#i think the atla fandom has the same problem tbh

[bibibbon]

if we're talking personality disorders (of the cluster b variety). obvi its not 1=1 but its far more likely and reasonable to say toga has bpd (with izuku or ochako being her "favorite person") than aspd. also when people call villains (or characters they don't like (← seen this one more than the first tbh)) "unsympathetic psychopaths", it really feels like they know nothing about aspd, personality disorders, and how they form. It also just feels kind of ableist towards real people with aspd? idk maybe i'm seeing things that's aren't there

These people know that aspd (and other personality disorders) form due to outside factors right? obvi there's the genetic factors but that just increases the possibility. these outside factors typically tends to be factors that is in some way traumatic for the person in question like emotional/mental abuse or neglect (*gestures to dabi*)

if anything, based off of that alone, toga being a "psychopath" just makes her more sympathetic in my eyes and people around her even more unsympathetic than they already are and I doubt anyone calling her a "psychopath" without aspd in mind wants that

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this is also how i feel about people needless throwing around the word "narcissistic"* when it comes describing bakugo. (saying this as someone isn't a fan of him). bakugo with npd** could make him a more interesting if written correctly*** tbh and could probably be backed up in canon but in turn it would force people to seriously think and question if he actually had a good childhood and good parents… which from what i've seen alot of anti-bakugo people (including the ones that call him a "narcissistic") believe he has

*i'm sure there's bakugo stans out there call him "narcissistic" without npd in mind but atm i've only seen bakugo antis do that

**same with aspd

***without portraying bakugo as an ableist stereotype and/or excusing his actions

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sorry abt the rant i'm just tired of the demonization surrounding personality disorders

You're definitely correct anon in saying that people tend to use words they either don't know the full meaning of or just mental health issues to demonise characters they don't like and this is a problem within all fandoms I have interacted with not only MHA.

When people use the words "psychopath" or "narcissist" it's rare to see them using it in the right context as most of the time it's used to demonise a character. For example take atla I have seen plenty of people label azula a psychopath but they do that to demonise and dehumanise her not to actually say that she is mentally ill. The same thing is done with characters like toga, Dabi, shigaraki and more!

Now I know that you're mainly quoting of the ask that @sapphic-agent sent me and actually she has made it clear that she doesn't view toga as psychopath and actually brought light to the issue of people dehumanising and purposefully misinterpreting the leauge. Now I don't know much about aspd in general but from what I have seen toga does seem to have some symptoms of aspd but it also makes sense to speculate that she may have BPD (none of this is cannonically confirmed but they would make for some interesting headcanons). Also like you mentioned it would be incredibly interesting to explore how toga got to such a mental state in the first place as mental health issues can happen to a variety of reasons for example or could be an environmental or social issue as we see that toga wasn't given the right support at home and was taught to simply build a mask and burry her urges deep down until it all broke and she broke, toga associated blood and cannibalism with love and self expression from early on. Also, it could be a biological factor since toga was born with a strong fascination for blood.

Overall, toga and her mental state is heavily influenced from all of those factors and it would be interesting if she was cannoncially diagnosed and had that be explored in depth.

However, mha does already have a character who is heavily implied to be mentally ill which is twice. Twice is heavily implied within the show to suffer from DID (dissociative identity disorder) and I think the way horikoshi presents this is really interesting it's to the point that it's incredibly integral to twice's character whether that be his name or what his quirk is.

We see exactly how his mental state worsens in his backstory and how he has reached his breaking point multiple times. Twice is also presented as the most redeemable of the leauge and we see that even with that the system doesn't care for him as twice mercilessly kills him even though he had a high and good chance of being saved and redeemed.

I do wish that hori spent a bit more time delving deeper into twice and developing him before killing him off while also making his death have a long lasting impact between characters (specifically the league)

I think what's interesting is that hori doesn't demonise jin for his mental issues but addresses them in a serious manner and a lot of the scenes where we do see him struggling we are able to feel a lot of sympathy for him.

This ends up being the exact opposite of what people usually do by demonising mental health and using it to dehumanise characters. Horikoshi uses it to humanise his characters whether that be twice who struggles with DID or tamaki who struggles with social anxiety. These issues are brought to light and aren't a one time thing but it's something that's integral to their character.

Now, moving onto my final comment : yep it's bakugo!

I admit that I have seen many bakugo antis and critiques label bakugo as a narcissist. I also believe that they don't inherently speak of the mental disorder when labeling him in such a way but use the word in exchange of other terms for bakugo like self 'absorbed' or 'selfish' or 'only cares for himself' etc.

Now, I agree this is bad and shouldn't be done. I do however want to offer my own view on this subject (iam also a big bakugo critic/anti) I personally don't think that bakugo suffers from Narcissistic personality disorder and I don't think that mitsuki is abusive towards her son.

I think that the scene with mitsuki hitting bakugo was played in a comedic light. This is the only scene we see mitsuki act aggressive towards bakugo in the whole manga while in the other scene she expresses concern over her son (for example katsuki doesn't like rain etc). I think @delawaredetroit post surrounding this has the best explanation

I also want to add the fact that bakugo feels comfortable enough to sit next his mother. He is right in between his parents (he could of sat away from her closer to his father if he wanted to but he didnt). Bakugo also feels comfortable enough to express himself in such a manner whether that be him calling his mother "hag" or also shouting at her when he is equally pissed off.

I do think that because the manga had already made it clear that abuse was a theme that was in the story and gave us an example of abuse (the todoroki family) that many did raise their heads at this scene and may of been concerned that this is abuse when it's not but its hard to spot since it's being presented in such a weird manner.

You do have a point bakugo's behaviour comes from somewhere and that's not talked about enough. I personally think that horikoshi didn't explore how society influenced bakugo's behaviour and his raging quirkless discrimation (maybe it's because hori didn't want to paint bakugo in such a bad light so he didn't make him prejudiced against the quirkless and didn't explore the theme of quirkless discirmation that he implemented into the story). There is also the superiority and inferiority complexes that bakugo seems to have that could be a result of a mixture of factors (biological, social and environmental) Now his brash behaviour could come biologically from his mother and it turned worse due to his environment where he was built up to be this guy who had everything so he should be happy as he fits into the status quo.

Tldr: mental health shouldn't be used as an excuse but it also shouldn't be used to demonise characters either.

[autism-alley]

i don't know if you answer asks but you're one of the few blogs still consistently posting pjo tv crit and it's been such a relief. with the amount of praise it's gotten i feel so gaslit like am i just being a baseless hater?? but no there's a reason a lot of the people criticizing the show are writers. it's a poorly written show and the more i think about it the more problems i find

like i was thinking about the way the kids in the show just know everything and how boring it is to watch, especially the casino scene, and something hit me

the lotus casino functions perfectly as a metaphor for traits associated with adhd--the need for stimulation and time blindness. anyone would fall for the casino's lure, but especially adhd kids. the fact that the show takes that away is REALLY weird to me, to put it kindly

if i were being less kind? i would say there's grounds to argue that having these characters, who are children with adhd, be impervious to something that is designed to trap people exactly like them is, on some level, erasure of their disabilities. especially since the one character who does get affected by it is the one who doesn't have the same neurodivergencies as the two who don't. the explanation for why percy and annabeth didn't start to forget themselves was such a lazy cop out and i can't believe people ate it up

i don't know what that writers' room has against literal adhd children falling for traps that are designed to trap people, but it's embarrassing for them tbh

i’m so glad to hear it anon!! i’m a little surprised to hear it too tbh, i wasn’t sure if anyone else was still. interested in discussing it? it seems like the pjo/atla fanbase overlap means most people have moved onto to the live action atla show. and while i am an atla fan, i didn’t grow up with the show the same way i grew up with the pjo books, so based on what we’d already seen/heard of the natla show before it even released + my utter disappointment and heartbreak regarding the pjo show, i decided to spare myself the watch. i would rather keep my memories of the original show untainted; what i have seen of the show resonates with people’s criticisms of the writing (and as someone who has done costuming work. one look is all you need to understand THAT criticism lmfao).

