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whatever you do dont think about the hunger games from gales perspective

dont think about gale as a twelve year old boy when his father dies, learning to hitch snares and catch food, knowing his three siblings will starve without him. dont think about him finding katniss in the woods, and beginning to hope for the first time that he wont have to be alone, that he can have a friend and a partner in staying alive. dont think about how he spent years learning her (and himself through her), about the solace and the peace he finds in hunting with her, about the way that no one in his entire life has ever known him in the way she does, about how it is easier to stay alive with her. dont think about him as a 17 year old boy trying to survive, making due as he always has, and waiting out his reaping years. for the love of god dont think about the reaping day from his perspective. about him hearing prim's name and knowing instantly, probably even before katniss herself, that she will be going into the games. do not think about him swallowing his grief and rage and terror, the knowledge that he is about to lose the person most important to him. he knows what he has do to. he watches katniss move toward the stage. he bites his tongue and moves forward too. he grabs prim and holds her tightly, clenching his jaw against her thrashing and screaming. dont think about his visit with her, the sharpness of his hope, the depth of the promises he will now uphold.

dont think about him going into the woods alone for the first time in years, all of the pain and rage and sorrow and grief and despair rushing up at him in the hollow of the trees. how he still has to hunt, how he still has mouths to feed. about his weekly visits to the everdeen house to drop off game, how their house is empty of her, how alone he is now, how the loneliness has returned more viciously than it ever has been because now he knows what companionship means, how the task of surviving becomes less burdensome in the presence of love. and the whole time, he is watching the games. he is staring at her face, noticing every change with the capitol's makeup and waxing, watching her play the game before shes even in the arena. holding out hope, and watching her be traumatized in real time. eventually, watching her pretend to fall in love with another man, and maybe knowing it isnt true but knowing that it doesnt matter anyway, that she will be bound to those lies even if she survives. watching her kill and watching people try to kill her, watching her hunt and be hunted. he watches her notch her arrows in teh swift and familiar motion he has seen countless times, and he resents the eyes he knows are boring into her all across the country. because their relationship, the sacredness of their survival, will never be their own again. knowing that even if she comes back, nothing will ever be the same. and then she makes it, and shes home, and everything is different. watching her move away, and change, and process, seeing her have more money than he has ever seen in his life, knowing that she would provide enough for him that he would never have to hunt again, but she never offers because he would never accept it. working in the mines, where his father's remains still sit, where he was always headed. watching the capitol freaks visit her, dress her up and strip her down, watching the camera crews roll into town and steal her away and she is so distant now, so distant and never comign back. and still he loves her. still he knows her better and more deeply than anyone in the world. they still hunt together, but infrequently and she doesnt do it out of necessity anymore. snow threatens her and him, and she has to marry peeta and he knows she has to and still his mouth is soured at the thought. and then the announcement of the quarter quell strikes. she's going back in. he'd be a fool to think she will ever return. he readies himself for grief again, but this time it's different. shes married, and distant, and things havent been the same since the reaping anyway. and still, he prepares to watch his best friend die. the games progress, and she has allies now. people hes never met, could never trust. she used to be his ally, and him hers. and then the allies turn on her, and hes watching her bleed out on screen, and then shes fumbling with her arrow, and she is about to die. then the screen is black.

then the hovercrafts come in, and he saves the people he can but the ones he cant he watches burn, hears them scream. his entire home obliterated, his best friend likely dead but undoubtedly unreachable. three hundred mouths to feed and no foreseeable end. an eventual rescue and they let him see her, and he looks at her battered body and knows he has to tell her, and knows too that she will know her arrow sent the hovercrafts. but now his people are fed, and katniss is safe. or at least here with him. and he is trying so hard to connect with her but she is distant and scared and angry and there are parts of her now that he will never understand. and she is being used as a pawn again, just like she was in the capitol. but he is a soldier now, and he is fighting the war he has always wanted to. and he knows that she needs peeta out of the capitol, so he volunteers to save him. not because he cares for peeta, but because he knows its what she needs. and the decision wasnt even hard. and now peeta is rescued but it was a trap and peeta is a weapon and now he knows that he will never compete with peeta, that she will never look at him how he wants her to ever again. but he still has a war to fight, and so they do. he works on designing weapons, he films propos, he stays by katniss' side because thats what he does and it was never even a question. the war progresses and he watches her die a thousand times, sees that coin is trying to kill her. he fights beside the mockingjay and remembers a time when they were children in the woods together. they have never stopped trying to survive together. and the war is nearing a close and they are separated and katniss cant or doesnt shoot him. the war is over and someone is telling him that prim is dead. someone is telling him about the bombs that killed her and he recognizes it as his own trap. he is sick to his stomach and being torn apart. he spent his entire life trying to keep her alive. he can hardly face katniss. he is so riddled with rage and grief and trauma and guilt and he cant even fathom how it got to this point. he has lost everything. he has nothing left, everyone who loves him has died or stopped loving him. so he moves to 2, hears stories about katniss and peeta, about her children that she swore she'd never have. and maybe katniss was right, and war and death wasnt the answer, adn he gets that now, he really does. and its too late, and his understanding is worthless now. but he remembers that girl in the woods. the soft spoken, beautiful girl with wit and grit and incredible aim. he remembers the girl that taught him about love, and how to make a bow. he remembers that girl, and how they were each others survival, and he lives the rest of his life tremendously sorry.

