#another long one guys sorry

[captainvulcant]

ATLA vs NATLA: The same woman problem

There was one thing which particularly stood out for me in the live action ATLA (though it is not alone in this phenomenon) and that is how all the female characters seemed like they were reduced to the same basic archetype. We've seen it a lot in the media recently, the cool girl who is slightly wry, incredibly competent, badass, kicks ass, you get the idea. This is very much the modern makeover I felt the female characters in NATLA were given, and it got me thinking about ATLA and how good it was at presenting different types of women.

We had Katara who was fierce and nurturing, Suki who was cool and competent, Yue who was soft and kind, Toph who was brash and confident, Azula who was smart and scary, Ty Lee who was bright and mischievous, Mai who was insoucient and loyal. In the live action it felt like we just got different flavours of the same person.

I didn't take as much issue with the fire nation trio, Azula seemed pretty in character and we didn't see enough of Mai and Ty Lee yet to judge. I hope that they and Toph keep more of their strong personalities in season 2.

But Katara Suki and Yue fell pretty flat for me. A lot of Katara and Suki's personality traits were sacrified in the name of making Sokka less sexist. His learning in this area centres around his relationships with Katara and Suki and, therefore, with this aspect of his character removed it necessitated changing theirs. I don't personally see this as more progressive than the alternative.

Katara A huge part of Katara's personality is removed in the live action. Her nurturing, motherly nature has long been a point of contention in the fandom. But it represented a subset of women who are like that (ask any eldest daughter if Katara resonated with her). In the cartoon Katara and Sokka definitely trade off on being the responsible one of the group. Katara takes care of the basic needs, the emotional needs, and keeping the group together. Sokka takes care of navigating and the safety of the group. I don't know why they couldn't have kept this. Instead, Katara is treated like a child by Sokka (a whole year her senior and apparently all the wiser for it). The way that Katara takes over the role of her mother in the animation is reality for a lot of girls, these things often fall on daughters and I think Katara was a really important character for highlighting this.

Sokka's story focusses heavily on him trying to live up to his dad, so we could easily have had a parallel with Katara trying to live up to her mum. Characters can have more than one motivation, but for Katara we were just given her waterbending. And even here we miss key things through Katara being taught healing rather than discovering it herself, and then rejecting learning healing in favour of learning to fight. Ironically, NATAB has failed to understand the message of the northern water tribe arc - that both healing and fighting are important. And that is Katara: she heals and she destroys. She is a nurturer and a fighter. She is both, and both are important.

Additionally, a lot of Katara's relationship with Aang comes from her concern over him. With this absent, their relationship doesn't feel as strong, Aang instead being the one to teach and help her. Katara's emotional bond with Aang is also used in the live action as a plot point but it falls short of the emotional impact of the original because we have not been shown that bond. Katara's nurturing nature being contrasted with her fighting spirit and prowess is such a wonderful personality contrast which really rounds out her character in the animation and I felt its absence.

Suki I already talked about this briefly in my overall review so I will be short here. I personally didn't like what they did with Suki's character in the live action. In the animation I love how playful Suki is with Sokka. She is very self-assured, she knows what she wants and she goes for it. With Sokka's character changes we don't see this side of Suki with him anymore, she is unsure and un-wordly. Sokka seems instead to take the lead. She may still have the physical strength but the live action Suki feels lacking in emotional and internal strength for me. Added to this is her mother, who further brings out a side of Suki that isn't in the animation and I don't particularly identify with her character. I honestly can't quite explain my issue with other than it gave me an off feeling and the ick. I feel like I've seen this character so many times before, whereas Suki in the animation felt really refreshing.

Yue This is where we see the biggest departure from the animation. It's like they were so scared to make a main female character anything other than badass (in a very specific definition of badass). Every other female character I mentioned at the beginning can fight, and can fight well. Yue is the only main female character in the original who cannot, who doesn't even bend, and I think that's really important. It's important that Yue uses words instead of fighting, it's important that she does this despite the difficulties she faces due to her place in the world as a woman.

