[IC] GMK Red Dragon

[radeats]

Wow, as someone who works on social issues. Claiming that putting chinese sublegends in a base kit is far from inappropriate cultural appropriation. Stop 'woke-posting' please. If a designer wants to but chinese sublegends in a kit based around a show that has deep rooted influence with Chinese culture, it's a far cry from using chinese characters as a tattoo. You do understand cultural appropriation is a neutral action right? It's context that gives it a position for positive or inappropriate usage.
This claim is a bigger stretch then how thin Ren is stretched over these sets he's running.

Won't reply after this but wanted to address your comments.
1. My previous message was entirely my opinion, feel free to disagree
2. I don't feel that strongly about the Zhuyin kit as base, I'm just saying it makes me uncomfortable as someone who knows the ATLA lore and the current situation of chinese culture but not gonna force my opinion down people's throat. Yes my wording could have been better but at least try to understand where I'm coming from if you're gonna have a go at me and ultimately we all want this set to be as good as possible
3. My opinion of chinese culture in the west is political and off topic so I understand why you're annoyed. But it's also an unpopular opinion guaranteed to generate more hate than understanding since, let's face it, nobody gives a **** about chinese culture. So my intentions wasn't to "woke post", but to inform people so that they consider this perspective when they make a decision since they're borrowing ideas from that culture, they can decide to ignore it if they want. My opinion is I'm still uncomfortable with forcing zhuyin in the base for a set originally inspired by japanese culture
4. I'm a supporter of freedom of expression and testing out new designs, which is why I'm interested in how the red on red for these keys will turn out. I also know it is entirely up to the designers to explore their ideas and our role as consumers and lurkers is to support their decision if we like it
5. However, I'm more passionate about ATLA than keycaps so your post has me pissed @Hugs94
6. ATLA travels across a world so of course they're gonna draw influence from multiple sources, but the fire nation is Japan and this kit is based on the fire nation. People have said this before in this thread, and the biggest giveaway is the sun warriors, Japan (日本) literally have the sun character in its name and its national flag is a sun! The earth kingdom is China, just look at their outfits and Long Feng with his shaved head. It's more broadly acceptable to mix these cultures in the west since they're both asian (so not as triggering as chinese character tattoos), but ye... You can make your own opinion
7. I reasoned why the design made me uncomfortable while giving the full context of why it made me feel this way in my previous post. The main problem I have with the current set up is consistency, feels like some of the novelties and original inspiration is separate to the rest of the design. Zuko and the fire nation are based on Japan, the blue spirit mask (which is in the novelties) is based on a traditional Japanese mask! Meanwhile the dragon, red and gold colours, and Zhuyin kit is very chinese. The merging of these 2 concepts, as well as including this set in the ATLA representative element series is what triggers me
8. Hugs94, you use the authority of "someone who works on social issues" but you don't read the context I wrote in my previous post even tho it explains why it can be interpreted as inappropriate. Where is the proper break down of my ideas and the additional insights from someone in your field instead of the dismissive attitude. Also as someone who relates to others on a regular basis, why the antagonising attitude instead of understanding the perspective of other people and why passionate ATLA fans feel the same way as myself, I'm not the first person to make these comments and I doubt I'll be the last. (Sorry I don't mean to attack you personally, but covid has made me sensitive towards info from authority...)

Ren, this isn't an attack on you or your work and I'm still interested in how this set turns out. Mizu and Terra are absolutely amazing imo and raised a high bar, which is why I'm sad about red dragon since the consistency of the underlying idea isn't quite there. I'm nitpicking at details, but it's accurate details that make nerds like myself appreciative of the efforts put in. Hope your sets go well.

hello there https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Influences_on_the_Avatar_series

[lolafineday]

Uncle iroh would say that it's not too late to turn back

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

[hottrout]

Is there any possibility that you would add UK ISO to the set?  I love the colours, not a fan of the Novelties but thats ok.

