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[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

linh is plus sized actually. yeah shannon told me herself. yeah *leans nonchalantly against locker emitting muffled shouts of indignation that sound strangely similar to shannon’s voice*

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

kotlc neurodivergent headcanons

(my opinions as an adhd autistic kid, please be nice)

keefe has adhd. i think we all knew that.

we already know sophie definitely has anxiety

she also has trichotillomania (hair/lash/brow pulling disorder) and struggles with PTSD do not argue with me on this

marella’s mom is epileptic and marella has extreme empathy from it

edaline has ocd and anxiety

dex is also adhd and dyslexic and probably has ptsd.

he was kidnapped in a world where he had never heard of such a thing and had no way to emotionally handle it

sophie grew up in a world where kidnapping was much more common. her parents were also anxious and probably tried to prepare her on what to do.

they both were traumatized by it and definitely have ptsd

elwin is autistic and struggled with sensory issues with certain fabrics, especially the ones used in “noble” clothes, but the softer fabrics usually made for kids clothes is much better so he commissions tunics from kids fabrics. the patterns are a bonus.

biana struggles with depression from the scorn of being a third child and the expectations of her family and living in her brothers shadow

fitzy is bipolar but takes medicine to try to even it out

jensi is still figuring it out bc he exhibits signs of adhd and autism but he’s not sure

stina also probably has depression

tam has schizophrenia from the shadows and it adds to his distrust

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

wylie is so funny.. imagine your life kind of sucks (dead mom, exiled dad, kidnapped, etc.) and then the government forces you to be coworkers with a bunch of teenagers and led by the one that your dad went to mega jail for. i think that would be my last straw.

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

i would fucking slaughter for a fitz pov

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

predictions (and hopes) for unraveled lmao.. put that boy in a hole

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

okay so guess i’m going to make my first dive into the kotlc fandom a cannonball bc i am just. so. fed up. with the racism of canon kotlc

first case in point: the blue eyes

- there is no purpose to this?? the plot would be exactly the same without it

- it’s just so…glorifying eurocentric features like okay blue eyes are so exoticized and romanticized in media already even when the majority of the population has brown eyes

- the fact that all the poc have?? blue eyes?? tam and linh are described as having the lightest eyes when they are. poc. and would normally have brown eyes. idk seems like whitewashing to me

- the fact that only sophie (a white girl) is the only one with brown eyes. when the actual poc who’d naturally have brown eyes don’t. and the fact that her brown eyes are so romanticized

second case in point. the canon poc being sidelined

- wylie and maruca are black and they are some of the most sidelined characters AND wylie’s grief for his father and his whole arc disappeared about halfway through the series

- tam and linh song are asian and are also constantly sidelined in favor of the romance subplot

- tam and linh have trauma similar to keefe’s but theirs’ is not explored as much (this is not to negate keefe’s trauma. but. tam and linh deserve the same respect)

third case in point. the stereotypes

- tam and linh have overbearing, strict, and abusive parents which is a common asian stereotype

going to tag a few mutuals now: @artemiassamos @terranovas @hellshores 

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

So do people have problems with the Songs? I’ve seen posts about stereotypes and stuff but that was on the wiki. Idk I’m not Asian I want to hear some perspective.

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

Let’s talk about how the Song family is written. Especially Linh.

I know it’s long but please try to read all of it

Shannon does not give the Song twins, or the whole entire family for that matter, a specific nationality. They’re described to look like Kpop models and anime (that comes from Japan), yet have Vietnamese names and a Chinese surname. On top of that, Quan (the father) is a Chinese name and Mai (the mother) is given a Vietnamese/Japanese/Chinese name (the origins are dubious, but Mai is also a romanticized spelling of a Chinese surname, transcribed in Mandurin dialect).

At this, some people are bending over backwards to remind the fact that “thEy’Re ELveS thEy DoNT hAVe a CouNtRy”. It still doesn’t excuse it much.

