#thinking about it she is an avatar there is no way

[thursdays-adult]

You know I never shipped Zutara back in the day. But I've been thinking lately about how it would have looked for the disgraced prince that's been banished for three years; who briefly returned only to become a traitor again; helped the avatar topple the current regime; and then ended the 100 year war to also start courting a girl from the water tribe. I mean yeah Zuko is likely cleaning house of all the Ozai loyalists and many people were likely exhausted by the war and glad to see it end. But still that's a populace who's been fed propaganda for over 100 years on the righteousness of the war and the superiority of the fire nation and who now has a fire lord speaking against all of it. A fire lord who seems more comfortable with earth nation and water tribe dignitaries than his own people, including his choice of a bride . In a way Mai seems like the more politically sound choice. A way to reassure the fire nation that they're still a priority and that not too much will change. Fire Lady Katara could possibly only stoke the flames of civil war. But then as Iroh said water is the element of change with a deep sense of community that holds them together through anything, and I think it'd actually be really interesting to see Katara step into all of that political upheaval and change because she might actually be the perfect person to lead them through it. And now I'm really fascinated by that concept.

[dufferpuffer]

(Note: idk the characters OP mentions or what they are from, I wanted to talk about peoples reaction to disability rep in general)

I think it's fantastic when non-disabled people talk positively about disabled characters, even if they do it a little clumsily (though not in the face of disabled people critiquing it... yeesh...) Just like with other marginalized groups. eg: we can be happy about having more PoC characters... even if we might not fully understand the nuances in their representation. We can be taught about that nuance by those who do understand - and that's how we learn to understand better. That's awesome.

The thing that's annoying, as OP describes, is that - especially for disability representation - existence seems to be the bar for entry. They see a prosthetic and go 'Wowee! Good enough :)'

Maybe existing can pass as 'good representation' for some things - like race, gender or sexual orientation (arguably - important: it depends on the particular media) But that doesn't really work for disability.

Depending on the setting and themes of a narrative, being a different race, gender or orientation doesn't alter how you can live. Having a disability, by definition, DOES alter how you live.

Example: Innocent little kids show, where a bunch of kids go on adventures together, doesn't need to display topics like racism, homophobia, transphobia etc. to be good representation. The kids can just exist the same as everyone else - just existing is enough.

But a disabled kid HAS to be disabled. Their life has to be shown as altered in unique ways - otherwise it risks being harmful. It doesn't need to be anything big, or sad, or the topic of an episode... Infact it's often better when it isn't.

+ Have a character wake their friend up early, knocking on her window - she says 'Wait! Let me get my leg on!!' + They go swimming - and she takes her leg off to swim. + It gets really muddy, so she gets a piggy-back from a friend so she doesn't get her leg stuck. + Or it DOES get stuck and someone pulls it out for her. + She's training for a race and she switches her leg to a running one. + Maybe she isn't in an episode - the other characters can't rely on her skills to solve an issue, because its Physical Therapy day.

You don't need to draw attention to it, she doesn't need to suffer - but she has to be different. She has to live with different worries. She can't just be the exact same as everyone else, because she isn't like everyone else. That's what being disabled means.

If she just does everything everyone else does, with no thought put into the fact she has a fake leg other than 'one of her legs is blue'... you are teaching that disabled people don't live differently. But we DO. We HAVE to. A little kid seeing a character never put any thought into the things they need to worry about doesn't feel GOOD. It feels WORSE.

People of minority racial groups, and people of differing identities, dream of a world where that doesn't matter, they can be the same. Disabled people don't get that dream. Having a leg re-grown...? God, even thinking about the physical therapy, training to walk again... It would just be nice if there was more understanding, more facilities and support, that some of us need to live different lives.

...I am not an amputee. My digestive organs are all messed up - and I have PTSD. That is a very different experience to being an amputee. But I can talk about what I think is good or bad representation, even if it might be clumsy sometimes, because: I understand that good disability representation is in how the character is affected by their disability, not by just existing.

And that's what I would want to share with any non-disabled person who feels excitement seeing a disabled character: think about how it affects their life. Think about the choices they make because of it.

