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pegaace · 11 months

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Analysis on Witch from Mercury, Colonialism, The Tempest, and Caliba(r)n

Okay I know this is my first post ever but I was tryna find somewhere to put my thoughts after seeing a bunch of people everywhere slander Caliban and why that is not it and how my boi is innocent, good actually. For qualifications I did an undergrad lit class that covered The Tempest like 2 years ago so that's fine right (apologies to my profs if I fuck any of this up)

Okay so for starters yes by now everyone knows WfM is The Tempest, Prospera is Prospero (or Prospera actually, there was a 2010 film adaptation that had the gender switch already), Aerial is Ariel, etc etc. So therefore Caliban has to be this villainous, "monstrous" creature right?

Haha no sit down cos no that would be boring. (and also kinda racist as I'll explain) Notice how in the original Prospero isn't the villain of the story, not really, he's just getting revenge for being wronged years ago and trying to ship the kids together. But if recent gwitch is any indication, Prospera truly is the villain of this story, breaking hearts and stopping at nothing to destroy the Benerit group AND earth. Now I wonder which other adaptation of The Tempest has Prospero as the big bad HMMMM :thinking:

Enter Aime Cesaire and A Tempest. Written in 1969, it deals with a lot of the more unpleasant connotations of Shakespeares play. Let me lay it all out for you. So you're saying Prospero, a white dude, comes to this island, uses his western magic to overthrow the native witch (Sycorax), wrecks the land of its magic, and then enslaves her son to do his work for him, constantly insulting his appearance and intelligence? HMMMM seems pretty sus (racist and colonial) to me.

Cesaire, writing during a time of decolonial movements throughout the world, was rightfully really mad at colonizers for forcing their way upon natives with violence, and especially with the use of language to control said populations. Caliban has also been repeatedly dehumanised through previous adaptations of Shakespeares work slowly turning him from a man into a monster, not even human. This is similar to how non-european people have constantly been treated in the past.

Now like wait... Forcing communication through a set language? Dehumanisation? Colonisation of oppressed peoples? Where have we seen that before...? HMMMM

(its almost like... permet scores and gundam technology... Calibarn being free of permet links is like Caliban refusing language...)

And here's where I see the great potential of a Gundam Caliban. Gundam is certainly no stranger to decolonial movements (shoutout to my fave Gundam ZZ and the bois in Blue team and the African liberation front) and I think having Caliban as the Gundam to finally end Spacian oppression (perhaps in a sequel idk if Suletta is getting that far after bonking her mom by the end of the season) would be a great take.

As a side note, Aerial is kinda portrayed negatively in Cesaire's work for choosing to work for Prospero in exchange for their own freedom, as kind of a sellout who makes things worse and is ultimately tricked and trapped anyways and... hey! She's in a giant coffin now and Suletta is unhappier than ever! Oops.

Also like I qrted this on my twt but like its important to remember that Caliban is human too, and will respond to accordingly. They (and this might be where i disagree with @adracat a lil on their otherwise excellent posts) arent just a violent unthinking monster, thats just unfortunately how racism often portrays people of colour. If Suletta shows compassion and humanity towards Calibarn, like how she did to Aerial, and how Eri was able to connect with Lfrith in the prologue when Vanadis had failed, I'm sure she'll be able to bring Calibarn over to her side. And because they can connect so fully via human emotions and love (this is where I do agree with adra that love is the answer and key to open the door) (wooo yeah another love powered robot!! G Gundamming time) I dont think Quiet Zero will be able to stop them, as Suletta will have made the ultimate, unmediated connection between woman and machine, becoming one with it in the way Cardo Nabo had always truly hoped for. To don Gundam and live in space.

Okay sorry for the disorganised post but like one last thing I know I said it'd be nice for Calibarn to show up again in S2 but the other theory I have (which might or might not be true cos lets be real gwitch only rhymes, never copies, and i dont even know where schwarzette fits into all this [goatmom gundam my beloved i miss schwarzletta theory still]) is that the ending of A Tempest has Prospero send the girlies off as usual, but then still choose to stay on the island to fight with Caliban forever, till he can finally fully dominate him, cos racists are shit like that. This continues for a rlly long time cos his magics kinda prevent him from just dying of old age and he lives on, like a vampire sucking life from the island (wow capitalism huh) and its implied he and Caliban are just locked in this long struggle to the death until the day he finally croaks and the colonized can finally be free. Now what other gundam has an eternal struggle with fascism hmm?

idk just thought it might be cool for the gundam sisters to push suletta out of the way (maybe out of quiet zero?) whilst trapping prosperas grudge within it for all time, that would also be dramatic and neat lol. Come to think of it if Prospera does it itd be like ZZ again too lol with Haman pushing Judau away.

#g witch #g witch spoilers #suletta mercury #caliban #prospera mercury #the tempest #ok im so sorry for making such a trash first post rip #this is why they taught me essay skills but its okay no ones grading this one #except the opinions of the internet oh no #if this turns out to be true im gonna pop off so hard #yay obscure decolonialism and tempest lore

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hanzajesthanza · 2 years

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i might have developed a witcher superhero au even though i dont even care for the superhero genre and have no experience with it. idk if this aligns with any kind of superhero canons out there since i dont have experience im just saying whatever i want to. also this is from september of last year and comprised from a few different discord messages i sent to my friends

note that i build aus by just looking at the canon and making everything fit a different universe instead of creating extremely different situations and characters... i.e., it’s an alternate universe, not an alternate story.

some worldbuilding clarifications:

in this there are characters that are just some guys. dandelion is just a regular singer. but imagine if like elton john and batman were best friends forever and everyone knew about their epic friendship

superheroes in this are treated ig just basically like magic abilities in the witcher; some ppl have them though its rare, theres a few schools in the world to develop them

i dont see a necessity in this au specifically to add things in like “superheroes are oppressed for having powers” or anything like that because [ironic for a witcher books fan to say] i dislike oppression allegories if they’re overt comparisons to specific forms of oppression irl, and i’d rather real oppression be tackled instead because it can be insensitive a lot of the time

there’s also superheroes who dont have powers which are a lot of our cast lol. geralt just still has two swords and the ability to kick ass

as for setting, there’s always like some city this stuff is set in but i want to genre bend and say a lot of it is roadtripping through the countryside and they only enter cities when the plot calls for it (like entering reidbrune in ttos)

heres some cringey supernames:

geralt: “the white wolf”… but more commonly “the wolf”. the “the” is mandatory :/ yennefer: menace dandelion: that’s already his stage name. gay ass milva: “kite”. opposite of geralt in that there is never a “the”. cahir: doesn’t have a super identity or name and doesn’t want one. he’s “the [unknown] rider” sometimes because he kidnapped ciri while riding a motorcycle regis: it’s complicated, scroll down angoulême: just a supervillain’s henchman for now, but has meticulously brainstormed and planned out potential supervillain’s names, and she wants to be a supervillain called “dagger”… “because, you know, dagger, like? sharp? cutting? i’m funny, i wound people. what’s not to love.”

geralt is a vigilante so/but ppl just see him as an inconvenience. this world might take place in a post-nuclear setting where the effects have created monsters and also are the sources of people’s superpowers.

yennefer is not a superhero so to speak but she just has powers and uses them whenever she wants. sometimes its cool and sometimes it causes traffic incidents. she just owns her own small business and doesn’t care too much about using her powers for good or evil, she just wants a regular life. she got more bad rap than she deserved though just bc she didnt play to society’s ‘you have to use your powers for either good or evil’ thing. geralt meets her in a similar fashion to the canon last wish. complete with crashing a dinner party

yennefer: literally just minding her own damn business and living her life everyone else: so why don’t you exist for MY benefit . what a b*tch

just like in canon, the main conflict is that ciri is like being hunted by the government for her powers and by leagues of other ppl with powers (lodge, aen elle) for the same reasons. she has superhero abilities but doesnt know how to control them and if this were a superhero comic she could teleport inbetween the pages and enter/exit scenes through the margins

milva gets caught strategically taking out hateful and violent people as a vigilante and gets caught by eithne and joins her coalition instead.

cahir is a young man from a wealthy family who through nepotism gets a job at a tech company and then gets tasked with retrieving ciri so the company can use her for her powers.

regis was a supervillain (bc of course…) … eventually he stopped going insane though and became normal and is now a trauma surgeon at a hospital 😅. slightly different backstory than in canon, since he is human in this - he is one of a few ‘gifted’ people who developed powers from a young age and this was overwhelming to his parents so he was in the foster care system for a long time. he generally exploited the lack of care from parents and sought attention and affection from peers instead, showing off. he became famous and revelled in the attention from not only other people but local news outlets and the media. but when they moved on he became embittered and started to arrogantly and narcisticically exploit his fans for power and he might have overthrown the city at one point idk anyways he died of his own stupid accord but came back through his powers. oh yeah his powers... he has shadow-based powers that are generally like his canonical powers (disappearing, putting people to sleep, hypnosis) but also with the addition of manipulating shadow to cause a variety of unpredictable chaos to happen. and perhaps flight/levitation, or some sort of blink/shadow travel ability... but no turning into a bat. also he has perhaps some kind of life force draining powers bc id like him to be called nightplague … which he thought was a stupid name but society gave him it anyways … he wanted to be called “fangZ,” with a Z (or Kaos (chaos) with a K), which he thought was SO cool and ranted to his ex-girlfriend and anyone who would listen about it extensively….. 😑 also as a supervillain he looked like zoga from captain yajima (worthikids animation)

angouleme was a henchman and goon of minor supervillain nightingale, she defects from him and thinks her career is over and (obviously the hansa are all superheroes) but regis would b a reformed supervillain and shed be like COME ONNNN BE EVIL W ME… you’re all going to say wow maj Another au in which angouleme is the one to recognize regis from the past and is like “you were that really crazy evil guy SHOW ME YOUR WAYS” and he has to explain to her that being an evil problem to society isnt a good career goal…….. and shes like ok . but i want to be rich and cause problems. she offers to henchman for him about a dozen times before he is forced to explain in strict terms that he is never going to go back to that life ever. and she’s like. ok well can you at least blow something up with your powers. can we at least have an explosion here.

