Bigotry in fantasy worlds don’t need to reflect the bigotry in ours

OK that was a hot take in response to reviews for the recent Pixar movie Elemental. No spoilers in this discussion. There is this criticism about how the movie doesn't do a good job using non-human characters for human race allegories. I'm going to pick on the review by Schaffrillas as an example, although Schaffrillas …

Modern Fantasy and “Wokewashing”

The meaning of the term "woke" has been warped from its original meaning (in African American vernacular) of being aware of racial prejudice and discrimination, to being used ironically (by the right wing) to performative progressiveness by individuals or institutions (see more on Wikipedia). A more appropriate term, I think, for this latter usage, is …

Using Rings of Power to Explain Race is a Social Construct

(Note on spoilers: This discussion is spoiler-free.) I've written at length about how I dislike casting POC in roles that are written to be white. Does this extend to Rings of Power? There has, after all, been a massive backlash against this very aspect of the show. I also had that same initial knee-jerk reaction, …

The Evolution of Men from Khal Drogo to Aquaman

One of the things about Aquaman that struck me was how he approached love-interest Mera. Based on movies that came out since the beginning of Hollywood, and the casting of the manliest man like Jason Momoa, we would have expected the hero to surely sweep the woman off her feet and sweep her into a …

Let’s Talk about Yara

There was quite some scene there with Yara Greyjoy during S6E7. Of course the most important part of the speech was her conversation with Theon, her tough love and no-nonsense attitude that makes her awesome, but viewers did take note of the interaction right before that. Note on spoilers: There are no major spoilers here, …

Women and Sex in Game of Thrones

These are some more recent posts, written earlier this year in March, I think, so they are more in line with my current perspectives. And provides a better update since my 2012 post. http://sildarmillionsays.tumblr.com/post/138263045686/women-and-sex-in-game-of-thrones-part-1-sex-as-a%5B\embed] http://sildarmillionsays.tumblr.com/post/138666350656/women-and-sex-in-game-of-thrones-part-2-rape-and%5B\embed]  

Thank you for Daenerys

While we wait for the Season 6 finale, this week, I will reblog everything Game of Thrones related. I'll start with my very first post about the show, written at some point towards the end of 2012. This was before I became a proper fan of the show, and before I (attempted to) read the …

How Do You Make a Post-Racial Fantasy World?

You know how they say that generally Fantasy stories are set in the past and Sci-Fi stories in the future? I’ve been wondering though, if we want to create a Fantasy world set vaguely in the past, then how should we represent the past? Because the past isn’t sunshine and rainbows. Do we sanitize the …