When readers first met Xaden Riorson in Rebecca Yarros’s “Fourth Wing,” many imagined him as a white, brooding fantasy hero. But when other fans started pointing out that Yarros’s description leaves room for him to be a person of color, a debate exploded online. Why do we assume characters are white unless explicitly told otherwise?
If you’ve scrolled through “BookTok” (a community on TikTok that shares their love of books and literature) recently, you’ve probably heard of Rebecca Yarros’s “Empyrean” series. The first three books—“Fourth Wing,” “Iron Flame” and “Onyx Storm” — were released within two years, captivating readers with their intense world-building and slow-burn romance. Like many fantasy series, “Empyrean” has inspired fan art depicting beloved characters, including Xaden Riorson, one of its most popular characters.
However, Xaden has also been at the center of controversy. Many fans imagined and depicted him as white, despite textual descriptions that indicate otherwise. In “Fourth Wing,” Yarros describes Xaden as having “golden-brown skin” and dark features. “He’s tall, with windblown black hair and dark brows. The line of his jaw is strong and covered by warm tawny skin and dark stubble.”
This sparked frustration among fans — particularly readers of color — who felt his racial identity was being ignored. Even Yarros weighed in, affirming that Xaden is a person of color.
The debate has only intensified with the release of “Onyx Storm” in January 2025 and speculation about a potential TV adaptation. Some fans worry that Hollywood may whitewash Xaden’s character, continuing a troubling pattern in book-to-screen adaptations.
This isn’t the first time a character’s race has been debated — or outright ignored — by fans. In 2012, “The Hunger Games” sparked outrage when Black actress Amandla Stenberg was cast as Rue. The problem? Rue was always Black, as stated in Suzanne Collins’s novel.
This often happens when adaptations cast actors of color, such as Hermione Granger in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and Annabeth Chase in “Percy Jackson.” Neither character had specific racial descriptions in the books. Yet, for years, many readers had unconsciously imagined these characters as white, revealing the persistent default assumption of whiteness in literature.
“White default” is the unconscious assumption that characters, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are white. This bias is rooted in historical trends in literature, media, and pop culture, where white characters have been overwhelmingly dominant.
Hollywood has a history of whitewashing characters of color, such as in “Avatar: The Last Airbender and Ghost in the Shell.” This can be harmful for marginalized communities, especially as many pieces of literature and film are becoming more diverse with their characters.
When a book is adapted and diversity is lost — whether through whitewashing (casting white actors in roles originally written as people of color) or race ambiguity (deliberately downplaying a character’s ethnicity) — it strips away the representation that many readers found meaningful. This has happened in several high-profile adaptations, sparking backlash from fans and raising questions about Hollywood’s commitment to diversity.
Furthermore, when a book is adapted, if the diversity is lost, it reinforces the idea that characters of color are less marketable or less important than their white counterparts. This erasure sends a damaging message to marginalized communities — that their presence in storytelling is optional or interchangeable.
With a rise in book bannings and a push to remove DEI initiatives, it is more important than ever to recognize how erasing diverse narratives diminishes representation and silences marginalized voices.
The persistence of the white default also affects publishing decisions. Even as literature becomes more diverse, authors of color often feel pressured to overexplain a character’s race to prevent whitewashing. Meanwhile, books featuring non-white protagonists sometimes face more difficulty getting published, marketed or adapted faithfully.
The Xaden Riorson debate isn’t just about one character, it is about the broader question of how we see race in literature. The next time you read a book, consider your assumptions: Are you defaulting to white? And if so, why?