#Because that shows a level of immaturity and media illiteracy

[mysticaltora8276]

1. Wait I have to explain? You really don’t understand media literacy do you?

2. oh no, he kissed her without her consent twice. And she’s kissed him multiple times without his consent. Doesn’t that make her awful? Or does it only count when Aang does it?

3. Favoritism towards Tenzin. He just took him on trips and it comes off less of blatant favoritism and more of him trying to impart the last of his culture to someone who can truly empathize with the fact that he’s an Airbender. Bumi and Kya even admit that he was a great dad, even if he was flawed.

4. Oh no, he doesn’t eat any of the meat provided. It’s almost like they are equally respecting the fact that Aang doesn’t eat meat and find alternatives for him to eat that are still linked to their culture. Does that mean that if you don’t eat piece of food that is integral to the culture that you’re disrespecting them? Well then don’t ever eat any foreign food whatsoever. Because you’re disrespecting your culture then…. Your logic makes no sense and fun fact there are vegetarians in northern Native American tribes. For whatever reasons. Epic fail with understanding, cultures or character building.

5. Oh no, showing that thing true to your beliefs and morality is somehow bad? It was made of abundantly clear that Aang wasn’t going to kill the FireLord. Roku said, beating the fire Lord everyone else assumed that meant killing him. And sticking to your guns is a very mature and selfless and brave thing to do. I don’t know if you follow with faith but sticking into your faith and following it regardless of the fact that everyone’s tells you that you shouldn’t be doing this is an incredibly difficult and hard thing to do and I applaud anyone who does it. Clearly you don’t understand what truly means and I feel sorry for you.

6. The comics are written by a variety of authors who interpret the source material. The actual creators have maybe like a slight handed it. In the nation, it seems as they get the characterization and the cultures down much better. Probably because they learn from their mistakes and trusting people who have a, interesting viewpoint about certain relationships.

7. Trophy wife? Being the healer of the southern water tribe is somehow bad? Look, I wasn’t thrilled about the older guard being sidelines so that way they are kids could make stupid mistakes, but it made sense for Katara to settle down to be a healer. She wanted to end the war and she made her mark on the world and she taught the next generation of water benders. That is what she wanted to do preserve her culture. And I’m not sure why getting married to the man she loved and helping him through struggles and help raising children is somehow bad. So so let me get this straight if she were doing that with Zuko it’s OK but Aang somehow it’s not?

7. Well, yeah, he feels guilty about it because he’s a decent person. Also, it makes sense. He lost his entire culture in his family. Katara and Sokka are the only ones he has left so of course he wants to hold onto them. But when he realizes that he was wrong, he makes amends for it, even if it has a negative consequence on him. You know people say that he had lacks empathy, but I’m getting the impression that it’s projecting your own lack of empathy for a genocide survivor. Fun fact, emotions make people act irrationally and sometimes people get hurt. That’s human not something to demonize someone else for. But yes, that’s right. It’s OK with Zuko gets emotional, but Aang never get emotional.

8. We’re getting on the subject of relationships did neither of you people notice that Zuko literally is possessive over Mai so much so that he picks a fight with her that pisses her off that she breaks up with him? Why is it OK when Zuko messes up, but when Aang messes up his flaws are magnified and exaggerated to the point of parody?

What I adore about the idea of Katara ending up with Zuko instead of Aang is that in Zuko she would have someone who would support her in her righteous anger. Had he been there when Katara challenged Pakku for her right to learn how fight, he would've backed her up. He would never have tried to tell Pakku that she didn't mean it. And he would've offered to help her dispose of his body if it came to that.

That's the energy that Katara needs. Someone who understands that she's not jumping into a fight for nothing. If she kills someone, she had a darned good reason.

[longing-for-rain]

Ember Island Players…Racist Caricatures or Meta Commentary?

This episode was supposed to be a fun filler episode to recap the events of the show in a silly way before the series finale, but it’s managed to become arguably one of the most controversial episodes in the fandom. Over the years, Aang’s possessive behavior towards Katara has been rightfully criticized, but there are always people who attempt to justify everything Aang does.

Apparently, the latest iteration of this is the claim that—wait for it—we should be sympathetic towards Aang and give him a pass in The Ember Island Players because he felt “emasculated” due to the supposed “feminization” of his culture.

I’ve been called racist for saying this is a reach, but it’s more than a reach. It’s an entire acrobatics routine; a level of media illiteracy that shows a lack of understanding of the point of that episode.

Yes, Aang’s character is portrayed in a silly, mocking way. So are all of the other characters. That’s the point; the episode was a filler, a gimmick, and the underlying comedy is the fact that all of the characters are reacting to exaggerated, one-dimensional versions of their own personalities.

