#we have our own cowboys but our culture is different

[bladesymphony]

i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't need cowboy boots i don't—

[tdoth]

TITANOMACHY: Dreams of the Hue | Omens 01 & 02

Art credit to the incredible Jonatan Anjos

RORY | background: WESTERN TRANSPLANT | hustle: AUGMENTATION REPOSESSION SPECIALIST | specialty: ORGANIST (L)

LYLE | background: EX-COWBOY | hustle: BUSKER | specialty: HEKATON (R)

Everybody has to make a living in the Hue, and few jobs leave your hands clean at the end of the day. Rory & Lyle represent the first of our Omens, the complex cyber/biopunk revolutionaries at the heart of TDoth.

Within Wild Words characters consist of Aspects - abilities, narrative permissions, elements of character and iconic equipment - drawn from pools that stand in for a more traditional game's classes.

Omens consist of a Background, a Hustle, and a Specialty each represented by pools of Aspects players can draw from to make their Omens their own. As we see our iconic Omens throughout TDoth's art we explore different pieces of their lives, and here we focus on the Hustles that keep Rory and Lyle connected to the Hue.

Rory represents the Augmentation Repossession Specialists, the unfortunate many made to reclaim augmentations - biological or otherwise - on behalf of one of the many corpo-lenders out there. A Biopunk riff on the classic Organ Repossession trope we (I) loved so dearly in the 00's, represented with the most

energy Jonatan could muster for Rory. It's grueling, bloody work but Rory has found a sickly synergy with their other work in the realm of the Organist, Cronenberg-esque organ artists of biology.

And then we have Lyle, chipper lad of the streets plucking away at a frutiger-aero weirdo guitar with some of his many, many arms. The Busker represents those artists who exists on the fringe of capital, and use their art as a beacon of the people. Houston is a city of liberating music cultures and iconic sounds, and the Buskers are the most unburdened by the grip of the Titans of any Hustle thanks to it.

A guiding image for much of Titanomachy is the incidental beauty of iridescence on edge of an oil slick. The Hue is one of the final tumors to a dying world, but there is still beauty to be kindled like fire. Cut throughout Lyle's design we tried to hide that sparkling, marginal beauty as often as possible.

These two are the first of many Omens that will show a fraction of what's possible within the world of TDoth. If you want to get a head start on building out some weirdos like this, or even want to hop in to a playtest or two, check our pinned post for more info on TITANOMACHY!

Thanks for reading,

Sillion L

[splat20]

Another part of Icewind Dale that's been fucking grueling so far though... Ngl a part of me is actually fascinated by the historical fantasy worldbuilding done by A Certain Kind Of History Dude who clearly has no idea how history has ever actually worked. The hoops they jump through to convince you that history has never been what might be called "political" is, in its own way, kind of impressive.

Conflict has never been about stuff like colonialism, it's all about nebulous human themes like Tradition. Conflict is about Economy and Economy never involves anything like class or culture. Only trout. The entire machinations of this society revolves ONLY around trout. (I'm now genuinely harping about the trout, it's just really dumb ok.) Conflict is about different groups just being fundamentally different, usually with a clear evil one. Conflict is about all groups being greedy about THEIR FUCKING TROUT because it's just a nebulous human condition to be greedy. Racist also. And poor people are just poor because they aren't ambitious, as a little aside.

It's so...... ashistorical but also deeply uncurious about our own actual real life world right now.

So many "high" fantasy books are like this. The Certain Kind Of History Dudes have too much power in this genre. They get praised for their worldbuilding and it's just the most shallow understanding of how anything works ever.

And more nefarious is the way this seemingly innocent ignorance so quickly and easily justifies stuff like "well, it's totally chill for good guys to kill bad guys... because they're from a bad guy society." Drizzt will tie himself in knots if he has to kill the worst human you can possibly imagine, but swats down random orcs no problem. The way that seemingly creates no cognitive dissonace at all for these writers needs to be studied in a lab. It's all fun and games when we're talking about monsters, but then you think about how that translates into the real world using the exact same mechanisms and that isn't fun at all is it? The ways racist men can tell themselves they are good people follows similar mental gymnastics. Why are "humans" deserving of infinite grace and forgiveness even at their most evil but "orcs" are understood to be inherently a lost cause? Why really? What is that mechanism really? It's been particularly egregious as I'm trying to slog my way through The Crystal Shard because, like, we can generously say that the "barbarians" are based on vikings, but ngl all I'm getting from this dynamic is Salvatore playing "cowboys and indians" but with white people. The general underlying vibes... And maybe that's what I'm trying to get at with what I'm describing in the fantasy races too. If you take off the mask, it all just feels like "cowboys and indians." A trope so deeply embedded in American genre fiction which has always just been incredibly racist this whole time.

These books are such whiplash because unfortunately I do love the characters but boy I wish I could save them from these books sometimes. The Crystal Shard has been soooo much worse than the other books so far imo, so I'm hoping the series chills tf out again generally.

[maulfucker]

I saw you had a post where you thought abt Dathomirian culture and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how specifically Dathomirian queer culture manifests. I'd like to come up with things myself but I don't actually know a lot in general abt Dathomir yet, so I want other opinions. I've got two ideas tho

-Dathomirian queer ppl call each other "family" like some queer ppl did in our world

-Trans men might like earn their horns thru hunting and using animal bones and stuff as their horns? Idk like I said I don't know much

Good question! I haven't actually thought that much about queer culture in Dathomir despite having a gay nightbrother oc,,

I think the calling each other family thing probably wouldn't work very well since they already treat their clan as family and call each other brother and sister even without blood relation, but I love the idea of trans nightbrothers earning their horns! Dathomirians as a whole seem to be pretty open to body modifications, with tattoos being so natural in their culture, so hunting animals to use their bones or teeth or something to produce "prosthetic" horns sounds very fitting. It could be a whole thing for both trans and cis nightbrothers, using the extra horns as a way to show off their strength. plus it opens up the possibility of nightbrothers implanting horns in whimsical shapes such as smiley faces, stars or penises

I think as a people composed of multiple isolated communities, there's probably not a uniform queer culture across the planet. But also as people who tend to live in single-sex communities they are likely far more queer on average than what we see in the rest of the galaxy, like how cowboys were famously queer. They supposedly spend most of their lives around the same gender, so it wouldn't be unusual for that to be the gender they express attraction to more often. Though, much like how cowboys have been "reinterpreted" as a symbol of straight white masculinity, there's probably also a popular misconstruction of their culture as extremely straight, and/or extremely celibate. The "Nightsisters rule over Nightbrothers" reading of their culture is very obviously meant to show them as a reverse-sexist society, making the nightsisters a sort of "girl power" icon — they are strong independent women who can pick any man they want (implying that they do want men), which is like saying cowboys are strong fearless men who woo every damsel that crosses their path. which. sure, cowboys did have sex with women. sure, nightsisters do have sex with men. but more often than not they will be around other nightsisters, so they will more often than not have relationships with women (even if they're not really gay).

but I am not usamerican and my brain has the consistency of molten ice cream, so my knowledge of american cowboy culture is. basically just that. (the brazilian cowboy culture is quite different, especially considering there's like three distinct cowboy "sub"cultures, each with their different history, territory, and associations) So that's as far as I can take the cowboy comparison, but cowboys can be a pretty good source of inspiration I think. maybe look into that?

