#asian-english dub superiority

[fuku-danukiiii]

the Kamen Rider Agito dub is real and a really high quality asian-english dub to boot.

endearing tofu scene for reference

[birdiewolf]

Random opinions that I just felt like talking about:

- Calling out people’s sexist and racist biases is good; assuming that the reason they dislike a certain character or the character’s actions/overall writing because they’re sexist or racist is NOT good. Give people the benefit of the doubt and see what they actually mean cuz sometimes English isn’t a person’s first language so what they mean to say comes out as something completely hostile or offensive.

- Preferring the jp/CN dub does not make you superior. Having a voice over preference is fine; acting like you’re all high and mighty for having one isn’t

- Forcing your headcanons on someone isn’t good. I don’t think I need to add anything more regarding this

- Constantly bickering over which archon is the ‘strongest’ is lame. Mihoyo has yet to set a power scale and they have not revealed enough lore regarding the archon’s abilities or where their personal power comes from not have they shared enough details about the archon’s battles, so fighting about it is dumb.

- ‘Blackwashing’ isn’t real. No, it isn’t the same as Whitewashing. No, it’s not taking away representation from ‘Asians.’ It’s how people online have hijacked conversations about racism in media and art by taking a term such as ‘Whitewashing’ which is tied to analyzing the portrayal and depictions of poc alongside a socio-political context. ‘Blackwashing’ is how media illiterate people attempt to shut down fans of colour from making their own fanon content by adding representation since the canon lacks any necessary skin based diversity. (Side eyeing all those East Asians and Europeans who make tiktok accounts dedicated to erasing fanon edits of playable characters as black or with dark skin. Y’all fucking suck)

- Being an asshole about someone speaking a different language in co-op mode is a horrible thing to do (looking at all those tiktok posts bashing Russian players in co-op mode for speaking their language); it’s one thing to call someone out for being rude and mean and thinking they can get away by speaking in a different language but it’s a completely separate thing to just bash and complain about players going about their time in co-op mode speaking a language you can’t understand

- The EN dub VAs being problematic doesn’t erase the fact that the CN and JP dub VAs have also done and said similar things. So please stop saying idiotic sentences such as ‘thank god I use the jp/cn dub’ whenever an EN VA is exposed for acting deviant. I guarantee you that the same JP/CN VAs for those characters probably have done shitty things as well but you don’t know about it because you most likely do not speak their language nor are you likely to be involved in the JP/CN fandoms in the first place

- You can care about meta, and it is necessary to care about meta so that mihoyo gets relevant criticisms on the overall gameplay and structure. With that being said, bashing other player’s damage is extremely shitty. Not everyone has the same priorities while playing. Some only play for the aesthetic, some play for the lore, some play to hang out with their friends, etc etc. So if you see a random person online showing you a clip of their gameplay and your first thought is to type out some passive aggressive comments about their low mediocre damage then I suggest you learn to scroll whenever these kinds of thoughts arise. Most of the damage revolves around artifacts, which have a horrible system in genshin. So if you’re bothered by players not following the meta, then go off on mihoyo’s ass instead for not implementing a fair system that guarantees players proper artifacts.

- Not being a shipper doesn’t make you better than others. ‘Shipping ruins everything’, no it does not. Fans can ruin anything as seen with how meta obsessed players have contributed to creating a toxic online environment where people hesitate from showing their gameplay out of fear of being attacked for their builds and team comps. Toxicity is not limited to a single part of the fandom. Yes shippers can be toxic, but if you don’t like any of them or their content, then it becomes an individual responsibility to block the respective tags, shippers, and their overall content. Complaining about generally shipping makes you seem as a loveless, unimaginative person whose misery lies in being unable to control the stuff they interact with online

- The previous one also applies to shippers. If you are not a fan of a ship, then it is your responsibility to scroll past those posts, to block the shippers for that ship, and to carefully avoid engaging in that ship’s content to avoid getting its stuff on your recommended or fyp. Don’t go commenting utter nonsense on posts dedicated to the ship that you dislike. Fans work hard on making fanart, animatics, edits, etc., so let them have their moments to appreciate their fav ships without dealing with unnecessary negativity.

- Stop associating the VAs with their characters. (Not necessarily about Elliot’s situation but an overall pattern I’ve noticed in the fandom). Disliking Childe because Griffin plays him means you are an immature person who cannot understand that voice acting is just acting, and that no matter how much the VAs interact with the fanbase for the characters they voice, they will never be the actual characters themselves. So complaining about the characters because of the VAs who voice them is dumb. Same with the people who dislike Paimon because of Corina. You can like/dislike any character you want but if your reason exists because of issues with the VA then you need to gain some common sense and learn that these fictional characters are not represented by their VAs

