#I tire of this character is a villain because of disability

[cherrysnax]

Demeter is afraid of bats so their main villian is gonna be this like. mad scientist who prolly created the spiders that bit her who is prolly experimenting on themselves to become some sort of bat creature.. like man-bat and the lizard mixed together but I don’t think this guy is in anyway sympathetic. he’s obsessed with evolution, he’s bored of humanity he’s prolly obsessed with spider-man (whichever spider-man exists in this universe is probably going to die or sumn 😭)

#I remember this one persons idea for man-bat in which he was actually turning his wife into the bat in order to #‘’cure’’ her deafness against her will as a way to critique ableism and white guy entitlement in the next #next batman which is very interesting but like. also man #I tire of this character is a villain because of disability #maybe this bat guy is just. tired of humans #oooh im thinking bro does shit like slicing from Batman beyond #but both animals and humans are dying from the experiments #except for Demeter #yes im ripping a villain from show your spine but changing him completely #bro is obsessed with evolution and believes that Demeter belongs to him #he made them what they are when you know. they came to the wrong place got bit got killed and woke up again #its his spiders blood running thru their veins #oh yeah btw Demeter has to drink blood. she’s going a little crazy lol #Demeter and the mortician that she meets end up becoming shaky friends because the mortician wasn’t aware at all wHat was going on at this #company and now wants to help demeter take the #*take them down for some reason #ofc that’s just one villain but uhhhh omg plots #I already know the majority of semesters backstory too ^_^ #chevys making a prowler sona because they’re obsessed with hobie rn #so fun man #ask to tag

[wc-confessions]

tired of seeing the few disabled characters in the cast get totally erased in both official art and fandesigns. brightheart getting drawn with a single scratch on her eye and a slightly grazed ear when a major part of her character is how she literally got mauled within an inch of her life by several dogs. crookedstar being drawn with the smallest snag tooth ever and nothing else when his entire struggle centered around being disfigured to the point of becoming isolated from his clanmates. the fact a point was canonically made that his jaw was so damaged he couldn’t even eat properly anymore until specifically shown how. it makes me so sad to see because these characters can and should be drawn with their disabilities being visible, but people always downplay the damage in favor of… aesthetics i guess? which feels ableist. even worse when people seem to have no problem drawing heavy scarring and whatnot on the villains yet not for the protagonists. just a thing i notice often in designs which always bothers me.

.

#text #confession #anonymous #warrior cats #brightheart #crookedstar

[cripplecharacters]

hi! i wanted to ask a question though because i understand its not rlly ur specialty im just asking if u know any other blogs that can help. I work with visual arts, and thats how i wanna do my stories, through something like comics, so i wanted to ask if you know of any resources to help me with properly representing things like scarring, especially facial scarring and facial differences.But anything on representing disability in visual mediums would help. Thank you regardless!

Hello,

I actually work with visual arts and draw a lot of characters with facial differences (FD) on the daily! I hope I'll be able to help.

I'm not aware of any resources for visual mediums specifically (especially if you mean something like a "how to draw [specific facial difference]" type thing. Despite comic book authors drawing facial differences for ages for their villains there really aren't any good tutorials that I know of) so I tried to combine a few points that maybe will be helpful to you;

Reference photos of real people with the condition your character has. Try to research the symptoms of it as well (especially if it's a syndrome) - maybe it will turn out that the symptoms your character has require a trach tube or a nasal cannula, or something completely different.

Don't overexaggerate their facial difference for the shock value...

...or downplay it for the cuteness/attractiveness factor.

What I mean is - whether your character is the adorable love interest or the morally gray criminal, their facial difference shouldn't reflect that. Don't make some kind of moral connection of "major craniofacial condition = bad person, teeny tiny scar = good person".

Don't draw your character with FD constantly covered in blood and running around with an axe. The portrayal of people with FD as violent/murderous is not only offensive and not helping the public perception of facial differences, but is also just incredibly boring and overdone. 99% of "representation" looks like this and has been looking like this since horror movies have been invented. I'm 100% serious when I say that drawing a person with a facial difference just having friends is a thousand times more groundbreaking than all these horror tropes combined.

Don't use the ancient "facial difference = joke" design trope. Authors love using strabismus, drooling, lacking teeth or skull conditions as shortcuts for "humor". These conditions are all real and real people have them (including me, hi). They don't exist as some kind of signifier that a character is "stupid" or "crazy". It is extremely prevalent and hard to unsee once you start noticing.

A lot of people in the FD community just want characters with FD that are normal, everyday people doing normal everyday things - having a family, hanging out with a friend, petting their cat... Not murderers hunting ablebodied teenagers through the woods. Maybe one of your character's family members has a burn scar without having it be A Big Deal, maybe one of their classmates has Goldenhar Syndrome that everyone just accepts, maybe the background character at the local supermarket has neurofibromas on their face... lots of options that don't involve tired villain tropes. With the advantage of a visual medium, you don't even need to explicitly mention that they have a facial difference - just draw it and let it be there. No dramatic reveal necessary.

Have a range of facial differences represented, even if it's just the side characters. Most people only ever draw scars, usually small and not affecting anything other than the skin, which isn't bad - a lot of people do have scars like that, and they deserve to be represented. However, there are literal thousands of different things that also count as a facial differences. Some of them like strabismus, Down Syndrome, tumors, or nerve palsies (most notably Bell's palsy, but there's 12 of them in total) are quite common, while conditions like Treacher Collins Syndrome, Pfeiffer Syndrome or Anophthalmia are usually considered rare - but a lot of people still have them. Having two or more characters with some kind of facial difference definitely isn't out of place.

This is more of a technical thing, but don't ever tag a visual medium as "gore" or "body horror" because someone has a facial difference. It's ableist and incredibly dehumanizing.

This page regarding facial differences in media (not only visual) is also worth giving a read. I hope any of this was useful. If you have more specific questions, feel free to send another ask

mod Sasza

#anonymous #mod sasza #face difference #art reference #writing advice #writing guide #writing resources #writing help #burn survivor representation

[starswallowingsea]

Suguru Geto is a fucking eugenicist and I'm tired of people just brushing that aside to make silly gay fanart of him: an essay.

