#but it just does

[warriorofyapping]

The bond that develops between Ardbert and the WoL makes me so emotional. After everything that happened in Post-HW, him becoming one of our closest confidants feels...poetic, kind of. Despite everything, the WoL and Ardbert learn to rely on one another in a way that's different from how the WoL relies on the Scions. He understands them on a level that the others struggle with because at one point, he was in their shoes. He was also a Warrior of Light, no matter how long ago it was, he was a hero of his own world.

Watching as they open up with one another more is so good in my opinion. And yet seeing them become friends despite knowing it won't last forever also makes me sad. They tease him, he teases back. They have heart to hearts with him, he lets himself be vulnerable with them and the WoL does the same. It's sweet and yet they both know that eventually, he will be gone and they won't have him at their side anymore. The shade who's become a dear friend to them will be gone and it'll just be them again. Yes, they still have the Scions, but it's different.

It's sad.

[seyaryminamoto]

Your entries for the sokkla saturdays are always so good. It makes me wonder: which one is your favorite entry for each of the last three years you participated?

Haha, I was actually thinking about this for the last Fic-to-Art I did. I kind of picked my favorite stories in order to draw them as the representatives from each... anthology? Compendium? Whatever the right name for it might be xD

Anyway... here we go. The full list of Seyary's favorite stories of my Sokkla Saturday entries, starting in 2020:

Matching Heartbeats (2020)

It's difficult to really rank this one fairly because I admit, at the start I had no idea what I was doing. It was meant to be a week-to-week concept and I definitely started very lighthearted, but by week 3 I was going a little crazy with stories and I suddenly found myself building huge stuff I absolutely wasn't trying to go for at first x'D sooo... unfortunately the first two stories, which were the ones I was most easygoing with, wouldn't be at the top here even if I don't think they're bad, actually. They're just not as thoroughly fleshed out, I'd say. So anyway, ranking the whole thing now...

Yakuza AU (Azula and Sokka are in rival Yakuza clans)

"I melt in your hands" (Azula captured by the Gaang AU)

Making a deal (Azula and Sokka work together to stop an assassin in Ba Sing Se's Palace)

Loyalty (Dark Ursa AU)

Sokkla is painful for Zuko (Zuko is enlightened by a dream that convinces him that Sokka and Azula are the perfect match for each other)

Arranged Marriage-Touch (War ends 20-ish years earlier AU)

Lost in a forest and feelings (Sokka and Azula reconnect over a trip to find Space Sword)

"As if that would ever happen" (A scene of Azula and Sokka talking briefly before the birth of their second child)

"I lost my clothes and need to borrow yours" (Sokka and Azula start a somewhat-secret relationship in Republic City)

Boy that was not easy xD I actually feel like 5-7 are all tied, to a fault. They're all pretty fun to revisit whenever I want to, but I guess the four at the top win for me. Yakuza AU is definitely my absolute favorite from 2020, though. It just never gets old for me.

Underneath Starlit Skies (2021)

Now, this time I was ambitious purposefully... and I paid for it through making even bigger stories than before :'D to be fair, I was already writing Gladiator Part 3 at the time and Underneath Starlit Skies really helped me regain my mojo so I could energize myself and keep going with my big fic. So! What shall my ranking look like now...?

Wounded (Yakuza AU sequel)

Happy Family (... Yeah, well, I'm just gonna whistle innocently now...)

Body Swap AU (... self explanatory?)

Each other's punishment (Antarctica AU)

Jealousy (Band AU)

Prince Sokka, Peasant Azula (Dragon Age: Origins AU)

TDOBS: Sokkla happens (Azula captured by the Gaang AU sequel)

Pregnancy (Dark Ursa AU sequel)

Meeting the in-laws (War ends 20-ish years earlier AU sequel)

I admit, the sequels from this year were a lot of fun to write but the new ideas I had for stories just took over me, big time...

... 'cept for Yakuza AU because that one just drives me crazy. I admit I think it's possibly the strongest AU in all of my Sokkla Saturdays entries, though I can't pretend to be objective enough to say for certain, haha. Anyway, I liked the sequel even more than I liked the original and that's saying a lot, considering the first entry for Yakuza AU is my favorite for 2020 :'D And yeah, the Happy Family situation was way too entertaining to write, all those family dynamics were a thrill to explore when I finally had a chance to. Then, the body swap AU was such a strange way to get out of my comfort zone, but it worked fairly well and I really enjoyed it because of that. Very introspective even in all its ridiculousness, haha.

Leap of Faith (2022)

Oh, boy. I really wanted to make more sequels this year. Which might look like a weird thing to say considering how I haven't ranked my sequels all that high, but I really did want to. It's kinda sad to me that I could only do it with two stories when there were so many that required them... but let's hope the prompts are better for sequels in the future, huh?

