Sorry, back at my computer now. When it comes to ethnicity / race (or really any characteristic) there's a few ways writers can do it: 1. Colourblind - race h

Sorry, back at my computer now. When it comes to ethnicity / race (or really any characteristic) there's a few ways writers can do it: 1. Colourblind - race has no real impact. It's simply not a big deal when writing the character or story. Nemo was originally going to be Polish, but he ended up Indian. The only important thing about him being Indian is that he opposes the British Empire, but really anyone can stand up against injustice. An awful lot of characters are actually like this, because they are mostly written to serve the plot, so as long as Nemo is smart, brave, cultured, loves the sea, tenacious, and stands up against injustice he can be anyone. 2. Tokenism - it effects the character, but not the story e.g. your plucky group of teenage crime fighters has a black kid who is street smart, and an Asian kid who is book smart. Or you could be cool and reverse the stereotypes. I'd say it's fine, as long as it's not too ham-fisted for whatever the current year is. 3. Make the entire plot about this characteristic, because you want to tell an "authentic" story. So does race effect nothing (substantial), the character, or the story itself? For Nemo, I'd say his race is absolutely not a big deal at all.