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mmyashas · 2 years ago

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ALL QSMP PRESIDENCY CANDIDATES

bbh: he proposes he's the only person able to make the necessary decisions the quesadilla island president would have to make. he's sure he's the only one with enough courage to keep the island free for the residents and make sure no dictator runs while keeping the eggs safe.

foolish: he appreciates the opportunity he got from the quesadilla island. he says its not often that you get stuck on a weird island with a bunch of crazy people who speak different languages and wants to get the most out of it. most people would want to leave as soon as possible, but he wants to make friends with everyone and enjoy what the island has to offer him.

etoiles: hes smily, generous and the only negativity he has inside of him is for himself, never for others. hes going to visit eighty trillion of dungeons the island has for better understanding. he commits to exploring the island to understand it better.

baghera: she has a good head on her shoulders and only wants the best for the island members. she prioritizes communication and has a good relationship with everyone. she thinks she can handle any problem and precipitated actions that can appear. the island is the one that gave her motherhood and thus, a goal. this place gave her friends and family; and will do her best to preserve it at any cost.

felps: he is a navigation officer, bus conductor, artist and gardener. he wants to make everyone happy, give the eggs more rights and gift macaroni and pasta to everyone.

forever: he is one of the players who is the most time in the island, so he will always be there to look after the island member's interests. as experienced mc player, he has many ideas for community projects for the people. he's bald and will represent the people in this series. he comments he likes richas very much; that he's the happiest accident he's ever had. he also likes all the island habitants; everyone is so nice and funny, even though the french make lots of noise in the eggs' houses.

mike: he will finally bring the order to quesadilla island. what he likes about the island the most is the people. first of all, he would prohibit the use of waystones. this would change the dynamic of the island, as it would force players to make paths between their bases and finally they could install a railway system and trains.

cellbit: his past work experience is tribute, assasin, prisoner and detective. he's roier's husband. he's able to make eloquent speeches and manage complex organizations. he thinks he'll be good representative for the future of the island; not only apporting new ideas and narratives to other content creators but also protecting the eggs. his favorite things from the island are his husband, his kid and his friends.

gegg: gegg's a business man going from door to door gegg. gegg's a war criminal gegg. gegg's an influencer in relation to the family lifestyle gegg. "gegg change world." what gegg likes the most from the island are the wet, the wet places and caves. gegg promises your freedom. gegg promises truth. gegg promises your power and abolishing any gubernamental law, tax, debts and any existing law. the establishment stops us, gegg will free us. only one gegg rule. trust in gegg, because gegg trusts you.

elquackity: he says there's lack of organization, lack of order; that he thinks under a perfect scenario he could carry out. has run for qsmp presidency and says this job will be very important and hopes it'll be the best possible.

#qsmp #qsmp bbh #qsmp foolish #qsmp etoiles #qsmp baghera #qsmp felps #qsmp forever #qsmp mike #qsmp cellbit #qsmp gegg #qsmp quackity #long post #very shoddy translation since q speaks really fast LOL #i will edit this when the stream is over!#so do not take this as final translation #UPDATE its edited! final translation ^_^

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dozyrogue · 10 months ago

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Again I firmly believe that qsmp should have been closed for longer than just the week that it was. Cuz there's multiple content creaters that are admiting the whole reason I enjoyed going on the server was because I got to interact with people but now nobody comes on.

Like I just saw the clip of pac being like yeah I really enjoyed Playing but now there's only like ever 2 to 3 people on and I enjoy being on the server but there's times where almost nobody is on and it's like what's the point of being on the server.

Tubbo is also distancing himself from the server even if its untentional like he plays for a little bit but then he gets bored and he moves on. He enjoys being on Minecraft servers where he gets to interact with people especially if it's like the eggs or other players. Like it took him up to today to actually verbal say hes gonna push back qsmp things cuz hes basically been playing by himself for a month.

I saw that Baghera said she's most likely not going to come back because of what it's happening and that sucks even more. Badboyhalo, another person who was constantly on the server is also finally branching out to other games which is good. But it sucks that something so cool is having this like horrendous downfall.

And yeah I get it the server was open for the Korean players and then the German players for new introductions buuuut,,, I feel like after you let them play for a week they should have closed it

Like as time moves on and we get the actual content creators that are actively on the server or who really like the server saying yeah like what's the point of joining and playing anymore because no one else is on. Me personally I'm locking that shit down and fixing it. Like believe me the fan base would still be there even if they took a couple months to actually focus on the problems.

I also don't like the merch is a limited I feel like it be better if it was on pre-order to see how many people are willing to buy it instead of limited like oh we only have this much so buy as you can. Because if it was pre-order it was open for a long time I would be more influenced to actually buy it instead of like oh you have 2 weeks to buy this good luck. This part is just more than me thing but still something that I saw and I was like okay that doesn't make any sense. We've seen the fan base say yeah we will pay for Merch we will pay for cool behind the scenes but it just doesn't hit.

I don't know man I just think qsmp should go on a longer break than the week that it had. It needs time to fix its problems, find a more efficient way to gain money to keep the server open pay the admins, and a system in place and how to properly care for the admins.

I just personally don't understand why it hasn't been closed yet. Like it's very hard for me to get into Minecraft servers because I don't think a lot of them have cool ideas or things that would interest me. But qsmp is something that I really like!! I speak two languages I'm working on my third!!!

Then u add content creators who speak different languages and, from different cultures and you put them all together and I thought that was amazing! And to see it slowly Fall Apart is very heartbreaking I hope it does get fixed.

But it just isn't looking good for lack of a better term

#qsmp #qsmp critical #its kinda rambling but i think thr server should be closed

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ladyiristheenchantress · 1 year ago

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Divine Energies - Introduction

Hello friends! This is the first part of my series on divine energies, this series will include elements, archetypes, constructs, and ideas! As we go along if you have a divine energy suggestions you would like to see let me know!

What are Divine Energies? Historically divine energies have been many things, the origins are not super clear but some of the oldest cultures had an idea of divine energy, whether its Shaki in Hinduism, or in ancient Greece divine energy representing how a god materializes. In any case divine energy has a newer connotation, for many neopagans it represents something that has deity energy, however is more adjacent to an idea or concept than a god by a name.

For example: Poseidon is the god of water, and water is the divine energy. Poseidon has cultural contexts and mythos, however, water is eternal and doesn't have one set mythology or context. Often times gods can control these energies, but the energies can also control themselves. A lot of elemental practitioners describe it as "Cutting out the middle man" because you are rejecting the idea of a totally organized structure of mythos. Another example is divine archetypes which is a form of divine energy. You see a lot of terms like "divine mother", "Divine masculine", or "Divine lovers" Its stories or applications have grown with humanity since the dawn of language and it's something cultures and people have honored since the dawn of time.

Where do they come from? Aside from the vast cultural history and entomology of the word, a lot of people ask where these divine energies stem from. Overall, people believe that these energies either came before humans like the elements, some believe they were created as patterns arose from humanity like for archetypes, and some believe that they sprang up as they interacted with humanity like people honoring the energy of grain during a harvest season.

How are they similar to deities? Divine energies are similar to deities in the sense that they encompass great power. Some divine energies are omnipresent and omnipotent, some of them are not. Each divine energy can be tapped into, and in some cases stand the tests of time. They are powerful and unique, they are well respected in every community across the globe, and grew with humans from the very start.

How are they different to deities? Divine energies can change and fit cultural settings with the same basic themes, for example, Poseidon is not a universal experience, but water is. Every culture might have a new name and mythos for a water god, however, water itself doesn't change much in symbolism. Divine energies also usually dont have a set creator or creation story with science and religion coming together to try and work together. They work in mysterious and interesting ways, but represent a common theme or idea. Deities tend to be their own entity with a background, but divine energies are the divinity within a concept. Can you give me some examples?

Divine energies can be

Elements

Archetypes

Collections of objects

Over arching themes

Natural world concepts

So things like 'the universe', crops, Fire, etc, it really can be anything. What seperates them as divine energies is that they are things humans have been exposed to, they are concepts and theme's rather than set gods and goddesses.

What does Worship vs Work vs Devotee look like? Worship - People worship divine energy by tapping into a theme. This can be simply meditating on it, evoking it into your day to day life. This relationship tends to be more one sided where you simply gaze at it from a distance

Work - Working with a divine energy usually means communication pathways are actively open, you speak to it and it speaks to you. You may be guided forward on a journey, you may be tasked with learning from the divine energy as an idea, and you tend to stick to a specific theme. Another aspect I want to mention is these energies tend not to diverge from their common theme, but it may require other steps. For example: The divine lover archetype may require you to do shadow work because it may be important for you to perceive its themes better.

Devotee - A devotee to a divine energy is someone who has taken on great responsibility to cultivate a relationship with the energy. It is someone who has set up space, offerings, and time to receive and send messages and preform their work. This is usually a life long, contractual relationship and is very serious. This usually is the path priestex's will take when they have worked with an divine energy for a very long time. On the flip side: Historically common folk were devotee's in a sense. Farmers were devotee's to the field seeing their crop as its own entity, water keeps were devotee's to their trade, etc. Today it looks a bit different, with many people not needing to be a devotee out of necessity anymore, however it still can be done today Worship vs work with Worship vs Devotee How do they speak to us? A major aspect I want to discuss is that the concept of 'reaching out' is different. It is not like a traditional spirit or deity, often times its not a divine energy contacting you directly but rather a calling from inside yourself that draws you to energy. This has existed within human beings and tends to be the main way someone is called forward to divine energy. This is because it represents a concept so it reflects what you need in the moment. With that said you can reach out to any divine energy you wish, even if you aren't exactly called forward, but the divine energies won't go looking for you, you will look for them in your times of need.

