The Marvel movie earned three Golden Globes nominations: best original score by Ludwig Goransson; best original song by Kendrick Lamar, Anthony Tiffith, Mark Spears, Solana Rowe, Al Shuckburgh; and best motion picture — drama.
What ways would all suggest changing canon to make it less racist? I’m kinda interested in seeing what steps you’d take and how you’d change certain portrayals or tropes.
Let me know!
I’d have liked to see the existence of Haradrim and Easterling resistance against Sauron. @johnnyclash87
had the idea of Aragorn traveling to Harad to train their brand of
Rangers and also to liaise with them, and Moth pointed out that Aragorn
canonically did travel to Harad where he met both good and bad people (link).
Sauron is likely the effective ruler of their lands, maybe by
supporting cruel warlords to exploit and enslave them. Though many
Haradrim and Easterlings were no doubt cruel and willing fighters for
Sauron, many others would have had no choice. Showing the Haradrim and
Easterling resistance and reluctance would have gone a long way to
countering the racist coding in portraying darker races of humans as
uniformly evil other than Sam’s short moment of sympathetic speculation
and like, some passage tucked deep into one of the Appendices. But of
course dealing fully with these issues would have required portraying
the ultimate evil as a force of colonialist violence against people of
color, which would have been… uncomfortable for an Englishman lmao
Is there any kind of non-shippy fic exploring Rey and Kylo’s Force bond? Because honestly, that whole Force bond is ripe for dramatic exploration (think Ezra Bridger and Darth Maul), but it definitely throws me off any interest in reading it if there’s a mutual romantic feelings element. (I wouldn’t even be that keen on Kylo having one-sided feelings~ for Rey, given the whole “blame her for Snoke’s death and later order her ship to be shot down and also try to kill everybody in the resistance” thing.)
Honestly, the Force bond stuff has a lot of fic potential for not-at-all-romantic Rey and Kylo. Not something I’d want to see in episode IX, but in fic it would be fascinating to explore the idea that Rey tapping into Kylo’s Force-abilities is something that can be affected and even stopped… and that Rey might have to re-learn how to do certain things in the Force for herself once the Force-bond is severed. Or that Kylo could tap into what Rey knows by using that Force-bond, and he attempts to harm the Resistance with what he learns.
People posting fic to AO3 need to learn that the & represents a non-romantic connection. In other words: there are multiple reylo fics using the tag Rey & Kylo Ren that should instead be tagged Rey/Kylo Ren.
Seriously there is not enough genfic about Rey and Kylo, and not enough genfic in general though that’s another (if related) complaint. Her becoming more powerful through the Force Bond is in fact an interesting idea that should have been shown and dealt with in the movie, and I think it also serves as a metaphor for the way people can hesitate to cut off unhealthy ties because they gain something through them–including survival itself. Like maybe Kylo threatens to cut the bond himself when Rey rejects his offer, warning her that she will lose her accelerated learning and will be defeated, giving her a real choice to make and actual suspense. She would in fact start losing, but the ship getting cut in half would save her much like the planet falling apart in TFA saved him. And then there would be other fallout later, Rey has to find harder but ultimately more lasting ways to train, Kylo uses information he gleaned from the Bond as you say. Like, give me actual consequences, choices, and tension. I did like that the idea of Kylo Ren as some poor misunderstood woobie was thoroughly trashed and Rey had one of the better arcs in the movie having to grow beyond her insecurities that he preyed on, but the execution was weak compared to the potential of the idea.
Here’s a tribute video I made to one of my favorite Star Wars characters of all time! Seriously, props to John Boyega for bringing this character to life. It’ll be great to see him in the sequel to TFA come next year for IX! It took for years, but better late than never for a proper sequel.
As someone not involved in the development of pillowfort but am a web developer, I think you should lower your expectations, but not for the reason you think.
Pillowfort is a baby. A newborn. A smol bab. If you were here during the early days of Tumblr, think of that.
