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#also i just need my angry asian rep please
burst-of-iridescent · 1 month
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atla live action thoughts: episodes 3 & 4
SPOILERS AHEAD
tw: opinions
things i liked:
jet, you beautiful, beautiful man. had me twirling my hair and kicking my feet fr i NEED this show to get a season 2 just so i can see more of him in the ba sing se arc please netflix
but looks aside, sebastian amoruso DELIVERED on the performance. the softness, the vulnerability, the charm, the intelligence, yet also the ruthlessness beneath it all? KILLED IT.
the moment between him and katara where he tells her to remember her mother as she was alive and not just her death was absolutely lovely. “remember the sunrise” made me very emotional
on that note, can’t believe jetara fake marriage is canon now lmao
i am SO here for desi omashu. i love the vibe and aesthetic of the city and again the visuals are STUNNING. live action repping the south asians better than the original ever did i’ll be honest
shameless fan service but “MY CABBAGES” being so fucking dramatic had me dying
of all the things i expected from the atla live action, secret tunnel and omashu being lesbians wasn’t even on the list but i’m not mad. hilarious that they turned the cave of two lovers into the cave of two platonic siblings though
jet, omashu and northern air temple arcs actually meshed together better than i thought. the NAT episode never sat well with me in the original so i’m glad they moved them to omashu instead.
the freedom fighters were RIGHT OUT OF THE ANIMATION. casting directors absolutely killed
love that they showed resistance movements within the fire nation and azula being part of rooting them out. it’s a nice nod to the deserter, since i’m guessing they’re not including that episode
really glad to see that the atla live action is following the tradition of having weirdly unnecessary zutara crumbs in every iteration of the story because what in the om shanti om was that zutara scarf moment. 10/10 no notes
having one of the earthbenders transporting iroh be angry over losing a loved one because of iroh’s siege of ba sing se was a really great change. i’ve always thought the original glossed over the true extent of the damage iroh did, so having him come face to face with what he’d done in the past was a great way to add some complexity
“how dare you beat up that child!” everyone go home seeing zuko being beat up by a random old lady is the highlight of this series. really love that they were just running around throwing things at each other that was major book 1 zuko/aang fight energy lmao
SECRET TUNNELLLLLLLL
leaves from the vine instrumental was 100% to inflict emotional damage and it fucking worked. the scene between zuko and iroh at lu ten’s funeral was so beautiful & then to have it flipped around at the end when iroh says “everything i need is on this boat”… fuck you for this netflix i didn’t need these tears today
things i disliked/am conflicted about:
not a fan of what they’re doing with katara’s character. they’re toning down a lot of her rage and fierceness, and boiling her down to “trauma over mother’s death.” in the original katara didn’t freeze jet and splash water at him because he tried to fight her, she did it because she was hurt and pissed off! there’s no way animated katara would’ve just run away from jet without sending a water whip at his face first. i’m concerned for how the pakku fight is gonna go tbh
bumi my guy, what did they do to you 💀 this series seems hellbent on having everyone remind aang that he ran away which doesn’t work when a) you already changed aang actively running away to him just going off for a break and b) you’ve made that point! the original omashu episode was about bumi teaching aang to look at the world differently, here it just weirdly feels as though he’s punishing aang by venting all his anger and despair on him?? that’s NOT what animated bumi was like & they didn’t even have the two of them go sliding down the delivery system in the flashbacks so adding it in at the end felt very out of nowhere. they didn’t even genuinely seem to be FRIENDS
having aang immediately figure out it was bumi was… sigh. can we please not do the thing where characters already know everything it’s giving me trauma flashbacks to the percy jackson show
jet’s plan feels more reasonable here than it did in the original. i get they’re trying to show that he didn’t care about the collateral damage to innocent people and that’s bad, but idk him wiping out an entire town unilaterally felt more extreme than a few bombings.
heavily dislike what they’ve done with zhao. i know they’re trying to show him clawing his way to power but that’s more of a long feng move than a ZHAO move. it’s important that zhao always holds more power than zuko and that he has an overinflated sense of ego from the start for him to fulfil his narrative purpose of serving as a warning to zuko of what he might become.
i like seeing mailee but why are they in this show? it feels as though they’re cardboard cutouts there for fan service instead of being actual characters
overall i liked these episodes better than the previous two & i do enjoy how action-packed and visually pleasing the show has been so far.
overall rating: 8/10 for episode 3, 7/10 for episode 4
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revenge-of-the-shit · 2 years
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I'm not sure whether you've been asked about this before, but what are your opinions about Rogue One and its Asian representation, especially on the Holy City, Chirrut, Baze and Bodhi (let's not forget Pakistan *is* part of Asia, so is the Middle East technically). I know the movie has problems in regards to its depiction of Jedha and Saw's partisans (*ahem* Iraq *ahem* terrorists *ahem*) but I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Take all the time you need to answer this humble question.
Hey! Sorry for taking so long - I had many thoughts on this and wanted to be able to answer this properly.
Chirrut
IMO, Chirrut suffers from a similar problem to Shang-Chi, which is: do you seriously have to make the Chinese character a kung fu master? In this case, he takes it a step FURTHER by being portrayed as a literal zen warrior monk. Like, damn, way to lean into the stereotype.
That being said: the martial arts are objectively cool and I was extremely delighted to see Donnie Yen using East Asian martial art forms while kicking the asses of stormtroopers.
On top of that, he does go beyond the stereotype. Chirrut isn't a one-dimensional wisdom-spouting stereotype. He's sassy, he has no problem with wielding an insanely overpowered bowcaster, and he plays a crucial part in the fall of the Death Star by being the only one able to reach the master switch. Without him, the rebellion would have fallen.
So: Yes, he fell into some stereotypes. But ultimately, I loved Chirrut. He's one of my favorite characters.
Baze
Loved him. I rarely get to see large Chinese men with a massive gun kicking ass in a way that doesn't involve martial arts. I loved his gruffness, I loved his small shows of affection (the way he interacts with Chirrut, the way he calls Jyn "little sister" ;-;).
I think Baze was done really, really well. He served as a wonderful foil to Chirrut and it was beautiful to see the two of them interacting on-screen.
Bodhi
I will preface this by saying that I can't speak as well to South Asian representation as I can to East Asian rep. If there are any other South Asian fans who'd like to speak on this, please do so! I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I loved Bodhi. In him, I saw an ordinary man who achieved great things simply because he was following his convictions. Bodhi was a regular pilot - he had no special Force abilities, he wasn't born to a rich family, he was no chosen one - he just was. In spite it all, it was because of him and his bravery that the Rebellion even stood a chance at finding the death star plans.
He was a very sweet - and dare I say it, relatable - character. As much as I adore Baze and Chirrut, I am no warrior myself. But Bodhi - he's just a regular man trying his best, and he shows audiences that you don't have to be special from birth to do something that can save the lives of many. As a character, I thought he was wonderfully done, and it was very nice to see that this film included not one, not two, but THREE beautifully complex Asian protagonists who were all crucial to the fall of the Empire.
Saw's Partisans
I have so many problems with this, especially in light of Star Wars Rebels. I think the problems are best exemplified during a conversation between Mon Mothma and Saw in one of the S4(?) episodes of Rebels, where she argues for "kinder and more moral" methods while Saw argues for more direct and violent methods.
It literally can't get more direct than that. Framing Mon Mothma as the "kind and reasonable" one while Saw is the "angry and violent one" - this absolutely reeks of white feminism mixed in with dashes of racism.
This article also explains my thoughts well regarding Rogue One:
The most prominent freedom fighters in Rogue One are Saw Gerrera, played by Forest Whitaker, and his followers, disparaged by the overwhelmingly white Rebel Alliance leadership as “extremists” whose actions are actually detrimental to the Rebellion as a whole. Gerrera and his followers maintain a base on the moon of Jedha, which is pronounced exactly like “Jeddah,” the city in Saudi Arabia. To drive the point home, Gerrera’s soldiers wear face and head coverings that resemble Orientalist 19th-century European paintings of Middle Eastern life. In short, the pretend Arab extremists from Jeddah (sorry, “Jedha”) led by a black man are doing revolution wrong…
…except they’re not.
