And now in retrospect, I ask why.

[everythingwsnormalhere]

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IF YOU HATE THE NEW UPDATE REBLOG THIS POST

[ PT; please for the love of god if you hate the new update reblog this post ]

I am organizing a lights out protest on tumblr, from March 20th 6AM UTC until March 21st 6AM UTC. It is best if as many tumblr users as possible can join this protest, as a mass downtime in users is the only way the tumblr staff will listen to us.

If you cherish this hellsite, participate. Do your bit. Every person counts.

Thank you for reading, and to @staff @changes: give us our tumblr back, or the people will migrate somewhere else. This is a threat.

[iahfy]

[but-a-humble-goon]

I wonder if people who only know of Mass Effect from fanart are disappointed when they finally play the game and it turns out Tali doesn't actually have a butt like a pair of shrink wrapped beachballs.

[swindle94]

She does tho?

[wowwforever]

They’ll never do a Hitman level set in a Furry Convention because gamers would absolutely ruin it but imagine. like the target isn’t a furry he just owns a hotel that happens to have one every year but you can disguise yourself in a fursuit and some guy will ask you “what species is your sona” and 47 would be like “a wolf. i always felt a connection with…hunters.” and then diana would be like “let’s see if you can sniff out some information, furrty-seven” and then he comes to my house and kills me for writing this

[smilepuppydotjpeg]

[nattousan]

ok but imagine being the fursuit artist that he contracts to make his costume tho

He contacts you via an anonymous email and is very exacting and precise in his request. Money is no object, which isn't uncommon in your line of business, you're a professional and more than a few customers have been in the 1% range.

So you ask if he's local so you can meet and take measurements and he says no but he will meet you at (conveniently close local craft store) tomorrow after work (you did not mention where you live)

You're a little shaken but you meet him anyways because daddy needs to pay rent, and he's probably not a serial killer, right?

Right?

You had no idea what kind of person to expect, but a 6'2 bald white guy built like a fucken shit-brickhouse with a "FurCon2023" shirt wrapped around his brolic frame was rather on the shorter end of your list. His cargo shorts and pure white sneakers looked like they'd just been picked up off of the shelf and his glasses looked too small for his massive head.

You jump because you don't even notice him until he's tapping you on the shoulder and introducing himself. How did he know it was you?? Alarm bells are going off everywhere but there's cameras all over, he wouldn't try something in public right?? You take his measurements and look at fabrics together.

You ask about his fursona and he very seriously produces a laminated folder with several crudely drawn pictures of a polar bear suit. Well, you guess you shouldn't be mean, they were clearly drawn from references but you could tell this was someone who did not draw often. It didn't even have any accessories, it was just a normal polar bear... But the notes surrounding them were so neat they looked printed! And so in depth! There was one page solely dedicated to the visibility needs, with advanced notes on the camera and display system he wanted in the head. You'd only seen this sort of thing at the national cons, just who the hell was this guy??

You haltingly ask him if he was sure. You tell him this is really advanced stuff and he was looking at at LEAST 10k with all the specific modifications on it. When you first started making suits you would have never been this firm on pricing, lowballing and trying to make up the difference so as not to upset the customer with a hefty price, but you'd learned eventually that undervaluing your work was a waste of your time and effort so even though you couldn't gauge his reaction, you figured being upfront about the price would at least be a test to see how serious the guy was.

He nodded silently and reached into the fanny pack around his waist to produce the cleanest stack of hundreds you'd ever seen in your life, like straight printed from the treasury mint. He places it in your palm and you almost drop it out of shock.

"Will this be enough to get you started? I included some extra to compensate for lost wages as I do need this suit fairly quickly" he says, tone unreadable.

You stammer and try to look professional thumbing through the crisply banded notes and would you look at that, you think this will do just fine!

He nods again, shakes your hand and leaves without another word.

You exit the store, just trying to comprehend what in the hell you'd just gotten yourself into, zoning out so hard that you didn't even realize someone was yelling at you until the word "-fuckin furry faggot" pierced through your thoughts. You were looking at your phone so you didn't notice the band of truck bros creeping up behind you in their suped up pickup truck. There were three or four in the bed of the truck, dangling out over the side in between giant "TRUMP 2024" and "Lets Go Brandon" flags. They have their phones out, recording you and shouting slurs.

