#i just thought he was canonly asian

[rotten7rat]

BATFILES: Tim Drake

FULL NAME: Timothy Jackson Drake

ALIAS: Red Robin, prev. Robin

DATE OF BIRTH: July 19, 1999

HAIR: Black-brown, straight

EYES: Dark brown

SKINTONE: Light tan

HEIGHT: 5'6"/167cm

WEIGHT: 130lbs/59kg

ETHNIC BACKGROUND: Japanese, Vietnamese

DISTINCTIVE SCARS AND MARKINGS: scar on abdomen, scar on upper right bicep

LANGUAGES: English, Vietnamese, Spanish, French, German, Mandarin, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Arabic

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: he is missing his spleen and is therefore immunocompromised, wears contacts

[nibeul]

The fraction comics are so great I ADORE that Clint Barton so much.

he’s my favorite rendition of Clint, he just feels very human and that’s what I like so much about it. his alias is hawkeye, sure, but the comics are really about Clint Barton the person. Just a dude, and that’s why it fucks

I love his commentary in the little boxes. He’s very self aware, especially when comparing himself to the rest of the avengers, and he pokes fun at himself throughout the comics. Like in these panels he just goes splat and it immediately cuts to him in the hospital. No magic healing, no getting up from a couple stories fall… definitely more realistic and one of the first things I’ve seen heroes actually get injured.

Then there’s Clint just being relatable. For those who haven’t read, Lucky (also known as Pizza Dog and formerly Arrow) is a half-blind dog Clint adopted earlier in the run. I’m pretty sure Matt Fraction’s comics are where the “Clint loves dogs” tidbit came from, but yeah, Clint loves dogs a lot. He also canonly watches Dog Cops and one of my favorite HCs is that he also watches Paw Patrol

More Clint and dogs

Plus Kate Bishop, who’s always a win. They both call each other Hawkeye, which like. Isn’t a huge thing but idk, I really like that tiny detail. Plus, there’s one panel I can’t find right now where Kate pokes fun at her own outfit which I thought was funny. She’s one of my favorites too (and also I grab onto my little shreds of Asian rep)

And to preface this next part, I’m not a hearing aids user so if anyone who does use hearing aids wants to add, please do! Since I don’t have that specific experience, I can’t say “hey, this is really good rep”, but I do really like how Clint’s deafness was portrayed, specifically when other characters were signing.

One of my favorite bits (which other comics do as well) is when Clint has his hearing aids out and isn’t reading lips/can’t see the mouth of the person he’s talking to, the reader can’t see what the person is saying either. Like with the first photo, when Barney talks, we can’t see what he’s saying. Clint doesn’t start Matt Fraction’s run deaf, though he is deafened later on. I haven’t read them in a little bit, but I don’t think Barney starts off disabled either, and as someone who’s physically disabled/frequently uses aids, I do really like how he was portrayed.

Some more panels of Barney signing

in conclusion, this was really just me rambling about how much I enjoyed these comics. I’d have to reread them to give a more in depth analysis, but yeah, overall, I do recommend them :)

[professorsparklepants]

Ever since discovering there was going to be a Winx Club live action remake (BTW there's gonna be a Winx club live action remake) I have been haunted by it so here are all my thoughts presented as an "if I were the showrunner" list because I know better than to have expectations for this sort of thing:

Starting out with an unpopular opinion: Techna and Layla as a composite character. Like, looking at Layla's power set you can tell she was only added in season 2. It's much less streamlined and the concept doesn't seem to fit with her actual powers. On the other side of the equation, Techna has no backstory or character arc to speak of. 5 is also a more typical ensemble cast number, and is easier to position for merch. So: name her Aisha (bc the other Obvious theme names in the group are normal to unusual tier, whereas Techna is just bizarre) make her the fairy of Technology (well defined power set) have her a black hijabi girl (bc Techna's modest fairy form lends itself well to representation) and make her shy and autistic coded but slowly come out of her shell as her new friends try to understand her and make her feel comfortable (BLACK&/FEMALE AUTISTIC RIGHTS). Optional: her hair is still pink.

Stella needs to be biracial because her powers as Fairy of the Sun and Moon canonly come from her dad being the sun and her mom being the moon.

