#the main issue isn’t that religion is being used in fiction | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

funhouse-mirror-barbie · 5 months

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(This is a reply to this post) @savagepassion well, I’m Christian and was raised in a Christian community and church. Where I live, Christianity is open—it’s not a closed practice. I know that many sects of Christianity want to convert more people to the practice. I don’t know the exact religious practices of all the creators and writers for HH and HB, but I believe a creator has gone on record as saying that Hh and HB are how she has explored her religious trauma (could be wrong, will have to see if I can confirm that). (Reply continues below)

This means they’re making a story reflecting on their own culture and religion. Doing so doesn’t mean that people can’t criticize them for this and it doesn’t mean that other people from that culture can’t also be frustrated with this and criticize the portrayal of their religion.

My main issue isn’t with a religion being depicted in a way that deviates from that religions’ canon—mainly I don’t think it’s good for someone outside of a religion (ESPECIALLY a closed practice) or culture to use whatever they want from that culture without taking the time to understand the significance or importance whatever they are taking has.

I will agree that this could also apply to Christianity, but specifically in places where it is a minority practice and culture. In a place or another culture where Christianity is demonized and Christians are or have been persecuted and have to practice privately or close their practice, then yeah. That could be dangerous.

But I’m from the US where Christianity is the vast majority and is open to all. Again I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the majority of the HH creative team are from the US, so there’s a good chance they also grew up in Christianity and are depicting their own culture. I don’t personally have an issue with aspects of Christianity being discussed and explored and fictionalized b/c my religion is open, and where I’m from it’s the dominant religion, to the point where very few people actually dare to criticize it in some cases.

If a practitioner of Voudou or someone from within the various cultures that come from Voudou wanted to make a series or media about their own culture, that would be different. They would probably also get criticism from within their community for doing so, and that’s fair too. But that is a conversation for the members of /that/culture to have.

You can absolutely criticize Hazbin Hotel for using Christian mythology (and Im /not/ using the word “mythology” as an insult or to insinuate that Christianity is made up—pretty much all religions have mythos—it’s just the word used to describe the stories that make up the history of a religion—whether or not you believe in that mythology as being factual or fiction is up to you). That’s a normal thing to do, and if you’re Christian and are frustrated or upset by the way your religion is being portrayed those feelings are valid, and you are allowed to talk about it.

Regardless of all of that, I think there is a PROFOUND difference in someone taking parts of a minority closed culture and religious practice that has been previously maligned, demonized, and racially discriminated against, for their own uses, and someone examining and criticizing the majority beliefs and opinions of their own culture and religion.

Also this is as surface level as I could get with this reply, there’s a lot more to go into specifically about the racism (general and institutional/systematic) that is a part of this, as well as the MAIN thing that bothers me—black people, and black practitioners of Voudou who are a part of the minority culture in this case have been speaking out about their culture being used inappropriately, and have been largely ignored or shouted down by fans of Hazbin. Apparently the creator has also been blocking them as well?

The whole thing really reeks of cultural appropriation and racism, regardless of if that was ever the intent or not. It’s just been handled really poorly by the creative team and the fandom and I genuinely don’t understand it.

Final note—it’s very frustrating to hear “what about (X tangentially related thing)????” when talking about these issues. My original post wasn’t talking about Christianity, and “but what about Christianity?” doesn’t need to be a part of this conversation. Bringing it up and talking about it definitely diverted some attention away from my initial point on my original post.

But. I genuinely love talking about religion and religious studies—I minored in religious studies and think religion and spirituality can be a beautiful thing—and the ways religion impacts and intertwines with human culture is very interesting.

So I mean. Nah.

But also yah, because the world is huge and complex and what applies to one place does not necessarily apply to the whole world and nothing is ever in a vacuum.

But also. Like. Nah.

#funhouse convo #media criticism #media critique #hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel critique #not really but #reply #cultural appropriation #the main issue isn’t that religion is being used in fiction #it’s that a closed religion that has been heavily demonized in the story’s setting is being taken w/o permission #and the creators are not listening to me members of that religion

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emperorverse · 8 months

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The Emperor-Verse: RWBY: Saints of Remnant, a reimagined AU(More details in Keep Reading!)

Once there was a world by the name of Omnibus. Created by the supreme deity The Author Allfather through the mysterious entity The Storyteller, this world was composed of four holy and mighty kingdoms, ruled by The Author’s Patron Saints whose reign protected the people, human and faunus alike, with their mighty armies, hunters, and their own holy powers from barbarian hordes, and the hordes of The Grimm who were the incarnations of hatred of the fallen seraph Grimmel The Black and his fellow fallen angels

In the dreadful world-shattering war of Ragnarök, the glorious age of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and the days of Romance, Heroism Adventure, and Eucatastrophe came to a tragic end.

Now all that remains is the world that is Remnant

But there is a prophecy made by Ozma The First Time Wizard before his death at the hands of The Witch-Emperor, that one day the bloodlines of the original Patron Saints and the families betrothed to them will return to take up these powers, rally armies of the righteous, vanquish the darkness and restore the holy kingdoms and Omnibus and reign over them once more.

Sinners will become Saints

Legends shall be restored and new Legends will be born

And what was a Remnant, Shall Be Whole Again.

But until then, the Hunters lead a struggling battle against the Grimm while the modern kingdoms suffer under corruption of all kinds, both to the benefit of darker forces who have horrifying intentions for the world.

Cue Ruby Rose and her older half-sister Yang Xiao Long, they are about to enter Beacon Academy after being approved by the eccentric Professor Ozpin Pine along with the heiress Weiss Schnee and the introverted faunus Blake Belladonna forming team RWBY

Ozpin has also enrolled a few other students and transferred others.

The former forming team JNPR, and the latter being Team SSSN of Haven Academy

Ozpin seems to have his eye on all of them, but what for?

Heavily inspired by CS Lewis's series The Chronicles of Narnia

Main Ships Contained:

RoseGarden

BlackSun

Iceberg/Arctic Water

Arkos

Renora

and some other ships

Also will contain unorthodox reimagining such as Adam Taurus(He's an initial antagonist turned good) and the White Fang and Jacques Schnee and the SDC with their Canon!Counterparts replaced with substitutes among other things

Currently the concept is in the works in a series of notes.

Details of the Emperor-Verse

Now I'm sure there's some questions you probably are all asking which I assume are the same questions as my blog

“Why are you using your Religion?”

Mostly due to it being a strong foundation, notably theology, for most of my stories, there are many strong foundations of storytelling, religion, history, you can even fantasize science if you put the imagination, time, and effort into it.

After doing some soul searching and listening to the Narnia books on Audible, it became another important element in making this au and I might include elements of CS Lewis’ Space Trilogy

This AU is set in my fictional Multiverse The Emperor-Verse which Narnia is implied to exist in, or I should say had existed in(its set after The Last Battle)

“Isn’t this kind of entitled and disrespectful?”

Disagreement isn’t necessarily malicious, and entitlement is not inherently bad if its your opinions and subjective feelings which people are entitled to.

Tolkien was heavily inspired by his distaste for how Shakespeare handled certain concepts, such as the Ents when he was upset and dissatisfied that there were no walking talking trees in the Enchanted Fortest of Macbeth, and the Valar Aule the Smith and the origin of the Dwarves make him something of an Anti-Prometheus

Not to mention Philip Pullman, the author of His Dark Materials Trilogy, made it out his distaste how CS Lewis made the Chronicles of Narnia and his overall beef with Christianity, and nobody seems to take issue with that.

I’m not saying the direction RWBY went with V3 or Pyrrha and the rest of the cast potentially ending tragically in some way or another is objectively bad, it was just not my taste

And I am not saying every normal RWBY fan/RWDE person who liked it is an elitist about it nor are all of them trying to insult me and attack me personally or say my ideas are bad

Nor I’m not trying to change canon or its “trajectory” , nor am I doing this to spite Monty, especially when I never knew the guy. This is a difference in handling ideas and concepts.

I’m doing my RWBY AU, which will most likely be revamped into an original story since it takes a whole different directions with the characters and world, but it's mostly because with post V3 and now in retrospect I saw what this world, characters, ships and other ideas could have been all in a story I believe is worth telling. And I was disappointed that it wasn’t.

I mean yeah it's also due to personal tastes and preferences and subjective feelings, at least I’ve been told, but I also try to integrate that in a meaningful way.

So I hope you all enjoy what I have to offer, which will most likely be put on AO3 and FanFiction.Net, and who knows, I might get a few artists to commission to redesign some characters or illustrate some scenes if anyone is up for it.

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persianatpenn · 2 years

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Jafar Panahi and "the Border"

The new film by Jafar Panahi “No bears” (خرس نیست) is the point of intersection of many social, political, cultural, and personal issues. Although, Panahi once commented in interview that one “mustn’t look at a film with only one point of view”, I would like to concentrate on my own perception of the movie. However, I’ll try to include as many dimensions as possible.

Firstly, the film bears the hallmarks of the Iranian New Wave cinema current. The setting takes place in the Iranian village on the border with Turkey. Village-town dichotomy passes not only through the geographical, spatial dimension – the village on the Iranian side of the border, the town is on the Turkish one – but also through the mental, psychological realm:

“Town people have problems with authorities. We have problems with superstition”. (Panahi, 2022)

However, both town and village are connected by another common for INW characteristic – realistic and documentary style of narration, which in Panahi’s reflection takes on features of meta-autofiction (and maybe docudrama), that is such storytelling which puts the process of fictionalized autobiography composition in the center of the film. This feature has not only overall Iranian film tradition genesis, but also personal one. Panahi’s “teacher” Abbas Kiarostami’s most famous film “Through The Olive Trees” ( زیر درختان زیتون) revolves around the production of his another film, where the boundaries between fiction and reality are also blurred.

Secondly, the plot is built around the parallelism between love stories (and tragedies), which are very different in detail – social status, religion, country, and age, but find a common ground in teleology – the purpose of escape, border crossing, in particular. This is the main philosophical take of the film, to my mind – the concept of border, its ontological status. On the one hand, the border doesn’t exist in reality – the physical border between Turkey and Iran is rather weaken institution relying instead on the inner relationship between local authorities (not necessarily official), enthusiasts, and smugglers. On the other hand, the border gets almost physical appearance in the mental dimension. For example, Panahi being brought to the border between Turkey and Iran once having realized that this is the place (“Where is the border? – You are standing on it”) abruptly recedes, not daring to cross it. This scene echoes the village rumor/story for children about the bears on the way from the village to the vicinity:

“There are no bears. Nonsense! Stories made up to scare us!” (Panahi, 2022)

Nevertheless, and this is the third point, Panahi is the only hero who isn’t crossing the border and (probably) therefore survives. Other heroes end up dramatically after the attempt to cross the border – geographical, religious, and social. What about the political one? Could Panahi cross it? What would be the consequences?

