#when the person in question is an artist they draw him with all the racist stereotypes

[creatingblackcharacters]

hi there; first, thank you for making this blog and all the lessons you do, i really appreciate them as a Black person because it highlights a lot of struggles i face with fandoms in general, and why i dont interact more in certain spaces. it makes me feel seen

with regards to your questions, i'd also like answers to them from nonblack fans, especially nonblack anime fans. i don't even mean consuming anime with overtly racist caricatures of black characters (because numerous anime fans pirate their anime and never send a cent to the creators anyway), i mean how can they make fanworks of it?

how can they look at something that they are told is wildly offensive, but then defend with "well, this is how it looks in canon"? where is the line drawn between what's okay and what isn't? as long as it's slow and gradual, is there no line at all?

these are probably just rehashings of your own followup questions, so please excuse that, but i do have an anecdote

i joined a casual anime server the other day and a lot of folks were lamenting one Black character's racist design and how often those on social media will replicate it without thinking/caring. The thing that struck me is that, I've checked this character's tumblr tag regularly for a long time. There are always people who will post art/fanworks of this character with his racist design. Yet hardly ever, if ever, (outside of Black fans) have I seen any of these folks- the ones in the discord server- try to talk to artists/writers/fan creators/etc via asks/replies/etc. There's a notable amount of people in that server and a notable amount that agreed the design was outright racist and that they'll never make fanworks like that, and yet still silence

i'm not entirely sure what would be the line, or the "okay, that's enough" moment to spur any of these folks into action. i'm not sure if there is one. the only reason i don't make my own "hey what is wrong with all of you" post and blow up is because I've made a wonderful little friend group in this fandom who get it, and I don't want them to get caught up in whatever happens if I were to make a post like that

And this is just for getting people to stop using the canon design of the character, i.e., to stop drawing him as a racist caricature. This isn't touching on the people who 1) lighten his skintone [he's been horribly whitewashed over time, which has been reflected in some fanarts and fan merch], or 2) give him a looser hair/straight hair texture, rather than his type 4 hair (there's also #3, which is fanfiction with straight up slurs, and horribly racist writing in it that my friend heavily warned me not to read, but that was more of a one-off case and I've had the creator blocked a long time now).

my point being, we (Black fans) can't even get folks to stop with the caricatures, which we have to start with, and then there's even more of an annoying uphill battle with the other stuff. I'm just so tired of all of this; it makes me want delete my own works and turn away from fandom all together because i can't stand it.

trying for polite and assuming ignorance hardly ever works, speaking bluntly doesnt work at all, making public posts hardly goes anywhere (partly because of how rarely people reblog things anymore, partly because it makes people 'uncomfortable' to share this information with others). Black fans so obviously need help to combat this, and yet it's like sitting at a tea party and hearing all these pretty words in this one setting, yet nobody does anything different/better when the party's over/outside this setting.

sorry for dooming a bit, but like, genuinely i would like to know where the line is for nonblack folks? what is the point/are the points where you would speak up against antiblack racism? have you ever considered speaking up? if there's ever a moment you recognized antiblack racism and didn't say anything, why didn't you? did you consider how your lack of speaking up might affect your fellow Black fans? or how Black fans may be interpret this as silent agreement with the racists/with the racist 'norm'?

..those could maybe be alternative ways of asking your last followup question?

(if i've made any blunders or overstepped here, please let me know!)

No, I'm glad you spoke up! I too would like to see answers!

[pinkcrittertomb]

"There's this whole crew of gay folks and Usopp as the trophy hetero" you better speak right about my son before i break into your house

[mueritos]

Hi, Matteo! So, I have just about the stupidest question to you as a fellow transmasc artist/creator: whenever I find myself trying to create a female character, I end up struggling with forming the idea of her personality and motivations etc in my mind, and then when I try to sort look at the character from different angles to 'get' them, boom! My hand slips and they're genderfluid now, or nonbinary, or transmasc, or transfem. The point is, they're never a cis woman in the end. No issues with male characters, cis or trans. Is this a common experience for other trans/nb creators? Or is it a 'default misogyny instilled in us all by society' thing? I just want to be able to create female characters too! and I kinda feel like an asshole for not being able to. So, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that!

this isn't stupid at all! first of all, it's entirely fine if you only want to draw and create trans characters. It's also okay that you have preferences toward certain characters. I hilariously fall into this same problem of struggling to make female characters, because my attraction toward men makes me want to always create gay/MLM centered stories. My brain is giving very much "no women no girls this is...The World of the Gays" image. But here's the thing, what you draw and what you choose to invest your creative energy into doesn't say anything moral about you. I would say things start becoming more complicated depending on the intentions behind art, how characters are depicted, and the harm it may cause to others (example, racist depictions of characters, colorism within art, etc).

However, it sounds like you do want to make female characters, specifically cis female characters. I struggle making cis female characters too, and i don't know if you relate, but after many years of being forced to be a Girl and to be Feminine, I now avoid situations or things that make me feel like I'm going back to GirlMode. But, it's important to remind ourselves that this avoidance can become maladaptive and prevent us from opening ourselves to new experiences. You're not an asshole, and clearly you care enough about making diverse art because you're trying to seek different perspectives.

my thought process when making female characters is essentially the same with all characters, but there are many characters I have intentionally chosen aspects of themselves that i do not relate to to push myself. It sounds like you need to make a decision to keep a cis female character and protect her from your transgender mind beam haha. Give her something you relate to, like a hobby or a lived experience or an outfit you like, and perhaps it can help alleviate any feelings of wanting to push your connection to her through shared transness. Another thing you can do is base her loosely off a cis woman in your life! I've done this before and it prevents me from changing her gender, mostly because I feel like it would be disrespectful to make them trans if they're based off someone I know haha. Or, if you still want a trans character in proximity to her, give her a trans friend, sister, cousin, partner, or enemy! That way the dynamic is not just based on their relationship, but also their different genders :)

also, don't worry if you're being misogynistic or not. every character you make may have some form of a stereotype or some "problematic" aspect. I have a cis female character who falls into the "wants to get married and only things about men stereotype", but she is brave and often far more driven than the men and women in her life because she cares about the man she loves (enough to break from her social status and become a fighter to save him). I ALSO have all kinds of trans characters I created just to lewd them up, and I know for sure there's probably someone out there wagging their finger at me and saying i'm "fetishizing" trans people. I also like to draw the occassional cute girl because I think women are beautiful and I admire the ways I see the women in my life carry themselves. My point is, characters are flawed because WE are flawed and we internalize a lot of messaging from the world. as long as you are seeking our ways to re-learn messaging and incorporate that into your work, you're doing enough. There exists no perfect squeaky clean un-problematic non-stereotypy character ever, because we all aren't squeaky clean un-problematic non-stereotypy people.

hope that helped ^-^

[the1975attheirverybest]

Matty Healy and Palestine

as many of you will have noticed, since the October 7 attacks and the subsequent Gazan crisis, I have, on a weekly basis, been receiving asks and DMs asking me to justify Matty’s silence on the matter. Furthermore, any time that I have criticized another celebrity or public figure (even on matters that have nothing to do with speaking up about Gaza) I have received “oh what about matty being silent about Palestine?” As a “rebuttal.” Let this be my official response ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Matty’s silence is disappointing to me.

His justification for his silence is, in my opinion, dumb and invalid. The argument that people shouldn’t look to him and Brittany Broski for political activism is reductive. It assumes all criticism of celebrities on the matter is performative. He is not the same as Broski and it’s either stupid or willfully dismissive (or both) of him to put himself and Broski in the same camp.

In my mind, whatever his reasons may be, it’s still disappointing.

I recognize that his current position might have something to do with the backlash he’s received this summer.

Personally, I don’t find that to be a legitimate argument for being silent but I respect it if that’s how he feels.

My disappointment in him with respect to this particular issue in no way negates what I belief about him: that he’s a good guy, that he stands up for what’s right, etc.

Nor do I think it erases his track record as an artist who is vocal about social politics and views his voice as part of his artistic identity.

I’m fine being disappointed with him and also being a fan. I don’t find those two things to be in conflict with one another.

I prefer to have a relationship with the artists that I love where I treat them as human beings. That includes not disposing of them the second that we have a disagreement.

What I do find odd, though, is people’s obsession with his silence. Gaza has been under attack for close to 100 days. So, for close to 100 days, there are those of you who woke up every week determined to ask me about this again and again and again and again….

It makes me wonder why? What about him falling short as a human being but still being worthy of respect really has your panties in a bunch like that?

Have you ever considered, instead of demanding an explanation of me, maybe putting that obsessive energy into calling your reps? Donating? Protesting?

Especially when, it would seem, I’m the only blog in 75blr who is consistently being pressed on this issue.