Hi hello JJK tag I have come to drop one singular essay to you and I do hope you'll at least listen, since it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this essay, lets first define eugenics and why it's bad. Strictly speaking, eugenics is the movement for "racial purity" that requires the planned reproduction of people only within narrowly defined racial categories, as well as the elimination of undesirables within a population (oftentimes people of color, disabled people, and queer people) via sterilization or death. The movement began in the late 19th century and continues to some extent to this day. You can read more about it here if you're interested.

Eugenics goes hand in hand with other forms of bigotry and manifests in how people refer to each other, including some of the ways that Geto refers to non sorcerers within the manga, even before his death and subsequent possession of his body by a spirit. Geto refers to regular humans as "monkeys" and cleans himself in response to coming into contact with him. This sounds familiar, doesn't it?

This wording is very intentional on the part of Akutami and the translator. Geto is a villain and meant to be someone we see in disgust and while there are sympathetic villains in other series and I'm not going to say that you can never like villain characters (some of my own favorite characters are villains who have done fucked up things before), there is a difference between the two. Geto is specifically a representation of eugenicist, racist, xenophobic beliefs that exist in the real world. He is not someone who is fed up with the system, he is not someone who just wants to fuck around and find out.

This comment here further emphasizes my point. One of the core ideas behind scientific racism and eugenics is the idea of biological races or that people with different skin tones have different, distinct biological functions in their body. An example of this in our world involves GFR production and "race corrections" in kidney tests (source) that are only just starting to be phased out in the medical field. The idea of needing a race correction for something like kidney function is a product of scientific racism and indirectly plays into eugenics. Denying that people are the same race or even species as you because of uncontrollable factors (sorcerer abilities, skin color, country of origin, sexuality, gender, etc) is uh. Not a good thing!

"Monkeys" is a word that comes up frequently with Geto's talks on non sorcerers as well. It's a loaded term and again a deliberate choice on behalf of both Akutami and the translator to use it. Historically, due to scientific racism in the field of evolutionary science specifically, black people and people of color were assumed to be more closely related to monkeys and therefore "less evolved" than white people. It's a loaded word used with intention by Geto and by Akutami in the writing of Geto's character.

IN CONCLUSION can we please stop woobifying Geto as a character. His ideals and goals are an important part of him and watering him down to do gay shit with Gojo is really not what we should be doing with him in fan works. Yes Gojo's reaction to losing his friend to essentially the far right pipeline of eugenics and fascism is realistic and it's okay for Gojo to feel hurt and betrayed by this, but the reality is that Geto broke away because he believed so strongly that the world needed to be cleansed of non sorcerers and Gojo eventually accepted that he lost his friend, no matter how much it hurt to let go. This is an important part of Gojo's character arc and development but to ignore the everything about Geto's beliefs and never acknowledge them, or god forbid make JOKES about this stuff is a surefire way to make sure disabled people and people of color don't feel safe talking with you.

Notes:

I cannot stop you from shipping Satosugu or any other Geto ship. This essay was meant to inform people of the deeper meaning behind Geto's beliefs and maybe help some people see that real life issues are reflected in the media they consume. JJK is not a work that shies away from handling harder topics and this is no exception.

I will not be responding to any bad faith arguments on this post or in my inbox. If you have a genuine question feel free to come talk to me and I am willing to have a civil discussion with you about it, but calling me names or insulting me will be met with a block button so just save yourself the trouble and block me first.

#shay speaks #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jjk analysis #suguru geto #geto suguru #satosugu #sugusato #stsg #sgst #anti satosugu #<- these tags are intentional bc i need as many people as possible to see this #i dont engage with the fandom in general bc of this specific issue with people just #glossing over geto's fucking eugenics policies and viewpoints and making them into jokes #so uh. this might be a wake up call to some of you. #otherwise feel free to block me my feelings wont be hurt lmao i already block so many stsg shippers as they come up in my notes

[sabre-tooth]

Tell me, Marvel. Tell me why you have to do this.

Tell me why you have to take a character who will, next year, have 50 YEARS of character development and strip absolutely all of the nuance and complexity out of him and boil him down to LOL IRREDEEMABLE MASS MURDERER FOR FUNSIES.

Tell me why you had to derail a perfectly good plot with Sabretooth becoming a leader figure to the mutant exiles to instead, him and a bunch of AU variants coming to kill all the mutants on Krakoa for literally no reason.

We have been through this. SO MANY. Times before and I think this is the worst fucking one. At least you used to let this man have some kind of motivation.

And Sabretooth was NEVER nothing but a fucking irredeemable mass murder. No matter what that SHITHEAD CHARLES XAVIER had to say about it.

When Sabretooth first appeared he was written as a sassy, savage and smart international assassin and killer for hire.

Then we found out that he had brain damage from military programming. This man is literally a fucking disabled war veteran. 

And you know what?? The worst fucking retcon that Marvel ever pulled was years ago. When they started ignoring that Sabretooth DIDN'T kill Silver Fox. 

He didn't kill her!! He and Logan didn't even have a poisonous history until Project X used brainwashing to turn them against one another!

And after finding all that out, when started to become an unhinged killer with no motivation and no joy he SOUGHT HELP FOR THAT. He tried to fucking medicate himself because it was too much! and when the medication wasn't working he sought help from the X-Men and they locked him up and told him he was irredeemable.

And after that he got used as a fucking government slave again! They put him in a shock collar and they enslaved him as their own attack dog.

And when he broke out of that control??? He fucking went after Weapon X to fuck THEM over!!! And he went back to doing hired assassin shit. He's not just a fucking pointless monster who has no motivation and kills for no reason. He kills for money. He kills for fun sometimes. But that's not everything of who he is and I'm tired of him having everything stripped from him.

