#but fr. can ur anons please fuck off. just. fuck off nonnies. just leave.

[drakonic]

ana, everything you're saying is so so real. i cannot believe that they are still hounding you, that the discourse is spreading beyond just you.

first of all, for any anti's or anons sending hate to ana and her friends: do you have nothing better to do all day? do you spend your time haunting people's inboxes? because i know so many of you have made actual accounts, actual pages, actual walls and walls of text just to publicize and encourage others to share how much you hate a ship or a person or some thing. do you have nothing better to do than tear people and things down? things and people that have nothing to do with you?

second of all, the show is, ultimately, a piece of fiction. why are you harassing people online over racism they have never displayed over a piece of fiction that badly represents the culture you're supposedly defending? for some of the other anons, why are you acting like you're the victim in this? no one targeted you. no one so much as breathed your name or your culture or your ethnicity and no one mocked, criticized or libeled it.

and let me be clear:

you are harassing ana.

you are coming into her inbox to anonymously tell her that she's wrong, racist, any other number of other things, over something she thinks about a work of fiction. it should not bother you, would not reach you if you stopped interacting, isn't factually incorrect, does no harm to anyone, and is not immoral. you came to her.

so tell me, who's being problematic here?

thirdly, anon, do you even know what you're fucking talking about? what sort of half-assed bullshittery are you pulling out of your asses for these arguments.

(a) you don't know your source material, atla, because as much as i love the show, it's an absolute shitshow in regards to its progression with character arcs, with respect to ethnicities, with respect to real history. and as i am not as well-versed in the latter two as others may be, i will not add more on that except to say this: the show itself may represent some east asian cultures, but bryke did a shit job of it, cherry-picking what they liked and what they thought went well together. did it raise awareness? vaguely. did it to a good job of it? absolutely not. and with regard to character arcs? so much of atla didn't make sense anymore come book 3 because the plot no longer followed a logical path, including aang's own arc, including most of the romantic relationships. there's absolutely nothing wrong with respecting cultures, with respecting beliefs, and in fact that's a great thing! but like ana said, there is a problem with forcing your own beliefs on others with no regard for their own culture or their own agency. that in particular screams of entitlement you can clearly see throughout history. (b) you don't know ana or what she's said, clearly. you didn't do your research, anon, because she's never been racist or insensitive. and for the people who are gonna say something like "ana is white," please stop there. don't assume ethnicities. and she's clearly said she isn't white. i've known ana for a long while and she's never been racist, has called me out for criticisms on aang, and she loves this show deeply while still being able to acknowledge the flaws in canon. that is a much better, much more media literate and world-conscious engagement with a piece of fiction than you harassers in her inbox.

and lastly, most importantly: i'm her friend. i love her. leave her the fuck alone. fuck off and find something better to do with your time.

alright, i'm done dealing with this bullshit.

i didn’t want to address this any further but since these people seem utterly obsessed with me & and have now gone on to harass my friends, i have had enough.

first things first, and i can't believe i even need to say this, but aang is a fictional character. he is not tibetan, because there is no tibet in the world of avatar: the last airbender. aang - and the air nomads in general - are the products of two white men's (and a predominantly white writing team's) interpretations of buddhism, hinduism and tibetan culture, interpretations that have themselves been criticized by actual tibetan people.

criticizing, mocking, or even making fun of aang does not make me racist towards tibetan people, just like criticizing zuko wouldn't make me racist towards japanese people, or criticizing toph wouldn't make me racist towards chinese people, because none of these characters are actual depictions of real life groups or cultures. they can't be, because those groups and cultures do not exist in the world of atla. (xiran jay zhao discusses this very topic, and the show's "representation" of asian and indigenous cultures, better than i can in their video essays, if anyone is interested in hearing more about atla from an east asian perspective.)

additionally, even if aang were somehow an actual tibetan monk, i cannot recall a single instance in which i said anything derogatory regarding his cultural practices or beliefs (which, again, stem from bryan konietzko and mike dimartino's understanding of tibetan monks). when i criticize aang (and once again i can't believe i need to say this), i am criticizing the writing of his character and the worldbuilding of his culture and people. not, you know, an actual person and their actual heritage.

i have no problem with aang being a pacifist, or a vegetarian, or shaving his head, or wearing robes. what i do have a problem with is his entire dilemma about killing being brought up in the last four episodes of the show, only to be resolved by a magic rock and a lion turtle instead of character growth and agency. what i do have a problem with is his treatment of katara, and his disrespect towards her cultural beliefs in favour of pushing his own on her. aang is entitled to believe in non-violence and the sanctity of all life; he is not entitled to make that choice for katara, as he tried to in the southern raiders. each of them has a right to their own beliefs, and neither should use their individual beliefs to impose upon the other, or dictate what they should do.

the really ironic thing about all of this is that i love aang. i have said over and over that i believe kat.aang could have worked, that i thought they were cute in book 1, that aang is a great protagonist who had potential for an amazing arc, if only it had been followed through on in book 3. my criticisms of aang's character come from my love for him, because he deserved better than the writers who turned him into their own self-insert fantasy.

so whoever you are that's been endlessly hounding my inbox, and now my close friends', calling me racist because of my opinions on a fictional character: for your own sake, just block me and go on with your life. your social justice crusade against a singular stranger on the internet isn't helping anyone, let alone actual tibetan people.