A quick look into medieval monasteries (another famously gender-segregated culture) says they were also pretty gay. And that the sexual persecution that is so commonplace in christianity today was not really a thing yet back then, which is also something to consider when trying to conceive the queer culture of a people who have nothing to do with our modern (overwhelmingly christian) society — do they have a reason to reject queer people and relationships, or are we just projecting our own worldviews and experiences onto a people who have none of the sociohistorical context that shaped our experiences?

I think homosexual/romantic and even polyamorous relationships would be pretty normalized, since there's not really any reason to only accept hetero relationships if they rarely ever live in mixed-sex communities. That said, there's probably still some expectation of heterosexual activity, in the form of the Selection and its implied procreation purposes. Dathomir is a very isolationist world, so to keep their population stable they need to procreate, even if it "goes against" an individual's sexuality. And this is where I think polyamorous relationships have reason to be encouraged: if a nightsister or nightbrother who already has a partner takes part in a Selection, why not bring their partner(s) into the relationship as well and increase the likelihood of producing offsprings?

As for the gender side of queerness.... well that's probably A Lot more complicated than I have time to discuss here. The gender binary seems pretty enforced in their culture from what little we see, and their sexual dimorphism probably makes trans and/or intersex people stand out A Lot more

I've mentioned this before, but I headcanon that the skin color difference is not a sex-chromosome-bound characteristic, but instead a sex-hormone-related expression of pigmentation, like in some birds such as peacocks. Both males and females are shown to have a range of skin tones, but in females it manifests as grayscale while in males it manifests as a color scale from red to yellow. So intersex people might have colors that are in-between, or that don't "match" their apparent sex, and trans people who undergo their equivalent of hrt might slowly change skin colors over time.

As for how nonbinary people work.... well as someone who is from a latin american country and speaks a romance language, I would like to imagine their "nonbinary" is a lot like ours — there is no "neutral" gender, they simply play with their presentation to be between one and the other, leaning towards whichever one might be considered more "transgressive" at the moment.

I don't think trans people would be forced out of their clans for being a different gender than everyone else, but it's possible their role in the clan might change to something more "befitting" of their new gender I also think there's probably a lot more contact between different clans than just the Selection, so it's possible for people who decide to start over as a new gender to take one of these moments of contact as an opportunity to "visit" another clan and never come back.

..... aaand it's almost 2 am so I gotta hit post

[satoaiandsonaze]

Heyyy! I'd love it if you made a fanfic of the Negaishipping Wild West AU ;D Thanks!!

Okay, sure!

Title of story: Beyond the Sunset

(Part 1)

Down in the desert, with the sun scorching the dry grounds and the cactus that spread thinly across the Westonia Region, two horse-like figures were moving across the land.

The two horse-like figures you were seeing are Mudsdales, the best mode of transportation across the Westonia Region. Upon these two horse-like Pokémon were two champions, a boy and a girl, from two different regions visiting this dry region, searching for ways to help any town they come across.

The boy was Ash Ketchum, Champion of Alola, as well as the Monarch of the PWCS, with his partner Pikachu on his lap, his Lucario on the back of Ash's Mudsale, passed out from heat exhaustion, and his Charizard flying above Ash with intentions of giving his own trainer enough shade from the hot sun. The girl was Iris, Champion of Unova, as well as the world's youngest and strongest Dragon Master, with her partners Emolga and Excadrill already passed out from the heat; Emolga was on her lap, and Excadrill on the back of the Mudsdale Iris was driving. Iris also had methods of gaining shade from the sun, with her Hydreigon flying above her.

These two have just arrived from their respective regions, with intentions of offering help to people from towns in Westonia. They just finished visiting the first town in the region, and they were just now making their way to the biggest city in Westonia. But unfortunately, they left for the town on the hottest day of the entire year, and that tripled here in Westonia, which was making the journey there even more painful.

They are about halfway through to the city when we start our story. "Sheesh," Ash complained. "How much longer? I've got to get Lucario out of this heat!" Ash was getting scared for his Lucario, and they were trying to hurry to the city. "Quit your whining, Ash!" Iris yelled at him from the back. "Only a little kid would get that affected by the heat!" Iris was trying to act tougher than her boyfriend, but was failing miserably; She was struggling just as much as Ash, maybe just a little more since she had TWO Pokémon passed out from heat. And to make matters worse, the clothes they were wearing were making them sweat like crazy!

When they got to Westonia, they bought some local Western attire, so they could blend in with the culture well. It was easy for Ash to choose his clothes: Blue jeans with a cool design on the lower legs, Cowboy boots with spurs, a red long-sleeve shirt, and a brown vest, as well as a nice Cowboy hat on his head, a belt around his waist and some good gloves around his hands. Iris had the most trouble. Everyone insisted that Iris wear a dress, as most girls in Westonia do, but Iris would not put one on, as the only times she wore a dress were during Unova Champion moments and duties, and whenever Ash invited her to a nice party. In the end, Iris won the argument and got an outfit similar to Ash's: Blue jeans with that same design on the lower section as the one on Ash's, boots with spurs, a purple long-sleeve shirt, a black vest, and a pretty Cowboy hat on her head, a neat belt around her waist, and only one glove on her left hand. The one move Ash didn't know she would do was that Iris unbuttoned the bottom of her shirt, exposing a small amount of her lower stomach, and tying the ends together underneath her chest. While he watched his girlfriend do this, you can garuntee that he had a hard blush on his face, and he wasn't even putside in the heat yet!

Iris was about to completely unbutton her shirt when she heard her boyfriend scream in excitement. "I see the town!" Ash exclaimed. Iris was excited by this news, as she was ready to rest in an inn with air conditioning for the remainder of the day. With a command of High Horsepower to the Mudsdales, they were galloping at full speeds towards the town. At long last, they arrived at Sandform City, the largest city in Westonia!

They parked their Mudsdales at the stables, and went inside the inn, where the city's local Nurse Joy was waiting at a counter. "Hello, and welcome to the Pokémon Center!" Iris and Ash were quick and desperate for a room. Telling her about what happened along the way. With a calm smile, Nurse Joy told them that the only way to wake up Pokémon from heat exhaustion was to constantly run cold water from the showers onto their bodies. "Works for me! I need a shower, anyway!" Iris said. "Me, as well!" Ash said, following after his girlfriend.

Both were slow to walk up the stairs, as not only were they carrying the bodies of their tired Pokémon up those stairs, but they were also in a lot of pain doing so, as the bodies of Steel Pokémon get hot quickly, with their bodies absorbing heat. No wonder Steel Types are weak to fire!

After 5 minutes of running constant cold water on their bodies, Lucario and Excadrill finally woke up! Relived by this, Iris quickly claimed to be the first one to take a shower! "Alright," Ash groaned at the hearing of this. "I'll go find our room and get us settled in." While she was preparing for a shower, Ash found the room they were staying and immediately took a good nap as soon as he landed his head on the pillow of one of the two beds in the room.

After Iris was done with her shower, Ash went in next, and it was around sunset when he was done! After he was done, they went down to the diner and had a pretty tasty dinner! By the tike they were finished eating, they were both exceedingly tired. It was pretty much dark outside when they decided to go to bed. Just before they both fell asleep, this small conversation happened.

Iris: Hey, Ash?

Ash: Yeah, what's up?

Iris: Why did you volunteer for this? This place is so hot, it's tiring!

Ash: Because people are struggling here, and I don't want it to endure!