Another point is the relationship between this film and other Panahi’s works. The opening scene is the Panahi’s attempt (through the other hero) to capture local tradition of newlywed’s “washing of the feet” (“the girl on the right, the boy on the left, why not the opposite?”), which I think echoes with the scene of illegal mourning tradition of head slashing in northern Iran captured in one of the first Panahi’s movies “The Wounded Heads” (Yarali Bashlar), kind of framing the tradition itself – from the beginning of life (family) till the end (death)

#jafar panahi #iranian film #iranian culture #no bears #culture

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thesunstrider · 2 years

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Jafar Panahi and "the Border"

“Town people have problems with authorities. We have problems with superstition”. (Panahi, 2022)

Secondly, the plot is built around the parallelism between love stories (and tragedies), which are very different in detail – social status, religion, country, and age, but find a common ground in teleology – the purpose of escape, border crossing, in particular. This is the main philosophical take of the film, to my mind – the concept of border, its ontological status. On the one hand, the border doesn’t exist in reality – the physical border between Turkey and Iran is rather weaken institution relying instead on the inner relationship between local authorities (not necessairly official), enthusiasts, and smugglers. On the other hand, the border gets almost physical appearance in the mental dimension. For example, Panahi being brought to the border between Turkey and Iran once having realized that this is the place (“Where is the border? – You are standing on it”) abruptly recedes, not daring to cross it. This scene echoes the village rumor/story for children about the bears on the way from the village to the vicinity:

“There are no bears. Nonsense! Stories made up to scare us!”

#jafar panahi #no bears #iranian film #culture #border #iranian culture

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420technoblazeit · 3 years

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Okay, so about Danganronpa, (I don’t mean this in a hostile way btw, but please read entire ask) the writers are Japanese so they might have not known much better due to lack of representation of Black People in Japan when it came to the character (And unintentional ignorance)

Also, Spoilers for the game, towards the end it’s revealed that the Killing Game is actually a Reality TV Show where those who participate in it willingly signed a contract to have their memories erased and be given fake pasts and talents using technology (Hence why the game is called V3, as the killing game they are participating in is the 53rd one.) A few fans have pointed out that a few of the characters are based off of Tropes you can find in Media, which could be a callback to how the “students” and their pasts are written by people whose main goal is to make things interesting for the general public. So they probably did research on various Tropes and went for the ones that seemed interesting, not fully realizing that the one they chose for the character that is of color is considered racist.

Racism common to English speaking parts of the world isn’t widely talked about in Japan, and unless someone is planning on living or going on vacation in Europe or America they aren’t likely to be concerned about it. So the people who developed Danganronpa most likely aren’t racist, they just don’t live in an environment where they are encouraged to look into this stuff.

nonny first off angie's polynesian. she's from an island nation and please keep in mind that i'm also from an island nation, the philippines. that being said i'm going to dive into what makes her portrayal problematic while being as respectful as i can

and note that while the japanese writers didn't specify that she worships atua specifically, they made an active choice to center most of her characterization around the practice of blood offerings and sacrifice and converting other characters into it. there are multiple instances where they call her religion a cult. just because the writers aren't white doesn't mean they can't be racist. think long and hard about the implications of writers from japan scripting this, writers who are from a country who in the past colonized other countries including my own. japan is not an entirely isolated country. but the writers are propagating the idea of people in lesser developed countries being 'savage' and wanting to convert people into their 'dangerous' religion

as for the second argument, that may be the in-canon reason for characterization but it absolutely does not excuse the racism of the irl writers. the only thing that does is redirect responsibility to fictional characters. the presence of blatant transphobia in the first game regarding chihiro's case also cannot be excused because ultimately kodaka chose to include those ideas. if angie's characterization isn't connected to her skin tone, how come she's the darkest skinned character and the only one with dangerous religious ideas

basically, i'm afraid i have to disagree with you because of the history of problematic representation with characters who come from island countries. the idea that foreign people are insistent on 'corrupting' other people with their clearly savage religion is dangerous. danganronpa perpetuates that stereotype. it's quite possible that i won't be able to change your mind on this issue and that's fine with me. i'd just ask that you think about it for a bit and respect my position

#danganronpa #long post #angie yonaga #character analysis #420 squeals #drv3 #danganronpa v3 #angie crit #danganronpa crit #racism tw

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interact-if · 3 years

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Taking the spotlight for Day 6... Lucirene!

Lucirene, author of An Angel’s Song

Latino Heritage Month Featured Author

In the forest of Bres an otherworldly sickness corrodes the soil and changes the creatures within. “A parting gift from the fallen angels” say the citizens of the Hyaku Region and the mark on your hand confirms it.

Though the scent travelling in the air is sweet and enticing everyone knows better than to get closer. But the mark, it pulses, it burns, the pain spreading as fast as the corruption of the forest does.

Your masters are calling, and it seems like this time you cannot escape them.

An Angel’s Song Demo | Author’s Ko-fi | Author’s Patreon | Read more [here]

Tags: dark fantasy, romance

(INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT!)

Q1: So, tell us a little bit about the projects you’re working on!

I have so many, but the only one public is An Angel’s Song. It’s, more than anything, a story about grief, loneliness and overcoming it all while navigating a hostile environment and discovering long lost secrets about the Divine and about the MC’s country. That one is very cathartic for me to make because of the themes, I feel like I’m working through a lot of feelings I didn’t even realize I had by writing it.

The next one is also an IF and it focuses on comedy, adventure and character interaction. It’s supposed to be more lighthearted, more fun, but knowing me… I don’t know if it’ll stay that way. Basically, it goes: A Captain’s boat falls prey to the storms and the strange creatures living under the sea, and they and their crew end up washing ashore an icy, snowy country. I already have the main cast written down and they have so much synergy, it’s amazing.

And the last one I’ll talk about (a traditional novel) actually happens in the same setting as my second IF, but many, many years before, when their local deity/guardian was born. It’s more of a romance-fantasy than anything, a love story between a Goddess and a half-dragon, however it also showcases many of the situations the people had to navigate and face before their country could become the place you’ll see in my second IF.

Q2: What excites you most about using interactive fiction? What are some of the biggest challenges?

What I like most definitely is how much freedom we have as authors. Of course, one is constrained by one’s ability to code but I think, for the most part, we can do so many things, reach an entirely new level of immersion that would not be possible with a regular novel. It’s amazing how sometimes I’m reading something and get so into it, feel so connected to the MC I feel dread when they do, panic when they have to make a choice that will clearly impact a lot of people in their world. With IF you can really feel like you’re part of the story.

Another thing I like is being able to explore other paths with my writing. Like for example, what if the MC had done this instead of that? How would that have affected their relationships, their world state? Writing branches is a lot of work, especially because they could change so many things, but it feels oddly satisfying when you do decide to include them.

Challenges… Coding, mainly. I feel like a lot of new aspiring IF authors are a bit afraid of coding and I can understand that, especially since, had it not been for the help of the community, I would have taken way longer to actually start using Twine. Hopefully with time for resources come up and it becomes less daunting.

I don’t know if any other author feels the same way but, though I think branching is a blessing, it is also a curse. I can only write the same conversation so many times, I mean I know I’m writing it in different tones and sometimes with different results but it gets frustrating after a while because it feels like you’re stuck, like you’re not progressing at all.

Another one would definitely be finding a balance between reader interaction and just following your vision. Since it’s IF at times I feel like I have to meet a quota of branches or ways in which you can react, sometimes I also find it difficult to make the MC feel like a real person instead of a reader-insert. I’m working on that.

Q3: What has been something in your project you’ve had to do a weird amount of research for?

That’s a difficult one… I don’t know if I would consider it weird but I do tend to investigate a lot about fashion, especially when designing the main outfits of the characters. I spend hours trying to find out what colors were used back then, what they meant, who was allowed to use them. I have this little image with some palettes for kimonos depending on the season.

I also spend too much time coming up with names, especially for places. Like I look up names of places that already exist, what they mean, I try to investigate if the words that I want to use make sense, then I panic because I can’t find anything, but I think that’s usual for writers. I also spent more time than necessary researching for the name of a tree that you will see way later in the book, which no one will probably notice what the name of the tree means or what it symbolizes but it makes me happy.

Honestly, I feel like the amount of research I have had to do has not been particularly weird? If anything at times I think I should research more, even if some aspects of Japanese culture will not apply to Kyou.

Q4: Which of your characters is most like you? How?

The initial version of the MC from An Angel’s Song, which I miss dearly since they had more personality. They were autistic coded too, and I hope some traces of that still remain. Apart from that I feel like all of the characters from the main cast share something with me, even if their experiences are, of course, more dramatic than my own.

A lot of them have issues with a paternal figure or an absent mother, which also resonates with me. Some of Saori’s traits draw inspiration from ways in which I talked or acted before I became a little better at masking, before I became more self-aware. Hazuki being emotional and caring, K being a bit clingy but devoted, Masa having a temper yet loyal, Miwa being friendly but reluctant to open up beyond surface level information. I think those things describe me.

There’s also Rei but I don’t think I’m writing her book anytime soon. She’s someone that’s very family oriented, she’s a bit temperamental but she means well and she’s not afraid to speak her mind. Now that I think about it, maybe Rei is more the person I want to become.

Q5: Does your heritage influence your characters as you create them? (How? Why or why not?)

I’ve been living in Venezuela my whole life so I think so, even if most of the time I don’t even notice it. I believe that this happens especially in regards to relationships because people in Venezuela are very family oriented and also, from what I’ve experienced, they form strong bonds with their neighbors, which creates this strong sense of community —sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t, but my mom and her friends always make at least some friends in their neighborhoods and they gossip with some coffee about the happenings of the rest—. So when it comes to writing a character it is very important to me to make an emphasis on family relationships because those are a strong part of my culture, of my identity.

