#racism that would have worked exactly the same in a US picture from the same era

[fabiansociety]

gamera vs barugon

woof, buddy, gamera vs barugon is immediately such a trainwreck compared to the first one, hopefully that's just the opening, but wow.

i do appreciate that these movies are trying to be darker and moodier than the godzilla movies coming out at the same time. the godzilla series all happens in broad daylight, and has for several films, but even in this big budget color gamera, things are happening at night or in moodily lit back rooms. i had the general impression that the series was pretty kid focused (gamera is friend to all children!) and maybe we'll get there, but at least for now it's got more of a noirish vibe that i enjoy

still doing the polynesian brownface, which sucks, but does give some useful context for the ways that like infinite wealth used hawaii in sometimes thoughtless and exoticizing ways

the movie does get better, and it's definitely got a grimy, almost grindhouse charm that's miles away from the godzilla films, but it's loopy as hell in the third act and gamera is a cameo ex machina at best. this would have maybe been a stronger movie if it had just been barugon with no gamera at all, but the gamera suit is still miles better. really, possibly the best kaiju suit of anything we've seen, with the possible exception of mothra, who gets disqualified since she doesn't have a poor dude zipped up inside her.

the good:

godzilla

mothra

gamera

the perfectly fine:

4. ghidorah the three-headed monster 5. ebirah the horror from the deep 6. gamera vs barugon 7. mothra vs godzilla 8. dogora 9. invasion of astro-monster

the bad:

10. godzilla raids again 11. rodan 12. varan the unbelievable (more like varan the unbelievably boring amirite)

[reddragon-cowboy]

PSA

CW: Anti-blackness, Racism.

I usually don't make posts of this nature, but something had to be addressed since it involves my racial identity as a black women. This involves my experience in the server with one individual.

This is a post to share my experience concerning an individual who displayed direct and indirect racial prejudice towards me in the @bebopcrew server. First and foremost, I must say that the Bebop crew is an amazing server and, although I am particularly shy as it can take me awhile to feel comfortable enough to socialize in groups, the members there made me feel welcomed and supported me, as well as many writers/artists alike.

But one member in particular, @/Drasino, stood out to me that treated me differently than the rest. I thought I could put the situation behind me and let it rest, but due to seeing them on my dash often continuously calls back to mind what occurred.

This happened when I had begun to try to come out of my shell, attempting to socialize and engage in conversations in certain channels. I left a compliment on some insight they shared in a channel, but I never got a response that showed he acknowledged me. I also tried to engage in them again, but he didn't acknowledge me and proceeded to ignore me. Interestingly, he would engage with other people in the server and their stuff, but nope, not me.

Ironically, a day or so later right after, Drasino posted an image where he outwardly mocked the Afrikaan language. That was the first red flag for me. I asked one of the admins about what they posted, what his intention and motives could be about the crude image. The admin got right on it and confronted Drasino about it, to which he acted oblivious and played innocent. But after that incident, the admin updated the rules to emphasize how racist and other toxic content, comments, or memes are not allowed.

Afterward, there wasn't no more images of that sort again. However, he proceeded to deliberately ignore me and my stuff while engaging and initiating conversations with other people. I also tried to involve a few people in a channel where he and other people were talking, which he easily could've engaged with me as well, but instead, he proceeded to switch over to another channel to try initiate a totally other conversation, again, deliberately and willingly trying to exclude me from his presence. There was also a comment a admin told me where Drasino made a joke about monkeys as well.

All of these things began to pile up. Even though he acted oblivious about the picture he posted, you have to remember, Drasino, ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. THE WAY YOU TREAT OTHERS IS ENOUGH TO KNOW THE TYPE OF PERSON YOU ARE. I am not stupid; I knew exactly what you were doing, and your actions towards me further proved my case. I do my utmost best to extend kindness towards others, try to make others feel welcomed, and I don't like it when others feel left out. I extended kindness towards and courtesy towards him in the same manner as I try for anyone else. But he didn't for me; the fact I'm the only black person ( plus with the only black oc) in the server who he outwardly and deliberately chose to not give me the same courtesy and respect as he gave other people stuck out like a sore thumb. Plus, that image was all I needed to know because he knew exactly what he was doing and proceeded to downright ignore me.

This type of behavior something I wouldn't expect to experience in this type of community, but here we are. Shinichro Watanabe created a show with a diverse cast of characters; Cowboy Bebop is abundant with diversity of different languages, cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities-it is an element I love about the show. Anyone who is a fan should understand and appreciate the message and vision that Watanabe delivered for us. If Watanabe appreciates and respect others, no matter their race, culture, or language, a fan of his work should share that same openness. With that being said, showing racial prejudice, anti-blackness, xenophobia, or any other type of prejudice towards another person is completely unacceptable here.

I decided to make this post to make others aware of my experience with this individual, and for others who look like me to be wary of their company, so they don't also have to go through the same thing I experienced.

[burningchandelier]

L.S. Dunes, AI, and how we are missing the bigger picture:

After a day of heightened emotions due to the announcement of the Old Wounds music video, this is what I can offer. I have given this response a great deal of consideration and I submit these words respectfully. I'm not hiding the ball about where I stand: I do not support AI as it exists, however I do support L.S. Dunes's use of it.

There has been debate about whether or not engaging an artist who utilizes generative imaging is worth discussing at all, or if it is symptomatic of a broader problem. Something that I have not seen any widespread discussion of is the bands much greater history with AI. The truth is that without AI, L.S. Dunes would not exist.

Do I think AI is awesome? Absolutely not.

Do I think AI is a signature part of the artistic landscape of this era and something that we should acknowledge as a reality, like it or not? Yes, I do.

Beyond that, I believe that this is exactly the kind of thing that can produce provocative and interesting art when utilized in creative ways. I believe that it this is what art should do-- it should inspire outrage, fury, laughter, discussion, and challenge the context within which it was made. This is the burden and responsibility of art. It must make us question and engage with our world.

If the art that you embrace only ever leaves you feeling comforted, then you are not consuming art, you are hanging out in an echo chamber. You might as well go to a grocery store for the ambiance.

So, is it the responsibility of a rock band to eschew a problematic tool in the creation of their work? That is not for me to say. Personally, I view misogyny, racism, classism, the proliferation of drugs, and the promotion of neoliberal politics as problematic tools for the creation of art, and all of these things have been used for decades in rock music and videos.

Am I honor-bound to condemn every artist who has ever utilized any of these things? I would be hard-pressed to find a band or musician I could support.

Is it the responsibility of artists to make morally pure, ethically unquestionable material, or is it our responsibility as an audience, to decide for ourselves what we are and are not comfortable with and to act accordingly? This appears to be the dilemma and divide of the decade, if not the generation.

In the specific case of L.S. Dunes, the question of AI is baked into the foundation of the band itself. There would be no L.S. Dunes without AI. The band was started by Tucker Rule during the quarantine, when tours were cancelled.

During this time, the Rules were supported by Tucker's wife who is the chief of staff of an AI company.* Without her support, Tucker would not have had the creative freedom to form the band. L.S. Dunes would not have written or recorded any of their music. They would not have toured. Any of the positive experiences that their fans have had would not have happened.

Is it disingenuous to accept a band that benefited directly from the profits of AI, but to publicly decry their work when they experiment with it as a means of artistic expression? I do not believe that you can have your cake and eat it, too. I feel that you must either accept the band as a whole or not, but do so honestly and by making a conscious decision.

As AI continues to encroach into spaces both public and private, creative and commercial, we will continue to find ourselves with more questions to ask and answer. These questions will have greater consequences than how we engage with a rock band, but the ultimately core of these questions will remain the same:

What matters more: how we respond to an algorithm, or how we treat our fellow human beings?

*This is not an invitation to harass the Rule family. Tucker's wife works with human beings in her role at her office. We all have to work to survive capitalism and sometimes those jobs are not ideal. She has a family. Leave her alone, for the love of all that is good in the world.

[mchiti]

quote marks are used for a reason though, if you pretend you don't understand me we won't get out of it. I said it looks "less Moroccan" than how society (and not me) sees Moroccans.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sport-preview-Ziyech-2.jpg?strip=all&quality=100&w=1080&h=1000&crop=1

If you see the boy in the foreground on the street, you target him in one way, if you see the boy in the other two photos, you don't even think about the fact that he is Moroccan. But I use him as an example because in this way we understand each other in a more didactic way, it is clear that this example can be extended to any person. Racism is everywhere, but money is mainly the problem so the only weapon we have at our disposal is economic emancipation. because I don't know if a boy, even if Moroccan, but dressed in expensive clothes would have been targeted in the same way, everyone genuflects in front of the rich, even the whites. Is there a practical way to help our communities? yes, and it is integration, work, economic stability, because we must no longer give white europeans the possibility of treating us as last. And I don't think you disagree on that, we seem to speak two different languages ​​but I think you agree on that

yeah that collage of pictures from the sun probably coming from some bullshit article on how migrants or diaspora kids can overcome poverty and turn their life around, a fantastic example of a racist tabloid who shits on migrants 24/7 you're bringing to me thank you very much. I'm not interested in this bullshit narrative and the fact I mainly post about a player doesn't give you any right to use him as an example for everything, first of all. because it looks weird, I'm being honest. it looks obnoxious and weird. What the fuck are you even talking about, racist abuse comes in every shape and form and you're simply DELUSIONAL if you think that's all it will take. You're using that picture, fine, he'd never find himself in that situation now exactly because he is a rich player, him as 15 year old might have found himself in a situation like what happened to us last night and would have definitely risked the same. And so what? what is this bullshit we're talking about, that we all need to become rich? Because you're delusional to think that's all it takes. We can't be all rich. and even if we're lucky enough to have financial stability to live a dignified life and pay the bills, that won't shield you from racism. It won't! Not even footballers are safe from it if you're noticing (and I'd suggest you you go read media coverage on ziyech from the sun if you're bringing that on the table) and do you think common people will be? I agree on the fact we need integration policies and financial stability, yes, I don't agree on the fact this success stories bullshit is going to save us lmao

The premises that we need to work on that first - excuse me but no? how about we ask for respect and equal rights regardless of our social status first? FOR EVERYONE. And please don't link me anymore pictures because it's triggering as fuck that you're talking about someone's picture as a teenager as "moroccan looking" I don't care you're using quote marks and I don't care what you think about it, the way you've described that picture is very offensive