- Going back to the topic of meta, if you see players complaining and criticizing a character’s kit, mihoyo’s tendency to release characters without their adequate supports, or if you see criticisms on character designs (I mean appearances), or criticisms about writing. If you see any of this, and your first response is to go completely defensive because the complaints and criticisms are about a character that you personally like, then you need to learn to do one of two things. 1) if you see any of such content as negative and you feel that it will affect your feelings towards the character, then scroll 2) grow up and accept nuance. You can admit that sometimes there are aspects of a character that are great and some aspects that are bad. If you complain about people pointing the flaws with a character’s kit/writing/lore/design, then I’m going to assume you are a child whose screen time should be restricted and monitored. If you see these things and immediately go defensive, then you need to log off because these sorts of attitudes heavily influence in preventing companies from ever improving on their performance. They know they can release a character with flaws in any aspect and it won’t matter cuz people will defend the character due to personal dedication. Don’t fucking do this. I don’t care how in love you are with a character, if you get upset or defend a character for their shitty writing, overused recycled design elements, etc etc., then remember that your defensive reaction over valid criticisms and concerns is only gonna harm the game in the long run because that one opinion is gonna join the collection of similar takes from other fans and it’ll be so grand that mihoyo will see it as a pass for being able to get away with being lazy and negligent (this has already started happening, but I fear it’s only going to get worse)

[shihalyfie]

I make a lot of posts about the pedestaling of the American English dub in the fanbase and the fact it tends to be shoved down the throats of people who aren’t asking for that (I absolutely do not ask people to disown it or anything, just to be more conscientious about others around them who have good reason to have concerns), but I think one of the biggest ones I really want to address is that some of the “jokes” it makes are actually pretty disturbing from a cultural sensitivity perspective, and for those particular jokes it’s really uncomfortable to hear people praising those for how much more hilarious they are when it’s actually that kind of thing.

I'm not talking about the fact that said dub covers up several aspects related to Japanese or Asian culture (that's of course an inevitable part of localization), but the fact that said dub often takes those aspects and makes a mockery of them to levels that go beyond the call-a-rice-ball-a-jelly-donut level. For example:

Two scenes from 02 episodes 22 and 25 where curry and peas on rice respectively are made into "gross cafeteria mystery food" jokes. The above are easily recognizable to anyone familiar with those, and it’s not exactly a comfortable feeling to see those labeled as something you should be treating like gross sludge.

There’s also one point where they make an MSG joke, when the stigma against MSG is a racist myth perpetuated to make Chinese and other Asian food seem filthy -- an especially unnerving comment to see out of a localization of an anime from Japan, where commercialized MSG originates.

The reason I’m making this post is that there was a tweet where a Japanese fan found cups that resembled the ones used for the oolong tea in Our War Game! and got Westerners QRTing them memeing about “beef jerky shakes” because of Digimon the Movie, which is really not a good look in front of the OP who noticed and made some tweets about foreign insensitivity about Asian tea after that (mistaking barley tea for whiskey, etc.), and also pointed out that the real-life Suntory oolong tea bottle was in their picture and yet people still had to make jokes about it being beef jerky shakes. You really do have to consider that it’s kind of uncomfortable to see this kind of thing treated like it’s equivalent to “some weird impossible bizarro drink” because oolong tea is either too foreign or not funny enough, and so while I’m not trying to completely tear down the dub or anything, please at least have more conscientiousness about the fact that this is ultimately only a single localization, and that for people who are at least a little disturbed by this kind of thing, it’s not comfortable to have this thing forced down your throat as “superior because it’s funny”.

Basically, I’m just asking to please be conscientious about this issue, especially since it’s not 1999-2001 anymore.

[jageunyeoujari]

i feel like bong joon ho’s comment on hollywood’s 1 inch subtitle barrier has been unfairly cast as being ableist & also conspiratorial against americans being barred from watching foreign movies somehow which is a real stretch & missing the actual point which is that hollywood & americans in general have a problem w refusing to pay attention to foreign media despite the whole world being inundated w american media bc... it’s actually a xenophobia & also racism problem.

like subs are everywhere in korea whether you’re watching korean media or foreign media but dubs are also normal for watching foreign media. but it’s all a little ... strange... how americans seem to find it so incredibly difficult to read subs when like ppl w like autism/adhd/other neurodisability issues impacting reading abilities also exist in korea. also i find it questionable this argument that bjh is being ableist when subs/dubs discussions for like anime almost never touch on accessibility. i even see more the argument that watching subs is superior bc then you’re getting the most authentic experience (which is actually my stance but anyway). but how is it that ppl don’t seem to have a problem w subs in anime when it’s cartoony people but then ppl complain abt accessibility issues when it comes to bjh directing movies w actual real live korean ppl? like.... i don’t get it & it seems more like a race issue more than any sort of accessibility issue.

plus bjh is coming from a perspective where english is literally everywhere in korea bc of us imperialism + the worldwide imposition of english in navigating geopolitics. you can’t escape english & it’s actually a problem where indigenous vocabulary is getting crowded out & also education/career heavily depends on knowing english well now. so americans being uncomfortable w a couple hours of listening to ppl speaking in an asian language is like... a weird concept.

[wadeschimichanga]

You did NOT just compare using the word Jew to the n word. What the fuck is wrong with you???

