#i don't even know how i got so many tweets about atla because for the past few days I've been just watching reaction videos

[crownspeaksblog]

I've been getting a bunch of atla/lok tweets for the past 24 hours and 90% of them are just people responding to people shitting on korra and it's just so not fun to be around..

Like it has to be exhausting being someone who spends so much time shitting on a character/show and just make shit up to support their opinion. Or these people are just plain stupid, because I've the seen the "korra lost every fight" argument and the "korra is the worst avatar because she lost her connection to past avatars" argument so many fucking times! I'm genuinely so pissed off!!

Do these people not understand what a story is very clearly and plainly telling them?! Do they not understand that stories and arcs need the protagonist to lose to progress?!! What the hell would happen in the rest of the season if korra beat amon on episode 5?? What would the characters do? Just play pro bending for 7 more episodes??!!!!

People are allowed to dislike stories and characters, that's fine, you don't have to like anything, but making shit like this and twisting the story that is being told to justify your dislike for korra and lok is just so fucking annoying! (Also people un ironicly blaming aang for the 100 year war to defend korra are just as annoying)

Like my god people act like lok is made by some random ass strangers, not the original creators of atla themselves!

[casluvscas]

casluvscas: WHO ARE THEY?

We've all seen the Tumblr User going by the name 'casluvscas', but there's not much known about the said person. Perhaps it's time to ask some questions and gain some knowledge through this interview.

"Hi! I'm Cas, just a reader trying to look for art and writing scraps in the fandoms I'm in so I have something to fan over. No, I am not a bot !! I just don't have tweet or blog (twt/tmb) or make posts (ig) so I can see why you'd think an account with nothing on it (not even reboots but truth be told I forget I can do that lol) is an automatic account. Don't worry though! A living and breathing person is running this :p

Right, introducing myself. Well, you know my name, so I'll tell you about my interests.

Currently, I'm not actually in that many fandoms, just two (and I guess two more but also not really?) which are Genshin Impact (GI) and Miraculous Ladybug (MLB)! (The two maybe-maybe-not fandoms are ATLA and well some webtoons but idk if there's actually 'fandoms' for that)

That's out of the way, but I guess I'll share some more. I actually just got into reading webtoons and I've been a fanfic reader since like 2021-2022?? So maybe 1-2 years tops, and I tried writing my own fics but that sucked. I'm really into shoujo manga/Anime but I'm also just starting to get into that lmao (I'm just starting to have a hobby) and I really like horror movies!

I love listening to music, and I know it seems very 'tik-tok music' to listen to Laufey (at least to some) but I've been a laufey lover since 2020-2021 soo... I also really like jazz and classical music like Chopin and Mozart!

I do not have the skills to draw, I love color theory because it's so cool to see how things change in perspective and lighting and making the same color look like 3 totally different colors (even though half the time I can't make heads or tails about anything (another thing I just got into lol))

That's all about me I can think of from the top of my head. Oh, and I'm Filipino. I also seem to really like blondies. So, uh, yeah, that's that for 'casluvscas'! Thanks for having me!"

And that is it for today, folks! We've learned quite a lot about Ms. Cas right here, but it feels like that's just the start of her personality, so stay tuned for more news on who casluvscas really is!

Cas Out! ♡

[wingsfreedom]

Post-war: positive Azula arc (meta)

"Today this war is finally over! I promised my uncle that I would restore the honor of the Fire Nation. And I will. The road ahead of us is challenging. A hundred years of fighting has left the world scarred and divided. But with the Avatar's help, we can get it back on the right path and begin a new era of love and peace."

_

You are not the heaviness sitting inside of you. You are not the battlefield where the bodies fall, and you are not the sound of cannons breaking the sky open.

You are what happens after the war.

The surviving. The healing. The rebuilding.

-Y.Z., for the bad nights

For starters, Azula's mental health after the Agni Kai:

In my book, Azula in Avatar: The Last Airbender only suffered from one psychotic episode which is not permanent or a nervous breakdown. She does not suffer from any personality disorder which is something all armchair psychologists are obsessed with, because it's not essential to explain her behavior as they claim. She's not going act nor portrayed as a wild animal nor she's going to suffer from on-going insanity from there on out (which is a very ableist portrayal). After the Last Agni Kai, Azula went into a state of dissociation. Then after she regains her consciousness, she probably would suffer from hallucinations and something like PTSD or C-PTSD.

