#tw imperialism

[starlight-bread-blog]

The Good & the Bad: On Aang (Not) Killing the Fire Lord

I recived this asks forever ago, trurly sorry anon, but I'll keep my apologises for the end. I'd love to answer that!

If you're asking me, this is way better than """killing him""". Case closed.

Getting this cleared up: The show didn't say that Aang is morally superior for this. It was solely about staying true to himself. Not a moral high ground.

So when I hear people say it's problematic because it implies that sparing imperialistic dictators has some intrinsic goodness to it, (Ahem-Lily Orchard), I just can't agree. It was never about universal ethics, it was about Aang's culture and values.

Why Is This a Good Thing?

Aang loves his culture, and takes a lot of pride in it and its values. (See: in The Southern Raiders his first go-to to convince Katara to spare Yon Rah is his culture, rather than what such act would do Katara herself). He would have been ashamed if he had broken them. But right now they clash with his Avatar duties, with god-knows how many lives at stake. He needs to let go of his pride & shame, and become humble.

Just like Zuko humbling himself to the GAang before they accept him, or Sokka humbling himself to the Kyoshi warriors and Master Piandao, Aang could only speak to the the lion turtle after he'd given up, after he was humbled.

Even beyond Aang, it enhances the show's themes at large. A theme in A:TLA is paving your own path, and that you can do what you want despite the pressure. Your true destiny will come, you might be surprised by it, but it's yours and you're free to carve it.

You just have to keep going, to continue to do the right thing, and your destiny will find you. Things have a way of working out in the end, eventually.

Sparing Ozai serves the theme, thus the show overall. Everyone told him it's his destiny to kill the Fire Lord and end the war. But he didn't agree, paving his own path, his own destiny, and all was well. The pieces fell in their place.

It is s amplified by the fact that if you read between the lines, he actually did follow all the previous Avatars' wisdom besides Yangchen's.

Aang knew what he wanted from the start. He isn't going to kill the Fire Lord. People (rightfully) tried to pressure him, but in the end, he stuck to his decision.

Justice was served. Aang took his bending away and put him to rot in prison for the rest of his life. There's more than one way to execute justice.

"... and the destiny of the world". That's exactly what Aang did. He followed his own path (staying true to himself) while saving the world (ending Ozai regime).

So that leaves us with Yangchen's advice. The one he didn't follow:

This opens another layer to this. Why doesn't Aang take the advice of a fellow Air Nomad? The one he should relate to the most? Because despite both being Avatars and Airbenders, Aang is the last. They're not the same. Yangchen is speaking from a place of privilege. She can carry the weight of the Avatar and not worry about the Air Nomads. Notice the wording: "spiritual needs". But it's deeper than that. In her time, they were there, they'll preserve their culture and values. Aang doesn't have that.

He's Avatar: The Last Airbender. He has both weights to carry. The decision to spare the Fire Lord, while protecting the rest of the world, is embedded in the show's title.

There's also something so incredibly powerful in Ozai being defeated specifically with Air Nomad values. A 100 years ago, during Sozin's Comet, the Fire Nation started the war by genociding them. When it comes back, the Avatar, the last Air Nomad, ends the war and stops the next genocide while preserving their values. The Fire Nation isn't going to push him to taint (one of) the last living aspacts of the Air Nomads, and Aang is shouting it – in the very same day the disaster occurred.

(Additionally I view this as a land mark of his character development since Siege of the North. He used spirit powers for murder, now he's using them for mercy).

(A:TLA is also a show made with kids in mind. They may not be able to make Aang kill Ozai. He got his bending stolen and sentenced to prison for the rest of his life. That's a more than serviceable punishment for a show aimed at kids).

(Ps: If Ozai had died Zuko would never have found out where his mother is).

The concept is fantastic. Nothing wrong there. But now, it's time for the critisism.

What's the problem then?

Despite looking in internet forums, it's entirely possible that I missed some things. With that being said, the Lion Turtles could have been foreshadowed better. As I stated, I don't mind it. But as far as I recall, it was foreshadowed once in The Library, and that's it. (Edit: It's also foreshadowed in Sokka's Master, but the point still stands).