Colorblind casting for all the white characters, INCLUDING Bloom. Her red hair is #iconic but you know what's more iconic? Casting a woman of color as an adoptee rediscovering her culture & identity after her homeland was destroyed by people who wanted to exploit it's biggest resource for their own gains :/

Fix your goddamn timeline! How are the Trix descended from the ANCIENT witches who attacked Domino & yet Bloom is like.... sixteen. If you're pulling a "time passes differently" thing you need to actually establish that.

Bloom & Sky do NOT get back together because idgaf if it was an arranged marriage, once you find out you're the other woman you don't FORGIVE HIM for it. They can be friends again after he admits he's fucked up but there's a line in the sand now.

Related: after the "I know you're in there!" fight in season 2, Stella confesses to Bloom and they kiss and date and fall in love!!!!!!!!!!

Musa dresses like an Asian pop star. I'm talking those red Bad Boy Seulgi pants... I'm talking fishnet under thigh high socks... I'm talking diy crop tops... instead of a skirt her fairy form has those high waisted short shorts that are cut so high they're practically swimsuit bottoms.

Related, trans Musa who grows her hair out as part of her transition....

Flora as a dark skinned & dark haired Latina those are my only notes. Also put her in a blouse with floral folk embroidery because I'm a huge slut for that stuff.

Farigonda gets a cool old lady enchantix form because it's what I deserve

Give the witches hats! They can be tiny fascinators if you want it's just bullshit that fairies have wings but witches don't have ANY of their traditional iconography other than like, being goth. And hats are easier to accessorize than broomsticks.

Thigh high boots. That's all I have to say on the matter.

If you're gonna make this shit live action the wardrobe better be OUT OF THIS WORLD. Your costume budget needs to rival your special effects. I'm talking Gucci, Versace, D&G, GCDS, McQueen. I want FRAN FINE levels of iconic costumes.

Lean more into Bloom's art as a hobby! All the other girls have personality defining hobbies and I actually forgot Bloom liked to draw until I was literally making this post and about to assign her softball or photography as her main interest. Lmao.

Anyway, rant ended sorry for making you think about Winx Club again

[i-did]

if you’ve addressed this before I apologize but what do you think of claims that Kevin is a poc coded character and his supposed “mistreatment” is fandom racism?

I mean Nora definitely intended for Kevin to be white while writing him, as she did with all other characters who races are not stated as otherwise. And like, I think I’ve seen the post you're talking about and what they describe is not what coding actually means.* There also isn't any textual basis for Kevin to be a POC besides Wymack, who people often see as non-white due to the discomfort over his 90’s tribal tattoos. IDC if people HC Kevin as a POC, but usually he’s just vaguely tan in the way people make Neil. You’ll see a “The Rock” FC for Wymack, but I haven't seen anything that actually goes beyond that. I’ve seen fic’s actively treat Dan, Matt, and Renee racistly, but Neil and Kevin get the same “vaguely tan” treatment and therefore avoid it. Nicky and Riko are different since they're canonly POC and not fanonly, so they fall into a different area. 

I would also say Kevin is a pretty common fandom favorite too? So I would disagree with that claim as well. Most people I talk to their favorite is either Andrew or Kevin it seems, then like a few Aaron lovers, and my personal favorite is Neil. These are all canonly white main characters–and are largely still depicted and treated as such. Dan, Matt, Nicky, and Renee are all larger characters than Jean or Jeremy, and besides Nicky, are intended to be white but the fandom decided weren't. So Dan, Matt and Renee all get pushed to the sidelines over favorable ‘white’ characters. Fandom’s racism actually has such wild layers tbh, same with its misogyny, but that’s another thing. 

I do think with a lot of the characters in AFTG adding headcanons making them POC can add an entire new layer to the canon and recontextualize scenes and struggles which would make some themes a lot stronger–I do this with most of the foxes in fact. 

But Kevin to me, if I do HC him as a POC, he is going to be white-passing and raised essentially believing he is white until he learns otherwise. 

Kevin to me is very peak white guy. I love him as a character, but book 1 he shows very typical white guy arrogance. He comes to a team and bosses them around while also dismissing them in the same breath. He believes he is owed something from the people around him, and they will blindly follow him and do what he says. They should always listen to him, and he automatically knows what is best–better than Dan. This feeling of “what I ask will be given, and I am above them” is definitely due to the raven mentality of everyone is inferior, but I’m sure there were racist raven recruits along the way, and Kevin is usually HC to be brown and not East Asian/Japanese, which experiences a very different type of racism. I believe if Kevin was a brown MOC… he would act differently. 

