Welcome to My TED Talk

I write about things only I care about. General fandom blog.

[leftontheforestfloor]

People who criticize Fruits Basket for Yuki thinking of Tohru in a maternal way and saying it's not reasonable or possible, has never felt safer and more secure in the hands of someone who's not their biological parent(s), then meeting someone, subconsciously imprinting and relying on them instead the way you should be with your parent(s).....and it shows

[somebodys-nuisance]

Yuuuuup. Fruits Basket is for the Big Bad Childhood Survivors and their allies. You'd never believe the odd people I find myself subconsciously imprinting on even now in my adulthood.

[beggars-opera]

Hey. Hey you. Person who hasn’t seen Wicked yet. I need you to do me a favor. For the love of God, before you watch the movie I need you to watch this video for me first. It is imperative. It is of the utmost importance.

Because there is absolutely no feeling in the world like having this song start playing in your head the second Elphaba steps into the Wizard’s palace because you KNOW IT’S COMING, and then YOU WILL HAVE AN ANEURISM FROM LAUGHING SO HARD

[somebodys-nuisance]

I have not seen a single "More I Cannot Wish You" reference, which is the ultimate version of this song.

Featuring mind-blowing lyrics like:

"With the sheep's eye, and the licorice tooth."

I am a huge dramaturgy fan and I cannot even fathom what they were trying to say with that.

[letstalkaboutit100]

I know that the ship for butch and buttercup is called butchercup, but also I also remembered that buttercup is made up of spice and butch is made up of snails. So one time while reading fanfic I also remembered that escargot is snails. So all of a sudden my mind came up with another ship for them ... spicy escargot. *cue slapping my face*.

[somebodys-nuisance]

Greens: Spicy Escargot

Blues: Sugarsnips

Reds: Nice Doggy

[wisteria-lodge]

The malfoys deal with muggles? I always thought they wouldn't with their blood supremacy ideals

The books don't give us any details, but when you fold in the Pottermore info that's their whole *deal.* They were in tight with the most influential muggle families during the 1600s, and Lucius Malfoy I tried very hard to marry Queen Elizabeth I. The Malfoys were extremely against the Statute of Secrecy, and I don't blame them. It would have taken away a TON of their power.

And considering how they don't exactly do what the Ministry wants them to do nOW (with all their hidden dark contraband...) I can't really imagine they fell perfectly in line back then either. If they were making money off the muggles... would they really stop? or would they just find ways to hide their activities? It probably wouldn't even be that hard, since Gringotts doesn't actually seem to recognize the Ministry's authority.

To me, always, the central metaphor of the Malfoys is that they're good at LOOKING the part. They pay lip service to the party line, but scratch the surface... and they don't really care. The Malfoys care about the Malfoys, everything else is secondary.

I'm not the biggest fan of the Pottermore writing and definitely consider it secondary canon at *best,* but the entry about the Malfoys does make sense, especially considering their relationship with Severus. Narcissa AND Sirius talk about how close Lucius and Severus are/were, and well, Severus "the halfblood prince" Snape is about as half-blood as they come.

[somebodys-nuisance]

I feel like I've always assumed that there wasn't originally much prejudice against muggles, which I think most fans assume was always so. Maybe some people thought muggles were weak, but there wasn't necessarily any animosity. I always thought the muggles started becoming distrusting of wix first, like with actual historical witchhunts/the church getting involved. The Statute of Secrecy was sold and passed as a safety measure rather than a prejudiced thing, and the prejudice grew as those who wanted to usurp power and needed a common enemy to unite people against saw muggles and muggleborns as a good common enemy, which is exactly the same reason muggles were whipped into a frenzy over magic.

I always thought that muggleborns are especially hated by some because, before the Statute, many muggleborns were essentially sent by the muggle communities they grew up in to destabilize the wizarding world and hurt as many magical people as they could. That was my personal headcanon for why the basilisk was ever allowed to exist, even if Godric didn't like it. Muggleborns were being admitted into the school and attacking others because they'd been raised believing magic was evil and this was the only way they could repent.

