#i wanted to draw them like their statue that korra finds :')

[pinacoladamatata]

waava week :: memorial ::

[lady-iskra]

"Why do you want to make a deadbeat dad out of Aang?", "Aang wasn't a bad father, he was just flawed!"

No one said this to me personally, but those or similar claims I read coming from people defending Aang and his actions towards his non-airbender children.

The thing is: I and many A:TLA fans don't want to make a deadbeat dad out of Aang. And for the flawed-thing: where do people draw the line?

I draw the line when the non-bender son apologizes to his father's statue for something he had no control over. Because he felt his father's disappointment, likely more than once in his life.

I draw the line when an air acolyte—one of the persons who are supposed to know everything about Aang's life—doesn't know that her messiah has more than one child. That means Aang never, ever talked about his other children. Wanna prove me wrong? Then show me other air acolytes later on in the same episode who indeed know about his other children and love the stories Aang, as a proud father, used to tell them about Kya and Bumi. And his soulmate Katara...

I draw the line when a father, who barely sees his other two children and his wife who is supposed to be his soulmate, decides to take whole vacations with his one airbender son and neglects the rest of his family even in his free time.

So, no, I don't want to make a deadbeat dad out of Aang. The narrative did it. Bryke did it, and, as someone who loves Aang, I was pissed af. Cancel Bumi's apology, the scene with the air acolyte and the vacations, keep Aang travelling with Tenzin alone to the air temples as some kind of duty and show me beautiful memories of Aang hugging and playing around with his whole family, and I believe that he was just flawed.

The family portrait in which Tenzin was a few months old and didn't even show signs of airbending isn't enough evidence—none at all. You find those happy-smiling portraits in every happy and unhappy household (Pink's song "Family Portrait" comes to mind). I never read the comics, but heard they retcon the scene in Korra so far that it would only make sense if Kya and Bumi would have memory loss or dementia.

The Aang I know from A:TLA would've loved to pass on his culture to all of his children, airbenders or not. They don't have to be airbenders to learn about it.

Bryke are great world builders and artists, but no writers, they should let other people do the job. They are literally the only writers I know who refuse to learn from their mistakes, keep on retconning instead, and are defended by some people among the fandom for it.

And surprise, surprise: what Katara thought about it, if she said anything to Aang or if she just sat back and watched, wasn't even mentioned in the talk between the siblings.

TL;DR: Bryke decided to portray Aang's actions as a father and husband to the extent that it comes off as if he isn't interested in his non-airbender children and Katara at all. It isn't me and the other critics who want to portray him as a deadbeat dad, on the contrary: as someone who loves Aang, it pisses me off. A family portrait makes no difference, because it proves nothing. And neither do the comics. Either you manage to convey the message you want to send in this exact scene, or you miss the mark.

[justsomeoneintoomanyfandoms]

Hello, im here for the match up exchange dump we talked about, and the fandoms I would like to request are Avatar the last airbender, Legand of Korra, Demon slayer, Haikyuu, My hero academia, Obey me, Sk8 and Ninjago(Movie or series is fine)

Im panromantic(male lean) who uses any pronouns but mainly She/her/theirs.

Im an Aquarius with an ISTP MBTI(I recently was made to take another one for school and i came up as INTJ so...?)

I have honey(ish) blonde shoulder length hair with hazelly green eyes with dark circles and ivory skin, im '5'5" with a stronger stature and I wear grunge/cottagecore clothing.

Im a decently calm person but can and will have surges of energy that arent entirely like im bouncing off the wall but I would like to be able to stim, I have trust issues and are very quick to judge people and put them in a box when I first meet them untill they change their status, I love being around people i care for but I do like to have my space alone when posible to give me the ability to cool my nerves and regain energy to keep up with people.

I like reading, writing, drawing, music that sits in the genera of grunge, punk, heavy metal, skaw, and recently stuff like will wood. I like vintage and antique stores, I enjoy nature, I also enjoy playing games like resident evil, legend of zelda, pokemon, hogwarts legacy and obey me(tehe) and I love scary movies. I love being around people that I can comfortably be myself around and that (If I and they are comfortable enough) can have deep conversations.

I dislike loud crowds and people, red meats, clingy people, country music, any one thats just in confrontational for no damn reason and being ignored.

I would love to be matched up with someone who can get me out of that shell I make for myself and I can run like a crazy lunatic with and not be judged at all cause the are doing somewhat of the same thing. or even someoen I can also help break out of a shell.

have a good day/night!!!

Hi! Thank you for your request! It's been great doing another matchup exchange with you! I hope you like your matchups!

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, I match you with...

Aang would be both your best friend and your ideal partner! He can match your mood perfectly; when you’re calm, he’s calm, when you’ve got a surge of energy, he’s got a surge of energy.

Appreciates that you enjoy alone time. He personally enjoys being around people but there are certainly times when he also needs some space to recharge.

Doesn’t mind loud noises or crowds, but he’ll help you avoid them as much as possible. But, if you want him to get you out of your shell a bit more, he’s more than happy to help!

Aang would love to take you to a festival when it’s just opening or about to close so there are less people around, but you can still experience the energy.

Modern au Aang would love video games! He’s particularly fond of multi-players but he’d also be happy to play a different game; as long as you’re together.

Has some interesting perspectives that make deep conversations all the more interesting. He loves talking with you and will always listen to what you have to say.

In Legend of Korra, I match you with...

Similarly to Aang, Bolin can match your energy. He doesn’t have quite the same chaotic energy as Aang but he can certainly have surges of energy.

Loves going to antique stores with you! He really likes the aesthetic and loves that things can usually be found there for a cheaper price than buying them first-hand.

Bolin would love taking walks through nature with you. He finds it relaxing and claims it “helps him connect more with his bending element”. While that’s certainly true, he also just enjoys having your undivided company for a few hours.

Can be a bit clingy sometimes but Bolin’s aware that that’s not your thing. He’ll do his best to reign in his tendencies but expect him to ask for at least one hug per day.

Very easy to trust and does his best to keep that trust. Bolin knows that it’s like to feel betrayed by people and he never wants you to feel that way about him.

He’s very open about his feelings and he hopes you can do the same. That way, if there are any problems in your relationship, you can both work towards fixing them.

In Demon Slayer, I match you with...

Rengoku is the extrovert who will drag you out of your shell! You don't have much choice but to go along with his wild adventures.

Not a super clingy person and he can go for a while without physical touch so he doesn't mind that you're not a fan of clingy people.

Horror movie aficionado. His personal favourites are the terrible b-rate ones that never fail to make him laugh.

While Rengoku's not the best at being calm, he can certainly match you surges of energy! He's probably more hyperactive than you are during these times, as he feeds off your energy as well as his own.

I see Rengoku as someone who enjoys country music. He won't listen to it when you're around but he will occasionally give you song recommendations just to tease you.

Doesn't mind that you're not a fan of red meat. He'll eat pretty much anything as long as it tastes good so anything you likes, he's more than happy to try at least once.

In Haikyuu, I match you with...

Kuroo is honestly one of the best people to have deep conversations with (only beaten by someone further down this list).

Can match your surges of energy but loves spending time with you just relaxing together. He’s always so busy with volleyball, he really values anytime he can spend with you doing nothing.

Kuroo would love to take walks in nature with you. He’ll probably talk a lot about the science behind what’s happening around you.

Even though he talks a lot, Kuroo’s also a good listener. He’ll never make you feel like you’re being ignored.

Enjoys playing video games with you. He plays a lot with Kenma so he’s decently good at playing but more often than not, he’d also enjoy just sitting next to you and watching you play.

Kuroo's also very good at getting introverts out of their shell (he's had plenty of experience with Kenma). He's got comforting extrovert vibes.

In My Hero Academia, I match you with...

Kirishima is one of the best people to help you get out of your shell. Like Kuroo, he has comforting extrovert vibes, but he also has more chaotic energy.

Loves your taste in music! He thinks it’s really cool and would love to make a playlist with you that he can listen to while working out.

A video game mega fan! He’s probably played a lot of games so if you ever get truly stuck trying to get past a level or a boss, he’s more than happy to have a go.

Kirishima enjoys watching horror movies with you but will need to sleep with the lights on that night. He’s not great at handling horror but he tries for you.

Kirishima’s another one who’s really easy to trust and does his best to keep your trust.

Does his best to be quieter when he’s around you and will try to keep his friends quieter as well. But he’s only one person and 1A is notoriously loud.

In Obey Me, I match you with...

Asmo is the best person to have deep conversations with on this list. While he may not seem like it at first, leaning more towards gossip, he’s really good at knowing anything that’s bothering you or that you want to talk about.

Loves vintage shopping! He thinks the clothes and furniture have a really cool style. Even though he’s not usually one to wear things that aren’t in style, he’s certainly a trendsetter.

It might take a while before you can trust him completely, but he also has trust issues so as soon as you both realize you trust the other person and they trust you, your relationship is made even more stable.

Definitely one of the more clingy people on the list, but also a king of consent and awareness of emotions. If he knows you're not in the mood for too many hugs, he'll dial back his affection.

Hates confrontational people! Asmo has made it his life mission to only be confrontational when someone insults him or you.

Asmo would love to read some of your writing. I see him as being pretty good at writing love letters and poems so expect to see a few turn up in your room every few days.

In Sk8 the Infinity, I match you with...

Reki would love drawing with you! He’s never really had people interested in his drawings before so when you share that hobby with him, it means more than you can imagine.

Will absolutely make a board for you and decorate the bottom with drawings based on your interests. Whether you ever ride it or not, he’d love it if you keep it somewhere you can see it.

While it takes him a while to get used to being open, Reki’s really good at having deep and meaningful conversations with you. It helps him get a lot of feelings off his chest.

Reki will always make sure you feel heard and valued. He knows the feeling of being ignored or left behind all too well and never wants you to feel that way, especially if he’s the cause.

Enjoys playing video games with you. I see him as an avid fan of Pokemon, especially Pokemon Go (skating around town gets his steps up really fast).

A fan of socializing and having alone time so he’s always able to keep a good balance of interaction with you. He’s very attentive and notices when you’re starting to get tired so you’ll very rarely have to ask for personal space.

In Ninjago, I match you with...

Another one who loves your taste in music. Cole is definitely a fan of grunge, punk, and metal (especially movie Cole). He also likes rock music (mostly for the puns he can make).

He’s also a fan of video games. He plays them a lot with Jay and Kai so he’s used to very competitive games. Playing more relaxing games with you is a nice change of pace.

Horror movie date nights! Cole’s seen a good number of horror movies and has enjoyed most of them. He does get a bit quiet when there are ghosts in them but whether that’s because he’s having bad memories or he’s criticizing their inaccuracies, you’re not sure.

I think Cole would love to spend quiet afternoons laying on the couch with you reading to him. He likes your voice and isn’t picky about what you read, as long as he can just let his mind wander.

While he’s not a particularly chaotic person energy wise, he’s pretty used to the people around him bouncing off the walls on occasion.

He can match your energy if needed, but more often than not, he’d like to just watch you to make sure you don’t accidentally hurt yourself.

[guiltysecretpasttime]

The Airbender’s Wife (Chapter 5)

Fic update :)

Summary: Korra arrives in Republic City to reside at Air Temple Island to begin her Airbending training. As excited as she was to leave the compound in the South Pole, she was wary of living with her Airbending Master and his mysterious wife. The airbender’s wife, who, Korra realized, she has never met before.

OR

The one where Tenzin throws caution to the wind and chooses Lin over repopulating the Air Nation.

===

Korra disliked lots of things – from the odd (she did not like to brush her teeth before taking a shower – she preferred to do it after) to the passably logical ones (when dining out, she did not like sitting with her back to the entrance door).

But one of the things she abhorred is feeling weak. She hated showing any sign of weakness. For Spirits’ sake, she was the Avatar. She cannot be weak.

(Granted, this was probably ingrained on her based on repeated feedback from the Order of the White Lotus. Despite what her parents say, Korra did not think she had a childhood that was even remotely normal.)

Therefore, her inability to airbend and her recurring Amon nightmare plagued her. It was not right for the Avatar to be weak, to have these insecurities, to have these fears.

Tenzin had approached her already, asking if she was alright – he mentioned having fears and how it was okay. He was there to listen; however, she was unwilling to talk about it.

Korra glumly reflected to herself as she sat at the steps on one of Air Temple Island’s pavilions.

What kind of Avatar was she if she couldn’t airbend? If she had fears? How can she rightly defend the city (or the world, for that matter) if she was scared of Amon? These fears are her blockers from airbending – she just knew it.

She looked across the bay to the large statue of Aang, realizing, not for the first time, the large shoes she needed to fill.

Speaking of shoes…

Korra recognized the metal clicking sound coming her way.

Without turning to face the newcomer, she muttered exasperatedly. “I know, I know, Tenzin already told me. You’re here for me if I need to talk to someone.”

���Uh, actually no.”

The Avatar-in-training swiftly turned around, seeing confusion on Lin’s face. The teenager blinked. “Oh.”

“I mean, I’m here to give you an errand.” The metalbender awkwardly held her own arm, one hand holding what appears to be a carton of something heavy.

Is Lin embarrassed?

“Listen, kid, talking isn’t my thing – that’s more Tenzin’s expertise. I’m more likely to say something wrong, offensive, or abrasive – or all three combined.” That’s for sure, Korra thought with a hint of affection. “So if you’re looking to be coddled or – Spirits’ forbid - cuddled – I’m not the right person.” Lin tilted her head, seemingly trying to make up her mind about something. “But since you opened it up –.”

Oh Spirits, no. I’m not in the mood for a heart-to-heart talk.

Lin probably saw the horror on Korra’s face and held up her hand as though to stop. “I’m not going to be all spiritual or mushy about it but maybe – just maybe –just a thought, you could try and write to your mom?”

Whatever Korra expected, it was not that.

“What – why? Did she write to you about me?” Korra’s eyes widened but the earthbender shook her head. “Did you use to write a lot of letters to your mom when you’re apart or travelling?”

“Huh, no,” Lin released a sigh. “There’s this problem that we have, apart from being emotionally stunted – she’s blind, you see.”

Ah, right. Korra wanted to hit herself; she definitely would not have passed the police department’s sensitivity training.

“But no, while my mom and I aren’t really pen-pals,” Lin continued speaking. “I do know that Katara and Izumi dearly looked forward to hearing from their sons in the United Forces. I mean, sure Tenzin writes to his mother often, but it doesn’t quite have that is-he-dead-or-alive suspense in between.”

Or maybe there isn’t any sensitivity training to begin with at RCPD.

Korra mildly wondered if the eldest Beifong daughter worried the same way of her younger sister, who apparently had travelled prior to settling down. She did not think they were at that level of relationship yet to pry so the Avatar just nodded.

“You said you have an errand for me?”

“Right,” The metalbender thrusted the box to her. “There will be a Southern Water Tribe ship arriving this week in Republic City. Can you make sure to have this box of preserves included in their next shipping? I’d like to send these to Mother, but I don’t think I’ll be able to have some time off in the next few days.”

“Oh sure, no problem.” Korra readily agreed; she also supposed that she would have a letter ready by then for her mother.

Maybe Lin was right – there might be some wisdom to talking to her mom. After all, Korra figured, she did usually turn to Senna when she had nightmares as a child.

Lin must have seen something on her face. The older woman thanked her then quietly added. “But seriously, Korra,” Her eyebrows furrowed. “I know it’s not my place – but if there’s anything really, don’t hesitate to approach - .”

“Tenzin. I know I know.” The teenager interrupted, sensing the discomfort across her.

“I was going to say Tenzin for spiritual stuff,” The metalbender deadpanned. “But if it can’t be avoided, I’m here as well.”

Korra’s mind briefly went to the time that Tenzin compared her to his wife.

The airbender’s wife took a deep breath. “Pretending something doesn’t exist, or rejecting its existence, won’t help you.” Lin chose her words carefully. “You can’t find the solution to a problem if you don’t think that problem exists.”

That made the Avatar think. True – how can she face her fears when she didn’t even want to admit she had these fears?

Belatedly, Korra realized that while the airbender might be speaking of theoretical and philosophical platitudes he read from books – the earthbender before her might be speaking from experience.

Who knew what situations the scarred chief of police has faced – both in her professional capacity as a member of the force and in a personal capacity as the daughter of Toph Beifong and the wife of the currently last airbender?

Her tired green eyes were reflecting some invisible strain. The Avatar could not fathom if there were matters that the city’s defender kept to herself, matters that not even her husband knew.  

“Anyway, Avatar, try to think about what I said.” The penetrating voice broke into her thoughts. “Check-in with your mom and don’t forget to send the preserves to Katara.”

Korra peered into the box, curious about the preserves that she recalled were served whenever she took her snacks at Master Katara’s house.

“You and Tenzin have your own stock in the house,” Chief Beifong called behind as she strode off to wherever she needed to be. “You can get some from that stock to send to your parents – so don’t even think of getting one from that box.”

