KSIGJICNRJCNEHCBD HELLO HELLO WELCOME TO THE HELL THAT IS KNOWING ZUTARA IS EVERYTHING AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN AS SUCH !!!! wow i love that you are as angry as i was (and am every rewatch? yikes) this is amazing i knew you're my favorite but yeah wow man this really. confirms it whew high five
yeah it’s pretty wild how I knew this was what happened and was already bracing for it and yet STILL got completely misled by the narrative??? MEN I tell you MEN. I’m also going to use this ask as a method to reply to some of the other commentary if you don’t mind since this seems like a good place for communal frustration (here is my original post for anyone scrolling around lost)
@meg-hemmings: I agree with all of ur thoughts and I would TOTALLY read anything you wrote for Zutara … your writing is among my absolute favorite ever and I think you would write the Zutara dynamic so beautifully!
@one-man-propaganda-machine: I am - begging - you to write it yourself.
I... am not going to make promises, but I may have to. I want something very specific and that never bodes well for me. I doubt it would be more than a one-shot, but there are multiple scenes that could have occurred between episodes that would flesh out what was there (and of course I’d cut the final 15 seconds of the show, much like another epilogue I loathe and ignore)
@deifiliaa: omg atla discourse in 2021; olivie, i’d love to see what your character tier list looks like now that you’ve finished the series 👀
I’m going to put azula at the top. not because she’s a good person obviously but she’s FULL. OF. HITS. every time she’s on the screen the narrative gets immediately more interesting. she’s savvy and self-assured and I love it. her ending depressed me although I like that it was kind of about the loss of her two best friends? if that had been more of a focus I think I would have enjoyed it more but yeah, losing mai and ty lee could have been rightfully devastating. who among us is not totally obliterated by friend breakups. I also really loved uncle iroh; if anything that’s why I wasn’t invested in zuko’s storyline until close to the end, because watching him disappoint his uncle was very difficult (I get it, he’s a teenager, he’s growing and evolving and whatnot, but also I am closer to being his uncle than to being him so like, yeah). I also hope the peter pan revenge guy (JET that’s his name, sorry pregnancy kills my brain cells) did hook up with both katara and zuko. I love that journey for all three of them. I wanted more time with mai than we got, so there wasn’t quite enough there to love... but I was very down with ty lee interfering on her behalf. what a pivotal moment
of the core characters I think I was quickest to love sokka; the episode where he apologizes to suki and asks her to train him cemented it for me. I think it’s a big deal to show boys apologizing on-screen and owning their misconceptions. I like katara a lot—she’s what a lot of people do with fanon hermione. toph is also great, and part of me feels there is a strong basis for a ship with aang that balances their opposing energy, though I also like the idea of them being platonic besties. aang is... twelve. pretty much every time he was on the screen mr blake (a teacher) was like “man, aang is such a seventh grader,” so it was nice how convincing that was for his emotional journey, but at the same time it was hard to forget he was in seventh grade. appa and momo are STARS. I am sure I have mentioned this before but mr blake really loves animals and he was devastated by appa’s kidnapping; he hugged our dog for about ten minutes after aang found appa. after he decided I was zuko, he speculated that he is closest to aang but he’s not happy about it lol. “ugh, aang and I are such boring pacifists” was I believe his take on the subject
@libbynico, who for some reason I can’t tag: so true! katara was literally something like a mother/older sister figure to aang the entire time, but whatever
yeah, I think it really sucks that katara, as the emotionally nurturing character, felt shoved into the role of love interest. it’s everything wrong with the distribution of emotional labor in male-female relationships but sure, WHATEVER, apparently nobody thought to ask me in 2008
@touslesnoms: I liked “such selfish prayers” by andromeda3116 if you ever decide to read zutara after the series; the worst prisoner by emletish is super funny too
thanks for the recs! I will take them. I do want something very specific so I will be accepting recs until I find it lol. or until I lose composure and write it (yeah this is me WITH my composure, no wonder mr blake thinks I’m zuko, “I’m never happy” indeed)
@gaeleria: THANK YOU!!! Ugh omg that “I’m confused” kiss scene made me actively hate the ending. I knew ahead of time they were endgame, so I tried to make myself accept it early on. Like, I really didn’t like the pairing, but I wasn’t going to be emotionally invested in the romance and it was just going to be like, whatevs. AND THEN THEY WROTE THAT SCENE??! 1000% no. What was even the point of that scene? If they had written it to make Aang have some introspection and realize it’s not all about him, Katara’s feelings matter too, or even apologize, or anything… but no, there was literally no point to that scene. No character growth, it was never mentioned again. Ugh.
