#also think about how Aang feels about any of the actual death options

[did-we-imagine]

Omg I was talking with a fellow tumblr user about Ozai and then I realized that the Loser Lord was the embodiment of a traditional saying we have in my country.

"He who wants it all shall not get any of it."

It's interesting how his most powerful motivator (a mixture of greed, pride, wrath, and envy) made him seethe with rage in deep unsatisfaction when many would have been very content with such a high station (except for Azulon being an ass, which was the catalyst of Ozai's descent into his sociopathic megalomania). Yet his thirst for power and recognition were never quenched not even when he finally one-upped Iroh through his plot with Ursa. He just had to want to outdo all of his evil genocidal imperialist forefathers lol. I think it would be nice seeing an analysis if his character through a lense based on the 7 deadly sins.

Through his never ending greed, he ended up losing everything, down to his firebending.

I remember reading an amazing meta where someone thinks that comics Ozai is somewhat OOC because show Ozai was so utterly destroyed when he saw Zuko it seemed he was simply too far gone to try and mess with him anymore. I personally think that this is such a cool take and that the OP's arguments hit the nail on the head, especially in that Ozai knows fully that his ableist heavily militarized country will never ever accept him back after a disgrace far worse than Iroh's post-BSS siege and his new nonbender status. He could definitely start plotting against Zuko after a while maybe, but he'd need Azula more than ever and he'd seek a regent position where he would get to be a puppeteer. His plotting would also be far more "elegant" (read : entertaining to watch) than what happened in the comics IMO.

My personal HC, though, is that dude eventually went catatonic, cementing the energybending as a less than stellar option with logical realistic repercussions, hence why Aang only uses it on Yakkone but not for everyday trouble makers maybe. It would also enrich the plot in that each decision/action has consequences. Sometimes, mercy doesn't come with more pleasant results (i.e : death sentence vs life sentence debate, I think life sentence is far worse than the death because damn what's a fucking life locked up in a teeny tiny cell in a terribly miserable setting esp if one has to do heavy work as a jailbird?), and it's only normal and deserved for the magnitude of Ozai's crimes.

I might be a little dense, but I personally didn't feel that the debending itself was that horrible tbh(since we weren't shown the repercussions like maybe nerve damage ?? Being extra cold ??? Having worse health/chi/whatever than ppl who were born as nonbenders?), like aside from Ozai's insane attachment to it, since I saw cool nonbender characters thrive, I was like "You got off very lightly you jerk...stfu Zuko got it worse losing his face and half of his sight/hearing. I don't want to hear your whining." 🤣

PS: I am not dissing Aang's mercy or trying tl say he wasn't merciful (he is by far so forgiving and kind, he even tried to reason with hell kaiser before fighting him ?? Like what a sweet kid !!). I think he did what he believed was right and his punishment was actually chef's kiss. I just wanted a little bit lore details/a more multi layered approach by authors. I've read some fantastic fanfictions address this side of energy bending, and my goodness, they were excellent.

#my ramblings #atla ozai #fire lord ozai #ozai meta #i tried #ok #i swear i really did #energy bending #avatar the last airbender #my take #my thoughts #that is not to invalidate other opinions but just to further discussion as it is always fun for me to argue back and forth

[atla-fandom-confessions]

ok here’s my sokka is Izumi’s father theory (which is entirely made up and has almost no basis in canon):

• Zuko goes to visit the sun earth kingdom but his airship disappears in a storm and doesn’t reach its destination

• his friends search everywhere for him but only find the wreckage of the airship drifting out on the open ocean

• everyone mourns Zuko, including his widow Mai and best friend Sokka, but they realize they can’t tell anyone yet because the fire nation will collapse into chaos if it gets out that the Fire lord is dead and a new war might even start

• Iroh goes to look for Azula who is off living her best post-therapy life in the earth kingdom but she’s not easy to find

• meanwhile it’s getting harder to play Weekend at Bernie’s with Zuko when they don’t even have his body so Sokka proposes to Mai that she fake being pregnant so that when Zuko’s death becomes public, they’ll still be able to prevent a revolution since there’s an heir to the throne on the way

• Mai tells him that things aren’t going to be that easy because the Fire Sages will want to perform rituals and stuff while she’s supposedly pregnant and they’ll catch on quickly that she’s lying

• it becomes obvious that Mai has to actually be pregnant for the plan to work which makes things a little awkward and angsty

• through process of elimination she and Sokka decide that he is the only option because Aang is off looking for Azula with Iroh and they can’t risk bringing another person in on their plan

• also since Sokka is a nonbender the odds of the baby being a firebender is higher than it would be if Aang (or Haru) were the father, but since he’s water tribe they might be doomed as soon as the baby arrives so the plan is only buying about nine months of time

• with no other options they decide to go through with it and sleep together

• it’s really awkward obviously but they’ve been growing closer emotionally since Zuko’s death and they both feel guilty for enjoying their night together

• for the sake of thoroughness they try for a month and the awkwardness goes away and their feelings for each other start to come out

• one night Sokka tells Mai that he thinks he’s a terrible friend because even though he’s heartbroken over Zuko’s death, he doesn’t regret that the two of them have gotten closer

• Mai reveals that she found out she was pregnant a few weeks ago and kisses him and their relationship stops becoming purely practical

• Sokka stays close to her throughout the pregnancy and everyone outside of the gaang thinks that he’s just being extra supportive to his best friend’s widow

• (which he is…but he’s also sleeping with her and sound everything he would as the father)

• the baby comes eventually and Sokka arranges an escape plan for himself and Mai and the baby because once someone notices that the baby has water tribe features, they’ll be in huge trouble

• the baby comes out resembling her mother almost entirely with fair skin and golden eyes…everyone assumes that she is Zuko’s daughter, even though the Fire Sages say that she’s not a firebender

• Sokka and Mai are trying to decide if they should stay now and pretend Izumi is the rightful Firelord because Azula has refused to take the throne even as regent

• suddenly Zuko shows up out of nowhere and reveals that he was shipwrecked at an air temple and stayed there for months to learn how to unlock his chakras from Guru Pathik so he could finally bend lightning

• Sokka and Mai are shocked and angry at him but they don’t see any other choice besides letting things return to their natural course…and they have to pretend that nothing happened between them at all which is the hardest part

• Zuko is overjoyed that he has a daughter and Mai goes back to being Zuko’s Fire Lady, forcing herself to become the stoic and dutiful noble woman she used to be as a little girl especially because now that Zuko has unlocked his chakras, he’s more aloof than before

• Sokka tries to talk to her but she tells him that they have to move on with their lives and he reluctantly agrees and leaves the Fire Nation

• he and Mai never speak of it ever again, and Mai keeps the truth from Zuko because she knows he’d treat Izumi differently and probably hate her and Sokka too…also she’s still mad at him for staying at the air temple for so long without telling her

• ten years pass and Sokka gets married and has his own family while Mai tries to take her own advice by finding small joys in her life as Fire Lady, most of which are with Izumi

• one day Mai finds her daughter crying by the turtleduck pond and asks what’s wrong and why she isn’t with her tutor

• Izumi wants to know about her father and Mai tells her that Zuko is currently in his office

• Izumi gets angry for a second and yells at her mom to stop lying and tell the truth for once, then she bends some of the water in the pond and demands to know who/where her “real” father is

• Mai explains what happened and tells Izumi that she’s sorry but no one can never know

• years later, Sokka comes to visit and Izumi notices the way that he looks wistfully at her and Mai and decides to keep the secret too

x

#atla #atla fandom confessions #maikka #izumi

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

what do you think of aang's comments in "the southern raiders" and what they meant to katara? I watched that episode recently with my sister who dislikes atla, and assessed similar things to what certain people of the fandom are saying: "aang didn't understand her", "aang was pushing his beliefs onto her", "it didn't seem like he knew her", etc. she was more fair than those people of course because she did say it was realistic that he'd be so worried since she recognizes that he does love her.

Honestly those arguments are all,, tired. They’re outdated. They’re boring. They’re wrong. They’re a result of a fundamental misunderstanding of A:TLA canon. This isn’t to say that those who genuinely, truly believe these arguments are terrible people (obviously not lmao), but somewhere along the line they had a seed planted in their mind that posits them to have inherent dislike for Aang. And honestly? I just feel sorry for them, because not understanding and appreciating Aang means their A:TLA experience really can’t be that great. But I digress!

“aang didn’t understand her”

Oh, what’s the post? Right - “Fandom once again forgets that Aang is the sole survivor of genocide.” Aang understands better than anyone else what Katara is going through*. There is a direct parallel between Aang finding Gyatso’s skeleton and Katara finding Kya’s body. I’m not going to sit here and argue which was more traumatizing (literally can’t stand when people do that) because you can’t quantify grief like that, but it cannot be denied that Aang has experienced something incredibly similar to what Katara has gone through: the loss of a close parental figure followed by finding said parent’s corpse. Not only that, but Aang and Katara both share a unique sense of helplessness intertwined with their grief regarding their parental figures’ deaths. For Katara, there are the questions of:

- what if I wasn’t a waterbender

- what if I had run a little faster

- what if I had fought against Yon Rha back then

All leading to “Could I have saved her?” For Aang, there are the questions of:

- what if I wasn’t the Avatar

- what if I hadn’t run away

- what if I had stayed to fight the Fire Nation back then

All leading to “Could I have saved him?” Both of them feel incredibly guilty on a personal level about the death of their parental figures, thus blaming themselves. Katara tries to push it off onto Zuko/the Fire Nation and Aang tries to suppress it entirely, but ultimately it is revealed how closely they hold responsibility to their chests. For Aang, it comes out in “The Storm.” For Katara, it comes out in “The Southern Raiders.” So, bullshit that Aang doesn’t understand Katara! He understands her grief better than anyone.

Also, many, many people have gone into this before, but Aang’s example of Appa being stolen was not callous/rude/etc. Appa was the last living piece of his culture. Appa is not “just a pet.” People who insist so are the actual ones being callous, not Aang. And, as Aang himself says, “How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?” Aang has experienced more hurt at the hands of the Fire Nation than anyone. There’s a great meta here that delves into Aang’s experiences as the sole survivor of genocide. I don’t understand how someone could acknowledge all that Aang has lost (read: he has lost everything) and then argue that he doesn’t understand Katara’s pain. Like, what? Do you have no sense of empathy?

But most importantly, from Katara herself: “Thanks for understanding, Aang.” She says this after her initial dismissal of him. So take it from the source, my friend - Katara believed Aang understood her. Who are we to argue?

*The only exception perhaps being Sokka, since Kya was indeed his mother, too, but it is worth noting that Sokka did not have the same experience of seeing Kya’s dead body or feeling the intense self-blame that Katara did.

“aang was pushing his beliefs onto her”

It is SO funny how those SAME people have NO problem with everyone in the Gaang telling Aang to kill Ozai the finale! Y’know, when they were disregarding the pacifistic beliefs of his people in exchange for emphasizing their, ahem, more aggressive ones? SO funny! I’m laughing SO hard right now!

Heavy sarcasm, in case it wasn’t obvious. They’re hypocrites and they know it.

But, more importantly, Aang was not pushing his beliefs onto her? At all?? Tell me where in the episode Aang:

- refused to let Katara go after Yon Rha

- told Katara what she was doing was wrong

- told Katara that HE was right and that SHE needed to listen to HIM

Here’s the thing: none of that ever happened! Not only does Aang accept that Katara needs to go (see: “I wasn’t planning to [stop you]. This is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man.”), but he allows her to take Appa on her journey. Appa, the last living piece of his culture. Aang has incredible trust in Katara, and his choice to send Appa with her (essentially sending a piece of himself with her) demonstrates this fact clearly. That should end the discussion point blank, but I guess I’ll break down the lines people seem to have issues with:

1) “It’s okay, because I forgive you. [Pauses.] That give you any ideas?”

Honestly, the criticism this line gets is laughable to me. People use it to argue that Aang was being disrespectful to Katara’s feelings and?? I hate to break it to them, but you HAVE to look at the context a line is in if you’re going to judge it. That is Analysis 101: Context is Everything. This moment is used to break tension. That type of scenario is an entire literary trope, okay? A:TLA did not invent it! Shakespeare literally did it in Romeo and Juliet when he had Peter argue with musicians about something stupid after Juliet’s “death.” The whole point is to break tension before more serious scenes. In R&J, it is before the lovers kill themselves, and in A:TLA, it is before Katara leaves with Zuko to confront Yon Rha. That’s why there’s another moment just like it at the end of that scene! Y’know, Sokka asking to borrow Momo for no reason? It breaks tension! It’s a moment of respite before weighty scenes! It’s incredibly common in every form of media! This is what no Humanities classes did to some of y’all, I swear to God. So yeah, Aang was not disrespecting Katara’s feelings with this. It’s just a tension-breaker. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for those who devoutly believed it was a sign of Aang being a Horrible Person. You were wrong, ain’t no big thing, go drink some water and stay hydrated okay darlings?

2) “I don’t think so. I think it’s about getting revenge.”

Um, a major point of “The Southern Raiders” is that Aang was right about Katara’s initial drive to face Yon Rha? It was a quest for revenge? Katara literally bloodbends, an ability she was forced to learn and essentially feels cursed to bear? Also, nowhere here does Aang tell Katara she was a horrible person for feeling angry and wanting revenge. He simply brings her attention to the reality that what she’s currently seeking is revenge. He’s worried about her. She’s his best friend! He loves her! He doesn’t want her to kill Yon Rha because he knows that for Katara to have blood on her hands from a revenge quest would hurt her tremendously. (As a matter of fact, the audience knows - or should know - this, too.) So, sorry that Aang expresses concern for her? Apparently not wanting your best friend to murder someone is forcing your beliefs onto them? Damn. Y’all are harsh these days.

3) “The monks used to say that revenge is like a two-headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you’re being poisoned yourself.” // “Katara, you do have a choice: forgiveness.” // “No, it’s not. It's easy to do nothing, but it’s hard to forgive.” // “But when you do, please don’t choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.”

