We really didn’t need another retelling of the King Arthur legend. How many have there been again? There was the Disney cartoon (classic), the one where they enhanced Kiera Knightley’s boobs on the poster for… reasons… the one with Charlie Hunnam, the one on the BBC, the one with Eva Green… you know what, we don’t have all day. Let’s stop there. We really didn’t need another King Arthur legend, but if we were going to get one, I’m pretty happy that it doesn’t actually focus on King Arthur.
Netflix’s Cursed is based around the idea of “What if Excalibur chose a Queen instead of a King?” and follows the story of a young fey (faerie?) girl named Nimue (who historically is the Lady of the Lake, the guardian of Excalibur). Cool right? I thought so. Wait, it gets better. Arthur in this version is played by Devon Terrell, best known for playing Barrack Obama. The character of Morgan Le Fay is played by a Black woman, and her character in this show is a lesbian. Guinevere is a Viking warrior who isn’t forced to do battle in a bikini. Need I go on?
Sadly, the reviews and feedback for this show have been mostly negative. Reviewers have called it “Another misfire for the Arthurian Legend”, “Cursed Tries to be Game of Thrones, and Fails”, and most disturbingly “An Exercise In Forced Diversity”. It is this last thought that I am going to focus on, because it is also the most common criticism I have seen when it comes to this show.
There is an insidious problem in the fantasy genre, and it is a problem that has been around since the beginning. Let’s start with Lord of the Rings. I’m about to break some hearts here, and I want to assure everyone that I love Lord of the Rings. I’m a fantasy nerd and the amount of times I have watched these movies is obscene. But out of the three female characters in these movies, their combined screen time probably amounts to less than Merry and Pippin combined. No, there are no actors of color in these movies, and yes, the Dwarf character is a Jewish stereotype (what else is new).
Fantasy monsters are often modeled on ethnic stereotypes. Think of the features of the Wicked Witch, the hooked nose, the black curls, all classically non-white features. Fantasy more often than not sets itself in Medieval Europe, a place that, if we are going by the TV and film depictions, apparently had no Black people in it, despite the fact that much of classical Medieval art would tell us differently.
Which brings us to Game of Thrones. I am willing to bet that after the failure of its final season, no one was hoping for Cursed to “be Game of Thrones“, it could not be more obvious in fact, that Cursed was not even trying to be like Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones is a grey and brown colored death march that likes to trick its viewers for no plot relevant reason and treats its women like garbage at the expense of some of its finest actors. And guess what? Until the final season, I actually liked Game of Thrones.
But I digress. From the brutal death of Missandei (the only Black female character), to the pointless torture of Loras (a gay character), to the senseless character assassination of Daenarys and the infamous Sansa rape scene, Game of Thrones is a catalogue of all the ways in which the fantasy genre time and time again refuses to treat its minority characters with the slightest modicum of respect.
I can’t discuss Cursed without bringing up another recent Netflix fantasy series which was also compared unfavorably to Game of Thrones. In this instance at least the comparison makes sense. Like Game of Thrones, The Witcher boasts a sprawling world, multiple timelines running in tandem, and the sort of broody male characters that Game of Thrones is known for. It also has the same dung colored color scheme (sorry).
Unlike Game of Thrones, The Witcher has a female main character named Yennefer who is also a BIPOC (yay!). But Yennefer is mostly shown half naked, tortured, and is by the end relegated to whining about infertility issues and the way it impacts her identity as a woman (no!!). At the beginning of the show we are also introduced to another badass female character named Renfri who is a former princess turned warrior out for revenge against the man who raped her. She is called a monster and then is quickly killed off and never spoken about for the remainder of the show.
Despite the fact that Yennefer and Geralt (the leading man of the show) are in an established relationship, fans of the show have taken to shipping Geralt with Jaskier. Which would be fine… except that it is fairly common for fantasy fans to purposefully ignore its characters of color in favor of its main white characters.
Which brings us right back to Cursed. No, Cursed is nothing like Game of Thrones. First of all, unlike Game of Thrones, Cursed is a psychedelic, brightly colored world, painted in rich greens and blues. Its leading man, Arthur, far from being the typical brooding bad boy love interest, is a sweet, honorable man who is quick to crack a joke and just as quick to offer comfort. The sex on the show happens off screen and includes scenes of enthusiastic consent. Not a single woman wears a skimpy costume.
In fact, the majority of the toxicity is happening off screen online on message boards and Tumblr. Once more, we see the leading BIPOC characters torn down, and relegated to the background to make way for the much louder fandom love of its white characters. In this instance, it is happening with the fandom’s perplexing decision to ship Nimue with the Weeping Monk, despite the fact the two have never met, despite the fact Nimue is in an established relationship with Arthur, and despite the fact that the Weeping Monk actually slaughtered Nimue’s people onscreen. It brings to mind the disturbing phenomenon which was the treatment of Finn by the Rey/ Kylo Ren shippers when Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out in theaters.
The fact is, standards are much higher for BIPOC characters, female characters, and LGBTQ+ characters in fantasy. A male character can literally be a fascist coded mass murderer, and viewers will still prefer them over a heroic character who is a woman, a Black man, and especially a Black, gay woman. That is why shows like this are critically panned despite the evidence that a show like this is not only unique but also necessary for the progression of the genre. It is easy to say a show that twists the dull as dishwater Arthurian legend is forcing diversity, because we as viewers simply aren’t used to seeing a woman and a Black man as fantasy leads. Comparisons to Game of Thrones are expected because that show represents the current status quo. But the status quo isn’t working anymore. It actually never did in the first place. The fact is that I am tired of seeing myself raped on screen. I am tired of seeing my culture, as a Jewish woman, depicted by witches, and goblins and monsters. I want to see myself wield a sword onscreen. I want to see myself as a bisexual woman, have a romantic relationship with a woman without my character or my character’s love interest being immediately killed off. The beauty of fiction is in its reimagining of the world around us. There is enough ugliness in the real world as it is. And I am sick and tired of seeing it onscreen too.