#hence my comment about him and Asian culture

[geekynichelle]

Kill Bill is fun to watch, while simultaneously, very obviously made by a white guy who loves the Asian aesthetic, but wants to center it on a white person. Also a guy who likes feet.

In any case a few years ago I saw someone's art project where they combined this movie with Brian Lee O'Malley's art style and I always thought that was neat/quite fitting. Their page is gone now otherwise I would've shared who it was (though you can see it in my Kill Bill tag).

[persephone-s-moon]

Asian Lost Boys Personal Names!

Personal names tend to vary from culture to culture in terms of usage, but essentially it's someones "Asian name" as opposed to their English name. They're typically used by family members and, on occasion, very close friends because (in my experience) using them is intimate. The characters will still HAVE their English names, but The Lost Boys and family members (the Emersons and the Frogs) will Mostly refer to each other by their personal names.

DISCLAIMER: I'm Taiwanese, therefore I'm more savvy to East Asian cultures, particularly Chinese and Japanese. If anyone who is more knowledgeable about Filipino, Hmong, Thai, Indian, or Vietnamese cultures sees something they want to critique/has more culturally accurate suggestions, I encourage messages/comments/replies!

David: Huang Zhao-Yi

Culture: Taiwanese, of Chinese descent Loose Pronunciation: Hw-ah-ng Sh-ow-yee Surname: Huang, meaning "yellow, to fall through" Personal name: Zhao-Yi, Zhao meaning "bright, luminous" and Yi meaning "happy, joyful, harmony" Notes: I was originally going to name David "Hou Yi" after a mythological Chinese archer because OG Hou Yi destroys 9/10 of the original suns (long story) and there's a version where he and his wife Chang'e become immortal/gods, but there are so many different versions of the story that I decided against it. I also decided that I wanted him to be a Farm Boy™ and naming him after a god seemed a little strange imo.

Paul: Paolo FACUNDO LIWANAG

Culture: Filipino Loose Pronunciation: Pow-low FAK-OON-DO LEE-WAN-AG Personal name: Paolo, meaning "small" Surnames: FACUNDO meaning "talkative", LIWANAG meaning "light" Notes: A lot of Filipino names are Spanish or Italian with biblical roots because of colonization in the 1500s, so I wanted to keep his personal name semi-similar to his English name since it was already biblical. Honestly I could've left it as "Paul" but what's the fun in that? I'm not too sold on his surnames so they might change later and I may try to find a Tagalog name instead for his personal name, we'll see.

Marko: YANG Vam Meej

Culture: White Hmong, from Laos Loose Pronunciation: YANG Va Mae Clan name: YANG, associated with the ram and bear Personal name: Vam Meej, meaning "to prosper, succeed" Notes: Hmong names in particular are a Struggle for me since most of the Hmong people I know are second generation like me and either don't really know their personal names or we're not close enough for me to ask. I am familiar with the concept of clan names though. Marko's name is definitely subject to change in the future (I might pick a clan name more associated with birds just for fun who knows).

Dwayne: Khemkhaeng LUANG

Culture: Thai Loose Pronunciation: Kehm-key-ng LOO-ANG Personal name: Khemkhaeng, meaning "strong" Old personal name: Kasem, meaning "happiness, pure joy" Surname: LUANG, meaning "royal, venerable" Notes: It's common for Thai people to change their names after something either significant or bad happens to them, hence Kasem. I'm only making note of it to alleviate confusion in the event that I decide to do some stuff regarding backstories, no one will refer to him as Kasem otherwise. Also, surnames are still relatively new to Thailand and they were only introduced in the 20th century, so Dwayne gets a shorter surname in comparison to modern Thai surnames (which are required to be unique, hence the longer modern surnames) since I have him and the other boys being born in the 1880s.

Star: Ruchika Chawla

Culture: Indian Loose Pronunciation: Roo-chee-ka Chow-la Personal name: Ruchika, meaning "shining, beautiful, desirous, brilliance" Surname: Chawla, meaning "rice" Notes: I found the name Ruchika and immediately thought of Star ngl, I didn't even consider other names for her. It was like love at first sight. I think a lot of stuff with Star just clicked when I was doing research for her name and design, it just suited her so well. I did have her surname written down wrong in my personal notes so I'm glad I didn't post her character sheet immediately lmao

Laddie: Nino HALILI DEL ROSARIO

Culture: Filipino Loose Pronunciation: Nee-no HA-LEE-LEE DAY ROSE-ARI-O Personal name: Nino, meaning "little boy" Surname: HALILI meaning "successor", DEL ROSARIO meaing "of the rosary" Notes: I went so back and forth on his surnames it's not even funny, but I think I'm happier with Laddie's surnames in comparison to Paul's. "Nino" felt really obvious and clicked really well just like Star's name did, though I did consider a few other names that I don't have written down anywhere. Nino was just superior because he's simply a little guy.

Michael: EMERSON Manh Tien

Culture: Vietnamese Loose Pronunciation: EMERSON Man Tee-en Surname: EMERSON, inherited from white father Middle name: Manh, meaning "first-born" Personal name: Tien, meaning "fairy, celestial being" Notes: I'll be honest, the main contibuting factor behind Michael's personal name was how he was almost named "Moonbeam" during his mom's hippie phase. I have this idea where their dad was white and insisted on using exclusively their English names, and Michael wouldn't initially like his personal name because it feels girly to him anyway, but he'd grow to cherish his name and culture after meeting the lost boys <3

Sam: EMERSON Trong Binh

Culture: Vietnamese Loose Pronunciation: EMERSON Ch-ung Bin Surname: EMERSON, inherited by white father Middle name: Trong, meaning "second-born" Personal name: Binh, meaning "peaceful" Notes: I think overall for the Emerson family I was most concerned with meanings, which wasn't necessarily the case for the boys. Sam is the most peaceful in the sense that he discouraged the Frog brothers from killing Marko, even though he failed. Like Michael, I think his personal name is something that he grows into when he starts making friends, but would use his English name when first coming to Santa Carla.

Lucy: VINH Lan Huong

Culture: Vietnamese Loose Pronunciation: VIN Surname: VINH, meaning "glory" Middle name: Lan, meaning "orchid" Personal name: Huong, meaning "pink rose" Notes: Naming Lucy after flowers just felt right. Let it be known that I have serious beef with hippies, but I feel like she still had a well-intentioned hippie phase and this just adds to it. In Vietnamese culture, women don't change their surnames after marriage (as far as I'm aware) which I think would be a contributing factor in her divorce with her white all-American husband.

Grandpa: VINH Mac Dieu

Culture: Vietnamese Loose Pronunciation: VIN Mac Dee-oo Surname: VINH, meaning "glory" Middle name: Mac, meaning "nothing, nonexistent" Personal name: Dieu, meaning "mysterious, subtle" Notes: Grandpa! Needed! A! Name! He doesn't have one in the original! I'm basically saying he's not subtle about his knowledge of vampires and he's not trying to be subtle, it's just that no one ever asked. I think I tried to pick older-sounding names for him but it's been a little while since I picked these and I don't remember if I'm honest.

Edgar: Kaeru Matsuo

Culture: Japanese Loose Pronunciation: Keh-roo Mat-soo-oh Surname: Kaeru, meaning "frog" Personal name: Matsuo, meaning "pine tree, life" Notes: I named the Frog brothers after the famous Japanese poet Matsuo Basho because their English names remind me of Edgar Allan Poe, so I thought it'd be kind of funny. Matsuo is the surname of the poet, but I felt that Matsuo suited Edgar more than Alan. The surname I picked for the Frogs was obvious, I don't think anything else other than some variation of "frog" would've worked.

Alan: Kaeru Basho

Culture: Japanese Loose Pronunciation: Keh-roo Ba-show Surname: Kaeru, meaning "frog" Personal name: Basho, meaning "banana tree" Notes: Alan got the pen name of Matsuo Basho, who also went by "Sobo" and "Tose". I debated on giving him Matsuo's true given name, which is Kinsaku meaning "to be happy" but Matsuo Basho is better known as Basho and it's much funnier for this very serious 15-16 year old to be named "banana tree".

Sorry if the formatting is weird, I'm trying to make it as reader friendly as possible on account of my own dyslexia. Please let me know if the blocks of text blend in with each other too much lmao

[eyesofshan-if]

"in this story it's hard to implement female characters who can contribute to the plot" i really don't understand why tho? don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to be rude nor am i trying to get you to make changes you don't want to make, and i absolutely don't think you had any malicious intentions, but this is an attitude i've seen from multiple IF authors and i just... don't understand it. even in your game, most male ROs could just as well be female and the story would still very much make sense. there would be changes, yes, especially since they do live in a patriarchal society, but it would absolutely be doable. so i don't understand why it was possible to come up with compelling roles and plotlines for 4 different male characters, but more than one female character was too hard.

as i said, i'm not implying you should flip your ROs genders, make more of them gender selectable (it's not even that good a solution when the RO in question was initially intended to be a man, in my opinion) or even add more ROs at all since there's already 6 of them and i understand the nightmare writing and coding more than that would be. i didn't come in your inbox to make any sort of demands at all, as i think you should absolutely write what you want and not make changes for other people, because that will only make the process of developing your game less enjoyable. but i did feel the need to comment on this, because i find it frustrating how widespread this kind of mindset is in the IF community and i think we should start challenging it a bit.

for what it's worth, even if i don't understand this particular choice you made, i really did enjoy your story and your writing, and i'm excited to meet the female RO and see what comes next. i thought the plot was interesting, the characters enjoyable, and the commander themself is a great main character. i hope this message didn't come off as rude or harsh, cause that really wasn't my intention, and i hope you have a good day!

answer under the cut because it's pretty long!!

don't worry either, i totally get where you're coming from!! the thing about this story is that it is very based on traditional east asian values, which means certain things such as there no being a standalone empress (which is why the emperor is unlikely to be female) and how there are no women in the army (which is why hansol won't be a female). since this part of the story focuses more on the commander's role in the army, which is more male dominated, it's hard to introduce the female characters now or have them contribute significantly to the plot - until later in the story when things become more political or tactical, which is when i'll introduce the female ROs!!

while i'm personally a big fan of significant female characters in stories, this specific story is meant to reflect those cultures, where women's positions in society were extremely restricted to the house or serve as maids in the palace. this struggle is something that is meant to be touched on for one of the future female characters, hence it would be out of place if everyone in prominent positions are female. i would also just like to say this thought of characters not contribute enough doesn't apply to just females. insu (the male RO) might also get axed as an RO because i might not be able to have him contribute enough to the plot.

but i do understand what you meant, and it's something i believe as well!! both female and male characters should be equally significant and have compelling storylines. however, in this story, this is the considerations i have gone through with considering the above. i hope this answer was satisfactory enough, or at the very least coherent. thank you for taking out the time to send this ask!!

[irithnova]

You're failing to understand that my post wasn't aimed at poc reclaiming certain fictional characters (I'll get onto why I still usually disagree with general racebending when it comes to nation anthropomorphism fandoms) but I was moreso talking about how it's an unfortunate reality in this fandom that racebent white characters are given more attention than actual non white characters - regardless of if they were made by poc in some sort of reclamation effort or not. You're failing to analyse why racebent white character's proximity to whiteness results in innate privilege over canonically/actual non white countries. I touched upon this in my original post when I wrote about how poc must be "sanitised"/ stripped from our histories, practices and languages in order for us to be palatable for a larger white audience. Hence why Arab Romano seems to be more popular with the fandom than actual Arabic countries.

I'm going to explain why I generally have an issue with racebending in hetalia/nation anthropomorphism fandoms now - even as a poc/mixed person myself.

We are talking about nation anthropomorphism - this isn't just any other random anime with random guys you can customise as you please. We are talking about real history, cultures, practices, languages, politics and experiences. This isn't the place to start pulling Latino Russias and Chinas out of our asses. It is completely losing track of the "personify nations" theme. There is a difference between having disagreements on, say, China's favourite dynasty and then straight up making China a completely different race. You are changing the very fabric of that nation.

Before anyone brings up the US - I'm not commenting on that as the US is a special case and I understand if first nation peoples want to reclaim him. That's their - call not mine (same applies to Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc). I am not speaking specifically about first nation peoples in and the topic of reclamation for first nation people was never a part of my original post. I do not disagree with it, it is not my place to disagree with it.

But please forgive me for personally not wanting the country who colonised my nation, installed a racial hierarchy there, and inspired Nazi Germany, to be represented by a poc.

I know I sound callous here, but racebent white characters ARE my competition. You are forcing white/western characters into non white spaces with a simple flick of a racebend and expecting us to welcome them with open arms. Be honest with me. How many notes does mixed/brown Alfred get over native American ocs?

England has floods of fans - and you know what, good for him. But racebending England - an already wildly popular European country with a personality and character that's been established for years and is continuing to develop in canon and fanon into being Black or East Asian etc, is NOT comparable to someone who put the blood, sweat and tears into researching wildly unpopular non white characters/countries with barely any character or interest/attention in both canon and fanon.

Again. How much attention does Arab Romano get over Egypt? And then explain how racebent white characters aren't my competition. Regardless of if a poc made it. Why is the fandom more interested in race bent non white characters rather than canon non white characters? This is what I was getting at in my original post.

Also I'm primarily responding to @gaymano-vargas in this reply but I am not talking about cosplayers, I did not touch upon cosplayers at all throughout my entire post and I specifically did not talk about cosplayers for a reason. I thought this would be obvious but cosplayers who are not white who cosplay white characters are NOT racebending and I never once said that I believe so - that is literally just their skin tone and they have no control over that, no sane person is expecting them to lighten their skin for a cosplay (saying this as I understand poc cosplayers get a lot of flack, especially when they cosplay white characters.)

I agree, you'd have to be a real racist if you think that characters should be gatekept in cosplay based on skin tone or ethnicity alone. That was never asserted nor is it relevant to the initial discussion.

Of course, I acknowledge that poc facing backlash for expressing their identity is a reality. However, it seems widely understood that this is a common occurrence within fandom spaces. Shifting the conversation to this topic honestly feels like a derailment - especially considering you're bringing up points I never even made in my original post and THEN using that point to accuse me of racism  (bringing up cosplayers).

