Early on in Saga Anderson’s exploration in Alan Wake 2, she runs into Ilmo Koskela. Fiercely proud of his Finnish heritage, Ilmo gregariously makes note of Saga’s Nordic sounding name and the familiar design of her knitted sweater. Perhaps a fellow Finn?
Alas no, Saga’s mom is Swedish she informs him. Immediately Ilmo’s face falls. I’m not sure if it’s actually just the animated character defaulting to his resting face, but either way the timing is too perfect. Cue uproarious laughter from me. People in the Nordics are on friendly terms of course, but we gotta have the tiniest bit of… scornfor each other. All in good fun of course. It’s traditional.
Now, I’m Danish, not Finnish, but still, I feel right at home in the towns of Bright Falls and Watery in Alan Wake 2. All of the little nods to Nordic culture and mindset feel so wonderfully familiar to me. The melancholia, the irreverent sense of humor, the affection for the Finnish and Swedish quirks of the characters. The game feels all the stronger in tone and narrative for Remedy embracing the Finnish roots of the studio.
Which is exactly why it sucks that I almost immediately saw the charm of those narrative decisions weaponised against Saga.
I first watched the scene between Ilmo and Saga on a lets play when I was trying to figure out if I should finally dip my toes into survival horror and buy the game. Delighted by the writing I took a look into the comments to see if people were vibing as hard with it as I was. They were. But I also saw a comment that made me frown.
Paraphrasing, it basically went, come on, like hell a guy like Ilmo would make the assumption that a black woman is Finnish. There are a multitude of reasons why I think that person was wrong, mainly that Nordic people love it when we run into each other in other countries, but it also just made me sad.
Saga being black does not negate her Swedish heritage. Formally, she is American, sure (I assume, not sure how that works in the US), but she’s raised by her single Swedish mom, of course she’s going to identify heavily with that part of her herself. It’s a profound and essential part of who she is.
But hey, I’m a white potato Dane, so I’m not gonna argue that I know much about the experience of being biracial. I’m gonna stick to what I know, which is that Saga is a very moving and beautiful example of something that I’m actually not used to seeing much of - a story about connecting with your Nordic heritage and roots. And it’s part of why I love her so much.
When Nordic people show up in big, international productions, it’s usually as Vikings, and sure, it’s fun to see our wild ancestors, but contemporary questions of Nordic identity and heritage is not something I often see explored. Not even in our own productions.
So much of Saga’s story is about family. Fighting for her current one, Logan and Casey (and sure, David too, lol), and rediscovering her first one. Tor and Odin.
Her discovering her ties to Tor and Odin is profoundly moving and made me teary-eyed several times over. And sure, a lot of those ties are fantastical in nature, but they still feel very much grounded - and what makes us Nordic if not the ties to our myths and legends that Tor and Odin have made themselves the living avatars of.
While Saga’s mom, Freya, had good reasons for leaving the Anderson seer magics behind, seeing them as part of what made her family fucked up, she also cut Saga off from the fullness of her capabilities. It is only through Saga reforming her family, healing its scars and fully embracing the Anderson heritage that she becomes as powerful a parautilitarian as she is at the end of the game. That’s beautiful.
And in fact I think Saga being black only deepens the richness of those themes rather than negate them or make them irrelevant. Because yes, Saga’s story would have been moving if she was a white character too, but I am very well aware that a lot of biracial people of Nordic ancestry can feel alienated from that part of themselves. Not least because questions of who gets to claim a Nordic heritage can get pretty ugly around here. There are most definitely people who share the racist mindset of that commentator. It adds an extra dimension. Which is why seeing Tor and Odin’s eagerness to claim Saga as part of the Anderson heritage is all the more moving. Through her magics, she’s just so obviously an Anderson, and they’re so damn proud to call her theirs and fight alongside her. Because they all got that wild Viking blood in them. They’re part of her and she’s part of them.
Roger Ebert, the film critic once called movies empathy machines. I think games, when they’re at their best, can be an even more intense variation of that. Which is exactly why it baffles me that some people can play through Alan Wake 2 and still think Saga is a stunt-woke character rather than someone fully and beautifully integrated in the narrative. A narrative which, at its most basic level – in my opinion – is about the mystical bonds we form with each other and the rest of the world through art and love and blood and family and heritage. All the great horror doesn’t negate that either, it amplifies it. Kind of like that clicker.
my thoughts on Saga Anderson and the lack of spotlight on her in fanworks
Hmmm…this has been bothering me since I waded into the fandom after AW2 dropped. WHY DOES 99.9% OF THE FANDOM SLEEP ON SAGA WHILE IT'S HALF HER GAME???
