#treat poc horror characters better | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

figmentof · 1 year

Text

It didn’t even occur to me until anon brought it up, and now I’m going to make it everyone’s problem /lh (special thanks to @celestialsblues, @demolitiondyke and @transgenderpirate for helping me with this! ilysm)

If you are of the camp to believe in race-blind casting in that Ruibo Qian and Madeleine Sami (who are Chinese and Fijian-Indian respectively) are to play Anne Bonny and Mary Read in the same vein that Taika who is Māori plays Ed, please then also consider the lengths the show went through to make sure that Ed is explicitly a man of color. His backstory, the abuse his Māori mother suffered under his white father who he subsequently killed, his motivations of becoming a pirate is stated by Oluwande in 1x01 “[Jim and I] do this (piracy) because we don’t have any other choice”, the microaggressions that Ed clearly experiences from white people, and needless to say, the way Izzy treats him as nothing but a poster child of monstrous existence and even threatens his life when he dared to deviate from his violent persona-- all of this connects to him being brown.

If Anne and Mary were to be portrayed by two woc, then their entire story would have to be overhauled in the same way Ed’s was. But why bother going through all that trouble when Chinese pirates are part of pirate history? Why take yet another two well known white/western pirates and make them woc when Zheng Yi Sao is right there and has the same level of notoriety as Blackbeard in Asia? Now I’m definitely not insisting it has to be her, if the show wants to make Ruibo’s character an original Chinese pirate queen that would be splendid too! If we are to have lesbian pirates, why does it have to be the two women who we (and historians) have already heavily speculated to be sapphic? At this point it’s not about re-imagining white characters as poc but rather focusing on creating original roles for poc or incorporating lesser known pirates of color. This also goes without saying: all of the characters within the show are definitely informed by their race, poc or otherwise, so this sort of casting goes entirely against the message that the show has made thus far.

Now you may ask, but they re-imagined Ed (and to a lesser extent, Stede) so why can’t they do the same for Anne and Mary?

OFMD has been under valid scrutiny for using two existing historical pirates as their leads and subsequently making them not only queer, but deeply sympathetic people. This has lead to tone deaf behavior from fans who actively went to the graves of these two pirates who infamously participated in the slave trade to honor them. Their real life counterparts are racist, and in Blackbeard’s case, also a rapist. Regardless of how anachronistic OFMD is, and no matter how hard they’ve tried to distance their narrative of Ed and Stede away from the horrors caused by their historical counterparts, it’s still ultimately not the smartest decision David Jenkins and his writers could’ve made. Several bipoc have expressed that it would’ve been better had David said he was inspired by Stede and Blackbeard’s story and thus made original characters with different names if they really wanted to create a separate narrative. This is something that is constantly on my mind as a fan of color: the origin of this show wasn’t great. But what’s done is done, we just have to be cognizant of this fact as we enjoy this show going forward. One of the things the show did do right was actively create original OFMD flags as well as the new mermaid flag in s2 that clarified that the story they’re telling is a love story above all else (though that didn’t deter fans from getting tattoos of the Jolly Roger, sadly).

The show has made Stede to be an entirely original character that shares nothing in common with the real Stede aside from being white and born from wealth and abandoned his wife and kids. They have made it painstakingly obvious that despite us possibly witnessing Stede becoming more pirate-like in s2, he’s still not going to adhere to the traditionally toxic masculine norms that piracy has set and will do things in his own way (albeit he’ll be a bit more hardened and experienced compared to s1). Stede is obviously still white and the show doesn’t shy away from the fact that he has his own internal biases that he has to overcome as a white person, which is a huge part of his journey narratively along with navigating being a gay man. Compared to the villains (who are all white), he comes from a place of ignorance and learned behavior from the racist upper class society he was born in that he plainly aims to reject, which is one of the many reasons why he’s compelling.

Ed on the other hand, has this entire myth about him being this infamously vicious and terrifying pirate, but this legendary status is contrasted with the fact that he is a brown man. Now what the show chose to do with him is brilliant because we as the audience already have a preconceived notion of who he is based on our understanding of history. But then the show tell us, no, that Blackbeard you know is not this Blackbeard, our Blackbeard is a gay Māori man who truly does want to be a good person but is pushed into this role of violence. The show even made it clear that Ed hasn’t killed anyone aside from his abusive white father, and at the most only maimed people. He uses his wit and intelligence and the art of fuckery to make things happen for him, while the person who carries out all the dirty work (i.e. the violence) and builds upon the Blackbeard myth is Izzy, a white man. Ed despises the weight of his legend and the weight of toxic masculinity and senseless violence that comes with the responsibility of being Blackbeard.

Ed and Stede cannot and should not be disconnected from their races as it’s an integral point of the show, just as it is for the rest of the cast and even minor characters like the servants who are all poc. Taika constantly talks about how the show asks the question of “what does it mean to be a man?” and we’re getting more of that answer as the seasons progress. What if we had lesbian pirates who have a similar story but they’re not connected to western piracy? Instead have them have their own nuanced narrative that connects deeply to their ethnicity? In my opinion, making two woc Anne and Mary just seems reductive; and in a way, wouldn’t David and his writers be making the same mistake that bipoc have rightfully said they made with Ed and Stede?

#Our Flag Means Death #OFMD #my meta #this is really long lmao #my first serious lengthy meta triggered by getting anon hate. imagine that hahahaha 💀

173 notes · View notes

autismisaokay · 2 years

Text

Soo... Dead End Paranormal Park came out and it was exactly what was needed for this pride month and overall representation. And there are some serious neurodiversity vibes going on.

If you don't want spoilers I'm going to place this here.

1st off the main character is a fat trans boy who is voice acted by an actual transgender person.

There are some flat-out queer relationships hinting at possibly more in the future. CoCo Peru, Alex Brightman, Kody Kavitha, Emily Osment, and Patrick Stump are some of the voice actors! It has some of the best representations of sensory overload that I've seen. Overall great neurodiversity representation.

Lots of POC. The art style reminds me a lot of Hilda but it has Gravity Falls and Owl House theme. They flat out said it's a family-friendly horror cartoon when it comes to genre. I'm really hoping Netflix lets us keep this one and it goes on for five seasons. Or at least a second season. I loved how they dealt with the tougher trans issues and by that I mean they were calling out how "I get how loved one is older but they cannot treat someone this way." And how the creator put it and I paraphrase here "parents who think they are being the best allies but could be doing a lot better" I REALLY want to see how that develops. I loved seeing how supporting and caring the autistic girl's mom is for her child.

#actuallyautistic #actually autistic #autism #autistic #lgbtq #trans #dead end paranormal park #spoilers

76 notes · View notes

orlothegreat · 2 years

Note

Starting to wonder if Orlo's not in season 3 anymore? They're filming right now and elle's makeup artist (who's on set all the time) replied to sacha's post saying "Miss you being around." It kind of makes me think they killed him off :/ Idk, maybe Orlo left the palace or something? Or left and will be back next season? I don't see how they'd kill him off so early in season 3(like two episodes in) after his character development/exploring his sexuality last season. Also wouldn't think they'd kill off one of the only POC in the main cast? Plus what about his family/uncle/etc?

