tbt to when the atla comic discussed cultural appropriation and absolutely nailed it
But that wasn’t the final word that the book gave on the
subject.
To present that scene without further commentary goes
against the entire point that Avatar: The Promise was making.
Consider: you’re looking at a comic written
by a Chinese-American author (Gene Luen Yang), drawn by two Japanese women (Studio
Gurihiru) that primarily illustrate American books, based on an American
cartoon that was done in a style reminiscent of Japanese anime (which in turn
can be partly traced back to American cartoons), helmed by two Caucasian Americans (Bryan
Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino), who drew heavily from Inuit, Japanese,
Chinese, and Tibetan cultures for inspiration.
The Promise was about Aang trying to clean up the mess left
when cultures that had been traditionally separated ended up being mixed (by
force), with a particular emphasis on the colonies that the Fire Nation had
left in the Earth Kingdom. His initial
instinct was to just try to put things back the way they were and make the Fire
Nation citizens leave, but he ultimately he realized that wasn’t possible,
because he was dealing with actual people and not abstract concepts. There were children raised in two cultures,
people from different cultures in love, people who had never set foot in the
nation they were being told they had to return to in order to make everything
neat and tidy. Aang ultimately rejected
the calls to keep every nation/culture separate and instead created Republic
City, where people could share and mix their cultures.
As for the Air Nomad Fan Club?
There are absolutely jackasses out there making a mockery of
other cultures, or who want to just exploit a culture for profit, discarding it like gum that’s lost its flavor when they can’t get any more money out of it. But when you go beyond condemning that and decide that only the
most dominant cultures can be shared, appreciated, reinterpreted, and spread,
then you effectively hand a death sentence to all other cultures.
Cultural exchange and expansion should be made
with respect, empathy, and genuineness, yes, but it cannot be simply shut down point blank. Genuine appreciation and interest needs to be accepted and guided in a positive direction. The point of
The Promise was ultimately that people cannot be neatly put into boxes and told
to stick to their own nation and culture.
They will make friends, they will fall in love, and cultures will mix,
change, and adapt. That’s human nature.
(The OP did touch on some of this in a later post, but it’s worth expanding on)
you: scooby doo
me, an intellectual: scoobert doobert
me, in the middle of a geometry test: brain u gotta chill, pay attention
brain: V E R ONICA OPen the, open the door please, Veronica opEN THE DOOOOOOOOR VERONICA can we not, fight anymore please, can we not figHT ANYMORE
SERIOUSLY THOUGH SHE WAS MY FAVORITE BATMAN VILLAIN
Her physical condition didn’t allow her to age
No one took her seriously as an actress
And even when she was trying to get into a happy romantic relationship (albeit with another villain) he still couldn’t take her seriously as a consenting, sexually active and romantically interested adult
That’s a lot of blows to someone’s psyche
and Babydoll is both a sympathetic villain and a formidable one
I remember this episode fucked me up a a kid.
And man, do I wish we could see this Batman again: the Batman that consoles his villains, because the majority (if not all) of them are mentally ill people. And Batman knows this and wants them healthy again, not punished and GOD definitely not dead.
Baby Doll is so underrated as a Batman villain
but her episode was perfect
Batman: The Animated Series
The story of one fucked up, traumatized little boy, doing his best to help other fucked up traumatized people.
The Batman that cares about the inmates is my favorite. He doesn’t put up with their shit, but he does try to reach out here and there and he’s as human as he can be to them.
When Harley was re-institutionalized, he got her that dress she wanted.
In the comics based on B:tAS, there was a time during Christmas that there was snow and it was Mr. Freeze’s fault, and he was making it snow because Christmas was his anniversary with Nora and she LOVED it when it snowed on Christmas, so Batman let him finish mourning before calmly taking him back to Arkham.
He never, ever gives up on Harvey possibly recovering.
Sure, Batman is going to throw punches and do what it takes to take these guys down when they’re hurting or threatening people. And he’s not going be a complete bleeding heart; he has to protect the innocent. He’s going to take them down and take them back to Arkham, but it doesn’t mean he’s incapable of being a bit human to the ones who deserve it.
Batman needs become human again
Because it needs to be here:
Remember that time a young girl with near god-like psychic powers threatened to destroy reality and the only one that could stop her was Batman because he had a previous encounter with her and was tasked with killing her to restore reality.
But instead, Batman sat with her on a swing and kept her company as the girl’s psychic powers slowly killed her.
No?
Fuck you people making me emotional
The. Batman.
This is MY Batman, not the murderous fascist they’ve made him into.
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m WEIRD. I’m a weirdo. I don’t fit in and I don’t WANT to fit in.
ALICE ROOSEVELT WAS HARDCORE. “She was known as a rule-breaker in an era when women were under great pressure to conform. The American public noticed many of her exploits. She smoked cigarettes in public, swore at officials, rode in cars with men, stayed out late partying, kept a pet snake named Emily Spinach (Emily as in her spinster aunt and Spinach for its green color) in the White House, and was seen placing bets with a bookie.
So what I’m reading here is, she was a Roosevelt?
Well I have a new hero.
Her whole wikipedia article is gold
“When her father was governor of New York, he and his wife proposed that Alice attend a conservative school for girls in New York City. Pulling out all the stops, Alice wrote, ‘If you send me I will humiliate you. I will do something that will shame you. I tell you I will.’”
“Her father took office in 1901 following the assassination of President William McKinley, Jr. in Buffalo (an event that she greeted with “sheer rapture.”)“
“During the cruise to Japan, Alice jumped into the ship’s pool fully clothed, and coaxed a congressman to join her in the water. (Years later Bobby Kennedy would chide her about the incident, saying it was outrageous for the time, to which the by-then-octogenarian Alice replied that it would only have been outrageous had she removed her clothes.”
“She was dressed in a blue wedding dress and dramatically cut the wedding cake with a sword (borrowed from a military aide attending the reception)”
“When it came time for the Roosevelt family to move out of the White House, Alice buried a Voodoo doll of the new First Lady, Nellie Taft, in the front yard.”
“Later, the Taft White House banned her from her former residence—the first but not the last administration to do so. During Woodrow Wilson’s administration (from which she was banned in 1916 for a bawdy joke at Wilson’s expense)…”
“As an example of her attitudes on race, in 1965 her African-American chauffeur and one of her best friends, Turner, was driving Alice to an appointment. During the trip, he pulled out in front of a taxi, and the driver got out and demanded to know of him, “What do you think you’re doing, you black bastard?” Turner took the insult calmly, but Alice did not and told the taxi driver, “He’s taking me to my destination, you white son of a bitch!”
“To Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had jokingly remarked at a party “Here’s my blind date. I am going to call you Alice”, she sarcastically said “Senator McCarthy, you are not going to call me Alice. The trashman and the policeman on my block call me Alice, but you may not.”
I love this woman.
WOMEN WHO NEED FUCKEN MOVIES.
This is Alice as an older lady. The pillow says “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me.”
