#like i get it dude tolkien is your god and your hero i can respect that but i still don't care!

[thewritingpossum]

the way i don't want to do that one paper on tolkien...

[whocalledhimannux]

oyou know what, fuck it. I’m drunk on a Tuesday night and I’ve been talking about Jews in an old fandom for the last couple of days so I’m going to make my case for Jewish Relius, in full acknowledgement of the fact that it makes no sense in canon

so the maps of the QT world seem to sort of imply that this is a world where Turkey/possibly parts of Iran and Iraq share a land bridge with Africa, cutting out most of the Sinai peninsula including Eretz Yisrael. which would make the existence of Judaism (or Christianity or Islam for that matter).... difficult. but not totally impossible! because Avraham Avinu is said to be from Ur, which historically was on the Persian Gulf which is roughly analogous to the QT great southern ocean. so it’s totally possible to sub one of those Three Cities or Hemet in for a fictional QT Jerusalem.

and it’s then real easy to make a fictional diaspora in the Hephestian Peninsula because of all that imperialism in the Mede region (am I making Immakuk an antisemite in this au? hope not. he can be that fucking dude. what’s his face. Cyrus? the one who ended the babylonian exile), and the Greek Jewish diaspora is one of the oldest in the world, going back a solid 2100 years, well within the QT-equivalent era.

and yknow, by Gen’s time people are pretty lackadaisical towards the gods, which is Good for the Jews, because we tend to do Not Great in times of strong nationalistic  religion and cultural hegemony.

anyway that’s my argument for Jewish QT characters in general

now let’s move on to my boychik Relius

I am aware that this could play into stereotypes given that Relius is a very Suspicious Slippery character who ~Betrays his Country~ and has a voracious sexual appetite but consider this

I Can Do Anything I Want

setting aside the sex stuff because sex is Good actually and all my favorite people are LGBTQ Jews

gross stereotypes very often have their roots in something Real but misconstrued

we see this in QT itself. very, very, very frequently, characters resort to trickery and lies and underhandedness because they are members of an underclass and therefore do not have the luxury of above-board measures--Pheris weaponizes ableism, Irene weaponizes sexism (moreso than Helen, who tends to defy it outright). Relius and Kamet are a bastard and an enslaved person, respectively (and okloi as a matter of course) and that shapes their personalities to a POWERFUL degree

so too the Jews. for a significant portion of European history, Jews were legally okloi as a class, pushed into trade because they were forbidden for owning land. being non-landowners deprived them of most of the legal rights afforded subjects/citizens, but in some ways also was beneficial, in that they were more mobile and had more avenues for success and stability if something like, say, a war or a flood or what-have-you bankrupted farmers and landowners. at various points, various European nations also employed Jews as the enforcers of the state financial apparatus. Christians and Jews alike are forbidden from charging interests to their in-group, but without interest, nobody is fckig giving loans to anyone, and if no one can get a loan, that’s a significant damper on the economy. so, the king puts Jews in charge of banks, because Jews can charge Christians interest. the king puts Jews in charge of collecting taxes. “court Jews” do the bidding of the monarchy because putting themselves under the king’s protection gives them access to wealth and power they would otherwise be barred from, AND ALSO protects them from outbursts of religiously or politically motivated antisemitic violence because fucking No One likes the tax collectors or the bank’s loan officers

which is to say - Shylock was the tragic hero of Merchant of Venice, actually

and Relius can fit a stereotype and still be Good Jewish Representation if he is written with all the love and sensitivity and historical nuance I hold in my heart

side note: all the Tolkien fans who were mad at me for writing Jewish Dwarves because I was ~stereotyping them~ when I was just trying to add nuance to Tolkien’s blatant “they were meant to be Semitic” bullshit can still fuck right off

where was I going with this

okay so

Judaism is matrilineal and Relius is raised by his mother and his father is a steward but doesn’t acknowledge him and he’s sort of three-times stereotyped as a bastard, an okloi, and an Outsider, barely Attolian tbh, doesn’t acknowledge the old gods or the new

and he learns how to manipulate people as a matter of survival and he thrives and there’s some kind of parallel to be made between Mordechai and Esther and Relius and Irene, I’m pretty sure--

Mordechai is the uncle of a young woman who becomes the queen of Babylon or Persia or something and he helps her get there and there’s this whole Thing where an evil advisor is going to kill the Jews and Mordechai is like “perhaps it is for this moment that you have become queen?” and Esther becomes a hero and we have a whole holiday about getting drunk and eating food in the shape of the evil guy’s hat/fingers/ears

the way he guilts Kamet in that Thick as Thieves scene. very Jewish.

the fact that he’s in love with Teleus, who is Extremely Goyish. reminds me of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, when Sammy falls in love with a blond named Bacon. the Intellectual loves the Jock. shocking.

