#so happy to help however i can!! and/or pass on wisdom that others have given to me lol

[whentherewerebicycles]

congratulations on the job! so glad that someone who's really passionate about teaching and learning is going to be in this role. can i ask about the application process and your approach? i just defended but i also have accumulated about two dozen ac-job rejections this semester and i feel like maybe i'm going about this wrong.

thanks so much and congrats to you on defending!!! so exciting!!! i'm not sure how much actual insight i have re: the job application process (i mostly live my professional life by just doing do everything @bottleupandexplode tells me to do) but i would be happy to discuss with you via DM if you want! and can also take a look at job materials if you think another set of eyes on them might be helpful, or share my materials if you want to see someone else's

[flowerandblood]

The White Flame (Part 8)

[modern! rockstar • Aemond Targaryen x fem!reader]

[warnings: sex content, smut, domination kink, angst, fluff]

[description: Aemond is the bassist of the band whose leader and vocalist is his brother. The whole band decides to use the marketing and design help of their guitarist's friend. The story is an interweaving of domination, desire and slowly burning feeling.]

* English is not my first language. Please, do not repost. Enjoy! *

Previous and next chapters: Masterlist

_____

Bunny had to admit, reluctantly, that no man had ever affected her like Aemond. What he said to her when he fucked her drove her crazy with pleasure, and he knew it. Before she met him, she didn't know that such things could affect her. She had been in several relationships before, including one serious, that fell apart against her will.

She met Lucas when she was still in high school. She liked his confidence, his directness. He teased her constantly. He was tall boy with dark brown eyes and hair, and always wore hoodies.

He came from a difficult family, his father was an alcoholic. Bunny didn't know then that you can't help those who don't want help in the first place.

Lucas was constantly seeing and texting his ex-girlfriends while being with her in relationship. He even told her about it, and she endured it in silence, although the fear and humiliation that was growing in her did not let her sleep.

When she wasn't with him, he cared for her with all his being. After they became a couple, he cared less and less. Bunny noted that he liked to win, but he was tired of maintaining relationships.

Every time she tried to leave him, he would stop her, beg her not to go. He changed suddenly, he was the same as in the beginning. They then made love to each other, assuring about their feelings.

Lucas promised her he would go to therapy. He resigned after a few sessions, claiming it made no sense. He started dating his ex-girlfriends again behind her back. One day Bunny decided it was over.

Lucas came to her many times, called, begged. His sister even told her that she would regret her decision afterwards. Bunny just laughed ironically at that comment. She no longer had the strength for their self-absorbed, problematic family. No pleas helped, and she did not return to him.

What terrified her was that since she was with Aemond, Lucas had started texting her again. He first texted her the night they both changed their status to "in a relationship."

[Lucas]: Y/N, my congratulations! I hope you will be happy.

Bunny thought it was nice and wrote him back, thanking him for the words. It was a mistake.

[Lucas]: Long time no see. I miss you and your wisdom so much. I'm sorry we don't talk to each other anymore.

[Lucas]: I know you're still mad at me. I've changed, now I'm working and getting my head straight. I'd like us to be friends. You can always count on me.

Bunny stared at the screen, not knowing what to do. She didn't want him to be her friend because he had betrayed her trust many times and wasted all the chances she had given him. She didn't have the strength for him. She figured she didn't have to respond to that.

That didn't discourage him. He texted her once in a while on messenger, asking if he had offended her and if she was still mad at him. He sent her long messages describing what his life was like now and why she should give him another chance, if only as a friend.

However, after Bunny stayed with Aemond and his family, Lucas outdid himself. He had come to one of their concerts, apparently following the thread to the ball where Bunny worked and where he could find her.

Bunny was standing at the bar with Aemond, just ordering something after a show, when Lucas suddenly appeared in front of them, grinning widely. Bunny felt like she was about to pass out.

"Y/N!" He said happily, reaching out to her and hugging her. She hugged him lightly and released him immediately. "Great to see you! What a surprise." He said, combing his hair. Bunny knew it had nothing to do with surprise. She glanced uneasily at Aemond, who was measuring Lucas with a deadly dark stare. His face was stone.

"Aemond, this is…Lucas. My friend." She said emphatically, looking at Lucas meaningfully. He laughed at her words.

"You don't have to be so cold. I already got my lesson.” He said, extending his hand to Aemond. He looked at him dispassionately and took a sip from his glass. Only seeing Bunny's gaze, he extended his hand and they shook awkwardly.

"You're a lucky man. Watch over her and take care of her." Lucas added, the smile never left his face. Aemond's jaw tightened in irritation at his words. Bunny cut in quickly.

"Lucas, please." She whispered, looking pleadingly at him. Lucas looked at her surprised.

"I'm not saying anything bad. I wish you only happiness." He grunted, shrugging.

"Thank you, but I don't want your wishes, Lucas. I'm begging you, it's enough." She said impatiently and horrified that Aemond was looking at him as if he wanted to kill him. Lucas blinked, clearly hurt by her words. He wanted to say something, but Aemond wouldn't let him.

"Thank you for your wishes, Lucas. Now get the fuck out, because I'm running out of patience." He said low, looking at him intensely. Lucas laughed under his breath and looked at Bunny.

"Is he hurting you? You can tell me if…” He didn't finish before Aemond started walking towards him, Bunny stopped him quickly and gave him a pleading look.

"No, Aemond! No!" Aemond looked at her, his lips pressed into a thin line. Bunny looked at Lucas, then back at him. She grabbed his hand. "Let's get out of here." She said softly.

Aemond exhaled softly, downed the rest of his drink in one gulp, and the two of them headed for the room where all the group's belongings were. Aemond glared at her as soon as they entered.

"Who the fuck was that?" He hissed through clenched teeth. Bunny looked at him pleadingly, sighing heavily.

“I… We used to be together, but I broke up with him two years ago.” She said quietly, Aemond turned his head away, furious, pacing the room nervously. "You have your past and I have mine. He's been pestering me with messages ever since we've been together, he's probably jealous…"

"What?" He cut her off, coming closer to her, looking at her incredulously. "Your ex has been texting you for weeks and you haven't told me anything?"

Bunny pursed her lips, feeling her heart pounding at how bad it sounded. She swallowed hard as she saw his furious expression.

“I didn't text him back, hoping he'd just stop. I didn't want to upset you. I'm sorry!" She said as she saw him heading towards the door and wanting to leave. She stopped him and he gave her an angry look.

"Please, don't go! Tell me everything you want, everything you think, but don't leave." She said quickly, breathing uneasily, looking at him desperately. Aemond pursed his lips.

"I'm telling you everything. I am not hiding anything from you, although I could. I could assume all this would upset you and you don't need to know everything. You want it? I'm supposed to decide for you what you should hear about?" He asked coldly. Bunny felt tears well up in her eyes, but she held them back. She felt herself shaking all over.

"No." She said softly. "I'm so sorry. I didn't want to talk about it because I don't want to think about him. Deep down I despise him. I didn't think of it that way." She said, looking pleadingly at him.

"If you want, I'll show you everything. Everything he wrote to me." She said as she unlocked her phone and launched the app.

"I don't feel like it anymore. Put on your jacket, I'll drive you home." He said flatly and left, slamming the door behind him. Bunny pursed her lips and cried softly. She stayed inside until she calmed down.

She put on her jacket with trembling hands and left, heading down the hall toward the exit. She saw that Lucas had noticed her and was walking towards her. She stopped, wanting to talk to him without witnesses.

"Did you cry? Did he do something to you?" He asked her, wanting to touch her shoulder, but she pulled away, enraged.

"I cry because of you. I asked you to leave me alone. Is that so hard to understand?" She asked reproachfully, her nose slightly clogged from crying. Lucas pursed his lips.

"Look how he treats you. As if you were his thing. You can talk and meet whoever you want." He said impatiently. Bunny looked at him angrily.

"You don't know anything about him. Don't talk about him." She said feeling a tightness in her chest.

"He's playing in a band. He'll hit a few chicks on every tour. Why are you deluding yourself?" He asked, stepping closer to her, but she stepped back and laughed.

“You don't play in a band and you got a few chicks once in a while anyway. Are you going to ask me why I was deluding myself?" She asked amused, not having the strength to cry anymore. She shook her head in disbelief.

"You asked me if we would be friends. We won't be. Stay away from me or Aemond. I've tried to be polite to you, but as usual, you don't get the refusal. Here you go, now five minutes for you where you can make yourself a victim as usual." She blurted out through pursed lips, breathing heavily.

Lucas looked down at her with a serious expression.

"I remember you differently. But do what you want. Some people like being someone's pushover." He said and turned around. Bunny started crying again.

She thought Aemond was still waiting for her, so she moved quickly, wiping her eyes. She stood dumbstruck when she saw Aemond leaning against the wall just across the aisle, smoking a cigarette.

She swallowed hard and lowered her head, realizing he had heard everything. He exhaled smoke through his nose.

"Do you want me to beat his stupid face?" He asked, taking another drag on his cigarette. Bunny shook her head slowly.

Aemond looked at her and was silent for a moment. He held out his hand to her and she literally ran over to him, hugging him tightly. He had one arm around her, stroking her hair.

"I'm so sorry. Don't be angry." She said softly as she snuggled into his chest. His scent filled her lungs pleasantly. She felt herself shaking in despair.

"I'm sorry too." He said exhaling smoke through his nose, tilting his head back. "I don't know if I was angry with you or that you had someone before me." He added finally.

Bunny looked at him in surprise. She took his free hand in hers and pressed it to her cheek. Aemond looked at her gently.

"I am only yours." She whispered softly, kissing his hand reverently. Aemond shivered.

"Only mine?" He asked softly, as if he wanted to know if he had heard correctly. His thumb brushed over her lips and she nodded. Aemond leaned toward her.

“Good. Because I'm not going to share you with anyone." He purred, grabbing the nape of her neck and sliding his tongue into her mouth, kissing her hungrily and intensely.

Bunny moaned softly, her lips parting, allowing him to caress her, responding to his every kiss. She clenched her hands on his Tshirt, pressing her lips to him tighter, they kissed chaotically and passionately. Aemond broke away from her with a wet sound, looking down at her.

"Do you want to go to my car?" He asked low, looking at her expectantly. Bunny's lips parted and she blushed in surprise at this ambiguous proposition.

She glanced quickly to the side and saw that his car was parked in a shady little alley, unlit. Virtually no one passed by. She looked at him again and nodded.

They both crossed the street, holding hands. Aemond opened the back door and sat in the seat, drawing her with him. He slammed the door and, without waiting for anything, took off her sweater. Bunny squealed in surprise and tried to cover herself with her hands, but Aemond wouldn't let her.

"No. No covering up. It's all mine, remember?" He asked feisty, running the tip of his tongue over her nipple. Bunny moaned softly, tilting her head back at the sensation. Aemond smirked and pulled her buttocks closer to him, now pressing against his swollen cock in his pants.

"Look what you're doing to me, babygirl." He murmured, his hands stroking her back, his mouth sucking and licking her breast. Bunny moaned softly, rubbing against him slowly. He smiled in satisfaction at the feeling.

“I could fuck you all night if you wanted to. I wouldn't pull my cock out of you." He said low, running his tongue along her neck, moving towards her ear. He felt her shiver at his words. "Would you like that?"

Bunny's lips parted slightly, her hands tightening on his jacket and hair, her hips rubbing steadily against him, seeking any source of pressure. She swallowed silently, feeling her heart pounding as her wetness trickled down her thighs. Her lower lip trembled.

“...Yes” She whispered, embarrassed. He grabbed her hair gently and kissed her hungrily. His fingers moved aside the material of her panties, massaging her clit, sinking in the juices flowing from her. Bunny moaned loudly, feeling his touch where she needed it, her hips matching the movement of his hand.

"Tell me what you want, little one." He purred, feeling her desperation. He felt like his cock would explode if he didn't enter her soon. He was full of admiration for the way she affected him, how susceptible she was to what he was doing to her. Bunny gasped softly at his words, all red.

"I…Oh, Aemond" She moaned softly, her hands reaching for his belt and starting to undo it. He grabbed her wrists, not letting her.

"M-m. Ask nicely and you'll get what you want." He said low and menacing as he continued to massage her with his other hand. Her wet, hot cunt throbbed all over under his fingers. Bunny pressed her forehead against his, feeling she was on edge. She opened her mouth in despair, unable to focus anymore.

"Please, put it in me." She whispered and moaned loudly as she felt his finger slid inside her, moving in and out in a fast, intense rhythm, rubbing against the places that gave her the greatest pleasure.

"Just like that? Is that what you want?" He asked teasingly, breathing quickly, smiling at the corner of his mouth. Bunny moaned in despair, knowing he was teasing her.

"No, please, fuck me, fuck me with your cock" She sobbed, defeated, red with embarrassment, on the verge of orgasm. Aemond groaned low, looking at her with satisfaction.

He took his finger out of her and quickly unzipped his pants, sliding them down just enough to reveal his swollen, lust-throbbing cock for her.

"Here you go. All for you.” He grunted, looking at her expectantly. He moaned into her mouth as she kissed him greedily, his hands helping her push away the fabric of her panties as she began to push against him.

They both moaned loudly as she lowered herself onto him, all the way to the top, filling herself completely. She rested her hands on his shoulders, bouncing up and down on him, seeking her fulfillment.

Aemond's hands tightened on her hips, forcing her to pick up speed, her buttocks hitting his thighs with great force. They both moaned and gasped with pleasure, feeling that their every move pressed and rubbed where they wanted it. Her breasts rose and fell with a wet sound, Aemond parting her lips with his thumb, looking at her with lust.

"Tell me who this sweet, tight pussy belongs to, babygirl." He panted, thrusting in her hard, listening to her sweet moans that were music to his ears. He felt her clinging on him. She was so tight he knew it was only a few more thrusts and she would come. His hands trailed down her body to his swollen cock relentlessly.

"To you, God, Aemond, I'm only yours" She mumbled in pleasure, riding him with all her might, rubbing herself in a place that sent shivers down her spine.

"Do you like it when I take what's mine? Hm?” He asked, panting heavily, his thrusts getting sharper, uncontrollable and chaotic.

"Yes, yes, it feels so good…Ah!" She moaned loudly, throwing her head back, feeling a wonderful orgasm run through her body, heat spreading through her muscles, giving her instant relief.

Aemond moaned loudly, pressing his face between her breasts and coming hard inside her. They were both panting and writhing under each other in pleasure as his semen spilled over her. Aemond pulled her close, kissing her neck and hair tenderly. His hand ran down her bare back. Bunny shivered hearing his voice.

"Don't be fooled that I'll let you sleep tonight."

_____

If you want to be tagged, leave a comment below. ♥

@zenka69 @melsunshine @opheliaas-stuff @chainsawsangel @iiamthehybrid @astral-blossoms @echos-muses @wintrr13 @writingaboutlove1998

[hologramcowboy]

Jake Abel was seen in a picture with Jensen and he has his son there. There are lots of children there I’m sure as it is a family friendly place.

There’s plenty of things for kids to do at a brewery that don’t involve them just sitting, twiddling their thumbs and watching their parents drink. Good grief.

Sorry anon, there is a big difference - Jake stopped by for a beer or two with his kid (and probably his wife) and no one even knew he was going to be there. In contrast, any time there is an event at the brewery his stans show up in the hopes to meet him. Even worse, Jensen announced a few days earlier that he would be there (via his brewery law petition vid) so even more probably showed up than usual. And since its his business he should technically be working, or at the very least helping out (heck, even D looked like she was at least pretending to help...) and yet still brought his young children. Where he KNEW he would be swarmed by stans. Stans who would undoubtedly take pics every time they saw him, including when he is with his kids (there are already pics out there). Don't act like you are so protective and private of your children and then bring them to what is a glorified fan event. This is not the first FBBC event they've had or that he's been to, he knows what to expect, yet still made that choice. It IS actually very different from what Jake did.

And having a playground at the brewery does NOT mean it is a safe environment for his own children to be in given how many stans are there and their level of obsession with him and his family. So there may be "plenty of things for kids to do at a brewery" for others who show up, by not for a celeb who KNOWS 100% that his stans will be there in full force.

Thank you for explaining that with far more patience than I ever could have. Jake was just passing through, Jensen and Danneel, however, were full aware of their "clientele". In my humble opinion, even if they kept the kids in the back of whatever, those kids should not be exposed to negative energy and stressful environments.

Like you brilliantly pointed out, a brewery is just not a place for a child of a semifamous celebrity.

I'm really baffled by Jensen's lack of awareness, I mean is his security team not doing their job? Because any good security team would point out blindspots and dangerous contexts. Those kids deserve a happy, care free life as they are innocent and should not be exposed to people with questionable energy. Not saying everyone there was negative minded because that would be generalizing but those who follow the Ackles around out of obsession, yikes.

The thing I am most baffled by is how Jensen keeps pushing his personal life upon people and then they both turn around and complain people are invasive. Daniel Day Lewis is an extremely private man, that's just one example. My point is, if you want a private life that is private you can have one even when semifamous like J/D. The Ackles keep trying to leverage the way they appeal to cray cray fans as if that was a KPI for fame. 🤣🤦🏼‍♀️ They are purposefully putting themselves in ridiculous, risky situations and then victimizing about it so they can show how "famous" or "wanted" they are. Fairly certain Meryl Streep doesn't share stalker stories to get attention and she doesn't put her family at risk. Just saying, the Ackles are acting like trashy UK reality tv star wannabes not like actual VIPs. There's a sense of entitlement mixed with very clear desperation. Jensen invited people to an event, implying he would be there all the way and then acted as if people had the plague or he was above them. For his sake, I hope he hires a pr specialist and listens to the wisdom said person will impart because he is absolutely disastrous when it comes to brand building, image and building a connection with his audience. Arrogance is a very bad choice that will easily hurt his casting chances.

[abyssmalice]

(a continuation of the other post bc Gotta Ramble About Trees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! said me, #1 Irminsul Fan Since Day 1 Of This God Damn Game-)

tonitonis vs nahidie vs rhukkie

i hc the difference between the two tonis and Nahida is this:

the two tonis know exactly what they are to Irminsul - they are human-originating, independent branches of the great tree.

due to their initial circumstances of gaining its favor (revival and op powers) in exchange for serving it, Irminsul as the entity views the two as branches of itself. however, technically speaking, the two are not literal parts of Irminsul, more "grafted" with a portion of itself.

