#islamic movies in english

[shorifuae17]

Abu Toha Muhammad Adnan || শেষ হয়ে যাচ্ছে মার্কিন ডলারের রাজত্ব || আসছে...

[daegu-based-terrorist]

Hello! Don't have to answer but I'm very curious about the religious climate in contemporary DPRK. How tolerant is it of various religions? Does you family have to travel to the city to go to masjid or are there multiple established Muslim communities? Are there particular aspects of North Korean religion or spirituality that are relatively common, also in pop culture?

In the USSR it seems it was a strong culture of secularism (culturally still very xtian) and perhaps some anti-theist leanings (but English-language resources on the USSR tend to be biased).

From what I've heard passed down from my relatives who lived/live Komi and Karelia, it was very much a people do their own thing and mind their own business in terms of religion and faith. Nowadays from where I live in diaspora I hear much of islamophobic sentiment in the news and anecdotes from Russia, and Indigenous religions generally aren't taken seriously at all besides being regarded as superstition.

in the dprk muslims make up about 0.1% of the population. we are an absolutely miniscule minority in the country and that is mostly because islam doesn't actually have a history of strong presence in the region. north korean muslim families like my own only exist because of mixing with other asian muslim groups (my family is partially hui, a chinese muslim ethnoreligious group) or because their grandparents were converted by muslim forces coming to fight on either side of the war during the korean war. my paternal grandfather's parents were converted by a uzbek(?) medic during the war. so my grandma was half hui on her dad's side and my grandpa was the child of converts. because of this relatively random way people ended up being muslim there isn't actually a particularly large concentration of muslims in any one place in the country. there is a mosque in pyongyang that is mostly used by iranian embassy staff, foreigners living in pyongyang and a small number of native north korean muslims.

my family are sunni so we never went to the pyongyang mosque. my father and his family would have a small celebration for eid every year in wonsan and that’s usually how worship would take place. if you were muslim in the dprk you generally knew all the other muslims in your province so people would get together in private residences for religious holidays.

people were very private about religion, no one cared if you were muslim, but the country is over 60% atheist and the majority of religious people are shamanist and buddhist and live in pyongyang so there is a lot of curiosity from other north koreans if you rock up to the function as a muslim or christian.

speaking of christians they are on a whole other playing field. they have tens of thousands of more believers then muslims. they are active in the government, have several churches (very jealous) and protestant north koreans are represented by the korean christian federation which is a christian communist organisation which aims for reunification, organises aid for north korea from the international christain community, runs protestant north korean churches and oversees the operation of pyongyang theological seminary who recently got a new building (i swear to god the next time someone calls north korean christians oppressed-)

buddhists also have their own federation and make up a much larger percentage of the religious population. there are 60 buddhist temples in n.korea but only about half of those are active as places of worship. monks are paid by the government. they also have some sort of college for the training of their clergy and sometimes s.korean buddhists are allowed into the country to help lead and participate in religious ceremonies. buddhism is probably most relevant to pop culture as you can see it references in music, movies and books.

overall your biggest problem being religious in the dprk is waiting 10 centuries for the government to give you a requested religious book. I'm not even kidding my dad sent the formal request for a second Qur'an for our household to the gov when i was 3 yrs old and it only was delivered when i was 6 😭 it has my name printed in it and the signature of some government official in it which is cool

[tawus]

African/African-American/Black

Do The Right Thing (1989) On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.

Goodbye Solo (2008) This film is touching and humorous. It is the story of an unlikely friendship between a struggling but happy cab driver from Senegal, and a tormented southern man with secrets.

Lincoln (2012) As the Civil War continues to rage, President struggles with continued fighting on the battlefield during the civil war but he also fights with many inside his own cabinet with his decision to emancipate the slaves.

Malcom X (1992) Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam.

Straight Outta Compton (2015) The group NWA emerges from the mean streets of Compton in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1980s and revolutionizes Hip Hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood.

The Color of Friendship (2000) Mahree Bok is a white South African teenager and a product of the Apartheid system raised to view dark-skinned people as second-class citizens. Piper Dellums is the daughter of an African-American U.S. Congressman living in Washington D.C. When Mahree is chosen to spend her time as an exchange student at the Dellums's house, she is shocked on her arrival to discover that the Dellums are black, and the Dellums are just as surprised when they realize that Mahree is a white South African.

The Color Purple (1985) Based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple is a richly-textured, powerful film set in America's rural south. It is a brilliant drama about a black woman's struggles to take control of her life in a small Southern town in the early 20th century.

The Help (2011) This academy award winning movie takes place during the civil rights movements of the 1960’s, when an aspiring writer decides to write a book about the African-American maids' point of view on the white families they work for and the hardships they experience on a daily basis.

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Cambodian/Chinese/Vietnamese

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) A senior chef lives with his three grown daughters; the middle one finds her future plans affected by unexpected events and the life changes of the other household members.

Holly (2006) In Cambodia, Holly, a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl, encounters Patrick, an American stolen artifacts dealer. The story follows their strong connection and her unrelenting efforts to escape her fate.

Last Train Home (2009) A couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.

Lost in Paradise (2011) Khoi, naive twenty-year-old travels to Ho Chi Minh City from the countryside to begin a new life. It's his first time in the big city and he's looking for a place to live.

Raise the Red Lantern (1991) A young woman becomes the fourth wife of a wealthy lord and must learn to live with the strict rules and tensions within the household.

Sentenced Home (2007) This documentary follows three Cambodian-American men, brought to the U.S. as children by their refugee families. They were raised in the grim public housing of Seattle, among gangs and other realities of that life. Bad choices as teens altered their lives forever, when immigration laws after 9/11 provided no second changes for such children. Though they were raised in the U.S., speak to one another in English, even think in English, each is sentenced to return to Cambodia - separated from family here, possibly forever.

The Joy Luck Club (1993) The story of four Chinese women who immigrated to the U.S. and their first-generation daughters. When one of the women dies, her daughter plays Mahjong with the older women and begins to really learn what her mother endured in China and of her sisters who were left behind. Daughter from Danang (2002) Separated at the end of the Vietnam war, an "Americanized" woman and her Vietnamese mother are reunited after 22 years.

The Last Emperor (1987) The story of the final Emperor of China.

The Quiet American (2002) An older British reporter vies with a young U.S. doctor for the affections of a beautiful Vietnamese woman.

The Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000) The plot centres around three sisters, two of whom are happily married (or so it appears).

Three Seasons (1999) An American in Ho Chi Minh City looks for a daughter he fathered during the war. He meets Woody, a child who's a street vendor, and when Woody's case of wares disappears, he thinks the soldier took it. Woody hunts for him.

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South Asian/Indian

Bhaji on the Beach (1998) Hashida, an 18-year old Asian woman, lives with her family in Birmingham. Her father wants her to become a doctor and next month her medical school is going to start. Secretly, she has a black boyfriend – which is an absolute faux pas in some Asian cultures – and has now discovered that she is pregnant. She joins a small South Asian women's group on a trip to Blackpool, a trip that holds life-changing experiences for all.

Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Teen-aged Londoner Jesminder Bhamra chases her dream of being a professional soccer player while dealing with the objections of her traditional Sikh family.

Gandhi (1982) A biography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of non-violent protest.

Slum Dog Millionaire (2008) A teen in Mumbai, India who grew up in the slums, becomes a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" When he is suspected of cheating, he is arrested. During his police interrogation, events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers.

The Namesake (2006) A tale of a first-generation son of traditional, Indian immigrant parents. As he tries to make a place for himself, not always able to straddle two worlds gracefully, he is surprised by what he learns about his family and himself.

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Disease/Mental Illness/Disability

My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989) Christy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.

The Theory of Everything (2014) A look at the relationship between the famous physicist Stephen Hawking and his wife.

Ray (2004) The story of the life and career of the legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s and 1960s.

Silver Linings Playbook (2012) After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.

Still Alice (2014) A linguistics professor and her family find their bonds tested when she is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.

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LGBTQ+

A Single Man (2009) The story of an English professor, who one year after the sudden death of his boyfriend, is unable to cope with his typical days in 1960s Los Angeles. It is a powerful story of his grief and pain for the loss of someone he truly deeply loved.

Boys Don’t Cry(1999) This film is about the true life story of Brandon Teena, a young woman who is going through a sexual identity crisis. She cuts her hair and dresses like a man to see if she can pass as one. She lived life in a male identity until it was discovered he was born biologically female.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) This film tells the story of a forbidden and secretive relationship between two same-sex cowboys and their lives over the years.

Milk (2008) This film tells the story of American gay activist, Harvey Milk, and his struggles as he fights for gay rights and becomes California's first openly gay elected official.

Philadelphia (1993) In this movie, a lawyer, working for a conservative law firm, is diagnosed with AIDS. His employer fires him because of his condition. He tries to find someone to take his case but all refuse except one willing small time lawyer who advocates for a wrongful dismissal suit in spite of his own fears and homophobia.

The Danish Girl (2015) A fictitious love story loosely inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda's marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili's groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.

Transamerica (2005) A pre-operative male-to-female transgender takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she fathered a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.

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Hispanic/Latino(a)/Mexican

A Day Without a Mexican (2004) One-third of the population of California is Latinos, Hispanics, Mexicans. How would it change life for the state's other residents if this portion of the populous suddenly vanished? The film is a "mockumentary" designed to show the valuable contributions made every day by Latinos.

Babel (2006) Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving four different families.

El Norte (1983) The Guatemalan army discovers Mayan Indian peasants who have begun to organize, hoping to rise above their label of "brazos fuertes" or "strong arms" (manual laborers). The army massacres their families and destroys their village to give the new recruits no choice but to follow and obey. However, two teenage siblings survive and are determined to escape to the U.S. or El Norte. They make their way to L.A. - uneducated, illegal immigrants, alone.

Mi Familia (My Family) (1995) This epic film traces over three generations an immigrant family's trials, tribulations, tragedies, and triumphs. Jose and Maria, the first generation, come to Los Angeles, meet, marry, face deportation all in the 1930s. They establish their family in East L.A., and their children Chucho, Paco, Memo, Irene, Toni, and Jimmy deal with youth culture and the L.A. police in the 1950s. As the second generation become adults in the 1960s, the focus shifts to Jimmy, his marriage to Isabel (a Salvadorian refugee), their son, and Jimmy's journey to becoming a responsible parent.

Sin Nombre (2009) A Honduran young girl and a Mexican gangster are united in a journey across the American border.

Under the Same Moon (2007) Heartwarming story about a mother who leaves Mexico to make a home for herself and her son (Adrian Alonso). When the boy's grandmother dies, leaving him alone, he sets off on his own to find his mother.