my god, the fact that he’s always poking his nose into other people’s business. because of national security? no. because he NEEDS to be the most well-informed gossip at Kiddush after Shabbat services. prior to her marriage, all of his reports to Irene were made over a dixie cup of wine, while clutching a plate from the buffet, looking across the room at the people they were talking about

the short velvet cape he affects even in summer? actually a tallit. Costis, too, is the most hopelessly goyishe man who’s ever existed and just forgot to mention the fringes.

he’s into history (Jews fucking love history) and astronomy (because he has that sphere thing--and you know, astronomy is useful for a lunar calendar), and he plays the flute. you know why there are no Jewish piano players? because you can’t flee the country with a piano. but a flute fits the bill.

oh man, his lessons with Pheris could be ripped straight out of any Jewish-American Eastern-European immigrant story about a cheder. Jews Love education and don’t fully give a shit about not scaring children in the process.

that’s the proof, and may I add the headcanons:

Relius enjoying a very long, leisurely meal on Friday evenings for Shabbat, drinking wine, singing/enjoying music, discussing grammar/translation, poetry, and philosophy with his dinner guests (Kamet, Gen, Irene, Pheris. Teleus and Costis mostly there for eye candy.)

Relius in the beginning of his career being more cautious, and then becoming more comfortable in his position and being like actuallyyyyy, I will keep kosher and keep the Sabbath, thanks, and if I’m a workaholic who writes spy reports on Saturdays that’s None of Your Business. I will get mad at people who expect me to work on the sabbath anyway.

got a lil silver hamsa pendant with a sapphire evil eye he wears all the time.

favorite holiday is Pesach. what can I say, Greek Jewish boy loves a symposium.

in conclusion: if you understood this post, the most niche post I have ever created in my life, please dm me so we can be friends. Relius’s Hebrew name is Reuven in honor of the fact that that would be my Hebrew name if I were a man. good night.

[superbdragoncollection-stuff]

A Visual Reference guide to my thoughts through Agony of a Witch

This is a visual guide of my reactions to Wing it Like Witches, written with notes I took during the episode that were typically stream of consciousness. Well, they said it would be an angsty week. I can take it. Let’s see now…

Oh my.

Well this is different.

This is very different

Oh hey, Lily! How are you, hon? I trust you’re well?

I’m wondering if he’s collecting witches just to absorb their power...

“Gah! What the frell--?! Oh, it’s just you.”

Hm, now she might actually be a legitimate threat. How are they gonna get out of this one? Lily, come on, you’re better than this…

Oof, that title.

...Does he have a head for that hat?

Hm, seems like she’s rolling out a proper military force…

AAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FRELL?!

ARE THEY EMPTY?! I HOPE THEY’RE EMPTY!

“Be vewy vewy quiet, I’m hunting owls…”

Owl season!

Witch season

Lily nearly killed herself again! It’s okay, just walk it off, friend...

“Lily, you magnificent witch, I read your book!”

Where’d she get those field glasses? Oh god, Eda and Patton, there’s so many thoughts in there...

Huh, nice scarf, Eda! As a fellow scarf aficionado, I approve.

“Dude’s getting beaten up in the background--”

This ain’t about him.

*Click

click*

“Mom, I don’t like it when you tempt fate like--”

“Oh dren.”

Huh...that look at her younger self...

I don’t have a quip, this was just funny

Whoa. Mom really burned through her prescription.

“Jeez you’re morbid!”

“I’m fine!”

Eda, friend, pal, you just drank an entire month’s prescription

DON’T MAKE LUZ SAD!

“Parallel arm thing”, I love it

Aww, I thought she was just gonna keep the fabric for herself!

Luz, where’s your girlfriend?

WHAT THE FRELL, HOOTY?! WHAT IS THIS, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS?!

Luz, go find Amity right now. I’m sure she knows the brain bleach spell.

Hah! That bird!

Luz, where’s your girlfriend?

Luz, where’s your girlfriend?

Luz where’s your--?! Is that an owl baby?

...I’m having serious questions about free will right now.

Luz, where’s your girlfriend?

LUZ, THE HEIST IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS YOUR GIRLF--

“Emperor built it as a symbol of unity. Before he came to power, people were doing magic all wrong. He taught us that the only way to respect the power the Titan gave us was to join covens.”

AAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE YOTZ?! FIRST OF ALL THIS IS LIKE THAT RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA ISSUE OF PLANETARY, AND SECOND OF ALL, WHAT THE FRELL?! WHITEWASHING, COLONIALISM, NATIVE AMERICAN BOARDING SCHOOLS! RED ALERT, RED ALERT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

Oh, there’s Amity!

Whoo, continuity! And, boo, continuity!

“Shut up.” Well, I can’t see her siding with Lily anytime soon. I like the detail on her cast. That frees her up for the next episode.

“Some”. BOO, DOWN WITH ECONOMIC CLASS!

Hogwarts. Well, we’re in for some chop.

