#I had my doubts at one point (I still think that entire episode is tasteless—for lack of a better word—and just. terrible)

[meggannn]

thank god im not the only other asian girl who came to realize how weirdly orientalist atla/lok is.

i hope you don’t mind me using this ask as a springboard to get some of my thoughts down (i edited this once and that fucked up the read more, so i tried several times to put this behind a cut again but tumblr hates me so i guess now everyone has to read my beef ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

my friend said last night that ATLA is like the new harry potter with the way people talk about it and..... yknow she’s not entirely wrong.....

like, not to keep pulling this card, but ~as a half-asian~, i have been struggling with this show a lot over the past few months; before even the show came to netflix, i was seeing a resurgence of ATLA stan culture. the hype of the live-action series and the release of the kyoshi novels have also amplified this. i reblog posts because i do still enjoy it, but i have been abstaining from reblogging commentary that so obviously glorifies it.

part of this burst-bubble effect is my problem, because i strongly dislike how people talk about certain characters and ships (and i admit that frustration is seeping through what ATLA did right) and observing fandom favorites makes me think that a lot of points were missed: people love toph, but hate korra (even people who think they love korra only because she’s one half of korrasami, actually do hate korra lmfao); people love zuko but completely ignore aang; don’t get me started on the fandom’s embracing of korrasami/subsequent forgiving of the patronizing, disrespectful, borderline racist way bryke did it. that is fan behavior, and it all bothers me and is no doubt coloring my judgment of the actual show, but beyond that, i also do want people to realize and accept “wait a minute, plenty of the things we criticize other media for also exist in ATLA, and it shouldn’t be different just because this show is full of asians.”

part of me wants to — and does — celebrate that a pan-asian show, in which NO white characters and NO trace of western culture exists, was a critical and commercial success in 2005! and had full network support and resonated with kids of different backgrounds. i can appreciate and be happy of that. but “no western culture” doesn’t mean “no western influence”: it’s an asian fantasy world created by non-asians, so the staff still ultimately wrote a pretty western story. the treatment of the fire lord imperialist dynasty is the big one (iroh was a war criminal who only left the warfront because his actions affected him/his family but now he’s a old friendly Good Guy and never acknowledges the lives he’s ruined! everything is ok now that zuko is fire lord! not like his new friends will have any direct trauma or conflicting feelings with how he is now heading a nation that burned two out of three of their homelands to the ground and tried to burn the third too! now here are all our headcanons about katara/sokka being fire lord/lady, toph being a fire lord advisor, and aang being an air nation rep to the fire nation! perfect ending!!), but also the themes of a pretty straightforward good kids v evil conqueror story, watered-down concepts of buddhism/taoism/others for child consumption — some of these are not strictly bad things, but they don’t make it the best story in the world. they are not worth saying “stop watching x problematic cartoon, watch ATLA, the BEST cartoon with the BEST diversity!!!!”

side note, my friend looked it up last night and there was a total of one asian writer on the staff, May Chan, who according to wiki, just wrote the Boiling Rock episodes. (at this juncture i want to keep in mind that someone in the writer’s or developer’s room might be in my situation, possibly mixed race but white-passing in both face and name... it’d be hypocritical of me to not consider that possibility, but as far as i know that’s not the case, and in any respect i think it’s important to have visible diversity, not because i think mixed people don’t have anything to say or shouldn’t be counted, but in the sense that poc who don’t get the luxury of being white-passing should be allowed control of depicting people who look like them. but that’s another discussion.)

honestly, i can look over some aspects of this show because i still do enjoy it. i like the use of martial arts as a fantastical magic device because it was used consistently and clearly they did their research, even if it does kind represent this idea of Asia, the Land of Magic Powers; i don’t mind because not everyone has the magic powers, the magic powers are deconstructed, people without the magic powers are still treated respectfully, the magic powers are diverse, and they are treated both practically and spiritually (so not everyone, like sokka, has the same awe-inspiring respect of them, which is realistic characterization to this world, and though he’s sometimes portrayed as incorrect in his disbelief of the spiritual, he’s never portrayed as wrong for being practical and realistic). honestly, i don’t mind the oohs and aahs of these magic powers because i still think the magic powers are pretty fuckin cool; it’s likely we’ve all pretended to be a bender at some point lol. and as a kid, i didn’t mind that ATLA nations blended cultures; i thought it was fun to look up later and see which sorts of things were made up and which were influenced by real things (i liked that not a lot if it was made up). i don’t mind that Lake Laogai was named after a real, horrifying place, though i understand and completely respect that plenty of others find the name disturbing and tasteless.