It’s starting to feel racist

I’m not your token Palestinian fan and don’t appreciate being treated as such.

I’m also not Matty’s spokesperson. PR manager, etc. so why is my opinion constantly questioned?

Again, it’s only me who’s getting those asks, and I have to wonder, are you all implying that I’m a bad fan? A bad Palestinian? Who the fuck are you to judge that? Tokenizing aspects of my identity that I’ve chosen to share online is an act of aggression. So I’m drawing a boundary here.

I will not be commenting on the whole “Matty’s silence on Palestine” issue any more. Please respect that.

[ca-suffit]

I hate having to say this because I know the importance of what you and everyone else is doing here but sometimes I wonder if always talking about races and defending Louis/Jacob on this aspects isn't doing him a disservice?

Let me explain,sometimes myself included when I find a group of fans so annoying that I end up hating their favs and I know that they find us annoying because we bring what they are refusing to see.

For example yesterday an artist has draw louis 4-5 tones much darker than his real complexion (mind you they had Armand complexion lighter than he is ,so they can do it) rightly a group of fans came upon him demanding accountability, everyone quoting etc...

Then I read another ''artist'' say,that's why she never does fan arts with Louis and I'm wondering how many think that way and that's probably why he is the lead with the least fan arts (non ship fan arts)

*English is not my native language*

hi and thank u for asking this! if u need clarification on anything I answer here bcuz of a language barrier just lmk in my inbox again, it's no problem.

also let me say first that anyone can give feedback on this. I'm not any authority on anything and I'm an anon account. I talk about topics objectively. It's always helpful to have insight from others who feel comfortable sharing more identifying racial info on themselves and giving opinions on this stuff.

ok so to the actual question

"Then I read another ''artist'' say,that's why she never does fan arts with Louis and I'm wondering how many think that way and that's probably why he is the lead with the least fan arts (non ship fan arts)"

the short answer to all of this is that....it's all an excuse.

how many artists of color draw white ppl every day and yet we never hear about a "struggle" from that side? there is one just the same but if ppl were louder about it, nobody would take it seriously. whiteness is "the norm." ppl would laugh anyone out of the room asking how it could be "hard" to depict a white person??

well. it's literally the same for anyone else. there is no excuse to be unable to do something like this. if an artist is unfamiliar with something then they practice to get better at it. I've known plenty of white artists who can draw ppl across racial identities and don't get feedback like this bcuz they work on improving and *listen* when these conversations come up with other artists. saying u can't draw a black man bcuz the "woke mob" might come for u is doubling down on being racist. not only are u saying it's not worth even *trying* to do the art, ur also saying all criticism makes u the victim and that's the most important part of all. "these conversations don't matter bcuz they make me feel bad and that's wrong :(" that's a typical white response to literally *anything* regarding race. that's a lot of why we're still here talking about this in every space. it's not only specific to white ppl either but usually that's the largest group saying stuff like this. white ppl don't have to think about race, so these convos easily get killed in even the most progressive spaces. a lot of times it makes white ppl feel racist to notice race at all and there's usually gonna be some person of color around to back up that "logic" and say it's "right." that's all it takes to shut it all down. that's a lot of what this fandom keeps doing too.

the only way to make progress is to normalize things more. ppl don't know how to draw different facial features, hair textures, skin tones? start practicing. look at art from black artists who draw black ppl and study how that looks. examine ur own antiblackness. learn about colorism. study the racist history of depicting black ppl in art so u don't accidentally recreate that unconsciously. know what the antiblack stereotypes are. the show literally gave us both in 2x7, ppl can even just go study *that.* a lot of ppl don't even know that is there, as blatant as it is.

this is why I said thank u for asking this bcuz it's an important thing to talk about. white fandom (a mindset, not a skin color) will use stuff like this to perpetuate the idea that talking about race *does* cause harm. it doesn't. it never will. it's the only way to make any progress. centering the feelings of an artist who doesn't want to bother drawing louis bcuz drawing black ppl is too hard / anxiety inducing is just straight up racism. idk specifically who this artist is or anything but this is stuff u see and then u stop supporting that artist. u don't coddle them about this either. it's a stupid, harmful thing to say. find artists who don't make those excuses and who can handle having these conversations, support them instead.

ppl should also always be looking for black artists in this fandom to support in the first place. none of the popular artists here are black and that's done intentionally by the fandom. everyone should feel bad about that tbh.

[klysanderelias]

I do agree and I don't really want to derail the point that OP was making but I do feel like sometimes people underplay just how weird the wife thing came across too. and y'know, I don't think it's worse than the transphobia platforming, but it's...

I mean, the core of it to me will always have been the joke about his wife being a bitch, partially because he starts that joke off saying 'i'm going to be (playfully) racist' and then of course in that joke he says basically 'the one thing my wife asked me not to do was call her a bitch' and then he calls her a bitch? And specifically brings up that she's Jewish?

It's the problem of like, it's not good in hindsight, and there's something so irritating to me about the guy who wants so badly to be branded as the Wife Guy and yet feels like a marvel movie the way he keeps winking and nodding to the audience like it's a sin to be sincere.

And part of it's like... when I was younger, I listened to a lot of Christian music (which was generally bad for my health) but one of the artists I really loved was very much the Wife Guy, he wrote a bunch of songs about how much he loved his wife, about how he dropped everything and moved states just to get closer to her before they even started dating, etc etc, and the culmination was an album titled 'I was wrong, I'm sorry, and I love you' that kind of continued the trend. He also wrote a lot of songs about how the church (and believers) are Christ's bride and shit like that, lyrics like "I am a whore I do confess, I'll put you on just like a wedding dress and I'll run down the aisle"

Where it's just... when you find out he was cheating on his wife, especially during writing the album I was wrong I'm sorry and I love you, it's hard not to start making connections, y'know?

And I think we should allow people to be messy and make mistakes etc etc but I really don't like that the guy had a famous joke calling his wife a jewish bitch, and I really don't like it that then him and his wife got a divorce. It makes me start asking questions like 'was this actually a workshopped joke that his wife agreed to?' and 'even if it WAS, did she agree to it because she genuinely thought it was funny and a good joke or because she felt like she had to?'

And I don't like asking those questions because that's a personal and private thing, and I don't like that 'John Mulaney Loves His Wife So Much (And She's A Bitch)' became marketing. It's a problem with stand-up comedians to a certain extent where it's like 'haha funny joak' and then the truth comes out, y'know? Like haha louis ck sure had a bunch of jokes about masturbating in front of people... haha bo burnham sure had a lot of jokes about how he hates the audience and performing...

And again like, is it worse than the transphobia? Absolutely not. Am I avoiding putting all this on OP's post because I don't want them to feel like I'm saying 'but actually I still hate him for getting a divorce'? Absolutely.

Marriages don't always last, and I'm genuinely grateful that both divorce is an option that people are allowed, and one that has become more normalized (and should be even more normalized), but there is a certain point where, when Talking About How Much You Love Your Wife becomes content, when it becomes something you sell, it makes me really uncomfortable. I can't help but draw lines between like, family vloggers who exploit their children for content, or tradwife shit where inherently they have to be happy and perfect wives as part of the Brand.

And y'know, partially I wish we as audiences were less parasocial, that we didn't put people on a pedestal like 'damn I wish I could find a love like that', I think we should stop giving a shit who Taylor Swift is dating (and instead care more about her taking a private jet for every errand), but also we need to stop making this shit Content. People need to stop selling themselves, stop marketing themselves, as 'guy who really loves his wife.'

At the end of the day, I don't hate john mulaney for getting a divorce, or for cheating on his wife or not, I hate that he got paid a lot of money to stand up on stage and say to a huge audience 'aren't I so cool and good for being able to love my bitch jew wife.'

I hate that every time I think about it I think about what it must have felt like to be his wife watching it.

[sassenashsworld]

Black history month

I was raised as a white American girl in a small town, mostly Caucasian, by a deeply racist father. Hard to point him, it was like that at the time. Seeing him work with people without distinction now, I think he finally get it...

I heard the expression “people of color” a lot and I admit that intrigued me. Classic, you will say, to consider the «white» man can be green with jealousy, red with anger, white with rage, yellow with envy etc… So I drew my own conclusion.

I am an artist, I love writing, music, drawing. The only observation I could make on «people of color» it's without them, our arts would be drabe. Dull. Without gender. I can NOT live without music and everything that makes me vibrate is of a direct declination with the black influence.

So, I have to say I am rather proud, as a colorless person, to share the planet with those people who so much spice it up... But more seriously, I raised my children by repeating to them what I would have liked to hear, child; there is only one race, human, but it comes with different culture. A different culture does not mean bad, it simply means their past has brought another vision and it’s good to try to look at it.

