#great points were made
Okay, so I was watching this video (I’ll link it here) and defined the way SJM specifically uses her characters her explicitly defined POC characters.
I have had discussions with other people on here about the pattern that SJM has in humiliating or undermining her explicitly defined black and brown characters in order to implement the superiority of her white-coded characters. Helion, Sorscha, Lucien, Tarquin, Nehemia, Fenrys, Demetria, and Baxian (I’m sure they are others, but these are the ones that are near irrefutable) are all used in a similar manner in relation to their white counterparts: as either what the video calls the “Disposable Black Love Interest,” or it’s protagonist based equivalent.
The Take references Yomi Adegoke, defining the DBLI as “a race bent, gender-specific version of the ‘disposable fiancee’ or ‘romantic false lead trope,” (The Rise and Rise of the Disposable Black Girlfriend).
This evolution of those previously mentioned tropes not only tokenizes the perceived racial representation but upholds the idea of whiteness as a social and beauty standard. More, this trope presents black people as a near-perfect standard, creating a character that is actually better than the white love interest, but plastic and unworthy in comparison to the white LI mediocracy.
Further, the disposable love interest or protagonist is almost always used as a stepping stone to reiterate the supposed superiority of the white love interest. Nothing the black/brown love interest can do can compare to the perceived “complexity” of the mediocre white counterpart.
When Feyre and Tarquin interact with one another, he and Feyre reiterate similar sentiments. They are much more alike with one another than Feyre and Rhysand: both are young, idealistic, powerful, and look at the world in similar ways. Feyre even suggests that it would easy to fall in love with someone like him—yet the story makes a point to alsoreiterate that Tarquin (who has been UTM for fifty years—more than half his life, had his entire family killed, and was thrust into a power role and still plotted rebellion, and so on) isn’t good enough for Feyre. And the story literally doesn’t have an actual, honest to god reason why–but it’s honestly pretty clear. Rhys is just perceived as better. Better because he is “more complex” and understands Feyre’s “darkness,” *sigh* But the humiliation for Tarquin is very much a running thread in the story. Feyre and Rhys steal from him, cause the destruction of his court, and then undermine him in his own court. And the story doesn’t feel the need to give consequences because it’s just expected that Tarquin will forgive them.
Then we have Helion—who is used in a similar manner in relation to Cassian andalso with his relationship with LOA. Feyre makes a comment about Helion “not even able to step in to help LOA” or “we wouldn’t even help the woman he loved”(it was something along those lines, if i remember correctly). It’s such a weird, loaded thing to say about one of the only dark-skinned characters in the story. Which plays into yetanother stereotype of the “cowardly” black/brown character v. the heroic white character (i.e. Rhys v. Helion). Like, fuck you Feyre
And this is a segway into the way Lucien has been characterized in the story. While Lucien has always been heroic when protecting Feyre (to a fault *cough* which plays into another horrible trope). But he’s still coded as…cowardly. Lucien was once meant to be Nesta’s love interest, but after being retconned into a man of color, he is caught in a love triangle that potentially plays off the disposable black love interest trope. He is a conduit for continual pain and suffering and is potentially going to be used to subvert the mating bond trope. There are so many reasons why the “breaking the bond trope,” being used to reiterate Lucien’s apparent “inferiority” to a literal torturer is all kinds of messed up. But consistently, Lucien’s heroism is seen as not enough for no other reason other than the fact the story wants us to perceive Rhys or Az as “better.” Lucien is presented as a perfect antithesis to Rhys–yet his sacrifices hold less weight.
We have Nehemia who is a better, more active leader—with magic and power of her own, is used only as a conduit to unlocking Dorian and Aelin’s power. Even without her death, Nehemia’s entire character is extremely racist. The story suggests that the only people able to “save the world,” are the people who spend the majority of their time ignoring the problems in the world. And it’s only through their bloodlines that they are deemed important–while Nehemia, who is the perfect leader, daughter, protector, etc., is killed off in order to awaken the potential of her white peers. Characters like Sorscha are used in a similar manner. Or we have Fenrys–who is canonically more like Aelin, and nicer, and willing to die for her–pushed to the side for Rowan for no other reason. We have Baxian–which I kind of rolled my eyes bc it was so damn obvious it played into this trope. The less attractive, scarred man who scar was dealt by the more conventionally attractive “gold-dusted-brown/ambiguous man” who follows him along like a lost puppy basically hailing his superiority. God, I’m pissed.
I encourage you guys to watch the video, though! It probably explained these things better than I can. I feel like later on I’ll be able to describe my thoughts more clearly but until then….
THIS. this is EVERYTHING.
i wanted to add to this by mentioning cresseida—in a/comaf, her character is introduced solely for the purpose of making f/eyre jealous and drawing out her “true feelings” for r/hys. cresseida is literally utilized to “push” r/hys and f/eyre closer together as they recognize that they want each other (whatever that means lawl).
much like tarquin, she does exactly three things upon meeting the nc: a) she flirts with r/hys, as f/eyre and tarquin do; b) she causes f/eyre to be jealous, as tarquin does with r/hys; and c) she is then rejected by r/hys, as tarquin is by f/eyre, because f/eyre is “better” than her and r/hys is “better” than tarquin (why this is, i couldn’t tell you).
f/eyre is who r/hys ultimately wants. cresseida was never actually in the running, and for s/jm to insert her character into the f/eysand dynamic just to further their relationship development and provide readers with “angst” is humiliating for cresseida (and for tarquin, who experiences this too) and continues to push the racist “poc love interests = less than white love interests/they’re disposable and non-serious love interests” trope.
after this short interaction where cresseida is given absolutely zero characterization, she’s basically forgotten for the rest of the books. i genuinely can’t remember another time she is mentioned or plays a pivotal role in the storyline (or really any role at all).
s/jm created her first black female character in the series and actually disposed of her. and she introduced this character in the second book, mind you, not the first, which features only one (1) distinct character of color that f/eyre actually interacts with—alis, who is literally a poc servant to f/eyre & tamlin. lucien’s ethnicity is retconned later in the books, so if you’re going off of only the first book, he’s technically featured as white in it. and let’s not even get into how the first black man introduced utm is killed off (by r/hysand, no less) after 2 seconds of page time (he’s also humiliated in front of everyone because he pees himself right before his death). and in that scene, r/hys is supposed to be a “secret good guy” because he kills him fast instead of slow and torturously.
please.
anyways, this kind of got a little rambly but i just wanted to add on to these great (and infuriating) points!