but i’m honestly… surprised? the pjo show did not get the same level of criticism as the natla show? it’s not like pjo is not also very popular with that same generation, sure, atla being a show perhaps made it more appealing and accessible to more kids, etc etc, sure. but from the fan bases themselves, size aside? proportionately? the pjo fandom is FULL of show defenders just blatantly ignoring the show’s major foundational issues if not just outright parading them around as successes, meanwhile the critics are in the minority. compare that with what i’ve seen where the complete opposite is true of the atla fandom, it’s weird!! and especially jarring to me bc it seemed pretty clear to everyone in the atla fandom the show had Issues, meanwhile the pjo fandom heard the promise from rick riordan’s very own mouth this show is going to be faithful to the series’ spirit. it’s so weird to see the wildly different responses to what i think are prolly equally bad reboot shows, with a fandom of similar demographics (clearly not the SAME demographics or the response would prolly be more aligned but you get my point). so i agree anon, i do feel a little gaslit by the pjo fandom, and watching the atla fandom’s very reasonable response to the natla show is like. whiplash. another sign you and i are not losing it lmao

as for the lotus casino, this is an excellent point! i don’t even think it can be called unkind to point out how this episode is a symptom of the show’s overall disability erasure. i would say it’s unkind of the show to erase adhd and dyslexia representation. in fact, because of the explicit promise by its creator to see that representation, i would go as far as to call it cruel to then erase it. if anything, based on rick’s promises to add more representation, i was hoping for elements like autistic annabeth confirmation, since when pjo was first written, it was based off rick’s son and his friends who were all ND, and at the time it wasn’t thought to be possible to be AuDHD, but likely some of those kids probably were (and that then made its way into the books in characters like annabeth!). that would have been the perfect opportunity to add something with the foresight of modern times, but instead we got… absolutely no disability rep from the show aside from a few short lines of dialogue as a lame-ass bone-toss to the book fans.

the pjo show’s biggest crime is its lack of spirit of the original book series, and that book series cradled myself and every other ND child or child in an abusive situation who read it. it offered us a mother who never got angry with us when we showed “difficult” symptoms. it offered us camp half-blood, the idea of a place, a home, where people like us were not just accepted, but thrived. it offered us a new world. it offered us a friend in percy jackson. i do not feel the show truly offers anything substantial. it only takes.

[dukeofdelirium]

I recently got into ATLA again and the fandom is so strange I never expected a show as heartfelt as this to have so much beef inside its fanbase. I'm used to fandom toxicity and discourse- it's a part of every fandom, but a lot if stuff here just seems like ppl making up issues to get mad at. I rly feel like I'm in a diff world bc I loved this show and watched it so many times over the years ever since I was a preteen and never in my life would I have expecteded Aang of all characters to be so hated. Ppl calling him a niceguy incel misogynist is like?? Did we watch the same show ??? He's just a lil guy. I can't believe ppl hate him. It's very disorienting as someone who loved this series for years but never engaged or knew what the fandom was like till now. Huge whiplash!

Oh yeah this fandom is insane lmao. It’s true that every fandom has people like this in it, but some fandoms take toxicity to a new level. I’d say ATLA and Stranger Things are probably the worst fandoms I’ve ever been in lol. That’s why I filter tags on here. I mean, most of the ATLA fandom isn’t rlly that bad tbh, it’s just the crazy zutarians who have the most unwashed ass takes that kind of ruin it for everyone. Stranger Things has the same problem with Milevens. I think it boils down to ships and ppl being incapable of like… abiding by ship and let ship. They can’t just enjoy their pairing, they have to have the most wild takes and harass people. I mean hell, when s4 of ST dropped, I was getting around 30-50 mileven stan anons a DAY! They were harassing my blog bc I had made like 3 posts about s4 and how I shipped Byler. Then all a sudden they’re screen recording my blog and making posts about me on Twitter??? LMAO! I didn’t even RUN a stranger things blog, mind you. I had only made a few posts at the time. But here they were, obsessing over my blog bc I shipped something that wasn’t mileven and they were sending me hate anons calling me homophobic slurs and shit, then we (byler shippers) also all started getting harassed by a homophobic christian 😭😭😭😭

The zutara shippers have sent some anon hate my way too on here, but not as severe as Milevens did back when s4 dropped. But apparently there’s zeeks who are obsessed with me too and are trying to track my IP 😂 supposedly I’m a “well known” kataang shipper so this gives them justification to try and doxx lmao. I mean good luck to them, I have online security soooooo. Anyway shits wild bestie

[musical-chick-13]

Hey, I saw your post about female characters being ignored and not cared about, one thing I know and tha I've seen is that; even if the female characters and side characters were all female—they would still genderbend them, or latch onto two male characters who have done no shit and give them better characterisation, the fandom will also flatten, cut out, and remove important characteristics of the important female characters, while giving important hc canons and what not to the two male characters.

It is plain old fandom misogy and has always been there from the beginning.

"Even when women and girls are at the forefront of the story, men will always be seeked out in whatever ways possible, and centralised—female characters on the other hand, will always be judged or ignored; people do not want to admit it, but they still have internalised misogyny to worked on, 'fandom is not activism' gives them an excuse and cover to not examine, women's stories or inner lives don't and have never mattered to a lot of people in varying degrees."

Overall, I just resonate with your frustrations and thought I was the only one . . .

Oh, you have come to the RIGHT place, my friend, I rant about this every other day at minimum.

FEMALE CHARACTERS!! WILL ALWAYS!!!! BE JUDGED OR IGNORED!!!!!!!!! Like. Chainsaw Man and Game of Thrones/ASoIaF have been praised significantly for letting all of the women in them be extremely flawed and complicated in differing and interesting ways, and I STILL see people not engaging with them and/or reducing most of them to one (1) characteristic. (Cersei is a "crazy bitch," Sansa is "stupid" (??), Catelyn is a terrible mom, Melisandre is...there; Kobeni is obnoxious, Makima is hot, Himeno is the Worst™, etc. etc.) And there should be an overwhelming abundance of increasingly implausible f/f ship content, right? (There isn't.)

(And ohhhhh, people want to erase the importance of women to the overall narrative and its themes (and their canonical importance to other-usually male-characters) so bad, see: Cersei, Himeno, Irene Adler, Mary Morstan, MCU Natasha, Camille O'Connell, Bonnie Bennett, Lizzie Saltzman, Mai from AtLA, Martha Jones, tbh even River gets a fair amount of this. And then some of this is obviously combined with racism when the character is a WOC.)

And I don't have a problem with genderbending characters-gender is complicated, and exploring different facets of how a character might interact with the world if their gender identity changed is incredibly interesting!! But it's...very telling that, historically, I have seen this happen a lopsided amount in one direction, where the female characters are reimagined as men and not vice versa. (Remember when a not-insignificant number of people could only stomach BBC Sherlock/Irene if they reimagined Irene as a man? And then got mad at Elementary for CANONICALLY reinterpreting Watson as a woman? Good times. 🙄)

Just...so many of these wildly-hated or ignored women are...not any less complex than a lot of fictional men who get popular. (I'm sorry, you want to tell me that Misa is not at LEAST as interesting and worthy of sympathy as K*lo fucking Ren? When she has the backstory she does and presents an engaging dichotomy of "bubbly/silly yet murderous" and deconstructs the idea of extreme single-minded devotion NO I'M NOT MAD ABOUT THIS WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT)

And the idea of "fandom is not activism" is supposed to be used in the sense of "Liking a pRoBLeMaTiC dynamic/character in a story doesn't mean you think that behavior is okay in real life" (finding a fictional war criminal interesting doesn't equate to supporting genocide, exploring a toxic dynamic in fic doesn't inherently mean you hate victims, etc.), and "Paying lip service to marginalized/mistreated fictional characters is not the same as helping and supporting actual marginalized/mistreated people in real life." It doesn't mean, "We ignore obvious examples of misogyny and racism and ableism and transphobia and all other prejudices just because this is supposed to be fun." Biases are systemically ingrained, and any given person will bring those biases into all facets of their life; that doesn't just magically stop happening because one of those life facets happens to be a hobby or form of entertainment. Breaking down and dismantling prejudice has to happen on every level, including the """small""" ones.

The only time I have ever seen people engage with multiple female characters on a regular basis while admitting to their importance and narrative complexity and actually creating fanworks about them is Noir (2001). And that's because there are a whole 10 people in this fandom and the show has no men. (Okay, not literally, but you know what I mean.) And it's just so incredibly frustrating that that's the point we have to get to just for it to be possible for people to bother with a work's female characters on an enthusiastic, regular basis. (Because, as you said-that doesn't always happen even when those conditions are met.)

ANYWAY, I'm so sorry for making this response so lengthy, but genuinely I have been holding this in for a long time. TLDR, you're right and you should say it. You definitely aren't the only one, and I'm so, so glad that somebody Gets It.

