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snowstormjonerys · 5 years

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So I read a couple theories and this one by @muttpeeta stuck out to me and I started thinking about a couple of things. And yes, the original leaks might be true but I am a delusionist optimist at heart but here goes. Putting this under a read more because it got long: Don’t read further if you don’t want spoiled to the ending of the show.

First off, let’s just consider the fact that they released these for Mother’s Day of all days and they’re pitting the Mother of Dragons and the Mother of Evil against each other for the Battle of the Mad Queens ON MOTHER’S DAY means nothing. I see you HBO. I see you.

I want to discuss the style of the photos first. They are a renaissance type portrait and were done by Ignasi Monreal who also does a lot of artwork and concept art for Gucci (check out their work; it’s amazing).

The art for this is very interesting a lot of ways but first we are going to talk about the most important thing: the fact that Dany’s hand is covering her belly in a protective manner. First off, this is a very specific type of Renaissance portrait referred to as the “pregnancy pose.” !!!!!!! So yes, Dany is very likely pregnant. Cersei is also holding this pose in her picture and she is known to be pregnant.

This “Portrait of a Woman in Red” by Marcus Gheeraerts II. This style of portrait was often done to signify the woman’s role in providing an heir. “ At a time when a wife’s principal role was to bear as many healthy heirs as possible to perpetuate and extend a family’s name and influence, such a portrait would act as a form of visual evidence of anticipated dynastic success. At the same time, the childbirth process was potentially so hazardous that the portrait might also act as a record of the features of a beloved individual who could shortly die.” (x).

So there’s the good in it: Dany is very likely pregnant and if the Spanish leaks are to be believed then Cersei is not really pregnant. Every single thing about her is false. She is a fake; passes off her bastards as fake heirs; she lies about everything and she is very likely not actually pregnant. She is the REAL MAD QUEEN.

Conversely, everything about Dany is good. She has freed slaves, helped defeat the night king, is the mother of dragons, and there is not a bad bone in her body. She is very likely truly pregnant and therefore can produce a trueborn heir to the throne. Therefore Dany is NOT the mad queen. Basically if this is what happens, Dany is revealed to be pregnant with Jon’s child.

What I think would happen then is that Dany and Jon would decide off screen that they are better off alone and away from everyone as they and their child would never be safe. How do they know this?

Dany spent her childhood in exile and was sold off into slavery. Why? Because Robert Baratheon wanted her dead. Jon Stark spent his life thinking he was a bastard because he was the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. He would have been murdered had his identity been found out. Their world has rules. In the Game of Thrones, you Win or you Die. What if the only way they win is if Danaerys “dies”.

What I propose is a fake death for Dany, in that part of the leaks might be true. Jon stabs Dany and fakes her death. Drogon carries her off. To the North, beyond the wall to Jon and Dany’s waterfall. Jon “takes the black” and goes North. Tormund actually factually said to Jon the north is in you. And Jon gives Ghost to Tormund saying the south isn’t right for him.

Because really, really, really, why was the waterfall scene in there at all.

“We could stay here a thousand years and no one would ever find us.”

“We’d be pretty old.”

They would grow old here together with their child. Make a home and a life in the far North where no one would ever find them. Where their child wouldn’t have to be in exile. Or in fear where someone would try to murder them. Let’s face it: Both their childhoods were not happy because men or women in power wanted them dead because they were a threat to the iron throne.

Dany, if pregnant, would not care one bit anymore about the Iron Throne. Her entire focus would change to protecting her child. They could live in the North. Where they’d be safe.

Where they could live out their lives loving one another and their child(ren). They could easily have filmed this away from everyone’s watchful eye. Just Emilia, Kit and a handful of crew. No standersby. They could have filmed it at the same time as the waterfall scene.

Because really in context of everything else that has happened this season, that scene is really quite gratuitous and in a show where perfectly good content is cut all the time for time limits, it’s hard to believe that this scene is in there for no good reason other than to give us a beautiful make out session at a waterfall. It must be foreshadowing.

Lastly, the frames of the picture caught my eye. Other than their house sigils, Dany’s has ice around it and Cersei’s has fire. A Song of Ice and Fire might well also be played upon with the Mad Queen/False Mad Queen theme here. Cersei’s is covered in fire and fire is even in the background behind her. We have all heard that she dies at King’s Landing, likely by fire. So it’s funny that the Dragon Queen who has long been associated with fire has ice in her motif of this Mother’s Day card photoset. Why ice? The white walkers are finished and have been. So icy north backdrop doesn’t really make sense. These were released May 1st. This just strengthens my thoughts on all the above.