that said, as an adult coming to ATLA for the first time, I would probably not go this hard for a show that blends a bunch of real ethnicities together in a hodgepodge of culture clashes, at least not one spearheaded by a white developer team. i would be less willing to ignore the northern air temple episode, where aang, victim of a genocide, forgives a bunch of strangers who disrespected and destroyed his home (including the guy who was NOW INVENTING WAR WEAPONS FOR THE VERY NATION THAT DESTROYED HIS PEOPLE). i can mostly look over these things because of nostalgia. but the way people outright stan the whole avatar series (including LOK but i won’t get into that right now) without acknowledging ATLA is, ultimately, still a story with a pretty western handling of its themes just with asian faces, is..... frustrating.

a new coworker of mine, also an asian woman who was too old to watch ATLA at the time it was airing, has said that the more she learns about ATLA as an adult the weirder she feels about it and less inclined she is to watch it, which makes me think that maybe i’m not crazy.

#avatar commentary #Anonymous #askbox #ok to reblog #megan talks about avatar

[intjaverywrites]

RobinCeru & why it’s important

[Disclaimer: So the timing of this post may not be the most appropriate, and I have nothing but respect and compassion for the victims of this horrific terrorist attack by Axel Ventura and co., including those at home (like myself) bearing witness.

However, I can’t turn a blind eye to the themes and issues that are being brought to light by him and this show. Call me tasteless, heartless, opportunistic, whatever you want, but these things need to be addressed, and it won’t be any less sensitive now than ten years from now, because let’s face it, there is never going to be a suitable time to talk about the leitmotifs included by a self-proclaimed psychopath.]

This post is going to mainly go into the #RobinCeru ship that is social media’s newest fixation (for now). While among these have been #Alicat, #Millianire, #NavySealMoreno, #crazyknifeguy, #DrFaraday, and other morally questionable men we have either tore apart ten times over despite them having no awareness of our criticisms, or have just stan’d for their entertaining personalities and/or looks, we have somehow managed to get the relationship between #2 and #3 on Mason Solis’ “Skeleton Clique” team into the top ten trending topics for a couple of days.

(I mean, he’s sorta okay when you can’t see his knife, right?)

Arguably, we are all succumbing to exactly what Ventura wants: to be enthralled with this game and its “characters,” as if they are not real life people away from their families and friends, struggling to stay alive in a confined space that is probably a health violation in itself at this point.

Still, when hopelessness takes us all by our chins, forcing us to look at what evil man is capable of, we will do anything to find a silver lining. (May we all take a moment to remember our star, #MsTinTin, whose naïvety we likely will not witness again.)

(We literally all get you, Julian. Quentin was the star we didn’t deserve.)

Although grasping, close to Quentin Roger and his childlike personality is none other than Cerulean Rorschach, who has even been dubbed “Cerubun” for his innocent and vulnerable ambience he brings to a very serious role in this entire show - an antecedent to the real big  installment: a dreaded arena presumably mirroring a concept to The Hunger Games.

Cerulean is no stranger to many of us who are not living under a rock, as he was held hostage on May 3rd earlier this year by Ventura, which is also the first time the world learned of the escaped psychiatric patient. After he was rescued, he was awarded a Medal of Freedom honor for seeking the truth in the murders of Henry and Stella Grans, due to threats by Ria Ventura.

He quickly became hailed as “America’s Sweetheart,” with his strawberry blonde hair, uniquely purple eyes, singsong voice, and altruistic personality. During this same incident did we meet Robin Rayner earlier than other contestants in our current show.

(Hold my ovaries.)

Others were more familiar faces: Shane, Quentin, Julian, Minh-Chi, Ayse, Aaron, Mason, Nadia, and Vaughn.

(How many times do you think Shane just thinks, “What the fuck.” while making this face? Crack those fingers, buddy.)

These people met Cerulean’s company, being honorees Nicholas and Dr. Faraday; the latter’s son, Wally; Cerulean’s then-boyfriend, Tadashi; Victor and Roy, two detectives from the case; and who else?

Robin.

