#arcana thoughts

[fifthpilot]

Hi :)

I hope you're doing well, and that it's not too annoying for me to bring this up. But I recently got back into the Arcana fandom and I was reading up on the changes made to Aisha Alnazar's sprite, which led me to your post.

I'd really like to get a better understanding of the situation, if that's alright? I tried to do as much research as I could online but opinions seem mixed and confused. I hope me asking these questions isn't too troublesome or disrespectful, and I'd appreciate the insight.

From my understanding of your post and what I've read, it's upsetting to some that Aisha's sprite was changed since it felt to be completely erasing Muslim representation by establishing that Aisha and her family are not Muslim, in order for her magical practices to not be disrespectful to the religion, instead of fixing the issue some other way. I think this makes sense to me, but I am a bit confused as to whether that makes the whole premise of Aisha, Salim, and Asra being magicians offensive.

If Aisha had originally not been designed wearing a hijab, and perhaps having a different name without the religious implications, would it still have been offensive for her and her family to be magicians? Or is strictly due to the disrespect of the religion that people are upset?

I see people saying that the combination of her name and the design of her clothing, that is very much in the fashion of a hijab, makes it disrespectful for her to be a magician.

In addition, I was wondering if this means it would have been more respectful for their family to have not been written as magicians at all, if Aisha was initially Muslim-coded.

Alternatively, is there a way for Aisha and her family to be both Muslim and magicians, practicing things like divination and tarot readings, without being disrespectful to real-life religion? Or is this something that cannot happen at all? Is there a way to represent both within the same character?

Thanks for any time and effort you extend to help me understand this further.

Hello anon! no problem at all, its neither troublesome nor disrespectful to have further inquries about the topic!

The main issue with depicting Aisha and Salim as magicians is solely because they were depicted as Muslims too; and since practices of magic and divination is an act of religious disbelief (kufr) and is forbidden by Islam, there lies our issue.

If they're not Muslim then it wouldn't be disrespectful since they now do not stand to represent a specific group of people or religious belief. Representation can only be welcomed if it's done with respect to its native people and their religious rules. Otherwise it can come off as disrespectful and ignorant.

As for whether there was still a way to keep Aisha and Salim Muslim in the arcana; in my opinion it would simply not work. Even if Aisha and Salim were not magicians, the game depicts the major arcana as some kind of deities, capable of things such as rebirth and bestoment of immortality and magical abilities, and divinity. This too goes against what Mulsims believe. Muslims believe only in one God (Allah), "shaitan" (the devil), "djinn" (an intelligent spirit of lower rank than the angels, able to appear in human and animal forms and to possess humans) and angels. and since the major arcana cannot be exactly classified as any of these, then it simply discredits islamic belief in the arcana universe. And since the intention of the story is neither to explore or embellish Islamic Mythology, nor is it too discredit Islamic belief (which would be highly problematic and disrespectful) then there's simply no point to include Muslims at all in the narrative.

Representation is a tricky subject that many writers unfortunately take for granted, thinking that so long as any form of representation for a specific group of people is present then they've done a good job of being inclusive and accepting of other beliefs/cultures etc. But everything must come with proper intention, research and respect to the people you are attempting to represent. There must be serious thought given as to why said specific people should be added to a narrative and what the affect of that might be.

Regarding whether there is a way to represent both a muslim characater and a practitioner of magic; the narrative would ultimately have to give both of these aspects equal importance. So for example; a story that explores a Muslim character who is given the ability of divination, would have to put significant narrative focus on the Muslim and Divination parts (else what is the point of making them muslim in the first place?)

There are multiple ways to include Muslims in fantasy/fiction/sci-fi, it just has to come with intention within the narrative and respect to their rules. People's religious beliefs are not labels but significant parts of what makes them who they are and how they live their lives. If you do proper research and ask the right people from whatever community you're trying to represent then surely a good job will be done.

[the-arcana-randomness]

Lucio gives off the energy of the guy who takes the last slice of pizza at the party without a second thought or any remorse or consideration for others.

[infernaldaydreams]

Anxiously waiting for the Lucio update where we finally run into Julian with a very much alive Lucio and complete chaos ensues.

[i-am-arcana-trash]

Muriel reversed idea

Look I hurt my feelings with this one but!

So the reversed endings are supposed to be bittersweet according to the Devs.

I saw the post about Muriel being forced to resume gladiator fights and kill all his friends while MC watches unable to reach him.

What if MC is there with him? They also have to fight. Similar to Julien's reversed, the world is shit and he's a birb but they are together which helps the shittiness?

Also if anyone knows that post I can't find it and want to give credit.

[balla-deer]

WHY ISN’T ANYONE TALKING ABOUT THIS??

