priorities over that for the Nation (like the story/AQ and the scenery), but I fear bc I know if I state a single opinion of mine and/or defend Natlan in any way, random people are gonna come for my ass and put in doubt my own Nationality just because my opinion doesn't match with them But it wouldn't even be the first time that has happened, bc it has, people questioning me for my skin tone (spoiler, I'm tan/as brown as a cardboard box) but since I have never revealed it nor in social media nor in those discussions, they dare deny my own Nationality, identity and opinions, but with the people who share their own opinions they don't even question it, These people don't care about skin color for good merit or a good cause, but to feel entitled and feel like "the good guys"

[@f4llenleaves]

Just stay away from the online community. Genshin has gotten big enough to attract bad apples everywhere. What's important is that you know your truth and those people are just subscribers to Western wokeism. They thow around "white knight" and "🥩rider" thinking they're doing the world a favor when in reality they're just chronically online and privileged 😂

[@overthemoon4376]

I've definitely seen this; someone said they were Arabian and someone else started questioning if they were. I also saw another person assume that Tao was white which clearly told me they didn't watch the video. It definitely is scary to try and stand up for something when they question your culture and try to tell you who you are.

[@Wanderdere]

Yk it's really bad when your fear is aimed more at the reaction of "the fandom" than at something coming directly from the game/company, but I get you, I'm also mexican and I don't even want to think about being invalidated or just dumb cuz I really don't see why I should be offended, but there we go I guess

[@Goetterdaemmerung86]

I feel you, I got ASD, and the moment you disagree with a community on certain things or solutions about our lives, or step out of line, stuff gets ugly, gatekeeping ensues, made that mistake once… Never again 💀

[@Goetterdaemmerung86]

@@overthemoon4376 almost textbook gaslighting right there

[@noski4555]

I'm a Middle Eastern and Arabian player and i could not agree more with you. The amount of effort non Middle Easterns put to "fight for us" is disturbing. Most of them just want to look for something to get mad about. I'm just glad they made Sumeru based off my culture honestly thats enough for me. I feel happy when I see Arab names in the game and listen to the music they made lol

[@bonk6561]

I dont think ppl r looking for representation in the right game. Genshin is a gacha game and although the regions might be based off real countries, its nowhere near realistic. Genshin aims to make as much money as possible and will design their characters based on whatever makes them the most money

[@Aggie3921]

Imma add my two cents too this. If youre gonna make a game inspired by many cultures and not accurately represent everyine there. It seems more liek youre tryna profit off other cultures while ignoring teh balck ppl. the excuse its a chinise game makes no sense other chinese game do it so whats the problem? Istg one day genshit is gonna die by its own hands with the way they give zeri shit to anything.

[@Haruto-q7d]

​@@Aggie3921 Criticize yourself before criticizing others bro, you can't even fix your grammar and spelling. So lame...

[@Aggie3921]

@@Haruto-q7d i just gave my opinion calm tf down lil bro its my opinion + who gives a shit about grammar its a youtube comment section not an english class ong

[@Haruto-q7d]

@@Aggie3921 Wth? What do you mean "calm down"? I'm not attacking you or anything, just saying my opinion about your grammar.... If you can't take that kind of criticism, I wonder how you can criticize others in the first place....

[@Aggie3921]

@@Haruto-q7d ???? Mb then.... But I'mma stilll criticize no one is perfect anyways

I love how all the people cried because the NPC and characters werent tanned skinned, then Sumeru came with the plot of racism and oppression and fucking shut their mouth so hard. Mostly making two of the greatest Hero of Sumeru being the Maha matra and the best mercenary of tanned skin - Even if i hate the kit they gave my Dehya pwp- all the while we learn how the people with dark skin died by a racist djin in mass and then more by the Akademyia, with them making every single figure in power a white skin to represent it even more XD its like being tonedeaf to aclearly well executed plot because they lack reading skills

[@Wtrgrl-kk4py]

I actually saw people being mad about this plot too.. 💀

@@Wtrgrl-kk4py thats just idiotic people already, the first one can be given the benefit of the doubt, this last one dont

[@DeadVoxel]

Akademiya literally trapped their own newborn god for years. It's no surprise that the Akademiya is racist too. I wouldn't say it's the most appropriate place to point fingers at Hoyo as it's part of the plot

@@DeadVoxel yeah, thats precisly My point

[@TheRealFurinaDeFontaine]

They also made a leader and descendent of a god dark skinned… Candace is so under appreciated, her design is so pretty. Egyptian Jewels and garments are always so pretty on women, simply just *chefs kiss*

[@genericweeb7300]

Want to feel "represented"? Go outside, find new friends that are interested in delving into your culture. Teach and share with the community. Play your own damn part, don't expect some out-of-touch foreign company to do it. You're just setting yourself for disappointment with that mindset.

[@whatabeautifulduwang9603]

I like this thought process

[@heenthousiast383]

Let me say, Dori should have been (mostly) white anyways, shes mostly Turk inspired, her clothes and ost are anyway, and as a Turk, i am white. So good job Hoyoverse.

[@adamtruong1759]

What mitigates the problem of misrepresentation in Genshin, specifically Sumeru, is that people all over the continent of Teyvat travel to Sumeru city to study at the Academia (like Lisa and Hat Guy), with some people immigrating there. There's even a case of Shinobu who's from Inazuma traveling to Liyue to learn to become a Lawyer. Granted, there are still local Sumerians with lighter skin tones like Dunyezard, Kaveh, Alhaitem, along with that bastard Azar and his goonies to name a few. I'll just chalk it up to the fact that the shade provided by the rainforest was enough for lighter skin tones to be prominent. That's all I'll say on the topic.