[calumhoodgoss]

re: arzaylea accusing the friend group of racism or whatever, just reminded me of a phenomenon that I feel like you kinda have to live to understand but as a fellow aussie you'll probably get more than most: and it's that sydneysiders are fucking bullies

and i mean like insults being the norm, in ways that comes out to look like, for example, far worse racism than what actually happens, and there's a lot of lateral racism especially coming from poc but also that weird comradery of living in the same area too. same way in which queer and neurodivergent folk i grew up with use the worst slurs against both those groups but then are also out there tryna help it get better. idk, that's just what I grew up with and my area wasn't too dissimilar demographically from where they were, working class areas with people with a lot of generational baggage all trying to interact together. and if anyone wouldn't get it it's if you grew up a poc in the usa where conversations about activism happened a lot earlier and are a lot more performative, and from a rich family. like obv we haven't really been taking seriously anything she's said in that era (which on principle I hate treating anyone this way btw, but i'm also protective of luke and sometimes it's just not the time to pick apart everyone) and sometimes it's best to just move on from it all

but in case it does come up, I know this (what I've described above) isn't really the image they put out but 7-9 years ago they were a lot fresher out of oz and you can tell by the way they used to interact with each other. and i feel like i'm always defending the boys and yes there's always gonna be areas they're not exactly role models in but i've seen far too many 'racism' allegations that pick apart wordings of things said by them and their circle rather than look at the bigger picture culturally, and how we all come from a background of racism we're trying to unlearn collectively (which I feel like aussies get rn as we scramble to understand Indigenous rights and reconciliation) and then there's also the fact that no one ever acknowledges the fact calum's half Maori and it would impact him and his experience with all things colonialism and race. and they all do care about him, they care about sierra too--rant's almost over but i just wish we had better conversations about how to actually unlearn racism together rather than just accusing each other of being racist when it's like, no one's completely innocent but the only way things are ever gonna get better is if we all do the work as part of a movement and stop picking each other apart (especially in culturally insensitive ways) and infighting. anyway. disgruntled aussie I guess. i'll get back to real life activism and leave arzaylea alone

very interesting concept. i definitely agree to a certain extent that the cultural difference between American and Australian humour could not be bigger. i feel like over here (particularlyin middle to lower class groups), there is a general understanding between friends that things we say as jokes are not our true feelings on the matter. rather, we discern whether someone respects us through their actions and tone. we very much have a culture where everyone is on the chopping block, no matter what culture or hardship you have

i can totally understand though that these are not the same underlying nuances in America. and the boys not having known that could have said or done things that caused actual harm to people. was that their intent? probably not, but the result is what matters. i have no idea how those situations were handled or how those conversations went; but the least we can expect from them is that if they said something insensitive theyd own up to it and make a conscious effort not to make the same mistake again

yes its a cultural difference for sure, but it doesnt completely absolve them

i dont know the full situation and as you mentioned, arz has been widely accepted as an unreliable source. so who knows how they truly act and what their real attitudes are, but this is an interesting take and worth mulling over for sure

[tartlette1968]

I was going to make a long comment about something else.

But then this came up, again, this week.

I guess I'm not unique, I have an ambivalence towards "the Footy". But it's complicated. My Dad was an amazing man, and his whole life revolved around Aussie Rules Footy. The AFL was formed in the 90s, but the game has been in existence for... well frankly who knows exactly how long. Its roots lie in the Indigenous game, Marngrook. Some dispute this and that's only one of the problems.

My Dad would sit in front of the TV watching the game, and yell...

"Get in there, help him!!! You're playing like a girl... KICK IT!!!"

Well, you get the picture. His favourite phrase, however, was, "Weak as water."

He played the game, and knew as much about it as anyone would. He saw things on the screen that only someone who had good game instincts would see. He played the game for a long time, until he was 50, and then he became a boundary umpire. Because of this, I was always surrounded by footy players. They weren't overtly homophobic, but it wasn't an environment that screamed out a welcome to any player who was gay or bisexual. And this was a time when Footy was a "man's game".

When women started to do sports reporting, there was an atmosphere of resentment from the players. Constant attempts to embarrass the reporters out of the job with overt displays of naked genitals, aggressive incursions into personal space, exaggerated and incessant swearing, but it failed. Not least because most of the female reporters had grown up around football, and they were used to it.

Football players have always had a problem with homosexuality and bisexuality. Some of them were incredibly predatory, themselves, but what they feared was a fellow player preying on them. They feared being looked upon, feared being lusted after by one of their fellow players. In short, they feared that a team mate would treat them the way they treated the women they "fancied", or that a team mate would want to treat them that way.

But the sporting climate has changed rapidly since the turn of the century. Still, there have been less than a handful of players of any code who have publicly identified as gay in any of the male competitions, and no AFL players amongst them. It is also very likely that there are few same sex attracted players at all in the various AFL competitions around Australia, as the deeply entrenched homophobia likely drives people out of the game.

The most alarming thing is that there doesn't appear to be any intention to address this gross oversight.

There have been a number of AFL players who have taken a break from the game to work on their mental health. It is probable that some of these players have done so because of their sexuality, but it would be the absolute last thing they would admit.

The behaviour and attitudes of the spectators demands attention, too. Social Media posts about the AFL are peppered with racism and homophobia in their comments, in particular the platform formerly known as Twitter. Since Elon Musk has removed nearly every measure that was aimed at reducing abuse, it has worsened.

How long the AFL can maintain its popularity is difficult to say. If the issue is not addressed, the number of younger spectators, and players will decrease, as tolerance of homophobia, sexism, and racism is markedly lower in younger generations, and they will pass judgement with their feet.

Basically it's a case of shape up, or die.

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

🔥unpopular charles opinion

The thing is, it’s not an opinion, really. The question isn’t meant to be a complaint or a rebuttal or anything. I just genuinely don’t get it! The question goes something like this.

So Charles/Klinger seems to be the one actively disliked ship in the fandom, discounting the h*nn*hawk vs p*erc*ntyre gang war and that one rabidly anti-hawnk person (lol). Most nobody has any love for the ship, because it’s stupid and OOC, of course, but mostly because it’s egregiously obviously racist and gross, which is the critique that seems most common, and to be of most importance to people.

And to be clear, for the purposes of this post I am wholly agreeing with all that! It’s distasteful and immoral and people who are into it are insane, including me. I’m not arguing against this line of thinking, I just wanted to look at its inner logic. Because when I first heard people saying this, I thought, “Yeah, makes sense, Charles is truthfully a terrible person with abhorrent opinions. Nobody watching this already unfortunately bigotry-riddled show is obligated to try and look past that! It is Always valid to hate Charles’ guts.”

But it turns out most of the fandom (I assume it must be most, given how shockingly few people here have blocked me) actually don’t hate Charles, in general. It’s the specific ship, not the character, that’s distasteful. (Not to say any Charles ship is anything resembling popular, but like with most ships, that’s just a result of the general population’s Hawkeye BJ Laser Focus Gaze. I’ve never seen anybody actively dislike these ships when they’re brought up.) And the more I think about it, the more I wonder why, because well. to put it bluntly. It’s not like someone stops being racist when they’re not actively interacting with a nonwhite person.

You know what I mean? I feel like Charles’ bigotry would be a turn off for all of our generally morally sound protagonists, not just one who happens to be personally affected by it. But it only becomes an issue when it involves Klinger. I’ve heard people say that any Charles/Klinger ship fic would obviously have to go out of its way to address Charles’ racism, but I’ve read a few Charles/Hawkeye and Charles/Donna (and Charles / other strange and varied choices too, because of course I have) fics–really, REALLY good fics, that captured the characters very nicely and are very beautifully written–and I’ve yet to find one that discusses The Bigotry In The Room with any degree of seriousness.

(Pssst this is everyone’s chance to absolutely dunk on me by sending me fics that do this if there actually are a bunch and I’ve just never read them because I would in fact LOVE to read some fics with that topic regardless of ship!)

And to be clear, that’s fine with me! I truly do not care. When I read Charles running away to Maine or romancing Ms. Parker and I don’t see his love interests stop to ask “Hey, um, so any updates on the fact that you and your whole family are eugenicists?”, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest, because I just assume that Charles has already gone through the cult deprogramming step of his character development at some point prior to this, and either the love interest in question has already confirmed this off-page, or they are making the same assumption I am. After all, at least in Hawkeye’s case, the mere act of admitting romantic interest in a Democrat from the back of beyond would necessarily imply a shift in values, right?

(Admittedly, for all we canonically know Donna could be a fashy scumlord herself, so this reasoning doesn’t wholly apply there, but it obviously does to her fanon background/personality.) (Which is adorable, by the way. Everyone go check out the collective oeuvre of AO3 user onekisstotakewithme.)

So that’s all cool! It’s just that the same thing applies for me when it comes to Charles/Klinger. If anything, it applies even more, because you can have a fic where Charles’ whole family attend his and Donna’s 2nd wedding (Everyone go check out the collective oeuvre of AO3 user onekisstotakewithme!!!) but if Charles gets with Maxwell in any capacity, his father is at the very LEAST never going to speak to him again, ever. And personally I think that is SO fun and sexy, because Charles’ father is a white supremacist and I want him to die painfully forever and ever amen. <3

I got sidetracked a few times here and I just realized I never actually asked the question, which is, TL;DR: If it’s immoral–or at least gross and nonsensical–to ship Charles/Klinger, because Charles is bigoted, shouldn’t the same also apply to shipping Charles with many other characters too, given that they should logically also have a problem with his bigotry?

For what it’s worth, I have a bit of a theory about the answer to this, all to do with the incompetent way Charles’ bigotry (and other characters’ reactions to it) are portrayed in canon and the deeper Doylist factors that I think forced the showrunners into writing it like that, but I wanted to stay strictly on the topic of fandom attitudes for now, because it may be niche and silly, but I find it interesting. And I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on it!

[hozner]

I keep thinking about how and why the break up happened and so far my theory is this:

Holt and Kevin had very strict covid protocols at home to which they adhered religiously. While Kevin could work from home, Ray still had to go work at the precinct, so Holt decided that since he had to leave the house anyway he would take care of all outside chores such as grocery shopping, walking Cheddar etc. I could see Holt shift into safe house mode where he decides that in order to keep Kevin safe from the virus, he has to keep him in designated Kevin zones. Their house is big enough. Kevin has his own rooms, they obviously can’t touch, shouldn’t be anywhere near each other - this might be the first time the verbal warning when entering a room was implemented. Of course all of this drives them nuts. Kevin wants to go out. He hates that his husband who statistically is more at risk than him is constantly in danger. He feels helpless and useless and trapped. So he probably breaks protocol at some point and they clash over that.