The Lion Turtle is a twist, it subverted expectations, but that doesn't mean it has to be a deus ex machina. That's what foreshadowing is for. It's the literary device to making a plot twist feel believable. The result is many fans, including me, feeling as though it came out of no where, even though it didn't.

Overall, I love that Aang spared Ozai. It ties into the themes of the show and Aang's role as the last airbender. It makes perfect sense, it's rather beautiful. However, I do wish the foreshadowing was better.

And for Anon, to apologize for the wait, I dedicate you this meme:

#tw genocide #aang #avatar aang #lion turtle #ozai #fire lord ozai #atla meta #avatar meta #aang meta #atla ending #atla finale #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the last airbender #air nomads #yangchen #kyoshi #roku #kuruk #avatar yangchen #avatar kyoshi #avatar roku #avatar kuruk #tw imperialism #avatar the last airbender meta #atla analysis #aang analysis #atla aang #atla critisism #iroh #uncle iroh

[zvezdacito]

⚠️ CW: imperialism, colonization, genocide, rape mention

I honestly hate to make posts like these because the common response are Yana bootlickers invalidating my say in issues affecting me and harassing me😭

But since I've seen not much people bring it up yet. In cased you didn't know New Year's Cater is fsr in Taisho Era clothing, which was an era of Imperial Japan. Thus, fashion from that era is seen as a symbol and glorification of Japanese imperial colonization and brutalization of Koreans, Chinese and Southeast Asians.

"Twst isn't the only game that does this though, I've seen lots of other media use it as an aesthetic fashion choice! You're overreacting/trying to stir up trouble" Yeah unfortunately this, along with Nazi imagery, are still very glorified in Japanese pop culture. Purposeful or not, it being downplayed as just a cutesy Japan aesthetic in popular exported media (their soft power), helps downplay the severity of what Japan did in this era and make it easier for the government to sweep it under the rug.

When it's brought up for popular anime like Demon Slayer by Korean, Chinese or even some SEAsian people, it's not usually heard because anime fans are so quick to shut us down or even joke about Imperial Japan being in the right despite all the cultural genocide and mass rape committed to spite us☠️ Like I said this only ends in harassment and mockery of us so I wouldn't be saying stuff like this just for fun☠️

They changed Trey's Vargas camp v-neck ingame after already releasing the promo image already so I hope they can fix this too😭

I hope if even not from me, you will at least share this information around for those who aren't aware and tell them how and why it's wrong. Hopefully if enough people bring it up they will notice and change it, if not, then at least do not roll for cater specifically ig😭 Other characters are wearing kimonos from eras without problematic implications on this scale afaik

#twst #tw colonization #tw imperialism #tw genocide #tw rape #tw nazi mention #cater diamond #sebek zigvolt #vil schoenheit #ruggie bucchi #if someone brings up 'ooo but china did this to' in response to this just because im chinese im kwording you on the spot btw #like even if ur hate china they arent the only ones who were affected by this you'd be hurting other asians too☠️

[dailyhistoryposts]

On This Day In History

February 1941: The Communist Party of the Netherlands (made illegal by the occupying Nazis) organizes a general strike in Amsterdam to protest Nazi persecution of Dutch Jews.

The February Strike consisted of 300,000 people and was harshly suppressed after just three days. It was the first public protest against Nazis in occupied Europe, and the only mass protest against the deportation of Jews to be organized by non-Jews.

#history #world history #general strike #direct action #antifascism #tw nazi #tw imperialism #tw anti semitism #netherlands #amsterdam #strike

[eohachu]

