A little love letter to Din Djarin writers... 🤍
I love that some of you write him as soft and gentle while others focus on the darker, harsher parts of his personality. I love that he can be both a quiet, kind man caring for his child or an intimidating, terrifying bounty hunter who is a lean, mean killing machine... depending on what the fic warrants.
I love how you write him with other characters from The Mandalorian or even with those who would never cross paths with him in canon, from Star Wars or elsewhere. I love how you write him interacting with yourselves and us, and some of you even create your own original characters to exist a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away alongside him.
I love that some of you ship him with that one other special person, while others recognise how desirable he is and ship alllllll the ships. Not forgetting those of you which are here for none of those ships and/or even headcanon him as ace. I love that any of those options allow you to explore your own identities and sexualities through him.
I love that you can write the most tooth-rotting fluff or filthiest smut, and all of those things in between. Whether it's for general audiences or explicit and strictly 18+ ... all of your fics have an audience and someone out there who appreciates your writing.
I love how differently you can interpret him, but there are also so many common themes and tropes running through your writing. I love that there is room for all of your Dins here.
I love that he means so much to you and that all of us here hold him in our hearts a little bit. I love that we can all watch the same episodes and come to entirely different conclusions about him. I love how much we love him.
Getting to be a part of this wonderful community and interact with so many people who love the space tin can man as much as I do has truly been one of the best things that happened to me recently. I'm so glad I made this little blog... It reminded me just how good fandom can be. I am blown away by the number of talented people here!
So, I just wanted to take a moment to express some gratitude towards all of you! Thank you for writing your Dins and please don't ever stop. Finally.... last, but not least:
I love Din Djarin!!!
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This is technically in response/as an addition to a post on the supposed ‘double standard’ in the fandom between Zuko and Jet as Katara’s love interests, but it’s been so long since it was posted and I figured the OP would be entirely uninterested in my word vomit, especially after like one and half years—so, separate post. I added a link for those interested. There's a cut because this got quite long lmao.
In short, the post supposes the argument that though Jet would’ve made Katara kill people (something Zuko very much Did Not Do, no matter what you think about The Southern Raiders), he cleaned up his act after this. Zuko, on the other hand, did lots of Really Bad Things to Katara & Co. with far more frequency than Jet did and got redeemed after a multitude of episodes doing Various Things Moste Evile. To then slap Jet with The Toxic Ex-label and see Zuko as the ‘healthier’ and ‘better’ option creates a Double Standard(™) within the fandom, which is supposedly bad and not an arguably incorrect reading.
But the differences in fandom perception between Jet and Zuko as Love Interests for Katara (one of which canonically, and the other potentially and apparently talked about in the writer’s room) are easily explained, as can the Supposed Double Standard—just by thinking about it from Katara’s viewpoint, or even the audience’s. Because, well, the worst things Jet ‘almost’ ended up doing didn’t happen because of outside interference only.
That’s the important bit here. He 100% would’ve drowned an entire village just to get rid of a handful of Fire Nation soldiers, had Sokka not managed to evacuate everybody. He 100% would’ve grievously injured two people who, as far as Jet and everybody else were aware, were refugees who might not even be firebenders — considering nobody else saw Iroh heat up his tea, he could’ve been wrong — in an attempt to prove his own hunch. Had the guards not been there, had Zuko not been able to fight back with swords, Jet would’ve genuinely attempted to wound them for as much as a puff of smoke. And Jet consistently involves bystanders (innocent or not) in his desperate quest to harm and defeat the Fire Nation: the Gaang (and particularly Katara, through explicitly manipulative means) and the villagers in Jet; Zuko, Iroh, and the people in the teashop in City of Walls and Secrets. Additionally, we don’t see more violence from him because he’s not a main character like Zuko is—though it’s implied that Jet beats up villagers who are supposedly in cahoots with the Fire Nation often, only agreeing to turn over a new leaf when he, Smellerbee, and Longshot decide to move to Ba Sing Se.
