#with asian languages (not just east asian but all asian languages) you can't even read what it says if you don't know it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

norwegianfantasia · 1 year

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How to support international stories coming out in English!

I've seen many English speakers ask when they see something not out in their language commenting "Will it ever come out in English?" "[…] Can't wait for for it to be available in English :) I bet it will be a success! 🎉" "I'm having a hard time finding these in English - are they available anywhere?" "I hope your books comes to the US! Looks cool!" "I've heard great things about your book! Is it translated to English? I was having trouble finding it, but I'd be interested in reading it ^_^"

Well, on their website Seven Seas Entertainment has a monthly survey where you can send in stories, this is seemingly the easiest way although you can only usually send in 4* a month/survey (which I won't link directly to as they are monthly and we are already at the end of April and I don't know when May's will show up, so just scroll down to it). So it can take a while, and preferably no repeats, so have a list you can check off those you have already requested. You can also ask people you know to fill it, or borrow their devices, maybe even use the computers at the library, airport, school, etc. You can also send in all the ones you are interested in to Dark Horse Comics for example, but in my experience are the ones replying to this email address on their Instagram account: contestATdarkhorseDOTcom to be much nicer although they don't really reply if they are considering the suggestions or not, nor do they appear to take regular novels which is a bummer.

There's also OniPress which are going to publish Snøkattprinsen, and Arctis who has published Ravneringene, and while claiming to bring the best from all over the world to the US have they mostly taken from their German branch's library (and seem to be mostly taking novels only, but you can try convincing them to broaden their horizons). There's Yen Press, which seems to be going pretty international or at the very least East Asian, as well as Scholastic and Penguin although the latter two might not take much comics/graphic novels compared to the comic and art book exclusive Dark Horse. Apparently these prefer suggestions done by tweeting at them, so this depends on you wanting to use twitter or not. But I'd avoid DC and Marvel as then the stories might have to become part of their established universes which might be difficult for the creators, and honestly unnecessary. There's also Tokyopop that was revived in English recently with Disney and GL&BL stuff, but with their history, do I not know if I want to trust them... Especially since they are proudly showing off the stories which rights they stole from their original underpaid creators...

Whichever you decide to go for, do I personally recommend pasting the urls from the links below or write them as "[story] by [author]" to make them easier for them to find, they are only human after all.

Picture from Alena Pons' Instagram

Want an inclusive story about a magical school that isn't written by a recist TERF? Or perhaps a comedy about monster children attending school and their shenanigans? Or about a non-binary ash elf and their dragon friend? Or about how a prophecy ruins the lives of the chosen ones as they have no choice how to live their lives? Then we have stories for you!

Arkin - Lysets Vokter 🗨️♿

Asynja📖

Born from Death 🗨️♿

El príncipe de la calamidad📖🗨️

Dinokid 🗨️🏳️‍🌈🖤

Dragens Øye🗨️♿🏳️‍🌈🤍

Donde los Árboles Cantan 📖

Krypto 🗨️🖤

Gryphoon 🗨️♿

Leyendas de Parva Terra🗨️

Mia Myhr og barna som forsvant 🗨️

MiniMonsters 🗨️♿

Mørkalven 🗨️♿

Mystical📖

Nidur🗨️

Nordlys 🗨️♿🖤

Oppfinneren 🗨️♿🖤

Phenomena 📖♿🤍🏳️‍🌈

Ragnarok 🗨️♿🤍

Royalty Witches📖🏳️‍🌈❤️

Strawberry Moon 📖❤️♿

Underbyen 🗨️

Under Regnbuen 🗨️🤍🏳️‍🌈

Urara🗨️♿

The Urban Legend 🗨️**

Valhalla🗨️♿

Ville Poter 🗨️♿

보지도 못하고 듣지도 못해도 사랑해🗨️❤️♿

외발로 살다🗨️🤍♿

Legend: 🗨️=comic/graphic novel, 📖=novel, 🏳️‍🌈=lgbtqia+ characters***, ❤️=romance is a central theme, 🤍=some romance but not the focus, 🖤=no romance what so ever, ♿=disabled character(s) in a good light (counts by @cannondisabledcharacters rules), (some may change the more I read or as the story continues).

Art by @cha-c-san

That thing from that country vs just another movie

So since 2012 has Innovasjon Norge where they gave money to fund an animation movie by a little unknown animation company known as Disney over a Norwegian series, that have continued doing that. So Norway's top 3 ways of making money are:

Oil

Tourism

Salmon

So because of the environment, they want to phase out the oil and find ✨𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔫𝔢𝔴 𝔬𝔦𝔩™✨. So first they tried increasing the salmon "farming", which led to fleas and birth defects. After the seemingly huge success of Frozen, they funded the side stuff and the sequel. Then they funded a Mission Impossible movie, to have a scene on Preikestolen, the scene was so brief and didn't really add anything to the movie so they had to beg so it wasn't cut. Then in one of the latest James Bond movies they funded it to pretend that a Norwegian mountain is in India. So why do they fund so many American productions? Well, to put it simply, tourism. If they sneak in a little of Norway into these, they hope people will want to go to Norway.

But not everyone watching know that Arendelle is based on Norway, and it goes over to being just another Disney movie doesn't it? The clip of Prekestolen, I haven't heard anyone mention that scene as standing out, honestly, I haven't heard anyone talking about that movie. The James Bond movie, they are told that beautiful mountain is in India, India has many beautiful mountains, but pretending that mountain is in India in-movie will increase tourism there, disappointed when they don't find it. So unless you read interviews or the credits closely, you probably wouldn't know that you were lied to. And if hopefully the pandemic taught them anything, do not rely on tourism too much!

So after a while they just become another movie among many others. But if they support a Norwegian story making it as big as they deserve, it'd be remembered among people as "that Norwegian thing" wouldn't it? This is why I want to support stories not only from my home country but also from others. Among the ✨𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔫𝔢𝔴 𝔬𝔦𝔩™✨ they've tried is timber, which Sweden is known for, and like oil, is finite. There's no end in creative people, and they deserve support. Here they get only 10% of what they poored their soul into while the publisher last time I checked get 70%. This the result of a print shop strike where as they only got 5%, where the boss took 90% of that and the actual workers got the remains. I don't blame the print shop workers, they deserved more. But that the publisher snuck in and took the hugest percentage, is just BS as they do the least (here at least, most authors have to advertise in their own free time themselves).

Vegetarian vampires done right, comic by David Ramírez

* This April one asked for at least 1 Manga from Japan exclusively, 2 Manga/Graphic novels/Comics from wherever, At least 1 light novel from Japan exclusively, and 2 any kind of novel from wherever. [edited in April: they want 1 manga from the 90s or older] [edited in by the end of January as they were asking for these specific genres then] For the manga and light novels from Japan: 1 fantasy/isekai manga and 1 light novel 🐉, 1 of each with lgbtqia+ topics, 1 of each with comedy🤣, romance, or drama🎭, 1oe action⚔️, horror👻, or supernaturalψ, 1oe with fanservice, smut, and stuff like that, 1oe from the 90s or older💾, 2oe Chinese (or Taiwanese or any other country they publish stories in Chinese probably), 1oe Korean 🇰🇷 (the two on the bottom of the previous list are Korean, will add some novels here), 1 Hiveworks Comic, 1 International web comic (will add some below the Korean novels), and 1oe international comic/graphic novel and novel.

If you don't read much manga but want to suggest any do I recommend (these have no "fan service") 五色の舟🗨️📖♿🏳️‍🌈🐉 (Goshiki no Fune , about a found family of Japanese disabled people during WW2 as they try to survive, none of the opposing forces are demonized and just they trying to live their lives), I S―男でも女でもない性🗨️♿🏳️‍🌈❤️ (IS - Otoko Demo Onna Demo Nai Sei, about different intersex people and their lives), 斉木楠雄のΨ難 (Saiki Kusuo no PSI Nan/The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. 🗨️♿🤍🤣ψ A comedy about a seemingly aroace guy with supernatural powers he takes all too seriously), 放浪息子🗨️🏳️‍🌈❤️ (Hourou Musuko, about trans children and their lives, not perfect but also sweet, had an English translation that was sadly dropped due to lack of sales), Ballad of a Shinigami 📖🤍♿ψ (one of the first light novels Seven Seas published, but was cancelled as it was in the years light novels and visual novels weren't taken as seriously in the west, hopefully we can uncancel it), もののけ草紙🗨️🤍♿👻 (Mononoke Soushi , well, it has some nudity but not pervy nudity. It's about a young girl Tenome growing up right before WW2 and as an adult during the war, it's a love craftian inspired horror manga with Japanese folklore and she's really badass, and even if you are a coward like me is the art, story, and characters stronger than the horror so you'd probably like it,

＋アニマ🗨️🤍♿🐉(+Anima, a darkly cute series about children gaining animal powers, was officially in English once, but deserves more love again), Luck Stealer 📖⚔️🤍♿ψ by Hajime Kazu (story about an assassin taking lives by stealing their luck by coming near them, really satisfying and badass and understandable why he does it. There's one annoying character shoehorned in by an editor it feels like, but he doesn't appear much fortunately), 心霊探偵八雲📖🤍♿ψ (Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, a mystery series about a guy who can see ghosts, can get really dark), and finally 恋の神様古味直志短編集🗨️❤️🤍🖤ψ🐉🤣 (Koi no Kamisama, a collection of Komi Naoshi one-shots before he went mainstream with Nisekoi, a collection of weird and kind of psychological one-shots that are a lot of fun within few pages). P.A. (プライベートアクトレス) ❤️💾♿🗨️🎭 about a "private actress", pretending to be people's lover, daughter, themselves, whatever is needed, seeing her act and grow as a person, not perfect and shows it age some places but mostly surprisingly accepting. アノニマス🤍🗨️🎭 (Anonymous, about some Japanese teens from the 20s, raised without names or purpose other than to follow orders, but they meet some other teens they to their surprise befriend and so they decide to live for themselves). 周刊少年Girl 🗨️🤣🤍ψ(Weekly Shounen Girl, an absurd and wacky manga that takes full use of it's medium, it's amazing). スミレ♡16歳!! 🗨️🤣(Sumire♡16 years old!! Weird manga about a puppet attending school and somehow getting friends. Oddly sweet).

