Fräulein Taka

The place where I obsess over various stuff. Topics might change whenever I feel like it. Mostly for myself but I don't mind people joining in.

[fraeuleintaka]

Stella's Morning Routine

For some reason they only posted these for Stella and Musa (Musa's will follow in another post). I would've liked to see those of the others as well, it's a really cute idea! And it has the 2D style again which I love.

To the surprise of absolutely noone Stella's is one page longer than Musa's - because Stella definitely takes longer to get ready in the morning. I needed to google what OOTD means (outfit of the day, apparently). Does that 4th image really imply that Stella writes herself most of the messages that she gets in a day? That's kinda... uh... Love her pose when she walks out the door though. And I love her pyjama design, don't think we've seen those in the reboot series so far, they're really cute and fit her so well!

[garlicbread-mybeloved]

I find Toph's relationship with femininity so interesting because it proves itself right in the worst way possible.

Like, from what we can see in the show, she doesn't necessarily hate being more traditionally feminine. She says that she enjoyed her day out with Katara, seemed fine with dressing up to sneak into the Earth King's Palace, and was seemingly comfortable wearing a dress at the end of the series.

(Couldn't find a good picture for that last one :( )

Her issue with traditional femininity stems mostly from the fact that for her it's associated not only with perceived weakness, but also with her parents, and as such, a loss of agency and autonomy. When she was around her parents, when she was forced to be feminine, she had no voice, no control of her life, no point.

Her only way to express herself before Aang and the crew showed up was the Earth Rumble Tournaments, which are full of sexism and misogyny. Even when introduced as a returning champion, one of the first things her opponent notices is that she's a woman. And honestly? Not surprising, considering she was literally the only one there.

Kind of hard to develop a healthy relationship with femininity with those two extremes being your only real examples of it, right?

Well, the worst part about it is that LOK literally proves her right. Among the main crew, and even Azula and her gang, she's arguably the least traditionally feminine. She is also the one who gets the most recognition in LOK. Not only is she put in a position of power (albeit a very stupid and unfitting one), she also gets like 3 separate statues.

She doesn't lose autonomy to become little more than the Avatar's wife and mother of his children, like Katara, who is very traditionally feminine. She doesn’t lose her agency to be left behind and forgotten, like Suki and all the others, who are also more traditionally feminine than her. Literally all the bad things she associated with being a woman became true for probably the strongest women she knew.

They went through a war together. Suki saved her life more than once, and yet where is she? Katara faced Azula pretty much alone and won, and what does she get out of it?

Toph isn't better than them, they're equals, colleagues, friends, and yet Toph gets the respect they don't. Love my girl dearly, and I think she would stand for that about as much as we do.

On the other hand, I also find it interesting how she's the only one without a confirmed romantic interest, which is an example of how women that are portrayed to have power are allowed to do so at the cost of being too hardcore for feelings apparently. But that's an entirely different thing that I have too many thoughts about largely though not solely because I'm aromantic. ​

[fraeuleintaka]

Zoro's open politeness towards his opponents is so underrated and should honestly be acknowledged more imo.

Like, he's so nice to them! Constantly warning them that they shouldn't pick a fight with him (Helmeppo, the Baroque Agents before the 1 vs 100 fight), politely declining their invitation (Mr. 7), warning them not to turn around (Cabaji) or offering them to just give up (Mr. 9) before he has to beat them up, inevitably, because they don't listen to him. His enemies really should listen to him more when he goes so out of his way to look out for them like this!

[raventhough]

This is a little bit of an ATLA rant post, so bear with me here. It’s probably going to be all over the place because I’m sick, and I’m pretty worked up about this lmao:

I love Azula’s character, but why do all of her apologists feel the need to diminish Zuko’s character to build her up? You can’t play her off as an always-innocent victim who was never a perpetrator because she wasn’t, and neither was Zuko. They were victims of their father and the war, yes. However, they also participated in conquest, destruction, etc, in which they were OBJECTIVELY the perpetrators. It’s not even up for debate.

Zuko got his redemption arc because he worked for it. The show made him suffer due to the consequences of his actions and the actions of his father, who he would later realize was evil all along. Azula didn’t get ANY of that. She didn’t suffer (or at least wasn’t shown to be suffering) until it was too late in the show. It would’ve been poor writing to give her further development, and it’s very poor comprehension to see her as a good person. Sure, she was 14, but that doesn’t absolve her of her bad decisions. Zuko was 16. They’re both children. War makes kids grow up too fast. That’s sort of the point of the entire show.

“Azula had it worse than Zuko!” I don’t like comparing trauma. I find it unproductive since experiences may be concrete but one’s internalization and processing of such experiences are not straightforward in the slightest. If it hurt, it’s valid. That much is true, yes, but there are also patterns in abusive dynamics that are worth noting.