Also this is coming off as "why are you criticising x problem when you should be criticising bigger y problem" again this feels like a derailment because one is able to focus on multiple issues at once and I have also made numerous posts thought my time being active in the fandom about the racism and peoples aversion to poc representation. I've gotten blocked by one of the biggest hetalia accounts on this platform (actually, MULTIPLE big hetalia accounts) for questioning why they were excluding poc or being downright racist. I have faced egregious racism from white hetalia fans and doxxing threats for being vocal about their racism. I have taken issue with the fandom at large. Again and again and again. This isn't just senseless, butthurt complaining and I don't appreciate the racism accusation. I don't take either of your comments in good faith.

I believe that this rebuttal is centring the white gaze. Rather than having an internal discussion about the ethical aspects of racebending and national personifications, it seems the conversation is regressing to the point of "Why are you accusing poc of racebending their white faves when cosplaying and pointing the finger at poc for representing themselves through white canon characters why won't you let them have fun and focus on bigger issues." I was clearly talking about the ethics of racebending in a nation anthropomorphism fandom and the problems with racebent non white characters garnering more attention that actual non white characters and the implications behind that rather than pointing an angry finger at poc because I want to keep the white characters white simply for the sake of it and/or I don't want poc to have fun.

Also @michichi69 I know you left this in the tags but. Seriously you're levelling a whole load of accusations at me publicly.

I am not talking about first nation peoples and their decisions to reclaim. I never touched upon that. I need to reiterate again - my original post was not pointing an angry finger at poc for representing themselves through white canon characters, I wanted to bring attention as to why racebent characters garner more attention that canonical non white characters.

When have I ever said that all poc characters need a preface before any content of them about white supremacy?? Where are you even getting this from?? I don't even do that with my own content??

I think it's so funny how people in this fandom would rather racebend white nations into being non white instead of going ahead and giving rep to the PLETHORA of actual non white countries like y'all see how fucking stupid and racist you look right ?

You're more comfortable with white nations (who are often imperial) being portrayed as non white rather than real non white countries and will reblog like. Racebent Romano art but someone posts something of India or Iran and suddenly there's crickets lol you guys racialise the fuck out of non white country art in this fandom but will reblog racebent white nation art and we all know why.

It's because you cannot stomach authentic non white cultures so you have to completely divorce us from our histories, practices and languages in order for us to be palatable and blorbo enough for you. We have to be sanitised from everything that makes us "weird" and "different" before you guys will even give us a chance and then you end up with a supposed anthropomorphised nation oc who represents nothing but your inability to pay more than 5 minutes of attention on a country that is not white and call it a day.

[captnjacksparrow]

In modern aus people always portray the characters as white and American :/. In this one story i read they have white naruto and say sasuke looks "vaguely asian". Why use the word vaguely even. Sometimes the rest of the characters are white and sasuke's the only one who is Japanese. I would prefer modern aus based in Japan because their names aren't American at all. I always wonder why specifically America too. How would you deal with ethnicity if you wrote a modern story?

I wrote a post about 'Why I am not interested in FanFic' and hasn't posted yet... Because this 'Ethnicity' thing was also one of the reason but I was so conflicted about whether to include it.

Thanks to this Ask, I am not the only one.

[[Disclaimer: This post is not about bashing the Fic writers from the West. This is more about me, as a Reader, feeling extremely Disconnected because of the way Naruto and Sasuke were being characterized without having a single cultural reference to where they are from. The Author himself has said, “This is a Japanese Manga written for Japanese Readers...” Also, the manga was drenched with so many of their cultural references. And when I don’t find any of them in the Fics... that’s where it gets total awkward.]]

The thing is.. Male Friendships in Asian media always. like always have a nuance. Most of the times, the Characters involved don’t even talk about themselves ALL THE TIMES. They mostly talk about something else (like their life problems) and argue about that at a good length... Or even when they talk about themselves for the major part, there is always some conversational playfulness/sentimentality involved in it... (not always in a sexual way though). Chapter 698 says Hi. 

However, when you take a Western Gay movie, for ex... Broke back Mountain... Whenever they get together for every 3 or 4 years... They talk about their wives and mostly about themselves, they fight and then they go intimate... Even in some Lesbian movies, this is the same case... The amount of dialogue between 2 characters is veryyyyyy less... This is the same pattern I see in SNS fics as well... Like, they behave like American Characters.... 

That’s my whole problem. 

Where is the Real conversation, Damn it????

Let me just shamelessly pull out a scene from another Asian novel and show how conversation can be done between 2 characters... I changed the Original character names with Naruto and Sasuke... 

Imagine, Naruto and Sasuke were in a mission... They went to have a drink... But Sasuke is a bad drinker.. He can’t even consume more than 1 glass. But Naruto is a good one... And hence he wants to pull some pranks with Sasuke during this drunken conversation... [[Mind you... They are not in relationship, yet... And Sasuke was crazy drunk so he won’t speak much]]

And, Sasuke was so honest after he was drunk. His actions and comments were also… bolder! Since this was a rare occasion to see such an honest, open Sasuke, it would've been impossible for Naruto to treat him with respect and not play any tricks.

Naruto used his sleeves to wipe off the drops of water on Sasuke’s jaw and put his arms around him, "Sasuke. Now, are you going to do whatever I tell you to do?"

Sasuke, "Mnn." Naruto, "You'll answer whatever I ask you?" Naruto put one knee on the bed and smirked, "Okay. Let me ask you. Have you… secretly tasted the Wine that you hid in your room?" Sasuke, "No." Naruto, "Do you like Cats?" Sasuke, "Yes." Naruto, "Have you ever lied before?" Sasuke, "Yes." Naruto, "Have you ever liked anyone?" Sasuke, "Yes." All of Naruto’s questions were just for the sake of them, not that he really wanted to find out about Sasuke’s private matters. He simply wanted to know whether or not Sasuke would really answer whatever he asked. 

Naruto continued, "How about Sakura-chan?" A frown, "Hmph." Naruto, "How about Karin?" Indifference, "Huh." Naruto grinned and pointed at himself, "How about this one?" Sasuke, "Mine." "…" Sasuke stared at him, slowly and articulately stating, "Mine." Naruto suddenly understood. He took Kusanagi sword off his back, thinking to himself, When I pointed at myself, Sasuke probably thought that "this one" meant Kusanagi.

I adore this scene, tbh. [[Don’t tell me that you didn’t smile after reading this scene]]

Look how big the conversation goes and how Naruto was just being playful and wants to troll Sasuke. 

Even in Boruto movie, When Sasuke went to meet Naruto in the Hokage office, they were conversing about Boruto and having a decent Conversation. 

Or take that scene, where Naruto confessed under the Bridge... He was talking a lot... Before that we’ve never seen him talk much to Sasuke like that.

Or take that scene where Shikamaru went to Naruto’s house to knock some sense in him after Jiraiya’s death. 

This is what I call it as conversational nuance which I find consistently in most of the Asian media. I don’t see these types of conversation in fanfics at all. And even if they talk, they talk nothing other than how to Kiss, Hug and Segs. SMH.

I would prefer modern aus based in Japan because their names aren't American at all. I always wonder why specifically America too.

Well, Most of the Authors are from America... And that’s why I guess (???). My problem is not their ethnicity... It’s just that I can’t see Ennis or Jack conversing like how Naruto or Sasuke were conversing in the Above drunken scene. And somehow fic writers are not getting this nuance. That’s why Doujinshis have their characterization better. Because they are from Japan, China or Taiwan.

How would you deal with ethnicity if you wrote a modern story?

Simple. I would 

Watch Movies or TV series or Read other Mangas of the same Genre related to the Country where it was created or 

Read the Author’s notes that was written in the Back page of his manga or

Read their Fanfics/Doujinshis and see how they portray N and S in modern AU. Because they know better as to how to portray those characters with their own cultural reference.

By doing one/all of the above, You are Guaranteed to find some relation with the Original Material.

For Example,

This is Kishimoto’s notes from Naruto Manga. Chapter 67. 

He was talking about his very strict dad. LOL. And his generosity of his Friends. 

Didn’t I say the same thing that Asian Kids prefer being around their Friends and Siblings more than their Parents???? Here, Kishi was also doing the same. Knowing that his parents wont buy the stuff he wanted, his immediate resort is his Brother... And then his Friends.

What’s interesting to me is, Kishi is mentioning that the word “Game” should not be breathed in his House... Otherwise his father would start to lecture him to go study... Why am I not surprised???... LMAO... And I was like, “No way Kishi, my dude!!!”.

Because he literally emulated that attribute of his Dad and gave it to Mikoto and Fugaku. LOL...

“Home Work!”

Just like Kishi... Sasuke also wants to play... And Just like Kishi’s Dad, Mikoto is lecturing about Home Work... 

This Importance to Education is what I’ve been saying all along in the Fugaku Character analysis I’ve wrote sometime ago. 

And if you read their Doujinshis, you could find a lot of cultural references. There is this Doujin named, “Yotsudake” written in modern day. I swear, that’s one of the best fluff Modern AU doujin I’ve came across with tons of Cultural Reference. Yotsudake means A Classical dance from Okinawa (Japanese prefecture). 

Read the Doujin here and you’ll see what I mean and how this above picture relates to the Story. [[Arrrgh... Sasuke smiles a lot in this Doujin...]]

So, If I ever write a story by keeping the ethnicity factor in my mind... I would definitely do all of these I mentioned above like watching movies, Author notes, Read articles and make it faithful to the adaptation rather than whitewashing with my own cultural flavour with it. 

The Author literally said that, the Manga was bathed with Japanese Cultural references... Is it wrong of me to expect the same in Fics as well???

I am not accusing the other country fic writers in any way. It’s just that, if they can expend their energy into writing 50 chapter long fic about Naruto/Sasuke.. It would be nice if they could make it even better by introducing these cultural nuances. I mean nobody is asking them to Go to Japan and understand these things... It’s just that they need to put some extra effort to research within the available resources they have, is more than enough. Like for a start, How about making the Characters to talk more about anything other that segggssss... Is it so hard???

[channiechwn]

stray kids as cliche kdrama scenes 🧸💌

◡̈ warnings: super brief pork mention (as a dish)

◡̈ genre: fluff, established relationship for some members

— bang chan 🍑

piggy back scene

you and chan were walking back to the apartment you two shared after having a date night at a fancy restaurant

fancy restaurant = fancy clothing

hence the reason you were wearing 4 inch heels which were currently hurting your feet

chan decided to walk instead of driving as he felt that today was a beautiful night

not wanting to dampen his mood and agreeing that the weather was perfect, you obliged, not thinking about the consequences that came with it

soon, you started to limp. you thought about taking off your shoes and walk barefooted home but staring at the sharp rocks on the pavement, you decided against it

chan noticed your slowed actions and questioned your behaviour

“what happened? are you okay?” he asked, concerned

“my feet are killing me,” you replied softly

“why didn’t you tell me earlier? we could have taken the cab just now,” he said, looking around and noticing that we were in a secluded area with no vehicles

“let’s swap shoes then,” he commented

that sentenced caught you by surprise but desperate time calls for desperate measures so you quickly swapped shoes

you were now wearing chan’s sneakers while chan was wearing your 4 inch heels

you giggled at the sight of him strutting down the pathway

about 5 minutes later, chan started to groan in pain

“how do you even walk in these? let me just piggy back you home. why didn’t i think of this earier?” he winced

you two quickly swapped shoes again and you climbed onto his back

“full speed ahead!” you commanded, jokingly

that night, the neighbourhood was filled with laughs from you two as chan carried you all the way back home

— changbin🍑

the umbrella scene

it was currently pouring cats and dogs outside the cafe that you worked in

you didn’t have an umbrella so it’s either you walk home in the rain or you wait for the rain to stop

and of course you chose to wait for the rain to stop, not wanting to fall sick

you thought about calling your boyfriend, changbin to send you home but you didn’t want to bother him while he was at work

you have been waiting for almost an hour and the rain still has not made any signs that it will stop, or at least lessen

just as you were about to throw caution to the wind and just go for it, you saw a familiar figure approaching you

clad in his leather jacket with his signature prada umbrella in his hands, changbin jogged up to you

“sorry i took so long,” he said while panting slightly

“ah you didn’t have to do this really! i know you’re busy,” you replied, touched by his actions

“i wouldn’t be a good boyfriend then, would i?” he smiled, his eyes forming mini crescent moons

you guys walked hand in hand while changbin held the umbrella, sheltering the two of you

when you reached the apartment you two shared, you realised that half his body was completely drenched

“oh my goodness! why didn’t you say something just now? i would have moved!” you scolded softly

“shh don’t be mad okay? i just didn’t want you to get wet babe,” he replied, winking

you knew deep down that you could always count on changbin when things went awry

— minho🍑

acting like a tsundere

“what would you do without me? you can never take care of yourself properly!” minho huffed, sighing

he plated the stir fried pork and served it to you which you happily munched on

for my muslim readers, you can imagine other dishes <3 i chose pork because it is one of the most popular dishes in east asian cultures

“you can’t even eat properly,” he grumbled while wiping away a grain of rice from your cheek in which you sheepishly smiled in return

despite his annoyed exterior, he was secretly cooing at how adorable and happy you looked eating his cooked meals

“oh yeah! can you help me drop this off at the mail office later? i have afternoon classes so i don’t think i have enough time to do so,” you frowned

“no. do it yourself,” minho replied scoffing.

