#actually adopted

[oliveptee]

people see adoption more as a trope than an actual thing that happens to real people and it's really fucking annoying

[1whistles-5x]

Every time someone calls the buying and selling an inanimate object for profit (Eg: art) an "adoptable" I should have $500 dollars directly deposited into my bank account as compensation

[terri-0-terrible]

maybe I'm not the person to be making this comparison, so forgive me if this isn't the most accurate, or comes off as insensitive I don't mean it like that in any way.

but I can't help but feel like kept folk who say adoption built families are the exact same as bio families give off the same vibe as white people who say they don't see color.

like I get the message you're trying to convey, but you really should acknowledge the different lived experiences and needs of adoptees and how the adoption industries flaws and (for those of us who have it) relinquishment trauma often still echo into our lives.

[waxdream]

I'm not a fan of how Arcane handles adopted characters.

The show is excellent, I've been enjoying it so far, however I very much believe that Powder and Vi's adoption by Vander is an underdeveloped plotpoint. The amount of fans calling the sisters, vander and the other kids a 'found family' is evidence enough in my opinion. I have nothing against the found family trope, I really love Dungeon Meshi for example, but Arcane is NOT a found family. They are an adopted family, and there is a big difference between these two things. To put it simply, an adopted family is a different kind of family, whereas a found family is a friendship group with a greater level of support and care. It's frankly insulting to adoptees to conflate the two, because many of us have relinquishment traumas among others and grow up as black sheeps in the family. I don't like the comparison because in my opinion it's like saying my family is the same as you and your bff's relationship. You wouldn't say that to a kept person.

But I digress, I'm here to talk about my dislike of how Arcane handles adoption. I consider it very tropey - orphanhood and adoption as a plot point is used to give the main two characters a 'tragic backstory', and yet the show doesn't even have the dignity to give it some backbone. I don't like little orphan annie, yet she's still an adopted character. With Vi and Powder however, you could remove adoption from the story of Arcane and it would be exactly the same story in my opinion. This is dangerous in storytelling, because it creates alleyways for stereotypes like the 'psychopath adoptee' to come into play, which has haunted media for years. Jinx killing Vander is just a played out trope in my opinion, and it feeds into the very real fears that affect the adoptee community in real life. People think we're broken, that we'll hurt and harm our adoptive family, that we're criminals or bad blood. Putting this trope into your story without the slightest bit of effort to make it seem otherwise is gross. And if you don't believe me, look at the trailer for "adopted" - a film that's coming out this year. It'll show you exactly what I mean when I say that kept people assign adoptees traits such as violent, manipulative and alien with prejudice. https://youtu.be/CILgaro5s5c?si=7fMqXV4cDzA9t43_

Along with this, I dislike how Jinx is handled. I've only seen season 1 so I don't know if this changes, but from what I gather, Silco is meant to be her new father. Her replacement for Vander. And considering how her birth family were fully involved in Silco's/vander's uprising (as shown in the prologue), I can't see Silco as anything other than a stand in for birth family. I can't see this as anything other than an estranged adoptee being led astray by birth family and turned into someone evil, someone they were meant to be because their blood dictated it. This trope is vitriolic, I can't think of any other word to describe it. I see Vi as the good golden child who stands by her adoptive parents and Jinx as the kid who wants to reunite with her birth family. I believe this show was careless with how they handled adoption - this is what comes from non adoptees/kept folk writing adopted characters. Adoptees aren't morally wrong for wanting to know their birth family, we aren't broken or sick. And yet somehow, even when adoption is used as a flippant plot point, the characters manage to fall into the same stereotypes over and over and over again.

I also hate that Vi and Powder have the same birth family. The other kids are treated as a 'boo hoo, more trauma for Powder' plot point, but ultimately discarded because they're not birth family. I know Jinx makes those dolls and hears voices, but you CANNOT tell me that if Vi had died instead of Vander and the kids, that Powder wouldn't have been way worse off. That's how they wrote the characters. To care about each other above all else. This is bioessentialism and that is a messy and more often than not dangerous view to be pushing. If they had been two adopted siblings, or perhaps Vi was Vanders birth child and Powder was adopted, I wouldn't be as mad because at least then it would seem like the writers actually put some effort into portraying adopted families as equal to birth families. As the show is though? Adopted families are treated as inferior.

So yeah. I don't like how Arcane handles adoption. It drags me out of the viewing experience, and makes the entire show seem unrealistic and cliche. Feel free to ask questions but I'm gonna be honest, I'm probably not gonna bother with season two. Which is a shame, I love the gay magic guys.

[incorrect-httyd]

Someone explain how even so called progressive leftists turn into insufferable bootlickers for rich white people when the topic is adoption...

[valengory1234]

Having so many feelings about my adoption and my name tonight

[charliebraincharliebrain]

My newest bit with talking abt my adoptive parents is being like “they bought a ChiLd” like sometimes I’ll feel guilty asking them for money or that they’re paying for my school currently and then I get to remind myself “wait a second, they literally bought a child (two children), they can afford this and I deserve it, bc they literally bought a child.”

[rayomoonshine]

Reclaiming #foundfamilytrope for adoptees