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sapphia · 6 months ago

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Speed-Running the End of the World

We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words. ~Ursula Le Guin

Some things make you stop and think.

This quote Bernard Hickey highlighted this morning from Rachel Donald’s piece Letting Go In A Crisis gave me pause for thought. I’m still thinking about it.

My first reaction was simply that the end of the world seems more likely right now. Nine countries possess nuclear weapons and nearly all of them are mad at each other. Global warming is proceeding at a rapid pace. Billionaires are building rockets and self-driving cars when history and their own actions would indicate that billionaires often become billionaires by cutting important and necessary corners that can backfire in spectacular ways. In fact, for this particular billionaire, he has explicitly stated that these casualties are all part of his calculations and are in fact necessary for the greater good.

But I think this over-complicates it.

There have been several points in time where someone has sat in front of a button that, when pressed, came with the not-insignificant likelihood that it would destroy the world. And someone has pressed the button every time.

Yet we’ve never come anywhere near that close to overthrowing capitalism.

Some things make you stop and think.

Sentences or artworks or ideas or understandings that lead to a shift in mentality or perspective.

Understanding capitalism and understanding politics often feels like a never-ending series of these realisations. More often not, it seems, the realisation is a bad one. Earth-shaking knowledge is exhausting to experience on repeat, and no matter how attentive and world-weary you are, there’s somehow still always another shitty thing around the corner.

Where were you when you learned about ATLAS and its influence in New Zealand?

ATLAS was not news to me when word of their movements in New Zealand started to spread. I was already familiar with them from their influence overseas. They aren’t unknown entirely, but you generally have to be quite politically savvy to have heard of them or be at all familiar with the extent of their influence. Talking about them, especially in a post-Trump world, makes you sound a little bit conspiracist. When everyone is worried about shadowy organisations controlling and influencing your media, politics, legislation, corporatism… well, your particular concerns start to blend into the background.

But this type of thinking was a trap. I never stopped to consider that ATLAS could be resisted here when other countries had failed. Not until I saw someone else do it first.

If you don’t already follow Mountain Tui, who somehow has become the default anti-ATLAS voice at first on reddit and now on substack, this is your signal to do so. Yesterday they posted about how ATLAS has already brought the kiwi edition of project 2025 to our shores, and while it won’t be news for anyone who follows the subject, it’s a good overview of where we are and how we came to be here. But it makes for a bleak prognosis, and reading about ATLAS’s goals and how well they’re being effected by our government right now can make it feel like there’s little to be done.

Mountain Tui posting about ATLAS reminds me that already more people know of this right-wing think tank network than I ever dreamt was possible when reading about their first forays into NZ. Indeed, the right initially rushed to paint it as a conspiracy and make out that Tui was crazy for believing it so ardently. They made memes about it. (Unfortunately Tui deleted their account so most of their posts were lost, but there are still threads on r/conservativekiwi dismissing Atlas as the same as unions and the like).

That time was a weird mashup of political discourse, subreddit drama, left-right trash-talking, and what I still believe to be some amount of genuine political interference from the right. But the lesson I cling to overall is that sometimes it really does just take one person who won’t shut up.

That’s a strategy that’s worked very well for conspiracists recently, but it’s worth noting that the same is true in reverse. When people talk about things, when they make a lot of noise and refuse to let injustices happen unnoticed, change can be effected. And a huge part of that push for change comes from that continued awareness of and vocal objection to these objectionable things.

New Zealand has a long history of political activism. That’s part of why AUKUS is so controversial. It harks back to another previously tense time in domestic and international politics, when left fought furiously against right over racial politics and our nuclear free status, and Robert Muldoon’s nightmare of a government was ended by snap election when Marilyn Waring crossed the floor.

We seem to always be slightly out of step with the rest of the world, a beat behind if you will, though still marching obediently to the international tune. But despite that, we do still manage to carve out a place for ourselves, to plant our flag in the sand and say, “Actually, we say differently.” From giving women the vote to the nuclear free movement to the smoking ban we ourselves are repealing (but not after other countries have begun adopting it too), New Zealand is the global example that one small island nation can stand, arms crossed, and say “No.”

Some things make you stop and think. The stories of J Robert Oppenheimer was one of these things for me, long before its silver screen retelling last year. His belief that a nuclear bomb was inevitable, and my belief that he was right, is the sort of shift in perspective that shapes how you see the world.

Oppenheimer is just one of those many men who has pressed one of those many buttons that could have ended the world in a blink. Luckily for us, it didn’t. And luckily for us, ever since then, people like Marilyn Waring and Oppenheimer himself have worked to make it so the world has a few less of those buttons, and a few less of those situations that lead to those buttons being pressed.

Two men who built the buttons.

I am no longer certain that human beings are a good judge of what is inevitable.

Some things make you stop and think.

We must repeat those things until we’re all thinking.

subscribe to my substack

#nzpol #writing #politics #neoliberalism #atlas network

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articulately-composed · 1 year ago

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Thoughts on the ATLA live action

I may not post about it a ton, but ATLA was what brought me into fandom culture over a decade ago, so as you may assume, I have some Thoughts about the live action netflix series. Now, I'm gonna preface this by saying I didn't hate it. Surprisingly enough. I came into it thinking the whole series was gonna be a hate watch, but they actually did some interesting stuff with it.

Let's start with the positives.

Sokka - When I heard that they were removing Sokka's sexism, I thought his character was doomed. That's so much of his season 1 arc, I had no idea what was gonna be left. Turns out, they didn't take away his preoccupation with being a manly warrior, they just made it less overt, and honestly, that brand of "girls suck!" sexism that exists to get refuted in early 2000s kids tv probably would have sounded out of place and preachy in a 2024 show geared towards adults. In the end, Sokka felt like one of the most fleshed out characters. His original arc was left in tact, with the bonus of him being a simpy bottom for Suki in a way that kinda fits.

Zuko - I really liked that they added some extra backstory between Zuko and Iroh sooner. The bit with the funeral was honestly really nice. I saw some critiques saying that zuko was made out to be sympathetic far too soon, but honestly, I think it worked. The show is so well known that I don't know if gaining sympathy for zuko later on would have the same effect as it did 20 years ago. I thought the Zuko and Iroh moments really helped solidify their bond on Zuko's part, and tbh, that's gonna make his season 2 betrayal that much stronger (if they pull it off well). I also like the stuff they added with Zuko's journal. Of course he's a fuckin nerd who takes detailed notes with sketches about the stuff he's researching. If Zuko existed irl he'd have a bullet journal youtube channel.

The structure - I hate that no tv series gets more than 8 episodes anymore. it's ruined so much when it comes to pacing in literally everything. That being said, I like what they did when it comes to combining plots. It really made the show feel like it's own thing and not a 1-to-1 adaptation. They stuck Jet and the Mechanist in Omashu, and it worked. Roku's temple and The Blue Spirit were the same episode. Obviously, there was a lot of picking and choosing when it came to what plot points they kept and what they scrapped, and it did do a number on some of the characters' development, but the episodes they chose to keep were important ones, and they managed to weave them together surprisingly well.

And now, the negatives...

Episode 1 - The setup is dreadful. The show starts with a solid 20 minutes of backstory. Before you even meet Sokka and Katara, you know literally all the details about the air nomad genocide. And because they show you the entire genocide on screen before Aang is released from the iceberg, you don't get the experience of having it revealed to you as Aang is experiencing learning about it. His avatar state reaction to seeing Monk Gyatso's corpse just doesn't feel warranted when there's not that slow buildup to finding out about the war and Aang's denial of the whole thing. Episode 1 in general felt messy, rushed, and missing a whole lot of vital character growth.

Aang - Honestly, Aang's character in general felt flat. He gives me ipad kid vibes. He feels like a prodigy kid who just doesn't care, instead of a fun-loving goofball who 's scared of responsibility. He makes so many quips about not paying attention to the monks or falling asleep during meditations, and while it's not like he was super studious in the original, the thing he's doing to avoid studying is goofing around. Playing pranks with Monk Gyatso instead of paying attention to the monks. goofing off in a river with Sokka instead of learning waterbending. He's so un-silly in the live action and it's to his detriment. I guess this is just a part of the 8-episode curse, but because those filler moments have to be erased, you really lose out on all of Aang's stupid kid shenanigans.

Katara - Katara fell so damn flat, which is such a tragedy. I saw someone else on here talking about how the lack of Aang helping her be a kid again in episode 1 took away a lot from her, and they are totally right! Specifically, it took a ton away from the bond the two of them have. Really, there's no reason why Katara should have traveled with Aang in the first place. She didn't bond with him over riding animals, or help him understand what happened in the last hundred years (Gran Gran takes care of all that exposition...), and they don't even head towards the northern water tribe to find a waterbending master until after Kyoshi Island, so that's not why she chose to come either. Katara is also missing her whole "had to become the mom after her mom died" schtick. Not that she should be reduced to group mom, but that's still a part of her original character. She got plenty of backstory regarding her mom, but it was mostly grief. There was a little sprinkling of her sense of justice in there, but that's another one of those "victim of the 8-episode curse" things. So much of her character got lost when the filler was cut that there's not that much left over.

The spirit world - I know I just said I liked what they did combining episodes together, but honestly I think they tried to do too much with the spirit world episode. They use the Hei Bai episode to get into the spirit world, but the whole burned forest plot from the original is pretty much scrapped for a Koh plot, which combines the original Koh plot with the fog of lost souls from Korra, and the mother of faces from the sequel comics? The spirit world episode ties to Roku, like in the original, but Roku barely does anything outside of info only important to that episode. Out of all the avatars Aang contacts, Roku is the least relevant. Kuruk is more relevant than Roku. The bit with Monk Gyatso was sweet, but it did feel like one more thing on top of an already cluttered episode. Also, I don't love that Yue was a fox in the spirit world, it felt kinda out of left field. I didn't love what they did with Yue and Sokka in general, their whole vibe felt rushed.

Final thoughts, obviously it wasn't incredible. It's a show that doesn't really need or want to exist. They stuffed the first season of a cartoon with notoriously thorough writing into 8 episodes. But I didn't hate it. Honestly, I was pretty entertained. I fully intend on seeing season 2. I want to see what they're gonna do with Azula moving forward, how they're gonna handle Toph, and what the fuck they meant by "there actually is no war in ba sing se" bc clearly there was a fucking war in ba sing se, Iroh nearly gets crushed by a boulder by a vengeful soldier over it. I came into this with rock bottom expectations, and I was pleasantly surprised

#atla #live action atla #live action avatar #avatar the last airbender #inarticulate ramblings

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shipcestuous · 1 year ago

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So I was looking through your posts seeing if anyone brought up the recent Avatar Live Action, and I haven't seen anyone on here talk about it?

So idk if you heard but in ep 4 (and throughout the whole series) they've been mixing plots to save time(??) but for some reason they decided to have an episode that originally in the cartoon happens in Season 2. It's the Cave of two lovers which originally has Katara, Aang and Sokka going through a cave, but Sokka gets separated from them so it's just Aang and Katara and they have a whole romance plot about going through this cave and for "plot" reasons they might have to kiss. It's uncertain if they did or did not kiss.

Basically what I'm getting at is in the Live Action, it's JUST Katara and Sokka going through "the cave of two lovers" which.. odd choice having SIBLINGS do the plot of an episode that's a WHOLE SEASON AWAY, and the fact it's a ROMANCE episode!