I put all the forgiveness quotes together since people tend to complain about them as a whole. But like,, I really don’t see how this is Aang forcing his beliefs onto her? He asks her to choose forgiveness. And just speaking plainly: on an emotional level, it is better for someone to forgive than to murder. Killing someone is not easy, even if you hate that person with every bone in your body, and it will mentally scar whomever does it. Y’all know this! It’s obvious! I shouldn’t have to say it! But Aang knows this, too, and thus he doesn’t want to see Katara kill Yon Rha and perhaps kill a part of herself in the process. Katara is not a killer. I’m not arguing about whether she could have or even if she wanted to, because you know what, she admits she was tempted, but Katara is not a killer. An FMA quote is very fitting here:

“Your hands weren’t meant to kill. They were meant to give life.”

Why should Katara have to live with a man’s murder on her conscience, especially when his death would be a result of fruitless revenge? The answer is simple: she shouldn’t, and Aang doesn’t want her to. Katara is a warrior. A healer. A leader. A friend. But not a killer.

Anyways. Back to my point: Aang is not forcing his beliefs onto her here. He’s offering her another option, the option she ends up choosing, albeit she extends forgiveness to Zuko instead. And Prince Holier-Than-Thou (jk love you Zuzu) acknowledges it himself: “You [Aang] were right about what Katara needed.” Aang didn’t force anything on Katara here. He reminded her of her choices, he reminded her about the consequences of revenge, and he reminded her about the value of forgiveness. Never once did he tell her she had to forgive Yon Rha or else. And when it came down to it, he stepped aside, and he let her go, because he knew this was a journey she needed to take. So… He actually did the exact opposite of forcing his beliefs onto her! He respected her feelings and let her make her own decision! Seriously, how many pairs of anti-Aang goggles do people have to wear to genuinely believe otherwise??

“it didn't seem like he knew her”

Ohhhhhh my God this is SO close to one of the actual points of the episode! So close!! It’s not that Aang didn’t know her; it’s that Katara wasn’t acting like herself. I’ve talked about it before here and here, but Katara was incredibly consumed by her emotions in “The Southern Raiders.” It’s why she ignores Zuko the entire time before they leave on Appa! It’s why she makes that callous comment to Sokka about their mother that we know she never would have made normally! She is drowning in grief about her mother’s absence, guilt regarding her mother’s death, and anger about Zuko (she still does not trust him, and yet he can lead her to her mother’s killer; I don’t know about y’all, but that is really freaking difficult to reconcile). So when Aang compares her to Jet, it’s not a far-off description. She is acting like Jet, because she’s consumed by grief and hurt and anger and she’s not acting like herself. It is instrumental, too, that Katara isn’t acting like herself, because it makes her decision not to pursue revenge and instead offer a second third chance to Zuko even more profound. “I’m proud of you,” Aang tells her, and damn! The audience is, too! I was incredibly proud of her for finding her way out of what can be a bottomless spiral for some people. So again, it wasn’t that Aang didn’t know her. It was that Katara wasn’t acting like herself (I guess meaning… no one knew her?).

In conclusion, literally all of these anti-Aang arguments regarding TSR are exhausting and so easily disprovable. The fact that they somehow manage to live on is evidence that people just want excuses to hate Aang, plain and simple. Like, it’s so easy to just say you don’t vibe with his character? You don’t have to pull BS excuses to “justify” it? I don’t vibe with Ty Lee as much as I do other characters (although I have recently grown much more fond of her; bless the Renaissance for more Mailee content, even if some of it is just a Zukka byproduct), but y’all don’t see me twisting her sacrifice in “Boiling Rock” to make it seem like it was selfish or something (mostly because, spoiler alert, it wasn’t). Like, you can say Aang isn’t your favorite and move on instead of using the same boring rhetoric over and over and over that just makes it look like you lack critical thinking. :/

TL;DR - Aang’s comments to Katara in “The Southern Raiders” came from a place of concern. A place of wisdom. A place of love. And honestly? I think Katara realizes this, and she’s grateful to him all the more for it.

#if y'all even mention zuko on this post i will stomp you to death with my hooves. this is not about who understood katara better!! #this is solely addressing bs anti aang arguments #aang #katara #atla #avatar the last airbender #adding line break after i post btw!! #atla meta #atla analysis #the southern raiders #yon rha #amy answers #amy analyzes #queenaleesbiggestfan-writes

[shinidamachu]

I often give Kikyo a hard time and is probably one of my least favourite characters. But she's a tragic character who didn't deserve her fate. I think it would have been more exciting that after her resurrection, she would turn into a villain with so much bitterness and hatred towards Inuyasha and Kagome, to then having one of the most greatest and compelling redemption arcs in the series. It would kind of be a parallel to Naraku. I would of loved Kikyo if that were the case. What do you think?

Do you really give her a hard time? Or are you just being critical of the way her character was portrayed? Because let me tell you, that’s not a crime. No piece of media or character is above criticism. As long as it’s not unnecessary bashing, I think it’s perfectly okay and healthy to use our critical skills, just like it’s fine to unapologetically enjoy something without thinking about it too hard.

ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ is probably one of my least favorite characters as well, but she had gorgeous character design, her backstory was intriguing and she had a crazy amount of potential. It's not her fault that it was all wasted.

The biggest problem, at least to me, is that the narrative was constantly trying to paint ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ as a victim only of Onigumo's obsession, of Naraku's traps and of fate itself. Because she was also victim of her own wrong choices and of bad writing. That was the real tragedy.

The narrative barely holds her accountable for anything she did and therefore her character has no room to improve or grow. And yes, I know this might be the case for several characters, such as Koga. The difference is that they were never treated as the epitome of purity and didn’t have the same level of importance to the story as she did.

It was essential to give her more backstory, to truly make her face and regret the consequences of her actions, to make her reevaluate herself, to challenge her belief system. The way they tried to do that, mostly with Kohaku and a little bit with Kagome, was unsatisfactory to me. 

The way it happened, it felt like she was a side character who was there just to be sad, pretty and to create angst between the protagonists. And could have been so much more!

Personally, I love the idea of ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ as a spiritual guide to Kagome, the way Roku was to Aang in Avatar: The Last Airbender. In this scenario, ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ and Inuyasha truly loved each other, not just the idea of having someone. She still helps Onigomu and it still bites her in the ass, but the difference is that when he became Naraku, he couldn’t fool Inuyasha and ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ into turning against each other. What he achieved instead was killing her and putting the blame on Inuyasha, who is then sealed to the Tree of Ages as a punishment.

ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ reincarnates as Kagome and everything else is pretty much the same, but using her spiritual powers, Kagome has the option to go to ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ for guidance and  ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ is always there to help her clean up the mess she made, as well as Inuyasha’s name. They then could have focused more on Kagome’s struggle to measure up to ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ, getting out of her shadow, finding her own place in the world. The romance with Inuyasha would be held back by the fear that ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ is the one he is seeing whenever he looks at her. 

And Inuyasha could have trouble with the same doubts, until they find out together that it was a “yes and” situation. Yes, he loved ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ. And now he loves Kagome. For her part, ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ would have achieved nirvana once Naraku was defeated and Inuyasha is finally, truly happy again, instead of doing it by spending ten seconds in the arms of a man who's not in love with her anymore and maybe never really was.

Now, if that couldn’t have been done, everything was the same and it was essential to bring her back, she should have been brought back as a human. Flesh, bones, blood, the whole package. That would have given her a fighting chance, it would have made the love triangle less shallow. It would have given ɪɴᴜᴋɪᴋ a second chance, let them try to fix what was wrong in their relationship. 

To me, narratively speaking, Inuyasha ending up with Kagome still would have made much more sense, but at least they would get to see for themselves why they don’t work and never again be haunted by “what if’s.” ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ would have realized that she wanted to be an ordinary woman more than she ever wanted Inuyasha. That she doesn’t need him or any man to achieve that. So this is what she finally becomes. Inuyasha would have realized that what he felt for ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ was infatuation and that Kagome was the one he truly loves, that they were born for each other.

In the meantime, ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ could have been working as a double agent, pretending to be consumed by hatred and evil only to give the Inugang precious information and trying to destroy Naraku from the inside. This could have given us an amazing dynamic with ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ, Kanna, Kohaku and especially Kagura. I get chills just thinking about the parallel between ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ wanting to be an ordinary woman and Kagura wanting to be the free wind. By extension, she could have actually interacted with Sesshomaru, which would also be cool.

And finally, I would have made ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ show affection for her sister. It felt like Kagome had more quality time with Kaede than her own blood, who didn’t seem to care about her at all. Do you have any idea how crazy that was? They only had each other, ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ died and Kaede had to grow up without her. Then she comes back from the death as young as she was before, to a gray Kaede. And none of this was explored. Nor this dynamic shift, nor the feelings they had about her ressurection. Nada.

But I also love your idea. I agree that ᴋɪᴋʏᴏ as an actual villain would have been exciting to see! A fallen priestess, consumed by darkness. Struggling with the good and the bad within. The parallel to Naraku, to Tsubaki. I think this would actually be the easier choice to go with in the original, because she did some pretty questionable things already. It would be a simple matter of taking a step forward and making the narrative call it out rather than just brush it off.

#Inuyasha #Thank you for the ask babe #Sidmailing

[stitch1830]

If Toph wasn't chief of police and wasn't that busy w/ her academy, what job would she have? Also, what will the dunebabies jobs be?

Hi Anon, thank you for the ask! Very interesting question, one that I've talked with some friends about before. The dunebaby question is interesting too! A lot of options... Let's see if I can answer it and have it make sense!

Toph Beifong definitely needs a career that challenges her earthbending, or some sort of position where she has the ability to lead and the ability to do what she wants to do. Making her push 'papers' and rules doesn't sound like her, nor does being chained to a desk. A job that gives her the freedom to manage her time and do what she wants, but still makes her feel accomplished is probably something more up her alley. I remember once hearing about an occupation where Toph actually takes over the Beifong business, like the Earthen Fire Industries. That would be interesting to see how she would lead and delegate the business and create new ideas for it. At the end of the day, though, I think she'd prefer to teach students. That's what got her out of the house and allowed her to be her full self, it challenges her to adapt her teaching ability toward the student so that her student is successful, and she gets to show off all her talents! It seems like a great job for her, but I sometimes think about what if she does get bored teaching students. Makes me wonder what she would do after that... My guess is she would travel, help Aang with missions, maybe wreak some havoc in the Fire Nation. Vigilante work comes to mind too LOL! Not sure she'd actually do that, but hey, she'd get to kick ass and take names. That'd be fun for her. Besides the whole rule enforcing thing, though, I've never hated the idea that she becomes a cop, but I do think there are better occupations for her... I'm just not sure what. Any thoughts?

Now... my DUNEBABIES?? Oof never really thought about it, tbh. I like the idea of venturing into dunebaby adulthood territory, but that opens up a whole can of self-indulgent worms that I'm not sure I'm ready for! But I love my hypothetical kiddos to death, and I have thought about what they would do in the future, so I'll give you some quick spitball answers and I can elaborate further if you want (Because let's face it, I can talk all day about my dunebabies).

Lin: She actually gives me police chief vibes. In a world where Toph is the Chief of Police, I think Lin would follow in her footsteps. She wouldn't travel a ton unless it was required of her, but she enjoys organization and a bit of order and routine, so something that gives her that would be good for her.

Gyatso: Would probably take up maintaining the Air Temples and teaching the Air Nomad Traditions. He wouldn't stay in one place long, and he would probably become the main airbending master/teacher after Aang. But until he actually had to 'settle' somewhere, he'd probably go to different towns and provide support, aid, and fun Air Nomad lessons wherever he went.

Suyin: Honestly I see her still building a city. She'd be the woman who's like "I don't like how you run your city, SIR"// "Well then why don't you go make your own?" So she did. I was never attached with Bataar Sr.'s character, so idk if I'd have her settle with him or someone else, but she would probably be the first dunebaby to have a family still. She would also probably be keen on teaching people about Air Nomad traditions. She's pretty close with Gyatso, so I can see her pitching in and helping with maintenance and teaching. They are probably the two dunebabies that practice the AN culture more than the others. Lin does too, but she doesn't really let it affect her lifestyle, if that makes sense.

Kenji: He's either a homebody that stays close to home and teaches nonbending martial arts in the area (he masters a lot of different weapon fighting styles and incorporates them into his airbending), or he's like an ATLA version of a cowboy haha! He'd have a badgermole and a sky bison to take care of, so I kind of lean toward him staying in Republic City or something. But whenever he wants adventure, he just hops on one of his pets and they go.

None of the Beifong kids ever really have to work to maintain their lifetstyle, and that opens up a lot of opportunities for them to pursue interests and passions that don't necessarily have a salary attached to them. At least, that's my thought. BUT if you have any ideas for dunebaby occupations, I'd love to hear them! This is what I have for now, though. I think it's pretty tentative.

Thank you again for the ask, and please send more! I love a good ATLA chat.

Send me questions, asks, or headcanons about Taang, Zutara, or Sukka!

#taang #atla #toph #dunebabies #headcanons #occupations #my asks #thanks for the ask! #lin #suyin #oc gyatso #oc kenji #the kiddos being all adulty #sounds crazy #stay young forever if you can haha

[warriorssurvivalandstuff]

Thinking about a non-bender Zuko AU that changes things up for the Fire Nation by a lot, Zuko is the one majorly altered to start a butterfly effect here but I haven’t written that much about him, actually. Full text with musings under cut.

Summary: Ozai yeets Zuko out of the palace, family, succession as he was a non-bender. Ursa manages to keep him somewhere relatively safe but they are still separated. Azula no longer has a punching bag that always distracts her mother from her and instead receives the blunt of the consequences from Ozai’s little show to usurp the throne, she is to capture the Avatar, a dangerous, time-consuming, and generally seen as impossible feat. Vehemently trained by her father and accompanied by her mother, the princess sets out on her mission. During so, she meets many faces, the Avatar, some old friends, and a mysterious figure wielding swords who seemed to defend both the Avatar’s team and her.

