Please allow me to rant for a moment.
I was doom scrolling on tiktok, as you do, earlier today and came across a video comparing Genshin Impact characters to characters in Reverse: 1999, specifically on POC/representative characters. I enjoy both games but do prefer R1999 when it comes to that specific category of representation.
Anyways, I decided to look at the comments and saw this persons comment
Before I say anything else, please don't go and bother this person for their comment if you find it. Their comment just sort of irritated me and I want to talk about it.
This is the tan skin tone they are referring too
These are the characters they're talking about
These are the darkest characters as of current in Reverse 1999. Do they look tan to you? Sure, Centurion is lighter, but she is not tan.
And let it be known, tan does not mean white, I'm sure there are plenty of different ethnicities that aren't white but have tan skin, or one could be mixed; that doesn't take away who you are either.
And Genshin, while yes having a bad representation of POC, does still have black characters. The most notable being Xinyan.
She is a bit lighter, and ashy even, but she is still some of the best representation in Genshin that we have. Not to throw out the other POC in Genshin such as Kaeya, Candace, Cyno and more to come I'm sure.
And, might I remind you that representation is not all about the color of their skin. Yes, it is important to show people of all colors, but not every culture that isn't represented is shown. Many characters in R1999 speak their own language aside from english, even with the english voice pack.
Queer/trans and disabled people also fit in the category of representation.
Hoyoverse, the company that makes Genshin, has a history of making canonically queer characters even if it gets them in trouble. And in Genshin there are a lot of queer coded characters such as Alheithem and Kaveh, Yae Miko and Ei, and many more.
When it comes to Reverse: 1999, they are extremely good in this area. Not only do they have canonically queer characters, they have canonically trans characters too (such as The Fool, who in Nonbinary/agender).
And, they have characters from all around the world, different countries. And yes some characters have harmful stereotypes in their designs, I won't deny.
And, if you want to be technical, Nick, Apple, Door, and even Pickles may be counted as representation too.
Reverse: 1999 is better when it comes to showing representation in all ways possible (again, even though it can be hurtful). And while Genshin does have representation, it's not always that good.
Anyways, I just wanted to talk about it. It was on my mind all day haha. Sorry for my yapping, I'll get to work on more fics soon :))