They even have Katara say to Sokka "I'm not a little girl anymore!" ....while in the..cave...of....lovers..... odd choice fr..

I'm just saying it's a WEIRD choice having the siblings do a romance subplot that's not even supposed to happen for another season. And then have her and him in the dark, arguing about how she's "not a little girl" when us as the audience KNOWS this plot is supposed to be romantic (it's supposed to be with Katara and Aang)

In the end they get out with the power of "Familial love" and hold hands while a badgermole helps them out of the cave.

The whole time in my seat like "WTF ARE THESE WRITERS TRYING TO DO TO ME??? THIS IS WEIRD??? I'm loving it"

There's also a LOT of subtext with Azula and Zuko in the show even though they haven't been in scenes together. As well as some more, let's say "odd" choices between Katara and Sokka (romance clichés like Katara helping Sokka lace his bracers before a fight and him picking on her for liking another guy)

I've had a relative wealth of asks about the live action ATLA and I love to see all of the Katara/Sokka enthusiasm. There others are here, which I didn't answer until after you sent this in. I searched my inbox because I wanted to answer all of them at the same time, and nothing came up, but I guess there were a bunch of messages at the bottom that hadn't loaded, including yours. Anyway, those asks and in that post and this one is here, for everyone's reference.

Writers ship Sokka/Katara confirmed.

I'm glad you pointed out her line about not being a little girl anymore, because he's the big brother and has his whole complex about being the guardian. And her whole flirtation with Jet shows that she's growing up.

#asks #anonymous #katara and sokka #r: brosis #nc #avatar: the last airbender #commentary #noiv #nr

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dirtypuzzlewrites · 2 years ago

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Fanfic Masterpost

My name is DP, and this is an 18+ blog in that you might encounter some NSFW or explicit writing and a lot of gore/body horror/guts on the outside lovingly described from time to time.

I write for: Naruto, DC, ATLA, SPN, BNHA, BTS/kpop, Teen Wolf, SW (mostly prequel/EU/Clone Wars), and GOT. I'm open to most things and the list will eventually expand. (Anything colored I actually have published. Everything else is in the drafts.)

If you'd like to ask me to alpha or beta, send me a DM and we can chat. Depending on what you're looking for and how long the fic is, I'm more than happy to consider it!

Published Works Under the Cut:

Spillover series - post-Kamino AU - WIP - 4/?

Things never could’ve stayed the same after Kamino. All Might didn’t simply pass on his legacy; his retirement created an event horizon that neither Midoriya nor Bakugou could return from. This time, however—for this point of no return—they have adults willing to intervene on their behalf. [Or: A hospital visit changes things for the great.] This is a series of one-shots that explores a bit more adult intervention without taking the characters out of the action. Very hurt/comfort, very Talking Through Your Shit.

Go Back On and Make Good series - Time Travel AU - WIP - 1/5

“Duty will ask all of you for everything, if only so that someone will give it. Pray to the gods that it isn’t you and accept my pity if it is. Because it is pitiful, and no one will let you forget it.” (The real story of Kakashi Hatake is written down, sealed, and stored in its entirety at the back of the Hokage’s wartime bunker. Konoha’s Rokudaime becomes a figure of legend. No one knows their name, their face, or when they became Hokage, but no one else is allowed to hold the title. Rumor has it that they were a past Hokage brought back to life. They don’t realize how right they are.) Massive 5-part Naruto Peggy-Sue. I started this years ago and am still in the process of cleaning up the first fic so I can continue it. It's not dead, but it hasn't been updated in a while. I swear I will get there lmfao.

Heist Me Up - Canon Compliant? AU? idk - WIP - 1/?

It starts, like most of Ochako’s better ideas do, as a bout of envious window shopping. Shouto would like to state for the record, though, that he was on board from the word go, and is always down to break the law. He just figured that he could help Ochako snag a few goodies along the way. The Hero Commission stuff and the finding family stuff, well. He’s still processing it. Ochako just laughs and ropes Izuku’s mom into filing the lawsuits because they’re both nice like that. Crack fics that explore a chaotic Ochako & Shouto brOTP.

How We Win the War - Modern Magic AU - WIP - 6/?

Namjoon lives in transition. Always in the now, the present that never looks back and never plans for tomorrow. He’ll do anyone a favor for a price and only comes up for air in the niches he scatters around the globe. He doesn’t want a coven. He lives in-between and eyes forward. [Or: Namjoon needs a new apothecary. The coven that runs it won’t seem to leave him alone.] Inspired by Up We Go by Oh_Hey_Tae. (Definitely go read that.) This fic has entirely gotten away from me, and the hours spent on research hopefully doesn't go to waste.

To Steal Our Seoul - Modern AU - WIP - 1/?

You’ve heard success stories, you’ve heard the tales of bright-eyed kids making it big on nothing but faith and ramen noodles, clutching a dream tighter than they ever did their sense. But do you have time for the failures? Time for the deep crevasse of those that slipped on the ice and fell through the mile-deep cracks? Sometimes we need sacrificial lambs, not heroes. State secrets aren’t so secret anymore, and a handful of dreamers are going to get sucked in and never find their way back out. They can’t let their Seoul die, not when it took so much blood to find it in the first place. “Bearing that in mind, the question which remains to us is this: what is humanity? What do we have to do to keep humanity as one thing and not another?”—Han Kang, ‘Human Acts’ Stand-alone fic for BTS/Mamamoo. Modern AU with a bit of a twist. Gets really political and fucky, though I've only got one chapter out right now. Also heavy on research.

Sworn and Razed - Anakin Has a Twin!AU - WIP - 1/?

Tatooine is where memory goes to die. The galaxy leaves junk in their sand to never be dug up again, including the bones of Outer Rim slaves. Her father—a man Mama has never talked about—has no grave and no name, no stone or marked plot like the dead on real planets do. Lukka shears the flesh from bones when His sands rip across the horizon, the only vulture His winds. Mama tells them early on how it is: your name is your memory, and you’re remembered as long as there are folks that still say it. Don’t forget the names of the people you love; don’t forget; don’t forget; you won’t forget Mama, will you, Tan-Tan? Zeynatan will have a grave even if it’s the last thing she does, even if she has to dig up a thousand tons of rock. Nobody will forget her name; they’ll have to write it into their history books and carve it into their marble statues. Obi-Wan Kenobi left her in the desert to be forgot. Took her brother away from her. Surely hoped the twin suns would burn away her memory, her spite, her rage. And Obi-Wan Kenobi will die for it. Based on the tumblr post by @/wizardarchetypes's childhood OFC.

#pin #fanfic masterpost #DP writes #bts fanfic #naruto #bnha #fanfiction #star wars

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saby-chan · 3 years ago

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Why the ATLA comics fail when it comes to Zuko and his family

To whom ever took their time to actually stop and read this post, thank you in advance for not skipping my post and willing to stay and read my humble opinion! I hope I won’t disappoint you!

As a relatively newcomer to the ATLA fanbase since 2020, I’ve come across a lot of interesting debates, comments and rants about the show, characters and fandom in general, but nothing has captivated me as much as the dumpster-on-fire that are the ATLA comics, more specifically: The Promise and The Search.

On one hand we have the hardcore fans who want them to be animated or serialized into the Netflix live action, praising the comics for the new views and subject matters they’ve brought into the show’s lore, while on the other hand we have the furious Azula fandom who is really angry for the fact that best girl didn’t get the redemption arc she rightfully deserved so much after the painful event that was the Last Agni Kai and the even more angry fans of the Urzai ship (yeah, the people who actually ship Zuko’s parents unironically) who hated the retconning of the show’s cannon since the comics basically took a huge fat dump on what was previously established as official cannon, when the Search entered the scene, but between these two sides, who has the more valid point? In the end, are the comics good cannon or bad written fanfiction?

Well... Here are my two cents on this matter since I myself happen to be an Azula and Zuko fan and had huge expectations from these comics (since I wanted more from my fave hot-headed fiery siblings duo) but ended up disappointed: the comics are indeed a huge mess and actually bad written fanfiction when it comes to Zuko and his family! Don’t click off yet, because I actually documented the reasons why exactly the comics fail in this area:

1. The author of these comics is not part of the BryKe duo

Yes, I would like to start with the fact that if you actually take a second to look up who in the heck took the time to write these two books, you won’t find Bryan, nor Mike, but a fellow man named Gene Yang. This is important because while the wiki of both The Promise and The Search state BryKe as the creators, that doesn’t mean that they were the actual minds behind these comics, but rather because ATLA is their “baby” and these comics involve their characters, over which they have copyright. Mr. Yang here is the actual brain behind the plot, as the main writer, which explains why we find huuuuge inconsistencies between the show lore and the comics, especially Zuko wise.

My main issue with Mr. Yang isn’t that he isn’t BryKe specifically, but because he did an unforgivable mistake in his writing process: He projected himself into Zuko’s character, based on the relationship Zuko had with his father. This is a documented fact from an interview in which he explains that he sees himself and his dad’s relationship into Zuko and Ozai and used that when writing their interactions and built Zuko’s character in the comics. And this is wrong because when you have an already very developed and complex character such as Zuko, you can’t just come in and be like “Oh, I was an angsty teen just like him in my teenage years, fighting with my dad and whatnot, so he must have the same thought process as me!”. NO! This is bad fanfiction writer behavior! Zuko has his own personality and philosophy, which he developed over the course of 3 seasons and is not defined by only 1 unfortunate aspect of his past, so you can’t just base his whole mindset and actions off of your own personal experience just because you had the same daddy issues he had!

2. The whole “Promise that you will kill me if I turn out like my dad!” nonsense in The Promise

Reason number 2 why these comics fail and go under the category of “bad fanfiction” is because they fail to convey the core essence of the source material. The whole point of Zuko’s redemption was that he realized the wrongdoings of his ancestors and his own mistakes. He outgrew his desire of gaining his father’s acknowledgement in favor of choosing his own destiny. Having him worry that he’ll turn into his father is utter nonsense and feels like poor angsty drama material for the sake of angst. At this point in time, Zuko has overcame that obstacle in his life a long time ago and should be at the level where he himself is the “Uncle Iroh” for other people and in no way someone concerned of becoming their own worst enemy!

Not only that, but the whole point of Aang’s journey and the story of the show as a whole was to teach us, the viewers, the importance of forgiveness, empathy and love in life. Aang didn’t spare Ozai, aka “the ultimate evil” just to flex in front of his pals or because he is a “ 12 y/o vegan pacifist monk kid”, but because he knew that killing someone, no matter of what they did or wanted to do, wouldn’t restore balance into the Universe, on the contrary, him killing the villain would have meant perpetuating the “endless cycle of hate” that plagued the world. So having Aang promise to kill his best friend in case “they turned into an evil maniac like their dad” contradicts Aang’s whole character and it’s a nonsense that throws into the trash what we’ve learnt throughout the entire TV series.

