Lit Beating a Dead Eopie: The Diversity Thread (various spoilers)

Bought StarWars Rebellion Volume 2 "The Ahakista Gambit"

Damn that was good, Wyl Tarson was a ver intresting protagonist and his team were damn intresting.

Vader does love to threaten loved ones dont he.

I won't be getting a Gold tatoo anytime soon...But mad props for his writer/creator and artist/creator.

 

Okay, finished Knight Errant. I looked over the Wook, and here's my best stab at a fair Dramatis Personae:

Saaj Calician
Arkadia Calimondra
Ryland Dackett
Daiman
Kerra Holt
Narsk Ka'hane
Beadle Lubboon
Odion
Jarrow Rusher
Quillan
Tan Tengo

I made the decision to include Quillan but not Dromika, since neither of them really do much of anything, but he at least sticks around for more than one scene. I was on the fence about Novallo, but I decided against her because I couldn't even remember her name until I went to the Wook.


Dramatis Personae Characters (excluding droids): 11

Humans: 7 (64%)

White humans: 5 or 6

White male humans: 4 or 5

Diversity score (Non-WMHs): 64%

The only question mark in my list is Dackett, and I'm giving JJM the benefit of the doubt on him due to the sheer variety of alien characters we do know about, and the fact that he actually introduced an awesome IU justification for the fact that most of the humans in the book are the same race - the first time, in my eyes, anyone's actually attempted to retcon it. Whether that was in JJM's mind at the time is certainly debatable, but I've said all along that I wouldn't mind all the white folk as much if someone made an effort to actually give it an IU explanation.

In keeping with that, I'm using executive privilege again and bumping KE up from 64 to 75, because a desire for diversification is utterly palpable here, and I wouldn't feel right giving it a rating comparable to the FotJ books. KE stands as a great example of how you don't even have to adjust the actual cast statistics all that much if the author's head is at least in the right place.

TOR: Deceived - 66
Death Troopers - 60
FotJ: Vortex - 65
FotJ: Conviction* - 65

Ascension's up next, but I'm gonna take a Vonnegut break first. I wonder how his diversity scores would look...

Oh, and PS - yay, finally a darker-skinned Kerra in Deluge #2!!

 

How long does it take you to do that? To preform such an Analysis?

Do you read a book twice, or do it through your first read?

 

Well the analysis is just math - it was a little harder with KE because I had to fabricate a DP, but still only a few minutes. Anything beyond the numbers is just my impressions upon first reading. It takes me 3-4 weeks to read most novels, so I have lots of time to absorb but nowhere near enough time to read twice.

 

Hey Coop, you see the cover of the new Hutt book yet?

 

Yeah, yeah...it's at least a lot prettier than Riptide's.

 

True as that may be, they could both easily pass off as the same dude.

 

[image=http://suvudu.com/files/2011/09/SW_Scourge.jpg]

I dunno...that could plausibly be Antonio Banderas under there. The intention is another matter, but given Kerra's history, the picture isn't hopelessly definitive.

 

Excuses, excuses...

 

Can't you tell? I'm an optimist.

 

Alas, I was waiting for a Christopher Judge Jedi...

Teal'c watched Star Wars 10x!

 

That's that Stargate guy with the forehead thingy, right?

Hey, that's another racefail we haven't addressed - you can only be a black guy in SF if you have a face accessory:

[image=http://screenshots.filesnetwork.com/98/potd/1174423915_79.jpg]

[image=http://www.startrek.com/legacy_media/images/200307/worf06/320x240.jpg]

[image=http://wrgmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/3.jpg]

 

Did you just refer to Lando's stache as a "facial accessory" ?

lol

 

He's got a copyright on that stache!

[image=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/4911339637_f997d42f1d.jpg]

 

Strange, I don't remember there being that many human characters in KE....

Also, I don't remember getting any detailed physical descriptions either, just that Kerra had brown skin and that the mercenary captain had red hair (usually white, but it isn't unheard of for there to be red haired Asians or red haired haired people of mixed decent.)

May I ask how you decided who was what?

 

Quillan/Dromika are described as blonde (I thought Arkadia was as well, but I might have just assumed beause she's their sister), and Rusher, like you said, is a redhead (and fair-skinned, according to the Wook, but I don't remember that specific line). I clarified in this thread a long time ago that yes, this is SW and a human of any race could theoretically have any hair color, but in the absence of specific information I feel pretty comfortable assuming a blonde person is intended to be white.

 

I Suppose, but remember that red headed Koruunai girl from ShatterPoint, she was probably a black...ish red head.

 

I think it IS the same dude. I wouldn't be surprised if they used the same model.

 

...You know, I can't believe just how completely I had forgotten about the twins considering how important they were to the story.

 

What, pray tell, was it?

Malcolm X was a redhead.

I'm reading Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein right now. It's amusing to me that very few characters are white, but no one knows because Heinlein doesn't make a big deal about it. To be fair - can it be considered fair? - Verhoeven didn't bother reading the book.

 

If you don't know yet, I don't want to be the one to spoil it. It's a major development for the overall KE premise.

 

I'm not going to read it. Just PM me.

 

Any news on the Up Comming Novel Riptide, I think some people got ahold of it already.

 

*cough*

[image=http://www.comicbookresources.com/assets/images/articles/1318539058.jpg]

 

Bit strange, considering all the Tythonese we have seen before have been Asian...

On the plus side, none of the four main characters are human. Well, one is Dathomiri, which are near-human...and twi'lek are also overused...still a Sith main character and the newly introduced Force Found are interesting.