Major events/points:

Ozai casts Zuko out

Ursa finds somewhere to keep him safe, but cannot keep him close

Zuko is raised outside Ozai’s influence

Iroh goes to look after him after Lu Ten’s death

Zuko fully relies on his swordsmanship, trains under Piandao still with word from Iroh

Would join Aang probably due to Iroh

Azula is basically an only child

She has most of both Ursa and Ozai’s attention

Ursa is still troubled and kinda distant but is still significantly closer to Azula than canon

Ozai is always subtly distancing the two however

Azula is more learnt on compassion and empathy, but really it’s mostly just soft manipulation compared to always using fear

There would be genuine friendship with Mai and Ty Lee however I imagine

So Ozai makes his move to replace Iroh and Azulon orders to sacrifice Azula

Azula hears it and confides in Ursa, who is reminded of Zuko

Ursa confronts Ozai, simmering with all the repressed ferocity 

Ozai wouldn’t do anything permanent to Azula of course, she’s too valuable

He proposes to have Azula sent on some dangerous mission

Azulon sets the mission as hunting the Avatar, who had been missing for nearly a hundred years and is very able curbstomp a child even if found

Ozai manages to bargain for training time for Azula before the mission

Ursa all but demands to go with her

She can’t firebend iirc and Azulon is punishing Ozai so he allows it, believing she won’t make much of a difference

Ozai isn’t too happy but having Ursa to look after Azula would be favourable to her survival

He does make it clear to not try anything and makes it his task to tell Azula

Ozai and takes over Azula’s training for the period and his grooming intensifies, her time spent with Ursa is taken over by training

After some time, Azula and Ursa set off on their hunt 

Some time into the hunt, Zuko would get involved

He would probably not fit into any side initially and only show as the Blue Spirit

He is against the capture of the Avatar but will not let harm come to Ursa and Azula

Possible for Mai and Ty Lee to join her after Azulon’s death 

I do not have the motivation to get further.

First, Ozai makes good of his word and has him out. Ursa manages to keep him somewhere away, but safe, either secretly or not, Ozai would probably find out some time anyway. However I think as he sees Zuko as absolutely nothing, nothing immediate is done. He makes sure Ursa knows what he can do and uses the knowledge to threaten and blackmail her. She is kept in the palace to separate them and Zuko is raised by some old friends.

I don't know when or how non-firebenders can be determined with high certainty especially with pressure from Ozai so Zuko might fully remember or have hazy memories of his past, though clearly remembers his mother. The two scenarios would lead to rather different development for him so I won't comment too much, but I believe he would have been rather young when casted out and he would not have as much influence from Ozai as canon so act kinder from the start. At some point Iroh might get involved after losing Lu Ten, though it wouldn’t be direct, maybe through Piandao and White Lotus. Zuko would still pick up sword fighting and hone it even more without the ability to bend.

Back at the palace, Azula is now an only child. There's no competing for affections but Ursa is troubled and still distant with her daughter, not that Ozai want her too close to his prodigy child anyway. With that said, I do think Ursa would still manage to have observably more influence on Azula than canon. That or there's no one so heavily antagonised by Ozai like Zuko always being around, Ursa may fall somewhere close but canon Azula does have an attachment when really young to her mother, don't think it could be severed that easily. 

Most important part is when Ozai makes his move after Lu Ten dies, Azulon would have ordered to sacrifice Azula instead. Ozai had indeed casted his actual firstborn away but Azula excelled both mentally and physically, referred to as a true prodigy and so cannot be compared to Zuko’s case. Azula still eavesdropped and learns of the Firelord’s order, she knew no matter how much Ozai took pride in her abilities, he could not defy the Firelord. She sought comfort from Ursa and she is reminded of what happened to Zuko, then determined to protect Azula from harm. She is aware that Ozai might save his own skin over anyone, including his prodigy daughter and prepares to confront Ozai on the matter.

Ozai expected her and states that he values Azula upon her entrance, stopping the worst case scenario Ursa thought of. She skips to enquire him on any plan he has for Azulon’s order and Ozai’s reply was to have Azula in a situation the Firelord could take as as good as gone, which he suggests to be some sort of grand mission. [On the alternate options of Agni Kai and assassination, I feel Ozai would’ve gone for Agni Kai to challenge Azulon if he could, though he was bent on making Zuko’s life hell, being commanded to kill his own child and just taking it seems kinda weak. With an Agni Kai victory he might as well claim the throne as well. Assassination was suggested by Ursa in canon, which was a rather desperate option she resorted to with about only herself unwilling to let harm come to Zuko. We don’t really know if Ozai had considered that, wouldn’t put it past him to consider it before Ursa barges in with a hand. So it could be similar to canon and the two have Azulon dead, just Ozai would be the one to raise it most likely... But that’s boring and I need to have someone go after Gaang, I doubt Ozai/Iroh has any reason to chuck Zuko off to find the Avatar or that he would try to capture the Avatar himself.] Ursa contemplates the plan and their other options, then makes a condition that she would travel along Azula should the Firelord accept the proposal. Ozai tries to brush her off and talk her out but Ursa wouldn’t back down and makes points on how she would be useful. At last, Ursa is triumphant and Ozai decides that he would mould Azula before the long time that she’ll have to spend away, when Ursa is sure to sow her own beliefs on their daughter and he would not be able to tell Azula otherwise, Azulon would make sure they are to have minimal contact.

Azula would most likely hear the discussion as well, I haven’t thought up if this would cause much impact, she would probably make some suggestions to improve it if she could. Unsure if she has a strong enough opinion on Ursa coming along to talk about it.

Ozai and Ursa presents the proposal to Azulon the next day with the most convincing tone he could muster, Azula is to be sent on a mission away from the Fire Nation with the company of Ursa, with some time allowed for training prior. Lu Ten had died in battle, and there’s no reason to just throw someone skilled like Azula away for nothing, she could do to help Fire Nation’s conquest. Azulon accepts and states his conditions, he would set the goal, only a minimal crew as company, Ozai is not to communicate with her during the mission, training is to be overseen by Azulon etc. He had expected similar requirements and does not object, then Azulon drops the bomb by setting the goal as capturing the Avatar. [I don’t really know much about Azulon so I didn’t complicate things on his end. Avatar hunt is basically a wild goose chase, disappeared for about a hundred years with no hint of location and expected to be extremely dangerous, perfect for getting rid of someone.] The prince and princess had expected something along those lines, but still tensed at the impossibility of what the Firelord set. Regardless, they had got what they bargained for, and Ozai prepares Azula for ramped up training.

Azula is a quick learner and has talent, but Ozai and Azulon’s training is enough to burn even her out in just a few sessions. She is pushed to her limits, expected to master multiple forms simultaneously at quadruple normal speed for one. Ozai is already tough on Azula and does not shy away from potential non-permanent injuries, but Azulon seems like he’s straight up going to murder her at times. [Something like this: Lightning 101, after they tell her about conjuring lightning, Azulon charges up a lightning bolt and just fires at her general direction without warning, then Ozai interrupts it with a bolt of his own. Azula is then expected to know to counter it at the next blast.] Training also shortened the time she was to spend with Ursa beforehand, which he fully took advantage of, emphasising strength and power. When Ursa did not seem increasingly impressed by her quickly widened set of moves, Ozai would tell her to ignore her mother, not to seek from her and continue training with him. [Ursa does praise her, but kinda repetitive in wording... and she isn’t familiar with bending forms to notice new things. I can’t describe it clearly but to Azula, it seemed like she was saying for the sake of it, and more words just made it feel smothering.] Azula soon gains her signature blue flames and lightningbending, but also grew apart from her mother and closer to Ozai. 

Training allowance passed, Azula with Ursa is sent away on her hunt. I have not thought about basically anything that would transpire with her hunting Aang in place of Zuko and with Ursa instead of Iroh to temper her dedication to the throwaway quest. Ursa doesn’t consider the possibility of actually finding the Avatar and awaits for Azulon’s day but Azula does ponder it and genuinely looks for information. [Ursa would have picked up some extra skills to help with the hunt, mostly for defence, on top of herbalist knowledge. It would be funny if they come upon Aang right when Azulon dies. Ozai sends them the note that they can return and he instead gets their report of having found the Avatar. Though for storytelling, it might be better that he does so after the events of season 1. Unsure if Iroh would ascend to the throne in Ozai’s place in canon, he would probably stop the war then and there, and Ozai might challenge him and take the throne anyway.] No particular points of interest come to mind as this gets to the start of the show. Azula would no doubt be more effective and ruthless, and the Zhao rivalry that happened with Zuko would not happen, but something else.

Back to Zuko, he would first make appearance as the Blue Spirit [not definitely the same chronological events] then be revealed to Ursa later down the line. He would start on the Avatar’s side but be held back once he recognises Ursa. Afterwards he would probably harbour some resentment for his situation and confront her one day. Ursa tells him the whole story with an apology and Zuko tries to convince her to drop the Avatar mission. Ursa thinks it’s unlikely for Azula to change her mind but does what she can.

No clue what happens next.

#atla #avatar #Avatar The Last Airbender #au #atla au #avatar au #ozai #ursa #zuko #azula #azulon #fire nation #okay maybe I should've watched the entire show before this #though I do think the premise would be interesting

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

First Monday of the month, which means Coming Attractions Post!

(Especially since I skipped last month, whoops…)

Before we get into it, as I always do in these things, plug for my Discord server--it’s pretty quiet, but basically a slightly more interactive version of this tumblr. Sometimes I talk a little more about origfic or other stuff than I do here, too.

Also, this is not my only hobby! As some of you may know, one of my others is lacework, and I now have a sideblog for that. I have pictures of my completed projects up there, and will probably have more stuff as I start…well…making more stuff.

Anyway. On to the actual writing stuff aka why most of you are here (also a few requests for feedback/Opinions behind the cut).

So, I didn’t get much done over the month until, like…the last few days. In part because work got super bonkers for reasons I’m still Cranky at but that is a vent for my personal blog, lol.

Precipice:

I have threeish scenes left, which I’m probably going to do as one more chapter (unless they end up Super Long, then I might split it into two). That’ll close out Arc Seven, and the first big chunk of this fic. As I’ve said before, I’ll split off into a sequel fic (working title Protectors) at that point, along with doing a sort of…interquel, working title Preludes, that mostly deals with integrating Rebels content. Also probably Maul.

Right now, I’m tentatively planning six installments to Preludes? Mostly because six feels like a nice number to work with, lol. These will be one-shots that aren’t super interconnected, all taking place during the six-year timeskip. These are the ones I’m thinking about doing as of right now (subject to change, and I welcome suggestions!):

one involving Kallus on Coruscant, shortly before he gets reassigned to Lothal;

one involving Hera and whoever her contact is in this AU (since Ahsoka’s doing something different from the Fulcrum stuff);

one where Kanan and Ezra connect with Obi-Wan et al. (probably through Hondo);

one with Luke, probably similar to that one episode where Leia turns up in Rebels canon;

I really do need to figure out what the heck is going on with Maul, don’t I.

…something else????

The only ones I’m 100% sure about including are the one with Kallus and the one where the various Jedi link up because those are necessary and/or plot-relevant, though I’m still working out specifics (especially on the Jedi one). I may also include something with Thrawn, since I’m doing something different with him than canon did. Like I said, I welcome thoughts/suggestions/etc.

Protectors will then pick up six years after the end of Arc Seven, with Arc Eight. And, as a treat, the working titles for Arcs Eight and Nine are Escalation and Watershed. In theory, I’m planning to post Preludes alongside arcs eight and nine, but we’ll see.

…anyway, uh, what I forgot to mention earlier is that my plan is to wrap up arc seven/the first fic in this series this month. Hopefully I will actually pull that off XD. And then we move on to the other stuff.

Other SW Fic Projects:

Big Bang is coming up again! I think signups will be next month? I’m considering three different plotlines as of right now, though that’s assuming I don’t come up with something new and exciting and/or another ObiAniDala plotline, which is what I seem to do every year…which one I end up doing probably depends at least partly on how S2 of the Mandalorian goes, since two of the three ideas heavily feature Bo-Katan. Of course, one of those lacks a plot and the other is pretty episodic/involves a lot of blank space I still need to fill in…

Anyway, we’ll see how that goes after the show airs and I get more event information, especially since it’s going to be structured differently/teaming up writers and betas much earlier in the process, which will be nice and possibly help chronically-undecided me actually pick something so I’m not scrambling to finish at the last minute but given that it’s me I probably will be anyway XD

As for other SW projects…I still owe a few meme fills from, like, April…but otherwise, extant projects are mostly back-burnered for now.

AtLA Projects:

Aka, the reason why SW projects other than Precipice and SWBB (and any one-shots/prompt fills that occur to me) are back-burnered, lol.

I am working on an AU outline, set to come out this month. There’s a couple of fulltext fics I’m playing with. I haven’t gotten any actual text written down yet, but I know where I’m going with them, at least to start.

The AU outline will be a canon-divergent thing set during the Ba Sing Se arc, and will be hopefully out Soon.

Fulltext fic #1 is…basically, the premise is, Lu Ten had a lover during the Siege, the soundtrack to this fic involves a lot of West Side Story, he left her with someone to remember him by, and then there’s some mindbending and complicated politics after his death. I think I talked a little more about this in a previous post? Anyway, one of the things I’m considering is whether to just tell this story linearly, or to start several years later, and go into the whole star-crossed lovers backstory as she regains her memories of what actually happened. The advantage to the first option is that it’s easier to work with shifting POV, which I prefer; and also involves more canon characters more quickly. The advantage to the second is that I think it would work really well for this particular storyline? Assuming I could get people invested in her and/or Ba Sing Se Politics/Worldbuilding that fast …y’know, when I think about it like that, maybe linear is the best option, lol…

Fulltext fic #2 is an Avatar Zuko AU, where he figures it out at age thirteen, and at that point decides he has roughly three and a half years until the comet, aka three and a half years to figure out how to make all this work (not to mention at least starting to learn air, water, and earth), and hopefully by then he’ll know what he should be doing with it? Whether it’s to resurface and Prove His Worth by defending the Fire Nation during the leadup to the comet, or something else (though Something Else doesn’t quite occur to him until he starts doing the other stuff). This will heavily feature at least one of my old OCs, and probably a few others (and likely one or two new ones), especially during the first two years. I’ve got things more or less worked out up until Aang resurfaces and Zuko’s plans have to shift/he has to cut his earthbending year short (much to Toph’s annoyance). Because once Aang is awake, everyone thinks he’s the Avatar (he’s not; there’s another explanation for how he iceberg’d for a century), and that fact just escalates All Of The Things.

