Ten Questions!

This!!! This hits so close to home for me especially as an Indian person. It's honestly so hypocritical when this happens too, because the same people that mocked our culture, or food, or way of life pull a 180 and suddenly feel like they can appropriate it because apparently it's cool now.

(OP said it better and I also apologize for cutting in, but this is so important)

you know what? i’m gonna say it. atla was a huge part of my childhood. it was definitely a step forward in regards to cartoons.

but the racial insensitivity is staggering. and i wanna talk about the amount of exploiting there is of south asian culture specifically. i’m south asian, indian specifically, and i grew up watching this show that was supposed to be “different” and “inspiring” for people of colour.

except there were little to no characters with dark skin who had importance and were explicitly made out to be south asian. that was fine. i was used to not seeing characters on television who looked like i did. except this show used my culture. they used my culture and they couldn’t even bother putting in good characters who looked like they remotely belonged to that culture, even if they were minor and not part of the gaang.

first of all, the show has a lot of influence from Hinduism—the word avatar (avatāra) itself means “descent” in Sanskrit, referring to the incarnation of a deity in human form. where did Hinduism originate?

indus valley, or what we now call pakistan, a south asian country. the entire concept of chi or prana, as it is referred to as in Hinduism, is a reoccurring theme in atla; your vital energy, your spiritual energy. this is another one of the religion’s influences on the show.

atla also talks about the seven chakras. this is another concept from Hinduism, and in the religion, they must always be unblocked for your prana (the term from Hinduism) or chi (the Chinese term which is used the show) to flow smoothly. chi is your life energy.

so. guess who helps aang out with his chakras?

right. this guy. the only blatantly south asian character we’ve gotten so far, and you wanna know why it’s so blatant? because he’s literally an indian stereotype. he’s the only obviously south asian character so far in the show and he’s a racist portrayal of enlightened practitioners of Hinduism. great.

oh, and before i forget—

do their foreheads look familiar? oh yeah, that’s because it’s literally copied off of this:

this is Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction. they used a religious symbol in Hinduism to make a couple characters look cool. well, combustion man and p’li both have these third eyes, so we can assume they are at least south asian coded—but what are their characters like?

villains. unhinged. insane. we don’t even know combustion man’s name—we just know he’s a contract killer who would murder a child for the right price. p’li wants to dismantle all forms of government and let the world reign free in chaos, and finally she is given a horribly grotesque death: she gets her head blown off.

for all of the culture references that are important pieces of this show, you’d think there’d be an area that has south asian people. there isn’t one. i’m not going to speak about the other loads of racism in atla because i don’t belong to those cultures, but here’s my two cents.

this show was written by white men who did the bare minimum. it’s nothing worth praising.

thought I'd mess around and do a lil doodle

did this sketch after weeks of an art slump, I guess they kinda look like Cinder x Kai from The Lunar Chronicles

tagged by the amazing @ofwolvesandbutterflies

Nickname: ray I guess, since I don't really have a nickname :3

Gender: female

Star sign: Aquarius

Current time: 12:17 p.m.

Favorite artist: it's a mixed bag lol, but my favorites are Chopin, Hozier, and Ella Fitzgerald

Song stuck in my head: "Misery and Mountains, Arrows and Bows" by New Buffalo

Last movie I saw: "Maska" - it's about a guy whose family has been running an Irani cafe for 100 years, except he doesn't want to inherit it. It's such a cute and wholesome movie about food, and is on Netflix rn

Last thing I googled: "how to grow an algal bloom" because I'm bored and want some plant friends

Other blogs: I tried starting a studyblr but felt it was too time consuming so I just stopped at one post lmao. I might post now tho since I have more time

Do I get asks: I got one once, and it was a fanart request. I am still taking fanart requests for the Renegades and Lunar Chronicles series

Reasons for url: no particular reason, but the trash panda bit comes from me acting like a raccoon a lot: small, fluffy but will attack, eats junk on occasion

Following

One of my OCs for a story I've been working on. Definitely not the final concept art, but it's getting there

forest spirit - y'all have any ideas for names?

I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice and I- my heart can’t take all the love it’s all just so beautiful I would really appreciate it if someone could rant with me about it all...

Me: pft love isn’t real it doesn’t exist

Also Me: Watches pride and prejudice 2005 ending and cries, Cries while reading Jane Eyre, Heart melts when Anne and Gilbert speak, reads every Jane Austen novel and imagines myself as the protagonist, Cries at the ending of the phantom of the opera chanting my angel of music why, Ends up day dreaming about me ending up with someone like Mr. Darcy, Gilbert Blythe, or  Henry Tilney, heart melts at the reading of shakespeare, ends up getting sad over bronte sister novels

Me: Yeah love is dumb -begins to sniffle- 

The anime filter on my fanart - kinda cute, ngl :))

Nova in the Renegades uniform (idk what's going on with her hands, just ignore them lol)

welp I tried to draw Cress in her blue dress from the third book