#but I owe it to this character who has a whole blog about them to at minimum put out a bio of some sort

[aberrantundead]

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Connor is an Undying Warlock with a neutral good alignment. Connor’s pronouns are he/they. They are classified as undead, aberration, and humanoid. They are 470 years old. He stands at 7 feet tall, or 2.13 meters. His weight is around 80-110 lbs (this includes the tentacles). Connor is intersex, non-binary, and pansexual with demiromantic tendencies. They are polyamorous and love being loved and loving others.

Connor as a character is unorthodox to the fullest extent, as they are largely homebrew. He is in a level 1-20 campaign ran by @skeletone that has been ongoing since 2019, and is expected to be ongoing for years to come. This character for me has been an ultimate expression as a coping mechanism for my relationship with death, fear of outer space (with Connor practically being an alien), and an expression of queerness that I, as a queer person, enjoy exploring. In a way, this character is a self portrait of major parts of myself.

Connor’s personality snapshot: expressive, open, self revealing, loves/hates large parties, loud, social, outgoing, does not like social isolation, assertive, positive, always busy, likes to fit in but also likes to stand out, enjoys leadership, brutally honest, trusting, optimistic, desires attention, dominant, aggressive, attachment prone, wants to be understood, lonely, melancholic, self loathing

Currently, Connor and their friends have saved the city of Waterdeep. They have struck alliances with many individuals such as Renaer Neverember, Volothamp Geddarm, Jarlaxle Baenre and Laerel Silverhand, while dealing with The Xanathar, mindflayers (most notably Nihiloor), devils, the Cassalanters, and Manshoon. Recently, they have ventured out to the North to successfully kill Auril who relentlessly was wailing on parts of Toril with her unforgiving winter weather. Auril’s demise was accomplished with help of another god’s Chosen, who took Auril’s divine spark and corrupted it with their own god’s essence. With Auril’s inflicted weather now removed, Connor and their friends can travel the oceans she froze to get to a Golden Forge that belongs to a golden dragon underneath Waterdeep. The group promised the golden dragon they would help reclaim it from another dragon who overtook it.

As of late, the golden dragon the Five have struck a pact with, Aurelius, had become infected with a mindflayer tadpole and shed its face and skin to become a brainstealer dragon named Placidjurax, which the Five had to promptly put down. Laerel wants the Xanathar and Nihiloor eradicated, to which Connor and company eagerly agreed to. It is because of them through a long string of events prior that Aurelius got infected.

Overall, the big plot for The Five is that they’re on a mission to collect the idols of Toril’s gods to restore the deteriorating weave. The sky is falling, literally. This need to collect the idols will require them to venture around the planet, including the use of the Golden Forge to travel to multiple dimensions.

Connor’s in-depth information is below, and while I wish I could divulge all of Connor’s secrets, some of my teammates are on this site and are mutuals and in general are aware of the existence of this space, so I can only unveil right now what’s been given in game.

Current revealed facts about Connor in Legends of the Five:

• Connor once lived life as a human before. He was born as a human. Lived and loved as one. Connor’s previous name in life before taking up the name Connor was Alistair Reiter.

• Alistair Reiter had a wife, a child, and ran a church dedicated to Lathander. He was a priest.

• Present day Connor has a phobia of horses. This pertains to the fact that Alistair’s/Connor’s daughter in life was trampled to death by a horse.

• In hopes of trying to resurrect his dead daughter, Alistair dabbled into unknown forces of necromancy and made a pact with a mysterious entity in order to channel said necromancy.

• Learning this necromancy allowed him to attach another pair of limbs to himself amid his experimentation.

• Alistair’s hubris is what led to his death and downfall. Such is what happens when you play with forces of life and death and try to play God.

• For some years after his death and his body long since decayed, Alistair’s dead body was animated by a mysterious force and was sent on a killing spree against any wandering adventurers before the Spellplague deactivated him. His body was then put in a crypt, and wrapped in golden chains.

• Alistair was resurrected by a necromancer who found him in the crypts years later. Alistair then takes the name Connor out of a desire to not affiliate with his wretched past. Symbolism of a clean slate and starting over. The necromancer that resurrected him ended up being a short lived lover and partner until they both split amid an argument. Only recently has Connor been able to get over their ex. His ex is Innis Pyrescribe, who belongs to my DM skeletone.

• Connor finds out that he cannot die, and any time he is destroyed, he often reforms hours later. Whatever force keeps him animated, is clearly by a higher power—likely his warlock patron. Using dispel magic on him also temporarily deactivates him.

• Connor is part of a hivemind that has origins from the Far Realm.

• Connor has a sibling (or technically another him, if they’re a hivemind) named Exodus, who breached the material plane during a summoning ritual for a Far Realm entity named Auc’thil’une—with Exodus as the emissary of Auc’thil’une. He changed from an incomprehensible entity into a human with tentacles in his eye sockets that he hides behind shades.

• Similarly, Connor is actually the mass of tentacles inside of the skeleton that was once his when he had flesh.

•Connor was born in the body of a human and lived as one—Exodus did not. Exodus finds himself disgruntled and disgusted at Connor’s empathy and love for this world, and at Connor’s developed humanity. Connor is an anomaly among aberrations for this reason. In no way should an aberration have humanity. • Connor’s golden chains apparently keep him sentient, and when they are removed, Connor loses all sense of self and begins to indiscriminately attack anything living, plagued by a feeling of hunger. These chains seem to belong a small organization of necromancers called The Order of the Golden Chain. They were often used by necromancers on their undead. Connor is considered a rogue undead with no master/necromancer controlling him. • Connor finds out that they have a suppressed appetite—and it’s a desire for living flesh. Dead flesh does not satisfy whatever dark primal hunger sits inside Connor. This rightfully horrifies Connor.

[boltonbritreads]

🗣️Eddie Munson Fic Recs

This is gonna have a sappy start before I get into the fic rec portion: but I just wanted to say that at the end of May 2022, I was finishing up my first year of law school. It was rough, challenging, lonely, and basically everything you’d expect and I was in a bad place and the fandom I’d been in was slowing down just naturally. I truly wish I could remember how I even became aware of Eddie Munson because stranger things wasn’t really on my radar anymore and whoever I followed at the time that started to veer off into Eddie-mania, thank you. In the two years since then, I’ve graduated and become the worlds babiest lawyer and I genuinely owe a lot to this fandom and community on here for giving me a fun, usually safe, creative place to escape to when it got rough.

I’m just hoping to maybe remind people that there are already an incredible, incredible amount of existing stories to read and talk about that deserve your attention and love if you’re looking to read some Eddie stories. Some of these will be fics I’ve recommended before but I’m going to try my best to pull together writers and fics that I love and think everyone should read in the hopes that someone like me who still scrolls through eddie tags looking for my nightly bedtime story can find something new to them to read! ✨

Previous Fic Rec list here!! some overlap but there’s no such thing as too much hype for these writers

@munson-blurbs I hope it’s ok but I’m linking Bug’s full masterlist here because I have genuinely loved everything she has written. There are blurbs, series, and special events which are all incredible and worth a read! Bug is currently still writing the “Living after Midnight” series which is my current obsession and features rockstar!eddie x motelheiress!reader and it’s angst and lust galore

@corroded-hellfire also sharing the Eddie Masterlist here because there’s so many fics to read!! As You Wish, Big Brown Eyes, Where the Heart Is are all incredible but truly there’s so much here to enjoy

@upsidedownwithsteve SIMMER!! jk I’m actually linking the Eddie Masterlist here too because I love them all but “I Want You To Want Me” and “Simmer” are out of this world

@pinkrelish The Yes Policy I love it, you love it, we all love it and if you haven’t caught up yet oh my god I wish I was you and could read these chapters for the first time again

@ghost-proofbaby I’ve previously told people to go read 24 Hours, and you should, that’s an order; but Maroon is ongoing! and it’s actually infiltrating my every thought so go on over and get caught up bc I think it’s safe to say things are getting amped up

@trashmouth-richie I have also previously recommended Honey, I’m Home because it’s a work of art but Ziggy has a new mini series “Crash + Fall” that I’m completely obsessed with the concept for and I’ve loved every piece so far!

@tiannasfanfic I just reblogged Conviction again but I genuinely am not exaggerating when I say I think about this story and these two monthly and try and find this story all the time to re-read it endlessly. It’s a really lovely story of unplanned pregnancy and two characters not realizing they’ve been smitten for each other the whole time and I love it

@carolmunson I’m sharing another Eddie Masterlist here because I’d be making this post far too long but Carol’s stories are all incredible, complex, and honest. “Let’s go, don’t wait” just got updated and I had to read it like 3 times last night because it was too good to just read one and done

@rebelfell I just discovered Sarah’s blog after reading the most recent “Frenemy” fic and idk what I was doing wrong to not already follow her and not have already read her whole Masterlist but I’m linking the whole thing bc she’s so good!!

@the-au-thor I also only just discovered Elle’s blog and that’s criminal but thank god I found Babysitting Mun because I am a sucker for rockstar!eddie and this series has me on the edge of my seat rn

@storiesbyrhi I’m sharing the Masterlist folks because I have genuinely loved every single story and series and I have read them all now (some several times). So many of Rhi’s stories have a wonderful warm witchy vibe that I crave and I’ve read Siouxsie and the Soulmates, The Cabin in the Woods, Our Patron Saint of the Arts, Vintage Reeboks, and Burning Yarrow (insert screaming fan gif) multiple times now

@heart-eyed-love this fic is the epitome of a soft, cozy, domestic night with Eddie and if you need a hug read this 🥹

@eddieandbird I JUST got caught up on Eddie/Tour Manager series and I’m fully obsessed and desperate to know how they’re gonna navigate this - for folks new to the story, Eddie and his tour manager accidentally drunkenly get married- what could go wrong??

@eiightysixbaby the scream I scrumped when I finished reading Princess Leia, and Other Wishes - look bffs to lovers is already my absolute weakness on this earth but then you had to make it witty and funny and FLUFFY I just can do nothing but re-read and pine

@superblysubpar I’m still obsessed with this addition to The Boy is Mine writing challenge and oh god it’s so good 😩

…and while we’re talking about it - here’s the entire The Boy is Mine masterlist with an INSANE amount of incredible stories to read

@the-unforgivenn !!! tumblr hates me and deleted this bullet (so if you already saw this post, no you didn’t) but And I Need You to Know is a proper novel! I can’t imagine how much time, love, effort, planning, and work went into creating this insane and absolutely incredible world but everyone needs to read this!! and then follow up with She’s So Cold bc I love it and I am so reader

~~ this is not the end nor an exhaustive list! I just wanted to put something out there now that I plan to build on because I know I’m always scrolling and searching for new things to read or old things to revisit ♥️ ~~

[snow-snowball]

You call him "baby".

Characters: James Diamond, Logan Mitchell, Carlos Garcia, Kendall Knight.

Warnings: none; SFW

W: 1k

A/N: English is not my first language, so I apologise for my mistakes. Dividers belong to @enchanthings-a and her new blog @enchanthings

James Diamond:

• “Baby? Me?” the guy looked at you in confusion.

• James was clearly flustered. He was just around when you needed help retrieving the kite that got stuck in a tree.

• He often plays the role of the cool, glamorous guy, frequently hearing compliments like “Hey, handsome!” or “Looking good, are you free tonight?”, but no one had ever called him that way before.

• “No one’s ever called me that…” he said, pulling a purple bandana from his pocket and tying it around his head. “But if you want to, feel free to call me that when it’s just us, babe!” James winked at you, and after you raised an eyebrow in disbelief, he eventually retrieved the kite and casually handed it to you. “Did your little boy do well?” he asked, flashing a bright smile. You giggled, ruffled his hair playfully, and then dashed off.

• Even though he tries to project a cool demeanor, James is actually shy. He loved how you called him that, but he prefers to keep it private, not wanting his friends to tease him about it.

Logan Mitchell:

• Logan was in the kitchen, trying to fix Kendall's mom's mixer. She had asked him to do it three days ago, but Logan had been so swamped that it kept slipping his mind. Today, though, Gustavo finally gave them a day off, and the guy jumped at the chance to keep his promise.

• “Alright, this goes here, and that goes there. Got it,” he mumbled when suddenly you burst through the door, making him drop the screws he was supposed to attach.

• “Hey, baby, have you seen Carlos?” you asked while stepping inside, scanning the room for the guy in the helmet. “That fool broke my eyeshadow while goofing around!”

• “Ow!” Logan stubbed his pinky toe on the edge of the table, knocked over the glass of water, then slipped and fell.

• “Oh my God! Logan!” You rushed over to help him up. “Are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!”

• “What did you just call me, like, three minutes ago?” he asked, rubbing his bruised tailbone.

• “Baby?”

• “Baby…that’s intriguing. Are you developing some sort of motherly instinct or something?”

• “Mother…what? What the hell do you mean, maternal instinct? God, Logan, you innocent goofball.” You slapped your forehead and headed for the door. “If you see Carlos, give me a shout!” The door slammed shut, leaving Logan alone with his thoughts. Honestly, he understood what you meant when you called him that. But he was so flustered that he decided to get out of the situation with his usual cleverness.

• “Ha-ha-ha! Baby Logan!” Someone’s laughter echoed in the room, and Logan turned to see Carlos fall from the ceiling. “Ouch.” He lay on the floor for a few minutes, writhing in pain, before giving a thumbs-up. “I’m fine!”

Carlos Garcia:

• Carlos was heading to the park, happily munching on a corn dog when suddenly you crashed into him and quickly ducked behind his broad back. Dogs were chasing you, and you were scared out of your wits. Carlos looked at you in confusion, then at the mutts, and back at you.

• “Dude, please help me!” You pressed yourself against his solid frame, trembling with fear. Without missing a beat, he pulled out more corn dogs from who-knows-where and tossed them into the bushes, where the dogs immediately bolted after them. “Farewell, my tasty treats,” Carlos lamented, but his mood lifted instantly when he felt a kiss on his cheek.

• “Thanks, babe!” You wrapped your arms around him tightly, giving him another peck on the cheek before dashing off.

• “Whoa…” The guy broke into a goofy grin and fainted right there. His friends, who had orchestrated the whole thing (they didn’t mean to scare you; they just wanted to set you up with Carlos), high-fived each other and rushed to pick him up, narrowly avoiding the feet of passing pedestrians.

Kendall Knight:

• Kendall was completely wiped out after yet another concert.

• The screaming fans and equally rowdy friends had drained him to the bone.

• So, exhausted, he broke away from his buddies, heading home for some much-needed peace and quiet.

• His fatigue was so overwhelming that he mixed up the numbers and accidentally walked into your place.

• You were in the middle of whipping up dinner when you heard the front door bang shut.

• Curious, you strolled down the hallway and spotted the adorably snoozing Kendall sprawled out on your couch. Chuckling at the hilarity of the situation, you fetched a blanket from your room, gently covering him so he wouldn’t freeze. With that done, you returned to the kitchen, now needing to whip up dinner for two.

• Half-asleep, Kendall caught the sound of clattering from the kitchen and a delicious smell wafting through the air, thinking it was his mom cooking. He snuggled deeper into the blanket. Then, another mouthwatering aroma hit him—one that had been driving him wild for the last three months.