“fine,” you grumbled under your breath

later that day, after your classes, you quickly rushed back home to collect the parcel, in hopes of dropping it off at the mail office before it closed

however, when you reached home, you could not find the parcel anywhere despite searching high and low for it

“minho, have you seen my parcel?” you asked

he looked up from the book he was reading and pushed up his reading glasses

“i dropped it off already,” before returning back to his book

even though it may not seem like much to an average couple, your heart still pounded, touched by his efforts

“i knew it, you love me too much~” you teased

minho’s face turned beet red as he used his book to cover his burning face

however, actions like these never failed to make you flustered as well

— hyunjin🍑

wrist grabbing + jacket scene

school has finally ended and everyone was rushing out of their respective classrooms

as you were walking out of the classroom door, you felt a tap on your shoulder

you turned around and you were met your seat partner, jungwon, grinning at you

“hey do you wan’t to go to that new cafe that just opened with me? i heard it’s really good!” he asked, excitedly

as much as you wanted to accompany him, you were feeling rather unwell today as you had came down with a cold

“sorry i-” you replied but you were cut off by your own sneeze

upon hearing you sneeze, jungwon’s smile was replaced by a worried one as he quickly took out his sweater from his school bag

as you reached out to grab his sweater while thanking him, a hand shot up and grabbed your wrist

your eyes trailed to the owner of the hand and you made eye contact with your boyfriend, hyunjin

“ah you see, my y/n is sick so she can’t accompany you~ i’m suppose to take care of her like a good boyfriend”

hyunjin shrugged off his sweater and draped it over your shoulders, engulfing you in his warmth

jungwon took the hint and quickly left, apologising

“cmon, let’s get going! i made porridge for you!” hyunjin gave you his eyesmile while dragging you along, still holding your hand

just like that, you two left hand-in-hand to your house

— jisung🍑

tucking hair behind ear scene

it was currently 1am and you and your crush/bestfriend, jisung were out in your secret spot in the city, gazing at the beautiful night sky

just then, a huge gust of wind blew by, messing up your hair that you had spent hours on

jisung’s hair too, was messed up but it wasn’t a messy mob like yours. in fact, it looked kinda cute

“hahaha oh my god you look so stupid right now,” jisung laughed while pointing at the ‘bird’s nest’ on your hair

“as if yours looked any better,” you retorted back

lies. lies. lies. it was sexy.

jisung whipped out his phone and took a picture of your state, quickly setting it as his new lockscreen wallpaper before you could delete it

“here, let me fix it for you,” he said, reaching out to tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear

the way you could hear his breath indicated the close proximity you two were in

suddenly realising how close you two were, both of you flushed red

“thanks,” you said

jisung rubbed his neck with his hands awkwardly while averting his eyes, too embarrassed to make eye contact with you

feeling the need to just let out your feelings once and for all, you connected your lips with his

“i like you, dumbass,” you whispered

jisung’s eyes were wide open and his jaw went slack

noticing his reaction, you heart sank

bestfriends really can’t be something more huh? you thought

as you were about to apologise, you felt his hand touch your jaw, pulling your lips to his, connecting them

“i like you too dummy,” he finally answered

— felix🍑

sharing/feeding food scene(?)

your boyfriend, felix, has always been known for baking sweet treats

he would often bake brownies and pack them in a lunchbox for you and pass it to you when you guys are in school

during lunch, you guys sat in the benches of your school’s secluded garden to eat

“where’s my brownies?” you asked playfully

felix took 2 lunchboxes out of his small bag and passed 1 of them to you

“you should pack your own food you know? stop relying on me all the time!” felix replied with a mischievous glint in his eyes

“here eat this,” he said while feeding you his brownies

once the tasty sweetness melted in your mouth, you couldn’t help but moan at the taste, making felix proud of himself

noticing that you had a crumb on your face, felix giggled and reached out his hand to wipe the crumb away

as he did that action, his thumb accidentally brushed against your lip, making you flustered and turn red

when you looked at him, you realised that he too, had brownie crumbs on the corner of his mouth

you leant in, placing your lips on the corner of his mouth, catching him by surprise

“thank you for the brownies!” you grinned while giving him a small peck on the lips

moments like these were what you treasured in your high school life

— seungmin🍑

falling on seungmin + seungmin shielding you

being the school librarian’s assistant had its perks and disadvantages

perks was that you could see seungmin, the bookworm with glasses perched on his nose and face buried in books, every week

you had a major crush on him... afterall, who wouldn’t?

disadvantages were that you had to arrange heavy and thick stacks of books

today, you had to place books on the taller shelves, which meant standing on high ladders. it certainly does not help your fear of heights

sighing, you climbed the ladder, you legs wobbly

as you were about to finish putting the last few books up, you were startled by the presence of someone

“hey, do you know where i can find other books like this?” seungmin asked, holding up a book

caught off guard by your crush, you squeaked as you lost your footing, accidentally releasing the books

ah, this is it, you thought to yourself, preparing for your fall on the rough and hard carpeted ground

however, instead of falling to the ground, you landed on a firm chest, cushioning your fall

seungmin quickly flipped you over, caging your body, protecting you from the falling books while they landed on his back and head

“oww,” seungmin groaned, rubbing his head

“oh my god! i’m so sorry,” you got up, grabbing seungmin’s arm while leading him to one of the soft couches

“let me get the first aid kid, do you need ice? yeah you probably do. i’m so sorry please forgive me. it was an accident really! i promise it won’t happen again. let me-” you were cut off my seungmin’s finger touching your lips

“shhh i’m fine don’t worry,” seungmin promised

“sorry for scaring you like that,” he giggled

“no i’m really sorry! what can i do to make it up to you?” you apologised profusely

“if you insist... maybe treat me to coffee?” seungmin laughed

maybe this was a blessing in disguise afterall

— jeongin🍑

tying shoelace scene

crutches. your worst nightmare

if only you had thought about what was to come last week when you were having one of your ‘world tours’, prancing around your room and singing at the top of your lungs

since young, you have always been a clumsy person, always bumping into corners or stumping your toe into edges of desks

this injury was by far the worst as now, you had to be stuck in the thick and uncomfortable cast for 9 months

luckily, you had your boyfriend to assist you to classes

as you two were chatting halfway, you realised that the shoelace of your sneaker on your uninjured foot was untied

jeongin, being the observant person, noticed immediately and quickly kneeled down on his left knee

“don’t forget to tie a double knot next time,” he said while moving his fingers forming bunny ears with your shoelace

still in that position, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box

opening it, he revealed a small promise ring

giggling, he slipped it on your middle fingers and kissed your hand softly

“now, let’s get you to class,” he said while dusting his palms and intertwining your fingers with his

(a/n: thanks so much for reading! stay safe <3)

[summoner-chan]

Sorry, I guess I should have been more specific, I WAS talking about Darius lol. Aight then last two questions: Shiro and Durga.

And don't worry about the long winded responses, I love it when people feel comfortable enough talking about themselves, and I can, like, feel their excitement as I read. :)

I tend to worry about how much I talk since that experience with someone on discord (the same server as those two passive aggressive peeps) asked me to not to post a wall (what they meant is that not send a long ass one whole paragraph of words) because I was talking a long time to type and send-

Mind you, my phone was lagging at the time there was a lot of typos happening without my control so I had to retype them. I remember it being something they asked what's about that art I drew?

Other than that, they were pretty mean, maybe because they were part of the admin teams of the discord or they're just a natural born dick :/ and I mean by natural born dick when someone just said good criticism and everyone who's friend with that person just-

y'know bit his head off saying things like "lmaooo nobody needs that shit critism 🤪. Look at this guy shitting on (username) 😂😂" and there's them going all "I don't need your damn critism, I don't fucking care. I ask critism when I want to and I didn't ask for yours so you can stfu" like okay....no need to offended by that... And I found the critism on the spot though? I couldn't see your linework from all those shading-

Anyways, I'm being off topic so let's hop to the Housamo Ask Game!✨✨

[Shiro]

Favorite book or favourite book series? Oof, truth to be told, I'm more to a manga/comic book reader 😂😂 but I do enjoy reading books once awhile!! I only own two horror light novels which are in my native language so I'll try to translate their title??

The very first book I had was Kakak Kemboja (Kemboja in English is Frangipani) which translates to Big Sis Kemboja/Sister Kemboja (not in a Nun way-) and it was about a young boy meeting one of the tenants in the old apartment he lived in.

After losing his father and his house, he and his mother was forced out by the late father's mother and brother who planned to make their house into a homestay. This caused the young boy to stay at the apartment alone while his mother was working to bits but don't be sad, Big Sis will always be there for you

Spoiler, Big Sis is actually a ghost 👻

In Asian culture, Frangipani is one of the notorious for having it's scent being related to ghosts. If you're alone and you smell something fragrant, it's best to get out of there as fast as you can along with to not comment about the scent on the spot. I tend to smell fragrant things (doesn't help that I can see things ksjdjwkdje) even in my own house so I just- Yeet myself from that place

The second book is Somniphobia which is the Fear of Sleeping. It's about an office guy who likes to read scary and horror books at night until morning which causes him to get late for work most of the time. He was starting to get bored since he's already read all of the books he owned and nothing seems to catch his eye until his old friend suggested him a book, Somniphobia. Little did he know, the more he read the book, the less sleep he had. To be specific, he's started to develop Somniphobia himself. .

I only read light novels because once I bought the book, I immediately read it, to the point I finish it one day which just frustrates me to no end. I read super fast and everything just gets crammed to my head and I'd have to reread again to make things sensible kskskksksdj

I'm not a manic like my big sis though, she has two shelfs full from her novels. Her favorite book series is the Clockwork series, the Shadowhunter series which is written by Cassandra Clare and she almost have the full set now- 😂

[Durga]

To be sentimental or to not be sentimental-

Well then I'm going to the sentimental path skksksks

I'd actually want my family get back together again but you know, I can never take in another man who's not even my biological father to begin with after what I went through with said man

Having to cope without having a dad for 2 years now is sad but it happened, I know it's not my fault even though another part of me insists that I should have done better. I cry so easily whenever there's things that reminds me of him, I can't handle scenes where a man is lying in bed in the hospital, I can't handle seeing fathers being very affectionate to their children and I can't handle going to hospitals again

Thinking about marriages is what hits me the most because in my religion, the bride's father will be the officiant for the wedding, handing his daughter over to the groom's care so to say. That doesn't mean that I won't be able to get married without having a father to be the officiant but rather the officiant will be replaced by the bride's brother or uncle (brother of the father) and if there none, a court religious officer will be the officiant

It's just that thinking how lucky your eldest sister (from the first wife of my late dad + divorced) was able to have your late dad as the officiant of her wedding then when it was only you and your four sisters (two from the same mom while the other two is from the second wife), the chance was already gone. I won't see my late dad at my own wedding, only having it being replaced by my brother or uncle. It's not the same, it won't ever be the same because he's not there to see his grandkids or will he have the opportunity to be called grandpa

It just hurts knowing that he won't be there to be a part of the big parts of my life

But it happened and there's nothing I could change, I'm already quite happy and grateful to have mu late dad's wife and her family taking care of me and my two sisters despite there are times when we've fought but nonetheless grateful

I don't have my biological mom with me at the time since she was forced to stay in her own home country due to her citizenship, I dearly miss her but...due to personal reasons, I can't help but hate her from time to time. She does the wrong things and it scarred me badly, hence why I am unable to give her my blessings for her to get married

That's all I could say since if I were to say more, things would get pretty long and it's just me ranting out :P

Thank you for sending in ask in!! Feel free to send anymore like usual~

[richincolor]

SomeThoughts about Netflix's Shadow & Bone

This past Friday, the highly anticipated Shadow and Bone series premiered on Netflix and fans of the Grishaverse all over the world logged in to watch their favs come to life. There was much discussion of the inclusion of numerous characters from throughout the Grishaverse and that diversity was a focus in the casting of the show, especially Jessie Mei Li who is biracial, therefore changing the main character’s ethnicity to biracial Shu Han. Unfortunately, that decision didn’t pay off to well due to the showrunner’s handling of Alina’s ethnicity. Twitter blew up as people shared their hurt and warned others about what to expect.

I had planned to watch the show and happened to see one such warning before I watched the series so I was prepared. I watched a couple of episodes, then called it a night. The next morning I was unsettled and reached out to my fellow contributors here on Rich in Color. No one had seen it yet, but Jessica said she was planning to as well. As we chatted, I felt that our conversation should be shared with our readers, so Jessica and I decided to write our thoughts down and have a conversation after she watched a few episodes herself.

Oh, and spoilers abound!

First off, before we dive into this conversation: Have you read the Grishaverse series? How much did you know about the story going in?

K. Imani: As everyone knows I love fantasy so I’m open to reading all sorts of fantasy books. I read the Shadow & Bone series a few years ago and enjoyed it. When the Six of Crows duology came out I read those too and actually enjoyed those better than the original series. Why - more diversity? It also expanded the world and the different perspectives of “Grisha” like folk from other cultures. It was very clear from the writing that Bardugo realized her first series was very lacking in diversity and worked hard to change it. I actually re-read both series during quarantine, so I had a fair idea of what the Netflix series would be about.

Jessica: I’ve actually never read a single Grishaverse book! I know, shocking. I only knew two things about the series going into the show: 1) Six of Crows is a heist book? 2) Ben Barnes is a person who exists.

The cast announcement for any show is always so exciting, and Shadow and Bone was no different. How did you feel about the casting -- before and after you watched the show? What did you think was done well, and what did you think could be improved?

K. Imani: Before watching the show I was actually a bit confused about some of the casting choices. I didn’t understand why 3 of the main Six of Crows characters were in the show and I honestly did not make the connection to Alina and Mal being biracial. Knowing that the Grishaverse is “Russian-based” and knowing that some ethnic Mongolians are considered Russian I just found it cool that the show cast a person who didn’t fit a Russian stereotype. Oh boy was I way off! Overall I was pleased with the casting and think all the actors did a great job. I liked the few changes they did make with casting actors of colors for other roles to round out the diversity of the world.

Bringing it back to Mal, I was confused as to if he was supposed to be coded as biracial. I missed the reference in the show, but I did read somewhere that he was supposed to be as well and that is what bonded him to Alina. If that’s the case, then how come Alina was the only person to experience racism? That thought continues to sit on my heart because it shows that the writers did not really think through how they wanted to express racism and included it for the wrong reasons.

Jessica: My reaction was basically, “I’m happy that other people seem happy!” since again, I had no context for the show. Casting on Netflix shows often seems to be a case of “cool, this is some exciting casting… but definitely could be better and even more intentional.”

K. Imani: “More intentional” That is the word right there! Making a story more diverse is wonderful and fully reflects the world we live in, however if you just randomly do it without thinking it through it comes off as insensitive. I know Leigh Bardugo used this show as an opportunity to make her story better (and I do not begrudge her of that fact) but when one doesn’t think it through, the criticism that is being expressed is a direct result.