[urlocalnonbinarybastardwrites]

Hey Pookie, I wanted to do a ship/ships, I just don't know what fandom's the limit. Can I please do Outsiders, ATLA and PJO/HOO?🥺

Okay, so. I'm brown, like tan skin, dark brown eyes and silky brown hair. I don't really have anything interesting about my looks, but people tell me that my eyes are kinda warm, but intense at the same time? I'm 5'4 (short, ik), and I have a pretty decent body (just ignore the fact that my legs are almost twice the size of my arms). I'm a straight (I think?) girl and my pronouns are she/her.

I love listening to music, reading and watching shows and movies, like I'm a huge pop culture fan. My favorite color is blue (basic ik) and tbh I'm kinda a huge simp. I curse from time to time and I have slight anger managing issues, but I love to laugh too.

Tbh, all I want in a relationship is like, good vibes, but the ability to have fun too. I kinda have an "I can fix him" mindset, but then again I have a "They'll make me worse", which is kinda the same, but totally different. I don't really have a type, but I just don't like redheads.

I like to doodle on my hands and I have a lot of intrusive thoughts. I kinda have mommy and daddy issues (you don't wanna know) and I also have anxiety (diagnosed pookie). I do have exzema on the back of my neck too.

I love, love, love, LOVE spicy food. It must be the brown genes inside of me tbh bc I HAVE to eat tajin, ,like at least twice a week. I do like sweet food, but not anything pink. Eww.

Okay pookie, ily bye.

Your Fandom Ship(s): Johnny Cade (The Outsiders), Sokka (Avatar the Last Airbender), and Frank Zhang (Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus)

OK so you didn’t give me too much personality so this makes a bit harder so I’m mostly going off of what you want in a relationship and I think that Johnny Cade would be a really really good match for you because that I can fix him mindset is a little bit toxic, and I think that he would be a really good way of breaking you out of that because he is a really kind soul and I think he would also need someone kind like you in his life to help you know bring him up a little too, and I really feel like you guys have a mutually beneficial relationship personality wise, and I just feel like you guys would be people that could really get along and I have a head canon That he loves spicy food too, so I’m sure you guys could go together and eat spicy food the rest of the gang kid like has no idea how you guys consume

This is a very rare case where the I can fix him mindset would probably work without making you any worse because I mean, yeah we all know his major character arc was being sexist, and then realizing that women are actually bad asses and he should be worshiping them from the ground up, but anyway I feel like that would be a really great character for you because yeah you could live out your I can fix some mindset to your heart content without any problem and honestly honestly, I just think that you guys would be a really cute couple because he’s alsoa really just silly funny cool type of dude and you guys both need to work on your anger issues which is something that you guys could work out together. Yay but also seriously he would have a lot of fun and his favorite colors. Also blue too. I mean that’s not canon but that’s how I see him. Also, let’s be so for real. He loves the water tribe. His favorite color is gonna be blue. Out of all of the characters I’ve shipped you with I ship you guys the most because you guys are just such a vibe honestly and honestly, I just I don’t know. I just see it so hard. I’ll see you guys would totally have competitions of who could down the most spicy food in the least amount of time and he would definitely be like oh I’m so gonna win, but then you would beat him by a mile and then he would be so cranky about it.

OK, so he is a similar case to Johnny Kay where I feel like he could really help you break out of the I can fix him mindset because he is such a sweetheart. If you read the books, you know that this man is pretty strong. He’s a child of Aries he can fight but he is such a sweetheart and you know when you first read the book you think oh that he doesn’t belong in the Aries cabin because I mean, let’s well. I know it’s a different God because it’s Roman, but whatever we’re going to ignore that but anyway I just feel like he would do really well with kind of sweeter guys like this because it could help you break out of that toxic mindset once again and also I just feel like you guys would totally vibe together which is something that you wanted in a relationship and yeah, I feel like he would have a lot joking around with you and reading books…

[elvashayam]

(so i'm posting the below on this reblog cuz i forgot to switch to a new post and the tumblr app's composing window is IMPOSSIBLE to copy from lol. please don't take any of this as a personal criticism - i just failed to tumblr right 🙃)

Does the Encanto fandom's focus on Bruno bother anyone else? I've been thinking about it and i personally reckon it shows Transformative Fandom's internalised patriarchy - cuz as great as his character is, Bruno's popularity is not at all congruent with the film.

It's been bothering me.

(Major spoilers ahead, and some Hard Questions™. I'm also a white australian, which will affect my analysis; i welcome all constructive replies.)

Encanto is about

Colombia's traumatic history and how that affects families and communities - especially the members who can't fit in as well.

How trauma can make an otherwise lovely person into an abuser.

How every member of a dysfunctional family gets fucked up, including the golden child.

How healing such trauma requires rebuilding the very foundations upon which a community, family, relationship, even one's sense of self, rests.

Young folk, in their innocence, see how older folks' trauma clouds our judgement and affects our behaviour; with their help we can all heal and change our world for the better.

This, by the way, is not remotely subtle. Just on a narrative level, to resolve the story Abuela has to revisit and acknowledge her trauma, share with her family how it shaped her, accept that running from it has hurt everyone she loves, and show true remorse; i mean, Casita is literally torn down and rebuilt. Healing only happens after shattering the family's fragile facade.

This is a film about confronting one's trauma, taking responsibility for the toxic behaviour it produces, and choosing to do better - and yet all fandom talks about is Bruno.

For example: On ao3, there are (at time of writing) 3500 Encanto fics.

[image description: the header from Encanto's Ao3 fic page. it reads, "1 - 20 of 3500 Works in Encanto (2021)". end i.d.]

That's an impressive number, given canon's size!

Now look at the character filters:

[image description: the Ao3 filter panel. It shows the whole "tags to include" section, with the "Characters" option expanded to show:

Bruno Madrigal (2510)

Mirabel Madrigal (2127)

Camilo Madrigal (1988)

Julieta Madrigal (1856)

Pepa Madrigal (1850)

"Abuela" Alma Madrigal (1810)

Dolores Madrigal (1766)

Isabela Madrigal (1528)

Luisa Madrigal (1385)

Antonio Madrigal (1325)

end i.d.]

Mirabel, the main character, who's on screen nearly 100% of the time, is in nearly four hundred fewer fics than Bruno. Abuela is in seven hundred fewer. Even accounting for inconsistent tagging, that's an unreal difference!

Please note: I am not saying it's bad to focus on Bruno. I do not think that.

He's important!!! Even ignoring his role as deuteragonist, his story shows how painful it is to be estranged, that it's possible to love one's family regardless. His arc shows how unreliable family stories can be. Many, many fannish folk are their own family's scapegoat, the reject; i am! Seeing his reacceptance is indescribably cathartic.

However

Mirabel experiences the same thing.

More notably, unlike Bruno and Abuela, she chooses to follow the mystery's threads even though it threatens the status quo because she loves her family. She listens to her sisters' troubles and helps them learn more about themselves - Isabella rejects a loveless, unhappy marriage and Luisa learns to rest instead of working nonstop. She helps Dolores find happiness, restores the triplets to each other, gives Abuela a space to heal her trauma learns to love herself for who she is and brings back the miracle - and yet its fandom is utterly fixated on Bruno.

It is good to enjoy a story. It is great to create fanworks for it -

- and it's vital to analyse on whom we focus and why.

Transformative fandom, by all accounts, is predominantly female and queer. By focussing predominantly on cis male characters (especially white cis male characters, a problem every single fandom has), especially in the presence of fantastically complex female ones, we unconsciously privilege cis male perspectives over our own. For our own sake it's important to unpack!

After all, that's the entire point of fandom: learning about oneself/the world, and healing by projecting onto (/torturing) fictional characters.

(I'm only slightly memeing i swear.)

Use Encanto to build your own self-knowledge. We're all traumatised, even those with healthy family dynamics - that's the reality of our current world. Unlearn your internalised patriarchy. Explore Encanto's wonderful female characters and choose to heal your own trauma.

You deserve it.

the fact that bruno has literally spent a decade parkouring over that gap in the floor without once thinking to check how deep it actually goes or even laying down a fucking plank to walk across is hysterical and just proves that his dumbassery is not entirely a product of his time living in the walls

[knockmeoutbabe]

Okay I know Voltron has a bad rap but ATLA is the most entitled narcissistic fandom I've ever interacted with. As soon as I think things have calmed down enough for me to enjoy it, someone pops in with their bullshit and the majority suddenly become the most racist, homophobic, transphobic people you've ever met.

[boahancock-hebihime]

I’m really worried because of the upcoming Avatar series because of the wasted potential that was TLOK

I really respect Bryke for coming up with Atla but I think they are better at creating a fictional world instead of actually writing episodes and storylines. In Atla they had a lot of talented writers, that knew how to write an interesting storyline. In the Atla Comics and tlok Bryke had more input into the storyline which is why the comics often fall flat and Legend of Korra disappointed a lot of fans with high expectations. I know that Bryke and a lot of Tlok fans say it was Nickelodeon’s fault but it wasn’t.