Toph from Avatar isn't 'cool disability representation' because her blindness is accurate or realistic. It isn't. It's fantasy blindness. It's cool because she has to live differently. She uses her bending to super-power 'see' - but not in water, or sand, or for flying things... There is no 'fix' that gives her sight back. Only tools to help. ''How does blindness affect how she can live'' has been considered.

So... you have a character 'you didn't even notice had a prosthetic'. Is there no way in which she is shown to act or think differently because of it...? That's not particularly good representation. There can still be cool parts of it that are worthwhile representation, like an interesting history, or design, or function... ...but she isn't disabled unless she is disabled. Yknow...?

I really wish non-disabled folks would stop commenting on weather or not something is good disability rep, especially when people with those disabilities are critiquing the specific things these folks are bringing up as examples of why the character is so good.

I swear, if I hear one more person say "I didn't even realise Neve was an amputee, that's such good representation!" I'm going to scream lol.

Also just to clarify, I don't think Neve is bad, my feelings on her from a disability representation stance are more complicated, but her disability having such a small impact on her that a shocking number of players said they didnt even notice it until she tells you how she lost her leg is NOT what makes her good. "You cant even tell she's disabled" is not a flex. We've talked about this. Twice.

Same goes for the inquisitor and Hezencost but they're pretty minor characters so I'm seeing less of it there.

[discordiansamba]

you’ve done firebender/waterbender/earthbender/nonbender/avatar zuko, so what do you think of air bender zuko?

an excellent question!

love the idea of him existing in stark contrast to aang- they're both airbenders, but they're clearly on two very opposite sides of a spectrum. zuko realizes for himself just how much danger he would be in if anyone found out he was an airbender, so he successfully hides his bending- even when his father calls for a farce of an agni kai after he speaks out in the war meeting and burns his face and banishes him.

he still gives him the quest to find the avatar, but things go a little differently this time. zuko searches the air temples diligently for any trace of the avatar- but it's a lot harder for him to ignore the clear signs that history may not have actually played out like he was taught when he's an airbender too. one day he wakes up in the middle of the night with the realization that he doesn't want to go home.

he steals away in the night, not even telling his uncle.

he decides to actually start practicing his airbending, which basically just translates into him making it all up as he goes. in order to make money, he ends up participating in underground fighting tournaments- first just using his dao, and then quietly incorporating his airbending alongside them. inevitably rumors spread of a 'surviving' airbender, and that attracts all kinds of attention.

zuko doesn't care. he's having the time of his life actually.

(he is in fact, not having the time of his life. this is very much a maladaptive coping mechanism. but he's very good at fooling himself into thinking otherwise.)

he never stays in one place for too long, and is constantly on the move. there's always a new place for him to fight. sometimes he does a little light theft. he's definitely fought toph once or twice, who only actually realizes that he was probably an airbender after she meets aang- who is both thrilled to hear about another airbender and is deeply confused by the way toph describes him.

he doesn't understand. his people are supposed to be peaceful.

(zuko isn't one of his people, of course, but he has no way of knowing this. toph's the only one who has ever met him and she's well. blind.)

he winds up completely sitting out the entire war. he just doesn't care. post-war aang spends a lot of time trying to track down this rumored airbender after the war- and also prince zuko of the fire nation, iroh's nephew who went missing about a year into his banishment.

clearly these two tasks are unrelated, right?

[demaparbat-hp]

Oh, Aang, you're really in it now...

This is Zu—I mean, Jian Li and Katara's second meeting in the Kyoshi Warriors AU. The first proper one, anyway.

Once they get through a minor difference of opinion or two (“I can carry my own basket!” “Never said you—” “I'm not weak!” “I didn't—” “Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean—” “Would you listen for once, woman?!” ) they'll become nearly inseparable.

For now Jian Li will carry Katara's basket all the way to the Kyoshi Warriors' dojo and, once there, they'll mercilessly tease Sokka when they see him in uniform.