Jessica: Sidenote -- I ended up watching a booktube video titled “Darker Jesper, Fat Nina, Shadow and Bone Casting Thoughts” on booktube channel Chronicles of Noria about the casting. Highly recommend checking it out. I also recommend this profile on Jessie Mei Li, who talks about being gender nonconforming.

Did any changes in the Netflix adaptation stick out to you? Were there changes you liked or disliked?

K. Imani: My favorite part of the adaptation is how well the show runners included the Six of Crows characters into the narrative. The storyline completely worked for me and connected the two stories together. I really enjoyed the Arken storyline (and the character tbh) as it was used to flesh out the world of the Grishaverse, which made the series much more interesting. I also liked the change of making Ivan and Fedyor a couple instead of just Darkling’s henchmen as it humanized them and actually made me like Ivan because they were so cute together. Though how that will come into play after the events of Episode 8 will be interesting. I’m a sucker for the Enemies to Lover trope so I loved that Nina’s & Matthia’s story of how they came together was included here. In either Six of Crows or Crooked Kingdom (I don’t remember), it was told as a flashback, but I loved that it was moved here as their “origin story”, so to speak, and how it connects to the events of the Alina timeline.

What I didn’t like...the casual racism. It really bothered me and left me sad the next morning. For example, a certain poster shown in the first episode had me physically cringe and I was upset that 1)  the production designers even created it and 2) no one, at no point, said that was a bad idea? Come on! It was horrible to see and I can imagine the hurt an AAPI would experience seeing that. And then, it got worse. Racial slurs thrown around a couple of times in the first couple of episodes to show that Alina is an outsider. They were jarring and took me out of the narrative. Having read the books I knew there was tension between the Ravkans and Shu Han, so I could understand what the show runners were trying to do, but it was actually never explained in show, hence making the racism feel random and just there for shock value.

Jessica: I saw tweets going around alluding to the racism Alina (and other characters to a less frequent extent) faced, so I braced myself for it. I’m only a few episodes in, and the instances so far were brief… but it just didn’t feel right. The foundation for this portrayal of racism wasn’t laid properly. And if the work of laying the foundation and really digging into what it means for the overall worldbuilding doesn’t happen… then why include it at all? Especially if it might be painful for certain viewers? I’m sure harm wasn’t the intent, but that’s the impact. Why not leave it out and let the show be escapism?

K. Imani: Jessica, the eyes comment took me out, not gonna lie. I audibly screamed. Anyone who has experienced a racist comment based on their looks felt that in their gut which is horrible when watching a show for escapism.

Jessica: Yeah, the eyes and rice-eater comments were especially frustrating. On top of it being a reminder of the racism Asians experience daily… it doesn’t make much sense. Like, canonically, do people in Ravka not eat rice? An American’s conception of racism isn’t necessarily going to make sense in a (Imperial Russia-inspired) fantasy world. But maybe I’m missing something since I didn’t read the original books.

And the eyes comment… whoof. When I was a kid, other kids would make fun of my eyes and ask me to, like, count seagulls because surely, I couldn’t see out of my eyes… And the other kids were also Asian! Internalized racism is so real. It’s disappointing that Shadow and Bone would include this experience as, I don’t know, discrimination flavor text. Surely there were better ways to portray discrimination that made sense within the Grishaverse…

Ellen Oh really said it so well: “If a writer is going to show racism against Asians, it's important to balance it with the beauty of all that makes us Asian also.” Where is the balance? Where is the nuance? Even if Alina’s Shu Han mother isn’t alive, couldn’t Alina have had a treasured Shu Han pendant? Just spitballing here. There were so many possibilities.

K. Imani: Exactly. I agree with Ellen and unfortunately there is no balance. That’s what makes it so hurtful. The focus is on how bad it is that she’s biracial and how bad the Shu Hans are for no specific reason. Because Alina is an orphan and grew up in Ravka, she unfortunately has no connection to Shu Han culture (or at least what is shown on screen) so all that she identifies as is Ravkan who just happens to look like a Shu Han person, but she doesn’t exhibit any pride in being Shu Han. Her ethnicity is just another obstacle to overcome which is all the more cringeworthy and why having Alina be biracial just to be biracial without thinking it through ended up being so problematic. Having her be biracial and using casual racism as an “obstacle” that she has to overcome is such a shallow interpretation of racism and shows the writers didn’t do the work to really think about the why the racism exists.

In addition to talking about what was done well and what went wrong or felt off about certain representation, it’s important to look at the “how.” How did this happen?

Jessica: I read on Twitter that one of the show writers is Korean and biracial -- which is awesome! I was really heartened to hear that. But at the same time, this highlights how important it is to have multiple marginalized voices in the room who can speak with some level of expertise. I don’t know the decision-making process that went into including this sort of surface-level, simplistic version of real world racism, but I wonder if anyone, at any point, said “is there a more nuanced and original way to portray this?” or “how will this affect Asian viewers?” Did someone bring it up, and they were overruled? What happened?

This absolutely isn’t a judgment on the Asian writers or staff on the show. When I’ve done collaborative writing, there were times I caught an issue and said “we need to be more sensitive about this” -- and there were other times when my teammates pointed out something I didn’t notice. It happens! That’s why it’s so important to have multiple marginalized perspectives when creating something -- especially when it’s a work as impactful and far-reaching as a Netflix show. Placing the burden of complex, nuanced representation on one, or a scant handful, of marginalized creators is just not going to work… and it’s not fair to the creators, either.

Frankly, this is a problem in so many industries -- film, publishing, games... there are so many “diverse” shows, games, etc with all-white or majority white teams. Good, nuanced representation can only happen when BIPOC / marginalized creators are the majority and have power behind-the-scenes. (This is why I’m really excited to watch the show Rutherford Falls -- half the writers room are Indigenous writers, as is the co-creator!)

K. Imani: Exactly! It’s great that one of the writers is biracial and Korean, but if she’s the only one how much input did she really have? I’m by no means knocking her experience but, say for example, that particular poster in the first episode. No one else behind the scenes found it problematic? There are many steps to a production process and that poster, if there had been more diverse voices present on the production staff instead of just 1 writer, would have been flagged as a huge problem and redone. The poster was supposed to be a “short cut” to show Ravkan/Shu Han tension but instead it came off as so profoundly racist and unnecessary. There are many other non-racist ways to explore the tensions between the two countries that could have been explored instead of just jumping to racism. And...as someone on Twitter pointed out, we never see the tension between the Ravkans and the Shu Han, but we openly see fighting between the Ravkans and the Fjierdans, so why were they not vilified to the same extent?

Jessica: Right. I’m definitely not saying racism can’t be portrayed in fantasy ever. But if you’re going to do it, make it make sense within the world. Don’t just use it as shorthand for “this character is Other.” I mean, experiencing racism isn’t what makes me Asian…

K. Imani: Boom! I’m going to repeat that for the people in the back...experiencing racism is not what makes a person Asian or Black, and if you are going to have racism in a work of art, be sure to provide balance to show all the other aspects of a person of color’s life.

Since we’re talking creators behind-the-scenes… which YA fantasy books by Asian authors do you think would make great Netflix shows or movies?

Jessica: I’ve got a list about a mile long, but I’ve cut it down to my top four:

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

You’re welcome, Netflix execs who are totally reading this blog. Hop to it!

K. Imani: I second the Tiger at Midnight series! I loved the first two books and can’t wait for the conclusion in June. While not YA, the City of Brass series would make an excellent Netflix series. Anything Maurene Goo writes would be fun rom-coms (because we need those too!).

Jessica: I mean, with To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before complete… Netflix clearly needs to start adapting Maurene Goo’s books.

K. Imani: Yes, the people demand it! I don’t care which book, just grab one of them and get the production started.

On a final note, I do want to say that despite the criticism the show rightly deserves, there was much about the show that was enjoyable. The storytelling was strong and moved at a good pace, the costuming was on point, special effects worked seamlessly into the narrative, and even small touches such as how the Grishas used their small science was visually interesting. Book adaptations are always hard to pull off well and the Shadow and Bone production team did a good job overall. Their intention towards adding more diversity is a step in the right direction, but just didn’t do enough. Let’s hope they learn from their mistakes and improve for season 2.

[seirity]

Part 3: The aftermath

I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long write this post. Originally, I was just going to write this post about the aftermath and then another one regarding Taichi’s character development, but in the end, after much deliberation, I decided to combine the two posts into one. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

This is the third part of my post regarding episode 23 of Chihayafuru 3. If you would like to read the first two parts of this series, you can find them here and here.

So, it’s been at least a few days since Taichi’s confession and there’s clearly some tension between the two. We aren’t explicitly told how much time has passed exactly, but it seems at least five days have passed based off of the number of times their clothes have changed. It’s surprisingly how no one has made a comment about it, since Chihaya and Taichi are clearly not talking to each other.

It’s interesting to see how Suetsugu-sensei makes this evident by covering both Chihaya and Taichi’s eyes.

Suetsugu-sensei has also done this before in episode 21 when Chihaya was trying to figure out why Taichi always has to do things by himself.

I’ve noticed it before, but there is such a clear focus on eyes in Chihayafuru. Suetsugu-sensei uses them for a variety of purposes. She uses them to inform us when Chihaya is serious about her match and is going to play without holding back. She also uses them to tell when there’s going to be a change of pace within a match or when Chihaya is having pivotal moments during her self-reflections. ��

When she realizes she’ll have to figure out why Taichi does what he does after the tournament:

When she wonders whether or not this will be the start of something new for herself after witnessing Shinobu-chan fall apart emotionally only to pick herself up again, Harada-sensei’s passion, Suou-san’s strength, Arata’s determination, and Taichi throwing down the gauntlet:

When she realizes Taichi had created a placement just to play against her:

When she realizes that Taichi loved her all this time:

These are just a few examples that come to mind when I think of Suetsugu-sensei’s inclination of focusing on eyes to get the audience to focus on certain key pivotal moments or emotions the characters are feeling at that point in time.

It’s so iconic that even the live-action uses this framing technique.

But I digress.

It’s not until the start of the new year that something actually happens: Taichi quits the karuta club.

Only Nikuman-kun and Tsukue-kun are aware that this is going to happen. None of the girls in the club know. Funny enough, it’s Chihaya who realizes something is amiss when Taichi is no where to be seen before it’s her turn to introduce the karuta club.

Interesting, huh?

It’s only when Miyauchi-sensei comes to make a revision to Chihaya’s script that all the girls realize what has happened.

The framing used here is beautiful and once again Chihaya’s eye is visible.

The sound effects in this particular scene gave me the chills. I loved how the fact that Madhouse suddenly made the introductions from the other clubs and the accompanying applause audible. I could literally feel my heart drop during this scene.

I also liked how they added an animation to make the image drop, since you could also visually see the moment when Chihaya’s heart just drops.

While this particular scene isn’t in the actual manga, I feel like this addition definitely had an impact. It’s almost as if you can see the wheels turning in Chihaya’s mind as she’s processing this sudden change.

Once again, eyes anyone?

It’s only after she’s vocalized how many members are in the club that she’s finally processed what has happened. The audience can feel time stop and my heart just breaks. I felt myself tearing up as tears began to well up in Chihaya’s eyes.

As tragic as this scene is, it is also done really well. Madhouse timed everything perfectly. From the moment where she stops to the poignant climax the soundtrack comes to when tears well up in Chihaya’s eyes, and even when she finally drops the microphone. The animation for this scene is amazing, and even though my heart breaks, it’s still one of my favorite scenes in this episode because of how well it was executed.

Chihaya rushes off to catch up to Taichi as he leaves school and tells him that she doesn’t want him to quit the club. She’s desperate and completely distraught over the fact that he’s quitting the club. She can’t even comprehend him not being a part of the club anymore.

Chihaya’s reaction to the news is not a surprise when we consider how selfish and self-centered she can be. What’s different here is the desperation you can hear in her voice and the way she basically throws herself at him to make him stop walking away.

Now we’ve reached the second most controversial part of this episode: the kiss.

The scene is so powerful all on it’s own that they simply chose to have nothing in the background, except for Chihaya’s crying. It’s only when Taichi takes a hold of her sleeve and brings her face closer to him that you hear a chime-like sound effect, almost like an eureka moment of sorts. The only difference is this time Chihaya is actually realizing how Taichi is not as calm as he has seemed to be since his confession.

I love the use of silence here and to be honest simplicity is best in these kinds of situations.

As controversial as this scene is, I think the fact that Taichi starts to kiss her, but stops himself from completely doing so is extremely significant.

While on one hand, Chihaya did technically earn a kiss as a prize for winning the tournament on Taichi’s birthday, I’m sure this wasn’t really what she had in mind when this happened.

Eyes!

As funny and ironic as this may seem, I digress.

For me, this kiss is NOT something that Taichi TRIES to force on Chihaya, but something that happened in the spur of the moment. He’s at the end of his rope and seeing Chihaya absolutely devastated because of him is something that’s never happened.

From Taichi’s point of view, it only looks like Arata has the power to sway Chihaya’s heart or to have an impact on her. Taichi always thinks he is insignificant and that she will be fine without him.

There’s only so much someone can take before they reach their limit and realize that they need to just focus on themselves. It’s why he asks Chihaya this particular question:

Taichi is only human. He can only take so much and it hurts for him to be near her so shortly after his confession.

As conflicted as he may feel, Taichi’s eyes here are animated in such a manner where you can feel the intensity of his gaze. His eyes appear to be burning here with how intense his feelings are and the audience is naturally drawn to them.

Other than being something that he did in the spur of the moment, a part of me also feels like Taichi almost kissed her to get Chihaya to actually realize what him loving her means. Or in other words: to make her realize that even though he is a gentleman, he is STILL a man. In general, Chihaya has little to no qualms about invading someone’s personal space. In Taichi’s case, she has no concept of what personal space is for him, especially since they are childhood friends. As a result, I feel like the kiss is his self-control finally breaking and he suddenly has the urge to kiss her because she is so close to him. However, Taichi’s resolve returns before he can completely kiss her, hence why he stops midway. He stops because he knows it’s wrong and that once he crosses that line, he can never go back. It’s the point of no return.

Once again his eyes are covered and the audience is unable to see his true emotions.