Azula's main crisis post-war:

She would suffer from identity crisis can only be solved through fidelity, theoretically.

Identify vs confusion was the central conflict which was revealed in the mirror scene. It's not only a normal conflic for a teenager during this phase, but for Azula it goes much deeper than that, because Azula as a Golden Child didn't develop a solid sense of self began with. Loss of sense of self is the main crisis the Golden Child has to face.

"Who Azula is?" has been one of the most discussed topics in the fandom for a decade and half, the answer is simple: even Azula doesn't know who she is.

Azula post-war has three options:

a) trying desperately to regain her old life or save it from crumbling completely (in which she could learn very bad lessons)

b) find a new goal and place in this world

c) give up, run away, disappear, die

There should be a resolution for this very critical, turning point in Azula's whole life.

The themes:

Convey the main themes of the show and connect her subplot into the world-building and the main plot. Themes of ATLA are: Balance and Change, the Fire Nation's war (in other words, the fall of Balance) and its affects even on its own people is bad. Post-War era: Love and Peace.

From a discussion:

#and yes the tragedy of her fall is that it's NOT hubris #it's not due to any of the 'seven deadly sins' that make up the tragic flaws #it's because she's a child who would be considered virtuous in a different context #was made to break #diligence and loyalty and filial piety and sharing glory... #those are all praise-worthy traits that got _twisted_ by an ideology she didn't get to choose #azula is a lesson in how even our good traits and actions can be bent towards bad ends (tags via @ ultranos)

"What does it mean for a society where someone so young and so gifted, who personifies everything the Fire Nation takes pride in, who is so inspiring and aspirational in so many ways, who has access to the best of all kinds of care available, has a massive nervous breakdown at fourteen years old? " -@ eshusplayground [source]

What are Azula's redeemable qualities:

I believe these two posts, illustrated pretty well Azula's redeeming qualities which we can expand on and mature.

Azula redemption and the fandom:

Even though I do not agree with the arc Aaron Ehasz laid out, my point here is the reaction his tweet thread received. I tracked it on Twitter thread and on Tumblr, it was overall successful. It received a lot of support over 80%, even by fans who don't like Azula or indifferent about her. It's considered more "good Avatar content".

But someone made a poll in Reddit asking the fandom is Azula should be redeemed or not: 60% answered with "no" for two different main reasons (one is that Azula is marked for irredeemability, the second wants her arc to remain a tragedy), while 40% answered with "yes". There is group in between afraid that she would become "boring" if she was redeemed. So after years, the fandom is divided.

How to make this "redemption" story congruous with ATLA therefore more receivable by the fandom:

Integrate Azula into ATLA themes more directly (Iroh's quotes, ATLA central massage, Guru Pathik's insight, and themes of the negative affects of the FN imperialism/expansionism) instead of heavily psychoanalysis her or make her a character from a different story who wandered in the wrong cartoon

Give Azula more "pat the dog" moments

Allow Azula to be a dynamic and a fully-rounded character.

Make a visual change in her appearance (different hairstyle, more teenager-looking appearance than a dragon lady, adult-looking one. In my take: Azula will change her name since she's not going to carry Azulon's legacy anymore, she also will have some white hair; the stress strain caused by her breakdown and losing her firebending naturally since her old world has fallen and she's disconnected from her father and nation; hed drive is lost)

Remind everyone that Azula is a child solider-teenager who needs a teacher not a jailer.

The start:

Azula's point of change

"I think you're confused. All your life you used fear to control people, like your friends Mai and Ty Lee."

"Well what choice do I have?!"

Azula is self-reflecting on her behavior here and she does not like the way she acted. She knows she hurts her friends and she hates it. She always looked 'pleased' but never once 'enjoyed' it. Deep down I believe she always felt guilty. She hates to be that person. It hurts to be that "monster".

Azula said it's because she has no other choice. The next stage for Azula is to offer her another choice, a different path to live, a chance (no it's not the second).

Azula shows capacity to change her approach to things, even if they're shallow and stupid.

Conclusion:

This is a show with goals of peace and harmony and a theme of change. It's central message is that anyone is capable of great good and great evil. Azula reflects these themes and messages as well.

I have to remind everyone that Azula has no casualties during her participation in war, which is good thing to start over a new leaf.