Under read more cause it got longer than I wanted and because it has sensitive content to jewish people 

Okay nonny, history time on Wade’s chimichanga powered by, yours truly, a ¼ Sephardi Jewish, ¼ white, half-black latinx that has lived in America and know what is like to be foreigner no english speaker POC in a racist country  :

The word Jew has been used often enough in a disparaging manner by antisemites that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was frequently avoided altogether, and the term Hebrew was substituted instead (e.g. Young Men’s Hebrew Association). Even today some people are wary of its use, and prefer to use “Jewish”. Indeed, when used as an adjective (e.g. “Jew lawyer”) or verb (e.g. “to jew someone”), the term Jew is purely pejorative. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2000):

It is widely recognized that the attributive use of the noun Jew, in phrases such as Jew lawyer or Jew ethics, is both vulgar and highly offensive. In such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a practice that carries risks of its own. In a sentence such as There are now several Jews on the council, which is unobjectionable, the substitution of a circumlocution like Jewish people or persons of Jewish background may in itself cause offense for seeming to imply that Jew has a negative connotation when used as a noun.

In black culture, The term has also been used as boss, irrespective of actual religious background, and in the Caribbean to denote any rich white. And this show once again why it is an anti-Semitic term, because there is black, latinx and asians jewish people out there, it’s not something for “white people to feel victimized” because the anti-semitism comes since ancient rome, and got a lot worse with time. 

In the context of the Industrial Revolution, following the Jewish Emancipation, Jewish people rapidly urbanized and experienced a period of greater social mobility. With the decreasing role of religion in public life tempering religious antisemitism, a combination of growing nationalism, the rise of eugenics, and resentment at the socio-economic success of the Jewish people led to the newer, and more virulent, racist antisemitism. In the early 19th century, a number of laws enabling emancipation of the Jewish people were enacted in Western European countries. The old laws restricting them to ghettos, as well as the many laws that limited their property rights, rights of worship and occupation, were rescinded. Despite this, traditional discrimination and hostility to Jewish people on religious grounds persisted and was supplemented by racial antisemitism, encouraged by the work of racial theorists such as Joseph Arthur de Gobineau and particularly his Essay on the Inequality of the Human Race of 1853–5. Nationalist agendas based on ethnicity, known as ethnonationalism, usually excluded the Jewish people from the national community as an alien race. Allied to this were theories of Social Darwinism, which stressed a putative conflict between higher and lower races of human beings. Such theories, usually posited by northern Europeans, advocated the superiority of white Aryans to Semitic Jewish people.

The Nazism led Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, who came to power on 30 January 1933 shortly afterwards instituted repressive legislation which denied the Jewish people basic civil rights. They used to paint the word “Jude"(German form of “jew”) in the walls of business owned by jewish or in houses of jewish families as form of induce fear in them. Later in Concentration Camps, nazi used to mark them with the word, as a derogatory slur. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws prohibited sexual relations and marriages between “Aryans” and Jewish people as Rassenschande (“race disgrace”) and stripped all German Jewish, even quarter- and half-Jewish, of their citizenship, (their official title became “subjects of the state”). It instituted a pogrom on the night of 9–10 November 1938, dubbed Kristallnacht, in which Jewish persons were killed, their property destroyed and their synagogues torched.  Antisemitic laws, agitation and propaganda were extended to German-occupied Europe in the wake of conquest, often building on local antisemitic traditions. In the east the Third Reich forced Jewish people into ghettos in Warsaw, Kraków, Lvov, Lublin and Radom. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 a campaign of mass murder, conducted by the Einsatzgruppen, culminated from 1942 to 1945 in systematic genocide: the Holocaust. Eleven million Jewish were targeted for extermination by the Nazis, and some six million were eventually killed. In current america, the word jew is the favorite word from white supremacists and neo nazi groups to refere to jewish people.

 The word is part of what is denominated as New antisemitism which is the concept that a new form of antisemitism has developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, emanating simultaneously from the far left, Islamism, and the far right, and that it tends to manifest itself as opposition to Zionism and the State of Israel. The concept generally posits that much of what is purported to be criticism of Israel by various individuals and world bodies, is, in fact, tantamount to demonization, and that, together with an alleged international resurgence of attacks on Jewish people and Jewish symbols, and an increased acceptance of antisemitic beliefs in public discourse, such demonization represents an evolution in the appearance of antisemitic beliefs.

So what I am saying is that you are being extremely anti-semitic by coming into my ask box and posting that. This isn’t a competition of who suffered more, because like i said, there are black Jewish people. Jewish people are a marginalized group, and using the word “j*w” with them by you being a non-jewish is like using the N-Word to a black person, or calling latinx people cucaracha or calling an Japanse person a “jap”. 

[sweet-teeth-mfs]

📺 & 📏 for the questions, babe? if ur still doin that kind of thing. also congrats on 101 beautiful fics - 🦄

Thanks BB! You had some good requests, so thank YOU, and thanks for asking a q or 2. 📺 Fave anime? Whew! You had to ask!? Ok so I’m going to bend the rules and give you 2 answers. 1. My ‘favourite’ anime, the one that means the most to me emotionally? That’s definitely NEON GENESIS EVANGELION (NGE). 

I watched NGE when it originally aired (yes I’m old), so that was in the very early 90s. It was the first anime I’d ever seen (outside of westernised cartoons), and I think one of the first pieces of asian cinema I’d ever consumed. It shaped my interests to an insane degree (I very nearly did my Masters on NGE, it’s that important). 

