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murdockmeta · 11 days

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hi, im new here (not to dd just to the tumblr sphere— why does everyone seem to hate zdarsky/checchetto? i really enjoyed the first part of zdarkys run and i adore checchetto’s art + design, so idk what i missed that makes everyone who comicsposts dislike it so much??

hm. this isn't the easiest question to answer. there's a LOT of different reasons as to why people disliked that run.

tbh I'll admit the first 20 or so issues of v6 are kind of okay. not impossible to read. it goes downhill fast after that, tho. very very downhill.

here's this post by @/xycuro-illuminati that does a good job of explaining why so many people disliked the run. here's my post on the ableism in zdarsky's writing. trust me you aren't the first person who's asked this question before

i'll give you a more general answer of my own opinion, tho

zdarsky's writing misses what most consider to be crucial points of Matt and Elektra's characters. with this, he entirely obliterates their characterization and that really pissed a lot of comics fans off.

i would consider volume 6 to be the beginning of the MCU-ification of dd. it is clear that at that point, some higher-ups were pushing for daredevil comics to become more like the show. the show was a MASSIVE hit and they wanted to cash in on that. so, they had the writers start shifting the comics and the characterization around to fit the show better.

this is where the problem lies. it is insulting, honestly, to ignore the past 50 plus years of writing for matt's character to shift it into something that will be more palatable to live actions fans just so marvel can get a good payday.

the most glaringly noticeable part of this is - the catholicism. the live action show makes a big deal out of matt being catholic when this was never really the case in the comics. while matt being religious and catholic are present in matt's background in the comics, it's not even close to being a big part of the character.

one of the main things that makes matt so compelling as a character is his morality, his integrity. he upholds his moral code relentlessly because he believes it is the right thing to do. he believes everyone deserves a second chance no matter what. in zdarsky's run and in the show, matt's reason for upholding his moral code is tied to his religious beliefs.

here's a good post on the origins of catholicism being related to matt's character and how it differs from the show and why it is such an injustice to tie matt's morality to his religion.

it's really really hard to articulate every single thing that's wrong with zdarsky's run while also giving you a thorough explanation.

i could tell you about how zdarsky's original plot was focused around matt's guilt when he accidentally kills someone but... matt's killed people before. he killed someone in his very first issue. ever. he was chasing after the man who was responsible for his father's murder and scared him so badly the man had a heart attack and died.

all of zdarsky's plots and subplots are all things that have been done over and over, he just writes it worse.

i could tell you about how shitty checchetto's art is. he can't draw women. or fat people (foggy fans deserve reparations). toward the end of the run he gets ESPECIALLY sloppy. he whitewashed kirsten and sam.

i could tell you about how zdarsky wrecked elektra's character. he completely ignored her origins and the character development she's had over the course of decades of writing just to slap some random retconned backstory onto her.

theres so. many. things.

i got into the comics through the show. when I started reading the comics I honestly perceived comics matt and show matt as two entirely different characters because they just felt so incredibly separate from one another. it is not that there are zero similarities, but their reasons for WHY they are the way that they are diverge wildly from each other

i dont know how else to put it except to say this. when I read zdarsky's run, I do not feel like I'm reading about Matt Murdock. it doesn't feel like matt, it doesn't feel like daredevil. it feels like an entirely new character that I do not know.

to fully explain to you why i feel that way would take a damn book. i realize that my answer isn't at all comprehensive and some parts are probably confusing but it is impossible to pick a start and end point. that's just not matt. that's it.

#dd #dd comics #daredevil comics #anti chip zdarsky #asks #ren replies #ren rambles #anon asks #nonny asks

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lemonhemlock · 1 year

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on the bones of my previous reblog i would like to also add. there's this weird thing happening when it comes to rhaenyra's hotd characterization. the writers did everything in their power to sanitize her and make her as palatable as possible to the audience (and sell her as a feminist stand-in), but the problem is.

rhaenyra is none of those things. and not acknowledging her faults comes at the expense of her character. the writers can exonerate her for vaemond's death, pretend that the silent five do not exist and let laenor live to paint her as an lgbtq+ ally (dear god), but they cannot whitewash everything, since rhaenyra's mistakes are instrinsic to the plot.

so we're left with this situation in which they try their best to paint rhaenyra as this calm, measured, collected, responsible person in the second half of the season, even going so far as sacrificing other characters' development to prop her up (rhaenys & her granddaughters come to mind).

but. a person who has all of those qualities would never have committed the transgressions rhaenyra is guilty of in the first place. a responsible person, preoccupied by the "good of the realm" would never have run away to dragonstone, abandoning her small council seat. she would never have married daemon at all. a measured person would never have decided on such an extreme course of action, like banishing her own husband, father figure to her children, and then pretended she killed him for clout. a person who has such a hold on her passions (like adult!rhaenyra is portrayed on screen!) never would have had bastards, let alone such obvious bastards. a person who is so much more "suited to the role", a potential "fine queen" would not be such a poor political actor in that she'd become oblivious to how deranged her PR image is. her grand master plan to fix a delicate potential crisis wouldn't be to run crying to her dying father.

there is this disconnect between how the show is trying to sell rhaenyra to us and what she actually does. it feels very disingenuous and undeserved. if rhaenyra were allowed to inhabit her own flaws, fully own them - we'd be having a different conversation. or, she could have been portrayed as oblivious, but the show's framing could have sanctioned that, instead of tacitly approving and depicting her as the wronged party: actually allow her obliviousness and entitlement to be illustrated as character failings.

but, of course, then rhaenyra would not have ended up so popular with the general public. so we end up with disney princess rhaenyra instead, patron of women's rights and an ally to the gay community.

#anti rhaenyra targaryen #hotd critical [rhaenyra]

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usaigi · 1 year

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How MK can be Latino and Jewish: A Guide for Fanfic Writers and RPs

Thank you to @fdelopera for help me with this post

This is my headcanon (the canon in the Usaigi Fanfic Universe) and you're welcome to adapt it for your own works of fiction. Of course, this is not the only explanation and you are free to headcanon however you’d like* ** This is a long post but please read and reblog.

*as long as you’re NOT perpetrating antisemitic and/or racist rhetoric

**if you do use mine I'll be over the moon and would love to read it. Also credit is nice

In honor of Oscar Isaac’s actual ethnicity(Guatemalan-Cuban) and to stay semi-realistic to actual history, in my hc Elias’s family is mostly Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish from Cuba who left Cuba during the Cuban revolution. Wendy’s family is Ladino(a term in Guatemala for someone who is multiracial with a mix of indigenous and European ancestry. Mestizo in other countries) with Mayan and converso (Sephardic/Crypto) ancestry. Oscar Isaac, in real life, is also Crypto-Jewish (literally, “Hidden-Jewish”) on his father’s side, making him Patrilineal Jewish by descent. His father’s family are descended from Converso Jews who were evicted from Spain in the 1500s.

Nitpicking Other Fandom Explanations/HCs

I’ve read some fanfics where Wendy is Latina and Elias a non-Latino jew. I personally prefer my explanation because the actor who plays Elias is also Latino. And, (to me) having Wendy be the Latina convert and Elias the (American) Jew plays into the idea that people from Latin America can’t be Jewish, so I personally don’t vibe with that headcanon.

