Extremely underrated part of svsss is when Shang qinghua goes "hey how do you feel about Binghe" and shen yuan mentally says "it's like we're little girls talking about my crush" and it's so insane that even the book has to clarify its all in shen yuans head
Okay not gonna cry over him constantly putting others before himself . Instead can we just point out shen yuan is such a hater he helped everyone except for Shang Qinghua
There are only two people in the world Shen Yuan will neglect:
Never forget Shen Yuan was covered in blood, his face ashen, absolutely miserable, powering through it all to heal everyone around him the best he could, and he was still in his right mind enough to hate OG Shang Qinghua
Pottery sounds terrifying to me. Every post I see is like "Here's this awesome art I made!! Pray for me that it survives The Kiln™ :')" I don't think I could cope with making art that could quite easily blow up and I have no way of controlling that. You guys are true heroes.
Just made myself so so sad thinking about Aang's marble trick because from a physics perspective, keeping dense spherical objects afloat on an airstream is not trivial, and he's doing it in a tiny little space without moving his hands. Bending is usually very gestural. So. Everyone in the era of the show is, at best, impressed THAT it is airbending. But Aang's an incredibly young master airbender. He wouldn't be acting like this was the bestest trick ever if it didn't take at least some skill; he's a goofy kid but he's also a prodigy. I bet other airbenders were absolutely blown away (pun fully intended) at the level of precision and force and minimalism of movement on display and now there's no one who understands at all why he expects accolades.
Many people are aware that copyright originated as and remains a protection for publishers, not authors.
However, there are longstanding rights intended to protect authors. These are legally called 'the moral rights of authors.' Good naming.
These rights include:
The right to attribution. To have your name on your work. Don't repost peoples work without attribution.
The right to use a pen name or to publish anonymously. Publishers should protect the privacy of authors. Service providers shouldn't require posters to provide ID.
The right to integrity. Editors should not cut up your work to make it say something you do not endorse.
So let's review:
❌ AI harms authors because it violates copyright.
✅ AI harms authors because it violates their rights to attribution and integrity.
great pyrenees are so fucking awesome theyre just big. if i didnt think that owning one was a supremely bad idea for me in particular id get one. i just think itd become my boss or something. im too lazy for a working breed truly
Since you're resident Mai expert, I had a question. When Mai and Zuko are Firelady and Firelord, do you think Mai would care about what people think of her? I always think it'd be Zuko who'd try to please everyone while Mai would be more confident in herself and what she is doing. I can see her being upset if she fails to do what she set out to or makes mistakes but do you think she'd care about needless gossip of the kind that's bound to come when you're celebrity or royalty? That kind of thing is especially harsher on women because people tend to judge women more without any solid reason. I can see Zuko caring about that, but I'm not sure about Mai. At first I thought she wouldn't, but we all know Mai pretends not to care about a lot of things when deep down she does care. But I also think it only extends to select people and causes. I can also see her being genuinely disinterested in a lot of stuff which could include public perception of her that's not based on merit but on ill-faith and jealousy. I've read some fics where Mai worries herself sick because the high society thinks she's not a good match for Zuko and considers her an ill omen and is generally superstitious... Which is another thing, I don't think Mai is spiritual enough to care about superstitions. I just think she wouldn't care much about that.
First, thank you for saying such a nice thing about me, but there's lots of great Mai experts around, and even a discord where a bunch of us hang out.
And before I get into Mai's reaction, I feel it worth pointing out for us all that as much fun as it can be to satirize Mai's popularity (or lack of it) in the fandom via the Fire Nation court or population, we actually have no reason to think Mai would actually be unpopular in-universe. Quite the opposite, actually. She has more rizz than Aang and Sokka combined, more even than Ty Lee.
Sure, there's always gossip and criticism of celebrities and leaders, but for the most part people seem to like Mai in the stories we've gotten. She got picked by Azula as a close companion and of course Ty Lee loves her. Zuko fell in love with her. Ruon Jian looked at her and said, "I am totally going to chat that up," and unlike with Chan and Azula, he didn't run away once he got her talking. The finale's epilogue showed her accepted by the gAang and hanging out with Suki. Kei Lo fell in love with her after she kicked him in the face and condemned his political beliefs. Aang is delighted every time she walks into a room and he roots for Zuko to take her back. And she's barely working at the Academy for a week before her students are ready to die for her, never mind that she was inserted into the place via nepotism to undermine her boss and ends up with the boss as a strong ally.
Mai might just be the most charismatic and popular person in the AtLA era, canonically.
Iroh is the only one who makes friends quicker, but he also has people who dislike him such as Zhao and every soldier in Ba Sing Se, while even Mai's few enemies seem to come around to her in short order. Azula is the only one who has resisted, and Mai really went out of her way to antagonize Azula. XD
But it makes sense. Sure, we see her whiny and morose with her family, but that's when she's with her family and relaxed. She grew up training to hide her true feelings and put on a silent, elegant facade. Her parents are social climbers and politicians. Her friends are all royalty and nobility. So she definitely knows how to behave in public. And she has very nice, shiny hair. Mai is probably considered an ideal woman among the Fire Nation.
Sure, she's not bubbly and charming like Ty Lee or Aang, but consider that the Fire Nation revered Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai; they probably consider dark, intimidating personalities to be great leadership material. Yes, Ty Lee had a lot of guys chasing her in 'The Beach,' but I don't think they were looking for a long-term relationship. The apathetic dark-haired girls are the ones you marry. All Mai has to do is glare with derision at everyone around her while looking well-dressed and she'll have a 97% approval rating. It goes up to 98% after she stabs an assassin who tries to kill Zuko.
But, there's still that 2% of haters, so let's talk about that next.
You raise good points, and I lean towards Mai caring only very selectively. I don't think the jealous, baseless mutterings of complete strangers would matter at all to her, and she would probably even quietly delight in ticking off certain people and/or types. I think she'd be hurt if someone she respects doesn't like her, but that's going to be a very narrow set, as we just went over.
I agree that I don't see her as superstitious at all, but spirits are real in the Avatar world, so what counts in that regard?
The comics confirmed that the ghosts she feared as a child are real, so if Aang shows up in his capacity as Avatar and says that a face-stealing bug-spirit is really mad that Zuko married a girl who bullied Omashu citizens, then I can see her being a bit upset about that. Though I definitely agree that she'd roll her eyes at things like omens; I see her siding with Sokka on the matter of fortunetellers.
However, something that we could play with is some kind of backlash to Zuko marrying a non-Bender, since the Fire Lord has to be a Firebender (at least as of the AtLA era). I've used it in throwaway lines in some of my fanfics, but I like the idea that Bender Eugenics is widely believed in the Avatar world while not actually being true, so I can see Mai believing that being Zuko's baby-mama is potentially destabilizing their nation. And I can see that undermining her self-confidence, as well.
I do think her childhood could have given her a bit of a guilt complex, a feeling that she can pull her friends and allies down by not fulfilling the roles required of her. However, I lean towards that not being a common thing with her; she's not going to worry about dragging Zuko down just because some people sneer at her; she would only be triggered by seeing a real impact, like some governor taking a dislike to her and so causing political problems for Zuko, or something like that.
So yeah, I guess my guideline would be that the more impact there is to her friends and allies, the more upset Mai would be about any hate for her, and she would need some solid reason to believe she's the real reason behind the damage. Otherwise, I think she likes conflict and having some people who hate her, especially if they're jerks.
But it's hard for Mai to find haters. Even Azula probably really loves her deep down and is just jealous of Zuko.
snowghoul
blakekathryn
romaincrisis
andulkaphoto
titsay
gummygunk
stormborns