You raise double birds at them and turn to walk quickly in the opposite way, hoping you wouldn't see them as you walked home. You'd heard of a couple beatings happening locally and you didn't want to be around if that's what they had in mind.

So when you hear tires screeching and and engine roaring behind you, you break out into a run, hoping to make it to the bus terminal across the parking lot.

But they catch up to you before you'd made it halfway. They all get out and one grabs your phone that you held out to record with. He smashes it on the ground and shoves you into the pavement. Hard.

They all stand over you, jeering and laughing and you try to escape but your limbs won't listen to you. You always figured if something like this happened you'd stand your ground, maybe get in a couple of hits yourself, but in reality you could barely breathe and your chest felt like it was collapsing in on itself, so your attempts to scream for help end up coming out as breathy wheezes. One of them levels a crowbar at you and thats when the screaming starts.

You curl up into a ball to protect your face but the pain never comes. You hear screaming and sneakers skidding across asphalt and oh god, wet crunchy impacts followed by something warm and wet being splattered across your arms and legs.

Its suddenly silent except for the drone of the truck engine but eventually you crack open an eye to get a look around, and for the second time that day you almost lose your lunch.

Its straight up something out of a video game, just absolute carnage surrounds you. All of the tall frat bros are out cold in varying stages of fucked up. You do actually start to hurl a little when you see one with his nose completely sideways like a gory Picasso.

And in the center of the carnage is -no fucking way- your fucking fursuit client, calmly wiping his hands of the blood with some baby wipes from his fannypack.

He looks over at you when he sees you're up and for a second there you see something, a slip in the mask, something angry, something violent. You flinch as you realize it, but oh fuck, this guys like.. killed people before. like, for fucken sure.

He walks towards you and you suddenly feel like a very small animal being stalked by a tiger. You try to stumble away but the mask is back on and he just looks down at you and offers you a babywipe.

"You alright?" He asks plainly.

Turns out the guy is "ex-military" and he hurt himself so he's back in the states and bored out of his mind. His daughter is a furry and wanted him to go with her to FurCon and insisted he get a suit as well. You keep on glancing at all the deep scars running up and down his arms and wondering how the hell you didn't see it before.

He's saying something to you but you only snap out of it when a phone is being placed into your hands. You look up and suddenly you're standing outside your apartment building (did you tell him where you lived???)

"This is a secure line, if anything happens to you or you have questions, I'll answer immediately." He says, pale blue eyes drilling into your skull with their intensity.

The tears start bubbling up in your eyes before you can stop them and you just lean forward, bumping your head into his chest and choking out a thank you as you clutch the phone to your chest like an amulet.

As you figured, his body is make out of steel and he stiffens at the contact, unsure of what to do.

He just lets you cry it out for a bit before eventually placing a heavy hand on your shoulder, pulling you off but he keeps the hand gentle.

He's not looking at you this time but he clears his throat and murmurs a quick "Take care" before turning around and disappearing into the night. You unlock your door and collapse into bed.

"What the fuck" you murmur to yourself as you pull out your tablet, and you start to sketch...

[alamuts-lair-of-madness]

From what little I know about fursuits I assume the 10k is for the head alone, right?

[swindle94]

Only if it's animatronic/its mouth opens in anyway.

Or if it has a cooling system.

[barblaz-arts]

Chaggie Week Day 6: Tail/Wings

They're sensitive...

[wowwforever]

They’ll never do a Hitman level set in a Furry Convention because gamers would absolutely ruin it but imagine. like the target isn’t a furry he just owns a hotel that happens to have one every year but you can disguise yourself in a fursuit and some guy will ask you “what species is your sona” and 47 would be like “a wolf. i always felt a connection with…hunters.” and then diana would be like “let’s see if you can sniff out some information, furrty-seven” and then he comes to my house and kills me for writing this

[smilepuppydotjpeg]

[nattousan]

ok but imagine being the fursuit artist that he contracts to make his costume tho

He contacts you via an anonymous email and is very exacting and precise in his request. Money is no object, which isn't uncommon in your line of business, you're a professional and more than a few customers have been in the 1% range.

