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Angelo Jank (German,1868-1940)

Centaur In Love (illustration from “Jugend” magazine), 1897

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Heartwood Creek; Majestic Unicorn

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🐌 Tinker Bell 🧚 જ⁀➴ maximalist moodboard for tiny tinkers

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look who's back with Opinions (tm)

i'll be 100% honest, i have no issue with smut in general. i don't personally consume it, but i can respect it as a form of expression (especially for women) in a very sex-negative purity culture world.

but... Avatar smut so often just completely irks me, and not because of the sexual nature of it. nah, it's not that, it's the creepy racism aspect that is so often prevalent. basically inescapable.

(nsfw warning for everything below)

Many a smutfic posted on here has some tag like "heat cycle" or "heat scent" or "knotting" that makes me recoil. This is not me trying to be a kink-shaming holier-than-thou puritan, rather, an observation about the way some people on here engage with the film and the Na'vi in general, that I think is worth thinking critically about.

In my opinion, these tags and similar ones all have something in common: animalization and exoticism. It's framing the Na'vi less as sapient beings with cognition and culture on an equal level to humans and more as primal and animalistic creatures who have yet to develop a society past the point of breeding permissions and sexual hierarchies--more akin to wolf packs and lion prides than human civilizations.

I don't think it's a coincidence how people so vehemently despised the RDA characters like Quaritch and Wainfleet until they were in Na'vi bodies and therein suddenly had exotic alien sex appeal. It takes a stunning degree of cognitive dissonance to be disgusted by their militaristic and imperialistic culture, mindset, and behavior when they're human, and then turn around and fetishize that aspect of them when they're Na'vi.

I don't think it's a coincidence how the Sully children, despite being no older than 16, are so rampantly sexualized by the fandom. And yes, most who write fanfics about them age them up or whatever, but I gotta ask why the focus on turning them into objects of sexual desire is so heavy--heavier than existing adult male characters like Jake, Tsu'tey, Tonowari, etc. I have never seen people so eager to mental-gymnastics their way into sexualizing a bunch of child characters like I do in the Avatar fandom.

Is it a coincidence we hardly ever see this kind of treatment given to Spider? Only the Na'vi children?

All of this to say--Kinks are informed by culture and society, among other things; they don't manifest out of thin air. I see this sort of thing circulate around the fandom and I have to pause and ask where it's coming from. The Na'vi are undeniably analogous to real-world civilizations and cultures, and I can't in good conscience say that how you engage with them in fiction is wholly detached from how you engage with these real cultures. I've witnessed firsthand how hatred of the Na'vi on the part of RDA apologists translates almost 1:1 with racism and imperialism apology toward real-world Indigenous cultures. I'm not pulling this out of my ass.

Fetishization of "exotic" cultures is a real aspect of imperialism and colonialism, the effects of which are still felt and seen today. Hypersexualization of Asian, Native American, African, and tribal cultures is still rampant in the modern day and was even more so even just a few decades ago. And you see this sort of hypersexualization of the Na'vi everywhere. Ironically, I even see this imperialistic mindset jump out when people try to critique the Na'vi for being oversexualized in the franchise: i.e., "They dress so immodestly!", ignoring the fact that modesty is a wholly Western construct, and women being "immodest" to colonizers was used by colonizers to frame them and their cultures as hypersexualized tribal beasts. It excused sexual abuse against them and their descendants by gaslighting the populus and even the abused themselves into believing sexual abuse was normal, excusable, desired.

(And to be clear, the Na'vi are not above criticism for leaning into Western perceptions of real-world Indigenous cultures, but I wouldn't say they're hypersexualized in the media itself. Yes, they dress """immodestly""", but their immodesty and bodies are never hypersexualized in writing or on screen, imo.)

In conclusion, I guess: I am not saying it's wrong to find the Na'vi attractive, sexually or otherwise. That's 100% okay! And agreeable! I'm not saying having the kinks described above is inherently wrong or that it makes one a bad person--but I am going to point out biases where I think they exist. Kinks are not immune to criticism and analysis. Anything you put out on the internet is subject to it. I'm not trying to stop anyone from writing this stuff or lecture anyone about how wrong and icky it is. You can write whatever you'd like; these are just my opinions. (And please fuck off with the "pro-ship" / "anti" discourse, i am not in the mood to deal with that bag of cats.)

Avatar is a franchise centralized around Indigenous rights and experiences, even if it's through the metaphorical lens of a fictional species. Eroding the shell of humanness that encases the Na'vi and their culture opens the door to mindsets like hypersexualization and fetishization and it isn't unreasonable to point out the possibility of that evolving past the movie screen.

And, just so we clear our bases: if nothing in this post applies to you personally, then it isn't about you--plain and simple. I'm not calling out anyone or any fanfics in particular. This post is about general themes and ideas.

ramble over

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humans are animals too and are valuable members of the ecosystem! no being is inherently good or evil ⭐️🌼

please enjoy these posters i made playing around with dual tone :} all images are creative commons from unsplash!

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_______aun

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The real reason your sapient dragon character needs a "rider":

Dragons on the wing are vulnerable to being mobbed by smaller, more agile flyers, particularly in your large rear blind spot, like a bird of prey being mobbed by crows. Having a human armed with a long spear perched on your back helps to dissuade anyone from getting any funny ideas.

Breath weapons are impressive enough on the ground, but in flight they're really only good for strafing stationary targets; trying to use your breath weapon in an aerial dogfight is a good way to get fire up your nose. A real fight calls for sterner measures – and, concomitantly, a crew to aim and reload the cannons.

In today's competitive world, it's not enough to devour a flock of sheep and call it a day if you want to keep your edge. You're accompanied at all times by a qualified personal alchemist tasked with carefully regulating your internal furnace to ensure peak performance, and sometimes you even listen to them.

No dragon of any quality would be caught dead without their valet. It's not as though you can announce your numerous long-winded titles yourself when introductions are called for, can you? You suppose next you'll be expected to pick up the spoils of your conquests yourself, like a common brigand. Perish the thought!

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September 22nd, 2024

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Carmen Marchena

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Ferns and fog

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ANGELTOBER 10 - Halo

Click for Quality!

Something simples since my schedule’s been packed… prompt by @ultrainfinitepit!

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2006

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Western Pennsylvania by Jason Gambone

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yeah you're nonhuman but you were raised in a human society and therefore your relationship with animals is going to be limited. you cannot assume you instinctively can understand and communicate with animals. please respect local wildlife and do your research I am on my hands and knees

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Claude Génisson