Category: Uncategorized

When I think about great representation of Asian-Americans in media, my mind goes straight to Joan Watson of Elementary. She’s shown as a full and flawed person, one who was uncertain about her career, who experienced trauma, struggled with the urge to please someone she felt beholden to, and has a complex but entirely normal family history and relationships. Her wry line about not speaking Chinese as well as her mom would like her to is the sort of thing I’ve heard over and over from Asian-Americans I know.

I was also deeply moved by the story of her biological father’s struggle with mental illness and homelessness, the sadness she felt about it and the way she turned it to positivity–as she always does–by helping people. Mental illness is taboo in a lot of Asian communities, and Western media portrayals of Asian minority populations tend to either erase the subject entirely or use it to demonize characters. The story of Joan’s birth father was a refreshing break from that.

I also love Joan with her adoptive father Henry, their argument over Henry’s book, his attempts to reconnect with her through his craft in admittedly cringey ways. I loved the casual recognition of Joan’s multiracial family, Henry’s white and he’s her dad, no big issue there. As a family they deal with normal if sometimes very fraught family stuff like father-daughter relationships and marital problems and Joan’s mother being eccentric. I also liked the subtle recognition that Joan is very much Henry’s daughter when she wrote her own novel about Sherlock’s cases, though she is more ethical and did not try to publish it without Sherlock’s consent.

Elementary might not be a perfect show but it got a whole lot of things right and Joan’s characterization is one of them. I hope more creators take note of how it was done.

My complaint isn’t a female Doctor… it’s that they’re going LOOK THE DOCTOR IS FEMALE NOW. All this “It’s About Time” marketing is stupid. You want to show the Doctor can be a woman? Don’t treat her differently from how you usually treat him. This new season is going to be nothing but misandrist jokes. Exploring a female Doctor would be great, but they’re just going to use it to put down men— and in the process end up putting down women.

You lost me at “misandrist” tbh.

There’s a scene from the trailers where a man asks, “Why is she in charge?” Because a woman needs a reason to be in charge? Well, if she did, the reason would be, “Because she’s the DOCTOR.” But her companions’ reason is, “Because we say so.” Show don’t tell. By telling, you’re inhibiting your own progressivism.

I don’t follow Dr. Who, and without the context I can’t tell if this response actually works in the situation or is eyeroll-worthy.

Finn was never a side character, and the idea that he was is borderline racist. Also if the writers want to break the mold so bad they can focus on the one character in the sequels who’s story is actually original, which is Finn.

oh shit i thought that post was genuine my bad

No problem, I saw TLJ stans reblog it uncritically too. And I would argue there’s nothing “borderline” racist about thinking Finn was a side character in TFA–it’s racist, full stop. You can only reach that conclusion if you go out of your way to ignore his scenes.

Hermione is not black. The text suggests against it. But I wish JK had made her black from the beginning instead of trying to retcon it. She’s already an underdog facing prejudice as a Muggleborn. Having her be Black would add a new layer to that aspect of her character. But even if I’m wrong and Hermione was always Black, JK didn’t utilize it in any way and I’m disappointed about that.

Rowling could have spoken up at any point during the books’ run if Hermione was ever meant to be Black. She could have mentioned it at any point in the books themselves, she could have talked about it at any of her billion appearances, she could have requested different book art, she could have mentioned it in relation to casting. But nah, she never meant for Hermione to be Black and it’s disingenuous to try and collect representation points after the fact.

Despite Star Wars being down in the dumps and being partially responsible for it, Kathleen Kennedy gets to keep her job up until and through 2021? Welp, guess Star Wars is still cancelled.

I’m disappointed too, but I had my doubts whether she could be easily replaced. As long as she keeps to the business side of things and doesn’t go overboard with the executive meddling, I’m okay with it. The Carrie footage debacle seems to show that hers is no longer the final word on IX, which is a hopeful sign.

reylos: “People will say Kylo is representative of the alt-right all day long but absolutely refuse to acknowledge Poe as a commentary on problematic leftist dudes”

Unpopular opinion: Kylo IS that problematic leftist dude. Don’t get me wrong, he is representative of the alt-right, but one of the powerful and frightening things about fascism is that it cuts across traditional ideological boundaries to unite the left and right. I see a clear parallel between Kylo Ren being Han and Leia’s son, and the fact that a LOT of prominent alt-right figures in real life (including that shithead who stabbed his own father to death) are the children of liberals and used to be liberals themselves.

I mean what happens when you tell a whole generation of children that they are good and special people destined to save the world, but they never learn to scrutinize the structures of oppression their world is built on? Every attempt by one of the people they step on to get out from underfoot shakes their footing and becomes a personal threat. They are special people and cannot be treated this way, they are good people and will not be attacked like this. The belief that they are fundamentally special and good becomes warped into a sense of aggrieved entitlement and, in some cases, they become radicalized. Kylo Ren’s story is the story of the inevitable failure of white liberalism.