Iris: I had a feeling you'd say that... Well, I would never dream of leaving you alone to do this in this massive amount of heat!

Ash: You still with me, then?

Iris: Of course! I'm with you until the end of the Sunset!

Ash: Thanks.Well, let's get some sleep. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

Iris: Will do! Goodnight! I love you!

Ash: Goodnight! And I love you, too!

And with that, the two dosed off, with intentions of learning why the people of this fine town are struggling with finances.

That's all I've got for now! I just woke up, and I ran out of ideas instantly, so I made this a multi-parter! Enjoy for now, and when you're ready for it, send me an ask, and I'll make more!

[idesofrevolution]

These Boots Are Made for Rockin’

Cory took a deep breath as he turned the corner, eyes tightly shut. Passersby likely stared with aloof confusion, but he didn’t care. This was the moment he’d dreamed of for almost fifteen years. Broadway, Nashville: the dream strip of country music nightclubs, southern apparel, moonshine, whiskey, and instruments. The gentle hum of twangy ballads tickled his ears, played by talented singers in the honky tonks along the street. It was now home. And as he opened his eyes, that dream was now reality.

The street was bustling, even in midday. Tourists, buskers, musicians, and surely a few stars strolled past entranced in their own worlds they’d taken for granted. It took everything for Cory to get here- or rather it had cost him everything. Not that he minded. The move, to him, represented the beginning of the life he’d always dreamed he would lead: becoming the man he fantasized in his head. With his first steps, they were the first steps toward that goal.

Walking slowly, he made his way down Broadway, aimlessly enjoying the ambience and palpable culture. Not that he was oblivious to his surroundings; this was his reconnaissance mission for today. Looking for prospects, opportunities, or a cheap souvenir for his new apartment. The latter became his focus, as there on the corner sat a clothing store. His first intention after all was to fit into the community, so dressing the part was the primary objective. As he walked up to the front doors, pulling the door open, the scent of leather, cedar, and smokiness flowed out of the open door. He took a deep breath, entering the wide open store. The two story atrium was filled with racks of denim, flannel, and rhinestones for the more flamboyant of folks. This was heaven. Surely he’d be able to find the authentic Nashville look here.

Pushing past rows of bootcut jeans and plaid button ups, suspenders and denim jackets, he stumbled upon the footwear department. Shelves wall to wall, filled with the freshest and most pristine of cowboy boots. Each gave such a different vibe. One pair had intricate embroidered designs up and down the tall funnel of the boot, another was fastened with harnesses upon thick rubber treads. Finding the right pair would be quite the task, as he stared nervously down the long aisles.

“You need some help, friend?” Cory spun around, startled at the sultry low voice from over his shoulder. Standing behind him was an employee, and the precise man he’d want to emulate. Muscled below his tight button up shirt, messy hair below a leather Stetson hat, tight bootcut jeans of heavy denim and topped off with a pair big well worn cowboy boots. He oozed a sense of stereotypical Southern Masculinity, stoic and unfazed by the world around him. “You lookin’ for a pair? I can help you find one if you like?” His twangy accent paired with a deep, low timbre nearly made Cory breathless for a moment.

“Uh, yeah. What’s the price range here?” The man raised a confused eyebrow at Cory, until it was clear on his face that he was helping an ‘out of towner.’

“Well, most boots like these go for a few hundred at least. That’s mostly what we carry.” The man put his massive boot onto the seat next to them, worn heavily but precisely what the doe eyed customer was looking for. He clutched at the wallet in his pocket- knowing full well that a few hundred was far outside his budget. Immediately taking notice of the flushing of Cory’s face, the man smiled. “Here, I think I have just the pair for you.” A glimmer of hope. Walking toward the back of the store, past the elaborate embroidered boots and jean jackets, the duo came across the clearance section.

“So these are our vintage pairs. They’re recycled… kinda. So since a lot of them were pre owned they tend to be a lot less than our newer models.” As he looked up and down the racks, finally the man stopped and pointed to the very last pair on the wooden shelf. They were clearly well loved by their previous owner, the glimmer and luster of any shine on the brown leather had long since been washed away with heavy use. The tips were scuffed, the heel and soles were annihilated… but for whatever reason, they seemed to beckon out to Cory. “My guess is they’re gonna be a bit big on you, but no harm in seeing if you like em! Give ‘em a try and I’ll be back to check in on you.”

The associate walked away, the click clack of the Cuban heel of his boots would soon mirror his own footfalls. Gingerly grabbing the left boot, he pryed the boot open a bit more, seeing the size marked US 14. That was almost twice his own shoe size. Taking a deep breath, he was prepared to let out a sigh of defeat… perhaps it wasn’t meant to be. That is, until the subtle scent hit his nostrils. It started as just the slightest hint of old leather, perhaps a smidgeon of tobacco… but just that little whiff was enough to encapsulate Cory. Looking around to ensure that no wayward glances would catch him, he brought the boot to his face, closed his eyes, and inhaled.

What was subtle from a short distance quickly turned strong as he took in the scent from the source. Hidden beneath that candle like quality was the unmistakable odor of foot musk. His eyes clamped shut, Cory envisioned in his mind’s eye what the original owner of these books would look like… some southern stud, handsome and rugged, a confident swagger in each step: the man he was destined to become. He opened his eyes and plopped down onto the small bench, removing his cheap Walmart sneakers and eagerly slipping his foot into the boot.

Unsurprisingly, his feet were minuscule in comparison to their cavernous confines. They certainly did not fit. Yet, looking down at his feet within them, the electrifying power he felt from simply sporting them, the idea of his own feet soaking up some of that incredible smell… it was a done deal. He’d stuff some cotton in the toes to help them fit, never mind the appearance to any objective bystander that they were clown shoes on this lanky dudes feet. Preparing to walk to the checkout counter to finalize the purchase, he tugged on the soles to pry them from his feet. They would not budge. Confused, he yanked a bit harder at the heel… no dice. His feet were so small compared to these boats… how could they be stuck?

His body began to ache, as if he’d run a marathon just a moment before, his breath became bated and shallow, his legs wobbly and unstable. A wave of incomparable exhaustion crashed over him like he’d never before experienced. A small moan escaped from his mouth as he felt his feet begin to spasm within the boots. Quiet cracking sounds began to emit from within them. Cory began to panic, feeling his toes slowly move to fill out the entirety of the boot. Gasping and groaning at the dull but pulsating pain, the sensations began to climb further up his legs. He watched in horror as his ankles slowly crept out of the bottom of his jeans, the firm material slowly growing tighter and tighter as his calves and thighs swelled and grew beneath it.

His core and chest became seized by a tightness he could compare only to a heart attack, watching his shirt slowly compress against the increasing size of his lean abdomen. The sounds of snapping stitches and ripping fabric echoed in his ears, nearly drowned out by the hastening beats of his heart growing stronger and louder. His arms convulsed, stretching and contorting into impossible angles at the joints, while pinpricks of black slowly began to rise from beneath the skin.

In his mind, Cory imagined himself in a sort of medieval stretching machine he’d read about in his studies years before. Every part of his body was being pulled outward, downward, side to side… while it was painful and incredibly difficult to endure, within the recesses of his subconscious, the dulcet, twangy sound of plucked guitar strings began to overtake him. The sound soothed him in a desperately needed respite from the cracks and creaks emanating from his bones. The music grew in intensity, the guitar growing in crescendo and tempo. It was becoming a comfort, a release, a passion… while it soothed his mind, his body was finally nearing its final state of metamorphosis. The formerly strained, constricting fabric of his cheap clothes began to loosen and change. His shirt turned dark; the sleeves had retracted into a comfortable tee shirt, casual but striking. His jeans stretched downward, the pristine denim flaring out into a bootcut style, flattering his long, toned legs.