It is better understood now that Robin is a colleague of sorts with Cerulean, though the deeper nature of his work is still not explicit (and maybe it’s better that way). Everyone else that had accompanied Cerulean makes logical sense, but why was Robin invited, especially as Tadashi is also his colleague in their workplace?

During the late-night interview after the ceremony, Robin stubbornly came to Cerulean’s defense when Dr. Faraday accused him of being manipulative and in cahoots with Ria. This theme continues throughout the rest of the show, and not once does Robin actually doubt Cerulean.

(I’m not crying. You’re crying.)

Although Robin tends to pick on Cerulean during the show, he never maliciously insults him, and tends to come to his aid when Blaire and James target Cerulean’s confirmed rapes. This seems like a humanly decent thing to do, but in general, when someone begins ganging up on him, Robin is one of the first to speak up about it.

Robin himself is not malleable.

He is not warm. He is not a sycophant. He says things how he sees them. In fact, a good handful of people do not get along with him, but who does?

This angel.

We can say that so far this isn’t really an argument for why this ship has actual merit to its popularity, but bear with me. This is what has really gotten me thinking, but it takes some greater awareness to just what has been going on in this game show. I’ve dug a lot into the footage off-hours too, and I find this is what really connects my thoughts.

RobinCeru is a paradox.

It is cute, it is funny, but god, is it contradictory.

(It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to go “they’re a bit weird.”)

These two men come from different parts of the country, to start. Cerulean has stated since the interview that he has a high emotional quotient, which allows him to work with all types of people on a humane level, empathizing with even sociopaths. Meanwhile, Robin has proven to be a by-the-book, rigid, and unemotional man who sees people like data. Both learn names, faces, connections, but their interpretations are starkly different. And while their emotional and logical conflictions would normally serve as an issue, neither have ever criticized their methods of working with people. Why is that?

Because they respect each other.

And that’s my first point. Robin stands up for Cerulean because he knows, like everyone else, that some of Dr. Faraday’s accusations are baseless, spontaneous, and downright offensive. However, he also respects him enough as a human fucking being to know he deserves so much more than to be told he deserves something as awful as rape. Although he never flat out says something like I’m sorry that’s happening, or I feel bad for you, he instead shows his care through his actions. He defends him, he has even told him to just ignore them. He gets concerned when he goes through panic attacks and dissociative episodes, he always tries to talk him down or wake him up, he always gives him pep talks to keep playing, to not give up.

Sure, to some degree, he needs him to play because the two obviously have an alliance going on, and he also just doesn’t want him to fucking die.

But also what this tells us is Robin has a lot of trust in Cerulean. Despite everything that Blaire, Dr. Faraday, Ventura, Reyes, and every other adversary wants to instill into everyone’s heads. Robin literally throws questions to him because he wants him to stay in the lead and trusts he can do something better with his points and power than he himself could. He trusts that Cerulean is not secretly fucking him over with an alliance with Ria or maybe even someone like Brennan.

He is trusting him with his life. Robin. Robin, the man who we can all agree is a born skeptic. 

(Please don’t ask were I got this gif.)

This doesn’t even include the fact they do work together well, coupled with their trust and respect. They both know they have serious and scary things ahead of them. They both know they could verily die together. They both know that out of the other 18 hostages, that they are each other’s ride or die. Each time one goes down, they might say, hey, get up - but if they don’t, they bend down, put them on their back, and carry the torch for them. They pull what the other can’t.

They say that relationships should be 50/50, but they legitimately stop and will take 15-85, 70-30, 10-90, until the other is better. And they each try so hard to get better, because they are conscientious of each other’s struggles that they can’t let them down.

When Cerulean was injected with a needle and lost a great chance of having kids of his own, he should have been out of the game completely. That is life shattering. Especially because we know how he actually loves kids and wanted them. Take into account how protective Robin is toward Wally, and even doesn’t want minors to suffer like Mimi, Jacob, or even Rhett. Robin isn’t cold enough to not feel that loss of what children are. Instead, he helped him through other ways. He tries to make sure Cerulean does not injure his neck more when he passes out. He spends so much of his time trying to wake him up, he even shares his food with him (also who noticed how they always come back from breakfast together talking about something?), and they’re just so relaxing and helpful to each other. This is also seen when Elsaied harassed Robin into an obedient and anxious state, that he suffered a panic attack. Or when he was harassed about his relationship with his best friend in high school, when he was emotionally abused. Cerulean gave him space, he encouraged him when he could, and most importantly, he waited. And Robin came back. It took a while, but he got back to his feet and gave back to his 50.