But, the Malfoy family is ancient enough to remember when nobody cared if you were a muggle or a wizard. All they cared was if you had money and were willing to spend it. The Most Noble and Ancient House of Black's extreme distaste for muggles and muggleborns fits into the idea that they're actually slightly newer to "good society" than the Malfoys: they adopted later prejudices that they assumed had always existed.

[somebodys-nuisance]

Everybody shut up I'm talkin' about steambabies/how Zutara get together.

Okay, so, Katara and Zuko. They go together to go find Ursa, yeah? They start having feelings in the midst. Like, they're holed up in caves while traveling, start talking about their pasts some more, start talking about the fact that one of them took lightning for the other, then BOOM, they're makin' out. They find Ursa, she's been hiding out in and protected by a village of airbender-descended nonbenders in the Fire Nation. But, Zuko and Katara DON'T get together. They decide to just stay friends, mainly because, yes, Katara gets to know and care for Zuko, but ALSO gets to know the Fire Nation, and learns from Ursa what it's like to be with a member of Fire Nation royalty. So, Katara puts Zuko down gently, knowing she wants to be her own person and figure out her own life, and Zuko's really disappointed, but obviously he's understanding. She doesn't tell him why exactly, just that they're still so young and they have other things to worry about at the moment.

Zuko becomes Fire Lord, Katara spends her time traveling the world once again, bringing all the different forms of waterbending she's encountered together, becoming a true master and creating platforms for the different styles and cultures to become more well-known. She returns to the Southern Water Tribe for what she assumes will be quite a while to take on students, hang out with her new nieces and nephews (Sokka and Suki gettin' bizzay,) and plans to avoid suggestions that she should take on a position as ambassador to the Fire Nation. They've had a few different ambassadors since she turned the position down initially (definitely just because she wanted to finish her life's work of collecting and returning SWT artifacts and becoming a true master of waterbending and NOT because she kinda wanted to avoid somebody...) but now that she's back and all she's really doing is taking on students and occasionally babysitting, she should be able to eke out some time, yeah? And, it's been years. There shouldn't still be anything there, right?

Welp, they get back in contact, and it only takes maybe half a year before they're dating. In that six months, Katara sees the wonderful work Zuko has done in the Fire Nation, how much more accepting they seem to be, not just of her, but of other cultures as well. Zuko's reforms in schools have created such a better atmosphere, and Katara can tell that the Fire Nation is in a better place to accept her. And Zuko makes it clear that Katara's dreams and ambitions will still be at the forefront in her life: although she'll have political sway, she won't have the same responsibilities to specifically the Fire Nation as Zuko does as Fire Lord. So, they date, and the Fire Nation is primarily supportive (Katara has been taught in schools as being part of the group that freed the Fire Nation from the grips of nationalism and fascism, and although there is still a group of Ozai Supporters, they are a much smaller and quieter group now,) and eventually, Katara and Zuko get married. Fire Lord Zuko is, of course, entirely devoted to his people and to enacting ongoing reparations for a hundred years of pain and sorrow caused by his ancestors, while Katara continues taking on students, acting as an ambassador for the SWT, and becomes a cultural icon within the Fire Nation, single-handedly encouraging many people from waterbender cultures to move there and diversify the nation. Then, Katara gets pregnant. The Fire Nation rejoices, ready to meet their future Fire Lord.

Katara gives birth to a waterbender. Cue just mass CHAOS in the Fire Nation. Suddenly, the cracks begin to show. Yes, you can create some change, or at least the appearance of change, in years, but it takes much longer to really, really create lasting differences. Sure, the Fire Lord can marry who he wants, and she can be Princess Katara (Katara hates being called Princesa Katara and only lets people use it when it's culturally significant, like in certain ceremonies) but our future Fire Lord CANNOT be a waterbender. It's FIRE Lord, not WATER Lord. The Ozai Supporters begin to infiltrate these new groups that are patently AGAINST their oldest son taking on his birth right and becoming Fire Lord someday. How can a waterbender ever understand how to best govern a nation of firebenders?

