#and unfortunately my favorite character is Azula

[the-genius-az]

Since I know how much you love Azula having serious medical problems (jk), would you read a fic I've been thinking abt writting with Azula having serious heart problems that is absolutely not because of my own struggles

-Squid

SQUID ARE YOU OKAY? HOW DO YOU HAVE HEART PROBLEMS?? AT LEAST TELL ME YOU'RE OKAY! 😭😭

I've calmed down. 👍

ABSOLUTELY, I would read any Azula fic they send me, especially if she has medical problems. :)

Sick Azula reminds me a lot of Leper King or Kagaya Ubuyashiki.

All three of them are geniuses and their people love them! I love the comparison. :)

[seyaryminamoto]

My latest completed commission may have been a bit ambitious... because I went wild with it. But I certainly relished in doing so :') Combining my favorite ship with my favorite-ever Disney movie is, uh... a dangerous concoction :'D

The commissioner specifically requested for Azula as Mulan, Sokka as Shang, and Xin Long (my OC dragon from Gladiator) as Mushu. The rest of the cast was up to me to choose, and I pretty much went wild rewatching this movie and picking out some of my favorite moments to recreate them in my style, with these characters. I came up with a lot of correlating characters between both ATLA and 1998's Mulan, but I couldn't hope to draw EVERYTHING, unfortunately. Still, if you want my reasoning for the cast correlation... check out the Read More! Beyond that, feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to commission me, or if you want to join my Patreon!

The Herbalist as Mulan's grandmother might feel arbitrary but she honestly felt like the ATLA elderly lady with the most similar personality to Grandma Fa. Fickle, with a unique connection with a seemingly perfectly ordinary animal, old and sassy? Figured it fit! So for once, the Herbalist is Azula's grandma! xD strange notion, I know, Azulon/Herbalist is not a ship I ever thought I'd accidentally put out in the world but there have been wilder ships than that in this fandom...

Momo became Cri-Kee, I wasn't 100% sold on it but when I considered that Avatar features soooo many hybrid animals... I figured he could be a hybrid cricket-lemur. Weird, I know, but eh? Better than nothing xD

Aang as Chien-Po was a no-brainer. He's the only character I settled on instantly, never even considered anyone else for the role. Their personalities line up really well, and Chien-Po's tendency to be OP and resolve things that are outside of other people's reach sounded like he was prime Avatar material! So, while their dietary preferences are an obvious difference between them, I decided to go for it nonetheless considering all their other similarities!

Kino (another Gladiator OC) is Ling, and he actually did give me a ton of trouble to choose. I considered many characters for the role right up until I realized that Kino's personality actually lines up fairly well with Ling's, down to being a class clown type (who ABSOLUTELY would have cut gym class!) and breaking out in song about the hypothetical woman he'd like to fight for? Yeeeeah that's right up his alley xD but there's another reason why I picked Kino...

... And that is my likely unexpected choice for Yao:

ZUKO.

ZUKO IS YAO.

YES.

I'M NOT EVEN SORRY.

(For the uninitiated, Aang, Zuko and Kino are best friends in Gladiator, very often together, and they make a really good team, so that's the extra reason why Kino became the obvious choice for Ling aside from having really similar personalities, definitely closer personalities than, say, Jet, for instance.)

People have likened Zuko to Shang a LOT since ATLA aired. This is the main reason why I'm even making this huge note! I suspect it's primarily because of the aesthetic, let's be real here, and because he becomes Aang's teacher, but people have exaggerated Zuko's alleged similarities with Shang, or taken them out of proportion, in many ways. I actually remember an AMV ages ago with "Be a Man" and it was Zuko "training the Gaang"?? It... didn't feel right to me. Obviously, someone might rebuff with "well, how does Sokka make MORE sense than that, though?" And believe it or not, I have arguments for that... (when do I not...?)

Not only is this what the commissioner specifically requested (and it obviously lines up with the ship we love!), but let's examine the actual reasons why Sokka as Shang adds up:

Sokka actually had to train a bunch of toddlers who weren't paying any attention to him. You know. Kind of how Shang had to train the unruly soldiers who weren't getting anything right. Sokka has a positive relationship with his dad (Zuko, ofc, does not). Shang also has a positive relationship with his dad! And not only this, but there's a military component to both relationships, specifically with Shang wanting to follow on his father's footsteps and aid him in the war... so much like someone else I know, who jumped at every opportunity to rejoin his father in the war, even wishing to join him as a child until Hakoda tasked him with protecting their Tribe instead (kinda like Shang is tasked with training soldiers rather than joining a battlefield).

And the final cherry-on-top that I'd loooove to hear Zuko fans try to argue against... is sexism :') didn't Sokka get characterized as a sexist guy for four episodes, which made people decide that this was his main character trait even if it went away that quickly? Um, yes, that happened. Shang literally sings the memorable song that's a crazy ode to masculinity, including the rather sexist line of "did they send me daughters when I asked for sons". Shang outright abandons Mulan once they discover that she was a woman all along (while, admittedly, choosing to abandon her rather than KILL HER, which as we saw from Chi-Fu, he was NOT supposed to spare her!)...

So, is this REALLY what Zuko fans, who willfully believe their boy is a feminist king (... why? beats me...) are trying to compare their unproblematic blorbo to? :'D Me? I have no problem linking Sokka with Shang due to Sokka's beginnings and due to the fact that both Shang and Sokka have similar growth when it comes to accepting femininity is as valid as masculinity, and as they both learn to respect women as fighters and potential heroes! (I simply do not believe Sokka's ENTIRE tenure in ATLA was about that, though, and that's what I continue to clash with the fandom over...) So... all this is why I've reasoned that Sokka is a VERY solid choice for Shang, in fact, better than Zuko could hope to be.

... but this isn't all.

Maybe some might accept my arguments for Sokka-Shang. And then, they might ask:

WHY ZUKO AS YAO, THO??

... And the truth is it took me long to see it, myself, but HOLY SHIT, DOES IT FIT!

What is the primary thing we remember about Yao in Mulan? This guy is constantly itching for a fight, to prove himself, surely riddled with insecurities that he exteriorizes through overcompensation of masculinity. He's funny as fuck, but he's taking himself 100% seriously as a manly man all the time, and he's always ready for violence. But there's one more thing...

He treats Mulan as his RIVAL.

And more often than not? SHE SCREWS HIM OVER. Intentionally or not.

What does that sound like? Why, yes, it sounds a LOT like Azula and Zuko's sibling relationship!

The fact that Yao is a temperamental dude who lashes out easily at things (oh, something he has in common with Zuko!), that he specifically resents Mulan (in this case, Azula, just as Zuko does!) and is either constantly looking to defeat her and prove his superiority over her (... wait, just as Zuko with Azula??), that he has a black eye perpetually across the movie, and it's his LEFT EYE (just as Zuko's scar is on his left eye! :'D), that he's friends with a pacifist he has basically nothing in common with, personality-wise (just like Zuko and Aang!), and that he pretty much has a REDEMPTION ARC in which he goes from a bitter, asshole rival to Mulan to treating her as a friend and ally, to the point where he was disappointed to leave her behind and THEN joined her at once when she says she has a plan? :') I have always been critical of Zuko's redemption arc, goes without saying. But if ANY of these characters redeemed himself in any significant way, it certainly seems to be Yao to me, and with people gushing NON-STOP about Zuko's redemption? Why, he ought to be the character who goes from bitter rival to loyal friend, right?