Throughout history and a few personal anecdotes, so many people do not understand the concept that different countries in Asia exist. Innumerable times I have been asked if I was Chinese or Japanese, and been told that all asian languages “are basically the same”, yet I am one of the lucky ones. As a Korean, a country who’s culture has popularly been introduced in the western part of the world, I do not experience as much erasure as others such as southeastern Asians. Southeastern Asians very rarely show up on media thanks to whitewashing and are even barely considered “real” Asians. But overall, the concept that the whole entire continent of Asia is the same has been perpetuated throughout the west’s culture of ignorance and racism. (And I can assure you, every single asian person who lives in America has experienced at least one of these incidents of racism and ignorance. Ask any asian. I’m serious.)

…

The Songs’ last name was originally Tong, but it was changed due to the family’s profession; songwriting. It actually encourages the stereotype that Asians are supposed to be good at music. I cannot tell you how many times the kids at my school told me that it “doesn’t count if I’m good at music because Asians are supposed to be good at it anyway”.

And I am forever grateful that Shannon didn’t write in the typical “tiger mom” for Mai. The “tiger mom” stereotype is the concept of angry, harsh, and strict mothers in asian households, similar to the false notion of abusive black fathers with belts. But it’s still a huge stereotype that asian parents are conservative, strict, and sometimes abusive. Quan and Mai are a direct personification of that concept.

…

Now, let’s explore Linh’s character. Linh is a quiet, kind, humble, and sweet person, often dubbed a “cinnamon roll” by the fandom. She is written not to be comfortable with violence, gore, blood, and war. She also takes on a very whimsical vibe, controlling water, usually having a calm demeanor, and having very light eyes compared to the fact that almost every single asian has dark colored eyes.

It’s pretty racist.

The western culture has a huge problem with fetishizing Asians, especially Asian women. Asians are so, so sexualized to the point where East Asian girls are specifically targeted by sex trafficking systems. Asian girls are stereotyped as bubbly, cute, innocent, sweet, and submissive. Linh is written as your stereotypical innocent, docile kawai uwu soft girl. She is every stereotype of an asian girl (while keeping it child appropriate) shoved into one arbitrary box of “representation”.

…

Now, let’s talk about her appearance. Tam’s, too.

Despite the fact that almost every asian has dark colored eyes, typically brown eyes, Shannon makes sure that she creates the only asian characters with the lightest eye color. Tam and Linh are the only ones with a mutation in their hair (other than Marella with her braids and Livvy with her jewels, but Marella and Livvy are not main characters). Overall, Tam and Linh generally look much different than the rest of the group. It’s just another stereotype that Asians are considered to be exotic. When the twins are introduced, they appear to be malnourished from the poor food given in Exilium. They’re skinny. It’s yet another addition of Asia’s fat shaming culture leaking into the western areas of the world as an expectation of thinness.

…

The whole entire Song family, especially the twins, and especially Linh, was just a poor attempt to engage in some “diversity” and ended up compiling every single stereotype of Asians and shoving them into Barbie doll package with labels slapped on their foreheads. The Song family is just “general East Asian”. The parents are strict and conservative. Tam and Linh are skinny and exotic. Linh is humble, cute, soft, whimsical, quiet, and not prominently present in many of the books. It’s all. Just. Stereotype. After. Stereotype. And I am sick of it.

I cannot tell you how I happy I was when Neverseen came out with the introduction of Linh because finally, finally there was someone like me. It was at the time when I was still struggling with my internalized racism. I tried my best to project myself into Linh. I said she was my favorite character. I only drew her when drawing fanart. But at the end of the day, I was not like Linh, because I did not fall under the category of the picture perfect “China doll”.

I am not your China doll, and Linh shouldn’t have been, either.

✨*Non-asian keeper fans should reblog*✨

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

*coughs* mayhaps a post on all the stuff wrong w linh? like the tam one you did?

ahem perhaps so anon!! (w/ reference to the tam post). I wrote this in the span of hours spent in school, at some point at midnight, and worked on another big chunk just this morning, so if it is incomprehensible I’m sincerely sorry dndksm.

on Linh Song and the China Doll/Fragile Asian Girl Stereotype

ok so I’ve repressed a lot of thoughts I have about Linh in the sense of always saying like “I’m not mad about it! I can totally relate to her and this family <3” so I get the sense that this is about to be a very long and very disorganized post. There are just so many things that don’t make sense in her characterization, her appearance, her goddamn name. Like… if I think about this too hard and too intensely I will simply have to go stare at a wall for an hour and question why I even like her or this book series in the first place, which is why there is research! What are thoughts when u have facts from articles and a long history of white men fetishizing Asian women <3 continue on for over 2k words of talking about some specific things I’ve observed about Linh’s character + a rant about the one Chinese name.

