this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2025
714 points (93.0% liked)
Memes
53479 readers
921 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Can we be upset about all of them?
Maybe, but Ariel is a fucking mer-person whose race is undefined in the OG story
Isn't this the original illustration?
She, famously, has no idea how humans live. She is culturally distinct from the Europeans on the coast.
She has more in common with the fish that she speaks to. She's basically a magic dolphin.
Meanwhile, the people in the OP image are humans (to my knowledge, I'm not a nerd). Humans who have lived in the human world with human pasts full of human culture which give context to their characterization. I'm sure their background stories matter to their fans.
Nobody argues about what color the scales on Ariel's tail should be.
I'll defer to your delphine expertise. Although Snow White is the one that really got me, she's explicitly described in the text, her snow white skin is her primary physical characteristic.
Don't get me wrong, I am upset about the others, or at least as upset as is reasonable for the ethnicities of fictional characters. But consistency is consistency. I'd rather see more stories from diverse cultures than arbitrary race-switching.
I don't particularly care about arbitrary race switching in fairy tales. Race has no bearing whatsoever on the actual story of Snow White