Nahida, while being a pure branch of Irminsul, was expressly "cut off" from Irminsul to prevent her from being contaminated from the get-go by forbidden knowledge by Rhukkadevata - and even then, this truth was erased with the retconning of world history, to Nahida "simply having amnesia due to using up all of her powers during the Calamity" rather than being a separate successor.

as such, while Nahida has the abilities to interface with Irminsul much like the two tonis, she is not considered a "part" of Irminsul - both literally and as per the Irminsul etntity. she is her own, essentially very small and independent tree.

as such, Nahida is not bound by Irminsul's rules for itself or its proxies. neither does she have (immediate; she can learn, with time) access to the tree's more esoteric secrets.

now, the difference between the tonis and Rhukkadevata:

Rhukkadevata had similar conditions as the tonis - she was, after all, Irminsul's avatar at the time. to be precise, she was a part of Irminsul's mess of a clusterfuck personality that wanted to and did intervene in the world.

her focus was the betterment of the world - the desire and the hope that Irminsul's power and knowledge could lead to greater happiness and prosperity for the people that carved the history Irminsul watches. the idea that non-intervention, while alright, was the lesser step to take. that it would simply be better to lend its presence to the world that Irminsul, somewhere, surely did love.

in other words, she was a true part of Irminsul - both biologically and to the Irminsul entity - who was given a free pass on ignoring Irminsul's baseline restrictions.

biased? cheating? maybe. lmao. whoever said irminsul was fair and impartial all the way through its long existence, huh? to have a sense of ego means the capability of being egoistic, after all.

nonetheless, Rhukkadevata didn't want to go overboard and just dump every bit of advanced and esoteric knowledge on the world. she truly hoped to encourage the joy and discipline of learning, of the richness of gaining wisdom itself. you could say as such that she was hand-holding humanity as it learnt to walk - helping surely, but ultimately, the effort of standing and putting one foot forward after another was from the people itself. she gave her knowledge (cheat codes) only when the people were truly stumped.

also, on the hypothetical premise rhukka is still around in the same room as the tonis - yes, the tonis are sorta subservient to rhukka in status. not by a whole lot, but still lol

DAINSLEIF THE TWLIGHT SWORD AKA THIS YOUNG MAN THINKS HE'S OLD? LOL HAHA WATCH THIS SAID TINY TONI SLAMMING 100000 YEARS OF KNOWLEDGE INTO THEIR HEAD-

not much info on dainsleif is around currently so this is PURELY 10000% hc and speculation based

specifically, the idea that dainsleif has merged with irminsul in some fashion.

if that's the case, dainsleif is in a very funny position of being Junior Leyline Intern to his senior tonitoni leyline gofers. well in my head he is anyway.

i like to think dainsleif tried to use the leylines to help with his curse, and got cool leyline powers and the ability to observe the world and it's history through it. but this wasn't necessarily bc Irminsul the entity actually determined so - more a case of dainsleif making use of the leylines, much in the same way man figures out how to cook meat with fire, combining whatever man-made or man-learnt knowledge there is towards an advancement.

aka in simpler words dainsleif just did some shit with the leylines and got some stuff out of it on his own. he's not considered a part of Irminsul and is not obligated to serve it.

that said, by being able to peer through the leylines, he's possibly aware of the two tonis and them having some kind of connection to the great tree.

tiny toni the harbingy vs tiny toni the irminsul gofer vs the world

you'd think Irminsul would be more pissed about Tonia being a Harbinger and using her Irminsul-gifted endurance and abilities for what essentially amounts to warmongering with Celestia - but tbh they don't care that much? lol

as previously noted, Irminsul doesn't care if people discover the secrets of the tree and might scientific advancements based on Irminsul - if they get to these things on their own, without Irminsul or its proxies giving away these things themselves.

as such, they will tolerate if civilizations learn to divine knowledge from the leylines and flourish upon the roots - they will tolerate if, say, Abyss Mages tend to take cuttings and sprouts of the tree for elemental usage they otherwise wouldn't have - if third-parties capitalize on the tree and its parts on their own, with their own hands and on their own two feet.

it's why they weren't too bothered when the younger Tonia was taken in by Dottore and experimented on - as long as she didn't say shit herself, didn't give away any knowledge or secrets, they were more or less turning a blind eye. Tonia, after all, is a "branch" of Irminsul. a part of it. that can be studied on, much less like any inanimate part of the tree. she just has the ability to walk and talk and think for herself, which Irminsul was only watching to see if she would leak anything she shouldn't.

callous? certainly. tho, not to say some part of Irminsul wasn't very offended by all of this - surely, some part of it was ragingly upset. remember, they aren't wholly nor perfectly cohesive in terms of having a mind of its own. however, if they were to do anything about it at this point, that would defeat the whole point of putting down a non-interventionist baseline for themselves.

that said, it would seem paradoxical for Irminsul to not care about what happens after - that Tonia had massacred hundreds in her futile jailbreak (one life has so many ripples as is), that she became a Harbinger after and leans on her Irminsul side for her duties. in a sense, it should seem like Irminsul is intervening in the world. she is, after all, paving history with Irminsul's powers.

Irminsul is aware the situation is more complicated for her - Tonia was and is still a young child, only ending up killing all those people due to being mentally out of it from being put through more duress than any normal person would. she was brought forward to the Tsaritsa as a possible tool and as a vulnerable child. none of this occurred with her as a servant and proxy of Irminsul itself.

Tonia's actions and choices that followed were not motivated nor based upon her connections to Irminsul. they were purely due to the girl's personal desires and interests, her human side and not the side that must be devoted to Irminsul.

at the very least, that is the argument that some parts of Irminsul - and her elder counterpart, who holds a fair amount of sway with Irminsul - make for the young girl.

so long as Tonia doesn't cause dramatic changes to the world in her role as Irminsul's servant - not as a person of Teyvat, not as a Harbinger - then fine, they can let things (barely) slide for now.

in any case, the younger Tonia is viewed funnily by Irminsul - as a serving branch at minimum, yes. but she's also considered something of an ineffective branch (has no real will to live, only doing her duties bc she simply has to), and requires putting some resources into being coddled (for the parts of Irminsul that advocate for tiny toni to do whatever she wants bc they don't like feeling regret and also that's a kid!!!! ya stupid heads have some heart and morals!!!!).

[longing-for-rain]

I originally did not intend to respond to this, because on a first reading, it appeared to be yet another hypocritical and thoughtless take from a Kataang shipper and I wasn’t in the mood to beat a dead horse.

However, a fellow one of your Kataang fans brought this post back to my attention recently, prompting me to read it more closely. You see, even fellow fans of your ship are blown away by the delusional takes in this post, including comparing Zuko to a slave owner and neo-Nazi for calling Aang a goody-two-shoes. I do stand by my initial assessment, but this is so much worse. Not only are you reiterating the most tired takes I’ve seen over the years, but you’ve added the insult of downplaying real world issues while pretending you’re doing the opposite.

In light of this, and the fact that you barfed this up all over my post and blog, I felt that it warranted a formal response.

To summarize, you’ve once again demonstrated the original point I made: that fans tend to have a hypocritical view of Aang and Zuko as a result of their respective demeanors more so than their actions. Aang appears childlike and upbeat and flighty, while Zuko is pragmatic and reserved and direct. As a result, Zuko’s actions are often held to adult standards by fans while analogous actions by Aang are brushed off as “he’s just a kid” despite the fact that the same fans seem to simultaneously believe that Aang is more mature and that his “wisdom” should be deferred to by all other characters—even adults and mentor figures.

Also: a word of advice for you, @leantailean . If you didn’t want to “start a conversation,” maybe you should have made your own post, instead of posting this mess of a take that you didn’t even bother to spell-check on mine.

This is getting pretty long since multiple issues got thrown in here, but I did my best to organize and break it down. Anyone, feel free to send an ask if there is any point you’re interested in a deeper analysis of. Happy to help.

I. Behavior in Romantic Contexts

Firstly, I think it’s important to address the theme of hypocrisy that your response is rife with. You begin by accusing me of making light of sexual harassment by correctly applying the definition to a situation in which it fits, and later proceed to liken Zuko to a neo-Nazi and slave owner for making harmless comments towards Aang—I’ll explain in detail below why his comments are quite benign and don’t warrant the extreme analogies applied.

The way you generally characterize Aang and Zuko’s actions respectively speaks to your bias in favor of Aang. As mentioned previously, Aang is simultaneously postured as an innocent child who didn’t know any better, and an arbiter of ancient wisdom who is above questioning.

And you can claim you’re not excusing his misogynistic behavior all you want, but the fact that you don’t consider a) demanding to know if your crush likes you back, b) getting angry and pushy when she doesn’t want to talk about it, and c) forcing a kiss on her after all that, to be toxic masculinity says a lot. I understand that outwardly Aang looks like a little boy and Zuko looks like an adult and this often confuses people, but let’s please look at how they actually behave. Toxic men like Aang in real life also tend to get a pass if people perceive them as less manly. And let’s be honest here; if the roles were reversed and Zuko behaved exactly like Aang in that situation, you likely wouldn’t hesitate to act like he was some kind of rapist (given that you make those insinuations over far milder actions, which I’ll get into later).

Another instance I’d like to point to occurs in B1E16: The Deserter. In this episode, Aang carelessly firebends and burns Katara in the process, after deliberately ignoring the advice a master firebender had given him (because he, of course, knows better than everyone, a trait of his that continues throughout the show. See below for more examples). Fans universally forgive Aang for this because “he didn’t know better” or “he felt bad about it” which I attribute to his demeanor more than anything else. He acts like a goofy child, so fans are inclined to forgive him like they’d forgive a child. Meanwhile, the same arguments could easily by made for any of Zuko’s actions: that he was a child brainwashed under fascism who didn’t know better, that he was traumatized, and that he clearly regretted what he did. However, Zuko doesn’t act like a silly child; he’s more stoic, more introverted, and approaches problems directly. Therefore, despite his active efforts to recognize and correct his flaws and Aang’s lack thereof, fans still portray Zuko as a morally darker character due to surface-level appearances.

In this way, I observe that Aang stans are very much like Aang: they say the most horribly insensitive things, and are willing to “forgive” the most horrible actions while nothing fundamentally changes, and they get angry at people who confront things directly and are actually willing to fight for what’s right, even if it doesn’t lead to happy circle time for everyone in the end. Because that’s how the real world works. No wonder people like you are so drawn to him.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the way you’ve excused Aang’s treatment of Katara.

You stated:

Aang’s kiss is not an example of toxic musculinity. It was a stupid, immature act of a child who did not understand at the time that he could not harm Katara with this.

Interesting. Keep in mind, this occurs during the penultimate episode of the show. So, Aang is too immature to understand that forcing intimate activity on someone could be harmful, but he’s simultaneously all-knowing and wise enough to tell Katara to forgive the man who murdered her mother? Which is it? Is he too young to know better, or is he wise enough that people who have seen much more of the world than him should defer to him for moral guidance? Don’t worry; I’ll get to the immaturity and hypocrisy in Aang’s morality later. Also, you should probably look up “masculinity” rather than “musculinity.” Spelling it correctly might lead you to a more reliable source than whatever nonsense you’ve been reading.

You then make these comments:

Katara and Aang had already kissed twice before.

Are you really saying that if Aang had deliberately assumed that it would offend Katara, he would still have kissed her because "she is his property"?

Again, this really speaks to the insulting lengths you are willing to reach in your attempts to downplay what Aang did to Katara. You really think that a pre-established relationship (which Katara and Aang did not have, by the way) is justification to violate someone like that? It is a widely established legal precedent in most jurisdictions that an existing relationship between two parties—even a marriage—does not negate the need for consent. See, for example: “A prior relationship does not indicate consent to future activity” (Title IX.A.1.3.(c)). Also, given the context of the scene: I do, in fact, believe that Aang regarded Katara as his property on some level. Let’s examine the full context, including their prior “relationship” leading up to this incident.

Firstly, we see Aang starting to experience jealousy at the mere idea of Katara having a relationship with Zuko because of two actors in a silly play. Let’s see how our wise arbiter of sacred wisdom responds to such a transgression:

(B3E17: The Ember Island Players)

Interesting. Aang does seem to think that Katara is “his girl” (e.g. a possession) despite having no prior relationship with her. He is actively offended by the idea of her being the slightest bit interested in another man, despite this fact. How does that not indicate a possessive attitude?

Now, let’s take a look at Katara’s response to the ridiculous accusations Aang makes towards her, now that we’ve established how he’s feeling at that moment.

(B3E17: The Ember Island Players)

It’s right there in the script, and if you watch the scene, the body language amplifies the message: this is a girl trying to let down a crush easily, and he refuses to let her. Aang didn’t realize he was hurting her, you say? It couldn’t be more obvious from Katara’s words and body language here that she isn’t interested. She doesn’t want a relationship with him at the moment. She tells him that nearly verbatim; read the script. She certainly doesn’t want a kiss to be forced on her. And Aang does it anyway.

Why? Well, see above. He’s angry at the idea of Katara getting with another man. Despite the fact that he isn’t dating her, he feels a sense of possessiveness over her and given the context, I think it’s pretty obvious that this kiss was his attempt to establish his control and get what he wanted. His frustration is not a display of regret for hurting Katara; it is frustration that he didn’t get his way. This is how it’s framed in the show; no emphasis is placed on Katara’s hurt, rather, the (male) showrunners expect the audience to empathize with Aang for ruining his chance (i.e. not getting what he wants). I reiterate: prime toxic masculinity. Just because he wore a flower crown once doesn’t mitigate that, and it doesn’t mitigate the fact that what he did falls under the definition of sexual harassment and aggression (note: I feel the need to clarify this because I’m clearly dealing with someone with backwards views on the subject, but just because something doesn’t rise to the level of rape or violent sexual assault, that doesn’t mean it cannot be considered sexual harassment).

Now, let’s examine your characterization of Zuko’s behavior.

First of all, I think your characterization of Zuko shoving Ruon-Jian in B3E5: The Beach as “using physical and emotional violence and insults” is dishonest. The way you phrase this, in context, implies that he directed these things at Mai, which is not the case. Zuko was still out of line, but at least his aggression is not directed towards Mai herself, but another man who he (incorrectly, for clarity) views as a threat. Meanwhile, Aang just takes out his jealousy on Katara…physically. He also threatens going into the Avatar State, which has been shown to be dangerous and destructive, and Katara is almost always tasked with talking him down from it at risk of physical harm to herself. Another key difference here is that the narrative of the show holds Zuko accountable, but doesn’t hold Aang accountable. He never even properly addresses the issue of control over the Avatar State; a lucky rock does it for him.

Additionally, I never said Zuko’s behavior in this episode was not toxic. If you bothered to read what I said previously, I pointed out that this episode is meant to represent Zuko at his lowest. This is Zuko at his most toxic, unhealthy state. The reason why I like Zuko as opposed to Aang is that Zuko’s entire story revolves around change, while Aang is never challenged in any meaningful capacity, as will be detailed later.

I also think it’s important to reiterate here that in the scene you cited in B3E5: The Beach, while Zuko’s outburst is unwarranted, he directs it at Ruon-Jian. Zuko is not physically violent towards Mai at all, which your phrasing heavily implies. The worst Zuko does is call Mai “a big blah” which yes, is mean, but violence? I’m intrigued by your definition of “violence” if this qualifies but Aang’s actions do not.

As for your assertion that Zuko “brazenly initiate[s] physical contact, ignoring her legitimate annoyance of him,” …even the gif you put there makes this characterization laughably absurd. Literally watch that gif. The supposed “brazen physical contact” is Zuko offering his arm to Mai and immediately pulling away when she declines. So, he’s quite literally paying very close attention to the situation and respecting her boundaries. Something Aang very clearly didn’t do as I explained above. Zuko asks permission and responds to Mai’s cues; Aang is presented with a boundary and forces his way past it.

It’s also worth noting that while Katara reacts with unmistakable shock and fear to Aang’s actions, Mai does not react that way with Zuko, at all. Zuko is bigger, physically stronger, and a firebender, and yet…Mai has no issue at all slapping his hand away and telling him off. She clearly has no fear at all of him, because despite your insistence on trying to imply that Zuko is some kind of evil, selfish wifebeater, the person in an intimate relationship with him very clearly understands that he would never behave violently towards her, even when he’s as hurt and angry as he is in that episode.

Even at his most toxic point, Zuko still manages to exhibit more capacity for self-reflection and respect for women’s boundaries than Aang does at the end of the series. Just look at the facts, and face it—the reason why Aang’s actions are forgiven over Zuko’s is because on the surface, he is more outgoing and carefree.

It’s also worth noting that fan hypocrisy with respect to Aang and Zuko is not unique; there are many other examples in ATLA. For example, Mai is largely considered more villainous than Ty Lee despite their actions in favor of the Fire Nation being nearly identical—but again, Ty Lee seems so sweet and friendly on the surface, so she’s forgiven more easily. Similarly, Sokka is largely given a pass for his misogyny because he’s “funny” while Katara is often demonized over the slightest misstep because she’s generally a more serious and responsible character (and, of course, female).

II. Racism

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about how wildly hypocritical your characterization of Zuko’s “racist” comments are. And yes, I know you are hung up on the fact that I put the word “racist” in quotes, but I stand by that. You have to really reach to act like those were racially motivated comments, and reach even harder to apply the preposterous and downright offensive comparison you made. Even if these comments were meant to be personal attacks against the Air Nomads (which they weren’t), they are criticizing Aang’s beliefs, not his race. A belief system is chosen (especially in this instance, because it comes off more as Aang’s personal values rather than something universally believed by the Air Nomads), while race is not chosen. Big difference, and they shouldn’t be conflated.

Now, let’s look at the two comments in question:

(B3E16: The Southern Raiders)

This is just simple logic. Zuko is pointing out that Aang is very young and has limited experience, which is objectively true. He went straight from being taken care of by the monks to being taken care of by Katara (and Sokka, but let’s be honest Katara did everything). I don’t see what’s racist about telling a child he’s acting naïve and should stop reciting proverbs he probably did learn in the in-universe equivalent of preschool. Can you imagine if a twelve-year-old from a completely different culture started lecturing morality to you based on what his teacher told him in sixth grade humanities class last week? Can you imagine, in that scenario, said child telling you that you are best off forgiving someone who murdered your family? Frankly, I would have been a lot less understanding than Zuko was in that context.

(B3E16: The Southern Raiders)

Again…okay? So? This is just calling someone “goody two-shoes.” There is no racial implication here. In-universe, a Guru is just a person who is a spiritual expert (and, while it’s real-world origin is in Hinduism, the term is typically applied more broadly than that to mean any kind of expert (x)). In fact, the only person addressed as a Guru in the show is Guru Pathik, who isn’t an Air Nomad (and whose advice Aang largely disregards when it challenges his personal wants). So if you interrogate what Zuko actually is saying here, he’s calling Aang preachy and childish. Which, again, is a completely fair assessment, and not racial in nature.

So now that those comments are out of the way, I just want to reiterate that you compared things as benign as this to slavery and the Holocaust. I can also tell from the abundance of profanity in this section that your hatred of Zuko is pretty personal regarding this point. I’m definitely going to drag you for that a bit more in a minute here but let’s make one thing clear: Calling someone a “goody two-shoes” is nowhere on the same level—the same galaxy—as justifying or mocking a genocide. You must have as little respect for these topics as you do for the topic of sexual harassment if you think even bringing them up regarding Zuko’s comments is warranted.

So, let’s look at exactly what you say:

Imagine white boy from a rich southern family, whose grand grand father was a slave master mocking black boy for his beliefs and culture. Or a grand-grandson of SS officer making fun of Jewish religion and traditions. How it looks to you now?

“How it looks to you now” yeah, this just looks like you being as exceptionally immature as your precious little baby boy. Did you really think this makes you look better? You just compared “goody-two-shoes” to slavery and the Holocaust. I think it’s time for you to do a little self reflection here, and maybe get off the Internet for a while.

Aang had every right to punch him in the face after this, and only to Aang's forgiving nature and his concern for Katara Zuko should be grateful that he was not kicked out of the group after such words.

In the same episode, Aang tells Katara she should forgive the man who murdered her mother. If anyone is in need of a face-punching, it’s Aang. Consider how this would fit in with your insensitive little Holocaust analogy. You made that point, so think about how what Aang said to Katara would fit into that analogy. Imagine a sheltered child telling you that you should forgive someone who committed genocide against your people and personally murdered your mother. Imagine that child trying to humanize that person and telling you it’s wrong to wish death on them. Apply that to the analogy you just made, go on. How would that make a person whose family suffered genocide feel to hear? Go on, tell me.