They eventually have another child, a girl who's a nonbender. The nation clings to her, begging their Fire Lord to skip over their son and bestow the birth right to her. Of course, their daughter has little interest in politics, and while they attempt to shield their son, he is very soon exposed to the prejudice of his own people against him. They had always planned to bring up their children in a mixed bending environment (which, considering the original show, is still a very new thing, since most couples we run into either share their bending or are a bending/nonbending couple,) and they uphold that promise, having both the palace in the Fire Nation and a home in the SWT which they share time in. As their son grows, he loves his heritage as a waterbender, but feels a deeper affiliation to the people he knows he's born to serve (as his father puts it) one day. He's a lot like him: methodical, shy, interested more in politics than fighting, and ridiculously hard on himself. Their daughter is more like Katara: fiery, VERY interested in fighting, and wanting to travel and cut her teeth out in the wide world. She connects deeply with her Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki who teach her a lot about what it means to be a warrior and how to sail. But, their son weathers the great storm his birth has caused and sees that he's been given an opportunity to further his father and mother's efforts to bring about cultural change, not just in the Fire Nation, but the whole world.

Eventually, years later, their son gives a moving and empowering speech about how, yes, he's been raised with waterbending culture, but the Fire Nation is his homeland. And, who can call the Fire Nation a land of only firebenders? That erases the (now non-secret) cultures of the airbenders who live among them, the many nonbenders who feel disenfranchised, and the new immigrants that have revitalized the culture that ONLY moved there because of the promise of their acceptance his mother represented. He understands what it's like for ALL people to live there, not just firebenders.

He finally wins the majority of people over and succeeds as Fire Lord. Their daughter takes after her uncle and aunt (and her father with his dual blades) and becomes a weaponry virtuoso, and their son is the first to suggest and begin creating a place where there is no cultural expectation of what bending you descend from, to mirror his own mixed bending upbringing, which would eventually become this universe's Republic City.

Please give me notes. Please yell and scream. Do you like? Do you hate? Let me know. Bye.

[cyanorhis]

Thinking about the fact that Zuko has had every possible hairstyle Katara could have ever been into (from bald to long hair). He wields dual swords like Jet. He is a powerful bender as the fortune teller intended. He acts as a "vigilante of sorts" like Jet did. He can be a puppy like Haru. He can be a badass like Jet. Truly the most versatile ever. He's the 1000 in 1 boyfriend fr.

Not to mention the parallels with her ofc, if we're going to consider Blue Spirit x Painted Lady shenanigans, the mommy issues, the dry sense of humor, the nerdiness, the sense of responsibility... All things that match Her regardless of her possible interests in romantic partners. It's just too amusing to me.

My dude was truly dedicated to the cause. I salute him.

[somebodys-nuisance]

Also, Katara's a great amalgamation of all of Zuko's canon love interests. Loving and forgiving like Song:

Fun and flirty like Jin:

And dangerous and assertive like Mai:

Truly, the perfect pair.

[somebodys-nuisance]

Y'all better put some respect on Daphne Moira Angela Blake's name. She's rad as fuck.

I know everybody's got their favorite version of what Daphne brings to the table, but my personal adaptation is that yeah, Fred's "the leader," he has the van, and he's got an incredible mind for engineering. Velma's the fact-machine, she knows at least a little about almost everything, and she's the resident skeptic. Shaggy's the heart, he keeps the gang together and I love giving him a few really out there skills (they mostly come from his childhood, where his parents had almost unlimited money and just showered Shaggy with private tutors to try and get him away from being so "odd." I headcanon the Rogers are equally as rich as the Blakes.) And Scooby is the mascot (lol we love you so much Scooby.)

