#I am not talking about Indigenous origin stories

[sixth-light]

Not adding this onto the post that keeps crossing my dash because it's not really relevant to that discussion, but: anytime the phrase 'nobody was living there' comes up as a form of justification for something or other, it is worth keeping in mind that in literally the last ten thousand years or so the only major areas of the world to have been settled by humans for the first time are Greenland, Iceland, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Madagascar. (We shall not count Antarctica on the grounds that nobody lives there permanently or is ever likely to.) Everywhere else has been inhabited by humans for tens of thousands of years. Even when Homo sapiens left Africa our ancestors were encountering (checks notes) our other ancestors, Neanderthals and Denisovans, not to mention other human species now extinct.

The myth of the unpopulated frontier, open for expansion, is just that: a myth, and one that generally serves a specific purpose in terms of justifying settler-colonialism. The question the phrase 'nobody was living there' demands is - who are you calling 'nobody'?

[battry-acid]

From your recent piece with Colossus in it, I would love you to elaborate on the autism mention!!

If it’s a hc, I love it, I have never thought of it before and it just makes a lot of sense

absolutely!!! apologies for the incoming ramble

yes it's only a headcanon, not actually canon (for now). i've always related to colossus both as a neurodivergent person and as an artist due to how it's easiest for him to communicate his feelings through art, and how he otherwise normally struggles with words. that is the main reason i view him as autistic, among many other reasons. the many other reasons are listed below!

<< DISCLAIMER: when i talk about x-men characters, unless i'm specifying a particular IP/media, just assume i'm talking about the original run of the all-new all-different uncanny x-men comics and how the characters are portrayed there. 1975-1990 is the sweet spot. that is the "source material" to me, the blueprint of what roles those characters are made to serve and what their most prominent traits are. yay >>

1. COMMUNICATES BEST THROUGH ART

piotr specifically says "my pencil can create far better pictures of this land...than my poor words." in "prison of the heart" (this story appears in vol 1 issue 5 of classic x-men as it was cut from the original run of UXM. it takes place between issues 97 and 98). yet he still calls his drawings "not very good". he thinks he's terrible at communicating no matter how he tries to do so.

to summarize in the story, he falls in love with a fellow russian immigrant with an artistic heart named anya. he expresses his affection by giving her a drawing of her performing, "from my heart to yours". it is the purest way he can express how he feels.

and yet, it doesn't work out. he protects her by turning into colossus, a show of his care for her, and she runs from him in fear.

this sequence makes my heart EXPLODE. mfw autistic people get called heartless all the time for struggling with empathy

the way he talks and acts as colossus is entirely different to how he talks and acts as piotr. it's obvious by how quickly his voice dies in his throat when returning to his unarmoured state. he was boasting such confidence in armoured form, and when it's over....all that confidence is gone. this is the purest example of how he switches between confident and quiet, protected and sensitive, physically and emotionally between forms.

from then on, he's afraid of himself, and more afraid to express himself. he continues to hide his art and he avoids forming stronger bonds with anyone other than fellow x-men, and even that is hard for him. he has intense rejection sensitivity (like meee) and i think he has incredibly high levels of empathy (LIKE MEEE) which is as much an autistic trait as low levels of empathy are. he cares so much, he cares so much it hurts, so he has to protect himself.

it is a common theme with the characterization of piotr that his powers are defense, they are to protect himself and others. he needs to protect his sensitive heart. so large, so compassionate, but so fragile. he may be able to protect himself from physical harm in his armoured state, but he cannot protect himself from emotional harm no matter what he does. he still has his weaknesses, impenetrable skin or no.

2. STRUGGLES IN HIS RELATIONSHIPS

when he gets another chance at romance in "first love" (classic x-men vol 1 issue 21, also in UXM issue 115) he is afraid. he says that he is afraid repeatedly and uhhh there's a lot of things that happen in that story that i am going to avoid talking about right now (it has triggering content and is recognized as a problematic portrayal of indigenous pacific islanders. boy oh boy do i hate the savage land. i may talk about this more in depth at another time if somebody wants me to!) it's like, yay, they don't judge him for being a mutant, or for being afraid!!! but at what cost (bad things happen to him)

and this is, of course, not the only instances of piotr having issues with romance. he seems to constantly experience issues in relationships due to his insecurities, rejection sensitivity, and (very reasonable imo) fears. he has as much trouble expressing his affections for someone as he does verbalizing his discomfort in others' advances towards him. because even when he has said no in the past, some have not listened to him. so he chooses to stay silent. I ALSO HAVE HAD THESE ISSUES!!! it can be so hard being in relationships (romantic or otherwise) as an autistic person, it can be so hard learning effective ways to communicate, it can be so hard constantly fighting to be treated like a person. that's what he feels like to me. he does make progress over time, but it's difficult for him, and he never truly masters it.

3. HAS HIS HEAD IN THE CLOUDS

there's also the entire aspect of piotr of being a bit oblivious at times. sometimes it's to depict him as a younger member of the group with less experience, or as the russian who doesn't understand american customs, or just simply a guy off in his own world that only snaps back to reality when he has to focus on a fight. he ain't the leader for a reason, he's a follower type of guy. my favourite thing ever is when they talk about him like he isn't there and he's just "?"

i don't know why they repeatedly depict piotr as just "❓" red question mark emoji personified but i never want it to stop. i actually adore it

but just being a little oblivious isn't enough sometimes. sometimes they gotta push it. sometimes he's portrayed as being so stupid that he can't even count!!! love to see it! (/s) people looove to insult his intelligence. people looove to call him an idiot both in and out of canon. don't that just remind you of somethin? of having your intelligence questioned all the time solely based on how you act?

you see this struggle to advocate for himself, or being a bit naïve in his hopes for another person, in every single depiction of piotr. or, at least, every single accurately characterized depiction of piotr. in as long drawn-out plot points of piotr feeling as though he can't join the x-men in x-men: evolution, from as small instances of deadpool grabbing his ass in the deadpool movies and him clearly being kind of uncomfortable but giving up on trying to sway wade, you see him struggle to verbalize how he feels. he always says nothing. he's called the strong but silent type for a reason.

4. PREFERS TO PLAY IT BY THE BOOK

on a different note, we get to see how much he loves rules and schedules and routines. he is definitely a goody two-shoes at times in terms of how inclined he is to follow the rules no matter what, usually because that's what he thinks xavier wants him to do. it takes encouragement for him to want to do something other than what he understands to be the socially acceptable thing to do.

just one mere example of his nature to follow the rules:

this one panel is single-handedly one of the best representations of how the three of them interact with each other and what makes them such a fun trouple

there's so many more examples i could point out, but it can all be summarized simply by the fact that he is always a follower, never a leader. he doesn't like to make the rules, he just likes to follow them. he likes to have a clear idea of what he is expected and supposed to do, and can easily be directed in ways that benefit others the most. i love being told what to do if it means i get to help other people!!! it's so much easier having someone tell me what to do and clearly communicate what is expected of me instead of playing this constant social guessing game i always find myself in.

IN CONCLUSION...

so he's kind of unobservant, emotionally illiterate, rule-oriented, experiences empathy at an abnormal level, and expresses himself best in artistic ways. so what, you may ask? that's hardly enough evidence to be autistic. make him take the RAADS, you fool. and to that, i say....y'know what, fair, you don't have to agree with me, but also i don't care and he's autistic and yay yippee yippee i love colossus so much yaaay he's autistic just like me :D!!!

i have so many feelings about piotr. can you tell x-men has been my special interest since i was 8 years old?

<< also yes i know there is a kitty-sized elephant in the room. if someone sends an ask for me to do so, i may talk about my feelings on her relationship with piotr at some point. that is a whole other can of worms >>

[bump1nthen1ght]

About Wendigo's

Hello Everyone! This is a little different from what I usually talk about, but I wanted to bring it up as it relates to what I will and will not write.

I will preface first by saying that I am not indigenous, nor do I intend to pretend I have any kind of authority on indigenous issues.

What I will say is that multiple indigenous creators here on Tumblr have spoken about the appropriation of the wendigo in fandom works, original creative works, and especially in the monster-fucker community. It has been consistently misrepresented and treated as "spooky cryptid" when it is in fact an important facet of a real culture that has been oppressed and silenced for years. And while I believe a lot of it stems from ignorance on the matter rather than malicious intent, indigenous creators have consistently spoken about their issues with this representation of their culture.

This is all to say that I do not feel comfortable writing about wendigos, so that will be added to my Rules list. I am fine with taking "goat demon" or other related stories, but I do not wish to contribute to the misuse and appropriation of Algonquian culture in my silly monster-romance fics.

Thanks y'all!

[elffees]

Frontiers of Pandora made me realize how much I hate Jake S*lly

So I watched a No-Commentary lets play of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and have a lot of thoughts.

Disclaimer #1: I am a WOC, but I am not indigenous. I absolutely encourage indigenous peoples to add onto this post and share their thoughts.

Disclaimer #2: There is going to be an abundance of Jake S*lly hate in this post. I just ask that if you are a fan of Jake, and still choose to read my post, that you do so in good faith and out of genuine curiosity. Please don't read my post with the sole intent to shoot it down.

Overarching Problems with the Avatar Franchise

Okay so, time to actually get into the post.

To start off, the entire Avatar franchise has problems. Regardless if it's the video games, comics, movies, or what have you. Ableist tropes, racist tropes, misogynistic tropes, my god there are a bunch. These problems with the franchise have been talked about for literal decades now though, so I'll link a few of their pieces here.

Native Media Theory's critique video

"Avatar: The Way of Water" and the Question of Indigenous Representation

Native News Online's article about JaCam's horribly ignorant comment and ATWOW

Avatar: The Way of Water or How NOT to Make Indigenous Futurism Movies

Old, New, Borrowed and Blue: Compulsory Able-bodiedness and Whiteness in Avatar

Avatar's Approach to Ableism Misses the Mark

There are hundreds of other sources from all areas of the internet. It would be impossible for me to list them all. Fortunately, they're very easy to find if you want to know more.

What I want to talk about is the game Frontiers of Pandora that just released in December 2023, and how it changed my perspective on the movies, at least the first movie since I have yet to watch the second.

Frontiers of Pandora

(I will try my best to be as spoiler-free as possible, but there will be segments where I'll dive into them. I will put a warning ahead of time.)

Just so we're all on the same page, I'll briefly summarize FOP's premise.