It spoke to the teenager in me that was obsessed with weird culty things, religious iconography, and just cool, brutal action sequences. I loved how much blood, guts and trauma was involved! The way the series creator Hideaki Anno expressed his own depression and trauma through Evangelion was, well, quite groundbreaking at the time, and I really emphathised with the characters. Needless to say the animation is amazing, and NGE is incredibly important in anime history for this, and for its content. It’s the mech daddy of them all. 

2. Full Metal Alchemist (Brotherhood) 

Now I’ve watched both versions of FMA, but for me, Brotherhood is what I would consider a ‘perfect anime series’. It’s animation is amazing, the characters are great, it’s well acted and the dub is great too, (I watch my animes in both Japanese and English dubs depending on the mood/company). It’s script and the larger story at work within Brotherhood is in my opinion superior to the original version, although there are things I miss (THE ORIGINAL GREED FIGHT FOR ONE). FMA imo is again a real challenge to what people think anime should be, or topics it should cover (and I think a lot of this is expressed via people’s misconceptions of Edward) It’s visceral, comedic, thoughtful, sweet, and incredibly depressing at times (NINA), but by god do I love it. I love the characters (Hawkeye for one, but also Roy, Edward ofc, but also Lust etc), I love the world, the ideas they discuss…. it’s just so well made and it’s ending is by far one of the most satisfying endings to a series ever made, imo. The fact that it also deals so heavily with masculinity but is written by a woman, I mean, home run!  

*Notable mention, my favourite anime film is probably a toss up between the original Ghost in the Shell and the under-appreciated but equally amazing (and far superior in animation terms ofc) Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. I’m obviously a Ghibli fan but categorising Ghibli films or rating them, that would be a whole ask into itself. 

📏 How tall are you? I’m a short arse at 160 cms. I, like my ult Suga, was told at a young age that I would be 5″8 when I finished growing (that odd measurement they do to guess your height at a young age?) so I was always convinced I’d have a late growth spurt. But nope, I’ve been this height and roughly the same build since I was 12. Sad Edie. But, it means I’m shorter than all my biases and that’s good for me. 

[republicstandard]

I am a Pro-Brexit Immigrant. Britain is Not a Racist Country!

Annie G

I never miss a chance to remind people that I am an immigrant living in England.

Specifically I am a Greek-Cypriot immigrant. I don’t know why I feel the need to state this so many times, but it has to do with the fact that British people lately seem to have been let down by the immigrants they so much welcomed and embraced in the past. A nation that welcomes everyone. A state broadcaster that in a desperate effort to embrace diversity bans white people from specific vacancies. Native people so scared of the label racist that they allow illegal and alien cultural practices to go unchallenged and unpunished. A British legal system that is softer on immigrant criminals. An establishment that on a daily basis proves itself to have forgotten the people it should serve, work for and favor. Chaos in already tense working-class communities. Look there, in the forgotten corner; the so-called Nazis, fascists and racists, pleading for their country to be returned.

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Even though I have been in England on and off since the age of seventeen, I never felt, until now, the need to get involved in the internal machinations of the country- let alone her politics. I have been a silent observer for many years thinking:

“Annie, you are a guest, you have no right to interfere”.

All this has changed in the last three years.  The never-ending unmasking of so-called Asian grooming gangs (though we all know these men are not Japanese), frequent terror attacks, and the frankly galling observation of the British establishment attacking its own people using my immigrant status as an excuse to justify restrictions on civil liberties and free speech, I felt it was time for me to speak up.  Speak up about my personal experiences with Islam, for sure, but I must speak up in defense of the British people. People that seem to my eye to have been abandoned by the world, and their own leaders.

Have you lost your mind?

this a question I am often asked by the self-proclaimed saviours of immigrants and refugees. Not only those leftist political activists, but also by random people with a genuine interest as to why I so passionately support British people, Brexit, and patriots like Tommy Robinson, and Anne-Marie Waters. Yes, I must have lost my mind. I voted for Brexit so the British government can deport me once Britain is out of the EU!

Yes I must have lost my mind, and I support Tommy and Anne-Marie, Britain’s worst ‘Nazis’, so they can dub me a Greek hairy monkey that should be deported. Indeed, I have been insulted with these words; but not by the people who the left-wing in Britain has branded Nazis. Quite the opposite. It is offensive, not to mention an insult to my intelligence, that many people think that I support people that hate me based on my race or skin color. It cannot be that I, a foreigner, agree with the ideas of people who are not like myself. I must vote in line with my ethnic group. So much for the vaunted racism of the right wing, when it has only been the left in this country who has ever cared about my ethnicity instead of my opinions.

Yes indeed, I voted for Brexit! The British Government on the 23rd of June 2016 gave me my democratic right to choose between Leave or Remain in the referendum, deciding the fate of the UK in the European Union. I am entitled to my vote no matter what I chose, without the fear that I would be branded a  racist if anyone found out that I voted to leave. I and thousands of other immigrants were allowed to vote in a referendum deciding the future of the British people.  Doesn’t that sound crazy?  I was allowed to vote because my nationality is Cypriot and my country belongs to the Commonwealth of Nations.

