Keyleth's cultural appropriation

[quietmoon]

I need to voice my frustrating and discomfort with Marisha and Matt appropriating Maori culture for Keyleth's people.

Some twitter threads:

• However Keyleth not being Maori and having Maori tattoos and using Maori words (incorrectly I might add) isn't fine because it impacts real living people. So you see that's not just fantasy. That's cultural appropriation.
• A recap of why I'm always bringing up the issues with Keyleth with Maori tattoos because apparently a lot of people missed this when it happened.
• relatively gentle reminder to not give keyleth maori tattoos and use kaitiaki as a greeting since neither she or marisha are maori and kaitiaki isnt a greeting in the first place
• Y'all want to hear about how ironic it is that CR is misusing the word kaitiaki? Of course you don't but you're going to anyway

And I'm getting the sense that maybe later Marisha acknowledges this and apologises (although the poster of the tweets wasn't entirely happy with it I think) but didn't ask any of the fans to stop using it as well? I can't speak to future events, but just watching this through right now as a poc who knows what's happening is so uncomfortable. I love Avatar and elemental druidic magic, but every time someone uses kaitiake incorrectly and inappropriately I get taken completely out of the moment and it ruins the interactions tbh. Which (on top of being, you know, cultural appropriation) sucks because she's my favourite character. TvT

I love CR, but it's very white, and you definitely feel it while watching.

Comments

[quietmoon]

Oh, that's really wonderful to hear, though!! I posted this locked because honestly I was quite nervous that people would get mad at me (not that there's really anyone in my circle who would!) for being negative, or "rarh they were trying what do you want them to do white people can never win" aslkdjhf stuff like that. I think I spend too much time on twitter. -.-

I'm glad I thought to post in the end, knowing that it brought awareness to you of this. TwT I feel that way a lot about CR (re: walking the walk), but it is good to know that they are well intentioned and hopefully will become better allies as they learn. It's frustrating that we aren't further than we are, but it's no reason not to celebrate the progress that has been made. :')

I am finally on the home stretch with CR1! I remember I was in the early 20s/30s wrt episodes when CR2 started, and I watched the first couple episodes live before deciding 'nah, I'll finish the first campaign first' and a long time later here I am ^_^ I think I have another 20smth episodes, and then I can finally start with the new campaign, for which I am veeeery excited.

[walgesang]

I'm so glad you did because it did tell me something I didn't know! I think a lot of times people can say "they were trying" and it seems like yes, they are trying but they've been around for so long now it seems almost silly that they haven't added someone else to the regular cast.

Congrats on nearly getting to the end of CR1! I'm very excited for you to start the new campaign too. ♥ I think enemytosleep is the only person I had friended before that watched CR, so glad to have more CR buddies. :D

[quietmoon]

Yeah, I know what you mean. It was like, looking at it objectively, there was one cast member who wasn't white and he dropped out after 30 episodes or something. And I know there were reasons that were nothing to do with race surrounding all of that, but when you look at the hundreds of hours between that and now, the years that have passed, and for that to have remained the status quo without at least any discussion of diversity... Bleh. And then you have to think about the fact that this isn't a show in the same way an actual written one might be, this is their home game, and things get even more complicated.

I would just like more reflection, I think. I don't know, I'm not super tapped into the CR community, but I feel like a discussion should be happening surrounding all of this. I'm not demanding them to change their group or something drastic, but more of an acknowledgement of the uncomfortable state that is often synonymous with being an ally, rather than just celebration of the easier parts.

I don't know if any of that made sense pfff. I should go to bed soon.

Yesss it will be good! ;w ; tabletop is having something of a renaissance right now, huh? I love that so much.

[walgesang]

I didn't watch C1 when it was live and honestly I'm glad I missed all that, it... but yeah, I think even (hopefully) Matt is getting uneasy playing NPCs of color when it seems so SO obvious that this could be done by one of their many guests. I can't wait until you see Sumalee Montano in C2, her character is incredible! I feel like even a good portion of fandom is begging to see more diversity on a regular basis and it feels like this is an important time to do it. Hopefully they're talking about it, even if behind the scenes.