So. I'm not even sorry. Zuko is Yao. And I'd dare say that he should be flattered by the comparison, even, because Yao ends up being cool as FUCK!

I don't really talk about this much nowadays, but Mulan was my favorite Disney movie growing up, it ABSOLUTELY had a formative influence on me as a little girl, and Mulan was my favorite female character for a looooong time. Thus, any excuse to rewatch this movie makes me happy as heck. With the wisdom of age I know, of course, that it's not perfect, it's not what China wants, it's not the most thoughtful depiction of Chinese culture or the most faithful adaptation of Mulan's poem (... but I'd also dare bring up that the 2009 Chinese adaptation ISN'T all that faithful either...), but it has a kind of magic in it, a solid storytelling flow, so many memorable moments one after the next, that I could hardly choose which scenes to depict... Disney has never again seen the storytelling heights it reached with Mulan in 1998. I don't even care if that's a controversial opinion in any way... this is their best animated feature for me, and nobody can change my mind.

So... depicting Azula, my beloved, in all these scenarios as this character I adored and idolized as a child, was so damn fulfilling for me. While some might think that, personality-wise, these two ladies don't have much in common, the fact that Mulan is sent to a matchmaker who basically tells her she looks good but is going to be the worst wife ever...? Our girl Azula, with all those insecurities about being unloveable and a monster, probably would relate big time to that.

Mulan is also an INTELLIGENT soldier rather than a brawny one, which is how she starts to make progress in the army, it's how she manages to overcome the huns with that avalanche... and Azula's primary difference with most other antagonists in ATLA is that she's smart as fuck. She is very strong, no doubt, but a LOT of that strength comes from her intelligence, from assessing situations in unique ways, from planning and strategizing. The way Mulan finds the most unexpected solutions that still pay off reminds me a lot of how Azula achieves unexpected feats through rather unorthodox means, capable of taking over a city with basically no bloodshed while her nation has spent 100 years trying and failing to do so through major army incursions and who knows how much senseless violence. Obviously, I'm not saying what Azula did is GOOD and it's kind of dumb that we always have to point that out... I'm merely comparing the magnitude of the feats, and the fact that they both come from ladies who use strategy and intelligence to achieve their goals rather than muscle and physical power.

And while anyone would rage at me for the comparison between Fa Zhou (her dad) and Ozai, the truth is the dynamic between them CAN be compared, if loosely: Mulan literally goes to war to keep her father safe. Azula goes to war under her father's orders. Hell, she makes herself BAIT in the Eclipse to make sure the Gaang won't get to her dad?? While it's very much possible to say that both characters have different personalities and attitudes in life... I'd also bring up that their contexts are evidently completely different. I wouldn't say for certain that Azula, had she been raised outside a Royal Family, would be EXACTLY like Mulan... but they might have more similar traits than one might expect. Ultimately, though... I love them both. And this opportunity to swap their places was pretty much a dream come true!

Alright, that was plenty of rambling xD ultimately, I had a blast doing this commission, as I'm sure is obvious by now. So! If anyone wants to commission me, feel free to check out my prices right here and hit me up if you're interested!

[miss-sweetea-pie]

One of my favorite parallels between Aang and Zuko is during the crossroads of destiny episode. I feel like it’s more subtle since lot that happened was side sweep mostly in Aang case unfortunately.

For most of the story we noticed Aang and Zuko are parallel with each other for example we get their back stories at the same time, we watch them work together. And during the guru and crossroad episode we see that they need to make an active decision on who they are meant to be. Time to face there wants and needs.

For Aang his want is to be with Katara no matter the cost vs his need to master the avatar state.

And for Zuko it’s wanting to go home to the fire nation vs need to do the right thing and make an active decision and be branded as a traitor.

And the really interesting part is that the writers use katara as an anchor in away to express this point.

My favorite way to explain it is that Zuko was suppose to let Katara in and Aang was suppose to let her go.

And guess what they both fail.

Zuko’s betrayal was supposed to be a surprise for both the audience and the characters. all out in the open. oh no! Zuzu we where rooting for you! How could you?

Aangs betrayal was a secret only the audience and Aang knew about it. And it should have been explored more in season three. And yes Aang did betray everyone when he turn his back on the Guru. And he definitely betrayed Katara in that moment, because all katara wants is for him to have control of the avatar state and end this war. And it crazy that Aang keeps the truth to himself, like he doesn’t feel bad about keeping that from Katara? So much for getting the mark of the trusted. Am I right? (Sure the show tried to explain that azula’s lightning blocked his chakras now but that sounds more like a sloppy way to fix it so Aang can get his forever girl, also it ruins the narrative, this was an internal struggle for Aang to overcome) I have heard the argument that Aang being shot with lightning was a punishment for letting go of Katara but I see it more as a punishment for letting her go in that moment when he should have already done it. Think about it if he just mastered the avatar state he essentially could’ve just rolled into Ba Sing Se with god mode activated, stopped Azula and black sun would have been a success and war is over. Him not letting go of Katara when the Guru suggests it does however tie into he’s character flaw, avoidance. he waited till he has no choice but to do it so he is “punished” for it.

Well at least Zuko got to redeem himself. All Aang got was a perfectly place rock it’s a shame.

[0pawprint0]

All the autographs I got! The only person on my list I didn’t get was Matthew. His lines were long throughout the whole con. But I got a picture with him and he complimented my Shaggy cosplay, so I still consider it a win! He was super kind.

The Hazbin gang were all so sweet and talking to them was so much fun! They all seemed to love my Sir Pentious cosplay! Erika even asked for a pic to show Alex. He didn’t respond while I was there, but he’s a very busy person, so I get it completely ^^

I nearly cried when I got to meet Rob. I have looked up to him for so long and it was so amazing to finally meet him. He was as wonderful as you’d expect. It was super hard to choose which poster for him to sign because he plays so many characters I love. I ended up picking Donnie because TMNT 2012 is my favorite version and I never see anything for it. I was telling him about how even some of his super specific roles like Eric from The Little Mermaid 2 have stuck with me and he gave me a hug! He also addressed me in Donnie’s voice and knew how to spell my name without me even needing to tell him! Most people don’t spell it right. He also complimented my cosplay and asked me how to make it and everything (I was Sir Pentious that day). It was such a good time. I would talk with him all day if I could. I unfortunately didn’t get a picture with him because I didn’t have enough money (things tend to go wrong when I’m trying to save money and I had to pay to fix some things the month before fhfhfhdn). But I’m hoping to see him again one day and next time I will get a picture!

