not u people claiming the shitty fred from the Velma cartoon is a result of. racism towards white people

(this is long, sorry, I just don't have anyone else to rant to abt this lmao)

Ok I wanna start off by saying I'm white, so when discussing the portrayal of Jon as a POC I may make mistakes, and I'm sorry for if/when I do; please correct me. BUT I have been thinking a LOT about this lately and I gotta get it off my chest

A lot of the whole "portraying the TMA characters as queer POC" thing reminds me of that article/thread about how diversifying the cast isn't the same as actual diversity.

Black people's experiences, NB POC, and queer people's experiences are going to have notable differences from those of cishet white people. So writing a character as a cis or white or straight person and then just...making them a poc/queer person doesn't always work. Especially with things like TMA, because the whole point of the podcast is that it's based in enough reality that it could be portrayed as "real" or "possible"; the characters are portrayed as if they are real people, even sharing names with the actors who play them.

A white actor's experience is not going to portray all the same things as a black person's....a cis person's experience is not going to portray the same things as a trans person's. If a trans poc wants to headcanon Jon as a trans poc and it brings them happiness, that's fine!

But so often I see non-trans, non-queer, and/or non-poc portraying him as a black trans man without any real regard for what that means outside of "I drew a white guy but made his skin dark and gave him aesthetically pleasing top surgery scars".

Idk man. A while ago I was in a different fandom where for some reason abled people wanted to portray a notable character as physically disabled/ as a cane and wheelchair user. On the surface there was nothing wrong with it and you could have even called it "diversity", but as a physically disabled person who has used both a cane and a wheelchair, it really rubbed me the wrong way; I didn't feel represented and if anything it made me feel even more alienated from the fandom. I'm getting similar vibes from a lot of these cis and/or white ppl who headcanon the TMA characters as trans people and as POC. It's like you and others have said, it feels more fetishy than inclusive.

No need to apologize!

And YES. YES. "diversifying the cast isn't the same as actual diversity." This EXACTLY. This is how we get stuff like Hamilton and Shera other pieces of media, where Black and brown people are added onto stories to create an outward appearance of diversity, but the story itself is still deeply a white one, and in some cases the addition of POC in these stories actually obfuscates the existing racial dynamics!! (also looking at you moby dick musical). I feel like a bunch of white creators saw "we need diverse stories" and took that as their prerogative to start just unthinkingly adding POC to their narratives, when the call for diverse stories was never about them in the first place, but about POC being able to tell our OWN stories. A ~diverse~ cast means nothing if your writers' room is majority white, and means nothing if your story does nothing to meaningfully engage with the diversity it's using for its aesthetic.

With stuff like TMA, where a lot of the MCs are written as aracial (re: white), this is how you get like. Typical fanon-accepted versions of characters of color (as well as fanon-accepted versions for who doesn't get to be a POC: see martin almost universally being portrayed as a white man) on a surface level without anyone actually bothering to dissect what that would mean for the story. TMA already so deeply deals with privilege, capitalism, agency, and power, all of which are themes that inherently change if you make the protagonist a man of color.

If Jon is brown or Black then suddenly his interactions with the police and the fact that he is a victim of police brutality become very different. If Jon is a MOC then the abuse he faces at the hands of Elias, his wealthy white boss -- the abuse and manipulation that really is in many ways the driving force of the plot -- becomes very different. If Jon is a MOC then his bitter acceptance of his privileged and oppressive role in the apocalypse is VERY very different!! S5 especially is a narrative about privilege and power and what we do with it; Jon being a MOC in that narrative changes the entire character of the final season just as Jon being a white man in that narrative would drastically change the reception of it. How much would white ppl be willing to engage with this story if they viewed Jon as white -- as a white man choosing who to let suffer and who to let Gain power, as a white person claiming that he can be the arbiter of "fair" judgment on who deserves to live and who deserves to suffer and die? Would white ppl be able to actually engage with that, that dissection of whiteness? I really don't think so. I think Jon being a MOC enables a lot of white fans to distance themselves from the problems TMA -- in many cases successfully and many cases not so much -- tries to raise. I think white ppl making Jon a MOC often feel it exempts them from examining their own racial biases, both towards Jon and other characters, but also the very privileged biases that TMA itself addresses (and in some cases, the racial problems that TMA actually contains)