Today, everywhere, throughout the world and here, I have brothers and sisters who color my life. Questions like race no longer exist in my universe and they are not even close to being criteria when my children choose their friends. I don’t know your race or your religion, but I know you’re a human being I like, that’s all that matters. That, and your story. The long journey yours have taken to be at my table today and share my meal. Or me to be at your table and share your meal.

Thank you, for sharing your color in my universe. Thank you, because really, without you, my universe would have no color.

(you can search for Kate Ryan version, but this one shake me deep)

[tormie-tormie-chopper]

Hey, I'm Tormie!

You can also call me Tor. Whichever. I'm an artist! I also write.

I intend to post a variety of different things for One Piece -- ship art, general/non-ship art, fluff, memes and shitposts, sfw, nsfw, whump, gore/body horror, blorbo appreciation, and so on -- so hopefully there'll be something here for everyone! I may also post things for other fandoms or for original characters, but I have a separate blog for ocs so I probably won't post too much of that here. I will always try to tag my posts and artwork accurately, especially when it comes to potentially triggering subjects. I have a sideblog specifically for reblogs @grand-line-tormie and an account for ocs/personal art and writing @tormentum-ab-intra.

Do not repost any of my artwork or use it for AI. Reblogs, however, are welcome and greatly appreciated!

Here there be freaks, and here freaks are welcome. Let's be weird and fucked up and into weird and fucked up things together <3 (This should go without saying but I'm gonna say it anyway: Me writing about, talking about, or drawing something does not mean I endorse it in real life. Cool? Cool 😂) My blog is not intended for minors.

My pronouns are it/its. I won't smite you if you use he/him for me, but it's not really my preference lol. However, both gender neutral and masculine gendered terms are welcome! Feminine gendered terms are also fine but better saved for silly or joking contexts.

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Commissions: open! you can find my info post for them here. You can also find my Ko-fi page here!

Look below the cut for askbox info and info on my tagging system!

Some common general tags I'll be using: -#tor draws for anything with my own artwork in it -#tor thinks for original posts just talking and sharing my thoughts, whether fandom or unrelated. -#tor answers for answered asks. -#tor speaks for announcements. -I will usually tag fandoms where applicable, characters in the post, ships in the post, and any other relevant aspects.

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[generouskittentidalwave]

Oh boy let me tell you, doing this research was not easy and took a whole WHOLE lot of digging just to find.

Finding what Tezuka did and his own personal thoughts on it was like trying to find a small needle in a bunch of big needles in a haystack. I could barely find people talking about it in the first place, it took 5 hours of searching and I fell asleep at my desk out of pure exhaustion. The few sources that I did find on this quest of knowledge were a big mess of multiple different sources from your everyday people, to interviews, articles, people who knew Tezuka personally, etc.. but hardly anything was stated by Tezuka himself and that was a major problem that I faced.

People can form assumptions on somebody, and what they were thinking and what they could've been thinking and who they could be as a person in this situation based on the images they saw displayed, but in a situation like this none of it can be considered straight factual as it's only an assumption based on a few images and not straight from the source or being looked at with a full whole. And for this situation you can't just pass it off as "Well everyone was racist back then, it's to be expected" as it's made clear Tezuka wasn't racist, hated all forms of conflicted in general, and especially hated racism. So this just left me with a huge question mark.

So I gathered information about things stated by Tezuka himself, with these things being even harder to find. Let's start with this one.

"One day, completely in my own style, I was playing Mozart’s Turkish March. All of a sudden a Black soldier entered the room. There was nothing really strange about an American soldier being at the YMCA. He took a sheet of music from the piano, and once I was finished playing began to sing in tenor.

It was something that I had heard before. It was a march. Eventually I realized that it was the aria “This Butterfly Shall Fly No More” from The Marriage of Figaro. To a Mozart piece, he had responded with a Mozart aria. He was a great opera fan, this intellectual Black soldier named Joe. . .

One day, after learning that I liked cartoons when I drew a quick caricature portrait of him, he brought me a mountain of American comic books. It was like the heavens opened and rained manna. There were absolutely no manga materials around at the time. I read through them like a worm, was overjoyed, and copied them obsessively. . .

My friendship with him might have been short, but it became the reason I decided to become a manga artist."

So his friendship with a black soldier named Joe and him drawing said soldier and that soldier giving him comics is what kick started his whole career as a mangaka, and he treasured his friendship with him. So that makes it clear that Tezuka had no hate in his heart against black people, only seeing them as people and he even saw him as a good friend, and crediting his interaction with him as the start of his mangaka career.

But as heartwarming as it is, that just confused me even more. He clearly had no hate towards black people, and his mangas make it even clearer that he absolutely hated racism and everything it stood for. So what gives? Why do his mangas have racist caricature and characterization of black people when he wasn't racist?

I believe it involves two words. The west.

Why do I say this? Tezuka took inspiration from Disney, he loved American comics stated by himself. And back then, even though he was made aware of the racism in America, Japan was still sheltered and he wasn't made aware of all of it, even if he tried to grasp the whole narrative it was hard given the time it was all set in.

In an article I read, it was stated that-

"He was accused of racism after drawing blacks in stereotypical fashion, but insisted that he was only continuing the styles he saw in American comics and films. This point has often been a source of constant soul-searching among Tezuka's publishers, especially in the USA. As of 2003, Dark Horse has begun to publish Tezuka's manga wholly unedited in the US, adding a disclaimer that states that while Tezuka held no racism himself, his artwork was a product of its time, and that further that it would be wrong to retroactively change his works without his input."

Now we can all agree that the way Dark Horse handled the situation caused mixed opinions amongst people, but we are here to focus on TEZUKA himself, not the company and their thoughts on it. Tezuka said that he only drew them the way he did because he was continuing the styles that he saw in the west. It's clear Tezuka wasn't trying to be racist, but unfortunately misrepresented black people because Tezuka wasn't aware of the whole picture and didn't realize that the way black people were portrayed in media was made on the same hate towards black people outside of the media in the real world.

This realization probably further soured his opinions on America's racist actions and beliefs and it seemed to have been driven home as shown by this article quote-

"Reactions over his images of black people did not fare much better. Tezuka remembered well how in the mid-1960s requests had come from U.S. black civil rights groups for the artist to present his black characters more realistically. In 1965 Tezuka reportedly met white executives from the U.S. television network NBC, who attempted to persuade Tezuka to present his black characters in a way more acceptable to the American public."

Now this was 1965, the same year when the civil rights act was created, and this was none other than NBC itself. Tezuka was caught in a rift between two sides that he is only now being really made aware of. Now I remember hearing about Tezuka meeting with black people so I'm assuming this was when he was getting his information and feedback from them that you asked about. But the meeting up part is only what I heard so take it with a grain of salt, I know I saw it in an article but that article ceased back into the haystack and despite my search I couldn't relocate it, so again take it with a grain of salt.

"Tezuka later recounted these incidents in interviews and even skeptically satirized his meeting with TV execs in his 1974 comic Kami no Toride (Paper Fortress). Tezuka eventually agreed to their conditions, but unlike the UCLA incident, he indicated retrospectively that he had misgivings about those racially oriented requests."

So in conclusion, yeah, Tezuka wasn't racist, he hated racism, he hated America being racially motivated and didn't like racist people trying to drag him into their bad intentions and him unfortunately being influenced by America's view of black people in media without even realizing it. And it's clear that he got better and better with drawing black people in manga as time went on. He made a genuine mistake, but that mistake doesn't make him any less of a good person who just wanted peace and everyone to get along. And that's what makes his story so incredible to read, especially with the time it was presented in. And this isn't the first time for him either as I recall it being mentioned that Tezuka had an interaction with a girl about one of his stories and after hearing her opinions on it decided to go about his female characters with more sensitivity. Tezuka was a good guy who, even as the god of Manga, had his own bumps along the way like the rest of us, but each time he made himself aware and bettered himself as a person. I think that makes him more of an incredible mangaka rather than just his title as the god of Manga.

My repost before this one is basically a TLDR of all this research that I did and I hope it helped clarify things a bit. I'm sure this isn't perfect, but it helped me to understand things a bit more and I hope it was able to help you as well ^^

I think this is a manga panel that captures Osamu Tezuka as a complicated mangaka who didn't always get race right.

In Vol 7, Astro Boy is recruited by a Japanese American immigrant to help an American robot register for the right to vote. The man gives Astro Boy a lecture on the racist atmosphere, how the whites mistreated Japanese immigrants.

But not only that, but he says "By the latter half of the twentieth century, white started treating us better, but they still acted horribly to Black people."

And said Black person in the panel is a racist caricature.