Both before and during WWII, there was a wave of Jewish refugees who sought asylum in Latin America. I’ve seen other fans suggest that the Spectors could be the descent of these refugees who settled in Argentinian (or another South American country that took in refugees) because “Spector” is an Ashkenazi last name and proceed to imply that they would not be “Latino” by blood.

Firstly, I’d like to point out that there is no such thing as being “Latino by blood.” In the same sense that you cannot be Canadian or American by blood. First Nations and Native Americans are the only ones able to make that claim but their history and culture existed before the land was called Canada or America. They are Inuit/Navajo/etc by blood, not really Canadian/American by blood. It’s a European idea. “Latino” similarly, is a European word used to describe an ethnicity; it is not a race. (x) So even if the Spectors left Poland/Russia/Europe in 1930s, settled in Argentina, and some generations later MK was born, MK would still be Latino.

Secondly, while you don’t need to follow my headcanon, if you choose to make Elias 100% ethnically European Jewish(white), I would still encourage you to make Wendy indigenous/multiracial. By making both sides of the family descendants of Jewish refugees from Europe, you’re whitewashing MK. Oscar Isaac is a POC actor, let his character also be POC. Don’t just make the character Latino, let them be brown.

ok back to me~

On Elias

“The majority of Cuban Jews are descended from European Jews who immigrated in the early 20th century. More than 24,000 Jews lived in Cuba in 1924, and still more immigrated to the country in the 1930s. Following the 1959 communist revolution, 94% of the country's Jews emigrated, most of them to the United States.” (x)

For Elias and his side of the family, him being Cuban makes sense. He could be the descendant of those who left Spain, Turkey, and Eastern Europe due to persecution and intermarried with non-Jewish Tainos/mestizos. Elias would still be Jewish but also have some indigenous ancestry as well. If Elias was in his 20s when he had Marc, his family could have left Cuba in 1959 along with most other Jews and resettled in the States.

Further reading on Jewish Cubans: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/cuba-virtual-jewish-history-tour

On Wendy

In my head, Wendy is Ladino with Mayan, European, and conversa(Jews forced to convert to Catholicism) ancestry.

Assuming that Wendy was also in her 20s when she had Marc, she’d have been born and lived through the Guatemalan Civil War/Genocide (1960-1996). For context, with the support of the United States government, the Guatemalan government committed genocide against the Mayan population as well as widespread human rights violations against civilians. Wendy could have immigrated to the US when she was a teenager like many Latine children did (and still do) in order to escape the violence and war. Then, she could have converted back to Judaism, married Elias, then proceed to have Marc and Randall.

How would the MK System be considered Jewish if Wendy were not raised Jewish, and converted in adulthood?

(by fdelopera)

Most major Jewish denominations in the US will recognize a child as Jewish if the mother converts before marriage. These denominations include Reform (Ashkenazi denomination from Germany), Conservative (Ashkenazi denomination from Russia), and Reconstructionist (Ashkenazi denomination from the United States).

Nowadays, some Orthodox congregations also allow women to convert who weren't raised Jewish, and consider the children to be Jewish, so long as the conversion takes place prior to marriage. (Ultra-Orthodox congregations are still strict about this.)

However, in the 1980s when MK was born, this was not normally the case. In Orthodox communities, it would be unlikely for children to be considered Jewish if the mother was not born Jewish, and there was much less awareness of Crypto-Jewish people from Latam.

There is a "relatively" large Latine Jewish population in Chicago (relative to other Midwestern cities, at least), and because of this, there are several Sephardic synagogues in the Chicago area. The Spectors might have considered joining one of these synagogues as a family. Perhaps Elias grew up in one. However, Sephardic synagogues tend to be nondenominational Orthodox, and as such, they would have been more strict about conversion. It is possible that they would have prevented Wendy from converting, and they might have gatekept Marc and Roro from their Judaism.

Wendy might have decided to convert Reform, since a Reform congregation would recognize her Jewish heritage, and therefore her conversion process would be much easier. Elias might have left his childhood synagogue and followed Wendy to a Reform Temple. (In the show, the Spectors are coded as Reform Jewish, and so this HC works.)

However, Reform congregations were not as used to Latino members in the 1980s and 90s, and so the Spectors would likely have encountered racism in these communities, even though the Reform congregations would have recognized Wendy as Jewish, and made it relatively easy for her to convert.

So, the family would have experienced possibly less racism in Sephardic synagogues in Chicago, but Wendy might not have been welcomed. They would have been accepted as Jews in the Reform Temples in Chicago, but they likely would have experienced racism.

So, it's another instance of the family being outsiders in their own communities, further marginalizing them. And by extension, marginalizing the MK System and making it difficult for them to participate in both Jewish and Latine communities.

What does this mean for MK system (and by extension Randall)?

The Spectors would likely have been the black sheep in their community.

Not really fitting in with the Jewish community (since they’re Latino) and not really fitting in with the Latino community (since they’re Jewish). They are Jewish, they are Latino, but not in “the right way.” While I feel like this is important to keep in mind, I would suggest not writing about this particular subject (“gatekeeping”/racism in the Jewish community) unless you are a member of these communities AND you have done your research. By making an auntie in your fic say something racist, you may be contributing to the idea that Jews are racist which could harm them in real life. By making a tia say something anti-Semitic, it could do the same. Even if you're writing angst/drama, I think I’m not the only POC who will say that reading stories about racism isn’t super fun. MK has a shit ton of trauma that you can explore without unintentionally saying negative things about communities you are not a part of.

But can I write cultural trauma I have a Jewish/Latine beta reader?

Don’t ask Jewish/Latine people to read a fic about our cultural trauma. It’s rude, it’s insensitive, it could be triggering. It’s not POC/Jewish people’s job to tell you when you being offensive.

I think it’s fine to talk about how they feel like they don’t fit in, but please don’t make your Jewish characters/Latine characters be racist/antisemitic.

2. Intergenerational Trauma

At this point, I’m starting to believe it’s impossible to be Indigenous/POC or Jewish (or Autistic) without trauma. All these groups have been victims of hate crime, genocide, and discrimination for most of human history. If Elias’s parents escape a war, that could have affected him. If Wendy lived through war, that most certainly would have affected her. If neither got help, support, or healthy coping skills, that would affect Marc and Randall. This is intergenerational trauma. This is why it’s a cycle.

Bonus: This is all great, all power and blessed Usaigi, but do I need to talk about all of this in my fanfic?

No, of course not. This is all just for backstory you may want to keep in mind if it’s relevant to your story. If your fic is a fluff piece about Marc and Steven going to the park, totally not relevant. If your fic is a flashback of when the system was younger, may be relevant.

#moon knight #marc spector #jake lockley #steven grant #layla el faouly #khonshu #moonknight #mk #usaigi speaks #usaigi meta

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beanghostprincess · 5 months

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Usopp is shafted by the fandom bc of racism mostly unfortunately but also I've heard a lot of people tend to not like Usopp because of how pre timeskip he's so cowardly or whatever which really throws me through a loop and floors me personally because besides the fact that he's my besutiful funny little guy for that, I also think Usopp isn't really that cowardly at all--I think he's brave. For the same reason why Nami is brave and why they both help eachother. They don't have superpowers or freak bones built into them, they are realists and grounded in the fact they know exactly what they're up against and they're just normal ppl against gods and bloodthirsty weirdos. And yet they both overcome that fear of...Dying and stand with their crew anyway. They are so brave and strong to me. Usopp is amazing and the reasons people have for not loving him to pieces are ones I always find quite shocking.

