seyaryminamoto

[seyaryminamoto]

I failed… because I needed you far more than I needed safety and peace.

I will come to you. I will see you again. I will set you free, even if you don't want me to do that. I will meet Hotaru, too. I will hold the two of you, and I'll never let go of you again, come what may. The world won't get in the way again. I know it won't.

So, here are my favorite lines from Sokka's letter to Azula. To read to full letter, you need to visit Chapter 345. I liked so many parts of the letter, but it would be too many edits. So I decided to share the ones I liked the most.

I would never fight you, not in this way. I would never let anyone bring you harm, either.

I hold your necklace every night

Every day spent recovering, waiting, preparing my next move, is a day I grieve over how badly I need to be near you again. To think we've as good as spent a whole year apart, Azula… the very concept is unthinkable. I could barely survive a day without you. You mocked me for it many times, didn't you? Even when you didn't, you would tell me I needed to learn to live without you, or so… turns out I haven't, believe it or not, even after a year. I can't shake off this anxiety. I can't shake off the fear of failure. I can't put aside my dread that I won't ever see you again.

… you have a place in the Southern Water Tribe, should you want it. There's so much I should be able to share, but I'll run out of parchment at this rate. Believe it or not, you've become the Tribe's hero in many ways.

I was terrified that you'd be alone, but if she's there, that's at least one small respite,

Her mother is safe, by the way. So is her fiancé. Him and his friends stand with me now. I know that might come as no relief for you… but it might be good for you to know they escaped the Fire Nation's reach. Maybe we'll fulfill our old promise still, huh? Maybe we'll be able to share another meal, the four of us, once again. Guess we might be more than four people by the time we can meet again… but you know what I mean, right? Of course you do.

Hell, this stupid parchment should be longer. They told me it was the biggest one they had. I don't buy it. This is frustrating. Everything is without you. I wish you could answer, but I know that's impossible. I settle for believing, for hoping, that you'll be able to read this letter and know that I'm still thinking of you, across every single day of this miserable life without you. I won't ever stop longing for you. My energy resonates with yours still. I feel you deep inside me, underneath my skin, in my heart and soul. I don't know if you feel me the same way… but I can only hope so. I can only hope that I'll see you in my dreams again. That soon, those dreams will become reality once I hold you in my arms again. The one hope that keeps me afloat, amid all this darkness, is that I'll be returning to your light one day.

I love you. I'll always love you. Don't forget that, no matter what comes next.

#the letteeeeeeeeeeer #*cackles* #that letter is very much our oxygen #... worth noting 350 has another burst of oxygen #hopefully you'll enjoy it #might be one of my favorite spirit connections because it was a fun one to write :D #anyway anyway #letteeeeer #god I can barely write lately but I really wanna get back to it #*wiggles fingers* #big thiiiiings

[seyaryminamoto]

... how do you make them so cute omg x'DDD <3 this is adorable!

Ch.330

That one time Ozai said let's pray together. @seyaryminamoto

#I'm not supposed to catch feels over them #but here you are #making it happen #goddamn #that silly smile is sending me #wingsfreedom

[seyaryminamoto]

Preview: Gladiator Chapter 347

Ursa confronts Ozai and Piandao over their intent to train Azula: a sudden obstacle rises in the relationship between the Prince and his wife, just as the young Princess Azula grows more disillussioned and distant with her mother after she makes unfair choices regarding her education.

In Ba Sing Se, Ursa recalls these heavy memories, but the meal she shares with Piandao will be interrupted when Jeong Jeong, Iroh and a messenger from the north arrive with news that will shake the Fire Lord's wife to her very core...

Read Gladiator HERE or HERE

For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!

#Ursa has BDE in spades sometimes it's wild #I just wish she'd use it for the right things :') #... she has a line here that I have no idea where it came from #but I'm still not over it #never over it #I really enjoy seeing her side of the story #it doesn't make her RIGHT #but suddenly she's not just the contrarian mother who only got in Azula's way #... she wasn't completely wrong and Part 3's events have proved it... #well Part 2's ending to be specific :'D #anyway #Ursa has no right to be this much fun to write #and I love me my baby Azula even when she's not having a great time that poor thing #gladiator previews #gladiator chapter 347 #gladiator

[seyaryminamoto]

Preview: Gladiator Chapter 346

Azula and Rei return to the Princess's bedroom to learn that someone infiltrated the room, seeking Hotaru. The Princess lies in wait in her room on the next day while Rei and Song go to the Temple, for the younger girl's sake: after praying for her father's soul, a figure of her past will make an unwanted appearance.

