#alligence

(Leader): Galaxystar - Grey she-cat with light grey spots and cyan eyes. App Darkpaw @glxybbs

(Deputy): Blackthorn - brown tom with black face patch and one red eye. @how-do-life-does

(Medicine Cat): Foxwing - ginger and white tom. @mathonwys

(Warriors):

Crowclaw - Black and white tom with scars and green-yellow eyes. App. Redpaw @firepaw-the-freak

Pepperstep - black she-cat with yellow-grwen eyes and stubby tail (born that way) @mathonwys

Lizardbeam - Grey tom with light grey spots and teal eyes. @glxybbs

Tigerfeather - white she-cat with greyish markings on face, and light orange stripes down spine. App. Pepperpaw @crittervolocity

Lilystorm - Ginger tabby shecat with golden face spots and blue eyes. @how-do-life-does

Larchbreeze (Beach) - Golden tabby and white tom with blue eyes. App. Sootpaw @professional-shitpost

(Apprentice):

Redpaw - Ginger scaled patched tom with green eyes. @firepaw-the-freak

Sootpaw - Brown she-cat with small black spots and black muzzle/eye area @professional-shitpost

Pepperpaw - white tom with brown speckles on limbs, nose, tail, and ears and blue eyes. @crittervolocity

(Leader) Icestar (Rhi)- Golden and white she-cat with yellow eyes

(Deputy) BlackBeauty (BB) - Black tom with yellow-green eyes

(Medicine Cat) Harepuddle (Mom) - Dark bluish-grey she-car with blue-green eyes. App. Dragonpaw

(Warriors):

Brownstone (Brother) - Brown tabby tom with yellow eyes.

Lizardsnout (Tobias) - Silvery-grey tabby tom with silver eyes.

Deerfoot (Remus) - Brown and golden spotted tom with Golden eyes.

Brokenpuddle (Dad) - gray and white tom with brown eyes. App. Birdpaw

Darkstripe (Shiba) - Black and brown long furred tabby she-cat with crooked muzzle and yellow eyes.

Bugwing (Ico) - greenish brown tabby tom with green eyes. App. Batpaw

Oceanleap (Nila) - Dark ginger tabby tom with golden-red eyes. App. Marshpaw.

(Apprentices):

Dragonpaw (Draco) - Light bluish-grey tom with dark blue eyes. Very short sighted.

Marshpaw (Marsa) - Ginger tabby she-cat with golden eyes.

Birdpaw (Plaio) - dark ginger tabby tom with purple eyes.

Batpaw (Unknown) - Black and dark grey tom with dark grey eyes.

(Queens):

Patchbreeze (Bidda Baby) - white calico she-cat with bright yellow eyes. Mother of Bootkit (Boots), Blackkit (Callie), and Sandkit (Sandy).

Mousetail (Jerrica) - Pure white she-cat with bright blue eyes. Mother of Racingkit and Runningkit.

Darkmane (SQ) - Purpleish redish brown and golden she-cat with pink eyes. Mother of Bluekit (Motzart), Redkit (Baju), and Goldkit (Minx)

(Dogs):

Tinker - Small white she-dog with black and brown patches and brown eyes.

Peanut - Small black and brown tom-dog with brown eyes.

Sergeant (Serge) - Blonde large tom-dog with hazel eyes.

Leader: Wildstar - White she-cat with black ring face spots and golden eyes @crittervolocity

Deputy: Carrotleap - long legged cream and ginger she-cat with green eyes @yumiponypup

Medicine Cat: Nightshade - small tortoiseshell tom with golden eyes. @yumiponypup

Warriors: Stormfoot - Dark blueish grey tom with blue eyes. App. Branchpaw @yononous

Hawkstorm - pure black tom @numanumame

Goldenstripe - Golden tabby she-cat @numanumame

Flashfire - redish ginger and grey she-cat with yellow eyes @crittervolocity

Enjoy a fight scene!

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They make it to the Fright Zone with no trouble, appearing a few feet from the door. Immediately, Adora feels, of all things, an ache in her feet, but she doesn’t have time for that because their arrival did not go unnoticed.

Glimmer blasts the two guards away with a fistful of magic each and Adora steps up to the door.

Do it quickly some part of her says, so she does more than slash at it with the Sword. She puts magic behind it, the Sword sending out an arch of light to hit the metal before the blade edge.

Glimmer whoops, enjoying the destruction, as Mermista steps forward. Glowing with power, she easily finds the water lines and bursts them. The hallway fills with water, their feet splashing as they run inside.

The Horde knows they’re there. Their entrance had been flashy, they glow as they run deeper into the forge. Adora doesn’t know the interior of this building, but Mermista leads them to a room with pools of water for cooling down shaped metal.

“Rip it apart, Perfuma!” Adora yells and the princess grows roots and vines that start crunching the machinery.

Glimmer is everywhere, popping up behind soldiers to blast them with glittery kicks or punches. She doesn’t cast any spells, which makes Adora proud of her. The workers can’t go for Glimmer, she’s too quick, so they turn to the other three of them. Adora and Mermista fight side-by-side, Mermista flinging water while Adora bashes people with her Shield, the quarters too tight to properly swing the Sword. Behind them, Perfuma encourages her plants to grow.