this is in answer to both you and beloved @zabbini: yeah this was a fuck-up for sure lol. I think it may come down to editing for time; the series is very irregularly paced, what with the majority of the action taking place in the final three episodes of a 16 episode season. or maybe it’s just because MEN CAN’T BE TRUSTED TO WRITE ROMANCE but either way yeah this was a real misstep and just truly, truly reeked of a particular (white) male attitude about how women think and what they owe. had a bad day, dudes? buy a gun, kiss your forever girl, do whatever you want and it’s fine! (I’m exaggerating but barely)
in terms of what’s so angering for me: a character like katara who previously had tons of agency was robbed of it when it came to her romantic arc, which is just really upsetting. and to be fair, I was equally upset when zuko instantly agreed to the agni kai with azula because it was like okay well katara’s extremely valuable, as you know, but now you want her to just sit on the sidelines...? (more of a story flaw than a relationship flaw, but my chest sunk a little at the idea that katara was going to sit by and watch as an accessory to zuko’s story when she’s a crucial weapon in their collective fight. what a waste, right?)
it’s also especially hard to buy into the aang thing when zuko’s method of problem-solving on katara’s behalf is there for comparison. he asks her what she needs in order to find closure and then from there, does everything necessary to get it without having to be asked twice. versus aang, who is a twelve-year-old pair of rogue lips who never wins any of his fights without the aid of phenomenal cosmic powers...? ugh I’m getting off track but in the end there’s just a complete lack of understanding what female audiences want, though again, I don’t think they were really considering that at all. which I guess is... fair, it’s not the point of the show, but then why make the ending romantic at all? to show that their brand of hero gets everything he wants, I guess
in conclusion in 2008 I’m not sure the industry was capable of doing better, which sucks but isn’t surprising. still, it does fit the components of “stuff I write fics for,” which is I enjoyed most of it but find myself enraged by slivers I compulsively need to fix—WHICH IS STILL NOT A PROMISE but ugh I can already feel myself giving in
the flint wood a/b/o fic was probably my favorite flintwood i've ever read and it got me introduced to and obsessed with a/b/o fics so idk whether to love you or proclaim you wickedest in the land (but also thank you)
that means a heck of a lot to me, thank you!! i feel like in hp there’s a/b/o fics and then there’s also like veela or other sort of fics? which all seem fair game and within that genre which is p cool
hey!! i was just thinking about a fic where hermione goes to D for "lessons" and he refuses to let her take her bra off he just pushes it out of the way bc it makes him feel like he mussed up the good girl or something. do you know what this might be? thank you!
Anyone?
Edit: Thanks dideldumsdreamsinred and akashathekitty!
Lessons and Obsessions by LennaNightrunner - MA, 30 Chapters - After Narcissa Malfoy makes a deal with the Order of the Phoenix for protection and for a probational dismissal of charges regarding her son’s role in the death of Albus Dumbledore, Draco Malfoy returns to Hogwarts for a seventh year. Disgraced, reckless, and resentful, Draco decides to pursue a long-time desire for Hermione Granger. What begins as a loveless series of trysts wherein Hermione tries to ease the pain of Ron’s apparent indifference soon becomes inevitably complicated. With Harry off searching for Horcruxes and Ron still lacking the courage to pursue her, Hermione finds herself becoming increasingly and inexplicably attached to a boy she believes can never love anyone, least of all her. She believes this so firmly, in fact, that the significance of the subtle changes in Draco’s behavior may not become evident to her before their secret relationship is discovered.
but wHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT HOW AFTER JAHA TOLD HIM HE KEPT CLARKE CENTERED BELLAMY SAID "you got it backwards" LIKE MY SON PLEASE YOU ARE THE REASON SHE IS STILL TOGETHER PLEASE KISS HER ALREADY
THEY BOTH NEED EACH OTHER SO MUCH AND LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH AND I SOMETIMES I WANNA QUIT THIS SHOW BUT THEY KEEP DRAGGING MY BACK IN @ GOD WHY THIS WHY CAN’T THEY JUST ADMIT THAT THEY’RE IN LOVE AND MAKE OUT AND SHARE STUPID TENDER KISSES AND SOFT MOMENTS AND RIP MY BEATING HEART STRAIGHT OUT OF MY CHEST
hi olivie :) i just wanted you to know that for my speech for the microphone class (i'm an acting major) we practice narrating samples of audiobooks and i chose La Petite Mort and it was so fun.....honestly the writing is so fun that me getting to act on the page was almost irrelevant. i hope this sends you love and good vibes! ❤️❤️❤️
hello magnificent starflower I have been thinking of you!! sorry for this being moderately off-topic and also more of a private conversation but SINCE YOU’RE HERE and have brought up audiobooks and I know you have asked me in the past: what would you think about potentially being the voice actor for an audiobook of The Atlas Six? I have been asked about it again recently and have also been told by my agent that unless it magically starts selling like Fifty Shades I can kind of do whatever I want, so if you’re interested, we can chat about timing and payment and all that. I have like no resources, as I’m sure you could guess, and I would also have to be able to pay whoever else was involved (such as a sound editor and all of that, for which little chmura is thankfully very adept, a goddess of many talents) so idk how feasible this actually is but if you are interested let me know!!!
and as to your actual ask, it DOES fill me with very good vibes and I’m so glad it was fun for you. LOVE IT and thank you for dropping by!
hi olivie :D this is just a teensy bit awkward and if u don't have an answer it's ok but i thought i'd ask bc your inbox feels safe! but so, ever since you recommended bellesa.co i've felt much more comfortable exploring the website and myself bc it does feel very safe and authentic. tho, women of color are very rare on the site unless u go out of your way to find them (specifically looking for Black women) and i was wondering if you've come across any other sites or companies that have more Black or women of color featured in a safer environment like bellesa?
hi hi I’m glad it feels safe here! I don’t have any quick answers because to my limited knowledge bellesa is at the forefront in promoting ethical contributions to the sex industry buuuut maybe there’s a way you can leverage their platform to find something similar? bellesa has two parts, the “netflix for porn” part where they actually produce the films and have sex ed videos and their collective and stuff, and then there’s the curated videos which they pull from other sites. one thing that’s great and quite detailed is their tagging system! when you find Black performers you like, you can check out that performer’s other work or find links to where those specific videos were sourced. I think that might be a good way to find other places, though I've never tried it myself
here’s a listicle that might help, though again I’m not sure about content specifically for Black women? (I’m not sure how to phrase this but as an asian-looking woman who is very sensitive to fetishization, I’d definitely want to know who the content creators/curators were if I were looking for specific kinds of performers.) maybe the bellesa collective would have more, or you could DM/contact them and ask? I know they routinely partner with other female-owned companies and writers—I once met someone developing an app/text service that teaches you how to dirty talk and she told me that bellesa regularly collaborates with companies like hers—so maybe someone there would know, or if they don’t then I bet it’s something they might consider investigating
hi olivie, i miss you dearly. i haven't been able to keep up with you Not Writing this semester because I am online in college and can't look at computer screens for pleasure much anymore 🥴 I wanted to just say hi, I hope you are well-ish, I see Mr. Blake could be better but is overall fine?? And only from context clues have I noticed that you are moving? possibly? I am the worst but if these things are true I am happy for you both and only slightly exhausted being here now! much love :)
ah hellooo I miss you too! but I understand. I certainly wouldn’t want to stare at anyone on a screen at this point in quaran-time. not to worry! it’s all the same nonsense and yes we are moving just a couple of miles from where we are now to a bigger apartment. it’s become clear that he isn’t going back to school anytime soon and while sharing the living room as a single makeshift office is a very cute look for us, it is a bit of a bandaid as far as solutions. plus we need a bit more space for totally non-mysterious reasons anyway
thank you so much for saying hi! happy to hear from you and I hope you’re getting a break soon; mr blake is definitely on the verge of burnout so I can’t imagine any students have it much better. sending the best of vibes your way!! you’re a true hero for learning even one (1) thing via zoom and also a veritable pearl of humanity
i am sending all of the good energy i possess to mr. blake as a school teacher in this current system, and I hope you two find any joy you can in filming home science videos! I've been filming self tapes for a few months now and though it's not ideal, the blooper reel is hilarious and I got some good pictures :) PS alone with you in the ether is almost done so stay tuned for the inevitable breakdown i have in your inbox lol
ahhhh yes thank you so much my dove. I am finding this to be a very rude thing the universe has done in response to me taking ap chemistry PURELY to avoid physics. the irony is real
anyway yes please bring any and all feelmotions to my place of business, aka here! thank you for wishing me joy and please know I wish the same for you always
