i didnt expect to have so much fun drawing this tbh
thoughts and notes:
Tuiga (headdresses worn by chiefs and their children) made to be her huge hair. I made her a fiafia dancer because shes a performer. The fire dance itself is done typically by men only but i let her have some fire as a treat :). She also wouldnt have any tatau at her age but i gave her a hand one anyway based vaguely on my mums one. theres alot of other bits i could talk about but im by no means an expert, but if anyone is interested they can feel free to ask 馃嚰馃嚫馃嚰馃嚫馃嚰馃嚫馃嚰馃嚫
Introducing Samoa Joe: the king of not giving a single care in the world. Or more fittingly in his case, the king of giving a big flat NOPE to those who try it with him and fail in the process
Auntie is canonically Samoan! What she's saying here is "Sole!" which roughly means bro, man, dude, etc. Love how Frenchie doesn't really react but Fang's response is basically "yes, what?"
Thanks to all the guys who shouted sole at each other all the time at my high school, making this one of the few Samoan words I can recognize immediately.
Edit: since I explained this badly, Fang isn't responding in Samoan, he's just saying "oh, hm?" which is more of an acknowledgement noise than actual words in any language.
Rosalie Tialavea, Leafa's oldest sister, recounted how the police entered the apartment with their guns drawn, without asking any questions about Leafa's age or who lived there, despite Leafa's mother being present and several minors, including infants, being in the home.
"They told us to get in the room and get out of their way," Tialavea recalled. "I asked them if I could talk to my youngest because we all know how she is, and how she is not a social person. I asked them and they said no."
Tialavea described Leafa as an "overthinker" who sometimes had emotional breakdowns. On the night of the incident, she was sitting on the balcony with a blanket over her head. The family believed they could talk her out of holding the knife and tried to intervene, but the police insisted they stay out of the way.
According to the family, Leafa's English was not very strong, and when the police ordered her to drop the knife she was holding downward by her side, they said it didn't take much for the officers to shoot.
"She made one movement, a little tiny movement," Tialavea said. "They shot her three times... They saw her go down on the second shot and they had to fire another one."
Easter Leafa was a 16 year old girl who was supposed to start the school year before the police took that from her.