Zuko explicitly and frequently doesn’t harm people: that, or it isn’t important to the plot. He doesn’t burn down the village on Kyoshi, he literally only manages to lightly singe it. He threatens people with violence frequently but never actually goes in for the kill. I’d argue that the most explicitly violent thing he does in Book 1 is breaking Aang out of the Pouhai Stronghold—for his own ends obviously, but if it’s spelled like treason and sounds like treason, it’s probably treason. When he thinks of robbing the pregnant couple while he’s on the run, he stops himself of his own volition; when he considers using Appa to catch Aang (this was a point made against Zuko in the post), he’s unaware of what Appa’s been through prior to that point and sees him as no more than an animal used for travel, much like the ostrich horse he stole earlier in the season.
Zuko’s schtick throughout Book 1 and 2 is that he doesn’t want to think of the consequences of his actions. His plans are never fully complete. He doesn’t think of how he’s going to get a chained, notoriously slippery little eel of an Avatar to the Fire Nation, and he doesn’t think about what would happen to twelve-year-old Aang after they got there—which is horrible of him, but it also shows an odd, ignorant kind of innocence that you’d associate with a kid who’s got a hard time telling right from wrong. Like, I love Zuko dearly, adore him even, but kiddo doesn’t think ahead until the Book 2 finale and even that’s debatable. He’ll eventually start thinking ahead a little bit but for the most part, he doesn’t. Not saying that takes away responsibility, because it absolutely doesn’t, but it is telling of Zuko’s character: he’s an ‘act first, think later’-kind of guy, all ‘fuck around; find out; maybe success’. His sole goal throughout Book 1 and 2 is going home, without even thinking on how to get there beyond like, Avatar in my custody => back in Fire Nation with Avatar => dad loves me again. And he says that his only intention is to go home too, in Ep 2 of Book 1:
Aang: If I go with you, [He holds his staff in front of him as an offer, making sure Zuko understands that he does not wish to continue fighting.] will you promise to leave everyone alone?
[The camera cuts to a side-view of the area, Zuko's men still surrounding him, spears poised. After a brief moment of hesitation, Zuko erects himself and nods in agreement. Aang is apprehended by Zuko's men, who take his staff . . . ]
Zuko: [Boarding the ship up the walkway. Determined.] Head a course for the Fire Nation. I'm going home.
(Added emphasis for my point)
Zuko is not the Big Bad. He’s not The Largest Threat. He never is. In Book 1 it’s Zhao, in Book 2 it’s Azula, and in Book 3 it’s Ozai. Zuko is a consistent threat, yes, but not a particularly large one no matter how good of a fighter he is. Because he’s presented to us as a disastrously hurt and traumatised little brat who we, the audience, are supposed to feel sorry for, and slowly grow fond of. Because we learn in The Storm that the notion of “caring for others is weak” has literally been branded into him. Because he keeps getting back up to fight, but consistently holds back. We are shown that he knows, on some level, that what he’s doing is wrong: the text suggests that Zuko is actively suppressing his morals. And by the time Zuko hires an assassin to ensure the Avatar is dead, we know that Zuko is incredibly unhappy with his choice(s) and is desperate to be safe; that he’s uncomfortable but wants to be comfortable; that he’s incorrect about the source of his fear while he’s back in the palace. The audience is shown this explicitly.
By contrast, we’re shown that Jet is fully aware that those villagers will die. He’s fully aware that, if he manages to prove the two refugees are firebenders, they’ll be arrested and probably mutilated (if the hand-crushing is any indication). I love Jet and his character, but he’s supposed to be the example of poisoning yourself with your hatred, anger, and hurt. He’s revenge that goes too far, because he doesn’t allow himself closure. He knows the consequences and isn’t shown to care for them, as long as his goal is furthered.
And there is the small, but significant, difference between the two characters: Zuko initially just wants to capture the Avatar, is purposefully remaining unaware of what will happen when he does so, and is clearly shown to change, while Jet just wants to punish firebenders and is very aware of what will be necessary for him to do so, with a handful of lines of how he ‘stopped being like that’. And honestly, Jet is far more mature than Zuko is for quite some time, regarding the violence of war—basically as mature as Zuko eventually becomes at the tail-end of his redemption arc. But Zuko’s maturity is at that point healthier, because he doesn’t want to genuinely do harm.