I was confused about why they would keep the Northern Water Tribe's tradition of women not being allowed to fight but not also keep the patriarchal governing system in place. Making Yue a bender and a priestess takes away the whole point of her original sacrifice, which is that you don't have to be physically strong or an amazing martial artist or bender to make a difference. It's Yue's heart which matters. Apart from the Avatar, Yue is arguably the most important character in the whole of the story. She is a soft girl, she is a kind girl, she is a girl who hasn't really been given much of a voice, she is a girl who has had her life very much decided for her. And she saves the moon. She saves waterbending. She does that. Only she could do that. To me Yue is an important parallel for both Aang and also Ozai (and to a lesser extent Zuko and Azula). She is the example Aang must follow, her destiny was to save the moon as Aang's destiny was to be the Avatar. These things are decided, how they approach them is up to the individual. With Ozai, Yue is his foil as a good leader. Unlike Ozai she never held the power of leadership, but she did assume the responsibility. She sacrificed herself for her people, Ozai sacrificed his people for his power.

The way they characterise Yue in NATLA just felt like too much of a departure from the original for me. They even make fun of the original when Yue says that she isn't really like her princess act (her act being how Yue is in the animation). Absolutely no hate to the live action actress as she was just acting how she was written and directed (although for me personally I also did not get any Yue vibes from her in terms of looks), but that Yue was far closer in personality to Katara and Suki (and even Sokka) than the animation Yue was. It's ok to have different types of female characters, and I hate how Hollywood has created this homogenised female archetype that is everywhere now.

I will end this on saying this is my personal opinion, a lot of this is based on feelings I had while watching it rather than concrete thoughts so obviously many people will disagree with what I have said, which is totally fine! I did find the characters to be a bit flat, I don't think there's anything wrong with making characters a bit more individual and vibrant even in something which is supposed to be "realistic". And once again I feel like the writing of female characters in particular has been let down. I think we sacrificed elements of the girls personalities in order to make them all extremely competent (apart from Suki who was too competent so they pulled her back towards the middle lol). As I've said before, much of this might have been solved by having a 10 or 12 episode run which allows for more character development and less plot. I think studios need to seriously think about whether this format serves the stories they are trying to tell.

[monofazz]

I think Deceptibee AU fans should consider the hilarious potential of a Starscream and Bee dynamic in this kind of situation—

[demaparbat-hp]

Almost

[sereniv]

Can someone who is NOT a zionist tell me why Jewish people have so much conspiracy and hate? when did it start and why? how and why did it spread?

Preferably someone who is jewish or really knows what theyre talking about answer

[badnewswhatsleft]

absolutely fucking huge win for me: finally found a full clean copy of the sing-off 2014 holiday special that patrick was a judge on😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

this was such a grail for ages. i'm literally so happy.

look at him yapping about a cappella.

[snikt111]

hi hi hi hi I found out about Hal Jordan TODAY and am going so autistic over him it’s insane can you please give me a rundown on what his deal is I think you’re the Tumblr Green Lantern guy

omg hi, insane compliment btw, tysm! i'm glad to give you a rundown!! also definitely check out @katmaatui for more hal info, red is SUPER knowledgable abt him. @rillette, @catboyollie, @halcarols, @starsapphire and @yellowcorps (along with so many others that i cant think to tag off the top of my head) have some great hal takes too! (edited the post just to tag more ppl)

apologies if this is a bit rushed/messy, i'm doing this while i smelt stone in minecraft LMAO

that being said... i think this will be a long one, so more below the cut :3

(cw for light mentions of pedophilia, abuse, canon typical violence)

okay, so hal jordan is the first human green lantern of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS. it's important to note that there was technically a human green lantern before him (alan scott, originally from earth two/the justice society, but integrated into main DC canon after crisis), but his power comes from a different source- which is a whole different ballpark that would take ages to explain, lol, so i'll move on from that.

hal was originally introduced in a showcase issue in 1959, but ended up getting a solo run in the mid 60s because of his showcase issues doing well. he's been a test pilot, middle brother, compassionate, rule follower (although being surprisingly liberal for the time) with an interesting relationship with star sapphire carol ferris since those first appearances. for the first 20 odd years of his appearances we had no information on his parents, but we got a lot from other family members, such as uncle titus, cousin hal jr (aka airwave), younger brother jim jordan and older brother jack jordan. through the 60s and 70s those members of his family were developed along with him; with the audience learning that jim's wife sue thought jim was green lantern, rather than hal, and hal himself training his cousin, hal jr.