Ozai pitted Zuko and Azula against each other using the classic scapegoat vs. golden child tactic. In this case, Zuko was the scapegoat and Azula was the golden child. He was shamed for anything he did and she was praised for her skills. All of this was Ozai projecting, as this behavior so often is. Zuko was subjected to the most violent punishment such as his physical abuse (the Agni Kai), psychological abuse (this was in the comics, but Ozai would slam his fist on the table and he also told Zuko he was going to kill him when he was born, the entire purpose of this being to frighten and scold him), emotional abuse (constant shaming/propaganda/manipulation), physical neglect (his banishment), and emotional neglect (ignoring his questions about his mother/not meeting his emotional needs). Those are all I can think of right now, but out of all the ones I mentioned, the only one’s applicable to Azula are the emotional abuse and the emotional neglect. Both of which are TERRIBLE, of course. I’m not trying to argue that her childhood wasn’t bad, but this is common in the scapegoat-golden child dynamic. The scapegoat is conditioned to constantly feel fear and self-hatred while the golden child is conditioned to be egotistical and domineering like the outward expression the abuser has for themselves. This is why, in early Book 3, Zuko is seen being much more cautious and worried at home while Azula seems to have no fear at all. He’s used to being punished and Azula isn’t. Both are unhealthy. Punishment should never be violent or induce fear, and children need to be taught morals in order to form relationships later in life.

This is also partially why Zuko got his redemption and Azula didn’t. The scapegoat, being subject to the most abuse, is more likely to develop C-PTSD, an addiction, and other mental health complications later in life. However, they are also more likely to become cycle breakers because they’ve experienced the effects of abuse so much on themselves (this does not mean they can’t become abusers. That occurs a lot as well). Golden children were manipulated and emotionally abused and witnessed their siblings being treated terribly, but because of how much they were in their abuser’s grasp, it doesn’t typically come as quickly to them to break the cycle. It has worked for their survival, and not for the scapegoat’s. Manipulation is harder to escape when it works in your favor. Zuko got away from their father sooner, not just because he saw the state of the Earth Kingdom from the war, but also because he was able to relate more to the victims than his own country.

So yes, Azula is just as much of a victim of Ozai’s as Zuko. Yes, she was emotionally abused and neglected and forced to grow up way too fast. Yes, her father never really loved her and turned her into a war machine and all of this is tragic. It is. Abuse is never justifiable and it never does any good. Azula is an example of this. She’s supposed to be a tragic character because everything she believed in her whole life was a lie, but because she did so much wrong, no one was willing to stick around for her. After all, why would they? Her being a war machine makes her an incredibly difficult person to be close with since she always USES people.

Stop comparing her to Zuko. She’s not Zuko. They’re both different sides of the same broken family caused by generations of parents who cared more about power than love. Don’t talk about how much worse she had it than Zuko, and definitely don’t blame Zuko, Iroh, or Ursa for her pain. Ozai is her abuser. Stop looking for fingers to point.

Of course, AUs and playing around with ideas is creative and fun, but when people try to push this different idea of her character into the canon where she’s compassionate and not ruthless, where her and Zuko’s lives were the same so since he got a redemption arc, so should she, it’s just wrong. This rant isn’t about fanfiction or alternate storylines, it’s about people horrendously mischaracterizing the fire siblings and pretending it’s actually what happened

I hope this post made sense, and thanks for reading this long rant LMAO.

[sokkastyles]

Zuko got away from their father sooner, not just because he saw the state of the Earth Kingdom from the war, but also because he was able to relate more to the victims than to his own country.

This is so true, and it's highly ironic that Azula stans often act like this was Zuko getting an unfair advantage over her when his empathy developed due to not having the advantages she had. Like, it should not be a surprise that someone who is fed on a steady diet of their own superiority is unable to consider other people as human.

At the same time, though, Zuko's victimization also could have turned him bitter and resentful, which it did at the beginning of the story. He had to choose empathy. And Iroh is an example of how it is possible to change even if you were the golden child.

[raventhough]

Exactly! Part of why I made this post was of how sick I was of people reducing Zuko’s arc to luck, and claiming that had Azula had the same resources, she would’ve turned out just as well. Growth is work. Zuko and Iroh weren’t always good people. They had to deconstruct years of abuse and propaganda first.

[fraeuleintaka]

This is such a typical reaction for Miles. He considers his trauma something childish that he should've gotten over by now simply with time. He tries to reason with his fears as if they're something you could logically argue against. No wonder he's always so embarrassed whenever he struggles with it and hates other people seeing him this "weak". Even when alone he's angry at himself for hesitating. He doesn't want to talk about it with anyone and always tries to lie, when he can get away with it, and pretend it's not as bad as it is. He puts so much pressure on himself to just handle it and it makes it so much worse.

