fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3280 ]

[ SECRET POST #3280 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3280 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 053 secrets from Secret Submission Post #469.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Does anyone here remember the shitstorm when it was surprise!announced that Blaise Zabini was black in one of the later books? Anyone?

People were surprised that someone with the last name Zabini is black?

It could be Italian.

google image search for "zabini -blaise -harry -potter" doesn't bring up a whole lot of black people

Googling just "zabini" brings up a metric arseload of references to the character and pictures of the actor.

Yes. Which is why I removed those words, to see how "black" a name google thinks it is.

Northern Italians are black now?

I remember but I was more surprised by the people who were upset that he was a boy since it had never occurred to me that anyone would think he was a girl. It probably helped that I actually knew a boy named Blaise though, so it was definitely a boy's name in my head when it wasn't for other people.

Me, too! (Anon who replied after you but didn't notice your post in time.)

In my part of the world, Blaise is a male name, and one of my male classmates was Blaise.

The controversy I remember was people being surprised that Blaise was actually male. I'm from a French speaking area, so the idea of Blaise NOT being male was the thing that surprised me. Glad to know I was vindicated in that regard.

This and his gender. So much wank surrounding a random background character.

A lot of people projected a lot of shit on him. I never got it.

Yes. Half Blood Prince brought some ridiculous wank from the surprise and anger over Blaise's race and gender, to Lupin/Tonks and Harry/Ginny becoming canon and, of course, Snape Killing Dumbledore.

Blaise Zabini got TWO shitstorms fro what I recall.

First for being male, then for being black. I was never a part of it, but I remember being particularly annoyed by both revelations. How could JK Rowling not find either of those as pertinent details to write earlier with a named character, background or not? It just seemed like a poor writing choice to me.

Except prior to when Rowling revealed those details the only mention of Blaise was his name as he was sorted into Slytherin. How is it a poor writing choice to not do a complete and thorough description of a character whose only function in their first named appearance was literally to be 'character whose last name starts with Z and so was the last one sorted?' She described him when he became relevant to the story, the poor writing choice in my mind would have been to do it in the first appearance where the character has absolutely no relevance whatsoever for like the next five books.

Right, fleshing out characters and environment when describing a completely new experience in a foreign setting is such poor writing.

So good writing is fleshing out every single character who gets a one line mention, regardless of whether they actually matter to the story or not? The line he's mentioned in is ' "Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy pompously across Harry as "Zabini, Blaise" was made a Slytherin.', I suppose she could have added 'as a black boy named Zabini, Blaise was made a Slytherin' but that's awkwardly phrased, unnecessary, and Harry himself probably isn't even looking at the Sorting Hat at that moment so why would the narration from his POV even mention it.

If it had been written like that "a black boy named Zabini, Blaise, was made a Slytherin" it would not only be awkward but almost offensively othering. People in other parts of this discussion are talking about how JK Rowling devotes paragraphs to telling you when a character isn't white and how that's bad, but she doesn't really do that. Your hypothetical sentence, however, is an example of what it would be like if she did.

When I realized there were a bunch of people in fandom who seriously thought Blaise was a girl, and then got all butt hurt about "muh headcannons!" when he wasn't, I thought: what a bunch of phillistines.

You're one of those people. Never heard of Blaise Pascal?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3280 ]

I wonder

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Because it's surprising!

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