#add being a perfectionist to that and you have girl internally crying over not being able to draw her favourite FE paring kiss

[emily-mooon]

Did a sketch of Jancy kissing in my Titanic AU

(Pose reference under cut)

[seyaryminamoto]

Post canon, do you think Azula would regret her actions during the war? As Azula is someone who’s very single-minded when it comes to success, I don’t see her regretting anything. War is war for her. But how can she change? I don’t think she would regret her actions just because people didn’t accept her actions or think what she did was bad. She would need a logical explanation. What do you think?

Uh… that really depends on how a writer chooses to carry her character forward. While Azula didn’t commit any of her worst war crimes in my story, she started out being every bit as remorseless about the Fire Nation’s actions as you’d expect from canon Azula. It has been, of course, an insanely long process, but she has grown to understand the harm her nation did, enough that she even works to fix what little stuff she can nowadays.

As usual, this got long, soooo…

TL;DR: show her the flaws in the Fire Nation’s system, make her bond with new people (preferrably either Team Avatar or other people from other nations), and after a FAIRLY long time she’ll come to understand where the Fire Nation went wrong and regret some of her actions, to some extent.

Now, if you want a full breakdown of what I mean by all of that, feel free to keep reading:

First things first… I’d think Azula needs to see how the war damaged her own nation. The Painted Lady featured the floating town of Jang Hui in the most polluted river the entire franchise had given us so far. ATLA did deal with subjects relating to environmental damage before, but never quite to that extreme: common people were living in the worst conditions because a weapons factory that was operative since Azulon’s time had been dumping their waste in that river for over a decade, if I recall correctly. 

Neither Zuko nor Azula ever saw this, only the Gaang did: how would they react if they did, though? How would they feel upon finding their people are facing such dire consequences for the warmongering of their forefathers? You may be inclined to think Azula might not care, these are means to an end, but I’d like to think an Azula who has been developed to some extent would think otherwise (I can outright tell ya���, I’m bringing this up because I literally wrote Azula confronting this specific reality in Gladiator’s 82nd chapter :’DDD).

This without going into the subject of the death toll: how many of their soldiers were sacrificed and how much people have had to die at a war that has lasted 100 years. Efficient, effective Azula would most likely be disturbed to realize how many resources have gone to waste, how much work has been invested into operations that went nowhere because, let’s be real, if the Fire Nation had been effective all the damn time, this war wouldn’t have dragged out as long as it did. Add to this that Azula is outright the most competent Fire Nation antagonist we ever saw on the show, and it’s obvious the Fire Nation armies would leave a lot to be desired for someone who’d expect nothing but the best from her own people.

Point and case being: show Azula the flaws in the Fire Nation systems, and she’ll start opening her eyes to the reality of the Fire Nation’s internal mess. If they’re striving for greatness, wouldn’t they be above such flaws? Shouldn’t they be better than this?

Now, how would she regret her own actions? That’s a taller order to fulfill yet. But, as tall as it may be, it’s not impossible.

For starters, one of the things I dislike deeply about the comics is that Azula doesn’t feel like herself to me because she’s dead-set on the throne as her endgame even though anyone can tell it’s never going to be hers. Why do I dislike it? Because this is the same girl who, upon being thwarted constantly by Team Avatar in Book 2, kept changing her strategies and even changing the battles she was fighting so she could obtain a “big win” and make her father happy. Can’t catch Iroh and Zuko with a Royal Barge and a full firebending procession? Switch to a smaller team with a train-tank. Can’t find Iroh and Zuko yet, but found the Avatar? Try to capture the Avatar. Failed to capture the Avatar? Off to capture Ba Sing Se instead. Failure to capture the city? Again, switching to tracking down the flying bison to find the Avatar: found the Kyoshi Warriors, found a method to infiltrate the city, captured Zuko and eventually Iroh, “killed” the Avatar, conquered the city: AZULA WINS!

But why did she win? Because she changed tactics. Because she was NEVER static, never hung up on a single goal. She needed to be victorious, and she was in the end, but not for a long time: she literally doesn’t win a single violent confrontation until she fights the Kyoshi Warriors. As epic as she may be, I ALWAYS bring this up because it’s part of her character as well as everything else. In the comics, though? She may change tactics on occasion, but the endgame of her plans never really changes: she wants the throne at all costs, like that’s the only thing in the world that she could ever want. And I find that difficult to understand in a character like her because she lost EVERYTHING in Sozin’s Comet, the last we saw of her she was crying desperately after knowing she had been defeated. This, paired with the mirror scene, showed that Azula was shattering inside. A character who went through trauma of that magnitude can react in countless ways… but the way that I would have thought suited her best would be having a severe belief crisis instead: why did her brother succeed when he had always been the failure while she was the perfect child? Why does he have friends who will fight beside him while hers abandoned her? Why, when everything came to a head, she was completely and utterly ALONE?

