Can't stop thinking about @jeannette_ng's point that the drop in representation in Korra vs Avatar partly stems from an inability to imagine an Asian dominated future, and how much easier it was to write a medieval/age of commerce fantasy than a steampunk or future setting (1/?)

In Hollywood media we have futures dominated by Asia but where asian people are absent (Blade Runner, Firefly) or oppressors (Man un High Castle). That the best case because there are also options with continued western dominance.
Contrast to actual anime aesthetic and plotlines

Anyway, mostly scattered and disjointed thoughts but I do know that part of the Xuya project (my alternate history where the Vietnamese have formed a galactic empire) was making modernity separate from western culture (3/?)

(Sorry interrupted bc childcare)

Anyway I was going to say I also get a lot of pushback for the worldbuilding: that its emphasis on family ties is oppressive because it's not individualistic, that it's retrograde because ancestor worship is still extant, etc. (4/?)

(hiatus because childcare)

So anyway this went viral when I wasn't there (as usual)
So here is the actual Xuya link https://aliettedebodard.com/bibliography/novels/the-universe-of-xuya/