#that and katara should be first imho

[rusty-lustful-fireflies]

kinda thinking about rebloging positive jetara content as katjet just so there's no need to dance through all the ,,toxic ex" ,,i don't ship it" posts if one isn't into that stuff

[nerdylizj]

Ms Stem anon here. I received my BS in Biology. As you can imagine the past couple of years have been… fun (is it really when people think you’re part of a big conspiracy, but jokes on them because have they EVER been part of a group project?) Now after working and volunteering for the past 3ish years I’m going back for, hopefully, family therapy. I like helping people face to face. And a lot of my volunteering involved pointing disenfranchised communities and those affected by C19 to resources and services they would otherwise be unaware of. The program I volunteered through also participated in fairs, provided vaccine clinics/gave vouchers, provided testing, amongst other services. My work with children involved a lot of guiding them on how to self regulate and validating their emotions/experiences while also helping them find ways to deal with them in a healthier manners. A big part of it is guiding them towards the safer choices but making sure they feel as if they came to that choice all on their own. It can be mentally taxing at times due to some having some bad home lives but it’s overall very satisfying.

Having a bio degree allows me to better advocate for myself and others medically as well as being able to better understand/scrutinize media reports on research. While I understand why there is a barrier to reading studies to avoid people without the background to misconstrue it, we also allow for misinformation to persist as there is significant scientific illiteracy going on. There should be a way to better communicate with those lacking the education and training we receive.

Spiel aside… the babies will continue to suffer and I support… it makes me a well rounded individual. I’m excited to see what will ultimately happen with them. There are a lot of implications for their, and kids, future. Not only did girly pop marry and procreate with the enemy, he is technically heir to the thrown as will be her children. But hey maybe one day they’ll have all their memories and remember that they were into each other pre-brainwashing. What with their awkward flirting and katara “keeping an eye on him.”

Ooh I did read the fic that inspired yours. Hopefully one day that one will be continued (i hope the author is doing, and does, well regardless of whether they do or don’t continue it).

omg you’ve done so much meaningful work <333 i don’t think the General Public really understands just how hard covid hit already-disenfranchised people/those who experience health disparities. and it still is hitting hard!!! btw one of my besties is a family therapist (liv, tell me i'm right..) and i always admire her tenacity to provide meaningful sessions to her clients even when she’s burnt out or compassion fatigued <3 it is not easy work

i’ll be honest i’m not a fan of (doing the) research but at least i can read and interpret it 😭💞 imho, it is a privilege to be health/scientific literate. i agree with you 100% about misinformation... health and scientific illiteracy is a hugely multi-faceted, societal problem that will take generations to truly change (and a lot of work). not to mention that there are valid concerns for some communities to distrust medicine/science

i think zk may need ur counseling services, a feelings wheel, and time/space to process... too bad there’s a war going on and they are both so dumb JKFEFVJKNMEO

i love catie_writes_things’ fic soo much. i hadn’t read a memory loss fic before so it haunted me many a nights after i first read it. then the zk ghoul took hold of me and here i am... like 220k+ later 😭😭😭😭

I love that you’re considering this career, i wish you all the best of luck in ur grad school apps 💗

[dieauster-und-diegarnele]

Unpopular AtLA opinions: main character pairings

All these shipping wars made me think about the pairings with main characters in general. You do not always fall in love with your best friend, right? So, maybe, main characters could be just friends with each other but not more. And love someone else, someone special personally for them. No shipping wars, everyone's happy! (Yeah, like that's gonna happen)

So

With all the respect for the canon pairings and their role in the story, just a thought:

Rare pairings for A:tlA main cast with side characters, that could be canon.

Two girls were canonically interested in Aang: Meng from "The Fortuneteller" and On Ji from "The Headband". I chose On Ji. Aang was kind to her (unlike poor Meng), he invited her to dance and she was ablush. Also, isn't it symbolical to finish the war that started between Fire Nation and Air Nomads with Fire Nation girl and Air Nomad guy falling for each other? I found it sort of interesting.