I really and genuinely doubt that Orlo is going to be killed off, because of the symbolic purpose he serves. He is more than just Catherine's best friend and most loyal confidante (even when tested by his own family, he didn't sway nearly as much as Marial or Elizabeth and never ever treated her the way Peter has). He is also still the (relatively) young man who sat weeping at Descartes and the idea of free thinking and progress in a royal library that was so old that it was covered in dust and cobwebs.

What do I mean by this? Well. ALL of the main cast stand for something more than who they are as historical individuals, which is why the show is justified in only being loosely historically accurate, While Marial stands in for Machiavellian selfishness, Archie for the corruption of virtue or principle, and Elizabeth as disillusionment and pragmatic survival. Meanwhile, ORLO is still the Conscience, capital C, a distinctly Russian archetype of the tortured intellect who Still Believes. One of my followers (please speak up if you see this!) is a Russian viewer who wrote a compelling analysis of Orlo AS Count Pyotr "Pierre" Kirillovich Bezukhov from Leo Tolstoy's iconic War and Peace: down to the point of being asexual-coded, having a conscience but also a very pragmatic fear of the repercussions of too-fast, too-drastic change, and wearing spectacles: which are also an archetype, of seeing but not acting. When the spectacles come off, after he has killed a man, Orlo changes, and so does the method by which Catherine acts: it becomes more violent, direct, and extreme.

Orlo, as a character, is a SIGNAL. He is the externalization of ONE SIDE (the honorable yet level-headed side) of Catherine’s internal struggle. And the ACT OF LOOKING is the primary way, literal and metaphorical, that he signals: hence the focus on glasses or no glasses.

So I think it's reasonable to judge Orlo's viability through the rest of this series BASED ON what he REPRESENTS, metaphorically. Do we still have a narrative NEED for "The Conscience," or perhaps better put, "The Original Hopes and Dreams of the Heroine"?

I would argue YES.

This show really relies on the Bakhtin Carnivalesque (basically, almost farcical vulgarity in order to democratize, humor as a weapon, a form of satire) to confer its message on viewers, but I think it also knows when to tether itself to more serious moments (which almost ALWAYS involve Orlo, or, if they're vulgar and humorous, ORLO is the one to look upon these actions aghast and disgusted).

A prime example would be in season one, when Catherine, previously promised efforts at variolation (early vaccination science, which ORLO suggested) to stop smallpox among serfs, stands watching in horror as their bodies are burned en masse across the field from Peter's palace.

Another example is when ORLO gets lost in the woods and had to face killing another human being for the first time, and how that action directly tarnished his principles, posing the narrative question to the audience: when is this violent act justifiable, if ever?

Still another, in season two, when ORLO tries to talk Catherine down from freeing all the serfs in a single day, knowing that even positive change must be incremental if it will last.

Season Two tested MY faith, both in Catherine and in the writers of The Great; I thought, LIKE ORLO, that there was going to be at least a brief moment of reveling in Catherine's victory.

Instead, Catherine was proven to be what she genuinely is--still a child, with ambition but no experience, making the fatal flaw of never listening to people who have valuable insight to offer, highly educated but still relatively sheltered, a player in a much bigger game of politics and rhetoric in a country that was never good at changing quickly for the better. We are shown unequivocally that Catherine is not yet ready to become the famous, lol, girlboss empress of European history whom we all know.

It's worth noting that The Great also uses a style of historical narrative that straddles the eccentricities of an unfamiliar epoch AND social issues that still echo with resonance everywhere today (censorship, misogyny in the "media," religious intolerance and bigotry, the danger of certain cultural hegemonies, etc etc). Another famous franchise that does this is Lin Manuel Miranda's Hamilton: which also never claims to portray these historical figures accurately (hell, Alexander Hamilton owned slaves!) BUT which uses them as--again--archetypes, larger-than-life caricatures of themselves, who stand in for ideas. They're almost allegorical that way. Orlo is no exception.

At first, like you, I was REALLY angry (I kinda still am LOL), and I couln't tell if this was deliberate, or if we were meant to be convinced, like Catherine, that Peter had really changed, and was really intent upon being a good husband and father. I was horrified by Catherine pulling AWAY from Orlo, who is, to me, Peter's narrative foil AS AN ARCHETYPE, not just as a character/individual. I was sad when Orlo said "I am for you, always, even when you don't realize it," and left.

However, I think that, by the end of Season Two, we're meant to see Catherine's slip into the illusion of domestic bliss and true love AS A VAST MISCALCULATION (the thing with Peter and her mom.....yeesh.... lol) and I think we are meant to see Orlo's absence BOTH literally AND symbolically, as idealism, conviction, and hope for positive change temporarily thwarted by a (well-meaning but headstrong and arrogant) young woman's very HUMAN need for someone to love and support her.

But he WILL be back, because the show is, after all, called The Great, and they don't mean Peter. And Catherine needs her conscience and her hope back to incarnate her own highest potential.

And if he dies, well, then, it’s possible, always, on any show, but what a bleak signal, or portent, that will be for the show’s endgame.

#meta #The Great #Count Orlo #Catherine the Great #Sacha Dhawan #Elle Fanning

37 notes · View notes

soloorganaas · 1 year

Text

Rivalry

HP Saffics Femslash February Bingo (@hpsaffics): outsider pov, inter-house relationship, poc character Femslash Fuckery Day 13: voyeurism/exhibitionism Fluffbruary Day 13 (@fluffbruary): whole, steam

nsfw

Hermione only went to the Quidditch pitch because she was concerned. Really - Ginny had been missing from the Common Room at all hours recently, and she knew she wasn't with Dean as he was there right in front of her being glared at by Ron. Hermione had been checking the library, and some of the more cosy classrooms, but she hadn’t found Ginny studying anywhere. She'd asked Luna, too, who told her Ginny was hunting for a lost snitch - which made no sense, but did trigger a new idea in Hermione’s brain.

She wasn’t sure what she expected. Perhaps that Ginny was preoccupied with extra Quidditch training, or just needed some peace and quiet away from Ron and Dean and the DA and really every other bit of madness going on. Maybe she’d hoped it - hoped it was something sensible, something that made sense.

She’d hoped it wasn’t something like this - Cho splayed flat against the changing room lockers, gripping desperately onto the metal as her legs buckled, sinking down further onto the red head between them.

Hermione gasped, loudly enough for them to hear and yet she couldn’t move an inch away. It couldn’t be Ginny, it couldn’t... but those were her Quidditch robes on the floor, those were her well-loved crimson leggings on the legs currently kneeling in front of Cho, those were her carefully woven braids that were damp from the steam hovering in the air.

“Fuck, yes, please Ginny,” Cho gasped, utterly unaware of anyone beyond the two of them in the room.

Hermione’s stomach collapsed in on itself in horror. How could Ginny do this, how could she...

