Hiya! I’m so sorry this is so long in coming; a bunch of people asked on this topic, so I wanted to put something full-length together.
When people talk about The Quotes from ASOIAF,
the ones that are basically GRRM dropping the veil and telling us how he thinks
and feels about his subject matter, there’s this one from Varys that comes up a
lot:
“Power resides where men believe it
resides.”
And there’s a lot of political and Plato’s-cave
truth to that. But there’s an equally relevant and powerful flipside to this
trope: the power that can be achieved by deflecting attention, by appearing
unimportant, shallow, secondary, a figurehead. In short, the tremendous upside
to be exploited in being constantly underestimated.
For me, no character exemplifies this trope
better than Mace Tyrell, that pompous, overwrought boob…who is currently
serving as the Hand of the King, which is exactly what he has been
trying to accomplish the entire time. Mace commands by far the largest armies
in Westeros, and has acted at every turn to preserve them, committing to battle
only at the Blackwater, where he was bolstered by Tywin’s forces and needed to
prove his loyalty to the new regime, and at Duskendale, where his opponents had been set up to fail by their own commander (Roose Bolton, another man happy to be underrated). Where Tywin begins the war by rampaging around the Riverlands to work through his shame about Tyrion’s kidnapping (until Robb turns up and promptly makes him look like an idiot, so then that much more shame to slaughter civilians over), and Stannis begins the war by painstakingly preparing a
list of reasons why his life sucks and everyone’s mean and he hates them (I
love him so much because he’s a sullen, lonely kid forlornly kicking at
empty plastic bags in the corner of the schoolyard), Mace begins the war like an adult. Specifically, he cuts off food supplies to King’s Landing.
Now, Renly is usually credited
with or blamed for the strategy of moving his army deliberately slowly toward
King’s Landing, but note that when Stannis threatens Storm’s End, Renly moves
extremely quickly–in fact, too quickly:
Ned would surely have prevailed upon Robert to bring up his whole force, to encircle Stannis and besiege the besiegers. That choice Renly had denied himself in his headlong rush to come to grips with his brother. He had outdistanced his supply lines, left food and forage days behind with all his wagons and mules and oxen. He must come to battle soon, or starve.
So it seems more likely that Mace was responsible for this
slow pace, with the primary goal (as we see through Tyrion’s POV) of starving
the people of King’s Landing to the point of rebelling against Joffrey, a
cruel but clever stratagem that came very close to working. When the Tyrells
then ally with the Lannisters, they flood King’s Landing with food, winning the
support of the people even though the Tyrells were the ones who cut off
supplies to begin with:
“The Tyrells have been carting food up from Highgarden and giving it away in her name. Hundreds of wayns each day. There’s thousands of Tyrell men swaggering about with little golden roses sewn on their doublets, and not a one is buying his own wine. Wife, widow, or whore, the women are all giving up their virtue to every peach-fuzz boy with a gold rose on his teat.”
They spit on me, and buy drinks for the Tyrells.
Those bolded words of Tyrion’s sum up perfectly how well the Tyrells have played the commons relative to the Lannisters. Littlefinger’s upcoming embargo (as revealed in the recent “Alayne” chapter) will only ramp
up the political leverage Mace has wielded throughout the series via Reach
resources and exports.
Mace also managed to avoid ever alienating the Starks
and Tullys, and so is not hated by the Young Wolf’s former supporters, a
significant accomplishment given that they seem poised to wipe Houses
Bolton and Frey off the face of Terros. Indeed, successful political
maneuvering is as much about avoiding disastrous mistakes as securing
ambitious triumphs; Lord Mace excels at this, which is why he’s been able to jump
from Renly to Joffrey to Tommen, sacrificing remarkably little and picking up Brightwater Keep in the bargain. Hell, as
Tyrion points out, he even left the door open to joining Team Robb should the
Lannisters prove troublesome:
Bloody fool, thought Tyrion. “Sweet sister,” he explained patiently, “offend Tyrell and you offend Redwyne, Tarly, Rowan, and Hightower as well, and perhaps start them wondering whether Robb Stark might not be more accommodating of their desires.”
Note Tyrion’s construction here; Tyrell’s vassals
take their cues from the Fat Flower, not the other way around. When Randyll
Tarly and Mathis Rowan talk in council, this is what I hear:
Ser Kevan was his brother’s vanguard in council, Tyrion knew from long experience; he never had a thought that Lord Tywin had not had first. It has all been settled beforehand, he concluded, and this discussion’s no more than show.
(I know Kevan thinks Tarly’s the real danger,
but Kevan also thinks Cersei is permanently cowed, so he’s not necessarily the most insightful guy.)
Mace Tyrell has spent the entire story steadily
accumulating both hard and soft power, and nobody seems to notice,
because unlike his mother or his daughter, he doesn’t fit the archetype of a
classic political manipulator. If there is an unambiguous winner in the Game of Thrones so far, still standing amidst all the bodies, it is the Warden of the South…and yet it’s hard not to laugh at him
when he does stuff like this:
The new King’s Hand was seated on an oaken throne carved in the shape of a hand, an absurd vanity his lordship had produced the daySer Kevan agreed to grant him the office he coveted.
But the terrifying thing to consider is that he
is not desperately compensating by making himself a Hand-Throne; he is,
instead, deadly serious. (How long ago did he have that chair made, to have it ready on the spot?) Mace Tyrell intends to rule King’s Landing for
the foreseeable future, and Varys and his little birds have made that immeasurably easier for him.
So, why do I credit all this to Mace
specifically? It’s become a near-consensus that Lady Olenna is the true power in Highgarden, to the point I’ve actually seen people refer to House Tyrell as
“matriarchal,” which is one hell of a misread. Highgarden is not
Sunspear. The Tyrells are not the Mormonts (more’s the pity; all our lives are brighter with Lyanna Mormont in charge of the Bear Island letterhead). The Reach is the epicenter of
feudal patriarchy in Westeros; Mace commands the armies, controls the
resources, and makes the marriage contracts, not Olenna. We’ve seen this with Catelyn, Cersei, Lysa: noble women of patriarchal houses can exercise enormous power, but they do so through their sons, and Mace is no Sweetrobin. Don’t get me wrong, Olenna is unquestionably
a strong influence on Mace’s decision-making, it’s just in an advisory capacity.
Sure, she changes his mind on some questions (most notably on whether to wed
Loras to Cersei), but Davos changes Stannis’ mind on the biggest question of
all (who he’s really fighting for, and why); this doesn’t make Stannis any less responsible for the decision to sail North.
I would argue that
Olenna’s storyline actually subtly demonstrates the enormous passive power Mace
Tyrell wields in the realm, and has since at least Robert’s Rebellion (more on
that in a moment). I think A Storm of Swords sets that up perfectly:
Olenna isn’t Mace’s puppet master, she’s his assassin. I
absolutely believe he knew about the Purple Wedding, because Olenna would be
taking a frankly unbelievable risk by acting on her own. If she is discovered,
she’s going to need Mace’s protection, which he can only effectively accomplish
if he knows about it beforehand. As one of the judges, he can direct the
investigation away from his family, which he does by repeatedly reminding his
fellow judges that Margaery could’ve easily been poisoned as well.
