I think it’s interesting to see the reactions to today’s Dracula Daily that are like, “He did a racism! He used the g-slur!” and don’t go deeper than that. I was born in the early 80s and didn’t know the g-slur was a slur until like between 5 and 10 years ago. I mean, there was a whole Disney movie that used the word like it was no big deal when I was in middle school. I’m not saying Disney wouldn’t do a racism, I’m saying Disney wouldn’t have put language in a 90s kids’ movie that wasn’t considered “politically correct” in mainstream America at the time. Anyway, my point is that until sometime in the mid 2010s, I honestly thought G****** was just what that group of people were called, or was a term for nomadic people in general. I guarantee there are well-meaning Americans in the year 2022 who aren’t tuned into online antiracist discourse who still think that. Stoker could’ve easily used the word thinking it was no different than calling someone an Englishman or a cowboy.
The blatant racism here is how the Romani are portrayed. They are “without religion, save superstition,” i.e. Godless heathens, i.e. their religion isn’t a version of Christianity so it isn’t a legitimate religion. They’re ignorant for only speaking their own language, even though Jonathan doesn’t speak or understand it and doesn’t understand most of the foreign language he’s encountered on this trip. They act overtly deferential and subservient to Jonathan. They take his money and then sell him out to the Count.
If this narrative had only used the word Romani or the name that this particular group of Romani used for themselves (I’m seeing meta that Szgany is a slur, too, but I haven’t looked into it), this depiction would still be racist. While it is important to update our language as we gain better information, I think terminology is ultimately less important than whether a marginalized character or group is being portrayed as an offensive racial stereotype. I see all kinds of writing by modern writers, professional and amateur, that uses all the correct 2020s terminology but still portrays characters as the invulnerable black woman, the submissive Asian woman, the predatory brown man, the Jewish moneylender, etc. Again, I’m not saying terminology doesn’t matter and shouldn’t be critiqued in older writing, I’m just saying we shouldn’t let terminology distract from content.
calling use of the g slur “online discourse” is not your place as a gadjo. romani people telling you that the z slur is a slur shouldn’t be something you need to “look into”. this is not a bad post overall, and in fact i agree with you on almost every level, but the incredibly blasé approach you are taking to the use of antiromanist slurs here is super not cool.
you’re right that stoker’s depiction is antiromanist with or without the use of slurs, but both the g slur and z slur cause absolutely visceral reactions for myself and many romani people, especially when used by gadje. talking about the use of slurs doesn’t automatically mean that people are discounting the portrayal of rom as money obsessed superstitious scammers. i personally tend to expect that from any media with romani characters in it, but i don’t always anticipate the use of the g slur, so i was glad to see a post warning of the g slur prior to reading.
overall, you’re not wrong, but you’re making your points while also grossly overstepping.
I’ve had this idea for a while, ever since I played through Birth of Tragedy, about what it actually means to be King of Sarkaz and how Sarkaz prophecy functions. I’ve seen others come to similar conclusions, and we keep getting things that fit, so I think it’s time for me to share it.
Spoilers if you haven’t gotten through Roaring Flare.
In 7-18 After Kal’tsit has a few very interesting lines:
The Sarkaz prophecy is born out of their collective racial memory.
The last of the ancient Wendigo bloodline is directly connected to the entire Sarkaz race?!
Patriot! Don’t believe the prophecy! It’s just a physiological side effect of the Originium Arts!
Okay, so Sarkaz have a collective racial memory, an interconnected web of subtle arts forming a network of latent telepathy throughout the entire race. This is important.
So now let’s talk about Amiya’s arts.
Amiya can cause others to have visions and access the emotions and memories of others. We see her access the Sarkaz racial memory in JT8-2 After. In fact, it is this act which convinces Kashchey that she is the real thing.
Talulah?: It’s genuine. Congratulations, Cautus.
Talulah?: You’re not a fragment, not an experiment, not an impostor.
Talulah?: You are indeed the Lord of Sarkaz… the enemy of humanity.
Amiya: No, I’m nothing but an Infected.
Amiya: A… person.
I think the main function of Amiya’s arts is to actively access the Sarkaz racial telepathy network. If that is the case, then King of Sarkaz is not just a political title, it’s what you call an individual who can command the Sarkaz like the head of a hive-mind. I think you can see this best in the Vigilo story Cogitatio with how the Sarkaz Traitor (Marco) acts.