Katara is a very popular girl. Except Aang and Zuko (no shipping wars!!!) we have such options as Haru and Jet. I wanted comfort, I chose Haru. Jet is great, recently he became very interesting to me, but he is so broken (and very much dead). Haru is mature, good-looking both with and without moustache and beard, nice, etc, he values Katara's personality, he could be a great boyfriend.

The most challenging one was Sokka because he's a real heartbreaker. Literally every hetero pairing with him is not rare. Suki? His endgame (I did not want to use canon endgames). Yue? Canonically in love (but she left the human world). Ty Lee? She was pretty much into him (I should have chosen her or Suki, I know, I cheated, okay?). Azula? She sees Sokka as a worthy opponent, so I can assume that she could fall for him some day (but she is one of the main characters – or villains, whatever – and this relationship would be very unhealthy). So, again, I cheated and chose Yue, my personal favorite. They could at least meet in the spirit world after Sokka's passing ("The Legend of Korra", I'm looking at you).

'Cause she is just twelve, Toph has no official endgame. It is ok, normally one can't just found a person in his or her twelve years and fall for them and live together ever since (kataang should happen later too, imho). Toph was a little into Sokka but he did not understand it, which is also ok for teens. But I found someone – the Duke! He helped Toph to aim in "The Awakening", cared for her on the submarine in "The Day of Black Sun", they had a cute hug in the finale. And there are some sweet moments in the "Swordbending" from "The Lost Adventures" comic book. I don't care much for Avatar graphic novels in general, but you can find something worthy there.

Just one girl ever said that Zuko is cute and it was Jin. She is a sweetheart, she was kind to him, initiative, gentle – I love her with all my heart. I believe she was Zuko's first kiss. It's a shame we never saw her in action again. Also there is Song, who was understanding and wanted to help, but I did not feel any response from Zuko. In the series he had so many issues, that he did not need any relationship. But after the war – why not? Give Song a ton of ostrich horses, apologise to Jin and ask her out again, you.

As for Suki – I know a lot of fans want her to be an official Gaang member, but sadly she has no personal relationship with any side characters. She was on a date with a Foaming mouth guy once? Great but it's highly improbable that she really liked him (yeah, that's the creator's joke). Well, I guess some people can be happy without any romance in their life, right? But I did not want to draw her here alone, it would feel sad.

A:tlA rare pairings

"I really liked that crazy dance you were doing."

"It's a part of who we are."

"I'll always be with you."

"Helmet?"

"Close your eyes, and don't peek."

[blood-starved-beast]

Redemption arc squad for the bingo (Acxa/Farnese/Zuko/Riven/etc)

Redemption Arc squad yes (Did not include Zethrid and Ezor cause redemption - for what? Doing hot girl shit?) To start, here's the original so people have ease of access to see.

Send me more asks if you'd like me to say more.

First, Acxa

Unsurprisingly, she's the one who gets the bingo. Excluding a few others in the fandom, people get her wrong like the amount of parentfication she gets in the fandom is frankly insane why can't fandom be normal about her (saying this, as I proceed to not be normal about her). Her arc is great, and one of the few in vld that made sense, surprisingly enough. Only reason I don't give her the best is cause Haggar/Honerva is there. Of course saying so would be hitting the wasp's nest. She definitely should've gotten more screentime, and they wasted the fact that she worked with Haggar in s8 especially. Keith knew she was with Haggar in the Kral Zera no one bothered to ask her anything??? We should've gotten a backstory flashback in act 2 in my opinion. The way she went around backstabbing people like 10 times but you know she wasn't planning this shit out is the funniest thing what is wrong with her indeed.