And you'll see those also in other Tezuka's work like Black Jack, which tackles anti-Black racism in both America and Japan, even decently drawn Black persons co-existing alongside Black caricatures.

So here is Tezuka in the 60s attempting to make a nuanced observation about American racism (that still speaks to us today) but still perpetuating an anti-Black caricature profile.

CW: Racist depiction below

[chuplayswithfire]

Hey man, I'm using a throwaway because I've found a lot of the ofmd fandom really hostile lately and don't want anyone in my main's dms. I'm really not trying to like, be a coward or anything.

I really like your blog and you seem like a cool person, but I was honestly kind of disheartened when I noticed you dismissing the death threats and other awful messages a lot of people (particularly Izzy enjoyers, yes, but I know they're not the only ones) receive.

I understand that that kind of hostility existing might go against your view of this fandom and the world in general, or that maybe you even think these people deserve the things they're told, but I REALLY doubt the multiple people I've seen speak out about this issue are all lying about it or making things up. It just seems like a lot of hoops to jump through just to assume that, when the simpler explanation would just be that at least most of them are real.

Hell, I have a screencap of a mutual of mine receiving their first anon hate telling them to kill themselves for liking Izzy, but since that person was cowardly enough to go on anon I guess to you that's fake too? Like, is it really so hard to accept that this stuff is happening? Or do you really think so lowly of people who like a fictional character that you think they're all liars and master manipulators making shit up for fun?

Even if you ignore the death threats, there's someone on multiple sites right now commenting really awful stuff on people's Izzy art, many of said artists being minors. This I do have proof of. Like I've seen this person tell a black gay man he was a racist and a fujoshi for liking Izzy and drawing art of him?? Seeing this kind of behavior, I have a hard time believing death threats or suicide baiting would be out of the question.

It just really hurts seeing you dismiss experiences like that. I'm probably coming off as unhinged writing all this to a single person, I guess I just think you seem cool and reasonable so this took me off guard. I'd like to apologise in advance if anything I said was upsetting, I'd just like to hear where you're coming from with this.

I hope you have a good day regardless, sorry for making you read all of this. Appreciate you.

Just to get this out of the way, I fully doubt the veracity of this statement because you're a throwaway account. I haven't been on tumblr for 10+ years to be rocked by someone rolling up to me with a terrible sounding story without anyway to verify it. I'm just meant to trust you, an anonymous stranger, that all these horrible things are happening.

Now, do I think there are tons of hateful messages being sent out and about to various fans of various characters? Absolutely. Of course it is. My anons are closed because of the hateful messages I received, which racketed up to being told various ways I should be killed or that I should kill myself once I told the anon that I would not be sharing their messages. Of course that's happening to many other people.

What I personally doubt is that some of the people claiming to receive hate, are actually receiving hate. And frankly, when its anonymous, I have to maintain skepticism because 1) anyone can send themselve anons and 2) anyone can stop anonymous harassment by turning off anon. I'm an example of that. When someone is receiving tons of hateful anon asks and refuses to just turn off anon, I'm naturally skeptical.

But going back to what I said about doubting people - I am again confident that many people have received hateful messages. However, when I see, for example, a person with a total of less than ten posts, less than five of which are about OFMD, talking about the barrage of hateful anons they've received for liking Izzy, I'm doubtful. When I see artists talking about the hate they've received for their art, and then I look at their art and they've been whitewashing, I'm doubtful. When I see fanfic authors lamenting the hate that they've received, and I check the comments being made and they're about how the content of a chapter or story is racist, I'm doubtful.

Ultimately, do I believe this fanom has hateful anons? Yes. Do I think many people are making it up because they believe it strengthens their position? Yes. Do I think *anyone* who claims they and the people around them are uniquely bullied for liking a particular character is being obtuse? Yes. Some fans of Izzy are undoubtedly getting unwarranted and cruel comments. So are Stede and Ed fans, so are fans of the whole show, so are people who post about hating the show. Not to be flippant, but it's the internet. I'm not going to just believe someone because they said something on the internet, but while I have sympathy for people experiencing the distinctly shit feeling of "my inbox is full of hateful comments", I'm also not going to pretend I don't raise my brows when some of the people I see pushing that idea the most are people I see making racist ass commentary.

In short: I am a cool person, I'm glad you like my posts, because I do not know who you are and cannot investigate your claims I do not trust your account. I'm simply too cynical to not raise a brow when people start voicing that they're the most hated people within a fandom just because they like a character.

Getting hate sucks. Sending hate is shitty. Unfortunately, it's part and parcel of the experience of being active on the internet.

[bookofmirth]

I know your a really big Mor fan which might contribute to your bias towards her but I personally don’t like her. Her attitude and written presence as “a dreamer in the court of night mares” sets her up as a token “I’m not like other girls”

For all the power she has written to have, we don’t see it. What is the purpose of her character? One would think she was meant to be an advocate for women but she hasn’t done anything for the women in the court of night mares. The book makes her seem other, but the book also tells us that she wasn’t the only one struggling. She was just the only one who had Rhysand as a cousin.

She is also incredibly ignorant with her racists comments about Illyrians and her willful blindness about what the women suffer with over there. Out of everyone, she should know what it’s like. Which is one of the many reasons why I hope she doesn’t end up with emerie, she doesn’t deserve her.

I don’t think Emerie would appreciate how she treated Nesta either. She was a bitch, who saw someone who was centuries younger than her and who was already breaking and thought to compare her to her abusers who nailed her and left her for dead. Told her that she doesn’t deserve the kindness and patience shown to her by others. I lost all my respect for her at that point tbh. For all her grandstanding about truth, she couldn’t be more wrong.

And her issue with Nesta over Cassian and how she might take him from her and further complicate her Az situation is sad. Nesta’s only interaction with her was that dress situation. But then Mor comes out of nowhere and says she mistreats Cassian…when all their supposed “fights” are offscreen? When the book even describes their tension as “mutual”? When literally nobody else seems to interfere in the same degree as her? When Nesta genuinely asks if he’s okay in the war and Mor lashes out?

I disagree with your comment that Nesta treated her court poorly. Yeah she didn’t like them but they were Fae and generations of mistrust doesn’t change that overnight. Feyre is a testament to that because it took her time to see the Fae differently too. Yet despite that, Nesta was friends with Amren and neutral with Az. Nesta and Rhysand barely even interacted in the trilogy and it wasn’t until ACOSF where we are told she hates him. And how he seems to relish her fear of him. And he’s definitely given her a reason to. So who exactly did she irrevocably hurt?

This was long but I actually had time today to rant a bit.

I was going to delete this ask because you came off kinda rude, decided to rant about a character you know I like, and I'm honestly not sure what you wanted to get from this because there isn't a question. There's no way I'm going to agree with you here, and I think you know that, so this all seems like it would be better done as a post on your own blog. I suppose I appreciate that you sent this to me rather than vaguing me? But then I thought, well some of the things you said are inaccurate, so... I'll clear those things up.

your bias

First off, this. Bias? This is a fandom. Am I biased because I like elucien more than I like nessian? Are you biased because you clearly prefer Nesta over Mor? If I write a fanfic for elucien, but then don't write separate versions for feysand and nessian, am I biased? If an artist does a series of drawings for certain pairings and not others, are they biased? lol no. There is no need for objectivity in fandom. We all like what we like and there's really nothing that deep about it. No one has to be "fair" in this space. Otherwise everything would be neutral and that would be really boring. We all have our preferences, and that's... okay! "Bias" has a negative connotation, and there is no need for a negative connotation in fandom spaces where it's all different strokes for different folks.

Were you trying to insinuate that you, because you like Nesta, are like... better than I am? Or more objective than I am? Because uh... I got some quotes from the book for you.

Her attitude and written presence as “a dreamer in the court of night mares” sets her up as a token “I’m not like other girls”

So I disagree with this because the whole "I'm not like other girls" is an inherently gendered phenomenon. It's a way for women to put one another down, and Mor literally doesn't do that in a gendered way. Mor being different from her family/the CoN has nothing to do with her gender, and everything to do with their cruelty versus her strength and optimism.

Did we all collectively forget the fact that the library, you know, where all the priestesses and other victims of sexual assault trauma go to heal, that's Mor's thing? Rhys started the library as a refuge for women, and Mor brings women there to heal. All the time. She brought Clotho there, and Gwyn, and countless others. I keep seeing people say that Mor doesn't help other women, and I'm sorry but 1) since when is she the High Lady that that responsibility is laid at her feet, and 2) she.... she literally does help other women???

She is also incredibly ignorant with her racists comments about Illyrians and her willful blindness about what the women suffer with over there.

This is factually untrue. She comments on the Illyrians *because* of what they do to women. That's... why all the characters talk about Illyrians in the way that they do.

