#maori rep

[keanoble]

Some more maori evelyn!

featuring her morepork palisman ADAM💥

[mysoulusesumbrellasinthesun]

I have decided that the Lalondes are Maori and furthermore I am more correct about this than anyone has ever been.

My evidence:

Rose

Engaged in a battle with her mother of who can say the most eloquent (and longest) karakia because she always hated saying them so now tries to continuously one up her mother by being slightly more precise with hers. Dinner is always an hour late because of this.

Despises the insistence of motherhood in Maori folklore (especially ones her mother teaches her) and finds them to be incredibly stifling.

She hates doing kapa haka and hates that women cannot do a full haka, so she puts on a one woman performance herself when she is young during a “ridiculous” matariki celebration her mother was putting on, and did a male haka by herself. Mom found this extremely adorable and insists on playing the video every Matariki, which Rose hates.

Her favorite nursery rhyme growing up was “One Day a Taniwha”

Rose loves taniwha, though she acts like she doesn’t.

On the meteor she wishes she had actually learned about her culture with her mother when she had the chance instead of only engaging with it ironically and feels very separate from the others on the meteor because of it.

After she is on the meteor towards the end of homestuck I think she reconciles her heritage with her lack of motherliness in the idea of women less as mothers but as powerful dangerous people (a la the goddess of death, Hine-nui-te-pō, who kills Maui with her thighs)

She is so annoyed with the lack of taking care of the land when they reach Earth C. She did not really consider Papatuanuku as her mother before but she realizes now after seeing how all the other kids and especially some of the trolls behave, acting like the land is something to be used and discarded she gets extremely annoyed. She, Roxy, and Jade bond over this.

Her mother gave her a Koru pounamu to celebrate her becoming a woman on her first period. She resentented it and refused to wear it, but eventually accepted it and passed it down to Roxy who was overjoyed to receive it.

She instead wears a Hei Tiki pounamu necklace Dave gave to her as a wedding present. She acts aloof about it but anyone who knows her can tell she is deeply moved by the gift. She keeps it on at all times.

Roxy

There is an inherent horror to looking all around you to see that Tangaroa has drowned his mother.

The idea that The Condesce, a colonizer, took over the world and left Roxy stranded on a tiny piece of land with almost none of her people or culture left, and she can never sail out on a waka like her ancestors or a sailboat like the ancestors of her ancestors to see other places, trapped in a tiny select space. It’s a horror I can’t really describe.

Roxy desperately wants to know what tribe she comes from and who she descends from, to find that little bit of her family. She is very quiet on the day she finds out she was produced from herself. 

Roxy misses Papatuanuku, she misses her chance to meet both her mothers before they died. She messages Dirk about this while drunk but he does not fully get it.

As a trans woman, finds the women in Maori mythology and culture to be aspirational figures of power and motherhood.

She thanks the appropriate gods for any food she can scavenge for in her apocalypse but never really has the time to learn a full karakia.

Teaches the carapacians kapa haka, they aren’t very good at it but they do make up for it with enthusiasm

When she enters the session she insists on hongi (sharing breath) with each of her friends. It goes like this:

Dirk: Has been preparing for this for years. Has the whole technique down. Confident cool guy swagger, but not too much, he doesn’t look like he’s trying too hard either. He and Roxy bump their heads together and fall over. This looks ridiculous.

Jake: Roxy explains and leans in to do a hongi with him but he kisses her on both cheeks like he is french. Roxy thinks this is hilarious.

Jane: Needs at least 6 tries to get it right but keeps on insisting on doing it again so she can participate in Roxy’s culture appropriately, and then a couple more times because she keeps failing on purpose to make Roxy laugh. They are both in a fit of giggles by the time she has worked it out and it becomes their standard greeting.

Hal: Is a computer, but Roxy does hold the nose bridge of the glasses up to her face like they are doing a hongi which Hal does appreciate.

Calliope: Gets it right first try!

Goes somewhat crazy hanging out in nature on Earth C. (Where is Roxy? In The Mud. Of course.)

I cannot express in words as well, the sheer euphoria Roxy feels standing on the ground on Earth C. 

