So, if you set up a series of rooms with 30 random people from such a population, you should expect roughly 1 in 4 rooms to contain a purple person inside.

It’s not erasure to say POC were a small percentage of the population. To couch it as that is the only thing happening here that is obviously disingenuous. After all... to say they weren’t a minority, at least at the generalized regional level, is to erase the struggles they certainly faced in the region.

I actually agree on this point... which is why I only argued this point as simply being less self-evident than people want to pretend in my OP.

The counter argument would be that these expectations are set by the world (or, more accurately, the target demographic for the game)... not the writers or the game studio.…

You’re illustrating my point. I started with the point that there were few non-white people in medieval Europe (relative to the total population) and you provide a litany of sources illustrating that there were some (several of which I have already read)... essentially engaging in exactly the style of straw manning I…

No one said there are zero non-white people in Europe during the Medieval period. This is a strawman argument.

Right. Roman North Africans were probably at least a portion of the North Africans that actually traveled north in to Europe during the Medieval period... meaning actual diversity in Europe during the period probably didn’t look like America’s modern (often very superficial) standard for diversity.

If you read my immediate follow-up you’d know that was bait, setup to make a point that should be obvious. This is Asian Studies 101 stuff (if that is still what that branch is called... took those classes more than a decade ago).

You make a good point, but it’s diluted somewhat by the fact that many of those North Africans were people that, at least by modern standards, could be categorized as “white” (particularly at a glance in a video game trailer)... particularly as the relatively low numbers were diffused in to the “white” populations…

There may be a little projection in our view of this (assuming your American or Canadian). Is it possible that the modern (very NA) definition of racism doesn’t even make a ton of sense in various contexts?!

The article doesn’t concern itself with details, like the ethnic and cultural diversity among “white” people in Medieval Europe, so neither will I (in this context). To someone on the outside, particularly someone that feels like they aren’t seeing people like them, it just looks like a bunch of white folks... which…

Japan has one of the least racially/cultural diverse populations on the planet, with no major legacy of oppression along racial/cultural lines. Is it at all strange to project our own cultural hang-ups on to them?

This. Lived experience is something of a double-edged sword in some instances.

You could say that is a scene right out of an episode and I wouldn’t be particularly surprised, based on what we got.

It’s highly rewarding for campers.

If the answer is yes then you may simply be illustrating that a lot of writers are writing under terrible conditions (bad for them and the projects they are working on).

I want to take criticisms of the show seriously but if they come from fan whining and a diva being a diva (who is very upfront in his attitude that adaptations HAVE to be written by fans), then I get pretty shoulder-shruggy.

It’s more like they start with semi-valid criticisms and then anecdotal evidence (like other people involved with the project hearing alarming thing from writers), for better or worse, re-contextualizes those criticisms (similar to the way your story about your friend’s experience as a writer on Criminal minds, also…

It’s probably because I generally ignore obvious troll posts.

I was simply conceding that I was speaking more generally in that comment and didn’t realize the implications (that you wouldn’t necessarily know my bias)... not sure why your comments seem so hostile.

Basically everything I’m saying boils down to “Fans should shut the fuck up and let writers do their jobs.”