And it would make good on the “A Targaryen alone in the world is a terrible thing.” They would never be alone. They would always have each other. Dany, Jon and their little Targling.

I know I am probably delusional and will probably have my heart broken all over again if the original leaks are true. But all this just stuck out to me and I thought I’d share.

Also if we get a better ending than those original leaks, then I will gladly wear my clown mask for all to see. lolz xoxoxo

#jonerys #jonerys end game #game of thrones spoilers #got leaks #jon x dany #meta

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dansnaturepictures · 4 years

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The third of my wildlife and photography highlights posts of 2019: My adventures in the New Forest this year

This post I include every year, and in the past have styled it as a talk through some of my favourite landscapes I took in the forest that year and then some of the standout wildlife experiences or vice versa. This year I am approaching it differently and I just talk through experiences I have had at different places in the forest wildlife or landscape, whether that is just a simple mention of one bird I saw there or one landscape I took, or a longer paragraph or part paragraph about lots I saw and did there in 2019.

Denny Wood was the second go to location for me on New Year’s Day for a fourth year running, where I saw lots of woodland birds and Redwing and Fieldfare were standout year ticks. I was back on a day off in late March when I enjoyed seeing two Stock Doves, my first of the year one shown in the first of my pictures this year in this photoset. I went again to Denny Wood in October when I was happy to see a Great Spotted Woodpecker feeding among other birds in the rain a standout moment. The first Saturday of the year saw Eyeworth Pond as one of a few places visited, where Mandarin Duck was a highlight and I saw these again at Cadmans Pool in early March.

A place in the forest I have had a very good year at in 2019 is Blackwater, on a February Saturday it looked very nice in the snow, and this day I saw two of its specialities the Crossbill and Hawfinch precious forest birds. I saw my first Bullfinches of the year there in March, and other year ticks Goldcrest and Mistle Thrush on my first visit there in January when I took the second picture in this photoset of sun shining through trees a very sunny and hearty wintery picture I thought. On the way to the February visit I saw my first Fallow Deer of the year, something I saw along with Roe Deers a week later at one of my favourite forest and general spots Pig Bush. At Pig Bush that day too I took the third picture in this photoset of some of hundreds of cattle we saw crossing the bridge which was interesting to see. On our next visit there in April I was delighted to see my first Redstart of the year very late into the walk just before we got back into the car, a really strong bird for this place and the forest as a whole, as well as have an amazing afternoon of seeing Buzzards four times and see so much more. When there in October it was nice to see some New Forest ponies wildly running across the heath in the rain.

I had a nice walk at Acres Down and Millyford Bridge in the New Forest on my first trip out of April, seeing my first Swallow of the year and three Brook Lampreys in a stream including their amazing stone “sucking” which made me think what a fabulous and wild place the New Forest is. I took the fourth picture in this photoset looking over Acres Down that day. I came back to Millyford Bridge on a day off in August getting great views of beautiful Golden-ringed Dragonflies along the stream, seeing this made my dragonfly and damselfly year list outright my highest ever. Also nice that day to see a Red-veined Darter, loads of Grey Wagtails with one unusually high up a tree and masses of water spiders on the steam. On the way out from the forest we saw some grazing animals with an adorable baby donkey that day and my second and third Wheatears of the year on the grass.

A Good Friday walk at Milkham became something of a spring classic for me, on a beautiful day the start of some really hot ones over that time it was rich in wildlife sightings, including my first Comma and Green-veined White butterflies of the year, first Large Red Damselfly of spring and first Cuckoo heard this year as I said in my favourite birds highlights post. My next visit to the open forest was Fritham in early June which was a really packed day too, I saw only my second ever Woodlark, my first Silver-studded Blue and Broad-bodied Chasers of the year, Cuckoo really well, Redstart, Buzzard, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Green Hairstreak, Fallow Deer and more. A stunning day with classic New Forest wildlife! Two weeks later the day after returning from Northumberland we went to Standing Hat, seeing lots of Large Skippers and Meadow Browns and my next dragonflies this year, two more of my favourites the Southern Hawker and Keeled Skimmer.