So you ask if he's local so you can meet and take measurements and he says no but he will meet you at (conveniently close local craft store) tomorrow after work (you did not mention where you live)

You're a little shaken but you meet him anyways because daddy needs to pay rent, and he's probably not a serial killer, right?

Right?

You had no idea what kind of person to expect, but a 6'2 bald white guy built like a fucken shit-brickhouse with a "FurCon2023" shirt wrapped around his brolic frame was rather on the shorter end of your list. His cargo shorts and pure white sneakers looked like they'd just been picked up off of the shelf and his glasses looked too small for his massive head.

You jump because you don't even notice him until he's tapping you on the shoulder and introducing himself. How did he know it was you?? Alarm bells are going off everywhere but there's cameras all over, he wouldn't try something in public right?? You take his measurements and look at fabrics together.

You ask about his fursona and he very seriously produces a laminated folder with several crudely drawn pictures of a polar bear suit. Well, you guess you shouldn't be mean, they were clearly drawn from references but you could tell this was someone who did not draw often. It didn't even have any accessories, it was just a normal polar bear... But the notes surrounding them were so neat they looked printed! And so in depth! There was one page solely dedicated to the visibility needs, with advanced notes on the camera and display system he wanted in the head. You'd only seen this sort of thing at the national cons, just who the hell was this guy??

You haltingly ask him if he was sure. You tell him this is really advanced stuff and he was looking at at LEAST 10k with all the specific modifications on it. When you first started making suits you would have never been this firm on pricing, lowballing and trying to make up the difference so as not to upset the customer with a hefty price, but you'd learned eventually that undervaluing your work was a waste of your time and effort so even though you couldn't gauge his reaction, you figured being upfront about the price would at least be a test to see how serious the guy was.

He nodded silently and reached into the fanny pack around his waist to produce the cleanest stack of hundreds you'd ever seen in your life, like straight printed from the treasury mint. He places it in your palm and you almost drop it out of shock.

"Will this be enough to get you started? I included some extra to compensate for lost wages as I do need this suit fairly quickly" he says, tone unreadable.

You stammer and try to look professional thumbing through the crisply banded notes and would you look at that, you think this will do just fine!

He nods again, shakes your hand and leaves without another word.

You exit the store, just trying to comprehend what in the hell you'd just gotten yourself into, zoning out so hard that you didn't even realize someone was yelling at you until the word "-fuckin furry faggot" pierced through your thoughts. You were looking at your phone so you didn't notice the band of truck bros creeping up behind you in their suped up pickup truck. There were three or four in the bed of the truck, dangling out over the side in between giant "TRUMP 2024" and "Lets Go Brandon" flags. They have their phones out, recording you and shouting slurs.

You raise double birds at them and turn to walk quickly in the opposite way, hoping you wouldn't see them as you walked home. You'd heard of a couple beatings happening locally and you didn't want to be around if that's what they had in mind.

So when you hear tires screeching and and engine roaring behind you, you break out into a run, hoping to make it to the bus terminal across the parking lot.

But they catch up to you before you'd made it halfway. They all get out and one grabs your phone that you held out to record with. He smashes it on the ground and shoves you into the pavement. Hard.

They all stand over you, jeering and laughing and you try to escape but your limbs won't listen to you. You always figured if something like this happened you'd stand your ground, maybe get in a couple of hits yourself, but in reality you could barely breathe and your chest felt like it was collapsing in on itself, so your attempts to scream for help end up coming out as breathy wheezes. One of them levels a crowbar at you and thats when the screaming starts.

You curl up into a ball to protect your face but the pain never comes. You hear screaming and sneakers skidding across asphalt and oh god, wet crunchy impacts followed by something warm and wet being splattered across your arms and legs.

Its suddenly silent except for the drone of the truck engine but eventually you crack open an eye to get a look around, and for the second time that day you almost lose your lunch.

Its straight up something out of a video game, just absolute carnage surrounds you. All of the tall frat bros are out cold in varying stages of fucked up. You do actually start to hurl a little when you see one with his nose completely sideways like a gory Picasso.

And in the center of the carnage is -no fucking way- your fucking fursuit client, calmly wiping his hands of the blood with some baby wipes from his fannypack.