Personally, I see white-passing Kevin discovering he’s not actually white as much more narratively interesting and fitting. His mom is Irish, and it's very rare for a mixed kid to be perceived by society to look more related to their white parent than their brown parent–unless of course they're white-passing. And since the fandom usually has Wymack be a MOC, then it would make sense for this green-eyed light skin baby that never is outside but when he is he just kinda tans but is still light skinned, and think “yeah I believe her when she said he’s not my kid.” I also think it could fit Kevin’s arc of realizing Exy isn't all there is to him, in fact there is a whole culture and a father waiting for him to connect with, that he didn’t even know was there ‘as an option.’ it gives him something else to tack onto his identity as well that he had no idea about and was sheltered from. 

I’m still not solid on my own HC for Wymack and Kevin and if he will be white-passing or just white yet, but I play around with the idea sometimes for sure. But I don’t ever see him as visibly a POC. He feels no need to prove himself like Thea does and the media is shown to go easier on him as well as the foxes. The foxes are annoyed with him, but they ignore it, and the media forgives him easily and fawns over him, telling him he’s handsome and talented. Kevin from an outside perspective is very privileged in a way that parallels with Allison a lot actually. Who was based off of Paris Hilton– disowned wild child of a rich family that owns Hilton hotels, struggled with the public eye and is credited as the original influencer. 

*But yeah POC coding isn’t really a term like queer-coding is. Queerness is something that must be unstated for various reasons, which led to coding for either vilification or because there was no other way for it to be shown. But media dives pretty hard into ‘othering’ with POC, doing it’s best to show all the ways whiteness is different from ‘the rest’ by playing up stereotypes or extra emphasis on non-white features. I mean the first ever ‘talkie’ or modern day movie, had blackface in it, (the jazz singer). There is no perceived societal need for ‘POC coding’. There is such thing as ‘Jew coding’ however, which again is used for vilification and dates back pretty far in depictions of devils in churches in Europe. Kevin isn't shown as a ‘gay pervert’ like queer-coding does, or ‘dark curly hair and a strong nose, with his hands rubbing together’ like Jew-coding does. POC aren’t treated with coding but rather a full dive into minstrel depictions instead. 

Kevin is shown as sympathetic but also struggling, he is a victim, but he is also harsh. He is struggling with addiction that gets enabled by the other people around him who don’t know a better way to help. He has an arc, he learns to grow, he gets the tattoo, he talks to Wymack, he fights with Dan, he speaks to Jean, he scores the last point on the winning game, he learns to stand up to Riko. He develops in the books, and is one of the 3 main characters, Neil, Andrew, and Kevin. 

I think the fandom definitely focuses mostly on Andrew and Neil, which is unsurprising since they're the main pairing and get the most development and attention by the author as well. But the nature of fandom and fanfiction typically is to have all the background characters act as overly invested props to get the main paring ending up together. That's just kinda the way fanfiction typically goes. Kevin still largely is a character with his own thing going on, often recovery or dating other people or grumbling in the background with his own thoughts, in fics a lot more than any of the other characters in AFTG who aren't Andrew and Neil. I don’t think Kevin gets excessively ‘mistreated’ either, I think he gets a lot of the similar flattening out of his character we see a lot in general in fandom, whether its for a joke post or a fic.

[ouyangzizhensdad]

the dead imperialist villain was homophobic & the canonly bi protag the readers are meant to sympathize with condemns said 2d homophobia.. what do they want from media? “swiper no swiping”

The intellectual clusterfuck of someone saying “well, maybe not all fantasy worlds need to include [oppression X] and maybe it could be nice sometimes or at least some people would prefer being able to engage in full escapism without being reminded of the real world and also for some creators it just feels like an excuse to bash on [group X] in poor taste so maybe let’s not” THEN becoming, in very smart, very inquisitive minds “if fantasy world contains or depicts [oppression X] then this piece of fiction is [oppression X]”. Stupendous. And aside from the slip-and-slide logic of it all, it annoys me because like:

1) It does not even consider if the fantasy world is being used as a way to explore real sociological/historical phenomenon in the first place. ATLA explores imperialism, genocide, industrialism, etc. and included sexism from the very first scene of the show. But boy, they decide to talk about homophobia in a manner that clearly aims to mirror how colonialism impacted current day homophobia in some Asian countries, clearly within that same storytelling continuity, and suddenly that’s unacceptable and homophobic by virtue only of its presence (I can’t comment on whether it was well-handled ultimately in the work, but it’s not like the argument being made was about anything else than this one panel anyway). Again, some people should learn how not to parrot shit they saw on twitter and tumblr without considering the context of the work. That does not mean they can’t criticise the work, but that at least if that criticism remains at the end of it all they’ll be able to frame it in the context of the work they are criticising instead of just repeating a line they learned somewhere else. Media criticism/analysis is not about learning by heart a rigid list of “This is Problematic” points which you can whip out as “gotcha!” arguments.

