Ganto's Stuff That He Does

tw: racism, slavery, anti-blackness, police brutality

I have seen countless people wondering what to think about the comments that Noelle Stevenson & their crew made on the twitch stream yesterday.

Disclaimer: I truly do not think Noelle (or the crew) knowingly and explicitly meant to be racist. However, impact matters more than intentions, and implicit racism/bias and racial stereotypes need our full attention because they travel in subtle and insidious ways in big fandoms like She-Ra. Especially when children are involved.

First and foremost: I am Black, an American descendent of slavery, and a teacher. Many of my students love She-Ra. I wanted to use this moment to teach them (and maybe some of you) the history of the slave stereotypes that Noelle’s Sow drawing evokes.

I think being informed is a huge first step in this climate. That way, you can learn the context and then decide in what ways you, personally, can hold Noelle and the crew accountable.

Here is a link to Noelle’s comments. They start at 56:50, and I have transcribed the relevant bits below:

Q: Do any of Bow’s siblings have names or occupations?

Noelle: “… Their names rhyme with Bow. So there’s like Oboe and he plays the oboe. And then there’s Gough and like Van Gough he’s missing an ear. And like he [Sam] would come up and just be like which one of them tills the fields? And I was like which one Sam? And he’s like Sow. [crew laughs].”

On their twitter, Noelle posted the picture that Rae Geiger drew that goes along with the crew’s inside “joke”:

While honestly, I could pick apart “Woe,” “Gogh,” and “Woah” for their own unique problems and stereotypes, I am mainly going to focus on “Sow” here.

[Image ID: In Rae’s drawing, Sow is wearing a straw hat and chewing on a straw. He has a bandana around his neck. He is smiling a wide dopey smile and is dirty and disheveled.]

This is the first image that popped into my mind when I saw the art. (You know, since my ancestors forcibly picked cotton in South Carolina on a slave plantation):

[Image ID: An old black and white photograph of a family of Black American slaves looking serious and forlorn as they pose for a picture in a field of cotton.]

BUT HE’S JUST A FARMER, you cry. Noelle said Sow tills the land, can’t black people be farmers?!

Yes, we can, but first, listen… Let me show you some of the most famous stereotypes of African American men from American history and literature. You’ll recognize all of the elements from the Sow art and insidious patterns that go along with each. I think it really IS that deep.

it’s here

I got so tired of listening to the soundcloud version of this song I just had to go back in and try something different

new key, some new sounds, and it’s mastered

it’s also loud. sorry

Bug of the Day

It’s done

Toa Tuyet

Matoran prank lv 2: Take your friends’ masks off while they sleep, move them into each other’s huts, then swap the masks.

Matoran prank lv 3:Coordinate with some accomplices from another village. Take your friend’s mask while he’s asleep, give his mask and armour a stylish new paint job, then carry him off to the other village and put him to bed in somebody else’s hut. Replace mask. Have the accomplices behave as if he’s always been part of that village.

Note: For best results, swap Le-Matoran with Po-Matoran, or either one with Ga-Matoran. Swapping Le- and Onu-Matoran sounds funny in theory, but is generally considered a step too far given that most Onu-Matoran are acrophobic and many Le-Matoran have at least mild claustrophobia.

Putting a Ta-Matoran in Ko-Koro would probably be hilarious, but the chances of getting a bunch of Ta- and Ko-Matoran to cooperate on that are slim. Just ask Takua.

Level 5: Use a shrink kanoka on your local toa while they sleep. Get the whole village in on it. Convince your toa that they have lost a measure of their toa power even though they still have elemental control.

messing around in vegas studio pro, decided to whip this together

Predictable: Needed to happen for story to continue, was told it was going to happen all movie, was a necessary device.

Boring: The people who vanished were all non essentials, who had it coming, simplifying narrative to characters whose stories were best explored

Incomprehensible motivations: Everybody and their mother has pointed out the flaws in this plan, the motivations were changed to be more relatable than just wanting to bone Death, and this made the character so one dimensional that he was not interesting to watch.

Unpredictable: Old villain returns, more powerful than ever, as a direct result of the heroes succeeding in their mission, creating an outcome that was inevitable in a world where heroes always win somehow, but still making them lose on a scale that had never happened before.

Interesting: Revealed new facts about the universe, established the true power of this villain, and had ties back to the very beginning and how this whole plan was orchestrated long before any story happened, and all that happened in the meantime was a mix of setup and getting more benefits while he was able to. Ending to story that genuinely was not expected and brought a new twist to a 8 year franchise.