And then there is the murder of George Floyd and the protests. We know Kevin has always disliked the NYPD. I think at this point - given their policy to be honest with each other, no matter how hurtful the truth - he might actually tell Holt exactly how he feels about his career. He might go into lecture mode and pretty much lay out to his husband how he now thinks that the ways in which Holt has helped individuals in their community ultimately contributed to keeping a terrible system in place. I could see Kevin urge his husband to quit the force. In his opinion Holt is putting his life in danger for people who might literally kill him if they met him out of uniform - and get away with it.

Holt isn’t ready to hear it. He’s conflicted, but he has given decades of his life to the NYPD. He still wants to believe that he can change the system from the inside. He worked his ass off to make captain as a black homosexual man and he feels a responsibility to stay because if he leaves, another old white guy is going to take his place and surely that would be worse. He has sacrificed so much for this - to which Kevin is like, how much more are you willing to sacrifice? (Your marriage???) Where does it end?

At some point when Kevin is in lecture mode, Holt’s defiance is bound to kick in. How dare Kevin pretend to know what he is talking about? Kevin is white. He’s super priviliged, not just because of the color of his skin but also his entire background (given what we know about him, i’d wager he comes from money). Also, he can work from home during the pandemic. How much of the turmoil Ray is in in even affects him? Also, yes, the NYPD is racist, but what isn’t? How many students of color does Kevin have? Are they treated equally?  Racism is in schools, in hospitals, in courtrooms - it is just more visible in the police because they are actually out in the streets. All of society is racist, all of society needs people like Holt in positions of power. Kevin argues that Holt and people like him are just being used as propaganda material. They didn’t give him any real power, they didn’t make him commissioner.

They fight and fight - over the phone on facetime while in the same house- I picture all of this going down pre-vaccine - and after a while they realize how tired and miserable they’re making each other. It’s already an awful time, filled with stress and anxiety. I’d like to think that at the bottom of their conflict is still the overwhelming desire to protect each other. Holt wants Kevin to stay inside because of covid, Kevin wants Holt to quit because, well, the NYPD is killing him. But at some point they both can no longer deny seeing the evidence of how much they’re just draining what little energy they have left.

So they stop talking and it doesn’t really help, but at least they spend less time and energy on fighting. They’re both deeply miserable and heartbroken, and throw themselves into their work and they tell themselves that this is better, that the other person is better off without them. They can’t stand to look at each other because it hurts too much.

After a week of silence they take stock. He looks a little healthier, a little less tired, a little less like shit, they think. After two weeks that’s pretty much scientific evidence. Can’t be ignored.

They decide to separate.

Edit: Based on what Holt said in the first ep, I think Kevin suggested the separation (secretly hoping it would wake Raymond up and make him protest, say he still loved him and needed him etc., but instead it just completely crushed Holt and when he did not fight it, Kevin was hurt and angry and went through with it).

They don’t shake hands on it because of covid.

[dyad-of-fate]

I would like to know more about your universe.

What place do we have the centaurs exactly? Is there a certain hierarchy between the different types of centaurs?🤔

By the way, I wanted to say that I find your work interesting! :D

Thank you so much!! :D

Well, first off humans don't even exist here so if they met us they would probably be VERY confused or concerned XD

Now as for the other question, the simple answer is not really a hierarchy so much as race based assumptions about each other. This involves anything from innocent stereotypes to outright racism, some of which will be tackled in current story. We use a lot of stereotypes about animals in real life Earth to build these~

This is simplifying a lot but there are three main differences between taur types: Hooved vs. Pawed, Size differences, and Domestic vs. Feral. The first two affect people in more stereotypes and living situations, the last one is entirely a race based bias.

Lots of text ahead, so read more if you’d like the explanations! (All characters are drawn by Okami and colored by Yarne)

By the way, next post like this will be elemental related!

Hooved vs. Pawed Taurs

The simplest one by far, this one mostly affects the types of jobs people can hold, living situations, some stereotypes... though mostly it affects people via jobs. For instance, it’s unlikely to see a small dog working in a hauling company, or a huge horse working in small appliance maintenance. However, people always want to break the mold, so there are almost always work arounds!

Pictured above is Alice the Papillion and Issac the Mustang

Size Differences

The size differences can get... a little ridiculous. The absolute tallest a taur can  (usually) get inside the Wall is 13 feet high, where the smallest can be two feet. As a result, there can be a little bit of strife between the two sizes. Some small taurs obviously can’t take jobs that would require a lot of physical strength, while a large taur cannot take jobs that require squeezing into small spaces. The amount of food people need can also cause a lot of headache, as can living space, clothing availability, general safety... as a result there are a lot of misconceptions about the other.

Pictured above is Nel the Moose, and Trudy the Skunk

Ferals vs. Domestic

Last but not least, and the most controversial one. Just like with most histories from in our world, there was once upon a time "human" trafficking and slavery. Similar to how we have domestic animals, people were kept or bred that way. By the time the story rolls around owning other people is abolished, but the footprint of that remains. Feral taurs are what we would consider wild animals, while domestics are our livestock and pets. Technically both terms are “correct” but considered slurs for various historic reasons. Supposedly all people have equal rights, but that is not always the case (though it can go both ways). Through the Wall’s war alone the battle for equality ebbs and flows, as do the success of both sides. That being said. Taurs are people, not animals so they are able to cross marry and have children with little to no trouble as long as its within the same family. The biggest obstacle is size difference.

Pictured above is Mo the British-short hair and Serra the Strawberry snow leopard

[wenellyb]

I have a general comment to make about the whole Sebastian thing, not on the Instagram picture, because it is not my place to comment, but a general comment about dealing with racism in the fandom, and some of the behavior I have seen on Tumblr.

I have a story to share first and it's not really related to fandoms, or shipping Sambucky or even Sebastian Stan directly but it's about how White people see racism, so I hope some people will read this and think about it.

I just want to say one thing... if you want to comment this, please read until the end before you do.

And please bear in mind that I'm not talking for anybody else but only my own experience and my opinion.

I see a lot of people get defensive when racism is called out in the fandom,whether it is them or a celebrity they love, and a lot of them try to deny it, or try to find excuses.

I understand why they do it, but it's really not the right way. The correct way is to sit down, listen, think about it and THEN only then can you deny or accept the accusations.

Here’s the story:

I was once with my group of friends and I don't know what prompted the question but they asked me if I thought all White people were racist. And you can guess it, I'm the only Black woman in my group of friends. We're all French and 5 of my friends have Asian orgins (Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos) and 3 of my Friends are White. Just planting the decor, lol.

I don't know why they asked, but we're always having debates like these on different topics so i just answered...

I told them that yes, that I thought all White people are racists, and that racism is not just hating all Black people, or all non-White people, but also includes a multitude of other aspects that enables racism to prosper.

It can be some unconscious feeling that you or White people in general are a tiny/ a lot better than Black people, it can be making or laughing at racists jokes, it can be denying racism even exists anymore: " But it's 2021, those kind of things don't exist anymore" this is also harmful, because then when your friends come talking to you complain about an encounter that was racist.... you will minimize it because "racism doesn't exist anymore so it can't be racist" so even though your intentions may not be bad... You are protecting the racists, intentionally or not etc...

There are so many more aspects to racism than just being a far right extemist who hates all foreigners. Racists don't only look like that.

I won't expand on this, but there are many more aspects, I mean I could expand, but it's not the point of my posts, the point of my post is that they asked me and I made a mini essay to explain that the way I see it, there are "levels" of racism (for lack of a better word), and that in that aspect, all White people were racist. People think that you need to be a far right white supremacist, to be racist, you really don’t.

And I told my White female friend, let's call her Alice, that she was the only White person I knew who wasn't racist (implying that my other two friends were racist).

To be honest, I don't think that all White people are racist, my uncle is White and he's the furthest from racist you'll ever find, but I said it anyway because otherwise some people would never question themselves. If I say this people will either get defensive and deny it, or reflect on it and try to assess if they have some internalized stuff they didn't explore and didn't know. But if I say that not all White people are racists, my friends would have directly thought they were off the hook.

What I do believe is that a lot of people are racist and just don’t realize it because they only think about the "extreme" cases of racism.

So I said to my friends that I thought all white poeple were racist and two things happened, and I wasn't expecting any of it:

- My White male friend, let's call him Pierre, listened carefully, and said that in what I had described, he admitted that he was indeed racist, he acknowledged that he did have some prejudice if he was being honest, and also that he had made some racists jokes so that even though he never considered himself racist, hearing what I was saying he said that on some levels, he was indeed racist.

Bear in mind that this is the friend whose favorite character in Black Panther was Martin Freeman, and had already argued in other conversations that positive discrimination made it difficult for White straight Men to find a job (When by the way he has never struggled to find a job a day in his life so go figure, besides there is no postive discrimination policies in France or anything, so I don't even know why he said that).

So knowing my friend, I knew he had some kind of prejudice, obviously, I just didn't think he would really think about what I was saying and admit it.

This was kind of a big deal, and I would never have thought that he would have admitted it, I thought he was the one I would have to argue with, but nope, he listened.

- Then my friend Alice, the one I had told was the only White Person I knew who wasn't racist, got mad and got defensive, even though she was the only one I hadn't called racist to her face. I said specifically she was the one White person I knew who wasn't racist because from previous discussions she was the most open when it came to discuss issues on racism.

However, she's the one who wouldn't really listen and said that I should not generalize about all White poeple, all that kind of stuff, so eventually I had to apologize to her and told her "It's not because all White People I know are racist that all White people are". I had to rephrase this way.

A few months later, I received a message from my friend Pierre, he's Alice's boyfriend by the way. He texted me that they were having Sunday lunch with her family, and someone asked Alice about a Black woman she knew, and Alice answered " She's pretty for a Black girl"...

So many things to unpack, the violence of those words thrown around so casually, those words being said by someone who doesn't consider herself racist, and also, the fact that I would have never known this if her own boyfriend hadn't texted me this.

"She is pretty for a Black girl" is one of the most disgusting and White Supremacist thing she could have said: All Black people/women are ugly by default but that girl is a little bit over that standard?" I don't know any context where that sentence isn't awful.