I agree wholeheartedly!! Tbh I've always thought Usopp was underrated mainly because of racism but being white I don't think I can make a proper analysis about the racism within the fandom because I don't get it first-hand. But I would love somebody to write it because I genuinely think it's very off-putting how the fandom treats him and I'd love to read it. So, if anybody knows/writes a post like that please send it to me!!

And yeah, most of the people I've known who dislike Usopp always use the "he's a coward" excuse when he's genuinely one of the bravest characters. Zoro, Luffy, and Sanji can rely on their abilities while Usopp is just- He's not built different like them. He's no swordsman. He can't ignite fire from his leg. His body isn't rubber. The monster trio is called the monster trio for a reason, lmao, and they're also pretty much normatively pretty and just guys. Like average guys. Don't get me wrong, I love the three of them, but they're extremely sexualized for a reason and it's because they're sooooo made for the male/shonen-gaze. And I actually love the Monster Trio because even if they're like that, they have amazing backstories and their personalities are extremely complex, even more if you compare them to an average shonen protagonist. But, you know, after all, they're still normative af. They're made for men to want to be like them and women to love them, so a straight white cis guy from the general audience will see them, and ofc he will resonate more with them than with Usopp (when actually the Monster Trio is also for the queers and their stories are wayyyy better than what the general audience ends up seeing, but the mischaracterization of these three is for another post, ig).

On the other hand, Usopp is not like that. He isn't normative. First of all, he's black (forever mad at the whitewashing the own show did to him) so of course racism plays a big role here. But also he's scared most of the time because he's not built like the monster trio. He's scared of dying and scared of being left out and a burden. He wants to be stronger and turn into the adventurer he dreams of being. Despite not having any talent (or not seeing his own talents), he still tries to train harder and harder every day to overcome that fear. Even when he's scared, he'll help his friends and his captain even if that means dying. And people still call him a coward because they can't fucking read properly and they just see the first layer of his personality. I honestly think people don't like him because they hate having to think and having to analyze a character that has more complexity than just fighting and being hot (two things that he also does very well, thank you very much). Usopp is brave and complex and he's so so so funny and enjoyable to watch. He's a relatable character for a lot of people and he has one of the most emotional moments in the whole show. Maybe the people who don't like him suddenly skipped Water 7 because otherwise I don't fucking get it. One of the things I love the most about him is that his dream is something he has to achieve by himself. A thing he has to do by himself and for himself. Believing in himself. Unlike the other dreams of the crew, because most of them are tangible. I know his character is often played for laughs but damn, his emotional moments hit hard and they always break me. I've always loved him and I always will and I will forever fight Usopp haters because I just don't get them.

People hate seeing complex characters because then they have to think instead of just staring at men titties <3

#i'm the hater of usopp haters #usopp defender for life #i luv him he's the love of my life #my cutie patootie #he's the best and i will fight for him forever #one piece #usopp

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sapphire-weapon · 11 months

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First off i wanted to say i appreciate you always sharing your true opinion without muddying it up too much or trying to appease people. The honesty is very refreshing!

Okk anyway i keep seeing this take going around and wanted to know your thoughts on it (i have my own, but):

Leon in infinite darkness asks shen may out to dinner once and then later is looking forward to dinner with Claire. Do you see both of these incidents as platonic? The first one reads as flirting to me and the last one seems like an intentional ship tease from the writers (before uh, yknow, making the encounter end on a sour note... look, that one hug they share when leon saves her is ship tease 100% they know what theyre doing)

A lot of people seem to think he is just innocently wanting a meal and I kind of get that vibe with Claire I guess but... ... ... ANYWAY what are your thoughts. I think people are just simply afraid of whore leon

The way I look at it is that my goal first and foremost is to analyze the story text in a serious way -- and it's impossible to have a productive conversation about narrative, characterization, and use of literary tropes if I treat every single possible interpretation of the text as valid. There needs to be some uniformity to what I'm saying, or else there's no point in having the conversation.

That, and I also feel like there's no point in having this little community at all if we can't be honest with each other. Friendships aren't built on uwu. They're built on a sincere exchange of common interests and ideas.

So, I'm really grateful that we've all found each other. It's been so fucking awesome to meet so many people who are genuinely interested in a literary analysis of RE's story and want to brainstorm ideas and piece through things together as a team -- because this has never been my experience in RE fandom before, over the full 25 years that I've been here.

I love u all very much ❤

Ok, so as for your actual question --

I pretty much agree with your interpretation of what's going on there.

People really need to get the fuck over this weird, puritanical pearl-clutching they're doing and being scandalized by OG Leon being a slut canonically. OG Leon tries to fuck Hunnigan at one point, for god's sake.

Because, like. If you try to handwave away or whitewash the way that Leon is pure testosterone; he's a walking hard-on looking for a hole throws himself at people, you're erasing and overlooking a really big part of his character.

Leon is lonely and he fucking hates himself.

The way that this manifests/the way that he expresses this is different between Remake and OG, but that fact about him never goes away. Remake Leon puts up walls and self-isolates as though he's trying to protect everyone around him from the misfortune of having to know him, but OG Leon does the opposite. OG Leon is constantly giving more and more of himself away in the hopes that, eventually, there'll be nothing left.

So, there's a few different things going on there when he asks out Shen May and then Claire in ID.

With Shen May -- yes, he is actually asking her out. That is a legitimate offer for a date that he will go into with the intention of putting the moves on her and having it end in sex.

He does this not just because she's a hot girl -- though, of course he does think she's a hot girl -- he does it because he feels enough of a connection to her that, if she were to go out with him once, he could use that as a way to trick himself into thinking he's still worth other people's time -- even if for just a few hours. Again: he's really fucking lonely. No one person ever stays in his life long enough to form a meaningful relationship with him (platonic or otherwise), but if he can take a girl out to dinner -- hey, that's something, right?

And if he were to actually fuck her, he'd be able to lose himself in her wants and desires for long enough that he can forget how much he fucking hates himself. If he were to feel her hands on his body, he would actually feel wanted for a change. And if he were to make her come, he would feel needed -- and, if he were to make her come more than once, that would be even better. (Remember: Leon is "The Protector." He needs to be needed. He's probably the master of foreplay and will tease and touch and put his mouth on a partner for well over an hour before he actually fucks them.)

And, ever since being kidnapped by the CIA, the only way that Leon has ever been needed or wanted or useful in any way has been through physical means and the use of his body. That's why he defaults to sex as a coping mechanism before he gives up and just starts drinking. He might not have any value as a person, but as a physical body and an object -- well, that's a different story.

Leon objectifies himself, is what I'm saying.

With Claire, though, it's a little bit different.

Yes, it's ship bait -- but it's very mild ship bait, because the context for this one is way different.

Leon isn't being sincere with Claire when he says what he says. He knows that Claire didn't call him or meet up with him because she wants to go out with him or is looking for a booty call. He's not stupid (mostly).

