#satpop meta | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fortunatelychaoticphantom · 5 months

Text

Highlighted Posts - Fandom Topics

For some explanation, see serious topics post.

Avatar the Last Airbender / Legend of Korra:

Aang, forgiveness and violence in The Southern Raiders (meta).

Aang’s (lack of a) character arc (meta) + same response, posted independently from the original chain post with a bit of revisions (meta).

Avatar, violence and last second anti-killing rhetoric (meta).

The actual advice the past Avatars gave Aang (meta).

Aang vs. Ozai final battle and Star Wars influences (meta).

The Great Divide is good actually (meta).

Aang being rewarded by the universe? (meta).

Third season Scorched Earth plan out of left field (meta).

Bloodbending and Energybending (meta).

Katara didn't have a “plot armor” in the final battle with Azula, she's the epitome of a warrior (meta).

Katara and non-lethal battle winning (meta/joke).

Katara didn’t beat Pakku (meta).

Katara didn’t choose Aang “over” Zuko (meta).

Anastasia!Zutara AU (headcanon).

Mai and Zuko, what should have been (meta).

Mai happily joined Azula to hunt Zuko (meta).

Kanna and Pakku... why??? (meta/joke).

Gender equality in the Fire Nation and WW2 equivalents (meta).

Legend of Korra, the status quo and the institution of the Avatar (meta).

Making Korra’s dad chief is just… awful (meta).

Harry Potter:

The Malfoys didn’t have a redemption in canon (meta).

Michael Gambon is great, you guys are just mean (meta).

Snape, Dumbledore and the Defence against the Dark Arts (meta/joke).

No thanks, I don’t need a young Snape movie (joke).

What Harry’s reaction to his name being pulled from the Goblet should have been (joke).

The Tri-Wizard tournament has no rules (meta).

Star Wars:

Star wars and Pirates of the Caribbean are the same story (meta).

Kylo Ren and redemption in the Star Wars universe and Hollywood [tlj post] (meta).

DC:

so... does Superman have an appendix? (joke).

Why Selina Kyle never goes to Arkham (joke).

The Scorpion King/Wonder Woman comparison (joke).

Marvel:

Infinity War and the horror of the snap (meta).

Who’s the avengers’ designer? (joke).

Black Panther and The Lion King similarities regarding women (meta).

Shipping in the MCU (joke).

Antman and family (joke).

Pirates of the Caribbeans:

Elizabeth and Will’s relationship is the heart of the movies (meta).

The best things about PotC (meta).

Disney:

I sort of wrote a one-shot about the bimbettes from Beauty and the Beast (fanfiction).

Belle in the Hunchback of Notre Dame (meta).

Del Toro, monstrosity and Beauty and the Beast (meta).

Inner Workings is amazing (meta).

Frozen’s Anna and Hans (joke).

Quasimodo is awesome (meta).

Around the world with Captain Phoebus (joke).

Pocahontas’ ending is subversive as fuck (joke/meta).

Hercules didn’t know who Hades was (joke).

Other:

Bullshit “feminist” retelling and Mad Max Fury Road (joke/meta).

“Feminist” retellings explanation (analysis).

She-Ra and the inherently good protagonist (meta).

I hate the ending of She-Ra (meta).

Once upon a Time, Regina and redemption (two diverging threads of the same post) (meta): First and Second.

Ross Geller isn’t that bad, you guys are just mean. Or: The unbelievable cruelty of what Carol did to Ross (meta).

Bella Swan and Hermione Granger comparisons are bullshit (meta).

Twilight and depression (meta).

New Moon reread comments (meta).

The Good Place is the greatest show in history. But also I have thoughts (meta).

The single most beautiful Geralt and Jeskier art ever made [The Witcher] (fanart).

Dimitri wanted to find the real Anastasia all along in hopes that she survived the revolution [Anastasia 1997] (meta).

Godzilla, Pacific Rim and Hollywood: between grim-dark and camp (meta).

Wednesday Addams and the usurpation of the summer camp for rich white kids (meta).

Debbie Jellinsky is the best [The Addams Family Values] (joke).