2) Competing!Representation!Needs!!! Some people want pure escapism where nothing reminds them homophobia/heteronormativity exists? Cool. But that does not mean all works of fiction now need to cater to them, specifically. Personally, as a queer, I hate these types of stories, for three main reasons.

First because they generally the creative fails to portray that fictional world in a way that feels believable or thought-through. Often, for example, they’ll think about homophobia but not heteronormativity without considering how those things are imbricated. Generally creators show their inability to produce a fictional world that would not be shaped by homophobia/heteronormativity, so as an audience it’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief. 

Second, I’m very aware that my queerness is socially-constructed--that is, that my preference for women could be as insignificant in the scheme of my life as my preference for certain colours or food or home decoration, but that because of the world I live in, it is something very significant about how I define and understand myself, and how others see me and what I’ve experienced and will continue to experience. Not only that, but my everyday experience of queerness is (sadly) more defined by my living in a homophobic/heteronormative world than it is about liking women. It’s harder for me to connect with narratives that will not, at least, nod to this reality (which does not mean the narrative cannot be feel-good or triumphant). On top of it all, so many queer experiences do not make sense unless they happen in a world that is homophobic/heteronormative--just because you don’t want to see those being explored does not mean it isn’t important for other queer creatives and queer audiences. To reduce stories that explore homophobia as “stories for straight people” really shows a failure to grasp the perspectives of other queer people in the community. 

Third, to build onto the second point, I’m just an edgelord bitch. I don’t like being white-lied to, I don’t like having my feelings coddled, I like being told how it is, I think though-love is the way to go. I want my escapism to remain grounded enough not to have me roll my eyes going “riiiiiiiiiiight”. Where some people see aspirational escapism, I feel almost gaslighted lmao. I remember reading this super long fic where this character was super depressed and burned so many bridges because he was scared of admitting he was gay and coming out, and then he suddenly came out to everyone around him and--everyone was so supportive, at best they were just ‘sad’ he kept that a ‘secret’ from them, no one said anything out of line or questionable, his life only got easier and better, etc. The narrative was telling him; see that fear was irrational and you needed to overcome the irrationality of it. I wanted to throw my phone at the wall!!! I can take a step back and see how that narrative can be reassuring to some queer readers who have yet to come out but I hated it so fucking much!!!!! I hated how it was only willing to discuss internalised homophobia but not homophobia. And like to me it is just not realistic and it completely took away my suspension of disbelief and just made me fucking angry. 

[loverofallthingssmart]

hii bestie <333 can i have bookrecs maybe my tbr is ??? going empty ??? wh how??? but yeah mwah<333

omg hiiiiiii bestie <33 and KABVAGSJEB valid okay okay here we go !! i’ll rec 5 and disclaimer: most of these are going to also be on my tbr LMAO whoops bc i haven’t read in so long so 😭

1. the empress of salt and fortune

this is just??? so good??? like first off they/them protagonist !! and it’s so !!!! like the first two chapters make you go huh? but once it get through that it becomes so interesting !!! it feels like you’re being told a story bc you are!!! and it’s so <333 like wowwwwww it’s just. great like the story is everything even though there’s no technical ‘plot’ like you think. also this one scene in the book with her seer…like uh. empress?? you got something you want to tell us?? 👁👁

overall id rate it 4/5 points taken off purely bc the writing style is everything i love it !! but it’s not quite memorable like certain lines don’t just stick to you after you read it like how six of crows did… yk?

2. and then there were none

i. i uh. haven’t read this yet ADSHFSHSVSHD but everyone’s telling me it’s wonderful and amazing and also mysteries are just like?? so fun especially with agatha christie writing it and it’s just. very wild i can just feel it can’t wait to read it !!!