zoltan would be some guy on a road trip with his friends and parrot…… i think he would be but like . im thinking (stupidly) that this is set in the US so i imagined he meets geralt & co were offroading but met with zoltan who was driving an RV full of his friends and they stopped and picked the hitchhikers up. zoltan obv wears hawaiian shirt during this.

emhyr is the ceo of the company that wants to kidnap ciri for her powers. the aen elle are also superheroes but everyone thinks they disbanded and disappeared. the lodge of sorceresses are comprised of ‘patron’ superheroes who come from different cities which are under each of their protection.

i don’t have interest in fleshing this out further but i wanted to post this silly thing for archival purposes :) and so you will know what i am talking about if i mention “superhero au”

#witcher AU #the witcher books #c: geralt #c: yennefer #c: ciri #c: milva #c: cahir #c: regis #c: angouleme #i understand this is really boring as hell but as a rehash of my wild west au i just wanted to say that #'regis evil once not evil anymore being unsuccessfully persuaded by angouleme to be evil again' holds a place in my heart

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dhaaruni · 3 years

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wrt to discourse surrounding minority religious communities, i’ve been very disturbed by the backlash towards shows like unorthodox and my unorthodox life. every time a woman or lgbt person comes out to criticize the orthodox jewish community the orthodox community demonizes them and calls them antisemitic. obviously antisemitism is a serious issue but jewish women and jewish lgbt people speaking out about their own experience is not what’s causing antisemitism! (1/2)

like I can understand that discussing misogyny and homophobia in minority religious communities is more complicated than discussing it in Christian communities because of the oppression non-white and non-Christian people face. but there are serious problems within these communities, and ignoring them is just putting the most vulnerable in more danger. idk this weird leftist attitude of “Christianity is the only religion that is bad or oppressive or harmful to women and LGBT people” is incredibly annoying and patronizing and racist. like yes Christianity is harmful and oppressive, and yes white Christianity is the dominant culture in the west. but that doesn’t mean other religions are magically exempt from being shitty. i think acting like every religion other than Christianity is progressive and feminist is just ridiculous and unbelievably harmful.

also this weird project i see in some leftist circles of trying to rebrand centuries old, patriarchal religions as #feminist is weird and gross. no, there is no secret feminist reason that orthodox Jewish women have to shave their heads and wear wigs, or why Muslim women have to wear hijabs. modesty codes are not about “honoring your body”, they’re a disgusting way of controlling women and blaming them for men’s arousal. also it’s not empowering when it’s literally forced on you.

I appreciate your perspective, and I completely agree with you.

Christianity has a rotten history in many ways, but pretending that it's the only negative religious force in the world is obtuse at best. I think your point that "it's not empowering when it's forced on you" is what I've been trying (and failing) to articulate when I talk about religion so thank you for that phrasing.

I'm in total support of women dressing as modestly or revealingly as they are comfortable with like as I said there are times I want to dress like a thot and times I wear my high-necked, knee-length dresses, but the choice women are given "if you don't cover up, your family and community will disown you," that's really not a choice!

#answered #religion #anonymous

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land-of-brains-and-chocolate · 3 years

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so, symbiotes in the larger social dynamic. something i've always liked to say is that the one thing truly inherent to symbiotes is that they can give you power. the fact that they can give you power means that they will be (and are! all the time!) exploited. the fact that they are exploited means that people will justify that exploitation: either symbiotes aren't actually meaningfully alive at all, or they are, but they're so monstrously aggressive and dangerous for no reason that we need to control them and make them a little less alive, you know.

that has some parallels to real-life political processes: racist stereotypes didn't just appear, they were specifically created to justify projects like slavery and colonialism, to secure power. i (who is white and open to criticism on this) don't think that makes it an outright Fantasy Racism Allegory, though. it doesn't claim that symbiotes can be substituted for a real life oppressed group or vice versa, it just integrates them into our current societal structures. it's just what makes sense and would happen (and even out of universe it does).

now THIS

is an outright, explicit, bold-faced Fantasy Racism Allegory, specifically drawing from immigration, in reaction to symbiotes (and previous invasions like the skrull, presumably). and that immediately runs into all the usual problems: there's no fucking parallel to be drawn between immigration and an alien species that has now literally razed the earth and gone on mass slaughter sprees like three times in a row, even if they're claiming it was always totally against their will in this post-knull world. you're also running the risk (or even intention) of focusing on it to the exclusion of, you know, actual oppression, because people fucking love to put characters of colour into fictional oppressor categories or disregard their real-life status (let's not talk about mutants).

there's also the general otherness of symbiotes, i do think that can be used in many ways reminiscent of queer themes. it HAS been FREQUENTLY used like that, scream was even setting it up, true symbiote bonds are literally a matter of foreign relationships and identities. but even though the theme is there, it tends to be more personal than large-scale political organisation... nobody's out there carrying signs that say GOD HATES SYMBIOTE HOSTS. that would feel gauche! and weird! and forced! the rhetoric wouldn't be the same, you can't just claim it from a real life group.

idk. i guess some form of it was inevitable, with symbiotes being everywhere. we'll see how it's handled. the core conceit of "there's people trying to hunt and exterminate the last of the symbiotes" is, again, fine and only makes sense. even chauvinism and paranoia in doing so make sense. maybe people also think it's fine and valuable to get the perspective of the other while they're being demonised by the right-wing media. even if it's aliens who literally acted like demons, possession and all.

#again: what about just getting some hosts and writers that aren't white.

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morethanonepage · 3 years

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what would you say are the dynamics and themes that interest you most? Also frankly I'm surprised you read any star wars fic still, I agree on just wanting to read some good finnpoe but that has gotten increasingly futile.

i mean the thing i potentially like so much about finnpoe is that they BOTH have very specific, in some ways very different traumas (finn being a child soldier and growing up in such a highly regulated way where he had basically no bodily autonomy VS poe being mind-raped AND seeing his inability to stop it as having betrayed his own people AND seeing so many of his friends & comrades die in quick succession AND still recovering from the loss of his mother as a child and Muran when he was commanding Rapier Squadron) but they both have a tendency to compartmentalize that and continue to function on their own while being loyal (Finn’s devotion to Rey, which gets a lot of flack in fandom but like -- that’s one of the first people he’s been able to form a connection with!! AND I think he lowkey feels that it’s his fault Rey got dragged into -- everything, so he feels a great deal of responsibility for protecting her) and passionate about a cause (Poe basically killing himself to keep the Ideals Of The Republic Alive, be it through trying to hunt down the FO before he’s even part of the Resistance, to doing everything he can to keep the Resistance afloat once he is).

like they have those similarities -- a real sense of duty and responsibility toward their friends and those they’re fighting with -- but they have fundamental differences in approach that the movies did a shitty job of extrapolating on when it could’ve been such an interesting conflict: Poe is the idealist and thinks of duty to a higher ideal first and foremost (like Leia and his mother, tbh) whereas Finn is more of a pessimist and a cynic and believes protecting your friends and loved ones from the substantial evil is hard enough without setting up to FIGHT ALL OF THE BAD IN THE UNIVERSE like Poe wants/believes he has to do. and both of these things are based so much on their upbringings! Poe grew up with those ideals and freedoms and parents who fought, successfully, to protect them, and believes he owes it to them to live up to their example and protect them as well; Finn has SEEN the evil of the FO firsthand and seen everyone around him subsumed by it, believes it to be omnipotent bc for him and his squad mates it literally was. escaping all of that was an act of powerful resistance on its own!

idk i just think a lot of the fandom’s take on this is, if you focus on finn ~running away~ in canon or not wanting to join up with the Resistance just ‘cause it’s ~the right thing to do~ you’re feeding into this idea of black men being cowards and/or selfish when it’s like no! that’s the consequence of his trauma: he’s running away from an abuser who controlled every aspect of his life, who’s set up to hunt him down and destroy planets and take over the universe in a way that’ll mean he’s NEVER safe, and he knows every single person he grew up with and had some affection for are a part of it too, which on the one hand he might be reluctant to fight them, but on the other they 100% won’t be reluctant to fight him AND they know him well enough to know his weaknesses.

all of this is A LOT and it’s heavy and dark stuff, which i GET can be hard to work into like, light fluffy fic about finn finally being happy or learning what sex is or w/e, and not everything about fanfic has to be a ~deep exploration~ of character’s inner turmoil but like -- idk. there’s ways of dealing with these elements of finn’s backstory without making the whole thing drudging tragedy porn (which is ANOTHER fanfic trend i can’t stand -- neither Finn nor Poe are characters entirely without hope and fics that treat either of their tragedies [lbr it’s mostly poe’s that get dealt with] as the focus or main characteristic of either also bum me out) and I just really wish fandom had more interest in it.