Grey was so fun to talk to! She actually had her hair put up with a pin to look like Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender), another character she plays. She excitedly addressed me as Shaggy (the cosplay I was wearing that day), telling my sister and I to "throw Scooby Snacks at any monsters you see!" and told us not to unmask anyone :’) she’s so silly and fun I love herrr! She gave us a hug, too! Frank was super nice and loved the poster my sister brought for him to sign (she got it from an artist at the con) and he even did Scooby’s voice to us!

My sister is a big fan of Cameron Monaghan, so we went to his panel. She was able to get a pic and autograph with him, too! I don’t have the pictures with her because I don’t think she’d want me to post her face here lol.

I didn’t get an autograph from him because of money, but I also got to meet Johnny Yong Bosch! He’s most known for Ichigo from Bleach, but what I was excited for was talking to him about Danganronpa (he is Hajime and Rantaro)!

This is my haul I got from comic con (excluding the things that came with my ticket). I did, indeed, come home with 4 Miku figures. But one was free! Because at that booth it was buy 2, get 1 free.

I also got a Neighthan Rot doll for fairly cheap (they go as high as $70 online). Tbh a Monster High doll is the last thing I expected to get at a con, but I’m pretty down with it lol. Especially because it’s in great condition and still had his journal!

For the Harry Potter sticker and pin, we got those for free at a free Harry Potter trivia we went to because HP is my sister’s favorite book series. She also won a book she doesn’t have! It was like a Dumbledore side story (note: neither of us support or like Rowling as a person. She did not get any money out of us, as this was free).

The mushroom sticker was given to me by an artist as I passed their table! Their info is there on the sticker if you’re interested in their work!

The stickerssss! They make me so happy. There was so many more this artist had that I wanted, but I didn’t have the money for it, unfortunately. I got Ciel, Sebastian, Grell, and Undertaker (Black Butler), Bill, Stan, Wendy, Dipper, Mabel, and Waddles (Gravity Falls - they didn’t have Soos or Ford rip), Craig and Tweek (South Park), Sir Pentious (Hazbin Hotel), Stolas (Helluva Boss), Rampo (Bungou Stray Dogs), and Amaimon (Blue Exorcist).

This stuff came with my ticket! I LOVE the poster!

I didn’t get these, but I thought they were really funny.

Post 2/2

[linkspooky]

Hey. Long time follower here. Your metas, your discussions of "bad victims", your nuanced view of heroes and victims, your favoritism towards "losers"...not only did you heavily influence my own writing and my own favorites in different medias (I'm entirely blaming you for me being a Makima stan) but you helped through an extremely dark time in my life. I don't think that you just made me a better writer, you also sort of saved my life. I'll always be grateful for that.

There's something I want to ask. You answered to another ask that you don't regret reading MHA because focusing on what doesn't work about it made your writing stronger. Do you feel the same about Homestuck? Or about the more disappointing parts of Tokyo Ghoul (and, while we're being candid here, Avatar?).

Thank you for your compliments they're very encouraging to read.

At this point this blog is becoming the bad victim lovers support group where we all hug each other and cry over how MHA is treating all of its bad victims.

HOMESTUCK: Honestly, my main problem with Homestuck is that ACT 6 was so long and uneventful full of characters not doing anything that by the end of it the only character I was invested in was Vriska. ACT 6 also did go out of it's way to kill my enthusiasm for everything I liked in ACT 5, especially John Vriska. I've never seen a comic throw out all of its previous development that the audience was invested in and like everything that was foreshadowed - oh wait My Hero Academia. Unfortunately Vriska is an all-time-fave so I still write Homestuck Fanfic about her to this day. I used to like think the finale of Homestuck was one big "meh" but after years to reflect upon it, I do like Vriska's arc ending on a final note of Terezi searching for her in the void, possibly forever, and the ambiguity of whether they'll reunite.

TOKYO GHOUL: I remember being mad about Kaneki getting a happy ending that he didn't earn. Kaneki was a character that really frustrated me for a long time, but I came to realize that if you like remove Kaneki from his group of codependent enablers he's actually a really interesting character when he's alone. So he's a character I love to explore in fic, even if I disliked what they did with him in canon. Also, Tokyo Ghoul killed off its biggest victims Furuta and Rize in a really cruel way, but it didn't kill off every single victim so it just disappoints me instead of making me sick to my stomach like MHA does.

ATLA: I actually think the Avatar the Last Airbender ending is fine. Which like, isn't saying much because I think the Season 1 finale and Season 2 finales are some of the best things ever put to television. The worst sin that the ending does is number one lack of foreshadowing in earlier in the season and number two rushed plot points. Aang not wanting to kill the Fire Lord makes sense. I think the reason a lot of people criticize this and call it an ass pull is that it's not even BROUGHT UP until the finale. Vash the Stampede is pacifist and one of my favorite characters, but it's established from episode 1 that Vash is constantly up against people who want to kill him and he either has to run away or find a way to fight back nonlethally. Azula's insanity and mental instability could have been a thing, but it's not foreshadowed at all so all it ends up doing is conveniently nerf Azula for Zuko, and also being ableist. The worst problem is while there are epic fights it doesn't feel like an ending, because everyone's character arcs are 3/4ths of the way through. ESPECIALLY ZUKO's. Like people say Zuko is acting out of character in the comics, but I think Zuko is the only person in character in the comics because that's how Zuko without a proper end to his character arc would act. It really feels like they had plans for a fourth season that they didn't get, and their solution was to cram an entire season worth of development in everything post the eclipse on season 3. The fact that Azula is left as such a hanging thread is like proof of that, and the fact that Azula's last shot in the series is just her crying and screaming with like no follow up afterwards is something I've been bitter about for fourteen years.

I could write an entire post about how Zuko's redemption arc is unfinished though. It's like the same problem as Catra. I like both characters and I'm glad they got redeemed but they crammed in the entire redemption arc into 1/2 of the last season and that simply wasn't enough time.

[azulas-daddy-kink]

Sorry if it's been asked, but thoughts on Kiyi (and Ursa)?

My thoughts on Ursa are... complicated.

Kiyi though, I simply like to pretend she doesn't exist. She's just a stupid character, Yang's little Mary Sue OC who is there purely to serve his bizarre Anti-Azula agenda. She has no reason to exist, other than to tell the audience he thinks Azula is a terrible daughter and little sister who isn't worth her mother and brother's time, and should just be replaced. The fact that she ALSO calls Zuko "Zuzu" is particularly egregious... it's actually disgusting.

Now back to Ursa, where it gets dicey is that show Ursa and comics Ursa essentially aren't even the same character, and unfortunately the comics version is a lot more fleshed out. If I'm being honest, she has basically zero redeeming qualities, and not only that, Yang tried way too hard to make her the "one true victim TM".... and failed spectacularly. She just comes off petty, spiteful, selfish, and even kind of stupid.

Yes, it was selfish of her to FUCKING FORGET HER OWN KIDS.