Ozai makes a difficult request from General Shaofeng. Once more, the Fire Lord spirals into memories: this time, he recalls the day Azula asked to be trained by Piandao, and the first cracks that shattered what once had appeared to be the perfect marriage...

Read Gladiator HERE or HERE

For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!

#the flashback to end the happy times of we know whoms (?) #yeeeeeah who'd have thunk huh #I honestly highkey lowkey love the idea that Azula never goddamn knew #just had zero clue #because she was too baby to remember #that this IS objectively when things went down #also because she's not privy to ALL of it #she only knows her POV of it #and why lie #I did not plan for this to be that significant back when this fic started #it was just backstory #and suddenly it became a bigger deal than I realized #:') #as for Rei that lovely girl needs a medal or twenty #she is wonderful #and she has grown so much #taking no shit and much less if it's directed towards her true mom #that's my lil OC bean <3 #gladiator previews #gladiator chapter 346 #gladiator

[seyaryminamoto]

Do you have any particular thoughts on Netflix Avatar Season 1? I haven't watched it myself but I would be curious to hear what you have to say.

I do indeed! I didn't watch it right away, but I have watched it indeed. I think there are merits to certain changes they did, I can see the sense in many of them, that doesn't mean EVERYTHING they changed was good, but it does feel like they were engaging with the original content in a far more creative way than a lot of people are willing to acknowledge or try themselves. No, it isn't a perfect remake of ATLA, but being the critic that I have been of the original show, nobody could ever convince me that the original was perfect, just as this new show isn't perfect.

I want to make a big post on the subject one day and try to get to everything it brought up... once I have more time on my hands, I'll try to do that. But, to give you a bit to chew on... I'll try to do one good vs. one bad on my part, of whatever I can remember right now.

GOOD: I actually do not mind the multiple prologues in the first episode, even though I don't think the changes were handled perfectly. I do believe that showing the genocide is not nearly as bad a choice as a lot of people pretend it is (the way it was portrayed is questionable mostly from a tactical point of view but that's just me being a freak about that... studying basic warfare really fucks up your suspension of disbelief when it comes to war scenes). Mainly, I think it IS important to show it due to the amount of people who are still convinced that Aang didn't suffer nearly as much as most other popular characters did -- that soooo many people have made these claims without a care in the world throughout the twenty years since ATLA first aired proves that the genocide was not treated with the severity it should have been by the OG show. I'm not even sorry to say it. It doesn't feel like a trivialization of violence, it feels like actually setting straight the degree of violence a genocide entails. People asking for a less intense version of genocide basically appear to be asking for the actual gravity of such events to be sanitized so they can chew on them more easily... and that's exactly what leads to it being trivialized, minimized and not taken seriously, if you ask me.

BAD: I don't particularly like the way Fire Lords are so... casual with commoners. Both Ozai and Sozin stood on the same level as a rebel/spy right before setting them on fire, no doubt it's meant to be some sort of flex, but... men of their ideologies and pride would not want to be up close and personal with anyone they consider that far beneath them. Odd choice there, imo.

MOSTLY GOOD: Aang does feel way more serious and has much more dramatic gravitas in everything he does. And this is not a bad choice, in essence. I don't particularly love that they tried to lessen it with occasional "Aang's a silly kid!" verbal reminders that don't actually have any proper visual evidence, because most the silly things he's up for are things the two older kids (Sokka and Katara) are perfectly fine with doing too, hence, he doesn't feel childish at all and it comes off out of place for him to talk about being more childish than he actually is. So... they really didn't need dialogue to try to emphasize his childhood if they weren't going to write him being a goofball. It's fine if he isn't one. He always could be a more serious character, it's only a problem when there's no further substance to him than just brooding (which is what I remember from the Shyamalan movie...).

WEIRD: Aang and Katara both had weird scenes of standing around doing nothing but smiling at their hometowns in episode 1. Maybe it was done as a parallel between them, but it felt a bit... overly theatric? If that makes sense? Like... I know we need to see their daily lives and the context in which they've lived... but it doesn't feel entirely logical for that to happen with them just standing in place and smiling fondly at their world. Most people do not do that in their daily lives...?

GOOD: ... Contrary to what a lot of the fandom seems to think, I actually like the suuuuuper slowburn Kataang here because any potential romantic payoff those two might get isn't nearly as in-your-face as it was in canon. The way their friendship is growing feels far more organic. And some of my favorite character moments in the show were actually between them. Which is not something I'd EVER say about the original show. There's a different sense of maturity for the characters here, and I like that.

