The Lack of Diversity

Art by TYPE-MOON

In this coming generation, with numerous milestones in showcasing and representing diversity, shows and movies have been incorporating diverse characters and cultures and many minorities have been able to find characters who they can see themselves in. This is something that videogames have also been keen on venturing in. However, there is seemingly a struggle when it comes to portraying South Asians in media, and more than a few companies and franchises have found themselves in hot water for their specific portrayals of South Asians and their culture. The reasoning behind it is deeply rooted in struggles with poor representation and perception of South Asians, and the importance of these issues translating into reality.

Even in this age of diversity and inclusion, I find it hard to see that many South Asians in media that follow fictional characters in animation and video games. In looking at the few examples, however, there is a pattern to be noticed in the portrayal of South Asians and how misinterpretation and inherent implied colourism can prove to be harmful to the very community such games want to include.

One notable franchise that incorporated South Asian characters into their media would be the “Fate” franchise from TYPE-MOON. With their first visual novel “Fate Stay/Night” released in 2004, they have expanded into various other media, including anime and manga adaptations, RPG games, and a mobile game that still runs through present. One major trait of the series was that their characters were based off of several different historical and mythical figures of the past, coming from several regions of the world. This, of course, meant that they would eventually reach the South Asian subcontinent.

The first appearance of a South Asian character would be in 2013 in “Fate/Extra CCC”, a sequel to their dungeon crawler predecessor, “Fate/EXTRA'' released in 2010. The character introduced was Karna, a hero from the Hindu epic, the "Mahabharata". This myth is a very well known legend in India and is fairly connected with many stories relating to Hindu mythology. In the "Mahabharata," Karna is described as having “physic radiance like bright gold or burning gold. His body reflected the brightness of fire and sun.” In many of the art and pieces made of him, his physical appearance showed one with brown eyes, black hair and dark skin. In contrast, TYPE-MOON’s interpretation of the hero was a sheer contradiction to the myth. With skin paler than a sheet of paper, blue eyes and white hair, the “Fate” Karna looked nothing like the legend that Indians were familiar with.

The disappointment with TYPE-MOON’s portrayal as well as the controversy was present, albeit not as outspoken during its initial release.

TYPE-MOON later released a dark skinned Indian character years after. Arjuna, from the same legend as Karna, and his supposed rival, was introduced in the mobile game “Fate/Grand Order” in March of 2018, later a main character in “Fate/EXTELLA LINK”, the sequel to the spin off of “Fate/Extra,” “ Fate/Extella”. Arjuna wore clothes that were inspired from Indian garments, and therefore contrasted with Karna (who is clad in an acultural bodysuit and armor) in the way that more represented his culture.

That is not to say there weren’t controversies. Karna was portrayed as a rather generous person, as his conflict in the original Hindu epic was that he was a “flawed good man.” However, Arjuna was, in comparison, made to seem like a resentful person by his side. Arjuna was always seen as bitter and aggressive towards his rival, to which Karna only treats him with niceties, and is shown to harbor multiple instances of envy, jealousy and pent up frustration with himself. The purpose of Karna’s and Arjuna’s characters were to be foils to each other, in which Karna was the one misunderstood to be bad, but he’s actually good, while Arjuna’s perceived to be the hero, while he’s deeply flawed. However, it is seen that TYPE-MOON heavily favors Karna and often paints him in a good light and emphasizes his good nature, and this is often at the expense of Arjuna being shown in a negative light. This characterisation is flawed in general, but what’s ultimately detrimental about this is the choice to make Karna the lighter skinned of the two. In addition to this, “Fate/Grand Order” also includes Rama, a major deity in Hinduism, and Ashwatthama, also from the Mahabharata. Rama is pale skinned, inaccurate to his appearance being stated in his epic being blue, as he was an avatar of Vishnu. He is characterized to be calm and heroic. On the other hand, Ashwatthama, like Arjuna, is darker skinned. However, his characterisation shows him being an aggressive person, with eternal pent up rage and frustration. With this we see that Fate’s two light skinned South Asian characters are considered the morally just ones, while the darker skinned ones are painted to be the aggressive and heavily flawed ones. The harm and detriment with this, unintentional or not, is very severe as this is inherently colourist.