3. the ghost bride

another one i haven’t read but isa loved it and i trust isa so yeah <3 basically this post should cover why it’s amazing and so i’m also very excited to start this next month

4. i’ll be the one

listen this is. it’s a fun cute little read if you’re bored bc this was so nice i had to pause to squeal a bit a LOT like the mc is so !!!!! she’s fat and she’s not like insecure about it like she has her moments thats so normal but she’s confident and it’s just !!! she’s basically trying to be an idol and addresses the fat phobia in the kpop industry with a healthy smacking of white girl bashing (white girl obsessed with korean culture to be specific), asians gfs as background relationships, and complicated mother daughter relationships that aren’t just ‘omg i forgive you and then we love each other’ no the resolution between them is 100% realistic and i just :’) and then !!! and then bi4bi main couple!!! CANONLY!!!! THEYRE BOTH SAID THEYRE BI IN THE BOOK LIKE !!!! they’re both korean too like <3

it’s rated 3/5 bc the writing is juvenile at time (and ngl im fine with it!! the author has written children’s books with an asian protag so the whole YA thing is new to her and it’s rlly good for her foray into this genre honestly!!!!) and also the harry potter and bts references were -_- i know the bts was going to be a thing but the hp??? when the book was made in 2020??? like in this day and age??? no thank you keep that away. there are like uhh less than 10 so a blessing ig

sorry i talked too much about this one i just have many thoughts bc this was THE book that got me out of my slump and it’s nice !! best listened to with kpop playing on low in the background <3

5. finally, the lunar chronicles

this is a nice series !!!!!! the way all the male characters are side characters and each book surrounds the girl yeah <3 the third book is kind of :/ bc there’s a relationship with a 16 yr old and a 22-23? year old i think idk but basically she’s isolated and idolized him and he’s… idk it’s weird but if you just keep in mind that ajd try and ignore how that’s the driving factor for a lot of this it’s fine !!! the plot is nice !! but yeah the rest of them are <33333 and the plot is so !!!! each book is a sci-fi retelling of a fairytale and they all blend into each other seamlessly its just so !!!! the characters are everything as well i don’t care for like half of the men ensemble but the women. aaaaah beloveds 3/5 mainly bc it’s been SUCH a long time i don’t think i can accurately judge it so we’ll stick with a decent rating yk?

also! read heartless by the same author it’s like her retelling of how the queen of hearts became the queen of hearts it’s rlly good !!! cant for the love of me rmbr most of the plot nor can reread it bc it hurts but still. rlly good !!!! 4/5 definitely

ALSO FUCKING WAIT LAST ONE

read xiran ray zhao’s book i don’t remember what it’s called but it’s coming out september 21st and it’s gonna be so fucking good like. i just know it so yeah <3

okay that’s it have fun reading <3

[fuzziemutt]

Mmm thinking about my henry...

Was joking with my boyf about how william now canonly wears cowboy boots to work because my bro thought he was wearing a cowboy outfit so we brought up henry being southern and a cowboy

But i already know another henry who's a cowboy™ so I'm not sure if i wanna end up making my henry southern ????

I think I'm gonna make him white tho which so many henrys are but like i keep thinking about the stereotype that hispanic dads are the worse and unfaithful (the number of times my abuela and her friend would go on about how to never date a puerto rican or mexican man...) And i don't want that linked with my henry nor do i want to make him black for a similar reason ? I'm not sure about asian however but i just... this guy is very much not a good guy and i don't wanna perpetuate any stereotypes here ya feel ???

I originally made him hispanic with the intent thst he was a good guy and father but now he's cheated and abused mmmmm

Thoughts ???

(I know like anyone of any race can do shitty things i just get worried and over think things and i haven't even thought about the guards and phone guys ngl)

[lj-writes]

Hey! First off, this is just my answering blog for my sideblog because I don't want the r/ylos to get me. Second, I just discovered the anti rose tico tag, which is basically dead, but I had a question about your stance on the tase scene. I literally just rewatched the movie to catch it but I think that its a little unfair to say that Rose was acting maliciously. She didn't tase Finn without letting him explain himself, he had the chance to, but instead went with (1/2)

went with "I'm doing a check" (says this twice). Rose, whose seen 3 people try this before him, sees a bag behind him and rightfully thinks he's gonna jump ship. So she tases him. Instead of saying what he was actually doing in the first place, he doesn't tell her until he wakes up from being tased. This isn't a "you should ship Finnrose" type ask (I personally ship Finnrey canonly), I just feel like the tase scene is taken super strongly (from you and like 3 other blogs).(2/3)