((I’ve mentioned before that I am Pathologically Incapable of not creating a bunch of OCs and AtLA is a particularly strong example of that, so...yeah, that’ll be a Thing in pretty much anything I write in this fandom))

…anyway, this should be fun, once I actually get actual text down XD

Original Fic:

I did write one thing last month! Which was nice. Hopefully, I’ll get a bit done this month, too. For those of you who don’t know, most of my original stuff is posted on rainbowfic, which is a great community and if you guys do original stuff you post online, you should come join.

I’ve also started poking at a couple of new concepts, because that is how my brain do. Including one Arthuriana story despite the fact that I’m not super into Arthuriana but then my brain was like “what if Mordred was a girl?” and welp. Here I am.

NaNo:

I’m proooooooobably going to do a similar setup to what I had the past couple years--set myself a wordcount goal, but not bind myself to any single project. Depending on how things go this month, either with Precipice!verse or SWBB or my AtLA stuff, or if that Mordred thing catches on, I might try to prioritize one or more things (like, have my goal be 20k on X project, and 30k on other stuff), but I’ll decide that closer to the date.

…I think that’s everything! What are you guys up to lately? Does anyone have NaNo plans? Any thoughts on stuff I mentioned on my docket, so to speak? What’s on your mind?

#miscellania #coming attractions #feedback greatly appreciated #shadowsong26fic #shadowsong writes star wars #shadowsong writes atla #shadowsong writes original fic

[bullshittierlists]

I see no god up here other than me

Ty Lee- Ty Lee is best girl and I find it hard to argue with that statement. She’s just so bouncy and cute and honestly really powerful for not being a bender. I mean, the ability to paralyze someone on contact, much less being able to pinpoint specific parts of the body to paralyze, it’s just incredible. She was so cute in that beach episode because all the guys hit on her, which of course they do, have you seen how cute she is? I’m not super on board with her backstory, but it wasn’t a huge part of her character, so it’s fine.

Sokka- The man, the myth, the legend. It’s been said before, but the only reason Sokka couldn’t bend is because the creators knew he’d be too powerful. That’s the same reason he has to put his hair up. Also, he’s totally bi, change my mind.

Jet- I have several friends that watch this show and that watched the show before me. They all knew that I’d like Jet because he’s a “backstabbing traitor” despite their hatred of him and I guess I have a trend of liking those characters. I jokingly agreed with them and was excited to meet him. Little did I know just how much I would fall in love with him. A lot of my friends say that it’s just because he’s cute or he’s a sad boy, but there are honestly so many reasons to love him. I absolutely adore psychology and deep-diving into the minds of characters and his mentality is so intriguing. You would think this would lean me more towards Zuko, then. But Zuko gets so much focus that his psychology is always precedent, right front and center. But Jet doesn’t get that spotlight. I originally liked him more because he was under-appreciated, but now I realize just how amazing he is. At a very surface level, his actions are bad. He’s trying to murder innocent people for the sake of getting rid of a few fire nation soldiers. But as soon as you look deeper into his intentions, you can clearly see how badly he wanted to do good. These types of characters are always the saddest, the characters who think they are helping the world by destroying it. They legitimately think that the actions they are taking are the right ones even when everyone around them thinks otherwise. Other examples of this type of character are JD from Heathers and even Hector from Castlevania to some extent. Yes, he acknowledges that he will be sacrificing innocent lives. But he also knows that he will be saving lives in the future by going through with the dam plan. There’s so much more I could say about him, but I’ve been rambling for long enough.

Zuko- There’s nothing I could say about Zuko that hasn’t been said before. I already gushed about Jet for entirely too long, so have this instead: Sokka and Zuko have a wonderful relationship and I think that both parties could have benefitted greatly from being together romantically. Thank you.

You’re the best

Iroh- What can I say? He’s a good old man with lots of wisdom that we should all take to heart.

Momo- Some of my favorite parts of the entire show were scenes with Sokka and Momo just vibing. There should’ve been more emphasis on Sokka’s relationship with the animals in general.

Appa- I was really excited when Sokka started flying on Appa without Aang the first time, because I thought that meant that Sokka had created a really unique bond with Appa and was the only other one that could fly him. I was mistaken and incredibly upset.

Teo- He’s just a cute boy. I like his goggles.

Hey, I think you’re pretty cool, I like you a lot

Azula- Oh boy. There’s so much here to say, but she’s been analyzed to death, so I won’t go on for too long. As much as I would’ve loved to see Azula on the “good guy” team, I’m really glad she didn’t get a redemption. Not her, specifically, but more the villains in general. Zuko’s redemption was marvelous and there’s nothing that will ever top it, but if Azula had also gotten that redemption, his would’ve been downcast. It would’ve showed that anyone’s capable of a redemption and that he wasn’t special, he was just lucky to have that change of heart. Which maybe that’s still true, but at least with the ending we got, we give Zuko that spotlight. But back to Azula, she’s pretty cool, as the category would suggest. The Girl Gang (Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee) were a treat to watch and I instantly fell in love with all three of them as soon as they were introduced. Then they had to change to the Gayng once Zuko joined and I still loved all of them.

Longshot- It was super powerful when he spoke for the first time in Jet’s “death” scene. That was the first time he had said anything and he made it count. He helped show how even thought Jet is a “bad guy” at the surface level, he was still good enough of a leader and a friend for his group to stay with him in his ultimate time of need.

Suki- She’s badass. That’s about it. All parts of The Boiling Rock were my favorite episodes and they featured her pretty heavily in the back half. And I was not complaining.

Toph- Again, badass.

Aang- He’s the main character. I don’t have any super negative things to say or any super positive things to say. So he’s just here.

Kuei- I know he doesn’t do anything, like at all, but I can’t get over him and his bear.

Yue- When I started watching this show, I knew about some of the ships and I wasn’t super into it. Which was weird, because I’m always super into shipping. I wouldn’t have watched some of my favorite shows if it weren’t for the shipping aspect. But I just couldn’t get on board with it in this show. Aang and Katara felt kinda forced and weird, Sokka and Suki was alright, but I couldn’t quite get into it. But when I first saw Sokka and Yue interacting, I was enthralled. I was in love with their relationship and I thought it was so cute. I was genuinely excited to see where their relationship would go. But you know what happened next.

Mai- When I first met Mai, I loved her. She was an emo girl that just didn’t want anything to do with anything. Obviously, I still love her, but just slightly less. Something happened to her in the third season, and though I can’t pinpoint quite what, I have a feeling it was Zuko. I’m not a huge fan of Mai and Zuko’s relationship and I’ll possibly elaborate on that in a future post, but it really felt like the worst possible scenario for both of their characters. I do like Mai and Ty Lee together, but the shipping doesn’t really have anything major to do with it. She just dropped in quality a little in the third season and became a love interest instead of a character.

Kyoshi- Peace was never an option.

I remember you

Cabbage guy- This is normally the type of character I’d put at the top of the list and use as a joke to pretend like I especially enjoy the joke characters. Sometimes I do, but this list’s tone was a little different than usual, so I figured I’d put him where I really thought he should go. He was funny, sure, but I don’t religiously follow him like I do Ty Lee and everyone else in the top tier.

The other characters in this tier are in no particular order. Most of them are here just because I remember seeing them a little bit, but I don’t really remember much about them or I remember just not caring.

You are literally the worst. Actual scum. Leave this planet and never return.

Haru- This is more directed towards his newly-grown facial hair. He was so cute in his first appearance and then he had to do that. Even Sokka’s “I flirt with everyone” bisexual ass thought it was grody.

Hama- Nothing against her, personally, bloodbending’s just gross.

Zhao- He’s a typical villain. I can appreciate that, I just don’t like him.

Katara- This will take some explaining. It’s unpopular, but so is everything I say. I think of Katara in about the same way I do Allura. She was bearable in the first season, annoying in the second, and flat-out awful in the third. I understand that characters should have flaws, and I appreciate when they do, but her flaws aren’t necessarily treated as such. The worst offender I can think of with her is when she accused Sokka of not missing their mom as much as she did. This broke my heart. Seeing Sokka’s depressed face as he realized what his sister thought of him. He had been seeing her as sort of a replacement for their mom, but she accuses him of moving on without a second thought despite how much effort he puts into remembering her. This obviously isn’t the only bad thing she’s done. Another huge offender is when she assumed losing her mom was worse than Aang losing his entire nation. And then the show just keeps moving like she’s justified in thinking that. She’s done so many other things that caused other characters to halt in their development or causing the plot to just stop completely. Most of her actions are nonsensical at best and harmful at worst, but the show portrays her as always being a caring motherly figure. She does act like that at times, but we still need to acknowledge when she doesn’t.

Ozai- Literally the same as Zhao except he hurt Zuko physically AND emotionally.

#bullshittierlists #atla #avatar the last airbender #was a little confused why I wasn’t getting any notes and then I realized I didn’t leave any tags #sorry to everyone who likes Katara #but it needed to be said #tier lists #ty lee

[isazulabaeorwhat]

You think Zuko intended to kill Azula when attempting to redirect lightning in their Agni kai

Gonna answer this real quick cuz it’s 2 am in the morning and I have school in 4 hrs lol

The fact is that Zuko had attempted to kill Azula before, and he was fine with letting her die back in The Southern Raiders. The laws of the Agni Kai calls for Zuko to burn Azula in order to win. Killing your opponent is optional, but apparently it became frequent during Sozin’s reign nonetheless.

We saw that Zuko was hands down beating Azula quickly and easily during their Agni Kai. Just a little burn, and he would’ve won the duel by then. But no. He decided to taunt Azula to use her lightning so he could redirect it back. Why do you think he did this? To burn Azula? Well, it definitely would’ve been the quickest way to end the fight since her death = a burn. Let’s not forget that Zuko also held a big grudge against Azula and he got defensive with Aang when he and Katara were lectured about violence and revenge not being the answer (hint Zuko obviously feels an enormous amount of hatred for Ozai and most likely Azula as well).

I’m just saying that it’s actually possible that that was what Zuko must’ve been up to when he taunted Azula to use her lightning. Everyone knows that lightning is deadly and you can be killed by it unless you know how to redirect it. The fastest way for a firebender to burn someone is to simply shoot a lightning bolt at them since it’s actually quite difficult to dodge them, but at the same time they’ll also probably kill the person so :/

If Zuko was fine with making and letting Azula die more than once, I don’t see why he wouldn’t feel the same at that moment either, especially with the way that he views Azula as some monster of a sister that apparently would ‘plot his own destruction, without shedding one tear.’ Lmao it’s not as if we ever saw Zuko actually do anything nice for Azula or even see any hint that he actually cares for her in anyway, right?

#ey if i dont make sense #srry xD

[dent-de-leon]

Because I’ve gotten countless asks and shitty replies on all my posts about this, I’m addressing it right here and now--why I still ship sheith and it’s not “dead,” here we go:

So, let’s get started with the dreaded ages thing that always comes up, just get that out of the way. According to the guidebook, they were 18 and 25 respectively at the start of the series. Shiro hasn’t aged in the astral plane. Since, you know he’s been dead. And it's more or less implied that Shiro has been gone for months, and then they meet Lotor and there's the whole time that conflict plays out, then we fastforward to after he lays low and keith says "Lotor hasn’t been seen for months.” We can infer that more or less a year has elapsed since Shiro’s death/disappearance. Adding in the two year time skip, that puts them at about 21 and 25 respectively. You know, a completely reasonable age difference. 

There’s literally nothing indicating Keith was adopted by Shiro period. You realize the guy was probably like 19/20 around that time, right? No 20 year old is out here going to college and thinking ‘hey, why don’t I adopt a teenager?’ I should know--I sure as hell aren’t. You barely feel like you can take care of yourself and a houseplant at that point, let alone a whole other person. 

People claim that Shiro had the “power” to send Keith back to the home because he was his guardian?? That’s not the case. He vouched for Keith, which is how he ended up in the garrison in the first place. When Keith tells Shiro to just throw him back in the home, he’s referencing something said by the other officer only moments before--the only reason he’s here is because of Shiro. One word from Shiro, and literally the whole thing’s off. Keith has very limited options here, and he knows it. 

Shiro seemed to be a recruitment officer sent to Keith’s school to look for new cadets. We can tell because Keith isn’t in the cadet uniform in that shot--he’s in a school setting in plain civilian clothes. Shiro is standing at the front of the room in his officer uniform, and it seems that the teacher is introducing him as a kind of guest speaker. Then there’s the flashback where he and Keith are standing beside Kogane’s hoverbike, implying that Shiro saw his skill as a pilot firsthand and was determined to get him in the garrison--to secure him a better future. Krolia’s thanks to Shiro is in relation to what we already know--that Shiro was there for Keith when he had no one, that he led him down the right path and changed his life for the better. His “guiding light,” as the show runners have said. 

But then they got older, and it’s very clear their relationship changed. The two are equals from the start of season 1, that much is obvious. Now that Keith is older, he’s able to protect Shiro in turn. In fact, more often than not, he’s shown to be the one caring for Shiro instead of the other way around. He’s the one always running to Shiro’s rescue and saving him from certain doom. Some people are so stuck on the flashback, but it’s painfully obvious that he’s no longer a child--after the time skip, he’s been explicitly referred to as a man. I think Keith looked up to Shiro a lot when he was younger, but now that he’s so much older and they’re closer in age, now that he’s had all this time to ruminate on it--there’s clearly something else there.

