(This piece is inspired by @jesncin's post.)
Coral Island, despite its many flaws and bugs and WHAT THE FUCK I CAN'T CATCH THE BUG FOR THE MUSEUM COLLECTION, is still an abashedly Indonesian game. The same can never be said for Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon, because as the twins said in our review video, if the movie is meant to represent everyone, then it isn't representing anyone. What's more, the movie is 'selling aesthetic' instead of having an authentic conversation and representation of what our cultural and historical aspects mean.
CORAL ISLAND, HOWEVER, HEALS MY HEART
In the design of King Krakatoa, the first thing that we notice is how many ✨b l i n g✨ he's wearing. And gold is a very important identity for pre-colonial Southeast Asia, including Indonesia. He's wearing golden kelat bahu (symmetrical bracelets on upper arms), golden sumping (earpiece), golden bracelets, and my favorite, the golden crown. Why? Because even though it's stylized, it's reminiscent of the crowns used in wayang orang, especially with the way it curves upwards in the center on the back of his head. The design is having a genuine conversation of 'how would an Indonesian king wear his crown if he was a merfolk?'
Here's a pic of how the crowns look like in wayang.
Since I'm fixating on headpieces, let's talk about the headpieces in Raya and the Last Dragon.
OUR VERY ~AUTHENTIC~ SOUTHEAST ASIAN GURL IS WEARING A SALAKOT, A HAT THAT'S MADE AS A... protection against the sun?
Okay, sarcasm aside, it's not technically wrong for her to wear a salakot or any other Southeast Asian bamboo hat because people still need their protection against the sun. But can we really call her Southeast Asian just because she wears a bamboo hat? It kinda has the vibe of white people buying and wearing bamboo hats in Bali and 'look I'm so quirky and so ethnic I'm practically one with the locals now!' Totally ignoring that headpieces has rich histories unique to each culture.
One example is the putong/pudong, and since I'm not Filipino, I'm going to quote pinoy-culture tumblr post:
The putong or pudong is basically a headwrap worn mainly by men but women did have their own version of it called tubatub and in Panay both men and women wore it which was called potlong or saplung. It can be tied like a headscarf around the head with the ends of the cloth dangling down at the side of the head or behind, or it can be done like a turban with the hair tied up in it.
In precolonial times, the putong was actually pretty important as the color of the cloth one wore symbolized his rank and achievements. Red meant that he has killed a man during war and raids, while an embroidered one meant he has killed more than 7 while the common people wore it as white.
And this is only one headpiece from one country in Southeast Asian. In Indonesia alone, there are a lot of headpieces worn by many people with specific meanings and philosophies. Javanese royalties almost always wears a blangkon, and since Java Island is huge, there are also a lot of forms and ways to wear it. I've never seen a Jro Mangku (Balinese Hindu priest) without his white udeng. The Sundanese totopong, has a lot of styles! While totopong can be worn casually, certain styles has higher significance, for example there's some that can only be worn by a Ki Lengser during a matrimonial ceremony.
Image that illustrates variations of totopong:
Significant markers like this are lost in Raya and the Last Dragon because they're never meant to represent us; they were never made for us. Only 2 of the 5 chiefs wore any headpieces. Which... well... makes me, as an Indonesian, question the actual status of these chiefs.
Especially the leftmost chief, the Fang Tribe's chief, she had no excuse tbh cos in the movie her region is the most prosperous. Not only that, there's something to be said about how her design is reminiscent of futuristic, cyberpunk design that whitewashed a culture. She doesn't wear any signifier that she's an actual respected leader, at least by pre-colonial Indonesian standards.
That's why CORAL ISLAND IS MY LOVE
Queen Nanda Devi and her daughter Princess Miranjani, both also wear ✨b l i n g✨. They also sport a selendang (a type of shawl) around their arms, giving them an ethereal impression. This is not from nowhere, as selendang are also an important signifier of statues, often to note a woman as a celestial being much like in the folklore of Jaka Tarub. Their crowns also has extra decor of thin pieces jutting out, and that reminds me of cunduk mentul, hair sticks that's part of the traditional Javanese and Sundanese bridal fashion.
There's so much more in the game that makes me feel so seen. Betty's heart scene especially, it made me sob audibly and I almost cried, that's why I don't have a screenshot. It show's the Chinese-Indonesian way of respecting the dead, complete with red candles and food before the grave. It's so important because Chinese-Indonesian representation is SO rare.
This is why supporting media like Coral Island is so important, because it's made by Indonesians and for Indonesians. It's when representation is nuanced like this that we can use said media to share and teach other people about our culture in an empathetic and genuine way, instead of trying to commodify it like D*sney did.