[fraeuleintaka]

Is there something like internalized ableism? Because that's pretty much what I'd call Miles' behaviour regarding his triggers. He definitely expects other people to mock him for his reactions but he's also angry at himself for these reactions and his inability to just "get over it" even when he's alone. It's not something he does solely to keep up appearances (though that's also part of it because he doesn't want others to see him being "weak"), he genuinely views himself as weak when his phobia rears its head, especially in such drastic instances as this.

This is also why I don't think Miles would go to therapy over this (unless it got to a point where he was literally unable to work). Because that would be openly admitting that it's still a problem and that he can't handle it on his own. When that's something he can barely acknowledge to himself and the absolute most he accepts from others is Gumshoe, and specifically only Gumshoe, asking him if he's fine (the answer to which is inevitably almost always "yes"). I love the contrast between his thoughts and what he tells others here. And in this scene specifically I find it striking that he groans out loud when seeing the elevator and also says "From earthquake-like turbulence to an elevator..." out loud, not only in his thoughts. It got such a strong reaction from him that it just slipped out. The way Miles' trauma and how he handles it is written is so fascinating to me.

[vacpion]

So i did a sketch last month of my take on the winx club and it lined up perfectly with this prompt so here's the Musa i did in more detail

Pose ref under

[sarahwatchesthings]

"If a client's rude to me, do I get angry? If I'm insulted, do I let it make me ill? Do I rant and rave and utter useless threats, James? No! I simply add a little something to the bill."

[fraeuleintaka]

My interpretation for why Zoro and Sanji rub each other the wrong way so much

For Zoro it definitely has to do with Sanji's general approach to women, exemplified in the way he reacts to Nami's betrayal in S1E7. Sanji insists that there has to be something more behind Nami's actions, that she can't just be evil and backstabbing, despite only having talked to her maybe twice, solely because she's a beautiful woman. If Zoro or Usopp had been the one to betray the crew in this way, Sanji would not have gone to bat for them even nearly as much (if at all). This goes fundamentally against Zoro's core values (established in his backstory with Kuina) in that everyone is equally capable of doing great, good and bad things, no matter who and what they are, and deserves to be judged equally by their own actions and not excused just because they happen to be female and pretty. Sanji's side is a bit trickier since he doesn't seem to have a fundamental issue with any of Zoro's values or actions. From him I get the impression that he feels somewhat threatened by Zoro in a way that makes him feel the need to prove himself as better in some way. It doesn't seem to be a general sense of insecurity but more that Zoro seems relatively uncaring towards stuff that Sanji deeply values (cooking and food) so he tries to get him back by attacking and insulting something that Zoro deeply values (most notably, his fighting ability) and it just spirals from there.

Putting this below a cut because this might just be my Zoro bias talking:

I haven't counted every single instance but it feels like Sanji is the instigator of their arguments most often though that also might just be because he's the more talkative one of the two. His comments are typically more aggressive and/or mean-spirited than Zoro's (like the joke about Mihawk in S2E1 or feeling the need to comment on Zoro's "weak" fighting in S1E8 when Zoro is still obviously healing from a massive injury and fighting through the pain) while Zoro's are typically, not always, on the calmer and more casual side. He often only comments on something concrete Sanji does like his flirting, losing Luffy in S2E1 or when he talks about cooking massive animals that Zoro thinks he wouldn't be able to kill (which is pretty reasonable). The only time I recall Zoro making a completely unprompted comment just to hackle Sanji is in S2E3 when he says the difference between them is that he (Zoro) stabs living things while Sanji only stabs things that are already dead, though you could say that he was in a bad mood because he was grappling with his loss to Mihawk and let his frustrations out on Sanji, or he was just annoyed by Sanji aggrandizing himself with his cooking. Zoro doesn't gloat at all about Sanji getting himself and Usopp captured and tied up in S2E3 despite having prime opportunity to do so, he's petty about not freeing them with the knife comment and I think he brings it up once when they argue about the dinosaur, but he doesn't really make fun of Sanji for this which I feel like Sanji definitely would've done if the situation had been reversed.

And on a last note, the only reason that Zoro wasn't allowed to witness the gloriousness that is Sanji getting beat up by an otter in pyjamas is that it would've nipped their petty rivalry right in the bud. Whenever Sanji would attempt to start shit after this, Zoro would just go "well, at least I didn't get beat up by an otter in pyjamas" and end the argument right there. (Sanji: "That was one time!") Though, honestly, Zoro needs to be more of a little shit with this topic in general, like just going "Hm, and what were you doing again while I was beating 100 Baroque Agents single-handedly?" (I know why he doesn't, he isn't actually that arrogant or self-aggrandizing and I love him for it, but in some moments I wish he was because Sanji definitely is.)

