#so i was confused how it could be whitewashed then | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

messenger-of-stupidity · 1 year

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Okay, for starters I fully accept the option that I am, in fact, ignorant (ignoring the connotation of the word. I suppose calling myself oblivious would be more accurate if we're not ignoring connotation) of a lot of topics. I don't particularly enjoy doing research and the random tidbits of knowledge I have are from academic necessity, friends, and things I can say to make people who creep me out get slightly traumatized so they'll leave me alone.

Should I put research towards things that matter, as well as social issues I aspire to learn? Absolutely. But the problem is building up the motivation to do so. And I get fed little things here and there, which usually satisfy my dulled down sense of curiosity.

One of those things is whitewashing within Fandom.

I understand it in art, when you take a naturally different race of a character and draw them with more Caucasian features. I understand how that's gross and invested in a sense of bigotry. I'm not oblivious to that, thankfully.

But when a character has no Canon appearance, and it's entirely left up to interpretation, is whitewashing possible?

Diving into the psychological aspect of it, someone's brain is more likely to view characters that don't have a canon appearance as a member of their own race, or a race they spent a majority of their childhood around. It's part of that whole social species thing. It's in the same ballpark of why serial killers rarely choose targets outside of their own race. (Other things too, but I'm not trying to be triggering, just trying to educate myself)

Now, it's completely possible to envision a character as a race you didn't grow up around, or you're a part of. And sometimes that's how it works, you just get a feel for something and envision it in that way. (Hence why human brains are evolved. We've evolved to that point)

But, back to my main question, is it possible to whitewash a character that has no Canon race?

#messy rambles #no but im genuinely serious #cause i saw someone say that the redacted fandom was extremely whitewashed #but there's no canon appearances #so i was confused how it could be whitewashed then #becauee of my limited education on it #i always view whitewashed through the topic of art #which kinda makes sense in this context #since any appearances given are art made by fans #if someone could educate me id be much obliged #tyty #also sorry if this post seemed rude #my brain is just so tied up in everythign right now #i might be overthinking it

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teeth-cable · 2 months

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I need more people to talk about how just like the POC designs, the writing is terrible at clueing the audience what race and ethnicity the characters are.

Beside stereotypes, the racial coding in the writing is little to non-existence. The characters don’t have mannerisms from their cultures, speak in slangs or idioms relating to their group from their time periods, or make cultural references.

Without having to rely on outside sources (Livestreams, looking up VAs, leaked audition sheets, etc), the only characters I would successfully guess would be Vicky, Val, and Velvette, and even then, it doesn’t mean the racial coding is good.

Vicky is the only one from this list whose racial coding isn’t atrocious. I can tell she’s Latino because she curses in Spanish, but that’s it. This is admittedly nick-picky , but I wish when cursing she would have used Salvadoreño specific slang and curse phases to signal she’s Salvadoreña.

Val, I can tell is Latino too, because of his accent and him cursing in Spanish, but it’s egregious. The accent fluctuates so much, it’s strong, then weak, then strong again. Not sure if the VA was struggling or if this was an intentional direction given to him, though the fact, I and other people were confused, at the direction, speaks for itself. Another issue with his accent is how it’s sexualized, contributing to the Latin Lover stereotype of his character.

Velvette, I won’t sugarcoat it. I wouldn’t even guess she was supposed to be black though the writing or the majority of her designs until the finale. The finale, the last episode of the season and the only time she has textured hair with her screen time being around two minutes and sixteen seconds in total.

Visual designs isn’t where race coding ends. This is important to remember because it ignores the good coded characters (King Dice from Cuphead, Darwin from TAWG, the Funk trolls from Dreamwork’s Trolls) and how Viv failed and could have done the racial coding better.

For Viv, she has to rely on other coding methods too because there are characters who aren’t humanoid enough, or even humanoid at all, for visual coding to work. There really isn’t anything I can say to explain why the race coding sucks beside Viv doesn’t care about representing POCs.

I wanted to create this post to highlight how Viv fails at coding in every aspect. The fandoms and critics shouldn’t praised her for giving Velvette textured hair or darkening Sera’s skin from her leaked audition sheet. We need to stop praising creators, especially white ones, for doing less than the bare minimum (The bare minimum being making POC characters look POC) when creating POC characters, or worse, justify it. I’ve seen people tried to justify the terrible POC designs by using one of Carmilla’s daughters as an example, as if one decent POC design in a sea of ashy and euro-centric or erased features for the majority of the POC cast suddenly invalidates the criticisms.

I’m also getting tired of the fandom making posts questioning why people have and still draw the POC characters as white, as well as people harassing artists for accidental whitewashing. I’m hate the whitewashing too but in this case, it’s different because this is Viv’s own fault due to her poor racial coding. Not every fan will have the same intense knowledge you do or even should, to know what a character’s race or ethnicity is, that’s Viv’s responsibilities as the creator.

Mind you, these were the human designs we had before the show aired. Alastor being mixed creole and Niffty being Japanese yet they look white as hell here.

#꧁rambles꧂#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel criticism #hazbin critical #vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism

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booktomoviebrawl · 9 months

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We are not judging how bad the movie is, we are judging which adapted the book the worst. There are good movies that are bad adaptions.

Propaganda below the cut (spoilers may apply)

Tales From Earthsea:

I don't think it could have been better, but it was just so off from from the books it was mainly drawing its inspiration from (I mean, I had no interest in seeing that weird weaver guy decide to off himself in the boat, but still).

Studio Ghibli is the perfect studio to capture the Le Guin vibe and yet Goro torched it so hard for no reason

To give credit where it is due, the film has some good settings and animation. Unfortunately, its beauty is only on the surface, and it is the worst Studio Ghibli movie I’ve seen. (I’ve seen almost all of them but Earwig and the Witch.) The plot is a collage of random bits of context from the first four books of the series, as well as its own stuff. It really is not the same story at all. I may have enjoyed it more if I had seen it as a child before reading the books, but not covering all the events exactly isn’t the only issue, it’s just worse. It takes the moral complexity and sensibility of the original and turns it into a typical fantasy war between good and evil (the Japanese title even translates to Ged’s War Chronicles) with emphasis on physical violence, in which evil is personified as a goth queer-coded villain whose death resolves everything. It completely misses the point of the books, which gives no such simple answers and is more focused on the darkness within everyone than an external battle. Where is the nuance? It also whitewashes everyone: most of the characters in the book are dark-skinned, but in the movie…

I was also bitter that they did my favourite character, Tehanu/Therru, dirty. She’s supposed to be horribly scarred and disfigured on half her body and reviled by people as a monster but in the movie she’s just a pretty girl with a red mark on her face. In the books, she doesn’t appear until the fourth book, Tehanu, which takes place after Lebannen is grown up and ruling a kindgom, and in which she is a mostly-nonverbal child. But here she’s aged up and thrown into the earlier story to give the protagonist a love interest and the film has him stay with them so it can focus on their romance. Even though a plot-relevant part of his character as well is his lack of interest in women and not settling into a relationship despite the people’s wishes.