[@edishasora5200]

middle eastern is not a n199a

[@adamtruong1759]

@@edishasora5200 I know

[@delphilily]

FINALLY! The voice of reason. I'm Persian and I absolutely loved the way they used my culture in the lore (Sabzeruz festival), character names and even a good majority of the map's design and story. An important piece of information I'd like to share is that unlike what misinformation has been spreading around, Sumeru isn't mostly based on India or Arab countries. It's mostly Iran with just a sprinkle of Indian & Arab & Egyptian culture and that's because those countries used to be part of ancient Iran, the Great Empire of Persia. Hoyo has done their research very well if you ask me. The representation is mostly about sharing the beautiful art, culture and lore. Not necessarily skin color! I wish people would just understand. Plus, I'm Persian myself and as someone who has visited almost all neighborhood countries I can tell you, we're mostly pale. Tan & darker skin tones are actual rarer than you think here. At the end of the day like you said, we honestly don't care because the main point is the culture and lore!

[@Eclipticlilies07]

I agree lol the only Indian reference I see is the name sumeru and the regions of rain forest like avidya, rukhadevata(this is a name for male deity btw for female it'd be rukhadevi >

[@delphilily]

@@Eclipticlilies07 exactly! Finally someone who gets it. Indian, Arabic and Turkish names are here and there but most of lore, designs and references are heavily Persian inspired. Needless to mention those other lands used to be a part of Iran too and they were all one big land and all Genshin regions are based on old countries, so actually, while we're here, can I share some other fun ideas too? I enjoy talking about this haha. The name Sumeru is actually from the land between two rivers which was built by ancient Persian & Arab clans. The story of the Aranara quest is heavily inspired by a Persian fairytale, the story behind the archon quest is full of Persian refrences like the new year eve, the Yalda night celebration, Uncle Newrooz (portrayed as the knight of flowers). And while we see different Arabic & Indian names on the map, I found a good majority of it to be Persian names too!

[@Eclipticlilies07]

@@delphilily Great Infos!!! I'll share something too. Do you know there's actually a mountain named sumeru in uttarakhand, India near the gangotri glaciers. And there's mentions of sumeru parvat in different scriptures of Hinduism like Ramayan for example where it's described to be in the centre of the earth. It's a glowing mountain containing different medicinal herbs and inhabited by gods and deities. There's a kumeru too(su(+ve or good)+meru(mountain) just like that ku(-ve or bad)+meru in Sanskrit) although I don't remember much about it. Anyways glad to lear about the similarities in different cultures. Goes to show that maybe all originated from one source kind of haha.

[@delphilily]

@@Eclipticlilies07 that's so beautiful, I didn't know that! Thanks for sharing! And yes, I believe these similarities and shared names & history are a sign that all these beautiful cultures come from one core. I just wish people acknowledged that more and studied history

[@faerieinwonderland]

An example of lazy representation is Disney with their modern movies. They don't put the effort in making good stories and original art, just recreate their old work and slapping their woke agenda to be like "See?! We are putting effort!" I appreciate how much work Hoyoverse put into their games, it actually makes people more open to learning about new cultures.

[@f4llenleaves]

Representation in modern Hollywood is basically just a checklist for "inclusivity". I'm southeast asian and thought raya and the last dragon was shit. Bad story, bad lesson, bad and underdeveloped worldbuilding where I can't recognize any reference to a specific SEA country. At least genshin was able to form a compelling story with relatable characters and a fictional nation that is somehow still recognizable even though sumeru is a mix of indian, persian, egyptian, etc. cultures. It's a solid nod to real cultures and is, at the same time, great as a standalone fantasy place.

[@ArbitraryOutcome]

I honestly despise people crying about "wokeness" unironically because most of the time it's actual baby rage from manchildren over minorities being present in media (even if it's mere tokenism). What's really the issue comes from cynical suits trying to pander to marginalized audiences without actually wanting to do more than token gestures, especially if the work itself isn't very good on its own merit.

[@f.b.lagent1113]

the thing about these “modern movies” is that these representations aren’t made with honesty, them changing the races of established characters are deliberate. for some reason they really despise Redheads ironically towards actual minorities.

[@lordtette]

we can go back to old Disney and hollywoods days of slapping paint on their white actors to to be another race.

[@mitchsz]

Just like modern games, it's basically a checklist

[@notbillcipher]

so you never imagined how you would feel in a situation where hoyo takes your african american or your ancestors' culture, puts it on someone who doesn't look like you and says this is a native with a native name in native clothes and with native music? who cares if wakanda only has white people (except killmonger, he's a baddie so the skin tone stays) and a guy named t'challa is played by cumberbatch, it's fictional it doesn't have to be similar to the cultures it borders, and what does marvel know about the african cultures it's based on anyway, right? "most poc don't care" you're not even from their culture yet you speak? and what about those who clearly do care? "i'm gonna ignore them cause hoyo won't listen anyway"

[@gidi3250]

It's fiction, why do you care? It's been happening to whites for decades at this point, hell if you go to western comics and animations white (especially red haired characters) have been for the last 3 decades turned black, even historical characters like Viking chiefs and English queen's when white people complained they got called white privileged and racist and now you expect people to care when it happens the other way?

[@citrus3603]

​@@gidi3250 two wrongs don't make a right though, but A LOT of characters/historical figures have been white washed throughout history. Ghost in the shell (2017) as the most recent example I can think of, but it's so easy to look it up and see the long lists for yourself

[@sakasama_55]

im black and i never once cared about representation in the game.

[@lazyvoid7107]

Yet you call it woke

[@sakasama_55]

@@lazyvoid7107 ???

[@flipflopgirl]

As a Brazilian, if Natlan has idc- a guy playing soccer it's a win

[@marcelocapeljunior3579]

FGO had a bunch of dinosaurs playing football in a level taking place where the Amazon was supposed to be. You can't get weirder than that.