The inner-turmoil that he feels is apparent here by how he clenches Chihaya’s shoulder, but suddenly let’s go of her.

And tells her that all 100 cards are completely pitch black to him.

These screen shots don’t do this scene justice, but I love how the flashbacks that are used in the background are ALL crucial moments of Taichi’s life where karuta was involved.

By saying the cards are completely pitch black to him, Suetsugu-sensei is letting the audience know how devastated Taichi is after confessing to Chihaya.

In English, we often say the world looks a little brighter when you’re in love. In Japanese culture, there is a similar saying that can literally be translated along the lines of “adding color to one’s world.” I can’t remember where I’ve read this, but I did see it somewhere that in Asian culture “dyeing/adding color” to someone else’s or one’s world also has a sexual connotation. For me, this makes a lot of sense since I always hear lines like 「世界に色が付く」 (literally: to add color to the world) or  「貴方が私の心を朝焼けに染めた」 (You’ve dyed my heart with morning glow/You’ve dyed my heart red like the sky as the sun rises) in Japanese love songs whether they’re happy or sad ones.  As a result, no matter what culture you come from, the fact that love is often associated with colors is universal.

Thus, Taichi saying the cards are completely pitch black to him now is the equivalent of saying he feels like he’s lost the one thing that played a key role behind his motivation to play karuta: his love for Chihaya.

This isn’t to say that he doesn’t love her anymore, but more the fact that his heart is broken, which makes it feel as if his love for her is completely gone.

Notice that I’m NOT saying his love for Chihaya was the sole reason why he plays/played karuta. While Chihaya was definitely the reason why Taichi started and was one of the reasons as to why he worked so hard at karuta, she is not the sole reason why he played.

At this point in time, he just doesn’t know it.

DISCLAIMER: this includes spoilers for those who only watch the anime, so please proceed at your own risk.

There are scenes in the manga that allude to how Taichi has come to enjoy playing karuta over the years. Despite the fact that all 100 cards look completely pitch black to him, he continues to play with Suou-san after quitting the club. If his sole motivation to play karuta was Chihaya, then why play karuta without her at all? He has to enjoy playing it on some level, even if he himself doesn’t realize it or is in complete denial.

Yes, I know there is a huge scene where Sudou essentially calls Taichi out on the fact that Taichi always looks like he’s ready to throw in the towel and quit playing karuta forever, but then why continue to try to get better after leaving the club?

The answer lies in a scene that happens long before Taichi has that match with Sudou at the Queen/Meijin qualifying matches of Taichi’s senior year. This particular scene is when Suou-san tells Taichi that it was admirable how Taichi continued to play karuta and tried so hard at it, despite not liking it. That he loved those who played karuta so much that he continued to play, while essentially sacrificing his own happiness and enduring such hardships for their sake. Taichi himself even acknowledges the fact that he doesn’t like karuta, but could never say that because he wouldn’t be able to stay by their side anymore. Instead of just leaving things as they are and essentially admitting that Harada-sensei’s words and the days he spent with the Mizusawa karuta club turned into a curse, he refuses to continue believing that everything was for naught. For me, this is the moment where Taichi starts playing karuta, not for Chihaya or for all the people he loves, but honestly for himself. It’s unclear what actually happens after this sudden realization, but I have a feeling he runs after and catches up with Suou-san. 

But, I digress.

END SPOILERS

Anyways, the symbolism here is just beautiful.

As Chihaya realizes what Taichi is truly saying, her eyes widen and the second half of poem #46 flashes across the screen.

‘Where, over the deep of love, The end lies, I do not know “

行く方もしらぬ 恋の道かな

This scene isn’t in the manga, but I love how the animators did this since it just reiterates what happened: Despite not knowing where this love would lead him, Taichi look the chance and told her how he felt anyways.

Episode 23 ends with this haunting scene: Taichi walking away from Chihaya as she stands there in complete shock in the background while the black cards flutter in the foreground.

To be honest, I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for Taichi to force himself to stay in the club until the start of the new school year. It’s tortuous: Wanting to be near here because he’s in love with her, but at the same time wanting to run away from her because it’s a reminder of what happened/what he thinks he’s lost.

Yet, it’s almost as if him not being first in his class was the excuse he needed to quit the club and end this long, endless cycle of suffering. My heart bleeds for him. He put himself out there to tell Chihaya how he felt, even when he wasn’t really sure how it would turn out.

Confessing to Chihaya is very significant to Taichi’s character for two reasons. The first is by doing so, he is no longer a coward. He’s put his feelings out there and he’s stopped taking the easy way out. It’s easier for him to be a coward and simply maintain the status quo by not confessing to Chihaya. Not telling her how he feels would allow him to stay by her side, but he would be forever making himself the martyr. He would never truly be able to be happy, especially if she ends up with Arata because he never took a chance to see what would happen if he told her how he felt.

It’s only with Sumire’s confession and her plead for Taichi to tell Chihaya how he feels that Taichi is finally able to take that leap of faith and muster up the courage to finally do it.

However, by confessing to her, he’s made the declaration that he doesn’t want to be a coward and take the easy way out, which is to simply maintain the status quo.  He confessed to Chihaya because it was something that he had to do in order to become someone who wasn’t a coward.

"It doesn’t matter how this looks to other people. If this is something that you got to do, then you do it." (Geraldine Hughes)

There are people who would argue that Taichi confessing to Chihaya now is simply because he’s being selfish and that he’s only doing it because he doesn’t want to stay her friend. It is really selfish if we are simply doing something because we don’t want to live with regret of what could have been if we had done what we wanted to do? Perhaps it is on some level, but haven’t we all felt this way before? If you must condemn Taichi for confessing to Chihaya because of this, then you too must face the same fate for doing something that you want to do because you didn’t want to live with regrets for the rest of your life.

Honestly, this same logic can be applied to Arata’s confession in the sense that wanting Chihaya to see him as something more than a friend is also selfish. Just the act of confessing your feelings and watching someone else to see you as more than a friend is fundamentally selfish on some level.

The second reason is that by confessing to Chihaya, Taichi is now living for himself. This sounds very similar to the first point I’ve made, but there is a very subtle, but crucial difference: he’s no longer putting his needs on the back burner and he’s prioritizing himself over others, especially Chihaya. This is also why it makes sense for him to leave the club and to focus on his studies. He has to start thinking about his own future and needs to stop focusing on Chihaya. Not to mention the fact that seeing her right now is completely painful for him. Up to this point, Taichi has managed to flawlessly maintain his grades, support the Mizusawa karuta club, and be there for Chihaya in whatever capacity she needed him to be.

I will probably get around to doing a post regarding Taichihaya in the most recent chapters of the manga. There’s still quite a bit I wanted to say, but I feel this is a good place to end things.

Anyways, that was an extremely long post. I hope it all made sense! Thank you to everyone who have read this entire series of posts! As always, please let me know your thoughts!

[hopeuranus]

Dance Analysis of Chicken Noodle Soup by J-Hope ft. Becky G

J-Hope is not only an incredible dancer but also a cultural preacher of street dance.

To people who are keen on hip-hop, Chicken Noodle Soup, a song made by DJ Webster and Young B, is no way to be unfamiliar. CNS was such a prevailing song at the very first beginning that it meant a lot to hip-hop enthusiasts. This song was even regarded as the ‘soul’ by these people. J-Hope also mentioned in his V-live on September 27th, 2019, that he began his first dance lesson with this song. That’s why he chose to rearrange it, which is of great importance to him, and paid tribute to the original version of Chicken Noodle Soup.

At the start of Chicken Noodle Soup’s music video, what the four dancers danced to is part of the primary choreography in the original song. J-Hope’s dance move, which uses both his elbows to flap inward, stems from the choreography of the original song, known as ‘the chicken dance’. Same thing applies to the most classic actions of flapping wings like a chicken in the chorus. When the original song came out, these dance moves successfully owned a phenomenal popularity among teenagers who enjoyed dancing. It was just catching on like the previously big-time dance movements such as ‘Gangnam Style’, ‘Coincidence’ and ‘hammer dance’. Movements which went viral on the Internet represent not only the trends back then but also the profound cultural background of a period of time.

Not all dance lovers spend time learning what dancing really means before they start their lessons. From my perspective, rather than merely showing the moves, we should also know where the dance originates from as well as its cultural connotations, which can help us better understand and demonstrate the dance style. It’s obvious that J-Hope’s dance is far from being a superficial imitation but he has attentively studied its culture and history behind the scenes.

The details in the music video show that J-Hope knows a lot about hip-hop culture.

One of the most indispensable parts in the development of the US hip-hop culture is to remould vintage cars into Lowrider cars. When people were fond of remoulding cars in quest of their high horsepower and accelerating speed, they would lower the chassis of the vehicle, write graffiti on the car, install a hydraulic system on the chassis and suspend the vehicle so that it could bounce up and down, as if the car got a chance to “dance” on the road freely. In this way, Lowrider Car gradually became an integral part of the hip-hop culture, like a big toy for hip-hop lovers. J-Hope put Lowrider cars into his music video and danced in front of them with dancers, as if he was holding a grand party which was established on hip-hop culture.

Someone trenchantly pointed out in the comment section of a reaction video, “None of you understands the real meanings behind this song, nor do you have any idea of its origin. The plummeted truck and the cars are all parts of a bygone history.” During the 1970s and 80s, Bronx borough of New York City was agonized by poverty and ghettos. Arson crimes frequented the neighborhood. Its crime rate topped the country. But then, the rise of hip-hop culture changed the neighborhood and reduced illegal actions, leading to an overall movement carried out by the government to promote hip-hop to the general public. The emergence and development of hip-hop culture has since then brought far-reaching influence all over the world.

If an artist failed to show his understanding on hip-hop culture in his music and dance but only added hip-hop elements like Lowrider car or dreadlocks for the sake of face value, it certainly could not gain hip hop lovers’ appreciation. In stead, it may even offend them. Nonetheless, J-Hope poured his wholehearted passion of hip-hop culture into his music video, and thus had his own way to make a nod to it.

Another example is “Show Me Your Bba Sae” which J-Hope danced to in the Weekly Idol variety show. Though he deliberately did it in an amusing and comical way, he was actually performing waacking dance. Waacking originated in gar bars, and was used as a vehicle by the LGBTQ community for self-expression and resistance against discrimination and marginalization toward queer people. Therefore, waacking adopts very striking and often flamboyant moves. J-hope embraces dances of all origins without any bias and stereotype. In his studies of dancing, he embodies an inclusive mindset which is common among people who appreciate and study hip-hop culture. On top of that, he also genuinely showed his own understanding of waacking dance by pulling off its expressive and outgoing attitude with his body movement and facial expression. Of course, this discussion deserves another essay to articulate in depth, but we have to regretfully stop here.

Hip-hop culture originated from four elements: DJ, MC, B-boy and graffiti. The hip-hop culture and its subsequent different types of dance are derived from these four elements. The headstream of street dance was party dance in African-American communities in the 1960s. This kind of party dance incorporated rough and vigorous African dance, free and elegant Salsa dance, humorous tap dance, dynamic Jazz Dance and Chinese Kung Fu, as well as other dance elements and moves. These various dance and elements in turn developed into different dance types in hip-hop culture.

Hence, both hip-hop culture and street dance have a strong sense of inclusiveness and that’s exactly what J-Hope’s Chicken Noodle Soup represents. Chicken Noodle Soup used to be the signature dance of black people, who are the owners of hip-hop culture, but now it’s performed by an Asian dancer. Dancers of all ethnicities from The Lab group were also invited to take part in the shooting of this music video. J-Hope used his music and dance to break the barriers of language and races, cheering up hip-hop enthusiasts all around the world with his masterpiece. That’s what Elite Force, the crew which initiated hip-hop culture, wanted to see. True solidarity of humanity comes at the premise of goodwill and mutual respect among people.

It is worth mentioning that in 2013 J-Hope had written three articles titled “Street Dance Review” in the BTS official blog even before his debut. In those posts, he vividly illustrated the development and definitions of Popping, Locking and Breaking dances in a multi-media format of texts, images and videos. With his own efforts, he aimed to eliminate the stereotypes by general public toward street dance, and truly hoped that people could learn about these dance types. From his early attempts, we could get a glimpse of his unshakable confidence and passion about dance and the culture it entails.

J-Hope sincerely hopes that hip-hop culture can be accepted by people of all races. Hip-hop culture did not hit Asia and enthralled many people until the beginning of the 21st century. But there is still a long way to go. At the same time, J-Hope never forgets hip hop’s origin. Nor does he ever cease to gain a deeper understanding in hip-hop culture. He also shows respect to hip-hop all the time. That’s the reason why J-Hope is not only an incredible dancer but also a cultural preacher of street dance.

Writer/Special thanks to @Hopeworld_Spume (weibo)  Sources/薄巧 泼辣黑  Proofreading/柠檬  Translate/hoya 高清画质

[holly-mckenzie]

bitch! since no one asked you, I'll ask you myself! What is happening to your version of Sana, Noora, and whoever else you have done an absurd amount of research + written an entire essay about

wow its almost like I sent this message to myself! thanks “anon”

I know, I know, you’re probably thinking... Erica, how are you going to tell your version of Sana in an Indian, Malaysian, and Turkish context (especially because all of ‘em countries either are Muslim Nations or have a Muslim community...) to which I say: BEHOLD! 

9. Introduce us to your version of Sana

GERAM (SKAM Malaysia) : Kalifa Ahmed (name subject to change)

So, here’s the thing... Making Geram!Sana Malaysian makes absolutely no sense, especially because of the overall Muslim population. So I figure that there are three versions to do it 1) make her of another faith (which is tricky), 2) Make her not be Muslim enough, (she doesn’t wear her Hijab, interacts with dogs, has gay friends etc...) 3) or three which is the option I will be going with.

Kalifa Ahmed is a Somali-Malaysian (I haven’t decided if I want to make her half-Malay, half-Somali, or a Somalian who has emigrated to Malaysia). Kalifa, much like Sana is super close to her family, especially her mother. Kalifa enjoys playing the football/soccer and is the member of the group that says it as it is (think SKAM NL Imaan). She’s a bit rough around the edges from all of the things she has faced in life, however, she is super sarcastic and funny. She is super independent, so a thing that I want her season to focus on is her friends realising that she is more than the “strong-Black-woman” and does need help. 