Leon is being sarcastic and self-deprecating when he tells Claire that he was hoping she was going to want to get dinner with him. It's a sad joke to him, because, in his mind, the thought that Claire would be interested in him at all is actually ridiculous.

Because Claire knows him in ways that Shen May didn't. He can't charm his way into Claire's panties by pretending that he's something more than -- or that he's someone -- that he's not.

Claire doesn't need him -- Claire has never needed him, and Leon has absolutely no reason to believe she wants him, either.

What good is he to her, really, when she already knows the truth? She knows that Leon's only real use is as a weapon -- that he's not good for literally anything outside of an active bioterrorism situation. She knows that he fucks up everything he ever tries to do in his personal life. So, why would she want him? Why would she ever want him?

She doesn't. That's why she's about to disappear from his life again for maybe another six years. Maybe more. Because he's not worth being around.

At least, that's what his brain tells him.

It's a really self-defeating mindset that turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Him talking about getting dinner with Claire is a joke, and the punchline is his own opinion of himself.

#resident evil #leon kennedy #meta analysis #every time leon looks into a mirror he hates what he sees #and while he can wear a mask around strangers #he can't around claire #she sees exactly what he sees when he looks at himself #and his own self-loathing tells him that she must hate what she sees as much as he does #when honestly that's probably not the case

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gritsandbrits · 6 months

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What would you change about Legend of Korra, to make it a better story?… Personally, I would NOT make bloodbending more overpowered then it already is (doing it without a full moon + taking away bending + doing bending without hands?!?)… I would also get rid of the ‘Dark Avatar’… I would also make all the Main Characters still alive (except Aang, of course) and they all helped train Korra … And Korra would never cheat on anybody! 🌊

The plot would still involve a dark avatar but it's very clear to be an impostor and fails in every single way. Each side (Red Lotus, Kuvira) tries to create their own avatar or give themselves extra power but it fails spectacularly

Actually, give the villains more personality i feel lik they were bland

Katara gets her own statue and play a bigger role by actively training Korra; she also has a mobile healing operation

Bumi II doesn't get airbender powers

Lin isn't demonized for being upset at Suyin. Instead have it where Suyin accidentally scars Lin's face and feels genuinely apologetic for it. Toph defends Lin and exiles Suyin so she can learn to control her temper. From there Lin learns to see hee sister has changed for the better, and Suyin learns to face her fear.

Mako gets more character development. I don't know how he just does

Bolin gets to stand up to Eska

Asami has more in the story

Iroh II is a main character, his arc is learning that needs to participate more and not let his nation's history hold him back he also meets great aunt Azula

Korra gets called out a lot more for her actions and learn from them, there's an arc where she learns bloodbending but in a twist she learns to use it for healing (say Asami gets badly injured and Korra heals her)

The romance is bare minimum. No love triangles.

We meet the other characters too like Sokka and Suki and their brood, with all of their kids being waterbenders. Mai is confirmed to be Izumi's mother, and Kiyi was confirmed to be officially adopted into the royal family, which brings us more relatives.

Tone down the violence some of it was not needed im sorry eek

Give Korra brown eyes purely out of spite

There is no romantic resolution Korra learns to love herself and others; she does crush on Asami and its left more open ended.

No convergence, instead it's more like "cracks"; random people start getting airbending powers albeit slow, due to the world naturally bringing it back it's still very minimal

AANG AND TOPH ARE NOT BAD PARENTS in fact Toph isn't even a cop but a probending coach.

Aang and Sokka also retain their features instead of being whitewashed.

#lok salt #anti lok #gb asks

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salvatoreren · 3 months

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In regard to your anti Rhaenicent about what’s the purpose of Alicent’s character other than being Rhaenyra’s love interest, I’m just going to say it: she doesn’t have one.

The writers screwed her up big time and this is something I’ve seen both pro Alicent and anti Alicent fans agree on. They desperately want her to be a victim of evil men because it’s the only way Rhaenicent can work. If she actively schemes against Rhaenyra then how can there still be hope for them? She needs to be a complete doormat with 0 personality, someone who is ready to set herself on fire just to keep Rhaenyra warm.

Who is this for exactly? Her fans hate it because they don’t want their favourite character to be reduced to nothing more than a glorified cardboard cutout. Her haters aren’t thrilled either because this nonstop victimisation is whitewashing her crimes.

Ryan Condal and Sarah Hess are ready for this show to crash and burn than accept they made a mistake by trying to force a ship that doesn’t exist in canon.

i totally agree with you for this, alicent has no purpose in the story but a perpetual victim, stripped of her agency, her ambition, all of that is reduced to her love for rhaenyra, that, all she did was for her, that she wanted to save her which is funny because you wouldn't constantly abuse, undermine or spread slanders of her and her sons if you love them so much, if you wanted to save or protect them. if you love them so much, you wouldn't instantly believe that rhaenyra would have it out for your children just because your father told you so...

when you think of alicent hightower nowadays, you don't think of the woman who herself made the green faction, who was her son's staunch supporter, who wanted it herself with no interference from her father that aegon should be king, no, when you think of alicent hightower, it's the woman who can't decide what she wants for herself, who is always fraying by the seams and always overruled by the men around her, who is rhaenyra's childhood companion, rhaenyra's so called first love and that's it. there is nothing powerful about her in the show.

and like i said, she's not complex as some may think she is, she's inconsistent, she doesn't know what she wants, she doesn't know whether to declare for rhaenyra or aegon when she has constantly worked hard for the latter to seat the throne, she switches it up every once in a while and you might argue, that's realistic, it's not, because, alicent clearly has ambitions that has been solidified for 10 years but that one moment she hurt rhaenyra, suddenly she forgets what she wants? as if she didn't abuse rhaenyra for those 10 years, like what.

in my opinion, rhaenicent could still work, young them of course but ultimately they chose themselves, that's why i vehemently hate this ship because of how much it's been shoved in our throats that there is still hope after all the atrocious shit they've done to each other, why couldn't their death be the fact that alicent ultimately chose power for herself? why did it have to be that she waged war because she was lied to?

let alicent plot against rhaenyra, let rhaenyra be brutal, be indifferent to alicent, let them fight each other but because it is of their own accord; that alicent cared more about her son's claim, that rhaenyra cared more about hers. not because they are forced to by the men in their lives.

but it's misognystic???? yeah, well there are many positive female friendships in f&b; rhaenyra/laena, rhaenys/rhaenyra, that were erased just to show that the patriarchy will always turn women against each other and how that's bad.

#thanks for the ask!#i completely forgot bcus i was sick #anti rhaenicent #anti alicent hightower #anti show alicent #hotd

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admirableadmiranda · 1 year

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Hello! I really enjoy reading your posts, especially the Jiang Cheng posts. I'm actually noticing an absurd pattern regarding many blogs who post about him. When referring to people who use Jiang Cheng's pain and grief as an excuse to justify him torturing innocents and leading the siege, they are referred as "JC stans."

However, should they not be called as anti-fans or toxic fans? Because in whitewashing his character, they are doing a disservice by making him an uninteresting or a one-dimensional character.

Jiang Cheng is a likeable character because although we can understand the depths of his grief and suffering, we cannot justify his actions as trauma responses.

What am I to call myself, then? I'm someone who enjoyed the complexity of Jiang Cheng's character and like both canon and fanon takes, but I also do not excuse his horrible actions.