These energies speak to us in the rustle of tree's, the flowing of water, and the sound of music. They are within our writings, our foods, and our plays. They are everywhere humans have touched. These energies tend to be subtle, not making a huge deal of their constant presence, however when called forward they can feel overwhelming. They tend to show you rather than tell you, and encourage you to watch them and know them to gain full lessons. Some of them are more esoteric and quite, others are more bold and ready to show you the ropes. Whatever the case, they speak to all people as we interact with the world. Revel in it! Enjoy learning from them and understanding them.

What are some problematic aspects? Some new age spaces have encouraged a binary idea of a divine feminine and a divine masculine which stems mainly from Wicca. A lot of people have also taken it a step further including 'dark feminine.' Make sure you are doing your part and making sure you are not following any problematic stereotypes. stereotypes =/= archetypes. For example: the divine feminine is always described as submissive and vapid, which is rooted in the unfair treatment of women. Another aspect is the idea that you are 'dark' and 'evil' for speaking your mind or being assertive, which is exactly what the 'dark feminine' trend is. On the flip side, the divine masculine stereotype puts this pressure on people to always be strong and tough, and it's considered an 'imbalance' if you're too assertive. that you have too much 'masculine energy.' or even denying men mental health care because they just need to "tap into more masculine energy." Another major issue found with these terms is how the terms divine “masculine” and “feminine” are being used in ways for other people to police what a "proper" woman and man is like. For example, for a man to “be in touch with his divine feminine side” by let’s say painting his nails, wearing a skirt, taking care of his skin, and loving our bodies, we are perpetuating the idea that these things are gendered for women to do in the first place, which are further enforcing gendered stereotypes. we can honor our ancestors and these archetypes and even gender identity and expression, however, we need to recognize when something is a stereotype vs an archetype. Not to mention, a lot of these communities have used it as an excuse to exclude LGBT+ friends, either to attack them directly or push them from the community. In recent times people would rather use active vs passive or receptive vs giving energy rather than assign gender to a specific trait because it gets messy. Another alternative might be to honor the actual expression and gender identity of these energies and not assign them to societal pressures, rather just letting them be.

Like with anything, It is very important to be well-read in this subject as there are cultural nuances within this conversation. Plenty of cultures have an aspect of honoring the archetype of woman and men, even nonbinary and transgender people, its important to point out when someone is used to harm other people or when a concept was hijacked for an agenda. Support and uplift cultural voices, and those who call out problematic behavior, and especially assess and look into your own belief systems.

For more information check out these links: Spiritual Misogyny Gendered Energies dont have to be opposites Divine feminine scams Why they are innacurate terms

Wrap up I cannot wait to start this journey with you all! This is going to be an exciting journey into divine energies and im so glad I was able to make an interesting master post for you all! If you have any questions feel free to ask me using the ask feature! same with if you have a specific energy you would like for me to explore! Fair Winds travelers!

Tip Jar

#pagan witch #divine energy #magical theory #witchcraft #culturalexploration #deity work #deity #energy work #energy #spirituality

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blindfoldlove · 2 months ago

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bluebird

During my walk in the mountains, I ran into a bluebird on the trail. I watched it fly from the top of the bush to the ground where it picked up something circular and held it in its tiny dark black beak. I said, "hi bluebird." It chirped back. I commented on its pretty hue and it chirped back. I said a few more things and it kept chirping back. I whispered to it a secret and asked it to carry my message and keep it safe...it chirped and then I thanked it and kept walking. Disbelief! A conversation with a lovey creature. I wonder what it was saying and oddly, I felt it understood me. Will it remember me tomorrow? I saw a couple of deer and said hi to them. They looked up and seemed comfortable in my presence. I wonder if the deer recognize my gait and smell. I'd like to think so.

At this point, I've spent more days in the mountains than not over the last few years. I've seen so much wildlife and have walked almost every trail, side trail, and deer trail I can find on the west side of the mountains. I recognize the cactus and how their smell changes with the changes of season. I feel connected to the land and more recently, have viewed my walks in the Sandias as medicine walks. I spend more time in stillness and in prayer. This morning, I stopped and stared out at the land between me and Mt.Taylor and wondered what this stretch of earth looked like before humans came and changed the landscape. I bet there were more trees and the river was wider. I wish I could be in a time machine. I'd go back to so many things.

In this moment, I whisper to myself James 1:2-4. consider it pure joy...when you face tribulations. This moment, I find reprieve in the below song, in writing, and focusing on my breaths..in...out...in..out. It's quite amazing how I don't find myself stuck in sadness anymore. It feels like a superpower to find relief in breath and in the awareness of the creator. Finding my way back to my roots and growing a different tree from them.

I finished "We Will be Jaguars" by Nemonte Nenquimo and am better for it. What an incredible book. Out of all of the books I've read, this would make the top 10 list. An inspiring story and at parts, so difficult to read. There were characters in that book that reminded me of loving people and parts that were terribly difficult to stomach.

I am thankful the jaguar visited me when I was in Ecuador... at least I think it was a Jaguar. I'd like to think Nemonte's people said hi to me long before I'd ever learn about them. I remember being in the Amazon with my friend Lydia and another woman. We were walking side by side when suddenly we all stopped as if we had walked into an invisible wall. I remember feeling a force against my chest and felt a pull to look to our left where there were tall bushes that I couldn't see behind. We then heard a growl and I instinctively started backing up. We all did and my eyes stared at the bush intently, scanning it for the slightest movements... We kept backing up then I yelled run and we sprinted to our small concrete shelter, closed the door, and did not open the door until morning. It was after dinner and we shouldn't have been out so late in the jungle. Later that evening, we saw an animal pacing back and forth in front of the door to our shelter. There was a small light hanging from a tree outside that allowed us to see the shadows of this creature at the bottom of the doorway since there were a few inches from the ground to where the door started. We dared not move to investigate it. I didn't trust the structure we were in to hold up to a curious creature. We all held hands and started whispering prayers. Then this woman and lydia both started speaking in what the bible would call "tongues." I had never heard it before and it did not sound like gibberish. It sounded like some beautiful crafted language. I had no idea what they both were saying but it gave me solace against whatever it was outside our door. Later on my trip to Ecuador, I would draw a cougar in the pages of my journal and wonder about that experience. We must have prayed for 2-3 hours. We prayed until the animal left.

I hope to have even a slice of the fearlessness, leadership, and boldness to stand up in the face of adversity and for others like Nemonte did.

I need to study now. 1 of the 3 tests down needed to get my license again in finance so need to study for the next test which I hope to take mid-december. I love my job and my view of the mountains from my very own office but there are times where I wish I was just a librarian or maid. Who knows. I think the exciting thing is that I just don't know how my story will end or what roads I will take along the way,

#Spotify

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abyssalpriest · 2 years ago

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Leviathan: Creation of the Physical Plane/Splitting of the Astral Plane 20230616

(Transcript to follow, pictures given to provide illustrations in context of the text)

Full transcript with additions and commentary on google docs, link here

Edit: if the link doesn't work try copy/pasting it into a browser, and if that doesn't work you can send me an ask and I'll try and fix it! No idea why this is being such a pain (half sarcasm because I know Leviathan doesn't want it widely shared)

Leviathan says: "This is a beginning look into the processes involved in the creation of this Plane, which, I suppose I should say for reference, was purposely created after other planes had organically settled. This was the act of creation that propelled its creators, my trinity, to a position of global godhood amongst many civilisations on and off this plane. It is a forced act of a self-assigned God.

The plane was placed in the torn up corpse of the plane that now sandwiches it above and below, known as the Astral, for lack of a better way to explain it simply. I only say that so you know what I mean by 'creation of the plane and splitting of the Astral'.

Obviously I cannot actually get across a fraction of the literal process, many people are vaguely familiar with Margaret Hamilton's coding, pictured here, very impressive, well, Trinitas' libraries on plane creation and supporting theory would be at least a little bit more expansive. Additionally I can only offer you conversations in languages you speak, this is a rather new scientific language here. A little new."

The Priest says: Please keep in mind that everything on this blog should be seen as an attempt and not a declaration. This game we play is effectively him throwing information through the veil which shatters it and then I help him on this side reorganise it. Take this ""for funsies"" because we sure did

#yes this is the type of thing i find fun no im not apologising for that #channellings //#leviathan //#~abyssal murmurs #metaphysics //#iS THAT...... THE WORD........ i never understand what Meta means #cosmogeny //#planes //

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esperanzasacres · 2 years ago

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Imperfectly Perfect

September 8, 2022

Esperanza's Acres has been a dream of mine since I was in high school. A space for folks to come and gather in community with the hopes of healing the Earth anew. This dream grew the more I made steps towards its reality - especially as I met Esperanza and watched our relationship grow. As any small business owner, artist, or organizer will tell you there comes a time when you cannot put off your dream any longer. You have to "jump." After I graduated from the University of Michigan's MS in Environmental Justice program I got a lot of job offers but I always found one reason or another that they wouldn't work for me. I even applied to additional graduate programs because I thought I didn't quite know what I wanted to do next. The reality was that I could no longer put off making this dream a reality - I had to jump.

What I realized, however, was this jump wasn't one fell swoop from the Known to the Unknown - but rather a series of jumps that move different parts of me in different ways. One of these that I've had to reckon with is a perfectionism I didn't know I had.

I've always been interested in herbalism, sewing, and food. For years I've been practicing these crafts covertly - never calling myself an herbalist or a seamstress or a farmer. I never felt as if my craft was good enough to claim publicly.

After a while I became discouraged - my lines were never straight when I sewed. I couldn't figure out how to julienne a pepper (TIP: sharpen your knives and you may realize that's helpful). There were so many people out there who seemed to be doing it better. Who seemed so much more successful at it than me. So I stopped.

