#BotWT

[robabankfuckmickeymouse]

if you like to color.

Made by me via AI. Please color and repost, tag me! I’d love to see what you make of them!

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[kassandrasdisciple]

~spoilers for ATLA, LOK and ALL COMICS~

A critique of

(Significant Spoilers / final panel spoilers)

Tl:dr at the end

Disclosure

Hi, this is going to be a critique specifically about how June and irohs interaction in bato of the watertribe (BotWT) was delt with in the bounty hunter and the tea maker (BHatTB).

I recognize this is only 1 page in a 78 page long comic but I think it's worthy critiquing how this was handled. I've watched both shows, read all the ATLA comics, along with the one shot ALTA comics, I'm not meatriding for Iroh in this as you'll see, neither will I do the like for the writers of the show or the comics, I also won't demonize either, I'll just be stating what i disagree with and what direction I think would serve the world/characters better.

1. The Comic in Question

This comic is an okay comic, like the other one shots it's self-contained, if you don't read these, it's fine as they won't come up in any other works from avatar studios (apart from maybe Azula: and the spirit temple). Due to this microcosm, they have all focused on characters or world building that either the audience or the writers think is worthy of expansion (the metelbending academy, sukis imprisonment, ect). You'll also notice a meta theme in that all these comics are woman-focused, expanding the role and background of our female cast, this is a mystery mouse KaTool that'll help us later. This is interrupted by our deuteragoists of BHatTB.

The plot, in summary, is that June is hired to capture Iroh by an old soldier who served under iroh and wants revenge for Iroh leaving him in Ba Sing Sei. In the background is tea cartels and the dying career as a bounty hunter in a peaceful world.

The title would lead you to believe that both protagonists have equal impact but make no mistake this is an Iroh comic. I love Iroh as a character, bit this comic was written with the explicit effect of maintaining his pedestal. After hes captured by June he gives the "perfect" apology by hitting all the action points, initiating the apology and leaving June to accept it on her own time. Later we get an acceptance of the apology and she starts working for Iroh, making it explicit that he's been forgiven by June for how he acted in BotWT.

Secondly, in the beginning and end of the comic he explicitly rebukes his warmongering ways, apologizing to a earth kingdom protester (side note: this scene is a whole thing, I personally found it distasteful but I'll leave it to another day) and later apologizing to his ex-soldier while reinforcing his repentance for being a general. This is a more general apology to all the people who make "Iroh is a war criminal" memes.

2. Why was this nessesary

Because BotWT aged like milk. There's a conspiracy theory that the third writer, Ian Wilcox, was blacklisted from writing for the show after this, but I can't find any evidence other than the fact this was the only episode he wrote, compared to others writing multiple episodes, however he was a busy writer so he might've just not had time. Also both Bryan and Micheal are credited so their just as complicit.

It makes the most likeable fire nation character so far seem incredibly creepy. Unfortunately it aired in 2005 and this was an incredibly common gag, especially in anime(and still is), which avatar took a lot of inspiration from (think of master Roshi from DB or Jiraiya from Naruto). Iroh is filling the pervy old man trope and in the early 2000s that was perfectly fine.

Tragically time isn't stationary and as writers rooms for cartoons have gotten more diverse we've all come to the conclusion it's weird as fuck. I think it's weird as fuck. However why did 1 scene from 1 episode nearly 20 years ago (I just gave myself psychic damage FUCK I'm old) need a comic tie in?

Because media literacy is dead and CinemaSins.

Okay no, so the TL;DR is that Iroh has become a mascot for avatar studios, but also people make perv and war criminal memes about him, and you don't want to sell merch with the war criminal on. So they did the beauty and the beast remake move and made a follow-up to address all the CinemaSin-esque takes.

Unfortunately the interesting part of Iroh is that he was a war criminal (this is a joke, IK they dont have Geneva, chill). He was an interesting shade of grey but when you put someone on a pedestal they either stay in the sky or fall, and avatar studios decided to build some scaffolding. This entire comic was a way to scrub the morally bad parts of Iroh away, and personally? I think that's pretty boring, so what else could we do?

3. The ReWrite

So first thing what's the comics theme? I don't want to change too much so let's keep that the same, luckily I think June's mum sums it up.

