Fgo: look! A Mesoamerican Servant! Shes uses wrestling moves, often speaks in spanish, had sharp teeth, loves her winged snakes, and is your joyful fun big sister!
Users: wow! Thats so great, thank you!
Fgo: and her design is racist!
Users:
Mesoamerican people were native peoples who had dark skin and dark hair. It was when spanish conquistadors commited genocide on the Inca people (in south america) that paler skin was formally introduced to the gene pool outside of mutations
Quetzacoatl was a god from Aztec mythos (central america) that was likely lended from the Maya
Unfortunately, fgo designed her to be pale skin, green eyed, and blonde haired. Even in the modern day, thats not how the majority of natives in central america look.
Its sad that she is such a great character with such a shit design
Here we go again…
As someone who is of Mexican descent, I wanted to bring these two comments to light. I’ve seen a lot of people on tumblr who weren’t too happy about Quetzalcoatl’s design and I hope comments like these can help others understand things from the perspective of the culture itself.
Quetzacoatl was described by spanish conquistadors to be a white man, with a greying beard, and blue eyes. I need not tell you that this was a catholic depiction of God.
Heres a picture of Quetzacoatl from the Codex Telleriano-remensis, a credible source of Aztec art as well as a calender which is pretty damn sweet
And from the Mesoamerican codex borbonicus
And a bust https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1399573&partId=1
I would like to note that on the bust the nose is damaged, and it was aquired by a British museum in the 1800s.
I respect the fact that you don’t like her design and did a little bit of research,
However, if members of the culture are telling you that a design is 100% fine, it’s technically racist to disregard them, especially if you’re acting like you know more about their culture than they do.
You have sourced the voices of your side and claimed that by refusing the accept it as a cultural phenomenon, I am being racist. Youre right, I am speaking about a culturally accepted ideal that I (originally) knew little about. It was bullheaded and now that Ive learned more about the topic I find it far more complicated than I had initially thought.
However, you havent acknowledged the people who are mexican and find it racist.
Instead of thinking critically, you have called me racist because I didnt cave when 3 people told me they liked their big tiddy anime waifus design.
Let’s be real, a lot of designs from FGO don’t really even have anything to do with either their culture or their origin. Cu Chulainn barely looks like a real Irish warrior (everyone knows the Celts wore blue tights in battle). But a lot of them do cross a lot of lines, a lot that it’s just pretty much undefendable.
The only Servant I’ve seen that actually seems appropriate for their culture, origin, or race is Geronimo. He actually looks like a real Native American and not some guy that only has Native liberties stuck onto some modernized or ultra-fantasy design. I was actually like surprised enough to audibly gasp for real when I first saw him. I mean, after seeing Marie Antoinette, Mozart, Spartacus, JAGUAR WARRIOR, he was quite the shock.
When Indian mythology and religion characters started becoming a thing Indian fans were pissed off because the characters were butchered to hell and back. Special mention goes to Rama and Karna (the latter ESPECIALLY hurts me because I come from a family of Rama devotees. All the males on my dads side of the family are named after Him and Rama is literally my surname).
But there was no visible outrage on tumblr when that happened. It’s almost like they only care when some groups get butchered more than others.
Also… IT’S NASUVERSE. They aren’t kind to their own historical figures either. Just LOOK at what happened to Okita and Tamamo.
Ankaa and someone465 is right, the Nasuverse rarely treats ANY of their historical figures right. It’s rarer that a character looks or acts like their actual counterpart.
But we still should call it out when they misrepresent or white wash or waifu-fy characters. Just because it happens a lot doesn’t mean we should put up with it.
I don’t have anything really to say for Quetzacoatl’s case, I’m not informed enough on Mayan/Aztec history/culture. I will say however, that I really love her design, but darkening her hair and skin would not ruin or lessen the appeal to me. She’d still be the gorgeous and fun goddess I love.