[stellarembers]

natm oc drawing; solstice and the mere ngākau

a/n: RAHHH MĀORI REP AND LORE FOR ANOTHER CURSED ARTIFACT BECAUSE NATM NEEDS MORE ARTIFACTS BESIDE THE TABLET

Mere ngākau ; A powerful artifact made by jadestone, carved and shaped to represent an enlarged tear drop.

the 'mere' was a weapon created by the māori people in use for battle. It is specifically cared from jadestone or as the māori people call it 'pounamu'.

the meaning of the name 'mere ngakau'.

'Mere' (noun) describes the physical appearance of the weapon; bulbous, broad-bladed and flat.

'ngākau' is the māori word for 'heart'. The purpose of this artifact is to restart the heart and bring the user back to life.

origins of this artifact: year 1401.

practitioners of mākutu (witchcraft) have obtained the jadestone from the south islands of aotearoa. They forged it from the deepest waterfalls and shaped it to their liking; this weapon and use it against enemies or invaders.

It is said that whoever wields the weapon is granted strength, vitality, fast healing factor, regeneration and immortality.

The artifact was last owned by a chief named 'Tamanuiterā aroākapa', whom is the ancestor of Solstice manawātu.

This weapon is able to save Solstice from critical fates or an untimely curse.

[anissapierce]

"ive nvr seen anything that focused on a queer indigenous man in my whole 27 years of life so thts why i love this racist pirate show"

Skill issue

[summerlinenss]

I no longer believe the actor who claims abuse on the Time Bandits set. Please read this all. I did my best to explain my reasons. I apologize for any rambling.

Paramount has issues with safety on their sets. They have issues with their HR and resolution departments. That is proven fact and has happened more than once recently, even resulting in lawsuits. I don't deny they were injured as they have record of that and Paramount has stated they paid their worker's comp claim, but I would take everything else they claim with a Rock of Gibraltar sized grain of salt.

Especially since they're just now trotting out that damned letter Taika signed as "proof" he and the entire cast, crew, and production companies are all white supremacist, pro-genocide zionists.

"Taika who signed that Biden letter" is a direct quote from the actor in a comment. They shared a post from an Instagram called "Zionists in Film" that purports to "out" supposed celebrity zionists. That post is Taika with falsehoods about the letter he signed plastered all over it. I don't know about all the celebrities listed, but there are several I know are anything but zionists and are listed there for doing literally nothing wrong.

The actor said nothing about the set being packed full of zionists until six days ago, starting with a post about Apple firing pro-Palestinian workers (I don't know if that's true, but either way it's not about Apple TV). The post from Zionists in Film about Taika went up five days ago. Everything else about the incident had been up and untouched since May. There is no other "evidence" that I've seen, be it quotes from the actor or anecdotes from anyone on that set that points to anyone being a zionist. Obviously I don't know each actor and crew member's stance personally, but when all a person who was on set with them can say is that Taika signed a letter, it doesn't look very convincing.

Also, the biggest and most obvious strike against their claim that the place was chock full of zionists? They were only on set when filming began in 2022 and filming wrapped entirely in early 2023! I/P has been a conflict for decades, I know, but your average joe did not care about "zionists" or even the conflict as a whole (regretfully) until after Oct 7th. So why, after all these months and two years after they left the set, do they suddenly start claiming it was a den of genocidal zionists?

I also don't believe every single one of the hundreds of people on the TB set was out to get them specifically. The entire cast, crew, and all the production companies involved are made up of misogynistic white supremacist queerphobes who only hated them just because they're Asian and nonbinary? What about the black guys in the cast? Or the little people? Or the women? Or any of the countless other minorities working on the show in any capacity, such as the no doubt large Maori presence? It was somehow just them who was despised by everyone, including those other minorities?

So yes, the actor deserves proper compensation for their injury, assuming their claim that Paramount didn't pay enough to cover their bills is true. But every other thing they said? I don't believe a word of it anymore. I was listening and accepting until they started screaming zionist. Now they come across as nothing more than a person with a bone to pick because they didn't get all the money they wanted. They just shot their credibility in the foot.