Olenna’s dialogue is largely concerned with the limits of her power within the Tyrell household, and how the ultimate strategic authority rests with her son.
“Should you ever have a son, Sansa, beat him frequently so he learns to mind you. I only had the one boy and I hardly beat him at all, so now he pays more heed to Butterbumps than he does to me. A lion is not a lap cat, I told him, and he gives me a ‘tut-tut Mother.’ There is entirely too much tut-tutting in this realm, if you ask me. All these kings would do a deal better if they would put down their swords and listen to their mothers.”
It was Mace who controlled the information within
the Tyrell Conspiracy, as Olenna didn’t know about the Lannister twincest until
he told her:
“It’s treason, I warned them, Robert has two sons, and Renly has an older brother, how can he possibly have any claim to that ugly iron chair? Tut-tut, says my son, don’t you want your sweetling to be queen?”
It was Mace who pushed the family ambitions
forward, not Olenna:
“We should have stayed well out of all this bloody foolishness if you ask me, but once the cow’s been milked there’s no squirting the cream back up her udder. After Lord Puff Fish put that crown on Renly’s head, we were into the pudding up to our knees, so here we are to see things through.”
Nor is book!Margaery actually obsessed with the crown, per Littlefinger:
“We shall have another wedding soon, wait and see. Margaery will marry Tommen. She’ll keep her queenly crown and her maidenhead, neither of which she especially wants, but what does that matter?”
Couple of quick things: one could argue that Olenna is being falsely humble to Sansa in the same way that I’m arguing Mace is doing writ large. But Olenna really has no reason to lie to Sansa about any of this; Sansa’s expectations and perceptions are not politically influential (although Alayne is a different matter), and Olenna is mining Sansa for information in this scene, not trying to sow misinformation of her own. Also, note the limitations of Olenna’s hands-off mantra:
“If truth be told, even our claim to Highgarden is a bit dodgy, just as those dreadful Florents are always whining. ‘What does it matter?’ you ask, and of course it doesn’t, except to oafs like my son.”
Well, Mace has to care about that sort of thing, because it’s the source of his legitimacy in the Reach. If he can put a grandson on the Iron Throne, he’ll have secured his authority back home from the likes of the Florents…and indeed, as soon as the Blackwater was done, Mace used his new access to the Iron Throne’s power to bring Brightwater Keep under direct Tyrell jurisdiction.
Mace’s go-to move, one which (again) he has in
common with Roose Bolton, is to hoard his resources while allowing/encouraging
his ostensible allies to self-destruct, counting on being the one with
the most soldiers and food in the end. His primary war aim in Robert’s Rebellion wasn’t to defend the Targaryen regime (he neither joined Rhaegar at the Trident, nor defended King’s Landing from Tywin), it was to occupy the Stormlands. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for young Stannis’ iron
resolve and inspiring leadership (bullshit “Stannis isn’t
charismatic,” uncharismatic men don’t hold a starving garrison together for
that long; the king’s men and queen’s men alike have followed him to Storm’s End, the Blackwater, the
Wall, Winterfell, through fire and ice, the odds against them every time,
roaring his name. No Baratheon is uncharismatic, there are laws on this.)
Mace’s siege wasn’t just a landgrab
conducted under the pretense of loyalty to the crown, however; if Stannis had
yielded, Mace could’ve broken Robert’s cause in the same way Theon broke
Robb’s. What kind of king loses his castle, especially to Lord Puff Fish (or Theon,
for fuck’s sake)?
But Mace never gave Robert Baratheon cause to
kill him if (when, as it turns out) the rebel lord won, although the
still-Warden of the South certainly committed himself to a lifelong campaign to
keep Stannis off the Throne, which helps explain his willingness to join Team
Joffrey after Renly’s death. Mace kept his titles, his land, his soft power.
And when Renly came to him with the news that Cersei’s children were not
Robert’s, Mace plotted with Renly to replace Cersei with Margaery and put a
half-Tyrell on the Iron Throne, cementing Highgarden as the political
powerhouse of the realm. As mentioned above, Mace commits himself to this plan
before informing Olenna, telling her only to keep the family united in pursuit of
a common end (which, again, is why I cannot believe Olenna would take the
hugely risky step of murdering the king without getting her lord’s consent…or
more likely, she was following his orders in doing so. Like she said, she
wanted nothing to do with any of these assholes, but Mace tut-tutted,
and that was that.)
So what’s next on Mace’s agenda? Control the small council, get Margaery
through her trial, and protect Highgarden from the
Crow’s Eye. I’ve no doubt he’ll accomplish the first two, but the third is going to
become very perilous very quickly (especially if I’m right in thinking Euron
gets a dragon). Cersei’s already demonstrated how many fucks she gives about
defending the Reach (between zero and let me check oh also zero how weird); moreover, she may very well break the alliance for good by sending Robert Strong after Margaery. So Mace Tyrell is going to yet again be in the market for a new client-king…and lo and
behold, like an answered prayer, there’s one down at Storm’s End, and his first choice for Hand has, ah, a hand problem…
I’ll be putting this behind a cut because there could be some triggerish discussion in there. Herein follows some musings on just why GRRM chose to make these two heroines so young and why I’m glad that he did.
That makes a lot of sense – Sansa and Arya’s ages protect them from a lot. On the other hand, there’s Dany, Robb, and Jon, all doing ridiculously adult things at age 14-15. (And Dany’s age did not protect her from much, although her situation was somewhat different than either of the Stark girls.) And even protected, the girls still have truly awful things happening to and around them. (Not to mention everything else they and their siblings witness.)
And then there was GRRM’s initial planned 5-year-gap post-ASOS… which would have ended with Jon & Dany as 21-22, Sansa as 18, and Arya as 16. Presumably at that point the girls would no longer have their age as any kind of protection… and yet GRRM rewrote and eliminated the need for that timejump (and has stated “if a twelve-year-old has to conquer the world, then so be it”), so whatever he must have planned for them as adults… he still plans to do to them as children. Probably.
(I sometimes wish that 5-year-gap had happened and sometimes I don’t. It would resolve a lot of shipping problems, not to mention the palatability of many of the things the kids encounter – but to give Sansa five years with Littlefinger? *shudder*)
But yes, I suppose keeping Sansa and Arya safe from specific sexual danger could explain why GRRM set AGOT 15 years after the events of Robert’s Rebellion instead of 20 (or 17 like the show, I think). Still, he probably could have worked something out if he’d thought it through…
Teach children that there’s nothing wrong with this
I’m really not understanding why you think cultural appropriation would be ok, unless you are assuming that the girl in the picture is part Japanese.
Yellow face yet she’s using white makeup in the traditional style but okay.
Cultural appropriation isn’t a thing, hon. ☺️ Cultures should be shared by all means.
I disagree. The makeup is clearly reflective of traditional Geisha makeup which is yellowface and therefore racist. Furthermore, the girl is wearing a kimono, a garment that has for ages carried cultural significance. Assuming that she is white how can you think this is ok? And cultural appropriation isn’t a thing? What rock do you live under? I suggest you educate yourself on the differences between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation.
I am japanese, in japan at this very moment. The only people who think culture shouldnt be shared are racists like you.
