Just got finished watching 'Camelot' and of course the barely visible 'near black' knight of the round table Orpheus got wasted in an 'oh by the way' fashion. Not surprised other than him being the 'one of two' people of color in the show (of course the other a black woman is a slave.) The mere fact that the character barely had 10 lines in 9 episodes was a clear indicator that his demise loomed near. After watching him die for me as both a writer and a person of color it was like; why did you bother to put him in at all?
Now, I've killed off lots of characters in my work, but 'disposable' characters have two functions; one is to be an immediate sacrifice to emphasize the power of a conflicting element or two, to give a certain level of audience investment which will lend impact when the character finally gets offed. It's a shame because that's still the setup after all these years of 'sword 'n sorcery', 'sword and sandal' and high fantasy, if you're the black guy good luck making it to the end of the flick. Djimon Honshu is the only brother I can think of who not only made to the end, but survived the white hero in recent memory (Gladiator).
So if I want to see anyone black, male or female or otherwise 'colored' survive to the end credits of a 'sword flick' I'm going to have to write the damn thing myself!
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