#21: The Rising Sun Flag Controversy
Well, of all the things I thought would happen in the hundredth episode of the series, “Ephemeral”, I certainly didn't expect this to come from it.
For those who aren't aware, the recently aired episode had a scene where Ladybug explained how time zones work to Cat Noir for her plan to save the day during the final act, and to represent one of the later time zones, a simplified image of what looks like Japan's Rising Sun Flag was used. As a result, a lot of Korean fans were upset, as they viewed the Rising Sun Flag as a symbol of Japan's imperialistic past and their treatment of Koreans during the former's occupation in the early 1900's (NSFW, but look up “comfort women” to see what their treatment was like), to the point where the flag has been compared to the Nazi swastika in terms of being a negative symbol.
To be fair, it's hard to say who did this, and I'm not entirely sure if Astruc himself was behind it as he isn't an animator, so it's entirely possible someone else was responsible for this, or it could have just been an animation error. There's also the fact that the debate on the use of the flag has been very controversial because of how it all started (while Japan and Korea have always had a tense relationship, some argued the debate around the Rising Sun Flag started around ten years ago when a Korean soccer player used the presence of the flag in a stadium to explain him making a racist gesture during a game against a Japanese team, when other reports say it was supposedly a mask that resembled the flag. Even putting that aside, Koreans have still had a tense relationship with Japan for a while, not helped by the things Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said trying to downplay the things Japan did to Korea). But still, the point is whether or not you actually agree with the protest of the flag, several fans, many of them Korean, as in the ones who felt personally offended by the image, were still angry at Astruc, and took to Twitter to protest and politely ask him to address the controversy.
And according to some later tweets regarding the flag, Astruc responded by blocking anyone who questioned him about it.
It's kind of sad that Winny Pain, as in the dude who once drew NSFW art of the two underage leads, came across as the better person here, as he actually bothered to address the backlash to the episode in a simple way while not belittling anyone in the process.
He basically said, “Look, we get what happened with the flag, we realize we screwed up, and we're not going to brush it under the rug.” Less than three lines of text, and he managed to at least somewhat apologize for the flag's presence, even if he didn't actually say that he or anyone else on his team was sorry.
What did Astruc say when he finally acknowledged everyone calling him out for blocking everyone who brought up the flag to him?
Instead of actually explaining what happened with the flag, Astruc went on a tangent about how he always gets treated unfairly by people online, and that's why he blocks anyone who doesn't blindly praise him or his work. Let's go over all the flaws with his argument here.
Friendly reminder: I don't block people because I'm a Nazi. I block people because when you're followed by hundreds of thousands of people, you receive DAILY hundreds of messages from people pissed for whatever reason.
I can't believe I have to say this, but nobody is calling you a Nazi, Astruc. The closest thing to that claim is that people have compared the Rising Sun Flag to the Nazi swastika due to the similarities Japan shared with Germany while they were allies (as rocky as their relationship was) during World War II.
Also, funny how you're downplaying the reason so many people are pissed at you. Like I just talked about, many people found the image of the Rising Sun Flag, which has been associated with one of the darkest periods in Korean history, to be offensive, and all you've done is block them instead of at least trying to explain yourself. Was it an animation error or something like that?
I don't care if they're right or wrong. It's just physically impossible to deal with, as my account is not a corporate one, handled by multiple CM. If I had to, it'd be a full time job, and it'd just endanger my mental health.
If you're so tired of being harassed by people on Twitter, toxic or not, why don't you just set your account to private so you can approve anyone who tries to follow you so they don't send you negative feedback?
It's also pretty rich that you're citing your mental health when several abuse victims have come forward to my blog to say how much they felt hurt by the things you've said to downplay the emotional abuse Adrien and Chloe have gone through while comparing the latter to an abuser, or how that every character in your show who doesn't immediately move on from mental trauma is a villain. And don't forget all the times you've insulted or blocked anyone who's criticized your show, including the people who have a problem with the Rising Sun Flag right now. What, does their mental health not matter somehow? How exactly can we take your claims about your mental health being in danger when you've ignored the mental health of people in your show and in real life?
On social networks, people who want to complain are always more vocal than people who want to share positive things. Anonymity and distance makes it easy for some people to shift and behave in a toxic way.
Seriously? You seriously said that? Are you in any position to claim you haven't been “toxic” to anyone online? Because newsflash, I kind of have a little evidence for that.
Like I keep saying, people are complaining because of the use of a symbol that is a very touchy subject for a certain group of people in the East.
As I want to be able to keep on interacting with the nice people here, and don't penalize them because of the behavior of a minority, blocking is unfortunately the only way to do so.
And by “nice people”, I'm assuming you mean the people who don't question the writing of your show. Look, I get it. I can understand how upsetting criticism can be, and the way a lot of people have phrased their problems with the writing has been insulting. I've also been somewhat harsh with some of my criticisms of several episodes like “Queen Banana” and “Rocketear”, so I can see where you're coming from when you're talking about critics.