These don't quite follow the rules but are 💾: F. Compo (weird trans manga from the 90s, a cis man's desperate attempt at being "accepting", interesting to look back at), クロノクルセイド(Chrono Crusade, has some unnecessary fan service but is still my favourite manga. Is about a nun and a demon hunting demons in USA in the 1920s), ストップ!! ひばりくん! (Stop!! Hibari-kun! I remember some problematic moments, but a impressively progressive trans manga from the 80s!).

The promised Korean novels:레지나레나 - 용서받지 못한 그대에게 📖❤️♿(Regina Rena: To the Unforgiven, has a webtoon on... Webtoon and a region locked translation of the novel), 필리아로제 - 가시왕관의 예언🗨️🤍♿(Philia Rosé: The Prophecy of the Crown of Thorns, the WebToon is translated but not the novel), 마땅한 살인📖🤍♿⚔️ (Justified Murder, novel about a doctor forced to kill the father of a patient in self defense when he doesn't want her to tell authorities that he abused the patient. Her cop husband helps her dispose of the body by drawing a lipstick heart on him, the signature of a serial killer only going after the worst, it works a little too well as the killer contacts her and recruits her as the killer is actually a group). International webcomics/WebToons (those i do not know where are from don't have flags, some are already in English): City Vamps 🇪🇸, Heartblood🇫🇮, I Want to Be A Cute Anime Girl, Born From Death 🇮🇩, @XXIII, Angel's Quest 🇪🇸, Watermelon 🇸🇦, Seed 🇹🇷 (I think), Love Advice From the Great Duke of Hell 🇨🇭, The Witch and the Bull 🇹🇼, Project Novos 🇦🇹, The World Where I Belong 🇹🇭(I think), and more. Remember that the ones further up are the ones struggling to come out in English.

** Self published, but has been looking for an official publisher forever according to interviews.

*** a work not marked with this still could have some later, is not clear enough, I haven't read enough yet to know, or I haven't asked the author. But even if one seemingly does not have any does it not mean that the author is phobic or not part of the lgbtqia+ themselves, and as far as I know, no one on this list are phobic as far as I've checked.

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Feel free to reblog with stories from different countries that aren't translated into English. The ones I suggest here are in languages that I understand or have accessed by other means. Also, many thanks to @godteri-takk for encouraging me and @ittibittium for making this post (which is very much have been the reason the series came out look at slide 2) and inspiring me. If you have any questions about the stories I've included here, feel free to ask ^^. If you wonder why I didn't link to Phenomena, Mørkalven, Under Regnbuen, The Urban Legend, and Underbyen on the booksfromnorway website is it that they're simply not there, the publisher haven't added them. I'd also link to Norway Comics more often as the website looks good, but haven't been updated in about 2 years, maybe they started to give up? I don't know. Thank you for your time and hopefully we can give more than a few authors a cool gift before the end of the year.

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ikuzeminna · 2 months

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Hi! How did you learn to read Japanese? If I'm not wrong that you do, is the Japanese depiction of the GW characters' personalities different from their Western depictions?

Hey! Learning how to read Japanese is definitely an adventure in and of itself. For me, I had learned how to read and write hiragana and katakana from the Yoshida Institute’s site long before smartphones existed, along with a few kanji. I would use hiragana for my cheat sheets at school. (Yes, I learned a whole different alphabet just to cheat at history and geography instead of simply studying for my exams like a sensible person, even though I realized it was way more effort. I'm not exactly smart.) I started learning kanji properly years later with the kanji learning app Japanese Kanji Study, which I can't recommend enough, then took a brief language course and then accidentally ended up studying Japanese in college for 1.5 years, which is where I learned all my beginner's grammar (みんなの日本語 anyone?) and, as is totally apt for a beginner, hentaigana.

It’s funny when you can't string five sentences together without issue, but can make out Nobunaga's scribbling, something many natives are incapable of. Great, balanced education you thought up there, folks.

At least I got a laugh out of one Ranma ½ episode where Ranma found Kuno’s journal entry and couldn’t read it because of course that doofus would write it in the most archaic manner possible.

Anyway, as far as reading aids go, I’m just gonna plug everything I’ve used over the years for anyone interested. The Firefox extension 10ten reader has been a lifesaver, as has been Jisho. When it comes to comprehension, Google translate is dog crap. I’d recommend Papago, which must have been trained specifically on East Asian languages as the results are much better. Not perfect, but better in my experience. Google translate has long incorporated OCR (image to text) so it may be less useful, but I’m very fond of the no-install Capture2Text which can convert manga speech bubbles to text, provided the scans are clean enough to read the kanji.

For grammar, I stuck to Minna No Nihongo. Bought all the books and slowly work through the lessons now.

The most valuable asset though is having a fluent or native speaker you can ask. Nuance is impossible to grasp if no one explains it to you. Even with vocab, you’ll run into plenty of words with the same meaning. Dictionaries often don’t distinguish in those cases. Having someone you can ask makes learning a lot easier.

Now for the Gundam Wing part of your question.

I’m not exactly sure what you mean by Japanese and Western depictions, or rather who you mean. If we’re talking official sub vs. dub then yes, there are a few differences. Heero isn’t perpetually constipated in the original (he actually has a sense of humor!) and Duo is a lot less flirty than his dub version. But it’s nothing grave. Certainly not Seto Kaiba levels of the dub rewriting his character to make him rant about not believing in destiny every time he opens his mouth.

Or Saber Rider being the leader of the Star Sheriffs. wtf I grew up with a lie D:<

Now, if you’re referring to fandom spaces, I am, without a doubt, the wrongest person to ask as I have never seen what the Japanese Wing fandom is up to and have never really been in touch with what the West is doing either. Have I seen fanfics and do I know 1x2 is the most popular ship? Yes. Have I spent 10 minutes looking at a manga panel, trying to figure out what is going on, only to hit the back button as fast as I could once I did? To the detriment of my poor eyes, yes. But when it comes to fandom differences, I think @muwi-translates could give you a proper answer. I can’t really say much as I’m not involved in the fandom in a way that lets me know such things.

I just sit here in my bubble, talking to myself most of the time.

#gundam wing #japanese

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kryativelogos · 2 months

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Cinder's Racial Ambiguity Frustrates Me (Spoilers for The Lunar Chronicles)

Hi hello long time no post! I haven't had a chance to really consumed any media until just recently so I'm finally back with another review!

Today we're gonna talk about The Lunar Chronicles, written by Marissa Meyer, and published in 2012. I had read this novel back in 2015/2016 when Fairest and Winter were newly released and had the opportunity to reread it (albeit in audiobook form) these past few months. Buckle up babes, I have a lot to say.

I wanna just say right off the bat that in terms of world-building, plot, and even character design, this story still holds up quite well from when I read it the first time. From how each character gets their own time to shine and development, to how they all connect with one another, I loved seeing the major plot unfold and how it concluded so nicely.

But I do want to discuss something that has bothered me from the first time that I read this series and still does after reading it a second time: Cinder's race.

Now you may be wondering, why do we care what Cinder's race is? Well, I'm Asian, Singaporean to be specific. And it would be great if Cinder's race was Asian/Chinese as the website, as the author, and as most people in the fandom believe to be. However, I am skeptical for this to be the case at all.

We don't know what race(s) the Lunars are.

They're an "evolved" race of humans that have magical abilities. Even Meyer herself states that the ethnicities start to blend because it's so far in the future. It's already quite difficult to pinpoint specific ethnic groups just in the royal family.

Queen Channary had olive skin and dark brown hair which could be a myriad of ethnicities and races although I'm heavily inclined to believe that she is/was South/Southeast Asian due to her name being taken from the Khmer dialect found in Cambodia [evidently in the wiki]. Even Queen Jannali was described to have had tan skin and chestnut colored hair, which again, says nothing about her race, but her name was taken from the Aboriginal language [also found on the wiki] so that may count for,,, something. Essentially, following Cinder's lineage, we already have little evidence to support the idea that Cinder is Asian, let alone Chinese.

Cinder's description in the book did not help her case (and I believe Meyer attempted to retcon this later on, like, look at the new covers - she looks so [East] Asian, but then you read the description in the actual book??).

Her first description in Cinder was tan skin, angular body, and mousy brown hair. Mousy implies, light brown. Literally look up "mousy brown hair" online, you'll see a bunch of eurocentric, white women. No Asian that I know, naturally, has "mousy" brown hair unless you dye it or it is heavily sun-bleached (which has happened to me but still not light enough to be considered "mousy", I could have safely called it brown). Cinder was also told by the end of the book, that she was found in Europe. You can see that as someone who's been wanting an Asian MC would be disappointed with finding out that ah, she must be European (and later, more than likely, French). Even if Cinder was Wasian, I believe genetically, the dark hair would have been dominant. I can't say the same for the tan skin since she was outdoors a lot and Asian folks do tan quite easily in the sun and remains tanned for at least 6-8 months.

I would love for Cinder to be Asian, I really would, but all of this evidence just keeps her race too ambiguous personally. I can't seem to get over the "mousy brown hair". If not for this particular descriptor, I would 100% believe Cinder to be Asian. But because we don't even know Channary or Jannali's race with only their names as some kind of clue to Cinder's background, we will never know for sure.

I don't think it helps that a majority of fanart I see of Cinder has very eurocentric features, which draws me back to her thinking she's French/European. It also bothers me that while Winter and Iko get rather well-written descriptions of what they look like (aka black), we can't seem to get one good description, showing some form of Asian representation that I'm sure many of us are grasping at straws for, of the main character of the series. So many of us are still hoping that Cinder is Asian simply because she's living in New Beijing (which I will be making another post at some point about how I, personally believe, is a poorly designed/created city in terms of world-building) but she's literally adopted from Europe (Luna if you wanna get technical, see the first point).