Another factor that KILLS ME is how Poe has (justifiably) developed OBVIOUS distrust for the force and force users, and would have such a fundamentally hard time dealing with the fact that Finn is one. Canon didn’t even let Finn be explicitly force sensitive, and fandom is like YAY FINN IS FORCE SENSITIVE, NOW HE CAN USE THE FORCE TO BONE (POE), and any fic that does touch on it makes Poe out to be ~unreasonable for not trusting Finn, or having his distrust be a consequence of his PTSD alone, and a sign he has to deal with his shit VS a very real issue that Poe might genuinely not be able to get over: the force CAN be creepy and is too easy to abuse, and a lot of what Poe’s seen it used for WAS bad.

the other dimension of all this is, accidentally or not, these dynamics take on all sorts of real-world implications given both actor’s identities -- the explicit parallels between Finn’s upbringing and chattel slavery (taken from his family at an early age, losing all connection with his birthplace and culture, seen as useful but dispensable by an oppressive, mostly-white empire) & its legacy for Black Americans (that lack of connection with a historical homeland and the loss of a cultural connection that came from it) VS the first generation latinx immigrant narrative that Poe and his family embody (the sacrifice for and long separation from a child in the service of giving them a better life, the burden that child takes upon themselves to make that sacrifice worth it by excelling in certain spheres, the drive to be the VERY BEST representative of their new culture, the embrace of that culture’s ideals bc they don’t want to think their parents sacrificed everything for a lie [with the creeping knowledge and experience to know many of those ideals are flawed and not always lived up to]).

and the canon ignores that bc addressing it would require world building that couldn’t center/come back to the Skywalkers in some way (and the only family dynamics it’s interested in is DADDY ISSUES, fucking Free Fall), and fandom doesn’t care about it bc it’s mostly white girls who, AT BEST, decide to focus on the potential ~sexuality conflicts (coming out, family rejection, etc) when writing real world AUS, without dealing with the intersectionality of a black and a brown man, their respective cultural context, and the resultant conflicts those would create beyond, idk, “POCs are always homophobic so finn and/or poe’s parents kicked them out or w/e”. and like I really don’t WANT these people trying to grapple with the complexity of a queer, interracial relationship where neither participant is white (i’ve seen enough just watching them grapple with either character’s sexuality tbh).

but idk, that’s what’s interesting to me: finn and poe’s backgrounds and how those set up fundamental conflict points for both of them, both in canon (Poe’s devotion to the cause of liberty and democracy for the whole galaxy VS Finn’s duty to the people he loves over anything else) and in a real world au (Black people have a fundamentally different relationship to the American Ideal than Latinx immigrants do, for very good reasons). And I want those things to be significant elements of the characterization for both, but not the ONLY elements of characterization for both: stories should, in even some small way, be about what characters WANT (even if it is just “to fuck,” as it often is when I write [ok it’s usually “to love but be able to show it without saying it, hence the fucking”]) and so few fics, these days, give me any sense of what finn and poe want besides, vaguely “each other” (”because the author feels like they have to write them bc the actors are hot/for woke points”) and that is just -- boring to me.

also god i would just love to read some dialogue that isn’t just twitter/tumblr memes and/or mcu level mean quips. like, just in general.

#given my insanely high standards i think i should be rewarded for not shredding EVERY fic i read frankly #finnpoe #youandthemountains #longpost #rebloggable if you so choose lol

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urmomsstuntdouble · 3 years

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If ur still doing the 100 followers thing, well I challenge YOU with deciphering Lithuania.

ok anon thank you so much for asking this question because i have in fact recently fallen in love with lithuania, because they are such an interesting character! (also hhhh im so sorry for how late this is)

Gender

As you may have noticed, I usually use they/them pronouns to refer to Lithuania. I hc them as being nonbinary and using he/they pronouns, though I personally prefer to use they rather than he in that case because. Idk what pronouns you use. But in my experience it’s really hard to get people to call you ‘they’ when you go by ‘he/they’ or ‘she/they’ or smth like that. Though I don't imagine any of the nations are very attached to their “birth gender” (are nations born???), lithuania is one of those who is a bit less attached. They’re just sort of there, in terms of gender. In my headcanons i also think this has something to do with religion, as lithuania was one of the last european countries to convert to Christianity- just because so much of gender as we know it comes from christianity and what people in the 16th and 17th centuries considered a ‘good’ christian. Thats not to say that there are no gender roles in other religions, but that the way westerners typically conceptualize gender has quite a lot to do with the religious conflicts occurring within christianity. Like you can trace the ideas behind the nuclear family archetype back to the protestant reformation. Additionally, I hc them as being Jewish, which further distances them from the western christian gender roles (though that’s not why i hc them as jewish! More on that later). Finally, i just like myself some trans/nb characters. There’s so few popular trans hcs and that makes me kinda sad ya know? Welcome to the trans agenda its just me projecting onto all my faves

Mental Health

Okay, so, i think it’s pretty well known that lithuania’s mental health is wack. They’re often characterised as being a very anxious person, but i think the ways in which they’re anxious is super interesting. For one, they are extremely conflict averse and like to avoid it by being a sort of people pleaser. It’s a sort of defense mechanism, because nobody can hate you if you do whatever they say. Like, if you let people be shitty to you, they won’t hate you for your personality. This is clearly flawed logic because then people are still going to be shitty to you, but. It makes sense to liet. In their mind, it’s okay to let people hurt if your reason is sound enough- Because if they’re not super emotionally engaged in a relationship that’s unhealthy for them, then they can’t get hurt, right? Of course, they can. A good example of this is their relationship with Russia. I think tolvydas sees compliance as necessary there, in order to avoid being hurt. The thing is…compliance is also hurting them, even if they see it as ‘worth it.’ To them, behaving in a submissive way is a survival tactic. A really bad one, but a survival tactic nonetheless.

This also plays into their tendency to be self-martyring. I think Tolvydas is very good at fighting, and all around a really awesome warrior (strong aragorn energy), which makes them think that they need to be the one to save everyone. Hero complex, sort of. This, coupled with their almost maternal care for Latvia and Estonia, makes them feel like they have a sort of weight-of-the-world on their shoulders. Though Estonia and Latvia do look up to them a lot, Tolvydas can sometimes fail to realise that they are also their own people and can fight their own battles. He feels a sort of obligation to protect them due to their shared culture and languages as The Baltic Trio, though it doesn’t go much further than a sense of obligation. They spent most of their youth fighting, to the extent that that’s most of what Tolvydas personally knows as ‘life,’ but they never actually got to know the other two Baltics very well until the modern day. They have to protect, have to be a caregiver, but they don’t actually know super well the things they’re trying to protect. It’s both a sense of obligation to protect as well as the sense that this is all they’re good at and as long as they’re fighting for a morally just cause, that’ll do.

I think something that would expose this flaw would be when they were first taken over by the Russian Empire in the 1790s, they were pretty miserable about a lot of things- Like the loss of all their territory and the sudden statelessness of their people- but a big one would’ve been the loss of Poland. This isn’t meant to be super shippy, but you know. They were united into one kingdom, and they had been for centuries, so i don’t imagine it was an easy separation. Though this is more up for debate where real people are concerned, these characters were essentially a big part of each other, ya know? Regardless of how much Lithuania actually likes Poland, they’re still a part of each other and that separation will undoubtedly be painful. Anyway, all that is to say that this separation was at the forefront of their mind during the beginning of the 19th century, and they let it sort of prevent them from taking care of the other Baltics. The issue with that is that they still considered themself to be protecting Estonia and Latvia, even though, in reality, nobody was. Also in reality, Lithuania was making themself out to be the worst off, and were generally sort of annoying to be around at this point in time. Their whole woe-is-me attitude wasn’t fun, and they were hypocritical in that they saw themself as being a better friend than they actually were. They still see themself as being a great friend, and though it’s improved in recent years, they’re still sort of. Flighty, i guess, where friendship is concerned. There was also a lot of annoyance by the other baltics about them being so self-martyring- Tolvydas was Ivan’s favorite, after all (that’s not necessarily a good thing, but. He was softer on them in certain ways). Anyway, I guess the big takeaway of this paragraph is that Liet often lets their self perception cloud the way they act in relationships.

Much of the stuff I’ve mentioned so far is a result of them having quite a lot of PTSD. I think Lithuania’s character tends to be explored through a few common lenses, those being the medieval vibes of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and through being oppressed by the Russian Empire/Soviet Union. Not to say that there’s not a lot of other content about them, but this is what I see most often. I think that all the nations have some form of PTSD, but with Lithuania it’s very pronounced, and it’s made clear that a lot of their tendencies are a result of past trauma- Like the need to take care of others. This is likely originating with their childhood, as they grew up in a very violent environment where their survival was never guaranteed (survivor’s guilt much?) and violence was just the way of things. This is where the need to protect comes from. There used to be several more Baltic nations, though you could argue that now there’s only two- Lithuania and Latvia, as Estonia does not speak a Baltic language and would really like to be considered Nordic.