[@HxzeyDay]

"most of these people who are being targeted by this issue, do not give a shit." as an islamic indian genshin player i can confirm. I really do not give a shit I went to Sumeru as soon as it was released, and was actually amazed at how much detail and resemblance it has to India, Egypt and the middle east. Basically everything was amazing, the outfits, scenery, and foods and names! I even loved the base details like how sumeru is based off of wisdom, and the akademiya; which fits actual middle-eastern history!

[@SlayerOfEnemies]

funny how u said "Islamic Indian" , when Akademiya actually follows Indian philosophies, fits middle eastern lmao. Akademiya is literally inspired from Ancient Indian universities. What are you on?

[@HxzeyDay]

@@SlayerOfEnemies because I'm talking about some of the empires which were I believe islamic dominated and had a strong value for wisdom and akademiyas

[@SlayerOfEnemies]

@@HxzeyDay lmfao no, Akademiya's literal roots are based on Ancient Indian Universities and Philosophies. These Universities are 1000's of years older than Islam. Where did Islamic Empire came from.

[@HxzeyDay]

@@SlayerOfEnemies well akademiyas are also present in Islam, as Is knowledge a key value of Islam. And sumeru is based also on middle east, which has a lot of Islamic countries and influence. A lot of the desert is also unmistakably based on Islam, did u not realise that with some of the names?? And it is also just common knowledge that sumeru is heavily influenced by Islam and I think hinduism

[@SlayerOfEnemies]

@@HxzeyDay Ye, but my friend. Those names aren't Islamic. Those names pretty much existed before Islam. I get the Argument of Middle East + Indian Subcontinent which is Land of Aryas, and Egypt like in story was our trade partner in history, hence they made us one kingdom in story. Why include religion in it?

[@sadstrawb]

as an indian, i will admit there not being a lot of darker/tan skinned playable characters for this region made me upset. It does also kind of feel bad that the playable characters that ARE tan are some of the worst units in the game (dehya, candace, xinyan.. would have said cyno but he is viable just needs high investment.) I do hope that when natlan releases, there will be more diversity. now dont get me wrong, i dont think its a problem that everyone is not the same skin tone or that there are paler npcs in characters in sumeru bc the real world cultures and countries that sumeru is based on ALSO have people with many different shades of skin. i just wish there was more playable characters that also represented that diversity. also im ngl i really hated nahida's design when it dropped. her pale skin with white hair and a white outfit just didnt mesh well and i think she would have looked better with more earthy tones in her design instead of white. I DO NOT THINK HOYO IS RACIST. I just wish there was more diversity in skin tone :( but i appreciate how well my culture was represented and i will continue to play genshin and whale for my favorite characters :)

[@Syiepherze]

I'm South Asian, Sri Lankan specifically, so Sumeru is the closest thing to my home culture, and it was probably the region i was looking forward to the most because of that. To preface, I don't speak for all Sri Lankans/South Asians, I'm admittedly a bit of a "coconut" due to my upbringing. There isn't anything explicitly "Sri Lankan" in Sumeru and I'm honestly fine with that lol. We're a fairly small country that isn't super well known (we're often overshadowed by our immediate neighbors, India and the Maldives) There are certain aspects of Sumeru that kinda resonate with me, like the similar cuisine (like Biryani), the use of Pali and Sanskrit in lore stuff, and the allusions to Buddhism and Hinduism because of that. You can't represent everyone in the subcontinent, but it's pretty commendable how much effort Hoyo has put in to represent the cultures in Sumeru already. So I'm content with that === But if you want to know my thoughts on the skin tones in Genshin, I'm kind of indifferent about it? Like I agree it would be super weird and kinda racist for _every_ character in a globetrotting adventure game (with somewhat explicit real-world cultural influences) to only be white/fair. But for Sumeru's cast, I think people are overreacting just a liiiiittle bit (understatement. The whole recoloring stuff on Twitter was stupid and wrong, but I get where they're coming from) The 2 climates in Sumeru are vastly different from each other, so the dichotomy of skin tones reflect that. And this mixture of skin tones does represent the inspirational regions somewhat accurately? India has both light and dark people, same with the Middle East. Even in my country there's a bit of a mix too. There are plenty of darker skinned people, but there are a number of fairer skinned folks as well due to their ethnic background/lifestyle/environment. My own skin tone is around Fitzpatrick IV-V, and I have family members who are much lighter and much darker than me But tbh I'm just happy characters like Candace, Dehya and Cyno exist lol. Why? I just think they're hot

[@sunny-9246]

Ive already seen people complain about leaked natalan characters meanwhile the actual hispanics and general south-american audience is super excited and loving it.

[@seamonkey02]

I remember Mihoyo once explained that Sumeru people from the jungle region will have light skin while those from the desert will have dark skin. Seeing a dark skin Sumeru NPC roaming around Sumeru city is most likely because they are either eremites or they are from the dessert that came to the city for reasons like trading or knowledge. Same goes vice versa. Though for Khalil, if I remember correctly, wasn't he sent to the desert village because he went insane? He was originally from Sumeru city and was part of the Akademiya but was kicked out so that's why there's a pale Sumeru guy in a desert village full of tan skin NPCs.

[@Danny-mp8dq]

kind of weird tbh isn't. Just write black and white character coexisting why even separate them. Segrating them to their own area is even more racist since it turns darker skinned characters into tokens who can only exist in certain areas like the desert or the volcanic regions of Natlan. Especially since there has literally been no recorded jungle dwelling civilization who was known for their pearly white and pale skin

[@Dandelionn728]

@@Danny-mp8dqbrother more sun equal darker skin it’s not that hard to understand. People from the desert are darker, it isn’t racism

[@Danny-mp8dq]

@@Dandelionn728 OOF this comment didn't age well. Natlan characters live in a volcanic desert, and they're still somehow white white

[@Dandelionn728]

@@Danny-mp8dq yeah.. it sucks lowkey. Doesn’t bother me too much but man would it kill them to make them AT LEAST tan

[@Jackson-ub1uv]

Bro was _really_ ahead of his time.