• Bolting upright, Kendall looked around, realizing he wasn’t at home. Rubbing his eyes, he made his way to the kitchen.

• You were busy pulling out plates when suddenly, strong arms wrapped around your waist, and a sleepy head rested on your shoulder.

• “Hey babe? Did you sleep well?” you asked, turning to embrace him, your fingers gently running through his hair.

• “Mmhmm,” he mumbled, nuzzling his chin deeper into your shoulder. “Babe? Is that my new nickname now?” Kendall chuckled sleepily, pulling back to plant a soft kiss on your forehead. “So, what’s for dinner?” Just as he leaned in for a kiss on the lips, the rest of Big Time Rush burst in, catching you both in a cozy moment.

• “Looks like we showed up at a bad time.” Logan quipped, awkwardly covering his eyes.

• “Ooh! Pasta!” Carlos darted over to one of the pots, grabbing a plate from the cupboard and piling food onto it. The others shot him disapproving glares. “What?” Carlos asked with a mouthful. “I’m starving!”

© 2024 do reblog, but don’t copy or publish my work on other platforms, or translate (without my permission) into other languages. Any coincidences are coincidental! @snow-snowball

[linkspooky]

DOOMED SIBLINGS: THE TODOROKIS VS. THE FIRE NATION ROYAL FAMILY

I received an ask in my inbox about how Zuko doesn't owe Azula any forgiveness. Truthfully I wasn't even going to respond because this isn't an avatar blog, but then I watched this video.

Not only do I disagree with the basically everything in this video, but I am going to make the argument that both Zuko' and Azula's arcs are both incomplete with the way the show left the two of them in the final showdown.

In order to make my argument I'm going to compare Azula and Zuko's relationship in avatar to Shoto and Toya's relationship in My Hero Academia and use the latter as a more positive example.

Unnecessary Redemption Arcs

The common fandom opinion I want to argue against is this idea that Azula's ending is a perfect tragedy, and therefore doesn't need to be expanded upon. There's also a sentiment that redeeming Azula would somehow ruin the impact of this perfect tragedy.

I'm about to argue against both of these points.

Azula's arc doesn't work as a tragedy.

Because of this her arc is unsatisfying and unfinished.

I'm going to address the first bullet point but before that let me add another disclaimer. The reason why I think Azula's arc isn't an effectively written tragedy isn't because I like Azula.

Before we even get into the My Hero Academia comparison let me bring up something completely different. I do like Azula, but I like Terra Markov from Teen Titans a lot more and I would not change a thing about her tragic end.

AZULA'S ARC IS NOT A WELL-WRITTEN TRAGEDY

Terra in the comics is what a lot of people accuse Azula of being. She is stated in the text and by her creators to be an unfeeling sociopath. She was also never intended by her creators to be redeemed.

[About Terra] The very first time we see her, she’s trying to blow up the Statue of Liberty. It’s just that all the fans assumed because we went out of our way to make her cute — but not too cute, with the buck teeth and everything — everyone would assume that she was gonna become good by the end and that was never the case. First thing, we made a promise that day that we would never renege on our view that she’d never become good. It’s sometimes hard to do that with characters you like. You want them to become good or something like that. But we never liked the character enough—because we knew what we were doing with her—we never allowed ourselves to fall for the character. Because that’s bad. That’s bad storytelling. You’re doing what you want as a fan at that particular point, not as the creators. T

Now let me clarify, both creators of New Teen Titans say some nasty things about Terra and don't recognize her sexual abuse, but here's the thing. You don't have to read a story 100% the way the author intended, sometimes the story says one thing and the text says something different.

I am going to use Judas Contract as an example of a story where the character from the start was never intended to be redeemed and why that's a positive in this case.

Terra is a teenage girl, the bastard daughter of the king of Markovia and a random American woman who presumably has had no stable home her entire life because she's working as a mercenary at fifteen. She teams up with a man that is in his mid fifties and even starts a sexual relationship with him (this is statutory rape she cannot consent) and Deathstroke uses her to infiltrate the Teen Titans and learn as much as possible.

Terra is sent to live with the team and spy on them for several months. The whole time she only ever engages with them in a fake spunky persona, and never shows her real cutthroat self. She leads Beast Boy on in a fake romance to make him trust her and secure her place on the team. The way you'd usually expect this arc to go is that Terra would grow fond of the team and be torn in her loyalties.

Yeah, that never happens.

Terra loathes the Titans. In fact she's developed a superiority complex about her meta human abilities and she doesn't understand why anyone would use their powers to help others. She despises the concept of superheroes in general, and because of that never bonds with any of the Titans. Her feelings never change from start to finish, because her creators intentionally wrote her as a character that can't be redeemed.

Terra is written to be a psychopath, but even with that intention in mind there are scene that shows a greater range of emotions. She has what could amount to a trauma flashback when Beast Boy too aggressively flirts with her and tries to kiss her and she reacts violently, trying to bury him under the earth.

Let's go ahead and interpret Terra as what is used as the fictional definition of a "sociopath" that is someone who feels no bonds with other people, someone with shallow emotions and someone devoid of guilt. Even if we interpret her that way, her story is still meant to be read as a tragedy.

Terra succeeds in her mission of infiltrating the Titans. Slade captures most of them, and the only remaining member Dick Grayson goes missing. Dick Grayson then unites with Slade's son Jericho, and the two of them team up in order to rescue the rest of their friends.

Even after all she's done the Titans try to make pleas to Terra during the final battle, which she not only rejects but responds to with violence. Which only confirms what I said above, Terra never grew to love them, she never regretted her actions, she only ever engaged with them with lies.

(Terra always lies, Terra always lies, Terra always lies).

Terra is declared by Raven to be devoid of emotions: "Her thinking is unlike ours. She feels no true love or hate. Her soul is corrupt. What she does is done without remorse."

Even after Raven declares this, however she still pleads with Terra to stop because she's going to hurt herself. Terra feels Slade betrayed her because he favored his son Jericho over her, so she decides to take both Slade and the Titans down. As the Titans fight her she begins to mentally fall apart ignoring their appeals to her and lashing out at everything around her. Eventually she makes one last attempt to everything around her, but the Titans escape and she only manages to bury herself.

At no point in the fight do the Titans give up on trying to reach her even as she's loudly screaming how much she hates them. Even after she's buried and it looks like she's dead, Gar and Donna both try desperately to dig her up on the slim hope she's still alive. When they find the body they even give her a funeral afterwards, even though they all think that Terra was beyond redemption.

Even the prose narration that accompanies her death is incredibly melancholy and bemoans her fate, at the same time as it calls her a outright sociopath.

There's no reasoning with her now. However slim, whatever sanity Tara Markov possessed is gone. Now there is only primal hatred! Hatred born, nurtured, and fanned. Hatred that festers and grows without care, without feeling, without plan. her pursed lips part and the sounds which echoes force are garbled and inhuman. Hot, boiling blood gushes wildly from the earth's open wounds, its skin fractures and cracks, and if a world could cry, it surely would. Her name is Tara Markov and she is little more than sxiteen years old, and due to the fault of no one but herself she is insane. No one taught her to hate, yet she hates without cause, without reason. No one taught her to destroy, yet she destroys with glee, with relish. Don't look for reasons which do not exist, plainly Tara Markov is what she is, and she has taken a great power and made it as corrupt as she. Hers was the power over the earth itself she could have brought life to deserts, hat to the frozen tundra, food to sraving millions. She could have damned raging rivers, and tunneled water to packed lands dry and dead. her powers were limited only by the mind which controlled them. A mind which sought not hope, not love, not life, but death.

If you go with the text that she is just a sociopath beyond redemption who hates and hates and hates for no reason, the narrative still mourns her because a sixteen year old with her whole life ahead of being consumed by hatred and then dying because of it is in fact sad.

If you read into the subtext then you can argue that the events of the story, contradicts what the narration is telling us. Terra is being sexually groomed and groomed as a child soldier by a man who is much older than her, even if she thinks he's a partner he clearly has all power in the relationship.

If you think about it that way then Terra is the ultimate bad victim. She doesn't cry and call for help as a victim of sexual abuse, instead she tries to claim power for herself, she manipulates, and she destroys any chance she had for a genuine relationship because she only sees all relationships as transactions she can gain or lose from.

Even if you only go with the first interpretation, the narrative still remains tragic because the Titans themselves did not want to give up on her, they did not want to watch this sixteen-year-old girl destroy herself. They never stop reaching out for her and it doesn't work, because there was no way out for Terra but death.

Here's the thing I don't think Terra's status as a sexual victim automatically means an ending where she dies is offensive. It reflects a reality that victims like Terra often go unseen because they don't present their victimhood in palatable ways, and by the time anyone notices it's far too late. Sometimes tragedies are meant to reflect a reality where many people do not get saved.

There's two reasons that Judas Contract works as a tragic story. Number one the creators planned Terra's ending right from the beginning. Which meant they never gave her any moment where she shows that she's redeemable. There's no genuine bond between her and the titans, no wrestling with the guilt of her actions, nothing.

Number two, Judas Contract is Terra's story from beginning to end. It begins with her betrayal of the Titans, and ends with her death. The death is also brought upon herself by her fatal flaw her hatred, which is what makes her the protagonist of a tragedy. Tragedies are stories where heroes are undone by their flaws. Terra also goes out on her own terms. She buries herself underneath her own rocks. Her death is a direct consequence of her inability to let go of her hatred. Terra's not fridged for anybody else's arc, she retains her agency until the exact moment of her death.

To simplify into bullet points, Judas Contract works because:

The creators thought out what they wanted to do with Terra.

Judas contract is Terra's story.

Now, getting to the part where we actually talk about Avatar, and I start complaining about that awful, awful video.

AZULA'S ARC IS NOT WELL THOUGHT OUT

I just went on a long tangent on how Terra, a character written to have no redeemable qualities can still be tragic. How the creators marked her as clearly doomed from the start, and how she brought about her end on herself, how there no redemption for Terra. How this girl had no real chance, and how regardless of the fact Terra is a lil baby sociopath her fall is still tragic because of how well structured the tragedy is surrounding her.

It's awful to kill off a sixteen year old victim of sexual abuse, but the ending just fits because Terra represents a certain type of bad, unsympathetic victim who doesn't get saved.

Azula's arc isn't as well structured. The ending does not fit. I'm going to start by refuting some points in the awful, awful video I did not like.

"Maybe it's okay if Azula's story ends where it does in the series we would separate how we would treat a real 14-year-old girl from a villain in a series, ad that's why any redemption arc isn't need i a story after all. A character needs of deserves a redemption arc when it becomes the most meaningful way to explore their character and place in the story, but a character deserving redemption usually comes before the story really needing it, and I don't think Azula's done anything to deserve it yet. They've got to exhibit some willingness and action to change..."

So the main reason I'm using Terra as my first example is because Terra is the kind of character that Hello Future Me is describing. Terra was written with the specific intention she'd never experience a change of heart, all of the friendships she makes with the Titans are fake, she very loudly experiences no remorse, or even self-reflection over what she is. Terra's pretty proudly a monster and she never experiences any kind of self-doubt or regret over what she's become.

I can disprove right away Hello Future Me's blanket statement (with no actual cited examples, just trust him guys) that Azula never did anything to hint she may deserve redemption. That suggests Azula is an entirely selfish character who uses, manipulates and thinks she's right and worst of all is comfortable being the way she is, and therefore incapable of doing the self-reflection necessary for change.

Azula does show the capacity to do selfless actions several times in the narrative, and even consider the feelings of others. There's the apology scene with Ty Lee and the way she interacts with her friends in general with the Beach where when she's not fighting in a war or trying to complete a mission for her father Azula 1) interacts with her friends in a normal way and 2) seems to express a desire to experience normal relationships not the hierarchical ones she's experienced all of her life.

However, that's not the example I'm going to use as her save the cat moment. I generally intend to interpret that as a sign that even though she treats Mai and Ty Lee as subordinates and that power she holds over them eventually leads to them leaving her, their friendship isn't just Azula abusing them and lording her authority over their heads 24/7.

No, Azula's save the cat moments all revolve around Zuko. Which is funny, because the entire fandom seems to regard Azula as Zuko's evil little sister who exists to do nothing but torment her.

The first and biggest is Azula deciding to bring Zuko home in Ba Sing Se, and telling a lie to her father that he was the one to slay the avatar.

Ozai: I am proud of you, Prince Zuko. I am proud because you and your sister conquered Ba Sing Se. I am proud because when your loyalty was tested by your treacherous uncle, you did the right thing and captured the traitor. And I am proudest of all of your most legendary accomplishment: you slayed the Avatar.

Zuko: [Shocked.] What did you hear? Ozai: Azula told me everything. She said she was amazed and impressed at your power and ferocity at the moment of truth. [Inspired partly by this post]

Now the show seems to regard this action as Azula being an evil temptress who is there to tempt Zuko back to her side with everything he thinks he ever wanted.

That's only if you regard it from Zuko's perspective.

Think for a moment from Azula's perspective. Number one, Azula is someone thoroughly indoctrinated into Fire Nation propaganda who measures her self-worth based on 1) military achievement and 2) her father's approval and assessment of her talents. In Azula's own logic (wrongheaded as it is) she's helping Zuko. She's bringing him back home with his place in the line of succession restored and his father's approval.

Azula doesn't benefit from this gesture at all, in fact if her father discovers the lie she has as much to lose as Zuko does.

Now Zuko insinuates that Azula only brought Zuko along and told her father that he was the one who killed the avatar so she could let him take the fall if the avatar turned out to be alive.

However, if you look at the actual order of events that doesn't make sense. Azula saw the avatar die, she didn't know about the spirit water, and therefore had no way of knowing Aang could come back. In fact, it's Zuko who 1) knew about the spirit water and 2) decides to keep the spirit water and the fact the avatar might have survived a secret that is throwing Azula under the bus. After all she has as much to lose as he did and instead of sharing that information with her he decides to keep it all to himself.

Now Azula does imply that if the avatar were to turn out to be alive all of Zuko's glory would dry up, but this is only after Zuko 1) throws accusations at her and 2) makes it's pretty clear he's lying to her putting her on the defensive.

This is also a scenario where Azula doesn't have much to gain by bringing Zuko back, if you look at it from her perspective. If Azula just lets Zuko rot in a ba sing se prison, then her claim to the throne is secure. With Zuko back he's restored in the line of succession. She also, when making the decision to invite Zuko to her side probably didn't need him for her plan to succeed.

There is a dramatic moment of Zuko choosing to side with Azula over Katara which turns the tide in Azula's favor, but Azula can't see into the future and therefore wouldn't be able to predict that happening. If you look at it from Azula's perspective she 1) successfully infiltrated the city, 2) already had the Dai Lee in her pocket. She likely already thought she had the city secure at this point so her decision to extend a hand out to Zuko is therefore likely motivated by selflessness instead of self-interest.

That's important because usually when Azula usually only gives her help to others if it also benefits her in some way. Azula might genuinely see her recruiting Mai and Ty Lee to her side as a member of the royal family extending her favor and giving them status and security in their positions but it has the underlying motivation of 1) she keeps them in a position to beneath her and therefore in her complete control.