I DON'T understand the fixation on Casey (even though I adore him and he's the other half of my OTP), or Zane to the point that when Saga is in ensemble art, she's relegated to being the "bro". And for what purpose? She has just as much build up and storyline as Alan himself. She certainly has more screen time than FBI Casey. I see posts going "oh, I love Saga so much, she was so badass" and then almost nothing when it comes to fan work.
Do y'all understand, how, as a black woman, this frustrates me to NO end? I go to her tag on AO3, see new fics, get excited...just to see she's the bro or footnote to CaseyWake. I've literally been brought to TEARS over this. Saga was written with SO much love and care, and it's so obvious. She was not the stereotypical sassy, angry, loud black woman that we tend to get when we're even thought of at all.
And it's genuinely PAINFUL to see all of the love, all of that care, ALL OF THAT RESPECT, IGNORED by fandom because you want to focus on the white men. Because why? I get it, het is so icky for most of you, fine. But to not even give her fanart/fics just on her and her daughter? It's terribly egregious.
Saga Anderson is genuinely a role model. She's smart, warm, funny, dedicated, sympathetic and passionate. She will change REALITY just to save the ones she loves. She's NEVER had to deal with anything like the Bright Falls situation and she came through it with such GRACE. She saved the fucking day. She did what Alan couldn't do in THIRTEEN YEARS. And she gets no recognizance in fanworks?
And I know the majority of this fandom happens to be made up of women, at least for fanworks. You truly mean to tell me you can't, at all, even a little bit, relate to this woman? You can't make her the focus, instead of a background character? The white men are easier to understand and draw/write for?
I can't tell anyone who to like, or who to ship, nor would I ever try to, because on the internet, it seems like het is icky despite how amazing the woman is. But I've seen comments towards andercase fanart going "Saga, no, you're married!" But shipping CaseyWake in the same breath, despite Alan being married and getting back to his wife being the main motivation for Alan to do anything at all.
It comes off as hypocritical, it comes off a wee bit "I don't know what to do with this black woman...hmm, let's just make her root for CaseyWake" I'm left feeling that Sam and the team love Saga more than the fans ever do or will. And that fucking sucks. Because to put so much thought into a character and love the character, just to be ignored?
That hurts, really really badly. I genuinely enjoyed feeling like I was represented. I loved having a character I could relate to, one I could understand. But it feels like I'm in the minority. When she tells Alan he's not alone in this, this is THEIR story...well, that was the truth for me, and I wish others felt the same way.
I genuinely adore the works Saga has gotten that focus on her, and I see so much love and care put into them. It just somehow feels like fandom made this game into CaseyWake 24/7 and it's icky.
Got back from seeing the movie again and a tiny theme I liked was the solidarity in the younger POC generation vs the older gen.
Margo, Hobie, Pavitr and Miles all had eachother’s back. They fought together, they helped eachother in small ways like Hobie telling Miles to use the palms, and big ways like Miles saving Captain Singh and Margo letting Miles go “home”.
They could’ve stopped him, they could’ve not helped eachother but they did. Because they understood and they all realized what was wrong with the Spider Society. All of them at the end came together to support and help Miles, in the way the rest of the spiders couldn’t.
And when you put that into perspective with Miguel and Jessica, older POC that gave no support. They believe that Miles has to suffer in order to become Spider-Man, that pain will always have to happen.
But the others don’t believe that, they know that best way to be a hero is uplift and help eachother. Often the parents, the older generation compromise their morals and others for the future, for them to grow up safer and yet the future generation always has to reckon with the consequences of those actions without even having a say in the first place.
That’s a damn message, and I love that they used the younger poc generation to show that because this does happen in real life, there is a difference and our parents, our grandparents believe that pain has to happen for our identity to be created.
TW: mentions of psychosis, OCD, psychotic breakdown
Okay I'm screaming into the void, but also asking for help,
I just found out that I'm on the verge of a psychotic breakdown from a psychiatrist (or atleast that's what my mom told me that the psychiatrist said that), which im not surprised given I've developed False Memory OCD subtype, and other shit over the past year. I'm moving out to the US in less than a week. It's one thing to have a doubt that there is something with you, and another to have it confirmed by someone. Idk what I'm trying to do with this post
Maybe anyone in US or anyone who has suffered with psychosis or psychotic breakdowns, could share your story or how I can find help in US or anything or anything that helped you with dealing with psychosis, I'd appreciate that.
I hope anyone who's suffering with severe mental health issues find peace and happiness in your lives. Much love and power to you all.
Ok I know it's a little bit late but turns out my big Okoye rant just has to be written down or it will keep bothering me. So here we go. Screaming into the void.
The thing is I like Okoye and I think she had nice thing going on in Wakanda Forever. That is up until the point that her plot threads were axed midway and rest of it was given to Nakia of all people? Which sucks for both of them. So in this essay....