The Madripoor arc where he was a crime boss hanging out with Mystique and in charge of the dark hand, that shit was great! That's how you use Sabretooth as a villain! He killed Wolverine then!!! HE KILLED WOLVERINE.

And then later, AFTER everybody got zapped with the "morality reverse" after he changed back, Sabretooth still decided to give being a hero a try. And he was good at it!! He was an excellent "Anti-hero" somebody to hang around all the other light side paladin and remind them that killing their enemies is EASY.

We could have had that for years. We could still have that. That was only 2017.

But no. BUT NO.

You retcon the whole god damn universe take away literally all of his character development STICK HIM IN A HOLE FOR YEARS, then promise us maybe MAYBE we'll get Sabretooth and The Exiles.

AND NOW THIS.

I HAVE FUCKING HAD ENOUGH MARVEL.

There are good ways to use sabretooth as a villain and this shit ain't it.

#wednesday spoilers #xmen spoilers #x men spoilers #x men #xmen #marvel #marvel comics #marvel 616 #sabretooth #victor creed #sabretooth war #wolverine

[mar-im-o]

I think the reason so many ppl draw/write Scar without his wheelchair is because c!Scar isn't disabled.

It would be difficult in some cases to imagine scenes or events if Scar was in a wheelchair. In Hermitcraft, it's less difficult, but in the life series, a lot of events simply don't work if Scar is in a wheelchair. I don't think it's impossible or anything, but some things have to be changed in order for Scar to be in a wheelchair during the life series especially.

Another contributor to Scar outside of a wheelchair is the presence of Hotguy. A lot of people give him some sort of leg braces or another solution that allows him to move like a superhero needs to when he's Hotguy, and give him some sort of mobility aid outside of Hotguy. Again, I don't think Hotguy needs to be separated from the wheelchair, but Scar's own depictions of Hotguy are able-bodied.

And I think one more reason is because ppl are scared of messing it up somehow. People are neevous to try and draw a wheelchair but make it look bad. I've seen posts from other disabled ppl saying that giving Scar a cane instead of a wheelchair can come across ableist. I think because of this ppl don't draw him with any mobility aid so they can avoid doing it wrong.

I'm gonna be very harsh here. Know it comes from a place of wanting people to understand better.

I am disabled, and I am utterly, horribly, grossly tired of this argument. This argument that disabilities cannot exist within exciting stories. This argument that wheelchair users can't be superheroes or villains or red menaces or whatever else Scar does.

It's an excuse. Nothing other than that.

We are all making fanart and fanfics based on a game of cubes. Every part of this world that we, collectively, as a fandom create are born from our imagination.

If you can give Grian wings, if you can make Doc a cyborg, if you can make Mumbo a vampire, then you can give Scar a wheelchair.

The stories you all adore, this character you are obsessed with, is created by a disabled man. A man in a wheelchair. Acknowledge that.

This is a medium that is based on a video game. There's magic and monsters. There can be a wheelchair user.

Figure it out. Consider giving Scar a wheelchair that turns into an elytra. A wheelchair with mechanical legs. A steed he always rides. Anything.

Disabled people belong in your stories. Stop erasing us.

#disability rights #disability activism #gtws #goodtimeswithscar #scar #discourse #hermitcraft #trafficblr #life series

[wings-of-fire-confessions]

TW for ableism

Maybe this is just a me problem because I haven't seen anyone else talk about it but man. WOF is not great about characters with disabilities.

Chameleon is kicked out of the Rain Kingdom and painted as the villain even tho he's a victim of ableism, which really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Also characters like Darkstalker and Scarlet are called "psychopaths" and "narcissists" as insults in canon. I understand that that's common, but it doesn't make it okay.

I know that Tui CAN write characters with disabilities well, because Peril is a well written character, but sometimes she really fumbles the bag and I'm tired of my criticism being waved off with "it's just a series/it's for children". We shouldn't teach children that it's okay to use those terms as insults. I don't care if I sound like I'm pearl-clutching or whatever the term is, I needed to get this opinion out there cuz it's been bugging me.

.

#wings of fire confessions #wings of fire #wof #wof confessions #ablism #abelism

[taldigi]

Hello good morning. I wanted to ask a question: Felix Sphynx and Felix Fathom are not the same in personality, right? I was arguing with someone who said that Felix Sphynx was a traitor just like Fathom and that he didn't really love Ladybug, but I understand that Felix didn't hate Marinette, he was just focused on his studies, the person who said that did it because the "curse" thing. But I do not believe it. I want to consult you because you are the person who knows the most about ladybug pv (I admire you a lot). This is my first time on Tumblr and my first question. Have a nice day. Thank you.

I'm very flattered, thank you!

a cool rule of thumb is that Felix Sphinx = Adrien. A lot of people really forget that Felix Sphinx is Adrien. Felix Fathom is not Adrien. Felix Sphinx is NOT Felix Fathom.

That being said, the curse has never been mentioned as part of the story. it is not in any art, in any script, in any storyboard, or in any summary. It was mentioned in ONE LINE in the artbook, and was referenced by TA on twitter (unreliable, as he has made bold-faced lied before), but the Curse is not a foundational building block for any version of the precanon story. It may have been a concept, but it did not last long enough to have an effect.

There is too much non-curse media to make the curse a canon aspect. People who accept the curse but reject Felix' (disability, Goals in becoming a doctor, love of sports, rebellious streak) to justify character opinions do not care about it and are only doing it to justify not doing so. They do not want to read about it. They do not want to know about it.

They have canon, what more do they want? Everything else is bad and unworthy of the time or effort required. They do not want to care about precanon and they never will.

What we DO have, in writing, is a story where Ladybug is Felix' personal villain, who is threatening to take away his Kwami unless he plays nice and makes himself valuable to her. He is not being fake to cure himself, he is being fake so she does not take away his friend and his ability to be chat noir.

Is S1 Marinette a "traitor" to Adrienette because she did not love Chat Noir? or S2 Adrien to Marinette because he did not love her? Is it fair to assume the same of Felix? Because that is how character development works- how stories work. Characters change. Characters grow and learn.

