only going to discuss duke in detail because it genuinely bothers me.
one thing you have to understand is that duke didn’t just happen to be born a black man the way people are, he was created as one even when the original work has fortunato as a rich italian man. you are using in universe (watsonian) logic to explain something out of universe (doylist). this isn’t about “defending your faves from racism allegations”, it’s talking about the writing choice made, you didn’t address the main point of the post!
anyway, there is very obvious racial subtext in the whole etombing situation. like be serious do you think it’s sheer coincidence that the elite group is full of white people seeking to conform and maintain appearances playing within the system since it benefits them vs the misfits with an defiant, openly androgynous woman (wearing men’s clothes), three poc and a disabled man who can’t/won’t play? [lenore’s disabled too but we don’t see it in the after life.] it’s almost funny how you think the comic with a central theme of the systemic oppression of women wouldn’t be aware of what it means to write poc characters, especially considering that prospero’s backstory deals with internalised racism (hiding his accent, refusing to speak his mother tongue) and classism.
aside from you missing that this is a writing critique, your defence doesn’t hold up in universe either. it’s interesting that you seem to be framing it just out of practicality and rationality, when he didn’t even know if killing people actually killed them when he proposed the plan! he didn’t know if there would be consequences from the deans for doing so! just reading the comic shows you tells it was out of malice, the death game itself is a convient scapegoat for him to indulge in his sadism. if it was ‘necessary’ annabel and prospero would be on that shit immediately, but they both don’t want this! will and ada are only doing so for his approval, they don’t like this either.
and it’s worth noting that montressor’s initial target is lenore driven by his sadistic obsession with her rather than the threat she poses, montressor’s dynamic with lenore is full of misogyny, he sees her akin to a wild horse who he wants to “tame” for the thrill, there’s a lot of sexual undertones for that reason:
he’s constantly harassing her through words and actions, he invades her space, caresses her face and grabs her hips, he makes flirty innuendos, he very clearly isn’t doing this because he’s scared for his life or finds it a “necessary evil”, he simply wants to break her in because she’s defiant, he made this plan solely because he wants her to “rot” within the wall, he wants to chain her and make her suffer before she dies. his motive for the wall plan was to sate his bloodlust, hence why lenore was his target.
[and yes that subtext is there on purpose, we know she’s a lesbian and these attempts at “fixing/breaking her” read differently because of that. she doesn’t conform and he feels the need to torture her over it, just as her father/society/the deans did.]
and his dynamic with duke also has a racial subtext (look up micro aggressions), annabel could only use duke as a substitute for lenore because montressor is already interested in hurting him.
his intro is him invading duke’s personal space knowing duke is “sour” on him (hence why lenore steps in and gets him to back off) and clearly looks down on him, calling him feminised insults like “tenderfoot” and “fancy pants” [same-ish implication as when pluto calls his accent “poncy”]. he doesn’t want to share a room with him, duke implies that he needs to “put up with a lot from montressor” (so admitted harassment) and is afraid to wake him up when will disguised as lenore lured him. montressor takes the hick insult very seriously when duke says it but absolutely nothing when ada (and others) does the same.
again just READ the comic and look at how things are framed, montressor is very visibly getting his kicks from doing this.
again there’s that element of wanting duke to suffer, he wants him awake, he’s just continually mocking him and leaning into him and getting in his face unnecessarily. he doesn’t give a justification for what he’s doing because he knows there isn’t one and he doesn’t care, duke hasn’t done anything to warrant this and all of them know it. i wonder why you are so eager to justify it, be serious, do you genuinely think they were under threat of life from a spectre-less, bottom of the de-merit board “tenderfooted” duke? because none of the characters who put duke in the wall think that.
i know this is The White People Website so i didn’t expect that much but what bothers me is your blindness. i truly don’t understand how you don’t see the incredibly clear inherent racial implications of a gang of white people chaining a black man, specifically binding his legs and arms and placing a chain around his throat, to be suffocated to death. this isn’t happening to the dozens of white characters, it’s happening to the single black man.
works don’t exist in a vacuum magically devoid of real world implication and experience, rnf are writing from the real world and we are reading from it. you and i know damn well this has happened over and over in the exact same way for people of colour at the hands of white mobs, rnf certainly do since they used that imagery. you don’t think lynchings have been justified by the “threat” poc pose? that we haven’t been hunted over supposed slights to our betters or made scapegoats? it’s the same damn rhetoric used, that it was necessary since poc are somehow an inherent threat even when we’ve done nothing wrong and have never met any of the people that hold such animosity toward us.
and just look at how duke begs will, ada and annabel to do something because an injustice is happening, read again what he says, he hasn’t done anything to them yet they want to kill him, whilst they help hurt him or enable it. you don’t see anything? not a commentary on brutalisation with people who can help doing nothing since it benefits them? how people use “death game” as an excuse to be inhumane?
finally, it’s the simple truth of the world that poc will experience the world different on account of being poc, race is a core part of identity and it colours the world around you because the world isn’t “race blind”, just as how women will experience the world differently for being born women. both lenore and annabel are shaped by the fact that they are queer women existing in a world not meant them which the comic explores incredible well. their gender is an inseparable part of their character and their experience as women is properly engaged with in so many ways. hence why other than that little hint in prospero’s backstory, it’s weird that a core part of duke, eulalie and berenice’s identities aren’t explored considering the times they lived in too, hell anti-black and anti-asian sentiment still exists today. i think that’s what the post meant by “diversity hires”, since in those netflix shows poc are there to fill a quota rather than care (engagement with identity) being taken with their depiction [@/creatingblackcharacters is such a brilliant blog to learn more from.]
having said that, i don’t really agree with the whole post, i think it’s reductive to reduce eulalie to an airhead when she’s clearly autistic-coded and incredibly observant and sharp. berenice is a sassy, street smart party girl and she very much does fit common stereotypes of black girls (ex the jezebel) but she’s 100% got depth and further development to come and she certainly isn’t reduced to that stereotype. i don’t think they are racist at all, i think the racial subtext is there on purpose, but i’d much rather it be main text considering the severity of what happened, i want more exploration of poc identities.
