#ooc: not particularly skilled gaslighting but

[ariadosanon]

Nictoria answer my goddamn reblog I know damn well you can see it.

- @a-lost-archivist

Idk what you mean JON. I don’t see SHIT

[burst-of-iridescent]

I hate when people say(*writers*) when zuko is an emo bad boy. When zuko acts "emo" and "badboy" as they say it's him reacting to his trauma and abuse as a kid(most of time. Zuko is still badass. But badboy no). Is it an excuse? No. But when zuko is acting that way in canon, his obsession with honor, his yelling, his moodiness, his short temper. That is the product of having his empathy literally beaten/burned out of him by his father(and mocked and emotionally abused by Azula). The reason Zuko is doing this whole thing is because he wants to please his father. Become someone he's not. His struggle of who his father wants to be with who he is. It's because of the abuse of his father and his family. As the series goes on you get more and more flashes of the person Zuko was and the person he can become. By the end of the series it's such a great contrast and Zuko is much more happier because he's with the gaang. His family. He got out of that abusive situation he was in and finally became himself. A dorky, empathetic, caring, skilled swords men, a balanced person. Does he still have moments of anger? Yes. But over all Zuko becomes a fully balanced person.

gasp! but if we don't call zuko a bad boy, however will we make sure people don't get any ideas about shipping him with katara?

jokes aside, you're absolutely right and i roll my eyes so hard when people point to bad things zuko did, or his behaviour pre-redemption as indisputable proof of the kind of person he'd be post-redemption. like you said, a lot of zuko's actions and mannerisms before day of black sun is a direct result of the trauma he suffered, and though that doesn't excuse him - and neither does the show allow it to - discounting it entirely is to erase the abuse zuko endured and how that shaped him.

using the first half of book 3 as evidence of zuko being a supposed bad boy irks me in particular because a) the narrative makes it pretty clear that this is zuko as the worst version of himself, the opposite of everything he actually is and could be, and b) he is stuck in an abusive household at the mercy of his abusers, in an actively life-threatening situation.

zuko knows that he is in a situation where he has no real agency, freedom or control. he knows that aang is alive, that azula has turned him into a scapegoat and that his life will be forfeit if his father finds out the truth. that is an incredibly terrifying and stressful situation to be put in and it's worsened by the fact that he can't even admit it - not just because doing so would mean accepting that he gave up everything that actually mattered in the catacombs to gain nothing in return, but also because no one around him will allow him to do so.

his girlfriend can't understand his experiences or his turmoil and doesn't seem to particularly want to, brushing off his anxieties and encouraging him to stay the course. he is manipulated by his father and gaslighted by his sister, aware deep down that he is entirely under their control and that they have a vested interest in keeping him helpless, yet forced to pretend as though nothing is wrong. he is isolated from the one person who could help - his uncle - physically and emotionally, both because visiting iroh puts zuko in danger, and because zuko's choices have created a rift in their relationship.

all of this compounds the psychological stress zuko is experiencing, forcing him into a constant state of fight-or-flight, and this context is vital to understanding many of the decisions he makes and how he behaves in the first half of book 3.

(this is why i don't agree with the take that hiring combustion man is an ooc moment for zuko because even though i think the idea of combustion man himself is stupid - not to mention disrespectful to the hindu origins it's pulling from - it's a fundamentally desperate move, and zuko at this point is more desperate than he's ever been.)

that's why it's unlikely that zuko post-redemption would behave similarly since many of the factors that contributed to his anger, hostility and moodiness would no longer exist! judging zuko's future behaviour based on a time when he was constantly abused, gaslighted and threatened is just not an accurate or fair means of measurement, especially since we know what he's like at his best. the zuko we see with the gaang still has a bit of a short fuse, sure, but he's also sincere, honest, awkward, shy and far happier than he's ever been. because shocker, people tend not to act the same way in healthy, supportive environments as they do in abusive, traumatic ones. who would've thought?