3. Azula deserved (and was supposed) to have a redemption ark

This might still be pure speculation, but I count it as a documented reason because I’ve heard quite a few people saying that there should’ve been a book 4 in the show, aka “Book 4: Air”, and no, it wasn’t The Search, but actually Zuko and Azula’s journey as Zuko helps his younger sister heal her broken mind by being her very own “Uncle Iroh”. Sure, they prolly were going to end up looking for Ursa, but the journey should’ve ended with them actually being happy and a family again and not the bs we got in The Search where a still very unstable Azula runs away and becomes the “Next Joker”! The only problem is that M. Night had to pop up and curse the world with his movie, which forced BryKe to delay the project (and eventually abandoned it in favor of Korra).

All in all, either if BryKe had this preplanned or not, it made sense for Azula to get a redemption ark, she deserved it because she was just a broken 14 y/o child! If Katara’s mom’s murderer deserved to be forgiven, so did this poor child who had no fault for what happened to her since she had a dysfunctional family! What Gene Yang did in his poorly written fanfiction was to just antagonize a broken child, turning her into a monster for the sake of friggin angst!

4. The Search is the worst of the two, being flat af character wise

And finally, getting to the point that I personally find the most annoying about these comics: The Search. This one... This one is a mess on a hella lot many levels, and just to list a few: characters are flat as fudge, being either black as vanta black (like Ozai and Azula) or pure white like Gene’s Gary Stue OC, Mr Ikem (or how I like to call him, IKEA man) and his ‘victim’ rendition of Ursa, Azula gets to suffer more for no reason (see reason number 3 to why I find this as a no no), Ursa’s whole character sucks ass (man, I could write a whole thesis on why Yang’s version of her is terrible and doesn’t match the strong woman we got in the show) and Zuko does morally wrong stuff (my man literally used his unstable sister to bribe their dad into spitting info about Ursa... Show Zuko would never do that!;-;)

Oh boy, as a person who’s seen a ton of anime and other media and read many books, I can’t begin on how much I despise this type of writing: flat characters are the worst!

ATLA characters in the show are nothing close to being flat! What I mean by that is that none of them fall perfectly into pure white (aka goodest of good characters with no imperfections) or vanta black (aka lowest and darkest twisted monsters out there), each of them are various shades of grey (like Aang who is a very light grey because despite being a very kind and nice character, he still isn’t a “perfect hero” since he ran away from his duties, practiced tax fraud with Toph, had insecurities and even threatened to kill people on ocassions like with the sand benders who took Appa) and this is a good choice because that prevents them from becoming what’s globally known as Mary Sues and Gary Stues (aka those either “perfect” characters with no flaws and/or unlimited power, or the twisted monsters full of flaws).

And the other reason why many other people hate The Search: it literally negates previously established cannon. And here comes my short essay on why this comic fails Zuko’s family (since we’ve already talked enough about Zuko himself).

In cannon and even interviews with BryKe, it was clearly stated that Zuko’s family was “once happy”. Where is this “once happy” family in The Search? All I see is pain, deception, lies and betrayal, nothing close to anything that resembles happiness. Okay, some of you might come in and say that “It’s because it was never the case! It was only lies and Zuko trying to convince himself that he didn’t live in hell forever!” and here is WHERE YOU WERE ALL WRONG! And why? Because, my dear fella, where were depicted the flashbacks of Zuko’s “happy family” in The Beach? Ember Island. And what do we know and had been even quoted in the show? "Like waves washing away the footprints on the sand, Ember Island gives everyone a clean slate. Ember Island reveals the true you." (direct quote from the show). Exactly, no matter who you are or how hard you try, you can’t hide your true self when you are on the Ember Island, best example being Azula, who’s impenetrable though shell cracked and revealed the true vulnerable child that was underneath. If Azula couldn’t resist the “spell of the island”, no one can. So this means that Zuko’s family was indeed happy once and yes, Ozai wasn’t always the douchebag we got to know in Season 3 (I have a whole nother essay on my theories regarding what could be his real past story and why he’s actually the “Zuko” of his generation, based on stuff I gathered from old wiki entries and character analyses I made, but that’s for another time, lemme know if ya’ll are interested).

And what I guess is the biggest proof why The Search did this family’s past trash is comics Ursa herself. My dude, if this woman were indeed the victim of years of endless abuse and never loved her husband, I guarantee you that she would’ve been closer to what we saw in Todoroki’s mom from BNHA and Zuko would’ve gotten that scar or even worse long before the Agni Kai, not from his “daddy dearest”, but from “mommy dearest” herself, because no sane woman would be soo affectionate and attached to a child that’s the perfect copy of their abuser, sepecially appearance wise (again see Todoroki’s mom’s case from BNHA because the stories are really similar) and in no way would’ve she been willing to sacrifice her life for said child’s sake. With this ocassion, I remind ya’ll folks that according to the ancient ATLA cannon wikis on Nick’s site, Ozai was designed with Zuko’s appearance in mind, being meant to be like a “grown up scarless version” of Zuko. So yeah, remember this with a grain of salt that whenever you simp over grown up Zuko, you involuntary simp for Ozai too.

So yeah, I guess this kinda concludes my “not so short” rant about why the comics fail and are bad fanfiction. Lemme hear your thoughts in the comments and if you agree, feel free to leave a like and even reblog.

Bye bye and remember that Momo is the true strongest character of the show!

Saby out.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla comics #zuko #azula #ozai #ursa #fire siblings #the promise #the search #atla rant

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azenkii · 4 years ago

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ATLA Fic Rec

because I've been spending way too much time reading it. Btw, this is a rec for gen fics and zukka fics.

Note: an asterisk after the description means that the fic or series is incomplete. (Sadly, this is a lot of them, but I'm pretty sure most of these fics are still currently updating.)

GEN:

Anything by MuffinLance is a must-read. my personal favourites are Salvage (where Hakoda ends up with one (1) grumpy new prisoner/crewmate/adopted son) and Little Zuko v the World (where Zuko is 12, and it's adorable).

The Family You Choose by TunaFishChris is a god-tier platonic soulmate au about zuko and the gaang, so like...go read that right now

The kintsugi series by discordiansamba is an AU where Toph's parents hire Zuko-as-Lee to be a bodyguard for her, and I love it so much. It has some of the best Toph-and-Zuko sibling bonding I've ever seen. *

Dragon Moon by Satirrian is a Dragon! Zuko AU and it's incredible. It also features Bounty Hunter Zuko, so do with that what you will. *

The What We're Given series by Haicrescendo is *chef's kiss*. It's an AU where Zuko flipped his father off early on into his banishment and started living his best life with Iroh. Enter the Gaang. Shenanigans ensue. *

The Internment series by Hannahmayski is another Zuko breaks free from his dad early AU, and it's also really good. Basically, Zuko was never given the option to capture the Avatar, making his banishment indefinite. He sails around with his crew fighting the Fire Nation and it's great. *

The best way to solve your problems (is to help someone else) by hewwodarkness is an AU where kids start disappearing in Ba Sing Se during Book 2, and Zuko takes it upon himself to do a little vigilantism. It's fantastic. *

The Blue Spirit AU series by H_Faith_Marr is an AU starting from, surprise surprise, the Blue Spirit episode. The Gaang takes in Zuko without knowing who he is, and the Power of Friendship™ goes to work on Zuko. *

The the first rule of earth kingdom fight club... series by ohmygodwhy is an AU where Zuko, among other things, fights in underground cage matches, meets Toph early, and realises that his dad might be wrong. It’s pretty funny and really good. *

The The Non-Existent Twin series by FoiblePNoteworthy is hilarious. It's an AU where Zuko poses as his own twin, Li, and the Gaang buys it hook line and sinker. *

The Guilt (The Jet Adopts Zuko AU) series by FoiblePNoteworthy is also really good. Like the title says, it’s a Zuko joins the Freedom Fighters AU. *

The new ways series by blueseam is just a Zuko and the Gaang bonding fic, mostly set in the Western Air Temple, with a side of Zuko not taking care of himself and the Gaang stepping up to the job. If you’re like me and am an absolute sucker for Zuko and the Gaang, go read this.

The Family Matters series by WinterSky101 is a really good fic if you’re looking for Hakoda and Zuko. That’s all I have to say: Hakoda and Zuko.

a nation, held by snowdarkred is a GREAT Fire Nation & Zuko fic - set before and during canon, not after it. Go read it, right now.

Notable mentions: a lot of works by naggeluide are gen and pretty funny, though if you don't headcanon any of the characters as LGBT+ you might not like some of them.

ZUKKA:

anything by Haicrescendo and dickpuncher420. For Haicrescendo, my personal favourite is the Carry On For You series, and for dickpuncher420, it’s love language.

sirens & sleepless nights by Satirrian is a modern AU that just borders on dystopian. Ba Sing Se has been overtaken by the Fire Nation, Zuko is a soldier who broke away from the Fire Nation and got shot for it, and Sokka finds Zuko on the street and brings him inside. It’s amazing, go read it!

do you take this jerk to be (your one and only) by jatersade is a fic that I’m 90% sure is on every zukka fic rec list, and it deserves to be. It’s an arranged marriage AU where Zuko is engaged to Yue, and Sokka is his cultural guide. *

midnight runs and other things by isamagicdragon is a modern AU where Zuko keeps sleepwalking into Sokka’s apartment. Shenanigans ensue. Also, top-tier Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee interactions. *

Unchained Melody by avocadolove is another fic that I see a lot on rec lists, and it 100% deserves it. It’s a long fic (as of now, it’s at 63.8k) and is an AU where Sokka, after getting taken to the Spirit World by Heibai, ends up as a ghost that only Zuko can see. Ft. great enemies-to-friends-to-lovers and an incredible plot. *

Ozymandias, King of Kings by Think_of_a_Wonderful_Thought is SO good. It’s an AU where, instead of being banished, Zuko was sent to work in a coal mine/prison, which eventually becomes the target of a Water Tribe raid after Aang’s return. It can get pretty dark, so watch out for that, and it’s really long (as of now, 168.8k). But trust me, it’s worth it. *

Heart Beat Here by thefangirlingdead is an adorable Modern AU oneshot where Zuko, while shopping for engagement rings with Katara, freaks out when Sokka lies about where he is. It’s a happy ending, don’t worry. One of my favourite fics.

feels like we only go backwards by oldpotatoe and A Certain Slant of Light by JustGettingBy are both amnesia fics where Sokka loses his memory several years after the war. They’re both so, so good. A Certain Slant of Light is finished, but feels like we only go backwards is not.

reality strikes, so bring back the night by zukkababey is a time-travel oneshot where Western-Air-Temple Sokka wakes up in the future to find his older self married to one (1) Fire Lord Zuko. Fluffy and funny.

maybe i just see you (in everything) by epicbubbles is a really cute Modern AU oneshot with love confessions and just fluff all around. 10/10 go read it!!

it’s the illusion of separation by argentoswan is a fic that has legendary status and it absolutely deserves it. God-tier Modern AU where Sokka ends up working at the Jasmine Dragon alongside his former high school bully, Zuko. (Kind of) enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, and it’s just...SO good. *

say you like your shirt soggy by crosspin is a reallyyy nice 5+1 fic. It’s Modern AU, and it’s pretty short (3.7k), but the amount of yearning that gets packed into that 3.7k,,,,*chef’s kiss*

and they were roommates by flydunes is another Modern AU where sokka puts up an ad for a roommate. Zuko moves in, and Sokka gets a crush. It’s just good vibes all around :) *

like blood from a stone by catalinacat is a Soulmate AU that took a completely different direction with the soulmate trope. The summary does a better job of explaining it than I can. *

absence of heat, excess of destiny by theycallmesuperboy is one of the best soulmate AUs out there. it’s not too long, only 4.3k words, but it covers the entire series and then some. Seriously, go read this.