Basically, they whitewashed, heteronormatized, macho-ified, and de-nuanced the narrative, and also took out the feminism.

On top of this, trying to cram the whole series into one movie is just not a good idea, and it would have been better to just decide on one book to adapt and do more justice. And yet they still added in so much that didn’t happen. When you have that much material to cover, you don’t have time or budget to be putting other things in, mate. Turning four books into one results both in a mess. Abridgment is one thing; taking particular aspects of different parts of the timeline and combining them in different ways is another. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s in an unfortunate middle area where it doesn’t follow the source material but also doesn’t give enough context that people unfamiliar with the source understand. For Earthsea fans, it’s infuriating; for others, it’s confusing. Also, why did they name it after the fifth book, which is a short story collection that it doesn’t reference whatsoever?

The failure of the movie is upsetting because the books are sooo good. Yet, it was the highest-grossing Japanese movie of the year, and did win a couple awards… The Bunshun Kiichigo awards for “Worst Director” and “Worst Movie”.

The Golden Compass:

The Golden Compass isn't even the title of the book! It's called Northern Lights! And now there are editions of the book with the wrong title on them. Enfuriating. Anyways, the movie tries to follow the books story and fails completely because they don't kill off a character because they wanted a happy ending when that character being dead is crucial to the story in the third book. Also they made Mrs. Coulter blonde. Unforgivable.

They remove the ending of the book so it has a happy ending and I guess leave it for a better beginning to the second movie, only of course they never made a second movie cause the first one bombed. They also rearranged the order of the events, and, more importantly, made it lose its bite by removing darker elements and removing explicit critique of the catholic church by making the antagonistic magisterium way more generic

Terrible movie. The acting is awful, especially Mrs. Coulter, whose character in the books is chilling because of her smooth, sweet nature that belies a deep sinister calucating mind. Plus they butchered the story and took out any mention of the church as the main villain for fear of offending Christians. This ultimately defeats the purpose of the book. I hate this movie so much it's unreal

#tournament poll #the golden compass #his dark materials #tales from earthsea #earthsea #a wizard of earthsea #northern lights

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opinated-user · 4 months

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Funny thing about Lily not doing research… She claimed Alistor having Deer antlers and such is problematic deer imagery. Which antlers by themselves isn’t vindication of anything. It’s just an animal part. Many cultures have demons and such having multiple animal parts. Even an anon asked her “Why is deer imagery appropriation” and Lily responded “It’s not appropriation but it’s a problem.” and didn’t explain.

Like… are you alluding to something specific like wendigos? Explain Lily!

to tell you the absolute truth, i think that LO either has no idea what the issue is either because she just read somewhere it's an issue and ran with it without understanding why or that she misspoke entirely because this woman only does one draft for each script without revising anything and now doesn't want to admit her mistake. i believe those are the most likely explanations for that kind of statement. either way, no, deers imagery is not by itself problematic because it's not particularly emblematic of any culture, closed or otherwise. for what i could see with just an easy google search, deer or antlers being representative of wendigos is a construction originated in fiction created by white authors. if LO said "Alastor is meant to be a w3ndigo and thus associating him with deer antlers on his design is perpetuating the whitewashing of the w3ndigo" thant that is an argument to be made... if you completely ignore that Alastor is never declared to have any relation with w3ndigos specifically. for what i could see, he is just tall, skinny, gangly and have antlers on his full demonic form so (white/non native) people interpret that as w3ndigo-like because, again, that's how they are represented in popular culture. but i couldn't find evidence anywhere that was supposed to be intentional or a thing inside the show. the most i could find is that the creator said he has "w3ndigo themes", which is just entirely confusing because what does that mean? w3ndigo according to whom, the actual original foklore or the whitewished in popular media? is just because of the cannibalism?

at the end of all of this, i just find uncomfortable that LO pretends to want to have a conversation about cultural appropriation around this character and hasn't invited not one person from any of those cultures to share their own perspective. has she actually linked any article of any person talking about this? does she know of anyone with more experience talking about it? i know at some point she talked about "reading books" about voodoo, but that means very little if nothing at all to me without more information. of course not everyone of any culture is going to agree on every issue, but at least show that you actually care to advocate for those groups by giving it's members a chance to speak on their own term rather than have everything filtered through her own white understanding of everything.

at the end of the day we're all a bunch of outsiders.

#lily orchard

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notaplaceofhonour · 7 months

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I am pro-Palestine, but I've been getting a little uncomfortable with some of the things that some people have been posting. I've been looking for more nuanced takes, that still support Palestinian liberation. I don't know if this is okay to ask, but I was wondering if you could take a look at a couple of instagram posts that I was unsure about, because they seemed a little biased. I'm asking because some people have been acting like condemning Hamas is bad, and I'm genuinely confused at this point. I live a relatively privileged life, so I have no answer to the people who say that we're not allowed to police how the oppressed fight back. Also, I'm really sorry if anything I said was offensive. I'm still learning, and your post was on an important starting point.

Links:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cy0sgSxtboS/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy9J8KLSuc8/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

It’s good that you’re open to growing and learning! Ignorance is where we all start, and it takes time to take in new information.

If you ever hear someone tell you you’re “policing how oppressed people liberate themselves” by being appalled by mass-murder or atrocities, they’re being intellectually dishonest. This is a thought-terminating cliche that is both misrepresenting the situation you’re criticizing and what you’re saying, and being used to shut down any attempt to step back and think critically about the situation.

They’re using the language of social justice—appealing to surface-level aesthetic markers of progressivism—while disregarding the core of what makes social justice socially just.

Because social justice isn’t just about being “on the right side” of a fight, right? It’s about ensuring the freedom, dignity, and social well-being of everyone, not just “the right people”. That’s why the concept of equity exists. The framework of oppressor-oppressed/privilege/power dynamics certainly can be a helpful tool to understanding that, but the moment it’s weaponized to enable atrocities, mass-murder, & the denial of human rights, it ceases to support that goal—the entire point that framework exists. The framework of sorting entire populations of people into the categories of “the people you can’t criticize” vs “the people it’s fine to dehumanize” is one that is fundamentally opposed to social justice—in fact, it’s one of the steps of genocide.

