alunaeterna

[alunaeterna]

prince 👑 ok-gyeong

[alunaeterna]

Bothersome beast, comforting friend

[alunaeterna]

[alunaeterna]

MADOKA MAGICA ☆ WALPURGIS NO KAITEN

[alunaeterna]

Homura is just straight up one of the weirdest people imaginable. Like, forget about the time loop tragic doomed romance for a bit, I want to see what it looks like if she wins and then actually tries to romance Madoka. She has a massive collection of illegal firearms. She builds her own bombs. She lives in an ultra-modernist white box apartment that she's decorated with a couch made of concentric circles, a giant swinging knife pendulum to remind her of the ever-present flow of time, and a wall of several dozen screens. She communicates primarily in vague and ominous warnings and is more or less incapable of saying anything directly. She addresses everyone she meets by their full name with no honorific which comes across as bizarre and intimidating. If you count time loop years she's 26. She was raised in a catholic orphanage. I want to see her take Madoka on a horrifically bad date and cry in the bathroom partway through when she realizes she's fucking up

[alunaeterna]

Person who wants to do stuff trapped in a body that needs to lie down

[alunaeterna]

I missed their anniversary but happy visibity week to the inventors of yuri‼️

[alunaeterna]

JWWJ Official Physical Book Covers, Volume 1 & 2

The artist is @竹墨繁漪 on Weibo.

[alunaeterna]

This arena got everything: birth records, baptismal records, records of death, my own birth, absolute birth, a shining place in the absolute darkness, a gold plated Shangri-la, day and night, paradise lost, Sodom, endless darkness. The Apocalypse.

[alunaeterna]

Guess who started reading the Kyoshi novels instead of studying for finals haha *dies*

Image ID under the cut

[ID: an image with three colored digital drawings of Rangi and Kyoshi from the kyoshi novels.

1. Kyoshi drawn by 3/4 from the shoulders up, she’s wearing a sleeveless light green tunic, her long hair are loose and falling over her shoulders and she’s looking at the viewer.

2. Rangi drawn from the waist-up facing the viewer. She’s holding her hands behind her back, her head is turned slightly, and she’s looking at her left and frowning. She’s wearing a dark red armor with wide pointy shoulder pieces, and has two swords tied at her waist with a bright red sash. Her short hair are half tied up in a top knot held with a golden pin.

3. Bust drawing of Kyoshi and Rangi, they are standing in front of each other with their profiles facing the viewer. Kyoshi is wearing a green tunic and has her hair in a braid, she’s blushing, looking at Rangi with a startled expression. Rangi is in a white sleeveless undershirt, her hair are messy, and she has a lot of bloody scratches on her face and shoulder. She has her hands on Kyoshi’s shoulders and is smiling up at her. END ID]

[alunaeterna]

Azula’s Corruption Twitter | Instagram

[alunaeterna]

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER Azula, after the war

[alunaeterna]

"the moon will sing a song for me..." 🌙

[alunaeterna]

disconnect.

[alunaeterna]

“You must come with me, loving me, to death; or else hate me, and still come with me” Carmilla, 1872.

[alunaeterna]

Unpopular opinion: Azula doesn't need redemption.

Wait wait wait! It's not what you think.

A redemption arc implies that Azula is broken or corrupt, that she needs to be saved from her own inherent wretchedness. I don't think that's true of her. (Nor was it true of Zuko, I might add, which is why I don't like calling his growth a redemption arc.)

Azula is not missing some crucial component that needs to be fixed or replaced to make her fit to join the rest of humanity. The actions and attitudes she displays on the show are the predictable result of a child who grew up in an environment where:

love is conditional

love is finite

vulnerability is weakness

approval is based on performance

fear is control is loyalty is love

other horrific implications I'm not going to delve into right now

This is her normal. Virtually all her time and energy are dedicated to surviving in all this. She knows no other way.

What she lacks is not a moral compass. What she lacks are maturity and perspective. What she needs is space to breathe and think, time to live a little and figure things out without her father or some other authority figure holding her under his thumb (h/t @idreamtofmanderleyagain ).

"Oh, dear. You've been through so much recently. Hurt and betrayed. So twisted up inside. You're still full of love. Ah. But fear has moved in where trust should be." —Guru Pathik, "Appal's Lost Days"

"Well what choice do I have?! Trust is for fools. Fear is the only reliable way." —Azula, "Sozin's Comet, Part 3: Into the Inferno"

Azula's problem is not that she's a big ol' meanie who needs to stop being mean. Her problem is that she uses fear to control people because she doesn't trust them not to betray or abandon her. But in order for Azula to find the genuine love and affection she needs, she has to learn how to trust, how to open up, how to be vulnerable.

This is going to be very hard for her because she's been given ample reason not to trust anyone. Her mother is banished because she committed treason for Zuko. Iroh goes into exile from the Fire Nation for Zuko. Zuko betrays and leaves the Fire Nation then comes back to take the throne from her. Mai betrays her for Zuko. Ty Lee betrays her for Mai. Everyone she's close to abandons or betrays her, often specifically for Zuko. Everyone except Ozai.

I've come across a lot of fanfic where Azula gets imprisoned or institutionalized, locked away from the world "for her own good" or because she's a lethal threat to every person who comes near her. Personally, I don't think that the way she behaved during her Agni Kai with Zuko is how she would continue to act once it was over. I think she'd probably be deeply ashamed and embarrassed by how she lost control like that.

All that said, she can't learn that she can trust people in isolation from others. I also think that forcing her to interact with people connected to her trauma in an unequal power relationship would also be unhealthy for her. Her challenge is to break out of old habits of domination and control through learning how to trust, not replace one dominating and controlling figure with another who's just nicer about it.

Here's how I can see this working:

Disgraced, humiliated, and consumed with shame, Azula goes into exile (read: runs away from home) to answer a burning question: who is she supposed to be without the war?

Basically a wandering beggar, she quickly gets a reality check about what being on her own really entails. For a time, she has to rely on the kindness of strangers to survive. Learning, growth, adventure, and spirit shenanigans ensue.

[alunaeterna]

no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows / nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate / nothing so childish / at a better pace / slower and more calculated / no chance of escape