Thinking about Kpop Demon Hunters again aaaannnnddd, as a Black fan to other Black fans, does anyone else headcanon Zoey as Black and Korean (Korean Mom and Black Dad (bear with me)) and from the Bay Area (think Saweetie, H.E.R., Jhene Aiko) instead of Burbank? Since the origins of K-pop are very much Black American, who better to represent the coming together of the two cultures in a respectful way than an AfroKorean-American Zoey? She and Rumi definitely could’ve bonded over the racism/prejudice that they both might have faced with her being half Black and Rumi being half demon. Rumi and Mira (and by extension the Korean audience) also could’ve learned to really appreciate Black American culture through hanging out with Zoey and her paternal family while also protecting her from anti-Black Koreans and K-pop stans in general (if the movie would’ve gone further into Zoey’s background that is). I just find it ironic how she’s the only one of the girls with ties to America and instead of making her half Black and giving her direct cultural ties to the hip-hop genre, they made her half white. Mind you, Burbank is seventeen minutes north of LA and 5.5 hours south of the Bay Area. So unless Zoey was hanging around mad Black people in Burbank (which she couldn’t have because as of this 2025-2026 census, Burbank, CA only has a Black population of about 4%), how did she become a rapper? Did she listen to the likes of Tupac, NWA, and Snoop Dogg in secret? Secret field trips to underground rap battles in LA? Then again, if she was Blasian and from the Bay/LA, would she have left the States and joined Huntrix? I wonder how she ended up meeting up with Rumi, Mira, and Celine in order to even join the group? Just thoughts. Might make a TikTok video or something depending on how much more I’m feeling.