Felix never got to grow, he never got a story. He got a summary- a concept. You cannot judge him alone. We never got to see his story.

We got to see Adrien's- and he is worthy of adoration and affection? Dispite the cruel things he's done and the tantrums he's thrown in the name of his love for Ladybug?

But Precanon Adrien/Felix is a traitor, a manipulator, or a sexual abuser? Because he's what- uncomfortable with Marinette's pushiness? Because he has priorities?

But.. In every version of the story, he does love her or comes to love her because they are worthy of love. That is the narrative of every version of ladybug. the loyal cat and the strong bug run in a rectangle and fall in love.

The scoffing, rude, pushy-away narrative about Felix is old and tired and wrong.

She is cute, and clumsy, and she is interested in him. Girls are a waste of time, except Marinette. Except Marinette. Except Marinette. Except Marinette. Except Marinette. Except Marinette.

#Anonymous

[burning-sol]

Currently circulating critical discussion of JRWI:

(all times are in AEDT) (i apologise in advance if there any errors in summation, quotation or image descriptions)

A FORMER POST THAT MAY BE RELEVANT ON POC IN RIPTIDE (JUNE 30TH 2022)

Captain Lizzie (Riptide)

@ / notferinweII on Twitter Feb 1st 8:07AM READ HERE

as a black lesbian this stinksss

“people will tell me, the creator of the character, that im wrong” the same guy who “never meant to imply Lizzie was POC” the same guy who compared her skin tone to kylie jenner AND rihanna (rihanna who is a black woman herself) , said she was a pale white pirate woman but also

has olive skin but also has tanned skin but also grew up pale blonde hair that darkened in the sun throughout her time on the black rose pirate ship . a very long and insightful thread about the lack of poc characters in jrwi was posted in JUNE with the singular black npc

being announced on november 13 2022 for episode EIGHTY SEVEN of riptide . on the same day , you wrote a post about wanting us the viewers feel comfortable , REPRESENTED , and respected . lizzie’s skin colour absolutely changes her character because she could be strong WOC rep .

now lesbian lizzie has been a very strong headcanon throughout the community for a very long time (i’m going to ignore pistolwhip’s influence for a second this is just about lizzie) due to the extreme lack of lesbian or even sapphic rep in jrwi as an entire podcast .

you yourself stated you want all to feel represented in your campaign . and yet whenever you’re asked about lizzie’s sexuality you brush it off and say “it doesn’t matter” maybe to You but it very much matters to lesbian jrwitwt who are often left grasping at crumbs and battling

intense lesbiphobia (not lesbophobia 😉🥂) from the community in general . a canonical lesbian would be big for lesbian fans !! we love and adore lizzie as a character and we would love to see really ANYTHING about her canonized but it’s always silence .

now back to pistolwhip . i can understand the resistance to making them canon as it could take away from the action of the story (im really trying to see the other side here i’m trying) however the way you constantly dismiss the ship

but still milking fans for fan service… what happened to "u guys dont want pistolwhip" when lizzie called jay sunshine. or when lizzie winked at jay and told her to "be safe"? the way you constantly insists that "you guys dont want this to happen" while simultaneously egging

fans on is tiring for all involved TLDR : canonize lizzie’s skin tone and stick to it . if she’s white , say it. the lack of canonization while being upset fans “take the character and say i’m wrong” is a weird thing to get angry about considering little about lizzie is canon

@willotstreet Feb 4th 3:57AM READ HERE

Quoted in full:

representation that is left up to interpretation is not representation. you are asking the viewer to imagine the representation is there, without actually committing to including it yourself. be better.

Disability

@jayferins Feb 4th 11:20AM READ HERE

An anon asks about what Grizzly had said about a disabled character in PD, also adding in their own notes about Drey's disability. To summise their notes: it's surprising Drey is the only disabled character in Riptide; his diability is primarily a punchline for jokes; Drey is treated as being unfit to fight due to his disability, which can easily be remedied in fantasy through use of mobility aids that can also be altered to make for cool magical weapons. I myself would like to note that Chip has a prosthetic finger, which makes this choice even more strange.

To summise the response: meeting a former villain who's now a wheelchair user, the characters ask what happened; Dakota (played by Grizzly) reacted extremely poorly and said to their face they, "deserved it," and that, "you had it coming, karmas a bitch," in reference to being disabled; being disabled is not a punishment or a sin, it's just something that occurs, and this mindset is a bad one to have; Grizzly defended the decision to play the character this way when he recieved criticism about it.

Neurodivergency

@jayferins Feb 4th 5:21AM READ HERE

An anon comments, to summise: the amount of jokes made about schizophrenia and the psychotic comments aren't it; the way they treated Vyncent's character with the Greats wasn't that great; the jokes are treated like nothing which is frustrating knowing the amount of harm perpetuated stigmas cause.

@colestyle Feb 4th 5:30AM READ HERE

To summise: there's good moments with the plurality in PD but others that aren't to point of op skipping them; Dakota (played by Grizzly) made jokes that were especially bad; despite the plot relevance it's still irking, and it's upsetting how it just goes away by the end of S1.

@herethereverywhere Feb 4th 5:52 AM READ HERE

To summise: op watched PD aware of Vyncent being plural and anticipating it, only to be upset by stereotypes of people with dissociative disorders being reinforced, and psychotic disorders being casually demonized; expectations weren't high but still not met; op reasonably states, "i cant say that i trust this show with these topics going forward unless the boys demonstrate an sensitivity that i have thus far not been privy to".

General Comments

@swordswaltz Feb 4th 2:28AM READ HERE

Insight that I feel should be quoted in full based on my own agreement and consensus amongst other users too:

i might have missed something but i'm just so unsurprised by jrwi's (mainly grizz's) lack of response to the lizzie thing. charlie and bizly have both made apologies for things that i think were considerate and they actually changed, but i feel like grizz and condi just kind of don't learn. grizzly's conveniently timed deleting of his questions page just adds to the feeling like, to him, it's not about actually growing and more about avoiding "being cancelled" i could be wrong (i hope i'm wrong) but past actions and words are usually indicative of future actions and words. i've had this small, growing frustration with jrwi the past maybe four months which sucks because i love this show. i do. i just want them to Improve. i feel like there's a lot of talk of improving and not a lot of progress.