Spoiler-Free Summary

As an infant, the playable character, an unnamed Na'vi, was taken by a project group of the RDA known as "TAP", The Ambassador Program. You are not alone, a significant number of Na'vi children, all from the newly introduced Sarentu Clan, were taken as well. It's made clear in the opening that TAP's initial goal was to raise Na'vi children and teach them human culture to "bridge the gap" between their two peoples. And then once ready, they would be sent back out into Pandora to serve as "ambassadors" for Na'vi-Human relations. You were to be mainly taught by Alma Cortez, TAP's Co-founder and a skilled xenobiologist, who notably spends more time in her Avatar body than in her original one.

As time passed and relations between the Na'vi and the RDA became more hostile, the taken Sarentu children were taught to use human weapons. Heavily implied to be trained to fight against other Na'vi to defend RDA resources, instead of the original intention to serve as "peaceful ambassadors".

The player's journey starts when the character is a teenager, around 16 to 18 years old. The final battle in the first movie causes a massive uproar to all RDA facilities, including TAP's. The administrator and founder, John Mercer, ordered the entire program and building to be abandoned. Part of that abandonment is ordering the execution of the playable character and all of the other Sarentu children.

Your character, and some of the others, are saved by Alma, who killed the soldiers that were assigned to kill you. Then, seemingly acting on impulse with no solid plans for your survival, put you and the others into a cryo-induced coma. With the plan that you would all be woken up when it was safe.

There is a misunderstanding and long story short, the Sarentu children do not get woken up until 16 years later. Your revival is when the game is officially put into the player's hands.

Just from the premise, it's clear the plot is based off the real life horror of Native American Boarding Schools. (I'm really curious how Indigenous viewers feel about this portrayal. I've tried to look up perspectives, but have had difficulty finding any. Probably because the game is so new.)

The Sarentu were taken as children, physically and psychologically abused whenever they interacted with Na'vi culture in any way, were told daily that the program was "for their own good", and were generally viewed as "property" owned by TAP and John Mercer.

We learn later in the game that in the early days of the program, the children suffered conditions so grotesque that the oldest of them admit to repressing the full events of what happened to stay sane. What we were already told about their upbringing is repulsive to hear, so to find out that there was more that was so traumatic and horrible, the characters can't even bring themselves to remember it let alone talk about it...

Basically, your character's backstory is fucked up. Very much so.

After experiencing all that, once your character wakes up from cryo sleep and rushes to the outdoors for the first time in approximately 32+ years, you get to the heart of the story.

Frontiers of Pandora is about the playable character reclaiming and rediscovering a culture that's been stripped from them. The character has the help of a predominantly human resistance group (known creatively as "The Resistance"), but the majority of the game is the character meeting and getting to know various Na'vi clans. From the Aranahe in Kinglor Forest, to the Zeswa in the Upper Plains, to the Kame'tire in the Clouded Forest.

And throughout the world, there are remnants of your character's lost people. There are Sarentu artifacts scattered all over the map where the character can regain lost knowledge from their Clan's way of life.

Fortunately, there are still Na'vi from the other three clans that have personally met the Sarentu before you. And they are EXTREMELY eager to tell you of their experiences with your people and how they used to interact with each other. There's even a character who is heavily implied to have known the playable character's mother, a fact we only learn after he playfully requests we gather ingredients and make a unique dish, not knowing until after we've tried it, that we were just taught how to make a meal our mother used to. A quest you don't expect to evoke tears until you're already crying.

You have the ability to use human weapons and wear human clothing if you wish, but that is optional. You can, and many players have, opt for a "full Na'vi playthrough" where you only use Na'vi weapons and dress in Na'vi attire (You can even dress in Sarentu-specific attire for full immersion!) There are no choices, so you can't choose to not interact with the Resistance, but you can spend as little time as possible with other humans, only needing to return for quick updates before going back out into Pandora with other Na'vi.

I say all this to say, the game is heavily about the Na'vi and reclaiming one's culture after it's been attempted to be destroyed. Watching this journey play out made me realize the potential Avatar has, and helped me better understand my biggest gripe with the movies. It's Jake Sully.

The Whitest Savior to Ever Whitely Save

After finishing the FOP playthrough, I decided to rewatch the first movie to see if I'd feel differently about it. And boy did I!

I could talk all day about how the tiniest similarities got to me. I laughed watching the ferocious pack of viperwolves, after seeing players frantically try to outrun them in Kinglor Forest. The harrowing climb up the ikran rookery, and thinking about the Sarentu's own sinking self esteem as they struggle to prove themselves to their eventual bonded. Even the floating mountains as the characters in the movie weave through them and Trudy uses them for cover, connecting it to all the times I've seen FOP players and ikrans rest on them or gather resources from their peaks.

The comparisons are endless.

But the biggest contrast and glaring stain is Jake's entire character.

Like Jake, the Sarentu (the playable character) has to learn how to maneuver a world they are not used to. Unlike Jake, it's clear the protagonist actually develops an appreciation and love for the world around them.

RELATIONSHIPS TO OTHER NA'VI

Even overlooking the WS trope for a minute (which we will touch on!), it comes across as though Jake only begins to side with the Omatikaya after enjoying the adrenaline rush of their way of life, and falling in love with Neytiri. But we never see Jake actually bonding with any other Na'vi besides her in the first movie.

He grows into calling them "brother" and "sister", and has a few throwaway lines of knowing of other Na'vi, but we don't actually see him develop any positive relationships with anyone other than Neytiri (who is very much given the Love Interest Angle where majority of her scenes are about Jake or have Jake in them. Even during her father's death scene, Jake made an appearance!!! Go away for a millisecond I am begging!) Even his supposed arc with Tsu'tey is rushed as all hell, and only happens because Jake ~miraculously~ becomes Toruk Makto. A feat that makes the Omatikaya gain respect for him en masse, despite them just calling for his death after learning he played a major role in the destruction of their Hometree.

In comparison, the Sarentu not only gets to know the culture, customs, and day-to-day lives of the Na'vi they meet, they also get to befriend them.

Now since I've watched a let's play, I haven't seen all that the game offers. But I have seen a lot of side activities in the Kinglor Forest.

Your character bonds with the other Sarentu children and with members of other massacred clans. They also create relationships with members of large clans: from as monumental of events as helping expose a corrupt olo'eyktan and bringing a shamed tsahik back to power, to as intimate as attending as funeral / "letting go" ceremony for a deceased ikran, to as simple as helping restore a weaver's low self esteem. Your character not only helps stop the RDA, but they also truly develop connections with other Na'vi. More than one!

Obviously, there can't be a full exploration of Jake simply making friends in a film because there just isn't enough time. But we could've seen him bonding with at least a few other Na'vi besides his love interest. For the franchise and sequel to be so Na'vi-focused, it wouldn't have hurt the first movie to detract some screentime from RDA characters, and give it to more Na'vi who we could've continued on with.

RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORLD AND TO EYWA

Another gripe I have with Jake's character is that he seems to hardly appreciate Pandora's wildlife or the Na'vi's connection to Eywa.

During Iknimaya, once he creates the bond, he refers to the ikran as "mine", despite the numerous times Neytiri has said no creature on Pandora can "belong" to anyone. It is a mutual bond based on respect, not taming a pet. Despite this lesson, Jake clearly still viewed it as such. We're not even told if the ikran Jake bonded with has a name, not in the film anyway. I had to find out through google that he named it, simply, "Bob".

And in the finale when connecting to Eywa, Jake asks for her help in the final battle. But while doing so, he's still uncertain if she's even "real" or "actually listening". Even now, he continues to doubt Na'vi beliefs (despite it literally being Grace's dying words!!)

In comparison, the Sarentu's journey up the ikran rookery to form a bond... it's emotional to say the least.

There is a desperation in your character's voice. Not of impatience, but of declining self esteem. A worry that you won't be chosen because you will not be deemed worthy. Because you are not Na'vi enough due to your upbringing. As you go up, an Aranahe character that guides you, Eetu, tells you of his experience and how calming it was. And that makes the character more nervous because of how stressful it's been for them so far.

But then you finally get close enough to approach. The ikran finally allows you to, and you meet eyes and...

I do not know how they managed to capture care and affection so perfectly but they did. The journey up the rookery is intense and nerve wracking. But once you get chosen, you the player IMMEDIATELY knows (just like Eetu said) because the ikran looks at you as though she's already prepared to give her life for yours. Many players have expressed that this segment legitimately made them cry because of how palpable the bond is.

And then Eetu says that she has placed full trust in you. And you know he's right because you can feel it. You can see it. But then he says now it's time for you to place full trust in her, and he "helps" you accomplish this by pushing you off the cliff!!!!! And it's scary! And terrifying! And you call out for her to help and you're still falling!! But then she catches you, and the next thing you know you're experiencing probably one of the most heartwarming scenes of the entire game.

The Sarentu is not yelling commands such as "shut up and fly straight". It is truly a psychological bond. You are not an owner and she is not a vehicle. You are not a tamer and she is not a mindless beast. You fly together as one. You are one.

Connecting to Eywa is also an emotional experience. Whenever the Sarentu connects to the Tarsyu (their clan's method), they're able to communicate with their ancestors, specifically the founder of the Sarentu, Entu. Sometimes in depth and sometimes only vaguely. But whenever a connection is made, the Sarentu walks away with something gained.

In comparison, it's debatable if Jake experiences anything at all when he connects to the Omatikaya's Tree of Souls. I suppose this can be left up to lore though. Maybe he just doesn't feel anything because he doesn't have Na'vi ancestors? Maybe it's because his kuru is artificially made and not naturally born? I don't know! The possibilities of why are endless, and probably answered somewhere in bonus Avatar content.

What my issue is, is that Jake doesn't seem to care whether he has a connection to Eywa or not, despite Eywa being a pretty significant part of Na'vi culture overall. If he's able to feel something when connecting to her, he has no reaction. And if he isn't able to feel anything, he still has no reaction over missing out on something significant to their way of life.

When the Sarentu children connect to Eywa for the VERY first time in 32 years, there is an air of both anxiety and excitement. One of them even voices that they're worried Eywa and their ancestors won't accept them for not being raised like "true Na'vi" (as you can see, this is a reoccuring theme in the game. Who can be referred to as "true Na'vi"). After the connection is made, there are mixed reactions. But at least there are reactions. Jake has none.

