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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 year

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A bit of an out of the blue question but do you think the new event outfits are offensive or innacurate in any way?

I saw some people have started using this, Cater's New Year's outfit and Diasomnia's dorm uniform as an example of why Twisted Wonderland and Yana Toboso are offensive.

Note: I am not saying Twisted Wonderland is an offensive game in the slightest but I've seen a lot of people have issues with certain things in the game they find problematic.

[Referencing this post!]

Okay, so 💦 we’re going to get into a lot of heavy topics about real world events and cultures in this post, so please take note of the tags and content warnings before proceeding!

I also want to preface this with the disclaimer that I do not intend to speak on behalf of the groups affected by this, nor am I am an expert in matters of world history/various cultures. I am only presenting you with the preliminary knowledge that I have so that you can come to your own conclusions.

I will, of course, give my own thoughts on these situations, but please bear in mind that it shouldn’t be my responsibility or obligation to do the research for you or to tell you right from wrong; that’s a decision you need to learn to make for yourself.

***CONTENT WARNING: discussion/mentions of war, racism, colonialism, Nazism, orientalism, genocide, and imperialism!***

To make things easier for everyone (including myself), I’m going to begin with responding to the latter 2 asks above.

I will then address the immediately relevant topics regarding the clothing in the Sunset Savanna event, then work backwards chronologically (so the section after is about Cater’s New Year clothing, and the final section is about the Diasomnia uniforms). I will have my general thoughts at the very end of each section, and then my overall thoughts.

On “Orientalism”

To the second ask's Anon 💦 I believe you’re not using that term correctly. “Orientalism” refers to appropriating or condensing elements of specifically Asian cultures (which includes the Middle East), not African cultures. By definition, the outfits of the Sunset Savanna are not “orientalist” because the clothing is meant to draw inspiration from African sources, not Asian ones. "Orientalist" is not a synonym for the word "racist", but rather orientalism can be an example or a component of racism. Please be more careful with your wording.

On Ruggie and the “African Poverty” Stereotype

This part is to address the Anon in the third ask!

I don't believe that Ruggie is a stereotype of African poverty. It can appear that way because we have such a small sample size of students from the Sunset Savanna (3). In statistics, the conclusions drawn are significantly less reliable or accurate if you're pulling from a small pool of data. I think this is also the case with Ruggie. It's an example of representation bias, where seeing one extreme makes an observer assume that this extreme says something about the whole group without looking at other context clues. Even if we were to accept that comparing Ruggie to the other two Sunset Savanna students is an acceptable measure, the stereotype still doesn't hold. Neither Leona nor Rook are destitute, which would seem to imply that Ruggie's impoverishment isn't the norm in their country, but an outlier. Even other minor mentions of characters from the Sunset Savanna do not imply poverty (ie Sebek's grandfather, who is said to come from there).

Secondly, I think that Ruggie being the only "poor" character in the main cast is a conscious decision, but not one made from racist roots. Each of the TWST characters borrows heavily from their respective Disney counterparts, and as you've stated yourself, the impoverished background that Ruggie comes from harkens back to the struggle of the hyenas in The Lion King. This is different from the other six movies whose villainous characters are twisted, as they largely do not have circumstances which focus on socioeconomic class differences. The closest other example we get to that is Aladdin, but this doesn't hold up since we don't have a formal twisted!Aladdin with which to contrast to Kalim's enormous wealth. Jamil is twisted from Jafar, who is the Sultan's advisor, and thus would have a great amount of wealth himself (hence why this is reflected in Jamil by having the Viper family also be fairly well-off). This means that Ruggie was very deliberately designed to be the way he is because of his Disney inspiration. It's a large part of his character, right down to several lines he speaks in episode 2--all that talk about how even hyenas can "become king" at NRC.

Regarding NRC, we need to remember that it is considered a VERY exclusive private school. If it’s anything like upscale learning institutions in the real world, most of the students attending will be from wealthy/influential families or just middle class or upper middle class ones in general. Look at how stacked the NRC cast is; Riddle’s parents are healers (his mom being very highly respected), Leona and Malleus are royalty, Vil is a huge celebrity, Cater’s dad is a banker, Rook and the twins are implied to be from important families, Idia is the future director of a secret organization, Kalim is loaded, etc. It makes sense that there would be far fewer impoverished students compared to privileged ones (though I do think it’s unfair 😔).