I know my points are kind of moot and there wasn't much warrant for me to go on a tirade about a fictional character created in 2012. But this is important to me as a WOC, as an Asian girlie who so wants to connect to a character that looks like me, that was written to look like me; but I feel cheated and the ambiguity makes it hard for me to fully love Cinder as much as I love the other characters (if anyone is asking, my favorite characters are Winter and Scarlet). If anyone else has thoughts about this or has something to prove to me once and for all that Cinder is Asian. Please send it my way.

PS I wish I had a physical copy to directly quote the book, but again, my second reread was through audiobooks, so I can't reference pages at all atm. Sorry about that TuT Hopefully I can get my hands on a copy from the library soon so I can edit this post with direct lines.

#the lunar chronicles #lunar chronicles #linh cinder #i just want cinder to be asian is that too much to ask ToT #marissa meyer

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apocalypticavolition · 6 months

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Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 13: From Stone to Stone

Yeah it's been awhile but I guess I should get back into the groove. As usual there's going to be nothing but spoilers until the end of the whole series, so people who are just starting reading the books because of the show probably should skip this.

And about the rim, the trees stood blackened and twisted as if a firestorm had roared through them. Everything seemed paler than it should be, just like the sun, more subdued, as if seen through mist. Only there was no mist. Just the three of them and the horses appeared truly solid.

And so we take our first step into a larger multiworld. Jordan's mirror worlds aren't quite the usual take on many worlds theory, and so right away we're confronted with the fact that everything in this "what if" is a lot less real than stuff from the prime reality. Though things get complicated when we add T'A'R to the mix, but thankfully I don't have to worry about that this book so let's not!

Something about the steps caught his eye, the different colors, seven rising from blue to red. “One for each Ajah,” he said.

This is by far the weirdest, most incongruous detail about the portal stones. They predate the modern Ajah system by a great deal, and yet "one for each Ajah"... I've seen two reasonable explanations for it:

In the early Third Age, the Tower channelers came and marked as many Portal Stones as they could with the Ajah colors as a way of saying, "This belongs to the Tower", since unlike the usual objects of Power the Stones can't be moved.

The seven colors don't actually match Ajah colors and are just a generic rainbow which Rand mistakenly conflates with Ajah colors because blue, green, yellow and red are present (and possibly orange seeming to be brown).

A third I'm realizing just now relates to color terms and languages. Basic color terms show up in human languages in a set order: every language distinguishes between white and black (well, warm-bright and cold-dark but still), then red is added, then green or yellow but definitely both if there's five basic terms, then blue (east Asian languages are well-known examples of those that stopped before blue).

After that you usually get brown added, and then other terms like gray. While you can easily end up with languages that have basic terms for purple and orange but not gray, it may well be that both portal stones and Ajahs were decorated for the seven non-Shadow color terms used in the Old Tongue and thus converged naturally.

“Yet even if Aes Sedai can use them, or could, we had no Aes Sedai with us to channel the Power, so I don’t see how it can be.”

Loial is very book smart but he's not exactly a detective, is he?

‘If a woman go left, or right, does Time’s flow divide? Does the Wheel then weave two Patterns? A thousand, for each of her turnings? As many as the stars? Is one real, the others merely shadows and reflections?’

He's also not very good at non-lecture material, since he's pretty baffled by this. I like to think that there were once very plain textbooks but that the only one that survived was "The Tao of World-Hopping" just to make sure that every Third Ager was as confused as possible.

“My Lord Rand, you’ll get us back, won’t you? Back where we belong? I’ve a wife, my Lord, and children. Melia’d take it bad enough, me dying, but if she doesn’t even have my body to give to the mother’s embrace, she’ll grieve to the end of her days. You understand, my Lord. I can’t leave her not knowing. You’ll get us back. And if I die, if you can’t take her my body, you’ll let her know, so she has that, at least.” He was no longer questioning at the end. A note of confidence had crept into his voice.

Poor Hurin. He really doesn't deserve to be tossed into Rand's drama. And he's very brainwashed by feudalism.

Suddenly he knew he could not tell the man again that he was not a lord. All that was holding the sniffer together was his belief in a lord, and he could not take that away, not now. Not here. “No bowing,” he finished awkwardly.“ As you say, Lord Rand.” Hurin’s grin was almost as wide as when Rand first met him.

Seriously, Hurin seems specifically designed by the Wheel to punish Rand and Perrin for their reluctance as much as possible. He should have stuck around Perrin to keep that boy on track.

He reached for it—he was not sure how he reached, but it was something, a movement, a stretching toward the light, toward saidin—and caught nothing, as if running his hands through water. It felt like a slimy pond, scum floating atop clean water below, but he could not scoop up any of the water. Time and again it trickled through his fingers, not even droplets of the water remaining, only the slick scum, making his skin crawl.

So Rand is having some typical Wilder difficulties with channeling and they expose exactly how dangerous the taint on saidin really is. Once the trained male Aes Sedai blew up, the Wilders had no resources to learn to channel effectively so many probably had a lot of experiences like Rand where they reached out and got a double dipping of taint with no actual Source to at least make up for it. There is no safe way for men to channel in this Age.

Loial had a different look, a slightly puzzled frown, but his eyes were on Rand, too. Rand wondered what he was thinking.

Loial is probably trying to come up with a theory that doesn't involve Rand being a channeler because that's just awkward for him.

If Fain and the Darkfriends were here—wherever here was—they might know how to get back. They had to, if they had reached here in the first place. And they had the Horn, and the dagger. Mat had to have that dagger. For that if for nothing else, he had to find them. What finally decided him, he was ashamed to realize, was that he was afraid to try again. Afraid to try channeling the Power. He was less afraid of confronting Darkfriends and Trollocs with only Hurin and Loial than he was of that.

This paragraph is absolutely devastating for Cauthor fans. But seriously, Fain and the dagger versus more Taint sucking is an absolutely horrible choice. Neither option is all that good.

“Rand, that fragment said the Stones came from an older Age than the Age of Legends, and even the Aes Sedai then did not understand them, though they used them, some of the truly powerful did. They used them with the One Power, Rand. How did you think to use this Stone to take us back? Or any other Stone we find?” For a moment Rand could only stare at the Ogier, thinking faster than he ever had in his life. “If they are older than the Age of Legends, maybe the people who built them didn’t use the Power...”

Honestly this detail about Portal Stones is even worse. We certainly aren't about to build Portal Stones in real life and yet we are apparently due to do so in the next couple years before we nuke each other into magic mutations. We can barely manage quantum computers and frankly even if we did they wouldn't last for the requisite thousands of years. Frankly as far as I'm concerned, the book Loial read is wrong and what with stuff like war and famine getting forgotten, people forgot that the Portal Stones were the result of early AoL projects with the power.

Worst of all, though, the land seemed to twist the eye. What was close at hand looked all right, and what was seen straight ahead in the distance. But whenever Rand turned his head, things that appeared distant when seen from the corner of his eye seemed to rush toward him, to be nearer when he stared straight at them. It made for dizziness; even the horses whickered nervously and rolled their eyes. He tried moving his head slowly; the apparent movement of things that should have been fixed was still there, but it seemed to help a little.

This Mirror World seems to be particularly hyperbolic in its geometry, which is confusing to think about (how do you even map the sphere that is the Earth to a hyperbolic geometry and why do I suspect that the best answer means "the north and/or south poles do not actually exist here"). We'll get more into why it's weird further on though, in a chapter or two. For now just hold onto the image of a hyperbolic infinity being overlaid on the closed geometries of T'A'R and the prime timeline and make sure you're picturing it in four dimensions so you have room for the Ways, Ogier-home, and Sindhol, all of which intersect the prime reality in tangential ways.

You can picture four dimensional non-Euclidean geometries, can't you?

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #rand al'thor #loial #hurin

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tempenensis · 2 years

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Hi lele just wanna drop a lil vent AND need YOUR opinion on it please if you would be so kind♡ tq

I hate western fandom so much like even god can't help them!

Ok so i shipped satosugu and itafushi (♡♡) but now this western fans are screaming crying blah blah saying its canon when its NOT

Ok i understand about itafushi cus gege has implied it as well but nothing about satosugu has been said has it? It was just a mistranslation for godsake

All these western ppl started screaming satosugu canon after the director said some ship stuff but that SO does NOT make it official now does it?

I mean even the director of bleach has officially admitted that the anime was kinda biased and towards ichiruki than the ichihime that was later CANON by the MANGAKA himself

Im east asian and i speak and write Japanese well (its my first languag) and so i have always been reading manga first and then watching the anime. And i, as a manga reader, noticed the difference and so many things that were indeed ichiruki but thats not what im saying

Cmon are you getting me lele?! Im not trying to spread hate i just want the western fans to know not to cry wolf unless its OFFICIALLY confirmed or such

Just because THEY WANT to make a ship canon thru some half assed opinions does not mean they would pressurized or shame others who do not get on board on their not canon but i say its canon so its canon train

I really liked satosugu because i though it was cute but now i don't cus the western fandom made it so toxic

I told them that the official manga that is in Japanese language says something else (that my one and only thing) they literally all hounded on me, bullied me online for being a 'homophobe'? Like why? I have a girlfriend for around 3yrs now haha 😂 (im a girl)

I DONT KNOW WHAT TO SAY IM SORRY LELE FOR WASTING YOUR TIME BUT I JUST want WHAT IS YOUR OPINION please

Thank you very much

Have a wonderful day

Uh, yeah. So it's finally time that I came clear. I once said that I have a ship that I barely tolerate, so.... that NOTP is none other than stsg. I recently block the ship tag here in tumblr, actually. So now that I said this, stsg fans, you're very welcome to block me.

