#first and formost

[elitesheepi]

No, Zuko did not lead Katara down a "Dark Path" in The Southern Raiders

Watching Southern Raiders again, and it's bizarre to me that people read that episode as, "Zuko leading Katara down a dark path." Zuko just wants her forgiveness. He fucked up with her severely and to a level that's different from the others. She feels betrayed by him--she was betrayed by him. She trusted him and he all but spat that back in her face so yeah, she's mad. Is it selfish using her desire for justice, closure, maybe revenge to get her to stop being mad at him? Idk perhaps, if you read it that way.

But the way I read it, I read it as him using his resources to give her what she wants most, and that's her mother's killer. Since he was the face of the enemy, since he lost her trust, let him earn that trust back by taking her to the real face of her enemy.

It's the literal least he can do.

Then he steps back. Zuko let's Katara lead the mission, let's her defend herself against Aang and sadly Sokka too while only playing support. Zuko got a comment in there or two, but for the most part it's Katara doing all the talking.

Also something important people forget is that, neither Katara nor Zuko brought up revenge, that was all Aang accusing them(meant to type her, but saying them fits more) of seeking revenge. Maybe that was her unconscious motivation, but Aang was the one who brought it to the forefront of their minds. Zuko states that this is about Justice and closure, Aang was the one who made this about revenge.

After all that back and forth is said and done, Zuko is largely quiet the rest of the episode save for like 3 lines, none of them involving him telling Katara what to do or what she should do.

Katara leads the mission, Katara makes the choice to bloodbend even when Zuko was already facing the SR general on the boat. He didn't tell her to do that, he wasn't in a pinch so she would've needed to do that, hell she didn't even have to do any of that at all considering there was still water on the ground.

These were all Katara's decisions, all Zuko did was stand by her side.

This isn't me trying to say that Katara's making bad decisions. Far from it actually, I heavily agree with Katara's decisions. This isn't even a "supporting woman's wrongs" scenario either. Katara's completely in the right in my mind.

This is a mission involving finding the man who killed her mother. Not kidnapped like Appa (comparison courtesy of Aang), not whatever the hell the comics are doing with Ursa, murdered. Kya is never coming back and it's because of Yon Ra. Little Katara had to see her mother's dead body after the act was done and has to live with the pain and guilt of it all knowing Kya died to protect her. She's traumatized, she's hurt, so she's very much justified in wanting revenge and it's disquieting how so many people make this about Zuko leading her down some dark path for saying "I want to find the man who killed my mother and took her away from me." Bryke included.

Again, Zuko stands back, adds support in the fight when needed, but ultimately is there as her backup and sources.

And yet, people see all of this as Zuko leading her down a dark path. Because he dared to stand back and not talk Katara down from wanting to merc the man who took her mother away from her. What a villain, she said sarcastically.

Realistically, why would he stop her?

If anything, the fact that Zuko was the only one in her corner for this says a lot because of everyone there, he gets it. Sokka should've gotten it too, but that's a separate point for separate post.

He too lost his mother to the Fire Nation. Whether she's dead or missing, the Fire Nation and, namely his Father to put a face to it, took his mother away from him. He lost her and he believed that she was never coming back. Katara and Zuko are the same in that regard. Something he verbally empathizes with her in the Crossroads of Destiny episode.

He knows she needs this because he's been there, is there, and very much wants to have done that. If facing the Fire Lord wasnt Aang's destiny (and this wasn't a kids show, along with other in meta perspective) it doesn't feel to far to say Zuko probably would've killed Ozai.

Revenge for his mother is a side goal, but it's out of reach as of this moment. He has no information on what happened to her or where she is, so he can't do a thing. He sees Katara, someone who badly wants to regain trust with, with a similar goal and mindset and he actually has the means of helping her. Of course he takes it, but this is her mission, not his. He just provides the information and helps her getting there. That's all, everything after the fact comes down to Katara's choices.

When the moment of revenge happens and Katara decides to not kill him, does Zuko say anything? Does he asks her "what are you doing? He's right there, get revenge!" No. He doesn't say anything. He lets her leave, stares down Yon Ra for a second and follows after her in silence. You cant apply headcannon like "maybe he tried to convince her after the fact," because that can easily be countered with the head canon of him comforting her telling her she did the right thing. Going soley off what we saw in canon, on screen, Zuko watches Katara spare him from skewering the man with ice.

He does have a shocked expression in the background but that can either be read as "wow she didn't do it," or "holy shit she probably could've killed me 10 times over." Again, nothing verbal from him, only expressions, so it's hard to say firmly what he's thinking.

I got away from my main point for a second, but I'm coming back to it to say, none of this is Zuko's doing. Zuko didn't lead Katara down any path, he didn't encourage her to enact a bloody revenge, what Katara does was all her own actions, all he did was point in the right direction. Kinda shit how by making it seem like Zuko's manipulating her, it takes away from Katara's agency in the situation. She made her decisions and no man influenced her.