I’ve only started Nadia’s route a few weeks ago and I’m curtently on book ix ch. 2 and-

WHAT IS THIS??? WHY AM I ONLY SEEING THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME??????

Or has this always been there and no one wants to spread this sad sprite of the countess?? But really, this is honestly the first time I’m seeing here like this :c

[muwitch]

thoughts???

Ok so I want to write out the facts abt this book that made me shook just like that it’s a little ramblish idk.

Nadia's route was AMAZING, it gave us depth about her, it showed that even if she's a strong woman in power, she's human, she has her issues, she's been struggling this whole time. She was once in the shadow of her sisters, she got away only to be manipulated and outshaded by the douche man. She showed resolve, she showed strength but also kindness and understanding. I didn't play the paid moments, but I believe they are lit. Nadia was rocking but what striked me is how humane she turned this chapter like she was all that before but here's like boom. My queen.

Asra's route was full of answers. It was cozy to some degree, but what shook me was him adressing that he had mental issues 3 years ago. With him coping with that, admitting it, it made a lot of cryptic stuff he made a lot more understandable. As a person who either struggles with smth like that myself or is surrounded by people who deal with similar issues, it finally made me root for Asra even tho I had my doubts before. It made him vulnerable, it showed that he, too, was not in a position to know everything and being a magician by keeping things away from MC.  It bought me. The book also gave us a slice of how life goes in the shop, these ordinary pieces of house routine just made my heart warmer. And the answers raising more questions, ofc.

Julian's route was a double ended sword but if excluding that second paid scene, it was also so...unraveling? Abt the plague and about Julian's character too? Like how he cares about people, about not only MC but also his sister, Mazelinka and vesuvian people. I mean he isn't doing that cause he loves drama, he's doing it for the sake of their lives, he cares, he wants to be able to protect them and cure. He's willing to cooperate the safe way first, like this book gave some insight of the changes he takes if you compare to what he was before. It also gave the strongest feels cause I'm a bit biased and thars the only route where we WHITNESS the hanging. Idk how your heart was, but I was crying over Portia and Mazelinka trying to comfort her and give her strength when she needed it most.

say what you like abt the book, but it was strong.

[chatetcoccinelle]

You know, Julian obviously made a good impression on Lucio when doing the amputation. How else could he wind up as a personal doctor in the palace years later?

[fifthpilot]

So About the New Asra Tale by Dorian...

The plot was, not great. It was pretty boring, but it did touch up on a few interesting points from Asra's main story; like how much of his memory did he loose, his past before MC's death, and what extremes he had to go through because of MC's death like erasing his own memories of certain spells, which in my opinion is a very interesting scenario. Things did seem rushed considering the fact that the story had two endings depending on whether you chose to use the spell or not; and how the supposedly "bad ending" kind of implied that you and Asra somehow may have brought back the plague? or Lucio i.e the plague? It was left up to interpretation. The writing was, not good. I think they did try their best to stay true to Asra's tone even if it was a bit too on the nose at times and a little overbaord. But it was mainly the MC and the Magician that felt most off note to me.

That all being said, I like many others don't consider this a part of canon, it does ultimately give off a very wattpad feel. But in all honesty so did some of the main content after probably halfway through the main 3's routes. I think many people forgot just how erratic and disorganized the Nix Hydra Team was and how many people who came up with the original storyline had left the company before the end of the M3 routes. But a lot of people don't seem to notice that because all the content was in one place, the arcana app. Which brings me to my next point.

I think a good portion of the hate Dorian is getting is mainly due to the fact that their app is terrible. The UI is confusing, the app lags a lot and it's very slow. The game looks different on the dorian app, the font is wrong, there's no music, the character sprite animation is messed up, and the LI never says your name. And a lot of people have demanded that Dorian uploads the new conent to the Arcana app. But after thinking about it I personally think it's a good thing that the Dorian content and the "original" content stay physically seperated, so we know where one starts from where one ends. And I know a lot of people would disagree because using the Dorian app is a hassle, but like I mentioned before. Dorian is making fanfiction (but worse). They're using whatever's left of the arcana fandom to make some cash. This whole thing with Dorian creating new routes and new content is just another marvel-like tactic of beating a dead horse with a stick. And, they're even using the same Nix Hydra trick of placing the best content behind a paywall.

I'm personally not even upset at how terrible the app is, or how rushed and boring and generally just bad the tale was, I think I'm more upset that we won't put the Arcana Game to rest. And instead we have to watch as corporation after corporation uses the story for whatever means it wants to make money. I'm more upset that things can't just end and be celebrated for being. And how the way we engage with media has mutated into something more greedy and gluttonous.

What I'm saying is, we had a beginning and ending, we had prologues and epilogues and hidden scenes. We had plenty. We don't need more. Sometimes enough is enough.