I was having a discussion with a friend of mine and ratld came up and I was just discussing what it means to me. It sounds sort of dumb but representation matters so much.
1- growing up with a relatively obscure name you never expect to see your name on anything. Whenever I would go to a touristy location I wouldn’t even try to find my name on a keychain or mug because I knew for a fact it wouldn’t be there. So when the poster for ratld first came out and the name RAYA was in big bold letters I was ecstatic. It isn’t the same spelling as my name obviously, but at the time I kept hearing it be pronounced like my name. It sounds so minuscule but it means the world to me to almost share a name with a freaking Disney princess.
2- Raya and all the characters in ratld are pretty racially ambiguous. Yes, they all take inspiration from South East Asian culture, but you can’t point one character out and go “oh that one is Vietnamese”. Again, it sounds so minuscule but as a very racially ambiguous person who also has South Asian descent I could see myself on screen in a way.
3- theres also the small nods to Indeginous cultures which was done so well. I really like and appreciate how they built the land of Kumandra and they show so many aspects of Indeginous spirituality (or at least aspects that I see in a way that relate to my spirituality and reconnection with my culture)
4- even though Disney is a coward, the gayness is pretty strong between Raya and Namaari. So having a movie that from the get go meant so much to me also have so much lesbian representation makes my queer heart so freaking happy.
Anyways, these reasons might sound dumb to most but it makes the movie mean so much personally
