#the knee jerk reaction is to deny that. say i'm preserving it for these reasons
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louthestarspeaker · 20 days ago
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There's like this one genre of post and video essay I keep seeing from people who say they aren't upset about the HTTYD casting for racist reasons, they're upset because they don't like the characters they love to change. They're attached to their appearance, and they'd be uncomfortable with any deviation.
I am going to give these people the benefit of the doubt and assume this is true. But, like, so? Why do you think your discomfort should be prioritized over representation?
You realize that's what you're saying right. They shouldn't have cast Astrid as a black girl to protect your comfort.
And you can say it's not about race and you'd be just as upset with any changes, but when you do that you're ignoring a larger context that I don't have the privilege to. This franchise (that I do love) has had a long acknowledged racism problem. People put the idea of a "faithful" adaptation on some kind of pedestal but HTTYD was not perfect, and I'm not interested in preserving that aspect of it.
And I can hear the original character defense coming from a mile and away and yes. Absolutely there should be original characters of color being written with intention from the very start. But if Dreamworks is going to thrust HTTYD right back into the center of the cultural zeitgeist again, then I am glad as hell they're doing it with POC included this time.
Do you know what it's like to be excluded so often you don't even think to look for yourself anymore? I grew up writing stories with only white protagonists because I, in the most literal sense possible, did not realize you could write stories a different way (and this wasn't a long time ago I'm young, you guys).
And the absolute joy that comes with seeing yourself represented in media you love? Do you know how much it changes you? I swear to God it alters your trajectory.
You don't get to put your comfort above others knowing they're accepted. Above little black girls all over the world watching this movie with a new kind of magic in their eyes because now black girls can ride dragons too.
It's not some great, egregious thing to you that Nico Parker is playing Astrid. It's not some mortal wound that you can never recover from. If you're so attached to one version of the character, then watch the version with her in it, it's not hard. The film isn't being force fed to you, if it makes you unhappy, act like a mature human being and don't interact with it.
But you don't get to exclude people of color again just because it makes you feel better that we're not there.
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lenaellsi · 1 year ago
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I'm wondering how much of the fandom reaction of "Aziraphale doesn't ACTUALLY want Crowley to be an angel, he just wants to keep him safe/happy!" is because we spent four years between seasons assuming that Aziraphale had already accepted that Heaven and Hell aren't all that different, and that demons and angels aren't inherently good or bad. And it's difficult to let go of that idea in the same way that it's difficult to let go of the idea that they talked their shit out That Night At Crowley's Flat and have been happy ever since. But to actually understand Aziraphale's choice without hiding it behind coffee or lies or secret plans or body swaps or magic tricks or purely romantic intentions, we have to to understand that Aziraphale is still working under an incorrect framework of the world as divided into Cosmic Good and Cosmic Evil.
Because the thing is. Aziraphale does not like that Crowley is a demon. He just doesn't. We can talk about his reasons, but I really don't think that it's a disputable fact at this point. Aziraphale CONSTANTLY talks down to Crowley about the differences between them, and disparages demons in general and Crowley in particular over and over again. I mean, he's obviously just spewing the party line at this point, but he even describes the ultimate triumph of Heaven over Hell as "rather lovely." To Crowley. Where does he think Crowley fits, in that scenario? Is he thinking about it? (He is, surely, given how distressed he is over the danger Crowley is in due to the Arrangement?)
Crowley, to be fair, often says similar things about himself, and hates when Aziraphale calls him things like 'nice.' But as I've mentioned in another post, I think 2.03 makes it all but canon that a lot of that is self-preservation. Hell can't know that he's running around saving children and rescuing people from suicide and poverty, or he'll get dragged down there for decades. Crowley doesn't really think of himself as evil--he's visibly upset during their argument when Aziraphale hits him with "you're the bad guys!" because he thinks Aziraphale knows him better than that.
But instead, Aziraphale makes knee-jerk assumptions about Crowley and his intentions over and over again, including that he's behind the Reign of Terror in Paris and, about two minutes before realizing he's in love with him, that he's working with Nazis. Crowley seems annoyed and hurt both times, and denies it. There's no demonic posturing from him then.
Which makes the Job ep really interesting, right? Because Crowley actively lies and says that he is doing the properly demonic thing, but Aziraphale doesn't buy it. And why doesn't he buy it?
"I know the angel you were."
To Aziraphale, Crowley's kindness stems from the traces of that angel he knew. He thinks Crowley does good in spite of his nature, and not because of who he is as a person, life experiences as a demon very much included. This is because to Aziraphale, Heaven is Good, and all goodness must stem from it.
I've seen people get accused, when making this point, of attacking Aziraphale, or saying that he doesn't love Crowley, which is a ridiculous takeaway from S2. I've never seen a person more obviously in love, or a person more obviously trying to do good in the world. But so much of Aziraphale is tied up in his ability to believe multiple contradictory things at once. (See: the 80 years between "maybe there is something to be said for shades of gray" and "Heaven is the side of truth, of light, of good.") That doesn't make him stupid or ill-intentioned (in fact, he wouldn't need to do the kind of mental gymnastics we see from him if he wasn't clever enough to see through at least some of the bullshit) but it does mean that he's fully capable of loving Crowley while at the same time believing that demons are 'the bad guys.' Solution? Make Crowley an angel. Fix him, fix the bad apples in Heaven, be happy together, eliminate human suffering. Vavoom. Sorted.
Idk man. I'm constantly seeing takes that just...completely discount that Aziraphale really, genuinely, has misunderstood Crowley and the way the world works in his choice to return to Heaven. We can't blame it all on miscommunication. The most honest conversation in the world wouldn't fix this. Aziraphale has to go up there, without Crowley, and learn for the last time that Heaven is not Good, and will never be Good, because there is no Good. Good doesn't come from Heaven, or God, or even Crowley (and I see y'all, putting Crowley on a pedestal, saying Aziraphale wants to remake Heaven in his image--stop it.) Good comes from making the choice, in a very complicated world, to help as best you can, and it comes from love. And that's what Aziraphale will learn in season 3.
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