I’m going to name a few things that bothered me about Tlok that were mistakes by Bryke and not Nickelodeon:

Korras Tream Avatar

Korras Team always had the same problem. They all don’t have any goals, dream values or aspirations. I think it’s really weird that Mako, Asami and Bolin lived their whole live in a big city and don’t have any friends. Imagine how cool it would have been if Mako and Bolin had street friends or even friends from and orphanage to actually show what the life is like living on the streets compared to her sheltered live. Imagine if we had seen the drastic contrast to Asamis rich life with shallow friends. I always imagine what their storylines could have been.

If Bryke removed Pro bending and gave Korras team Avatar friends and a back story I would have been much more invested in their characters.

Asami had almost no emotions. The only time she actually had emotions was when she felt sorry for Korra and not even for herself which is really weird. In season one she had no reason to join the team Avatar. If I summarize the relationship she had with the team was everybody besides Bolin lied to her and cheated on her. It’s not realistic for her to join them especially because she had a great relationship with her father. It would have been better if she joined her father and turned away from him after he went to far and then join the team after they build up a heathy relationship.

Korras team Avatar didn’t really seem like friends. They behaved like work colleagues that have to put up with each other. Every single character is replaceable and it wouldn’t make a difference to the story. If you replaced mako with jinora the story would still be the same. The same goes if you replace Bolin and Asami with any character from Tlok it wouldn’t change the story. If you compare this to the gaang you would notice that they would have been dead if any character was missing. They needed each other. Every single character had their purpose. In Tlok it wouldn’t make a difference if Korra had a completely other team.

Bryke doing too much

Sometimes less is more. Bending is such a cool unique power system which was nowhere to be found in any other storytelling form besides Shounen Anime’s like Naruto, One Piece and HxH. It’s really understandable and relatable to the real world. There was no need for laser shooting and sky beams like every other Marvel or DC movie we’ve seen it already dozens of times. And there was no need for giant robots like dozens of mecha anime. If I wanted to see that I would watch that instead of something which takes place in the world of Avatar.

Tlok really needed younger writers

I thought it was weird that Bryke thought in season one that the biggest problem in a girls live who’s literally the Avatar would be “how do I get the guy that I just met a few days ago even though he has a girlfriend”. The whole plot line with homewrecking someone ok as long as you think you fit better with the person and the talk with pema seemed more like one of the writers got through a divorce and added that to the story to feel better about replacing his wife with someone who’s 20 years younger. Like who in their right mind would think getting the characters in relationships before they even spend time together and got to know each other was a good idea. It seemed really shallow that’s it. If they really thought that this is what teenagers wanted to see they were definitely wrong.

Unnecessary plot lines that didn’t help the plot

Pro bending was used in the first season after that they never mentioned it again. They wasted 5 episodes on something that could have been replaced with establishing the characters and republic city more. Avatar Wan was unnecessary. I know a lot of people wanted to know how the first Avatar came about but tbh that was a bad idea and only pissed a lid of people of because it was contradicting. A whole episode on learning metal bending. Bryke literally just did it to call her the first metal bending avatar. It didn’t help Korra. She didn’t need it. There was no reason for it. Those aren’t the only examples but to get to the point sometimes it looked like Bryke had no idea what they were doing. They started a storyline mid season they changed their mind and did something completely different which made zero sense. Especially in season one and two.

Too much focus on the original team Avatar

I think they probably did it because of fan service but they completely forgot about the established new team avatar and kept focusing on the old team avatar and their kids. How come tenzin and Lin have more character development then Korras whole team avatar together. This show was targeted at teenagers but kept focusing on 40 year olds and their daddy and mommy issues.

Tbh Before I watched Tlok I liked it a lot more because the fandom gave the characters what they deserved and what Bryke didn’t give them. I went in with such high expectations and I was really disappointed because the fans made it look much better then it actually was.

I really hope Bryke will hire a lot of talented writers to make the next series better. And I also hope that the comics aren’t all cannon. Especially the ones with Zuko and Azula in it. The fans wanted their relationship fixed and not a Scar/Mufassa moment.

[itsmoonpeaches]

This might be controversial but I'm Korean and tbh I think that non-Asian and non-Inuit people have to take a backseat when discussing race issues for ATLA. It's true there's no white characters but there also no black, Latino, Middle Eastern and so on characters either. I don't feel comfortable when non-Asians try to compare their history to stuff in the show because it's not the same. If that's called racism then I feel that's a problem.

So it took me a while to gather what I should say to this. I think I know where you're coming from but at the same time I'm not entirely sure I do.

Nonetheless, this is my own input.

First, if we're referring to POC leaving fandom, I think this whole argument is irrelevant. POC are leaving fandom because fans in their same fandom are being racist toward them and POC and their allies are being ignored and harassed when they do speak out. This applies to all fandoms.

Now, if we're speaking specifically about the issue you have brought up, this is a bit different. I think I get where you're coming from. Truly, I do. However, there is still overlap where POC who aren't Asian or Inuit can still speak on the issue of racism. Something like colonialism and its effects is a shared experience that can be seen in a lot of indigenous cultures who aren't Inuit, South Asia, South America, the Middle East, and of course not to mention the entirety of Africa.

There is a lot of overlap in what POC experience, and while ATLA is based on Asian cultures, it is still fictional, and people can identify with whatever aspects of the show speak to them, regardless of culture.

Races and cultures in ATLA don't have a true real world correlate. Sure, you can draw comparisons from the Earth Kingdom being China, and the Fire Nation being Japan, but ultimately even within those there are a mix of other Asian countries involved.

ATLA is its own world with its own issues. Being "Asian" in ATLA (which is most people besides the Water Tribes) is different from being Asian in the real world. An example would be like being white in the Lord of the Rings because everyone is white in a medieval European-inspired world.

A lot of fantasy is written in this manner, and that is being written in a way that encompasses a lot of inspiration from a lot of cultures in the same continent or around the same geographical area. Unless they are specifically inspired by one culture, they are pretty much a hodgepodge of elements.

Plus you have to remember that ATLA is an Asian-inspired show created by Westerners and ultimately for a Western audience. Even elements in the show aren't exclusively Asian. Take for example Wan Shi Tong who has Asian-inspired elements, but is an owl and lives in a library with very Middle Eastern-inspired architecture. An owl is a symbol for wisdom...in the West. Not to mention the Sun Warriors who are inspired by Mesoamerica.

Now, if people of other cultures are invalidating the thoughts and opinions of people from the cultures the show is based on, that is different. This is where I think we are in agreement.

People with Asian heritage or Inuit/indigenous heritage could respond with their own opinion to non-Asian or non-Inuit/indigenous people's takes, but everyone should be able to talk about race and culture issues in ATLA.

I believe that other POC should absolutely be able to draw comparisons between their history and the history presented in the show.

[kitkatopinions]

[1] I don't what point they're trying to get too, but CRWBY is going too fast. I mean I know the overall point they want to get for the series; stop Salem (and hopefully no further than thag). But the pacing is so off and that really shows in V7 & 8 particularly with Ironwood. They wanted Ironwood to be an evil dictator that would willingly bomb a city, but the thing is they did it in such a quick flip that is jarring.

When you're right, you're right. RWBY has always had a pretty bad pacing problem, whether it's 'fixing' Weiss's problems with Ruby in one episode in V1 or rushing Yang's V4 recovery arc, the show has always struggled to figure out how to prioritize and take its time. But, this problem has gotten a little more obvious in the last two seasons.

Hazel's redemption and Emerald's redemption were absolutely horribly done, partly because they rushed through them at the speed of light, while they contrast the 'fall' of James Ironwood into a villain role that went from zero to a hundred within the span of two to three in-universe days without the show taking the time to put much proper focus on it or give it the emotional depth it deserved. The Hound was in and out too quick, despite being one of the better concepts to come out of the eighth season. And that's the same with the Cinder/Neo/Watts team up of the century that a lot of people were really interested in and were calling it actual character development and a good change, and then had to put on clown paint when it ended an episode later with everything returning to the status quo. I'd say Ozpin's 'make up' with the team was rushed, too, but honestly that's the least of my concerns with him returning to the team. Qrow and Clover was so rushed that I was seriously weirded out and confused when Qrow's reaction to Clover's death was so big, because to me they seemed like they barely knew each other. I've never understood why both the show and a lot of the FNDM decided that Clover was so important to Qrow, and Qrow jumping to 'kill Ironwood' was also really weird, since we'd been given plenty of reason to believe that Ironwood was Qrow's trusted friend, and very little reason to believe that Qrow hated him, until the guy he'd known for like two months and one season died and suddenly Qrow didn't care about Ironwood at all.