“Peace”? People die every day because they don't have mixed magic!

Oh no. Oh no. Oh dren dren dren! “Savage Ages”?! “Wild magic?!” DISHONORED THE TITAN?! AAAAA THIS IS THE TRIPODS!

"USE MAGIC PROPERLY"?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! THIS IS THE TRIPODS! THEY'VE BEEN CAPPED, THEY'VE ALL BEEN CAPPED! LOOK ON MY WORKS YE MIGHTY AND DESPAIR! I AM OZYMANDIAS, I MET A STRANGER FROM AN ANTIQUE LAND

Oh hey Luz, what're you up to, sweetie?

POWER MUST BE SHARED, THE UNION MAKES US STRONG. HE SHOULDN’T HAVE THIS POWER

WHAT IF THESE WERE COMMON PLACE BEFORE?! IT'S LIKE THE WATCH! AUTOMATIQUE! AUTOMATIQUE! TICK, TICK, TICK

YES LUZ, TAKE BACK THE POWER FOR THE COMMON FOLK! THEY SHALL RUE THE DAY THEY DARED TO

WAIT NO DON’T

Oh hey, Lily, what’s going on?

...Lily did you eat that bird?

Good luck with puberty. Hehehehe-- [spit take] AAAA FORESHADOWING?!

Huh, more Tolkien vibes, the heroes are organic while the baddies have serious steampunk...

Luz, sweetie, please be careful!

What. The frell.

Oh...h-hey Sauron...

I WAS RIGHT HE’S ABSORBING MAGIC HE REALLY IS SAURON

I’M RIGHT WITH YOU, LUZ

[shudder], Frak, it’s like that GTA easter egg...

Who’s that voice…? Ah, a fellow Welshman…

Looks like the heart in Eda’s diagram…

THE FRELL THEY’RE SCREAMING IN AGONY!

Aw, mom’s making stuff

Oh hey, is that Narsil?

OH GOD NO PLEASE NOT AN IMPOSTER SUBPLOT

OOOHHH THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOUUU

Hey, she’s got her girlfriend’s grabby hands

Aww, he just pet it!

Nice, nice, blowtorch

Aww, that poor guard

...how does Gus know the worm? I forgot that was even a thing

“I can feel the magic! It just cured my...whatever it is I didn’t know I had!”

Aww, your best self!

Aww, Willow! It’s like Samwise and being tempted by the ring!

“You cannot hide...I see you...there is no life in the void...only death.”

Oh...hi Saruman.

Also, “pet”? RACIST!

Wait that round artifact...

BAD TOUCH BAD TOUCH

Mom’s happy!

I need a King plushie.

WAAAAAHHH SHE WAS GONNA GET LUZ A GIFT

...Then the badness happened!

“Did someone touch my frakking kid?

...Lily.”

“Oh hey Edalyn! I see you accepted my challenge of--”

“Um.”

“What the yotz, Edalyn?! You coulda killed me!”

“AAAAAA”

“So I kidnapped a kid, what’s the big deal?”

Mom is mad…

Lily, that kid is one of exactly two things keeping her from removing your tonsils out through your ears. Don’t mess with her.

“That’s my kid you’ve got, Lily.”

Also, she’s totally right.

“Huh. Maybe she’s actually attached to this kid.”

DANA EDA IS SCARING ME

Wow.

Wow.

Lot of anime influence…

[CRITICAL SPEECH FAILURE: UNABLE TO FABRICATE NEW WORDS]

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

[SPEECH CENTER RESTORED]

I’m speechless.

Oh yeah, BRING THE RAIN EDA!

LILY?! WHAT THE YOTZ ARE YOU--?!

OH...YOU...FRAKKING...COWARD! YOU FRAKKING WINNOWILL IMPERSONATOR! YOU’RE USING A KID AS A HUMAN SHIELD! YOU COWARD, YOU--YOU--

I agree with Eda on the pathetic! Lily, you can’t beat her without a human shield! A child human shield!

Good thinking, Luz!

They looked down on each other. Now that’s interesting familial baggage...

Hey, you were the one who was team captain and boasted about that--

...

YOU...YOU...YOU WHAT?!

LILY YOU DID WHAT?! YOU...OH, I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS!

DON’T KILL HER EDA, THAT’S WRONG, BUT I WON’T MIND IF YOU PUNCH HER TEETH--

TAP-DANCING CHRIST WHAT?! AAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Oh no.

...

...

...

...

No...

“Once was blind, but now I see...”

YOU MONSTER! GET HER LUZ, GET HER!

OH YOTZ OWLBERT!

SHE’S YOUR SISTER YOU DRENNED MONSTER! I UNDERSTAND YOU WERE KIDS, BUT YOU’RE STILL HOLDING ONTO THAT?! 

"Go back to your world, this one is ours." Well then, we gotta bring Earth here.