Next, Zuko

Zuko, I don't have much opinions about as he was written very good and I'm pretty much satisfied with how the writers went about him. I'd say he gets top spot in Atla for best writing cause Aang's near perfect arc was messed up with the dumb thing to have his avatar state reopened by some random rock. Especially when the world building established that it was an emotional-psychological-spiritual thing. In that sense, Zuko was consistently the best. Zuko's most popular pairings suck and I almost forgot to put this cause my atla fandom experience was literally ten years ago but then I remembered zukk@. Zut@ra I never liked which is rich coming from me who likes friggin Rivelia but my excuse is that my fandom experience was shaped by exposure to that friggin ship war from way back then and that spoiled a lot for me. Katara deserves better and she's not a fixer, at least, not for Zuko she would. Fandom woobification besides that, annoys me especially when he can get all toxic masculinity sometimes (this was a thing established at the Beach ep). His arc is one that I'm always referencing so you could say I'm pretty obsessed with it. If you'd ask me about him 8 years ago I feel like I'd say more but I'm long overdue for an atla rewatch so I'd have to refresh.

Now Farnese

Farnese has one of the more interesting arcs in media I've seen recently. She's a bitch with little freudian excuse and does a lot of horrific things to boot. And YET her redemption arc is so so good Miura was a master at his craft Rest in Peace. I think she'd benefit more from screentime but this is just me wanting a good Berserk adaption post golden age. Her best character work is when she works with Casca and Schierke imho.

Finally, Riven

Riven I love a lot but she hasn't reached Meow-Meow stage to get the bingo (for League, that award I think, would go to Irelia). Her fandom reception is weird though, but that depends on who you look to. The cismale fans are really gross with her, and the friggin battle bunny skin is atrocious. The original that is. Which was a fan-inspired skin by the way. That and her popularity among this cohort really messed with her characterization, even in the writers room cause I'd feel like she should be Butch, but cause of it has since seen a more femme-mization in her splashart and other media. As with most non-arcane characters she needs more lore. I'd like to see a Zelda styled game for example, where she tries to atone for her war crimes in Ionia by helping people etc. Besides that I could see her working with Rell, Irelia, others. Sentinels of Light did her so dirty worse than Irelia for sure (maybe not as bad as Pyke or Rengar, but still). There were so many ways to handle that but they did her and Irelia's arc in the most superficial way that I'm dog-bites-cage-rail.jpg all about how it could've been done better. Btw, her popular ships suck cause they are with Yasuo, who I don't really like, and *shudders* Zac. Rivelia is next on the list after that but I do like that, but I have ~ issues ~ with how it was handled but also most fandom content for it is not my cup of tea at all (WHERE IS THE SPICE???).

Thanks for the ask Cat!

For everyone else, here is the original post.

[tuiyla]

So i'm expecting A LOT of changes to atla for the live adaptation. In a perfect world there wouldn't be any changes ,but what are some adjustments or additions to the series that you wouldn't mind seeing? Like something you would like to see more of or less of. ?For me I would love to see more of Tophs and Zuko's friendship. Also would love to see a scene with Katara talking w sokka or someone admitting that she blood b for the second time. Maybe in this scene is where she finally decides that she never wants to to blood bend again maybe a little bit of foreshadowing because she eventually makes it illegal later on

So hey Anon. I know it’s been two months and I’m really sorry I just straight up forgot about this but I’m really hoping you’re somehow reading this.

I’m gonna be honest and say part of the reason I forgot about this is that the Netflix live-action series kind of just left my mind. I’ve been growing distant from it ever since Bryke left the project but then Avatar Studios was announced so I was like “Netflix who?” But like, I’m still hoping the live-action will be at least decent.

I actually think that even in a perfect world there’d be changes, if for no other reason than the medium change. Also, as much I believe ATLA is the pinnacle of television there for sure are changes that would improve it, especially in season 1. I’ve been wondering about what episodes they’d do since the Netflix show was announced since I think it’s fair to say they won’t do 20 episode seasons. I expect episodes to be longer than 25 minutes but the adventure of the week nature of book 1 means they’d still leave some stuff out. Given that there isn’t a single episode of ATLA that doesn’t get referenced in some way or another later on it’s a tough call but I think we can all live without “Great Divide” lol.