[sunofpandora]

OFFICIAL AVATAR 3 ANNOUNCEMENTS

This just in guys, last night on D23, avatar 3 has an official title “fire and ash”

We are so back guys 🤭💙🩵

[jessmalia]

Mal's Avatar: The Last Airbender rewatch: The beach 3.05

[kingofdinosaurs]

ok i stand by this one and it's still crazy to me that no one ever brings this up so let's break it down in an extremely disorganised stream-of-consciousness way:

minazuki already textually likens himself to nyx avatar and thus by extension ryoji and pharos. i have a feeling tsukiyomi is kind of analogous to thanatos within this dynamic but there's not much real textual support for this besides margaret referring to tsukiyomi as "passed down" to sho rather than an innate part of him the way izanagi is to narukami or orpheus is to p3mc. [headcanon alarm blaring] i also vaguely believe that minazuki is still to some extent present as tsukiyomi but i have literally zero textual evidence for this one, it would just make sense to me

related, i think it's very interesting that elizabeth is wielding thanatos in arena. like that's at least a PIECE of ryoji... i think it's kind of cool with that in mind that seemingly thanatos is aligned with elizabeth's goal to find a way to free p3mc from the seal. great teamwork you two ☺

I've pointed this out elsewhere, but minazuki's title specifically referring to him as a "messiah" is really hard for me NOT to associate with the p3mc's ultimate persona.

plumes of dusk are mentioned as being a physical part of nyx's body in the p3 club book q&a (links to a translation here if you wanna check it out: 1, 2). this q&a has a weird amount of REALLY KEY INFO tucked away in it that i don't think is really covered anywhere else? which is odd, because plumes of dusk alone figure in incredibly heavily to the plot of the arena duology

pharos giving p3mc the contract is really interesting to me because like. again refer to that q&a but to some extent every shadow and cognitive being is connected on a fundamental, existential level to nyx, so it does kind of make sense to me that a being built to be a literal herald of her would be able to offer the same things that philemon does without necessarily checking in with big phil about it (not that phil hasn't clearly made contact with both aigis and p3mc, but he isn't nearly as active in their lives as he is with the prior games' protagonists).

this would also make sense to me to extrapolate to sho, since he's TEXTUALLY a wild card, offered the aid of the velvet room (and at some point destined to accept it), and also has his own chunk of the Harbinger of the Fall taking up space in his grey matter. i don't think we ever actually see him encounter philemon though, butterfly or otherwise... this feels odd to me, because philemon IS implicitly present in persona 3/4, plus the black butterfly in shadow aigis' intro feels (in conjunction with the general aesthetic and motive similarities of kagutsuchi and nyarlathotep) to have some kind of meaningful intent behind it, however small.

this is only present in p3 and the answer but it's really interesting to me that the wild card powers are in that game tied explicitly to the doomed, imminently mortal nature of both people who carry those powers (although aigis gets to duck it because she's awesome i suppose?)

i tend to assume that this is somewhat related, but when the p3 protag first awakens to their persona AND SPECIFICALLY ALSO THANATOS, they go into a coma for about a week afterwards. this would be simple enough to chalk up to exhaustion, except that neither of the other main game wild cards do this. similarly, aigis falls unconscious twice during the answer: once after awakening to her inherited wild card, and once at the end of the game, in a manner where her waking up is a genuine miracle. then we have sho, who explicitly went into a coma for multiple years after an operation specifically focused on minazuki - a being born direct from the same source as the p3mc and aigis' wild card powers. it's an interesting little wrinkle that only these 3 characters seem to have to contend with.

the blue eyes thing comes up a couple times in persona 3, and again in ultimax once sho is seemingly wielding whatever power he gets from the plume rather than what he borrowed from kagutsuchi. i will not lie I'm not huge on the kotone cutscenes project's decision to make her eyes red in the awakening scene - it's cool in theory and makes sense in commitment to kotone's flipped colour scheme in ui elements and character design, but the blue eyes weren't yuki-exclusive at all, just signs of nyx's involvement. pharos has similarly eye-searing blue eyes after all. arguably there's a similar situation with aigis and her equally uncanny blue eyes, since the anti-shadow weapons also run off plumes of dusk - parts of nyx. anyway i think it's interesting that both sho and yuki (as of reload) have blue eyes, although they're generally a lot less unnaturally bright (don't worry about sho's dancing render, that one's just weird)