I had another brilliant afternoon in the New Forest at Whitefield Moor in July at the heart of summer, seeing my first Common Grayling butterflies of the year taking my year list to 42 making it level with my then highest ever total in a year of 2018 in 2019 I beat that total ultimately of course I took the fifth picture in this photoset of one there, my first ever Red-veined Darter dragonfly I did think this was a Common Darter initially but it was suggested by a kind Twitter friend I checked for Red-veined and I concluded it was in the end, many Silver-studded Blues, Keeled Skimmers, a young Redstart and my first Dartford Warbler in the forest since 2017. I took so many more photos that afternoon too like the sixth in this photoset. When back here in late November it was fantastic to see dozens of beautiful Fieldfares flying about and in trees, my first seen this winter such a nice memory with a Jack Snipe seen late on that day too. By contrast to the July visit this was a typical winter’s afternoon with rain showers and how dark it was with much of the landscape looking bare, but being out fairly deep in the New Forest it did feel very atmospheric like it so often does here in the winter. Due to an (as yet) unsuccessful period of searching for a regularly reported Great Grey Shrike in this area we actually came here the next two weekends as well going into December. On the second visit on the 30th November more Fieldfare views stood out. On the third visit this Sunday just gone after arriving after a shower it was a great sunny and nice wintery lit afternoon one of my best for sky pictures this year and as well as more Fieldfares I also saw my first Redwings of the season. I got some memorable and quality binocular views of a Redwing sat and Fieldfare flying on Sunday really getting to make them out. I also enjoyed seeing some Ravens and a couple of Fallow Deers running across the heath just before dusk.

I had a good time at Ibsley Common on 1st September seeing at least one other Common Grayling as well as nine Painted Ladies it’s been a boom year for this migrant and it was good to see some in the forest too alongside many other places for me. Small Heath, Fallow Deer, Kestrel and a couple of Whinchats the day after seeing my first this year at Farlington Marshes with a Stonechat were great things to see on this walk too as well as a pony drinking and wading in the river. A week later after our Cornwall trip that week I was back at Eyeworth Pond seeing a couple more graylings one quite faded as well as lots of pretty yellow Willow Warblers, Wheatear, Fallow Deer, Swallows skimming the water and still a good few Small Heaths about for that time of year.

In early October I visited Ashley Walk walking to Leaden Hall and back and on the way I was so thrilled to see at least one Ring Ouzel (we saw one flying then another later on so it could have been the same or a different one) only my third ever sighting of one. What a brilliant bird to see which this area is so good for on the autumn passage and this has become a regular place to visit for us in October because of that. I also saw Fallow Deers and some late Swallows that day which was great.

At one of the New Forest reserves Lymington-Keyhaven I felt I took a lot of landscape pictures I was happy with this year, the seventh in this photoset one on a sunny February day. I also saw a lot of brilliant wildlife here this year again, standout bird species seen being; Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Spoonbill, Bar-tailed Godwit, Red-necked Phalarope, Common Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Long-tailed Duck, Scaup, Eider, Common Scoter, Goldeneye, Marsh Harrier, Yellow Wagtail, Little Tern, Sandwich Tern, Little Ringed Plover, Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Cuckoo, Sparrowhawk and Peregrine Falcon. I was thrilled in July to see Common, Little and Sandwich Tern here in one afternoon which I don’t remember ever doing before. In early September I had a nice visit here generally but also a memorable one for butterflies seeing Brown Argus, Painted Lady and many Small and Large Whites. On an October visit here we got a really nice quick view of a seal in the sea my first ever seen in Hampshire. When back in November we saw a seal again even closer in the sea behind us behind the wall with the tide in. I took the eighth picture in this photoset, a very spring one, of a Lapwing with three chicks beneath it in April by Normandy lagoon.

On a sunny September Sunday we went to Lymington to spend some time in the Lymington-Keyhaven nature reserve open day. As you may have read my Redshank picture at the reserve last year was in the wildlife part of the photography competition exhibition there. The exhibition was on boards you had to walk past to get into the open day events. It was a moment of pure joy when I saw this and spotted my picture there. It was a really surreal moment I’d not seen one of my pictures at anything like this before and I was just thrilled and it felt like one of my happiest moments this year and in the 10 years I have been taking photos. What a thing to happen in that big anniversary year that I talked about a lot too. But what made it all the better was seeing my picture on two boards for the wildlife and landscape parts of the competition with so many incredibly high quality pictures of really varied subjects across this wonderful reserve too. Everyone involved should be really proud of their work in this exhibition.