(Talking to you, Blaire Sinclair.)

If we look beyond their relationship toward the situation, but how they are as individuals, they continue to be contradictory. Cerulean is a popular, handsome, and physically apt man. He has a lot of friends and admirers, he defies his odds like in the Hang In There challenge, and he has a history that portrays him as essentially a standard jock. He is a friend of everyone (literally, as 99% of people on the ship know him), and he is mostly an open book with his life.

Meanwhile, Robin has more withdrawn interests. He works with computers, keeps his identity and past shrouded in mystery, and does not try to connect to others because he knows much of what he has is temporary. He is used to this. He is used to not being emotionally attached or driven. And he’s fine this way. He’s used to it. He doesn’t care what you think about him, he doesn’t try to be charming, or popular, or handsome.

(I just want to hug him... but must... respect... boundaries and trauma...)

While Cerulean’s life is based on how well he connects to people, Robin’s is based on how well he connects people. In this way, we really see where their limits are.

Cerulean’s life has been widely exploited so far in this show. He grew up with a single mother, his uncle, and his younger brother. He took his parents’ divorce so hard he developed a bulimia nervosa eating disorder. He occupied himself with so much positivity that he became ignorant, self-seeking, and privileged. This has hurt people around him, like his brother, or childhood best friend, Mason. He never got into serious romantic relationships. Still, he grew into a better person over time. He became more optimistic, he became more aware of what he was doing, he devoted his life to helping others at the risk of his own well-being and security that he could have easily achieved if he continued on the route he was on.

Meanwhile, Robin didn’t have as much luxury. He grew up unpopular, interested in geeky things (because we all know computers aren’t really that cool in 9th grade), and without many friends. When he had the chance to become popular, he was used, manipulated, and mistreated. He became so cynical about forming relationships and knowing people that liked him for who he was. He was like an animal starved for attention, and would immediately latch onto the first sign of affection - just to be tossed aside and forgotten. So is Robin not the nicest person? Is he hard to know, rude, indifferent? Yes, he is all of those things. But he was treated less than a human should be, and when he learns someone shows that genuine care, I bet he would return it tenfold.

So it’s interesting because they both fit into these archetypes of a jock and a nerd, and it’s what makes their pairing so surreal. It’s something we don’t see in everyday life unless it’s some indulgent, abusive relationship.

Instead, both are such strange forms of each other. Cerulean became a more down-to-earth and sincere person, making his job as a PR more authentic, while Robin stays distant from people, wearing a mask to people so he isn’t hurt again, furthered by his unfeeling job.

Yet, they are not only colleagues, but they are friends. They know they each have shit going on. They know they have shit ahead. They know some things that meet the eye aren’t so. And they don’t sit and talk about it. They just help each other.

Those are one of the best relationships. Where you don’t need to always talk. Where you can go all the way down to 0-100, and they are still there for you. I can’t see either of them walking away from each other at their worsts.

(Let’s be real: they’ll say it once off-camera.)

And maybe it is indulgent, because we do get to see a person like Robin gets attention from an attractive, well-liked, and jocky guy like Cerulean. And we get to see Cerulean nurture a man as disturbed and insecure as Robin.

But you can’t fucking tell me it won’t be amazing when you finally see Robin realize for the first time since he was wronged all those years ago - someone fucking likes me despite all of my fuck ups and flaws and walls, hell, this hair!

Or when Cerulean pauses and thinks when he’s just doing fucking nothing, ‘God, he’s really a good person.’

It doesn’t need to be cute. It doesn’t need to be sexual.

RobinCeru is important because it has so much potential to be a healthy relationship, and to make them grow out of their older states that they built around themselves because of their adolescence. It’s important to us as fans, too, because we see that people can be different and still make it work.

Although this show derived from a shitty joke, this shitty joke is actually really relatable. It’s relatable to either know what it feels like to be at the bottom and get noticed by someone, just to be fucked over. Or we know what it’s like to strive for so much positivity because if you don’t, you might stop and realize that you’re not actually okay at all. We know what it’s like to turn our hearts inward and shy away from people’s open hands, unsure of if they’re giving or taking. And we see this pair, with no obligation apart from staying alive, trust each other, grow as friends without any other catalyst except being kind to each other, dedicate themselves to act 100 when the time calls.