Korra looked up in mild exasperation, catching the smile on the metalbender’s face.

Spirits forbid Lin Beifong would come across as caring.

---

And that was why Korra found herself arriving at city hall late one afternoon that week. After making sure her letters and Lin’s package were part of the Water Tribe ship’s cargo, she figured she had enough time to explore the city before meeting Tenzin. This time she made sure to wear an ordinary Earth Kingdom outfit so as to not draw any untoward attention to herself. Then again, she thought, maybe she should not have bothered as Naga padded beside her, causing people to double-take at them.

Upon entering Air Nation councilman’s room, the Avatar-in-training sensed the agitation from her teacher.

The usually calm airbender was going through books and documents, poring on each text silently with a frown marring his face. Upon finishing each document and apparently not finding the answer he needed, his frown would go deeper (any deeper and the teenager thought his face would collapse in its own) and he would toss the document to a side table that was pulled to his desk for that specific reason.

Korra scratched the back of her head, stretched then placed her feet on the coffee table in front of her. She tossed a look at the Tenzin, awaiting the scolding that she was bound to receive.

Hmm, nothing.

She tapped her pen incessantly on the edge of the book she was supposed to be reviewing today (Air Nomad history, published during the time of the previous Avatar), making sure she was being obnoxious and distracting.

No reaction. Tenzin continued to flip through his files with what Korra deemed as his Resting Frustrated Face™ (scowling lips and reddening ears at the tips).

Thank the Spirits that she did not have any tell like Tenzin that would alert the world to what she was feeling.

Fate was funny in how he married the most poker-faced woman that Korra had the ­misfortune to have met.

She continued to tap the pen on her notebook.

“Hey, Tenzin?”

No response.

“Tenzin?”

Still none.

“Master Tenzin?”

Why isn’t he responsive?

Korra strode to the door and knocked. “Councilman Tenzin, you in there?! Hello?”

Tenzin was startled, several loose pages fluttering as a gust of wind was produced. “What is it, Korra?”

“Are you okay?” She tilted her head, one hand on her waist, and looked at him questioningly. “You seem…off.” Korra moved her hand from side to side to indicate this.

The airbender ran a hand on his face.

“Tough council meeting?”

He nodded, drawing his hands to his head, closing his eyes in recollection.

---

“I will not be the prized metalbender for your pet project, Councilman – for the reasons I’ve shared earlier.” The caustic tone matched the statement of the metalbender. The Chief of Police stood up, dislodging the councilman’s hands on her shoulders.

“Oh come now, Chief Beifong – I’m sure this would delight the masses.”

“Fortunately for me, I do not care about delighting the masses.”

“Nonetheless,” The Water Tribe councilman smoothly went back to this seat and used the gavel. “All in favor of -?”

As expected, all of them, except Tenzin, approved the creation of a task force to be headed by Councilman Tarrlok and Chief Beifong.

“Any reason for your disapproval, Councilman Tenzin?” Tarrlok eyed the airbender beadily.

Tenzin knew the younger councilman was baiting him. He had to fight this with logic rather than any emotional outburst; otherwise, his credibility on the issue would be shut down as being made by an indignant spouse of the Chief of Police.

“Are we sure that the Chief of Police is allowed – by law – to co-head a task force with a councilman, a task force created by the same councilmember?” The airbender knew it was a risk to bring up, since he did not know if such law exists but he had to try. “Wouldn’t that be problematic?” He pushed forward, seeing the doubtful expressions of the other councilmembers. “Shouldn’t we check first?”

“Very well then, Councilman Tenzin - you now have 24 hours to present the City Council with a copy of that law. Once the time lapses and no documentation surfaces, we will proceed in introducing the taskforce, myself and Chief Beifong to Republic City.” With some final closing words, the head of the council banged the gavel, signaling the end of the session. The Fire Nation councilwoman proceeded to thank the Chief of Police and read out the next item in their agenda.

Tenzin felt sick to his stomach. His wife’s flashing eyes cut to him. Her knuckles were whitening with how tight she held her fists.

The Chief of Police now excused herself from the meeting as the session proceeded to other matters. The heavy metal of her soles clicking ominously on the marble floor, door banging as her metal cable swung it shut.

---

Korra stared thoughtfully at the book she was holding and made her way to the airbender’s desk to help him. “So, what exactly are you looking for?”

“There has to be a documentation here in city hall,” Tenzin replied in a tired voice. “About involving the Chief of Police with Council task forces.”

“There’s none that would help you– Sokka made sure that the laws would allow a councilman to head a task force alongside the chief of police,” Korra snorted. “Primarily because he thought he and Toph as task force leads would be bad-ass.” She continued to thumb through a stack of binders.

Tenzin faced the teenager abruptly. “What did you say? How did you know that?”

“Councilman Sokka told me the day he was going to have the paperwork approved…” The Avatar trailed off, eyes widening as realization dawned on her.

“Did I just -?”

“Did you just -?”

Master and student looked at each other with the same epiphany.

“Korra, is this the first time you’ve have any form of connection to the previous Avatar?”

“I think so…”

The Airbending master’s face lit up. “This is good news!”

“But we didn’t even know what I did!” While elated, the young Avatar was panicking. She did not want to get Tenzin’s hopes up.

“Little steps – but this is a good sign; it’s progress! We can try connecting then entering the spirit world soon.”

Korra tuned out the airbender’s words as he began to talk about all the things that they will do next. She pulled a bound tome from one of the stacks on Tenzin’s desk.

“I think what we need is here.”

Tenzin took the book gratefully and scanned through it.

True enough, as Korra said – there was a section on police involvement with the council task force. The Chief of Police may lead a task force created by the City Council alongside a councilmember or whoever the council appointed as lead.

“Chief’s not going to like this, will she?”

Her teacher shook his head and continued to drag his finger across the page, reading the text line by line. “This must be what Uncle Sokka used to tell Bumi long ago, that he could create a task force and work with Lin. He correctly assumed that Lin would be following in her mother’s footsteps.”

“So Bumi was to be chief of the Southern Water Tribe?” This was news to Korra.

“Well, it was an option – he could be chief and/or the council representative.” Tenzin stroked his beard absentmindedly. “Even Kya could have led the tribe if she wanted to. It was Bumi’s choice whether or not to take the opportunity. He had a choice…we all did.”

Korra felt the subtext was lost on her, the meaning behind it at the edge of her consciousness but still not quite understanding what the last airbender meant.

Instead, she went back to the topic at hand.

“If Chief is anything like her mother, wouldn’t Toph challenge this law or at least make sure that she had an out?”

And there it was on the next page.

---

Within the next hour, the city council re-convened and a phone call was made to the police headquarters.

The ad-hoc meeting resulted in Chief Beifong being granted eighteen hours provide a replacement lead from her police force as well as the names of those who would be serving under the task force. The council likewise could accept or reject the candidate as well as present their own candidate.

Korra made herself scarce at one of the benches at the back of the meeting room, barely meeting Chief Beifong’s tight nod as she left the room with her deputy. Tenzin was about to follow but was intercepted by the Earth Kingdom representative.

Before Korra had the chance to sidle out of the room unnoticed, the Water Tribe councilman she saw on her first day approached her.

“I don’t believe we’ve met yet – I am Councilman Tarrlok,” The braided man bowed. “Head of the city council and representing the Northern Water Tribe. Pleased to meet you Avatar Korra.”

Korra acknowledged him guardedly. There was something about the man that wasn’t quite right but she cannot put her finger on it yet.

Tarrlok eyed Tenzin quickly heading their way. “Looking forward to working with you soon.” With a small bow, he went towards the exit.

“Korra, was Tarrlok bothering you?” Tenzin asked, concern lacing his tone.

She shook her head no.

“Be careful around him.” The airbender said but offered no additional explanation. He looked at the main hall’s clock, indicating the end of office hours, and looked at the documents at his hand.

Both of them knew fully well that Lin would not be joining them at the island for dinner today; the timer has been set by Tenzin and Korra’s discovery of the full implementation guidelines of a city-led task force.

“Korra, why don’t you go visit your pro-bending friends?”

“What?” The Avatar blurted out before she was able to check herself. Don’t get her wrong, she did want to meet up with Bolin and Mako. They still have not resolved the issue about the championship pot.

“To take your mind off things.” His grey eyes peered at her in concern.

The man was more perceptive than she gave him credit for.

“Don’t forget to go home before the last ferry leaves.”

“What about you? Is Oogi with you?”

She noticed him gripping the folder tightly. “I think I’ll stay with Lin tonight at the city house.”

---

While waiting for Lin who was at the shower, Tenzin sat cross-legged in their living room, examining the metalbender’s armor for dents and polishing where necessary.

The strategist that she was, Lin already had a short-list of people from the force who could be leads with Tarrlok. The rest of the afternoon (and early evening) was spent finalizing the plans with her team as well as reviewing the names who had signed up for the task force.

Tenzin did not have to wait long until Lin met him at the lobby of the police headquarters.

She had grumbled on the way home that, as she expected, the benders who disagreed with her non-bending/bending patrolling protocols had signed up. Nonetheless, she would be submitting their names tomorrow to the council and Tarrlok.

Tenzin was pleased to see that they still had time for a quick dinner; Lin, on the other hand, just wanted to go home and rest.

Arriving at a compromise, Lin conceded to taking out dinner but if (and only if) she gets to take a shower first before going out again. Her husband readily agreed – armor or not, that slimy Tarrlok did place his hands on her.

The phone cut through the sounds of running water. Tenzin put the armor down and reached over the table.

“Hello – ah yes, Yao. Good evening to you too – yes, Korra would be having dinner in the city. What – Tarrlok? Did he say why he wanted to cross to the island?” He vaguely heard Lin finishing her shower. “Good, please keep him off the island unless I or Lin were there. If he tries one more time, make sure to call the police station to lodge a formal complaint. Thank you, Yao. Have a good evening.”

“I’m ready, let’s go.”

Tenzin looked up at his wife, who had changed into a simple tunic top and gray pants. He placed the phone back in its cradle. Lin raised her eyebrow in askance as she bent to take her armor.

“It was Yao – no, you’re not wearing your armor tonight,” He pulled the armor away from her arms. The chief of police’s armor weighed heavily on her, both literally and figuratively. He did not want her to be burdened tonight, at least for a short while. He placed it in storage beside the front door.

Lin frowned but did not argue. She put on a coat and helped her husband into his. “What did Yao say?”

“Yao called because apparently, Tarrlok was attempting to board the ferry to the island. He can’t take you saying no for an answer, can he?” The airbender huffed in annoyance, shrugging into the outdoor coat, more to satisfy Lin that any need for it.

Lin locked the house behind them then looped her arm into Tenzin’s proffered one as they strolled.

“It’s not me he’s after now, it’s Korra.”

“Korra? But – why –.” Tenzin sputtered indignantly.

“She’s the Avatar.” The metalbender nonchalantly stated. “What better way to make a statement than get to get the Avatar at his side.”

Tenzin considered. “Well, he is all about reputation and PR…”

The rest of their walk was spent debating on where they were going to pick up their food.

Eventually, Lin recognized that the airbender had led them to Little Water Tribe.

Her husband could feel her looking at him questioningly. He simply patted her hand, still hooked around his arm.

Tenzin could not forget the words that the Northern Water Tribe representative had dropped earlier that day. While Lin Beifong remained impassive as ever during the ordeal, he knew better. He did not want her to wallow in those thoughts alone.

“Here we are.” He stopped at the window of the take-out nook of a noodlery.

It was an affordable place, newly opened under new management in the recent years, offering fare that reminded him of his mother’s home in the South Pole.

What drew him here, however, was not the promise of his mother’s cooking or even the warm atmosphere. It was a sense of nostalgia, of recreating simpler days.

Back when they were starting out, Lin and Tenzin used to frequent food stalls around the city. Most of the places they patronized have either shut down or been upscaled. The experience just was not the same.

They had stumbled upon Narook’s a couple of months back, when Tenzin insisted waiting for Lin to go home after a long shift (never mind that he had fallen asleep in her office while waiting). At two in the morning, Chief Crankypants was making herself known (last meal eaten was a steamed bun at brunch) and a sleep-deprived airbender was questioning each decision that brought him and his wife to this moment: walking around the city in search for any open establishment that could feed them.

It was by chance that they came upon Narook’s Seaweed Noodlery tucked near a dark alley– unassuming and still open. The food was cheap, tasty and filling. It also reminded them of a Water Tribe eatery they used to go to when they were younger.

Needless to say, the place became a favorite between them, particularly on late nights or when they were too busy to cook dinner.

Tonight, however, Tenzin had another plan in mind; something he quickly thought of as he was polishing Lin’s armor earlier.

His wife narrowed her eyes at him as he rattled off their order for their take-away to the staff at the window, trying to figure out what he was up to when a recognizable voice rang out.

“---Pretty boy?”

The two of them rounded the corner to look at the front door and saw the polar bear dog sitting outside, confirming that it was Korra’s voice they heard.

The Avatar appeared to be in an altercation with a group of patrons in the restaurant. No one was attempting to stop them.

“We got to stop them.” Lin was about to head into the eatery but was stopped by a gentle grip on her wrist.

“No, let her handle it.” Tenzin signaled the metalbender to remain unseen and observe.

“But Korra -.”

“Shh, let’s wait what they’ll do.” He glanced at her face, green eyes darting between him and the situation in the eatery. “Also, didn’t you know how Suyin and I felt whenever you or Bumi or Kya would swoop in to protect us from playground bullies?” He got her attention this time. “We didn’t like it.” He had to hide a smile though, for all Lin’s abrasiveness, she truly did care for the teenage Avatar.

“Why not? We were simply looking out for you.”

It’s what siblings do, Tenzin recalled Bumi and Kya telling him again and again. Truth be told, there were also a handful of times that Lin (despite being a bit younger than Tenzin) faced Tenzin’s bullies herself.

“We eventually figured that out, but it made us feel…” Tenzin opened his hands, palms up in vague explanation. “Inadequate, weak. Like we’ll always need someone to bail us out.”

The softening in her gaze made him realize that she never did think of it that way.

“Oh, I’ve never...” She trailed off.

Whack! He should have expected it; her fist hitting his arm.

“Why didn’t you tell me that? That could have saved me a lot of yelling matches with Su.”

“I thought it was obvious!” The airbender rubbed his arm.

They were distracted enough from Korra’s situation but then heard the polar bear dog give a roar in the window and laughter coming from her group.

Tenzin waited a moment to check that there was no ensuing commotion. When the restaurant went back to its usual bustling noise, he led Lin back to the take-out nook before anyone noticed them.

As they waited for their takeaway, he drew his wife close to himself by putting an arm on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for you or Su to feel that way,” The earthbender leaned on him and he looked at her. “I suppose it’s part of my nature, you know and…”

He interrupted her with a kiss on her forehead. “I know, dear. You don’t have to explain yourself.” He tightened his grip a bit and ran his hand on her arm, in what he thought would be in an assuring manner.

The staff put out a large paper bag from the window and placed two covered cups of cold barley tea (new on their menu). Tenzin thanked the man and paid for their meal.

Lin reached for the drinks and Tenzin tucked the paper bag under one arm.

---

Lin headed to the direction from where they came from, to go back home.

“Not yet,” Her husband gently guided her to the other pathway.

They walked to the edge of the neighborhood where a small park with benches facing Yue Bay was located.

She smiled as she understood what his intention was.

Selecting an empty bench, apart from the other visitors of the park, Tenzin placed the paper bag and began to bring out their food.

Lin put down their drinks and, using earthbending, made a small table for them, keeping in mind to level the ground before they leave.

Together they moved the food and drinks on the table and sat beside each other.

They ate in comfortable silence, Lin occasionally picking mushrooms from Tenzin’s carton and Tenzin rolling his eyes but letting her get away with it.

The meal was reminiscent of the times that they would head to the docks when they were younger, looking over the same bay with Air Temple Island at the horizon. Many late afternoons were spent there, feet dangling above the water as they ate questionable street food. They talked about everything and nothing; both of them enjoying these moments when they could get away from their responsibilities and their parents’ names.

Tenzin leaned back on the bench, sipped his tea and enjoyed the play of the moonlight on his wife’s hair.

“He’s right, you know.”

Tenzin’s gaze moved from the moon to the earthbender, who was calmly poking her noodles with the chopsticks.

“I did end it.” Lin focused intently on her food carton; it had been at the back of her mind the entire day even as she was strategizing with her team about the task force. “What if I did let you go – what if we let each other go all those years ago?” She faintly heard him placing his cup on the table. “What if, instead of being stuck with me – maybe you should have gone around the Air temples and selected perfect mother of the Air Nation?” She flicked a chopstick at him. “Then maybe, just maybe, you would not be dealing with this.”

“Lin – no.”

