#did i watch an entire criminal minds episode no context for this?? yes. because proper research is important to back up your claims

[the-cornerstone-six]

*in the group chat*

Jules: if no one got me, I know Dr. Spencer Reid got me. can I get an amen??

Jonathan: sure but. context?????

Jules: he's the only bitch in his fbi department I respect bc he's the only one who didn't say the g slur in this one episode.

Eliza: the bar is underground but. amen as well

[lorei-writes]

Basic Guide on How Not To: Slavic Characters

Well, as most of you have probably realised by now, I’m Polish. Truthfully, I am quite upset now. I generally tend to avoid most content involving Slavic people, because well, stereotypes are plentiful and I have only one stomach - there is only so much anger I can fit inside of it. However, this time I was merrily watching an episode of a series, for goodnight sleep, and got smacked in the face with just that... So, I suppose, let’s use my anger towards something - hopefully - productive. This is a very hard post for me to write. It may be closer to my personal experience, although I did try to be more general.

Contents:

Where Do I Even Begin or Sad Slav Filter

Common Stereotypes - Professions & Jobs

Common Stereotypes - Characteristics

Few basic issues with languages & names

Where Do I Even Begin or Sad Slav Filter

Grey buildings, empty plazas, ominous blocks of flats with walls up to the very sky. Snow. Gloom faces. Dark nights. Red. Gold.

To start with, be aware that this sort of image is oftentimes not only written into stories or presented in picture-based media, but that I had the displeasure of seeing it being used for cover art for several books.

What I jokingly call sad Slav filter is presenting the reality of Eastern Europe* through, well, pessimistic glasses. The architecture speaks of terror, of being post-communist state, of never having recovered. The streets portrayed in such fashion are gloom, unwelcoming, threatening in a way. Winter is oftentimes the season of choice, to add an extra layer of depressive atmosphere and cold. Nobody smiles. One may say that usage of gold and red brightens the image - however, those connect directly to the communist flag, thus locking the entire space in a rather obvious context.

The reality?

Yes, old blocks of flats built in 60s or so still exist. Some are even grey and in dire need of being re-painted! However... Many are not in such a state. In Poland, the common colours for elevation of such buildings are white, pastel orange, pastel yellow and pastel green, oftentimes put together in combination of stripes or other geometric shapes. What also should be noted is that such estates were designed with plenty trees and other plants around them in mind, as to accommodate for a development of a community - especially for older blocks of flats, those are most likely situated nearby a primary school and a kindergarten, not to mention stores and other services. It is not uncommon for playgrounds to be present as well. You could also expect small flower gardens.

Parks exist here. Architecture does not begin and end at the blocks of flats, especially not in the major cities - most, if not all, have old towns or historical representative streets. Buildings dating back to medieval still do exist in plenty of places. Churches & Tserkovs - those are oftentimes tourists sites for a reason! 

It may happen that the side of a building will be decorated with a mural. It is not very common, but does happen. Here are some examples (from Poland). The designs sometimes relate to other works of art, or to some forms of traditional art.

mural by NeSpoon, a street artist who incorporates motives of koronka ludowa [a type of lace] into her artwork

Overall, I come from a poorer region of Poland, from a small town to add to that. The one thing I would list about it? Flower gardens. All of my neighbours had flower gardens in front of their houses. In the recent years, I’ve seen plenty of new houses being built, plenty of renovations being made. Especially in spring and summer, it is all far from grey. Some major cities started investing in fields of wild flowers, as to aid pollinators. And winters? Well, the way it should be (as climate change shows and I have not seen a proper winter in a while), they should be snowy. Yes, it may involve a rather depressing image, at least in places where snow cannot just rest over the ground and glitter... But I do think it may be the case in plenty parts of Europe, as winter days are overall shorter as well, which hardly helps :”) Eastern Europe as a region is not locked in an eternal winter.

People may not be smiling, but they are not frowning either - it is the... Neutral resting face.

*- that being said, Eastern Europe is not inhabited only by Slavic people, even if it is often presented like so

Common Stereotypes - Professions & Jobs

List of common stereotypical jobs/professions usually performed by characters of Slavic descent:

a member of a mafia (Russian mafia)

a drug dealer

a spy

a prostitute

a maid / a cleaner

As you can see, nearly all of those involve crime, the only exception being a maid / a cleaner (which, I’d argue, speaks of a lower socio-economic status). If you do not plan to have more than one Slavic character in your work, I advise you to avoid those - especially if you wanted to make your character Russian. I do not think I have to explain why representing a group of people nearly exclusively as criminals is hurtful. 

Certain stereotypes exist in media. They do influence the reality. I have seen covers of books about spy programs (non-fiction, referencing an issue from 2000s) which involved clear references to communism (+ used the most hideous Sad Slav Filter I have ever seen). The title suggested all Russians are spies. This is not okay.

If you want to have a character who is performing any of the above, and want to make them Slavic, but then never have their heritage influence anything about them - ask yourself why.

