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mariaiscrafting · 3 years

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What if I’m Latino and want to draw sapnap as Latino as well? Is neurodivegent headcanons for the dream team okay but this isn’t?

I’ll admit, the lines are blurred with Dream SMP characters because they are both characters and representative of real people. If you want, I can talk about the various levels of Problematic™ that are involved in this question, and since I’m bored and procrastinating, let’s get into it:

First off, there is, actually a history of Tumblr fanartists in particular drawing traditionally white characters as POC and getting backlash for it, so honestly, I’m not totally agains the practice. Frankly, drawing classic characters as POC when they haven’t really been confirmed as any race - just assumed to be the default of white - isn’t a bad thing. One such example is Hermione, who many fanartists have depicted as black, with curly hair or an afro. Because Hermione’s character and story are not intrinsically tied to any particular cultural or explicit details that would make it logically flawed to hc her as non-white, there’s really nothing wrong with this.

This is different from the opposite because it is a way for non-white audiencemembers to drive home the point that non-white Americans/Europeans are, in many ways, just like their white counterparts. That is to say, whether Hermione is black or white doesn’t change who she is; she can be a white English lady or a black English lady, but being black doesn’t necessarily mean she would act any differently or be a totally different person. It is a means to combat the assumption that any American/European character whose culture isn’t explictly brought up by the creator of a work is white.

This isn’t the same as the opposite - portraying POC characters as white - because the latter is a form of whitewashing. When you portray assumed-white characters as POC, you are not erasing anything from that character, while portraying POC characters as white erases their culture, the visibility of that ethnic group/race, and any details the creator of the content might have included in their story about that character. That’s why films are criticized for casting white actors to play POC characters, and artists are criticized for lightening character’s skin tones or erasing physical features of theirs that can be attributed to their ethnic/racial identity.

Now the question with portraying Sapnap as Latino is, is this wrong, exactly? I’d like to preface by saying that everything I’ve said about portraying Sapnap as Latino has been purely my opinion. At the end of the day, I’m not an expert on racial theory or art; I’m just a poli sci major who’s taken a couple courses on racism and has talked and learned a bit about POC in media. You can come to whatever conclusions you like, at the end of the day, and portray him however you like, love.

As I see it, there are several reasons portraying Sapnap as Latino is Problematic™. First off, Sapnap and other white members of the Dream SMP already have problems with recognizing POC and the implications of POC within the SMP. Sapnap has actually answered a donation before by saying that he’s not 100% white because he’s part-Greek, completely unironically and without recognizing why him saying that was wrong. Imo, this indicates a lack of understanding for what it really means to be a POC in Western countries that so many white people exhibit. Being a person of color in Western Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, etc., means functioning within a society where you have to battle with yourself everyday your own, multiple, and seemingly contradictory identities. It means functioning within a society where you have to navigate the crossroads of oppression within you must survive. White people who falsely claim that they aren’t white like this simply don’t understand or are even aware of exactly what it means to be shaped by the oppression of being a person of color. They believe that being a person of color, beyond occassionally experiencing explicit racism, is just a label and a tie to one’s ancestry, when it’s much more beyond that. And the thing is, Sapnap can’t claim that label because he simply hasn’t gone through the lived experience of a POC in the United States. And that’s fine. It’s fine to be white, and to just be a little ignorant to your whiteness. I’m not attacking Sapnap by pointing this all out, I’m just stating facts.

Secondly, this would mean that a 100% white person is essentially playing the role of a Latino character, which is already a far-too common practice in film and TV showmaking. Then again, I will admit that a counter-argument can be made here, in that, headcanons are not actually canon to the Dream SMP plot. For example, Ranboo has told his audience he’s fine with viewers headcanon’ing his character as nonbinary, even though Ranboo himself is cisgender. This is an ambiguous aspect of his character that can be manipulated however the viewers like since there has been nothing within the canon to refute it, so far. However, it would be a different matter entirely if Ranboo, a cisgender man, attempted to write his character as a nonbinary person and then act out that nonbinary character himself. That would actually be unjust and kinda fucked. Now, along a similar vein, one could argue that audiencemembers headcanon’ing Sapnap as Latino isn’t really a bad thing since it isn’t Sapnap himself trying to portray what he believes a Latino character would be like. So I get the potential counter-argument there.

Thirdly, my main problem with this whole drawing Sapnap as Latino ordeal is the hypocrisy of it all. Far too often within this fandom, I see fanartists and writers erase Quackity’s ethnic identity, whitewashing him in their art or completely disregarding his race in their work. And while one could argue that the lack of focus in this fandom on Skeppy can be explained by his infrequent streams and departure from the SMP lore, Ponk is rarely drawn or written about, and he streams regularly and always has something going on with his character, in side plots or otherwise. I just find it lowkey absurd that this fandom thirsts for a Latino character so bad that it has to portray Sapnap, who is played by a white actor, as Latino, when there are other POC whose identities are either disregarded or the characters as a whole ignored.