And also, I'm her friend, am I supposed to be relieved that maybe I'm in the basket of the "pretty ones" or should I consider myself as a member of the other crowd?

There's no way around it, what she said was so f*cked up.

This is why your " I can't be racist I have a Black friend" doesn't mean anything by the way. It doesn't mean anything. She's one of my closest friends.. we had a group trip together for my birthday. So she's not a casual friend, she was in my close group of friends.

The only silver lining is that by doing this, she exactly proved my point.

So according to you, who's the "ally"?

A White guy who recognizes he has prejudice and works on his racism and will call it out when he sees it, even if it's coming from his own girlfriend?

Or a White woman who considers herself an "ally" and doesn't think she is racist, but in the safety of her home doesn't hesitate to say racist stuff when she is surrounded by her White relatives?

It's no use being an "ally" if you're going to be defensive and deny everything or forget you're an ally the minute it is your favorite celebrity being called out.

Getting defensive whenever people start talking about racism is suspicious. If you feel called out, think about it, work on yourself and find out if what you’re being called out for is legitimate or not. And you know what maybe it isn’t? Maybe you Tumblr user X are not racist or you don't have prejudice, but you will never know if you don’t ask yourself and shut down the discussion from the beginning.

Just after the picture was posted a lot of people had already chosen their camp.

Even if you first reaction is defensiveness and wanting to deny it all, the first step should always be to sit back and think about it, and it's not only about racism, you listen first, think about it, and THEN and only then do you deny it or confirm it. Nobody is perfect, but the people who choose to stay obtuse in certain situations are really not helping and are by far the worst.

Stop finding excuses for Sebastian, of course don't go on his Instagram, don't harrass him, don't insult him... But also stop finding him excuses before you have taken the step to listen to the people who have something to say about it. Listen first, you’ll find the excuses later.

Also, most probably the people who are calling him out here on Tumblr are not the ones going on his Instagram to harass him (well at least I hope not) so why can't we have the conversation here?

We can have the conversations here on Tumblr, and discuss it... But the discussions will go nowhere if everybody just gets defensive.

Same thing when we call out racism in the fandom... Your first reaction shouldn't be to get defensive but to listen, I’m taking the example of the MCU but if we say there was racism in the Stucky fandom, don’t try to make it seem like there’s a Sambucky VS Stucky “ship war”, listen to why people are saying this, and then you can draw you own conclusions.

Here, for the Sebastian story, let's listen to what Buddhist people have to say, first. Maybe they will say the post was problematic maybe not... And we'll learn something.

My first thought is also to get defensive when I read a post and feel called out, but that's not the correct way, you may have some prejudice and not even realize it, or realize it and be in denial...

This might be contreversial but it is my opinion that most people are not hardcore racists. But their unwillingness to acknowledge their racist tendencies, working on it... or even staying silent when blatant racism is on display is what enables racism to live long and prosper.

On Twitter or other Social Media people will be openly racist without a problem, but Tumblr prides itself in being open and tolerant, but when it comes to really calling out racism, then it’s crickets-

If you don't want to do anything about racism... It's ok, I really mean it... It is ok.

If it doesn't disturb you when the non-White characters are treated differently in your fandoms it is ok, I'm serious... If you want to enjoy your Tumblr life without thinking about racism it is more than fine, you really have no obligation... It’s ok to stay away from some conversations. 

But please... please, please don't stand in the way of people who are trying to do something about it. 

And most importantly don't say you want to fight racism or that you are an "ally" but when you are called out or someone else is called out, you try to minimize everythin with "Not everything had to be about race"

Yes, not everything has to do with racism but you'll never know if you don't sit down and think about it first. Maybe Seb’s post wasn’t offensive, I don’t know. But how will we know if it was or not if we don’t listen to the people who are affected by that post?

This isn't even really about Seb himself but about the way some people in the fandom behave... How people just go to extremes without even trying to discuss first.

I love Seb as an actor, but I don’t know him and I’ll probably never meet him, I won’t spend the next days trying to defend him or accuse him, he and I live different lives that will never intersect, and it's fine like that, but I will listen to people who have been affected by his post and have something to say about it.

Seb will be fine, his career will be fine, he probably even has someone handling his social media... But the people on Tumblr who have to accept racism in silence and have had to do it for years will not be fine, if the coversations keep getting shut down before they even start. 

Everyone skipped the listening part and jumped to the defending or condemning part. And also a lot of things from the past re-surfaced (take a knee post, some instagram likes I guees) which makes it even more difficult if people skip the listening part.

To me, there are 2 groups of people, people who have prejudice and want to do something about it and people who have prejudice but don't want to do anýthing about it...

I don't know in which group Seb is and I don't know him so I won't be spending days trying to figure it out... 

But from what I've seen, at least in the MCU and Star Wars fandoms, I know in which group a lot of people in Tumblr users are and if some of them want to switch groups, it’s never too late.

[ravenadottir]

what do you think the characters would be doing after the show/how would they be using their platform? for example, i think lottie would be using hers to give people astrology readings and stuff and i think the season 3 mc would be sooo problematic online

ok but you know what? definitely! s3 mc would be causing the stir she wanted to in the villa and couldn't. i'm almost certain she would be raging and saying absurd things to get attention, something like gabby hana you know? BIG YIKES.

one thing is certain... all of them (purposely or not) would be making thirst traps... and definitely supporting masks and registering to vote. so that's a certainty for almost all of them.

lottie. witchtok constantly. not necessarily giving readings but she would be an apologist and majority on that tag. her instagram would be split into two accounts: one for her personal endeavours like thirst traps and *looks of the day*, and a second for her brand as a makeup artist/personal stylist. cause i think that would be so fucking cool! lottie knows how to perpetuate her personal brand and would use social media for that as well. here's some edits i did in the past to explain it better. i headcanon a collab with elisa for wigs that they would both wear on social media, so that's something i really like! plus, advocating for women's rights, especially when a male politician says something dumb, so you know, EVERY SINGLE DAY.

bobby. in the middle of the pandemic? can't help thinking he would be doing some humorous videos, but in my head they're not the funny type. just some cringey ones... don't get me wrong, but bobby is only funny when he's not trying to, and in social media he strikes me as the type that not only makes videos but also puts the towel over his head to play a girl, so that's probably the majority of his content. some food of course, and DEFINITELY some *cute* selfies that he knows it works as thirst traps. i think he talks about registering to vote and blm, but doesn't give his opinion on anything else, politics wise. here's bobby's feed for the rest.

gary. i'm not thrilled to inform that gary would be thirst trapping all the time. now that he's relatively famous there's no reason why not posting those pics and videos. between tik tok trends to show off his muscles, and instagram to... well, do that exact same thing, he might take some time to show nan and the soup kitchen, but overall... thirst traps. possibly being blunt about masks and registering but his content is very closed off. also, he will get a dog and encourage people to adopt. there's a lot of pranks on dicky and vice versa, so that's something i thought for his social media, just couldn't find a good faceclaim that has a variety of pics.

lucas. mostly bringing awareness about covid and the use of masks, probably pointing it out a couple of political disputes, and definitely advising people to be careful about their votes all around the world. i like to think he's a huge advocate for legalization of a certain practice that women have to beg to have (you know the one), and i think he knows exactly how to make a thirst trap without making one. stop asian hate and blm carrds present, and often giving his followers the incentive to donate. DEFINITELY 'look of the day' for at least the weekend, and lots and lots of landscape from the places he's been visiting or wishing to.

henrik. he's everywhere and he takes his phone to talk about it. no doubt henrik is having the time of his life by travelling alone, or with his wife, and doing lives at all times. i think you would see him doing lives in the middle of the night, or watching the sunset/sunrise with his followers, besides making his *questionable* forest foraging and recipes. survival videos? MOST LIKELY THAN YOU THINK. here's his social media, where i covered mostly of what his relationship would like on instagram. (heavily based off "beyond the hill").

carl. the amount of rpg on his stories? immaculate. chess? you bet! lots and lots of carl's launchings for his company, which does have a separate account but he can't quite separate himself from it and it shows on his feed. his relationship would be discreetly displayed with cryptic captions since he's not so sentimental. here's his feed with some personal things he would be encouraged to post and boost that confidence of his.

anon that asked for more hannah stuff, this is for you:

hannah. i have one for her because i do like her aesthetic. don't mind the faceclaim, it was the only one i could find in so many situations. horses, books, some *cute* selfies, travelling pics and more. on tiktok definitely booktok, no doubt about it. she might do a lot of the "telling the story of my book as a story time" trend to promote it and say "technically it's real life."

elisa. it's all about branding and she knows how to do it well! some influencers might not get political because of how they can be perceived but i think elisa doesn't give a flying fuck about that. she talks often about blm and vaccines on her stories. i get a jackie aina vibe from her when talking about brands that support/encourage dark skin models and influencers, so that's a plus. she will give shit to a makeup brand that doesn't care for shade range and won't hide her feelings about it. here's her usual feed, with looks and tours (that i'm certain she would do a lot). i also think she'll eventually cave and have a brand of wigs, clothes and makeup, AS SHE SHOULD.

hope. there's no question about her activism on social media and i like to imagine she would be speaking up against anti-vaxxers and racism, mostly. just like yewande, she would probably talk about every time she felt the show might've favoured people that don't look like her. we would be getting the hot tea on everything since she's so honest. there's also lots of looks and promoting her friends' products because she supports them so much. priya's clothing line, elisa x lottie collab, etc. here's the feed i made for her a while ago.

chelsea. she might not be that deep into politics but she'll talk about covid and how people should be more careful about it, "wearing all these cute masks my babes lozza made for us!". LOTS of *look of the day* and tours on the spaces she decorates, besides the behind the scenes of parties and weddings (of ex-islanders) that i know she would throw. her feed also includes her closet, supporting her friends' endeavours and promoting them, besides some random mug collection shots and FOR SURE a pug selfie with mc.

priya. there's not much to say except for the occasional thirst trap (with those amazing thigh, ffs she should), lots of vaccine warnings, definitely political anecdotes and her clothing brand. i love to think she would have an actual boutique once things get settled after covid, and she would use social media to promote every line. her feed consists mostly of her travelling, designs, supporting the girls and her photoshoots.

kassam. lots and lots of backstage photos and that *prickly* way of demanding people to use their brains and wear a mask, besides getting the vaccine. in studio or just before the stage, selfies with a clothing line with his logo and definitely pics with islanders he didn't get to meet but is now friends with. during covid he would be using his lives to play for his followers, like lots of dj's and musicians i've seen doing on reddit and tiktok, probably called "late night music" or something like that. encouraging followers to donate for causes as well.

noah. not so huge on social media, might be the most discrete of them all. there would be lots and lots of pictures of the mornings before he opens the library, because i sincerely think he would keep his job. not the most outspoken about certain matters but carrds like the blm's and 'stop asian hate''s are on all of his bio's. i do like to imagine him taking selfies with the boys from the show, like ibrahim. he would be so present in noah's feed it's not even funny. the casual "cute unintentional" thirst trap too. family photos from ages ago and lots of his siblings as well. he does love to write long captions for whenever he posts his girlfriend. one thing though, during the first few months on the outside, he wouldn't be so present, afraid of facing the bashing on him if he got with mc in the show. that could be a reason for him to stay away until people "forget" about it.

marisol. SO - MANY - SUITS - SELFIES it makes me cry happy tears. between advocating for women's rights in a more technical way, she would definitely be using her platform to also talk about lgbtq+, especially after the realization she had during her journey. lots and lots of activism about those things, and i think she would be doing a fine job. definitely promoting the girls' products/services and an occasional thirst trap with a braless suit look.

rocco. covidiot. (i just wanted to use this nickname one more time). he might get a hard time from followers and villa buddies because of his stance on vaccines. i just hope he reads some articles instead of sharing bibity-bobity-bullshit on facebook and instagram. there's lots of vaccine memes on his comment sections no matter what he posts though. it's gonna take a while for the public to move on.