[@bierciadam9242]

I knew it

[@I.disagree]

It was so funny seeing the same CC grifters going from "You're not representing the culture well!!" And "This is such a racist game!" To glazing the HSR and fate collab the next day, talking about how much of a fan they are of Fate. Let me repeat that, *_Fate_*

[@user-rj5hz2ct6x]

Personally, I think that there should be more diversity in skin tones, but not to the extent that people are asking for. It’s a single continent. All of the skin tones are generally going to look similar while they will obviously be variety it’s not going to be, for lack of a better term, black and white.

[@Megirly-kq9wh]

the issue is the lack of variety in playable characters. Like you i wisj there was more diversity in skin tones, at least one playable character who was darker but ye i dont expect much i can only imagine

[@TeaTimeTable]

This may surprise you but dark-skinned asians did and do exist hell some of them are just as dark or are darker then some of us black people.

[@marzipancutter8144]

I don't really care about whether it's colorist or not, but I would like their design to fit their characterizations. Like it's good characterization to have the uni boys be light because they're sitting in the Akademiya studying all day, but then you're telling me they have the same skin tone as the scantily clad chars constantly running around in the desert sun? This isn't a genetics issue, even if they tan horribly slow, I gotta know like what kind of magic sunscreen do these guys use that can do this? Is there worldbuilding that says that People of Teyvat don't actually tan? Like, shit, now someone has to comb through all Genshin NPC dialogue to find if there's any instances of characters alluding to the possibility of suntanning to compile a 16-page document of Genshin skin tone lore and I don't want it to be me.

[@ruedelta]

@@Megirly-kq9wh Let's put it this way... the Chinese characters are likewise not exactly a full blend of skin colors in China. My skin looks much closer to Xinyan's. She is the only one in all of "fantasy China" that looks remotely like me. This does not bother me. It does not excite me when I see Xinyan either. The real reason I believe is that darker colors pull away from the established warm tones of the game, in particular with how light interacts with those surfaces. That and of course, no one cared for Xinyan's design, and that made a strong business case to try darker skin colors only sparingly. With a company the size of MHY, it should make sense that multiple voices (and therefore multiple concerns) are at play here. Just not enough reasoning to create "accurate representation" a la skin color, which in itself has always been a Western civilization obsession due to the racialization of national identity and the inherent presumption of ethnonationalist positions in the West these days.

[@himegyaru7213]

@@ruedelta wait you not liking the character it’s fine, but everything else you said in the first half is kind of weird. What you’re basically saying is that dark skinny characters pull away the bright atmosphere of the games, whereas light skinned characters don’t. Thats literally colorism

[@mordred7820]

I like the comment section of this video people from all walks of life are here saying that they don't care about the skin color of characters that much and love how accurate the culture of Sumeru is to the middle eastern culture. You know, the thing that actually matters. It wasn't just known stereotypes, it was the music, the dance, the mythology, the culture itself. That's why I love Genshin. They take something we know and they make an entirely new world with it. Genshin, unlike most games that have surface level diversity, has actual diversity.

[@8lefry8]

colorism definetly does matter. i understand the points and how many characters in sumeru have good cultural ties and rep to their respective places, but the lack of colors in characters is still an issue.

[@lastorderx20001]

It does not matter as long as they have that description "This is a work of fiction"

[@Mani-oc6cy]

Agreed. Not absolutely everyone who notes on this being an issue is saying absolutely every single person of said race in game needs to be dark skinned. But obviously there's going to be a few brows raised if a majority (if not all) are light skinned when there dark skinned people who DO exist in my community, and they're not as much of a minority as many think. It has me wonder why it's only an issue when fans perceive other fans ask for dark skinned characters (of different ethnicities and countries, not just africans) but not when it's the other way around (all light skinned characters in a region, when there is in reality a mix of colors in the community). Not. Every. Single. Dark. Skinned. Member. Of. A. Community. Is. Black. I've seen a lot of those members in the community bring that up as an issue and instead of there being a major spokesperson also saying the same thing (there are dark skinned people out there in these communities, not everyone is saying everyone needs to be "black" but if you're representing many communities of which HAVE dark skinned people alongside lighter skinned ones then it'd be nice to show them too) many people for whatever reason go with the assumption the dark skinned members of this community (who aren't black) are asking literally EVERY single character to be black and/or dark skinned. The point commonly flies over people's heads.

[@livingthing2897]

Dude, you took the words right out of my mouth. Literally every point you made is something I have thought and I'm so happy to see people thinking the same. I hope this video reaches the community on a larger scale because this needs to be heard. Here's to hoping there isn't too much chaos over Natlan... 💀

[@Flameblight]

Did... did nobody notice how a distinct part of the Sumeru story was about how the Akademiya was racist against the brown people? Like it's outright stated in the Archon Quest that they're racist against the Eremites and keep them heavily monitored and isolated behind the giant rock wall in a sandy hellscape full of sandstorms, monsters, and killer robots along with everyone else they don't want to see. That's literally the entire reason for that whole "King Desheret" thing that took up like half the Archon Quest. It's even outright stated that there's literally only one Eremite who is actually part of the Akademiya who got in because she was THAT much of a genius and then just got turned into an assistant/yes-man for the old white guy with a god complex to the point she lost track of her own goals and dreams. There is an actual, stated, in universe reason why Sumeru City has barely any brown people in it and it is literally "because in-universe racism".