She pushed on, swallowing tightly. “You probably would not be having difficulty teaching airbending to the Avatar as you would have likely taught your children ahead of Korra. By now, you wouldn’t be the only airbender. You might have, I don’t know, four or five kids? Maybe even more.” Her husband took the utensil and carton from her hand, transferring them to the table as she became agitated. “Then, you wouldn’t have to deal with the likes of Tarrlok using it as leverage against you.”

He pulled her in his arms, embracing her tightly, her protests muffled against his chest. “Don’t say those things. And Tarrlok, pfft, never mind him – it’s not the first time he did that.”

“And it certainly won’t be the last.”

“He had no right to bring that up – that was between you and me.” He sounded as though he was more offended for her than for himself.

“Tenzin, I’ll never be enough.” For the Air Nation was unsaid.

“But you are. You are who I need and who I want.” He attempted to raise her head, still hidden under the flap of his coat. “My father -.”

“Your father’s time has passed; it’s yours now.”

“Lin – even if I ended up not being an airbender,” He pulled away, tilting her face to his; one hand holding hers. “I don’t think my father would have left my mother.”

“You can’t know that.” The metalbender stubbornly stuck to her statement.

“Though to be fair, I don’t think my mother would let him leave him either.” Tenzin stroked her cheek tenderly.

“Yes,” Lin released a choked laugh, a cross between someone trying to stop from crying and laughing. “A water whip would probably hit his behind faster than he can say monkey-feathers.”

Her husband acknowledged with a nod. “And, of course, they loved each other.”

She looked pitifully at him in the eye, communicating wordlessly.

What if love wasn’t enough…for them.

Times change after all. It was no longer the early post-war era where rebuilding was the main priority. Today was about marrying tradition with modernization to ensure progress.

Lin Beifong knew how much preserving the Air Nation’s culture was to her husband. Everything and anything he did likely had a link to the Air Nomads, to his father.

They both knew that he would need to ensure his political viability – otherwise, it would be fairly difficult to carry out the restoration for all the air temples, what more of reviving the expertise of the culture, drawing in more Air Acolytes and maintaining all the heritage projects.

Lin was not simple-minded. She figured out what the major attraction was for some of the Air Acolytes; her mother-in-law did repeatedly point out in their youth that the acolytes started as Aang’s fan club.

While most of the Air Acolytes truly wanted to promote and live out the tenets of the Air Nomads, there were those which were impelled by less than altruistic motives (oh, several names instantly came to Lin’s mind…). Sometimes, Lin questioned herself if preserving the culture and traditions would have been easier if Tenzin had married one of them (and she always ended with a resounding ‘yes of course’). She was sure that there were those who would be interested in being the mother of the Air Nation (she was also aware that there were also other willing volunteers outside of the Air Acolytes, if Kya’s accounts from the Water Tribes were to be believed).

Even Tenzin’s duty to training the Avatar was a tad strained by her association with him. The Order of the White Lotus had been put off by anything Beifong ever since her mother vocally opposed their decision.

(“What? You’ll lock her up – in a compound in an isolated icy tundra?!­ I don’t think that’s what Aang had in mind in letting her have a childhood and preparing her for the world.” The great Toph Beifong had yelled at the meeting where the Order had insisted that protecting Korra would mean training her in the South Pole. This was contradictory to how all the other Avatars had travelled to hone their skills with the elements. It also heavily grated on the first metalbender, who spent the first years of her life isolated from the world. “Oh yeah, sure – who am I anyway to voice my opinion? I just was the former Avatar’s earthbending master. What do I know?” She had scoffed and proceeded to tear apart what she could of the frozen ground of the meeting hall. Needless to say, the Order of the White Lotus selected another earthbending master for Korra.)

Even before the breakdown of the relationship during Korra’s childhood, Toph had not been cooperative with the White Lotus, particularly after the passing of all the members during Iroh’s time as the Grand Lotus. She did not see the point sometimes of their directives. The animosity of the White Lotus carried over to Lin, seeing that she was following her mother’s path (disrespect for tradition, disrespect for the way things are done, disrespect for the continuity of the Four Nations – they had written to her then father-in-law-to-be, in an attempt to dissuade him from letting his only airbending child from marrying the metalbender; said man scratched his head, lit the paper in flames and winked at her).

She knew that they will be checking in on the progress of Korra’s airbending training soon. More pressure would be added on Tenzin’s already weighted shoulders.

Looking straight at his concerned grey eyes, Lin Beifong knew she would do anything to alleviate her husband’s burdens; all and each one of them, especially those which would not have been there if it were not for her.

===

Previous chapters linked below:

Prologue (Contentment) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Cross-posted in AO3 - same title :)

[sommersupergirl]

Supergirl and Queerbaiting

Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor are endgame. At least, that’s what the majority of fans of these two believe. Supporters of Kara and Lena, aka Supercorp, have been arguing for them to get together since season 2, but the writers seem to insist that they are just friends, even as they continue to write scenes that mirror other popular tv show couples. This results in queerbaiting. 

Queerbaiting, a media tactic that hints at a queer relationship to attract LGBT viewers, has become a rising issue in the past 10 years, with shows like Supernatural, Sherlock, Teen Wolf, Once Upon a Time, The 100, and Rizzoli & Isles contributing to the problem [x]. Afierra from Hypable wrote an article on the issue of queerbaiting within Supergirl, illustrating how the queerbaiting on Supergirl is so strong that even non-LGBT fans can pick up on it. 

I want to illustrate how queerbaiting negatively impacts the LGBT fan community. Based on a majority of fan comments found on Tumblr, many fans are ecstatic about the idea of Kara and Lena’s relationship developing into a romantic one [x]. The reason so many fans are fairly positive about the progression of Supercorp’s relationship is that a show previously accused of queerbaiting, The Legend of Korra, revealed in the series finale that the two characters that were used for the “queerbaiting” actually ended up together [x]. This gives many fans of Kara and Lena hope that the two will get together romantically someday on the show. 

Comparing Lena and Kara’s relationship to other canon couples from other TV shows demonstrates how the show writers of Supergirl have continued to ‘string along’ the LGBT fans, resulting in fans being extremely displeased and let down. Additionally, with mental health issues being a higher risk for LGBT youth, it is important to look at the negative effects of queerbaiting as it may exacerbate the already alarming state of mental health of LGBT fans.

Evidence of Queerbaiting within Supergirl

Since the introduction of Lena Luthor at the beginning of season 2, “fans of their “relationship” began to emerge, mostly due to the natural chemistry between the two actresses” [x]. There are countless gifs of the flirtatious nature of their relationship. Another gif illustrates how Kara made the same face when James Olsen spoke, whom she was interested in romantically, as when Lena Luthor spoke to her, resulting in hope that Lena will become a love interest for Kara [x].

However, Supergirl is now on its fifth season, and there is no evidence - besides the hope from fans - that Kara and Lena will get together romantically. However, there is speculation that Supercorp will happen as within the Arrowverse shows the main characters have their one and only since the first few seasons of the show - Oliver met Felicity in season one, Iris has been on the show since day one, and Sara met Ava in the third season of Legends and their relationship is still going strong. Besides Lena, her sister, and her father figure, there is no other character that has been on the show for very long; in fact, most of the cast for the fifth season was introduced last season. Additionally, Kara and Lena are portrayed in typical superhero tropes that parallel other shows like Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and even from past shows that depict Superman and Lois Lane [x]. 

The biggest parallels that fans of Supercorp make is with Superman and Lois Lane, like Kara hovering outside Lena’s window [x]. Another parallel was drawn between Supergirl and The Legend of Korra, where both Kara and Korra are incredibly powerful beings who have an intense love of food, and Asami and Lena are both brilliant women who have an engineering background and have strayed from their families’ beliefs [x]. Asami and Lena have done whatever they could to protect Korra/Kara, and have both inherited their families’ companies, becoming the CEO [x]. Not to mention that both Korra and Asami dated the same man, Mako, at different points during the show, while Kara and Lena both dated the same man, James, at different points during the show. This gives fans of Supercorp hope that Kara and Lena’s relationship will develop into a romantic one, as Supergirl and The Legend of Korra are both very similar shows and Korra and Asami from Legend of Korra ended up together in the end. 

All of this - the parallels between other couples from other shows as well as romantically inclined scenes between Kara and Lena - have given fans a base for their belief that the show writers of Supergirl are actively queerbaiting, in which they purposely make the scenes between Kara and Lena somewhat romantic in order to draw in an LGBT audience. At this point, the queerbaiting has become so strong “it’s no longer just Kara and Lena fans who are interpreting their interactions as amorous. People who are completely indifferent to the pair or don’t even watch the show are recognizing what’s happening” [x]. 

For over three years, Supercorp fans have been queerbaited by the show writers of Supergirl, and this constant queerbaiting affects the LGBT fans because there isn’t a belief that “it’s just a matter of time” but that they must hold dear and take whatever scraps they are given. The fans want and hope that Supercorp will happen, but there isn’t any fan that is 100% sure that Kara and Lena will end up together like fans of heterosexual couples. This lack of certainty that LGBT fans exhibit is based on the history of LGBT portrayal within the media. The lack of portrayal of LGBT fans in the past, as well as a history of queerbaiting from a multitude of popular shows, results in LGBT fans’ low confidence in seeing themselves represented on screen.

Research that Supports the Negative Effects of Queerbaiting

LGBT fans have only just begun to see a spark of more LGBT centered shows and movies within the past few years, but there are also many shows which have queerbaited their LGBT audience. For instance, The 100, while giving its audience a lesbian “relationship” between Clarke and Lexa, \they had a total of two romantic scenes in which Lexa was killed off the show right after the last romantic scene of the two. A majority of the fans were outraged due to the Bury Your Gays (BYG) trope, where a character who is revealed to have a queer identity is then shortly killed off the show because the “BYG trope punishes these characters by erasing them from the narrative entirely if the depiction indeed goes beyond subtext to include acknowledged queer identity” [x]. Both queerbaiting and the BYG trope is harmful to the LGBT fan community as fans see themselves in these characters, and when those characters are pushed into an opposite-sex relationship or their sexuality is limited to subtext, it implies to the LGBT fan community that their sexuality should never be acted on and they should always remain hidden. More than 70% of LGBT youth have reported “feeling sad or helpless for at least two weeks in the past year” [x], and with popular media utilizing queerbaiting within their shows, it doesn’t help the already despondent LGBT youth. Therefore, “both queerbaiting and BYG…  punish queer audiences by the suggestion (or even promise) of quality LGBTQ representation, only to have their hopes dashed” [x]. 

In season five of Supergirl, the queerbaiting has reached a whole new level in that the fans don’t even need to reach to find hidden implications of a romantic nature between Kara and Lena. But throughout these Supercorp scenes, there are always reaffirming their friendship status. By the writers reaffirming Kara and Lena’s relationship as “just friends” and then at the same time playing into the romantic tropes between Kara and Lena, it gives the LGBT fan less confidence to believe that they will get to see the happily ever after they crave because, in the past, many relationships they believed had the potential to be something more was written off as “just friends” or the characters that were confirmed queer were then killed off. This implies to the LGBT fan community that having a happy ending isn’t for queer characters and therefore, not for their queer audience either. 

The LGBT youth fan community is already struggling with mental illness and a sense of identity due to having to hide their true selves or be unable to acknowledge it because of still prevalent homophobia, so many will turn to media as a distraction or even as a way to gain hope for their own future. But when so many shows are debased to queerbaiting, the hope these fans have for their future becomes further diminished with lack of representation, and will negatively affect the LGBT fan audience to believe that nothing will come out of their hopes and beliefs of two characters getting together romantically. 

Conclusion

From the analysis of the evidence above, it’s becoming more obvious that the Supergirl writers are actively queerbaiting their audience to the point that LGBT fans aren’t the only ones noticing it. As discussed previously, queerbaiting negatively affects LGBT youth as it diminishes their hope for a better future, further outcasts them within society, and lowers their self-confidence. Therefore, with a popular show that is so clearly queerbaiting its audience, it further drives the previous negative points of this issue because it's now seen by all types of audience members that the LGBT fans aren’t worth the happy ending they seek within popular media. 

Producers and writers of popular media need to understand the detrimental effects of queerbaiting the LGBT fan community. Therefore, more action will be taken by fans if they feel that Supergirl has wronged them in the lack of representation between Kara and Lena. 

Therefore, the writers of Supergirl need to either stop blatantly queerbaiting their audience or allow for Kara and Lena’s relationship to develop into what many fans have already vied for: Supercorp. If the writers continue to walk the path they’re currently on, fans will become outraged and the ratings of their show will come down. So, for the benefit of Supergirl, the fans’ happiness and mental stability, stop with Supercorp and queerbaiting.

[zupeiza]

Spirit Cards Against Humanity

So... here goes nothing! This is my first attempt to writing a fanfic, and it's not even in my mother tongue, so please have mercy! :) Just a bit of background: this fanfic is set post-Turf Wars comics.

«YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED HERE, HUMAN»

Everything was perfect until then. Korra laying down on the grass of the new spirit's portal park, her head on Asami's lap, blue skies, birds chirping and kids playing in the background. Korra sighed and closed her eyes. Why was it impossible to spend a quiet afternoon with her girlfriend, just chilling as any regular couple would?

The Avatar opened her eyes again, and saw Asami looking to her right where the spirit's voice originated. She got up with a jump, dusted off her clothes, and began walking towards the growing tumult of floating spirits and... children?

«Give him his doll back, now!» Meelo was shouting to an octopus-shaped spirit, three times his size because of course, Meelo was not afraid of anything. Behind the young airbender, a toddler was sniffling with his face covered in tears. The spirit had a small Nuktuk doll trapped in its tentacles, and his aura was getting darker every second.

«What's going on, Meelo? Honourable spirit» Korra bowed to the spirit, by now she knew flattery was the easiest way to make spirits happy -at least the rowdiest ones.

Meelo's frown dissolved momentarily when he saw Korra. «Korra!!!» with the Avatar on his side, Meelo started to explain the situation with a cocky grin «This bad, BAD spirit took his Nuktuk away. They were playing movers, and they weren't causing any trouble, Korra, I swear!»

Asami crouched and cleaned the kid's teary face with a handkerchief. The boy stopped sniffing and gave her a shy smile. Korra could sense the anger on her girlfriend, but she was familiar with how sensitive the spirits were, and how easily things got out of hand with their disagreements.

«Honourable spirit, what was your reason to... Hum... Interrupt these kids game?»

«YOU CALL THAT A GAME, AVATAR?» The spirit's deep voice made the little boy start crying again, this time hugging Asami for comfort. Asami looked to Korra, heartbroken.

«Sure it was a game, these are just children, they were reenacting a mov...» if she had to explain to these spirits what a mover was, this was going to take longer than she wanted «You are holding a doll, which is a little human made out of cloth that children use to pretend they are heroes, or... families... or... don't you have games in the spirit world? You know, to have fun...»

«OF COURSE WE HAVE GAMES, AVATAR, BUT OUR GAMES DO NOT INTERFERE WITH SPIRITS SLEEP WITH SHRILL CRIES»

The octopus statement was followed by a set of nods and agreeing expressions from the rest of the spirit's. Korra rolled her eyes. It was obvious to her that the spirits were exaggerating, she had been in the park and the children games were not trouble at all.

«Okay, how about this, we play a more quiet game, Pai Sho,and if we win, you give back the doll and let the children play in peace.»

«AND IF YOU LOSE YOU LEAVE THIS PORTAL FOREVER»

«NO WAY!» Meelo's angry face was too close to the spirit's reach. Korra put herself between the airbender and the spirit's tumult.

«If we lose... We will set up a perimeter where children games are not allowed.» Asami frowned, not happy with the offer, but Korra shrugged, she couldn't think of a good way out at that moment, and besides, Asami was the best Pai Sho player she knew, there was no way they could beat her.

The spirits pondered the Avatar's offer, discussing it between mumbles, throwing inquisitive glances towards the Avatar and the Future Industries CEO, and when they got a final decision, the octopus spirit turned back to the humans, a smirk on its face.

«WE AGREE ON YOUR TERMS, AVATAR» Korra exhaled, relieved, when the spirit continued «BUT WE DECIDE THE GAME.»

Korra raised a brow, inquisitively, she looked at Asami, and back to the spirit, and gulped. «What game?

«IT IS CALLED CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY» A small snail-looking spirit sniggered behind the spirits' spokesman «A CARD GAME WHERE WITS ARE AWARDED.»

Korra was dubious, she was good in a fight, but she had to admit she wasn't the wittiest person.

«Tell me more about this game, how many players do we need?»

«WE CAN BEGIN WITH EIGHT PLAYERS» the spirit produced a deck of cards, half deck white and half deck black «EACH PLAYER STARTS WITH TEN WHITE CARDS. WE PLAY A BLACK CARD EACH TURN WHICH CONTAINS HALF A SENTENCE, AND EACH PLAYER DRAWS A WHITE CARD TO COMPLETE IT. THE MOST HUMOROUS SENTENCE ACCORDING TO ALL PLAYERS WINS»

«What's going on here?» A raspy voice behind them inquired. Korra turned and saw Kya and Lin (a strange couple to find in the park, but she would ask questions later), and quickly explained the situation to both. At least they were four adults now, although what was humorous for the spirits was something unclear, to say the least.

