bluespiritshonour

[bluespiritshonour]

Hey I was the anon that asked about S & S a while back! While I completely agree on all your points on its OOC-ness, I saw that it refutes the claims that many antis make that Maiko is “one-sided”/unreciprocated in the show. Do you think that this comic fills a void that the show left, in that sense? Thanks!

You know, that's a very good point.

I never took the original argument about one-sided Maiko too seriously. I think it's a flaw in the original writing that we didn't see much of a reaction from Zuko about Mai getting left behind in the Boiling Rock, but I can easily see that as something scripted or storyboarded before being cut, and I have lots of complaints about the pacing in 'The Boiling Rock' two-parter anyway. But for those who do want to use it to try to bash Maiko, even the 'Going Home Again' comic doesn't offer much of Zuko really professing interest in a relationship with Mai; it isn't until he sees Iroh being taken back to the Fire Nation that he commits to returning with her.

Of course, 'The Promise' doesn't help a lot, either. (It doesn't help anyone, but it doesn't stop people from cherry-picking.) Sure, Zuko desperately tries to keep Mai from breaking up with him, but I guess people like to argue that his hiding his shameful visits to Ozai from her shows that he doesn't really like her? I dunno, if he wasn't that emotionally invested, you'd think he wouldn't care what she thinks of his visits to Ozai. Otherwise, why hide it? Nevertheless, that subplot is so briefly portrayed that I guess it gets the same treatment as 'The Boiling Rock,' where bad pacing and a rushed plot is taken as evidence that Zuko doesn't care.

But S&S finally reverses the trend. Despite everything going on, Zuko pursues Mai. Despite her clearly being involved with another guy, Zuko tries to get her back. After all the time since 'The Promise' (roughly a year, according to the wiki), he still hasn't moved on. Every complaint about Zuko's lack of interest is easily refuted by his behavior. Even the weirdness I mentioned in my previous post, where Zuko forgives Mai with surprisingly little friction for lying about her father's treason, can be used of evidence of his caring about her; otherwise, he'd probably treat her like his best friend Aang and start brawling over a difference of opinion. He doesn't attack her even once! Meanwhile, he tried to break Katara's arm back in 'The Promise,' he told Toph off in the cartoon's finale, and the one time he acknowledged Ty Lee he ridiculed her.

So yeah, at least S&S has that going for it. Even if it didn't advance the Maiko subplot at all, at least it proves that Mai is Zuko's favorite person in the whole world.

Not bad.

[bluespiritshonour]

[bluespiritshonour]

[bluespiritshonour]

please do a real life face inspiration for Mai because she is so beautiful and the asian beauty standards post was interesting.

Doing a face inspo for Mai sounds fun! She definitely has the most distinctive face of all the young, female characters in the show. It's very strong, sharp and high fashion... So sharp it could puncture the hull of an Empire-class Fire Nation battleship...

Top Row: Liu Wen (Chinese), Sheena Liam (Chinese-Malaysian), Soo Joo Park (Korean)

Bottom Row: Sora Choi (Korean), Ai Tominaga (Japanese)

Her face is also very interesting because her facial proportions are very similar to pre-Meiji Japanese beauty ideals, before their standards became more Westernized. She's got features that you see in most Ukiyo-e (浮世絵) paintings of women: Slim face, narrow eyes, long nose, and pale skin.

This is also why the Kyoshi Warrior look--- which is heavily inspired by traditional Japanese theatre--- suits her so well.

[bluespiritshonour]

Guys I found the cow walking on its tits!!!!

Thought process behind this:

It's a shame no one—absolutely no one—grabbed Zuko by the ponytail in book 1.

The general consensus that Katara acts like a booktok boyfriend.

Katara's pose is wrong perspective wise, but she came along so beautifully I didn't have the heart to change it. My job's to make the cow walk: whether it's on legs or nipples is none of my business.

[bluespiritshonour]

It’s your fault

Zuko Modern AU

[bluespiritshonour]

the most gorgeous woman EVER

[bluespiritshonour]

Aah, I'm really loving the for Ambessa's novel. We're getting a lot of Mel backstory, you guys.

Also mild spoiler, so I'll put it under the cut—

—also the reveal of her father.

[bluespiritshonour]

About ten, fifteen years ago I wrote a story about a guy living in a Capitalist dystopia. His walls, furniture, and tableware are all covered in smart displays. Basically animated wallpaper. It's sold as being able to turn your room or objects into anything - A nice forest view, outer space, a fantasy realm... but the companies that run this stuff keep sneaking ads in.

It gets so bad he's always being woken up by adverts that offer insomnia cures and better bedding that play when he tries to sleep.

So he buys the ad-free tier, and it's great... for a few months. And then he starts getting adverts from 'premium partners'. So he goes up a level... and the same thing happens.

So he jailbreaks his wallpaper and sends all the ad servers to 0.0.0.0 and voila... he can sleep.

Until this SWAT team blows his door off and drag him off to jail. The Ad companies are suing him for loss of revenue for the products he' notionally have bought if he'd watched their adverts, based on some weird 'The average consumer buys X products with an average value of Y' calculation.

The judge is like 'well I dun wanna annoy the sponsors' so he RICO's this guy's house and possessions and sends him to jail.

... which is a nice relaxed non-volent offender jail for the corporately disenfranchised. But because these people have no money... there's no ads and now he's happy because the only place he's free... is in prison.

Which at the time was a bit much and now it's like: Called it.

Elon's suing companies for not advertising because he's losing revenue. He's also cranking the price of Ad Free Twitter. Disney and Amazon play adverts on their paid service when services used to be free because of the adverts... and now you have to pay to watch the adverts or go up a couple of tiers.

And google's going around freaking out about ad-blockers.

[bluespiritshonour]

some more silly little modern au sketches i keep meaning to post

[bluespiritshonour]

Oh, my good looking boy~

[bluespiritshonour]

Hi Kind Stranger, 💕

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If you can’t donate, sharing this message could help us reach someone who can ..

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[bluespiritshonour]

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[bluespiritshonour]

[bluespiritshonour]

She’s coming for your soul

[bluespiritshonour]

Aang doing Katara's painted lady makeup is like a genre to me 😀

[bluespiritshonour]

To the anon who wanted paintedkuzon