people who make this argument also usually tend to compare zuko to aang, especially to glorify how aang remains cheerful and peaceful despite his trauma, and... no. just no. first of all, the show barely gives a fuck about developing aang's trauma the way it does zuko's so of course it seems to affect him less, and secondly, there's something to be said about how trauma responses like aang's are a lot more palatable and comfortable for audiences than responses like zuko's, or even katara's in the southern raiders.

anger or moodiness, or wanting to punish the people who hurt you, are not inherently wrong ways to react when you've been wronged and traumatized. praising aang for remaining cheerful and forgiving while calling zuko a bad boy for being angry and moody implies a sense of moral superiority that comes with reacting to trauma in the "right" way, which is both inaccurate and insensitive.

zuko will never be aang, and that's fine. he doesn't have to be. he ends the show reclaiming everything his abusers tried to take from him, having found himself and his destiny, in a place of healing that is all his own. that is an incredibly meaningful and powerful narrative, and the last thing zuko deserves is to have all of his complexity and development stripped just to be reduced to the tired trope of a "bad boy" when he was never one in the first place.

[shadeflare-sisters]

ELLIE SHADEFLARE: I LIKE RP PARTNERS TO KNOW

I like to be called: Ellie.

My favorite colors are: Red and Gold

Gender: Doesn’t matter, but I was born male and consider myself nonbinary.

One thing you should know about me (or several): I have autism, which can make it very difficult to tell my tone and whether or not I’m causing discomfort to others, which has fueled a large extent of my anxiety. As such, if I’m causing discomfort, I’d rather be told directly if I’m causing a problem than let myself be consumed by the guilt of potentially causing problems. I try to be accommodating OOC, and am a bit affectionate online.

I’m not Ellie and I’m not Maddie, or any other potential characters I write. I do not desire to cause any problems with other players, and anything said by my characters should not be used as any indication of what I believe. In fact, certain characters do and say things that are far from what I believe (Ellie has a phobia of males and intense racial hatred against Amal’jaa, Maddie is overprotective and over fixates on her work and Glysoria is explicitly designed to be a gaslighting, abusive fuckhead that should be hated) so IC/OoC blurring is especially upsetting to me.

Though I can be open sexually in certain circumstances, and enjoy lewd activities, I do not wish to enjoy them all the time. I have had issues with limits, due to both partners pressuring me and to an extent, affecting my libido. As such, I am imposing hard limits on myself for both my sake and my characters’ sake. Anyone assuming that because I have lewd artwork and have roleplayed lewdly that I am always sexual 24/7 is someone to be avoided. If you aren’t already someone who I have been sexual with and immediately try to initiate fucking, don’t bother. If you only see me as your tool to get off and don’t even bother having an interest besides fucking, don’t expect me to respond from here on out.

One thing you should know about my muse(s)(Or several): 

Elatus Shadeflare, Jack of Magic but prefers to be called Ellie, is a Keeper of the Moon raised in Ul’dah and an adventurer of many magical talents. In her travels, she has obtained various Soul Crystals, particularly, those of the Black Mage, White Mage, Summoner, Scholar, Astrologian and Red Mage. Due to her manifestation of the Echo, she can be struck with flashbacks of events she has never seen, and is magnified further access the memories from within Soul Crystals, allowing her to utilize their talents as her own. Due to the potential of her blurring her sanity and mind between her true self and the Soul’s self, she has begun to avoid this method, something she has been particularly adamant when learning Red Magic. In combat, she will generally fight using her Red Magic, but as a battle intensifies, she will begin relying on her “borrowed” arts, granting her a large arsenal of potential powers. If wounded heavily, Ellie will enter a berserked status, her mastery of the art she is currently using heightening at the cost of her ability to escape it until she or her foe is incapacitated, or she falls unconscious due to the sheer strain. With the exception of her Red Magic, she does not have much improvisation with her arts, making her usage of Black Magic, White Magic, Summoning, Scholastics and Astrology rather textbook, her spells being the same ones used by those who are merely adept rather than masters. However, she can improvise under her limited scope, such as using an Egi to throw her into a group of comrades to better reach them with her healing or using the explosive force of Thaumaturgy/Black Magic to launch herself in the air. Her improvisation skills greatly aid her Red Magic, especially as she is further trained in fencing and swordplay and has even been known to hold throwing knives, in case she is forced to stick solely to her rapier.