(Please note again: I am only referring to the 2009 movie in this post because that was everyone's first intro into Avatar. I am not referring to any comics or books or etc. that may dive deeper into these topics. If they do, great! That doesn't negate how lackluster the movie is. As the original source material, it should be able to stand on its own, and it clearly can't.)

"The Savior The Na'vi Needed" I Guess

I've already linked articles above about how inappropriate it is that a white actor + character "is the only one" that can help these "poor, defenseless, and naive" Indigenous / coded characters of color "defeat" colonization. Many many many people have have touched on this problematic storyline. It's very disturbing.

So speaking not from a Doylist perspective, but from a Watsonian one, Human Marine Jake is still an immensely odd choice to be Eywa's + the Omatikaya's Chosen One.

It's implied Eywa "chose" Jake because he'd be able to save Pandora. But the Omatikaya were literally going to DIE had Eywa not called on all of the animals to come to their aid. They would've lost following Jake.

The only thing he managed to do that was unique was unite the clans. Which he only accomplishes due to the lazy writing of becoming Toruk Makto. The implication that no Na'vi in generations EVER considered just jumping on Toruk's back. Or if there were other Na'vi that tried it, that none of them ever succeeded, but Jake, who is still new to the world and animals of Pandora, would know how to expertly bond with a creature as ferocious as that, better than every other Na'vi since Neytiri's grandfather.

Not to mention the absolute amnesia everyone gets once he does. His former betrayal is completely forgotten about, never to be mentioned again.

Neytiri no longer cares that Jake massively lied and used her, because he's Toruk Makto.

Tsu'tey no longer cares that Jake knowingly mated with his betrothed and spied on their people's way of life, because Jake's Toruk Makto.

None of the other Omatikaya (who are terrifyingly written without any individuality whatsoever) care their Hometree was just destroyed and their Olo'eyktan killed due to Jake's betrayal, because he's Toruk Makto.

It all just gets washed down the drain, like the sheer chaos Jake's actions caused no longer matter. Because he's Toruk Makto, the Chosen One. No further action required. No heartfelt apologies, no intimate discussions, no anything.

Jake jumps on Toruk, and that's that.

So not only were they actively losing following behind Jake's leadership, but he was only able to rally the clans due to shoddy writing choices. So WHY did Eywa choose this specific man, who was just actively working against her, to be the one the Na'vi are supposed to follow??

On top of all that, the implication of the Omatikaya needing Jake to survive is... dubious to say the least. It is not only literally racist, but also incredibly infantilizing to the Na'vi. The implication that they couldn't have come up with effective strategies without being ordered around by a person who's initial goal was to help destroy them.

"In siding with the ‘natives’, Jake and Grace play a central role in what can essentially be deemed as a form of anti-colonial resistance. What is crucial in this telling for the fight for Na’vi tribal and ecological survival is the ways in which anti-colonial resistance becomes legitimized through the ‘other’ becoming human." [...] "The Na’vi, like other colonized peoples, are denied of their own agency, and resistance only becomes valid and possible within a colonial paradigm of acceptability. As a result the Na’vi become dependent on Jake, the white, male, human, ethnographic anthropologist as saviour, leading them to a freedom in which he had helped threaten in the first place. [...] The Na’vi come to exist suspended by space, time and tradition and the role of Jake and Grace as anthropologists too occupy a place in colonial history that play into both liberal and much more conservative agendas." (Why Avatar is a Truly Dangerous Film)

Neytiri Should've Been the True Lead

Rewatching the first movie after Frontiers of Pandora, I not only had a much greater appreciation for Pandora, but much more distaste for Jake as the leading character.

While watching, I found myself thinking at SEVERAL points, "This would've been so good if Neytiri had been the focal protagonist." And the longer the film went on, the more the feeling settled in.

As the daughter of the Olo'eyktan and Tsahik, who better to lead her people to victory after her father's death? (You could argue Tsu'tey since he was supposed to be Eytukan's successor anyway. Either are valid options!) Neytiri's great grandfather was the last Toruk Makto, who better to become TM of their generation than one of his direct descendants? Neytiri holds great respect for Eywa and was destined to be the next Tsahik after Mo'at, so why couldn't she be the one who Eywa guides all of Pandoran wildlife to follow behind?

Just why oh why do all of these important roles in the narrative have to belong to Jake?????? Why couldn't they belong to a Na'vi character themselves?

This is not to say Jake should've been completely erased from the story. I do think him having some relevance still would've been fine, especially given he's a disabled man. I just wish his role had been that of an ally, a side character, or at most a deuteragonist second to Neytiri. Because there is weight in gaining insider information from a privileged ally.

I just wish that Jake hadn't been the lead character who's POV we follow. I wish it had been from the perspective of one of the actual Na'vi characters that were being oppressed.

BONUS: FOP Just Solves A Lot of the Issues I Had with Avatar

White / Human Saviour

Explained above.

Random Chosen One

The Sarentu playable character helps out, and is invited to help, not because they were spiritually chosen by "a deity they don't even believe in" unlike Jake. The Sarentu helps simply because they want to. Full stop. They see the injustices the RDA is enacting against Pandora, and simply choose to help put a stop to them. Because it is wrong.

That's it.

It's 1000x more admirable in my opinion. To choose to help rather than being a Chosen One destined to do so.

You can argue that since Jake seems to not even believe in Eywa, that he does help based on choice alone. But like I covered earlier, he only does so after he's deemed the Na'vi (or more specifically Neytiri) worthy of being saved. Not because they have the inherent right to live as they wish. No, he didn't consider them worthy of helping until after he decided they were.

The Conflicting Ethics Behind 'Avatars'

I don't know much about all of the side quests in the game so if there are any other avatars, then I don't know about them. But based on what I've seen of the main storyline, FOP handles the dubious topic of 'avatars' much better than the movie does. Because personally, I've always found the concept disturbing.

"At least in other white savior movies, they don’t sugarcoat the whiteness nor did they reward the whiteness with the ultimate prize." [...] "Apparently as a reward for being such a good white savior (that was originally a double agent for Colonel Scarface to get operational intel on them so the army could blow their magic god tree to Hell), Jake gets permanently transformed into one of the Na’vi via his Avatar." "Just imagine '8 Mile' if Eminem beat Sam Wilson and the rest of the Free World at the Shelter so badly, Future [...] took out his fairy godbrother wand and turned Rabbit into a brother. That’s the kool-aid that James Cameron is essentially selling." (Battle to the Bottom: The Blue-faced White Savior ‘Avatar’ Is Even Worse Than ‘After Earth’)

The concept of 'avatars' (in the way Avatar writes them) has always freaked me the hell out. Especially when Jake begins referring to humans as "the Sky People" as though he wasn't one of them just the day before.

FOP handles this subject much better in my opinion because the character of Alma, who is the Sarentu's former teacher at TAP and who is the current leader of the Western Resistance, has great attachment to her avatar body. To the point where many Resistance members have never seen her in her original body.

Later in the story when things begin looking up for the Na'vi and for the Sarentu children, Alma starts using phrases such as "our resistance" and referring to lost Sarentu artifacts that have been reclaimed as coming "back to us", and other like-minded words. And when she does this, she is IMMEDIATELY called out on it.

Alma is not Sarentu nor is she Na'vi, and although she plants her consciousness into the body of a lookalike, she is still, first and foremost, a human. And no matter how much she may try to forget that, how much she may wish to distance herself from the crimes of her people, the characters do not hold her hand and allow her to do so. The game makes it known that while she is doing the right thing now, she has no right to cram herself into a culture and people by jumping into their skin and playing pretend.

[ SPOILER WARNING ]

And the way this arc is resolved? By Alma losing her avatar form and being forced to confront the truth of who she is, a human that was complicit in the oppression of the Na'vi, most specifically the Sarentu.

The Sarentu do not get on their hands and knees and kiss Alma's feet for the ways she's helped them (now). No, SOME of them let her know they appreciate the good she's done, but that ultimately, there needs to be distance. That they are still their own people and need to rebuild without her interference. This clearly hurts Alma, but like an actually good ally, she respects the boundaries made and eventually backs off. The separation is a peaceful one.

[ SPOILER END ]

Alma does not become their Chosen Hero after she defects from the RDA. She is not given a standing ovation. And she is not even given a "thanks" from all of the Sarentu, some of them proceed to hate her guts. The reactions towards Alma, a former RDA member who defected to aid the Na'vi's survival, are wonderfully and realistically mixed.

Because, like the character So'lek says at the beginning of the game, the Na'vi are not a monolith. They are not all the same, nor will they all have the same views.

Various Na'vi characters in FOP have diverging opinions on the Human Resistance group. Some support them, some don't want to come within 10 feet of them. And both POVs are framed as valid by the narrative.

On the other hand in the 2009 movie, any Na'vi character that didn't immediately grow into liking Jake was ultimately punished by the writing.

Neytiri disliked Jake in the beginning of the movie, but as soon as Mo'at names her his teacher, a switch flips and all animosity is gone. She is still tough on him, that's just who she is, but it's clear any true ire is immediately washed away once she is given the role of 'teacher'. In comparison, Tsu'tey spends half the film irritated and distrustful of Jake. (And rightly so given that Jake is literally an RDA plant!!)

Like I've already said, Tsu'tey undergoes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it "arc" where once Jake becomes Toruk Makto, all negativity anyone held vanishes. Except Tsu'tey's timing is clearly too late, because the writing punishes his earlier animosity by killing him off in the final battle.

The same can be said for Eytukan, who was the one to suggest tying the avatars up after Jake reveals his initial goal. Eytukan's animosity is also punished with death, with him dying during the destruction of Hometree.

(It can also be said that these characters died both to punish them for their inability to "appreciate" Jake at a quicker pace, and to simply get them out of the way so Jake could become Olo'eyktan of the Omatikaya. Because how else could the White Human Savior become the leader of the people, if the leaders that were already there didn't "get out of the way" to make room?)

Conclusion

If you couldn't tell, I wasn't Avatar (2009)'s biggest fan my first time watching. For numerous reasons.

It wasn't until watching a playthrough of Frontiers of Pandora, that I realized a lot of my ire was towards Jake specifically (although there are many problems with the franchise as a whole), and if the story had just not been told from Jake's POV, and had been told from the POV of one of the Na'vi fighting for their home (Neytiri would be my first choice, Tsu'tey second), then I think I would've at least been able to enjoy it. It's hard for me to even watch Avatar (2009) because of how rampant the issues are in that movie. Or I suppose because of how central Jake is.