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we were robbed of jeankasa

There, I said it. I’m working on a short Jeankasa project…lots of smut and angst and LOVE. They would do so well together if y’all gave them a CHANCE!!!

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Support Humanity and Childhood🙏🧡

This is my kids Rakan 13 and Seba 10 years old.👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏻 Thier childhood changed dramatically since Gaza war.💥

I want to share with you my wishes as a mum, I don’t want to search for my little children in the devastating rubble, I don’t want to write thier names on thier bodyies parts so they can be recognized.😭💔

We are humans. We are alive. We are a family. We have names, and we are not numbesr.👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

We deserve peaceful and happy life; sweet dreams and do need your help. If you care about humanity and if these words touch your heart please donate or at lease share our story to save our lives.🙏🍉

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Dont Turn Blind Eyes to Our Suffering🙏

Please listen to me and support us by donating/sharing our GFM campaign🍉🤍. I know you cant help all families need aid but at least you can help those who come across your life💔.

We are not asking for too much to escape the hell, its just the price of your morning cup of coffee 😢🌹

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Dragons and Riders

By Ra Horakhty art

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#jeankasaweek2024

Day 3: Seasons

Small comic about their first summer together post canon🌞

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“Rhaenyra was right, now they really see Alicent as she is. She’s such a hypocrite! Where is duty and sacrifice, huh?”

Here, let me show you:

Twenty consecutive years of this woman suffering, performing her duties, sacrificing herself and picking up the broken pieces of everyone around her was just not enough for you, huh?

But no, let’s collectively shit on her for sleeping with her guard after her job as a queen, mother and wife was completed and this action affected literally no one outside of her and Criston, because she scolded Rhaenyra, not for having sex out of wedlock, but because her lies broke her family apart and she failed to perform every single one of her duties, yet still somehow remained the most entitled and demanding person in HOTD.

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wildflowers in every direction

Mikasa Ackerman. Jean Kirschtein. Cottages. Flowers. Beautiful Dreams. 830 words. (ao3.)

On the edge of the forest is their little corner of the world, a rugged cottage surrounded by fields of green, a stream that leads into a pond, and trees of every size. The life it gives its inhabitants is quiet, but after a previous existence filled with blood, warfare, and battles of heaven and earth, a little bit of peace is the least they can ask for.  

At the back of the cottage is a slope covered in grass and wildflowers of every color. At the top is a tree older than the structure in front of it, one with branches so vast that it often casts shadows on sunny days. 

And here Mikasa lies, hidden under the shade in the midst of early spring, an afternoon characterized by the shining sun and the final throes of winter having melted away. She sleeps in peace, entangled in the arms of her lover as the only sound that fills her ears is that of a breeze, a gentle force that sways the leaves on the branches, creating a noise that is beyond soothing. The aroma of wildflowers in every direction combined with Jean’s clean, soapy scent and suddenly she feels like she’s living a life she never deserved.

A life of tranquility, nature, and not the neverending nightmares that had plagued her first nineteen years. 

She wrestles with survivor’s guilt more often than she would like — images of those she has lost slipping into her mind in moments that should be full of bliss. Why has she been spared? Why is she allowed happiness when they are not? Why is she given the chance of life when some deserve it more? 

The remorse never truly leaves, but in the last few years it’s been growing with her, becoming more refined and palpable as she ages. 

Because on occasion she’ll get a day where she feels free, a day where she feels like she deserves the life granted to her. 