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Immigrants/Undocumented

Crossing Arizona (2006) With Americans on all sides of the issue up in arms and Congress in a policy battle over how to move forward, Crossing Arizona tells the story of how we got to where we are today. Heightened security in California and Texas has pushed illegal border-crossers into the Arizona desert in unprecedented numbers (estimated 4,500 a day). Most are Mexican men in search of work, but increasingly the border-crossers are women and children wanting to join their husbands and fathers. This influx of migrants crossing through Arizona and the attendant rising death toll has elicited complicated feelings about human rights, culture, class, labor, and national security.

Dancer in the Dark (2000) An east European girl goes to America with her young son, expecting it to be like a Hollywood film.

El Norte (1983) The Guatemalan army discovers Mayan Indian peasants who have begun to organize, hoping to rise above their label of "brazos fuertes" or "strong arms" (manual laborers). The army massacres their families and destroys their village to give the new recruits no choice but to follow and obey. However, two teenage siblings survive and are determined to escape to the U.S. or El Norte. They make their way to L.A. - uneducated, illegal immigrants, alone.

In America (2002) A family of Irish immigrants adjusts to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.

The Terminal (2004) When an Eastern European immigrant comes to American to fulfill a promise to his father he finds himself stranded inside JFK airport, making it his temporary residence when he cannot enter the USA nor return home.

The Visitor (2007) A lonely economics professor in Connecticut life is changed forever - and for the better - when he finds a couple of illegals, who happen to be living in his New York apartment.

Green Card (1990) A French man wanting to stay in the US enters into a “short-term” marriage to an American woman so he can get his green card. Complications result when he gets caught lying.

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Indigenous

Avatar (2009) A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007) A chronicle of how American Indians were displaced as the U.S. expanded west. Based on the book by Dee Brown.

Once Were Warriors (1994) A family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts.

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) In 1931 Australia, government policy includes taking half-caste children from their Aboriginal mothers and sending them a thousand miles away "to save them from themselves." Molly, Daisy, and Grace (two sisters and a cousin who are 14, 10, and 8) arrive at their “school” and promptly escape, under Molly's lead. For days they walk north, following a fence that keeps rabbits from settlements, eluding a native tracker and the regional constabulary. Their pursuers take orders from the government's "chief protector of Aborigines," A.O. Neville, blinded by Anglo-Christian certainty, evolutionary worldview and conventional wisdom.

Smoke Signals (1998) Young Indian man Thomas is a nerd in his reservation, wearing oversize glasses and telling everyone stories no-one wants to hear. His parents died in a fire in 1976, and Thomas was saved by Arnold. Arnold soon left his family (and his tough son Victor), and Victor hasn't seen his father for 10 years. When Victor hears Arnold has died, Thomas offers him funding for the trip to get Arnold's remains, but only if Thomas will also go with him. Thomas and Victor hit the road.

The Spirit of Crazy Horse (1990) One hundred years after the massacre at Wounded Knee, Milo Yellow Hair recounts the story of his people-from the lost battles for their land against the invading whites-to the bitter internal divisions and radicalization of the 1970's-to the present-day revival of Sioux cultural pride, which has become a unifying force as the Sioux try to define themselves and their future.

Whale Rider (2002) On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their History dates back a thousand years to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. Whangara chiefs have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand culture, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai must fight a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

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Middle Eastern

Baran (2001) In a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.

Incendies (2010) Twins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history, and fulfill their mother's last wishes.

Schindler's List (1993) In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi Germans.

The Band’s Visit (2007) A band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves lost in the wrong town.

Turtles Can Fly (2004) Near the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.

Wadjda (2012) An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.

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Pacific Islander/Polynesian

Balangiga: The Howling Wilderness (2017) 1901, Balangiga. Eight-year-old Kulas flees town with his grandfather and their carabao to escape General Smith's Kill and Burn order. He finds a toddler amid a sea of corpses and together, the two boys struggle to survive the American occupation.

Moana (2016) In Ancient Polynesia, when a terrible curse incurred by the Demigod Maui reaches an impetuous Chieftain's daughter's island, she answers the Ocean's call to seek out the Demigod to set things right.

Once Were Warriors (1994) A family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts.

Princess Kaiulani (2009) The story of a Hawaiian princess' attempts to maintain the independence of the island against the threat of American colonization.

Whale Rider (2002) On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their History dates back a thousand years to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. Whangara chiefs have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand culture, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai must fight a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

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Women

Āfsāīd = Offside (2006) Struggle of Women in a country that excludes them from entering the stadiums.

The Help (2011) This academy award winning movie takes place during the civil rights movements of the 1960’s when an aspiring writer decides to write a book about the African-American maids' point of view on the white families they work for and the hardships they experience on a daily basis.

Suffragette (2015) The foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State.

Water (2005) The film examines the plight of a group of widows forced into poverty at a temple in the holy city of Varanasi. It focuses on a relationship between one of the widows, who wants to escape the social restrictions imposed on widows, and a man who is from the highest caste and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi.

Whale Rider (2002) On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their History dates back a thousand years to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. Whangara chiefs have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand culture, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai must fight a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

Ooh amazing, thank you for this! ❤️

I've watched Slumdog Millionaire, Brokeback Mountain, and Schindler's List. And read a Penguin Classics abridged version of Rabbit-Proof Fence as part of my English learning back in my teenage years. Some of the others I'm familiar with tho have yet to watch; and others are completely new to me

[favorvn]

(I'm sorry for the mistakes, English is not my native language) (*/ω＼) Hi, yesterday I found out about Favor and fell in love with your game. First of all, for her artistic style - it's damn beautiful, Z is both frightening, but at the same time admires and attracts (both his hair and horns ~ and I want to touch them). The fact that I can't see his eyes, but I've seen hints of what they look like (I've managed to read your entire Tumblr several times) makes my imagination work like never before! Secondly, for references to real religion. I am practically not interested in this, and my knowledge is extremely superficial, but if I understood and remembered everything correctly, then the fact that you did not invent (to some extent) any fictional religion in the universe of the game (I have absolutely nothing against this), but turned to an existing religion, causes me to repeat the admiration. I have so many questions about the game, but in order not to drag out an already long message, I will ask only some of them (I hope you don't mind). 1) Will you see angels in this game? 2) You mentioned that if Z does not find the means to immortality for Y/N, then he will simply seduce him (her) so that he goes to hell, to him. What would Y/N's "life" in hell be like? (if it's not spoilers) 3) Referring to your mentions described above, it became interesting to me. Let's say Z has found a means to immortality, but Y/N is against it? What if he (she) wants to live an ordinary human life and, when the time comes, die? Will he try to convince you/N to become immortal, or will he do everything without his (her) consent? 4) Given how old Z is, how many human languages does he know? I apologize if my questions turned out to be stupid or strange. And I apologize if my words may have seemed rude, I assure you, not a single word of mine had a non-native meaning. Many thanks for the amazing game from one of the first (I believe) fans in the CIS. I am looking forward to the release of the continuation of the story! (I speak without pressure and attempts to hurry up somehow). Please take good care of your physical and mental health! (⌒▽⌒)☆

(Oh, and also taking this opportunity, I congratulate you and Z on Valentine's Day! (*^.^*))

Thank you SO much for the detailed and thoughtful message, I'm sure this took forever to write, but I am so touched 🥰!

I will say about religion: In the game, I mainly use ideas from Christianity/ Catholicism/Judaism/Islam ect as a base, I try to take common aspects and common and contrasting ideas that cross amongst monotheistic religions. A lot of the topics in this game surrounding religion or religious ideas and values are thoughts I tend to wonder about often. Religion is a contentious topic, so I do want to say that whatever the game is saying or asking doesn't mean it's right or accurate to everyone, it is just my personal creation at the end of the day.

And when we get to that point in the game, I am definitely interested in hearing what others have to say.

But onto your questions:

1. Yes

2. I would imagine Z would take care of MC and show them the ropes. Z would make sure MC didn't get recruited into any demon armies so they could stick around him all of the time and not have to be around other demons. - I don't plan to get to this point in the game, so it's kinda up to interpretation.

3. Z would do everything in their power to win over MC either immortality or to hell with him. If MC ends up in Heaven, Z would essentially be separated from MC and Z isn't willing to risk that outcome.

4. Z knows a few human languages, but mainly old ones (as he only really interacted with humans long ago). He just recently picked up English (from his 20 movies, some video games, and fellow demons). Z is a fast learner, thankfully because he has a lot to learn about the human world.

Your questions aren't stupid! Thank you SO much for taking the time to read everything and then ask them 🥰💕 It really made me happy! I'm happy to have a fan in the CIS (I actually have plans for a slavic character in the future!) Thank you again for your time and care into these questions!

[amadholes-lostre]

I already tagged this on my fics, that Caladan is just basically Space Latines, and that transfem! Paul is a Latina. Even though Herbert said that Caladanians are Mediterranean, like his son, I gonna ignore that piece of lore.

I already have many plans when Chani and her family visit Caladan, and it's different from the book and movie. Like how it's located in the equator instead being in the temperate zone. The capital city name is Kallísea (maybe I will change it later) instead of Cala. There is greek architecture influence, but not really: it has Rézfoli (eclecticism of classical and Islamic architecture- I will illustrate that later) architecture for aristocrat and government buildings, and Isabelan (elececticism of San Francisco Victorian and Spanish Colonial architecture- I will illustrate that later too) architecture for commoners buildings like housing, commercial store, cinema, and occasionally other public buildings like train station.

I also already working on Caladan main language, Kalidáne, a mixture of English and Spanish (Spanish superseded all French words). I likely going post some words and explanations how I made this language since I had the idea of it since late 2022.

[canmom]

post-animation night 177 comments

brief thoughts on kizazi moto (more substantial tomorrow perhaps): visually that was so lush. we're really full post-Arcane/Spiderverse nonphotorealistic stylings here, with a powerful dash of Trigger/Flying Bark-esque Neo Kanada School as well. this was like a cross-section of the current big styles in animation and it kicked ass for that. I'm not entirely sure what the production pipeline looked like - the Irish film board was apparently involved somehow! and maybe some Irish studios so it wasn't a purely African production - but it was an extremely impressive showing all round.

narratively, putting it right beside Fatenah kinda highlighted the places it wasn't willing to go. though I had heard the directors had a lot of freedom, there were some very consistent themes running throughout the anthology - nearly every film involved parent-child relationships, many of them revolving around a kid hoping to prove themselves in the eyes of their society/ancestors. the uglier side of history is touched on lightly: one film shows us a flashy cyberpunk city from an alternate timeline where 'Great Zimbabwe was never colonised', complete with 'the most advanced justice system in the multiverse' (a giant robot bird that chases our protagonists), but doesn't expand on that as more than a colourful backdrop. the last film gets closest, presenting a mother-child pair of two gods who are wounded by extractivism and retreat from the world - I appreciated the understated bleak implication of its ending.