The interpretation of the comics is that she decided those questions all could be answered with “Hallucination-Ursa brainwashed them all!” and “I must take the throne and my entire life will be fixed again!”, something that still makes me shake my head to this day. When having the opportunity to explore complex subjects through Azula’s character, they picked the most simplistic route possible to deal with it and obsessed her with a throne she only showed outright interest in during… what, four episodes of the original show? :’D

Sooooooo, as far as comics are concerned, I honestly don’t think they’re taking a route to make Azula regret what she’s done. Other people have a different take on the subject, they’re free to disagree, but unless the new writer treats Azula more seriously than Yang did, it’s hard to imagine they’ll actually touch onto the more complex aspects of the character.

Therefore if we went through the route I expected her to take, meaning, Azula trying to figure out why she failed without dumping all the blame on a single hallucination, I can imagine her touching the surface of the fact that something about her methods, something about her actions, couldn’t have been right. The Ursa hallucination already suggests that Azula knows, on some level, where she went wrong: she feels forced to justify why she handled everyone through fear, claiming “fear is the only reliable way”. It’s not so reliable anymore, though, is it? All the people she thought she’d intimidated and frightened are thriving now, while she’s in an asylum, of all things. Something in her methods was wrong, plain and simple. A perfectionist like her wouldn’t like accepting this, but she’d have no choice other than doing it: otherwise she’d NEVER have ended up in the situation she’s in.

Just like with the previous item, begin to touch upon the failures, the flaws, the problems… and slowly, Azula’s concepts of the world would unravel, and she’d be forced to make sense of it all again, only, now she knows and understands it better than she did before.

Of course, changing her understanding of the world would be far more successful with the right help than by having her work out everything on her own. And by the right help I mean… Azula can’t be helped the same way Zuko was. It’s that simple. You can’t have her open up to Iroh, or learn better through him, because she thinks he’s a failure as well and she has as little respect as possble for him. Likewise, she’d most likely be too proud to learn any better from Zuko, who, let’s be real, has a long way to go still in terms of growing and ESPECIALLY developing enough patience to deal with Azula. While everyone wants him to do it, and hell, I agree that him helping her would be the right way to bring his character full circle, the way Ehasz described it, but I can also see it being a REALLY messed up journey, with more hardships than I think Zuko can endure as he is by the end of ATLA. He’d need a much stronger hold on his emotions than he ever displayed, and we know Azula is one very sore spot for him. Therefore, while it would be thematically great? It would take longer than a Gladiator-length story to do this properly, with both Azula and Zuko being IC enough as compared to where they left off at the end of ATLA.

On top of it all… my most honest take? I don’t really want anyone from Azula’s old social circles, be it friends or family, being part of the start of her healing process. Why’s that? For one thing, what I said above about Zuko and Iroh. For another, her relationship with her mother is radioactive trash even without factoring in The Search. Lastly, bouncing back from a betrayal like Mai and Ty Lee’s would take her AGES, and I don’t think she’d realistically ever fully trust them again after that, especially seeing how neither of them seem to want to be friends with her again anyhow in the show, not even touching upon how much they seem to hate her in the comics. Therefore? I’d like it better if Azula either started to have her own adventures with Team Avatar or found new friends of her own, as she did in Smoke and Shadow.

… Only, and this is why I’d favor Team Avatar, Azula needs influences who AREN’T Fire Nation. All her life that’s all she’s known. If you give her common ground with any of the other five members of the Gaang, you could actually create an interesting dynamic that involves Azula exchanging experiences (rather than trampling over) with someone with a completely different culture than her own.

For example, she can bond with Aang over being bending prodigies, something she doesn’t have in common with anyone from her old circles. She can bond with Katara over having older brothers who drive them crazy. She can bond with Toph over the same thing as with Aang + they’re bound to share some degree of their sense of humor and they’d likely have a competitive streak about who’s the better bender in their respective element, not to mention they’re both highborn who most likely can relate to each other’s family problems. She could bond with Suki over leadership, over warrior training since youth (of course, because of their bad blood I find this one the more difficult angle but it’s far from impossible). And if you really want me to get started with how much stuff she could bond over with Sokka I’ll be writing this ask until tomorrow, so have this link instead.

