#i'm tagging the damn ship since i accidentally talked about it so much LOL

[juniperhillpatient]

"Jet" Re-Watch

I'll be honest, this episode is one of those that I've seen A LOT. So, it's not like there were any surprise takeaways. Jet is one of my favorite characters & "Jet" is one of my favorite episodes to re-watch. So, let's talk about Jet - the character - & why I love him. And let's also talk about why I have a love-hate relationship with his titular episode.

This is the very first episode of my re-watch where I'm going to.....ugh. criticize the narrative framing...

Look, I love a sympathetic anti-hero & that's at least part of why I love Jet - anyone who knows me knows I am drawn to morally gray characters, flawed people with good intentions, traumatized villains who see themselves as the hero - & that's a huge part of why I love Jet. But I think it's doing a disservice to critical engagement with the material to NOT acknowledge the way Jet is framed as the "scary evil Earth Kingdom rebel fighting back the "wrong" way." This episode felt very much like propaganda not to trust people who are TOO rebellious or TOO angry at their oppressors.

Remember kids, violent rebellion is never the answer even when you're being violently oppressed. Anyone who says otherwise probably wants to murder babies!

Sokka getting to be the grumpy mom of the group is always fun & I gotta feel bad for the guy. It can't be easy keeping these kids in check when they're always so eager to be reckless & don't even take him seriously or respect him! And poor Sokka was right in the end...And was way less of an asshole about it than I would've been after all the crap he took!

Jet's entrance is just so badass. I absolutely loved the Freedom Fighters coming in & immediately kicking ass & winning over both Katara & Aang. And also I'm sorry but I must say it. The Avatar fandom is so sick & twisted & wrong for everyone fighting over if Katara should be with her little brother-like friend or Zuko when Jet is RIGHT there. From the bottom of my heart, I'll never forgive the Avatar fandom for having such bad taste just LOOK AT THEM

What is this....Sad......................alright, okay, okay, I'm done.

ANYWAY!!! Katara's instant chemistry with Jet is so real & I love how she got insta-heart-eyes. I love you Simptara. Girl, can't you even tell when your episode of the week love interest is introduced anime style as a person you obviously can't trust? So fucking funny to me. Like, Katara, haven't you ever seen a single episode of television? Jet is handsome & smooth & charming & he has wheat in his mouth. Of course he's gonna break your heart baby girl, it's right there in the narrative framing.

Also, Jet is a manipulative little shit & I love him. I think a big reason Jet gets a lot of hate ASIDE from the NaRrAtIvE fRaMiNg issues is that he IS in fact very calculated & manipulative. I think it's worth noting though, that the Freedom Fighters look to him as a "good leader." Jet is clearly the kind of person that is good with people, & good at leading others as well as being mature for his age. So, he's taken on the mantle of leadership with these kids. Yes, he is manipulative & he mugs sad old Fire Nation colonizers, but like, he was given the mantle of leadership at EIGHT YEARS OLD after watching his parents die y'all. Cut him some slack for not having the soundest moral compass, jeez.

Like, what can I really say here? No, you're right guys, an eight-year-old who witnessed his village being destroyed & his parents dying & then was left to protect other orphaned kids should TOTALLY understand that #NotAllFireNationPeople are bad. Obviously, that's a reasonable expectation.

Anyway, Jet's plan to flood the village is very....interesting. I've seen it discussed endlessly whether there are ex-Fire Nation generals in that village, whether the old man Jet mugged was an ex-Fire Nation general, whether there were Earth Kingdom citizens living there or not, & well...it's all just VERY vague. The show doesn't tell us because I guess the point is that "murder is bad." Which...sure, I guess. Still would've been nice to understand more details?

A big anti-Jetara argument that I get pretty much every time I say I ship them is that he broke her heart & made her cry & also wanted to commit mass murder. To that I say.....where's your sense of drama? Jet touching Katara's face as she turns away crying, horrified by what she might've helped him accomplish is just good drama. I don't know what to tell you. Have fun shipping boring things where the characters have no complexity & only ever agree with each other I guess.....

Sokka does deserve some major props in this episode, I'll say that. He put up with pretty much constant shit from Katara & Aang both, he was right in the end about Jet's plans NOT being something Katara & Aang would like, AND he managed to warn the village about the flood. So yeah, props to Sokka.

Anyway, this "re-watch takeaway" post....ended up being.... just...me defending Jet & saying Jetara rights. Whoops. Oh well, I feel like that's a fitting takeaway for this episode :)

[callofdooty]

5-4-3-2-1 Tag Game!!