BAD: I... do not like Sokka's changes. No, it's not about the sexism. It makes sense to me that this aspect of his character would be changed, updated in a sense: you can even still read him as sexist in some regards! It just isn't as simplistic and straightforward as it was before. But that's... not what bugs me the most. The show genuinely surprised me by taking him far more seriously as a character than I anticipated they would, but they absolutely picked weird choices with him in stuff like his family issues (... the Hakoda changes are just straight-up cringe for me, there's no justification for making him some sort of bitchy soccer mom who congratulates his son but then shits on him behind his back??), his insecurities as a warrior and the frequent remarks about how maybe that's not his path in life even though he does just fine at it, and... his romantic relationships. It's wild, because I actually think they did Sukka a thousand times better than it is in canon, and yet in doing so, they absolutely deadlocked themselves into a whole other problem: Sokka bonding that much with Suki and then hitting on a random Fire Nation soldier like two episodes later?? Then having the romance of his lifetime with Yue by the end of the season?? Ngl, it feels like we're watching one of those sitcoms where characters switch love interests in the blink of an eye. Changing this element of his character this way, when Suki's romance in particular was given new qualities and way more substance... may not have been a great call since it makes him come off insanely shallow, ready to get with any girl he comes across, and frankly, he didn't feel like that in the original show to me. He's also not really funny when he's supposed to be? Part of what made Sokka funny originally was his role as a voice of reason while everyone else ignored him. They occasionally tried to mimic that here... but in ways that didn't really work? Also, the Ron-Weasley-In-HP-Movies brand of comedy of "watch this guy scream, it's soooo funny" is... so trite at this point. Please, don't. Personally, this really feels like a whole other character who isn't Sokka. And some people might think that's great... I'm not one of them. Maybe I'm just experiencing the crisis a lot of people are over Katara with Sokka? But where changes with her do seem to go for things I actually wasn't fond of in her character, I don't really feel like they did better with Sokka in the least.

GOOD: ... "Katara learned waterbending too fast", they say: she did in canon too. A month of training under Pakku is not nearly enough time to justify her being deemed a master in canon. Complaining about how she didn't get that training at all here and still got deemed a master gets a "meh" out of me because I frankly do not see it being remotely as different from what canon did as people want to think it is. Katara was fighting Pakku with way too much power in the OG show for a kid who never got formal training to begin with, and somehow nobody minds that. I don't think someone who was on that level of power in the OG show was nearly as inferior to a seasoned master as a bunch of people want to believe. So... outrage about how they sped up her learning process when we in fact see a LOT more internal growth for Katara, and a lot more depth to her bending source here, makes no sense to me.

Along with that: bending has always been connected with a bender's internal energy, which is related to their peace of mind and internal balance. This show did not invent that. Firebenders are the ones who are most explicitly shown to be connected to their feelings that way, sure, but if you needed ATLA or LOK to non-stop feature characters talking about how a person's chakras had to be cleansed and their hearts clear and their every spiritual thread cleaned up in order to reach their best possible shapes as benders? You probably have bigger problems in analyzing this show than just whining over whatever the liveaction did. A straightforward connection for Katara with her emotions and bending isn't a negative choice in the slightest to me, more so with a character who has constantly been characterized as deeply connected to her emotions: it makes sense that her bending works and evolves the way it does in the liveaction to me. Sorry not sorry.

BAD: Zhao. Uh... I've seen people say they like him here? I felt like I was watching a con artist. It's not the actor's fault, clearly he was given this concept to work with and he did the best he could with it, but the idea of removing Zhao from all prior connection to the Royal Family, making him a total unknown who came out of nowhere and rises to prominence through conniving and scheming feels like they decided to merge him with Long Feng, maybe? And it might even backfire if they DO have Long Feng next season (... they should???) and he has a very similar profile to what they did with Zhao. I didn't enjoy his characterization at all, he was just... weird. So, not a change I was big on.

GOOD: Iroh. My god. I hate the fact that I'm saying this. But I will say it was insanely cathartic to watch that EK soldier beating him up. And that's not all: Iroh actually seems to be struggling actively with right and wrong here, showing hesitation over the war, and most importantly... HAVING A PERSONAL DYNAMIC WITH AANG??!!! I never imagined I would be that happy to see that, but I was. The few moments those two had together were damn solid, some of the best in the show (and the best for Iroh, sorry not sorry, I have never ever been an Iroh-Zuko obsessive fan and I genuinely find myself more intrigued by Iroh's potential bonding with other people, never thought about it with Aang but this show 100% blindsided me with it in a good way). It seriously made me mad that the OG basically never gave them that chance besides... that one scene in the catacombs that was very much just Iroh being a fortune cookie? Aang actually being an element that basically waters the seeds of doubt in Iroh's head is a GREAT change. I said it and I'll stand by it.