Achilles and Patroclus sitting in an urn. K.I.S.S.I.N.G. (joke).

Of course the Jewish women are the witches in Oz the Great and Powerful… (joke/meta).

Bird Box and mental illness (meta).

My problems with Carmen San Diego (meta).

Ice Princess and teenage movie tropes. Or: They're lesbians Harold (meta/joke).

Lord of the Rings life goals (joke).

The School of Good and Evil and that little bit of antisemitism… (joke).

Game of Thrones / House of the Dragon genetics are weird (joke).

Why wouldn’t I keep talking about old fandoms? (joke/analysis).

I hate Barbie. Sorry. (meta).

11 notes · View notes

fortunatelychaoticphantom · 5 years

Text

She-Ra and the Inherently Good Protagonist

I absolutely love She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, but there’s something that’s been bothering me for a long time. I’m talking about the Horde lying to Adora and the rest of the recruits about their true mission and the war and about the rebels/resistance. Logically, there is no reason whatsoever for them to do that. Why would you lie to your soldiers about something that they are going to see first hand soon enough in the field and know it’s a lie? Not only that, but as we see throughout the show, most members of the Horde do know the truth or, like Catra, don’t particularly care about it when they find out. So why lie in the first place?

(Long-ass meta ahead; some spoilers for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Carmen Sandiego, Captain Marvel, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Force Awakens)

Unfortunately, the only conceivable reason for it is to make Adora redeemable. Because Adora didn’t know, she thought the rebels were evil, she thought she was on the good side. And that way, once faced with the truth, she would so very easily and very quickly be able with little to no regret or fight to join the real good side.

Now, this is unfortunately something that I’m seeing more and more. Carmen in the new Carmen Sandiego remake has a similar story. Captain Marvel has it too. In all these stories there is an element of authoritarian organizations lying to the protagonist (or even to all member of the organization like in Carmen) about their true nature, which enables said protagonist to defect once realizing the truth. Another important element in these stories, which goes to make the lying part all the more absurd, is the immersion of the protagonist in the culture and environment of the authoritarian organization and the protagonists relative isolation from any member of the extraneous groups they work against.

The protagonists know only life within the moral borders of the cultures they live in. Both Carmen and Adora were raised from infancy by evil organizations in enclosed areas that consists only members of those organizations. They had no prior cultural references with which they had to battle with, they were a clean slate to be molded into the perfect members of their respective societies (thieves and general evil doers for profit in the first case and conquerors in the second). In the case of Carol Danvers it’s a little more complicated, since she wan’t born into the Kree. Her memories were pretty much erased but I am not exactly sure how much of her personality and moral compass were intact after they took her. But either way, at that point of her life she was Kree. Kree life was the only thing she knew (anyone who knows better is welcome to correct me on this). She is also unique in that she is the only one who is being lied to, as opposed to Adora and Carmen, so I’m including her here with a major asterisk as her story has both glaring similarities and important differences that should be taken into account.

I have written about this issue in Carmen before. Back then I said: “there isn’t a single logical reason for an entire criminal organization to lie to everyone of its recruits only to reveal to them at the end that they aren’t evil, they are EXTRA evil”, and it applies to She-Ra as well. If everyone in, let’s call it, “active duty” is well aware of the truth (they are hurting people for profit/they are conquering the planet and killing innocent people/they just don’t like that specific alien race? Honestly I’m not sure I understood what the Kree wanted...), there is no reason for them not to tell their members the truth from the beginning. Since it doesn’t serve the organizations at all, again it leads us to the understanding that it’s only there For The Plot, which is... not the best writing.

There is one thing I can say in favor of this plot device. For that I’ll need to talk about another show - you guessed it - Avatar the Last Airbender. Zuko might be the greatest and most cohesive example of a villain learning the truth about the actions of their side of the war and choosing to defect and help bring it down. The thing is, this process took him two and a half seasons out of the three the show had. I guess we can’t really expect a show called She-Ra or a show called Carmen to take more than two seasons before the protagonists after which the shows are called realize they might be on the wrong side, and this device is very effective in order to jump start the actual plot.