Cory couldn’t help but mimic the struts with his calloused fingers, expertly performing the riffs as if his Stratocaster was in his hands. His head began to sway and crest to the beat of the song in his mind, letting his lengthening hair gently caress the side of his face and beard as he played. All thoughts exited his brain. The music had overtaken him. The need to rock. The need to perform. The need to write his soul in musical form became his only goal, while the remnants of who he once was slowly drifted away.

….

The employee strutted back to the clearance section, wondering if the strange little guy had made his decision. He’d been back there for quite some time, and the boss lady reiterated the “no loitering policy” to him once again. Turning the corner, he was surprised. Who stood before him was clearly not who he’d helped before. The tall, toned, bearded stud confidently posed in front of the mirror in the worn boots he’d shown the prior customer. Guess he wasn’t interested after all.

“They sure are beauties. Hard to find someone who fit them, they’ve been here quite some time.” The man turned, a smoldering grin shellacked upon his face.

“Yeah, man. I’ve been needin’ a new pair. These are perfect.” His twangy southern drawl tickled the associate’s ear. The customer turned to him, that bright, confident smile beaming as he looked him up and down. “Hey. I got a gig after this down the street if you’re not doing anything after your shift. I’ll get you the first round?” He suavely slid closer to the associate, the salty sweet scent of tobacco and masculine sweat wafted from his inked skin. How could he say no? Smiling, he tossed his arm around the associates shoulder. “Maybe afterward we could stop by my place, if you’re interested.” Winking, he strutted toward checkout. The associate blushed, catching his breath. Most definitely he’d be taking him up on that offer.

[meowicule]

it’s not a mistranslation, mori ogai likes kids: an look into anime translation and the bungo stray dogs fanbase

tldr; yes mori is a pedophile, he is not a “doting father”, this is a key point to his character

4/8 people voted that i should make this post and mg boyfriend said that if that won, i then was essentially obligated to make it. so i am making it. before i begin i just want to state a few things:

1. i’m not saying “We need to CANCEL!!!! fictional character MORI OGAI!!!” i’m just trying to elaborate on a common misconception regarding his character.

2. at the same time i’m also not saying that this is a good aspect of his character. obviously. this is bad. mori is a villain.

3. this is mostly about translation and less about mori so if you’re looking just for him and don’t want any context, section four discusses him.

this will be seperated into sections to hopefully make it easier to read but overall i’m just kind of rambling and i didn’t edit this so if it’s disorganized feel free to ask questions

PART ONE: translation overview

contrary to popular belief, the process of officially translating manga or anime from japanese to english is not typically the work of one person, especially when we’re considering anime/manga published and produced by major companies (anime: bones, manga: kadokawa shoten*). at its core (though processes and the nitty gritty is dependent on tons of factors), a translation will go through at least one translator, a typesetter/subtitle timer (manga/anime), and editors. for official translations, it is REVIEWED by typically multiple editors and revisors before being sent off to the public.

i feel many people talking about mistranslations assume incompetence and that it’s just one guy doing whatever he wants with the original text while the original creators are none the wiser (this is not true). generally this is born from the common belief among anime fans that japan is full of incompetent and naive people who have been isolated from society their whole life (ex: arguments on how japan doesn’t know what black people are, “legal age of consent” debates, etc). japan is not a magical land where everybody cannot do wrong and is simply misunderstood; you are just fucking insufferable.

this isn’t to say that mistranslations don’t happen but rather that they aren’t as common as a lot of anime fans like to claim.

*kadokawa shoten is a major publisher. repetoire includes: cowboy bebop, lucky star, mirai nikki, re:zero. their videogame section also did lollipop chainsaw, fun fact.

PART TWO: translating for understanding

the intent of a translated work is not to copy the text word by word but rather to communicate the core messages and ideas to a different audience. as i’m sure you’re aware, japanese and english are two different languages. going beyond just cultural understandings, the languages themselves utilize two entirely different alphabets. with that, english and japanese have different abilities in what they can communicate with the alphabet provided! a great example of language barriers are PRONOUNS.

in a very boiled down version, english pronouns are categorized by relation to the speaker, gender, and possession.

she = girl that is not the speaker

me = speaker

his = owned by boy that is not the speaker

your = owned by the person being spoken to

our PRONOUNS are not hierarchical. an old man and a young boy will both be referred to as “he”. titles such as “mr.” and “doctor” can elaborate on status and respect, but generally, a male doctor is going to use the same pronouns as a male farmer.

pronouns obviously go a lot deeper than that and i’m glossing over a lot of stuff but if you can read what i’m saying here then you know enough english to comprehend pronouns.

on the other hand, japanese includes multiple levels of formality in pronouns. this means that their pronouns are heavily based in context and can be considered hierarchical.

in english, the sentence “he is over there” only tells us the relative location “he” is to the speaker and the area. we know nothing about who “he” is and require more information to understand his place in the world.

in japan, however, the sentence “he is over there” would be translated in a way that would either formalize or deformalize “he”, providing us information on who he is and his place in the world as well as the personality of the speaker (are they more laidback or are they polite?).

all of this is to say that if you directly translate from one language to another, you lose a lot of the original meaning. that is why meaning is more important than exact translation. so, using the “he is over there” example:

if the japanese phrase uses formal pronouns, the english translation may look something like this: “dr. lastname is over there” or “the old man is over there”. instead of just saying “he is over there”, words are changed to replicate the formal intent of the japanese dialogue.

going beyond this, certain cultural references may be added or changed to resonate better with english audiences. using a more infamous example

4kids changed dialogue that likely originally referenced an enjoyment of onigiri to revolve around food that american kids are more likely to be familiar with. though in this particular instance the translation feels silly and unnecessary (since brock is obviously not actually talking about jelly-filled donuts and the onigiri staying in the visuals of the scene just creates confusion), the intent carries over. brock likes a food with flavored filling that is easily transportable. this scene was translated with audience understanding in mind and that is the point!

PART TWO POINT FIVE : why understanding matters

if you’re thinking, ‘well hey, i think understanding is stupid. why can’t anime just carry over japanese phrases and terms and just explain them later???’. well first off, they do. to avoid jelly-donut incidents, foods and places are often left romanized rather than changed and translator notes are utilized to explain these things to english audiences. HOWEVER, if you keep every word that doesn’t have a direct literal/cultural translation, you end up with this:

this specific example comes from a fan translation of death note. by prioritizing keeping the original work intact, the translator created something that would be mocked on the internet for years. they did not need to explain what keikaku meant, they just needed to put “plan” in the sentence in the first place. “all according to plan” is more understandable to audiences than “all according to keikaku (btw keikaku means plan)”. it simply distracts from the point of the scene rather than adding to it.