Anyway get Coral Island because I don't know how else to end this rambling.
I want to add some points from a concept art perspective on why Raya's design feels disparate and unmotivated from a cultural lens.
@audriserat made mention of Raya's (lead of Raya and the Last Dragon) hat, and I think it makes for a good jumping off point for the film's approach to culture.
(from Disney animation's Discover Kumandra website)Here's a sample look at the stupas they're emulating in the design:
(image from ASEAN Heritage & History)While I think it can be a charming nod to combine the shape of the conical hat to the sacred stupa, I have to go back to the question I proposed in an earlier crit post about Raya. what is its relationship with the culture it represents?
Because when you look at the diverse cultural context of the stupa and analyze how it's been featured in the film, it's yet another aesthetic nod to culture.
The stupa is a form of Buddhist architecture meant for containing the relics of the Buddha. Originated from India, the stupa is usually designed in the non-enterable circular burial mound topped by the honorific multi-tiered parasols. In later periods, the simple form of the early Stupas became more elaborated with mouldings.
In Southeast Asia’s predominantly Buddhist territories, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, temples are beautified with various styles of stupas, and also other countries still show ancient stupas admired for their beauty. In some periods of Southeast Asian’s history, the stupa was the main point of worship, even more important than Buddha images in some cases, and a testimony to the history of societies and people in the region.
Does Raya or her leader father embody any Buddhist values or philosophies? Uh,,,no. Are there other stupas featured in the film that can reaffirm its narrative role as a sacred structure? Well, we never see the Dragon temple (the base religious center of this universe) clearly, we only get one shot of the Heart land's architecture and it's...more vague stuff. Oh there's a bunch mini stupas surrounding an unceremoniously presented dead body? Why...?
(screencaps of Raya and the Last Dragon, yes I've nearly memorized this film during the 9 months of research for Xiran's video)
If we re-characterized Raya as a humble simple spiritual traveler with Buddhist ideals, then combining the conical hat and the stupa would be a narratively and culturally motivated design decision. Because we're visually combining a common item often associated with farm work to a sacred structure.
But who is Raya in the movie? She's a wholeass princess whose big arc is learning to trust people indiscriminately, her kingdom's been hit by an apocalypse and that's why she has a torn down practical look, she used to guard a dragon temple because her spiritual belief consists of being a "dragon nerd". The cultural nod in her design is at odds with the narrative, they don't inform each other. They're empty gestures at signifiers. Honestly I think they wanted her hat to feel like an Asian cowboy hat with the way she sports it.
With that jumping off point, I'd like to apply this to one more example of commodified cultural reference from Raya; that dang infamous fantasy keris
@audriserat already talked about this extensively in the Raya videos on Xiran Jay Zhao's channel so please give those a watch if you haven't yet!! I'd just like to offer what I know from a concept art perspective.
(Raya's sword concept art and description from Discover Kumandra)
The Indonesian (specifying since that's what the description of the image says it's pulling from) keris is a sacred dagger used for many purposes. Within Indonesia alone there are varieties to how a Keris can be used and presented depending on the culture.
Meanwhile in Raya it's an oversized sword that carries no ceremonial or spiritual significance within the narrative of the movie, it shares no similarity with the keris outside of having a wavy blade (literally the structure of the hilt and blade is wrong) and most egregiously of all, it functions like a dang anime wip.
God help us all.
So I want to walk us through what the concept artist was probably thinking when they were designing the weapon for the next Disney Princess. They probably stumbled upon the keris during research and thought it had a cool, recognizable silhouette and saw that there were different types.
They then stumbled upon these intricate designs;
And they're thinking "wow! Some of these keris are plain, but other are blinged out with animal designs??? they put a Naga on some of their daggers, let's put our titular dragon on our sword! So clever!" There's a principle in concept art called "the rule of cool" where something doesn't have to be practical as long as it looks good.
And so we end up with this:
An empty vessel representing an outsider's nod to Indonesian culture. They didn't know that the blinged out Keris were ceremonial and spiritual, they just thought it looked cooler compared to the plain ones (the ones actually typically used for practical protection). They didn't know there are customs surrounding how the keris is held and presented. So they have Raya lugging it around her shoulder because it's a badass pose. Who cares that the hilt looks more like a traditional sword? There's a dragon on it now, isn't that cool?
When I see this design, I can see how an outsider used the rule of cool to disregard cultural context. And that's the sword's relationship with the keris it wants to emulate. That's all of Raya and the Last Dragon in a nutshell, no matter how many times you hear people say "but two SEA writers worked on it!!" to defend it.
Anyway go play Coral Island, I know some folks who worked on it! Put your money there!


