I'll put the rest of my answer under the cut in consideration for the ship fans, since this is definitely not for the fans. Don't say I didn't warn you if you're one of the fans and still continue to read and then get offended

Honestly, this is a thing that has been happening since several months ago. I don't know exactly why, but the western stsg fandom got very loud - to the point that I, who usually can tolerate many things including pairings that I don't ship, became unable to ignore it. Fans today really likes to throw words like "canon" and easily verbally attack people who don't agree.

Anyway, even if Director Park said it, it doesn't really make it actually canon. I still remember Nakata Jouji (I love the man, he's my favorite priest in Fate series), the seiyuu for Naobito, said that Naobito is Maki's father, which later written by Gege to be untrue. Ougi is Maki's actual father. So, unless Gege writes or says it directly, what other people (even staffs) can only be considered as a speculation; since it's their interpretation of the characters, just like we fans do.

It's just when related to a ship, fans always get loud. Remember viz's mistranslation "my one and only" lol? I have long thought since the volume came out that the stsg fans will take it and run with it. And this is just a personal theory, but the loudest one are the one with the smallest crumbs. Itfs is still fed today by gege so we're just content day to day, but stsg currently has nothing in the manga so they get really loud when the smallest crumb drops. It'll pass if you wait, just stay calm lol.

So my intolerance does not come from the ship itself, but from the fans, so yeah. Same, anon, same.

#le-ask #i'll get hate for this i'm sure #how do you tag antiship here

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torntoblivion · 2 years

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middle eastern (specifically turkish person) here and i want to add my own two cents in the whole sumeru discussion.

TW I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT A RACISM EXPERIENCE!!

reminder that if you're not middle eastern/south asian, don't speak over us thank you.

first of all, the skin colors. the middle east is a diverse area, for example me, my mom and sister are very pale but my dad is brown skinned and my other sister is tan. fyi all of us are fully turkish. if you walk around istanbul, you can see many different people. pale, tanned, brown, dark skinned, different eye shapes, different nose shapes and etc.

i don't need to explain why it's wrong that hoyoverse only bothered to make npcs tanned, made zero dark skinned characters and whitewashed dehya and candace.

don't y'all dare defend hoyoverse by saying its a chinese company, that's no excuse if they aren't gonna properly represent us then they shouldn't have made the nations inspired by real life.

about changing skin tones, blackwashing!! does!! NOT!! exist!! i think y'all are just playing dumb about why whiteashing is not the same as making a character tan/brown/dark.

firstly, blasians exist. secondly, white people should let poc enjoy what they could have and headcanons are NOT a bad thing. unlike whitewashing, it does no harm whatsoever. so stop bitching and let us have something.

i was so excited when i found out that sumeru was going to be inspired by middle east, we don't get represented often and if we do, it's filled with shitty stereotypes or just simply inaccurate. i was so happy to see familiar named npcs, i rlly was.

don't get me wrong, i love sumeru's design, music, story, gameplay, the food, dancing and the characters but i also acknowledge the problems.

a little side note about pronounciations, i'm aware that pronouncing words drastically different from your language is hard. i sometimes have a hard time pronuncing the liyue names but i try my best and be respectful. even turkish people have a hard time pronouncing my real name when they first hear it. in short, as long as you're trying your best and being respectful, it's okay if you can't pronounce them correctly.

also paimon refusing food was so iffy to me, i mean this is paimon we're talking abt and some of the comments she made was so frusturating.

about kusanali, i'm not sure if she's supposed to be inspired by something bc people have different opinions on it so i'm not commenting on it.

now about dori, her design is not bad at all but not exactly accurate. i can see where the clothing are inspired from but i'm making no comment on the genie bc muslims and arabs should decide if it's offensive or not. about her personality, i hate it. it's stereotypical, making her a scammer and greedy. don't cry abt me making everything abt race bc guess what!! stereotypes are harmful a surprise right /sarcasm

like i mentioned my dad is brown and majority of my family are muslims. i will never forget the time at the airport my dad got randomly checked but not me, not my sisters or my mom. just my dad and i never understood until i got older. guess why this happened? bc my dad isn't pale like us and doesn't have an european name.

i love genshin impact, it has been my hyperfixation since may 2021 and i rlly enjoy it. i hope hoyoverse will do better and listen to the rational part of the community.

i also hope people will read this and understand why we are upset. if you have anything to add or if i got something wrong please please speak up!! all i'm asking everyone to be respectful and civil while discussing this.

#genshin impact #dori #sumeru #genshin impact discussion #tw racism #cw racism #dori genshin #kusanali #lesser lord kusanali #nahida #saki talks

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capricornsicle · 1 year

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So here's a comment I received on this post (I shared the promo picture of Amy Workman as Hikari Zhang for the Teen Wolf movie, as well as a behind-the-scenes of her that was posted on her official Instagram page).

(Image: Comment from Tumblr user @thyfggfy. It reads, "I don't see a problem as long as she looks the part. I mean isn't that the whole idea of acting? Pretending to be someone you are not. Should we also be mad that Stiles wasn't portrayed by a half Polish actor?")

My tags on this post, which thyfggfy responds to, are basically "hope they don't send her to the desert" and "there's a joke here about Hollywood assuming all East Asians are the same".

To take things one at a time, the first statement. I am assuming none of this is meant in malice, and is genuine, as I see no reason to assume otherwise.

"She looks the part." But does she? Amy Workman is a Chinese-American actor. Hikari Zhang is a Chinese-Japanese character. There's a similar situation with Arden Cho (Korean-American) as a Korean-Japanese character. Can you hire any East Asian to play another, or to play a mixed East Asian character when they are not mixed?

Well, yes. You can hire anyone to play anyone. But is it good? No. Because saying a Chinese actor looks enough like Japanese to play the character is like to say a Russian is basically Serbian or Bulgarian or Polish or Swedish. It's not the same, and people will get offended if you assume it is. Especially when there is race involved, because it's so common in the US (where the show/movie is made) to hear "all Asians look the same" or "all brown people look the same" or "all poc look the same", or so on. A close Chinese friend of mine is often asked to translate something from Japanese or Korean. I am often called Mexican (I am mixed Native American/Cree and Arab/Syrian). It's rude, and it's racism.

Not to mention, you can circumvent this problem easily. Either send a casting call for a Chinese-Japanese character, if one is needed, or change the character to be just Chinese when you hire a Chinese actor. I like the second, as Amy Workman is fantastic and I'm excited to see her in the movie. It's not like kitsune is specific to Japan. In Japan there's きつね/kitsune, in China there's 狐狸精/huili jing, in Korea there's 구미호/kumiho or gumiho, in Vietnamese there's 狐狸精/hồ ly tinh. All are fox spirits. So why keep the character mixed Japanese? I think because, to Hollywood, and especially to the Teen Wolf writers, it's close enough, right? But it's really not.

Next, "acting is pretending". You're right, it is. In grade school productions, I pretended to be Brutus in Julius Caesar, a forest fairy in Midsummer Night's Dream, a man with a broken hip in The Man Who Came to Dinner, and, in other plays, variously dead, grieving, injured, drunk, old, young, rich, poor, a traitor, a villain, a hero, a martyr, and so on. But I was pretending to be a kind of person having a certain experience. I wasn't pretending to be another race. Because that is a bad thing.

Lastly, "should we therefore insist Stiles is half Polish?". Well, first of all, he's not. What we know about Stiles' ancestry is this: he is named after his mother's father, his grandfather, who is Mieczysław, a Polish name. That's all we know. We don't know if his maternal grandfather is Polish or he was a first- or second- or x-generation immigrant or anything else. We don't even know if this person was Polish, or if it was another Slavic country. We certainly can't say that Stiles is half-Polish. We don't know that his maternal grandmother is, we don't know that his mother is. But it's fair to assume that Stiles is around 1/4 Polish and his grandfather is a first- or second-generation immigrant.

And because literally all we know about Stiles and being Polish is a name, we can't say that the character himself would identify as Polish, would speak the language, would practice Polish culture. We simply don't know. Fandom likes to assert that fanon and headcanon is basically canon, but headcanon does not make absolute truth, and it doesn't serve in place of canon. We can't assume a level of Polish heritage is absolute fact that may or may not exist.

That's not to say that you can't headcanon Stiles as being thoroughly Polish, because you can do whatever you want, and that's why there are such excellent fanworks as this one by KuriKuri (a fantastic Sciles fic that heavily involves Polish language, food, and overbearing grandmothers -- go read it!). I enjoy anything that expands upon the world characters live in.

But another important thing here is that Polish is not a race. It's a nationality. You can cast one white American guy to play another white American guy no problem, because you can't visually tell one white American from another. The only real differences are language -- there are dialects and accents in English that are harder to imitate and, depending on what kind of story you're telling, might have benefited from a different actor or a change to the character.

And if casting for a character who is European-American, you can often benefit from an actor who is the same, especially if the story involves them speaking the language a lot, but it doesn't necessarily mean you need an actor of the same heritage. For example, while Crystal Reed is a great actor, she did not make a very convincing French woman in 5x18 Maid of Gevaudan, and as a native French speaker I would have preferred if they had taken some measures to alleviate listening to a fake French accent that wasn't very good -- an American accent would have done less to take me out of the story, or if her lines had been dubbed over by a French speaker, or whatever. But it's not hurting anyone to have someone do an unconvincing French accent, because French is not a race which is often discriminated against and subject to racism. The same does not apply for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean actors and characters, because racism is always hurting people.

In fanwork, though, you can do whatever you want. Let me not be maliciously misquoted as saying anything but. You can write characters with how much or how little heritage you like, because you're not tracking ancestry, you're telling a story, through writing, through art, through audio, through any medium. But it is vitally important to recognize fanwork as just that. Fan-made work that appreciates some part of the source material, and fills in a gap that the source doesn't go into depth on -- or tears it down and rebuilds it, for fix-its and AUs and the like. Fanwork isn't canon, and you cannot treat it like canon. Everyone's interpretation of the source is valid and acceptable, because it is an individual, personal interpretation they have chosen to share. Biased? Often. Prejudiced? Unfortunately, also often. But acceptable? Always.