All this to say, headcanons do not exist in a vacuum. Projecting onto characters is all fine and good (hell knows that's literally how I write Jon -- projecting all my mishmashed identities onto him) -- but some careful thought into how we are portraying characters beyond "this is the typical fandom interpretation of him" or "I like how this looks" is...really necessary imo, especially when it comes to identities that you're not yourself a part of (this is general "you," not directed at u the asker specifically). There comes a point where your headcanon either is detracting from the text itself or complicating/changing it in a way that needs to be addressed; otherwise you're likely to end up lookin like a Fool TM /lh

why jimin who is under umbrella completely wet but hobi who is running through the rain is dry, or am i seeing things

they both seemed wet to me tbh? but i think it’s just poorly connected there, i think he just raised the umbrella only after having chased after them, that’s why he was wet, but it gave rise to some cute stuff lol

Anonymous said:like i want to refuse to believe the thing with jm and jh could be a love triangle like.. come on. its 2017.. but its what it looks like and :/ god

Anonymous said:i don't hope it's that simple, imma piss my pants then because they can do so much more than "oh i lost a girl to my best friend now i'm gonna cry in the rain"

that’s what it seems like on surface level and that’s really all we got so far, so yeah 3:

Anonymous said:Don't tell me what to do. Newsflash: You can't control your followers and I can unfollow at any time.

lol... what? where is this coming from...

Anonymous said:these vids are highkey disappointing me,,,,nd any1 i talk is like loving it so its comforting to see u have the same opinion,,,srry jus wanted to share i guess

Anonymous said:im disappoited and have no idea what to expect from the next video.. people are making me feel bad for being disappointed ): and i just hope theres more to it than what it looks like right now. please bighit dont ruin hyyh like this for the love of god. but on a good note jimin is the most beautiful man alive

more people are disappointed and worried, don’t let people get to you or make you feel bad for it, your feelings are your own! i think there’s plenty of reason to feel sad about it... bUT YES jimin is so gorgeous gosh ;; and the way he shows sadness through his eyes... ;-; amazing

Anonymous said:In all honesty this vid didnt seem all that straight to me (except for jin). It works in a "theyre just friends" perspective too, unlike the first highlight reel, which was definitely aimed to be seen as romantic.

i don’t know,it seemed very explicitly romantic to me with jk, namjoon, yoongi and jimin and jin like you said especially, i only think it’s questionable with tae and hobi, with him i didn’t get romance as much as like? a protective brother sort of feeling? 

Anonymous said:ummm have you seen how some ppl are trying to make those who dont like the videos look like crazy shippers and fetishizers of Asians mlm? They are literally trying to lie in order to shut down any criticism.

yeah i have seen it, it’s one of the reasons why i wrote that text posts urging people to always think for themselves before

Anonymous said:i honestly didn't think at first that they would do romances with these girls because look at how young they are?? they're like '00-'03 liners and bts are pretty much adults. but now after seeing this hr, i'm pretty sure they're going that way for jihope's girl and i'm just :///

yeah thinking of jimin crushing on a 16yo makes me highkey uncomfortable negl

Anonymous said:At this point im just thinking this whole love yourself kdrama cliché is just a way to Bighit to showcase the boys acting skills and get some of them acting gigs in actual kdramas. All of this seems to be just a huge advertisement/casting/job placement thing lmao

now THAT’S a theory lmao

i complained on twitter about how bighit might go the cliché route, but my mutuals were basically like "you're bing overdramatic" "bighit won't do that"....lol. i'm disappointed tbh everything in today's highlight reel was cliche and i feel kinda let down. at this point i'm only here for hoseok's background with his mom.

yeah tbh, i really wish i were wrong, i’m still hoping i am! with the interpretation i said before, that seems to be plausible to me even with the romance plots being meh, and just now i came across this thread, and while some of it is a stretch i really like the idea at this point, i hope it’s something like that, guess we’ll know for sure tomorrow ;-; i still have a glimmer of hope believe it or not... just the tiniest one though