The only who actively tried to was her brother and Aang into forgiving their mother's murderer for some insane reason that I still can't fathom. Maybe from doing something she'd regret, possibly, but the in canon reason we get is, "don't do it. It's a dark path, you should forgive him for your own sake. Insert the Appa comparison" I bring that up again, because Appa was kidnapped, and then found again and they were all reunited. Yet Aang compared that to Kya being murdered and left for her daughter and husband to find. There's a stark difference.

Aang's pain in that regard is understandable and dare I say more supported by the fandom and show, while Katara is pratically being told by everyone save for Zuko to sit down and forgive for some inane reason that rings hollow, feels insensitive at the absolute best and takes away her agency by turning it all on Zuko as him making her choices for her.

It's shit, and an absolute misread of what the episode showed us, something Bryke somehow missed too.

I'm gonna conclude this with a quick summary of the end of the episode. Katara doesn't forgive Yon Ra, yet spares his life because he's just pathetic. Aang's weirdly giddy telling her that he's glad she forgave Yon Ra, and Katara having to shut that shit down and tell him that no, she didn't forgive her mother's killer, she never will, and she's conflicted on letting him live. Then Katara gets a soft look and smile for the first time in a good long while in the episode as she tells Zuko that she does forgive him. We get a Zutara hug (iconic) and the episode ends on a happy-ish, bittersweet note for her. Zuko does tell Aang that he's right and violence isn't what she needed (an admittedly weird line considering seconds before she just said she doesn't know if she was too weak to kill him or too strong too, implying she probably would've gone through with killing him, but whatever) but that's when Katara is out of earshot.

Zuko didn't lead her down any dark path, he left himself be lead by her and was willing to let it happen. It being whatever Katara's decision was going to be. Good, bad, middle, whatever would have happened would have all been Katara's decision and her agency shouldn't be ignored because of a bad-take misread of a pretty clear cut episode with very little ambiguity.

[florsial]

Thinking of a baby Regulus coming to London with his grandparents, not knowing any English, and meeting his parents and big brother for the first time.

Sirius anxiously waits by the front door to be the first to see his little brother, whom he didn't even know existed for most of his life.

They meet for the first time and there is a small language barrier since Sirius was brought up with more English (so he networks better with the other Purebloods). Still, the sight of a sleeping Regulus endears him so much that he eventually spends the night watching Regulus sleep until Sirius also falls asleep.

And Sirius picks up the habit of never calling Regulus by his name, only a Chinese nickname.

[sexybread-png]

Isn't the contrast between Ava and Beatrice's touching so drastic? I find there's something quite poetic about it. Ava, who only recently got control back from her body. Ava, who hasn't felt touch below the neck for years after her accident. Ava, who's so touch-starved that it results in her touching everything. She touches her clothes and feels the cotton. She touches book spines and revels in its notches. She touches a brick wall and cringes at its dry, spongey texture. She touches grass and smiles when it tickles. She touches Beatrice's wrist and gasps as it burns her fingertips. And she wants always more. More of Beatrice, that is. Beatrice, who's been taught what she was was to be feared, was to be fought. Beatrice, who's been scared to touch lest it shows the world how monstrous she is. Beatrice, who thinks doing more than simply looking might be a sin. And so she's so cautious in her touches. She keeps her hands behind her back, holds herself back. She touches when she fights though it is not satisfactory. It's aggressive and brutal and fast. She surprises herself with just how much she yearns to touch Ava in any way but aggressive, brutal or fast. But she can't. She burns with guilt every time Ava does it. Maybe if she learns to touch her, learns that she isn't really the monster, she'll also learn that it's her salvation. Touching Ava.

"I don't know, it's just— I spent so much time not feeling anything that, now that I can feel things, I wanna feel everything," Ava confesses. "And I feel everything when I'm with you."

I could talk about other contrasts between them, but this one is just so tasteful.

[sebsdaniel]

Yesterday's race does show which Max fans are glory hunters and which ones aren't

[kelin-is-writing]

Something I’ve been wondering…how Dabi would react to someone in the LOV who’s very compassionate? At least with their comrades. Someone who wouldn’t allow him to push them away, who insists on helping take care of his burns, always there to listen. Will and has made sacrifices for the other members. Like, he can tell they genuinely care.

Would he fall in love with them? Become good friends with them? Or just find them annoying? Lmao

dabi x fem!reader

at the beginning he would be puzzled as to why is someone being so compassionate, at some point he was also suspicious about you because there was no way someone could care so much for others; the him of now wouldn’t, too much chances of being betrayed or backstabbed and he hates it, the only thought makes him hurl.

but after that night you went to him, after the fight with geten, and took care of his burns who had got worse after using his quirk for so much he got lost while staring at your worried and bitter expression, seeing how much it bothered you that he had no sense of measure when it came to himself. dabi tilted his head to the side and told you “why are you so upset? it happens all the time, it’s the norm now.”, he shrugged of with a lazy smirk and you glared up at him making him flinch imperceptibly, surprised by that reaction, not gonna lie he thought you would cry and whine but instead your reply was “i’m upset because i care, but it really pisses me off when you say it’s the norm with so much pride. so stupid, seriously.”, now... that rant said while trying to not cry or burst a vessel (or both), left him very speechless and stare at you with wide eyes and open mouth. noticing his reaction you froze on spot with a nervous smile on your face and blank eyes, you averted your gaze from his biting down on your bottom lip flustered.