EDIT: Do allow me to also add that being a sex-worker may not be a choice for all Slavic women. Sex-trafficking of Eastern Europeans is a real issue. You should be mindful of that when writing a story - even more so as it affects some countries more than others. Research is due.

Common Stereotypes - Characteristics

Common hurtful characteristics in depicting slavic characters:

uneducated or otherwise stupid

rude, loud, uncultured, violent

an alcoholic / addicted to drugs

extremely conservative / religious

Do I have to explain it? Yes, alcoholism is a social issue, same as addiction to drugs. Yes, some people are conservative and / or religious. However! We are not a monolith! Social issues are not the general rule! 

Scale of conservativeness and religiousness also differs greatly by age group and region. In Poland we have an entire category of practising atheists - non-believers, usually from smaller communities, who appear in church once or twice a year, despite not believing. Due to social pressure. What religion? This differs greatly too! Roman catholic, Greek orthodox, Muslim? Slavic people are not a monolith.

(about women specifically):

beautiful (must put plenty effort in her physical appearance)

looks for a rich (western) husband

submissive

obedient 

Well. This ties into the greater issue of objectification and sexualisation of Slavic and Eastern European women. Admittedly, such portrayal [including all of those] is more so present in online spaces, if you turn a few wrong corners down the roads of the internet :) It is dehumanising.

If your Slavic character happens to be a woman and must be extremely sexy femme fatal spy - this reeks of stereotypes.

Few basic issues with languages & names

As I’ve hinted already, it appears that oftentimes Slavic = Russian. This, however, is not true, both language-wise and culture-wise. Despite sharing some common elements, Slavic cultures do differ. Polish characters, unless they are 50+ years old, won’t generally speak Russian. Czech and Ukrainian are different. Ukrainian is not just another version of Russian.

I decided to single out this paragraph for one reason: authors oftentimes do not bother to check for appropriate names and just use whatever seems right. If you want to write a Slavic character, do make some research. 

The common mess-ups I’ve seen:

inappropriate form of the surname (about Russian surnames in particular; giving a woman a male version of the surname, giving a man the female version of the surname - Slavic languages are heavily gendered!)

claiming a character is of nationality B, while giving them a surname which is most definitely speaking of nationality A (e.g: Polish character with a clearly Hungarian name & surname)

wrong spelling

using very rare forms of names for all the characters written into the story (it sounds very unnatural - in one particular case it seemed to have been done on purpose, as I’ve had to google whether some names were even names. They were used as code names for few organisations during WWII. That sort of uncommon).

nicknames derived from the actual names that would not work at all (Żegota -> Zeg; It just would not work like this. It would be literally more likely for a character named Żegota to be nicknamed/renamed Staszek than for somebody to call him Zeg. It does not only not include the ż sound, but it also ends with g - which a Polish person would simplify to k when speaking. In other words Zeg -> zek. This, meanwhile, is not only not exactly pleasant to say, but it also sounds like a grammatical form of another word, albeit pronounced with a heavy lisp - “river”; It is possible to find appropriate nicknames online).

Also, unless you want for some character to be a dick, do not make them purposefully mispronounce the name of a Slavic character or have them name them after an object/thing. (Calling “Maciej” by “Magic” because they can’t be bothered to learn to pronounce the name or at least try to get it close is not nice).

[spoofenshmirtz]

i’ve been seeing people complaining about how much akechi there is in the anime, even people who say they’re fans of him, and lemme just. comment on that for a little bit [p5 and p5a spoilers under the cut, naturally]

first of all, yes, it does feel weird seeing the cameos of him throughout the first four episodes - because we know who he is and what he’s done. to people familiar with the games, it’s weird seeing him appear with no context like this for an entire month of episodes.

but, i’d like to say that with tonight’s episode, the cameos proved themselves worthwhile. because tonight, akechi’s role as a detective, in particular the detective opposing the phantom thieves, was finally solidified. he had cameos throughout the first four episodes to build up to the reveal of who he is and what he does, and now, his role has been made explicit by having him show up at leblanc and prove his existence to ren, who’s just agreed to continue the phantom thieves business together with ryuji, ann and morgana.

is this weird to people who have played the games? probably, yes! in the game, we never met him by name until after madarame, and this time around, he’s been introduced to us before we’ve even met yusuke! it’s throwing us off a bit because it’s not what we’ve been expecting; however, to someone unfamiliar with akechi’s role, i bet he’s just now had his role and existence validated by having him appear as a detective right after ren and his friends have agreed to continue their criminal activities. his rivalry with the phantom thieves will now come off more natural; and with him appearing at leblanc and monologuing to ren about detectives and rivals (while reading fucking lupin vs holmes), so will probably his attention towards ren. he’s met ren, now; his interest in him post-madarame (unless it shows up even earlier in the anime!) might seem more natural if he already knows the boy, if he’s already met him.

what i’m saying is, akechi’s role in the game is so undermined. he could have been played off as such a great rival character, but he’s always kind of shoved aside to give space to other things, especially with how they treated his betrayal. in the anime, they’ve gone the complete opposite way around and have chosen to utilize his rival potential; how it’s gonna change future events, i can’t even imagine. i’m pretty sure most things will play off the same up until sae’s palace, but what they’ll do with akechi after that, i have no idea.