PART THREE: actual mistranslation

as mentioned earlier, mistranslations DO occur. however, most mistranslations happen intentionally. whether it be for censorship purposes or a miscalculation from the editors, a lot of the most famous mistranslations happen for a reason.

sailor moon is the best example of this. despite being produced by a major company and generally having the resources to create a good translation, the examples of mistranslations in the anime and manga have warranted hundreds of their own articles and thinkpieces. why were the translations so fucked? it wasn’t by accident but rather shoddy attempts at censorship.

most famous would be how in the original english version, sailor neptune and sailor uranus were said to be cousins. they are not. they are girlfriends. and it wasn’t until the show was retranslated by viz media in 2016 that they were allowed to be girlfriends!

some other intentional mistranslations in sailor moon include

- changing a gay man to be a straight woman

- cutting out/toning down violence and death

- fully cutting out episodes or scenes and reversing scenes that were kept to make them longer

- different names

- more slang (this is a pretty common mistranslation and generally the editing of dialogue to be more #cool with the kids is the most prevalent type of change in translations. such as atsushi saying bruh)

- moral recaps of episodes

PART FOUR: what the fuck does this have to do with mori.

i really did all of this explaining to showcase how there is literally no fucking way that mori was poorly translated in english. it is literally impossible for his behavior to be an accident and, unless we need to put the editors and translators in jail, there is no way somebody would add that character trait to him if it wasn’t involved in the original.

here is just one example of so many. but pay attention to fukuzawa’s word choice. do you still LUST after young girls. lust, as a word, refers explicitly and solely to sexual desire. if the translator wanted to show a nonsexual relationship towards young girls, the word lust would not be used. the usage of lust is intentional and, again, unless somebody needs to be put on a fucking registry, not a word you can use by accident.

it’s also really important to consider his ability. and before you say that the real mori ogai was asexual so that means bsd mori’s ability doesn’t refer to sexual desires, be serious. no longer human isn’t about how osamu dazai can cancel out other people’s abilities, it’s a fictional autobiography about a guy named yōz�� who is the bojack horseman of japanese literature. their abilities tend to relate pretty loosely to their namesakes and the characters themselves aren’t 1:1 representations of their authors.

with that being said, the book vita sexualis was banned at the time for being an affront to human nature. all mori said was that he doesn’t think he feels sexual attraction. asexuality doesn’t matter in our society like nobody gaf the way they did when the book was released. does it not make sense for asagiri to adapt the impact of his work as opposed to the work itself. we do not see asexuality as a taboo crime but liking kids is something we all agree is an affront to human nature. so it makes sense that his ability reflects sexual attraction that horrifies us. odd writing decision but you can see how he got from point a to point b. his ability is a reflection of his sexual desires and as you can see from the yosano flashback, he is able to change elise’s temperament and appearance (as during the war, she was taller and more obedient) if he so chooses. her existence as a petulant child is deliberate.

so it is with all this being said that the original intent for mori was to be a creep and that is carried over in meaning by the english translation.

[detectivebambam]

please please please rant about cowboy culture bc you are my third favorite cowboy after my mom and Chris Stapleton

😱💕 I'm so glad 😭😭😭

okay so I'm not a history major, this is just what i know about cowboy culture in my community, it might be different other places

SO

the first cowboys were indigenous mexicanos called "Vaqueros". i think a lot of the culture was brought in from Spain? the Conquistadors rode horses very well and then Mexicans were like oh word and learned how. anyway.

in North America, Plains Indians were quite nomadic, so a lot of the nomadic culture of cowboys came from them. the old west movies you see? that's mostly Plains culture

i don't want to say vaqueros immigrated to what is now the US, because they didn't? I'm pretty sure there wasn't really a border, and there sure as shit wasn't the one we have now. so vaquero culture mixed with Plains culture and cowboys would roam all over the West (everything in yellow and grey)

when Colonizers from Europe joined the party, many people who felt out of place on the East Coast (the 13 colonies/the pink places) would head West. this could be anyone. LGBT+ peoples, people of color, non-Christians, etc.

Cowboy Culture was nomadic, and gave people who were different or exiled an opportunity to be themselves and grow their own ideas. so for the longest time, the most progressive people in the US were cowboys. it's not exactly that way anymore, but you'll find that most cowboys don't give a damn about who you are or what you do, as long as you can work.

a huge part of cowboy culture is the sharing of culture. not to dispute the fact that colonizers have stolen a lot of cultural practices from Indigenous people, but cowboys were indigenous. as the culture grew, we kept a lot of the same practices and cultural items. that's why you see a lot of this when it comes to cowboys:

fringe also comes from traditional Indigenous clothing, and Chaps come from Vaqueros.

unfortunately colonialism has stolen a lot from indigenous people, but at least in my community, it's very much a shared culture, and most of us get our Western jewelry and clothing (see above) from Native American local businesses.

most cowboys speak English and Spanish, again because of Vaqueros. think of any quinces that you've been to (if you have). everyone in cowboy hats and boots, line dancing (part of country culture that came from Mexico), etc etc. lots of gringos hispanohablantes when you get to the West

anyway rant over i just really love this part of my heritage

[rebellum]

How do you know youre upper middle class? Isn't class related to race so like only white people are truly considered to be middle class to upper class. Intersectionality or whateva. We can be billionaires but since were POC we will never be seen as one of them because of our bloodline/descent/color etc

That's not really how that works. While someone who is white (or, of the most privileged race of the culture) has more social power than someone of colour who makes the same income, they still make enough money that they count as that class.

Intergenerational wealth also counts for something, which is why there are eg more white rich people than rich poc in the west.

Class relates to race in that different factors of oppression or privilege affect individuals differently, but class terminology is a useful tool for understanding how social power relates to wealth.

For example, I, a mixed race black person living in canada, absolutely have more power than a poor white person in certain situations. Other upper middle class people subconsciously recognise me as being of the same class, because of the way I dress (I have cool glasses, I wear gold jewelery with precious (semi-precious?) gems, the way I speak (which I would describe as "upper middle class canadian academic English"), and more. That class connection of "ah yes, we are both upper middle class and therefore are similar", that in-group affiliation, benefits me in many situations. It also doesn't benefit me...enough, I guess? in many situations.

I'm thinking now of the "cowboy church" incident. I won't get into the whole details, but this story includes me, my brother (mixed black), my friend (black), my dad (black), and my dad's girlfriend (white) walking into a small rural Texan church full of only white people. EVERYONE turned and stared. It was honestly so unnerving. You ever see the look in someone's eyes and just KNOW they're thinking the n word? It was like that.

In that case, people saw my skin colour. These were not upper middle class city folk, there was no group affiliation except for assumed Christianity. They did not see my outfit, and the way I spoke and carried myself. They saw my skin colour.

But could you imagine how horribly that would have gone had we appeared to be low income? If we walked in with idk sweat pants and a hoodie and no jewelery and speaking in AAVE? We would have absolutely been received in a much harsher way. So while there was not the benefit of in-group affiliation, my class still benefitted me because they saw my class as "neutral" kind of, rather than "poor person".

You're totally correct in that there will always be the dynamics of racism within same group class dynamics, that never goes away.

As for how I know I'm actually upper middle class, if that was a real question and not just a lead up for your ask that really meant "but are you really upper middle class if you aren't white?" Well, I haven't looked at class income demographics in canada recently, but I just kinda... know?

Guessing based on parental income (I have no income)(also yes that complicates class! I'm applying for welfare despite being upper middle class.)

Not the first generation to attend university

My parents and grandparents paid for my entire undergrad (to be fair, keep in mind I'm canadian, it was like $2000 a semester. We aren't talking american uni costs.)