(General disclaimer that though I am speaking from both research and my own personal experience as a Chinese-Cambodian person, my experiences are not universal and other people probably will have different opinions than mine + i’m not greaaat at research lmao. for now I’m just putting down what I know and have found for reference.)

CW under the cut for some mentions of rape and prostitution in relation to Asian girls in the first couple of paragraphs, and a mention of Linh and Tam’s malnourishment in exile.

honestly . I don’t even know where to start like if I talk about Linh i feel like i have to do an entire dissertation on the fact that Asian girls?? Asian girls??? the way that America and other western countries have treated us for years and years lmao??? in movies we’ve been portrayed generally so dumb and sexy, so smart and mean (in like a distant, emotionless way), or just super meek with no substance whatsoever, and in books… well I don’t… read a lot of books w/ East Asian/SEAsian girls in them so I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell u. but bc of social media (i.e.: the new and unimproved Vine, all of the apps that completely crashed like last week or something), we’re simply being treated like we’re adorable and babie everywhere on account of we were born with our faces because our parents have those faces and they—anyway. it’s just a whole thing. it’s a whole thing. i have a lot more experience with it and a lot more of a tendency to get mind-blowingly frustrated about it, how we’re treated/portrayed in social media spaces and with white people in general, who like to complicate your looks and expect a lot of shit from you, so like… yeah, let’s just get into it, it’s 11pm, I’m tired. key words! Exoticization (perpetuating the idea that something/someone is exotic, as in strange, otherworldly, special), Infantilization (the perpetuation of the idea that someone/something is a child/weak/incapable), and for-the-love-of-God-someone-get-white-authors-to-research-naming-customs.

(after having finished this post I’m going to put this at the beginning to sum it up: as a character of color she’s exoticized and infantilized, and probably a perfect example of the kid-friendly China Doll who’s submissive and kind without any interests other than boys/pets/idk whatever’s going on in the plot. also someone else who’s literally already hit on almost every point i made in this point is holes and i’m serious u should go read her post about the Songs.  like honestly i didn’t even need to make this post lmao i went back to go read it and was like okay so i wrote 2k words trying to explain this for wh-)

Exoticization: Fitz and Dex definitely got some tiny crushes on her when they first met her, which I have no opinion on because we’re moving on already!! wow what was that I just said I don’t know!! she’s described by Sophie as “especially striking” (there is a source for this I think it was Lodestar pg. seventy-something), and Tam’s also mooned over as being a lot more pretty than the average elf. She’s also one of the most powerful elves in the entirety of the lost cities and I’m not saying this is bad, but also… I am lmao. So here Shannon is putting Linh in a place and a characterization in which she is Very Desirable by Boys (and Also Sophie Probably). And, well, it’s probably well deserved and I’m definitely not biased bc I love her a lot on merit of her struggle w/ control and her fear of her powers (don’t let them inn don’t let them seee be the good girl you always have to beee), though it was about as well-handled as Biana’s arc with her scars, as in, the side character of it all. She’s super pretty isn’t she!!! So pretty!!! more pretty than the average elf though, and more powerful than most elves in all of the Lost Cities (which is likely Quite A Lot), which separates her from the rest of her peers and hmm, that may raise some red flags, and it kind of should considering the history of how much Asian women have been exoticized and fetishized over and over and over. Here’s an article that directly connects the stereotype to white imperialism, and also goes a bit more in depth on the sex industry in Asia and why it’s so big—I only skimmed so can’t be completely sure it’s accurate, but it does hit on some important stuff, i.e. specifically military occupation in Asian countries and the effect of that on how we are viewed now (cw for rape, derogatory terms towards Asian women, talking about white sexual imperialism and prostitution of Asian women—this one’s specifically about the sexual appeal of Asian women to white guys). In short we’ve historically been mass-raped and put into prostitution by quite a few militaries — Think Japan’s comfort women—and that’s still an ideal of us that’s being perpetuated. It also links to the infantilization bit i’ve written.