In An Angel’s Song you have the main cast having issues or conflicting emotions about one or multiple members of their family, which influence their behavior and their outlook on life, but for the most part they are (or will be) able to form similar relationships with people that are not related to them, or to work towards restoring that relationship, transforming it into something healthier.

In my other books family dynamics are also immensely important. For example, I’m going to mention Rei again because I love her. So, Rei has a sister named Rin, and they are both very close, even if they haven’t spent much time together. Their bond and trust in each other helps them overcome a lot of obstacles and they rely on each other when they need support or encouragement. Rei also has other people that she thinks of as siblings, and restoring that relationship with them is one of her main goals. There’s also this recurring guilt she feels at leaving her birth family and her home to explore, because to her, families are supposed to stay together.

Another aspect that I think influences my writing is religion, even if I wasn’t raised in a particularly religious household nor do I belong to any religion. Religion is a big deal in this country, we have so many events and holidays relating to religious figures. I remember when I was very young I loved going to one of the churches here because the Virgin of that town had a building filled with pretty clothes to dress her with.

So, in that vein, I try to think about the character’s relationship with religion, do they believe in the Gods? Do they trust them? Do they follow local deities or prefer the main pantheon? How does this religion shape the way people interact with each other and the world? In regards to characters that are Venezuelan or Venezuelan-coded… I do have a few that are Venezuelan, but I don’t think I’m going to be releasing their stories soon, so I’ll keep it quiet for now.

Q6: What is something you love to see in interactive fiction?

People being passionate about their work! This isn’t something exclusive to IF, but it is something that I love seeing. I also like seeing the different ways people innovate within the genre. I feel like sometimes, especially with newer writers, there is this idea that an IF has to subscribe to a specific format and that’s simply not true. If you don’t want to use a stat system you don’t have to, if you want to add combat then go ahead, if you would prefer to write an MC that’s already pretty pre-established (which is something that I personally want to try) then there’s nothing stopping you and I encourage you to give it a go. IF is very versatile and it’s wrong to try and fit authors into a box, especially if they want to bring something new into our little corner of the internet.

Q7: Any advice to give?

In general, I advise people to have fun writing, to not worry so much about how good it is, about if people will like it. Writing, at the end of the day, ends up being a pretty solitary activity and having those thoughts in your head too long will make you spiral. Be kind to yourself, be open to feedback when it comes (and learn to distinguish constructive feedback from destructive feedback) and enjoy the exploration of your world and characters.

You are not alone in all of this. If you can, join a group of writers you can talk with, exchange ideas, get feedback from or just exchange memes (the ultimate bonding experience). Don’t be afraid, you’re not alone.

#if: events #latino heritage month #latino authors #interactive fiction #cyoa #choose your own adventure #choose your story

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revenge-of-the-shit · 3 years

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Writing Tips - Random Facts from Chinese History and culture that they probably didn’t tell you

Am I doing a series of writing tips on Chinese culture? Yes. Why am I doing it on this blog and not my main? Because: (1) This blog (funnily enough) has a larger reach than my main, and because (2) Given how Star Wars steals a LOT from east asian cultures and then westernizes it without really understanding what it’s taking from, I figure that if I put some more educational stuff out there, we can start having a little more proper asian representation within the fandom, and (3) because I have the time and I want to do this as I rarely see proper representation of my culture.

So. This post is a bit of an overview to little random tidbits I wanted to share. If you’re looking to write a story set in China (or in a fictional land inspired by China), take a look through this list, then do further research on it. I hope it helps!

Anyhow: some random facts:

Chinese people were looking for The Way for a very long time. Sound familiar, The Mandalorian fans? There were several religions and teachings that sprung up out of the search for The Way, including Confucianism and Daoism.

I’m no experts on these though, so do more external research if you want to approach it properly.

In Chinese mythology, the five elements are metal, wood, water, fire, earth. No, air isn’t an element.

I think it’s pretty well-known that Jade was very highly prized in Imperial China, but silver was also extremely important back in the day and was often used as the currency for trading between Imperial China and external (read: foreign) powers.

The Mandate of Heaven (Tian Ming/ 天命) was what gave Emperors the “right” to rule. It was believed that Emperors were the “Son of Heaven” and were thus given the divine right to rule. This Mandate could be withdrawn if the ruler in question sucked.

Here’s a list of all the Dynasties and their time periods. Dynasties were time periods in which one family

There were a LOT of revolutions. If you examine the events following the end of each dynasty, often, you will see several natural disasters (most notably: the Yellow River flooding. It did that a lot).

It meant the cycle went like this: Incompetent ruler -> unhappy people -> natural disaster -> even unhappier people take this as a sign that Heaven hates the ruler -> they overthrow the current dynasty -> they install a new ruler -> the ruling family keeps going until it eventually stops being loved by the people.

The economy was agriculture-based for a VERY long time.

Opium was a pretty big problem for a while - thanks to the west. Then the Qing government went “okay, that’s enough, we don’t want opium anymore. It’s messing our people up.” Britain took issue with that, because Britain made money off of the opium trade. So they swooped in, stormed China, stole some land (Hong Kong), and then forced China to continue trading opium so some British guys could keep making big bucks off of China.

See the First Opium War for more details.

Sources:

Various Chinese history classes from school & various stories taught to me by my parents & grandparents. If I mis-remembered anything let me know!

#non sw #writing #writing bipoc characters #chinese culture #chinese history #Chinese representation #asian representation #writing chinese characters #writing tips #writing advice #long post #if you don't want to see this because it's not star wars just filter out the non sw tag

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frobin · 3 years

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Analysis: Do Franky and Robin count as married?

Okay let’s get this started! And how? With looking up the definition of marriage!

marriage (noun) mar·riage | \ ˈmer-ij, ˈma-rij \

Definition of marriage

1a: the state of being united as spouses in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law

1b: the mutual relation of married persons: WEDLOCK

1c: the institution whereby individuals are joined in a marriage

2: an act of marrying or the rite by which the married status is effected especially : the wedding ceremony and attendant festivities or formalities

3: an intimate or close union // the marriage of painting and poetry— J. T. Shawcross

So, marriage is a consensual and contractual union/relationship between spouses.

Webster also adds, that marriage is a very controversial word.

And while they point out some very interesting facts, we will concentrate on only this part (because we don’t care for American law right now):

The definition of the word marriage—or, more accurately, the understanding of what the institution of marriage properly consists of—continues to be highly controversial. (...) Ultimately, the controversy involves cultural traditions, religious beliefs, legal rulings, and ideas about fairness and basic human rights.

So, when we call something a marriage we always have to consider the culture, traditions, religious beliefs, legal rulings, ideas about fairness and basic human rights. Which can become difficult, since we are talking about a fictional world. In the end we will have to consider our own cultural background and in my case it is very euro-centric but I’ll try my best to not make it too much about that.

In the next step we should answer the question... (after the read more)

Why should anyone marry?

Nowadays there are three main reasons for marriage:

religious reason

legal reason

love

But let’s be honest, the deeper we dig, the more we can put together religious and legal reason, because in the end, many religions were the original background to legal texts. What more are the 10 commandments than a rulebook for living as a group?

That does not change that it’s still important for many to have a religious wedding. Being married by a priest in a church, in a temple, with the customs of they grew up with. For some it means to be with their partner even after death.

The legal reason is becoming more important in many “modern” countries. Being married can mean that there are tax benefits, security in ownership, security with child paternity and adoption and many more. Often only legal family members are allowed to visit a patient in hospitals and are allowed to make decisions for the spouse.

(Sometimes it’s already enough to just be engaged.)

The last reason does not need any explaining I guess: Love. If you love and know your spouse and want to stay together forever and make it clear to everyone, marry them! Celebrate with your friends and family and tell everyone “we stick together through good and bad until death do us part”.

Now then let’s ask

Why should Franky and Robin marry?

Religious reasons:

We don’t know much about religion in One Piece. We see symbolism of Christianity, Satanism and Buddhism. Alabasta is inspired by old Egypt and the three weapons are named after planets or Roman god, while Big Mom named her homies after Greek gods.

Anyway, neither Franky nor Robin seem to be very religious. Robin met a “god” they both have seen how a following named Usopp a god. The celestial dragons are referred to as almost god-like. They’ve been to Thriller Bark and met Brook who is undead. Do they believe in a higher power? We don’t know but either way they don’t seem bothered by it.

So it does not seem like there is a need to marry because of religious reasons.

So what about legal reasons?

Both Franky and Robin are wanted criminals, not only in one country but in the whole world. As of now there is no reason for them to make their marriage legal because there is no law they abide to.

Officially they only exist as pirates within the Marine documentation. I don’t think either of them have their birth certificate. Robins place of birth is destroyed. Franky was probably born at sea. I think the only place where they would really sign themselves as citizens is Water Seven and - depending on what is going to happen - even that is highly unlikely.

They also don’t really seem to have anything in their possession of value. They basically live in an almost commune-like environment on Sunny where people probably do have their own things but also seem to share everything. So there is also no need to clear that up in the case of a divorce or of the death of one spouses. And again both being pirates, if they have children there won’t be any issue with child support or paternity. Because let’s be real, as long as they are part of the crew, Robin and Franky might be the parents by blood but kids will be raised by everyone.

There is no need to register with a government and no need for a contract. So no legal reason to be married.

So, love it is?

Yes. Yes it is. That is their pure reason to get “married”. But then again, what does marriage mean? Nowadays it’s always accredited by law or religion. Both seems unlikely and unnecessary for Franky and Robin.

So even if they love each other, can we claim that they are married? For whom should they clarify their relationship?

They are living within a small group of people so as long as they are openly in love it does not really matter if they are married or not.

BUT! Let’s take a look at the definition once more and more closely to point 2.

2: an act of marrying or the rite by which the married status is effected especially : the wedding ceremony and attendant festivities or formalities

If Franky and Robin decided to have a wedding ceremony of any kind just for the party, then there is no reason to do so in front of an entity or a government. And it will still be of the same value as any other marriage.

Now you may ask “Who is going to perform the marriage? And why?”

Good question! What about the captain? Well, there is no real evidence that pirate captains were allowed to or had the power to perform a wedding. We do know that Matelotage was a practice within pirate crews, comparable to a gay marriage and a contract. But I couldn’t find any fast information of how it was ‘legalized’. Female pirates were a rarity but maybe hetero Matelotage was a thing too? As for modern times, it really depends under which flag the ship is sailing, if the captain is allowed to perform marriage.

