I enjoy when people redesign Tuunbaq to be more bear-like but I do think there's something to its original design looking half-person half-beast. And not only half person but half blue-eyed white person! Sure Tuunbaq symbolizes the dangers of the Arctic but so much of what kills the men of the expedition is their own colonizer behavior. Tuunbaq mirrors their own actions! THEY are the ones putting themselves in this situation and causing all these deaths. The bit where Goodsir realizes that Tuunbaq has HANDS by comparing his own grip to the claw marks on a body... They can try to blame it all on the inhospitable nature of the Arctic but we know from the Inuit cultures that have BEEN living there that it's not inherently hostile to human life. You can thrive there if you keep a careful eye on how you interact with the land! And of course Tuunbaq isn't exclusively dangerous to the white men, a big part of Silna coming into her role as shaman too early is that she's worried Tuunbaq won't listen to her - ie if she fails to connect with Tuunbaq it could turn on her just as violently. Much of her duty as shaman is to keep nature in balance, and when Silna is stuck living among the men she is unable to continue her work, because colonization throws a massive wrench into Indigenous people's ability to care for the land. Even the death of her father is symbolic of this - they didn't specifically mean to shoot him, but their reaction to a large animal being "kill it immediately" is what creates the circumstances for his death. It's the way the colonizers interact with nature! And not only that, but their intrusion on Silna and her father's life prevents a full exchange of knowledge between the two. Her father was teaching her how to be shaman, but Silna doesn't have all the information she needs because the colonizers interrupted the generational learning that's so important to land stewardship. I feel like Tuunbaq's violence represents the collective monster that is created by the attempt to colonize the Arctic - when colonizers shove themselves in with no respect for the land or the people (or the people's knowledge!), the fragile ecosystem is thrown into chaos and becomes dangerous for everyone
izzy806
ellievsbear
romaincrisis
titsay
origamiaround
gummygunk
dailybridgerton
