#tagging for those that block them:

[ecoterrorist-katara]

I have been thinking a lot about blood bending lately and why the writers decided to go with the storyline of it being banned. I personally do not think it should have been. Like any bending form it can be used for awful things or it could be used for great things (my first thought is always in a medical sense but I’m sure there are other uses). And then I started to wonder if part of why they did that is bc that storyline was connected to Katara more than anyone else, and maybe this was a way to sideline her/focus more on Korra and the new gang instead of exploring with the older characters along with the new ones. But I was wondering if you had any thoughts on it!

hi anon! Sorry for getting to your ask a little late. I was at music camp (okay it’s a professional development program for musicians but I think of it as music camp in an effort to remind myself to have fun) and it was a big challenge since I’m chronically ill and needed a whole apothecary of meds to get through it. (I’m fine now! But needed to pace very carefully before & after and therefore stayed away from Tumblr)

It’s absolutely weird to me that bloodbending is singled out in a world where people can literally steal breath from one’s lungs, but it’s even weirder to me that they had a whole “ban bloodbending” storyline and sidelined Katara, because like…in what world would Katara feel strongly enough about bloodbending to ban it, yet do nothing to enforce the ban? The only explanation that makes sense is that she banned it because she was so ashamed, and stayed away from all the stuff around Yakone et al because she couldn’t bear to be reminded of what she’d done. And like all interpretations of canon Katara in LOK, that is just horribly heartbreaking.

I don’t begrudge the creators for wanting LOK to be about the new generation and I don’t mind seeing the Gaang play second fiddle. But I do object to the creators putting Katara in these situations where she could something in her wheelhouse, that’s in-character with her skills and ambitions, that is in line with her cultural impact as a role model for girls…and then sidelining her. Yakone is a big example, obviously, but so is Katara’s lack of involvement in the Civil War, the Red Lotus kidnapping, etc.

Like you said, bloodbending is useful in terms of the medical implications, but I also think it’s a humane tool in battle as long as it’s only used to incapacitate and not control. I can’t think of many better ways of incapacitating an enemy without causing serious damage (it’s even more efficient than chi-blocking!). If a bloodbender can stop encroaching enemies in their tracks with a flick of their wrist — well, that actually seems more humane than freezing them into ice cubes, which is the go-to waterbender move. I mean, Katara stops Hama with bloodbending in The Puppetmaster; she doesn’t actually control Hama with it. It’s terrible to override people’s bodily autonomy and make them do things they don’t want to do, but that is a very specific use of bloodbending.

I do think, though, that Katara is not the type of person to recognize all the other potential uses of bloodbending unless someone prompts her, and unfortunately that person is not going to be Aang. It doesn’t help that Katara’s first experience with bloodbending is being stripped of her own agency; similarly, it becomes her go-to weapon when she encounters (she thinks) the person who made her feel the most powerless in her life. To Katara, bloodbending is about taking power from someone else…and on her own, she’s not likely to see other applications. Katara is an excellent fighter with a lot of raw power, finesse, and creativity, but she’s not actually all that in-tune with her element, and I think that’s another reason she was never very interested in healing in canon (Katara and waterbending could be a whole other meta). Katara would’ve been an equally excellent bender no matter which element she wields, unlike Toph and Aang, who are uniquely suited to their elements. Katara borrows a lot from the more aggressive forms of bending (fire and earth): grabs people with water tentacles, hits them with ice disks, overwhelms them with big waves. For all that waterbending is about going with the flow and using the opponent’s strengths against them, Katara doesn’t exactly exemplify that philosophy (unlike Aang, btw, who is more intuitive as a waterbender than she is; that is why he picked it up more quickly at the beginning). She addresses all her problems head-on and is more likely to meet them with raw power than anything else. If I were to guess her astrological placements, she’d be an Aries Mars, minimum, if not an Aries Sun as well (she’d be a Cancer Moon though…I have Thoughts on ATLA astrology lmao).

Anyway, all this to say: I don’t think Katara would’ve thought of the healing implications of bloodbending on her own, when she’s already been traumatized by it, and that’s pretty tragic tbh. I like the Zutara interpretation of Zuko inspiring Katara to think there are other uses for bloodbending (as a wielder of a potentially destructive element), but I think Toph could’ve had a conversation with her about other uses for bloodbending as well, since Toph is really creative with earth. Actually, I think Zuko or Toph or Sokka could’ve all had a conversation with Katara about coming to terms about doing things that one is not proud of & moving past them, but I guess Katara can only follow the rigid moral code of her Do No Wrong boyfriend. Anyway, LOK’s despicable treatment of ATLA’s female characters is nothing new, but Katara’s is the most obvious and egregious because she’s actually there. We have no idea what happened to Suki or Azula or Mai or Ty Lee, and what we do see from Toph is not great either (in what world would she retire to be lonely in a swamp when having her friends meant the world to her…). All the boys got to have cool fulfilling lives and all the girls who aren’t lost to history are sad sacks, thanks Bryke! On a non-sarcastic note, thank you anon for such an interesting question!

[8pxl]

PSA 🗣️ another scammer using genAI without disclosing it

pixlgirl has been posting generated AI (targeting fandoms) without disclosing it, passing it off as their genuine art and has apparently scammed at least one person into ‘commissioning’ them. this is a public PSA so yall can block them, and not interact. please do not harass them!

it’s incredibly shitty to be disingenuous while posting AI but even shittier to scam people with it 🤢 stay diligent yall

[safelycapricious]

Needle-watch poll

So, I got some vaccinations the other day, and the pharmacy tech seemed unnerved that I opted to watch him insert the needle. And he is not the first to comment on it. I'm willing to accept I'm an outlier and shouldn't be counted, I'm just curious how much of an outlier.