The organisation that disparages Gerrera’s faction as “extremists” is, largely, the same organisation that’s unwilling to fight when the existence of the Death Star is revealed. Rogue One‘s heroes of colour must take up Gerrera’s struggle, extreme as some might perceive it to be, in order to take any real steps toward saving the galaxy and advancing the cause of revolution. Isn’t there something wrong when a so-called revolutionary group backs down once it discovers a weapon built to enable oppression on a heretofore unseen scale? You’d think so. I’d think so, too. But according to a distressing number of real-life “liberal” voices, we shouldn’t fight; we should meet them halfway, go low when they go high, and employ other tactics that at best won’t work and at worst will allow innocent people to be killed. By portraying moderation as an enabler of fascism, Rogue One emphasises the ideological flaws in such false liberalism.
Disney in general has an uncanny ability to take characters of colour and to either (1) push them away into irrelevance or (2) to frame them as well-intentioned people with terrible methods. This is just one of those cases.
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smolghostings · 4 years
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Me: *thinks about tma characters* *has Many Feelings about tma characters* *most of my own and my favourite hcs for the cast from other people are asian* *thinks about my own trauma and issues* *thinks about tma characters -*
Me: ahahahaha what do you mean I'm projecting of course im not - HEY LOOK OVER THERE *grabs my hcs and runs*
#look what i mean by this is that i have been drawing *consults list*#martin tim daisy melanie agnes etc etc#look its a podcast i can do whatever i want and jonny sims cannot stop me from projecting his characters iTS UNDER A 4.0 SHAREALIKE LISCENCE#fillipino!martin has me in tears ill have you know#i read about chinese!martin making dumplings and unlocked a primal part of my childhood psyche that made me Yearn so hard i made dumplings#extreme parental dissaproval? all tea every day? constant need to please?#i know that doesnt encompass chinese culture but im chinese so whAT I SAY GOES#asian melanie is just me trying to come to terms with my own personal fears about losing my sight#also i just need my angry asian rep please#daisy too#do i have very biased feelings against cops? mayhaps.#am i hcing daisy as asian bc of her character development from Cop to Not Cop and i need hope that maybe the cops i know can change too?#yes.#agnes? unreasonably high expectations from birth and not being able to realistically comprehend a life outside that?#but still trying so hard to seek out and develop a life outside of the harmful expectations set on you by authority figures and peers?#GEE I WONDER HOW THAT WOULD RESONATE WITH ASIAN TEENAGERS WHO HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED INTO CONSTANT ACADEMIC COMPETITION FROM BIRTH#THAT ALMOST ALWAYS LEADS TO SEVERE MENTAL REPRECUSSIONS#ill never know#also i saw someone make a throwaway tumblr post hcing agnes as korean and i will defend this concept with my life#tim? i just hc him as looking like tadashi hamada motherfucker thats literally the entire reason for me#never mind the fact that he also has a little brother he adores and dies in an explosion bc of his ideals#I HAVE MORE BUT IM NOT COHERENT ENOUGH FOR IT NOW SO ILL LEAVE THIS HERE#ghosttalkstoomuch
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misnomera · 4 years
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On racial stereotyping of the Haans in TMA...
Right so as someone who is ethnically Chinese I have NO FUCKING clue how I didn’t notice this more distinctly in my initial binge of tma (going too fast and not paying closer attention to character names and descriptions, probably) but the Haan family storyline is, all horror elements aside, pretty fucked up in terms of racial representation re: stereotyping. This got long as hell, but please please please take a moment to read through if you’ve got time for it. thanks.
To start off, the Haans are one of the few characters in tma with an explicitly specified race and ethnicity—Chinese—and pretty much the only explicitly Chinese characters in tma, other than the mostly unimportant librarian (Zhang Xiaoling) from Beijing. But like, Haan isn’t even a properly Chinese surname, at least not in the way that it’s spelled in canon (it should be Han, one a. A quick google search tells me that Haan as a surname has...Dutch origins??).
Of course, that could be chalked up to shoddy anglicization processes within family histories, which certainly isn’t uncommon with immigrant families, so I’m not going to dwell on names too much (although I also find it interesting that John Haan’s name is so specifically and weirdly anglicized that he changed his own surname?? Hun Yung to John Haan is a very big leap of a name change and frankly not very believable. ANYWAY, this is not that important. I don’t expect Jonny, a white Englishman, to come up with perfectly unquestionable non-Cho-Chang-like Chinese names, though it certainly would be nice. Moving on).
What really bothers me about the Haans is how they almost exclusively and explicitly play into negative Chinese immigrant stereotypes. I don’t even feel like I need to say it because it’s like...it’s literally Right There, folks. John Haan (in ep 72) owns and operates a sketchy takeout restaurant. They’re all avatars of the Flesh—and John Haan is Specifically horrific and terrifying because he cooked his wife’s human meat and fed it to his unknowing customers. Does that remind you of any stereotypes which accuse Chinese people of consuming societally unacceptable and ethically questionable things like dog/cat/bat meat (which, if it’s not already crystal fucking clear, we don’t. do that.), which in turn characterize us as horrible unfeeling monsters? John Haan’s characterization feeds (haha, badum tss) directly into this harmful stereotype that have caused very real pain for Chinese people and East Asians in general. 
And Jonny does nothing to address that from within his writing (and not out of it either). And, speaking on a more meta level, Jonny could’ve easily had these flesh avatars be individuals of any race (like, what’s Jared Hopworth’s ethnicity? Do we know? No? Well then). Conversely, he could’ve easily, easily had a Chinese person be an avatar of any other entity. So why did he have to chose specifically the Flesh?
(This is a rhetorical question. You know why. Racial stereotyping and invoking a fear of the other in an attempt to enhance horror, babey~)
On Tom Haan’s side, Jonny seems weirdly intent on having other characters repeatedly comment on his accent (or rather, lack thereof) in relation to his race. Think about how, in ep 30 (killing floor), the fact that Tom Haan had spoken a line to the statement giver in “perfect English” was an emphasized beat in that statement, and a beat that was supposed to be “chilling” and meant to signify to us that something was, quote-unquote, “not right” with Tom Haan. Implicitly, that’s saying that it was unexpected, not “normal”, and in this case even eerie, for someone who looks Chinese to have spoken in fluid, unbroken English. Mind you, the line itself was perfectly scary on its own (“you cannot stop the slaughter by closing the door”), so why did Jonny feel the need to note the accent in which it was spoken in? Why did Jonny HAVE to have that statement giver note, that he initially “wasn’t even sure how much English [Haan] spoke”? 
This happens again in episode 72 with a Chinese man (and again, his ethnicity is Explicitly Noted) who we assume is also Tom Haan. This one is rather ironically funny and kind of painfully self aware, because the statement giver expresses surprise at Haan’s “crisp RP accent” and then immediately “felt bad about making the assumption that he couldn’t speak English,” and subsequently admitted that thought was “low-key racist.” Like, from a writing perspective, this entire passage is roundabout, pointless, and says absolutely nothing helpful to enhance the horror genre experience for listeners (instead it just sounded like some sort of half-assed excuse so Jonny or other listeners could say “look! We’ve addressed the racism!” You didn’t. It just made me vaguely uncomfortable). And again, having other people comment on our accents/lack thereof while assuming we are foreign is a Very Real microaggression that east asians face on the daily. If Jonny needed some filler sentences for pacing he could’ve written about Literally anything else. So why point out, yet again, that the crazy murderous man was foreign and Chinese? 
At this point, you might say, right, but yknow, it was just that the statement givers were kind of racist! It happens! Yeah sure, ok, that’s a passable in-universe explanation for descriptions of Tom Haan (though not John Haan, mind you), but the statement givers are fake made up people, and statement’s still written by Jonny, who absolutely has all the power to write overt discrimination out of his stories. And he does! Think about just how many minor (and major!!) characters are so, so carefully written as completely aracial, and do not have their ethnicity implicated at all in whatever horrors they may or may not be committing. Think about how many lgbtq+ characters have given statements, and have been in statements, without having faced direct forms of discrimination, or portrayed as embodying blatant stereotypes in their stories (though lgbtq+ rep in tma certainly has their own issues that I won’t go into here). Jonny can clearly write characters this way, and he can do it well. So why, why, am I being constantly, repeatedly reminded in-text of the fact that the Haans are East Asian, that they’re from China, that they’re Chinese immigrants, that they’re second-generation British Chinese or whatever the fuck, and that they’re also horrifying conduits for blood, gore, and general fucked-up-ness? It’s absolutely not something that is Needed for the stories to be an effective piece of horror; the only thing it does is perpetuate incredibly harmful and hurtful stereotypes.
