everytime I see a YouTube thumbnail that's like "why Rhaenyra shouldn't have been Queen" blah blah blah, without fail, you click on the account and it's like either ASOIAF bro videos (here's why Tywin was right, Stannis the Mannis, Jon Snow Azor Ahai etc etc etc) or it's the "women should be traditionally femme and Alicent is the hero" ASOIAF girlblogger videos. exact same thing when you find Mad Queen Daenerys videos, btw (just swap Alicent for Sansa). the real Targaryen coinflip is which kind of misogyny you are gonna get when you talk about Daenerys and Rhaenyra and which misogyny will be used to excuse one of the male Targs who absolutely should not be allowed near power.
For the past few days, I came across an Azula stan who recently dared to call Ty Lee an enabler. Now I know you've seen it a thousand times with Azula stans, no shock or surprise there, I can tell, but I still wanted to bring this up that such takes exist specifically, and I was wondering if you've touched upon this before or just didn't even bother with it. I mean, to my understanding, to be an enabler, one does need to have any semblance of power in a relationship to affect the other person, even through negligence of their bad traits and habits, and Ty Lee never had any real power against Azula whatsoever, so hardly would she be to blame for Azula not doing better, or Azula coercing her to harm others.
On a side note, this argument was made in a defense that Aang reaching out to Azula would be seen by Azula as genuine, since she killed him, she wouldn't think that Aang would have any reason to reach out to her, ignoring how Azula is no stranger to taking advantage of people, and that all Azula needed was unconditional support. You know the usual argument.
Since I haven't seen the actual take, I can only address it based on what you're saying, but what I will say is that first of all, Ty Lee is an enabler, but
1) that does not mean she isn't also Azula's victim, or take responsibility away from Azula for her actions,
and
2) Aang would be even worse than Ty Lee as far as enabling Azula's bad behavior.
A lot of people interpret Ty Lee as someone who fawns over Azula to avoid being hurt by her, which is true, but I also think that in itself ascribes Ty Lee more power than she actually has in the relationship. In general, I dislike the recent "feminist" attempt to rebrand girly girl characters as secretly manipulative masterminds. I understand why it happens, and I do think there is some misogyny in the way Ty Lee is written, as some ditzy and shallow granola girl. I do think Ty Lee is smarter than she pretends to be, but I also think that it's okay if she isn't. Ty Lee doesn't deserve to be abused by Azula even if she is really shallow and silly. And that's important, because predators don't choose victims who are masterminds, they choose victims who are vulnerable in some way and who they can get to believe that what they are doing is right.
Ty Lee became a target for Azula because some part of Ty Lee loved what Azula was selling, she loved the glamor, she loved feeling like she and Azula and Mai were prettier and more popular and more adored than everyone. If that isn't true, then it cheapens the moment when Ty Lee decides that she isn't willing to trade other people's lives to get those things.
At the same time, saying that Azula just needs someone that she can't manipulate puts responsibility off of her for being manipulative. This is also why I chafe so much at the idea that Iroh should be responsible for her with added blame thrown at him if he isn't. One of the reasons that Iroh can't be manipulated by Azula is that he is immune to that sort of attempt to create guilt. Which is not to say that Iroh doesn't have a lot of guilt as a character, but he doesn't let others use that guilt to take advantage of him. If he did, he would have let Zuko cause whatever destruction he wanted out of guilt for not being able to save him during the agni kai, or he would have let those EK soldiers capture him and would not have been in a position to do the good he does.
Because the thing about guilt is that when you take responsibility for your own actions, you start realizing your own worth, and nobody else can use your guilt against you. This is why Zuko and Iroh and Ty Lee and Azula all end the series where they do.
On Aang, the idea that Aang would not enable Azula and therefore she would listen to him more is hilarious to me. Not only does this put Aang in an unfair position where he is to blame if Azula takes advantage of him, but I keep thinking of that one scene in the comics where Aang said it was nice of Azula to give Zuko back the letter she stole, and Sokka pointed out that she did not give it back, she actually just dropped it. Womp womp.
There's a lot of idealization in this fandom of Aang's forgiving nature even while people try to pretend that Aang's character is the best representation of a genocide victim and that his portrayal as endlessly forgiving is not at all influenced by him being a creation of white Americans. And this is also what enables takes like this about how Aang should be responsible for getting Azula to listen to him.
One of the best things about Zuko's redemption arc is that yes, Aang did wonder if they could be friends if things were different, but it was Zuko's responsibility to change things so that that could happen, not Aang's. Aang is not the one to reach out to Zuko. Katara tries, but fails. Ultimately, it is Zuko's responsibility to reach out, because he wants to. It is no one else's responsibility, and it would be the same with Azula.
The anti-Zutara crowd must have some kind of psychological problem. They make posts saying Zutara is the problem... only to post them in the Zutara tag. But apparently, we're the problem. And then you have to explain their logic to me... They hate Zutara because, according to them, it doesn't make romantic sense... but they cite fanon ships that make even less sense as "more legitimate" Especially since it's just wrong. There's nothing wrong with liking purely fanon ships. But if you dare say that these ships have more romantic logic, that's insanely disingenuous. Zutara was discussed in the writers' room, and right up until the last season, they didn't know who Katara would end up with. There's a romantic subtext to the Zutara relationship. It's not even debatable, for crying out loud. And honestly, I think that's what bothers them. That's why Zutara, as a fanon ship, particularly bothers them. Because they could have been canon. It's common knowledge, and whatever they do, they won't be able to hide it or change the minds of those who would have (and still does) preferred Zutara as the endgame. Because for some obscure reason, they're obsessed with the Kataang canon. Also... even in platonic terms... the Zutara relationship is more important than the one Zuko shares with Aang and Sokka. Sorry, but it's a fact. Katara is the second most important after Iroh on his path to redemption. And that also drives the haters crazy.
They're two characters who don't seek, need, or want what the other could give them.
This is not even true even if you don't ship zutara. Zuko and Katara have a thematic arc that culminates in the climax of both their stories. Zuko's story is about discovering who he is, and seeking forgiveness and atoning for his sins is his big want related to that. Katara is a big part of that arc because she is both the first and the last in the gaang to trust him and believe he could change.
Katara's story is about making the world a better place and learning to balance her needs with her ideals. Zuko is an obstacle because he is someone who she believes can change, but he ends up betraying her. Learning to forgive him is a huge part of her arc both of realizing her dream of helping the world be better and learning how to forgive herself for things that were never her fault, like her mother's death.
In the conversation of wants and needs, what do Zuko and Aang get from each other? Aang gets a firebending teacher in the form of Zuko, someone who understands the damage fire can do, and Zuko gets forgiveness from someone his nation has wronged, but that's not particularly unique to Aang. Aang also serves as the catalyst for Zuko's redemption, but not as himself but for what he represents. It's a role that could be filled by an inanimate object just as easily, like if Zuko were searching for a magical amulet.