Though when it comes to Teen Wolf, well... A lot of the time people who headcanon Stiles as more Polish than he appears to be on the show also refuse to believe that Scott is Latino. His mother's maiden name is Delgado, both his parents are Latino, the actor is Mexican. And yet so often fandom will, on the one hand, call Stiles Polish and talk about his heritage and culture, refer to Derek's "Native American cheekbones" (I wish this was fake. I wish I did not read the post that talked about this. Sometimes I hate it here.) and assume based on a later-retracted tweet by Hoechlin that he was learning more about his ancestry and believed there was something Native American there (and I have a lot of posts about dubious Native American "ancestry") that Derek is therefore Native American (I love fanwork as much as the next person, but No.), or blah blah blah, and insist that Scott cannot be Latino.

And of course there is a lot of racism there, because there is a lot of racism in this fandom. I don't think the vast majority of people are doing it on purpose (although I can think of a few people who have all the resources to know better and remain obstinate about being a tool), but it's impossible not to notice when you look for it.

If fans want to talk about characters having interesting heritage to connect with, how about the Hispanic/Latino heritage of Scott McCall/his family (actor/mentioned in canon), Erica Reyes (by surname), Nolan Holloway (actor is Latino/Caxcan), Gabe Valet (actor is Brazilian), Josh Diaz (surname/actor is Brazilian), Theo Raeken (actor is Penobscot tribe -- like, actually a member), Tracy Stewart (actor is Chinese -- and while there's a lot to dislike about Kelsey Asbille her character remains interesting), Danny Mahealani (actor/character is Hawaiian), Corinne/The Desert Wolf (actor is Latina), Nathan Pierce (actor is Singaporean), the Calaveras (all Mexican), Hayden Romero (surname/actor is Latina), Jiang (actor is Chinese), Satomi Ito (Japanese), the Yukimuras (Korean and Japanese).

The reason no one seems to want to write about these characters, and Stiles is always the center of attention, even in posts like these where he was never even implied? Well, to paraphrase @princeescaluswords, I'm sure it has nothing to do with race.

#this deleted my entire post the first time. hate it here btw #hellsite moment #to clarify: this post is for educational purposes NOT hate/shame/etc. do not be a dick on my behalf #and in general. a hard concept for some of this fandom #teen wolf #fandom problems #fandom racism #teen wolf fandom problems #feel free to reblog/comment/send asks/message me (in good faith) about any of this!#I love to talk to other fans in a positive and constructive way #also if anyone has recs for work exploring the heritage/culture of the aforementioned characters please let me know! love to see stuff #new post bc I don't want this to clog a nice post about a new character

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menalez · 2 years

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I have a classmate let's call her noor who was born here in saudia just like nearly everyone else but has East Asian ancestors, which makes her appear east Asian. (She is short, has monolids, and has paler skin than most of the girls in my class, likely only tanner than one other) Another classmate let's call her Mariam looks like a regular brown arab girl. These two are friends.

Noor says something, I think related to her opinion about a tiktok trend or something, that supposedly opposes Mariam's opinion. Mariam proceeds to say "shut the fuck up you chinese looking bitch" (now we are all 14, so the "bitch" and "shut the fuck up" parts aren't as serious as when an adult says it, because most of the time our conversations are funny, lighthearted, and entertaining. they swear occasionally and without much heaviness on their words. we also typically make fun of each others' appearance, but its never racist or anything. it's the Chinese part that shocked everyone)

A lot of girls in the class gasp and Mariam says "it's okay it's okay she's my friend" and a few of them said "that's still bad, you can't say that even though she's your friend. Friends shouldn't be racist to each other" but eventually we all settle. Then later on Mariam says it AGAIN. This time the girls around are making a bit of a bigger fuss about it, while still remaining in a playful and lighthearted manner.

Now I'm not good at reading body language, but when Mariam said that the first time, Noor's expression went blank as she was looking at Mariam arguing with the opposing girls for a few moments, as if she was confused on what to think, what to say, or how to feel about it. I dont really know Noor and dont talk to her like at all, but I just felt kind of bad :(

idk if they always make jokes like this to each other in private but yikes … im quite surprised to hear ppl in ur class took issue with it and spoke up against it tho! when i was in school in bahrain, even saying the n-word was perceived by most as meaningless and nothing. racist joke-y comments were almost completely accepted too.. there wasn’t much criticism of it unless you were like very very blatantly extremely racist

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one-abuse-survivor · 2 years

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it's not mother's day where i live yet (may 29), but the american mother's day was not long ago and it's made me think about my mother. this isn't in the usual spirit of asks that you get, and you don't have to reply if you feel it's too strange or different. i just wanted to get this out there, i suppose.

my mum wasn't an amazing parent. she had her ups and downs, and ultimately i think she's a perfectly average parent. i was a very difficult child and she dealt with me very well, even if she couldn't always control her anger. that's besides the point- it doesn't matter now, anyway. i was the evil one in the end, after all. that's also besides the point. apologies. let me get to the point.

my mum died 5 years ago, when i was 12. cancer got the best of her. i'm 17 now. i miss her. i miss her so incredibly much. i don't really think of her often, but when i do, i miss her and long for her and i wish she was still here. maybe that's trauma. i dunno. i don't think her death was traumatic for me, but i do seem to miss her more than most people would. thing is though, i don't think that's so strange with my circumstances?

a little more context. i'm mixed, more specifically scandinavian and east asian. my mother was my asian parent. i currently live in a scandinavian country, and have lived in western europe my entire life. i have very little of my asian country's culture with me. i can't speak the language, i know nothing about festivities or traditions, and when it comes to theatre, music, art? nothing. i have a little for food. i have vague memories of her cooking, and i usually visit my relatives there once a year (we eat a lot at restaurants then, and it's hard to avoid a country's cuisine while you're there). i haven't been there since the pandemic started, though.

the point is, my mother was my only connection to my asian heritage and culture, and now she's gone. i feel like a part of me is missing. most wasian people wish they were more white, which i can understand completely. it feels wrong that i want to be more asian. i don't even look asian. i have a very weird skin tone that's in between white and EA and my face stores cheek fat easily, but that's it. i feel completely whitewashed.

maybe, if she were still alive, i wouldn't be so whitewashed? she could tell me about the non-fetishized version of her country. she could continue to cook those foods i remember so fondly. she could teach me the language. she could teach me how to celebrate traditional festivals. of course that's not all i miss about her. i miss her hugs. i miss her warmth. i miss her voice. but i think my biggest loss was half of my culture. half of my heritage died with my mother, and i'm never going to get it back. i can't seperate them. my mourning for one spills into the other.

i don't know what i wanted to accomplish with this ask. thank you for reading. i appreciate it. i hope you have a good day, with many positive vibes.

Hey there, nonnie.

I'm really sorry for your loss and for everything it entailed for you. Loss of a culture or of a parent is not something I have experienced, so all I can really say is I hear you, and I'm really glad my blog could provide a space for you to verbalise some of your grief and emotions about it. You're very welcome ❤️

I hope you know difficult children don't deserve anger. I think it's possible to understand that our parents are human as well and can make mistakes, and still give ourselves the space to admit their anger hurt us when we were growing up. I can't pretend to understand what it's like to consider this idea when your parent died before your teens, but I just wanted to put it out there, because I think you deserve better than to think of your child self as evil.

Sending a big, big virtual hug ❤️

#Ask #Negative self talk #Death tw #parent death tw #Parent death #Trauma mention #loss of culture #Grief mention

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shogikappa · 5 months

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Some current thoughts on our current board games list, Dec 2023

I've wanted to do a fun thing where people vote for their liking of board games, as a sort of popularity vote thing, but I've been pessimistic that it would hype up results considering the general lack of activity in my server and the small number of people who play board games with me, so instead, I thought of sharing my own thoughts on these games.

I'll try to keep this list relatively short so that hopefully you woiuldn't have already fallen asleep by the time you're done reading this sentence.

Cleopatra and the Society of Architects

I wanted to start by saying that Cleopatra got clearly dethroned despite having been a former mainstay of our groups. Couple with one of the players' lack of enthusiasm for the game and me having played this for over 10 years, I'm preferring games where I have more control and options now, similar to my sentiments on the game Ludo. Most of the game you seem to be waiting on getting cards that match and then just playing them when you do. The strict 10-card limit doesn't give you many options, just draw and play if you draw the right cards.

2. Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico has for the most part been a mainstay for our groups. But between my parents not playing competitively and my IRL friends seeming to be just "fine" with this style of game, this game has mostly been only played with my online groups where it seems to be a lot more enjoyed by comparison.

The inclusion of what are essentially slaves does make this game difficult to recommend to new players as I'd prefer to make sure that this would sit well with the players first. There is a new edition that replaces them with paid workers, but I already have multiple versions of this game, and the board game cafes also generally use the original edition, so it isn't too easy to play the sanitized version.

It seems that San Juan, a card game alternative, is also pretty well-liked among my friends and parents, perhaps due to its shorter time needed and simplicity. Its lack of direct reference to slavery also make it easier to recommend to new players.

3. Fellowships of Fate

One of the newer games I got as part of the East Asian board games buys, Fellowships of Fate seems to have good staying power. My internet friends seem to quite enjoy it, though it seems I've only managed to play this with one IRL friend and my parents. They didn't seem all that enthusiastic about it, especially my parents, though in part due to it having an RPG theme which my parents aren't fond of.

This is a light game and I think will be one with considerable staying power. I look forward to playing this some more.

4. Maid Knight Saga

This is an unfortunate one. Its high complexity in the rules and its lack of clear instructions on the cards seem to have been offputting to a friend in each of the groups, enough for one of them to suggest against playing this game even. I think that is a big shame though, as the strategic aspect of this game is I think really cool, though I generally stress about hosting this game for everyone and consequently never really get to strategize myself because it's easy to make mistakes, especially for those who are new to the game.