(I'm sending this essay to you because while I don't have a twitter account and can't get one, I have still seen idiots using this actor's "proof" to hate Taika, his fans, and Time Bandits as a whole. I just needed to put some fact checking and discussion somewhere.)

i want to just start with a disclaimer that, as anon said, i’m aware of the actual claims that have been made and read through the statements both from the actor and the paramount reps and it’s clear that they experienced some form of physical/emotional distress on set. no one is denying that. so i’m in no way attempting to diminish or disregard their experience.

that being said, i’m going to be 100% honest and say this as carefully as i can, but i’ve had an extremely off feeling about this since i first read about it. not in the sense of “well they would never allow that to happen so you’re obviously lying,” but there’s just something i really can’t put my finger on about this actor’s intentions that genuinely feel rooted in something vindictive rather than actually seeking personal justice.

just for comparison for anyone who hasn’t read the statements, i’m going to leave a link and screenshots of those here:

at first i honestly tried to take everything they were saying in good faith, but it’s at the point where it feels like they’re just making accusations of every controversial thing possible and waiting to see what sticks so they can get a pay-out to keep them quiet. it was originally a costar physically/psychologically abusing them and no one on set caring or believing them. now it’s escalated to:

- alleging the set was full of open and vocal zionists spewing a “pro-genocide” agenda

- claiming in advance that paramount is going to use AI to dub over their scenes

- apparently being both mad that they were “forced to leave” the show and mad that they’re going to still be in the show at all

- claiming they were gaslit and threatened by producers to the point of becoming suicidal

- calling them all “colonizers” (which if they are referring to taika and jemaine i think that is highly inappropriate and tone deaf)

- claiming they were digitally erased from stills because the producers are too scared to show their character and address what happened

- claiming they were originally in all 10 episodes and had their part reduced out of spite

- sharing headlines alleging all little people roles were cut from the show (which they weren’t) and alleging the cast was full of only white men (from the trailer alone the majority of the cast is literally bipoc and afab people)

- implied they were specifically discriminated against for being queer/non-binary and asian (although they are seemingly nowhere near the only lgbtq+ or AAPI cast/crew member so i don’t even understand what they’re talking about)

i’d also like to point out that i noticed one of the cast members is a queer and disabled rights activist (who seems like a lovely person btw) who has expressed nothing but total positivity and gratitude towards the show and absolutely everyone involved. and yes, of course, everyone can have different experiences, but i sincerely doubt someone who dedicates their spare time to fighting discrimination would stand by and not speak up if a costar was being abused or mistreated.

like you mentioned, the zionist stuff is all pure bullshit. and people who cry “zionism” to win their own personal conflicts typically don’t have a grasp on what it actually means. i don’t know how many times i’ve said by now that taika has literally been openly opposing the israeli military’s occupation of palestine on social media for the past six years minimum. i’m gonna be blunt and say any arguments people are still trying to make that he’s secretly an evil zionist because he (or probably his publicist) signed a letter that he likely didn’t even read and just assumed said “hey let’s keep freeing hostages and stop the violence” are just rooted in antisemitism at this point. i’m not sure about everyone else, but i do know that many people working on the show have been openly and vocally pro-palestine and even signed ceasefire letters, including jemaine and rachel house (i believe madeleine sami may have a cameo as well). and as you mentioned, anon, most of the general public (including i might assume this actor in question) didn’t become aware of or actively start speaking out against the occupation of palestine until this past october, which in no way coincided with the show’s filming. so i don’t get what they’re trying to prove besides the fact that they know buzzwords, honestly.

i’m also aware that this isn’t the first time this individual has done this kind of thing. they literally have a whole subcategory of their wikipedia page dedicated to allegations and accusations of abuse and discrimination they’ve made against others. and granted, some of the claims they’ve made are valid and i hope they got some sort of retribution. but a lot are also pretty big reaches and feel much more like attempts to “cancel” people they don’t like or had a hard time working with (e.g. they went on a bit of a smear campaign calling seth rogen an abuse apologist because he’d been friends with and “enabled” james franco in the past and deserved to never work in the industry again).

