Fan Artist Accused of Racism for Pokemon and Fire Emblem: Three Houses Crossover Fan-Art
Spencer Baculi
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Outraged critics have taken vocal offense to a recent piece of Pokémon and Fire Emblem: Three Houses fan art, accusing the artist of racism due to the artist’s choice to depict the grass-type Rillaboom as Claude, the leader of the Golden Deer house.
On January 28th, a fan artist named Kira shared her latest piece of artwork, which depicted the three final evolutions of the starter Pokémon from Pokémon Sword and Shield, Inteleon, Cinderace, and Rillaboom as the Lords of the three houses in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Dimitri, Edelgard, and Claude respectively, in their post-timeskip outfits:
been wanted to draw this for a while :>
post-timeskip Galar FE Lords!✨ pic.twitter.com/1ESCeNKnq0
— ✨Kira Kira✨ (@kiravera8) January 29, 2020
Upon posting her art, Kira’s piece was quickly descended upon by the vocal critics of Twitter who, viewing the piece through social justice theory, declared that Kira was racist for drawing Rillaboom as Claude:
if i have to see one more “fe3h lords as the gen 8 starters” where claude is literally the monkey im going to start fucking swinging dont put that racist shit on my timeline
— 🏳️⚧️ quin @#1 piers fan (@ratshops) January 29, 2020
So we’re drawing POCs as monkeys cool cool cool nothing to see here https://t.co/rPv78Imx35
— SirenSymph⭕️ny (@symphony_siren) January 31, 2020
For anyone else who wants to argue lemme make it simple for you:
Reimagining a character of of color as a primate Pokemon is Never Okay.
There’s way too much racist art from the 20th century to say that I’m just making things racist for no reason.
— SirenSymph⭕️ny (@symphony_siren) February 1, 2020
Obviously I realize it wasnt intentional. But it still needs to be brought up, bc accidental racism is still racism. I’m not “shaming” anybody, me and everyone else talking abt it are saying to be more mindful. Yall are acting like ppl want her head on a pike
— e-slur von Hresvelg 🚀🦅 (@aeroavian_) January 29, 2020
It should be noted that Claude is not ‘black,’ but rather bears deeply tanned skin. While no specific race is given as the genetic background for his initially-white skin, given the game’s country of origin, Claude is most likely based on East Asian peoples.
The massive amount of backlash directed took a toll on Kira, as she eventually responded to the backlash by attempting to inform the outraged masses that “I would NEVER have any intentions of being racist..that’s not the kind of person I am.” She also despairingly promised that “it won’t ever happen again.”
I wanted to say that I’m extremely sorry about the FE galar starters art I posted, I would NEVER have any intentions of being racist..that’s not the kind of person I am. I had no thought about the Rillaboom/Claude incident while drawing and I’m very sorry for those I’ve hurt. 1/2
— ✨Kira Kira✨ (@kiravera8) January 30, 2020
From the bottom of my heart, I promise it won’t ever happen again. I love and respect everyone as is. And with that, goodnight. (2/2)
— ✨Kira Kira✨ (@kiravera8) January 30, 2020
However, it appears that her apology was still not satisfactory to her accusers, as they now turned to accuse her of being insincere in her apology, leading Kira to state that the continued vitriol made her “feel like crying.”
after looking at some quote retweets/comments, this one really punched me in the gut..I don’t put on a mask on twitter. I’m the same exact person as IRL me. Again, I had absolutely no intention to hurt anyone. I mean it when I say I draw for fun, just pure fun. pic.twitter.com/6oc3dH4Sbd
— ✨Kira Kira✨ (@kiravera8) January 30, 2020
I feel like crying
— ✨Kira Kira✨ (@kiravera8) January 31, 2020
Thankfully, following these tweets, Kira received an outpouring of support and understanding across social media throughout the controversy, with many chastising the offended parties for attempting to find racism where none existed:
kira is one of the nicest people on this app but yall wanna call her racist over petty shit. yall just insecure and need help pic.twitter.com/7AFUDHHWOJ
— Zee (@Blun_Z) January 30, 2020
people of my race getting killed and mistreated by policeman in my country to this day
but you wanna be an asshole and call out people who dont deserve it for POKEMON?????
Fuck you. Im tired of woke people like this
— Zee (@Blun_Z) January 30, 2020
Hold up hold up. I’m black and I don’t see absolutely nothing wrong with your art. People took things way out of proportion. Don’t let those people put you down. Those people just want to start drama.
— Johnny (@JohnnyLockson) January 30, 2020
People who complain about this shit are stupid, keep up the good work Kira! https://t.co/PD8PFQqlLd
— Shin101/信101 (@the_shin101) February 2, 2020
It’s kinda fucked to think that Claude was made a rillaboom because of his skin color. The people shitting on this drawing are being indirectly racist
— Corrinsoul (@Corrinsoulv2) February 2, 2020
YouTuber Hero Hei commented on those who took issue with Kira’s artwork describing them as bullies.
Hero Hei explains, “You know, it’s funny, these people are text book bullies. They will bully you, and then when you fight back they will cower down.” He added, “It’s kind of funny. Also very sad and pathetic.”
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