[old bay]

Hey I want to start off by saying I loved your work with mizu and terra and I'm really excited for this set as well! I just wanted to share some novelty ideas that I had.

I think it would be really cool if you included more novelties directly related to zuko and uncle iroh. Some things I had in mind were a silhouette of uncle irohs signature bun and beard, a silhouette of pony tail zuko from season 1, as well as a silhouette of short hair zuko from season 2.
My favorite novelty that you included in the ic is the zuko eyes with the burn mark, I think it really ties the entire set together and its the main reason that I want to buy the set. I would really love to see another pair of zuko eyes with the burn in r1 format because id prefer it as my esc key rather than the same aang eyes and arrow in r1 from the previous sets. When I think of fire nation I think of zuko or roku, not aang. Other novelty ideas I think would be interesting include avatar roku, or zukos severed ponytail falling as well as iroh's severed bun falling from the scene when they cut their hair together and went on the run from the fire nation.

As for the deskmats, I love the ones you've designed, I think another great idea would be a deskmat themed around zuko and iroh sitting on the ground as beggars when they were on the run from the fire nation. I have attached the frame I am reffering to.

I think it would be nice to have zuko with his hat covering his face and iroh next to him in the corner of the deskmat, or simply just a silhouette of them as beggars in the corner of the pad with the rest of the empty space taken up by empty street on which they were begging.

This is just a little bit of input I wanted to give related to the set. I'm really looking forward to this set and I thank you again for all of your great work!

[Oddstag]

Zhuyin in base kit and a UK ISO kit would be my asks. I know from your past work that you appreciate the power of an ISO enter novelty, and I think a Eastern-style dragon would look great on one.

Love the set! Good luck!

[dollhouse]

PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY AND MAKE THIS A REALITY THIS HAS EVERYTHING I WANTED FROM MIZU

[prognostics]

PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY AND MAKE THIS A REALITY THIS HAS EVERYTHING I WANTED FROM MIZU

Group buy starts next month, friend!  )

[Seydoux]

I am very interested on this set indeed, with all the GB going on with red themed sets this is the best looking i seen so far!

on the side note I really DON'T want to make these kind of comment on a hobby community:
About the drama earlier, i gone through reading, my personal opinion culture is to be respected. no matter where you are and where you from even ALTA characters respect cultures in the cartoons as well.
This is a work of a individual designer with his own vision, you have no rights to tell the designer that they made a bad choice by asking them to change their vision towards what YOU need!
Restrain their creative minds for the sake of wanting to say something. How about you telling Louis Vuitton to design better and stop coming out with new designs that fast?

There is nothing wrong running multiple projects, GMK terra and others run just fine. if any further comments may I ask others why? Run such as GMK olivia++ has QC issue as well?
could anybody guarantee that Dolch R5 comes out without a single hitch?

[hottrout]

Please consider adding UK ISO.  I love the contrast between the mods and alphas.  Very interested.

[soloplayer]

cant wait for the rama caps
btw what is the keyboard with trident symbol in those renders?

[prognostics]

cant wait for the rama caps
btw what is the keyboard with trident symbol in those renders?

RAMA Keycaps are posted https://imgur.com/a/aZRXPSo

The trident keyboard is Trident65, I don't think it ever made it to IC.

[hottrout]

The RAMA caps look great.  Just wanted to ask again can UK ISO be added at this stage?

[Rensuya]

The RAMA caps look great.  Just wanted to ask again can UK ISO be added at this stage?

Sorry nothing else will be added for this run

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[hottrout]

The RAMA caps look great.  Just wanted to ask again can UK ISO be added at this stage?

Sorry nothing else will be added for this run

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

Thanks for letting me know.  Still interested.

[beigeandbrown]

Prob too late but a novelty of Iroh breathing fire would be sick. "Do you know why they call me the Dragon of the West?"

[Winster]

Probably too late but it would be great to have an extra B in the split it space kit.

[Krayden]

Hey Guys. I see that the Red Dragon is live at a few vendors . Didn't see it in the GB threads or maybe I just missed it.