speaking of eyes, sho, the anti-shadow weapons, pharos, and (in some places such as the awakening scene in the movies) the p3 protag, all have a similar odd dual-ringed iris. i initially would have assumed this was a stylistic choice to convey how the anti-shadow weapons presumably have camera lenses in place of the normal human eyes the rest of the cast have, but the fact it shows up on these other characters specifically is really interesting to me as a design choice, especially since it's permanent on sho and not just tied to certain temporary events like it is for the p3 protag

i have a better abyssal wings gif now

this is relevant because reload also fully released in the intervening time and once nyx avatar reaches the final phase in that game, this happens:

i feel like this kind of speaks for itself wrt similarities. i do kind of really appreciate more recent persona games' attempts to seemingly codify some shared visual language across similar parts of its worldbuilding. as you might have guessed from the length of this post, it's a thing i'm into

what's the conclusion of this post? well, mostly that it feels really odd that nobody ever brings up that minazuki outright mentions what he is IN TEXT and "what he is" is something of an analogue to pharos/ryoji... like that's really interesting and puts sho in a kind of singular position regarding where his powers came from, or possibly implies some equally interesting (in a horrifying way) things about what was done to strega to give them their artificial personas... there's a weird amount of worldbuilding you can string together here to think about but it feels to me like a lot of people didn't even catch this line in the game, and i think that's a shame.

this isn't really an infographic, more like a testament to how nuts this has been driving me for the past year

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Interviewer: Avatar Aang, why did you run away from home? Aang: I was told I was the Avatar at like 12, and the pressure got to me so I childishly ran away. :( Ironically that ended up being the right choice, but that's a diff story. Interviewer: Fascinating. Did you take anyone with you? Aang: Of course! My best buddy, ol' pal Appa! :D Appa: Moo Interviewer: Avatar Korra, why did you run away from home? Korra: Well the first time- I don't want to talk about the second time- it was because those jerks wouldn't let me BE THE AVATAR! So I ran away to do my duties! Interviewer: Fascinating. Did you take anyone with you? Korra: Of course! Only the best girl ever, Naga! Naga: Woof

Interviewer: Avatar Kyoshi, why did you run away from home? Kyoshi: After witnessing the death of two of my loved ones. I swore to escape my sifu's control and to get revenge by any means necessary. Interviewer: Fascinating. Did you take anyone with you? Kyoshi: Of course! I took my totally 100%, platonic bestie Rangi! Mmmhmmm just friends, totally, ONLY friends. Haha. No secret longing feelings here, no siree. Rangi: Platonic???? Not by the end of this trip, not if I have anything to say about it!

[kacievvbbbb]

I wish there were was a scene or two where it is Sokka who has to pull Aang out of the avatar state frenzy.

Maybe Katara isn’t around for some reason (dealing with an active threat or she was just too far away) and it's Sokka that has to step up. because I do like the gradual growth of his reaction of aang in the avatar state going from complete fear to not leaving the area to stay with aang and I think it would have been a nice ed to have him be the one to pull aang out of it one time.

Not because I want to undermine Kataang because they are great. I do not want to ship sokka and Aang. But I just think it would have really added another layer to Sokka and Aang’s friendship besides them being silly and having fun together. I don’t think they really have any introspective moments with just each other like taht and I think one or 2 scenes like this would have deepened their friendship immensely (not that’s it’s not already great!)

Just Sokka deciding that Katara’s not here and Aang needs help now and so he’s got to do it. Every instinct he has is telling him to back away but he’s got to push through because Aang is his best friend, his brother and he’s not going to leave him.

I just think that would have been a nice little bow on their friendship arc with sokka being the more distrusting and harder to win over of the siblings. Like Kind of the inverse of Zuko and Katara’s friendship.

Like can you just imagine Sokka going; “ I got you buddy, I got you I’m right here” as he grips Aang tightly because he’s not the best at comforting words and and so all he can do is hold Aang close and remind him that he’s there that he’ll always be there for him.

I think that would’ve have been amazing.

[ladyloveandjustice]

It's actually so hilariously hypocritical of Zuko to scoff at Aang when he talks about not taking revenge and not wanting to kill, when he went out of the way to try to save Zhao right after the man nearly succeeded in killing him. And also spared Zhao's life during their little Agni Kai. He repeatedly refused revenge and murder. I hope Aang finds out about it one day and gets his ass.

It honestly almost seems like he became MORE pro murder post-redemption, which is funny, but it's more like he'a pro righteous murder as long as someone else does it. Not him.

