Zukaang nation i just had an epiphany!! Aang and Zuko names first letters are literally the beginning and ending of the alphabet HELP. though i can imagine this has probably been pointed out 928813 times already and I'm just late to the party. since they're the world's most obvious foils/parallels dynamic it could be intentional; or is it just a coincidence?? i'm so curious
Prodigy and Literally almost got murked as a baby by his own father for not showing enough firebending potential
Back scar and Chest scar
The list goes on.
Bonus I Love: Culturally bald but at his lowest point shunned from his world and grows hair and Culturally long haired but at his lowest poing shunned from his world and shaves his head
normalize being dogshit amateur at your special interests and hyperfocuses. no more autistic savants. yes i am very into that topic no i am not good at it. we exist <3
Zukaang nation i just had an epiphany!! Aang and Zuko names first letters are literally the beginning and ending of the alphabet HELP. though i can imagine this has probably been pointed out 928813 times already and I'm just late to the party. since they're the world's most obvious foils/parallels dynamic it could be intentional; or is it just a coincidence?? i'm so curious
The most ironic thing about the expedition 33 soundtrack is that they went to the trouble of composing pieces for anger, sadness, and joy respectively but after listening to them they all leave you in the same depressed, heartbroken, soul-crushed state
There's something really funny about me writing a whole ass analysis on tamsy's weirdly intimate relationship with feminity and kei urana randomly announcing tamsy as the first cis confirmed character in gachiakuta like a month later there's some irony in that.
I am convinced alastor hates vox because they're too alike. They both got that textbook cluster B swag going on, are charismatic serial killers, ruthless manipulators, need to feel in control at all times, want to be the most powerful, etc. Vox didn't feel threatened by the similarities, was instead drawn to alastor, basically wanted them to be murder husbands, wanted to be godawful, but like, ✨️together✨️. Alastor's scornful rejection of vox's offer made him look immature, because vox was being sincere and vulnerable in that moment, kind of defenseless. He ripped out that man's feelings and crushed them with his bare hands. It's really no wonder vox couldn't let this go. Not letting it go for 70 years tho? Also extremely immature and petty. They're both pathetic and I love it.
(s2 finale spoilers under cut)
Vox is very transparent and impulsive whereas alastor has himself perfectly under control and no one ever really knows what he's thinking or planning. With that in mind it's obvious why vox lost and alastor got everything he wanted. Vox is intelligent but he suffers from major fuckup disease (disadvantage of being attracted to his archenemy + thinly disguised anger issues). Alastor is intelligent, but much more patient. He endured being at vox's mercy (he absolutely hated that shit) for his plans to come to fruition and ho boy they did. In the end alastor won it all because he was desperate enough to swallow his pride and play pretend for the duration of like 4 episodes. It's impressive he pulled it off considering his ego must be the size of a mountain.
Something that's been bothering me is that alastor is a hypocrite and we're talking MAJOR hypocrite and he probably feels zero remorse for it. Calling vox out for relying on others for power like it's a bad thing when he himself entirely relied on rosie for his. He says vox is weak because of it. And the thing is - wouldn't that imply that he subconsciously thinks of himself as weak for doing the same? Loser behaviour right there. He said vox's specialty is excuses and lies like he ain't the biggest liar of them all. Confronting vox about touching charlie's shoulders, stating he hates that behaviour, when he literally touches charlie the EXACT same way in season 1 (talk about them being similar). In that same breath he called vox a creep - pot calling the kettle black, I mean look at yourself man you can't be serious. Giving vox all that attitude for shit he does/is himself really ain't a good look. Bro beefing with a mirror... Makes him look like even more of a loser than vox tbh. Vox is so painfully obvious pathetic it's kind of endearing but with alastor it's like dude you're not being slick
thought I'd give character study a try so here are my thoughts on Tamsy and his relationship with femininity and some other details I noticed. fair warning: english is not my native language.