i’m not gonna be that person and say “well i know them and they’re good people and would never do these things,” because frankly, we don’t know anyone and incidents do happen. however i find it extremely questionable that this is literally the first time in about a decade of following their work that i have ever heard a single person have a remotely negative experience working with taika and/or jemaine, especially when all anyone else has ever said is specifically how safe and inviting and comfortable they make their sets for everyone. it also seems really bizarre and downright out-of-character to me that either one of them would not only refuse to help a cast member in distress, but that they’d go out of their way to mock and threaten them, all for the sake of protecting some B/C-list actor on an apple tv series of all things. i know for a fact taika has fired and recast abusers/people with allegations before for bigger projects, i don’t see why he wouldn’t do it again if necessary. and as the “insider source” in that article mentioned, i understand why they said they waited so long, but it still seems awfully convenient that they didn’t make any of this public until nearly a year and a half post-filming (and just a couple of months before the show was set to be released), despite apparently being in such life-altering turmoil.

i seriously do feel awful saying it, because again i don’t doubt there was an injury and emotional distress/discomfort being on set (or that HR was probably a goddamn pain to deal with), but it truly just doesn’t feel sincere or like they actually want to find a resolution. it really feels to me like either paramount didn’t fulfill their obligations of required support/compensation (which yes is obviously fucked up) or the actor in question didn’t get what they thought they deserved in support/compensation, and now they have a vendetta against everyone involved in the production and are determined to establish martyrdom to get them all “cancelled.”

[kingskyless]

thoughts on Genshin's Mexican representation from a Mexican person hours!!! 🇲🇽🫡✨

Natlan is out, it's my time to be annoying.

In this post I'm not gonna go into game lore, I just wanna talk about the rep!!!

All thoughts under cut (:

First things first, I was very pleasantly surprised with how well they talked about each tribe cultures, beliefs, skills and how they intertwined with each other. Really reminded me of Latino culture in general and how everyone can learn from each other??? it was really good, I didn't think they'd pull it that well. !!

There's so much Aztec or aztec-esque symbology littered all over the game, to small details in bracelets, clothing, to full buildings? AAAAA

Wayobs are mayan animal spirit guides OR Nahuales (shapeshifters) While I love the concept in-game, I would've loved that they linked the saurians with nahuales or something, making a Wayob just a giant obsidian blade instead of a fucked up animal makes me sad

THOUGH, obsidian has a lot of cultural value in Mexico bc, aztec. It's also my favorite gemstone. If u were wondering.

So many, so so many names in Nahuatl. Obviously Citlali, Kinich and Xilonen, but NPCs too

Speaking of NPCs, there's Tenoch - Tenoch in Genshin is so funny to me bc IRL Tenoch is the namesake of Tenochtitlán, aka Mexico's City, it's sooo weird hearing him be in a silly gacha game

Some places in Natlan are named after actual existing Mexican cities AND ITS SO FUNNY TO ME. Coatepec Mountain....Ameyalco Waters....this is the equivalent of a place in Genshin being called "London Meadow" or some shit

Finally, there's tacos and luchador belts, which is also funny to me

THOUGHTS OVER ALL:

it was really fun to look and pinpoint things that represent my culture, I grew up with all of this stuff so seeing it in a game I like it's fun!!!

HOWEVER. let us remember hoyoverse decided to fucking mix Mexican, Incan, Native American, Maori and African cultures into one, it frustrates me because you can't really focus in one thing or the other, and mixing everything together somehow makes it loose it's impact, it's sad!!! I don't like it!!! AAAAAAA

also obviously the colorism, keep talking about it, spam hoyoverse, bite them.

[enden-k]

The information that the archon should be Maori is si shocking. I didnt read into the new genshin stuff because im also bored by it (nation of war looks different in my mind) and i didnt always understand people criticen her design apart from the obvious 'it just doesnt look like a archon'.

Shockingly i saw a lot of "ItS a fAntasY gaME aNd doeSnt neED to Rep YOUR couBTry 🤓☝️", i dont know if the algorythm is just spamming me with stupid people or if Genshin fans just got more insufferable.

Anyway thanks for the info. I really hope Hoyo listens especially if even Chinese playerbase acts up.

-🐉

right?? i was unhappy bc she didnt look like i guessed at all and so out of place. seeing now that shes maori inspired and how theres nothing resembling since ppl affected are speaking up, i would have never guessed w her current look. ororon/olorun rlly takes the cake, this ones really really bad (misspelling and taking the name of the supreme yoruba deity to a white guy)

i dont wanna go further into it since im rlly not that deep in gnshn nor playing anymore for several updates now (like, you can ask me abt sumeru but i have no idea abt anything else anymore) but seeing all that, its hard to not at least mention the current situation considering that most of my followers are playing gnshn.

