forgive me this is very long but i’m a writer and started 30 minutes ago and it’s too late to half ass this now.
@Darkmint13
Admittedly, not “looking” like they’re from a country/culture isn’t right to say as well. That’s invalidating a whole slew of people that may have identity issues similar to those who are biracial and that’s definitely a fault of mine. Again, apologies for that.
However, I do think I can address a few things in your argument and present my argument more as well.
First of all, the protagonists are notably lighter skinned than the other characters. This is actually a historical political device that was used to reinforce colorism in Asia—where white people (the Spaniards at the time) would use dramas/plays to push their agenda. They (white people) would play the main cast (note: these were usually religious plays so they would have roles as holy men, gods, etc.) and would recruit natives to play as the supporting cast. Gods, important beings = white, light skinned. Extras = dark skinned folk, natives. This reinforced the notion of light skinned superiority.
Apply that in this sort of scenario. Most asian countries have complexes with color due to varying aspects such as race (lmao lets not start with how filipinos, thailanders, etc. get discriminated by eastern asians and how filipinos also have colonial mentality because of reasons like the paragraph above this one) and class (poor -> farmer -> out in sun working -> has dark skin, rich -> can stay inside -> light skinned).
That’s why there’s so much discontent with a protagonist that’s blonde haired and blue eyed in a setting that for all intents and purposes could have a dark skinned protagonist that would easily fit the setting of the story.
If you’d like to look at examples of how there is a real and valid issue here: take a look at the content here on MangaDex. A majority of stories, especially if you go under the romance tag like I do, are set in either the origin country (where colorism is definitely alive— Japan, Korea, China, etc.) or in a European setting. It’s very rare to find a story with dark skinned protagonists. Again, this setting for a story easily gives you the room to create dark skinned protagonists. That is where the discontent comes from.
The whole “funny how people are dropping this story because of his looks” is kinda 👁👄👁 for me. It’s not just him. It’s again, the fact that we can sense the ugly underbelly of colorism from here.
As
@Marabout says, it’s pretty sus because it’s a Korean story. There is undoubtedly colorism there. If you’d like an example, I recommend putting some research into K-beauty and how many shades of foundation brands usually come up with.