Azula will interact with Mai and Ty Lee like friends on the surface, as long she maintains control over them, but if they do anything to something that displeases her she'll do anything to regain her control.

Mai: I thought you ran off and joined the circus. You said it was your calling. Ty Lee: Well, Azula called harder.

This is set up in Azula's very first interaction with Ty Lee. Azula greets her like an old friends, Ty Lee even seems happy to see her, but the second Ty Lee tries to say no to her Azula goes to extreme lengths to "persuade her". Azula's friendship with Mai and Ty Lee is an abusive friendship because there is a power differential and even if Azula feels genuine affection for them both it's clear they're not allowed to say no. Mai and Ty Lee are put into positions where it's in their best interest to please her, and live in fear of the consequences if they don't do just that.

Here's the thing, I'm not arguing that Azula didn't deserve any consequences for her actions. I'm arguing that the setup doesn't match her eventual ending. Azula is set up to have Mai and Ty Lee leave her from the very first scene that Azula interacts with Ty Lee. It's satisfying because the set up matches the pay off.

It's also tragic because it's Azula continuing the chain of abuse. The video isn't entirely wrong (which is why they came to the wrong conclusion frustrating).

Azula's fall is about how differenting parenting styles can a child. Ozai's affection is exchanged for being useful. Something Azula would go on to repeat with her friends, whereas Iroh's affection is something freely given with patience for imperfections and failures, something Zuko goes then on to repeat.

It's like... there it is it's so close. Here's the thing, Azula is set up for a tragic falling out with Mai and Ty Lee (and one she deserves) but the set up is different with Zuko. Azula's save the cat moment revolves around Zuko, and her genuine attempt to bring her brother home.

Yes, the first time Azula interacts with Zuko in season 2, she tries to take him home by force. However, by the ending of the season Azula's perspective on the matter has obviously changed because she begins by trying to bring him back as a prisoner, and by the end of the season invites him back as an equal.

There's no moment in Season 3 where Azula treats Zuko the way she does Mai and Ty Lee (unless Zuko provokes it first and puts her on the defensive) in fact most of her interactions are either them interacting normally (such as when Azula goes to find Zuko at their old beach house because she knows he'll be there and advises he leave instead of dwelling on their depressing memories) or Azula deliberately trying to look out for Zuko such as when she advises him not to go visiting with Uncle because it'll make others suspicious.

On the other hand, Zuko never at any point looks out for his sister the way Azula is demonstrated looking out for him. He doesn't say, try to tell her where he's going on the Day of Black Sun, or try to convince her the fire nation is wrong. There's a scene in the later part of Season 3 where Zuko is watching Azula fall to her death while sitting on a flying bison and not only sits there and does nothing about it, but sounds disappointed when she doesn't hit the ground and become an Azula Pancake.

That's pretty much the opposite of a save the cat moment. It's a "let the cat fall to their death" kind of moment.

Yes they were enemies at that point, but Zuko's the one who's supposed to learn that affection is something freely given with patience for imperfections and failures, something Zuko goes then on to repeat.

How exactly is he doing that in this scene?

The thing is... this setup doesn't have to be bad. Of course Zuko has trouble has trouble empathizing with Azula, he doesn't even think about sending a letter to Mai, Zuko's shown at this point to be like a healing abuse victim who's understandably focused on himself.

This in fact could be excellent set up with step 1) learning what genuine love and forgiveness is and 2) demonstrating those two things by applying it to others.

However, that's not where we got. We got Zuko watching his sister have a complete emotional breakdown, crying and screaming while chained to a grate and looking somewhat sad.

And once again to bring Terra into this, Terra is what Stay at Home and parts of fandom argue that Azula is. Terra screams at the top of her lungs how much she hates the Titans, how much she was always lying to them, and the Titans STILL try to reach Terra with words, try to de-escalate the conflict, when she's about to bring the rocks falling down on herself warn her she's going to hurt herself, and then when she's buried under rubble try to dig her out begging for her too still be alive.

Terra who's intentionally created by her writers to be as hatable as possible, is shown more compassion by the heroes in her ending than Zuko ever does to Azula. They also give Terra multiple opportunities to change until literally the very last minute, which Zuko doesn't do either.

What's set up is Azula has this save the cat moment with her brother, that Zuko is pretty much the only person she doesn't treat like a subordinate in the story (because she just like Zuko has a craving for familial love she tries to earn from her father). However, her ending with Zuko just taking her down doesn't fit that setup.

Azula's ending only fits if you consider her arc entirely from Zuko's perspective, which is the underlying issue. Azula's not the protagonist of her own tragedy, she's a plot object that's used to benefit Zuko's arc.

Azula's is written to have a downfall, the same way that Zuko loses everything at the ending of season 1 b/c of his inability to give up on the obsessive search for the avatar (and his father's love with it). Azula is written to be left by Mai and Ty Lee (this is the strongest point of writing when it comes to her since it comes from the beginning).

However, she's not written to be left completely alone and insane with the only empathy being shown is that her brother looks kinda sorta sad. That's only good if you view her as an object to further Zuko's arc, because isn't the ultimate culmination of Zuko beating his sister who has always been ahead of him at life? Azula needs to torn down completely without even some small glimpse of a hope of recovery so Zuko can be built up even moreor at least the writers of avatar seem to think so.

However, even Azula just existing for Zuko's growth and character development doesn't have to necessarily be a bad thing. This is where we get to MHA, which does the tragic siblings and the final Ag Ni Kai about 1000 times better with Shoto and Dabi.

THE GOOD

The comparisons between Shoto and Dabi to Zuko and Azula are made pretty often by the fandom. Shoto has a scar, Dabi has blue flames. Shoto has an arc about healing and learning what it means to be a hero, Dabi's arc is about self-destruction.

Dabi's not the center of his own story, he exists to foil Shoto and help Shoto reach the endpoint of his character development however that's not necessarily a bad thing. These are both two pairs of tragic siblings, the main difference is that MHA doesn't feel the need to tear down one sibling in order to build up the other. In fact, the final step to Shoto's arc is HELPING Dabi, not PUTTING HIM DOWN.

Not only that but the decision to help Dabi is a decision that Shoto makes on his own, and him going against the tide of a society that has already given up on Dabi and would much rather have Shoto shoot Dabi like a mad dog. Which makes the decision to do so even more powerful and emblematic of Shoto's growth.

Now you could say that Shoto and Zuko are too different to compare their arcs, Zuko has a redemption arc, and Shoto has what most people would probably term a healing arc. Shoto starts out the series as a hero.

However, this is what annoys me about the redemption arc debate. A redemption arc is really just a normal character arc. However, calling it redemption drags things like morality and forgiveness into the debate. if you take remove the discussion about moral philosophy both Zuko and Shoto have character arcs where they start the story defined entirely by their home situations and their father's abuse (hence why they have big obvious scars on their face), recover from their trauma, and go on to find an identity outside of their father and form healthy non-abusive connections with others.

In fact I'd see the theme of both arcs are the same, to literally find balance within themselves. Shoto is divided quite literally into right and left sides, fire and ice, and even seems to view himself as half of his father and half of his mother. Zuko is someone who's permanently marked and dishonored by the burn scar on his face. He suffers from an internal imbalance as well. Iroh says that Zuko is the descendant of both Roku and Sozin and therefore both pathways are open to him (but wouldn't that apply to Azula too). Zuko says to his father that the fire nation has destroyed the balance to the world and he's going to leave to assist the avatar in order to fix it.

Shoto's balance isn't just about fixing his internal trauma though, it's also about finding a balance between his family which has defined his entire life up until this point, and his desire to become his own hero not the hero his father groomed him into.

It's why the culmination of his arc is Shoto reaching out to save his family member Toya, because it's the ultimate balance in wanting to heal his family, and also the kind of hero he wants to be, someone who saves and brings peace to others instead of just violently putting down villains. He can bring peace to his family and become his own hero in one action.

However, let's go back to the beginning of Shoto's arc, because saving Toya as an endpoint to his arc is set up pretty early on.

Shoto's arc begins with Deku, a stranger breaking down Shoto's walls as an outsider in order to allow him to look past his own trauma and recall for the first time what he wanted outside of his resentment towards his father. This sets up the idea early on for Shoto that sometimes you need outside interference, help you didn't ask for, especially when you can't see outside of your own problems.

What Deku brings about ultimately is a change of perspective, Shoto's so hurt by the memory of his mother throwing boiling water in his face and everything that came after that he can't recall the memory of her telling him he could be who he wanted to be.

But, you want to be a hero right?

Shoto takes away two things from this arc, sometimes you need help even when you're not asking for it, and sometimes a change in respective is required in order to take the first step forward.

He goes to demonstrate these things multiple times, but here's two exaamples. The first Shoto demonstrates immediately after the tournament arc. When Iida is about to go down a dark path and commit a revenge killing on Stain. When, as a result of that IIDA is paralyzed and about to die in an alleyway, it's Shoto who both notices Midoriya and Iida are missing and shows up in the clutch. He's practicing the same thing that Deku taught him in the last arc: Giving help that's not asked for is what makes a true hero.

He even mentions the second idea, that a small change in perspective can be all it takes to save someone, and he wants to do for Iida hat Deku did for him. His words are the one who convinces Iida to stand back up again when he's paralyzed.

If you wanna stop this, then stand up. Because I've got one thing to say to you. Never forget who you want to become!

However Shoto's arc doesn't end here, because one of the major conflicts in MHA is that heroes don't pick and choose who to save and a true hero will give help even to those people who don't ask for it.

This is a point which further develops when Shoto's abusive father starts to show a change of heart at the end of the Pro Hero Arc. Shoto still holds his father accountable for what he did in the past, but he also acknowledges that if he had the capacity to change then so does Enji. This isn't about whether or not Enji is forgivable, this is an extension of what Shoto learned. Shoto originally believed he was controlled by the circumstances of his birth, that his fate was set in stone, but a change in perspective allows him to realize he can determine who he wants to be. So, Shoto is just applying what he's learned, Enji has the capacity to grow.

There's one final piece of setup that I want to cover before showing how these separate dies all culminate in saving Dabi. Shoto's not only someone who has to find balance between his family and his desire to be a hero.

The theme of balance is written into the quirk itself. Enji basically practiced eugenics to create Shoto as his masterpiece. He noticed a flaw in his own quirk where he could only make his flames so hot without overheating. So he arranged a quirk marriage with Rei who possessed an ice quirk to create a hybrid ice and fire quirk that he could use to cool himself off to prevent him from overheating.

Enji only ever cared about the fire half of Shoto's quirk. His ice quirk only exists for his flames to grow stronger. This is shown when Enji is trying to force Shoto to learn all of his signature moves, because he only cares about Shoto's flame quirk. Shoto was created to carry on his father's legacy, and surpass him with an even more powerful flame quirk. Part of his character development is him learning how to use his quirk in his own way.

This is a theme that continues in the class training arc where Enji is still repeating the behavior of trying to force Shoto to learn his signature moves instead of considering what he wants at all, because still Shoto only exists in Enji's mind to carry on his legacy.

This all culminates in Toya's decision to save his brother. The first is his action in choosing to identify with his brother. If Shoto believes in his own capacity to change, and even his father's, then why would he deny Toya that same chance to change?

The foiling between Shoto and Toya isn't supposed to reduce the two of them to "Shoto is the good one, and he's the bad one", but instead Shoto and Toya were both in a point where they were consumed by hatred and couldn't see any other path in life. Therefore if Shoto was able to change because someone gave him help when he didn't ask for it, then Toya not only has the capacity to change - but in order for Shoto to stick to his stated beliefs that the smallest of things can bring about a change in people he has to be the one to give his brother that chance to change.

It's not about whether Dabi is worthy or not, it's about the themes in Shoto's arc finally being paid off.

Shoto's identifying with Toya, and even parts where he tells Bakugo he'll make Toya sit down and make Toya tell him his favorite food indicate that from the beginning Shoto's intention was to find a way to stop Toya without killing him (which is what several of the adult heroes were encouraging him to do).

@stillness-in-green does a more succinct summary of this plan.

Just me?

Because, like, Shouto had a plan. He spent the time between the two war arcs specifically developing a brand-new combat technique that he planned to use to shut down Dabi's combat advantage without killing him. He convinced his dad not to change the plan like Endeavor was hesitantly sounding him out about[1]; he went out and talked and asked questions, and even if they weren't the right words every single time, he did his best and he did it with intention. If Dabi proves to be dead, it won't be because of anything Shouto did to him; it'll be because Dabi himself chose to stand back up, take a warp gate across the country, pick a fight with the guy who doesn't have the power set to shut him down without unduly hurting him, and trying to replicate an Ultimate Move specifically tailored for someone with a balanced power set Dabi doesn't have. And if Dabi lives, it's still going to be because Shouto booked it across the country and used that same technique to stop him again.

Shoto's decision to save Shoto is also a continuation of his decision to help save Iida from Stain. It's not enough for Shoto to experience a change of heart about his own life, he's got to take what he learned about people's capacity to change, and the importance of connections and then put that into practice and help others the way he was helped.

However, it also further develops the theme of giving help that's not ask for from Iida because Shoto's not saving a mostly heroic kid, he's saving Toya to help break a familial cycle of abuse (because murdering the abuse victim isn't how you end the cycle of abuse... actually).

Shoto's last lines to Dabi are also a refutation of this idea of destiny that he once thought he was ruled by. It's once again, Shoto teaching someone else the lesson he learned. Toya says a warped rail can never mingle with a straight and narrow one! In other words Shoto can never understand or get along with Dabi, because Dabi will forever be defined as the failure because of the circumstances of his brith, whereas Shoto will always be the success.

His final action is a decision to break the cycle they were born into: no, we're gonna mingle whether you like it or not.

Shoto's ultimate move Phosphor is not only a move he designed far in advance to take down Dabi non-lethally, it also is a rejection of his father's teaching method. Toya says he only ever taught me how to turn up the heat. Enji only valued both Shoto and Toya for their flame quirks. Developing his own quirk and breaking away from what his father wanted, specifically in order to save his brother. It's Shoto rejecting what his father created both of them for (a successor to his quirk) and finding his own path. By using that move to take down Dabi he's not only teaching Dabi their flame exists for more than just destruction, he's also by letting Dabi live giving Dabi a chance.

From a conversation with @class1akids

Dabi was the last push to unlock Shoto’s full power. Until then he was on the track of mastering flashfire like Endeavor planned for him (except for his own reasons) but realising the fighting Dabi with fire was gonna kill them both and also he’s simply no match fire only helped Shoto to fully take control of what his quirk is Like his quirk development goes parallel with how he faces each member of his family and finally meeting Toya is like the last piece of his puzzle to find his own full power and identity.

It's not just Shoto decides to save his brother because he's just that nice, his arc is literally incomplete without it. The act of creating phosphor a move specifically to save Dabi is both him unlocking the full power of his quirk (by balancing the fire and ice sides of his quirk) but also achieving balance between trying not to leave his family behind while at the same time becoming his own person and hero outside of his family circumstances.