it isn’t strange, but it’s true by theholyterror is a 5+1 post-canon fic with some of the best pining I’ve ever seen, ft. Ambassador Sokka and Fire Lord Zuko. The 5+1 is times Zuko went out of his way to touch Sokka. *

like the sun inside of you by ofherlionheart is another post-canon fic, and it’s incredible so far. the first chapter alone is 23k, so it’s already a decently long read. *

the stemverse: earth science zuko au series by acezukos is a REALLY good Modern/University AU. So far, it only has one work (earth system history) but that work is already *chef’s kiss*. The series is incomplete, but earth system history is complete!

rebellion’s such a hushed affair by zeitgeistofnow is a fantastic Modern AU that, like sirens & sleepless nights, borders on dystopian. Actually, I think it is dystopian, but it hasn’t been tagged as such. Anyway, 10/10, go read it right now immediately

Mark Time by foil is a Modern AU where Sokka ghosted Zuko years ago, and they get brought back together by Aang and Katara’s wedding. It’s really good, but the fic has some pretty heavy content, so make sure you read the warnings. *

That birds would sing and think it were not night by HisMomoness is a Modern AU that has Zuko tutoring Sokka, with absolute top-tier pining. Like, seriously, the pining is insane. Superr good

this love burns so yellow (becoming orange and in its time, exploding) by meliebee is one of the best post-canon fics I’ve ever read. It features a civil war in the Fire Nation (that gets resolved about halfway through) and some great Toph and Zuko interactions, as well as some Grade A pining.

boy problems by burnt_oranges is FANTASTIC post-canon and has sokka and zuko in an accidental arranged marriage, plus some attempted assassinations. It’s great.

zuko vs the homie sexual agenda by parmigiano has Zuko and Sokka pining for each other in Ikea. Do I need to say more?

Friendship Bracelets by peachcitt is a Modern AU best friends to lovers. Pretty short (4.9k), but the pining is immaculate.

isn’t this the vision that you wanted by nebulastucky is INCREDIBLE, I read it recently because it just got completed and it’s *chef’s kiss*. It’s post-canon ft. mutual pining and some reallyyy good ‘and there was only one bed’ scenes.

Real Slow and no one knows anything but us by surveycorpsjean and quidhitch respectively are two of my favourite post-canon Ambassador Sokka and Fire Lord Zuko fics. Go check them out!

The Duke’s a Hazard by naggeluide is a really nice AU starting from the Western Air Temple, where the Duke decides that Sokka and Zuko are now his new parents. They bond over coparenting, and the (kind of) enemies-to-friends-to-lovers is really good. Plus, it’s funny.

Those Who Favor Fire by CSHfic and VSfic is a really good fic of the Spymaster Sokka AU. If you don’t know what that is, it’s an AU where Sokka fakes his death and goes undercover in an organisation that wants to kill Zuko.

Fics I added after posting (so far, all Zukka):

The Road Between Action and Inaction by Donvex is a fic that I can't believe I left out the first time?? It's a modern hitchhiking AU and it's great.

Rituals of the Ocean Floor by Donvex is a nice one too. It's only around 2.2k words, but it's a Fox Spirit!Zuko and Sharkman!Sokka AU, and I just really like the writing style.

by the stars above, i knew we were in love by theycallmesuperboy and The Fate of Nations in Our Hands by sapphic_ambitions are both top-tier post-canon fics. Be warned: by the stars above is a liiiittle bit angsty.

blue's clues by parmigiano is a really good Modern AU where Sokka, a university student journalist, gets ahold of the phone number of the Blue Spirit, a new campus vigilante. He ends up talking to the Blue Spirit to get an interview out of him, and it's really cute!

Honourable mention: the Avatar Zuko series by the_cloud_whisperer is one of the best series I've ever read, and it's really long - it got completed about a month ago, with 493.6k words in total (415k if you ignore the extra work made up of author's notes). It develops all the characters really well, especially Lu Ten, but the main ship is Zukaang. Personally, my biggest problem with Zukaang is the age difference, and Aang is aged up to be Zuko's age (or older, I think? I don't really remember) in this. I kept reading it because the plot was too good to give up, and I do highly recommend it, but yeah.

I’ll add more fics if I remember them, but this is what I had bookmarked. Also, shameless self plug here because I also write ATLA fic @ azenki on ao3

#atla #zukka #fic rec #zukka fic rec

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avatar-news · 5 years ago

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Bryke left the Netflix live-action ATLA series two months ago. It’s not the end of the world.

Like the title says, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the co-creators and showrunners of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, have left their positions as executive producers and showrunners of the live-action adaptation of ATLA at Netflix, and will have no involvement with it going forward.

They worked on it for approximately two years, since the original announcement back in September 2018.

The classic “creative differences” reason is given for why they left.

Let’s delve into this.

Statements

First, the full text of both their statements.

Bryan:

“Before I get to the crux of this statement, I would like to make it clear that I am very aware and appreciative of the fact that I am in an exceedingly fortunate position, and that the following issues are indeed good problems to have - even more so now that we are in the grips of a global pandemic and a cratering economy which have left millions unemployed. With that crucial context, here is the big news from my little world.

Michael DiMartino and I recently chose to leave Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the series he and I created together in 2002. We will have no involvement in the project moving forward.

This is probably the most difficult decision I have ever made. But there is no doubt in my mind it was absolutely the right choice. When Netflix brought me on board to run this series alongside Mike two years ago, they made a very public promise to support our vision. Unfortunately, there was no follow-through on that promise. Though I got to work with some great individuals, both on Netflix’s side and on our own small development team, the general handling of the project created what I felt was a negative and unsupportive environment.

To be clear, this was not a simple matter of us not getting our way. Mike and I are collaborative people; we did not need all of the ideas to come from us. As long as we felt those ideas were in line with the spirit and integrity of Avatar, we would have happily embraced them.

However, we ultimately came to the belief that we would not be able to meaningfully guide the direction of the series.

Though I am profoundly disappointed by how things turned out, there are wonderfully talented people who are still working on the series, some of whom Mike and I personally hired and got to know well during our time on the project. We worked very hard together towards a shared dream of how special this adaptation could be. I want to see them employed, and I hope they get the chance to do their best work on the series. Perhaps the team that remains might still be able to make something fans of the original and an entirely new audience can enjoy.

By and large, I have an incredibly charmed career and I am very grateful for it. And I am enormously lucky for the amazing global community of fans that has grown around the shows Mike and I have created and run together. I will continue to be deeply involved in the Avatar universe, telling the stories that my partner and I want to tell in the way we want to tell them. I will put my time, energy, and talent towards the projects that give me the most fulfilment [sic], and where I am afforded trust and respect.

Life is too short to do otherwise.”

This was also his caption on Instagram:

“Well, friends... there you have it. Big sigh. 💔⬇️💔 I’m sure many of you will understandably want to know more and will ask me questions in the comments, here and on subsequent posts and live-streams and in-person encounters and everywhere else ad infinitum. I wish I could explain things in greater detail, but the above statement is really all I can say about the matter so I won’t be answering any of those. [...] Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of the Avatar: The Last Airbender fans, and I’m sorry our involvement in the live-action project did not work out. Time to get on with my life. Onward and upward.”

(from his Instagram)

Mike:

“Many of you have been asking me for updates about the Avatar live-action Netflix series. I can finally tell you that I am no longer involved with the project. In June of this year, after two years of development work, Bryan Konietzko and I made the difficult decision to leave the production.

When Bryan and I signed on to the project in 2018, we were hired as executive producers and showrunners. In a joint announcement for the series, Netflix said that it was committed to honoring our vision for this retelling and to supporting us on creating the series. And we expressed how excited we were for the opportunity to be at the helm. Unfortunately, things did not go as we had hoped.

Look, things happen. Productions are challenging. Unforeseen events arise. Plans have to change. And when those things have happened at other points during my career, I try to be like an Air Nomad and adapt. I do my best to go with the flow, no matter what obstacle is put in my way. But even an Air Nomad knows when it’s time to cut their losses and move on.

I started to reevaluate what is truly important in my life and what I wanted to do with what’s left of it. I took some advice from Uncle Iroh. I looked inward and started asking myself the big question: “Who are you and what do you want?”

I also sought wisdom from Stoic philosophers who were big on differentiating between what is within our control and what isn’t. I realized I couldn’t control the creative direction of the series, but I could control how I responded. So, I chose to leave the project. It was the hardest professional decision I’ve ever had to make, and certainly not one that I took lightly, but it was necessary for my happiness and creative integrity.

And who knows? Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Avatar has the potential to be good. It might turn out to be a show many of you end up enjoying. But what I can be certain about is that whatever version ends up on-screen, it will not be what Bryan and I had envisioned or intended to make.

I also want to be clear that this doesn’t mean the end of my involvement in the Avatar universe. These stories and characters are important to me and the renewed interest and excitement in Avatar and Korra has been inspiring to see.

Writing this letter has left me with a very heavy heart. I know many of you will be disappointed and frustrated by this news. I get it. I share your disappointment and frustration. I also recognize this creative setback is small compared to the problems we’re all facing as a society right now.

Thankfully, Iroh offered some wisdom for that, too: “Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. You can’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving you will come to a better place.”

May we all keep moving and come to a better place.

Thanks for reading and for your continued enthusiasm for the Avatar universe.”

(from his Instagram and website)

Netflix has not made a statement yet. Update: Netflix’s statement

Analysis of statements

1. Creative differences

Obviously, they were both very vague about everything. It’s highly likely that they signed a non-disclosure agreement as part of their exits that will prevent them from saying anything more than what they did today.

It does seem to be mainly “creative differences” though.

The one place they went a bit further and said something might actually be wrong was Bryan with this sentence:

“As long as we felt those ideas were in line with the spirit and integrity of Avatar, we would have happily embraced them.”

Implication: ideas were against the spirit and integrity of Avatar.

The first thing that comes to mind is whitewashing. Honestly, the only way we’ll know if it was this is if the show ends up casting white people. Until then, there’s no way to know. If it is whitewashed, I’ll stop reporting on it (but to be honest, I highly doubt it’s this).

The second thing that I can imagine it being is shipping. I can see Netflix wanting to have an actual love triangle between Aang, Katara, and Zuko, whereas Zutara never existed in the original show and Bryke was always very against it. But even this seems unlikely; I doubt they would walk away from the show over it when even with a love triangle existing, the original Kataang pairing would still “win” in the end.

Aside from those potential reasons, it really seems more like they just couldn’t work in that environment the way they wanted to. And that’s okay!

Both of them made a point to say that Netflix publicly promised to support their vision and then didn’t, and that they realized they wouldn’t be able to creatively control the show. Running a huge live-action production is extremely different from running cartoons where they pretty much went off and did whatever they wanted. If they wanted that level of control, that’s completely fine, it’s a valid creative process, and it’s good they left a project where it wasn’t possible. Personal and professional differences happen all the time in the workplace, and making a TV show is no exception. If Netflix ran things in a way that was incompatible with Bryke as creative people, it makes sense that it wouldn’t work out.