Oh and by the way, since you clearly want to see Zuko get struck in the face and banished for offending you so badly…I’ve got some good news for you. Maybe you and Ozai should discuss parenting. (Sorry, that one was a joke but the irony was too good).

Is Aang part of the family and the people who destroyed Katara's culture and killed her parents? Or was he himself part of the army not so long ago, which was actively engaged in this?

This is in response to me pointing out that Aang really doesn’t seem to have much respect for other cultures, namely Katara’s. Interesting. So instead of actually addressing any point here, you deflect by accusing Zuko of being guilty of the actions of his ancestors, despite the fact that he actively stood up to his father, risking death in the process, to fight against his own people. Very interesting. Personally, I don’t subscribe to the idea of tainted blood and don’t hold people accountable for things their family did. Especially when, you know…the person in question was actively abused and disfigured by said family. Zuko was abused by the same people and ideology you’re accusing him of promoting. I also don’t see how this alleged guilt on Zuko’s part negates Aang’s disrespect towards Katara’s culture. Zuko’s whole arc is about unlearning the harmful ideas he was raised with while Aang is never challenged. A common theme here, it seems.

You also excuse Aang’s selfishness over not being the center of attention on the basis of his age. Are Katara and Sokka not young too? Why are we supposed to give Aang a pass and not Katara (e.g. when she was annoyed that Aang refused to help with chores because he’d rather entertain fangirls in B1E4: The Warriors of Kyoshi)? By the same token, why is Zuko held to adult standards when the argument could easily be made that he too reacts to situations as a result of enduring trauma at his young age? (I know why, we covered this above).

Finally, I also want to point out…the entirety of B2E7: Zuko Alone. Watch that whole episode and tell me Zuko is this awful racist monster you’re making him out to be. This episode represents Zuko at a low point in his life, where he’s humiliated and brought low but still clinging to the idea that he’s entitled to respect from others because he’s royalty. Despite this, Zuko very clearly holds respect for the “peasants” of an enemy nation. He’s starving and refuses to take anything from a pregnant woman. He covers for some stupid kids throwing eggs at soldiers. He feels genuine compassion and sorrow for a family who lost a son and relates it to his own experience of losing Lu Ten—Zuko fundamentally views these as people just like him, even when he’s still stuck in the toxic mindset of his upbringing. It will always be more a more powerful story to be raised under wrong and abusive ideas and actively work against them than it is to have a healthy upbringing. Even though I’m comparing these characters relatively one-to-one, I want to emphasize this context. As a result, Zuko’s actions inherently speak to a much stronger moral backbone.

So again, it’s clear to me that this hatred of Zuko is coming from a place of hypocrisy. Any action of Aang’s is brushed off as a mistake, forgivable, or excused by the fact that he’s traumatized. I barely touched the issue of the Avatar State and the danger he poses to others, but I can if you’d like. Meanwhile, you cherry-pick Zuko’s actions, remove the context (such as his intervention to motivate everyone to actually begin preparing for Ozai’s genocide—you can put that quote up all you want, but you still completely ignored the context), and exaggerate them to the point of vilifying him as some kind of racist monster. A teenage boy, who went against his own father and people, who left a life of luxury behind and risked death instead because he knew it was right. Sure, maybe he didn’t put on a flower crown. Maybe he doesn’t act like a silly child. But his actions speak to a powerful character of his, and display a solid sense of informed moral backbone, which Aang is lacking.

III. Actions of Children?

Next, I want to point to how well you further illustrate the hypocrisy in your characterization of Zuko’s actions in comparison to the other characters. I stand by my point that you refer to other characters as “children” but not Zuko, despite him being in their same age range. I want to make it clear that in all of the comparisons I’m presenting here, I’m not trying to argue that Zuko was in the right. Merely, I am illustrating the point that while on the wrong side of the war, Zuko never did anything above and beyond what was necessary to win the war. He genuinely believed he was right, and carried out his supposed duties honorably, and later saw the truth behind the war and turned against his nation.

With that out of the way, here are the unforgivable crimes that Zuko commits, in your words:

Tie up a girl to a tree, leverage on her using her late mother’s neckless, hiring a killer to kill 12 yo kid, all of these too much to be called just a childish mistake, and these go beyond whatever mistakes Aang, Toph, Katara or Sokka did.

Alright. Let’s take a look at some things Aang and his allies did, for comparison. Restraining a captive is an unforgivable sin, you say?

Oops. Looks like Zuko’s tied up too (and knocked unconscious). Because, you know…it’s what you do when you want to non-violently prevent an enemy combatant from attacking you. I’m not saying Zuko didn’t deserve it in this case, but saying this to illustrate the point that trying to portray this action as unforgivable is absurd. I won’t go into detail here, but I strongly dislike the way many fans try to give some kind of sexual assault connotation to the scene with Katara, which I can sense you’re implying here. That’s just your internalized misogyny talking; that connotation is almost never given to the exact same situation involving a male character, like Zuko in the scene pictured above…or multiple other incidents involving Sokka and Aang. Don’t act like Zuko is a monster just because you’re misogynistic enough to automatically put sexual connotations on any situation in which a woman is in a powerless position. Seriously.

Onto the next thing. Engaging in trickery to serve a purpose? Disrespecting someone’s culture in the process? That’s kind of Aang’s whole approach to conflict, in case you haven’t noticed.

Firstly, on the topic of cultural significance, Zuko had no way of knowing what that necklace meant to Katara. To him, it was just a necklace with her scent on it that the shirshu could track. Even then, Zuko didn’t destroy or harm the necklace, even though he easily could have in anger like he threatened to burn the waterbending scroll. But he didn’t; in fact, in contrast to true villains like Zhao, Zuko did not threaten bodily harm against Katara in that situation. Watch the scene; she is clearly angry more than anything and certainly doesn’t seem like she’s afraid Zuko will physically hurt her. Because again…he’s never been the type to hurt someone who is helpless, not even in Book 1. Now, let’s talk about something Aang did that is frequently overlooked:

Remember this? B1E11: The Great Divide. Bad episode, I know, but it’s still canon, and did you ever consider how disrespectful it was of Aang to reduce a significant tribal conflict to two toddlers playing a ball game? What gives a twelve year old child the right to decide he knows better than these ancient tribes he’s never heard of and their histories? But, he got his way in the end, so that’s all that matters I guess. This really speaks to Aang’s approach to problems in general; he comes up with a solution that seems all happy fun and games, but eventually the truth, the reality will get in the way and make things back to how they were, or worse. Anyways.

The last one is pretty serious. Hiring an assassin. Committing actions that the character knows will bring harm to others, because they are in such an emotionally volatile state and don’t know what else to do with themselves. I agree, Zuko was very wrong to do that; in fact, I don’t think anyone is harder on Zuko than Zuko himself about it. Now, let’s consider an event (or rather, a pattern) in which Aang endangers the lives of others due to his own emotional volatility.

B2E11: The Desert. You even brought up this incident yourself, in an effort to characterize Aang as a poor little kid who did no wrong. Did you ever consider the gravity of this situation? Imagine if Katara wasn’t there. Aang could have very well killed all these sandbenders, like he did at the North Pole. Very interesting behavior from a supposed pacifist, if you ask me. See the wreckage in this screencap? Ruins of sand gliders that Aang smashed, some of which he destroyed before he even went into the Avatar State. Keep in mind, not all of these sandbenders were responsible for stealing Appa. Only one of them was, and the rest had no idea. Aang could have very well killed them in anger, guilty and innocent alike. In fact, the act of destroying their means of transportation through the harsh desert is bad enough as it is; they could have been left stranded. But, you seem dead-set on taking the absolute most favorable view of anything Aang does, while doing the opposite with Zuko.

Just look at what you said here, for instance:

Not to mention the fact that Zuko doesn't really care about Katara, he never once thought about her, about her kindness shown to him in the crystal catacombs, or about the pain he caused her - neither before nor after his redemption. He literally didn't care, he didn't feel guilty in front of her for a minute and wouldn't have brought up this issue of her forgiveness at all if Katara hadn't behaved towards him with outright hostility, which was uncomfortable for him, because it undermined his sense that he was completely part of the team.

That’s a pretty bold assertion. What makes you think he never thought about it? We don’t know every single thing happening in Zuko’s head. The TV medium makes it impossible to know what a character is thinking unless they say it outright. If this is truly the standard you’re holding Zuko to—that characters only care about things they explicitly say out loud—please do tell me, because I’ll have a field day accusing other characters of various crimes under this logic.

And if you recall, that episode isn’t the first time Katara was outwardly hostile to Zuko. She was like that pretty much all along, including threatening him pretty explicitly when he first joined. If you think Zuko didn’t feel guilty, you misread that entire campfire scene in B3E16: The Southern Raiders. From a narrative standpoint, the entire purpose of that scene was to illustrate Zuko’s guilt. He had everyone singing his praises, and even Sokka acting like Katara was crazy for storming off. If Zuko truly didn’t care, he could have easily agreed with Sokka and written off Katara’s feelings as irrational. But he didn’t. He went to see what he could do to make it up to her, in his words, because he values Katara’s opinion of him; something that would only be meaningful if he valued Katara herself, which he very clearly does. I mean, he jumped in front of a lightning bolt for her, so arguably Zuko even values Katara above his own life.

We see how Zuko reacts when he feels guilty towards a person he cares about: he remembered iroh many times, with great pain and regret in his voice, it goes through the whole second half of the third season.

Of course we see Zuko’s reactions towards Iroh in Book 3. You know, because, Zuko is able to go and visit Iroh in prison, giving the narrative plenty of opportunities to illustrate Zuko’s internal conflict in relation to Iroh. Also, consider the fact that from Book 1, Iroh is Zuko’s most significant relationship. Iroh is Zuko’s family, his mentor, the one person that stood beside him no matter what. Of course Iroh’s relationship with Zuko would be given more time. It would be pretty absurd if any other character’s relationship with Zuko was given more attention in the limited time Book 3 had to wrap everything up.

So if Zuko had even the slightest concern about Katara personally, her feelings, or how guilty he is in front of her, we would have at least one scene where he regrets what he did in the catacombs.

We did. Multiple, in fact. That was…kind of the entire point of B3E16: The Southern Raiders. And in the other episodes in the latter half of Book 3, Zuko is constantly ridden with guilt and fighting to set things right. He knowingly becomes the biggest traitor in his nation’s history and risks his life multiple times. What would appease you, exactly? If he pulled out a whip and asked everyone to take turns beating him with it to atone? Because it seems like that’s what you’re looking for, at this point. Maybe try AO3 for that one. It’s okay; seems like lots of other people are into that sort of thing too.

Also, you say you need at least one scene to show a character truly regrets something they did? Even if there wasn’t a scene like that with Zuko (which there was—a whole episode, for starters), what about Aang? By your logic, he doesn’t see anything wrong with violating Katara’s boundaries. There is no scene where he reflects on it, and not even so much as an apology to Katara. There is no effort by the narrative to frame that infraction as character growth for Aang. At best, we see that he’s upset that he might not get the girl. Which again—selfish in nature.

Personally, Zuko’s story is more powerful to me, because in contrast to Aang, Zuko grows past his behavior. He recognizes that the fault is in his own actions, and doesn’t try to blame his circumstances. Think about the fact that Zuko never even told the others about how Ozai burned and banished him. That wasn’t the point. Zuko didn’t want pity; he only had a genuine desire to take accountability and right his wrongs. Aang’s efforts to atone for the ways he hurt people and his negligence are implied at best.

I’m not excusing anything Zuko did because I don’t need to. The entire narrative underlying Zuko’s story is accountability. What makes his character so powerful and so beloved is the fact that his upbringing and trauma led him to do some pretty bad things, but Zuko still took responsibility for his actions and fought for a better world. He never tried to use his trauma to deflect what he did. He didn’t paint himself as a victim who should be forgiven on the merits of his victimhood. He had the integrity to leave behind a life of luxury purely because he wanted to do what was right. On the other hand, Aang stans fall over themselves defending every bad action of his because his narrative is a hero’s narrative. The audience is supposed to simply accept his wrongdoings because he’s the hero, so he must not have meant it. He simply isn’t held to the same standards of accountability by the narrative, and it shows.

IV. Moral Rigidity and Aang’s Selfishness

Many fans seem to be under the misguided idea that Aang’s morality is pure and good because it is pacifistic in nature. This is a massive oversight on the very legitimate issues with this philosophy. I won’t give an exhaustive overview, because this topic has been debated and discussed in academic circles for ages, but I will touch on the drawbacks in the context of how the idea of absolute pacifism is applied in ATLA. Most importantly, I want to focus on one key concept: Aang and his fans are both under the impression that forgiveness and pacifism are a display of altruism, while in reality, they tend to manifest as extreme selfishness.

As mentioned previously, you referred to Aang’s actions as those of an immature child. I agree wholeheartedly. However, as the protagonist, I would have expected Aang to develop out of these tendencies during the course of the show. In fact, I would probably like his character if he did. That was not the case at all.

A key trait observed in children is selfishness, which Aang embodies in his immaturity. This can be seen in his absolute adherence to his own moral values. Think about it. Every other character has to question their sense of morality and the culture in which they were raised. Especially Zuko.

One of the aspects of ATLA’s worldbuilding that makes it so interesting is the idea of balance. Even the “good guy” nations such as the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom are shown to have flaws. Conversely, early Book 3 also gives us a view of the positive side of the Fire Nation’s culture despite them being the “bad guy” nation. But where is this lacking? Yes…the Air Nomads.

Well, I guess it’s hard to say for certain, because we only know about them through Aang’s eyes, and I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t rely on a middle schooler to have a fully comprehensive understanding of the moral intricacies of any culture. Luckily, Aang had the opportunity to ask for guidance and learn…in theory. Because he seems to ignore any wisdom that contradicts his own agenda. Let’s look at some examples.

Guru Pathik informs Aang that his attachment (i.e. obsession, as discussed previously) with Katara is producing a spiritual blockage. Aang ignores this and runs away (common theme) without overcoming his spiritual blockage. Rather than having him revisit this issue at a later point, the writers randomly decide that getting poked with a pointy rock will fix everything, leaving Aang with everything he wants, his own ideas unchallenged.

Avatar Aang, I know that you're a gentle spirit, and the monks have taught you well, but this isn't about you. This is about the world (B3E19: The Old Masters).

You’d think this would be meaningful, right? Avatar Yangchen is not only an adult Air Nomad with a more informed perspective, but she’s also an Avatar. Let’s see what else she has to say:

Many great and wise Air Nomads have detached themselves and achieved spiritual enlightenment, but the Avatar can never do it. Because your sole duty is to the world. Here is my wisdom for you: Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs, and do whatever it takes to protect the world (B3E19: The Old Masters, emphasis added).

I think Yangchen puts it perfectly here. The true selfless choice is for Aang to recognize that the fate of the world—which it is his duty to protect—is more important than his own moral purity. This is the closest the show does to address flaws in Air Nomad philosophy; that by focusing on detaching themselves from the world, they can neglect the very real, material problems of the world. Maybe some great Air Nomad monks can accomplish this level of detachment…but absolutely not the person tasked with defending the world. The Avatar is supposed to embody balance. Aang already had to struggle with the positive and negative aspects of the other elements and nations. Wouldn’t it have been a powerful and fascinating moral dilemma for him to have to look inwards and question his own values too?

But…no. He had a plot device materialize into existence for him instead.

Now, let’s address yet another ridiculous comment you probably thought nobody would challenge:

If you are so annoyed by the main - yes, purely pacifist and peaceful - idea of the series, then maybe you just shouldn't torture yourself, but go and watch another show, with much simple morals. There are a plany of them.

No, it isn’t just the continuous use of terrible spelling and grammar I want to point out here; it’s the idea that the moral lesson of “killing is wrong no matter what, even if it’s a dictator actively trying to burn down an entire continent” is somehow morally complex. Talk about tired. That’s the kind of “morality” you see on shows for children…which ATLA ultimately is. It’s an extremely simplified, black-and-white moral system designed for children to take in. Perfect for a character like Aang, who is childish first and foremost. ATLA’s moral complexity comes from characters like Zuko, another reason for his popularity. Let’s face it, without Zuko in the picture, ATLA wouldn’t have risen to nearly the level of critical acclaim it has. There is a reason why the most popular episodes prominently feature Zuko (in fact, B2E7: Zuko Alone, exclusively features him). There is a reason why people make hour-long video essays like this and this about him, and hardly ever about Aang. You’re correct that ATLA stands apart from other children’s shows due to its moral complexity; but that complexity certainly doesn’t come from Aang’s character.

I’ll return to B3E16: The Southern Raiders as an example. This is a morally complex episode; I’m sure we can agree on that. You glossed over this entire issue by stating that in any context, Katara would have been worse off if she killed Yon Rha, an idea Aang did try to force on her. I disagree on that point. Especially the way you laughably breeze over your opinion on that issue as if it’s a fact; this is probably one of the oldest topics in philosophy. But I guess you’d probably think that debate is solved if you think cartoons for children are the embodiment of moral complexity. Clearly I understand the appeal of cartoons as well, but maybe try looking at something for grown-ups every once in a while too. Or, you know, a history book. Anyways. Yon Rha.

At the beginning of the episode, we don’t know anything about Yon Rha. Katara and Zuko assume that because he was once a Fire Nation officer, he likely still is, which is a reasonable assumption. So let’s put this in context. They’re searching for a dangerous military officer who has a history of murdering innocent civilians. Why would they have any reason to believe he’s not still out there doing the same thing? Katara’s mission, and a core part of her character, is about justice. Killing a man like this would have been justice, and would have saved so many potential innocent lives like her mother’s. I honestly do believe if Katara found him still as a fleet commander carrying out the same war crimes he did in her tribe, she would have killed him and been justified in doing so. And Zuko would have been the only character to have her back regardless of the decision she made.

However, in the show, Yon Rha is retired. Katara sees him for the pathetic worm he is, and realizes that he’s no longer a threat, and his existence is so pitiful that ending it would have probably been merciful at that point. But neither Aang nor Katara knew this in the beginning, and Katara is still very clear at the end of the episode that she didn’t and never will forgive him like Aang told her to. Aang was not correct, in any sense, and him telling Katara to forgive her mother’s murderer was probably the most insensitive possible thing he could have said in that situation. I know Zuko is hot-tempered and says mean things at times, but yikes…really don’t recall him saying anything that awful to the supposed love of his life.

Then to further illustrate the flaws in Aang’s logic, we end with this:

Zuko: What are you going to do when you face my father? (B3E16: The Southern Raiders)

Aang doesn’t answer, because it’s a good point. It’s where pacifism falls flat. In the real world, people are dangerous and cause harm, and no amount of compromise or coddling will stop such individuals. ATLA came so close to comprehensively addressing this issue, but ultimately fell flat due to the insistence on maintaining Aang’s moral purity.

This can be seen in multiple incidents, including: Yon Rha just happening to be a helpless retired old man, the lion turtle being introduced along with a completely unheard of form of magic to give Aang an easy out, and a rock randomly unlocking his chakra. All deliberate writing choices that were made to absolve Aang of any meaningful self reflection. No amount of preaching will convince anyone that killing Ozai was the “easy” choice. It was canonically too difficult for Aang to do, and he would have completely failed in his mission without the writers energy-bending the rules of the universe to let him win.

And even though Aang won against Ozai, the story in the comics demonstrates the short-sightedness of his “solution.” We see that despite having no bending and being in prison, Ozai continues to exert his influence. He sows political upheaval, emotionally manipulates Zuko, and does everything in his power to sabotage the peace effort. The fact that he still lives emboldens a insurrectionist faction that tries to assassinate Zuko and reinstate Ozai. Aang’s selfish—yes, selfish, reread Yangchen’s words carefully—decision to not kill Ozai put the world in jeopardy.