On top of this, Blake and Yang's relationship was rushed in V6 and then stagnated, and the writer's attempt to make them 'fight' in volume eight was so stupid and ridiculous that it was comical (and very frustrating.) Them making everyone drop concerns they have with Ruby within a short while is - like you said - another example of everything going too fast. Weiss 'reconciling' with Whitley and Willow was done too fast and with very little depth, leaving it feeling lackluster and leaving Willow's affection for either of her children feeling fake as hell. Robyn Hill's entire character is a product of rushed and badly done 'growth,' and despite her and Qrow spending episodes together in prison with nothing to do, they still charged ahead with "now these two are friends" too fast and it fell totally flat. I liked May Marigold, but the HH were in the same boat as Robyn, not given enough development and feeling forced into important roles they didn't earn, and the same can be said for the Ace Ops. Salem herself, the main villain, came and went in less than a volume and the terrible way they thrust her into the story only to hastily try to find a way to make her not a threat made her seem so unscary that I can't take her seriously at all anymore.

I was literally shocked when I realized that they weren't spending another season in Atlas, and I even theorized that maybe RWBY was getting cancelled soon, and that's why they were rushing everything so fast in V8. But tbh, with the lack of faith I have in these writers, it's very possible that they just failed, that they just suck.

They didn't take the time to develop almost anything in Volumes seven and eight, and what development they did give us in volume seven seemed to fly out the window in volume eight anyway, or didn't matter anymore.

RWBY is a show that has always struggled to develop story beats and character arcs and dynamics and I and a lot of fans have 'filled in the blanks' on a lot of what they left empty or hastily glossed over, but that gets harder and harder to do the more they get sloppy and overconfident. The fanbase shouldn't have to do this. The fanbase shouldn't have to look at characters who are meant to matter to each other and sighingly try to headcanon up most of their relationship and/or dynamic. They shouldn't have to look at a Very Important arc that the writers are so proud of and then go "okay, time to figure out how to force this to make sense."

There's a certain amount of that in every piece of media, fleshing out characters and their pasts or their relationship is a fandom past-time no matter what fandom you're talking about (heck, I've seen it in the LOTR fandom,) but after a certain point, it starts to feel like we're putting way more work into it than the actual show writers, and that's weird and it's also tiring.

I've seen this argument from RWBY simps that RWDE posters are mad we "have to think about things" and that things aren't just handed to us on a silver platter, but I don't think that's true. We're willing to play a little catch up and flesh out dynamics here and there. I've been doing that in fandoms for forever. There's a difference between doing that, and needing to do a lot of work and a lot of re-writing and world building to make most of the show actually make sense or feel emotionally significant.

RWBY wasn't always like this. I was more than happy to fill in the blanks for seasons of it and get by on vibes and concepts to match what meat and substance we did get. But now I feel like almost everything is so rushed, underdeveloped, forced, or badly handled that trying to 'fill in the gaps' has turned into essentially writing a fix-it fic in your head. So I'd rather just put my mental energy into actually writing a fix-it fic instead of trying to force myself to put in the work that the writers don't for the show proper itself.

[cavehags]

i realize this will probably bring up old drama so you might not want to answer it. but do you ever regret, however on purpose or on accident, bringing all that unnecesary hate towards Katara? i'm really sad and dissapointed tbh. i'm a woman of color and katara was so important to me growing up. my favorite animated woman ever. and then this resurgence comes and theres so, so much unnecesary hatred for her and everyone ignoring everything that makes her a good character.

(2/3) 2- and you know, i expected this from the male side of the fandom. they were misogynistic to her and the others even back then so i would expect it to be even worse with how internet culture is more mysogistic now that ever. and i wasnt wrong. male atla fans had some truly horrible takes and views that just came across as racism and misogyny. but, i expected these circles to be better. to be a safe space for us woc who love this character. but i found the same weird hatred for her.

(3/3) 3-i just, i cant believe i feel less welcome now that i did even back then. and back then i didnt even paricipate really. but at least i could enjoy fandom content without stumbling into misogyny and racism every other post. also sorry for sending this to your personal blog b i just wanted to let you know you controbuted to that too even if it wasnt your intention. at least you realized that and arent contributing to it anymore right? cause honestly the hate has only gotten worse not less.

hey anon. thanks for asking this question, because i hadn’t addressed this topic previously and this gave me an opportunity to do so. 

no, i don’t regret publicly interpreting a character whom i love through a nuanced and human lens. and i don’t regret combating the one-dimensional interpretation of this character, which posits that she’s merely an vaguely defined object of attraction for some boy or another, and a singularly gentle, mature, maternal figure whose sole purpose in life is to nurture others. those interpretations suck. they rob her of the humanity and complexity that make her character unique and they stem from misogynistic tropes that reduce women to the services they can provide to men. the thing in the world that matters most to me is fighting misogyny, and this trend to diminish a proud and powerful and angry teenage girl by exaggerating only her most socially acceptable traits is misogyny. 

unlike you, i did not grow up watching avatar: the last airbender. the shows i watched growing up did not have a lot of girls who felt real to me. the girls i saw on tv growing up were simple. they were the main characters’ crushes. they were simple, desirable, usually sweet and loving, and not much else. if they had a flaw, it was that they were, at best, “awkward.” whatever that means. or if they were the protagonists, which was rare, they were nice enough and tried to do the right thing, but they never had strong feelings like resentment and anger. they weren’t allowed to be unfeminine which meant they weren’t allowed to be bitter, angry or in any way flawed. they didn’t look like the version of girlhood i knew to be true for me personally, which included a lot of anger and frustration and powerlessness. 

that crappy representation left me with internalized misogyny that chased me for longer than i’d like to admit. i did not learn to think of girls as humans who could be as interesting and flawed and messy as the boys were. i did not value myself as a girl, and later a woman, because i thought the best thing a girl could be was... bland. boring. pretty, but empty. passionless.

it would have meant the world to me to see a character like katara. 

because katara is angry. she has every right to be: she’s had so much stolen from her, including her mother, her people, and her childhood. katara has a short fuse. she yells. she snaps. she fucks up. sometimes she makes mean jokes! i never saw a single one of those dreamily perfect cartoon love interests make mean jokes when i was a kid. she is extremely idealistic--it’s her defining character trait--but we see the bad side of that as well as the good. we see that her need to help others  leads her to act rashly, to get herself into danger, to put others in danger too. 

and she has her very own arc. it’s not about her love for another person, either (what a snooze of a storyline); it’s about growing up and learning to break down some of that stubborn black-and-white thinking that we all indulge in as children. it’s a true coming-of-age arc and it belongs to a fourteen-year-old girl. 

when i, to use a phrase i find crass, “entered the fandom,” i quickly realized that other fans’ perceptions of katara did not line up with the things i valued most about her. other fans seemed to valorize her most socially acceptable feminine qualities: her generosity, her kindness, her dedication to helping others. and of course i love those parts of her--i love everything about her--but what is really remarkable about avatar: the last airbender is that katara’s many important virtues are also counterbalanced by equally significant flaws. a good character has flaws. katara is a good character, and a deviation from the characters who made up my formative media landscape, because she has flaws. her temper, her idealism, her stubbornness--these are flaws. flaws make her seem real and human and challenge the mainstream sentiment that girls are not real or human.

it simply did not occur to me that celebrating these aspects of katara that make her a realistic and well-written teenage girl would spark ire from other adult fans. it absolutely did not occur to me that i would then be blamed for somehow causing misogynistic interpretations of this character, particularly given that misogynistic interpretations of this character are the very thing i sought to correct when i began to blog about this television show.

i’m told there are “fans” on instagram and tiktok who think katara is whiny, annoying, and overly preoccupied with her trauma. i do not use instagram or tiktok, so i wouldn’t know, but i’ll take your word for it. respectfully, however, they didn’t get that from me. misogynistic takes on katara have existed since before i came along. i have never, ever called katara whiny. and seeing as i have been treating my own PTSD in therapy for nine years, you can safely conclude that i don’t think anyone, katara included, is overly preoccupied with their trauma. that’s not a thing. do i think she’s annoying? of course not! as a character, she’s a delight. does she sometimes find real joy in aggravating her brother and her friends? yes, because she’s 14. i, an adult, am not annoyed by her. sokka and toph often are, because that is katara’s goal and katara always succeeds in her goals. she’s not “annoying.” 