I get that she may come off as a know-it-all-i'm-so-smart-listen-to-me type character (mostly because Ruin wrote her that way), and you're free to not like her because of that or whatever but the initial "violence" is comparable to Rey's. There's probably a million grammar mistakes lol. 🤷🏾

@whyshipreylo​​ Lying isn’t a reason to tase someone, any more than any of the other million reasons, some of them contradictory, trotted out to justify the tasing (“She was sad.” “She lost her sister.” “He failed to live up to her expectations of him.” “He was a deserter.” “He was a prisoner.” “He was a thief.”). I mean, do you say that of people in real life? That they deserve to be tased/shot/beaten up if they lie to a police officer? If that doesn’t hold up in real life, what rules make it justifiable in SW?

From what I can see, Finn lied because he was terrified of being hurt by the girl who had just bragged about tasing three people. People who suffered authority-based abuse often develop a habit of lying to protect themselves, not to mention people do lie when they’re afraid of being hurt. Why is that suddenly a mortal sin deserving of violence and humiliation where Finn is concerned?

And no, while I’m not a fan of Finn and Rey’s first meeting, Rose’s actions were by no means comparable to Rey’s. Rey was in an open desert with no law enforcement around, or anyone who gave a shit about the Resistance. If she lost the “thief,” as she mistakely thought him, in the open desert she would lose any chance of finding out about Poe’s fate or possibly rescuing him. Rose on the other hand was on a closed ship in space, with other Resistance members just a call away. The only circumstance that could have justified hurting Finn was if he posed an imminent physical threat to her, which he did not.

I mean here’s a question: Can’t Rose be wrong? Can’t she do something wrong, make amends, grow, and come back from it? Why are so many people hell-bent on trying to justify her assault on Finn for bullshit reasons, especially when it so closely parallels the kind of police brutality that Black people disproportionately face in real life?

I understand that there might be good intentions behind this rampant apologism, maybe defensiveness for the first major Asian female character in SW. But trust me, as an Asian woman who was very excited about Rose and still think her character has a lot of potential, and who has taken a TON of shit for simply saying Rose was wrong here--these defenses just comes across as antiblack. Representation for Asians cannot come at the expense of respect for Black people, and these defenses are disrespectful as hell not only of the character of Finn but the real-life Black fans who expressed distress at this scene and its reception by fandom.

[azeher]

On Queerbaiting, Bad Voltron Bad, and Adashi

I finally found the time and patience to bring you this post. Take it however you want. Unfollow me, love me, fall in love with Ryan Renolds... Just take your pick.

The only disclaimer I’ll make is that the Voltron crew and the marketing team of DreamWorks are very capable of queerbaiting. I’ve accused them of doing exactly that before, but I was just getting ahead of myself. I just don’t think they’re queerbaiting us after all, not on purpose (the voltron crew at least. The marketing team can go eat a spoiled banana). But at the end this is like the Schrödinger’s Cat, we won’t know until we get to see the very last episode of the final season. I mean, korrasami was queerbait until the very last seconds before the credits rolled.

BUT, the crew has made quite the mistakes along the years, and I’m gonna make a list of them:

1- Opening their mouths. Just really, they should have stayed quiet, taken the initial praising and shown gratitude and that’s it. The very first and biggest mistake they made was thinking it was a good idea to talk about the show to the fandom. Not only they never knew how to handle it, sometimes they forced themselves to lie. By creating such an narrow relationship with the fandom they allowed them to ask them for things they wanted into the show. They allowed them to ask them questions they didn’t know how to answer and sometimes they had to be purposely misleading to avoid spoilers.

2- Believing their own misleading answers. And this is how I know they’re not queerbaiting on purpose. Because they tend to get passionate when promoting the show, they’ve said things in ways that could be misinterpreted by the audience. They think they’re saying something harmless, that the small difference between what they say would happen and what actually happens will translate well, but it’s never the case.

3- Not trying to know their fandom. This isn’t entirely their fault. It’s obvious the fandom they got wasn’t the fandom they were supposed to get. I.e., the fandom should be made up of grown ups that loved the 80s Voltron and came back out of nostalgia, and of little kids looking for cool space battles, and of teens that like action and humor mixed together. Because that was their target audience. Rather they got a fandom pertaining to an entirely different genre. They got people who don’t really care for the plot (don’t even try to argue with this. The hundreds of posts I’ve seen the last three years claiming smt along the lines of “Voltron would have to pay me to watch the show for the plot” prove me right) because it bores them, and are only focused on the one thing the show openly isn’t about: Romance.