It’s really cute how people try to spin this into some kind of uplifting message about pacifism and peace, but if you actually look at the fact pattern, we just have a child who prioritizes his own moral purity above the safety of the world. I felt inspired by that when I was around the age of ten, but as an adult? Not so much.

As such, I think the best way to summarize is for me to leave you with Zuko’s advice, which you and Aang are both in desperate need of. So here you go:

That’s cute, but this isn’t Air Temple preschool. It’s the real world.

what exactly is Aang's toxic masculinity that you're talking about? there are no examples of such behavior on his part in the show. he is not an ideal person, he is a child who sometimes behaved incorrectly, just like all the other children in the show (Katara, Toph, Sokka), and this is normal.

in addition, we see how he regrets some of his wrong actions and gets better, while Zuko does not regret his toxic behavior, doesn't apologize and doesn't face the consequences of his behavior (racist jokes about Aang, demands that Katara forgive him as if he has the right to her forgiveness, an attack on Aang to "teach him a lesson" and many other things).

Hi anon, thanks for the ask! This is a very good illustration of what I was talking about in this post when I mentioned that I feel toxic men are overlooked more often for appearing “nice” than they are for being conventionally attractive.

No examples of toxic behavior in the show? What do you call this then?

I know what I (and the law) call it:

But you see, he’s “nice” right? This is just a misbehaved child, as you put it? Yah, no. He knew better and still did it because he was possessive; this whole interaction started because he was jealous that an actress playing Katara was interested in men other than him. And the show proceeded to frame the situation in a way that made Aang sympathetic, despite being the aggressor and the one behaving irrationally. How much more “toxically masculine” can you get than that? But he put on a flower crown once so we’re supposed to think he’s a soft uwu feminine boi (even though he was absolutely enraged that a female actress played him).

I also find it very interesting that you describe Katara and Sokka as “children” while Zuko is omitted from that list despite being the same age. Are you admitting you agree he’s more mature, or are you admitting that you hold him to different standards?

But, anyways. You asked about toxic behavior on Aang’s part, which I’ll get further into now that the most egregious example is out of the way.

Let’s break down what you consider unforgivably toxic behavior on Zuko’s part and compare it to Aang’s behavior in similar situations.

1. “Racist” jokes

I’m guessing this is made with reference to the “Air Temple preschool” comment. How exactly is this racist? In context, Aang is the one trying to force his beliefs on others, and Zuko makes this comment to a) tell him to back off and b) point out that Aang is, in fact, a child who doesn’t have any business telling Katara how to feel.

This point is particularly interesting to me, because it implies that the simple fact that Zuko doesn’t agree with the philosophy of Aang’s culture makes him racist. By this logic, Aang is also racist against Katara’s culture, because he clearly disagrees with her philosophy and is openly telling her that his culture is morally virtuous over hers. And well. That’s even more believable considering Aang’s previous reactions to Water Tribe culture.

Ah, yes. Playing with a cultural artifact like it’s a toy because you were upset about not being the center of attention for once, and telling everyone how disgusting you think cultural food is, what great ways to show the supposed love of your life how much you respect her culture!

I know your response to this point would be something like “uwu but he’s a kid he didn’t knowww” ok well. The same logic can be applied to any alleged “racism” on Zuko’s part.

2. “Demanding” forgiveness

Zuko: What can I do to make it up to you?

Ah, yes. How demanding of him. He’s clearly so self-centered and only thinking about his own values and agenda here.

It’s not like he��

…told his friend how she’s allowed to process her grief and try to impose his own morals…

…or demanded to know if his crush liked him back, wouldn’t accept “no” as an answer, and forced a kiss on her…

…or told an abuse victim he was wrong to want to kill his abusive father for trying to commit a genocide…

…oh, um. Yeah. Sorry, but after actually watching the show it’s very clear to me which character doesn’t seem to regret or see the flaws in any of his actions at the end of the show, which is when all of these examples took place.

3. Training in the finale

“Attacking Aang to teach him a lesson” … wow, that’s a very dishonest way of phrasing that situation. I’m impressed, I have to say. I’ve seen lots of dumb takes from Aang stans over the years but this is a new one.

Well, luckily I actually watched the scene in context, so my reaction was the same as all the other characters’ reactions in canon when they learned the context behind this “attack”:

They agree with him. Yeah. Obviously, when nobody is taking training seriously when the world is about to literally go up in flames, you might need to do something to get their attention.

“But it was dangerous!” you might argue. Well… yeah. When magic and bending is in the equation, training in the Avatar universe has been shown to be somewhat dangerous at times. As an example, from this very same episode, Toph very nearly smashed Sokka with a giant flaming rock. That was way closer to hurting someone than Zuko was in this incident. If you’re going to fault characters for making their training exercises too dangerous, I guess Toph is mega cancelled.

Now back to Aang. What was his reaction in this situation? How did he react to the end of the world being days away? He ran away with absolutely no plan. Just like he did at the very beginning of the show.

I mean, think about it. This is a critical flaw (and toxic trait) in Aang that is literally never addressed, because he starts and ends the show the exact same way: he’s faced with a problem, he runs away from it, then he’s saved by an in-universe equivalent of an Act of God. Wowie, such great character development. Not fixing your core flaw and having a mythical plot device materialize into existence to solve your problems for you. Aang’s whole arc is a big blah, because the writing fails to address any of his flaws or have him meaningfully question any of his values.

Meanwhile, Zuko has consistently been a fan favorite because he’s the opposite. His flaws are meaningfully addressed, he does admit he’s wrong and fix his flaws, and his character shows a critically acclaimed change throughout the show. His arc is written so well that despite being a cartoon character, Zuko is widely considered the poster child for a good redemption arc across all forms of media.

So anyways, miss me with the double standards… there is a reason why Zuko is the fan favorite, and it’s not just his abs 🔥

[humeperry]

quasi-religious

I've done some smoking this morning and some light meditation (aka watching stuff on YouTube that inspires me) and I feel compelled to write. So, I'm going to write about the role that religion plays in my life.

I was raised in the Baptist church. What they teach, or at least what I was taught there, is that Jesus loves everyone and no matter what you do, if you ask for forgiveness and truly repent, you can be forgiven and go to heaven. Every Sunday my whole extended family would attend church. As a kid, it was more like a social function. You had your school friends, your sports friends, and your church friends; and you only got to see your church friends on Sunday. So, I liked going to church. I got to see my family and friends, and after church we'd all go to my grandparents and have a big Sunday dinner.

When I was around 10-11 we got a new pastor, and his focus was on preaching to and helping the so-called "undesirables." People who actually needed help. The people that Jesus would hang out with. Soon, our church was filled with recovering drug addicts, people covered in tattoos, and other people who just needed help. Well, the other leaders of the church were not so happy with these new members of the congregation and essentially fired the pastor. They announced it one morning at church, and my father, who was a good friend to the pastor, stood up and called them out on their hypocrisy. Chaos erupted, and to keep it short, we hardly ever went back to church after that, only on Easter. Then, a few years later, my brother came out as gay, and we definitely didn't go to church after that.

Despite all that, I guess because I was indoctrinated at such a young age, I've always tried to live my life according to the principles of the church. Don't get me wrong, I am against almost everything modern organized religion is for e.g. pro-life, homophobia, racism, etc. However, I really believe in the golden rule of treat others how you'd like to be treated. I've always been a real empath and peoples' feelings have a real impact on me.

I was born into a privileged family, I never wanted for anything in my life. Even today, I am completely privileged. I recognize that, and I thank God every single day for what I ascribe to be His doing. Anytime in life, I'm faced with true difficulty or a hard fork in my road, I pray to God.

As you might have seen from my previous posts, this past summer was the most difficult, darkest period of my life. I was trying to finish graduate school, my long LONG time girlfriend cheated on me and we broke up, and I had to take the licensing test all graduates of my field must take to start their careers. The whole time, as fucked up as I was, I prayed to God to get me through it. Because of how fucked up I was, I studied maybe 40 hours for this licensing exam, when they recommend 500+ hours of studying to pass. After the first day, where I basically guessed on everything because I was so lost, I went back up to my hotel room and pulled out the Gideon Bible. I went to the part in the Bible where they tell you what verses to go to for whatever problem you're facing, and I found a recommendation for feeling lost, or wanting something. It directed me to the book of James chapter one, where I found the following: 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

I sat in my hotel room and I prayed for a good hour. I thanked God for everything he had done for me up to that point and I asked Him to bestow upon me wisdom. After that, I put my study materials away and thought that whatever happens, God has my back. As corny as that sounds, I know. Not going to lie, this stuff makes me cringe. Uber-religious people make me super cringe. But, I prayed, believed, and erased all doubt from my mind. Sure enough, I get my results back a few months later, and I passed. Somehow someway.

Whether the Baptists were right or not, I can't say. One thing I used to struggle with when I would attend church regularly was the notion that our interpretation of the Bible was correct and everyone else's was wrong. I knew people from different protestant religions and it confused me that they would knowingly follow the "wrong" religion. Soon enough, as I grew up, I met people from all different faiths and was required to study different religious texts from all over the world. I think that the Supreme Court got it right. When inquiring whether someone holds a religious belief, all they look to is whether that person truly believes in the principles of the religion. Whether it be God, the Universe, or whatever you think controls our meager lives on Earth, something is out there keeping tabs on us. And I find comfort in the fact that when ever something is out of my control, I can put all my worry and rest aside as its my belief that God is watching out for me.

So, whatever it is you believe, dear reader of mine, I support you. And I hope it gives you the same feeling that I get whenever I seek refuge in my beliefs.

[idiotwhotalkstoomuch]

Haha, yeah Ace would absolutely do that!

I prefer a demon slayer Yuu though simply because of the angst potential. Since being a demon slayer is really dangerous, the prefect would obviously have a shit ton of scars so imagine how everyone would react to seeing them? Like in the event that the prefect is supposed to become the next pillar of a breathing technique, they’d have to be super skilled and have to fight a ton of powerful demons to reach that point so that just makes the amount of scars they have even higher!

Also during an overblot, maybe they get severely injured due to the debris flying everywhere but instead of being phased, they’re like; Tis but a scratch! But everyone else is like; No it’s not!

And the dorm heads after overblotting! Like if the prefect gets badly injured every time it happens which leaves a scar and they’re already aware of the other scars, they’d feel really bad for hurting the prefect, because they’ve already been through so much they deserve a peaceful life! Being at NRC, for the most part, has clearly given them the chance to truly act their age where they can also receive the help they need to work through their trauma and then because of the overblot, things are taking a few steps back again! Of course the prefect is like; “It’s fine, I’ve faced worse!” But that honestly just makes all of them feel worse because damn.

Knowing all this, I bet Crowley and everyone else would be reluctant to send the prefect back to their world cause they don’t want to see their friend suffer more pain.

Everyone is frankly quite horrified at the amount of scars they have on their body and how some of them are near parts of their body that could very well be fatal

They are 16! They should be going out pulling pranks and getting on the teachers’ nerves or being a good student preparing for their future not fighting in battles that could very well kill them

Crowley confiscated their sword because it’s dangerous to have in school but luckily they didn’t get through all those battles and be able to be a candidate to become a pillar only relying on their sword, they can make do with what they get

Despite Deuce’s horror at MC’s situation he’s also pretty curious on just what pillars are and about the demon slayer corps in general though of course he always goes about the topic gently despite the fact it really doesn’t MC that uncomfortable (he wants them to focus on having fun! Not fighting with their life on the line)

Ace takes it upon himself to make sure you have loads of fun in NRC and his shenanigans with MC are actually given some slack when MC is shown to be genuinely enjoying themselves (though he still gets punished, boi you thought)

Jack wants to protect them but also respects their strength so becomes more of MC’s self preservation because they don’t need to run into battle! There are magic wielded though MC can’t really be stopped when the situation escalates

Riddle would feel terrible if he scarred or injured you in any way (which considering he fought with rose bushes, I BET HAPPENED) and want to make it up to MC but MC is just dismissive of it insisting it’s okay when it’s not. (He gets Trey to teach him how to make tarts properly and gifts them to MC who accepts it cause free food!)

Leona on the outside is dismissive of the whole thing cause big whoop the kid has scars, not his problem. Inside however he does feel a little bad though considering the nature of his power they likely didn’t get too injured especially since when faced with demon blood arts that can send you flying without you even seeing (Reference: Yahaba’s demon blood art. The partner of the Temari demon), Leona’s muscles really doesn’t intimidate them

Azul feels pretty shitty about trying to take away their home after learning that they were okay with it for the most part because they didn’t really need sleep much anyway (seriously when do demon slayers sleep, they train in the day and fight demons to sunset the next day, if you think you can stay up all night become a demon slayer, they are on another level) but ultimately settles for treating them to a free treat in the Mostro Lounge and is off. He doesn’t like getting personally involved

Jamil was worried about his plans in all honesty with the fact that MC could see through him and is surprised when they approach him post overblot like he didn’t deceive them and send them flying with Grim. When MC explains he doesn’t need to feel alone, he just feels bad and mends their Haori as an apology (since he saw Riddle and Azul already apologize with food)

Vil didn’t insist on MC working with them since they had recovering wounds and scars that could possibly be aggravated by his strict training but they laugh off the idea his training is strict cause compared to demon slaying training it’s a breeze. When he accidentally injures them in his overblot (since he you know, DESTROYED THE STADIUM) as an apology he does something gets a gift personalized to something MC would actually like (since he luckily has Rook to find out what MC likes) and gets them some potions to speed up their recovery

The students would openly protest if MC was going to be sent home. They shouldn’t have to go back to such a bleak world where death is staring them at the face! They can just stay here and be a teenager!

MC however would insist on coming home because they still have precious loved ones at their home world who they wish to protect and they can’t just live a normal life here while their comrades are likely off fighting demons and possibly even the upper moons and Muzan Kibutsuji something that the students would reluctantly have to accept.

Okay so I know you prefer demon slayer! MC but Demon! MC has plenty angst potential too! I mean with some exceptions, most demons didn’t exactly want to become one because the life of a demon is not an easy one

They would be close to Malleus as a demon since they can only come out when it’s night and Malleus and his centuries of wisdom could be an interesting conversation buddy to the immortal (from everything but the sun and wisteria) demon.

Demon! MC would be way more nonchalant about taking hits than a demon slayer! MC because hey! Their arm might’ve been blown off but it’s already regenerating and since none of the guys have sun powers or Nichirin blades, they can only be killed by being pushed into the sunlight (which no one is possibly an asshole enough to do when they saw what happened to them after Crowley dragged them off to get some sunlight cause “it’s good for them”).

Demons feel the pain of their injuries (ex: Nezuko wincing when her leg was blown off by the Temari demon and the Temari demon’s death) so them using themselves as a meat shield while practical makes the NRC students feel awful when they recall them remarking on cutting themselves the other day or some other passing comment of pain cause they can feel it but take every hit.

The Pomefiore students and Crewel night even volunteer to work on a potion that could get them some form of sun resistance after a near miss after an overblot attack where the sun got exposed to them and if it wasn’t for Adeuce tackling them and hiding them under their bodies they surely would’ve been nothing but ash but MC just laughs bitterly at the idea of sun resistance as it’s after all what “that man” desires most

With demon! Mc being sent home, demon! Mc might actually accept staying in Twisted Wonderland unless they’re someone like Tamayo who’s actively making something to work against Muzan though if they’re just a demon with humanity still in them trying to survive I imagine they would actually like to stay which would make a happy ending but still full of angst potential

[zuko-always-lies]

How Well does Iroh Live Up to His Own Wisdom?

In the “Tales of Ba Sing Se,” Iroh tells this to a group of kids: 

Iroh: It is usually best to admit mistakes when they occur, and seek to restore honor.

Good advice, I’ll admit. But how well does Iroh live up to it?

Iroh stands out as someone who has had done many bad things in his life and made many mistakes but who almost never apologizes or acknowledges any of them(or indeed apologizes for just about anything).  The decades that Iroh spent engaging in imperial warmongering, his failure to oppose Ozai and act to end the war after Lu Ten’s death, the way that Iroh failed to intervene to protect Zuko and Azula from Ozai’s abuse, the way that Iroh letting Zuko into the war meeting led to Zuko being burned and banished, the fact that Iroh aided Zhao’s attack on the Northern Water Tribe, and the way Iroh was complacent in the harm Book 1 Zuko was inflicting on the world and Team Avatar all go unacknowledged by Iroh, and he never apologizes for any of them.

However, today I’m going to be focusing on the 600 Day Siege of Ba Sing Se, one of Iroh’s greatest mistakes and one that he is repeatedly forced to confront in the series. The siege caused heavy military casualties on both sides, and, given it was a siege, likely also caused many civilian deaths, both within Ba Sing Se and along the lines of march of Iroh’s army. What does Iroh say about the operation and his part in it? Much more under the cut.

“Winter Solstice, Part 1: The Spirit World”:

Earthbender captain: A place you're quite familiar with, actually. You once laid siege to it for 600 days, but it would not yield to you.

Iroh: Ah, the great city of Ba Sing Se.

Earthbender captain: It was greater than you were, apparently.

Iroh: I acknowledge my defeat at Ba Sing Se. After 600 days away from home, my men were tired, and I was tired. [Yawns.] And I'm still tired.

“The Desert”:

Zuko: Ba Sing Se? ‌Why would we go to the Earth Kingdom capital‌? Fung: [Calmly.] The city is filled with refugees. No one will notice two more. Iroh: We can hide in plain sight there. And it's the safest place in the world from the Fire Nation. Even I couldn't break through to the city. [Happily shrugs his shoulders.]

“The Serpent’s Pass”:

Iroh: Who would have thought after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace ... [Turns away for a second before turning back with a floral hat on his head.] as a tourist!

“The Tales of Ba Sing Se”:

Iroh: Happy birthday, my son. [Cut to his face, as he starts to cry.] If only I could have helped you. [He sings, but his voice cracks due to him crying.] Leaves from the vine, falling so slow. Like fragile, tiny shells, drifting in the foam. Little soldier boy, come marching home. Brave soldier boy, comes marching home.

This is the only sincere apology Iroh gives in the entire series.

Finally, “Sozin’s Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters”:

Iroh: [Aerial view of group.] Sozin's Comet is arriving, and our destinies are upon us. Aang will face the Fire Lord. [Extreme close-up.] When I was a boy, I had a vision that I would one day take Ba Sing Se. [Cut to Zuko and the camera pans across to right showing Toph, Sokka, Suki, and Katara.] Only now do I see that my destiny is to take it back from the Fire Nation, [Extreme close-up.] so the Earth Kingdom can be free again.

...

Iroh: [Close-up.] Goodbye, everyone. Today, destiny is our friend. [Whispers.] I know it.

So Iroh never acknowledges fault for his decision to lay siege to Ba Sing Se, never apologizes to anyone he hurt, never admits that doing what he did was something wrong, and never accepts responsibility for anything other than Lu Ten’s death. The tens or hundreds of thousand of other people who died don’t exist to him.

Is Iroh completely unaware that his past actions were wrong and harmful? Not entirely.

“Sozin’s Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters”:

Zuko: [Close-up of Zuko from over Iroh's shoulder.] And then ... then you would come and take your rightful place on the throne? Iroh: [Close-up.] No. Someone new must take the throne. An idealist with a pure heart [Frontal view from the side of Iroh as the camera zooms in on Zuko.] and unquestionable honor. It has to be you, Prince Zuko.

