I am a Warrior But I'm a Girl Too

She/her | I post about atla, lok, pjo, ouat, and whatever else that catches my eye.

[thedarknessoftheendlessmaze]

The emotional chaos, the absolute rollercoaster of that scene in “Manhattan” where Neal, Rumple, Emma, and Henry met in the apartment just,,,,,, *chef’s kiss*

[mteverestaaaaahh]

It was nice not having to cover them in blood and soot this time

[devilledminion]

But for half of the year with Persephone gone His loneliness moves in him, crude and black He thinks of his wife in the arms of the sun And jealousy fuels him and feeds him and fills him With doubt that she'll ever come Dread that she'll never come Doubt that his lover Will ever come back

Carlos Valdes as Orpheus in HADESTOWN

[queensinchains]

Winter's nigh and summer's o'er Hear that high and lonesome sound Of my husband coming for To bring me home to Hadestown

[chaoticarchivist]

Something I genuinely wish was explored more in the ATLA universe/fandom is how Katara is the last waterbender of the Southern Tribe. Like, I understand why it's not spoken about as much as Aang being the last airbender, because he is simply the only airbender left. But Katara is the last link in her entire tribes history of bending.

Sure, the Northern Tribe might have benders, but they have such a different culture/identity around bending compared to the South. We see in Hama's flashbacks that the Southern Tribe had male and female benders at the helm, fighting equally, learning the same things, sharing the same tactics. They weren't left behind as strictly healers or defenseless women given a man's gift, they were strong.

And the thing that separates Katara and Aang's stories being the last benders of their nations is that Aang remembers what it means to be an Air Nomad. There are obviously blind spots because of how young he was, but Aang knows the customs and the culture and spiritual practices. He was able to pass those down to Tenzin and his grandchildren, he was able to start the process of rebuilding what was lost.

But Katara? She was even younger than Aang was when the Southern waterbenders were eradicated. There are Southern practices that are most definetly just... a fractured part of history because she never got to experience them. There are ways of hunting, of building, of navigating the waters, ways of healing, probably even spiritbending, that are simply lost to time.

And maybe her grandmother can clue her into it, memories from a nonbender living aside benders, but it's not the same. She didn't get to hear it from the waterbenders, she didn't get to learn from a Southern waterbender, she doesn't even know what to rebuild because it was never something she was versed in.

That's why The Puppet Master is such a heartbreaking episode. Because Hama could have been the Southern teacher Katara clearly wanted, she could have shown her more, but ended up passing on her legacy of Bloodbending. And on the inverse, I can't even fully call Hama a villain for wanting Katara to know how to bloodbend, because the ache of thinking you were the only one left for so long, the rage against a Nation known for destroying nations, would've driven anyone insane.

We know that Tenzin felt an intense pressure to keep rebuilding Air Nomad culture, but I'm so convinced that Kya probably felt something similar with Southern waterbending.

[the-irreverend]

Although there were a good deal of things I enjoyed about the new Avatar movie, the biggest reason I didn't love it as much as I wanted to because it passed up so many opportunities to develop its characters, and Sokka is the one I think who got done the dirtiest.

Like, come on, people! One of the main antagonists is a RADICAL GROUP OF NON-BENDERS! You don't think the only non-bender member of the Gaang (excluding Suki) would have something to say about what they're doing and how he feels about their cause?! Wouldn't he perhaps be at odds with the benders in the Gaang, probably because he feels more sympathetic about them due to being a nonbender himself and due to how he's been treated, like in the scene above?

And on top of that, wouldn't it have made for compelling conflict if Tagah offered to give him airbending with the staff and his friends and family debated what to do with Tagah's offer? And wouldn't it have made for a very heartwarming message if he chose not to give up being a non-bender because he's proud of it (just as I wouldn't want to give up being autistic)?

What do you think?

[future-crab]

Just got out of the theater from seeing the Hadestown proshot, and it was absolutely incredible, but I do believe Christopher Nolan went through the runtime of Hadestown, found all the quietest and most emotional moments, and decided to out loud as fuck explosions in the Odyssey at exactly those times as a malicious plot to ruin the moviegoing experience of me, specifically

[future-crab]

It was kind of nice during "His Kiss, the Riot," though. The feling of distant explosions rumbling through the theater gave a real cool 4-D experience to Patrick Page's extremely deep voice.

[ID: The @/lesbianjarjarbinks "they aren't actually using pyrotechnics. ray toro can just do that," post edited to read, "that isn't actually sound coming in from the IMAX theater nextdoor. Patrick Page can just do that. End ID.]