I wrote all this just to air out my thoughts. But if you're similar to me and felt like Avatar (2009) was "off", then I do suggest you take a look at Frontiers of Pandora and still see if you feel the same.

All this isn't to say FOP is the perfect game, mind you. It absolutely has flaws, ones that others have touched on and that I've noticed myself. But even with it's flaws, I'd take it's misgivings over Avatar (2009)'s atrocious ones any day.

[ongreenergrasses]

Have your thoughts on sunrise on the reaping changed or?

unfortunately anon not really…in reflecting on it and talking to people about it there are some things that I will be interested to see, I want to see how Haymitch knew about the forcefield and a couple other small elements like that. but it’s also made me kind of double down in other ways. I still think it’s a cash grab. I also think it’s indicative of something I believe @caesarflickermans said where it shows that instead of taking a track that YA authors sometimes do, where they continue writing but the books grow maturity levels with their original audience, she’s continuing to write YA for a new audience. and while that’s totally fine what i can see happening is that sotr becomes pretty repetitive and close to the original trilogy in order to bring that world to a new audience. tbosas at least provided a new perspective and lens on Panem and lots of worldbuilding opportunities, and i think by the nature of the pov character and setting she’s chosen for sotr, it’s going to be kind of difficult for her to be able to do that again. she’s constrained herself a little bit in the name of fanservice. but all that said I’m definitely excited to read and learn a little more about Haymitch!

(also though. i am genuinely concerned that they’re going to make Haymitch white in the movie and if they do that then I’m out the door on the whole sotr thing like this is their opportunity to correct the egregious whitewashing in the original trilogy and if they do not take that it will be really telling. Haymitch is indigenous. his story is about an indigenous man. you take that away, it’s a completely different story.)

AMA

[leftistfeminista]

The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (in Spanish: Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, FPMR) was a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organisation officially founded on 14 December 1983 as the military wing of the Communist Party of Chile in the context of this party policy denominated as the "Política de Rebelión Popular de Masas", created with the goal of a violent overthrow of the civic-military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

Sandra Trafilaf, popular communicator, Mapuche poet, popular educator in organizations of peasant women and indigenous peoples, member of the Network of Free and Popular Media, when speaking, stated:

"The publication of this book is very necessary, a debt to our sisters, especially to our fallen sisters, those who have offered their lives, who offered their dreams and their unfinished projects to a libertarian cause.

(...) Before commenting on the book, I would like to share with you some words from another combatant, one of our combatants whom we greatly admire, who is Fabiola, the only woman who participated in one of the most important actions of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, the tyrannicide, and she also wanted to be present on this occasion with some words, through the following audio that I am letting you listen to: "June 16, 1987, Cecilia Magni, Camila and I shared an apartment in the center of Buenos Aires. That morning, through the press, we learned of some confrontations in Santiago de Chile. Everything was confusing, there was no certainty of what had happened, the numbers disturbed us, like 12, that was too much, there must be some mistake. Those three women, each with their peculiarities, different missions, different origins, and so were our destinies, but all three united by the same dream.

Each one of us in our world broke the rules established by the patriarchal and mediocre society of the time, we were not what was expected of a "young lady." I don't think any of us cared much about that detail. 24 years later our dreams are still alive. Every time I see a Primera Línea, I am overcome with emotion and I know that nothing was in vain."

After listening to the audio sent by fellow combatant Fabiola, Sandra Trafilaf continues with her story: "For this book I also took on the task of talking with some of my surviving sisters, some of my combatant sisters, because I believe it is a great responsibility, and this book, "Revolucionarias," is a great debt to the role of women in these liberation struggles.

It is an honor to be able to speak for my surviving sisters who today preferred to remain anonymous, leaving behind a testimony of their time in the FPMR, but we must also assume the tremendous responsibility of speaking for those sisters who today we carry in our memories, as Fabiola said, who are part of the collective and popular history, whose lives were cut short when they led the fight against the dictatorship.

This book is appreciated as it gives an account of the participation of women in the battles fought by the FPMR. We always speak, commonly, of the heroic combatants, masculinizing the struggles in a cultural imprint that is certainly part of the dominant patriarchal ideology.

The colonization of the peoples in these territories called Latin America also brought this practice of making invisible the role of women in the community, their political, strategic and economic role.

Of course, the FPMR was not exempt from this colonization of thought and supremacy of the patriarchy, however we are grateful that there was a Latin American context that preceded the creation of the Front, and we can count on the feats of Cuban, Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, Mexican, Uruguayan, Brazilian, Colombian women, who paved the way to avoid this destiny that necessarily led us to become "good ladies." Instead, we were able to join the armed struggle without being burdened with pejorative stigmas.

Today, three or four decades later, it is natural that women serve a purpose other than just distributing bread and tea in the party structure. Gender inclusion is debated and rights are fought side by side, but three or four decades ago, it was not so easy to assume roles historically reserved for men in politics.

If we look at the revolutions and liberation processes in different territories, there will always be women taking up arms. However, for some reason we end up relegated, made invisible or subsumed when it comes to making the epic account.

How and why did we take up arms and join the armed struggle during the dictatorship? Discussing this issue with some of my sisters from the FPMR, we have concluded, in these formal, informal and telephone conversations, that class consciousness is fundamental, because it reaffirms the conviction of liberation. However, early childhood education, experiences of the environment, the transmission of information and our place in our respective homes are also an important part of the basis of this determination. We grew up and reached adolescence in the midst of the most brutal dictatorships in recent history in the territories of the continent. We left childhood with horror stuck in our eyes. Murders, disappearances, torture, concentration camps, prisons, poverty and the precariousness of the populations made the rebellion grow. We said enough!, as recently happened on October 18, 2019.

At some point, you reach a point where there is no turning back. Injustices were overwhelming the enslaved people and we moved forward to end the barbarity. We could no longer continue turning the other cheek and we saw that there was no possible future if the dictatorship continued. Dreams, the certainty that there is the possibility of changing reality and realizing projects to be happy, was undoubtedly the driving force. We did it scared shitless, because it is not possible not to be afraid, especially those who had already been mothers and had the courage to expose their whole world to think of another future.

As combatants, in my case fulfilling the role of integrating the Operative Groups, militancy in the Front was a step that also shaped our character. Obviously, we always had to prove that we could accomplish the task and that is why we had the respect and recognition of our comrades, who became brothers in the heat of the struggle. In some cases, our youth was vital, the courage of youth, at 17, 18, 19 years old, we fulfilled missions that always meant risking our lives.

Women were in all the structures of the FPMR, in health, exploration, intelligence, logistics. Without that work and without assistants, who were mostly women, the heroic feat of the FPMR would undoubtedly not have been possible. That great infrastructure was moved by women and men who, in every task, however simple it may have seemed, meant risking their own lives and those of their families.

As women, it is also necessary to pause to emphasize that repression brutally punishes the decision to be part of armed groups, and at the time of being captured by the enemy, we were mostly subjected to political sexual violence, under the logic of patriarchal domination, of taking our bodies to humiliate us and leaving a psychological scar that will forever remind us of the audacity of invading that world, from this perspective of repression, of this military, of this macho. However, we never pigeonhole ourselves into the category of victims, we will never pigeonhole ourselves into that category either; we do not put our fallen sisters in that place either, they are and will be protagonists of a history that was sealed with blood, as people who rebel and rise up always do.

In fairness we can say that although we saw sexist behavior within the Front, we always had the respect and recognition of our brothers and sisters and for that reason, in particular, we send a special greeting to all those who trained us on that path, transmitting their knowledge and experience, so that we could become what we are, a Rodriguista combatant.

In this idea of ​​reconstructing this collective historical memory, crossed by the colonization of thought, but also by the ups and downs of traditional politics, the FPMR, although it was born as another disposable structure that the PC, the Communist Party, put on the scene to bang the table, became an autonomous entity that was recreating its own existence. It was an unprecedented project in our territories, it was a national project. Apart from the Mapuche resistance, no other structure with similar characteristics had been maintained in the dictatorial context, and over time. The MIR was quickly dismantled, Lautaro was born with a rebellious and libertarian proposal, and the Front maintained its pace in the armed struggle, building a new path, installing new capacities, which moved away from traditional militancy, in a party whose elite always denied its paternity; it was a landowner denying its offspring. Leaving it adrift in moments of having to endure the repressive attacks.

And today we can see it again in an arrogant and overbearing attitude of its main presidential figure, who shamelessly denies the status of political prisoner of our brother, Commander Ramiro, Mauricio Hernández Norambuena, leaving him helpless before the thirst for revenge of the right, who would only like to be able to feast watching our brother dry up in a jail, like a hostage of his captors, subjected to permanent torture.

To finish, I would just like to make it clear that we are not and will not be beings endowed with a special or supernatural gift. We were young women of different ages, women from poor, precarious families, with few resources or with resources, who came from homes where the fundamental thing was to transmit values ​​and principles with a sense of class, and with the conviction that we had to end barbarism, but also with the conviction that we deserved a future full of rights, that we deserved to be happy, to live in a better world, and that we undoubtedly had the right to have it all.

The anti-dictatorial struggle has not ceased, because injustices, the model, the Constitution, the laws and businessmen thirsty to fill their pockets at the expense of the lives and energies of the working class are still present. The pandemic today is a clear example, they have imposed restrictions, curfews, safe-conduct passes, health passes, only after the objective of social control, without caring about our lives, our recovery, our health. They open quarantines if they want to sell, they close the communes if they want to control. Without going any further, June 30 is the deadline to end the State of Exception and Congress must make a decision whether to continue with the repressive path or finally respect and honor the lives of the inhabitants.

Life is meaningless for those who govern us today and offer us candy to sweeten slavery; they make us consume morning shows, trash programs, they mutilate us, they murder us, they imprison us and they continue with their jingles and rainbows to make you think that something is changing, to change nothing. Winning elections is one thing and governing is quite another. It seems to me that more dialogue is needed, more reflection with Salvador Allende, to learn from his experience and how we came to the coup d'état. Short-term memory cuts off our analysis, the ruling class will never give something in exchange for nothing. The people must learn this lesson to avoid being blinded by social Peace Pacts that only seek to crush rebellions.