Citing my conversation with class1akids again:

Toya is endangering everyone at Gunga. Endeavor has no means to stop him and when he tries to murder suicide Rei interrupts and his “hero way out” is taken. All he can do is watch helplessly as his family is about to burn to death with a bunch of strangers he tried to protect. But it would do Shoto dirty to use his heart technique to kill his family and the strangers so he comes in a clutch and I see that confrontation as the power trauma vs the power of healing in the family. With Shoto who is a true hero, they can put the fire out and save the family and strangertoo. Shoto become a balanced hero and bring relief and reassurance, Endeavor was completely helpless, and Toyas inner child got the attention he wanted, plus depending on how you read it, he may have become less suicidal.

Shoto also, and I want to point this out desires to stop his brother not to take him down but because he doesn't want him to hurt any more people. He's again finding a balance between two ideas 1) Shoto needs to stop his brother in order to stop him from creating more victims and 2) Shoto needs to find a way to stop him that's not just putting him down because Toya himself is a victim.

Shoto also, and I must point this out for the comparison between Zuko and Azula goes out of his way to engage Dabi in conversation, ask him why he didn't come home and what happened to him in the years after he died. This is especially poignant because unlike Zuko and Azula who grew up together, Shoto basically had no relationship with his brother (and the rest of his siblings really) before Toya died because Enji purposefully kept Shoto separate from all the "failures."

So yes, the act of saving Toya is more for the completion of Shoto's arc than any redemption arc for Toya but Toya's not just a plot object to move around for Shoto's arc, Toya has his own agency all throughout. In fact it's the fact that Toya resists being saved every step of the way that provides the challenge that Shoto needs to grow in order to be able to save him.

Toya's not just after revenge against his father that's the surface reason, Toya is also just blatantly suicidal. Toya's birth is marked as a failure, his death wasn't even acknowledged by his family and everything stayed the same in his absence, so he created Dabi while praying at his own shrine in order to mourn Toya. Dabi can't find any meaning in his life where he was born as a failure, so he'll use his death taking revenge against Endeavor for having been born in order to give his life meaning.

What makes Avatar look especially bad in its treatment of Azula in comparison to how MHA treats Dabi, is that Dabi is way, way less redeemable than Azula. For one Azula has clearly proven affection both her friends and her brother (and I don't think she even deserves Mai and Ty Lee's forgiveness they had every right to walk out on her and want nothing to do with her again.)

Dabi is probably the ugliest victim of the League of Villains. The rest of the league have far more moments in their bonds with each other. Toya is the outsider to the league even if there are some subtle hints to his affection (he tries to show up to save Twice, and also burns down Toga's family house to comfort her). The villains are mostly shown to be redeemable by their positive friendship with each other, and Dabi at several points denies the league's bond (he pulls a Terra and yells out loud at the top of his lungs none of the league matter to him). Unlike with Terra you can argue this is most likely Dabi trying to cover up his real feelings. However, the fact that he feels the need to hide his affection from the league shows he's purposefully distancing himself from any bonds whatsoever.

Unlike Azula who has gone out of her way to help her brother in one major way, and also shows hints in early season 3 of having that sibling bond with him Dabi just straight up wants to murk Toya. Azula also tries to murk Zuko, but that's only when Zuko leaves on the day of Black Sun (one without telling her, and two something that probably left her alone to deal with the consequences of lying to her father for his sake). Either way, Azula's behavior in early season 3 is setup for the fact that their sibling bond can be salvaged.

Dabi is way worse to Shoto in comparison. Dabi in the first part never saw Shoto as his own person, just a puppet of his father (puppets have no autonomy or personhood). His feelings towards Shoto only went so far as Shoto was someone who could kill in order to upset Enji. Dabi also doesn't particularly care for the rest of his family as well (only calling out Natsu's name when his brain is literally melting), they're either ways to hurt endeavor, or he wants to drag them in hell with him. Heck his last words after being saved is telling everyone to die and go to hell.

Dabi doesn't bother to make bonds with the league or have any lingering affection for his family because Dabi's determined to seslf destruct. He's given up on life the moment he saw that he died and nothing changed in that household, now all that's left is for him to create a meaningful death by dragging his family to hell with him.

Dabi is also even as a child made out to be an unpleasant victim. He attacks baby Shoto with his flames early on out of jealousy (even though he later admits that he was being unfair to Shoto). He makes the situation in the house worse by loudly screaming and demanding his father's attention. He screams at his mother and throws her complicity in Enji's abuse in her face.

This is in comparison to Shoto who in childhood flashbacks we are only ever seen either 1) crying, and 2) trying to comfort and protect his mother. Toya's even made out to be difficult to empathize with as a child - which like flew over half of the fandom's heads because he got accusations of somehow abusing his father and the rest of his family in that chapter at 10 years old. However, that in a way illustrates my point.

The fact that Dabi is so disliked by a certain portion of the fandom is because Horikoshi paints such an ugly portrait of Toya in the way he expresses his victimhood. It's done deliberately too, because number one Toya by resisting Shoto's attempts to save him and trying to self destruct instead retains agency as a character. He makes decisions even though they're bad self destructive ones, he's not just a prop. Number two, the fact that Toya is intentionally portrayed as such an ugly victim makes Shoto's decision to break the cycle of familial abuse by saving Toya and not leaving a single family member all the more poignant.

Toya is an uglier victim than Azula, actively trying to kill himself in a way that Azula isn't, and treats Shoto way worse than Azula ever treated Zuko and yet Azula isn't shown the sympathy or given the salvation that Toya is.

Because once again, the writers didn't think about the ending of Azula's arc or of Azula as her own character. Shoto defeating Toya is the culmination of his desire to break the cycle of abuse in his family. Zuko putting Azula down is just to make Zuko look better. It's in service of Zuko's character instead of both of their characters.

THE BAD

Avatar isn't setting up some gritty ending where the bad guys can't be stopped, they can only be killed. In fact it's pretty close in tone to MHA.

Season 3 especially is the season that really begins to hammer in on the themes that even the people on the enemy side are still human after all. The headband shows that Fire Nation children are indoctrinated into the war, but they are in the end still children. There's the story between Avatar Roku and Sozin, and once again Iroh saying that Zuko has both options becoming like Roku or becoming like Sozin available to him (but not Azula I guess). There's Zuko joining Team Avatar, even after he betrayed Katara in Ba Sing Se and should have burnt that bridge then and there. There's Zuko working to earn their trust again when no one on the team really owe it to him.

The main character of the show is a pacifist, who deliberately learns a way to stop Ozai without killing him before the final battle because he doesn't want to break the values taught to him by his culture.

If the entire theme of season 3 is redemption, healing and that the fire nation are not inherently evil then why does Zuko's sister and character foil end the last shot of the series screaming and crying with no one comforting or even attempting to sympathize with her. Why is this one character marked for tragedy in a show that is about redemption and healing and showing compassion to your enemies and very specifically not a tragedy.

Toya literally burns all of the flesh off of his body, and somehow he has a gentler ending than Azula, because at least Toya's arc ends with all the members of his family showing up to try to cool down his flames, and when he's on the ground burnt to a crisp his father finally apologizes to him. Toya is a skinless burnt chicken wing, my boy has no skin, and somehow he's better off than Azula.

I don't think the writers gave Azula such a cruel ending because they don't like her, but rather because they just didn't think about her ending outside of what it meant for Zuko. Which is why you get moments like Aang who is apparently a pacifist who doesn't want to kill the Firelord, watching his daughter fall to her death while sitting on a flying bison and doing absolutely nothing to save her. ALL LIFE IS PRECIOUS (except for Azula I guess).

It's not bad because a victim doesn't get saved, it's bad because it doesn't fit in with the rest of the story.

Not only is Zuko saving Azula a very natural conclusion to his arc, but there's far more setup for Zuko reaching out to his sister and saving her than there ever was for Toya and Shoto. Both Toya and Terra are screaming at the top of their lungs "I HATE EVERYONE, YOU SHOULD ALL JUST GO TO HELL." They're both making decisions and committing to their self destruction while Azula is a 14 year old girl having a mental breakdown.

Anyway, time to quote the bad bad video again.

"When does a villain deserve a redemption arc? When do we deserve a redemption arc? I know this is gonna hurt, but characters are not people. They are tools. They are represetations of people. They can be used to say other things. They can be symbolic representation of other ideas. Azula's story is not just about a fourteen year old defeated by her brother for the throne, Azula is Zuko's character foil, where she is ruthless and practical, Zuko is empathetic and emotional. Where Azula's a prodigy, Zuko has to work hard to earn eve a fraction of her power.

I specifically chose to cite MHA, because of how differently it decided to use Shoto and Toya's character foiling. Shoto recognizes himself in Toya, and how different their paths were in life. This is explicitly motivates him to save Toya. It's also the culmination of everything that Shoto has learned because Shoto is a hero who believes that actions speak louder than words. It's not enough for Shoto to resolve his own inner struggle, he also has to help Dabi with his because that's showing Shoto has grown rather than telling us.

I think that is where the major difference lies between Shoto and Zuko, we're told that Zuko has chosen the path of empathy and healing, that he's learned to give people love and patience like Iroh has but instead of showing that the culmination of his arc is having a fist fight with his sister in a denny's parkinglot.

Azula is Zuko's character foil, where she is ruthless and practical, Zuko is empathetic and emotional. Where Azula's a prodigy, Zuko has to work hard to earn eve a fraction of her power.

If Zuko is empathic and emotional and that is why he's gained friends while Azula is now alone after having lost her friends due to the way she treated them, then like... what a great opportunity for Zuko to SHOW that quality of empathy.

However, Zuko doesn't do anything that Shoto does in the final fight. He's not even here for Azula, Azula's just an obstacle for taking back the crown. He doesn't talk to Azula, engage her in any way, try to de-escalate and avoid the fight.

If you want to make the tragedy that Azula and Zuko have taken such different paths in life that that Zuko fighting with his sister is unavoidable you could um... at least show Zuko being sad over the prospect of fighting his sister or being reluctant in any way.

(Before you come in here with "Zuko doesn't owe Azula anything take" this isn't about whether or not Azula is a terrible sister to Zuko, this is about the story that avatar is attempting to tell. Shoto and Dabi's fight is tragic because Shoto doesn't want to fight Dabi, he wants Dabi to come home and for their family to be complete. Zuko never expresses anything like that so where does the tragedy come from?)

If it were 100% committed to a tragedy like Terra's death then I wouldn't mind. if it were 100% committed to a story of redemption like Shoto reaching out to Toya then I wouldn't mind. My issue arises from the fact they want to have their cake and eat it too.

They want to give this tragic end to Azula, and use it to illustrate how Zuko has grown as a character. However, you can't have both.

If Zuko's growth is about learning that his father's love based on achievement and 2) learning he needed to get lost in life in order to find himself then why doesn't any of Zuko's actions demonstrate this lesson Zuko has learned about love, and about how you can be your own person outside what your father expects from you.

If Zuko has grown as a character he should be able to show those actions. He does show his new understanding of love and friendship to Team Avatar, but as I said that's easy mode. That's Shoto's attempts to save Iida, it's a step in the right direction. It's also not really Zuko demonstrating a selfless love, because he's also at the same time trying to earn their trust and earn his way into the group.

It's also not Zuko breaking the cycle of abuse in their family in any way. Shoto is trying to break free from his role of his father's masterpiece, and at the same time helping Dabi break free from his view that he's the failure.

It's also such a natural ending for Zuko's arc, to take the lessons he learned from Iroh and give them to his sister who needs them so they can both break away from their father's parenting. As I said Zuko does solve the internal conflict within himself, but he doesn't really demonstrate that by helping someone else find their balance.

If you wanted the tragic end, then it would have to be about Zuko's failure to reach out to his sister, because he hasn't learned how to reach out to her. Or because he tries and is unable to. The writers don't seem to understand that though, they think the tragedy is about Azula bringing it all on herself, and not the inherent tragedy of a fourteen year old girl being unable to be saved.

The set up is right there too, because number one avatar is about balance. So, wouldn't the true ending be finding balance between the siblings, not having Zuko rise and Azula fall. Number two, Azula being alone and friendless because of her own actions is again a parallel to where Zuko was in early season 2 at his lowest point. Except Zuko can be the better person in this situation by reaching out to her.

Zuko doesn't break the golden child / scapegoat dynamic, he just flips it so now he's the success and Azula is the failure.

While Azula's fall comes from cruelty and rejection from friends and allies it is Zuko's humility and kindness and friendship that ultimately wins the day. Him sacrifcing herself for Katara and her bringing Azula down and then her healing him. Azula ending up imprisoned isn't something happening to a real person, it's a deliberative narrative choice by the author to say something about how people like this isolate themselves and end up alone. "

As I've stated above, I'm not saying Azula didn't deserve to take a fall. Her fall is actually set up from the first moment she met Ty lee. However, there's no set up for her fall being permanent.

Azula's given way more humanizing moments than characters like Terra or even Dabi. Which is why Azula being in an insane asylum for the rest of her life doesn't fit as an ending at all.

Azula is one link in the chain of abuse. Her father only gives out affection in regards to her usefulness. No matter what Azula is an asset first and a daughter second. Azula then repeats the cycle and treats her friends the same way. She has been shown through an improper model of parenting of using fear to dominate others with power and control and she replicates that in her other relationships.

Therefore, Ty lee and Mai leaving her is not only deserved, it's the perfect opportunity to pull the rug underneath Azula and to show her that her understanding of how relationships work is completely wrong.

This also mirrors Zuko's arc, because part of Zuko's arc is realizing just how wrong Ozai is for making both children earn his love, and that he doesn't need to measure his self-worth based upon his father's approval. He also learns about healthy expressions of trust and friendship from the gang.

Azula loses in part due to her own inability to form healthy relationships is losing people rapid fire, her brother leaves and joins the enemy side, Mai and Ty Lee betray her in favor of her brother, then her father in one action of leaving Azula behind and throws the title of Firelord to her after it's become completely meaningless reminds her of her place. Azula learns in about five episodes what Zuko had in 3.5 seasons to process that her father's love was always conditional and no matter what she did she would never truly "earn it."

People leaving Azula isn't exactly the problem, the problem is that Azula ends up alone permanently without being given the same chance that Zuko is. Terra, and Toya both get opportunities to turn back. They both refuse the hand that's reaching out to him. Mai and Ty Lee leaving is caused by Azula's own choices, but her ultimate end isn't. She's not even given the chance to turn away being saved like Terra and Toya do because Zuko doesn't even bother to try saving her. Her ending is not entirely brought about by her own choices, because the writers need her to take a fall to uplift Zuko.

Azula ending up imprisoned isn't something happening to a real person, it's a deliberative narrative choice by the author to say something about how people like this isolate themselves and end up alone.

I think once again it comes from the author's misunderstanding things because they don't want to look at the story from Azula's perspective, only Zuko's.

Stay at Home almost had it when he said the tragedy of Zuko and Azula was there to show how two different parenting styles affected these children.