Ginny moaned wantonly, tipping her head up and squeezing tighter at Cho’s thighs. Cho caught her gaze with a breathy smile, her flushed face full of disbelieving ecstasy. Hermione had never seen anyone look like that in her life.

“You taste incredible,” Ginny husked, her voice echoing off the tiles over Cho’s needy gasps.

Cho’s fingers clutched Ginny’s head desperately against her, her whole body beginning to tighten as she arched out. Her whines were getting shorter, higher - and that was when Hermione snapped from her reverie. She couldn’t see this, she never wanted to see this, she just needed to get out of here as fast as possible.

It was three days before Hermione snapped.

“You were out late again,” she said cooly, eyeing Ginny’s loosened braids and slightly shining cheeks from where she sat by the fire.

Ginny frowned, looking unimpressed at her tone. “I’m sorry, did we have plans?”

“No,” Hermione said prissily.

Ginny sighed. “Look, Hermione, we’ve talked about this,” she said, walking over to her armchair. “If you’re pissed about something you need to tell me.”

Hermione pursed her lips, and Ginny made an expectant gesture.

“Go on.”

“Were you with Cho?”

Ginny froze, blood disappearing from her cheeks only to rush back until they were burning.

“I - yeah, we were just - we were hanging out. Why?��

“By hanging out I suppose you mean having your mouth between her legs?”

Ginny swore underneath her breath. “Hermione, look-”

“How could you do that to Harry?”

“They’re not together!”

“They were!”

Ginny scoffed. “He took her on one abysmal date before realising he didn’t have the emotional capacity to deal with anything more than a teaspoon.”

“He still likes her!”

“He doesn’t own her!” Ginny snapped. “He should have treated her like a person, but he didn’t. So he lost any right to be relevant.”

“How do you think he’s going to feel when he finds out?” Hermione demanded.

“Are you going to tell him?”

Hermione blanched. “No - no, of course not. But-”

“But nothing! This isn’t his business. She’s my friend, I know her far better than he does, and I actually care about her,” Ginny said fiercely. “This is fun, and it makes her feel good - and there’s nothing wrong with that, especially this year.”

Hermione clenched her jaw, but there was nothing more she could say. Ginny was utterly convinced and she... she’d never come close to being in a situation like this before.

“I just don’t understand,” Hermione said more quietly.

Ginny’s face softened, but her voice was still sharp. “You don’t need to. You just need to respect that this is our business, not Harry’s, not Ron’s,” she said, with a roll of her eyes. “The world doesn’t actually revolve around them, when you step outside for a moment.”

Hermione blinked, and before she could find the words to reply, Ginny had already stalked off out of the room.

#hpsafficfebbingo23 #femslashfuckery #fluffbruary 2023 #femslash february #femslash february 2023 #ginny x cho #cho x ginny #ginny weasley #cho chang #hp

12 notes · View notes

steveharrington · 2 years

Note

But we’re not told WHY they’re vecna’d. There’s no reason why vecna targets traumatized teens EXCEPT to make it even more horror-movie-ish. Why do they get trash compacted like that specifically? It’s implied that’s how vecna a powers work but why? No idea.

The show has left so many unanswered questions already and this new element (vecna itself!) just over complicates everything

And I’m actually kind of pissed bc Patrick gets vecna’d and we know almost nothing about him. But stranger things… hates poc

I actually kind of hate Chrissy because of how differently she (pretty white girl) was treated from Patrick (black boy). And. her eating disorder existed SOLELY for exploitative purposes just to cause an emotional reaction it’s not something that adds to her as a character it’s just there to freak the audience out, meanwhile other REAL LIFE ACTORS are being forced to starve themselves for the roles. We get it eating disorders are scary good thing they’re not real! /s

Acting like this new girl will be important focusing on her ed only to kill her off in the most horrific way possible… i don’t like it it feels exploitative especially of a real world problem this show is absolutely complicit in spreading

We got a LOT less development for Fred than chrissy and didn’t fucking. Languish in such a triggering topic I think he was the happy medium.

Regardless the focus on traumatized teens with no other similarities was already so random they could have just picked literally anyone with no special backstory and it would have worked just as well? At the end of the day Chrissy ONLY matters as motivation for Jason, who only matters as motivation for Eddie ( and since Eddie’s death did nothing like. It didn’t seem like he was saving Dustin’s life or anything) who only matters to make Dustin kind of sad? She died for man pain except the ultimate man pain was for some guy she never even met

Chrissy isn’t a person or a character she’s a bafflingly written INTENTIONALLY TRIGGERING and misogynistic plot device with an outrageous amount of minute details they could have given to any of the real characters. They didn’t have to spend 10 minutes pretending she mattered only to beat her to death with a rock and then run over her a few times for good measure

well first of all i am no authority on the topic of whether or not chrissy's struggles with her ed were done correctly and therefore i will not speak on it because its really....not my place as someone who hasn't experienced that!

as for why vecna targets people with trauma specifically, i think it serves a greater narrative purpose and that's depicted best through max's arc this season. vecna's whole backstory as henry shows that he was obviously traumatized himself by brenner and when he appeals to chrissy, fred, and max he attempts to persuade them to just give up/join him/etc because it's easier than carrying on. he's using their trauma against them. and then when max is faced with this threat of losing her life to vecna, it motivates her to want to get better and want to stop isolating herself from lucas and the group, she literally says "i don't want to go, im not ready" and it kinda overall like. saves her life! vecna acts as a narrative tool to explore mental health and trauma and guilt. imo it's much much MUCH more impactful for our characters to overcome him through their bonds and their desire to live despite what they've been through than like.....killing a monster of the week

obv you dont have to agree with me and that's fine but i don't think chrissy is like...a misogynistic charicature in the slightest. like i said before i really don't think chrissy's treatment in the show was uniquely different than fred's or even max's. i don't really understand how chrissy's trauma was "languished in" any more than fred's? i feel like they got equal screentime and fred's vecna vision was just as brutal as chrissy's, even if they talked about two entirely different topics. and if im being completely honest (again not trying to be rude or demean your view of the show, but you did send this ask to me personally so im going to give my honest opinions back) i think referring to chrissy as a "plot device" and not a "real character" is intentionally reading the show in bad faith.

this season is a horror season. people die like they do in any slasher movie. i understand if the vecna plotline isn't for everyone because like yeah watching characters who are already suffering die very tragic deaths is hard! but i think the point of vecna like i said before is to personify trauma, guilt, and shame to allow our characters to overcome those feelings. chrissy's death worked both to establish what vecna does and to involve eddie. but i dont think that automatically makes her a "prop" or a "plot device" because she's given a personality, she's given a lot of thought and care from the actress, she's given people who mourn her. i think it was genuinely one of the sweetest moments in the whole show when eddie dedicated his little guitar solo to her because it showed that her death affected him and in motivating him to want to kill vecna and save his friends from her same fate, it had meaning

#sorry i feel weird for posting long asks disagreeing with ppl and i really am not trying to like Discourse or anything #i just love talking about the show and giving my perspective on it #i prommy im not going out of my way to argue or be defensive or anything i just feel like i should give my thoughts when someone asks #and if ive said anything here thats insensitive or out of touch PLEASE let me know #tw ed #anon #answered

25 notes · View notes

luxiferiicae · 1 year

Text

The fact that Haniyya is, absolutely, my most fleshed out and diverse muse by far ( besides say Yuujin ), and I feel like of i were to speak on her or try to push for more interactions that I'm deliberately being pushy and greedy?