BAD: Hahn and not because of the usual reasons: their characterization rework of Hahn was fine. More than fine. The actor they cast was also very pretty! All of which makes it EXTREMELY questionable that Yue somehow has this perfectly decent guy and... uh... chooses the reworked Sokka instead? Like, I know that's how the OG story went, but when you turn Hahn from an opportunistic dick to a perfectly admirable warrior and individual, and feature Yue saying he's great but he's "not the boy of her dreams" (you... dreamt about him ONE TIME?? He's never been in the Spirit World besides that, so wuuuut...??), it makes her choice in romantic interests feel extremely questionable and weird. I'm all for Yue being given more to work with, but this seriously feels like she's... a little crazy. Hahn comes off waaaaaaay too decent for her not to be interested in him... ofc, as long as she's someone attracted to men, which, considering she picked ANOTHER GUY, it's to be assumed that she is?? Ergo nothing makes sense to me. Come to think of it, a lesbian Yue rejecting Hahn is probably the only way her rejection of Hahn would make sense... and it would also not cast such a questionable light on reworked Sokka if he and Yue weren't romantic at all, right after he had that big connection with Suki back when the show began?? So, heh, maybe lesbian Yue is the only thing that would've made sense if Hahn gets reworked for the better like this, sorry not sorry....

GOOD: The full-blown, outright display of Ozai's abuse on Azula rather than subtleties and insinuations. Again, much like in Aang's case with the genocide: PEOPLE DENY AZULA WAS A VICTIM OF ABUSE ALL THE TIME. People pretend Ozai actually loved her on some weird level or that she FELT loved, ergo she was fine and Zuko's the one who was abused. This is not new. We've been dealing with people barking that kind of nonsense since almost twenty years ago. And the backlash from that exact crowd when this show made it evident proves that they refuse to accept Azula as a victim of abuse to this day. Ergo, sorry not sorry: I'm glad they handled it as they did here because it makes it undeniable that Ozai is pushing Azula to extremes and she's pressured to deliver and become the weapon he wants her to be.

BAD: ... the Mother of Faces. That may have been the most egregious offensive and bullshit moments in the entire show. I was so mad when she was brought up at all. It was awful. I hated it. It really must be my most hated moment in the whole thing. UGH.

GOOD: Katara apologized to Sokka once. You know. One time. That, I think, marks the single time in any official Avatar content where she has done that. Call me a salty asshole, but I'm genuinely impressed that they did that, so they get a point for it.

BAD: Bumi. I know some people think the rework for Bumi is great... I could not disagree more. His treatment of Aang is really unacceptable, his behavior is very irresponsible but this time in a vindictive way... I was even reasoning with the fact that he knows Aang is the Avatar, which ALSO happens in the OG, without having known it in the past! The difference? It feels too arbitrary and random that he'd know that here, whereas in the OG show, he IS random and arbitrary, yet somewhere amid so many nonsensical ramblings, he shows insight and intelligence that makes you think there's more to him than meets the eye. I may need to rewatch episode 5 of the OG show in order to confirm this, but I also think that most of the implications there regarding his challenges is that they were actually harmless even if it doesn't look that way all along. Here? They're not harmless at all, he's basically vindictively trying to get Aang to either die for his "sins" or get himself killed through him and neither thing sits well with me at all with this character.

GOOD: Gyatso, expanding on his character and making him a much more straightforward equivalent to Iroh for Aang actually is really helpful, it makes him less of a "stock character" victim to the Fire Nation, it gave him more depth and it makes Aang's bond with him feel much more real. I am very sorry to all OG apologists, but I continue to believe Aang's cheerful behavior was written primarily to appeal to the children demographic that Nickelodeon was aiming for as their audience, which meant he could not be particularly human and truly grieve for everything he had lost. This show doesn't hide that pain at all, and it's particularly good that it does that by showing what a constant presence Gyatso was in Aang's life and by letting them have a manner of final farewell in that episode (... even if I didn't particularly like the episode, but still, it wasn't a bad idea to do that).