The tragedy is that Zuko and Azula started in the same place, but Zuko had persistent guidance and someone who modeled for him a healthy kind of love. The difference is that Azula has never experienced any kind of healthy love or support on the level Zuko has, so she models all her relationships on the way her father treats her. It's not that Azula is offered some chance for change and rejects it, it's that Azula isn't even aware of the fact that there's another way because no one is there to show it to her.

Which is why I said once again, Zuko being the first one to show Azula the lessons he himself was shown by Iroh is such a natural place for his character to end.

Azula also even while completely alone and with no idea what healthy love is, knows that there is something wrong with her and is troubled by that fact in a way Dabi and Terra aren't.

Azula: I can sit here and complain about how our mom liked Zuko more than me. But I don't really care. My own mother... thoguht I was a monster... She was right of course, but it still hurt.

Then there's the famous mirror scene:

Ursa: I didn't want to miss my own daughter's coronation. Azula:Don't pretend to act proud. I know what you really think of me. You think I'm a monster. Ursa: think you're confused. All your life you used fear to control people, like your friends Mai and Ty Lee. Azula: Well what choice do I have?! Trust is for fools. Fear is the only reliable way. Even you fear me. Ursa: No. I love you, Azula. I do.

Both of these scenes indicate that Azula thinks of herself as a monster and is deeply uncomfortable with the idea. Considering Ursa is a voice in Azula's head and not a ghost, it also shows on some level Azula knew what she did to Mai and Ty Lee was wrong and feels conflicted over it.

Once again she's much more in conflict with herself than Toya and Terror ever are, and who's someone who's constantly warring with himself? Who's someone who could help resolve her inner conflict... Zuko (too bad the way the show's written he never does).

Azula doesn't choose to self-destruct the way that Terra and Toya did. Azula's ending isn't brought about by her choice not to change, because she's never given the chance to change in the first place. Her tragic ending would make sense if it was entirely of her own choices, but Azula doesn't retain her agency in the end it's literally taken away from her. She loses control of her mind, and her ending is being chained to a grate screaming and then thrown into an asylum.

I'm not arguing against Azula's ending because she's my favorite character and I don't want bad things to happen to her. It's because her tragedy isn't about her it's about Zuko, and her ending actively takes agency away from her where at least Toya and Terra both retain their agency up until the end. It's not good writing because the tragedy doesn't fit in with the rest of the story which is about balance and healing - and it's also ableist as hell.

THE UGLY

Azula's ending is unfitting to the tone of the story she's in, makes her and Zuko's arcs feel incomplete, and also is ableist as hell.

Here's yet more evidence that Azula's tragic ending is poorly thought out. Azula's mental breakdown doesn't exist in service of her character, but Zuko's.

Azula's issues pop up out of nowhere after episode 15, and take place over the last 6 episode of the series. The idea of Azula having a mental breakdown isn't necessarily a bad concept, but it's executed poorly.

The first way it's executed poorly is just how rushed it is. There's basically no hints of any mental instability beforehand. Of course people can have mental breakdowns spontaenously like that in real life, but this is a story and stories require foreshadowing. Azula spontaneously developing mental issues doesn't feel like it's planned as a part of an arc. First off, because the writers don't seem too sure about what Azula's symptoms even are. Hallucination, paranoia, manic laughter, but apparently she's still able to bend lightning just fine. Secondly, the writer's intentions for giving Azula a mental breakdown are pretty transparent.

The writer's room needed to come up with a believable reason why Zuko would suddenly be able to fight on equal terms with Azula, so boom sudden mental illness. The intent was not to create a sympathetic portrayal of a young girl struggling with both paranoia and delusions. The intent was to nerf Azula because they couldn't think of any other way this plot could end, other than Zuko and Azula fighting in a denny's parkinglot.

As I said they use mental illness as a plot device to take Azula's agency and choices away from her. It's not done with the intention of humanizing her, and in fact except for one small scene with her talking to her mother in the mirror it's a pretty negative and unsympathetic portrayal of mental illness. Not because the writers hate mentally ill people, but because they needed Azula to have a mental breakdown in order for a plot point to happen. Which is why they didn't think of the potential implciations of such a writing choice at all.

Now, people are going to argue about me so I'll use one final example. Azula's ending may be controversial but it's universally agreed upon that the Game of Thrones Ending was bad, right?

Game of Thrones uses mental illness as the exact same plot device, to explain why Daenerys Targaryen turns from a hero to villain in the last few episodes with absolutely no foreshadowing. In fact, the all of the show director's interviews about that choice are just blatantly ableist.

Rant from @hamliet

This quote is (likely unintentionally) gaslighting, ableist, terrible logically, and downright offensive. 

First, ableism: why, why, why are we conflating madness with evil? She was driven to madness so she killed a bunch of people and had to be put down? And you think this is a great message in the year of our Lord 2019? [...] Additionally, while good writing is to an extent subjective, there are general consensuses on what make good writing--and Game of Thrones hit all the general consensuses for bad writing, from bad pacing to confusing character assassination. Critics are like, pretty united on this front. No one thought Dany’s turn made sense, even the ones who expect Mad Queen in the books. Maybe if people love a character who is meant to be evil you're not writing them correctly... or maybe they aren't meant to be evil. 

Daenerys and Azula are incredibly similiar characters. They're both dragon themed, alligned with the element of fire, they're both colonizers they both represent the warrior princess archetype.

I'd say Daenerys is more of a tragic heroine though, because while Danerys is essentially doing the same thing as Azula, waging war in a foreign land and a culture that's not hers, for the purpose of then bringing back soldiers to her home continent so she can wage war again - while she is definitely a war mongerer she has good intentions. Daenerys for all of her faults, genuinely wants to break the chains and help out people.

I think Azula definitely sees herself as the hero for winning the war for the fire nation's sake, but she's completely uncritical of her own culture and she doesn't really have the good intentions that Dany has. She does it more out of a sense of duty, and her belief of divine right, not because she wants to break people free.

Daenerys's problem is that she doesn't understand the culture she's invading and the complicated world she lives in and despite all good intentions, is as I described above, invading a foreign power so she can go back and wage a war to reclaim the throne. Even if Daenerys would then proceed to go on to be the bestest queen ever that wouldn't change the fact her methods to get to the throne were incredibly violent, and she's sort of failing to break free from the cycle that led the Targeryen rule to fail in the first place.

Azula's problem is she sees herself as the hero and is therefore uncritical of fire nation values. She doesn't have any nobler intentions either other than service to her country, she just like Zuko is just trying to fulfill her duties as daughter and believe her birthright puts her above others. (I mean Dany does too but digressing).

Azula's more of a tragic villain who plays the antagonist role in the story, Danerys is one of the three heroes. However, she's more of a tragic villain in the sense that she's first season zuko pre character development just way more competent.

However, while Daenerys is a much more heroic character than Azula, here's the thing. I still think she's going to die. She is foreshadowed pretty heavily to die, and fail for her quest for the throne, because her entire story is a deconstruction of the warrior princess and the liberator archetype.

However, the story that GRRM is building throughout his books with Dany as an incredibly flawed heroine is different from what we got in the show, which was Daenerys going crazy and starting to murder people. That's because Daenerys turn to darkness wasn't about her character at all, it was just making her into a plot device to move their bad idea for a plot forward. That's why the turn is so unnatural and makes little sense with her character, that's why it's so rushed.

That's also why it's ableist, because it's using mental illness as a plot device to make a character unsympathetic and monstrous and give the other characters a reason to put them down.

The same for Azula, outside of one scene where he's talking to her mother, Azula's mental illness manifests in her screaming, maniacally laughing, looking like the joker did her makeup, and her instability also makes her violent and dangerous to be around. (Ignoring the fact that most people who experience delusions in real life are harmless, and more likely to be the victims of violence).

Her sudden mental illness isn't even used to make her more sympathetic in say Zuko's eyes and make him realize she's a victim, no it's just there to nerf her so she can be violently put down. The way she's drawn, the way she acts, it's to paint her as monstrous as possible. Her last action is like sobbing and screaming while being drawn as ugly as possible. She's not even given a small hope for recovery, because it just ends there. That's a pretty great message to send people that experience delusions, not only will you not recover or be shown sympathy, you'll also get sent to a mental asylum for the rest of your life. The choice for both Azula and Dany is not to portray any kind of mental illness in a respectful way, but to make a plot point happen.

As I said I expect Dany to die in the books, but there's a difference between dying as a tragic hero succumbing to your flaws but still having your good intentions acknowledged and just turning into a villain for no reason and being put down like a rabid dog.

(This is a quote I stole from a Shigaraki post but): "Why does she need to be put down in the first place, she has trauma, not rabies."

The problem isn't bad thing happened to my favorite character, the problem with the ending is it doesn't take Dany's setup into consideration.

Stealing from @hamliet again:

The thing about tragedies is that you have to manage expectations and clearly show that your tragic hero is doomed from the very early on–ie you have to show them making steadily worse and worse decisions (see: Eren Jaeger in SnK), if not directly tell your audience at the very beginning that this is a tragic story (ie see Greek choruses and Shakespeare, the prequels from Star Wars because everyone knows Anakin is Vader–plus I’d argue Anakin’s arc only works because we know he comes back to the light in the end. Audiences don’t like reversing on set up/undoing structure. To make Dany a tragic villain is to go against the structure of her arc in both show and book. That’s why people don’t like it, even if the books makes it seem more believable.

Kate then goes onto describe a character that's much more comparable to Azula's. Honestly Arianne is closer to Azula than Daenerys is.

You know who is set up as a tragic heroine destined to descend and die because of her flaws in the books, whose arc has almost certainly been combined with Dany’s in some sense in the show? Arianne Martell. (and another character known as f!Aegon) In the books, Arianne is incredibly ambitious, and especially resents her brother and his quest for power. Like Margaery (another tragic character), Arianne seeks power and is intelligent and manipulative in her quest for it. But Margaery’s fatal mistake is that in seeking power and prestige, she’s become more a pawn than anything else for a villain (Cersei). She chose to play with lions, and she’ll be torn apart; that’s not surprising. Arianne, as her chapters hint, is going to almost certainly marry f!Aegon, playing with fire, and die burning for it.   Arianne’s grasping for her own power is never portrayed as cruel or stupid like the main human villain (Cersei); on the contrary, we empathize with a girl who truly cares about her people, but resents her father’s preferential treatment towards her brother. That’s the difference between Arianne and Cersei: Arianne cares. She is not cruel. But her pride is still going to get her killed.

There's a lot of game of throne females you could compare Azula to because GOT is full of queens, but like. Azula may be a tragic villain firmly on the side of the antagonists but she's not Cerseie. She's not queen, she doesn't wield the power that Cersei wields. In fact one of Azula's downfalls is finding out she doesn't have as much power as she thought she had, and ultimately was just a tool of her fathers.

She's not Rhaenyra or Alicent, because yes she may be grabbing for power but her character isn't affected by misogyny. Because once again, the writers simply didn't think about misogyny except for a really surface level "girls can be just as strong as boys" way so we really have no idea how women are seen in the fire nation. The show doesn't really explore if being a woman makes things harder, or makes people treat her differently than Zuko because the writers just didn't consider Azula's perspcetive on that matter.

Azula is alike to Danaerys in several ways, but as I said I think her ultimate end comes from Azula understimating her own importance in her father's eyes, and quickly realizing when her father is her only family left she never had his love or loyalty in the first place.

But Margaery’s fatal mistake is that in seeking power and prestige, she’s become more a pawn than anything else for a villain (Cersei). She chose to play with lions, and she’ll be torn apart; that’s not surprising.

Azula's most famous quote is about how Long Feng isn't even a player, only to find out her father considered her a pawn from the beginning and be broken by the revelation.

The difference being of course that Avatar is not Game of Thrones and it won't even kill the evil fascist dictator so it doesn't make a lot of sense to hand Azula the ending that Arianne got. They have the same fatal flaw.

Anyway, I made this big post but I can explain why Azula's tragic ending down't work in one sentence.

AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER IS NOT A TRAGEDY.

Maybe the reason Azula should get redeemed is because THE SHOW IS ABOUT F&%CKING REDEMPTION.

[lace-tf]

So much art sphere discourse always makes me scratch my head like “Why are we policing what independent hobbyists—many of whom are young, working-class (or impoverished) queer folk, let alone QPOC—do for free in their own time?” Some people seem to unironically want to bring back Eating Your Veggies or throw around allegations of unconscious bigotry based on confirmation bias instead of just like… Seeking out the content / people they enjoy without having to put others down to do it.

I have strong preferences and principles myself, and I’ll avoid people whose vibes I dislike, or whose values I disagree with. But I’m not better, wiser, or more worldly than other people for doing this 😭 A hot topic in the OC community right now is “if you don’t regularly draw ‘female’ characters, you should examine your internalised misogyny problem!” and it’s so, like… Maybe consider why many transmasc or non-binary creators might connect more to non-woman characters? Consider that implying—unless they force themselves to represent femininity and womanhood in their creations, possibly triggering dysphoria—they’re bigoted is very unkind?

(Also, how are we even defining ‘female’? I recently saw someone say that if your whole cast is “men and male-aligned” they don’t think you’re worth interacting with. Where does that place GNC or masc women? Butches who don’t use she / her or don’t identify as women? What about genderfluid and non-binary men or mascs who use she / her or present femininely?)

Obviously you guys don’t see it here on my fandom blog, but I love my femme OCs and draw / post them regularly. Yet, this wasn’t the case when I was younger—as a transmasc* person, I wholly gravitated towards writing and drawing men / mascs. I liked when my peers liked the guys I created using my own experiences and feelings about masculinity, especially when IRL was so hostile towards my identity.

At the time I thought—and do still think, even though things have gotten much better—that it was also just kind of hard to find compelling female characters in mainstream media. I had plenty of them I liked (Xion from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Midna from Twilight Princess, GLaDOS from Portal, Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors, Azula from ATLA, and The Other Mother from the Coraline film among them), but they were few and far between unless you went out of your way to find them. This was both because many big creators or corporations neglected developing the female characters in their properties, and because… There weren’t many female characters in most IPs to begin with.

And this makes me think a bit about the original culture of fujoshi in Japan, where women* fixated on M / M relationships due to 1) the freedom men were allowed in Japanese (and largely Asian) society, and 2) the distance between those fictional men and the female creator’s lived experiences and desires (which may feel too painful or shameful to delve into directly). Fujoshi used male characters as a vessel to explore their identities, emotions, sexuality, etc…

So like. I dunno. There are plenty of reasons for people to prefer playing with masculine dolls that have nothing to do with “hating women.” And I think if you want to celebrate femme characters more, and surround yourself with creators who feel the same way, you should just do that instead of being weird towards people who love masc ones.

At the end of the day, independent small artists who post their little guys FOR FREE do not owe you anything but common courtesy. They aren’t being paid to be a bastion of representation; they aren’t a corporation that profits off proliferating mass media and therefore has the responsibility to use its reach to spread tolerance. They’re literally just randos online.

[twig-tea]

The Fragrance You Inherit Remained Gentle and Kind

The Fragrance You Inherit was such a gentle and kind show. I loved so many things about it: The performances, the music, the colouring, the pining, and above all, the kindness. I've said before and I will repeat: this is a show about good people who love each other doing their best to be kind to one another, and it was a pleasure to watch. Run don't walk to Siiri's blog @isaksbestpillow to download the show with her subs. Spoilers for the finale to follow.