Freedom, and along with that, responsibility to grant freedom. June wants to be free and gives freedom to Iroh, Iroh wants to be free of his guilt but to do so he must take responsibility, Fan and the others wanted freedom and took responsibility for their lives, making a homestead, and lastly Keung wanted Freedom from his past and was going to make Iroh take responsibility.

Metatextually this is also a comic about freedom for Iroh and June's characters by taking responsibility for what happened in BotWT, so we'll keep that theme.

Secondly, I lied about not making big changes, we're kicking out Iroh and the tea cartel plot. Our new title is The Bounty Hunter And The Fire Lord. Our new plot is going to be set after azula and the spirit temple, and follow an unsuccessful attempt my Zuko to find Azula with June's help. We're keep June struggling to find work, and even meeting Fan and the ex-hunters. We're also going to keep the fallout of BotWT.

5. Why Zuko

For this story I envision a fire nation that is returning to pre-war mentalities, and I think in this nation sexism would be returning hard. Just like the UK after WW2 women had been moving towards egalitarianism but were shoved back to the household once peace was established. In this climate Zuko doesn't know what to do, remember, the 2 non-genociding states are both patriarchal with misogyny baked in, the Water tribes are Overt, but outside of Kyoshi island we don't see women in power in the Earth Kingdom. Zuko doesn't have a societal reference for equality other than his homeland, and he's previously been erasing alot of fire nation culture (dragon hunting, colonies, royal deification), he's now dealing with advisors trying to tell him how women should act and he's frozen, should they be like the water tribes?

Secondly, Zuko has no female advisors, he has Katara and Toph as friends, he has Suki and Mai in the palace but none of them know the court machinations, not like Azula would. His mother has been out of the court longer than she was in it, and is still pretty traumatized. So, spurred on by his need to do the right thing and as another excuse to bring Azula back into the family, he hires June to help him find his sister.

I know it might seem out of left field but personally, it would be great worldbuilding for how we went from the treatment of Zeisan and Ursa to fire lord Izumi. Secondly Zuko is always itching to reconnect with Azula in the comics and he loves making bad decisions, he's also got more backstory with June than Iroh.

Onto the meat of it, on their road trip June opens up more to Zuko, same as she did with Iroh, and zuko uses June as a sounding board for all these questions he wants to ask Azula. June has traveled the world's underbelly, she knows what women are capable of and the calculating demeanor means she gives similar answers Azula would.

Eventually Zuko says he could've asked Iroh for his help on the topic, but June snorts at him, she tells the story of what happened to her from her POV. We don't have Iroh to give us a perfect apology, we have Zuko having to choose if he defends his uncles honour or not, who does he believe? This is what his story is about, does he believe his advisors or the women of his country.

Let June use her knowledge of what the dark side of the world is like, let her say what a noble fire nation man probably grew up hearing about women, especially when in the beginning of the war we see no female soldiers, so the gender roles where probably still enforced.

If you want to address Iroh's actions then have them serve the greater narrative, how have women been treated by the fire nation, and also don't have the interaction be kept to just June and Iroh, have it between a woman extending trust and a Fire lord who all to often puts Iroh on the same pedestal as the audience.

If you want, you can have a final scene with Iroh, where he sides with June and apologizes, but I think what we where given serves only the male cast and relegates June's story to a checklist, instead of treating it like a narrative she should get to control.

TL:DR

BHatTB whimped out on adressing Irohs actions, and it's easy to see that they did so just to get people to stop bringing it up. I'd instead propose this conversation happens with Zuko; with Zuko being treated as the audience, glamourisng Iroh, and June reinstating that he's still a human man, and that he isn't free of societal influence.

Have it be about freedom, both individually and societally, and responsibilities; to those you hurt and to those you've sworn to protect.

Again, this critique was focused on this one interaction, if I was to do a full rewrite I would change other aspects and flesh out how I think a June/Zuko road trip would go, still it would be vastly more interesting than what we got.

[sapphic-agent]

So someone on twitter said they like NATLA!aang more than cartoon!aang and someone else followed it up by saying that they didnt like how cartoon!aang was acting towards the water tribe food in that Bato episode, and now aang stans are excusing it with “he’s a kid!! He’s 12!” “characters aren’t allowed to have flaws now? Lol”. So when Zuko was disrespecting aang’s culture in the Southern Raiders episode, the fandom rightfully calls him out for being disrespectful…but ofc when aang does it as a comedic gag towards another culture ofc the fandom will scramble to excuse him.