the most known version of how hal got the ring in the first place is probably based off of geoff john's rewrite in the mid 00s, reiterating the original story of abin sur crashing onto earth and dying, leaving hal with his ring to be trained by sinestro and the rest of the glc, while also changing miniscule details that had been developed in emerald dawn 1 & 2 (which was released in the 90s, more on that later). the main premise of abin sur's crash has stayed the same, but the story around hal's current life, job, family and stability keep changing. for instance, the original comic with abin sur in showcase only showed hal getting the ring, the guardians choosing him. the first rewrite i can think of was emerald dawn volume 1, published in 1989 and continued in emerald dawn v2 (1991). here we get the classic hal watches his father die in a plane crash with carol ferris beside him as a pre adolescent, and some of the biggest implications of the mistreatment from his father. we also get introduced to hal, despite his stick to the rules, straight edge attitude, making some serious mistakes and putting people in danger and even death- with the implication of alcohol abuse. the audience HAS known hal used to be in the air force since sometime in the late 60s or early 70s (sorry, i don't remember the exact issue!), but emerald dawn shows us that hal's moved on from the air force and into test piloting, and that his mother keeps having to bail him out for making mistakes. emerald dawn vol 1 shows the abin sur moment, followed by fights that cost hal's friends life, and is followed up by sinestro training hal in emerald dawn vol 2, where we get to see the iconic scenes of hal finding out about sinestro and his... dictatorship.

along with that; how the guardians and rings are treated and hal and the glc's perception of them is vastly changed over time. in the early days of gl in the 60s, the guardians were really never to be seen. hal was repeatedly summoned to them and then had his memory almost fully wiped- only leaving a vague notion of his orders. the guardian's called hal to them at seemingly the worst times, ending up with him almost getting injured, getting in trouble at work, and even ending up jobless and homeless. the chaos of being a green lantern has been around the WHOLE time, but originally, the green lanterns didnt really... fight it. the guardian's were their masters (and even father figures, to hal) and not to be questioned. the rings in the 60s were also much more powerful, despite the yellow weakness (the yellow weakness is the notion that from about the 60s to the mid 90s the green lantern rings were completely unable to be used against anything yellow). time travel, phasing, teleporting, etc were all very viable and common things- as well as forceful shapeshifting, invisibility, mind control, mind reading, etc etc. these days, writers have dampened these powers down to mostly shooting light and constructs.

okay, it's parallax time. the emerald twilight arc from the mid 90s wasn't an arc that was as thoroughly planned out over a long period of time as it probably should have been. a lot of fans at the time (and even now) hated what happened there, and claimed it ruined hal's character entirely. i can understand why! but, at it's core, the parallax arc is a story about a broken man pushed to the limit, fully grieving his home and family (originally, he lost his brother jim in the destruction of coast city, along with a lot of other family members) and being goddamn fed up with how his "masters" treated him and the rest of the corps. the so called "perfect lantern" (no, he wasn't that much of a rebel, despite what johns wants you to think) snapped and essentially tried to gain as much power as he could to bring back coast city. when the guardians stripped him of his powers so he couldn't, hal became enraged and took down every lantern in his path, just to get to the guardians and that power. long story short, he kills the guardians and absorbs all the energy from the central power battery on oa, becoming parallax- essentially a god. this marks the start of zero hour, an event made by dc to restructure and reset; giving the comics a new generation of heroes. hal destroys the world and remakes it, but is ultimately taken down by kyle rayner, the new green lantern, with the help of the jla, jsa and associates. there are a few more run ins with parallax after this, before kyle convinces parallax/hal that he can make up for all of this by reigniting the sun after it went out- aka killing himself. hal does it, is stuck in limbo for awhile and then becomes the spectre to continue to make up for the horrible things he did as parallax. the spectre is the spirit of god's wrath and vengeance, a weapon used to drag sinners to their very own, self made hells, and scare the shit out of people. the spectre, from it's very first appearance, is a ghost like spirit that takes on a host, and is primarily described using christian terms and is used in a very... christian ideology. HOWEVER, the spectre 2001 confirms that hal is jewish (jewish mom, catholic dad) and that belief system, plus his personality as a whole, literally makes him change the spirit of vengeance into the spirit of redemption, for at least as long as they are bonded. the whole parallax to spectre arc is about grief, pain, cycles of abuse and terror, redemption and guilt. it is NOT about a fear bug that possess hal. (im so serious though, the spectre 2001 is one of the best comics ive ever read. amazing. changed my world view) but... geoff johns changed all of it, decanonized the spectre, and ruined the legacy of parallax and hal's growth as a person by releasing green lantern: rebirth in 2004/2005. this retcons hal's breakdown and journey through grief into him BEING POSSESSED BY AN ENTITY CONTROLLED BY SINESTRO THAT FULLY CHANGES PREVIOUS GREEN LANTERN CANON AND IMPLICATIONS. also, fucks up the importance of kyle becoming ion, but whatever. geoff johns writes hal (and even more so, carol) so very wrong, and change their stories so vastly in ways that go against the stories very meanings.