He looks over at you when he sees you're up and for a second there you see something, a slip in the mask, something angry, something violent. You flinch as you realize it, but oh fuck, this guys like.. killed people before. like, for fucken sure.

He walks towards you and you suddenly feel like a very small animal being stalked by a tiger. You try to stumble away but the mask is back on and he just looks down at you and offers you a babywipe.

"You alright?" He asks plainly.

Turns out the guy is "ex-military" and he hurt himself so he's back in the states and bored out of his mind. His daughter is a furry and wanted him to go with her to FurCon and insisted he get a suit as well. You keep on glancing at all the deep scars running up and down his arms and wondering how the hell you didn't see it before.

He's saying something to you but you only snap out of it when a phone is being placed into your hands. You look up and suddenly you're standing outside your apartment building (did you tell him where you lived???)

"This is a secure line, if anything happens to you or you have questions, I'll answer immediately." He says, pale blue eyes drilling into your skull with their intensity.

The tears start bubbling up in your eyes before you can stop them and you just lean forward, bumping your head into his chest and choking out a thank you as you clutch the phone to your chest like an amulet.

As you figured, his body is make out of steel and he stiffens at the contact, unsure of what to do.

He just lets you cry it out for a bit before eventually placing a heavy hand on your shoulder, pulling you off but he keeps the hand gentle.

He's not looking at you this time but he clears his throat and murmurs a quick "Take care" before turning around and disappearing into the night. You unlock your door and collapse into bed.

"What the fuck" you murmur to yourself as you pull out your tablet, and you start to sketch...

[amber-writhing]

She proceeded to not tell them she was no longer unconscious

[amber-writhing]

*sitcom Laugh track*

[amber-writhing]

Trust us! with your lesbian drama

[amber-writhing]

Soldier, Beware the bard :3

Reply / @ddawgthechef2

[medullaisme]

[limeybee]

Spreading my vision far and wide ✨

I present to you...

TrustworthyGuarantee!

Meme edited by yours truly 💕

It's a V polyship between Vaggi, Charlie, and Vox!

The shipname is a reference to the song "Hazbin Guarantee (Trust Us)"

A little clarification that V poly isn't a complete triangle, in this case the ship involves Charlie dating both Vaggi and Vox without the two dating each other

[zombieyvalia]

Incredible

[luxmoogle]

𝐹𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓌𝑒𝓁𝓁, 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹 𓇼˚₊‧ 𝓂𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝑒𝒶 𝒷𝓇𝑒𝑒𝓏𝑒 ˚‧ 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓊𝓈 𝓉𝑜𝑔𝑒𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃~ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

[newx-menfan]

[dewyatt]

Hellion tells it like it is.

[virovac]

With him pursuing Jean I’ll admit its a bad look.

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Hellion please don’t describe Wolverine as the X-men’s creepy uncle O.O

[newx-menfan]

Julian in this moment in the comics- ‘Why you booing me. You know I’m right.’

[virovac]

#considering the rumors Kitty MAY have originally been intended to be Logan’s love interest…it’s not all that off the mark…#not to mention Logan’s relationship with Squirrel Girl…#…and Ultimate Logan…#AND Logan constantly hitting on Jean AFTER she was married TO a colleague…#like I love Wolverine…#but I don’t think Julian’s wrong to question Logan considering some of his choices…

[newx-menfan]

This is why Hellion is one of my favorites - his call outs on Gambit AND Logan DO actually have some backing…

[thestomping-ground]

[swindle94]

Laura is his DAUGHTER you ASSHOLE, Fuck this guy. Wolverine is kinda the batman of the Xmen in that he picks up stray kids and acts as a surrogate father to them, especially Kitty and Jubilee. Fuck you Hellion or more specifically fuck whoever wrote this for not understanding what a father figure is you jackass..

[newx-menfan]

This doesn’t even include the Liu scans of Gambit calling Logan out for being a shitty mentor 🙄

People have totally erased Logan being a crappy dad to Laura in canon completely🙄🙄🙄

@thegoddamnwordsmith

[swindle94]

You’re using the literal worst example where Laura is in peak “X-23” mode and is acting like a goddamn sociopath robot who is LITERALLY not concerned with the potential life and death of a fellow xman. That doesn’t make him a terrible father, if anything this specific example makes LAURA look like a terrible person.