4- The writing. Legend of Korra didn’t have perfect writing. Voltron doesn’t either. This studio puts all of its effort and talent out there, you can tell, but they still have a long way to go. Still, what they do is not bad, despite what spiteful people want to make others believe. This studio has some of the most beautiful animation out there and their strengths rely on art, humor, fight sequences, music and very dramatic scenes. Those are the five things they’ve mastered. But their writing and character focus are lacking. This is not something they can’t fix. Instead of trying to drag them down and boycott these amazing and talented artists and writers who are also human beings, we could give them the support they need to improve and keep delivering stories and characters we can fall in love with. I mean, we fell in love with these characters even when the writing wasn’t perfect. This season, whether some of you want to admit it or not, had the best writing they’ve offered so far but to dissect this statement would mean making yet another long post and just no.

5- The characters’ arcs. We’ve already established they don’t know how to write characters or romance. They’re good with other sorts of relationships but romance is the thing they’re worst at. And they also suck at being constant with characters’ arcs. The biggest proof? I didn’t know the fucking protagonist of Voltron was indeed Keith until like season 4, and I only found out cuz I watched some episodes of 80’s Voltron around that time and was struck with the realization. It was impossible to tell because so far all the focus of the story had gone back and forth between Shiro and Pidge. Then Keith and eventually Allura got their own arcs. So, how about Pidge makes that math cuz it doesn’t add up? How was acceptable for them to be unclear about who the central figure in the show was? Keith was introduced as the fourth character. And they even formatted the first half of the first episode so it looked like Lance was the protagonist. The second half they were already giving up on him and turning him into a joke and Shiro finally emerged as the central figure.

6- Romance. So they completely suck at romance and they made a good decision about leaving it out. But did they really? Cuz the show says yes, but the crew’s comments and awkward writing say otherwise. And this is what takes us to the next and saddest mistake:

7- ADASHI. I know you all read this far only to get to this point. I’m gonna include Ezor and Zethrid here as well because they’re also consequence from the previous point. Shiro is an amazing character and him being gay IS indeed a big triumph. We will forever know such a great and important Asian character is canonly gay. But the writers made all the rookie mistakes they could make surrounding his sexuality, AND Ezor and Zethrid’s relationship. Don’t get me wrong, I for once don’t mind these lesbians being on the dark side because they were still pretty badass and cool even though they were villains, but they took their ambiguous villainess too far, which wouldn’t have been a bad thing wasn’t it because they were the only lesbian couple in the show. So rookie mistake number one: Picking the wrong characters to be your representation when you’re gonna be so limited with representation. They also killed them off, which, well, they kinda deserved, but again, they were the ONLY lesbian couple, so how about give them the chance to redeem themselves (and your own writers)?

They introduced Adam and established he and Shiro simply didn’t work together but then killed off Adam without allowing us to get to know him, and without allowing him and Shiro to get some kinda closure. But the crew, again, didn’t know how to handle the way to go about hyping the show, and were yet again misleading by letting us believe we’d spend some time with Adam. They genuinely thought there was nothing wrong with killing him because he was no longer part of Shiro’s life and because war’s like that. So rookie mistake number two: Not being honest about the fate of one of the two confirmed queer characters in the show. When you have so few queer characters, and you really think you had to kill one of them, don’t treat it like a spoiler, BE honest, so the public knows what to expect. Soften the blow. Maybe they could have said he wouldn’t be in the show too long, and we would have made our guesses. Rookie mistake number three: Pick him as one of the casualties. I understand the intention of this was to make Shiro lose someone because of the war, but did it really need to happen? Did Shiro really need to lose someone? I’m sure no big plot point in the story would have changed if Adam had lived. Rookie mistake number four: Kill him before we got to know him and before he talked to Shiro again. If the purpose of his death was to impact Shiro or us, it would have had a much bigger effect if they had had time to interact again.

Now, could Voltron as a whole fix all of these mistakes? Yes. Yes they could. For starters, they should start talking with the truth. That would actually help to heal the fandom a lot. At this point, being quiet won’t serve of any purpose. Now it’s their real time to talk, but honestly.