Now, I say “guess” because honestly, that kind of a show would have been fascinating to watch and because it leads me to the most problematic aspect of this plot device; Even though they were raised/nurtured by villainous people, Adora, Carmen and Carol are somehow morally superior to all those around them and are capable of discerning right from wrong even though no one thought them that distinction for absolutely no reason at all besides them being the heroes of the story. Like I said about Carmen: “Instead of making it a process of growth and understanding the consequences of her actions, she is just inherently good and better than anyone around her because of Reasons and plot convenience”. (I would throw in Finn from the Star Wars sequels here as well, but very carefully. He also has many similarities to this plot line - being raised from infancy in a racist authoritarian dictatorship. But even though I love him very much, I still don’t really understand the reason for his defection in TFA - I think he just didn’t want to die? His struggle to do the right thing in the first movie distinguishes him from Adora, Carmen and Carol, but on the other hand he isn’t a part of the evil forces at all from pretty much the minute we meet him, so he doesn’t exactly fit this mold, though it’s an interesting comparison)

This sort of notion is not only an easy trick to make us care about these characters, but it’s a very dangerous and toxic idea that implies that some people are inherently good and others are inherently evil. It ignores the intricate way in which all of us are victims of propaganda, some of which could take years to even notice exist. Nearing 30, I, a woman living in a democratic relatively western country, still find new ways in which misogyny is so ingrained into me by decades of socialization, consumerism and education. To think that a person who lives in an isolated racist dictatorship would have some magic immunity to all its propaganda, and that the process of getting out of these dark dark paces isn’t full of obstacles and doubts and mistakes is distorting our perception about real people in similar situations going through this process right now.

Going back to Zuko’s example, you could say that the fact he wasn’t the protagonist at all but the antagonist in the first season is what enabled him to have a much more rounded process of changing sides and gave him the time to change and grow. But, like I said, watching the protagonist of a show go though this process of unlearning propaganda could be amazing to watch. But the thing I love most about Zuko’s story is that he isn’t inherently good. Sure, he has always been compassionate and values life (at least those of his own people), but his morality wasn’t superior to every single one of his nation. He was arrogant, aggressive, and was not at all ignorant to the actions of the Fire Nation (though maybe he didn’t fully understand their consequences). He truly believed his people are better, and that by their conquest they are making the world better. Whether he particularly cared about the second part is not important. What is important is that while he was fed this propaganda all his life, he wasn’t clueless as to the violent nature of his own and his nation’s actions. What he did learn along the way was that “better” is not an objective definition, and that instead of being “grateful” everyone hated the Fire Nation for the suffering they bring and that maybe war is not the best course of action. He learned that by meeting these people, his enemies, and experiencing their lives.

Adora, Carmen and Carol have these moments too (and they are wonderful) of coming close to their enemies and understanding them (it’s not exactly enemies in Carmen’s case but the general population of the world I guess..,). But it acts more as a shorthand for an actual process and because of the lies they have been fed and their “inherent goodness” they have little to no struggle to renounce their former ways and quickly jump ship and join the opposing forces. Zuko, on the other hand, struggles. Oh, lord, he struggles. He steals from the first person who shows him compassion. He joins forces with “good” people (as much as you can call Jet good) out of necessity or simply for selfish reasons. He struggles and fails and relapses and makes mistakes upon mistakes upon mistakes before he is able to move forward. And even then he makes more mistakes. He is bad at being good because no one taught him how to be good, so he has to learn it almost from scratch and that’s what makes it worth it. It makes it seem like it’s achievable, like it’s something that could happen in real life. It’s not necessarily perfect, but it’s better.

I am not saying that She-Ra doesn’t have much more nuance than that. We see how Catra struggles with her choices, the confusion and abuse that pushes her again and again further into the dark. The same goes to the other shows and movies. What I am saying is that this specific plot device on it’s own about an ignorant protagonist being lied to for no in-story logical reason besides enabling them to easily change sides has a very toxic and dangerous side that we need to pay attention to.

50 notes · View notes