[ID: 8 gifs from the kdrama “tomorrow”. gif 1: an elderly, elegantly dressed woman, yoo bok hui, is cleaning the statue of a sitting girl. it is the Statue of Peace in seoul, commemorating the comfort women. gif 2: a japanese imperial soldier shoots a girl who is off screen. a group of girls, sitting on the loading area of a pick-up truck, startle and cover their ears with their hands. the scene cuts to young lee jeong mun shivering in fear. gif 3: jeong mun sitting on a bed. she fidgets with her fingers, then covers her legs with her skirt. she has wounds on her face and hands. gif 4: a close up jeong mun’s left hand. on it is a tattoo reading ‘joseon whore’ in japanese. she quickly covers it up with her sleeve. her voiceover reads: “the look of contempt i received from the people in my village... their words were sharper than daggers. that hurt more than being kicked by the imperial japanese soldiers.” gif 5: a close up of elderly jeong mun’s left hand, showing the same tattoo. gif 6: a sequence from an actual historical moment when kim hak sun talked on tv in 1991 about being forced to become a comfort woman. she says, “It’s too overwhelming, I can’t speak. I didn’t know anything, and they dragged me in. They ripped my clothes off just to satisfy their urges and did whatever they wanted and I couldn’t bear it.” gif 7: jeong mun lying on a hospital bed. she says, “what i... what we want isn’t such a difficult thing. to admit the atrocities they had committed and make it clear to the world. to formally apologize for that fact.” gif 8: choi jun woong kneeling in front of the Statue of Peace. he says to the girl, “i promise to remember. i promise.” /end ID]

14 August - International Memorial Day for Comfort Women

↳ Tomorrow (2022), dir. Kim Tae Yoon, Sung Chi Wook. Episode 13

#mbc tomorrow #kdramadaily #kdramaedit #kdramaspace #kdramaladies #netflixdramas #asiancentral #asiandramanet #asiandramasource #cinematv #dailyasiandramas #dailywoc #userbbelcher #tw violence #tw rape #tw blood #tw imperialism #naeil 2022 #r.gif #*mine #*mine:tmrw

[wealmostaneckbeard]

Helldivers 2: Three Melee Weapon Proposals

Melee weapons should take up the secondary slot.

Pinnacle Rapier: It has a shield generator in the crossguard that extends a protective field around the blade, as well as anti-grav gyroscopes which help keep a wielders guard up even under relentless assault. Such an expensive weapon is only given to heroes who have gone beyond super-earth's expectations. Standard action is a chargeable thrust that can punch through the strongest armor at full power. Alternate move allows wielder to parry any melee attacks.

"Cursed" Nanite Katana: A hive-dispenser of corrosive nanobots fitted into an elegant blade. The nanobots are programmed to only consume the users enemies and increase in population by doing so. But there are dark rumors of these machines seizing control of their wielders brain and driving them slay to their own allies. Standard action is a light slash/stab combo, each kill increases the sword's nanobot population, carrying up to five swarms maximum. Alternate action is a horizontal swipe that launches a nanobot swarm as a grey cloud which can pass through several enemies in a straight line, corroding each one. Swapping to another weapon causes the user to sheathe their blade, releasing all the stored nanite swarms at once which seek out the nearest targets to consume, regardless if they are friendly or hostile.

Industrial Grapple Axe: Originally a tool used by colonist workers to cut up scrap and raise antennae towers, repurposed as a weapon of war. It's also promoted by Super Earth propaganda as a symbol of resistance by frontier colonists against aliens who threaten them. Standard action is a series of heavy strikes with the blade and spiked knob. Alternate action aims and fires a grappling hook. If the target is small, it will be wrapped up and reeled in towards the helldiver wielding the Grapple Axe. If the target hooked is big, the helldiver will extend the axe's haft and plant it's spiked knob into the ground, the axe's reel mechanism and line will restrict the targets movement.

#helldivers 2 #weapons #melee weapons #swords #axes #weapon #idea #tw imperialism

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

I know Taylor is not responsible even a little bit for the branding of her boyfriend’s football team, nor does she have any way to directly influence it, but dang, it just sucks to see her wearing racist colonial imperial merch for the team. And I don’t experience even a fraction of the discomfort that indigenous people who have to see that shit every day do. It just sucks and I hate football but also i don’t think she shouldn’t date someone for being employed by a racist company- football certainly isn’t the only group to profit off of the colonization of turtle island. I also don’t think she is personally responsible for changing anything, she’s one human being not a political candidate. It’s more on fans to educate each other and lend our support to the groups like Not In Our Honor advocating for them to change the name. It just ew seeing her wear the stuff every week. Idk. I’m just not used to seeing that iconography a lot bc I don’t follow football and I don’t live somewhere with a racist NFL name, and now I see it every time she goes to a game. There are lots of high schools having this debate where I live, however. Just wish she could ditch the logo merch, but I also empathize with needing to be on good terms with your partners colleagues and friends, and if I were in her shoes idk what I would do. The vintage merch is a good compromise, I guess.