But, if you take all of those skills and put them together, how does that group start trying to solve mysteries that are exclusively on the spooky side? There's always some ghost or zombie or witch or sea monster involved, and those seem to be the mysteries they jump at. I say Daphne's the reason for that. Daphne Blake is completely obsessed with the paranormal. She loves all things spooky and creepy, and has a near-encyclopedic knowledge of all things paranormal. She's certainly a believer, but she's not a blind follower. She wants to find evidence and Wants To Believe, but she accepts when something's been debunked. Beyond that, Daphne is the main investigator of the group. She's fearless when entering spooky situations and is highly observant, being the first one to point out if something seems off, or that the scuff marks on that floor look like they come from a secret passage, or that the owner of the old decrepit hotel looked like he was lying. That's where the whole Danger-Prone Daphne thing comes from: she has a tendency to either get too confident or over-excited when faced with a big potentially-haunted mansion to explore, and will wind up accidentally falling into some trap while investigating. She's the most likely to become a private detective should the gang ever split up, or go the way of the 90s movies and have her own ghost hunting tv show.

[loverofstufflof]

Hatchetfield fans how’re we doing

[somebodys-nuisance]

Honestly, I was Linda (and probably Chad from beyond the grave.

[somebodys-nuisance]

Hey, Our Life Fans, who wants a Baxter End-Game Fic Idea?

Okay, hi, so, Baxter and his love for ballroom dancing means so much to me. Dancing has always been a big part of my life, and when I played through Baxter's DLC I was just floored by how much we had in common with our interests. I love finding stories that I can really relate to in that way. I was a bit disappointed I wasn't able to really lean into the idea my character was into dance, even before Baxter's DLC, and I had always wanted to make a version of the story that could be more focused on the dancing element, while also being Baxter End-Game (cuz I love Cove, but I LOVE Baxter.)

So, the idea goes a little something like this:

Jamie Last becomes obsessed with ballroom dancing (and dancing in general) when her older sister Elizabeth joined the non-member junior golfing league when she's a child. It'a a program that rents The Cypress' space, but you don't need to be a member to join, and it's relatively affordable. Jamie peeks in and catches a ballroom dancing class and is like WHAT IS THAT GET ME IN THERE and moms see what they can do. Turns out they'd need to become members (I'm pretty sure they are in the actual game but SHHHHHH, it's a fic, and I'm trying to make a STATEMENT here about what I know about ballroom dancing) and the class prices on TOP of the membership price are just astronomical. They absolutely can't afford it. Poor Jamie's sad and doesn't understand (she's like, 6,) so moms sign her up for general dance classes at the local studio. Not ballroom, her first dance love, but close.

Cut to the beginning of the game timeline-wise, and Jamie's performing in her dance recital. She's absolutely in love with dancing and is VERY talented. Anyway, after the recital, in the lobby, Jamie's awkwardly approached by a strange man who shoves 20 bucks in her face and asks her to be his son's dance partner. She's like uhhhhh, stranger.... danger? And she runs away before he can fully explain himself. Runs back into the theater, comes across boy with green hair and glasses. Get to talking, finds out he's the dude's son. Son kinda sorta explains his dad teaches dance and he used to co-own a studio back where they came from, and boy's been dancing since he can remember. But, boy seems kinda sad about it. Through a combination of Cove's explanation and Cliff eventually approaching moms and being less weird and awkward (love Cliff,) Jamie finds out he's a former ballroom dancing competitor turned teacher. Used to own a studio with his wife, they're not together anymore, and she's kept the studio. So, he has to start from scratch over here in Sunset Bird and form his own studio. He tried to inquire with The Cypress to use their studios to teach the classes, and the owners told him absolutely not, and shooed him off. But, the teacher, Mr. Suarez, told him if he could prove he's a skillful teacher, he could put in a good word and get him in. So, he's going to use his only student, his son, and find him a partner. He says Jamie was the best dancer he saw today, so he wants her to be Cove's new partner.