And listen, I love tma to bits. It’s taken over my blog. I’ve really loved my interactions with the fandom. And I am consistently blown away by Jonny’s writing and how well he’s able to weave foreshadowing and plot into an incredibly complex collection of stories. But I absolutely Cannot stop thinking about the Haans because it’s just. It’s such a blatant display of racial stereotyping in writing. And I’ve certainly seen a few voices talking about it here and there, and I don’t know if I’m just not looking in the right places, but it certainly feels like something that is just straight up not on the radar for a lot of tma fans. And I’m disappointed about that. 
Just, I don’t know. Take a look at those episodes again and do some of your own thinking about why these characters had to be specifically Chinese (answer: they didn’t.). And in general, PLEASE for the love of god turn a critical eye on character portrayals and descriptions whenever they are assigned specific races/ethnicities (Some examples that come to mind are Jude Perry, Annabelle Cane, and Diego Molina), because similar issues, to an extent, extend beyond the Haans, though I haven’t covered them here. 
You shouldn’t need a POC to do point out these problems for you when they’re so glaringly There. But for those of you who really didn’t know, hope this was informative in some way. I’m tired, man. If some of the only significant Chinese characters you write are violent cannibalistic men with a perverted relationship with meat, just don’t do it. Please don’t do it. 
EDIT: Since the making of this post Jonny has acknowledged and apologized for these portrayals on his twitter and in the Rusty Quill Operations Update, which went up September 2020. A long time coming, but better late than never. This of course doesn’t necessarily negate the harm done by Jonny’s writing, and doesn’t make me much less angry about it, but is appreciated nonetheless. For more on this topic there’s a lot of productive discussions happening in my “#tma crit” tag and in the notes of this post
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webcomixwastaken · 2 years
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I’ve followed Lindsay Ellis's videos on YouTube for 10+ years. Even back in the dark NC days I was always struck at how she deftly combined thoughtfulness with humour and cleverness. Even with the bits that didn't age well -- not because of who she was as a person but because 2010 was SUCH a different time, genuinely, I can recall "jokes" and "facts" that my friends and I would say that none of us would even consider now -- she definitely stood out amongst her colleagues as someone with great talent and perceptiveness.
So discovering that she's no longer going to update her channel makes me say: GOOD! FOR!! HER!!! She deserves to walk away from this black hole of awfulness! She doesn't need to be screamed at all the time anymore!! Good for her!! She is free!!
I watched the Raya Twitter meltdown happen in real time and it was the most ridiculous shit I've ever witnessed. So much bad faith reading, so much blood in the water for the sharks to chase after. Even my own Twitter moots (from writing and book twt because that’s where I hang out on that site) were furious about The Tweet, but as I went down my feed I realised that a ridiculous game of telephone was going on. They were upset about a very legitimate issue but it wasn’t... at ALL what she was talking about. I know it’s unhelpful to say “if you watch her videos...” to get people to understand that she was talking from a craft/structure perspective or that her tone is always very snarky and dry since that’s not what Twitter is interested in. Twitter is where nuance goes to die.
From the moment it was announced, I thought that Raya and the Last Dragon looked mediocre at best and yes, derivative. But that's not bad, necessarily? People are always comparing things, and that's even how a lot of marketing works! In pitching or querying agents, you're often asked, nay, expected to provide comparative titles to show that you understand your audience. So when she compared a well known western-helmed Asian-influenced fantasy TV show to a new big name western-helmed Asian-influenced fantasy film why... are we... so shocked and angry? Personally, I feel like any racism involved in The Tweet is symptomatic of the system, how the west perceives and judges eastern stories, not Lindsay’s character.
And honestly? Since I’m not diaspora I do not give much of a shit for representation the same way overseas kids do. Like Lindsay pointed out, we are not monolith so I don’t like being told that something is an ~Asian~ universal theme. We are the biggest continent in the world and even my tiny ass city of Hong Kong has an ENORMOUS gulf of opinions of what defines us?? So as an Asian in Asia, my opinion of “wow, Asian rep in western culture” is mostly indifference with a side helping of annoying. Because it’s often reductive and token and I don’t see myself in them at all. And in these big budget animated films... I’m usually not very excited with how we’re depicted either. Do you really have to draw our eyes like that? I remember looking in the mirror as a kid and thinking, “What the heck are white people on about? My eyes are big and round. Most of my friends don't have tiny eyes either.”
Also, DISNEY DON’T NEED MY MONEY! It’s such a laugh that they made this movie claiming to uplift SE Asian narratives and culture and it wasn't even available in many of those countries. However, I can't say anything else because I'm not SE Asian. But that’s it exactly, I don’t have a dog in this fight. So I didn’t say anything!!
Sometimes I really think that people need to realise that you don't need to put out every single opinion you have on the internet. In fact, I remember thinking “oh no, Lindsay, please, just stop tweeting” but it was a damned if you do damned if you don’t situation. If she tried to apologise, she was a whinging backpedalling phony. If she stayed silent, she is rotten to the core and doubling down on racism! If she explained herself, which she tried to do, it would just be more fuel to the bonfire of dogpiling and threats and tearing apart every shred of nuance that could possibly still exist on Twitter. And she KEPT on getting dogpiled and threatened and even under today's goddamn post announcing that there will be no more videos, she's STILL being pelted with petty, stupid attacks by the faceless keyboard warriors. Oh my god, stop and SHUT UP, you won.
So good for her that she's left, and good for her that she refuses to apologise because she doesn’t have to. It would not have been sincere, and she really didn’t do anything wrong. I really hope she continues to host Musicalsplaining with Kaveh because I dearly love the podcast, and maybe she's still got a contract with PBS Storied, but if she doesn't do either of those, it's absolutely in her rights to do so. She doesn't owe us anything. Perhaps she'll be able to devote her time to writing more books, or perhaps she'll just disappear from the internet forever and again... deserved! Whatever she wants! Good for her!!
Godspeed Lindsay Ellis, you are a genuine human being deserving of peace and I earnestly hope you get some after putting so much of yourself on the chopping block for nothing else but our entertainment. I'll always support you.
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Yo I'm sorry but I read your answer to that one ask about nsfw stuff in one day/19 days. And for the most part I agree, exept for one thing. Please, for the love of god, don't say this is a comic "for" women. Yes it's bl BUT Old Xian is not a god damn fujoshi. He is male and uses he/him pronouns. This is not a story focused to please female viewers. This is a story about boys in love by a man not some god damn fetish for women. Just because it has a "manga style" doesn't mean it's a "Yaoi" :')
Good afternoon, dear anon-san!
And thank you for your comment regarding my earlier answer about 19 Days being NSFW. I’m glad to hear you felt like you could agree with most of it even though there was something that rubbed you the wrong way. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me or coming forward if they take issue with whatever I have said. But I would be lying if I said answering your comment doesn’t make me nervous. BL and fujoshis are quite controversial topics that I’m sure will divide people reading this or following me. But I don’t think I would be doing anyone a favor if I wasn’t honest even if what I have to say is controversial. I would like to think I have always tried to be open to all kinds of opinions and perspectives even if they differ from mine, and I hope people will extend me the courtesy. 
“Yes it’s bl BUT Old Xian is not a god damn fujoshi. He is male and uses he/him pronouns.”
I don’t think I said OldXian was a fujoshi, but I can see how that might have been implied by me saying 19 Days is a work of BL. As a genre, BL is typically targeted at a female audience by female authors. However, that is just how it usually goes. BL has plenty of male fans, too, and they’re called fudanshi. I’m not saying OX is a fudanshi but rather that all kinds of people can be fans of BL. It’s not tied to one’s gender.
Also, while males writing BL certainly isn’t typical, it’s not unheard of, either. Sadly, the author’s gender is somehow considered relevant even these days which has resulted in many male BL authors using female aliases (and vice versa when it comes to females writing genres that are typically written by male authors). But there are some BL authors who are openly males, too. For example, D. Jun – the author of Guang Xiang and Here U Are – is apparently a male.