What has roleplaying done to me? As someone that will sit and listen to every last female Muse's story, lavish them with attention, or pay attention to those muses that don't quite get as much attention as the rest for this that and the other reason, I am so likely to dig through a wishlist and give people things to make their day all the better that I don't even think to want or to try give myself.

Genuinely, what kind of things have I witnessed in my sixteen years of this shit that I felt I had to have her perfect and viable on every level in comparison to someone like say Deimos. Deimos is lovely and I love him, but he's literally man see shiny, man steal shiny, cat burglar go brrrr brrrr. The fact that I feel comfortable in making this weird and just barely not a throw away character at all, and feel right as rain that he's a fucking fever dream, is wild. I could never do that for a woman muse and I'm just now processing this fact as we speak. I cannot half-ass or not have a grand five step plan for them in comparison of the many stupid, bad, idiotic male muses I had one inkling of an idea for and still put him up as an option. And I feel like if I speak on this character, try to dangle her in front of people like a carrot, or think to suggest her to someone that I freeze up and have to ask myself if it is okay. I don't want to push people out of their comfort zones, but like it shouldn't. Women exist, I swear they do.

As someone who will never not have bisexual / pansexual characters, I don't want to limit myself or put myself in a box ANYWHERE, because I myself am very comfortably pansexual. And the fact that I have to put this in the context of shipping, when most people don't even want to ship, explains it all on why I have been psychologically conditioned to downplay how amazing both my female and other female Muse's have to be to feel even the slightest bit validated.

Don't even — by jove !! — don't even ask me how much worse it is when this muse is not only a female but a female of color. That's a whole can of worms that grows to encompass the entire umbrella of poc and is compounded upon when it's a woman. I have actual horror stories of people being driven off and downright belittled for wanting to roleplay these very repressed demographics, even as a poc themselves. As a black woman, I cannot tell you how agonizing it was to avoid certain stereotypes that are seen as harmful in a general sense, but exist in my space as something of a comfort. AAVE being one of them. It gets labeled harshly, but I can relax and be more myself when someone is clearly on the wave.

It is something someone like Nekoya ( being creole and from Louisiana ) or Yuujin ( because he is with Nekoya often and loves predominantly in Louisiana ) would very clearly be exposed to and would use, but I have to treat it as something that would only come forth when with the right kinds of people.

And that feels a little ick, I'm not gonna lie. All of it feels a little ‘ grimey ’.

#rant tw //#negativity tw //#i apologize but saw someone else speak on these topics and it got me in my FEELS #i feel like an old man on his lawn screaming at people as they pass by #pffft

9 notes · View notes

dilfdoctordoom · 8 months

Note

Absolutely just preaching to the choir at this point but like, I don't care I'm also going to complain LOL I cannot get over how it seems Gunn had a legit grudge against Gamora (and Mantis!!!) because the treatment of both of them feels so specifically targeted that you would think both characters broke into his house and kicked his dog or something. He's definitely not as dumb as the Snyder fans would have you believe, I know he reads the source material even if he ignores the majority of it, but I do not see how even if you ONLY read GotG 2008 that you'd come away with wanting to intentionally write the women like that, it's so unhinged.

I'd ask why the HELL Vol. 3 struggles so much with its WOC when he's shown to have the ability to Try and improve on this in his other work post Vol. 2 (Mind you i think The Suicide Squad also had issues with racism AND ableism- if it's supposed to be this commentary on the USA strong arming and trying to cover up their involvement with other countries, why is the film presenting it as a big joke that Bloodsport and Peacemaker are violently murdering these POC freedom fighters by accident? I know Gunn is a big horror nut and violence and an R rating blah blah blah but Maybe read the room. And don't get me started on everything with Polka Dot Man oh my god) but by now I think the Vol. 3 issues are because he just could NOT put himself mentally into the characters headspaces, like he literally couldn't relate to them At All so they just had to get these half assed resolutions at best or written out to never to return at worst. (other than Rocket, obviously, who even then ALSO suffers from the writing!! NO ONE TRULY WINS!!!)

I genuinely think the only reason the leading lady in Peacemaker (Leota, a black queer woman) didn't get treated like ass is because of Gunn's own comment that the character shares a name with his mother. Like, bruh. If the only way you can treat these characters with different backgrounds than you with the bare minimum of respect is because of vaguely nepotistic reasons or because you absolutely HAVE to relate to/project onto them, then idk what to even say 😵‍💫

This is a safe space to be mad about the treatment of women (& women of color specifically) in the Guardians franchise because god, it always just gets worse the more that I think about it.

(Random tangent: Like, you have Michelle Yeoh! The Michelle Yeoh! And she's just... cameo doesn't do anything doesn't ever appear again. My god if we're gonna force Gamora to be a Ravager at least bring her back).

There was some improvement in his DC work (though definitely not in his treatment of disabled characters lmao that's a consistent shitshow). Ratcatcher felt like a person, didn't get needlessly fridge like I'd assumed she would. Harcourt and Leota actually feel fledged out. Leota especially as that's a queer woman of color... and now it's just cause she has the same as his mother lmao.

Guardians 3 I think is the most disappointing movie in the entire MCU because I just fundamentally do not buy these resolutions for these characters. Peter's going back to Earth? Awesome, but he already did that. Rocket's fine with everyone leaving? Strange since for them, they were dead for five years.

What happened to Gamora and Mantis goes beyond Gunn's favoritism like he was so casual about killing Gamora... leading woman of color, and he talks constantly about how he just wanted to kill her, that's, uh, that's not great.

Mantis drives me crazy because you could not convince me that that man has read a single comic starring her. How do you adapt someone so horrifically? Comic Mantis isn't great, nor am I ever gonna claim she is, but she's still somehow better than the MCU depiction.

#q & a #kicking gunn in the face as we speak

3 notes · View notes

emletish-fish · 2 years

Text

Unconscious Bias, Cobra Kai and Miguel ‘the bully.’

When I was doing my teacher training, there was a huge emphasis on equity in education. I went to an inner city, ‘woke’ university - a veritable leftie snowflake hive of higher knowledge. My cohort was diverse with many nationalities, cultures, and LGBQTA students. We all wanted to change the world for the better. So we figured we were all going to ace this equity thing.

The first lesson we were asked to watch a video of a classroom discussion, and raise our hand when we felt the POC students were having equal talking time to the white students. Hands were raised. The lesson moved on and we discussed the ways in which POC students are held to higher standards than their white counterparts, both behaviourally and academically, and ways we can combat this injustice.