[hirazuki]

Can't say I'm a fan of tdp s3's pacing, it felt way too quick (and ngl, the pacing has me rooting for Callum and Rayla to break up by the end like call me cynical but these two haven't even known each other a month.) Also I don't like the direction they took Viren in :/ he was actually starting to seem really sympathetic thanks to s2, until he gaslit Soren in s3.

Under a cut because salt and spoilers! :D

Yeah, exactly :/ The pacing was really weird, the humor was off (idk if it was just me, but most of the jokes or things that were played for laughs were… just not funny), Callum/Rayla was way too quick (I think that most fans would have been fine with them going in this direction but maybe only like 1/3 of the way by the end of the season?), and the discrepancy between what was going on with their easy-going fun little romantic adventure vs. the crisis the rest of the world was having and Viren’s body horror galore situation was just really jarring.

I have no idea what they’re trying to do with Viren and tbh I don’t think they do either – he started as a very pragmatic villain in S1, then became sympathetic antagonist in S2 with clear and understandable motivations, and now it feels like they went “oh shit we made him too sympathetic BETTER PUT THIS WHOLE SHINDIG IN REVERSE AND SPRINKLE SOME EVULZ FOR GOOD MEASURE,” which had me going 😑Not to mention his perceived horror at Claudia bringing him back from the dead -- if he was really that evil of a person, I feel like he wouldn’t be horrified? But from his expression, it looks like he thinks that maybe his daughter went too far??? Which makes no sense given how they’ve been building him up??? Are they setting Claudia up to be the next big bad? Is it because Aaravos is no longer in his mind/did dying release him from some star elf magic shenanigans? Wtf? Adding that to what we know about him being named after Ehasz’s close friend and that he’s a staff favorite (and remembering that Lotor was also based off of one of JDS’s close friends and was, supposedly, a staff favorite), I’m just not too hopeful about even things as basic as keeping character consistency.

It just felt like the whole show suddenly gave up any nuance it had built up in S2. The animation has gotten a lot smoother, to the point where I can actually watch without getting dizzy, and even though I’m not a fan of the visual world building as a whole (I can’t tell if they’re going for a medieval society, or renaissance, or enlightenment or what with their setting, there are too many conflicting elements for me to not find it distracting), the individual character designs are super cool, so I was really hoping this could be a series I eventually managed to settle into. I’d much rather genuinely enjoy a show than salt-watch it :/ 

I think what bugged me the most is that it professes itself to be a super progressive show, with representation and sense of morality, etc., except that it continues to glorify really archaic ideals without providing any kind of solid proof as to why these are good things. Like child monarchs or divine right to rule, etc. – I know Opeli said kings are chosen by vote, but there’s been nothing but proof to the contrary for that. Whereas Viren, who has been the only non-royal main character (along with his kids) and essentially the voice/perspective of a more common type of person, esp in S2, keeps offering some of the most forward-thinking and pragmatic courses of action, but which always keep being undermined as “dark magic = evil lolz.” I just… don’t get where they’re trying to go with this, I guess.

The dynamic between Aaravos, Claudia, and Viren was super enjoyable though. Kinda makes me wish the show was about them lmao. It feels like, once again, the writing surrounding the villains is more compelling than that of the protags, and I think that it’s, again, because of the fact that villains don’t have to be “cinammon rolls uwu” and can be real people, whereas the heroes have to be P E R F E C T. I just wish people would write characters as just people, regardless of where they fall on the archetype/moral scale X_X

(I’m not even gonna touch Kasef lol, someone better qualified than me can do that XD).

If anything, I feel like it’s super obvious there was Stuff™ going on behind the scenes, and if we didn’t know about it from the tweets, I would have def wondered what the hell was going on with the writing team. I read some reviews that chalked the pacing up to the show runners not knowing if the series will be renewed and wanting to provide closure should this be the end of the show, but also leave it open enough so that they could continue it if they got the chance, but like… supposedly this season was done some time ago and there was never any risk of it being cancelled, so there should have been no need to make it so rushed? 

 Idk man ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I feel like my biggest takeaway from this season is that either the whole AtLA team had one single braincell between them so that when they split to do their own projects, all those projects went dismally, or that the stars were in alignment for some kind of magic to birth AtLA. or it was actually ghostwritten by some third party lmao bc I literally have no other explanation for it.