"its a fantasy game" is no excuse imo. if you dont wanna be respectful, dont take from irl cultures. i would be unhappy too if my culture got butchered or misrepresented or smth, i can absolutely understand the unhappiness and disappointment and its the affected ppls right to be, not others to tell them how to feel about it.

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

ok so I’m gonna overexplain my thoughts on the goncharov meme now @moonlitlex​  I’m sorry for not replying on the original post but this is gonna get long. here’s the original post you replied on

https://www.tumblr.com/fandomshatepeopleofcolor/719488461894221824/honestly-im-glad-people-are-finally-shutting-up?source=share

I’m gonna try to keep this neat and tidy but this might take me a while I’m largely including lots of links because I don’t have the spoons to transcribe this sorry followers.

ok so lets begin with the crux of my complaint, that being Goncharov over took black panther: wf in popularity on tumblr for White reasons. I say this for 2 reasons.

1)  goncharov existed as a meme since 2020 but didn’t overtake tumblr until November 2022.

proof:

so you may notice from the wiki article that Goncharov is attributed to Scorsese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goncharov_(meme)

why  does Scorsese mean anything? and what does that have to do with black panther 2?  well back in 2019 scorsese said that “marvel movies are not cinema“  source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/04/martin-scorsese-says-marvel-movies-are-not-cinema

what was going on in 2019 for the mcu?  avengers 3 and 4 had just come out and it was the biggest thing that had ever happened in the movies. also... black panther the first movie had made history in being the first mcu movie to be nominated in a category other than technical at the oscars and other award shows https://envelope.latimes.com/awards/titles/black-panther/  too.  

so martin scorsese isn’t just against some of the mcu or superhero movies in general (you will remember that heath ledger won the oscar for the dark knight). no he’s against Marvel specifically. and just at the moment that Marvel films were becoming more diverse than ever before. ok I’m not gonna keep harping on how groundbreaking that black panther which features an afrofuturist country in the biggest franchise in the world with a nearly all black cast won so much acclaim.  

this brings to the second issue I have with goncharov

2) goncharov was largely billed as having great slash ships (homoeroticism if you will). but like the rest of Scorsese’s actual works the cast was all white.  there was no interracial ships to be fawned over there was indeed no poc actors cast in this fake film.  but see this is the key thing in november 2022, in the 3 years that had passed between scorsese first comments on the lack of artistry in marvel films several things had happened to the mcu

which brings me to point number 3: the diversity of mcu films had basically expanded on every single phase 4 film.  the whitest film of the phase 4 was black widow but that was directed by a white woman and featured a cast filled with white women. the next whitest movie was spiderman no way home and that still had a diverse supporting cast in ned and MJ.  the third whitest film was doctor strange 2 which was still directed by a Jewish man Sam Raimi. the next whitest film was thor 4 with a Jewish/Maori man Taika directing it and Tessa as King of Asgard, Valkyrie

that leaves Shang-Chi, Eternals, Black panther 2.

All films that centered people of color all films directed by people of color and at least eternals and bp2 both had queer rep. thor 4 had canon trans rep.

like this era of marvel were referred to as “the flop era“ or “the MSheU“ precisely because it was so different from the original 2 phases.  there was intense hate for the diversity and scope of the mcu phase 4 that couldnt be explained by any other fact than the diversity inherent in mcu phase 4.

anyways bp:wf had at its center Black Women, and brown indigenous man as the villain.  but you couldn’t load tumblr without running into like 2 goncharov posts within the first page of your dash. nothing about the artistry of bp:wf tho.

anyways I’m tired and more than a little cranky.

mod ali

[the-aila-test]

Question: does Lottie Matthews from Yellowjackets pass the aila test?