2. The future of live-action ATLA

The live-action adaptation is still happening without Bryke. The team they assembled is still moving forward. For example, Jeremy Zuckerman, the composer of ATLA and TLOK, is still doing the music (presumably-- he hasn’t made an announcement that he’s leaving too). Update: Jeremy confirmed he was never officially signed on in the first place, and that his potential involvement is “up in the air”.

Furthermore, we don’t know who the new showrunner(s) will be, and we still have no idea who any of the directors or writers will be. It’s completely up in the air, and, again unless it’s whitewashed and it becomes obvious that’s why they left, right now there’s no reason to enter complete panic mode. You might really like who ends up working on it (or you might hate them, in which case yeah you can panic).

Listen, I get it. This sort of thing is rarely a good sign, and two years of work with nothing to show and then the creators leaving fully qualifies this show for the label “development hell” at this point.

But we just don’t know anything. And this coming from someone whose favorite season of the whole Avatar franchise is Korra Book One: Air, the one Bryke wrote singlehandedly! I’m just saying that until we find out more, this show is really still a complete mystery and could go in any direction.

It’s also just a TV show. There’s lots of terrible ones out there, and if this ends up one of them, at least we’re used to it right? 🙃

But again, it could also still end up a great one! Bryke even said so.

3. The future of the Avatar franchise. THIS IS WHERE THE FUN BEGINS

Last time Bryke finished their involvement with an Avatar show (Korra), they were very clear that they were done with Avatar for now and that there would be no more.

This time, they both talk about how they will be heavily involved in Avatar moving forward. They just spent two years enthusiastically jumping back into the franchise, and at the tail end of that, Avatar became bigger than ever before. (The huge news articles about them leaving is testament to that alone!)

I want to stress that this is just MY PERSONAL GUESS, but...

I’m predicting that a third Avatar animated series run by Bryke will be announced imminently.

Or something similarly big like movie(s).

I might be wrong, but I’m just reading the signs, and I’ve read them correctly before with Bryke’s involvement in this franchise.

First of all, they left the live-action show two months ago. That’s plenty of time to get something new going, even the basest of decisions just to make a new animated show.

I feel like you don’t just spend two years dedicating your life to Avatar again and then completely drop it. Remember, the show would have taken at least 5-10 years to complete. They were enthusiastically committing to spending a large portion of the rest of their lives on Avatar again.

Their statements also don’t reflect the mindset of people who easily let others control Avatar. In fact, it’s quite the opposite-- they both explain that they left because their creative vision wasn’t being upheld. They actually don’t own Avatar, which means the only way they can control it is by actively running it. If they don’t, someone else will be, because like it or not Nickelodeon wants a piece of that new popularity just as much as Netflix, and new content will come one day sooner or later no matter what.

Additionally, Bryke announced they were separating after Korra ended, going their separate ways. Now, they’re referring to each other as their partner again.

And lastly... this wouldn’t be the first time Bryke suddenly makes a new animated show when a live-action adaptation of ATLA goes wrong. Just sayin’.

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe they’re actually saying they’re going to settle down with their families and keep consulting on comics and novels from afar. I just don’t get that feeling from what they wrote, nor from the sequence of events that led to this.

The question does arise as to why this new show wouldn’t be part of their announcement today. The answer is who knows! Maybe they want to drive up hype first, maybe it’s part of whatever they signed with Netflix, maybe it’s just not ready to announce yet (or again maybe I’m simply wrong). The media news cycle works in mysterious ways!

And with that I’ll end this mega-post.

This is definitely not the big update about live-action ATLA that we wanted, but it’s not all bad (it could be really, really good), and it’s not the end of the world.

#news #live action atla #season 1 #netflix #cast and crew #bryan konietzko #michael dante dimartino

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turkwriter · 4 years ago

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On parental figures, abusive relationships, and the idea of childhood in RWBY

I mentioned in a previous post that I could write a whole essay on how Hazel's actions in wanting to get Emerald out of Salem's clutches makes him a foil for Rhodes and what he did and didn't do for Cinder. Then @caprizcorn mentioned she wanted the essay (and @preeningmywings also seemed to like the comparison) so here it is, behind a cut because it's so long.

I don't think it's a coincidence that we got Cinder's backstory of how Rhodes sorta, kinda, tried a little to help her escape an abusive childhood in the same season as we got an episode where Marrow is saying “they're just kids” about Atlas Academy students fighting on the front lines of a battle, and Hazel trying to get both Oscar and Emerald away from Salem because they're kids. Before I get into the real Rhodes and Hazel compare and contrast, I want to take a little look at RWBY's views on who exactly is a child because you can't understand Hazel's views on both Gretchen and Emerald without considering that.

The idea of a contrast between RWBY characters being soldiers and RWBY characters being children was actually a major theme back in Season 2. When Teams RWBY and JNPR had their food fight, Goodwitch reprimanded them because to her, they're the warriors who are supposed to save the world. Ozpin said they're still kids and should be allowed to be kids for as long as they still can because war will come to them soon. Later, when Team RWBY goes on their first mission in the field with Oobleck, Weiss questions how they can be asked to devote themselves to being Huntresses when they're still kids, Yang responds along the lines of “We're not kids. We're armed to the teeth and being told to risk our lives killing monsters and even people.”

This question- is a 17, 18, 19-year-old still a kid or are they a soldier?- is so central to the current season, but it's a question that even the RWBY writers and fans don't seem like they can agree on. Ruby started out the series as 15-year-old so most of us agree she was a kid. It was even a plot point with Weiss questioning whether someone so young should lead her in battle. Oscar started out 14, and is probably 15 now, and we all seem to agree that he's a child. But the teens and young adults who are the usual Huntsman Academy demographic (17-20 year olds) seem to fall into a more gray area, even by the show's definition. Team FNKI, who are at least Third Years, if not Fourth Years (so 19-20 years old) are considered kids by Marrow. Hazel considered Gretchen a child- we don't know what year at Beacon she was in when she died but she was at least 17, she could have even been 20. But, in the world of Remnant, 17-20-year-olds are regularly thrown into mortal combat with Grimm at the Huntsman Academies. Team CFVY had their life-threatening failed mission when they were Second Years (so 18) and the idea of them being children during it was never brought up. This contrast sort of fits with the real world: an 18-year-old is technically considered an adult, even if most of them still depend on adults for them to live.

So where does the Rhodes-Cinder and Hazel-Emerald contrasting dynamics come in?

Let's start with when Rhodes meets Cinder and finds out that this emaciated “servant” (re: slave) girl is 10 years old. There's no gray area here. She's a child by all definitions of the word. Rhodes sees a girl who hasn't even hit puberty who is being forced to work. He's a Huntsman, he knows what Dust looks like, he can tell that the choker she's forced to wear has lightning Dust on it, that it's basically a shock collar. Rhodes sees all this and decides “I'm going to teach this girl how to fight so that when she's 17 and an adult by Remnant's laws (sorta), she can leave this place and learn to be a Huntress by attending a Huntsman Academy.”

Now I'm not one of the people who think Rhodes was completely irredeemable because he didn't grab Cinder and take her away from Madame's hotel immediately when he met her. Having a 10-year-old with no combat experience tagging along with you as you fight off Grimm and take on bounties is a good way of getting the 10-year-old killed. If Rhodes worked in the Atlas and Mistral areas, he could have become a wanted man for stealing a kid who was known to “belong” to Madame, and then both he and Cinder would be in a worse position. But Rhodes did mess up. He taught Cinder how to fight and she took to it to an extent that she was able to kill a trained Huntsman by the time she was in her mid-teens. There was no reason why Rhodes should have told Cinder to stay with an abusive Madame until she was 17. Teens start attending combat schools when they're 13. Rhodes could have gotten Cinder into a combat school somewhere in Vale or Vacuo, away from the clutches of Madame and Atlas/Mistral authorities. We have examples of young teens without parents (Ren, Nora, Sun, and Fox, off the top of my head) who were able to make some kind of life for themselves that way. It wasn't easy for any of them, but it's a better life than what Cinder faced with Madame, and it wouldn't have ended with Cinder feeling that she had to kill the one relatively healthy parental figure she had (Rhodes), falling under another abusive influence (Salem), and continuing the cycle of abuse herself with someone who saw Cinder as a parental figure (Emerald).

Which brings me to Hazel and his Heel-Face Turn in today's episode. Hazel has made it his life mission to do something to stop Oz's ways of having 17-20-year-olds, who he considers children, fight on the front lines of the war with the Grimm. Now we know Hazel is his own kind of hypocrite- he hated Oz so much that he wanted to kill actual child Oscar. He was willing to hurt RWBY and JNR (and did hurt Nora) because they'd sided with Oz. But in today's episode, when he realizes that Oscar was telling him the truth about Salem, Hazel not only tries to save actual child Oscar (and Hazel does consider Oscar a child now, separate from Oz- his “No more Gretchens, boy” is him telling Oscar to continue being different than Oz), he looks at Emerald, who is at least 19, highly trained in combat, and, to be frank, a war criminal, and says “this is a child too and I'm getting her out of here even though I'm going to be killed by Salem for doing so.” Hazel was willing to literally give up his life for a child he still somewhat hates and a “child” who Remnant would consider an adult. Rhodes wasn't willing to risk much of anything to save a child he was actually fond of and who was, in all ways, still a child.

And it gets me thinking: what if Hazel had been the one to walk into Madame's hotel and see Cinder being treated the way she was, instead of Rhodes? There is absolutely no way Hazel would have told Cinder to wait until she was 17 and an “adult” to leave the hotel, because even then she would be a child to him and children are not to be used as tools by adults. He would have done something to get Cinder away from the situation, he would have been willing to risk something for it, whether that meant killing Madame himself or taking Cinder to safety somewhere far away.

And how Emerald, even when she's terrified of Salem hurting and killing her if she isn't able to escape with JOYR, still shakes her head “no” at Hazel for a moment when she realizes Hazel is going to take on Salem in order to try and give her and the other teens time to get out of Salem's clutches. Hazel has looked out for Emerald more in the short amount of time they've had together than Cinder ever did in the years that Emerald spent as Cinder's disciple. It's not a complete parallel but Emerald's head shake to Hazel reminds me so much of Rhodes putting his hand on Cinder's head when she attacked him mainly because it's such a contrast- Rhodes openly cared for Cinder and showed his affection in a similar way but his affection wound up doing much less for Cinder's well-being than Hazel, who sacrificed it all for JOYR and Emerald, with Emerald's response being so understated but somehow just as important.