The political situation has been focused on different changes and today women are once again raising their flags, once again making themselves present in the streets of dignity, in the squares of dignity. Today women, in the last three decades, have made progress in different struggles and today talking about the role of women in politics evidently has another perspective and another connotation. Our daughters, our granddaughters, have undoubtedly arrived in a different world, with more progress and with more conquests and rights in their bodies, in their minds and that lets us know that we have made progress and have traveled the right path, which is the liberation of the peoples.

[alarajrogers]

Friendly reminder from a former-Catholic-now-atheist that today is a great day to remember that "Zionist" does not mean "Benjamin Netanyahu's butt monkey", "eager supporter of the murder of Palestinians", or even "supporter of everything Israel does, right or wrong." It means "someone who believes the Jews should have their own homeland, and preferably, it should be in the place where they originated, that they are indigenous to." Which happens to be Israel.

If you find yourself thinking that Zionism, by itself, is terrible, maybe it's because you're asking one of the following questions! Well, they all have good answers.

Why do Jews need a homeland? Well, first off, why does any ethnic group need a homeland? Secondly, though... do you know anything about antisemitism? It's not just the Holocaust, you know -- Jews have been persecuted in every country they entered, on Earth, since the Romans forced them out of their homeland 2,000 years ago. And the reason they were persecuted? They were outsiders. They didn't do things the way everyone else did. If you're queer or neurodivergent, don't tell me you can't relate to that!

But antisemitism is a thing of the past! Buddy, I don't know how to tell you that your own movement has inspired violence against random Jews. And that the belief that "thinking a Jewish homeland is a good idea" makes someone evil is, um, antisemitic.

But that's not what Zionism means! Zionism is unconditional support for Israel! Right, and socialism means communism, and communism means totalitarian thought control and forcing cis people to be trans and straight people to be gay. What? The right wingers say it, so it must be true, right? It's the people who hold a belief who get to say what it means, not the people who are ideologically opposed to them.

Okay, but what Israel is doing to Palestine is evil and unforgivable. No disagreement there, buddy! What Israel is doing to Palestine is evil and unforgivable. So is what my country, the United States, did to Iraq 20 years ago, but last I checked, if there's anyone around declaring that the United States should not exist because of what we did to Iraq, they are pretty fringe and no one cares what they think. Whereas this belief that Israel should not exist because of its extreme cruelty toward Palestine is getting pretty mainstream on the left!

Okay, but Israelis are colonizers. Is there a statute of limitations on land-back? Israel is the ancient Jewish homeland that they were forced out of 2,000 years ago. (Anyone who tells you that this isn't true is wrong, and if they're Christian, they're also actively lying, because the Christian Bible talks a lot about Jews living in Israel, a lot of our Christmas songs mention it, it's, like, a fundamental part of the story of Jesus, which all Christians are expected to know at least a little bit. It is understandable for Muslims to be misinformed on this point, but Christians know better.) So no, Israelis aren't colonizers, not in Israel-qua-Israel, although the assholes trying to push Palestinians out of the West Bank after Israel signed treaties saying the West Bank belongs to the Palestinians absolutely are.

But the Palestinians were there first! Um... no. What is confusing you is that the Jews were forced off their own land 2,000 years ago. Since then, the Palestinians moved in. It is undeniable that Palestinians were forced off land they had lived on for generations in order to create Israel. But if you're gonna argue that living on land for many generations means you have more right to it than the people who originally held it, you've just shot every land back movement in the foot.

That's not fair to the Palestinians! I agree with you. And if I was forced off my property because Native Americans had it first, and told to go back to my homeland -- which, because I am a mutt of Irish, Italian, German and probably random others' descent, is nowhere -- that would be pretty unfair to me, too, since I didn't participate in stealing it from the Native Americans. Good thing no land back movement that anyone takes seriously is actually demanding such a thing, or there would be billions of displaced refugees of European, African, Asian and mixed heritage being forced to live exactly nowhere. Which is why the Palestinians were given half the land mass of ancient Judea, because goddamn, this situation is unfair to everyone. Jews deserve a homeland and so do Palestinians and it happens to be the same territory. There is no facile "correct" answer here.

Israel is an ethnostate. So is England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, etc, etc, what's your point? Any land that wasn't taken over by colonizers is technically an ethnostate. However, there are a lot of non-Jews in Israel. Some of whom, the Druze, had several of their children recently killed by a bombing attack by terrorists who are supposedly pro-Palestine, so, um, if an ethnostate by nature oppresses those not of the ethnicity, then those people, oppressed by Israel, should have had common cause with Palestine, right? Yet pro-Palestinian terrorists killed them. Kind of does a lot of damage to the "Israel shouldn't exist because it's an ethnostate" argument. Also, what's Palestine but an ethnostate? And how do you argue for land back movements in colonized territories and also say "it is bad for an indigenous people to be in control of their own homeland?"

The problem with Israel and Palestine, as others have pointed out, is that it is too complicated to have facile solutions. Long-term antisemitism among Muslims prevented the Palestinians from reaching a good mutual agreement with Israel when it was founded 75 years ago, and there has been enormous bad blood and bad actions on both sides ever since. Both sides have hardened into radical positions like "wipe out all the Jews" or "every Palestinian is a potential terrorist and should be treated as such, even babies." This started because of a horrific unprovoked terrorist attack on civilians (which, by the way, is not an effective strategy for "freedom fighters" to get what they want, ever), which lead to the massive and literal overkill of Israel turning Gaza into a parking lot and murdering thousands of innocent people by bombing civilian targets to get rid of Hamas (which, by the way, is not an effective strategy against terrorists, ever).

This doesn't mean the Jews were wrong for wanting a homeland, or wanting it to be on the land that was stolen from them 2,000 years ago by the Romans. It is also not wrong for the Palestinians to want safety in their homeland, particularly since they are not the Romans and weren't responsible for the initial expulsion of the Jews. Both sides are right in what they want, and both sides are horrifically wrong in how they're trying to get it. But being "anti-Zionism" means you are explicitly against an indigenous group who have been persecuted and oppressed for two thousand years returning to their own lands and ruling themselves. I mean. If you're in favor of landback for any other indigenous group, but you're virulently against it for the Jews and only for the Jews, I don't know what to tell you, buddy. That's antisemitism. The Israelis currently engaging in horrific tactics against a civilian population does not negate the necessity of Israel to exist for the safety of the world's Jewish population, who, again, have been persecuted and oppressed for being different than their neighbors, not for anything they actually did, for two thousand years. If you're queer, neurodivergent, a religious minority such as Wiccan or atheist, an ethnic minority such as African-American, or basically anybody who is not an absolutely normal, average member of the society around them... how the fuck do you justify this belief?

Just to repeat for the people who can't read, I am not Jewish. I am a former Catholic who is now an atheist. I just, you know, happen to not be disgustingly antisemitic, so I notice when Jews are treated differently than other people in a situation that's at all similar to theirs. Try learning some history, and paying some attention, and remembering that whatever you learned about Jews from antisemites, it was wrong and you should be re-educating yourself. A nation that commits atrocities does not need to cease to exist, or why is Germany still here? Why is the USA? Why is England? A nation that commits atrocities needs to stop committing them, and make reparations, and try to prevent it from happening again. And there are many Israelis, and many non-Israeli Jews who believe Israel should exist, who want to make that happen. Condemning "Zionists" because Israel is currently engaged in atrocities when you are not in favor of forcibly ending the existence of England as a nation (not Great Britain, I'm talking about England), or the US, or Germany... boy oh boy, I'm smelling antisemitism on the grill there, and it smells rancid. Knock it off. You can support the Palestinians and be absolutely opposed to the actions of the Israeli government without hating everyone in the world that thinks Israel's very existence is a thing that should continue.

[blysse-and-blunder]

in lieu of a reading week

11pm, tuesday, feb 20, 2024

hello beloveds. just wrote two increasingly passionate paragraphs about what social media and my use of it over the years has done to benefit my life, and got so genuinely moved that i had to come talk to you about it.

reading really wild mix of reading material of late. surprisingly high amount of YA, because people keep recommending me things and i keep going 'sure, let's try it!' so i'll use that as an organizing principle and save discussing some of the others for a future post. in order of completion:

firekeeper's daughter, angeline boulley, read by isabella lablanc. finished in a rush, very engaged in the last three-four hours. i was never prepared for the next thing this plot threw at me, though in retrospect saw how it all made sense. i didn't know a thing about it going in, which i think actually enriched the experience a lot, but for a novel set in michigan's UP and sugar island, it resonated with a lot of things i associate with ontario after living here for five+ years. the hockey, the ojibwe /anishinaabe names and cultural connections, the murdered and missing indigenous women. but it also mixes in elements reminiscent of, like, braiding sweetgrass (and tangentially mexican gothic) and various fan fiction tropes i recognized in their shape if not their execution. highly recommend the audiobook-- they cast the audiobook's narrator very carefully, and she does a superb job juggling the mix of scientific jargon, teen narrator unreliable/dramatic narrator (loving), and Anishinaabemowin.

castle in the clouds, kerstin gier, translated by romy fursland. maybe 33% through. it's giving grand budapest hotel and somehow also the princess diaries? it's also reminding me somehow of, like, the kind of novel i wanted to write as a second or third grader, which means eva ibbotson, and a particular flavor of plucky, intelligent heroine. i was hooked by the first page+ but have yet to see a ton more of the same high action and suspense, and have let this one slip a little further onto the back burner. it's cute escapism at the moment, though that may change.

fourth wing, by rebecca yarros, read by rebecca soler (and apparently also teddy hamilton, although i haven't gotten to him yet?) about 25% through. trying desperately to give us a gritty, hardcore, new and dangerous and fun take on dragons and their human riders, while also trying to be idk divergent? the hunger games? there's a love triangle, the protagonist has naturally ombre hair, the premise of the novel is brutal training where young adults are all dying in improbable droves due to how cutthroat and brutal it is. a testament to the narrator that i am, despite myself, having a great time. there are a few too many supporting characters who want our main girl straight up dead for me to really find the threats believable, but i'm intrigued by the prospect of alternate versions of this world's history than what she has learned and a potential for discovering how their kingdom has? manipulated them? could be asking too much.