But again, we’re talking about a (fictional) pirate crew so they sail under their own flag and who is to say that Luffy is not able to do it as a captain? Heck, if Luffy does not want to do it, Brook used to be a captain, Jinbe too.

So, if Franky and Robin decide to celebrate a wedding of any kind and promise in front of witnesses whatever they feel like that means to be married, then yes. These two will be married.

So, are Franky and Robin married?

Sadly, no. Because we didn’t see the wedding ceremony.

By the pure definition of it, as our modern understanding goes, Franky and Robin are not married.

But...

Can I still call them married?

Heck yeah! Because we all know what we mean by it: that they are in a consensual and committed relationship.

And so it does not matter if you think it’s an asexual or sexual relationship. It does not matter if they are also polyamorous or monogamous. It does not matter which gender or sexuality you headcanon.

You can also headcanon that they indeed had the party that made it all “official”. You can imagine it in any way you want because that is what is so beautiful about your own mind. No one can take that from you.

In conclusion...

Canon? No. Fanon? You know it ;)

After all Robin already has her wedding dress:

Happy June, that is both pride month and apparently the best month to marry! ... Isn’t that an interesting coincidence?

PS. Feel free to use the exact same logic for any Strawhat Ship! Or any Pirate Ship for that matter.

#Frobin #One Piece #OP Meta #OP Analysis #Are Franky and Robin married?#Wedding in June #Headcanon #Analysis #pride month #canon #This took me way too long #huge shout out to Bones who did some beta reading #Also look at that dress #kon #Sorry for any remaining mistakes #they are my fault alone

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writerthreads · 3 years

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How to write POC characters, by a POC writer

by Writerthreads on Instagram

This post will be our second attempt at doing this topic. This time will be more of a discussion where I don't tell you what to do but allow you to think about how you can write about a POC character. I will be tackling these four questions:

What makes someone their race/ethnicity?

How should writers mention their race/ethnicity?

How can you avoid whitewashing POC characters?

Should White authors write POC main characters?

It is important to note that I am a teenager who’s from Hong Kong (and lives there right now), so I don't experience racism towards myself as I'm not an ethnic minority where I live. My experiences as an East Asian will be different from other POC. My opinion is my personal opinion, which doesn't speak for everybody in my community, let alone the entire POC/BIPOC community.

What makes someone their race?

Race: "A grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by society."

Ethnicity: "a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups such as a common set of traditions, ancestry, language, history, society, culture, nation, religion, or social treatment within their residing area."

Someone of a particular ethnicity might have specific habits, eat or not eat particular kinds of foods, take part in unique customs or speak a certain language, amongst other characteristics that "makes someone a certain ethnicity".

However, just because they don't do any of these things doesn't immediately make them not a part of that ethnicity. I know many friends who are from Hong Kong but can't speak or understand our native dialect or speak Mandarin fluently. This doesn't make them less of a Hongkonger.

When you're writing a POC character, you can talk about ethnic-specific things the character does, for example, celebrate holidays like Diwali or Lunar New Year. It is essential to know the customs that come with these festivals and how they differ between regions or countries.

Universal celebrations, such as birthdays, can also have different traditions. For example, my mum's region-specific culture in China dictates that people eat noodles on their birthdays because noodles are long and represent long lives.

How should writers mention their race/ethnicity?

To me, race is literally just the physical characteristics of a person. However, writers are often criticised for describing too little of a POC character's physical features or not mentioning that they're a particular race, making the character appear "too white". Some authors have also been criticised for failing to describe BIPOC characters adequately, for example calling darker-skinned BIPOC characters "tan".

Commenters on our Instagram account have pointed out that skin tones shouldn't be described with edible words, such as "caramel", "chocolate" or "coffee". However, it is fine for hair colours.

I think the author should explicitly point out a character's race or, at a bare minimum, describe them appropriately. The writer can also choose to use specific last names that help readers identify the particular character's ethnicity. There can also be variations of a surname that point out where the character is from. For example, "Li" is Mandarin Chinese, "Lee" is Cantonese, Lê is Vietnamese, and the surname is transliterated to Lai or Lye in Central and South China.

Sometimes, POC characters are portrayed with stereotypes. I guess stereotypes all start with an element of truth, but they don’t represent the entirety of the stereotyped group. For example, my year group’s further pure maths school is entirely asian people (with the exception of three biracial kids and one who dropped out). There is an issue of where a personality trait becomes a stereotype, and it up to the writer and the beta readers to decide. Personally, I would love to see characters who break stereotypes, but I understand if POC characters have a stereotypical trait as long as it is portrayed well.

How can you avoid whitewashing POC characters?

Sometimes when I read a story about a POC main character, they don’t seem to be of that race or ethnicity apart from their physical features. They act like every other person in their community, and that’s totally okay. But as a person of colour, I think it’ll be nice to have different kinds of POC characters, some who might switch between languages or some who don’t know how to speak their mother tongue.

If there’s a character who is presented as “too white”, why are they “too white”? Justify their “whiteness” with external or internal factors, which could be the fact that they really want to fit in or they have just been brought up in an environment where their culture isn’t really represented. Explain to the readers how these factors have impacted their perception of their culture and their identity, and identify problems with oppression and the necessity of representation.

I really liked the portrayal of Asian-American/Canadian families in Fresh Off the Boat and Kim’s Convenience, if you’re interested, you can watch them on Netflix or another streaming service. I think TV shows are better as there are different stories within the storyline as opposed to one main fictional plot with subplots in books and movies.

Should White authors write POC main characters?

As far as I’m aware, there’re two different points of view: “poor representation is better than no representation”, and “poor representation is more harmful”.

People who think that poor representation is better seem to think that having representation ensures that non-POC readers are exposed to more diverse castings, even though they are inaccurately portrayed. If these books are turned into TV shows or movies, POC actors will be used, which benefits them. However, there are more people who think that poor representation is worse because the characters don’t really represent us POC people.

In my opinion, as long as the portrayal of POC characters aren’t harmful but just not enough, I think it’s OK as long as nobody is misguided about us or any race/ethnicity in particular. If you’re a white author writing POC characters, also run your draft with POC beta readers to make sure what you’re writing is politically correct. Use multiple POC beta readers, because one might find something un-offensive when another might.

I encourage White authors to write about POC characters but not stories about being a person of colour. This is because they don’t really understand what is is being a person of colour and have to rely on resources that might be inaccurate. They can only offer a limited perspective, and this argument can also be applied to straight people writing LGBTQ+ characters. (I’m straight, confirmed by bi friend)

Before I end this post, I would like to remind you once again that this is purely my opinion, and you are free to disagree with anything if you know what you’re saying. (and you’re not a White person deciding on what’s racist or not)

#racism #representation #BIPOC #pochollywood #diversity

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therewrites · 4 years

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We Are Who We Are Overall Thoughts *spoilers*

This review will be discussing briefly some of the episodes so far, so SPOILERS

So I started watching the HBO original series, We Are Who We Are, and I am conflicted. When I initially watched it, the dialogue made it hard for me to enjoy it so I stopped. Then after a couple of weeks after its airing, I thought, what the hell? And this time, I was pleasantly surprised. I always maintain the belief that pilot episodes are either boring, messy, or just bad so I try to push past it in order to get to the good shit. The pilot for We Are Who We Are was...I’m not sure how to explain...different? It certainly wasn’t bad and it made an impression on me, but this show as a whole is hard to limit by just a few words. It’s really something that you should watch and experience yourself.

It was only after the first 3 episodes that I began to understand the tone and mood that Luca Guadagnino was trying to convey. A lot of the time, the dialogue is abrupt and choppy and can make no sense. It can be frustrating, especially when you have two characters that aren’t communicating effectively. But I think that was the point. Guadagnino is a very realistic director, he captures the most realistic elements in a film. A lot of the conversations between characters is meant to emulate real life. Like, what the hell do you say when a conversation becomes awkward? Well, nothing sometimes.

While Guadagnino’s typical cinematography may suggest whimsy, in WAWWA’s case the small structured and synthetic model of the military base is juxtaposed to the very concrete characters. When I started to view the show less as simply a televised airing of fictional characters and problems, and instead looked at them as people, I began to really enjoy it.

Take the main character of Fraser, played by Jack Dylan Grazer. Fraser is meant to be seen as an extremely complex and troubled kid, but the difference between him and every other teen in a coming-of-age drama is that he isn’t polished. His drinking and drug habit isn’t framed as romantic or beautiful, in fact most of the time it’s portrayed as his weakness of sorts. In the first episode, Fraser has one of his mothers drive him home after getting pretty wasted and Luca graces us with a direct shot of him throwing up. And before that, Fraser is stumbling on a bridge when he drunkenly falls and cuts his face. Everything the character does is messy, uncoordinated, yet extremely real and relatable. Hell, in one shot you can clearly see him do a Naruto run!

Caitlin/Harper is a character that I enjoyed watching, as well. Jordan Seamon did a fantastic job and I really connected with their character. Initially we see Caitlin as this mysterious girl, and in the pilot we are meant to assume that their relationship with Fraser is supposed to develop into a romantic one. This is not the case as it seems that Caitlin is trying to come to terms with who they are. The biggest shift in Caitlin’s character isn’t their friendship with Fraser but probably when they get their period.

This was a moment that even I related to, even though I am cis when I first got my period I didn’t tell my mom until the day after. The possible confusion and shift in their reality that Caitlin felt was only heightened with the conflict of their boyfriend wanting to be more physically intimate, and Fraser’s eventual discover of Harper. I would have like to see exactly why Fraser seemed drawn to Caitlin. I’m assuming viewers were supposed to think that Fraser is attracted to her, or something. But both Caitlin/Harper and Fraser are queer coded and their respective sexualities are alluded to not being straight. It would’ve made their standing as platonic friends more clear if this had been established stronger.

I definitely think the writer could have devoted more time to giving certain characters proper conversations. It would’ve given more development to certain characters and better context for things. However even without that, there is a lot that the audience is showed that can’t be told through dialogue. The power struggle between Sarah and Richard being one. So far, there hasn’t been any explanation as to why they have a such a volatile relationship other than Richard being a homophobe.