Zuko and Sokka have even less. How do they fulfill each other's wants and needs?
Not that it matters because this person is an asshole and nobody has to prove why they ship something, but I can get more out of zutara thematically even if you only look at their relationship platonically, and many ships have been built on less.
Part 1 (RG Veda) | Part 2 (Man of Many Faces) | Part 3 (Tokyo Babylon) | Part 4 (Duklyon) | Part 5 (Clamp Detectives)| Part 6 (Shirahime)| Part 7 (X)| Part 8 (Chunhyang)|Part 9 (Miyuki-chan)|Part 10 (Rayearth)| Part 11 (The One I Love| Part 12 (Wish)| Part 13 (CCS)
In 1997, Kodansha launched the short-lived Amie magazine, aimed at girls who had outgrown Nakayoshi. By now firmly cemented in the shoujo landscape, CLAMP were approached to produce a series for this new publication. They created Clover, which ran from 1997 to 1999, when the magazine folded. Planned for 6 volumes, Clover ultimately spawned only 4, marking it as yet another entry in CLAMP's growing list of unfinished series - though nowadays, it is marketed as "complete". A 6 minute MV was also released in 1999.
Clover is a CLAMP series I've read before, with fond memories of purchasing it in 2007 for a classmate's birthday party (since, naturally, she'd already caught up on Tsubasa, THE 2000s CLAMP series). I ended up purchasing my own copies (and later the hardcover re-release) and fell in love with its melancholic and futuristic world. Clover is a unique and highly experimental work in CLAMP's oeuvre, a surreal take on 70s cyberpunk that blends cinematic panelling, shoujo frills, and almost hyper-real rendering into one distinct piece they have never again replicated - and will never complete. Heavy spoilers!
Synopsis: In a techno-baroque military state, children with incredible powers have been discovered. Known as "Clovers", these children are classified and tattooed according to their power, from "One Leaf" to "Four Leaf". Su is the only "Four-Leaf Clover", imprisoned to prevent human contact, lest she become a weapon against them. But Su has a singular wish, bringing her into contact with Kazuhiko, an ex-military man with his own heartaches, who must escort her to her destination. A four leaf clover might bring luck and wishes to those around them - but what of the clover's desires instead?
The Story: While most only remember Su's story, Clover spans multiple stories and time periods. It's told in a strikingly interesting way, choosing to follow Su's story in the present to its conclusion, before going back in time to explore the characters of Ora and Ran, colouring in the spaces of the story previously told. What connects these stories are song lyrics penned by different characters, which directly speak to the themes and wishes of the characters. I'll state something controversial: some of the lyrics are clunky. Still, if you accept this facet of the storytelling, what unfolds is a beautiful if cryptic tale of the lengths people will go to no longer be alone in this world.
It's also so interesting observing the influences that underpin Clover and how they track across the now fourteen CLAMP works I've consumed, from Blade Runner, to Alice in Wonderland, to 1984, to German Expressionism, to 90s Hong Kong and chinoiserie. At times, the politics, worldbuilding and inexplicable Clover powers can feel a bit thinly sketched, like the double-cross at the end of Vol 2 when their own military attacks them. Still, the overall otherworldly atmosphere of the story allows for some of this thinness to be brushed aside and to accept the hazily defined powers of the Clovers.
While there were some stories I cared for more than others, their interconnected nature made them all feel essential, allowing Su and Kazuhiko to move from a simple "ingenue and hardboiled guy" to a web of relationships formed through the monstrosity of the Clover program. I'll never forget "she never said anything about going back" or Ora's death and her immortalizing in statue form. Initially, Ran's backstory felt tepid, but on re-reads, I grew to appreciate its nuances and thematic relevance (and boy does CLAMP love their twin characters), and even its somewhat out-of-nowhere plot twist with Gingetsu. Despite its incomplete nature, I wasn't left feeling as X does, stuck at a climatic moment with no answers. This world is dark and cold and cruel and demands everything from us, but the potential for human connection could build a life, however fragile.
The Themes: Clover reads in a lot of interesting ways, including an exploration of the anxieties of technology and the dawning 21st century. Their core theme of the impossibility of understanding one another returns here, now depicted through the sterile technological environment and isolation of the Clovers. Bird and cage imagery abound in a world with only artificial animals, with Ora noting that Gingetsu and Kazuhiko would never be able to take care of a real bird. City lights (hello Tokyo Babylon), tears, and music become symbols for loneliness and reconnection. What is happiness and how can it be achieved in a world that refuses it for you? What would you do to not be alone in this world? What is love in a place like this? Is love powerful enough that you could be reborn in someone's arms?
Every single character in the work is running out of time. Not dying may be the best gift you can ever give someone you love, but mortality is always just around the corner. For Su, death is a worthwhile trade for a simple wish of a chance at freedom and finally understanding love, after a lifetime of solitude. The same is true for Ran and Ora. The persistence of love is another theme in the story, even after Su and Ora die, even after Ora's statue head is destroyed too because of the military Kazuhiko worked for. The Clover leaf itself becomes a thematic element of both impossible wishes and the inability to erase someone. Kazuhiko changes Gingetsu as a person, and that in turn changes Ran. A and Ran remain interlinked despite their separation, paradoxically only able to live when apart and yet unable to forget the other.
It's familiar ground for CLAMP and they handle it masterfully, bringing in the new angle of escape itself - can one be reborn into a new life and cease being a Clover? What does that mean for immortal children? (Listen: The lights are pretty but none of them are for me. And they never will be. is a banger angst line) Ran is given a light and can live with Gingetsu, but he'll always be doomed to die early. Perhaps to live, however you do it, is enough.
The Characters: The noir elements influencing Clover serve to make its characters feel distinctly new from past works. Frank sexuality underpins a lot of relations, making relationships like Ora's and Kazuhiko's feel real and adult (while contrasting with tender moments where he washes her hair). Even a wide-eyed ingenue like Su is capable of deceit. While I'm sure some things were meant to be explained in the cancelled volumes, I do actually enjoy that some connections between characters are ambiguous (again, very noir). We don't really need to know why Bols and Kazuhiko are yaoi-esque rivals, or what transpired when Kazuhiko and Gingetsu served together. We get a sense of richness of character depth without being handheld, and these hints have meaning as the story unfolds. Everyone's looking for something or someone, and when they get it, it's never quite perfect.