fairest, gail carson levine. finished in a long saturday morning spent reading in bed. i was such an intense and dedicated fan of the original ella enchanted novel that i couldn't read most of levine's other books (exceptions for her short stories made grudgingly) because they weren't sequels and weren't the same and wouldn't be as good. in fairness, reading this now as a much-older-than-the-intended audience, perhaps i was too harsh-- but i think little-me was right to be a little suspicious. it's a snow white retelling, and again i think largely successful in building a more detailed plot in which the elements of the retold fairy tale are embedded, but where the focus in ella was on language and obedience and free will, here we're trying to articulate things about beauty and body image, and it's harder to say that it really succeeds? i like that we gave the Wicked Queen more nuance, positive and negative qualities, moments of sympathy, a name and a precarious political position. i was not nearly as charmed by the romance (fine, fine, it's not ella and char but it couldn't be, it's fine). i still love the use of unfamiliar / fairy-tale languages and how levine puts them on the page in such fun spellings. probably aimed at the youngest audience, of the four titles here, but treats its reader as almost more intelligent than fourth wing, possibly? YA from ~twenty years ago was a different world.

listening graded like twenty quizzes today with just a mess of random panic at the disco bumping in my headphones. it's a hell of a feeling, etc. i'm halfway through this particular round of grading, and they're doing so well, so it's mainly a quick check to make sure they got the basics right and i can jam while doing so.

watching spent a very pleasant ~2 hours yesterday watching as much as we could of the film amadeus with @hematiterings, @pep-squad-lizzie, and @dimir-charmer. love a film that isn't afraid to lean into all its sensory indulgences, and to be a little heavy-handed with its symbolism (the chocolate is about repression!) and to, just generally, spend money on costumes, locations, hiring lots of extras, and so many wigs. there's a live event performance of this film with orchestra + choir being advertised all over our subway right now, so it does very much feel like we're being followed by this guy:

...but what's sticking in my head right now is the costumes.

playing 41+ hours into hollow knight. i have opened half of my stag stations! i have the dream nail, surprisingly early i think! i have saved bretta! i have somehow missed the mantis lords, i think, but have made it to the city, the resting grounds, and have now been throwing myself fruitlessly against the crystal guardian and a soul warrior in alternation. i am...not good at combat. current plan is to grind to get quick focus, and i'm close! also, @spoonierbard stepped in and gave me a much needed morale boost by winning me the final mask shard necessary to get increased lives, which has helped tremendously, and the grubs rewarded me with the grub song charm which has helped tremendously.

making many potential projects, none executed (or even really attempted). soon, hopefully. fallow section for now. does music count? music counts, right? i joined a second choir! enticed by the chance to perform mozart's requiem in full with an orchestra, and finally fulfill the broken promise of 2020. that's my hobby right now. oh i also just cleaned out a ton of storage in my phone + icloud, which felt generative in its own way. besides backing things up better than i have in a while.

working on submitted the travel money application i've been thinking and dithering about since...this time last year? no real expectation of getting it, but it did actually help me consider some next steps in the diss, so that's nice. now prepping to take my class on two fun on-campus field trips next week, one to the manuscript library and one to the medieval collection in our little hidden art museum! i need to write some notes up for the TAs and docents to use, and finish organizing my list of desired manuscripts, like, yesterday. midterm grades posted today, a little late but hopefully not too bad, still well before the drop date. the aforementioned quizzes (i have like 28 more to grade, but they're reasonably painless). plus i was going to work on my fucking dissertation this week, and prep to teach the next few lectures in advance so i'm not scrambling monday nights, plus send a bunch of emails, design a CFP poster, put in some RAship hours so i can speak intelligently in my meeting tomorrow, and....prep for the guest lecture i'm giving on the 28th! it's a reskin of the conference paper i gave this summer, freshly edited, but i need to expand the intro bits to include a useful overview, since these students aren't a conference of celticists.

weirdly at peace with how my work-life balance is balancing right now, though. it's the extra sleep and the increased sunshine, and the little cat who is being so so whiny right now. i must conclude these lines and feed Herself.

[adobealmanac]

Hello! I am working through reading through the information on your blog. The search function on this app is notoriously horrible though. Might try to use my laptop. I would like to know if you have any thoughts on the term cryptid

Personally I believe, through experience, that beings that get put into the cryptid category or spirits or gods who would have been revered in antiquity by indigenous people, and still are, and I still do them

But that because of the lack of offerings or resources or praise or worship that they have become accustomed to, thanks to colonization, they are now in a reduced state with limited influence

Uhh. All of the beings who are Gods to me are put in this category. Wampus is a cat goddess. The other one doesn't like me to share his name as much I think but he is devil like. A psycho pomp, guardian of crossroads, teacher of witchcraft, Lord of the outcasts, etc. I would also like to know, genuinely. What you think about this. I want to pray to El chupacabra. Have the Jersey devil and the mothman. Lol. I don't need validation as such but I guess more specifically, what do you think of the term cryptid, and can El chupacabra potentially be honored or worked with, without the destructive aspect? I believe so, personally. Have a good one 🤍

Cryptids - Cultural appreciation or appropriation?

You stated this issue very well. Many creatures that are considered to be cryptids are often removed from their cultural contexts therefore limiting the extent of what their power is -- their origins and folk traditions are effectively lost due to this. One common one I consistently see being forced into the "cryptids" category is La Llorona. She is not a cryptid, but is a vengeful spirit from the Southwestern USA and Mexico. People often use the term cryptid with her.. which just sort of lumps her into a category in which she does not belong. You can't hunt her, for she is already dead. Nor can you spot her, since seeing her is essentially a death sentence.

Due to this "cryptidification" there have been numerous pieces of media that have been published by people outside of her culture that represent her inaccurately. I personally dislike many of the movies where she is the villain, as.. to me she is more-so a vengeful spirit that is easily avoided. She doesn't seek out people, but if they stumble into her territory, well, that's on them. Also, in the movie she is defeated. That is just inaccurate in my opinion, as she isn't exactly defeatable. She is avoidable, but you couldn't kill her even if you tried. I do not like these portrayals, as they misrepresent her and provide incorrect information according to her true story.

In essence, cryptid hunters or cryptozoologists should focus more on the cultural aspects of the beings they intend to hunt or research, as that is a key component to who these creatures are and what they represent. Instead of simply reading other crpto-fanatics own views on the beings. Stripping the cultural background from any entity is in essence only looking at them through a two dimensional lens. You simply cannot fully understand a "cryptid" without looking into the folkloric traditions and tales told by the people who grew up with said being. Essentially, they should try their best to learn from the culture rather than appropriate from it.

Onto this idea of worshipping more "harmful" or "evil" entities, such as El Chupacabra. I've touched on this idea for La Llorona in a blogpost before, however I do not believe all entities can be talked about in the same way. I urge people not to worship, invoke, or attempt to seek out La Llorona as she is intrinsically dangerous. However, I do believe you can work with aspects as her, or a more archetypal version of her, as it is not exactly sentient in the same way that she is. I think El Chupacabra could be worked with if you really wanted to, although I'd strongly urge you to protect any pets you live with prior to working with him... heh. As El Chupacabra does not harm humans, I think its plausible to work with him, so long as you are respectful and protected of course. To be frank, I could see him being immensely useful to work with for farmers, as they could potentially offer him things to keep him away from their farm. But, to each their own.

All in all cryptids are quite the interesting subject when it comes to anthropology and.. "cryptozoology". They provide an interesting accessibility to otherwise little-known folkloric beings, however that is not always good. I do believe that working with certain beings that are categorized as "cryptids" could be worthwhile.. however do stay away from La Llorona.. lol. I hope this provided some sort of insight for you, please do let me know if you have any further questions or comments! Thanks for asking this question, as I found writing this to be quite interesting.

[indycinders]

Hello! (❁´◡`❁)

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My name is Cinders, but I go by Cin, Cindy, Indy, Jersi, Mouse, etc. I'm a 28 year old indigenous enby artist and writer! This is my main blog that I use to post art and to interact with different communities and promote my side blogs and projects. Sometimes I'll post random one-offs here if I don't think it will fit well on my writing blog.

My blogs are 18+ because I post and interact with mature content. This means MINORS DO NOT INTERACT. Even if I'm posting fluff, it's still not safe for you to follow my blog. Ageless blogs will be blocked immediately.

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Some things about me!: I love writing and drawing, have been doing both for over twenty years now. I'm into all things horror, I love cute and fluffy things, my taste in music is sporadic, I'm a horrible procrastinator, I have ADHD and am autistic so please let me know if I'm not understanding something correctly or if I'm being rude. I enjoy talking with new people but my social battery tends to run out pretty quickly so if I don't answer a message, it's just because I'm tired. I'm also chronically ill as well, so sometimes I'll be super active and other times, it'll be a ghost town around here. I also love playing games, mostly cozy ones and long story-driven games.

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Blog Relevant Links:

#cinders-ocs (my original characters that I create and art of my characters)

#cinders-art (my original artworks)

#cinders-talks (random ramblings and important things sometimes)

#cinders-writes (short writings that don't belong on my writing blog)

Other Links:

Cinders' Garden of Stories (my writing side blog that I post my longer and more professional writing to)

Duplicity: Revival (my main game development side blog for Duplicity's remake)

A Reel Obsession (group project blog for a game of which I am the writer on)

External Links

Bluesky

Carrd (my carrd with additional info and links!)

itch.io (game page)

ko-fi (tips/donations are appreciated <3)

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[saintsir4n]

— there are some things I want to say, many of which are regarding race!

The fact that Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is receiving hate the fact she’s playing Juliet is not surprising, since people do not need reasons to hate black women. She’s a dark-skinned pretty woman but of course, because she has prominent black features she’s seen as manly and shouldn’t be playing alongside someone like Tom Holland. I’m not one to put down people but Tom Holland is not God’s gift, and neither is he publicly defending his co-star, a matter that I won’t get into as the focus is Francesca. The role of Juliet is one that was originally played by a man, and since then has been played by people of different ethnicities, some being black women. The fact people are using her appearance or the fact she’s deemed as “not conventionally attractive” is disgusting as if that’s an excuse. I’m glad that over 800 black actors signed a letter in solidarity because of the racial abuse as well as the production company who issued their own statement.