WAIT WAS SHE WRITING THE LETTERS--?!

…

…

…

Oh...Invader Zim reference…

OOOHH! YOU POOR KID!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[kingjasnah]

actually. actually let’s talk about diversity in fantasy let’s give that a go. im mad and im gonna be that way for a while

don’t want to read all this? fair. tldr: fantasy writers who rely not only on the medieval europe model but also hide behind historical accuracy in 2020 (fuck it, from ‘95 onwards) are lazy and unimaginative and should be held accountable no matter how many white 20 year old dudes jerk off to whatever power fantasy is embedded in the plot. so lets chat about that lads. (slightly) drunk rant under the cut

now prelim shit: we know fantasy is used both as escapism and as a way to deal with various traumas via magical metaphor. staples of the genre. even if jk rowling busted out the laziest and at times offensive metaphor for ww2 and racism ive ever seen, she still adhered to time and true tropes. whatever.

so why have we, in this post game of thrones era, become insanely obsessed with realism? i can hear sixty 20-something year old men crying at me rn like oh ohh oh its based off the war of roses oh wahh all medieval fantasy fiction is based off england and the crusades anyway so women should get raped and people of color should be demonized its not racism its xenophobia and also gay people dont exist and disabled people are systematically killed off and if we stretch the magic fixes mental illness thing a LITTLE further we have straight up eugenics.

we all know where the england but myth thing came from. now the thing about tolkien is that while i will always absolutely love lotr, looking at the LAZY state of fantasy? damn i kinda wish he hadn’t revolutionized the genre. the bitch was still racist. he still didnt give a shit abt women (eowyn was just a vehicle to show how much he fucking hated macbeth anyone holding jrrt up as a feminist icon for that needs to sit the fuck down and explain to me why i can count the woman speaking roles in lotr, a story with a name and fleshed out backstory for every minor character, on one hand but thats! another post). he had something to say abt class with sam i’ll give him that but he is still 100% NOT what we need to hold our standards to in 2020. 

i dont want to talk about old school fantasy, like 80s early 90s cause theres literally no point. its sexist, racist, ableist for sure, this we know. david eddings (not even that old school tbh) can rise from the grave and explain himself to me personally and i still wont forgive him for ehlana. 

so let’s talk historical accuracy. quick question. who the FUCK gives a shit? WHO is this elusive got fan who’s out here like blehh actually??? this method of iron production is TOTALLY anachronistic of the time. ummm these vegetables in this fictional world were NOT native to english soil so how are they here? cause i know this is the classic argument but ive never actually met someone who cared about the lack of dysentery as much as they care abt the women getting raped on screen/page. 

god forbid you have to worldbuild for a second god forbid you can’t rely on the idea of fantasy readers already have in their head god forbid you have an original idea god forbid you spend more than two seconds thinking about ur setting (oh i should mention i dont....really blame GoT for its setting cause of how long ago it was og written but trust me i sure as hell blame grrm for writing a 13 yr old giving ‘consent’ to sex with a grown man within the first couple of chapters) 

If we accept the basic premise of fantasy as escapism, and i AM drunk so i will NOT be finding fuckin. quotes and shit for this but come on tolkien said it himself and as much as i’ll drag him he crafted the simplest and most powerful fantasy metaphors on the board rn. But if we know its escapism. If we know. then who is it escapism for? certainly not for me, the gay brown woman who busted through all of GoT in 10th grade. 

modern fantasy lit used as an excuse for that white male power fantasy is literally disgusting. calling historical accuracy is so fucking dumb ESPECIALLY cause we, as ppl in the 21st  century, KNOW women have been consistently written out of the story. poc ppl, gay and trans ppl, anyone with a god forbid disability has been WRITTEN out of history as we know it, INCLUDING the fucking war of the roses so HOW can we hold up testimony we know is flawed to support our FICTIONAL. STORY. just to??? support the white power fantasy?? literally noah fence but if you are a white guy who felt really empowered by every time jim butcher described a woman tell me: how do you think that’ll hold up in classic HisToRiCaL fantasy. you think thats a fucking noble pursuit? or are you grima wormtongue out here. 

(side note: jim butcher stop writing challenge i dont need to know abt every woman on page’s nipples. anyone who hides behind subgenre like that? ‘ohhh its a noir story thats why hes sexualizing everyone’ shut the fuck up an author isnt possessed by a fuckin muse and compelled to bust out 500k they have agency and they have choice and they MADE the choice to reserve said will for none of their female characters)

which brings me to point 2: target audience and BOY is the alcohol hitting me rn but WHO is this for? this isnt the fucking 80s we know poc and other marginalized folk read fantasy FOR the escapism. on god ive had a cosmere focused blog for nearly three years and. im just gonna say it im interacted with A LOT of yall and ive managed to talk to VERY few white straight ppl as compared to everyone else. 

