Tagged By The Amazing @ofwolvesandbutterflies

a redraw of My Neighbor Totoro

idk why but it just looks weird to me?????

I follow the girl code, of course I am

Hi! I saw you were taking Renegades art requests, so would you mind doing my favorite gal, Ruby Tucker? I love you art, have a nice day ❤️

Here's Ruby, I hope I did her justice! I'm so happy that you enjoy my art :))

Cinder the knight (✯ᴗ✯)

This!!! This hits so close to home for me especially as an Indian person. It's honestly so hypocritical when this happens too, because the same people that mocked our culture, or food, or way of life pull a 180 and suddenly feel like they can appropriate it because apparently it's cool now.

(OP said it better and I also apologize for cutting in, but this is so important)

you know what? i’m gonna say it. atla was a huge part of my childhood. it was definitely a step forward in regards to cartoons.

but the racial insensitivity is staggering. and i wanna talk about the amount of exploiting there is of south asian culture specifically. i’m south asian, indian specifically, and i grew up watching this show that was supposed to be “different” and “inspiring” for people of colour.

except there were little to no characters with dark skin who had importance and were explicitly made out to be south asian. that was fine. i was used to not seeing characters on television who looked like i did. except this show used my culture. they used my culture and they couldn’t even bother putting in good characters who looked like they remotely belonged to that culture, even if they were minor and not part of the gaang.

first of all, the show has a lot of influence from Hinduism—the word avatar (avatāra) itself means “descent” in Sanskrit, referring to the incarnation of a deity in human form. where did Hinduism originate?

indus valley, or what we now call pakistan, a south asian country. the entire concept of chi or prana, as it is referred to as in Hinduism, is a reoccurring theme in atla; your vital energy, your spiritual energy. this is another one of the religion’s influences on the show.

atla also talks about the seven chakras. this is another concept from Hinduism, and in the religion, they must always be unblocked for your prana (the term from Hinduism) or chi (the Chinese term which is used the show) to flow smoothly. chi is your life energy.

so. guess who helps aang out with his chakras?

right. this guy. the only blatantly south asian character we’ve gotten so far, and you wanna know why it’s so blatant? because he’s literally an indian stereotype. he’s the only obviously south asian character so far in the show and he’s a racist portrayal of enlightened practitioners of Hinduism. great.

oh, and before i forget—

do their foreheads look familiar? oh yeah, that’s because it’s literally copied off of this:

this is Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction. they used a religious symbol in Hinduism to make a couple characters look cool. well, combustion man and p’li both have these third eyes, so we can assume they are at least south asian coded—but what are their characters like?

villains. unhinged. insane. we don’t even know combustion man’s name—we just know he’s a contract killer who would murder a child for the right price. p’li wants to dismantle all forms of government and let the world reign free in chaos, and finally she is given a horribly grotesque death: she gets her head blown off.

for all of the culture references that are important pieces of this show, you’d think there’d be an area that has south asian people. there isn’t one. i’m not going to speak about the other loads of racism in atla because i don’t belong to those cultures, but here’s my two cents.

this show was written by white men who did the bare minimum. it’s nothing worth praising.

forest spirit - y'all have any ideas for names?

Nova and Ruby in aesthetic outfits (idk I was bored haha)

I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice and I- my heart can’t take all the love it’s all just so beautiful I would really appreciate it if someone could rant with me about it all...

Me: pft love isn’t real it doesn’t exist

Also Me: Watches pride and prejudice 2005 ending and cries, Cries while reading Jane Eyre, Heart melts when Anne and Gilbert speak, reads every Jane Austen novel and imagines myself as the protagonist, Cries at the ending of the phantom of the opera chanting my angel of music why, Ends up day dreaming about me ending up with someone like Mr. Darcy, Gilbert Blythe, or  Henry Tilney, heart melts at the reading of shakespeare, ends up getting sad over bronte sister novels

Me: Yeah love is dumb -begins to sniffle- 

got into digital art again after a while

Anyway, here's Cinder, what a cutie :))

Don't be shy, send in those asks :))

♡♡♡