For example:

Katara is portrayed as an “overemotional crybaby” in her own words, and is constantly giving motivational speeches and crying

Sokka’s “comedic relief” archetype is played up to the point his lines are just corny one-liners

Zuko is portrayed as an angsty, whiny pretty-boy who acts like a bratty asshole at all times

Toph is a huge buff guy (although in this case, it’s a play on how her character was originally going to be a “jock” type male character)

As for Aang? He’s portrayed as unserious, goofy, and childish. Which—just like all the others—is a jokey exaggeration of his childish demeanor and nature. He’s not even alone in taking offense to his portrayal. All of the characters aside from Toph hate their characters for largely the same reason. They’re being confronted with aspects of themselves that make them insecure. For Aang, it’s his immaturity—and specifically his fears that he’ll be rejected by Katara.

As for why Aang is played by a woman? Well, we don’t actually have to wonder about that, because the creators themselves answer this question in the episode commentary.

Bryan: “It's sort of a self-referential joke. Whenever you do a animated show, they usually want to cast, uh, women...who are, like, in their thirties to play boys, because you never know how long the show is gonna go on, and, you know, as Jack mentioned earlier, boys' voices start cracking.” (source)

Wow, imagine that! An inside joke about the cartoon industry in a show’s meta-episode dedicated to making fun of itself? Impossible!

I’m serious though. The episode transcript is right here. Point me to where exactly there is even the slightest hint of anyone bringing up Aang’s culture and tying his childish behavior to it.

That’s right; it isn’t there. Because that wasn’t the point. Aang’s anger did stem from feeling emasculated, but it had nothing to do with culture and everything to do with his own misogynistic attitudes. He was offended at his portrayal on an individual level. I’m not denying that the issue of oppressive nations using femininity as an insult against men of colonized nations is a very real issue, but that was never a theme present in this episode. We don’t see Aang expressing anger towards the Fire Nation, nor do we see him mention anything about culture. What we see is Aang, individually, feeling insulting that his actor is female and Aang being angry at Katara, individually, because the play suggested she felt more attracted to Zuko than him.

Trying to downplay Aang’s behavior and suggest we coddle him despite his atrocious treatment of Katara is a disingenuous reading of the episode.

Why are you reaching to make an excuse for Aang when if you’re really taking the “the point of the episode is that the play is racially demeaning the characters” angle…and why are you not bringing up Sokka? He’s portrayed as a dumb oaf who is always talking about eating meat. There is a much stronger argument to be made there about caricatures, but Sokka isn’t threatening anyone’s ship so apparently nobody cares.

And while we’re talking about caricatures, how about this crap?

Sorry, Aang stans, but this show and Aang’s character aren’t the enlightened portrayals of anti-colonialism and groundbreaking activism you think they are. It’s pretty clear from the context and the episode itself what the intention here was. It is poorly aged comedy from the early 2000s written by white Americans. And we will continue to critique that, thanks.

[azzurra-astra]

Have you seen the bitching about the latest episode or seen these people whine about how they hate the show but draw the characters anyway?? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ABOUT?????

Media illiteracy, psychological and emotional immaturity, envy and pride, it’s beyond fucking disgusting. They’re exhausting, and all I can advise if anybody wants to avoid them, do not engage and outright block them. They’re unimportant, let them remain that way and howl into the dark until they’re dust at the back of your mind. It’s healthier for you emotionally and mentally not to engage. Follow an example from BlueSky, just block and boot em. No series is above criticism, there’s moments in Helluva/Hazbin that’s even given me pause and I’m a massive fan. I’m a huge Supernatural fan and even I’ve been like “holy fuck what” at certain moments. Never blindly praise something, but these people latch onto anything negative to support their god-awful despicable behavior and cynical outlook in order to justify their acting like a shitty 12 year old. They seek drama for a number of reasons, despite a majority of them being adults in their 20s. They get their rocks off on annoying fans of the show, bad-mouthing the creator, insulting the art, etc. I’ve noticed it makes them feel valid for whatever fuckall reason. When said behavior receives push back they clutch their pearls and gaslight, I don’t engage shit from them but I’ve read some incredibly disturbed takes and it immediately loses it’s footing because it’s coming from a sorry prick.

Notorious band-wagon aggression towards a series and even fashioning falsehoods that can compromise someone’s safety— or blindly believing what they see to further demonize the creator because it gives ammo to an already deep-seated hate for that person is one of the most fascinating things to observe. They’re not mentally healthy, that I can confidently acknowledge, not with that level of negative fixation. I can only promote seeking a therapist or at least putting the same amount of effort into bettering their own skills and furthermore themselves.