We live in a house we own that has 3 floors, a front yard, a backyard, and a pool

I travel every year at least to other parts of Canada

My various family members and I have all been on international trips

I say things like "one must question the validity of their own argument" or whatever. Like, I use the pronoun "one". I also use more words of French and latin origin in everyday speech, like "ameliorate" or.. idk, other ones, it's like midnight here.

Almost all of my clothes I buy new, thrift shopping is a fun activity for me and not a necessity

My glasses are designed in France and the frames alone cost $300

Idk, I just know man. Insert Japanese shrug emoji here.

I hope this makes sense, it's late here and my brain has been a little funky today, so feel free to ask for clarification if needed

[calledthezealot]

I started making a thread about this on Twitter but separating posts into tweets is a massive pain in the ass, so I think I'll dump my whole thoughts here.

The "Star Wars suburbs" in Skeleton Crew are terrible. Boring and uncreative.

I'll start by acknowledging there is absolutely a history of Star Wars being heavily influenced by other films and wearing these influences proudly. However, Star Wars ripping aesthetics from its influences 1:1 is a very modern development. It wasn't very common before the Disney buyout.

For example, let's go back to the beginning, Star Wars (1977). Luke Skywalker is clearly meant to be relatable to every kid who feels like they're too big for where they grew up, much like George Lucas himself felt as a kid growing up in dull suburban California. But does Luke grow up in "Space Modesto"?

No.

He's a moisture farmer in the desert, just like his uncle. This science fiction profession is not relatable at all to audiences, but we get it. It's boring, and Luke wants more for himself. That's all we need.

In fact, the alien nature of "moisture farming" ENHANCES the worldbuilding of the setting and helps us get immersed. We barely know what moisture farming is, but we still "get" it. We get what Luke's going through. The Star Wars galaxy is very different from our own, but basic tenets like wanting more out of life and wanting to make the world a better place still carry through. This is worldbuilding done right.

There's countless similar examples you can grab from the movies. The Rebels are based off the Viet Cong, but they hide out in Mayan temples. Han's a cowboy, but he's not wearing cowboy clothes. Every aesthetic choice is deliberate to make things feel "familiar, but not".

To contrast with Skeleton Crew, it's the opposite. How do we show that these kids are relatable to the audience? By having them grow up in American suburbia. That's it. Not even a palette swap. It's lazy, it's visually boring, and it's borderline insulting to the audience.

We know we don't need kids to grow up like this to relate to them.

Luke grew up as a water farmer in a desert.

Leia grew up as a princess.

Boba grew up as a clone of the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter!

So why did the creators of the show go this route? In their own words, they were influenced by 1980s family movies like E.T. and The Goonies, which is also used as the justification for why the suburbs look how they do.

"They're influenced by E.T., what else could they look like?"

Lazy.

As mentioned earlier, George Lucas (and others) took a lot of inspiration from a lot of different films. Take Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, probably one of the largest singular influences on Star Wars.

The pitch is very similar: two Japanese peasants unwittingly fall into a quest alongside the company of a defeated general to rescue a princess in exile. Very similar to Star Wars, right? But that's not the entirety of it. Lucas even admits in the documentary series Light and Magic that The Hidden Fortress isn't even close to his favorite Kurosawa - he was primarily interested in the idea of telling a grand story from the perspective of the "lowest" characters in the setting (which would become R2 and 3PO). Star Wars is, at its heart, a mishmash of Lucas's (or another creator's!) myriad influences.

Flash Gordon. Dune. Akira Kurosawa. David Lean. Hot rod culture. WW2 serials. On and on and on.

On the surface it might sound like Star Wars is just The Hidden Fortress in space, but Lucas is inspired by so much, that even with a similar overarching plot, you can only just see the broad strokes.

What are the Skeleton Crew influences?

The Goonies? E.T.?

...Star Wars itself?

They get tasked with making a Star Wars coming-of-age story, and what do they come up with?

Goonies, but this time the bikes float.

Alright.

[beardedmrbean]

Okay I probably going to bitch next year, but this how I feel about the society of magical negroes https://youtu.be/GvM4_U9MvPk?si=IcP7aWm2nAFA5G89

Black content creators, we was doing so well, we help on the FUCKING APOLLO LUNAR MISSIONS, we created so many inventions during periods of oppression and discrimination, many civil rights activists survived to see a fucking black President into office.

But no, we (though Obama did start it) have to burn down the bridges our forebears made towards race relations because you need to justify your racist hateboner towards white peoples even in a setting where black people have magic

Also…writers do know that there regional black cultures? Like southern blacks would probably be into the voodoo stuff, hmmm black urban magic user might blend eastern magic given our urban history with Asians….

I’m thinking more than the writers who made more money by writing this movie script alone than I do in a year am I?

Black content creators, we was doing so well, we help on the FUCKING APOLLO LUNAR MISSIONS, we created so many inventions during periods of oppression and discrimination, many civil rights activists survived to see a fucking black President into office. But no, we (though Obama did start it) have to burn down the bridges our forebears made towards race relations because you need to justify your racist hateboner towards white peoples even in a setting where black people have magic

This here is one of the big reasons why I continually say that we're going backwards from the peak of the late 90's in terms of racial issues/relations and a lot of that has to do with the media being produced and consumed.

Social media is another massive issue because honestly how fast can we see a lie that people want to believe spread once twitter gets its hands on it, and then you get the people that regardless of what the facts are refuse to shift because of a matter of pride.

Honestly though the different media that was on back there. Had stuff like Fresh Prince, Martin, In Living Colour (Waynes family owned comedy in the early/mid 90's) all kinds of non white led shows on the tv that didn't play hard into stereotypes but still managed to showcase what some of the different issues faced by the various other racial and ethnic groups without it feeling forced.

Carlton being the "wrong" kind of black man for the fraternity, that's not something a white writer could really do terribly well, but it's one of the things that seems to come up a lot irl and it's nice to put it out there for folks that may not be up on that being a thing.

Spike Lee, he ruled the 90's too, Do the Right Thing, X, even White Men Can't Jump great films showcasing the reality of life in those communities without resorting to tired stereotypes, even White Men Can't Jump since that's just kinda how the whole thing ended up till then it was solid drama even after it was still solid.

And if you wanted quality satire the previously mentioned Waynes's came in with "Don't be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood" can't recall who did CB4, but that was good too.

Now we get

Which is incredibly weird to me considering I know who Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Big Mama Thornton are.

We really erasing Black Women's accomplishments in an effort to stick it to Whitey? How about Black Men, Chuck Berry ring a bell to anyone?

How about Current year. Please I'm begging you

Tell the Death Metal Cowboys of Botswana that they're playing white people music.

No race owns any kind of music for starters, tack in suppressing loads of talent because folks just gotta keep holding their community back for some reason.

I run into the same issue with Chris Rock's whole 'he's a dentist' bit about his neighborhood, ya it's a joke but telling your predominantly black audience that you need to be Denzel Washington to be able to reach the same heights as a run of the mill white dentist, gotta be discouraging.

Then we get the "Magical Negro's" movie, which ya it's supposed to be comedy, could do without being so ham-fisted.

Sent the trailer you shot me a few days back to a friend of mine, his response was less wordy than mine but we both landed on the same conclusion.

"So basically it's Undercover Brother but not funny"

How about we bring Sinbad out of retirement and fix that whole "Shazam" issue once and for all he can do the race stuff without being a massive ass about it, and I'd love to see him working some more, maybe we get a "Good Burger" sequel.