I'm so sorry, I didn't see this!

I haven't seen NATLA in its fullest, but I actually did start taking a liking to NATLA Aang myself. Mostly because unlike with original Aang, they seem to be hammering in that Aang can't run from his responsibilities. It's setting him up for great character development. His feelings towards Katara are also way more platonic, which I love. Do I like him better than original Aang? Can't say yet, but I definitely see where they're coming from.

So, my response to the excuse that Aang is twelve is, "So you agree? He's not mature enough to be with Katara?"

Not even just for his actions in BOTWT either. Aang stans have a nasty habit of excusing all of Aang's actions with "He's 12/13!" And yes, that's true. And yeah, we can make the argument that he deserves leeway for that. But if Aang is too young to be respectful of Katara's culture, mindful of his emotions around her, and conscious of how his actions effect her, he doesn't need to be in a relationship with her.

Aang stans need to realize they can't have it both ways. Either Aang is too young to understand his actions and too immature to be in a relationship with Katara, or he's mature enough to be in a relationship with her and needs to be held accountable as such.

(The third ideal option would be that he has the capacity for growing and learning to be a good partner- not just for Katara, but anyone- he just needs to acknowledge and own his actions and make that change himself. But of course, that didn't happen: not in Book 3 or the comics)

But yeah, I hate the excuse that he's a kid. Not only is everyone else also a kid, using that as an excuse for his actions instead of a reason for him to learn to be better is doing Aang's own character an injustice

[quillthrillswriting]

important poll regarding my teenage aang kataang fic- the teenager in the iceberg!!

i'm working on my plot points for the new chapter, but honestly, i'm a bit on the fence. the next three episodes in the TV series are Bato of the Water Tribe, The Deserter, and The Northern Air Temple. Only BOTWT and The Deserter really have moments that i feel like are important for KAs relationship (the burning of katara's hands, aang betraying them), but TNAT is also an important insight into aangs character. i can't guarantee that i'll follow the results of the poll verbatim, but i'm curious to hear your opinions.

thank you all so much for the help! the next chapter after this upcoming one will be a combination of the waterbending master and the siege of the north pt1&2, and then we'll be done the first season!!! how exciting :o

[steepedwonders]

Lol I'm curious to know what "rare" photos they're referring to

That account likes to claim he is getting photos and videos of Bad Omens from someone close to them and that a lot of it is stuff you cannot find online. Like their old IG stories or pretty much anything from their earlier days. That is the secret and rare content he keeps saying he’s posting. But like another anon pointed out, none of the content posted on the Discord or on his Twitter account is secret or rare like he keeps saying it is. You can find ALL of it on Pinterest or this Google Drive that Vessell0rd account made a while back now. The google drive is where they are getting all the IG stories and Noah’s old Discord posts from. That content has all been seen before but BOtwt exists in a bubble so they fall for his lies of it being some top secret info from a crew member. People on Tumblr have been posting all this “secret and rare” content long before that twitter account. I think the person behind that Twitter account gets off of people thinking they have a connection to Bad Omens.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NfFlxXU2U6jVvvEaR4x5LXqiLhD9cqD8

That wouldn't surprise me.

[badomenstea]

Also

Who do we think is more toxic, considering everyone on BOTWT is loosing their shit over an AI comment.

I feel like Noah wouldn’t even like the shit going on or tolerate it.

Would that mean that Noah might think you are the toxic part of the fandom?

I’m not here to expose anyone, make them feel less than, or anything like that. I feel that everyone has a part to play in the fandom. Whatever negative comments or threats that are made against the fans will come back to the ones who said something mean in the first place.

As for Noah, if any of this was a problem. He would’ve said something already and reached out to the ones who were saying things about the launch.

We are all entitled to our own opinions, whether someone likes what the other person says or not.

If it is a problem, my DMs are open and we can have a conversation about me taking down the blog.

[x3rrorx]

Why are a bunch of people on botumblr and botwt saying someone on the BO crew is saying shitty things about the fans? What happened?!

I haven’t seen anything recently other than the day of / day after it happened - if it’s even the same thing I’m thinking of.