#RWBY #RWBY spoilers #Hazel Rainart #RWBY Rhodes #Cinder Fall #Emerald Sustrai #Oscar Pine #RWBY Salem

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zukkaoru · 3 years ago

Text

Fic Writer Review

tagged by @bisexualpercabeth tysm for the tag!! <3

1. how many works do you have on AO3? 85 lol

2. what’s your total AO3 word count? 489,407.. don't ask how much of that is just from the past year lol

3. how many fandoms have you written for and what are they? i have posted fics for 20 different fandoms on ao3 and i am not going going to list them all out but my top five are atla, 0uat, tlok, h$mtmt$, and tales of arcadia

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. plum blossom 2. you clutched my brain and eased my ailing 3. my calamitous love & insurmountable grief 4. five times ryan came out (and one time he couldn't) 5. feels like love

5. do you respond to comments, why or why not? i usually try to but sometimes i simply do not know what to say. or i let too many comments build up in my inbox and end up just not responding bc i'm overwhelmed oops

6. what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? uh. it's gotta be one of my old 0uat fics bc i don't usually like to write angsty endings anymore skdgfdj i'm not sure i want to link to any specific oneshot but if you're curious you can look back through my ao3 ig there's also looked me in the eye and told me you would never go away but that's part of a series so the entire coherent story doesn't end angstily lol

(continued under the cut)

7. do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written? i don't really anymore but oh boy. the craziest one i've ever written? one of my friends and i started writing a fic back when we were like ten and we literally called it The Megacrossover (the mega for short) bc we just. shoved as many fandoms as we could in that thing. it started out just being a pjo / hp / thg crossover where the characters got reaped for a hunger games based on their cabin at camp half-blood but then we ended up including doctor who and 0uat in the plot to get everyone out of the arena, and then we brought in olaf for some reason (?) and we also had plans to bring in characters from divergent and the maze runner but unfortunately we never finished. anyway. long live the mega. it's still in a binder on my bedroom floor at home

8. have you ever received hate on a fic? yeah but not recently. my favorite was someone hate commenting on chapter eleven of a doctor who fic i posted on ff.net that i wrote when i was like 13-14. and when i called them out in the author's note of the next chapter, saying "if you don't like you don't have to read" they commented again and said something like "well obviously you don't know if you don't like it until you start reading, stupid" like yeah bro but. eleven chapters? if it took you that long to realize you didn't like it, that's sounds like a you problem

9. do you write smut? if so what kind? nope lol

10. have you ever had a fic stolen? not that i know of lol

11. have you ever had a fic translated? nope

12. have you ever co-written a fic before? not besides The Mega. but corey and i create (mostly cursed) AUs together which is close enough <3

13. what’s your all time favorite ship? i am morally obligated to answer outlaw queen for this. but currently matchablossom is occupying all my thoughts

14. what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? oh there are so many atla fic ideas i have that i'm not sure i'll ever have time to flesh out and write. there's one i came up with based very loosely on the song snow by ricky montgomery that's sokka-centric but it's very complex and elaborate and i could definitely see it being upwards of 200k words and i just. don't have time for it which is very sad to me bc it would be so good if i did

15. what are your writing strengths? i'm so bad at questions like this. i don't know?? sometimes i write and i like everything about what i'm writing and sometimes i write and i hate it all. i guess dialogue ? sure

16. what are your writing weaknesses? action scenes. describing the physical details of the setting. sometimes (see: a lot of times) i write sentences so long and convoluted that they make sense to no one other than me.

17. what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? gonna be honest i really haven't seen that much of this? like i think it's cool when it comes up bc i love other languages! but i also always worry i'm going to be mistranslating something whenever i do it skdhjgfd also if you're going to be doing a lot of it, i feel like you should probably include a translation somewhere so people know what's going on without having to like. switch back and forth between the fic and google translate or smth

18. what was the first fandom you wrote for? percy jackson

19. what’s your favorite fic you’ve written? it's probably gotta be this ultraviolet morning light (which is now on the second page of my fics what the heck???) tuvml is my baby and the longest fic i've finished to date and i still think about how rising sun verse zuko and sokka are doing quite often. i've also still got a couple half-finished fics for that universe and a longer sequel i'd love to publish someday but i've been. distracted by other fics

tagging (with no obligation): @that-was-anticlimactic @smilehoneyy @bisexuallsokka @beachytablecloth and anyone else who wants to!!

#tag game #i wrote some pretty angsty fics after robin's death so #technically my fic with the angstiest ending probaby comes from that time #but i wasn't super active on ao3 and i will not be providing a link to any of my old fics that are not on ao3

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samurithecat · 3 years ago

Note

This is originally a post I made on my blog but I wanted to hear your thoughts on it so I decided why not send it in an ask. Hope your doing well.

I believe with all my heart that Bryke are a cancer to Avatar.

They've done irreparable damage to the franchise, are fake af, are the reason we don't have Book 4 of ATLA and why the characters in Book 3 are so OOC.

Bryke assassinated the characters of Katara, Korra, Mako, Asami, Kuvira, Toph, and Ursa. Also the reason we don't have an Azula Redemption Arc (which we would've gotten in Book 4 with Zuko in the role of Iroh)

They continue to manipulate people with Korrasami and LGBT pandering for undeserved praise and most importantly to them that sweet cash with no signs of ever stopping (which is evident when you see how many characters they've made into token lgbt rep such as Kyoshi and Kya)

Do you think that if Aaron & Elizabeth Ehasz handled the Avatar Franchise that it would be saved from Bryke?

A good example is The Dragon Prince which is handled by The Ehasz. It's brilliant and it hasn't even begun to peak in terms of storytelling and potential which makes me hype and feel that childlike excitement that ATLA gave me as a child.It's the closest thing to Avatar's Living Legacy imo.

It has the spirit of Avatar while still being beautiful on its own.

TLOK is a hollow, terribly handled, absolutely awful show but it could've easily been a masterfully done show (I wanted to love it sooo much it killed me how far it fell from grace)

I am doing well, thank you.

I actually made a video on youtube about my thoughts for the next potential new avatar series that also showcases my experience with the series and I made a good point that I wish Aaron Ehasz had some involvement with Korra and try to promote The Dragon Prince.

youtube

I agree that Bryke has done damage to the franchise but they also created said franchise, which is why my last point in that video is that even if they come up with great concepts for the potential new series, they will need better writers for the series to make it good and maybe make them have open minds when it comes to shipping like 'don't make fans feel bad for not shipping Canon ships' and 'I know you guys would like this ship to be Canon but character development on a personal level needs to happen first.'

Also, I think I saw it in a SDCC recording that is lost to time now, but I remember something about how they would have brought up a reunion between Zuko and his mother in the finale, but one of the two creators of Bryke (Micheal Dante DiMartino (the one who makes us believe that Aang is his insert character because they're both bald)) decided to not include that, which not only showcases that these are two individuals with different ideas for how things go, but makes me wish we got a book 4 for the original series instead of that terrible live action movie I ranted about in my video because why not.

I can't say much about the Kyoshi books since I at least want to read them first (on my TBR pile), but I have boycotted the Legend of Korra comics in a similar way that one of my favorite reviewers boycotts spider man comics (with exceptions to FCBD giveaways). Note that this is due to how I feel like they did LGBT rep badly and their attempt just weaken the impact of how Steven Universe did it which did it right and did it better.

I'm still willing to check out the next series to see if they realize any mistakes they've made but going through it with some salt. Because unlike a certain British author I don't want to talk about too much about, they haven't express qualities of being a terf or something that would justify people canceling them. *knocks on wood*

Not to plug my video for my reply, but I touched upon some of this stuff in my video.

#lok #korra #anti bryke #avatar

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spookyboogie3 · 4 years ago

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The trope Last Minute Hookup shouldn’t be used for LGBTQ+ relationships.

AND DEFENDING MY LAST POST ABOUT THIS.

I DO NOT hate any of these pairings. A good many of them could have been handled differently by the creators, writers, and networks. But this isnt me hating the relationships or characters or shows. Just going off about how they shouldnt have been tacked on at the end of their respective series.

As of writing this all of these shows have ended their original runs. Except for Supernatural which is on its last few episodes. And Supergirl, which announced its coming to end with season 6.

LGBTQ characters and relationships aren’t as common in the media as straight-cis characters and relationships. Sure things are improving but a lot of networks and writers still don’t fully understand why representation is important why they can’t keep using the same throwaway tropes they’ve been using for the straight-cis relationships.

You could name any piece of media and find and name one character that isn’t LGBTQ+, but you can’t do this with LGBTQ+ characters. We haven’t gotten to the point where they are as common as non-LGBTQ characters.

I have a whole paper I wrote on why asexual representation is important to have in the media and the same logic applies to any part of the LGBTQ+ or anything that falls under minority.

Back to the topic on hand. The trope of “Last Minute Hookup.”

Its exactly what it sounds like. Characters get to together at the very end of the story. These characters could have a on and off again relationship, lots of ship teasing, the classic “Will They or Wont They?” trope. What makes it different for non-LGBT characters in relationships to do this, we know what these relationships look like. Not to say the that both Non and LGBT relationship cant have similar struggles, however members of the LGBTQ+ community know how hard it is to feel like your identity and self matters and is normal.

I know that the whole “will they, wont they” thing is done for drama and networks and showrunners think if they give the fans what they want that they’ll start losing viewers and they have nothing to look forward to. Which is true to some degree. But most of this comes from the writers not knowing how to fucking write relationships.

Let’s just focus on whats it like to be in a non-straight relationship.

Heres an example: you have an action series, with 2 male leads and halfway through the show, they get together. Cool. Now you have a Battle Couple.

By making LGBTQ relationships happen at the end of a series that’s already had plenty of other non-LGBTQ relationships happen before it, it makes it look like the people in charge don’t care for it or were afraid of backlash. But it’s the end of the series so its not like they can get the show cancelled or anything. (The only people who are going to lash out at LGBT couple or characters are homophobic people, we don’t want them around any way so just make stuff super gay, so they’ll leave)

This is especially a problem when the writer and network have spent the whole series queerbaiting the audience with these characters.

Side note for anyone is doesn’t actually know what queerbaiting is:

It’s a marketing technique used in entertainment, which the writer or creators hint at but then don’t actually depict sex-same romance or LGBTQ representation. They do this to attract (bait) the LGBT/queer or straight ally audience into the show with the suggestion of representation but at the same time avoiding this as not alienate other audience members *cough* (homophobes) *cough*

Definition is from Wikipedia, not a reliable source says my highschool teachers and college professors but fuck em

The Legend of Korra is a great example of Last-Minute Hookup. Korra and Asami had VERY little ship teasing, and that was in the last 2 books/seasons. Any thing that was perceived as romantic came from the fans wearing shipping goggles. So to a lot of people just casually watching, yes this looked like it came out of nowhere. Nickelodeon had some serious balls to say how brave they were for putting 2 girls into a romantic relationship.

Theres a few problems with this.

A. It never actually aired on TV (to my knowledge). The last 2 seasons of Korra were put on Nicks website.

B. The confirmation that this Korrasami was canon had to come from the creators on twitter because of how unclear it was.

C. The show did the bare minimum when it came to hooking them up in the series. They walk off holding hands (very cute btw). They didn’t even get a kiss. Aang and Katara had a Last Minute Hookup at the end of ATLA after 3 seasons of ship tease and THEY GOT A KISS. Hell the original end of LoK*, has Korra and Mako kissing. *(the first season, they didn’t know they were getting more seasons at the time, no matter what you hear the writers say, they’re full of shit)

D. Anything continuation of Korra has come in the form of comics, which her and Asami are in a fairly well written relationship. Yes, they do kiss. Yes it would’ve been great to see this stuff happen in series.

A show that handles this a little bit better is Adventure Time. Not by much though. It implied several times that Princess Bubblegum and Marceline have history together and its shown more and more in its last few seasons that there is some ship tease happening. However its not until the finale where they kiss, and they are shown in the last minute of the show cuddling together in Marcy’s house. HBO has picked up Adventure Time and has a miniseries called Adventure Time: Distant Lands, where Bubblegum and Marceline’s past relationship is shown.

