Genshin Impact fans have as soon as once more taken issues too far by harassing Dori’s English voice actor, Anjali Kunapaneni, following HoYoverse’s introduction the character on Twitter earlier than the model 3.0 replace. It’s no secret that the group has been displeased with how sure cultures have been represented in Sumeru, however a sizeable variety of fans have taken that displeasure to the intense by directing it on the mistaken folks – particularly, the voice actors behind these characters.
After Dori’s reveal, Kunapaneni took to Twitter to announce that they might be closing their DMs. They said that “issues began off okay,” however since they needed to shut their DMs, we will solely assume that the harassment grew to a stage that couldn’t be ignored or dealt with with out slicing off communication.
In the identical tweet, Kunapaneni offers the reminder that “actors usually are not their characters,” which needs to be apparent, however we’ve seen repeatedly that many fans usually don’t respect that differentiation, regardless of the fandom.
For those that haven’t been following the latest Genshin Impact controversy that led to this harassment, all of it stems from the group’s emotions towards illustration — or the shortage thereof. Sumeru is a area that clearly takes inspiration from Middle Eastern and South Asian international locations, but this isn’t mirrored within the pores and skin tones of characters. In Dori’s case, for instance, her design and character come throughout as dangerous stereotypes, reinforcing orientalist generalizations that don’t authentically symbolize cultures that she borrows from.
Players have additionally taken concern with identify pronunciations for distinguished Sumeru characters like Tighnari and Alhaitham, which is an issue that was recently addressed by Paimon’s English voice actor, Corina Boettger.
As Boettger mentioned, voice actors haven’t any management over their characters or pronunciations – and undoubtedly shouldn’t be harassed for choices they haven’t any management over.
