#thank you bryke

[my-cabbages-gorl]

this isn’t a new thought but I’m feeling emotional about how meaningful ATLA is to so many Asian American people like myself who grew up in an extremely Asian household in the United States surrounded by white culture. ATLA being SO cool among all of my friends in the states growing up felt like such a special way for people like us to be represented. And that there were no white people- that it was specifically ONLY Asian and indigenous people. And, especially that it is a show that did such an incredible job of incorporating real elements of indigenous, south East Asian, and Asian cultures into the main storyline. Me and my siblings all curled up on the couch watching it together and talking about which characters we were most like. Because we saw people who looked like us and shared our practices. For once (which felt really special at the time) Asians were the good guys, the bad guys, and everything in between. Not some caricature villain or caricature sexualized woman- everything. That’s good shit.

[pancakeflop]

Happy Korrasamiversary to the two women who made such an important impact on teenage me. You'll always be my favorites.

Happy 10 years!

[burst-of-iridescent]

No, Shipping Zutara Is Not Supporting Amatonormativity (Please Use Some Fucking Braincells For Once)

- a treatise by a severely pissed off aroace zutara shipper

since words don’t mean anything anymore (if they ever did on the esteemed piss-on-the-poor website), let’s start with a definition.

amatonormativity: the set of social assumptions that everyone prospers with a romantic relationship, thereby positioning marriage as a universal goal of adult life. amatonormativity forms the basis of several institutional structures that are built to cater to romantic bonds over all others, also manifesting in social pressure on individuals to find a romantic partner by pushing the false narrative that those who do not experience romance are automatically lonely, unhappy and unfulfilled. it is usually characterized by the prioritization of romantic love over other forms of love, particularly platonic.

the anti-zutara argument based on this is as follows: wanting zutara to happen is amatonormative because it a) devalues zuko and katara’s platonic bond b) pushes the idea that men and women can’t be friends and c) doesn’t align with the themes of the show, as romantic love was never the point of atla.

i would like to take the time today to tell you that this is some fucking bullshit, for the following reasons:

one, this may come as a shock to some of you, but zutara shippers did not invent the concept of romantic love in avatar: the last airbender. you are more than welcome to criticize the pairings of suki/sokka, katara/aang, mai/zuko, yue/sokka, jin/zuko, jet/katara, and even kanna/pakku for perpetuating amatonormativity through their unnecessary romantic subplots. and if you don’t have anything to say about any of those pairings, then here’s a word for you: hypocrite.

zk shippers are not introducing the taint of romantic love into some kind of wholesome platonic utopia where it never existed. when we say zutara should have been canon, it is a statement that ends with the implicit instead of kat.aang and mai.ko tacked on at the back because if we were going to get a romantic relationship anyway, it might as well have been one that was well-developed, narratively impactful, and thematically relevant.

two, saying zutara is amatonormative is fucking rich when the main “romance” of atla is a three season long struggle to get out of the friendzone. aang’s desire to be in a romantic relationship with katara is one of his primary motivations throughout the show, and not once does either he or the narrative ever entertain the thought that just being katara’s friend might be enough. to the contrary, aang’s crush and the potential of its reciprocation is a fundamental part of how the story gets its audience to invest in both his character and the kat.aang relationship. they want you to want him to get the girl, and that’s the driving force of the ship’s development from start to finish.

you can see the influence of this in the way people defend why kat.aang had to happen: “aang would be crushed!” “it would break aang’s heart!” “aang deserves to be happy!” and that in and of itself is more amatonormative than any version of romantic zutara, as if this idea that aang is somehow doomed to a life of misery and loneliness just because he can’t be with the girl he likes isn’t inherently based on the assumption that platonic love can’t be as meaningful and satisfying as romantic love.

three, let’s be so fucking fr: a show written by cishet men in the early 2000s was not “subverting amatonormativity” by not making zutara happen, especially not when they went for the fucking olympic gold of romantic cliches — the hero gets the girl trope — instead. otherwise, why did the entire show end with an uncomfortably long liplock? if romance would’ve devalued zuko and katara’s platonic bond, then what the everloving fuck happened to their friendship in the comics and the legend of korra?

it is blatantly false to say that zutara shippers are the ones devaluing their platonic bond when the creators did it first. they evidently don’t view zutara’s platonic bond as equal to kat.aang’s romantic one, judging by their treatment of both relationships in the comics and LOK and the fact that they talked about kat.aang “winning” the ship war in the first place. because if the two relationships were of equivalent standing, why would there be a winner and a loser at all?