It's confusing liking a morally grey character, after all.

(Additional note: I'm currently reading TGCF, and have not begun MDZS novels. I have watched the donghua and Untamed and know that his character was softened.)

Hi! Glad to hear you enjoyed my posts.

Honestly, the reason why I call them JC stans is because that is what they called themselves first. They were happy to say it when there weren’t as many people calling them out for whitewashing the character and demonizing the others around him because of how they responded to their actions, I got called an anti and a hater for not approving of this course of action especially as Jiang Cheng himself became unrecognizable to the character they put forth, it is very much a form of stanning. It goes far beyond a regular fan status and starts to take on almost obsessive qualities. A stan is a toxic fan, it’s not really a label you want to bear with pride.

(Admittedly calling them antis would probably be funny, but I just don’t have the energy to continue to embroil myself in fandom fights and I prefer to stay in my corner. But your point stands that they are not exactly fans of the character himself, given that all of his actions are excused, erased or justified away and many of his personality traits are stripped to make a more palatable flat character instead of the rich one with depth in canon)

I would say just call yourself a fan. I respect people who like him as he is. He is not without his interesting qualities, he serves the story incredibly well as a personal antagonist to Wei Wuxian and he is not without depth. There really isn’t anything wrong with enjoying fanon. I have enjoyed some jc fanon takes in my day and will probably enjoy more in the right stories. You’re aware of him as he is, so what’s wrong with calling yourself a fan of him? Own the word with pride. You like Jiang Cheng, both in his canon form and with some fanon around him. What’s so wrong with that?

(Welcome to MXTX fandom! It’s an interesting place at times, sometimes a little stressful. I hope you enjoy tgcf! If you’d like access to the Exiled Rebels Translation as well, just send me a message and I can hook you up with another translation)

#mdzs #asks #jiang cheng #canon jiang cheng #I don’t have a problem with people who like him #I just have a problem with people bashing other characters; especially the leads for not wanting to deal with him

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zevraholics · 2 years

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ZevWarden Week 2022

What is it? A week (this year, September 4th - 10th) of creating new fan content, sharing it, and celebrating the wonderful relationships between your favourite Grey Warden(s) and Zevran Arainai. How to participate: Feel free to follow the daily prompts as inspiration for whatever ZevWarden-related content your heart desires. Fics, art, meta discussions - everything goes! Remember to tag your works appropriately (ie. #nsfw or #zevistair) and most of all, have fun!

Prompts:

Sunday, September 4: Culture

Monday, September 5: Gold

Tuesday, September 6: Fights and Reconciliation

Wednesday, September 7: Alternate Universes

Thursday, September 8: Promises

Friday, September 9: Death

Saturday, September 10: Seasons

Like previous years, we took each prompt and gave it two different spins. Choose whichever inspires you, or take the base prompts in your own direction!

Tag your content with #zevwarden week 2022 or tag us on your post and we’ll reblog it here. *Any art found to be whitewashing Zevran will not be shared.

Day 1 - Sunday, September 4 - Culture

Culture shock "Now, if it is all the same to you, I would prefer not to speak more of Antiva. It makes me wistful and hungry for a proper meal." What does Zevran think about life in Ferelden that we don't get to see in-game? If your Warden and Zevran ever travel anywhere else, what's familiar and what comes as a surprise?

Cultural exchange "Loving a place is not the same as never desiring to be elsewhere." Either at home or abroad, do the Warden and Zevran experience new foods, festivals, or traditions together? How do Zevran and the Warden deal with their cultural differences and similarities?

Day 2 - Monday, September 5 - Gold

Trinkets "You do seem to stumble onto treasure on a regular basis, somehow." Between the infamous earring and all the looting the Warden does over the course of the Blight, it’s easy for the pair of them to accumulate quite a few trinkets. Are there any things in particular they each collect? What kinds of things do they save for each other?

Money "Ah, the bustle of a market district! The pickpocket's home away from home!" We know a little bit about Zevran's relationship to money, but what about the Warden's? Do Zevran and the Warden have enough of it, post-Blight? Do they have more than they know what to do with? How do they make a living and how do they spend what they've got? Also fun for this prompt: stories about stealing or bartering.

Day 3 - Tuesday, September 6 - Fights and Reconciliation

Arguments "You are a very frustrating person to deal with, do you know that?" Do the Warden and Zevran ever fight, either verbally or with weapons? Perhaps your Warden or Zevran (or both) get into a disagreement with somebody else. How do they resolve it or fail to resolve it?

Kiss and make-up "Running a bit hot and cold, are we? Fair enough. Let's get back to business." What helps the Warden and Zevran deal with tension after a tough moment? Are they quick to forgive or does it take them a little longer to work things out? Do they prefer to work things out with conversation or more physically?

Day 4 - Wednesday, September 7 - Alternate Universes

Variations on DAO "Taliesen offered to come to the ambush with me and I said, 'Taliesen, I don't need any help. This Grey Warden is a new recruit. How hard could it be?' But then, if I had been more open-minded to his help, either you would be dead or I would be. So it was better I refused. Huh." What would happen if Zevran met your Warden before the contract? Does your Warden end the Blight in a way the game's endings don't allow? This version of the prompt is for reimagining the story of DAO in a new way.

Completely new setting "I feel like we've just entered a Grand Cleric's bedchambers, where no one has gone before." Got an idea for the characters as vampires, mermaids, or living in a painstakingly historically accurate Qing Dynasty, China? The crew playing D&D in a college AU? Go wild.

Day 5 - Thursday, September 8 - Promises

Promises kept "In truth, for the chance to be by your side, I would storm the Dark City itself." Which promises do Zevran and the Warden make to each other? How do they come to make those promises? Are there ever moments when there is a price to be paid for keeping a promise?

Promises broken "What are promises? There are many kinds, spoken and unspoken, and yet we break them all the same, yes? They do not matter." Do Zevran and the Warden ever break a promise made to each other? Why do they break it—is it for a good reason? How does the other party react?

Day 6 - Friday, September 9 - Death

Near-death experiences "I landed in the river and nearly drowned. I was fished out by some urchins who robbed me blind. Made off with my boots, too. At least they didn't cut my throat." Zevran and the Warden meet for the first time in a failed assassination attempt. Whether dramatic or humorous or some of both, Zevran and the Warden have had many brushes with death in their adventures. Share a moment from one of those times.

Laid to rest "It's unfortunate, but death comes to us all. If not me, then some wasting disease. Or a fall down the stairs.Or at the hands of a darkspawn. It's all relative, in the end." No one escapes death. This is the prompt to share a moment of triumph after a battle, complex feelings after a successful assassination, or offer a character a peaceful death at home.

Day 7 - Saturday, September 10 - Seaons

Seasons of the year "In Antiva it rains often, but the flowers are always in bloom... or so the saying goes." Do Zevran and the Warden celebrate holidays together? Which, and how? Does Zevran struggle with Fereldan winter, and the Warden with Antivan summer? What specific activities do they enjoy doing in each season?

Seasons of life "It's true. I live a charmed life. One of the prostitutes that raised me was a fortune teller. Said I wouldn't die young. She was rather startled by that." As characters hit new life milestones and grow older, what is a significant event that happens in their lives together? Did either of them expect or even wish for that milestone to happen in their life?