And, Jamie's like, um, YES? Cove seems shockingly sad about it initially, but Cove and Jamie hit it off almost immediately. Jamie picks up ballroom real quickly, and they enter a competition against some of Mr. Suarez's students, including his own son, Derek. Jamie and Cove SWEEP and are FANTASTIC, and not only does Gregorio allow Cliff to use the space, but they eventually become business partners, running ballroom dancing classes that are specifically affordable and accessible to the average person, as well as being a bit more daring, fun, and modern in their styles compared to the traditional Cypress classes.

Meanwhile, the underdogs from Cliff and Gregorio's classes go up against the hoity-toity rich kids that can afford the members-only classes, and Jamie and Cove begin to cross paths with certain partners consistently, like an especially captivating and elegant pair with a boy with grayish hair...

Story follows the basic plotline of the game from there! Cove and Jamie are only close, close, nearly inseparable friends in this one, with Derek being the only other possible love interest. It's essentially your classic competitors to intriguing acquaintances to friends to lovers to exes to enemies to begruding acquaintances to friends to lovers with lots of dancing, both ballroom and otherwise. We'd get more into Baxter's background, his parents, and Golden Grove in general, and the story would HIGHLY DEVIATE from Step 4 to allow room to fully center dance in some form. Also, YES. Every one of Jamie's friends are involved in ballroom in some way, shape, or form except for her immediate family in this au. Everybody's dancin'.

Would anybody be interested in something like this? My ADHD means it will almost definitely not happen, but figured I'd throw my ideas out into the horizon since I haven't been able to get it out of my head for literal MONTHS. Whaddaya think?

[the-badger-mole]

Love your posts! Could you go into more depth on how Aang disrespects Katara’s/Watertribe culture?

There isn't much depth to go into, because the show doesn't touch on the Southern Water Tribe culture very much. And why would they, am I right? It's only 40% of their main heroes' culture. But what little they do give us is mostly shown through Aang's perspective, and Aang makes it clear that he isn't a fan of some of the most major components. He's disrespectful about the food and about the artifacts that come from a culture that mostly hunts their food. Bato of the Water Tribe is the most egregious display of his contempt, when he goes into Bato's tent as a guest and is sly and snide about the furs and antlers on display. That honestly bothers me more than Aang's reaction to the sea prunes.

There are a lot of people who defend Aang because he's young (his age as a defense is carrying a lot), but here's the thing. As with so many other things that he does, it's never walked back. We never see him come back to his attitude about the culture the girl he allegedly loves comes from, and think, hm...well, they are different from what I'm used to, but that doesn't make them less worthy of respect. I would not be surprised to hear that at some point in the comics, Aang makes a big show of loving the SWT culture, but first of all, Legend of Korra exists. I've already pointed out how so many things in that series points to Aang playing favorites among his children, and to the Kataang family dynamic being really unhealthy. I've also probably already pointed out how divorced Tenzin is from anything pertaining to his SWT heritage. There is no sign anywhere on Air Bender Island that he's mixed heritage. And why is that? Because his father never embraced his mother's heritage. Secondly, at one point in the comics, Aang is in support of the NWT soft colonizing the SWT in the name of "unifying" the two tribes...even though they sit at literally the opposite ends of the world from each other, so how does that even make sense? Still, even in the main series, he shows a lot more respect for the NWT culture than the SWT (or at the very least, he isn't as blatantly disrespectful). Bryke can do whatever they want to in the comics, it still ends with LoK happening.

[somebodys-nuisance]

I've always found Aang being disrespectful of other cultures that aren't his own very weird, since he comes from the Air NOMADS. He's a NOMAD. The airbenders didn't even live in the temples, or in any one specific area. The benders would just stay at the temples and train, and either become monks and stay, or go settle somewhere else in the world.

So, at least originally, airbender culture is literally ALL ABOUT accepting other cultures. That's, like, THEIR WHOLE THING??

