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Unironically would not be surprised if they made new colors available exclusively through restyling at this rate.

Nah, that would hurt their revenue

...Uhm... I'm the only one seeing something strage with the techo's eyes?

It's reused art from 2006. https://images.neopets.com/images/frontpage/techo_day_2006.gif

As for the eyes being weird, not sure what you mean. I guess because they're circular and their 2007 redesign gave them more thin slit pupils?

Ahhh.. the Jetsam with the bone piercing has unfortunately reminded me of all that 'savage islander' crap they used to do. Let's just skip to Groovy Disco or whatever they wanna call those styles!

Can we not with the debate about Island pets and everything? You're gonna get the comments removed from a news post again. This isn't the time or place to discuss it.

No, I'll say I'm surprised that they just redrew some of the pets instead of redesigning them. As long as we're courteous, it can be a "time and place" to discuss it

Actually, we should talk about the island pets being racist, "This isn't the time or place to discuss it" is a stupid, americanocentric argument. This is awful, I saw the previews, and no they did not change the racist old art. The Kyrii looking like a witch doctor, the Jetsam as well, the whole issue with Mystery Island is that it's one huge eurocentric colonialist take on natives, mishmashing location-disparaged cultures altogether to make one boiling cauldron of Disnefied racist and xenophobic stereotypes. Why in the world MI made it to 2025 without changing anything will always evade me, but TNT bringing these old designs back to profit off them is even worse. I'm VERY disappointed with them.

Out of genuine curiosity, how are the designs racist? Can't they simply be referencing other cultures? The art is not made with negative connotations, they are just neopets having fun and looking tropical. Almost 20 years playing neo and never thought about island pets as racist, idk

It's the same small bunch of people raising a fit over everything these days. I just ignore them. nothing makes them happy ever.

Pacific Islanders have been calling out Mystery Island as offensive for a long time, even if it is not a cultural association that might not be immediately obvious worldwide.

For example, in the US, most people don't realize that the word originally used on Neopets instead of "Wanderer" is a slur because the Romani population in the US is fairly small, but it does not change the fact that it's a slur.

It's always good to try and learn outside perspectives and try and expand your worldview, even if it means you realize something you love or something you've done has previously been hurtful.

@bonju so basically because no, they're not even referencing one only culture, they've just made a messy mix of different Global South native cultures, primarily Polynesian but it's not even all that, based on basically what the European colonizers painted those cultures (cannibals, savages, primitives, etc) and ran with it. Like, not only do they have no respect to the cultures they're drawing from (for example "witch doctors" were not a thing beyond mocking depictions of different types of spiritual leaders written in outdated European and American literature), nor do they even do the job right of depicting the cultures respectfully (Jhuidah up to date still wears coconut shells as a bra?? A lot of stuff regarding the leaders and gods of the island are basically mock-versions of gods or Pacific Islander entities, the random bone piercings that 1st are a thing of specific South American and African natives, but became part of the caricature of the "uncivilized savage" in pop culture), and just the general vibe of making Mystery Island as this "exotic" tropical island resort like place, but also with a side of jungle exploration (a whole side of Eurocentric pop culture that is terrible of its own), while treating the natives as like, both entertainment or danger to foreigners, it's all so very resembling of the scarring European colonization of the Global South that was romanticized as "bringing civilization" but was basically centuries of depredation, genocide, deforestation, enslaving and dehumanization of natives' cultures, and racist depictions of these cultures back in Europe through the image of the "savage". Like, those are not things that appeared out of thin air, these characterizations are heavy with a terrible history that leaves scars on the Global South up to date.

Also @fenix wild that we've all been complaining that... TNT isn't moderating the site properly and making the place unsafe for anyone that isn't cis hetero americans, and also are bringin

*also are bringing up or churning up racist caricatures as site content and sellable in-game merch, like.... You know what you are, and so do I.

Also what @hollyfrosty said is also true, like, Neopets is filled with extremely xenophobic and racists depictions of stuff, sure they fixed a few things over the years, with much protest as well, but like, so much remains.

for sure, "mystery island" isn't a real-world culture, and arguably in terms of wholly fictional cultures it makes sense to take different real-world inspirations to create something new. but that's the thing - real-world inspirations, not real-world stereotypes and misinterpretations. it's important to understand the real-world places and peoples you're looking at, and to build up your fictional culture in a way that doesn't feel shallow to those who inspired it.

but as it is right now, the map of neopia blurb still says "watch out for the cannibals" and the whole place is presented as an exotic tourist destination - a problem which plagues our real world to this day, as tourists do not necessarily give proper respects to the people or the land they are visiting.

This comment section is gona get turned off 😂

Yes, I'm sure the Sentinelese tribe are really offended by this.