#zevwarden week 2022 #zevwarden week #zevwarden #zevran x warden #zevran arainai #zevran #dragon age #dragon age origins #dragon age fanfiction #dragon age fanart #zevraholics anonymous

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princesssarisa · 7 months

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The staging of death is always important. Since I made a poll some time ago about the different stagings of Don Giovanni's doom, I thought I'd make a similar poll for the other most famous "seductive" character in opera. Of course there's not as much wild variety for the staging of Carmen's death as for Don Giovanni's, because she's just murdered, not supernaturally dragged to hell. But directors have still found ways to be creative.

It's interesting that while the libretto's stage directions call for Carmen to try to escape from José's knife, far more productions have her accept her fate. I suppose this is because in Prosper Mérimée's original book, she accepts her fate and doesn't try to escape. Yet the opera's librettists wrote that their Carmen was different in some ways from Mérimée's Carmen – they weren't trying to write a direct page-to-stage translation. Personally, I think it works either way. It makes sense for a person as strong-willed as Carmen to struggle to survive to the very end, despite the fate she read in the cards, but it also makes sense for her to bravely accept her fate and die with dignity rather than give up her freedom.

That said, I also like Sir Peter Hall's third option from his Glyndebourne staging with Maria Ewing, where she calmly crosses the stage toward the bullring, past José, still wanting to live but resigned with dignity to whatever José chooses to do.

I also like the staging from the first production I ever saw onstage, which I've also seen in a few YouTube videos, which is Option #5: José draws his knife and Carmen calmly offers him her chest, but then he can't bring himself to stab her, and she laughs at him and starts to walk toward the bullring... only for José to finally snap, run after her, and stab her after all.

I think the few stagings that have Carmen and José's movements explicitly mirror a bullfight are interesting too, especially because they vary in which character is the toreador and which is the bull.

As for the suicidal Carmens in the last two options... I'm not sure. I think it would work best in a production which made it clear that Carmen wasn't happy being constantly chased by men and having to use her sexuality to get by. She would have to realize that her only way to be completely free is to die. In that light, I might approve of a suicidal staging because it gives Carmen more agency over her fate. But at the same time, it might whitewash José's character too much by reducing his ultimate guilt.

I look forward to seeing how people vote on this subject!

@simone-boccanegra, @paexgo-rosa, @supercantaloupe, @notyouraveragejulie, @leporellian, @ariel-seagull-wings

#opera #carmen #georges bizet #poll #staging #tw: death #tw: murder #tw: suicide #tw: stabbing

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skydalorian · 4 months

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Yet Another Distressing Wyll Mod

Another mod white-washing Wyll was uploaded on 11 January, 2024.

The mod is called "Wylls of Toril" and is created by Fesstrom, who has no other character mods in their history (and only one other mod, a nice mod which adds a popular Wyll hair-mod to his portraits). This is not necessarily indicative of malicious intent, but it does fit the pattern of prior modders who have little to no history other than a fresh account seemingly created for the sole purpose of offering a mod that alters Wyll's appearance, typically in order to make him appear less black.

The mod was originally posted with three screenshots of an alternate model for Wyll's face, along with three different skin-tones, two of which were a light and dark shade of brown, and one of which was white.

I am going to go into some detail below. I am willing to create more of a point-by-point breakdown and get into even further detail, but wanted first to share the basic description and screenshots. I am hesitant to go into a lengthy break-down from the get-go or without request, lest I be leading or present my own biases, upset, and bitterness as something more than my subjective experience. The more I can stick to the screenshots and links, the better.

Further details under the cut!

I (sanguinarialroot on Nexus) and others attempted to point out the racism inherent to this mod, with some overtly accusing the modder of deliberate racism, and other's detailing the issues without any comment on whether the mod was deliberately racist in intention outside of the operation and reception.

There is also a Reddit thread focused on this subject, and to which I contributed multiple comments (and a lengthy, distressing, thoroughly depressing dialogue with a lengthy, distressing, and thoroughly depressing person towards the tail end of a few comment threads... Trigger warning for a host of manipulation tactics or bad-faith dialoguing, as well as racism denial and baiting someone to share their race and then denying said race.)

I also have screenshots of my posts (the link clicks through to IMGUR) detailing the experience, many of which have since been removed due to reasons that the modder only scrambled to add as qualifying for removal AFTER I'd typed up my comments. This is presumably still being done for other users' as the mods post's count has hovered near 65 for around 24 hours now, despite it's prior post progression having rapid accumulation of comments in the hours closer to it's release.

Please read the comments on the screenshots, as I break down quite a bit of what occurred with a bit more detail and chronological progression than I would on a post in this form!

ONTO SOME POSITIVES (if they can be called as much...)

The modder later added another face model for Wyll, which appears to be their original model, with a wide nose and slightly thicker lips. This was done per another user's request. I'm going to be honest, I didn't notice this "fix" until long after my last posting before I was banned. It does not look quite so different from the modder's original alternate head, but I still regret that I did not acknowledge a potential attempt to improve. Of course, the damage was done and it does not absolve the modder, but it was an acknowledgement of a potential issue.

I would also like to thank the modder for remaning civil throughout the comment process! At no point did they speak lewdly or with hostility, and at no point did my banning seem like a drastic response. I can respect the modder's prerogative to remove me from the conversation towards the end. That doesn't mean I tolerate rampant censorship and lack of equitable culling towards their sycophants all across the board, but at least they weren't belligerent or overtly incendiary via their rhetoric.

CW/TW: Mention of racism + racism denial + race denial + whitewashing + and inclusions of links to message boards that include quite a hefty amount of racism + manipulative commenting + foul language + censorship + dismissiveness towards those attempting to criticize or call out what can easily be perceived as a racist project and racist messaging from the modder and/or commenters.

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clonehub · 1 year

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someone in the tags of that meme said they dont understand why tbb stans take criticism of their shows so personally. while i have a range of theories as to why, in general, fans of a show cannot just let people not like the show, the tbb stans in particular seem to....idk, think the bad batch is Doing Something? i did literally see someone say that you cant criticize the show because the animators work so hard on it, and they conflated negative feelings about the series with a lack of desire to see *any* aspect of the Bad Batch, like "yeah youre complaining but look at these nice visuals do you not want those anymore???" which was a false equivalency.

and of course there's the whole fandom-as-identity and stan-as-personality and a lot of people's growing inability to take variegated and holistic approaches to the series. even the ones who admit that the show has flaws regarding how they write wrecker seem to be unable to realize/point out that wrecker's writing is problematic because it is racist.

racism as a factor in the poor quality of the writing is one that ive noticed gets ignored almost COMPLETELY. i and others like me who do not like the bad batch are able to point out the stereotypes and poor optics and everything else while talking about the writing. people who love the bad batch cannot. i guess because then, admitting that the writing and animation are inextricably racist would make them look a little silly for loving the show so much, because you can say the character development was slow but you still love it. but you can say "yeah he's a racial stereotype and there was a weird reverse racism thread to their back story and they do make efforts to prove these white characters are better than these nonwhite ones--but i still love it".

but in general, since ive deviated a little, like....i remember when uwwtbb first came out and it was *incredibly* difficult for people to separate themselves from what they were consuming. people complained about the racism in the show and they complained about the more or less explicitly racist fans of the bad batch and you had other stans (who often had to bring up that they were poc, but obv not always) saying "well im not a bad person for watching the show" or asking if they could watch it. like i cant control what you watch. me passing judgement on you specifically makes no sense. although one does have to consider how much they're willing to tolerate, praise, or brush aside for the sake of their own personal entertainment. i am watching season 2 of the bad batch to keep track of any other racist developments that happen (which, thankfully, have been minimal). you are watching because you find joy in it. we are not the same. we dont need to be.

but connecting to what id said earlier about tbb stans i guess not understanding their own "buying power", so to speak--if criticizing a show means criticizing the people who watch the show, and if a lot of people who watch the show definitely don't care about the whitewashing that much, then there is no sense in acting shocked when the by products of a racist show are racist. the confusion over tech's 1/6th model as if he doesn't look like a boring white man in the series was irritating. you asked for this. you can't say tech is hot and you can't spread whitewashed fanart and you cannot implicitly and explicitly support the racist design and then turn around and be surprised when you are given exactly what you asked for.