From what I know when Bad Omens launched they new merch a fan didn’t like the anime girl one, saying it was henti (anime p0rn), State Of The Scene decided to make a post saying Bad Omens fans were mad at BO for their merch (but it was only the one fan who seemed to be bothered), so SOTS was pretty much calling out all of us as a whole, not just that fan. Then Davis decided to make a joke tweet with an edited version of the shirt with an anime girl touching herself, making a joke at BO fans. Then Loudwire added to it making it worse. As for what this other person said or did that works with BO, I’m not sure.

Pretty much SOTS took what 1 fan said and made it bigger than it ever was and just made the fanbase feel stupid, even though we as a whole didn’t do anything…

[vanishxcanvas]

BOtwt is exhausting.

[robabankfuckmickeymouse]

*clears throat*

I'm sorry to be so crass but sir would you please knock the fucking Sonic rings right out of me

Check out bad omens funkos on my tumblr!

[rotteneldritchhorror]

It’s so funny to me that Homestuck is a consistent part of my hyperfixation cycle and has been for years, one of my favourite parts of the fandom is shipping, and yet I don’t have a single published fanfic for it

I have fanfics for fandoms I was barely even a part of (looking at you dialtown and the series that should not be spoken of because everyone hates it and it’s my only actual guilty pleasure)

I have fanfics for obscure characters in obscure movies or even obscure songs that I only found out about because I was on botwt (bo burnham twitter)

But not for *fucking homestuck*

[whisperhushh]

There is a lot of people in Botwt that dont know poppy past, only know she was abused by titanic....I'm saying the ones that becomed poppy fans overnight bc the collab, they like her bc her visual, bc she is a girl in metal, but don't know much about her history. Would be nice if we educate them for them to see the problem...Another day I saw one saying: "how did you know she is toxic? you talked with her ?" bullshit. Ignorance is a major problem there.

Mmmhmmm with them it goes in one ear and out the other

[antiantiantiantiantiantianti]

Whisper managing to make BOtwt look more sane than people on Tumblr lol. What an accomplishment.

[omens-and-more]

why some girls on tw act as if the complains are about Noah's personal life is a mystery to me

It’s a mystery to you why Botwt is consistently disingenuous and twist everything for the sake of pinning fans against each other? I will be surprise when a week goes by that they don’t do that.

…

[x3rrorx]

If someone has it. Or access , send it. I want to see what the total DRAMA island (botwt) is ready to set the world on fire about.

Honestly, I wanna see it too cause I wanna know what they were being so crazy about over on Twitter 😂

[steepedwonders]

I'm not sure. Maybe no one has commented yet.

The original uploaded did delete the TikTok but there were plenty of of comments underneath. All from Brazilians. Some people calling Poppy and BO members “cold” and bringing up the fact that they both don’t interaction with their fans or audience. I guess those fans weren’t aware that neither of them really talk to the crowd but were expecting them to at Knotfest. Also some people in the comments telling the guy who posted the video that he was a bad BO fan and that he should know that they are private to which he replied that he didn’t even know the guys were BO members that he is a Poppy fan lol. Which I believe since the way he was recording had Poppy in focus meanwhile BO members were right next to him and he wasn’t recording them. Then some in the comments asking him what was being said since she uploaded it with music playing over the clip but he didn’t respond to those. There were also people on BOtwt saying they were commenting for him to take down the video but that he was deleting the comments. And well now it seems he has taken the video down.

Also, I do believe it was in fact a Poppy fan recording and likely whoever the “source” was used for this Poppy Brazil Update account.

https://x.com/impoppybrasil/status/1848461774972195167

In the tweet and ones posted before it they mention their source (which they refer to as a “he” and we know from the Tiktok pfp the user was a guy) found out what hotel Poppy was staying at and showed up to try and spot her but found out that both Poppy and Bad Omens had left 2 mins before he arrived and then shortly after that airport video appeared. I wouldn’t be surprised if he went to spot her at the airport or even somehow followed them to the airport.

Very creepy of Poppy fans to do if you ask me. 🤷‍♀️

If he did try to find them at the hotel then later showed up at the airport, that is definitely weird. It would also make more sense why all of them seemed uneasy.

I feel bad for Poppy because I think women tend to have creepier fans than men. That is just my opinion though.

[robabankfuckmickeymouse]

boy I just

Sharing my absolute favorite pic of Pool Noodle because babayyyyy