“The Serpent's Pass”:

Jet: From what I heard, people eat like this every night in Ba Sing Se. I can't wait to set my eyes on that giant wall. Iroh: It is a magnificent sight. Jet: So you've been there before? Iroh: Once. When I was a ... different man. Jet: I've done some things in my past that I'm not proud of, but that's why I'm going to Ba Sing Se: for a new beginning. A second chance. Iroh: That's very noble of you. I believe people can change their lives if they want to. I believe in second chances.

Yet Iroh still refuses to meaningful acknowledge his greatest mistake. For all the flak Azula gets for “not showing remorse,” it seems like Iroh is much more guilty of that than she is.

[imthepunchlord]

Marinette’s Best to Least

Adrien, Alya, Nino, Kagami

I kinda miss doing these. 

OK, here’s how its going to work. People can have miraculouses that fit them best (can immediately pull them off with little to no issues), then there’s 2nd best (which is middle gruond, not ideal but doable), and then the least (struggles with most). Best can range from 1-3 depending on the individual. Those who have 3 best are pretty uncommon, and are more along the lines of miraculous prodigies, of the 5 none are actually a least fit, there are just two that are 2nd best. 

Peafowl power is essentially the canon but tweaked so it’s power is making golems exclusively through the user, no reaching out to another and doing something based on what they’re feeling. And how complex and elaborate the golem is will depend on the user (specifically if they’re capable of feeling and thinking). At the core, the golem exist to serve whatever purpose it was made for and won’t deviate from that. Also golems are not made through little feathers but by a section of the fan, one quill = one golem. You can have multiple golems but you won’t end up with much of a tool. 

So now that that’s out of the way, let’s get this latest version of Best to Least going! 

Starting with Marinette. 

Marinette at the core is a dualistic character, who can either be direct in how she handles things, or prefer to do things from the background with less attention on her and can be underhanded in her initial choices (examples seen in Refleckta, Mime, Copycat, and Anansi; to name a few). She is actually ruled by both her head and her heart, which has her rely on logic and facts that allows her act as necessary, but also makes her a huge people pleaser who will go above and beyond for others.

At the core, canon is setting her up to be a miraculous prodigy, so many of these she should get down pretty well, though some she may struggle with more than others. 

Her best are Butterfly, Fox, and Bee, who all meet how she works and she can use either of them quite well from the immediate start. As these work off her strengths, depending on what she has can shape her growth and which she would wind up leaning more towards. 

Starting with Butterfly, we can see that Marinette is good at recognizing potential in people, know their strengths and what they can pull off. Actually as we see, her first thought process when she got Tikki was to pass her on to someone she thought would be more fitting, thinking Alya would a solid hero (which she is right about). She’s also open and eager to reach out to others for help and is a big team player. This miraculous also leaves it open if she wants to be a leader or not. This does also play off her nature to assist others with their problem, and her willingness to give them a needed boost if needed, any sort of boost they may need. 

Growth wise, this would have her learn to be open more to the idea of asking for help and reaching out to others, learn that she doesn’t have to shoulder everything herself. It can also be good to help her learn to put some distance between her and issues, that sometimes people need to be given a chance to solve those problems themselves without her helping or trying to make it better.

She and Nooroo would be a very sweet pair together as both are very considerate and ruled by their heart. And this being a more emotion related miraculous, Nooroo himself would be quite good in helping Marinette deal with any emotional issues.

Fox works off her observation skills, her capability to step back and take things in and consider her options, and her able to come up with complex, elaborate plans that secures their win. It also matches her inclined moments to help from the shadows and use underhanded tactics. While she’s not an outright deceiver, she is a good manipulator and is resourceful and creative enough to work things into her favor. She can also match Fox as a risk taker, for this is a daring animal that will take risks that they believe they can win. It’s not often that she will, but she is ready to try her chances. 

In terms of growth, this miraculous would lead to her relying more on underhanded and crafty tactics, and settle herself more into a background role. She still has good leadership potential and could direct a team if required, but as this miraculous is more being a background manipulator, she’d wind up less inclined to have attention on her and rather influence situations and people subtly.  This can really help her grow in terms of resourcefulness, cunning, and how well she can work/manipulate things into her favor. 

Marinette and Trixx would actually be a solid match up, as what we see, while Trixx prioritizes duties and responsibility, they’re observant enough to pick up on their user’s feelings and can address said issues. And playing headcanons that Trixx is more morally grey, can allow Marinette to not be inclined for “the greater good” all time. There are times that Marinette is more inclined for underhanded tactics (Refleckta). And observant and sharp herself, Marinette can mentally be Trixx’s equal, and won’t be solely guided/influenced by the kwami. I see this as an equal and engaging partnership that could be fun and have some interesting conversations. 

With Bee, this works off Marinete’s strength as a leader, her capability to be direct and aggressive (when required or when she wants to be), and to be a capable teamplayer as she is fine not always being the leader and is content to be a follower (hence her largely following after Alya instead of taking the lead). And if you want to factor in symbolism and traits, of the 5, Bee matches her most. Actually outside her color coding, everything about her screams Bee: being a creator, being team oriented, leadership potential, a source of nurture, warmth, and support, being a gardener, a source of assistance, being an active multitasker and busy bee, and capability to fight back but often as a last resort/response than starting something herself. 

In terms of growth, this miraculous would have her embracing the strengths of her being more direct and involved, and can add onto this idea to restore order and happiness for others and fix problems herself. It could allow her to truly bloom into herself as a leader, multitasker, defender, and provider for those around her. 

Kwami wise its not as ideal (though everything about canon Pollen is incredibly problematic). Canon wise, Pollen would be a good source of support and encouragement, and with Marinette being engaging with her kwami and considering them more her equals/friend than a servant, can prompt Pollen to start growing mentally and emotionally. Unlike Trixx, Pollen would be more morally uptight, though I don’t see her having the same intensity as Tikki in that moral uprightness. And until Pollen grows in wisdom (which takes experience), Marinette will largely have to figure stuff out herself, which potentially could be for the best (as Tikki will voice her concerns and then rely on Marinette to figure out a solution). This is a partnership where I see Pollen having more to gain than Marinette (though she’ll have a very loyal and supportive kwami which will be nice). 

Marinette’s 2nd best choices are Turtle and Peafowl. These technically do match her and she has aspects to her character that can allow her to use them well, but they aren’t exactly matching to the entirety of who she is and there are better more immediate matches. These do however offer alternative growth potentials for her. 

With Turtle, this matches Marinette in her need to step in and assist others, take the brunt of the problem herself, matching her nature as a more direct supporter. The issue though is that Marinette is more the sort to go and address the problem than hang back as a protector for others. This can also count as a miraculous of self-protection, which can be a good thing for Marinette to learn to be more conscious for her own safety (not just physical but emotional and mental). 

Growth wise, this largely will help her learn self-care, and to put distance between herself and a problem, allowing others to handle it while she focuses on those who need immediate support. This miraculous will also strengthen her drive to be a protector and helper to those in need, but learn to pick her battles better and that she can help in other ways than directly addressing a problem. 

Of the kwamis, she and Wayzz are actually closest in similarities and would get along very well. Wayzz, like Marinette, wants to address problems quickly but smartly. He is also adaptable and observant, will pick up on personality quirks of his humans, and adjust himself to meet them so they can get along better. As such, he’d learn quickly that he can be a good source of calm for Marinette, offer up logic when her imagination runs wild with her overthinking things. He would add onto the want to involve one’s self in issues and probably both wind hovering close by if there are any issues. He may spark off a tea addiction in Marinette. 

Peafowl would work off her creativity, imagination, and ingenuity. If there is an issue, she will know just what golem to create to address said problem. This is another miraculous that leaves it open if Marinette would like to join the heat of things or not, either leaving it to her golem alone or joining her golem in a fight. Like Fox, this is also a miraculous more designed to play by the user’s own rules, and Marinette has her tendencies of playing by her rules. Biggest struggle though is that golems made serve a purpose and her creations can end up more closed off to other things around them. I can also see Marinette regarding her more complex creations as “alive” when they aren’t truly. 

In terms of growth, this miraculous could help her learn to focus on one thing at a time, while she is a skilled multitasker, Marinette does have issues of taking on more than she can chew, and this is a power that’s more about focusing on one issue at a time. She can make multiple golems, but could ultimately end up weaponless as each golem is made through a piece of her fan. 

Of the little we see of the restored Duusu, I will presume that she and Marinette would get along as we see Duusu is affectionate, chatty, and very open. She has an amiable personality that Marinette can get along with. 

Between the Cat and Ladybug, Marinette is actually good with both. She has the creativity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness for the Ladybug. For Cat, she has the reflexes, instinct, and the willingness to take risks and be direct with issues. She can pull both of them off incredibly well. And as a creator, Marinette is capable of using both, as Ladybug creates and Cat destroys, and destruction is a form of creation. But between the two, if she had to have one, I’d actually vote for her to have the Cat instead. Not only is there an appeal of a creator having destruction, as she as a creator will know how to best destroy something (for when creating, you are destroying an item’s current form) but...

...A big part of this stems from the kwamis themselves. Tikki has been good at building up Marinette’s confidence in the end and does has helped open Marinette’s eyes to alternative choices and actions. Unfortunately, she is incredibly morally upright, to a point she can be overly critical and nitpicky of Marinette and is adding onto a developing Atlas complex that Marinette is starting to have. Tikki also has issues of prioritizing others over Marinette, and pushes for Marinette to be more considerate of others and putting them before herself. Which in itself is not bad, but self care is important too. Canonly, Tikki is no longer a good kwami for Marinette to have. 

Plagg though, in terms of personality, actually would’ve been a better match for Marinette. Not only is he calmer but also more lax and lenient. When her imagination runs wild and leads to freak outs, he can calmly offer logical counterparts to it to bring her out of the anxious episode. Nor will he pile more responsibility onto her that she herself is uncertain of adding. Like Trixx, he is along the lines of morally grey and won’t discourage underhanded tactics that Marinette wants to intitially try. Plagg is a kwami that actually prefers having his humans figure stuff out, and this works in his favor as Marinette is the sort to figure stuff out on her own. He will offer the smallest call outs and she will factor it in and change tactics. Plagg also will not be prioritizing Marinette to put others before herself, she will do that on her own and he will be a reminder to consider herself as well. 

She does incredibly well with Ladybug and is a solid Cat, but between the “two most powerful”, I’d lean more Marinette having Cat instead. 

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous said: I didn’t know too much about the late British philosopher Sir Roger Scruton until I followed your superbly cultured blog. As an ivy league educated American reading your posts, I feel he is a breath of fresh air as a sane and cultured conservative intellectual. We don’t really have his kind over here where things are heavily polarized between left and right, and sadly, we are often uncivil in our discourse. Sir Roger Scruton talks a lot about beauty especially in art (as indeed you do too), so for Scruton why does beauty as an aesthetic matter in art? Why should we care?

I thank you for your very kind words about my blog which I fear is not worthy of such fulsome praise.

However one who is worthy of praise (or at least gratitude and appreciation at least) is the late Sir Roger Scruton. I have had the pleasure to have met him on a few informal occasions.

Most memorably, I once got invited to High Table dinner at Peterhouse, Cambridge, by a friend who was a junior Don there. This was just after I had finished my studies at Cambridge and rather than pursue my PhD I opted instead to join the British army as a combat pilot officer. And so I found out that Scruton was dining too. We had very pleasant drinks in the SCR before and after dinner. He was exceptionally generous and kind in his consideration of others; we all basked in the gentle warmth of his wit and wisdom.

I remember talking to him about Xanthippe, Socrate’s wife, because I had read his wickedly funny fictional satire. In the book he credits the much maligned Xanthippe with being the brains behind all of Socrates’ famous philosophical ideas (as espoused by Plato).

On other occasions I had seen Roger Scruton give the odd lecture in London or at some cultural forum.

Other than that, I’ve always admire both the man and many of his ideas from afar. I do take issue with some of his intellectual ideas which seem to be taken a tad too far (he think pre-Raphaelites were kitsch) but it’s impossible to dislike the man in person.

Indeed the Marxist philosopher G.A. Cohen reportedly once refused to teach a seminar with Scruton, although they later became very good friends. This is the gap between the personal and the public persona. In public he was reviled as hate figure by some of the more intolerant of the leftists who were trying to shut him down from speaking. But in private his academic peers, writers, and philosophers, regardless of their political beliefs, hugely respected him and took his ideas seriously - because only in private will they ever admit that much of what Scruton talks about has come to pass.

In many ways he was like C.S. Lewis - a pariah to the Oxbridge establishment. At Oxford many dons poo-pooed his children stories, and especially his Christian ideas of faith, culture, and morality, and felt he should have laid off the lay theology and stuck to his academic speciality of English Literature. But an Oxford friend, now a don, tells me that many dons read his theological works in private because much of what he wrote has become hugely relevant today.

Scruton was a man of parts, some of which seemed irreconcilable: barrister, aesthetician, distinguished professor of aesthetics. Outside of brief pit stops at Cambridge, Oxford, and St Andrews, he was mostly based out of Birkbeck College, London University, which had a tradition of a working-class intake and to whom Scruton was something of a popular figure. He was also an editor of the ultra-Conservative Salisbury Review, organist, and an enthusiastic fox hunter. In addition he wrote over 50 books on philosophy, art, music, politics, literature, culture, sexuality, and religion, as well as finding time to write novels and two operas. He was widely recognised for his services to philosophy, teaching and public education, receiving a knighthood in 2016.

He was exactly the type of polymath England didn’t know what to do with because we British do discourage such continental affectations and we prefer people to know their lane and stick to it. Above all we’re suspicious of polymaths because no one likes a show off. Scruton could be accused of a few things but he never perceived as a show off. He was a gentle, reserved, and shy man of kindly manners.

He was never politically ‘Conservative’, or tried not to be. Indeed he encouraged many to think about defining “a philosophy of conservatism” and not “a philosophy for the Conservative Party.” In defining his own thoughts, he positioned conservatism to relation to its historical rivals, liberalism and socialism. He wrote that liberalism was the product of the enlightenment, which viewed society as a contract and the state as a system for guaranteeing individual rights. While he saw socialism as the product of the industrial revolution, and an ideology which views society as an economic system and the state as a means of distributing social wealth.

Like another great English thinkers, Michael Oakeshott, he felt that conservatives leaned more towards liberalism then socialism, but argued that for conservatives, freedom should also entail responsibility, which in turn depends on public spirit and virtue. Many classical liberals would agree.

In fact, he criticised Thatcherism for “its inadequate emphasis on the civic virtues, such as self-sacrifice, duty, solidarity and service of others.” Scruton agreed with classical liberals in believing that markets are not necessarily expressions of selfishness and greed, but heavily scolded his fellow Conservatives for allowing themselves to be caricatured as leaving social problems to the market. Classical liberals could be criticised for the same neglect.

Perhaps his conservative philosophy was best summed up when he wrote “Liberals seek freedom, socialists equality, and conservatives responsibility. And, without responsibility, neither freedom nor equality have any lasting value.”

Scruton’s politics were undoubtedly linked to his philosophy, which was broadly Hegelian. He took the view that all of the most important aspects of life – truth (the perception of the world as it is), beauty (the creation and appreciation of things valued for their own sake), and self-realisation (the establishment by a person of a coherent, autonomous identity) – can be achieved only as part of a cultural community within which meaning, standards and values are validated. But he had a wide and deep understanding of the history of western philosophy as a whole, and some of his best philosophical work consisted of explaining much more clearly than is often the case how different schools of western philosophy relate to one another.

People today still forget how he was a beacon for many East European intellectuals living under Communist rule in the 1980s.  Scruton was deeply attached in belonging to a network of renowned Western scholars who were helping the political opposition in Eastern Europe. Their activity began in Czechoslovakia with the Jan Hus Foundation in 1980, supported by a broad spectrum of scholars from Jacques Derrida and Juergen Habermas to Roger Scruton and David Regan. Then came Poland, Hungary and later Romania. In Poland, Scruton co-founded the Jagiellonian Trust, a small but significant organisation. The other founders and active participants were Baroness Caroline Cox, Jessica Douglas-Home, Kathy Wilkes, Agnieszka Kołakowska, Dennis O’Keeffe, Timothy Garton Ash, and others.

Scruton had a particular sympathy for Prague and the Czech society, which bore fruit in the novel, Notes from Underground, which he wrote many years later. But his involvement in East European affairs was more than an emotional attachment.  He believed that Eastern Europe - despite the communist terror and aggressive social engineering - managed to preserve a sense of historical continuity and strong ties to European and national traditions, more unconscious than openly articulated, which made it even more valuable. For this reason, decades later, he warned his East European friends against joining the European Union, arguing that whatever was left of those ties will be demolished by the political and ideological bulldozer of European bureaucracy.

Anyway, digressions aside, onto to the heart of your question.

Art matters.

Let’s start from there. Regardless of your personal tastes or aesthetics as you stand before a painting, slip inside a photograph, run your hand along the length of a sculpture, or move your body to the arrangements spiraling out of the concert speakers…something very primary - and primal - is happening. And much of it sub-conscious. There’s an element of trust.

Political philosopher, Hannah Arendt, defined artworks as “thought things,” ideas given material form to inspire reflection and rumination. Dialogue. Sometimes even discomfort. Art has the ability to move us, both positively and negatively. So we know that art matters. But the question posed by modern philosophers such as Roger Scruton has been: how do we want it to affect us?

Are we happy with the direction art is taking? Namely, says, Scruton, away from seeking “higher virtues” such as beauty and craftmanship, and instead, towards novelty for novelty’s sake, provoking emotional response under the guise of socio-political discourse.

Why does beauty in art matter?  

Scruton asks us to wake up and start demanding something more from art other than disposable entertainment. “Through the pursuit of beauty,” suggests Scruton, “we shape the world as our own and come to understand our nature as spiritual beings. But art has turned its back on beauty and now we are surrounded by ugliness.” The great artists of the past, says Scruton, “were painfully aware that human life was full of care and suffering, but their remedy was beauty. The beautiful work of art brings consolation in sorrow and affirmation…It shows human life to be worthwhile.” But many modern artists, argues the philosopher, have become weary of this “sacred task” and replaced it with the “randomness” of art produced merely to gain notoriety and the result has been anywhere between kitsch to ugliness that ultimately leads to inward alienation and nihilistic despair.

The best way to understand Scruton’s idea of beauty in art and why it matters is to let him speak for himself. Click below on the video and watch a BBC documentary broadcast way back in 2009 that he did precisely on this subject, why beauty matters. It will not be a wasted hour but perhaps enrich and even enlighten your perspective on the importance of beauty in art.

So I’ll do my best to summarise the point Scruton is making in this documentary above.

Here goes.....

In his 2009 documentary “Why Beauty Matters”, Scruton argues that beauty is a universal human need that elevates us and gives meaning to life. He sees beauty as a value, as important as truth or goodness, that can offer “consolation in sorrow and affirmation in joy”, therefore showing human life to be worthwhile.

According to Scruton, beauty is being lost in our modern world, particularly in the fields of art and architecture.

I was raised in many different cultures from India, Pakistan, to China, Japan, Southern Africa, and the Middle East as well schooling in rural Britain and Switzerland. So coming home to London on frequent visits was often a confusing experience because of the mismatch of modern art and new architecture. In life and in art I have chosen to see the beauty in things, locating myself in Paris, where I am surrounded by beauty, and understand the impact it can have on the everyday.