[@Kindal0ner]

Genshin fans makes genshin fans look so bad bruh like i just got done watching a video where someone shipped some male characters to some female characters and they got death threats 💀💀💀💀💀💀

[@klaudiajaniak8437]

That's just classic genshin twitter. True genshin fans and players all know they are delulu and we don't associate with them. It just sucks because they make the whole genshin community look bad and most genshin players like myself are just regular people who love the characters, gameplay and lore

[@Flamedied]

As a white American I have no idea why some other white people are so pressed about what skin color characters are. Like it’s not our place to be so mad about it and being that vocal is just completely unnecessary for a small situation like this.

[@fleetingimmersion]

I've always assumed they were just trolls looking for attention. There seems to be a lot of persona-building on the internet, and I can see some people will pointlessly overreact to nothing issues like this behind their persona that they wouldn't have done irl with people they know.

[@Commraderanrin]

Personally im not really too sure about that, but the amount of people who aren’t even the minorities they’re “fighting” for are actually pissed for some no good reason 😭😭like you have better things to do than getting mad at fictional chars that don’t even live in the continents we live in for having a not so dark skin colour 😭@@fleetingimmersion

[@KafkaLover23]

​@@Commraderanrin Didn't he literally showed a black girl and an Asian dude being uspet in the beginning though? Than the next clipped showed that idiot Rev says Desu mocking fun of the controversy and he's white Like I'm pretty sure like 99% of the people who are like "oh this doesn't matter because I doesn't affect me" more than likely end up being white themselves to 💀💀💀

[@mayconlcruz]

@@fleetingimmersion Sometimes, they're certainly trolls wanting to make the world burn, but other times this tends to be the result of tokenism coming from couch activists who permeate social media, either to demonstrate superficial virtue, or to try to assimilate groups considered minorities for an ideological cause without considering their will in being activists to begin with.

[@abadenoughdude300]

@@Commraderanrin Ironically, the attitude of "I'm not of your people but I know better than you what you should be offended by as you clearly don't know that yourself, you're welcome" is awfully patronizing and actually quite raysist.

[@robynlawrence9428]

Bro, Mihoyo mosty caters to Chinese (home country) players. They have the bigger sway and are mostly considered when it comes to marketability and target demographic. Colorism is a thing in China. Being pale is one of the broader ideals of beauty in east asian countries. I get why Mihoyo doesn't care about making too many dark characters. But I am still upset that the exoticism of different cultures and biomes are desireable for their game, but not so much the people themselves. This is not just an east asian video game observation. It's also an observation seen in anime and other east asian media. And I get why. Doesn't mean it I'm happy about it. Or will defend it. I'm comfortable with admitting that I'm discontented about it.

[@B-r-u-h_]

This video aged beautifully. Once again the topic of "culture appropriation" has shown its ugly face in this community, and once again Mihoyo is going to ignore the vocal *minority* crying about it. Its just a game, grow TF up and touch some grass :) And before people come crying in my replies, I'm as dark as Kaeya and IDGAF about "rEpREsEnTatiON".

[@ouroboros6738]

I'm Indonesian and brown skinned. I had no problem the game being mostly whites

[@Eldr1tchGl1tch]

the funnier part is them turning it all into african coded people; frizzy hair and dark skin. oh yes, perfect representation

[@miner7879]

Natlan trailer release: *Ah Sh**#t**, here we go again.*

[@gunman8452]

I'm black and Arabian, and I never really cared about Sumeru characters not being dark skinned, would I have liked more of them? sure but remember that Genshin is a Chinese game, and the Chinese players matter the most to Mihoyo so of course they'll lean towards their preferences.

[@Unwebonnn]

THIS, and then I get called a hoyoverse d rider for stating this

[@gunman8452]

@@Unwebonnn tfw a Chinese company that targets Chinese players cater to their tastes

[@Danny-mp8dq]

you've ever seen Dislyte and Reverse 1999 whihc all dropped day one with black and brown people in it@@gunman8452

[@madisonmatthew9401]

I know I can’t speak for everyone when I say this but as a person who has experienced a lot of racism players need to talk about this. No, I don’t believe a Chinese games is actually going to try to honor the cultures it is basing its game off of (especially in terms of skin color) but this mentality of “it doesn’t matter cause it’s not gonna change anything” is why my people are hate crimed but no one seems to care if these cases don’t reach the news. Of course I get sad when my favorite game doesn’t have dark skin tones for no valid reason but we talk about it because this issue runs deeper than the game and Genshin is a great example of how art reflects the artist.

[@Enomaru001]

as a dark skinned indian, i def want more brown characters. it was pretty jarring and annoying in sumeru and sort of ruined the immersion for me. also, most of the complaints came from people like me, as far as i saw, not white kids. either way, i dont really care, i just want more brown characters.

[@kanicunny]

Present day: July 2024 - Natlan got teased All i can say is well well well

[@vincecamp6361]

Coming from a black guy, it’s so funny seeing my white friends be so offended by lack of rep 😂

[@Irbisadventurer]

I like, how they literally trying to give Nahida tan, WHILE SHE IS literally doesn't see and don't come in any contact with literally sun. She was trapped in 500 and originates from elvin-race, which considered whitish race.