I think while the creators were probably not given too much overt creative restriction, they were surely aware this was to be broadcast in English on Disney's streaming service, and tailored their stories accordingly. so you'd probably avoid "Disney is the face of American imperialism: the movie". Disney money is a bit of a double-edged sword that way.

besides parent/child reconciliation, we had a lot of ancestors and more than a few gods. a few stories centred on coming of age rituals; other had a more or less central focus on social media fame and its corrupting effect. at times it verges into the preachy - characters who stand between two families, or between humans and aliens, and resolve to honour both sets of ancestors - but the presentation is more than engaging enough to make it a compelling watch, regardless.

there's a lot of wonderful lighting, set design and architecture throughout. Mọrémì had a very cool desaturated style with toyetic, colourful 'soul-stealing giants' that put me a little in mind of Absolver.

Stardust had a bit of a Star Wars feel, almost feeling like an extra Visions short, but the injection of Islamic architecture was very effective.

a certain Arcane/Riot influence is very overt in many of the films - not just in the widespread use of paint textures in the CG environments and the approach to light and colour, but also with plot elements like the neon-drenched surfer gang in Surf Sangoma (episode 4) - which was definitely a fantastic-looking episode with the wonderfully out-there premise of a world where you have a squid suck on your face to gain surf skills. (just say no to squids, kids! you don't need 'em! rely on your magic ghost mum instead.) but I think this is something that's true in the animation industry more generally of late - the last few years have really kicked the door open to 2D stylings in 3D (paint textures, reduced framerates etc.). no doubt having a Spiderverse director as exec producer played a role in that too!

all in all I really enjoyed this anthology, and I'm super excited to see what comes next from the studios involved.

Fatenah meanwhile was fantastic, and an absolute gut punch. the fact that the hospital seen in the film has been in the news for being emptied out at gunpoint in the last week gave it a special level of 'oof'. its style may seem disarmingly simple, but the puppet-like styling ends up bestowing a huge degree of weight to the characters. the scenes of the border checkpoint, the monotony of cages and guards, and the concrete environment resembling a Half Life 2 map, were very impactful. highly recommend taking 20 minutes to watch this film.

[horizon-verizon]

I am Palestinian and there is absolutely no characteristic of Palestinian culture in Dorne or the Martells. Their stans only use racial stereotypes about us & orientalist characterization to justify it and prove that the Dornish are “POC” in order to make them seem oppressed, and are pushing even more racism and orientalism towards MENA populations.

According to them, the Dornish are simultaneously Arab, Desi, Amazigh, Iranians, Turkish, and sometimes, Latinos. North African, West Asian, and South Asian countries are lump together as one monolithic “brown people” entity. 30+ countries with multiple, unique, and diverse cultures and religions, very distinct from each other. The Martells simultaneously celebrate Diwali and goes to Hajj. Why would the Dornish follow Hinduism or Islam ?? They largely follow the Faith of the Seven, the Westerosi Catholic Church.

For their edits, they use pictures of the Alcazar of Seville or the Alhambra, castles located in SPAIN, and fancast drop-dead gorgeous INDIANS actresses like Deepika Padukone, Freida Pinto, Aishwarya Rai as Elia (“a kitchen drab”....) or adult Rhaenys. Or Dev Patel as Young Griff. They keep using the screenshot of GRRM listing Palestine as one of his inspiration for Dorne to justify their headcanons, so why do they keep insisting on using Bollywood movies, Indian actors, Indian monuments, saris, etc ?? The only common points between the Alcazar of Seville/Alhambra and the Taj Mahal are the Islamic architecture and the engraving of Quranic verses.

Disclaimer: EDITED, Long, and Repetitive bc of attempt at clarity and Reminding Readers

Maybe coming from this post (I've gone back and edited it with corrections)?

I think it's because people really want to see PoC representation in their high fantasy literature, which is completely valid. However, yeah, the Dornish aren't Palestinian-coded nor Arab/SouthAsian/etc.-coded...I mean, they mainly worship the Seven, too, the Westerosi polytheistic version of Catholicism. So they can't necessarily be 1-1 like Palestine in terms of culture & ethnicity, even though the ME does have Judaism & Christian peoples. Again, Dorne--as far as was told & shown--mainly worship the Seven. (look to section "B", point #1)

The Point: A singular major, past, centuries-old event of intermarriage before the Targs arrived is not a continuous event. The Dornish are nor and have never been subjected to become a state under the Westerosi crown for there to even be a commencement of racialization as by the would-be conquerors of said situation.

The Rhoynar marrying pre-Rhoynar Dornish peoples happened in a few isolated incidents. Afterward, the people became what they now are and after many decades & centuries,

THEREFORE,

they do not have that "two people" identity anymore. They are just "Dornish".

Their ancestry is always brought up mainly because of their custom of noblewomen being equally as able and seen as worthy to rule as their men, esp the Martells. To compare them to Westerosi farther up.

A)

Doylistically, on the one hand, people could claim that the Dornish could claim PoC-ness or be easily adapted into being played by PoC actors in the real modern sense by who they are descended from -> an Essosi people who had darker skin. Yet the Valyrians and Andals--who themselves come from Essos originally!--are "white" by the 1st being "proto-English with a Catholic religious analog and the 2nd being an ancient Rome-analog"?!

The Dornish are not Rhoynish either just because they are descended from the Rhoynar who--a very long time ago (centuries, before the conquest)--intermarried with Andal-descended lords and presumably smallfolk. Ethnically, they are something else entirely (maybe Andal-Rhoynar but that seems insufficient) their own thing from their unique history.

So, we have "Moor" descendants marrying "white" Christian Spaniards. So, like Spaniards and Italians, they seem the "lesser whites" which still makes N.Euro descent and N.Euro look at Italians, Spaniards, or those in Central EU as "lesser whites". Meaning that they have both Andal and Rhoynish roots with the Rhoynish equal primogeniture and opener-sexuality and little-to-no bastard stigma really defining its difference from those Westerosi further north. Dorne is a state with various skin-colored but seemingly non-racialized people (internally, not how the Andal-FM nor Daeron I characterize Dorne) and the Dornish people are a unique ethnic group.

And because race has always been about power and not culture. And the Dornish have always maintained their independence before Daeron II when they voluntarily--for the most part--finally became a vassal state under the feudal royal crown of Westeros.

B)

Before I get into it, "olive" skin is supposed to mean:

moderate or lighter tan or brownish skin, and it is often described as having tan, brown, cream, greenish, yellowish, or golden undertones

Therefore, anyone of any race can have an "olive" tone to their skin:

I was one of those who watched the show before I read the book, and I thought the Martells were PoC and I did some research. Apparently, Oberyn looks like this to one semi-canon source:

🎨 Credit: Magali Villeneuve

And his description:

has the features of a salty Dornishman [more below in section C, but: "These Dornishmen are lithe and dark, with smooth olive skin and long black hair, having been most strongly influenced by the Rhoynar"]. He is a tall, slender, graceful, and fit man, and has a lined and saturnine face with thin eyebrows, black "viper" eyes and a sharp nose. His hair is lustrous and black, with only a few silver streaks, and recedes from his brow in a widow's peak.

Arianne looks something like this in one source:

🎨: tiziano baracchi

Darker than "olive" Her description:

is buxom and beautiful, with olive skin, large dark eyes and long, thick black hair that falls in ringlets to the middle of her back. She has full lips, a husky voice, and round ripe breasts with huge dark nipples. Favoring her mother Mellario, Arianne is short, standing at five foot two.

Mellario was from the Essosi "Free City" city of Norvos but their skin color is not really described.

Oberyn's daughters all have different complexions and mothers of different origins, Westerosi and Essosi (all descriptions from the official wiki):

Obara -- "big-boned woman near to thirty, long-legged, with close-set eyes and with the same rat-brown hair of her mother which she sometimes ties in a knot. She strides quickly and angrily. Obara has callused hands and can have a mannish look." -- mother: unnamed Oldtown prostitute

Nymeria -- "slim and slender as a willow, with straight black hair worn in a long braid which pulls back from a widow's peak. She has dark eyes which are large and lustrous. Her full lips are wine red and curve in a silken smile, and she has high cheekbones. Areo Hotah describes Nym as having pale white skin in A Feast for Crows but mentions her olive skin in A Dance with Dragons." -- unnamed noble Volantene, specifically of the "Old Blood" - Volantis, another Free City in Essos

Tyene -- "is fair, with golden hair and deep blue eyes. Dimples bloom in her cheeks, and she has a gentle, sweet voice" -- mother: a septa from the Reach

Sarella -- "light brown skin" -- mother: the Summer Islander captain of The Feathered Kissed ship

Elia -- black hair/"her black braid flying behind her" (The Winds of Winter, Arianne I) -- mother: Ellaria Sand

Obella, Dorea, and Loreza -- no description as of Nov 5, 2023 -- mother: Ellaria Sand

Ellaria Sand is supposed to look like this:

🎨: amok

Her description:

Although not accounted as a beautiful woman, Ellaria is regarded as attractive and eye-catching, with an exotic, sensuous flair. She has black hair.

AND

"black-haired paramour" &  "She is not truly beautiful, she [Sansa] thought, but something about her draws the eye." (A Storm of Swords; Sansa IV)

And Doran Martell (currently reigning as the Prince of Dorne) has no canonical physical description aside from "His body is soft and shapeless, and the gout has swollen and reddened the joints of his knees, toes, and hands." However, since he is Oberyn's brother we can assume that he most likely has similar "salty Dornish" coloring.

C)

The anon of the first linked post all the way up above: "GRRM himself has said that the closest equivalent of Dorne to the real world is the Moorish influences of Spain, and mentions PALESTINE and Wales as being two other influences. Literally his own words. Even in Game of Thrones, they filmed the Water Garden scenes in the Alcazar of Seville, a beautiful Moorish castle in Spain. That castle was literally built by Muslims and incorporates verses from the Quran and countless traditional Arabic and Islamic architectural elements".

You: "there is absolutely no characteristic of Palestinian culture in Dorne or the Martells. Their stans only use racial stereotypes about us & orientalist characterization to justify it and prove that the Dornish are “POC” in order to make them seem oppressed, and are pushing even more racism and orientalism towards MENA populations" AND "North African, West Asian, and South Asian countries are lump together as one monolithic “brown people” entity." AND "They keep using the screenshot of GRRM listing Palestine as one of his inspiration for Dorne to justify their headcanons, so why do they keep insisting on using Bollywood movies, Indian actors, Indian monuments, saris, etc ?? The only common points between the Alcazar of Seville/Alhambra and the Taj Mahal are the Islamic architecture and the engraving of Quranic verses."

1.

If we are talking about race vs ethnicity & the rise of racism from religious or ethnic differences and a desire for colonial domination...

Dornish people mainly live in their own principality or a kind of state controlled by a "prince" or "princess" that is actually unlike the Rhoynar cities because there were multiple "city-states" under several Rhoynar princes and princesses who, while sharing a language, also likely had different laws and sub-styles of the dress and think of themselves as culturally/ethnically different from each other.

