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Insisting that there is nothing questionable about works of science fiction/fantasy that have inherently evil races that it’s morally right to exterminate and saying you’re just being a sensitive snowflake if you find the concept off-putting
Bonus points if they use the Thermian argument when you point out the similarities to colonialist and fascist ideology, as if the creator didn’t make a conscious choice to write the story that way
The Iron Dream pointed out how gross this concept was way back in the 70s and that really should’ve been the end of it
“But I need enemies that the protagonists can kill without getting into messy moral quandaries” that’s what fascists, imperialists, and slavers are for
I remember back when D&D removed racial alignments. The tears were delicious.
Remember the rage over that time WotC published a wheelchair accessible dungeon a few years back? I specifically remember a lot of explaining how a wheelchair bound wizard should actually just waste spell slots on Fly whenever he wants to move around or simply cast Wish to restore the function of his legs gg ez.
On the subject of D&D I find paladins kinda sus. I have both seen first hand or heard about way too many fash types who flock to that class because they want to be epic Lawful Good doesn’t mean Lawful Nice “nits make lice” Gygaxian genociders of designated evil races while having divine backing and being the in-universe embodiment of good morals.
I wanna commit every time some nerdass reactionary motherfucker says
“if you’re reading [evil species] as a stand in for minorities I think you’re the real racist ”
GAAAAAH you disingenuous fucks! I don’t have the fucking mental fortitude to try to explain why this entire history racial coding and othering of minorities makes it a little gross when somebody says they think it’s cool to exterminate all the goblins/orcs/kobolds/etc. because it’s all pretend make believe!
It’s not even hard to make a designated group of villains! These orcs are a marauding mercenary band, these kobolds sabotage mountain passes to rob and murder travelers. That’s all you need! The race essentialism just ruins a setting for me unless they’re like, actual demons from hell or cthulhu squids (even then I’m partial to an occasional chill devil or squid). Writing the antagonists, regardless of species or origin, as people makes for media that is so much more compelling.
Doublepost but
The Iron Dream pointed out how gross this concept was way back in the 70s and that really should’ve been the end of it
From the Wikipedia summary:
there is a casual mention that, while in this history Nazi Germany never came into being, it is the Soviets who have undertaken a systematic genocide of the Jews of Europe in this world’s version of the Holocaust.
hmmm . . .
Insisting that there is nothing questionable about works of science fiction/fantasy that have inherently evil races that it’s morally right to exterminate and saying you’re just being a sensitive snowflake if you find the concept off-putting
I think we have at least two of them on this board who are really defensive about the validity of Justified Genocide ™ in Goblin Slayer.
Tell me about it
Ah, but have you considered that because the characters say sexual violence is bad, that means its lurid depiction of sexual violence is good and also not lurid because I totally think women’s spines bend that way! Are you saying sexual violence shouldn’t be depicted? Should such topics be censored?! Because clearly if it is to be depicted, this is the best way to do it!
I think it’s much sussier because it has sexual violence throughout along with the genocide business. Shield Hero is sexist but surprisingly close to the (disgusting) average for such fiction once you get past that first episode (which is fucked up pandering to red pillers). Like, idk, think about the typical isekai and it’s astonishingly objectifying, to the point that it really feels like the MC views women in the fantasy world as truly being NPCs who mainly exist in reference to his sexuality, or maybe the MC is a Good Guy ™ but the shot composition and animation framecount demonstrate that the viewer is not meant to have nearly so noble an attitude.
On the other hand, there’s the pseudo-isekai Redo of Healer and the actual isekai Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World, both of which are much worse but also essentially soft porn and therefore less likely to be discussed publicly.
I can never bring myself to make a work that’s not morally ambiguous. I don’t even like playing a morally upstanding MC as a good thing. My impulse was to exercise him of it with complex situations. I’ll write pieces of shit (e.g. I like to use collateral damage to get back at people I don’t like), but it’s because they’re pieces of shit for one reason or another (see: not their inherited nature).
I thought about trying to write a morally simple novel and couldn’t bring myself to do it. Best I can do is “these capitalists need to be stopped”
Somewhere out there is a race of alien mosquitoes. They are inherently evil; even if it isn’t their fault.
