#cw: whitewashing

[midnight1nk]

‼️IMPORTANT NEWS

PLEASE READ: The following is a full report in regards of the Medi situation, the episode “The Lil’ Fellas” and everything else you need to know. This is intended for informative purposes, as I already stated my personal thoughts about the situation. Transcripts will be provided for most of the photos’ descriptions. Content warnings include: proshipping/darkshipping, whitewashing. View at your own discretion.

MediExcalibur2012 (also known as “Medi” or Paul) has been working with the SMG4 Team for around five years as an editor, machinima artist, and voice actor—most notably recognized as the voice of SMG1. He has also contributed as a writer for several past episodes. In addition to his work on the show, and like others on the team, he runs his own channel under the same name, where he uploads personal content not affiliated with the show or its canon.

A few days after the release of the episode “SMG4: The Lil’ Fellas”, several viewers observed that the two children, Hat Kid and Bow Kid, were strangely recolored to resemble Mario and Meggy. At the time, they admittedly dismissed it as speculation, feeling it was just a coincidence. However, some of this speculation went as far as claiming that this was intentional.

A video uploaded by youtuber SZH4 theorizes that the kids are Meggy and Mario’s biological children, based on the fact that their colors align with the MxM fankids Megan and Maggie Jr. found on the Steam Workshop. As he interprets it, the Team's (supposedly) alluding to the idea that Mario x Meggy could be canon. In the final section of the video, SZH4 addresses a message to “haters” of the MxM ship, stating that the theory was made for fun and expressing confusion about how certain moments between the characters are seen as merely platonic. He states, “[Those moments] prove that they’re more than just siblings. Just look closely at the signs and don’t tell me that ‘oh, siblings love each other like that’. I think it’s a different level of love.” [x]

The situation took a drastic turn when, on his discord server, Medi responded to the viewer speculation with the following message:

According to his confirmation, these kids were intended to reference the models. Though he didn’t say it outright in this message, he was clearly aware that they were MxM fankids, as it was explicitly stated in the model names, and he had used a color picker tool on the texture files. This was when everything started to go downhill.

A few people from Medi’s server shared this message on Twitter from late May 4th to early May 5th. Responses from many sides soon overwhelmed the community feeds. Many expressed anger, this being the last straw of Medi’s previous actions, and are urging the Team to take action. Others, including MxM shippers, defended Medi with the claim that it was just an “Easter egg” and shouldn’t be taken seriously. That is not to say all of them are shippers, but do believe this situation was taken too seriously. The creator of one MxM fankid, for instance, released a statement regarding it, quote:

The problem isn’t that a reference was included in the episode, but rather the intentions behind them—the MxM ship. From the Team’s side, Luke himself made it clear before that he was uncomfortable with this particular pairing, canonically Meggy and Mario seeing each other as siblings. None of the Team had overstepped the boundaries he set in production—until now. Not only has Medi disrespected Luke’s wishes, but he also betrayed the rest of the Team, who had no role in what he did. He twisted the trust and intentions of the others, supposedly all for a “reference.” Medi responded to those who brought this point up to him in defense; the following screenshots were provided by Twitter user WickerDan, quote:

(Yes, you did see it right. He edited the message and I’m unable to find the OG message). For the sake of readability in the next screenshot, I’ll leave the transcript here:

“Oh they know about the video and are fine that it exists. I remember I was at the pub one time with all of Glitch and Luke and I were joking with each other about that video and having a good laugh with each other. If they really had an issue with that video or even the ship itself, I would've been fired a long time ago.” — Medi

(BTW that thin screenshot was sent in February, not exactly related to the last episode). This, of course, was sent by Medi himself so take it with a grain of salt. It isn’t usual for these reports to have an unreliable source, but it was brought up for 2 reasons:

The “would’ve been fired a long time ago” was the same excuse he gave in the behind-the-scenes videos in his channel. While those moments were ambiguous in interpretation, as it was for any of the other ships, the scene he’s twisted in the last episode was obvious.

This unfortunately started to spark some doubt on Luke’s OG stance on the ship. Again, these statements from Medi can’t be trusted, and he provided no proof that this exchange happened in the first place.