And Shiro sees Keith in a whole new light in turn, which is clear when he’s so thrown off by seeing older Keith. “Lance is right. You have changed.” I don’t understand how people can acknowlege two characters can change without their relationship evolving in turn--these have always been dynamic characters, nothing is static. It’s like how people claimed Allura was still annoyed by Lance and wanted nothing to do with him after she explicitly said she enjoyed his company. You can acknowledge that characters’ relationships are subject to change, that they can grow and develop and be organic, and move on. 

People latch onto the brother line and insist I can’t read, but then promptly ignore the fact that Kuron was completely unmoved by it. The thing that actually breaks through to him, that yields a very gutting, visceral reaction--that’s Keith’s breathless admission of, “I love you.” He also looks completely shocked by it, which doesn’t make any sense if this was coming from a familial love context that he was familiar with. 

In this season, sheith also covered a number of timeless romantic tropes reserved for a character’s love interest. The same exact tropes that fans praised as High Romance when they presumed it would be in relation to k/l, but then immediately backtracked to “oh,, it’s just familiar!!” as soon as those plot points were given to sheith instead. Shiro and Keith’s relationship is also shown to directly parallel Kogane and Krolia, as well as Zaggar--both canon romantic relationships. Not to mention the very noticeable korrasami parallel. You know, as if their relationship was designed to be interpreted as romantic. 

This is also literally the one and only declaration of I love you in the entire series, something not even explicitly romantic couples like Keith’s parents or Zaggar have shared. It’s completely unique to Shiro and Keith’s relationship, and holds just so much gravity to it. This isn’t even taking into account that distinctly romantic variations of “love” were used in other dubs, such as the Japanese aishteru. 

Nevermind that it’s common for someone that’s gay to refer to a close friend of the same gender as being “like a brother/sister” to avoid confessing their true feelings. Hell, I’ve done it before. And I’ve seen so many other LGBT people express relating to that aspect of Shiro and Keith’s relationship, that it’s a struck a cord with many other fans like me. 

When you’re talking about wanting LGBT rep--rep that Lauren and Joaquim mentioned they have been working towards and fighting for since the beginning--but then you willfully ignore and tear down the one relationship that’s been built up like that, when you understand that they might not have been able to get the explicit rep they wanted but still demonize the subtle hints of it, when you make actual LGBT fans feel like shit for identifying with this sort of narrative--you’re really missing the point. 

You know what else is very telling? That this was the one episode Joaquim directed himself--he cared so much about Keith and Shiro’s dynamic, he wanted to just go all out and really made the episode his. That’s how much this episode--this dynamic between Keith and Shiro--mattered to him. Here’s some commentary on it:

Marc: “Speaking of credits we’re not used to seeing—Joaquim, you wrote an episode!”

Joaquim: “I did!…Super excited. You know, it’s one of those things that I wanted to do for many, many years now, and finally got to an EP position. I said, ‘Guys, I’m just gonna write one of these things. And, you know—I’m emotionally attached to both Keith and Shiro, and had some ideas on how that episode could play out.”

Marc: “So you’re the one that has to decide how the battle between Keith and Shiro pans out.”

Joaquim: “Somewhat. Along with a consortium of awesome writers, and Lauren, board artists—yeah.”

Lauren: “Everything in animation is teamwork, but it was definitely Joaquim’s brain child. 

Joaquim: “…when you’ve gotta go back and do painful story edits on scenes that you wrote, it feels like somebody’s limbs are getting cut off.” (source)

Let’s also not forget the brother line has been used for a number of relationships that still became canon--Aang and Katara, Ed and Winry, Ginny and Harry, ect. And lastly, before you still want to call me a monster, let’s not forget that the staff supports sheith in a romantic context, and has since the beginning. They also are more than happy to talk about their intimate relationship. But I mean, of course,, the staff must hate us for this, right? Surely, they never intended for this relationship

to be interpreted as

potentially romantic,,

And sure, it could be that sheith will never be canon--or that it will to some degree, but not explicitly--either way, there’s literally no reason to demonize other fans for shipping it. Especially when the staff themselves have always supported it. If you think you need to take the time to comment on every single sheith post that “they’re only brothers!! You’re disgusting!!!” ect, don’t expect the staff to ever support or even tolerate you, becuase you are the reason both they and the fans are feeling alienated, you are the ones continually harassing the staff for just wanting to have fun. Besides, Shiro and Keith already have “the closest relationship” in canon--Joaquim’s words, not mine--and they love one another. Literally nothing can take that away from them, and if LGBT fans see themselves in these characters, who are you to lash out at them for it? 

#sheith #voltron spoilers #shiro #keith #voltron

[ragnarssons]

You watch a show where a literal 12-year-old is raped by a much, much older man (Daenyries is 13 in the book, but you get the idea) and it's romanticised as a healthy relationship, but you're gonna object to a 12-year-old (Madi) shooting/killing someone? Grow up, it's badass. I'm guessing you had a fairly easy childhood based off of the both of those facts.

LMFAO. Okay, again a very brave “anon” sending assumptions about people they know nothing about. Yeah you can talk about bravery or badassery.First, it’s Daenerys* like, it’s not that hard to spell.Anyway. I watch GoT and I watch The 100, so idk why you’re arguing about “you watch that one sooo!” because I watch both. But just because I watch these show, doesn’t mean I condone every storyline happening on said shows. Guess what *shrugs* I also watched Shireen getting burnt alive by her own father! Again, doesn’t mean I like the storyline, just because I watch the show. The differences are:- GoT happens in a medieval settings, and I know people don’t like this argument, but there are some realistic elements to these storylines were very young girls are treated as women - expected to grow up fast - and are mistreated - raped and all. I knew what I was going into when I started watching GoT. - all these storylines are presented as BAD: Shireen is Stannis’ ultimate crime, Daenerys is on the verge of suicide because of Khal Drogo, and just because she’s learnt to adapt to survive, doesn’t mean it makes all the aspects of the relationship good or acceptable, nor does it wash over the fact that she was raped on their wedding night (on the show at least). - Emilia Clarke, despite playing a 15 yo on the show, was much older and tbh it helps making it easier to stomach. Lola is like 15 years old. The thing is, on The 100, it’s EXPECTED of the audience to cheer on that kid killing people. It’d be like GoT expecting us to cheer on Shireen getting murdered or Daenerys getting raped: it doesn’t! Seeing a child’s innocence getting butchered by life isn’t something I want to cheer to: whether it’s because that child is forced to become a killer, or is raped, or whatever else. I don’t need to “grow up” to find that badass: actually, anon, YOU should grow up and learn to cherrish the times of innocence in your life. I bet you’re some kind of “edgy teenager” thinking you know everything about life because you think a 12 yo holding a gun and shooting adults to survive is “badass”. Again, you’re bringing GoT into this: WEIRD, I had actually argued against GoT doing the same thing! As I said, I also don’t like Arya’s s4 storyline, BECAUSE the show is like “look at how badass she iiiis!!! Slowly killing a maaaan, BADASS!!!!” when NO I don’t think it is. On the show’s canon, at that point, Arya is like… 12 years old? Again, watching a 12 yo coldly murdering people and having no regard for human life is a NO to me. And guess what anon? You don’t get to tell people to “grow up” over anything they feel. You don’t get to make assumptions about people you know nothing about, just over tv shows and because you want to defend some shit writing that wants you to blindly be like “BLUUUUUUGH BADAAAAAAAS!!!” over kids killing people. Thing is, we literally have The 100 itself portraying the “duty” of killing other people, as a horrible thing happening to children: Lxa being forced into the “love is weakness” mentality and Luna having to FLEE her conclave in order to stay sane. So the show trying to make it all “badass” now because it’s Madi, NO THANK YOU. Madi was still forced into that position while there were 100 other possibilities of avoiding war WITHOUT putting a child on the front line, and forcing a piece of metal brainwashing her, into her skull! There are ACTUAL ADULTS who SHOULD take the responsability of leadership and not put it on children’s shoulders. That’s something that has made me progressively hate all the adult characters on this show: fuck Kane, Abby and Jaha, all cowards, letting kids to the dirty work for them. And fuck the Grounders for building their “culture” on the massacre of children and the idea of childhood. We know there are other options, from Madi’s family itself! Madi’s parents who hid her and protected her against this stupid culture! All for what? For the show to be like “?? what? It’s BADASS!” Uh, no.The show wanting us to be like “wow how crazy Clarke is for wanting to protect her child from a duty that got her ex-girlfriend MURDERED and that could ruin her entire childhood- not to mention, put her life in danger??” is just stupid. I’ll NEVER be okay with a bunch of adults, dropping responsability on a 12 years old, rather than DOING THINGS themselves. Like, actually being adults, and doing the hard choices themselves- something Clarke did last season- for her child’s sake, and if anything, I can at least admire her for that. The best stories are the ones where human emotions aren’t thrown into a void of inhumanity for the sake of “badass storytelling”. To me, THE BEST tv show and hero, by far, are ATLA and Aang. So many people call him selfish for wanting to hold on to “his values” while there’s a war. But it’s actually the bravest thing to do. Not being eaten and destroyed by war or conflict or people trying to destroy you. Aang’s journey (and I’d say, probably the Elric’s brothers journey, from FMAB) is top-notch because they show you how it’s possible to do good, badass, world-changing things WITHOUT getting corrupted by the world, or war. Everything hard in life shapes you, but it doesn’t have to destroy you or change you. It’s also what is so strong about Harry Potter, and what makes The Hunger Games so tragic. I can’t believe we live in a world today, where people would rather see children butchering other human beings, rather than children learning the value of life, or the value of everything that is good about their childhood. I can’t believe we live in a world where people can watch Aang’s journey and call it boring, or call him selfish, for wanting to remain what he feels like is himself with values that make him a human being, able to live with himself, despite war and everything horrible that’s happened to him. I can’t believe we live in a world so disensitized to violence and destruction (whether it’s in fiction or irl), to the point of being okay when it reaches children. I can’t believe we live in a world where fiction puts guns/swords in kids’ hands, has them murdering people, and viewers/readers are just like “!!!! this badass 9 years old butchering people!!!” (in Arya’s case) or “!!!!!! badass 12 years old madi who was once thinking about berries for her hair but loves to kill people now!!! bad-ass!!!!”. You’re allowed to be critical of the works of fiction you consume, you know that, right? You’re allowed to think “hey… that’s not right!” when an author or a director portrays something on screen, you know that, right? I know actual REAL nine years old. Would I ever want them to become like Arya, like Carl? I know 12 years old, would I ever want them to see become like Madi? NO. And even if it’s “just fiction” portraying these children doing these things, I’ll still say it’s WRONG to do so. I mean, yeah it’s easier to just want some badass fighting sequences, it’s easier to want to go the easy way where it’s bing bang boom!, everyone dies and there are badass explosions! It’s not what I want/like when I consume fiction. It’s not the characters I want to cheer for when I watch something. And guess what, shit-anon? I know that precisely because I had a tough childhood. A childhood where I wasn’t allowed to be a child because I had to “grow up” - as you say it so nicely - faster than any other of my friends because I had to deal with stuff. But HEYYY you know everything, right, anon?? Because you are out there, shaming people for not cheering for a child taking people’s lives on a tv show. Good for you, you’ve managed to make me waste like 10 minutes of my time answering to you, now go back crawling to your “anonymous” corner and go harrass someone else- or maybe, idk, if you think children being enrolled in wars is “badass”, go in some foreign countries and go cheer for these kids who are constantly thrown in the middle of conflicts they have nothing to do with? I mean? It’s “badass”, right, childhood being butchered by war and death? Yeh. So badass.

#anyway go fuck yourself #answered #anonymous #tw rape mention #when u go personal i get angry

[comradekatara]

the comics need to stop adding new convoluted plotpoints that dont make sense, and instead write a self-contained story with an A-plot, a B-plot, and a C-plot that all connect somehow. a quest narrative of sorts where they’re all split up and each on their own separate missions that force them to solve their internal conflicts, while also furthering the narrative thematically both in terms of the tensions established in the subplots and in the narrative thread running throughout. this is like, basic separate-but-together quest narrative 101, but. yknow.

here are some hypothetical suggestions for these subplots:

first option

A-plot: aang and azula are forced to work together in the heart of the swamp. azula feels shame as she is all alone with aang and must actually confront him, so she retaliates by being cruel to aang and insulting his intelligence. aang is never not nice to her, insistent that she’d like him if she got to know him––but that’s what she’s afraid of. the stress of the swamp causes her to nearly break down completely again, but she forces herself to persevere through it, snarky remarks as her coping mechanism. aang repeatedly saves her life from the swamp, which she finds she can neither outwit nor bend her way out of. instead, she must embrace the entropy, and through aang’s wisdom, she begins to find a sense of inner peace. she starts to admit that she has a lot to learn from him, though that still hurts to think about. they don’t leave as friends, exactly, but they’re getting there.