Thus in terms of Dornish people being oppressed or experiencing racial oppression alone (bc with race comes the oppression you cannot separate these twon phenomena since race as a constuct was specifically created for several human right violations and power hierarchies), we cannot compare Dornish people nor the Dornish state to Palestinian refugees and Palestinians living under an apartheid. They are not the same, they are not living under the same conditions of racial or ethnic terror. And yes, a lot of Palestinian people out of this region of the Middle East draw a large part of their Palestinian identity from their memories and terms with the Nakba and the effects of said event that exist today and have been for more than 50 years. What I'd say is similar is that many Dornish may also draw some of their identity from their continued resistance to conquest...but the Dornish are not resisting ethnic cleansing, genocide, or racial extinction. The first Targaryen attempts at conquest were decidedly non-ethnic-cleansing so much as just your average kind of "conquest" that Andal, nonDornish Westerosi have performed against each other before the Daenys and her father ever settled at Dragonstone. Yes, Westerosi can be xenophobic towards Dornishmen but that includes the "stone", fair-skinned Dornishmen as we see from the continuous marcher vs Dornish conflicts over land & grudges/vendettas over past conflicts/deaths.

What are some traits of Palestinians or Palestinian culture that another anon was trying to say the Dornish currently have?

"Game of Thrones"--"filmed the Water Garden scenes in the Alcazar of Seville, a beautiful Moorish"

"the Quran and countless traditional Arabic and Islamic architectural elements"

"Moorish", as Medieval and early-mod period EUs used, referred to Muslim Arab-speakers. Aside from North Africans, Arabs, and Amazigh did include Muslim Europeans, because Islam itself was the defining basis for their difference from those Christian Europeans and the regions where people who adopted Islam or Islamic states dominated where those N.Africans, Arabs, and Amazigh lived. In a medieval context, DOUBLY SO.

Once again, Dorne does not worship any Rhoynish god & their official religion is decidedly of the Faith of the Seven (aside from those of the Greenblood, but these are not a large part, a dominant, nor very influential part of the Dornish population).

Nowhere did GRRM say that the Welsh inspiration only applied to the stony Dornish. Why do people think this? Perhaps because these are the ones closest to the Marches and thus fighting often with Reach/Stormland marchers, they'd be the most Welsh/Irish-like. The Welsh/Irish/Scottish inspiration, however, is the fight for separation from a conquering centralizing entity--societal/governmental separation from the rest of Westeros--& having a separate identity from that almost like Northmen seeing themselves as different culturally and ethnically from "southorn" Andal people and vice versa bc of their different customs regarding the allowed genders to rule that come from Rhoynar customs.

While there will be Rhoynish elements to fashion, architecture, metalworking, and inflection of the Common Tongue (accent)...it does not stop the Dornish from, again:

recognizing that their state language is the Common Tongue [the Red Princes & some of their descendants of the Martells tried to eradicate the use of the Rhoynish language from the Red Princes] even though many of the Dornish's accents are very influenced by the Rhoynar to the current day

worshipping the Seven and not Rhoynish gods

having some elements of Andal fashion and architecture along with Andal ones, even if the "stony" Dornish have more Andal influence in dress, etc. [think of Spain and its Arab or Islamic architecture...Spain is a European country]

having a class system similar to Andal-FM Westeros: aristocracy, or the "ruling class" vs everyone else [less about the culture here, more about hierarchy structure which is not the same as a culture]

No matter how far down south or into the desert we go. Of course, dress will change in different Dornish regions' climates but also by class and/or wealth.

2.

And this is said screenshot of GRRM talking about the influences that made Dorne what it is ("So Spake Martin", 2000):

"flavor given the culture [previous Andal Dorne preNymeria] by the great Rhoynar influx"

"South of the wall a hot, dry country more like Spain or Palestine [not just Palestine, and this was referring to climate in the first place, not culture]"

"Moorish influence [not dominant power or overlord] in parts of Spain [not an African, Asian, etc. region, again, emphasis on it being like Spain with an "outsider" "influence"]"

"Dorne is Wales mixed with Spain and Palestine with some entirely imaginary influences mixed in" [emphasis on Dorne being claimed as an amalgamation with just one PoC real-world state with PoC populations]

People need to see GRRM's "mixing and matching", and no "non-for-one transplants" regarding PoC influences. Westeros, though obviously an England/Anglo-Saxon "transplant", is still not exactly historically like England in that Dorne is similar but not equal to Wales or Spain or Turkey/Palestine yet not itself equal to a Caliphate due to religion and language.

However, aside from the Dornish not really even being a part of a racialized state under a dominant power racialized as superior, this is what GRRM says about the Dornish and Martells (his blog, 2013):

This is about what GRRM said in terms of JUST physical appearance -> "As for the Dornishmen, well, though by and large I reject one to one analogies, I've always pictured the "salty Dornish" as being more Mediterranean than African in appearance; Greek, Spanish, Italian, Portugese, etc. Dark hair and eyes, olive skin. Pedro Pascal is Chilean. (Check out Amok's version of the Red Viper, that's how I saw him. Or Magali Villenueve's beautiful and sexy portrait of Princess Arianne)."

And this was one of the responses:

Most relevant piece bc it mirrors the anon's definitions of race: "If Alessandro de'Medici was the Duke of Florence, why not a brown man as the Prince of Dorne? Even now, with your description of Dorne as "Mediterranean," I immediately think of the vastness of the region, which saw so much North African and Middle Eastern influence."

This entire exchange on GRRM's website reveals that originally the Martells/most Dornish were inspired by EU Mediterranean people, like the Portuguese or Spaniards, Greeks and Italians.

a.

While it's certainly possible bc of the proximity of geographical locations within the Mediterranean regions and the population makeup of various Italian states including "Moor" and darker-skinned folks, we don't know for absolutely certain if Alessandro de Medici truly had a slave-servant mother or otherwise an Arab/African mother--he was one man whom many in those upper circles wanted gone for their own rise to power.

Unfortunately, while there shouldn't be anything wrong with being of a woman with a different ethnicity or religion, claiming that he was from a "Moor" mother would be a way for other people to try to diminish his reputation and likeness-peerage with those in court as Alicent and the greens trying to claim Rhaenyra was unfaithful to Laenor and that her kids with him are actually bastards to ruin her reputation. It wouldn't be about the "truth" so much as swaying public opinion with certain details of appearance. A political strategy.

At the same time, who knows, perhaps they used the fact of him looking darker than a lot of EUs around them...but the EUs themselves have married N.Africans and also came in several "shades"...so yeah.

If we are only talking Watsoniansly/in-world/in-text vs modern ethnic (not racial) identities, your mother being a "Moor" or Muslim did not make you yourself a Muslim, Moor, or racially "Black" or Arab, and "biracial"/"mixed race"--as a racial term or category of Blackness or whiteness--wasn't a thing for these Italians.

b.

One man/a few people in higher circles or in power doesn't make the entire family or state PoC when most of them appear pale, speak a specific Italian dialect, AND live under European customs forever after and before.

His presence did not recreate the entire Medici or anyone descended from them into Africans/Arabs ethnically nor racially. "Racially", he would have been seen as "more" "noble Italian Christian" than anything, even with some using his skin to liken him to the socially suspected, racialized "Moors". And just because there were absolutely NA. and M.E. influences in many non-EU and EU music, literature, architecture, etc., doesn't make every Mediterranean person PoC. (We find out that the idea of courtly love partially was influenced by an Islamic mystical conception of love itself as being "a delightful disease, as demanding of faithful service" [coming from Crusade contact]. It doesn't suddenly mean that "Italy" [one of the first regions to pass down such things through Petrarch] became/was/is a PoC region. Still doesn't make Italians PoC.)

RACE - Mediterranean/Italian/Spaniard/Portuguese/Southern Europeans have BOTH been racialized as "lesser" whites in early modern period European AND have the closest proximity to the "best" whiteness that always becomes THE definition of "white" under pre-WWII phrenology and eugenic scientific racism. "Best" becomes "true", never leaving its own hierarchy but always able to retreat back into its own "absolute naturality" to justify that created hierarchy. These two things came hand in hand and justified each other because both sought to "prove" that "biological and behavioral characteristics were fixed and unchangeable, and placed individuals, populations and nations inside of that hierarchy" through skull measurements...which itself comes from that medieval idea of one's "nobility" or lack thereof being indicative in appearance.

As I said above, even today, some white people of Protestant-N.European backgrounds sometimes look at Italians/Italian-descent people through their stereotypes of being "hotblooded", and hypersexual "white" people. This is most definitely an element of racialization. These "other" whites are those descended from the NorthWestern regions of Europe (England, France, Germany, and Scandinavia/Nordic people).

c. HOWEVER!!!!! [now we're talking TV adaptations]

The user in the pics above who wished for more PoC representation in the TV and book series through the Martells makes a good point that "Mediterranean" doesn't have to be limited to the European Med regions and peoples. Because N.African, ME, etc. peoples (those not racially classified as "white") are also directly connected to the Mediterranean Sea: Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, Libya, Algeria, etc...it's weird how race makes us consider these people not Mediterranean, but that's race for you, it denies culture and ethnicity for the sake of "white" supremacy

GRRM does conflate the general Mediterranean with EU Med, and that's because the racial category "Mediterranean" defines "Mediterranean" as "white people from Spain, Italy, etc"

While there weren't "black", "PoC", "brown" racial categorizations in any Arthurian legends nor the societies that these came from, there were racializations (as in descriptions and sense of the person that made them different by look by some "degree" even if not toally by "kind") of characters that were told to be of different/non-EU origins.

they were expressing the racial problems with GRRM's original intent for the Martells and some Dornish to be imagined as those who'd be categorized as PoC or brown in the modern world, telling us that there is room for PoC in-world leaders and nobles as there were in Arthurian legends and other medieval romances

They were right to point out the overall, serious difference in how most PoC-confirmed or imagined or similar people were more "supporting characters" to specific "white" characters and that there was a transmedia need for more diversity where the PoC-acted/played characters in adaptations since the original works AND adaptations are made for racialized audiences of the modern world.

d.

Like with Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre--where Rochester's first, "mad" wife, Jamaica-born, Creole-heritage Bertha Mason, aka Bertha Antoinetta Rochester--we see a lot of debate over characters' racial identities between white and PoC readers in multiple EU pieces of literature. This is a thing descended from that academic conflict that is sociopolitically motivated.

The documented hot refusal from many white historians and "lay" white readers to even contemplate the possibilities of a PoC-featured-character (positively or not) under certain circumstances comes from the enduring acceptance and expectation that most mainstream media will have whiteness at the center and default of the story. That the media is created and will be created and should be created for white audiences. which is exactly what we should be breaking.

3.