The interpersonal relationships were the star of this show: The mother/son relationship between Toki and Sakura, Sakura's friendship with On-chan, Toki and Kanae's budding romance and learning what it means to be in a relationship together, Sakura and Mone as reunited old friends and how they immediately regress into giggle-fits in each other's presence, Kanae and her father and how Hoshii-sempai remained a lovable and supportive dork through the whole series, Sakura and her own mother, and even Toki and On-chan and the loving uncle/nephew-like relationship they build...all of them were perfect, loving, and sweet. And the relationship parallels were used well to move things forward--Mone sees the parallel between herself and Sakura in the past with Toki and Kanae in the present; Mone draws from her relationship with Toki to understand her relationship with her own mother better; and Toki draws from his experience with Kanae to understand his mother better (and vice versa, he draws from his mother's relationship to understand his own better too).

I said after ep 1 that my expectations for this show were that we would get closure for Sakura and we did, in a series of beautiful scenes. I love how the series is bookended by two very different weddings that Sakura attends with very different emotions, and how much support Sakura has around moving on and seeking happiness for herself. Though we didn't see the scene, we got enough of Toki and Kanae's relationship that I believe that Kanae also knows about Sakura by the end of ep8, and her giving Sakura the flowers is tacit approval for Sakura to go out and date (a woman).

In addition to the confession scene, I absolutely loved Sakura's coming out scene with her mother; the way this was done to underscore the importance of a child's happiness to their parent was well done and was a good message to send. Generally the message about coming out in this show was that it is not something you owe anyone but is a gift you give the people you love so that they know you better and as a benefit, by knowing more about you, their world expands. I liked this message.

I had also said in the same post-ep1 post that this show seemed gearing up for a teenage boy meltdown, but I did not predict how sweet and loving this meltdown would be. Toki is the most thoughtful and caring teenage boy of all time. The scene with him and his mother on the phone in episode 7 made me cry so much! I really appreciated that the show was clear that Toki had absolutely no reason to ever doubt that he was loved by his mother, but that the evidence of his life and their history was not enough to break through the teenage melodrama when it hit, and he needed to hear it from her directly. I have to stop and give kudos to Sakura's actor Hoshino Mari, who did a phenomenal job. I felt her desperation and concern for her child so strongly, as well as her relief.

While I'm giving shout-outs, I also need to shout out Takeda Kouhei, who was perfect as the sardonic and empathetic gay bestie On-chan. I was so happy to see him every time he appeared, he always gave excellent advice, and his presence was so soothing.

And while Toki and Sakura were the core of the show, I really appreciated that all of the characters felt like they had their own motivations and drivers. It would have been easy to have made Kanae one-dimensional or without agency, or to have made Hoshii-sempai a distant or unsupportive father, or Mone the passive recipient of Sakura's feelings. But the show balanced all of these characters as distinct people who each had their own perspective.

Thank you again to Siiri for subbing this series and making it available for all of us to watch; this was another gift of a show. And thanks to the giffers who giffed this show, especially @easterndelights !

[writeriguess]

bruh why r u STILL writing katsuki x reader if u hate him so much?? like u made that whole dramatic post crying about how tired u are of him just for clout lmao💀💀 this is so fake it’s actually sad. not even surprised just disappointed fr

Let me explain this one last time.

I currently have fics queued through July 8 — the majority of them (about 80%) are Katsuki-centric. Every single one of those was written before I made a post about stepping back from writing him. That announcement wasn’t "drama" or "clout-chasing." It was me being honest about my creative exhaustion and trying to set boundaries with my time and energy.

Since then, I’ve received a wide range of Katsuki requests. Some were perfectly respectful, and I want to highlight those:

"I know you’re tired of Katsuki, I’m sorry, I just really love him and just have to request one anyway." "Totally understand you stepping back, but just wanted to say I’ll miss your Bakugou fics." "Hope you find your love for writing again."

Those are appreciated. That’s what respectful fan-creator interaction looks like. You're engaging as a person, not demanding like a customer.

But then there’s the other category — the kind of messages that have been coming in with a Katsuki request, followed by things like:

"You saying you’re tired of Katsuki is just driving readers away." "You built your following on Katsuki, so you kinda owe it to us to keep writing him." "Why did you even start writing him if you’re sooooo tired now?" "Lol you’re so fake. You clearly don’t hate him, you’re just farming reactions." "Cry harder, you’ll be back to writing him in a week anyway."

Let me be absolutely clear: if you’ve sent anything like that — mocking, guilt-tripping, or passive-aggressively trying to undermine the boundary I set — your request has already been deleted and you’ve been blocked. Even if it was sent on anonymous mode. Tumblr requires you to be logged in to send asks — the site knows who you are even if I don’t — and the block I place is permanent.

I am not done writing Katsuki forever. I might return to him eventually — but on my terms, and when I feel creatively ready. Not because someone tried to insult, pressure, or emotionally manipulate me into doing so. If your idea of encouragement is thinly-veiled entitlement, it won’t work here.

The queued Katsuki fics will post as scheduled through July 8. After that, the content will shift depending on what inspires me — what characters I feel connected to, what stories I want to tell. Some of that might still include Katsuki in ensemble casts, or in things like the Katsuki’s sister x Dabi snippets (love to everyone who requested those — y’all are precious). But standalone Katsuki x Reader pieces will take a step back for now.

This is not up for debate. I’ve said what I needed to say. If you can’t respect the direction my writing is taking, feel free to move on from this blog.

Respect my space — or leave it.

Anyway, I’m continuing my work now. I’m working remotely today and was on my (very late, oops) lunch break when I dared to open my PC and saw this nonsense. Back to emails and spreadsheets I go.

[thatlittlefangirl]

Lily is a shitty friend because she refused to be friends with a guy who was a fucken racist to everyone but her? Would you defend a white person who liked one black girl but called every other black person a racial slur? Snape was a shitty character. The only people who can sympathize with him are those that have the same hatred within their hearts and can justify his actions. He was a horrible friend that got his ex best friend and husband killed, and bullied children because he was piece of 💩

Erm actually 🤓☝

Lily is a shitty friend because she refused to be friends with a guy who was a fucken racist to everyone but her?

She actually was a shitty friend because she smiled at her best friend being exposed

But too late; Snape had directed his wand straight at James; there was a flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James’s face, spattering his robes with blood. James whirled about; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants. Many people in the small crowd watching cheered. Sirius, James, and Wormtail roared with laughter. Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile, said, “Let him down!”

Excused his bullies' behaviour

“I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are.” The intensity of his gaze made her blush. “They don’t use Dark Magic, though.” She dropped her voice. “And you’re being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever’s down there—”

And ended up with his bully in the end, don't tell me "She didn't owe him anything", anyone who had a friend who was bullied will tell you that they wouldn't date their ex-best friend's bully. She had the right to leave Severus, I am not against it, but she had a part in the breaking up but as always didn't take responsibility of it (she actually does it a lot somehow).

Would you defend a white person who liked one black girl but called every other black person a racial slur?

No, because that's not the case here. Here is a mixed-race boy, who has been put into a white neighbourhood, there the white people are pretty nice to him but will be mean to black people, they tell him to join them. He knows that his best friend is black but since other black people were mean to him (his father and his best friend's sister), he doesn't see anything wrong with it. Know the difference (not that I excuse racism but here is a different case than the one you're pointing out).

The only people who can sympathize with him are those that have the same hatred within their hearts and can justify his actions.

Liking a character doesn't mean you support what he does, I love Bellatrix and Lucius, but I do not support their pureblood supremacy views and think they have no redeeming qualities whatsoever, I like them because I like villains. No one justify his actions, they explain his reasons, is it justifying? No, because it's not right, but why liking a complex character if you don't understand his complexity?

He was a horrible friend that got his ex best friend and husband killed

Actually, their whole friendship was toxic, Lily wasn't an angel, Severus wasn't a demon, they both were human and had their flaws. Stop pointing to Severus and ignore Lily's faults. Do I really have to go back on the "Severus got Jily killed!!1!1!"?? Many other people explained this part already, go see their blogs instead.

and bullied children because he was piece of 💩

He actually bullied children because he wasn't totally right mentally, and he mostly is just blunt with kids because yeah Potions is extra dangerous and if you fuck one single thing up you could blow the whole ass school. Does it make his insults right? No. Does it make his temper more understandable? Yeah.

Thanks for that ask, it was my first snater ask, I'm so happy I'll frame it in my room <3

[twilightmalachite]

Ibuki Taki - Idol Story 3

Characters: Ibuki, Esu, Kanna, Yume, Raika

Translators: Mika Enstars & citrinesea

JP Proofreader: Anonymous

"That’s why this guy got angry at me?! Now hold on a moment!"

⚠️ This story brings up Ibuki's pursuit of AKATSUKI and its insensitive handling of 'wa'/和.

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Season: Summer

Location: Starmony Dorms (Exterior)

Ibuki: This is the last of the boxes? I thought that I’d gotten rid of a good amount of stuff since I was moving, but there was still tons of it, huh~

With this, the bothersome round trips have come to a close~

It took so~ long for my luggage to get here~! I thought getting it shipped from America by plane would be too expensive, so I had it shipped by sea instead~ Looks like that was a mistake, huh~?

I came to Japan forever ago, but not a single one of my luggage was here all that time.

I did bring a few changes of clothes and some carry-on bags with me, but this whole plan was more inconvenient than I thought~

Yep yep. With this, starting from today, I can finally live like a person again~♪

Location: Starmony Dorms Common Room

Esu: Hmm? As I thought, this luggage here really doesn’t have any shipping labels on them, huh~? Just who could they be for…

Ibuki: (Hm? What the…—? There’s a buncha kids swarming around all my luggage?)

( — Wait. Maybe they’re planning on stealing it!?)

(Everyone in Japan is so good-natured, so I completely let my guard down~...! While In America, you’d get your luggage stolen the second you took your eyes off of it.)

Put your hands on my luggage, and you’ll be seeing blood, ‘kay~!?

—Sound of a slam

Esu: Wha? —Gyahh!?!

—Screen fades to black

Esu: …Nngh… Ow, ouch…? My head, it hurts….

Ibuki: If you value this guy’s life, put back my luggage at once, alright? You guys are still kids, so I’ll do you a favor and go easy on you, ‘kay~?

Esu: Nnh?! I’d totally blacked out, why am I suddenly being grappled from behind by some dude I don’t know?! What the heck is going on?!

Wait!! C’mon! Kanna~, Kanna~!

Kanna: Is there something you need from me? I’m right in front of you, so there is no need for you to yell out for me.

Esu: Ooh… Aren’t you a dry one, just beyond what it means to be calm and collected! Wouldn’t you like to question the situation unfolding right in front of your very eyes?

I don’t have a clue what’s going on right now, could you throw me a bone? If there’s anyone qualified for the job, it’d be you!

Kanna: You were hit by that person’s luggage after it was thrown at you, resulting in your loss of consciousness and allowing you to become detained, Esu-san. It has been five minutes since you’ve been restrained.

Esu: I see, I understand now! Now I know what happened, but what about why?! Why am I being restrained?!

Yume: What are you doing to Yume’s Esu? Yume is against violence. Yume will be calling for help.

Ibuki: Doesn’t matter to me if you call for help~ ‘Cuz I’m just gonna sue you for trying to steal my luggage, right? That puts you at the disadvantage~

Esu: Okay. Yume, shut up for one moment, will you? I don’t need to understand the situation to tell this is going downhill fast.

…Hold on, stealing luggage?

That’s why this guy got angry at me?! Now hold on a moment! We never did anything like that! There must be some misunderstanding going on!

Ibuki: Misunderstanding…? So, you weren’t trying to steal my luggage?

Raika: Uh-hee, please… Please let Esu-sama go! You shouldn’t take away someone’s life~!

I’m often told I’m a bad kid, but I was told life is somethin’ to be valued! So I’m followin’ that teachin’ closely!

Ibuki: …It seems like you’re confessing your buddy here’s the bad guy, though?

Esu: It’s no use, here are only enemies who will only deepen this misunderstanding of mine even further!

I give up, I’ll explain my case! Just give me one second! One second to hear me out?!

Time passes…

Ibuki: Nyahaha~ Sorry~ It looks like I had the wrong idea! I’ll apologize, so can we let bygones be bygones?

I never woulda figured you thought the luggage was all left behind and tried to find the owner of it. Everyone makes mistakes, so I’d love if you could have an open-mind and not sue me, please~

Esu: I won’t sue you. I’m glad we got this misunderstanding straightened out!

Yume: Yume hasn’t forgiven him yet. Esu has a bump on his head now. Look at it! It’s all puffed up and swollen right here!

Esu: Owowow?! You’re just making it worse by pressing at it!

Kanna: Typically, something like that would have resulted in a far more serious injury. You must truly be hard-headed to get out with only a bump.

Esu: Well ya gotta be sturdy if you wanna go on adventures! An adventurer’s body is his capital!

Hm? What are you doing over there? Somethin’ smells good…

Ibuki: I caused you trouble, so I’m makin’ some “sanpin tea”~[1] for all of you— To make up for it, y’know!

Raika: “Sanpin tea”? I’ve never heard that name before. It has sorta a nice ring to it. Sansan-pinpin, san-pinpin. ♪

Ibuki: I had it sent in from Okinawa~ It’s a tea that smells like flowers, y’know~

Esu: Hm? Okinawa? All the way from Okinawa to here?

Ibuki: Ahh, now that you mention it, I haven’t introduced myself yet~

My name is Taki Ibuki. I was born in Okinawa and raised in America! I’m a newbie idol that just joined AKATSUKI~

Esu: Well, thank you for your kindness! I’m Esu, the humble and lowly leader of Esupuri—

Hm? Taki Ibuki…?

Ahh!! You’re the one NiceP was talking about! The one who was supposed to be the leader of Esupuri!

Ibuki: Ahh. Now that you mention it, Nassan said something like that.

Esu: I’m going through a real tough time all thanks to your refusal, you knoOOW?! Imagine what it’s like to be told to hold together such a troublesome group!

See, look! Everyone aside from me has already gotten bored of having tea! They’re not even paying you any mind!

Ibuki: Nyahaha~ It’s No Prob ☆

Esu: How come you turned down the leadership position for Esupuri? If you wanna become an idol, wouldn’t Esupuri have been just fine?

Ibuki: Um~mm, Esu, was it? Sorry, but that choice isn’t in the cards for me~

I’m looking for “true Japanese-style”[2]. ‘Cuz of that, I wanted to join the unit AKATSUKI at all costs. No other unit can do~

Well, I don’t think you’d fully get it, though—

Esu: Ah, I get it. Well, nothing can be done about that, then.

Ibuki: …..

Esu: Uh, what? Did I say something weird?

Ibuki: You understand how I feel, Esu? Every time I tell it to people, they don’t really seem to get it, though?

Esu: Well, I’ve only just met you, so it’s not like I understand everything…

But, I’m a bit of an adventurer myself, you know. I kinda get what it means to chase romance.