like....who deserves to see the metaphor on homophobia or racism. joanne rowling? the bitch who literally tried to sell us happy slaves and the disgusting aids metaphor and the worst case of antisemitic stereotypes i ever saw in an nyt bestseller? yall think that was for US? or was it for the white guilt crowd. 

literally white people can find any book about them that they can relate to. but hmmm maybe theres a reason gay women care so much about stormlight archive’s jasnah kholin, a brown woman who’s heavily coded as wlw. or kaladin, the FIRST fantasy protag ive ever seen with clinical depression. hmm i wonder why a bunch of millennials are vibing all of a sudden. im not saying sanderson is perfect--but its the best ive seen from a white author tbh

maybe theres a reason a lot of poc vibe with a literary way to express trauma, and maybe thats why i specifically get so pissed when its not done well. theres a REASON books about outcasts pushing through and claiming their own lives are popular with people who arent white and straight and able bodied. Junot Diaz had a point. maybe lets STOP catering to those assholes who think theyre joseph campbell’s wet dream personified. ive lost respect SO many authors who are objectively talented. pat rothfuss can write so beautifully that ive cried to bits of name of the wind but literally i will never pick that series up again (not just because of the felurian. women in general tbh. mostly the felurian ngl) cause 1) i personally KNEW men whod jerk off to that shit and 2) there was no need for it there was no plot reason for ANY of that shit 

so like obviously thers an issue with authors of color specifically not getting recognized for fantasy and genre work but on god??????? im still mostly mad at the legions of white authors churning out the same medieval england chosen one books year after fucking year. have an original thought maybe. also im sorry that you as an author lack the basic empathy needed to examine the way that women? or any group of people that youre explicitly writing about see the world and would specifically see YOUR made up world. 

yes your fantasy should be diverse, but more than that it should be kind. if you as a writer cant respect groups of people who deserve it....what the hell are you doing in a genre that traditionally is about finding ways to express injustice through metaphor? tolkien’s hero was sam. fantasy was NEVER about the privileged. yall know who you are so stop acting so fucking entitled. peace out. 

[sleepingfancies]

Also y’all given the current political climate I am so fucking tired of reading grimdark fantasy stories. Like I get it?? The world sucks and politics are just “games” that fuck regular people over and nothing good can last or whatever, that’s my whole ass reality. Reading GRRM has quite honestly only become more and more of a chore overtime - as much as I still love the story and want to see how it ends - and it’s given me a new respect for Tolkien.

My man JRRT created a potentially world-ending catastrophic plot for his characters. He created corrupt leaders, corrupt people, true evil and the product of hate and powermongering -- but what saved them was friendship!! Love!! The fucking tenacity of two hobbits to see each other through to the end, and a promise, “don’t you leave him Samwise Gamgee.”

Saruman was defeated by his own lust for power, even when given multiple chances to surrender and be redeemed. Sauron was destroyed by his own seduction of Smeagol!! He poisoned Smeagol’s mind beyond repair, to the point where he couldn’t shake Smeagol, to the point where Smeagol was perfectly fine dying in a pit of lava because he had finally obtained the Ring and satisfied his obsession. Smeagol in turn was killed by his undying, devoted love to the Ring.

Even in The Hobbit!!! My dudes!!! Smaug was killed out of his own fury and arrogance - his absolute confidence that he was The Bitch who couldn’t possibly be killed!! Thorin killed not just himself but his two dear nephews in his lust for gold!!! 

My point is the Big Bads of LOTR/The Hobbit were always taken down by themselves. It didn’t have to be some self sacrificing moment because in Tolkien’s mind evil would always crumble under the weight of its own intense desire to spread and gain power. The heroes of LOTR/The Hobbit were never gods or the children mention in prophecies long ago. They were always sustained through the journey by their love and faith in their friends, their companions, and the strength they found from that!!! No matter how perilous it got!! Aragorn ended up on the throne because he earned his place there as a brave soldier, a loving friend, and a truly kindhearted man who forgave Boromir, who held the dead’s oath fulfilled, who wished Eowyn all the happiness the world could bestow on her even though he couldn’t love her in return.

So yes, by all means create a truly harrowing fantasy world where shit is going down the drain fast, where evil is a menacing presence over the world, where people are corrupt and wicked and irredeemable. But please, please allow yourself to create good things, good people, good messages. Truly beautiful, loyal, loving friendships and relationships and acts of kindness are not out of place in your fantasy world.

There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.

[anautisticdragon-blog]

An Evil Race; A Lesser Race? Not in The Adventure Zone!

This piece of art sets the scene for what I want to talk about, here. What I feel most fantastic settings do wrong, versus the ones I'm so fond of that actually get it right (can you already guess what one of those might be?). It's by the very talented Rory Lane Lutter, and you can find the original [[HERE]].