Another thing to consider is that while Ruggie is definitely the most extreme case of poverty in the main cast (again, due to being twisted from the hyenas), there are others in less-than-ideal situations too. We cannot discount them in this discussion. Deuce is from a single parent household (which most likely means a smaller income than a two parent household), and it is implied in episode 5 that Epel’s entire village was struggling financially until Vil stepped in. Poverty is a spectrum, and we see this in lesser forms in the other students. As you’ll notice, even when we count Deuce and Epel, “poverty” is a small fraction of the main cast, which, again, is similar to patterns observed in real world posh private schools.

The final point I will make here is concerning Lilia and Vil. Yes, they’re unorthodox picks for a Sunset Savanna event, but this doesn’t mean there is ill intent behind them going. We can’t say “it feels like the devs made this decision to clown Leona” because the event is not out yet and therefore has not had an opportunity to explain why those two specifically joined the group for the trip. I don’t even think it’s particularly weird to see Lilia and Vil traveling in general; it seems like they do that a lot anyway (Lilia has canonically traveled a lot and Vil has traveled with his dad and must travel sometimes for his job). Leona also appears to dislike a majority of the main cast, not just Lilia and Vil; if anyone else had been picked, he’d probably be just as grumpy about it. (Leona probably doesn’t like that Kalim is coming along either; why is the hate presumed to be directed only at Lilia and Vil?) It’s grossly preemptive to make conclusions about the reasons why Lilia and Vil are present and how Leona feels about them going with him before the event has come out 💦

Sunset Savanna Clothing

While coding certainly exists (ie when fictional things are stand-ins for real world people, objects, concepts, places, etc), fiction is also able to draw on real world inspiration WITHOUT being a one-to-one parallel of the real world AND without necessarily being racist. This is true of media such as Avatar the Last Airbender, which exposits many eastern philosophies and concepts, such as balance with nature, balance, and destiny, while also having designs and a world heavily inspired by a number of Asian groups. Although it is clear that each of the four elements has a main inspiration (the Air Nomads draw from Tibetan monks, the Water Tribes draw from the Innuit people, the Fire Nation draw from Japan, and the Earth Kingdom draws from China), these are not absolutes. For example, Song, a healer from the Earth Kingdom (based on China), wears a hanbok, a piece of clothing which is traditionally Korean. Avatar intersperses ideas from many Asian cultures in a thoughtful manner because these are just parts of their world WITHOUT ever claiming to be “Chinese” or representative of Chinese. These real-world concepts and ideas were appropriately adapted for a fictional world, and it is not appropriation because it is not done in an exploitative or disrespectful manner.

I would argue that Twisted Wonderland is capable of doing the same, as we’ve seen places such as the City of Flowers (which is basically twisted Paris without explicitly BEING “just Paris but with magic”). You can tell from the food and the language spoken that the City of Flowers IS meant to be “French”, but they have a customs and traditions of their own that isn’t tied to real world Paris. Twisted Wonderland is never claiming that “oh, this fictional country is supposed to be a version of [this country in the real world]”; they are adopting ideas and making them into new lore for their own world. This is also true of other areas we have visited like Harveston and the Scalding Sands. The only reason conclusions are drawn that parts of the TWST world are “equivalents” to those on our world comes purely from fandom speculation and interpretations.

Some will think that the TWST world should be exact representations of the real world, and others choose to make the divide between fiction inspired by reality and reality itself. This distinction is important to consider in navigating this conversation, as the stance adopted will definitely play into whether one believes content to be in poor taste or not.

Yana herself has stated that the Sunset Savanna event has been in the works for 2 years now, so I’d imagine that a considerable amount of research and planning went into this event. I won’t speak on the quality of said research, as we can never know for sure. However, if previous homestay events are of any indication, the research was most likely NOT to make a one-on-one 100% “accurate” recreation of any African culture but rather to integrate elements of African culture to create a part of the TWST world which can exist as its own entity while still remaining respectful of its inspiration. We must also remember that the event itself isn’t out yet, so we can’t accurately judge if there is appropriation or offensive use of its inspiration with just some visuals. A similar situation happened when Rollo was first announced and we hadn’t even met him in the game yet; people jumped the gun and claimed that because the character he is inspired from is racist and genocidal that Rollo too is problematic—yet when the story actually unfolded, Rollo was not either of those things. He still borrowed ideas of self-righteousness and contempt for sinners (magic users in this context) from his Disney counterpart, but he was not the exact same as that counterpart.

With that being said, let’s talk about the new event outfits. The question on the table is “are these clothes offensive or inaccurate in any way?”

Firstly, is important to understand that Africa is NOT a monolith. It would be impossible (and frankly reductive) to boil down a whole continent to a single unified style of dress. Gauging the “accuracy” is simply something that cannot be done, as it appears that Twisted Wonderland borrowed from many areas of Africa when designing the looks. It wouldn’t be 100% accurate to any singular part of Africa, just as Avatar would not be 100% accurate to any singular part of Asia.