[chio-chan2artbox]

Live action Strawhats my beloved 🏴‍☠️❤️

[fivebroken]

Strategy: hitting someone with a social blunder so bad they don’t even care about what you were hiding

[fraeuleintaka]

All illustrations from Il Libro Stregato

I haven't read the book yet so I can't talk about the quality of the story but here are all the illustrations that they posted from it which are presumably all the ones in the book.

A bit disappointing that there aren't many larger pictures, mainly just the individual characters in different poses and interactions. (Yay to that one with Musa & Tecna!) The style is pretty, don't get me wrong, but some more proper illustrations would've been nice like the old books often had. Add that as another thing the reboot doesn't do as well as the original series did.

[naidgaem]

Smoker and his cigars (part 3)

[ivycopper]

Siegfried getting angry at Tristan appreciation post (featuring the yellow waistcoat)

[fraeuleintaka]

Watching OPLA S2 and seeing more of Zoro's and Sanji's bickering with each other reminds me again that while I do find these kinds of dynamics entertaining, I just don't get the obsession with them that some people have. (Not just in this particular case but in general with this kind of petty rivalry dynamic.) They're just relatively shallow relationships that constantly do the same thing over and over again, which is fun to watch when done well, but there's no nuance or emotional development to them to really sink your teeth into.

Taking Zoro and Sanji as example, it's just so obvious that they mutually care the least about each other out of all the Straw Hats so far. That doesn't mean that they wouldn't do absolutely anything to protect each other if the need arises (though let's face it, they would do that for pretty much anyone who needs protection), but it does mean that they know the least about each other and also aren't interested in learning more. They're not as emotionally comfortable or open with each other the way they are with the rest of the crew and they don't really respect each other to the same degree either. They're not as concerned for each other and they just don't enjoy each other's company as much, though I definitely wouldn't go as far as saying that they actively dislike each other or don't have any genuine fun at all with their bickering. However, it's much more intentionally malicious and aiming to insult in comparison to the type of banter that Zoro & Nami or Sanji & Usopp have.

That's why Sanji jokes about Mihawk wiping the floor with him despite that being a very sore spot for Zoro. Or why Sanji walks away from Zoro and leaves him alone in his paint-controlled state instead of realizing that something is obviously wrong with him. Why they never call each other by their names and only insulting nicknames no matter the situation. Can you imagine either Zoro or Sanji sharing the kind of emotional vulnerability with each other that each of them shares with Nami or Luffy? Sure, not every relationship needs to have that kind of comfortable openness to it, but it is necessary for the kind of emotional depth and trust that really close relationships have. (Sidenote, but this lack of emotional vulnerability is also an issue with Sanji and Jeff. They care about each other a lot but they have massive communication issues because of this, in a way e.g. Zoro and Kuina or Nami and Bellemere don't have.) Ship whatever you want, I'm not here to yuck your yum, it just feels extremely forced to me to suddenly try to add this kind of emotional openness to them and, frankly, OOC (without fundamentally changing something about their dynamic, like them realizing they misjudged the other in some fundamental way - but then I wonder why you'd ship them in the first place). I can see the possibility of the pairings for other Straw Hats combinations, like Zoro/Luffy, Nami/Luffy or Nami/Sanji, even if they're not to my personal taste like Zoro/Nami, but not Zoro/Sanji apart from the obvious slash appeal (and the kind of kindergartener level logic of "they constantly drive each other up the wall, that must mean they're into each other"). (There's also the hatesex concept which is fine if that's what you're into but I personally loathe.)

[fivebroken]

It’s Trissie hours

[fraeuleintaka]

Adding my two cents to the "should Aang have killed Ozai or not?" discourse, (among many others) I hate the argument that Aang not killing Ozai is somehow the Air Nomad's pacifism winning over Ozai's ideology and that if Aang had killed him, he would've had to admit that Ozai's view about the Air Nomads being "too weak" is right. Ozai's ideology about the superiority of the Fire Nation isn't just about being willing to kill, it's about being the most powerful in general and pacifism in general doesn't just only mean "don't kill people" but rejecting violence as a method of conflict resolution altogether. (And the series doesn't do enough to specifically define the AN version of pacifism to be able to distinguish it from any general version. Especially because Gyatso is shown to have defended himself violently and lethally against the FN invaders.)

Yet, in order to stop Ozai Aang has to engage with him in a violent, physical battle which he wins by being stronger on account of accessing the Avatar state again. So by that logic, Ozai's ideology was proven right because Aang could only stop him by being more powerful than him and violently beating the shit out of him. So why is then killing him at the end of that suddenly a step too far, purely from an ideological standpoint?

[naidgaem]

Smoker and his cigars (part 2)