Korra looked to her group, to the little boy green sad eyes, and to Meelo, that appeared to be losing faith on a quick Avatar win.

«We agree! Bring it on!» Korra exclaimed, with a burst of confidence. Kya, Lin and Asami exchanged hesitant glances.

The octopus spirit, snail-spirit, a half-fox, half-rabbit spirit and a floating-humming cloud spirit took a step forward. The four women sat in front of them. The fox-rabbit spirit shuffled cards and each player drew ten cards. The octopus spirit took the upper card on the black cards deck and turned it to everyone's view.

«"When I am billionaire, I shall raise a 50 foot statue to commemorate..."» Korra read aloud, blushing remembering the statue her girlfriend commissioned in Avatar Park

«"How pretty my girlfriend is"» Kya and Lin scoffed in whispers, Asami turned red and the spirit's searched frantically among their cards, looking for their response.

«YOU MUST SELECT ONE OF YOUR CARDS AND LEAVE IT UNTURNED IN THE CENTER. WE SHALL READ THEM AND VOTE ANONYMOUSLY AFTERWARDS.»

All players selected one card and put them in a pile. The Avatar read them one by one.

«"Former President Raiko"» the Avatar rolled her eyes, while the cloudy spirit jumped excitedly, probably proud of its of response «"Racism"» - Korra raised a brow muttering «"Really?» «"The gays"» the four women avoided each other gazes. The fox-rabbit spirit required quietly clarification from the snail-spirit, and nodded after the explanation of its meaning. «"MechaKuvira"» the Avatar eyed the octopus spirit, convinced this was his answer. «"My collection of high-tech sex toys"» Lin looked mortified, while Kya showed a shit-eating grin. Asami just avoided Korra's eyes. «"Fear itself"» Korra looked puzzled. In which world were these kind of answers funny? Spirit world, probably... «"Tentacle porn"» Lin groaned at her side, muttering something about being too old for this... «"Puppies!"» she tried to hide this one was her own answer.

«NOW YOU POINT THE CARD YOU FIND MORE HUMOROUS»

The four spirits pointed one card each, probably their own. The four women looked each other and, as if they had shared the same thought, pointed "The gays". They laughed out loud, not believing their mind wave.

«VERY WELL, WHO DREW THIS CARD?» the spirits looked nervous.

Lin raised shyly her hand. Kya hugged her, and all the humans - kids included - cheered. The spirits were enraged.

«BEST ONE OF THREE!» He roared. Asami held Korra's arm. It had been easy so far, but could the four of them repeat it?

«Very well... Let's see...» She read the next black card - «"What's my secret power?"»

All players searched among their cards. They drew their solution card and put them in the middle pile. Korra began reading the cards.

«"Opposable thumbs"» the spirits growled at the mention of such feature. «"Spectacular abs"» the Avatar wiggled her eyebrows to her girlfriend, who rolled her eyes in response. «"Not wearing pants"» the spirits laughed, Korra noticed indeed none of them wore pants. «"Sweet, sweet vengeance"... Okay, that's dark.» «"A cooler full of organs"... Even darker» Asami looked worried to the octopus spirit. Somehow he looked like he could have that kind of cooler and find it funny. «"My sex life"» Korra regretted reading it aloud, Lin glared Kya squealing. Meelo fully opened her eyes, open-mouthed. «"Ethnic cleansing"» boy, these spirits were ruthless... «"The female orgasm"» Korra whispered half covering her mouth so the children would not hear.

«THIS TIME WE WILL POINT THE CARDS AT THE COUNT OF THREE: ONE, TWO, THREE»

This time the vote was more divided. Kya and Asami pointed "The female orgasm" - followed by an appreciative look from the waterbender towards the engineer; Korra and Lin had pointed "Spectacular abs". The four spirits had pointed the "No wearing pants card".

«That’s my card! Heeeehehehe» The fox-rabbit spirit was thrilled with his victory.»

The kids groaned in despair, the little kid wanted to know what an orgasm was, the spirits made a growling sound that could be interpreted as a laugh, and the four women looked beat. Korra gulped, they had lost their advantage and now it was their last chance to win.

«Okay, this is the time of truth...» she drew the last black card and read «"A romantic, candlelit dinner would be incomplete without..."»

The group searched their cards, in silence, concentrated. One by one the players drew their cards and put them gravely in the central pile. Korra closed her eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again. Then she began revealing the cards content.

«"Third base"... I agree... » Asami sniggered, covering her mouth. Korra resumed her lecture. «"Authentic Fire Nation cuisine"... «"Edible underpants"... » Korra began to recognise Kya's style so she looked at her. The waterbender was making attempts to keep her face straight. «"Man meat"? » all humans grimaced in disgust. The spirits looked undaunted. «"Ostrich horse meat"» Ugh, these spirits were nasty. «"Flesh eating bacteria"» Yep, nasty indeed «"A tribe of warrior women"» okay, that was a lighter note, no doubt coming from her human peers. «"Saying I love you"»

She read the last card and looked at Asami, without realising that at the same time, Kya and Lin were doing the same. The spirits group seemed lost in thought, thinking on their favourite meal.

«Okay, let's do this.- Korra held Asami's hand for reassurance - One, two and three!»

Luckily, the "man meat" card was deserted, the fox-bunny revealed his preference towards ostrich horse meat, while the other three pointed - surprisingly enough - the "Authentic Fire Nation cuisine". The spirits looked confident on their victory, until they saw the four women were pointing the last card: "Saying I love you"

«Aaand… that was my card» grinned the Avatar.

The spirits howled in defeat, and began retreating to the spirit portal. Meelo cheered rolling in an airball with a huge grin in his face. Korra stood up, grabbed the Nuktuk doll from the octopus-spirit tentacles, who grumpily collected their cards before disappearing. The Avatar bowed to the spirits and returned the doll to the now smiling little boy. She scrubbed his hair and helped her girlfriend up. Lin bent the earth beneath herself and Kya to stand up. The four of them hugged each other, relieved to have avoided a new human-spirits crisis, and made their goodbyes.

«You know, it's true» Asami commented distractedly. «What is?» Korra looked at her in puzzlement «I'll show you afterwards,» Asami flipped her hair back and asked her girlfriend with a loving smile «would you like to have a candlelit romantic dinner?»

There goes my first contribution to a Korrasami Month, I hope you enjoyed it! I think @PerishingShards (and someone else) wanted to see something on this prompt. Of course, comments and likes (also edits and suggestions) are more than welcome! :D

PS: Believe it or not, all the cards used in the fanfic are actually in the original "Cards Against Humanity" game (I only adapted them a bit to mention names of the Avatar universe).

[baaviraweek]

letters

While serving out her sentence for her war crimes, Kuvira gets a visitor and a stroll down memory lane. Written for Day 1 of Baavira Week 2018.

Read on AO3 Read on FFNET

          - iviscrit

"I'm surprised that you kept them."

Su opened the fastenings on the box, revealing a sheaf of papers. "They were the only contact I had with my son. Of course I kept them."

The top of the pile was still white and crisp, a heavy sheet of cardstock emblazoned with the Earth Empire sigil and their future monogram beneath. The expensive ink was still so dark it almost looked wet, Baatar's light engineer's scrawl a thready stripe in the salutation. "This one must be from the Mo Ce Sea checkpoint," Kuvira said, tracing her fingers over a slight distortion in the page. "Water damage, but the ink hasn't bled."

"That was the last time he wrote us," Su said, nodding. "Junior sent a photograph as well, but I shredded it."

"I'm not surprised." She set the letter aside, face down, and continued on through the sheaf. Sifting through the letters was like going back in time. The next letter was printed on stationary from an old Earth Kingdom fort in Garsai, the next on kitschy stationery featuring "The Blind Bandit" of Gaoling. "We visited Grandmother's old estate," she read slowly, under her breath. "Kuvira insists it was to give the troops a day off while we attended to infrastructure, but I'm sure this was selfishly motivated. We were unsurprisingly able to strike up a business deal with the Earthen Fire Refinery in short order-"

"He sent photographs with that one too," Su said, a bit of a smile at the corners of her mouth. "I kept those."

Kuvira turned over the page, only to find a letter written on cheap post office stationary from Senlin Province. "Not here, clearly."

"Yes, they're with the rest of the family photos," Su said. "There was a picture of him with the statue of my mother. I've never seen him so happy."

"He took a picture of me with her statue as well," Kuvira said, feeling a blush creep over her neck. "That must still be with our accounting logs, or maybe with the album on the train." She pulled out the next letter and then the next, smiling as she felt a torrent of memories as she re-lived their three-year military campaign, glancing through letters from the mag-lev written their own Earth Empire cardstock, letters on cheap scraps of recycled newsprint from seaport villages, letters from Ba Sing Se written on Earth Kingdom gift-shop stationery, letters written on sheets torn from Baatar's grid paper notebooks, and finally letters on the paper they had packed with them from Zaofu, beginning to yellow with age. She couldn't help but notice that the creases and corners were nearly worn away, the ink streaked and bleeding in places- perhaps proof that Su and Baatar Sr. had read them countless times, tracing the words with desperate fingers, perhaps proof that tears had been spilled.

"I wish I had saved the first one that he sent," Su said, her voice almost wistful. "I was so enraged that I burned it without reading. My husband was so upset with me, because he had no way to write back. He was convinced we'd lost him then."

"I'd never have let anything happen to him... as hard as that might be to believe." That oldest letter was long, consisting of three double-sided pages, an eclectic mix of trepidation, boastful aspirations, and insecurities. It was a letter she had urged Baatar to write, after weeks without a response from his family, a letter so deeply personal that she felt she had no right to read it, even after Su had delivered it into her hands.

"We wrote back after that, of course," Su continued. "I think a part of me hoped that he would come to his senses and come home, if we kept trying with him. For his father, I think he hoped the time apart would let Junior feel like a bit more like his own person. We often discussed whether or not we brought this on ourselves."

Kuvira resisted the urge to reply in the affirmative, reminding herself that much of her own plight was self-inflicted as well. "He sometimes would say he owed at least a third of his talent to his father teaching him physics from such a young age. Sometimes he even wanted to call home and collaborate, when he'd get stuck- of course you understand why he ultimately didn't."

"More than me, I think, Baatar was heartbroken," Su agreed. "I don't think Junior realized how proud his father was, seeing what he'd accomplished."

An awkward silence settled over the two of them, heavy with apologies and accusations for a different time. Kuvira set about putting the letters back in order, filing them away into the box and catching snippets as she did. Went to meet with Raiko and the United Council today- -had an idea for a new alloy formulation- -we are re-designing the metal armor into something more streamlined, look for news on patent acceptance soon- Omashu welcomed our protection today. Might get to meet with investors later- We spent the weekend at the Fort Bosco in Si Wong to let the troops regroup- -how are the twins doing? -haven't heard from Opal in some time, send me her new posting- We'll be traveling to the Western Seaport to meet with the naval officers, so mail your reply to their Mo Ce offices- Mother will be upset with me, but I think Kuvira would say yes if I asked-

"Why did you bring these to me?" she said at last, shutting the box and clicking the locks in place. "Why did you visit me at all?"

"We haven't been fair to each other, Kuvira." Su reached for the box, tracing her fingers over its hinges. "I know you blame me for a great deal. Maybe some of it is warranted. I blame you for even more. Maybe some of it... isn't warranted." She tried to smile, failed, and carried on. "Avatar Korra has been trying to get your plea bargain amended, on the basis of good behavior and a need for skilled metalbending labor. You could be re-assigned to one of Omashu's provinces bordering Zaofu, if she's successful. She seems confident."

"Meaning?"

"Your new location would be under my provincial jurisdiction," Su said carefully. "Korra didn't know if you'd want that. She asked me to check, so she'd know whether or not to close the deal."

"I don't mind at all, Su," Kuvira said, "and I really don't see why it matters. I go where I'm assigned-"

"Junior is still under house arrest, as you know," Su said curtly. "If you were under my jurisdiction, I'd facilitate your meeting with him. You understand of course that you will be disarmed, chi-blocked, and escorted in by my guard, fully restrained. He still wants to see you. If, of course, you'd want that."

She closed her eyes, blinking hard as she swallowed, willing herself not to let tears fall in her frustration as she processed this new revelation. He wants to see you. "Why didn't he write back, then?"

Su's voice came surprisingly gentle. "I don't know. I was surprised too. To be honest, I wouldn't have visited if I didn't know he still misses you. I think it would do him some good."

She opened her eyes, sighing in a heavy exhale. "I'll go wherever I'm assigned. Please thank the Avatar for her continued work on my case and convey to her my gratitude and best wishes."

"Your lawyer will send a wire once everything is finalized," Su said. "What should I tell my son?"

"There's nothing I can say," Kuvira said softly. "Is he well?"

"You'll know for yourself," Su said, drawing her chair back and rising, taking the box of letters. "I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again."

As the door swung shut behind her, Kuvira looked down at the envelope Su had left behind. It had a slick, clean white finish, unmarked with a sender's address. As she slit the envelope and shook out its contents, she felt the corners of her mouth twitch upwards and a sudden tightness in her throat. My darling Kuvira, it read.

The light, thready scrawl was unmistakable.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael After Midnight: The Legend of Korra

Avatar: The Last Airbender is, without a single doubt in my mind, one of, if not the, greatest cartoons of all time; it’s up there with Batman: The Animated Series, The Simpsons, and all those other time-tested classics. But even as it ended, there was always this feeling like the magnificent world created for the show could be explored ever further, expanded upon, and just in general be given a whole lot of new perspectives.

Enter The Legend of Korra.

The show is set several decades after Aang saved the world (as Katara always believed he could, according to the opening narration). Aang eventually died and a new avatar was born, the titular Korra; the show is all about how she comes into her own as the Avatar.

Now, just from that brief summary, it seems like this show would be an awesome thing right off the bat, right? Everything is there for this to be an epic continuation of an incredible animated work… and yet, it took this show two Books to truly find itself, and even then there were some truly questionable storytelling decisions that leave this show far behind Avatar in terms of quality. And look, I like this show. I really do. I enjoy it, I enjoy seeing the callbacks to the earlier series, I like most of the villains a great deal, I love the mythos they created about the Avatar as a concept by showing us its origin, there is a lot of genuinely great stuff that’s on par with the original series here. But while the original show had weak episodes here and there, Korra had entire weak Books; where the original show had some occasional bad writing, Korra had some truly bad plot points; and where the original show had a dragged-out romantic arc that, while a bit tedious, never really overstayed its welcome, Korra had one of the absolute worst romantic arcs in modern fiction with the most terrible, stupid, pandering, and nonsensical ending imaginable, one that insults me on so many levels.

But I’m getting far ahead of myself there. I’m going to briefly go over each Book and what works about each, and what doesn’t. The best place to start is from the beginning, so… let’s start there.

Book 1 has a sort of reputation as being a Book that was too rushed to really live up to its full potential. And you know what? I’ll agree to that. Nickelodeon really screwed this show over big time throughout its run, but the tiny amount of episodes they allowed the first Book was a big problem. The plot that doesn’t really get going until halfway through, the inane twists, the rushed conclusion… with more episodes things could have been fleshed out a lot better. Here’s the thing, though: even with more time, if they kept a lot of this Book the same… it would still suck a whole lot of ass.

Book 1 is pretty much a trainwreck, evident from the first scene, which shows a toddler Korra bursting through a wall, showing off every kind of bending save air, and saying “I’M THE AVATAR AND YOU GOTTA DEAL WITH IT!” This is our introduction to our main character. This is the first time we see her, our first impression. And they decide to introduce her in the least likable, most obnoxious, and dare I say most Mary Sue-ish way possible.

Now I have gone on record before saying I absolutely loathe the term Mary Sue; I find it to be a term that lacks any real substance to it and is really just shorthand for someone to dismiss a character. But the most common definition - a character who has so much going for them, rarely suffers any consequences, and is just well liked by everyone while getting the world handed to them - actually, sadly, fits Korra in the early episodes. She’s good at all forms of bending save air from when she’s a toddler, she almost instantly becomes a pro playing sports, she gets two cute boys fawning over her, she gets the greatest possible airbending teacher anyone could ask for… One could argue she gets built up so much like this to make her being torn down halfway through the Book more powerful, but it just really comes off as grating and obnoxious to watch.

It’s not like the other characters are written much better. Mako in particular is written to be one of the biggest morons on Earth, and Bolin, while charming, is something of a Diet Sokka. Tenzin is easily the best character of the Book, what with being voiced by J.K. Simmons and all, but his children… yuck. All of them are annoying and just feel superfluous, with Meelo in particular existing for seemingly no reason other than fart jokes. It’s not like Avatar was above using those kinds of jokes, but they didn’t have an entire character dedicated to them. Lin Beifong is pretty cool, a worthy successor to Toph, though be warned: she takes a lot of stupid pills between this Book and the next. Asami is pretty and badass, and she’s also one of the better characters of the Book, but sadly she gets tangled up in the worst aspect of the entire first Book: the love triangle.