Through deeper inspection, I was able to interpret it as: Richard may heavily resent the fact the Sarah was promoted to Colonel and not him. It is never made clear who has the better credentials, Sarah or Richard, but assuming that she was the one promoted it is a safe guess. This may be highlighted by the fact that Sarah is a women, and also gay. Even before episode 7, it was clear that Richard did not respect her authority. I also interpreted it as Richard being upset that and openly gay women was promoted instead of him, a black man.

Of course this is just based on my own personal knowledge of how the U.S. military can be towards people of color and LGBTQ+. Regardless, the competitive tension between two parents is palpable without needing dialogue to explain.

When conflict happens, I can kind of figure out which characters are going to react and which one’s will stay silent. I think the show is trying to accomplish a drastically realistic and raw series. It took me while to adjust to it, but by maybe the 2nd or 3rd episode, it starts to grow on you. Despite not liking a good majority of the characters, I was very surprised by how invested I was in them.

Like, Danny is my least favorite character because he displays very abusive and explosive tendencies, and doesn’t seem to care about the world around him. However, getting glimpses into his character and seeing how Richard ignores him for Caitlin/Harper, his suicidal thoughts, and how he is trying to reclaim his cultural and religious background makes me empathize with him.

Even though I hate his character, I can see that he is struggling. I appreciate the way that this show freely shows dark skinned black boys dealing with mental health issues, and personal development. Rarely are issues like suicide talked about in the black community, so seeing Danny talk about it and Craig offering(admittedly poor)comfort was touching. This is a general vibe that I get from nearly all the characters on WAWWA. I also appreciated the how Danny is actively trying to convert to Islam. In shows, rarely is Islam ever portrayed in a positive manner. Especially when female characters are shown to be struggling with their religion, Islam is shown as this barrier that prevents them from living life. Hopefully it goes without saying that the “taking off the hijab” as a way to show that a female character is “liberated” is overplayed and does not offer any respect to the countless Muslim women who choose to wear hijabs.

Now I think the pacing of some of the storylines could have been handled a bit more gracefully. Like how we jump from Fraser and Harper being kind of enemies(not really but you know what I mean), to just them hanging out in Richard’s boat was jarring. I would have at least liked to see the scene of them talking on the rocks at the beach. It would’ve given more insight on Caitlin/Harper’s character and also on Fraser too. Also how quickly Maggie and Lu(Jennifer but I love the name Lubaba, it’s my aunt’s name)jump into a physical affair. I just would have liked to see a build up of tension between all these characters but I don’t think this entirely ruins the plot.

I was very iffy when I learned that the show would be focusing on trans identity and gender and sexuality, but not actually hire a trans male actor. I was afraid that the show would completely botch the experiences of being transgender, and honestly I don’t have the authority to speak on whether or not this affects the quality of the show. I am cisgender, and only can empathize with this particular situation as much as I can. But I would like to hear to the opinion of someone who is trans and elaborate on the ways that they did/didn’t like Jordan Kristine Seamón’s portrayal.

Now at the time I’m writing this, the season finale has yet to come out. But I’d also like to briefly discuss the most recent episode and how it developed Jonathan and Fraser’s relationship. I was VERY worried that Guadagnino was going to take their relationship in the direction of inappropriate. While nearly all the depictions of Jonathan and his actions have been trough Fraser’s pov, it didn’t stop me from side-eyeing some of the interactions they shared. Of course after it was mentioned that Jonathan was supposed to be in his late 20s, nearing 30 I was immediately uncomfortable with the very flirty behavior he exhibited.

So when the scene of Fraser going up to his apartment after Craig’s death, I was very on edge. If Guadagnino had gone the extra mile to show an even larger age gap then I would’ve been pissed. While I enjoyed Call Me By Your Name, the implication that sexual relationships between barely legal teenagers and adults well into their 20s was sensual is something that I see as very weird now that I’m older. So seeing Jonathan as the object of Fraser’s affections made me extremely warry.

And honestly, I’m still surprised that the scene even happened in its entirety. I’m sure that Jack was not in any danger of being exploited but there were definitely points while watching I thought, what the fuck is going on? I was very worried that it would escalate, but I was happy to see that Fraser was the one who stopped it from going further. It made sense to me that this scene took so many liberties to be as graphic as possible without being too graphic, in order to show why a situation like that would be scary and confusing for Fraser. It wasn’t lost to me that Marta and Jonathan were the one’s initiating all the sexual advances. They held all the power in that scenario, even more so because Fraser is younger and has the tendencies to not make the best decisions. Though it seemed that Fraser was trying, he knew that the situation was fucked up.

I’d like to hear what JDG felt and thought doing this scene. What was his character’s thought process?

I’ve seen a lot of people compare the show heavily to CMBYN, which is fine. Besides certain cinematic parallels that people pointed out, I don’t see the clear comparison. CMBYN is more of a love story and it’s more polished than WAWWA. Now when I say tat, I don’t mean it as a negative. Rather, We Are Who We is obviously more devoted to realism and its characters. I appreciate the inclusion of more LGBTQ+ people and black main characters with development, something that CMBYN lacked. And for some people who didn’t like the show based solely on the fact that it wasn’t a CMBYN tv show, I suggest just going into it with no expectations and enjoy the mess.

And I’d also like to take a moment to commend Jack Dylan Grazer for his job in We Are Who We Are. All of the main cast are amazing actors and actresses and did a really good job bringing their characters to life. Though, I had always associated JDG with supporting roles that, while highlighted his acting talent, only put him in a one-dimensional light. As good as It 2017 was, JDG’s role of Eddie is only meant to be seen as a comic relief. In WAWWA, I was able to forget that he was teen actor, Jack Dylan Grazer, and really see him as Fraser. It’s worth mentioning that in a GQ interview, Grazer also mentioned how this role made him reevaluate is approach to acting.

And after reading an interview he did with a Interview Germany, with him saying he spent months in Italy reading the script and trying to perfectly craft this character, I was immensely impressed. I hope that he knows that all his hard work payed off and made a really dynamic and interesting character. I really hope that in the future JDG continues with more mature or multi-dimensional roles because he displayed that he has the talent to do so. Him being so young makes me optimistic in knowing that he is definitely going places in his career. I also hope that there will be a season 2 of WAWWA because despite having hour long episodes, the show still felt way too short. There is a lot about Fraser’s character, and all the others’ characters, that I want more information and analysis on.

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coniljn · 3 years

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Weston College And Its Real Life Inspiration*

*uploaded for archive purposes from my old amino account

This post contains a history of Weston college's main inspiration and a comparison to the black butler universe school. ( SPOILER FREE! )

The Weston quad compared to Eton's quad both featuring a statue of Henry VI the founder of Eton. (ch.67/pg.5)

Weston College, the fictitious school for the public school arc in the Black Butler universe, was mainly influenced by the real-life public school Eton College. Eton and Weston were both independent schools, independent here referring to an exclusive, fee-paying, private school, run by an elected board of governors. Because of this (particularly in the 1800's) they were not as encumbered by rules and regulations set by state-run schools. While Eton is a private school, it is defined as a public school under the Public School Act of 1868. The term “public” school for this instance refers to a private school in which anyone can apply to be a pupil, regardless of religion or nationality.

Black Butler currently is set in between the years of 1888 and 1889. During 1880's- 1890's, public schools experienced the Victorian expansion, an emphasis on team spirit and the philosophical movement known as muscular Christianity defined by patriotic duty, the moral and physical beauty of athleticism, discipline, self-sacrifice, and manliness. A prominent example of a follower of this philosophy for any American readers is President Teddy Roosevelt.

The Victorian expansion also used public schools as a way to participate in the socially elite. As independent schools, board members of the school could alter the curriculum in favor of courses tailored toward the very in-fashion teachings of muscular Christianity. Eton college specifically was heralded as the chief nurse of English statesmen, because of the 19 prime ministers and generations of aristocracy that were educated there. Weston shares a similar title as Great Britain's finest public school.

Weston's uniform and Eton's uniform (worn by the 17th Duke of Alba) (ch.67/pg.7)

There isn't much history to the fictional Weston college, but I assume that it has a similar history to Eton due to the strong influence on Weston’s creation. Eton is one of the 9 public schools investigated for reform and regulation under the Public School Act of 1868. They had housing issues, incompetent staff, students were denied supplies, and some underclassmen were denied chairs due to a shortage.

It’s unknown if Weston shares this history but Weston and Eton are similar in their importance placed on seniority, because they catered directly to the socially elite, and were mostly kids of the aristocracy, businessmen, military officers, and colonizing officials. There is a militaristic feeling to the schools. Students did a lot of self-policing (this is not common practice in the 21st century), partially to cut down on staff and partially to prepare the boys for future work in the public and military forces. Investigations also noted a common hazing ritual was to throw the new students up in the air on a blanket.

Both of the schools had corporal punishment, and corporal punishment at Eton didn't fall out of fashion until the 1980s. However, while Eton had a very open policy on it, Weston did not as it seems to be very taboo, which may have to do with the manga being written with modern views.

Weston sits in a similar location as Eton, right across the river Thames with Windsor castle on the other side of the shore. (ch.81/pg.4)

The house system in England varied a bit, and usually, kids were picked at random, but some were based on a students needs socially and emotionally to ensure proper mentoring. Houses could also be chosen based off of the family.

There are 25 houses in Eton, while Weston only has four, this could be to downsize the amount of work for Yana and her team and possibly due to Harry Potters influence globally with the idea of a four-house school. The four houses at Weston are the scarlet fox, the sapphire owl, the green lion, and the violet wolf. All of the houses encapsulate ideas within the Victorian expansion. The scarlet fox had an emphasis on the socially elite, similar to how public schools in the era were used as a social booster. The green lion had an emphasis on athleticism and being fit, a large part of the ideas of muscular Christianity. The blue owl and the violet wolf had an emphasis on intellectual studies, and influence on the arts, which capture the muscular Christianity views of discipline but this is more of a reach than the other two examples.

Each house has a prefect, which is the leader of the house. Eton had 25 prefects, along with a house captain and a house captain of games to run the students within the house. Eton also had various kinds of prefects. However, the only kind of Eton prefects that the prefect four fit are the pops (the most popular boys in an elite society in Eton) and house captains (students with disciplinary power).