All this I bring up also under the logic that Team Avatar has forgiven people who wronged them before :’) no, it hasn’t been easy, and no, I wouldn’t expect her to become instant friends with anyone, but it’s hard for me to fathom that all of them would be 100% against being anywhere near Azula forever and ever. Set up grounds for them to have to work together for one purpose or another and you’ll get somewhere with developing Azula’s friendship with any/some of them before you know it.

The core point of having Azula bond and talk with them, though, is for her to undergo the same epiphany she does in Gladiator: shameless self-promoting time!

“What we used to have was separation, definitions, boxes with labels where you could throw each person depending on what they were. And you and me? We don’t share any of those boxes, do we? We’re opposites in practically every regard. Yet why is it that nobody else who shares my boxes has resounded with me in the way you do?”

“We’ve had our clashes, it’s true” he whispered “We really didn’t start off well. But… I guess that comes with balance too, doesn’t it? We were too different to understand each other right away, but in time…”

“We found a rhythm. A way to coexist without destroying each other” said Azula, smiling “Despite it all… fire and water might not need to snuff the other out of existence”

It only took me 107 chapters to get her to this point :’) realistically speaking, I have a hard time seeing a full-blown development of Azula taking a short time, especially if it means tackling even more problems than I needed to in Gladiator, seeing as it’s an AU where she didn’t really get to join the war.

Point being, once Azula finds common ground and solid friendships well outside the Fire Nation (be it Team Avatar or even other people from different nations), she’ll start to feel empathy for them, even if she doesn’t intend to at first. Their lives will matter to her, their struggles… she will find herself realizing what kind of hardships her new friends have undergone because of what the Fire Nation did. And as much as that means she’ll start caring only about one person at a time, that can be expanded into her opening her eyes fully to the horrors of the war she never cared about before.

I honestly doubt she’ll come to fully regret her successes, such as taking over Ba Sing Se or stopping the Invasion force. But she can regret having stood on the side of the conflict where she did, despite she really had nowhere else to stand during ATLA’s time. I’d think, if given proper time to grow, learn better and understand people who are, in essence, different from her despite sharing so much in common with her, Azula would eventually close the door on her past and begin to work towards a future where she won’t have to fear she’ll lose everything again, a future where she’ll have stronger bonds, where she won’t end up alone and abandoned by everyone she ever cared about.

[mentallydestroyedfemme]

TELL ME THEIR STORIES!!!

Okie. Only one of them, FOR NOW, bc I have a lot.

My OC that gets their story told is my Pyrokenetic MHA OC. Again, FOR NOW!!!

Long as fuck, so, a readmore.