The open day generally was a brilliant way to showcase this special area it had a great atmosphere. I first ever came here on a similar open day in 2008 so it was very close to my heart what a big part of my hobby this reserve is. I really enjoyed at the day too chatting to the many local charities, groups and wildlife experts, watching some bird ringing at the demonstration run by Wild New Forest and getting a rare chance to go into the private hide which was opened today to overlook Normandy lagoon. The highlights here was seeing two Greenshanks importantly for me that day with Redshanks too as well as many Swallows flying. Between here and a little look at Pennington before leaving I saw many Swallows and Red Admirals that day which was great.

At nearby Sturt Pond in November I saw one of my standout birds this year with nice views of two stunning Black Redstarts, I took the ninth picture in this photoset of one. That bright weather day too for our first time ever we walked all the way along Hurst Spit to Hurst Castle. We got our greatest ever views of the castle a prominent landmark here as well as looks over to the Isle of Wight very closely so places like the needles which was very nice as well as views all the way down to Portsdown Hill at the other end of the county as we often get from Lymington-Keyhaven.

Key birds I saw at outskirts reserve Blashford Lakes this year included; Egyptian Goose, Great White Egret (getting views of the famous one Walter with both Grey Heron and Little Egret on separate days in the same channel in front of Ivy North hide which was interesting for size comparisons) Yellow-browed Warbler, Yellow-legged Gull, Goldeneye, Goosander, Long-tailed Duck, Cetti’s Warbler, Bittern, Lesser Redpoll, Brambling, Sparrowhawk and my first Swifts of the year nearby seen from the car on a journey. A day that felt crucial to my 2019 at Blashford was 7th April where I went there and saw key spring sightings my first Little Ringed Plover, Blackcap and Red Admiral of the year and so much more. I went back later in April and saw my first Sand Martins of the year, some Mandarin Ducks for the first time ever there and the Bonaparte’s Gull my first new bird of 2019.

During my week off in August I managed to do an activity I often do with my Dad go on the New Forest open top bus tour doing all three routes. It was wonderful to see the heathland and coast beauty of the blue route seeing many House Martins and grazing animals too, some great water views like the one I took of Lymington river in the tenth picture in this photoset and dramatic dark cloud above heathland scenes before a heavy shower on the green route and the vast beauty of the red route with nice Buzzards flying over the bus closely. What a brilliant way to see and appreciate my beloved wild and characteristic New Forest from an unusual perspective for me with fantastic service from the staff and a very interesting and engaging commentary.

Every year in my autumn edition of these posts (this year my eighth of these blogs) I mention our trips to the New Forest so much when talking about mushrooms, autumn leaves, pigs that are released to eat the harmful to ponies acorns in the forest commoner’s right of pannage that I enjoy in the forest each autumn and more. I don’t feel the need to repeat that here so look out for that post if you enjoyed this one. Thanks for reading.

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icharchivist · 6 years

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@x-theskyatdawn-x replied to your post “@x-theskyatdawn-x replied to your photoset “huh hi, why had no one…”

TEACH ME THE LAVEN WAYS ;D

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

*annoncer from old movies’s voice* Do you like ships based on friendship? Ships with a lot of playful teasing going on between them? Ships with a lot of thematic parallelism? Ships with a Light Quote? Ships that will definitly break your heart to pieces? Then Laven is for you!

under the cut because i ramble:

I think the best way to get into this ship is to focus on them, especially when Lavi is in the back. Because… damn shit gets intense. Honestly i didn’t even expect to ship them, it started as a joke, and then suddenly it hits me and i was "…..oh” ever since. (which is basically what happened to Lavi im just sayin’)

I think something I feel really strongly about this ship is that, Lavi started the manga thinking he didn’t care for people all that much. We know, thanks to the novel, that he was indeed getting closer to people in the Organization, but he still was keeping distant.

When he meets with Allen, he imediatly starts to tease him. Something Lavi does with everyone, but what I love is how Allen does end up loosing it up around Lavi. He’s either extra polite with people (see with Lenalee) or he blows off completely (like with Kanda) but then with Lavi it seems a right ballance of him being still kind, but also still ending up wrapping into Lavi’s stupid stuff. They tease each other (the vampire arc) and Allen will be playful with Lavi, which imo shows he’s already more comfortable in general, since Allen usually keeps up the Polite Face he learnt from Mana.