I know I've spoken about this before, but... I'd like to talk about this again, I feel it's important. It's so problematic that I feel it really does need a spotlight shone on it. Especially when you consider the reaction to this particular article about Doom.

Just have a read of those comments.

Anyway, this is the problem I'm often presented with when it comes to video games and fantastic settings (a term which I use to encompass any kind of setting which isn't contemporary earth). I just don't see it talked about, much, and it does kind of get under my skin a little bit.

Let's consider how often we see the term 'Lesser Races' in fantasy.

"Why are they lesser races, pa?" "They aren't good, gods fearin' folk like we is, son." "I see, pa."

So, if that kid is then exposed to White Supremacist thinking? "They're inferior because they're not like me, they're not as white and good as I am. Okay, it's just like that game I liked. Yeah, that tracks!"

The usual retort is that 'one can tell the difference between fantasy and reality.'

Yes, well. But can they? What I mean is that on a subconscious level, are you sure that you're never influenced by the powerful stories you experience in a fantasy setting, where you're the hero and the world revolves around you? Can you honestly say that they haven't affected you in any way? Now, how much more powerful of an effect do you think that would have on kids?

Also, let's face it, in almost all fantastic settings? Humans are represented as being as white as a sheet, with little variation.

So it's just.. "A bunch of white guys! Invariably good dudes!" and "The lesser races, so evil."

So a kid is being exposed to this, yeah? And what's worse is that some races are naturally evil, too. So let's say that you have some orcs in a setting, yeah? They're an 'evil' race, they're a 'lesser' race, and... What separates them from humans, again? Oh, right, it's mostly the colour of their skin. This never has any effect on children, you think? Really? You sure about that?

Think of it this way: Would you sit your young, impressionable kid in front of a show that you knew had racist elements? No? Then why would you expose them to obvious allegories of racism which create the frameworks of prejudice in their minds? Now, instead of being angry, ask yourself: Is this a good question?

If you can calmly say it isn't, that it isn't fair? Fine. Logically, though, I think it's pretty fair. I think it tracks.

I mean, sure, it seems innocent to laugh at the white guy sending the goblins off, running away, and on fire but what kind of image does that convey? White power over lesser beings. I don't like this, I'm sorry.

It's also a reason why I'm actually glad that Griffin McElroy threw the D&D lore book out of the window with The Adventure Zone and did his own thing. He didn't care whether the colour of a dragonborn's skin 'says they should be evil by lore.' He just made cool characters that were good or bad according to their very nature, not according to their species.

Whereas D&D itself has dragons separated into good or evil by the colour of their hide. I wish I was joking about that. I really, really hate that because red dragons are naturally evil. Why would this bother me? I hail from Cymru (Wales). We invented the Western dragon, the red. Our druidic ancestors envisioned them as kindly, wise, ancient, and helpful. Similar to Eastern dragons. There are some that cite heraldry to evidence the evil of Western dragons, but hey, guess what? Our heraldry is way more ancient than theirs is. By comparison, their heraldry is the hip, young teen with the backwards baseball cap. Hardly a point of authority, that.

Sure, this got perverted by Christianity, of course, because organised religion in the dark ages absolutely loved perverting the beliefs of the 'lesser peoples' to convert them to their faith. I hate missionaries. Not to ever say that Christianity is all bad, but I might say two things as a gay person. a.) The Christian God is okay but I'm not a fan of his fan club, they won't even acknowledge other gods and I'd imagine that he's not okay with that; b.) There's a lot of really genuinely skeevy, scary shit in Christianity's history that shouldn't be ignored.

Christianity today, of course, is a different beast. Lots of cool Christians out there making something genuinely good out of their religion and I support them wholeheartedly. It's not like it's innately bad, after all. No, people just can make it bad. Like with any institution or ideal; like patriotism, for example. It can all be tainted by toxic notions and depraved exploitation.

I think Clint McElroy, the McElroy dad, is likely Christian. And he's verifiably a Cool Dude™. He might just have had a Christian background of course, but it seemed relevant in his Adventure Zone run so I'd think that this is probably relevant to him. So if he is, I could point at him as an example of why I know things can change for the better.

Things can always change for the better.

Anyway, yeah. Christianity, back when they were doing shady shit, perverted the notion of dragons the druidic Welsh people had in an attempt to convert them. "Hey fuckers, dragons are unambiguously evil! Here's this list of evil shit they totally did!" That's why Western dragons are perceived as greedy and evil today. The more you know, ding ding ding ding.

You have Christianity's shady period to thank for that one. Still, I want you to keep in mind that the Christianity of then is a very, very different beast to the Christianity of now. No hating.

So, yeah. In Wales, you can find the original perception of red dragons and their innate goodness. Sadly, in the wonderful world of Dungeons & Dragons? Reds are evil because of the colour of their hide. And that's really, really problematic. I wouldn't ever expose a kid to that because that's just such a toxic idea. Good or evil is defined by one's personality, identity, motivations, and ambitions. NEVER, NEVER by the colour of their skin.