At the end of the class, we returned to the original excerise, and our lecturer revealed that most of us had put our hands up around the 15 - 20 % POC talking time. When POC students were talking 15 % of the time, we leftie, woke, tolerant, racially diverse trainee teachers assumed equality. We were holding the POC kids to a different standard.

The gasp of horror and surprise was audible, because none of us wanted to be racist.

But that wasn’t the point of the excercise.

My lecturer wasn’t doing this activity to call us all racist and make us feel bad - but because the best way to tackle an unconscious bias is to become AWARE of it. The moment you become aware of an unconscious bias, it is no longer unconscious. (The second time we did the activity, hands were raised at the 45 - 50% point of equal speaking time. This activity helped us all become better teachers by demonstrating our own unconscious bias back to us.)

The first step to solving a problem is always acknowledging it exists.

Unconscious Bias is present in all fandoms and the way they treat POC characters, but Cobra Kai has a very clear cut example in the ‘Miguel is a bully’ theory that has been circulating - so I am using that as an example. I am not saying that Cobra Kai has any more or less racism than other fandoms. I’m sure we would have all seen a POC character being held to a higher standard that a white character in our other fandoms. *ATLA and the way Katara was called ‘whiny’ for confiding in characters about the death of her mother springs to my mind.

Neither am I trying to imply that anyone is a racist with this post. I genuinely think people are unaware of the unconscious bias against POC that they are perpetuating in the ‘Miguel is a bully’ theory... and the best way to tackle unconscious bias is awareness, so...

It is important to take note of two things.

1 - Miguel is the only POC from the main kids.

2 - Miguel and Robby are presented as narrative equals, and mirrors. I have written about Robby and Miguel’s mirror storytelling here). Equal weight and importance is given to both of them story-telling wise. They have an abundance of in text similarities which are deliberately highlighted so that we see how alike the two boys are.

Now, I have talked about bullying in general and restorative justice here, and why Miguel specifically is not a bully here, and here and here.

What I want to talk about today is why the framing of the argument in underpinned by unconscious bias.

So ‘Miguel is a bully’ theory boils down to the idea that Miguel is solely responsible for escalating the school fight, and Miguel said 2 mean things to Robby during the school fight and this is equivalent to emotional abuse.

I feel like some of us will be able to see the double standard already.

The School Fight is a real group effort, with everyone playing their role. Every single kid participates in it. Miguel, as the only POC, being held entirely or mostly responsible is such a perfect example of a POC character been held to a much higher standard that his white counterparts. It is textbook unconscious bias.

Whilst every single teen does something questionable or escalates the fight, For this theory to work, it has to be Miguel’s fault. So Miguel a singled out, and the blame is placed solely on him. (Not Tory who started it, or Hawk who blocked Sam’s exit and egged Tory on...)

To blame Miguel above all other characters is bias because this situation is at once Everyone’s fault, and it’s also Nobody’s fault.

It was an insane situation that escalated completely out of control. The expectation that Miguel remain completely calm in an incredibly volatile situation, and wave his hands and just... magically stop the fight (something not even the adults/teachers are able to accomplish) - and then to lambast him for failing to do this impossible task is not fair to him at all in the slightest.

It was not Miguel’s sole responsibility to stop the school fight. The expectation placed on Miguel here is completely unreasonable and not something that is expected/demanded of his white peers.

(Honestly, Tory’s annoucement would have triggered an immediate lockdown in any school I’ve worked in. If anyone is responsible for keeping the kids safe, it is the staff’s responsibility - not Miguel’s.)

Miguel’s taunts during the school fight being framed as emotional abuse is another case of this unreasonable double standard.

Miguel does something that all the kids do - trash talking in the heat of the moment. Yet only Miguel is accused of bullying as a result.

(And this show has actual bullies. Characters who are written directly and obvious and frequently bullying others, right in front of our salads. Yasmine, Kyler and Anthony all engage in sustained bullying campaigns against their victims on screen.)

Now, Robby is Miguel’s opponent in this. I think it is important to note that every thing Miguel does, Robby will ALSO do at one point or another throughout the show. Robby will also escalate a brawl. Robby will also cruelly trash - talk Miguel. Yet I have never seen Robby accused of bullying.

(Probably because, just objectively, none of this behaviour is considered bullying. for goodness sake, neither of these boys is bullying each other.)

So it has come to pass that Robby is given a pass for an action, and Miguel is accused of bullying for the exact same action.

It is the double standard used against Miguel that is the problem with the whole argument.

And it seems likely that Miguel is held to this standard because he is a POC.

That double standard means that every bad thing Miguel does is considered 800x worse and conversely, every good thing he does is lessened and considered unimportant. Miguel is required to do impossible tasks, like completely stopping a school wide brawl, and then ridiculed for failing.

But in the show, Miguel is just a kid.

They’re all just kids.

They’re kids in awful situations.

Let’s give them a break.

#Cobra Kai meta #Emletish Rants about Cobra kai #Miguel Diaz #Unconscious Bias #It's something we all have to become aware of and unlearn #but it's tricky because it's in our subconcious #anyway I hope that by pointing it out we can have less of it #The point of this meta is not to accuse anyone of racism #but merely to point out the racist framework underpinning some theories I see floating around #Honestly it's a problem in every fandom #the stuff about katara in ATLA was awful #but I've never seen such a clear cut example that Miguel is a bully #I think it's because he and Robby are narrative mirrors #they both do the exact same shit #like the exact same shit #and they are framed as completely equal #So when Robby gets given a complete pass for an action #yet Miguel is accused of bullying for that exact same action #it makes the unconscious bias kinda impossible to ignore #Tory Nichols #hawk cobra kai #Robby Keene

35 notes · View notes

funnefatale · 3 years

Note

Why was Bly manor racist?

all the poc characters are flat, surface level characters who are all, more or less, defined as selfless and don't get to be complex and messy and selfish the way white characters do. the treatment of Black women is especially horrible.

Rebecca is the closest we see to a messy character and that's mostly because of her proximity to Peter, and most of her character plans/motive are tossed away to prop whatever Peter wants despite him being literally the worst boyfriend ever.

Hannah's husband leaving her and then being "saved" by Charlotte and Hannah feeling indefinitely indebted to her and Bly Manor is literally white savior shit about how the Black employee should be loyal to the white billionaire above herself???

Hannah and Owen's love story doesn't get the same respect that Dani and Jaimie do. Owen never even gets to find out that Hannah loved him all along. They never kiss or hold hands or do anything beyond some light flirting.

Don't even get me started on Rebecca, a Black woman, being in an abusive relationship with Peter, a white man, who blows up on her when she so much as interacts with Owen.

PLUS (and this is where the major spoilers come in)

Hannah and Rebecca both have super traumatic deaths! Rebecca trusts Peter and he literally walks her body into the lake so he won't be alone and she continues to talk to him??? Hannah gets pushed down a well by (a possessed) child and fucking cracks her head open? Like what the fuck.