[future-crab]

Also I mentioned this to my sister as we were leaving the theater and she went, "Ohhhhhhh, the Odyssey! The only movie I'd seen promo for going in was Toy Story 5 and I kept going, 'What the hell is happening in Toy Story 5?'"

[mankillercalledbunny]

Malia is violence. Active violence is the malia of taking life, the "cheating" of doing something that's going to hurt something or someone else just a little so you can get what you need without regard for how it might affect them. Structural/systemic violence is the indirect malia of the exploitation, manipulation and connivance that the enclaves employ to get people to work for them on the dim hope that they'll get a smidgen of that wealth eventually, the wielding of their position and the promise of safety as a weapon against their supplicants and sycophants, and their kids get indoctrinated into this systemic violence and are at the same time taught to ignore it or be blind to it, to shrug it off or treat it as natural.

Despite all her harsh words, El won't leave the freshman to their fate or join an enclave or leave anyone behind at graduation for the same reason she's strict mana. She will not hurt someone else or let someone else be hurt by her inaction, because despite her affinity for violence, she refuses to use it for her own gain. For protection, for defense, but never for herself. That's why it isn't malia if it's freely given, but it IS indirect malia if it's manipulated or coerced out of people by holding safety and security and comfort out of their reach as the carrot, with the stick just being the threat of being abandoned to the maleficaria.

[sourb0i]

I just realized that Eva Stratt and Leisel Scholomance are the same person. Type A to the max. Have spreadsheets for everything. Willing to make trolly problem choices for the greater good without so much as blinking. German.

[thedarknessoftheendlessmaze]

They are so similar. They are both just so pragmatic, and work their way to become important through sheer competence.

I think one of their biggest differences comes from El. Liesel has El in her life. Which means that Liesel is not the most powerful person in the room, unlike Stratt. El is the one who motivates Liesel to try to heal the problems of enclaves. Which, much like astrophage, are a metaphor for climate change— yet another way these two are similar, they are facing the same issue.

Anyway, El holds herself to such high standards lest she become a terrible dark sorceress of doom, which means Liesel is pushed to also hold herself to higher standards, and to not accept the lesser evil. With El in her life, I’m not sure Liesel would’ve sacrificed one person for the world— El certainly wouldn’t. El would’ve probably just loomed there ominously and convinced Grace that it was the right thing to do, the same way she convinces the Beijing enclave to stop making a mawmouth and to instead make a golden stone enclave. Which means that Liesel wouldn’t have to make the same hard choices Stratt does.

[river-of-wine]

Hades gives Orpheus a trial he knows he himself could never succeed at, but it isn’t just that Hades knows he would turn around. Hades has been failing this trial every single year. He shows up too early. He turns too soon. He is so full of doubt that even the natural order of the world, that Persephone will return to him, is not something he can trust. Hades would fail the trial he has given Orpheus, and he already has. All alone, his blood runs thin.

[disneytva]

Closer look to the Grunkle Stan section for "The Art Of Gravity Falls" at the Disney Publishing Worldwide booth at San Diego Comic-Con, 2026.

📸MMeatloaf

[thinkanamelater]

Such a shocking revelation but I couldn't not think of this

[bringiton]

Derry Girls (2018–), S02E01.

[skaylanphear]

Okay but teacher Grace on Erid having very little say in which kids get filtered into his class, though he is aware that the selection process is super specific and that most of the kids he gets are high performers with star academics and some even with influential parents. He isn't quite comfortable enough with Eridian culture yet to object to the selection process and make it more inclusive, however. That is, until he learns about the special needs kids.

Obviously, there are Eridian kids with special needs, and a few of them even filter into his classes. But one specific type of special needs kid has never shown up in his classes, and the only reason he even learned of the condition is because Rocky and Adrien's first pebble has the condition.

It's initially quite a struggle for them to deal with, and Grace sympathizes of course, because the child will apparently have huge learning and academic struggles and will likely never be able to live on their own. That is, until he learns the details of the disability.

Basically, it's a condition where the part of the Eridian brain that gives them their eidetic memory isn't fully developed, and so these kids just... can't remember things the way most eridians do. And in a culture where an eidetic memory is the norm, all things cater to that, so not having that is actually a massive disability.

But Grace is like, so... this kid just learns the same way a human does, or something like. Which is nothing new to him, though he is somewhat boggled at how much Rocky and Adrian struggle with their infant and their "slow" learning curve, even as far as initial developmental stages. Grace, on the other hand, simply treats the kid the same way he would a human infant, and Rocky and Adrien are impressed with his patience.