Kalifa constantly feels ostracised from the Malaysian population, due to the large anti-Black sentiment that is rampant in Malaysian. Thus, as a product, Kalifa is very close to her family, due to all the racism that they face on a daily basis. This includes ”racial preferencing” when it comes to apartment hunting, to people avoiding them in public, and constantly hearing racist comments made towards them. 

Before the show starts, Kalifa had a close friend in the character of Jamila. Jamila would probably either be a character that Kalifa met in the apartment that she lives in or to the refugee school that she went too (in Malaysia refugees aren’t allowed to attend national schools and must attend refugee schools). They became fast friends, bonding over their shared experiences of facing racism on a daily basis. However, Jamila feels betrayed by Kalifa for “leaving” her to become friends with the Girl Gang. Jamilla is incredibly hurt by it, especially because Jamilla thinks that Kalifa lets GERAM!Vilde gets away with being casually racist. However, Kalifa, feels pressure because though she does speak out about the racism she faces, she knows that she could face backlash for it. Especially since if you are a foreign worker in Malaysia, you can face deportation for speaking about the injustice. This is one of the reasons that both Kalifa and Jamila don’t like  Geram!Vilde, because Kalifa feels like the prejudice that Geram!Vilde has, goes against their shared Islamic faith. 

An aspect of this that I would really want to touch on is the fact that Kalifa doesn’t face the same sort of “tension” that og Sana faces between having to choose between the secular world and Islam (because that makes no sense in Malaysia. Also, I thought the love triangle was stupid, so it won’t be happening.). Instead, Kalifa is torn because, she feels finally “settled” in Malaysia, however, her family, in particular, her brother, wants to go back/seek refugee status somewhere else (This is my version of the Sana-Yusaf-Noora love triangle). However, this all comes to head when her brother is attacked when he is going to the Mosque (which will replace the whole Elias punching Isak plot). With this we will see, just how ingrained into Malaysian culture anti-Black sentiment is. This will end, with her parents deciding, really deciding to seek refugee status somewhere else (which will replace the Yusaf leaving plot). 

* tw for the season : pain/angst, racism, hate crimes, Islamaphobia

** additional notes: Kalifa is probably really close to Nor (my version of Noora) and they are super cute (e.g. - they fix each other’s Hijab and stuff... it’s ducking adorable). Also, the show will focus on Ramadan (though that’s boring I know)... However, instead of having Kalifa invite the girls to Hari Raya, Nor’s family invites Kalifa’s to their house. (You get the idea that because Kalifa’s family is so ostracised from the community, that this act is super important because they are finally being invited in... Also, Nor’s mom tries to cook Somali food and it's hella cute). Lastly, Geram!Yusaf, is a Sabahan Muslim. He volunteers at the refugee school that I mentioned earlier (hence his whole being good with kids thing). He is also lowkey an activist and is thus, really educated in racism and stuff. One of the reasons that Kalifa falls for him, is because he doesn’t put up with the casual jokes by his friends, and instead corrects them. 

Okay, so I haven’t actually thoroughly throughout the rest of my Sana’s... Partially, because I’m not well educated on the countries/religions etc. So here’s a brief summary:

Mó Bafão (SKAM Brasil): Monica (name subject to change)

Monica is a young Afro-Brasileira (Afro-Brasilian) woman. Monica practices the religion Candomblé, and thus faces a lot of prejudice from her peers for firstly, being Black (because racism and against Black people is a thing in Brasil, regardless of what Josh Boone may think). However, the other prejudice comes from the facts that her peers are mostly Christian and Catholic and see Candomblé as a heathen religion. Thus, due to that belief, many of her peers have grown up learning to avoid signs of the Candomblé faith (e.g. - orange coloured strips of fabric near a tree, or a specific arrangement of "ingredients" or tools). Much like Sana, Monica feels torn between two worlds. However, unlike Sana what it really comes down to is colonialism. Monica has really seen how the Christian/Catholic faith has affected Brasilian society, and how Brasil is still very much facing the consequences of colonialism (the post-colonial hangover is a real thing guys). 

SKAM TURKÏYE : Sera

Sera is Turkish-Armenian. Sera comes from a family where her family is super supportive of all of her dreams and goals. She is the mom friend of the group and constantly wants to care for everyone. She is Armenian and thus the prejudice that she faces is largely tied to the denial and recognition of the Armenian genocide by her peers and schools. Due to this, Sera is very much an advocate for the rights of Armenians, as well as Kurds and Jews. She faces a lot of backlash from her fellow peers who would rather keep the status-quo and not believe that there is something wrong about the world. Much of the season will discuss what it would mean for Sera to live in a modern Turkey and whether that would mean assimilate to the culture or to stand up for her people and her beliefs. Also, I just think it would be neat if we made Turkïye!Yusaf Kurdish. 

7. Introduce us to your version of Noora

Mó Bafão (SKAM Brasil): Grace Lee

At the start of the show, (Marie Vitória Silva’s (Mó Bafão!Eva) season), Grace Lee is a new student at their school. Grace is  Korean-Brasilian, and though her parents offered to send her to Colégio Polilogos (a South Korean international school in São Paulo), she chose to go to the school that she currently goes too, where she meets the Girl Gang. Grace is a super interesting character because though she grew up in Brasil, she also lived in Korea and the States, before moving back to São Paulo. Thus, Grace has curated her own cultural experience, which accounts for the fact that she doesn’t drink, smoke, party, have a boyfriend, or subscribe to traditional beauty standards. Grace would probably be considered fat/thick by most Asian (and Brasilian) standards. She is also quite tall for an Asian and doesn’t have the fair skin that is associated with Asian beauty standards. Grace kinds walks to the beat of her own drum, and because of that, Marie really admires Grace, which is one of the reasons for their tight bond. However, Mó Bafão!Vilde discounts this, believing that Grace’s decision to not drink, have sex, or conform to the standard of beauty is due to the conservative Korean culture or Grace’s family’s religious values. I think an important aspect of Grace’s character that I would like to point out is the place of privilege that Grace has, because she grew up over-seas she hasn’t had the same societal pressures in regards to beauty, partying, or sex that the rest of the girls have had, allowing her to be the character that stands up against it. Grace also is a total foodie and her Insta posts are entirely made up food. She also, posts these really cute Meokbang’s where she and one of her friends go out and try different foods in São Paulo. 

Okay, so here’s where he run into a lot of trouble. Because, I hate the whole Magnusson brothers plot in the original show, and I much prefer what eskam did in that regards. However, I also know for fact that Brasil has a huge sexual violence problem, so... I feel like, I would *really* need to be *way* more educated to be able to tell a beautiful and honest storyline that deals into ideas of consent and what not in the Brasilian context, and I am just not there yet?

* tw for the season : sexual violence + slut shaming + fat shaming ** additional notes : Okay, so I would really enjoy is Grace lived at home with her family and you get to see her interacting with her family. In that scenerio, the Mó Bafão!Eskild would probably be a family member/family friend that lives with them. However, another option would be to make Grace be living in a homestay situation with Mó Bafão!Eskild being the host of the homestay. Another aspect that we could potentially go into is intimate partner violence, with Mó Bafão!Miquel being this super charasmatic dude, who buys Grace clothes to wear that she doesn’t like (they are tight + bright colours she doesn’t like) and encouraging her to diet, all the while talking about how much he likes her for not being like the other Brasilian girls. Mó Bafão!Mique would totally have a TikTok account where he would post one of those TikTok “pranks” that’s straight up emotional abuse. This is sees through Grace’s socials because she stops posting her foodie content and Meokbangs. However, the last social you see from Grace (at the end of her season) is a tiny Meokbang again (maybe with Mó Bafão!Alejandro).  

SKAM India : Nana

Nana’s is from Nagaland, though her family has been staying overseas and have just moved to Bangalore. Nana is super close with her family, especially her father, who is her number one supporter. Nana’s family knows one of Anjali (my version of Eva) extended family. Nana and Anjali are really close. To some degree, Nana’s peers are a bit taken aback by her because she’s from the Nagaland, and there are some misconceptions about whether she is actually Indian. Nana is super smart and a bit of a know it all, which gets her in a lot of trouble at school. She is also super hardworking and lowkey the mom-friend of the group and just wants everyone to be okay. Due to this, she always wants people to be comfortable and treats them with kindness (which is great when it comes to India!Isak, but not when it comes to Kabir (India!Miquel).

So, I don’t know if you have already picked this up, but I am a huge fan of the way that eskam dealt with the Magnusson brother plot and the Miquel vs. Alejandro plot... And obviously, India has a huge issue with romanticising toxic relationships(looks pointedly at Arjun Reddy) and sexual violence.

So, that being said, in the first season we get an introduction to Kabir (my version of Miquel), who is this Delhi boy. He is a shameless flirt and flirts with everyone until he meets Nana. When she doesn’t reciprocate his affections, he focuses all of his attention on winning her over. For the first season, we see scenes of Nana and Kabir talking and it is all framed as harmless and funny, with them having a back and forth about how she doesn’t want to date him. We see, how annoyed she is by his advances, but it is pictured as almost romantical. However, when we delve into her season, we really see into just how much Kabir’s advances affect her, especially because she (though she is friendly with him) doesn’t want his advances, and he keeps playing it off as her “playing hard to get.” Due, to this, he continues to push Nana, whether it is to touch her against her will (hug her, attempt to play footsie with her, touch her face) or insert himself into her life (introduce himself to her family). Due to all of that, plus the fact that Kabir comes from a good family, Nana’s family and friends think 1) she is pretending to hate him (because she actually likes him) so they discount her words and 2) she is making a big deal because nothing actually happened (he didn’t actually “touch”/r*pe her). However, with the encouragement of her friends, India!Alejandro (if he exists) and her grandparents, she is able to stand up against Kabir and pushes him away.  

* tw for the season : sexual harassment + victim blaming ** additional notes : Okay, so in the scenario where we establish India!Alejandro, I thought it would be *really* fun to kinda do a flip on what eskam established. Instead, of establishing Alejandro in the first season, and introducing Miquel later. We establish Kabir in Season 1 where we see their “love” unfold and what not... Then we see India!Alejandro in her season... And he is just so much of the opposite of Kabir, he is patient, and is always waiting for her to make the first move. They, also have a fun back and forth (that’s very reminiscent of the Pakistani film Cake), and when she tells the “Girl Gang” and India!Alejandro about Kabir, he immediately believes her and wants to help in any way (get in contact with his family friend in order to press charges). 

GERAM (SKAM Malaysia) : Nor 

Nor is Malay-Muslim, and would probably be what my Aunt would call a Modern Day Muslim, and what the government of Malaysia would call heretical. Nor, doesn’t always wear her hijab (only when she wants too), but is deeply religious and goes to the Mosque and prays and what not. She also helps out in the animal shelter with dogs (’causing a lot of her friends and family to believe that she is un-Islamic). She is a total activist and is constantly talking about the evils of conversion therapy (a thing that can be forced on gay Muslim folks in Malaysia), the treatment of Orang Asli, foreign immigrants, and the Indian community in Malaysia. At the start of the season, Nor has just moved back from New Zealand, which has created a lot of hub-bub in her friend group because they see her as totally fancy and such. Nor, is really close with her family, who she lives with. Nor and her mom were especially close when Nor was younger, but because of Nor going through the classic teenage drama stuff, their relationship is not as tight as it could be. Nor’s cousin (who is an out and proud gay man) and Nor’s maid combined become Geram!Eskild. Nor, kinda has that rich popular girl thing going for her (think the energy and vibes that Tina has in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai). She is kinda outspoken, which causes her a bit of drama because she sometimes (all the time) says things that get her into trouble. In Geram, I won’t be playing around. Nor, is constantly being harassed by this boy. To the point where it gets really depressed and causes her to lock herself in her room. Her maid Geram!Eskild, finds out about the assualt and tells Nor’s mother. Nor’s mom, finds out and presses charges against Geram!William.

* tw for the season : sexual harassment + victim blaming

** additional notes : Okay, so I have two things to say. I know that most versions of Noora focus on the fact that she doesn’t want to have sex/drink. However, I’m going to subvert that by having her not do that, but instead being such an activist and being willing to talk about “controversial” things thus causing people to give her the label of un-Islamic and slightly heretical. Additionally, victim-blaming is going to be a huge focus this season, with randoms blaming the assault on the fact that Nor doesn’t always wear the hijab + wears that red lipstick, or the idea that she its punishment because of her views. I also, know that most seasons focus on Noora dealing with her issues by herself... however, I really want Nor to have to lean on her family in this time. Lastly, I would probably combine both Magnusson brothers into one person, and have them be Eurasian, making all the girls want him (because of that white-worshipping). Additionally, because he is a rich he tells everyone that Nor wanted it, and frames it as her asking for it. However, everyone that is important in Nor’s life believes her and knows that he is an idiot (even as he posts defamatory things about her on the socials).

[kakuriyo]

phaz0n replied to your post “Has the staff/studio admitted galo/lio are a thing or are they saying ...”