I had brought up in my original post about being upset with networks making LGBTQ+ relationships canon in the last season/episode. I originally had Catradora tagged. While Catra and Adora have history together, they did not become official couple until the end of the series.

Yes, I was wrong about the network making things canon in the last episode as they’ve always had ship tease with each other, and it probably was the writers’ intent to put them together by the end. They do technically fall under the Last-Minute Hookup, however.

I wanna talk about Once Upon a Time really quick. Fans of the show were hoping and wishing for an LGBTQ couple for the show as a lot of characters, especially Regina and Emma, have alot Ho Yay moments. The showrunners weren’t going to put those two together, for whatever reasons they may have for that (im indifferent on all the shipping going on with this show). The showrunners thought to put two characters together, and hoo boy did it not make people happy. The characters they put together are Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Ruby the red riding hood, which would be fine if they had properly been developed.

The entire episode they did this in was a mess. They stopped the current arc during the season 5 episode ‘Ruby Slippers,’ to go over the characters that haven’t been seen in years, Dorothy was introduced and last seen in season 3, and Ruby was introduced in season 1 and was last seen in season 5 before ‘Ruby Slippers’. The characters get together in the same episode the meet in and are never seen again. The characters barely interacted, barely got along, and showed little to no ship tease or interest in each other and BOOM they are in love and together aaaaaannnnndd they’re gone. Other than having One Million Moms, a Christian fundamentalist organization, protest against the show and want it taken off the air (yes this really happened). The fans weren’t please with this development of the characters either.

(also Mulan was right there and already knew Ruby from a previous episode, and Mulan already is established to like girls as shown by her being in love with Aurora. Don’t know why the writers didn’t just put these 2 together but whatever I guess)

So they tried again in season 7 with MadArcher. The characters of Alice, a version of Alice in Wonderland from another realm (its complicated) and Robin, the daughter of Robin Hood and the Wicked Witch (it’s also complicated). And the writers did a lot better here. Both characters were allowed to have time together and have a history together too and it was done over the whole season. Not just one episode.

Now even though the writers decided to do something different with the last season and it could be detached from the previous 6 seasons, MadArcher is not really a Last Minute Hookup per say but still falls under my thing about it being the last season so who gives a fuck if One Million Moms gets mad us and tries to get us cancelled again.

I would like to say I have never watched a single episode of Supernatural in my life. I may one day. But as of right now my knowledge of it is coming primary from what ive seen on tumblr. You know a great source for doing research and looking for reliable information among the piles of shitposting.

From what I know from fans, the writers of Supernatural have been queer baiting for years. I mean it’s the CW, I’m not that surprised. What also wouldn’t surprise me, that by the end of the series Castiel is back and he and Dean actually start and relationship or strongly hint at starting one. I actually fear for the writer lives if they threw out a confession scene after years of queerbaiting and potential ship tease (debatable) and they don’t put them together. Fans are going to be angrier than they probably ever have been with this show and the showrunners and writers really would be known for queer baiting.

From what I know about how previous shows have done and if anyone that has ever worked on this show wants to continue living, Castiel will be back from Super Hell (is that what yall are calling it?) and he will get together with Dean. And they will fall under the Last-Minute Hookup trope and my networks make LGBTQ relationships canon last season.

One last show I want to talk about is Supergirl, which in has been recently announced that the 6th season will be the last. The show started on CBS but moved to the CW after the end of season 1. So more CW bullshit. There is no confirmation about whether the CW or any of the Supergirl writers are planning to do this, its all speculation. Supergirl is more LGBTQ friendly than some other shows on the Network. One of the main characters came out a few years ago and had a girlfriend a season and has had plenty of hookups with other ladies around the Arrowverse. They even introduced a trans-woman superhero in the form of Dreamer.

Let’s talk SuperCorp. Lena Luthor was introduced in the 2nd season and has been a major character in Kara’s life ever since her introduction. Even if she isn’t involved in the plot, Kara always goes to her to talk and check in on her and worry about her. They are best friends. Since the 2 have met, there has been plenty of Les Yay going on. The writers seem to be aware of the fans wanting SuperCorp to be canon and they keep throwing in moments like Kara and Lena struggling together or Kara carrying Lena bridal style.

Why I bring this up after the announcement of Supergirl’s final season to start next year. We may get SuperCorp. Kara has a relationship with William in the show and not a single person likes this relationship. The writers may scrap it and get put Kara and Lena together for the final season. This is a big maybe though. The Supergirl writers and crew get called out a lot for queerbaiting.

Let me know if you guys have any other examples of last season/last episode LGBTQ+ hookup.

And please let me know if you see any mistakes. This was all done in one sitting so I may have some things wrong.

Also check out the video by @aretheygayvideos on this topic too.

youtube

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tabloidtoc · 4 years ago

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Life & Style, April 26

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Khloe Kardashian is a total fake

Page 1: Lady Gaga in a wedding dress on the set of House of Gucci in Rome

Page 2: Contents

Page 4: The Top 10 SAG Awards Looks -- Mindy Kaling, Jamie Chung, Amy Adams, Sarah Levy, Kerry Washington

Page 5: Kaley Cuoco, Nicole Kidman, Natalie Morales, Viola Davis, Lily Collins

Page 6: Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen celebrated their 12-year anniversary, posting heartfelt tributes to each other on social media, but their relationship hasn't always been so rock solid -- Tom admitted that Gisele has made a lot of sacrifices for their marriage and she hated living in Boston because she had no friends there and felt so alone because Tom was never around; things got so bad they sought counseling, which was the wake-up call that Tom needed -- he promised to make changes and he agreed to quit the Patriots and sign with a team in a location that was more desirable to Gisele and Tom stuck to his word and he came the new quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and since moving to Florida, Tom and Gisele have never been happier and they have date nights every week and always make sure to communicate -- it wasn't easy, but they're both really proud of how far they've come

Page 7: After multiple delays, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc have finally filmed the highly anticipated Friends reunion special and they all got really emotional when they saw the set and being there brought back so many fond memories -- it's the first time in 17 years that fans will get to see the entire cast together since the show went off the air in 2004 -- afterwards, everyone went to Jen's house for dinner -- each of the stars was paid $2.5 million to appear in the special

* Throwback -- Dolly Parton in 1965

* Biggest Spenders of the Week -- Bobby Flay, Aaron Rodgers, Vanessa Hudgens, Angelina Jolie

Page 8: Drew Barrymore revealed that, after three divorces and a string of failed romances, she's sworn off marriage altogether -- Drew doesn't need a man to feel complete and she's happiest hanging out with family and friends -- if the right guy comes along later down the line, great, but for now, she's content with being single

* Becoming one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood has gone straight to Ana de Armas' head -- the cast and crew are often left waiting for the actress to emerge from her trailer on the set of the new action thriller The Gray Man -- Ana's got a lot going on and she's juggling several different projects, as well as photo shoots and phone calls with her team and people don't stay mad at her for too long, but they have nicknamed her Ana de Diva, but she isn't upset by the scathing moniker because she's a big name now, and with that comes a lot of responsibility and the way she sees it, there are worse things than being called a diva

Page 10: The Week in Photos -- Orlando Bloom got a surprise visit from the Easter Bunny

Page 11: Jennifer Lopez in jeans at a photoshoot for InStyle, Priyanka Chopra dancing around her backyard in a bright yellow dress

Page 12: Animal Tales -- Gilles Marini posed for a pic with his African grey parrot Anya, singer Madison Beer leaned in for a kiss from a caramel-colored stallion, Kate Beckinsale's feline Clive seemed less than thrilled when Kate strapped him to her chest in a carrier

Page 13: Kaia Gerber and her precious pooch Milo snuggled up in bed, Malin Akerman and a goat

Page 16: Stars Behaving Badly -- Lisa Vanderpump let her parched dog drink from her water glass at a restaurant in West Hollywood, Maisie Williams went topless under a translucent jacket while shooting a new TV series about the Sex Pistols in London, HGTV Design Star host Allison Holker used a megaphone to give out instructions to Property Brother Jonathan Scott on the show's finale, Calvin Klein wasn't worried about stains when he shoved a pile of spaghetti into his mouth at West Hollywood's Mauro Cafe

Page 18: Say What?! Helena Bonham Carter who turns 55 in May, Chelsea Handler who admits she consumes mushrooms almost every day, Olivia Munn who is the proud pet parent of rescue dogs Frankie and Chance, Melissa McCarthy on doing her own stunts in Thunder Force, Brian Tyree Henry on Godzilla vs. Kong co-star Millie Bobby Brown

Page 20: Pete Davidson has officially moved out of his mother's home and into a $1.2 million luxury high-rise condo on Staten Island, and it's all thanks to his new girl girlfriend, Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor -- the Saturday Night Live star showed off his two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom bachelor pad during a Zoom call -- Phoebe is a down-to-earth girl, but she doesn't want to date a man who lives in his mom's basement and she thinks Pete's mom, Amy, is awesome and says it's a great thing that they're super close, but being in a long-distance relationship is difficult enough so Pete and Phoebe need some alone time when they're together, which was almost impossible with his mother hanging out upstairs -- Pete knew it was time; he just needed that gentle nudge

Page 21: Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell were spotted in NYC together, sparking speculation that the former Bachelor couple have rekindled their relationship -- the pair parted ways while the show was still airing after photos of the graphic designer at a plantation-themed college party in 2018 surfaced on social media -- Rachael made a mistake but she owned up to it and was willing to learn from it and it didn't change her feelings for Matt or vice versa and Matt was in love with Rachael too and he couldn't just turn those feelings off so no one would be surprised if they decided to reconcile

* Michael B. Jordan's girlfriend Lori Harvey was left reeling over photos of the actor sharing a smooch with Chante Adams on the set of their new movie A Journal for Jordan -- of course, they were just shooting a scene for the film, but Lori was still annoyed and she asked Michael about it, and he brushed it off and explained it was part of the job but Lori still has her suspicions and she's been thinking about dropping by the set just so she can keep a very close eye on them

Page 22: Cover Story -- Khloe Kardashian living a lie -- devastated by an unretouched photo leak, Khloe faces claims she's a body positivity hypocrite as she demands the viral image be taken down

Page 26: Alex Rodriguez to Ben Affleck: Back off my fiancee -- Ben gushes about ex Jennifer Lopez in a new article and A-Rod isn't happy about it (not quite Bennifer yet :)

Page 28: Prince Harry overwhelmed with work -- Harry struggles to adjust after trading his cushy royal role for a variety of normal gigs -- though his job for BetterUp is primarily remote, added stress comes in the form of Harry's Spotify and Netflix deals, plus growing charity work -- Harry finds all of his new, non-royal titles fresh and exciting, but while he's a great person, some in his inner circle say Harry's kind of dumb and worry whether he can handle the pressure

Page 30: Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli life after prison -- reunited following months spent behind bars, Lori and Mossimo try to pick up the pieces -- prison definitely took a toll on Mossimo and he doesn't expect sympathy, but he's still struggling to adjust to what he went through; it really broke him down and forced him to reevaluate his life

Page 32: Who Lives Here? Lil Nas X

Page 34: Entertainment

Page 35: Star Review -- Jonathan Van Ness

* As Seen On-Screen -- Meghan Markle wore a dark green coat while walking through Archie's Chick-Inn during her CBS interview which was J. Crew's Perfect Lightweight Jacket

Page 36: Go Green at Home -- reduce your carbon footprint even more with these eco-chic essentials, because our planet can use all the help it can get

Page 37: Beauty Crush -- get Jurnee Smollett's look from her makeup artist Emily Cheng for the SAG Awards

Page 38: Spring Beauty Must-Haves -- these product picks aim to reign as new-season favorites -- Camila Mendes

Page 40: Diva or Down-to-Earth? Rihanna bagged her own haul at Bristol Farms in Beverly Hills -- down-to-earth, Shay Mitchell worked from home with help from her most trusted assistant daughter Atlas -- down-to-earth, during a photo shoot in Malibu Brooke Burke got a makeup refresh from a personal primper -- diva

Page 42: Social Stars Posts of the Week -- Sofia Vergara sneaking Heidi Klum a chip on the set of America's Got Talent, Neil Patrick Harris finished the first season of The Irregulars while quarantining in Toronto, Jared Leto pretended to pluck the moon straight out of the sky during a masked outing in Italy, Beyonce treated her daughter Blue Ivy to a meal at Nobu in Malibu

Page 44: Horoscope -- Taurus Gigi Hadid turned 26 on April 23

* They're Not Together, But They Should Be -- Capricorn Charles Melton and Virgo Zendaya

Page 48: What I'm Into -- Kameron Westcott of The Real Housewives of Dallas

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captain-azoren · 5 years ago

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So, I wanted to talk a little bit about these three baddest bitches, how they compare and contrast and whatnot.