Compare that to Charlotte who dies off screen while trying to fix her marriage. Or to Dani who gets to have a fucking decade with Jaimie where she lives and loves and gets married and travels. Dani and Jaimie get to have a life together, and yes it's cut short, but Dani gets far more life and agency than Hannah or Rebecca ever did, both of whom don't expect their deaths and die more or less alone.

Not to mention, after all that, the narrative goes out of its way to quite literally say that Hannah is forgotten and that's a good thing because it's better for the white kids? After everything about her was so tied to that family and that Manor, they don't even fucking remember her.

It's just exhausting. It's the same old horror shit that treats poc like shit (66% of the poc die!! 66%! 100% of the Black women die traumatic deaths!!!) and I'm mad literally no one is talking about this.

#the haunting of bly manor #hannah grose #rebecca jessel #owen sharma #bly manor spoilers #tv: bly manor #anti black racism #racism

561 notes · View notes

samisadeangirl · 3 years

Note

You as well as I know very well that “woke” is just the latest dog whistle that people use when they really mean anything that isn’t straight and white. I agree that it is a far cry from being a n*zi and that list is absolutely wrong, defending conservatism by claiming reverse racism is ignorant and you really should do better. Don’t sell your soul for this fandom because as a whole, it treats POC like we’re not here. Hellers are awful miserable people but the rest of fandom really is just making it easier for them to claim bigotry with constant complaints of wokeness because let’s be honest. We know what they mean when they say it.

Hey Asshole Anon,

That may be your OPINION, but when I use "woke" (specifically with the dick-quotes), I'm referring to SJWs who make a big deal about supposedly caring about legit issues without doing anything substantive just to get online brownie points and/or due to an agenda--and I'm sure there are plenty of others who have similar opinions as well. Others who complain about "wokeness" don't like the PC trend of including women, POC, queers, etc. simply to check off boxes and/or of cancelling anyone who doesn't agree with them. YOUR assumption that it's because they're racist, homophobic, misogynistic, etc. is precisely what gives wokeness a bad name.

As for some of your other "points," being conservative isn't a bad thing and certainly isn't the same as being bigoted. People are conservative for any number of reasons, and that doesn't make them terrible people. I'm a progressive liberal and disagree with conservatives on just about everything, but I'm not going to lump them all in with diehard Trumpers, Nazis, white supremacists, and other bigots.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but reverse racism does exist. It obviously isn't a systemic problem like racism against POC, but we can't deny that there are POC who hate white people simply for their race, who blame whites as a group for various problems, and so on. Hate of ANY kind, whether toward a minority or group in power, is still wrong and doesn't help anyone.

As for the SPN fandom, you SJWs seem to miss the entire point, which is that this fandom is supposed to be about enjoying the show, not promoting social or political issues. SPN has never pretended to be about anything other than two cishet white males fighting monsters and saving the world. Complaints about SPN killing minorities are specious because it's a horror show that killed EVERYONE, including far more cishet white males than anyone else, and no character died due to their minority status. Sure, they did things early on that are pretty cringey now (like Dean calling Sam gay as an insult), but the show evolved with the times and got better. I agree that it would've been nice if there'd been more diversity in the major secondary characters, but in SPN's defense with the exception of Jack none of those characters (i.e. Bobby, Castiel, Crowley) were planned to be as important as they became (no excuse for Jack being another white dude though). SPN did however have plenty of women, POC, and/or queer characters who were important and/or powerful, including Chuck, Raphael, AU!Michael, Naomi, Crowley, Lilith, Abbadon, Dagon, Ellen, Jo, Rufus, Kevin, Charlie, Jody, Donna, Claire, Kaia, Patience, Max and Alicia Banes, and many more.

If you truly want to see social justice, then maybe look elsewhere than a genre show on a smaller network that never claimed to be trying to make any statements. And maybe stop accusing fans who are trying to enjoy said show and who may be minorities themselves of bigotry.

#asshole anon #fandom issues #sjw fail #spn is NOT racist #and neither is the fandom by and large #get over it #idiots on tumblr #the stupid it burns

16 notes · View notes

akajustmerry · 2 years

Note

Whats you like so much about werewolves? What are your favorite film/series portrayals?

hello! thank you for asking me this and giving me the opportunity to gush about werewolves 🥺

so i've just generally always loved shapeshifters since i was a kid. you know when you're like 11 and you come up with your own Very Cool Fantasy Novel Stories? Mine were almost always about someone who was a shapeshifter. I'd prefer not to psychoanalyse myself and go into why i personally loved those but part of it is certainly spiritual. I am Aboriginal and grew up with my pop and other elders telling me stories about our peoples' connection to land, and animals, how in the Dreaming we come from animals and become animals, etc. and that's not unique necessarily in that many cultures have shapeshifting mythos and i've always found that to be interesting too.

in mainstream media, werewolves are the most common animal-human shapeshifter. so, of course, i love them. i think its really interesting that for white people-werewolf stories, it's almost always a curse/horror. i've always been fascinated by how werewolfness in white people is treated as an affliction and almost always written as an allegory for disease/puberty. i grew up around the idea that animal transformation was often an honour, a great power. at worse, a punishment for breaking tribal lore, but still something bestowed by the land with meaning. but for white people, werewolfness is this senseless affliction.

i don't like the way werewolves are often pitted against vampires in popular media because when this happens its often written by white people who code werewolves as a lesser race, and often literally make them poc or make it a gendered battle. an obvious example is twilight, but also mortal instruments too, the underworld movies etc. i feel like werewolf inferiority is so deeply rooted in the fact that its cultures of colour that have shapeshifter mythos, and that vampires are so associated with European history that its really hard for any kind of werewolf v vamp story to not eventually devolve into eugenics.

this is the part where i admit to never having seen 'the originals' or 'teen wolf' tv shows and people call me a fake werewolf stan but to that i say, over my dead body would i ever watch anything related to the vampire diaries. as for teen wolf show? have you heard the way fans of teen wolf talk about teen wolf? i know one day i will probably give it a go, but not today, satan. not today.

my favourite werewolf portrayals are one's that tend to focus on werewolves as characters in their own right. american werewolf in London (1981) is an absolute classic! i didn't mind the being human series, giving the werewolf a nice comedic edge. i LOVE Stephen graham jones' book 'mongrels', one of my favourite books by a Native author ever. The Hemlock Grove novel is also really fun, much better than the series. Angela Carter's retelling of Red Riding Hood in the 'the bloody chamber' anthology is [chef's kiss]. Glen Duncan's 'the last werewolf' is soooo sexy. who SAYS vamps have the monopoly on the immortal existential crisis?

the best werewolf stories are about connection to the land, about viewing the land and animals differently to humans because they’re a part of you differently. that’s why i love werewolves cos its about transformation and how transformation gives you a deeper connection to nature.

anyways!!!! i actually wanna read/watch more werewolf media so if anyone has any recs i'd love to hear them 💕

#werewolves #anon

11 notes · View notes

mediaevalmusereads · 3 years

Text

The Alienist. By Caleb Carr. New York: Random House, 1994.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: historical fiction, mystery, suspense

Part of a Series? Yes, The Kreizler Series #1

Summary: The year is 1896. The city is New York. Newspaper reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned by his friend Dr. Laszlo Kreizler—a psychologist, or “alienist”—to view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy abandoned on the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge. From there the two embark on a revolutionary effort in criminology: creating a psychological profile of the perpetrator based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who will kill again before their hunt is over.