I really liked the complexity of interpersonal relationships between characters. Su and Ora grow to love each other (whether romantically or platonically on each end) across phone calls. Su and Kazuhiko's romance is intertwined with Ora's ghost between them and the desire not to be forgotten by those we love. Characters are explored through each other eyes, suggesting the subjectivity of their own experiences in a thematic way. The desire for happiness, however fleeting, is explored in each character, to different effects. While I was initially ambivalent towards Ran and Gingetsu, this time around, I'll admit, I felt more invested in the slightly over-the-top drama with his twin A. And the kill switch in the brain is pretty romantic, damn it. Gingetsu's might never love or see Ran as A does, but does A either? At least Gingetsu frames his questions to allow Ran a chance to decide for himself and form himself as a separate person outside his twin. Ora though, still remains my favourite of the whole lot, though I now can say I love everyone in the story. She's funny, charming, sexy, tragic, and yet never feels discarded for Kazuhiko's development.
The Art: There's nothing quite like Clover in CLAMP's oeuvre. It's more realistic in style, from the individual lines of Su's hair to the wrinkles of the wizards, somehow straddling a visually airiness and gritty sci-fi with heavy blacks. Unlike other works, the scanned and textured images work so well here, adding grit. Clover was visually driven by graphic design for music foldouts on CD booklets to match its focus on music as connection, which is such a brilliant "the medium is the message" design choice I'm almost angry. Text and word balloons are used as graphic elements and visual storytelling just as much as the artwork is, even in the colour spreads. I really wish I knew how they'd planned a lot of their layouts. Clover favours negative space and silhouettes more than any other work, taking the manga grid and breaking it completely.
Single movements will be broken down into multiple frames, like beats of a song, like watching a movie on paper while luxuriating in every moment. Kazuhiko first unveiling his blade-gun arm, or Su flying and running off with Kazuhiko into the darkness, are some scenes I'll never forget. I love the panelling and overlays and could study them for hours. The scene where Kazuhiko touches Su's face with his false hand might be the most beautiful moment of human intimacy captured on paper. Ora's lips forming "I love you". Clover to me is an example of masters of the craft firing on every cylinder as a masterwork of visual storytelling.
The character designs are also beautiful. Little touches, like Ran's squashed down sneakers, or Ora's tight curls (a delight to see!), or Gingetsu's Cyclops-esque visor, make them visually distinct and life-like. All the little details on the technology is lovely, from the helmets and gloves to the clockwork wings. Combining clockwork and technology was an inspired choice for a distinct worldview.
Questionable Elements: It is unclear how old Su is (in relation to Kazuhiko). Ran meets Gingetsu as an immortal child who then experiences rapid ageing into a teen or a young adult (while living with him). It's about what you'd expect from CLAMP and their love of questionable age gaps regrettably, with an added dash of the unfortunately common "this guy raised some kid and now they're MARRIED". Otherwise, beyond their usual China pastiche now with techno-orientalism - which was not uncommon in a lot of Japanese sci-fi of this time, see most famously: Ghost in the Shell - that's about it.
Overall: Clover being an unfinished work is an odd experience for me - its hanging plot threads are noticeable once you're told they exist, but the story still stands as a complete sci-fi fable of love and loss in a way that other incomplete series cannot. Even if I'll always know that Vol 5 and 6 were supposed to include A returning to find Ran. Thematically or writing-wise, do I find it the most moving or compelling of CLAMP's works? Probably not, but I think it deserves to stand up there as one of their greats, for its artistic and conceptual ambition. It's a beautiful ride through a dark city to a faraway place that will never be, and sometimes the journey is greater than the destination.
The thing about TSR that makes me feel so crazy that nobody talks about is how before the episode, Zuko and Katara both thought the other didn’t care as much as they did about what happened between them in Ba Sing Se. Katara thought he had been tricking her, and he never genuinely cared about her as a person. Zuko thought she was just an empathetic person who could’ve grown to care about him if he hadn’t ruined it, but the feelings weren’t that deep to begin with and she probably just wanted to get him to stop chasing them.
They were both wrong, of course. Zuko hadn’t ever spoken about how the Fire Nation wronged him personally, what his scar meant, or allowed anyone to touch it. Katara had never been on the receiving end of someone trying to empathize with her pain. She’d always been the one to reach out first to sympathize with someone. This time, she’d been yelling at Zuko and he still extended the first olive branch. She offered to heal him with water she’d been saving for something important because she sensed the pain he was in and wanted to alleviate it. But neither of them were able to confirm how much this meant to the other because they get interrupted and Zuko doesn’t see Katara looking back at him.
When Zuko joined the group and Katara threatens him, it confirms his thinking that her anger at him has to do with how his actions led to Aang’s death (and part of it is, but the larger part is about how it made her think that he didn’t actually care about her). He thinks that if he shows that he’s not a threat to Aang, that he is fully committed to fight for and protect the Avatar, she’ll trust him like everyone else.
From Katara’s perspective, Zuko showing up and being this great guy who’s teaching Aang firebending and protecting her brother and saving her dad from prison all while not doing anything to show that he personally wants to make amends with her proves that he really didn’t care about her in Ba Sing Se. He didn’t trick her, but it just didn’t matter to him as much as it did to her.
That’s what leads to TSR. On the edge of that cliff, when he asks her why she doesn’t trust him like everyone else (because if it was really about Aang’s safety, she would’ve been fine with him after he brought him back from the sun warriors), she turns around and tells him exactly why she’s still angry. It’s because she cared about him and he didn’t care about her.
And that’s why every line of dialogue out of Zuko’s mouth that episode is a variation of “I care about you”. Because he never wants her to feel like he doesn’t again.
This sort of put into words how I feel about it- like she's not mad because she hates him or because he tricked her but because she DID connect with him in that cave and he let her down. She believed in him and let herself trust him and he chose wrong. That's why it's a betrayal and not a deception. It was personal, they shared intimate inner thoughts and that wasn't enough for him to live up to the faith she placed in him. It makes so much sense that she'd be angry about it until he made it up to her specifically; it wasn't his betrayal of the group that stung but his personal betrayal of her after they saw each other in that way.
it is very frustrating to be interested in exploring dramione and yet it feels like i can barely find any dramione fanfics that capture what makes it potentially interesting to me. draco isn't suave, he's not ultra-handsome (or super tall and hermione isn't some itty-bitty frail waif either), he isn't an aristocrat (there is sooo much aristocracy wank in HP fandom), he and other purebloods do not have special "blood magics" (which nobody seems to realise validates pureblood supremacy if it were true), and he certainly isn't some sex god (the only girl at hogwarts who seems to gaf about him is pansy). he isn't some romantic quoting classical literature (why would he know that?? that's muggle stuff!).