B-plot: sokka, katara, and zuko are sent to the north pole for [x plot device], where they are all forced to confront their pasts. though they are on a diplomatic mission, it doesn’t take much for them to all get sidetracked. katara grows furious when she sees that absolutely no progress has been made in regard to women’s rights, and she yells a lot, at yue’s dumb patriarchal dad, at pakku, and at sokka and zuko for trying to help (she doesn’t need their man opinions trying to speak over her!!!!!! zuko’s just like, “i literally didnt say anything.........”) and eventually she rallies the women of the tribe and basically incites an entire feminist movement. upon seeing yue’s dad again, sokka is forced to confront memories he tries his hardest to bury deep. now that he finally has time to breathe, he lets himself acknowledge his guilt complex when it comes to protecting people. and zuko is given a second chance to amend his “that’s rough buddy” into actual, genuine emotional support. meanwhile, the north pole is stirring bad memories for zuko, but for other reasons. he must confront his guilt over all the dumb shit he did when he was 16; he must acknowledge how this was a turning point in his life, when he teetered on the edge of life and death just to fulfill his goal of capturing the avatar; when he watched zhao die. he never had the opportunity to confront that properly. he gets to now, and katara and sokka are there with him. sidenote: i think their dynamic makes for an excellent trio by virtue of them all being a third wheel. anyway they get the macguffin that symbolically represents their emotional journey. no i dont know what said macguffin is what am i a writer (jk its probably a mirror)

C-plot: toph, suki, mai, and ty lee complete their side of the quest without breaking a sweat. the four of them? together? please. they’re unstoppable. but they soon realize this, and decide that if they’re going to be given the opportunity to hang out just the four of them, they’re going to do it right. so occasionally, from aang & azula’s internal-tension-filled plot, and sokka katara & zuko’s swelling emotions plot, we just see toph, suki, mai, & ty lee fucking shit up and having a blast. we don’t see everything that they get up to, though a lot is alluded to, and it sounds cool as hell. they conclude their adventure with the realization that maybe they’re too powerful, and they should be more responsible with that power. but then toph’s like ............nah, and they all shrug and nod.

second option

A-plot: sokka, toph, and azula are on a boat. why are they on a boat? idk. reasons. anyway, toph does not like boats, and she very loudly affirms this at least once a page. though not so secretly she feels a lot safer than she otherwise would because sokka is there. azula also doesn’t like that they’re on a boat. she feels trapped. and she knows that even though they likely won’t, sokka and toph could take her down at any time, regardless of the fact that toph is unsteady, she’s on a ship made of metal, and azula’s not going anywhere. sokka doesn’t have a problem with boats. he grew up using boats all the time. he’s built boats. but he also really wishes katara were here, because without her, unfortunately, the tides do control this ship. a bunch of pirates try to take control, and practically obliterate the rest of their crew, and they all have to use their own unique brand of ingenuity to save the others. azula comes to respect them even more, and they her. sokka and toph already respect each other a hell of a lot, but i guess they exceed maximum respect levels cause that’s how cool the other thinks they are (and they’d be right!) and they forge a genuine friendship with azula for the ages, which sokka was previously highly skeptical of, but.... she’s nice now. somewhat. she’s mellowed out a bit, even if she’s still incredibly high-strung and weird. but who is he to judge? ‘cause hey, at the end of the day, they make a great team.

B-plot: aang is given an important Mission, and he’s ready to go in alone. after all, katara is busy, sokka is busy, toph is busy, zuko is busy. but suki offers her services, and she and ty lee flank him on his Journey. aang realizes that even though suki’s a part of their group, he doesn’t really know her at all. so he decides he’s going to learn. he asks about her past, her upbringing, her plans for the future. he asks the same about ty lee. we see flashbacks to all three of their childhoods, and what motivated them to become who they are today. aang was just a carefree kid, and he shied away from any type of responsibility; now, he’s carrying the entire world on his shoulders. even though she looked exactly the same as all her sisters, or maybe because of it, ty lee always felt like an outsider in her family. it’s clear that underneath their picture-perfect facade of upper-middle class stability that her father insisted they project, there was a deep strain on all of them, and the cracks seeped through. ty lee always felt like it was her job to mediate, and she soon learned to manipulate people into being satisfied with what they had, instead of what they wanted. but one day, she realized, it wasn’t her job to be that person in an environment where she already felt alien, so she ran off to join the circus. only when azula resurfaced in her life did she have to adopt her facade again, out of survival. and suki was raised by wolves. (ok i’m kidding––or am i––but tbh her backstory deserves a post of its own so..) anyway, aang ends up learning a lot about two people he never made any prior attempts to befriend, and learns about himself along the way. go team! 

C-plot: zuko is forced to act as a mediator between mai and katara, who both find the other teeth-grindingly offputting. zuko really just wants to focus on Doing The Thing because the fact that the Thing has not been Done is stressing him out. but mai and katara clearly have issues between them that are in need of solving, and zuko cares about them both very much, so it’s hard for him to see them snipe at each other all the time. especially because he keeps getting dragged further and further into their arguments, to the point where they’re basically just arguing over who has more of a claim to him. mai says they used to date, katara’s like, “yeah for 2 months and it sucked what’s your point,” and katara’s like “he jumped in front of lightning for me,” but mai’s just like “he would do that for a stray cat whats your point.” zuko’s just like “listen. i would die for both of you. but if you don’t shut up i’ll kill you myself.” ultimately, the Conflict is Resolved, and in the most climactic moment, katara saves mai’s life. mai is grateful, and has enough humility to acknowledge this. katara’s like, “of course. i’d do anything for my friends.” and they still don’t like each other but the animosity has quelled considerably. and then they realize that they may have absolutely nothing in common, but they can still bond over making fun of zuko. the whole way back they swap stories about him being a Fucking Nerd, and zuko’s just like, “i’ve made a huge mistake.” 

third option

A-plot: aang, zuko, azula, and ty lee are somehow tasked with a Plot-Relevant Burden, and shit gets real. these four people have so much baggage among each other that while they all insist to put their feelings away for the sake of the mission, tension bubbles to the surface anyway, and zuko and azula all but get in a row. aang and ty lee bond over having to be the mediators, while also acknowledging the harm azula caused both of them. they all get trapped in a Magical Cave of Logic Puzzles (fuck it its a comic idk) that they must solve before they can pass. aang and azula are both isolated, but their monologue is external because of course they both talk to themselves. aang considers it a fun game, azula is determined to crush this cave just like she obliterates all her enemies. zuko and ty lee meanwhile, are trapped together, but neither of them have any idea what’s going on in this wack cave. they eventually talk through all their feelings, and reconcile in a way zuko never in a million years expected to with ty lee of all people. then she reveals she had the answer to the puzzle all along and just wanted to facilitate an honest conversation. zuko would be mad, but honestly he’s just impressed. they all return into the light of day again, and the sunlight feels cleansing. 

B-plot: katara, toph, and suki soon realize that they make for a more awkward trio than they anticipated. at first katara had been very insistent that it was finally time for just the girls to go on an adventure together, but it becomes readily apparent that without sokka......they have nothing to talk about??? and they’re all like. fuck. is sokka really that important to the fabric of our friendgroup?? the answer is, of course he is, but it pisses them all off. they can be friends outside of sokka! as a matter of fact, fuck sokka! who needs him? not them, certainly. they’re the world’s most powerful waterbender, earthbender, and non-bending warrior respectively! what does sokka have? a sword? some maps??? so they may not have many things in common, but their sheer willpower & determination is shared among them in spades. they complete their Task with great competency, and they’re all like “FUCK YEAH.” sokka is very confused as to why all three of them tackle him in a hug next time they see him. 

C-plot: no grand quest. no adventure. mai simply finds a bat hanging in the corner of her room, and happens to notice sokka walking by. she summons him into her room, where she points at the bat with disgust. sokka’s like, “you’ve got to be kidding me. it’s just a bat. i’d think you’d love bats.” and mai’s like “then u are mistaken.” so sokka sighs and says he’ll take care of it, opens the window, closes the door, and tries to coax the bat into the night air gently. unfortunately, sokka’s execution is less than poor. the bat flies at his face, at which he lets out a very dignified shriek, and the bat starts flying around the room like crazy. for some reason, it refuses to just go through the window. mai and sokka, both fearing for the bat’s safety as well as their own, take the only logical option and hide in her closet until the bat leaves. after a while, they can no longer hear its indomitable screeching, so they open the door to the closet just a crack, only to see that it had actually tired itself out to the point of exhaustion and seemed to have fallen directly onto her bed. mai’s like “ewwww i sleep there sokka get rid of it!!!!!!!!!” and sokka’s like, “i can’t just throw it out the window!! it’ll die???” and mai’s like “this is why we need an animal control department.” which gives sokka a great idea. he tells mai to stay put and mai’s just like “you mean alone????? with the bat??????” sokka runs back moments later with a stricken zuko. “mai, are you all right???” he pants desperately, to which mai rolls her eyes and is like “yeah bitch im fine.” zuko turns to sokka and glowers. “you said there was an emergency in mai’s room! i thought she’d been–– oh what’s that???” they introduce zuko to the batshit bat, which sokka has named Squeaky, and zuko immediately knows what to do, and soon later it flies through the open window without a care. sokka’s just like “man, you really should’ve asked zuko for help instead of me.” and mai’s just like, “well... you were there. and youre.. competent.” and sokka looks around at the mess squeaky made of mai’s room and he’s like “u sure of that???” and it suddenly hits them just how uncouth this entire affair was, especially considering that zuko was the one who came out looking most competent (which they both deeply resent). they vow never to speak of it again.

#so the last one is just a story about a bat #......and? #aang #azula #toph #sokka #suki #mai #ty lee #zuko #katara #cant tag this as AUs bc it's canon-compliant! #but i gotta tag it something............ #comics that are better than gene yangs hack writing #:) #there we go :) #postwargaang

[emletish-fish]

Worst Prisoner chapter 16 notes:

A03

ff.net

So this is the end of book 1. I was originally planning on splitting the story into three parts – So it didn't look so incredibly long when I looked at the word count. Book two would be called the illusion of separation. I may still do that, or I may keep it all together here. I'm still tossing up about it.  

Updated note:

I will do that. The installment will be Worst Prisoner 2: the re-prison-ing!! nah, just jokes. It will be called the illusion of separation.  And now for notes:

This chapter mostly deals with falling action from the siege, and sets up stuff for book 2.

So I shamelessly used “We thought you were dead!” trope in this chapter, to help Katara recognise a few things. In my first draft Katara didn't find out for another few chapters that Zuko was definitely alive. When I finally came around to planning and writing this story out I just couldn't...it was too mean to her.  She would have been all Leo Decaprio from Baz Lurhman’s 90′s masterpiece for chapters and chapters. So she only thinks he's dead for one day here – but goodness would that had been enough. There would have been so much bitter regret going through the poor girl!  So she was leo - but only for a day.

I just wanted to clarify that Zuko was planning on breaking out of the North Pole with Aang, lifting his banishment, and then returning Aang to the safety of the North Pole, before returning to the ship. I don't think he'd deliberately betray them that way after everything. He wasn't going to hand Aang over to the FN. I don't know if I made this clear enough based of some responses to the last chapter.  I'll see if I can expand the terrible plan paragraph to make it clearer.

It's a pretty terrible plan, but Zuko would have been clutching at straws.  Katara would have been furious at him, but I wouldn't put in on the same anger level as after  Ba Sing  Se.  However, for the day when she thinks the result of her actions was gruesome blob-monster death for her boyfriend, she would have been beyond heartbroken. It helped clarify her feelings. She was angry at him, but she still loved him, faults and all. His faults are very similar to her faults after all – they are both impulsive and tempestuous.  Katara would have recognised panicked desperation for what it was, and bitterly regretted the way she reacted, even if she didn't see any other options at the time. When she was talking about Aang loving Zuko and never getting over it, she would have been projecting hardcore.

let’s have another leo gif:

Also they both got to realise that taking their anger and grief out on proxy people/lashing out does not help their situation. Zuko realised last chapter that hurting Zhao would not bring him anything he wanted. Katara realised that no matter what she did to Pakku, it wouldn't bring her boyfriend back to her.  This is an important lesson for both of them.

Pakku  has been scolded by Yugoda, and he is going to have to make some real changes – but now he is much more motivated to do so, now that he has 'lost' Katara's affection and respect. He is going on his own journey of discovery, because frankly he needs to leave the North and see a bit more of the world to grow. I also don't think it needs to be Katara's job to teach him, because that girl has enough on her plate already.  Helping a guy in his mid-sixties grow up - ain’t nobody got time for that.

Aang also needed a more personal motivation for really looking at what happened at the North. I feel like he never really thought about the fact that he occasioned the death of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people  during the Siege of the North.  

When he hopes on his little soapbox during the Sozin's comet arc, and went on about how he would never do anything to hurt a fly ever, I was confused. Did I imagine the Seige of the North? The Buzzard wasp? The fact that less than 10 episodes ago, Aang was okay with breaking into the palace and killing Ozai? Anyway, I  like Aang, and I would prefer to chalk this one up to either sloppy writing, or a lack of self-awareness and self reflection – as opposed to malicious and deliberately hypocritical obstinacy.  

Aang has never really thought about these things deeply, because they are very unpleasant and he avoids them, like he avoids most things he finds unpleasant.  However, when the parade of lies collapses and he realises that Sokka and Katara both assumed he had murdered Zuko through ocean spirit mojo,  he is going to want to find out for himself and really examine what happened.  He will face the unpleasant head-on. Go Aang - growth for you!

Iroh's secret is out. Zuko now knows about the white lotus well before he did in canon. It is actually a huge secret that Iroh kept from him. It's not going to escape Zuko's notice how a massive, international network of spies and agents could have really helped him during his three years of fruitless searching, but Iroh said nothing.

Zuko loves his uncle, but a lie of omission of that magnitude is going to affect how he sees his Uncle. There is so much love and affection there, but there is also perpetual grumpiness, an the ability to leap to the worst conclusions and a tendency to lash out (Zuko's)  and a literal ocean load of secrets and obscure proverbs (Iroh's).  Their growing conflict over the secrets will help them appreciate and communicate with each other much better, and get them closer to the beautiful relationship they have by the end of the series.

So this is the end of Worst Prisoner, which co-incided with book 1:water.  During writing this, I always went with a water or ice metaphor if I could (Zuko sounds like he’s talk to her from under water, Katara’s gaze is icy etc). Water is the element of change and our core four got some massive changes and grew in really surprising ways. 

Next book will be set in the Earth Kingdom, and Earth is the element of substance. These positive changes and growth are going to become more solid and evident. Bring on the rock metaphors in the illusion of separation.

.  

#the worst prisoner #worst prisoner #emletish writes #emletish rants #emletish fic #Zuko #Katara #Zutara #Sokka #Aang #Iroh #Yugoda

[bellatrixobsessed1]

I’ll Meet You At The Bottom Part 32

Since my birthday is tomorrow I may or may not put another chapter out that day. Like Imma try, but I make no promises. 

Azula had to laugh, at least to herself. She had left the Ash Pit with intentions to never go back and there she was brining it home with her. Fair was fair though, she had to deal with Sokka’s stupid friends now he’d have to deal with her sketchy companions. “Just pick one already.” She sighed at Bo-Rem.

