Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-98.247.168.42-20181122042639/@comment-32987979-20200215064603

I agree with that last part; I'm a white female, like Shannon, but I try my best to have as much racial diversity as possible! I have a lot of like 100% finished kotlc fanfics floating around in my head (that I've never actually written but bear with me,) all of which have a full cast of characters of many different ethnicities- I've even tried my best to sprinkle in some LGBTQ+ characters, though I admit that area is a bit lacking. (But there are three main characters who are so far. I try my best to make it make sense and not just be shoehorned in. In my own headcanoned version of kotlc, being gay is just normal and accepted, but I don't want to have characters be LGBTQ+ for the sake of being LGBTQ+; it has to work with the character, y'know?)

I do this not only, of course, to make sure there's lots of racial representation, but because it makes the characters feel more real. Seriously, if you ever have problems with an OC feeling flat or unrealistic, I find that my favorite thing to do is to give characters favorite colors and foods, think about what kind of clothes they like to wear, and of course, play around with their ethnicities. And with kotlc, it's important to make sure there are a lot of mixed-race couples, because that's mentioned to be encouraged in the books if I remember correctly. Basically, having lots of diversity in any story really just adds a touch of realism to the whole thing. Everyone in real life is different and has quirks, so a good story should reflect that.

And the actual kotlc books just... don't. They say that biracial couples are encouraged, and yet the only ones I can think of are Cyrah and Prentice and Livvy and Quinlin (maybe?? And they aren't even together anymore.) Both pairs are barely important to the story, no matter how much Shannon tried to convince you that Prentice actually has any kind of significance. As for the main group of characters (of which there are a TON, by the way) only Wylie, Linh, and Tam aren't white (if you even count Wylie as a main character at this point.)