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I was playing around with the lighting and kinda liked how this one turned out

I am not sure how many of you know but Disney just released a trailer for the movie “Raya and The Last Dragon” and many people have been taking the moment away from the South-East Asian people (like me) by comparing it to The Last Airbender. Now I’m going to tell you why you should NOT be comparing them.

First, we need to debunk the idea that we can cumulatively call someone “Asian”. That is very much an American concept, a label slapped on our continent to make it easier for them to identify us. However, we have 48/49 countries, with over 1 000 000 languages and cultures. It’s very problematic to pin us down as Asian when we all have distinguishing ethnicities that sets us apart. If anything, certain provinces have similar mythologies, or came from the same previous kingdom, and for that reason it would make more sense if we were identified as North Asia (Siberia), Central Asia (The ‘stans), Western Asia (The Middle East or Near East), South Asia (Indian subcontinent), East Asia (Far East), Southeast Asia (East Indies and Indochina). I kind of wish a large number of Americans can see this so they will start calling us by these human geographical groups rather than a continent, and this may dispel the need to compare “Asian” movies.

Now to the comparison of the two movies. The Last Airbender follows East Asian (and some South Asian, New World, Inuit, and Sireniki influences). That is very very different from Raya and The Last Dragon, which completely South-East Asian. Here are some cultural aspects from the trailer:

She uses arnis as a weapon, Arnis is commonly National Martial Arts of the Philippines.

The intro of Disney shows a place in a rock; it represents Sigiriya Rock in Sri Lanka.

When she jumped out of a house, the houses were designed in Thailand’s traditional houses.

The Villain’s mask is called Barong Mask from Bali, Indonesia.

The Sword of the villain and the sword that Raya pulled are designed from Indonesia’s sword.

The wavy sword she’s using is a Kris which is a traditional sword in the southern part of the Philippines. So basically her fighting style is Eskrima which is Visayan (central Philippines) but use weapons from Mindanao (southern Philippines)

The whole thing might be inspired by Princess Urduja, the Filipino warrior princess.

The Sea Dragon is from Phillipines and it’s called Bakunawa.

Raya’s clothes are Vietnamese traditional clothing.

Her animal that she rides is Khmer name, Thuk Thuk. When u have came to cambodia for 5 years ago and you want to go somewhere, you have to call “Thuk Thuk” and they will ride you anywhere you wanna go.

Theory about the tribes;

the yellow tribe is Indonesian or Malaysian

the purple tribe is Philippine or Malaysian

the green tribe is maybe Thai because of the Elephants or Cambodian because of the advance weaponry

the white tribe is Thai because of the Dholes, clothes, and the sword

Please do not take this moment away from us- South-East Asian culture and mythology has always been written away in South Asian and East Asian dominant movies. Our culture was put into the Legend of Korra and was written off as East Asian and due to this misinformation of cultures, we are now compared to some show that has never represented us. Please stop it. Let us have our moment- though our cultures are mashed together for this South-East Asian adaptation, it retains alot of our key aspects. 

Fair enough Eve's eating habits are chaotic at best but she literally stuffs her face with anything she can find at any given moment. She devours junk food by the handfull, especially when stressed,the mundane quality of the act shaping her in front of our eyes and making her more approachable:we see ourselves in her, because - who doesn't stress eat?

And Villanelle too,we see her enjoy ice cream in Paris,olives in Barcelona,stuffed cabbage(or whatever exactly it was) in Russia, having a light snack in Italy and absolutely loving it - can't assassinate on an empty stomach! We witness her scoffing down a kilo of pasta in a childlike manner in a posh London restaurant, seated in front of a psychotic Elon Musk mirror. The hedonism of Villanelle(among other things of course) also allows us to connect with this character who, by all counts and textbooks,we most certainly should not be connecting with ;)

They are written as real women in that respect, written by women, and that is just another wonderful aspect of this show that I keep falling deeper in love with.

Here’s a quick handy reference list or anyone who isn’t sure:

Homosexuality does exist in almost all social species.

“Alpha males” are not a real phenomenon and in fact the most aggressive males tend to be the least reproductively successful.

“Survival of the fittest” simply means that the success of a species hinges on how well it “fits” its environment. It does not mean that stronger or smarter individuals are supposed to succeed. Those things can even be a detriment in nature by wasting too many resources.

“Race” is not a biological concept. Someone who looks different from you has the same human genes, just a different grab-bag of dominant traits.

Evolution is not a march towards higher complexity, more intelligence or even more adaptability. It’s just a fluctuation of characteristics dictated by environmental pressures and mutation. A slime mold isn’t “less evolved” than a hawk, just adapted for success under different parameters.

People didn’t evolve “from apes.” It’s more complicated than that. We are a category of ape, sharing a common ancestor with the other apes.

No human on Earth is “closer” to an evolutionary ancestor than any other. We all descended from the same one.

Neanderthals were also a “sibling” species of ours. We didn’t evolve from them.

Humans are actually more genetically homogeneous than most people suspect. This is possibly due to a population bottleneck at some point in our evolutionary past. Two chimpanzees from different sides of a jungle are likely more genetically different to each other than any two human beings in the world.

Our big brains may help us use tools, but what was really principal in their development was the need for empathy, communication, and cooperation.

Humans. Are. Social. So social it drove an incredibly energetically costly increase in our brain size.  Don’t believe anyone who says its our nature to fight “every man for themself.” We’re humans, not bears. We fight for each other.

And we always have. Fossil remains are found of ancient humans who bore signs of crucial mobility impairments that lived to notable ages. Some even have sticks or other mobility aids – community care and support is our way. We don’t cast off those with impairments, we stand by them.

Human sexual dimorphism is on a decreasing trend. Our ancestors had greater difference in canine size and overall size. Our dimorphism gap has gotten smaller.

Occam’s razor is the principal that whatever is the simplest explanation is probably the most likely one. Don’t believe someone who says the reason we evolved bipedalism is so that males could carry gifts to females to woo them. Yes, this is a real ‘theory’ on how bipedalism evolved.

Skin tone is an adaptation of UV levels vs vitamin D levels. Both come from the sun. UV is harmful, so where sun is plentiful populations develop a darker skin tone for more protection. The skin needs sun to create vitamin D, so where sun is scarce, the skin tone lightens to allow more sun in. This is literally all it is.

Final thing: No one’s mind is really equipped to fully understand how long a billion years is, or a million, or even tens of thousands of years. Evolution takes place over a loooong time. Its very, very, slow, slower than we can really comprehend. We can’t “stand in the way” of natural selection by caring for our ill. We don’t need to “help” evolution in any way. It inevitably happens, but not on any sort of timescale we could possibly affect, so don’t fall for anyone that tells you not to “stand in the way” of natural selection. That’s fascism, and its utterly pseudo-scientific.

THE POWER, THE RANGE-

Bonus:

SANDRA OH PRAISING THE BUS SCENE IS THE GAYEST THING EVER!!