if there are “fans” who are indeed following lesbians4sokka and somehow misreading every single post and interpreting them to mean that we hate katara and they should too, i don’t really know what you want me to do about that. l4s has over ten thousand followers and we have already posted so many essays disavowing katara hate. our feminist and antiracist objectives in running the blog are literally pinned with the headline “please read.”

furthermore, you cannot reasonably expect my co-blogger and me to control the way our words will be received. we should not have to, and are not going to, add a disclaimer to every post saying that when we critique or make jokes about a teenage girl we are doing so through a feminist lens. our url is lesbians4sokka, and we are clearly women. if that alone doesn’t make it obvious, then refer back to that pinned post. 

it is indescribably frustrating, and really goddamn depressing as well, that people are so comfortable with the misogynistic binary of Perfect Good Women and Flawed Wicked Bitches that they perceive any discussion of a woman’s flaws to be necessarily relegating her to the latter camp. if that is how you (a generic you) perceive women, then i’m sorry, but you’ve internalized sexism that i cannot cure you of. and it’s unjust to expect my friend and me to write for the lowest common denominator of readers who have not yet had their own feminist awakenings. we do not write picture books for babies. we write for ourselves, and with the expectation that our readers can think critically. reading media through a feminist lens is my primary interest; i have no intention of excising that angle from my writing.

as i go through my life, i am going to embrace the flaws of girls and women because not enough people do. as long as the dominant narratives surrounding women are “good and perfect” and “unlovable wh*re,” you’ll find me highlighting flawed, realistic, righteously angry women in the margins. and for what it’s worth, it’s not just katara. i champion depictions of angry girls in all sorts of media. that’s sort of my whole thing. my favorite movies are part of the angry girl cinematic universe: thoroughbreds, jennifer’s body, hard candy, jojo rabbit, et cetera. on tv, in addition to katara, you’ll find me celebrating tuca and bertie, poppy from mythic quest, tulip and lake from infinity train, korra, and more. i adore all these women and see myself in them. i hope you find this suitably persuasive to establish that i have sufficient Feminist Cred, according to your standards, to observe and write about these very flawed and human fictional women. 

what i’m saying is this: i decline to take responsibility for the misogynistic discourse orbiting a children’s cartoon. as someone who writes about that series from a perspective that seeks to add humanity and nuance to the reductive, one-dimensional, overwhelmingly sexist writing that already exists, i am pretty taken aback that i am the one being blamed for the very problem i sought to address. except not that taken aback because i am a woman online, haha! and this is always how it goes for us. 

finally, i think it sucks that you’ve chosen to blame me for a problem that begins and ends with the patriarchy. i can’t control the way this response will be perceived, just like how i can’t control the way anything will be perceived because i am just one human woman, but i do hope you choose to be reflective, and consider why you’ve chosen this avenue to assign blame. 

[flameo-hotman]

Sometimes I’ll be writing a fic and then I learn someone has already posted one with the same premise or something pretty similar and then my anxiety kicks in and I just push that fic into my pile of WIPs I am too nervous to finish, but then other times I’m like no this is still different enough and I was writing this before I found out about the similar fic.

It’s a coin toss tbh

And I mean it is so stupid that my brain does this because I wrote the plot for and first chapter of a fic before I came back to the fandom. Like I sat down with my Atla box set and did a rewatch and then started working on this fic and I was really proud of it but then I saw shortly after rejoining the fandom someone else had posted something just similar enough that on the surface it sounds like the same fic but too the left.

So then I stopped work on my fic and a little while later I started writing Better Than Hunting because yah know. Woke up in the middle of the night wrote it as a one shot that was a dumpster fire in about 15 minutes that I physically cringed at when I woke back up and decided to redo but it ended up becoming way longer than a one shot and I was actually pretty happy with it.

But yeah long story short I kind of want to do some work in that fic that I started working on before rejoining the fandom and I am not sure if I should just write it and post it or if because there is a similar fic if I should gift it to the person who wrote a similar fic or tag it as being inspired by because their fic on the surface sounds similar and ahhhhgh

Idk and this is making my brain hurt.

I’m gonna just leave the fic in the valet of if I do finish it I will never post it but I’ll still make it Zukka because of that one shit head who had a problem with a gay guy writing gay porn. (Seriously wtf kind of logic is that?)

But like for the other fics I started and didn’t post because I ended up learning there was a similar fic and my anxiety kicked in, what should I do with those?

I mean do I tag them as inspired by even though I did know about the other fic until after I had begun work on mine? I mean of course if I had known about their fic before hand I would have no issue with doing that. I mean I tend to just gift the fic in those instances because yeah if my fic was actually inspired by another fic or another fic gave me a key element to make my fic work then yes gift it to them and say it is inspired by them because in that case it is, but that isn’t really the case when I wrote a fic without knowing that a similar one even exists.

What is the right thing to do in that instance???? Because I don’t want to do something rude and I mean do I just post it and say yes I know this sounds similar to so and so’s fic but I didn’t know about their fic when I came up with mine or do I just keep my mouth shut and gift it to the person who posted their version first?

I’ve talked about it with friends before and they say I’m overthinking it and that just post the fic without mentioning the similar fic and if anyone says anything then to just say I didn’t know about that fic when I started this fic.

And I mean that sounds logical to me but my brain still won’t stop giving me worse case scenarios and I would like to see what yahl think because I have fics that I want to be able to post but anxiety gets the best of me more often than anyone realizes.

[seyaryminamoto]

What would you think if we had to wait 30 years for an Azula redemption arc like how fans of THE KARATE KID had to wait 30 years for Johnny Lawrence and Chozen to be redeemed? What did you think when Chozen was redeemed?

<.< and how do YOU know I watched Cobra Kai, huh, huh, Anon?!?!?

(did everyone watch Cobra Kai...? x’D)

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes them forever to redeem Azula. It feels like something they’d only do when people stop talking about ATLA as much as they do these days, something to bring back attention to the franchise if things start looking grim for their other ventures in it. A lot of content creators wind up caving in to whatever the loudest or most loyal fans ask for, and it’s safe to say that I’ve seen no louder or more persistent community in the Avatar fandom than Azula’s fans looking forward to her redemption. Maybe they think our posts are too mean and they’ll refuse to give us what we want because of that x’D but I also can imagine them doing this, however controversial it may be, mainly to bring attention back to the franchise if it ever falls into irrelevance again.

As for what I’d think... honestly, Anon, if it’s done right, I’ll be fine with it. If it’s done organically, with proper development, letting Azula actually establish new bonds with people, giving her true growth, addressing the problems she has while helping her reorient herself to better purposes without sacrificing her identity in the process? I’ll clap it out even if it happens 30 years later. I’ve been here 8 years already, I can wait a while longer if that’s what they’re going to force us to endure (?)

If done poorly, however...? I’ll ignore it, frankly, same as I’ve learned to ignore all canon material that is either not well written, or founded upon a myriad of retcons, or an attempt to whitewash characters, or just... uninteresting? x’D Misquoting Pirates of the Caribbean here: “Canon is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules” :’D so if canon fails Azula, I can just as well fling it overboard and continue sailing off towards whatever horizon I want for our girl, simple as that :’D

As for Chozen! Tbh... I didn’t hate how they redeemed him? I mean, the trip to Okinawa is probably one of the best things in the third season, and I enjoyed a lot of the twists there (soooo much better than the overdose of high school karate drama, my god...). That being said, I remember Chozen as such an irrational two-dimensional character that it was simultaneously great to see him grown and different, and also disappointing because we didn’t actually get to see that growth happen. It makes sense, though, it works for the character fairly well to have had help and guidance from people who taught him better than the completely batshit behavior he exhibited during The Karate Kid II. And, if I may, it’s actually NICE to see a character who actually got his shit together during the 30 years between The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai x’D while I do enjoy Johnny’s trainwreck redemption arc, it can be a little unsettling to think that he couldn’t get his life in order for that long (same as Kreese, who is basically a moustache-twirling bad guy no matter how many tragic stories of his Vietnam experiences we might see). So it was good for Chozen to still have enough of his old presence while also bringing out a new, more human side to the character. 