Here is how other characters talk about Illyrians:

Eris in acosf: "the one the Illyrian brutes call Ramiel."

Nesta in acosf, yes she is guilty of this too: “Because Illyrians are backward and horrible.”

Amren in acomaf: “They’re barbarians,” Amren said, and neither Illyrian male objected.

Rhys in acomaf: “[Illyrians] are also brutal and backward, particularly in regard to how they treat their females.”

Azriel: they both knew Azriel would sooner disband and destroy Illyria than help it. Convincing their brother that the Illyrians were a people worth saving was still a battle amongst the three of them.

So why this special energy for Mor?

The real issue is how SJM has written the Illyrians. She's got the characters in a catch 22 because either they say shit that is racist (and as you can see above, pretty much everyone does), or they give Illyrians a pass for how they treat women. SJM is at fault here for writing a sexist as hell culture peopled by non-white characters. Do the characters talk poorly about them? Yeah. That's not unique to Mor, though. It has nothing to do with her character, and everything to do with how SJM has written the Illyrians.

Re: Emerie, they were clearly written to have interest between them and we are 95% sure Mor is getting a book, so I doubt it. I don't need all my friends to like/hate the same people that I like/hate, and I doubt Emerie would either.

And the whole Cassian thing, I just... don't care. I don't have the energy to care. It's over, it's done, Mor helped Nesta learn the dance for the CoN, they're over it and I'm over it.

compare her to her abusers who nailed her and left her for dead.

I do keep seeing this though, and no? Mor was not abused by the entirety of the Court of Nightmares, she was abused by her family, mainly her father. Mor did not compare Nesta to her father. And sorry, but I'm going to keep saying this - Nesta did fucking great in the CoN. She was badass and got Eris on the hook that night. Mor was right. Remember how out of place Elain looks? Nesta fit right in. And again, that's not Mor saying that Nesta is like her abusers, because the CoN did not abuse Mor, her family did. But the CoN is a cutthroat place and Nesta thrived.

I disagree with your comment that Nesta treated her court poorly. Yeah she didn’t like them but they were Fae and generations of mistrust doesn’t change that overnight. Feyre is a testament to that because it took her time to see the Fae differently too.

While the part about humans and fae's attitudes towards one another is true, the key word here is "behavior".

At what point was Feyre (or Elain) intentionally cruel to any of the fae just for being fae? That was a choice Nesta made, to be on the offense. Yeah there were a lot of feelings there and they were pretty much justified because of history, but she didn't have to be cruel to a group of fae who were trying to welcome her, who she knew had helped her sister, who had lifted them out of poverty. Nesta being cruel was a choice, and in acosf we know that it's a choice she frequently regrets! So I'm not sure why we would want to erase that from her character. The story isn't "Nesta was sad and everyone was mean to her because of it." The woman gave better than she got.

The whole thing about Mor's role in the story, I have complained about this myself, but that doesn't make her a bad character, it makes SJM an annoying writer for just sidelining characters all the time. "What's her purpose" well ask SJM? She hasn't made it clear what Mor's powers are, but that doesn't make Mor a bad character, it makes sjm a sometimes lazy writer. Again, it seems like the things you have an issue with aren't Mor as a character, but sjm phoning some of this shit in.

I'm never going to like Nesta as a person. I think she's a super interesting and complex character, but I like other characters way more than I like her, including Mor. Everyone is free to enjoy whichever characters they like, that's great. But I think that stepping away from the fandom kool-aid and rereading the scenes from the books is helpful sometimes. Or don't, because most of the time we just like the characters we like and we don't have to justify it.

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

Fri 28 May ‘21

Zayn’s rap EP??? Dropped yesterday???!? “Breaking my silence” says Zayn on Yellow Metal- Cathartic (Zayn is Yellow Metal here) and he DOES in 24 minutes of political, personal, complex and lyrically dense rap zoems! It was leaked/dropped whatever you wanna call it by being posted to Z’s cousin’s account (like the cover the other day); but clearly Zayn is behind these drops and that’s what matters, he is releasing this stuff in a way that will get to the fans but not inspire the media uproar (or contract issues) that posting to his own accounts would. As he says “don’t say I can’t communicate, you know I conversate with you in several different ways”, plus “I’ve had enough of being my own enemy, come a long way since 17, I have a few things to say when I get up on a microphone, I didn’t give up on fame I need this time like therapy it’s just to keep me sane… and to be honest it’s offensive, offensive to my still open wounds, trying to ask me questions they know they don’t have I ever replied, I prefer to sit down be online and respond to fanart,” I LOVE THAT. And the political content?! “What a family needs, and the planet bleeds, the damaged trees, it's never leaving to a real sense so FUCK THE FEDS” (or fuck the fence, not clear, either way, YES ZAYN!), “the snake that’s called Biden, none of them abiding by what they put in writing we should be used to it by now say whatever for the vote and then just chose another route say they’ll never kill another unless that brother’s skin is brown” and “been facing the racists back when I was a kid...kicked me out of the schools, they had a problem with me and the kids that would call me paki still sit in the classroom chilling, and now that I’m older I see they treat us different, got me thinking I was the problem cuz they never dealt with those issues, 20 years later I’m still in the same boat, tryna treat me like my grandpa, say I came up off the boat, came to tell you what I stand for, man I think this shit’s a joke. How can I be civil, when they got me by the throat, ‘Boy your skin is so light’, ok motherfucker take my name up on a flight, try to convince immigration that your bloodline’s half white, my name ain’t on the list unless they label it ethnic.” HELL YEAH ZAYN. PLUS: “never lose me to fentanyl, scared when I take a benadryl,” not gonna lie I LOVE to see this GOOD good good, "just became a dad so now I’m taking all the checks" HA yes get it, "trying to be a better person than the world deserves to see," and, “with a cigarette, sun coming up, write my thoughts on the internet, feeling deep, I'm just bored with the silhouette, get fucked up for the thrill of it,” “I’m just here for the rap then I’m leaving.” AND SO MUCH MORE all in Zayn’s excellent voice and accent, a GIFT that’ll take much more than a day to really unpack and appreciate!

And happy 28th, Louis is writing music! Looks like he is working with producer team Rick Parkhouse and George Tizzard in London (they call themselves Red Triangle Productions and put out music as SuperHi)- they posted a studio picture and tagged Louis. He’s just visible in the booth, singing. Also present- writer/ musician, Paul Whalley and songwriter Robert Harvey (The Music, The Streets) who were both posted and tagged Louis in as well. Louis followed Harvey. Hell yeah, what a line up! Not only that, Jamie Hartman answered a ProjectKMM participant’s question about other songs with Louis-- are they still working on new stuff? He says “I’m sure Louis has been working on new songs with lots of people!” [as we see, yes] “But yes we have done some too- who knows what will make the next album but he’s a top man and I would always write and hang w LT.”

Harry won Best Lyrics for Adore You at the iHeart Awards and Best Cover Song for Juice but failed to take the Artist of the Year or Song of the Year Categories, but more exciting than that- he’s listed as the Director of a new cosmetics and perfume company!!! People have been speculated about him doing something with Gucci Beauty for a long time now (he’s been noted to use their cosmetics, and definitely models their nail polish), and he has of course done perfume ads for them- there’s speculation that this could be for something with them, or it could just be a new thing of his very own. Well the Harry Styles palette would be a damn hit and we all know it, bring it on!

Anne Marie’s Big Weekend performance aired today and yes! She did Our Song with Niall! It’s the performance they recorded last week or so that we saw the pics from, yay first time getting to see them play it, but it was very quickly followed by the next time as their Jonathan Ross show performance also aired! And in case you’re sad about Niall’s previous promo buddies being replaced, there’s no need for that, he’s only adding to the pack; he tweeted Julia Michaels just today, “love ya hules” AWWW. He posted a bunch of cute OS video bts pics too, followed Oprah Winfrey and said he’d like to go to space and that he “would have liked to have been” a godfather to a 1D boy’s baby but “maybe the next one.”

Meanwhile Liam is looking at the fanart submissions he asked for- he retweeted a terrific drawing of himself laughing and said “this is amazing!” and liked a couple of other art posts. Feels like it’s about time for a monthly Liam catch up video, perhaps? Something else to look forward to!

[project-paranoia]

Let’s Watch: Yin Yang Master: Dream of Eternity

I have watched this movie 85 Whole Entire Times and I do not regret.  The only thing wrong with this movie is that it wasn't a fifty episode series.  I cried, I laughed, I fell in love.  The cinematography is on point, the acting is amazing, the crew member who put snow on people's eyebrows did an amazing job, and the acting!  The subtlety, the gentleness, the love and affection, the discussion of race is one of the best I've ever seen.

