SuperLeonieMode 333 / How I slowly recover 😶😑😫😪💤

I turn into a quiet, lazy LeonieBlob!!

I’m pretty low energy after all :<

I either nap or do nothing productive and chill because my brain doesn’t function anymore :’)

It’s quite nice to just let go of the chaos, chill and do nothing (when I allow myself to ;P )

Ah I’m currently having a painful, tense & sore time (monthly, sad, grumpy cramps and super sore, injured muscles at a bunch of places) so I’ll try to manage, adjust & heal a bit. I was hoping to post more studies later this week but I’m not able to focus :’)

Anyhoo, make sure to take your time, breathe, stay kind with yourself and rest up! Stay safe & catch you next week.

Spoiler ramble on Raya and The Last Dragon

PS: I finally watched Raya and The Last Dragon and I don’t want to watch it again, as much as the animation, visuals, characters, environments, acting are incredible and promising as a more fleshed out series. I can’t say much about the south-east Asian culture representation mixed into this melted pot as I’m not from those places; I am happy to see durian, congee, etc in a scene though ;D

Narrative wise: I feel so mixed and irritated, frustrated, angry!! The execution of the story and morals were most troubling/disturbing to me (see this spoiler video and video comments discussing the movie themes of unity, trust, trauma, betrayal, forgiveness, boundaries, healing). They all described it better than I could as I was conflicted as someone who’s managing her own traumas, hurt and being emotionally on guard with trust issues. I felt something was off with the movie and reading about the movie clarified things for me.

Ultimately I only liked Boun, Tong, Noi & monkeys and Tuk Tuk even though they were underdeveloped as characters :’) I really wanted to relate to Raya (and I did for a time due to the themes and I do like her as a character) but the narrative lost me.

Spoiler: Personally I have been and still do get countlessly blamed, accused, disrespected, betrayed, judged, scapegoated and gaslighted for having valid feelings and actions of distrust; it was horrible to see the story going in the same direction when Raya is blamed for “not trusting people” and Sisu’s death when it’s not her fault. Raya was generally betrayed and traumatised first and got punished for trusting others (and lost her home first out of all the lands as the sole survivor) and was left facing hardships on her own for 4 years, Namari was aiming a weapon at Sisu & pulled the trigger first already and Raya has an entourage of friends she met along the way (she does grow & trust people upon meeting)!!

The Fang princess is not a victim and nor is her mother and neither have made any effort to take accountability nor apologised! They started off the apocalypse and didn’t feel they did anything wrong until the last minute. Namari didn’t even apologise when she realised/saw that Sisu was real and it was Raya’s purpose to make the world better again!! Namari was the reason Raya was distrustful and traumatised so why are you blaming her for being distrustful when you haven’t even shown remorse nor earned her trust?!! There’s no friendship or long journey of them actually understanding, acknowledging, healing and *both* making the effort to trust and respect each other. Why does Raya have to do all the work, effort and sacrifice to make this “unity and trust” message work?! How is Sisu and her family’s morals around trust the same as Raya and Namari’s trust/relationship?? Aah!! Gosh the more I think about it, the more painful this story is :<

Also the movie was quite rushed with pacing, the scattered slower paced interactions with the party are the best bits, there’s too many characters which left things very fast & superficial, it’s super tropey/predictable, it’s a nice action movie with a tad too much modern jokes/language (it takes me out of the established world), (spoiler: why doesn’t Sisu’s family speak at all?!I I wanted to see character development and how she is with her family (dynamics). Where is the communication between dragons and humans as a whole?!! Why aren’t the Fang Queen and Princess facing consequences for their crimes on the whole land?!), I wish I can learn about the world & characters more and I wished the dragon design was better (I keep seeing My Little Pony snouts and seeing them on screen and prancing about in the sky was painful too arghhhh).

It’s an alright movie for most people, I just can’t go along with the message of the movie.

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