I like to use Avatar as an example of why the creators of series sometimes aren't (and shouldn't be) main writers of the actual movies/episodes, and what terrible things can happen to a story when non-writer creators think they're better writers than the ACTUAL WRITERS they hired. They constantly walk back/straight up forget important plot points/features of their world building, sometimes on a whim, mostly because I imagine it was something the writers came up with that they didn't originally like.

You can even see that, in the beginning of the series, Aang (while still snarky about cultures he felt break his values) was very wide-eyed and eager to partake in the cultures around him, and the show really dug into the "nomad" element of his culture. He seemed worldly and knew at least a little about everywhere they went, mentioning the deep friendships he'd made all over the world. The second season had slightly less of this, but it felt like they were bringing up those moments where Aang appeared judgemental in the first season, and it seemed like the show was going to take him to task for enjoying the fun parts of other cultures, but not accepting the extreme differences. The second season was digging more into Aang's less savory character traits, and it showed promise that he'd be forced to learn that his way is not always ultimately the best.

But, by the third season, he was pretty much plowing over every opinion that wasn't his own and every culture that didn't completely align with his values, and it snowballed to the point where Aang's been retconned from a born nomad who is curious about the world around him, though he's prone to being preachy and judgemental on certain topics, to someone who flirted with the idea of banning marriage between mixed heritages and created an island where Air Nomad culture (Air NOMAD culture) can be shared only amongst a very select group that essentially pledge their everlasting allegiance to Aang and ignore any previous culture they came from. It's just bizarre.

[t4nku-deactivated20240405]

what's more fucked up

finding out you're secretly a robot

finding out you're secretly a clone

Voting ended onApr 2, 2024

[t4nku-deactivated20240405]

you're required to participate in this poll btw. i need data

[permian-tropos]

tumblr what is wrong with you first the walrus vs fairy thing and now this? are you saying it's less fucked up to find out you're not a biological organism than find out you're a human created from one parent-twin who is genetically identical to you?

[hamletthedane]

Clone: horror at the lie of your body (for what purpose? how many are there? are they like you?)

vs.

Robot: horror at the lie of your mind and your humanity itself (have you ever actually had a thought of your own, or is everything you are/you think/you understand just created by another person’s brain? whose mind/brain are you?? whose thoughts are in your head?? What does it mean to “think” when you’re only a manmade echo of humanity constructed from Boolean logic loops? Do you even have a soul?)

There’s a CLEAR ANSWER HERE.

[distortiondragon]

clone: you are the theft of another being, inextricably tied by the blood running through your veins they may not have even given to you. you aren't you, you're them, you were made to be them, you're not different, there shpuld not be a you, you are them,

robot: ok well im a robot so show me my blueprints so i can install a sword in my arm to beat up ppl that i dont like. what the fuck ever. can i run doom

[somebodys-nuisance]

If I'm a robot, nothing about me changes. Sure, I'm a robot, but I guess I'm advanced enough that there's basically no difference between me and a human, because nobody's noticed before. I'm a firm believer that humans are basically meat robots anyway, so that doesn't bother me. I'm just a silicone-based life-form instead of a carbon-based one. Whatever.

If I'm a clone?? CLONES AREN'T TWINS. Twins are twins. Clones are EXACT copies of another person. For me, that would change everything. Especially since I found out I AM a clone, not that I HAVE a clone. Where is the other me? The original me? Why was I created? (I have trauma from My Sister's Keeper y'all I NEED TO KNOW.) I'd feel almost... violated? What even am I? I'm like an echo of somebody else's voice. How am I supposed to live with that information?

[insensitiveroses]

ignore how bad this is and enjoy the content 🙏🔥

[mthfancomic]

hahaha this needs to be drawn XD

[somebodys-nuisance]

Butch was on accident, Boomer was on purpose.

