Topic on Talk:Malik Destiny

I totally understand! Old lore especially is really important simply because it kind of captures the zeitgeist of the era. Nonetheless, I think it is worth examining if something popular really is good and should be publicized like this. Again, not an experience unique to Malik or the Garages, at least 2 teams have resources specifically catered around integrating more diverse and sensitive writing and would be happy to talk with the Garages about the same struggle.

Before I move on to my thoughts on how to work on the issues you've raised, I do want to talk about the 2nd part. And again, this is already sort of brought up but- as per Riptide1st's talk page, it once again vibes badly with the Orientalist tropes baked into Malik's page. This is what I meant in my reply down the thread- I don't see an issue being raised with Malik meaning King turned into a positive thing per se, but I don't think I have successfully communicated why I think the lore isn't just unfortunate, but the connections that enabled it to arise are inherently problematic and it's not really clicking that the issue isn't strictly that "A Kuwaiti person can't be anti-monarchist" but that "A group of writers who very obviously skew very American and kind of white writing a Kuwaiti American as only contextualizing their ties to Kuwait as inherently oppressive and negative strongly echoes the fear mongering, xenophobia and ignorance that is often echoed out of ignorance, racism or paternalism." I'm a non American who hates my government fr fr, but it is a very different dynamic when it is a local writing about local issues vs outsiders who do not specialize in the field and have made their ignorance clear trying to act like an authority. There is...a lot of nuance tied to being anti-monarchist in Kuwait and in the general area where states tend to be emirates and to be honest, none of that is here, none of that is meaningfully addressed or integrated in his characterization as a Kuwaiti person and how it feels to be visibly non white in activist spaces where historically, activism has never been a bastion of intersectionality. And that's totally fair and I definitely wouldn't be able to write convincingly as a anti-government Kuwaiti activist, but that is kind of exactly why I prefer to stay in my lane not just because I will fuck up but also because I'm vulnerable to propaganda, my own ignorance and my own pre-existing bias and I don't think the Garages, at any point, are willing to admit this until forcefully pressed, such as the kill all gods issue. Again, the issue is not 'I'm not allowing you to write things without going in depth", it is "please stop glossing over and creating situations for your fictional characters that Americans and American Blaseball fans have continuously subjected non White, non Catholic/atheist fans to".

Now, moving on because this ties to my proposed solution. While the wiki is meant to document Blaseball lore and events, it's not necessarily a repository of Blaseball lore. It is not meant to be wholly comprehensive of all headcanons and different minutae, it is merely a useful record keeping tool. It is a bit of a mess, but we've had similar issues and if the issue is only "regardless of different concerns, we consider this important and key". Given that I don't think it's worth pursuing wether or not we agree on the sensitivity issue, the simplest solution is to remove it because it is highly contested. That is not a reflection of wether or not you can discuss or pursue this in Maincord or in other avenues, it is simply a reflection of the fact that this specific content hasn't been agreed on. The same way Zion Aliciakeyes birthplace isn't on the wiki because theres two distinct interpretations and the same way I do not put my neutral evil characterization of Famous Owens on the wiki.

I also hope that while I am willing to workshop with you ways to meaningfully preserve the elements of alt!Malik into the wiki update, I think there first needs to be an examination on what specific nunace makes that Malik work and what themes are in play and how strongly they need to be tied to the JRPG stuff. Alternatively, I have not seen any response about my comment that a possible compromise could be better fleshing out Malik's alt origin place or adjusting his 'crimes' and difficulty adjusting to sound less like what I've said. In addition, as both I and Paopuleaf have said- the VA thing might not be set in stone if Garages understand the issues we have pointed out and are willing to work with us on creating a rewrite. It takes effort. There's just no better way I can say this. i think the original wiki page has such unfortunate implications, and I can not tell if you fundamentally disagree with me on this in which case I believe that the solution is now more of "we should remove irreconcilable differences from the wiki as the garages can have their own documents and lore not on the wiki". If not, yeah it takes a lot of time and effort and a willingness to let go of things we liked. That's just what my team has done and it sucks but it's doable. Nothing about the important themes, that I do genuinely like and also I read a lotta webtoons about modern girls becoming western fantasy protags its a super popular genre, but like, it's definitely not unique or only possible to explore via the wiki page as it currently stands.