The first Black Panther movie build her up nicely as Lawful Neutral character. Which is rare and for me makes really interesting character. She dutifully followed the law when Killmonger took the throne and then just as dutifully was about to kill her husband when it was revealed the throne taking wasn't so lawful after all. Both of those choices were incredibly emotionally hard for her and actually quite rare storytelling wise. Which I loved. What is even better: on top of all that she wasn't punished by the narrative for being lawful instead of going after her heart.
Great! I really, really loved it. Especially when in the new movie they started to nicely build up on that to give her own little plot and character growth.
Well. Up to a point.
But lets focus on what they were clearly building up to.
Okoye loves Wakanda. It's her character virtue since she is Lawful Neutral. But at the same time loving it too much and too blindly is her character flaw.
Wakanda is the best and thus doesn't need to change.
First we saw it in Infinity War with a little side joke about opening Wakanda to the world meant maybe Starbucks and not, well... war.
In Wakanda Forever in one of the first scenes she tells Aneka to give back the daggers since spears are traditional weapon. Which, by virtue of being traditional, are better and it's not going to change on her watch.
For that, the obvious plot resolution would be that Okoye needs to open up to new things (particularly technology). Unfortunately, the thing is, they sort of did that in the movie but in the worst way possible (and I don't just mean that Midnight Angel armor is ugly, you are right sister. It's ugly af) but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Wakanda is the best and thus I'm the best.
Okoye is a bit full of herself, or to be more precise thinks others are not as good since they are not Wakandan. She assumes she can deal with Americans and duh, she is right. She can actually deal with them like nbd. So does it really count as being blinded by her own/ Wakandan awesomeness?
Yes. Yes it does. I love that she is confident in her skills and she has all the right to be but she also knew there is new unknown threat. It was overconfidence on her part to think she can deal with Talokans too.
And she got her ass handled to her in fair fight.
And she broke her promise to queen Ramonda and lost Shuri.
Consequences as plot resolution? It's more likely than you think.
Because yeah. That's where clearly her further plot was axed and given to Nakia (which could be whole other big rant but just so you know: she was done dirty here too). Because let's be real it would fit perfectly.
Classic plot. Hero gets overconfident. Fucks up. As consequence hero loses their privileges/status/whatever. So they go on a quest not to regain their privileges or prove themselves but to right their wrongs.
Often they initially want to prove themselves, but then they learn they need to fix their mistakes because it's a right thing to do. Just after that the narrative can reward them with actually-you-just-have-proven-yourself-plot-twist - here are your privileges back and then some.
In Okoye's sake we can even cut on the second part of that plot. She just goes on a quest to right her wrongs and to save the princess.
Rewrite of a rewritten plot?
So her first overall wrong was dismissal of new technology. Could be righted easily by going to Griot to ask it to help her locate Shuri. It's even still in the movie but instead it's Ramonda who talks with Griot. It shows Griot can locate Shuri, they just added little scene with Nakia doing spy stuff and talking to people because it's her forte.
It would even fit the underwater cave rescue scene better. Because the forceful solution of going in guns blazing would fit more Okoye's desperation. Nakia is a spy. She would be more level headed and just sneak in and out unnoticed. Moreover, since she is more caring people person she wouldn't just leave that one girl to die.
But hey. If they didn't do that they wouldn't have the excuse for war and to have whole second part of the movie and "big" action scene at the end. Which is sadly mandatory in Marvel movies.
But going back to Okoye before I get sidetracked too much.
Just a rewrite... please.
With that the last plot thread for her to resolve would be redo of the fight with Attuma.
And it could and SHOULD follow the classic plot of like Rocky and countless others:
Hero loses a fight
Hero trains some more/ learns new things
Hero wins second fight fair and square
but nooooooo
Instead of mixing it with with opening to new technologies plot - as in asking Griot to help her find weak spots of Talokans. Or even just upgrading her spear to be better in fight with another vibranium spear if you really need to go this way (and clearly don't have time for training montage in this bloated movie)...
nope. Instead we go sorry Okoye you are just too weak. Here, have an armor. Which ok ties to the same new technologies plot thread but at the same time is so damn insulting to Okoye and her skills.
Like really fucking insulting.
It's like going to Cap or Black Widow and saying you are cool with all the fancy kicks and all but lets be real here. You are to week to fight real super powered villains - here have an armor.
Would anyone do that? No. Because it's insulting and goes against what those characters are at their core. Even if they are "too weak" they still would win by their skill, their smarts, their cunning nature or just by their sheer stubbornness.
Because those are their cove virtues.
Because that's how storytelling works.
And just FYI I'm not shitting on characters actually using armors. Oh no. Tony or Riri would win by learning and then building smarter armor. Rhodey would win because he is a solider and for him the armor is just tool of the trade - it's just a tank he happens to wear. But for Okoye or Cap or Natasha or any other hand to hand badass fighter it would go against the very idea their character was built on. It would be plot breaking Deus Ex Machina solution. Everyone would be bitching that writers written themselves into a corner and found very unsatisfying plot resolution that doesn't work.