In regards to their separate relationships with Katara, there’s these fantastic points that @sokkastyles made in reply to the post:
The fact that Zuko actually did change and Katara actually forgave him makes ALL the difference. [ . . . ] The thing about Jet is how manipulative he was with Katara. He not only almost made her kill innocents, but he lied to her about the man he attacked having a knife when he was called out, so that Katara would see her as righteous. Someone who is willing to lie in order to make themselves seem good and someone who says they are going to change but then does the same things doesn’t have a good track record, and that’s a more troubling relationship dynamic than someone who acts as an upfront enemy but then sincerely changes.
And:
I do think it makes sense to focus on manipulation being worse than being a cartoon villain when we're talking about personal relationships. I think many people can relate to having someone like Jet in their lives who seems nice but who lies and manipulates to justify their own bad behavior despite repeatedly claiming that they will change. Not that many people will experience being tied to a tree by someone who wants you to tell them where the Avatar is, and it is completely reasonable for people to be more forgivable of things Zuko did as a villain than things Jet did to Katara when he claimed to be a friend.
I actually don’t have anything to add to this, lol. It’s succinct and well-worded.
Lastly, in addition the relatability and the relationships being different (the manipulative, emotionally hurt, and self-proclaimed anti-hero versus the initially childish, explicitly confused and desperate cartoon villain, plus the girl they hurt horribly), there’s also the problem of Jet not being a main character. Jet is a relatively well-written side character, whilst Zuko is very quickly established as a main-ish character with his own POV (as the writers decided during the conceptualisation that he’d be joining Team Avatar eventually). Zuko’s troubling, self-destructive nature that has been forced upon him and his Tragic Childhood is shown in high definition. The audience is supposed to eventually be okay with Zuko and hopefully like him, slowly adding puzzle pieces to complete the picture of a horrific earlier youth and treatment by nearly everybody he knows except Iroh. Something like this isn’t necessary with Jet, not just because he was already incredibly likeable and understandable from his introduction and onwards, but also because he’s neither a villain nor a main character.
There’s multiple reasons as to why Zuko is often seen as the ‘better’ option, just like there are multiple reasons why Jet and Zuko are compared so frequently—they’re both traumatised teenage boys who ‘rebel’ to get some semblance of control back, but we see Zuko change into a kid anyone would be a little bit proud and fond of and that doesn’t happen with Jet. Double standard or not, Zuko and Jet are different characters who the writers also treated very differently, on purpose. It makes sense to me that the audience would think Zutara is the ‘less bad’ or far better option. We know far more about Zuko than we know about Jet; and Jet’s redemption arc, if we can even call it that, halts permanently when Zuko’s is reaching the height it for him to go into a freefall, ultimately culminating in a genuine redemption. We, the audience, know this. So does Katara.
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So, after @subdee's excellent post about doubt regarding the Phantom Troupe's alleged slaughter of the Kurta Clan, I was staring at this image and thinking about Sheila's terribly sad expression here...
This is juuuust a theory, and there's not a ton to back it up but I'm just throwing it out there--make of it what you will!
Here the Phantom Troupe is talking about their grand plans to find out who killed Sarasa and hold them responsible for what happened to her, why would Sheila be heading away from them with that pained expression? It's possible she simply didn't approve of their methods of going about it (though she's not shown as involved in or reacting to that conversation), but the way it's framed makes me think more of her hiding something.
What if Sheila already knows who's responsible for Sarasa's death...because she has some sort of involvement in the kidnappings that have been happening in Meteor City? Wouldn't that explain her expression here and abruptly leaving the situation?
Perhaps she's acting as an informant for the kidnappers or is aiding them in some other way? She's frequently shown as being injured, which characters comment on being as a result of her "clumsiness," but maybe she's being repeatedly injured as a threat/method of controlling her?
(In this case it's entirely probable she didn't intend for Sarasa herself to be killed--Sarasa went outside her usual range to try to find more tapes, and the kidnappers had already met their "quota for delivery" so this may have been an unusual case. It's possible Sheila had some sort of agreement that they would leave her friends alone by sticking to specific areas, for instance, that Sarasa may have gone outside of.)
(This guy's moles are pretty distinctive so that makes me wonder if he'll show up again...)