[@yourmomkat0]

As a person from the Middle East I don’t think it’s racism at all and we actually have a really white ppl like this and I think it’s okay it’s just a skin colour💀

[@leeroy2752]

Im black. It is an issue of appropiation. But one that can be redeemed if the story is good and respectful. I just wonder why they would take inspiration from nations whose people are "too ugly" to be put in the game. Or have the enemies be darker lol

[@crowing3886]

Genshin will NEVER have black characters, let's be real. Get over it an move on. They literally make too many billions to care lol. I see both sides, but the privileged will never see or care when others aren't privileged like them. So representation doesn't matter an never will to people constantly represented. Yet we have the same people upset that "oh hogwarts legacy shouldn't have black characters because it's in 1700s in Britain!" An obviously black people didn't exist 😂 Also, that "tan waifu " shit has ALWAYS been racist to me. You'll assume they're tan before they're black in all anime. It never sat right with me. Also, this is the same issue with black hair in games, I'm assuming you're a gamer so let's not forget how "new" it is for black representation to even exist in gaming at all 😂 I'm black an care about black representation in games. ESPECIALLY games where you can create your own characters. Also, let's not act like these same people who don't care about representation aren't the ones naming all the places, countries an eras every region is based around yet the people aren't. It's half assed. I'm rambling but to act completely oblivious to every angle. Like the whole " oh it's china so obviously they don't know black people exist" is fucking goofy an insults the intelligence of Chinese people, you think they know ALL this history an information about these places but somehow retarted to the people is not possible.

[@crowing3886]

Also, the zhongli drama is absolute proof "representation " matters to hoyo, just not the representation you carr about 😂

[@Jase135YT]

Black. Never cared. Representation isn't just skin color. Thinking so is more racist than just not adding it.

[@zackang4731]

Perfectly summarized. The biggest insult these people do is to boil down culture to only skin color.

[@adaon2282]

So if someone race swapped ayaka and made her black that would be fine right? I mean she still represents Japanese culture well so there wouldn’t be a problem right?

[@zackang4731]

​@@adaon2282 Is that supposed to be a gotcha? Anyways yes and no. If Hoyoverse has made the entirety of Inazuma dark-skinned, I would still be fine with it. Because it's a fictional country loosely based on Japan, not Japan. No, is in the case of some random person thinking they're "fixing" something. That's just disrespect to the original artist/s.

[@Jase135YT]

@@adaon2282 If I were being hired for a job, I would want to be hired for my ability rather than my color. If there's going to be a black character, I don't want them to be black for the sake of being black. I want a good character that happens to be black. So to answer your question, no it wouldn't be fine. Your intentions of making an existing character black are not good ones.

[@lordtette]

​​@@Jase135YT your black you're never going to be hired for your ability. And how is it racist to be represented for your skin tone?

[@keorishalashaka2064]

Natlan has African influences,So I’d want some more dark skinned characters over there as a black person.Vanessa is from Natlan and she’s darker skinned.So I’m hoping for Natlan to have less white looking characters.

[@TylR3gor]

Don't get your hopes too high...

[@djotchuiangela9955]

I wish too but we all know how the reality Will look like 😅

[@jawhyun]

As an Arab, I have no problem with the colors of the Sumerian characters since it’s a CHINESE-DEVELOPED FICTIONAL FANTASY GAME!! like its a fantasy game not a real one and it’s very, mind you, INSPIRED by real life places but it is still fictional. While it would be very cool to have more tan characters I won’t fight for it since it’s not really racist at all, just a game.

[@Danny-mp8dq]

It's just fantasy until the character is black than everybody loses it. See The WItcher show for further details

[@Doddle172]

As a brown person, I don’t give fuck about some pixels skin colour. ❤

[@Mavuika_Gyaru]

Imagine using pregur U as a source 😂

[@emergency-RedHood]

as a middle eastern person myself it is so obviously to me that these people never set a foot in a middle eastern family/country/culture the middle east has sooo many different cultures living there and genshin also implemented them into sumeru. We have so many different skin tones, hair color and eye color. My family is actually a perfect example of it i am pretty pale and have blue eyes like my mom, i live in Germany and when people don't hear my name they think I'm german. my dad has a darker skin tone (it even happened that an afghan talked in his language to my dad because he thought he came from the same country. i have cousins with green eyes, green yellowish eyes, brown eyes and even have cousins with blond hair and blue eyes. The middle east is the home from so many different ethnicity that we have a broad variety of how people look. The only people that i think they got done dirty are indians because they didn't got a single character or npc in game even with all those indian references lmao (ngl jokes aside a character who wears a sari would be cool i think they look pretty)

[@Zeruk]

exactly!!!

[@edishasora5200]

it bothers me a lot spme people keep thinking middle eastern look like a n199a

[@StrawberryCocoaPowder]

@@edishasora5200 don’t be a coward, uncensor that last word 😊

[@kavehbf]

@@ZerukZERUK?? THE ANIMATION MEMER? 🤯

[@liandoaethend2403]

​@@StrawberryCocoaPowder💀

[@jason199506]

oh for what happens after all regions are out? look at honkai impact 3rd, first part finish, 2nd part come out, new story and everything. it's quite easy for genshin, they just leave teyvat and go to another world or something, they are traveller anyways

[@ashisace921]

to me it's not an issue cause, I live in Barbados and not everyone is black some are mixed, white ,India you name it, and it's just a fictional game in a fiction world

[@goldenbeauty4996]

Well dang you were right. Also the thing is Hoyoverse always planned for the Pyro archon to be Himeko so they would not change her skin tone anyway. But the other characters could have been darker although, knowing the history of colorism in china and south east Asia in general, it doesn’t even surprise me at this point. I’m of african descent too and it’s not like didn’t care at all this time around but Hoyoverse has so many other problems like with some VA’s they have hired that turn out to be pretty bad people, etc. So for me even though I like the game I will be playing it less but simply cuz my bank account can’t afford it and I already have all the characters I want. But the music in Genshin will always slap. They have represented cultures so well through the music and for me that was enough.

