#Don’t think I’d forget

[nugget-child]

uhhh went to the movies so I guess fit reveal???

[yaolmao]

It takes two to solve the puzzle ig

[heavensincarnate1111]

i can’t wait to be on the frontlines defending annabeth for the rest of the show because i can already see the hate she’ll get because of the way she treats tyson in som and her behavior in botl… I CAN SEE IT NOW AND I DONT LIKE IT!!

as a card carrying member of the annabeth chase defense militia it is my duty to make sure everyone understands that although annabeth’s misplaced anger wasn’t okay, it was very much justified in both som and botl

like yall CANNOT tell me you would be 100% accepting and on board with a dude who’s apart of the species that got your friend killed… like if a big ass spider bites your friend and they get super sick, you wouldn’t really mess with spiders like that either! (i hope yall get the little reference in that analogy)

AND AS FOR BOTL: imagine you’ve spent the better part of your life longing and waiting for a quest so that you can prove to not only everyone around you but your mother that you’re worthy and you are MORE than just a sidekick, and you finally get that damned quest… and everything goes fucking wrong. and THEN the girl who your best friend and long time crush is spending time with takes over your quest like it’s nothing.

in fact annabeth is better than me because i would’ve had a breakdown that rivaled even zeus’ worse temper tantrums i won’t even lie to you all

TLDR: annabeth chase is innocent your honor!!!!

[warlenys]

the glenn macdennis comment hurt obviously but also so necessarily cause i’d gotten too delusional i was too obsessed with the potential final prize instead of fully enjoying what i love about what macden is rn which is the saddest awfulest gay tragedy ever written this is such a good catalyst for lowering my expectations and just living laughing loving in the doomed queerbait this is what shipping’s about what fandom’s about what life is about let us rest peacefully knowing that we absolutely will still get shit and it’ll be crazy and funny and sad but ultimately the power to make it beautiful lies with us. as the queerbait gods intended

[d0d0-b0i]

impromptu naptime

[thus-spoke-lo]

Man I do not miss being fat in office culture.

Retail seemed easier somehow, especially because I worked at a store that carried my size (well, except for the time an employee referred to Miss Piggy when she didn’t know I was in the immediate area and then another manager physically threatened her over it but anyway). But office culture was so obsessive over weight. So so obsessive. Everyone was gaining weight or losing weight and everyone was on a diet and if I had to hear about keto one more time I was going to shit myself.

Now working from home my only coworkers (my partner and my cat) either enjoy or have no opinion on my size depending on the day, and I can be fat and not worry about saying no to a piece of a donut because my god what if they think I, a fat person, eats?

[dykedvonte]

Just wanted to say thank you for your curly posts, I feel like a lot of people try to make it seem like a black and white situation with him when it’s just a gray one.

Multiple things can be true at once. Yes, Anya was failed by Curly and Curly enabled Jimmy. Yes, Curly was friends with both of them. He didn’t want to believe that his friend did something so shitty like that to another person and was giving him the benefit of the doubt. Do I think he should have? No, though I can understand why he did what he did. Do I think Curly had bad intentions? Also no, though they were misguided ones at best.

I’ve seen quite a couple of posts that claim Curly was just as bad as Jimmy and that they deserved each other in the end. Which, I was just so tired of seeing, because I just don’t feel like they’re on the same level at all. I also feel like people ignore how Curly becomes a victim as well when he’s being abused, again - Curly wasn’t innocent, but I don’t believe that justifies in saying that he would be on the equal field as someone that becomes his abuser, when Curly becomes completely dependent on others for living.

So, reading your posts was a nice refresher to me that not everyone thinks in one ways about Curly T-T

Thank you 🤟🏾

The first thing I do in my analysis is figure out intentions of the themes and intentions with the characters.

I feel like people think Curly and Jimmy had the same intentions because they were friends rather than Curly’s intentions being misguided by his friendship with Jimmy. It’s not malicious and it’s not something he was aware of. He’s a flawed person and a great character and I feel like people are making that one flaw his defining trait.

I don’t know what people want like the game isn’t about revenge like it makes it clear that getting even or leveling the playing field the way they want literally only ends up making things worse. Like I don’t enjoy excessively torturing a character, just cause you feel there were viable options that didn’t actually exist that he willingly ignored.

[milolunde]

We all know Timmy is Wanda’s mama’s boy but we need to keep in mind he’s still Cosmo’s kid too and that Cosmo would love him just as vehemently as Wanda

[blaithnne]

The first Heron design I showed off was from before Confidential Casefiles, so I thought I’d show you guys her look after she gets her new arm. Plus a few changes I made to her character for this AU! Just realised the way I placed my signature makes it look like I’M her worst enemy, whoops.

Meet the Cast!

╰┈➤ Canon ☄. *. ⋆

→ Scrooge McDuff → Matilda McDuff → Hortense McDuff → Qalhata Duiker → Goldie O'Gilt → Jack Duckworth → Bentina Beakley → LÙ Huifen (pre-caseflies) → Ludwig Von Druska → Bradford Butcher

╰┈➤ OCs ☄. *. ⋆

→ Lucrais NicRiada

.ೃ࿐

[sammygender]

i do genuinely think s7 is decent but even if it wasn’t it’d be like crack to me considering it’s an entire season essentially centred around sam’s trauma. it’s the closest we ever get to the show properly genuinely acknowledging the things it puts him through. which is ironic considering it’s also before many many other things he goes through!

