It's so hoyover with Natlan. Honestly, I'm more disappointed if anything.
Like, I was so looking forward to it and finally seeing and being able to play as some characters that just somewhat resemble me, but nooooo. No.
Why are you gonna make a region based off cultures with majority dark skinned people in it and then not make the characters dark skinned? That's like Hollywood making a movie with like Asian influences and then cast white actors to play them. Like, Hollywood does do that, but it doesn't make it any more right, like you get what I'm saying? Like you get how bad it is? You can't have your cake (the cultural representation) and eat it too (only pale characters).
And then you have Genshin dickriders who are gonna be like 'being pale is the beauty standard in China' 'if the characters were dark they wouldn't sell well', firstly, just because it's the beauty standard doesn't mean that it's good. That's like a Western game/show making all of the characters have blue eyes or only type 1 hair because that's that's the beauty standard in the West, and then just being okay with it with that explanation. Like, it just explains the action, it doesn't excuse it. I know things are more complicated in mainland China with the CCP having a heavy hand in the media, but it's not like all the characters have to be pale. We have Kaeya, Xinyan, Dehya, ect. They're not like, the darkest characters ever made, but even if they had a similar complexion to the three I just mentioned, it would be a improvement.
Secondly, you guys forgot that Dehya is literally super popular in the Chinese fandom. Like, did she not motivate people to donate to charities after her teaser? And a lot of the dark skinned characters would sell a lot better if they were given more viable kits. Like, literally change nothing about Neuvillette except make him more tan, and he would still sell just because he's that strong.
Also, side note, I just find it so weird with the people who call 'blackwashing' on art that gives character darker skin. If it's like a Liyue, or an Inazuma character, like, okay I get it. But if it's like a Sumeru character you gotta be for real now. Like why are you mad that the character more accurately represents the population that their culture is based off of? and I'm saying this because I know people are going to make black/dark skin edits of the Natlan characters and certain people are gonna complain about 'blackwashing' or changing skin color or whatever. THEY ARE BASED OFF OF CULTURES WITH MAJORITY DARKER SKINNED PEOPLE. THE ARTISTS ARE SIMPLY RETURNING THE MELANIN TO THEM. It's like if Hollywood made a movie set in Africa and the main focus is African culture and then cast like blonde haired, blue eyes, white people to play Africans, and then get mad when artists draw them as black. You realize how ridiculous getting mad at the artists are, and not at the creators of the movie/the forces that made the characters white. Like there is a little more nuance than being like 'changing race/skin color = wrong and racist'
And on another side note, I don't wanna see people be like 'it's a fantasy game, they don't have to make things accurate they can do whatever'. Why does fantasy = no people with dark skin? And it's so amusing because these are the same people who are mad when a typical Western fantasy piece of media based off of Europe includes a POC because it's 'not accurate'. What happened to it being a fantasy, huh?
(I'm sorry for the aggression in the last two paragraphs, I just really had to get it off of my chest tbh)
Like, it's just so frustrating to see, because you know Hoyoverse puts in a lot of research with the regions culture. There were people upset about the lack of skintone representation and diversity with Sumeru but still appreciated the cultural representation with Sumeru. Someone literally said that Faruzan has the same name as her grandma. And that's great, it shows that the dev team does do their research. So it's frustrating to see the people of the culture, how the majority of them look like, not there. And I know I'm not the only one who not only wanted to see someone with their culture in Genshin, but they're complexion too, since it's so so rare to find in games and other media.
Anyways, if you have any games with more black and or African rep, please let me know. In the mean time, I will be looking at art that gives the Natlan the melanin that they were supposed to have.