The love triangle involves Korra, who is loved by Bolin and Mako, though Mako was in a relationship with Asami after they met, and Korra is with Bolin, but secretly likes Mako and… who cares? This is not what anyone wants out of a show based on Avatar. Just because they’re teenagers doesn’t mean they need to get up in all of this sub-par soap opera bullshit. This here honestly ruins the Book; while some would say Book 2 was the weaker Book due to its incredibly stupid plot and lackluster villain, at least Book 2 had Varrick and the Avatar Wan episodes. This Book really doesn’t have any big plus it can count in its favor. No, not even Amon.

Amon is the villain of Book 1, and early on he is just indescribably cool. His menacing voice provided by the always excellent Steve Blum, his creepy mask that evokes the titular V of V for Vendetta, his ability to remove bending, the fact he manages to scare Korra shitless… it’s all amazing. And then comes the reveal that he’s actually a bender. A waterbender, even. He has been using bloodbending this whole time to remove people’s bending. All of the shit from the big reveal really just leads to defang Amon from a nightmarish force to be reckoned with to a miserable bundle of angst. Noatak, who he is revealed to truly be, feels like an entirely different character. Still, even with his derailment, his final scene is one of the most effective in the entire series: as he and his brother escape on a flying ship, his brother, despite his brother’s words indicating that he wants to start over a new life with him and have things be good between them again, takes an electrical gauntlet and fires into the ship’s fuel tank, causing an explosion which kills them both. This is a murder-suicide that was shown on Nickelodeon. It is emotional, powerful, and truly shocking in a good way. It’s easily the standout scene of the Book, and almost makes it worth it.

Then comes the asspull.

You see, Korra had her bending taken by Amon. This could have led to so many incredible storylines as she worked to gain it back, utilizing only the airbending she was stuck with, the one kind of bending she wasn’t instantly good at. Sure, it may have ended up retreading a bit of Aang’s struggles, but that was good stuff! But instead… Aang’s spirit comes out of nowhere and the past Avatars all combine their powers and POOF! Korra gets her bending back. This is a dreadful resolution; I get they were unsure if they’d get to follow up on this or not, but leaving the door open with uncertainty is so much better than closing a bunch of doors. Why not have her just get a talk from Aang, telling her she can get her power back with enough training? End it on a dark but still hopeful note, with her having to work back up to how she was before. That would have been a hell of a lot better than this deus ex machina crap.

Overall, Book 1 is just a hot mess. It has isolated elements that are pretty good, but overall it’s kind of a complete mess story wise and character wise. It’s frankly amazing this show got a second Book… but it did. And oh lord is this Book something.

Book 2’s biggest crime is that it is utterly forgettable. I hardly remember anything from the first half of this Book because it is just so bland and uninteresting, and while it’s nowhere near as bad as Book 1’s love triangle, it doesn’t even stick in the mind. The shining gem of this first half - and the Book as a whole, mind you, if not the SERIES - is Varrick, the eccentric inventor, and his beleaguered assistant Zhu Li, who is frequently asked by Varrick to “do the thing.” These two make all the difference; without them this Book would easily be more unwatchable than the first, but with them… well, it still sucks but they manage to carry things.

Unalaq, the villain of the Book, is an utter bore. He’s obviously bad from the get-go and he is easily overshadowed later by the far more intriguing Vaatu, who ties deep into the mythos of the series by being one of the reasons the Avatar came to be at all. Unalaq also has two kids who are just as boring as he is and who spend the series not doing much anything noteworthy.

The real draws of this Book are basically everything to do with the spirits and their realm, as well as the origin story of the Avatar. Avatar Wan’s big two parter is the first part of the series to feel as fresh and epic as the original series, and it shows us just how the Avatar came to be in the first place. The other scenes in the spirit world are pretty great, featuring appearances from Uncle Iroh, Wan Shi Ton, and Admiral Zhao of all people. Then there’s the big shakeup at the end: Korra is now cut off from her past lives, and spirits and humans can now live together. These are some huge changes to the status quo of the series to the point where it feels like an apology for how bad and pointless Book 1 feels in the grand scheme of things. And you know what? Apology accepted. Book 2 is a mess, but it manages to find itself in the end and help steer the show into being the great work it ended up as.

Now on to Book 3.Book 3 is where the show really was able to show off how great it could be, to the point my only issues with the Book are minor. Most of my problems stem from the fact that Korra had very small Book, with about 12 or so episodes per book as opposed to Avatar’s 20. This is kind of a problem, because it gives some characters less of a time to develop, a fate that unfortunately befalls the members of the Red Lotus who aren’t Zaheer. Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore the Red Lotus and think they’re all fascinating villains, and Zaheer is one of the most interesting villains in the series as an evil airbender, but Ming-Hua, Ghazan, and P’Li sadly get very little in terms of backstory. You DO get something, but they end up feeling more like the Cobra Unit from Snake Eater than fully fleshed-out bad guys… which is to say, they’re fun and effective, just don’t expect them to show great complexity. I wholeheartedly believe that they could have been expanded on if Book 3 had those extra seven episodes in it, and it’s a real shame we didn’t get to truly explore these fascinating characters.

My other problems, again, are pretty minor. I didn’t much care for Bumi becoming an airbender, and felt like it sort of cheapened his and Tenzin’s character a bit. Kai, a pubescent airbender scamp, was not a very likable character here, and it was pretty annoying having to put up with him, not to mention his ship tease with Jinora. Zuko also shows up, but it’s in a very minor role and he’s not really focused on at all. There’s a few more nitpicks here and there but these things are really my main issues.

The story is a lot darker and more mature here, especially in its repercussions for the rest of the series. Korra’s near-death experience here leaves her broken and haunted by PTSD, which becomes a major focus in Book 4. This Book is also where they really stopped giving a shit, and there are several particularly shocking and gruesome deaths for the show. We have Zaheer answer that age-old fan question “Could an airbender suck the air out of somene’s lungs?” with a demonstration on the Earth Queen, P’Li’s laser eye backfires and blows her head up, Ming-Hua is painfully electrocuted to death, and Ghazan takes a page from Gollum’s book and dies immersed in lava (and rubble for good measure).

This Book truly delivers the experience this series promised us in the beginning; it truly feels like an evolution of the Avatar series in the best way possible. While there are a few bumps here and there, there’s nothing really brutally bad that could derail the overall quality of the season. It has a great villain, and that villain has a great villain posse; there’s a lot of great cameos and character appearances, including some surprising ones; we learn more about Lin’s past; we get a whole lot more airbenders and an interesting plot going on with them that even in the end makes Kai more likable; and most importantly we have a solid plot with real consequences on the characters.

Oh, and there’s that little Zelda Williams character who appears near the end… wonder what her significance is…

She’s Book 4’s bad guy.

Book 4 is the final season of Korra, and while I don’t think many would say it surpasses Book 3 (which is quite the task, considering), I definitely think it’s a really great final season that wraps up just about everything that needs to be wrapped up. It also does a really good job with character development, like, REALLY good.

This season is where Korra really becomes a character I love, because her struggles are very personal and interesting. She’s constantly haunted by what happened to her in Book 3, and is stalked by a shadowy version of herself wherever she goes. Long gone is the obnoxious borderline Mary Sue character that she felt like in the first season; here, Korra truly feels human and relatable. More impressive than even that may be the transformation of the character Prince Wu, who starts the season as one of the single most unlikable characters in the whole series but ends up as an amusing and even somewhat heroic figure. Frankly I find it hard to hate a character who utilizes his terrible singing to help evacuate a city.

As I mentioned before, Kuvira is the villain, and she’s very much a visionary sort who thinks ruling the world under her iron fist is what’s best for everyone. Zelda Williams really gives her a real air of importance and even a bit of sympathy; she’s definitely a great example of an anti-villain of the quality of Zaheer, though I wouldn’t go as far as to say she’s as good as him exactly. Still, one can’t help but appreciate a woman who creates a massive robot that fires death lasers made out of entirely unbendable platinum. I know a lot of people find this thing to be utterly ridiculous and stupid, with little foreshadowing of its existence and just in general how ludicrously impossible and impractical it could be… but come on, it’s a GIANT ROBOT. I guess it just appeals to my inner Metal Gear fan, even if I do realize and accept it’s the most ridiculous thing in any of the two series.

I think what’s really great about this book is how it really just makes things that shouldn’t work, work really well. Case in point: there was an annoying, executive mandated clip show that, if they didn’t do, would have caused a lot of staff to be laid off. So what does the team do? They use the episode to take the piss out of everything in the show that didn’t work, from the shitty romance subplots to a hilarious scene where Zaheer, Amon, and Vaatu are all on the phone and trying to keep not just Unalaq, but Varrick’s movie version of Unalaq, out of the loop. In fact, the entire thing basically being Varrick doing an abridged series of the show is golden, because everything Varrick does is golden. Speaking of Varrick, his “Do the thing” catchphrase is used interestingly three times: one time it is a legitimately heartbreaking tearjerker, and the other two are just the sweetest, most heartwarming things you will ever hear. This sounds absurd, but again: this Book is all about making the most implausible things end up pretty good.

There’s so much about this Book that really makes it stand out - from Hiroshi Sato managing to reconcile with his daughter and sacrifice himself to the return of so many characters to just about everyone getting a happy ending… it’s a shame that it all got overshadowed by the most shallow, stupid moment of the entire series. Hell, BOTH series. You know what I’m talking about, you know what it is, it’s the thing that made me want to write this review in the first place:

Asami and Korra end up an official couple.

Now, generally speaking I wouldn’t have a problem with this. I like both characters, I myself am bisexual so it’s nice to see characters represent me in media, and hey, I’ve always championed Dumbledore as a great LGBT character when he was never explicitly shown to be so, so why do I hate this so much? Well, in regards to the latter, here’s the thing: Dumbledore is not the main character of the series, and his homosexuality is foreshadowed. We are not privy to Dumbledore’s private thoughts, we are not even given an in-depth look at his character until he dies in the penultimate book, and romance was never really a focus of the character. In contrast, Korra is in fact the main character of the show and who we follow the most, romance has unfortunately been a major factor in her development since the first Book, and the biggest problem: her being bi for Asami comes right the fuck out of nowhere.

There is like one line earlier in the book where Korra, while wandering, only really wrote to Asami. That’s it. These two barely interact or show any signs of romantic interest in each other until that final moment when they walk into the portal together. It feels like the ultimate ass pull, just a really lame third option to resolve all the love triangle garbage while simultaneously winning brownie points for being such a bold, daring move for a cartoon… but it doesn’t even show them kiss. They stare longingly at each other. THAT’S IT. Contrast Steven Universe, which is wholly and unabashedly filled with LGBT romance, particularly Garnet, who is literally the physical embodiment of a lesbian relationship, or even Adventure Time, who built up PB and Marceline’s past romance before having them get together and even kiss onscreen in the finale of that show. Korra is ultimately nothing`special, and that final moment was not a big step forward for representation or an important moment in TV history. It was a poorly built up shocking swerve that ended a series that had finally risen to the quality of the series it spun off from with the same bullshit that hampered this show’s original seasons to begin with.

Despite this, Book 4 is definitely a good finale to a show that, while it didn’t start out as such, ended up great. Really, the fact the final book was good despite having a lot of stupid elements and bad romantic resolutions is sort of a microcosm of the show as a whole, and showed despite those things the show could still tell an interesting story and be as grand as the original show was.

I don’t think this is one of the greatest cartoons of all time, but as a sort of follow up to the original series, I think it’s pretty solid. It was at its best when it was trying to tell mature stories and deal with darker subject matter than one would expect from a modern cartoon, and fumbled when it tried to shoehorn in the sort of romantic gunk one expects from teenagers. It worked best with its characters when their flaws felt natural and their issues were personal, and its villains worked better when they had simple yet fully fleshed out goals rather than overly complicated backstories or evil for the sake of evil. Korra is most definitely a mixed bag, but it’s a mixed bag I definitely recommend opening up sometime. If you liked the original show or just like story-driven or action oriented shows in general, this is one of the best ones of recent years. You have to slog through some crummy stuff to get to the gems, but boy oh boy are those gems shiny.

Also, I should have mentioned this earlier, but I am just so happy Toph is just a cranky old bad bitch even after all that time. Even while the Avatar world changed so much, it’s nice to know that some things will never change,

[darkspellmaster]

Anon Asks in my Inbox as of 10/29/18 –Afternoon edition

Updated link of the Master Guide: http://darkspellmaster.tumblr.com/post/179532344635/update-and-edit-and-master-post-to-the-fokker

1.       i(.)imgur(.)com/2UHctWY(.)png this picture works if you paste it into your address bar and just remove the ( ) symbols around the dots. It's his left hand since you can see the overside. Wether you find it weird to hold someone at the waist when kissing them or not is irrelevant, the arm and hand does not vanish which is the main point. Add it to your post so people can see for themselves.

 Thank you for the picture Anon, due to the blanket removals of BTISudio related things I’m holding off putting the image up and I’ll use something as a representation of the arm motion that you have up. Again apologies for not being able to put the picture up. But I see it, and you’re right the arm is there, but it’s a really weird way of placing it as the natural cure of a kiss like that would have it where one person would have their hand higher than the other. Like I said it’s a weird position. 

I’ll link your said picture so others can look at it. It’s in the main one. 

 2.       You say in 4 that the studio leak image is that of a cropped shot of the previous leak as they cut off the other mouse - but that's not true. You can clearly see the mouse on Pidge's shoulder.

 Added the Edit to the post anon. Thank you. I explained why I missed it. It’s still a bit odd that the mouse has not moved at all.

 3.       The voiceline thing that one anon was talking about was, somebody took lines Lance’s VA said in other shows/games he worked on and they also picked some lines from the 1 voltron VR game and put it together in one clip. The person included some random lines from the other characters too. And claimed it was “leaked audio” they got. Never said how they got it. Clearly fake, and a whole bunch of K/L fans obsessed with it for a bit before they lost interest.

 Okay so they claimed to have data mined. That’s interesting because normally you would only be able to do that with games, since there is a lot of dialogue that is recorded and then left in there when they choose not to use it. Actors will record hours of dialogue for a game and then studios may change plans on how they are going to use it.

 For example, Yuri Lowenthal, who voiced Yosuke, for Persona 4 had lines that indicated that at one point in the game they were planning to have Yosuke be a love option for the MC, but then dropped that plan for whatever reason. This was later data mined by fans from the finished product. But I’ve never heard of a way to data mine for recordings via a tv show, since the extra tracts would be left off the final disk, and you would have to have access to the main audio recordings of the show, and I don’t think Andrea would just go leaving them out there.

 I’m sorry that the fans had to deal with that. That’s also a low thing to do because it cuts into issues with the whole audio department and such. Also it sucks for the fans because it’s a cheap way to get attention and isn’t fair to the listeners nor the actors.

 4.       I didn't see this added yet, but there was a Plance fake "leak" that got a DMCA takedown here on Tumblr from DreamWorks 3 days ago. The artist admitted it was fake when posted, it was meant as a joke and to show how easy it was to make a "leak." This kind of takes validity away from "posts are getting taken down so it must be real!" Sounds to me Dreamworks just wants all of this to go away (since it's upsetting fans or whatnot.)

 Yeah I got one too way back on the 24th, and realized that that was probably why my first post was taken down. I’m trying to be more cautious out of respect for the BTIstudio. But yes, using any form of intellectual property:

 Name of studio, logo of studio, art, dialogue, written words, even plants and other items.

 Can be subject to claims. So even if it’s something made to debunk, if it so much as has a whiff of anything that could be connected to the actual studio, then that stuff has to be taken down for copyright reasons, and I completely understand that.

Next time I go to my convention in May, there’s a lawyer group that shows up and I’m going to try to ask about leaks and fake leaks and blanket take downs and the rules of it all. 

 5.       Honestly Shiro's sight lines in the first 2 pics make more sense if someone shorter was standing next to him. In the third, (I) it's a profile shot so it'd be easy to rotate or tilt the head up/down if this Fokker is a dummy stand-in for another character and (II) Shiro's hand is literally on Fokker's ass due to hand position and the dude's height which is A LOT for a Y-7 show. Now if it were a shorter character, Shiro's hand would be at his waist. 🤔

Interesting catch there. In the original art where the head shot seems to have come from, the eyes are pointed down and to the left away from where Roy is looking.

This would leave us with the question of who is shorter than Shiro right now, as the only ones I can point to are Pidge, Romelle, Allura I think, or one of the Aliens. Keith, Hunk and Lance are all about the same height to him, and since he is looking slightly sideways it makes me think he’s looking at someone who is not the person with him. It’s a weird line of sight that is for sure for the shot.