[valley-of-the-lost]

I don't know if you watched BPA, but.. I have a question, that I don't know if you can answer this, but it's been nagging at me (this is a multi-part ask, this will be a quick rundown): A blog that used to be interested in Barbie claimed that BPA has some racist undertones; this is because, as they claimed, due to the antagonist (who has, as they put it, brown skin) tries to take over the kingdom of a white princess/queen. 1/?- Barbie Multiverse Anon

Okay, so, a quick explanation. This ask has been sitting in my inbox for a few days, and I sincerely apologize to Multiverse Anon for making them wait this long for me to weigh in on this. When I received this ask I was neck-deep in part of an art challenge that wore me out and I had not watched BPA (which I assumed was Barbie Princess Adventure) at the time, and I felt that this was the type of ask that I needed to chew on for a couple days and talk to some people before I was certain of my thoughts on it.

Now, I have done some cursory research, watched Barbie Princess Adventure myself, and bounced it off some of my friends for their take as well. Thus I will attempt to answer this to the best of my ability.

I do agree with the unknown blogger in question that Prince Johan is a brown-skinned character, and that the plot has racist implications due to the combination of this, him being the antagonist, and the fact that his kingdom lost a war to Amelia's prior to the plot to drive his motivation hence why Amelia is taking over the rule of both her own and his kingdom. However, I disagree with them that this is an ongoing theme or that there's a pattern of racist undertones in previous Barbie movies. At least from my own knowledge. 

(under a read more because I don’t want to clog people’s dashes, this is not a simple topic to unpack + the movie did some weird things I wanted to explain too)

Before I really delve into the meat of why I take this stance, I want to quickly discuss why I had to even assert that I agreed that Johan is a brown-skinned character as its own point on the off-chance someone else encounters the same initial weird impression I did. You can skip this part if you want, I'll put a triple asterisk where this ends (***).

Prior to watching BPA myself, I did some cursory research on the Barbie Movies wiki, prompted by this ask. I put together that Johan was probably the antagonist that was being referred to, but when I was on his page, his wiki picture was just this.

This was all I had to go off of at this point, because he didn't have a screenshot gallery for me to cross-reference him throughout different points in the movie. So the conclusion I drew at the time was "he just looks like a tan white guy". This impression was reinforced by his light eyes and recycled Ken face model. I cross-referenced this with some friends, and we came to the conclusion that at best he looks racially ambiguous, with no reason to think he was a character of color unless there was other indication about his race in the movie itself.

And then I watched the movie. And changed my mind when I saw what he looked like in these scenes.

Johan looks noticeably darker than he did in his single wiki picture, especially when next to other more obviously white characters like Barbie and Amelia. His skin tone is closer to Alphonso whom I would call a brown character pretty confidently in the same movie (I wanted to minimize comparisons across movies to eliminate the possible different variables that would come with it).

While this might not be as noticeable to other people casually watching the movie, I found this a bit jarring myself because I was focusing on his skin tone in particular due to the subject of the ask and my initial impression from the wiki picture when he was arguably at his lightest in the whole movie, as well as when he was introduced he was at his darkest because it was set at night. Also the way the animation team decided to shade him to convey that its nighttime confused me because he looked a lot darker than I thought someone of what I assumed his skin tone would look. And then the next scene with him and Barbie further confused me, because he suddenly got this reddish undertone that really highlighted their difference in skin color.

(Barbie’s hands are on the left and Johan’s are on the right for sake of direct comparison)

Finally, in his last scenes in the movie, Johan's skin tone is most like that of his wiki picture's. Darker than Barbie's when they stand in the same shot but light enough that he could've passed as a tan white guy. What cemented my confusion is that he still looks like this in the throne room, where he was before when dancing with Barbie so it should reasonably have the same lighting and bring out that reddish undertone, but no he still looks like that. So my final conclusion on him was that since he looks like a brown-skinned character in around 2/3s of his scenes and there's a 2D painting of him in the bg when Barbie and Amelia are kidnapped, that he is indeed a brown-skinned character and the animation department probably fucked up their lighting which messed with how uniform his skin tone looked across scenes. ***

Now that I've explained my process of confusion and then final agreement that Johan is indeed brown-skinned, let's discuss how this compounds with other elements to create a rather unfortunate picture. I'm afraid its a bit worse than Anon described.

First off, the added context of the history between Amelia's kingdom of Floravia and his kingdom of Johanistan. Prior to the movie proper, these two countries fought in a war and Johanistan eventually surrendered to Floravia. The two countries signed a treaty that said that after her coronation, Amelia would rule both Floravia and Johanistan.

There is a severe lack of critical details about the war itself, such as what caused it in the first place, which really works to the film’s disadvantage, since the absence of clarity does little to clear up the questionable implications of what is known about the relationship between Floravia and Johanistan.

Amelia’s kingdom is the one that took over Johan’s initially, since they won the war and Johanistan would be ruled by Floravia’s queen, with the implication being that she’d depose Johan’s family, the original ruling family. While the lack of details makes it so it can’t quite be said that Floravia is colonizing Johanistan, it also means that it can’t be said that Floravia is not colonizing Johanistan. What is known about the war is very broadly reminiscent of tactics white people have used to colonize other countries, such as using a war to depose the original royal family for the colonizer’s own gain (the US colonizing Hawaii by staging a coup against their ruling family because the white plantation owners got mad) and putting the other country in a disadvantageous position with a treaty (Opium Wars). This would probably just be viewed as normal Kingdom vs. Kingdom politics if... well Johan wasn’t a character of color.

Combined with viewing this movie through the lens of real-life racial biases (which people are predisposed to do because we're inherently based in reality), the likely conclusion drawn is that this white ruler (Amelia) is effectively ousting a character of color (Johan) and his family out of power and force-assimilating his country, and there's simply not enough clarity about previous events before the movie takes place to dispel it sufficiently.

This also poisons the plot proper because Johan's motivation is to take advantage of the law that the rule of both kingdoms falls to him if Amelia doesn't show up to coronation and regain rule of his own kingdom and Floravia as a nice plus. The intention was probably to show him as greedy for wanting lone rule of Floravia and Johanistan, taken together, it honestly comes across as the movie villianizing a character of color because he wants to regain sovereignty of his own kingdom from a white ruler. Its completely understandable that Amelia wouldn't want to lose her own kingdom especially coming off of war, but also her kingdom is also the one ousting out the previous royal family of Johanistan without giving any good reason why they can't compromise.

The effect would be somewhat mitigated if another character of color had a similarly prominent role as Johan on the side of Barbie, but there's really not. The closest I'd argue would be Alphonso, but he doesn't have equal plot relevance. This does, in my opinion, make Barbie Princess Adventure's plot give off racist vibes like that unknown blogger said. But I do not agree with them that there's a "pattern" of racist undertones in other Barbie movies.

Due to the lack of details of what exactly they meant by a "pattern" of racist undertones, I am assuming they mean a consistent pattern of racism across the movies, for example the movies consistently dipping into anti-Asian sentiments with their villains, or their plots inherently having racist vibes woven into them like I just talked about in BPA.

Despite the Barbie movies occasionally dipping into offensive territory, in my personal experience I have not observed a pattern of racist undertones or consistent racism targeting a specific group. I acknowledge that I could fully be wrong and a lot of things could have slipped past my notice, especially since I have not seen all the movies, but from the ones I have seen I have not observed a pattern with regards to this. However, I will point out the offensive/iffy things in the movies that I know of, with varying degrees of detail depending on how much I can remember. This is by no means a full compendium of all the problematic stuff Barbie films have touched on but these are the ones I am aware of at present.

Barbie of Swan Lake - Antisemitism. There was a TikTok on this somewhere that discussed this more in detail that I can't find but will link if I do, but what I do remember was Rothbart was given an extremely large nose which is reminiscent of the "Jewish nose" ethnic stereotype. Also there was something about his name and Tchaikovsky himself being antisemitic and those views being reflected in his ballet. I don't remember all the details I'm sorry and google wasn't giving me much.

Barbie in the Princess and the Pauper - Antisemitism. Preminger hits a couple of antisemitic stereotypes in the movie, such as having a noticeably larger, hooked nose compared to the other male characters which is reminiscent of the ethnic stereotype of the "Jewish nose" and being greedy and corrupt (literally mining every singe piece of gold out of the mines) which is a stereotype of Jewish people. His name is also of Jewish origin which by itself wouldn’t be a necessarily suspicious thing but combined with those other tropes it does add up.

Barbie Diaries - Tia, a black woman and also the only one with curly hair in the cast, making an iffy comment about "getting the tangles out of her hair". POC with different hair textures have gotten a lot of racist shit for their hair so even though this is a small oneoff comment seeing Tia talk about her hair like this in a negative manner rubbed some of my friends with curly hair wrong.

Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 - Polynesian racism. Another friend of mine who is Hawaiian brought this up in Mermaid Tale 2, when Merliah and co decided to have a luau (which is a traditional Hawaiian party or feast usually accompanied by entertainment) in Australia. My friend found it a bit iffy they were doing this when most everyone is white, but what they found worse was when poi was being served in the luau. Poi is a traditional Polynesian dish, but in the movie they claimed it was an Australian and Hawaiian dish, which its not, there’s no Australia in its origin. And then there was a "gag" where the people eating the poi were gagging on it, so essentially this movie was making a joke out of another culture's aesthetics and food.

Barbie Princess Adventure - Reread the above text.

Maybe my sample size isn’t big enough but I’m not seeing a pattern or a trend here, which in my opinion would be a larger cause for concern because for these movies their issues are largely contained to their specific movie, and a pattern would be indication of a wider problem. Maybe you see a pattern I don’t, that would be completely valid.

Now, do I think this means you can’t enjoy Barbie Princess Adventure? No, I’d be a bit of a hypocrite if I said that because I still enjoy some of the Barbie movies I listed above that I just said also have problematic elements (Swan Lake and Princess and the Pauper specifically). But I do think it is good to at the very least be aware of it, hear it out, keep it in mind. At the same time I understand why people would be turned off by this topic because they’re here to have fun riding the serotonin of childhood nostalgia and not delve into discourse.

But I hope I answered your question to your satisfaction Multiverse Anon! I’m going to go take a nap now I’m tired 😭.

[softsebnbuckystan]

Soul ties - Part 6 (Bucky Barnes au)

"Hold, hold on, hold onto me

'Cause I'm a little unsteady"

Word count : 2061

Sleep didn't seem to come to you that night, and you didn't know whether the reason was the pizza you'd had for dinner, your husband's obvious neglect or your supposed soulmate sleeping in the same building. After tossing and turning in your bed for over three hours, you grabbed a pillow and a plaid, put on your slippers and went into the main kitchen. A herbal tea under the stars should  be a good way to help you sleep, right? You tried to stay as silent as you  could despite the boiling water in the kettle – you always refused to microwave water – and picked some chamomile infusion Wanda had chosen. With your cup in one  hand, you opened the picture window. One thing you liked about the compound was the few balconies it had : they weren't too big, but they were large enough for you to sit on a pillow and look at the stars, your back against the wall. You were once again trying to spot constellations,  the August sky being perfect for this kind of exercise.

"Can't sleep?"

You almost spilled your tea on your plaid.

"Sorry I scared you."

You smiled weakly at the man who'd just joined you. "It's fine. Wanna sit here with a fellow insomniac?"

Bucky ran a hand through his hair before sitting on your left. His right arm brushed against your exposed skin and you tried to hide your shivers.

"What's keeping you up?" You ask. "I mean,  you obviously don't have to tell me."

"Nothing much. Some nightmares."

"Are they ones about...about the war?"  Your question startled him ; he shot you a  confused look as you lowered yours. "Sorry. Steve told me a few times about his best friend Bucky and I... I made the connection."

"I thought Steve avoided talking about those things."

"What? The way he lost you?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry, that was tactless."

"Don't worry about that." He looked at the sky, leaning his head against the wall. "Wanna tell me what's keeping you up?"

"Well, it's quite ridiculous really," you eluded.

"Steve told me why you're spending time here. Is it him that keeps you up at night?"

You sipped on your tea for a few seconds. "I guess so. It's just that I keep thinking about what I'm doing wrong, you know? I must be doing something wrong."

You heard him take a breath, his shoulders raising with his chest. His arm against yours felt strange, in a good kind of way. You'd never felt so close to anyone in such a short amount  of time, and you wondered what made him so special aside from the meaningful tattoo you shared.

"I don't think you're to blame. Can I be honest?"

"Sure."

"I'm sorry if I seem out of place, because we only met a week ago but..."

"You feel like I get you, right? Just  like I feel that you get me."

He nodded calmly. "He doesn't seem to realise who he was lucky enough to marry."

"Lucky, huh?"

You looked at him with a smile and had it not been so dark, you could've sworn a red tint had reached his cheeks. "You're hella smart," he explained. "And from what I've seen, you're kind."

"And you think that after two days with me?"

He shrugged and allowed himself a quiet laugh. "You let Sam get the last piece of pizza earlier. I would have never done that."

"True. That is my most selfless act ever." Jumping on his joke felt natural and as it turned out, he had a communicative laugh.

"Why  don't you laugh more often? I like it."

Bucky looked you  in the eyes, paralysing you with his blue pupils again. It seemed as if he was searching for what to say.

"There aren't a lot of things that make me laugh. You do, though."  This one didn't sound like a joke, and you placed your hand on his forearm, instantly sending a funny feeling down to your stomach.

"Consider me flattered," you said. "Can I ask you a question? Don't feel like you're forced to answer, though."

"Sure."

"I'm just curious, working in biochem and stuff... I'm basically the school nurse for theses guys," you explained. "So how does it feel, the metal arm? Do you...feel things the way you do with your right arm?"

He stopped for a moment. "I did not expect that question. That's a good surprise." He raised his left hand in front of him. "It's weird, actually. This one is really advanced. Shuri did an amazing job with it, but... sometimes I'll touch something and think I feel something. I know it's my brain playing tricks on me, but it's not that sentient. I feel pressure, tension...but not actual human sensations." He let his hand fall down on his knees.

"Do you miss it?"

"I got used to it. But yeah."

"Okay, close your eyes."

"What?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Y/n, we met last week."

"I know! But like, it's not a 'do you trust me with your life' situation. Think of it as 'do you trust me with basic skills' kind of thing." You chuckled. "Now close your eyes."

Bucky gave in and you gently grabbed his metal hand. "What do you feel now?" you asked,  stroking the back of his hand.

"I know there's something on my hand. And I know it's harmless. But...nothing more, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's part of you."

"And you don't mind that?"

"Why would I?" you shrugged. "It's you."

"Even if I were to do this?" He slowly raised his hand, approaching your face. You let him place his hand on your cheek. It didn't feel like flesh and bone, but it still felt right.

"Yes, even then." You held up his gaze, searching those blue eyes for any sign. Signs of what exactly, you didn't know yet. All you wanted was to stare into them forever, never leave this state of mind.

When Bucky's hand fell down your shoulder and kept running down your arm,  a thousand shivers ran down your spine. You couldn't – shouldn't – feel this way. You were married now, and doing this... To prevent  you from doing anything stupid, you looked away and leaned back against the wall. Getting away from him still was out of your league, though ; you settled for resting your head on his shoulder and spread your plaid over both your bodies. It might've been because nights were fresh, even in August, but it was mostly to make sure you were as close to him as you could be. Before falling asleep, the last thing you felt was Bucky's head letting itself fall on top of yours.

---

"Hey, you need to wake up."

The morning sun made you blink and you felt something on your thigh. Lowering your gaze, you noticed Bucky's hand. You tried not to freak out and looked up at whoever had spoken : Steve. Bucky shifted next to you, woken up by Steve's words  as well.

"What's going on?" you asked. Steve might have been the best at hiding concern, he couldn't always hide it from you.

He sighed. "Darren's here."

"Shit." You got up more abruptly than you should've, causing you to lean on Steve's shoulder for a second. "Where is he?"

"Right here."

You turned around, seeing Darren standing in the doorframe. Well, that was unfortunate. You thought you should've been feeling some sort of guilt after being found in another man's arms – technically ; all you felt was anger. You were angry that he'd showed up after standing you  up last night, you were angry about the neglect and his overall lack of care.

"What are you doing here?" you asked sharply.

"Bringing you home. Why didn't you come back?" His arms were crossed over his chest and he shot Bucky a furious look. "And why were you sleeping outside with this guy?"

Rubbing your forehead, you gestured towards Steve and Bucky.  "Could you guys leave us a minute, please?"

Even though Steve nodded and walked back inside, Bucky seemed unsure about  leaving you alone with your husband. You gave him a brief smile and he took the hint.  As you closed the door behind him to have some privacy – the door was made of glass, but oh well –, Darren started pacing.

"Did you cheat on me last night?"

"What the hell?" You  couldn't believe your ears. "You're kidding, right? You stood. Me. Up. You didn't even bother telling me in advance that you'd go at Brad's, and you didn't even come home. Didn't you think I was tired of being alone every night?"

"You're never alone."

"Damn it, Darren,  you came home past dinner every day since we got married! We should be on our honeymoon right now, and yet you don't even bother kissing me goodnight."

"That's all this is about? I work a little too much and you go away to your so-called family?" He'd stopped pacing and raised an eyebrow, proud of his innuendo. His insinuating Steve and the gang weren't your family made your blood boil.

"So-called? So-called, Darren? I love these people. They are my family and they've been more present for me today than you have in a week. What did you expect? That I would happily ask to be invited at Brad's, when I clearly am not welcome there?"

"You are welcome, what the hell are you talking about?"

"They don't like me, and you know that very well." You looked at the ground. You might've been angry, but never being able to fit in within Darren's social circle had always hurt you.

"Maybe you're not trying hard enough."

No words came out of your mouth. How could you say anything to that? This was the ultimate insult. You had given so much to this relationship that you'd never even thought that 'not trying hard enough' could've been  the reason they  disliked you. First dinner with them, Brad's wife had made fun of what was left of your Sokovian accent, asking Darren if he wanted you to help you get a green card. Of course you'd called her out on her racism. She got upset, but was it your fault? No. During a night out, Brad had been too handsy with you and when telling Darren about it, he'd told you that you were reading too into it, that he was just being friendly. They weren't good people, and you'd always wondered why Darren bothered hanging out with them.

"That's it, go away." You let out an exasperated sigh, opening the door. "You're going to leave the compound to go home and calm down. Maybe I'll be back in a few days."

"I'm not going anywhere without you." That could've sounded romantic. In his mouth, it sounded more like a threat.

"Hell yeah, you are. Now go. My birthday is in three days, and I don't want you to be like this then."

"Right, your birthday. Don't count on me to celebrate it if you don't bother coming home."

You closed your eyes for a moment before gesturing him to leave. He ultimately walked through the glass door and you saw him make eye-contact with Wanda on his way out. You knew she was trying hard not to throw him against a wall or something. You ran your hand through your hair, taking in what had just occurred. You knew Darren would feel better the next day and that it would be like nothing ever happened. You just weren't sure anymore whether it was a good thing or not.

"Don't worry, you can stay here longer," you heard Steve say.