(i’m still rooting for an akechi lives route. i really want him to get to witness shido’s breakdown and confession. i’ll forever stand by his “death” being a much too lazy and weak “redemption”; his sacrifice is little more than accepting and asking for forgiveness for what he did to the phantom thieves directly, seeing as they’re the only ones who gain anything from it. for all his other crimes, it’s more akin to running away from it, choosing death instead of atoning for his sins. him surviving and facing his crimes would be much more satisfying, in particular for the phantom thieves since akechi wouldn’t have to end up “the one they could never save”, in that case. i want him to live! please?)

does akechi being given more space in the anime undermine other characters? maybe a little bit. but, keep in mind that we’re only five episodes into a series that’s likely to be 24+ episodes long. everyone’s gonna get plenty of time to grow as characters, and akechi’s only had like four cameos and two proper scenes so far. everyone else still has more screentime than akechi, his cameos don’t steal time from other characters, and in some cases, he doesn’t even take away time from other characters by appearing in the same scenes as them! and him coming to leblanc in sae’s company is a nice touch, that sae actually brought him there!

am i extremely biased in this question? yes. absolutely. it’s no secret that i’m head over heels for this bastard. but i also recognize his lack of utilized potential in the game. as much as people like thinking that him being so controversial is proof of how complex and interesting he is as a character, i don’t think you’ve done a character well if half the fanbase outright hate them and half claw at your feet begging for more content. i love both komaeda and ouma and i still think that the controversy and hate surrounding akechi fucking obliterates the controversy surrounding either of those characters. it’s ridiculous how torn opinions of akechi are, and if they’d done him better and made his redemption more satisfying, maybe some people wouldn’t be so quick to outright hate him?

what i’m trying to get at is, i’m hoping the akechi content in the anime will just, do him better. make his involvement feel more earned, more natural. as it stands in the game, he feels kind of forced on you, which i can understand makes lots of people kind of angry with his involvement. like they’re forced to witness this random dude kinda flirt, kinda approach you from weird angles, and then this same dude goes and tries to murder your ass twice. i’m hoping the anime will make his involvement more natural, his interest in and interactions with ren more smooth. because they really are not in the game. they’re not. i love every second i get with him, but it pains me how dirty they play him, and i’m really only seeing how bad they did him while watching let’s plays of p5. there’s a lot of specific interactions that i can’t wait to see how they’ll do in the anime, if they’ll do them right or make the same mistakes the game did; but, judging by how they’ve changed stuff so far, it doesn’t seem plausible that they’ll go the same route again. luckily!

GOD i’m typing up a storm. another point though, it’s not like akechi is the only character who gets some added fluff. ryuji’s renren scene is stuck in my brain forever. ann got to see shiho, on screen, after she woke up from the coma. really, most of the stuff being explicitly cut from the anime as opposed to the game seems to be from the downtime, when you hang out with confidants and choose your own time. and it’s good that it’s being cut, because there’s already so much story to get through without considering the social links!

(on that point, seeing as akechi and morgana are the only teammates whose social links aren’t optional to advance, it would kind of make sense that akechi would be showing up so much..! despite how much i wish they would’ve made akechi optional as well, if for nothing else then just to not make his betrayal so goddamned obvious. i get that the way they played it off made the reveal that you always knew he was gonna betray you the big surprise rather than him shooting you in the head, but goddamn if it doesn’t make me salty after realizing that, because it just adds to how upsetting it is that you never tried a different approach with akechi. you always knew he was gonna do something, so why did you wait until the very last second to retaliate? and choose to use him, a guy you already knew has a rough background and a deep-seated grudge against adults, as a tool in your own convoluted plan? what the fuck, phantom thieves?)

i’m sorry, i didn’t mean to write so much. i just want to point out how akechi’s actually getting a relevant role in the anime, as opposed to the game, and that that’s the main reason why people are so weirded out by his appearances and cameos. it’s not bad that he’s appearing a lot, y’all, it’s a narrative choice to give akechi space to grow, for one goddamn time! it’s all very deliberate, and maybe it does pander to akechi fans, but where’s the harm in that? akechi deserved better and i’m thrilled to see someone make a damned effort, at the very least!

tl;dr: akechi’s cameos and increased number of appearances in the anime as opposed to the game only seems weird because we already know who he is and what he does; the purpose the cameos actually serve is building him up, as a character, to give him a proper role of the detective opposing the phantom thieves, as opposed to him being carelessly shoved in at awkward moments in the game and never being quite utilized as a rival. he’s being given relevance in the anime and that’s absolutely not a bad thing!