A vast majority of Japanese people actually enjoy other people making an effort to spread and enjoy japanese culture, and encourage it. Many make businesses in deliberately taking pictures of people in kimono. A common omiage (gift) for foreigners from japanese people is traditional japanese things such as kimonos, tea seats, shisa dog statues, ect.
And to top it off, basically 80 percent of japanese customs, traditions, and food, came from other countries. Japanese is an integration of different cultures, like america. Japan takes influences from places like korea, china, russia, and europe. If japan stuck to itself, there would be no tempura, japanese tea, tea ceremonies, kabuki, japanese bread, japanese curry, j- pop, anime, cars, or modern fishing techniques. The picture is not “yellow face” they are not making fun of asians. In fact, it looks like they put extra care and research into their work.
The only reason that you have a problem with this is because that little girl is white and you know that it is acceptable on tumblr to crap all over white people. The only racist here is you.
Rekt
b t f o
Dang she got shut down.
Damn I’ve never hit reblog so fast in my entire fucking life
Daaaaamn
Pew pew pew
I reblog this every time I see it
I live in Japan and I’d like to back up this sentiment.
Recently a museum in Boston came under a lot of fire for allowing visitors to wear a ‘kimono’ (it was featuring a painting my Monet of a girl – a white girl – in a kimono, and the museum had replicas made that guests of ANY RACE could wear to mimic the painting, Pageant-of-the-Masters style). After protests and heated debate, the museum closed the event.
I was living in Japan at the time, and out of all the *actual* Japanese people I asked, not a single one was offended by the event. Rather, they were excited that people half a world away were showing interest in their culture, and were sad that visitors could no longer enjoy the event.
This party, though somewhat silly in application, is an attempt at experiencing and appreciating another culture. The mom who put this together is not an expert on Japan, but she did her best. She got a lot of things right: there are few things Japan loves more than tea, Pocky, and sakura.
Where do you draw the line for who is “allowed” to learn about Japan? If the girl were of Japanese descent, would that make it ok (even though her citizenship would be the same as the girl from the photo)? If one of the girl’s parents were from Japan, then would it be ok?
Are you only allowed to make pizza if you live in Italy? If you’re an Italian immigrant? How do we decide these things??
You can’t say you want to dismantle racism and then in the next breath make rules – based on race – for who people can wear, try, or eat, especially when the intent is obviously to have fun experiencing a culture (as opposed to having fun by making fun of a race or culture, like blackface does).
When you tell people they can only experience things ‘meant for their race’, it totally smacks of segregation to me and I can’t stand it. As someone who (obviously) loves Japan, I say let people learn about it, let people experience it, let people appreciate it. You don’t have to know every single thing about a culture to enjoy it.
fucking people got owned is what, fuck i hate how people say you cant do shit when culture should be shared and is shared its how it grows and changes through fucking generations itS HOW YOU LEARN about the world and just fucking, tumblr fucking stupid like 70% of the dam time
Not to mention, they brought up cultural appreciation vs. cultural appropriation, and even if you buy into that nonsense this little girl is clearly appreciating it.
She doesn’t appear to be making fun of it or wearing it for some joke or anything, she just likes to dress up all pretty like that which is appreciation.
I’m white and I used to live in Japan and all of my Japanese friends and (host) family would get very excited about me wearing kimono or yukata. My sister’s dentist actually tried very hard to tell me in English that I should wear a red kimono, because of my fair skin, that I would look ‘beautiful.’
I visited a castle uniquely famous for its women at court and they had a dress-up area within the castle where anyone, anyone, could put on one of the incredibly elaborate kimono from the feudal era, complete with a wig that made it look like you had the hairdo generally associated with geisha or court ladies of old. They would take pictures and make it into a souvenir for you.
When Oshougatsu (New Years) came around, grandma came over and dressed every single on of us up in kimono. Mine was an old purple furisode that my mom could no longer wear after being married. They insisted we do a photo shoot as well. Then we all went to the temple in our kimono and it was incredibly fun to experience.
My mom went out and bought like 8 yukata sets (yukata, obi, bow, geta, hair pin) for me to take home and give out as souvenirs to my friends!
I’ve never met a Japanese person who wasn’t happy to share every bit of culture they could with me. I second one of the commenters above in that Japan, just like America, has borrowed a lot from surrounding countries. Their entire writing system is a edited version of Chinese! It’s how countries grow into themselves, it’s how they create their culture.
I think, back when travel was really difficult, those cultures remained mostly insulated, creating very distinct cultures based mostly on regions. Now, in a very global era, we have people traveling everywhere, learning an abundance of new things from all over the world and that is creating a new culture, one where we share with each other, learn about one another, and perhaps start borrowing ideas again. I personally love it. And I think most people who are accused of ‘cultural appropriation’ are honestly just trying to enjoy another culture, not belittle it.
I think a lot of people are ignoring the relationship between Japan and people of other races. Japan van be very racist, especially towards dark skinned people (Ainu, Appropriation of Black Culture and other indigenous ones) and have in the bluntest of terms, worshipped white people. So I’m not surprised that a lot of people are okay with this.
The biggest example of this is Naomi Osaka. She had racial slurs thrown at her for being half black but the moment she won? She was the nation’s sweetheart and in hours her wiki paged erased her half Haitian heritage. She may not be half white but she is light skinned and that’s a trait revered in Japan.
If you see stories on Twitter of East Asian girls forced to abandon their heritage to be ‘Cool’. They literally had to lie and say they were part of royalty to justify their accents. Culture is only cool when white people use it, right? WRONG. This girl can appreciate the culture, but this is not how. This let’s Japanese Culture be seen as dress up, where she can play around till she grows tired and throw it out when she is not longer interested. That attitude can impact how she sees actual Japanese Women, particularly Geisha. It has done so for so many years for many POC.
Racism isn’t some side affect, it develops for years, from childhood. It can take be in the form of outright bigotry or fetishization (exotification). This situation looks like the latter in a small form because it’s all a GAME to her. It’s not real, not important, she doesn’t have to deal with any of it and she can still benefit from her privelege by taking it off.
Culture should be RESPECTED first, then shared. It is the end the culmination of traditions and efforts of human beings. It’s important, it’s someone’s LIVELIHOOD. People have been murdered and assulated it, I doubt it should be ok for it to be in a game.
after my similarly titled mihawk post took off I decided to make a zoro post, since he’s my second favorite character and also arguably the most ridiculous character in all of One Piece. here we go
– I know what you’re all thinking. i’m gonna open this list with how he wields three swords, right? no. no, Zoro has done so much ridiculous bullshit, this doesn’t even seem weird anymore. i don’t even bat my eye at this. this is nothing. now that i’ve got that out of the way, let’s begin
– this dude has like, an obsession with cutting off his own limbs? and MAYBE i can understand trying to cut his feet off when they were stuck in wax—you’re trying to save your friends, i get it—but what about when he was sword shopping in loguetown? who’s first response when buying a cursed sword and testing if it’s really cursed is “i’ll toss it in the air n see if I get amputated lol.” plus there’s that old filler where luffy gets his finger stuck in a bottle and, when he asks zoro for help getting it out, zoro tries to CUT IT OFF. im convinced he lost that left eye of his bc he got dust or something in it and then tried to stab it out
– there’s like, several occasions where Zoro has been directed to head up a staircase and gone some other direction. it happened in enies lobby and in dressrosa? like, what’s the dude got against stai—… oh, wait
– his reintroduction post timeskip. get on the wrong boat? just cut it in half! who even cares! how’d you even end up on the wrong boat? you had to walk towards that boat, which means looking at the boat. that boat looked nothing like the sunny, wouldn’t zoro have noticed that? he also has to make an effort to climb on, which means, you guessed it, looking at the boat! he probably sees the crew members, maybe even gets helped up by one or a few. how did he not at any point in time notice that wasn’t his boat?