This note about Sheila's role in the production could be relevant as well--that she's "two-faced."
I think it's possible Tserriednich and/or circles he runs in are involved with this whole operation, which could mean Kurapika and the Troupe have a common enemy. I'm not sure if the timeline supports Tserriednich's involvement due to his age, however, he might be too young. Regardless, it's interesting to me that both Kurapika and the Phantom Troupe have the same root cause of their trauma and desire for revenge: People buying and selling human beings and parts of human beings as trophies and for sadistic purposes, which is what Tserriednich certainly represents. (As I said in another post, I'm all but certain the head Tserriednich has is Pairo's. It sure looks like Pairo's face inside his nen beast...)
Sheila could still be involved with the same people by the time the Kurta Massacre happens, and she uses Kurapika and Pairo to gather information on the Kurta Clan for whoever this group or individual may be--likely the real culprit behind the massacre. Again, potentially Tserriednich or someone he's associated with.
What happened with Sheila and the Kurta Massacre definitely comes across as suspicious (her showing up and communicating with Kurapika and Pairo shortly before the massacre happens), so I feel that lends more credibility to the possibility of her being involved somehow in the Meteor City kidnappings as well.
Again, take this all with a grain of salt. Of course Sheila was previously involved with the Phantom Troupe so it could be that the connection is that simple (though to me it doesn't explain the scene from the beginning of this post nearly as well). But I definitely feel like something more is going on here.
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Cryptid Sightings Art Masterlist
If you're new here, go read Cryptid Sightings by @naffeclipse I cannot recommend it enough. I've done a bit of art for it ("a bit"), so here's the list:
*will keep this updated
*spoilers are marked, except for chapter 1 spoilers as I assume that as baseline knowledge
Comics:
Demon behind you. (reveal centered, spoilers for up until but especially ch4)
Steady, Heart (reveal centered)
Y/N's scary thing (reveal centered)
New day (post-reveal centered)
Favorite (post-reveal centered)
We clear the Path (post-reveal centered, spoilers up until ch4)
Bird Bully (post-reveal centered)
Worst Case Scenario (*warnings for blood and death)
Hands (post-reveal centered)
Subtle (and bonus isolated lovestruck boys)
Cryptid Selfie (post-reveal centered)
"Fixed" PJs (ch5 spoilers)
Rude Awakening (ch5 spoilers)
Three names
Cryptid!Y/N
They know. (post-reveal centered, spoilers for ch6)
Clever, heart. (ch7 spoilers)
Oops! Trauma (ch8 spoilers)
Their cryptid loves them. (ch8/ The lost Episode spoilers)
Hello :) (ch9 spoilers)
Promise || Trick (ch10 spoilers)
Help us (ch10 spoilers)
Red (ch11 spoilers) (*warning for blood)
Bait (ch10 spoilers/ tons of theories)
Trust (ch12 spoilers)
Teeth (post reveal centered)
It's not safe (ch13 spoilers)
No more secrets (ch13 spoilers)
Hands 2 Electric Boogaloo
Justice for the detector (vague ch13 spoilers)
No shit, Sherlock (ch14 spoilers)
The gang's all here (ch14 spoilers)
WHY ARE YOU RUNNING? (ch14 spoilers)
Stack the trauma (ch15 spoilers)
Eclipse Demon (ch16 spoilers)
Demon Goo (post-reveal, but no spoilers) (linked to Cinna's addition because it's hilarious)
Eager (post-reveal, but no spoilers)
Into a New Day (ch20 spoilers)
Standalones/ Other:
You take care of the scary things
Stay here (ch2 spoilers)
Creature of the Night
The Guide and the Guardian
Safe
Poor Mothman (ch5 spoilers)
Memes Part 1
Memes Part 2 (ch5 spoilers)
Chapter 5 doodles (you can figure)
All of us @ Naff (spoilers up until ch4)
Help
Cryptid Boys True Form
Henry Emily (spoilers for ch16)
On Care, and Scary Things (ch18 spoilers)
Naff after ch19 (go figure)
Long Time No See (ch19 spoilers)
Mural
Not art but you're already here:
Click here to read along as I scream about my theories for the fic (all spoilers, till chapter 5, by now severely out of date)
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