In general, though, Tam and Linh really kind of are portrayed as different from the group. Absolutely hate their parents for reasons that affect them personally, have the lightest blue eyes, are the most pretty, are the most taboo in terms of abilities (by this i mean forbidden or more edgy/anti-social abilities)… the list probably goes on. Sophie calling them beautiful after describing them as malnourished, by the way.... there’s an issue with that one, too, even if that has nothing to do with culture and stereotypes other than that it’s really common for the K-pop stars that Sophie compared them to to be skinny because they’re malnourished (idk sources but it’s been talked about within this fandom before). So something awful there. Things to do w/ body shape and food intake shouldn’t be glorified and especially not in a kids’ series where the kids will do something because it seems like it’ll make them better in some way.

Infantilization: I found this quote while I was researching for Tam’s post about the infantilization of men in particular but it’s a good point and I don’t think it made the cut so I’m putting it here—

“[John Cho says,] ‘....our whole race is infantilized to some degree, and it manifests itself in different ways. You infantilize a woman, and she becomes eroticized. You infantilize a man, and he becomes emasculated. You infantilize a baby [laughs]—and it’s possible, it appears that you can infantilize a baby even more. [laughs] The babies need to be cuter than white babies. And it’s just a weird thing that I felt like said something about mainstream America’s relationship to Asians in general.’ This infantilization results in Asians having less social autonomy. They are often perceived as polite and quiet, and less threatening than people of other races. Because Asians are seen like children, the perception is that they have little power, access, and control.” 

(from wikipedia’s stereotypes of east asians page)

also this one from this essay: 

“Anna May Wong, a pioneering East Asian actress, whose film legacy was memorialized by “a thousand deaths”, and ‘for whom the twin legacies of “dragon lady” and “butterfly” were lived down within her own lifetime and influenced numerous American screen Chinese portrayals in later days’ (Wang 2013, 76). Wong’s career as a Chinese Butterfly in film is characterized by her portrayal of “slave girls, prostitutes, temptresses, and doomed lovers” (Wang 2013, 78), repeated images of subordinance that built the foundation for the way Western culture would come to view and understand East Asian women as dependent and innately servile. Wong stated “after my death, my tombstone should engrave the words 'she died a thousand deaths'” (Wang 2013, 78), referencing her life on screen as representing the stereotypical Asian woman who is repeatedly killed off due to failed interracial romances.... In essence, screen Asians prioritize the lives of White characters and disappear when they are unneeded.”

Now how does this relate to Linh? Well, you can probably already tell, if you pay attention to discourse or if you’re thinking about the quote in relation to Linh in canon, but we’re going to break this one down too so not to worry. Linh is described by Shannon herself as the “soft-spoken, easily blushing counterpart to her brother’s surly moods” (though Tam’s treatment in fandom definitely is similar to the above quote; see the linked post at the very beginning), and in both fanon and canon creations we don’t often see Linh without Tam. In the books, she’s got this whole struggle with control over her own abilities because they’re simply too powerful for her, in other words she’s too weak of mind to resist the power that was triggered in her body (in a sense, kind of like Sophie, Bronte and Grady—who have harmful abilities at a smaller scale but also were older when they went to trial for them, bar Bronte who never did lmao). She’s also perceived as polite, gentle, queasy when it comes to blood (though I’m sure they had, uh, four years to become immunized to the sight of it/at least be able to handle it), and super quiet. She’s more sympathetic than Tam towards their abusive parents, too, and even though yes it could be a result of the complementary character syndrome that Shannon probably falls into with her and Tam, wanting to have a bit of conflict between the two, that is a kind of characterization that’s so tricky to do with writing Asian girls when u have no clue what being an Asian girl is like. 