– also when they landed on sabaody the first time and zoro was like “i’m gonna go take a walk!” and both Sanji and Usopp tried to stop him, talking to him like concerned parents of a troublemaking toddler, like “Zoro you can’t go out there you’ll get lost!” to which Zoro replies “yeah but the grottos are numbered, I can find my way back if I just remember the number!” and Sanji and Usopp are like “okay, solid logic, even YOURE not dumb enough to mess that up” and what does Zoro do? what does he fucking do?
– I want to emphasize he messes it up because a bubble covers the 4 in “Grotto 41” so he thinks it’s grotto 1. BUBBLES. ARE. TRANSPARENT
– “sorry, I don’t pray to god” fuckin edgelord
– Zoro’s epithet is “Pirate Hunter” and it’s super lame. he could’ve been “Demon of the East Blue” but they went with pirate hunter, even though he became a pirate. even Chopper’s is better than his lbr
– THERES A SCENE WHERE SANJI THREATENS TO PUT RAZOR BLADES IN ZOROS FOOD N ZOROS LIKE “do it u won’t” SO SANJI DOES AND ZORO JUST EATS THEM? ODA EVEN GOT ASKED ABOUT IT IN AN SBS AND CONFIRMED YES, ZORO DID IN FACT EAT RAZOR BLADES. THIS 2EDGY4U BITCH JUST. STRAIGHT UP. ATE RAZOR BLADES
– in film gold he wears that black jacket under the white one. mind you he had no way of knowing he would be trapped in gold by tesoro or that they’d all have a dramatic coordinated outfit change once he was free so what the fuck was he doing? why did he wear that? who wears two jackets for no reason?
– “if i’m gonna be a statue I want it to be in this pose” “i’m glad I struck a pose”
– remember when zoro fought mr. 1 in alabasta and mr. 1 dropped a stone building on him and he was just like “this is a rocky day” or smth equally awful? i hate him
– the tarzan yell in skypiea
– actually, the goggles too.
– didn’t he try to convince someone he was fighting they were sunglasses bc they had some blinding light-based attack? I feel like he did but I don’t remember skypiea well enough to be sure
– Zoro vs the bird in skypiea. spent a fair amount of the damn arc running around skypiea getting messed w by a bird (which, according to Luffy, was more evolved than Zoro bc it had developed a sense of direction. burned by ur own captain)
– when asked why Zoro was able to speak with a sword in his mouth, oda said “IT’S HIS HEART SPEAKING”
– that colorspread Zoro where he reads a book about weightlifting while balancing a weight on top
– when Zoro fights that masochist guy in film gold (I think his name was dice?) and said some cocky ass one liner after the guy fell unconscious that went something like “What’s wrong? Didn’t it feel good? Aren’t you gonna scream in pleasure?“ awful
– Zoro almost gets murdered by Mihawk and then, later that day, tries to take on fishmen underwater. others r like “you cannot handle this, you will literally die” and Zoro doesn’t even care bc Luffy is in trouble
– he was sailing bc he left home to find mihawk and then couldn’t figure out how to get back
– remember that filler where Zoro taught Luffy how to skate but then forgot to teach him how to turn. I love both that this happened and the implication that Zoro is a person who knows how to roller skate and therefore has spent time roller skating. Zoro roller skating backstory when?
– when Zoro was fighting oz, a 500 year old corpse, he licked his sword. now, on top of licking his sword being ridiculous as hell because, listen, there’s NOTHING cool about licking your sword. you just look like a loser. but a sword that just came out of a 500 year old corpse? really? i know it was preserved by the cold and all but there’s no way it didn’t rot at all. that’s a rotted, frozen corpse. Zoro what in the HELL were you thinking. I hope you get sick
– i’m sure it probably wasn’t even the first time he licked his sword in a fight but I will say with absolute confidence he looked like a loser every single time
– I feel like he licked his sword while facing mr 1 but I can’t remember. if he did, that’s honestly iconic. stare down a dude that’s made of swords while licking yours? power move. only decent time to kick your sword
– Zoro, joining Luffy: “if you stand in the way of my dream i’ll kill you!” Zoro, a day later: “of course i’ll carry my captain in this heavy cage on my back to safety. oh this gaping wound in my side? nothing. who cares about bleeding to death, my captain needs me!”
– all those big weights he’s got. all of them.
– especially that time he was lifting weights post thriller bark after barely surviving kuma, still heavily injuries, complaining about how weak he is. buddy…
– that time in drum island where he decided to train by going swimming in the freezing ice-country water, then when he got out he got lost in the snowy mountains until he wandered into a random battle and took out some guy just to steal his coat
– this isn’t the only time he steals some random dude’s coat
– the chimney.
– that filler in smiles lobby where he gets, like, abducted by a bunch of children for a day and integrated into their family?
– Roronoa Zoro went fursuiting in dressrosa and that’s a canon fact you all must acknowledge
– speaking of being a furry anyone remember mugiwara theater?
– THE FUCKING MUGIWARA THEATER NAMES. mugiwara theater is a gift, alright? here’s some: nakamura hanzorou. zobear. ZOROMILK
– I FORGOT TO MENTION. THAT TIME ZORO N USOPP WERE HANDCUFFED TOGETHER AND ZORO TRIED TO CONVINCE USOPP TO PLAY ROCK PAPER SCISSORS WITH HIM TO SEE WHICH ONE OF THEM WOULD HAVE TO CUT THEIR HAND OFF
– also the fact that his logic was “it’ll be fine cuz chopper can just sew it back on”
– can we also talk abt how later that fight he uses Usopp as a sword because holy shit Zoro
– this isn’t technically zoro’s fault but the guy who sold him his sword to him in loguetown has a giant version of bounty image up above his bath, which……..