Fourth, my main question, at the end of the day, is, why are we not advocating for more POC in the SMP? Why headcanon characters as POC, when they could literally just make an effort to uplift more POC CCs, who are highly marginalized within the streamer and Youtube communities? I’m Latinx too, mate, and I’d fucking love more POC characters to fall in love with, but Sapnap isn’t the one to fill that hole.

Regarding other sorts of headcanons and how those relate to headcanon’ing characters as different races: my thoughts on this are way too complicated, at the moment. But to sum it up as concisely as possible: a) I am not neurodivergent, as far as I know, so I cannot do the subject nearly as much justice as a neurodivergent person could; b) my thoughts still kinda align with the same thought process as race - that it’s useful to hc characters as neurodivergent because it helps to break stigmas that ND people are so vastly different from neurotypical people that traditionally-assumed neurotypical people couldn’t possibly actually be ND; c) I would still advocate for more ND representation in the SMP, rather than try to warp the neurotypical people’s characters to fit into that yearn for representation that I so desire; d) there actually are ND people on the SMP - a couple of people with ADHD, as far as I know - who do exhibit ND characteristics in their characters/lore, as well, so frankly, why not give those characters ND hc’s?

Anyways, this was so much longer than I wanted it to be and I still don’t know if I fully articulated my take on the subject properly. It’s really just too complicated a subject to be applied to Dream SMP fanart, so my conclusion is: Imma diss people for drawing Sapnap as Latino when Quackity is RIGHT THERE, and you can draw him however the hell you like. At the end of the day, we’re both just people obsessing over block men, and there’s no significant harm that will come from either of our opinions or your artwork. I hope this was a satisfying answer, and seriously, thank you for getting me to write this all out because it actually made me realize that I’m not as fully against the idea as I thought I was <3

#sapnap #mcyt #dream smp #racism #whitewashing #asks #i spent a solid 25 minutes on this jfc #and its not even that well written #Anonymous

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mtg-weekly-recap · 7 years

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MTG Weekly Tumblr Recap: April 3, 2017

Cat and Jackal Gods | Original art by @isharton

Welcome to another issue of the MTG Tumblr Recap! Thanks to those who have followed us, and now the new-set season is in full swing, we hope to be getting into a proper groove that keeps this thing happening on a normal, weekly basis. For those unfamiliar with what we do, the MTG Weekly Tumblr Recap is a gathering of some of the most notable posts and trends from within the MTG Tumblr community for a given week. For this issue, we will be covering things from the end of March, 2017 through April 3, 2017. If you are interested in joining our writing team, please PM any of our writers and we will add you to our Discord.

1. In-Vocational Training

Art for Wrath of God | Original art by Titus Lutner,

The new Masterpiece series for the Amonkhet block was revealed earlier last week. These cards inspired much discussion throughout the Magic Community. The new Masterpiece cards are unlike any of the Masterpiece cards that Wizards has released. While Zendikar had Expeditions and Kaladesh had Inventions, Amonkhet will have Invocations.Some of cards being printed are iconic cards, such as Counterbalance, Daze and Wrath of God. They have gorgeous, beautiful artwork inspired by the Plane, however, the rest of the design of the card has brought about some criticism from the community. The main criticism of the cards are that they are difficult to the read, due to the font used for the letters and the incorporation of “hieroglyphics”. Mark Rosewater has said that this approach was inspired by the Elesh Norn promotional card, that used the Phyrexian language. However, the font and “hieroglyphs” are not legible for some with poor eye sight or other reading impairments, and thus has caused some backlash from the community in regards to this creative choice. @sarpadianempiresvol-viii has also agreed with the majority that the “text is almost unreadable” as well as expressing regret, like others, that the beautiful art is too small to see on the card.

Another main criticism of the Invocations are that they could be considered culturally insensitive. Tumblr user @zoe-of-the-veil has made several posts about this issue. Zoe urges the community to “be aware of this and be careful not to let our enthusiasm for a new set erase these issues and not to let Magic’s #aesthetic contribute to stereotyping and erasing a very real culture.” All in all, there are very mixed reactions of the new Masterpiece series. It is a new approach from Wizards and after Amonkhet is released, the Invocations may have a warmer reception from the Community.

-- Chelsea, @chelsea-beleren-vess

2. This Week’s Magic Story Review

Impact, by Michael Yichao

Liliana | Original art by @zomburai

This week we officially kicked off the Amonkhet magic story with the first installment, Impact (written by Michael Yichao, author of Sacrifice, All the cairns of Jund, and Quiet Moments)! The story shows the Gatewatch’s (minus Ajani, the only member who thought charging into Bolas’s private realm without a plan wasn’t such a great idea) arrival on Amonkhet and its… not-so-fun experiences with the local climate and fauna. Yichao juggles the different points of view of the five planeswalkers very well, often switching up the style of narration while simultaneously giving us the possibility to see what’s going on in the planeswalkers’ minds and how they often have very different perceptions (Chandra, for example, thinks the other four are wimps who can’t stand a little heat).