A general rule of thumb with adaptations, imho, is that characters come first. There was that (probably baseless) rumour about making Katara the elder sibling. That’d be a great example of not understanding the source material and the characters so I do hope that doesn’t happen. The thing about every single change is that, especially with a story that as carefully constructed as ATLA, it can change everything. It’s a ripple effect. For example, change Jet in a substantial way and it would change Sokka, Zuko and Katara - that’s three out of the five mains! So while I’d welcome some changes, pretty much ones like what you listed, I’m wary of them.

Seeing more interactions between characters is always good but there has to be a point. I love me some quality time between Zuko and Toph but, contrary to popular belief, they didn’t need a life-changing adventure. If any additional scenes between them serve the characters, such as highlighting thematic parallels then yeah that’d be good. Glob knows I adore the water sibs and the one thing I’d probably elaborate on is bloodbending but again, this is very tricky. Bloodbending is one of the most cohesive and thematically consistent aspects of the whole franchise and there’s a part of me that thinks any more scenes would dilute that.

That said I always did feel like Katara’s moment of darkness should have been reflected upon more. Part of the reason she’s so misunderstood in the fandom, imo, is that her arc is a lot more subtle than e.g. Zuko’s and some acknowledgement of “The Puppetmaster” and her bloodbending in “The Southern Raiders” could have changed that. I’d probably have her reflection at the end of the episode be primarily with Sokka and include an honest conversation about trauma and how they dealt with it differently. It doesn’t have to be too on the nose as that would go against their dynamic but Sokka deserved a bigger part in that story. Ngl I kinda dislike that the end of “The Southern Raiders” is used to introduce Aang’s moral dilemma. This is my favourite episode ever but the very beginning and very end feel somewhat disjointed from the rest. Understandable since it’s so close to the finale and the last “serious” ep before Sozin’s Comet but I think the adaptation could introduce that dilemma earlier and allow TSR to be entirely about Katara (and also more about Sokka). Katara can still have that moment of forgiveness with Zuko and it’s still a life-changing field trip between them but, yeah.

Going back to bloodbending, I do think that even just one impactful line about it would be a good addition to the story. You know, like when Toph says “he’s lying” in “Lake Laogai?” Yeah like that. Just a small gut punchy moment. Because Katara’s reflection on bloodbending, as is now, is more implied than anything so I think that final decision on her part to reject it would be good, and you’re right, foreshadowing her outlawing the practice.

Surprise surprise I got carried away with bloodbending, again, but yeah there are a few small things I’d change but it’s always tricky. As it stands now, I honestly don’t trust Netflix to make the good kind of changes. Transforming book 1 into something more cohesive could be interesting but that adventure of the week format is part of its charm and makes sense for the story of that season. I fear that they’ll make the same mistake as the godawful movie did in that Zuko’s arc will be much more on the nose. I fear a lot of things about it, actually. And maybe I’ll talk more about this as we get closer to actually getting any news from this project or as I inevitably do my annual Avatar rewatch. For now, I’ll say that there are things that could be changed but I don’t trust the production to make the right choices so I’m very happy Avatar Studios will most likely overshadow whatever Netflix does. And I hope Avatar Studios dares to come up with new content! But that’s another discussion.

[justanotherghostwriter]

Hey. If you're open to answering fanfic asks not on the ask meme then would you explain why there was no Yon Rha confrontation in House Built of Many Stones? ty!

My dear anon. I'm always up for a chat. And when it's this ego stroking, of course I can't say no. =D Under a cut because it got long. Are you even surprised?

I'm going to try and not make this a meta about TSR, because other people have done a better job than I ever could. But, essentially, I think that the heart of that episode was not 'Katara confronts the person responsible for her pain'. It was a lot more about agency (even if it didn't mean to be/missed the mark in some ways imho) and a lot more about Katara learning to reconcile the part of her that was able to love people/emphathise with people because of the pain of her mother being taken from her, and the part that was enraged and hurt and severely impacted by it.