Alright, and so...

Toph matchmaking Sokkla (Sokka and Azula work together to stop a conspiracy to kill Zuko... in a rather unconventional way)

"Blue looks good on you" (Sokka and Azula are agents of the White Lotus)

College AU (D&D AU)

Each other's firsts (Childhood friends/basketball AU)

Caught off-guard (... ehem. Again, I'll just whistle innocently here...)

Academic rivals (Azula and Sokka attend Ba Sing Se University)

Sokka dresses Azula (Dragon Age: Inquisition AU, sequel to Dragon Age: Origins AU)

Falling in love (Ursa doesn't erase her memories but changes her face anyway and comes back to the Palace as a servant AU)

Flustered Azula (Antarctica AU sequel)

... I admit this one feels a little deceptive X'D some of the lower rated ones were actually pretty solid entries but I have no idea what the hell was going on with my emotional state at the time. Even upon revisiting them, I wound up thinking the story had turned out to be a looot better than I thought it was upon writing it, and yet something about how I felt while writing those chapters just didn't feel entirely smooth, somehow.

ANYWAY! Doesn't change the fact that Toph matchmaking Sokkla has ended up becoming one hell of a favorite for me. Even then, it's kind of difficult to argue that it's my absolute favorite because "Blue looks good on you" absolutely took over my life and ran away with me. And College AU makes me laugh like such an idiot every time I revisit it, too. So while I thought I might not have that much to offer this year because the prompts reeeeally didn't allow me to work with a lot of sequels, I ended up finding some ideas I wound up obsessed with X'D so I really can't complain about what I managed to make this year.

Anyway, this is my personal ranking for all my stories since 2020. I really don't think I was majorly dissatisfied with any entry because, if I had been, I outright wouldn't have posted them :'D I do think my first two entries for 2020 are the weakest of the lot since I really hadn't committed to coming up with major stories at the time, and I really thought I'd take this event easy... :'D oh, what a summer child I was. Fast forward a few weeks later and I was possessed by the wild need to tell the Yakuza AU as best as I could and mourning the fact that it had ended too soon x'D

If you have your own favorites, feel free to share too! It's always great fun to know about the impact my stories have had on readers, especially the rarer ones that seem to fly under the radar. I learned about two years ago that some readers reeeally loved my White Lotus International Games story, and I actually had thought that one had just gone completely unnoticed, and this year, a lot of people were thrilled to see an artwork depicting The Love Advisor's scene of Azula and Sokka reading their tragic romance book together xD so yeah, if you want to talk about the stories you liked, feel free to share your thoughts! :D

[paintedcrows]

Did anyone tell Ford (bonus doodles: Family Movie Night, 70s Classics)

[bitchfitch]

writing advice for characters with a missing eye: dear God does losing an eyes function fuck up your neck. Ever since mine crapped out I've been slowly and unconsciously shifting towards holding my head at an angle to put the good eye closer to the center. and human necks. are not meant to accommodate that sorta thing.

[sunriseovergotham]

characters have to be a little bit awful in ways that you cant defend. its good for the ecosystem. your honor he did do that. He did in fact do that

[ameba-from-space]

[mythtakens]

“these characters should be mentally healthy before they get together 😌” ummm no I actually think we should smash their mental illnesses together like clumps of play-doh and see what colors it makes

[swan2swan]

Whoever conceived and animated this moment, I hope they're doing well and thriving. This is S-rank romance stuff here.

[inkskinned]

she's singing in another room and my dog is asleep at my feet. my grandma asked me why i haven't found a man yet and i laughed. oh, you know. i like my house clean.

my girlfriend is also my man is also "my partner" if i'm in a professional setting. yesterday we went to a ren faire and a man mimed at me - you're together? and at my delighted nod, his baffled, you're gay? made me laugh. a woman with rainbow hair said i love the two of you together. you're both so beautiful it's absurd.

my dad introduced my partner as my "..... friend. or whatever" the other day. he knows we're dating. in the same way, i was never able to get my sister's husband to stop saying that's gay like it's 2008. he still uses the word fa***t, and my sister's defense of him has always been well, he's just kidding.

my lover and i dance to old music in a tiny kitchen. we judge new music together and take food critique very seriously. we watch love is blind before we fall asleep and agree that if they had a queer season, it would be bloody but also make for excellent tv. of fucking course queer people would know someone for only 2 weeks and agree to get married. what are you saying.

at a bar with friends, a man puts his hand on my wrist. got a boyfriend? and yes, i do have a boyfriend, she's amazing. i am texting her while i wander around a gas station named after geese. i am visiting a swing state for a wedding. in the candy aisle i overhear: she's actually like a lesbian it's disgusting. two teenage girls with packaged sandwiches in their hands, giggling. no literally, like. i'm not, like. okay with her being there while we're all, like, naked and changing.