6.       Apologies if I misread this, but I think you implied the crisscross watermarks were a function of VSI Chinkel software and therefore would only appear on their studio's work. However in the other Chinkel studio shots, that crisscross isn't there. Watermarking is done by the originator (I.e. Dreamworks) not by the recipient. Also the pause | | in the upper right hand of the wedding is from the program the leaker is watching it in (VLC media player, specifically)

 Yeah I thought that it could be something that happened there. But you’re right that the other image clearly shows that it’s not happening on the main one. I’ll have to edit that factor. Still the actual dubbing equipment, according to their website is one of a kind.

 The thing about the VLC is also right, since we use it at my college. However I don’t know of any dubbing studio that would use VLC when they have access to more expensive and better software to watch media on. Also most get it in some digital form that they could play on Adobe or other media player that is far more useful for pausing and doing scripting, and seeing where the audio track is and what it’s doing. So I find that someone using an Open source tool is strange, at least to me, when it comes to a professional workplace.

 7.       that dude isn't roy, i think, he has the same skin tone as adam.

Oh anon, bless your heart here. Your right in that it’s not Roy himself, because that would land them in real hot water. He’s a look alike or representation. I don’t know if the character has a name at this point, but I’m calling him Roy as it’s easier than calling him “The dude that’s clearly a homage of the guy from Macross that was an inspiration to Shiro himself as a character.” Because that would take way to long. As I said before, this could be what someone thinks Adam without glasses and longer hair would look like.

8.       I also thought Roy's arm disappears through Shiro, but in another pic of that kiss that's in a google doc going around debunking the leaks, his arm is very much in that photo and around Shiro's waist like you'd expect. Ngl, that threw me off because I'm starting to think I imagined things and only saw flaws where there weren't actually any at all.

 And this is kind of the purpose of leaks that are not clear, or are not right, or have bad resolution. They are there to cover up the mistakes or things that make people realize they are false.

 It’s one reason art forgers will be very careful to not make mistakes, but the issue is that there are always tells. Some are very very tiny and you have to take them under a microscope and look at them with the eye of someone trained to find them out.

 As for the situation, take a break from it Anon. Go outside, enjoy the fall weather, watch another show or find something else to do. As I keep telling people, relax. No one has a horse in this race, I certainly don’t and nether should you. Our focus should be more on the real image that came out from JDS and LM and figuring out what was up with the table and, hey, on the plus side we have a “The End” shot. XD

 9.       Saw an anon point out that the “missing arm” is there and they are right. It is mainly behind shiro’s new arm and the hand is on his waist. It is a very normal way to hold someone, just because you can see the majority of it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there at all.

As I said I edited the post to reflect that info. The arm may be there, but there’s still something off about the whole thing to me. And again, if I’m wrong, oh well, if I’m right, oh well. I have no horse in this race and honestly am not into the ships.

10.   Lotor’s statue isn’t 3D.... it’s very clearly painted... I think you’re starting to reach a bit with some of your debunking.

 Changed the statue to an actual screen shot that I have to reflect it better. The thing is to me it looks like what you would do with a matte painting over a 3D image to create a more statue like approach to things. Since we have the white light filter over it, it makes it harder to see if it has the same 3D like rendering as Aang’s statue. Also between the time that Korra came out and now, they may have made the program smoother so it’s harder to tell if it’s 3D or not.

 While I agree that they do some statues in normal drawings, the other ones, like Lotor, seem to need details, and I feel like a 3D rendering would be a better way to do it than, a 2D drawing.

 11.   I so want to believe they’re fakes. So much points to it, but one thing bothers me: this is an awful lot of trouble that someone has gone to, for a cartoon!? I mean finding photos on I’m assuming private Instagram accounts or other social media to highly edit? No one can actually find the originals. Plus Chinkel do actually use the multiple watermarks thing. So? Maybe those ones with the cast in them are real. They seem like far too much trouble to fake unfortunately 1/2

2/2 and I’m gonna stab a guess here and say that DreamWorks and whatever other studio it was, aren’t taking any real action besides silently removing the images but not saying anything because they feel like the images don’t give away a huge plot spoiler? Just the supposed one year later thing? Like I said it’s far too much trouble to go to. Someone would’ve had to literally scour the ENTIRE French VAs’ personal social media to find that cast pic, because no one else can find the original.

 To be honest Anon, you would think that right? But the thing is that there are people out there that do this for fun. Namely because they know that it upsets a fandom and they’ll try to stir up the fans and then sit back and laugh at them.

 Given the incident with the actresses and the cloud leak, it can be done. Seriously you can hack anything that has some sort of connection to the net. There’s always a back door, and it’s something that the “White Hats” have been trying to deal with for years. Social media isn’t a safe place when it comes to keeping pictures and such because people can and will break in, all the time. Remember the Sony leak not that long ago?

 The photo with the cast is real, I just think the image on the screen is not. BTIStudio was sending takedowns, I got one on the 24th of October from them from a Mr. Rachel in the IT department. So my guess is it was a blanket take down regarding the name being used, since BTIStudio is now owned by Investors Shamrock and Altor, who just got the studios recently so there may be business reasons, or intellectual reasons “name being used” to pull it down. As another anon pointed out a Fake debunking image got pulled too because of them showing how to do it.

 It's work, but for someone who has the time and skills it’s not insanely hard to do. Because of digital media and how good Photoshop, illustrator, and several other programs are now, it makes it easier and easier to copy art and make forgeries. It’s something artists are dealing with right now because people are finding ways to copy and sell fakes of their digital paintings.

 12.   Something else I noticed about the fake leaks - Ezor's eyepatch. So far, none of the galra with missing eyes wear eyepatches. They all have some sort of cyber prosthetic. Like Sendak, Ranveig, Branko, and Janka. Why would Ezor have a normal eyepatch while the rest of them don't? Doesn't make sense

That’s an interesting point there too. Given what we’ve seen previously, it doesn’t make sense to change up how a character is shown to have a wound like that covered. Unless she couldn’t’ get it done, but that doesn’t make sense either since if she was working with the Blade they would have set her up with stuff on earth by now. And Ezor doesn’t strike me as the type to be all “No I won’t have something cyber put on me” that’s more Zethrid.

13.   The photo with JDS and Lauren are from His official Twitter account.

Thanks Anon, I think I’m going to do some Theories about that when I have a moment. After I finish sewing my costume’s sleeves, and getting done with the prologue to my novel.

I did see it, and it’s interesting, especially with the Red ribbon of fate, the candles and the silver piece on the side. Though that could have been there from another event. XD

14.   I saw that apparently the joke fake "pl/ance leak" was taken down by DW because of copyright as well? if so that proves that the leaks don't need to be real to be taken down.

Yup! As long as it has something that equates to “Intellectual Property” studios and copyright owners can take anything down. It’s a huge issue with Youtube and their review groups and such. That’s why the Essay’s have evolved so much to only put shorter clips in and other aspects.

Fan Art can be copyrighted if it’s too close to original works, or even fake fakes like the Plance art. Most studios just go “Anything that has our name on it, take it down” even if it’s not a real leak.

15.   I think that the anon who mentioned the "fake Klance voicelines leak" is talking about the fake audio leaks that were taken from Jeremy's line from another show and claimed to be about Klance and also a fake picture of Keith with Lance's jacket on .

 Well that’s different. As I said, data mining is a bit hard to do from a tv show since there would be no additional tracks. It’s why most people don’t do that when it comes to creating fake info about a show and typically stick to art, or altered scripts since it’s easier to do. Typically all tracks that are recorded are edited and the ones that are not used are stored on a server that’s not easy to access and isn’t even on the net, it’s in an in house server.

 As for the picture, huh, I think I heard of that one but never saw it.

[ajapablog]

The Gift of Tropes

In The Legend of Korra, the second generation Avatar series from Nickelodeon, the creators return to the origin story for the Avatar—the bridge between the spiritual and the human world, able to harness all the elements to maintain the balance of the universe. The origin story tells us that it was a fight between Raava, the light, and Vaatu the darkness, in which the first man to become an avatar, Wan, interceded on behalf of Vaatu to realize the mistake he made to eventually help Raava to restrain Vaatu. The story of lightness and darkness as opposing but co-existing forces is as old as time. Lightness and Darkness, Ying and Yang, the female and the male. The symbols are reductionist when universalized but they become so pervasive that they become prone to universalization and I am not sure that that is a very bad thing. I am someone who has been drawn to and have found immense strength from Jungian psychology so archetypes appeal to me. They are tropes that make social and cultural navigation possible. After all, anyone who has been to therapy will know that it is when we narrativize our experiences that we begin to feel better and narratives are impossible without tropes. Sometimes, we invent and construct tropes, but it is fine. A little bit of magic and imagination goes a long long way. 

Civilization has historically been considered a masculine force and the excess of which has been seen to diminish our capacity to regenerate, heal. The narratives of civilization from its various critiques: Gandhi to Ruskin to the Romantics is that of lament, of loss of the vital spirituality that sustains the soul. Even as we know that the binary of the masculine and the feminine is deeply fraught, we also know that patriarchy has structured society so that these binaries are constantly performed and reconstituted. The relegation of domains and gendered social norms are not without consequences even as we say men and women are hurt by patriarchy. In history, some hurts are greater than others. I am not an extreme relativist supporting status quo and I am certainly not a deny-er. What patriarchy has denied us is the opposing currents and tendencies within ourselves. These tendencies like the desire to conquer, to cultivate the mind and the desire to fold into oneself and be compassionate and develop deep empathy  might not always have historically been opposing or even gendered. The constitution of these tendencies as opposing and gendered might have been ways for human societies to divide labor, value and institute patterns for social organization. This is speculation. But the point is:  I like Jungian psychology which talks about the masculine and feminine principles because at some level it allows us to access the tropes that have structured our society. As the pandemic has gone to show, with busy lives in the public domain, many people had left their domestic space, the home and the hearth uncultivated. When everyone started baking and cooking, perhaps they realized that certain portions of society always did these things as important. But perhaps, those who always devalued the domestic continued on to think of the rituals of basic self sustenance as measly and low.  As Laurie Penny’s piece suggested, women have historically borne the burden of affective work. As Bonnie G Smith has shown, men have historically thrived on the denial of affect. With the blurring of the lines between public and private, the pandemic went to show that compartmentalizing our lives is arbitrary and it is only for civilizational goals. But humanity has also been evading and wary of civilizations for years. Many lived in hills, many roved and moved. But I pray that this pandemic makes us rethink civilization and its constraints. As the Western coast of the US blazes in an orange haze of fires making people suffocate, as otters die and the waters become warm, as businesses die and anger erupts, I think about what it takes for unchecked dominance and power to break. I think denial is what makes a person at an individual level break and I think civilization that turns its face away from this will have to fold if not break.

If autonomy means the indivisible individuality of a person, it is when we hand our sovereignty to those who are more powerful in return for protection, we lose autonomy. This is the paradox of liberty and security. Those who offer us security, do not understand that this exchange where we give them our liberty is one where they too have much to gain as power. But we very well have the capacity to take back our liberty and reconstitute ourselves whole. This is human history — of wars and revolutions and protests and resistance buried in the loud harsh voices of victors. Such is the lopsided nature of civilization. I have not been fond of civilization. Others’ emotions make me weep, I feel deeply about justice and I turn to those who see the emotive as the affective as the site at which we make norms and define ourselves. Many have told me that this is impractical and unrealistic way of living. To feel too much is a curse they say. But the price of not feeling is too much. I might be fine materially in this world but who wants to live in a world where others have it worse than me and others much? It is simply not possible to equalize different kinds of suffering, that is simply unjust and cruel. But affect is my compass in the world. I have been extremely resourceful. I draw on the kinds of resources that others do not see as resources— things that nurture the soul even as they help me define my place in the world. I am more individuated than many others because I have configured and reconfigured myself through multiple, plural dialogues. I thrive through, and grow with the dialogues with other, which often shatter me and each time I find more courage to be a bridge between different worlds. Power and strength are so seductive but what those of us who don’t feel at home in civilization need to remember is that courage is more difficult to muster, the courage to turn to those many beautiful things that have been devalued. When civilization breaks us, we can pick up the pieces. This much I believe. 

[bazaarwords]

“Asami, where do babies come from?”

If Korra could have taken a photograph of the greatest moment of her life, she would have.

The image: A breezy day in early spring. Wildflowers blooming all over Air Temple Island, trees cloaked in whites and pinks. A woman sits on a stone bench, a small boy on her lap. She holds a children’s book out in front of them both.

His face: The picture of innocence, head tilted back to look at the woman.

Her face: Mortification. Disillusionment. The death of innocence.

Part of Korra wants to draw herself to the scene, to save her girlfriend. The other, louder part keeps her firmly planted on the ground where she’s sitting, eyes shutting again in meditation. ...’Meditation.’

“Well… Rohan… I feel like you should ask your parents, you know?”

“But they’re not here. You’re here. So where do babies come from?”

From across the yard, Korra can hear Asami’s sigh. She knows that it’s pointed, she knows that Asami is trying to get her attention, but it seems as if Raava has given her this opportunity to enjoy a moment more than she’s ever enjoyed any other moment of her life. Korra will be damned if she doesn’t honor the blessing.

“I mean—I’m just—oh, wow! Look, we’re almost on the next chapter! Rohan, don’t you like this book so far? I think there’s going be a sky bison in this section—look at the picture!”

There’s a pause. Korra focuses every bit of energy on keeping her eyes shut.

“Do sky bison babies come from the same place as people babies?”

“Oh—wow. You—are you sure you don’t want to finish this book?”

“Is there baby making in this book?”

Korra hears a choking noise from the bench, and it’s probably Asami, and a laugh rises in her throat, so close to being audible that she has to tense every single muscle in her body to prevent the inevitable.

“There’s—you know, there’s not.”

“Are there baby making books?”

Nope—“Pffbt.”—shit.

“Hey, Rohan,” Oh, no. “you know who would be able to help you find a book like that? Korra! Go over there and get her to help you!”

The pitter-patter of little feet gets closer and closer, but even though she’s already made it very clear that she is not, in fact, meditating, Rohan still prods her lightly, warily, before getting right up to her ear and doing a very poor imitation of a whisper.

“Korra where are the baby making books?”

She snorts. She has to. “M-maybe—heh—go ask Jinora? She’s booky. She knows books.”

When she cracks an eye open, she’s greeted to an overly-dramatic pout. “But Asami told me to come over to you because she doesn’t know!”

“Oh, she knows.”

“Korra,” Asami groans, and Korra has to physically bite her tongue at her girlfriend’s tone. “Rohan, can you wait until your parents get back from dinner?” And then she adds, under her breath, “…or maybe until you’re old enough to drive.”

“But I want to know!”

“What do you want to know, little brother? Meelo has aaaall the answers.”

Oh no. “Meelo, no,” Asami says, and Korra catches a glimpse at the look of sheer desperation on Asami’s face as she looks between the boys, Meelo sauntering out from inside. “It’s not important! Can you both just wait for your parents, please?”

Korra stands, finally deciding to come to the rescue. “Yeah guys,” she begins, earning herself a better spot on Asami’s shit list. “Hang on a couple more hours and they’ll explain it all!”

“Explain what?”

Initially, Korra had been having fun enjoying Asami’s temporary discomfort, but as Ikki glides into the courtyard, landing between her brothers, Korra feels Asami’s worry become her own.

“Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Can we please go inside and just—sit in silence? For like two hours?” Asami all but whines, glaring at Korra for assistance.

The problem is that Korra is similarly at a loss, and they can only keep the three younger airbender kids at bay for so long.

“You guys want to play air ball?” Korra tries, and it gets her nowhere. “Or… uh, go for a swim?”

Rohan sighs, putting his fists on his hips—wow, he looks like Pema. “I just want to know where babies come from!”

Meelo frowns, confused. “From… from baby factories. From… huh,” He looks to his sister for help, but Ikki just shrugs. “I’ve never thought of that. So we have to know! Korra, Asami, we demand answers!”

Korra looks at Asami. Together, silent, they weigh their options: Lie. Poorly, probably; Tell the truth and die, probably; Run... run?

Asami shakes her head. Not run. They have to babysit.

Ideas. Asami’s eyes plead. Good ideas.

Idea. Korra’s eyes widen with a thought. Good idea.

Asami nods. Good luck.

“Air children!” Korra bellows, getting the kids’ attention. They stop bickering, snapping their gazes at her expectantly. “If you swear on your lives to drop this issue for the next…”

“Three hours,” Asami offers.

“—three hours!” Korra continues, “I will personally immortalize you three in statues of either earth or metal. I’ll put them right here in the courtyard.”

The look on Asami’s face tells her she’s made a terrible mistake.

“Deal!” the kids yell in unison.

Pema and Tenzin take exactly three hours and fifteen minutes to return. Asami times it.

When they do, Korra is in the courtyard, making good on her promise.

“Korra what—what are you—is that Meelo?” Is Tenzin’s very first question.

Korra sighs, trying to fix Meelo’s nose. “It is,” She doesn’t have the energy to elaborate, “Please go speak to your children.”