Yes, it was petty, spiteful, and stupid of her to write that incriminating letter which states that Zuko is not Ozai's son. Stupid in the sense that it can be (and was) later used to threaten Zuko's position and discredit any claim he may have to the throne. Petty and spiteful in the sense that this was done purely to hurt Ozai's feelings BY HER OWN ADMISSION. Girl, what???? What the actual fuck were you thinking?!

Though, I do concede that Ursa was in a difficult situation, and is a victim of Ozai's abuse (possibly even a victim of marital rape as well). And this applies to both the comics and the OG cartoon - yes, anybody with half a brain can infer that Ozai treated his wife like shit, just as he treats everyone else around him like shit. So even if we disregard the comics, I am comfortable calling Ursa a victim of domestic abuse....

HOWEVER

...this DOES NOT excuse her abuse (yes, I said it!) of Azula, nor her blatant favoritism of Zuko. Favoring one child over another is emotional abuse. Neglect is emotional abuse. Emotional abuse is indeed "real" abuse. This is not an opinion, it is a fact.

"Ozai abused Ursa" and "Ursa abused Azula" are two extremely true statements that can and should coexist.

All of this being said, I am also comfortable calling Ursa a less than ideal (even bad) mother. Bottom line, if your kid grows up thinking you don't love them, you fucked up somewhere.

[restinslices]

I liked the Twilight Lin Keui thingy idk if u watched Succession or Avatar the Last Airbender but can u do tomas,kuai liang and bi hans reaction to either of those shows and who their faves are?bi han is so azula coded

Off topic but do y’all make music playlists for y’all Ocs too? Shit is incredibly relaxing.

Bi-Han

You're so right about him being Azula coded 

Azula has to be his favorite character too. I refuse to take any criticism 

I think when Bi-Han watches anything he's probably on the villains side because sometimes they be spitting. They just have very harsh methods to go about these plans 

His favorite season I think would be season 2

Why? Ozai’s Angels obviously 

Season 3 is their downfall and season 2 is when they're all in their prime 

Plus the Ba Sing Se plot is something I can see him liking 

“See? Liu Kang is just like the king! Incompetent!”

Incorrect but that's an interesting theory 

He's such an Azula defender. He just like me fr 

Least favorite character? I wanna say possibly Commander Zhao because “how are you a Commander but you're terrible at your job?”

But I also wanna say Ozai

He could be his least favorite character because ya know, he's an abusive and manipulative sack of shit that turned his children against each other 

But he might understand his ambition and need to continue his family's legacy 

Depends on his mood ig

One of those people that saw Kyoshi for the 0.5 seconds she was on screen and immediately thought “that's my favorite Avatar”

As a kid he crushed on Ozai's Angels 

Because of the clothes alone he wanted to be apart of the Fire Nation but power wise we know that wouldn't have happened 

Oh the brainwashing of the citizens? That's unfortunate, but at least they're dressed amazing 

Pro Hama. She did nothing wrong. 

Thought blue fire was the coolest shit ever and thought Kuai Liang was ass because his shit is boring ass orange 

His favorite episodes are the season finales because it wraps everything up well and that's when the tension is extremely high 

In order it's The Crossroads of Destiny, Sozin's Comet (places 2nd because Azula lost) then The Siege of the North 

As a little bonus his favorite tale in The Tales of Ba Sing Se is The Tale of Toph and Katara 

Why do I think this? I think he likes the characters and also he enjoys watching little shits get what they deserve (the mean girls that insulted Toph)

Kuai Liang

So we're all agreeing that he definitely had a huge crush on Suki, right?

His love for female warriors that could put him on his ass started with Suki then he ends up marrying Harumi

She's a warrior right? 

Doesn't matter. She'll be dead in the next game anyway. MOVING ON-

Bi-Han wants to be apart of the Fire Nation and Kuai Liang wants to be apart of the water tribes 

As a kid he really wanted blue fire but it never happened 

Favorite characters I think would be Suki, Toph and Zuko

He loves all of them but these are his top 3

His favorite season is season 3 because it's the season that wraps up this amazing show from his childhood and it's done beautifully 

Favorite episode I think would be Boiling Rock 

It's the start of Azula's downfall and come on y'all, we saw Suki, Sokka and Zuko team up. Shit was fire (no pun intended)

He also likes The Beach because it emphasizes how broken the villains are and shows that at the end of the day, they were children robbed of a childhood 

Gets the appeal of Zutara but is a Kataang shipper 

Despises Ozai because of what he did to his kids and his people 

Honestly fuck Sozin, Azulon and Ozai

“Your people didn't deserve to live in my world!” shocked his little heart because damn, you still ain't got no remorse?

He watches this show very often as he grows up. It's never a show he forgets about 

Also fuck Long Feng

Forget all the brainwashing, it's keeping Appa that pushed him over the edge 

Definitely showing this show to his kids 

Too bad they won't live long enough to share it with their own children-

I'm done. Sorry 

Favorite tale is The Tale of Iroh 

Because… Iroh

Do I need to explain?

Tomas 

Probably had a crush on Katara 

I have no reasoning as to why. Like, with Kuai Liang it makes sense with who he marries later, but with Tomas I'm just “yeah that makes sense”

Heavily disagrees with people who call her annoying 

Yeah, she has her moments but she's not this terrible character 

As a child he was jealous of Aang because he got her in the end 

Yeah Tomas, just ignore the genocide of his people and the trauma he has-

You FOR SURE wanna be him 

Jealousy aside, he really likes Aang. I can see Aang being his favorite Avatar

Sokka is also a character he loves 

Tbh I think he loves everyone in the Gaang and while his favorite character is Katara, his second favorite switches from time to time 

Favorite season is season 1 because it kicks off this fantastic part of his childhood 

Unlike his brothers, he was fine with the element he has 

Yeah, he's smoke and not really an airbender but it's close enough 

Minus the genocide, they were living a good life (which is a wild ass sentence)

Knows all the ATLA conspiracies 

“Did you guys know there's a conspiracy that Ty Lee is a descendent of Air Nomads?”

“Did you guys hear this theory that Yue was supposed to be the Avatar after Aang but because he was in the ice she never got the Avatar spirit and that's why she needed the moon to live?”

“Do y'all think Sozin and Roku were hunching?”

Skips the Appa's Lost Days episode 

Favorite episode is The Cave of Two Lovers because it makes him laugh 

Everyone hates Ozai but you wanna know who's really on his shit list?

That old bitch that snitched on Haru

Kill him immediately 

The live action movie filled him with such a rage, he didn't know it was possible 

And because of that, he hasn't seen the live action show yet 

His favorite tale is The Tale of Sokka 

Why? It's just Sokka being a goober

[atla-confessions]

More a/b/o ATLA stuff because that ramble I made like a few days ago or something wasn’t enough to stop me from thinking about this stupid thing 😭 Sorry if this makes no sense I’m incredibly tired

Firstly, in that ramble I said healthy pups in ATLA present after their twelfth birthday. HOWEVER, I didn’t mention that in some cases, a pup can present earlier than their twelfth birthday due to harsh stress which causes a hormonal imbalance; the spirits assign your second gender earlier than expected so that it can balance your system out again. The earliest a pup can present is ten and a half.