It wasn't until I sat down with Shoshanna Raven - someone who describes herself as a "organic, ethical, millionaire" that I realized the problem.

"You're going to suck."

I was so afraid of not doing things perfectly that I wasn't doing them at all.

How would I ever know if my sewing would get better unless I did it more? How would I know if I could create amazing meals unless I cooked? How could I learn the language of my ancestry (Yiddish) unless I absolutely butchered the language first? At least I was speaking.

Of course I was going to suck. So many times people don't "post their L's." We see the finished, shiny version at the end of the tunnel when they're making millions. We don't see the "in my parents basement" phase.

I would so much rather say the wrong thing and learn than not say anything at all. I would so much rather sew imperfectly than never sew again. I would rather cook a meal and burn it to hell and have to order pizza than never cook. The fear of failure is so large, that so many people decide to never try.

Esperanza's Acres has challenged me in many ways - but also has provided me with a challenge to myself. Speaking up and sharing an unfiltered, authentic version of my voice has been one of the spiciest things I've done yet. It really challenges my people pleasing and perfectionism. The most vulnerable I feel is when I'm sharing my direct voice with you through my podcast, Being Animal.

The challenge that I have with myself is to speak for about 30 minutes, then upload it without listening to it again or editing it. This guarantees two things:

(1) What you get is a no-frills, deeply authentic story straight from my heart. It's my deep musings on life unfiltered by anything else - no cuts, no intro music, no closing music, sometimes I don't even have the idea before I start talking. What comes out is the truth of where I am right now and what my soul truly needs to say in that very moment.

(2) That you get a podcast. There are so many amazing voices, artists, and creators out there who are held back by the constant editing and revisions before the project is released (if it ever is). I would for sure be one of these people - constantly second guessing how my voice sounds, the background noise, if I should re-tape this or that, and if I should just scrap it altogether.

I have every intention of one day editing my podcast. Just as I have every intention of selling you all my 100% organic, un-dyed cotton menstruation pads that I sewed myself and my handmade tinctures, hydrosols, lip balms, salves, incantation bowls, and amulets. The first step has to be doing it. So that's what we're doing.

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bao3bei4 · 4 years ago

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fan language: the victorian imaginary and cnovel fandom

there’s this pinterest image i’ve seen circulating a lot in the past year i’ve been on fandom social media. it’s a drawn infographic of a, i guess, asian-looking woman holding a fan in different places relative to her face to show what the graphic helpfully calls “the language of the fan.”

people like sharing it. they like thinking about what nefarious ancient chinese hanky code shenanigans their favorite fan-toting character might get up to⁠—accidentally or on purpose. and what’s the problem with that?

the problem is that fan language isn’t chinese. it’s victorian. and even then, it’s not really quite victorian at all.

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fans served a primarily utilitarian purpose throughout chinese history. of course, most of the surviving fans we see⁠—and the types of fans we tend to care about⁠—are closer to art pieces. but realistically speaking, the majority of fans were made of cheaper material for more mundane purposes. in china, just like all around the world, people fanned themselves. it got hot!

so here’s a big tipoff. it would be very difficult to use a fan if you had an elaborate language centered around fanning yourself.

you might argue that fine, everyday working people didn’t have a fan language. but wealthy people might have had one. the problem we encounter here is that fans weren’t really gendered. (caveat here that certain types of fans were more popular with women. however, those tended to be the round silk fans, ones that bear no resemblance to the folding fans in the graphic). no disrespect to the gnc old man fuckers in the crowd, but this language isn’t quite masc enough for a tool that someone’s dad might regularly use.

folding fans, we know, reached europe in the 17th century and gained immense popularity in the 18th. it was there that fans began to take on a gendered quality. ariel beaujot describes in their 2012 victorian fashion accessories how middle class women, in the midst of a top shortage, found themselves clutching fans in hopes of securing a husband.

she quotes an article from the illustrated london news, suggesting “women ‘not only’ used fans to ‘move the air and cool themselves but also to express their sentiments.’” general wisdom was that the movement of the fan was sufficiently expressive that it augmented a woman’s displays of emotion. and of course, the more english audiences became aware that it might do so, the more they might use their fans purposefully in that way.

notice, however, that this is no more codified than body language in general is. it turns out that “the language of the fan” was actually created by fan manufacturers at the turn of the 20th century⁠—hundreds of years after their arrival⁠ in europe—to sell more fans. i’m not even kidding right now. the story goes that it was louis duvelleroy of the maison duvelleroy who decided to include pamphlets on the language with each fan sold.

interestingly enough, beaujot suggests that it didn’t really matter what each particular fan sign meant. gentlemen could tell when they were being flirted with. as it happens, meaningful eye contact and a light flutter near the face may be a lingua franca.

so it seems then, the language of the fan is merely part of this victorian imaginary we collectively have today, which in turn itself was itself captivated by china.

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victorian references come up perhaps unexpectedly often in cnovel fandom, most often with regards to modesty.

it’s a bit of an awkward reference considering that chinese traditional fashion⁠—and the ambiguous time periods in which these novels are set⁠—far predate victorian england. it is even more awkward considering that victoria and her covered ankles did um. imperialize china.

but nonetheless, it is common. and to make a point about how ubiquitous it is, here is a link to the twitter search for “sqq victorian.” sqq is the fandom abbreviation for shen qingqiu, the main character of the scum villain’s self-saving system, by the way.

this is an awful lot of results for a search involving a chinese man who spends the entire novel in either real modern-day china or fantasy ancient china. that’s all i’m going to say on the matter, without referencing any specific tweet.

i think people are aware of the anachronism. and i think they don’t mind. even the most cursory research reveals that fan language is european and a revisionist fantasy. wikipedia can tell us this⁠—i checked!

but it doesn’t matter to me whether people are trying to make an internally consistent canon compliant claim, or whether they’re just free associating between fan facts they know. it is, instead, more interesting to me that people consistently refer to this particular bit of history. and that’s what i want to talk about today⁠—the relationship of fandom today to this two hundred odd year span of time in england (roughly stuart to victorian times) and england in that time period to its contemporaneous china.

things will slip a little here. victorian has expanded in timeframe, if only because random guys posting online do not care overly much for respect for the intricacies of british history. china has expanded in geographic location, if only because the english of the time themselves conflated china with all of asia.

in addition, note that i am critiquing a certain perspective on the topic. this is why i write about fan as white here⁠—not because all fans are white⁠—but because the tendencies i’m examining have a clear historical antecedent in whiteness that shapes how white fans encounter these novels.

i’m sure some fans of color participate in these practices. however i don’t really care about that. they are not its main perpetrators nor its main beneficiaries. so personally i am minding my own business on that front.

it’s instead important to me to illuminate the linkage between white as subject and chinese as object in history and in the present that i do argue that fannish products today are built upon.

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it’s not radical, or even new at all, for white audiences to consume⁠—or create their own versions of⁠—chinese art en masse. in many ways the white creators who appear to owe their whole style and aesthetic to their asian peers in turn are just the new chinoiserie.

this is not to say that white people can’t create asian-inspired art. but rather, i am asking you to sit with the discomfort that you may not like the artistic company you keep in the broader view of history, and to consider together what is to be done about that.

now, when i say the new chinoiserie, i first want to establish what the original one is. chinoiserie was a european artistic movement that appeared coincident with the rise in popularity of folding fans that i described above. this is not by coincidence; the european demand for asian imports and the eventual production of lookalikes is the movement itself. so: when we talk about fans, when we talk about china (porcelain), when we talk about tea in england⁠—we are talking about the legacy of chinoiserie.

there are a couple things i want to note here. while english people as a whole had a very tenuous knowledge of what china might be, their appetites for chinoiserie were roughly coincident with national relations with china. as the relationship between england and china moved from trade to out-and-out wars, chinoiserie declined in popularity until china had been safely subjugated once more by the end of the 19th century.

the second thing i want to note on the subject that contrary to what one might think at first, the appeal of chinoiserie was not that it was foreign. eugenia zuroski’s 2013 taste for china examines 18th century english literature and its descriptions of the according material culture with the lens that chinese imports might be formative to english identity, rather than antithetical to it.

beyond that bare thesis, i think it’s also worthwhile to extend her insight that material objects become animated by the literary viewpoints on them. this is true, both in a limited general sense as well as in the sense that english thinkers of the time self-consciously articulated this viewpoint. consider the quote from the illustrated london news above⁠—your fan, that object, says something about you. and not only that, but the objects you surround yourself with ought to.

it’s a bit circular, the idea that written material says that you should allow written material to shape your understanding of physical objects. but it’s both 1) what happened, and 2) integral, i think, to integrating a fannish perspective into the topic.

--------------------

japanning is the name for the popular imitative lacquering that english craftspeople developed in domestic response to the demand for lacquerware imports. in the eighteenth century, japanning became an artform especially suited for young women. manuals were published on the subject, urging young women to learn how to paint furniture and other surfaces, encouraging them to rework the designs provided in the text.

it was considered a beneficial activity for them; zuroski describes how it was “associated with commerce and connoisseurship, practical skill and aesthetic judgment.” a skillful japanner, rather than simply obscuring what lay underneath the lacquer, displayed their superior judgment in how they chose to arrange these new canonical figures and effects in a tasteful way to bring out the best qualities of them.

zuroski quotes the first english-language manual on the subject, written in 1688, which explains how japanning allows one to:

alter and correct, take out a piece from one, add a fragment to the next, and make an entire garment compleat in all its parts, though tis wrought out of never so many disagreeing patterns.

this language evokes a very different, very modern practice. it is this english reworking of an asian artform that i think the parallels are most obvious.

white people, through their artistic investment in chinese material objects and aesthetics, integrated them into their own subjectivity. these practices came to say something about the people who participated in them, in a way that had little to do with the country itself. their relationship changed from being a “consumer” of chinese objects to becoming the proprietor of these new aesthetic signifiers.