From inside, there’s a yell and bang, and another bang, and Asami comes hauling ass out of the door, making a beeline for Korra. When she sees Tenzin and Pema, she stops short, relief flooding her expression.

“Oh, thank the spirits.”

Pema looks like she’s about to speak, but the kids come running out and before one syllable passes her lips—

“MOMMYDADDY WHERE DO BABIES COME FROM?”

They don’t babysit for a while.

here u go @willoghby

PROMPTS ARE CLOSED (so I can attempt to work on the ones I have lmao)

[rachelillustrates]

Having unexpected A:tLA shipping shifts and need to raaaaant/whine <3

As it says. Contains discussions of Kataang, Zutara and Taang.

(Guess where I’ve ended up. Hoo boy.)

Okay, so once upon a time, I was a calm, relaxed, accepting Kataang shipper. I blindly accepted that the Powers that Be (aka, the writers) intended Aang and Katara’s romance from the start, so I chose to be very on board with that. And they ARE, still, cute. I get it. Katara became Aang’s family right after he lost his ENTIRE people. There is beauty and sense in that.

But also, convenience. 

And is that enough?

My birthday was recently (yay!) and my wife and I celebrated with an A:tLA rewatch - the intention was to actually watch season 4 of “Legend of Korra,” which I haven’t seen even though I love that Korrasami is a Truth :D But I declared that intention WAY early in the summer, which led to a rewatch of season 3 of Korra, which led to a rewatch of A:tLA.

Which led to revelations of how OBVIOUSLY Zutara was set up in the first place, even though the creators put her with Aang in the end.

Hmm.

It turns out, also, that my wife is a big Zutara shipper (bigger than I realized) and that motivated me to question the blind faith I had in Kataang in the first place - if they were endgame, always endgame, why would they have written Zutara in?

I have read since that the creators claim Zutara WAS the plan in season 1, but they decided on Kataang in season 2, and that was it. So that begs the question - why would they KEEP building on Zutara after that point? There is definite evidence, all the way up to the end of the series. 

From all of that, on this rewatch, I got the definite impression that Zuko chose Mai because he assumed Katara wasn’t an option (the “Avatar’s girl” and all), and that Katara chose Aang because Zuko had chosen Mai - she was even at the party at Iroh’s tea house, in that last scene (which must have been SUPER awkward).

I had always assumed before that the writers intended Katara and Aang’s relationship to be romantic from the start of the series. I’ve actually relied on that a bit in my love of Korrasami (since part of what the writers were allowed to do - to prove that love - was to make parallels between them and Katara/Aang). So I understand how that is valuable, but now that I’m seeing things differently, I’m finding that kind of insulting - using another ship to validate the relationship they intended, but didn’t communicate well enough. And if that’s what they meant all along (which, surprise, it turns out they didn’t), should they be having to fight to validate it at all? Cause its not even just that - there are other moments in their commentary and in their canon that are clearly like “Hurrr, this is what we meant guys!” Like they’re forcing the acceptance of what they chose to do, without doing the right work to convince us.

The canon should be clear enough that validation after the fact is. Not. Necessary. I understand that mistakes are made, yes, things change, yes. But the writing within the canon work NEEDS to make up for that. And I do not feel like this is the case here.

And now that I’m examining WHY I’m having so much trouble with this, I’m realizing I had this fear-based gut reaction to the idea that The Writers could have made such a drastic mistake with their characters (since I’m writing a romance comic, myself). How could they have put the wrong people together, in the end, after all that work? But that fear was based on the idea that they had always intended to put Katara and Aang together - which they didn’t - and the assumption that Zutara is a crack ship - which it is not. I would argue now that they put more work into developing Katara and Zuko’s relationship, even “nonromantically,” than they did Katara and Aang’s. And smooshing two characters together ‘just because’ is NOT responsible writing (sorry, guys. But no).

Though I am finding myself in as much turmoil over this as I often am about Rumbelle (yeesh), I am learning something important - if you intend something in your writing, you MUST set intention early on AND do the groundwork. Especially if things change.

I also mentioned that this rant would include Taang thoughts, and that is true - one other thing that bothered me about all this is that I really like Aang. I am inspired by his spirituality, and I wouldn’t want to see his heart broken. Still, that is not a good enough to put him with someone who would be better off with someone else - who would be more loved, and more treasured, and more equal in life.

We haven’t seen a lot of what Katara’s life as Aang’s wife was like - but in the comics, as his girlfriend, I feel like she has lost some of her autonomy. Everything always HAS to be about him and they world they’re building, guided by him as the Avatar. Maybe that’s not how it is, in their private moments, and I admit that I’m not caught up on all the comics (I have yet to read “Smoke and Shadow”) but she does read as less of a badass in the comic stories than she did in the series. Her autonomy seems watered down (whoops, pun) and I noticed that even before this shipping conflict came up. I’m really feeling like her future with him would be much like Pema’s life with Tenzin in “Legend of Korra” - the rebuilding of Air Nomad culture is SO important that it eclipses all else. And while Pema chose that, falling in love with Air Nomad culture even before she fell for Tenzin, I believe that intense focus would be harder on Katara, who is even more willful and has different needs and desires.

She might run into similar problems being with Zuko - the need to restore his nation’s honor, after what his father did, is also hugely important. BUT - she being who she is, and so devoted to her people and her culture too, actually feeds into that same mission. 

How better to show the world that he’s devoted to a more equal, peaceful future than to take a wife who’s of a different culture? (I would argue, especially a Water Tribe one, since they were the closest to being wiped out after the Air Nomads - what would have happened if Zhao had succeeded, at the North Pole in season 1? Exactly). 

Also, the fact that they already have love between them (or at least affection, very clearly), and how Zuko understands her even better than Aang does - even though Aang was right about the non-violence in the end of “The Southern Raiders,” Zuko more understood her need for revenge and closure from his own experiences, in ways that Aang couldn’t. And that anger IS a part of her, much more than it is a part of Aang. 

She and Zuko balance each other out and compliment each other so nicely - that’s how they came to care for each other so quickly in the first place, even after all that Zuko had done to the Gaang. And the status of being the Fire Lady, in a loving relationship to boot, would give Katara the power to effect change as she wanted and needed - not just based around what Aang needs.

But that still leaves Aang in a position of not being able to care for her in the ways she needs, or give her the autonomy she needs - which, while its not his fault per se (Avatar stuff? Not his fault. Need to rebuild his entire culture? Not his fault), it is still a problem and would still show up in any relationship he has.

Or would it? - if he was with someone who respected that, but instead of giving in and doing just what he needed, chose to take a step back and do their own thing in an equally respectful way.... that would work. That would give both him and his partner the space they both needed to be who they are in the rebuilding of the world. 

Toph would be EXACTLY like that, with him.

I admit, the start of my interest in Taang was not from an interest in their chemistry. Since I unquestioningly followed Kataang before, I didn’t even consider what their relationship would be beyond their friendship, and just enjoyed their banter as it is. But now, reexamining things as I’ve described, I think there’s some gorgeous potential there. 

Aang is really very clingy with Katara - though he loves so deeply, and that’s beautiful, his NEED for her is a bit unhealthy. He won’t be able to focus on his mission as the Avatar, the needs of the world AND have a fully healthy relationship if his partner isn’t a) also completely devoted to that mission 100%, without any other needs, or b) able to set healthy boundaries and just do their own thing and let him do his. 

I don’t think Katara fits into either of those categories - not that she’s incapable of setting boundaries at all, but her relationship with Aang is so focused on entirely what HE needs, who HE is, that I don’t see her living up to her full potential with him. 

But Toph clearly would be able to let him be him and herself be herself, and that’s that, and that would work. Yes, they would both need to do a bit of growing to get there - he would need to detach more, just as his troubles releasing his Crown Chakra showed us, and learn to be okay with taking care of himself and letting his partner take care of herself. She would need to learn to let herself be vulnerable, and loved. 

But once they get there, how beautiful would that be? :)

I’m sure I’ll be thinking on this (and probably drawing on it) MUCH more, but let me just say again that I’m grateful for this insight into why I was upset, and for this exploration of how the writing happened and the creation of these loves in the first place - and I look forward to what I can learn from Zutara and Taang, since I always learn from ships (unless, you know, I just accept them as they are and don’t do any thinking about them at all. Which is where I was before this shift. I am a very silly person).

Gonna leave you with this gorgeous Taang artwork, too (also in hopes that someone knows who the artist is, I can’t find them!) <3

(And kudos to anyone who read this whole thing, since I wrote it for my own brain-craziness!)

[dreams-of-headcanons]

Oh boy I was not tagged xD

I just saw it on @skelltales and wanted to do it.

hooo boy I spotted a few I’m kinda nervous about answering

Name: Caitlin

Nickname: Chamomile

Age: 25

Date of Birth: October 18th, 1991

Nationality: American

Heritage: A lot of my Ancestors are from the British Isles. Mostly England. I had some relative on my dad’s side within the last maybe 100 yrs that were straight from Ireland.

Religion: None. Not my thing. I used to be interested in Wicca and Paganism. I was raised by Baptist Christians though.

Current Place of Residence: North Carolina

Education: Still in College... trying to figure out what I’m doing with my life.

Car: I don’t even have my license because I don’t get much chance to practice and when I do I get too nervous and my mom isn’t much help. But. I had a Blue 2001 VW Beetle I was gonna drive and used to practice in but an important metal pipe on it got rusted and there was a hole in it. So all the fluid leaked out and it won’t run anymore (｡•́︿•̀｡) I think it was the coolant. And VW Beetles are way expensive to take care of, so we gave up on it.

Skills: Writing, Drawing, Being Helpful, Giving Advice, Video Games, I know how to run a register minus some of the more confusing parts, Cooking, I love cooking, Did I mention video games? xD

Pets: 1 pretty little pupper, 1 big fat cat, and 1 smaller cat. All 3 of them are assholes.

Marital Status: Single and NOT ready to mingle. I am perfectly happy as a single pringle. Now I want pringles.

Children: Zer000. None. Nope. There was a point in the past that I had considered them but fuck no. Maybe adopt in the VERY far future if I find an s/o that wants kids but I would MUCH rather stick to animals. I want to own a bird or snake one day. 

Siblings: I’m a spoiled only child (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

Height: 5′3″

Weight: kinda self conscious about this one but last time I checked it was between 220-230. It used to be higher but I’ve steadily been working on losing weight and succeeding. Could probably succeed more faster if I tried harder but I’m too lazy.

Eye Color: Blue. sometimes they look kinda greyish or greenish. But mostly Blue.

Hair Color: I don’t even know sometimes tbh. It was dark ass brown when I was an infant. Strawberry blonde when I was little. Dirty blonde as I got old. Now it’s like a dark? blonde? or a darkish ash blonde. sort of.

Disorders/Disabilities: I’m near sighted. I have astigmatism in my right eye. Which means that that eye is warped. What’s weird is that if you look close enough you can tell because the pupil isn’t a perfect circle. I’ve been wearing glasses since 1st grade.

Some Traits About Me: Passionate about the things I believe in or love, I’m a total nerd, I’m kindhearted (sometimes to a fault), If someone messes with me or especially my friends I go from sweet quiet shy to go fuck yourself before I punch you in the face, even though I hate confrontation, but sometimes it just can’t be avoided.

Favorite Food: omg pasta and pizza, one of the reasons why I’m so slow to lose weight. also one of the reasons I love Papyrus so much.

Favorite Drink: Earl/Lady Grey tea, other types of Tea, Water is always good from the right source, and if we’re talkin’ soda then I love Root Beer and Cream Soda. Or just about any flavor of Fanta because I love fruit sodas.

Top Five Movies: Fantastic Beasts and where the find them, Warcraft, Sweeney Todd or just about any Tim Burton movie tbh, the How to Train your Dragon movies, and Into the Woods

Top Five Tv Shows: Steven Universe, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, Castlevania, and I don’t know to put for #5. Maybe Danny Phantom or the old Teen Titans... or Rurouni Kenshin.

Top Five Songs: Ffffff I dunno I can’t think of shit right now. Saria’s song from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and covers I’ve heard of it, Bonetrousle from Undertale(also the covers), Holiday by Green Day, Wolf in Sheep’s clothing by Set it Off, annnd Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold

Favorite Sport: Not much into Sports anymore but I used to always really liked Baseball and Basketball. I used to love shooting hoops. Michael Jordan was one of my idols when I was growing up.

Favorite Book: Harry Potter books, Abhorsen Trilogy, and some of the Warcraft books

Favorite Color: Rainbow. I don’t know. It depends on my mood. Lately I favor some shades of purple but I also love red and some shades of blue or pink. I’ve also always loved Turquoise.

Broken Bones: Never broke a bone but I sprained my pinky toe once. I landed weird on my trampoline when I was little. My toe bent outward away from where it was supposed to be. I had to stay home the next day. My mom called a nurse and the nurse told her to put a cotton ball between my toes and tape them together, like a splint. The toe and some of the area around it was also very bruised. Darkly bruised.

Fears: Failing and roaches except lately they make me react more violent than scared, also when I take my dog out to potty in the front yard while it’s dark the edges of the house make me really nervous because I can’t see anything and I feel exposed. Unless there’s a full moon and a clear enough sky.

I’m not tagging anyone. Any of you can do it if you want to. 

[kristallioness]

"Turf Wars: Part One" - a review

I am a very happy girl tonight.. My 7-months-preordered comic book FINALLY arrived, yay! I read the first part of "Turf Wars" around 1 am and I absolutely loved-loved-loved it! It really gave me the familiar feeling of TLOK (I haven't watched it since last year *sob* and now I miss it but I'm busy rewatching ATLA currently, will have to continue with TLOK after that). Okay, I'm still shaking a little because I'm so excited, but I'll try to write down some of my favourite things about this part:

First off, in general it was so gay, there's so much happening, but it's all sort of related and balanced out rather well imo, the illustrations are pretty *bows to Irene Koh*, the colour palette is soft and it all left me with such a nice impression! I'm very pleased that this is the first TLOK comic book ever to be released (almost forgot "Friends for Life", but "Turf Wars" is the first trilogy). I have no idea why I've seen so much critique about these kinds of things, but none of it bothered me at all. I think some people are only focused on (pointing out) the negative sides that they've forgotten why they're reading these comics in the first place - to enjoy reading them, to notice every positive little detail instead, to appreciate the fact that life goes on in the Avatar world and we've been blessed by Bryke to see it through these beloved characters.

Secondly, I think I'll mention some great moments I enjoyed very much. Obviously I can't get around the way Korra and Asami interacted - the loving gazes, the kisses, the hand holding, worrying about each other, talking about their feelings, fighting alongside Team Avatar, putting arrogant businessmen and the President in their place. It was so precious to see them doing everything together (and NO, it wasn't too much for me)!

Korra coming out to her parents - their reactions were realistic. I especially liked that Senna hugged both Korra AND Asami, too. To anyone who wasn't too happy with Tonraq's reaction - it was resolved later when Kya talked to Korra that it's Water Tribe tradition to keep very personal matters to yourself (I love that it's special in the Water Tribes and how Korra's face softened when Kya said it). This is such an important lesson and it's one my family has propagated as well (my parents taught me). Not everybody has to know about everything private that goes on at my home, if only my closest friends and family members. This is why I related to Tonraq, even Senna said what he meant - that not everyone won't be as accepting. And do people blatantly ignore the fact that as Korra was rushing out of the palace (with Asami's hand in hers, demonstratively) Tonraq apologized?

So they're now heading back to Republic City.. D'aawwww!!! Aang and Katara's children welcoming Korra and Asami back. Enough said. One of the most heartwarming moments. Poki for President! Meelo, you little nugget, I love you. And Korra stroking Poki's head, so cuuuute! Asami being a little shy about going with Korra to give a speech (because she's just the Avatar's lover.. Oh c'mon, Asami! Do it like Katara did when Aang had to thank everybody after the invasion failed, am I right?). I understand her and Korra was understandably disappointed. I love that Kya noticed it and later went to talk to them about it. Her smirk when Tenzin said that those two make a good team together. Kya, you lesbian goddess, stop stealing my heart, I'm straight! Also, I loved that Korra quoted Tenzin during her speech, that was touching.

Air Temple Island is such a beautiful place.. Aang and Katara had it good over there. I mean, that pretty bi-flag-coloured sunset, I'm in love! Kya's conversation with Korra and Asami meant so much to me (one of my favourite scenes EVER in this comic, if not in the entire series concerning Kya) and I can't wait to see more of her. If not, then I'm actually satisfied this time since we learned a lot more about her from these little moments where she was in. The most important being that AANG LOVED HER AND WAS FULLY SUPPORTIVE WHEN SHE CAME OUT TO HIM! Take notes, fandom! Aang and Katara loved all of their children, they only wanted the best for them and they tried to be the best parents they could be *drops mic*.. Also, yeah, when's Bumi's turn to interrupt his father's reincarnation's private moment with her girlfriend during that sunset? Ha-ha!

