#@ people who sent me HC suggestions when I asked for them ages ago: I am so so sorry I don't know when they're coming. my hubris

[pain-in-the-butler]

@ kind people who put things in my inbox: if I didn't answer your message, I probably did see it and either didn't know what to say or am in the process of answering it OR am waiting for the right time to answer it! Like, I think someone asked me for more headcanons regarding this AU over a month ago and I haven't answered because I don't really have more headcanons right now. But maybe I will someday! I very much appreciate when people want to know my opinion about things, so if you're waiting on something, please don't mistake my silence for anger, and ask away! 😊

[whattheflameo]

Lin healing the bonds with her family hc?

Ohhhhhhhhhh anon you have opened up a WHOLE can of worms I have extremely strong feelings on this topic and most of them can be summed up with Lin Beifong is the Epitome of the older sibling parent trope. RANT INCOMING

Lin choosing to forgive Suyin has almost nothing to do with Suyin’s “apology” (or lack thereof). It occurs solely because Lin actively decides to be the better person in their relationship. She decides that having her sister and her niblings in her life is worth more to her than her grudge and her hurt. Which is saying something, because damn can Lin hold a grudge.

Su isn’t going to apologize; its not in her nature at all. She genuinely doesn’t recognize the need for apologies in anything. She doesn’t give them and never expects them from others. Lin knows this and decides to move on anyway.

Su did write Lin a letter asking her to come talk. Actually, she wrote several. Lin never opened a single one, determined to keep herself from getting hurt again. Its easier, especially when Su isn’t in front of her, to convince herself she doesn’t care.

Despite everything, Lin still hopes the best of her sister. Finding out that she changed her ways after being sent away, stopped with the petty crime and actually made something of herself, built an entire city and raised a pretty great family, comes with a level of relief- even if it wasn’t her to help Su see the error of her ways, at least Su was able to do so.

Lin doesn’t trust Su as far as she could throw her, especially after Su lies to her face to send Korra after Aiwei. She doesn’t trust Su to choose her to save over literally anyone else, and to be honest she has the older sibling complex that she just doesn’t have as much faith in Su’s bending skills as her own. That’s why her “I love you,” before drawing P’li’s fire sounds so much like a goodbye.

Speaking of differences in skill level, that fight between Lin and Su? Buckle your seatbelts motherfuckers I have THOUGHTS. Yes, its one of the most badass fights in the entire series, imo, but I’m gonna be real here. Su was winning. She had Lin on the defensive almost the whole time. But Lin was also at about 40% health- run down, emotionally strained, off-kilter from acupuncture treatment (which I agree with @dont-blame-it-on-the-kids was DEFINITELY not in Lin’s best interest that doctor was 100% paid off by the red lotus), and Su is taking advantage of it. If Lin had been at 100%, even like 60%, she would have WIPED THE FLOOR with Su and Su’s dancy-ass bending style. But she still held her own, even though she was literally breaths from passing the fuck out. Did you SEE some of those hits? There’s one in particular where Su hits her in the gut with a rock mid-air that physically couldn’t not have broken several of her ribs. Su’s behavior in this fight absolutely incenses me like how dare she fucking do that I JUST

All this being said I do really love Su as a character I promise.

Su’s base character hasn’t changed, but after going through the Red Lotus and Kuvira together, Lin does recognize that she’s changed in some important ways. She’s still self-oriented, but she’s not the selfish, bratty teen she was when she scarred Lin for life.

Likewise, after seeing the permanence of Lin’s scars and spending more time with her sister, Su realizes that she’s really hurt Lin. She sees how terrible she’s been to this woman who is willing to give her own life to protect everyone around her, Su especially, and actively tries to make up for it. Like I said, she doesn’t apologize with words, but tries to prove to Lin through her actions that she is going to be there for her. And the fact that Lin’s arm flickers toward her weapons whenever Su loses her temper? Su is so disgusted with herself over it that she nearly throws up the first time she thinks about it.

They’re not best friends, but they do become close. Both of their personalities mellow out with age, and they’re more understanding of each other. Su becomes someone Lin is able to talk to about some personal things, if not the extremely deep stuff. They have wine nights and Su sometimes sleeps over if she gets too tipsy. They both act a lot younger with each other, and Su is one of the only people who can snuggle up to Lin and get away with it.

Unless one of them is actively concealing their emotions (its usually Lin), they can read each other like an open book.

Lin remembers all of Su’s favorite foods and colors and activities and songs from childhood. Su realizes that she hardly remembers any of Lin’s and has a guilty meltdown to Bataar over it. He suggests that she pay really close attention to remember them now, and Su makes it her personal mission. 

Despite having confronted her feelings of abandonment by Toph ages ago, Su can see that Lin not only feels abandoned but also feels like she’s the one who let their mother down, that the break in their relationship is her fault, not Su’s or Toph’s. She knows how glad she was to have Toph back in her life, even if inconsistently, and sees how much Lin wants their mother’s approval and marches into the swamp (and that’s saying something for Su, who isn’t exactly fond of gross swampy things) and drags Toph out to force her to some of Lin’s award ceremonies or other events, including her wedding to Kya. Lin doesn’t know it was Su’s doing.

“Mother Lin may have said she doesn’t hate you but she deserves more from you and spirits help me you are going to say the words “I am so proud of you” to her or I WILL tell Wing and Wei where to find you-”

Basically, Su’s main apology to Lin for all the years of pain and hurt she’s caused is to kick Toph’s ass into repairing at least some of their relationship. Its the most truly selfless thing she’s done in possibly her entire life, because she never tells Lin.