***Full review under the cut.***

Content Warnings: ableism, homophobia/transphobia, racism (including slurs), sexism, rape, abuse, child abuse and sexual assault, child prostitution, animal cruelty, blood, gore, violence

Overview: This book has been on my TBR list for a while, so I figured I’d finally get around to reading it. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the reading experience. Carr writes in a way that pretty closely imitates 19th century detective fiction, and while such a style might not be for everyone, I thought it went a long way in creating atmosphere. My criticisms have mostly to do with pace and the creative decisions that probably didn’t have to be made (such as depictions of child sexual assault, use of slurs, etc), but even with those faults, I have to give Carr’s craft and research a lot of credit, so this book gets 4 stars from me.

Writing: As I mentioned above, this book mimics detective fiction of the 19th century. If you’ve read any of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, you might get the idea: first person, characters displaying almost whimsical behavior, stuffed with contextual details that may or may not be relevant. At first, I thought the reading experience was going to be a slog, but once I realized what Carr was trying to do, I readjusted my expectations and found the prose to be quite engaging. If you like 19th century literature, you might appreciate what Carr does, but if you find older lit to be a challenge, this book might not be the thriller you’re hoping for.

That being said, I do think there were some areas where Carr could have picked up the pace or even cut some of the contextual details. It’s obvious that Carr did a lot of research before writing this book, and it’s understandable that he would want to show off some of that research, but there were times where I felt like it was a little much.

I also think there are a lot of things in this book that will offend modern sensibilities. I recall at least one use of the N-word (which is spoken by a racist minor character) as well as remarks that make it clear that characters think same-sex intimacy is “deviant” or abhorrent. I can understand why Carr put them in his book; if we’re trying to evoke an atmosphere and make the story feel like it’s set in the 19th century, it’s not realistic to expect everyone to be accepting of gay sex or treat POC with respect. But also, I think it’s on Carr to bear the responsibility of creating plot points and characters that have those attitudes in the first place. The character who uses the N-word could have easily not done so, and characters could have been more clear that their revulsion was at child prostitution rather than same-sex relationships.

Still, I was able to follow the plot with no problem and the sentences flowed in a way that made the reading experience feel quick (no 10-line sentences, thank god). So while there may be some things I would have liked to see adjusted to fit my own tastes, I think Carr did a wonderful job of making me feel like I was reading an older work.

Plot: The plot of this book follows a group of investigators as they try to use psychology to catch a serial killer. As far as being an “original” or unique thriller, this book doesn’t necessarily deliver a plot we haven’t seen before; but what made it so interesting (at least to me) was that it was less interested in the thrill of catching the killer and more interested in thinking through the “whys.” Why did the killer do X? Why did he do Y and Z when he could have done A or B? In this sense, the suspense doesn’t come from the action or the “chase,” but from the building of ideas and a foggy picture becoming more and more clear.

If I can fault Carr for anything, it’s that I think he crafted his mystery around some subjects that are... touchy (for lack of a better word). Most of the murder victims are children - specifically child prostitutes - and a lot of the killer’s motivations are rooted in some combination of racism and exposure to abuse. If you’re looking for a book which handles these issues with sensitivity, I think you’ll be disappointed. But I have to give Carr some credit for not overly sensationalizing these things; for example, while he did include characters who were racist towards Native Americans, he also included characters who were sympathetic and who insisted on not judging tribes for their defensive violence. Not everything is perfect, and there were some moments that made me uncomfortable, but I felt like Carr painted a complex picture of 19th century America, so I was able to keep going.

Characters: The plot of this book is told from the perspective of John Schuyler Moore - a newspaper reporter who teams up with his friend, eminent psychologist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, to catch a serial killer. As a protagonist, Moore isn’t overly compelling - he’s more like a neutral, blank slate that the reader can project themselves onto. He serves much of the same function as Watson in the Sherlock Holmes stories: to be a witness to other characters’ brilliance while occasionally making some helpful insights. Still, I didn’t outright hate Moore - he was kind and loyal, and I admired how he went out of his way to try to help people.

Kreizler, the psychologist (or “alienist” as they were called in those days), is somewhat of a Sherlockian character in that he’s eccentric, confident, and had abilities that stun the people around him. For the most part, Kreizler was fun to follow. I think the only times I got truly frustrated with him were when he would allude to some knowledge and then leave Moore in the dark - like “aha! This thing is obvious!” “What thing?” “No time to explain! I’ll tell you at dinner!” Those moments were a little irritating.

Sarah, the most prominent female character, was more complex than I expected her to be. She has clear career aspirations and doesn’t let anyone hold her back, and I liked that she was presented as this kick-ass woman who still felt human. She struggles when faced with the horrors of the murder, but she doesn’t let the horror put her off of her task. She’s confident and never seems to have a moment of self-doubt (which is refreshing). She notices interpersonal things without being boxed in as “the woman who notices emotions.” Granted, Sarah does serve some token function - she’s brought on in order to provide a “female perspective,” which was a little frustrating, but she held her own so well that my annoyance melted away.

Marcus and Lucius, the two brothers who work for the police department, are also quite charming characters. I loved how they brought technical expertise to the group by being knowledgeable about anatomy, fingerprints, photography, and the like, and I especially enjoyed the way they bickered with one another. Their presence immediately made scenes feel lighter, and they brought something of a family aspect to the whole band.

Supporting characters were well-crafted in that no two felt quite the same. Teddy Roosevelt (yes, that one) was cheerful and warm while still demanding absolute cooperation and loyalty from his men. Cyrus and Stevie - two of Kreizler’s employees - were charming, though I wish Cyrus had gotten to do more than just kind of silently stand by awaiting orders. Mary - Kreizler’s maid - was a lovely character, and I appreciated the positive disability representation we got with her, though I do not like how her character arc ended and how it related to the main plot. The crime bosses were intimidating without feeling too much like stock characters, the thugs did their job. I don’t think there was a character that was poorly written, just characters who served purposes that may or may not have been needed.

As for the murderer... we don’t get to see him very much, but I felt like I got to know him because so much of the book was focused on mapping out his life and psychology. It worked much better than books where the antagonist is looming off to the side, acting as a vaguely threatening force but not really a character, and one that doesn’t even show up until the last quarter of the book. When the killer finally does appear on page, I felt like he had been involved in the story, even without being physically present, so I was able to accept him as an active force on the narrative, not just a surprise twist at the end.