So, I believe that the reason we have people saying the Martells are PoCs is because they saw the definite potential of modern racialization from the precursors of true racial categories happening in ASoIaF that can become like those in real modern societies; they wanted to see themselves or their experiences in the fiction they engage with, just like that user above. Just like that commentator. So they use South East Asian clothes and other things to fan cast/re-cast/reimagine even after what GRRM has made bc before then they have already built that picture for years since they read the main series and before the show aired.

When English/NW Europeans and pre-1800s writers say things like "swarthy" or "tall, dark, and handsome", they were not usually saying this person was as dark as a Western African but they may sometimes use racial/color ideology to characterize a EU white person as "too passionate", "blustering", "angry", and "lacking enough proper restraint". GRRM is the same, as he tells us in the picture above from his blog!

And since we can't always detect a person's race or lineage just by looking at them, it also still means that they may have African or Middle Eastern ancestry. Then we got to ask ourselves when and where do some of our (mostly the U.S. I refer to, but other countries' racial categories are still very different) definitions of race need to overshadow the text/past racial categorizations and racializations? It's even stranger when you realize that even caring about something like this comes from a very specific history series of particular events of people performing racialization.

But even though the now-Dornish are a people who have been forever changed by pre-Rhoynar Dornish men's intermarriages with Rhoynar women, their kids (and not the nonDornish Westerosi) were the ones to determine what Dorne would look like.

Though they seem to match the definition of a "mixed race" and therefore are equal to persons racialized as "PoC" today, in many societies like the U.S. (one-drop and grandfather clause), that simply doesn't exist for Dorne because there was no nonDornish oppressive power that defined legal racial definitions that affected their infrastructure or made them second-class citizens for them to then develop their own ethnicity like Black people in the U.S, which is its own race-ethnicity developed from legal and economic atrocities and racialization.

Most of the oppression common-born Dornish face is from Dornish aristocracy! Class-based rather than race or religion-based.

Yeah, there's a possibility that some people felt a sort of having two different identities as the kids and even grandkids of Nymeria's women and the pre-Rhoynar Dornish men, but without that element of another group enforcing a new racialization to further divide the Dornish (as Daeron I foreshadows or clues us in?!) all there is that shared history and Martell overlordship, and the Martells are one of those with the most Rhoynish/not-Andal-FM influence. Of course, most of Dorne will follow suit. There are no laws in place to determine who is "PoC", "Coloured", or "white" or any ASoIaF-fantasy version. They have a past/centuries-old and successful intermarrying between (mainly male) Martells and Nymeria's (mostly female) people WHILE having the same language and religion as the rest of Westeros, as well as other customs.

With the way GRRM made them, they are both "white" and not "white" (according to NorthWestern Europeans of the 1800s onwards) because "whiteness" as an actual race is not a thing in Westeros. And for the sake of readers looking for people to claim to have PoCness, whiteness itself has undergone several definitions according to the immediate political needs of those holding the higher positions of power or influence in the state or groups within states seeking political privileges from being racialized by that dominant society's legal and social systems.

This means they can be as "dark" as GoT Oberyn and even have what some modern people see as Arabic physical features (which kinda makes little sense bc Arabs share a lot of features with some "Med" Europeans, especially Turkish ones and Palestinian Arabs themselves have a spectrum of color, face shape, etc.) but we also see how they can be quite diverse in the canon with paler "stony" (not a true ethnicity, this is a racial category that Dornsih people do not see to acknowledge and therefore is not an ethnicity) people and Oberyn's paler daughter Tyene.

Refrain: The Summer Islanders, though, ARE DEFINITELY the "Black" people of Westeros. As GRRM says in the pic I showed.

D)

Again, "race" existed AND continues to exist to differentiate the "inferior" people from the "superior" "white" race of paler-skinned, loose/flat-haired, North-Western-then-South European peoples whose ancestors they could trace or identify with most were Christians. Whether in Brazil, all EU countries, the U.S., etc. Yes, European people/countires can be and continue to be extremely discriminatory and racist, esp against Africans and Romans. Individually and legally.

In the modern world, race is categorized differently across today's world, as evidenced by what "black" means in Brazil vs the U.S.; the South African Coloured group vs "black" vs "white" vs "Indian" (apartheid race categories, and "Coloured" still is relevant and a sort of racial category in S.Africa today); "mestizos" vs "peninsulares" vs "mulattos" of various colonizations-slavery era-to-today S.American, Mesoamerican, Caribbean countries. All because "race" is a socially constructed category, made by culturally-ethnically external persons of power over another group. Ethnicity, however, is and has always been a factually independent phenomenon.

"PoCs" as a term in itself a racial term that means "anyone who is not pale skinned AND of long, consistently 'uninterrupted'/'impure'/ European descent". It is not an ethnic term or a name for an ethnic group.

Ethnicities are social groupings purely based on shared cultural heritage, descent (from specific other ethnicities), culture, religion, and/or language.

In this way, there are 3 main ethnicities in the whole of "Westeros", which are those of FM, Andal, and Rhoynish descent and we could even argue that there may be more unknown smaller groups. And none of these are racial groups! Two of the three also share the exact same religion and language and most customs barring sexuality and primogeniture (except those of the Greenblood, who still speak Rhoynish): those of Andal and those of Rhoynish descent. First Men-descent peoples of the North worship the old gods of pre-human Westeros.

Intermarriages between certain ethnic groups were not systematically and socially outlawed or discouraged to maintain the visible and legal distinctions between racialized groups in either Dorne nor not-Dorne. No ethnic or religious groups are banned from taking certain jobs or entering guilds; no particular groups were banned from living in certain areas or even traveling and using certain items and ways of travel. (We're talking about the humans, not the TWStSotE or the giants, bc we are doing ethnic groups, not totally different species.)

How do groups get racialized and prepped for legalized racialization? Governments--monarchies and aristocracies, here--attempting to better organize their control over populations and consolidate power after past and very recent conflicts with "foreigner-conquerors" like the Muslim conquest of Hispania by the Umayyad Caliphate, to whom the anon before referred (Limpieza de sangre).

Why are they "foreign", besides coming from a literally other region and culture? Medieval people's primary identity marker besides class was religion, and Muslims were considered actual enemies of Christian societies in Europe. People saw religion as the means by which people were "inherently" different:

Especially in a period like the Middle Ages, when religion meant membership of a community much more than adherence to a set of principles or beliefs, there was a sense in which one was born a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew, just as one was born English or Persian. ("Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity"--Robert Bartlett)

This is also why in medieval literature, Jewish people were referred to as "black" and "dark-skinned" pseudo-metaphorically, as Christians had the "true" faith and therefore were spiritually "bright" or closer to God's "light". And humoral theory, with Jewish people being conceived of as a people with a more melancholic constitution (black bile = melancholy -> night, evil, malice, envy):

The Isagogue, an Arabic introduction to Galenic medicine translated into Latin in the eleventh century, similarly explains that dark skin identifies black bile as the body's ruling humor. (8) The linking of black or dark skin with melancholy continues in European texts of the twelfth and thirteenth century. Short poems delineating humoral types circulate widely in the period; the "Melancholicus" is described as "envious and sad, greedy and close-fisted / not without deceit, fearful, and of mud color [lutei]. ("The Jewish body in black and white in medieval and early modern England"--M. Lindsay Kaplan)

Thus Jewish people were named "black" for their nonChristian-ness and thereby untrustworthy or "grasping" natures.

Then there is the separate history of the idea that "nobility" (as in "bravery", "virtue", and overall "good and attractive 'quality'") could be seen outwardly and obviously through physical features that curiously never actually get a consistent list or picture until the 1200s-1300s (it's always been at least grey eyes and/or blonde hair). We have to remember that the ancient Greeks and Romans were used as the medieval Europeans' inspirations for medicine, morality, philosophy, beauty standards, etc., and they themselves did not give highly detailed portraits of what makes a person "beautiful" or even in just describing women in other than vague, noncomparable terms or singular traits: Athena had "grey-eyes" and that's it...Aphrodite's hair was "long", Briseais was "tall", Chiseas was "not tall", and Hera had "nice arms". Their main concern was what men looked like and if their bodies looked "strong".

It wasn't until poets and bards of the 1200-1300s began to make lists of more features that made women attractive that we get more detailed portraits of "good-looking" people and men vs women attractiveness. (For women, the "best" became to have small and high breasts, grey eyes, blonde hair, pale skin, white teeth, a mouth like a rosebud in size and shape, wider hips, a plump butt, and finally a round and pudgy belly. Basically a "pear-shaped" body). And this turned into the literary device of the "blazon", which the medieval poets (Petrarch popularized it) and later early-modern period poets, dramatists, and other writers, as PoetryFoundation says:

A literary blazon (or blason) catalogues the physical attributes of a subject, usually female. The device was made popular by Petrarch and used extensively by Elizabethan poets.

describing and making the body as a list of individual parts instead of its own whole thing, so that parts of the body can be compared to other things and thus give a certain characterization to the subject that way. The subject themselves becomes less themselves and more the perspective and "dream" of the writer/audience.

And "racial and racist stereotypes—even ostensibly positive ones (such as “Asians are good at math”)—by definition, conflate and confuse biology and culture" ("Were Medieval People Racist?").

Combined -> the setup(s) for early modern-to-current racializations.

E)

We do see some of this sort of attempt or precursor of solid racial categorization from the nonDornish towards Dornish people regardless of class: "salty", "sandy", "stony", and less known, those people who still speak Rhoynish and live by the Greenblood:

The "salty" vs "sandy" vs "stony" things are all exonymic proto-racial categorizations (like the term "Moor") that still don't present different real racial consequences among those Dornish.

Exonymic? Meaning that they are not categorizations made by the native people--noble or not.

It's not like Daeron I would have out-of-the-blue been able to create these categories without there already existing a socialized link between Rhoynish culture and "negative", not-patriarchal-enough nobility. Rhoynish influence/culture directly defines these categories. (But he didn't impose nor did an entire other group of people impose infrastructural change to Dornish society for the sake of their own created racial supremacy...ever.)

There are/were several battles and skirmishes between Stormlanders, Dornish, people of the Dornish Marches, and Reachmen Dornish. AWoIaF relates, "hot-bloodedness and sexual licentiousness, and are still viewed with some mistrust and rivalry by the people of the neighboring Dornish Marches and the Reach". Dorne's equal primogeniture (i.e., far less intense and critical misogyny) and freer sexuality are those things that are made more definitive of the Dornish's political difference and separation from the non-Dornish aristocrats at least at the time of Daeron II's court and marriage [zaldrizer-sovesi] AND "race" as a concept does not track equal to what we consider "race" and those racial experiences PoCs have in modern societies despite these definitions WHILE still indicating ethnic discrimination.