She has no stated ethnicity in-show, BUT both her teen and adult actresses are white/maori (Courtney Eaton + Simone Kessel, Eaton is also Chinese), and her adult actress specifically requested her to have a maori tattoo which seems to confirm that she's intended to be read as maori. The only thing against it is that her parents' actors are white and east asian, but tbf they were only seen in two short scenes so it's possible they just cast whoever they could find that looked like Courtney Eaton

She doesn't fall in love with a white man. She has a Thing™ with a latino guy for a few scenes but she isn't his main love interest. She DOES have a couple ship teases with white women but both of the main ones die before any romance can occur.

There's no implications she's been sexually assaulted. At one point she almost instigated a group orgy while the entire squad was unknowingly drugged on shrooms but said orgy stopped pretty quickly

SO FAR she hasn't been murdered. This show has a loooooot of character death but she's made it out of the two released seasons so far.

I... dunno if I'd call her great rep? She's like... morally gray at best. TBF again, though, literally nobody in the show is supposed to be a good person and Lottie was made probably the LEAST problematic of the main cast. idk if that has anything to do with the aila test but i figured i should note it

I haven't watched this show so I can only go off of what was shared and in my opinion if the actor is Indigenous, the character is Indigenous. Courtney Eaton was also Cheedo from Mad Max Fury Road, who also passed the Ali Nahdee Test. She's Chinese, Maori and Cook Islander. <3

[articalextraordinaire]

hi guys, sorry for dying lmao. anyways... do you guys want some ninjago ethnic and cultural headcanons??? (theyre almost all east/south/southeast asian btw // srry if u wanted more central/western asian rep.. caucasus dont count theyre too european /hj)

Arin: y'know the fact that there's like a ton of different tribes in papua new guinea? yeah, maybe one of those but i don't wanna be disrespectful so i'll do more research first before fully commiting. other thoughts are timorese or other indigenous groups from/near eastern indonesia.

Sora: look at those cat ears and try to tell me that she is NOT japanese. just- cmon man. plus, imperium is like a futuristic imperial japan or a futuristic version of that time the tokugawa family was in charge and locked down the country.

Lloyd (as well as the entire FSM bloodline): either tibetian or bhutanese. FSM just gives some budhist vibes so yeah. this isnt going to be about religion but religion does kind of affect ethnicity and culture so it does have a very minor role in making these headcanons. nepali works too but nepal is kinda nore hindu so yeah..

Kai and Nya: indomalay. mostly the indo part.. like- cmon, fire and water, indonesia is an archipelago with a shit ton of volcanoes (philippines too but we'll get there, sandali lang muna ;) ) i cant get into specifics cuz im not too well-researched but yeah. also, vibes 👌

Zane: siberian or he's from one of the islands extremely north of japan that japan and russia keep on disputing over. purely because of geography and ✨vibes✨

Cole: mixed black latino-filipino. as a filipino myself i wanted to make someone filipino =). since a lotta people were making cole black, i thought that i might as well make him mixed <3. plus, the philippines is also a former spanish colony so it just makes sense. if you want a more specific country, either colombia or the dominican republic are cool. not very well-researched on the different latin american countries so if anyone wants to tell me the most appropriate country for cole pls let me know 🥰.

Jay: umm, i sorta have a dillema over this. im thinking either korean or he's from somewhere in the gobi desert like mongolia or inner mongolia (its a province in china btw). korean bc the entertainment and beauty industry as well as the student and work culture kinda fit him. but somewhere in the gobi desert is nice bc the desert is where he grew up. maybe he's korean but grew up in a mongolian-chinese environment but yeah, im not too sure about him 🤷‍♀️. im leaning more towards korean but yeah, not sure.

Wyldfyre: i um... this was very hard. first of all, she's not gonna be asian since i couldn't find a good enough area in asia and well, im pretty sure she's not from ninjago so she doesn't have to be asian. so, i got maori in northern new zealand but 1. i know nothing about the maori people 2. it might be disrespectful to portray them like that. and 3. er, the geography is kinda off. where she grew up looks very desert-y and volcanic. i think a more suitable reigon is in south america towards the coast like peru or chile but um i know even less about the those reigions than new zealand. plus, it has the same first 2 problems i listed earlier. (yes im ignoring her clothes for these headcanons srry guys my brain loves topography too much) TLDR; idk man shes too hard to sort out lol. it adds more to her mystery and chaotic energy anyway so yeah.