But, through this, it occurs to Grace that there must be other kids out there with this disability who likely aren't getting the attention and chances in life that they deserve, because Eridian culture is particularly hostile toward this disability, and actively views those with it as unable to function in regular society.

So Grace demands that a special course be put together where he teaches kids with this disability specifically. Rocky is hesitant, as most kids with this disability are home schooled and kind of... kept shut away. But Grace insists and as one of Erid's saviors, he gets what he wants eventually.

His first class is super small, maybe only three kids because so few parents were willing to advertise that their children have this disability. And because of the stigma around it, even those who agreed to it are super unsure and want to be present during the lessons, perhaps paranoid about the impression it will leave on Savior Grace, who is so accustomed to only teaching the most gifted students.

But Grace knows exactly how to deal with these kids. Some of them have varying degrees of function when it comes to their memory banks, which isn't so unlike teaching kids on earth. And so Grace is able to introduce all these tools and teaching techniques that were previously unheard of on Erid (though very normal on Earth) like having textbooks for reference with you at all times and having strategies that are less focused on memorization for understanding, and providing these kids with tools like calculators and teaching them the art of taking notes to look back on, etc etc.

Suddenly, with all these tools that most Eridians don't need, these kids are learning at a much faster rate, and succeeding with the help of all their little tools. And because so many normal eridians are ignorant of Grace's actual biology, it's shocking to them that Savior Grace doesn't have an eidetic memory either (shocking to everyone but Rocky anyway)--that his brain functions quite similarly in capacity to these "disabled" children.

Once this news gets around, suddenly there's more kids in his special classes, and there's all kinds of discourse being inflamed because the real reason these kids can't live on their own or function is lack of support from Eridian society.

If Savior Grace, who is well respected as a genius in his own right amongst the Eridians, can function so successfully, they why can't these kids?

I dunno, I just think it's an interesting premise.

[susandsnell]

reuploaded bc ykw i'm fed up. fandom misogyny bingo

[niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian]

The absolute foaming mouth legend is back, AND HIS LEGACY CONTINUES NOW THAT HE HAS A GAL AND KIDS OF HIS OWN TOO.

[comradekatara]

my atla fandom hot take that is unobjectionable but for some reason consequential due to its prevalence is that toph wouldn’t consistently refer to sokka as ‘snoozles’ the way she refers to aang as ‘twinkle toes.’ the epithet of ‘snoozles,’ which she uses exactly once, in “bitter work,” is entirely dependent on its context, which is that she woke up early because she was excited to train aang. if anything, toph is far more of a “snoozles” than sokka is. when he tells them in “the painted lady” that they’ll have to wake up 43 minutes earlier from from on to make up for the day they spent in jang hui, toph emphatically declares “well i’m not waking up early.” and mind you, these are toph’s sleeping habits on a regular day, whereas sokka is usually regimented and disciplined to the point that toph mocks him for it (see also, “finagle away, o schedule master” earlier in that scene):

she also refers him as ‘sleuthy one,’ in “sozin’s comet,” but that’s just as context-dependent as snoozles. it would be weird of her to call him that consistently, the same way it would be weird of her to call him by a nickname that implies he’s in any way lazy, when in fact, she is far more likely to mock him for being an overly-organized hard-ass.

aang is the only character who is actually bestowed a consistent nickname. while the epithets with which toph refers to katara follow a generally consistent pattern—first ‘sugar queen’ in “the chase,” then ‘sweetness’ in “the earth king,” and (my personal favorite) ‘madame fussy britches’ in “the runaway”—she never uses the same nickname twice. she refers to suki as ‘honey’ in “sozin’s comet,” but i wouldn’t even call that a nickname per se. and zuko’s only nickname by a member of the gaang, ‘sifu hotman,’ is coined by aang, not toph. with the sole exception of aang, toph primarily refers to her friends by their names, and only uses nicknames in specific contexts, when the occasion actually calls for her to employ a mocking epithet.

however, if toph were to refer to sokka by a consistent nickname, the obvious contender is clearly ‘captain boomerang.’ although it’s a somewhat silly name, it’s evident through her tone when she calls him that in “sozin’s comet” that it is sincere. when she is hanging on to his hand and says “aye aye, captain,” she is not being remotely sarcastic; she is expressing dire fear for their lives, but she trusts him completely. even the shit ass comics are able to recognize that this is toph’s ultimate nickname for sokka, because it represents how she truly views him. beneath her irreverent recalcitrance, toph clearly holds a lot of respect, fondness, and admiration for sokka as a friend and as a leader. she does not think of him as ‘snoozles’; she thinks of him as her captain.