I'm not even going to begin to pretend I did as good a job in AHBWMS, but I was going for the same catharsis, just in a different way. One of the biggest differences in TSR/canon and my fic is, of course, Zuko. Zuko never betrayed Katara in the Ba Sing Se catacombs in the fic, and so Katara never had to look at him and ask herself, 'Why should I forgive him? Why should I get rid of my rightful pain for what he did to me and give him my care and compassion and friendship? Again?' In canon, the personal pain of Zuko's betrayal mixed with the pain of losing her mother so horrifically and with the pain of the Fire Nation as a whole being 'the bad guys'. It's no mere coincidence that Katara had to be the one to face Hama, an """evil""" Waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe, and to give her all to help a Fire Nation village.

In this fic, Zuko can help her 'humanise' the Fire Nation from the getgo, without him having personally hurt Katara or given her any reason to distrust him other than the fact that he's a Firebender. Which she does struggle with but, because it's Katara, works to overcome. Most importantly, for me, it's always her agency: she asks Zuko to tell her about "good" Fire Nation people. She asks to become a vigilante. She chooses to accept the idea that she's "a good Fire Nation story" to Fire Nation citizens. I also change the way Hama and Bloodbending are framed, which adds to this arc of Katara finding balance in her "light" and "dark" sides.

And then Azula comes. She's the "Yon Rha" in this fic, in a sense: she's the one who makes Katara react in rage and power because of pain inside of her. She's the unforgivable Fire Nation person who represents all the war has done and continues doing. And Zuko never asks her to forgive Azula. I could have made that more clear, I think. He just asks Katara to help him try to give his sister the help and love and support she needs. With the promise that, when Azula is herself again, she will face appropriate consequences for all her actions.

Katara gets to choose to help Zuko if she wants. And she gets to choose to be an active part in healing Azula with Bloodbending despite what Azula has done, whose daughter Azula is and what Bloodbending was first intended to be used for.

So, in short: I didn't find Yon Rha necessary. Katara didn't need to actively decide for herself whether she should forgive Zuko, there was no merging of her pain surrounding Zuko's betrayal and her mother's death and so there was no need for them to find her mother's killer. And her arc of coming to terms with the balance in herself and the way she chose to view the nation that had 'taken everything from her, personally' happened slower, in different scenarios.

Imperfectly, because I am nowhere near as wonderful at execution as this reply suggests. :P

[willowdove]

Zutara Meta: Rediscovered Forum edition

I was looking through messages on my old email and rediscovered this forum right here: https://www.fanfiction.net/topic/2507/16292543/1/why-is-Zutara-so-popular-I-mean-no-bashing-intended-just-want-to-know

You can read through the thread, imho I think it’s interesting to look at other people’s thoughts on the matter, but it is a hugely long and rather old thread so I thought I’d republish my own specific additions here.

My original post, 5 years ago:

It is pretty hard to get Zutara right without being all sappy and stupid and throwing the entire plot away. The way the 3rd season is constructed it wouldn't make any sense for Zutara to be together in canon itself. And that's a shame, since they are so perfect.

Yes, I am a 17 year old girl. No, I don't think that it's a good pairing because of the whole opposites attract or good girl/bad boy arguments you often hear. I think it's a good pairing because they understand each other. Zuko can appreciate the dark side of Katara, without judgement. Katara accepts the effects Zuko's horrible past has had on him. They are both dark, but more importantly, they both overcome it.

Personally, I don't like Kataang. Aang really is too young for Katara. But it's not about biological age, as so many people seem to think. It's about mental age. Aang is a kid, has been the entire series. Katara is a an adult. She is the one who understands the actual weight of the world and accepts responsibility for looking after everyone. As for Maiko, I just find Mai's romantic character to be forced.

My new post: 

Wow, rediscovering this forum is a trip.  Apparently I commented on this when I was 17.  I am now 22.  Anyway since I'm here I guess I'd like to elaborate on what I said previously.