With this said, I believe that Sokka and Katara all presented earlier than expected. In my AU, Hakoda left when Katara was ten and a half and Sokka was eleven years old and. A few months later (around 2 or 3 months) Sokka presented early due to having the weight of his entire tribe on his shoulders. Katara also presented early from a similar reason at eleven years and seven months old.

I know that with this logic, Toph and Aang probably would have presented earlier as well, but Toph was already twelve when they first met her and I don’t know much about her home life, other than the fact it was restrictive. Aang encased himself in ice when he was twelve and from the flashbacks we see about his past, he wasn’t very stressed (not to say he wasn’t stressed at all, of course).

I’m not sure about Azula or Zuko. Azula prides herself on being perfect and honestly? I think she would present the day she turned twelve, right on the perfect dot. Zuko had to deal with the trouble of his father’s… everything, and his mother’s disappearance. I don’t know for certain whether I believe he presented early or not but if he did present early, it was most likely when he was eleven and a half. Again, not sure.

Unfortunately there’s little to no information about Suki’s past (that I know of) so I can’t be for sure about anything nor can I truly talk about her without doubting myself 🙁.

OOH another thing. (If it’s not obvious I just type what comes to my head.) There was definitely a lot of conflict between Sokka and Katara when she presented as an Alpha; it wasn’t easy for either of them and they got into a lot of fights the first few months of her presentation, as newly-presented Alphas are a lot more emotional and angrier until they mellow out. Add a moody, angry Katara with a moody, sensitive Sokka (who is still somewhat new to being an Omega and is also stewing in self-hatred 24/7) and you get Chaos. And angst, lots of angst.

Right. In this AU, Sokka struggles with embracing his Omega side, hating himself for being a ‘weak babymaker’ or something else horribly rude. Because he hates himself for being an Omega, he lashes out at others and exclaims his dislike towards Omegas publicly (much to Katara’s and everyone else’s nerves). He’s not the only one who struggles with his second gender, however. Katara has problems with her own Alpha-like tendencies, much like Zuko.

(I don’t know if it’s obvious but I mostly think about Sokka and Katara with this AU; Sokka’s my favorite character and I love sibling bonding and angst!! *pats Katara and Sokka* these bad boys can fit so much pain in them!)

Anyways. Yeah, I mostly feel like there would be a lot of fights between the water siblings. These fights would be where most of Katara’s issues with being an Alpha and some of Sokka’s issues with being an Omega would come from; they’d both do things they regret. Katara would probably be aggressive without thinking and Sokka would not be able to argue back due to his mind going into ‘Panic! Stay safe from angry and scary ass Alpha!’ mode.

Anyways more than JUST Katara and Sokka. The GAANG!!

The Gaang are all definitely Pack. Like absolutely family-core (save for Kataang and Sukka, or Zukka if that tickles your pickle or whatever the phrase is).

I feel like Katara was very protective over everyone, especially in the first season when it was just her, Sokka, and Aang. She doesn’t see Sokka as weaker or anything, but her mind just can’t calm down unless she knows her brother is safe. Sokka is just as protective though, but shows it in a different way. The only other time Katara was protective to the point it was downright crazy was when Zuko joined. Another Alpha around, a potential threat? Katara would go crazy, scenting everyone to make sure Zuko understood that if he hurt any of them, she’d kill him.

I think Zuko would make sure not to upset Katara in any way, staying away from the others and making himself appear smaller and kinder so that she wouldn’t get the wrong idea.

I think Sokka would be especially protective over Toph and Aang, since they’re both pups (well, until months after the end of the war).

Ok that’s all I’m about to fall asleep. I’ll probs write more lol 😭 Still obsessed with this stupid a/b/o au thing UGH!

X

[likeabxrdinflight]

What is your take on Azula's relationship with Zuko? There's a lot of talk about her rivalry with him, but I find it more intriguing to talk about their other facets, like the implication that Azula deep down actually cares about her brother.

There's this odd phenomenon that's been happening in what I'll call ATLA fandom 2.0 (the post-netflix revival) where it seems like you have to pick a side- Zuko or Azula. If you stan one, you can't stan the other. And I haven't cared for that since, frankly, those two (alongside best girl Katara) are easily my favorite characters. So I'm not all that interested in "picking sides" and I'm not all that interested in them as rivals either. That said, it's important to note that their position in opposition to each other is important to the story the show is telling.

Azula is a character in her own right, but she's also a narrative device. As an antagonist, Azula is Zuko's most direct foil. She's his dark mirror, his evil twin (narratively speaking.) So when she's on top of the world, he's hit rock bottom, and vice versa. She represents the worst of the Fire Nation and is everything he could become if he were to give into his worst instincts (again, this is all speaking symbolically, their personalities are quite different). But because of this, she had to fall for him to rise. It's very effective storytelling within the three seasons of the show. Unfortunately that meant there wasn't much room within those three seasons to showcase any more nuance in their relationship.

I'm always torn on this decision by the showrunners, because on the one hand, it's a huge part of why Zuko's story arc is as effective as it is. And all my biases aside, Zuko's arc is very effective and, for a children's show released in 2005, pretty smartly written. It gets a bit overblown by the fandom, it's a pretty basic redemption arc at the end of the day, but it's still a well executed one and I think it's dishonest to pretend it isn't. On the other hand, it came at the cost of actually developing the relationship between Azula and Zuko and, arguably, of Azula's character as a whole. She isn't allowed to have her own arc independent of Zuko because she really only exists (from a writing standpoint) to be that dark mirror. She's not Aang et al's main antagonist. She's Zuko's. She doesn't really get to do much outside that role.

All that said I do think it goes without saying that Azula cares for Zuko. I think it also goes without saying that Zuko cares for Azula too, but he's ironically worse at expressing it (within the main series at least). Because of the way the show was written, however, none of this can be explored except in supplemental material or fanworks. And supplemental material has been...lacking, I think, in that department.

There's some awesome fanworks out there that explore their dynamic, though. I really do encourage people to go back into the archives and find stuff written years ago because stuff written at the time the show was airing/right when it ended are some of the best. The show hadn't yet been lionized as much and fandom opinions of the characters hadn't yet crystallized into what they are now (and also the comics and lok didn't exist so no one had to deal with that.)

[ultranos]

Why do you think people in the fandom whitewash Zuko, Azula and/or Azulon, but barely anyone tries with Ozai? Difficulty of execution? Lack of positive character traits to start with? Once I realized how many people whitewashed Voldemort in a relatively close fandom, I thought Ozai for sure would have some sympathizers, but I was wrong.

My guess? He causes direct, physical, and visible harm to the fandom favorite. It's the banal evil that gets people, rather than the large, incomprehensible acts of cruelty. Since you brought up HP, consider how fandom views the Dursleys or Umbridge, and how even in works that will give the wizard supremacist a bone, they'd gladly turn their knives on a lesser evil on the scale.