Doctor: You’re still lost. You don’t know your own destiny. But ‘He’ wants it.
Doctor: It doesn’t matter who ‘you’ are. He knows that there will always be people like you, and there will always be such a bridge.
Sarkaz Traitor: Who are you talking about?
Doctor: They awakened you, worked you up, and it’s not so I could listen to your talk.
Doctor: He wants to know what Theresa says, and how I react.
Used like a puppet, unaware he was even acting on the will of others, and as soon as Theresa appears his loyalty immediately returns. It’s a subtle, subconscious, and incomplete control, but control all the same.
I think Sarkaz prophecy may function on this network as well. Patterns emerge, processing in the backgrounds of an entire race’s minds, a calculation born from millions of minds and millions of memories predicting what is to come. A powerful Sarkaz may have this pattern revealed to them under the right conditions, and you get a prophecy.
There’s another side to this though, the possibility that these prophecies are self-fulfilling. We know Amiya can affect the minds of others, what if the network affects the minds of the Sarkaz, subconsciously turning them into agents of this manufactured fate.
What I find the most worrying about all of this though is that Amiya’s powers function on non-Sarkaz. What if the Sarkaz network can effect them as well? Could anyone become subtly swayed to fulfill the prophecies of the Sarkaz?
What are the limits of the Sarkaz King’s control?
Vigilo - Pignus:
Closure: That was Theresa—same as she looked on the news, too. No Sarkaz would ever mistake her for anyone else.
PRTS: It’s possible that there are others who share the same general appearance. If someone who looked like Theresa had appeared…
Closure: Nope, not possible. Even if there were someone like that, we’d never get it wrong.
Closure: The monarch herself showed up and waltzed into my little room. Then she told me she was looking for someone to break the shackles of tradition, and for that she needed an engineer, the key to her plans.
Closure: She didn’t even try to explain anything to me at first, nope. Not a word to try to convince me to go with her.
Closure: If it had been anybody but Theresa, I’d’ve thought they were nuts and would’ve thrown them right out the window.
PRTS: So you turned her down?
Closure: Nope, I accepted her offer.
Closure: I said yes… because of the curiosity that’d been driving me the whole time.
7-18 After:
Patriot: I heard, in the past, Lords of Sarkaz, gave visions of comfort, as favors.
Patriot: Their champions, could see great walls, or loves long passed—
Patriot: Countless soldiers, for these visions, fought ceaselessly.
JT8-2 Before:
Talulah?:Cautus, if I were to ask you to build me an illusion that would entrance me forever… would you refuse?
Amiya:Nnh…!
Talulah?: Would you hold back and avoid using this kind of power?
Amiya: I won’t answer you.
Talulah?:Your expression and hesitation betray your thoughts, self-proclaimed kind Cautus.
Amiya: I’ve never said that!
Talulah?: Your actions speak louder than words, false Infected warrior.
Talulah?: Black Arts that absorb memories but do not differentiate between consciousness. Not a unilateral extraction, but rather proliferation and acquisition that goes both ways…
7-18 After:
I see cities, devastated.
I see Originium, blanketing the land.
I see you, black crown on your head, melting millions of lives, into nothing but memories.
I see the, King of Sarkaz, enslaving all peoples, everywhere.
You will be the most horrific disaster to afflict our world.
My first event in Arknights (after Rewinding Breeze) was the Maria Nearl event. I somehow managed to beat it and I really enjoyed the story. Mostly. The ending where Margaret comes in and takes over was a little unsatisfying, but a lot of that was because it then became one big “To be Continued”. The event didn’t end, the conflict wasn’t really resolved. After playing a lot more Arknights, I get why that is though. Arknights is about systemic issues. It’s not generally just one villain causing problems, it’s the world that is fundamentally broken, rules of society shaped to oppress. In this context, it makes sense that the Maria Nearl event ended in the way that it did, despite her best efforts to survive and win, she wasn’t prepared or even able to go against the system. Instead she needed to be a symbol, a beacon to kick start change and get the protagonist into the story. She had to lead by example and get Margaret to return. Now, the system could be challenged.