amatonormativity is baked into the DNA of atla, and while some people choose to reject this framework entirely (zk friendship >>> ka romance anyday), it is also not wrong for zk shippers to be annoyed at the treatment zutara received within the context of said framework. since the creators clearly thought a romantic relationship was better than a platonic one, they could at least have picked the couple that actually made sense instead of adding insult to injury by making that romance kat.aang. it is not amatonormative to acknowledge that zutara was not afforded the distinction it should have been in the eyes of those who wrote it, because it’s obvious that the decision to keep zuko and katara’s relationship platonic wasn’t to respect their friendship, but to position them as inferior to kat.aang.

four, detractors of romantic zutara often argue that their platonic relationship is inherently better & i’ve discussed before why that isn’t the case, but i also hate this argument because it’s perpetuating the very thing that aromantic people are trying to get rid of in the first place: the hierarchization of love. it is not the “gotcha!” you think it is to genuinely state that platonic love is better than romantic love, because it’s still buying into the idea that there’s some kind of order to categorizing human relationships. the solution to amatonormativity isn’t changing what form of love gets to be at the top of the list — it’s doing away with the hierarchy entirely.

i ship zuko and katara because canon already gave me their friendship. i already know what their platonic relationship looks like and that gives me more room for imagination in developing their romantic one because it’s a place canon didn’t go.

at the end of the day, friendship and romance are just different avenues of exploring intimacy. neither is inherently more valuable than the other, and neither is inherently more problematic. and if you truly believe in dismantling amatonormative beliefs, you would recognize that making a distinction between the two is only perpetuating the problem, not challenging it.

[sapphic-agent]

Kataang Shippers: Netflix Katara sucks! Where's her fire??

Me: Yeah, I would have preferred they kept her temper and spirit too. But to be fair the comics and LOK also-

Kataang Shippers: Katara deserved a quiet life after the war! She deserves better than feminists shitting on her for doing absolutely nothing after the war while her friends and husband and brother were fostering a new era! Just because fighting was one of her defining character traits and an integral part of her character arc doesn't mean it's bad writing that she gave it up! It makes TOTAL sense that she didn't do anything to earn a statue while even the cabbage man did!

Me: eye twitch

[kibutsulove]

something something my design of ozai and iroh ‘s mama but she’s in a dress

[oxyintelligent]

“Mike and Bryan designed Izumi after Bangs!!! It’s obvious that Bangs is the mother!!!!”

meanwhile, the only time that Mike and Bryan discussed the topic of Izumi’s mother:

“Mother ???” LMAO. I almost feel bad for that girl’s fans

[toooceanblue]

Truly I have rarely felt so loved by the creators of a show. When I first watched korra season 3 I started to see korrasami, and repeatedly reminded myself I was being crazy and it would never be intended by the writers. The season 3 finale hit and korrasami had me by the throat, but I still knew it was only in my head. And then season 4 came. The finale aired- I remember watching it after work and just repeating to myself "no way" before going online to double check what I was seeing, because it was so explicit! Nowadays I would absolutely interpret it as a cop-out, but in 2014 it was so obvious that the creators were PURPOSEFULLY DEPICTING A WLW ROMANCE FOR THEIR PROTAGONIST!! AND THEY WERE!! I HAD NOT BEEN IMAGINING THINGS IN SEASON 3! THEY HAD INTENDED TO PORTRAY A SAME-SEX ROMNCE THAT WHOLE TIME AND THEY HAD! And after all that Bryan still published that lovely letter, stating point-blank their intentions, that korrasami was canon. I know I sound like a broken record it was just incredibly meaningful.

[cuteniarose]

So… are we gonna talk about how the Kuvira Ultimate AU Suiren falls for has THIS level of baby face or-???

[johnskleats]

imagine defending two grown adult men who have only ever written one thing, badly, for their entire careers, on the internet because a stranger is being "disrespectful"

[mugentakeda]

fix your posture young man

[airteacher]

//I suppose you could do "smell-bending" with airbending. Nobody tell Meelo, though. Please...

[rosafloera]

I’m never forgiving Bryke. Never forgiving degenerate incels who Harass and Assault Zutara shippers. I learned about some history and this is too much. Any of you witch-hunting Zutara shippers, know you have a place in hell. Feel miserable.