I admit I'm not really tapped into that community either. There was some pretty insane stuff that has happened during C2 with the fandom that was Not Good. But I have found some pretty good people in the fandom too! I suppose it's all in where you look. And I agree that there is importance in uncomfortable conversations.

It's so great! Our kid has been a DM since he was in 5th grade and I've been watching him grow up with his friends (and now being a DM and a player, too) playing, it's so nostalgic of when I played for the first time in middle school. I so badly want to play again but I am hard of hearing and have severe tinnitus, that's a tricky thing. Do you play?

[quietmoon]

Me too lol, but I'm really glad to hear that. I have about 20 episodes to go before I'm completely finished with CR1 (I can't believe it!!), and I'm really excited to watch from level one aaAAA

Slowly but surely we will vanquish racism *clenches fist*

Omg, dare I ask what? I have an irl friend who's very into CR, but more the cosplay scene, which is very much not mine haha. enemytosleep inspired me to get back into CR and finally finish CR1 though :P

Woah, long time! I only got into DND after I turned 20, and wish I'd had a chance to earlier! That sounds awesome, I find it really cute when I see TV shows that has kids playing from a young age, or I hear stories about it. It's such a good way to make friends and work on both creative and social skills. GAH, I love tabletop rpgs. I do play! I run a weekly game for a small group of irl friends (although we've been sticking to online for a few months now) and I run another game online but I think I'm going to have to call that one to an end, sadly. I miss playing! I play on Saturdays sometimes, but it's not super regular. The dream is to have a dedicated weekly/bi-weekly group with a gang who always play together. >u< One dayyy~

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. :( Have you played any play-by-post? I played regularly in a game for that via discord and loved it so much, I want to run one sometime! I know it's not the same as playing in person (or even via call) but it does scratch the itch a little for me. ^_^

[walgesang]

Eeeee, I'm totally interested in your thoughts after you finish CR1!

*raised fist* Totally there with you.

Oh boy, there were too many mini-wanks to mention but fortunately they sort of came and went. I suppose that's the downside of any huge fandom, a certain percentage is going to be frothing at the mouth while a good portion are just chill and stuff. That's so cool about your friend doing cosplay of CR! I'm always totally amazed at the great stuff out there (and the ART. Omfgdgsghf have we talked about the art?!).

That's so cool! Me and our kid were totally squeeing about the kids in Stranger Things playing D&D. It was such a nostalgia kick for me and such a nerd-out for him. :D

That's so great that you play! My bf also has a weekly online group and I've been super jealous listening to him talk about it. :D I think that's a great dream to have. ♥

You know, I've been considering something like play-by-play (I did some RPG back in the day and that was fun) and somehow I didn't even think of discord being a good place for that though it makes sense! Do you have links to any you recommend? I am reeeeeeeeally itchy and would love to scratch that D&D itch. :D

[quietmoon]

True. Big fandoms have their pros and their cons, and the cons are often sharing your space - no matter how distantly - with some pretty annoying folk. -.- Oh my god, CR artists are so!!! talented!!! Seeing DND come to life is so so exciting, I can't tell you how much I freaked out seeing the animation from the Vox Machina Kickstarter last year! (Was it last year...? Time has lost all meaning in 2020 lol) That is to say, please feel free to throw any art you find and love my way!

Yes, I was specifically thinking of Stranger Things' opening!! Agh, it was magic to see it play out. What a cool experience for you and your kid to share. :D

Ahaha, the dnd itch is too reaaal. I found my group my browsing the lfg reddit and searching it for 'play by post', sorting by 'new' (this link should work, I hope!). If you don't find anything you like the look of and want to make your own group, I'd be happy to run something short or play along, too! ^_^ The reddit is reaaaly active nowadays because of the virus, so there's probably a lot of competition for spaces, but sooner or later you're bound to find something. I've played on another platform, I don't even really remember the name of it, but it was super inactive after a few weeks sadly. Discord has been the best pbp platform I've found.