Some viewers began to notice another issue: Bow Kid, that was meant to be a black character from the OG game, was recolored to have a lighter skin tone to match the fankid’s. This is undeniably whitewashing. User AnEyeArtist, on the other hand, proposed that the lighter skin was done because of a lighting issue and not of Medi’s doing, screenshots also provided by WickerDan:

Though it likely isn’t the case since it is a drastic change with having pictures side by side. For those who say that the kids are simply recolors, it’s the intent behind them that truly matters.

As for the rest of the Team, they weren’t aware of Medi’s intentions until early May 5th. Medi’s actions had managed to slip through the cracks during production, and the Team clearly had no idea until now. As mentioned before, many viewers have been urging them to take action regarding the situation. One proposed solution was to give Medi a warning; others want him to be fired. At the time this report is being written, there has not been an official statement from anyone on the Team.

One thing is certain: what Medi has done to the last episode can’t be undone, and we may not see the episode the same way again. Just because it is “fiction” doesn’t make it right or harmless. MxM is a proship—it always will be, regardless of whichever “version” is being discussed. The intent is what matters. As mentioned at the start, this report is meant to be informative and prevent any misconceptions within the community. While I’ve put my personal feelings aside for this, there are still some things left to establish:

Please do not harass the rest of the Team. This was solely Medi’s doing; they had nothing to do with this. “But they knew how Medi was.” Not like this, never like this. Medi managed to ruin the episode for everyone, regardless of which side they were on, and the team’s hard work on what was once a great episode is now ruined. An absolute betrayal. This must be hard for them to learn about, and I can only extend my apologies for what happened.

No matter the side, we can agree that something has to be done, and Medi must face consequences. I mentioned the possibility of him being fired or receiving a warning, and some of you already know where I stand. From what I've observed across all platforms, this would certainly be a difficult decision to make. On one hand, firing him would lead a portion of the viewers to claim it was too harsh. On the other hand, giving him a warning would be seen as not strict enough. Either option would only escalate the situation, with the possibility that the Tari VA controversy could be brought into the mix. The best possible course of action would be to not assign Medi any scenes related to Meggy and Mario and restrict him to exactly what the script intends. Though not everyone will agree, this approach should be enough to calm the waters, and it's likely the Team would handle it this way based on previous instances. It’s not a guarantee that this would happen exactly, but it is something.

Regardless, we must do our best within our community to stay informed and spread awareness, not letting it go silent so quickly. This show means something to us, in one form or another. Understandably, a lot has happened over the last few days. If you need a moment to breathe, take it. Treat yourselves with other media, get a snack, and allow some time to take your mind off things. Prioritize your mental health. But if you can, join the voice of our community.

Greater in numbers, we can fight for it with all we have, take it back from his doing. Even something as simple as using the hashtag #DoSomethingAboutMedi to spread the word would help. Any update that comes our way will be posted, as always. In the meantime, take care.

[secretly-a-catamount]

Every time I remember that Wanda Maximoff isn’t Romani in the MCU a little bit of my soul dies.

[lvmimis]

i hope you all understand how hard it is for poc to trust an artist to actually take genuine care in depicting them in a culturally sensitive way because of the extra steps it takes to make sure clothing details, hair textures, skin tones, etc are done properly because so much of conventional art is geared towards white people seeing themselves in the most appealing light and no one else

so when i see it done well it makes me so happy and insane fjjfjfnf

[dailydccomics]

Oliver's sons bonding over their differences ♡ Green Arrow vol 3 #32

[nerdyenby]

If the minecraft movie doesn’t give me an existential crisis I don’t want it

[whateverthought]

I'm morbidly curious, how do you think the CW "Reboot" would have handled the RowdyRuff Boys? Since some things were 'misrepresented' in the cartoon

[susiephone]

Ice Spice on Saturday Night Live (10/14/2023)

[howdy-folks-its-showtime]

Hey dudes and dudettes, Mod Roddy here!

I didn’t want to make this post, however, with the release of the preview pages of the DCTL Graphic Novel, Cobalt broke into my house demanding the staff be redesigned to be more “canon complicit.” They feared with our current designs the Bendy devs would be afraid of interacting with us; “I mean, imagine the horror Mike would feel seeing our Norman!” They muttered, body shaking with either excitement or fear. Of course, my response was- “What? The loosely bendy-based story where Henry is Joey’s brother, Joey and Sammy are married gay lovers and Bertrum x Jack is a thing needs to be closer to canon now?” Their response, as moving as it was mocking, was “Do it or I won’t let you ride the ink demon this summer.”