Being oppressed is not a license to commit atrocities or shoot up schools or concerts or ethnically cleanse a town. Being mistreated doesn’t waive a person from responsibility for their actions, and no one needs to be equally oppressed to them in order to recognize when someone is doing something monstrous that must be stopped. You’re allowed to be appalled by atrocities or anything that dehumanizes anyone, and you’re allowed to fight against dehumanizing & mass-murdering anyone, no matter who’s doing it.

Having privilege—having power—often comes with blindspots, and it’s important to fill in the gaps of your experience with the experiences of people who don’t share your privilege, but that privilege doesn’t disqualify you from having a perspective, and caring about social justice for everyone, not just for some. In fact, privilege—power—comes with a responsibility to use it in favor of ensuring social justice is delivered for everyone—not just “the right group”. The whether because they live in an open-air prison or because someone broke into their house and executed their family in front of them.

As for the instagram posts:

The reel:

It’s a very whitewashed & over-simplistic presentation of Jewish-Arab relations in the Levant. Why exactly it’s wrong is difficult to fully cover without writing a novel’s-worth to debunk it, but essentially it pushes the myth that Palestine existed as an Arab homeland prior to the establishment of the modern state of Israel, and that the two countries would’ve been fine if Israel hadn’t gotten greedy & tried to take it all over.

In fact, the League of Nations created Mandatory Palestine in 1920 as a British territory out of land Britain got from the dissolved Ottoman Empire after WWI, which the Allies had made separate promises to both Jews & Arabs to give it to each of them as a homeland for their respective peoples. The twin movements for Arab & Jewish national independence (the latter of which is called Zionism) rose in the Levant around the same time. Arab-Jewish solidarity existed between some people in the movements, but there was also tension & fighting between other parts of the movements. The League of Nations drew up a partition plan in 1947 to give land to both Jews and Arabs, but that partition plan did not go through because the Jewish leadership accepted it and the Arab leadership did not. Negotiations fell apart, Israel declared its independence the next year (it was not created by the US or UK), and the Arab League invaded, creating the client state of All-Palestine. The Arab League tried to destroy Israel, and Israel won the war.

It’s true that Israel *did* seize more land than the 1947 partition would have allotted them, Israeli soldiers did commit atrocities during the war, and a lot of Arabs who refused Israeli citizenship were displaced to Gaza & the West Bank (it’s worth noting that Jews were also forced to flee from there to Israel in that time as well, but that doesn’t negate the horrors of the Nakba for Palestinians), which remained under the control of other Arab countries for a long time after.

I know less about the other Arab-Israeli wars, but I know Israel took more land during the Six Day War in 1967, displacing even more of the Arab population to what is now Palestine. The modern State of Palestine itself wasn’t created until 1988. Under Bibi Netanyahu & Likud, Israel has continued to move Israeli settlers outside Israel’s borders, deeper into Palestinian territory, often terrorizing & displacing more Palestinians.

The reel also uses the phrase “Zionist Media” to present the sum total of art & news media in Europe & America as a propaganda arm of Zionism/Israel. Bias can exist in any media, but when you hear this specific phrase, or any claim that amounts to painting “the MainStream Media”/“Western Media”/“Corporate Media” as one entity that is single-mindedly Pro-Israel, as shills for Israel, pushing “Zionist Propaganda”, that the media is in Zionist hands, in Zionist pockets, funded by the “deep pockets” of the Israel Lobby, that Israel “has its hands in” international media etc., this is a reference to a conspiracy theory from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (an antisemitic hoax document claiming to be the minutes of a Zionist meeting detailing their plans to exploit, control, & genocide non-Jews; originally published by Tsarists, and since reprinted by antisemites across the world, including the Nazis, Henry Ford, Milton William Cooper, & some factions in Palestine, including Hamas), which claims that the media is in Zionist hands, that they decide what does or doesn’t get printed. Anywhere you see the phrase “(((Zionist Media)))” you should heard it with the triple parentheses. I would call it a dogwhistle, but I feel like it’s too blatant.

The slideshow:

It’s straight up just pro-Hamas propaganda. It’s full of terrorism apologia, revisionism, selective presentation of quotes from Hamas, and atrocity denial.

Anyone claiming Hamas hasn’t committing extreme & horrific atrocities against civilians or that those atrocities are just made up is out of their goddamn mind. Hamas has sent suicide bombers into densely populated areas. Their rockets have frequently targeted populations with no military installations anywhere nearby. We have footage of Hamas executing unarmed Israelis, including children, a terrorist trying to behead an incapacitated Jewish man with a shovel, a terrorist calling his mother on the phone of a Jewish woman he murdered to brag about how many Jews he had killed that day. Anyone invoking the name of MLK, Malcolm X, or Nelson Mandela to deny or justify any of that as though it’s just “armed resistance” is a disgusting, antisemitic person.

Hamas denies the Holocaust, claims that it’s Zionist propaganda. Hamas’s original charter included passages detailing their plan to kill Jews anywhere they lived, including a vivid fantasy about hunting down Jews (not “Zionists”, it explicitly says Jews) even as they tried to run away and hide and begged for mercy; they’ve since tried to whitewash that in the revised charter, mostly just swapping out the word “Jew” with “Zionist” without changing much of the actual content, while claiming they never were antisemitic (saying in fact they can’t be antisemitic because antisemitism “isn’t a part of Arab culture”—something else they have claimed isn’t “part of Arab culture” is teaching that the Holocaust even happened), despite the fact that their new charter still pushes several cartoonishly antisemitic conspiracy theories from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, including the claim that the Free Masons are a front for global Zionist control.

I’m going to go into further detail about the antisemitism of Hamas’s rhetoric with sources on a different post eventually (I promise), but yeah, if anyone ever tries to claim Hamas “just hates Zionists, not Jews”, no they don’t; they are cartoonishly antisemitic; they just mean “Jew” when they say “Zionist”. It’s a dog whistle.

#i/p #social justice #antisemitism

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bookaddict24-7 · 5 months

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REVIEWS OF THE WEEK!

EVERY WEEK I WILL POST VARIOUS REVIEWS I’VE WRITTEN SO FAR IN 2024. YOU CAN CHECK OUT MY GOODREADS FOR MORE UP-TO-DATE REVIEWS HERE.

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16. Shock Marriage for the Powerful Spaniard by Cathy Williams: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was addicted to this cheeseball of a book. I'm trying to read through my large (and thrifted) Harlequin book collection, and this was the first one of the year. I'm happy it was because even though it had the typical cheesiness, stilted dialogue, thesaurus raiding, and the confusing use of an Italian term of endearment spoken by a supposed Spanish man, it wasn't a slow book in the least. It was quick, addicting, and had a couple of spicy scenes.

I do have to side-eye the cover creator because the FMC was supposed to have a "latte" coloured complexion (which I hated, but also made her not white. Love that whitewashing of a cover.