It's funny, because rather than the Jewish "melancholia" described above, the Dornish, by their nonDornish association, would be considered a "sanguine-choleric" people for their "hotbloodeness" and "sexual licentiousness" that really comes from:

a long history of skirmishes with other Andal peoples, then the first 3 Targs and still surviving as their own state, then those eternal ones for revenge and small pieces of resources between houses along the borders of Dorne to the north...leading to the fierce Dornish independent identity

comparatively freer sexualities and fewer sexual restrictions on gender roles (men and women, as men having sex with other men is very taboo and emasculating in the ND, "100%" Andal-FM culture)

and not treating women leaders as an anathema (equal primogeniture)

Yes, there is no racial Dornish diaspora like there is a Jewish or Black diaspora ("the dispersion or spread of a people from their original homeland" usually due to wars, violence, displacement, etc.). With Dorne and Dornish people being politically and culturally independent--both in idea and practically since before Daeron II's marriage to Myriah Martell--there were definitely Dornish people moving in and out of nonDornish Westeros and some would inevitably live in ND Westeros, these people are migrants-dual-subjects of a state that is still in all the ways it matters, independent. unlike Black people in the U.S. or Coloureds in S. Africa, whose governments historically and currently gave/enforced these categories developed from European-to-settler/colonist racialization. And unlike anti-Semitic/Islamophobic laws & anti-blackness and other real-world measures, there is no evidence of any oppressive laws or daily discrimination against Dornish communities (I'll say the Sylvenna Sand of Dance fame is an indication of Westerosi patriarchy looking at Dornish less-intense patriarchy as a lesser-"dangerous" identity maker).

Their "racial?" identities also do (yet, if it will go exactly like real life) not have the oppressive or racial context that enables people to argue that Rhaegar left Elia, didn't love her, or valued her and her position as his wife because he felt racially superior to her--esp with how we have no literary (symbols, metaphors, parallels in-text) nor direct evidence of Rhaegar seeing Elia through a racial bias as his father does with Rhaenys their daughter when she was presented (which is what this entire thing came from, as Elia/Martells stans claimed and what drives that argument in this post/reblog HERE).

It is that the Dornish will be considered the lesser "race" if there ever came a time when they were ever truly conquered and imperialized by ND peoples from Westeros. For now, it is far more accurate to say that there is ethnic bias against the Dornish or the Martells that could slide into racism.

GRRM created a world and fantasy series that is trying to simulate a medieval racialization of people WHILE also inevitably showing the roots of modern civilization, which are two different forms of racialization that are nevertheless connected. In other words, GRRM hasn't successfully made 1-1 analogs concerning race.

But does "origin"="being"? How and why?

Therefore, we do see a race or race existing in Westerosi ideologies, but it is BOTH not as prominent as how they regard how women should be treated AND comparatively more fluid to modern-day race and even changeable.

Refrain: The Summer Islanders, though, ARE DEFINITELY the "Black" people of Westeros. As GRRM says in the pic I showed. I have to repeat this because I can see people trying to take advantage of it.

In All...

A people of the first few "mixed" Rhoynar and "100%" Andal Dornish children from intermarriages that are no longer just "mixed" individuals. To claim that they are anything else is to begin the process of racialization, as such a phenomenon (intermarriages between previously separated ethnic groups to become a new distinct one) actually happens more often than not, and to make it unique to just the Dornish is to Other it for racial categorization, as NonDornish aristocrats probably would do. Fans refer to the state of "Westeros" as a "nation", it was not a nation but a territory of several states and smaller fiefs owned by nobles who collected taxes from local peasantry and probably gave a portion of that to the King/Monarch, keeping the "King's peace" (feudalism). The reason why there is a divide between "NonDornish" and Dornish people is the measure of how much Andal vs. Rhoynish culture makes the infrastructures and political practices in the respective regions, and there just so happens to be much more Andal-influenced regions and more people than Rhoynish-influenced without Andal culture becoming either true or "official" overlords over Dornish people in any unique or oppressive way different from how the Monarch is the "overlord" over a Stark, Karstark, Tarly, Hightower, Lannister, etc.

I think anon from that ask is saying that GRRM intended for the (arbitrary number) 80% of Dorne (therefore "Dorne") to be PoC and thereby make it a PoC state/people through choosing to mix several ME, SE, and N. African cultures's properties into a new fictional "Rhoynar" people. To them, this mix-match defines the Dornish as PoC because they see the Dornish people as being a "mixed-race" group of individuals like biracial children of modern interracial couples, and they continue to be biracial exactly as conceived until the current time of ASoIaF.

However, the modern "mixed-race" depends on the already existing races created by the world one lives in and only can be active and politically real races within a society with such definitions and dynamics of race built into its legal & education systems.

Still, though PoCs are historically and currently oppressed groups (aside from EU Jews, who were/are white and were continually oppressed) in places where European imperialism and colonialism reshaped previous societies, it's not correct nor wise to say that all or most PoCs draw their very being/humanity from discriminatory violence alone instead of the racialization oppressive groups performed because identity itself is not as simple or absolute and enduring as race and oppressive regimes try/tried to make. Or their ethnicity, like Black Americans. It's just that:

racial identity is political identity, not inherent or made "true" by those oppressive forces, that is exactly what those oppressors want (proving "might" = "right")

Elia would never have experienced anything equal to even what a richer PoC person does in the U.S. in terms of race

the Dornish are not PoCs!

Refrain: The Summer Islanders, though, ARE DEFINITELY the "Black" people of Westeros. As GRRM says in the pic I showed.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Doriana Gray (Franco, 1976)

When I’d seen a lot fewer of Jess Franco’s movies, I used to joke about his constant zooms, but I think this movie, one of my favourites of his filmography, shows how intoxicating the effect can be. The sex scenes here are as explicit as any in hardcore pornography, and the camera certainly gets closer than would be polite to the performers’ intimate areas, but there’s something about the way the camera pans across their bodies, zooms out from one part of their anatomy and zooms in to look at their faces, and adjusts focus like a breath of excitement, that feels sensual to me that the sheer explicitness of these scenes might not initially suggest. In a much less graphic scene, Monica Swinn walks by as Lina Romay plays the piano and stops to kiss her and the camera loses focus, conflating the characters’ arousal with ours and certainly Franco’s. Swinn, who is something of an audience surrogate here, initially approaches Romay to interview her for a feminist magazine, and the zooms on both their faces during a conversation (while Swinn eats fruits with a knife and fork for some reason), emphasizing Swinn’s openness and curiosity and Romay’s pout and round brown eyes, let us be seduced along with Swinn. Revisiting this so soon after my viewing of Draguse provides for an interesting contrast, as Swinn is the one doing the seducing in that movie while she is being seduced here. Also interesting to note is the fear one of Romay’s characters has about the impermanence of her beauty, when Franco would movingly continue to convey her beauty throughout his work as the two remained together for the rest of their lives.

The fact that this largely takes place in one location gives it an appropriately intimate effect, one which primes us for seduction. I do think it’s worth noting that the architecture of Romay’s castle, as with many historical buildings in parts of Spain, seem to be of Moorish influence, and the soundtrack includes eastern sounds like mandolins or sitars. While one could take issue with a certain glibness here, I find Franco takes an attitude of appreciative exoticism when evoking the Islamic world. There’s a willingness to find beauty in the architecture and channel its seductive qualities in ways that complement the ambience in his movies. At least from the ones I’ve seen, the effect hasn’t seemed disrespectful. And I think the décor here provides a nice visual complement to the bursts of colour provided by Romay’s costumes and the surrounding palm trees, and even the glimpse of the rainbow that provides one of the movie’s most memorable images.

And there’s that classic Franco sense of fluidity, rendered somewhat literally with the seaside rhythms and the denouement in the pool and other, more explicit images I’ll let you discover for yourself. And even the English dub with which I watched this (for some reason my DVD included the French audio but no English subtitles) adds to the insularity, the heaviness of the dub almost evoking the echo that you’d get in an underinhabited castle like this, and complementing the morbid dissonant effect the movie deploys during cries of both pleasure and anguish. There is a sense of tragedy here, evoked by Romay’s vigorous dual performances, of characters ultimately felled by their appetites or otherwise cursed to purgatory. But perhaps they are less so succumbing than willingly surrendering. This movie was the subject of my first published piece, something I’m a bit proud of (especially as I got published a total of two times and gave up trying immediately after when I got my first rejection), and I noted there how strangely inviting the conclusion feels. Which is appropriate, as this is a movie about seduction.

[itsahotminuteinbetween]

pspspsops

hi 👀

i havent decided yet what culture i want the genie dca to come from but if you would like to infodump about arabian or persian clothing (both royal and commoner wear) i am all ears

hmmmm

Okay, I don't really know too much abt clothing (unfortunately not much of a historical expert), but here's what I can tell you:

as said before, clothing typically depends on the region and the culture/ religon of the place, as well as the place in society

So, as said before, higher class is gonna wear brighter colors (ex: purples, greens, blues, bright yellows) with complex designs, while commoners wear duller colors (browns, creams, whites, some dull greens or yellows, a few blues) with more plain fabrics

I think I mentioned fabric type earlier, but here it is again: silks and satin were reserved for the more wealthy, while commoners typically just stuck to cotton

Richer people wore LOTS of jewelry. Gold chains with patterns of stones, large necklaces with jewels hanging off of them, bracelets that jingle with every movement...style depends on the place. A lot of places like to incorporate eyes into jewelry and decor, so that's a place to start. Simple bead bracelets can have engravings with arabic text. Beads can be huge or small and simple. Kohl ( an eyeliner) is pretty popular, as is henna in a a lot of places. Henna art can usually be done on the hands and arms.

If you're trying to find a country to base it in, I'd recommend doing your own additional research in case. I'd suggest going with somewhere further out from the heart of the Middle East. So think more northwest: Turkey or Syria or maybe Iran (Persia in the olden days), as opposed to Saudi Arabia or Iraq or Egypt. Based on your genie design, I'd assume it'd probably be largely influenced by Indian culture, though you'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable about that. So maybe around or closer to those regions?

If you're wondering about hijabs and veils, not everyone necessarily wore a hijab, though it really depends on the era. If you're asking for religious sides, Islam claims that hijabs were a must from the beginning. History (which I've found some Islamic scholars do in fact agree with on this) says that hijab was actually later introduced as a cultural thing, and started out more as, again, an upper class thing. Women of high standing wore thin veils of silk and satin. This was around 62o-630 CE, I'd say, though, again, I'm not too sure.

Main language would probably be Arabic, although really it was a mix. To be on the safer side, you should probably just stick to English, cuz even among Arabs we struggle to figure out what different people are saying. The language depends on the region and dialect (Ex: people from Egypt and Lebanon are said to be softer with their pronunciation of things, while Iraqis and Kuwaitis are a bit rougher with pronunciation). A single word can have multiple meanings depending on the place you're at, and some dialects have words that technically don't even exist. (Ex: Iraqis refer to tissues as specifically 'Kleenex' because that's the most well known company. Then again, this could just be among my extended relatives, so take this with a grain of salt.)