[ave661]

"Be careful who You trust, Sergeant. People You know can hurt You the most."

Some situations inspire you to create renders, like in this case. Turns out not every Ghost is trustworthy. Sometimes someone will stab you in the back and I guess that was my lesson.

[stealingyourbones]

Never will I stop with the steadfast notion that folks in the DPXDC fandom should interact with at least some form of canon DC media.

There are comics, tv shows, radio dramas both old and new, podcasts, movies, magazines, so much shit that intentionally avoiding the media is simply preventing yourself from spawning new ideas and gaining a new appreciation for a fandom that you’re already in.

The Superman Radio Show has episodes 11 minutes long. A lot of the TV shows don’t have episodes that surpass 30 minutes and most are nearly fully clipped on the official DC YouTube channel. The amount of fan made motion comics is astounding. The amount of fanmade animations is equally as incredible.

[thefanciestborrower]

Quick little thing about what the 'soft vore' and 'safe vore' tags actually mean

Recently I've seen some folks assuming the 'soft vore' and 'safe vore' tags are exclusively cuddly and nons3xual, so I feel like it's important to let you guys know they're not. Soft vore just means prey is swallowed whole, not that they'll live. Safe vore can include fearplay, blood, injuries, and even mild digestion so long as the prey survives in the end.

I understand the assumption that the tags are exclusively wholesome since most of the nonsexual community (including myself) use them and that's perfectly fine, but they're really just descriptors that tell you what the post contains. You can have digestion in the soft vore tag since the two aren't mutually exclusive, and sometimes a story or art piece might even contain both soft and hard, or safe and fatal vore. Explicit material can also exist within the tags, because 'safe vore' and 'soft vore' have no inherent nons3xual connotations. Now that's not to say there isn't an issue with tag spamming or mistagging in the vore community, and for that all I can say is filter tags and post content as liberally as you can and use the block button frequently. It sucks to see triggering content, it really does, especially if it's untagged. I recently had to deal with some pretty bad stuff myself, so I understand. But at the same time, the vore community contains a lot of people whose tastes may not align with yours or fit neatly into specific boxes, and that's okay! Just filter and block where you can.

There ARE new tags that some members of the community use for exclusively wholesome nons3xual vore and that's awesome, but soft vore and safe vore are not, and never really were, those tags. Tldr; Soft vore and safe vore are just tags that tell you if there's chewing or not and if the prey lives or not. They're not exclusively fluffy, they're not nons3xual, and they can be paired with more violent tags if the content contains both themes.

[teaboot]

It's getting really old seeing you answering the same dumbass anons every day, please ignore them, you are literally feeding the trolls and it's getting annoying

oh god how funny would it be if I ignored this

[mildmayfoxe]

STAY ★ TRUE || patreon print for dec / shop

[karpachev]

Uhm i gotta say team thunder is very important to me

(yes i'm making this name a thing)

Johnny would totally ask for a light in the middle of training. You can't convince me otherwise :D

[aroaceleovaldez]

reminder/tip, particularly for newer pjo fans: do not crosstag!

for those who don't know, crosstagging is tagging irrelevant tags on a post, usually popular tags to try and get more views on the post.

Tumblr doesn't work the same way instagram or tiktok or twitter does. Crosstagging is considered spam, and your blog will be flagged if you do this.

particularly in pjo fandom, crosstagging includes tagging characters that don't actually appear in the post, tagging books or series unrelated to the post (like tagging "TSATS" on a post not specifically about TSATS, or tagging HoO on a post about first series specifically, etc.), tagging "pjo fanfic" or "pjo headcanon" or similar on a post that, obviously, isn't that, and/or tagging irrelevant ships. More recently, this also includes tagging the show (PJO TV, etc) on posts that are completely irrelevant to the show.

This mostly only applies for original posts - Tags you put on reblogs only apply to your own blog's organizational system, and has no bearing on the original post itself. But it's really annoying to the original poster if you spam tags, because it will appear in their notifs. It's pointless to spam tags in reblogs for these reasons regardless, so it's best not to.

just remember: crosstagging is not allowed on tumblr, doesn't work that way here anyways, and is just generally rude. so don't do it.

[redysetdare]

Stop reposting hate posts Stop Reposting Hate Posts. STOP REPOSTING HATE POSTS. STOP SPREADING THE HATE JUST TO RAGE AT THE POST. YOU ARE FORCING THESE POSTS ONTO PEOPLES DASHES WHEN MANY MAY HAVE BLOCKED THEM. STOP REPOSTING THEM FOR FUCKS SAKE.

[viktoriaashleyyx]

I think the fandom will begin to heal when yall (elriel/elucien) realize that just because your ship isn't cannon doesn't mean you can't ship it. Just ask the feylins/neris/neslin/Tamsand/Tamciens. Like it's completely okay to ship against cannon. I promise

[atthebell-moved]

don't think i saw anyone post this clip of cellbit and phil threatening to beach each other off

[sea-jello]

hong kong miku,,,

[gen4grl]

you would think after all the yapping i do about these losers i would have a plethora of art uploaded … no… so here is my first kantrio post lol

i did these over the last month while watching the olympic weightlifting and jamming to kpop (stan red velvet and kiss of life BTW!!!)

[descendantofthesparrow]

at the very least-i hope its fun