Read this for entertainment purposes, not for much else. Although, I AM a sucker for this trope.

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17. We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am grateful to the person who put this book on my radar (thank you m/m reddit group). This book was beautiful and full of admittedly high stressful moments, made a little bit worse by my anxiety that this was going to end like so many books that were written during the decades that this book is set in. Actually, I love that one of the MCs comments on this because it's always been one of my pet peeves when it comes to classic Queer books.

I loved the dynamics between these two characters and how they worked off each other. They were amazing together and even though they weren't perfect, I loved their vulnerability and related to their anxiety (I have a bad habit of empathizing too much with characters when I'm reading from their perspectives). Their love felt like such a naturally progressive thing and whenever they described how they saw each other, my heart did a little dance for them. Although the story spans just a bit over a year (maybe more?) it felt like these two were friends for years.

I also adored the side characters and the found family they offered to the characters. During a time where trust was a gift, these two were gifted with the very best. If they were real people, I only wish that they got to live the best rest of their lives together possible.

In a way, I wanted to cry at the end of this book. The journey, their love, their growth, and the fact that this was reflective of how so many Queer people might have lived during those decades (and some still live this way). It's so heartbreaking knowing people can't just...exist and love who they want. It's mind-blowing.

Anyway, this was sweet, angsty, sexy, and touching. I loved it so much.

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18. Lotus by Jennifer Hartmann: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Mega-TWs for this book--the author includes them at the beginning of the book. Including CSA.

Jennifer Hartmann has quickly become one of my favourite authors. This is only my second book by her, but it was so exceptional that now I MUST have every single one of her books. STILL BEATING had me in such a chokehold that I didn't think it was possible to have the same addicted experience to another book by her, but I was WRONG.

LOTUS was a dark, romantic, and trauma laced read. Everyone had their own past trauma to confront and I think that's a realistic take because most of us have something we're struggling with in our adult lives. The way Hartmann tackles trauma and somehow still finds the beauty in the dark and in what scares us is truly masterful. She offers possibilities to people who have lost hope of any sort of future. It was tear-inducing, but also such an experience.

The MMC was so well-written and I love that Hartmann was consistent in his persona throughout the whole book. He was so endearing and I just wanted to protect him from the world. Side note: every time I thought of him, I saw the actor who plays Reacher in the show of the same name. Iykyk. The way he cared for the FMC was so pure and like she mentions early in the book, he hasn't been tainted or jaded by humanity. He was a beautiful human being.

The FMC was the epitome of "smile and fake it till you make it". She was quirky and fun, but also carried some heavy reminders of how fragile life is. Though I got frustrated with her a few times, I also completely understood why she was the way she was.

The way everything came together at the end had me yelling "I KNEW IT!", because apparently I'm a book detective, was amazing. Even though the twist is heartbreaking and had me crying a bit, it was so powerful and had everything come together so perfectly.

Hartmann gave every character introduced a life and a heart--and she made them all vulnerable and showed how strong those characters were for their imperfections.

I loved, loved, loved this book.

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19. Eragon by Christopher Paolini: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Re-read January 2024

I read this about 16 years ago, so it felt like I was reading it for the first time. I listened to the audiobook, which I love to do when I'm re-reading, and let me just prepare you: the voice actor is no bueno at magical voices LOL.

Anyway, the story itself was fun and I like to think it stood the test of time. It was fun, full of adventure, and being older, I can tell this story was written by a younger author. This is in no way a bad thing--in fact, I think it made it more believable for me that this MC is only 15-16. The writing felt more like the author was going on his own adventure and he really loved reading fantasy books. It was just pure fun. Although at times, I seriously was impressed with his mastery over the English language with his writing.

Overall, this was a fun re-experience. Some points were a little on the slower side, but I can also see that this is building that foundation for an epic series. Will definitely be re-reading the sequel!

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20. Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was worried about the hype surrounding this book because hype and I aren't always the best of friends. But listen, I started the audiobook one night and finished the book the following day. THIS WAS SO ADDICTING and brilliant.

I highly recommend doing the audiobook--it's a full cast and minus the music (there wasn't any), this felt like a podcast and I adore those kinds of stories.

I'm impressed with how Hunter was able to create such strong personalities with other an initial description of what each specialist does for a living and their dialogue (especially since the story is told in the style of a script and other multimedia add ons, like photos and maps and clues.) But I think hearing the voice actors give life to these characters also helped a lot.

The twists had my eyebrows rising and my smile of surprise growing after every episode. And when all was revealed, that last punch of a surprise had me wishing I could yell at someone about it. Fantastic.

Normally, thrillers and I are very hit or miss--this was 100% a hit with me. So much freaking fun.

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21. Set the Record Straight by Hannah Bonam-Young: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of my favourite things in romance novels is something that I know a lot of people don't like: little to no conflict. Maybe it's because it's a novella, but this one was such a breath of fresh air. Communication? No misunderstandings? Respect for your partner? No bullshitting around the truth? Sign me right up.

My biggest regret is reading this in January rather than during the holidays!

I loved the two MCs' friendship and how it was the perfect foundation for their relationship. That being said, I did think it all happened super quick and while I know this is because this is a novella, but I wouldn't have minded if this was a bit of a longer book--just so we could dive a bit more into their past and their relationships with the people around them.

This was also SPICY. I listened to the audiobook and the I would pause what I was doing just to stand there and listen with hot cheeks. This was hot HOT. If you like that in romance novels, yeah, this is for you. It was super caliente and I was very here for it.

I highly recommend, not just for the spice, but because this relationship is so pure and it was just a bite of happiness between two friends who should have been more all along but finally found their way to each other. Also, there may be some relatable moments in here and I just--yeah.

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22. The Measure by Nikki Erlick: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I think THE MEASURE is a great metaphor for how the world treats people it considers "other" and just how interlaced we all truly are at the end of the day.

While the story itself is about the strings and the lengths they offer the individual, at the core of this story is a message about how we view life and how others view our own lives. It's that continuous question of: if my life is mine, why does it bother you what I do with it? And then using the small few to crucify the rest with inane laws and prejudices. Many of the events in this book could easily mirror what is continuously happening in our societies.

We get to see the story of THE MEASURE play out through various characters and as their lives come together and separate, I was constantly in awe of how it was all happening. I wanted certain answers and knew I had to be happy with whatever I was offered because like the characters, I only had the strings and the theories to go off.

I won't lie, this made me cry a few times. I felt anger and heartache, joy at the power of humanity and love, and awe at the smallness of the world.

While I loved this book, I wouldn't say it was a favourite of the year, but it was definitely memorable and I'd definitely recommend it. The last author to make me feel like this about books that explore this kind of message was Karen Thompson Walker.