generally speaking in how we’re traditionally raised, it isn’t an outright misrepresentation—a lot of people are super respectful of parents and elders, super quiet and polite, but about every person I’ve known also is strongheaded or likes true crime podcasts or is a mean big sibling or has some other thing that makes them not just a pretty wallflower—like, we’re not just. There shouldn’t be a just. There’s a great majority of girls/fem Asian kids who are just sick of this kind of rep that only tackles one angle of being Asian and who also need someone strong to look up to that just… who isn’t always respectful and perfect in nearly every sense other than their being insecure and being terrified of yourself (though ofc this could be an incredibly compelling story if written on her), and that’s some kind of role model golden standard that Linh hasn’t really passed. She’s very very much a portrayal of the Lotus Blossom or China Doll character, which is a submissive, obedient woman who lives just to serve other people. And… does Linh really do much other than plot and stuff for Sophie? like, she caused some floods of some capital cities, she helps research stuff on the Lodestar (??), she has a merkitty, she hangs out with her friends and accidentally makes Sophie jealous, she still loves her parents and has a bit of a struggle that Sophie helps with (which by the way—without any substance behind their relationship it gives off the sense that it’s a bit of white savior trope being used). these are the only actions I’ve retained from this series about Linh Song up to Flashback. she’s been important to the plot in a lot of ways but she also has nowhere near the same plot relevance as any of the main three, or even like, Biana, which sucks, because she kind of like, could be cool as heck.

(*infomercial side effects voice* the fandom’s treatment of her as cinnamon roll who can cut a bitch is also a result of how she’s characterized and also fandom in general and no one can be blamed for this specific outcome so we are not going to speak of it, also sophie’s opinion of her as a Japanese/Korean/pretty lady continues to persist and I’m not mentioning it anywhere else other than tags because i’m exhausted and Holes already went over it, please call the doctor (the askbox) if symptoms pursue (if you have anything to say/ask))

also I want to rant about her name again so badly, so I will! in the same post about stereotypes because why not, this is more of a commentary on Linh’s character and how she’s written in general so u are being subjected to a mini lesson on exactly how bad Shannon fucked up with this one. a preface on vaguely how I understand Chinese names work: being Chinese-Cambodian, we were given my dad’s last name and our own first name both in Chinese, pretty much the same as Western standards—but also like our dad, we have another first and last name that is our “American” (—in his case Cambodian—) name and our Chinese names are actually legally our middle names. Let me make it clear again: the name in the middle is the whole Chinese name. For example, if Hua Mulan’s American name was something like Elizabeth Janson, it’d be Elizabeth Hua Mulan Janson. Even not bringing up the fact that we don’t have middle names, Chinese names don’t just… go in the middle alone, or at least I’ve never seen that done with ppl connected to their Chinese culture and traditions. now do you know who has one Chinese name in between two names from an entirely different language? can you guess??

so now let’s break it down again for the crowd, Linh’s first name is Vietnamese, her middle name is one Chinese name (Hai, which means ocean I know we get it), and her last name is Vietnamese (Tong) but was changed to a Chinese/Korean name (Song). I think it makes a lot of sense for her to be Vietnamese given the ancestry and her first name, and that possibly she has Chinese family/ancestry despite maybe having had their home in Vietnam (which is how my dad’s name is structured—Khmer bc he was born and raised for a time in Cambodia, but with a Chinese name separate from that), because her parents both have Chinese first names as well as the middle name (so she might be Chinese-Vietnamese or something like that, though i’d have to do more research to make sure that it’s not putting two previously warring/now-tense countries together or something--maybe their family traces back to Hoa people in Vietnam?). However, having her middle name being one Chinese character instead of a first and last name (following the name mechanics of my family having our first and last names and then our Chinese name be legally our middle name) and Shannon having had their many-greats grandmother change the name to “Song” with a one-anglicized-letter difference was… a really shit move. Especially because (as @loverofallthingssmart pointed out) her middle name rhymes with her brother’s (and also the characters in Chinese/Vietnamese are likely completely different it's just linguistically not a good method of changing one's surname). I don’t even want to fight about it I just find this absolutely ridiculous to the point of i am laughing in my room about it at midnight.

in terms of things that could have been done with her in canon i think—as @bookwyrminspiration has gotten stuck in my head—she would be absolutely brilliant for a self-love arc, or an arc where they get to talk about the racism of elves against ogres, or just one talking about the guilt from the floods and the trauma of exile. she probably thinks she deserves it, you know? it’d be a lovely way to talk about self-esteem, childhood trauma, supporting your kid when they’re a kid because they need it, etc. just all of the good stuff. good life lessons.

