Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

[Astronis]

This has been a huuuuge issue of mine as well and I can't believe it got past sensitivity consultants. When I got to the reeds part I knew I was in for a rough ride. Why on earth would the Hanu forget their own culture, and why would Wuk Lamat know how to solve it in 10 minutes? I also found the entire Mamook section so hilariously out of touch - the writers earnestly selling the idea that these people would need to be told by outsiders, "Have you tried planting seeds about it instead of doing a eugenics project that kills 99% of your offspring?"

It's extremely realistic for people to forget why their culture does certain things and holds certain traditions. It happens constantly, in fact, people are always trying to break down cultural traditions they don't like without putting any thought into why those traditions exist in the first place. So that part made total sense to me. It's why the idea of Chesterton's Fence exists--if you encounter a fence somewhere that seems nonsensical, don't just tear it down, find out why it was put up in the first place. There could be an extremely good reason for it to be there. However, with the Hanuhanu, their Chesterton's Fence literally shot magic plant-growing lasers. I'd think someone would have noted when the light show stopped growing their plants.

The bit with Mamook moved way too fast for my tastes, though I could understand a highly insular society which thinks its soil is cursed wouldn't think to send anyone out to find crops that could grow in Macalania Woods. That's a bigger shift in thinking and undertaking than it looks to us in a world that is extremely connected with the Internet at our fingertips. Sometimes it really does take an outsider with a wildly different experience of the world to look at a problem sideways to solve it.

So...they were decent ideas, but I'm not sure they were executed with any particular finesse.

It's not a vibe, it's literally it under no uncertain term. She installed a new king after killing the previous king and queen, and tell people the child king is under her "protection".

That's straight up the protectorate playbook. France did this to a lot of countries in the 15th-18th century, and mine was one of them.

I am glad the story hinted that the Alexandrians didn't all seem cool with that. Because holy cow, way to just take over an entire country without finding out how the people would feel about it first. Gulool Ja is the rightful king, but girl, you need to tread lightly being all "and now I'm his guardian "