She came from a similar home to Todoroki, her mother never really wanted her. She was born with Autism and a Quirk. As soon as she could, she fled from that home and never returned. As a result of her life in that house, she was violently touchstarved, and traumatized. She held out hope that the world was a better place than her mother made it out to be. In some ways, it was. In other ways, it wasn't. She put herself through school and started working to become a Pro Hero. She soon gained the attention of Evangeline, a Pro Hero at the time. Evangeline was a German Hero visiting America in search of a successor. Evangeline chose Amelia to be her successor. Amelia became the #1 American Hero and became known as The Rose Queen of Texas and The American Lion Wolf. Beyond that, however, her international standing didn't change. She was the bottom hero in the international standing while she was being mentored. Then, as Amelia's mentorship ended, so too, did the life of her mentor, Evangeline. Amelia then met Yagi Toshinori, aka All Might, on his visit to America. They got along pretty quickly, and soon were fast friends. He told her everything about where he came from and how he grew up. They shared dreams and aspirations, and hoped to make the world a better place. She and Yagi agreed to keep in touch when it came time for him to leave, and they did, for awhile. Then, after some time, Amelia went silent. Yagi was deeply concerned, but his life had become hectic, as was the #1 Hero internationally. Amelia, after months of silence, wrote to Yagi once again, telling him she was visiting Japan. He was overjoyed and was waiting for her to arrive. She arrived, and upon seeing her, was dismayed at how ill she looked. She had come to Japan for a change of scenery, as her life as America's #1 Hero had taken it's toll. He greeted her as if nothing had changed, and god, Yagi didn't know how much Amelia needed that. She almost burst into tears when he was so kind to her. She was on the verge of coming undone, from the pressure of her Hero work and the perfectionist image civilians had of heroes, and her as-of-yet undiagnosed depression. When Yagi offered she stay at his place, she accepted, unaware that by the time night fell, she would be crying in his bathroom. By the next day, she felt better, so she figured it would be alright if she went out. Yagi decided to go with her. Little did anyone really know, Yagi and Amelia had fallen in love a long time ago. And Amelia is fucking dense. And so is fucking Toshi. It takes outside help for these dense idiots to get together. Amelia ends up staying in Japan, mostly bc fucking Aizawa locks them in a closet and forces them to confess to each other. And, in the time that she was silent, she picked up smoking. After some small talk, Toshi got tired of beating around the bush and gently took Amelia's hands in his and just... He looked her in the eyes and laid everything out on the table. Their first kiss did not happen there. Toshi, being the hopeless romantic he is, insisted on taking her out on a date. She agreed, though she didn't know half of what she was supposed to do on a date. Cue her massive fucking panic. She's calling every girl she knows, begging for advice, help, and smoking like a goddamned chimney. Most of the girls practically teleported to her shitty apartment and IMMEDIATELY took over her preparations. "Take a shower while we get everything ready." " God, brush your teeth, you smell like a communal smoking room! " She does BOTH at the same time. The women, who owed her favors, bought clothes for the date and had her try on a lot of them until they settled on a dress that was soft fire colors. The women did her hair. She REFUSED on makeup. They left, never to be seen again, and Amelia waited. That wait was more nerve wracking than facing any villain, and, right on the dot,  there he was. If she wasn't certain she was in love before, she was then. He was dressed in a black and white suit, holding flowers and blushing and stumbling over his words. His goddamned eyes. Those blue eyes that outstripped the sky. The date went well, and, because he's a romantic dork, he took her on a walk through the park. THAT is where their first kiss happened. And because Nature had to be dramatic and add to the whole thing, fucking flower petals were falling around them as they were kissing. And by god, Amelia swore she could die happy. One date turned to two, and two turned into three, until they were just boyfriend and girlfriend. She is madly in love with her Westaboo boyfriend. And instead of All Might taking the hit from All For One, Amelia took it. She shoved him out of the way and took the shot after telling him she loved him and kissing him one more time. She almost died permanently. She flatlined three times on the operating table. But then it all but ended her Hero Career. But... She wasn't complaining. She got more time with Toshi when he wasn't working... Though the scar she sees as ugly, and has self confidence issues afterwards. She's astonished Toshi is still with her. She's blown away when he finally proposes to her on her birthday after a day full of presents and good friends and even better food.Toshinori gets her alone and starts talking about how his life is better with her in it and how much he loves her, and he gets down on one knee and says, "You've been by my side through thick and through thin, through the bad and the good times, and even the worst times. You've smiled, despite whatever pain you're in, despite whatever heartache you felt, and you did it all beautifully. Not a day goes by that I'm not grateful for you being in my life. Your kindness and compassion is beyond inspiring, and your heart is beyond compare. You are truly a Hero, my darling Amelia. I love you so much. Amelia Liona, will you make me the happiest man alive and do me the honor of becoming my wife?" She stops for a moment, overwhelmed with love and adoration. "Yes. A thousand times yes, Toshi!" And like... She's covered him in kisses. Of fucking course she says yes, she loves him and has dreamed of marrying Toshinori since they started dating. And later down the line, she adopts a child and the child becomes her successor.

[professortora]

i got tagged | mun answers

Tagged by @drorah-walks

Are you named after anyone? Nope! I’m named after a beach in Hawai’i. My parents were going to name me Jordan, which... honestly I still think would’ve fit me just fine. But they switched to [REAL NAME REDACTED] at pretty much the last possible second, apparently because the nurse insisted that she’d never met a more [REAL NAME REDACTED] looking baby in her entire life.

When was the last time you cried? Man, I cry all the damn time, but the last time was probably after I didn’t get the job I’d been interviewing for last week. I was pretty drunk at the time, and it kind of. Stopped and started a few times so. I’ll just say, in fairness: pretty much all of last Wednesday.

Do you like handwriting? I do! I worked really hard to perfect my own handwriting and I still get self conscious about it, which is weird because I find it fairly easy to read other people’s handwriting no matter how terrible it is. I guess I’m just a perfectionist?? Ehhhh

What’s your favorite lunch meat? Tofurkey. No I’m... I’m really serious. I went back to eating meat almost a year ago now, but I still buy fake lunchmeat, because I legitimately like it better.

Do you have kids? Not yet, but I will eventually.

If you were another person would you be friends with you? Yeah, I probably would. I’m friends with a lot of different kinds of people, and even if we never vibed seriously, I know myself, and I know I go way out of my way for people -- I’m funny, and I’m kind, and I give people a lot of free stuff, which is pretty much the key to getting people to like you. I think I’d honestly like me better if I didn’t have to actually be me all the time.

