Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-98.247.168.42-20181122042639/@comment-39588799-20190526020854

@SheWhoMustNotBeNamed62442,

I completely agree with you. Kotlc should include people from the LGTBQ+ community, and SM hasn't. I guess she wants to show that the elvin world is "perfect", yet by saying this and at the same time not including any LGTBQ+ elves, she is implying that the world is perfect without this community. And even if Sophie (in a future book) does so something about LGTBQ+ opression, I do agree that this wouldn't make sense.

The kotlc series also has a ton of different issues regarding under-representation, racism, lack of diversity, plot-holes, and more. Let me just give a list of all of these problems that are just way too hard to ignore.

1) The gnomes:

This is probably one of the biggest issues in kotlc. The gnomes that work for the elves grow food for them, work for them, and serve them, all without getting paid. The elves say that the gnomes want to be there, but they just resemble slaves way too much. And SM took this whole slavery thing to a whole other level when she gave them brown-skin. Okay, I know a lot of people say that the gnomes are only brown-skinned because they are supposed to look like trees, but whatever SM's intentions, this was a very racist thing to do. Brown-skinned (black) people have been opressed, segregated, and enslaved by white people since the beginning of history. And by making the enslaved species in the kotlc series brown-skinned, SM (maybe unintentionally) was racist.

2) Sophie is waaaayyy too special.

Okay, this really annoys me. Sophie finds out that not only is she an elf, but the most talented and special elf there is. I mean, give her some flaws, SM! Literally, her ONE FLAW is that she tugs out her eyelashes (which I agree is totally weird, but it isn't enough). Not only is Sophie the only elf with brown eyes, but she is also the youngest elf to develop her talent. Also, let's not forget that she has multiple powers, and can do things that nobody ever thought possible. Also, all the boys love Sophie, and she is one of the prettiest elves at Foxfire.

3) Elves are too perfect

All of them are attractive. Kidnapping, murder, theft, and arson are "unheard of". Elves have extremely high IQs, magical powers, and are sooo much better than humans. They are also IMMORTAL and DON'T AGE. I mean, seriously??

3) lack of diversity

Literally most elves in kotlc are white. Yeah, there is the occasionally oh-so-general "olive skinned" elf, but it is hard to tell if they are white or not. Kotlc does feature some elves that have different skin colors, but it's definitely not enough. Take Tam and Linh for example. They are the only asian elves mentioned in the entire series. What?! And Sophie, upon seeing them, says that they look like "K-pop idols" and that it looked like they'd "stepped straight out of anime". There are way too many things wrong with this. First off, as SheWhoMustNotBeNamed62442 said,

"K-pop is korean, and anime is Japanese. It is rude to just cite two different asian popular cultures as what they looked like, basically saying all asians look the same."

SM couldn't even bother giving Tam and Linh an actually race. Oh no, saying that they were "asian" was totally enough. Sophie should know enough about other cultures to distinguish between races like japanese and korean.

Another point on diversity - where are all of the other races? Rarely any black elves are even mentioned (yeah, there's Prentice, I know, but having only him and his son deipicted as black is not enough to call kotlc diverse). Also, where are the other races like indonesian and latino? Yeah, we get it, elves aren't like humans, there aren't seperated into different races and cultures, but they should at least look different.

4) The timeline to extinction

The timeline is so scientifically incorrect I don't know where to start. Logically, the entire idea, I'm sorry, is trash. I know SM didn't major in science or anything, but she should know a few basic things about evolution and biology. Here is why the timeline is so wrong:

To start, evolution has been happening since the beginning of time. For over 2.6 billion years, species have adapted and changed to fit and survive in their environment. When species can no longer survive well in their changing habitat, the only thing that keeps them alive is mutations (besides emigration). A species' genes will mutate to match their environment over the years, and those without these mutations will die out. This entire theory is evolution and survival of the fittest. According to this concept, species are always going extinct and being created. If you were to list out every species that has ever existed on Earth (over 5 billion) - from the tiniest mold spore to the largest mammal - biologists estimate that somewhere around 99 percent of those species would currently be extinct. Yet according to kotlc, elves have kept all species alive, and not a single one has gone extinct, because according to elf logic, this would mean the 'destuction of life as we know it' or something. So according to kotlc, elves have over 5 billion different species in ONE SANCTUARY. This means they have species like archaea bacteria, (which aren’t even visible to the naked eye), megladons (which would definitely eat every other fish in the sanctuary's ocean reserve or something unless it was placed on a vegetarian diet). This entire idea of the elves having, feeding, and maintaining 5 billion different species in one place is ridiculous.

But that isn't the only thing wrong with the whole timeline and sanctuary thing. According to kotlc, the elves feed every single one of their animals (including the carnivores)'' vegetables. ''Yes, maybe the vegetables have the same nutritional value as meat, but it is still a very unnatural thing to do. The elves are replacing the natural diets of 5 billion species, which is entirely wrong. But the elves are supposedly “keeping up the balance of nature” by locking up billlions of species under a mountain range and forcing them to adapt to unnatural vegetation diets. I guess what I'm trying to say about the timeline to extinction and the havenfield sanctuary is that the idea is both hilarious and impossible.

5) The economy

According to kotlc, all elves get billions of dollars upon birth, and they don't even need to work (but they still do because it is "fun"). This whole concept is entirely ludicrous. Money needs to come from somewhere - you can't just give it out for free. I would go into further detail, but it would take too much time. Also, if nobody needs to work, who would do all of the elves' dirty work, like plumbing and cleaning and all the boring jobs that nobody likes? I mean, come on, if you only work for fun, would you choose a job where you need to manage the sewer system or something? The whole economy thing just doesn't add up.

6) Elves are sooo much better than humans

Okay, this whole thing makes me so mad. According to kotlc, humans are stupid and disgusting and don't know anything about anything. First off, human life is regarded as worthless, because s''o many humans die everyday anyways and what's the point? ''And don't get me started on how humans got everything about science wrong and that everything they think is wrong. Also ''"the dumbest elf could trump a human". Okay, I get that SM wants to show that elves are very intelligent, but did she need to make them sooo'' much better? Then you have the whole thing about electricity and JRR Tolkien's books... seriously SM? Also, according to kotlc, elves aren't sexist, as that is a "human thing", but in kotlc, sexism does exist. As SheWhoMustNotBeNamed62442 said,

"Otherwise we would see the boys wearing dresses, or at least fixing their hair without backlash, basically at least not sticking to common 'human' stereotypes. Many female characters are commonly described as being pretty, not strong, something women feel degrades them in our modern society. Biana is such a stereotypical 'girly girl' (a sexist term in itself) that I question how exactly sexism is not a thing in the perfect elvin world. "

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Okay, I know I have been pretty harsh, but kotlc has sooo many problems that need to be adressed. I don't even know why so many people love this series. I do agree some of it can be good, but overall, it has some serious flaws (unlike sophie).