Finally, Lithuania is also an interesting character where forgiveness is concerned. I think their sense of morality is very black and white, so some people (Feliks) will be easily forgiven where others (Ivan) will not. In reality, I think it would definitely be valid for Tolvydas to hate both of them, yet they don't- Because they decided that Feliks was a friend and Ivan was not. Both Feliks and Ivan care very deeply about them, but neither treats Tolvydas in a very good way. Of course, I’m aware that the situation in the Russian Empire/USSR and the Commonwealth were very different, but I’m talking about these three dudes and their relationships with each other beyond the lens of politics. Because Feliks tried to be their friend in a way that didn’t hurt them tremendously, and because. Look at them, Feliks isn’t 5’4 and can’t hurt you. They’re not an intimidating person and they’re not incredibly powerful like Ivan is. Though that’s not all of it- Feliks’ feelings for Tolvydas are definitely a purer, more selfless type of love than what Ivan feels for them- it makes it harder for Tolvydas to hold a grudge against them. Whereas for Ivan, their relationship was about control. He needed to control them as a way of expressing how he felt about them. He represents a lot of what Tolvydas fought against in their youth, so of course they hate him. Of course, I don’t think they like holding grudges. They want to be able to care for everyone, because they know that everyone deserves to be treated well and cared for and all that. You can't exactly do that if you hold a grudge against someone, so it actually kind of sucks for them when they see someone they hate suffering. It’s a sort of conflict of interest- The caregiving instincts vs the hatred for this person- and they often don’t know what to do in that situation. Usually they wind up helping but not happy about it. They just don’t want to see others suffer, despite the fact that they dislike this person (Russia is of course the exception. They don’t want to help him at all anymore).

Relationship with family

So, this is a bit of an interesting topic. I think the Baltics consider themselves family just because of what they’ve been through together, but they’re not actually blood related. Though they share similar cultures, and languages, they’re just not related. Maybe Lithuania and Latvia are cousins, but yeah. Lithuania sees themself as the head of their little family, as they have the oldest surviving European culture and language. They sometimes get in their head about that, and can act like both a mom friend and a mom who is bad at mom-ing. It’s a sort of self appointed thing, and can be really annoying to the other two. They don’t pay the utmost attention to their fellow Baltics, and are more concerned with physical well being than emotional well being, so, despite establishing themself as a caretaker, do not wind up actually caring for the other Baltics in the ways they need to be cared for.

Fighting style

So, as I’ve mentioned, Lithuania is a talented fighter. They go hard as shit, and can very much kick your ass. I think they prefer to be very technical about how they fight, with something boring like a broadsword as their weapon of choice, but are not afraid to fight dirty. Like rip off an ear with their teeth kind of playing dirty. I think they take fighting very seriously. Though Lithuania as we know it is only about 800 years old, I think Tolvydas is much older. The definition of a nation (a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory, according to the oxford dictionary) does not require there to be a central governing body, so I think it’s quite possible for Lithuania to be well over 2000. Anyway, all that is to say that they didn’t grow up in medieval times, so by the time they’re like. Achieving dominance in Eastern Europe, they’re already very old and well versed in many different styles of fighting. In the modern day, I think they’ve learned more different fighting styles from other parts of the world, but will always fall back on the way they learned how to fight in ancient times.

Religion

So as I mentioned earlier, Lithuania is Jewish in my headcanons (orthodox, specifically. I think they're kinda traditional). I have a couple reasons for this- There has been a historical presence of Ashkenazi Jews in Lithuania, going back to the 13th or 14th century, and this is due to certain legal protections granted to Jewish people under pre-Commonwealth law. They were legally on similar footing to the average free people of Lithuania, and were able to create a slightly more prosperous community than Jews in other areas of Europe. This was also affected by the Black Plague of the 1340s. Orthodox Jews tend to put a high value on cleanliness, and often have two sinks in their houses (my childhood home, for example, had two sinks, and i lived in a majority jewish area). They also happened to be concentrated in Eastern Europe, due to the protections. Because of this, Eastern European Jews have some of the highest sruvival rates for the Black Plague and actually brought up the survival rates of the region as a whole- Though this also resulted in some intense antisemitism, as many Christians blamed Jewish people for the plague even happening, due to their higher survival rates. Despite various expulsions and the loss of legal rights, the Jewish population remained relatively steady up until world war 2. Jewish people made up about 10% of the total population of Lithuania in 1941, and 45% of the total population of Vilnius. (To put this in perspective, the entire world population is only about 0.2% Jewish). Anyway, all this is to say that it’s not out of the question for Lithuania to be Jewish.

Extras/Fun stuff

Lithuania loves reading, especially the fantasy/fairy tale genre. It makes them nostalgic without the trauma of reading historical fiction.

They’re also very musically gifted, and can play the piano, bass, ukelele, and flute.

They wear docs.

They love hot chocolate.

They remind me of both Aragorn from lotr and Hozier. They’re such a sweet lad.

Bicon who has like 5 people thirsting for them at a given moment but is either oblivious or not looking for a relationship right now.

Here are my fics with lithuania as a main character!

My previous character analyses of lithuania (sorry they’re mostly in shipping contexts, rip) and another good analysis someone else did

My playlist for them

and i think thats it! of course i could always talk more about them, but those are my thoughts for now! thank you so much for the ask, i hope i was able to meet your challenge!

writing requests

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saveadancejustforyou · 3 years

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This is a fleeting thought I had but as a brown girl too I’m sure you can probably relate as well, but do you ever get tired of non minority women complaining about how blonde hair blue eyes is the beauty standard above brunettes. Like with Olivia Rodrigo with the whole “you’re probably with that blonde girl” lyric, its like watching white women want to feel less than so bad they look for stupid things in others to compare themselves to. Idk I guess it’s just a whole different privilege to me that there are women who can complain about characteristics in other woman that they can easily make happen for themselves. As a black woman I don’t have the luxury of equating beauty to a guys opinion on my hair color. I have skin color, hair texture, and historical culture to worry about and they can’t be altered (I have to view it as blessing in myself because so many people in this world treat it as a curse). Where as they can go to the hair store and by some hair dye and solve all their issues, and yet still treat it as a form of discrimination. It’s such a weird insecurity to have imo even in recent tik tok videos of females asking males questions girls hate asking the question of if he prefers blonde or brunette always comes up, and idk to me white is white, and to a man who prefers white women when it comes to hair so long as the shit blows in the wind and falls below the chin I can assure you he don’t give a fuck what color it is.

I mean olivia is biracial but I completely get your point! It all just comes down to the fact that white women love to be oppressed and use small characteristics to define entire personalities and traits in order to feel some sort of controlled discrimination that they can, at any moment stop

#anon

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ismoveme · 4 years

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A dumb theory but...

Tl;dr Douxie is a (white) man who has never supported oppressors and thinks white supremacy is a load of bull.

I don’t normally write long posts, so just here me out okay.

So we know that Douxie is ~919 years old. And we know that for his early years, he most likely lived in fear of being prosecuted for something he couldn’t control: magic. That is, until Merlin took him under his wing. I would like to think that, although he lived for long, Douxie doesn’t remember much of his life other than his fear of being prosecuted, the stuff he learned, and major events involving discrimination.

I have this theory that Merlin orders Douxie to travel to other parts of the world because he needs to “broaden his worldview to become a true master” or some shit. (I can totally imagine a “But Master” moment). By this time, Camelot can fly so we know this is completely possible.

-He first studies with the Celtics, then the Vikings. Then he moves to Russia, then to East Asia, India, and then Arabia. I’m sure he learns all about mathematics and science from the South Asian and Arabian wizards. Also, at some point he chills with some Djinn (cuz they can be either bad or good, or even neutral; humans can’t see him, but maybe he can cuz he has wizard powers BUT there is no summoning shit cuz that’s not a real thing).

-Then he goes to South America, where he learns all about the Aztec and Incan gods, and all that good jazz, before moving to North America to learn from Native tribes like the Cherokee and the Tongva/Kizh. From here, Douxie travels back and forth between the Americas and Africa, until he eventually settles in North America because he finds Natives in America to be the coolest and that’s where the next Trollhunter will be (idk this is me just bullshitting).

-He goes around the world to learn magic, but since he’s a clumsy mess, all he’s ever really done in mundane society is mop floors at restaurants. There might be the occasional royal interaction with like idk the Mughals or Ming Emperor or the Genghis Khan, but not much. (Maybe he met Marco Polo but thought he was a douche idk). This also helps develop his emo aesthetic because he’s just a commoner sharing angst with his coworkers.

-But by being a commoner he discovers underground magic peeps, which is where he meets Zoe, and since Douxie’s always gone to study they have a slow burn friendship-to lovers? relationship. Also, he’s supposed to seem all suave because of Trollhunters Pt 3, but really he’s still an awkward boi and Zoe knows all of this and thinks its funny.

-I’m also gonna say, since he’s multilingual, he’s had to learn with dragons and the different dialects of draconic based on European, Mesopotamian, Asian and Polynesian dragons. This could also have helped build up his fear of Charlemagne the Devourer, because he could be globally infamous. Also who’s to say he didn’t pick up Portuguese or Housa, or some old language that he’s forgotten because of lack of use.

-Also, I think Douxie knows all kinds of classical music, but prefers rock/heavy metal/punk because it’s a relatively new style of music that helps him express his pAIn.

