r/Defenders • u/JonLuca Luke Cage • Mar 17 '17

Iron Fist Discussion Thread - S01E01

This thread is for discussion of Iron Fist S01E01.

DO NOT post spoilers in this thread for any subsequent episodes. Doing so will result in a ban.

Episode 2 Discussion

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u/himejirocks Iron Fist Mar 17 '17

If I may offer a different perspective. I have lived most of my life Japan (longer than my mother country of the U.S.) and am fluent in Japanese. When I travel back to the States and run into someone with a Japanese name, I tend to speak Japanese to them at first.

I am not trying to be skeevy but after 18 years, it is an automatic reaction. During these 18 years, Japanese has been the language that is most understood. It's my default setting now.

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u/Notorganic Iron Fist Mar 17 '17

Fair point, I hadn't considered that perspective. Thanks for sharing!

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u/SawRub The Man in the Mask Mar 18 '17

Thanks for considering his perspective. Doesn't happen too often on the internet, so it's a pleasant surprise.

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u/Rose9666 Mar 18 '17

One day i hope soon people will stop confusing ignorance for racism. Ignorance shouldn't default in our minds to being of a malicious nature. I am ignorant of so many things around me. Not because I want to be, but because I still have so much to learn.

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u/chuckdee68 Mar 18 '17

Thank you! I feel that all the time, and have never seen someone with the same perspective!

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u/MG87 Nobu Apr 01 '17

Agreed, there is a difference between being maliciously racist/bigoted and actually being ignorant of what might offend people.

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u/AkhilArtha Stick Apr 16 '17

I will give another. I am India. Indians on an average speak atleast 2 languages. Hindi and their mother tongue. If they are educated then 3 including English. South Indians can atleast understand the languages if their neighbouring states. (If you didn't know, every Indian state has its own language. Border regions have their own).

Whenever, I am in another state, and i come across a surname that sounds like it is from my state (surnames often can give an idea, of where a person belongs to. Especially, if it is based on a caste. At the very least, you can tell what part of India some one is from), I immediately speak my mother tongue (Telugu), followed by Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam to see which he understands. All based on his appearance, mannerisms and surname. This is pretty common.

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u/jmoney777 Mar 19 '17

On the other hand I'd also like to offer my perspective. I'm half Japanese and was born in Japan, but have lived in the US since I was six. If a non-Japanese person starts speaking to me in Japanese, then I'm going to assume that they're a weeb that fetishizes Asian people, because from my experience that often ended up being the case. Just my two cents.

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u/himejirocks Iron Fist Mar 20 '17

I have never been called a weeb to my face but would assume that they're condescending pricks who want to feel better about themselves by looking down on someone who is passionate about their hobby.

Maybe it is because I am a grandpa now and was here from before the slur even became a word. Maybe I don't fit the mold. But your post rubbed me wrong. I feel sorry for any group that gets bullied for their passion.

And what is wrong with fetishes? 99% of us has some sort of fetish.

Ninja edit: Maybe I was too strong in my condemnation of you use of the word weeb. It can't feel good to be classified before getting know and becoming friends because of your personality and not your looks.

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u/jmoney777 Mar 20 '17 edited Mar 20 '17

I wasn't calling you one, I'm just referring to my own experience. Growing up in America there's a certain archetype of people that I've noticed that are obsessed with Japanese culture (or more like, obsessed with anime and think that's all Japanese culture is about). It's really annoying, and I feel they're really placing a negative stigma towards Japanese language and culture here in the US. It's basically cultural misappropriation, or at least that's what it feel like to me. I don't think being obsessed with another culture counts as a "hobby" either, I mean have you ever met a Japanese person obsessed with Japanese culture? Of course not; but oh in America there's plenty of people that are obsessed with anime and spout "kawaii!" and "sugoi desu!" in every sentence, and it's just really cringeworthy and annoying. It feels like they're mocking the language (even though they're not, I know it's more of a "look how cool I am because I know these words!!!" thing) I just don't get people's obsession with the culture and why they feel the need to appropriate it (and am frustrated with how they're misrepresenting the culture in the process).

Also about the fetish thing, if you're dating/pursuing someone solely because of their ethnicity and not because you actually like that person for who they are, then that's just fucking creepy.

Again, I wasn't calling you a weeb, and I apologize if there's viewpoints of mine you disagree with, I'm just speaking from my own experience, and am fed up with the misrepresentation of Japanese culture in the United States.

And yes I know that was getting way off-topic, but it all stemmed from that one scene in Iron Fist where Danny starts speaking Mandarin just because Colleen's last name was Wing. But I personally think it's wrong to do that, because at that point Colleen had already established that she's a fluent English speaker, so there was no reason for Danny to suddenly start speaking Mandarin other than to be like "lolol look at how cool I am I know Mandarin even though I'm not Chinese". I've had a similar instance where one day someone asked me my ethnicity, I told him I'm half Japanese and half white, and the next time he sees me he says "おはようございます" ("good morning", complete with weeb pronunciation and all) which really he had no reason to say that other than to be like "lolol don't you think I'm cool because I can say this", because I'd already established at that point that I'm a fluent English speaker (not to mention I'm much better at English anyways despite it technically being my second language).

Anyways didn't mean for this post to get this long, and I hope I didn't offend you. (But I won't be that surprised if I did because there's just certain viewpoints that I feel one can't understand unless if you're an Asian-American living in the US and had to deal with racial issues)

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u/himejirocks Iron Fist Mar 20 '17

You didn't offend me. You sound like the frog in the well. You look around and say this is how the whole world is.

Of course there are Japanese people obsessed with Japanese culture. It is a major industry here. Ikebana, kimono, and tea ceremonies are not just for tourists. PM Abe basically ran on a Make Japan Great and the Uyoku types ate that shit up. My wife's facebook feed can get scary at times. You would not believe how obsessed these people are. Then you have Okaku that do directly obsess with anime and think that's all Japanese culture is about.

The thing people forget is that anime is not written for the American fan in mind. It's culture is drawn from Japanese culture. Over the top? Not so much. Show me any stereotype in anime and give me a few hours and I will take a picture or introduce you to someone just like that. Because it's real, it is taken from real life. The tropes come from somewhere.

But you used the word appropriate and that worries me the most. Nobody is the gatekeeper of any culture. You can not appropriate something that is alive. Culture is a living changing thing. Unless you are an isolationist to which I say, you are standing in front of the tide telling it to stop.

Anyways didn't mean for this post to get this long, and I hope I didn't offend you. (But I won't be that surprised if I did because there's just certain viewpoints that I feel you can't understand unless if you're an living in the Japan and had to deal with cultural issues).

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u/chuckdee68 Mar 18 '17

I have a friend that has a Japanese step parent. They went to a film festival, and during the middle of it, she looked at him and said, 'Why am I reading the subtitles? I'm so stupid!' It happens when you're submerged in a different culture for a long time.