[newx-menfan]

oh NO! I can’t use actual comic book canon! 🙄🤣

Laura was also literally a sixteen year old girl that Cyclops had pressured into X-Force, knowing that Laura felt currently lost without her identity as “X-23” and didn’t fully grasp that she had autonomy… so not really a sociopath 🙄🙄

[swindle94]

I never said you couldnt use comic canon, im saying that your reading of this scene is entirely wrong.

That sounds more like Cyclops being an asshole (again) and HIM being the terrible mentor figure, not Logan.

[newx-menfan]

[dewyatt]

Hellion tells it like it is.

[virovac]

With him pursuing Jean I’ll admit its a bad look.

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Hellion please don’t describe Wolverine as the X-men’s creepy uncle O.O

[newx-menfan]

Julian in this moment in the comics- ‘Why you booing me. You know I’m right.’

[virovac]

#considering the rumors Kitty MAY have originally been intended to be Logan’s love interest…it’s not all that off the mark…#not to mention Logan’s relationship with Squirrel Girl…#…and Ultimate Logan…#AND Logan constantly hitting on Jean AFTER she was married TO a colleague…#like I love Wolverine…#but I don’t think Julian’s wrong to question Logan considering some of his choices…

[newx-menfan]

This is why Hellion is one of my favorites - his call outs on Gambit AND Logan DO actually have some backing…

[thestomping-ground]

[swindle94]

Laura is his DAUGHTER you ASSHOLE, Fuck this guy. Wolverine is kinda the batman of the Xmen in that he picks up stray kids and acts as a surrogate father to them, especially Kitty and Jubilee. Fuck you Hellion or more specifically fuck whoever wrote this for not understanding what a father figure is you jackass..

[newx-menfan]

This doesn’t even include the Liu scans of Gambit calling Logan out for being a shitty mentor 🙄

People have totally erased Logan being a crappy dad to Laura in canon completely🙄🙄🙄

@thegoddamnwordsmith

[swindle94]

You're using the literal worst example where Laura is in peak "X-23" mode and is acting like a goddamn sociopath robot who is LITERALLY not concerned with the potential life and death of a fellow xman. That doesn't make him a terrible father, if anything this specific example makes LAURA look like a terrible person.

[nepotismthis]

INSIDE JOB REWATCH NOTES

A little while ago, I did a full IJ rewatch over three weeks, which is the first time I’ve watched the seasons back to back. I made a point to take notes for fic-writing purposes, and I wanted to share them. They’re color-coded by character, worldbuilding, and production. Enjoy!

Part One:

They briefly mention the shadow-lev system in Unpresidented. I assume this is the primary mode of transportation for most of the series, and all secret societies have access.

I didn’t realize this show had a Dave Matthews needle drop

Rand is very conniving for a lot of Part 1 and a lot of the fandom forgets this… myself included I am in no way immune

This show has a lot of blood. Much more than I remember.

There’s also a LOT of electronic transition music early on, which makes the Dave Matthews needle drop even more absurd.

Reagan’s arms look really strange in Blue Bloods, which is great. The proportions are always just a little off when she wears the robot-arms, which I didn’t notice until now.

The Reptoids have a rivalry with Atlantis!

Reagan frequently wears a barrette in flashbacks (which may not be huge news to you but as someone who’s written an AU Reagan who wears a barrette it was crazy to see)

One detail that really only shows up on a big screen is that they gave Reagan pinkish coloring around her eyes when she doesn’t have the exaggerated purple eye bags, which looks really nice.

The Reptoids say that Reagan is considered an upgrade from Rand. Do with that information what you will.

Tamiko is on first name terms with the rest of the team! It makes me curious how often she sees them.

Atlantis is REALLY big. It’s also in the South Atlantic Ocean

Each opening scene is around 3 minutes in Part One, which actually changes to around 2 minutes in Part Two!

The Illuminati is referred to as a company in Mole Hunt. They’re not just an elite club, they also likely have some sort of business model.

