#rant mode

[anapplescruff]

I hate how entitled bicyclists here are.

The sidewalk is for walking. Pedestrians. It's in the words.

In a bike-friendly city with bike lanes on both sides of the street, I should be able to walk on the sidewalk safely away from vehicles. A bicycle, which is a vehicle, chasing me off the walking path. It does not matter that the vehicle is powered by a human instead of gasoline. I should be safe and not afraid someone will come up behind me demanding I move because they deem me to be in their way.

If the cyclist is afraid of motorized vehicles, perhaps wearing a helmet and maybe something reflective or illuminated is a good idea. Running me off the sidewalk is not the way to do things.

And having someone tell me it's not an electric scooter so it's not that bad is also not cool.

Stay in the bike lane. Let pedestrians use the sidewalk. Stop pretending laws only apply to cars.

Fuck bikes.

[shadowgirl7]

TAG YOUR GODDAMN SPOILERS!!! 😡

FOR GOD'S SAKE, HOW MANY TIMES DO PEOPLE NOT GET THE HINT THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO AVOID THESE UNTIL PART 2 OF CHAPTER 7 ISN'T AVAILABLE ON THE ENGLISH SERVERS YET?!

I've literally flagged/blacklisted the spoiler tags for the time being, but I can't even browse these tags for now because of this crap.

And I mean putting them in ACTUAL tags, not just "Spoilers" in the title and not even putting a "Read More" to cover that shit.

Like, come on...

[mandos-little-friend]

One of the things that really annoyed me in Chapter 13 was the lack of information exchange, or more specifically the lack of any curiosity by one who should know better.

Ahsoka shows no interest in why there is a Mandalorian bounty hunter with a Force sensitive child in tow. ("Where did you find him?" "Oh just sitting in a rock. I'm always collecting weird things.") Hey, Ahsoka, if the kid can't remember, you might try working backwards with someone else?

Even mentioning being hunted by the Empire doesn't draw out anything. And Din didn't feel the need to elaborate or mention a freaking Moff is desperate enough for him to lay seige to a whole town? Hell, he has just found a secret lab with confirmation that expiriments are being performed on the kid's blood. How does he not lead with that?

Then there's the discussion of powers. Instead of Jedi-splaining the Force, maybe we should have had a more in depth conversation about what the kid has been doing. Healing? That's a very unique and powerful gift. Oh, and Force chokes? No reason to go into details there. The powers will just "fade" away.

I'd like to think there's a plot reason why we're deprived of this, but the more I'm watching, the more I think they don't want to bother.

Hey, we got to have more flippy flippy super Jedi tricks. No time for plot here!

[tamras-shieldmaiden]

Note:

This is me getting back to my little soapbox to vent some thoughts, so chances are some of you might not like/agree with what you read, but isn't that the Tumblr experience in a nutshell? 

For the record, I don’t ship Baatar Jr. with Kuvira. In fact, I don’t ship Kuvira with any of the Beifongs. Opal? The jealousy I perceive in Opal towards Kuvira is too much to imagine them in a romantic entanglement. Lin? Love me some Lin but I would rather have her adopt Kuvira as she (sorta) did with Mako. Suyin? Put a big NOTP sign beside that one, thank you very much. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I don’t ship Baavira. Personally, find Baatar clingy and his privilege blocked him from really understanding Kuvira, her motives for uniting the Earth Kingdom, and the lengths she was willing to go in order to achieve her goals.  That doesn’t undermine the fact that he loved her, supported her, and cared for her, to the point of wanting to spend his life with her even if it tore his relationship with his family apart  Make no mistake: this affection was mutual, not one-sided. Although to me they behaved more like business partners rather than a conventional couple, perhaps that’s exactly why it worked so well for them.  Heck, it certainly worked for Varrick and Zhu Li, and that one bordered on the abusive but that’s another topic. I also agree with this opinion here.  Even if I don’t ship it, their relationship just makes Kuvira an even more compelling and interesting character. But there are other reasons why I accept Baavira as an integral part of Kuvira as a character (besides you know, being canon):

-The most obvious is that it makes her capable of falling in love. It adds complexity and layers to her character beyond the stereotypical antagonist traits in the relative little time we get to know her. Now that we know more of her tragic past courtesy of Ruins of the Empire, it makes even more sense that she craved affection and stability. Kuvira wanted to feel part of a family and she willingly chose Baatar to be hers.* Not accepting this undermines the sacrifice and the pain she experienced when she had to decide between the Empire and spending her life with the person she chose to be at her side in “Kuvira’s Gambit.” For my in-depth thoughts on this, you can go here:

*Any mention of Kuvira and the Beifongs will inevitably bring the issue of her rather ambiguous status and whether she was treated like family or not. I don’t think the series gives enough evidence to believe she was treated as a family member on equal footing as the Beifong children. Therefore, I don’t think Kuvira saw or treated Baatar as a sibling and although they’re closer in age, his status as non-bender probably limited their interactions at the Beifong Estate.  