Do you use sarcasm? No, never. Do you?

Do you still have your tonsils? Yup! 

Do you bungee jump? NAH! STRONNNNNGGGG NAHHHH

What’s your favorite cereal? Honestly, it’s probably either Trix or Honey Nut Chex, but I can never afford either, so I just stick to my Special K with Strawberries because I honest to God think they forget to charge the right amount for it.

Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Lmao yeah but only when I have to. I used to be able to just kick my workshoes off or toe em on and go, but my new ones always have to be tied and untied which probably adds a solid 4 minutes onto my commute

Do you think you’re a strong person? Yeah. I don’t like that I have to be, but I know that I am.

What’s your favorite ice cream? Mint chocolate chip. It’s boring, but I love it.

What’s the first thing you notice about people? Size, skin color, and then, oddly, whether or not I think they could take me in a fight. I actually hone in on this quicker than on almost any other attribute. How confident I am around someone initially is usually based on this assessment; the people I try to either butter up or avoid at all costs are people who, I am usually forced to acknowledge, I do not think I could take in a fight.

What’s the least favorite thing you like about yourself? Man, a lot of things -- but mostly, my least favorite thing about myself is how I have this part of my brain that constantly hounds and attacks me over any tiny mistake I ever make. My internal peace is constantly disturbed by a shitty little voice that degrades my accomplishments and blows my missteps way out of proportion until I feel like I’m not worthy of love or success or life itself. Also: lowkey fuck off with this question

What color pants and shoes are you wearing right now? I’m fuckin pantsless my dude

What are you listening to right now? I got DS9 playing in an open tab and I was about to switch to Monster Factory which I just started watching and. Holy shit. I love

If you were a crayon what color would you be? Fuschia.

What’s your favorite smell? I have a super sensitive noise, so I love a whole bunch of smells. Probably my default favorite is vanilla? But I love the smell of oranges and lemons, too -- roses -- jasmine -- a match right after it goes out -- my grandma’s favorite brand of laundry detergent -- my mom’s house where I grew up -- dog fur -- my best friend from high school’s deodorant -- incense -- mint. 

Who’s the last person you talked to on the phone? My mommy uvu

Favorite sport to watch? Lmao does comedians going in on the president count as a sport?

Hair color? Pink. (Naturally: red.)

Eye color? Green.

Do you wear contacts? Nope, although I probably should - I wear my glasses all the time, and it would probably be easier to switch to contacts. But my glasses are part of my Look(TM) now, and also you have to pay to get a special consultation to get contacts and my poor ass can’t afford that, sooooooo

Favorite food to eat? I love Indian food to death, which is all @mochalatt3‘s fault if we’re being totally honest. I also really like Italian, Mexican, and Japanese. 

Scary movies or comedy? I kind of hate both? Generally? Scary movies I hate viscerally and often cannot sit through. Comedies... I just hate the trappings of. Like, gimme an OLD comedy and maybe we can talk, but modern comedy movies just. Ugh. They’re gross, unfunny garbage and I just. No thanks.

Last movie you watched? Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for an online class I’m taking. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was a good movie.

Color of shirt your wearing? White with rainbow text.

Summer or winter? Summer, although I don’t feel too strongly one way or the other.

Hugs or kisses? Hugs and kisses (but only if I like you and we’re cool and you don’t make it weird)

What book are you currently reading? I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. It’s a really good book - and timely, I think - but it’s a punch in the throat, emotionally.

Who do you miss right now? @mochalatt3 and @calamitylena who I literally always miss, constantly, because no amount of being together with either of them would ever be enough, being close to them is nourishment for my soul and I die a little bit every second that we’re apart.

What’s on your mousepad? There is no mousepad. Only mouse

What’s the last TV show you watched? I’m thinking about watching every Dukat episode of DS9 just all in a row.

What’s the best sound? My best friends laughing. Honestly, when I’m really upset, I’ll just think about the sound of my best friends’ laughter and it makes me feel better.

Rolling Stones or the Beetles? I’m good

What’s the furthest you’ve ever traveled? Probably Kyoto.

Do you have a special talent? I’m pretty good at just...getting stuff. Not like physically but intellectually and spiritually. I’m pretty good at just understanding how things and people work.

Where were you born? If you wanna steal my social security number you’re gonna have to phish me like anyone else

Tagging: @skrain400babiesdukat, @mckaytriarchy, @astralmedic, @defectivevorta-and-changeling, @abadpenname