The thing I noticed about tamsy when i first laid eyes on him was that he looked softer and more delicate than the rest of the male cast and as an enby myself I was like kyaaa!!, I loved him immediately.
Imagine my joy and not surprise at the voice actor pick with Mitsuki Saiga, a female va who is known for voicing both genders. Not that unusual by itself, but I found it interesting that they went this route with tamsy, a 23 year old man, instead of what would be the more common/traditional choice in 15 year old shounen protagonist rudo - he is voiced by a male va.
Appearance
Going off of visuals alone you can plainly notice traits typically attributed to women. Soft facial features and expressions, beautiful eyes with long, emphasized lashes, long ass hair.
But he doesn't just call it a day, he sits down every morning and does it up in a bun and something braid like on the sides, he puts in effort. he could do his hair in a lazy style when he's working but no he actually wants to look pretty. There's also this fruity pose he does after getting ready:
I don't think I need to spell it out but men stereotypically don't do this.
Demeanor
Tamsy's crafted personality is rather meek, he's also calm and more on the quiet side, we don't usually hear him speak except for the occasional comment on the situation. He has a protective and caring streak as can be seen in various moments.
Here some examples:
He shows compassion for rudo after his fight with jabber, when he's lying on the ground paralyzed
When rudo is about to be blasted by delmon's water beam tamsy snatches him and protects him with his own body. reminded me of a mother protecting their young.
Tamsy tries to make rudo comfortable when they meet for the "first" time, putting an arm around him and telling him he too likes passionate people and thereby rudo
Tbh we all know his true self is a bit different and he's a liar, but personally I think his act towards rudo can be called at least half authentic since we know he genuinely "loves" him.
jinki/vital instrument
Tokushin is a distaff, a tool used in spinning, traditionally a woman's work even to this day. Speaks for itself.
Could be a total coincidence because I don't know the japanese word and it's connotations, but in the english language the word distaff is also used to refer to the female side of a family.
Another thing to note is his ability to make some kind of net trap to catch and immobilize enemies. It's reminiscent of a spider's web: the more the prey/victim struggles the deeper it gets entangled in the web, it's cruel. We see exactly this with the cleaners: they didn't struggle, nothing changed, but once they did the rope cut into their skin, painfully restricting blood flow and entrapping them further.
My point is spiders are frequently associated with femininity in mythology, probably stemming from the fact that in most species the females practice sexual cannibalism, making them the more prominent gender. Unrelated but yeah get they asses spider ladies!
Japanese is a complex language. Tokushin can have several meanings, among them "devotion" and "blasphemy". Devotion huh? Another trait stereotypically attributed to women. We have all heard of the "devoted wife" and as far as I know this concept is deeply ingrained especially in japanese culture, you know, the land where the author/ kei urana is from.
On the other hand the word can be seen in a religious context, befitting of the other possible meaning, blasphemy. Tamsy's obviously devoted to Rudo. No idea about the blasphemy, but I know that what he's doing is definitely unholy by christian and many other religion's standards.
Besides, Tamsy is referred to as the "Angel" who travels between Sphere and Abyss, which is most likely a plain metaphor for heaven and hell - if true that'd make quite the christian imagery. Contrary to common belief christian angels aren't male, at least not inherently. They are described as spiritual beings who transcend gender, however, they were said to have male appearances and are referred to with male pronouns. Seems transmasc enough/j. This allegedly happened due to limited language at the time (no gender neutral pronouns), my personal guess would also be patriarchy, because of course these influental figures would be portrayed as male, right?
Now this might be a reach but his scars could be a fallen angel/lucifer reference. Lucifer's original sin was pride, he rebelled against god, tried to usurp him - this would tie back to the possible meaning of tokushin, blasphemy. I say this because the scars look suspiciously like burn scars, they could symbolise a fall from heaven to hell, getting burned there. Maybe he actually got them from crossing the border? We can see the scars go across his arms and torso in this picture from urana's instagram story:
There's some other things to discuss like why exactly tasmy chose to make amo believe he was a woman but I have written enough
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