Not that David Allen Grier isn't funny, but damn that movie just looks awful.

[rockislandadultreads]

Native American Heritage Month: Nonfiction Recommendations

Celebrate Native American Heritage Month by checking out one of these nonfiction recommendations from your local library!  

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer

The received idea of Native American history has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Growing up Ojibwe on a reservation in Minnesota, training as an anthropologist, and researching Native life past and present for his nonfiction and novels, David Treuer has uncovered a different narrative. Because they did not disappear - the story of American Indians since the end of the nineteenth century to the present is one of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention.

Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists edited by Jill Ahlberg Yohe

This volume explores the artistic achievements of Native women and establishes their rightful place in the art world, including works of art from antiquity to the present, made in a variety of media from textiles and beadwork to video and digital arts. It showcases artists from more than seventy-five Indigenous tribes to reveal the ingenuity and innovation that have always been foundational to the art of Native women.

New Native Kitchen by Freddie Bitsoie

From the former executive chef at Mitsitam Native Foods Café at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, this book is a celebration of Indigenous cuisine. Accompanied by original artwork and offering delicious dishes like Cherrystone Clam Soup and Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin, Bitsoie showcases the variety of flavor and culinary history on offer from coast to coast, providing modern interpretations of 100 recipes that have long fed this country.

We Had a Little Real Estate Problem by Kliph Nesteroff

It was one of the most reliable jokes in Charlie Hill’s stand-up routine: “My people are from Wisconsin. We used to be from New York. We had a little real estate problem.” In this account, acclaimed comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff focuses on one of comedy’s most significant and little-known stories: how, despite having been denied representation in the entertainment industry, Native Americans have influenced and advanced the art form.

Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King

In this account, Thomas King offers a deeply knowing, darkly funny, unabashedly opinionated, and utterly unconventional account of Indian–White relations in North America since initial contact. Ranging freely across the centuries and the Canada–U.S. border, King debunks fabricated stories of Indian savagery and White heroism, takes an oblique look at Indians (and cowboys) in film and popular culture, wrestles with the history of Native American resistance and his own experiences as a Native rights activist, and articulates a profound, revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands.

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/9/2022: THE HIDDEN (1987)

I'm gonna say something contentious about this great movie, to my own detriment, but I think it's the truth: Boys love THE HIDDEN. I mean, I also love THE HIDDEN. Everybody who loves a good movie loves THE HIDDEN! It's a huge party with great performances, cool images, and non-stop action. Bitchin' car chases, sick guitar riffs, sci-fi weapons, fucked up parasites, and gun-toting strippers are not inherently gendered fare; they are for everyone. But I think that the way I watch THE HIDDEN is fundamentally different from the way that, say, my husband watches it. He grew up in the New Jersey suburbs in the '80s and '90s, raised with a sense that his natural, god-given culture was cool cars, hot chicks, shootouts, explosions, secret agents, alien invaders, and all this macho material that blasts out of the screen when you watch THE HIDDEN. When my husband and I watch this movie, we may experience a similar level of pleasure, but not for the same reasons. He sees a great movie, but he also sees the greatest expression of what he was raised to believe is an inherent part of his being. He gets a sense of ownership, a feeling of having his own true nature acknowledged, that I can't really touch as a cis het girl who was raised as such—and I've noticed this every time I watch THE HIDDEN with the dudes in my life. They get a sense of social patriotism from it, a feeling of unity, and an affirmation of the most basic tenants of their cultural identity. And I think that's totally great.

So anyway, THE HIDDEN is the best movie by director Jack Sholder, unless you understand that WISHMASTER 2 is the greatest movie ever made, or unless you are doing contrarian hot takes on the quality of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2 just to point out that it's not as bad as its homophobic haters insist that it is. Without knowing for sure, I'd bet it's also the best movie from Bob Hunt, who also wrote THE BOOGENS. THE HIDDEN is a buddy cop movie in which hardboiled cop Michael Nouri and obvious space alien Kyle MacLachlachlan and hunt an intergalactic parasite with a taste for fast cars, rock'n'roll, and ultraviolence. It resembles ELM STREET 2 in its focus on male bonding and male fears around bodily vulnerability. It resembles WISHMASTER 2 in being an uninhibited, imaginative, balls to the wall good time. THE HIDDEN is fun, funny, and oddly moving, and it's basically only going to put you off if you hate joy.

It's easy to be distracted by the high octane spectacle of this movie, but it is also beautifully cast and performed. Kyle MacLachlan is typically wonderful and he has great chemistry with Michael Nouri, but the parasite also gives us a string of great performances from its hosts. My personal favorite is William Boyett, a lantern-jawed square who usually showed up in movies and shows about cops, cowboys, spies, and other GI Joe types, and his straight-laced appearance is a perfect foil for the extreme antisociality of the parasite, who totes around a boombox blasting shedding rock music on its relentless crime spree. Other standouts include Twin Peaks alum Chris Mulkey, Claudia Christian from MANIAC COP 2, and last but not least, Jake the dog from NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4.

I don't really have anything deep to say about THE HIDDEN besides the sociological observation that I led with. But, even though I maintain that it offers a delightful and, all things considered, not particularly toxic reflection of American masculinity, I should underline that THE HIDDEN is definitely for everyone. Watch it today to turn off your brain and boost your mood.

PS Here is my husband's hilarious photo of us watching THE HIDDEN on my laptop during our recent road trip. It really says how we feel about William Boyett.

[icarus-suraki]

I've been thinking about a post that's been circulating here about the subtle racism present in Western/white danmei fandom (which is definitely there, whether one realizes it or not). And it reminded me a lot of 1990s anime fandom.

First, for the record, I'm white. Just so we're clear. Okay, moving on:

The DIC dubbed version of Sailor Moon was broadcast when I was 13, in 1995 (and I jumped right on it too). Around that same time, the SciFi channel was showing a handful of animes in rotation on Saturday mornings. There were a few dubbed anime and even fewer subbed anime on VHS at Blockbuster. 9 times out of 10, no one ever really knew how to pronounce "Neon Genesis Evangelion" or "Urusei Yatsura." And the general perception of "anime" in general was that it was raunchy at the mildest and only got progressively more pornographic from there.

But as these things started to appear in the US and be available to a wider audience, all these racist stereotypes of Japan and Japanese people started to surface too. To quote someone from the time, "Isn't manga the kinky stuff Japanese businessmen read on the train?" That was the perception: it's all dirty. (Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Ronin Warriors and some other early arrivals helped with that some, because they were clearly children's cartoons. But then we had to deal with the whole "children's cartoons" issue when looking at NGE and Miyazaki's movies. But I'm digressing and glossing over whole decades of localized anime.)

tl;dr: in the early and mid 90s, if you were a fan of anime you were very much a consumer of a "foreign" product.

So we loved it but there was a very steep learning curve when it came to actually understanding what we were watching, especially as the internet got bigger and better and we learned that, wait, there are outer senshi? There are whole other storylines?