I highly recommend THE MEASURE if you're looking for a book that will challenge you to look at your life and ask yourself: would you open the box, or keep it closed and just live your life unaware?

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23. Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'm definitely reading this series out of order, but who's keeping track, right?

I liked LOVELIGHT FARMS more than its sequel. This one was told only from the POV of the FMC, but something about this one captured my interest more. Maybe it was the angsty friendship, or the fact that everyone was saying "IT'S HAPPENING!", which was adorable.

I think I also liked the dynamic between these two characters a lot more than the characters in the second book. I think they worked a lot better than a one night (one weekend?) stand that somehow couldn't stop thinking about each other. These two characters had a history to work off and it was nice to see that evolve.

The farm was also like a character itself and I loved seeing it from this perspective--the one of a person who truly loves and breathes the space.

What I didn't like so much was the stupid miscommunication that happened near the end because of the FMC's assumptions, fears, and anxieties. I get it, love is scary af, but you know what's scarier? Miscommunications.

Other than that blip, I really enjoyed this one and I can see how anyone who reads this is easily pulled into this fun and quirky contemporary world!

___

Have you read any of these books? Would you recommend them?

___

Happy reading!

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sissa-arrows · 5 months

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i saw someone try and argue that sephardic jews in north africa are actually european because they originally came from iberia.. then i suppose most iberians are amazigh, by that logic lmao

(never ask an american to look at a person from algarve/andalusia/algeria/tunisia/etc and try to guess where they're from - they can't comprehend it's not about how one looks)

Sephardi means “Spanish”. The reason people think it’s a way to designate European Jews in North Africa is simply because that term is used to whitewash and deny the arabness of North African Jews. The term was coined to designated the Jewish people who left Spain after the Reconquista. Except while some of them were indeed of European decent a lot of them were also indigenous North Africans who came in Spain during Al Andalus as it was thriving and just went back to North Africa. The majority of the people called “Sephardi” today actually have no tie to those Jewish people who had to leave Spain.

That being said I personally stopped using Sephardic or even Mizrahi to talk about North African Jews after reading “When we were Arabs” by Massoud Hayoun. Those terms are a way to whitewash and deny the “arabness” of North African Jews so I won’t be using them.

To quote the book “Like my ancestors for as long as my family can remember, I am Arab. Of Jewish faith. I am not Sephardi or Mizrahi. Those are two fairly recent but popular polite-society terms for what I am. They are certainly better than slurs, but I won’t settle for them.” […] “In large part, I identify as Arab because reclaiming my place in a broader Arab world—an aspirational Arab world, in solidarity with itself—scares our foes who have, for so long, taught us to fight against ourselves. I am an Arab because that is the legacy I inherit from Daida and Oscar. It is how they remain, for me, immortal. My Arabness is cultural. It is African. My Arabness is Jewish. It is also retaliatory. I am Arab because it is what I and my parents have been told not to be, for generations, to stop us from living in solidarity with other Arabs.”

(Regarding Americans once I said I was Algerian a guy asked where it was and I said in Africa… he replied “oooooh you mean Nigeria that’s how it’s pronounced in English” and then asked if I was mixed cause I was clearly not black so how could I be African… that day I gave up on white Americans. Also there’s this girl born and raised in Algeria who went to study in the US and when her schoolmates realized she was Algerians they googled it and started romanticizing colonialism and calling her the “French girl” and honestly I do have the French citizenship but If I was called the French girl in that context I would punch the person in the face. White Americans would look at North Africans siblings and be so confused because of how different we can look.)

#North Africa #mizrahi jews #Sephardi Jews #North African Jews #ask

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rea-grimm · 2 months

Text

Demon's Creed 2

Over the next few days, you got used to life on the base. For those few days, you found out that it was only you and brothers.

You went out to eat with them regularly, but even though everything seemed fine, there was still a gap between you. Sure, some brothers accepted you, but there was clear disbelief from others.

According to Lucifer, Mammon took care of you and greeted you every morning as "Templar." However, he said it in such a tone as if he was going to get sick of it.

Despite all that, you had several opportunities to get closer to them. Like when the brothers suggested they all do a horror marathon.

However, when they told you about it, they only mentioned the movie marathon. You weren’t much into horror. You had such a vivid fantasy that it made you paranoid.

You sat between Beel and Mammon, who bragged about how horror movies were like fairy tales to him. Lucifer was sitting in the chair next to him, looking more or less bored. Across from him on the opposite side sat Satan and next to him Levi and Asmo.

The beginning of the movie was cool. There was nothing there to bother you. However, when it came to the scary part, you didn't understand where they could get such scary movies?

You watched most of the rest of the movie hiding behind pillow, peeking out when Beel told you that it was good. However, to your surprise, it was Mammon who screamed the most.

Through your pillow, you didn't notice Lucifer's amused smile when he looked at you. After the movies, you and Mammon would accompany each other to your rooms.

🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉

You were working on research when your phone buzzed. You wondered what it was when you found out it was a text from Asmo. And by all accounts it was an emergency. A crisis when he needed your help immediately and without delay.

You immediately stopped your research and ran to his room, willing to help him. However, when you burst into his room, Asmo was sitting perfectly still on the bed, showing no signs of being in crisis.

“Y/N, you're finally here! Why are you standing in the doorway? Come in,” he urged you to the bed where he had various nail polishes.

"What's going on?" you asked confused as you sat across from him on the bed.

"It's dreadfull! You can't even imagine! I don't know which of these polishes will look best on me!” he said exaggeratedly, showing you the polishes he was deciding between.

According to you, you chose the nail polish that you thought best suited him. Asmo took the chosen polish in his hand and examined it seriously and thoughtfully. You had no idea what was going through his mind.

Asmo finally brightened and completely agreed with your choice. He unscrewed the bottle as he stopped and looked at you before looking thoughtfully at his polish collection. He picked up one bottle before taking your hand.

"This one will go great with you, don't you think?" he asked excitedly. You nodded your head at the angle and Asmo got all excited. You then painted each other's nails.

🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉

You had the impression that you were the weakest at the base. You were more focused on research than combat and you had the impression that you could use some training. Some basics in self defense.

You knew who to go to and where to look for him. You were the first to head to the kitchen where he was whitewashing the fridge. You admired how he could eat so much and so quickly.

Beel offered you pudding from the fridge before moving to the table with the food as well. There you confessed to him that you didn't want to be a burden and you wanted to learn to defend yourself. By doing so, you also asked him if he would train you.

A part of you was afraid that he would reject you as a former Templar, but the opposite was true. Without hesitation, he agreed to train you. However, he was not going to focus only on self-defense. While that was certainly important, he also wanted to teach you how to fight with a weapon.

