alright, i'll say it: i haaate when modern aus make hakoda of the southern water tribe part of the military or navy. especially when it's done almost as an afterthought, not as any comment on anything, just "oh he's canonically in a navy so this is an easy translation and explains why he's not home"
excuse me? that is an Indigenous man who only went to war in canon to defend his tribe and his family against colonization. he would notttt go into canada or especially america's industrial military complex of colonization are you fucking kidding me 😭 where's that tweet "i'll serve crack before i serve this country" THAT'S HIM.
this is about to become long and about more than just this gripe of mine, but hang in there please
and listen i know that various tribes actually have a high rate of military enrollment as compared to other demographics, that is true. HOWEVER. that's still participating in colonization baby! that is just handing yourself over as a tool to the occupier! it's not cool or honorable actually, it's just trying to climb the ranks of empire by killing people lol. still murder!
i honest to god cannot imagine that hakoda - who in canon defends his people and his land against a colonizing force that has decimated his home over decades - would, in our world, go join the military of the government that colonized his people. like! the water tribe is heavily inspired by Inuit culture and other cultures of the arctic circle! who have faced genocide by the occupying governments, and still face immense violence from the government, and inequality in their living circumstances on reservations and treaty land!
so when you write the water tribe family in modern aus as vaguely north-american-arctic-circle Indigenous (love how rarely an actual group is mentioned - there's several!!! but like no just go grab some random words from one of the many Inuit languages to use as a last name, i guess! i guess that's fine!) and then go n make hakoda a military member - are you fuuuucking kidding me. actually.
like that's a really shallow reading of the text. and shows a wild lack of consideration or research into the culture(s) you're tokenizing. read the room, read a book, read a fuckin wikipedia article please. honestly think on why you're writing anything that normalizes participation in a violent arm of the modern empire (:
i know "it's just fan fictioooon" i don't care! i don't care! if you're setting it in OUR WORLD, i need you to think even slightly more critically!!!!! if you're gonna make him military, can you give me any compelling reason he would choose that? anything that isn't just "well it's his thing in canon" because if you can make it interesting, make it relevant, make it a point of contention or something - that's like 20% better than "just because." please! my god!
like if you're just doing a modernized "all the nations are in harmony and they have smartphones" version of canon, i'll give leeway. sure whatever. like still don't love the normalization of joining the army just because but sure.
but the SECONDDDD you put it into our world, i need you to think real fuckin hard about how you write the water tribe family. they're Indigenous and that is important and you gotta, you gottaaaa quit just sprinkling that in like it's a fun little decoration? like write that with some thought please? i understand it's fanfiction but when you're bringing Indigenous identity into it you need to be careful you're not just tokenizing or being flat-out racist.
in conclusion: do more research; think critically; hakoda would serve crack before he served this country!!!!!!
