all for the game backlog post: racism in the fandom
orignally posted on tumblr here on Oct 22nd, 2025, but the bulk of the info was reblogged on Nov 19th, 2025
anyone else notice that in the aftg fandom, dan and matt have the least amount of fanart (at least that ive been able to find) and theyre the two that everyone agrees are poc, typically headcanoned as black? ESPECIALLY dan because shes also a woman? i know its because racism and sexism (whether its intentional or not is not really relevant here, some people dont notice their biases) but come on guys they deserve love so stop it
additional thoughts from a reblog (their response shared in a screenshot):
@frankensaffytaffy had an excellent point about seth:
id also like to add more thoughts i forgot to include in my original post but i wanna caveat it with the fact that i havent read the sunshine court or the golden raven, so all my focus is on the original trilogy
i dont want to see the argument that its just because theyre a straight ship.
- if you care that much about things being gay, its very easy to split them up and give them gay ships. but no one ever does this. and you cant use the excuse of "but theyre such a great couple, i cant split them up!" because then why are you not shipping them in the first place? youll split up kevin and thea (a white man and a black woman) but not dan and matt (two black characters - which i realize now is more than just headcanons because of the rainbow crate artwork). i encourage you to really think about why that is.
- i also pointed out that dan gets even less than matt because shes a woman. you cant say its because shes straight when matt is as well. its just an argument that doesnt even make sense. it wont excuse it.
- straight ships are not inherently worse than gay ships and this mindset often makes it so compelling ships involving characters of color are completely overlooked. ive seen plenty of poc talk about this a LOT. i probably cant explain it nearly as well because im white and cant speak from experience, but that doesnt mean its not important. there is a problem in every fandom where white gay ships are propped up above straight ships involving characters of color even when the straight ship is fleshed out and compelling. especially so when the ship is interracial (see: kevin and thea). this happens in every fandom. every single one. including aftg. yes, neil and andrew are the main canon ship and theyre a white gay ship. but for example ships like kevaaron or sethaaron are not canon, and i see focus on them more frequently than i see stuff about danmatt and kevthea
i also want to touch on nicky, the canon mexican character, who gets neglected or flattened to a gay stereotype constantly. hes usually just focused on in relation to andrew and aaron because of his connection to them, not focused on for himself. theres SOME stuff, more than dan and matt, but still not a lot
and dont even get me started on thea. i would give leeway for the fact shes not a recurring character, but im revoking it from how shes treated in this fandom. when nora herself has to make a post defending the only canon black character in the text (not just the special edition cover art) that means the fandom is over the line
its racism and sexism. full stop. and its a problem that the fandom needs to fix.
original tags on the reblog:
#i know its been a while since the original post but its been on my mind the entire time and i finally decided to expand on my thoughts #i wish i had done so sooner tbh but i cant change the past #ill admit i have my own problems of focusing too much on andreil but im trying to work on that
additional thoughts from a reblog (their response shared in a screenshot):
another great point from the same tumblr user i mentioned above, i forgot about kevallison:
original tags from the reblog:
#sorry to keep reblogging my own post but i dont want these tags to be ignored #prev youre so right thank you for pointing out the stuff i miss