if u know more abt latin american countries, pls give me pointers so that i can have more accurate headcanons for cole and wyldfyre. i can do my own research for kai, nya, and arin but any help with that is also very much appreciated 👍. peace ✌️

(this is what happens when u become a geography nerd... im not at my full potential yet bc my latin american knowledge and all of africa knowledge sucks. but yeah. bye fr this timeee)

[swearingcactus]

Far Cry 3's Rook Islands - how based on Indonesia is it actually is

according to an Indonesian who is not exactly qualified to write this post but by god will i make that everyone else's problem. Long post under the cut in case you'd like to know the fun facts and insights about the game and Rook and how much they got right and wrong.

Here's what I will discuss:

Locations, Flora & Fauna

The Rakyat and what they preach and practice

Citra, Dennis and Vaas

I would like to preface by saying Indonesia is a big ass archipelago, literally the biggest archipelagic state in the world, and we have many cultures, sub-languages, and various indigenous tribes of which I'm not part of. So there could be a possibility that the FC3 game devs were basing Rook especially the Rakyat on certain tribes I'm not familiar with or with an actual cultural rep who knows more than I do, but somehow I doubt that too, considering how they seem to just base Rook vaguely on various Polynesian areas.

1. Locations, Flora & Fauna

The Rook Islands page in the Far Cry 3 Wiki does a great job of explaining this in more depth than I do, but to TL;DR it: the flora & fauna in Rook makes it seem like Rook's most likely in the eastern side of Indonesia (sharing the same fauna and flora as Papua New Guinea and Australia). This is especially evident since Rook has komodo dragons and they're only available in Nusa Tenggara Timur.

However, the vastly different animals in the North and South Islands of Rook indicates the possibility of Rook running through the Wallace Line, which irl happens between Bali and Lombok, two very close islands which have vastly different faunas.

So actually to squash down the locations into two tiny islands and grab all the crazy animals into two distinct parts like this actually happens irl, which is cool!

I got nothing much to add about plants cus they all seem to be pretty straightforward and all are available in Indonesia from what I see... with the exception that I previously had believed that the white plant that Jason can pick to craft immunity effects are jasmines, but it seems that officially they're tiares which are more commonly known as being used as leis by the Polynesian people. Either way, both Jasmines and Tiares are small, worn traditionally by women, smells nice and have some spooky connotations, so same difference to me :^)

The only location in-game with an Indonesian name is Beras Town. Beras means 'uncooked rice', so there's a little fun fact to note since when you get there the first time to see Hoyt shooting at the natives it was fittingly in a rice paddy field.

2. The Rakyat and what they preach and practice

The Rakyat is a dead giveaway that Rook is based on Indonesia or Malaysia. Rakyat means 'people' in both languages, and is pronounced correctly in-game. However, most of the Rakyat weren't speaking Indonesian and spoke with a New Zealand accent so are they like. Samoan? Maori?? God knows.

Indonesia has certain tribes who have tattooing as part of their history and culture, but the tatau seems to be based more on the Samoan tatau, at least from the name itself. Tattoos are called tato in Indonesian and not tatau. The design is also not like any known designs from tribes that have tattooing culture in Indonesia. With how Dennis explains each animal on Jason's tatau had meaning in the Rakyat's history for warriors, it seems like the entire thing was a creative liberty.

Other than the tataus, there's not much we know of about The Rakyat other than they're natives of the island. There's a side mission where you have to spy on a cheating husband, this one stuck out to me for a couple reasons. One being it's funny as hell, and also because the name of the guy the husband is cheating with is Jalak. Jalak is the Indonesian name for a Starling, there's a specific sub-species of the bird that is endemic to Bali, Indonesia. It's extra-funny if it's implied that the man the husband is cheating with is named after a bird because the word bird in Indonesia (burung) is a euphemism for dick.

Another side mission also has a minor character you have to find called 'Senin' which was pronounced wrong but it's an Indonesian word that means 'Monday'.

Those are all I remember, I'll edit if I remember more!

3. Citra, Dennis and Vaas

Citra - let's start with the most glaring thing. Citra is not supposed to be said with a 'S' sound but a 'Ch' sound. (if you go to google translate and type in Citra in Indonesia and listen to it, that's the right pronunciation). If they wanted to pronounce it like they did in-game, they should've just named her Sitra which would still sound pretty natural as an Indonesian name.