I have already gotten worn out so sorry I haven't included more, but if you have any other comments or relevant posts feel free to add on.

#📚 my posts #jrwi crit #jrwi #jrwishow #jrwi riptide #jrwi prime defenders

[charleyscrows]

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION TO SAVE SHADOW AND BONE!

Hey, so if you haven’t seen Netflix has canceled Shadow and Bone. But we fought so hard for this show, we can’t stop fighting now.

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION TO SAVE SHADOW AND BONE:

Look, even if this doesn’t work at least we’ll know that we’ve done all we can.

Why this show is important:

I can’t speak to how people in other minorities feel about this show so I will leave it to the more qualified. I can’t even speak to other disabled people, there is such a wide range of us. But for me, the Crows were the first time I saw/read disabled characters actively involved in the action rather than just the passive mentors; the smart ones. Finally, the narrative I grew up with as a disabled child that I had to ‘make up’ for my disability by being exceptionally intelligent was dispelled. Stories like these need to be available to people younger than I was when I first read the book because by then the message of ‘making up for disability’ was truly internalized. Not that it didn’t help me too. Of course, we still have the books but it is undeniable that TV has a wider range of influence as media than books. And obviously the presence of three disabled characters as protagonists is considerable. We need to save the show not only because it is good but so disabled kids have representation outside old characters or Disney villains.

Like I said I can only speak to my interpretation through my lens as a disabled person so comment down below if you want.

Also this show was different and I’m tired of Netflix canceling any show that doesn’t fit their cookie cutter Riverdale model. We really need to make them realize it won’t make them money.

#shadow and bone #save shadow and bone #disabled #disability representation #disability in media #representation #crooked kingdom #six of crows #leigh bardugo #grishaverse #alina starkov #mal oretsev #nikolai lantsov #genya safin #david kostyk #the darkling #alexander kirigan #tamar kir bataar #tolya yul bataar #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #nina zenik #matthias helvar #zoya nazyalensky #wesper #kanej #helnik #petition

[loopy777]

What was the yangchen scene that infuriated you so much?

I'm glad you asked!

(I say as if I didn't leave that last one as bait.)

But I'm warning you, the explanation is going to be underwhelming for my level of rage. I'm just so sick of this kind of thing. Spoilers below the cut for both Dawn and Legacy.

In Dawn, the weapon Yangchen had been chasing the whole book turns out to be a trio of Combustion Benders working for the villain. This is treated as something completely unheard of, and no one is even capable of speculating how it might be possible.

In Legacy, Yangchen follows up on this and eventually tracks down the training site for the Combustion Benders. It turns out that the villain hadn't just been trying to churn out Combusters, she was training and researching several different possibilities. Yangchen doens't learn the full extent of what was going on there, but she does encounter the following:

The Combustion Benders

A girl whose bare-handed blows can incapacitate limbs and disable Bending

A chamber with a shackling chair and the remains of a circular metal track that would allow something to travel around the chair; elsewhere in the book, the villain speaks a code phrase and brings a reluctant subordinate completely under her control, compelled to follow her every command

Just- would it have been too much to have one slushing thing that wasn't taken from Aang's adventures? I'm almost surprised there weren't a pair of hook swords at the site or something about lightning-bending or lightning-redirection! By the time Avatar fiction is finished and the franchise is finally dead, do you think there will be one single thing in all of AtLA that won't have its history revealed in a story about a previous Avatar? Just like how everything Korra experiences needs to be explained in a story about the maturing gAang, everything in AtLA needs to be tossed out as chum for fans who can't be trusted to just enjoy a good story.

Combustion Bending can't have just been something that happened over there, it had to be part of Avatar History (TM). Chi-blocking can't just be a rare skill, it had to have been developed by a think tank run by an Avatar's arch nemesis. And Koh forbid Long Feng or the Dai Li actually invented some aspect of their brainwashing themselves- no, it turns out they lifted everything, right down to using a light on a circular track, from a textbook that was written four to five hundred years before they were born.

It's just so, so tiring. It's one thing when the garbage has to toss out this kind of fan-service in order to distract from its terrible character writing, but why does even the good stuff like the Yangchen novels have to devolve into this lack of creativity? It adds nothing to the story and took me straight out of what should have been a harrowing scene.

But Loopy, you say, what harm does it do? Lots of people like to have their fans serviced in this way, so maybe this is just a You thing, and it doesn't necessarily hurt the stories it's in just because Gene Yang was terrible at it.

Well, 'you,' I'd say that it actually does do harm, even in the hands of a good storyteller like F.C. Yee. See, one of best parts of this franchise is the sense of history it evokes. In most fantasy, thousands of years can whizz by with no change in culture, geography, language, technology, or education. But in Avatar, things change. The Fire Nation wins wars by developing new weapons. The Water Tribes go up and down in health and power depending the conditions of the world. A whole new nation is developed as a result of colonization, which itself spurs rapid development of technology. When we jump back to the beginning of time, the very world itself is made to look like a moving historical painting. And, as we increasingly explore the franchise, we find that each Avatar comes of age mostly by dealing with the problems left behind by their predecessors.

And every time something from AtLA or LoK is shoved into contrived circumstances in another era so we can have a pointless fan service moment, we chip away at that unique aspect of this franchise. We make each era more like all the others, so that no matter what Avatar you're dealing with or what era of history you're in, there will always be a Chi Blocker (TM). It takes something we all fell in love with due to its uniqueness and turns it into a formula. Instead of a scene that works by itself, we have a round of Spot The Reference.

