Discussion: Diverse Characters Portrayed Negatively

missed u to hun. im always here. :heart_eyes::blush::hugs::heart:

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I think it’s disrespectful to attack characters based on their background and stereotype them. I think authors should really do some research and give them a personality

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hmph.

I 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% agree.

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The purpose should be to promote awareness in positive way, enlighten the reader that unfortunately this does happen but if it just to use a story as a way to belittle and make an example out of people then no I don’t agree. Like others have said do enough research to come ar a productive angle.

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Depends on perspective. When I see bad muslims/Christians/black people being the bad guys I just see bad characters who happen to be muslims/christians/black. That’s all.

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Pretty toxic and that just creates more bad stereotypes. Honestly I don’t see why for example ethnic characters can’t just be normal characters.
I’m not saying that a story can’t have evil characters who are not white. I’m saying they shouldn’t be evil because of the character’s colour you know.
I want to believe that it’s not always intentional. Like (a stupid example really) in pretty little liars tv show where they made their only trans character evil.
I don’t know if this makes any sense it is morning where I live so I need to wake up more before I can function like a normal person. :smiley:

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If you’re a good person, you’re a good person. If you’re a bad person, you’re a bad person. Regardless of what your skin color, religion, sexuality may be, if you treat someone like trash, you’re just plain bad. If you treat someone with kindness, you’re a nice person. You can be proud of your background but if someone judges you on it, that’s just plain ignorance. You need to judge people on their personality, not where they come from. When I see a person who follows a religion and they’re scamming people, I don’t say “what a horrible religion” - many others follow this religion and not all are scammers-they all have different personalities. Instead I say “what a scamming fool!”

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as long it’s portrayed/shown they’re bad people, i’m fine with it

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Moved to Episode Fan Community since this sounds like it’s about Episode stories. Make sure to check out our Forum Tutorial for more info about where to correctly create topics, and feel to PM me if there are any questions. :wink:

Well, I am going to be honest (I hope it is not off topic). When finally charatcers from different religion (Judaism and/or Islam) and/or culture is shown, it is mostly (if not always) done negligibly. You know, some authors do this as if they were doing a favor to us as people who read their story(ies) by adding POC characters :roll_eyes: :unamused: . The main thing is to put POC character and that’s all - no need to put an effort onto creating those characters, no need to do research nor is it needed to give them personality :roll_eyes: - just to make others who want the stories to have diversity stop “complaining” about the lack of diversity.
But, some authors are forgetting that among the readers, there are people whose religion/culture is shown in their stories and they see that those authors represent the (POC) character in a nasty and unpleasant way.

Do not get me wrong. I am not trying to say in other words that every POC character should be portrayed as pure and perfect. Not at all. After all, there’s not such thing as 100% perfection in a person. I believe that people in this world are good-hearted - they just do not show it to every person. But, we all have a dark side, whether we show it or not. In the end of the day, we are all humans being.

Well, I will agree with you at this point and from that point I will say that what I do try to say is that for some authors the main thing is just to put POC characters (minority, Jewish, Muslim ones) and that’s all. Without doing some research and giving them personality :roll_eyes:. Well, if they do not know how to, then there are threads that talk exactly about this.
If you want to create Jewish characters, then you can read @Mehasels’s thread, which is called Some Helpful Information: Jewish Characters! <3 <3 (this is a link to a repost of the original thread). And if you want to create Muslim characters, then here is @EpisodeShadow’s thread with an explanation, which is called How-To Guide: Making and Adding Muslim Characters.

(When I say “you”, I mean to those authors who don’t put an effort on creating any characters from the religions that I mentioned below and for those who do care about adding diversity and want to make one in their own story)

It is just my point of view. So, I hope it’s not off topic.

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I don’t really mind until is not too much :slightly_smiling_face:

It completely depends on how it’s handled. Excessive is excessive, but anyone can be a bad person. So, I’m in support until it’s over-the-top.

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Personally I think protesting diverse characters negatively becomes a problem when that’s the only portrayal of them in your story. I.e. If a story only had one lgbt+ character and they were a bully (or had multiple lgbt characters but all of them were bullies) I’d be skeptical, as a opposed to a story with a large cast of lgbt+ characters who are both protagonists and antagonists wouldn’t raise any alarms.

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I think it’s important to have diverse portrayals of negative characters. It’s good to show that minorities aren’t always good people 100% of the time. It’s bad for mental health to think we are haha.

But if they’re bad because they’re a minority or it’s only minority people that are bad or the minority people in the story are all bad, that’s awful

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People always seem to talk about this issue with diversity . It’s a hot topic, but if I’m being honest, I don’t know why a person would portray a character from a different background without doing some research first. It’s like driving in a car without knowing the basics of driving a car; it’s never going to work. That probably was a terrible analogy… I’m sorry :sob:

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This. Coincidences exist.

When I create my characters, I use their backstories to decide whether they will be good, neutral, bad or morally grey. First I design them and create their past, then I see what happens. I am not going to change the way they look or their beliefs just because some people may think that portraying them as villains is bAd rePResEnTatIOn.

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Idk if this is relevant to the topic (or if my opinion is relevant at all, who knows) but I think it’s important to remember that nothing is black or white. Stories need antagonists for sure, but no person is purely evil - at least not without having a motif. Antagonists exists in all different forms, but no matter the ethnicity or race of your antagonist it’s important to at least during some point in your story let the reader sympathize with the antagonist. I don’t think being portrayed as 100% bad or evil is fun for no group of people (although I understand how it can be worse for certain groups who stereotypically have been seen as bad throughout history), and putting thought into a character and giving him/her/they a purpose is important no matter the nature of your character. Again, my point is that there are no such things as black and white (not referring to races btw, maybe I should’ve pointed that out earlier heh). No good character is 100% good and no bad character is entirely bad. And uh I guess if the reader can sympathize and understand both the protagonist and antagonist in a story, does it really matter which one of them belongs to which ethnicity/race/culture/sexuality/religion etc…?

If this doesn’t make sense at all, I get that and I’m sorry heh. My thoughts are not fully polished, I just felt the urge to comment on this :woman_shrugging:t5: Feel free to question this or have opinions about my opinion (that make sense?), I would love to see more ways to view this. Have a nice day/evening/morning or whatever floats your boat, and thanks to the owner of this thread for creating an interesting and important topic!

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