#ch posts #this fandom era sucks balls ngl #long post #or it may not be that long #i am on mobile #whats awful about this is the discrepancy in what people consider important #to talk about #how i cant really talk about the racism in the series or peoples responses to it as much as id like #because a) no traction b) harassment #idk this post is kinda all over the place but again like #''why are you saying i suck because i like a show that sucks?'' i wonder how many people are saying that #how many people are saying that specifically and how many people are more specific about it #maybe you suck because youve made it clear the whitewashing is inconsequential to you #maybe thats what some folks are saying #maybe dont refuse to point out a problem and then be surprised when it is not fixed

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ooops-i-arted · 1 year

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Some fans really just make Barriss Offee's identity all about Ahsoka, when Barriss was de aged (she was originally a skilled knight around the same time as Anakin) and she was turned into a damn terrorist (fuck Filoni for that) to prop up Ahsoka's story.

Yeah for real. And she was a really cool character on her own! It's been years since I read the MedStar books or The Approaching Storm but I remember liking her and of course I enjoyed her and Luminara's scene of defending themselves in the Jedi Temple in the original Clone Wars. Also her and Luminara were a very clear example of Jedi allowing their members to have connections to their homeworld and home cultures - Mirialans are described as having a spiritual connection to/interpretation of the Force and it's quite telling imo that Barriss and Luminara are paired as master and student (presumably by mutual choice, as this was supposed to be the norm originally like in the Jedi Apprentice series, NOT how in TCW Ahsoka was randomly assigned to Anakin), so Barriss can learn from someone who is not only a Jedi but also of the same culture and belief system as her. But that doesn't fit Filoni's narrative of "Jedi have no attachments and are emotionless."

The terrorist thing is Bad when Barriss is a Muslim-coded character. This post explains better than I could, as the op is Muslim themselves. I've never watched that TCW arc (quit at Mortis in season 3 because it was so fucking stupid) and I am no expert on Islam but what I've heard secondhand via Tumblr osmosis really sets my This Ain't Right alarm bells off, especially since there is a LOT of Islamophobic comments and content here in America and I remember it being especially bad when the show was airing.

Obviously that's bad enough but combine with the fact that none of the clones look remotely like Temuera Morrison and have had their features whitewashed, the "main" clone Rex has also been made blond and further white-featured, Mandalorians were turned into majority White and Delightsome when previously their most famous "face" was a Māori man (also their traditional warrior culture has been forcibly converted into pacifism and anyone who doesn't agree is exiled), and now we have the Bad Batch which is even MORE white-washed than the original TCW clones to the point where a character who is supposed to be an exact duplicate of Jango is blond*..... Let's just say my This Is Sus sense is MAJORLY activated. One portrayal steeped in racist stereotypes is bad, but possibly a fluke. Unfortunately TCW has a pattern of it - and this is just what I've seen as someone who tries to avoid the show! - and it's not a good look for the show or its creators.

*"But his sister is blond!" Omega isn't a clone of Jango's sister, she's a clone - an exact duplicate - of Jango. She should look exactly like Daniel Logan and if she is going by she, either her or Jango and all of his other clones would have to be trans. Disney would never risk alienating the transphobes tho.

#i generally don't talk about this much bc i'm white and don't necessarily feel like i have experience to really speak on it #but i do think it's important and it's the other major reason i don't like the show besides ahsoka #my students of color deserve quality media where they can see positive/nuanced/nonsterotypical portrayals of poc #asks #anti tcw #anti ahsoka #anti ahsoka tano

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pipthehuman · 8 months

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i had this random thought nugget and wrote a friggen essay about it idk

Can you imagine if Spock was played by a biracial actor? Cuz he’s bi-species, and was used as a racism metaphor to teach 60s audiences to not be racist. It would have been cool to see more representation. A performance by an actor of color would probably have been awesome and genuine. As a person of color myself, I know how monumental a character of Spock’s magnitude being of color would have been, and still be. Seeing an actual person of color on screen would have probably reinforced the anti-racist messaging of Star Trek.

But can you imagine the ramifications of that casting decision?? For one, we wouldn’t have Leonard Nimoy as Spock, so right away it seems like a darker timeline. Spock played by anyone else would be totally different. One example is his mobile eyebrows; thats a Leonard Nimoy thing, not a Spock thing. He said in an interview once that he has a habit of raising an eyebrow, and the producers started to notice and started to put it in the script. That iconic thing about Spock would not exist without Nimoy. Of course, whoever they chose in this timeline to be Spock would have had their own idiosyncrasies and way of playing him, and maybe if we lived in that timeline we would be appalled to lose those little things to a whitewashed Spock, but I would hate to lose Spock’s mobile eyebrows okay?

Another thing--the character of Spock was already pushing it for audiences and the network, and him being played by an actor of color would probably be the last straw. This alternate universe would probably have kept Number One instead of Spock--After the first pilot, the studio told Gene Roddenberry to remove either Spock (devilish alien) or Number One (female lead :o), and he chose to keep Spock. In this universe, Spock probably would have been scrapped. And Spock being scrapped changes Star Trek entirely, and has huge ripple effects on the pop culture scene at a large! K/S straight up wouldn’t exist, so that would probably stunt slash fiction severely. And on top of that, Spock was a huge part of Star Trek’s popularity, so the ratings would take a huge hit, and Star Trek would probably be canceled early. So we get no Star Trek movies, no TNG, no VOY, no DISCO, no SNW, no DS9, no nothing!! It ends there!!

And even if Spock wasn’t scrapped instead of Number One, he still gets Star Trek canceled early. If he were played by a biracial actor, the writers probably would have payed less attention to him and he wouldn’t have gotten as fleshed out as he is today. Because racism. No matter how committed they were to being anti-racist, they still definitely had a bias. And without the attention he got, he wouldn’t have gotten so popular and recognisable. So again the absence of Spock’s popularity gets Star Trek canceled. And even if he had gotten the attention he got as Nimoy, he probably wouldn’t be as popular anyway, with white audiences at least. And god knows William Shatner can’t carry that show on his own. Star Trek would have a short and sad life. And that would truly be the darkest timeline. The butterfly effect this has on the rest of pop culture is HUGE--can you imagine??? Darkest timeline indeed.