Part Two:

In the summary for “How Reagan Got Her Grove Back,” they give away the hookup. This makes me a little frustrated, but oh well.

The Illuminati canonically toilet papered Cognito’s office in the past, which means it’s likely not hard to break into their office.

While Part One has mostly electronic background music, Part Two uses a lot of keyboard chords for transitions.

I genuinely think Reagan and Mychelle’s Hive School Reunion has my favorite opener. (where they sneak in to change the Constitution) We see the gang on a smaller mission, everyone has new outfits, and also Reagan knocks out a guy with a suitcase.

Rand canonically has a remote-controlled teleporter, which could also solve my transportation confusion from earlier.

“In the Hall of the Mountain King” is played during the roast in Reagan and Mychelle’s Hive School Reunion

Ron initially takes it upon himself to complete the mission in Rome. This is SUPER interesting to me, because he already knows it’s part of Reagan’s job. You could read this in so many ways. Did he want to keep her separate from the part of his past he repressed? Did he want to protect her from another secret society? I am not the person to give judgment on this, I just think it’s intriguing to consider.

Ron is canonically good with technology… Not only did he hack that recorder in Bohemian Grove super fast, he also mentioned literally building the Catholicizer. More on this later.

Gigi’s VA is SO good. She’s so expressive and her joke delivery is consistently on point.

Glenn is canonically a high ranking general, not just some guy (also, he’s my favorite. This is largely because I had to study most of what he references in the two years since I last watched the show.)

During the Mouth of Truth scene, Reagan mentions Ron hopefully changing his mind about sleepovers. Did they just not… stay the night with each other before We Found Love In A Popeless Place? (sadly if this is true it makes one of my fics inaccurate)

Side note: The word ‘sabotage’ is used across four of the eight episodes in Part Two. (episodes 1, 2, 4, 5) I don’t think it was used once in Part One. (take a wild guess about why I noticed this)

They use classical music in Part Two again, at the Hand mansion. I couldn’t recall the title, but it’s there.

The character animation is SO GOOD in Brettwork.

I’m obsessed with how insane JR gets once he becomes an intern.

Rand canonically collects blood samples of all his employees. Again, do with that information what you will.

Brettwork is the best written ‘episodic’ episode of the show. Fight me. Also, it was cool to see Reagan in a support role.

Ron canonically has a private instagram account

During the climax of Rontagion, Ron suggests “hotwiring the gun to the building’s lighting system,” connecting to the pattern of him being good with technology. This guy was in the wrong field. He should’ve been building stuff instead of erasing minds.

Brett remembers Ron post-memory wipe. I don’t know why that was written in, but it’s definitely theory fodder for someone.

They use a cappella music in the JRand college flashback montage! (College a cappella is very special to me and this made me giggle)

In Gigi’s Illuminati cutaway bit, she’s flanked by people in red robes. We also see these guys cheering for the Illuminati in Bohemian Grove, and one going through the TSA in the Rome episode. However, because Ron initially wears a purple robe, this begs the question: does the Illuminati have robes that indicate rank? Does this mean Ron was a higher rank, beyond just being a mind eraser?

In the opener for Appleton, Reagan checks her phone at 9:05 after it buzzes. However, the text she gets from Ron (the only notification) is timestamped as 45 minutes ago. Interestingly, she looks again at 9:50 and the notification is still from 45 minutes ago. It’s probably a production error, but it could also be theory fodder...

Ron never said Reagan needed to make a decision about Appleton, just to think about it. This is canon. I'm not making this up. I don’t deny that this was a huge (and abrupt) ask on Ron’s part, but it’s worth noting that Reagan rushed herself.

You can tell most of the soundtrack budget went into Project Reboot and Appleton. There’s a specific motif they use for emotional moments between Reagan and Ron (once when they kiss at the beginning, once in Appleton proper) which is pretty easy to pick up on.

Ron has a Illuminati mind eraser in the timeline where he works at Cognito… huh?

And... that’s it. TLDR: I love this show, the work put into the soundtrack is underrated, and there’s definitely still more out there to analyze.

[gal-lexicon]

I just watched Avatar for the first time all the way through, and yeah, it’s great, but the one thing that surprised me was how different Katara was compared to the fandom interpretation I’d seen and internalized before watching.