As people have pointed out before in series like X-Men that fear of mutant's is practically if not thematically justified due to the laser eyes in a way that fear of ethnic minorities just isn't in real life.  In Dream of Eternity however humans are equally if not sometimes more super powered than the yao they hunt.  Demons - very much not in the Christian sense - are a mixture of spirits, resentful souls, and animals and plants who cultivated to human form.  They often appear human at first glance and in some cases the extent of their power seems to be the limited to turning into a smaller more vulnerable animal.  Qingming's deliberate care and gentleness not only reflects his upbringing as a Yin Yang Master, but parallels the experience of racial minorities labelled as aggressive.

The movie takes particular care as well in the way it looks at trauma, grief, and love.  The three of which haunt the main characters and send out ripple effects into the world around them.  In the world of Dream of Eternity no loss is purely private, it spools out into the world around the person effected until they make an effect to acknowledge and deal with their experiences.  Qingming's warmth and gentleness isn't just marked by his behaviour but by the orange light he's lit by and his variety of shishen - but he is also separate, standing alone in frame and facing away from the people around him.  Boya's loss has made him unforgiving and as cold as the blue light he's lit in, and yet he is open and instinctive, talking and acting as soon as the thought enters his head.  The Empress is lost and drifting, trapped and grief stricken, vulnerable to those who profess to love her.  The film is simple, it says and shows what it means when it means it - but it is also as complex as the very human characters it depicts.  

The movie is made even more complex by its pull from theaters.  Claims of plagiarism drench the edges of the movie, which as true as the assertion that Fan BingBing went on a spa vacation in 2018.  Although this blog is about Chinese censorship dealing specifically with BL content, Chinese censorship also effects those who criticize governmental policy.  I hope that supporters of this blog will also support Chinese media threatened by censorship for many reasons so that artists and others involved in film making can continue to make meaningful content.

Doing a watchthrough of a movie is not feasible, but please enjoy a few thousand words - with spoilers on Yin Yang Master included:

* That gentle chiming and rain soundscaping is so soothing, what a great way to calm and lull the audience before the movie even starts * Qingming is so small and isolated in the frame - cinema! * The lighting and cinematography is just so good * Shifu, soft gentle teacher * So much love stored in the Shifu * Instant grow * This boy is Sassy * This theme of deflection in Qingming's character is established early * Deflection with a teleportation portal and then immediately deflection verbally * Shifu is certainly an attractive man aged up, but his face is also soft and gentle, something to note when his double pops up later * Also the awkward question of don't you have someone you want to protect, maybe part of the problem is that shifu is just really bad at wording things * The answer that yes he does has several meanings, one of which is immediately apparent when Shifu acts out one of those Father Saves Child By Yeeting them youtube videos * ACtion MuSIC * I love them your honour * The spirit guardian's design is so specific and elegant, absolutely superb you funky little shishen * I wonder if Qingming ever thinks about that if he didn't come back with all his fellow disciples that Shifu would have been fine * Maybe it's not that he doesn't have someone he wants to protect and more that he believes that he's not capable of protecting those he wants to * subtle indication Shifu's qi is corrupted * Precious Magic Childe ;-; * The framing, I'm living for it * The Serpent graphic is lovely * Also the way they set things up * Qingming cares so much about his shifu * Mark Chao just has the ability to crumple his face like paper * Sad Time exposition involving the corrupting influence of desires * "When you're gone I'll be all alone" in just about all you need to know about Qingming at this point in the story * Also like, sympathy for Shifu in raising this lonely child.  By all accounts he was an absolutely superb father figure, and Qingming I'm sure was not an easy child to raise.  He's the sort of kid that would take a lot of calm and patience. * Slumber party! * It's kind of interesting that this is an activity Fangyue and He Shouyue are doing together.  He's definitely obsessed and in love with her and she's just doing friends and family activities with him * Also yellow/gold lighting is kind of their thing * It's interesting how they do the make up for He Shouyue.  The actor is very attractive, but they make him up to look doll like, a little too pretty, a little too shiny.  Like a porcelain doll. * Cool lit Boya and warm lit Qingming appear! * Camels! * The framing is so good, they're careful to be sure he's shown as obviously isolated as much as possible * And it should go without saying that I adore the City * The matte painting is outstanding * But there's also the lighting, the vignettes, the clusters, the foliage * It is a supremely beautiful set * The irony that Killing Stone is playing along with Boya's music and then it's Boya who kicks him around * A small note, but one I appreciate - even when Boya has warm highlight's they're red instead of orange * "It's Jason Bourne!" * I hope Qingming paid for that water taxi * It's interesting how Killing Stone goes from the safety of Qingming's orange light to the danger of Qingming's blue * Colour related foreshadowing! * Look at this poor sweet man, how could anyone suspect him of anything.  He's just a sad man who loves his dead wife * Qingming's use of a fan is interesting - battle fans show up all over wuxia and xianxia, but it feels like it also ties into the way he's so very careful in how he presents himself.  There's that quote that a sword can only be a sword but other weapons are also able to serve other purposes - not a perfect quote but the point is got across. * The way Qingming just knocks Boya back, like get An Clue, my dude * The way that Killing Stone curls around the pipa ;-; * So the movie is based on the book series 'Onmyoji' by Yumemakura Baku.  The books start with Seimei (Qingming) and Hiromasa (Boya) already in a relationship talking about various cases Seimei has recently experienced.  Plotwise, obviously the stories are different, however thematically Seimei and Hiromasa discuss why some yao stick around and solutions to the difficulties and dangers they might cause - which is generally from Seimei's very successful perspective to listen and treat them like humans.  So in that way the plots of the books and the movie are quite different, but the themes are just about identical. * Boya says Don't Talk Me I Angy and also that demons don't have feelings and Qingming's face takes out a billboard that's just like Ah, Another Fantasy Racist, Excellent * Qingming also does what should be done in this situation, taking care of the victim not the racist * Fight scene!  Fight scene! * Qingming's first few moves aren't to attack, they're to distract and just hold his fan up to block Boya's way and his view - it's only when Boya persists in attacking that Qingming fights back * Qingming's sassy smile, he is very much deliberately irritating Boya as much as he's refocusing his attention and distracting him * "nICE sWORD" * I've sighed that sigh before * This boy is taking great pleasure from teasing Boya, but also he makes a really good point * I understand and relate to what Qingming did, but also I can understand why Boya was ready to throw rocks at Qingming when he saw him again * Killing Stone lit in Qingming's orange light again * Killing Stone, my beloved * A good gauge to the state of the world for yao is no one has told this sweet boy before that demons have feelings too * There are several lines like this in the movie that just drop kick you with Implications * The same way Qingming clung to Zhongxing, Killing Stone wants to join up with Qingming to have some compassion in his life * The way he asks to be a spirit guardian is so formal too, and Qingming is so gentle with him, I cry ;-; * The warm orange light of Qingming's love ;-; * He heals the wounds * It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realise it's the actual imperial degree speaking and not one the of Jingyun Temple Masters * The mutual this guy again is delicious * "Is it because of your pretty face" * Boya draws his sword so fast and Qingming is so amused by it * Longye!  Queen!  I love her! * The two of them seem to understand each other instantly * Those sassy little smiles * He Shouyue looks even more like a doll than before * Longye has her head on a swivel from second one, she plays the Maiden so well like she's not a skilled master * And her customer service smile * Qingming is shooketh

* What happens next?  You'll have to watch and find out!

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers (February 22nd, 2021)

Hello! Here’s another collection of anon ask answers all put together in one big post.

This might be strange considering how upbeat yall are about the fandoms for your games in general, but is there any particular trope or ship you WOULDN'T want us writing/drawing/etc. in relation to your stuff? (IE, any canon you don't want us 'overwriting' or something like that?)

Of course we would want the fan content people make to not be racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted, harmful, etc. But in terms of generally doing non-canon pairings or adding in headcanons or stuff, we really don’t mind that. People are welcome to have fun and explore their own ideas.

for the 1.2 Android update was it meant to download as a  separate app? I really want to keep my previous save files but they don't show up (also thank u for the updates I'm really excited to get back into the game!!)

We had to change the name of the file and unfortunately for some phones that meant it’s treated as a brand new game. I’m sorry your saves didn’t transfer over to the new version. You can try to look up your specific phone and see if there’s a way to access save files for games on your device and then transfer those saves over to the new build manually. It may or may not be possible.

I'm having some trouble figuring out how to get the update from Itichio without losing my save files? Is it the same game or a folder I can put in the properties? Sorry if this question is not worded well or if this isn't the avenue you'd want to take technical questions on

Are you using Android? If so, the above answer may apply to you. If you’re on PC or Mac, the save files will automatically still be included.