 “I don’t like any of them.” The girl grumbled. “And the one’s I do are too small.” She held up another shirt that had no room to accommodate her muscles. “Ya know what, I’m just going to check the men’s section.”

 “What’re we doin’ here?” Yoko barked as he gestured about the marketplace. “Taeyul needs help ‘n you need to fix yer priorities.”  

 “I do have my priorities straight.” Azula argued. “If you actually want to make it into the palace, you all are going to have to looked respectable.” She looked at the sorry lot. “Or at least, presentable.” Azula entertained herself by picking through a few articles of clothing. She looked up from it to see Yoko still loitering about. “The sooner you pick something, the sooner we can leave. He plucked something from a hanger without looking and handed it to her. “Are you sure that you want that one?”

 Without looking at it he nodded.

 “Alright, fine.” She rolled her eyes. Whether he liked it or not, he would be wearing it. It was the most childish looking dress attire she’d ever seen in the men’s section. Boryuk found something remotely quick, while Yoona was off in the back fumbling with a particularly elaborate, multipiece kimono. The girl had no idea how to wear it properly and was lost in a forest of fine fabric. “How about we try something a little easier.” Azula suggested, leading her over to the once piece dresses.

 “Why don’t Taeyul have to do this?” Yoko complained.

 Azula blinked, this question she wouldn’t dignify with a response. Instead she turned to Kohza. He, unlike the rest of them, seemed to be relishing in the experience. This was part of the higher life he had been longing to part take in and was eagerly sifting through each robe he could spy. He seemed to love each and every one for a different reason. Which was almost as bad as detesting them all. He was taking just as long as Bo-Rem but for a completely opposite reason.

 Chan, unaspiringly, picked out something with ease and took to glaring at Sokka who glared back; an unbreakable display of no-contact testosterone. Azula had an unweaving suspicion that Sokka had started this ridiculous staring contest. She made a point of directly standing in the incorporeal line their strong eye contact was creating. She could practically feel the tension beaming through her soul, but it was worth it to have ended their little pissing contest. “Chan, go help Kohza pick his favorite.”

 He shoved himself off of the shelf he had been leaning on and sulked over to Kohza.

 “What about me, what do I get to do?” Sokka asked.

 “You can keep an eye on Taeyul or go help Bo-Rem, your pick.”

 “Is, ‘keep standing right over here’ an option?” Sokka replied.

 “It was until you asked for something to do.” Azula shrugged.

 She watched him—equally as cross as his newfound rival—make his way towards Taeyul. That left her, was there ever any doubt, to Bo-Rem. It took much longer than it should have, but at last Azula found something that Bo-Rem could tolerate.  From there it was remotely easy. Despite so, the princess found herself growing antsy; she was itching to finally get back to her training. Bo-Rem’s prior commentary might have hit a little closer to home than she was willing to admit. Even without, Azula missed going through the rigorous motions of firebending. With Zuko well on his way to Ember Island—she didn’t believe that he actually would until the boat was actually on its way with him in it—there would be no hassle at all in getting the group into the palace. She was, after all, their temporary Fire Lord, if she wanted to bring in a bunch of shady ruffians, they’d have to let her. “Now, if everybody except Chan and Khoza keeps quiet, everything should go smoothly. Azula settled her gaze on Yoona and her constant stream of almost intangible babble. She went blissfully undaunted by Azula’s stare.

 “See that tree, Chan?” Sokka asked as he pointed to the dragon maple. “That’s our spot, mine and Azula’s. It has been for a while now.”

 “Good to finally be informed.” Azula muttered.

 “So?” Chan asked.

 “So, you can’t go under it.”

 “I don’t want to go under your stupid tree!” Chan threw his hands up. “I don’t even like trees!”

 “Who doesn’t like trees?” Sokka shouted. This was more pointless than any argument Azula had ever tried to start with him.  She made sure to stomp it out before they finished crossing the courtyard. Once inside the palace they were greeted by Aang. It didn’t take long for the other two to appear.

 “Idiots of Sokka, meet my, probably bigger, idiots.” Azula introduced. “I’ll let you all get to know each other.”

 “I like her.” Toph pointed at Bo-Rem.

 “Wait, where are you going?” Sokka asked.

 “I have to work on my firebending. I’m sure Chan can handle…”

 “No he can’t.” Sokka whispered.

 “You’re right, he doesn’t know who to ask.” Azula resigned to wasting another few moments. “Katara, that’s Taeyul. You can help him, yes?”

 “I think that I can.” She nodded. And after inspecting him for a few moments, backtracked some. “I hope that I can. He’s…he’s not in good shape.”

 “If you can help me, I’m sure you can help him.” Azula assured.

 “Azula, you were never that close to death.”

 Azula shuddered at the possibility that she was close at all and wondered exactly which time that had been.

 “I’ll see what I can do.”

 “Mind if I come train with you?” Chan asked.

 The idea of him watching her when her skills were so rusty…so neglected sent a new kind of dread radiating through her. He was one of the few who still had a mostly polished, untainted version of her. No, she planned on training alone—her firebending was one area where everyone still had a pristine impression. If not, they had high expectations; not quite at the altitude of her own, but still high. “I train alone.”

 “Since when?” He asked.

 Since you asked, the retort was on the tip of her tongue. “Since I decided that I need to focus.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Besides, you have some bonding to do.”

 Chan looked reluctantly at the gang.

 It didn’t take long, not at all. In fact, she had taken only a few steps into the adjoining hall when she heard footsteps padding along behind her. Sokka had a very distinct step sound, heavy but in a soft sort of way that she couldn’t explain with certainty. It might have been that he still liked to wear fur boots that suffocated the brunt of the noise. She knew it would drive Chan up the wall, but she let him tag along. Somehow she didn’t really mind if he watched her fail miserably, he already has multiple times. “You can come along, but don’t do anything distracting.” She tossed back at him.

 “I was just gonna grab my canvas and paint while you do you your fire thing.” Sokka replied.

 “I’ll meet you there.” She replied. While he split off to fetch his supplies from his room, she stopped for a change of clothes. Something with a lesser excess of sleeves. Something a little easier to move in and a little less flammable.

 Azula began before Sokka arrived, a quick warmup that went relatively smoothly. She also worked through the first set of stances in her normal routine. A task that proved to her that her skills had been so horribly neglected. She supposed that she should be thankful; even at her lowest she could still probably get the better of the average firebender. But that wasn’t good enough, not at all. The one thing she had prided herself for, she no longer had complete mastery over. She was slower, slightly off balance, her muscles weaker from such a prolonged lack of use. She was nearly frustrated to tears, these things should be coming naturally to her. But they weren’t, she knew that she shouldn’t have expected them too. And so it was that Sokka’s sudden presence was once again uncomfortable and unwelcomed, no matter how much he’d already seen. She didn’t want him to see her stumble, not at this.

 “Why do you go paint outside?” She asked.

 “I always paint outside.” Sokka shrugged. “Besides, I want to watch you firebend. It always looked so…powerful. It’ll be nice to see it without you trying to kill me while doing it.”

 “Say the wrong thing and I will definitely kill you, Sokka.” Azula promised.

 “Are you stalling?”

 “What? No. I’m taking a break.”

 “Already?”

 She sent a tiny bolt of lightning at his feet and he lifted his arms in surrender. “That’s a good start, now keep that up.” He grinned stupidly. Azula hated that goofy grin. She waited until he began fishing out his paints to resume her own task. At first, the firebender mostly dabbled with her lightning, she’d never truly lost her touch there. It brought a sense of comfort to know so. By the time she decided to go back to bending fire, Sokka was mostly engrossed in his art. Enough so that Azula felt less observed as she conjured up a whirling pinwheel of fire. This earned her a sharp, “hey careful, working with delicate material here.”

 “I’m sure your ego will hold up.” Azula rolled her eyes. “Besides, it wasn’t even close to you.”

 She moved onto something more elaborate, a form that involved a rapid barrage of fire and a few midair kicks. The first few went smoothly but she was tiring much faster than she would have liked. She paused for a minute or two and then resumed. In due time she found herself decently satisfied with that set and threw in something new; an old favorite technique. Something that required a bit of a running start. A running start that burst into a jump and brining her leg down in an arc of fire and then a repetition of the motion but instead of an arc she would go for a somersault of fire. This didn’t go quite so smoothly. Her first arc was rather impressive, but the somersault ended with a harsh thud. One loud enough to catch Sokka’s attention and add the first tinge of pink to her cheeks. She blew her bangs from her face and tried a second time. And a third, each seemed to be progressively getting worse. She found herself growing increasingly more embarrassed, and therefore, irritated with every blunder. She looked ridiculous. She tried for another somersault of flames, but she had put too much force into it, bringing her down without a scrap of grace. Azula stumbled to keep her balance. She could practically see her father leering at her. She tried it a third time, that one ending more tragically than the time before it. That time she hadn’t even landed on her feet. Sokka’s eyes seemed practically glued to her by then and she was making a fool of herself. By then her face was completely flushed with both humiliation and simmering agitation. She went for it once more, this time not even succeeding with the first arc.

 “Hey, hey, calm down.” Sokka spoke gently, he put his brush down. “You bend better when you’re not angry. Isn’t that why you were so good at firebending before? Because you were so calm.”

 Azula brushed her hair out of her face; when had it gotten so long? He had a solid point, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel anything but exasperation, not when this should be coming so naturally to her.

 “Here.” He came to stand behind her, first massaging the tension out of her shoulders and then out of her back. After doing so, he lifted her arm and extended it, mimicking the stances he’d so often seen her utilize. Some time into it she took the lead and let him follow her through the motions. His hold restricted her from producing any fire at all. Though it was about structure at that point, structure and stance. She could incorporate fire again later. For the time being, Azula was content with the intimacy. Content with his interest in bending with her, even if he could ever hope to produce a spark. She could feel his muscles rippling and contorting against her back. Could smell the tinge of sea-salt on his body. He must have recently taken a saltwater bath. He borrowed her pine soap, from the smell of it. His aroma soothed her some. And then he let go, his touch lingering only for one more brief moment.

 .oOo.

 Upon leaving her side, Azula added fire to the movements that they had just worked through. Her movements were simpler, less bold than he recalled. Speed seemed to be sidelined for perfecting the motions themselves. But she was as elegant as he was used to, despite the occasional falter. She was frighteningly powerful as ever and he hoped that she knew that. He watched slid from one stance to the next in fluid motions. She seemed more relaxed. Sokka couldn’t bring himself to pick up the brush again, he’d rather watch the real Azula.

 Perhaps he would join her some time, his swordsmanship was getting a bit rusty and he wouldn’t mind making a few slashes and slices, especially after spying some of the expensive training equipment scattered about the room.

 After some time had gone by, she tried for the somersaults again, her landings were still shaky or on her back altogether. He feared that she was hurting herself and wondered how many bruises would line the length of her back. She seemed undaunted by that though. By the end of it all, she was a little red faced and breathing hard.

He had to admire her dedication.

 .oOo.

 Sokka extended a hand and pulled her up. “You’ve been at this for hours now, I think it’s time to call it a night.”

 Azula wanted to protest, but even she knew there was no sense in draining herself on the first day. She hadn’t even trained that relentlessly during her prime. Hesitantly she let him lead her back to the springs so she could freshen herself up. She was a bit of a wreck but she didn’t need to look the part.

 A quick sweep of the dinner table confirmed that everyone still had yet to warm up to one another. Toph and Bo-Rem were the oddities, they connected right away. Not that Azula hadn’t predicted such. Bo-Rem was speaking fondly of The Rumble and Toph was insisting that she should part take. Listening to all of the awkward and forced conversation, Azula couldn’t wait to add dear Zu-Zu to the mix. The look on his face would be precious.

 This became a sort of routine. In between checking on Teayul and keeping tabs on both groups of idiots, the princess would retreat to go through her techniques. Eventually her touch would have come back to her, she supposed that she just needed to get used to going through the motions again. Sokka was always there working on either the painting of her. Eventually that came to a halt, in a fit of annoyance—during a particularly taxing firebending form—Azula carelessly kicked a ball of sapphire flame in Sokka’s direction. It both had him facedown on the ground after a spectacularly dramatic dive and nearly scorched the canvas. After dusting himself off Sokka cradled his portrait as if it were some precious gem. After that he wouldn’t let her near it at all claiming that such dangerous activities did not create a safe and healthy environment for a growing portrait. He no longer brought that canvas into the training room, instead he would bring a simple brush and ink and would create careless doodles. Sometimes she would pause her own training and watch him draw until she felt ready to begin again.

The days had a new sense of normalcy to them.

And on most of them the Ruby Tears hadn’t crossed her mind.

#Sokkla #Azula #Sokka #Toph #Aang #Katara #Zuko #Fanfiction #Avatar

[jackiestarsister]

Voltron Season 4 Reactions

Spoilers under the cut! Instead of making many posts commenting on different aspects of this season, I’m going to keep adding on to this long post.

It’s a little weird how there was no build-up or explanation of Keith deciding to train with the Blade of Marmora. It would have been nice if it had been mentioned as a possibility, say, back when he found out he was Galra. Him suddenly having this new job was like watching the second season premiere of The Legend of Korra, when Bolin, Mako, and Asami all suddenly have new jobs.

People are complaining about Keith not having any character development due to his lack of screen time, but what little screen time he had revealed a lot about his personality. The way he went back to save the other Blade and the information shows how dedicated he is both to teammates and to missions. Seeing his attitude clash with Kolivan’s was great, though it wasn’t really resolved. Maybe it will come back in the future. And his willingness to sacrifice himself shows how Ulaz and Thace’s actions have influenced his outlook: he is just as willing as they were to sacrifice himself in order to protect the paladins.

At the beginning, I thought the first episode was unfolding a little too chaotically, with several unconnected scenes; but they ended up converging and wrapping up quite nicely. The way Keith left the team actually felt kind of right. I was worried that he would leave them with a big argument, but everything worked out okay and everyone was loving and supportive. That group hug around Keith!!! Isn’t that just what the fandom wanted for him after his vlog came out?

Pidge being addressed as “Paladin Pidge” was just so “Avatar Aang/Korra.”