I think the frozen lake scene with Aina was also a big hint, Galo straight up ignores her for Lio... The pink triangle symbolism too... but it's all up for interpretation, of course ^^

so i actually thought of including the lake scene as well! but when i thought about it, the scene is kinda mundane in comparison to the others. 

below you’ll find an excerpt from the potential part 2 of my promare analysis essay. i’m kidding sorta but yes, i went on another ramble  

my reasoning for that is: galo’s ignorance isn’t all that surprising given his personality. at this point in the movie, the man only cares about extinguishing fires and, dare i say, a certain mad burnish leader after their first encounter. he’s also frustrated after witnessing the capture of an innocent burnish and thinking about how his actions would affect his hero, kray (him being public figure and all). basically galo has a shit ton of stuff on his mind. he’s also not the type to half-ass things and the scene shows how he’s straight forward to a fault. hence his simple comment “you’re you, aina.” the man also gets off on rescuing people, so naturally he’d reach out to grab her, but at this point he notices the flames of the burnish escapees and his attention from her is completely gone.

as for the pink triangle symbolism, the memo i linked (from twitter user kia_prma) in the initial anon response talks about this! tbh i’m uneducated in this aspect cause i had no idea how much how a symbol the pink triangle meant to the LGBTQ+ society until i looked it up. as i’m reading about it though, i remember briefly learning about its history. i can’t say much about it strictly being a western symbol, it’s obviously not, but it’s definitely there. naturally people would tie promare and the symbol together.

now from my understanding of japanese and LGBTQ+ culture is that while it is more accepting than most asian countries, representation in media simply wasn’t a thing until recently. even then, i feel like it’s still selective (someone @ me if you wanna legit talk about it with facts. educate me cause i’m merely a western weeb.) there are select anime from the past, yes, but i remember when yuri on ice came out in 2016, it was a huge deal. 

the point of all my rambling is that trigger of course didn’t have this symbolism in mind. in the memo, op writes, “As far as I have read from the Japanese publications, the pink triangle in Promare is actually coming from their idea of representing the main characters in symbols.” The triangle is simply meant to represent lio and him being mad burnish. As for the color choice, it’s purely a coincidence. 

lastly please please please don’t use me as a factual source if for some reason my ramblings have sparked others. i’m even taking the memo i linked with a grain of salt cause at the end of the day: these are just opinions. this much should be obvious, but i feel like i still have to say it.

[afraidofa-cat-blog]

Picture a Rom-Com, but Asian, and Done Right

During Hollywood’s breakthrough for Asian American representation (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Crazy Rich Asians) the film Always Be My Maybe maintains the trend of cross culture cinema. What differentiates this romantic comedy, however, is that it is directed for older audiences. The film does not consist of the typical Asian American casting; the exclusivity of Asians hanging out with Asians, or the Asian girl ending up with an American man. This romantic comedy allows for the Asian American community to be represented as… normal. Always Be My Maybe effortlessly breaks the dynamic that Hollywood has structured for Asian American representation with inclusive casting, switch in gender roles, and not allowing for the cultural aspects to be the whole plot of the movie. Always be my Maybe is an example of how Hollywood has been rapidly updating movie characters to change up the original Hollywood stereotypes, especially in regard to Asian American characters and gender roles of Asian Americans on film.

The film Always Be My Maybe includes many features that Hollywood hasn’t done yet; casting is one of them. Within mainstream Hollywood, it is very uncommon, if ever, that Asian Americans are cast as leads for a romantic comedy. Asian Americans are usually cast as extremes, either as too loud or too quiet, too overpowered or too sidekick, but Always Be My Maybe shows Asian Americans as real people; the people next door, the people you went to school with. By normalizing this cross-culture phenomenon, rather than depending on it for the plot, this helps improve the global enterprise and fix the thought that movies come from America. With Schatz and Perren’s article about Hollywood, the article explains the standard procedure that happens when producing mainstream films. The attributes to a mainstream film consist of exposition, complication and resolution; a goal-oriented protagonist who has objectives and obstacles, and American actors and actresses. Although, the casting of Always Be My Maybe is effective in breaking the stereotype, they do not change the mainstream film standard procedure. Instead, they apply it to their own culture, promoting transnationalism. As Schatz and Perren discuss how Hollywood casts white people more than the minority, the Asian American characters of Always Be My Maybe going through similar obstacles and having similar relationships as the typical American film shows how the Asian American community is more mainstream than Hollywood has made it out to be. The film also shows how different people have different personalities because of their atmosphere, and not because of their ethnicity. Different Asians are cast in different lights, for example, the character Marcus Kim, played by Randall Park, plays in a band with no other priorities other than smoking weed. These types of males hardly exist in movies as well, even though there are so many of them, this type of male actually consists of more than half the population at this point. Ali Wong’s character, Sasha Tran, also refers to Marcus Kim as a regular guy, because he exhibits very common attributes with the American men demographic in society today. There is also a conversation between Sasha Tran and her white assistant where she looks at her dish and says, “Add some rice paper, white people eat that shit up,” and her white friend agrees. This comic relief is a subtle hint of satire on the stereotypes Hollywood has created for the Asian community within mainstream Hollywood films. Schatz’s and Perren’s article refer to a quote by Seldes saying, “When one considers the widespread appeal of Hollywood movies and thus the colonization of cultural consciousness on a global scale, it is worth noting that the term Hollywood becomes increasingly conflated with the notion of “Americanization” (Perren, 497). Although, the film Always Be My Maybe addresses this issue that has been shown throughout Hollywood, by casting Asian Americans in roles that are common throughout mainstream Hollywood, it shows that race does not affect the lifestyle when multiculturalism is involved. The civil rights and the feminist movement helped encourage minorities to feel like they had a say in how they were represented because they insisted on the different cultural constituencies within other aspects of Hollywood, hence the birth of Always Be My Maybe.

Always Be My Maybe also represents a shift in gender roles and relationships, as we witness the female lead as a strong woman who can also be vulnerable, and how the Asian male has a good relationship with his father. Also, the Asian father does not have the stereotypical Asian accent but is very Americanized. The change in gender roles and relationships helps stray away from the same structure that Hollywood has used for films about the minority and basic romantic comedies. For example, in Walter Metz’s article, “Love The House and Hate The Work,” he talks about the traditional gender roles within the television series Bewitched. Samantha, the female lead, has a lot of power but uses it to do housework rather than doing the “mortal way” because she wants to fit the housewife role alongside her husband, who is the working man. The analysis of Bewitched shows, “a woman with unimaginable power and she uses it to shore up her husband’s ego, make him look good, help him keep his job, beat down his enemies” (Metz, 166). The analysis of Bewitched contrasts the gender role dynamic Always Be My Maybe transitions to. In Always Be My Maybe, the female lead, Sasha Tran, is the working and successful one while the man is okay with being on the side. Toward the end of the movie, the male lead, Marcus Kim, even professes his love by offering to be “the guy who holds her purse”. As Bewitched consists of the traditional gender roles within the show, the show itself can not fit the formula of mainstream Hollywood that Schatz’s and Perren’s article explains because of the contradictory styles within its series and how contemporary American culture is overshadowed by the typical gender roles. Since Always Be My Maybe addresses content while also displaying the characters in a different role than they would usually have, the endorsement of alternative lifestyles is more impactful within society. This breakthrough is scene through Sasha’s breakdown when venting after her breakup, “They want a cheerleader, not a powerful woman,” is how the gender roles within Bewitched want society to think and are making the powerful woman during Always Be My Maybe think. This shows how the traditional gender roles from the past still affect the present, even though we have moved forward from this in society. Sasha is not only an example of a powerful woman, but her ability to relate to all women audiences within the romantic comedy demographic provides comfortability with an Asian American as a female lead, and the woman being the working one within the relationship. The transition within gender roles and family relationships help normalize Asian Americans within mainstream Hollywood, helping the film Always Be My Maybe support and convey transnationalism.

Within the same era as Crazy Rich Asians, Always Be My Maybe provides a more familiar type of romantic comedy while still promoting Asian culture without depending on it for the plot. The way this is presented is through the concept of framing. Within Kitzinger’s article regarding frame analysis, he talks about how “frames are ways of organizing reality. They invite particular ways of understanding the world”, and Always Be My Maybe helps present the understanding that Asians are just like regular people, not as a separate culture (Kitzinger 149). By airing the film on Netflix, rather than making the concept of Asian leads in a romantic comedy a big deal in theaters, normalizes the multiculturalism making it overall more impactful. Some stereotypes were still present within the film Crazy Rich Asians, because of the way different frames are identified with different perspectives. A similar comparison was made to the days before gay liberation. Before, there was a debate on whether homosexuality was a sin and whether it should be punished, but the realization through a social movement proved how homosexuality was an undesirable aberration which is similar to how audiences did not recognize they were stereotyping Asian Americans in mainstream Hollywood until the civil rights and feminist movement (Kitzinger 22). The civil rights and feminist movement encouraged the differential casting in Always Be My Maybe, improving the points of each protest. There are subtle things within the film that break the Asian stereotype, such as how Marcus’s dad dates a Diana Ross impersonator or how the music score is modernized. The film Always Be My Maybe still includes Asian culture as they talk with Chinese waitresses in restaurants or how they routinely take off their shoes off before they go into a house. As the mainstream elements of the film might make it seem like the film is straying away from Asian culture, a comment about Sasha straying away from Asian culture is made by Marcus about her restaurant, “You’re just catering to rich white people, Asian food isn’t that small,” is also subtly reminding the audience that this film is still supposed to emphasize that a culture should not completely convert to satisfy mainstream audiences. As some stereotypes are true, they are usually way more subtle, and the film Always Be My Maybe exemplifies this beneficially for both cultural perspectives. Framing is the process where reality is organized and controls the information presented to the audience. Since frames carry some meaning and have an impact on audiences, the subtle focus on Asian culture still includes the Asian American demographic in the narrative but also fixes any stereotype that says Asian Americans, or any specific demographic, have to be cast in a certain way.

Within the original structure of mainstream Hollywood, the film Always Be My Maybe fixes stereotypes in regard to Asian American characters through the normalcy of Asian culture and adaptation to modern gender roles. By presenting the understanding of intermixing cultures, Always Be My Maybe is a great example of promoting transnationalism and normalizing Asian Americans within the mainstream film industry. Media has affected the perception of certain cultures and is the reason why certain ethnicities are limited to certain opportunities, but if Hollywood progresses with the normalcy of cross culture cinema, similar to what is shown through Always Be My Maybe, stereotypes will become less of an issue and American cinema will draw a greater variety of audiences.

        Bibliography

Always Be My Maybe. Dir. Nahnatchka Khan. Perf. Ali Wong, Randall Park, and James Saito. Good Universe, May 29, 2019.

 Crazy Rich Asians. Dir. Brett Ratner. Perf. Constance Wu, Henry Golding, and Gemma Chan. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2018.

 Fink, Kathryn. Romance and Representation: ‘Always Be My Maybe’ And The Future Of The Raunch-Com. 1A. June 3, 2019: Issue 2.

 Metz, Walter. Bewitched. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007. Project MUSE, 2007.

 Perren, Alisa and Schatz, Thomas, “Hollywood” (2004), pp. 495-515. Communication Faculty Publications. 2. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_facpub/2

 Kitzinger, Jenny. 2007. Framing and Frame Analysis. Media Studies: Key Issues and Debates, London: Sage, pp. 134-161.

 Khosla, Proma. ‘Always Be My Maybe’ Shines When Its Weirdest. Mashable. May 31, 2019. https://mashable.com/article/always-be-my-maybe-review/

 To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. Dir. Susan Johnson. Perf. Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, and Janel Parrish. Overbrook Entertainment, August 17, 2018.

[olympusintelligence]

Part 1 Chapter 1

7 months ago 20/5/2018 21:30(Hong Kong Time

Outside the Theatre in the Western Kowloon District, Hong Kong

Flames were everywhere.

‘Let me go! She’s inside!’

Kyle cried out loud helplessly. Great fire had engulfed the entire theatre. His fiancee was being tortured in that purgatory. 

'Damn Kyle, it’s 1300 °C inside. No one can go inside! You’re just a man, not a superman. You won’t save anyone even if you’re in it!’ A firefighter and a few cops were barring the deranged Kyle from running towards the fire scene. He had once met this detective before.

It was sizzlingly hot. The fire at the theatre had further heated up the temperature. It had so much vigor that it seemed it would never stop burning. The firefighting squad had been trying their utmost to contain the flames. Three helicopters had been dispatched to drop fire retardant over them, and around a dozen of firefighting trucks had been spraying the firefighting foam. The ground near the theatre subsided soon after the explosion, so the firefighters could only plod on it.

Meanwhile a very nasty smell permeated in the air. Many people at the scene recognized it as the mixed smell of burnt bodies.

The analysis from the government’s fire and explosion experts indicated no one could stay alive inside. Actually all firefighters had been forbidden from getting inside to save anyone as the flames were too hot for their fireproof gear to withstand. 

‘Just leave me alone!’ Kyle was on the verge of mental collapse. He was like an injured beast trying to break away from its chains. Out of nowhere, a short, fat man punched him hard in the face. ‘Wake up!’

It was his boss Benny, a senior detective. The sweating man was wearing a casual tee and jeans. He had just hastily arrived. While gasping for air, he rebuked him,‘You bastard, just from your text I know you’ll get yourself into trouble!’ He was Kyle’s senior classmate in the university campus, and joined the police six years earlier than him. He had brought him to an alumni gathering, where he and Helen first met, but before he was transferred to Tsim Sha Tsui police station they had never been co-workers.

‘My fiancée’s inside. Just let me in!’

‘Even the firefighters don’t have the guts to walk inside! Don’t kill yourself for it!. You’re a detective!’

The phrase ‘detective' brought him back to his senses: Both his father and uncle were cops, and Benny encouraged him to join the Police Force when he had just graduated. After three years of hard work, he finally got in and had never planned any alternative careers. He had been quite submissive to what the fate had in store for him - Though there were strong sense of hierarchy, terrible scandals and complicated politics within the Force, he had never doubted this profession’s missions: maintaining law and order, detecting and crushing crimes, protecting lives and properties of the civilians…….All he wanted to do was to be a good cop, but he never imagined that one day it stood in his way of saving his lover.

Only an hour and a half ago, he just said goodbye to her, and they just shared a light kiss and nothing else. Though they had been engaged, they were too preoccupied with work for any intimacy.

She must have been burnt into ashes, like the fellow audience and theatre crew.

Why haven’t I hugged her at all?

His happiness had gone. Long distance love was grueling. She finally came to Hong Kong to get engaged with him, but only after enjoying a short time as the engaged couple, death separated them.

‘The seniors determined it as the first terrorist attack Hong Kong had ever had. We can only arrest those bastards responsible for the crime and bring them to court. That’s how you should avenge for Helen.’ Benny tried to calm him down. ‘You’re not in a good shape at all. We’ve still got a lot to do. You’re not in a good shape, so you’d better return home first. Report here at 6 tomorrow morning.’ Kyle was devastated. He had no mood to reply to him. He just kneeled on the ground and held his head. Benny then ordered two colleagues who had just arrived at the scene to bring him home. 

**

Kyle was off duty on that day. He had just been transferred to the Crime Investigation Department at Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station. 