In a curious turn, my first cousin -born and raised in Greece, but holds a Cypriot nationality due to her father being Cypriot-  was also allowed to vote. She is not allowed to vote at the Cypriot upcoming presidential elections in January because she hasn’t lived in Cyprus, but somehow she was allowed to vote as a student in the UK in one of the most important referendums about Britain’s future. It feels that no matter what British people do, they cannot win. There is always going to be a loophole in the system to suppress their interests or wishes over the interests of immigrants or minorities. Despite this weighting and relentless fear-mongering in the press, the British people voted to leave. Who could have imagined such an incredible victory?

Before I came to the front lines of debate, showing off my British patriotism, I had to answer the question myself- Where does my loyalty lie? Britain or Greece & Cyprus? If Britain tomorrow goes to war with Greece or Cyprus which country would I support? Questions like this that have troubled me. After deliberation, I came to the conclusion that my loyalty will always be to the country that took me in as a broken and damaged youth and turned me into a self-confident woman. That is Britain. A country that gave me a home, and allowed me to bloom.

Contrary to the whinings of the Remoaners, who foretell my imminent doom, I have never believed that post-Brexit Britain will deport me or the other hard working immigrants that do offer a great deal to this country. How could Britain do such a thing, when it fails to deport jihadists and potential terrorists? If, after careful consideration, I decided to put my adopted country's interest above the lies and fear-mongering of a biased media and political elite and voted for Brexit; why I have no regrets. If liberals think I have lost mind; let it be so. A comment on my old twitter account (before it was suspended, slapped wrists all round for wrongthink) read something like:

“poor girl, probably her English boyfriend told her to vote for Brexit and she did without knowing she will be kicked out soon”

Unable to think for myself because I am foreign, or a woman, or both. People branding me mentally inferior, failing completely to acknowledge that my vote was not forced by anyone. My vote was a mature well-thought decision. What troubles me the most, is that it is people who claim to be my advocates that are trying to take away my agency. The threat to my status as an independent individual, capable of making decisions are not the people I am told to fear daily, by the Mainstream Media and the establishment. Brexiteers have done me no wrong. The culprits always are the people that took it upon themselves -without consulting me first- that they know what’s best for me better than I do. Staying in the EU is what is best for me personally, so that is why I was wrong to vote how I did. Doesn’t that reveal everything about the Remain camp? So selfish, one-dimensional even.

Tommy Robinson, Anne-Marie Waters and the people that follow them or belong in this patriotic movement are people I have been told to fear. To be a patriot in the United Kingdom is to be as close to a Nazi as one can get. One such person according to the media is Tommy Robinson, a man who a decade ago rang the warning bell against the inability of Britain to deal with Islam, and has been branded a fascist ever since. Yet Tommy Robinson has been a person that on more than one occasions took the time of the day to give me counsel and support me on personal issues. I consider him a friend, and as far from a racist as one can be. Anne Marie Waters, accused by her former political allies of Nazi beliefs has come to be one of my closest friends.

The supporters of these two public figures have become something like a big family to me. I received over fifty Christmas invitations in 2017 from people around the nation, so that I wouldn’t spend Christmas alone as I don’t have any family in England. More than fifty so-called racists and bigots were willing to put an extra plate on their family Christmas table, so that the Greek hairy monkey immigrant didn’t spend Christmas alone. This is not the xenophobia we are told exists in the heart of Britons. This is the hospitality and politeness of British legend.

The myth of far-right extremism, Neo-Nazis marching in our cities and lurid headlines are pushed through the British mainstream media to establish fear and hate towards British citizens among the British people. There is also the stench of classism, that the working-class alone are victims of some xenophobic cult, because they are stupid- because they are inferior. So say the media.

It took some courage the first time I attended one of these so called Neo-Nazi rallies, I will admit. However, it only a little bit of an effort to make my own reading and research into what these Neo-Nazis are all about.  Being a Greek means one is well familiar of political parties like Golden Dawn who believe that Mr. Hitler did nothing wrong.  Like any self-respecting person, I don’t want anything to do with groups like this- and I can assure you that Tommy Robinson, Anne-Marie Waters and their organizations couldn’t be further from the fascism of Golden Dawn. The right of a person in a secular society like Britain is to be free to criticise any religion.  For over 150 years, European intellectuals have done so to Christianity even in the face of harsh censure. The shoe drops when the working classes protest against a faith that is not as placid as Christianity. This is impolite, it seems. Never mind the cost to British children. Never mind the arranged marriages and exploitation of women. The working classes must know their place.

This is why Robinson and Waters are hated.

I fail to see what have those people done that is so wrong, that they deserve to be branded as fascists and deserve to be excluded from the rest of the society. I have lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and have experienced life among Wahhabist Islamic communities. I have seen Sharia Law being practiced and thus possess an understanding of Islam I argue is superior to that of most British liberals. Yet, I fail to see why the people that criticise this religion face such a backlash and condemnation in the United Kingdom.

In all honesty, England feels like is not the same country today as it was in 1999 when I first arrived. The Islamic population has risen dramatically and Islam is making more noise than ever through advocacy groups like the Muslim Council of Britain. While migration is not solely an issue concerned with Islam, it is the most pressing topic. I will return to Islam in future articles.