– barto asked for zoro’s autograph and Zoro just wrote “sword”
– the grave of the rumbar pirates was finished right around when Zoro woke up from his coma post thriller bark and Zoro decided to walk over while Brook is sitting there mourning almost everyone he ever loved and just. plops his sword—an inanimate object—in the dirt by the grave of BROOKS ENTIRE CREW like “hey i’m gonna bury this here u don’t mind tho right? cool”
– he’s lucky Brook is such a cool dude cuz if I was mourning the death of MY crew and some fuck decided to plant a rusty sword there i’d just fuckin kill em
– in Zou they were talking abt whatever and Luffy mentioned how Sanji was as strong as one thousand men and Zoro, clearly jealous that Sanji got praised by Luffy, butt in with a stuttery objection on how HE was stronger than Sanji and worth TWO THOUSAND men, which luffy ignored, and Nami had to reassure him that yes, Zoro, we know you’re strong. toddler
– this is also not technically zoro’s fault but one time someone asked oda in an sbs which strawhats would eat ice in their drink and oda answered who would n wouldn’t (Luffy, Chopper, Brook, Usopp, and Robin would, if ur wondering). Zoro was on the wouldn’t list, and some fan sent oda a letter informing him of a panel where Zoro was shown eating ice to disprove this. someone pulled zoro ice eating receipts on oda and that’s a fact we all have to live with
– the first time Zoro meets mihawk—the strongest man in the world, the man he wants to defeat someday, and incredibly powerful and impressive dude—he cries like a baby
– zoro’s been crucified like 4 times now. once in his introduction than in three movies (6, gold, nebulandia). idk why this keeps happening but honestly? keep it up
– when Brook joined the crew, Zoro said he was sorry for Brooks bad luck as if one of the first things Brook ever saw Zoro do wasn’t to try and die for the crew via Giant Paw Ball of Pain
– speaking of, i’m pretty sure half the reason zoro DIDNT die in thriller bark is because if he died via smth as silly as a giant paw ball his injured pride would kill him again
– I was going to make fun of Zoro for wearing only a suit and a fake mustache in dressrosa as a disguise but then I realized, like, given how absolutely shredded Zoro was in Punk Hazard and how that suit somehow managed to squish it all down without zoro ripping the sleeves off? solid disguise
– when merry was burning and everyone’s bawling and remembering great memories on the ship and Zoro was standing there, 100% stoic, remembering a nap
– Zoro saw marines (Garp) coming to Water 7 while Luffy was still unconscious and ran off to warn the others but couldn’t find his way back to the hotel
– that G8 filler where he falls off a cliff in pursuit of his swords
– speaking of fillers, remember that amnesia one? (ha). highlights include Zoro trying to physically fight a small sea horse (plus Usopp doing a bad lip-syncing) and Zoro swimming through the Grand Line with his swords tied to his head by his bandana
– meets a dragon, eats the dragon
– it got mentioned once that Sanji and Nami canonly help Zoro and the other guys get dressed. so every time Zoro wears something absolutely ridiculous (which is often), it’s probably Sanjis doing
– “I can’t believe I cut a freaking booger!!”
– speaking of, remember that time Luffy flicked a booger into Zoro’s drink at the Baratie and Zoro tried to force him to drink it?? remember that?? I hate them both
– that time Zoro was trying to find the Right Eye in Skypiea, said that (though the path to get there was STRAIGHT AHEAD) all he had to do to find the right eye was just keep going right (even though that would just lead him in circles!). and then after that do you know what direction he went?? do you know?? he fucking went left
– the time Zoro got lost walking on a straight path in a filler.
– Zoro lost to a guy in a fight and just fucking let the dude cut him in half. like, yes, the baratie scene was all cool as all hell and I love it but Zoro did in fact basically invite a dude to cut him in half
– when they were hit by negative hollows and everyone else said stuff that was kinda funny but Zoro went straight up “I don’t deserve to exist” please honey talk to someone
– he was fighting Kaku and kept engaging in Kaku’s devil fruit bs and then berating himself for being uncool as if he wasn’t already fighting a giant giraffe
– to end this list, I want to get to Zoro’s absolute worst offense. remember when Zoro fought Kaku and he did that asura form thing? where he straight up grew four extra arms and two extra heads, all wielding swords? what the FUCK was that? and don’t tell me “fighting spirit” alright. that’s bull. people don’t just GROW EXTRA SWORD-WIELDING BODY PARTS because they’re just REALLY INTO a FIGHT. like I know this is One Piece and shit’s ridiculous all this time but this? this is too much. even for One Piece this is too much. this is so ridiculous. there has to be a line, even in One Piece, with what these guys are allowed to get away with. I can accept haki so good you can see the future. I can accept spinning so fast you set your leg on fire. I can accept being made of springs. I can accept booger bombs. I can accept all that and more, but this? this is where i take my stand. Roronoa Zoro cannot keep getting away with this! fighting spirit is just not an explanation. and the worst part? the absolute worst part?
– Zoro makes four extra limbs and two extra heads, all armed with swords, MATERIALIZE out of THIN AIR with absolutely NO REAL EXPLANATION and then pretty much NEVER DOES IT AGAIN! he did it once in sabaody (and once in strong world) and then hasn’t done it since! everyone else uses the power ups they got in enies lobby all the time but Zoro, somewhere out there, knows how fuckin sick this attack is (bc yeah it’s ridiculous as hell but like I still enjoy it) and he just won’t do it again. not once post timeskip has he used it at all. Roronoa Zoro knows what he’s doing and he is out there, right now, laughing
– roronoa zoro is one of my top three favorite one piece characters and I make this list entirely out of love. (feel free to add on more moments I may have missed and i’ll add them)
the only thing I wanted was to forget ‘’zoromilk’’ once and for all but ya’ll won’t let me have it
i cant believe u made me read “roronoa zoro went fursuiting in dressrosa” with my own two eyes
the small details and joys that make One Piece so great
what I truly love about One Piece that it’s full of unexpected joy. I mean really, really unexpected joy. The kind that exists pretty much nowhere else. I’m not talking about Luffy’s kindness, because that’s connected the plot, part of the main storyline – I’m talking about the little, absolutely unnecessary little details that could be easily omitted from the main story, yet, here they are.
Let’s take Buggy, is there anyone who tought he’d be more than the baddie of the week? Yet he just kept appearing, and the fact that he’s a Shichibukai now is just. Goddamn. Hilarious. We all know that he has no buissness doing any serious piracy, but damn, we can’t help but root for him at this point. Fake it till you make it, Buggy boi.
Or take Bon-chan, he started out as a annoying caricature, turned out to be pretty cool and then a noble-hearted dude after Alabasta. After a while, after we’ve forgotten about him a long time ago – Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark and Sabaody happened, duh – we meet him again in Impel Down!! A little friendship and kindness in the dark. How he helps Luffy through the hardships of Impel Down, rooting for him as he fights the poison, how he stays behind, sacrificing himself again is just. Wow. Bon-chan truly is the real MVP.
It would have been easy to write around him – don’t poison Luffy, let Ace destory the Marine ships at Alabasta, have Boa or the promotion-hungry Hannyabal open the Gates of Justice at Impel Down. It’d even have been way easier than spending the ink and pages on him, yet here he is.
We have Zoro, Mikawk and Perona, the three of them not only being polar opposites, but they have literally no reason or means to even really meet at all in civil life. Like, Zoro is with Luffy, Mihawk is either nagging Shanks or some random pirates, or pouting in his castle, while Perona is at Thriller Bark.
And yet, somehow fate – and Kuma – brings them together, and they became the wierdest and most unexpectedly candy-colored goth family in existence. Think about how we got to know Perona! She was just some random annoying one timer side-villian. And a few hundred chapters later she’s accompanying Zoro to Sabaody!! Simply because she was worried that he’d get lost!! And, as we see on the cover pictures, she even stucks with Mihawk after that. The only reason being is that they just simply got to like each other’s company during those 2 years. No villianous plot against our heroes, no planned revenge, no some mystery alliance, no further advancement to the plot. They just do everyday stuff like farming and playing with baby bears. Probably daydrinking a lot. Just two very extra human beings being absolutely mundane. I love them.