It's because one is far more tangible, one feels like "this could or has happened to me" much more than the other. It's how not very many of us can understand having a genocidal grandfather responsible for the deaths of thousands who would casually order our own murder to teach our parent a lesson out of spite, but there are unfortunately many who can understand an abusive and/or emotionally distant father.

It leads to a very strange and myopic protagonist-centered morality.

[vexic929]

Fandom questions!

C, F, I, M, O, R, S, and W please?

C: A pairing you wish you shipped, but just can’t.

Cisco x Iris, I like Cisco x Barry x Iris, I like Cisco x Barry, my brain can only see Iris and Cisco as friends without Barry in the mix tho lol

F: What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? What fandom was it?

almost 20 years, unfortunately it was That Fandom with the TERF author

I: Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

again, that fandom, but it was a good thing because tumblr was the only place I really saw any info that spurred me into finding out just how awful the author was

M: A person who got you into a fandom and what fandom they pulled you in to.

my irl bestie got me into Animorphs when we were like 10, she's gotten me into most of my fandoms actually except for DC

O: Choose a song at random, what ship does it remind you of?

okay it's an adorable song but hear me out: EoBarry

R: A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships.

Hartley Rathaway and Bernard Fitzmartin, I'm like 99.999% sure that nobody else has even thought about them before because they're only LOOSELY tied in the Arrowverse and have never and will never meet, but they're both my blorbos and they both worked at S.T.A.R. Labs so-

S: What’s a headcanon you have?

Hartley, being a good Missouri boy who likes baseball, would absolutely be a fan of the KC Royals (this is totally not because I am a fan of the KC Royals)

W: 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms.

Nia Nal - Supergirl

Howell Jenkins/Howl Pendragon - Howl's Moving Castle

Princess Bubblegum - Adventure Time

Princess Azula - Avatar: The Last Airbender

Light Yagami - Death Note

[hello-nichya-here]

Does Zuko not realize that Azula loves him?

Unfortunately, I really think he doesn't. We have their totally healthy family to thank for that.

Ozai forced them to be rivals and gave Azula direct orders to capture Zuko + gave them both some really warped ideas of how relationships should work, Ursa played favorites, Iroh shuts him down the one time he says "She's my sister and I should be trying to get along with her", then finally we them being on opposite sides of a war.

Everything pushed Zuko to be on his guard around her, to see her as an enemy, to take anything she does as being as serious of a betrayal as her attempt to capture him.

And worst of all, it also made him always assume his sister always has ulterior motives whenever she does something nice for him - and sometimes he is right in thinking that, which just makes him even more blind to the moments she's just genuinely trying to mend their relationship.

However, for his growth/healing all of his trauma to be complete, he'd need to fully realize just how bad Ozai messed both of them up. To understand that he used them both as pawns, didn't allow them to have a good relationship with each other - and that these were one of the many things that eventually destroyed Azula psychologically.

If he realizes that and actually gets to know Azula more, he'll end up understanding that, sure she didn't always demonstrate it in the best way, but she did love him.

I genuinely think this is the only path for his character in the future (based solely on the original show and not on bullshit like the comics, which had Gene Yang using Zuko as his self-insert instead of further developing the character)

[eponastory]

Do you really hate Aang?

Hate is a strong word.

I can't hate a character because of the way they are written. They are written the way they are because the writers want people to identify with them.

Unfortunately for me, I can't identify with a 12 year old boy. I couldn't when the show came out, and I couldn't now. The reason is that I was an adult (18-19) when the show aired, and my time as a teenager was at its end.

It's kinda like The Little Mermaid. The movie came out the year I was born, and I loved Ariel so much because she was the ideal fantasy. As an adult, I identify more with King Triton because I get his struggle with a teenage daughter who loves the first man she ever lays eyes on.

It's a pain, I know, but let's be real for a minute.

Aang is a character with flaws. It's good to have a character with flaws, but sometimes those flaws are just forgotten about because the writers want to move on. Thus, the stakes in the game have become less important.

It's kinda hard for me to go into detail about the finale of the series as a whole, but Aangs part in it just seems a little lack-luster compared to Zuko and Katara's fight with Azula or even Sokka's attempt to sabotage the air ships. Visually, it's stunning, all of it is. However, when it comes to stakes, Aang's out of the blue energy bending kinda blew the candle out for me.

Watching the finale for the first time, that scene just took the wind out of my sails and still does to this day. The whole time, I was sitting there wondering how Aang was going to defeat Ozai without killing him, and while it was pretty, it was almost anti-climatic for me. I mean, it's plot armor at its best. But I get it, the show is meant for kids, so killing people on screen is a big no. But still... having that suspense just cut only made me a little frustrated.

My problem really isn't with Aang as much as it is the writers. The most boring fight was the Aang/Ozai fight.

And then we get to the comics...

Why in the hell would Aang even agree to kill Zuko if he couldn't kill Ozai? Thats... it's stupid. I hate it... what were they thinking? So, in part, I don't see the comics as completely reliable. I also don't like how Aang is portrayed in Korra.

I'm more anti Bryke than I am anti Aang.

Do I think he and Katara make a good couple...

Absolutely not. That is all kinds of bad juju there that I've gone over before. It's a bad relationship built on jealousy and selfishness. While not toxic, it's well on its way. I also have an issue with favoritism between parents and children. That's because I've been in that situation and it's not fun. So, him doing that to his kids rubs me the wrong way.

Overall, I don't hate the character, I don't hate the writers. I'm indifferent to them, I suppose (which is neither love nor hate and is worse).

But I am anti Bryke. After all, they dissed most of their fan base and actually write like they have no idea how relationships work.

[travllingbunny]

So it was quite weird for this person to take that and make it about Misogyny and Incels when that has very little to do with it. plus, in recent years I have seen more female villains receiving this treatment often from female viewers/readers. Characters like Princess Azula, Rei Todoroki, Catra, Harley Quinn, and Heather Chandler receive this in increasingly frequent ways often with the defense that any person who dislikes these characters is a misogynist who hates and opresses women.

(pt 4) It is unfortunately a common thing in many fandoms to do to characters, but lately it often seems that any criticism towards a female character, of groups of women, or even an individual woman. is taken to be misogynistic, born from a hatred and fear of women, and often seems to take the form that every man or even most men are just evil, malicious, people or out to get women, and control and abuse them it's quite frankly ridiculous. and I think its an absurd line of thought that needs to die

Finally to answer parts 3 and 4 of your ask.

Yes, you are right that this is also another phenomenom that's pretty widespread these days. But I don't see how you think that negates what was said about the Draco in Leather Pants trope.

In my first post answeing your asks 1 and 2, I've pointed out why I think this poster was right and that the trope itself is sexist - certainly the way it's described on the TV Tropes page is, and so is, in general, the focus on how silly fangirls are ruining everything by stanning male characters they 'woobify' and find hot - while ignoring the equally widespread idolization / whitewashing of villains like TDK Joker, Walter White, Tywin Lannister etc. by fanboys. And that also the examples on the page show that this trope can also just serve as an excuse for people to rant and complain about the fact that other fans dare like characters they hate.