In terms of clothing styles and choices:

For women, it's gonna be a biiit more modest in some regions as opposed to others. Some places refuse to show a singular inch of skin, while others are pretty lenient. It again, really depends on where you're at. If you're not exactly sure where you wanna place it and want to do what the movie did and make up a place, I'd suggest covering up most stuff, arms, legs, shoulders, etc. Pants and dresses are pretty much interchangeable.

For men...I wouldn't really know, actually. Modern day they don't really care and tend to just wear the typical t-shirts and jeans in some parts, or something a bit more traditional. I guess it was pretty long robe, if you want to think of it like that? They covered up, too, though for a different reason (prob the heat).

If you want to add in a Jasmine, I could give you a small bit of info on rights of the time. Women could hold positions in financing (it is pretty well known that the first wife of Muhammad [Islamic prophet] was a businesswoman and a merchant herself), as well as own and sell property. I'm not too sure if they could hold high positions in government in some places, though in others there were females who did go into battle or become sultanas. In history it is known that many people were ashamed to have daughters and sometimes buried them alive, though this supposedly changed after Islam was spread (whether or not this is true I'm not sure). Slaves were still a thing and continued to be a thing, although during the khalifa it was said that you couldn't enslave a Muslim. Most people don't believe this to be true and say that slavery was completely wiped out after the introduction of Islam, so I'd just be careful about this topic because it kinda depends on who you ask.

In terms of clothing patterns, vines and flowers were pretty popular, as well as this one textile thing I dunno how to describe...if you've seen Persian rugs than it looks similar to those. It's very geometric based, too. Here's a picture to get the idea tho:

....Okay just look up Persian rug and you'll get the idea, I dunno how else to explain it.

Sorry if this wasn't very helpful, I kinda had to rush it cuz I have a lot of stuff to catch up on. Hope this did something, tho!

[thewapolls]

FIEND. you know i never really stopped to think about what the actual etymology for "Fiend" really is. Seems like it derives from Germanic and Old Norse and is actually just a broad word for an enemy or a hated person first and morphed into a term for monsters later. There is no actual lore specific to the word, it was appended to other creatures only after the fact. (i put a D&D fiend in here for lack of a better option)

CHARON or KHARON, mistakenly called KARON in English, is the Greek ferryman on the River Styx who transports the spirits of the dead into the underworld.

EURYNOME is somewhat erroneously taken from EURYNOMOS/EURYNOMUS a greek underworld spirit appropriated into demonology(and not one of various greek mythic figures actually named EURYNOME) but is named in the Dictionnarie Infernal where I assume this reference was taken.

BELPHEGOR a demon notoriously depicted in the DIctionnaire Infernal sitting on a toilet. A favorite of occultists throughout history, but especially in modern japanese pop media. in WA2 the toilet seems to be represented with the throne.

EFREET aka IFRIT are Islamic demons/spirits of the underworld, sometimes described as being made of smoke and fire. They are nowadays embarrassingly better known as the fire summon in the Final Fantasy franchise. It's a shame WA2 had a cool unique model that never came back, instead replaced in Code F and WA4 by this weird furry monster design.

PAZUZU a Mesopotamian wind spirit and patron of pregnant mothers and protector against disease and child theft. PAZUZU is perhaps better remembered now as the name of the demon in the original 1973 Exorcist movie.

[spook-study]

I’m not sure how many people would qualify The Wonder as a horror movie, it sits itself quite prettily in the ‘period drama’ section of Netflix, but I’ll be damned if I don’t give it a fair shake as what I felt the movie truly was, and that’s a horror film. Normally I’d put an enticing gif here of something, but either the title is too vague or the movie hasn’t hit its stride yet, so unfortunately my words will have to suffice.

Right off the bat: the framing device is weird and I didn’t like it, so let’s choose to ignore it here because it proved itself entirely pointless and useless. It’s barely a couple of minutes at the beginning and end anyway. As if the movie wasn’t artsy enough with its popular gray washes and dirt and a sense of ‘naturalism.’ Head’s up: If you are looking for a colorful piece of cinema, look elsewhere.

The Wonder is an inverse exorcism movie. Not quite on the same level as the Shudder original Anything For Jackson, the term inverse is most applicable here, while Jackson is more reverse. The question of what that means is easily answered: Wonder isn’t about a demon, it’s about applying divinity to someone and wanting it to be there beyond reason. It’s characters wish to put Holiness into someone rather than remove, or in Jackon’s case insert, the unholy from within.

It is an intelligently made twist of the religious horror genre, and garners emotions of a different stroke. If we consider exorcism movies to be horror, then so too should The Wonder be considered horror. It plays on the same tropes, the same pace, the same escalation, yet does not view the phenomenon as of the devil, but rather of Christ.

This movie is horrifying. Perhaps it’s the fact that genre star Florence Pugh is in it, or that the whole cast is made up of experienced actors of genre across the board, but it’s unfathomable how anyone could see it as anything else. Set in the late 1800s just after The Great Hunger in Ireland, something generally accepted as the fault of the British, the plot follows Pugh as English nurse Elizabeth, or Lib, sent to watch and investigate whether or not Anna, a fasting girl who apparently hasn’t eaten for several months, is legitimate and ‘a wonder.’ To quote: “[They are] eager to see the wonder in every ordinary child.”

Her investigation is thorough, and without spoiling anything there were definitely one or two details that took me by surprise. Wonder places itself in the new age of horror, this age of what I prefer to call “emotional horror,” where fear is derived from character reaction, intense feelings exchanged, and the revelation of secrets. It is belief in this movie, faith, that are the chains that bind. To be frightened of someone’s faith, and of what that faith may mean, is certainly not a new idea, but one not usually applied to Catholicism or any derivatives of Christianity.

To the modern film, Christianity is the true ‘holy’ faith system. How often have we seen Louisiana Voodoo, or Judaism, or Islam put on the brutal chopping block of horror’s worser, racist tendencies towards faiths? Or villains? Black people, practitioners, Muslims, Jewish characature, Romani peoples, indigenous populations, all victims of the horror genre. But here we have an unspoken fear, universal all in its own right, but decidedly white and European. Unlike other pieces of Catholic horror, however, we don’t deal with devilish nuns or lesbian affairs or dancing in the wood at the witching hour. This movie is about belief, holy faith, and nothing devilish ever graces the text. It deals with the female self image through the illness of anorexia miribalis, which is exactly what it sounds like. While men are allowed to pay penance through self flagellation or other pains of the flesh, it was this way in which women were found to seek holy suffering.

It deals with literacy and understanding through Kitty’s plot, played by Niamh Algar from Censor, which I loved, and the abuse of youth and women. A nun is present to watch young Anna as well, but who is she to speak out against the parish priest? The question the movie begs is simple, yet answered easily enough. There’s a question of complicity. After all, “All over the empire, are not children left to die in ditches and gutters every night of the year?”

Fire is used as a purging thing, a holy flame, and the setting allows for us to naturally draw parallels to the burning of witches, and constantly makes reference to the eternal burning of Hellfire. You can hardly go a minute without the reminder that the ‘miracle’ girl Sarah is sure her brother is burning forever, and the mystery to why is definitely a hardy gut punch. Even if you read the film right, it’s still rough as Hell, pun intended.

The Wonder is smart that way, clever, slow. Very slow, at times. It builds, of that there is no doubt, but it wouldn’t have suffered 15-20 minutes shaved off. Much like we stare at Pugh’s ever-dirtying dress, the sound of Pugh’s feet plodding along through the mud can be rather indicative of the pacing. As mentioned, it’s a gray, almost bland looking film, alternating from overcast outdoor settings to dimly lit candlelight vigils. The use of lighting is, thank god, meticulously designed, which feels like a dying art in this day and age. You can see, but you can also not see. And such is the dichotomy not only of the visuals, but of the concept of the holy spirit. It makes the viewer question who is right, and who is wrong. Darkness so often represents wickedness, or even two facedness. But does it here? Or is it those who are seen in all their glory who are the evildoers? Those who hide in the shadow versus those who are bathed in light.

If you like religious horror, this is a movie for you. If you’re new to religious horror, this might be a really great starting point. There are no jump scares, no gore, no demonic possession. Just plain old human dread. I’ve always liked the feeling of dread in my horror.

Completely pointless framing device aside, The Wonder was a good, if jammed movie that was just a little bit too long. There are a lot of things to think about here; probably being worth a second, or maybe even a third viewing, depending on your taste. The acting was sublime and did in fact live up to the promise of the opening monologue that every character on screen truly believes what they are experiencing is real, an astoundingly bold claim for a horror movie, a genre not exactly known for its groundbreaking performances. Still, there is not one performance, not one moment that fell flat, or felt unbelievable.

Shortcomings aside, it is still worthy of a definite 4/5*

[bopinion]

2024 / 11

Aperçu of the Week:

"Evil will fail and the wonderful future will come."

(Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the "deceased" Kremlin critic and Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny)

Bad News of the Week:

The AfD (Alternative für Deutschland / Alternative for Germany) is a right-wing party. So why should it come as a surprise that it also has right-wing extremist contacts? After all, the line between right-wing populism and right-wing radicalism is blurred. Nevertheless, it came as a shock (hopefully not just to me) that the AfD parliamentary group in our parliament, the German Bundestag, employs more than 100 right-wing extremists.

Yes, that's right: far-right enemies of the constitution work in our legislature, the heart of democracy. You need to know that every member of parliament has the right to a staff. In their respective constituency and in Berlin. To support their work in plenary and in the committees to which they belong. Parliamentarians are hardly limited in their choice of staff, except by the budget.

There are currently 78 members of the Bundestag (out of a total of 735) from the AfD. And they grant right-wing extremists unhindered access to sensitive information, to legislation, to the resources of the democracy they are fighting against. And not even in secret. They are officially active in right-wing extremist organizations. Among them are activists from the "Identitarian Movement", ideological masterminds from the "New Right" and several neo-Nazis.

That can't really be true. This is a Trojan horse with which our democracy is being hijacked by parasites. It is about time for regulations and background checks for the employment of Bundestag staff. No suburban bowling club would accept members on its board who want to abolish recreational sports and, above all, balls. Democratic institutions and especially constitutional bodies need ways to protect themselves from enemies of the constitution within their own ranks. And quickly.

Good News of the Week:

Dutch right-wing populist Geert Wilders sees "no more chance of being head of government". In the election last November, his right-wing party PVV (Partij voor de Vrijheid / Party for the Freedom) surprisingly emerged as the strongest parliamentary group. The cheap campaign slogans "Less asylum and immigration" and "Putting the Dutch first" resonated better with voters than expected.

With this tailwind, Wilders wanted to form a coalition at the head of which he would stand. He wanted to convince the conservative VVD party of long-time Prime Minister Mark Rutte as well as the New Social Contract party and the farmers' party BBB - and now had to realize that he would not succeed.