To be clear: NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF LIN HAD NOT ACTIVELY CHOSEN TO SET ASIDE HER PRIDE AND HURT AND FORGIVE HER SISTER. LIN WAS THE CATALYST- SU WOULD NOT HAVE PUT IN WORK TO EARN HER FORGIVENESS IF LIN HADN’T GIVEN IT TO START WITH. Su’s behavior in Zaofu was utter bullshit, it was not worthy of Lin’s forgiveness. She literally showed up and immediately drove a wedge between Lin and some of the most important people in her life, said horribly mean things to Lin, and used Lin’s illness as an advantage to beat the shit out of her. But Lin, strong, selfless, badass, incredible Lin who is so much more empathetic than anyone in that show gives her credit for, looks at all of that and forgives Su anyway. Its not unconditional, like I said the level of trust isn’t bone deep, but she does the legwork. And you know what, Lin deserves to have family that cares about her in her life. Her niblings adore her, and she eventually believes that Su is genuinely there for her. I will die on this hill.

I know this probably came across as incredibly disorganized and rambly. I’ll talk more about Lin’s relationship with the metal clan kids and/or Toph in another post because I recognize that I’ve gone down a fuckin rabbit hole but I have extremely strong opinions on Lin’s relationship with her sister.

[roccinan]

In ref to all that 'kid at 14' stuff. Yes I agree with everyone, LCDP writers have some serious continuity problems. Not to be the devil's advocate, but LCDP was a done for thing that was meant to end in S2 until Nerflix decided to pick it up. So when they originally made it, it didn't matter if Andrés was 30 something cause it didn't change anything. Then Netflix arrived and made S3, 4 and 5 and things HAD to be added (so there were bound to be plot holes, it was inevitable). So now Rafael comes along and it's just easier for plot purposes to give Andrés Pedro's age. So okay. Kinda can forgive that.

What I still don't get is their surname's and all the family history. Because yeah, actors decided they were bros from dad and that got confirmed in S5, okay. BUT then what about the 'your father' along with the fact their surnames suggest they have dif father but same mom.

Also when Andrés reveals his illness he says 'tengo la enfermedad de mamá' as in mom's illness. NOT 'my mom's illness' but 'mom's illness' which just makes things a little confusing going by their surnames🤷‍♀️. And then (if I remember correctly) his file says 'de Fonollosa García' (or some such surname like that) so where the fuck does Marquina fits in in all this, and also who the fuck is García then? Because okay, if for some reason Papá Marquina didn't give his surname to Andrés and de Fonollosa was the mom (which again why????) it still leaves me confused about where the hell do you get the García from.

And this is all a plot hole that originates from S1 and 2 so for that they don't have the excuse of 'Netflix made us add to a finished product'.

So that's it, I hope this is at least somewhat comprehensible. And sorry for the rambling😅.

(P.S: remember I'm a biologist (in training)? So I have this thing where in thanks for bothering people with my nonsense I sometimes drop bio related stuff. I work a lot with bats, so here, have this little guy I was with a couple days ago. And sorry if you don't like them😅. But honestly how could you not? Just look at this cutie and that smiley face🥺. We decided to name him Dukúr, and we got pretty close.)

Hi! Thanks for joining this cursed convo haha! Your rambles are more than welcome ;)

Yeah lol I still think it’s hilarious that they tried to set an age and height for Andrés for no reason, only for those two specific details to be proven wrong at every turn. But I agree that we should look at S1/2 with a different context since like you said, Netflix picking it up meant new additions that don’t quite match up (like Andrés’ age) were inevitable. Still funny but understandable.

re: surname: Despite how on board I am with the same father hc now, literally all clues in S1-3 pointed at same mother. And you pretty much pointed out why! Anyone watching would have assumed they shared a mother. I guess we could say Papa Marquina was just blatantly not there for Andrés so he felt the man was more of Sergio’s father. We could also say Andrés is just self-centered and assumed he could say “mom” and Sergio would just know he’s talking about his own mother lol.

The de Fonollosa Garcia thing is throwing me off too though LOL (also funny thing is I was literally just wondering what his second surname was and then you sent this ask, answering my question haha). OK so I’m sure you understand this way better than me, so I hope you don’t mind me asking the following series of stupid questions in response asdfaadf:

To my understanding (correct me if I’m wrong!), Spanish surnames go “father’s first surname” then “mother’s first surname.” So if Andres for some reason took his mother’s surname, would he be allowed to take both of hers? Or is that just not a thing? As in, could de Fonollosa be his (maternal) grandfather’s surname and Garcia his grandmother’s surname?

The other alternative (again, I’m not sure if it makes sense in the cultural context?) is that Andres was a bastard child, but his mother was married to someone else. So Garcia really is his mother’s last name and de Fonollosa is his stepfather’s last name? 

OR, the theory that I hate the most because it feels in-line with lcdp writers asdsdf, Garcia was supposed to be Sergio’s last name, but they changed it to Marquina at the last minute and forgot to change Andres’ file. Moral of the story: writing as they film has its perks, but it also leads to objectively awkward plot holes about basic details LMAO

P.S Yes, I do remember! I see your biology pics a lot on Tuuli’s blog haha Listen, I may not personally go near bats for no reason IRL, but I feel so blessed seeing these adorable images. He has such a cute little face omg, so pure, so blissful- thank you so much for sharing these pics of Dukúr with me :D He has blessed my crops, cleared my skin, filled me with humble happiness!