The Woman King has me worried af

The first trailer dropped for an upcoming historical drama called The Woman King with Viola Davis and John Boyega, and I broke my Excitement Meter at an over-9000 level burst. Then I did some research on the subject, and I’m very very very worried, guys.

First the good: this movie looks AMAZING. It’s focus is on the Agoji (the Dahomey Amazons), an elite group of badass female warriors that existed for several centuries in the Kingdom of Dahomey in present day Benin. I’m not going to drop much info on them here since I don’t want to make this post too long, but I encourage everyone to look them up because HOLY fuckin MOLEY were they awesome. In the movie, Viola Davis plays the lead, a fictional character who is the leader of the Agoji. The cast looks great, but I’m going to point out John Boyega’s role as the real King Ghezo, because this is important.

Before I get to the worrying bits, check out the trailer: https://youtu.be/3RDaPV_rJ1Y

One description of the movie says it’s about the women warriors who “fought enemies who violated their honor, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they have lived for.”

Sounds awesome, right? Bad ass elite female warriors smashing the skulls of European colonists and slave traders. Who wouldn’t want to bask in the righteous glory of a swole Viola Davis slaughtering slavers’ in droves?

But the actual history is where is gets... problematic. We can date the exact time the movie is set by the inclusion of King Ghezo, played by John Boyega.

And here’s the problem. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a major player in the Atlantic Slave trade. They weren’t the only west African kingdom to sell slaves to colonialists, but they certainly had a huge role. But King Ghezo -- duuude. Much of Ghezo’s rule (1818 - 1858) was spent at war with various other African kingdoms, but also notably with the British Empire. Why, you ask? Because at this time, slavery and participation in the slave trade had been banned in England. Their navy was working actively to end the Atlantic Slave Trade. And Dahomey was one of the biggest sources of African slaves still active. Ghezo not only encouraged this, but was firmly committed to it’s slave-based economic deals with other colonial powers like France. They lied to the Brits several times, saying they would stop the practice, but always reneged on their word. The British Navy spent much of Ghezo’s rule blockading his ports. 

How is the Woman King going to deal with the fact that the King represented was the very person who enslaved their people (technically they were mostly prisoners of war) and fought the keep the Atlantic Slave Trade from crumbling? Dahomey was a slave-driven society, as it had been for centuries. This was far from uncommon, but will The Woman King even deal with this?

My huge huge huge worry is that The Woman King is going to do the old Hollywood Wash on the problematic historical events during this period. Y’know, they could have chosen to represent an earlier time period, like when the Agoji were first formed. And hell, they might just use the hypocrisy of this Slaver King to create a great interpersonal drama between the King and the main character who served him, who despises the slave trade but is strained by her loyalty to him. But will they? Is this going to be a complex tale of loyalty coming to grips with the actions of those who command said loyalty? I hope so. I really do. But everything tells me that it isn’t. The trailer makes it sound like it’s going to be another Braveheart, but FAR worse. Like Hamilton and Braveheart had a child who inherited only the bad parts of each work. And look - I don’t care about certain inaccuracies in historical movies. It doesn’t bother me that soldiers in so-and-so action epic have the wrong color buttons on their uniforms. But this shit -- I don’t even know what to call it. A bizarre form of white washing? Or just an epic Hollywood fuck up that is going to change the true history of it’s subject in the public consciousness?

I really really really really hope I’m wrong.

***SPOILERS FOR BOOK 6 SPOILERS! IF YOU HAVENT FINISHED BOOK 6, DON’T MOVE FORWARD 😭!***

I saw a thread on Twitter that mentioned the possibility that Grim may have been the monster that killed Ortho…..

IM ASKING THE GREAT SEVEN FOR THIS NOT TO BE TRUE PLEASE DON’T MUTILATE MY HEART

I’m gonna be thinking about this 24/7 now and I really hope it’s not true. If it is….I don’t want to think about it!!!!

(What if London bridge is not a code...what if it is just their way of saying they are leaving Tumblr? )

Oh please be wrong about your theory, I'd hate for the RP to end

I honestly just might go MIA if that happens and only post if I finished writing a one-shot

I read something like glory is dying but skipped immediately now I am making SJ much stress over her dying I can't I don't wanna lose her I am avoiding all quests with her now.

I feel like I'm about to see yet another child that will get traumatized.

I get the feeling I made a bad mistake a couple days ago. I'll find out later this year.

i feel so bad for nikola tesla like imagine spending years beefing with a guy who has conned the public into believing he's some sort of supergenius when in reality it's his overworked employees developing all of his world-changing inventions and you end up dying broke and starving and alone and then 100 years later another guy cons the public into believing he's some sort of supergenius when in reality it's his overworked employees developing all of his world-changing inventions and he's doing it all IN YOUR NAME. he must be rolling in his grave like a fucking rotisserie chicken

GORGUG AND ZELDA BROKE UP??????????? LOVE IS DEAD ITS OVER ITS OVER ITS OVER

Danny needs a few...odd things. A few dietary and emotional requirements unique to his physiology. Meat is one of them.

But like, raw meat. He doesn't have to eat it often, maybe twice a month, but it does need to be completely raw.

He also needs to eat non-sentient blob ghosts, which are very different from sentient ones. Same amount, maybe twice a month.

He's weak to hot temperatures, where most humans require some sort of positive contact he needs to fight, if he gets too much sunlight his dopamine levels drop, and oddly enough as he got older milk or products with a lot of milk started to affect him like alcohol affects humans.

Now that he's made it to college, hiding most of these things is easy enough.

He chose Gotham, because of minimal sunny days and naturally cold weather. He regularly goes for walks at night, to fill his need for fighting. He says he has a milk allergy, and avoids milk products.

The blobs and the raw meat are a little uh. Those are a little hard.

He's taken to ducking into a bathroom stall to just swallow the blobs whole. But the meat...

He decides to sear the outside and leave the inside entirely raw. Does this detract from the nutrients by cooking them off? Yes. Does it mean he needs to eat raw meat four times a month instead of twice? Yes. Does it mostly hide that he's doing this in front of humans? Kind of.

Until he got a vegan roommate.

Said roommate is far too sharp-eyed for his own good, and now the guy is being weird.

Or: Damian's roommate is a meta who clearly has dietary restrictions outside the norm. It's fine; Damian understands that like animals in the wild, people have different diets. But the cuts of meat Fenton is eating are...subpar. Damian isn't sure how to be...civil, or appear polite, or not be a "snob" if he suggests Fenton allow him to procure farm fresh cuts of steak from cows raised in an open pasture and were well taken care of.

i watched and enjoyed the new fionna and cake series

SO IVE BEEN GOIN INSANE SINCE THIS TRAILER DROPPED. JUST. SIMON. SIMON. SIMON.

do you guys think he has enough belts yet

i love whatever is so wrong with her

LET THE BOY HAVE AN EDUCATION

officially at the point where we're starting to see where it's all headed and I am just going NYEEHEEHEE in delight at it all. ahhh...next week can't come soon enough...

Someone on Twitter said an evil thought and said that Mox would be the ultimate heel if he cost Eddie his shot at the Championship against Claudio.

I'm not ready for that.....

anyway literally everyone is going through something all the time!!! everyone is wounded!!! everyone is human & no one makes it out of this life unscathed!! maybe try approaching people in good faith instead of always defaulting to the worst possible interpretations of each other