Secondly, we cannot speak for others or over others. If you want to know if the clothes are offensive, ask an African or someone who can speak wisely on the matter. It’s not that others cannot hold an opinion on it, but I think it's just as valid, if not moreso, to hear from the ones whose cultures are being represented rather than just the people who claim to speak for or defend those cultures while not being a part of it. Someone with knowledge of and experience of a certain culture can speak for themselves and how they feel about this. They just may choose not to, especially in the cases where they aren't deeply upset with the representation (because if they don't feel a strong emotion toward it, what is there for them to react to publicly?). The spectrum of hurt is also vital to consider here. When we focus only on the loudest voices (no matter where it may come from), it creates this false assumption that more people are upset than there actually are, or that one/a handful of comments reflects the thoughts of the entire group.

I personally don’t find the clothing offensive, but take my opinion with a grain of salt, as I’m not super familiar with African fashion. (I’m not counting a few Google searches as enlightening me on the full extent of it.) From my understanding, the outfits seem to borrow heavily from the designs of The Lion King’s Broadway musical and even Black Panther (two Disney productions that have been positively received by at least the African American community). I see a lot of similar patterns and accessories in Leona and crew’s outfits; my thought is that if the latter two pieces of media also borrow from many different African cultures and were not widely criticized for inaccurate or offensive portrayals of their costuming, then what is the issue with TWST’s? No one in any of these productions (TWST included) is claiming to be presenting Africa as a monolith but rather is borrowing elements from many countries, tribes, and even other cultures entirely to come up with their costumes. Again though, I wouldn’t take my word as gospel; please look around the community and see if there are any African fans that do take offense to the design direction that TWST has taken. (If anyone that is familiar with African fashion and/or culture does see this post, I'd love to hear your thoughts and broaden my understanding of this situation.)

In saying that, I also want to stress that you aren’t “wrong” or “bad” if you disagree with this take. I do not mean to discredit or to invalidate people’s thoughts on this matter; I understand why people feel so strongly about this, especially when popular media has historically not been kind or accurate in its depictions of other cultures. When a pattern has already been established, it’s so much easier to be wart of new content. You have a right to find whatever material you encounter as offensive or not offensive; all ask is that you respect differences in opinion, and at least give the event a chance rather than letting your thoughts prime (set expectations for) the perception of every bit of lore to come in the new event 💦

Cater’s New Year Outfit

The issue that people take with Cater’s outfit is associated with the particular design of it, which is very reminiscent of the style that was worn and popularized during the Taisho era of Japan. For those who may not know, the Taisho era is not remembered fondly because it is characterized by Japanese imperialism into significant parts of Asia, such as China, Korea, and Taiwan. There’s more grueling history there, but I’m going to cut it short for the sake of brevity. You’re free to do more research into this if you’re interested.

For comparison, here is Cater's New Year attire and here are some examples of Taisho era clothing:

As you can see from the linked images, Cater has some elements of Taisho clothing while also sporting a modern twist to them. The cut of his shirt imitates the cut of the nagajuban, and instead of an obi, he wears his usual Heartslabyul sash at the waist. Additionally, it can be argued that the Heartslabyul jacket worn over that is meant to be similar to the cloaks characteristic of Taisho fashion.

In any case, what I said for the Sunset Savanna clothing also applies here; please listen to the voices of people who were impacted by Japanese imperialism. Their feelings are valid, and if they find discomfort in Cater wearing the clothing, then those feeling should be respected. However, individual opinions will widely vary and are not representative of the entire group. If one Chinese person says they are offended by Taisho clothing, it doesn’t mean ALL Chinese people will find it offensive.

At the same time, someone is NOT automatically a bad person or supportive of imperialism just because they enjoy the fashion or excuse Cater for wearing it. Some will believe that clothing is just clothing and that there isn’t a deeper message behind it unless the one wearing that clothing acts in a way that glorifies what they wear. And indeed, it is possible to appreciate the fashion of a time period without condoning the things that occurred or were promoted during that same time period. For example, if someone were to wear Edwardian inspired fashion or just straight up Edwardian era clothing, it doesn’t mean the individual supports colonization. Clothing CAN be used to project a message, but it does not ALWAYS project a message.