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i want to talk about this through a few pairs of tensions on the subject that i think characterize common attitudes then and now.

first, consider the relationship between the self and the other: the chinese object as something that is very familiar to you, speaking to something about your own self vs. the chinese object as something that is fundamentally different from you and unknowable to you.

consider: [insert character name] is just like me. he would no doubt like the same things i like, consume the same cultural products. we are the same in some meaningful way vs. the fast standard fic disclaimer that “i tried my best when writing this fic, but i’m a english-speaking westerner, and i’m just writing this for fun so...... [excuses and alterations the person has chosen to make in this light],” going hand-in-hand with a preoccupation with authenticity or even overreliance on the unpaid labor of chinese friends and acquaintances.

consider: hugh honour when he quotes a man from the 1640s claiming “chinoiserie of this even more hybrid kind had become so far removed from genuine Chinese tradition that it was exported from India to China as a novelty to the Chinese themselves”

these tensions coexist, and look how they have been resolved.

second, consider what we vest in objects themselves: beaujot explains how the fan became a sexualized, coquettish object in the hands of a british woman, but was used to great effect in gilbert and sullivan’s 1885 mikado to demonstrate the docility of asian women.

consider: these characters became expressions of your sexual desires and fetishes, even as their 5’10 actors themselves are emasculated.

what is liberating for one necessitates the subjugation and fetishization of the other.

third, consider reactions to the practice: enjoyment of chinese objects as a sign of your cosmopolitan palate vs “so what’s the hype about those ancient chinese gays” pop culture explainers that addressed the unconvinced mainstream.

consider: zuroski describes how both english consumers purchased china in droves, and contemporary publications reported on them. how:

It was in the pages of these papers that the growing popularity of Chinese things in the early eighteenth century acquired the reputation of a “craze”; they portrayed china fanatics as flawed, fragile, and unreliable characters, and frequently cast chinoiserie itself in the same light.

referenda on fannish behavior serve as referenda on the objects of their devotion, and vice versa. as the difference between identity and fetish collapses, they come to be treated as one and the same by not just participants but their observers.

at what point does mxtx fic cease to be chinese?

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finally, it seems readily apparent that attitudes towards chinese objects may in fact have something to do with attitudes about china as a country. i do not want to suggest that these literary concerns are primarily motivated and begot by forces entirely divorced from the real mechanics of power.

here, i want to bring in edward said, and his 1993 culture and imperialism. there, he explains how power and legitimacy go hand in hand. one is direct, and one is purely cultural. he originally wrote this in response to the outsize impact that british novelists have had in the maintenance of empire and throughout decolonization. literature, he argues, gives rise to powerful narratives that constrain our ability to think outside of them.

there’s a little bit of an inversion at play here. these are chinese novels, actually. but they’re being transformed by white narratives and artists. and just as i think the form of the novel is important to said’s critique, i think there’s something to be said about the form that fic takes and how it legitimates itself.

bound up in fandom is the idea that you have a right to create and transform as you please. it is a nice idea, but it is one that is directed towards a certain kind of asymmetry. that is, one where the author has all the power. this is the narrative we hear a lot in the history of fandom⁠—litigious authors and plucky fans, fanspaces always under attack from corporate sanitization.

meanwhile, said builds upon raymond schwab’s narrative of cultural exchange between european writers and cultural products outside the imperial core. said explains that fundamental to these two great borrowings (from greek classics and, in the so-called “oriental renaissance” of the late 18th, early 19th centuries from “india, china, japan, persia, and islam”) is asymmetry.

he had argued prior, in orientalism, that any “cultural exchange” between “partners conscious of inequality” always results in the suffering of the people. and here, he describes how “texts by dead people were read, appreciated, and appropriated” without the presence of any actual living people in that tradition.

i will not understate that there is a certain economic dynamic complicating this particular fannish asymmetry. mxtx has profited materially from the success of her works, most fans will not. also secondly, mxtx is um. not dead. LMAO.

but first, the international dynamic of extraction that said described is still present. i do not want to get overly into white attitudes towards china in this post, because i am already thoroughly derailed, but i do believe that they structure how white cnovel fandom encounters this texts.

at any rate, any profit she receives is overwhelmingly due to her domestic popularity, not her international popularity. (i say this because many of her international fans have never given her a cent. in fact, most of them have no real way to.) and moreover, as we talk about the structure of english-language fandom, what does it mean to create chinese cultural products without chinese people?

as white people take ownership over their versions of stories, do we lose something? what narratives about engagement with cnovels might exist outside of the form of classic fandom?

i think a lot of people get the relationship between ideas (the superstructure) and production (the base) confused. oftentimes they will lob in response to criticism, that look! this fic, this fandom, these people are so niche, and so underrepresented in mainstream culture, that their effects are marginal. i am not arguing that anyone’s cql fic causes imperialism. (unless you’re really annoying. then it’s anyone’s game)

i’m instead arguing something a little bit different. i think, given similar inputs, you tend to get similar outputs. i think we live in the world that imperialism built, and we have clear historical predecessors in terms of white appetites for creating, consuming, and transforming chinese objects.

we have already seen, in the case of the fan language meme that began this post, that sometimes we even prefer this white chinoiserie. after all, isn’t it beautiful, too?

i want to bring discomfort to this topic. i want to reject the paradigm of white subject and chinese object; in fact, here in this essay, i have tried to reverse it.

if you are taken aback by the comparisons i make here, how can you make meaningful changes to your fannish practice to address it?

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some concluding thoughts on the matter, because i don’t like being misunderstood!

i am not claiming white fans cannot create fanworks of cnovels or be inspired by asian art or artists. this essay is meant to elaborate on the historical connection between victorian england and cnovel characters and fandom that others have already popularized.

i don’t think people who make victorian jokes are inherently bad or racist. i am encouraging people to think about why we might make them and/or share them

the connections here are meant to be more provocative than strictly literal. (e.g. i don’t literally think writing fanfic is a 1-1 descendant of japanning). these connections are instead meant to 1) make visible the baggage that fans of color often approach fandom with and 2) recontextualize and defamiliarize fannish practice for the purposes of honest critique

please don’t turn this post into being about other different kinds of discourse, or into something that only one “kind” of fan does. please take my words at face value and consider them in good faith. i would really appreciate that.

please feel free to ask me to clarify any statements or supply more in-depth sources :)

#x #-__- another fandom essay sorry

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reanimatedcourier · 4 years ago

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How to Write Indigenous Characters Without Looking like a Jackass:

Update as of December 26th, 2020: I have added a couple new sections about naming and legal terms, as well as a bit of reading on the Cherokee Princess phenomenon.

Boozhoo (hello) Fallout fandom! I'm a card-carrying Anishinaabe delivering this rough guide about writing Indigenous characters because wow, do I see a lot of shit.

Let's get something out of the way first: Fallout's portrayal of Indigenous people is racist. From a vague definition of "tribal" to the claims of them being "savage" and "uncivilized" mirror real-world stereotypes used to dehumanize us. Fallout New Vegas' narrated intro has Ron Perlman saying Mr. House "rehabilitated" tribals to create New Vegas' Three Families. You know. Rehabilitate. As if we are animals. Top it off with an erasure of Indigenous people in the American Southwest and no real tribe names, and you've got some pretty shitty representation. The absence of Native American as a race option in the GECK isn't too great, given that two Native characters are marked "Caucasian" despite being brown. Butch Deloria is a pretty well-known example of this effect. (Addendum: Indigenous people can have any mix of dominant and recessive traits, as well as present different phenotypes. What bothers me is it doesn't accommodate us or mixed people, which is another post entirely.)

As a precautionary warning: this post and the sources linked will discuss racism and genocide. There will also be discussion of multiple kinds of abuse.

Now, your best approach will be to pick a nation or tribe and research them. However, what follows will be general references.

Terms that may come up in your research include Aboriginal/Native Canadian, American Indian/Native American, Inuit, Métis, and Mestizo. The latter two refer to cultural groups created after the discovery of the so-called New World. (Addendum made September 5th, 2020: Mestizo has negative connotations and originally meant "half breed" so stick with referring to your mixed Latine and Indigenous characters as mixed Indigenous or simply by the name of their people [Maya, Nahua].)

As a note, not every mixed person is Métis or Mestizo. If you are, say, Serbian and Anishinaabe, you would be mixed, but not Métis (the big M is important here, as it refers to a specific culture). Even the most liberal definition caps off at French and British ancestry alongside Indigenous (some say Scottish and English). Mestizo works the same, since it refers to descendants of Spanish conquistadors/settlers and Indigenous people.

Trouble figuring out whose land is where? No problem, check out this map.

Drawing

Don't draw us with red skin. It's offensive and stereotypical.

Tutorial for Native Skintones

Tutorial for Mixed Native Skintones

Why Many Natives Have Long Hair (this would technically fit better under another category, but give your Native men long hair!)

If You're Including Traditional Wear, Research! It's Out There

Languages

Remember, there are a variety of languages spoken by Indigenous people today. No two tribes will speak the same language, though there are some that are close and may have loan words from each other (Cree and Anishinaabemowin come to mind). Make sure your Diné (you may know them as Navajo) character doesn't start dropping Cree words.

Here's a Site With a Map and Voice Clips

Here's an Extensive List of Amerindian Languages

Keep in mind there are some sounds that have no direct English equivalents. But while we're at it, remember a lot of us speak English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. The languages of the countries that colonized us.