But since Okoye is a side character and this movie has way too much going on in general, it's just left as it is.
OMGGGGG someone finally said it, Okoye was done so dirty in the movie, I genuinely couldn't see her as a Midnight Angel at all and this post really elaborated and then more
When foreign forces threaten the peace and security of Vasahat, Ixiqi (pronounced 'ish-she-key' ) has to overcome her fear off fire and embrace her powers to protect her tribe 🗡️🔥
Ixiqi (she/her) is my new OC after over a whole year and this is a concept I've been sitting on for months and I'm proud of it turned out 🎨🖌️
Read the story 📖 in the next slides and tell me thoughts in the comments!! 💬
Your support is much appreciated! ❤️
Wishing you all a happy & prosperous New Year as well!!
🍀❤️✨
ive been rewatching glass onion over and over again and there are. a lot of things i keep thinking about. one thing i did appreciate -- and i apologize if this isn't my place to comment on it -- but the anger of a Black woman was not only justified and righteous, it was often rewarded by the narrative.
helen and andi both get mad. a lot. they yell, insult, throw around the furniture and break shit. and not only is it completely understandable, even before the Big Reveal, but it's often rewarded by the story. andi finds out that miles counterfeited her note to cement her out of her company, and she's so mad she knocks over her bookcase. but then she finds the napkin. helen blows up after miles' disruptors speech, and then she gets vital info about the others. and when she is furious at miles and the others for gaslighting her so casually, she is not only given full permission by blanc and the story to destroy miles' bougie home, but her rage allows for miles' comeuppance, and gives the others the power to stand up to him.
andi and helen are not treated like monsters for being angry at their situation. they're validated and rewarded.
i love it when movies don’t allow the audience to be omniscient.
like, if a character isn’t in a scene, we usually assume they’re not present. but maybe they were there and we just didn’t see it.
what if the visuals were unreliable?
there is a common flexibility in interpreting the staging of live theater, even famously for shakespearean works. for instance, is this really a private soliloquy for hamlet alone, or is ophelia listening in behind a pillar? does the audience know if ophelia is there or not? the script doesn’t say what a production HAS to do, but the existence of that choice means there’s a HUGE difference in the story the audience gets depending on how it’s staged.
in contrast, movies don’t do this very often, so we as viewers get used to “what we see is what actually happened” when we watch them.
for example, if someone in a mystery movie witnesses a murder but then tells a different story of what actually happened, an audience is likely trust what we were shown first over than what’s said.
we trust the visual over words in movies. out of habit.
it’s so rare for a movie to use this against us. and yet it’s so satisfying to me when a movie only lets us think what it wants us to think until it’s relevant to change the perspective to the truth.
a limited, unreliable perspective audience is so underutilized in visual mediums. when was the last time a movie pulled a live theater move and let you interpret something? when was the last time you were allowed to draw a conclusion that was wrong and that was the point?
yes this is about the glass onion i’m still on about how good a job it did with this exact thing
ohhh my god even burning the envelope isn't Miles's idea you can literally see the cogs in his head attempting to turn when someone says "you didn't burn it or anything??"...
now that glass onion is on netflix i can say one of my favourite parts is madelyn cline's character - it's very obvious that she's meant to be underestimated. she's an influencer, conventionally attractive, seen as the girl in the middle of the love triangle, but then we get a moment between her and helen that shows she's thinking of her career, her brand, maybe she wants to branch out into politics! she's lovely and sweet towards helen and has depth!! moreover, whisky directly contrasts kate hudson's character. whisky works hard for what she has while kate hudson takes everything at face value. i think rian johnson is just so good at using an audience's perceptions against you.
i adore the theme of not "playing the game" that was in knives out with marta reluctantly going along with harlans plan, and then playing it her own way at the end to catch ransom in a trap, and im so happy it continued in glass onion
these shitheads™ are all so into playing this pseudo intellectual game with each other, thinking miles is sooo clever and gleefully solving the mystery box together. but helen? she knows what they are. she doesn't give a shit about miles's game. so she beats the shit out of that box; she's not playing the game, she's coming in and taking no bullshit.
and you can see that she's actually the real disruptor; miles goes on about how people like changes to the things they grow bored of, but once you start crossing the line and going for "the thing nobody wants to break", everyone tells you to stop, but you don't. well, miles seemed very happy to watch helen break every glass statue in his living room, he was encouraging it. he was bored of them. but when she goes for the piano? when she starts crossing the line? suddenly he's protesting, until the final dash for the override button and the mona lisa, "the thing nobody wants to break", is destroyed. his words are completely turned back on him, and she's taken her revenge
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