“
But ask yourself: Why is there that knee-jerk rejection of any effort to “overthink” pop culture? Why would you ever be afraid that looking too hard at something will ruin it? If the government built a huge, mysterious device in the middle of your town and immediately surrounded it with a fence that said, “NOTHING TO SEE HERE!” I’m pretty damned sure you wouldn’t rest until you knew what the hell that was — the fact that they don’t want you to know means it can’t be good.
Well, when any idea in your brain defends itself with “Just relax! Don’t look too close!” you should immediately be just as suspicious. It usually means something ugly is hiding there.
” —This quote is in an article about superhero movies, but it applies to so many things.
(via thecharles)
(via pfdiva)
Name one group of oppressed people who were able to end mass genocide and institutional and systemic oppression by being nice.
show your work
(via girljanitor)
citrine18 asked: Bryke is a bit like Sokka-great ideas, but then they sit down and start painting out the picture in their head and everyone around them looks at it and sees a completely different message.
Mary:
Pretty much.
[video]
[video]
...Eaux...: on korra and the removal of bending -
i’ve been meaning to make this post for a while but here we go, i might as well do it tonight
[tw: discussion of rape, assault, violation]
The scene where Korra gets her bending taken away makes me uncomfortable and disturbed on a very raw, visceral level and it’s because to me, personally, de-bending reads like an analogy to sexualized violence and assault due to the similarities in power dynamics. (I am, right now, disclaiming a YMMV on this interpretation.) I just saw a comment that said Korra “fails hilariously” in her plan and it made me more upset than the rest of what was said in that post for these reasons:
- The removal of bending, in the way Amon does it, is a fundamentally violating act that leaves its victims - those we see - traumatized, hopeless, and depressed. Witness Tahno, Korra, and Lin’s metalbenders.
- It is a forcible violation of both the physicality and the spirituality of the victim. Their bending, an intimate part of their selves, is removed from them via a physical means that involves restraining them against their will.
- It is not an act of justice but an act of control and power, much like how sexualized violation and assault is an act of control and power, to exert dominance over the victim: Amon does it to make examples out of people, not to dole out justice; his victims are targeted and selected for politically motivated reasons (first a crime lord, then a cheating, bullying pro-bending team, and then a councilman and his family) and defeated in shows of strength and force.
- Amon removes Korra’s bending explicitly to control her: there’s no way he was initially planning on removing her bending in an abandoned storage room, away from the public eye. That would completely undermine his narrative of taking power from successively more public figures, entrenching his power over the populace. Instead he does it because she is out of his control, out of line with his carefully tailored plans - she ruins his rally and reveals his secret, and whether it was effective or not it still damages Amon’s public image - and she needs to be “destroyed”. Amon does it to put Korra in her place.
- In short: much like how acts of sexualized violence and rape are not about sex, but power and control, I read Amon’s removal of Korra’s bending as not about justice, but about overpowering her and controlling her. The power dynamics are uncomfortably similar, whether or not this was Bryke’s intention.
How is this hilarious?
Honestly, I’m sick of narratives where the women have to suffer like this; I’m tired of narratives that are violent against both the minds and bodies of women, and I don’t care for the lack of sympathy for Korra. She goes through a horrific, traumatizing experience that almost literally destroys her - her sense of self, her perception of who she is, her self-love - and I have nothing but sympathy and love for her, for all her faults and flaws.
Your mileage on this may, of course, vary, but I find it almost unforgivable that a proud, strong, enthusiastic young woman protagonist had to be forced through such a destructive and vile experience in the name of character development.
(via korrawr)
Hello everybody. My name is Allison and I’m the original poster of this content. It’s taken me some time to figure out what it is that I want to say and I don’t want anyone to think that my silence up to this point has been from a lack of concern. It has not.
I am truly and very deeply sorry to anybody who was offended and/or hurt by this content. The intent on sharing this tutorial was not to cause any person of any race discomfort or offense. Quite simply, I did not understand the impact that such a post could have because I did not understand things like racial appropriation or color blind racism. To be honest I’d never heard these words before. But I followed along with the discussion yesterday, trying to learn from it… trying to understand by looking up the words and phrases I have been ignorant of my whole life.
I will not say that I understand completely. The fact of the matter is I am a white woman, and while dealing with my own issues, I cannot now nor will I ever understand what it is like to be a person of color. But the content is already out there, the damage already done. I can do nothing to take it back, so I hope that if nothing else, others like me will learn something from the discussion. My most sincere apologies to everyone.
I’m reposting this for my followers because it is a wonderful example of the appropriate way to react when called out on having done something racist:
Apologized for harm caused? Check!
Listened and tried to understand the problem? Check!
Expressed that such actions will not be taken again in the future? Check!
A+ good reaction!
Hm. Haven’t fanarted in a while. So here’s Suki with a pair of killer chopsticks. Because she was such a bamf in the Boiling Rock.
WOW
(via ohlynn)
Book 1 on DVD & Blu-Ray is available for pre-order! Check out the amazing exclusives:
- Audio commentary from Mike & Bryan for all 12 episodes
- 8 animatics of M&B’s favorite scenes
- A new Puppetbender original short, “The Making of a Legend: The Untold Story”
WE. CAN’T. WAIT.
Sigh.
I honestly don’t know whether I should buy this or not.
On the one hand, really gorgeous animation, music, and concepts, and awesome characters and a good first few episodes.
On the other hand
crushingly painful disappointment.