BAD: ... call me a consistency freak if you will, but I did not spend all these years obsessively trying to make sense out of the wobbly worldbuilding of the Avatarverse to be told that the entrance to the Cave of Two Lovers is within Omashu and that it leads into the arena within Bumi's Palace. Sorry. I can't accept that. I can't. I legit laughed throughout that whole situation because that's not where the cave of two lovers was, the badgermoles would be causing earthquakes non-stop through the city, and the sewers system would not even work because they'd constantly get fucked up by the creatures (as we know, there's a scene in Book 2 of the kids climbing out of the sewers, so either they won't do the pentapox or they'll forget about the badgermoles conveniently by then...). So. No. Sorry but no. Also, why did they kill Oma??? I know they turned both lovers into women, but... precisely because they did that, why exactly was there any need to change which one died?? Either one you kill is a woman now anyway so... what's the difference? WHY the difference?? Odd.

GOOD: ... Zuko keeps a notebook on his research and investigations into the Avatar. There were many changes to his character but that's the one that stood out the most to me. He actually seems a little bit more methodical, if not smarter, but you know? Kinda smarter anyway for at LEAST thinking that keeping a book with the results of his investigations could help?? Feels like he's actually trying rather than just whining about how rude the world is and how hard he has it. Which, in the end, might ALSO come down to him actually having some hope that Ozai didn't hate him irremediably... which, too, is a good change. I've talked about it before, other people have too: a firstborn firebending male prince has no business being discarded because of incompetence unless he's just THAT pathetic, and even in canon, Zuko wasn't as bad as to justify pushing him out and treating him as shittily as Ozai did without an actual, THOROUGH, exploration of Ozai's motives. You can elaborate, but the show never really did it, and if anything, it offered a bunch of conflictive information about why Zuko thought his father liked him. Here, it makes more sense that he thinks Ozai isn't as much of a bitch as he really is: the Agni Kai is a lot more interesting because they merged both Zuko vs. Zhao and Zuko vs. Ozai into one. The fact that Ozai actually burns Zuko and defeats him BECAUSE he was punishing him for not taking advantage of an enemy's weakness? It's a million times more telling about Zuko's character than what we saw in canon, where he was down to fight an old man out of hybris and then shat himself as soon as his father stepped up instead. So... I don't like this Zuko, which tells you they're doing him right anyway x'DDDD but I find there are a few elements about him that make him at LEAST a little more respectable than he was in the OG show. Among them? He's not constantly ranting about honor but actually lashing out at dishonorable choices out of principle, which makes it sound like he has a WAY better grasp on that concept than he does in canon :'D sue me. This is a Zuko rework too, and fortunately, not ONLY geared towards sanitizing him (even though there IS a fair amount of sanitizing too... which annoys me, but what else could we expect in the era of political correction).

BAD: ... Why the fuck did they decide the way to fix Iroh harassing June was to make her horny for him? Please? Of all things??? All they had to do was just... not make any romantic/sexual implications there. At all. Was that so hard to achieve? This is probably the second worst thing for me in the entire show, ngl. I do not understand the need for it at all. Most of all when they CLEARLY changed it due to knowing Iroh absolutely was a bastard in the OG with his behavior towards her. Isn't it easier to just NOT put any implications of attraction in there? I mean, I should be happy June didn't fully harass Iroh but the way they presented it, it felt like he wasn't even comfortable with it either! This... is not the way you take revenge for a character sexually harassing another one. Bad, bad take, I don't know what made them do this but they absolutely did not "fix" this, they overcorrected it and made it gross as fuck to me anyhow, most of all with the context of knowing that Iroh was the one being inappropriate as fuck back in the OG.

ALRIGHT. I know there's bound to be more, and I probably could think of more soon but I think I'm giving you this for now or else I'll end up making my major post here x'D

All in all, I don't think this show is unwatchable, I absolutely understand people who think it was fun, I also understand people who couldn't get used to the changes and outright dropped it. What I can't understand/accept is either pretending this show is the greatest thing ever (much like I don't think the OG ATLA is...), or pretending that it's the worst one either. This show engaged with a lot of elements in different ways than the original did: not all of it was a miss, not all of it was a hit. And I feel like it's a matter of fundamental, human decency and respect not to go completely berserk taking a ten-ton dump on this show, which to this date is the biggest production in Hollywood with a primarily Asian cast and crew of all time, from what I know, by pretending it has destroyed this franchise completely and that any support for it must come from brainwashed idiots or "not true fans". The gate-keepy attitude comes as absolutely no surprise in this fandom, ofc, but it's still disgusting to see. You CAN be critical of this show with dignity. You CAN do it while respecting other people who enjoyed it completely. It's not too much to ask. I may have learned that lesson the hard way with the ATLA comics, but even then, it wasn't my M.O. to jump into every single comics-positive post to tell people why they sucked and how dumb they were for enjoying them.

That's what I've got for the time being :'D hope it's enough for now.

#zuko-always-lies #natla #it's not perfect #neither is the OG #oh I didn't mention it in the final paragraphs but #I find it particularly hilarious when people rage at the new one #for things the OG did too #like I'm sorry here but you can't come to me and praise the OG for the exact stuff you hated the remake for #at least be consistent?? #anyway anyway there we are for now

[seyaryminamoto]

Snippet: Gladiator Chapter 345

After a meeting with Ozai pertaining what to do with the dead that have been returned to the Fire Nation, Aonu seeks out Azula: after confirming to her that Zhao was among the dead, he hands her the letter he found on the Admiral's body, addressed to the Princess.

A shocked and emotional Azula takes her time to read the missive, while Song comforts the heartbroken Rei. On the next day, the Princess and her daughter witness Zhao's funeral alongside Ozai, while something ominous stirs in the near-empty Palace...

Read Gladiator HERE or HERE

For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!

#... :') #first contact kinda #okay first PHYSICAL contact #I'm never not gonna find it hilarious how this whole thing was a sudden burst of inspiration #I freaked when I realized we COULD do this #and it COULD work #no I did not hire Aonu exclusively so he would be a reliable messenger #it just worked out that way and I'm so proud of him for being a Sokkla enabler #I hope you guys who have been suffering a lot will find a little respite in this surprise letter <3 #gladiator previews #gladiator chapter 345 #gladiator

[seyaryminamoto]

ok I know you couldn’t see it and while I wasn’t in the path of totality here are the pics I got

Yoooo, it's so cool 🤩 eclipses are soooo amazing visually, and you got really good pics!! Thanks for sharing!!! 💜💜💜

#vanilladrizzlequeen #i've never seen one that gets that far I think?? #definitely never witnessed totality #hopefully someday haha #it's so damn coooooool

[seyaryminamoto]

hello happy day of the black sun thank you goodbye

Hello thank you happy day of the black sun to you too goodbye

... don't you just love how we Sokkla fans have an unofficial happy day every time there's a solar eclipse?? 🤣 like, yes, we're rarer than a holiday, this doesn't happen every year or so, but we got THIS and it is GOOD!

I wish I could've seen it, couldn't from where I'm living right now, but damn is it great whenever there's a solar eclipse and the Sokkla energies suuuuuurge

#vanilladrizzlequeen #eclipse day is always sokkla day #this is law #we cheer for the conjunction of the spheres #and the tactical battles between two stubborn dorks #who belong together whether they know it or not I don't make the rules (okay sometimes I do)

[seyaryminamoto]

And after the reblog spree I allowed myself to go on, it was only a matter of time before I posted what I prepared for today!

It’s quite shameful for me that I’d never made an eclipse artwork, for shame indeed. So it was time to remedy that!

This is a sort of what-if artwork, as in, if there was an eclipse in Gladiator, what would it be like? I went for an interpretation of eclipses mildly based on a Japanese myth, where the sun goes into hiding and that produces the eclipse. Of course, Azula isn’t exactly hiding, but as she’s deprived from her bending, she counts on her gladiator to stand guard before her until the eclipse is over.

Her armor is the new design of armor I’ve made for her, his outfit is a changshan he’s wearing in the chapter I’m writing right now. I really just wanted to draw him dressed in it xD

Hope you all like it! Happy eclipse day!

#I can't see it because I'm in an old land now #ergo it's already hella late #the eclipse was never gonna be in this path so #hope you guys enjoy it! #have my old eclipse art to celebrate it (?) #yes it's very old #I should remake it but I have no time #so you'll have to stick with the oldie sorry not sorry!

[seyaryminamoto]

ROUND 2, MATCH 5

Sokkla previously defeated: Korralin

Pemzin previously defeated: Borrili

#I don't usually reblog this stuff you guys know I don't but... #... if there's any chance we might be able to beat an actual canon ship at a poll ever #it's this one #so #frends #please halp ahahahahaha #we're not that far from getting the lead I don't think #so let's tryyyy

[seyaryminamoto]

Cover art by @seyaryminamoto for Guardian by PurplePlatypusBear21 for gemsofformenos

#yeeeep I did this :DDD #cars scare me #but I think it didn't look that bad #no it's no specific model #I wasn't about to make my life harder still #but that it looks like one's enough for me :'D #this is a very cute story so I'm glad I could try the car challenge for this #I love this story <3

[seyaryminamoto]

Preview: Gladiator Chapter 344

Sokka and the guards climb the cliffs around the Northern Water Tribe, where they witness the result of Aang's efforts to gather the dead from the battle. Sokka finds the bodies of two men he knew and makes a choice pertaining what to do with the enemy's dead.