I am currently pressing charges, but before I had it arrested, it created these edits for me to base the redesigns off of. After they’re done serving their sentence, posting will continue as normal <3

[emmatriarchya]

all the love for people who use ethnically accurate FCs.

[augustheart]

they'll never put firestorm in another live-action project not because they would look stupid although they would but because they know they'll never be able to top victor garber as martin stein

[glacialswordsman-a]

thoughts on natlan. pretty negative!

i really do enjoy the aesthetics and the music from the natlan trailer. i do. i like the modern takes on these characters outfits and designs. but i FUUUUCKING hate how they're all so pale. literally all of them. none of them have even an iota of melanin except maybe one or two characters, when 95% of them should lmao

ESPECIALLY the fucking archon man. i'm furious over them being pale as hell. otherwise, i enjoyed everything else, despite me being fucking scared on how natlan's story & population/demographics are gonna be handled lmao

if they make the enemies brown again while the playable characters are white i think i actually might quit genshin altogether

anyway haha capitano muse go brrr

[summerstrash]

genuinely baffled by the level of whole-ass-showing that l*zzie *ls*n stans reach on Twitter. Like, I saw one go into the replies of people who are not talking about mcu wanda, who are explicitly talking about updating the comics character's wiki page so that it better reflects how she's currently being drawn (giving examples of recent covers she's featured on), and say that, referencing the posted covers, "the fan arts don't even look like her that's a whole other woman"

and i'm just like. dude those are official art. Wanda's finally being drawn with respect given to her Romani heritage. you're just obsessed with a literally pale imitation of the real thing. That's a whole other woman, boyo. Get out of our house.

[rooksgambits]

hollywood learn how to light actors of color without washing them tf out challenge??? difficulty level: almost impossible, apparently.

[mangora]

Hey guys if characters in your art look whiter because of lighting or a filter it should be every color that looks lighter and not just the skin just saying idk

[kawaiimessiah]

Finished the live action ATLA. Honestly? I actually really liked it, more than I thought I would, and I wasn't even particularly skeptical about it.

I liked Katara and Sokka's dynamic here actually better than I did in the cartoon. Maybe I would be more attached to Katara being parentified in the cartoon if it was ever resolved in that show, but it wasn't, so I'm fine with it being discarded and taking a different angle with her characterization and relationship with her brother.

I have no complaints about the performances given by the actors (though I do agree with the criticisms of casting light-skinned actors for Katara and Sokka, I still enjoyed the performances, though I know I'm coming from a place of being, like. White. With that--like, people with darker skin might have a harder time enjoying the performances despite that and that's valid).

However, Dallas Liu as Zuko was a highlight for me, he absolutely killed it in every single scene. Easily my favorite casting choice in the whole show.

I also really liked bringing in Azula earlier and not making her just like a demon child who enjoys being evil. The golden child-scapegoat dynamic between Azula and Zuko even as they've been separated for years is interesting and I liked it. (In particular I never liked how Azula in the audience of Zuko being scarred just smirks, so I like how in the LA she clearly has more mixed emotions about it. To me she looks morbidly fascinated and afraid at the same time, which feels right to me.)

I thought the show did a good job of covering the most iconic s1 episodes within their limited time frame by tying them into a connected plotline with each other within Omashu. Also I know the secret tunnel ep was s2 not s1 but I think it worked for this plotline, and I liked that it centered on Katara and Sokka's sibling bond instead of a forced k/ataang moment. (I don't care for that ship but Aang antis do not think I am one of you!)

As for the Sokka no longer being sexist thing: I don't know why we're pretending "Sokka being sexist in episode one, meeting a woman who fights good three episodes later and immediately changing him mind and being normal for the rest of the series" is like some huge plot point that Sokka's character falls apart without. The live action is only eight episodes long, it can't cover everything and I'm fine with it looking at that non-arc and going "yeah, that's not fundamentally necessary." He still felt recognizably like Sokka to me.

(Also others have pointed out that misogyny is cultural and we don't really see much if any sexism in the SWT aside from Sokka, certainly not to the level that Sokka exhibits in ep1, so it's kind of an odd trait for him to have to begin with. Like he just decided independently that women aren't as capable as men? Bruh.)

But yeah, I actually really enjoyed it and I hope we get a second and hopefully third season.