Did anyone even notice that the police headquarters is now temporary? Did that building with Toph's statue get wiped out during Korra and Kuvira's battle? Aww, I'm sad if it's so, I loved that statue because Toph was in her police uniform there.. *remembers that Toph has 2 other statues in Zaofu* Never mind, moving on! *lol* Then again, can I say how happy I am that Kya was in the evacuee camp helping the healers!? This gives me hope that maybe we'll get a peek at the hospital (and KATARA'S STATUE in front of it) if someone gets injured in the following parts!!! Also, even as a little girl, Kya totally went to work with her mother at the hospital (Katara would let her daughter play with the medical instruments or practise her waterbending and healing in her office, she might've gotten annoyed by it a bunch of times but eventually she'd always end up playing along to take a break from her paperwork). This is my headcanon and ain't no one stealing it from me now. Help, I NEED to draw this!..

Zhu Li taking command at the evacuee camp, damn yes! She's got my support for the election! Korra smirking when she sees President Raiko's campaign poster.. *lmfao* Same, Korra, same... His support is NEGATIVE 3%, pffft.. I can't breathe, this entire meeting was hilarious!

Wonyong Keum (note: this guy has a surname, a rich type) - it took me two pages and I already knew I hated that guy. Asami's right, she doesn't need his condolences. I giggled when Korra scared him and his workers away by going into the Avatar State and ever-so-gracefully airbending herself back down. Omg that smile, she was so pleased with herself (and so was I)!

Can we talk about the fact that Tokuga took out Viper by using his hook swords (the same weapon of choice by Jet) and can hold his own even as a nonbender? Just a reminder that nonbenders can be just as powerful as benders.

BOLIN!!! Bolin is such a precious gem throughout the book and I can't even.. Still talking to the captives and Mako being annoyed af (seriously, the changes in his expression in each panel are on point). Two-Toed Ping is a hoot, I really like him. Also, Bolin calling the first double date - my son, you are too sweet! Mako's.. god.. damn.. face. Mako.exe stopped working. *lol*

Ugh, I just adored that sweet Masami hug! Also, the radio frequencies have been screwy ever since the spirit portal appeared - I think this might play an important role in a future part. They wouldn't have put it in there otherwise (unless it was just meant to show that during this battle they were in trouble because they couldn't call for help). And the fact that the spirits' darker side appeared due to negative energy coming off from the battle - I didn't expect that, neither did I expect that bird spirit to be the one to charge at Tokuga. Since he saw Korra talking to it before it came for him, I don't blame him for thinking the Avatar sent the spirit to do that to him. Also, Korra having to choose between protecting Asami or stopping the dark spirit - this might turn some of the townspeople against her when they find out (if they think she was playing favourites and Tokuga tells them she ordered the spirits to attack humans).

In conclusion, I really miss TLOK, but this comic made me experience so many emotions, the familiarity of the characters and the breathtaking locations, the plot and the pace of action - everything made me feel like I was actually watching a brand new episode of the show and wow, I'm crying as I type this.. *rubs eyes* It made me feel at home, welcomed in a world I fell in love with back in 2012. I couldn't be happier.

[askmerriauthor]

You want to tell them about what we've been doing recently? I thought last session was pretty good.

You’re just saying that because your sub-plot kicked into gear last game and you got to enjoy the narrative spotlight for a while.  :3c

That said, some other folk have been asking about the tabletop game, so why not?

Each Friday with my local group of friends (@ihavenoideahowthisworks here included in that number) I’ve been running a Pathfinder game, as I’ve had the DM bug recently.  I tend to roll heavy with “Rule of Cool” and “Rule of Funny”, so I err on the side of fun rather than sticking strictly to the hard numbers in the books.  Lots of house rules, lots of alcohol, good times all around.

The current party, all freshly 10th level as of last session, consists of:

Shaemus Sigmindson, a Chaotic-Good Half-Elf Rogue and the party’s friendly neighborhood backstabber.  Due to him hastily putting on what turned out to be a Cursed Ring and a few other magical hijinks, he’s now really good at climbing any and all surfaces at a rate of 60′ per round.  So he pretty much never touches the floor if he can help it and Xenomorph-scurries all around dungeons to literally get the drop on enemies.

Abby Noh Rahmael, a Chaotic Neutral Tiefling Magus.  Despite being highly fiendish in many literal ways, she’s the bubbly, wide-eyed heart of the team.  She has a particular knack for getting along with monsters, which leaves her heartbroken when the party inevitably kills them.  She’s recently adopted a young Cloaker and is raising it as a Monstrous Animal Companion.

Valka, a Neutral Evil Human Kineticist.  He’s a people person… with a drinking problem.  Valka is a former pirate/mafia smuggler who’s since become landbound for reasons unknown, and boy howdy does he make the land work for him.  He’s the party’s personal canon capable of putting out massive volumes of damage via Earth and Fire elemental attacks, Korra-style.  The hard part is getting him to cooperate, not fly into vengeful murderous rages over the tiniest of slights, or do really anything without first being paid.

Wenden Jardecha, a Neutral Good Human Warpriest.  Acts a whole lot like a Paladin despite not actually being one, primarily due to his method of worship.  He follows the goddess Sarenrae - a deity of forgiveness and righteousness, though she draws a line as to when evil people are beyond redemption.  Wenden prefers to enforce that line with a sword.  He’s also proven himself really good at crowd control by locking down Boss-Level enemies with status effects.

Henc Jardecha, a Neutral Good Human Arcanist.  The younger brother of Wenden.  Henc is a know-it-all spellcaster who likes to hang in the background mostly being unobtrusive, maybe casting a little Prestidigitation here and there for dramatic effect.  Until he suddenly decides to Summon a horde of powerful monsters and start tossing around Lightning Bolts when the whim takes him.  He has all of the Knowledge Skills and then some, and boy howdy does he love to rub those high info rolls in everyone’s face.

The game began with an Episode 0 where the party played pre-generated base characters not their own.  They delved into a Goblin-infested ruin after getting word of a mysterious monster living there that had been terrorizing local farmlands.  They met a Kobold Sorceress outside who joined the group and sort of helped them along, discovered a Goblin Chieftain who was weirdly upset with his role of leadership, and eventually faced off with the monster in question - a young Black Dragon.  Despite nearly dying in the process, the party managed to drive off the Dragon… only for the Sorceress and the Chieftain to reveal themselves to be a pair of Kobold thieves in disguise.  They’d been casing the joint before the party showed up and, after using them to get rid of the Dragon, pilfered a small box from the treasure hoard and made their escape.

Following that, Episode 1 kicks in.  The plot so far is that the group - a team from the Pathfinder Society of Adventurers - has been dispatched to the coastal city of Sandpoint upon hearing reports of Werewolves in the region.  Their investigation has taken them to Fangwood Keep - a module I’ve heavily edited and customized - and brought them into conflict with a horde of Hobgoblins that had taken over the castle.  After teaming up with a small militia of irregulars the Hobgoblins had kicked out of said keep, the party took back the structure and discovered that it was actually built from the ruins of an Elven wizard’s tower.  However, nothing was really clean-cut about the whole ordeal.  The party kept finding strange markings set everywhere, oddly mutated creatures, and even Goblinoids altered into far more powerful states wielding unusual magical weapons.  When they finally cornered and confronted the leader of the Hobgoblin tribe, it was revealed that the tribe had been hired by an unknown benefactor to take the Keep so that he could explore its secrets.  After a bit of quick decision-making and some fisticuffs between the Tiefling and the Hobgoblin Leader in an honor duel, the Hobgoblins actually cut a deal to leave unmolested and escape back to their own territory.

Digging deeper revealed the presence of an odd pocket space where the Elven wizard’s inner sanctum lay, filled with Fae and other odd creatures from the First World who had somehow become trapped there.  Some were hostile, others were friendly, but they all just want to go home.  In delving further in, the party uncovered evidence of the strange man who’d hired the Hobgoblins performing foul experiments.  After making their way to a buried chamber deep within the ruins, they finally came face to face with him… so to speak.  Not only was the stranger disguised entirely in a suit of fiendish living armor, but he was accompanied by two Black Dragons: the same young one that the first party had faced in Episode 0 and its mother, a terrifyingly powerful sorceress Dragon.  While their intentions for being in the Keep remained unclear, it all seemed to be part of the Strange Man’s experiments and research.

In the brief conflict that followed, the Strange Man readily offered a bribe to the party to simply turn around and leave without confrontation.  As the value of the bribe rose steadily to over 100k Gold Pieces, Valka happily accepted the deal (Shaemus was incredibly tempted and left his decision up to a die roll).  The Dragons weren’t happy about the Strange Man using their hoard as collateral though and decided to just kill the party instead.  Wenden ended up taking the worst of it and was briefly slain, though oddly the Strange Man exercised magic that kept him from dying even as his associates continued to fight…

While the party fended off the Mother Dragon to varying degrees of success, Wenden ended up being visited by his goddess Sarenrae and one of her Astral Deva heralds in a near-death-experience vision.  It was there the herald explained that the Strange Man they’d encountered was once a follower of Sarenrae as well.  And that he still is, to this present day, a Paladin.  He’s completely turned his back on his faith and has been doing everything he could think of to get the goddess to cut him loose of her influence, yet for reasons unexplained Sarenrae has refused to let him go.  Thus Wenden is given a divine quest: aid those the Strange Man has harmed, destroy his blasphemous Fiendflesh armor, and put a stop to his experiments.  However, the catch is that they cannot, under any circumstances, kill him - there’s too much risk of dark forces just waiting to snatch his soul and put his dangerous knowledge to use.

So, last we left off, the party had driven off their foes, so to speak.  The Strange Man cut the battle short when it became apparent the group was a genuine threat.  After halting time through some arcane scroll, he marked the group as part of his experiments and equipped them with a strange, magical deck of cards they’ve yet to fully understand.  With the Strange Man and the Dragons escaped for the time being, the party is left in possession of Fangwood Keep and a number of its First World occupants all relying on them to find a way home to their native plane.  As if that wasn’t enough, it also turned out that the Strange Man awakened some of his other test subjects on his way out, unleashing a pack of highly intelligent, magically capable Barghest Lycanthropes onto the land to give the party something to worry about rather than chasing him.

[lokgifsandmusings]

Tell us more about the "amusement park idea".

Ah, well, we have the weirdo Turf Wars blurb to thank for that:

Turf Wars begins with Korra and Asami leaving the spirit world and returning to Republic City only to find political hijinks and human vs. spirit conflict, as a pompous developer plans to turn the new spirit portal into an amusement park, potentially severing an already tumultuous connection with the spirits. In addition, the triads have realigned and are in a brutal brawl at the city’s borders where hundreds of evacuees have relocated.  In order to get through it all, Korra and Asami vow to look out for each other—but first, they’ve got to get better at being a team.

Which I’ve already overanalyzed, of course.

When I first saw this, I had one of those “wtf did I just read” moments because…amusement park?? But I have spent some time thinking on the premise, and how it could be kind of awesome.

Basically, it’d require this “pompous developer” to be Asami’s foil, a la Korra had in Kuvira. And what I find most compelling is if it’s the daughter of Lau Gan-Lan (the owner of Cabbage Corp). There’s just a ton of inherent potential there.

So…below the cut is another un-edited one-off fic scene going off that idea. It’s not very uh, comicy. But I’m just saying, there’s good stuff worth playing with here. Oh, and Asami would totally keep this convo from Korra, at least at first. But they’ll get better at being a team, I’m sure.

“Asami Sato, I had a feeling to I’d find you here,” a clear voice called. Asami looked up from her book to see Lei Gan-Lan approaching. “We scientists are, if nothing else, creatures of habit, wouldn’t you say?”

“I suppose that depends on the habit,” she answered coolly.

“You’re not waiting for someone, are you?” Lei asked, drawing up a few feet short of the bench. “Your girlfriend?”

“Is that who you’d really like to speak with?”

She shook her head, her long brown braid falling across one shoulder. “I just didn’t want to interrupt. May I sit?”

Asami considered refusing her; it could easily be some kind of set-up. But the park was empty, and even if a reporter came by, they would see nothing more than two businessmen talking. “If you wish.”

Lei took her seat, glancing around the park. “I never told you what a nice job you did here.”

“The park was built long before my infrastructure contract,” Asami told her, tucking her book into her purse.

“Yes, but you certainly added your own…touches.” She ficked two fingers in the direction of Korra’s statue. “Is that weird for her?”

Yes. “What is it that you want, Lei?”

She turned back, an amused look on her face. “There’s no need for that, Asami. I’d like for us to be friends.”

“You have an interesting way of going about it.”

“Raiko was going to hire somebody after he fired you. I would have been a fool to turn him down.”

Asami sighed. “It’s not about your contract. It’s not even about this ridiculous amusement park. Either you don’t know any better, or you do know that fighting Raiko on development there is an exercise in futility.” Asami could see something stirring behind Lei’s eyes.

“So it’s that I spoke poorly about your rejected plans,” she cut in. “I never said ‘ridiculous’ if you recall.”

“It’s that you used my relationship with Korra as a way of discrediting them.”

“What would you have done in my position?” Lei asked. “The Avatar was publicly chastising the project, and the press got a hold of your alternate approach.”

“I did what I could to neutralize that. I tried to defend Raiko,” Asami pointed out.

“Yet there was still no positive press. This amusement park—we need public support. For the good of the city.”

“And you think tearing me down was the way to go about it.”

“I did no such thing,” she said. “I merely suggested that your approach to handling the spirits was out of balance.”

Asami folded her arms. “You merely turned the conversation on our city’s needs back three years.”

Lei bit her lip, her face pensive. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet. “Forgive me for suggesting this, Asami, but could it be that your anger with me might be an indication that there was some truth to my words?”

“Your words?” she asked, incredulously. “It was Korra who was right all along! Look at the spirits now; they’re furious with what’s happening.”

“And…?”

Asami stared at Lei in disbelief. “And it’s a dangerous situation that you’ve created, wouldn’t you agree? Or do you want to have a war between the humans and spirits?”  

“I want to have a world where we are not slaves to their will. Not everyone wanted those portals open, Asami.”

“Tell that to the Air Nation.”

Lei laughed. “Tell that to the Earth Queen.” She held up a hand. “Your girlfriend chose, and we all have to live with it. You did a noble thing when you had the keys to the city’s plans, but it’s gone too far. This is our world.”

“Which we share with the spirits,” Asami insisted.

“Yes, share. Not bow down to.” She shook her head. “Come on, Asami, whatever you’ve been through, whatever else you are, you’re a nonbender. We both know what that’s like—the fear no one should ever have to live with. You know the dangers of insisting on a ‘natural order’ to the world.”

“That’s a ridiculous comparison. The spirits aren’t extorting or killing us.”

“No,” Lei agreed rolling her eyes, “they’re merely kicking us out of our own neighborhoods and damaging our economic stability. And what do we get in return, exactly?”

“You can’t assign any amount of yuans to the return of the spirits. The positives of the worlds being linked again…it’s just something felt.”

“By benders and acolytes. By university students who want to smoke all day and pretend it’s to a greater good.” She flipped her braid behind her back. “I know you’re too pragmatic to truly place value in that.”

Asami could feel her anger rising. “Discounting their influence is not any more pragmatic.”

Lei shrugged. “You’re at least earnest about this. That makes me feel better.”

“And here I was hoping you were just cynically bending to Raiko’s will. At least I’d understand being so short-sighted in that case.”

“I wonder…if your father hadn’t been an Equalist—if you weren’t determined to discredit your own people—how you might feel about the spirits?”

“Leave my father out of this!” Asami snapped instinctively. “He’s dead, and if you’re seriously trying to tell me that I have a hatred of nonbenders thanks to his actions, then this conversation is over. I’ve worked too hard to have that thrown in my face.”

“I just think it’s not a coincidence that you were driven into the Avatar’s arms,” Lei answered. “If you were in love with a pretty nonbender you don’t think your outlook on the spirits might be even slightly different?”

Asami stood, gathering her purse, before fixing Lei with a hard look. “Whatever her bending prowess, I would never be in love with someone who seriously believes that the Equalists had a point.”

She gave a hollow laugh. “And I doubt I could fall in love with someone who didn’t.”

“You should open your next press conference with that.”

“Oh, we both know how that would play out,” Lei answered, looking beyond Asami, across the park. "You'd stay pure in the press’s eyes, right along with your girlfriend. The city’s development would remain under scrutiny, public trust will be lost, and in the end, it’d be the poorer citizens of Republic City who would pay for it.” She smiled. "No, best we both keep our mouths shut, don't you think?"

So that's what this was; a clumsy warning. "Then I suppose we're done here," Asami answered, rising from the bench. "Thanks for that offer of friendship. I'm feeling the warmth already."

"The offer is always on the table, Asami. There's few people who would understand our situations as well as we do each other's."

If Lei was lying, she was practiced at it. "Don't be so sure about what you understand."