#dc orientalism

[getanshi]

tec #411

one of these days i want to a legitimate research project on the mid century influence of early weeabooism (extremely derogatory) on the bronze age. obviously ra’s and talia were inspired by western caricature in fu manchu but thats not the whole story. like the obsession with ninja and kung fu and such being ripped from samurai cinema of the 50s and 60s and then later stuff taken from wuxia and contemporary martial arts stuff coming out of hk. its absolutely everywhere from the overt (“the japanese tetsu-bishi!” girl thats a caltrop.) to the thematic and more subtle. denny o’neil is the most well known offender but so much is steeped in it even if it wasn’t his pen

[getanshi]

damian is really schrodingers biracial like when you want to draw on his flaws and have him wield a big sword or be especially violent or rude or cold or show how different he is from his peers and make him an antisocial outsider then the comics will happily show you how he’s descended from a bunch of brown people but if damian’s being a funny or loving kid who adores animals or if he’s inheriting the mantle of the bat for whatever reason then very conveniently he’s bruce’s kid stop asking questions about damian okay he’s bruce’s son doesn’t he look just like bruce he reminds you of bruce right

[getanshi]

on a more serious note i do think ra’s al ghul should be written as someone who consistently loves his daughter. its a more interesting characterization for him to be an evil supervillain capable of genuine paternal love and forgiveness even if his parenting methods are warped by his crazy mission. he doesn’t have to be a good father (and grandfather) but he’s a more interesting character when he’s a loving one. it does a lot to make him not an Inhuman Unfeeling Oriental villain and it’s absolutely fascinating to have ra’s be a parallel to bruce in that regard