[@wimit8266]

Aren’t the people with darker skin tone the ones from the desert and the ones with the lighter skin tone the ones from the forest? I mean Dehya, Candace, Cyno, and Sethos are darker skin tone and are from desert while Dori, Alhaitham, Kaveh, Tighnari, Nilou, Collei, Layla, Faruzan have lighter skin tone and come from the forest. I’m pretty sure Sumeru NPCs are the same with the corps of thirty having darker skin tone while the Scholars having lighter skin tone. Khalil has lighter skin tone because he’s a former Scholar born in the forest. While Rima has a darker skin tone because she is part of the corps of thirty hailing from the desert. Aaru village has both skin colors because scholars are exiled to their village. I think Genshin did an okay job here.

[@nazitears4007]

the crazy thing is how we're not asking for all that much, it's something that moving the color slider can fix, it's not a monumental task.

[@TyBe-uo4ud]

So umm natlan. The placed based on aztec culture, nigeria and various other indigenous cultures like maori. With rference to music, clothing, names, etc. And only one character is of dark complection. It's certainly a design choice, but such a strange coincidence.

[@flowerene2630]

I actually really enjoy this video!! I usually tend to avoid videos like these because they’re too far onto one side or the other, but this video actually feels nuanced and not super black and white about the issue (or non-issue). I definitely wasn’t overjoyed about how many characters seemed pasty white, I was hoping some characters would actually look sorta similar to my family, but ofc they didn’t. But I was able to look past it and enjoy everything still. THEN, I had sent a message to one of my friend group chats like “omg I love Nahida she’s so cute actually” and these guys started spitting FLAMES. Like they would not stop talking about how she sucks and is a colorist character to like and she’s the worst and I just ended up like ignoring the chat after that. Like. She’s not just her skin. She’s a character with actual personality yk 😭 ugh… idk I wish more ppl could have a view like this. TLDR, my view is just: They could do better with the diversity, but the character’s skin tones are such a small part of the game in the grand scheme of things. They’re not committing a crime. Also I’m excited for Natlan!! Fontaine has been amazing and I’m excited to see what else is in store.

[@flowerene2630]

Also abt the fanart changing skin tone issue… I honestly don’t think it’s that big of a deal either as long as the character is recognizable and you’re not saying that you’re “fixing” the character. Like some people just draw the characters in a more realistic style and then get shit on for making a character have blood instead of being unrealistically pale. Not talking abt the “whitewashing” or “black washing” btw. Just like barely noticeable changes that get ppl bent out of shape because they’re not shade 401eb pale. Twitter is insane.

[@InmateOmighty]

4:02 IT WAS TRUE! SHE IS WHITE!

[@kx2174]

For Sumeru; The Middle East/India/Egypt are a spectrum of skin tones IRL. Having a variety actually makes sense as opposed to everyone being exactly the same color. That being said making almost all the Academia/Rainforest Characters and NPCs pale was not the best way to go about it, they could also have made it more of an equal split in regards to playalbe characters skin tones. The "fixing" character art is dumb though. As is acting like it's the end of the world if characters in a game don't look the way you want them to.

[@kx2174]

Also no way is the game ending after Snezhnaya. We still have the Abyss + Khaenri'ah and Celestia to explore.

[@Aven_lover]

Okay an entirely different issue, but hoyo can be colourist sometimes. Dehya, kaeya , xinyan and cyno keep getting different skintones in their fanarts (,please google the fanarts, kaeya seems to be getting lighter every year). As an indian, i just wish they would keep the tone consistent, thats it.

[@kavehbf]

personally I have my own headcanons. I prefer drawing some characters with darker skin or a tan but only a select few because there are people with the genshin characters skintones, and I don’t hate the source at all. ultimately it is their characters and even though I have my own personal headcanons that I express in my art I would never edit or disrespect someone elses artwork or the original source. I don’t personally mind how people draw these characters but I do hope people show respect; sure genshin can be a little iffy with depictions but genshin can have some good representation of cultures.

[@Abicated]

Im gonna be honest. I dont give a shit what skin color represents my culture. I like the traditions, cuisines, and design language I grew up around. If a group of purple skinned people on TV made people in a different county interested in engaging in those aspects of my culture, that makes me super happy. It doesnt matter if they look like me or not.

[@chancellormarkthetwenty-fi6406]

Spoiler about who the Pyro Archon: I'm pretty sure the Pyro Archon is going to be Himeko and I think anyone who has played a little bit of Honkai Impact or Honkai Star Rail even will know this due to the names and elements matching up. For example, Himeko uses Fire (and Claymore) in Honkai Impact while only maintaining her element is Star Rail. So... Yeah, I expect her to be "white" as that only makes sense after finding out that each Archon is based on an important Honkai Character. Examples being: Venti = Wendy, Zhongli = Welt, Shogun = ... Do I even need to say this one, Nahida = Teri, and tbh I'm still confused about Furina but I believe she's either Griseo or Seele. But yeah, I think everyone gets my point and honestly I think I wanted to get this out of my system as well

[@yourlocalyanfei]

I think Furina is meant to be Sin Mal from Gun Girl Z or one of the other older Honkai Games.

[@liandoaethend2403]

Yeps alot in the community im in compare her to Sin Mal​ in GGZ@@yourlocalyanfeiwe all thought she's going to look like Seele Hi3rd And i thought Sumeru archon would look like Su... pain😭

[@roach1898]

Oh man, you're not gonna believe what happen after the natlan tease 😂

[@mitchsz]

As a white person I can't really talk about it but would be pretty cool if Mavuika was the first black archon

[@chet_irl]

this videos aged awfully going into natlan

[@Danny-mp8dq]

This video certainly aged... interestly to say the very least...