Words in Amerindian languages tend to be longer than English ones and are in the format of prefix + verb + suffix to get concepts across. Gaawiin miskwaasinoon is a complete sentence in Anishinaabemowin, for example (it is not red).

Names

Surprisingly, we don't have names like Passing Dawn or Two-Bears-High-Fiving in real life. A lot of us have, for lack of better phrasing, white people names. We may have family traditions of passing a name down from generation to generation (I am the fourth person in my maternal line to have my middle name), but not everyone is going to do that. If you do opt for a name from a specific tribe, make sure you haven't chosen a last name from another tribe.

Baby name sites aren't reliable, because most of the names on there will be made up by people who aren't Indigenous. That site does list some notable exceptions and debunks misconceptions.

Here's a list of last names from the American census.

Indian Names

You may also hear "spirit names" because that's what they are for. You know the sort of mystical nature-related name getting slapped on an Indigenous character? Let's dive into that for a moment.

The concept of a spirit name seems to have gotten mistranslated at some point in time. It is the name Creator calls you throughout all your time both here and in the spirit world. These names are given (note the word usage) to you in a ceremony performed by an elder. This is not done lightly.

A lot of imitations of this end up sounding strange because they don't follow traditional guidelines. (I realize this has spread out of the original circle, but Fallout fans may recall other characters in Honest Hearts and mods that do this. They have really weird and racist results.)

If you're not Indigenous: don't try this. You will be wrong.

Legal Terms

Now, sometimes the legal term (or terms) for a tribe may not be what they refer to themselves as. A really great example of this would be the Oceti Sakowin and "Sioux". How did that happen, you might be wondering. Smoky Mountain News has an article about this word and others, including the history of these terms.

For the most accurate information, you are best off having your character refer to themselves by the name their nation uses outside of legislation. A band name would be pretty good for this (Oglala Lakota, for example). I personally refer to myself by my band.

Cowboys

And something the Fallout New Vegas fans might be interested in, cowboys! Here's a link to a post with several books about Black and Indigenous cowboys in the Wild West.

Representation: Stereotypes and Critical Thought

Now, you'll need to think critically about why you want to write your Indigenous character a certain way. Here is a comprehensive post about stereotypes versus nuance.

Familiarize yourself with tropes. The Magical Indian is a pretty prominent one, with lots of shaman-type characters in movies and television shows. This post touches on its sister tropes (The Magical Asian and The Magical Negro), but is primarily about the latter.

Say you want to write an Indigenous woman. Awesome! Characters I love to see. Just make sure you're aware of the stereotypes surrounding her and other Women of Color.

Word to the wise: do not make your Indigenous character an alcoholic. "What, so they can't even drink?" You might be asking. That is not what I'm saying. There is a pervasive stereotype about Drunk Indians, painting a reaction to trauma as an inherent genetic failing, as stated in this piece about Indigenous social worker Jessica Elm's research. The same goes for drugs. Ellen Deloria is an example of this stereotype.

Familiarize yourself with and avoid the Noble Savage trope. This was used to dehumanize us and paint us as "childlike" for the sake of a plot device. It unfortunately persists today.

Casinos are one of the few ways for tribes to make money so they can build homes and maintain roads. However, some are planning on diversifying into other business ventures.

There's a stereotype where we all live off government handouts. Buddy, some of these long-term boil water advisories have been in place for over twenty years. The funding allocated to us as a percentage is 0.39%: less than half a percent to fight the coronavirus. They don't give us money.

"But what about people claiming to be descended from a Cherokee princess?" Cherokee don't and never had anything resembling princesses. White southerners made that up prior to the Civil War. As the article mentions, they fancied themselves "defending their lands as the Indians did".

Also, don't make your Indigenous character a cannibal. Cannibalism is a serious taboo in a lot of our cultures, particularly northern ones.

Our lands are not cursed. We don't have a litany of curses to cast on white people in found footage films. Seriously. We have better things to be doing. Why on earth would our ancestors be haunting you when they could be with their families? Very egotistical assumption.

Indigenous Ties and Blood Quantum

Blood quantum is a colonial system that was initially designed to "breed out the Indian" in people. To dilute our bloodlines until we assimilated properly into white society. NPR has an article on it here.

However, this isn't how a vast majority of us define our identities. What makes us Indigenous is our connections (or reconnection) to our families, tribes, bands, clans, and communities.

Blood quantum has also historically been used to exclude Black Natives from tribal enrollment, given that it was first based on appearance. So, if you looked Black and not the image of "Indian" the white census taker had in his brain, you were excluded and so were your descendants.

Here are two tumblrs that talk about Black Indigenous issues and their perspectives. They also talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.

However, if you aren't Indigenous, don't bring up blood quantum. Don't. This is an issue you should not be speaking about.

Cherokee Princess Myth

"Princess" was not a real position in any tribe. The European idea of monarchy did not suddenly manifest somewhere else. The closest probable approximation may have been the daughter of a chief or other politically prominent person. But princess? No.

Here is an article talking about possible origins of this myth. Several things are of note here: women from other tribes may have bee shoved under this label and the idea of a "Cherokee Princess" had been brought up to explain the sudden appearance of a brown-skinned (read: half Black) family member.

For a somewhat more in depth discussion of why, specifically, this myth gets touted around so often, Timeline has this piece.

Religion

Our religions are closed. We are not going to tell you how we worship. Mostly because every little bit we choose to share gets appropriated. Smudging is the most recent example. If you aren't Indigenous, that's smoke cleansing. Smudging is done in a specific way with ceremonies and prayers.

Now, a lot of us were forcibly converted. Every residential school was run by Christians. So plenty of us are Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, Lutheran, etc. Catholicism in Latin America also has influence from the Indigenous religions in that region.

Having your Indigenous character pray or carry rosaries wouldn't be a bad thing, if that religion was important to them. Even if they are atheist, if they lived outside of a reserve or other Indigenous communities, they might have Christian influences due to its domination of the Western world.

Settler Colonialism and the White Savior Trope

Now we've come to our most painful section yet. Fallout unintentionally has an excellent agent of settler-colonialism, in particular the Western Christian European variety, in Caesar's Legion and Joshua Graham.

(Addendum: Honest Hearts is extremely offensive in its portrayal of Indigenous people, and egregiously shows a white man needing to "civilize" tribals and having to teach them basic skills. These skills include cooking, finding safe water, and defending themselves from other tribes.)

Before we dive in, here is a post explaining the concept of cultural Christianity, if you are unfamiliar with it.

We also need to familiarize ourselves with The White Man's Burden. While the poem was written regarding the American-Philippine war, it still captures the attitudes toward Indigenous folks all over the world at the time.

As this article in Teen Vogue points out, white people like to believe they need to save People of Color. You don't need to. People of Color can save themselves.

Now, cultural Christianity isn't alone on this side of the pond. Writer Teju Cole authored a piece on the White Savior Industrial Complex to describe mission trips undertaken by white missionaries to Africa to feed their egos.

Colonialism has always been about the acquisition of wealth. To share a quote from this paper about the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples: "Negatively, [settler colonialism] strives for the dissolution of native societies. Positively, it erects a new colonial society on the expropriated land base—as I put it, settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event. In its positive aspect, elimination is an organizing principal of settler-colonial society rather than a one-off (and superseded) occurrence. The positive outcomes of the logic of elimination can include officially encouraged miscegenation, the breaking-down of native title into alienable individual freeholds, native citizenship, child abduction, religious conversion, resocialization in total institutions such as missions or boarding schools, and a whole range of cognate biocultural assimilations. All these strategies, including frontier homicide, are characteristic of settler colonialism. Some of them are more controversial in genocide studies than others." (Positive, here, is referring to "benefits" for the colonizers. Indigenous people don't consider colonization beneficial.)

An example of a non-benefit, the Church Rock disaster had Diné children playing in radioactive water so the company involved could avoid bad publicity.

Moving on, don't sterilize your Indigenous people. Sterilization, particularly when it is done without consent, has long been used as a tool by the white system to prevent "undesirables" (read, People of Color and disabled people) from having children. Somehow, as of 2018, it wasn't officially considered a crime.

The goal of colonization was to eliminate us entirely. Millions died because of exposure to European diseases. Settlers used to and still do separate our children from us for reasons so small as having a dirty dish in the sink. You read that right, a single dirty dish in your kitchen sink was enough to get your children taken and adopted out to white families. This information was told to me by an Indigenous social work student whose name I will keep anonymous.

It wasn't until recently they made amendments to the Indian Act that wouldn't automatically render Indigenous women non-status if they married someone not Indigenous. It also took much too long for Indigenous families to take priority in child placement over white ones. Canada used to adopt Indigenous out to white American families. The source for that statement is further down, but adoption has been used as a tool to destroy cultures.

I am also begging you to cast aside whatever colonialist systems have told you about us. We are alive. People with a past, not people of the past, which was wonderfully said here by Frank Waln.

Topics to Avoid if You Aren't Indigenous

Child Separation. Just don't. We deserve to remain with our families and our communities. Let us stay together and be happy that way.

Assimilation schools. Do not bring up a tool for cultural genocide that has left lasting trauma in our communities.

W/ndigos. I don't care that they're in Fallout 76. They shouldn't be. Besides, you never get them right anyway.

Sk/nwalkers. Absolutely do not. Diné stories are not your playthings either.

I've already talked about drugs and alcohol. Do your research with compassion and empathy in mind. Indigenous people have a lot of pain and generational trauma. You will need to be extremely careful having your Indigenous characters use drugs and alcohol. If your character can be reduced to their (possible) substance abuse issues, you need to step back and rework it. As mentioned in Jessica Elm's research, remember that it isn't inherent to us.