There was no reason at all, from a writer’s point of view, to bring back Perona. No one would have cared. These kind of characters are always kept separate, they live in different circles. No one even liked her – but this is just great:
(u bitch, as if you didn’t remeber breaking two of his).
Or, a wierd example at the first glance, Sengoku. Law already had his sob backstory, a truly tragic, sad, and well-written one. The amber lead poisoning, the whole Dofflamingo-Rosinante Tenryuubito affair, etc. It gave a lot of depth to the charaters, gave information about the Goverment’s corruption, reason for the upcoming battle against Dofflamingo. It would have been more than enough for Corazon to die saving Law from his brother. Honestly, it’s fucking tragic even by One Piece standards, where everyone and their dog’s got a past that makes you cry.
But there’s also Sengoku in the picture. We don’t really know anything about him, how he is as a person. It doesn’t really matter. But here it turns out that he too, like Law, loved Corazon as family, as a son, and now the only person he can share this feeling is the kid-became-a-pirate that he died saving. His grief, his connection to Law doesn’t give any plus as far as the story goes. It’s like Perona’s and Mihawk’s case – normally no other writer would connect two charaters as separate as they are.
Garp taking in Ace, saving the Pirate King’s son was absolutely crucial to the plot, to Luffy, to the main events unfolding on the long run, not that it takes any of his credit away. But in Sengoku’s case it doesn’t change a thing – he didn’t raise Law or saved him at Dressrosa. He could have been completely left out. He’s just another big name character, an antagonist, a fleet admiral who helped to kill Ace. Yet turns out he’s also just another human being, who grieves someone he loved.
Koala is similar too – she shoudn’t have been more than a plot device little girl to show us how bad the tenryuubito were and how kind Fisher Tiger was, maybe how the human-gyojin realtionships were going, but then! We see her again as an adult in the Revolutionary army! As Sabo’s partner! She’s a gyojin-karate instructor now! She’s alright and happy!! Like, it could have been just some other random girl, but then we never would have known that. Thanks, Oda.
Laboon! We all shed some tears when Luffy promised him to visit him after becoming Pirate King, didn’t we. And we kind of put him aside too – we knew it’d take a long time till they can meet again, and we’d just have to hope this scene woudn’t get lost by the – probably very eventful – end of the manga.
But then! Then! We meet Brook at Thriller Bark!! A member of the original crew that sailed with Laboon! And they haven’t forgotten about him at all, they were planning to go back! And Brook still does, and can only be persuated to stay with them after hearing about the new promise. Now the both the old and the original one will be fulfilled the same time!!!
It’s supposed to be a small thing, bc what is meeting a whale compared to the grand events unfolding. But maybe that’s it – it’s so small, so “meaningless” in the bigger picture, all of these are, that it’s really just nothing but the endless kindness and love this series is just full of with. They are really nothing but a wonderful gift to the reader.
And the best thing is, they all work by the inner logic of their world, they aren’t just random lucks and miracles. Why wouldn’t Kuma send Perona to the next best horror island he knows? He sent everyone the best place possible, and Peronsa likes this stuff. Why wouldn’t Bon Clay be in prison after getting caught by the Marines? After experiencing what she had, of course Koala would leave her village and join the rebel army. Buggy did really serve on the Pirate King’s ship, escaped Impel Down, was at Marineford, buddies with Shanks, no wonder people mistake him for a bigshot.
(These are also great for worldbuilding – there is an actual, lived-in world with people and their motives surrounding our heroes. The Earth doesn’t revolve around them, after all.)
This kind of attention to detail One Piece has is just wonderful, we all know that – but what really makes is so awesome (and heartwarming) are the little unimportant events ones like these.
I guess you are talking about Elizabeth Midfort, right?
First of all, let me say that to write a proper analysys I
should probably reread the whole series, so take the following thoughts as my
personal opinion and don’t expect very original views.
My country is deeply controlled and manipulated right now. There is anti-lgbt propaganda everywhere you look, from giant banners in the streets, flyers, to adds on the internet and most tv channels.
I’m from Romania. One of the poorest countries in Europe. It is deeply christian, on the orthodox side, and the church now has control over the political and social situation. Our “politicians” are so corrupt they are making laws to make corruption legal, looking out for their friends who already got into delux prisons and hoping they won’t get there as well.
A few years ago, the church created this “union”, and they named themselves “Coaliția pentru familie”. In english it means “The Coalition for the Family”. They have created a series of rules, and these include
1. Writing in the Constitution that marriage can only be between a man and a woman (because i suppose it wasn’t clear enough in their opinion), and making it so it can never be changed.
2. Making abortion illegal. No matter whether it was from rape, incest, or if it meant the death of the mother or/and the child.
3. Making any contraceptive means illegal.
4. Stop women from going to work, making them dependable on their male counterparts/family members. And no, i’m not exaggerating that is actually what they wrote
5. Honestly there are so many more these are just at the top of my head
And, in 2016, the Coalition got approx 3 million votes.
Now, i’m not saying that they faked the votes. They (probably) didn’t. However, i know that most people probably didn’t even know what they were signing. They went in churches and made people vote. My grandmother doesn’t know how to read or write; all she knows is how to make a signature. She goes to church and i wouldn’t be surprised if they made her and people like her vote for things they really don’t understand.
Moving back to 2018. The political situation in Romania is….
Horrible.
On the 10th of August, there was a protest the diaspora organised. They came from countries all around the world back in romania to protest against the horridly corrupt government. The gov got the gendarmerie involved, and so over 450 people got into hospitals, some of them even in critical condition. And nobody is answering, moving the blame from themselves to the protesters themselves. And, amongst all this misery and conflict, in order to distract the people, they decided to have a refferendum. Against gay marriage.
The refferendum is asking whether they should change the constitution in the way the Coalition wants to or not. It costs over 45 million euros, and it’s going to be in 2 different days, 6 and 7 of october. It is very illegal. They complain that it’s not clear enough, but if that were the case it would mean that
a. Gay marriage is already legal, therefore they are depleting people from human rights
b. It’s not legal, making this whole thing absolutely useless.
This is only the beginning. There is no way we can win; the population is still deeply homophobic, racist, xenophobic, sexist, etc etc whatever you can think of, it is. But if this thing passes, then the other “laws” will have a chance too. And so, we’ll be moved back in the eighteenth century.
There is propaganda everywhere, especially in the big cities. These are just a small portion of them:
This internet add hurts a lot. 1918 is a very important year in our history, as it was the year we were able to unify Romania, and it is seen as the wish our people had for hundreds and hundreds of years, and so many people died for that dream. And now, they’re comparing this piece of shit of a refferendum with our nation’s only goal?? On the 100th anniversary????
Newspaper propaganda, where they are comparing gay people to fucking nazis
Tv add
They say “protect our kids” but to be honest with you, i feel anything but protected right now
My hands are shaking as i’m writing this. Our only hope is that people will boicot the ref, but many have been told by their priests that if they don’t go vote, they will publicly be shamed.
Here’s a link to an article that probably explains things better than i did
If anyone has more useful information, like a petition or something, please do not hesitate to add it. The only goal of this post is to bring acknowledgment to people who aren’t from romania, as it seems that nobody knows what is going on. So please, please share.