I WAS RIGHT ABOUT SO MANY THINGS! My headcanons/predictions about Matt giving Pidge her nickname, Pidge getting her glasses from Matt, and Matt having a crush on Allura!

Titling an episode “Reunion” and having a picture of Pidge and Matt reunited kind of took away from the devastation when Pidge thought he was dead.

I suspected that the way Pidge handled the situation with the Unilu might come back to haunt her. While it was great to see her and Matt fighting side by side and working in sync, I don’t really like having one-episode villains.

There were many intense moment that I’m honestly surprised were allowed to be in a kids’ show. Two actual onscreen deaths, barely cutting away; a moment when a central character thought the person she probably loves most was dead; Hunk outright bodyslamming a guy, not at all like the hands-off fighting that element bending gave ATLA and TLOK.

The flashbacks about Pidge and Matt were wonderful. I love that they weren’t just for fanservice: they showed the siblings’ dynamic, something we really needed to see in order to understand how much Matt means to Pidge; and the cipher actually proved to be relevant to the plot. I also Pidge and Matt’s interactions during after their reunion! Some were kind of predictable and had been envisioned by fans for a while, but they also felt organic and in-character. The silent montage and the close-up of Matt’s smiling face impressed how happy they feel just from being together. It was great to see them working harmoniously with Hunk. And since Matt and Keith did not meet in person, it was nice to see they communicating and hear Keith’s appreciation for having him as an ally.

I’m surprised by how intensely angry/jealous Lance became when he saw Matt’s reaction to Allura. Based on his markedly more respectful behavior toward her, I thought Lance had let go of his crush on her, which always came off as selfish and shallow, and was now more interested in the mermaids and other girls. He treats her like a good friend and teammate. And when he sees Allura just a few scenes later, he barely acts any different around her.

Matt calling Shiro “sir” was kind of odd, considering the last time they saw each other Shiro sacrificed himself to save Matt. Apparently Shiro was more highly ranked in the military than Matt, and/or Matt was impressed/intimidated by his position as the leader of Voltron.

A lot of fanservice is happening. Fans’ questions, such as those regarding Matt’s glasses and Kaltenecker’s fate, are being answered.

The scene with Kaltnecker was funny, but Allura and Coran’s horrified reaction to milking a mammal makes me wonder about Altean people and animals. Did they not have mammals on Altea? Do Altean women not produce milk? Allura is built like an Earth woman, with the anatomy that would enable her to breastfeed a child. But maybe they didn’t raise animals for products like milk?

Haggar’s official title has been revealed: High Priestess. But High Priestess of what/who? Why did no one address her by this title earlier in the series? Did the writers just not think it important for her to have one earlier? And that scene of her examining her reflection ... what are we to make of that? Did seeing herself in Zarkon’s memories make her regret what she became? Does she dislike having to hide her Altean appearance?

I’m confused about Narti and Haggar. Did Haggar bewitch her, or was Narti a willing spy? I think her death was all the more shocking because she was mute and could not plead her innocence or explain her guilt, whichever was the case.

The fans were right about Narti being the one Lotor attacked in the trailer. Still, that was pretty stunning--as in, I was stunned. And the effect it had on the other three generals ... it was like seeing Ty Lee and Mai turn on Azula (I always thought the generals were like a combination of Ozai’s Angels and the Red Lotus). Acxa’s last line about there being another option for them makes me wonder if they are going to approach Team Voltron as potential allies.

The Coran-centered episode was painful to watch. Worse than “The Depths.” I like the idea of having an episode about Coran’s insecurities, but the amount of self-parodying was too extreme for my taste.

It was great to see Allura’s magical abilities revisited! It took them long enough. Interesting that the pep talk came from Lance, I would not have expected that, since Shiro is usually the one who does that kind of thing, but it kind of showed her own encouragement toward him in S3E2 coming back around to her. And her prayer to her father was perfectly timed.

I thought there was going to be seven episodes; I was disappointed when I realized I’d watched the last one! What a cliffhanger! But the climax was pretty satisfactory, a much better ending point than “The Legend Begins.” I was wondering if Lotor would help Team Voltron as he did in the 1980s show and approach them as a potential ally.

I’m surprised that the whole gathering-quintessence-from-another-reality bit was only in one episode. I thought that would be a much bigger plot point. And although seeing Keith on missions with Kolivan was cool, I was surprised by how little was shown of them after the first episode, and disappointed that they didn’t do more about Keith investigating his family.

One final thought: We still haven’t seen the scene with the screenshot Kimiko Glenn (the voice of Ezor) leaked some months ago, with Matt and Shiro fighting together (presumably fighting Ezor). 

#Voltron: Legendary Defender #season 4 #the Holt siblings #Holt family reunion

[finchfeelsdump]

Laziness in writing

I haven’t been writing as much as I would like these days. I have many projects that I don’t even have a title for, and some others that don’t even have a story. I don’t write much, but when I do, I try to be as detailed and meticulous as I can be. I want to check every nook and cranny and know that my job is impeccable.

Is that wrong?

I recently finished playing Danganronpa, a visual novel about murder and mystery, and it left me with a slight taste of inconsistency and plot holes. I liked it, in its majority, but there were these tiny moments in which I just felt something didn’t click. By the end, a lot of the questions that were planted remained unanswered. And the little bunch that was answered, was answered with an “it just is.”

Is that wrong?

Many people like to have a clear explanation to a question that the writer presents. I’m like those people. Well, it doesn’t even have to be clear, I just want an answer. But some other people feel that there’s some kind of intense charm to this mystery left unsolved, and that’s not wrong at all. 

A writer is free to write whatever they want, however they want. Are they also free to decide what a reader should and shouldn’t know? Well, yes, but the true question is: how?

In Danganronpa, there was a question that I had, and the game responded with a “What does it matter? The outcome won’t change just because I tell you.”

I’ve talked about this and someone told me: “It’s true. It won’t matter if they tell you, because it’s not important.”

If it is not important, why write about it? Does it serve a purpose at all? If the author is so stubborn that the story MUST contain that piece of information, but they don't want to explain it, then I guess it isn't as important. If you're taking your time to write a whole story without the complementary information necessary, then it isn't whole.

That situation infuriated me because I think it’s lazy from part of the writer. It's lazy because you downgrade the importance of a point in the story so you don’t have to explain it. You say it’s not important, so that way you don’t have to think about it, don’t have to expand on it, you don’t have to put your mind into it.

There’s no other word for that, but laziness. It’s true. It’s just lazy behavior applied to writing.

But what if they explain it... later? Is it still lazy? They’re leaving information they could have explained earlier for later. Like a book and its sequel, many mysteries are solved in the latter. Could that be compared to procrastination? In this case, I don’t think it would. It would be unpleasant for a reader to receive all of the information at the very same moment; having multiple installments for a long story makes its digestion much more comfortable... that is, of course, when it is planned.

Allow me to briefly explain the game and my main concern with it (spoiler warning for Danganronpa): The story focuses on 15 prodigy students (each one is the Ultimate human around a certain attribute) who attend the most prestigious high school, but soon after, they are trapped inside and signed up unwillingly to a game of life or death, where each student, if they want to escape, must commit a murder against another schoolfellow and get away with it. So it's pretty simple, right? Throughout the game, especially later on, you get hints that these students are not so unknown to each other and that they were actually friends... they attended the school before normally but had their memories erased and put into the killing game. Why? Because the Mastermind of the game wanted them to experience ‘Ultimate Despair’ by having them kill each other as friends, but without them knowing it at first. Adding that prior to their original enrollment in the school, a catastrophe happened in the world where the planet fell into chaos, and they agreed to remain permanently at the school as refugees. Without their memories, they now feel trapped, and have a motive to kill each other and escape because they don't know the ruined state of the world. But here's the thing: almost at the end, confronting the Mastermind of the plot and asking them how they did what they did with their memories, they "answer what does it matter?" And then hardcore fans of the game (who, like any other hardcore fan of literally anything) defend anything the game could say, agreeing with it.

I'll tell you why it matters, at least to me: because it's an important part of the story. Even if nobody thinks it's important, it is part of the story. The writer clearly wanted to include it as vital later on, presenting you with multiple clues to it. The whole plot revolves around these students not knowing each other so that they could feel worse not knowing who they were actually killing and giving them a purpose to escape the school (or destroying the purpose to stay in it). So the writer had two options: keep the memory wiping plot and at least give a vague explanation for it, or forget about it. They surely didn't want to forget about it, so... they don't explain because they don't really care about it, they just want to have it. They could have gone to stupid lengths trying to give the most detailed explanation on how it happened, or could have been as easy saying "there are many more Ultimates than you think there are" or something like that, but they chose "who cares, it just is."

I’ve seen this many times, giving the “it just is,” and I hate it every time. Every time I see that I think “Oh, so the writer couldn’t think of any reason, huh? Or they just didn’t want to... that’s lazy”.

Or is it just me who is a perfectionist, never reaching even my own standards?

I was told this: “it’s not lazy because it’s not really important, so they can be free not to explain. It’s lazy when it matters and they don’t give an explanation.”

Again, diminishing the importance of the story. Was not the whole plot based off that idea? The whole game focuses on details, either for the general story or for the actual murder cases, so do you only not explain when it’s convenient? 

If it moves the story forward, then it is important.

But they do explain it later, and it is... underwhelming. It is not the answer you expect and leaves you again with a sour taste. Here come the people that show the distaste they have for ruining the mystery, versus the people that are glad it was finally cleared up, and this second group divides between the ones that think it was a good explanation and the ones who do not... Later in the series (the third game and a prequel light novel, to be precise), it's cleared up that someone close to the Mastermind blocked off the memories of the students. How? Because they were the "Ultimate Neurologist" or something like that... so, couldn't that be said the first time? Or does everyone really prefers having another project to explain something that takes no more than three lines of dialogue? Or was it better left unexplained? Does it still seem lazy, even if you finally explain it? Was it the answer you wanted? Is it better not to explain the unexplainable? Which group does the writer focus on?

Even if you don’t want your reader to know exactly what happened, or how it happened, I think you should still give a tiny hint to it. Things don’t happen “just because,” everything has to have an explanation because that’s how the universe works. It’s cause and effect. Arguing “it’s just a fake story, it’s science fiction/fantasy, not everything has to make sense,” that’s not enough. I opine it does have to make sense because the coherence in your story speaks volumes about you and your writing. Even if you say “because magic,” “because nanomachines,” “because God,” that is still an explanation. Does it tell you exactly how? Of course not, but now you have an idea of how. Vague or clear, it must be explained.

The Dark Souls games and its surrounding family of software handle the mystery well, in my opinion. What you must truly know about the story (which is not much), is presented to you directly. Everything else, you must investigate and deduce on your own. Clues to the biggest mysteries are scattered around, with no real sense of progression to solving it, and even then, they are just clues. Still, everything can be answered right then and there. There’s no real need for a sequel to solve the mysteries you had planted in the first installment; these mysteries are new and let you expand on what you already have seen. If a player has the need for answers, then they are free to explore and deduce to their heart’s content, and even if they don’t find a direct, clear answer for a question, they at least get a clue. And the players that rather live in the blissful mystery are free to do so, too.

...But not everyone can pull it off.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of my favorite series of all time. It’s excellent down to the bone. Everything has a reason, everything is explained one way or another and the best thing about the explanations is that they work. They’re congruent, sensical, and doesn't matter if it took a whole episode to explain or just ten seconds, because all answers feel compatible and well thought out, like the writers (four writers, which is harder to coordinate) actually took their time to think them through... nothing feels lazy. The show doesn’t cut corners on what it has to do and say, yet it doesn’t overburden you with exposition and information. ...There’s just a tiny nitpick I have (spoilers for Avatar): The series first focuses on Aang learning the four elements so he can defeat the Firelord, and when he finally learns them all, he asks “I will not kill him, so how can I defeat him?”  Five episodes before the series finale, Aang goes missing. In his sudden, involuntary departure, he meets a Lion Turtle, an ancient and wise being, the last of its species, who taught Aang very briefly about the energy of the elements. In his final fight, Aang takes away the fire-bending of the Firelord, managing to defeat him without him taking his life. So... hurray, right? Yeah, but there is one concern I have with this, and it has never stopped bothering me since: throughout the series, the Lion Turtles were only briskly referenced a couple of times since the beginning of the show through imagery and symbolism (as to imply their legendary existence), but they were never actually talked about. Having such a powerful being only truly shown at the very end of the series seems a little... rushed, and even convenient. The way they handled the situation was genius, in my opinion, but overlooking such an important detail about a character and his story just doesn’t quite add up. It’s like they forgot about Aang being a pacifist, so they introduce a character that never laid any evidence to had that kind of power to battle their own forgetfulness.  It’s not necessarily poorly written or lazy, but, in contrast to the rest of the show, full of details and signs of power, the Lion Turtle doesn’t seem to fit this role. The way this could have been avoided would have been to mention ancient beings, or even the Lion Turtles directly, to have a tremendous amount of power, and that they were influential in the mastery of the elements and the cycle of the Avatar, all that early in the show. All of that is explained intensively in the sequel, The Legend of Korra, but, again, why would you wait to explain something so important so later on, when it is practically rendered irrelevant at that point? They were surely planning this since the beginning, so why does it feel like they weren’t?

I think it’s lazy not to explain. I think it speaks about the writer, diminishing the importance of their own story. But is it truly wrong to be lazy? Objectively wrong?

If readers are completely fine with living in the mystery, and they even like it, then it can’t be said it is wrong. And the same goes for the other side. Is the explanation stupid? Yes. Does it work? Yes. Is it still stupid? Yes, but now it works...

But, if you really want your readers to experience the mystery and the purposeful lack of information, then do it right. Do it intelligently; with passion. Having your lazy situation turned into a mysterious situation is clever, but it is still based on your laziness.

I don’t write lazily, or at least I try to, because that’s the kind of story I’d like to read. It's not the way I see the world, and it’s definitely not the way I see a story.

Everything has details, and everything has a reason.

“God is in the details” ...but so is the Devil.