Lavi on his end, well, he does evolve a lot around Allen. He starts the story rather cynical, but he grows so close of Allen that the loss of Allen hurts him far more than he expected. So much that he holds on the Ace of Spades.

you… probably heard me fangirl about this beauty, but you should definitly read this post to get exactly what I mean. I think appreciating what the Ace of Spades represented was what made me so emotional about them to start with.

The framing when Allen dies is so big. Anita talks about how she believes Cross is alive because it’s the only thing that gives her strength, and this sentence? Is said while we see Lavi contemplating the Ace of Spades, the card that he links to Allen, and that it’s when he thinks to himself “that’s right, Bookman has no need for a heart” because that’s the moment he realizes his grief is taking over the emotionless person he’s supposed to be.

Which goes on and on (and is even worse if you believe in Lavi = Heart theory, since long story short, the Lavi = Heart theory lays on the fact that we know the Heart of Innocence is hiding in the Order, it has been retrieved, and we know that it’s “creating dummies” - creating/modifying powerful innocences to hide among them without being noticed. And this point, the two innocences that changed were Allen and Lenalee’s after both of their situations have Lavi completley lose it to his emotions).

Some of the further serious moments, Lavi knows Allen is alive, he knows he needs to controle his emotions, yet he immediatly jumps on Tyki when he meets him, furious, because it’s the one who hurt Allen. Lavi “I have No Heart” Bookman is a bad liar.

Once Allen comes back, Lavi takes a backstep, but you’d notice though that… Lavi is always kinda close? He’s always in the back.

Until of course, this wonderful scene:

Nice Lavi.

^This is especially an interesting scene because Lavi had been keeping an eye on Allen ever since they met. After Lavi got to see the Akuma’s souls for himself, he was kinda disturbed by the fact that Allen could carry on smiling happily to not worry anyone while he was seeing those horrors all the time. I think from that point, Lavi started to see through Allen’s masks - that Allen’s smile was as fake as his, even if it had another reason for it. So Lavi gets to see through those smiles and acknowledge that Allen may be hiding greater pain than he may look like. (better post about it there)

The whole Dream with Road is extremely interesting too, but it’s explored in the Ace of Spades post i linked: Road kept trying to find ways to break Lavi. She wasn’t just awakening Lavi’s worst fears, she was reading his heart to know where she had to hurt. So she tried - she played around. She first had Lenalee blame him for not caring for them, she has everyone turning on Lavi, she forces Lavi to acknowledge he’s failing those people. But it doesn’t break him. What does though? Is when she makes Allen appears to him, gentle, softening that Lavi held on to the card for him without Bookman’s knowledge - when she shows him Allen being glad of Lavi showing his friendship - only to have his “Bookman self” kill Allen because “he’s just ink on paper”

And that’s when Lavi lowers his guard, that’s when he falls down, that’s where the Ace of Spades becomes a blank page that run out of ink. That’s when Lavi’s spirit got broken: by having Allen being soft to him and being glad to be his friend, before being destroyed in front of him.

And while it was Lavi’s weakness, it was also his strength - as Allen called for Lavi. When you see how the later chapters say that the call of your name by a loved one (even if the loved one is platonic, as long as the feeling is sincere), can bring back a wandering soul back to his body. And Allen? Goes on the whole fight calling Lavi over and over, and hugging him because “Lavi, can’t you heart my voice?”.

stuff i’m emo about: this^.

And eventually, it gets through, eventually, Lavi manages to deal with what’s happening in his brain, and Lavi takes back control of his own body.

He has no memories of fighting Allen, and despite being in pain, he immediatly starts joking off with Allen again while Allen is basically being annoyed that Lavi put himself in danger this way.

And then Joyd comes, and suddenly Allen isn’t in good shape anymore, and Lavi, with the very few strength remaining to him, that tries to protect him and i’m emotional.

And then, when they go back home - things go back to normal. Actually, Lavi tries to find opportunities to be with Allen. He wants to ask Allen to sneak out the Infirmry with him to get food (it doesn’t happen because Allen is already gone, but Lavi “I have no Heart” Bookman was seeking for such a simple fun moment with Allen) - or later, when Link starts to investigate on Allen, Lavi tries so hard to stick around. Like there’s at one point, Link trying to get Allen to answer questions and asks for Allen to join him in the library for it, and Lavi, who was chilling with Allen before it happens, immediatly goes “i’ll go check some book what a coincidences ~” and is just shut down by Link, and he stops following. In a way, Lavi just wanted to stick around. Hell you even see him brushing his teeth with Allen (and Link and Bookman who happen to be there too, but Lavi and Allen are the ones to talk and jokes together), and i’m personally a sucker for those little domestic moments.