Scruton’s disdain for modern art begins with Marcel Duchamp’s urinal. Originally a satirical piece designed to mock the world of art and the snobberies that go with it, it has come to mean that anything can be art and anyone can be an artist. A “cult of ugliness” was created where originality is placed above beauty and the idea became more important than the artwork itself. He argues that art became a joke, endorsed by critics, doing away with a need for skill, taste or creativity.

Duchamp’s argument was that the value of any object lies solely in what each individual assigns it, and thus, anything can be declared “art,” and anyone an artist.

But is there something wrong with the idea that everything is art and everyone an artist? If we celebrate the democratic ideals of all citizens being equal and therefore their input having equal value, doesn’t Duchamp’s assertion make sense?

Who’s to say, after all, what constitutes beauty?

This resonated with me in particular and brought to mind when Scruton meets the artist Michael Craig-Martin and asks him about how Duchamp’s urinal first made him feel. Martin is best known for his work “An Oak Tree” which is a glass of water on a shelf, with text beside it explaining why it is an oak tree. Martin argues that Duchamp captures the imagination and that art is an art because we think of it as such.

When I first saw “An Oak Tree” I was confused and felt perhaps I didn’t have the intellect to understand it. When I would later question it with friends who worked in the art auction and gallery world, the response was always “You just don’t get it,” which became a common defence. To me, it was reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen’s short tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, about two weavers who promise an emperor a new suit of clothes that they say is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid or incompetent. In reality, they make no clothes at all.

Scruton argues that the consumerist culture has been the catalyst for this change in modern art. We are always being sold something, through advertisements that feed our appetite for stuff, adverts try to be brash and outrageous to catch our attention. Art mimics advertising as artists attempt to create brands, the product that they sell is themselves. The more shocking and outrageous the artwork, the more attention it receives. Scruton is particularly disturbed by Piero Manzoni’s artwork “Artist’s Shit” which consists of 90 tin cans filled with the artist’s excrement.

Moreover the true aesthetic value, the beauty, has vanished in modern works that are selling for millions of dollars. In such works, by artists like Rothko, Franz Kline, Damien Hirst, and Tracey Emin, the beauty has been replaced by discourse. The lofty ideals of beauty are replaced by a social essay, however well intentioned.

A common argument for modern art is that it is reflecting modern life in all of its disorder and ugliness. Scruton suggests that great art has always shown the real in the light of the ideal and that in doing so it is transfigured.

A great painting does not necessarily have a beautiful subject matter, but it is made beautiful through the artist’s interpretation of it. Rembrandt shows this with his portraits of crinkly old women and men or the compassion and kindness of which Velazquez paints the dwarfs in the Spanish court. Modern art often takes the literal subject matter and misses the creative act. Scruton expresses this point using the comparison of Tracey Emin’s artwork ‘My Bed’ and a painting by Delacroix of the artist’s bed.

The subject matters are the same. The unmade beds in all of their sordid disdain. Delacroix brings beauty to a thing that lacks it through the considered artistry of his interpretation and by doing so, places a blessing on his own emotional chaos. Emin shares the ugliness that the bed shows by using the literal bed. According to Emin, it is art because she says that it is so.

Philosophers argued that through the pursuit of beauty, we shape the world as our home. Traditional architecture places beauty before utility, with ornate decorative details and proportions that satisfy our need for harmony. It reminds us that we have more than just practical needs but moral and spiritual needs too. Oscar Wilde said “All art is absolutely useless,” intended as praise by placing art above utility and on a level with love, friendship, and worship. These are not necessarily useful but are needed.

We have all experienced the feeling when we see something beautiful. To be transported by beauty, from the ordinary world to, as Scruton calls it, “the illuminated sphere of contemplation.” It is as if we feel the presence of a higher world. Since the beginning of western civilisation, poets and philosophers have seen the experience of beauty as a calling to the divine.

According to Scruton, Plato described beauty as a cosmic force flowing through us in the form of sexual desire. He separated the divine from sexuality through the distinction between love and lust. To lust is to take for oneself, whereas to love is to give. Platonic love removes lust and invites us to engage with it spiritually and not physically. As Plato says, “Beauty is a visitor from another world. We can do nothing with it save contemplate its pure radiance.”

Scruton makes the prescient point that art and beauty were traditionally aligned in religious works of art. Science impacted religion and created a spiritual vacuum. People began to look to nature for beauty, and there was a shift from religious works of art to paintings of landscapes and human life.

In today’s world of art and architecture, beauty is looked upon as a thing of the past with disdain. Scruton believes his vision of beauty gives meaning to the world and saves us from meaningless routines to take us to a place of higher contemplation. In this I think Scruton encourages us not to take revenge on reality by expressing its ugliness, but to return to where the real and the ideal may still exist in harmony “consoling our sorrows and amplifying our joys.”

Scruton believes when you train any of your senses you are privy to a heightened world. The artist sees beauty everywhere and they are able to draw that beauty out to show to others. One finds the most beauty in nature, and nature the best catalyst for creativity. The Tonalist painter George Inness advised artists to paint their emotional response to their subject, so that the viewer may hope to feel it too.

It must be said that Scruton’s views regarding art and beauty are not popular with the modern art crowd and their postmodern advocates. Having written several books on aesthetics, Scruton has developed a largely metaphysical aspect to understanding standards of art and beauty.

Throughout this documentary (and indeed his many books and articles), Scruton display a bias towards ‘high’ art, evidenced by a majority of his examples as well as his dismissal of much modern art. However on everyday beauty, there is much space for Scruton to challenge his own categories and extend his discussion to include examples from popular culture, such as in music, graphic design, and film. Omitting ‘low art’ in the discussion of beauty could lead one to conclude that beauty is not there.

It is here I would part ways with Scruton. I think there is beauty to be found in so called low art of car design, popular music or cinema for example - here I’m thinking of a Ferrari 250 GTO,  jazz, or the films of Bergman, Bresson, or Kurosawa (among others) come to mind. Scruton gives short thrift to such 20th century art forms which should not be discounted when we talk of beauty. It’s hard to argue with Jean-Luc Godard for instance when he once said of French film pioneering director, Robert Bresson, “He is the French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music.”

Overall though I believe Scruton does enough to leave us to ponder ourselves on the importance of beauty in the arts and our lives, including fine arts, music, and architecture. I think he succeeds in illuminating the poverty, dehumanisation and fraud of modernist and post-modernist cynicism, reductionism and nihilism. Scruton is rightly prescient in pointing the centrality of human aspiration and the longing for truth in both life and art.

In this he is correct in showing that goodness and beauty are universal and fundamentally important; and that the value of anything is not utilitarian and without meaning (e.g., Oscar Wilde’s claim that “All art is absolutely useless.”). Human beings are not purposeless material objects for mechanistic manipulation by others, and civil society itself depends upon a cultural consensus that beauty is real and every person should be respected with compassion as having dignity and nobility with very real spiritual needs to encounter and be transformed and uplifted by beauty.

Thanks for your question.

[gnosticinitiation]

Nature The Law Giver, Chapter 56

Man, in his greed, will heedlessly sacrifice anything in order to attain his end. Each day a forest disappears to provide logs for the mills, with the result that destructive nature is becoming more active and summers and winters are becoming more severe. Cyclones and tornadoes do not recur where virgin forests still exist, for the tall trees temper the effect of the destructive agencies. Nature, however, steps in and penalizes man for his destruction and wastage of her bounty.

In England, during the Great War, much oak and other timber was cut down to provide necessary pit props. It will take at least ninety-nine years of a reforestation before this damage can be remedied. When the trees covering the sides of our mountains are destroyed, torrents of water carry away the fertile earth, and eroded stony deserts are formed. Today even the small trees are ruthlessly cut or broken down in the process of logging, and reforestation by artificial means is necessary. The more man destroys the handiwork of nature, the greater the calamity to future generations. But there is another angle to this law, for we are told that in proportion to man’s destruction, nature shuts down on the activities of his memory.

If the citizen who destroys one tree will with love and reverence plant three others in its place he will form an alliance with the consciousness of nature which will afford him a shelter of protection. Devotion to God through kindness to nature will redeem man from such ignorance. As man destroys the trees and vegetation, nature's supply of oxygen is reduced, and oxygen is man’s elixir of life. There are many places on the earth today which afford man an earthly paradise, because the climatic conditions are tempered by the bounty of nature’s vegetation and man receives his full supply of oxygen. When a man who has lived close to nature enters the great industrial sections of a city, he will experience difficulty in breathing and a sense of oppression. Smoke from the factories, especially where soft coal is burned, causes havoc and destruction among humanity because the soot with which it is laden clogs the lungs, and the gases rob the blood stream of its oxygen. Nature's purifying oxygen is diluted with carbon oxides, and men and women are “born tired,” live in exhaustion, and die in despair. The impurities man liberates in the air are brought into his own system, and he should realize that he is suffering the penalty of his own acts.

Nature looks too man to help repair the calamities which he creates, and whoever works to alleviate the misfortune of nature unconsciously redeems himself. There are many real lovers of nature who beautify their houses and gardens, and on them nature bestows her love and affection. I have heard many sensitive people say, “Love comes to me from my garden for the care I bestow upon it.” However, people seldom exert themselves outside their own environment or seek to remedy the destruction which others have caused. While nature seeks to bring happiness to her children, she often weeps over the desecration of her bounty which Christmas brings, when the small fir, pine and hemlock trees are uprooted and sold over the counter for a few cents each.

A dear friend of mine, whose nature is of the “sylphid” type, once purchased a small Christmas tree for her drawing room, which she painted a silver bronze. It is most beautiful when decorated, but she said last Christmas and has said for several years, “I shall save it and use it again next year, for I never wish to kill another fir tree.” She had been to one of the big shops, and had seen hundreds of the small trees piled up to provide a passing thrill for the children and grown-ups at Christmas.

The devas have prophetic knowledge and they often inform the student what catastrophes are to take place when the Titans within the earth will be released to work destruction and havoc among mankind. Our modern Sodoms and Gomorrahs will in the fullness of time all suffer their due penalty which their destructiveness has brought to nature. When a place becomes so saturated with evil that it becomes destructive to the pure in heart, it remains only a matter of time when it will be razed to the ground.

I have witnessed the manipulation of natural forces by an Initiate during one of the great commercial crises in America, in order to prevent nature's penalties being too severe. And if it were not for the great immortals now living, the aftermath of the last great war would have been terrible beyond the conception of man.

Man comes naked into this world, and naked goes he hence. The perfection, the experience, which he gains to bring him into the consciousness of Truth can be summed up in one question, “What did he learn about himself?”

I have been privileged to read messages which certain Yogis wrote before they passed out, and the knowledge they had gained was of true spiritual worth, even though the whole life experience could be summed up in a single phrase. They also wrote minutely about knowledge they had gained in far distant countries, in order to enable the reader at some later date to open the book of the daily life and customs of a people who are today known only through archaeological research. Some of the writings of these seers gives an insight into the daily life and religious observances of past civilizations, and when the will of nature allows, humanity will be given information about Lemuria, Atlantis, Cush, Egypt, and Asiatic and African cities which today we know little.

This information will become available to those who are seeking to abide by the laws and edicts of nature's consciousness (natural law). But until a man passes the border which separates him from nature's consciousness, and lives according to her law, he cannot enjoy her bounty and protection. The devas often say, “How few we find in humanity who can become our spokesmen to redeem man into an understanding of our purpose in humanity’s endeavor.”

The great light-bringers to our earth have said, “Thou shalt not kill,” yet today mankind is recklessly killing other human beings by pestilence, wars, gas, greed, and the adulteration of nature's products. Could the total be known, the entire loss of life through the Great War would be negligible in comparison to the killing going quietly behind the scenes through man’s violation of natural law.

Disease is becoming so subtle that science is baffled to ascertain its cause or cure, and there is a new disease developing which will attack the membranes of a man’s astral and mental bodies, for man in his ignorance releases powers and forces into the atmosphere, the effect of which on the human brain and man’s causal body sheath he little knows.

After many years the manipulators of the X-ray are beginning to learn how to protect themselves from injury. This discovery, which has been of the greatest service to mankind, produced martyrs before the operator learned to safeguard himself against its subtle affects.

The average person seldom realizes that there are many pathways to God, and that there is one through science, wherein nature instructs humanity, and although many martyrs are sacrificed, yet when man lives the natural life according to nature's law, he will live to a greater age and gain a greater knowledge, and enjoy a greater freedom from disease and annoyance. From the requirement of knowledge comes wisdom, and wisdom points the path that leads to the “place of understanding.”

There are many today, generally unheeded by the populace, over whom nature has cast her Shekinah, and these are our “wise men.” We have many politicians, but a few statesmen. The devas often speak of the wise men in nature, meaning those men who have attained to her wisdom. These men are given great powers to ennoble the mind of humanity, and protect the innocent, and in proportion as they increase, the level of human accomplishment is advanced.

[laurensprentiss]

Jouska [Hotch x Reader]

Chapter 2:

Warnings: Mentions of firearms, stalking. *Tension*

Word Count: 1,843

———

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” - Oscar Wilde

------------

You curse yourself as you walk down the concrete path, leading the way for Hotch to follow behind you. Spring in Virginia is unreliable and you suddenly find yourself cold and underdressed in your skirt and turtleneck. The cold is harsh as you hug your arms close to your body, your teeth chattering slightly. Your father advised that maybe it would be best if you and Agent Hotchner got to know one another better, and where better than right here on your father’s sprawling estate, where he could make sure you were safe.

You hear rustling behind you as Hotch catches up. “Here, ma’am. Let me.” You do a double take to see Hotch shrugging off his suit blazer, his shoulders broad and arms strong, gun holstered on his hip. You hold out your arms as he slips the oversized blazer through your arms from behind you, unconsciously rubbing your arm as he does. You steal a quick glance up at him as he stands over you, to find he’s already watching you intently, his gaze flickering to your lips again. You smile and look away.

“Aren’t you cold?” You worry, as he shrugs.

He chuckles and rubs a hand over his beard. “I tend to run a little hot anyway. Besides, my mother would kill me if she knew I hadn’t offered a lady my jacket in the cold.” He finds himself staring at you unwittingly, taken by the sight of his too-big blazer wrapped around your body.

You raise your eyebrows in amusement and laugh. “Ah, so he's a gentleman?” You tease. You cross the blazer over your body and bury your face in the collar, inhaling his scent, something citrusy and musk. It’s warm. Comforting. You feel butterflies in your stomach as you look back up at him and nudge him. 

“Thank you. You’re sweet.” You smile. 

You both find your stride as you start to walk together, down the concrete steps and towards the grounds. “So. FBI huh? My father tells me you’re a profiler too?” You inquire as you look up at him.

His dimples peek through as he smiles gently, his hands in his pockets now, more relaxed. “Ah not quite. I’m training to be a profiler and I had the requisite training to be on a security detail, so here I am.” He explains. “Your father told me you were supposed to head off to Yale this summer? What’s your major?”

“Poli-Sci.” You lament. “Family tradition, but I’d love to do something like criminology or psychology.” He nods his understanding as you continue. “Ultimately, I know Dad wants me to do whatever makes me happy, but the thought of breaking tradition? It’s scary, you know?” 

“Yeah-“ He stops himself. You look up at him as he shakes his head. “Never mind.” You raise your eyebrows and ask for him to go on but he declines by saying it would be breaking protocol. 

You stop walking and stare at him a moment and he breaks. “Look it’s okay, I know the feeling. My father, he was a lawyer. His father too. But if you know your heart’s somewhere else, maybe it’s best to go with that.” 

“Wow.” You nod and resume walking. “So you’re a gentleman, and a fountain of wisdom. Got it.” You chuckle. 

You fall into a comfortable silence, stealing glances at each other, his stride in keeping with yours, bodies just close enough to touch. You pass a row of kept maple trees and down to an old black gazebo where you remember spending your childhood, sheltering yourself from the rain, or playing hostess with your late mother. You perch yourself on the ledge, swinging your legs as Hotch maintains a distance from you.

“Hey, so-“

“-I” He apologises and signals for you to go first. 

You wince slightly as you take a breath. “I was just going to say, that I suppose we should talk about the elephant in the room?” His face steels and his chest rises, his mouth open.

“The- I’m sorry. The what?” He enquires. 

 “I take it my father showed you the pictures the stalker took of me?” You watch his shoulders drop and his face relax as he realises. 

“Yes ma’am-” 

“Please. No ‘ma’am’. I feel like my grandmother. Just call me by my name.” You joke. 

 “Sorry.” He sheepishly rubs the back of his neck. “But to answer your question, yes, I did see the photographs, your father showed me the file. I also saw the uh-” 

He pauses, not knowing quite how to continue. “-The notes.” He walks closer to where you’re sat on the ledge, the both of you almost the same height this way as he continues. You watch him try to find the words. “I don’t want to alarm you unnecessarily, but you know this is serious? I mean the notes in and of themselves are a huge issue but given the fact that you’re someone in the public eye, it’s-”

“- I know. It’s why I’ve been living here, which makes it hard because I have an internship and an apartment in Georgetown.” You explain that you love being closer to home, and to your father but not having your independence makes you feel as though you’re suffocating. “But I’m going to be moving back.” You explain. 

Aaron stares at you in surprise and immediately advises against it, walking closer to you until you’re face to face to list the reasons why he thinks it’s a bad idea. You understand the gravity of the situation but you can’t help but stare at the way his lips move when he speaks, and how his arms and shoulders seem so strong, his dress shirt fitted just perfectly. How his hair looks so soft and how he still towers over you, his scent all around you. You realise he’s stopped talking and is just staring at you, waiting for you to respond, his hand holding the ledge next to you, encasing you in. 

Your breath catches and you swallow, looking up at him with wide eyes as you realise his gaze is fixed on yours, his eyes soft and glancing at your lips. His tongue darts out to wet his lips and you can feel heat rising on the back of your neck, your heartbeat pronounced. You swallow again, taking a deep breath and losing your nerve. You hop off the ledge and walk around him, needing some distance. “Look, you make fair points, but seeing as I have permanent security until we catch this son of a bitch, I don’t think it’s too outlandish. I’ve discussed it with my dad, too.” You reason. Hotch is still frozen in place. 

You continue, “-Besides, me being locked away here, isn’t going to help catch him. He knows he can’t get to me here. But giving him a chance to think he can get to me might work! And I don’t want to put my entire life on hold because of some psycho who thinks I owe him something. If he gets too close, you can catch him, right? Set some sort of trap or something?” He turns now, watching as you dart around the gazebo reasoning that it could be safe. 

He explains that he needs to clear it with his superiors and the Ambassador before he can allow it to happen, but that ultimately, he will try his best to make sure your needs and wants are met. You nod in understanding. “Look, the last I want to do is to put you in an uncomfortable situation, but you get where I’m coming from, right, Agent Hotchner?” 

He has a strange feeling in his chest when he hears his name come from your mouth but he plays it off, promising he’ll discuss it with Barnes and your father today. You thank him as you slide past him to get to the steps of the gazebo and return back to the house. You walk back down the path you came from, in a comfortable but buzzing silence, the both of you trying to make sense of the moment you shared back there, as you steal a glance at his face, his brows furrowed and his jaw hard. He catches you, his eyes on yours as he asks, “You okay?”

You take a beat. “Yeah.” You nod. “Yeah, I think I am.” You reply as you bury your nose in the collar of his blazer. 