what draco is, is a bully and a close-minded bigot. he is someone who talked big game for years until the gun was actually in his hands and he realised that he couldn't actually kill someone. he was a 16 year old who realised that schoolyard bullying was quite a difference from the violence voldemort expected and that he was scared and desperate and out-of-his-depth as his family fell out of grace with voldemort. and THAT, to me, is really interesting to explore. how would a draco redemption arc go as he began to see pureblood supremacy for the empty and pathetic ideology that it was? that someone he had once viewed as subhuman turned out to be no better or worse than himself? there's a scene in The Disappearances of Draco Malfoy that i think nails it when Draco encounters the muggle world for the first time and his entire worldview is finally upended when he realises muggles are just humans and how meaningless and pathetic pureblood ideology actually is.
even worse to me is the fanon hermione of the preternaturally beautiful "golden girl" brilliance, with her big old heart and extraordinary kindness and utter loveliness and she's just so tiny and smol but also has great tits and arse except. girlies she disfigured another girl for being a traitor. she condescends constantly to neville, luna, lavender, and pretty much anyone else she has decided is irritating. she is NOT the gryffindor princess (nobody is! enough aristocracy wank!). she is not endlessly forgiving nor pure of heart. she can be callous. she can be difficult. she can be fierce. she can be narrow-minded. also she would never fucking be a healer are we all serious just because she is a girl!!
and i get it. it's much easier and more classically romantic to write post-war dramione or essentially AU dramione and you just sort of handwave the teen years away don't worry he got over it off-screen so you can have loads of sexy banter and hot sex. it's more swoonworthy to have elizabeth-esque hermione and darcy-esque draco and she is Good and he is Just a Bit Bad. or otherwise it is a dark and sexy AU and they have loads of very kinky sex and brooding looks. and I GET IT. that's FUN. i have enjoyed fics like that! i am not shaming it! i am not saying these fics are garbage! i am just griping because it is a little isolating to get recommended all the big and popular fanfics and they do not satisfy my interest in the ship and they take a lot of fanon liberties that aren't super interesting to me and do not hit what i actually think could be interesting to explore about draco and hermione getting together (i am not against fanon or AUs. my only longfic is an AU. one of my all-time fave zutara fanfics is an AU. but i want to see the essence of the characters in the AU!).
“Colonizer” is not an ontological category. It’s a role within a specific geopolitical power dynamic, and therefore it can change — or even cease to exist — when these geopolitical power dynamics change (like when, idk, a Gaang of teenagers overthrow a genocidal imperialist colonial regime to install a new monarch who vows to stop the genocide and imperialism and colonization and bring about an era of love and peace)
I know it’s a bad faith anti argument, but it bothers me more than most anti Zutara arguments because I think it is indicative of a very pessimistic, defeatist attitude about power relations in general. Any type of oppressor is not a fixed role. It’s subject to change, and indeed ATLA’s message is that it’s your obligation — and your right, your power — to fight for that change, even if you’re just a ragtag group of kids against a whole empire. Calling Zuko a colonizer is not only a baffling misunderstanding of what colonization is, it also implies that even when you successfully challenge and restructure oppressive power dynamics, old sins cast long enough shadows that there is nothing you can do to be free of them. It’s one thing to acknowledge the complexities of a close relationship with someone who used to benefit from your oppression (indeed that’s kind of the whole arc of The Southern Raiders where Katara confronts the ways in which she has projected the trauma of her mother’s murder at the hands of the Fire Nation onto Zuko, who is now a valued ally). It’s quite another to claim that neither of you can ever escape the ontological categories of oppressor vs victim even if you’ve both changed the world.
Saw people being weird about the Southern Raiders episode again, and I started a long response but it was sooooooo long, I thought I should just make a separate post.
Here’s the thing: the Southern Raiders episode is about two things - on the surface it’s about Zuko, Katara, and misplaced anger. Thematically, though, this episode is about forgiveness and negotiating where forgiveness fits into the overturning of oppressive regimes.
I’m just here to talk surface level today. Maybe one day I’ll delve into the thematic stuff (which I think is also so well done). What’s brilliant about this episode is that even the surface level hits more than just the surface - it’s complex, filled with a lot of subtext. Recently I saw someone lament that it’s weird that this episode seems to reinforce the idea that Katara blames Zuko because of her mom’s death - but this reading of the episode really takes things at face value, and I think we need to look deeper than that.
What always strikes me about this episode is that before it happens, the audience sort of assumes that Katara is angry at Zuko because his actions caused a lot of harm to Aang. But once we get to her confrontation with Zuko, she names the source of her anger as something different: I was the first person to trust you, she says, and you turned around and betrayed me. This is the first thing she says to Zuko that makes an impression on him likely because it feels like the first real thing she says to him about her anger, beyond just aggressively taunting.
But it’s also…ridiculous. He “betrayed” her?? They had no agreement, no alliance! He chose his sister over some random girl he had one conversation with, an action that, as smart as we’ve seen Katara be, shouldn’t have been all that surprising to her. I think the wording here is very important that she trusted him and he betrayed her, because it should set off some alarm bells in your head, the absurdity of the accusation. And it points to the truth: Katara is directing her anger at Zuko, sure, but who is she really mad at?
It has to be herself. She trusted Zuko, like an idiot, and then Zuko almost got Aang killed. That’s why, for the first time in the show, her anger spins her so out of control. Because she’s not putting the anger in the right direction, not working through it. Anger has a very interesting role in ATLA because the show never really suggests that anger, at its core, is a bad thing, which is a radical position for a kids show in 2005. Katara is the best evidence of this, since her anger 99% of the time is a life giving force interconnected with her hopefulness; the show celebrates her anger more often than it punishes it. But in TSR, her anger is killing her because it’s different than usual. It’s tied up her guilt, and instead of feeling it and working through it, she’s just pushing it on someone else.
It’s also telling and important that Katara starts blaming Zuko for her mom’s death. Again, this is misplaced, but it’s no wonder she would be thinking about her mom in the wake of her renewed guilt over what happened to Aang. Her mom, after all, also died because of her.
This is the crux of the episode: Katara feels intense guilt and anger over her mother, and she places it all on Zuko because let’s be honest - she blames herself for all of this, and it all ends up tied together, her guilt her anger. I have no doubt that the person she’s most angry at is herself, unable to do anything to save her mother. And then years later she turns around and trusts ZUKO, of all people - how stupid was that? I mean just LOOK at the way that Katara had spent years turning herself into a caretaker for everyone around her. At first this just seems like a trauma response to losing her mom at a young age - but once we know that her mom died to protect Katara, died in her PLACE - it becomes clear, to me anyway, that Katara making herself into a caretaker at 14 is wrapped up in her guilt and anger over her mom. It’s a punishment, in many ways; she has to take over her mom’s role because her mom died in her place.
Perhaps the final sort of evidence for me that Katara is actually mad at herself in this episode is that Zuko, king of self-loathing, becomes her mirror, her sounding board in this episode. People like to argue that Zuko takes Katara down a “dark path,” but he seems to me more like a beacon in the midst of her turmoil. Placing him next to her, it’s a poke to the audience. Remember? Zuko said not so many episodes ago that he was mad at himself. By the time he joins the gaang, his anger has clearly been redirected at his father; it’s closer now to the anger that Katara most often feels, that hopeful, life giving anger. And allowing Zuko to guide her through this side quest is a reassurance: Katara will work through her anger too.