Hey. I really loved playing our life. It was a fun experience and I never thought I would like it this much. I do have a question, I am currently replaying the game and I am choosing choices I never chose at first. In step 2 during the road trip arc, I decided to ask Cove about what he liked to see on people. One of his response was anklets and black eyes. My MC have just happens to have black eyes. Do Cove say black eyes cuz my mc have it or it was just a coincidently programmed into the game?

He uses your eye color intentionally! If you changed your eye color he’d change what he said.

Will step 4 have 10 moments like steps 1-3? 

Step 4 is only an epilogue. It plays like the openings/endings of the earlier Steps where it’s a bunch of scenes all in a row, there aren’t any individual Moments.

hi! who was/were the artist(s) for our life? 

&

who is the artist for Our Life: Beginning and Always?

Main Sprite and CG Artist: Addrossi

Main Background Artist: Vui Huynh

Main Interface Artist: Winter Slice

Other artists who helped out can be seen in the credits of the game.

In the new ol, there are two main love interests... Would it be possible to pair them together or is that weird? 

You can’t stay single and pair them together. If we are going to add all the extra content to have a route where the two LIs get together, it’d be a full poly route where them and the MC were all dating. And that’s not a for sure option yet because it’d add a lot of extra complications. But either way, in OL the relationships all gotta be about the MC, haha.

In OL2, there will be extra LIs in form of DLCs? Like Dexter and Baxter. 

Maybe! We’ll see how it goes.

Since Cove will have 2 diff body types in s4, will the storyline and dialogs reflect this? Or all of it will be the same? Btw love the game and sorry for bad english. Hope this doesn't sound rude 😅 

Some descriptions and pieces of dialog will change, but it won’t impact the story really. And you don’t need to apologize! It’s all good.

Will you ever release the transparent sprites of the Our Life characters? 

Probably not, I’m afraid. They’ve got a lot of pieces and it’d just be kind of hard to deal with, aha.

Something I was curious about, what was your inspiration for making a game with so much customization?

Initially, the idea was just about having a romance where you actually grew up with the LI. But it was pretty stressful to try deciding how fast the relationship would progress with it taking place over such a long period of time and with no real storyline carrying it. People might not wanna play a game where the characters don’t get along as kids, but other people might not bother with a game where kids immediately liked each other. So the obvious answer came, just let the player pick themselves how it goes. From there we simply continued to add more flexibly with the MC due to the same thought process of wanting to make sure people were onboard with how their life was going.

What made you decide to change the artstyle for ol 2 so much? I of course respect all your decisions and will buy the shit out of everything related to ol 2, but i love the original style and i m honestly not a fan of the styles shown on patreon, despite me liking the painterly style in general. (I don t mind the style being changed, just that the examples shown so far all feel like there s something wrong with them.) 

We’ve always used different art styles for each of our projects. They all have distinct looks from each other. It’s just nice to do something new. I’m glad you really like how the first game looks, though. And those samples were only general concepts, rather than the exact options being decided between. We wanted to see reactions to different options. The art style we’re going with won’t be exactly like those, though I personally like all of them. I think players are gonna enjoy the style Our Life: Now & Forever when it’s revealed.

Hey! Is it ok to ask what gender ourlife2 protagonist will be and if we'll be given the same opportunity to customize an MC? Totally understand if you're keeping this under wraps for now if u don't wanna say! 

OL2 will have the same type of MC customization as OL1, but even more refined! So their gender will be up to you.

Hi! I happened upon Our Life on Steam by pure chance. It is such a great game, I am super excited about the DLC, and I just want you all to know that you are awesome! :D I have a question, and I'm sorry if it's been asked before. Do you have plans of making more games similar to Our Life, with customizable player character? The customizable player character was probably the one thing I personally have been desperate for in romance VNs. So glad there finally is one and would love to see more.

Thank you! And yep, we do have plans for more games like Our Life, most notably is another game in the franchise- Our Life: Now & Forever. We’ll also likely have other, non-OL, games with customizable MCs, though we may still have some games with set MCs in the future as well.

On the patreon dlc just curious but is it possible to play it without actually sleeping together/getting the nsfw content? I just want to spend more time with Cove 

Yeah, you can still choose not to go that far. Though the event is shorter if you pass on the 18+ stuff.

At the beginning of Step 2, did Cove end up accidentally falling asleep in your bed? Or did he fall asleep on the floor? 

He fell asleep sitting on the floor with his body/head leaning against the side of the bed.

This may seem like a weird question, but what exactly is the difference between "direct" and "relaxed" on the comfort scale?

Direct is blunter and more teasing, relaxed is lighthearted and goes with the flow.

can the MC have tattoos in step 3? 

Not in Step 3, but you can in Step 4.

how would Cove react if he visited somewhere like North Carolina in winter where it can get in the 20s(F) at night sometimes? 

He would be shocked and unprepared for what serious coldness is really like, haha. The poor beach baby would wanna go home.

Hello! I just joined the PATREON!! It’s amazing! I love your games! I have a question, approximately how much after will the nsfw be out? After or before the dlc 3 and step four? Sorry my English isn’t the best!❤️❤️❤️ 

Thanks so much! The NSFW DLC will be out after the Step 3 DLC but before Step 4. And you don’t need to apologize for that ^^.

This might be obvious but, will step 4 have dlcs? Also, where will the nsfw dlc happen? Won't bother me at all if it s in in our or his house but i do think it d be moderately funny 

Step 4 will have the Cove Wedding DLC and the Derek and Baxter romance DLCs each add a lot of new content to Step 4, though they’re also partially set in Step 2 and Step 3 respectively. The NSFW DLC happens in Cove’s room.

I keep wondering what would've happened if Mr. Holden met Lizzie first instead of the MC. I can't see that turning out well somehow lol. 

It wouldn’t have made a difference. He met the MC’s parents first and they told him about their two kids. He wanted the MC specifically to be Cove’s friend because the two were the same age.

Even though we have a way to go I'm really excited for OL 2! I was curious though, is the next main character going to be adopted again? I thought it was really clever to make the first main character adopted so when players are customizing,  they can make them look how ever they like without worrying about pesky genetics. Just wondering! 

The OL2 MC is not adopted. We wanted to go for a new dynamic. Instead their parents are their biological single mother who is partially customizable and an off-screen sperm donor father. So the mom will look generally like the MC and any other traits not from her can be assumed to come from whoever the father was.

—– —– —–

Thank you so much for all the asks ^^

FAQ   If you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[apollos-celticswan]

Just a Thought Here

So I’ve had a thought. I’ve been back on Tumblr for a little over two weeks, and for the most part I’ve been excited because a lot of the reasons I left seemed to have stopped being an issue, until the last few days.

I originally stopped posting on here, and specifically in the PJO community a few years back because things became extremely toxic. 

I am a Trans/Genderfluid person of mixed race. I had happily made a place in the community that was so welcoming and kind until a mixture of Voltron and bad Social Justice warrior posting crashed through. People became opinionated to the point of sending destructive and cruel things not just to me, but to other people I knew who were drawing things that didn’t align with the person’s personal views of a character. This came to things like Race bending characters and sexuality/gender identity bending characters.

Here is my own personal situation with these things. 

As far as race bending goes, and this is particularly bad in the Harry Potter fandom. I don’t believe it is right to race bend a character in a series where the author (an actual racist terf) never represented the struggles of these minorities. I’ve seen so many “Hermione is Black and Harry is Indian” posts trying to prove how Rowling was secretly being inclusive, and what I have to say to that is no. She wasn’t. She wasn’t being inclusive at all. The struggles of these people, there cultures, their worlds, were not represented. I do not feel comfortable with anyone trying to give her that credit when it is deeply undeserved.

My other viewpoint is that race bending is a sensitive situation. You can’t just paint Annabeth brown and say you are inclusive. That isn’t sensitivity. That isn’t acknowledging or creating a narrative where the people of that ethnicity (whatever one was painted on) are represented. I think especially in Rick’s case, he does a pretty decent job of making sure the POC and LGBTQA+ characters have their cultures and struggles acknowledged and set as a part of their growth as a person. (Not always. Like anyone writing from the outside, it’s not always perfect, but I think he tries really hard and I appreciate that.)

Instead of arguing why or why not someone who was never cannonly specified as a minority might be one, I think we should spend more time making our own original characters that portray these people and struggles.

My other question for these people who left rude comments in my inbox about not race-bending characters is, “Are you an advocate for these people off your computer?” if the answer is no, and especially if you are Caucasian and sixteen and angry, just stop. You aren’t standing up for anyone or being inclusive. Screaming through a pc screen that your “baby boy character” isn’t how you envisioned him to an artist, isn’t going to bridge the education gap, quality of life divide, or end unfair border policing. Please stop. 