So in conclusion: I had this random thought and felt the need to write a friggin essay about it?? Spock is important to me. And pop culture. And the world as a whole. And this alternate universe started out nice but then quickly tumbled downhill like one of those foam rocks from the show. I feel like this would have been positive, until it wasn’t. And I’m probably overthinking it.

#spock #star trek #help #why am i like this #this had no reason to exist #im an insane person #like those guys in that one epiosde #i'm sorry

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worldoshaking · 2 years

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I’ve been having thoughts about translation lately, specifically in the context of svsss. tl;dr I really, really love the ways danmei fan translations are creating a vernacular of their own, and new conventions for what a good translation should look like. Both the web translation and the licensed version are amazing in different ways.

(First of all, I want to clarify that I’m speaking very much as a reader - I have no experience translating, and have the greatest respect for anyone who does. This is just a ramble about my own impressions as a reader of translations, based on my very specific cultural context; I don’t have the expertise for anything else. This is about translating fiction, not technical translation, which is completely different - there, a seamless, invisible translation is the objective. I’m also not Chinese and speak very little of the language, so I would not want to speak over anyone with a connection to the cultural context of these works. I also want to acknowledge that this whole community exists because of the enormous amount of labour Sinophone fans have put in to make these works accessible to the rest of us - as translators, writers of meta, and starters of important and often difficult conversations - and I’m immensely grateful for that!)

It’s kind of a peculiarity of English that localisation as a concept feels a little weirder than with other languages, because of the breadth and complexity of the Anglosphere as well as the historical context of the language’s spread. The thing is, English is a lingua franca that’s spoken in lots of situations where there are other languages in the picture: in online communities, in academic contexts, in diaspora communities, in countries with a colonial history, in conversations with people from other countries. In each of those situations, the context and purpose is a little different, and in some cases it can give rise to a distinctly recognisable flavour of English. I grew up in one of those contexts; English is my first language and I would call myself functionally a native speaker, but you can also hear from my English that there are, so to speak, other languages in the picture somewhere. This is also why the concept of ‘native’ is kind of a flawed one in a post-colonial world: there’s a degree of (often racial) bias in whose dialect is considered standard or native, and whose is ‘speaking wrong.’

Anyway, all of this is why it sounds weird to me when localisation gets taken too far, to the point where things like modes of address and linguistic register get ironed out, because it’s not completely unimaginable to me that these characters could be in situations where they would speak in English, even to each other, without their cultural context being any different. (I mean, there’s English-language slang in svsss, and two of the characters even use English as their secret language.) And as a speaker of English in largely bilingual contexts (i.e. contexts where everyone has other languages in common but English is the one we’re using), it sounds much less weird to me to, for example, keep the honorifics and titles, because that’s what I would do in an analogous context in real life. But more generally, it makes sense to look to how bilingual and diasporic speakers of the source language handle it! There are often specific conventions and forms of address that arise in bilingual linguistic communities. For instance, calling someone an ‘auntie.’

(This is a matter of taste, but I’m also okay with footnotes, because in my head the characters aren’t speaking to me, they’re speaking to each other with a shared cultural context; it’s fine if they use terms I don’t understand. But everything in moderation, of course; sometimes you need to translate ‘keikaku’ as ‘plan.’)

I think the reason it sounds weird and off to my ears when a translation sounds too localised is that it can feel whitewashed; at worst, some translations sound like they’re asking ‘How would these characters speak if they were white and monolingual and from the US?’ rather than ‘How would these characters speak if they happened to be speaking English?’ More generally, the approach prioritises creating a product that flows smoothly to speakers of the target language, who might not have any context for the source language; something along the lines of ’how would it sound if you had a babel fish in your ear?’ This would normally be a pretty reasonable approach to translation, but it sounds weird in this case specifically because those characters could be speaking English, and if they did that’s not how they’d speak it; for instance, if a character uses a respectful title to address someone else it sounds jarring to hear them just use a first name in the translation, because that conveys a completely different impression of the relationship between them and erases a potential hierarchy or power dynamic.

Of course, there are also really good translations that find interesting and creative ways to convey things like linguistic register in a smooth and elegant way, without relying on things like honorifics; these could potentially be more effective at conveying cultural context. It’s also about drawing a line between unnecessarily exoticising or othering the culture of the original work (which titles and honorifics can sometimes do, as in anime fandom) versus simplifying things too much in the urge to make them accessible to white audiences. There isn’t really a one-size-fits-all answer, beyond listening respectfully to speakers of the source language. But it’s a little uncomfortable that some modes of address and turns of phrase are labelled as ‘unnatural’ and ‘wrong’ when they’re quite conceivably ones that speakers of dialect or people with a diasporic background would use, or that societal structures that provide important context are completely erased from the translation.

I think that’s part of what I particularly enjoy about the good webnovel fan translations I’ve read: they preserve a lot more of that bilingual oddity and liveliness than, say, a commercial anime translation typically would. Granted, there’s always a slight artificiality to the exercise of translation, because you are constructing an English that these characters would speak when they don’t do that in the source material (characters who might, for example, live in a fantasy version of Ancient China, where English doesn’t even exist). But this feels like a much more natural and respectful, as well as more fun, way to do it! It’s also just a really fun linguistic worldbuilding exercise in miniature. I love the fact that these translations are creating a vernacular of their own among translators and readers, with a shared vocabulary of generally understood expressions that aren’t quite standard English (for instance, expressions like ‘who’s your shimei?’ or describing a clingy character as ‘sticky’ - it’s not the first term the typical Anglophone would use, but it’s both understandable and delightfully evocative) as well as titles like ‘shizun’ and ‘shixiong.’ Fundamentally, these translations feel very organically bilingual, and there’s an affection for the source material that really comes through.

Of course, it can be a delicate balancing act to decide how much you can get away with while keeping the translation functional and readable. I love both the original web translation and the licensed version of svsss, because I feel like they both take slightly different approaches to this question while still retaining the bilingual flavour. There are specific turns of phrase in the original fan translation that I really love (for instance, Shen Qingqiu’s ‘pure and literary air’ when he fights.) I also loved the inclusion of Chinese slang, and extremely serviceable terms like ‘papapa’ (as well as the borrowed Japanese slang; it really gives you the context of Shen Qingqiu being an annoying otakuTM, and I say this with the utmost affection for him.)

At the same time, I think the licensed translation does a wonderful job of keeping the slangy otaku online-ness of svsss while making it smoother and more accessible to a wider audience. They didn’t keep ‘papapa’ (at least so far; I haven’t read 2 in full yet), but the fact that they replace it with a range of wonderful, terrible, embarrassing euphemisms along the lines of ‘take a trip to pound town’ is even funnier. (Especially the fact that they come up with a different terrible expression every time; it’s so creative and hilarious!) They make Shen Qingqiu every bit as ridiculous and cringey and lovable as he is in the original fan translation, and construct a really unique and delightful English for him. I think the footnotes are also more extensive, and they’re really helpful!

In the end, I think the web and licensed translations are really complementary to each other, and I would heartily recommend reading both!

#mine #meta #...i mean. barely #mxtx #svsss #svsss meta #long post #shen qingqiu #shen yuan #linguistics #translation #also i love the illustrations in the licensed version so much ;_;#fluffy curly binghe <333 #scum villain #scum villain's self saving system

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