#i don't view ninjago as representation

[error501blog]

Kai and Nya are half Filipino 🇵🇭

Because I need more rep . Sometimes I want more than Easter Sunday. Is that too much to ask?!!

[olivescales3]

With the reveal of an NB character in Ninjago, I feel that people are placing this theme on a pedestal because of this one single move of inclusion. Don't get me wrong— I'm glad that LEGO is including LGBTQIA+ identities into their themes, and I genuinely hope they continue doing so, but we're forgetting that they're investing a step forward into a theme that's always going two steps back.

I don't feel like pointing out the issues of Ninjago, especially because it's tiresome and it's not the point of this post, but I remember that there was an entire thread here on Tumblr about the problematic worldbuilding of Ninjago. I might write something about it as well, but it's unlikely.

Chima had a great amount of inclusion and diversity within its cast (though no canon LGBTQIA+ characters, unfortunately):

POC-equivalent characters (brown and blue crocodiles; vultures with tan and bright blue skin colors), of which a few of those are part of tribes that have a motif from predominantly white cultures (Longtooth and Lavertus, who are brown lions in a tribe with a roman motif; Ehboni, Eglor, who are black and dark blue respectively, alongside unnamed eagles of mixed origins [dark blue x white] in a tribe of greek motif, and even Ewald himself isn't white).

A majority of these characters are important to the plot and/or have reoccurring appearances;

Diversity in tribe lifestyles, with the Wolf Tribe being nomadic (and not going through the stereotype of nomadic traders).

Each vehicle in Chima follows the motif and lifestyle of their respective tribe. For example, crocodiles are ambush predators and require camouflage, thus their vehicles are heavily based on military vehicles, with camo colors and strong silhouettes;

Marginalized characters whose arcs actually end with them winning and gaining respect. The Ice Hunters vs. Phoenixes arc was an obvious allegory of colonization, and it ends with the Ice Hunters alive and thriving, while the Phoenixes (who started the war) lost and failed to 'educate' their enemies.

The Crawlers also have their arc finished with an anti-war and pro-diversity lesson, where Laval lends them Chi because it's not supposed to be earned, and instead is free for everyone, even though they had stolen all of Mount Cavora's Chi beforehand;

Characters whose appearance is distinctive and break barriers of ableism are not only present in Chima, but are also treated equally to other characters, without having their differences be a point, argument, or lesson. (Cragger with a blind eye, Crug with a prosthetic jaw, the Raven Tribe as a whole, Leonidas with distinctively shaped incisors and Longtooth with long canines).

However, the Rhinoceros Tribe is an unfortunate exception, as they're constantly depicted as dumb;

The Lion Tribe has a lot of diversity by itself, with lions having a variety of mane colors that represent hair colors in real life. Laval has red hair, Leonidas is ginger, Lavertus is blond, Lennox has brown hair;

Other cultural representations such as Dom de La Woosh being based on Brazilian carnivals;

There's Wonald, a vegan character;

My favorite fact of all: Chima and Chi are both real words who exist in multiple languages, and each of their meanings was instrumental to the interpretation we have in this theme. → Chi means: knowledge in japanese; water (literally) and source of life (figuratively) in chinese; god in igbo. Chima means "god knows all" in igbo → in LoC, the Phoenixes created Chi, which looks like water and is the source of life/knowledge in Chima, and they also sculpted Mount Cavora with each tribe's heads before they had even evolved.

All of this unfortunately flew over most people's heads, which is a bad thing, as all of the effort that was put on Chima's diversity was left unnoticed, but it is also a good thing at the same time, because everything was executed seamlessly and naturally, just like how people should view each other in real life (view one another without discrimination). However, this amount of care and thought put into adding a diverse cast of characters is probably not going to be seen again, in any lego theme or any story made by corporations/companies.

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

🌟 (I found a cool star for u)

(⭐fanfic writers’ commentary)

Yay! Free space! Let's see…

Since you're the most writerly of the three people that sent in asks, and the person who shares the most interests with me, I'm going to freestyle some of my thoughts on fanfiction in general.

I make fanworks to respond to what stuck with me through a series. It's a form of analysis in itself for me, where you try and replicate a style by trying to make it work in your own context instead of pointing out why it works in an essay. This is something I've taken from my time studying visual art, where you're encouraged to do studies of works as well as just annotating them.

You don't have to follow them completely. You can focus on just the lines, or the palette, or the composition, but the main goal is to learn how to recreate something you like about the piece by your own hands.

I take that attitude with me into writing. It's why my favourite bits of fanfiction and fanart tend to be 'what-if' situations just left of canon. Characterisation is usually my main focus, with tone and message as my secondary aims. But even when it comes to other things like the setting or lore, I only extrapolate if I think it benefits the things above.

(or for representation. lol)

I like the challenge of those limitations. It forces you to be more creative as a writer, knowing that you have to start from some sort of formula, but you also need to make a different, compelling story and get your own interests to align with that. The small spins you can put on that are way more compelling than any massive upheavals that you tend to find in more standard AUs and such. Kinda like plot twists, actually.

wait I just realised that's what I said about why liked Ninjago season 1 and 4 so much. don't want to think about that. moving on

As a result, I approach fanfiction for different franchises differently. I love learning how different writers approach storytelling! I don't care for how there's clear 'templates' that dominate in fandom circles, because it throws away a lot of the subgenre's appeal to me in the first place. Specific AUs based off aesthetics, certain dragged out romance tropes, etc. (also the way some people do shipping but that's a whole 'nother can of worms)

I don't have much against them, I just find that they're usually less interesting than something with a specific premise and goal in mind.

Honestly I think the way I like to write fanfiction is more like. How sometimes you get spin-off books and comics of TV shows and games. Except targeted towards my favourite media and personal tastes and actually good.

I was going to complain a bit about fanon as well, but I think you already know how that is. People get very specific takes stuck in their head, usually of neutral quality at best, and it's frustrating to see if you have opposing views, or just prefer the actual. source material.

Also I don't write fanfiction for everything. I think the old adage of 'works that are above a baseline level of compelling and below a certain level of completeness are how fandoms form' is a part of that. I find it easiest to write/draw for works that have gaps in them, regardless of quality. See Dicey versus something like Inscryption (if I ever feel like editing and betaing that script, anyway…)

But I think another factor for it is also the focus of the original work. I love Disco Elysium and I'd argue it's both good and not really complete. But it's also a game deeply entwined with politics and the creator's personal experiences: I feel deeply unequipped to handle that as a storyteller who mostly focuses on characters and plot. If I did have anything to say on it, I'd probably be doing in as an essay instead.

Fandom 'meta' (stupid name) - analytical essays - are a good thing, and I think we should be encouraging it more alongside fictional fanworks.

I'm only occasionally a fanfiction reader. I used to be really into it as a kid, when I was into a bunch of series that weren't finished yet, and when I really wanted to experience games I couldn't buy. But even then I was pretty picky and ended up blocking tons of tags and had to keep compiling lists of stuff that was actually worth reading.

I don't do that much nowadays - I've learned that it's valuable to try a lot of different things in media, and I'm now way more aware of how it fuels my maladaptive daydreaming. My mindset on it now tends to be 'if you want to read that specific thing you want to see, you're going to have to be the one to write it.'

I haven't written much original stuff recently. Fanworks have always been easier for me to do for enjoyment, and I'm in the midst of a pretty exhausting degree. I do have a bunch of original ideas on the brain, though. Maybe I will touch on those at some point.