At the same time, if people find his growth too easy because we didn’t see it happen, I get that too and I can’t blame them if they complain for that. Then again, we’d need a whole different TV show about Chozen if we want to see all his turbulent journey to peace and true inner strength, and I’m not sure they’ll be down for producing that? Either way, he played a good role in the story, he finally broke the mold of villains never growing out of their bad habits and toxic mentalities, and he was pretty entertaining to watch, so I have very few complaints myself (there’s a lot more things worth complaining about in season 3 beyond Chozen, honestly x’D lots of convenience writing, so much unnecessary drama, excessive love triangle BS, a very unrealistic depiction of a journey to recovery for a character who received as much damage as Miguel did...? I’d sooner frown upon all that than on Chozen’s offscreen journey to redemption, personally...).

[paragonrobits]

Tbh Kyoshi has always read to me as a very "do What is necessary When it is necessary" type of person. Like, she won't always take a shortcut when it feels right to walk the proper path. But she's not going to be against stepping off that path onto the grass if she needs to get somewhere faster. This is a woman who made peninsula into an Island rather than subject people to fighting Chin. Sure she Could have killed him, but it wouldve cost far more than the death would gain. I feel like people tend to forget her pragmatism in favor of seeing her as joyfully violent.

yeah! This is the same view I have on her!

Like, this does illustrate a problem; fandom IS prone to hyper extreme, black and white polarizations that cut down on nuance and reduce characters to a few very basic traits, and Kyoshi has REALLY suffered for this. For years, people kept making those violence jokes, and then acted like this was actually canon; it’s only recently that there’s been ANY kind of pushback against this.

Like, I love the idea that Kyoshi is very practical and rational, in her way; she counts the cost and judges things extensively before ever making a move, which also fits in VERY nicely with the mentality of neutral jing as described with an ideal Earthbending teacher. ‘waiting and listening’ could well describe this mentality of making the perfect move and biding time until the ideal solution presents itself.

Like you might ask her something and if she doesnt see the point in doing something, she’ll say “What would be the point of that?” I like the idea that she never, ever did anything without carefully thinking it over. even if she acted in anger, she’d contemplate it first and concoct a plan.

She’d be willing to kill, if it was the most beneficient thing. But its not her first choice, and apparently she was traumatized when she killed someone in her youth, and its worth pointing out that she didn’t actually kill Chin, as Aang remarks. While Kyoshi does contend that she would have killed him if necessary, the key point is necessary. If it can be resolved without bloodshed, she won’t kill. If its better to simply strike them down, she will, but she clearly doesn’t take pleasure in it.

Let’s be honest; if you have someone with the power to effectively summon up natural disasters whenever she pleases, you want her to have this carefully judged stance.

something worth remarking about here is the fic Embers, which was a popular fic in earlier ATLA fandom, and that I really loved when i was first into ATLA. But as time has gone on, and the author’s weird attitudes has become more obvious (among other things, apparently believing that cops murdering bystanders is entirely justified because they are defenders of civilization or stupid stuff like that), I’ve soured on it considerably. The relevant point here, is Kyoshi. In that fic, Kyoshi is responsible for the fire nation’s current poltiical state; the Fire Nation was originally split into many warring factions, in the fashion of fuedal states Japan, until pirates from a water-dwelling territory killed Kyoshi’s son. She summoned a tidal wave to wipe out the pirates, and also killed all the Fire Nation clans that lived on the water because she was honestly ignorant of that custom. She then forced the Fire Lord into taking power, since it worked for the Earth King, and this led to the current state of affairs.

The funny thing is, that this is actually totally contrary to canon Kyoshi’s character; a mass murder fueled by emotional outbursts and spite? That’s so unlike the Kyoshi who is thoughtful and bides her time, and only kills when it is the only option available to her.

Also, Embers!Kyoshi was apparently very opposed to interracial marriages between the nations and mixing of the elements, so it’s delightfully ironic that Kyoshi is canonically an Air Nomad on her mother’s side.

[shrinkthisviolet]

End-of-Year Fic Tag

Thanks @dearestpartnerofgreatness for tagging me! Took me a while, but I finally got around to it 😂

Total completed stories: All 10 of my posted fics are complete (most notably the 8 I wrote this year)! I have a few WIPs though (I think between 3-5 that I’m currently writing?), so that number will likely increase soon. I’m only counting my posted works for this

Total word count: 22,931 words over 8 fics this year!

Fandoms written in: Escape the Night, Avatar the Last Airbender...and soon I’ll add Who Killed Markiplier to the list!

Looking back, did you write more, less, or about the same amount of fic you’d expected? Less, I think, but that’s usually the case with me 😂 I have this problem where I set my goals too high and end up not reaching them. So this year, in a lot of ways, I’m trying to set stepwise goals–smaller goals to make progress towards the bigger ones.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? Oh for sure you think this world is a dream come true (but you’re wrong). It didn’t get as much love as I was hoping, but it was a self-indulgent crossover of ATLA and Coraline (a movie I watched this year for the first time). Idk why I wrote it, but the idea wouldn’t leave my head, and @ohsalamanders was all too happy to encourage me to write it 😂

Did you take any writing risks this year? Writing Mai or Maiko always feels like a risk. For a canon ship, it feels like such a rarepair (especially compared to a rarepair that blew up out of nowhere that you all probably know well), and everyone has different feelings about it and them. I settled on a few headcanons for them, as well as a few ground rules, and went from there. Also, Mai is surprisingly not as well-loved as she should be, even though in a lot of ways, she’s very similar to Toph (who is very loved). Writing her was a risk because she’s very different from me, and people don’t really like her (so I was worried that her -centric fics might garner me criticism about how she’s too emotional). Thankfully, those fears were unfounded, and it’s made me much more confident to take risks!

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year? No clue what “profic” is, but I do want to post A Heavy Cost at some point in the first half of this year! Mind you, I want to be finished posting it by June. Not the whole series (which is now 3 stories), but just the first installment.

I also wanna start my still-dreaming-about WIPs, one of which features Witch Harry Watson (from Sherlock), and the other of which features Auror-to-DADA Prof Harry. At least if I can plot them out, that’ll be nice.

And I want to get at least halfway through my Nanowrimo WIP before next November, and get a handle on its plot! It’s sort of run away from me, and I wanna catch it 😂

Most popular story of the year? Definitely we’ll give the world to you (and you’ll blow us all away)! Which I sorta expected, since Izumi was in it, but WOW you guys really loved that!

Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe: if i told you the reasons why (would you take my hand tonight?), I think. Which is fair, I didn’t expect it to get a lot of traction. To be honest, I was surprised to get any feedback at all, so thank you!

Most fun story to write: The Coraline AU was super fun to write ofc but...all you’ve got to do is want something (and then let yourself have it). It’s a little darker than my other Maiko oneshots, but it was super fun to write something unusual AND featuring Mai being awesome! Though the Soulmate AU sampler oneshot was also really fun to write, as I describe below

Most unintentionally telling story: hmm I think forever in my mind (only you) fits this bill. My Soulmate AU is most telling about me, I feel, because it was born in part out of my frustration at the lack of platonic soulmate content (and the idea that soulmates are “predestined” is nice and all, but...what if that wasn’t how it worked? What if it could change over time?)

Biggest disappointment: I hate calling anything a disappointment tbh, but I guess in terms of writing...I don’t wanna think of anything else (now that I’ve thought of you). Idk why, but it just never felt right. I still love it and am proud of it, but it feels like it’s missing something, and I’m not quite sure what. Though it probably doesn’t help that at this point, I was trying to write them quickly so I could finish up Maiko Week before Nanowrimo 😂

Biggest surprise: we’ll give the world to you (and you’ll blow us all away)! It came out really well in terms of writing, and it got so much love from you all, and I love it dearly 🥰 in a way, I guess I feel the same way about it as Zuko and Mai feel about Izumi!

Tagging: @ohsalamanders @blackaquokat @tonystarkstan @hi-raethia

[escarlatafox]

whispers for the 'send you a series' meme, i'm tempted to just be Unoriginal and say kung fu panda, but if you'd rather something else, i'm seeing a lot of steven universe around here jfjfiea

Masha ily. You know that, right? :D

Kung Fu Panda:

Favourite character: Who else but Shifu? XD

Second favourite character: It might actually be Po

Least favourite character: Hard to think of a least favourite character. If we ONLY count the main cast + the villains in the movies and exclude any other minor characters, then I’d say Kai maybe? Just wasn’t as impactful to me as the other characters/villains. Or if we include minor characters I might say the hugging panda from the third movie because the gag and his character didn’t really add much. Also, I’ve already spoken about this in the past, possibly more than once, but back when I was a child upon watching the first movie, my answer to this question would actually be Ping. Suffice it to say, my opinion on him changed a LOT. XD

The character I’m most like: Maybe I am like Po in some ways. At my core, I’m a fangirl lol. And I like food :O

Favourite pairing: Don’t really have any ships. Crane and the girl from that one short tho. Like idk if I’d want them to get together, maybe not now that I think about it. But it would be nice to see them interact more.