[steambend]

zutaras are about to be baited so bad for the second time in a row and frankly idc can i get ten more scarf scenes please

[somebodys-nuisance]

I'm so ready to experience this again, honestly. Avatar was among my first EVER major fandoms, and I was NOT READY for the heartbreak of something I loved not only not being canon, but being originally meant to be canon and changed at the last second.

I am now a Hardened Fandom Veteran and I'm ready to love the bait for what it is and stock it away for headcanon ideas. 🙂👍

[guiltyofbitchcraft]

this is your daily reminder that characters within the found family trope aren't actually related nor are they supposed to fit in a stiff nuclear family dynamic where there's a mom and a dad and everyone else is siblings. Just the opposite actually!! These are supposed to be unique family LIKE dynamics that don't fit into your typical family roles.

This line of thinking doubly goes for comic families such as batfam, superfam, wonderfam etc. Admittedly I'm singling out batfam and have them specifically in mind with this post because I swear to god if I see another post about TimSteph or DickBabs basically being incest I am going to scream.

Please read actually read the content you are trying to analyze, that is all.

[somebodys-nuisance]

As a near-feral DickBabs, it's also worth noting that yes, there is a found family asoect involved in the Batfam, but Barbara Gordon is one of the least involved in that dynamic. She has her whole own father, mother, step-father, and step-mother that she's still extremely close to and she's never lived in the Manor. She's absolutely part of the found family, but compared to other members, she's closer to a close family friend/next door neighbor than a daughter/sister.

[five-flavor-soup]

Why the endgame couples in A:TLA weren’t necessary: a frustrated ramble

Listen I’m a Zutara shipper through and through (developed after my second rewatch in 2013) but by Tui Agni and La am I glad that it never happened in canon?? Like Kataang and Maiko themselves already felt so rushed and almost out-of-nowhere and their canonisation added like nothing to the plot. Aang’s crush on Katara is a plot device; Zuko’s relationship with Mai at the start of S3 is a plot device. I can barely fathom how Zutara would’ve turned out and I also kinda don’t want to. Imagine Zuko and Katara kissing at the end of the series: it feels completely out of left field, doesn’t it? Knowing that who-ends-up-with-who was an argument in the writer’s room for almost all three seasons means that it could’ve happened.

It shouldn’t have. I don’t think the Kataang kiss or the Maiko romance-reunion should’ve happened either. It’s unnecessary to add—there’s just no need for it, and my nagging here isn’t because I like Zutara and I don’t like how Maiko and Kataang turned out. It’s because the ships and couples and whatever the fuck else are NOT, and should not, be the point of A:TLA—and the ‘couple gets together in the very last scene and all is well :)’ shot suggests that it is.

A:TLA, to me, tried to show the horrifying nature of war and all its victims: the harrowing poverty, the deep-rooted trauma, the bloody violence. I interpreted the most prominent message of A:TLA to be that what was happening during those 100 years is wrong, that war is wrong—it affects the humanity within people, affects what point we offer empathy and kindness, because horrific trauma and needless violence muddies it all up. Why would you hold out a hand for someone who would’ve murdered you if they had the chance? Why would you physically support someone who hurt you and those you care about deeply? Those of the other nations can barely scrounge up empathy for someone from the Fire Nation, because those of the Fire Nation present themselves as inhuman. Those of the Fire Nation can barely scrounge up empathy for someone from any of the other nations, because the Fire Nation presents them as inhuman. And A:TLA shows that all these people are human, good and bad and all of that in between, because that’s just what humanity is. Varied and morally grey.

THAT’S what the GAang learns. That’s what the people around them learn. It’s what Iroh, a war criminal in his own right, tries to teach every child and teen who he interacts with: not in a preachy way, but in a vague way that implies he’d rather have them figure it out themselves lest they interpret his direct teachings wrong. He got indoctrinated into this terrorising, imperialist regime from the day he was born and onwards and it took a personal loss — the death of his son during a siege Iroh himself was leading, a siege in which Iroh and Lu Ten were the aggressors — for him to start thinking that maybe it’s all wrong. Maybe what he was taught is wrong. And he doesn’t want these children to take as long as he did.