Fans regardless of gender and sexual orientation (and whether they find the characters attractive or not) tend to whitewash and idealize their favorite characters, but also demonize and oversimplify the characters they hate, too. The main reason for this is people's tendency to want to see every story in black and white terms, as a Heroes vs Villains story, and it gets mixed with today's prevalent idea in pop culture that you can't just like or dislike things, you need to prove that what you like is morally superior, and that the things you dislike are morally bad.

I'm not familiar with the examples you mention, but I've certainly seen it. Sometimes it's worshipping villanous female characters (say, Amy Dunne or Cersei Lannister) who are reimagined by the fandom as girlboss feminists. It feels like the flip side of the phenomenom of fanboys worshipping male villains they admire as badasses, but now with added supposed social justice aspect. It may also be a backlash against the real and blatant misogyny that was very pervasive in fandoms (I remember the time when Sansa, Dany and Catelyn were the most hated characters in the ASOIAF fandom, with people using some... interesting arguments. The one that really got me was how many people in the fandom were hating on a pre-teen girl for not wanting to have sex with a grown man she was forced to marry by her captors who were killing her own famly... because they really liked that male character. )

It might also include the rhetoric based on a certain type of (pseudo-)feminism according to which women are inherently good and perfect and can only be heroes and/or victims, while men are naturally aggressive and abusive etc. This can get hilariously hypocritical: recently a Twitter user went on a rant against fans who like abusive male characters, while being a self-proclaimed stan of Cersei Lannister and Serena Joy.

But it's not like this kind of rhetoric is used just against men (you didn't explicitly say that, but I felt like it was implied in your ask). Women will often throw accusations of misogyny against each other, and women will often show internalized misogyny towards other women in those arguments - and both things will often happen at the same time. This also happens a lot in real life arguments about politics and social issues - especially when people use girlboss feminism to argue that anyone who doesn't support or, god forbid, criticizes their favorite female politician or celebrity, is "misogynistic" and that every criticism of her, no matter how legitimate the reasons are and how little they have to do with gender, are "rooted in misogyny". In the course of that, stans often don't have a problem with mocking, attacking and bullying any number of other (usually less powerful women), and using all sorts of misogynistic insults and assumptions about them.

Now, the tricky thing is that this doesn't mean that hatred or criticism or lack of support for a woman in real life, or a female character, is fully free of misogyny, even if the woman in question is very problematic. It probably always does play a role. Some people - maybe even a lot of people - will really say and do misogynistic things about a woman even when there are perfectly legitimate reasons to criticize her that have nothing to do with gender.

Take a female character like Cersei Lannister as an example. She is a narcissist with internalized misogyny who is abusive towards every woman and girl she had any power over, and is also extremely classist, ableist and racist. While the crimes of the GoT version were downplayed (at least before the season 6 finale), the book version, among other things, is guilty of the murders of many children including a baby, murdered her friend as a child, commits sexual assault, physically and emotionally abused her disabled little brother since his birth (she already abused him as a baby), is guilty of the murder of countless little people (just because she wanted to kill her brother), sends innocent women to be tortured and experimented on, sold a woman into slavery, orders a young boy to be whipped as a way to emotionally abuse her own son.tries to frame her teenage daughter-in-law and get her executed, and the list goes on. But Cersei is also a victim herself, and that's made very clear - of her father using her as a pawn, of her husband King Robert, who used to rape her while drunk and also is physically abusive. She feels generally constrained by her position as a woman. But her takeaways from that are not empathy or support for other women or for any marginalized and oppressed people, but the exact opposite. The complexity about her character is really more about the complexity of our response to her - her horrible behavior and personality makes us hate her, her victimization makes the reader feel pity and empathy, her delusions of grandeur are often hilarious, and there are some times when we may even feel on her side. One of those times is when, after she's done so many horrible things, she doesn't get punished for any of them, but instead gets publicly shamed and humiliated in a really gross and misogynistic way for the 'crime' of having sex outside marriage.

So, is hating Cersei misogynistic? In general, heck no! There are countless excellent reasons to hate her, and anyone who tries to argue that people hating Cersei is by itself misogyny is full of sh1t. But when some people focus not on any of her crimes but call her a wh0re or making fun of the rape and abuse she's suffered or cheer for her husband hitting her - that is misogyny.

It all depends on the type of criticism (or more often hate) - the kind of arguments, or slurs used, or when they are blatantly treated differently than male characters who do similar things. There are also certain things that fandoms are more likely to accuse of or hold female characters than the male characters and vice versa. When fans hate on male characters, you'll typically see them say the character is violent, abuser, rapist, murderer, or, a particularly popular accusation nowadays, "incel" (even if it makes no sense at all). Female characters, on the other hand, will mostly get criticized for their sexual behavior, who they have sex with/whether they have sex (they'll be either slut-shamed, or mocked as frigid women who have never had an orgasm), which male characters they reject, whether they are good mothers (male characters will get far less criticism for being neglectful or straight-up abusive fathers to their own children, while female characters' motherhood will get dissected endlessly), they will be blamed for the actions of men for the way they have supposedly infliuenced / manipulated them (whether or not there's any evidence of that) etc. while, on the other hand, actual violent crimes those or other women may commit might actually get ignored - because a woman committing violence is either unimaginable, funny or girlbossy. and that especially goes for things like rape, sexual abuse or domestic violence (because women are gentle helpless flowers who can never do such things, amirite). Female characters will also get criticized and hated and called a Mary Sue just for basically having the same tropes as male protagonists do all the time: being the Chosen One with some special destiny, being very competent in some area, influencing a lot of people. I've seen pretty much every female protagonst or supporting character who is described as being exceptional in any way as a Mary Sue - while male characters who are all those things to a much higher degree never get that.

So, there's a lot of sexism in fandoms. But there's also a lot of bad fath arguments and blanket accusation of misogyny as a convenient tool in fandom discourse, the same way that you'll inevitably get accused of being homophobic or biphobic jor racist just for not being a stan of certain characters or not shipping certain ships or preferring some ships to others. And again, there is real racism, homophobia, bisephobia, transphobia, misogyny in the fandoms, but fans will also try to use those accusations as a tool to win fandom debates and prove their side of the fandom is the morally right one, and the ones who disagree with them are bad.