At the end of the episode, Katara says she’s ready to forgive Zuko. I think this is why people take at face value that she was genuinely angry with him, that her anger at him was a pure expression of her rage and hurt and not a muddied one. But I’d argue that her verbal forgiveness of him isn’t about his “betrayal,” it’s about the themes of the episode - she’ll probably never forgive Yon Rha, she says, a vow to remember the wrongs done in the past - but by forgiving Zuko, she’s saying that she’s willing to collaborate for a better Fire Nation of the future, a more just world. And now that she’s been able to confront and work through her anger at herself, she’s in a balanced place to do so.
Honestly, I think if the true source of Katara’s l anger about all this really was Zuko, they wouldn’t have the relationship that they do by the end of the show. They clearly really trust each other and care about each other by the end, and I think that if Katara really felt betrayed like she says, she would have held back her heart a little bit, keeping them at allies but never quite friends.
And ya know what? This is one of those episodes of ATLA that refuses to spoon feed you the answers, which I really like. It offers a lot of subtext for good, old fashioned analysis and argument, and it’s why it’s one of my favorite episodes - plus it’s an episode that REALLY brilliantly puts the focus on Katara and complicates her character, and I love that.
Yon Rha was the one who murdered Katara's mother. It was Yon Rha's glare that Katara remembered in such vivid detail. Yon Rha was the real monster, the real enemy.
So why Zuko?
What was it about him that overshadowed the memory of Yon Rha? What was so striking about Zuko that he remained the face of the enemy even after Azula came around? Zuko is the Prince of the Fire Nation, sure, but that couldn't have been enough. Was it because he's a firebender, a predator? Was it because he's wrathful and relentless and...and...
...and scarred.
But his scar wasn't a reason. Katara didn't even think about it until Zuko pointed it out in the Crystal Catacombs. It was just part of who he is. Part of the enemy. Desperate and frantic and hurt.
Some part of me wants to believe that Katara was so quick to offer healing and forgiveness under Ba Sing Se because she needed it. She needed to see the enemy as something flawed, human, fixable. Someone she could empathise with and understand, not some monster who only took and took and took—
And then Aang arrived, and she left, and Zuko betrayed her.
(But did he, really? Or did she betray herself by considering for just a second that the enemy could be human? That the enemy could be something other than a monster?)
And then he came back, right after his Nation took her people during the Day of the Black Sun and took her father away from her again and took and took and took—
And Zuko gave. Even when the wrathful and desperate enemy became her.
Perhaps, in Katara's eyes, Yon Rha was the face of the enemy. He always had been, but she didn't know until she faced him.
But his scar wasn't a reason. Katara didn't even think about it until Zuko pointed it out in the Crystal Catacombs. It was just part of who he is. Part of the enemy. Desperate and frantic and hurt.
So one of the reasons I love zutara from a disability perspective is how the scene in the catacombs points out unconscious biases we have. I don't think Katara was consciously thinking scarred = bad person, but the way she immediately flips her thinking about the scar when Zuko points it out mirrors what Bryke have to say about how they created Zuko's character. How they drew a scary looking kid with a scar because they wanted to come up with a villain closer to Aang's age, but then started to think about what happened to him, and that was how they knew he would eventually be redeemed, because they saw what was previously just a villain as someone who had been hurt.
One of the reasons disability and visible scars and disfigurement reads as scary to us is that we could be that person, we could be hurt like that. And I think Katara was afraid of that, too. Katara, who carries her own hurt below the surface, being faced with someone who wears a similar hurt, a parallel to her own, on his face for all to see.
And yes, I think you are correct that Katara was wrestling with her own feelings about the complexities of good and evil. She says as much at the Western Air Temple, that Zuko was just pretending to be a real human being to gain her trust, but her words to him in private show that she doesn't actually believe that. She knows Zuko is human and flawed, but that's really what scares her the most, that a fundamentally flawed but human person can make a wrong decision with devastating consequences.
I think a lot of Katara's hurt around her mother came from both trying to understand Yon Rah's actions in a similar way - she says she always wondered what kind of person could do such a thing - and trying to understand how she could have been a helpless child unable to stop what happened. It's easy to forgive the child, but less easy to understand and come to grips with yourself as helpless. But trying to heal Zuko's scar and learning to understand him also helped Katara learn to understand herself. The idea that our scars aren't because of what we did but what was done to us, and that we can heal despite them.
Anyway thanks for your original post and sorry for rambling on it.
The Great CLAMP Re-Read Part 13: Cardcaptor Sakura
Part 1 (RG Veda) | Part 2 (Man of Many Faces) | Part 3 (Tokyo Babylon) | Part 4 (Duklyon) | Part 5 (Clamp Detectives)| Part 6 (Shirahime)| Part 7 (X)| Part 8 (Chunhyang)|Part 9 (Miyuki-chan)|Part 10 (Rayearth)| Part 11 (The One I Love| Part 12 (Wish)| Part 14 (Clover
Upon finishing their incredibly successful run in Nakayoshi with Magic Knight Rayearth, CLAMP were asked once again to produce another series for the magazine. That new series became probably the second biggest magical girl series of all time, after Sailor Moon. CCS ran from 1996 to 2000 in 12 volumes, and spawned a 70 episode anime, 2 theatrical movies, 10 video games, multiple audio CDs, and a truly unbelievable amount of merch. CCS remains a juggernaut media franchise and yet....this was the first time I've ever actually read it! I was a bit too old for CCS' target audience when it was imported in, and it's been interesting to approach the series as an adult. I chose to purchase the Dark Horse omnibuses as they come with colour pages and good paper quality.
If X and Rayearth closed off the 90s CLAMP chapter, then CCS defined their 2000s arc in multiple ways. CCS was CLAMP's attempt to truly appeal to a kid audience with a toyetic, sweet story, deliberately cute designs, and eschewing the violent tragedy of their previous long series. Its importance on the genre and broader animanga is immeasurable, and its reach is particularly massive through its focus on human relationships and a non-judgmental attitude towards love and queer characters. I've never been much for slice-of-life, and I'll always be a Rayearth girl, but CLAMP still made my stay in Tomoeda enjoyable. Heavy spoilers!
Synopsis: Ten year old Sakura Kinomoto accidentally releases the Clow Cards, a set of magical cards created by the sorcerer Clow Reed. Together with the card's guardian Kero-chan, her best friend (and costume-maker) Tomoyo Daidouji, and her rival Li Syaoran, Sakura must catch and seal each card in turn, becoming a Master of the Clow! But there's also plenty of elementary school mishaps to be found, as Sakura crushes on her brother Toya's best friend Yukito, goes on summer trips, meets mysterious teachers and exchange students, and learns what true love actually is.