The GAang and their (teenage) enemies and small antagonists have all been touched by war, almost to the point of no return. None of the need for violence, the calm in the face of battle and death, the willingness to sacrifice innocents for a sliver of retribution, the extensive knowledge of How To Fight A Battle And Win—none these qualities that these children (!!) may or may not portray are ‘normal’ teenage behaviours. They simply have to have them, or they die or freeze. Their childhoods were stopped in their tracks early because of experiences no child should ever experience. Such is the reality of war. And yet, in spite of the hurt and harm, the GAang is still capable of kindness and empathy. That’s what it’s about.

To end the series with explicit romance — Sokka/Suki doesn’t count, their relationship is not as in-your-face as The Scenes — just feels wrong. Maybe with another season of development it could’ve worked far better (and less unexpected, especially since the previous one-on-one Kataang interaction was Katara getting cross with Aang for kissing her when she was confused; and the previous one-on-one Maiko interaction was Zuko locking Mai in a cell/out of the way and then leaving without looking back). But with the three seasons that we got, it feels odd that the romance is highlighted at the end—especially when Zuko was miserable with Mai (with her being the human representation of ‘close your eyes and pretend everything’s fine’), and there ALSO was a perfectly good ending scene with the GAang bickering right there. Right before the ending kiss.

Why end it like that, when the series isn’t about romance, but about familial and platonic love and love for humanity instead? Why not just hint towards getting (back) together? What’s the point of these confirmations other than ‘the hero gets the girl’ in both instances?

[somebodys-nuisance]

My perfect version of "canon" Zutara is the Zutara that's just hinted at by the end.

Like, the plot point where Aang needs to let go of his "attachment" to Katara is fulfilled, not necessarily because Katara and Zuko want to date and romantically be together, but because Aang slowly pieces together that Katara doesn't share Aang's feelings and seems to be STARTING to develop some feelings for Zuko. Like, STARTING. It's less that Aang needs to allow Katara to specifically be with Zuko, but that Aang needs to accept that Katara's a full human being who can make her own choices. Aang doesn't own her, and truly loving and cating for her means giving her space to do what she wants.

Like, the lightning thing still happens exactly the same way, without a kiss, but the cutesy crushy subtext is really played up. There's a scene after all that where Zuko mentions casually to Katara that he might know where his mother is. Zuko fumblingly tries to ask Katara to come with him, and Katara just places a hand over his, not holding it, but in a meaningful way, saying she'd be happy to help him. And, to help bring closure to Aang and Katara's fights, Aang brings up that he heard she was going to travel with Zuko and help him, and genuinely wishes the two of them luck. Katara smiles warmly at Aang and the two of them hug, wordlessly understanding that everything's water under the bridge.

No need to make anyone kiss. Just tiny little actions implying where everything's going (which can be elaborated on in the comics lololol.)

[allright]

shikamaru is so devastatingly handsome to me

[the-badger-mole]

I do not know if you have been asked about this before, but do you think if Ozai had not expelled Zuko, and he would have stayed in the palace, he would never have opposed the actions of the Fire Nation ?

No, I think it was always in Zuko's nature to stand up for people he sees need him, and there was too much suffering within the Fire Nation itself for him to be completely blind to it forever. I think he needed to be banished for his empathy to expand beyond the Fire Nation, but his horror at how Fire Nation citizens and soldiers were being treated was inevitable. It would be interesting to see how that would play out. Ozai and Azula would have most of the court on their side, but Zuko would be the People's Prince.

[somebodys-nuisance]

I think an AU of this would be really interesting! But, to be honest, I think in actuality, all roads lead to the same place: He was always going to be pushed to dissenting aloud. It was only a matter of when and what, not if. So, rather than him never dissenting, it would be that he's somehow managed to go far longer without hearing or seeing something that pushed him to his breaking point.