Why did I say all this? Because this sets up his worldview. He would have seen death of millions of Natives to the Americas and the horrendous slave trade going on. Douxie would have seen things like the Haitian revolution, the Salt March in India (and might have also thought Gandhi was a prick), the Mongol take over of the Song dynasty, and the Rwandan genocide. And although he might not remember stuff like how people were like, he definitely would have remembered his own oppression (since it had a lasting impact on his childhood). And he totally would be on the progressive side. He most likely gained socially from his skin color during things like colonization, slavery and imperial expansion. But because of that, he had more ability to influence his white peers. Heck, he might have even actively fought against the ruling government with his fellow common people. (idk about his pov on the Irish Republican Army since he’s still British, but he might be too far removed to support any one group)

SO fast-forward to 2020. Douxie would definitely support BLM. And he probably thinks the rising white supremacists all over the world annoying and confusing, mostly because he doesn’t why they would be so hung-up on being white when there’s things like Chinese food. He would also not support the forced encampment of Uighurs in China.

Of course, feel free to agree, disagree, whatever. I just want my favorite character rn to be an ally. We can all stan an unproblematic king, so that’s what I hope he is. I also want an excuse to draw Douxie in old timey ethnic clothing, so yeah….

#douxie casperan #douxie #trollhunters #trollhunters theory #toa #toa wizards #wizards tales of arcadia #toa thoughts #toa theory

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korejinnie · 4 years

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BTS ‘ON’ Official MV Theory Analysis

In the first scene, we see a battlefield of dead bodies and flags. This scene can refer to any battle or war in general. War is usually fought to gain independence and justice for one's country/homeland. In this case, battle represents death.

Like I said, fighting for justice and independence. Jin in the following scene is shown holding a dove with an arrow struck through it's body. This is similar to Jin in Fake Love, when he was holding the lantern filled with lily petals that turned to dust.

"Nothing gold can stay" - Robert Frost I believe this is BTS' way of saying, to really achieve higher goals or get to where they are now, they had to fight a really long time (like 100 years war), even if this meant sacrificing parts of themselves, their happiness. Nothing stays forever, nothing gold can stay. Happiness doesn't last forever. They must experience pain and misery in order to be reborn. You must die in order to be reborn into a better place and a more enhanced stage in life.

In the next scene, we see Jungkook running away from something or somewhere. His hands are bound by black thorns. The first thing that came into my mind was slavery. Slaves such as Harriet Tubman, when trying to escape from their slave owners had to risk their life in hopes of escaping to a new and better place. Escaping from slavery is not an easy task. In this case, you can imagine Jungkook as a slave, and his slave owner is his shadow. The thorns that bound his hands can also be a reference to Jesus' crown of thorns. Jesus sacrifice himself for the greater good of the people. After his crucifixion, he would eventually be reborn on Easter.

Come Prima = Like before

Death and Rebirth, again like before.

We see that Jungkook finally escaped out of the maze (maze runner) that's trapped all the boys in for so long. To put this scene as one of the first scenes of the MV, is to show the audience a preview of the ending when BTS finally escapes.

Next scene is a reference to Make It Right. The little blonde-haired girl represents ARMYs, and the boy represents BTS, as most of you may already know. However, the girl is wearing a blindfold. A reference to the movie Bird Box, signifying how BTS tries to protect us from the bad and the ugly of their journey. They only want to show us their best, and they only want to show us the beauty of the world. In Bird Box, the blindfold protects the main protagonists from a force that threatens their lives.

The next scene is a reference to Noah's Ark! Again, the idea of risking one's self in order to save the greater good. You may think BTS is noah, but I feel like BTS more or less represents the ship. The reason why BTS existed in the first place was because there was a reason for their existence and we are the reason. For Noah, he was given instructions from God and instructed to build a ship to save not only his family but also all the animals. BTS is the ship that carries us all. The ship in the MV seems deteriorated and filled with flaws, but with everyone, and all the members together, the ship will be fixed and complete.

In the next scene, Jin is holding the cage with the dead dove inside. But if you paid attention, you'll notice that the cage actually ended up moving a bit. This is signifying the rebirth of the dove. And also, why are there so many cages? Well, reason possibly being that BTS has tried many MANY times to free the dove successfully (escape successfully to freedom and independence), but failed, symbolizing how throughout their entire career, they've had to fail many times in order to get to where they are today.

Anyways, in the next scene, we see Jungkook fainting from running. Though Map of the Soul: 7 is not a part of BU, it still reminded me of this scene in BS&T where Jungkook threw up then fainted in the restroom:

All the trees are dead and Jungkook is lying on the floor with a black crow pecking at him.

Black Crow/Raven = Death

BTS is in the process of dying to be reborn.

Ok next scene is this scene, which feels like some type of Yoongi cult (lmao), but also reminded me of Handmaid's Tale (which idk if anyone thought of that). Again, the idea of being oppressed and confined in a controlled society. Controlled by Shadow.

SHE MAY BE BLIND BUT SHE CAN SEEEE

She is ARMY, ARMY may be protected by BTS, but we were always there, looking straight across towards the goal. We knew there was a way out, it was always there. We guide BTS towards their goal. The door is right there.

As Taehyung takes the blindfold off of the little girl, the door begins to open. This is BTS trusting us and unveiling their struggles and shadow side to us, believing that through this process, we will gain a better understanding of them, and together, this will help push and lead us towards a better future, together. Together, we are one, and we will be stronger than ever. Hit us with whatever you have, however many bullets you got. We don't care anymore, we will face whatever the future holds head ON.

It's also important to note that, one of the reasons the main protagonists in Maze Runner never tried to escape from the maze at the beginning of the story, was because they didn't know what lied ahead outside of the maze, and they didn't want to know because they're afraid. Now we are united as one. You see how Jin also brought the dove that he thought was once dead, but now revived with him. As they all gathered together, the dove was finally released and free. We are finally free.

Anddd now a reference to Lord of the Flies! In Lord of the Flies, "the conch represents civil discourse on the island, and only works as long as the boys all believe in its power and the necessity of the idea it symbolizes". The conch is a fragile and vulnerable object, which is the reason why the characters in Lord of the Flies would take such good care of the conch.

When Jungkook blows the conch, he is calling out to the rest of his members in order to alert them, which is what Ralph, one of the main protagonists of Lord of the Flies did, to alert his friends.

But what is Jungkook trying to alert his friends of?

The incoming explosion. The Shadow is coming, it's chasing after them. (Just like Pompeii)

This scene represents BTS getting ready to go head-on with their shadow. They're ready to fight for their freedom and independence.

The next scene shows Jungkook holding the conch, wearing a dark velvet red robe along with the rest of his members, just like how they did in Fake Love.

ON is the reverse of N.O.

NO = being trapped to conform

ON = liberation from being confined

In fake love, the boys were running away from their fears, but this time, they're facing their fears head-on. They're no longer afraid of their shadows because they have ARMYs. Instead of keeping their fears to themselves, they're now sharing it with us.

The fireballs from the volcano that blasts out can be seen as bullets. They are no longer afraid of whatever comes, no matter how many bullets that comes at us. We are bulletproof eternal, hence "We are Bulletproof: The Eternal".

After they've learned to face their fears and shadow head on, everything that was once dead now revives and is reborn. The trees that were once dead is now growing again, and the boys finally escape the maze they were once trapped in.

Now finally, we have the Lion King reference.

Circle of Life = Reincarnation

"What goes around comes around". Come Prima.

Just like before, they die then are reborn again.

Each white dove you see in this scene represents a member of BTS. The members continue to walk towards the top of the cliff. And in the next scene, we see Jungkook run straight towards the top of the cliff, smiling.

Again, though Map of the Soul: 7 is not a part of BU, i found a nice and interesting parallel between this scene in the MV and Prologue:

Jungkook runs towards the future, along with the rest of the members walking towards the future behind him, knowing that better and much greater things lie ahead. No longer are they afraid of what the future holds. They know, the future holds amazing things for us.

HYYH The Notes, Map of the Soul: 7

2 August, Year 22 - Yoongi

"If we are together, we can smile"

In the end, we can see that BTS are actually Divergents (referring to the book and movie “Divergent”) and that's why they're walking away. In No More Dream era, they were stuck without a dream, they were being confined into the different factions that society told them they should be put in.

Now they have a dream.

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gilded-green · 3 years

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In celebration of the 10th anniversary, I’ll probably reread GG and send updates/highlight areas and as for commentary. Probably XD

But first. What aspect of Gilded Green was your favorite? What was something you put in a lot of world building for but never got to show either in fic or on tumblr. Who is your favorite character and why, what makes them special in your eyes? Which character has turned into a completely different one as soon as you started writing them? Which part of the fic did you like most when you finished it, do you still like it? Similarly, which part do you dislike most?

Lasty, anything about gg2’s story you want to share/talk about/rant?

-love, the dai li fangirl

Haha, no pressure! But at the same time yes if you do feel free to send me passages for commentary here! <3

What aspect was my favorite? Hmmm. *thinking face* I think, when I first came up with it, I was just thrilled to have these two small things - minor character Lu Ten, overlooked villain organization Dai Li - that I was able to combine into something so big. That was pretty nifty!

As I started developing the story, I think what really caught my attention was the fact that “Wow, all these characters are awful people!” Like. The Dai Li aren’t good.The Fire Nation aren’t good. Lu Ten is a victim but also an oppressor. All off these people have extremely different beliefs and worldviews - Fire supremacist, police state enforcers, classist academic gatekeepers - and all of them think THEY’RE in the right here and none of them are. I think Tien and Hoang might be the only people with a decent, non-oppressive worldview in the story so far. XD I was growing out of the storytelling trope of black-and-white morality at the time, so it was really fun to start experimenting with writing awful people as enjoyable, sympathetic characters.