But it couldn’t be toppled, not quite. Margaret doesn’t come in as a hero, she comes in as a symbol. A banished Knight champion returning not for revenge but honor. An “infected” knight. Most of her energy is focused not on action against the council, but instead just winning the tournament. By doing so she is making a very visible stand. She’s a non-club aligned knight, she refuses commercial endorsement (not even from Rhodes Island), she’s proving that despite her banishment she’s still the Radiant Knight and giving people a non-commercialized hero. She’s doing something that neither the Candle Knight or the Blood Knight were able to do. In a way, that means her and the Nightmare Knight are more alike than might seems. They’re both fighting for honor and an older way of life, free from the Companies that run modern life.
And it’s not like Margaret isn’t taking some direct action. She saved Maria, she saved Flametail and the infected from the Armorless Union, and she brought Rhodes Island who are caring for Infected and trying to change laws. In a way, she’s acting as a beacon that distracts the dangerous forces of Kazmierz away from these other groups that are struggling to make a change in the system.
Because in the end, Margaret can’t topple the system either. Not by herself. She’s just a person and everything is automated to oppress. Even the people who run the system are easily replaceable with a phone call that elects whoever answers first. But, she can inspire others to stand up, to demand change and take action. She’s both a symbol of the old knights traced from her family lineage and creed, and as the youngest champion in competition history. Maria and the bar squad, The Candle Knight, Pinus Sylvestris, the Adeptus, Campaign Knights, the Followers and Rhodes Island are all inspired by her before the story starts and her appearance spurs them all into action. And all she does, all she needs to do, is hold strong in the path. Show that she will win the competition by her rules, not the council’s. She takes control of the narrative.
Which is why, in the moment she wins the competition, the Council tries to retake the narrative by revealing that she isn’t actually infected. They admit their lie from years previously meant to remove her from winning the previous competition, but they blame it on people who have long been removed. “We’re not like those old lying council members, you can trust us. Isn’t it great that our new champion isn’t really infect? Let’s celebrate the deceiver of your trust and dreams.” But even in the face of this Margaret holds strong, she doesn’t make excuses or even try to argue with the council she ignores them and starts marching to the hall of champions on her own initiative to make a statement they can’t control.
And when she starts her march and her life is threatened, all of these forces she inspired come to her aid. If any single group had not stepped up to help her, she would’ve failed, her life forfeit. They fight, they stand strong, they take on the foes and block the arrows meant to strike down Margaret. They heal and care for the sick. They pass legislation and move the needle of public perception away from the council. This is a revolution fought slowly, over many years, on many fronts by hundreds of people standing by their own beliefs in a better future.
But the truly heroic deed Margaret did, the stand she took, was taking the Blood Knight and carrying him with her. Because he is the one who changed society for her return. This is important, so I’ll repeat it again. If the Blood Knight, an infected foreigner, had not fought, and paved the way for infected to be knights, Margaret would’ve never been able to compete. As much as Margaret inspired the infected knights of Pinus Sylvestris, so too were they inspired by the strength of the Blood Knight. He is a true inspiration and champion of the infected and despite not being of Kazmeirz is worthy of being a knight in their culture. And if it hadn’t been for his infection acting up, he probably would’ve won. It was a fraction of a second and that’s all Margaret needed to secure victory. So, when she wins, she ignores the council and talks to the Blood Knight. She compliments him and holds out a hand to him, knight to knight.
And that’s when I started to tear up. Because this act of sportsmanship, chivalry and basic human decency is what Margaret has been fighting towards. All of her actions have been to hold out a hand to this infected knight and walk him to wear he belongs, the Hall of Champions. This is what she wanted to show the people of Kazmeirz. So, when everyone comes to fight the Armorless Union and protect her, they’re also protecting the Blood Knight. Together they get an escort of glittering silver Pegasus Knights. Together they enter the Hall of Champions to great the Grand Knight. Together they take the pedestal and claim the title for the infected. They bring good, honest chivalry back to the land, if only for a moment.
They’re both smiling. This is moment that they can both be proud of. That brings joy to their hearts. They’re two competition knights who have engaged in the greatest fight of their lives. A worthy battle, and one that will have a worthy end. Margaret carrying Dikaiopolis to the Hall of Champions flipped the script, broke the rules and managed to be a major act of defiance. More importantly, it was the right thing to do. And while it will not defeat the system, it has allowed change to begin. It won’t be certain, it will be painful, and it will be a long fight, but it is now possible.
And that is what they’ve both been fighting for. That’s what we’ve been fighting for through all of these events. And that’s something to be proud of.