now fanonically u guys are not harnessing her full power as cuddle buddy, pet watcher, person who will take you in when you break up with the love of your life (romantic or platonic hello i would love that) and make good food and make you establish a new routine without you needing to tell her. you could go angst—it is not possible they could go four years alone in the forest or wherever without lasting trauma, and also she’s had this insecurity in herself abt her ability for over four years. also, the public has had this opinion of her as the girl who’s flooded cities; what happens when that changes and she saves atlantis? again, her relationship with the gnomes on the territory she and tam lived on, or her relationship with herself and with water. does it change when the body of water changes, when it’s like a stream vs. the ocean? what does the water say to her when it calls? what did Sophie’s enhancing feel like in Nightfall? ask questions about stuff that’s happened in-verse, think about the effects of four years of exile, her relationship with her brother, her relationship with new friends and her trust issues etc. there are just so many things that can be explored with her, i think, and that honestly is really really cool of Linh even for a girl who was mainly written off of stereotypes.

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

tam song, gender, and western bias

alt title: you guys are so lucky i had so many essays to write this year

tam post linh post

hey hi hello it’s me again back to make another probably really long post about a lot of shit but specifically bc i have been…………. Seeing Some Bullshit on my dash and looked back at my original post on tam song and was like shit. i didn’t talk about the fucking gender roles while trying to analyze the effeminization of tam song did i. and because i am NICE and also enjoy talking abt things like this for some reason, in efforts to help people understand things maybe, ig i’m here to lay out some more facts and history and implore u to once again examine your own behavior towards tam song. so! let’s talk about GENDER. AGAIN.

(as usual i would like to explain that these are the thoughts of one person, and they are not fact. i am not an authority or an expert on this topic, and even though i may sound like i believe it and am super-knowledgeable, it doesn’t mean u should hang off my every word. this is the internet after all)

(also this is going to be great i hope u enjoy me enjoying not having to write in MLA essay format after months. settle in have a cup of tea etc etc!)

Keep reading

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

Hello! If I may, would you be amenable to expanding on your "most of you are kinda racist" tag? I do have an idea of what you're referring to with characterization for character of color, and there have been several posts about that in the fandom in the past, but I wanted to ask for clarity to know what you, specifically, have noticed. To be aware of what's happening, talk about it, correct mindsets and actions if needed

Of course, you don't have to answer and can just delete this if you'd like. No pressure. Hope you have a good day :)

hi! mostly i was referring to characterizations of the song twins and wylie and maruca. obviously posts about the issues with linh and tam have been made many times before. for the most part i think that problems with the song twins come from canon itself, but i think people in general need to be more conscientious when looking at their characters and the stereotypes that are already in them :)

and for wylie and maruca, i can't really speak on stereotypes and biases that the fandom has for them as a non-black person, but i just feel like they get put aside by the fandom a lot despite being major characters (wylie in particular)

i really feel like wylie should be an incredibly popular character in this fandom. i mean, he's just got so much... angst about him. you guys love angst. i feel like people take what makes his character so interesting and the hurt and loss that comes with him and just slap it onto another non-black character.

obviously not everyone has to be in love with wylie. but i think the reason such a hurt-and-comfort fic generating machine is ignored so much is because as a black male, he's automatically viewed as more masculine than other characters. therefore he can't be the fandom's "boohoo sad wet sopping cat" character like fitz or keefe, even though HE IS LITERALLY THE DEFINITION OF SOPPING WET SAD GOT KIDNAPPED AND TORTURED DEAD MOM FUCKED DAD WHAT ELSE DO YOU GUYS WANT FROM HIM!!!!!!!!

anyways i wish this was more eloquent but i just wrote this really quick!! these are really specific examples but i don't know how to put the general overall racism that i see into words... i'll work on that!! i also don't know how to explain the issues with fanon maruca that i see so

tldr: the song twin's characters have pretty obvious bias and stereotypes that the fandom needs to be more aware of, wylie isn't popular despite his sad cat-ness because black men are seen as more masculine, maruca's characterization makes me uncomfortable in general but idk how to explain it

please tell me if anything i said was wrong or hurtful! i am not black so you should always listen to black people before me. also i am probably biased as a die-hard wylie fan so take anything i say with a grain of salt :) would love to hear other people's opinions on this!

