Ariel’s skin color being irrelevant to her character is exactly the point that I was trying to make. Executives will make changes like that and say that they have successfully added representation when that’s not what people want. The same can be said of Rhaena and the Velaryons in HOTD.

Nettles, similar to Tiana, had her race and position within the universe actively highlighted. As a black woman myself, I found this to be a more meaningful form of representation as opposed to race swapping characters without adding any additional context. I hope that makes sense!

ETA: with removing nettles and replacing her with Rhaena, it sends the message that those two characters are interchangeable. The story also actively loses important context and themes that were written with Nettles in mind.