He was celebrating his fourth year in the police with his fiancée Helen Lee. Before entering the police training camp he met Helen in alumni party, where she approached him first with a pick-up line ‘It’s been a long time.’ Kyle had no impression of her, but they soon fell in love. At that time he learnt she was a Hongkonger born in the States, and she had a nice Chinese name Lee Hoi Lun. As a buyer of a major international auction house, she mainly searched for artworks in every corner of the world, but he must be based in Hong Kong. Hence they only saw each other when they had long holidays or Helen happened to stop in Hong Kong for a while. Later Helen quitted the job, came to Hong Kong and joined a gallery in Central as its manager, as she hoped to meet Kyle’s parents and get engaged with him. Their relationship finally became more stable. 

Helen then took Kyle’s ride to the newly built theatre in West Kowloon after dinner. It would have an opening ceremony that evening. The construction progress of the West Kowloon Cultural District had been lagging behind for many years, so the theatre’s opening seemed to bring in some fresh air to the cultural institution. Its management invited the best theatre crew in Asia to perform The Lady of the Camellias . As it was during the Le French May, the annual arts festival organized by the Consulate General of France to promote French art and culture in Hong Kong, the ambitious institution arranged the Chinese-English-French trilingual interpretation service for the audience, and invited the French Minister of Culture and the French Consul-General to speak at the ceremony. Helen’s current boss was a renowned French painter, so he also received an invitation. Though she had zero interest in drama, she still had to attend the opening ceremony and enjoy the drama with him as his assistant and partner.

The traffic was smooth between Jordan and Tsim Sha Tsui. Helen made great use of her time to tidy her make-up during the ride. Her brown curly hair was a good fit for her oval pale face. Her pretty honey brown eyes naturally seemed to sparkle like stars, and with her gifted perfect facial features she only needed few cosmetics to make herself look stunning. Wearing elegant high-heels, she was in a short white dress and black suit jacket, which somehow made her look taller.

‘Kyle, how do I look now?’ After blushing her mouth with a pink lipstick, she asked her with a smile. Kyle had been very used to her beauty, so he only commented, ‘Pretty as ever.’ He still had to concentrate on driving his Honda.

‘So far you’ve only answered “Good.” “Pretty enough.” “Very pretty.”’ Helen could not help but remark with a bit sarcasm. ‘No wonder you had never dated a girl before.’ Kyle was never a ladies’ man. Though he had a quite clean-cut face, it was still not popular with women. And his rather straightforward character was not everyone’s favorite. An average young woman may find him to be a tough nut to crack. He was not attentive to his outlook - His daily outfit only consisted of casual tees, jeans and sneakers, and had a jarhead haircut. The outsiders usually only perceived him as an ordinary thirty-year-old Asian man.

‘That’s why you love me.’ Kyle was too familiar with her humor. He had learnt to flirt with her. ‘Actually, only engagement is not enough. Let’s get married, honey.’

‘Ha, I can’t believe a man proposes to a woman like that! Where’s the ring?’ Helen just laughed directly, without any attempt to hide it. She was only honest in front of this honest man. 

‘Wait, you’ve got the engagement ring. I think it counts.’ ‘Of course not, they are only silver rings. The wedding ring must be like the diamond ring worn by my classmates.’ They sparred with each other with witty words, and arrived at the theatre without sensing time had passed.

The theatre looked futuristic with its irregular round shaped silver building. As two high-ranking French officials were arriving soon, the police had tightened the security. Although Kyle was a detective, before he drove to the parking lot, he still had to stop his vehicle for his colleagues’ strict security check. After he parked his car, Helen kissed him lightly and whispered, ‘I’m anticipating your ring, my dear.’

‘I’ll be well-prepared next time.’ Kyle promised in earnest. Helen gave him a sweet smile in return, and got out of his car. ‘See you.’ Those were the last words she left behind.

Kyle watched his fiancée walking towards the theatre. He always sensed there was something enigmatic about her, but he could not figure out why.

**

When Helen saw Kyle had driven away, she continued to head towards the theatre, but her eyes grew cold.

Her boss had just arrived in front of Helen in haste, and he looked very tense.

‘Actually will it go wrong?’ He did not bother to greet her, but only expressed his worries in panic. Helen apparently scorned his cowardice. She just reminded him coldly, ‘You’re my boss now. Please act like one. Nothing else is your business.’

The painter knew that she still kept her cool 15 minutes before the operation began, so he became a bit calmer as well. He couldn’t help but imagine what exactly the young lady had been through before turning into such a cold, capricious beauty.

In the gallery, he was her nominal boss, but in that organization, she was the director, and he was just a small potato. 

**

Kyle was on his way home. He recalled he still had to prepare at home for a meeting with a prosecution attorney on a homicide report.

Right at the instant, he sensed the earth shaking. It was from the West Kowloon District. 

The news app on his iPhone reported the theatre there had exploded.

No…...You can’t die!

He immediately rerouted his car back to the theatre. When he finally reached the exit of the tunnel, he only saw the faraway theatre had been consumed by flames. All traffic was jammed. The alarming sirens of the firefighting trucks, ambulances and police cars had been relentlessly ringing. All off-duty members of the Tsim Sha Tsui police station had received the emergency return-to-duty order. He texted his boss, ‘I’ll save Helen.’ 

He could never turn back the clock. 

@requiemesque @whataremetaphor @ill-write-when-im-dead @pilipalea @adie-dee @things-waiting-to-be-written

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Yeah sorry, I was using the term druggie ironically because that’s what people call him, not as a comment on my stance on his habits. I guess if you’re not familiar with working class UK culture you don’t see the way in which South Asian men are portrayed, especially in the north. Drug dealers and sex traffickers and very much “others” who keep to their own groups (hence dark and mysterious being a racially motivated stereotype in regards to Zayn’s branding further than just the typical tone deaf “exotic” imo). White rich kids can do coke and ket all day every day but it’s the POC who are ruining the country with drugs and gangs according to the media. I don’t really have the capacity to fully explain myself unfortunately, but I’ve always felt that Zayn (and Louis being another northern working class person, but not to the extent that Zayn was) was smeared by the UK tabloids (especially the Sun who hate nothing more than the north of England and immigrants) as the most famous Pakistani in the UK because it sets a precedent for how they want all non whites to be seen, whilst turning a blind eye to the drug use of white public figures. Again, not Harry’s fault, I don’t care what either of them use, but he’s free to explore that in a way that brown men will never be. Like you say, more words are needed but I don’t have them right now.

Thanks for coming back anon.

I'm unfortunately quite familiar with UK tabloid culture. I do tend to think and talk about it differently from other types of 1D discourse though. Mostly because I find the way a lot of fan discussion of tabloids is so focused on 1D, that it ignores the wider agendas of the tabloids. Perhaps I overcorrect - but I never think of the tabloids, when anons or other fans talk about how 1D members are portrayed.

[luna-rainbow]

@ashacrone I have a few guesses. I was actually hoping anyone from south east Asia could weigh in on local attitudes. I think that’s why I was a bit surprised by Cap being more popular because I get the sense (as a Chinese diaspora) most of my friends seem to prefer IM. ** I just looked this up and yes, apparently IM is more popular within China. The reason someone gave was “he matches our morals more” — ironic right cos communist nation and all? Let me get to it.

Firstly, I think a lot of it is culture. East Asia culture is very hierarchy driven. You can’t speak out of turn, you can’t override people who are unskilled and incompetent if they have seniority, you can’t just waltz into the public and go “f that I’m doing things my way”. Tony is a fantasy - yeah sure he’s rich, so you’d think he’d be a class oppressor, right? But a lot of Chinese net novels are built on fantasies of “if I’m rich and famous I’d LOVE to mock these stuffy suits just because I can” — because having the privilege to speak your mind whenever you feel like it (and not having to over-think about who you might hurt) is so far from reality. Similarly with Japanese manga and Jdrama there’s no shortage of romanticising rich, quirky, somewhat dickish guys — look at the HanaDan (Meteor Garden) craze that swept Asia in the early 2000s. There is enough softness in Tony for him to be romanticised; he’s not always right but he tries, and his arc in IM1 is about him coming down from his ivory tower to see the pain of normal people. I mean, that in itself is a fairly romantic shoujo trope there.

Secondly…and this is the sense I get from my friends, is that a lot of East Asians dislike Steve simply because he’s Captain America. I loved how TFATWS said “the shield is complicated” then had Walker traipse all over the world with the shield because…let’s just say East Asia’s relationship with America is also complicated. China has quite a broad reaching campaign against all imported cultures, but particularly targets American and Western European culture. I’m not too clear on SK and Japan’s attitudes. I get the sense they tolerate America but thinks America is comically conceited. So when something like “Captain America” was announced — I have to say most of the gut reaction of my friend group was a resounding “ugh 🙄”. And yeah, most of them would agree “sure Steve is nice” but it’s almost a mental block for them to actually like someone whose superhero title is Captain America (which is also why I thought it was important that Sam’s story should have proved that Captain America as a title deserved to exist, because it’s already an uphill battle).

And that leads me, thirdly, to Steve. Paladin characters are sadly getting more and more rare in literature everywhere. I think I mentioned in a post about Danmei that one of the rare well-written paladin characters actually attracted a lot of - I kid you not - hate comments. I…have a lot of Thoughts about the CCP’s impact on traditional Chinese values and hence modern Chinese culture but that’s like a book and a half in itself. Suffice to say that while older Chinese novels coming out in the mid last century had paladin type characters, the new net novels (and I use them because they give you a good sense of what the vogue is amongst the younger generation) all deride the Paladin - there’s a huge amount of distrust, mockery and even disgust for a character like that. “Fake gentleman”, “Holy mother Maria” are some common insults…with people microanalysing every minor action to prove that they’re being a hypocrite, simply because they haven’t succeeded in pleasing every single person around them. Because…apparently people don’t believe in pure kindness anymore. That’s why to these people Tony, who is motivated by self or by his immediate circle of loved ones, is the only one who makes sense. Selflessness and idealism were stamped out by the Cultural Revolution, and there’s an instinctive distrust of anyone who totes bigger values than the individual because they’re either hopelessly naive or they have an ulterior motive.

I’m less sure about Japan though. Most shounen used to have paladin type characters but I guess they’re often also portrayed as naive (to match the age of their readers) and sheltered. Maybe that also causes a kind of fatigue? Asian audiences are less likely to pick up on the nuances of Steve being Irish and sickly in the 1930s, and what it means for him to still be a hopeful, kind person. They are less likely to perceive Steve as savvy and shrewd, and more likely to pigeonhole him into the naive and sheltered shounen trope (even though that’s not the case) while the older Tony gets to be “pragmatic” and meaner second-lead type shounen trope. And yeah…the darker sadder WOOBIE “second lead” tropes are super popular! Think of Sasuke, or Ishida Uryu or any other number of popular shounen-man. And to fit that trope, Tony has obvious trauma that gets screentime and emotional breakdowns. Steve’s trauma has to be inferred because he’s so stoic about it.

So yeah. This is why I’d love to hear of any Asian fans who loved Steve over Tony and how they came to that. (If you’re not Asian and want to rant about how amazing Steve is, also feel free 🤣)

As a brazilian Steve fan, I've never read Steve as this "ideal of America". To me, he's the kid that says "I don't like bullies. I don't care where they come from." He fights FOR the little guy. He was willing to sacrifice his own body to help not America, but jews, romani, black people...

He thinks about community, and he thinks about the other. In AoU, he seems how similar he and the Maximoff twins were (with all the necessary critic), even when Maria Hill tries to deny it. And he's quick to give a second chance, 'cos he understands and empathize what is trying to fight to protect the people of your country when the enemy looks so powerful.

He's the hero most of the countries that have gone through dictatorship wants. That is willing to fight even if the enemy look unbeatable. And, like you said, he's part of a community.

He never fights alone. Not once. He always has a team, be Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, Bucky and the Howlling Commandos. Be Natasha, Sam, Fury, Maria Hill and Sharon Carter. Be the whole Team Cap. Community is important.

Now, Tony, Tony doesn't know how to fight with a team. Time and time again he talks about "protect americans" and this makes most people in latin american shiver with fear. He doesn't see the little guy. Only the big picture. AoU he was ready (and did!) exploded Sokovia. His remorse came from a dead american. He was willing to take away freedom and choice for safety, not thinking for a moment of the rest of the world wanted or needed. He hasn't built a community. Pepper isn't part of Team IM. Team Iron Man isn't an united team. Rhodes is the only true friend that Tony has and he barely shows up. Tony is always alone. Tony represents much more this US-individual-guide personality than Steve.

So, yeah...

For me it makes lot of sense that, outside the US, Steve is more popular than Tony.

Thanks for the long reply! 🤣 and thanks to everyone else who replied to the other ask.

I agree Steve has more universal appeal across cultures. Tony is very much a product of American Hollywood mentality. The emphasis is on individuality, irreverence and entitlement. It’s the mindset of someone who’s gone through life being told he’s special and he acts like he deserves to be different to everyone else. Steve is someone who’s been told he’s substandard all his life and even with his new strength and status, he still approaches others respecting their expertise and knowledge (ie the humility).

And his morality is indiscriminate. He tries to help everyone he can, and he tries to give everyone a chance including the ones he doesn’t agree with. There isn’t a me vs you mentality, rather he draws the line down between right vs wrong.

Something that amuses me whenever Tony Stans whinge about it - Steve’s also at a far more realistic power level than Tony. Apart from a few incidences of super human strength like pulling his beloved’s a helicopter out of the air, he’s really no different from the usual action hero ilk. He can’t fly at ultrasonic speed, he can’t shoot lasers out of his hands, he doesn’t have a super computer that tells him every deep dark secret of his enemy as soon as he sets eyes on them, and his shield is only yea big and doesn’t protect him from shells coming from all directions. Steve’s struggles feel more grounded, and the themes that his stories deal with - about alienation, friendship and staying true to one’s core beliefs - are probably a lot more relatable than Tony’s arc of seeking redemption and finding his morality. Tony’s greatest enemy is really himself, while Steve’s enemy is the world trying to corrupt him. We’ve all been either of them at some stage of our lives, but Steve is probably the more identifiable one across different cultures, class and genders.