And there was an entirely different visual language and cultural foundation to these shows (and later movies and manga and so on). Why the heck does she have a giant drop next to her head? Why is she holding that piece of paper? What does it mean to work at a shrine? A shrine to what? What's the deal with the cherry blossoms? Why does he have an expression like that on his face? What does it mean when the characters do this? And this was in the 90s, so the internet then is not what it is today. We had to fumble our way around and learn the details of these "foreign" cartoons, while contending with the stereotypes other people (usually adults lol) had about Japan, anime, and Japanese people. But we did learn! We'd read, we'd hit up the internet as much as we could, we'd talk to one another, we'd go to events and conventions and just try to pick up as much as we could. Because we were curious! We wanted to know!

We were lucky because within a few years we had Princess Mononoke in movie theaters (not many, but some) and Cowboy Bebop popped up and Gundam Wing came along and the internet got better and anime stopped being such a fringe interest and now there's better information and understanding (at least a little).

That's a long story to say that the Western danmei fandom needs to do the same thing: get down into the cultural source and learn stuff.

You have got to acknowledge that you are engaging with works from a culture that is not your own. You can't just slap Western concepts onto it and try to shove an entirely different culture into the framework of your own culture. That's not going to work. And, no, you won't understand everything right off. There's layers in here and you have to acknowledge that and start learning.

You're engaging with concepts and worldviews that are almost certainly not the same as your own, my fellow white danmei fans, and you have got to realize that. Step back from your notions and your expectations and, yes, your racism and stereotypes, and start looking at the complexity of an entire culture out of which a character you love has arisen.

Once upon a time, someone here on Tumblr wanted to do a presentation about how "magical girl" characters like Sailor Moon and Sakura Kinomoto were inherently feminist. The problem was that this person never even considered the ways "feminism" might look or be discussed in Japan. This person was imposing Western feminism on characters that were created entirely outside that worldview/mindset. Don't do that. It's unfair to the creator, it's unfair to the creator's culture, and it actually kind of stifles your opportunity for learning.

Will I ever understand Japanese culture as well as a Japanese person? Absofuckinglutely not. But I know more than I once did, which means I can enjoy more aspects of animanga than I used to. I can get more of it and I'm less likely to misinterpret the creator's intentions. I'm not that great at it and I love a good translator's note, but I can get more of some of it.

So dig in to the cultural foundations and stop shoving Western cultural concepts onto works that weren't created in that milieu. (Yes, I said "milieu!") Get curious! I am begging you to stop assuming and get curious! Ask yourself "why?" and then get to researching!

For your first assignment, stop writing fanfic where Lan Wangji sounds like a robot. He uses short, perfect, referential phrases because he's elegant and educated. In English, the most elegant characters use elaborate language. Not so in many Chinese works: the fewer and more perfectly chosen the words, and the more meaning lying within those words, the more refined and educated the character is. It's like he's so good with language that he doesn't even need to use it anymore.

At least, that's my superficial understanding at the moment. I've got tons more to learn.

So let's get learning and stop shoving our expectations, assumptions, worldview, stereotypes, and cultural baggage onto works that exist and were created outside all of that. Let the works stand on their own and learn their foundations.

[confier-boyfriend]

“You look like a hick” we live in fucking Wyoming. You live in a town of 10,000 people that wouldn’t exist without the rodeo. Most people there are into agriculture. Dressing in clothing that’s western doesn’t suddenly mean you’re a wannabe hick. Shut up please, you dress like a shien girlie. Sorry I have clothing that I connect to and you don’t?

Do you know how many people here work on ranches. Can we please stop acting like something is corny or bad just because it’s different. Can we have even the slightest hint of unique culture here without you freaking out. Can we have our own thing. Can we be less of companies ideal consumers and idk just like embrace the fun clothing. I bought a jacket because it reminded me of Brokeback mountain (the movie not the place), I only wear boot cut pants because they’re comfy for me, I have tons of western style shirts I love.

Bitches will walk into a western clothing store and be like “why isn’t it marketable western clothing and actual western clothing? I just wanted a baggy shirt with a cowboy hat on it :(.” I think their heads would explode if they went to frontier days.

Fuck you i love my cowboy hat, I love my dress boots I never wear, I love that the clothing that lasted the longest is my western clothing, I like not dressing like every Pinterest mood board.

Same ass people who complain about others wearing the same hoodie everyday.

[ericfuentes]

Due to my severe depressive state of being since my mom passed, I found very little motivation to live, let alone go to work. I feel I’m on the 3/4 side of that now but the sting of my harsh reality remains: not finding any value in life, I stopped working. whenever I did work, I took chances. You can’t take chances with other peoples lives. I’ve been let go from Lyft. The only job I’ve loved in all of my life. If ever a hard month I had, it is now. If ever there was a reason to feel sorry for myself, it is now. If ever I needed a reason to quit life, it is now. But I won’t. Calling my mom a tough cookie is like calling the Sears Tower in Chicago, a shack. My mom and I spoke about her death, this past year. It dawned on me that her impending death had ruled my subconscious mind for the past 10 years. Most of you know me to be a strong leader, one who’s solution oriented & one who isn’t still tied down by anxieties or the like. But I am. Incrementally, I have been holding back, holding breath for fear of my mom passing. It was ”That which we may not speak of.” She was fine talking about it. I was, am not fine. I have 3 mothers: Socorro, my biological parent, Olga, creative partner who’s headstrong in her convictions & my oldest sister, & Dora, who’s perspective is invaluable to any great change I make in ny life. Along with Gabriel, my father, hard working, never complains, just faithfully loved my mom, I was served well.

Too well.

There’s a line of distinction that separates healthy love from unhealthy. My parents, immigrants from another country, did the best they could to raise a healthy (on all fronts) boy. She knew what she wanted and she knew how to make it happen. How could she not; she helped her parents raise her siblings and contributed to the financial supporting of them. She’d been a mom 1000 times before I was assigned to her. He: raised on a farm, was very much a cowboy (speak when spoke to and use only the words to convey truth). NEITHER of them knew anything about mental healthcare nor did they address patterns in behavior that they couldn’t identify. They were not taught to look out for societal changes that would dramatically effect how their offsprings would react to this world. They just loved me.

Mexican love is different than other ethnicities. We have developed a miracle cure for everything be it a broken bone, a bee sting, or a broken heart. We call this amazing cure: food. When a mexican loves you, they will identify your biggest insecurity and call you by a nickname derived from that insecurity to help you cope with it. When you lose the love of a mexican, it’s not just a love gone, it’s a whole era gone because through love, we envelop you into our culture, our family, into our history.

My parents did the best they could but the love they shown me cannot be measured because it was off the charts. “No healthy. Too mush. Throw up!” Everything has always been taken care of for me by the small army I call my nuclear family. I don’t know how to adult, still at 47. I don’t know how to do a lot of things. I knew it when my mom was alive & I know it now. And so I feared with great anxiety the day I would be expected to walk on my own, without the presence of my savior. I don’t know how to be “Eric who’s lost his mom” or “Eric without safeguard” I hid from the reality that I am my one person and no one is responsible for my happiness except me. Well….. I walk on this earth known as “Eric, no mom”. But it is only one title. The one I choose to focus on today is “Eric motivated by his mother”. So I’ll use her example and her strength to pull her son out from his dark abyss and I’ll borrow from her accomplishments the confidence it takes to improve the quality of my life. Later, once I’ve reached at least the first plateau, I hope to use her joy, to dance again, her creativity to laugh again, and her foresight to lay down the appropriate foundation for her son to grow old, securely.

I can’t do office jobs and jobs that expect me somewhere at a set time, I will fail. IF YOU HAVE ANY JOB LEADS, please reach out through messenger.