Pillowfort simply cannot be the immediate solution to your woes. It needs to be nurtured and cared for to become a mature and happy adult.
If you want Pillowfort to work, they’ll need feedback, advice, bug reports, etc. This is a chance to make Pillowfort the Ao3 of Fanfiction.net. It’s not gonna happen overnight, you need to give it time and love and it’ll get there.
If you don’t want to pay money to get into the beta, that’s ok. It will be open to the public soon enough and you won’t have to pay a dime. Their financial model moving forward sounds good (a subscription fee for super extra features), but even an Ao3 model would work swell for them probably.
We’re living in an interesting time on the internet. Governments across the world are cracking down on content and yet community run websites are starting to thrive more and more.
Tumblr once upon a time was what Pillowfort is today, but this time, let’s make sure Pillowfort can stay independent from mega corporations.
yes this
most of the criticism i’ve seen of pf so far ultimately come back to this
is it an alright platform with a good community? yes. does it have a lot of potential? yes. does it have a lot of problems still being worked out? yes. are the staff open and responsive? absolutely. do i recommend it? yes, if you’re willing to live in a house while it’s being built.
but it’s not a ready-made replacement for tumblr. set your expectations accordingly.
This. Why do you think we’re still here, fully knowing how horrendously broken this site is? Because, imperfect and morally fraught as Tumblr is, it works. With an asterisk, yes, but you can use it for its intended functions. That isn’t a state that’s easily reached, and it takes incredible amounts of work and investment in money, time, and caring to get there. Expecting PF to work right out of the box is incredibly unfair and unrealistic. Forget out of the box, it’s nowhere NEAR the box. It’s under assembly. For those willing to be part of the community that loves it and builds it up, it can be a rewarding experience. Those who are looking for an immediately functional and scaleable platform should look elsewhere until PF is ready for primetime.
@bai-xue-lives “dogwhistles” lmaoo. I don’t do dogwhistles, that’s why yall so mad.
Did @bai-xue-lives srsly use a word that denotes racist signaling and use it against a Black woman talking about racism
They sure did! And they erased the fact that I say what I mean to make ME look like I’m using alt-right tactics lol
It wasn’t a dog whistle, it was a bullhorn and they hated it for that reason. Racist speakers use dog whistles because they can’t come out and say outright what they mean, and their audiences are complicit in the charade. Speaker and audience both want some hazy distance from the repugnant reality of what they’re advocating. They’re not in favor of murdering civil rights volunteers, they just believe in states’ rights! They don’t think Black people are drains on the system, they’re just against welfare queens! They don’t think Black and brown people are underachieving dolts who fake their own oppression, they just don’t want affirmative action! And so on and so forth ad infinitum.
Pointing out that Nazis/the alt right and fandom racism are on the same continuum of racist thought is the exact opposite of a dog whistle, it’s smashing the whistle and pushing people’s faces right into the ugliness they were distancing themselves from. You want fandom dog whistles? Ask why Kylo Ren assaulting Rey is a romantic bridal carry but Finn taking Rey’s hand to save her literal life is sexual harassment. Ask why Kylo Ren is called a victim and the male lead while Finn is called a murderer and a bit character. Ask why BS is considered a romantic hero while Finn is treated as harmless comic relief. Ask why shippers keep and keep and KEEP saying BS is the first person to care about Rey. Ask why fans sigh about ultra-powerful ForceBabies and say Disney would be crazy to pass on those moneymaker Reylo kids, because Finnrey babies wouldn’t earn money I guess, or it doesn’t occur to them to even consider her marrying a guy she loves enough to lie down and die with? I wonder why 🤔
Fandom racism is an entire collection of dog whistles and calling them out for what they are is absolutely unforgivable in fandom’s eyes. It always has been.
I have backed up my blog, donated to @pillowfort-io and am waiting for my key (no hurry to the good people there, I know it’s due Friday). I’m on LJ and DW as ljlee as well if anyone fancies the more text-centric platforms!
L.J.'s Obsessions 