(ch.81/pg.7)

Finally, King George III was the largest patron to Eton college, and on June 4th, they would celebrate his birthday, this also functions as a parent’s day at the school, and a break in exam season. Weston’s college’s patron saint is st. George, possibly in reference to this.

The procession of boats for both Eton and Weston college starts June 4th, consisting of cricket matches, music and dancing, and picnics. Weston does it in a different order that Eton, but with the same itinerary. Eton’s procession of boats was initially illegal. The boys took the boats and paddled around on the Thames, it didn't become an official event until 1840, and wasn't encouraged until 1860.

Weston in comparison to photos of Eton's procession. (ch.81/pg.9)

The initial procession was boring, so in order to liven this parade for onlookers, the boys would get to a certain point in the Thames, stand up on the boat, and tip their hats to the queen at Windsor castle, and knocking the flowers from their hats into the river in honor of King George III. However, these row boats are old, don’t have internal buoyancy like modern boats, and sit very close to the water surface; so it's very common for boys to stand up and immediately tip the boat over and take an accidental swim in the Thames, which is a great way to wrap up their June 4th celebration.

Both Weston and Eton boys falling into the Thames (ch.81/pg.10)

Ciel was the cox like an admiral of sorts for the procession. (ch.81/pg.4)

Yana and her team did an amazing job recreation the outfits (ch.81/pg.5)

“Thank you for reading, let me know if you have questions, discrepancy, or criticisms. This is the first time I’ve done something like this. I enjoyed it so much and I would like to do it again. I'd like to also thank my friend who gave me the idea for the topic.”

#kuroshitsuji #port

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clarste · 4 years

Note

Sorry if you've been asked this explicitly before, but what are your thoughts on Penguin Logistics, specifically in comparison to the other organisations/factions in Arknights? I recently started and managed to grab everyone within a few pulls, except Sora (and I guess Mostima, unfortunately.) and I think they're easily my favourites. Would love to hear your thoughts. Cheers.

No one's ever asked me that, but they probably should have since I've gone all-in on Penguin Logistics ever since I pulled Exusiai and Croissant early on. I then proceeded to never pull any of the others, forcing me to buy Texas and Sora in the shop and much later dump all of my accumulated gacha currency getting Mostima. Anyway, my goal in life is to use the entire team and also max them all out. PL4life!

Anyway, my initial impression of them was that they were the cast of a 90s anime like Cowboy Bebop or Bubblegum Crisis (...Tokyo 2040). Like, they're an eclectic band of hyper-competent misfits working for a small company operating at the edge of the law. “Penguin Logistics” itself sounds like a euphemism for being, like, smugglers or something. "We'll get your package where it needs to go, no questions asked." Then Code of Brawl came out and I was totally right except they are also very dumb in a funny way. Like, they accidentally got into a turf war with the mafia, but apparently that's just business as usual.

Anyway I want to talk about each of them individually now so apologies if this starts rambling.

Texas is pretty clearly the main character of Penguin Logistics, and you can tell because she's the hub of their whole relationship wheel on the in-game chart.

She's also kinda Spike from Cowboy Bebop, although less laid-back I guess. She's a former mafia assassin on the run from her past, but her past won't leave her alone. Incidentally, "mafia" in this case refers to the various wolf families from the fantasy Italy equivalent in this setting, although they make some interesting comparisons to wolf packs in the profiles. However, Texas's family is dead, which should make her a "lone wolf" that will supposedly never have another place to belong. Except PL itself is proof that that's wrong.

Theoretically she’s just the team’s driver, but because PL is always getting into ridiculous anime fights she’s also good at that part too, using dozens of little... lightsabers(?) that she throws around willy nilly. It would probably look super-cool to see in action, except this is not that kind of game so we’ll just have to wait for the anime or whatever. It’s noted in her profile that her fighting style shows that she unconsciously sees as the only purpose of a weapon as being to kill, and heck, she’s right.

She's cool-headed, adaptable, and the serious one you can always count on, but she's not above getting into friendly(?) brawls just to take out her frustrations out.

Her name comes from the extinct subspecies of Texas Wolf.

Next up is Exusiai, the angel who loves nothing more than guns, god, rock and roll, and apple pie. In that order. In other words, a stereotypical American. Even though she's from the fantasy-Vatican. Basically she's a cheerful, friendly, laid-back person who never really fit in back home where people are expected to be more serious and orderly. Not enough to be, like, shunned or anything but she's always been a weirdo. All angels have guns though, that’s like standard issue. She wishes she could have more though.

She's also super religious, but interestingly never brings it upon her own. I feel like she probably realizes how uncomfortable it can make people who don't share that religion to suddenly bring up Jesus all the time in casual conversation. Like, she's not ashamed of it or anything, but she won't shove it in your face either. Personally, I find that a pretty cool characterization for a fictional religious person.

Which is also sort of a hint that beneath her goofy exterior she's a thoughtful, deliberate person who doesn’t let anyone in by accident. Texas notes that they're exact opposites in this respect. She also has an extremely interesting relationship with the next person.

Her name comes from the Greek word for the order of angels in Christianity often translated as "Powers."

Mostima... where to start...? I guess first of all she’s a fallen angel, apparently because she pointed her gun at her own kind under MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. Probably related to the whole war in Kazdel thing, where many of the other MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES in this game took place. Long story short, stuff happened in the war, she pointed her gun at another angel, Exusiai’s sister is dead under mysterious circumstances, and Mostima gave up her gun and now wanders the world delivering long-distance packages for PL. But that’s mostly an excuse for to be alone as much as humanly possible. She can also use time magic because I dunno why not. MYSTERIOUS.

She’s friendly enough, talkative even, and has a hobby of visiting new places and trying out the local food, etc, but her real defining trait is that she just doesn’t need other people. She’s explicitly aromantic, saying she has no interest in love, but she also has no need for friends or family or apparently coworkers either. Because of the way the world is, she spends most of her time driving through the endless wastelands between cities, with nothing but a truck, some packages, and her thoughts. There’s something... romantic about that (in the other sense of the word), but even she admits that the romance of watching the sun set in a desert with no one else around for hundreds of kilometers gets old after a while.

I feel like I should note that she has a very “best friend of her big sister” relationship with Exusiai, by which I mean she’s known Exusiai since Exusiai was a kid and to her Exusiai will always be that kid. Also Exusiai only joined PL in the first place to hunt her down and get answers about her sister’s death, but Mostima just laughs it off and leaves town for another year or five.

Her name is probably a corruption of Mastema, a rather infamous fallen angel in mythology.

Croissant is... well, to be honest everyone past this point is more of a minor character. Which is actually a weird thing to say since none of these people are actually major characters in Arknights, but I guess these are less important people even within the group?

Croissant’s gimmick is that she’s always trying to make money by selling stuff. I guess she’s a merchant? But not, like, a formal one who runs a shop, she just gets her hands on stuff through her connections and sells it. But in like, a friendly down-to-earth way, it’s even said that she lives paycheck to paycheck. She’s a girl trying to get by with a second job, I guess is what I’m saying.

Team-wise, she’s the muscle of the group, being a minotaur and all. She lifts the heavy packages and also smashes things with her MAGNETIC HAMMER which I don’t know why I find that name so amusing. Gameplay-wise her special move can knock all the enemies around her halfway across the map and I smile every time she does it.

Her profile notes that she’s really just living her best life as a normal-ish person, and that helps make everyone around her feel normal, and that’s important in a setting where half the people around you are dying of magical cancer (no one in PL is Infected though).

Her name comes from the French word for Crescent and also a type of Pastry. Leaning more towards Pastries in my opinion.

Sora is an idol singer. Because, to be perfectly honest, what ragtag band of misfits is complete without an idol singer? She can’t really fight, but I guess Texas must have saved her life at some point or something because she bullied both her agency and PL into letting her work there part time. And also she is obsessed with Texas. I guess saying it like that makes her sound kind of annoying, but she really isn’t, she’s just an earnest girl chasing her dreams.

There’s also this interesting thing where a lot of her basic information is censored by her agency in order to protect her privacy (”do not dox the idol”). Even including her race. She presents as a wolf, but her promoted E2 art has her as a rabbit, which raises some interesting questions that don’t really get answered.

Her name comes from the Japanese word for Sky.

Lappland is not really part of PL, but she’s PL-adjacent enough to be worth mentioning here. Basically she’s an old acquaintance of Texas from back in their mafia days, and she’s obsessed with hunting her down and... fighting her? Killing her? But in, like, a sexual way? She’s kind of a crazy psychopathic killer. Maybe. She can also be very calm and polite when she wants to be, although with a taste for gallows humor. That just makes her scarier because you don’t know when/if she’ll snap.

There are two kind-of explanations for her being like that: A) her family is dead and she has no “pack”. As a wolf, the stress of living without a pack is supposed to be maddening. B) She’s infected with Oripathy (magic cancer) and there are crystals growing in her nervous system. Which... can’t be good. The answer is probably a combination of both.

But the most important thing about Lappland is her base skill and how it interacts with Texas. Basically, in your base there are various jobs you can assign people to and different characters get different bonuses for them. Most people in Penguin Logistics get bonuses for working the Trading Depot, for obvious reasons. Lappland gets a “bonus” where if she’s in the depot at the same time as Texas, she loses morale slower but doesn’t actually get any bonus to productivity. Meanwhile, Texas gets a bonus to productivity when Lappland is around, but loses morale way faster. In other words, Lappland is slacking off and making Texas so uncomfortable that she works twice as hard just to get the job over with so she can leave. This is their relationship as defined by game mechanics.

Texas also has another bonus where she loses morale slower if Exusiai is there, which completely cancels out the penalty she gets from Lappland. In other worlds, Exusiai being there too calms her nerves enough that she doesn’t feel the need to immediately escape.

Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about Emperor, who’s the owner of Penguin Logistics. He’s a world-famous rapper wearing a Tupac shirt and also literally immortal.

#not touhou #arknights #penguin logistics

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off-in-the-moors · 3 years

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It is not the responsibility of art to be morally instructive. It is 100% YOUR responsibility to research something if you know you are a sensitive person, take responsibility for your self. Art does not need to be some clinical sanitized morality play, get over your weird Puritanical obsession that all art must conform to your specific world view. Either engage in challenging works or stick to children’s cartoons where you can feel ‘safe’.