And it happens in so much fiction these days. People used to make disparaging jokes about how every character in Star Wars, even the stupid nameless walk-on roles, has their own book. But at least it was their own book, and not the story of how it turns out Anakin Skywalker was best friends with this random alien decades before they randomly walked across his son Luke's path. We measure a storyteller's suitability to contribute to a franchise based on how much of a fan they are, not because being a fan might lend them insight into what made that franchise great in the first place, but because they can pack their stories full of continuity so that it turns out the entire history of an entire world turns on 20 people spread across a single family tree by the time subsequent generations are done marrying each other.

I'm just so sick of it. And being ambushed by it in 'Legacy of Yangchen' just made me groan, especially since I was enjoying the story so much.

Please, let's have a little self-respect as fans, okay?

...

I warned you this was going to be underwhelming.

#legacy of yangchen

[thosemintcookies]

Genuinely I have no hope for the new DD series.

They're really trying to backtrack on Ben's death when it unequivocally shouldn't have happened. It looks bad. You literally made him a black man just to kill him forgetting that he's actually a huge part of matt's life and a close friend and moves the story forward a lot.

They're gonna kill foggy. I wouldn't have cared if they recasted but foggy is matt's best friend, his subtextual life partner, and matt's primary anchor into the real world. They're treating foggy like he's a civilian sidekick when he's not. he's a proxy romantic lead.

looks like they want another matt love triangle. girl those are boring i'm so tired. I'm SO tired. Matt's love life should be like 20% or less of his character bc his personality is his being autistic about the law coming to a head with his Need to Help that causes him so much distress he needs to throw up but all the time.

Bringing in heather is fine but really they should have brought in milla because there's an in built story to explore with her job. but god forbid we have to have another disabled character of lasting importance on the show where the guy very notably is disabled. It's not like it would be refreshing to actually lean into a non-superpowered character with a disability or anything.

Hell they should bring in Becky. We need a non-love interest woman who is matt's age. please. I'm begging you. He's a pasty little nerd like yes he's had a lot of love interests but I promise it's actually a small number for 50 years and he literally has normal friends. Killing off foggy will further exacerbate the issue where it looks like he only talks to women around him who fetishize his blindness which is GROSS

Please for the love of god can we have 1 non-fisk centric story. Bring in stunt master or some shit i'm fucking begging

We're getting Muse but where is my boy sam??? Muse is SAM'S VILLAIN TOO. oh wait. I forgot this series has a thing against portraying asians as people who have their own agency AND who are not evil

[frumfrumfroo]

I get tired of Zuko being brought up as the archetypal redemption arc (I get why people on the pro-redemption side do it, because he's a cultural touchstone for many people when we're kind of in dearth of villain redemptions, contrary to popular belief). But it's interesting how he lacks many of the elements I find engaging about redemption arcs, partly as a consequence of it being a children's show - Zuko can safely be redeemed because his daddy is the true baddie, so we still have the archetypal 'hero defeats villain' story; Zuko doesn't have a romance, and you can argue he's a villain protagonist in many ways, so the absolute product of his arc is kind of discrete; Azula (though apparently she was intended to be redeemed) still functions as a baddie for him to take down, so it's not like nonviolence is embedded in the narrative (which is what I personally find powerful) - and so on.

If I may add to your post, I definitely agree with you that it's a product of the current cultural/media climate, and comparisons to Zuko tend to not be productive. The anatomy of the fallout is little to do with the emotional arc or verisimilitude of the character's development, and so changing that isn't going to change anything. There are also elements like, Zuko gets to be the 'one' contrastive character who did it correctly - emotionally unbound in the story (his major redeeming relationship is with his uncle, even) - and for many people in the current discourse, from a time of childhood idealism. If I were to psychoanalyse these people, Kylo Ren, for instance, is so uncomfortable as a product of teenage narrative cynicism, maybe even worse because the Sequel Trilogy unearthed the OT. Zuko functions sort of like 'the one female character written correctly' which people bandy about to silence discussions of female character criticism or the presence of female characters, despite the fact this is an extremely limiting and antihumanistic approach (for black characters, for black female characters, for disabled characters, and so on - we want a variety). It's like how the 1:4 ratio of women to men is considered 'even'.

But I would go so far to say that why Zuko fails as a point of comparison is that many elements I view as powerful, moving, and challenging in redemption arcs are simply not there. This makes him feel safer. If Zuko is the 'limit', then you can suppress the discussion surrounding villain redemption arcs this way. Because romance isn't a feature, nonviolence isn't a conclusive feature, Azula can't be redeemed (she's truly crazy and evil), so redemption is a 'yea high' bar of disappointment. This is why I am tired of Zuko as a point of comparison bandied by the anti-redemption crowd, both because it stymies storytelling (there is no limit on what sorts of stories deserve to be told) but because it's actually kind of... not the same thing as what we're talking about. It doesn't go far enough. It barely does at all (and in anime, the villain redemptions tend to go pretty far, so what Avatar was playing off of was, well, playing it safe).

I also think it would be a different story if they had gone for Zuko/Katara with a female POV, but I don't really believe that both of those things were ever the intention. There's not really room for it in the Aang Show where the girl is a prize. But I'm not sure that many would meditate on it with such content if romance were involved at all. Hell, even now there are people who insist that Vader's redemption wasn't one at all because it commits too much - and that's why I think Zuko as an example persists.

I can't speak on the actual content because I was never in the fandom and haven't seen the show, but I'm sure you're right. I also think it's largely to do with these people having seen Zuko's arc when they were younger and it being 'grandfathered in'. As we see with some of the antis in sw fandom being totally fine with anidala or thinking Anakin is a sympathetic and tragic character, but lose their shit at the suggestion Ben is intended the same way despite being a far, far less demanding example. Even though anidala actually was an abusive relationship and reylo is not. etc.

Because they grew up with it and have already accepted the story's conclusion, they retrofit the 'good' and 'hero' labels and are thus fine with Anakin's redemption. The label is more important than any action he could take, because these people are working from an indelible label-based 'morality'. It's a form of Protagonist Centred Morality.

And I'm confident the same is true of A:TLAB.