If there’s a goal you want to reach, you embark, no matter what difficulty or danger awaits ahead! That’s what it means to be an adventurer!!!!

So, what right does anyone have to stop you?

Ibuki: Nyahaha~ I never woulda thought I’d come across a kindred spirit in a place like this~ The world works in mysterious ways with the connections it brings you~

That being the case, I’m sorry to you Esu, but do your best in my place~ ‘Cuz I’ll be doing my best in AKATSUKI~

Esu: Yeah… Well, I suppose I had just given up a bit now that I’ve gotten this far. Or more like, these guys might be a troublesome bunch, and I’m not sure if I have what it takes to take care of them, but…

They really wouldn’t be able to keep things together if I weren’t here. So I’ll do what I can, one way or another.

Ibuki: It’ll be okay~ Definitely.

"Makuto so~ke~, nankuru nai sa~" as they say~♪[3]

[ ☆ ]

story directory

Sanpin Tea (さんぴん茶, sanpin-cha), a tea made from jasmine and partially fermented tea. Similar to an oolong tea, a traditional Chinese tea.

和風 (wafu, lit. tranquil wind), or Japanese-style. The kanji used here to indicate "Japanese-ness", 和 (wa), actually means "harmonious"—the second meaning of "Japanese" being one the Japanese chose for themselves, basing off the Chinese Confucian and Buddhist philosophies that Japan as a nation should have a framework of "harmony valued and quarrels avoided".

An Okinawan saying meaning “If you’ve done everything as honest as you can, it’ll all work itself somehow”. We kept this in uchinaaguchi (native name of the Okinawan language).

[waxingrunes]

I’m seeing too much of this across all channels and I need to write a little something on my humble blog with my humble amount of followers, because how else am I going to get this off my chest.

Some of you need to remember that this whole world we created is pure, fiction. It’s based off fiction and we are building off fiction, forking off in different directions with characters we love.

The canon vs fanon debate is ongoing and quite honestly, mind numbingly pointless and you all consistently contradict and overlap one another with whatever discourse you’re riding that week. You lot wanna argue a point by saying, “these are my hc’s and I can do what I like with them stop taking everything so seriously teeheehehehe” then uno reverse that the next minute by screaming, “that would never happen *insert name* is this or is that” but fuck canon right? Fuck JKR? Or is it more, fuck the parts of canon I don’t like and I’ll take the parts I do so I can shove them down the throats of creators who represent these characters in an opposing light. The amount of posts I’ve seen floating around these sites that are people preaching to their audiences about how dumb they are (unless it’s meant to be satire, I’m not a brainless sensitive lump with no humour bone) for liking certain things, or enjoying certain things, or preferring certain aspects in a character is astounding. Take pause before jumping on your high horse over a fictional character and shaming people for moulding them into what they enjoy. Is this not the beauty of fiction, imagination; the ability to twist and turn over different traits and appearances within our palms and make them into our own little dress up dolls?

Here’s my two cents as a WOLFSTAR artist, not a Marauders— if I want to make Sirius into a teacup and Remus into a sea slug and have him curl up to sleep every night in his bowl, then I’ll do that with fine china detail. If I want to make Sirius someone who refuses to wear nothing but a specific shade of tangerine and Velcro strapped trainers, I will. One day I might throw Moony into a boxing ring and have him be a middleweight champion, stained by the blood of his opponent whilst his wolf is chomping at the bit to come out just before the full moon threatens to take centre stage. If I want to make Sirius 6ft tall and Remus 5ft1, I will. Why not draw an AU of them as the rocks from Everything, Everywhere All At Once? Maybe, they can be something as simple as a boy and a boy who look the way you want them to look, fuck the way you want them to fuck and fall in love and fight, and scream, and cry, and make up a million different ways.

Let’s get more specific as the seal’s broken. Why not make Remus plus sized and give him a beard or a dad’s bod at age 23. Or maybe because he’s lighter haired he doesn’t have dark hair like that and only has a smattering of it across the ugliest of his scars. Consider this— moony with softer hips but fuller sturdy shoulders. Or long, slender limbs with a deceptively hidden strength owing to his wolf, stronger than James though he doesn’t look it. Onto Sirius, try to tell me I’m not going to put him in thigh highs and fem the shit out of him whilst he holds a bat in one hand covered in the blood of someone who tried to disrespect his Moons. Alert the press when someone erases every single one of his tattoos only to replace them with hyperpigmentation. What about giving him a beater’s build and a long thick trail of naval hair that he likes to call his ‘seeker’s delight’. What about a hairless Sirius who has a soft life and likes to make herself pretty for her 6ft 4 boyfriend every weekend when he gets on the train to visit.

How about, I stick with my personal holy take on the boys and present you with a harmless middle ground where Moony is whatever the fuck I want him to be physically, emotionally, or characteristically but always a wet fucking cloth for Sirius. A grape, under a thumb, you could say. And a Sirius, who is too whatever I want him to be physically, emotionally, or characteristically but will always be Moony’s biggest cheerleader.

Stay with me whilst I offer you the brain stretching, risky, taboo thought for you to ponder on: stop trying to please people. Stop absorbing all these takes that pressure you into thinking you’ve got to include every fucking thing that shaves you down and boxes you into their squeaky clean little creator! Indulge in what you like. Make it public, make it known and make it as loud as you want. Feels good on this side of freedom.

Lastly, quick (none of this has been quick) circle back to myself being a Wolfstar artist, not a Marauders one. I will not be shamed into drawing the women in this fandom, I will not try to even out my art with equal parts women and men, in fear of being called misogynistic. I came here for Wolfstar and I stay for them; I get 95% of my muse from them and enjoy drawing these idiots nearly every single day when I can. I’ve a busy life, a job, the luxury of a family that love me and a couple friends I’d like to keep too. If and when I draw, it’s going to be what I want to draw and want to indulge in, not to check off your boxes of inclusion. I am not going to defend my choice of indulgence to you. I am not going to refute women or wlw ships and in fact, eat up stories or art where they’re prominent. Will I have muse or will to do a piece on them? Probably not. If I do, I will and if it’s not done to a standard deemed appropriate enough by the council, well shit I hope I get an honourable mention in one of your hate threads on Twitter.

Grow up. I am the type of person who has a more or less rigid taste on these boys and what I, enjoy representing them like and you runts will run your throats hoarse before I turn an ear. I am not the type of person to see someone who doesn’t like what I prefer and start slamming my keyboard and slap them with a red card. I’ll move on but appreciate the take in silence. Some of you really, come across like you’re stomping your feet in a tantrum, some of you sound like you’ve never been told to shut the fuck up a day in your life and some of you, some of you, really think you’re a messiah.

Fuck your canons, fanons and righteous attitudes towards people who are quite literally, not real. You are not a deity of the Marauders, you are a fucking loser offline just like the rest of us.

[cemetarythingzz]

real talk tw's and cw's: i'm going to be going over a few heavy topics under this post, including but not limited to grooming, shaming, and other topics that deal with similar matter please proceed with caution. take care of yourself, cater your space the way you need to cater it for yourself. it's also going to be a bit long and emotionally charged. sorry :/ this is a MASSIVE vent.

okay, so i lurk around in this fandom a lot. i comment random shit on people's posts sometimes just to goof around and have fun or express my opinions on things, because i'm passionate about this comic, and i genuinely do enjoy darker concepts regarding mental health and obsession because they relate to me personally.

except this. this isn't cute. this isn't edgy. this isn't funny. this isn't proving anything. and i'm going to go over all of my problems with it. i'm sure that a lot of you have seen these posts. now, i want to preface this by saying please don't seek out this person and attack them, i've censored their username and i've blocked them for my own wellbeing and i would suggest you do the same. i genuinely, genuinely cannot stand people that do this. i think it is very important to be critical of something that you love and the fandom space that you are in, and that's totally okay. i personally am critical of MANY of the fandom spaces i am in and don't personally like to engage with them because they make me uncomfortable. and im not talking about like... parody ragebait accounts, ones that dont actually cause anyone harm in any manner or don't mean to and actually address their mistakes and learn from them, you guys are okay part - i'm talking about people who do this because they genuinely cannot stand being around other people in the fandom. because they're sooo much better than everyone else in the fandom and they must spread their catharsis and leave a mark in their wake (/s) you cant use grooming victims as a 'gotcha' moment in an argument. that is disgusting behavior, and it deserves to be called out - coming from a survivor myself. not to mention the incredibly racist implications that this carries, even IF the poster themself is hispanic. that doesn't matter. attributing something as vile as making a minor complicit for the desires of an adult to an entire section of a fandom, and by extension and entire section of an ethnicity of a fandom, does absolutely NOTHING to help actual victims of people in the fandom who have been groomers in the past. because it HAS happened, and that's an actual problem that can be addressed, but this generalization, saying shit like this, is completely disregarding everything that the actual victims went through, and not only that but in fact causing harm and turmoil to actual victims who are in the hispanic community of the fandom. a lot of the people in the TEC fandom are minors themselves, and while that's a whole other personal topic that people can touch up on with any opinion they want to contribute, the fact of the matter is self-shipping/yumeshipping or oc x canon in this fandom is NOT done with malicious intent. i can't speak for everyone, but from what i've seen, the self-shippers, yumeshippers, and oc x canon people are awesome and they are doing no harm by inserting themselves or a created character into a fictional world. so let me just say this now - NONE of you deserve the harrassment and shame that you recieve from some people in this fandom, and while it is uncommon, you have every right to be upset about it and you don't have to explain yourself nor do you owe anything to anyone. keep enjoying media how you want to enjoy media. no one can tell you otherwise. now to address the top post, the most recent one, which reads 'every time an eltingville club blog deletes or stop posting about it or something an angel is born'. this might not seem problematic on a surface level, but there are MULTIPLE reasons that an account could have deleted and at most it's something you should be neutral about unless the account in question was run by someone who was creating a worse environment here. these possibilites include but are not limited to the person running the account being bullied relentlessly into taking down their blog, going through something extremely mentally and emotionally challenging, or possibly even dying and having someone take down their account for them post-mortem.

and the sad part is that this person does have some genuinely good points to make that i can understand and have actually found myself thinking about fairly often. it wouldn't be a problem if they weren't so insanely aggressive about it and severely misrepresenting the people they are supposedly trying to make a safer space for. i wanna end off with this. feel free to share any of your opinions on this matter in the comments, and don't be afraid to share anything! i welcome all opinions and these are discussions that i feel matter a lot. you matter! your opinion matters and you deserve to have a safe area where you can share that opinion. and if the person who made these posts finds this one somehow despite me having them blocked? i dont hate you. i dont think that you genuinely mean half of the shit that you say, i think you have been wronged somehow or you see some issues with this fandom and honestly i do too! there are SO many things that we could all criticize. but you don't need to make it everyone else's problem and make horrid generalizations about the fanbase that end up doing more harm than good. if we could have a civil discussion about this, i would love that, but until then i'm not going to engage with you further. i just needed to get my feelings out.

[dcdreamblog]

If Mr. Hawkins is still taking questions:

Readers of this blog have talked about the possible existance/non-existance of two "pulpy" vigilantes who might've existed during the heyday of the All Star Squadron; the Shadow and the Spirit. Have yiu heard of these characters?

Were they real or fictional?

Is it true your Aunt based a character off of the Shadow?

Did Mr. Dodds acknowledge how similar his original costume and some of his mannerisms "on the clock" were to the Shadow (you know, the whole purple prose, appearing and disappearing, scaring crooks type stuff)?

What about the Man Called Midnight? Apparently he and The Spirit looked the same. Any knowledge or comment about that?

Is it true the two/Midnight owe their look from an earlier hero called "The Clock": http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/clock.htm Is that guy real?

Finally...what are your thoughts about all those younger sidekicks from the Golden Age that were recently rescued. I'd imagine you have alot to talk about with them...have you helped them adjust a little? Did you remember they existed befire hand?

Me: This has been a CONTENTIOUS topic in recent months. The controversy around the existence or lack thereof of certain pre-Crimson Avenger "pulp" heroes started small and has now become an actual object of argument among the blog's followers. Maybe you can illuminate some things for us.

Sandy: No but its nice of you to say so.

S: I know of the characters certainly, back in the 40s I listened to as much radio and read as many newspaper comics as anybody else.

M: They were popular in their day

S: Of course they were. That kind of high crime drama was already a best seller before, mixing that noir with superhero trappings became a cinch once the real thing showed up

M: Some of these heroes were more popular than the publically real kind of their own era.

S: Yea well the Spirit didn't have political opinions, so.

S: In the life I have lived I hesitate to call anything fictional with total certainty.

M: He says, answering the question with his evasiveness

S: Alright, alright there Lois Lane, relax

M: Wow, what a compliment!

S: I said relax!

M: Go on.

S: No, I don't think they're real people, either of them. The community was VERY tight knit back in those days. Everybody knew everybody, gossip spread like a shockwave. If there had been masked men who weren't on the Squad rolls, someone would have seen, heard, smelled SOMETHING.

M: No evidence at all?

S: None that wasn't total crank. There were heroes who had skills and settings just like them that we knew all about. If the Sandman and Midnight were public names, the Shadow and the Spirit would have been too.

S: My aunt was a pulp SAVANT. If it was trashy, flashy and printed on bad newspaper stock, she read it.

M: Theories have also posited that she based said character off The Sandman

S: A little of column A, little of column B and a whole heaping load of whatever else she had been reading at the time. Or long before the time.

M: A woman with a lot of ideas then?

S: Endless.

S: Sure, he had to base what he was doing on something

M: Oh?

S: Like I said, that kind of flashy, pulpy, crime noir fiction was already starting to scoot toward what mystery men would actually turn out to be. Uncle Wes was doing something, as far as he knew, no one had ever done before.

M: So he stole from pop culture

S: Bingo. He knew that he wasn't the physically intimidating type. Thick coke bottle glasses, weak chin, prominent nose, he started off with some pretty poor posture before the job forced him to start really working out.

M: So he found a motif to attach himself to

S: Made him more than human, especially in the middle of the night, in the pitch black dark, when all anybody knew about the Sandman were rumors

M: Speak loud, speak deep, walk out of the shadows and suddenly hardened gangsters are pissing their pants

S: A-men.

S: David Clark, that's Midnight. Was an upright man, I didn't work with him very close or very often but I never got a single bad whiff from him.

M: So all the records say

S: They say right. As for the question on hand...

M: Mmm?

S: *Shrug* I'd believe it. He was a bit more of a jovial bruiser type. He was quick with a whit and a right hook. Plus his commitment to the costuming was...

M: Subtle?

S: Low. A suit, a mask, some gloves. It was easy stuff to get no matter what color and nobody would ask what you were doing with it. So I would believe he took part of his cue from a popular newspaper comic. If no one else is gonna put all that free publicity to use...

S: Again, I'm gonna have to say I don't think so.

M: Same reasons as before?

S: Yep. It's always telling when someone's name shows up in a comic book before it does a newspaper

M: How so?

S: Comic companies made books about us because we got into the public zeitgeist, because people were interested in what we were doing. There'd need to be some kind of identity shennanigans going on for a real hero to show up in the comics before any rumors start.