The first story of a block is always crucial in that it needs to establish a starting point from which to go forward but also needs to provide more than just a “this is where the story will take place” feel, because otherwise it will not be as entertaining as the following installments: it needs to have some action and/or lay out a basis for conflict. Impact accomplishes this not only by having the gatewatch fend off zombies and sandworms, but also by showing us how the journey ahead of them is all but simple: not only were they all about to die without Bolas even lifting a finger, but we see that Liliana has other plans (namely, Razaketh) and Gideon is awe-struck by the presence of Hazoret and, by extension, the other gods (which could lead to some interesting character development on his part). In summary, Impact does a good job of blending fast-paced, action packed narrative with moments of introspection and reflection and a good dose of humor even in the midst of life-threatening situations, and sets the bar pretty high up there for the following magic stories, in terms of narration.

--- Diego, @magus-of-the-color-pie

3. Serpopardon Me?

☆ what a good snake. cat. cat snake? snake cat? … cake?? | Original art by @frigidloki

Serpopards (Which some of us discovered are ‘real’ monsters from the Antiquities thanks to @sarpadianempiresvol-viii and Wikipedia) are the big reveal of this weeks pre-spoilers section, and captured the imagination of Magic Fanartists everywhere:

( @isharton )

( @oketra )

( @pepperjaq )

( @trans-chandra )

--- Compiled by Diego, @magus-of-the-color-pie

4. Pre-Spoiler Week Spoiler-y Previews!

Renewed Faith | Original art by Wesley Bert

We sit in the eve of a great, new spoiler season, and like always, Wizards cant help but set their phasers to ‘tease’ as they give us glimpses of the new set before the official fortnight of fun. In addition to the polarizing Invocations, a couple of cards have been previewed, including quite a few for the Gideon and LIliana Planeswalker decks, the cards confirmed for the set proper have some interesting new mechanics, showing the return of Cycling as mechanic, as well as introducing Exert and Embalm

Glorybringer | Original art by Sam Burley

Exert is an ability that comes into play when you declare attacking. For the low low cost of not untapping on your next untap step, you can give a creature with the exerted creature a bonus. So far we’ve only seen the card above, so we don’t know much about which colors will have this ability.

Embalm is another ability word, allowing cards to be copied as tokens from the graveyard, for a mana cost and exiling the original card. The token copy is alway white in color, and always a Zombie (mummy) creature, in addition to it’s other type, but appears to be identical in all other ways. Although the below example is white, it would seem that this ability will not be limited only to that color.

Trueheart Duelist | Original art by Izzy

--- Liam, @coincidencetheories

5. FAN ART AROUND THE BLOGS

Dark Power | Original art by @diorevoredo

You’ve no doubt seen some of these making the rounds, but they’re awesome and this here blog’s looking to celebrate awesome.

@isharton gave us a look at Amonkhet from the perspective of a humble brick, while @hirfael took a quote from Impact where Gideon rescues Jace with one hand.

@zurgo-nerdpuncher meanwhile, couldn’t be more excited about the confirmation of snakes on the plane, and @gemstonechronologist reminds us that fan creations come in many dimensions, with some exquisite fabrications of the Amonkhet Set symbol as a pendant charm

--- Liam, @coincidencetheories

6. Invisible Talker(s)

Invisible Stalker | Original Art by Bud Cook

This week, as with most weeks, there were some great Magic podcasts. Of note, you might enjoy:

TapTapConcede - Loading Ready Run : Notable Magic Tumblr contributor @talinthas was this weeks guest, talking about Kaladesh’s cultural influences, as well as the odd faux pas.

Limited Resources - Marshal Sutcliffe and LSV: A blast from the past as original co-host and current Wizards employee Ryan Spain drops by The Girlfriend Bracket - Erin, Hallie, Kriz and Katie: As this podcast nears it’s 100th episode, the gang talk about the ‘grind’, and other goings on in Magic. The Command Zone - Jimmy Wong and Josh Lee Kwai: Learn some ways to mix up your playgroups game of Commander

--- Liam, @coincidencetheories

...and finally: Amonkhet Tumblr Awards

@mtg-weekly-recap contributor @chelsea-beleren-vess had the idea that we as a community might give some votes on the new set (and new sets going forward) and people have taken to the idea, giving suggestions for a few other categories to make a real red-carpet event. Feel free to let her know any other ideas for the categories you want to see! Also, stay tuned once Spoiler Season is complete for details as to how to vote for your favorites!

Thank you again for reading this week’s issue of the MTG Weekly Tumblr Recap. Hope to see you next week! Interested in contributing to the Recap? Want to keep track of notable posts and trends throughout the MTG community on a given week? Or write a short blurb on a specific topic? Do you just want to make us aware of one specific topic or post? Please PM our main editor @the-burnished-hart or any of our staff writers!

#mtgwtr #mtg weekly recap #mtg weekly tumblr recap #mtg #magic the gathering #amonkhet #invocations #serpopard

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