Her existence now lies in the forest, where she splits wood before dinner while the dog basks in the sun, or watches Jean as he sits on the porch and sketches to his heart’s desire. On warmer months he’ll cool off in the pond at the bottom of the hill while she hides under the shade of the tree, and in the colder ones they’ll huddle close by the roaring fire. Sometimes he’ll kiss her hair or she’ll nuzzle her face against his chest, where she always likes to be, then make a quip or two about the unruly state of his beard, to which he might laugh and kiss her even more. 

On really good days she knows that this is what she’s earned. She’s spent far too many years in agony, and who’s to say that after all of that she isn’t entitled to just a sliver of joy? Who is to say a forest cannot grow back after being devastated? It just needs a little time. 

So Mikasa lets herself rest in Jean’s embrace, basking in the warmth of him and the sun as the afternoon goes on. 

She doesn’t know how much time has passed since she fell asleep, but after a few moments she opens her eyes. Her head is against Jean’s chest and one of his arms is around her shoulder, holding her close like she can slip away at any moment, but she knows she won’t. She could never. 

She looks up very slightly to see Jean awake. In his free hand he is holding an open book, which he reads as she rests. He does this often and sometimes she swears that the position he’s in cannot possibly be comfortable, but he has yet to utter a single complaint. 

Mikasa takes him in, the light hitting his sun-kissed hair and making the hue of his hazel eyes shine. 

Near their feet is the dog — a pointy-eared canine named Hugo who sports a mix of black and brown, but mostly black fur. Despite his jaws and wolf-like appearance, he’s a lot more comfortable napping with his masters as opposed to doing anything else. Fortunately, neither Jean nor Mikasa seem to mind. In fact, they prefer him this way. 

After a few moments Jean glances down and catches Mikasa staring at him. A smirk tugs at his pretty lips. 

“Sleep well?” he asks. The arm around her shoulder moves to play with the strands of her hair. 

“I did.” She then proceeds to nuzzle her face against his chest again, pressing a kiss to where his beating heart is. 

Five more minutes, she could whisper like she does in the morning, when slumber has been too kind to her and all she wants is a few more moments of peace. Nowadays Jean can read her like a book, so she never really has to say it anymore. 

“I had a beautiful dream,” she says instead before closing her eyes and letting herself fall asleep again. 

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The thing is, Netflix could've kept Sokka's underlying misogyny while also emphasizing his older brother protectiveness (which I do actually like in this adaptation).

He could be "girls are inherently weaker than boys" while also being "as her older brother, I need to protect Katara". Just let the former inform the latter. Let both sides of him coexist to create a compelling character. Then, let him realize that Katara is not a little girl anymore and that girls don't always need to be protected and saved.

It would've made such a compelling theme of how war and hardship conditions young men into strict gender roles. It's not ideal, but it's how they've survived. Sokka had a tremendous burden put on him from a young age, and thus, he had to be a "man", and a "man" protects the "weak" (women and children).

However, women like Katara and Suki show him that it doesn't have to be that way. He doesn't have to bear the burden of protecting the weak alone because women are warriors, too.

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The thing about Katara is that she was angry.

She was angry that the Fire Nation killed her mother.

She was angry that her father left them.

She was angry that she was the only Waterbender left in the south pole.

She was angry that the only person her age was her brother, who constantly disregarded her interests and her role in the tribe.

She was angry that what little waterbending she knew, had to be self-taught and how she struggled with that.

she was angry that a twelve year old instantly picked up what had taken her a long time to learn.

she was also angry that her tribe wanted to kick that twelve year old into the wilderness over a mistake.

she was angry over the earth-benders the fire nation had captured and put into a metal box.

she was angry.

And she knew she was angry.

Because she knew her own anger, she was the first to empathize with Aang when he got angry.

And it was because of it she could tell Aang forcing himself to lock his emotions up was not the answer.

Because she knew her own anger, she kept herself under control in the dessert, when everyone else was a mess.

Her anger empowered her. where anger was a tool of self-destruction for firebenders, for her it was what helped her push forward.

It was her anger that freed Aang.

It was her anger that helped her stand to Pakku.

Her anger was her strenght.

She was angry. And this was neither a mistake, nor a writing flaw.

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Aang running away is one of foundations on what he is as a character. He has an entire episode of him acknowledging that he was wrong in running away and that’s one of the reasons why he went out of his way to help people no matter the effort it took him. By him leaving to “clear his head” and happening to be caught in a storm takes away the rational guilt he felt in the show that was built upon to develop his character.