You have agreed together on the days and approximate times when you will attend to it. After that you talked about everything.

🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉

It was evening and you were enjoying a nice rest after training with Beel. You had no idea that your body could hurt in all these places.

You were slowly falling asleep when your phone buzzed. You picked it up lazily and noticed a message from Mammon who was on his way to your room. No sooner had you sat down than there was a knock on your door.

"I'm going to have dinner. Do you want to join the great Mammon?” he asked and as if nothing.

“Sure, I'd love to,” you replied. You originally planned to sleep until morning, but the food sounded great.

“But don't think it means anything! Templar!” he replied almost startled, taking your hand and starting to pull you towards the kitchen.

There, Mammon prepared cups of instant ramen soup, into which he mixed a few other things. You had the impression that some of the ingredients he put there didn't fit together at all. You had the impression that he was preparing some kind of poison rather than ramen.

“And one for you,” he said smugly, placing a steaming cup of soup in front of you.

“Thank you,” you replied nervously and scooped up the noodles on your fork. It looked like toxic waste. Before you even decided to taste it, Beel came to you.

"I thought I smelled something good," he said and took a cup of soup along with several other cups. The whole time here, you wondered how it all fit into him.

"You're not going to eat?" he asked you as he literally devoured the first cup of soup and noticed that you hadn't had a bite yet.

“Hey Beel! Look at your food!” Mammon shouted at him. You smiled at their nudges. You were an only child and everyone treated you like an adult for as long as you could remember. You've never experienced this.

You didn't say anything and instead you finally decided to taste the noodles. You were expecting how awful it would be when the taste caught you by surprise. You didn't expect them to actually be edible, and delicious at that. You then threw yourself into the rest with gusto.

During the meal you exchanged a few words and you caught that they had another brother. Beel had a twin. Belphie who was apparently on a solo mission that was top secret so only Lucifer knew about it.

However, that was all the two said about him. You deliberately asked Beel what his twin was like. Beel looked like he would like to tell you more, but then his expression changed and he just shook his head.

“Talking about Belphie is taboo. Lucifer is pretty strict about that,” he said sadly before stuffing his pockets with food and leaving. You looked at Mammon but he too just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders as he didn't know much about it.

Obey me! Masterlist

Demon's Creed

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tobiasdrake · 4 months

Text

I guess we're at war now. Sure, I can take a detour.

So we have two plates that both need to be held down and five people in our group. I feel like we could probably solve this without climbing any further in the tower....

But maybe there's something worth stealing further up. Let's keep going.

My persistence has been rewarded with more work.

That's on me. I should have known better. *sigh*

Genuinely unsure what to make of these statues. Decapitated figures holding a helmet in one hand and a staff with a bird skull in the other. Given that these are birdfolk, I assume the skull on the staff is meant to be their own?

They're all over the place, too. The Triumvirate seems to be super fond of this art. I bet you a one of them (or a relative) made the original, so now they're being distributed everywhere even though nobody's really sure what the artistic intent was supposed to be.

Good news, we found Estrid. Bad news, we're embroiled in a political conflict and will have to come back to this. See you soon, Estrid. I have a cult to destabilize out of spite.

Okay, team. The sign on the wall clearly labeled this place "Seat of the Triumvirate" so we should be getting close to...

...to, uh....

...

Are you guys having a meeting without me? ._. That's hurtful.

Pay attention to me

I don't even remember what I was going to say now. Thanks, everyone. Just... expect to have to fight them all at once but don't stress over it because it's five against three and we are, each of us, worth ten.

This is going to be an easy in-and-out and then we're back to doing god stuff.

Also, the statues up here are even uglier. I don't know why that was important to bring up. But they are, and I hate them for it.

Hey, Wabbit Season over there declared war on us so now my crew and I have to turn you guys into a human centipede of regret. No hard feelings, nothing personal.

Fine, we can try diplomacy again. But if I see buttons pushed or switches pulled, I'm gonna start swinging. I don't know when I'll stop.

Well, this is going well. There's nothing religious people love more than having outsiders trample all over their sacred territories.

I'm sorry, were you saying something? We were too busy being way above your pay grade.

Come on, team. We're done he--

You know this dipshit, Resh'an?

Yeah, I'm both confused and alarmed too. You keep saying you've never been to this world. Is this something that happened pre-fracturing of the timelines?

Hold up, Aephorul pulled off a seemingly impossible feat of magic to give you that form, didn't explain how, and you've just... never questioned it? To this day? Even after everything with Aephorul went so horribly sour?

I've been wondering this for a while but, Resh'an? Do we have a conflict of interest? Because we're here to commit a murder. I made that very clear in my Statement of Intent speech. Are you too emotionally invested in Aephorul to carry that out?

I just. I need to be sure you're committed to this, man. And I'm not.

Shit, I want to try that. You've been with us for how long now and never even brought it up? Not even one "check out this cool drink I can make"?

Now my feelings are hurt. ._.

"I'm going to kill countless members of your population for a powerful enchantment and in exchange, you can have some neat elevators and I'll let you worship this rock with a face on it."

I don't see the bargain there. Pretty sure you were just being used. This sounds like revisionist dogma to try and whitewash over a historic catastrophe by pretending it was secretly good actually.

In any case, I need to go visit a rock with a face on it, if we're done here. We are done here, right?

...Resh'an?

#sea of stars #drake plays sea of stars

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caffstrink · 7 months

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Karna-anon here! I agree on it being annoying that so many characters are white-washed, and someone’s face can definitely ‘shine like the sun’ if it’s tan, but that’s not how he’s rendered in art. Like, the Indian art by Indian people generally shows Karna as being that pale. Sorry if that was confusing! It’s not just a descriptor, that is literally how he’s painted (in many sources. This is not my area of art history expertise, so there could easily be some time period factor I’m unaware of!)

Everything else I have no comment on!

Shrugs. I see where you're coming from but even if karna had perhaps an undocumented case of albinism, he should still at least carry over ethnic features and cultural aspects to his design, which they didn't really bother to keep in order to turn him into a more digestible ikemen to the target audience (plus the renderings still show him with black hair).

So either way saying karna is whitewashed wouldn't be incorrect, because there's more than skin color that counts towards whitewashing a character (like disregarding their cultural background, hair texture, etc) so uh... yeah... he may not have had melanin but he still got everything else taken from him so... fgo did whitewash him, even if no melanin was confiscated in the process

#not that his design is the only aspect of him that they done and fucked up but thats another can of worms

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scarlet--wiccan · 2 years

Text

@bikenesmith That's definitely the easiest and most elegant solution. It would eliminate a lot of confusion or general weirdness if they reincarnated in families that just... matched their original makeup. I do think that if we’re going by the text, it would probably be more realistic to suggest that the Kaplans and Shepherds had distant or partial Romani ancestry, rather than direct parentage. Maybe that’s something Billy and Tommy were aware of growing up, maybe not, but it is hard for me to to believe that they were raised in Romani households just based on how their families, specifically the Kaplans, are depicted.