It’s after Lenalee’s innocence change to a crystalization that Bookman becomes more severe and tells Lavi to focus on his duty as bookman, to not get closer to the innocence. And after that, Lavi starts to shut down. He gets distants.

Plus, a bit after that, there’s the Cross & Allen conversation about Mana - in which Lavi was forced to assist as a Bookman. He was clearly recording the scene, and he wasn’t pleased. He probably saw Allen at the lowest Allen has ever been, doubting even if he was ever loved by Mana - at a point in the story where Lavi was already knowing he was supposed to keep his distances.

And well of course right now we know it’s gonna abe suffering considering their situations but….

What I’m trying to say still is that, Lavi and Allen are close. And they get friendly around each other, a lot even despite those walls they built around themselves because of the choices they made. And by wording it this way, I want to point out how it plays on what I called Thematic Parallelisms.

Lavi and Allen’s storyline are heavily linked to their Identity. They are two people who picked a road, and decided to stick to it (becoming a bookman/being an exorcist) but on this road, they ended up having to make decisions between two conflicting part of their identity (Bookman&Exorcist/Exorcist&Noah). Suddenly they’re being asked to pick a side, to pick who they really are.

Not to mention, they are both characters with names that aren’t really theirs. We know Lavi changes name all the time, and we know Allen’s name was only picked up after the death of the dog Allen, since his name was originally Red. - meanwhile he named himself Walker after Mana’s death, he wasn’t named this way.)

They have such a duality, about who they are and what people expect them to be, and what they want to be, and what people force them to go through. They are both suffering directly from their bonds with the Noah (hell, considering Lavi is suffering especially because of the Bookman’s bonds to the 14th, it’s even bigger).

In the end, though it’s just - they are friendly and they tease each other so much they let each other’s masks fall down sometimes.

I love the fact they can have… just be dorks y’know. Like that time in the guidebook Allen chased down Lavi with Wasabi to have him eat it after Lavi took him a piece of food. Like they are just?? dorks??

Now don’t get me wrong, I totally get them as platonic, and they will always have an amazing dynamic no matter what, but i’m truly a sucker for Friends who just enjoy to have fun together, who tease each other, and especially, Thematic parallelism. Add a sprinkle of Angst with grieffing and fearing losing the other, and you got me convinced.

I don’t think i can explain it more for now since my mind is a bit blurry but o(-( ye. I. Really love their dynamics. And that cover i pointed out? It’s just one of those fun little moments between them i just love. I want more of that… especially since they will probably suffer a lot soon a ha ha haah aha .

Anyway hope maybe this can bring u to the laven side

join us we’re a few but we’ve been crying

take care!

#ichareply #ichashipping laven #ichafantalks dgm #this post is a huge mess thanks #i'm maybe a little too tired to do it and idk if it even makes sense but here u go

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ignaeflos-blog · 6 years

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Why would isayama need to include black people?

ok, prepare yourselves -.-

i’m gonna try and be nice, alright? you could just as easily say why did he choose to make Mikasa half-Japanese? Why bother including her full Japanese mother then *spoilers* creating a whole East Sea clan ?? Just a little something called-

*✧･ﾟ:* IDENTIFICATION*✧･ﾟ:*

Did you know Isayama never planned to make Mikasa half-Japanese? She was going to be fully Caucasian/west European-it literally just struck him one day (app. he saw some model/customer in a coffe shop or suttin) but I am 100% sure that wasn’t the only reason ; Isayama is Japanese. The manga is in Japanese. He is in japan.

Now I wouldn’t have batted and eyelid if the cast was all-Japanese ; like okay, it’s exclusively for a Japanese audience but the fact that Mikasa is the only one naturally stuck out to me-everyone else is white, ok cool, cool again this is something I’m used to in the anime industry-but then we’re told these are the last remaining humans on earth & i’m sorry but anyone would be like whoa hold up-no people of colour survived?? and it isn’t only until way down in the manga that we learn *spoilers* that no that isn’t the case-errbody’s chillin except for the poor eldians (ch 98 woop) so technically he DID include black people, like in one panel :)

NOW lemme backtrack real quick here-so we have this badass, beautiful female character who happens to be the only remaining member of the Asian bloodline within the walls-how bloody amazing must that have been for the Japanese audience, do you think?? It’s nice-hella gratifying, no? Ok now apply that concept here-how fucking lit would it have been to have a person of colour as part of the main cast? Listen, all it took for me to start squealing was a less than half a page panel of vaguely brown people in ch98, ok? I . was . on . the . floor . THAT even in it’s weakest and most diluted form is called Self-identification, mon ami.

