I'm Just Here

Piggy back on this to share something personal and important

Growing up as a poc one thing you start to realize is that your parents or grandparents are not only a product of their trauma but genuinely believe that what they experience was ok/normal

Becuase they saw a certain action or were at the end of a certain action they either conditioned themselves to think it was normal or conditioned themselves so their kids never experience that

But bc it’s yk trauma they do it unconventional ways that end up hurting more then helping

Think it’s normal: Ming treated Mei the way she did because that how she was treated. It was the constant pressure of being normal that caused her to hurt her mom in her teen. Instead of addressing it she locked it up and let it fester.

Kids never experience it: Alma went through so much as a young widower that she clung onto her saving grace, the miracle. She did everything she could( protecting the candle at all cost, giving Isabela the perfect marriage) because she didn’t want her family to suffer the same life altering trauma she did

Both had love and care for their family but the way they went about it caused more hurt and harm then good

the red panda means a lot of things in turning red, and i think one interpretation is the family’s relationship with their cultural roots. it’s spelled out in the movie already: when their family moved to a ‘new world’, and the blessing became a curse. as much as the red panda is a metaphor for self-expression in general, a message that’s easier to empathize with too, cultural identity still plays into it. the fact that they had to cut themselves off from it is so telling.

just a little excerpt from an illustrated copy of Die Waldhexe une andere Zemnische Volksmärchen… 

I just really love Ice Bear.