As an immigrant that arrived in England completely alone, I have never ever experienced any kind of racism based on my nationality, skin color, race or my status as an immigrant. I have only experienced fair treatment and acceptance. So please, I am asking you dear reader to take a step back and try and see things from the perspective of concerned citizens.  The Britons have opened up their country, their communities, their welfare state  and often their homes. To what end? Only to see a healthy proportion of us immigrants not being appreciative, taking advantage of their social systems, demanding their society changes and adapts so it fits our wills, disrespecting their laws, their history, their culture, their women and their soldiers. With the support of their own establishment and left-wing activists we criticise and slander them if they dare to raise any kind of concerns, brand them as fascists, ruin their careers, and point the finger.

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It is beyond the pale to my mind that this is not just allowed, but encouraged. To those who take advantage of this great nation, how dare you make me feel guilty and embarrassed by your actions? You shame us all, regardless of color or creed. Where is the outrage of my rest fellow immigrants that respect their adopted country? Where is your appreciation of Britain and its people, that took you in when you were in need? How dare you turn your back now that the country needs you the most? How dare you not condemn the actions of this significant few?

For propagating this idea I have been called crazy. I would be crazy if I supported the self-proclaimed refugee advocates that never miss a chance to roll out the banners bearing ‘refugees welcome’ or painting ‘sex with refugees is jasmine-scented and beautiful’ murals.

The same activists have punched and kicked me for my political beliefs. I would have gone crazy if I supported the people that were screaming at my Black Muslim friend Ishmael that he is a “white supremacist” because he attended an event with me, associated with Tommy Robinson.

My adopted family, my friends Tommy Robinson, Anne-Marie and their supporters are not Nazis. Actually, they couldn’t be further from that. So please, my leftist friends- nobody appointed you my bodyguard or my protector. I can speak for myself, as we are not in an Islamic theocracy.  I am not a hijabi, I do not bear shame for being an outspoken woman- isn’t that feminist of me? Calling me a racist doesn’t work. I am not a Nazi.

The movement towards a free Britain is growing, and we are aware of the long road ahead. The name calling doesn’t work on us anymore. All we ask is for our shared concerns to be heard- as an immigrant myself, I am clearly not anti-migration; and nor is the Brexit movement itself at large. Being concerned with migration does not correlate with xenophobia, save for in the minds of the weak. We are a movement that wants Britain to reclaim a British identity that has been sorely wounded. Brexit and British patriotism itself is a movement of love, not hate. I love Britain as much as it has loved me, a Greek from far away.

Follow Annie G. on Twitter

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[secretmachines-blog]

The Fate Of The Furious: Review and Recap

I attended the screening of the latest installment of the Fast and Furious franchise with the same question in mind as the rest of the attendees over the age of 15: ‘Where can they possibly take this. What is the fate of the furious?’

The answer? Flaccid. Family Fun.

It’s baffling as to how removed from the original movie the franchise has become. Understandably, as popularity increases, the audience broadens. Production value increases and star cast members are added. Plotlines are thin(ner than usual) and consistency is at an all time low.

What once was a movie about an undercover cop infiltrating a street racing gang of criminals has turned into the wacky adventures of the Furious Crew. What will our heroes get up to in this installment? Will they go on another heist to steal DVD players to fund their street racing cars? Will they beat Ja Rule in a street race?

No.

This week our heroes will be preventing World War III by preventing the theft of a nuclear weapon. The Fate of the Furious is inoffensive fodder for the masses. It’s taken a direction wherein the franchise has inexplicably yet unintentionally followed the model of ‘The Expendables’ franchise which is mega action paired deliberately thin plot lines in an homage to the blockbuster action films of the 80’s and 90’s. Instead of Sylvester Stallone as the fearless wise leader of the group we have Vin Diesel. Instead of Terry Crews as the token brawn man who refuses to wear anything but singlets and cut off sleeves we have Dwayne Johnson. Instead of Jason Statham as the generic english gangster proficient in martial arts we have... Jason Statham. However, unlike The Expendables, the fate of the furious plot was not intentionally bad.

Does anyone remember what the earlier movies were even like? They went something like this:

Vince: Why don't you try Fat Burger from now on? You can get yourself a cheese and fries  for 2.95, faggot!

Brian: I like the tuna here.

Vince: Bullshit, asshole, no one likes the tuna here!

Brian: Yeah, well I do.

*Vince and Brian proceed to beat the shit out of each other to the tune of Benny Cassettes seminal/lyrical ‘Watch Your Back.’

Solid. Gold.

Fast forward sixteen years and our heros are running black ops carte blanche which is basically lazy scripting to let the heroes of a movie blow up as much as they want and cause as much unaccountable collateral damage as they please.

Spoilers to follow.