[sup-geek]

Kinda ticked to see I apparently hadn't actually reblogged this as when it premiered. 😑

Original Script Analysis, Part 2: The Southern Raiders, The Finale, and What I Think About it All

Link to Part 1

So folks, when it comes to literary analysis, there are two categories that textual interpretations typically fall under: the Doylist explanation, and the Watsonian explanation. 

Watsonian explanations will contextualise an issue solely within the bounds of the story it is told in, so the answer to any question will be, essentially, “in-universe”. Imagine interviewing a character in the story, and asking them, “why did x happen” or, “why did y character decide to do z”. The answer you get will be a Watsonian answer.

Doylist explanations, on the other hand, are explanations that take into account things the characters themselves wouldn’t “have access to”, so to speak. These explanations often touch on writing concepts like theme, character arcs, tropes, setup and payoff etc, sometimes even referring to “real-world” motivations, intentions, or constraints that the creators were working with (or against). If an explanation or an answer to a question doesn’t sound like anything the characters themselves could have come up with, it’s probably a Doylist explanation.

I’m going to give an example from Titanic that I hope isn’t a spoiler to anybody at this point given how much this film has been memed to shit:

Keep reading

[oxyintelligent]

"I’d rather eat shards of glass than have Bryke canonize Zutara. I’m very content with Zuko being single and the Kataang marriage turning out terribly, thank you very much."

Don't you think that's unnecessarily petty (and untrue, by the way) ?

All the claims that Kataang had a terrible marriage are false fabrications.

I'm not even angry. I don't understand why you're so keen on spreading misinformation. Just a ship's fanon.

Are Civil War: Part 1 and 2 from The Legend of Korra “false fabrications”?

If those episodes have been decanonized and deplatformed, please let me know! Otherwise, we have nothing to talk about.

[sokkastyles]

hi :)) relatively new zk fan here (I liked them passively since the first time I watched atla, but back then I didn't even know shipping existed lol). Not to stir the pot (if you aren't okay with posting your answer, feel free to dm me), but I'm curious: I've seen this ship being grouped with and compared to other pairings I'm personally not too fond of, like r*ylo, b*kudeku, and dr*mione, and yet I don't get the same vibes from zutara? (or, at least, not from the largest part of the fancontent I've seen). The "grouping" seems to be labelled as either "delulu fans are still annoyed it wans't canon (it was never going to be!!)" or a bryke-esque tongue-in-cheek "oh silly girls, self-inserting and wanting an abusive (heteronormative or sexist) relationship with a dark prince to fulfill their 'i can fix him' fantasy" or wtv. I just don't think those are fair comparisons, but I also think it's kinda pointless to shit on other very hated/dismissed fandoms. So idk, I guess I'm looking for the right words to express how zk is actually the odd one out in that list of ships? thanks in advance!

Zutara really is on another level when compared to those ships both in terms of potential canonicity (multiple sources that it was considered and discussed in the writers' room) and in that it's the healthiest most possible outcome for enemies to lovers ships, in which both become genuine friends and allies and Zuko fixes himself before he can have any sort of relationship with Katara. But also, you are correct that it wouldn't matter either way. I'm not fan of those other ships, either, but I'm strongly proship and also don't care if someone doesn't ship zutara for the healing arc and canon potential and is just in it for the drama. But those things are there nonetheless and the ship shouldn't be reduced to only endless angst. Zutara is versatile like that 😁

[low-budget-korra]

So, now that thanks to Bryke, Korra will face another tsunami of hate. And the fact that they will throw her under the bus to please the incels. I'm done with this fandom.

More than 10y I've been an Avatar fan, always interacting and everything but I'm done. I will finish my Korrasami fanfic and that's it.

I will sat and pretend this new show ain't real. Fuck Bryke. Fuck Avatar Studios. I hope it fails and they go broke.

I also spent years defending them from the racism some ppl accused them of doing. But the way they screw over Korra, Kuruk and Katara (all brown skin)...kinda sus. Especially when none of the light skin characters, especially the main ones, are treated like them ( just Suki)

"oh but Pavi is brown" yeah you can create poc characters and still be racist towards them

And I'm not saying Korra, Kuruk and Katara needed privileges or plot armor just c'mon. The spirits will apparently play an important role in the new show and they choose to give us a Roku book instead of Kuruk's. They also totally forgot Katara was alive in tlok, she wasn't even in the Jinora ceremony