Notably he's all "Aang you have to kill my dad" but he didn't actually kill Ozai when he had the opportunity. He's all "it's the Avatar's destiny!" but come on. that was an excuse. He just didn't want to do it. Which is understandable, even though he knows Ozai deserves it, it would still be extremely traumatic for him to kill his father. So he passes it off to Aang. And then berates Aang for not wanting to kill his dad, the exact thing he didn't want to do, like a loser.

And fittingly, only time he seriously tries to murder someone was when he hired Combustion Man to kill Aang in peak desperation and even that was "someone else should do it. I don't have to be there or think about it. I didn't technically kill him someone else did"

(You can also argue that him being so passionate about helping with the righteous murder of people who were agents of the genocide is driven by a sense of guilt too, which is why he's so extra about it. It probably is. On top of that, I think he very much dragged his own mom issues into helping Katara specifically)

So yeah I also hope Aang finds out about his opportunity to kill his dad and roasts him like he deserves. Man who says murder is okay really means "it's okay if you do it".

[gloomybadger4life]

Azula inadvertently begins a working class revolution because she challenges all suitors to an agni kai and raises the stakes.

Zuko is running out of nobles and disgruntled common folk take that as an opportunity to rise up and take over some provinces.

Half the cabinet wants to send in the army but they also know how bad it's gonna look, you know, internationally.

Azula catches on and thinks it's hilarious. She issues challenges to any and all firebending nobles.

Even if she loses Zuzu is fucked and she has the last laugh.

Zuko changes the law so that Katara can fight her and stop her. He does not realize the implication.

Katara and Azula have a masterful and impressive duel that goes on for hours. They both end up exhausted but refuse to call it a draw.

So they fight the next day, and every day after because neither is giving ground.

By the 12th match Zuko is like: just bloodbend her.

Katara: i tried but she can shoot lightning from her mouth and I can't get a grip.

Azula, now with growing respect towards Katara: In all fairness if the duel was at night, she might win.

So they agree and they fight at midnight.

Katara wins, barely and not without half her body being stunned by electricity.

Azula just asks her when she should propose.

Katara has the realization that Zuko neglected to mention that fact. She goes off on Zuko.

Azula laughs the hardest she has in years. She asks Katara to talk.

Azula: So I wanna apologize to you, for the whole trying to kill you to force Zuzu into a corner. And the whole war thing. I should have practiced this.

Katara: wait what?

Azula: Is it one big apology or does it need to be itemized?

Katara: ...

Azula: I'm also sorry for killing the avatar.

Katara: So you're actually sorry. Like for real regret it.

Azula: Yes.

Katara: why?

Azula: Because the war made no sense. I believed in it when i was younger. I was taught to. It was rewarded. Iroh lost a son. Zuzu got banished. One way or another something pushed them away from the nation's influence. I didn't have anything like that.

Katara, shooketh: What are you trying to say?

Azula: that I am what Zuzu was supposed to be. What any of us would have become if we were raised that way. I didn't begin to question it until i was defeated.

Katara: So, what now?

Azula: Don't worry about the marriage thing, I'll handle it. Not in any bad way... Do I always sound like I'm threatening someone?

Katara: Uh yeah, all the time. Last night you grabbed a tray of mochis and told them you were going to consume them.

Azula: You give sea prunes the same look.

Katara: Okay fair, but back to you not being all evil anymore...

Azula: I'll help Zuzu tidy up, make sure he gets the glory. He's gonna need the public's approval, half the nobles have disgraced heirs, the other half are scared.

Katara: and all of this because you didn't want to marry some guy you could have easily killed after.

Azula: I didn't wanna marry a guy, first of all. And secondly, assasination like that is such a hassle. Plus poisons were my mother's thing...

Katara: wait what?

Azula: Zuzu didn't tell you, she poisoned Azulon because Ozai tried to skip over Iroh when he lost my cousin. Azulon ordered Zuko's death.

Katara: Is your whole family this fucked up?

Azula: Yes. I thought that was established.

So they actually start to bond while Zuko goes on a tour to garner public goodwill.

Aang comes in. Azula apologizes awkwardly.