As I’ve said, this is a really weird blended family situation. I think It’s okay for different members of these families to arrive at these identities in different fashions.

This does raise the question of their proximity to whiteness-- obviously, on page, all of these characters look like white people, and that is part of the larger whitewashing problem, so I prefer to present them as visible people of color whenever possible. Professional artists are starting to do the same for Wanda, and sometimes Pietro. I want that to include Billy and Tommy, but I recognize that it could get tricky to navigate in relation to their birth parents. I don’t know if there is a perfect solution. I just want to acknowledge that little bit of complexity.

For me, personally, the reconnection with Wanda and reclamation of that heritage/culture is an important part of the narrative. Coming from a family that experienced a lot of loss and separation, I really appreciate that part of the story is that Billy and Tommy get to come home to something they were initially cut off from. I think that is profound, in a special way, for Romani characters, because of how much value we place preserving culture and identity in the face of forced assimilation and genocide.

Short answer-- yeah, I think that works really well, but I prefer to keep it as a distant-ancestry situation in order to avoid imposing too many changes on the Kaplan family. I also like that the characters have to learn about and reclaim their Romani ancestry to a certain degree, because it adds more the diversity of Romani identities and experiences.

#robintext #billy kaplan #tommy shepherd #wanda maximoff

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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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booktomoviebrawl · 9 months

Text

We are not judging how bad the movie is, we are judging which adapted the book the worst. There are good movies that are bad adaptions.

Propaganda below the cut (spoilers may apply)

Ready Player One:

Personally, I think the movie was infinitely better than the book because the main character in the book is such a BITCH and he just radiates incel musk, but I loved the movie a lot more. However, the movie did way more show and pizzazz with the easter egg hunting than in the book

THEY CUT OUT THE MASTURBATION SCENE

the movie barely followed the book plot and took a lot of creative liberties with character designs that completely changed certain themes within the book

Tales from Earthsea:

Studio Ghibli is the perfect studio to capture the Le Guin vibe and yet Goro torched it so hard for no reason

Basically, they whitewashed, heteronormatized, macho-ified, and de-nuanced the narrative, and also took out the feminism.

#tournament poll #ready player one #earthsea #a wizard of earthsea #tales from earthsea

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osirisius · 2 months

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I am not trying to stir the pot, but there wasn't a "bunch of information" that the girl (Jane Doe, 2021 Drake Bell accusations) lied, she did lie at one point about her age because she was able to get into a 18+ club, but this shouldn't take away from the discussion that Drake was talking to her at all, she mentions in her victim statement that he encouraged people online to discredit and mock her, and now I can't find any actual screenshots of that, but I did find some rumors of people saying that he, on his own discord server, would send his fans to youtube comments and tiktok comments to argue with people about this case, but then he talks on one of the podcasts about how he doesn't want people to harass and attack anyone... I don't know if the discord thing is true, someone posted a screenshot of him shit talking about Alexa from last October, but anything can be a lie, and anything can be fake, I'm just trying to say... if any of this is true and Drake actually at ANY point told people to say she lied or it was "proven in court" that she lied... Drake who talked about how horrible it was that seemingly everyone in Hollywood was against him, how painful and isolating it was to realize that any number of people who you interact with could have been someone who didn't show up at the courtroom or write a letter, the pain and anger and confusion because EVERYONE was supporting his abuser and saying he was a liar or he "asked for it"... like imagine all of this pain that he went through, and then imagine for a second that any of these rumors are true about the discord and about him telling or asking his fans to do the same thing to the people who accused him of awful things. if Drake is actually remorseful and taking accountibility then that is good, it's a good step forward, but if he's saying one thing on podcasts interviews and then acting a totally different way privately, then he isn't healing at all, and he's just furthering this narrative that will make it so much harder for victims to come out. Because rumors like this could even lend credence to the idea that he IS doing all of this and coming out with his story to not only whitewash his crimes, his abusive behavior and his history, but as a image clense and a PR campaign to make people sympathize with him and forget all the bad shit against him.

Like the fact that he linked a conspiracy video about the Jane Doe case ON his community notes youtube section (He's deleted it since then but it's not really known if he deleted it because he felt bad about posting it or didn't realize the misread of the reasons(?) he posted it / his intentions, or if he deleted it because someone pointed it out in a podcast talking about the cycle of abuse that he's perpetuated. The fact that he says he doesn't want people to harass others and yet he did that, the fact that he dropped his music video and song right after the documentary, the fact that he's made tiktoks seemingly promoting his own music by connecting it to the abuse he suffered.

I feel bad for him, I have sympathy for him, but I'm also worried that he is using this as a PR campaign, even if that wasn't the intention before... I hope I'm not right, but... Like he really seems to be leaning into the victim image, and that could just be because of the trauma unspoken for 20+ years, but I'm worried that it could have a darker and more selfish reasoning...

I just think that bringing up "oh she lied" "it was proven she lied" is really not... the conversation we should be having when regardless of if he actually did some of the stuff she said, he DID act inapropriately, he DID send messages of a sexual nature to this person, he was reckless and stupid and he seems to want to take accountibility for that but at the same time, if he's pushing his fans to discredit this girl... That's not f*cking cool and it makes him less easy to sympathize with. And not to mention all the other allegations against him from his ex girlfriend and other people who had privately reached out to her, some of them even mentioning minors and how he acted towards them, and some even more heinous things that I won't repeat here... if any of these things are true, then he's just... lying and trying to save face by claiming he never did any of these things.

Wow, that's a lot of words. Too bad I'm not reading them.

No, but like. The girl literally lied under oath in the court room. He did still plead guilty and took responsibility. He got charged with child endangerment for talking with her. He knows he fucked up. The girl still did lie. Police found evidence of her trying to stalk his wife and blackmail them and apparently there were actually no explicit photo messages that she accused him of. Drake's lawyer even said there is no evidence.

You just said it yourself you can't find evidence of him actually sending people after her. How do you know that's not another thing she lied about?

Drake Bell still went through fu king god awful traumatic shit and he never spoke a word about it for 20 years. He made mistakes because of what happened to him, he's healing, he's getting help.

Leave Drake Bell alone.