[devilfic]

I feel like a lot of people confuse battinson!bruce’s social awkwardness with being shy

sometimes I see people describe bruce as being this shy, nervous, shaking chihuahua of a man who will curl up into a fetal position if a social situation stresses him out and as funny as that is to imagine… I think a lot of people are forgetting that bruce could NOT care less

like. bruce isn’t scared of the public eye. he doesn’t like it. he’s not shy, he’s awkward. I’d argue the only times he’s truly close to being shy (and I’d argue even further that he’s just. disarmed) is when he’s around selina

when bruce is uncomfortable in the public eye like at don mitchell’s funeral, it’s not because he’s scared of what people will think of him. if bruce cared what people thought of him, he’d have started playing a more active role as CEO years ago. that’s not what’s happening

he’s uncomfortable because he’s there to get a lead on the riddler case (the only thing he cares about) and he’s inconvenienced by being noticed. he’s not nervous. he’s annoyed!!

[plaguedoctoraeneas]

Give it up for day 13! Finally got back into OCtober—and I kinda swung for the fences?

My initial plan was, at best, to redraw a meme or two with Siren’s Silence Characters. Somehow I tripped and ended up with this! An in-meme for The Siren’s Silence that, apparently, will haunt me until the day I die. And probably beyond that, honestly.

Kenji was created by @finisnihil and is the very beloved pet of @twigthetoast

The back says “Where’s your Lrul” as a play on those “do you know where your child is” PSAs

[wren-kitchens]

social anxiety can be so funny sometimes because i’ll be talking to someone and they’ll go offline for whatever reason and i’m always like ‘oh no did I say too much’ when I said probably one of the most average things i’ve ever said to that person

[sailorsnightmare]

You know what yeah I’ll double down this’ll be the hill I die on

Aroace king Ash Ketchum is absolutely queerplatonic with Dawn

They’re best friends they’re two sides of the same coin

They’re compliments to each other

They literally always support each other any time they can and if Ash has gotta have a ship then DAMN IT may it be queerplatonic pearlshipping

I’ll be their defender don’t worry guys

[kiwikiwiandkiwi]

.

[deathbycoldopen]

I finished the first season of the live action ATLA, and I have to say my reaction is… mixed.

I went into it determined to have an open mind, and there was definitely a good chunk that I enjoyed! For one thing, I love what they did with both Suki and Yue, taking advantage of the longer episode lengths to give them both lives and motivations beyond just “pretty girl that Sokka crushes on” (Suki obviously gets more depth in the og show during seasons 2 & 3, but Yue has always struck me as a rather one-dimensional character).

The best (if traumatizing) choice was to actually show the Fire Nation attack on the airbenders. Doing so gave a real emotional heft to Aang being displaced a hundred years with the weight of failing to prevent a past genocide, and the pressure of having to stop another without any idea how. Not only that, but it did a great job of indicating, right at the start of the show, that this was an adaptation indenting to transform what was fundamentally a kids’ show with complex themes into an adult series with the ability to really expand on that depth and complexity.

…and then it didn’t.

Oh, the show pokes at the repercussions of Iroh having waged a long and deadly siege agains Ba Sing Se, and it does a decent job at deepening the fuckery that is Zuko’s backstory. But so much of the more ambiguous or complex parts of the original have been flattened in this adaptation—and not in ways that can be explained by the compressed narrative. Instead, it feels like the sanitized story and characters are a direct result of a purity culture that demands all things black and white, never shades of gray.

Let’s look at Zuko, the villain-turned-hero with an iconic but bumpy redemption arc in the original series. Part of what makes Zuko’s story so goddamn compelling in the original is that he begins as a true villain, who does some horrible things and is led astray more often than not by his explosive temper; and yet his horrifying backstory and desperation for a loving family that never actually existed compel us to view him with some sympathy, even as he acts against our protagonists.

Yet in the adaptation, Zuko is consistently painted in a softer, kinder light than he was in the original. He has no hand in burning down the village on Kyoshi Island; he hears Aang out and even seems to consider Aang’s offer of friendship rather than immediately lashing out after the Blue Spirit reveal; he is notably more respectful to Iroh and loses his temper much less frequently and violently.

Even the change of Zuko fighting back against Ozai in the agni kai can be construed as him recognizing that Ozai is the bad guy, especially when it means that in order for his exile to make sense he has to defy his father again after he’s already been burned.

This is a pattern that is repeated with nearly all of the characters with any degree of ambiguity. Pakku is depicted as kind of a decent person who’s just being held back by his deference to tradition, rather than being pretty much an asshole regardless of whether he’s following tradition or not. Hahn is a nice guy who is in love with Yue but accepts her decision not to marry him, instead of a dick that sees her as a trophy and is more than happy to marry her despite her disinterest.