When I said that Zuko understands and accepts Katara's dark side, I meant that he actually shares her powerful sense of justice and her relentlessness.  A lot of people consider his role in the Southern Raiders to be problematic because he "encourages" Katara to murder her mother's killer, but there is more nuance to it than that.  Zuko is the only one who relates to and attempts to rectify her need for closure in relation to the death of her mother.  Even Sokka, her brother, berates her for continuing to carry emotional pain and tells her she should just let it go.  He, and Aang and everyone else, tell her to forgive the man who murdered her mother, who, let's not forget, died in place of Katara herself in a Fire Nation bid at the ethnic cleansing of all Southern waterbenders.  Now, some might say he did deserve the death penalty for that war crime.  Personally I can't say whether he did or didn't.  What I can say is that it was vitally important for Katara to be able to pursue justice for what had been done to her.  She needed to be afforded a choice in the matter, and in the making of that choice, she was able to unburden herself.  And Zuko, who desperately wished for the same choice to be afforded to him in the case of his own missing mother, and who had been given the chance to face down his abuser and officially cut ties with his father the Fire Lord on the Day of Black Sun, knew that was what she needed and gave it to her.  In turn she showed him that it was possible to achieve closure by ending the cycle of violence and become stronger for doing that.

Zuko and Katara do have some personality traits that can make them clash.  They are both stubborn, quick to anger.  But their anger is a righteous anger, and one that could easily be directly towards the same target of injustice.  We have to remember, Zuko got his scar because he vehemently disapproved of using his untrained countrymen as bait in a suicidal tactic that was sure to incur an excess of causalities.  Katara famously refuses to turn her back on people who need her, whether it be her family, a boy she found in an iceberg, or villagers suffering from pollution in their river.  

One of the best things about Zutara, in my opinion, is the way that they challenge each other to become better people.  In the period of their relationship that was adversarial they had to train hard in order to be able to match the other's combat abilities.  But beyond that they challenged each other to find the humanity in their opponents on the other side of the war, and ultimately to overcome cultural biases they held towards themselves and towards each other.  And when they did come together as friends and allies, they worked together seamlessly. You need only to look at their bending scenes together to see just how well they understand and anticipate each other.  That's why Zuko asked Katara to come with him to challenge Azula out of everyone in the group, because out of everyone he had established the deepest bond with her; he trusted her implicitly and completely.

Now that I'm older I can say that Aang can and does make a lot more mature decisions than I gave him credit for, but I still feel that he was first and foremost a child at heart.  His character conflict stemmed from that- from the dichotomy between his desire to be an uncomplicated child and the responsibilities of his office of the Avatar.

Meanwhile Katara, who absolutely was not an adult (lol 17 yr old me), took on maternal responsibilities from the age of 5 on and her personality reflected that.  She did struggle to reclaim some of that childhood levity and fun, but that wasn't her primary conflict.  Her primary conflict was between honoring her culture and traditions and following her inner moral compass.  She was expected to drive Aang out of the village to protect them but instead she chose to travel with him and save him from danger.  She was expected to only become a healer through the constraint of gender norms but instead she chose to become a warrior AND a healer.  She was expected to learn and practice bloodbending from Hama to preserve the Southern style but she rejected it as amoral.  She was expected to hate and destroy all things Fire Nation but she put a stop to Jet's plans to flood a Fire Nation village, she helped the polluted village, and she came to understand and respect Zuko.  Hers is an internal conflict that closely mirrors Zuko's, who struggles for most of the narrative to unlearn Fire Nation propoganda and understand the harm colonialism and war have brought to the world, and to unlearn lessons about what constitutes good and worth that his father imposed on him.  