#asks #quiet on set #drake bell #long post

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stargirlfeyre · 11 months

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I just realized this but when I see people talking about how there’s “no diversity” in ACOTAR it confuses the hell out of me. The reason why people think that there’s “no diversity” is because artists just straight up ignore physical descriptions of characters and everyone is all like “oMg, tHat iS TotALy thE baT boYs.” Like no bitch, that is a pasty white man whereas the bat boys are described as having very tan skin.

We have multiple High Lords who are people of color but fans just ignore their descriptions. I’m pretty sure the only consistent fan art of person of color in this fandom is Amren. And it’s not just fan art, it’s fan casting as well. I always see someone fan casting Rhys as like Henry Cavill. Now don’t get me wrong, he is very handsome but he is white, Rhys is not.

Not only is there diversity with different races and complexities but there is diversity with the LGBTQ+ community. Yes, sjm hasn’t really gotten into it but she states it multiple times within the books. We have Mor who is, I believe, Bisexual/ Lesbian, if I remember her coming out correctly, we have Helion who is also the same way, and we have Theasan, the High Lord of Dawn, who has a male partner.

ACOTAR has diversity, it’s just the toxic fans who ignore it then complain about there not being any diversity.

And please correct me if I’m wrong on the sexualities of Helion and Mor. It’s been a minute since I reread the books so I might be getting things mixed up😅😅

Don’t get me wrong acotar is not the standard for diversity and it could definitely do better when it comes to its poc characters however this fandom definitely plays a part in whitewashing these characters. It’s insane to me how white people in this fandom fight so hard to prove why canon poc characters are actually white. They wrap it up in some “we’re only saying this because their race isn’t explained in depth” bullshit but truthfully I just think they don’t like reading about people of color. Just because the Illyrians’ description doesn’t fit a certain race to a T does not mean they’re white. White is not the default. Especially when every single time these people are described it’s clear they aren’t white.

And it’s not only their skin color. Even people who draw the Illyrians or other poc characters with darker skin they blatantly ignore their features. Then when you call them out on it they either block you, delete the comments, or say “that’s just how I see the character”. I will never forget when someone said Rhys can be played by just a slightly tan white man. As if that doesn’t directly go against his description.

And I’m pretty sure Helion is bi, Mor is bi too but she only forms deeper connections with women and men are just physical for her, and Thesan I think is just gay.

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mosssyyycat · 8 months

Text

Does the new warrior cats art look AI to anyone else?

Originally I just thought the artist was lazy or inexperienced, I was a little confused when some people pointed out that it looked AI generated, but after looking closer, I kind of believe it? I could be completely wrong, but I’ll give images as examples for why I believe this. I also don’t own the book yet, so I only have the images uploaded to the official website to use, and I’m unsure if there have been changes to the art since that.

Disclaimer

Some of this information I have I got from other people, I cannot confirm if it’s true, so please don’t take my word for some of this (for the things I’m unsure if it’s true or not I will link back to where I got the information when I can)

I love warriors, I love the stories, characters, unique wood building, all of it! I’m not hating on the books or authors in any way with this post, this Is just a speculation about the cover art. What’s inside the books is still great and i look forward to every book!

I first noticed the art looking AI on a post which mentioned the ableist choices the artist made, hiding cats Injuries behind plants and things like that.

Link to the post https://www.reddit.com/r/WarriorCats/comments/17blwe7/the_new_warrior_cats_ultimate_guide_art_is_hiding/

Some people pointed out that the artist seemed inexperienced in cats, and it’s possible that they were just unsure of how to draw the injuries, which I could believe. But I saw a comment on there saying this same artist did the covers for a book series they read and this person whitewashed the characters on the covers of the books. I don’t know anything of the series so I can’t confirm this, but the comments stating this were found on the post linked above. If this is true, I wouldn’t really trust this person to not decide it would be faster to AI generate their art and just go over it to make it look better.

For the same reason, unless it’s confirmed in some way, I don’t believe the warriors team made the choice to hide the characters disabilities, especially since the previous ultimate guide they did show their injuries. Why would they just suddenly change their mind? And I doubt the last book they did art for asked them to whitewash the characters either. I think it’s just this artist being not so good.

Also knowing the book had previously said Ivy was brown/red and Dove was yellow because who ever added their coat color just color picked from the art with extremely harsh lighting, it would make sense that they also missed some of the things like AI or hiding disabilities. It’s possible whoever was doing that part maybe didn’t really know the characters well enough to catch these things. (or else I don’t think they’d be calling Dove yellow and Ivy red haha)

Here’s the art I’ve seen that has me suspicious..

The first one I believe is Crag.

If you look at the bottom right of the cat, there’s a weird area that looks like his body got cut of and all they did to cover if was add three purple strokes. And his body is just a big blob..? Like, on the left it almost looks like the start of a leg but then it’s just a weird thing sticking out?? I don’t know, it just looks weird to me. You can also see at the bottom left of his body it gets cut off.

Second is Stormfur and Brook.

Brook’s body just melts into the ground, it looks like a badly taken photo or something, like the quality around her body is just really bad. Where are her legs??? Someone please help her find her legs. Stormfur, help her find her legs…

Third is Mudclaw. Not only does his left cheek look really weird, LOOK AT HIS TAIL???? I genuinely don’t understand how someone could draw it like that without going “hm.. that looks kinda weird.” It looks really AI generated. The bottom left corner the plants look really melty and weird… like how do you draw like that? Idk

He also doesn’t have legs, but a body that’s seems to melt together, with some weird looking shapes in it.

There’s also Half Moon’s eye looking really weird, Blackstar’s art… just look at the bushes.. it looks straight out of Dora? Like it’s not even realistic???? Harestar’s mouth looks like it’s covered in blood or something, honestly I don’t know what to say about it. I won’t link these ones but you can find them in the official warriors website, or in the book if you have it.

This art is pretty old, but Sol is known for his big ears, long muzzle, and short fur which is much longer around his neck and tail tip, making him resemble a lion, he has red/orange, white, and black patches. This guy did not do that.. at all. And notice how everything is SO RED you can’t see the real colors of anything, except those blades of grass at the front. That’s so ugly???? How did he think it looks good..?

Ending on a positiv note, Feathertail’s art is SO PRETTY!!! Same for Rootspring!! And what I assume is Ravenpaw and Barley is very cute! I have seen some other really pretty ones but I’m not sure who they are. I really hope the art isn’t AI generated. And though some of these look really bad, some of them are so pretty too! I’m not exactly sure what to think honestly. But I do slightly hope they get a new artist. But if they don’t, at least the books are still good! I’m not buying them for the cover anyway, so I guess in the end it doesn’t matter all that much. But still, I’m curious what other people think? Is this AI, laziness, simply the artist not being skilled enough with cats?

#warriors #erin hunter warriors #warrior cats

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