Like, before you watch Avatar, you’ve seen all these memes about Katara and her mom, and based on those memes, you assume it’s one of those lines you have to get used to hearing at least once every episode. But then you watch the show and realize that she only talks about her mom maybe five or six times per season and you also realize she only brings her up when she’s trying to comfort someone or empathize with them because that’s how she processes her grief and that’s one way she connects with people.

Or you hear the infamous line, “then you didn’t love [our mother] the way I did” and you prepare yourself for one of the worst character assassinations ever only to see the scene after nearly three seasons worth of context and realize she was kinda right. She’s been the mother, the nurturer, the comforter. She’s been patient, gentle, and accommodating where everyone else has gotten to be insensible and reckless and childish, and the one moment where she allows herself to feel her grief, suddenly she’s this evil bitch and not, y’know, a 14 year old girl whose been thrusted into adulthood in a way no other character has. A 14 year old girl who should be allowed immaturity and raw emotion and anger instead of the patience and grace she’s been forced to extend to every character without even the smallest amount of gratitude or even consideration in return.

Or you see all of the clips where Katara puts Aang in the “friendzone” and you expect to have this wishy washy back and forth where Aang is putting his feelings out there only to have Katara neither commit nor express any clear reciprocation or rejection. Then you watch and realize that, as cute as the ship is initially, that there’s never a point where Aang returns any comfort or grace to Katara despite her always doing this for him to the point of coddling. That for as much as Aang says he loves her, he never seems to outgrow his perception of her so he can recognize her as someone who feels grief, anger, and pain as much as she expresses love, kindness, and maturity. And instead of having moments where he learns to see her beyond her strength or compassion, you’re instead given moments where Aang forces his feelings onto her, both romantic and non-romantic, and Katara is expected to just…shoulder those feelings the way she shoulders everyone else’s.

Katara is the most misunderstood character in the show. As much as people recognize the complexities of Zuko, Sokka, and Azula, they struggle to do the same for Katara because they see her struggles as somehow lesser, and therefore, less deserving of sympathy. They can handle her so long as she’s being endlessly patient and loving and kind, but the moment her endless love, patience, and kindness runs out, she’s suddenly this annoying bitch who can’t shut up about her mother or reciprocate Aang’s feelings. But Katara’s trauma does matter as much as anyone else’s. No, she wasn’t banished from her kingdom. No, she didn’t lose her entire community, and no, she isn’t the only one who lost her mother. But the difference between her and everyone else whose experienced loss because of the Fire Nation is that she’s never given time to process her trauma. Aang gets to lean on Katara constantly. Toph gets to express her feelings to Katara, and yeah, Sokka also lost their mother, but unlike Katara, he isn’t put in the position of being a substitute for everyone’s parent. He even admits that he sees his sister as a mother. The only characters who ever comfort Katara or allow her to vent is Zuko and her father and that’s, like, three scenes in a show where the other characters are consistently given opportunities to seek out Katara for unconditional support.

The fandom interpretation of Katara has been so bastardized that even those who haven’t watched the show know her for this fanon version and not for who she is. She’s such an interesting character beyond her fandom limitations, though. She’s brave, hot-headed, and hopeful as well as gentle and caring. She wishes to learn waterbending, not only because she wants to fight in the war, but because she wants to continue her culture’s practices because, and people often forget this, she also lost an entire subculture within her already fractured tribe. And she wants to defeat the Fire Nation both because of her deep love and empathy for other people, but also because she wants to avenge her mother. But because some of the fans have reduced Katara to a bitch who constantly whines about her mother and friendzones Aang, you wouldn’t know any of this, and it sucks because she’s the only character whose been dumbed down to such an extent.

[swindle94]

I agree with everything here except the Aang section as not only does Aang return those feelings many times ove,r you deliberately ended the gif before Katara sank into the kiss. Like I get what your trying to say but your making it seem like she never reciprocates his feelings and Aang never evolves his understanding of her neither of which are true when they're both interested in each other in season 1 but don't know the other is interested.

The only reason she's surprised is because Aang was in a multi week post coma funk and they'd been busy on other adventures so this was the first time they kissed in a while, and then she was right into it because she felt the same way.