#Kansas City chiefs #tw colonialism #tw imperialism #Tw chiefs #Taylor swift #c

[rotzaprachim]

the way that among the articles luthien has stolen to hustle for the rebellion are many that bear visual comparison to cultural objects and artforms from the world that have been stolen by imperialists 

on the first watch i noticed a two headed serpent that looked like this work of Aztec art (in room 27 of the British museum at the moment) 

numerous items that resemble classical Greek antiquities, much exploited in real life by British imperialists looking for souvenirs (there’s a helmet, breastplate, dagger) 

items like these jomon period japanese pots: 

as well as an item by the front till area that resembles samurai armour 

as a scene it’s fascinating and extremely damning of the way that luthen himself is an agent of profound cultural violence and imperialism, even after his rousing rebel speech. he clearly seems to think of it as a way of funding “mouths to feed” in an extreme situation, but i think the show’s purposeful juxtaposition of so many recognisable comparisons to real world pieces of art is a deeply horrifying way of how his “end justifies the means” includes continuing the very work of empire in practical ways, in particular as this art will end up in the private collections of imperials 

#tw imperialism #tw colonialism #the fact that even the white rebel guy is acting as an agent of cultural imperialism.... #andor #i'm just. woah at the thoughts and DETAILS here #andor meta

[marsinout]

Ok but

Did you know that one of the posters of Yuki Tsunoda contains the Rising Sun, a symbol of Japanese imperalism which killed tens of millions in China and Southeast Asia?

If you know it, please urge AlphaTauri to delete the poster in Twitter/X.

#formula 1 #f1 discourse #yuki tsunoda #tw imperialism

[underestimated-heroine]

All I wanted was a sweater pattern. Literally what in the racism?

#knitblr #knitting #tw racism #uhhh i think? #definitely? #its from like the 1950's #tw colonialism #tw imperialism

[identitty-dickruption]

The sheer scope of this violence should be difficult to ignore, and yet it is ignored; its invisibility is justified by the imperialist/neocolonial state to regulate and control differences seen that aims as disruptive to the “natural” order of global civil society. This is where the echoes of eugenics policies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resonate in contemporary times. For example, Iraqis and Afghans who are killed or disabled in their “occupied” countries are not thought of as civilians resisting an imperialist force but as terrorists and insurgents — terms that negate any right to enfranchised citizenship. Even when civilian deaths and disabilities caused by war are acknowledged, they are dismissed as collateral damage. The meager pensions and lack of disability benefits made available to widows, mothers, and caregivers who have lost family members are rationalized as a luxury that did not exist before the occupation. Additionally, decisions about who has access to health care deploy concepts like DALY to the detriment of the thousands of civilians disabled by war and their caregivers, most of whom are poor women of color. In the war on terror eugenic ideologies that associate race, gender, and disability with disease, degeneracy, biological inferiority, and dependence shape ideas about legitimate citizenship and justify representational and material violence against both disabled and nondisabled people of color, especially women.

Erevelles (2008), The Color of Violence

#sorry last quote for today #tw eugenics #tw imperialism #tw racism #disability #disability studies #imperialism is the new eugenics!!!

[intersectionalpraxis]

#feminist #social justice #free palestine #palestine #free gaza #freepalastine🇵🇸 #current events #settler violence #settler colonialism #tw child death #israeli lies #israeli propaganda #american propaganda #us propaganda #us imperialism #end the occupation #end the genocide #ceasefire now #gaza genocide #gaza strip #gaza #gazaunderattack

[canichangemyblogname]

Women in the “Global South” are at the forefront of experiencing the worst of climate change and they are facing the gravest of consequences due to global inaction on this catastrophe.

#feminism #climate crisis #climate catastrophe #climate emergency #tw: miscarriage #imperialism #reproductive justice

[gayvampyr]

CNN:

Hundreds of families gathered in the West Darfur capital of El Geneina on June 15, plotting their escape from what had become a hellscape of blown-out buildings scrawled with racist graffiti and streets strewn with corpses. The state governor had just been executed and mutilated by Arab militia groups, leaving civilians with no choice but to flee.