Second, it all depends on how they wrap season eight. If they’re really planning on making a healthy queer relationship canon and explicit, that could be their salvation. They’d have to do it right, and it is possible, but fairly hard, especially with romance not being their strength.

Third. Adashi. Yes. Again Adashi. Remember when I said I had complicated feelings about what they did to it? Well, aside from what I already said, there’s this extra bit. And it is that they truly could have had a good reason to kill off Adam. I know that it makes you angry, but this is a possibility. Maybe the point is to let Shiro move on, find love again. He’s healthy now, not fearing about dying anytime soon and he’s matured. He wouldn’t make the same mistakes. And there are not reasons to believe Adam won’t be featured in another future flashback that could deliver that sense of closure we and Shiro need. So, in short, the reason I’m not as angry as I should be, is because this can still be addressed in the show.

It’s easy to be pessimistic and not to trust the ending. For all we know, eighth season might be just 13 episodes of quiznak writing and the mice founding their own theme park, but until the box gets opened we won’t know if the cat is dead.

[lovewilt-a]

ok just a question from a white person. do you mean making a poc muse another race? or is this like... making a white muse not white? and are there any resources (that you know of) to go about doing something like this properly, as to not be an asshole? i have made white muses poc in the past, mainly because there’s nothing stating they aren’t anything but white and i’ve, ofc, done as much research as i could, but how can i be better about changing a white fc to a poc fc?

i think it’s incredibly disrespectful if people make, for example, a canonly japanese chara into a latinx. like i understand u want to rep urself, but erasing another ethnicity just for your own isn’t helping. another good way to go about that though is what rome did with aomine. as far as i know he’s canonly japanese (?), but rome made him half japanese and half black. as u can see, he’s not erasing any part of aomine.

as for white muses, like i personally don’t care if u decide to make a white chara a person of color, but u have to understand that based on their race, they’re going to have different experiences. a white boy isn’t going to have the same story as a black boy. u have to take into account the racism they’ll face, the setbacks they may have. and uhh not to be shady but let’s take wonder woman into account. an indian wonder woman is going to be a lot different than a white one. especially when u take into the account that gods are involved. u need to make time for that kind of research.

idk abt any resources though? im glad ur looking deep into it, but personally i’d look into the stigma and stereotypes against the ethnicity ur interested in and see how those could affect ur muse. like u know asians are said to be really smart, especially at math. but maybe ur racebent chara isn’t great at math and maybe all the “wait i thought u were good at math” comments took a toll on their ego and now they’re a little self-conscious about their math skills. it can be small things like that, but they can even be bigger like the first person that comes to mind is white nancy drew vs black nancy drew (written by our one and only daisy). nancy drew is a public figure and you already know the media is going to demonize black nancy drew much more than they’d demonize white nancy drew.

i know it seems daunting, but asking ur mutuals for help is a great option too. of course, do ur own research first, but if u need a primary source, ur friends are the way to go. likewise, if u need help with an indian muse lmk! i know i sounded rlly mean in that last post, but im always down to help people who actually care about their portrayal. 💕

[dorkshadows]

Do you have any thoughts or headcanons about Ciel and Lau's relationship? (You don't have to answer, just wondering lmao. I probably send you too many asks already I'm sorry I just love your blog,,)

(Don’t be sorry, anon- I’m the one who’s sorry for waiting so long to answer! Really glad you enjoy my blog- thanks for telling me!)

I know that Lau canonly sticks around because he finds Ciel interesting. I personally think it’s because he sees a shade of himself in Ciel- we barely know anything about Lau’s background, but we can assume it wasn’t a happy one. And he probably wasn’t expecting to relate to a snobby British boy, so that drives him to ally with Ciel.

For the moment, I hc that Lau likes Ciel, not because he thinks Ciel’s endearing but because he doesn’t have a reason not to like Ciel. I think Ciel doesn’t like Lau lol because Lau’s one of those pawns that can’t be easily manipulated and has to be negotiated with instead. But he knows that Lau’s a great source for Asian networking and that as long as their interests don’t conflict, he can rely on Lau to help with a lot of dirty work/info gathering.

(If you sent the Lau chess hc) It’s like what that ask said: Ciel plays chess and Lau may not be willing to use the rules, if he knows. But on the flip side, Lau plays Chinese chess and Ciel probably doesn’t know how to play that at all. They won’t get in each other’s way, there’s an extent of mutual respect, and so long as things go smoothly, they’ll continue working together. But there’s an edge to it ;)