In the Fire Nation, the outcome of the North's battle is finally revealed. Azula tells Rei the likely fate of her father. Aonu, upon receiving an urgent message from the north's survivors, must travel to the Earth Kingdom at once, to face what will either be a trap or a gesture of true respect from the Gladiator's forces...

Read Gladiator HERE or HERE

For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!

#noooow Azula is back #... as cheerfully as you'll imagine #but worth noting #I think the cliffhanger at the end of this one's going to make some people squeal #... or at least I hope so :'D #a heavy one ofc as expected from anything connected to the battle's outcome #we have stuff to get through before the slightly less painful arc starts #also in ff.net we're 2 updates away from 5M #fun times man I'm unhinged what else is new #:') #gladiator previews #gladiator chapter 344 #gladiator

[seyaryminamoto]

i absolutely consent to being booped by anyone at all!!

even if you don't follow me! or i don't follow you! i will try to return as many boops as i can!!!

#ngl this is such a silly thing but it's so funny #I am ready to boop #so boop away!

[seyaryminamoto]

I know I just put an ask in this morning, but do you happen to have any good Sokkla birth fic recs? I mean pregnancy is fine too but I'm lacking on actual birth scenes and the few I've seen are so sweet 😭 something about those two's personalities is so intriguing in those fics idk Sokka by Azula's side while she's in physical pain may be my weakest point when it comes to Sokkla and I'm unapologetic

Hmmm, off the top of my head, Proving you Wrong came to mind, even if that's not the core subject but I very much remember a birth scene there haha. I have a lead-up to birth but I didn't actually write the birth itself in Matching Heartbeats Chapter 2... Sorry, it's just insanely challenging to write childbirth, hahaha 🤣 There's also I'll Meet You At The Bottom? I no longer remember if it went in depth with the birth because it's been a while but some part of me thinks it did... For pregnancy there's Yeet!, Changings, and Singing Metal. If you want, you probably can find a lot I haven't had a chance to read just yet in this particular filtered search, while I can't attest to high quality every time, I'm sure you'll find plenty of good stuff there regardless!

Hope that helps and happy reading!

#vanilladrizzlequeen #not that i wanna spoil but there... IS... a childbirth scene... #in a certain massive story... #it may not be exactly what you'd like because well plot reasons #but it miiiiight be closer to what you'd like than you'd expect?? #does that make sense?? #it's possibly the one time I wrote childbirth for Azula #it's soooo hard to get it right more so in settings that are not exactly modern #like man i legit read myself a full pdf on Ancient China childbirth techniques and traditions #to try and make it as legitimate as possible #it's a scary thing to write almost scarier than massive battles (?) #... kay not really big battles are the worst #after Gladiator I'm quitting my job as an epic battles writer and I'll just write slice of life (?)

[seyaryminamoto]

Look, this question's been rolling around in m head for years and I finally need to ask b'coz you know how I am. So has Ol' Spooky ever been in the room where Ozai and Ursa where getting down and dirty doing the horizontal, or vertical? If so, how many times has it happened? And did Ozai just forget he was there in the heat of the moment? Or did he find some weird joy in having an audience? And would that make Spooky either an unwilling victim of their coupling, or a willingly perverted voyeur?

If there's one thing that can be said about you... you ALWAYS find a way to make me laugh my ass off, my friend. Thank you. Very much.

Honestly? Ozai would most certianly not even remember Seethus existed whenever he got it on with the wife 😂 it's not chance that Seethus seems to fade in importance for Ozai once he marries Ursa and starts his family. The naughty/nasty prince is not only busy making babies by then, but actually thinking about stuff outside of his political advancement for a while :') a total novelty for him, of course. This, of course, means that, if it happened, Ozai had absolutely no idea. I'm not 100% sure if Ozai would be too horrified if he learned that Seethus spied on them in such moments, but he probably wouldn't take it very well. On one hand, his ego would demand that he's smug about his performance! On another, his irrational side absolutely would rear up and he would rage at Seethus for seeing Ursa in her birthday suit?? Soooo... yeah. Anyone who wants to be their voyeur prooobably ought to think twice of it 🤣 not a healthy life choice, no sir...

... Hence, I can vouch for Seethus's, uh, integrity?? (should I use that word when I'm talking about this guy?? 🤣🤣) And say that not only is he not interested in spying in such things, but if he ever had been hanging around Ozai and sensed the ~vibes~ were getting too naughty he would've slipped out the window immediately and given his prince proper privacy 😂 If he was stuck in the room with them and couldn't get out for whatever reason? He'd definitely be more unwilling victim than pervy voyeur, for sure.