*also, put this in the tags but i feel like its important to say here too: sad sopping wet meow meow wylie is NOT a good interpretation/characterization its pretty shallow but he still should be getting the same treatment as other characters

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

Holy HECK we read your response to the asker about the POC vacker discourse and like... just WOW.

POC Vackers are lovely, coming from this white person! I wish all "I'm turning this canonically white character nonwhite" a very wonderful day.

Wow is an excellent way to put it, hard to articulate the jumble of frustration and bafflement and disappointment that hits you all at once!

But yes, the better thing to focus on out of all this is how lovely poc Vacker headcanons are! And other characters as well; the Vackers may be the most popular, but everyone diversifying the rest of the cast are amazing too! It's always so nice to see people expressing themselves, their culture, their experiences through the characters. Or discovering it through them, for those of us who have a significant disconnect and are trying to rediscover our heritage.

It's nice to be among so many supportive and creative people; this fandom isn't perfect, as nothing is, but its openness to such a variety of headcanons is a wonderful thing about it. Including different racial, ethnic, religious, queer identity, various disorders, etc. headcanons! This fandom is incredibly creative with the characters, and it's lovely to see.

Shout out to everyone contributing and enjoying that kind of expression!

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

On Tam Song in fandom and the submissive/effeminate Asian stereotype

(+ also why aren’t we talking about Tam more he’s a solid character lmao)

Okay, so, I have thoughts. And the thoughts belong to me! They’re for the most part my personal opinion and based off of the part of my experiences that come from my being East Asian (ish), and I’m definitely open to discussion on it. These thoughts are messy opinionated stuff, not the law, and they’re also not a response to anything specific; was just thinking about some things I’ve observed and wanted to say some things. We’re not talking about Linh right now even though ofc there are some huge problems with how Shannon’s written her—the fact that she’s the Nice Girl, squeamish with blood after two years in exile and having flooded two extremely large cities, and portrayed as weak even with her incredible ability—Evren (Holes) covered this in her post about the Song family before leaving tumblr. but we’re focusing on Tam right now, and also more specifically how I’ve seen some people treating Tam in fandom when they take away the edgy archetype to try and explore his character more, because I don’t think anyone really has.

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[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

on my hands and knees begging keepblr to put more thought into tam's clothing than just. things you would see a kpop idol wear. like every moodboard i see of him has the shirts with the first button undone and the multiple silver rings on each hand and i just. c'mon.

i would get it if i saw it applied more to other characters who canonically wear a lot of rings (sophie/fitz with the cognate rings + panic switches), probably accessorize a lot based on their character (biana), or might like something to fidget with (dex). but to see it with just tam, who is one of the few characters who hasn't been mentioned to wear rings in canon, makes it feel like those ideas came from...somewhere else.

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

i’ve noticed an influx of new fans, so i thought i’d put together a list of resources on fandom racism and racism within the writing of kotlc, as well as accounts who talk about it regularly :)

from @cogaytes:

fandom woobification of tam song

the song twins & keepblr characterization

tam song’s outfits and stereotypes

from @soryasongsaa:

on tam song in fandom and the submissive/effeminate asian stereotype

on linh song and the china doll/fragile asian girl stereotype

tam song, gender, and western bias

the weird stereotypes of the song twins (this is technically a joint post with @cogaytes but i wanted to get both of their reblogs on this matter)

an analysis on the official art of the song family

other users:

fandom treatment of characters of color (from @toxtt)

why do people headcanon white characters as poc? (from @bookwyrminspiration) (note: while this does reference old discourse from 2023, it’s also the best explanation i could find.)

@shangri-la-rights has compiled a lot of excellent posts on racism within the writing of the series itself, although xe hasn’t been active in quite some time.

these resources are meant to educate new users, so if i missed any posts or accounts, feel free to add on in the notes :)

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

HELLO? WAS NO ONE GOING TO TELL ME—

[honey-the-dinosaur-ate-our-kid]

is this anything