I can't help but use the House of the Dragon fandom as an example, because that fandom is a huge toxic mess, with the fandom divided into Team Black and Team Green depending on which faction of the fictional dragonriding royal family fighting a civil war over the throne they like better....and the accusation of misogyny is especially popular. Quite a few of the Team Black stans are taking it to a whole new level by accusing everyone who isn't one of them of misogyny - because if you don't fully and 100% support the side that is trying to put Rhaenyra, a woman, on the throne you must be a misogynist. (Rhaenyra is the protagonist, but the story is very morally grey one without heroes or villains, and if you've read the source material you know just how morally grey it is, and that insisting that people have to root for either side is pretty silly... not to mention that it's all a fictional medieval monrachy, so why would you treat fiction as real life and also why would you then yell at people that they need to supprot hereditary monarchy in general?) The funniest thing is, however, the fact that many of those who are the loudest in those accusations are themselves making extremely misogynistic arguments against female characters on "Team Green", especially Alicent, the other main female character, who's the central charactre on Team Green. Rhaenyra gets some hate that is rooted in misogyny (such as slut-shaming or judging her more harshly than male kings or pretenders to the throne), but there are many more fans who idealize her and ignore or downplay her flaws and mistakes (in the show she's generally portrayed as someone to root for at this point in the story at least, but not as someone who's flawless - but most of the fandom hates nuance!), flattening her as a character in the process. But, since Team Black makes up around 80-90% of the fandom, it's Alicent who gets demonized, so it's much more common to find misogynistic takes about her (downplaying or mocking and making memes of her victimization and every instance of sexual abuse, rape and humiliation she's endured, arguing that she 'seduced' a grown man when she was 14 , trying to reduce her to an 'evil stepmother' trope, hyperfocusing on her as a "bad mother"- while the bad fathers, including her husband, don't get the same treatment, blaming her for the actions of the men around her...). The fandom also bullied both of the actresses who have played her, to the point that one left social media for a while, and the other has publicly spoken about the cyber bullying she was exposed to and how it affected her (and as a result of talking about it, got hated and attacked even more). At the same time, male characters who have done much, much worse and are actually murderers and/or rapists and abusers get whitewashed and adored if they are on the "right" team (even abuse against Rhaenyra gets downplayed if it's committed by a man from Team Black), and even the men on Team Green who have actually commited murder and/or rape are getting less hate than Alicent (and their crimes are often used to reflect on her).

And that's why the HotD fandom is a perfect example showing that many of the people in fandoms who use misogyny (or some other supposedly progressive issue) don't really care about it. It all just comes down to winning a fandom war.

[balanceoflightanddark]

Hey what fandoms do you like, I got some ideas for Azula crossovers and want to see if there any of them would work for you.

Well...I do have a few fic ideas at the moment that I'm working on and I haven't quite gotten to the idea of working on multiple fics at once, but I could give some series that I like.

Pokemon: This was the show I remember growing up on. And ultimately the one that would get me into fanfiction to begin with. My first proper fanfiction was a continuation of Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness that ran for 42 chapters over the course of two years. I'm actually pretty proud of that one.

Naruto: I remember playing the Ultimate Ninja Storm video games and getting hooked on the setting and the characters. I...will admit I did write a few one-shots and I do have an idea for an eventual longfic. I kind of want to focus on my Godzilla/ATLA crossover at the moment, but that's an idea that's on the drawing board.

Alien: I am of the personal belief that the Xenomorph is one of the best movie monsters ever put to film. I'm a huge fan of the first two movies, I read some of the old books, and Alien: Isolation is one of my favorite horror games out there.

Mass Effect: Fell in love with the original trilogy, especially how they handled the worldbuilding and all the various well-thought-out alien races and factions. The characters are extremely likable and developed, and stuff like the deradicalization of the Krogan and the conflict with the Geth are some of my favorite plots in video games in recent years.

Jurassic Park: The first movie has to be one of my favorite films of all time. I read both of the original novels. Played through both Operation Genesis and the first Evolution game. I...unfortunately haven't had the pleasure of watching Camp Cretaceous but I've heard a ton of good reception for that series so it is on the list. The World trilogy I...have mixed feelings on. Loved the first one, didn't really like the second on, initially liked the third one but my opinion sort of soured over time.

And that's a few series I'm into. As for Azula, I'm sort of going to stick with The Monsters We Create for the moment, but there is this idea at the back of my mind that I keep coming back to. It's another crossover like you suggested, but this one would be a crossover with Dinotopia which I've talked about twice on my account. It's the book series turned mini-series about a peaceful society where dinosaurs and humans coexist. And I thought it would be interesting to throw a post-canon Azula into that mix and see what happens.

Anyways that's all I got. Feel free to share some of your ideas.

[seyaryminamoto]

These latest chapters have been pure brilliance. Azula stealing Rei was also really funny. Azula should someday invent the Avatar world's version of Child Protective Services, I know its not quite the same thing here, but near enough. I'd fallen behind so reading all the latest chapies in two sittings was a pleasure. I even had to remember I had a legit account here, I almost messaged as an anon again. Well, now for one of my usual random questions. What's your top 5 favorite OCs to write?

X'D glad you've enjoyed the chaos! While Part 3 starts out in such a heavy way, I feel like it hits its stride pretty quickly (probably because I really didn't want to drag out the hopeless misery any longer than necessary...). Rei provided a wonderful change of pace in Azula's story, the impact she's had on Azula is always lots of fun to write, and the development of that bond never fails to make me happy. I went out of my way to make a meme about it, some time ago...

Azula creating a Child Protective Services system sounds like something no one in the world would imagine Azula would do, not even Azula herself... and yet it sounds like a legitimate possibility as things stand x'D

As for your question... favorite OCs? Ooh boy...

Well, I think Rei would be #1 right now. She's just gold without even knowing it. I don't know how she won over my heart as fast as she did, but she just did. That's her secret superpower, I suspect. She's a really good remedy for all the hardships we've been dealing with, and giving Azula another unique bond with a character is always great <3

Xin Long is probably #2, though writing him as of late makes my heart hurt for obvious reasons... but he was always crazy fun to write. Writing his draconic monologues cracked me up every time, he's wonderfully chaotic and straightforward, writing this dork was always gratifying.

Might be sad that he'd be so low, but our #3 is Rui Shi... oh, Rui Shi. Don't we all miss our good man Rui Shi. *wipes tear*

I'll bestow #4 to Kino and I hope he takes the spot with pride, he's really fun to write too. It can be tricky sometimes to choose what to do with him, I really don't want Kino to feel redundant, or too comic relief, but we'll give him more chances to shine in the future for sure. He's great at easing up many heavy atmospheres, gotta love our reckless Fire Nation army deserter for that.

... I'm gonna go on an impulsive one right now and give an answer that might sound really weird right now to close up my top 5: my #5 is Anorak. Yep. That's who. Why? I think it will become clear relatively soon... though not too soon. To be 100% honest, I didn't even think I'd care about this character remotely as much as I've grown to... but a plot twist I devised for him recently has changed things, big time. I have a surprisingly large soft spot in my heart for this guy, crazy as it might be.

As for runner-ups... I feel bad for leaving him out of a top 5, but Renkai probably would have been right after Anorak, at least! The Priestess of the Flames is also an important one to mention because, as much as she's not a character we've seen often... she's basically one of my old OCs from my original stories, repurposed for Gladiator xD so I have a soft spot for her too and always enjoy writing her. I also reeeeally love Mei Xun, she's a very interesting character to work with. Naturally, all of Azula's guards deserve credit here, they're such a loveable group even though I didn't really set out with the intent of making them loveable x'D Seethus is also quite interesting to write, but unfortunately Ozai isn't giving him enough material to work with lately. More things to begrudge him for, I guess (?)

Anyway, hope that's a decent list :D