My Thirst For Slavic Characters In Media Knows No Bounds. And No, I Don’t Mean Some Russian Spy Or

my thirst for Slavic characters in media knows no bounds. And no, I don’t mean some Russian spy or super model or mafia boss. I want normal and interesting characters from smaller Slavic countries who celebrate name days, who live by weird superstitions passed down through their families, who make gulash and sausage and bean stews for dinner. I want Slavic characters with affectionate nicknames given by their family. I want characters who grew up on German fantasy films from the 60s and weird soviet cartoons. I want the societal pressure and the religious guilt and the love for rolling green mountain ranges that remind them of home. I want to see myself in this real personal way that I have so rarely encountered in media or in real life.

Representation of real experiences is so often boiled down into big concepts rather than the small details that matter. Frequently it can feel like checking off boxes instead of communicating substantial themes or reflections of reality. It’s easy for a show to say a character’s family comes from Germany or Senegal or Russia but that’s usually where they draw the line. The more vague they are, the easier it is to turn entire countries or continents into generic set dressing that (in theory) could apply to millions. But it’s the mannerisms, the culture, the language, the folktales, all these things that shape you from the very moment you’re born. It’s the small details that help you connect, that resurrect the small child inside you who once lived in a foreign bubble, who experienced the awful alongside the great. I yearn to see what I am made of staring back at me through a screen. I yearn to connect to my foundations, to the culture that slowly slips from my memory as I continue to age entire oceans away from the place of its origin.

More Posts from Aj-capral and Others

aj-capral

1 year ago

Please tell me I’m not as forgettable as your silence is making me feel.

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aj-capral

3 years ago

it is her smile, her feet wading in the waters, her laugh which reaches his ears and, oh, this is the spirit of the artist, is it not?

yeah this fic killed me guys

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aj-capral

5 years ago

Reblog this for suicide prevention.

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aj-capral

5 years ago

it’s because she IS his destiny

christian would fall in love with satine one million times if he could; he would choose her again and again. even after everything that happens. he would relive everything and again. satine is his destiny and in every world, in ever retelling of their story, destiny will unfold the way it is meant to. there is no other way his life was meant to be; he arrived in paris when he did and things unfolded like such because it was predestined her would fall in love with her.

he would fall in love with her, hold her, kiss her, protect her, cry over her, scream for her & fight for her in every iteration of this world. everything is worth it to him; all the love and the pain and the good times and the bed times. when she’s gone he appreciates every moment he had with her, in the depths of his sorrow, he still smiles when he thinks of her.

christian will never fall in love with anyone ever again.

because he loves satine. there is no one else for him.

she is his destiny, even if destiny was unkind to them.

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aj-capral

4 years ago

Reblog this if you ship rare pairs!

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aj-capral

4 years ago

* seductively crawls from hell *

HELLO BOIIIZ

Sometimes I think fans of Les Mis have moved on and then Aaron Tveit does literally anything and all of the sudden it’s all “oneshot smut where Grantaire is called in for questioning by a charming FBI agent capable of being terrible,” “slowburn fluff set in the 1950s where new student Grantaire falls for the school badboy,” “a young writer named Enjolras meets Grantaire, a performer at the Moulin Rouge (angst, multi chapter)” “crackfic where Enjolras has to save Grantaire from the alien bugs eating his brain”

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aj-capral

2 years ago

charles’ radio message