----------------- 

You’ve been waiting in the foyer outside of your father’s office for around 40 minutes when the door finally opens. The past 40 minutes had consisted of heated discussions in angry whispers taking place on the other side. Hotch, McCall, Barnes and your father were discussing the matter of whether it would be feasible for you to return to your own apartment, when you had made your opinion more than known. Your father’s assistant calls you in and closes the door behind you as you watch Agents Hotcher and McCall rise from their seats. You hold your breath.

“Well, it appears you can be quite persuasive, young lady.” You rush to his side before he can even finish his sentence, throwing your arms around his shoulders and kissing his cheek. He laughs as he continues, “There are, however, measures that myself and the team will be putting in place to make sure you’re safe while you’re away.” His eyes look tired and worried. “Effective immediately, Agents Hotchner and McCall will be teaching you self-defence and how to safely hold and discharge a firearm. I want you to be in a position to defend yourself, should you need to.” 

You feel worry and a twinge of guilt as you realise you are all your father has left in this world. The thought of your father having to think about how you’re to defend yourself from somebody who has made his intentions this clear, fills you with sadness. You hold his hands in yours and squeeze reassuringly. “Thank you, Dad. I know this isn’t easy, but I’m going to be fine. Okay?” 

He takes a deep breath and cups your face in his hands, placing a kiss on your forehead. “I know, sweetheart. I know.” 

You turn to face Agents Hotchner and McCall to thank them too. You share a knowing smile with Hotch, knowing that while you were indeed persuasive, it was Hotch that would have sealed the deal and that it would have been his idea to implement the self-defence and firearm safety. Your father walks you all out of your office and you turn to reassure him again. He informs you that Agent McCall will be staying for a while longer to finalise the details of the security schedule and that Hotch would drive you to your apartment. 

“Well, I guess we should start packing?” Hotch asks as you both walk out of your father’s office. 

“Who says I’m not already packed?”

< Prev | > Next

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Tags: @andromedasstarship​ @oreogutz​

[olivinesea]

A Mixed Blessing

Chapter List

chapter four: talking in your demon voice

a/n: It’s my birthday! So it’s Hotch’s birthday too. Warning for substance use, as you might have suspected. ~2.6k

Aaron’s fifteenth birthday came and went without any mention or change in his home. He’d grown past the point of caring or expecting anything from his family. It was enough to just make it through the day without being noticed. To make it through unscathed. After dinner he helped Sean get ready for bed while his mother cleaned and his father settled into his favorite chair to begin his nightly ritual of slipping under the veil of alcohol fumes. If everyone was lucky he wouldn’t get up again that evening.

After Sean took a bath, Aaron helped him pull on his soft red pajamas, cozy in the late fall air. Hair still damp, it stuck up in odd places around the crown of his head. He moved slowly, sucking on his bottom lip, seeming to be waiting for something. Aaron pulled back the covers, inviting him over.

“C’mon, if you hurry up I can read you a story.”

He didn’t move. “Aaron?”

He frowned slightly, unsure what was going through the child’s mind. “What’s up?”

Sean scrunched up his face. “Is it your birthday?”

Aaron laughed. “Yeah buddy, it’s my birthday.”

Relief immediately washed over the child’s face, quickly followed by confusion. “We didn’t have a cake.”

Aaron sighed. “It’s okay, I don’t really like cake that much.”

“But you have to blow your candles out and make a wish. That’s what we do on my birthday.”

Aaron looked at him steadily, his face still round with baby fat, blue eyes searching beneath furrowed brows. He wondered when he’d grown into this little person, forming opinions on the world around him. Sean had an acute sense of justice, a child’s insistence on fairness and parity being the same thing. Aaron shrugged a shoulder, “I don’t need to wish for anything.”

“Why?”

Aaron exhaled sharply though his nose, tired of this conversation, not wanting to get into a long string of why’s, just wanting to get out of the house, treat himself to his own birthday celebration. “Okay I have one wish: I wish you would get in bed.”

Sean didn’t move, exploring the limit of his autonomy. Aaron patted the bed, trying to ignore the irritation crawling up the back of his neck. “Please Sean, it’s getting late.”

Sean sighed, relenting but not moving towards the bed. Instead he walked over to the child sized table and chair where he kept some puzzles and art supplies. He carefully pulled a folded paper from under a stack. Aaron watched his brother’s determined actions from his seat on the bed. Sean held the paper close to his chest as he walked back to the bed. He seemed a little self-conscious.

“I made you a birthday card.” He paused. “I did it all by myself.”

Aaron’s heart melted, feeling guilt for his earlier irritation.

“Can I read it to you?”

“Of course, come here,” Aaron said, pulling Sean up on the bed beside him. Sean leaned against his side as he held out the card. Thick marker lines messily spelled out a birthday wish in shaky letters, jumbled randomly. Sean had only just begun learning the alphabet. There were a few unrecognizable designs that Aaron thought might be cars or birds. He smiled as Sean pointed to the letters, reading out his current version of what it said, a rambling child’s message of happiness. Aaron felt his throat closing, thinking about all the choices he’d been making, about how often he left Sean here alone with their parents, unprotected. Yet Sean loved him anyway. He didn’t deserve that love. Sean finished his recitation of the the card’s contents and looked up at Aaron expectantly.

“Thanks buddy, I love it.” He squeezed him to his side. “I love you Sean.”

The little boy rubbed his face into the fabric of Aaron’s shirt, making a small noise of happiness. An image of himself, faded and disconnected, flashed through his mind and he squeezed tighter, causing Sean to squeak in protest.

“Sorry,” Aaron muttered, releasing him. “Alright, bedtime for real. Lay down.”

Sean wriggled into his sheets, smiling to himself at the gift he’d given. Aaron pulled the blankets up to his shoulders.

“Story?” Sean asked hopefully but Aaron shook his head. He needed to go, the guilt was becoming unbearable. That he could be so irresponsible while Sean was here, perfect in his childhood, worrying about whether his big brother got to blow out birthday candles, was too much. His self loathing was threatening to overwhelm him and he couldn’t be around Sean when that happened. He needed to run, run to the escape he’d found in abandoned sheds and unused garages. Sean stuck out his bottom lip, ready to complain. Aaron just leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead.

“Thank you for the birthday card.” He held it to his chest to show how much it meant to him and Sean smiled sleepily. “Sweet dreams, kid.”

Aaron ruffled his hair before heading out of the room, turning off the lights as he left, making sure the door was closed. In the hallway he looked at the card again, the brightly colored scribbles searing through his chest like a knife. He felt an urge to tear it up but gritted his teeth and folded it carefully, sticking it in his back pocket. He stopped in his room long enough to grab his coat and a beanie then slipped out the back door before either of his parents could notice him leaving.

He was going to meet Cole. He’d started spending more time with the older boy, time outside of school hours. A few times a week he’d find himself following him to various locations where other teenagers would be loitering, making the same dumb choices that teenagers had always made. He hated being there, uncomfortable and ignored. He’d tuck himself into a corner with a beer and watch Cole lord over the group, holding their attention with his darkly iridescent personality. Some nights they barely spoke and Aaron wondered if he was even really supposed to be there. He’d think about ducking out, heading home to the familiar loneliness that wasn’t him being forced to watch others as they became louder and dumber. But as soon as he’d make the decision, start moving in the direction of a door, Cole was always there, right at his side, grabbing his elbow, pulling him to a circle of smokers or handing him another drink.

Cole noticed how nervous, how uncomfortable Aaron was and if anything he found it funny. One night, as Aaron’s eyes darted around a crowded living room, Cole smirked and dragged him outside, handing him a cigarette.

“Here, something to do.”

Aaron didn’t like the way it tasted, didn’t like the way the smoke lingered in his mouth like he’d eaten a fistful of ash, didn’t like the sick, hollow feeling it created in his stomach. But he liked having an activity. Standing by yourself was much less noticeable with a cigarette in your hand. Time passed faster when punctuated by smoke breaks. However, he didn’t like always having to ask, like a child asking for one more treat. When he saw a pack in someone’s unattended bag he lifted it without a second thought. When Cole raised his eyebrows at him, questioning as he pulled out his own cigarette he felt a small smile of satisfaction curl the corners of his mouth. Cole laughed at this and held up his lighter, the flame just far enough away that Aaron had to lean forward to reach it. Cigarette lit, Aaron straightened, catching a flicker of emotion crossing Cole’s face. He replaced it with a humorless grin before Aaron could interpret it fully.

Not for the first time he questioned the wisdom of his choice to spend his time with this person who’s motivations he couldn’t pin down. He took a drag, feeling the smoke fill his lungs, no resistance, all sensitivity burned away at this point. He looked at Cole again as he exhaled in to the chilled night air. He looked pleased and Aaron couldn’t deny the warmth that it caused to spread to his fingertips. Cole winked at him before turning away to talk with a group gathered nearby. Aaron clung to the warmth, inhaling again to try to pull it back in as it filtered away with Cole’s attention. He hated to admit it but he would wait around for more of that feeling. He wandered to the corner of the building and sunk down against the wall, pulling his knees into his chest, ashing on to the bare dirt beside him. He could be patient.

Tonight would be no different he assumed. He’d developed a system. First he would check Cole’s grandma’s house since that was the easiest place to get to, only a mile or so from Aaron’s own house. If he wasn’t there, Aaron would go on to the shed in the woods, where, hopefully, Cole would be lounging in his feline way, watchful eyes and retracted claws at the ready. Sometimes they stayed there, sometimes he’d get dragged to some social gathering. Other times no one was there and Aaron would make himself comfortable on one of the busted couches, pulling out his own small stash of weed that he’d started carrying around and smoke until he couldn’t think straight. Only then would he wander home, when he got too cold to be there anymore and he was certain his family would be long asleep, his father too unconscious to hear him stumble back in.

Tonight he was lucky, finding Cole at the first location. He could tell he was home by the light shining through the small high windows of the garage. The door was partially raised but not enough to see inside. Aaron leaned close and knocked on it, calling softly,

“Hey, it’s me.”

He heard some swearing and some rustling as Cole came over to lift the door higher, allowing Aaron access. He didn’t bother greeting him, only turning away immediately to go back to his desk where he was messing with something small. Aaron was used to this behavior by now, though it had confused him at first, thinking that it must mean he wasn’t welcome. But Cole was just like that, sometimes so focused on him that it felt like he was cutting through Aaron with his attention and sometimes so distracted that he didn’t notice or even seem to recognize him. It still made Aaron a little uncomfortable, not knowing what he would be getting, but it wasn’t like he had better options for company.

He went and sat on the corner of Cole’s bed, just a mattress on the ground and the only other furniture in the garage besides the table and chair pushed up against the wall. There were some milk crates and cardboard boxes with unfolded clothes and other odds and ends. Some rusty and broken bikes and an old TV that turned on but mostly only got static. Aaron picked at a hole forming in the knee of of his jeans, waiting for Cole to say something to him, considering if he should start rolling a joint. He was unclear on the rules for this place; sometimes he’d arrive with the air filled with smoke and Cole lazily smoking on the bed. Other times he’d suggest it and get met with a sharp comment, something cutting about how he needed to calm down, not be such a damn pothead. It was unnerving. But it was Aaron’s birthday and he had been sober for too much of it. He pulled out his supplies, grabbing a magazine that had been discarded on the ground to use as a work surface.

“Put that shit away.”

He looked up at Cole who was unexpectedly standing above him, holding something carefully in his hands. He opened his mouth to protest, he really needed this right now, needed to get away from all these thoughts that were chasing him. But Cole glared at him so he set the magazine down, careful not to spill what he’d already put out. Pleased with being obeyed, Cole smiled and sat down beside him.

“I’ve got something better for you, birthday boy.”

Despite the whiplash of Cole’s demeanor, Aaron couldn’t help but feel a happiness that someone, this someone, his only friend, had remembered his birthday. Side by side now, he could feel the heat of the other boy’s body even though they were not quite touching, too aware of his presence. He chewed on his lip, trying to understand what he was seeing in Cole’s hands. It looked like tiny pieces of trash: some foil, a straw too short to drink from, something dark and sticky looking.

“Here, hold this.” He handed over the tiny straw, chuckling at the confusion on Aaron’s face. “When I light this you’re gonna inhale as long as you can and then hold your breath. Okay?”

Aaron frowned, “Sure.”

Cole held the foil so it was at chest height. He leaned forward slightly.

“With the straw, dumbass.”

Aaron blushed but held the straw to his lips. The smoke that filled his lungs tasted unlike anything he had ever had before. He almost wanted to stop, to ask more questions but felt Cole’s eyes on him, demanding he continue. When his lungs were so full he felt like they might burst, he sat up again. Cole placed a finger on his lips, reminding him to hold the smoke in. Aaron looked at him, trying to read the thoughts so clearly running through the other boy’s mind. He felt certain it wasn’t something he would like to hear. Just when he thought he might pass out from lack of oxygen, Cole dropped his hand. Relieved, Aaron exhaled, shaking his head at the taste.

“Again.”

“What? Why? What even is that?” He didn’t feel any different and he wasn’t particularly comfortable with how that had just happened.

“Shut up, just do it.” Cole’s eye’s flashed, his smile sharp.

Aaron stared at him for a moment, then relented. They repeated the process and this time Aaron started to feel a heaviness settle over him, like his body was being coated in warm syrup. He smiled unconsciously as he exhaled.

“See,” Cole said, his voice sounding distant. “I told you so.”

Aaron’s eyes even felt heavy as he tried to look at Cole, wondering if he’d said something without realizing it. He could feel his blood pulse, his brain vibrating like a cat purring.

“One more time, birthday boy.”

Aaron gave up on trying to turn his head, just leaning forward again to meet the smoke. He lost his grip on time, couldn’t make any of the shapes around him make sense. For a second, panic surged through his chest, he couldn’t move. A hand gently pressed him backwards, falling in slow motion, eventually meeting the softness of the mattress. He squinted his eyes at the light and the colors floating above him.

“Just close your eyes.”

He felt fingertips ghosting over his eyelids as he complied. He smiled, or he thought he was smiling at least. His mouth didn’t seem to be very accessible at the moment but he didn’t mind. He felt warm, the kind of warmth that came from fleece lined blankets and fuzzy socks and the certainty that no one was coming to hurt him, that he was so well hidden they could never find him. He was lost and he hoped to stay there forever.

chapter five

[thebountyfucker]

Kyuzo/Phatrong Headcanon Masterpost

I created a post similar to this on my main blog @kyuzan-queen years ago and wanted to give it a refresh!

Included in this post:

Kyuzan biology (does include NSFW elements) Culture: Clothing, Music/Art, Religion, Familial culture, Politics, and life of Phatrong

Kyuzoni biology:

The Kyuzo are an omnivorous (carnivorous-leaning) reptilian species. They sport a mouthful of sharp fangs and a long tongue. While they are reptilian, they are warm blooded and do not lay eggs. Because of Phatrong's inconsistent weather, Kyuzo evolved to be able to maintain and regulate their own body temperatures. Their bodies can accept a shift in temperature of about 20 degrees Fahrenheit before it starts to affect them. They, like cold-blooded reptiles, do enjoy sunning/basking. It's good for their mental health and other bodily processes!

Kyuzos also evolved to carry pregnancies and give live births, also because of the weather. The process of Kyuzan pregnancy is awkward and painful, though, and mortality rates for mothers are quite high.

Kyuzo skin is rough, but not scaly like Trandoshans. Skin colors can range anywhere from green, to yellow, to blue and in between. However, those who are purely yellow or blue have a common pigmentation disorder. Their health is not negatively affected because of this, although people might treat them differently depending on where they live.

All Phatrongi Kyuzo are born with honeycomb eyes, that can be any color. Their eyes tend to glow in the dark, and they can see in the dark better than most humanoids.

Other than having slightly wider hips, cis females are very similar to cis males. Cis females do not have breasts or any noticeable secondary sex traits. While cis males tend to be a bit taller and wider framed, its not uncommon for cis females to have those traits, and vice versa. Intersex Kyuzo are common. Gender is very fluid among the Kyuzo, as parents tend to raise their children without a defined gender; when the child is of age, they get to decided what their gender is. Thus, being trans or nonbinary is prevalent.

The Kyuzo can be up to 7′6″ tall, with most falling in the 6′ to 6′6″ range. They tend to have larger frames than humans but are considerably more agile.

The weakest part of the Kyuzo is their lungs; if there is too much moisture in the air, they can easily contract pneumonia. Too little oxygen in the air and they’ll suffocate. Thus the reason they wear masks off planet.  

Kyuzo, beyond that, are an incredibly hearty species that can live upward of three hundred years. After reaching sexual maturity at around young adulthood, their aging slows down. Whatever kills them before old age is usually attributed to their lungs or more physical means. They can contract other diseases, but they are usually nonfatal. Usually.

They have an amazing amount of stamina and can run at speeds that are hard for most humanoids to attain. They, unfortunately, have high pain tolerances and a hard time receiving fatigue messages to the brain, and this generally spells out problems. Kyuzos have been known to run themselves to death - literally. It’s not uncommon for families to find the bodies of missing members hundreds of miles away from where they were last seen. They have to make a very conscious effort to stop, or they won’t.

Kyuzo are much stronger than other humanoids, and can jump higher. Most outsiders confuse them as force sensitives for this reason. Kyuzos can be Force-sensitive, but it's rare to find Kyuzo Jedi.

Kyuzan cocks are long, with a tapered head. Most cocks have ridges or nodes on the top that would expand when inside a Kyuzan pussy. These nodes would help to anchor the cock inside. However, when fucking a near-human, these nodes/ridges tend to only work as extra sensation against the g-spot and a-spot.

Culture:

Clothing:

Most feminine presenting Kyuzo wear headwraps/headdresses. Other than displaying wealth and covering cold heads, there isn’t much of a reason that they wear the headdresses. It’s not required, but most feminine presenting people wear them because they grew up seeing other feminine presenting people wearing them. If one is wealthy, their headdresses will tend to be large and elaborate; it’s not uncommon for one to wear a headdress that is pounds upon pounds of metals, jewels, and cloth. Poorer feminine presenting people generally just wear cloth, or nothing at all.

Kyuzoni clothing is colorful and flowy; people wear very similar clothing, no matter what gender they are. Dresses and skirts are very common, and people will generally go topless. While most colors are okay to use, there are certain colors that are not used in everyday clothing, such as purple, light blue, gold, and white; the Kyuzo place sacred meaning in some colors, so they are only supposed to be used for special events.

Phatrong’s army/police force wear loose, non-restricting clothing with a leather-like armor covering their chests. Their family’s crest is painted upon the armor, in case that the warrior is killed in action. Their clothing is trimmed in gold, which represents bravery and wisdom.

Light blue cloth, specifically headwraps or shirts, signify that a wedding is approaching. Purple is a wedding color, as it signifies prosperity and commitment; wedding clothes are trimmed with silver. White is only used for funerals or births, as it signifies both death and the innocence of new life.

Music/Art:

Music on Phatrong generally revolves around stringed instruments and percussion instruments; they don’t generally listen to music for leisure. Music is only played at festivals, and generally tells the stories of ancient heroes and gods. The Kyuzo also create dances to these story-songs, to make things more dramatic.

Art varies around Phatrong. By the oceans, it’s mostly glass-work like beads and giant stained glass windows. Those Kyuzo that live by the rivers create pottery. Richer families will paint large murals that will cover the walls of their homes. These murals tell tales of their gods, but more often than not they are used almost like photographs that capture small moments in the lives of the family. Jewelry making is also common.