realizing you spoke to him that way out of spontaneity, dabi turned away letting out an amused snort that he covered with the back of his free hand before turning to you grinning with a lifted eyebrow “guess i’ll be more careful from now on, we don’t want our princess here to cry do we?” you flushed looking at him with wide eyes and open mouth, then you scoffed ironically “that’s too bad, i don’t cry easily.”, he stared at you skeptical with a cocky smirk on his lips, which in return got him a little smack on the back of his hand and dabi let out a fake pained cry “easy there princess, i’m hurt here.”, that little shit started teasing making you roll your eyes and hold back a smile “sure, you big baby. wasn’t it the norm only few moments ago?”, the villain let out another amused snort while following you outside your room, to go back where the others were.

after that the two of you have genuinely become friends and he also has grown a very soft spot for you (sako and jin tease him lots about it too lmfao), you’re probably the closest person to him in there; at some point dabi has started to trust you so much that he has told you about his true identity and even talked to you about his plans, for as much as you were shocked at the beginning, you told him that you understood where he was coming from and why he was doing all that which left him speechless, once again. you were the only person who has managed to have him without words not once, but twice! and the way you told him that you’ll do your best to help him and stay by his side, but in return you want him to not put himself in danger more than the necessary so naturally and with that warm, tender and sincere smile of yours made him reply with a simple “sure... yeah...”, before you told him you were going to get something from your room and left him alone.

it was then that while looking in complete silence at the wall in front of him with wide eyes and hearing how hard his heart was thumping quickly inside his chest that dabi realized something: he was fucking in love with you.

[moonlightperseus]

zeus: he’s a forbidden kid

poseidon: so was thalia

me, from my couch: SO IS JASON

[emperorcandy]

And thus begins the blame game infighting

[fridayvelvet]

Chasoo bar date

[winepresswrath]

In honour of my dash I'm gonna pour one out for the time I went out into the tag and found someone arguing very sincerely that the scene in which Jiang Cheng argues

that Wei Wuxian can't marry Mianmian

because she's the daughter of a servant

which makes her Wei Wuxian's social inferior

yes even though he is ALSO the child of a servant

because Yanli brings him soup

actually it was jiang cheng bringing him the soup in that instance but he doesn't want to talk about that

is proof that Jiang Cheng sees Wei Wuxian as nothing more than a servant.

[mlp-natural]

expressions and small kindnesses we cant afford

[jewishicequeen]

Hey, remember that things that zionists accused Hamas of, about slaughtering Israeli women and cutting open their stomachs to remove fetuses? Apparently, it was called the Sabra and Shatila massacre of 1982.

Oh, took your time to arrive in my inbox, antisemistics!

Let's start by saying outright- I'm a zionist. If you use that word as a slur, you're NOT welcome on my blog. You're also welcome to fuck off if you STILL don't believe the attrocities done on Oct 7th, despite the AMOUNT of evidence we have.

Now. I never heard of Sabra and Shatila, but I googled that. According to Wikipedia the sabra and shatila massacre was done by the Lebanese Forces, not by Israel, though the IDF could've stopped it and didn't. It was met, again, according to Wikipedia, with disdain and critism in Israel and with calls to fire the prime minister of the time. The Lebanese Forces, by the way, was a mainly Christian group.

I can't find information about your claims that these specific deeds were done, but admittedly I only skimmed the article. However, I fail to see how the fact that these attrocities were commited during one group make them fine to be done to another. Make up your mind- are those actions valid during a war, or not? You can't say they're bad when done by Israel's allies(not even israel itself), but fine when done to Israelis.

P.S.

There was an Israeli movie made about this, called "Waltz With Bashir". It might interest you to know I am currently learning from the lead animator on this film.

[pizzaboat]

"This character would never say that nickname. It's so out of character... what is wrong with that author?!"

Currently you're reading their fic and being a judgmental cunt. Go read another one instead.

[dejwrld]

@staff get on the zoom real quick. now that tumblr live getting nuked today, i got some ideas!

[the-crimson]

Oh no Cellbit and Dapper wanting to revive Roier’s grandfather while BBH - the grim reaper - an aspect of death - is there is so funny

Bbh is not having any of it XD

[scribsbg3hell]

Man, Larian really didn't have to go so hard on Astarion's trauma based identity crisis but I'm glad they did because that shits relatable af. But at the same time, I am absolutely fucking heart broken for him because trying to heal from that trauma and rediscover who you are besides it is so fucking hard I just want to hold him and tell him he's going to be okay.

[captainshyguy]

i do wish that people hadnt been so rabidly critical and vicious towards steven universe back in the day, because now it feels like u cant discuss any parts of the show u didnt like without getting lumped in with those guys lol