It's not the easiest fight Adora’s been in, but it’s far from the hardest. The Horde had zero warning of them coming, and the guards this deep in the Fright Zone were thin. Most people in the building weren’t fighters, they were just there to man the machines.

Adora knocks them down and out, stepping over the unconscious Horde soldiers. They’re all soldiers, the Horde has no citizens. Adora can’t give them that chance, yet, but she can ensure they keep their lives.

Something crashes, Perfuma says “oops”, and then those still awake flee.

Adora turns to see a boiler, crunched and putting a lot of sudden pressure on the air inside. “Get behind me!” she yells, throwing her Shield up.

She can make it grow, not a lot, but hopefully enough. She can also heal, almost back to new, once she loses She-Ra’s form. Adora can take the hit.

They have seconds. Mermista and Perfuma press in close. Glimmer is still across the room, magic cutting through a piece of machinery.

“Glimmer!” Adora yells.

Glimmer looks up, sees Adora braced, then the boiler about to blow, and blanches.

In class, you mentioned that Japanese culture is more visual than auditory. That may be true, but I think that that reason is much too dismissive. Just as with any other culture, there is a rich history of storytelling and traditional folk music. Recently I’ve come to learn about something called Rakugo, “Fallen Words”, in which the performer has little to not prop, save for his fan for making occasional tapping sounds or gesturing, and he or she would play all the characters involved in the story. And then there are other kinds of plays too with costume and props and different actors, but still told in a particular and exaggerated sing song ways. These tends to be accompanied by acoustic and percussion beats to accent the action. Each have their own distinctive sound and style. Not that these are exactly what the producers should pull from or include into the play, but it’s just that there are a lot of possibilities out there too that could be referenced. In terms of musical arrangements as well, there are generic “oriental” style tunes and melodies, but once you get more in depth with each country, you can definitely distinguish the differences between traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Thai, or Vietnamese, etc, music. I felt that during the performance, I couldn’t really tell which parts were distinctly Japanese, or that they were so brief that they flew right over my head.

I have to say, Allegiance made me feel a bit uneasy in terms of  the representation of Asians and Asian Americans. It’s a bit difficult for me to be able to say it’s completely wrong, especially because the play is about Japanese Americans and I’m of Chinese descent. However, there are enough parallels culturally that I think I reference some of my own experience.

First thing that really bothered me was the accent or maybe just the mannerism/acting that Christopheren Nomura who played Tatsuo Kimura used. It just felt very trite. I don’t know if Japanese men from that time really talked like that, but it didn’t feel right. The abrupt fragmentations of sentences plays into the stereotype of Asian accents. I’m not familiar with the actor, but even if he does have an accent in real life, I feel that the playwright should have written the dialogues differently. I feel that it’s really insulting to oversimplify so much the speech of an immigrant. It suggests that if  they can’t express their thoughts fluently in English, their understanding/intellect is limited to what they can convey…. Or at least that’s what I’ve observed from people who interact with PoC (not just Asian). From what I can gather in the play, the whole Kimura family is really thoughtful and insightful and there is no way that the father should speak so crudely. With my understanding of the Chinese language (and Japanese has a Chinese root), most of the speech used, especially in older generations, are more poetic and proverbial.

Why is it that the producer/writer is so quick to simplify? Not only is it insulting to the people they are trying to represent, but also to the audience. It is undermining the audiences’s ability to relate and learn. I think that they are expecting the audience to not understand. They are essentially dumbing down the whole cultural context of the play. The way that the play is structured, Japanese influences are more showcased in snippets, presented to the “American” audience, rather than be an integral part of the play, weaving itself throughout scenes in a realistic, everyday-life kind of way.

The Second thing is the stereotypical portrayal of familial members. I think that with male family roles, there’s is too much of a set image of how they act that this production failed to really break free from. George Takei played the cheeky aloof but wise grandfather, but at times, I feel as though the cheekiness almost becomes gimmicky and distracts from the story’s tone. Comic relief is important, but it was just a bit too much and when it comes to having the grandfather deliver the more serious cultural insight to Keiko and Sammy, it’s too much of a jump that doesn’t quite feel believable.

With Tatsuo (the father), it was also pushed over the top. It is definitely an attested to truth that Asian parents often have a preset path for their children and that they are very much concerned with grades and schooling, but the way that the play shows this attitude is in too much of a typical Asian joke. For example, the “straight A- student” and the absurd pressure to be a doctor for Sammy, were all presented without any hint later on as why Tatsuo wanted those things. For a lot of immigrant parents, it’s about having to labor away during their youth to build a future for their children and that it if their children where not to succeed, it would not be just the children’s loss, but also the parents. It’s their whole life thrown away. It’s different from more settled, 4th or 5th+ gen. white immigrant families, who already have some made a life for themselves and that if the children were to forfeit their opportunities, it would just be a pity, and it doesn’t jeopardize the older generation’s lively hoods. I think that rather than having the father be so unreasonably angry and stubborn and overbearing, it can have more to do with him being frustrated that his intention and feelings are not reaching Sammy.

In the same vein, perhaps Sammy could be trying to understand but struggling to agree with his father. Being an Asian American myself, it’s definitely something that happens lot, understanding the perspective of my parents but simply because of my upbringing in America, my outlooks and my values are so different that I cannot simply agree and go with something I don’t believe in even though my parents wholehearted believe it.