I’m curious to know exactly what Anon sees as evidence that Guts is now motivated by guilt rather than love. I can only assume that Anon mean his subsequent withdrawal from taking an active role in Casca’s care? I would love clarification if this is not the case, but it is the only thing I can think of.
I think Guts was ashamed that he allowed his inner darkness to gain control in such a terrible way but more than that, it TERRIFIED him. Consider his past. Guts is intimately familiar with how horrific sexual assault is, being the survivor of a brutal childhood rape himself and having a dear friend/lover subjected to it right before his eyes. He absolutely, unequivocally, HATES rape. We see the rage that the sight of rape or attempted rape inspires in him several times. In fact, I don’t think it would at all be a stretch to suggest that Guts considers rape the most vile and despicable thing in the world in which he lives. So the fact that the Beast of Darkness inside him was able to gain such control that he almost committed that cardinal sin? That he almost raped Casca (the woman he loves so much he gave up a two year revenge rampage) and in fact did assault her in a sexual manner? That scared the absolute shit out of Guts.
As he says himself in Episode 191: “Wilderness Reunion”, “I’m shuddering at my own sinisterness. I’m beaten down by my own powerlessness.” In short, Guts does not trust himself to be anywhere near Casca. His continual struggle to control the beast of darkness during battle only reaffirms his fear of what he might do. As another example of that fear, consider Guts’ nightmare in 290 “Howl from the Darkness” Or 199 “Mansion of the Spirit Tree (1)” When Guts thinks “I would only hurt you” In reference to Casca. So there’s fear, and then there’s also respecting Casca’s wishes–especially after an incident where she felt her wishes were not heeded. She’s afraid of him, she hides behind Farnese any time he’s within ten feet, and if he truly loves her, shouldn’t he do his best to keep his distance so she feels safe on the journey? Wouldn’t he be kind of an asshole if he tried to continue in the caregiver role–bathe Casca, feed her–despite her very clear desire for him to stay away from her?
So there are obvious reasons Guts no longer actively engages in caring for her that don’t have to be motivated by guilt, but rather the desire to keep her safe, even if that means keeping her safe from himself. We actually see him slip in 328 “Shooting Star,” drawn out of bed by Casca sounding distressed. He immediately gets up to see what is wrong, what she needs, just like he would have before. It is only Farnese’s reminder that he will get her “more addled” that sobers him. Does the fact that Guts withdrawals from a primary caregiver role in Casca’s life and focuses on protecting her and getting her to Elfhelm instead mean he no longer loves her? Why should it?
As evidence that his love for her hasn’t changed, consider first that while the way he interacts with her has changed because of the incident, nothing else has. His goal is still protecting her, just as it was before. Second, consider two incidences in which the Beast of Darkness takes control of Guts, and thoughts of Casca pull him from armor. In 229 “Departure of Flame,” It is Schierke reminding him of Casca that draws him out of the armor. In 316 “Full Moon (1)”, the moonlight boy shows Casca to Guts to draw him out of the armor again. He tells Guts, “That’s right. You mustn’t lose it. You mustn’t destroy it.” As panels of Casca, then Guts’ other companions appear. “It” being “guilt” doesn’t seem to fit very well, does it?
Third, consider thematically that when Guts’ goal shifted from Guts to Griffith, it was love for Casca that shifted it. In 130 “A Feeble Flame,” Guts vows to stop his quest for vengeance and to go to Casca’s side instead because she is his last precious thing. This is despite the presence of the beast, large and imposing behind him, reminding him of his rage. The reminder of Casca, his last precious thing, is what causes him to cast aside revenge, and her place as that “precious thing” is what has continually stopped him from returning to the trail of vengeance since. How can guilt become the motivator instead? What is the natural opposite of hate? It isn’t guilt–it’s (prepare for cheese dammit) love. How can guilt reduce immeasurable hatred? Doesn’t guilt only compound rage–expand it–become something that the Beast of Darkness can just use as more fuel to feed the fire of vengeance against Griffith? It’s Griffith’s fault it came to this. It is Griffith who is responsible and Griffith who must be ultimately destroyed. The Beast of Darkness itself says in 290 “Howl from the Darkness” that his companions will die, and then they will just become more fuel for his vengeance. At no point do we ever see evidence that guilt shifts to being the thing that pulls Guts from his hate. It is Casca, reminders of her, and her being in danger. This is why the Beast of Darkness continually goads him to kill her. Because it knows his love for her is the only thing that truly keeps it chained. Could chains of guilt really hold it? Personally I don’t see how. Fourth, consider the phrase that haunts Guts from volume 28 onwards: “There is no guarantee that your wish will be her wish.” Guts thinks about this several times with worry, and what wish would he be worried about if all that motivated him was guilt?
Fifth, consider the quiet moments when Guts draws enjoyment just from seeing Casca at peace, or thinks excitedly about her eventual return.
Ultimately, I think you have to decide for yourself whether it is guilt or love that most deeply motivates him. But I think it is absolutely love.
He sees her at her best all the time.He is guilty towards making her suffer, not guilty when it comes to his feelings. Just look at Guts after seeing Casca smile after so long. It’s an eyeshot, but it’s more than enough.
A friend of mine asked if she could submit this to my tumblr for the reasons explained below:
Hi, Indonesian here. Of Javanese ethnicity, to be exact. Our government blocked Tumblr some time ago so our voices are bound to drown. I don’t feel comfortable sharing this in my own blog since I’m not out IRL.
I’d like to weigh in about the whole Nagini situation. While I cannot represent how other Indonesians feel about this, it appears that many others feel the same as I do, judging from many Twitter comments, my social circle and other Tumblr users. Some of the points here have already been brought up by user elasekar. I have made a bit of an analysis, it’s a little long – read on.
The Name
Nagini is the feminine form of Naga, a mythological entity shared by most countries in the Indosphere: from India all over to Southeast Asia – Indonesia and Philippines included. There was a time when Hinduism was not limited to Bali, but spanning across Western Indonesia and syncretized with our indigenous belief systems.
The Nagas tend to be cobras in India, and may or may not be coupled with some human features. In Indonesia, Naga refers to any great serpent: Crowned serpents of our palaces and Hindu temples are Nagas, and in modern times the term was adapted as a generic translation for European and East Asian dragons.
The name ‘Nagini’ is Sanskrit, of ultimately Indian origin. Indonesians no longer use Sanskrit in daily lives, except as liturgical language for the Buddhist and Hindu communities, much like Latin in Catholic churches. The practice of naming your children with Sanskrit is usual in Indonesia, and especially common among the inheritors of Srivijayan and Majapahit kingdoms: the Javanese, Balinese, and the Sumatrans. My own given name is in Sanskrit.
The Indonesian and Indian Nagas do not always line up perfectly. I think our Nagas tend to be less anthropomorphic, except in earlier periods after Hinduism first arrived to our islands. There is, however, another legendary figure that fits JKR’s Nagini – I will explain later on.
Regardless, I think ‘Nagini’ works well for the character as an allusive name. The Roman Remus is never a werewolf, and Minerva did not have cat motif. And yet these names suit these characters through personality, plotline or motif.
