This episode is about race and fantasy more broadly. I use my thoughts on Episode 7 of Dance of the Dragons, "Driftwood" and the Freeform mermaid show Siren to think (and rant) out loud about race, settler colonialism, casting, and fantasy fandoms. This is a different one so hope that folks enjoy. We'll be back more to mermaids in the next one!
My Research on Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Mermaids
My Review of Skin of the Sea in Los Angeles Review of Books
Caveats and corrections: My comments on Dance of Dragons are meant only to talk about Aemond as a character and not about the actor who plays him. I know the difference between fantasy characters and real life children. The Sharma sisters on season 2 of Bridgerton are Indian-British. I identified them as Southeast Asian but I like to use the most specific descriptors of identity and nationality when known.
Terms Used:
settler colonialism: a form of colonization in which the incoming settlers seek to not only control and extract resources from a colony but displace and replace the original inhabitants of the land
Media Mentions:
Game of Thrones
Dance of Dragons
Bridgerton
Hamilton
Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1998) (There were earlier film versions of the musical)
Siren
Shoutouts:
Book Mentions:
Nalo Hopkinson's The New Moon's Arms
Rivers Solomon's The Deep
N.K. Jemison's The Stone Sky , Book 3 of The Broken Earth Trilogy
Natasha Bowen's Skin of the Sea