World building? Hmm. I was just learning how to use my worldbuilding muscles back then. I seem to remember reading up a lot on how brainwashing actually works in the real world and going “I don’t think this is compatible with what we have in ATLA” and just kinda tossing that whole thing out. XD I also recall looking up a lot of stuff for the bits about Jouin, some of which - kalua pig! - has since shown up again in WFFD. I also recall someone on FFdotnet at the time saying “All this chapter did was tell us more about a dead character than the living one” and I was just kinda like -_- yes because he is DEAD and this is your chance to feel sorry about that, we’ll get plenty more of the living one later on account of him still being, y’know, alive. XD

Oh, and Shirong’s personal side projects. I finally got into that a bit in A Meeting of Minds, but the dude DOES have his own stuff going on, which Delun so rudely interrupted to drag him off to see Long Feng about brainwashing a Firebender.

I also did a bunch of research for the birthday party interlude, I think. Mostly appropriate alcohol for such an occasion? And....okay, this’ll sound funny, but.....food containers. I wanted Fen to pack up leftovers for Suyin and Shirong. That’s what my Italian family does after get-togethers, and I assumed that a Chinese family/friend group would do the same! But I also had, like, zero exposure to everyday Chinese life, let alone everyday Chinese life in the 1800s, and I just didn’t have the...idk, cultural osmosis? to figure it out. Like, if you asked me how Victorians would transfer food I’d probably come up with “Idk, wrap it in cloth and stuff it in a basket?” and I assumed people living in modern China would also be able to explain what their people did for food storage/transport 150 years ago but I didn’t have that cultural background, now, did I??? Also this was 10-12 years ago I was looking this up, mind you, the internet was still very different, there was plenty of information on Chinese historical events but not on everyday life objects, CDramas weren’t easy to find if they were translated at all and I certainly didn’t know they existed, and no one was posting beautiful aesthetic videos of life in a rural Chinese mountain village to youtube yet. Eventually I learned that bamboo baskets were a thing, but there wasn’t much info on THOSE either and I wasn’t sure how to describe them, so I just tentatively typed “basket” and called it a day. XD

YOU CANNOT ASK ME TO CHOOSE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER THAT’S LIKE ASKING ME TO CHOOSE BETWEEN MY CHILDREN!!! *shoves Yong off a cliff*

I’m very fond of the Dai family, along with the Trungs and Sais. I’m very proud of how Tuan turned out. I adore Yuan, who you’ve barely met, and Xun, who you haven’t. Huang and Wu Sheng are also definite faves and I can’t wait for y’all to get to know them better.

Characters do usually behave for me in terms of personality development. They surprise me, but they never really turn out to be the complete OPPOSITE of what I was expecting? They just kinda develop organically. Huang and Wu Sheng surprised me, tho, those boys got deep. I knew they had the potential, but developing their backstory actually caused Stingrae and I to develop Ba Sing Se’s socio-political backstory and Long Feng’s rise to power, all because of an inkling I had. That was a very satisfying few years of worldbuilding and story development.

Um, favorite part of the fic....idk, I’m very fond of the final scene, with Azula and her wall chunk from Lu Ten. I’m doubly fond of it because of how it always resonates with readers. Heck, during Azula week last year, I used that chunk of rock as an ongoing theme in Sandstone, and someone commented like “I DIDN’T REALIZE YOU’RE THE ONE WHO WROTE GILDED GREEN” and that made me really happy!

Lu Ten’s time stuck underground - I used the seven stages of grief to get through that one and it was very helpful in structuring that part of the story, and I figured it was deep or something because PSYCHOLOGY.

I’m also proud of myself for getting through the dark brainwashing scenes. So, like, FYI, fanfiction could get...very dark, back in the 00s. People love to play purity police these days and complain about how nasty people get can, but listen. Listen. Do you have any idea how dark FFdotnet got back in the day? Legolas And Aragorn Get Captured By Orcs And Brutally Tortured was an entire genre. I feel like torture fic was actually a lot more common back then, and darkfic in general - I’m sure someone could write a whole thesis on why it’s not so prevalent anymore, I’m gonna guess the fact that fandom is less-insulated and more public now could be part of it, maybe also the fact that the internet is more social media/influencer culture based so people care about their image, and also the purity police which is its own kettle of worms, but I also think that the Bush Administration had something to do with it? You have all these kids who were pre-teens when 9/11 happened, growing up during the Iraq War with an awful presidential administration while everyone was scared and conservative Christianity started to realize that their control over the nation’s “morality” might be slipping and reacted accordingly......yeah there was a lot of darkfic back then.

And I read a lot of darkfic too, but, uh....well, statistically speaking, a lot of writing is bad, okay? A lot of those fics were just weird; you could see where the writer had this idea, and also where they failed to execute it in a way that resonated or made sense. And whatever, writers were young and just wanted to pound out some catharsis, it’s cool, but it still just felt narratively awkward when you could tell how the writer was more focused on LET’S MAKE THIS AS DARK AS POSSIBLE instead of “Let’s tell this as well as possible.”

So the first several attempts at writing the brainwashing scenes, I was nervous because I didn’t want to get TOO dark, and when I finally decided “eff it” and said to Stingrae “I think I need to let this be as dark as it needs to be” I was still nervous because I didn’t want it to end up WEIRD. Idk if that makes sense, but anyway I seem to have done a decent job at it!

As for parts I dislike the most, uhhhhh Iroh’s retreat (I didn’t care, I just wanted to get it over with), Enlai might’ve been promoted too fast? idk, the fact that I came up with Nanyue AFTER I finished publishing GG so I couldn’t work that into the Quy bits, the fact that I was young and innocent and didn’t understand sexual slang or innuendo and randomly chose Dong as the name of the court physician which could lead to some awful puns except no one ever seemed to pick up on that and maybe I’ll regret pointing it out but the man IS going to appear again so I might as well get the first shot in myself. XD

I might have GG2 stuff to talk about but not sure, if I do I’ll make another post on that!

#GG tumblr escapades #GG 10th anniversary

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firelord-frowny · 3 years

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this is just me being bitter and In My Feelings, buuuut

ok, we all know and understand that oppressors may target their victims based on physical traits, or non-physical traits. (i am SURE there’s specific terminology to refer to those things but it’s 9:17 am and i still haven’t gone to bed lmfao leave me alone)

physical traits can be stuff like race, gender, size and/or shape, hair type, visible disabilities, etc.

non physical stuff could include sexuality, religion, nationality, economic status, etc.

and sometimes i feel Some Type Of Way when people who, visually, don’t have any Obvious Traits that a bigot would be able to immediately notice, seem to get so monumentally angry and offended about stuff.

I’m not even saying they don’t have a right to get monumentally angry and offended. People should definitely be mad about oppression and bigotry and whatnot.

But like wow, to be somebody who doesn’t even have the option of just blending in and laying low to spare myself the ridicule and harassment and indignity that comes with living in a racist and sexist culture.

Like, I can hide that I’m trans. I shouldn’t have to, but I can, and that makes me feel safer than I would if I couldn’t. It gives me a sense of control over my safety and my relationships. I can move through the world and no one would ever assume that i’m anything other than a ~woman.~ a violent transphobe, if they crossed my path, wouldn’t know that I’m somebody they’d want to hurt. The only way anyone knows that I’m anything other than a woman is if I tell them.

but i can’t hide that i’m black. nor would i want to, but i don’t even have the choice. anyone, anywhere, who ever lays eyes on me will know that i’m black. they don’t need to know where I’m from, they don’t need to know what my last name is, they don’t need to know what my religion is or if i even have a religion, they don’t need to know what kinds of people I’m attracted to, they don’t need to know whether or not i enjoy sex, they don’t need to know what kind of reproductive organs I have.

a perfect stranger who’s a racist can take one look at me and know that they hate me, and they can decide to mistreat me based soley on what they see when they look at me.

And then like, I’ll hear certain people - often white LGBT people (though maybe not so much the T’s) - assert that it’s not a “privilege” to be able to blend in, and that feeling so unsafe that they have to lie about who they are is not an advantage. And I sooo understand that mindset.

But I also feel like it kinda dismisses the plight of people who have no way to minimize their chances of being targeted for harrassment or violence or discrimination??? And as someone who is both Obviously Black, and a closeted trans person, I definitely feel like being able to choose who gets to know that I’m trans - and who doesn’t - is a privilege. Like, of course it’s a privilege to be able to hide that information from someone who might do me harm because of it. Of course it’s a privilege to be able to move through the world knowing that out of all the obvious things a bigot could hate about me just from the sight of me, my transness isn’t one of them. (i mean they can still hate me for being a woman lmfao but still.)

So like. Idk. I guess what I’m saying is that sometimes I feel almost jealous of people who can blend in. and i see them making a choice to make their ~otherness~ known to the world, and then they get outraged when they’re targeted for that otherness, and then my black ass feels like they’re being ungrateful for the fact that they could blend in if they wanted to.

obligatory disclaimer that I do NOT think that this is a good or correct way for me to feel. people can and should feel free to Be Themselves, and they can and should feel free to push back against anyone who tries to hurt them because of it, and they can and should get angry about it.

I’m just expressing my own hurt and fear and stress and the emotional damage I experience on an ongoing basis because of this shitty, bigoted society.

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thepropertylovers · 4 years

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What Foreigners Really Think of The U.S. Right Now

The other night, after the kiddos went to bed, we decided to watch the second Borat movie that just came out (have you seen it?). It was insane and hilarious all at the same time, but it got me wondering: what do folks who don’t live in the U.S. think of The United States of America right now? What is their perception of us?