The Story: Unlike our modern image of a magical girl show, CCS takes more from older aspects of the genre, namely, the magical witch girl (Sakura literally has a witch's broom!) and slice-of-life. There are no bad guys. CCS is an idealized world for children, where people are good, adults are caring, and love is innocent and pure. While Sakura must stop each card, the cards never actually hurt anyone, instead just causing mischief. Sakura uses quick thinking, teamwork, and heart, to seal each card, usually learning something along the way. I will admit - I feared the series would hit a lot of what I dislike about slice-of-life: no tension, aimless storytelling, trite, and boring. Yet, while it could've been gimmicky, CCS is solidly charming, and its strong character relationships really carry it through, with CLAMP choosing to bring their own unique touch of focusing on human entanglement and using becoming a master of the Clow as part of the entire story of growing up.
There's some really great Cards, like the Illusion card that really humanizes Sakura and her mother Nadeshiko, as well as Sword and Mirror, that feel like genuine reflections on empathy and kindness. CLAMP was smart to often tie the cards together with different bumps in character dynamics, allowing us to see people grow closer, or learn more about them, together with the magic. Sakura becomes a teenager as she becomes a sorcerer. The life hijinks could also be great, like the school play. Some elements don't quite cohere - I never felt like the teddy bear metaphor really held up - but overall, I found the magical and mundane well mixed and enjoyable.
However, the plotting falls into one major pitfall. The classic CLAMP manufactured drama where nobody can complete their thought without getting cut off, and the "well, actually" plot twist that this time, does not come together and improve the overall story through its new reading. There's Wish-levels of hyperbolic world-shattering destruction that never amount to anything. It isn’t quite as annoying here, because the series is more successfully charming and better plotted. But the too-easy resolution for the "Judgement" feels like a retcon, as the wording is explicitly "a disaster will befall the world". I understand it's a consequence of the thematic elements of the manga, but I would likely have swallowed it easier if it hadn't involved pages of deliberate obfuscation to generate cheap tension. It's a similar problem in the Eriol arc, with the last-minute explanation of his real plan feeling baffling (not to mention the harbinger of things to come with the confusing "split in two" decision...). I do like the finality of reincarnation in the CLAMP-verse though. It's not an automatic do-over, and you do have to try again.
Despite this, CLAMP sticks the landing of the ending. The emotional arcs of CCS culminate in a fantastic way, from Toya giving his power to save Yukito from being consumed by Yue and affirming their relationship, to Tomoyo gently helping Syaoran and Sakura come together, to Sakura realising that love has been right beside her all along. I ended the manga feeling satisfied with where everyone ended up, and appreciating the well-written build-up and payoffs for these couples. And I think that's the biggest win for a fluffy slice-of-life magical girl series - it hits every box of character development, magical growth, and good ships, in a way that ties together perfectly.
The Themes: The two major themes of CCS are that all relationships are valid, and that "everything will be alright". The theme of "there is one special person out there for you" that was codified in Wish, continues here, and is handled in a more heartwarming and less fatalistic way - Yukito and Sakura do not end up together because Yukito does not feel the same, not because of cosmic entanglements. By exploring a variety of love and relationships, CCS became a phenomenon and part of the push towards greater diversity in sexuality representation for children. It never feels heavy-handed or poorly done, as characters feel vibrant and sincere.
The other theme is one of Sakura's rallying cries whenever things seem tough. It's a lovely message for children - and frankly, for adults too! - that one mustn't give into despair, and that trying your best is really the best thing you can do. More than that, "everything will be alright" comes back in the finale as Sakura contemplates her feelings for Syaoran, reaching out to all those around her for love and support. Everything will be alright is about how having a loving support network will save you. And I think that's a beautiful message for kids.
The Characters: Let me say right now. I love Kero-chan. I would die for that vain silly little man. Syaoran had it coming when Kero bit his finger. Now, for the rest. There's a sticking point I have with CCS. Because it's a deliberately constructed ideal world, the cast are the sweetest, most mature children you will ever encounter. My issue is not that it is unrealistic - I think that actually explains a lot of CCS' crossover appeal with adults, as it is such a comforting, escapist world - but that the characters with flaws....are mostly the boys. Kero, Toya, and Syaoran are all wonderfully bratty and funny, livening up the saccharine sweetness of the story. Beat that child up Toya!
That's not to say I disliked the girl characters. While Sakura initially left me cold, I really warmed up to her because CLAMP made an effort to sell her strength of will and big heart. I love how she's a jock but also really smart - she's a witch! CLAMP also nails the brother-sister dynamic between Sakura and Toya. But I do wish that CLAMP understood that idealised role models for kids can also involve girls being children too. Still, I adored Sakura and Tomoyo's friendship, even if Tomoyo's arc is flat, especially when Sakura had to save her. I really felt like I could understand all the distinct interpersonal dynamics of the main cast. While I was again initially indifferent on Syaoran and Syaosaku (he hates her but keeps saving her), his blushing mess around Yukito, bratty fighting with Kero, and slow journey to love, really sold me on him. The crush is just plain cute.
The supporting cast also has some stand-outs, like chronic liar Yamazaki, cutie irritating Nakuru, grumpy pretty boy Yue, and horror enthusiast Naoko. While Yukito and Toya could've easily fallen into the usually CLAMP gay couple mold, they really subverted it here, with Toya too shy to admit his feelings and being a genuinely great guy, and Yukito teasing and playful instead of a stock "gentle sweet boy". They felt real and their development as Yukito loses himself to Yue was genuinely impactful. I don't think I'll emotionally recover from the devastation of Yukito gently letting Sakura down.
On the flipside though, I think I have to break my adage. CLAMP can make characters I dislike. I despised Terada-sensei and her father, and you know why. I despised Kaho, which is sad, because there were elements about her that could've been interesting, but CLAMP never really makes Kaho interesting enough to the story, beyond being there to date a 5000 year old in a child's body. Eriol (and by extension Clow) felt hard to understand. I really wish certain writing decisions had not been made that coloured the characters this way.
The Art: CLAMP were careful in how they approached the art for CCS, favouring a loose, light line with very little variation, and an emphasis on curved shapes over angular, and white space with minimal black or grey. It's delightful to look at, with an effusive and sweet charm, though it can get hard to read as the lines can blend together. There also aren't a lot of backgrounds, but there's a picture book quality to the story that allows me to accept it - the story takes place in an emotional, rather than physical, location. The emotional symbolism of the flowers also adds so much to the overall work. I think my all-time favourite art moment was the gorgeous double page spread where Sakura gains wings. Just utterly magical!