For our final note: remember that we're complex, autonomous human beings. Don't use our deaths to further the stories of your white characters. Don't reduce us to some childlike thing that needs to be raised and civilized by white characters. We interact with society a little differently than you do, but we interact nonetheless.

Meegwetch (thank you) for reading! Remember to do your research and portray us well, but also back off when you are told by an Indigenous person.

This may be updated in the future, it depends on what information I come across or, if other Indigenous people are so inclined, what is added to this post.

#fallout 3 #fallout 4 #fallout 76 #fallout new vegas #fallout 1 #fallout 2 #fallout: new vegas #ozhibii'ige

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noblemaiden-world · 3 years ago

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Hello There - A Star Wars story

masterlist

note: This is my first time doing sth crazy like that,so please don't be harsh on me, my English is not perfect due to not being my first language.

❍ please do reblog if you enjoyed,bc it really helps writers and content creators on tumblr!!! ₍ᵔ·͈༝·͈ᵔ₎

❍ please give a ♥︎ if you enjoyed,it also rlly helps a lot to encourage writers and content creators on tumblr!!!

⎉ Cast; Master Calian Graham (as Benedict Cumberbatch),Anakin Skywalker (as Hayden Christssen),Obi-Wan Kenobi (as Ewan McGregor),Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson-Ashley Drane), Qui-Gon Jinn(Liam Neeson),Reader-y/n(as you).

—!!Details!! Your lightsaber colour: Yellow - pink or magenta-toned. You own three lightsabers,the mainly one that you will use throughout the story is the yellow,but your double-bladed lightsaber is pink/magenta.AND ALSO you and your master have a father/uncle!master!figure and padawan!childxreader

— warnings: pregnancy content,blood,angst,alternative universes.

— words: 5k

— summary: reader since her mom's pregnancy was gifted with force abilities on a planet called Hawko situated in somewhere on Outer Rim,not many people has knowledge that this planet even exist,y/n father used to be part of the Whills community until he fell in love with the brave hawko woman in Jedha,but this part of the history can wait.Y/n bond with the force is unbelievable strong which her future former master felt when both of them met at the first time,with permission of your parents Calian brought you to be trained at the Jedi temple and become a one of them.In the Jedi Temple within had some complications whose it was due to your age,11,too late to be trained,fortunately to you and your master he was able to jockey the council orders,being honest,his influence helped a lot when they tested you,fear you didn't feel,you were calm as a saint and well behaved.

But henceforth soon the problems will come while you grew older,attachments are forbidden,you constantly need to remind it to yeself,but as your master would say; "‐A clever girl you are,but too much stubborn and reckless tho,young lady."

A little music ambience influences a lot.

As I am a random writer and I'm constantly daydreaming,I thought, "why not write a story with the same character but in different realities/timelines?".So here I am bringing this idea out of my tiny Pandora box.

(The timeline is different/The multiverse and choices can change the end because this is kind of an alternative universe)

A few years before the Clone Wars

-You've been a wee distant young padawan,tell em what's bothering you?

-Sorry master.-I don't look into his pierced blue eyes that are in constant storming sea waves.-But I-I felt some disturbance in the force,as if it was telling me to pay attention in any details,cautiously.

-The force is speaking with you,I see.-he stopped in his tracks looking at me,spotting my belt that holds my lightsabers.-The colour of ye lightsaber,padawan...Means a lot,but I am able to see through this and taking a risk,I'd say that you're a gray jedi.-What does it matters now? He's always saying this to me as if I forgot anytime that my beliefs in the jedi order and its traditional methods doesn't work as once used to.

-As you are as well,master Graham.-I remarked calmly looking finally at his eyes,me and my master have a special bond and some similar ethical beliefs.-Don't you see Master,the Jedi council, their rules/laws,teaching methods,I feel that one day they will fall,all of us will fall undoubtedly,since the last war sir,the Jedi path is wrong and brings with itself sorrows,a life with fear and pain,suffer.-taking a breathe I continue.-Thus the nightmares that I've been having in my dreams mirror the old days something like the fall of the old Republic,Revan,Shan clan,Darth Malak,Tenebrae,Vaylin, Darth Nighilus,its like a holofilm in my mind...-Graham agreed with a simple head nod.

My master started his phrase in a dramaticlly tone,making me shuush.

-Indeed I trained a feminine version of myself.-he crossed his arms confirming his own statement.

-Hmmm,I don't like where this subject is heading on...Bad or good?Must I worry about it,sir?

-Depends on the point of view that you and others might see.-Graham maintain himself stoic as a rock in front of me,the way he is looking at me it's like as if my parents would look at me with worry,care,as if soon they'd knew that their kid would be hurt soon.-You are attached to someone else,love I dare to say,you hide it from everyone I know, unfortunately I am too good in corporal language and very cautious with the child of mine,the way that you look at him...It's pure and naive love.

OK,I'm in shock how does...Dumb girl,you've should pay attention and be cautious,if ye master were able to discover,how much time do you have yet until the rest of them figure out?

I felt my face turn hot,shame.

-As a jedi master,your master Jedi.I must warn you about this,attachments are...-I interrupted him.

--Forbidden, strong feelings can lead you to a suffering life,I know about this, master,but please be honest with me, do you not believe in this code any longer,do you?

He left a slight smile escape.

-Once I also loved,my young padawan,ouch...It was a forbidden love tho,when my master discovered ,she went feral,mainly when I revealed that she was a mandalorian,a mandalorian,a bounty-hunter,the old woman almost kicked my ass.

Okay,I am totally dumbfounded and astonished,A MANDALORIAN woman?!I would love to know more.

-Really?-way excited as I should be.-was she beautiful?Ah I forgot,they cannot reveal their faces.

-Well,she first tried to get rid of me because I screw up her mission,howevee in compensation I kind helped her,so...The rest is a good story from my past,but I won't tell you.-as if...

-Unfair,but I shall respect your wishes,master.-begrudgingly I said.-Above all this,what should I do with this?These nightmares,all my dreams seems so real,as if I could touch them, feel what is inside.-a long breath escape.

-Is it not obviously?Finally we must start your training,a tough one which I was waiting the right time to recall.The others Jedi secrets,my secrets,tricks,my legacy and your dad knowledge,I will tell and teach everything that I know as possible as I still alive.

-Don't say such thing like that master,you will live a long life,your abilities even the ones in which don't belongs to the light side,master Graham, you can control them,I want to be like you one day.-He stared at my face studying before saying anything,have I said something wrong?

-You will never be like me y/n.-ouch,I didn't saw that coming.-You will,you must be yourself and even better than I ever could possibly think to be.-again,he stopped his talking,but his face went white.-How do you know about these...-he means,how do I know that he often practice and study the dark nature of the force?Well...

-Master,as you said my connection with the force is strong,and automatically when I worry about you because I feel something obscure I...This is how I knew,I was not spying on you and I never ever told to anybody else,but I was afraid that you might become a sith itself,I would've cry if you...

-I would never become a sith,nor turn to the dark side,I understand your worries but please,don't do it,sometimes some things that I do might be dangerous and you will know about it,I will teach you everything,just need to remind that there's not light without the darkness and viceversa,but now this training you shall never say to anybody,not even for those that you care,your parents or even your former love, young padawan.

-About this master-my love private life...-You won't tell,will you?-He denies.

-As I told you,I also loved and you should believe more in me,don't you forget that since you're a kid I always brought you to see your parents and even received some teachings about the force with your father,the council would have expelled me and you if they'd discovered about this, which gratefully they didn't because I am...

-Because you have some tricks hidden in your sleeves,can do things that others can't and you want to train me all of it so I can become a...

-An excellent Jedi,no need to be selfish but learn that gaining control and power of yourself can also help the others,it'stm the right way,out duty is with the force and help the others,I might be harsh,sometimes rude or another bad stuff,but one thing that my mind leans on is in my loyalty with the force,not either with Republic or politicians, then what do you say to me?Do you want to learn all that I know and do so much more or...-I cut him off.

-Of course master,I want to be strong and clever,use my force abilities,control them and help the others.

-Then before all of this,wsrning you I must,we are gonna learn not only things from the light side but also the dark one,okay?

So it was true,Graham really connected himself with the dark side,though he still in the light side doing his Jedi duties...

-I know what you're thinking of me because of it,but as I told you,there's is no light without the darkness what you must know and do is still LOYAL to your morals and to yourself,do not seek for greedy things.

-Count me in,I won't disappoint you master.

-I know that you will not,I don't even will give you the permission to give up,then be prepared,it won't be easy.

-Oh please,don't even need to say that,I don't tend to give up nor even lose,never.

-Even when you're procrastinating?

A gasped sound came out of my mouth together with chuckling.

#obi wan star wars #star wars #anakin skywalker imagine #anakin skywalker x reader #obi wan x reader #star wars imagine #imagines #star wars au #star wars clone wars #star wars preferences #benedict cumberbatch #star wars imagines #obi wan kenobi x reader #obi wan kenobi imagines #alternative universe #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker

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horribletimemanagementskills · 3 years ago

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So, language barrier AU

this is lowkey kinda outdated since TWST ENG came out, but I found this funny. Also I in no way am the creator of this AU, i don't know who made it but I'm a big fan-.

so take it as the Original JP version in the sense where in TWST Japanese is called Commonspeak (I think? I might've read too many fanfics-), and probably the most spoken language there, along with other languages (idk if they have other names as well) like Arabic(Scalding Sands) and French(Rook).

Basically all languages are spoken except English, which is considered a dead language like Latin, which is odd bc I'm pretty sure Latin is mentioned there or is hinted in TWST, like Idia is based off of Hades and ancient books mention so hypothetically-

anyways what I actually wanted to get into was:

what If a MC/Yuu that spoke English, whether first language or later learned, monolingual or can speak a few languages, tried to teach the first years English?