And yes, there's also the fact that it's apparently an extremely tame and not very challenging redemption, because it's a show for little kids and thus Zuko doesn't kill anyone or do anything that violent. And again, I haven't seen it, but I get the impression he was always at least a bit sympathetic? So you never saw him as a simple and unrepentant villain. I could be wrong about that idk.

It is an extremely annoying thing that people still trot this out as the 'one acceptable redemption arc for all fiction ever', but that attitude has nothing to do with the writing of his arc or his character and everything to do with the people saying this and the circumstances under which they were exposed to him. And it's a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point because he's been given the pass, so even people coming to the show later already have permission to like him and won't respond to him the way they would otherwise.

The anti echo chamber will keep perpetuating this.

#fandom #tropes #writing

[luukka]

I watched Wish recently, and regarding what people had said, it wasn't bad.

It wasn't good either but it wasn't bad it was... meh.

(Might be spoilers but yeah, if you didn't/don't want to watch it my little analysis won't really interest you)

Now as a Disney and animation fan, I must talk about it because I watched it very late and still manage to bear my own opinion even if no one asked for it so here it is yoohoo

Did I laugh ? Yes two are three times (and no joke, I was the only one cause I'm an easy-laughter); did I smile ? Sure; did I find some music interesting ? Kinda; were the colors pretty ? Yes; the animation for a disney ? Err... m'k.

I get people that like it, there are things that are interesting, it... passes the time, you can show it to toddlers, but yeah, I mostly get people that didn't because I was kinda disappointed. If you take one thing apart from the other, it's quite awful, and when you put it all together it's a "hell no", especially because it's supposed to be the 100th Disney classic. I mean, I get the point of foreshadowing old classics, but some were really messed up like- some characters are just carbon copies of old design ? Asha's best friend is Snow white if she was a disabled four-eyed girl, the tired guy looks like the rich guy in Big Hero 6 and Bambi ? Little John ?? Can't you do that any clearer, we're fucking blind here.... I mean, ok I laughed when I heard that but I don't count I'm an easy laughter, wtf was that, like- I couldn't help but look at my brother like "did you see the same shit I just saw ? And you forced me to come and pay for that ?" and I was mostly laughing out of embarrassment because I WAS ALONE GIGGLING TEARS OF WTF-NESS

Some things were cool I guess, like the mirror effects when Magnifico sings I think ? And at the end when he elsa'd his castle to take the star. The Jafar effect wasn't bad either, but because it's Jafar effect and Jafar is a fucking badass, same with Elsa-ying the castle, because this scene in frozen was very cool

I felt bad at first but I must say, the songs are very disappointing. Like I wasn't expecting much, and it sure stuck in the head easily but that doesn't mean it's nice. The ones I appreciated were the song about the wishes (the clip is pretty) and maybe the revolution song (but the clip was urgh and why the hell they look so lifeless ???) I get why people said it was made by AI lol

In terms of character, except the Queen and grandpa, I didn't like any of them. Like usually I can't hate or dislike a Disney character, but here ? None of them was fine to me. Actually, I felt nothing from them. The villain was erh... basic I guess, he could be nice like the woman in The Rescuers but no he was, well basic "I'm perfect they should be grateful but they are not so let's become an asshole !" So yeah. Disappointed. He was a better villain than Hans, tho, maybe because Hans wasn't supposed to be a villain at first and that Magnifico was like Jafar, Evil Queen and Scar had a baby. Also, it seems to me like they didn't have a few or any -like ANY- personality, like- I CALLED THE TREASON OUT THE MOMENT I SAW THE LIFELESS BIG BOY COMON'

Now, I'm coming to people saying all the kids love it and I'm too old for that: no. No, I'm not too old for that, Disney is for everyone. No, not all the kids will love it, kids get easily bored, and this movie isn't very attractive. I bet if I show this to my nieces and nephews and siblings, they wouldn't care less - and they already don't very much care about movies in general when you put one for them. There were at least four kids in the theater and none laughed, or sounded interested, one preferred to play on his daddy's phone ??? well, I know all kids aren't like that, but really, this movie wasn't made to content the kids, it was made to content the fans clearly, that is why the movie isn't good.

Anyways, if you enjoyed it good for you ! The colors are pretty and the technic used is interesting, the chara design of Asha and the Queen are pretty, I can't say anything for the rest, tho, because the bg design is just resuming the old (and new *cough* encanto *cough*) classics anyway, but less good at guess... but really, if you like it, good for you, and say why, so I don't have a bad souvenir of it forever lol

#disney #disney wish #wish opinion #disney classics #disappointed #disappointing

[musical-chick-13]

Okay, no, sorry, I’m still mad about this. “Be critical of the media you consume and examine why you react to it in the way that you do, support marginalized and stigmatized identities.” Yeah, until it’s about mental illness.

A woman (or even man, if he’s deemed over-emotional) makes music about suffering from mental illness and people just go, “What are they complaining about, that’s so immature, hashtag wangst.” (And then, sometimes, inexplicably, if the mentally ill woman gets better and writes happier music, they then talk about how artistically bankrupt she is now and that she should go back to hating herself.) People LOVE cis white pRoBLeMaTiC (straight) fictional men until they are realistically mentally ill, in which case they’re “whiny” and “insufferable” and deserve to die violently, apparently (or, if fandom is merciful, they’re ignored). (And then they celebrate when they DO inevitably get killed off.) “Do your duty and watch [thing I, mc13, personally find insufferable] For The (white) Gays because it has Gays.” Sure, will you watch c4 Pure, the ONLY show specifically about OCD, then? (No, the answer is no, it’s always no.)

