For Anon: Hope This One Comes Out In A Bigger Format :)

For anon: hope this one comes out in a bigger format :)

I’m really disappointed in what they did with Halo’s character

I’m a Muslim girl with brown skin who wears hijab, so you can imagine how excited I was to see Halo in the s3 trailer. She was the first hijabi Muslim character I had ever seen take on a main role in a show I watch. It was like a dream come true. 

I was so excited to learn about her story and her family and how she becomes a hero, wondering what elements of being a hijabi Muslim they would incorporate. I was a little put off by the fact that she lost her memory, which prevented us from learning more about who she was and where she came from but it was fine. I dismissed the fact that a little more care could have gone into the design of her superhero costume to be more modest. I even forced myself to get over the fact that she was brutally murdered every other episode.

I was willing to give everything a free pass just because I was so elated to finally see someone like me being a hero.

And then I find out that actually, she’s not like me. 

What I thought was going to be a hijabi Muslim hero ended up being a sentient robot thing that is inhabiting the dead body of a hijabi Muslim girl. Gabrielle, the hijabi Muslim refugee, did not get to become a hero. She died, but hey lucky her, her body gets to be a hero, haha so awesome, right?

I thought her character was going to be a step forward in combatting the villainization of Muslims in the media by showing that Muslims can be superheroes too, inspiring and giving validation to all of us who have only seen ourselves represented as, at best stereotypes, or at worst, straight-up villains. But that’s not what we got. 

Halo is not the hero for the Muslim community like Jaime is for the Hispanic community, Oracle is for the disabled community, or even Victor who also has a parentbox connected to him is for the black community. The motherbox could have possessed anyone’s dead body. There is no significance to her being Muslim or brown or hijabi. She had no agency in becoming a hero.

And what sucks even more is I know I shouldn’t complain. At least she still wears hijab, right? I should be happy that I got any representation at all. I mean even if she isn’t herself, it’s more representation than I’ve ever gotten before. Beggars can’t be choosers, right?

I know I shouldn’t complain and yet here I am. Because I’m pissed. I’m not saying I would have rather had her not wear hijab or have been a Muslim refugee before she died. I still do appreciate those things, but it still hurts. And don’t get me wrong I still love Halo as a character (though I will admit I feel less connected to her now).

It hurts because I was expecting to see a Muslim girl like me becoming a hero, and that’s not what I got.

tbh I’m still in the denial stage of greif and think that there has to be more to Halo than just the motherbox’s soul being in her but I don’t want to get my hopes up.

Just made this meme after getting really heated towards Allistic Parents™, feel free to use lmao

I went on a rant on twitter because I didnt have my coffee to restrain me

Character: Wirt

From: Over the Garden Wall

Gender: Nonbinary

Why: When the tavern keeper asks who Wirt is, he says “I’m a guy, I guess…” and when he is asked a second time, he says “I don’t know. I don’t really like labels. I’m just sort of, like, myself, you know?”

i dont know that much about batman, but i know good characters when i see them. here’s a little personal rendition of some of them

full view for better quality!