[@croquetteandcurryimhungry]

Think something a lot of people don’t understand is that every nation is representing a certain era from the 1600s to 1800s not a specific country. For example, Inazuma is referencing the Sakoku edict where Japan basically locked their borders because the government didn’t want to get colonized by the west/ didn’t like people converting religions (supercut vers). This lasted for about 250 years while in game it went on for roughly 3 years. Sumeru is referencing the Persian empire before its downfall this is why there are so many cultures mixed into this region. The place was literally a melting pot of cultures, art, and immigration.

[@Levo2007GN]

I bet the "shut up gringo 2024" would be about natlan and the skin tone

[@RandomRussianGuy]

10:43 No way you played a PragerU video LOL. That channel is pure propaganda and has zero credibility. I understand the argument, but I would have chosen a channel with far more academic integrity than PragerU.

[@Dread_2137]

I don't find anything weird in white people in the desert. Just look at people of Egypt, there's everything between white and dark brown. And this is nothing new, it has been this way for millennia.

[@nixytoons43]

I'm Middle Eastern and I honestly never cared about the whole skin tone problem when they released Sumeru, it would be cool to see more proper representation but in the end it's a fictional game. i hope everyone starts to actually enjoy the game before it ends istead of starting a war over this

[@sadelien339]

Tbh the sumeru skin colours problem was so fucking stupid, like sumeru took a very larger of space when ppl look different from each other, turks persians amazighs Egyptians Indians... some of them have white skin and somes has dark skin , the way sumeru was represented the characters was kinda accurate for such a large group of people "except for dori and candace"

[@Cris__cris784]

I don’t care about any of the characters skin colors, I just care if the game has it’s quality until the end, idk why ppl care to much about their skin color it’s a stupid argument for me

[@valenun]

No but redesigns are actually cool, because having white boy number 58 is kinda boring to draw ┐(´ー｀)┌

[@TheLark7567]

People often times forget that this is a fantasy world BASED off of reality. They can make anyone any color. And people forget that genetics exist, there are lighter skinned people who have children with darker skinned people but the child might take after the lighter parent. It's not surprising. As a Dutch-Indonesian, I look white to some people but hispanic to others. People perceive others differently.

[@itsgreywind]

I am a Latina from Argentina and I want to highlight that Latin America is very diverse in terms of skin tones across different countries. If there is any place where multiple skin tones should be acknowledged, it is in Natlan. In fact, I believe that if they only include brown and black skin tones, it could be a poor decision as it could create a stereotype of what a Latino looks like. I also want to mention that if Hoyoverse is trying to showcase Latin American culture and only focuses on Mexico, it would be disappointing. This is because there is so much variation in culture across the continent.

[@itsgreywind]

And I want to add that not every country is so obsessed with skin color. I would be more pleased with a lot of focus on a correct representation of the culture instead of skin color

[@yaemiko6136]

From what I heard, Natlan is going to be based of South America AND West Africa and they'll be used as influence for the tribes there. 8 tribes or 6 tribes, I don't remember sadly

[@itsgreywind]

@@yaemiko6136 I only hope we can get a rich storyline, a proper study on the cultures they're trying to portrait and that's it. So far I see they are doing it a little bit better

[@justanotherweirdo11]

I don't play Genshin so this is my outsider perspective. I like if characters in one region have multiple complexions because that reflects the reality of the region it's based on. I think it's fine if there are pale characters because there are plenty of white or light skin people in North Africa and the Middle East. On the other hand, I think it's lame if there are no tan or dark skin characters because they're also common within the region. Though it seems like it's Genshin is loosely based on reality anyway so it's not like I actually care. Again, I don't play this game.

[@shslborger6895]

Genshin mainly takes inspiration from real life cultures for their regions. So it’s not a 1:1 version of reality. Still a bit weird to me that HYV shows time and time again they do their research but ignore the diversity of the people from these regions (at least for our playable cast). It’s probably to appeal to their main CN market but it’s still disappointing to see. I wish they wouldn’t play it so safe.

[@L16htW4rr10r]

Even though I understand the complain, someone did try to assasinate Da Wei because the problem in the game. Probably didn't want to risk it

[@justanotherwolf9222]

This video didnt age well. Colorism does matter, you just have no morals and don't care. It's okay to say that you dont care and dont hold racism/colorism accountable. Sumeru characters should have been tan, but Candace in particular should be brown, since she is based on a black Sudan woman. Natlan was whitewashed too. And even if the minorities supposedly don't care, its more likely theyre used to racism/colorism and don't care anymore bc its ubiquitous, doesn't change the fact its still morally wrong to have whitewashing/colorism/racism in your game, its not a good look and not a good hill to die on. Also, it's ironic Genshin cared enough about the Zhongli, the representation of China, and the race of the character mattered then and patched it lol. Weird how representation mattered then. You guys are hypocrites. Hoyo is colorist/racist and Hoyo doesnt care or are very poor at representing the cultures they take from (culture appropriate), it's okay to be honest.

[@GameSteph]

Hoyoverse will weep as the 200k signatures will stop them from milking their 130 mil playerbase :(

[@MxrmGxrl4]

“Don’t fight the fight that isn’t fought by the victim” realest statement I’ve read in a long time 👌🏾

[@Schnubi]

This video aged like fine wine, I didnt even notice the beginning was about Sumeru, not Natlan. I didn't notice this video was already a few months old.

[@sueme105]

as a brown person i rather have more endgame content and QoLs than crying about no skintones

[@moriah5027]

as a nigerian, yeah, id be pretty bummed out if natlan is just sumeru 2.0..... but id definitely be jumping for joy if i saw jollof rice as a signature dish 🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@adaon2282]

Yooo i'm nigerian too

[@spiderace7994]

​​@@adaon2282dang, guess we're all Nigerians here! 🇳🇬

[@daneddieloayon2701]

"As an African American" *Subscribes instantly*