TL;DR: The Alienist is a well-crafted mystery that uses atmosphere and psychology to create an engaging mystery. While some readers may struggle with the period-like prose or the more disturbing aspects of the story, Carr creates a compelling narrative by focusing on understanding and knowledge over spectacle and action, and by using well-developed characters.

8 notes · View notes

fastlikealambo · 4 years

Text

haven’t done one of these in a while but here are my thoughts on episode 8 of lovecraft country:

I’m very happy and sad that they covered emmett till. I wasn’t taught about what happened to him in school but because my father is a retired black literature professor he made damn sure I knew who he was from an early age.

for a group of people supposedly looking for dee they sure as fuck did a shitty ass job looking for her. I mean diana showed up outside leti’s house looking scared to death, practically gasping for breath and all leti did was tell her to go get some water and get in the house? I love leti but you couldn’t spare two minutes to sit down with a scared child who’s father was murdered, her mother is missing, and her friend was murdered ???

I know tic is going through A LOT but he did not have to treat ji-ah like that especially since HE’S BEEN CALLING HER. SHE CAME ALL THE WAY TO WARN YOU,POSSIBLY SAVE YOU, AND YOU TELL HER TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF A HOUSE YOU DON’T EVEN OWN? He is a messy flawed character that I love so much but his rudeness was absolutely uncalled for. even leti was nice to ji-ah and she didn’t even know her.

montrose is another character that is growing on me, he’s flawed, he’s done awful shit but he’s trying to be better. I think it’s easy to judge him and hate him under a 2020 microscope but this is a black closeted gay man in the 1950s born into violence who only knew violence so that’s all he could pass down. he’s trying, what he did to Yahima was disgusting there’s no way around that but he’s trying.

so let’s get to ruby. she’s such an incredible character and I’m so worried for her, especially her relationship with christina. I know christina is using her in some way but I think they both have some feelings for each other. IF YOU DON’T WANT ME TO SHIP THIS THEN THEY NEED TO STOP LOOKING AT EACH OTHER LIKE THAT. I do want to see ruby have more of a plotline that doesn’t have to be tied to leti or christina because ruby is a fantastic character.

WHERE IS HIPPOLYTA? I SWEAR TO GOD IF DIANA DIES I’M SUMMONING MY OWN MONSTER MISHA GREEN.

At first I didn’t understand why they showed christina being beaten like that but this is my theory: it wasn’t really about christina wanting to feel what emmett till felt for ruby, it was showing the horrors on a white body so people couldn’t look away. misha green is very smart with her usage of christina, she knows people often will focus on the only white character in a poc-lead show and instead of subjecting a black actor to recreate this horror, she chose christina, blonde hair blue eyed christina to endure the pain of emmett till, whose murder a lot of people would like to keep in history and pretend like that time over. it’s far from over.

what I love the most about lovecraft country is that it gives black characters and characters of color the space to exist in joy, shame, sorrow, anger, desperation, all of it. all of these characters have flaws and when you allow characters to have flaws and truly exist, then they become real.

big shoutout to the dancers who played topsy and bopsy. I slept with a light on but didn’t they kill that choreo?!

#lovecraft country #leti lewis #Atticus Freeman #ruby baptiste #diana lewis

114 notes · View notes

paragonrobits · 3 years

Text

i will see people tlaking about how Marvel isn’t that deep and I know what they actually MEAN and the current series have problems and the MCU is, fundamentally, a Disney cash cow iwth all the problems and marketing focuses that implies, but it’s difficult to see that and NOT instantly gush to Immortal Hulk to them.

you want depth?? you want character?? you want a complex story musing on fighting corruption in corporations, the nature of monstrosity, the fear of the parts of yourself you don’t want to admit are there? POC characters insisting to the titular monster that they don’t get to be angry like him or to do what they want with it, and he agrees with them?

you got the ambiguity, the recurring question of whether our hero is truly a man, doing what he thinks is best... or a monster, destroying the world he knows to make himself feel better and trying to put a pretty face on it.

You got big name quotes that summarize the tone of each individual issue, ranging from remarks on the nature of evil.

you got issues exploring the idea of a ‘devil’, both tempters working to destroy the world, and prosecutors demanding that their targets lay out a defense. And here the Hulk’s actions raise the question: Which is he? A satanic horror bent on annihilation, or the monster the world deserves, laying out its sins and asking that they be accounted for? He is terrifying beyond measure.. but his hand is a merciful hand.

You got profoundly inhuman aliens in another universe, reproducing in polyamorous trios, with free floating manipulators and completely inhuman bodies, treated with respect and dignity and sorrow.

Immortal Hulk is, top to bottom, an absolutely fascinating story laden with cosmic horror and its like the good things that people would want in modern Marvel writing has been condensed into this one story.

#hulk #immortal hulk #marvel

13 notes · View notes

when-did-this-become-difficult · 3 years

Text

The Dev Patel thing though. I don’t think his recent casting as a lead in David Copperfield and The Green Knight are particularly signs of him being used as a token, or that his casting in those is a bad thing. Should there be more non-colorblind historical stuff available for people of color to act in? Yeah absolutely. It’s a real shame that a lot of historical movies involving people of color boils down to horror porn, or else is picked apart to pieces because it’s being held to a way higher standard than historical fiction about white people.

But the way things are right now, “adaptation of classic very white English canon” is a very lucrative part of the English moviemaking business and allowing people of color to compete for those roles is a good thing! If we go back to the days where it was strictly “period appropriate” aka white no matter what (even in historical movies in which having POC would be actually period appropriate) that’s gonna negatively impact the roles available to POC by quite a lot. And I have to say, King Arthur and Charles Dickens are part of the like foundational mythology and culture of the uk, and I think they’re treated as such, so I see it as a positive that people of color are being included in that.

And fuck, even if there are one day a ton of historical movies in which people of color are playing people of color, even if that was no longer an issue, if I was an actor, right, I’d still want to swing a big axe around in the woods pretending to be an old timey knight from King Arthur’s days.

“If it works for the story, or I feel like I can bring some truth out of this role or embody it well, then that’s what it should come down to” is literally the approach that Armando Ianucci took to casting him in David Copperfield—he’s said in multiple interviews that he cast Dev not as a stunt but because he felt nobody else could do a better job. It’s true that sometimes POC are cast just to fill a box and then they’re treated like shit (see: Nicole Beharie in Sleepy Hollow), but sometimes they’re actually given an opportunity to flex their muscles and do good work in a creative environment that respects them and their character, and that? Is a good thing. Dev Patel in David Copperfield is a good thing.

#dev patel #I did not post this to start shit it’s just something I’ve been thinking about #like even if hypothetically we lived in a dream world in which I was raised with Cantonese as a child #and knew all kinds of Chinese history and myths #I’d probably still also know some King Arthur stuff #and I’d still really enjoy seeing some Asians getting their old timey sword on #I *LIKE* getting included in that kind of thing #and I think that the recent move towards colorblind casting in this stuff is genuinely helpful to actors of color #who need the exposure

13 notes · View notes