There’s having a moderate conversation where someone can propose a different outcome for a scenario and how much smoother it could’ve gone, then there’s arrogantly assuming they can produce better media, or story, or construct a better character design (while simultaneously insulting Vivs work). If that’s the case then why wasn’t it put up first? Lack of funding isn’t a valid excuse either, ideas are free. Her style is more marketable, whimsical, recognizable, colorful and wild. I’ve seen a lot of the redesigns with the attempt at “upgrading” something that already stood out are unrecognizable, generic, and forgettable. I’m sorry your shit flew under the radar, and she made it big while you didn’t.

My own work is meh, forgettable and doesn’t draw attention to that degree. That’s not a shameless plug, it’s a fact. Won’t stop me from drawing— and it never should discourage someone, also it’s a terrible mindset to compare your work to someone with more skill —but I won’t go out of my way thinking I can produce something more cohesive or BETTER. One artist I absolutely adored the art style of wound up being a vile hater of the series, like there’s not being into it but she takes it to astronomically unhealthy levels, even now. Even dictating that Viv didn’t know how to write LGBT relationships (even tho Viv is part of the community herself) and seemed to promote this idea that unhealthy or abusive relationships don’t exist within the community. Your sexuality does not apply a guideline to how shitty you can be as a human being. Relationships are not a fantasy land of rainbows and unicorns, I’ve had to watch family members going through it, I myself almost fell into a toxic cycle twice. Reality is ugly as fuck. Sorry.

Earlier on though, I was willing to look past her more concerning takes because she had some great stuff (not to mention they weren’t that bad at first from what I saw), but the moment she saw I was an HB/HH fan she forced me to unfollow (it was Twit), no matter, I just moved on. She is also well known, and sought to use her popularity to stir drama. It warranted a block from me when she decided stir shit simply for the sake of it (because how dare the attention not be on her) and redesigned Bee. Then she had the nerve to whine that the fans were mean and she only was getting hate just because. No, you knew exactly what would happen and therefore fully chose to do so. You’re an adult, take responsibility for your own actions. You knew that fans would give inflamed responses and call you out on your shit, because you did nothing but broadcast your despise for the series prior to fucking redesigning a character from a series you hate for no other reason than to draw flames. You also demonized the fanbase as well when they had a right to be angry at your actions. You threw a rock at a hornets nest then screeched “See???? See?! They’re DANGEROUS AND BAD.”

No attention is worse than bad attention in the minds of people like that. Grow the fuck up and move on in life, there’s more pressing matters in reality. I’ll say again, not being into something is totally fine, I work with coworkers who don’t care for it and it’s not the end of my world. If they pipe up about it unprompted while I’m discussing a scenario with a fellow watcher, I won’t hesitate to tell them to go find something important to do because their input wasn’t asked for, and idc if it offends them. If their 2cents were wanted then I’d invite them to add. I don’t discuss the topic with them because I know they’re not big on it because they’re uncomfortable by it and such. It’s called how to function as an adult, and it’s scary for these people.

But truly, block those fucking nimps. You can acknowledge how absolutely disgusting these people are, but do not interact. Things will be better for it. I block two types of people, underaged fans and (clearly) mentally-underaged adults.

[furious1317]

Trump on Manchester Bombings

Everyone is throwing shade at President Trump for his choice of words during his response to the Manchester bombings... The disrespect to our president is reaching disgusting levels. People will search for anything to criticize him, no matter what it is, making him seem like an awful president just because they hate him using any methods possible. I'm not showing my support for him, I don't want to take a political stand, I don't necessarily like Trump; but I hate seeing the immaturity and disrespect of young people in today's social media culture. Here's a few thoughts I had defending Trump's speech of mourning the murders. 1. President Trump probably did not write that speech... most presidential speeches are not fully written by the president. 2. Trump explains why he calls them losers; it's to avoid giving them the satisfaction of being called monsters. Instead of relating the term "loser" to Trump's supposed illiteracy, it should be realized that the term was used in a childish way to give the terrorists the childish label... but instead most people won't see past the fact that he used the word at all. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to assume that Trump knew exactly what he was saying in giving terrorists a childish title, attempting to lighten the rising tension of terrorism. But of course most people care more about their hatred for Trump rather than the fact that he's trying to do something about people being murdered. 3. President Trump is not by any means the first president to struggle with speeches (if that's even what this is, which it isn't). Several presidents have had speech problems. President Bush had a reputation of making up random words on the spot. President Lincoln could barely speak in front of a small crowd when he ran for president. And yet we judge Trump because we have given illiterate connotations to a word he chose. I understand that people hate Trump. I get that he's probably not the best president we've had. But every president messes up, every president has their issues. It is our job as citizens to try to help hold this country together, not actively attempt to rip it apart. Whether or not you hate Trump, he is still your President, he still deserves respect. Perhaps instead of criticizing him for his grammar, we should stand with him in his stand against terrorism. After all, we are all on the same side. God bless America.