However, this game's lack of reliance on text makes it a decent candidate for playing with different groups who speak different languages, compared to another game with an anime-aesthetic that we have been doing, Kradia 2: Wild Hunt Festival, which is highly text-dependent, and makes it a hard recommend for players who can't read the hero skill effects.

5. Dominion/Heart of Crown

In general, whether our groups play Dominion or Heart of Crown comes down to accessibility. Dominion is more likely to be found in board game cafes, but if my friends are coming over or if we're having an online game via tabletop sim and have the time for it (it generally takes around 3 hours, even though the box says it only takes 40 mins), I do Heart of Crown with my weeb friends.

Perhaps not too surprisingly, these games seem to sit the most well with my groups who enjoy TCGs. My parents and one of the groups seem a little less enthusiastic about it, although one of the groups still isn't clear on the scoring system yet.

6. Citadels

Citadels has been my favourite board game for a while. In the lastyear, it's seen considerably fewer plays, most recently been overshadowed by the new games our groups are more obsessed over, namely the aforementioned Fellowships of Fate and Heart of Crown.

My recent game of Citadels at a board game club took unexpectedly long and I used a card to make the game end at 7 cards because I didn't want to discuss the shorter rules when the rest of them were following the 8-card endgame condition as shown in the instructions.

7. Scrabble

I've had recent resparked interest in Scrabble after seeing people play in ways that specifically prevent their opponent from being able to score the Triple Word scores. It was then that I found out that Scrabble is actually a deep strategy game, when at school they promoted it as a game where you simply make big words, as part of an English-learning game.

I do recommend rethinking about this game as a strategy game and not just as a "make big words game", which may give you quite a different perspective on it if you had also only played it like we had.

The main problem with this game is that it is language-dependent, which makes it ill-suited for groups whose English (or any language that uses the Roman alphabet) isn't too good. I was recommended Qwirkle as an alingual alternative, but even its board variant Qwirkle Connect cannot replicate the strategies you build around premium spaces in Scrabble. Qwirkle seems to be played in my groups as more of a necessity to avoid the use of English. If you want the full experience of strategizing around the spaces and tiles with different point values, we'll have to bust out the original Scrabble.

8. Goita

A traditional game from Noto, Goita is played using tiles with the instantly-recognizable shogi shape.

Shogi is a hard game to master. I have some friends who have shown interest in shogi, but cannot bring their defenses enough to prevent a simple static rook attack. I like to introduce them to Goita as something shogi-themed, but that is much easier to pick up.

Goita is played over multiple short rounds, and as such fit the requirements of filler/micro board games. I find that I enjoy playing Goita as a filler game, although it tends to take longer than smaller micro games such as Love Letter. The only problem is again, language dependency. Not even my some of my English-speaking weeb friends recognize the kanji on shogi pieces, so I recommend internationalized sets like the one I have devised specifically for Goita (shown below), or alternatively try the adaptation Kami, which is the same game (with small changes, especially regarding 2 and 3 player rules) but without using kanji. At least that would probably be less off-putting if you're trying to introduce this to a friend.

Above: My internationalized Goita set for those who have trouble with kanji.

9. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

Along with 100% Orange Juice, these make the digital board games portion of my board games list. I debated whether I wanted to add this game to our board game rotation, but I decided to focus less on whether it qualifies as a board game and more in its experience. Keep Talking sure has more in common with playing a board game with your friends than playing a multiplayer video game with your friends. In fact, the sentiment that this "is essentially a board game" has also been echoed in board game forums, but the fact that the computer needs to check for whether you have solved the randomly-generated puzzles makes this hard to be a physical board game.

This doesn't see a lot of plays, partially as it is mostly best with 2 players and requires your friends to not mind going through large amounts of texts (which some of them do), as well as either playing local co-op or through a voice call (I don't imagine it would be as easy to defuse them as fast if you're typing in the voice text channel, unless you're looking for a real challenge), but I thought it would be funny to talk about it making into our board games list.

Final words

I suppose I'll end the list here. I could say more, but I wanted not to make this list too long so that more of you may (hopefully) get to the end. If there are any games I have more thoughts on, I suppose I will write up a new post when the time comes.

Happy board gaming!

#board game #board games #tabletop games #tabletop gaming

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littlesistersti-backupandspam · 5 months

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word count:

Before I start, I will say I have strong suspicions these tiktok rcta and/or ecta things are satire or clickbait then got people fooled then got angry people to satire them back and now we're stuck in a loop

also tall stack of tw: racism, xenophobia, exoticism or fetishization then brief mention of homophobia, queerphobia, sexism, immigrant parents trauma, slurs

at least, I hope everything is a grand prank because my brother told me nobody actually did the tidepod challenge (not the sponsored one), it was a hoax people fell for. I don't know?

These rcta or ecta tend to pick Asian. You want to be Asian so badly? Okay then. I'll help you:

Parents always compare you to cousins, siblings, or some other kid of friend

parents disapprove if you're an art major

you must hide your tattoos unless it's eyebrows or lip

get called a slur if you're gay/queer because there is no real translation to "gay" or "bisexual" etc.

you must be a doctor, lawyer, dentist

straight As in everything even if your parents don't know English

after school sports/music or study/tudor

the sport is probably tennis or badminton

the music is piano or violin

music is just to show off to family gatherings, not a career choice

parents insist you're doing it wrong even though they'd never done it and you already got the best coach

your American name is probably Jenny because it's simple for parents who can barely speak English

parents ask you to translate every letter in the mail and/or help write a text message or email

if you're a girl, your brother will receive strong favoritism

"wow, you look so handsome after your haircut" (you both got haircuts...)

gender bias and gender stereotypes and sexism

spanking with a giant chopstick or la chancla

this is not child abuse, this is normal parenting

people blame you for the pandemic

people poke fun of your small eyes and smelly lunch

people always assume you can read Chinese characters even if your language only has Latin letters

receive whitening cream if you have natural tan/olive skin

were told you must be friends with only Asian people ... although White people are ok

if you're Vietnamese, never hang out with Black people or Mexicans

even if they're not Mexican, all Latin Americans are "Mexicans"

hate on the Chinese because Communism and colonialism trauma

get called any of the East Asian nationalities even though you're actually ASEAN

if you identify as Japanese and work in an office job, then you put work above everything else

you're a kid and identify as Japanese or Korean, you help the declining population

if you're a kid and identify as Chinese, you either have 1 or 0 siblings

aunties are always blunt about your physical appearance esp weight

pda is frowned upon

receive hair straightening products if you have natural curly hair

say you like the cut watermelon or mango once and your parents buy you a whole pack of 50 the next day

parents are always right and you're an ungrateful child for disagreeing

parents never listen to you and if you try to reason, you're disrespectful

parents threaten of disownment or toss you outside in the streets

parents make fun of you for small mistakes

lectures for every small joy in life

teachers assume you are fluent in (language) and must help the new kid even though you're a heritage speaker who forgot

teachers assume this one English word doesn't exist in your language even though you simply forgot the word

teachers will teach media covering AAPI and command the class to never correct them because you're all a bunch of rowdy kids and I can't be bothered to pronounce everything correctly

your name is too hard, do you have an English/American name?

parents dictate how to eat, including which order or how to cut it a specific way ... why? for best enjoyment

even if it's a simple burger

"you can do this" actually means "you should do this"

anything you say can and will be used against you ALWAYS

you're always too skinny or too fat

"wow, you're a weak eater" yeah I wonder why

you can't do that physics project because you're a girl, even though everybody is required to do it by themselves

girls can't be engineers

if you're a Korean gal with short hair and athletic, you'll be called a "feminist" derogatory

you can only marry other Asians

preferably "city Asians" (you know the derogatory term)

"you have the right to speak your mind" except when it's your parents

parents are always better than you

that one small lecture about that one small thing turns into one long lecture (five or ten lectures merged into one) about everything else that came up and I swear they just want to keep going

"her hair was as curly as a Black person" derogatory

"I don't want to wear that, it makes me look gay"

everything you do is wrong

"women aren't supposed to have hairy legs, it's dirty, you're wrong"

good gods they can't understand tone

I be telling them there is another hole in my room in a straight voice and they yell why are you complaining it's going to happen deal with it

your mom doesn't know how to read English, can't be bothered to slow down and read English labels properly so she calls you about the wrong product/names

you're not allowed any joy in peace

ok I'll stop

#as you can see #I strongly resent my parents #children of immigrant parents #can relate #rcta #ecta #you want to be Asians so bad then buckle up #aapi #stop aapi hate #your parents will never love you #sti speaks

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writingmochi · 10 months

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i knew you would catch onto that, i feel like i can't stop talking about that two-shot when i see your url! it's really impacted me a lot and- i'll stop before i really do expose myself but you may already know who i am... or do you???

ahhh i want to ask is it the jakarta or the bulacan one?? for... research purposes :> i feel like regardless you'll have an amazing time!! and i think doing things by yourself needs to be a thing! like solo dates sound so fun, i'm yet to do that but sometimes my social anxiety gets the best of me and i don't want to do anything out unless i have my friend or my sibling with me to make me feel a little better >.<

i am a writer! (another hint) but i completely understand,, sometimes i always think about how much easier it'd be if people could just understand what you're thinking about in terms of scenarios etc because trying to find the write way to describe things can be a little tricky when it isn't exactly how you want it to portray. thank you though! i will be writing again very soon!

happy timezone!

