#🫀 vetty’s musings

[joeloverture]

tlou s2, racism, & neocolonialism

hi. im vetty. i'm a diehard joel defender and i also have thoughts on that but that's not why we're here today. above all, i'm an indigenous mexican-chilean and tlou is (unfortunately) my special interest. in my time at uni i've taken a lot of classes about neocolonialism in latin america, and i also have my lived experiences. so let's talk about it and how it applies to tlou season 2.

severe spoilers for tlou2 below (the big one, mainly, but also some explanatory stuff about the wlf. if you are confused you should scroll) there's more to critique than just this but it's what im most qualified to talk about so here we go.

tw: racism, colonialism, mentions of torture, mentions of rape (very small), mentions of violence

pedro pascal. yep. pedro pascal. what's there to say about him other than almost everyone in hollywood saying he's as nice as he seems? many know that pedro is chilean, and is the child of socialist immigrants to the U.S. who fled pinochet's rule. being latino is an important cornerstone of his identity — he talks about it often, unapologetically so.

in a variety interview with clayton davis, pedro says, "...the best way to continue representation is, exactly as you put it, just casting a person into a role that isn't limited to opening, not limiting a character to its racial identity, especially if its an IP we're familiar with or a book. people get so butthurt about this stuff but who cares?"

joel isn't explicitly latino, but honestly, i think it'd be worse to strip away pedro's identity from joel than conflating their identities*. in the game, joel does say "adiós" in the whitest way ever (without an accent), but i forgive him and call him latino anyway. i'd argue, with pedro and gabriel both being latino and cast as brothers, he is latino in the show. i'd also argue that joel's death, as it is in-game, doesn't translate well onscreen with pedro as joel. not in implication.

to understand the implications of what we may see in the show, first, you have to understand what happened in chile. a us-backed coup occurred in chile to get rid of the elected marxist. said marxist was replaced by augusto pinochet. numbers are not exact since it was such a large scale population, but under his rule approximately three thousand people were killed or 'disappeared' (never seen again) and almost forty thousand became political prisoners. most of whom were tortured.

had pedro's family, balmecadas and socialists, not escaped, they very likely would've been added to that count. think about that.

that brings us to how, when abby kills joel, she doesn't just kill him. ellie walks in on joel having been brutally beaten for likely hours. we don't have an exact time, but abby goes from having subdued joel while wearing her coat to having taken it off, implying she was sweating for a prolonged period. (keep in mind. it was in a BLIZZARD).

abby is a white girl. not only that, she is a white girl who joined up with the WLF (washington liberation front) following the death of her father. the WLF is a militia group that fought against FEDRA in seattle. it's a compound of soldiers, heavily militarized, and one must think of how it compares to U.S. militarization.

the school of the americas is a school in georgia where people are trained to become mercenaries. whether they be killing or torturing techniques, they were learning how to commit war crimes, primarily against vulnerable brown populations in latin america. dictators installed in latin america sent trainees there — for a few examples, cadets were sent from chile, bolivia, peru, panama, and honduras. there's absolutely more countries that were involved, but the cadets that were sent back went on to enable dictatorships through rape, massacres, torture, and murder.

while the WLF is taught how to fight their turf wars against the scars, the school of the americas teaches their cadets how to perpetuate war crimes in the global south.

so let's say they keep joel's death scene the same in length and context. joel, latino and chilean in this case, is on the ground for hours, surrounded by white people, while he is being beaten to death and brutalized.

it's a disgusting reflection of all that has been done to people like us in the past, and with the connotations of war that coat tlou2 like viscous slime, it's a reflection that's impossible to look away from. do not let season two blind you from these implications, if they are realized onscreen.

more info:

*- it's not as if i hold any of this against pedro. that's the last thing i'm doing. he took a job, he fulfilled it. this is work for him. im just elated to see someone like me on tv, but beyond upset with the writing packed into this. this isn't a critique on abby (that'll come later from me), rather the writing behind her and her crew. it's got revolting undertones. don't put words in my mouth. tlou2's anti-palestinian messaging is another topic, one i'm less equipped to discuss. i encourage you to look into this and be mindful about it if you watch the season at all. when doing so, do so elsewhere.

