Lucia’s Dossier of Irrefutable FACTS & EVIDENCE that Fenrys Moonbeam is a man of color!!! Enjoy.
So, I’ve been toying with making this post for a while and for a while it seemed like maybe we didn’t need it but SPOILER ALERT, Embers of Memory depicts him as a wolf so we don’t have official art of him and until 30 seconds ago when I edited it, the wiki page for Fenrys said he was “tan” and depicted him as white. Obviously large swaths of the fandom need this post and since I am now properly caffeinated, it’s time to fucking GET TO IT.
I’ve posted about this before but never have I posted every single screen shot I have of Fenrys being described as a person of color, nor have I really made arguments around this in a coherent manner aside from just yelling. (dont worry this post is still going to include yelling)
disclaimer: if you read him as white, this post is pretty much for you. there are some things that we can make multiple valid interpretations of, but Fenrys’s race aint one of them, and even though SJM really does need to become better at specifically describing race, I’m truly convinced some of yall cant read or just want everyone to be white (and we are taught that white = the best and most beautiful but you are responsible for doing the work to unlearn that) because she makes it pretty damn clear with his character.
But can I just mention that this post shouldn’t even be necessary? Like, when a character of color is consistently described as being a character of color, it shouldn’t result in like ENDLESS fanarts and edits of him as white.
Plus, please don’t really thank me or whatever for making this. It’s the bare minimum you know? Like, I’m just trying to do the right thing in making this, and I recognize that as a white person, I stand to get a lot less hate for making a post like this than a person of color would if they did the same thing.
Also, please actually REBLOG THIS POST. If you have an IG please post it to your fandom account on there too. Thanks!
Okay so point number one:
Fenrys is described throughout the text consistently as having bronze skin and brown skin, and even golden-brown. This is C O N S I S T E N T. He is not described as tan. How can you be sure, you ask? Well, I’m a fucking psycho who buys the kindle copies to check for this shit easily and I’m also like, a very engaged and critical reader and this shit doesn’t escape my notice so you better believe that when KoA released I was FIXATED on finding more Fenrys facts to add to this dissertation.
Fenrys’s skin color in Empire of Storms being described as bronze:
If you want to argue that bronze is the same as a tanned white person, here’s Gavriel and Fenrys described together on the same page. Gav is tan, Fen is bronze.
And oh look, here’s Lysandra shifting into Fenrys’s form and her/his skin is described as golden-brown:
Here’s another instance where Fenrys has brown skin:
Fenrys in Kingdom of Ash, still bronze skinned:
Also, in KoA there is not one single instance of anyone being described as tan skinned.
And other characters are described as being “tanned,” ie, they have a tan from being outside. Here:
Fenrys being described as having bronze skin therefore unequivocally marks a difference from the way white, tanned characters are described.
And on the most important point, Connall, his identical twin is said to have the same skin tone. This is a description clearly meant to convey that Fenrys and Connall look the same, it’s a description linking them as twins. They are not just magically the same exact level of white person tan. Fenrys’s bronze skin is explicitly a racial, genetic characteristic, demonstrated by the fact that it’s something his identical twin has as well:
Finally, if we look at the way SJM’s writing has grown overall, we can clearly see the difference between white tan people and people of color. The best example is the way the Illyrians are portrayed in acomaf vs acowar. In acomaf they are described as tan skinned consistently:
But in acowar, which SJM had a new editor for, and which came after some criticism from the fans/general readers of how she described skin tone, she made it explicitly clear that the Illyrians are people of color, describing them henceforth as having golden-brown skin in varying shades:
Finally, we see that Lucien, who we find out is Helion’s son, is described as having golden brown skin as well:
Lucien is a biracial character, with a father who is described as having “dark” skin. Lucien has golden-brown skin. Rhysand, Cassian, and Azriel, also characters of color, have golden-brown skin. Yrene, too, another biracial character, has golden-brown skin as well.
Fenrys, is said to have bronze, brown, and golden-brown skin. Those are the only descriptors used for his skin tone. Not tan, not tanned, not white. Bronze, brown, golden-brown. Within SJM’s books, golden-brown clearly denotes a person of color. Though at one time she did use “tan” it to mean a person of color in acomaf, with KoA we see that she has moved more towards saying someone is “tanned,” meaning they acquired the tan rather than being born with it.
The only further clue we have about Fenrys’s race is his hair, which is at one time described as curly:
The image of him toying with a curl at the nape of his neck makes me think he has textured, probably type 3 or 4 hair or somewhere in between (google this if you need a mental image). As someone with wavy hair, I don’t get curls at the nape of my neck because most waves start further down. My waves start around my ears, and only people with curlier types of hair, like in the 3 or 4 range have curls that close to their scalp. Fenrys toying with a curl at the nape of his neck means the hair there must be curly…so it’s not straight, it’s probably not even wavy. This might well be a throwaway line, but to me, someone who puts a lot of effort into caring for her hair, it signals that he does not have straight hair, that he in fact has textured hair. There are multiple ways to read Fenrys’s race—we don’t know much aside from that he is a person of color. But this bit makes me personally picture him as being a black man with curly hair.
To conclude:
-Fenrys’s skin tone is described consistently as bronze, brown, golden-brown.
-Connall is described in the same way, making this a genetic characteristic. It’s not that they both like, go tanning together or some dumb shit.
-SJM clearly indicates non-white when she uses the terms golden-brown and brown, as demonstrated by acowar. Fenrys is described in this way. Therefore, he’s non white.
-Other characters who are white but tan, are described as “tanned” in Kingdom of Ash. Bronze is clearly different from “tanned.”
-Fenrys most likely has textured, curly hair, otherwise the scene I described above doesn’t make sense.
-Given all of this information, it is literally inconceivable that he is a white man. Within the canon of ToG, he is the ONLY SINGLE character described as having bronze skin, all white people who are tan are called “tan.” Using the larger corpus of SJM books, we can easily demonstrates that non-white characters do not normally get described as tan post acomaf. Empire of Storms came AFTER acomaf, and with acowar, ToD, and KoA we see SJM developing more specific language to describe people of color. Her tan white people, like Aedion and Gavriel, are called tan. Non white people are described using other adjectives.
-FENRYS IS LITERALLY SAID TO HAVE A QUOTE BROWN CHEST UNQUOTE KJWEBKJBESKJRBWE WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED.
Please post this to instagram if you don’t mind! That’s the place where it seems like this information is really needed.
tag list for meta plus some other i know are interested in this post:
@wildhvnt @unillamatato @elentiya-ashryver-galathynius @exyelsior @vladdict @anabelkay @lilyevenspotter @foxboylucien @aelinisbi @tavarillasgalen @study-read-repeat @princevvhitethorn @aperpetualaffliction @believeinstories @dazzlinghazee @highladyofthedark @moprocrastinates @redwall127 @harbingerofbooksandbakedgoods @theothercrazyperson @delicatebluebirdruins @rayonfrozenwings @fae-queen-of-the-east @anabelkay @bookofmirth @curvedyellowfruit