In an article, “The Power of (Mis) Representation: Why Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes in Media Matter”, by Mari Castañeda, she says that “stereotypical media depictions are received as the truth, rendering impressions that people of color are economically challenged and criminalized” and this verbalizes the amount of hurt that such portrayals can cause, albeit the intention or lack of. The stereotyping of South Asians within the media is huge, because of the small band of which there are South Asian cultures represented in media to be analyzed.

However, the misinterpretation and stereotypical depictions have a harsher effect than the simple lack of them at all.

To many, 2013 was ages ago. And 2018 was hardly a time for social media “wokeness.” And in that time, many people seem to be more aware of how interpretations can be harmful to different cultures, there has been more accountability towards these kinds of things. However, has this portrayal really changed now?

“Genshin Impact” is not a name that has strayed from many ears. The game released by Hoyoverse in 2020 has a player-base of over 63 million people in present day. The game releases updates periodically, and with that comes new regions and stories for their players to explore. Each region is based on a region in the real world, with areas such as Liyue representing China, and Inazuma representing Japan. Recently, in “Genshin Impact”’s new update, players get to explore the new region Sumeru, which takes inspiration from South Asia. Although the release was originally on Aug. 24 of 2022, many characters were introduced to the fanbase and… heavily scrutinized.

People were not happy with the new characters. Those represented in the keyframe of the soon to be released Sumeru characters were mostly light skinned. The main archon, or representative, being a very small pale skinned girl. In addition to this, many fans pointed out the inaccuracies of clothing and cultural references made by Hoyoverse in trying to incorporate South Asian elements while visually referencing Amazigh, Nubian, and Persian cultures and combining themis group. In an article, “As It Adds New Regions, Genshin Impact’s Politics Only Get Messier” by Rui Zhong, published on Polygon, it was stated, “Fans have pointed out that the movements of dancer Nilou were meticulously researched, but that her belly dance costume is a mismatch for her Persian-style performances.” Hoyoverse has shown a lot of inaccuracies, as fans have pointed out, with South Asian culture, as well researched as they claim to be. Many of the outfits, specifically regarding the female ones, which mostly follow inspiration from belly dancing outfits, have an orientalist amalgamation of Middle Eastern themes that are misrepresented or inaccurate. This, along with their lack of diversity within the region, have angered fans, and rightfully so. The lack of representation, especially in an area that was designated for them, makes South Asian fans greatly disappointed and this impact (heh) has created a significant amount of controversy even now.

The elements of orientalism displayed in the recent update are extremely detrimental in the way that misrepresentation often does. It creates harmful stereotypes and allows for the profiling of the cultures involved outside of the media we consume as fiction. Thus, it becomes a very real problem.

While some may argue that any representation for marginalized groups is good, that is not the case when it comes to misinterpretations and stereotypical ones portrayed in the media. The dangers that come with such inaccuracies in the depiction of culture is that it permeates a sense of disrespect towards that community and isolates them more often that it includes them, despite whether that was the intention or not. Many minorities often get this sense of excitement of “Oh-! That character is just like me!”, when they see a character that represents their culture. That sense of inclusion is precious to each and every person within a minority, who often, in general feel very left out in a world that is predominantly everything they’re not. To dash that excitement with inaccuracies that do not represent them correctly or failure to even include them in the way that was promised is very detrimental to the very cause that people try to promote when adding such characters to their media.

South Asians who are excited to see characters that are supposedly just like them who see that the character is instead pale skinned and does not relate to them at all in ways of culture, are directly harmed with these actions.

The imaginary worlds that we allow ourselves to be emerged in are much different than our reality but we cannot ignore that media does have big effects outside of their fictionality. Colourism displayed in media, while it may not be in the magnitudes of acts of colourism in real life, is still harmful to minorities. However, as we can see from the amount of criticism that major companies receive for such ill taste in their representation, we are in an age where we are holding more people accountable. So hopefully, some day, brown people will see more people just like them in their favorite media.