Probably not. This is Leah Myers, one of the OG sidelined black female LIs. From #LoveHacks. In 2016. She had an interesting storyline. Older sister to a fiery 14-year-old, psychologically abused by her ex-girlfriend, trying to scrape by as a writer. First appearance in Chapter 9 of the first book. Sidelined in favour of Mark and Ben. Granted, Ben wasnāt introduced until Chapter 11, but he was more prominent in the story, when he and Mark were jealous over MC. Sound familiar?
Probably not. I donāt blame you, Home for the Holidays (2017) is theĀ OGĀ shitty romance book and I speed-tapped through it too. Holly Wright, another childhood friend. Another writer. Sidelined in favour of Nick and Wyatt, and what makes matters even worse is that Nick wouldnāt even give her manuscript a chance because, to quote the Wiki,Ā āit doesnāt deserve to be publishedā. Is literally gifted a flashlight from MC if you didnāt pay for her premium gift. Was given the most stereotypical Christmassy name in the book. Done hellaĀ dirty, even for HftH.
Maybe, if you played Wishful Thinking back in 2019. I donāt even know if youād classify Ellen Thompson as an LI, as she only got actualĀ ārelationship developmentā if you call it that in Chapter 12. The book had 14 chapters. She had an interesting backstory, with abrasiveness stemming from insecurity and not being good enough for her family. Couldāve been an interesting rivals-to-lovers subplot if given time to develop. But nope. Shove her route 2 chapters before the end and call it a day.
Perhaps. Sheās Vera Reimonenq from Nightbound, also from 2019 (moment of silence for the lost potential). While the other 3 LIs also had compelling backstories, I thought hers was the coolest. Nightbound was heavily advertised as a Nik-focused story, but relatively, she did have more development than the others on this list. Still, it couldāve been better. Mysterious gloved stranger, Lady Smokeās daughter, kickass fighter, despite appearing outwardly calm. Whatās not to love?
You most definitely should. If you donāt, why? Sheās been sidelined so hard, treated as the ultimate walking wardrobe (Iād say she even surpasses Shreya Mistry for this title), and not to mention the victim of a racially-motivated hate crime shrouded as a āhuman sacrificeā, as if this somehow made it better. Was given a racial profiling criminal backstory for no reason other than for PBās āexploring racismā propaganda. In 2020. Twenty-fucking-twenty. Four years after release. Despite being a group of pixels, deserves the world and nothing less, and sure as hell did not deserve the treatment she received in Queen B. With a black female lead writer? Not at all.
Is there something in common with these characters? Of course. Youād have to be blind not to see it. Theyāre black. Theyāre female. Theyāre sidelined. Theyāre treated like absolute shit in comparison to the other LIs. This has been happening since the very beginning, meaning PB had 4 years to fix what couldāve been done in a matter of moments. And these are just the women. Griffin Langley, Shane Parker, Syphax, to name a few. Iām sure there are plenty others that I havenāt mentioned. Race-customizable characters are primarily written for the white audience (see: brushed aside a loose strand of my hair, when black male MCs have no loose hair??? And plenty of times, hairstyles donāt even match the spriteās head).
So donāt you fucking dareĀ come at the black players in this community or donāt you fucking dare try and defend PB sayingĀ āthereās no racismā orĀ āPB has black representationā. I cannot speak for the black community personally because I am not black, but I cannot begin to imagine what youāre all feeling seeing thisĀ as your representation, because itās notĀ representation. If this doesnāt make you angry, it should.
Racists shut the fuck up challenge.
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