further reading/material:

chile, the cia, and the cold war: podcast featuring a guest speaker who authored a book of the same title (tried linking but wouldn't work, can be found on apple podcasts for free) the farming of bones by edwidge danticat: i'm not linking this because if you're interested you should order it from a small bookstore in your community instead of supporting amazon or b&n, but this fictional angle of the aftermath of the parsley massacre in the dominican republic is a must-read the inferno by luz arce: linking because you can order directly from UW press! memoir that follows arce's story of being tortured and detained by the chilean intelligence service.

if you hate me because i posted about this, good! i dont want you here.

[joeloverture]

this wouldn’t have happened if not for 9/11

[joeloverture]

it's been on my mind since i've started reading tlou reader-insert, but i just want to let you all know: plus-sized people can exist in the apocalypse. there's a plethora of reasons why:

genetics. lack of eating can cause slower digestion. your body enters survival mode and slows down your metabolism. eating canned, processed foods that outlasted traditionally healthy foods.

people can be plus-sized and still athletic. people can be plus-sized and have 'healthy' lifestyles. people can be plus-sized and not fit your expectation of what being plus-sized is like.

i make this post because, with fatphobic rhetoric always floating around, it's hard to remember that you exist as you are, oftentimes regardless of circumstance.

[joeloverture]

just when you think nothing's wetter than trekking through the wetlands...

you get proven wrong.

hihi!! so i put up a poll asking what my next wip would be... and this one ever so slightly won! (don't worry rimjob joel truthers. he'll do his time, too) between today and yesterday i spit out 3,000 words of this and we're not even to the smut yet. so don't hit me up when this is, like, 8,000 words long. i learned to do gradient text for this. html is no joke. anyway, does next week work for y'all?

mwah 💋

— v.

follow @joelovertureupdates to be notified when i post 🤎

[joeloverture]

here’s the thing i AM gonna talk about it and i AM gonna be pissed about it. historically but especially in a year that’s meant to be ‘diverse’, latinos (among other POCs) were left behind this awards season. tonight, the emmys have four latino nominees. pedro is an important part of that conversation — with the year he’s had, and the background he comes from.

sure, every actor in the categories he’s nominated in deserves their dues and acknowledgement. that’s why they ARE nominated. but seeing pedro being, YET AGAIN, reduced to a tactless horniness joke instead of the performances he’s capable of giving, is so goddamn upsetting.

pedro’s career and talent has been consistently overlooked until now, and the fact that his efforts can be neglected to boost a white man for the hundredth fucking time is just… exhausting. at the end of the day, he’s a caricature to hollywood’s biggest decision makers. they joke about him, don’t take him seriously, ask him the dumbest interview questions even thinkable, and can’t even reward him for his work.

no, 2023 wasn’t the year everyone was horny for pedro pascal — it was the year he blew audiences away with his performance, kindness, and passion. the critics might not be looking, but we are, and that matters infinitely more.

[joeloverture]

talia is my everything and these bracelets are incredible 💙🧡 captures the vibes so well

making bracelets based on your friends fics >>>>

@joeloverture

[joeloverture]

more clarity on this ask i received -> the coherent version.

reblogs are welcome and encouraged because the racism in this fandom is often overlooked on account of it being subtle. in this case it is glaringly obvious, but not always.

tw racism below

for those who don’t know — although a lesser known slur in the multitude of derogatory words out there, beaner is in fact a slur. commonly used against mexicans or mexican americans like myself because it is one of our “staple foods”. this reduces and dehumanizes us to one very, very minimal aspect of our culture. when the spanish first colonized us and encountered our staple crops (corn, pumpkins, avocados, beans, etc) they considered them all “inferior” foods to live on, much like us being “inferior people” to them. by diminishing us to the foods we eat you are not only participating in active racism, but also forgiving and peddling colonist ideology.