I can’t get anyone to watch Doom Patrol. I couldn’t get people (in general-I did convince a few irl friends thank GOD) to watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. One of the most popular and acclaimed shows right now has a character with schizophrenia who was turned into the Big Bad Villain for no fucking reason. One of the most commonly-cited examples of Iconic™ queer media involves a mentally ill man being broken over and over and over again before The Ship™ can reasonably happen. DW introduced a major character who was at one point suffering from mental illness in her past, AND THEN ALL MENTION OF THIS WAS COMPLETELY DROPPED IN THE FUTURE, WITH NO BEARING ON ANYTHING TO THE POINT WHERE I FORGOT IT EVEN EXISTED??!?!? R*tched was a thing that existed despite the Sad Sympathetic Backstory treatment being IN DIRECT CONTRADICTION OF WHAT PURPOSE THIS CHARACTER SERVED IN One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. THEY GAVE. A SAD WOOBIE VILLAIN TREATMENT. TO THE /LITERAL PERSONIFICATION/ OF ABLEISM. THAT IS HER FUNCTION. TO EXIST AS A SYMBOL OF ALL THE WAYS SOCIETY OPPRESSES THE DISABLED AND MENTALLY ILL.

I am!!! Literally!!!!! The only one!!!!!!!!! Complaining about these things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE ONLY ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No one else has said ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No one is talking about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so tired!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#*OBLIGATORY COMMENT ABOUT HOW REPRESENTATION/FICTIONAL DISABILITY IS NOT THE END ALL BE ALL OF ACTIVISM* #*OTHER OBLIGATORY COMMENT ABOUT HOW LIKING '''pRoBLeMaTiC''' CONTENT DOES NOT MAKE YOU A BAD PERSON OR A HORRIFYING ABLEIST* #THIS WAS JUST ME GETTING MAD IT'S NOT THAT DEEP #In the Vents #the real horror was the ableism we found along the way #like. in some of these cases yes I /KNOW/ it was not meant to come across like that!!! but y'all accept that as a valid type of media #criticism when it's about anything else!!!!!!!! just not this apparently????!?!!!! #I do not understand how there is such an ABYSMAL treatment of the subject of mental illness in fiction when this is the #memetic Mental Illness Website like genuinely I do not get it I am scaling my walls and banging pots and pans and growling like a rabid dog #IF YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT THE MESSAGE A STORY IS TELLING YOU GOTTA APPLY IT HERE TOO #I AM ALSO THE LAST PERSON TO SAY THAT YOU'VE GOTTA ADD A DISCLAIMER OF SOMETHING'S LAUNDRY LIST OF FLAWS BEFORE YOU TALK ABOUT IT #BUT JESUS FUCKING CHRIST YOU HAVE TO ACKNOWLEDGE ON SOME LEVEL EVEN IF IT'S JUST TO YOURSELF THAT THINGS HAVE FLAWS #YOU'VE GOTTA BE AWARE OF SHIT #WHEN WILL WE HAVE THE OUTCRY OVER BURY YOUR DISABLED THAT WE DO OVER BYG (WHICH IS ALSO BAD BTW) #I GUARANTEE YOU WE WON'T BE GETTING A SEPARATE FUCKING CON OVER FANDOM OUTCRY THAT'S FOR SURE #I'm making a rule: if you can prove to me that you've started cxgf after reading this and/or if you can prove to me #that you've watched pure (channel 4/hbo max-the one with charly clive) I'll write a fic for you #let's see if I get sniped for criticizing both the beloved sacred mads show AND the plane crash girls show #if I see ONE more comment about how either of those is a perfect show that Gets What All The People Want I will in fact spontaneously #combust. #(and before you @ me yes I have any and all permutations of show tags blocked I'm not just being mean to be mean) #my god remember what happened the last time I tried to talk about this a;lsdfkajs;ldfkj #good thing I turned off anonymous asks!! #this is not even getting into some of the SMALLER fandoms #like I do not ever want to think about the takes I saw for ctrlz EVER again

[amaros-system]

Prison of Plastic Thoughts

So, finished Prison of Plastic. Here are my spoilery thoughts: - I think I understand better why this show is called Epithet Erased. A very core theme is the pain that these powers cause, mainly to the inscribed themselves. - I really like this decision. I was expecting this to go in the direction of "oh no Inscribed hurt Mundies" like so many stories do. This is really tired, and always rubs me the wrong way because of how they are resolved. The notion of somebody's abilities being fundamental to who they are feels very ableist (looking at you, Legend of Korra). Being blinded would change my life, but it wouldn't make me any less. - On that note, I hope we get to see a character actually have their epithet taken away and to not get it back later in the same arc. I wanna see somebody grapple with what not having it means, and grow beyond their epithet. - The thing that unites all of the antagonists, is how they view powers. Mera's epithet causes chronic pain, Zora's sucks the joy out of life, Lori possibly accidentally caused the death of her mother with it. For these characters epithets are disabilities. This has a ton of narrative potential, and I'm immensely curious to see where Jello goes with this. - When you embrace that both Mundies and Inscribed can be the metaphorical representation of disabled people, EE is actually a very compelling disability analogy. Not sure if that's intentional, but I don't care! - Further on the EE-as-disability-analogy, I think this makes Molly the perfect protagonist. The first thing we see Molly use her epithet for is prevent overstimulation. While for other characters their powers are just nice boons or even active hindrances, Molly is the only one that relies on her Epithet. She runs counter to Bliss Ocean's ideals, in an interesting way. - Moving away from disability now! - Lori is so hatable, but also so lovable. Seeing her actually play along with Molly was so such an amazing moment, very sad to see how it ended. - Also, very conflicted on shipping Lori and Gio. They have such chemistry, but also Lori absolutely does not deserve him. I need her to finish her arc so I can see this ship god damn it. - Rick is the best. I envy his energy. - I totally thought Ricks friends in Ocean Country were killed for helping a slave escape for a sec. - Naven has such twist villain energy. Same vibes as Ralsei. The way he talks to Lori and the fact he has Yoomtah as a driver are all very sus. - I really want to see what Trixie’s epithet is, assuming they have one. I’m expecting something super obscure. There’s also that crow, and the possible Songstress connection I’ve seen some people theorize about. - Giovanni kidnapping Molly is so on-brand. He was really great this arc in general, really. Didn’t have a lot of big, bombastic moments, but I actually liked that. Get to see more chill Giovanni. AKA, what makes him so cool.

#epithet erased spoilers #epithet erased #epithet spoilers