Dear Anon,

I’m truly confused by this. I have no idea what are you referencing and what “inspired“ you to send me this “ask“. But I will do my best to give you something.

(It only took me this long to answer, bc I don’t log in very often.)

Let’s start with your assumption of me.

I’m not a sensitive person, in any meaning. I actually love reading and engaging in media that’s morally questionable or straight up morbid and disturbing. Some of my favorite thing are: paintings by Goya and Beksiński, folklore/mythology (in it’s most unchanged form), “Perfume“ both film and book, Hannibal tv series, true crime, to name a few. Your assumption that I’m just “a girl obsessed and only enjoying modern cartoons“ is insulting.

I actually do agree with you that art, in any form, isn’t responsible to be morally instructive, but every work of art is made to send some form of message, be an obvious one or hidden between pages. In my opinion, authors and writers should be aware of what message they want to send with their works and what messages they are sending with what and how they’re presenting.

On your “It is 100% YOUR responsibility to research something if you know you are a sensitive person, take responsibility for your self“ this is also true. But on the other hand, given media should provide you with some kind of warning and not a third party entity. For example, if I pick-up a YA book from a bookstore, bc of its synopsis or someone (be a person I know or a creator) recommended it to me, I don't expect "spicy" scenes or blatant a*use of a character by its love interest or just "torture p*rn" scenes in it but here they are. With no warning. Is it my fault? Partly yes. Is it the media's fault for not giving me any warnings? Also yes.

Even with researching "warnings" isn't that simple. When it comes to books, the only way is reading reviews or recommendations. With reviews, they're either positive and say nothing book related or are negative and full of spoilers. Recommendations nowadays most of the time don't even give you what the story is about, just "it has x, y and z in it", let alone "warnings". From my own experience, they either don't tell you about "unappropriated" stuff (be r*pe, d*ug a*use, a*use, etc.) or they down play them and in worst cases, excuse it or say "it gets better/it's addressed in the next book/later in the series".

But if you feel the need to micromanage everything you engage in, go for it. But most people don't and a warning would be nice.

(This of course doesn't apply to thing and character's actions deemed "problematic". If said stuff is well handled and addressed, it's perfectly ok to portray it. But again, if it addressed and/or showed as wrong, and not ignored, excused, or played as a joke.)

I don't know from where you took the "your weird Puritanical obsession", bc 1) I never petitioned for that in my posts, and 2) I'm actually against censuring and sanitation of media.

Now, on to what "inspired" you to write this.

Again, I have no f-clue. So here are my best guesses:

If it's about Pathologic: I only have problem with people forcing their politics, modern sentiments and opinions/interpretations on to something they don't fully understand, because they're from a different cultural climate. An American can't fully (or in some cases, refuses to) understand something made by Europeans (in this case Russians) for Europeans in mind. I don't want to mix myself into the fandom discourse/drama, because I don't care what people think or how they interpret stuff, even if it's taken from something minor or from nowhere with no support (or even is debunked) in canon. I don't care if people like or hate this one character. Just don't police people for liking things, you don't like. Nor do public shaming or send people on those you don't agree with. You don't like a pixel man on platform shoes? Fine. Just don't bully and attack people who do.

If it's about my post about B*rdugo's adult book: I will admit, the wording and presentation wasn't the best. I was writing it from a place of strong emotions, but I'm still standing by my opinion that some things should not be presented with graphic details in a book without any type of warning. Here we could have a discussion about trigger warnings in books, hers response to the idea of putting them on her book and what is consider "too far", but this isn't about that. I actually have a lot of problems with B*rdugo and her fan-base, besides that. Her use of Russia, it's history, religion iconography and culture only for aesthetic and not doing proper research (she called her series "Greg's trilogy") or showing any respect for it (with characters, how are not main and secondary characters, a Slavic stereotype); her portray of dyslexia and how the fandom likes to use it as a joke in relation to this character; or people shielding her from any form of criticism with "She's is xyz, so she can write this". But I don't care about her and her works.

I stopped reading YA books, because I can't stand them any longer and their "handling" of topics, with people holding up every-single-one as "the best book ever written", not because of the quality or story but because the author is xyz, and spitting at every book written before 2000s. I'll get flag for it but YA novels are the Pulp fiction of our times (of course not all, but most of the popular ones are). I stopped trusting people recommending them to me, because 90% of the time, I'm just disappointed by them.

If it's about K and TRC: I already said so much about this. Margaret isn't aware of her audience, she writes for herself (which she admitted on a podcast) and refuses to change it to please anyone. She created and killed K for two reasons: to further Ronan's character arc (to be used for teaching him to dream better and a (not working) foil of him (or Adam... or Gansey)) and as her weird catharsis of killing everything she hates (who she apparently was; "fratty boys and chortling men") personified as one boy (and yes, boy, because this fandom likes to forget he’s only seventeen, the same age as the Gangsey. If you excuses their actions, like Ronan and Adam’s racist jokes or Gansey’s toxic behaviors towards Adam with “they’re just teenagers”, why K is excluded from being a stupid teen?). With Jordan, it's now obvious that she has a bias of suffering/dealing with your trauma (and addiction) "in the right way", of which in her eyes, K wasn't. She could not create K or she could not make him a harmful stereotype of a Slav, but she did. In a book targeted at 13-18 year olds, we have a drug-addicted boy committing a public s*icide and being demonized and forgotten by everyone.

But I'm done with this fandom, I never had a place in it. TRC fandom is 80% P*nch with a 1% being about K, but even this little corner is "too much" for the stans. I left for a reason, the only thing I regret is not apologizing for my out-burst. If someone who knows what I’m referencing is reading this, I’m truly sorry.

So, yea. I hope, I addressed your issue, Anon.

#ask anon #ask #pathologic #anti leigh bardugo #anti trc #anti maggie stiefvater

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bunny-lou · 4 years

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I have to get this off my chest. Ive read all your descendants fics and I really love them. Ik you're going into dark and muture theme but, as an Arab women your writing of anything relating to Agrahba makes me very uncomfortable given the obvious underlaying racist and Islamophobic sterotypes of the only Arab characters written are deeply rooted in sexism & being "behind" . Jafar is a villian and i didnt have much of a problem with him being a sexist but then is Jasmine's pov you made the only fictional Arab country not respect women in general. I hope you know this is a sterotype, mostly associated with Saudi Arabia, and not a reflection on most of my people or Religion. Maybe im overreating due to real life islamophobia trying to claim I live in opression.... When I really dont and im free to do what i want. As is the case for most women and as the way it should be

I say all this with the utmost respect. Im not trying to "cancel" you or anything. Again I really enjoy your writing

Hi there, thank you so much for reaching out to me! I never want anyone to feel like they can’t reach out to me about my writing or any issues they may have.

I think your message is specifically about Grin and Bear It.

The way I wrote Agrabah was meant to be based off the original Aladdin film, where Jasmine deals with some serious heavy sexism, it was not intended to be based on any real life stereotypes. It was especially not meant to be based on any religious stereotypes because I don’t want any religion to be involved in GABI or in INI.

But I am white and I know that I have subconscious stereotypes in my mind - coming from my upbringing, society and media - and it is my responsibility to unlearn those and my responsibility to be willing to learn when someone calls me out. I would never intentionally offend someone with my writing or add to any hate, but I also know that I could be doing either of those things without realizing it.

One way I did that was, as you pointed out, is that Agrabah is more ‘behind’ than the rest of Auradon and I don’t know why I wrote it like that? I think at the time I wrote GABI, going on 3 years ago now, I had written it being at a different social stage because of how far (distance wise) it is from Auradon. We see Aurora and Snow White are actually a part of D1, but we also see in D2 that Agrabah is a place Ben and Mal have to travel to. Out of the four main original Disney films, Aladdin had the setting I enjoyed the most because it was so different to me, so I had wanted to Agrabah and the setting the same because it was one that I wanted to explore more.

But you’re right, in GABI, Jasmine does describe Agrabah as being hateful toward women. I had wanted that to show why she’s so bothered by Jay’s flirting and how not everything gets fixed after the Disney movie, Jasmine’s problems with how men treated her didn’t go away. But since 20 years has passed since that movie, it would have been a good opportunity for me to talk about the positive changes that have been made. Jasmine fights for women’s rights everywhere, she has more women in power around her and pushes for girls in her country to have opportunities that she didn’t have (during the original Aladdin). I should have mentioned that Jasmine isn’t doing all of this on her own and that there are people in Agrabah who agree with her and want better for women and support the changes she’s made. In my attempt to show how strong and determined Jasmine is, I set an unfair and bigoted view of Middle Eastern men and women.

That’s not what I wanted to do and that’s not fair, not to people who are Muslims, not to people who are Middle Eastern, not to my readers, not to my fandom, and just not fair in general to be putting something like that into the world.

Going into Instructions Not Included, the sequel, this is something I will be more aware of. I do my best not to use OCs, but with the characters we have from Agrabah - Jasmine, Aladdin, the sultan, Genie, Dalia, Hakim, Jordan and Aziz - this is a plethora of characters to do better with and show that Jasmine is not the only one who respects women. The struggle for women to be treated fairly isn’t a theme that I will completely disregard - because it was a large part of Jasmine’s story in any version of the film and it’s something that all the characters, especially Mal and Evie, admire her for - but I promise to do my best to write a more well-rounded country with more progressive citizens to better reflect how Middle Eastern countries are today.

If anyone has a problem with how I write any character - disabled characters, trans characters, characters of color - you are more than welcome to message me. It’s an opportunity for me to be a better writer, be a better person, and to put better things into the world.

#grin and bear it #instructions not included #jay descendants #jafar descendants #jasmine descendants #My writing #important #l-herz #asks

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inmyarmswrappedin · 4 years

Note

Now that Nora's season is coming to end, what are somethings that you want for amira's season

Hi 😁 I bet you thought I’d never reply to this ask! Well, after you sent this in MARCH, I am finally posting an answer.

Btw, I did the same for Nora’s season, and as a note, I’m a white European and an atheist. If any of this is offensive or not my place to say, I preemptively apologize.

1) I would like for Amira's arc not to be about being Muslim. That is, Cris' arc isn't about being bi, it's about learning (and accepting) that she's more than the fun friend. That she has and can offer more to the people in her life. Nora's arc isn't about being a feminist, it's about not being so set in your first impression of someone that you don't notice red flags or don't notice them trying to be better people. Same with Eva and not being defined by her mistakes, or about Viri and her financial situation. And I would like the same for Amira.