i can’t stop anyone from being racist. but i can condemn it like hell. you are the only subhuman one if you only see someone as an ethnicity or race.

as far as other subtle racism in this fandom, we’ve had the latino fetishization discussion before. what i find interesting about this particular ask is that you’re seeking out fanfiction about a latino character all the while perpetuating hate against us. you fetishize us, yet you continue to hate us. most of the time it isn’t as obvious as this ask has made it. but if you participate in this, if you still see us as stereotypes, yet continue to get off to fanfiction about characters that share our backgrounds, PLEASE self evaluate.

you don’t have to like my fics. in fact, not liking them doesn’t make you a shitty person. everything else that you said here makes up for it.

[joeloverture]

i was planning on doing this anyway, but here’s the deal: im leaving tumblr

guys, i have chronic pain. severe, debilitating chronic pain. and the severity of that isn’t exactly the kind that i can just bare my heart to describe. you don’t know how bad it is until you’re on the receiving end of it, and i hope you never are. but im unlucky, and i wake up in persisting pain every day of my life. i won’t talk extensively about my chronic pain in this departure but just know that writing, especially for fandom, is just unrealistic for me right now

writing, especially for THIS fandom, is just out of the fucking question right now.

sorry, but im not giving jerk off material to a bunch of sex starved basement dwellers with cunts that look like rotted raisins. thats just not why i joined this fandom. i joined to celebrate the dramatic rise to fame of someone whose story & identity i found relatable and encouraging. now, people are making baseless assumptions & accusations, as well as actively hurting and spreading false information about kindhearted and talented people.

maybe ill have a future with this fandom in it, as well as creating lighthearted fics, but now? no. its not fun! especially with my health

so where does this leave my fics? unfinished, im afraid. and honestly, maybe even taken down. im tempted to deactivate here, but i dont want to leave people without works that they may go back to. i might orphan them on ao3 — just send me an ask with a fic of mine you favor if it isn’t already posted there, and ill try to get it up.

that said, ive been planning on leaving for a while. that fuck ass account is not the sole reason, but i also don’t want to be part of a circle jerk where everyone gets off on others’ collective misery. which is what this environment feels like rn

thank you to every wonderful soul who’s supported me during my brief stint here 🤎 your comments, reblogs, and asks were all treasured

💌 - vetty

[joeloverture]

TW: mentions of suicide below the cut, nongraphic

a particular piece of anon hate and my response below because we shouldn’t be normalizing this!!!

in response to me asking for prompts or goofy asks to calm me down after an absolutely grueling day.

i don’t want to get too personal, but yesterday i wrote down for the first time on therapy intake forms that im suicidal. besides that, i have debilitating intrusive ocd. i cannot control what happens in my mind. this ask filled my brain with graphic content. people don’t think about the implications of what they say at all.

what’s weirder? writing a fictional age gap, or mentioning suicide to a stranger?

we shouldn’t normalize these sorts of asks. this is a fandom that is a breeding ground for insecurity and mutilation of happiness. ive been back here for maybe a week, and people are already telling me how to use my blog, what i can/cant post, etc. it’s absurd. it’s abnormal. it’s something you do when you live in your parents’ basement and only see daylight twice a year. it’s something you do if you have to google the definition of grass.

i don’t want to reignite the age gap argument but the fact of the matter is that reader is HAPPY with her situation, coach!joel has never fucked someone as young as her before. it’s fully consenting. they are, to an extent, happy. there’s nothing strange about this in fanfiction. i am well aware of the ethical dubiousness of the situation. but that’s why it’s fun for me to write. you don’t get to tell me what i can and can’t do. you just don’t. even if you dislike it, someone is going to be writing it anyway. and that, my dears, is why your scrolling finger and tag blocking hands are so useful.

don’t send anyone shit like this. point blank. ever. there is no need for it.