“This is not a story focused to please female viewers. This is a story about boys in love by a man not some god damn fetish for women. Just because it has a “manga style” doesn’t mean it’s a ‘Yaoi’”
No, having “manga style” doesn’t make 19 Days a yaoi. The fact that one of its major themes is gay love makes it a BL, though. Especially in the context of it being an Asian publication. Are there other kinds of relationships and themes included, too? Yes, most definitely! And they’re all intriguing and essential to the story. The comic is also about friendship, families, and coming of age, to name a few. But it can’t be denied a pretty significant part of it revolves around homoerotic love, and that kind of theme is mainly consumed by a prominently female audience. They are also more often than not heavily targeted at female readers and to appeal to their tastes.
Case in point, the good-looking male protagonists with lean muscles and the author not exactly shying away from drawing them at least half-naked. You could also say He Tian’s character is the kind that typically appeals to females – a dark bad boy with a hot bod and vulnerable, tragic past. And what do you know, he’s at least the second fan favorite - if not the most liked, even. Are we really going to pretend these aspects aren’t attracting and appealing to female readers? Am I really the only one seeing readers drool and squeal whenever OX publishes chapters featuring shirtless HT, moments of tender gay affection, or illustrations of suggestive poses (homoerotic or otherwise)? Is OX doing it intentionally to appeal to female readers? No one but OX can answer to that, but does it really matter? I don’t think it changes the end result; it attracts largely females and I’m sure many of them are avid consumers of BL, too.
I don’t think this has escaped OX, either. A couple of times by now, the comic has made references to BL genre, girls being fans of cute guys together and how that kind of material attracts the female attention (ch. 151, 295, and 296):
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
(Sorry for the cencor, but Tumblr wouldn’t let me post this otherwise...)
Those moments can basically be taken both as OX making light of the genre and the comic being self-aware. 19 Days makes funny metafictional references while also utilizing the BL conventions itself. It’s also a clever way if the author wants to take a stand on how their work is different from its predecessors in the same genre. Because I think 19 Days is quite one of a kind compared to other BL publications. And it has sparked conversations regarding the BL conventions, for example, ukes vs. semes. It can do all that and still be a BL as such that it appeals to females or fans of the genre in general.
Now, does any of that mean 19 Days can’t appeal to other kinds of fans, too? Of course, not! In fact, you yourself dear anon-san, are an excellent example of that. I think 19 Days is one of the few Asian BL comics that has attracted countless of Western fans, too, who are perhaps not that familiar with Asian BL. It should also be noted that m/m ships are hugely popular in the Western fandoms, too. They are just more tied to the original works and not really separated to become a genre of its own as has happened with BL in Asia, especially in Japan. As it happens, the stats of the Top 100 Ships on AO3 in 2019 were just published the other day, and whopping 69 of them are slash aka m/m. Do you think that is completely unrelated to the fact that fanfiction is mostly written and read by females? I’m not saying it’s the only reason because it’s more complicated than that, but it certainly indicates Western female audiences are also big fans of homoerotic content. And they, too, are often accused of “making everything gay”.
I also don’t have a problem admitting this: If 19 Days didn’t have homoerotic themes whatsoever and the boys were having crushes on females, I doubt I would have been interested in the comic. The other themes I mentioned above are interesting to me, but on their own and paired up with m/f endgame relationships they wouldn’t be enough for me. I don’t read 19 Days just for the gay content, but it is a significant reason why I originally checked it out and why I keep loving it. Personally, I don’t think being attracted to the gay aspect and loving the story and characters, too, has to be an either-or kind of deal. You can very well do both. Does saying this somehow make me less of a fan of 19 Days? I’m sure it does in some people’s eyes but frankly, I don’t need other’s approval to love and be interested in something.
So far, I have pretty much disagreed with everything you said, but allow me to offer you an olive branch, dear anon-san. I get why my BL-related notions may have upset you. I get where you are coming from with saying 19 Days isn’t a “fetish for women”. You don’t want something you love to be associated with something you clearly despise. Yaoi and fujoshis have a bad rep, and I’m not trying to pretend like it’s completely underserved. I read a lot of BL but don’t really agree with the hardcore fujoshi mentality or identify with them as a group. I also think BL works have many tropes and conventions that do not represent realistic gay relationships and are highly problematic. However, BL is a fictional genre with its own history, development, conventions, and target audience. And as an avid BL reader, I think just because something appeals to me in a fictional setting it doesn’t mean I’m advocating the same things in real life.
To be honest, talking about this kind of makes my stomach twist with dread and nerves because I realize many people might get upset over this. And putting yourself in this kind of position on Tumblr especially can be a bit risky. So, let me say it once again: People are welcome to disagree with me or think I’m as wrong as humanly possible. And I would most probably understand where they are coming from. However, I would also like to remind anyone feeling angry with me that this is just me coming from a different point of view. Just like you are, dear anon-san. As far as I’m concerned, you are free to enjoy 19 Days from your own perspective and me from mine without it having to mean we’re somehow robbing each other of something.
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gothclaudiaz · 6 years
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THIS IS A SCREAM FROM A VERY SAD VOLTRON STAN
OK before everyone gives up on voltron, hear me out
(sorry by my bad english, it’s not my 1st language but I hope i can express myself correctly)
If you take your ass off lance/keith/shiro arc, you can see s07 wasn’t THAT BAD, yes, Adam was the worse thing could happen in this season, I’m a transgender bisexual man and there’s nothing I’d love more then open LGBT rep in TV shows but we gotta face it, it’s 2018 and we just got our first w|w marriage in a kid’s show and yes it’s the worse that voltron uses all this LGBT propaganda and keep delaying it, the hype for shiro being gay was absurd and everyone was waiting so much for it, it’s really heartbreaking and people will want to give up on the show and call it queerbait, Shiro suffers all the worse things and they did a lesbian couple villains and it’s pretty bad, we got all the right to complain about that, but also we still got a whole season.
Legend of Korra literally had Korra and Asami holding hands walking into a portal IN THE LAST 5 SECONDS, the director said off show “ye sure they’re a couple but there’s only much we can do in a kid’s show” and still korrasami is one LGBT icon… PLEASE.
Now how I said, getting off this ship wagon, s07 showed us more of Hunk family and how he was raised, he got upgrades on his weapons, he was useful in ALL battles, he was the team stability and showed how be scared doesn’t mean you can’t face things. Hunk and Keith scene showed us this side of Hunk and Keith being a good teammate and leader.
Shiro now is literally an alchemist now, he built an HUGE robot by his own with the balmeran stone Allura gave him and also he got a lead role in the garrison. He’s so powerful and helped so much when voltron was in trouble and he still a disabled, asian gay man by himself, he’s so strong and just cause they introduced us Adam, this doesn’t erase all his character, people need to STOP making couples a personality trait, with or without Adam, Shiro is a whole man that have been through a LOT.
Lance literally assumed leading roles during the whole season, every time someone called him dumb he was proving them wrong, taking good decisions, being sharp in battle and a great help for Keith.
Keith this season were very weird and angry all the time so all I can do is speculate that’s something with his galra side and c’mon he got entire s06 he can chill out a bit.
I’ll take this point to talk about Klance, if you dont like it just pass it, but Keith and Acxa didn’t mean anything. Lance and Allura, yeah made me very uncomfortable, but since s03 we never had this much Klance interaction, and what before seemed like Keith was pinning after Lance and Lance just didn’t care kinda reversed, Keith seems hurt since the bonding moment, he’s awkward and when he felt like he was doing ok with Lance he just brushes him off. If you an introvert you KNOW how that can totally kill any security you had with someone. And well now Lance gave up on this “I Hate Keith” facade and openly talks about how he thinks Keith is a good leader and if that’s not development I dont know what it is. And if you expected Lance would get over Allura that quickly, please, you’re really fooling yourself.
I’m not saying to get your hopes up, but people freaking out about Keith and Acxa just makes no sense to me.
Now getting out of Klance, the arc was long, they got on earth and everything feels messy, just like Hunk pointed out, he just wanted to come and get some peace but the galra are there. They barely got time to breath.
They got really important time together while trap in space and I thought that was very important, they showed they’re insecurities they’ve been in space for so long it’s impossible to stay 100% sane in their situation and they bonded over that. It was a GREAT episode.
Now again I’m not excusing how ugly they made the “representation” this season, we can totally criticize the show and be sad about it, what they did to Adam, Ezor and Zethrid was ugly, it was bad written and bad thought but I don’t think we should cancel voltron that fast.