my girlfriend and i tailgate, drink gin and cider out of cups. from the frat group beside us, a man corrects himself with one of his friends: bro, i mean, nonbinary entity, and it makes everyone around him laugh, myself included. he razzes his friend the same way i would have killed for at 19 years old - like nothing happened, he continues: you apply sunscreen like an alien. he does a little sassy (and fairly accurate) dance interpretation of the motion. his friend is laughing so hard they're crying.

i am lucky, i live in a safe neighborhood in a safe state. my masc passenger princess comes up from DC. i drive her for an hour to where all the leaves are a violent arrangement of color. we walk along the trails, letting autumn into our blood. in this part of the state, there's a lot of pickup trucks and trump signs. when we chastely kiss before getting into the car, i accidentally make eye contact with a woman holding her child's wrist. she looks disgusted. she looks fucking pissed.

two hours later my girl and i are eating dinner on a patio, soaking in the last warmth of new england sun before the chill of winter sets in. we are giggling and trying to talk through plastic vampire teeth. at another table, i see a young woman sit up straighter. i watch her watch us. she blushes and takes her partner's hand from across the table. shy, like the taste of evening has just become something deeper.

it's worth it for this moment, i think. my lover is still humming the same song she's been singing for four days straight and i don't want to kill her for it. her guitar is beside my bed. her toothbrush is in my bathroom. in a few moments i will make us lunch. we are lucky enough to have found each other. it is lucky enough to be in love.

[dramatic-dolphin]

when we were studying the bible in literature class (so we have the context necessary for later works that reference the bible), i think we were at the book of jonah, and one of my classmates was studying the text very intently, and then looked up and earnestly said "professor, i don't understand the will of god"

the teacher was just like. well sadly i am a literature teacher and not a priest so i can't help you there. but if it helps, many people throughout history had the same problem.

[tuttle-did-it]

David Tennant for Prime Minister, please.

edit- Since this is getting so much attention, edited to include descriptions of screenshots.

This woman has lost her fucking mind.

Jo, are you okay?

[yakityyaku]

very funny (irritating) to me that everyone whined and yelled about stupid rainbow capitalism and how performative wokeness/allyship is a net bad we should all refuse to support and now like.

tumblr is doing nothing for pride and target isn't selling much (if any) of their pride collection offline except at certain stores (in democratic areas, basically) and build a bear has a much tinier collection than normal and all the actual pride stuff is on their "adult" website (not sure if it's in stores, but pride = adult is a hell of a message)

there are genuinely good criticisms for performative allyship in all its applications. it shouldn't be the only thing we expect from people and companies. but if all the shit I see being called performative stopped tomorrow then in terms of the LGBTQ+ community especially we just. wouldn't talk about queerness or queer issues or celebrate pride or do anything.

open your fucking eyes. we are very close politically to having gay marriage rolled back. now companies are basically being let off the hook to even make a miniscule effort (which matters to the people who don't have access to any other kind of support in their communities! which normalizes the community in public spaces!) because the only reaction they have gotten over the last few years are negative ones from BOTH sides.

we are so entrenched in discourse at all times for the sake of our OWN performance of who is the wokest and who is REALLY an ally or a good community member that we have basically handed over all the work of activists of the last several decades to the other side because we'd rather scream at each other over fucking chicken restaurants and shit than the real life backsliding that's happening.

and this goes for other shit too. feminism, poc rights, all of it.

also. trans rights aren't discourse and aren't just culture war arguments. in case any terfs think they can spin this to be antitrans.

[morganbritton132]

The funniest aspect of a child crime fighter is that sometimes they’re going to run into something that makes no sense because they don’t have the life experience. Because they’re nine.

Like Robin runs into a guy who works for The Penguin and the guy just throws his hands up like, “Don’t hit! I’m not an enforcer. I’m an accountant.”

Robin:

Robin, squaring up: I don’t know what that is.

[leafie-draws]

I think the biggest downside to having animal ears and a tail would be trying to mask your discomfort in public like imagine trying to play it cool in customer service but your tail keeps bristling

[bereft-of-frogs]

There’s that post that’s like ‘everyone should get into a tiny niche fandom at least once’ fully agree, that was really fun -- but I would like to add that everyone should get into a fandom where their opinions run counter to major fanon because it really teaches you about sticking to your guns and trusting your interpretation of the text without having to rely on peer validation

because WHAT are people talking about sometimes

[creekfiend]

what's my biggest pet peeve well it's when someone makes a text post on tumblr dot com in which they are trying to romanticize the notion of the livestock guardian dog but they don't know the distinction between a livestock guardian dog and a herding dog and also they've never met a livestock guardian dog and do not realize what their attitudes towards the sheep that they protect actually are