You can also really see how CCS is the evolutionary link from 90s CLAMP to Tsubasa-Holic era, with its huge feet and rubbery gumby bodies. The character designs are effective and memorable, especially Kero, Yue, and Ruby Moon, and Sakura's wardrobe is my little girl fantasy come true, each feeling unique and yet cohesive.
Questionable Elements: I've read enough CLAMP by this point to know they have a fascination with age gap relationships. CCS is the endpoint of this, with not one, but FOUR relationships involving an adult dating a teenager or a child. CCS is a fantasy for children and it wants to underscore that all relationships are valid, and crushes on teachers happen. But by conflating "there is nothing wrong with queer relationships" and "there is nothing wrong with pedophilia", well. I don't need to explain why that's a horrid message. CLAMP conflating how Rika and Terada-sensei cannot be together (a crime), with Syaoran moving away, and the constant emphasis on how mature Rika is - as well as the very odd line where Syaoran and Sakura lament that though they're much younger than Yukito, their feelings "can't be helped" - suggests to me they did know what they were doing and suggesting.
It is a black mark upon an otherwise lovely piece for children, and it reinforces my opinion that CLAMP are less interested in queer representation than they are in representing their own shipping interests. Hence, despite how bisexual CCS is, there are no successful wlw relationships (because CLAMP are about yaoi, not yuri), and Sonomi should have murdered Sakura's father instead of forgiving him. I also didn't like the implication that Syaoran wasn't gay, it was just moon magic. Syaoran also kind of begins as a Chinese martial arts stereotype - as does Meiling - but they do at least make him a full character, even if I'm not sure CLAMP realises people in China wear like....jeans. Like all of us.
The Anime: I prefer not to bring in the anime for my reviews, but Ohkawa did write the scripts here, so I'll address it briefly. The anime fixes a major problem I mentioned - it makes Sakura and Tomoyo more human. Tomoyo has so much more to do than being a Sakura side-piece. Sakura makes actual mistakes, like breaking her dad's laptop or refusing to seal a card that has befriended a little girl (the Dash card), that help her mature. It was a fun watch and Meiling is cute, but I find the manga's emotional beats better handled, and the anime's excessive filler can drag.
Overall: My review might seem harsh upon Cardcaptor Sakura, but the truth is, I had a really great time overall with it. Are there structural and narrative issues? Sure. Are there some very questionable elements to it? Without doubt. But is it a beautiful character story about hard work and hope and the love of the people around you, being the source of all the magic you'll ever need? Did it open up so many doors regarding gender and sexual expression in children's media, by portraying queer people as regular people?
Yes. All these things can be true at once to sum up the complicated legacy of Cardcaptor Sakura. It's a story that gave me actual joy while reading it, simply because I fell in love with these characters and wanted to see them get their happy endings. It'll never be my favourite CLAMP manga, and it's certainly not their deepest or most ambitious works - and that heralds a lot for the future - but it is a sweet and genuine story that kids will love, and I think it succeeds and stands on those merits. Listen. This is one of those foundational 90s series everyone tells you to read to get the genre, and they're right. Sometimes you do need to remember that whatever happens, you are going to be okay.
I'm kind of amazed but not surprised that Rey's character is simplified in some fandom interpretation. I'm glad you're here to talk about her so passionately. I always think of her when I listen to Geyser by Mitski. That connection to the Force! Abandoment issues! I really wish there was more fic centred around her relationship to the magical power and connection possible deep inside her that had always been there which she has to explore. *opens word document*
Oh me too… I’m just amazed people think she’s simple, but I guess not everybody has read Before the Awakening with a magnifying glass trying to tease apart her character reactions. She’s super private and closed-off and more successfully deflecting than Kylo ever was, I think is what might surprise people the most. Given the choice between 1) stewing over something painful and 2) finding some physical activity or chore to do in order to completely and utterly never think about said painful thing ever again … she’s gonna pick 2 every time. Even back when those other scavengers betrayed her utterly and stole that ship from her, that enormous amount of food and hard work… she just stared into the middle distance for a while and went back to work. She didn’t get angry, she barely reacted. And then the super pathetic entry in her Survival Guide where she brought up the same kind of ship and just simply wrote “but I don’t want to talk about that” MY HEART WEEPS.
She avoids thinking about painful stuff, she’s a world-class expert on quarantining pain away from herself. People see her grinning while shooting fools on Crait and think it’s out of place — it is out of place!!! That’s not normal. While Ben is absolutely roiling in his feelings, she’s shut it away. She’s complicated and makes me all tender. There are all sorts of underlying and contradictory motivations to her, especially in TLJ, where she’s driven by so MANY different things:
The fruitless hope she can hand the baton of the story to Luke so she doesn’t have to examine herself any more
the quickly dashed hope she’ll find a loving father figure in Luke
being a Hero from a comforting story
the fear of her internal world, inner power and inevitable womanly maturation (the Force) and not knowing what to do with it
the heartbreaking hope she’ll find her parents without ripping off the tremulous bandage holding her entire self together.
The fact that going to the Supremacy was really the first big move she made on her own, not driven outwardly by the plot or her delusions
That she is STUCK in place (trapped to return to the desert/childhood) until she’s moved by Kylo Ren (who literally lifts her and moves her at first meeting when she would have returned to wait for her parents forever, and then later gives her motivation to make a move in her own right (going to the supremacy) and then forcibly divests her of her self-preserving lies, helping her finally start to move on)
the real exposure, change and growth for her character only ever comes through her compassionate telepathic connection to Kylo, the animus, the only one who could read the secrets of her soul that she wouldn’t even let herself know.
there are parts of this character story that I can’t quite articulate except to say that it reminds me of Sarah’s journey out of static childhood in Labyrinth, and that I’ve only seen that kind of girlhood maturation journey done so fucking well only a handful of times
That list got less and less coherent… oh well
Man, Rey is such a good character. Ben is very, very good, too, but Rey is exactly the same, layered and mirrored. And her reluctant journey out of girlhood gets me right behind the ribs, in the same way that Kylo “finding out where to put his energy as a man” did to other viewers, notably John B. Rey’s gets me more though.
I still don’t think I have quite a writing handle on Rey yet, but the more I write her the more I genuinely love her.