This is actually something I feel I can speak on, as my family comes from one of the areas directly impacted by Japanese imperialism. I don’t personally take offense to Cater wearing what he is. I’m of the opinion that so long as he’s not acting in a way that glorifies imperialism then it’s fine; to me, wearing it alone does not promote imperialism, just as “problematic” material appearing in media does NOT mean automatic support of that material). That being said, I also have friends with similar backgrounds that are offended by Cater’s clothing. We are able to disagree without acting morally superior to one another or insulting the other’s views, and I feel that this is something that should extend to others when discussing this topic. At the end of the day, we must accept that one opinion does not define a whole country and that there is no clear “right” answer here; it’s all left to individual interpretation.

Diasomnia Dorm Uniforms

I’ve already previously addressed the Diasomnia uniform controversy here.

To quickly summarize, it appears to have been a mistranslation of a particular term; this most likely occurred due to the context of the rest of the sentence not being taken into account when translating. OP’s translation has since been deleted, but the Reddit thread of responses still exists and in it, OP apologizes for this error.

Personally, I don’t see a point in assuming the worst of people when the context clues all point to it being a translation error and not purposefully meant to invoke imagery of N*zis. To me, it looks like a general military look with some elements of equestrian fashion and nothing more than that. As is the case with Cater’s New Year attire, I have friends who think otherwise. While they concede that there was a mistranslation, they still perceive the Diasomnia uniforms as questionable in design. These opinions can coexist, because everyone’s perceptions will vastly differ based on their own world knowledge and experiences.

I want to reiterate a point I bring up in the Diasomnia post, as it relates to “problematic” or sensitive content in general:

[...] we should not make assumptions in such broad strokes about another person based on what they create. People are capable of creating things for reasons other than “I support this”. They may want to call light to something or critically discuss it in a way that isn’t possible in real life. This is true of much of literature, from the classics to contemporaries, fiction to nonfiction.

Depicting insensitive things in media becomes a major issue when “bad” things are glorified or treated like they are “good”. The presence of a “bad” thing in of itself does not necessarily make the entire work “evil”.

General Thoughts

When it comes to issues like this, I feel that the immediate reaction is to take sides, then throw terrible words at the opposing side or assume the absolute worst of the devs. Honestly, I don’t think that’s the best thing to do. It’s very narrowed minded and short sighted 💦and ultimately, it’s unnecessarily inflammatory and won’t make anyone want to hear you out if you do feel uncomfortable with something the game has presented. It’s all very reactionary rather than stopping to critically examine the context and looking at more informed opinions.

Of course, this isn’t to discount gut reactions. Sometimes they can be very strong, and rightfully so. This also isn’t to say that TWST, or Disney/Aniplex has NEVER screwed up, because they most certainly have. (For example, I don’t think using the term “exotic” was in good taste for Fairy Gala; they should have used another term. A lot of Disney’s attempts to portray certain cultures also fall flat and come off as reductive.) It’s just that these particular scenarios are circumstances in which I think the fandom is either oversimplifying the matter or shouting too loudly over the people that are actually impacted by this and may have something to say about it.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that whether you’re offended by their clothes or not, both sides are entitled to feel how they do. You’re not “right” or “wrong” for believing what you believe; just don’t go out of your way to claim the people who don’t agree with you are bigots or evil 💦and please, please, PLEASE listen to other opinions, especially those coming from the potentially affected groups. Don’t assume that just because there is a ruckus being kicked up that it is representative of everyone in that group, because it most definitely is NOT. Don’t take everything you see or hear at face value, LOOK INTO THINGS YOURSELF (I even encourage you to fact check everything I’ve told you in this post!). Lastly, if you’re going to discuss these topics, please remember to do so in a respectful manner!!

I’m sorry if I sound worn out by now or if I sound like a broken record but I’m just 😔 sad and tired, I guess?? These ARE important topics to discuss, and I will always support critiquing the media we consume, but I don’t enjoy it when such broad and instant assumptions are made. I wish people would be less reactionary, take a step back, evaluate the information being presented, do some research of their own (even into stances which clash with theirs), and then decide for themselves whether something is upsetting to them. As I said in the beginning, it shouldn’t be my responsibility or obligation to do the research for you or to tell you right from wrong; that’s a decision you need to make for yourself 💦

I also wish there would be more respect for those that take opposing opinions. Instead, there is a lot of hearsay and assuming that said hearsay is automatically correct just because there is an intense claim or emotion behind it, and a lot of judgment of others’ moral character based on these disagreements. It unintentionally leads to shaming people who are genuinely excited for new content. It’s all very tiring, it kills hype, and it makes people afraid to demonstrate their excitement 💦 I wish we’d just let the content come out in full and speak for itself before evaluating it so harshly... As for myself, I’m going to remain optimistic but still reasonably cautious 🥲

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