SIGH.

now... time to get started on some rougher stuff. hal jordan misconceptions. i'm saving that arc for last.

- hal jordan wasn't much of a rule breaker or rebel until the 70s/80s, where he BEGAN (very slowly, mind you) to be radicalized by oliver queen during denny o'neil's green lantern/green arrow. hal was painted as more of a conservative during this period (which, admittedly, kind of goes against previous canon... he's always been relatively central to liberal, not to any extremes like ollie though, lol) but gets more and more understanding of how power structures work and how lower classes are mistreated during this time- which ends up opening his eyes a bit to how shitty the guardians are. (this is helped by the guardians literally just. leaving. the green lanterns and kind of disbanding them so they can go fuck the zamarons, lmao). geoff johns tried to change this narrative into making hal a very... maverick-from-top-gun type of character, who punched his way out of the military (when, in reality, the original story during emerald knights in the late 90s was that hal had been framed for stealing a jet and was dishonorably discharged, which he took the punishment for because he knew someone had to) and hits on women constantly and gets ladies and allat (which, funnily enough hal was awful at getting carol to like him for a long time, since carol fell for green lantern rather than hal. not to mention the awkwardness of carol's proposals or hal's many, many failed relationships). hal has always been insecure and lowkey boyfailure, he is NOT a top gun maverick tom cruise sorta guy! fuck you jeremy adams!

- hes not that much of an idiot asshole. hal can be a real dick, he's had that going for him since the beginning, but he isn't what you read in batfam fics. he's not stupid and shouldn't be the laughingstock of the justice league. i assume this idea started from the obsession with batfam and the fact that the jla has quite the history of ignoring hal and his issues (as well as. all of their issues. theyre not so great at work life balance), but it's gone too far. hal isn't making fun of the robins and pissing bruce off bc of that. hal isnt fooling around on the job 24/7 (he takes being a gl and pilot VERY seriously, although he does enjoy some danger and high stakes) or slacking off to get girls. again. not top gun maverick.

- hal has not been a creep since the beginnings. hal was not weird with carol in the 60s. things were weird between them, yeah, but that's based off circumstance and the craziness of star sapphire and green lantern. he was NOT being horribly sleazy! i hate that i even need to say this, but i see this take too much not to

- going off of what was said above, lets discuss the arisia arc. if you want to be a real hal fan, this is unfortunately something you need to know about. in action comics, after crisis and the guardians left to go fuck the zamarons, most of the green lanterns fell apart and seperated. a small group went to earth- led by hal and consisting of hal, john stewart, katma tui, kilowog, salaakk, ch'p and arisia rrab. (also sometimes guy gardner, but that's complicated) previously to this arc, hal treated 14 year old arisia like a beloved little sister, welcoming her and leading her into the corps just like everyone else. things started to change once the timeline gets closer and closer to crisis, where arisia starts showing that she has a crush on hal (who is roughly 30s at this point). any advances made by arisia are shut down by hal at the beginning, because she's a child. now, it's unfortunately a common thing to just call hal a "pedophile" because of what happens in this arc- but it really isn't that simple. still weird and icky, but definitely not to the degree of which some fans like to act like it is- esp to attack hal fans for, which is... an odd choice regarding how many fucked up things every character (esp male characters) did back in the day. arisia ends up using her power ring to artifically age herself up, making her body AND MIND into that of a young adult (the comic makes this very clear). once this happens... hal stops rejecting her. they get together, they kiss. the only person in the group of green latnerns who actually has an issue with it is john (salaakk is meh about it, but he just doesn't like human-esque romance no matter what), and katma even directly encourages their relationship. kilowog ends up crushing on arisia as well, and guy gardner hits on her repeatedly throughout the whole period. eventually, hal and arisia break up, but this legacy (thank so much englehart, for wrtiting this. /sarc) is a big controversy among the comics crowd. "is hal jordan a predator?" personally, and i know a lot of friends/mutuals/other gl fans choose to erase the arisia arc entirely (versus how canon ended up retconning it to be 14 earth years is equal to that of an adult and she didn't really get super ages up, or whatever) and go with the familial relationship between hal and her. that's my preferred version! i know red (@katmaatui) has explored that version as well as an alternate version where the arisia arc did happen, and how it affects arisia in particular, which is really depressing but super interesting. anyway, it's complicated and weird and nuanced, but that whole occurence doesn't mean hal's a bad character or person (cause yk. retcons) and it's certainly not bad to like his character. (definitely ignore any guy gardner fans who try to bitch about this arc. cough cough. guy was ALSO into her and hit on her repeatedly. smfh) most people who bring this up to demonize fans didn't even read the arc, and don't know the nuance or the other weird shit that happens in it. (hal is not a horse, sigh)