M: Such as?

S: Like, if the artist or the writer WERE the Clock, something like that. But its the same wall for evidence as before. There just weren't that many of us and we all met together fairly regularly. There's no way a guy like that is running around and nobody hears anything before it shows up in a gossip column.

S:...nobody did. It was something with time, with reality, it was a shock. To everyone

M: It struck me rather hard, I can't imagine how you felt.

S: The second it all came back it was like forgetting my own right hand. I knew those kids, loved those kids, fought and bled with those kids. And knowing they had just...winked out, for so long? It hurts/

M: You've met with them?

S: Of course! I was one of the first who saw them, seeing me all...grown up, in Wes' mask. It was the thing that made it all real. I was their Pal Sandy...now I was the Sandman. The sort of thing we all dreamed about but never really imagined coming true.

M: Stepping into your mentors' shoes?

S: Told them that they were in the future, instantly. Ever since we've just been...trying to figure them out. Seeing where they need to be right now. What home looks like for them now. Before we even THINK, before we even DREAM about...

M: Putting them "back in the field"?

S: It's not an inevitability anyone is relishing.

[roopnavarro]

Spotting Misogyny in the Mad Max Fandom: A Handy Guide

What IS Misogyny

Pull up any Mad Max Facebook group, the comments section on the official Furiosa marketing posts, or the comments section on any Furiosa video on YouTube. You'll find whiners screeching things like "boohoo we can't even have Max in Mad Max BECAUSE OF WOKE." You'll see them blaming the movie's modest box office returns on the fact that the movie has an "ICKY GIRL PROTAGONIST WITH COOTIES." If you get really unlucky when seeing misogynistic content, you might even find some really gross dirty AI deepfake pics of ATJ or Charlize as Furiosa.

What is NOT Misogyny

An artist drew some characters that aren't Furiosa. AND/OR The fandom likes some male characters from Furiosa. If you feel the need to consider this misogyny, consider the following points: 1. Waffles vs. pancakes. If someone says "I love waffles!" it's absurd to read into that message and assume it carries the hidden meaning of "I hate pancakes!" If someone draws some male characters from "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," it's equally absurd to assume they're doing this as a malicious and misogynistic act against Furiosa. ALSO If you think "No Furiosa in this pic = misogyny," then do you think "No Big Jilly, Fang, or other POC character in fan art = racist"? I'm guessing no. Because that would be silly. And probably because you're just morally grandstanding and slinging bad-faith accusations as a way to justify your temper tantrum about not getting free content of your blorbo. ----- 2. Everyone making fan art for "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" is someone who saw the movie and was passionate about it, despite it being an under-marketed movie that didn't strike gold at the box office. Most of us didn't have any IRL friends that saw the movie. For those of us who followed the hype (or lack thereof) leading up to the film, there was a bunch of backlash from actual misogynists over the film just straight-up existing. (Like all those manbaby whiners on the gamergate grifter side of YouTube) . And it's not like the fandom is riding a cultural tidal wave — the people making fan art are genuinely expressing their love for the film and its universe. We're not farming internet points or drawing these "popular male characters" for some nefarious purpose. Some people just happen to attach to different characters. Does that bother you? Learn to blacklist tags. ----- 3. If you wanna go fight misogyny in the MM fandom, go over to Facebook and Reddit and get into an internet slapfight with one of the many middle-aged neckbeards screaming shit like "MAD MAX HAS GONE WOKE REEEEEEE." But nah, it's probably easier to send shitty anon asks to artists, isn't it? What do you think you're doing? Do you think you're owed an apology because someone made high-effort fan art, but without your blorbo? Do you think you're creating some kind of positive change in the world or the fandom by whinging anonymously in the ask box of an artist? ----- 4. There's plenty of content of Furiosa (the character.) Aside from there being, y'know, a whole damn movie dedicated to her, she was pretty much Tumblr's darling from 2015-2016, and remains a popular character for art and fic. Yay! That's great! Go feast on those! Every artist in this fandom is not obligated to feed you. We all have our fixations. And if you want that content so damn badly, make it yourself or pay someone to. ----- 5. Also, if you feel the need to go through someone's blog to see if they've reblogged enough Furiosa to pass your litmus test, you're being a weirdo. Stop it. Get some help. What are you, a cop? Do you think you can just pull random artists over and go through their reblogs to determine their "guilt" or "innocence," with regards to your accusations? It's as if you're a highway patrol officer checking out someone's history of traffic violations when determining whether to issue them a speeding ticket.

-----

So there you have it. TL;DR, it's some deeply terminally online clown behavior to attach moral weight to how many ATJ gifs and Furiosa drawings someone has on their blogs. Quit slinging bad-faith assumptions at fellow members of the fandom.

[k3itar0-with-a-three]

Hi hello there

Tumblr has a grudge against me (I can't figure out how to submit asks from the right blog) (I may be stupid) but I'm @akari-of-moonlight and also I'm the idiot in your comments who promised a FYE animatic

Anyway I was listening to your songs again today and kind of got emotional so if you don't mind a mini rant:

I can never thank you enough for getting me into Tetro. I found Tetro at a very low point in my creative journey, when I was really struggling with managing stress and finding it in me to try to get better at music and art, as much failing as that would entail. But in Tetro, I found the inspiration to try again. In the story, in the characters, in the amazing community around it. As the series has ended, I can’t believe how lucky I was to discover it. 

Nemesis was not only my gateway, but really the one thing I kept coming back to, over and over, until I finally reserved the time to look up the Tetro official channel. Ironically, as one fan (of likely many) who freakishly obsesses over Kamimura, Nemesis is one of my all-time favorite songs, just in general. 

Hellbent was a sleeper hit for me. After weeks of listening to it before and after chapter 2, finally it hit me for the first time and had me on the floor in extreme grief.

Just My Style came out right around when I was seriously getting into Tetro, and instantly went on my main playlist. I can honestly say that Just My Style made me like that darn red microplastic exponentially more. Those first three songs (along with YNL, which also activated the shrimp posture and writhing that Hellbent did) carried me through the grief of the Tetro experience, and I love them so, so much. 

And then Feast Your Eyes came out. God, Feast Your Eyes. As someone filled a whole notebook page with “Hasegawa Ken will live” and nothing else, the 5th trial was… an experience. Through the absolute euphoria of the genius narrative, the crushing grief of losing my boy, and the immense guilt of watching him in the first place, Feast Your Eyes was on repeat, full blast, every time headphones were within my reach. I think I kind of already yapped about it enough in the mile long timestamp comment I left (yes, hi, that was me, I wrote that at midnight I’m sorry), but I really did mean every word and more. 

Most recently, When I’m Gone has been crumbling my soul to pieces, and I couldn't be happier for it. I feel like I’ve gone on a bit long, but to say it changed my brain chemistry is an understatement. I kneel before the throne of Thorn as well, for the absolutely immaculate instrumentals. 

Even more than the brilliant lyrics and banger melodies, I am forever grateful that you inspired me to make music again. Seeing someone close to my age be that talented made me really think that maybe I could do it too. I’ve wanted to learn how to produce music and tune vocaloid for so many years now, but I never really believed I could. I can’t stress enough how incredible the music you make is. I’m midway through my first real song (lyrics complete; instrumentals halfway), and I owe it to you. Your music got me to work on an animatic and a song, two things I’d all but given up on. 

Even beyond Tetro, even beyond any fansongs, I’ll always be a Glowmie. No matter what new masterpiece you make. <3

I'm

Im actually crying

I never knew i could mean this much to someone, and I'm being completely serious here... my entire goal with becoming an entertainer and becoming Keitaro was to entertain people and make them smile! And to see that I now have over 1000 smiles under my belt makes me feel like I truly reached my goal. But- to know that I helped someone discover something they love and rediscover their creative spark makes me so so so happy... thank you so much :) no words can describe how happy this made me, and I'm so glad to have you and so many others as Glowmies <3

You guys are practically my lifeblood. I create not only to do what I love, but for people to be inspired to do the same. I'm so so so glad that I've done my job :)

Thank you. So much. 🩷💚

[seriousbrat]

it’s so interesting to see how the interpretation of teen (boy) behavior in books has changed since they were written. it’s mostly for the better, but i think it does cause some people to refuse to engage in good faith with the source material, or on its own terms. i’ve loved hp since i was a kid, but i had never interacted at all with the fan side of things until maybe a year ago, and it was very odd (on the whole — which is why i’ve mostly just stuck to a handful of blogs with great fics and meta, like yours) to see how a lot of the text is taken now, compared to how my friends and i understood it at the time. i think its totally fair — and good, on a cultural level — to point out that the boy who pulls your pigtails isn’t being cute, and your male friend being in love with you doesn’t mean you owe him anything. but it’s also like … kind of intentionally closing the eyes to how these parts of the story are meant to come across? and i am not coming in here as some kind of “boys will be boys” person, but teenagers are messy in their relationships and their friendships, and more relevantly, it’s very clear what types of dynamics are being presented by the text. and it can be fun to pick apart what kinds of narratives are meant to be taken as romantic in different stories written in different times/places and why, but to look at the story on a story level you’ve got to also work with what it gives you.

Yes I think you make a very good point! I agree and personally I think both Snape and James would be written slightly differently if they were written today. Also, imo there's an element of wishful thinking coupled with naivety (and this has always existed tbf) when people who haven't ever been cis teenage boys try to write cis teenage boys haha. Like the 'closing of eyes' isn't always intentional. I know I keep going on about the Inbetweeners but I literally think watching that as a teen myself gave me an insight that I can never take back about what teenage boys are like haha.

Like this isn't to say that teenage boys are all exactly alike, or that there's some inherent, natural difference between boys and girls in terms of mentality or personality, but there is a social difference, generally speaking, a constructed one that happens because boys and girls are raised and socialised in a patriarchy. It's obviously not universal at all, and that's not even accounting for trans kids and the complexities they face, because even among cis boys and girls or men and women there's endless variety, and gender absolutely does not determine personality, interests, etc. Unfortunately it does influence them, though, that's our reality.

In terms of fiction, especially fanfic, obv one is free to do as they please. But there is such a thing as narrative voice, which can be an important thing to consider. Again when it comes to fanfiction it Does Not Matter that much, it's for fun, but in published fiction (or if you care about quality ig) it just is something you should consider. This is where the 'Men Writing Women' thing comes in, where you read something so obviously written by a man who doesn't understand how women (generally) think or speak or act at all. And in our patriarchal society such usually ends up being offensive and has often been overlooked and accepted when it shouldn't be. I don't think it's helpful to pretend men can't write women either, since plenty of male authors write female characters beautifully and the rest shouldn't be let off the hook. If you can't write women, skill issue and you shouldn't be published.

Anyway it's vastly more forgivable and understandable, and it pains me to say it but I think you can sometimes tell when it's a woman writing a man or a boy too. I will say on the whole I think women are better at writing men than the reverse haha, probably because we've been socialised to empathise with men whereas boys are not taught (by society) to empathise with women. Maybe women even empathise a little too much tbh. Maybe that's the problem, like we subconsciously over-project our ideals onto male characters, making them too nice, too woke, too cuddly, too sweet, because that's what we want to see, and leaving out the nastier elements that are so common. Again, that's not necessarily a problem!! Only if you're trying to create a realistic, effective portrayal of a certain (average) type of teenage boy-- which you don't have to do. I'd raise my eyebrows at an unrealistic portrayal much more in published fiction than fanfiction personally.

And ofc you can always choose to write a character who diverges from the accepted norm, but to do so effectively has to be a deliberate choice and done thoughtfully. For a boy like James, who is very average, the norm, he's decent enough but no Woke Feminist King haha. He's not meant to be.

Anyway, I think that's why the Marauders et al (including Death Eaters lol) are nowadays often portrayed like sweet little babies who all cuddle and take care of each other and respect women LOL. Like whatever, it's escapism haha, it's understandable. But sometimes I do think a lot of these people have never really interacted with many gay men or know what their culture is like. lmao. straight men maybe, but in a limited way. if you've ever had the misfortune to be with a group of cishet men who are talking freely with each other you'll know what I mean. again this is GENERAL. and socially constructed, not inherent. but very common nevertheless.

[oscconfessions]

i dont get people's obsession with book making up with/forgiving people from her past because is her whole arc in tpot not about moving on from the past and finding new friends. idk people really want her and ice cube or match or pencil or taco or you get the point to make up and i don't see the point. let her have new friends. let her move on. not everything has to end with everybody being happy and silly together. they can be on bad terms/not talking/literally not friends. it's ok guys. I Really Just Want Them To Move On From Each Other and for people to stop forcing her back into toxic environments from her past

i think book confronting her past is important and i personally feel that she's been avoiding it (her lack of objection towards ice cube leaving her in tpot 1 and her dreading having to deal with it in tpot 10) so obviously it shouldn't just be swept under the rug but i Do Not feel like book owes match or pencil (especially pencil because match has been shown to at least be trying to improve. iirc i don tremember like anytihn gfrom bfb LOL) forgiveness. She shouldn't have to be forced to suck up and go back with people who hurt her. i genuinely think it's best that they go their seperate ways.

^ i also feel like the whole "they should just go their seperate ways" thing applies to icebook. their relationship in bfb was mutually toxic and both of them hurt the other with a lack of proper communication and whatnot. soooooo many people want ice cube and book to make up and be friends again it tpot but they're Not Good For Each Other!!! also book hasn't proven that she's grown enough from her time in bfb to even handle being around ice cube again without repeating her same mistakes towards her. ice cube has no reason to not dislike her right now because she's just acting the same as she did in bfb towards her in tpot 12. if book wants to have a chance at being with ice cube again she needs to realize /what/ she did wrong; book and ice cube's boundaries were always a mess and a big problem in their relationship was that constant pushing of boundaries by book, something that she saw no issue with because ice cube never spoke up about it until it got to an extreme point.

i fear if book and ice cube become friends again in tpot they'll A. just repeat their same mistakes or B. have all of those mistakes conveniently disappear so book faces no consequences for her mistakes in bfb which is like Not Good

i get wanting your fav friendships to interact again but *insert nerd emoji here* it makes no sense for her character and the arc they're trying to give her this season acshually

book needs to accept that her past doesn't define her so she can move on from that and move on from her past friendships. she needs to accept that those people are gone for a reason instead of chasing after them. She Needs To Actually Learn A Lesson And Change, Tpot Writers

vaguely related but dont get me wrong i love icebook (peep the blog lol) but maaaaaaaaaan i don't like seeing it portrayed all fluffy and happy and wholesome. you do you but GAFHGFDGFDKG there's so much interesting stuff about the flsaws in their relationship and just how disgustingly attached book is to ice cube and how ice cube allows this to happen until it's too much for her to handle and how book focuses so much more on ice cube than herself and they're so awfully codepdendent and they suck at communication and boundaries and they were honestly always doomed to fail They Won't Work Out Together they're tied by fate and can't live without each other even if it's hurting them and AND AND AND make their relationship uglier it won't hurt to have ship content that's not 100% happy fluffy all the time no flaws ever fix-it fic material (obligatory you do you i don't care that much this is my opinion you are allowed to do whatever you want)

.