Religion:

The Kyuzo believe in a polytheistic system; the most prominent goddess is Vohaoya (Vo-ha-oy-ah), the mother of the gods and creator of worlds. She represents women, fertility, life, and nature; she is described as having a mostly Kyuzoni appearance, with three eyes and four arms. Often, she is shown in art or statues sitting cross-legged, cradling Phatrong in her lap; her arms are either pointing toward the sky, or she is making gestures with her hands. Her bottom arms are often portrayed as laying flat against her legs with palms upturned - this relays openness. Her left top arm is often resting on the planet, which portrays her protective nature. And her right top arm is often pointed upward, her pointer finger curling in toward her palm while the rest of her fingers are outstretched; this is a symbol of love for the Kyuzo. Her statues are mostly made out of gold, but are painted with the likeness of galaxies; some people swear that the stars shift in the right light.

Other more minor deities include Ixpi, the goddess of peace, and her brother Echting, the god of war. Because the Kyuzo like to believe that they are a peaceful race, Echting is often described as a villain. Ixpi is described as a small, rainbow-colored being that floats rather than walks; besides being the goddess of peace, she is also a patron of happiness, sunrise, and the LGBT community on Phatrong. Echting is also the god of destruction, mayhem, and storms; he is often described as a fiery being too bright to look at. He is surrounded by lightning and is easily angered.

There are temples, wherein these gods can be worshipped. The temples are all large and ornate, made usually of marble or wood. The temples for Vohaoya and Ixpi are run exclusively by priestesses, and though men can worship there, men cannot serve the goddesses. Men can work at the temples of Echting, but not many do, given the god's bad reputation.

Legend has it that Vohaoya created the Warriors of old to protect the gods from those that wished to harm them. They were created from the rich soil, and they were considered divine beings. In the modern era of Phatrong, it is still considered one of the highest honors to be a Warrior.

Life on Phatrong:

The Kyuzo tend to live in large villages or the few small cities around the planet; those who are born into the more obscure villages often never leave the villages.

Villages are generally comprised of thousands of people, all of which are extended family members. Separate families can have more than twenty-five members, all living in one house. Villagers take turns tending to the communal farm, which produces most of their food and fibers for clothing; to supplement the farm, they also forage, hunt, and fish.

Village born Kyuzo are very secluded, only working with neighboring villages to marry off their children. Because of their seclusion, they are the more suspicious and less educated than their city counterparts. Knowledge is passed down through the generations as those born in the villages don’t have access to teachers. At most, they know Kyuzoni and basic math: they are instead taught more practical skills, like sewing, cooking, cleaning, and animal husbandry.

There are two ‘real’ cities on Phatrong, Shutalo and Shouji; Shutalo (Shoo-tah-loh) is the capital city, to the north. Shouji (Show-zhee) is a large industrial city in the southern hemisphere. Any outside trade is limited to these two areas.

Kyuzo that live in the city tend to have smaller families, with about six members at the most. The Kyuzo in the cities have actual jobs, but they don’t make money; they are given items of use instead. (Think of bartering, almost. If they work at a textile store, they are given cloth, which can then be traded for food, etc.) Villages that have produced too much food or are in need of other items will sell food to the city folk.

City Kyuzo have better access to education, although it’s still not the best in the galaxy. Most city Kyuzo learn things like writing, higher levels of math, and an objective look on the planet’s history. Kyuzo that wish to learn beyond that must travel off planet.

It’s extremely difficult for Kyuzos to speak Basic, just because Kyuzoni and Basic are so different. It can take years and years just to get the verbal language down, and that doesn’t count how long it takes for them to learn to read Aurebesh. If the Kyuzo do manage to figure out how to speak Basic, they have thick accents that are often hard to understand, thus making them vulnerable to mockery.

Politics:

Politics on Phatrong are strange as the government actually doesn’t do much. The senate, located in Shutalo, is a group of Kyuzo (and a few Kataline) from various villages and cities that are there to set basic laws so that they can have a seat in the Council of Neutral Systems. Really, the various villages will set their own rules, and as long as it doesn’t interfere with the senate, they’re generally alright with it. (A law would include: Murder is punishable by death. But their definition of murder is loose and up to interpretation.)

Kyuzo children (generally young men but it’s not limited to males) learn to fight from the moment they can understand. The Kyuzo, although a generally ‘peaceful’ race, train their children to become a quasi-army/police force. The most promising fighters are then shipped off to various academies around Phatrong to train with masters to hone their skills. Many children, as a result of poor quality of life at the academies and dangerous fighting practices, end up dying. It is rare that the academies are punished. The children that make it then must complete a three-year stint as an active warrior; those who passed but are not necessarily promising are sent to protect sacred temples. Those who show a certain level of finesse can continue to climb the ranks until they are high-ranking military officials. They act more like a police force than a military, but they have the training just in case.

Marriage and Family Life:

Kyuzo children are often promised to each other at birth; throughout their childhoods, they get to meet and connect with their betrothed. They generally marry at eighteen, with a week-long festival preceding it. Certain wives -ones that are ordained from birth by priestesses- are considered sacred embodiments of the Goddess Vohaoya, and are limited to bearing five children; superstition says that having too many children will thin out the wife’s existence. Daughters are vitally important to carry on their mother’s bloodline.

Because Kyuzo value large family, a husband will take a wetzandi as well; a wetzandi, or birth maid, is a younger woman who births the rest of a man’s children. A wetzandi is someone who is generally caught bedding out of wedlock, or has committed some other small crime against the goddesses. Unfortunately, they are not valued by most, and are treated as little more than breeding stock.

[astrowithkaro]

Hello! I love the detail and advice you provide in this series! If you have a moment could you do February 27th?

Language Of Birthdays: February 27 - Pisces

[You can find the rest of the series here; or check out my masterlist]

The Day Of The Reality Masters

Those born on February 27 are extremely insightful into the workings of the world around them. They spend a great deal of energy coming to understand the basic elements of everyday life—how things work, why people act the way they do, how to work to advantage with the environment—but this is only the beginning. From this solid reality base, February 27 people allow their questioning spirits to explore outward to social, international and universal spheres as well. Because they build solidly at each step of the way, they can confidently count on the wisdom they have culled from experience to see them through new and perhaps increasingly ambitious endeavors.

The greatest difficulties for February 27 people usually surface in their personal lives. Because they are extremely demanding individuals, and also since their intuitive choices in relationships are often not the most suitable for them to say the least, they can have tumultuous and often chaotic love lives. For some reason, for all of their understanding of the world and their capacity to make their way in it, they often know surprisingly little about themselves, other than what they think they want. To learn the difference between what they want and what they truly need is an important distinction for them to grasp and one which they hopefully make sooner rather than later in life.

By satisfying their true needs they can, of course, find greater emotional stability and happiness. Too often they feel that their problems can be solved by another person, and put much too much energy into their romantic love lives, instead of seeking the solutions to their needs at a deeper level inside themselves. Given their emotional makeup, it is unlikely that those born on this day will experience much "downtime" between relationships, but an extended period alone could actually do them some good. Because of their thoughtful and sensitive nature, they should be able to accomplish much personal growth without outside help.

February 27 people are happiest when they can let their minds roam freely over a wide variety of subjects, and generally demand friends and mates who are also intellectually active. Those born on this day often struggle with their social environment in an attempt to somehow master it or perhaps redirect it. Their urge to dominate is very strong and because their magnetic powers are among the strongest in the entire year, they must be extremely careful not to overwhelm everyone around them.

If February 27 people lose moral direction they have a great potential for bringing destruction on themselves and others. Their capacity for not only seeing the truth but also bringing what they desire to pass, through a rare combination of empathy and willpower, presents them with great ethical and moral challenges.

Strengths:

Magnetic

Capable

Worldly

Weaknesses:

Seld unaware

Demanding

Emotionally chaotic

Advice

Those born on February 27 often know a surprising amount about health even though they may have no formal training. However, they periodically forget everything they know and personally go off in an entirely unhealthy direction. Having benefit of a medical or alternative health authority whom they trust is crucial to their wellbeing. Vigorous physical exercise is recommended for those born on this day (running, aerobics, gymnastics, weightlifting, rock climbing, ocean swimming) as well as sexual contentment with a steady partner. February r people are prone to both alcohol and sex-and-love addictions, so they must develop the willpower to keep their turbulent natures under control.

Bring your mastery over your environment to bear on yourself

Follow your spiritual path wherever it takes you, but be kind to those you meet on the way

Tend to your own personal business and don't get sick tracked

[ninjakasuga]

Sonsally Celebration Week, Year 3, Day Four!

Sonally Celebration Week, Year 3, Day Four!

Another day of Sonsally Week, unlike the last few entries, this is where I break linearity and go travel back to a prior period in the timeline. When the prompt of ‘Power’ was shown my mind of course went to the Super-Forms, the Deep Power Stones, and the like. Yet also my mind went back to some fanart from last year about a certain someone I would have loved to have seen share a Super Form with Sonic… Y’all can see where this is going.~

Forward: Timeline wise, this is 9-10yrs before Crossroads; the last battle of the war with Dr. Eggman. I admit I’m once again sprinkling tidbits from my still WIP Archie-Sonic-Verse that has yet to be published, but I think the easter eggs and hints of things yet to be seen will be fun for the reader.

Power:

“Sal, are you flipping insane?!” Cried Sonic as he stared Sally down at her suggestion. “You want to use the Deep Power Stones to amplify our Super Forms? What about all that ‘overload potential’ nonsense?!”

Standing beside Sonic, one eye on the half of the Deep Power Stone in her hand, the other on the approaching Egg Armada. A legion of robots, ships, and what other mechanical horrors Eggman had left to try and quash them all for good. With the world-wide alliances winning victory, after victory, Eggman grew desperate and now was throwing everything he had at them in a ‘If I can’t have it no one will!’ tantrum of a scorched world move. Basically it was done to the wire, and now they were as desperate as Eggman.

Her grip tightened on the stone, that madman would not have the last laugh. He wouldn’t end their world as he did the Mobius he came from! “It’s something I was thinking about for awhile, Sonic. We’ve seen what the stones can do just augmenting the individuals who bring the stones together. If we bring that kind of augmentation to the Super Forms? We have the Master Emerald already channeling to empower the Seven Chaos Emeralds, imagine channeling the Stones through it to the Emeralds and the Power Rings. All of you could not just have a greater power boost, but potentially the forms will last longer, long enough to wreck most if not all of the Egg Armada and put an end to this war for good!”

“It might work…” Murmured Tails, standing on the other side to Sally. “Channeling the Stones' power through the Master Emerald, which itself is a beacon and conduit for the Seven Servers…” He began to murmur as his brain went over the numbers and possible calculations. As the two-tailed fox finished his thoughts, he turned to the Guardian of Angel Island, wanting his thoughts. “The Master Emerald is your expertise Knuckles, you think it will work?”

The red-furred Guardian furrowed his brow as he contemplated this. “Maybe, I admit while my communion with Tikal or my Great Grandfather has given me greater insight to the mystical aspects of the Master Emerald, I’m still a novice truth be told.” He sighed, looking apologetic. “Sadly I know more of the scientific side of things given the Brotherhood’s data mostly focuses around that. Even my Father’s old notes are more historical musings than proven theory.” He sighed again, mentally cursing his forebears for yet another aspect of oversight the Brotherhood neglected during their long tenure of guarding Angel Island. Then again, save for the Lost Tribe, it would seem most of the old mystic arts were lost to the Echidna of today, what few were left. “Given we’ve found many connections to the old mystical artifacts of the world, there’s a good chance they’ll work together as Sally thinks.”

A low growl-like ‘hmm’ punctuated the air, before a stern voice interjected aloud. “Or it will overload the Emerald, destroy it, and fry all of us, or potentially create a super-bomb.” Shadow stated with arms crossed, and looking pensive. As all looked his way, he spoke on. “I’m not saying we ditch the idea, but it’s something to consider. I have a vow to protect this world to uphold, as well as too many I care about to let them die.” His thoughts dwelled on Rouge, Omega, and Hope especially. His other comrades within G.U.N. and the Thorndyke Labs. Even of those here, despite any past animosity, he wanted them and their loved ones to equally live. They all had family, and friends to protect. 

The last member of the group, his expression uneasy, yet a deep resolve in his eyes looked about his comrades, and then the horizon as their enemy continued to fly toward them. “We don’t really have a choice do we? This is the last chance, for all of you, as well as the Future I want to prevent from coming to pass.” Clenching his fists, Silver felt his powers hum through his being. It had been a long journey, and one not without many hurdles. From his bungling to interpret data from then Future, and its founding in the past, to dealing with the truths of his own ‘Master’ and the struggle of wondering if he was truly a pawn to bring about ‘his’ world versus a world for everyone to be happy. In the end he was wiser, more experienced and ever resolute to ensure the dark future never came to pass. All other obstacles save Eggman had been dealt with. This was the final hour. “So, save for Sonic we’re all in agreement?”

Hands on his hips, Sonic frowned deeply, looking rather indignant. “Hey, hey! I never said scrap the plan, I was just pointing out how before everyone kept yammering about doing something stupid with the Stones. Given either configuration usage done wrong could lead to KAB-BOOM! Jus’ pointing that out!” Eyeing everyone, his gaze rested on Sally, those deep blue pools that always sucked him in. Reaching for her hand, he wrapped his hand over hers, their wedding rings shining in the sun together. “You think this is our best bet, Sal? If you’re really onboard, so’m I.”

In truth, Sally did share the same concerns as Sonic and everyone else. She knew even using just the ‘boost’ augment which so far had been the safest, could lead to disaster as much as the other configuration which always ended destructively. Plus this would be the last time they could use them. As per Merlin Prower’s warning, the Deep Power Stones could be used a handful of times, and the mystic had given them warning they were on their last usage. This was due to a special magical limiter the Neo-Walkers put on the Stones, halving their ability so the Freedom Fighters and their allies could have an edge. However with the last use, the limiter was off, and so it was full power, and potentially the best opportunity for the worst case scenario. After this the Stones would vanish for another millennia until they were recharged and reappear randomly about the planet again.

Yet as Silver pointed out, what choice did they really have? Eggman was going all out; and thus, their hands were tied. “It’s the best shot we have. G.U.N.’s mechanized forces are exhausted and what isn’t in the repair bay is out fighting the forces encroaching their borders. None of the rest of the allied nations have any armies big enough to fight this horde. We can’t call for help from Blaze or any other friends from other dimensions because the Zone Cops sealed all dimension travel to Mobius Prime to prevent Eggman from escaping. This, this, is all we can do.” Her resolve sounded unshakable, despite her internal doubt, she had to sound resolute. Matching her gaze with Sonic, she managed a grin as she laced her fingers with his. “Let’s do-it-to-it, gang!”

Smiles formed about at the catch-phrase that was so infectious even Shadow was sucked in. One by one, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow and Silver joined in placing their hands over each other, forming a lock. “Let’s do-it-to-it! They all cried, before breaking to get into place. While Sally stood by the Master Emerald with Knuckles, the others began to loop around the Master Emerald, each linking their hands together. From Shadow to Silver, to Tails, to Sonic. Instead of holding Knuckles’ hand, Sonic placed his own on the Echidna’s shoulder. Knuckles did the same with Sally, while his free hand touched the Master Emerald. Sally held the Deep Power Stones in each hand, waiting for the right moment to place them together. Craning her head to Knuckles she nodded, and he nodded back, his gaze shifting to the large emerald his bloodline made their mission to protect along with Angel Island itself (well Echidna population for them, Knuckles was out to protect everyone).

“The servers are the Seven Chaos… Chaos is power, enriched by the heart… The controller exists to unify the chaos!” As he started the chant, he briefly saw a flash of Tikal within the Master Emerald, smiling at them all. This allowed Knuckles to smile, but he didn’t let this distract him. “We who are blessed by the Chaos, beseech to wield your power and wisdom, to save the planet and the innocent lives that dwell upon it. Let us be the Guardians of Mobius, of the Chaos, and the Light of Gaia!”

“We will gladly give our lives if you can let us protect all we love, please help us.” Murmured Sally, interjecting her own addition once Knuckles’ incantation chant was finished. Staring at the two halves of the stones, Sally placed them together, the halves flashed as they became one. An intense glow emanating from the black object that soon blinded them all. A bright, green glow from the Master Emerald broke through the white, with the gathered Power Rings (including Sonic’s Billionth Special Ring) all giving off a golden glow as the colors mingled together. A pillar of the mingled colors erupts from the Master Emerald’s resting place, shooting up, and up into space as the island is bathed in its warm glow.

Tails was the first to regain his sight, and once the relief they did not explode passed through him, a wide grin formed on his face as he felt it, the power of his Super Form. Not only that but he could ‘feel’ the power was increased. “Alright I think it worked!” He hollered, pumping his arms as he felt the power of Turbo Tails peak and flare briefly. “Hooo it’s been a long spell!”

Shadow merely made a ‘heh’ sound, yet smiled as he stared at his own glowing hands. “Yes, I can feel it, now those machines can feel Super Shadow’s fists and Chaos Spears.”

“This still blows me away with how powerful it makes me feel.” Murmured Silver as he marveled at his Super Silver transformation.

“Oh holy crap…” They heard Knuckles utter, followed by Sonic stammering “S-S-Sal?”. Everyone turned their heads and gasped in awe.

“Oh, my God…” Was all Sally could murmur. Her fur was a pink-orange tinge, and her hair a golden glow, flowing freely from the sheer power itself. “H-how? I thought only those with a tie to the Chaos Force could achieve super form?!”

“Maybe the powers that be felt you were worthy.” Knuckles mused, giving a nodding approval to this development. The light-pink glow of his Hyper Knuckles form, arcing with energy like everyone else. “In any case it looks like it worked.”

“I’m not a fan of the colors, they remind me of when I spent hours scrubbing chemicals out of my fur.” Muttered Sally, recalling the chemical splash that caused her fur and hair to change colors twice, before finally returning to her proper brown and auburn tones. She shuddered at the memory; she was lucky Rotor and Quack were able to make a fur-shampoo solution to cleanse the stuff from her fur, and luckier she wasn’t exposed long enough to cause any health issues.

Rubbing his chin, Sonic flashed a wide smile as he drew in his wife’s Super Form. “I dunno Sal, you rock the colors, and do’. It’s giving me ideas-.”

Tails held up one hand, and the other he put a finger to his mouth. Making a faux-gagging sound. “Sonic, I’m right here, don’t wanna hear that stuff!”

Snorting, Sonic rolled his eyes, “Hey, hey Li’Bro who said my mind was going to the gutter?”

Knuckles shot Sonic an incredulous look. “And I quote, “I’m always horny for Sal.”, end quote.”

Both Sonic and Sally managed to blush through the color of their super forms. Each coughing, and averting their gazes from their friends for a time.

“How about we can the small talk, and focus on saving the world?” Shadow stated, breaking up the moment as he turned and pointed towards the approaching Armada. “I’m sure Eggman saw that light show and is going to get even more antsy to try and finish us off.”

Clearing her throat, Sally stepped forward from the Master Emerald, letting Shadow’s comment further help to put that momentary embarrassment behind them. FAR behind them hopefully! “Shadow’s right, we got the power, now let’s use it.”

Pounding his fists together, Sonic began to jog and jump in place to pump himself up. “Juice and jam time folks, let’s show ol’ Eggy he should’ve stayed on that satellite in his home dimension.”

“If not just shriveled up and died.” Growled Knuckles as he flexed his fists before slamming them together.

“For everyone here, and those yet to come, we must win.” Silver uttered as he began to float, flexing his psychokinetic powers in anticipation.

Spinning his twin-tails, Tails began to hover as well. “Sally, give the word, we’re ready!”

“Everyone, it’s been an honor… LET’S GO!!”