[joeloverture]

i had 0 plans to talk about it since i do not want to start shit but it's absolutely driving me insane to see poc actors get trampled for having a large body of work while white actors (literally the chris quartet, although pratt has been/deserves to be dragged) are routinely applauded.

seeing the internet turn on pedro after doing nothing but praising him for his work in tlou is not only a could-exclusively-happen-on-twitter phenomenon but is also proof that it's acceptable to let a poc be cast as a white man once and only once. there was an uproar when he was going to be joel, and he knocked it out of the fucking park. there's an uproar now due to his casting as reed richards, yet he hasn't given anyone a reason to critique his acting when he's worked so hard and executed his characters so beautifully and intimately.

even with rumors of him being in talks for materialists (the A24 romcom) opposite chris evans, the comments in response were almost entirely targeting pedro for 'being in everything' while evans has been in ~49 films. nobody is tired of him yet, are they? why is this energy solely ever directed at pocs?

[joeloverture]

ok, more on this because apparently i have to say all of this. if responding to it makes the hate worse i honestly could not give less of a fuck about it than i already do. i am here to express myself so u best believe that is what my ass will be doing!!

this is gonna be a bit long and a bit winded bc ive been keeping this close to my chest for a while.

i genuinely don't fucking write for an audience. if i was writing for an audience you'd have never seen me post fair's fair. you'd have never seen me writing flesh currency! i write what i want. when i'm horny. when i want to make other people horny (i guess?). when i feel like it. when im healthy enough to do it.

no my fics are not the magnum opus. no they arent being strung up in the goddamn louvre. that isnt what im trying to do. i juice joy out of my fanfic writing and am KIND enough to put it on the internet for others to enjoy if they so wish. nobody is holding you at gunpoint to read my "shit writing".

fanfic writers either dont post enough or they post too much you really, really gotta pick one.

i spent like 5 months on hiatus in debilitating pain and was in and out of the hospital for a few weeks out of those months. i couldnt even write a goddamn diary entry. you have no idea how happy i am to have my creative voice back.

its... my winter break. of fucking course im writing lol i dont have anything else to do!!!! there's nothing else id rather be doing because i actually like this!

id rather write as a hobby than crank out anon hate, personally. maybe that's a me issue?

then, a bit more on identity and the role of identity in all of this

ive had to start counting the amount of anons i get with hateful slurs in them. since coming back i've been called the r slur. the f slur. the c slur. the b slur. everything in the fucking book. not only is it uncreative, its regressive.

y'all either dont like me because im annoying or blatantly showing autistic traits or outspoken abt being marginalized or bc you dislike my writing or because you have absolutely nothing better to do (the latter of which is particularly pathetic)

regardless you are weaponizing my identity to either try to terrorize me in general or drive me off of this site. think about how weird that is.

also so many of these asks are laden with an undercurrent of ableism. like, oh my god, the disabled girl is posting a lot ! woah! holy shit! call the fucking news outlets!

oh my god, the disabled girl is showing autism traits on main!!!! should we call autism speaks? should we invite sia?

this isnt even me defending myself, i feel no obligation to defend myself against these fuckers. i just did want to arrange my thoughts for the dash. sometimes talking helps me compose that sort of thing.

[joeloverture]

dave york could’ve done it

[joeloverture]

met gala TONIGHT pspspspsps pedro pascal

[joeloverture]

if the orange team wins tonight i will actually write coach joel 2

[joeloverture]

ok genuinely because ive seen more demand for it on this fic than any other ones ive written -

who wants to be tagged on deadfall??

if you’ve asked me and ive replied that i have a notifs blog, ill automatically add you anyway! this taglist would be for *this fic specifically* so you need not worry about me ceaselessly spamming.

reply if you’re interested!

[joeloverture]

announcement! 🧡🏈

hook ‘em is not going to be a mini-series. nope, we’re looking at a true series. likely a six-parter. a full fledged football funhouse of coach!joel depravity. whoops.

i should’ve known this would happen. im too attached to this bastard, and kept getting tripped up while wringing my neck trying to make this shorter than it wants to be. but i hope you guys aren’t sick of me yet lol, there’s gonna be more 🧡