The pre-title scene opens in Havana, Cuba where our hero Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel) is enjoying his stress free life with his sassy other half Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) when suddenly he finds his cousin is in inexplicable trouble with the local extortionist who is towing his car bomb for not paying his debts (which were never explained.) The scenes that follow are unmistakably a nod to the street racing origins of the film which was played on the  warming nostalgia, however the nostalgic parade was soon to be rained upon. Uncle Dom steps up to the plate and offers to pink slip race his car to settle the debt of his cousin however is faced with the unfortunate race conditions that he use his cousin's bomb car and it turns out his opponent conveniently owns the fastest car in Havana. When told his opponent was packing some power under his hood, Vin Diesel versed the lines ‘It’s not what’s under your hood, it’s who’s behind the wheel’ in clear tribute to the line from the first movie wherein Ja Rule aka RuleYork stipulates ‘It’s not how you stand by your car, it’s how you race your car.’ It put a smile on my face which was quickly replaced with incredulity. The scene followed with Letty pulling a can of ‘Columbian NOS’ out of seemingly nowhere, clearly insinuating Columbian Nitrous Oxide was superior the nitrous oxide of other countries. I’m aware some things are better from Cuba, like cubano sandwiches, rum and cocaine. Nitrous oxide i’m a little more skeptical about. Dominic then attaches the aforementioned NOS to the rolling death machine and Macgyvers an intake regulator out of a coke can tab. You can pretty easily guess how the rest of the scene pans out. Dom wins by an inch, with his car on fire, with no brakes, in reverse. He dives out of the car, it buckets over the esplanade barrier and into the sea and no one bats an eyelid at this act of illegal dumping. Instead he swamped by fans celebrating his victory and in the celebrations he lifts a small child into his arms in a heartwarming moment of cliche, with the exception that it isn’t his child it’s just some random fucking kid and it makes no sense. You’d expect the closing credits to roll. Dominics unnamed competitor doses the audience with more nostalgia when he states ‘You won my car, and you won my respect’ another nod to Paul Walker's first street race in the first movie.

For the franchise to continue, an antagonist and leverage is required to pull Dom and the crew out of retirement for the millionth time. Enter Cipher, a computer hacker played by Charlize Therone who looks like her hair and makeup was done by the exact same person that did Angelina Jolie’s in ‘Gone In Sixty Seconds.’ Google it. She mysteriously shows him leverage to get him to work for her and he obliges. What could this leverage be? Remember Elena? Doms love interest when he thought Letty was dead? It is later revealed that gave birth to Doms baby and they are both being held hostage. At this point anyone with an ounce of common sense and general knowledge of movie direction will be questioning how this is going to pan out. Movies don’t end with the hero having two love interests and a newborn. It doesn’t work unless at the end of the movie Dominic moves to Utah and becomes Morman. Someone's gotta fucking die. The loose end needs to be tied up. So predictably you already know someone’s gotta die out of Elena,The Kid or Letty. Seeing as it’s not kosher to have a child die onscreen or off, it rules out the baby. Letty already was killed of for a few installments so they’re not going to do that again and so that leaves us with Elena who is later conveniently and predictably killed off screen. As predictable as the death was, having her execution with the camera panned away was infuriating. It’s key indicator that the latest installment is aimed to be inoffensive blockbuster family fun. It’s all cushdy when unnamed assailants (who are more often than not just doing their fucking job as a security guard) are beaten up and blown up, but when a character has a name, a face and is vaguely established as one of the ‘Good Guys’ they can’t be killed on screen lest we upset anyone these days. Remember Vince? Died from a gunshot wound in Fast V. Remember Han? Was deliberately killed in a car crash. Both on screen. Jessie? The lovable idiot, gunned down by asian gangsters. All on screen, all evoking emotion.

Moving along, the sultry Cipher blackmails Dom into going rogue which is no surprise since the literally all of the pre release marketing material gave this away. At this point the floodgates of hypocrisy and contradictions are well and truly open. Dwayne Johnson once again starring as Luke Hobbs and the rest of the furious gang travel to Berlin on a covert mission to steal a device capable of generating a gigantic electromagnetic pulse which posed a threat to someone. Who exactly? I don’t know. The mission directive came from Kurt Russel portraying a government agent. The government agency is never stipulated but who are we to ask questions. If he’s in covert ops, its secret. You can’t ask anyway. A nice graceful segway into being able to send known criminals to steal an EMP weapon in Berlin without having any regard for reality. It’s quite interesting how the gang was sent there so Berlin couldn’t posses such a dangerous weapon and yet Kurt Russel and his team are allowed to use the ‘God’s Eye’ which appeared in previous installments. If you don’t remember, it was software which could hack any satellite or camera and pinpoint a target's location anywhere on the planet. Highly invasive and dangerous for anyone to possess but it’s perfectly fine for America to possess it and when a foreign threat possessing an EMP bomb arises, the gang are sent in to steal it and save the world. The contextual world being America. I think there should be a Slavic nation franchise where a team of eastern european counterparts to the Furious gang infiltrates America to stop them having the ‘God’s Eye’ just to keep the powers balanced. I dub this spin off franchise ‘The Lada and the Ludicrous.’ If you don’t know what Lada is, look up Lada Life on Facebook. Great page.

Obviously Dom goes rogue on his crew on this mission and steals the EMP to deliver to Cipher. In doing so, he sabotages Hobbs’ car and leaves him to get arrested and thrown into a maximum security prison (which stocks prison uniforms with cutoff sleeves especially for Hobbs) holding none other than Jason Statham reprising his role Deckard Shaw/The Transporter/ Monk (From mean machine) whereupon they engage in cheesey insults which by comparison to Vince’s quotes above, could be construed as pleasantries. Hobbs adhering to his semi astute law abiding officer conscience maintains he will get out of jail through the appropriate channels. Cue Kurt Russel’s orchestrated prison riot where all inmates start to maim up as well as the prison guards. Hobbs initially stays in his cell, refusing to partake in the festivities which highlights his moral compass, but this lasted for a whole 3 seconds. The scene that followed depicted Hobbs tearing through both guards and inmates and yes, he even shived a guy. Straight up prison shiv to the chest. What a hero. Hobbs and Deckard are the only two that manage to escape while the rest of the inmates are left to murder the security guards who were only doing their jobs. A small price to pay to break two guys out of prison for the sake of another covert mission to stop Cipher.