Allow me to say one more time that I absolutely adore Griffin for tossing out the D&D lore book in his Adventure Zone run. How do I know this? Blue dragons in D&D are defined as innately evil beings full of wrath, they're fiercely territorial in the worst ways imaginable, they're vain, prideful, and arrogant, and just not all that nice. This is all due to the colour of their hide, you see.

Does this describe the Fangbattles, do you think? Does this describe Carey Fangbattle to you? Ha, no. Griffin doesn't give a shit what D&D's questionable lore. And having listened to enough of him and his brothers, I'm more than well aware that even if he knew all about it? He still wouldn't care, he knows better than to ever assign good or evil based upon the colour of skin/hide. He likely already gets this shit and why it's so problematic.

This isn't just D&D, of course. A lot of settings do this. Tolkien's orcs are Universally evil, too. If I had to think of a fantasy setting truly free of all of this? One that actually has non-human races? Well, a lot of Japanese ones come to mind, that's for sure (Shining Force and Phantasy Star et alia). Western is much more tricky, I think that by far the most prominent example that comes to mind is Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

Honestly, The Adventure Zone was very, very Discworld. Even right down to treating non-human races equally and respecting that women can be strong. PTerry was a pretty rad dude.

The long and short of it is that I just don't like the idea of a race, species, or group of beings being 'lesser' or 'evil' based upon mere physical qualities. That defines the very roots or prejudice and that's not ever something I'd want to expose a child to. If you've got a bunch of white men talking about 'those there nefariously evil types, the lesser folk, always up to no good?' Then later your kid's exposed to the views of a group like, for example, the Alt-Right?

I can understand how that perception could cross over from fantasy into reality. I wonder how often that actually happens, I have a worrying suspicion that it's a lot. Fantastic settings do so much to confirm and reaffirm that healthy, normal, white dudes deserve to be in a Superior position, they absolutely should be granted every boon and benefit.

I pointed this out before, but I'll point it out again: If you had a merchant in a game tell you that kobolds stole his fancy merch wagon and all the gold in it; and then you found a group of kobolds with a big pile of gold? What would you do? I'd say... You're going to kill them and take that gold, right? You'll do this without even thinking about it. Kobolds are a lesser, naturally evil, scurrilous race. Whole lot of ne'er-do-wells there, right?

What if that game then chided you because the merchant had pulled a fast one on you and had you kill a bunch of entirely innocent kobolds -- who were just running an honest tanning business -- for his own benefit? And what if you were then arrested on counts of murder and tossed in a cell?

Would you be offended? Would you be angry? Would you feel like you've been misled by the game itself? Why? There are those in the world who'd totally pull a con like that. Just because the character was a white, human guy doesn't make him innately good. Nor do the kobolds have to be innately evil, either. And yet, I could just hear all the furious Alt-Right voices who'd rage and rage over this.

If there's a game developer reading this... Please consider adding this into your game. I'd love to see the results of this. It'd be a pretty great social experiment. I'm going to tag this with 'gamedev' to that end. Please do consider it.

And I have to admit, there's another layer to this...

I'm disabled. I'm physically disfigured, I'm autistic, and I haven't had a good life. As an autistic person, I've always been perceived as a 'lesser being.' That's where my ire at neurotypicals arose from, and it was so difficult to let go of that. It really was. I didn't even hate the neurotypicals in particular who'd made my life a living hell, I hated the person I'd become because of them.

That was a hard thing to face. The thing is? When you're in a situation like that, you find yourself sympathising with and even empathising with the 'lesser races' or 'evil races' of fantasy. I mean, if a bunch of angry white dudes barge into a dragon's den, slaughter it without investigation, and loot all of her shit? That doesn't seem very heroic to me. I don't see that, I don't understand that at all.

It's not like they followed a line of clues, carefully, and deduced that she was the culprit. It's not like they used non-lethal means to incapacitate her to bring her before a court of law. No, some white dude said that this red dragon stole his shit, so off go a bunch of other healthy, handsome, buff, normal, cishet, and oh so white dudes to slaughter this dragon because... dragon, I guess? It doesn't sit well with me.

I don't know why beyond that. I don't know why it's such a big deal to me. I guess, like I said, I empathise. And I can see that this can easily be transmogrified into real world racism and prejudice since all of the elements are there, the framework is all present and accounted for. Superior vs. Inferior, Good vs. Evil, and White vs. Not White. It's all there, right? And it's all deeply unsettling.

Like I said, it's not like white dudes can be all that bad in these settings. It's not like kobolds can be good, either. It's not like this gnoll here could ever be a college professor. I mean, sure, maybe in PTerry's Discworld (god I loved PTerry, I really did, I miss him), and maybe in the McElroy-run Adventure Zone. In those realities? Yeah. But in most? A gnoll just going to be naturally evil cannon fodder. I don't like that. I don't know if that makes sense.