What followed was a gruesome massacre, eyewitnesses said, believed to be one of the most violent incidents in the genocide-scarred Sudanese region’s history. The powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and its allied militias hunted down non-Arab people in various parts of the city and surrounding desert region, leaving hundreds dead as they ran for their lives…

…residents set off en masse from southern El Geneina, many trying to reach the nearby Sudanese military headquarters where they thought they might find safety. But they said they were quickly thwarted by RSF attacks. Some were summarily executed in the streets, survivors said. Others died in a mass drowning incident, shot at as they attempted to cross a river. Many of those who managed to make it out were ambushed near the border with Chad, forced to sit in the sand before being told to run to safety as they were sprayed with bullets.

“More than 1,000 people were killed on June 15. I was collecting bodies on that day. I collected a huge number,” one local humanitarian worker, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told CNN. He said the dead were buried in five different mass graves in and around the city.

Conflict erupted between the RSF and the Sudanese army in April. Since then, more than one million people have fled to neighboring countries, according to estimates from the International Organization for Migration.

Now, a telecommunications blackout and the flight of international aid groups have all but cut off Darfur from the outside world. But news of the June 15 massacre began trickling out of the region from refugees who escaped to Chad. The evidence uncovered by CNN suggests that, behind a curtain of secrecy, the RSF and its allies are waging an indiscriminate campaign of widespread killings and sexual violence unlike anything the region has seen in decades.

The RSF’s official spokesperson told CNN that it “categorically” denied the allegations.

“To say you were Masalit was a death sentence,” said Jamal Khamiss, a human rights lawyer, referring to his non-Arab tribe, one of the biggest in Darfur. Khamiss was among those who said that they fled from El Geneina to Chad, surviving a series of RSF and allied militia positions by concealing his ethnicity.

The United Nations raised the alarm in June over ethnic targeting and killing of people from the Masalit community in El Geneina, after reports of summary executions and “persistent hate speech,” including calls to kill or expel them.

The vast majority of those who managed to make it out of El Geneina alive sought refuge in the Chadian border town of Adre, about 22 miles (35 kilometers) away from the city.

On June 15, the town received the highest number of migrants in a single day, along with the highest number of casualties — 261 — since the Sudan conflict broke out, according to Doctors Without Borders, widely known by its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which runs the only hospital in Adre. The number of wounded people that arrived at the hospital was even higher the next day: 387.

“The last time we recorded the death toll in Geneina it was 884,” one local humanitarian worker from El Geneina, who works for a Western non-profit organization, told CNN. “That was June 9. After June 9, it was a different story. The dead became uncountable.”

Action Against Hunger is accepting donations to provide health, sanitation and nutrition services to Sudanese refugees in Chad.

#genocide #sudan #sa tw #violence #racism #imperialism

[snuffysbox]

if you're a SWTOR Hunter fan, chances are you wanna beat him up too

#swtor hunter #codename hunter #swtor #imperial agent #swtor imperial agent #swtor agent #star wars the old republic #artsy stuff #cw choking #tw choking

[tikkunolamresistance]

from “Women, Race & Class” by Black revolutionary Marxist, Angela Davis.

Read here:

#anti capitalism #anti imperialism #propaganda #remind you of anything? #angela davis #resources #tw rape

[hussyknee]

I want you to bear witness to what your people are complicit in.

What your governments, the leaders you hold your nose and vote for do.

What people who "refuse to take a stance" because they "don't know enough" are really saying.

What you're asking when you demand that Palestinians condemn Hamas.

When you try to defend Zionism and the "two state solution".

What is meant by "Israel defending itself".

I want you to think about what you're saying when you say you're too exhausted to keep up with the current political issues.

You can't open any other social media without seeing live footage of buildings ablaze and maimed children screaming and the bright, smiling pictures of the dead. I want you to think about why Tumblr, that famously skews white American, is only platform where even the tag only has a few hundred notes on most posts.

If any of you Westerners want to invoke Nazism as the epitome of fascist, genocidal evil, against whom any amount of collective punishment is justified, you might want to take a good look in the mirror first. Then maybe you'll understand what we mean when we say that all evil is human.

#free palestine #palestinian genocide #save gaza #israel is a terrorist state #death to israel #imperialism #colonization #tw child death #tw child murder #tw genocide #tw death #tw murder #war crimes #knee of huss