The team is once again reassembled but now Deckard is in the mix much to the chagrin of Hobbs, myself and literally anyone who has watched previous installments. The fact that Deckard was assimilated into the team and eventually accepted was the biggest plot hole in the movie. Even when the trailer was released indicating that Deckard was joining the team half of the loyal fanbase resonated the same thought.

‘Umm does anyone remember how he killed Han Seoul Oh?’ Remember the Han? The nicest guy ever with the best girlfriend ever (who was killed by Deckard's brother Owen.)

The fallacy wasn’t even swept under the rug. It was just ignored. Like most.

Speaking of which. Dom and Cipher subsequently take refuge on what I have affectionately named ‘Air Force None.’ A plane that can’t be tracked by the government by skirting through radar gaps and is fully equipped with hacker spec glass screens and touch panels. How Cipher afforded to pay for all of this or commission the construction of such an aircraft is a question worth asking. Also where does a fugitive land for petrol?

From this infinitely mobile Death Star, Cipher effortly executes stage 2 of her plan. Steal nuclear missile launch codes from a Russian motorcade in New York by using a combination of hacking skills paired with the physical expertise of trusty Dominic Toretto. The problem with hacking scenes as opposed to fighting scenes or calculated physical heists is that hacking scenes are always limited and uninspired. With an effortless press of a button accompanied with justifying dialogue Cipher somehow remotely accesses half of New York’s cars which were manufactured post 2007 and causes them to smash into the Russian motorcade consisting of a bullet proof limousine and escalades equipped with a sunroof and pop up machine gun turret. The other hacking scenes that follow in the movie are equally uninspired, when the time for Cipher to go head to head with another computer expert, the face off is limited to who can bash at a keyboard faster and aggressively. Cipher wins said hack-off with and her opponent explains the loss by saying ‘She locked me out.’ Pretty technical stuff. I would have been more impressed if the accompanying dialogue was ‘She logged into my computer and pressed Alt + F4.’  

The rest of the movie takes our hero to Russia where they go head to head to stop Cipher and rogue dom from stealing a submarine with nukes. Through the powers of remote access technology and poor continuity between scenes, Cipher steals a submarine which is clearly docked on land and in a 2 second frame transition manages to get it submerged into water. Equipped with a tank, Lamborghini, Subaru WRX and other cars poorly equipped for snow missions, the heroes have a high speed chase on ice where they attempt to halt the submarine. The most memorable moment from this scene in particular is when Hobbs who lets not forget is Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, leans out of his car and diverts submarine missile skidding along the ground and diverts it with his bare hands towards some unsuspecting Russians.

Of course whilst this all happens Dom the rogue reveals that he was never rogue. He had a plan in action to get his son back and stop Cipher. Surprise. Dom arranged for Deckard and his brother who got out of jail due to a flimsy line of dialogue (both still on my shit list) to infiltrate the previously undetectable Air Force None and secure the precious cargo that is Dominic's mocha son whilst Cipher parachutes away into oblivion. Once again, a pretty unrealistic scene where Deckard dispatches a plane full of security whilst holding a baby in a cradle. Also this still does not account for redemption for causing the death of Han and his lovely girlfriend. I did enjoy the fact that he ran out of bullets and this was acknowledged with dialogue.

Back on ground Dom manages to divert a heat seeking missile into the submarine by jumping over it in a fashion similar to how a car narrowly dodges an oncoming train (which has already been done in the franchise.)

Cut scene to a family barbeque ending scene. Dom has his baby back, Deckard is a good guy, everyone has been granted amnesty again and ties together a scene about family. Something Dom has always stood by throughout the franchise. Family is everything. To be more precise. Doms family is everything. Other families not so much. Although it didn't show it, in the scene where Cipher remotely accessed cars and caused a 100 car pileup in the middle of New York, I’m pretty sure somebody died. I’m pretty sure a couple of families were broken for the sake of baby toretto.

Mild negativity aside. The movie delivers what it promises: Explosions; Fast keyboard typing hacker duels; Cars being launched into the air in slow motion to a cliche sub bass whomp; A character who does literally nothing except provide comic relief (Roman); cheesy one liners and lastly the best kiss scene of 2017. If you haven't picked up this review contains a couple of spoilers, here’s another for good measure. Charlize Theron kisses Vin Diesel and it is unbelievably sexy and quite unsettling to get a hard on in a room full of children. If it doesn’t win the best kiss at the teen MTV awards I’ll be very surprised.

The movie also delivered on good product placement. As expected in a car centric movie, you’d expect to see a bit of product placement. I spotted a can of Coca Cola, a Razer laptop and an Epson printer. There were also cars. 

I give the movie a firm 2 schmeckles.