POCs especially darker-skinned women are constantly the target of racial abuse even over things that don’t exist and yes I am talking about fan-casts, especially tangled. I haven’t watched the film but I know the source material isn’t from Brothers Grimm but a Persian poem written in the 10th century by Ferdowsi, 8 centuries before it was turned into a “German folklore.” It’s hilarious how micro-aggressions and racism come out when people think white characters aren’t at the centre of it all. People crying about how their younger selves Would hate to see a stunning South Asian actress in the place of a blonde hair, blue-eyed ADAPTION of an original when brown and black girls had little to no representation at all. “Why can’t we stick to the originals?” Please look up what the original is before you start with your insults specifically those who are crying on TikTok or trolling on Avantika Vandanapu’s Instagram.

And lastly, stop bringing Tiana into it. She’s based on a real person just like Pocahontas, their race is important to their stories, black and indigenous, it’s tiring and also just foolish to post edits of “if they can have an Asian Rapunzel why can’t we have a white Tiana” when it’s clear that missed the plot of the princess and the frog, blind to/ ignoring its micro-aggressions (that are written in solely for a black character) and are just showing their bias all in defence of a film that doesn’t even exist.

And before anyone starts on “Why don’t you just invent your own characters?” Many have tried and the movie itself wasn’t watched, had little to no promotion or has been whitewashed but of course that gets little backlash.

And don’t get me started on wish…

So just to conclude, stop attacking us!

[melancholia00]

Sis do you think we will going to get a more complex point of view about colonialism in later seasons?

I do hope so because on how the writers of the show has interwoven colonialism within the universe by having vampires from old houses develop a symbiotic relationship with the human dukes, kings, and nobles. And seeing in Annette's past of vampire nobles enslaving humans in plantations. I have a rather dark theory that vampires and human colonizers worked together in the Atlantic slave trade that benefited the two factions. The human colonizers get an economic boom and free labor out of it while vampires get more abundance of blood to drink from enslaved humans. I hope the show touches upon it more and explaining it to us how white settler colonialism and vampirism works just how they handle Annette's past. I did talk before how I praised how the writers shown Annette's childhood growing up in the plantations without it resulting into slavery torture porn.

I want to see of black resistance of the maroons because we don't see much of black resistance fighting against white settlers. From the many reviews on Youtube it wasn't well recieved with subjects of racism and colonialism and complaints of the show suddenly becoming "woke" because it delivered topics of slavery, racism, and colonialization. I do hope the show doesn't placate to the criticism and just sugar coat anything but keep pushing the narrative of colonialism. I am not voodoo, I don't know a lick about voodoo religion or practice but I heard from voodoo priests and practioners giving out negative criticism the portrayal is wrong. I do hope the writers fix that and hire voodoo practioners and how to portray the practice and religion accurately.

Hopefully the show will touch upon New World Vampires vs Old World vampires. We got a glimpse of it in the show where Drolta was gassing up Bathory to Olrox and he wasn't having it. It shows the difference that between the two. Just because they are vampires and rule over humans there is a fundlemental differences between the two. When Drolta was giving her story about her hey day being a temple priestess and creating a another world. Olrox cheekily says he heard all about it before because during Olrox's long life how many times have he'd heard about white settlers with inflated egos boosting about creating a new world and empire? Cortes? Pizaro? Columbus? Aguirre? George Washington? King George II? The countless of conquistadors and presidents? He has heard it all before of creating a new world that is build on the backs of the already indigenous population. *cough*Palestine *cough* My man is fatigued and which explains why he was so blase about it prior to meeting Bathory.

For his many centuries he lived he can smell white settler fuckery a mile away. With Drolta gassing up Bathory to Olrox, her mistake is that Olrox had already seen his entire culture eradicated in order to create a "new world," And he's obviously not so hyped about seeing another new world being created in the backs of oppressed groups. When Olrox arrives to the chateux he's visibly uncomfortable, it shows just because they are all vampires it doesn't change the fact that he is an indigenous man entering a white space.

Get Out 2017

From the show its been said that vampires originated from the Old World and were brought to the New World by exploration and colonization.

Olrox being a vampire he is a very young and not even 300 yet! So there is a difference in of longevity and experence between Olrox and the Old World vampires along with stagnation in their thinking. The Old World vampires wanting to return back into their glory days and for Olrox, their glory days were his dark ages. And the vampires want to return to a world were vampires are able to rule over humans and govern themselves by blocking the sun. And Olrox who's entire culture is worshiping the sun is horrified and this shows not only the difference between the Old and New World vampires but also culturally. Old World vampires see themselves above the humans the way they use and discard them and talk to them in the most condescending and dehumanizing way.

With Olrox's interactons with humans he doesn't speak to them with the same condescension or talked down to Mizrak as if he's a stupid animal. He's incredibly candid with Mizrak and speaking to him as equals. With Julia when he speaks about her he's never vile towards her even though she took the love of his life and he never mocks Richter for having an anxiety attack and running away from the crypt. Unlike Drolta who mocks Richter and calling him the "boy who ran away."

I pointed out that the difference and this scene blantanly shown when Olrox is forced to bow before Erzsebet and her cultist and guiding her to America. Which is wrong in so many levels. Take out the vampirism, you are forcing an indigenous man to take a white colonizer into his home and enslave everybody to bow down to a white settler colonizer and parade her as a God? And if they don't? She'll starve them and they'd be so hungry they'll have to eat their own vomit. By the look Olrox gave her, she sealed her death warrent.

This immediately brought to toughts of La Malinche.

La Malinche story needs to be taken with a grain of salt. She was sold to Cortez as a child and later became his interpreter and lover and betrayed her people. Its said with her help Cortex was able to conquer the Aztec empire. And this is exactly what Bathory needs Olrox. To guide her to America, to betray his people, and be her interpreter and advisor just how La Malinche was to Cortez.

This will be extremely touchy especially what happened to the Americas during colonialism and how it had effects people to this day. The show has already touched upon it just slightly on the Casta System.

Annette was literally running away from slave catchers and she met Edouard in the concert hall. She was dressed in rags while he was dressed in finary. They are both black but Edouard is mixed white european and many of the mulattos were part of the bourgeoisies. The Haitian mulattos were looked down upon by both the white upper class and the black enslaved class and they would be use to which faction suited them to push out whatever cause.

Historically Edouard and Annette wouldn't be friends because most of the mulattos idenitfied with the ruling French and their culture and also took part of the slave holding. That being said they took a part of the oppression of other black people and as a result they were slaughtered along with the white bourgeosies during the Haitian Revolution.

I am bringing the Casta System because it effected heavily on the Americas as well. Many Latinos have white european colonizers, Native American, and african ancestry. I don't know if the writers are going to focus on the Casta System and latinos and how the erasure of culture has effected them. Olrox talks about how his land had been stolen but it will dive deeper to that on how the next generation has suffered with the slow erosion of their languages, and culture and slowly converting over time to Christianity and Catholicism. Forgetting their tribes, their names, their ancestors. And to be put into these boxes like pedigree.

The violence wil be explored on what colonialism has caused and the result. As of right now with the current events of groups of people being displaced from their own land, erasure of culture, languages, and customs, not being able to practice their own religion. Ethnically cleansing a people and being forced to convert or die. Bringing up subjects of colonialzation has never been more prevelant until now.

[baberoe-archive]

there is a version of masters of the air that traces the tuskegee airmen and the 100th bomber through the war in parallel stories that merge in the prison camp that actually seriously analyzes racism at the time and as it exists today in our historicization and mythmaking around wwii. perhaps even a version that does justice to civilian resistance movements. and instead we have.

i appreciate you saying this bc i think it needs to be talked about more, but if you could link the other version you talk about? i would leant to watch it, thank you!

hi! what i actually meant in this post was that there could have been a version of this masters of the air show that did what i was talking about in that post, not that a show like that existed. i apologize for that -- i am now realizing my original post was worded very poorly 😭

from a quick google search there are two movies made about the tuskegee airmen: the tuskegee airmen (1995) and red tails (2012), though i haven't seen either. im sure books also exist, but i am not the one to ask about this. if anyone out there has more resources please share!

i will also take this opportunity to direct attention to tuskegee university's online photography collections, which has work from prominent early black photographers. i took a class on african-american photography last semester, and the tuskegee institute came up specifically when we were discussing w. e. b. dubois's display on african american life at the 1900 paris exhibition. the goal here was to directly confront the racist and dehumanizing exhibition of black and indigenous people in colonial exhibits by showing african-american life georgia, which included a number of universities including tuskegee. all the materials (i think?) are at the library of congress and available for browsing here. if you are interested in learning more about this (or black photography in general), deborah willis and shawn michelle smith have written on this exhibition and black photography more widely (deb willis is The scholar for most things black photography, and she is an incredible photographer in her own right.)

also while i'm at it. through a lens darkly (2014) is a documentary on black american photography directed by the practicing photographer, filmmaker, and scholar thomas allen harris. we also watched this for my class, and it looks at the history of black photography and incorporates contemporary artists frequently. great introduction to the field!

[thebisexualwreckoning]

Mind analysing your poem a little? 👀

Incredibly long post alert to anyone who plans on reading this

Obligatory transphobes and terfs dni. The following poem is about and written by ‘them gotdamn trannys and queers’ and is about beautiful beautiful t4t sex

i am kissing you. on the mouth.

thank you so much for sending this in i genuinely love talking about my poetry so much muah muah muah!!!

Original poem if anyone wants to read it:

Anyway.

Welcome to Prof A. 's line by line analysis of his poem*. So buckle your seatbelts because this is gonna be loooong ride. Let's get started!

*Disclaimer: you might interpret some of these lines differently then i do and that is perfectly alright. poetry depends on everyone's own lived experience and that does not make any one interpretation less valid. i might have written the poem, but your interpretations are still just as true.

I'm going to start with inspirations and the title first because i love providing backstory and talking about other poets. Very specifically one poet that inspired me to write this actually. You can skip this part if you just want to know about the technical structures and literary devices and specific meanings behind the poem

The title was originally part of a completely different short story/prose poetry  (i hadn't made up my mind yet) thing i was going to write but then never got around to finishing. but i just so happened to be going through my old writing (always keep a handy little notebook on hand. it has saved my life so many times) and find the little snippet i wrote and go, 'wait i actually like this very much' and decide to reuse it for something else.

but anyway, couple hours later im doing a voice of country thing for my literature class and analysing poetry by indigenous and aboriginal Australian poets. and i come across this little poem called 'a portrait of a genderkweer on fire'  by a certain Ellen van Neerven (who belongs to the Mununjali Yugambeh people of south east Queensland btw) (go check out their poetry it is genuinely life changing) and it sticks with me you know. it really does. poc trans people writing about their lived experiences as poetry? why didn't I, a poc trans person, think about that!