Other than her name pronunciation error, the name itself is actually pretty solid. Citra means image, like 'made in the image of god' kind of image. Considering she is the Rakyat's leader and is obsessed with cultivating an image of strength and traditional values, it's a fitting name.

Citra is also the only character to speak proper Bahasa Indonesia. She actually pronounces the words correctly and speaks clearly, which I was pleasantly surprised with! Just ignore the way the Indonesian is written in subtitles cus they are completely wrong. She only says a few lines so I'll discuss them here:

Senapan ke bawah - said when Jason first shows up with Dennis at her temple and she asks her men to stand down. Translates to 'Lower your guns.'

Berikan saya herbal - said when she asks for the first potion that Jason has to drink to get the vision that led him to hallucinate where to find Willis. Translates to: 'Give me the potion/herbs'.

Cinta untuk anak-anak kami - you can miss this if you didn't pick her ending. This is the only correctly subtitled Indonesian line, and it translates to 'love for our children'. Not child. Children. Plural. Miss ma'am... what in the everliving fuck are you trying to do hoping to have children with a guy who's shooting blanks at this point and who you proceed to kill immediately after? Let's move on.

Dennis speaks Bahasa Melayu, which is quite interesting to note, considering he is a foreigner who tries very hard to fit in. Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia are very similar to each other, hence why we can understand each other, but there is still a distinct difference between them. Since we're overanalyzing, it could be said that Dennis and Citra has never been 100% on the same page with how they speak slightly different languages.

Vaas never once speaks Bahasa Indonesia or Melayu, which considering how he has thrown away his Rakyat roots, makes some sense. And I love Michael Mando but I think he would definitely butcher the language lmao so it's great that they didn't make him say any native lines. Vaas is also not an Indonesian name, though we do have vas as a word, since vaas is Dutch for 'vase' and we picked up a few words when Netherlands colonized Indonesia. but i doubt they used the word vase for a villain name but hell, who knows. If we wanna get funky I guess we could say that Vaas was always colonized/under someone's control even down to his name.

Conclusion

Far Cry 3's Rook personally for me didn't do a good job at being Indonesian enough, from how villages look, to location names, to little things like the lack of food stalls that you would 100% be able to find if you just walk down the road in any location here. Though to be fair, it was 2012 and as such, a different time with different standards that they have since then set higher for themselves. Ubisoft did a much better job at adapting Kyrat into a believable country that was based off Nepal with rich world-building from NPC notes, locations in map, to the little items you can loot from the enemies that included Bagh-chal pieces! FC5 was also very true to Montana from what I'm led to believe from the countless praises in Reddit, and FC6 had a lot of great representation too.

At the end of the day, FC3's a great game with a solid map based vaguely off a location I just happen to be familiar with, and that is still pretty fucking cool.

[real-total-drama-takes]

the amount of ppl who think jasmine is black is crazy. unironically the first australian aboriginal rep ive ever seen as a maori it hurts

anyway, Raj is def samoan. idk just ramblin atp

.

[olivers-cocoapuffs]

Since you write / like Australian James / Maori Frank, are you from Australia New Zealand?

I am very much an Aussie!!

I grew up surrounded by aboriginal culture (even though I’m white as) and New Zealand is like our sibling and they don’t get enough rep so.

[kopimoss]

We can base our native or indigenous sims on anything, not necessarily ntive americans. the sims is created to represent mostly north america culture so fuck that research

hi anon! I agree native peoples come from everywhere? I mean I live in new zealand and I'm part Samoan so I would love to see Maori or more Polynesian representation in sims but I thought it's good too, to think about proper native American rep!

[cries-in-edenian]

Morrison: “Give more of my lines to Ming-Na! I want my character to stay mysterious!”

Favreau: “No worries, Tem. I’ll call Pedro.”

[sharkonaut-draws]

I am so nervous for Wednesday’s episode of Boba. I really hope they don’t return to the Grogu choosing a side plot point. Just let me have a good time watching Boba, Fennec and Din kick some Pyke ass please. I can stress about Din and Grogu’s relationship in December lmao