I wish you all breath and think more about this season ,, or not, but please be save.
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Unpopular opinion: TLJ isn't bad because it has women, it's bad because it's racist
send unpopular opinions!
strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree
i didn’t put strongly agree on this one for one reason: both women and characters of color were done a disservice in this film. i don’t care what ryan says. do i doubt there are ugly fanboys out there who hate the notion of women in star w.ars? i don’t doubt it. but he likes to pretend he wrote a good storyline for women when he crafted storylines that reflect very little depth and shape them up to be objects of ire and hatred. maybe people don’t hate your storyline because of more women, ryan, but that your regard for them is pitiful and serves to only fuel your cycle jerk off for the first order. we didn’t get to see rey really learn about the force and her abilities, instead we got to see her put down and mocked by luke, have kylo put her in uncomfortable positions (no one really needed to see that shirtless scene), and have her spent half the movie trying to pull kylo back to the light. did we learn anything new about rey beyond the trippy parentage scene, again used by kylo to patronize and use against her. i’m not quite sure what rey learned out of her scenes on the island, instead we get a play-by-play of tiddy luke and the green milk. where’s that true mentorship or bond we could’ve had? rey was reactive to everything around her and had no discernible help in the whole process so yeah, it’s bad writing. 
then we have leia, who was put out of commission for most of the film through a convoluted idea and wrote her in a way to be dismissive and actually hit one of her pilots - again, i don’t know what kind of bullshit story ryan’s been dreaming up but i have never once seen leia actually hit someone, ever. she may be firm in her stances and yes she may get mad, but physically hitting someone is some pure farce. then the next point we have holdo, oh boy, she’s ryan’s wet dream, let me create this character who apparently no one in the resistance has heard of and then have her lead the resistance into near death because we all need to learn a point about loss and making mistakes which could’ve been easily avoided this whole time. it’s like he flipped a book on white woman feminists 101 and plucked that right outta there. it’s ugly and it’s unfortunate, maybe she had potential from her other materials but she was effectively used here to be hated and i quote ‘have her feminine energy threaten poe’. 
now we get to racist parts of the writing, oh yeah get ready for it, poe dam.eron was shown enough in the first film (even if you’ve not read his other materials) to be selfless, kind, optimistic and generous with others, and especially in his interactions with finn. then what does ryan do? he gets out his little idgaf pen and made poe look like some kind of flyboy hotshot who disobeys orders, causes a mutiny, and only cares about himself and can’t lead. not a problem in any regard, even if it is against everything we know from the first movie, but one of the most frequent and horrible tropes about latino male characters were specifically highlighted by ryan - hot-tempered, aggression, doesn’t listen to women/acknowledge their opinions. he tried to make poe look like the anarchist in the resistance, that he caused a mutiny but oh look! holdo had a plan all along  and poe didn’t listen. poe throwing shit around on the bridge? ugly. poe making a comment on holdo’s appearance? ugly. ugly. ugly. ugly. again, playing up, easily, common portrayals of latinos. 
then of course, let’s get to the physical assaults, also - name me one other sw film where members on the same side do this to each other knowingly and willingly, please, name me one - because poe first gets slapped by leia, a general and higher up who he respects and trusts, then he gets stunned into the fucking wall. did any of it serve a purpose other than some lame gag? no. again, the plan was bullshit and it’s not being a leader if everyone thinks you’re going to lead them to their deaths. the resistance is not a formal military operation and works on a communicative structure as shown in tfa, so i don’t know where this ‘sit down at your station’ mentality came from other than maybe ryan pulled it out of his ass. the way holdo spoke to poe is a two-part punch from any one who has ever been spoken down to by a white woman, and i’ve been there, so let me tell you, i’m not here to stand on that side and try to support her just because she is a woman. i’m not here for the ‘fuck yeah look at her putting a man in his place’ conversations.  was poe being rude? no, he did ask her very politely what was the plan, and she rubbed the deaths of his fellow pilots in his face, ignored him, and told no one but a very small inner circle and had every one else run on blind trust. furthermore, that scene where she touches his cheek when he was knocked unconscious and leia and holdo say ‘they like him’ is oooooooooooo it makes me cringe like nothing else, borderline sexualization and dismissive as if they didn’t just put him down themselves like a dog to be controlled. again, horrible. 
THIS IS GETTING WAY TOO LONG I’M CONTINUING FOR FINN AND ROSE AND OTHERS UNDER THE CUT:
then oh boy for finn? finn, the main lead of star wars and one of the most distinct arcs in the sequel trilogy both as a black character and a defecting stormtrooper? got most of his development scenes deleted. topping that off what was left was a lot of ryan’s most tasteless jokes, continuous reference to him being a janitor, and somehow having him not be aware of the plight of slave children when he literally got kidnapped as kid ?????? THEN you knock him out with a fucking STUN BOLT, throwing him into a wall when his back was JUST HEALED? ugly. fucking goddamn ugly i’m so mad. finn was treated as a side joke with no mind of his own, without even asking him what he wants to do. if poe had a redactive character growth then finn existed in tlj just to chew the scenery because he didn’t have a chance to really be him or to do something that he wanted. and god do i hate the whole idea that the resistance is physically restraining people from living when this is an organization that is basically running on people doing the right thing of their volition. also, hux - the biggest fucking nazi allegory of all fucking time - slapping finn? i was so mad, i was so FRICKKIN mad. i am angry for all my friends who saw finn as a character that they could look up to and see the hero and representation that this franchise needs. considering the success of black panther, congratulations disney, YOU PLAYED YOURSELF. reducing finn’s screen time so we can fuel white boy kylo’s emotional pain, well it only can be racist, buds. finn has experienced far worse tragedies than kylo and i will not back down from this.
and with rose, oh wow, i have never been more disappointed. i wanted more asian female rep in star wars, and instead of complex character, rose fell into some tropes that made me curl up and cry, including the jealous girlfriend trope towards rey, the assault on finn, the disregard of his opinions, saying he owned the resistance. like wow, asia is dealing and has inherited a definite anti-black mentality from the colonial days and this definitely feeds into that. this is proof that not all rep is good rep and i truly wanted to love rose so much and i was absolutely gutted by how she turned. out. then there’s paige, who dies in the first ten minutes of this movie, even though she was hyped up big in the promos. it’s like they just wanted to bait people to go watch this without actually following through on any of it. 
also where was jessika pava? the first female asian x-wing pilot in the series who flew against starkiller in tfa right alongside poe? somehow missing or on some other planet apparently. i know she isn’t dead, but i would’ve much appreciated a more in depth look at her character than what we got in terms of rose. 
these characters could’ve flourished in the hands of another writer and told a meaningful story of learning from your mistakes, instead we got elementary rubbish writing that showed a lack of care, and flaws about characters that did not exist in the first place. it’s almost as if ryan didn’t watch the entirety of tfa before he wrote this, it’s almost like they didn’t have a plan, except —- oh wait, they did —- and ryan scrapped the whole darn thing. 
in short, this movie is both sexist and racist. i did not feel represented as a woman, and i saw characters of color constantly getting dismissed or sidelined or shown incapable. it’s bad.
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fmdxjerome · 6 years
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hello people from old and new! naomi is back in action with her son jerome. i’ve been stuck in my sisters house for the last weeks of my absence because she went on vacation and i had to take care of a sick rabbit who peed everywhere. i might have a disease now at the amount he bit me but what can you do. im joking. you might ask “but naomi doesnt your sister have wifi” yes she do but i’m an anxious wreck so spending my days on a first floor apartment  with my sister on the other side of the world w an infected foot had me fucke d upppp boiii but now i’m back in my own home and my sister + her boyfriend are safely home!! foot all fine!! and everyone is calm again!! so!! i can return with a good heart. i’ll be sliding in the dms of the people who bear emoticon’ed me 600 years ago and bc i suck w introducing myself to new people i’ll just hi!!!!! i think when i wake up i’m gonna do a “bio reading” marathon as i write bc i need to appreciate. also shit i need more threads wow i suck might see me replying to some open starters and def need to get back to plotting bc there are some people i’ve been dying to thread with ;^;
its like 6am now so i might b heading 2 bed now but under the cut there will be a reintroduction to jerome (one i promised in januari i believe) as im rewriting his bio (no major things change really its just minor things nd its time for an upgrade) so yes! hello (ims will come tomorrow as well ;3;)
also fact. mullet daddy jaebum is jerome rn dont drag him dont @ him its gone before you know it. probs after idolized its a look tho wow i love- a chic farmer (... the short bangs are tragic tho jerome honey i kno u liked them on wren but ur not wren. jerome: but i- me: no. this this not this jerome: :( ok fine me: fuego 
anyway before i pass out here is reintroduction. the triggers are; adoption, racism themes??? like yeah ok!! apologize if this is shit. hope everyone is having a good day though you all are great!