It also takes away some of the ways he was a foil to Zuko. Zuko did the right thing by standing up for those soldiers that would be sacrificed, and was punished. That’s one of the reasons why he didn’t care much for the actual rules in the earlier seasons, but instead he had a strict moral code that may seem questionable on the outside but made perfect sense to him— he realized that doing the right thing means anything, so he might as well do things his way. His character development focuses on him accepting that doing the right thing is worth it, even if you are treated unfairly.

On the other hand, Aang did the wrong thing in running away from the air temple, which effectively was him running away from his responsibility as the avatar. His character developed in the sense that even though he never asked for the responsibility, he still had to at least try to do the right thing.

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I truly mourn for Katara as a character in this adaptation.

She was all pent up frustration and anger, towards her community that didn't have much need of her, to her brother who didn't take her bending seriously, to her bending masters who didn't want to even teach her at first.

She wasn't always this kind and gentle figure in the group. She was impulsive, followed her heart more than her head. She was prideful, hence why she lashed out at Aang for being a prodigy, picking up quickly what took her weeks to master. She had a temper, which is why she butt heads with Toph, a literal hard headed child.

She was a 14 year old girl who wanted to be more than what she was, who knew she could be more, while the rest of the world didn't think so.

So she always made a point to make herself heard and known.

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Watching Netflix avatar episode 1 was like reading a book and skipping to the good bits but the good bits didn't have any impact because there was no build up or development.

The journey is not filler. This is not Naruto where it had anime padding episodes to keep running while the manga caught up. Even then Naruto had nonfiller journey episodes as well. Without them it's just fight scenes. Those are cool but they have a lot more impact when you see the characters develop over the journey.

The fights between Sasuke and Naruto are cool as fuck but they are so much more intense when you see the rise and falls of their relationship as the series develops. It goes from cool fight scenes to something full of emotion and heartbreak as Naruto has to fight someone who he considered a beloved friend and rival.

But that all gets lost when you skip the journey and call it filler. The same is true for Avatar. Just skipping to the part where Aang has a breakdown in the air temple ruins doesn't give it any impact. It needs build up.

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Zuko to aang in tsr when he told Katara to forgive Yon Rha 🤭

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If Bryke really wanted me to believe that Zuko cared about Mai at all, that scene of her showing up at the palace randomly would've been replaced with a scene of him showing up at the prison to free her himself. I'm just saying, it's pretty clear in the show that Zuko isn't in love with Mai, and the only reason they got together at all was to remove Zuko as an obstacle for Kataang. Bryke were both that insecure in their writing, and that unconnected with how fandom operates that they thought this was the solution for a poorly written "Hero Gets the Girl Because...H3r0!!!!" situation they wanted to end on. Fools.

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i know a lot has been said about how readily zuko accepts katara’s bloodbending in the southern raiders but do you ever think about how much implicit trust katara must have had in zuko to show him that part of herself? 

i mean, katara absolutely reviles bloodbending. she thinks of it as irredeemably evil, and likely considered herself a monster for using it. not to mention, for someone who supposedly didn’t trust zuko and still thought of him as the enemy, the smart move would’ve been for katara to hide her bloodbending ability so that she had the upper hand if anything went wrong. 

and yet, despite all of that, katara still willingly bloodbends before zuko. still chooses to show him this aspect of herself that she hates, and gives up the tactical advantage of surprise in doing so. 

while this episode is about zuko gaining katara’s trust, as he did with aang and sokka, this proves that it’s not about the same type of trust. rather, the southern raiders is about zuko proving himself worthy of being trusted with katara’s heart once more. in this episode, zuko sees all of katara – her strength and mercy, her darkness and vulnerability – and stands by her side through all of it, accepting her without judgement or condemnation, and without using it against her.

whether she acknowledged it or not, katara already trusted zuko by the southern raiders. she would never have allowed her brother and friend to go off alone with him if she hadn’t, let alone bloodbent before him. but in doing so, and during the journey they took together, i think she also found once again the boy from the crystal catacombs, who saw her pain and anger and offered only unflinching support and comfort in return. 

and that is why katara forgives zuko and wholeheartedly becomes his friend, because now she knows for certain that she can trust him not only with her heart, as she did before, but with all of herself – both the good and the bad. 

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New fic guys 💖 I successfully beat my writer's block and finally got around to publishing it! If you find major formatting or spelling mistakes, pls tell me (bc I'm not reading all of that again😭)