Now on the topic of queer characters. I have been call transphobic as a transman in the PJO fandom more times than I can count because I don’t draw Will, Nico, Percy, or Annabeth as Transgender. I do not believe they are transgender. I believe that if they were Rick would have made that clear as he has been very good about doing in his works. If that ever changed at any point for characters that are lacking in back story, awesome!! That’s super cool! Now, that being said, if you envision that character as such, also awesome! But that doesn’t mean you get to call someone transphobic because their view of a character is different than how you see them. This goes for race and queer rep. 

Your opinions do not entitle you to be cruel.

Now lets get to today. 

With the news that the Disney spin-off for PJO is up and coming, I’ve been again seeing this gatekeeping bullshit. “Every character MUST be POC or I won’t watch it” or “If they don’t make -character- queer the way I like Rick is OBVIOUSLY homophobic” 

I’ve seen people arguing in tags, not discussing, but mudslinging and social justice warrioring, and let me just say guys. You all look ridiculous. It’s embarrassing for this fandom. It’s embarrassing as people. It’s embarrassing as a queer person seeing other queer people shred down others for a differing opinion. 

It is okay to be white in a show. 

It’s okay to be straight.

It’s okay.

It’s not okay to whitewash a character of color, or wipe their struggles. 

It’s not okay to straighten a queer character or dissolve them to a pathetic sterotype sidekick.  Hate is hate. If you believe women are better then men, queers are better than straights, or POCs are better than non-POC people, you are part of the problem.

A rasict is someone who hates on someone or oppresses someone for their skin color or ethnic background.

Intolerance is when someone lashes out at someone who is different from them.

When you hate on or trash talk someone who is different from you and your words are “well they’ve said it about people like me” what makes you different?

What makes you different? All of you?

Are you better because you are a straightaphobe? Because you are cruel to a person of christian faith? Because they are white appearing? 

Stop villainizing people because they are different from you. Stop. You aren’t a feminist or an activist. You are hating. And hate is not a place I want to stay in. If that is what this community embraces, that is horrific.

Instead of criticizing, lets all be happy together. Lets embrace Rick’s vision. The actors’ vision, and the adventure of seeing these books become a live action we can enjoy and love. They don’t all have to be POC. Or queer. Or women.  I want to live in love. I want to see that love that Rick built come to us in a diverse and beautiful way.

I hope I’m not the only one. 

[seriouslycromulent]

I've been holding on to this article all week, and I'm glad I finally made the time to read it. It's very enlightening, and speaks to the importance of how "Representation Matters" can be a phrase so easily co-opted by the majority (as per usual), then twisted to serve the status quo.

It's really sad because the cast clearly deserved better. I adored the show, and was happy to name it as one of my favorite binge-watch marathons of the quarantine. I hope to see everyone (especially the Dad and Kimchee) in future projects. But all in all, the final season along with this news feels even more bittersweet.

Here is the article behind the link. The bolded sections are my own emphasis.

-----

‘Kim’s Convenience’ stars decry ‘overtly racist’ storylines, lack of representation

JUNE 7, 2021 2:29 PM PT By CHRISTI CARRASSTAFF WRITER

“Kim’s Convenience” has officially closed up shop, and its stars are opening up about their frustrations with the show’s approach to Korean Canadian representation behind and in front of the camera.

After the hit CBC sitcom debuted its fifth and final season last week on Netflix, actors Simu Liu and Jean Yoon voiced their concerns regarding the series’ “overwhelmingly white” production team, “horsepoop” pay and “overtly racist” storylines, among other alleged grievances.

Based on actor and playwright Ins Choi’s stage production of the same name, “Kim’s Convenience” premiered in 2016 and centered on a Korean Canadian family operating a convenience store in Toronto. In the show, Liu — star of Marvel’s highly anticipated “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” — portrayed Yoon’s on-screen son, Jung.

“I’ve heard a lot of speculation surrounding myself — specifically, about how getting a Marvel role meant I was suddenly too ‘Hollywood’ for Canadian TV,” Liu remarked Thursday in a lengthy Facebook post reflecting on the end of the program.

“This could not be further from the truth. I love this show and everything it stood for. I saw firsthand how profoundly it impacted families and brought people together. It’s truly SO RARE for a show today to have such an impact on people, and I wanted very badly to make the schedules work.

After setting the record straight about his career trajectory, Liu expressed disappointment with the way that he and his character were treated as the series progressed.

“I WAS, however, growing increasingly frustrated with the way my character was being portrayed and, somewhat related, was also increasingly frustrated with the way I was being treated,” he said. “It was always my understanding that the lead actors were the stewards of character, and would grow to have more creative insight as the show went on.

“This was not the case on our show, which was doubly confusing because our producers were overwhelmingly white and we were a cast of Asian Canadians who had a plethora of lived experiences to draw from and offer to writers. ... there was deliberately not a lot of leeway given to us.”

Liu also sounded off on “Strays,” the forthcoming spinoff series spotlighting Jung’s work supervisor, Shannon, played by Nicole Power. The offshoot is set to premiere in September on the CBC.

“I love and am proud of Nicole, and I want the show to succeed for her... but I remain resentful of all of the circumstances that led to the one non-Asian character getting her own show,” Liu wrote. “And not that they would ever ask, but I will adamantly refuse to reprise my role in any capacity.”

In addition to creative differences, Liu accused the CBC of purposefully underpaying him and his castmates in comparison to other popular shows such as “Schitt’s Creek,” which boasted “brand-name talent” but received lower ratings than “Kim’s Convenience,” according to Liu.

“For how successful the show actually became, we were paid an absolute horsepoop rate,” he wrote. “The whole process has really opened my eyes to the relationship between those with power and those without. In the beginning, we were no-name actors who had ZERO leverage. So of course we were going to take anything we could. ...

“Basically we were locked in for the foreseeable future at a super-low rate ... But we also never banded together and demanded more — probably because we were told to be grateful to even be there, and because we were so scared to rock the boat. Maybe also because we were too busy infighting to understand that we were deliberately being pitted against each other. Meanwhile, we had to become the de facto mouthpieces for the show (our showrunners were EPICALLY reclusive), working tirelessly to promote it while never truly feeling like we had a seat at its table.”

Shortly after Liu shared his thoughts on social media, a television critic for Canada’s Globe and Mail dismissed his comments as “unfair” and “mean-spirited,” prompting Yoon to defend her costar on Twitter.

While both Liu and Yoon credited Korean Canadian artist Choi with introducing the Kim family to mainstream audiences, they also alleged that his influence over the series was eclipsed by a dearth of Korean representation behind the scenes.

“Your attack on my cast mate @SimuLiu, in the defense of my fellow Korean artist Ins Choi is neither helpful nor merited,” Yoon replied to the Globe and Mail’s rebuke of Liu’s statements. “Mr. Choi wrote the play, I was in [it]. He created the TV show, but his co-creator Mr. Kevin White was the showrunner, and clearly set the parameters.

“This is a FACT that was concealed from us as a cast. It was evident from Mr. Choi’s diminished presence on set, or in response to script questions. Between S4 and S5, this FACT became a crisis, and in S5 we were told Mr. Choi was resuming control of the show.”

The scene partners also addressed the alleged absence of diversity on the “Kim’s Convenience” writing team, which “lacked both East Asian and female representation,” as well as “a pipeline to introduce diverse talents,” according to Liu.

“Aside from Ins, there were no other Korean voices in the room,” Liu wrote. “And personally I do not think he did enough to be a champion for those voices (including ours). When he left (without so much as a goodbye note to the cast), he left no protege, no padawan learner, no Korean talent that could have replaced him.”

“As an Asian Canadian woman, a Korean-Canadian woman w more experience and knowledge of the world of my characters, the lack of Asian female, especially Korean writers in the writers room of Kims made my life VERY DIFFICULT & the experience of working on the show painful,” Yoon tweeted.

Despite trying “so hard” to make himself available as a creative resource, Liu said efforts made by him and others to improve the show from the inside were dismissed. Without adequate input from talent of Korean descent, Yoon added that the show’s authenticity suffered.

“The cast received drafts of all S5 scripts in advance of shooting BECAUSE of Covid, at which time we discovered storylines that were OVERTLY RACIST, and so extremely culturally inaccurate that the cast came together and expressed concerns collectively,” Yoon tweeted.

“My prior experience had taught me that if I just put myself out there enough, people would be naturally inclined to help,” Liu wrote. “And boy was I wrong here. I wasn’t the only one who tried. Many of us in the cast were trained screenwriters with thoughts and ideas that only grew more seasoned with time. But those doors were never opened to us in any meaningful way.”

Representatives for Choi and the CBC did not immediately respond Monday to The Times’ requests for comment.