Ellie’s childhood has been marked by 18 years of incompetence due to an overabundance of aether in her body, 2 years of torture at the hands of the Amal’jaa, and 8 years of abuse at the hands of Glysoria, Mistress of Chains, a Succubus-class Voidsent who was initially at the medium end of the third rung, but later escalated to borderline second rung through the 8 years of draining Ellie’s aether. With Glysoria defeated, she is now trapped in Ellie’s now fleshy Kaladanda Anima Weapon, and has recently begun to emerge in a void-tainted version of the clockwork host for her Anima. Since killing Glysoria could cause a potentially fatal feedback effect on Ellie, she is stuck with both Glysoria and her curse. This curse renders Ellie from having a frail, broken and awkward body to one that is more healthily curved, an impressive bust and now has ambiguous genitalia. The effects of her curse render her highly virile and fertile, but also that her children are afflicted with the same curse as she; rendering them truly intersex. This is due to a gambit that allows Glysoria to drain Ellie and any children she ends up having, but given that Glysoria has been thoroughly beaten down and is now being drained herself as a power source for Ellie’s Kaladanda, she is unlikely to make use of this any more. Up until the confrontation with Glysoria, this curse was incomplete, causing mutations in Ellie’s children rather than entirely rewiring the chromosomes and only rendering her womb fully capable of incubating the curse, but a return to Ellie’s body allowed her to complete the curse.

Madison Shadeflare, otherwise known as Maddie to her sister and close friends, is an (usually) uptight officer of the Immortal Flames. Ten years older than her sister, Maddie is a martially trained warrior, specializing in stealth, but her sheer strength and determination can cause her to go berserk, albeit at great damage to her muscle tissue. She’s rarely seen, but is immensely over protective of her sister, since she is the only family she has left... and because she was the one who personally rescued Ellie from the Amal’jaa.

She was raised for ten years as a member of a Coeurlclaw band, raised by her mother in secret so that she wouldn’t end up as one of the King’s heirs’ consorts. When she was discovered, the two fled the Black Shroud, though the youth kept her trauma until Ellie was born. Invigorated and inspired by a potential future, Maddie trained each and every day to become a true exemplar of the Immortal Flames’ virtues. However, discovering Ellie in the clutches of the Amal’jaa had caused much of her moral inflexibility to loosen, since she became more and more concerned with Ellie’s well being.

Glysoria, Mistress of Chains is the succubus who had made a pact with Ellie through slight coercion, and has cursed her into what she is now. Due to her current condition as being trapped in Ellie’s Kaladanda staff, and only having a physical presence through the Anima doll, she no longer has the capacity to harm anyone. However, she is verbally abusive and constantly attempts to belittle and abuse Ellie any chance she gets, as well as gaslight her. She can easily be silenced by smacking her.

OOC: Once again, Ellie’s backstory and body may have sexual elements, but if you solely see her as a sexual object to gratify yourself, don’t bother approaching me.

First language: English

HIGHLIGHT: RP blogs/Main Blog

https://twitter.com/Shadeflares My twitter, though it often reposts some lewd artwork. I need to be doing more RP stuff.

Age range: under 13  |  14–17 | 18–22 | 23–25 | 26–29 | 30+ |  70+

Am I okay with NSFW?: yes | no | some nsfw (Outside of specific channels and with certain friends, I’m not searching for it actively.)

My favorite/most common thing to rp is: angst | fluff | smut (within plot, reason or certain friends) | crack | action | plots | AUs are fine | Violence | Darker themes (Am willing, haven’t done much yet) | 

OC friendly?: yes | no | depends

RP blog: does contain ooc posts | doesn’t contain ooc posts | occasionally contains ooc | Aesthetic

Tagged by: @ssytxiv​

Tagging: @freepaladinonca​, @gaggle-of-dorks-ffxiv​, @chiyohoshi​, @xylaquint​, anyone else who wants to~!