"You're better off with us anyway," Wanda told you.

"You know he's-"

"Please, don't defend him," your sister pleaded. "He's not treating you right and you know it. He hasn't for years. Why are you-"

"Wanda, please. Not here."

You looked at Bucky out of the corner of your eye ; you didn't want to have that conversation in front of him, for some reason. Maybe deep down, you knew he'd side with Wanda. Having your sister call you out was hard enough ; you didn't need your soulmate to start doing it as well.

--- I just finished part 9 so I'm posting part 6 because I can't wait to have your opinion on this one!! Don't forget you can message me anytime to be added to the tag list :)

Tag list :

@ginger-swag-rapunzel @joscelyn02

[herstarburststories]

Important Milestones (Damian Wayne x reader)

✾ Summary: An intimate look through your and Damian's relationship. Requested! It’s been a hot bit since I wrote for Damian, so I hope this one is good!

↼❈⇁

First meeting

Dick was taking Damian to the circus

Add a long conversation and lots of "Yeah, Dami. I'm sure the animals are treated well-- Actually, animals aren't allowed in legal circus anymore. You don't have to worry."

They were watching the show, and Damian couldn’t believe that Grayson was so excited about clowns

Damian excused himself to get some food

Dick asked him to get a hotdog, but Damian will bring him popcorn #beaveg

Thing is, you and Damian arrived the food trunk at the same time

Which leaded to an argument

Y/N: I got here first!

Damian: You are not on the line!

Y/N: Because you almost ran over me!

You two kept going long enough for a worried Dick to show up

How to trust each other

You know when you've never seen a person before, but once you lay your eyes on them, you start seeing their face in every crowd?

That's basically you and Damian

How come you didn't know the idiot from the circus was also the Wayne guy that studied with you?

How he, with Talia and Batman's observation skills, never noticed you walking around Gotham's School and now he always caught a sight of you?

You and Damian quickly fall into a weird routine:

Glare each other during lunch

Rolls your eyes when the others was talking in class

Annoy each other whenever you had the chance

Jon teased him a lot

Talking about Superboy...

He seemed off in the morning and he hadn't showed up for lunch like he always did

Damian decided to look for his best friend

Surprisingly, he found Jon crying in your arms in the middle of the chemistry laboratory

You just looked at Damian and nodded for him to come in

Y/N: His parents had a big fight. I found him here alone and thought I could help. Since you are here, guess I'll go.

Damian: You can stay. I mean, Jon probably could use your emotional assistance.

Damian still finds you annoying (and so do you), but you helped his friend

He trust you... A bit

Recognize your feelings

Damian came to school one day. He is clearly hurt-- he couldn’t even walk straight

Jon remained quiet. He was there when the week's villain throw Damian against a wall as if he was a bag of potatoes

But you don't know about the Robin detail

Besides, you are sort of a trinity with them now

Therefore, you worry

And you ask

And you worry some more

It's been a few weeks since your friendship started. Damian trusts you, he really does, but not enough to tell you

Let's keep in mind that pretty much like Bruce, Damian isn't the best when it comes to expressing his feelings through anything but violence

So, he acts like an idiot

Y/N: Damian, come on. I'm not stupid enough to believe you’d fall hard enough to get yourself hurt like this. Talk to me.

Damian: Stop pushing your need to fix everything on me, Y/N. You are not my mother. Don't waste your worry on me, I don't need it.

You realized you liked him when you felt way more worried than you usually would

But Damian just noticed his cherish for you when you glared at him with evident hurt in your eyes and left the table

He just wanted you back, making silly jokes with Jon and stealing his fries

Kiss me, idiot

Two days

48 hours + 12 minutes since you two fought

A whole weekend

LISTEN, his life was going perfectly well before you came along

Now it seems like you opened a spot that's exactly your fit and put yourself there

Whenever you aren't around, Damian feels this weird sensation of missing

Jon convinces him into talking to you

As soon as he sees you in school, he does

Apologize becomes another argument (surprise, surprise)

Damian: Why do you care so much?!

Y/N: Because I like you, idiot!

Damian: You, you like me? As in--

Then you kiss him

Because, let's be clear, you'd end up kissing or punching him

Finding out he's Robin

It's the most stupid way possible

Like, for real

Last night, his Robin's duties kept Damian up until 5am

Instead of leaving his clothes inside the Batcave as usual, he just crumbled to his bed

The sun arrived and so did you

School project

While Damian was out to grab some books, you were studying his room

A picture of him and Jon. Some papers with Arabian words. A dog's bed. Robin suit. A sword

Wait, come back

A. Robin. Suit.

Damian Wayne was many things, but cosplayer certainly wasn't on the list

The pieces glued together fast

A rich family would make sense: Batman and Robin's instruments never looked cheap. Four Robins existed among the years, and Damian had 3 brothers. Not to mention that he'd show up with random scratches and never explain what happened. He was good with swords, and the current Robin had been seen with them a lot of times. Besides, Damian Wayne would never wear a costume willingly, much less keep one in his room

He walks inside the room to see you wearing his cape and mask

Y/N: Guess I'm robin' your persona, huh? Wanna tell me something?

Meeting the family

You come from a big family

Good thing because anybody else would be scared if they were in your shoes

MESS, MESS, MESS

Dick is smiling like a crazy all the time, and making dad jokes

Tim is teasing Damian by asking you to blink twice if you need saving

Jason is directly fighting Damian and calling him devil spawn

Bruce is quietly watching everyone with a subtle smile on his lips. He asks you a few questions, and occasionally asks the boys to behave before answering his phone and excusing himself

Babs, Steph and Cassandra come in later

Now the teasing is divided between you and Damian and Steph and Tim

You tease them a lot, blushing Tim is adorable

You are wearing purple boots, and Steph already loves you for that

Dick tells Babara about you being aware of the family secret

She offered to train you for some self-defense

YOU ACCEPTED, DUH. SHE IS THE BATGIRL!!

Cass is more quiet, but very friendly

Alfred was the first batfam member that you'd met, though (also your fav)

You try (key word being try) to help him in the kitchen

Batcow became your best friend, sorry Jon

You met the Titan family as well

Now you had munition to tease Dick as much as he teased you and Damian

Thank you, Kory

Also, Kor is a real life alien princess, how cool is that!?

Beast Boy is the funniest guy -- and now you are pretty sure you became a vegetarian because you can't eat animals after seeing his transformation

Raven reminds you of Cass

Donna is so powerful, and she knows so many languages!

You get along with his two families

Although Damian rolls his eyes a lot during y'all interaction, he is really happy

First kid

You and Damian are in university when it happens

You both know it's a big step

There's no turning back, you two will always be connected

Damian and you are now responsible, parents

Of the cutest bunny!

Yep, you insisted on naming him Robin

The first kid you both adopted together

Get on your knees for me

Damian isn't much of a romantic

You don't really mind

But when he proposes, it's the sweetest thing

You two had ordered some veggie food to celebrate the end of your finals

Finally a break!

Damian was holding you on the couch as you both watched one of your favorite movies when Robin, the bunny showed up

Y/N: Batbunny, just because we have vegan food, it doesn't mean you can get some. Go eat your lettuce.

Damian: Beloved, maybe you should see what he brought for you.

The bunny had a necklace wrapped around him!!

And the said necklace was attached to a ring!!

A FUCKING DIAMOND!?

Extra of love:

You became a vigilant for a bit before deciding how you truly wanted to help people

Besides charity, you became a lawyer specialized in cases of racism and immigration

Your and Damian's wedding was a mix of your culture and his

Comment/Reblog if you liked it, feedback is magic! Wanna see more? Check my Masterlist! How about get tagged on my batboys or just Damian works? Ask me or add yourself to my taglist!

[floralovebot]

I often don't make things for poc because I'm scared of whitewashing them. Can you link to the tutorials that show how to go about this or could you explain it yourself? I'm always too scared of making things with poc in them and I don't want to whitewash anyone so advice would be amazing!

hi! i guess i could share the things i know about it but i do want to clarify that i’m not an expert at editing! so, if you want really indepth help, it would probably be best to ask someone else!

as for tutorials, these are the ones that have personally helped me! this one by @fadenet (specifically pale/pastel gifs including characters with dark skin), this one by @blueshelp (specifically about east asian and southeast asian celebs), and this one by @kispesan (specifically about edits). this is a post with a ton of resources for gif making, including things about coloring and other anti-whitewashing tutorials (highly recommend!).

when it comes to what i do, it really depends on what i’m making! i’ve made a couple of edits specifically about unwhitewashing characters of color which you can find here for examples, but overall what i do really depends on the kind of edit i’m working with.

i’d also like to quickly say that i use photoshop! while the basic coloring will cross into other programs, some of the tools/names might be different.

lets use an edit of the character aisha from winx club as an example! in season 8 of winx club, the characters aisha and flora (both having dark skin) were whitewashed. the following pictures are a screenshot from the series, showing the whitewashing, and the same sc but edited to reflect her original skin tone and hair color.

in this edit, i actually went in and recolored her skin using the brush tool (yes, it takes a hot minute to do, but you get faster the more you do it). the reason i do this for picture edits, is purely a personal preference. i like having the control of only editing the parts i want to edit and keeping the rest of the picture the same as before. personally, i don’t love using the selection tools so when i don’t need to,, well, i don’t.

if you have the time, patience, and ability to physically recolor still pictures, i’d definitely recommend it! it allows you to use the eyedropper tool on the original skin tone which makes for a much more accurate edit. taking advantage of the selection tools and paint bucket tool can make the process a lot quicker too!

now, lets use a different method, one that i personally use for things like videos and gifs (basically, anything moving)!

these gifs come from the same season as the above example and as you can see, aisha is heavily whitewashed in the first one. now, this is where coloring becomes your best friend!

so, you have your gif ready for coloring, maybe you used a psd/filter or you did your own thing, regardless, the person in the gif is whitewashed and you want to fix it. so, what do you do? (now, obviously this is just one example. there are many others ways to do this!). what i do, is almost exclusively use the hue/saturation and the color selection layers (i will occasionally use the brightness and curves layers depending on the scene)!