I know, probably not the fun answer you would've hoped for, but as much as our amusement would like for it to be otherwise... Seethus has basically zero interest in sexual matters. As things stand, his only actual interest in any such things is solely related to figuring out if Azula actually made a baby with Sokka or not! Beyond that, he's happy enough to go watch the stars while the weirdos in the Royal Family get it on with whoever they want to, has been that way since he started serving Ozai and it will be that way until the end of time.

... Again, though, thank you for the laughs 🤣 that was a good one...

#anon-nemesis #you and your wild ideas my friend #mad respect #this is slightly inappropriate #even though I wasn't graphic about it #if anyone gets too iffy about this answer please feel free to let me know and I'll... tag it mature? #but if not then it stays as it is #all theoretical here really #nothing to worry about (?)

[seyaryminamoto]

do you think you’d ever post that one free patreon smutty chapter of sokkla anniversary (in gladiator) to ao3? just wondering

... woops, I almost forgot about the double version of that chapter 🤣

I feel like I probably ought to make a companion fic for all such little extras. There's another one you might not have seen, I posted it on Tumblr (maybe it was on Patreon too but I can't remember), it's from back in the days of the Northern Air Temple arc! Here it is, if you'd like to read it! :D It didn't really fit properly within the chapters due to the tensions and high stakes, so I left it out... but it's meant to have happened sometime between chapters 104 and 105.

But yeah, I really ought to do a smut anthology or something. Sooo many things I need to post over at AO3 and I always seem to forget to...

#vanilladrizzlequeen #thanks for asking tho <3 #it's so nice to remember stuff like this #it's kinda like a time capsule ahahaha #I really ought to have written more side smut than I did #screw the smut non-believers and the plotters just let me have my fun gdi (?) #okay okay I'm joking about that last tag but I really should have...

[seyaryminamoto]

Thank you so much!! 🤩 thinking back on suuuuch old times is so gratifying sometimes, haha. I love to think of how far they've come since then <3 it's a lovely tribute!! Means a lot to see more art than just my own for the anniversary hahaha <3

Azula didn't know what made her reach out for his hand right then. Sokka froze when he felt her grip on his wrist, and he turned to look at her, surprised. A mild blush tinged her cheeks, and she refused to meet his gaze. - Chapter 76

Happy Gladiator 11th Anniversary @seyaryminamoto

Glad that I had the chance to make this story part of my life almost 11 years long and hopefully longer. I was a teenager back then, now I am nearing my thirties.

This moment is one of my favorites and one of the one's that is stuck in my mind, because I think about it often. Seeing the whole scene would have been so amazing, but I'm not advanced enough in my drawing abilities.

So, I have my third Sokkla hands sketch and fourth Gladiator-based sketch. I have a colored version, but this one was better. This being said, art is not easy. This is not comparable with professional fanarts of course and miles away from flawless, but I wanted to share it anyway.

He seemed to notice her mind had drifted just now, and he placed a hand on hers, squeezing it a little and bringing her back to reality with that.

"Get some rest, alright?" he said, smiling kindly again before standing up.

Azula didn't know what made her reach out for his hand right then. Sokka froze when he felt her grip on his wrist, and he turned to look at her, surprised. A mild blush tinged her cheeks, and she refused to meet his gaze.

"J-just… it's not really like… like we've never done this before," she muttered, weakly. "There's no need for you to sleep on the floor downstairs. You could just…"

Sokka's eyes widened, his heart drumming in his chest upon that proposal. Soon enough, a smile spread over his features. He slid his wrist out of her grip, but only to clasp her hand with his.

"You sure?" he asked. "You don't think your uncle might peek here in the middle of the night…?"

"He sleeps like a rock, you've seen that yourself," Azula muttered, releasing his hand before dropping on the bed, curling with her back towards him so she wouldn't face him anymore. "Do as you wish… but you can stay here, if you want to."

Sokka lowered his head, his smile widening. For Azula to allow him to share the bed with her, despite their latest conflicts, was a bigger relief than he expected to get. She still wanted to be with him, it seemed… and as much as she was right to say he was an idiot, he wasn't stupid to the point of refusing her offer.

-Gladiator Chapter 76: Pairs Tournament Arc 5

Sokkla Hands 1 Sokkla Hands 2

#kigozula #thank youuuuu #oh she was down bad for him she knew she was <3 #their journey has been my lifeline for all this time no joke #thank you for making this <3