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Brown Raouls
Apr. 20th, 2018 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeIt's interesting that there are currently two (that I know of) R/C fanfics running which have decided to depict Raoul as a non-white protagonist, even despite the difficulties this creates in retaining his 'de Chagny' role.
In Strange Sweet Sound on AO3, Raoul is described as a 'throwback' to an enslaved foremother, the darkest one in a family of otherwise only slightly-negroid aristocrats (a sort of parallel with the cases of Alexandre Dumas and the Chevalier de St-George).
In the graphic novel Fantome-Stein on Tumblr, 'half-caste' Raoul appears to be the illegitimate offspring of Philippe's sister, although this plot point has yet to be clarified. (Weirdly enough, in the earliest artwork he isn't discernably dark-skinned at all; it shows up starting in chapter two.)
I'm wondering if this fan development is something to do with millennials' psychology, i.e. in order to be virtuous you need to be able to demonstrate identity with some oppressed group. It's interesting that I've only come across this in pro-Raoul stories (admittedly in a grand sample of two!) -- I have a feeling that it's a subconscious attempt to make Raoul a more sympathetic protagonist and perhaps to counterbalance the 'Aristocrat = Evil' assumptions among the fandom/demographic (poor Philippe, the go-to source of villainy...)
In Strange Sweet Sound on AO3, Raoul is described as a 'throwback' to an enslaved foremother, the darkest one in a family of otherwise only slightly-negroid aristocrats (a sort of parallel with the cases of Alexandre Dumas and the Chevalier de St-George).
In the graphic novel Fantome-Stein on Tumblr, 'half-caste' Raoul appears to be the illegitimate offspring of Philippe's sister, although this plot point has yet to be clarified. (Weirdly enough, in the earliest artwork he isn't discernably dark-skinned at all; it shows up starting in chapter two.)
I'm wondering if this fan development is something to do with millennials' psychology, i.e. in order to be virtuous you need to be able to demonstrate identity with some oppressed group. It's interesting that I've only come across this in pro-Raoul stories (admittedly in a grand sample of two!) -- I have a feeling that it's a subconscious attempt to make Raoul a more sympathetic protagonist and perhaps to counterbalance the 'Aristocrat = Evil' assumptions among the fandom/demographic (poor Philippe, the go-to source of villainy...)