(no seriously, in all my years of writing poetry it for some reason never occured to me to write about my people. so genuinely thank you Ellen for that!)

now i've already got a first line ive been wanting to use, i am feeling extremely queer and angry because of unrelated transphobia a friend faced and i have a mechanical pencil and notebook in hand.

So i start writing.

(Apologies for my awful handwriting. i was writing while pacing and waiting for the bus)

Alright, kiddies. As you can see, most of the poem was taken verbatim with very few changes to the actual word choices behind the poem. (I will be doing a deep dive into the language as well, dont you worry)

The biggest change made actually is the switch from prose poetry to a more traditional stanza poem. i made the decision to do this actually because originally the poem was meant to be much longer and incorporate the original piece i decided to rework this into.

The quote 'sometimes i imagine what heaven is like' was meant to be repeated at the start of different stanzas which would be written in prose form, each detailing a different phase of queer love in secret, from secret night time affairs (this specific poem) to escape and loving loudly (the original thing i wrote). however, it didn't really work the way i wanted it too and i decided this was fine as it was and started to edit and play around with it a bit.

i changed 'sometime i imagine what heaven is like' to 'Do you imagine what heaven looks like?' and made it the title of the poem instead of the first sentence. the poem itself now becomes the narrator's idealised image of what heaven would be like for them. i go a bit more on depth about this in point 3 of Changes to the structure

Changes to the structure

As mentioned, the first change was from prose to stanzas. I'm about to get full on literature student about this so bear with me

Each stanza has one (1) extra line from the previous one in the poem. For ex: stanza 1 has 4 lines, stanza 2 has 5 lines, and stanza 3 has 6 lines. this was a deliberate choice i made. not to be too english teacher about this but it shows the narrator is coming to some sort of a revelation soon. (i wont spoil too much about this tho. for reasons)

ENJAMBMENTS!!! if you don't know what an enjambment is, it refers to a line break that interrupts the flow of a sentence: usually the line usually doesn’t end with punctuation, and the thought continues on the next line. now, i heavily fuck with enjambments in poetry. which is why i was so eager to use them over here. they represent a kind of stream of consciences here rather than structured thought. enjamments also help in rising tension and drawing the reader in deeper, making them want to continue reading to find out what happens next.

syntax: now the poem is actually meant to be wish fulfilment of sorts for the narrator, where they imagine all the things they wish they could do with their lover. that's why its not written in present tense using sentences like 'the moon shines' or 'the bedsheet are sweaty...'. The narrator is basically telling the moon to shine through his windows and the bedsheets to be stained and his lover to run a finger down his spine. we don't actually have anything written in present tense till 'She holds me close...'

the random spaced out/missing words a.k.a SYNTAX 2.0! because yes. there are certain words missing. ive intentionally left a space between 'left' and 'tramp' and between 'Boy' and 'fuchsia'. there is also a missing word before 'count'. now, if you read my original version of the poem, you can find out what words are actually supposed to be there, but when i put it into verse form, i found that many of the words id written in prose didnt actually fit. but without them the sentence kind of fell apart. so i decided to leave blank space where those words were supposed to go to signal to the reader that something is missing while not actually needing to mention that

4.5. just like the stanzas growing by a single line in each verse, the missing words also increase in a frequency of one (1), zero of them in stanza 1, a single missing word in stanza 2 and 2 of them in stanza 3.

5. capitalisations and Punctuations to immerse the reader more and help with the stream of consciousness style of the poem, most of the poem is written in lowercase with no punctuation being used throughout the only things capitalised are 'Factory Made Cunt', '... Boy' and 'She holds me...' you may have noticed a common string between these words is they are all related to gender. 'Factory Made Cunt' especially was written to put emphasis on the inherent transness of the character while '... Boy' was capitalised for this and to have more of a visual distinction from the black space that follow. 'She hold me...' however was written to directly contrast the lowercase 'god' and how to the narrator their lover is the divine being instead of any so called god (which is weird because i personally am a religious person).

Language choices and line by line analysis:

'moon shine through the' - moon shine over here is meant to show how queer people often can only exist in the freedom on night time and their love is often only seen within the secrecy of moonlight and not under the brightness of the sun. (also all moon deities are queer icons).

A friend of mine also provided the connection to 'moon shine' being a reference to illegal moonshine (home brewed extremely strong alcohol) and how that itself was a reference to illegally transtioning without the goverment knowing/able to get medical stuff

'window illuminating short bristles of': the narrators lover being a trans girl with a buzz cut was an intentional choice to show that gender expression does not equal actual gender. buzz cuts are traditonally associated with men, but also many butches in the community rock a buzz cut as well and its too show that there's no right way of being trans and presenting as a woman.

'her hair tickling' and 'the underside of my nose': im going at these two together since i don't really have much to say about them separately. it's more meant to be visual imagery, reinforcing the two are intimate in some manner but not really expanding whether it's platonic or romantic yet. its also meant to evoke the image of the narrators lover lying on their chest and but the narrator not caring about the fact that they might be slightly uncomfortable but loves their girl too much to push them away

'bedsheet sweaty and cum': confirming the fact that they are in a sexually intimate relationship and are lying post-coital (i cannot believe i just used the term coital. this has become an academic essay)

'stained entangle around the curve of' - some sensual imagery and tactile imagery

'her thigh where my' - more imagery

'lipstick left        tramps stamps on her' - tramp stamp is a reference to how trans women are often oversexualised and is meant to be a reclamation of their own bodies and sexualities

'Factory Made Cunt' - emphasis is placed on these words by being the first capitalised words in the entire poem as of yet. its meant to kind of condemn the never ending discussion about trans women's bodies and especially their genitals and the hyper sexualization of girlcock by fetishisers (not that there is anything wrong with girlcock. this user loves girlcock and boypussy). its kinda like the narrator is saying 'so what if her pussy is surgically made. how does that make it any lesser)

'           count down the' - once again, not really much to say

'knobs of my spine leaving behind a shivering' - more more sensual imagery

'mess of a Boy    fuchsia bright silicone' - just like how 'Factory Made Cunt' condemned speculation on trans women's bodies, this condemns speculations on those of trans men. it also challenges the assumption that just because you are a man or that you top, you immediately have to be the dominant one in the relationship. 'fuchsia bright' was also a deliberate syntax choice. the silicone is the bright thing here not the fuchsia giving the narrator the chance to have a dick which is bright/illuminated moment for them as a trans boy.

'dick still hard whispering lover' - the 'dick still hard' part was meant to be an ironic comment on how cishetero patriarchal society is always going about people in sapphic relationships using dildos and saying that they should just fuck a real man instead of a fake approximation of one (not that they are that eloquent) but the joke is that while those criticising sapphics who use dildos actually need to wait for a dick to get hard again before they can have sex while the sapphics don't have to worry about that since dildos are always hard. also the 'whispering lover' thing was written completely out of spite to prove the friend with the moonshine interpretation wrong when she said that lover cannot be an appropriate term of endearment and to her credit she has since changed her mind and has been very gracious about it and glad to be immortalised in a poem in this form

'in my ear She holds me close' - more more more sensuous imagery along with auditory imagery of whispering in ears.

'leaving behind no space for god' - a play on the popular phrase 'leave some space for Jesus'

Anyway, this turned out way to big and way to detailed for a simple little analysis but once again, i am a student of literature and this is quite literally my life's passion, made even easier since i have direct access to the writer's brain instead of having to make my own assumptions and spend hours researching.

I hope you enjoy if you or anyone else even bothers to read through considering just how much i actually wrote. but yeah, here's my final literary analysis of my poem Do you imagine what heaven looks like?

[sprolden]

i unfortunately can’t find the post about it, but the two wolves meme is racist — it’s appropriation of native american folklore or something like that, i think. not calling you out or anything i promise, this is just smth i would’ve liked to know when i used the meme but i don’t see it widely spoken about on here even though the meme is kinda popular here. the site that provides info on how memes started has more info i think, if you’d like to know more (i am sorry — i’m aware i haven’t given a great explanation, i just can’t remember the exact context of the post i saw abt this😭)

hi! i went and googled it myself, and you're a little bit wrong, this is what wikipedia has to say:

The story of the Two Wolves is a memetic legend of unknown origin, commonly attributed to Cherokee or other indigenous American peoples in popular retelling. (...) As its origins cannot be credibly traced to authentic indigenous sources, the “Two Wolves” story is considered an example of fakelore.

the meme, in turn, is based on this fake story, and the issue with it is that fake stories like these are fabricated by white people based on false perceptions of Native folklore.

i genuinely had not made the connection to native american folklore, i literally just thought the meme was about. wolves. lol. but it's good to have this context, i can def see how it comes off a little icky regardless! i can't find any native americans talking about this particular meme online but in cases like this it's best to play things safe i think

also, i mean this genuinely and kindly: the next time you come across something like this, google it yourself. it's more important to genuinely understand why something is offensive than to completely try to avoid everything that may be problematic. especially if you're passing on knowledge to someone else, try to make sure that the information you're spreading is correct. otherwise, you might end up in a situation like this, where the problematic aspect of the meme is that this is a fake story attributed to native americans by white people, and you've accidentally contributed to that. again, i'm not trying to berate you, but try and keep that in mind next time you come across a post like that :)

[sahonithereadwolf]

MtG is doing previews for the new set, something Ixalan, and needless to say my feelings are complex. Back during the first one of these I wrote an essay about the native rep, and it got a lot of attention back then. Ended up on the site and everything. People at Wizards at some point read my shit and thought it was good enough to point other folks to. Essay doesn't exist anymore, the website originally I wrote it for disappeared when the person who owned it moved on to a different phase of their career. The only place it might exist at this point is the wayback. On the one hand I think my feelings about it's rep have greatly changed after the conclusion of it's story, and I received a lot of hate mail and racism for it, but on the other hand it was very much one of the first times I wrote something and people listened.

I would not be able to do much of anything I do today if people didn't read that. People only found me because of that article.

I don't think anyone would play my games, and no one would listen to me talk about indigenous rights shit on radio stuff. Kinda feels like I had to pay for my voice in blood. Feels like that a lot of times when I get to do something bigger. And here I am asking myself if I have it in me to write a follow up to that original article.

Fuck it, maybe if someone pays me.