^^this little “guide” or whatever shows what you need to find for this tutorial.

the first thing you should do, is figure out which colors primarily make up the person’s skin tone. a good way to figure this out is by using a hue/saturation layer. click the hue/saturation, which will show a menu similar to the one in the picture, and go through each color and turn the saturation all the way down, so it says -100. don’t mess with the hue or lightness levels yet, just the saturation. this will show which colors make up the person’s skin tone! as an extreme example, if someone’s skin was green and you turned the saturation of greens all the way down, that person’s skin wouldn’t look green anymore, it’d look like someone put on a black and white filter specifically for the color green. just keep a close eye on what changes! now, this saturation change is just temporary! after you know which colors are in that person’s skin tone, you can just delete the hue/saturation layer. (you really only need to do this if you aren't used to coloring darker skin. once you get used to it, you likely won't need to, but it can still be a good reference point if you're lost on what to do)

so, after figuring out what colors you need to focus on, go to the selective colors layers, so you can edit just those colors! for our example here, aisha’s skin tone is mostly made up of reds and yellows while her hair is mostly reds and magentas. when i’m editing her skin tone and hair color, i only focus on those colors. in the selective color layer menu, you have four other colors to control; cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. although it would help, you don’t need to know everything about colors or color theory for this! just mess around with the colors sliders until you get something close to their original skin tone. you may need multiple layers of selective colors to get this right! don’t panic if it doesn’t happen right away, just keep going.

something i think is incredibly important during this step, is having a picture of that person/character open! that way you can actually go back and forth to see if what you’re doing is close. another tip, having another file open with a completely white background with a colored circle of that person’s base skin tone on it really helps. this way you can use the eyedropper and brush tools to see how close what you have in the edit is to the original (basically, use the eyedropper tool to select the skin tone in the edit and then use the brush tool to color it next to the circle of the original skin tone. this helps you see up close how similar they are!). here's an example!

the first example is from the gif and the second is from the still picture edit! you'll notice that the gif example doesn't match up exactly because in that specific scene aisha was directly in sunlight, making her skin slightly brighter than usual, while the photo i used for reference has normal lighting. remember to pay attention to things like lighting and shadows!

now, at this point you might be thinking, “this tutorial only shows what to do for animated characters and i make edits with real people :(”. don’t worry! the second method still works! here’s an example using a real person, kim taehyung from the group bts.

obviously, this isn’t perfect because i spent like. two minutes on it. so the skin is blotchy, the lips are too red, and the background changed. but the way i edited it is mostly the same as the gif example i used! the only difference being that i also used a color balance level to darken up the whole picture. however, besides that i did the exact same things as i did with the gifs of aisha above. if you're making edits with real people, then just do whatever you usually do to make sure it looks more realistic.

i hope all of this made sense? i’ve never done a tutorial before and basically all of what i’ve said has already been said! but here are some more tips for the road:

-when editing black people/characters, don’t make their skin red

-when editing indigenous people/characters, don’t make their skin red

-when editing east asian and southeast asian people/characters, don’t make their skin yellow

-pay attention to lighting! if a scene has darker lighting, skin will look darker than it is!

-on the flip side, if a character is right in front of a very bright light, their skin will look lighter

-don’t avoid the colors red and yellow, especially for people with tan/darker skin. those colors are always essential. they won’t look bad in your pastel edit.

-don’t be afraid to ask for help! if you have mutuals who make edits you can try asking them. or even making a separate post asking for help from any followers that edit! basically, if you truly don’t know what to do, either look it up or ask for help.

-do not just post the whitewashed edit/gif/art with the excuse that it’s, “just the filter” or “just the psd”. take responsibility for what you’ve created.

-if you’re using a filter/psd and you really can’t figure out how to unwhitewash someone.. use a different filter! ik you might really like the one you picked, but that doesn’t excuse racism. there are lots of filters/psds out there that don’t whitewash. use one.

i’m gonna be honest, unwhitewashing is really easy as long as you know how to work whatever program you’re using. and even if you just started, it’s still pretty simple! if you’re scared of making edits with poc because of whitewashing, learn how to not whitewash.

anyway i hope this helps? let me know if something doesn't make sense or needs more explaining! but i'd really recommend looking at the tutorials i linked as they're more in-depth and offer a lot of insight!

[megamultifandomtrashposts]

Nora Dhark x Legend!Reader - Well, This Is Unexprcted

Requested by Anon - Hi! I was wondering if you write for Legends of Tommorow? Because I wanted to request one where the reader is a newbie to the Legends and the Dharks don't know about them yet so they were sent to go undercover and try find out more about the next plan of attack of the Dharks. But Nora develops a kind of a crush on them? And then they hit it off talking, the next time the Dharks and Legends meet on the battlefield Reader and Nora are like "Well, this is, unexpected."

Note - Sorry if this is so short

Requests are closed at the moment

You were one of the newer additions to the Legends. You lived in the late 1800s, and your unusual knowledge on infiltration tactics and martial arts swayed the team to allow you to join. You were in awe of the Waverider, the technology far more advanced than anything you had ever seen before. You revelled in the simple clothing you were allowed to wear, because clothes from your own time were far too bulky for even your liking. You had learned of the Dhark’s, the newest enemy that the crew were facing. “We need to know what they’re doing!” Sara stated, pacing the bridge. The rest of the team was spaced out around the main console, watching her walk back and forth.

“Gideon can't track their movements?” Amaya asked, leaning on the console.

“Unfortunately, I can only find one instance of both Damien and Nora Dhark being in the same place.” You still hadn’t gotten used to Gideon, and jumped every time her voice echoed through the ship. The images appeared above the console, glowing faintly. “Both Damien and Nora appear on August twenty-eight, nineteen-sixty-three, at the Martin Luthor King-”

“They’re at the MLK speech?” Nate interrupted standing. “We gotta stop them.”

“That’s not a smart play.” Ray said, wringing his hands. “That speech was crucial in the Anti-Racism movement at the time. If our entire team were to show up, we’d probably disrupt the entire thing.”

“So only one person needs to go?” Zari asked. She popped a piece of food in her mouth. “Not it.”

“Why don't we send (Y/N)?” Nate suggested. Everyone turned to you. 

“Are you sure?” You asked, nervously shifting in your seat. “I haven't been on a field mission with you guys before.”

“That's a great idea.” Sara said. “They don't know who you are, so you can infiltrate them.” You nodded reluctantly.

“Ok..ok...I can do this.”

Watching the speech, you decided that you, in fact, could not do this. Your palms were sweaty and you swore that the guy a few feet back was eying you. You concluded that being here with a strange man was not worth the risk. So you left. You wove through the crowd, trying to lose the man that was now clearly following you. You didn't see where you were going and bumped into someone. You glanced up and saw who it was, not trying to give away that you knew exactly who was in front of you. “Are you alright?” Damien asked.

“Oh, yes, I’m ok.” You said, glancing behind you. The man had broken through the crowd and was stalking up to you. Damien glanced up at the man. 

“Stay back, with my daughter.” Damien nudged you back, to where Nora was standing behind him. You shuffled backwards, standing next to Nora. You could feel Nora’s eyes on you as her father dealt with the man. 

“Thank you, kind sir, for finding my wife.” The man said. You cringed, the man was almost three times your age, and was starting to grey. 

“Ha, uh no.” Damien said, giving him a mocking laugh. “You see, here’s how it's going to go. You’re going to walk away and leave us alone.”

“I don't think so.” The man took a step forward, reaching toward you. Damian lifted his hand, and started to choke the man out. He lifted the man into the air. 

“Go away.” Damian ordered. He set the man down, and he scrambled away 

“Are you ok?” Nora asked, turning to you. You hadn’t seen a picture of Nora, and you wish you had. You were stunned into silence. She was gorgeous. Dark hair and brown eyes that seemingly bore into your soul. 

“Yeah...yeah, I’m fine…” You breathed. 

Getting in with the Dhark’s was a lot easier than you expected it to be. After saving you from that creep, Damian and Nora were kind enough to open their home to you, and soon enough, they felt comfortable to include you in their plans. To keep your guise of their ally, you told them the best ways to execute them. You and Nora got closer and closer. It was clear that something was there, even Damien could see it, he purposefully left you two alone a couple of times to see if anything would happen. Nothing ever did, but he was holding out hope. 

“They haven't been planning anything major.” You explained. “Just trying to gain investors so that their plan can work in the future. But they do have this warehouse that they’re keeping some valuable items, along with more of those Time Stones they use.”

“Then we get them.” Amaya said. “Break in, get the stones and get out of there, they can't have the ability to move through time as much as they have.”

“Everyone suit up.” Sara ordered. 

After everyone changed into their suits, you lead the team into the warehouse, sneaking in and dispatching of the security team quickly. You lead the group over to the crates in the back corner of the warehouse and pried one of the crates open. In it, was mounds of straw, and resting on top of that was the Time Stones. Everyone grabbed a couple, stuffing them into any available pockets you had. “Is that all of them?” Ray asked. You nodded. 

“Yeah, that's it, let's get out of here.” You stated.  You turned tail and hurried out of there. However, you were interuptde by a small platoon of the Dhark’s best soldiers. At their head, was Nora. You paled. You hadnt even told her you wernt gonna be at the base that day, and you didn't expect her to come for a simple break in. 

“Y/N?” Nora breathed. “You’re…”

“I’m sorry.” You said. “I…”

“How could you?” Nora demanded. “We trusted you!”

“I know!” You exclaimed. “I didn't want to hurt you, but these guys saved me from my horrid life, I lived in the eighteen-hundreds! Do you know how bad the hygiene was in that time? We washed ourselves with a sponge and crusty soap. I love you, Nora, but I can't betray them.” The Legends glanced at you, their eyes widening. A blast of energy shot from your left, as Ray sttacked, and all hell broke loose. The Legends and the platoon members were facing off. You didn't like violence if you could avoid it, so you wee mainly dodging attacks or directing them into the Legends’ path for them to deal with. You yelped when a hand caught your arm, and you appeared in a forest. You stumbled, falling backwards and gazing up at Nora. 

“Do you mean it?” She asked. “Do you…?”

“Yeah, I like you.” You muttered. You then looked around at the new world. 

“Where are we?”

“Two-Thousand and Nineteen.” You blinked as you slowly got to your feet. 

“Why?”

“So we can live together in relative peace? People are more tolerent of same-sex relationships, we can be happy here.”

“What about your father?” You asked. “The Legends?”

“They won't look for us here.” Nora stepped forward and took your hands. “I love you too, (Y/N), here we can be together, safe.”

“Yes.” You replied, gripping Nora’s hands tightly. The two of you smiled at each other. You admit, living with Nora will be hard, but you don't doubt that you could make it work.

Tags: @baked-bean-bekah​