-🐯

lissie: i might have a sense of who you are based on that first paragraph *eyes* but i'm willing to keep your secret much longer!

it's jakarta by the way. i think most of my followers know that i'm asian and will probably know if they read my carrd, that i'm south-east asian. tapi pasti lebih jeli lagi kalau ada yang notice menari dengan bayangan di masterlist gue karena i expose my nationality there hehe

social anxiety always comes and goes in my opinion. wherever i go somewhere alone, i usually just straighten my position and be confident. and i usually do me time outside maybe every 3/4 months because i'm more of a homebody lmao having a few friends that you can rely on is definitely great and tbh, i'm kinda jealous that you have a sibling who shares the same interests, especially coming from me who is an only child

yeah... sometimes i hate the "describing my imagination" part because i can't think of the right words to describe what i'm thinking and feeling. i might even just word vomit because of that. maybe that's why i have a longer wc because i tried to make sense of all of the details. there are not that many words to use in the english language and sometimes i just wanna use the german language to describe a more specific thing like Backpfeifengesicht and especially with the amount of the "show, don't tell" mantra but if you use other words to describe speaking other than said and spoke, you're scared that they won't understand

sorry that i ramble lol it might not even make sense...

#message to the moon #indo-takeover #but also #deutsch-takeover?#messenger: boba-beom

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rotessaboggs · 1 year

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I posted 1,060 times in 2022

That's 1,025 more posts than 2021!

21 posts created (2%)

1,039 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mlchaelwheeler

@andiwriteordie

@willel

@queerxqueen

@new-ronantics

I tagged 54 of my posts in 2022

#byler - 27 posts

#will byers - 16 posts

#stranger things - 15 posts

#theories - 6 posts

#analysis - 5 posts

#sorry this turns into a rant - 1 post

#y'all making me emotional - 1 post

#share this again - 1 post

#im crying rn - 1 post

#south-east asian - 1 post

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#but like i can't imagine how they are gonna defeat vecna in any other ways except for taking what he preys on and uses it against him

My Top Posts in 2022:

I'm so disappointed to the point that I can't feel anything but empty right now. Will, you don't deserve this treatment.

20 notes - Posted July 1, 2022

79k!!! I remember when I first started to follow the tag, it was like 20k something or even less. And now we are 21k away from 100k??? Oh man that's crazy to think about.

22 notes - Posted August 4, 2022

No matter what is gonna happen in vol 2, I just wanna say that I had a time of my life reading all the theories and analysis of you guys. Some people may say “it’s not that deep” but to me, what makes a work of fiction have a lasting impact is the fact that we can dive deep into the story, decipher the smaller details and see how it contributes to the larger picture. Arts continue to live on because we, as the audience, never cease to analyze and interpret it with different angles and layers.

In the months leading up to the release of reputation back in 2017, I read tons of amazing theories. Although many of them ended up not being accurate but looking back, I never regretted being invested in them because they gave me the thrills that only a well-done work of art can do: that there is always something more to what we see on the surface.

I’m not sure if what I’m saying makes sense or not because I’m so stressed out right now and English is not my native language. So in short, thank you so much for all the theories, analysis, and memes that you guys have posted in the last month. I will remember June 2022 for the rest of my life <3

37 notes - Posted July 1, 2022

How realistic should a work of fiction be? ~aka this is me rambling~

Warning: This is going to be more like me getting all of my messy thoughts out of my head than a coherent in-depth analysis. So read it at your own expense lol. Still, I would really love to read you guys’ thoughts and opinions on this topic. This is something I have been pondering upon for quite some time but I didn’t have the urge to write it down until I saw people on Twitter “arguing” over what a therapist said about Mike.

Also, English is not my native language so sorry in advance for any spelling/ grammatical mistakes or ambiguous/ confusing word choices. I won’t mind if you guys point it out for me.

First of all, let me start off with some chit-chats (you guys can skip it if you like). I have no intention of “forcing” my opinions on others so I want to make it clear how I am like which can affect my viewpoint intrinsically.

A few years ago, I generally didn’t care much about films or TV shows, to be honest. I did watch movie analysis for fun but I have always been a book lover and I tend to gravitate towards classic literature because they usually make heavier impacts on me (I may use some examples of classic lit later on). I usually opt for classic lit because I feel more certain that it has the thing I love - a character-driven narrative in which we get to dive deep into a character’s inner self, explore all their turmoils in exquisite detail, and observe a natural progression in their thoughts and feelings.

It was in late 2017 or early 2018 that I watched a video explaining the first two seasons of Stranger Things that I got interested in the show. It was specifically Noah’s acting and Will’s possession arc in season 2 that made me become a fan, not gonna lie. I was super excited to watch season 3 right when it came out. And … It made me so disappointed that I felt weirdly left out when other people all seemed to enjoy it. I thought maybe it was just me and I didn’t think of the show at all during the three-year period between season 3 and 4. I clearly didn’t know that Will is gay or pay any attention to the underlying problem in mlvn’s relationship. That kinda qualifies me as one of the general audience, right? Volume 1 blew me away and made me hooked on this show again. And then I came across posts and analyses about Will and Mike (in season 4 and other seasons) and I was even more blown away by all the subtexts and parallels (you guys are AMAZING!). In one way or another, I support byler because if it is really the direction the show is heading towards, it proves that the piece of entertainment I am consuming at the moment has so much depth, breadth, and width. And that has always been the thing that gives me an amazing sensation of blissfulness and satisfaction when I enjoy art. It makes me feel like a diver making her way down the mysterious depth of the ocean, being fascinated by all the questions and wonders.

Thank you for getting through that. Let me get to the main question now.

How realistic should a work of fiction be?

I have seen a lot of people say things like “Stranger Things is a show about a girl who throws off a car with her mind and alternate dimensions with monsters but gay characters in the 80s is where you draw the line, really?” Although I agree with the overall sentiment here, there is always something irking in the back of my mind about this argument, about when things should be realistic and when the writers can just do anything they want.

In this case, I won’t bring all the supernatural things into this discussion because I think the matter is not whether things are realistic or not, it’s more about whether all the supernatural elements really align with each other in the grand scheme of things, whether later discoveries explain or disrupt the set of established rules and norms (which can be absurdly unrealistic) we have from earlier seasons. Although there have been quite a few inconsistencies, especially in regard to the Upside Down as people pointed out, there is still the last season 5 in which more will be explained so yeah … let’s wait and see how it will pan out.

What I do care though is the characters, their personal developments, and the dynamics they have with each other.

Back to the therapist I mentioned earlier, I don’t know exactly what she said but as far as I hear from other people, she explained Mike’s behaviors in a way that is favorable to mvln so undoubtedly, mlvn shippers use it as their proof. Meanwhile, they are pretty much against an analysis of a person with film degrees and experience in media literacy. On the side of byler, there is an opposite response: more in favor of the latter, of course.

In my opinion, this is pretty much a gray area. On the one hand, I can see why people cling to the analysis of the therapist because characters are humans and their behaviors and thought process can be explained through the lens of psychology just as normal human beings. On the other hand, they are also fictional entities who play a part in a story, directly engage the audience into a narrative, and are the means through which the emotional impacts are created. Rather than seeing this in a black-and-white manner like “it’s not realistic to do this or that” or “oh come on it’s fiction,” I would say the boundary between the realistic and creative aspects is pretty blurry, especially when people are just talking generally about the show without specifically focusing on a character, relationship, or plotline.

A basic opinion that I first had about this is that: the journey that a character goes through should make sense and make the audience feel like it’s relatable to a certain extent (or at least understandable). But to adhere strictly to reality for the sake of being realistic isn’t it. That personal journey, with its progression, climax, resolution, and aftermath, has to serve a purpose, or in another word, it has to be purposeful and consequential.

People argue that Will being gay, in love with Mike and potentially having his feeling reciprocated + having a happy ending isn’t realistic because it’s the 1980s - a really homophobic period. They believe that it would be more realistic and accurate for Will to be rejected or something along the line. But if it is the path his arc is heading towards, then I wonder for what purpose then?

(This thought came after I finished this whole writing so I don’t know where to put it except here. Consider it an irrelevant note if you like) So … When I think of the word “realistic” when talking about fiction, I recall a quote that one of my professors mentioned in our class: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” I question if it can be applied in this case. Although the 1980s was not a great period of time for gay people, was there anyone who actually got to have a happy ending? If those people exist, is it “unrealistic” for us to tell their stories instead of the conventional one - the one with no joy and happy ending at all? OK maybe that’s not what realistic actually means and maybe I’m way off base.

To be as close as the reality of the time is an obvious answer that some people may cling to but is it enough to be the drive of the arc of a main character?

I am currently reading “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall'' by Anne Bronte and I am pleasantly surprised by how progressive the book’s ideology is considering that at the time it was published, women were devoid of any independence of their own and viewed as the properties of their husbands. To see a woman of that time (not only the heroine of the book but also the very author) deliberately going against that mindset is empowering indeed. The things happening in the book aren't necessarily “realistic” but sometimes we have to defy reality to get a message across and to create an emotional impact. Particularly when it comes to a progressive ideology like feminism or LGBT+ rights, by defying the reality, the writers are able to create a work that continues to be impactful decades or centuries later on. Or on a much more personal scale, we may say it’s a way of self-fulfillment for the authors who didn’t get a chance to live a better life (like Jane Austen with all of her books). Either way, there is a purpose.

On the other hand, there are also authors who don’t defy the rules and norms of the time and try to make their stories realistic. I always think about “Tess of the d’Urbervilles'' by Thomas Hardy in regard to this because that book hurts me like hell with its pessimistic progression and devastating ending. Spoiler alert, the main protagonist of the book doesn’t get a chance to escape the bleak reality of her life and the love story in the book doesn’t have a happy ending at all. Upsetting as it is, it makes sense when we learn more about Thomas Hardy. He is a person who is known for “his stoical pessimism and his sense of the inevitable tragedy of life.” Although one of his most popular books “Far from the madding crowd” has a happy ending, there are still a whole lot of pessimistic things and tragedies that plague nearly all the portions of the book. Also, sticking to a realistic portrayal of the society and having the characters suffer immensely can be a way of social critique, having the general audience confronted with unfairness and cruelty of this world, to encourage them to actually think about justice and equality instead of being indifferent towards those matters.

Now, based on what we know of the Duffer brothers (there are other writers as well, but overall, they created the whole thing in the first place so let’s just narrow it down to them), which side would you think they gravitate towards?