Some people on this thread have commented that Katara would not be "cut out" for being royalty or taking on the political role of the Fire Lady, but I have to thoroughly disagree.  Katara would take that office by storm, making sure that policies were being enacted fairly in the best interest of all nations and people of every economic class, and overseeing countless, massive humanitarian projects.  Honestly it's a shame that in canon she retreated into her role as a mom and a healer when those were only ASPECTS of Katara's personality.  As the wife of the Avatar, daughter/sister to the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe (you know Sokka succeeded that office), and a master waterbender and a legendary war hero in her own right, there is NO WAY AT ALL she would have rested on her laurels when she could have been so much more involved in the ultimate shaping of the post-war world.  But I digress.  

In conclusion Zuko and Katara are much more similar than they are different.  The ways that they are opposite are only superficial, and ultimately as a team they represent an unstoppable force of moral good.  They understand and bolster each other in ways the other characters can't or are unwilling to, but they also hold each other accountable and don't put each other on a pedestal.  I honestly have never seen how people could say these two characters "brought out the worst in each other", because actually they inspired each other to change for the better.

[fedonciadale]

I can't help but realize wrt Aegony shippers most of them refuse to even consider the possibility of Jon and Sansa having romantic feelings for each other. Probably because if they did, they'd know how doomed their ship is.

Dear nonny, they are indeed and to me it seems ‘delusional’. In a way it is natural to look for other possible ships, that might become canon as well. I shipped Zutara in the last airbender, but I was never blind to the fact that Aang had very real feelings for Katara and that Kataang was a possibility. But imho Aegony shippers are very hardcore ‘canon shippers’ and they tend to bend every shred of evidence to support their ship. I am a canon shipper as well, at least for Jon and Sansa, but that never meant that I was blind to Aegony.

Indeed, when I first read the books, I was convinced early on that accidental incest would happen  (I had worked out R+L= J all on my own, after the first book, something I’m still proud of), but I was not very happy about it. I disliked D from book 2 and 3 onwards and for me Aegony was always my NOTP. I like my ships ‘happy’ with a reasonable chance of lasting and being good for each other and I never saw any potential for that in Aegony.

I think that they feel so threatened by our ship because it is popular, and it is in a way the exact opposite of their ship. Jon is D’s nephew and doesn’t know that and he thinks he is Sansa’s brother, but is in reality her cousin. And of course with the literal trope of accidental incest they have to wonder what will happen once Jon learns about his parentage. This is the ultimate threat to their ship and they know this deep down, because accidental incest and the repercussions (and the punishment that follows) is deep in the core of humanity’s storytelling. And the very reveal which is a threat to their ship, makes our ship acceptable and opens the possibility of a happy or semi-happy ending.

I do think that this is the reason why they insist that every interaction of Jon and Sansa is strictly platonic, even though non-shippers have gotten the odd vibes and the chemistry of the Jonsa scenes. They insist that Jon and Sansa would never feel anything else but sibling affection, and they have to think this, otherwise the moment of the parentage reveal might do more than just shake their ship to the core. It might shatter it - and this is what I think will happen.

They insist that - in a world that gave us Jaime and Cersei, as toxic as their relationship is - there is no ways Stark siblings would fall for another. I agree that there should be a difference between Starks and Lannisters since the Starks are very close to being our ‘heroes’, but I don’t think the difference would be the feelings that could befall them or not, but how they would act upon those feelings. And as much as I love angst in fics, I definitely think that Jon and Sansa would not act on their feelings canonwise as long as they believe they are siblings.

Honestly, I thought they would calm down now with their ship being ‘legit’, but the fact that they - or at least the part of the Aegony fandom who is inclined that way - still stalk our tags, call us delusional, tell us to drown in our tears, sends anon hate, etc. tells me, that they are uncertain what will happen in season 8. And they should be. And the awkward and sloppy realisation of the ship can’t have helped.

If I was an Aegony shipper I would be worried that my pair is together now with still 6 episodes to go. It is highly unlikely that season 8 will introduce a new person as a love interest for Jon. If he ends up with someone else, it must be someone who is already there, and even without shipper goggles, Sansa is the only possibilty.

We should weather it and not go down on their level - or at least the level of the part of the fandom that pesters the Jonsa tag.

Thanks for the ask, nonny!