i'm gwenny | 33 | pan ace | punjabi american | xiv liker | she/her
this is my aesthetic/rp/writing/screenshots blog for my default wol oc and my other xiv characters. it has a queue of xiv fandom content running when im not around. this is not a politics free blog re: xiv content. i'm very opinionated about writing, critical thinking, etc jsyk.
my character is a cartoon strongman/one punch man type crossed with a kindness power fantasy. if that sounds too silly for you, oh well! good luck on your journey!
anyone is free to come rp in my inbox or message me to meet up for rp in game, as i'm always looking to make new friends! i am a midcore player from sargatanas, aether and very rp oriented
here is my boy's carrd
here are his friends
here is my xiv fic (ongoing)
in public rp spaces, i default to my character being a veteran adventurer oc unless other people's characters ask him if he is/acknowledge him as their wol.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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-crawls out of my grave- well damn. i can't even think of a proper joke to convey my surprise and paralyzing shyness all of a sudden. thank you for taking my words to heart. the funny thing is i was doing my master's during stb, and a big part of that was postcolonial theory. crazy coincidence that i hadn't picked up on back then. well... -crawls back into the ground-
loveeee characters who think they're likable but not lovable. characters who know they have surface-level admirable or alluring traits and so make sure to highlight those traits so that nobody looks closer to see what's underneath. characters who know they're hot or clever or cool and use that as a suit of armor so that no one ever gets close to them, because when they strip bare and show their vulnerability they're not any of those things, which means they have nothing left to make up for who they inherently are
saw a post going viral about commentary on lyse as a white saviour. just wanted to get my 2 cents down somewhere so i can stop thinking about it. this got kind of long, but...
while it's true that lyse is a person of colour and people of all shades exist across the board, the white saviour criticism is about square enix's choice to have the character representing revolution against an empire as blonde and pale, in a world where many communities are still healing from the after effects of western imperialism. considering real world beauty standards and their relationship with imperialism should have been somewhere in this conversation.
when stormblood came out, we only had ARR and HW, which also had western leads with light hair and light skin. so the white saviour criticism isn't necessarily that lyse as a character doesn't deserve her story, or that she doesn't represent a kind of person that exists and ought to be acknowledged, or that her character wasn't well constructed. i also feel a lot of the criticism toward lyse is, in part, a result of misogyny, as she was judged very unfairly and much more harshly, not unlike the situation with wuk lamat in dawntrail. i feel this echoes in popular fan treatment of venat and emet selch, and the disparity between them.
the criticism of lyse as a white saviour should be addressing the bias that japanese nationalism produces in its portrayal of these characters and where it places emphasis. it also comes from the frustration of dark skinned people always being underrepresented, especially when the game, at that time, didn't even have proper shading for characters of specific dark skin colours. let's not pretend that colourism is worse for people with fair skin. people of colour, who have fair skin, do benefit from having light skin as being more socially acceptable and considered (erroneously) as more beautiful. as someone of north indian descent, i am one of them. this bias exists in japan as well, and touches a lot of the media we consume, including final fantasy games.
stb is one of my favorite expacs because it's not afraid to be poltical and does want to explore what revolution means. however, it suffers from not completely understanding the story its trying to tell. lyse asking the xaela children of the steppe about nationhood is one of those missteps that feeds into a white saviour narrative--she normalizes the notion that nationhood is a real and natural thing. this is called essentialism. borders are constructed, ethnicities are related to one another, histories overlap. social constructs are not inherent, but rather ideas we impose on ourselves.
further, the current idea of what a nation is, comes from the west. there is no such thing as purity of blood, purity of tradition, sharply defined ethnicities, etc. i wouldn't expect lyse to know this--i would want her to learn this through her journey--but the writers clearly don't understand the depth of what this would mean and how it would shape the story. they write from a deeply japanese perspective, where even the history of ww2 isn't objectively presented to them. they are at a disadvantage when they approach stories about liberation because they hold very specific culturally influenced education and beliefs.
additionally, while there is a great deal of conversation around how the construction of national identity aided in efforts to liberate nations, as soon as the nation is freed, the idea of who belongs to what nation changes depending on what one party wishes to accomplish versus another. so while it is realistic for, let's say the ala mhigans, to rally around the identity of being ala mhigan during a revolution, it's equally important to be careful with the rhetoric of national identity. a good example i'm familiar with is the indian national identity and how it operates as a flawed organizing factor of individuals today, as opposed to standing up for who we once were before the raj.
these concerns are easily addressed with a few, common sense story techniques that likely wouldn't change the entire story. the themes and story in its current form is simply undercut by the ignorance of the writers due to their unchecked bias.
i haven't forgotten that it took yoship witnessing a trans person being treated poorly for doing nothing but existing, for him to feel inspired to unlock the gendered outfits. yoship is wonderful and clearly kind and understanding, but it also demonstrates that he did not have much of an idea of how big a deal it was until he saw it for himself.
over time, things have slowly gotten better. they tried again with dawntrail, and it was a great effort. every expac has its flaws, but for those who care to look, each expac does improve upon the complaints its predecessors suffered from. except maybe the pacing issues. those are an entirely different problem altogether.
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This is a beautiful way to put how some people refuse to engage with proper literary analysis. I've seen people complain when you analyse their fandom "the wrong way" (such as when I said Edward Cullen's mindreading abilities are poorly developed), because they can't separate a character trait from a narrative tool. It's not like insulting a character and their design is on par with insulting a real person.
Criticising your favourite works is a good thing. Not all critique means that a work is terrible. Your attachment to the work and characters in question should not impair your ability to see what is right and wrong in their design (if anything), and what effects they have on the overall narrative. You should ask yourself if your attachment is unhealthy and impairing your ability to do what this student was asked to do.
there's no such thing as an unproblematic story, but there is such a thing as writing unchecked prejudice and nationalist attitudes in such a way that the narrative themes--about making the world a better place by bringing people together--are completely undermined
forgiveness and compassion are different. evil is a human thing, but there are limits to what is permissible human error. see: the nazis. see: ww2 jpn history. see: garlemald.
i don't mind that we went on shonen adventures for two expacs. i mind that the manner in which the antagonists were humanized belittled the damage that was done. i'm not asking for dull bladed villains or for sisyphean punishment. all i want are consequences proportionate to the evils that were done and an understanding that, while we acknowledge the unique humanity of individuals in such complex conflicts, we don't forget the messages we are trying to get across in stories.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!
This bunbun is at the moment casting a powerful <Inspiration & Artistic Energy> spell - please stand still for a second and let it embrace you!
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Aaaand done- go create and be great❣️
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