The Folklore
It’s important to consider the division between indianized and indigenous (native) myths whenever you talk about Western Indonesian culture and beliefs. The Indian Pandavas and Ramayana feature heavily in our court dramas and puppet shows, and the Vedic Garuda is a national symbol.
However, we do retain many indigenous figures and stories: Rangda, Barong, and the Rice Goddess are indigenous to Indonesia, as is Ratu Kidul, the Queen of the South Seas.
The mermaid-tailed Queen of the South Seas reigns over the perilous southern coasts of Java; the color of jasmine leaves is sacred to her, and her riptides claimed many lives. It is said that she announces her presence on her shores by a gust of fragrant wind. The royal courts of Central Java are still beholden to her to this day.
It so happens that her daughter, or second-in-command, is Nyi Blorong, the Lady of Serpents. She has the lower half of a great serpent and requires her followers to perform blood sacrifices in exchange of gold and wealth. She is tasked to lure men and possesses tremendous magic and beauty that blossom every full moon. She returns to her true form, that of a giant snake, as the moon wanes. A reverse were-snake, so to speak.
There are many other stories about humans metamorphosing or cursed to become snakes and reptiles in Indonesia, many of which remain oral. The story about how the Komodo dragons came to live alongside humans involved human-and-dragon siblings. Furthermore, the spiritual snake-woman motif was cemented in our popular consciousness by Suzzanna, an Indonesian horror actress popular in the 70s (she has an English Wikipedia entry – look it up).
The reactions of many Indonesians were not that of apprehension (due to the supposed objectification, racial stereotypes and problematic storyline), but that of instant recognition of our myths and stories. Nagini could have easily been Nyi Blorong’s descendant, or an unfortunate lady whose bloodline was cursed by one of our own witches and wizards (magic features heavily in Indonesia – most people still believe in magic and stories of people flinging curses were NOT uncommon).
The Casting
It turns out that an Indonesian actress almost made it as Nagini (as elasekar brought up). Acha Septriasa had to turn down the casting as she was pregnant at the time. The role then went to Claudia Kim, a Korean. It is worth noting that we do not have tremendous diaspora to begin with. The only other countries with visible Indonesian immigrant presence are Netherlands, Suriname and Australia, so it is likely that the casting director had limited time and choices (though I guess an Indian would suit the role as well, given the closer cultural heritage).
Regardless, I am happy for Claudia to receive the role.
I hope to translate Acha Septriasa’s instagram post at one point, to make it more accessible.
The Representation
Just so you know, we’ve never had any cultural representation in big-name fantasy media before this. None. NONE.
The most that we had was Barong and Rangda in Shin Megami Tensei, and some random gamelan notes in Spirited Away, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Avatar and Akira. Even then, nobody ever truly come forward to attribute these contents to our cultural heritage. I don’t recall Joe Hisaishi ever saying that No-Face’s musical motif is that of a Balinese gamelan segment. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Conclusion
Personally, I am very interested to see how Nagini’s story development to turn out. I hope it will be complex, and I hope JKR will treat the character with a measure of compassion and understanding.
Is Nagini someone who could exist in Indonesian folklore? ABSOLUTELY. Does the name suit her? I think so, even if it’s not something endemic to Indonesia. Is it going to be problematic? Only time will tell, but personally I’m okay with giving Claudia and JKR to represent something from our culture. If handled correctly, I believe Nagini has the potential to become a beautifully developed, tragic character.
I also think it’s important not to punish well-meaning creators and authors. It’s a learning process for us all.
Hear what we have to say. Many of us were excited when JKR made that reply, only to have people rain on the parade. I’ve noticed that non-Indonesians also gladly ignored our opinions, what we said, or how we feel.
True, not all of us are happy – I can’t speak for Indians or other ethnicities either. As I said before, my opinions do not reflect that of all Indonesians either, but this is the voice I decided to share.
I did not know that in 7 states in America, you can carry out an abortion the day before you give birth (allows abortion at any time). That’s so fucking disgusting. And other states allow abortion up to 28 weeks. That’s not a ball of cells no more, that’s a damn baby. It’s good that abortion is legal but not the fucking late into the pregnancy 😷😷 nasty
You do know the reason abortion is carried out that late in a pregnancy is because of fetal abnormalities, right? There’s no woman that stays pregnant for 8 months and then decides “Meh, I’m just gonna have an abortion instead.”
These women are not nasty, they are not evil, they are women who were so excited to welcome their little one into this world. They are women who had a nursery set up and baby clothes bought. They are women who excitedly waited for their due date, took belly photos and updated the world on how their pregnancy was coming along. They are the women who woke up one day and felt that their baby wasn’t moving anymore. They are the women that felt in their gut that something was terribly wrong, just to have their worst fears confirmed.
They are the women who went to a regular checkup to find out that their baby is severely deformed and won’t live outside the womb, or will but only for a few days and suffer terribly the whole time. They are the women who have to make a decision to not let their baby suffer.
Women having abortions that late are not women who just decided to get an abortion 8 months into pregnancy. While that is there right to do so, know that isn’t what happens. Know that that isn’t the reality.
This is really upsetting to read but it is the truth, more people need to know this.
Something like 90% of abortions are first trimester, which is so early that the medical terminology vacillates between “zygote” and “fetus”, and whatever the name, the thing’s the size of a pencil eraser and has 0% ability to survive outside of the womb.
The remainder are performed in the 2nd trimester, generally as a result of fetal abnormality or a severe congenital defect.
The vanishingly rare 3rd trimester abortions are generally for one of two reasons:
1) the life of the mother is in serious danger 2) the fetus is either dead or dying
So no. Women aren’t just bouncing on coat-hangers at 37 weeks for a giggle, they’re undertaking a serious medical procedure for a heartbreaking reason.
I’ve known someone in the position of carrying a dead fetus in her body. The kid had a name and a crib and handmade blankets and a mountain of toys. There were baby showers and a little plastic bath thing and those toys that are supposed to make baby smart. There was even a special backpack for taking the kid hiking.
If the first doctor she saw had listened to her, all that stuff might even have gotten used. But instead, the kid died that night. Her mother carried a corpse in her uterus for 3 days, running a horrible fever and coming close to organ failure.
So go fuck yourself if you think she should have died with the kid. Pro life, my big round ass.
These fucks know nothing. They don’t understand that late abortions are 100% unwanted and break the mother’s heart.
They’re so self-righteous and self-absorbed they are incapable of putting themselves in the woman’s shoes.
It’s part of the propaganda war against abortion. The “selfish slut who can’t be bothered to be pregnant and doesn’t care about the baby she’s killing” is easy to demonize and people have no problem denying her an abortion. The fact that she doesn’t exist is incidental.
A woman I know recently had to carry a baby to term, because my Mediterranean, highly Catholic bullshit country has illegal abortion still. Her baby was developing without any brain tissue, and she found this out during her second trimester. She had to carry an essentially brain dead child for five more months, growing larger and larger like nothing was wrong, smiling and fielding questions from those not in the know about gender, due date, all the congratulations that must have hurt so much. She gave birth, and the baby died minutes later. They didn’t even babtise it on time, so now it’s buried in unconsecrated soil, too. Because she obviously didn’t suffer enough.
Now she’s on suicide watch. I hope that makes you feel REAL.good. that no abortion took place.
Stressed, Depressed, and Story Obsessed 