Jerome Gauthier aka Yuddy
-Anti idol
-Has an okay reputation but that’s because he’s smart about things.
-BC eyeing him tho *eyes fake friends with good reputation for him to hang out with* (hmu for fake friend plots. funny the person w the best rep of all actually likes jerome. bless jisoos christ. guess that praying on knees worked out in the end huh jerome. /dont/ sainthood is waiting)
-Talented™. (ask him to write songs for you) (Actually have a few songs in my library i want him to write but not sing so *eyes*)
-Passionate as fuck don’t mess with him in the studio (passionate all over tbh)
-Adopted and in search of his bloodlines
-Hoe but not really
-Actually, scrap that. Nicknames him JerHOEme
-Is actually lovely
-But acts like a shit
-Slips up and is soft to people sometimes before being a complete and utter asshole the next second
-bc soft jerome whOMST i only know deMON
-Suave Fuckboy who’s nonchalant about everything
-French™
-Will call you baby at some point in your life
-Signature smirk
-Egotistic???? Narcissistic??? a lil bit don’t stroke his ego
-Secretive™. not much info on his time in france
-Secretly a dad without children (except for his actual biological son insoo aka chorizo sausage who he goes to play ball with- i mean work on songs in the studio. seriously catch him picking up his son from soccer practice i mean shit no i mean- ok insoo is really his son dont fight me on this.)
-And also has a daughter an Oriental shorthair cat called Edith who he is so soft with he kicks out girls to cuddle with her. (one meow and he’s home)
- we support WISH hating jerome in this household. please people who have girls in WISH dont let them like him (or be a rebel and go against the mothers wishes but you’ve been warned)
-Dont let him get in your pants too like ask wren you dont want that (or i mean with the list of kinks i peeped maybe idk who am i to say what your muse wants or does not want idk im just protecting people from satan)
-Unlikely he’ll get in any pants now anyway tho bc he a proud shopper at papa juliens pizza and y’all some other brand type ish domino lookin asses NAH *throws hands up* rome’s in the house (no but guys. this is his soulmate THIS IS HIM. dISgUStiNG- )
-In 2016 interview took him out of context and it looks like he hates all idol rappers but is not true. He just doesn’t like companies making rap out to be like this thing you can do if you’re pretty and you can’t sing and he doesn’t like it when said pretty idols know nothing of it. he gets the grind but will side eye (benjy nd jerome already have a rivalry bc of this shit thank u interviewer)
-Dating scandals?? EHH. He almost had one with a Japanese model called Momo in the beginning of his career but BC did well of spinning them as friends and he legit had one with his ex last october which?????????? shit she touched his *spoiler* and it was *spoiler* . BC about to ban him from fashion shows damn. yoonah and him have to go to paris fashion week quick
-BC has yet to force him into a relationship tho. but damn he gonna be angry when that ever happens yoo. 
-Studied to become a cinematographer. Now is annoying as fuck during recording MV’s bc he butts into everything (BUT thats why his his mvs so AESTHETIC. eye for beauty bois)
-Holler at ya boi if you want a nice mv he’s involved like that
-Also to the girls who have been in an MV with Jerome.. know he probably flirted with you between takes bc during he’s grade a professionalism but he still a ho
-Actual catlady no questions asked (he feeds stray cats and gets cut up by edith when she smells other cats on him rip)
-Actual wife material no questions asked (to quote the great Halit Yilmaz during that time Jerome stood in the kitchen for hours making baklava and other Turkish treats for Halit’s Eid al-Fitr: “Shit, Jerome if you were a girl i’d marry you in a heartbeat.” and its true. we would ALL marry jerome. who says no is lying. )
-Smooth™
-Ok the ego thing btw its weird its an act but hes weird about it dont ask
idk what else to write ok short rundown of his bio as again i’m writing a new one and i cringe every time i look at my old one. im probs forgetting a lot but EYO ITS 6AM WHO CARES
CHILDHOOD age 0 to 10
-Born to a single mom who got fucked over by a smash nd dash dad. (we side eye Ok Chanwook in this household.)
-Moms family discouraged her from taking care of him herself so putting up for adoption it is.
-Very emotional not ok mom boram cry a lot pls. (got v angry too like boi if she ever sees chanwook again he can change his name to no dick larry)
-Adopted by a French couple called Lucas and Daphné (previously named Annelies). pretty kool peeps
-JK racist assholes who fetishize jerome a lot. PLEASE. the yellow fever runs deep. take him away from them,
-Raised in a small town in France and knew 0 Asians growing up. so thats nice
-Loves his adoptive grandpa to death tho (who’s he named after u3u)
-Actually hates the rest lol
-Ok uncle Rémy pretty cool bc he laughs at teen!Jerome shit talking his parents and aunt Camille. She a sweety ;3; a bit odd but a sweety #stanauntCamille
-Basically the people on the Gauthier side and born from Jerome and Clemintine are ok, the rest is shit (except for his dad Lucas. He a Gauthier but he shit)
-Junior/Senior relationship w granpda ;3; “Pépé!!” “Junior!!” *tiny jerome swings around grandpa’s neck* LOVE
-Grandma passed when he was 9. (he loved her very much and would always show her his drawings on her bed ;-;)
-Hard time adjusting at first when he was a tiny toddler. had a lisp talking french. ;3; baby rome
-young jerome had a bad case of the abandonment issues he literally held onto his dads leg for like 30 minutes before the teacher finally peeled him away from him. my smol boi
-Elephants. remember this. is important. /sob
-TLDR; biological mom didnt want to loose him. adoptive parents and dad are fucks. grandpa is kool. jerome had a good childhood until he didnt. thank u ignorance
TEEN YEARS age 10 to 20
-middle school very nice
-j FUCKING KKKKK EMO JEROME INBOUNDDDD
-kids are mean. teens are mean. young!jerome v lonely
-honestly he had no friends. except for like maybe this one kid on his sport called mattheo but he kinda a weeb so uhhhh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
-the time comes that he feels uncomfortable with everything korean. he already learned korean along side french and english when he was growing up but now distances himself from further learning. he clings to french culture a lot and even to this day he refers to himself as french and european, and rarely refers to himself as korean or asian.
-feels disconnected from both though. its like.. his parents took his korean culture away from him by using it for their own amusement. it was not his to have basically. and french- a lot of people around him give the vibe he’s not “allowed” to call himself fully french. they see him as korean, korean-french but never just french. he feels very misunderstood. lack of identity and just not fitting in
-around this time (or earlier i’m musing still) his cousin Antonin (moms side) kind of fell out on him. like. wow. not good. fucked jerome up a lil. (issues intensify)
-inferiority complex inbound/ is he ok? no he isnt. he starts writing to get his emotions out.
-Blessed Freddy rolled in teen jerome’s life like: guess we need to do history homework together jerome: aren’t you gonna make a ‘do my homework bc you’re asian’ joke freddy: why would i jerome:
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-they bond over music, freddy is the one who gets him serious about getting into it (we thank our lord freddy for this gift of life we call singer/songwriter jerome. pray to freddy 10 times a day *srry jisoos christ but ur out*)
-literally young jerome would be a great soundcloud artist in this day and age. he was like joji meets rei brown with more of an rnb tinge. he liked ambient because it calmed him.
-in his old bio thats still up bc im a slow writer his old name was some dumb shit like l.only DUMB its romeles now (get it.. jeROME LESlie gauthier. im smart)
-OK IM GONNA GO QUICKER NOW
-eMO FOR A LONG TIME BC OF LONELINESS AND OTHERING FREDDY IS HIS BEACON OF HOPE WE LOVE FREDDY IN THIS HOUSEHOLD!!!!!!!