The result is a stalemate in the "Second Chamber of the States General" of the Dutch parliament. With 17 (!) parties sharing the 150 seats, this will remain the case. Another coalition with a parliamentary majority is virtually impossible. An independent "expert government" is now possible, but this is likely to head primarily towards early elections.

Is that a good thing? No. But it is certainly better than Wilders' participation in government. As a reminder, here are the key points of his political "program": All immigration should be stopped. Payments to the European Union should be significantly reduced. The accession of new members should be prevented. Islam should be rejected across the board. Arms deliveries to Ukraine should be halted. Et cetera. Thank you very much. Europe really doesn't need someone who not only names Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán as his role models, but also seeks to surpass their views.

Personal happy moment of the week:

At the weekend, dear friends and we were faced with a dilemma. After visiting an arts exhibition, we wanted to watch a movie together at their place in the evening. The problem was the language. Because neither my (Canadian) wife's German nor our hosts' English is good enough to follow a complex plot with pleasure. In the end, the solution was a silent movie - the Charlie Chaplin classic "City Lights" from 1931. It worked wonderfully. And it's simply great fun to see how this grand master of old-school cinema uses simple means to ensure a good laugh. Great. I still have three Chaplin films lying around within my dusty DVDs. And I'm already looking forward to watching them.

I couldn't care less...

...that Elon Musk stopped the large-scale talk show "Don Lemon Show" on X - the most expensive hobby in the world - at the last second. Like a rocket exploding on take-off, but perhaps that's a nasty comparison. Why? Because, as a guest on the first episode, he didn't like Don Lemon's questions. It's nothing new that Musk is rather thin-skinned. And has a somewhat idiosyncratic interpretation of "radical free speech" and "without censorship". I would still like a Tesla.

It's fine with me...

...that digital marketplaces like Apple's AppStore or Google's Play App Store for Android, which ultimately also provide the infrastructure and quality assurance, take a 30% distribution margin. Roughly speaking, that's half of stationary retail and less than online stores. Where does this "everything should be free online" attitude come from?

As I write this...

...I discover the music of a colleague. Until he had to bite the bullet of lowly work reasons, he made electronic music at an astonishingly high level. It's pretty timeless and good for chilling out to. My compliments, Marcus!

Post Scriptum

As planned, Vladimir Putin was confirmed in office as Russian president for another six years. No, the election was anything but constitutional, free, independent, fair and neutral. Nevertheless, I consider the 87% to be embellished, but not completely falsified. After all, the majority of the population only has access to state-controlled media. And they present Putin - surprise! - as a strong leader and successful defender of the country against the rest of the world. Who people are happy to support on his mission for Mother Russia. See also the approval of the Ukraine war. Excuse me, the "special military operation against a fascist regime in Kiev". Information is (would be) key. Oh boy...

[kaatiba]

15 qs

i was tagged by @a-crows-corner, thanks! what're your family of frogs' names?

1. Are you named after anyone?

yup, a historical islamic figure which is....deeply ironic considering my fatal flaw (martyr complex)

2. When was the last time you cried?

yesterday, reading flora and ulysses by kate dicamillo. also ten seconds ago, because i yawned.

3. Do you have kids?

i have a niece who is 4 and fantastic and a cat who is 6 and neurotic

4. What sports do you play/have played?

i did soccer briefly and badly one summer.

5. Do you use sarcasm?

yup but i am also pretty bad at detecting it if it's not drawled. (my other fatal flaw: taking everything and everyone v seriously)

6. What's the first thing you notice about people?

vibes.

7. What's your eye color?

dark brown

8. Scary movies or Happy endings

happy endings, i am a sensitive wimp and life is scary enough.

9. Any talents?

i'm really good at remembering faces. unfortunately, this means that sometimes i approach complete strangers convinced we know each other. (i've just seen them while commuting)

10. Where were you born?

in my old house.

11. What are your hobbies?

writing, photography, being chronically online, collecting kpop albums and plants, long walks, existentialism, crocheting, sleeping, reading, and overthinking.

12. Do you have any pets?

aforementioned cat, luna :)

13. How tall are you?

5'7''

14. Favorite subject in school

being a teacher's pet. also, english.

15. Dream Job?

getting paid a living wage to do whatever i want in a cottage in the woods and also travel at my convenience. but my current library job is the best i've ever had, so, you know. if only the cost of living weren't so high...

tagging: whichever fifteen of you read this <3

[angelfoodcake222]

Vampiric Dark Orchastral Trolls.

Do I have your attention yet? Yes? Good.

🧛🍷😈

~Think of the Classical/Orchestral trolls in Trolls: World Tour but darker, bat-like wings tipped with bony cloak clasps/appendages that clasp over their doubled/tripled-size bodys, & just as scary as you'd imagine them to be but with that vampiric/uncanny/otherworldly beauty about them.

~I'm thinking something like the Albanian variety of Trolls that bear strikingly Dhëmbpirë-like biology: pallid/pale skin, elongated/pointed/bat-like ears, discolored eyes, optionally present fangs, the whole kaboodle.

~Maybe their/her/his hair isn't like the Trolls we've come to love or hate throughout the three movies (as of writing this): where the usuals have an upright, bouncy, lively quality to them, theirs/hers/his has a flat,  traditionally "human" aesthetic that looks to be weighed down from length or as a side effect of living in the cold rocky peaks deemed home via evolutionary survival needs.

~Cold af environments = narrowed (possibly bloodshot, dilated) eyes, bright eyes [Think of Riddic] straight, extra fur/hair for heat containment, comparably sizable claws, fangs/teeth & muscles (Upper body, legs???) for swift, even uncanny climbing speeds, heightened hunting skills for their predominantly carnivorous diet, all the predatory traits of a born, bred hunter.

~I have a lot of names to pick from, though they are mostly corny &/or basic. If you have any suggestions, reblog &/or comment them, please & thank you.

Boys/Unisex

Afrim - Albanian. "Sincere & honest". 

Alban - Albanian. "white".

Altin - Turkish. "Gold". Popular among Albanian boy names.

Bujar - Albanian. "Generous/generosity". 

Burim - Albanian. "Riverhead" or "fountain". 

Dardan - Albania. "Pear".

Dren - Albanian. "Deer". Unisex.

Driton - Albanian. "Light". It is also spelled Dritan. 

Erjon - Albanian. "Our wind". Used as a given name & a surname.

Esad - Arabic. It is the Albanian form of the Arabic name Asad. "Lion".

Fatmir - Albanian. "Lucky/good fortune".

Fisnik - Albanian. "Noble/gallant". 

Gjon - English. The Albanian form of John.

Flamur - Albanian. "Flag/flag bearer".

Gezim - Albanian. "Happiness".

Kreshnik - Albanian. Comes from the Albanian word for "a knight".

Luan - Albanian. "Lion".

Roel - Germanic/Dutch. "Famous land".

Skender - Greek. Skender is an Albanian version of Alexander which means "defender of man".

Agron - The name of an Illyrian king. "so-called he who was born in the countryside" or "by the dry ground". More research is needed...

Arben - A name for citizens of Illyria. It means "brave" & is an alternative version of the name Arber. 

Ardian - From the Aridaei Illyrian tribe.

Bardhyll - "White star". The name of an Illyrian king.

Barteo - "Hill" or "furrow". Son of the farmer (???).

Cestislav - "Honor/glory".

Gaso - "Guardian of the treasure". A derivative of Casper.

Ilir - "Freedom/free". A character from Albanian mythology.

Sersah - "Worthy of reverence".

Zaco - "God remembers".

Girls/Unisex:

Afordita - Greek. Albanian version of Aphrodite. It is also used in Slavic languages, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Agnesa - Greek. It is the Albanian form of the Greek name Agnes which means "pure/chaste".

Albana - A name inspired by Albania. It means "white/fair".

Amaris - Hebrew. "child of the moon".

Aria - Italian. "Solo melody".

Bora - Turkish. "Snow".

Diellza - Albanian. "Sun".

Drita - Albanian. "Light". From the Albanian word 'drite'.

Emina - Latin. "Eminent; Trustworthy". A much-beloved name, it is popular in many Slavic countries.

Flutura - Albanian. "Butterfly".

Klea - Greek. "Glory". A version of Cleopatra.

Lindita - Albanian. "The day is born".

Lule - Albanian. "Bloom".

Manjola - Latin/Old French. "Magnolia". The name comes from French botanist Pierre Magnol.

Reina - Spanish. "Queen".

Shpresa - Albanian. "Hope".

Sumejja - Arabic/Turkish. Sumejja is the

Albanian form of Sumeyya or Sumaiya, who was the first Islamic martyr. It means "high above" or "exalted".

Tirana - Greek/Latin. "Song/Anthem" or "A city formed of solid materials, a fortress". It is also the name of the largest city & capital of Albania.

Valbona - Albanian. "the Good-valley" The name of a river in Albania.

Vetone - Albanian. "Strong warrior".

Ajola - "Genius, Good, Good Judger". A version of the Illyrian name Aiola ("Loyal, Strength/strong, Beautiful").

Ardita - "Golden" day. The feminine form of the boy name Ardit.

Cecilya - "Blind, unseeing".

Elira - "Freedom loving and compassionate". A name derived from the Illyrian tribe.

Enkeleida - "Eel People" (Much more research needed) One from the Illyrian tribe of the same name. 

Genofwica - "Fair one" or "white wave".

Gentiana - Latin. "Gentle soul", "Delicate spirit". A flower named after the last Illyrian king Gentius who discovered the plant’s healing properties. 

Tadia - "Praising God, courageous". 

Teuta - Greek. "Mistress of the people", "Queen". She was the Queen Regent of the Illyrian tribe from approximately 232- 227 BCE.

~I could think of a few more but my brain is fried on names for now.

~They/she/he probably has domestic hobbies like knitting, crochetting, doll making/repair, cobbling, singing (probably mainly vocalazations, clicks whistles, folk lullabys), dancing (be it on land or in the air), textile weaving, & cooking.

~Obviously, they/she/he plays classical instraments like the ever-popular & famous violin, piano & cello though there are other options such as the harp, viola & double bass.

~Probably proficiant at the organ, too.

That's all for now, dearies! Have a lovely day!

[viktoriathewitch]

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[orlaite]

I know I know a movie can only be so long and it's supposed to tell it's own, self-contained story not be a literal adaptation of Pillars word for word but stilll..... I would've loved to see more of the religious aspect of the book in the movie. There's the Islamic call to prayer and the reading aloud of the Koran in Faisal's tent but the conflict in Lawrence as a sedentary, white English Christian pertaining to be leading nomadic, Bedouin Muslims is really devoid of the religious aspect in the movie and while it's understandable (inflammatory as that could be as a baseline the overt Messianic imagery already apparent in the film could perhaps then be seen to be in poor taste. Which, boo) it's regrettable. Insofar as the movie we got is still nothing short of perfect.