Least favourite pairing: HAH. Let’s just say I really hate what Legends of Awesomeness decided to do with Shifu in the shipping realm and leave it at that. :P

Favourite moment: YOU’RE GONNA MAKE ME CHOOSE? There’s no way. I could only list off notable ones. Okay, if we narrow it down to non-Shifu moments, off the top of my head, you obviously have the iconic cannonball scene at the end of kung fu panda 2, and in the THIRD movie I love love love how when Po is in the spirit realm and he says “turns out... I’m all of them” and the music swells and the framing and the scenery is just. so gorgeous . I love. So much. If I sat here thinking too long I’d probably start recapping all the movies SO since I’ve thrown those two out there I’ll cut myself off before I get too out of hand. XD

Rating out of 10: First movie is just 10/10 for me. It’s my favourite movie, not just in the franchise but like, probably ever among movies in general, and just about every moment and scene feels like home when I watch it. The trio of movies I’d then put at probably around 9/10.

Steven Universe:

Favourite character: I can now say with confidence that it is Steven Universe.

The people who liked Steven “before it was cool” certainly have bragging rights, because I was one of those people who failed to find myself among them, as I lacked the foresight, or... future vision for it. :P. At first, in the very early days, I didn’t really care for Steven. It’s often very easy to gloss over a protagonist, and, in my case, not truly appreciate what’s great in a character like early-days Steven, or even Po. Now, Steven and Po are, naturally, quite distinct characters in their distinct franchises but there are certainly parallels that can be drawn, not only in their character but how I initially felt towards them. By asking for both fandoms in the one ask, I feel like you’ve given me the opportunity to speak about this, which has been idly on my mind every so often. XDBoth Steven and Po are the protagonist of the franchise they’re in. They’re both fond of food, they both start out needing training and then develop incredible skills along the way until they become one of, if not the most powerful in the cast. They’re both generally very easygoing, excitable, enthusiastic, FRIENDLY, and generally kind. At the start of their journeys, there’s a lot of focus on how much they’re lacking in skills and abilities, how difficult it is for them to accomplish even the basics. They both gotta Save The World, whether it be more in the sense of the universe as a whole or China.And the thing is I had the same issue with Po as I did with early-days Steven; I didn’t realise how great Po is. I was just a little too dismissive. With time, (and I’m talking around the point where I actually entered the fandom after the second movie was out, so it was mostly kid me who is guilty of not recognising Po’s greatness) I grew to realise just how cool Po is, to truly appreciate his genuine enthusiasm and excitement and also utmost reverence and admiration of kung fu. I simply Expected Po’s character to be less than it was, which is what caused the oversight. But Po is honestly so fantastic and deserves every last bit of love the fandom has to offer him. Also, seeing his potential and him reaching his potential is so damn epic. See: his “turns out, I’m all of them” quote/scene I mentioned earlier.So to bring things back to Steven, whose character arc nonetheless has its VERY stark differences from Po’s, it was around when Steven managed to calm down and stop the cluster that it fully registered in my mind how fantastic and amazing he is and how much I appreciate his character. In fact, it was a little earlier than that. Pretty sure I hadn’t actually started watching the show yet when Sadie’s Song aired, but I was getting all the deets secondhand on my dashboard and I loved what I heard and saw in gifs/pics. A boy who just wants to perform and dance around on stage in heels and a gorgeous outfit to boot (I really liked the thought of trans girl Steven at the time tbh, which was being thrown about on my dashboard back then, though of course that’s not the path the show decided to go down, so he/him it is...!). He had my full support. And THEN when he calmed the cluster down like that... (and I think I was probably watching the show at that point?) I just, loved his incredible talent to reach out to others and HELP them, I loved his magical gem abilities and how he always seemed to be triumphing against the odds, and as the show progressed his feats only started getting more and more impressive. I absolutely noticed how much responsibilities he’d started forcing onto himself, how he was trying to manage everyone and be an adult to all the adults in his life, I was kind of intrigued by how much he was shouldering, and it struck me that he had developed an Atlas Personality long, long before he was ever listed as an example of it on the wikipedia page. I simply adored Steven and his placement in the show and everything.He’s also completely ACING things as usual in the movie too.And then Steven Universe Future hit, and oh boy, that’s a whole other story. Steven truly emerged as the forefront seeing as the focus was now unrelentingly on him and his issues. What initially got me really hooked as well, was the inherent shock and intrigue of seeing a character who would usually always do the right thing, who always seemed to know what was best for everyone, who always seemed to be able to read a situation and understand who needed help and then reaching out and offering them help... not only completely failing to recognise that HE was the source of a given problem (see: the pink dome rapidly closing in), but to actively dig himself deeper by being convinced SOMEONE ELSE was at fault, and whirling around and trying to pin it all on them. Before Steven whirled around to point at Lars, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that he was about to be like “guys, you know what? I think I’m causing this - I think I have some stuff going on” LOL NOPE. And that was only the tip of the ice berg. Steven had nowhere else to go but down, and boy, down did he go until he hit rock bottom, pulled out a shovel and started digging.

Second favourite character: Hard to say. I do know that I am crazy about the zircons (I mean c’mon - lawyers!). I was crazy about Blue Pearl when we first saw her too. My answer might’ve been Aquamarine or even Eyeball if it wasn’t for Steven Universe Future. Seeing more of them just kinda made me go “ok you know what, yeah this isn’t really what I expected and they’re not actually really my thing after all.” I reeeeally don’t know. Steven Universe has such a stellar cast of great characters. Steven Universe Future also kinda threw me off Spinel, but obviously Spinel is A+ as well.

Least favourite character: I don’t really care about Lapis. She just kind of lost appeal as a character to me and I never really understood her I guess. I was also never fond of the diamonds... because you know, discourse, and like, the discourse kind of has a point. But after Steven Universe Future I might invest more in trying to understand their positioning in the show a little more, now with the confirmation that Steven never did actually forgive them. I completely wrote-off White Diamond’s seemingly quick turnaround for the longest time and honestly never bought it and felt it was WAY too easy and rushed/forced. But I came to an internal understanding quite recently and I THINK I finally get what the show meant there so I think I can buy it now and find it believable at last, which is nice. So don’t quote me and don’t crucify me, but I might warm up to the diamonds a Little.

The character I’m most like: omg. There’s so many characters idk who is most like me hahaha

Favourite pairing: Connverse. Connie kissing Steven on the cheek in the movie made me SO pleased, and I can say this is my favourite pairing if only because the prospect of it not working out and instead going up in flames and not actually having a good resolution - which is a threat that felt so very real during Steven Universe Future - was deeply, DEEPLY upsetting to me. Like I didn’t care because I’d been taking it for GRANTED, but the moment anyone suggested, with alarming plausibility that they may split up or whatever, I was immediately on edge like “NO NO NO NO NO”.

Least favourite pairing: Stevinel. Stevidot. Just, any ship with Steven and any of the gems is an instant no from me. D:

Favourite moment: omggg. Again, there are simply way too many, so no answer I give here can or will be definitive. So I’ll simply state my love for when Steven is singing Change and Spinel yeets him in the sky and there’s the stellar animation where he goes “You can make it different... You can make it right! You can make it better! We don’t have to fight!”

Rating out of 10: I’d probably give it a 9/10, if only because, look. There are a LOT of shows out there. There are a lot of pieces of media I’m into and have watched. And Steven Universe is just. It’s good. Even when I like another piece of media MORE than Steven Universe, I can still more than readily acknowledge when/if SU has vastly superior writing. And it usually does. The only thing stopping me from giving it a 10/10 is because for the vast majority of SU’s existence I was mainly only ever a passive watcher/fan and/or got secondhand knowledge (closer to the start of it airing), so it lacks that fundamental closeness to my heart that something like Kung Fu Panda has. (Though I got way more close to it during SUF, as my reblogs can attest to LOL). The other thing stopping it from hitting that 10/10 is there are things I still take issue with, like how the Rose=Pink reveal undermines Pearl’s character (the “rebellion” aspect) and casts an EXTREMELY uncomfortable light on Pearl being in love with Rose. Yes, the show already showed us that Pearl’s obsession with Rose is unhealthy and problematised it. But regardless of how problematised it already was, I’m just not comfortable with a former slave being shown as being in love with their former master at all. What does that add, realistically? There are other valid criticisms that have been pointed out, namely how aspects of the show such as Sugilite’s role in Coach Steven do fail its Black audience. That undercurrent is there and it’s unfortunate.