So I decided to pose this question on Instagram and wow. Y’all did not hold back. I want to thank everyone who submitted for your candidness and honesty, even if some of these were hard to swallow. It’s important to note that just because these are their opinions of America, it doesn’t mean it is all necessarily true. Regardless, it was interesting to read everyone’s thoughts and get an outsider’s perspective.

We received hundreds of submissions and couldn’t post them all, but below, people from all over the world share what they really think of the United States at the moment.

Leadership is out of touch with reality and messing things up real bad, not just for the U.S. but also for the world. What’s worse is that half the country is being misled successfully. It just shows poorly on the country all over. -Annonymous

Your president is a disaster when it comes to foreign politics and corona. No class, no knowledge. A joke. Very scary to watch. But half of the voters are happy with it. And that is even more scary. Very difficult to understand the hate and ignorance in your society right now. -Mikkel

It’s just weird. Everything basically. I totally understand now why the U.S. is described as '“flawed democracy” in the democracy index. It’s just a crazy system which is not providing equality among people- regarding the vote especially. This system leads to the fact of the two big parties (similar in the UK basically). But democracy is about diversity in opinions and options. Not just two. -Max

The US is more divided than ever. The two parties cannot work together nor do they appear to want to. The government is no longer run by reason, facts, and policy aiming for the betterment of the entire country and or world in the long or medium run; rather it’s instant gratification for the few who benefit from nepotism. Lies and misinformation are used to build a dictatorship hiding in the form of “patriotism”. And those who could act as a check or balance focus on their own personal gain, putting their needs above those of the persons they should be representing. -Joel

I personally don’t think there is a very good atmosphere in the USA, especially right now, Trump’s administration does not protect the American people or the economy. He only cares about himself and his male-white supremacy. The worst of all is that lots of Americans think Trump is actually a good leader (idk why, honestly). But thank God that people are starting to wake up and fight about what they believe. We can see it through BLM protests, feminist movements, and so on, and the whole world is proud about those people fighting for their rights. America was once the land of dreams, but nowadays (with all that is happening) it is even scary to go there. Lots of things have to change and those changes have to start, voting and defending your rights and your beliefs are the first step. Greetings from Spain. -Antonio

The main reasons I can think of are vote suppression/gerrymandering, expensive health care wealth inequality, racism, lack of fun control… -Brian

Definitely find the hypocrisy of the Republicans so annoying, Trump still being in office, the fact that there has been no police reform or justice for Breonna Taylor, the gun laws, and the COVID numbers just to name a few. -Brian

Here in the UK it seems like CARNAGE over there..don’t get me wrong, it’s wild here too but Trump is insane and it’s really odd seeing so many Americans supporting him. -Dan

Really worried about the fact that you might go for 4 more years with Trump and the fact that he’ll for sure contest the results if he loses. Add to this, all the racial violence and in particular the way some policemen act without being condemned by any judge. And finally the pandemic which seems to be even more out of control than in other countries. This is coming from someone who lives in France where we’re going to be under lockdown for the second time since the beginning of the pandemic (2nd lockdown starting tomorrow evening and will last at least until December 1st 😢). -Estelle

To put a long story short, let’s just hope Cheeto doesn’t get reelected otherwise our UK trade deal will be a disaster and we don’t need any more negative influences in the UK around gender and sexual equality.-Christian

I think with this administration, the US has demonstrated how to shipwreck a whole nation economically, ideologically, socially, and politically within a really short period of time. After just 4 years, we’ve come to associate the US with widespread narrow-mindedness, a lack of respect and courtesy to other nations (and minorities in its own country for that matter), short sightedness when it comes to global phenomena like environmentalism or migration patterns, and a celebration (by some at least) of almost barbaric notions of violence, oppression, and backward thinking, all under the camouflage of its constitution and socio-historic heritage. We’ve really admired the Obama administration over here in Europe, which-despite its flaws and shortcomings- has opened up the US to international partnerships and has established an ongoing discourse shaped by mutual respect and politeness…the contrast couldn’t be more pronounced these day…-Sebastian

I look at our Prime Minister and government and then see Trump and think we really could have it so much worse! Vote!! -Ant

As an American living in London, I can tell you that the news coverage here makes the US look like an absolute joke. Mainly due to 45, his lies, his bigotry, and his insane desire to make covid seem as though it’s a falsehood “created by the left” while hundreds of thousands of Americans have ben victimized by this pandemic. What was once seen as a country of opportunity and freedom, is sadly no longer held to that level of greatness in comparison to its neighboring countries. It saddens me because I had plans to move back home within the next year or so, but if the US continues on its path, I can see myself in London for the unforeseeable future. I can’t live in a country where I am seen or believed to be lesser than another because of my sexual preference. I can only hope and pray that this election brings the change we need to be that country of greatness once again. -Rob

Very poor to be honest. And I’m not necessarily [talking about Trump]- I think the immediate reaction is to blame him. Though, he is pretty awful. There was obviously a huge level of social and other problems in the US, and the current administration has exploited them to the breaking point. Whereas more “skilled” past administrations had the ability to leverage those issues for their benefit, but not let it boil over. I actually thought Trump would be a positive for the US and world- in that his incompetence would force other world leaders to step up. Meaning more equity in how disputes etc. are assessed and the US wouldn’t bully smaller nations. I think the US has hit the point in its journey with capitalism that the USSR hit with socialism in the late 80’s that led to its collapse. Does that mean collapse for the US, I don’t know but the system isn’t providing equity and equality for all as it stands. -Paul

Worried but also hopeful for you guys because I don’t think all citizens in America reflect the current administration. It’s been really great to see people voting early and making their voice heard. No matter what happens just know you did what you could in this moment in time. Even though the current administration provides a scary outlook for the future. As long as the current and future generations lead with love, there will hopefully be a brighter future. Love from Canada. -Ajetha

I've been subscribing to all of the US News since the Black Lives Matter Movement commenced and honestly, it made me scared as a Filipino Asian to step foot in the States ever since. I have big dreams of flying over there and probably working there as an immigrant after I finished college. However, when I found out about the racial injustice that is currently ongoing in the country, I became hesistant of still wanting to live there. Although, I'm positive that there are still people like you two that will be open about working immigrants, I really hope that racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia will end for good among every human beings in the US and also around the world. I do wish and pray that the 2020 US election will make certain amends to the current situation y'all are experiencing because it's getting pretty scary out there. -Harvey I’m an American living overseas working for the US government. I’m trying my hardest to stay overseas so my family and I don’t have to come back to the mess that is the US right now. From politics to COVID, it’s not a good time. While the virus may be surging again in Europe, at least the people comply with the government rules. Sometimes I believe Americans take freedom and liberty a bit too far, especially when it comes to the greater good. -Anonymous

Allthough on social policy the US is no real example for us (I think there is more social ‘security’, more justice, high standards in education for all in most of the EU countries), they always have been a ‘safe haven’ in big international politics. It now feels like ‘they have our back’ doesn’t imply anymore. -Jasper

Well personally I think the country seems in total disarray, instead of focusing on the real issues in the streets both house of the capitol are focused on bashing each other during the election campaign which is a circus due to the sitting POTUS. The obsession with the right to bare arms and the gun culture bewilders most other countries, you have teenagers walking into schools with Assault weapons and yet people still want guns to be available, worst still you ban one type of assault rifle but another just as powerful is kept on sale, it’s plain weird. -Philip

Neither candidate represents their party well. As an outsider looking in, it just baffles me that either of these men could potentially be the leader of the free world...It genuinely feels like worrying times are ahead for the US. -Marc I'm from India and living in Germany at the moment. The race problem in the US is as bad as the class/caste problem in India. Even if I don't have money I can go to a government health center in India. I just had an operation and stayed at the hospital for 18 days here in Germany, I had to pay only 180 Euros, everything else ( the operation and the many tests and scans that followed) was covered by the insurance. When my friends at the US heard about it they were shocked about low the hospital bill. There are really great labs (I'm a researcher) that I would like to work but I have no intentions of working/living in the US for a longer period of time. -Maithy

I think the US has become a joke to the rest of the developed world. Neither candidates running for president are fit to run such a powerful country. I can't help but feel after the election if Trump wins the left will riot and if Biden wins the right will riot. The country might just rip itself apart. American politics has zero empathy and zero morals. Honestly its terrifying. -Andrew

The US has always been a bit confusing to me - the two party system, the focus on religion, the divide in income and possibilities- as well as being the beacon of light in the fight for human rights, the strong personal pride in creating caring societets, the blending of and openeses for ethnicities and cultures... But for a while politics have become not at all about politics, religious beliefs are taking charge in policy work, the wealthier part shows little companion towards the less wealthy, the public spending is way above budget year after year while health care seems to be crazy expensive and not for all. The intrusion of US interest in politics in other countries are blunt to say the least, creating conflict where human lives have no value if they’re not US lives... School shootings that seems to be acted upon as that is part of normal lives, and schools to expensive for even middle class kids to study at... This is a shift in trust and soft power that affects all of us. -Olof

To be honest, I couldn’t come to the US right now, it scares me. The leadership, the gun laws, the violence and the divide of the nation. It sucks, because I love America and have been there 7 times in the last two years from Australia for work... but not anymore. I’m not coming back now until peace wins. -Anonymous