2) I think one common denominator of all Sana seasons so far is that they've shown the mains doing something that people assume hijabi can't do when it's more like they're systematically excluded from participating. For Sana, it was basketball. For Imane, it was dancing. For Amira M, it was boxing. I joked on twitter that Amira N's thing should be binging TV shows and eating junk, proving that hijabi are really like anyone else, but on a serious note, I'd like for Amira's thing to be photography (and maybe modeling? since Amira's friend was taking pics of her).

3) A scene where Amira explains how she can be a feminist and a hijabi both, just so we as a society have that scene to point to when the question inevitably comes up again. Seriously, I feel like that's one of the questions I most often see people asking Hajar.

4) I want the association girls to have their own youtube channel. Or at the very least, their own instagram and/or twitter account. I would love for them to post memes punching up about their experiences.

5) I feel like, much like with trans narratives, there's this "acceptable" narrative for hijabi in mainstream society, which is: the character made the decision to cover after coming up with solid reasons to do so. I.e. she made the decision early and can defend it with inarguable rebuttals. It's like women can't be trusted unless they know 150% what they're doing, be it covering, or dating a girl, or going vegan, or any number of things. I really appreciate that Amira started covering just because it felt right, and she's finding meaning in it after the fact. I would like for this to be a thing in her season, that she's still figuring herself out, that she's not already an Islamic scholar.

6) I also think that's what makes her stand apart from the other Sanas. I feel like (maybe with Zoya's exception), none of the other Sanas would entertain a crush on a white guy. They'd have never drunk or flirted (like we know Amira used to do). It's like they're not allowed to fuck up, or can only fuck up in acceptable ways, like engaging in a flirtation with a non Muslim only because they didn't know he wasn't a Muslim, or had booze at home, but it wasn't theirs, etc. I'm hoping that they've made Dani a love interest specifically to explore this idea (and not because they wanted to whitewash a character or give less time to an actor of color).

7) On that note, SKAM Hajar brought up an idea that, because the hijab makes them super visible, hijabi are perceived as ambassadors of Islam, expected to be able to answer any question about Islam, but also that people will judge all Muslims based on whatever mistake they individually make. I would like for a potential bench scene to allow Amira to say that it puts major pressure on her to feel like she can't make any mistake, because every Muslim will be judged based on her making a mistake, having a shitty day, being in a bad mood, not wanting to be Muslim wikipedia that day, etc. That sometimes she just wants to be Amira, not Islam personified.

8) I would like for Dani's character to represent not just white society, but also childhood, the safe choice, the choice her parents would love, and for Sofian's character to represent not just Moroccan culture, but also like... SEXY risk, independence, novelty... Because I feel like when I see Muslim girl/Muslim boy/white guy love triangles in fiction, the Muslim guy is positioned as the boring choice (but still incredibly wrong because he's abusive or maybe even secretly gay and forced to beard by his parents), the safety, the guy you'd bring home to your parents, whereas the white guy represents independence and carving your own path away from your parents.

9) Just once, I would like for a Muslim character to say, "what do you think of Catholic priests abusing kids?" to someone asking them what they think of such-and-such Muslim majority country doing such-and-such to its citizens. Bonus points if it's Sofian's character.

10) I would like for Dilan to get an insta and a storyline. And for that storyline to connect to Amira's.

11) In general, I would prefer that parents be kept to a minimum (not to get rid of them entirely, of course, but to be kept at the level they've been in other Sana seasons). I just have never thought the point of Skam was the parents. And I get why they have a larger presence in a second gen kid, but I, personally, am more interested in what they represent in the main's life, rather than in giving them a lot of face time.

12) And, on that note, if they do with Amira what I've outlined above, I don't think there's a necessity for Amira to have siblings. Particularly if eskam isn't going to continue after this season. I think it'd be far more interesting if Amira's character contained the elements of figuring her identity as a Muslim living in a Western country that Elias, Idriss and Essam had. (And maybe that way Dani is both Yousef and Elias, stealing not just one role for an actor of color, but two! lmao)

13) I really hope that the obligatory evak s4 side plot be kept at a minimum tbh. I'm really not interested in a) Eloy coming back to cause drama, b) Amira's friend causing croana drama because she's Joana ex or whatever, c) a physical fight breaking out because of (perceived) homophobia.

14) I want Amira to tell Cris that amiris es lo más real que hay. 😭 I would love it if, as a parallel to Cris' season, Amira doesn't tell Cris about her interest in Sofian's character at first because she's afraid of her reaction, only for Cris to be supportive of whatever she chooses to do.

15) I would be so fucking happy if eskam adapted the "is your faith stronger than your lust?" scene in this season. I have always wanted to love that scene, because how often do you get a scene where two girls get to talk that long and that much (even in Skam most of the iconic dialogue scenes between just two people aren't between two girls in the squad), but I just haaaated the purpose of the scene in Skam.

16) I would cry buckets if we got a scene like Det Beste fra Islam where Amira and Sofian's character both talk about what Islam means for them. Particularly if Sofian is introduced as not the Perfect Muslim Man, but it turns out he has THOUGHTS about religion.

17) And, finally, I would love for the unquestionable villain of the season to be a white guy. If the villain is going to be a woman, then I would want her to be Cris' mom, not a high school aged character. Not because of white feminism yayyy! but because I think the major issue Sana seasons have run into before is that the showrunners want to touch on white girls being the problem, but they also don't want to villainize white girls. So we have stuff like Sana inviting Sara and Ingrid (of all people!!) to Eid, Imane apologizing to Ingrid (of all people!!), random one clip white women attacking Amira M (and the Kiki/Amira friendship of course), etc. I'd just rather they didn't have girls doing shitty stuff to Amira N, if they're going to go back on it. Which they inevitably would, because eskam's overall message is sisterhood.

Bonus clips

18) I would love it if Skam España was like, "you thought we were dropping storylines left and right? Nope!" and resolved long standing mysteries like who was behind Eva's hate ig, who had the pills, who outed Cris to the school, who's the owner of the keys that were left behind at GSC, and so on. Will die if it turns out to be Ramón!

19) I want Joana to get that job she wanted so bad last season!

20) I would love for Emma to show up and come out as a lesbian, just as a last hurrah lol.

21) I don't feel strongly about which couples should be endgame and not (other than not Dani/Amira hghvvh please), BUT in my most embarrassing fantasies, I want Skam España to hire Alejandro Reina's irl boyfriend to play Lucas' boyfriend for the finale. Not because I can't separate fiction from reality or anything, but because when I thought Lucas would be getting a season, I wanted his boyfriend to be a poc, and I was highkey buttmad that they hired random white bread when they could just as easily have hired a poc.

22) I think it would be really cool if Inés got a clip on her POV, but I don't think we're going to get it. I think all bonus clips will be from the squad's POV, i.e. Eva, Cris, Nora and Viri. Not even Joana.

23) I want a Mallorca special or episode so bad, and I will be so FUCKING ANNOYED if we don't get it. Seriously, I can't imagine the team didn't feel betrayed when they watched Skam for writing purposes, and didn't get their russetide. So they should know how angry we would be if we didn't get even a little bit of Mallorca time.

#ask #skam españa #I am literally unable to be concise it's just not in my blood #long post #comicluke #I used to always say that I wanted them to feature the m-30 mosque in amira's season #and they're doing that!! so yay!

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woeismyhoe · 4 years

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Not at all?? It bothers me so much how they potrayed the Tibeten culture. Many natives have complains about the potrayal of water tribes. How in one episone One of the air tempel was mordanized and aang’s was right to be angry about it but the show made it look like we should forgive and embrace modernity??? I just don’t get it. Them not havjng a single main SA character is problem when they borrow so much from hinduism

It’s called borrowing elements from cultures. Just because you recognize some parts of your culture in a show doesn’t mean it’s LITERALLY the culture. It’s called inspiration and A LOT of fictional stories do this to share other cultures and bring unity. The Northern Air Temple was modernized because it was necessary for survival and progress. If you had a way to improve something, why wouldn’t you? That’s how our world developed in the first place. If you’re in a situation for survival, you won’t care about being ‘insensitive’ or ‘disrespecting’ something. That’s already long gone. The episode’s moral story was to understand what needs to come first during a time of war and refuge, not about embracing modernity.

And just because they borrow Hinduism doesn’t mean they’re obligated to have a SA main character. That is ridiculously entitled to dismiss a story just because there isn’t a main character from a certain race. Again, I don’t know why this has to be even said, but ATLA isn’t about race or representation. So many people try to keep making everything about race and representation that they don’t even bother to look at what the story’s about. Real life religions don’t exist in the avatarverse. It‘s literally a fictional world. Fictional worlds ARE made up from various different cultures and religions. THAT is how fictional universes are created.

What you and the rest are doing right now is called gatekeeping. That is you preventing ‘outsiders’ from understanding and sharing your culture unless it comes solely from your own people. The only reason for natives (and this I mean by those who actually grew up in their native countries and not just genetically native) to be offended is if their culture was portrayed in a negative light or disrespected, which the ATLA didn’t do at all. If you’ve been to Asia, or at least even the east, then you’d know that they love whenever foreigners dress in their traditional clothing or talk about their culture, or even positively mention something about their country that’s stereotypical, but acknowledged nonetheless because it’s so common. They take pride in the fact that something about them is known to the rest in the first place, that other people who didn’t even grow up in their culture, is interested about it.

I don’t know if people have noticed, but this gatekeeping mentality has mostly originated from America nowadays. Asians born in actual Asia don’t gatekeep anything. We welcome foreigners into our cultures instead of barring them. We don’t expect other countries to give us representation because that’s not a rule, but we don’t mind it if they do either way. As long as it’s not disrespectful, they’re allowed to do whatever they want.

Learn to tell the difference between a fictional world and reality. They coincide, but they’re not the same. If picking out elements from different cultures and elements is enough to be mad about, then the whole existence of anime should be ‘cancelled’ and Japanese people would be equivalent to white people for always borrowing cultures, folklore and even religions. Yet that hasn’t happened. And if oppression is going to be mentioned here, then lmao look up Imperial Japan and read what they did. And yet again, anime isn’t an issue because these countries know how to separate history and reality from fiction and just enjoy the story 🤷‍♀️

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