I know that there are probably a lot of people on this site who don't agree with what I do (I've also seen a handful of posts questioning the effort I put into talking about one person), and I'm personally still trying to make peace with that, to try and move on while still taking concerns like that into consideration. Believe me, I know it's not the same as your work, but I get stuff like this can be tough.
But sometimes, you need to be criticized in order to help you get the ideas needed to improve your work. It isn't just a writing thing, but something we need in everyday life. While I can't say for certain how many critics are people who just love harassing you, I can assure you I'm not one of them (and if anyone reading this thinks I am, tell me on how I can improve), and I feel like you're underestimating the amount of people who actually give constructive criticism to help you.
I believe in dialogue and education. Sadly, experience taught me it is not possible here. I block people because they don't come at me to discuss. They only come at me to have their views validated in any ways.
You know what? Fair point. This is a common mentality people on the internet share. The problem is that you can be just as guilty of this at times, especially when talking about Chloe and how stupid people are for daring to think she's not as bad as the actual main villain.
So here we are: yes, I block whoever who want to mess with me. Whatever the reason. Because it's the only thing possible here to preserve what's worth: sharing with people positive energy. And I don't feel guilty about it.
If by “mess with you”, you mean “call out problematic aspects of the show I work on even though I claim to be a progressive writer”, then yeah, I get it. It's one thing if people are sending you death threats or say you don't deserve to be a father, because those people are assholes who deserve your scorn. It's another thing to ignore people who think your show is offensive to certain races and put them in the same group as the aforementioned assholes.
I know some won't understand, disagree, use it as a proof I'm the Devil incarnated. That's exactly the reason why I've been forced to do this.
I don't understand, I disagree, but not once did I think you were the Devil incarnate. My problem is with you as a writer, not as a person. I do think this is proof that you can't really take any form of criticism, constructive or not, and will block anyone who disagrees with you. As much as the people who call you names like “Thomas Ass-Truck” can be insulting, that doesn't make them the same as other critics who word their criticisms in a calm and rational way.
I don't work to please everybody. If I did, I'd do cartoons based on surveys, which would probably end up with puppies driving cars. I'm not on social networks to be popular. Unlike YouTubers, singers or actors, I'm not my own product. I wouldn't be less happy if I was unknown.
I guess now we can add Paw Patrol to the list of popular cartoons you think your show is better than. Is it because that show actually has a consistent toyline, unlike Miraculous?
And didn't you use surveys as justification for Chloe's arc, saying kids understood it perfectly according to the surveys you supposedly gave them?
It's amazing how almost so many points I can use to refute your defense relates back to something you've said about Chloe.
Plus, if you want to separate your personal account with the Miraculous Ladybug related stuff, why not just create another account to answer questions related to the show like the Miraculous FAQ Twitter account, which is also private?
I'm here to share positive things with people who love the show. (Except spoilers) That's all and that's all that will be.
Translation: I'm here to be praised by fans online while telling them how wrong their differing opinions and fan theories are. That's all and that's all that will be.
But the thing is, we're not even done yet. It's time to talk about what's arguably the saddest part of this whole debacle. It's one thing for Astruc to block a bunch of strangers who question the use of the flag, but this controversy actually led to Astruc blocking one of his close friends.
If you remember in my LGBT representation post (as in the one I personally feel like I could have done better with instead of blaming Astruc for things that could have easily been the result of executives screwing with his work), I mentioned that the character Marc was based off a close friend of Astruc's, Hope Morphin.
While we don't know much about their relationship, it's clear if Astruc was willing to base a character in his show off a friend of his, it must mean their friendship was very deep. Unfortunately, After being made aware of the flag, Morphin themselves (Hope is genderfluid, so I'm using gender neutral pronouns) questioned the inclusion of it, and got blocked for their troubles.
From what we know, they just learned about the controversy, they mentioned their feelings on the matter to Astruc, and then they got blocked after that. Granted, we don't know if there was a private conversation through message or in person before the block, but let it be said here that Thomas Astruc would rather cut off all ties with a close friend of his rather than acknowledge a controversial moment in his show.
Morphin later talked about the block, and they just seemed so hurt by it when explaining it to others. Their friendship with Astruc clearly meant a lot to them, and now they're wondering if he even liked them in the first place.
And on top of that, they decided to delete their Twitter account entirely afterwards.
Even though I know nothing about what their friendship was like, this was just heartbreaking for me to go through. I try my hardest to separate the work from the artist and never criticize Astruc as a person, but I'm just dumbfounded at learning about all of this. Whether or not Astruc played a part in the inclusion of the flag, the fact of the matter is that this shows just how stubborn Astruc can be. I understand that he probably isn't responsible for the flag problem, but he's still choosing to ignore the fallout from anyone who questions him, including one of his own friends.