Depressing as the show can get sometimes, it still offers us a message of hope and optimism, as well as emphasizing the power of self-esteem, friendship, and love. As someone who has always felt like an outcast, a second thought, and someone who tried to seek validation from other people to feel worthy in high school, I find the show relatable and inspiring, and I believe that it’s the effect the show creators want to bring about.

If Will’s feeling for Mike is not reciprocated and he somehow ends up sacrificing not only his heart but also himself in season 5, what message and effect do you think that would bring? Not just in the LGBT+ community but also people who find themselves resonate with Will in any certain ways.

Counter arguments

One may argue that well, if you want Mike and El to break up, it would still suck because she has suffered a lot and deserves love and happiness. Now I would support this if it were not for the things happening in episode 9 and her overall character arc. To be honest, I didn’t really care about El in earlier seasons because I tend to just hyper-fixate on one character at a time. But there are aspects of her arc this season that I find particularly relatable and touching. It’s her need to feel accepted, validated, and loved.

At the beginning of the season, the foundation upon which she depends her self-esteem comes from the outside, which as we have all seen, causes even a lot more trouble to her mental health. All the bullies and harassment and then the lack of love received from Mike - all contribute to pushing her closer to the edge. At first, her coping mechanism is shrugging it off, putting it aside and pretending that all is good. It really doesn’t help that she can’t be honest with Mike about her struggles although hypothetically, they should be able to be so if their relationship is healthy and advantageous to both sides. I think all the lies are pretty much rooted in insecurity as she is an original person now without any superpower. She has been trying to find herself for several seasons but this is the first time there is no “superpower” - the main thing that many people see when they see El: a thing that they may depend upon in dire circumstances, or at worst weaponize for their own benefit. Her being left without it makes the issue of finding herself even more pressing because it seems now to her that she is no longer as helpful as before.

Despite the facade of happiness, all the distress is still there, waiting to surge up, breaking the dam when the time comes. That time being at the Rink-O-Mania. After that, we finally get the chance to see her true thoughts and feelings. We see that under the facade of happiness, those demeaning labels and names have really caught up to her and affected the way she defines her self-worth. It doesn’t just stop at “I’m different. I don’t fit in.” She literally sees herself in the worst light possible - a monster - something that brings destruction and death.

So the main character arc of El for the rest of the season (and I believe it will continue in season 5) revolves a lot around her defining her very self-worth (she alone knows herself best, not anyone around her; not Hopper, not Mike, her), making her own decisions despite the biggest authority figure in her life - Papa - saying “NO,” and most importantly, accepting herself (and her abilities) for what things are. If need be, she is going to use them in a violent way, like fighting against Vecna or the military, or use it to save Max - her dearest friend. When I first watched episode 9, I was a bit annoyed by the fact that they have El revive Max in such a way because it feels like they want to avoid a main character’s death. But when I ponder upon it a bit more, I see it as a beautiful contradiction with how her power has been used continuously in every season - something that causes damage and death vs. something that can revive life. There is no clear-cut definition like the monster or the superhero because these words imply certain qualities that completely contradict each other and cannot co-exist in one entity, that entity being El. She is Eleven and she is more complex than what those labels can ever describe.

Now this is exactly where I have issues with Mike’s monologue. Because he keeps going on and on about her power (a lot of which isn’t even accurate) and calls her a superhero. Many people have talked about this but let me put it down here just to make things clear: Mike is holding El back from her personal development. She cannot open up to Mike about her life in California, suppressing her negative feelings and thoughts all the way, because he has always looked up to her for her abilities and she can’t bear his pity if he knows the truth. She feels unloved because Mike cannot write the word “love” to her but once again she tries to put that aside. Mike’s words after she hits Angela triggers her traumatic experience at the lab - the one which makes her feel like a monster. And then when she finally gets to see that there is no such thing as a monster or hero, she being way more complicated than what others dictate her to be, Mike once again brings back the word “superhero.”

OK I didn’t intend to write that much about El, which is a bit funny considering that my favorite character is Will. I am feeling like I am driving at night without any headlight so let me end this part with a question: If she continues her relationship with Mike in season 5 without both resolving all the underlying problems in their relationship, it being the fact that they cannot really be themselves around each other and therefore, hindering their own personal development due to each being the main source of validation for the other, what purpose would it serve? What emotional impact and message can that bring about at the end of the day? What is potentially the climax of resolution of all these underlying issues that have lain around for seasons?

The psychological (realistic) and narrative (fictional) aspect of a character’s personal arc is so intricately interwoven to each other that to me, to erase one side from the argument (to completely cling to the analysis of a therapist) portrays a black-and-white way of looking at the show. I still love listening to character analysis of people who have knowledge of psychology though, because I love psychology a lot but I’m not going to forget that I’m watching a show in which everything has a sense of purpose and has to fit into a narrative. At the moment, we still have a whole season left and none of the characters have completed their arc yet, not to mention we are kept in the dark about some of the character’s actual thoughts and feelings and the only thing we can do now is deducing from what we see or hear from the show and other related sources of hint.

See the full post

42 notes - Posted August 3, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

PREACH!!!! OMG I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!

70 notes - Posted July 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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hwiyoungies · 3 years

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WHYYY why is this friend tattooing kanjis when she can’t even speak japanese what the fuck whY the fuck

#and she's like kanjis ooh so fun thank you for trusting me!#like dude!!!!! even if you stared at the character for long enough there's no way of knowing if you fucked up a line or not #because you don't know the language!!! and it's not just a cute accesory or a quirky thing to do!!!!#and even if you say you respect the japanese culture and language by doing this you're proving you do not!!!!#why do people love getting tattoos in languages they can't even read!!!!!#like sure i had a tattoo in german but at least i could actually understand the alpabet (also i covered it up now)#with asian languages (not just east asian but all asian languages) you can't even read what it says if you don't know it #like yeah you just did the kanji for wisdom but 1 can you even say it and 2 are you sure that's how it's done #are you fucking sure #the reason why i'm so mad about this is because she constantly preaches about respect and shit like that #she goes to the protests here she's very involved in the movement #but the moment that it's about other cultures all that speech is out of the window #and not only her but almost everyone here #and it's fucking infuriating #because if you tell them hey that's actually very disrespectful they come with the ''oh but then i can't enjoy other cultures??''#and completely miss the point you're trying to make #i called her out for wearing a bindi and she was like ooh ok i'm gonna keep putting stickers on my forehead tho #i want to call her out on this as well but i feel like i don't have the proper words to express why it's wrong #and i'm also tired and don't wanna argue lol #honestly if it was anyone else i would be like yeah fuck them #but it's the fact that it's so hypocrite of her that makes me mad #literal doble discurso y le importa un pico #b.txt #OH WAIT I FORGOT she also identifies as pan because bi is not ~inclusive enough~

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metalheadsforblacklivesmatter · 2 years

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I can't believe I forgot to do a post on this when I heard about it a few weeks ago.

The quickest possible glance reveals the racism in the Dewey Decimal System. We’ll use the religion section as an example. The 200s encompass all religion, nominally, although the problems with this premise are obvious. Each Dewey heading encompasses ten major subjects, dividing each up by subtopics that add digits to the end of the number. Six of the ten subjects in the 200s are explicitly for Christianity-related subjects. Three of those remaining are either explicitly or implicitly Judeo-Christian. Finally, at the bottom of the heap, the 290s cover“other” religions. Islam, Baha’ai, and Babism all get to share 297. Germanic religions get 293. All “religions of Indic origin,” in other words Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, get to share 294. Hinduism gets all of 294.5 to itself. How generous!

299 covers everything else, and we’re going to focus on this bit because it’s the most glaring example of racism in the Dewey Decimal system I can think of. You see where I’m going with this: religions Dewey associated with people of color ended up with way less space than the “real” faith. Not convinced? Fine. There’s a section in the 200s just for Black people.

The entire 299.6 subdivision is for “religions originating among Black Africans and people of Black African descent.” In fact, everything about “African religion of Haitians in Haiti” can be fit into 299.6097294, according to the DDS. Because at some point, someone — for some reason — decided that Haitian religions originating from Black people were not as important as “Germanic” religions originating from white ones. If that doesn’t make you mad, then you’re probably qualified to write a cataloging system in the late 1800s.

...

Thus do people of color get lost in the Dewey system. The problem with the 200s occurs again in the 300s, where almost everything about people of color can be classed under 305.8, “Ethnic and National Groups.” Within this subheading, Germanic peoples again get a relatively clean cutter — 305.82, to be exact. Meanwhile, 305.895 covers all East and South Asian peoples. You can probably extrapolate the problems with stuffing close to two billion people with literally hundreds of different cultures, languages, and collective priorities into the cataloging equivalent of a studio apartment. Meanwhile, Greeks get the relatively roomy 305.88 all to themselves and the British get 305.82. Because of course they do.

...

But even as the effective racism of the catalog wanes, the sting remains. The racism in the Dewey Decimal System makes the prejudices and relative values of its creator abundantly clear, and to a certain extent, it’s not really a fix to work around it with technology. After all, not everyone has equal access to computers, or equal tech ability, for that matter. A messed-up shelving system still makes a difference to them just like institutional racism everywhere still makes the world a worse place. Until someone revamps the whole thing, it’ll remain a map of Dewey’s brain rather than the foundation of a truly public library.

It's so weird because you see these beliefs that people are actively practicing and believing in categorized under "mythology" which frames them as "fake". I primarily noticed it with paganism and witchcraft beliefs systems (because that's all they really gave me the option to learn in school, even though I was obsessed with learning about other cultures and other religions).

But, yeah. Sky daddy is the only real religion. Stories of Hermes stealing Apollo's cattle is a "myth".

(Actually if you ever want to laugh at the ignorance of white people, read up on the mix-up between Apollo's and Hermes' staffs in the medical industry and read up on who Hermes is. I laugh every time.)

-fae

#racism #religion #library #libraries #dewey decimal system

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