Like some people who learn English as a second language say its a bitch of a language to learn, with rule inconsistencies and pronunciations, English is my first language and I still don't understand some things-

It doesn't have to be first years only, teach them some grammar rules, imagine the chaos:

p-u-t and b-u-t pronunciation

weight and height

tell the difference between eight and ate pronunciation wise-

past participles, specifically the lie-lay-lain kinda stuff (I still don't get them if I loose the mark I loose the mark)

tear (like paper) and tear (crying)

Taught though thought through throughout thorough tough (this was copy and paste-)

random letters in a word that hold no significance in the pronunciation

two letters that are placed in a different way than they are pronounced , like Wednesday (dn and not nd, 1st grade spelling tests were 🤺🤺)

wait till they start speaking in better grammar than MC/Yuu can

Another more realistic scenario by my standards is that MC/Yuu gives up on teaching them and only teach them essentials, giving them the true meaning or twisting them you choose.

The main words taught would be curse words and no, yes, maybe, incompetent crow. If you twist the words' meanings the cast might still catch on bc like MC/Yuu gets visibly frustrated, and curse in English, I think they would realize sooner or later.

Also anything like cognates (words that are spelt and/or pronounced similar, I think cognates is for Spanish but you know what I mean) would be funny. Similarly words that look and sound similar, but mean completely different, this isn't only for Japanese but whatever other languages are indicated to exist there.

I feel the 1st years and Grim would learn it better than the rest, excluding Lilia, Malleus (both are old asf, might as well have read it) and maybe Crowley (probs a fae) and Idia (and to that extent Ortho they would have had access to it, and maybe some others as well).

And tbh this can go for any other language as well (besides Japanese-), minus the "knowing a language no one else knows" curse privilege, I doubt a lot of people would know Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Creole/Patois of any language (for my Caribbean and African amigos), Chinese and probably some others as well.

French, I mean Rook probably already understands and to an extent Vil, Lilia and some others would as well, Japanese is the main language spoken there.

this is messy, Idk I just find this idea neat- add more give me brainrot if you want

#this is a mess #twst #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #twsited wonderland #twst yuu #twst mc #twst thoughts #twst first years #twst theory #what other tags-#Twst Read Please Read

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kemetic-dreams · 4 years ago

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Possessed: Voodoo’s Origins and Influence from the Blues to Britney

Blissed-out, ecstatic union with our divine selves — we seek it at raves and rock concerts, and in the desert with the Burning Man. I try to get there when I’m jamming with my band — but I didn’t realize until I wrote The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu how much this longing relates to West African spirituality, and the Voodoo concept of possession.

Vodou (the proper Kreyol/Creole spelling of Voodoo) is a neo-African religion that evolved in the New World from the 6000-year-old West African religion Vodun. This was the religion of many slaves brought from West Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean.

Vodun was brutally repressed by slave-owners, yet its powerful beats, ethics and aesthetics endured. We owe our concepts of cool, soul and rock and roll to it.

The roots of rock are in a West African word for dance — rak. As Michael Ventura wrote in his important essay on rock music, “Hear that Long Snake Moan”:

The Voodoo rite of possession by the god became the standard of American performance in rock’n’roll. Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Jim Morrison, Johnny Rotten, Prince — they let themselves be possessed not by any god they could name but by the spirit they felt in the music. Their behavior in this possession was something Western society had never before tolerated.

Vodou possession is not the hokey demon-possession of zombie movies; it’s a state of union with the divine achieved through drumming, dancing and singing. It’s becoming “filled with the Holy Ghost” in the Pentecostal Christian tradition or attaining yogic bliss through the practice of kirtan, singing the names of God — Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.

In the Yoruba culture of West Africa, being able to connect with one’s inner divinity is called coolness (itutu). In Yoruba morality, generosity indicates coolness and is the highest quality a person can exhibit. In American culture, we say that nice person is cool, or that a musician “has got soul.” We notice “Southern hospitality.”

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade carried these ideas to the New World, particularly as slavers burrowed inward from Senegambia on the West African coast to the Kingdom of Dahomey, a Vodun stronghold.

Dahomey spread across much of today’s Togo, Benin and Nigeria and was heavily involved in the slave trade. Vodun practitioners were shipped overseas by the thousands when the Fon people of Benin conquered their neighbors, the Ewe, in 1729. Many Fon were also kidnapped and traded into slavery in exchange for textiles, weapons, brass pots, Venetian beads and other European goods.

Vodun is a Fon-Ewe word meaning God or Great Spirit. This supreme creator was represented as the giant snake Dan carrying the universe in its coils. Today, in Haiti and American Vodou strongholds like New Orleans, Dan is worshiped as Damballah, the Grand Zombie (the Bantu word nzambi means God). He’s John Lee Hooker’s “Crawling Kingsnake”.

Branching off from this almighty God-force are spirit-gods called loa. During Vodou ceremonies, a loa may descend the center post of the temple to possess or “ride” a worshiper who has reached a sufficiently high state of consciousness. The morality implicit in this is stated in the Haitian proverb, “Great gods cannot ride little horses.”

Vodun practices like drumming were definitely noticed by nervous colonists who had imported fierce warriors and tribal priests to work their farms. After a deadly rebellion in the South Carolina colony in 1739, the colonists realized slaves were using talking drums to organize resistance. The Slave Act of 1740 in South Carolina barred slaves from using “drums, horns, or other loud instruments.” Other colonies followed suit with legislation like the severe Black Codes of Georgia.

Soon, religious repression was in full swing. Slaves caught praying were brutally penalized, as this excerpt from Peter Randolph’s “Slave Cabin to the Pulpit” recounts:

In some places, if the slaves are caught praying to God, they are whipped more than if they had committed a great crime. Sometimes, when a slave, on being whipped, calls upon God, he is forbidden to do so, under threat of having his throat cut, or brains blown out.

Vodun practitioners taken as slaves to plantations in Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, and Jamaica were also prohibited from practicing their religion. But enslaved Vodun priests arriving in the Catholic West Indies quickly grasped similarities between their tradition of appealing to loa to intercede with God, and Catholics praying to saints for intercession. By superimposing Catholic saints over the loa, slaves created the hybrid religions Santeria (saint worship) in the Spanish Islands, Vodou in Haiti and Candomblé in Brazil.

On Aug. 22, 1791, Haitian slaves revolted on a signal from Vodou priests, who consulted their oracle to determine which military strategies would succeed. The revolutionaries defeated Napoleon Bonaparte’s army and declared independence Jan. 1, 1804, establishing Haiti as the world’s first black republic. Freaked by a successful slave revolt, the United States and Western Europe slapped economic sanctions on Haiti, turning the prosperous colony into an impoverished state that could no longer sell the products of its fields.

In 1809, Vodou arrived in the United States en masse when Haitian slave owners who had fled to Cuba with their slaves were expelled. Most relocated from Cuba to New Orleans, nearly doubling the city’s size in one year. Today, 15 percent of New Orleans practices Vodou, and it’s popular in other U.S. cities with African and Haitian communities.

Among the arriving Haitians was Marie Laveau. She became the leader of New Orleans Vodou practitioners in 1820 when she was elected the human representative of the Grand Zombie. (Former White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers is descended from Marie Laveau.)

Laveau kept a python named Zombi, and danced with it on her shoulders while presiding over ceremonies. This image was appropriated, with other Vodou nods, for Britney Spears’s “I’m a Slave 4 U” performance at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards.

The sensationalistic 1884 book Haiti or the Black Republic by Sir Spencer St. John, slammed Vodou as an evil cult, with gruesome descriptions of human sacrifice and black magic — some of which had been extracted from Vodou priests via torture. It became a popular source for the Hollywood screenwriters who began churning out voodoo horror flicks in the 1930s.

The first musician to bring pop-Voodoo imagery to the stage was Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, who would rise from a coffin onstage with a bone in his nose. Hawkins had intended for his hit record “I Put A Spell On You” to be a soulful ballad. But once the producer “brought in ribs and chicken and got everybody drunk, we came out with this weird version,” Hawkins admitted, adding “I found out I could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death.” Hawkins kicked off the undead craze among rockers like Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson.

Meanwhile, despite the severe repression, Vodun practices crept into Southern black churches. Descriptions of black Baptist church services in the late 1800s and early 1900s depict the congregation dancing in a circle in a “rock” or “ring shout” as they follow the deacon, who bears a standard.

It was the deacon’s job to whip parishioners into a frenzy of fainting and speaking in tongues called “rocking the church.” The concept of a deity “riding” with a worshiper transferred to these Christian churches, where the cry “Drop down chariot and let me ride!” was often heard, as well as “Ride on!” and “Ride on, King Jesus!” This became the solidarity shout, “Right on!”

Blues singers fronting big bands, like Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing, copied the way church solo singers belted over the choir. The radio beamed this new “shouting blues” all over black America. It was picked up by country blues singers like Muddy Waters and T-Bone Walker, who had moved to Chicago and used it with their new electrified bands. These, in turn, inspired rockers like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones

Africans brought here as slaves carried with them incredibly strong aesthetic, ethical and cultural values that not only withstood the shock of their forced transplantation to the New World, but transformed and invigorated it. Their influence made us uniquely American. It’s why we respond to that Voodoo beat.

#africans #african culture #vodun #vodu #kemetic dreams #jimi hendrix #blues #jazz music #jazz #yoruba #igbo #africanspirituality #africanamericans

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friendlyneighbourhoodpapergay · 4 years ago

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Why I don't like traumacore: A sourced masterpost.

This is something I've been asked a few times, and often the argument used to support traumacore involves art therapy. I figured I'd make a full post explaining in detail why I believe traumacore is often harmful to both the creator/poster and to the viewer. This post will be long; I apologize, but I wanted to make everything as clear as I could. Sources are cited or linked throughout.