OVERALL NOTES!

hal jordan is a super complicated character with an extensive history spanning from the 60s to his worse written appearances in modern age. it's okay to like any version of the character, but it is important to note the changes that have been made, the storylines butchered and lost, and more. he has quite the legacy, and he's particularly interesting as from a moral standpoint. hal's a real sweetie though, when it gets down to it! he's neurodivergent coded (imo at least.. his dad very much gets onto him for being disrtracted, hes kinda shit at social interaction (and then amazing at it the other half of the time) etc etc. "spacecase") and his dad is an abusive asshole, who he desperately doesnt want to be like but thinks he NEEDS to be like!

[sparklingchim]

[st4rstudent]

stubborn

no text ver

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

No homo, but let's synchronize our instruments together.

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[coolnonsenseworld]

Omg your instagram story is so right! I can’t believe I’ve never even noticed that, probably because in fanon keith and shiro are so close that I’d forgotten that isn’t canon :0

Deserves this awesome quote which I had to dig out of my sideblog reblogs

[evilmagician430]

various spencer stickers/transparent pngs from made from editing and transparentifying askblog drawings

[rainydaygt]

PAY WHAT YOU WANT SKETCH COMMISSIONS!

I’m doing PWYW sketches over on my Ko-Fi!

(if you don’t have ko-fi, just shoot me a dm!)

They’re maximum one character, buuut for my g/t folks I don’t mind adding in a hand/doing a handheld. To guarantee that, you’ll need to select the add-on option and pay extra for it. Otherwise, the minimum is just $1 USD!

I’ll be moving to a rental trailer soon and I’d like to have at least 3 months of rent in my savings account before I do that, and I’d like to move as soon as possible. Every cent counts.

Thank you everyone, again, for your endless support. Every like, reblog, comment, tag, donation, etc�� all of it means the entire world to me. I would’ve given up on art a long time ago without that same love and support.

The YCH raffle is still going to happen, BTW! Things are a bit hectic so the most I can manage is sketches, but once that dies down I’ll be posting that.

[princesskealie]

taking my mom to the doctor again tomorrow~ please send any good vibes/prayers/thoughts her way that all goes smoothly! 🙏🙏

[rysttle]

This is the self insert/OC fairy. 🌼🧚‍♀️When you get this in your ask box, please tell us 3 facts about your S/I or OC and pass it around. Let's learn about each other's S/Is/OCs!

🥹💖

THANK YOU FOR SENDING THIS TO ME FR

I had to spin a wheel about this lmao

Have an Anders in fantasy au

He's Mr. Dumple's favourite person (who he bullies sometimes but then again everyone bullies Anders a bit)

He plants tomatoes (and other things) in his garden

And thirdly, um, he has wings? but only if he let em out to fly or stretch sometimes

he might also have accidentally entered a cult but that's something else entirely wooooh-

ANYWHO!! YEAH,,, That's the guy for today!

[b4kuch1n]

wizard looking for a way home (aka wizard of dark space)

[volfoss]

it is beyond infuriating how anne rice seems to insist on marius being a positive force in anyone's life ever. like she can't fully commit to exploring the fact he groomed armand and has repeatedly taken away his consent for what marius thinks is best (take the end of TVA as an example) and just kind of flatly puts it in the narrative. there's not really much interest in how these horrific events make marius come across as the worst because EVERYONE loves him. for gods sake, lestat learns from armand exactly what marius did to him in TVL and then proceeds to go find marius and be super friendly to him in the same fucking book. even armand and pandora, two of the people who have MORE than enough right to hate him, do not. it doesnt feel like shes trying to explore the toxicity of the abusive dynamic he traps them in, it just is there. and like yeah ofc the toxic vampire romance series but i think that this should be handled with more care. and it is not ever really framed in a way that she is interested in exploring how marius should easily be one of the most horrific characters in this series because it kind of feels like sa/rape/grooming/other things of that sort are just put there to further plot and not to really get the respect that they deserve in a medium.