Tagged by @alidravana ! Thank you so much for the tag! :D

top 5 works i’m proudest of (not in any particular order):

Since I only have two actual works, I'll just put them both LOL:

Just Us - Keegan and Merrick havea moment after the events of the game

My Bed Is A Pool And The Walls Are On Fire - Keegan being delirious for 1000 Words

top 4 current wips i’m excited about:

Mostly all Whumpuary works since they've got my full attention rn LOL

Woken Up Like An Animal - Fill for the prompt Nightmares. Logan makes friends with Mouse after he accidentally kicks her across a room. Title is a line from Human by Daughter (aka one of the best Logan songs to exist LOL)

Keegan's Hypothermia fic - Prompt fill for Hypothermia and "Stay With Me" - Trying to play into the found family as much as I can because I am a SUCKER for it) Pending title ^^

My Heroes Are Dead (They Died In My Head) - Prompt fill for Betrayal. Bitter stream of consciousness, takes place after Struck Down, from Keegan's perspective (but Ajax's fate will be left ambiguous so he might be dead, might be canon divergence that lets him live) Title is a line from Diluted by Slipknot

I Won't Give Up On You (So Don't Give Up On Me) - Prompt fill for "Don't Do This" and Blurry Vision. Not entirely sure what this will entail but it will probably center around Hesh and Logan :) I love :) Angst :) I'm just hella into the title and the prompts as a combination. Title is a line from The Sadness Will Never End by Bring Me The Horizon

top 3 improvements in my writing:

Actually rewriting drafts. A lot of the time, I don't typically rewrite drafts, but for some of the Ghosts ficxs, I've actually got multiple different versions of fics LOL

Uhh I'd say I've definitely developed a stylised way of writing? Which, is actually pretty much just the way I write normally AHA - a lot pauses in strange places, and of course the angsty internal monologuing. I also like messing with structure when I can (Unfortunate House of Leaves simp over here)

Catching when my tenses slip. I don't know why, it might be due to roleplaying, but I find that I often flip between past and present tense in the middle of writing (where it wouldn't make sense to) But I've been able to catch it, lately. Makes editing fics a bitch LOL

top 2 writing resolutions:

Just posting more honestly. Last fandom I wrote fics for got a grand total of three fics because I didn't get to finish the others LOL, and then I kind of drifted off to other things (it's still some of my best angst work, so hopefully I can bring that energy to the Ghosts. The character I fixated on actually might have some similarities to Logan ssooo 👁 👁)

Maybe trying to branch out more? My two modes of writing are Hurt/No Comfort (hilarious, because I hate reading Hurt/No Comfort) and Whump so maybe I can try smth else? Maybe romance? Definitely not something I'm familiar with writing, but it feels like something I could try. (The real issue is finding ships I wanna write about /hj)

number 1 favourite line:

Hmm, this is hard, so I'm going to make up for all the other ones I can't fill by giving a few LOL

From Just Us, I'm quite fond of this line:

Shame stirs in his stomach, making him nauseous before working its way up, gripping his heart and then balling up to cause a lump in his throat that he tries his best to swallow around. "I miss him." The shame ignites like a gasoline trail, flaring quickly into anger (whether it's at himself or Rorke... it's hard to tell with all the smoke) that only makes him feel more sick. "God damn it, I miss that piece of shit."

From the Nightmares fic I'm working on (almost done with it!):

Her eyes did more than enough talking on that front, strangely expressive for how closed off she otherwise seemed. They told a thousand stories; all indecipherable, written in a language that no one could speak of, but could understand all the same. The mind's exact tales of suffering were locked away, hidden, but their effect still seemed to shine from the soul's very own fractured looking glass. A hint of resignation acted as dust upon the reflection's surface; a house haunted by time more than any other phantom.

and then this giant excerpt from a WIP abt Hesh :)

Occasionally, a glimpse will come to Hesh’s mind. Sometimes it’s intrusive, lightning flashing against a canopy of dark clouds, shaking the foundations of his mind with a deafening roar. Sudden, brief and violent in nature. Other times it’s… slow. Easy and gentle, like ocean waves crawling their way up the beach; soft, hushed. Almost comforting, if not for the deep grief that the tide often brought with it, the wind brushing by carrying the faint echoes of laughter and excited voices.

On days like this, the wind only seems to carry his own distant screams. The tide now feels lonelier than it ever did. That one set of footprints trailing in the sand was just that; a single set. The second set of imprints settled in his own stride now gone. 

Instead, the ghost of his shadow is embedded yards away, a trench dug out by desperately grasping hands, reaching for anything. Reaching for him.  

It’s still the gentle ease of a memory washing over him, sea foam gathering, swaying and receding slowly, but that’s perhaps what makes it worse. The slowness. The time he has to sit there and dismantle himself from the inside out, while his own head taunts him with things he no longer has, can no longer reach out for. Even the ebb and flow of water can wear down cliffs with enough time, steady and persistent in its movements. 

Imagery galore! LOL

tagging... @bubble-dream-inc , @goorehound and @neon-amnesia (If y'all want to, don't feel pressured to! ^^)

Basic Template:

top 5 works i’m proudest of (not in any particular order):

top 4 current wips i’m excited about:

top 3 improvements in my writing:

top 2 writing resolutions:

number 1 favourite line: