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deliciousmeta · 4 years

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When it comes to children’s entertainment, fuck realism.

That’s right. Fuck. Realism.

Don’t get me wrong. I think kids can handle heavier topics than they’re often given credit for, especially if they’re presented in the right way. But there’s a difference between depicting or addressing things like war, abuse, and so on and indulging in cynical, nihilistic, grimdark bullshit because that’s what we’ve been taught “mature” means.

I want to focus on Avatar: The Last Airbender and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power because they’re on everybody’s mind right now, and it’s really noticeable in how often I see certain sentiments crop up.

SPOILER ALERT! You’ve been warned.

Let me start with ATLA.

I make no bones about being an Azula fangirl. She’s my fave, and I don’t apologize for it. She’s complex and compelling in a way few characters in mainstream Western animation are. Like many Azula fans, I’m ambivalent about how she ended up. It was well-executed, and it packs a helluva punch, but it plays into some iffy tropes about powerful female characters. But even with that, fine. It would’ve been nice for the show to have shown that there was still hope for her.

But what do most people think about her? That there’s nothing anyone can do or could have done to help her.

Think about what it means when people say this: that a 14-year-old girl is beyond hope.

Can you imagine a message so bleak in a show where: Iroh tells Zuko in no uncertain terms that he must not give in to despair, one episode (”The Avatar and the Fire Lord”) makes it explicit that the people of the Fire Nation are not born bad and that everyone deserves a chance, and the entire point of Zuko’s character arc is changing for the better?

“But Azula’s mean and scary!”

And Zuko was a bucket of sunshine and rainbows while he was roughing up old people on the South Pole and burning down Kyoshi Island.

Treating a child barely into her teens as if she’s an irredeemable monster is a betrayal of the themes and message of the show. That kind of cynicism belongs on Game of Thrones, not ATLA.

Then there’s that thing in the comics about Sozin outlawing same-sex relationships.

*sighs*

Y’all, I’m a Black Jewish lesbian. Every single day, I’m reminded that many places and many people have a problem with my Blackness, my queerness, my womanhood, or my Jewishness.

I don’t need to be slapped in the face with homophobia in a story about a handful of 12- to 16-year-old kids who change the world with their friendship and awesome elemental powers.

“But it’s realistic!”

I don’t give a shit. After George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and white folks calling the cops on Black folks left and right for no damn reason, I don’t give a shit. And with the fact that this is far from the last time it’ll happen, I don’t give a shit. The world already does a fine job of showing kids how ugly it can be. They don’t need adults to remind them.

Which brings me to SPOP.

Some people think that redemption and forgiveness came too easy to Catra, that she apparently didn’t suffer enough consequences for her actions to “deserve” the happy ending she got.

Let me get this straight. A teenager who’s been physically and psychologically abused her whole life hasn’t suffered enough to deserve love and friendship, that she’s too toxic to be trusted around the people who know her. A teenager should be condemned for life to be cut off from everyone she knows because she was nasty to some of the nice characters.

On a show that’s blatantly about the power of love and friendship to save the world.

Really? Really?

Wanna talk about someone who can’t be trusted around others unsupervised? Shadow Weaver is right there.

But Catra? C’mon.

As with ATLA, an ending for Catra that has her cut off from everything and everyone she knows would be a fundamental betrayal of the themes and message of the show.

Besides, what purpose would ostracizing her serve? Catra already believed she was on her own because anyone she trusted would betray or abandon her. Learning to trust others and lean on them when she needs them is a step in the right direction for her.

Look at this from the point of view of a kid who sees a lot of themselves in Catra. Would you feel empowered by that message? Would it inspire you to seek the help you need? Would it convince you to trust people with the truth of who you are and not just the facade you project to the world?

I’m going to go on a limb and guess probably not.

There’s something I think a lot of grown people participating in children’s media forget. Every character who’s not an adult or a pet is probably one a child identifies with. I don’t think it’s usually deliberate on the part of creators, but it is there, and I think grownups should keep it in mind when discussing these characters and the stories they’re in.

#atla meta #spop meta #she ra meta #azula #catra #azula meta #fuck realism

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brainsforbabyjesus · 7 years

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Agh sorry I'm so terribly curious, you don't have to answer all of these if it's too much, but 1, 2, 6, 26, 27?

1. if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?

A non-exhaustive list of books/movies/tv from my formative years that have in some capacity sculpted my existence (it turns out music has made little impact on me):

The Secret of NIMH

Watership Down

The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be

The Black Stallion

The Littlest Hobo

Pippi Long Stocking

The Raccoons

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

The Land Before Time

The Chrysalids

The Hockey Sweater

Robin Hood (but the animated one with foxes)

I’m sure there are others but those were the first off the top of my head.

(Although, now that I think about it that damn hockey sweater story is probably more relevant than what I’d like it to be. I have zero interest in hockey but dear god the ridiculous shit that goes on between leafs and habs fans is probably the best analogy for english-french relations in Canada. And with my mom’s family being the stereotypical Canadian mix of english speakers while my dad’s family was French Canadian (well, those that we know of) the conflict about wearing the wrong hockey sweater is real and aggravating and god, I really can’t stand organized professional hockey but I’m doomed because the Canadian Borg updates with hockey results every month)

2. have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who?

No.

6. are you religious/spiritual?

Not really? I mean, I generally agree with sun and water worshipers because I think from a science point of view they’re the most correct. You will literally die without those things so it seems the most relevant. I can get behind ancestor worship because I think if you’re going to try to appeal to some sort of invisible entity your great ghost grandma is more likely to answer and come up with a favourable solution for you. Everything else I just find kind of…weird. Like, why would an omnipotent entity care about you in particular? Or be offended/pleased by literally anything you did?

On the other hand a witch saved my uncle’s life while he was in a pow camp so…*shrugs* I don’t know.

26. how would you describe your gender/sexuality?

A hot mess.

I am probably very likely bisexual. As far as romantic inclinations go I don’t know as it’s lately been coming to my attention that I am not emotionally connecting to people/things/events like other people. So, while I’ve lately concluded that I’m not experiencing romantic attraction the way other people describe it I’m mildly wary of saying aromantic because apparently I also don’t experience a lot of emotions the way other people do. It becomes a question of am I not feeling romantic attraction at all or is it just another emotion that is slightly off kilter for me? It kind of reminds me of that tumblr story/rant about the person who wants more love stories about monsters.

Gender things, I don’t know. On one hand a lot of my adult experiences in the great wide world have been shaped by people perceiving me as a woman (read: dealing with raging misogyny in male dominated fields/areas) and dealing with women’s issues and I’ve learned with varying degrees of success how to navigate that. And my family definitely attempted to socialize me as a female according to their own specifications (which I’ve found are not at all the same as the world at large and occasionally conflict with it). On the other hand several of my friends have laughed at the idea of me being a woman, though they also seem to think I would make an equally hilarious example of a man. And on the other other hand my exes (male or female) have described me as “the most masculine one in the relationship” and more than a few times strangers have assumed me to be a man depending on what I’m wearing and how I cut my hair. Plus, making my own little spawn has not made me suddenly feel ~ magically feminine ~ or connected to womanhood or whatever, mostly my knees hurt. And I’m skeptical of being called mom (although in all honesty that might be emotional hang ups).

The entire mess is only further complicated by the fact that I don’t actually give a fuck about it on a personal level (I find it more amusing than anything) and that I have zero feelings about what other people call me. I mean, really the most emotional investment I have in all this is that I made a chart. Generally my most pressing concern with gender is that strangers usually perceive me to be a woman and that comes with a set of social complications that I find highly exhausting.

So, how would I describe my sexuality: bisexual/¯\_(ツ)_/¯

How would I describe my gender: I made a chart, please stop making me have human interactions.

27. do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the real you?

Weirdly, I was talking about this with my partner the other day. My mental image of myself is about two inches taller and with darker hair and darker eyes. So when I dye my hair and eventually let it grow out I’m always surprised that it’s an auburn sort of colour. I think the hair and eye colour thing is probably because when I was little I had black hair, dark eyes, and more olive/tan coloured skin but as I’ve gotten older my eyes have gone mostly blue/grey, my hair turned auburn, and my skin tone has gotten pasty white. Genetics is weird, but I guess that’s what you get when your mom has the stereotypical pasty white red haired irish colouring with a side order of vitiligo and your dad is that ambiguous random bag check at the airport brown.

….I think I misread that question but it’s late and I’m tired so I’m leaving it.

#alessariel #ask games

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