-had a big ass fall out with his parents when he was around 15? was like “UHHH FUCK Y’ALL” and moved in with his grandpa (he was very disrespectful like damn boy but you know what. i support)
-best decision of his life because grandpa v lonely after his wife died and Jerome^2 is… so soft.
-Jerome dancing/singing to old tunes and being engrossed with old movies
-Learning how to cook ;3;
-I mean bc his middle and highschool were in Laval he spend a lot of his time w his grandpa already so he already had a bed and ;-; #jerome^2
-Halit rolls into his life. Braces, huge smile, lil prepubescent stash ohmygod. My child.
-BLANC is born. Freddy/Jerome/Halit’s musical trio. Stan the Three Musketeers
-Found his first best friend and a purpose in Freddy. Found a home in Halit. (sob)
-Finds solace in rnb and hiphop. People start noticing him because of it. Writes songs and performs them in café’s. Found his niche. 15 to 19 where his “best”  years
-THE BIG MOVE. After a concerned halit mom, a proud freddy mom and a “WHAT THE FUCK JEROME NO DONT GO” jerome mom they pack their bags and PARIS HERE WE COME
-Enter ex who haunts his life, Seo Yumi aka Marie (now model, v pretty, makes me cry)
-Spots her in the summer doing yoga in the park and boi he an assman so he got fucked up (jk he saw her face and was like wHAT love at first sight
-enrolls in film school, meets her there again and wow falls in love hard like wow calm down boy
-Dating~~~v possessive not good at ALL cALM DOWN JEROME
-ok he got his issues nd marie was the first one who openly listened to his problems and understood and made him appreciate his korean heritige bc she’s korean and showed him cultural aspects without the gross fetishizing that came with his parents and he just- he got intense ok. he already got a v intense personality so- still not good tho he needs to dial it down
-she thought so too and like after a year she was !!!! what the fuck. she is not one for serious relationships but jerome was like ehhh why not in the beginning its v nice to hear nd be seen as the most beautiful ok but then it got suffocating but instead of breaking up with him she kept him around. he a safe haven ya know. reliable. someone to built on later. *i wanna say she also didnt break up w him because his emo stories but marie,,, eh...* (funny tho like she got a thing for bad boys so she just “this is the fifth time you called me beautiful just degrade me lil like choke me idk” and jerome just “w-why would i do that you’re beautiful i dont want to hurt you” ah *looks into the future* ohhowthetableshaveturned.mp4 )
-Marie cheated on him the second she got the chance which was when jerome went to america w his bros
-Got offered a job as a songwriter when in ny. Wouldnt think he’d take it but after getting kicked out of school for beating the shit out of the guy marie cheated on him with and with marie out of the picture nothing held him back from starting a new life.
-TLDR; emo era. silver era. emo era 2 emo harder
ADULTHOOD age 20 to now
-Seoul make way for the rise of YUDDY™
-the name yuddy is from the film days of being wild. the character is kinda yuddy-ish too so he saw the film again and yep. thats my name
-Fuck_love.mp3
-Visits his orphanage. they like “nah boi u aint got no papers boi”
-Parents can give him access to his birthmother btw, aren’t doing it lol
-EMO
-Drinks. Sleeps around. Gets a reputation. You kno how it is. (gr8 ride tho. highly recommend. 5 out of 5 stars on yelp)
-SMASH ND DASH. Chanwook is that u??????
-One girl who he got with multiple times reminded him of Marie tho and that fucked him up for a bit (PSST ITS A PLOT WINK SO IF YA GIRL OF AGE IN THE 2013′S HMU BC ITS DRAMATIC HE GHOSTED THE SHIT OUT OF HER)
-Writes a lot of songs, a few for BC (knight baes). BC like *eye emoji* who dat boi who him iz
-Gets sign w BCreate and is like eyy life pretty good
-but lmao he debut and oh who’s that pretty girl promoting that lipstick?? oh.. its marie ;3;
-imfine.jpeg
-Joins main label and literally joins w a blessing stream limbo on spotify
-wgm era was a great era of jerome lmty his hair was great, shared cute personal things, manager was happy, slept with his best friend, was married to a sweet beautiful girl ya know the good stuff  👍 no im not crying you are
-triple fantasy era was awful we dont talk about that he looked like his brother and i’m still emotional about him wow. 
-instagram is a great song
-Interviewer: u mention an ex in ur song tell me more Jerome: *SWEATS*  
-Marie: my short hair DOES look pretty thank u babe ur red hair was cute too <3<3
-The fact she linked to him now is spook
-But ok he still flirty, still daring, still yuddy™ but definitely less of the whole “sleeping around” thing now bc he… he uhh closetoyou.mp3
TLDR; he turned into his dad but romeo is rising AND HE IS SCARED!!!!!
also never forget jerome is the messiest king in this ok non y’all are as messy as him. he fucked his ex’s friend oK THERE IS NOTHING MORE MESSY. dONT COME FOR HIS CROWN
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meggannn · 7 years
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race and character customizing
this is a post about a discussion other people have been making before me for ages but i’ve seen it spark up again on Andromeda’s release. a few comments i’ve seen over the past few days on white fans who are interested in making non-white Ryders have made me want to talk about it.
this is not an argumentative post. this is a post documenting my understanding of different sides an argument to help me to get my thoughts down. please do reply or reblog if you have thoughts or comments, especially if you’re a BW fan who’s not white (and a writer).
so there’s this discussion i see going around with white fans of bioware games asking whether or not they’re “allowed” to make non-white characters. to fully document my perspective on this, i need to first list reasons that white fans, in my experience, won’t or don’t make poc characters in customizable games. reasons tend to be the following:
they don’t want to “mess up,” ie, accidentally fall into stereotypes about poc characters when they don’t mean to
they don’t want to offend poc fans
they genuinely just don’t want to make poc characters, either because they’re only comfortable playing white people, or they don’t want to spend the energy to connect with poc (when they have a million other white ocs....), insert racist reason here, and some of them have learned to hide behind reason #1 or #2 when confronted about it
and there are so many problems that occur when white fans do make poc characters that i’d consider it really irresponsible to say “if you consider yourself an ally, you should probably consider making a non-white character,” which was more or less a recommendation i’ve loosely supported until recently. and yet, i’ve seen white fans making characters of color:
as a way of earning ally brownie points
then oversexualizing their character/using them for an “aesthetic” with no substance
then ignore criticism of their character from actual poc they’re representing
then trying to “claim” a race, ie, saying things like “i got angry at [my friend/a random person on the internet] for making an [asian] character, because i was going to make an [asian] character!”
that last one isn’t a joke, i actually saw it yesterday, the day of andromeda’s origin access launch -- someone making the default character heads at bioware must’ve done a really good job, because one of the female asian models is supposedly very popular, and someone posted that in response. i really hope i don’t have to explain why these things are wrong, but needless to say, when i want to encourage people to write outside of their comfort zone and create diverse rep, that sort of fake ally shit doesn’t help anyone and in fact actually hurts fellow fans by making character customizing into some sort of contest.
i was part of a discussion on @omegastation‘s blog this morning and an anon said they were interested in making a non-white oc but didn’t want to because they had been more or less intimidated out of it. i replied voicing my support for them to do it because, if i’m honest, i’ve started to view “i’m too nervous to mess up a coc” as a socially acceptable excuse not to bother caring about coc  -- even though i do know there are people who genuinely mean it.
the thing is, if someone is a writer or content creator of any sort and consider themselves an ally to marginalized groups they aren’t apart of, i think this way of facing our fears and stretching our boundaries is necessary as creators who want to write inclusive and respective material. (it’s just a responsibility to not act as though these characters are the epitome of representation or the best that will ever be done, so those marginalized should be nice to you for it.) as a mixed wlw and aspiring writer, i think examples like character customizations in games like mass effect and dragon age are great ways of stretching a writer’s legs with diversity. largely the characters are technically already written for us -- characters like shepard, hawke, and ryder are free of bias or racial leanings, they already have depth, and they’re just waiting for you to fill in the blanks with headcanons and fanart and fic and whatnot.
and yet that seems to be where white fans trip over the most. either they fall into stereotypes; or they’re so afraid of messing up that they avoid engaging or thinking about their coc too much, so they end up flat and more or less ignored for their white characters; or they oversaturate their coc so much it doesn’t even become a real person but just a empty mould with a diverse face for the sake of Peak Representation. it’s been a rare instance when i’ve seen a white fan of a BW game create a poc character that has actually been, like, a decent, fully-rounded character; on this site i see coc by white people fail usually by either doing too much or not enough. i am usually guilty of doing not enough when i make characters who aren’t my race, so this isn’t exclusive to white fans. i’m attempting to rectify that in andromeda by making my ryders multiracial with largely ambiguous heritage (mostly out of annoyance tbh, because mass effect takes place 200 years in the future, right? and bioware has confirmed that most humans are at least biracial by this point, so why are there so many natural blondes and redheads???? it drives me NUTS). mixed rep is representation I personally feel really passionate about because so many of us are misrepresented by being forced into one ‘category’ or another, but even with a narrative reason for widespread multiracial heritage in the mass effect universe, I feel like mixed characters are so rarely explored in this fandom.