Toph finds the whole thing hilarious and asks Katara if she likes Azula.

Katara is like, I mean she's really weird but it makes sense and she's making a lot of progress not being evil. Cue an hour of gushing.

Azula meanwhile realizes that if she gives up her title the whole marriage thing goes away. She abdicates the title and tells Katara.

Toph: So you didn't wanna marry Katara?

Azula: Not like this.

Azula realizes what she just blurted that out and runs off. She runs face first into Katara and apologizes. Katara is all weirded out bc this isn't regular Azula behavior.

They do have a conversation about her abdicating. Katara is surprised and opens up more. Azula asks her how she doesn't have vengeful feelings about the fire nation.

They have a heart to heart and end up talking all day.

Eventually Katara and Toph head home and Azula asks if she can send Katara letters...

What if Zuko tried putting Azula in an arranged marriage? What would be his motivation and her reaction?

I can easily see his motive being getting her out of the line of succession if he doesn't trust her at all. Now as far as Azula's reaction goes, she'd more than likely be pissed off and would try to find a way out of it.

[thebestusernamepossible]

Literally going insane, might have to write fanfic for the first time in 2 years because the people™️ do not get my favorite female characters like I do and I feel the insurmountable urge to write her. I’m going to bite drywall why don’t ppl see her complexities. PLEASE STOP WRITING HER ETHIER AS DOMICILE MOM OR BITCH (or just for shipping) she is so so cool please guys please.

Also while I’m here, fandoms tendency to shove women in the ‘pure powerful goddess who can do no wrong’ box and then proceed to never give them an actual narrative role other than like ‘supportive’ or ‘took out a few background guys’. Like why DOES this incredibly badass and complex female character just get shunted into doinging some cool flips, getting praised about it (she’s the strongest fighter, so feminist wow) then never getting actnowleged as a 2 dimensional character.

I saw this a lot when I was in the Batman fandom, particularly with Cassandra Cain. She is a highly complex and interesting character, but in fandom she’s kind of shunted to ‘Badass therapy dog who takes care of the men’. Because even on the slight chance her backstory is brought up it’s always never delved into and mostly used to make her etheir more tragic and in need of support on a surface level or to let her be compassionate with the men characters who get their actual problems foucused on. It’s a unqiue kind of frustrating because it’s like almost letting the cool female character be cool, but it’s more like the idea of a badass women is shoved in your face, maybe joked about (or if we’re lucky she gets to beat up a few bad-guys), but ultimately treated like a cardboard cutout. Interestingly this actually isn’t entirely a female character thing, it’s also common with like old grandfather/grandmother characters and the elderly in general. But it’s usually badass women from what I see. :/ Why can’t fandom explore their stories (people do but why is it so much less), why can’t they be the prtags of cool AUs or time-travel fix-its, or crossover events

Idk I think I’m just frustrated, and I typed out more than I thought I would. Also Ive seen what happens to some other posts complaining about fandom misogyny, so please know if you’re a TERF, fuck off you have no place in this discussion. We will never agree, and frankly all of these points apply to canon Trans Women characters. Don’t say shit ill fucking end you.

[bunnieswithknives]

sorry if idk this but what do you think about Wordgirl now in 2024 do you still like it do you still want to make art or talk about it or are you just done with all of it forever and plus i seen that you haven't made art of it since 2022 so you just done with all of it oh yeah and what about The Magnus Archives + Wordgirl ao3 fic too like is that just going to be and i know that your working on 2 au's now just wanting to know that's all

My interests tend to come in intense bursts and then fade. Unless something like, big happens like it gets a reboot its unlikely I'll be coming back to it anytime soon. As for the fic I don't have any current plans to finish it unfortunately.

[bizarrelovesquare]

Avatar: The Last Airbender

s3 ep 09, Nightmares and Daydreams

[fr33me]

need this too but she would maintain her fits on check

she is the type of woman that is classy 24/7 high heels and stuf with massive bags under her eyes?

YES

sleep deprived and ✨elegant✨

The way I need Gwen to have a Jonathan Sims arc, I need her to grow her hair out and wear a ratty t shirt and fall in love with her annoying coworker who gave her coffee once

[percki]

“we need more complex female characters” you guys couldn’t even handle 14yo katara. be so fr