Sokka is a huge victim of this flattening of flaws. His early-show misogyny is entirely absent, making his stumbling with Suki a little odd and ungrounded, and his dismissal of Katara’s skills even more so. The narrative doesn’t allow him to be anywhere close to as boneheaded and stubborn as he is in the original—this version of Sokka would never angrily slash through the swamp despite the warning signs, or blatantly lie to Won Shi Ton and then even more blatantly steal from him.

Sokka isn’t even allowed the most understandable tactical mistake from the original show: using the air ship in the fight at the Northern Air Temple, and inadvertently delivering the Fire Nation’s greatest asset. That honor is given to a generalized “spies” that are distanced even from Sai himself.

If the heroes aren’t allowed to have flaws, the villains are even worse off, without anything that might make them sympathetic. Jet, who in the original sits in a similar in-between place as Zuko, is pushed firmly on the side of villain over the course of his two-episode arc. Instead of Jet fighting dirty against Fire Nation colonists who are nevertheless civilians, he bombs buildings in Omashu; it’s easier to denounce him when he’s hurting Earth Kingdom civilians with his tactics, rather than people who may or may not be complicit in the war. He’s even labeled a terrorist, an easy buzzword for a largely usamerican audience to point to and say “ah yes, that’s a bad guy.”

The main villains— Ozai, Zhao, and even the brief scene of Sozin— are ironically even more cartoonishly evil than in the animated show. Ozai and Sozin both declare their evil plans— out loud, with villainous aplomb— to use one major military movement as a distraction for another, even bigger movement. (Sozin’s plan at least made sense, in that the distraction was “leaked” intelligence rather than an actual deployment of troops. How the hell did Ozai have enough troops and a decent supply line to attack both the Northern Water Tribe and Omashu at the same time? And it’s not like the distraction actually served any purpose, since it’s explicitly stated several times that the separate nations don’t send aid to each other anymore.)

Ozai’s treatment of Zuko is even more abusive than in the original, especially with the aforementioned change where Zuko actually does fight back as ordered. His choice to burn Zuko and then later banish him then must be explained by Zuko showing compassion, a much more typically “evil” motivation than the more complex (though no less abusive) notion of Zuko dishonoring himself.

Zhao gets an even worse character lobotomy, which is impressive given that his original character is pretty unabashedly villainous. But rather than a devious, powerful, and ambitious commander looming over everything Zuko or Team Avatar does, this version of Zhao is cartoonishly incompetent. (It doesn’t help that the only thing I’ve seen Ken Leung in is Person of Interest, where he plays a similarly buffoonish character constantly in need of rescue. When held up against Jason Isaacs’ mesmerizing but intimidating voice in the original, there’s no comparison.)

Zhao is no longer a respected military leader but a backwoods commander who barely passed the exam to become an officer; his rise through the ranks isn’t due to military successes or a commanding presence but because Azula finds him easy to manipulate; cutting Jeong Jeong means that we don’t see Aang get the better of Zhao by playing on his temper and lack of control; even discovering the secret of the moon and ocean spirits seems more like blundering luck than actual determination and intelligence. You can’t take Zhao seriously as a threat in this adaptation, even when he’s killing the moon spirit and destroying the balance of the world— he’s a nuisance at best, with Azula as the real looming danger.

Disliking Zhao’s character changes might just come down to a matter of taste, of course. I’m always going to be more interested in intelligent, competent characters, whether they are heroes or villains. But it forms part of this pattern of flattening characters and plots and arcs, and brings me back to the fundamental question that kept hitting me over the head while watching the series.

Why?

Why make an adaptation? This is a question that comes up whenever an adaptation of anything is made: what does the adaptation bring to the table that the original did not? Often the answer to this question is money, but there’s usually an attempt to point to a different answer, if only to distract from the greed.

Sometimes the answer is simple— a translation, for example, is an adaptation made to reach a wider audience. Sometimes the answer is more complicated— changing Lord of the Rings from books to movies, as another example, took advantage of the music, acting, and visuals to pack more emotional punch than the books did.

I would argue, as I began to at the start of this post, that the benefit of adapting ATLA from an animated kids show to a live action series is the bucking of those “kids show” limitations. ATLA deals with a lot of serious, heavy topics that don’t get fully explored because they are too complicated and intense to be greenlit in a network show aimed at 10 year olds. In addition, ATLA (and particularly Legend of Korra after it) faced an uphill battle to portray some more sticky topics such as queerness, in part due to the time period when they were produced.

A live action show produced by Netflix seems to bypass all those hurdles, allowing for a darker and more socially progressive show than what the original was able to accomplish. But despite showing onscreen the destruction of the Air Nomads, the adaptation of ATLA seems more sanitized than the original, playing to the lowest common denominator in a way that the original never did, despite the latter being a kids show and the former ostensibly being for adults.

I came away from the new series with a bad taste in my mouth, even with some things that I really enjoyed, and I think this is the crux of why. The adaptation didn’t update the original; it stripped it of anything that might be deemed problematic and replaced it with a black and white worldview that is, in fact, antithetical to the themes of the original show.

After all, the creators seem to have reasoned, who would root for Zuko’s redemption if he actually needed redemption in the first place?