I don't know if you'll ever understand why this bothers me, if you'll ever be able to sympathise or whether this is just going to be alien to you. Whether it's just going to be "Hey, that autistic retard can't tell fantasy from reality. Ho ho ho. Of course it's okay for a group of people to be naturally evil in fantasy."

I don't agree.

Whether in reality or fantasy, no one should be defined as lesser, greater, evil, good, or anything else by their species, or the colour of their hide/skin. In fact, physical factors shouldn't come into this at all. Nor should there be discrimination against anyone for thinking differently. It should be that if a person has the raison d'être of chasing their aspirations no matter how many die or suffer along the way should be viewed as evil.

Evil should be defined by those who cause suffering for their personal benefit, and don't even care that they're causing others pain. This has always been the definition, for me. If you find out you're hurting other people for your own good, and you don't stop because you just don't care? That's pretty evil.

Sigh.

I'm trying to be happier, lately. I'm trying to do my best to shake off my cynicism and focus on what makes me feel better in life. I'm doing my very best to focus on that and feel like humanity itself isn't just some lost cause. I want to get away from the hurt and the pain that I've been held prisoner by all my life. I really want that, but there are still some serious topics I absolutely need to handle. And this is my venting blog, so here it is.

I did feel a bit of a void in my life after PTerry died, I admit. It was hard to find good fantasy after that, a lot of it fell into the nasty pit-trap I described above and I couldn't stomach it. I'd eagerly consumed just about every little titbit of Discworld-related media that I could, and I wanted more, but there could be no more. I miss you, PTerry, you were a light in my life.

Some have tried recommending me alternatives, but few grasp what really got me with PTerry's works. It was that he had a very complete understanding that he was depicting a world, and if that world was rife with racism and prejudices, it wouldn't be a very good world. It would be a depressing, dreary, and sordid place. Utterly horrible, not worth the reader's time.

The thing is? The vast majority of fantastic settings are like that, anyway. They don't seem to care about all of the prejudices they foist uncaringly on the reader. If the reader has experienced a lot of real world prejudice, that's not exactly going to be the most inviting kind of escapism, is it? I want a fantastic setting to set an example of how a world can be better than ours, something we could aspire to be like. Not something that's far, far, far worse than earth, just so we can feel better about ourselves.

I want progressive, positive, inclusive, uplifting escapism! I want escapism where good and evil are defined by intelligent nuances, where what one might have thought as evil may just even be a different perspective. I want intellectuality, even, god damn it. I want things to be just a little bit more clever than "UNGA ME BUNGA! IZ BAD REDD DURGANZ." Is that too much to ask?

Thankfully, I got exactly the kind of cleverness I want from the Adventure Zone. And if you're going to give Griffin a hard time for not staying true to the setting? Frankly... Kindly fuck off? I don't mean to be nasty, but... Fuck off. Faerun is a fucked up, genuinely terrible place, rife with hatred and prejudice. Griffin didn't want that, he wanted the ruleset, sure, but the world he desired to work with was actually Discworld.

And Discworld does have lifts. You be as passive-aggressive about the lifts thing as you want, Griffin. I much more prefer your version of Faerun to the official version, which is a much shittier place to be honest.

So I had Discworld, and now I have The Adventure Zone. I really needed that. Thank you, McElroys. Really. Thank you Travis, thank you Griffin, thank you Justin, and thank you Clint. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. The world I've lived in has been pretty bleak, and whilst I'm climbing out of that hole I sometimes stumble and fall back in a little.

Good escapism like this helps me out, it helps me get back on my feet when I'm feeling genuinely down.

Thank you guys. You're good boys, you really are.

I don't know what to say beyond that other than I need more works in my life that buck the usual trends of fantastic settings. I want more like Discworld and The Adventure Zone. I want to be able to go into something and not be horribly disappointed by another fine example of 'this person is evil or a lesser race because skin/hide colour or species type.'

That shit gets old, yeah?

Now having read this, go back and look at the image I used for this particular piece and see if it invokes any different feelings to how you felt about it before you started reading. Yeah? Maybe? Hard to unsee when you see it, right? And it doesn't need to be that way, I don't think. I really don't. I feel that the creators of fantastic settings could do so much better.

Just take a look at Discworld, and The Adventure Zone. S'funny, I'm proud of the McElroys for doing so well but I genuinely do feel that PTerry would be more than happy to stand alongside their works, too.

So whilst I wouldn't introduce a kid to most fantastic settings, I would happily, gleefully introduce them to both Discworld and The Adventure Zone without a second thought. I'd be a very responsible dad.

#TotallyResponsibleRadDad

But I digress. Yeah, I just wanted to talk about this. It's important to me. It just is. And I'm happy that there are still at least a few good examples of both the science-fiction and high fantasy genres out there.