ANYWAY. for most of my time in BW fandom i’ve largely been theoretically supportive of white fans making diverse characters because i’m quite frankly tired as shit of seeing white people complain about BW’s diversity and i figure interest is at least step in the right direction. hell, my friend is looking into MEA fan boards right now and is reporting to me that there are white fans complaining there is no good ‘pale white’ skin color. like frankly, if that’s your biggest concern, i don’t care about your feelings on representation and don’t expect you to understand what real underrepresentation feels like. (and no, you’re not actually losing hairstyle options when some of the designs are specifically for black women so they can have natural hair options. what the fuck?) so if i see other fans who want to stretch outside their comfort zone and be more inclusive in their character designs, like sure, why not? at least some people are stepping in the right direction, and if they’re friends, at least i can help them if i see them making a wrong turn and know they’ll respect me.
well, okay, more seriously: why not? after reading other opinions on this, i have a few reasons.
sometimes i see poc characters written or drawn by white ‘allies’ and i literally want to run my nails down a chalkboard. it might be well-drawn or -written, but even in tumblr’s relatively liberal atmosphere, it can still offensive, and it can still clearly done for attention or ‘friendly’ stereotypical jokes, not for actual love of the character. i want to think most people know better not to make obviously stupid mistakes, but I’ve driven people away with unintentionally offensive jokes in the past, so i know absolutely nobody is above this one.
even unintentionally, it can still drown out characters made by actual non-white fans -- who are just as talented, and spend just as much time creating and promoting their work, and consistently are paid less attention to on average than white fans.
fetishization. ties in with the ‘aesthetic’ point above.
it’s not enough for me to say “okay, only DECENT allies can make poc characters” because obviously everyone considers themselves a 'good’ ally, and even people that you thought were ‘good’ allies can get defensive when they’re confronted with the fact that they messed up.
i’ve also been thinking and i don’t think i’ve ever seen a white fan make a mixed race character who’s been my specific mix of heritage, but if i did, i don’t think i’d be offended. i’d be offended if they acted like they should be rewarded for it, but just the character? sure, go ahead. but i totally understand why other people would be offended, and i one-thousand-percent respect that and don’t want to talk over their feelings just because i happen to be more of a “do whatever you like so long as you’re not hurting anyone” kind of person anyway.
i also 100% think that white fans making non-white characters might actually make us better writers and storytellers and artists, but i 100% understand why poc consider that absolute bullshit, because we’ve seen the evidence and sometimes it does more harm than good.
so, i guess i have a question for my followers: if you’re a bioware fan who’s not-white, what’s your stance on this? if you’re a content creator, do you feel overshadowed by white creators when they make coc or does it happen so rarely it doesn’t affect you*? am i overthinking or not considering a point? do you have an opinion on this? (or do you care?)
this is not intended to start discourse. this is meant to be a question post to ask how other non-white BW or custom RPG fans feel about a common problem I personally feel very divided on.
(*personally i see white OCs far more than non-white OCs in BW fandoms, so much that it’s a fair assumption on my end that 95% of the COC i see are made by poc, which makes it practically a non-issue for me, but that's just be my experience.)
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celebritylive · 4 years
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Brandi Redmond is getting candid about her recent mental health struggles.
On Friday, the Real Housewives of Dallas star, 41, opened up about checking herself into a wellness center earlier this month, sharing an 11-minute video on Instagram that detailed the controversy surrounding a racially insensitive video she made years ago and explained why she sought professional help after it resurface on social media.
The emotional clip began with Redmond speaking about “mistakes” she’s made in the past and the importance of “learning and growing” from it.
“I did this video — it was essentially four years ago — and it was in reference to a scene on season 2 of RHOD where the ladies were talking about my features — in particular, my squinty eyes. Once again, that’s something I have been insecure about so I made a video poking fun at myself,” she said, explaining that the clip was taken out of context. “I immediately took the post down and posted a public apology. Someone maliciously recorded it off a device and saved it for this many years … and it resurfaced. I made a poor decision of being angry and trying to defend in the moment what was wrong and insensitive.”
Redmond added, “Once again, I’m sorry.”
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  A post shared by Brandi Redmond (@brandiredmond) on Jan 17, 2020 at 5:07pm PST
RELATED: RHOD‘s Brandi Redmond Pens Emotional Note After Critics Slam 10-Year-Old Daughter’s Attitude
Redmond — who shares three children, daughters Brooklyn, 10, and Brinkley, 7, as well as 2-year-old son Bruin, with her husband Bryan — received backlash from members of the Asian community late last year for a controversial video she filmed of herself and her daughters.
In the clip, which Redmond first recorded back in 2017, the reality star appeared to mock an Asian accent while addressing her squinty eyes. “They ask me what Asian I am because my eyes, they squinty,” Redmond laughed in the clip with her daughters giggling behind her.
The video resurfaced amid the most recent season during which Redmond called out her RHOD costar LeeAnne Locken a racist for derogatory comments Locken had made against their costar Kary Brittingham.
Many critics online pointed to the clip as a symbol of Redmond’s hypocrisy, accusing her of the same labels she placed on Locken.
Initially, Redmond responded in since-deleted tweets in which she was poking fun of herself. “It’s a good impersonation if I do say so myself and there was no harm done,” she said in one message, according to a screenshot shared online, adding that she would “do it again.”
A video resurfaced of me from three years ago which at the time I had posted and quickly deleted and then immediately apologized for my insensitivity . I would like to once again sincerely apologize for my offensive actions.
— Brandi Redmond (@BrandiRedmond) January 4, 2020
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RELATED: RHOD‘s Brandi Redmond Apologizes After Resurfaced Video of Her Appearing to Mock Asians
But eventually, Redmond changed her tune and issued another apology, writing on Twitter: “A video resurfaced of me from three years ago which at the time I had posted and quickly deleted and then immediately apologized for my insensitivity. I would like to once again sincerely apologize for my offensive actions.”
According to Redmond, the backlash she received when the video resurfaced “became a campaign for hate and bullying.”
“It just want you all to understand how I ended up getting help and why I ended getting help,” she said through tears in the video shared on Friday. “I felt so much shame. I felt bullied. I didn’t feel like living anymore.”
The mom of three continued, “I went into this deep, dark depression. I couldn’t eat, sleep. I wasn’t taking care of myself, my family or my responsibilities. Every time I would see something negative, I would start throwing up. I didn’t feel like life was worth living.”
Redmond said she eventually approached her husband Bryan for help.
RELATED: Brandi Redmond Checks Herself Into Wellness Center After Apologizing for Controversial Video
As PEOPLE reported, the Bravo star checked herself into a wellness center early January to “reflect and better herself.” A rep for Weekly Dose of B.S. — the podcast she leads with close friend and fellow RHOD star Stephanie Hollman — made the announcement on Instagram after Redmond had skipped a recording of an episode.
In Friday’s video, Redmond called the experience “life-changing.”
“I do have my smile back. I want you all to know that I love you. I love life,” she said. “I can’t wait to wake up and nurture my family and most importantly myself.”
“I have peace in my heart knowing God is always with me, he knows my intentions in my heart. I want to live honestly with kindness and appreciation for all mankind. Nobody is perfect and I needed to know I accept and love myself and if I make others laugh that is just a bonus.”
Redmond also captioned the video: “I am so grateful for God helping me through this, allowing me to heal and love myself. To those that set out to hurt me, know that I still have compassion for you in my heart. Thank you all for hearing my truth and my heart.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
from PEOPLE.com https://ift.tt/2TDFKIa
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