The fact that such a hate filled government is presiding over what is one the greatest countries in the world is scary. And it is seriously mind blowing that out of such a powerful country filled with some of the greatest minds in the world it’s these two men are the best you can do to be your next president. Unbelievable. Seriously unbelievable. -Rachel

I think the orange dude in office is making you guys look bad. But also, good (?). Seeing the black lives matter movement and so many of you stand up to the problems your country faces has been inspiring. One thing our countries have in common is how we are divided into very distinctive opposites sides. I mean, where do all these racists, bigots, utterly, madly conservites people came from? I few like a few years ago things did not seem so much as a boiling pan about to explode. Or maybe they were all hiding and when a lunatic like them rose to power (how that happened still boggles my mind) they all showed their true colors. It’s scary. I hope Trump doesn’t get reelected. Brazilians loooove to imitate americans🙄, so if he gets reelected it makes that much probable that our lunatic will also be in office for four more years. P.S. have you guys watched the show Years and Years from HBO? A really good watch is this election times! ☺️ -Taty

Re. The US atm. Unfortunately your president has made your country a laughing stock around the world and he's destroyed relationships with allies. It's gonna take time to rebuild all of that. He's also moved an entire branch of your government to the far right, even though the majority of the country if left/centr of left. So you've a supreme court that doesn't represent you and it's looking like they're going to try and take away rights from people. You have a healthcare system that doesn't look out for its people and there's this bizarre fear of universal healthcare that seems insane to every other 1st world country. If if Biden wins (and I really hope he does for everyone's sake), there's going to be a lot of work in undoing the damage Trump has done before he can even get into what he wants to do. All the while you've an ultra conservative highest court. There's also the massive political division and the systemic racism. It's a lot. It's not impossible, but it's going to take so much time and people who want it to change. -Ciara

I’ve been sitting here for an hour thinking about your question and there are many different outlooks I could raise so I’ll keep it generic. I’ll start with the elephant in the room known as Covid. Each day, our morning news informs us of what your leaders are doing and daily case numbers in the US. We sit here completely shocked at how your government has let it reach this point. You may have heard that Melbourne has just come out of one of the strictest and longest lock downs in the world. I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone to have to do, but I will say, I feel much more comfortable to be able to go to the shops knowing the numbers are at about 2-3 a day instead of in the thousands. I do think that your government does need to address this now, could even be making it compulsory mask wearing. It’s hard for me to comment about your economy as we don’t here much about it, but I will say Trump ‘says’ make America great again, let’s get more jobs, they are pro life, yet how is someone who is prolife not doing anything to stop a virus that is killing people? Isn’t your unemployment rate worse (pre-covid) than what it was when Obama was president? I think as a generic outlook, if change isn’t made in the election, the outlook from a Australian does not look like it would be something you’d want to be apart of. I love America. Have visited a couple of times, even thought about moving there, but at the moment, I’ve never been more thankful to not be there. -Ben

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jyndor · 4 years

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more word vomit on avatar and how it frames marginalized peoples’ desire for revenge from an american, just what the world needed right now

so I have a lot of thoughts about how avatar frames vengeance and forgiveness, in particular for people who are the victims of imperial destruction. I do understand why people think that wanting revenge can make people bitter and disallow healing, and there is some validity to this. and resentment definitely can be an obstacle to healing emotional pain.

hama is a woman traumatized by the genocide of her people, by the unending cruelty of fire nation imperialism. when she develops her bloodbending skills, she feels like she is taking back some control from those who wronged not just her but her culture and civilization. but by becoming the titular puppetmaster, she is victimizing fire nation civilians who have done nothing to her.

she serves as an important foil to katara. in her conversation with zuko in crossroads of destiny, she tells him that he represents the fire nation in her mind, and she even says she is wrong to do that (which is kind of funny given that he did fuck with the gaang a LOT. she would have good reason to think of zuko’s face as being the face of an empire she hates when during a big chunk of the journey, he was the one coming after them) since her pain stems from her mother’s murder. and zuko is not the man who murdered kya.

when the gaang travels through the fire nation, katara is the first to really recognize the impact that imperialism has had on the fire nation’s own citizens. she risks sokka’s timeline and lies to the group about appa being sick just to become the painted lady and save some fire nation citizens. when these people realize that a waterbender has appropriated their sacred spirit, they are furious until sokka tells them that they can fuck off with their shit, and that they are alive to be pissed at her because katara saved them. still katara feels guilty about potentially desecrating such a culturally and spiritually important figure for these people.

when she and zuko go on their glorious ninjas of love and revenge journey to fuck up the southern raiders, katara decides to spare the life of her mother’s killer because she realizes that avenging kya is not going to bring her back or make katara feel better. she would just be killing a shitty old man who doesn’t even care about what he did.

I’ve already talked a bit about why I feel like aang’s forgiveness shit in that episode is fucking stupid and out of character, so I am not going there right now. katara explicitly didn’t forgive yon rha, but she was able to forgive zuko, and this is where I’m gonna bring hama back into this. katara forgiving zuko for the wrongs he did (specifically betraying her in the catacombs of love) makes sense because zuko worked to redeem himself and to make up for his actions.

we don’t know a lot about what hama’s experience was like in the village or while running her inn. aang’s assumption upon hearing that people are going missing in the woods is that the villagers are doing something to make a spirit angry. and that’s interesting, because in the end we are to assume that they didn’t do anything except live as fire nation citizens in a fire nation village unlucky enough to be near hama’s inn.

her desire for justice warping into bitterness and insanity is kind of the crux of the episode. hama ends up imprisoned by the fire nation once again, and this time it’s not because she’s a waterbender standing up to fire nation imperial might, it’s because she hurt innocent people with her waterbending.

and here is where I get conflicted. those fire nation people never did anything to hama in the same way that I personally never did anything to peoples who have been harmed by american imperialism, but because I am an american citizen, and in particular a white american citizen, I have benefited from the violence done to those peoples and their cultures. and I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that those villagers probably are not against fire nation imperialism.

it doesn’t even matter since the point the writers are trying to make is that when your need for justice turns into a need for indiscriminate vengeance, you end up re-victimizing yourself above all else. I think that is an interesting message.

but that brings me to jet.

so jet is way more sympathetic than hama, and it’s not just because he’s a cutie. he is literally the leader of a guerilla group called the freedom fighters, which lol I see you and your social commentary, atla. being "freedom fighters” is how western powers have historically framed the “good” rebels in any given conflict. jet isn’t deliberately targeting innocent civilians, but he isn’t going to stop his attacks just because they might become collateral damage.

jet blurring the lines between fighting for liberation and being a terrorist is a nuanced take on the issue, especially considering when the show aired. jet is characterized by his justifiable anger at the fire nation. he has legitimate grievances, personal grievances.. the irony is that he is willing to put his own people at risk just to get back at the fire nation.

in the second season, despite genuinely wanting to change his ways, jet’s hatred of anyone who is fire nation is what gets him imprisoned and later killed... by his own people, no less. he isn’t smart about how he fights against fire nation imperialism. he loses the moral high ground when he loses sympathy for two refugees just because he thinks he sees iroh heat up his tea with firebending. forget for a moment that zuko and iroh are in fact firebenders and that iroh in particular is quite responsible for damage done to the earth kingdom. when jet decides to go after them, he still thinks of them as refugees. and despite knowing this, jet can’t accept that the fire nation has also hurt its own people in its fight for supremacy.

the story about jet isn’t necessarily dealing with forgiveness, in the same way that hama is never asked to forgive the fire nation for its crimes against her and her people. the narrative suggests that both jet and hama would have been better served if they hadn’t associated fire nation randos with the fire nation military and government. if they had just aimed their anger at the fire nation government.

which... okay, come on. like, I appreciate that I personally have not dropped bombs on weddings in iraq (which of course is itself an invention of the west), but my government is still my government, my tax dollars are my tax dollars. I’m not gonna be offended by some guy in iraq hating americans indiscriminately even though I personally object to my government’s foreign policy. my personal objections didn’t save that guy’s family. murdering american civilians to avenge murdered innocent civilians would be a bad thing, and legitimate grievances wouldn’t stop the us from probably nuking everyone at this point so like I really don’t recommend it.

but the feelings? well, I can’t argue against them because I’ll never, ever understand what it’s like to be on the receiving end of american empire.

context is ALWAYS important. avatar ran in the mid 2000s, during the height of the wars in afghanistan and iraq. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a story about how imperialism harms children took off during a time when these illegal wars of aggression were becoming less and less popular in the states. it is also an american show, written by americans for an american audience. it appropriates several cultures to which the creators do not belong, and it does so lovingly and respectfully... sometimes.

centering conversations about imperialism on the forgiveness of the marginalized peoples is... kinda weird. given that a lot of the peoples that inspired different aspects of the show have been oppressed by western imperialism - the inuit people obviously inspired the southern water tribe, the sun warriors are an amalgamation of different mesoamerican civilizations, the swamp water tribe is influenced by cajun people, not to mention the massive influence drawn from chinese cultures - I think we should have seen some post-war stories in the show (fuck the comics, if you care about things enough to write extra materials, put them in the main medium of your fucking story since otherwise most people will not see them).

stories about reparations from the fire nation. stories about the ethics of removing the descendants of fire nation colonists from the earth kingdom. stories about zuko and katara searching for ursa lol I’m sorry. I think an american audience could have really benefited from those stories.

idk guys, what do you think?

#atla #katara #imperialism #war #meta #i have adhd which is obvious

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