I was just talking about this on Reddit today. Rey is one of the most overlooked characters. She is literally a mirror of Kylo Ren, and is as complex as he is. I was drawn to her immediately because I recognize some of my own self in her. Rey’s Pollyana optimism is the mask she wears, it’s just not a visible metal mask that Kylo wears. Even Rey’s boundless compassion at times is a part of her avoidance of dealing with herself. It’s hard to explain (it’s something that I go through), but there is a line from the cartoon Bojack Horseman–it’s from the character of Princess Carolyn who is offering her help to Todd. Todd asks why she is helping, and PC says that “ …My life is a mess right now, and I compulsively take care of other people when I don’t know how to take care of myself. “ I think Rey is genuinely compassionate, but I wonder how much of her feelings towards the Resistance is really just trying to keep from caring for herself, because to heal yourself, you have to become introspective and face your problems, something Rey has a hard time doing. It’s not bad to care for others, certainly, but there are times when a person just cares for others to deflect from themselves, and I see that BIG TIME in Rey. Kylo Ren is the one that truly forces Rey to look into herself, tearing off the bandage of repression, so she can heal. We’ll see how she does this in IX.
I’m the original anon on this (before I gave in and made a proper sideblog/hardened up) and may I say what WONDERFUL commentary and replies. Thank you so much! I love this discourse!
I think what has ultimately pissed me off so much about Andor, especially season 2, is that Tony Gilroy got so caught up in the romantic image of the doomed revolutionary, that he completely missed the true message of Rogue One. Gilroy is on the record saying that when he was brought on to re-write the script, the theme he landed on was sacrifice. Sacrifice is important, for sure, and it's a theme that leads to the tragedy of Rogue One, but I don't think it was ever as central a theme as Gilroy made it out to be. I think hope and faith are far more important themes than sacrifice. The story is about finding hope in a seemingly hopeless world and spreading that hope beyond one's self.
The Rogue One crew can be divided into those with faith but no hope, and those with hope but no faith. And Chirrut, who still has hope and faith. Cassian, K-2SO, and Baze have faith - Kay even has the statistics to back it up - but no hope. Bodhi and Jyn have hope, but no faith. Bodhi has enough hope to get Galen's message to the Rebellion, but very little faith in himself. It's harder to see with Jyn, but while her lack of faith in others is palpable, I truly believe that she never gave up hope that someone would stick around. Throughout the film, everyone finds that missing part they need that ultimately gets the Death Star plans to the Rebellion.
Gilroy's vision of revolutionary sacrifice is a nihilistic one. Nemik's manifesto is inspiring, sure. Luthen's speech is galvanizing. But there's no future, not just for themselves, and not for the galaxy. Bix's baby feels so wrong so many reasons: the sexism, racism, re-traumatization by going back to Mina Rau, the heteronormativity of it all. It all feeds into this massive, damning weakness of Andor's narrative. The fetishization of revolutionary sacrifice without an idea for a future appeals to both leftists and conservatives. We love underdogs, we tend to see ourselves as ones, and who doesn't want to be the insurgent fighting against a greater foe. The problem is framing and aesthetics. I've been frustrated by people who I consider more radical, more left wing, than myself who seem blind to all the problems of Andor, who seem deaf to the praise its getting from right wing commentators. The most pushback I've seen it get from conservatives is the hackneyed critique of being "too political." For me, at least, sacrifice means nothing if there is nothing at the end of the road.
If Andor was so revolutionary, than how could it have been produced by the, at best, conservatively risk adverse Disney? Unless they were assured that the presented politics would not alienate conservative viewers. Many see themselves as the Rebels, as the forces of good fighting against a growing, existential evil, with the goal of restoring a lost way of life. Even if many would rather play the Empire (*cough Alex Jones cough*). I don't want to paint the Rebellion as reactionaries, but Star Wars has bad track record, especially in the main canon, of not presenting any new vision for the Galaxy. Because to do so may make those conservative viewers nervous and uncomfortable. I've even seen viewers (mostly on Reddit) asking why Andor didn't get a lot of push back, and I think it goes back to my main thesis: the show embraces romantic revolutionary sacrifice without presenting a future, thus allowing both leftists and conservatives - especially men - to insert themselves into the narrative. They can play out heroic fantasies of dying for a cause in a blaze of glory. That way, no one has to come up with a concrete idea of what the galaxy (or our world) will be like after Cassian sacrifices his life. Disney and their conservative viewers don't have to get uncomfortable with anti-fascist critique that would hold up the mirror to them. The mirror hurts, remember. Meanwhile, leftists who should know better get caught up in novelty and glamour of having characters spout revolutionary speeches in a mainstream show. Even if it's all smoke and mirrors.
every part of star wars, from the poverty of the outer rim to the separatist movement to the formation of the empire in reaction to the breakdown of republic control over the galaxy, is a consequence of the existence of a planetary megarome so specialized it cannot function without thousands of client states. once the empire falls the new republic can either (a) speedrun the late-republic-to-empire transition again just to hold itself together or (b) splinter into its constituent parts along the same fracture lines that caused the clone wars, in which case the fallout of coruscant losing the position of power that guarantees the massive imports necessary to sustain a population of trillions on a planet with no natural biosphere should be apocalyptic. either your post-rotj story is about that or it is about the inevitable new fascist movement arising from the galactic core acting in the interests of its own survival before that power slips away. the sequels are nonsensical because they do not understand this. what the fuck is hosnian prime
i think one of the reasons fandom is so unwilling to criticise itself is because its internalised the simplified whitefem logic of how female gaze=progressive, fandom=female gaze, therefore fandom=progressive and uses it in a way as to never examine the social constructs that the gaze was built upon, like what factors attractiveness/desire arise from.
you could say that fandom is the female gaze in its most tangible, autonomous form - it’s media for women by women, without bureaucracy and hurdles and censorship, something that never had the chance to develop because mainstream media for women is usually controlled by men. there are very few creative spaces that offer the anonymity and autonomy of internet fandom where we can all truly let our freak flags fly.
but that doesn’t mean female gaze is absolved of the issues that permeates typical forces of oppression. the female gaze is aimed at different directions, and it ranges from sexual attraction to escapist fantasy, but the female gaze when it becomes an en-masse multi-community movement has the swaying power to focus on certain characters, ships and narratives. and when it does, it paints a very telling picture of who and what it values.
female gaze regards desire/attraction first, and in white supremacist culture this means the hierarchy of white dudes, then white women, then men of colour, then women of colour. looking at overall patterns in who gets written about and who gets shunned, female gaze in fandom patterns seems to be pretty representative of the social hierarchy that ranks most-to-least valuable/humanised people.
introduction to fandom studies tells us about the values of fandom as mostly-female created space, but it rarely goes beyond that. the female gaze can be racist. it can be imperialist, ableist, transphobic, misogynistic, despite it being a concept that aims to subvert the male gaze because it did not develop in a vacuum; it developed in a society that’s oppressive and marginalising, therefore it bears the capacity of being equally oppressive and marginalising just like all other forms of media.
fandom as a manifestation of the female gaze may be more progressive than male-controlled mainstream media, but doesn’t mean it’s automatically absolved of the social issues it was born in.
won’t likely find this put in a list of tumblr heritage posts as a post worth preserving even though it’s just as old as ones that have been but it ought to be