Trigger Warnings: Discussion of traumacore, the messages and imagery used within the traumacore genre. Self-harm is mentioned, and suicide is very briefly mentioned as well.

Traumacore is not art therapy, nor is it therapeutic as a whole.

The type of traditional art therapy that traumacore is most similar to would be collage art, which involves creating something through the collection of other images and quotes. However, a notable difference between traumacore and art therapy is that art therapy is undergone with a licensed psychologist; the art is created in order for the psychologist to talk with the patient, figure out the underlying emotions that the art represents, and then work with the patient on how to replace the harmful or negative emotions like shame, fear and disgust with more positive ones. Art therapy is designed to help the psychologist guide the patient towards acceptance of their trauma, which can then allow them to work on healing.

To quote this psychology today article, “No artistic talent is necessary for art therapy to succeed, because the therapeutic process is not about the artistic value of the work, but rather about finding associations between the creative choices made and a client's inner life.”

To go further back, Margaret Naumberg (regarded by many as the mother of modern-day art therapy), used the technique of art therapy to promote introspection in the client. A quote from one of her books, “Dynamically Oriented Art Therapy: Its Principles and Practices”: “Whether trained or untrained individuals have the capacity to project their inner conflicts into visual form. In this approach, the therapist withholds interpretation, encouraging clients to discover what their picture means to them”.

This is where my issues with traumacore as an aesthetic begin. The vast majority of the traumacore content is not based in the idea of creating the images so as to examine the underlying feelings or undergo self-examination; it’s vent art made purely to be posted and then left.This is not the same thing as art therapy, which is based on the principle that the art should be looked at and thought about by its creator and a therapist to uncover what lead to its creation.

Venting in this way may provide temporary relief, but does not contribute to healing in the long run – as this study on art therapy as a venting method in adolescents says, the art “allows both therapist and client to better address the problem”. In addition, studies have found that venting alone does not cause the emotional distress surrounding a big event (such as a traumatic experience) to go away or even diminish - the benefits can be useful, but are often only temporary. (Links One, Two).

It's also been found that venting can elicit strong emotional responses in the listener; depending on circumstances, hearing someone else vent about a negative event may produce negative feelings in yourself.

(TW for this paragraph: Discussion of traumacore, abuse mentioned, blood and gore mentioned) This is particularly true with traumacore: The messages displayed are often entirely based on the worst things that can happen to a person, and will also speak directly to the viewer. Messages like “It was all your fault”, “I ruined everything”, “I can’t take this any more”, or sometimes depictions of innocent-looking things (like toys) surrounded by blood, gore or distressing wording are naturally going to cause people with trauma based in those things to be triggered. The language used can often mirror that used by abuser(s); of course that would be triggering to someone who has suffered abuse and trauma.

I myself write poetry about the worst things that have happened to me, and I then discuss these with my therapist. If I were to post it, it would be upsetting and triggering and distressing by nature, because of the very content of the art form. The same applies to traumacore.

There’s also the issue of how traumacore is often paranoia- or delusion-inducing in those with psychosis. Even traumacore that is not created by people with psychosis will display psychosis-triggering imagery or wording. Examples of this is linked here: (Trigger Warning: this links to a post with traumacore that contains religious imagery, delusional thinking and potential paranoia-inducing content as an example.)

This isn’t something that can be excused by trauma, venting, ""art therapy"" or anything else. It’s just ableist. It’s actively damaging to trauma survivors as a whole, and especially to psychotics (such as myself) – whether they are trauma survivors or not. There is no excuse for it.

To summarize:

Traumacore, on the face of it, may come across as a weird-but-useful coping mechanism taking inspiration from the psychological technique of art therapy. The reality, however, is that traumacore is not art therapy at all; it is inherently vent-related in nature with no focus on introspection, and as a result can be incredibly damaging. Traumacore often focuses on the messages of the abuser, or on the shame related to having trauma, which – rather than removing power from these – actually reinforces those negative messages through the nature of repitition, and therefore the negative experiences and emotions surrounding those messages. Even going off personal experience alone, I myself along with a number of other trauma survivors I have spoken to have had all sorts of awful reactions to seeing traumacore, including flashbacks, panic attacks, sudden suicidality, and psychotic episodes.

Now, does this mean all trauma- or vent-based art is harmful? No. Lots of art can be created out of negative experiences – as mentioned above, I myself write poetry.

Does it mean that the traumacore, whilst a potential temporary coping mechanism for some trauma survivors, can be incredibly triggering, destructive and distressing to those with trauma and/or psychosis? Yes.

If you want to vent your trauma, there are healthier and better ways of doing so than traumacore. I would say that it’s a coping mechanism in the same way that physical self-harm is a coping mechanism; just because it provides temporary relief does not make it healthy, good or worth promoting under any circumstances.

If you want to take a closer/more in-depth look at actual art therapy, my personal favourite book on the subject is "The Art and Science of Evaluation in the Arts Therapies: How do you know what's working?" by Elaine and Bernard Feder. It goes into what the basic principles of art therapy are, and how art therapy can be used most effectively. In my opinion it's also written in a way that's easier to understand than some of the heavier psychology books.

#traumacore #traumacore tw #ok to rb #masterpost #sources #important #(tagging important so I can find it later lol)#self harm mention tw #self harm ment tw #suicide mention tw #trauma tw #abuse mention tw #gore mention #gore ment tw #ventcore #ventcore tw #ventcore and traumacore are VERY heavily intertwined so im tagging for both

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ahhhsami · 4 years ago

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Avatar Universe Language Theory

Something that has often been ignored or not discussed much is language within the Avatar Universe. Today, @xaibaugrove and I would like to discuss this in depth and share our theories and opinions on the matter.

There’s a construct of universal language within television and movie media, this means that all of the characters understand one another through a specific language, English in this case. This obviously is the case due to Avatar being an American animated series. But if we truly broke this down, English would not be the canonical universal language in the Avatar Universe. So what would be?

To tackle this question, we need to first figure out what languages would be spoken in specific nations and areas. So let’s do that.

There are some easy assumptions, such as Japanese for the Fire Nation and Tibetan for the Air Nomads. For the Southern Water Tribe, they would both be speaking a form of Inuktitut. Within each of these nations, there would be dialects and unique subsets of languages depending on the area they’re from.

The area that would have the most diverse language differences within their own nation would be the Earth Kingdom. Due to its size and diverse subsets of people, we believe there would be a large variety of dialects/languages within, but all would be forms of Chinese. In Ba Sing Se the predominant language would be Mandarin. For the large majority of the other areas, the language would be Cantonese. But then we have to break down that other areas such as the Si Wong Desert and Foggy Swamp would also have their own language/dialect. Something that is interesting and present in real world China is that there are over 200 different dialects/languages and it’s not just Chinese and/or Mandarin/Cantonese as many would assume. So we can easily apply this same idea and concept to the Earth Kingdom.

So this brings us back to our original question, what would the Universal Language in the Avatar Universe be? We believe that it would be a form of Chinese, mainly leaning towards spoken Mandarin due to the superiority and monarchy of Ba Sing Se. The next most predominant language would be Japanese due to the colonization during the Hundred Year War. People may ask, then why isn’t Japanese the most predominant? And the answer is this, the war was only 100 years. It would have taken much longer to spread their language to the extent that Chinese has already been spread due to the size of the Earth Kingdom. On top of this, Chinese is the language that is most seen canonically in writing. But we also have to break down that even within the series we see the Fire Nation making posters with Chinese, but again, this show is an American animated series, so it was easiest to have all of the writing done in Chinese.

The thing that supports different languages the most within the Avatar Universe is naming. We can look at the names of each character and where they are from and from this we can see patterns related to language. Names stem from specific languages, thus being more supporting evidence for the specific languages for each nation.

So technically every character within Republic City (from TLOK) and throughout the majority of the Earth Kingdom would be speaking Mandarin Chinese. But on top of this, many characters would be bilingual. Korra’s native language would be Inuktitut. Asami’s native language would be Japanese. Tenzin’s native language would be Tibetan. And an interesting case would be Mako and Bolin only knowing one language, Mandarin Chinese and not Japanese due to their parents being killed at an early age.

Due to the array of languages, the Avatar, master of all four elements, would also need to be a master of languages. This means that as the Avatar their training would include language classes. This also means that Aang actually would have struggled to communicate with Sokka and Katara, honestly everyone that he met due to having a short period of formal language training. This could even be seen when Aang would use certain terms such as “Flameo Hotman” and Sokka/Fire Nation People being confused by this outdated term.

In the case of Korra, she would be able to speak fluently in at least Inuktitut and Mandarin. Korra could also have a cute accent when speaking Mandarin. But we also assume that she would know the basics of multiple other languages. It’s fun to imagine that Korra would go back to her roots when highly agitated or when extremely happy due to not being able to express herself properly in a second language. This is even more interesting when you break down the issues of communication between her and Mako. Mako would have been monolingual and not completely understand the nuances of being multilingual, which could then lead to even more misunderstanding and frustration. In the case of Asami, the idea of going in and out of two or more languages would be more easily understandable.

From a viewer standpoint, the idea of multiple languages tied to each nation adds depth to the Avatar Universe. It also brings together the overall influence and inspiration of the surroundings/environment that the creators had put together. It adds nuance to character relationships and the society that they live in. Finally, it’s a different perspective that widens the lens of viewers that Chinese would be the universal language along with their native languages and it’s just been translated to English so that WE can understand what is occurring.

#avatar the last airbender #the legend of korra #atla #tlok #avatar universe #avatar #language #diversity #rant #xaibaugrove

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