#racebent

You're so cute when you cheer us on... I love you, my Julietta!

my final Blacktober piece for 2023 is Aizo and Yujiro, the idol duo LIP×LIP from the Honeyworks music videos, and the anime Heroines Run The Show!

The images were inspired by the music video for "Romeo", my fave LIP×LIP song~

Snow White🍎 Racebend🤎

Just a fun edit✍ to see what Snow White🍏 might look like with an alternative design✨

I was inspired to do this because growing up I always assumed Snow White🎀 was Latina, mostly due to her brown eyes and black hair. Technically having darker skin contradicts the whole “Snow White'' name, but I kind of don’t care. I really love💘 how she looks with a darker complexion!

First of all, this does NOT mean that I plan on having Roxy included in my version of Winx Club because I have zero intention of that. However, I thought I would do a redesign of her just for the fun of it. I decided to racebend her because we have enough white girls from the Winx Club. Plus, I thought showing some Native American/Indigenous representation would be nice. I did change her color from green to yellow because of the fact that I already had green as Tecna's color in my version of Winx Club. Also, yellow just looks amazing on her. For her Magic Winx form, I did have her black hair turn into her signature purple-pink hair color because magic. For her body type, I decided to go for a more scrawny body that lacks curves because of how I hadn't done that with any of my Winx Club redesigns yet. Plus, it just really suits her. For her civilian look, I wanted to give her a more individual style to help her stand out from the others because her original look wasn't very distinct. It looked like something that Bloom or Layla would wear, which was one of the ways that kept her from being her own character. I went with a preppy look, while also having her tie being loose to show her carefree nature. Not to mention a lot of animal paw-prints in her outfit because she's the fairy of animals. Plus, I just had to have her hair in a ponytail because it just helped make the design even better. I hope you guys like it and comment letting me know what you think.

Credit for the character base goes to SelenaEde from DeviantArt.

Baxter is a deep, fleshed out, relatable and iconic character not just in TMNT lore, but in general. If you want TMNT to have a black character, your wish was granted before you even thought of it. He’s right there! Heck, you could even reimagined him to have a redemption arc! I mean, why not?

And this, friends, is why race or “any” bending bugs me. It’s because great characters of the group you mean to represent get forgotten in favour of riding on the tail of success of established white Christian straight (usually) male ones.

I say, nuts to that. Baxter is not only a worthy enough black character. He’s a worthy character PERIOD. And so are the others.

Say NO to bending and YES to showcasing the existing.

Say NO to race bending April. Say YES to including “Badass” Stockman.

Say NO to any-bending. Say YES to giving the existing minority characters the spotlight at long last. They waited long enough.

PS: I am well aware of the debate over April having been originally conceptualized to be black. As someone who was there when she first came out, let me put the rumour to rest please... That fact is only semi-right. April O’Neal was named after one of the creator’s then beloved who was partially black, but her race was originally up in the air and leaned more towards being Japanese. She was like what Mr. Smithers in the Simpsons was when it first started; a character that was still in the process of being built. In other words, the original concept of April was... everything and nothing. However, once the creators figured her out, the definitive version of her is white with red hair. And as for that hairdo she originally had when she was still in the works...

It was the 80s. Back in the day, ALL women did their hair like that. Even my mom, who is white, did her hair like that. It was the style. I hope this clears things up.