What I’m on about is this: Isayama almost without a doubt decided to include Mikasa as Mikasa in order to better engage the Japanese audience which leads to the question-is that it? Did he not care to appeal to or engage any other group besides white & japanese people across the world? -honestly I don’t believe he was thinking that far ahead-he probably never thought snk would become what it is today BUT & here’s the big but-the rest of the cast says a lot about, not necessarily his current, but certainly previous mindset (again this is recurrent in the anime industry so i’m not really blaming him).

Having everyone else being exclusively white European, the amount of research & thought he poured into Norse mythology and German nomenclature-that was effort & required serious thinking outside the box. Did he not feel the need to do so for any other group-was it too complicated, too distracting or did he not have the time?? Who knows? And what’s more-idk maybe this is just me & I don’t know how much attention you’ve been paying to imagery/motifs, but I kept on stumbling on some very afro-centred symbols the largest & most obvious being the Marley continent-Africa, really? YES I KNOW it isn’t meant to actually be the African continent but still-to use such a huge, hella representative icon in a manga where there are no black people in active roles? Frankly it’s just odd, probably not of any significance to a non-black person, but anyone with roots in Africa would wonder-I honestly believed ‘shit is Isa gonna finally intro some black characters’ lol. Then there’s the whole ‘tree of life’ imagery and here one could arguably say that’s why Isa chose to centralise the manga around a more European/ Nordic culture WELL, here’s some news for you- The concept of the ‘tree of Life’ is rampant, absolutely rampant, in Africa and appears in so many cultures across the continent-he didn’t know? Didn’t bother? It’s a shame really because he missed the opportunity to combine two very different cultures with a central common theme which, tbh would’ve been bloody amazing in terms of the plot.

Maybe because it was just easier-I mean it’s just another all white cast except this time they’re actually tied to “Europe”/ a European-like setting. And ngl I kept on trying to gloss it over in my head: ‘it’s fine/its the standard/get used to it/ this is how the manga/anime industry is/get over yourself/it’s normal BUT IT ISN’T-bc that’s NOT how things are-there are poc on every civilised/man-occupied land on this earth & there are A LOT- they are the majority.

& NO japan is not oblivious of people of colour-the non-Japanese population is growing everyday-THEY KNOW VERY WELL who black people are (given the, lets just say, less than favourable representations of them in anime/media). Not as welcome as their non-poc counterparts, hmm? Japan has been conditioned (look at anime/manga character design in general fgs) to accept and internalise European aesthetics so an almost all white cast is just easier-easier to introduce, easier to implement-black character (like actually black NOT ‘dark-skin Japanese/greek/Spanish etc)? why tho? Why go through all that hassle?

Why not.

because these are people-and it’s so sick & twisted that we’re still letting things like skin colour, the amount of a certain pigment in our bodies determine how we live and think. You asked why do black people need to be in snk and i’m gonna rebut real damn hard (sorry not sorry)-WHY NOT? Yh maybe they’re not that tantamount to the storyline or plot but neither is Mikasa’s being half-japanese-Isayama could have, would have just created another Caucasian bloodline like the Ackermans. No matter how you look at it-it’s hard to refute the fact that he wanted Japanese readers/viewers to gain some form of affirmation.

And honestly (I shit you not) I could write a book but I’ll leave you with this: there was a post I came across when I first joined tumblr in the summer-it was a photoset of an artist who had done some snk fanart for a younger female relative of theirs: https://desertbl00m.tumblr.com/post/162481882946/vibraniumbabe-i-did-this-drawing-as-a-surprise

Look at her face-look how happy and overwhelmed she is-why does he need to indeed?

#{phew}#{sorry if this is somewhat incomprehensible but I hope you got the message}#{Now-this is MY OPINION & how I feel about the sit.-you asked I answered}#{poc = people of colour btw}#{well this exploded :)}#{are those smudges ink? or dark circles? ; ooc}#{fucking dark circles smfh}#¬¬what the hell...?¬¬#¬¬faces unknown;; faces alien¬¬

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