-Kuvira was mentored by Suyin Beifong, arguably one of the more progressive characters in the series. As a member of the Gaang’s kids, Su had the rare privilege of learning from all the nation’s cultures through her mom’s friends. This of course includes the Air Nomad culture and their acceptance of love no matter the orientation, a fact we learned from Kya in Turf Wars. I find it hard ti believe that Suyin wouldn’t share these teachings in the city she herself founded. In the Zaofu style of metalbending we can see more fluid motions usually not associated with traditional earthbending and Kuvira’s trademark bending style is unique in the sense that she’s rather light on her feet, like well, like an airbender. Now, this is my opinion, but to me, it's hard to believe that Kuvira somehow felt compelled to comply with a traditional heterosexual relationship when her education most likely included Air Nomad teachings courtesy of what Suyin Beifong learned. I personally believe the same applies to Lin Beifong who got along famously with Aang. The fact that her opposite-sex relationship was with Tenzin, an Air Nomad of all people, kinda makes this notion even more ironic.

Spoilers for Ruins of the Empire follow:

-This:

The woman herself says that she loved Baatar (my Korvira shipper heart does emphasize the fact that it's past tense tho 😁 )

In case my fics don’t state the case clear enough, I  headcanon Kuvira as bisexual. (Bonus points for her voice actress Zelda Williams being bi IRL). I’ve also made comments on what in my personal opinion have perceived as bi erasure for certain LoK characters here and here.

In the end, everyone is free to headcanon what they wish because these are fictional characters and everyone interprets them in their own way. I just wanted to remind bisexuality and pansexuality can be valid headcanons for w/w and m/m relationships. Why? Because they can incorporate both canon and headcanon in a nice and nifty balanced package. 

And that's it. Rant mode off. That’s all folks.

[ambidextrousarcher]

Hey! Why dont you like uloopi? Arjun and uloopi are the best arjun ship. I mean she isn't proud like draupadhi or has consent issue as subhadra or has little to no mention as in arjun x chitrangada . Besides , they are perfect parallel . he is the son of heaven king and she is the daughter of kingdom of patal lok . I didn't not mean to offend you just a question.

Hello, anon!

I don’t like Arjun/Uloopi because, in every single edition of the Mahabharata I have read, be it KMG, BORI, or what little of the Southern Edition I know (I will FOREVER be salty that Southern Edition was not translated by the BORI people, because it is held equal to the Northern recension texts by scholars, and more detailed besides), there is consent issue. Not from Uloopi’s side, but from Arjun’s. She coerces him into sleeping with her by threatening to kill herself, he doesn’t do it of his own accord. I’ll ask you, doesn’t his consent (non-threatened consent) matter too?

As for Arjun/Draupadi, they love each other. She isn’t too proud, may I ask why you think that? She’s canonically known to say that without Arjun, everything loses its savour. She says that in Vana Parva, that without Savyasachi, the lotus-eyed one, which is Arjun, even serene forests lose their beauty. People say such things only if they miss people they love. She goes to Gandhamadana, physically taxing herself to the verge of fainting, to meet him. I’m sure that speaks of love. On his side, Vyasa calls her ‘the love of his life’.

I don’t have any issues with Arjun/Chitrangada because it’s a match made with mutual consent, Arjun asks for permission from Chitrangada’s father too. There is mention of the fact that he stays there for three years with her, of their son, the fact that he leaves her behind because of her father’s condition, and also that he visits her afterwards, after he’s saved a bunch of Apsaras who were turned into crocodiles.

With Arjun/Subhadra, I’ll ask you a simple question. If a random stranger is kidnapping you, would you not raise a hue and cry? Subhadra doesn’t, she’s actually smiling when she leaves with Arjun in the Northern editions, and as for the Southern Edition, they have an elaborate love story. Arjun enters Dwarka during his exile doing penance, Balarama asks Subhadra to serve him, she susses out he’s Arjun, both of them are attracted to each other and the abduction is basically not much of one. (I couldn’t translate the shlokas completely, thank you @ambitiousandcunning for helping me with this so much!) So the consent issue is kind of moot here. 

This is why I have an issue with Arjun/Uloopi. (And some aspects of Bheem/Hidimbi as well) 

I also think that since Draupadi and Subhadra are canonically depicted as happy with Arjun, really, even Subhadra is noted to love him and be happy as his wife, (she’s noted to have been ‘delighted to be united with Arjun’), if that’s not proof, I honestly don’t know what is. Therefore,  there is no question of either of them ‘deserving’ better.

This is a stance I will not budge from, please understand that. I am not offended, but I’m clearing my point of view.

Thank you for your ask.

[chasingpegasus]

[honestique]

Im so frustrated tho. The current Noora wasnt Noora from s1 and its like s2 was for nothing.

[variablejabberwocky]

well...despite my best efforts im learning all sorts of things i didn’t want to learn about ships :/

not that learning is bad, im just...pretty damn certain i won’t need to know this outside of this particular niche setting

turns out one of the really good things about making your own setting (and subsequently deciding how much history it shares with Earth) is if you ever don’t like a set of terms for a thing you can just make your own terms that make more sense to you

like calling the front of the ship “the front” and the back of the ship “the back” instead of terms you can’t fucking remember 5 seconds after looking at an illustrated guide

“BUT WOCKY”, i hear you say, “IF YOU’RE JUST GONNA MAKE SHIT UP THEN WHY LEARN IT AT ALL?”

because im reading a fucking d&d flavored tax form using legit nautical terms that doesn’t bother to explain jack shit until 1 book and 6 chapters later, if it even bothers at all