A few tings to keep in mind; Avatar the Last Airbender ended in 2008, Super Street Fighter 4 launched in 2010, and MK9 launched in 2011.

I propose that Azula’s breakdown at the end of Atla might have had a slight influence on Juri and Mileena, at least in regards to audience perceptions. Mileena has been around since the 90′s, but her personality wasn’t really cemented until MK9. I don’t think Azula had any direct influence on how Capcom designed Juri’s personality, but I do know that the comparisons are there.

Here’s my point though; Azula is not sadistic psychopath like Juri is. I feel like fans took Juri’s personality, slapped in onto Azula post breakdown, and are trying to act like that’s how Azula always acted, and that just isn’t true.

Azula had control and purpose to most of her actions, working towards a higher goal of furthering her father’s and her nation’s ambitions. Whats more, her “crazy” side was brought out by intense feelings of loneliness, betrayal, and the pressure to rule a nation when she’s still just a kid.

Now, I love Juri, but she doesn’t really have lofty ambitions. She really is in it for the thrill of the fight and causing pain. She does have a tragic backstory, but she’s older than Azula and fell far deeper into the abyss. Juri is kind of the worst case scenario for Azula’s story, but I don’t find it realistic or satisfying for Azula to be turned into Juri.

Not to say Juri doesn’t have some nuances to her character, but they get extremely little focus, and she herself seems to have found peace in her madness. Azula shows some signs of that in her latest comic appearance, but she still is working towards a goal.

Mileena is what you get when you combine Juri’s madness with some of Azula’s story. Like Azula, she is the “daughter” of a tyrannical overlord and blindly serves his will. However, in the current timeline she is also a mutant clone of Kitana, and often compares herself to her “sister.” This has some shades of the Azula/Zuko rivalry, but Mileena is the one with the inferiority complex. I think Mileena is aware oif how ugly her face is, and overcompensates by being a lot more sexual than Kitana.

Mileena in MK11 feels kind of like how some fans expect Azula to be like post-series, someone who would have been an even worse, more evil ruler than her father (even though this is told rather than shown).

While I don’t think Azula as she was in the finale would have been a good ruler due to her paranoia and her breakdown, I think it’s a stretch to say she would be a tyrannical overlord. I think she would be cold and efficient, but Azula has rarely displayed the really petty and stupid aspects of evilness that a lot of villains do. If in the right mind, Azula would likely be stern but fair. While she might brutally snuff out a rebellion, I think she would make sure her citizens were well taken care of and properly enforce justice.

I do think both Azula’s and Mileena’s stories are tragic though. Both were made to be weapons by their fathers and don’t know how to live like normal people. They both unfairly compare themselves to a sibling. I feel like both got done dirty by their respective stories, and deserve to find peace and a shot at some kind of redemption. I think they both deserve sympathy to some degree, but Azula isn’t the crazy woman-child that Mileena is.

Even still, It would be nice for Azula and Mileena to escape the “dangerous crazy lady” role they seem to have been forced into, whether through the circumstances of their birth, the writing, or audience perception. I wouldn’t extend the same amount of sympathy to Juri though, she’s obviously not that torn up about her circumstances, and I kind of like the way she is. Still, it might be worth exploring Juri’s character a little more.

P.S. Azula wasn’t sexualized to nearly the same degree as the other two. She’s an awkward 14yo who can’t even flirt right.

#Azula #Mileena #Juri Han #Juri #Street Fighter #mortal kombat #avatar #Avatar The Last Airbender #atla #analysis

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jcmorrigan · 4 years ago

Note

I saw the tag- I am gonna ask you about the crossover universe- (omg I’m literally gushing about this)

OH, IT IS TIME!

So you can find a lot of this on the “What is the WHAM ARMY?” page on my blog – I’ll try to remember to link it; I’m drafting this in a word processor first so I don’t use it. Essentially, this is the universe I’ve created for my fanfic “Taking Back the Crown,” which is about…basically my favorite villains all moving into the same house and trying to take over the multiverse. And then it got lore. And more lore. Because I cannot write anything normal. The fic is nearing its 150th chapter and I’m nowhere NEAR exhausted of all the ideas I want to put in it – it’s just my big playground for hyperfixation fun. Anyway, here’s a rundown of the major points of it!

THE CAST

The main characters are the eight villains who are the founders of the WHAM ARMY. The faction name is an acronym of their first initials. They’re my ultrafaves, the villains I always get fluttery heart for, and probably the biggest collection of losers you can imagine. I’ll put them in order of the acronym and give you some background on how each entered the team.

Wuya (Xiaolin Showdown) – So the connecting factor between these people is that Mozenrath (his name is a few slots down) is their team leader and the one who decided to build a team in the first place. Wuya was recruited when Mozenrath found her puzzle box in an ancient vault. This is set post-series for XS (and Chronicles is not at all canon), so what had happened is in the big Showdown right after Raimundo was named team leader officially in the finale, the Xiaolin Monks won ALL the Shen Gong Wu to their side and stuffed Wuya in the box. So Mozenrath found her and let her out so they could be pals. A magic potion let her regain human form fairly early on, and her power isn’t even nerfed either the way Chase Young would’ve done.

Huntsman (American Dragon: Jake Long) – ADJL is also post-series in this timeline. Mozenrath has the power to resurrect people from the dead at will because he’s memorized an ancient and incredibly complex ritual that he can execute mentally (note that this means you can remove this ability from him by tampering with his memories). The Huntsman was resurrected so as to show Mozenrath around the old Huntsclan vault (which is where they found Wuya’s puzzle box). No other Huntsclan member survived the purge except Rose (and 88 and 89, but they don’t count and aren’t in this story), so the Huntsman is starting from square one.

Ayam Aghoul (Aladdin: The Animated Series): Basically just got sick of losing. He’d teamed up with a few other rando Aladdin rogues to try and pick a fight with Maleficent, and she sent him packing. So he ended up finding one of the few residents of the Seven Deserts who was powerful enough to match him AND had a similar grudge against Maleficent.

Mozenrath (Aladdin: The Animated Series): The man of the hour and the creator of the entire team. He starts the fic by crashing Maleficent’s KH Disney Villain alliance and trying to add himself to it, but…ends up being such a disrespectful nuisance that Hades just drags him straight down to the Underworld. That moment inspired him to get his OWN band of friends and start making a name for himself.

Archibald Snatcher (The Boxtrolls): Met Mozenrath in the Underworld after his death in film canon. Annoyed Hades one too many times by claiming that he wasn’t actually supposed to die, seeing as he isn’t allergic to dairy (he is), so Hades threw him in the same cell as Mozenrath and…

Roman Torchwick (RWBY): I started writing this fic in 2016, immediately post-V3, so it’s canon-divergent after the last episode of V3 (but I got all the later-game characters to show up eventually). Which means Roman is ALSO dead at the start of this fic. He ALSO comes storming up to Hades insisting he’s not even supposed to be dead. At the same time as Snatcher is already pestering him. Which is how Mozenrath, Snatcher, and Roman end up in the same jail cell in Tartarus and get the idea that maybe they should break back into the world of the living and try to build something BETTER than what any of the three had beforehand.

Mad Madam Mim (The Sword in the Stone): Mozenrath, immediately after breaking out of the Underworld, attempted to take over Arthur’s kingdom by just walking in and throwing magic around. It backfired horribly when Merlin showed up. But then Mim showed up to counter Merlin and realized that maybe she had a potential friend here who was as blackhearted as she.

Yzma (The Emperor’s New Groove): Post-TENG, no KNG or TENS (but I reference things from TENS every now and again). Merlin turned Mozenrath into a rat, so Mim brought him to Yzma’s Secret Lab to change him back. There, they found Yzma as a cat, and she so desperately wanted out of her living situation that she added herself to the team. She was also restored to human form shortly thereafter.

There is a potential ninth member of the core in the form of Vexen (Kingdom Hearts). KH is canon-divergent after DDD and basically ignores almost every game that comes out after Fragmentary Passage. Vexen, as Even, was trying to integrate into life as a hero in Radiant Garden, except everyone annoyed him way too much, so he decided to go be with people that would give right back any insults he dished out. And then realized he was much happier being on the evil team and doing mad science with no ethics. However, he will not be promoted to the upper ranks because 1. it would spoil the acronym and 2. he is unanimously agreed-upon to be the biggest wet blanket of the group and nobody wants him at the founder parties.

(Imagine my disbelief when the actual canon arc for Vexen was THE REVERSE ONE IN WHICH HE JUST DECIDES TO GO LIVE AT RADIANT GARDEN AND NOT BE ANNOYED BY ANYTHING and that’s why JC doesn’t like Kingdom Hearts III)

Anyway, this crew is a bunch of silly friends who enjoy partying, singing, dancing, drag, indulging in vices, causing mayhem, taking over cities, arranging for mass murder, piecing together smear campaigns…but they’re all pretty much ride or die for each other. And that goes double for the ships of the set: Mozenrath/Huntsman, Mim/Aghoul, Wuya/Yzma, and my favorite ship to end all favorites, Roman/Snatcher (RedHatBlackHat is the ship name).

From there, you have a B-Squad of, like, seventy other people based on my faves. Nonnie, I know you saw this because of Vincent Edgeworth, Victor Blake, and Albert Krueger, and they are three of COUNTLESS examples. It’s a found crime family that keeps getting bigger as I get more fave villains and there’s hardly a rhyme or a reason. Currently, they live in a floating fortress designed when they stole Terra Cyclonia (Storm Hawks) and hefted it out into the aether between worlds with crystal technology.

They have a rival hero faction in the form of the Cinnamons: a gathering of people who they’ve wronged who turned out to make pretty good friends themselves. While the WHAM ARMY are the villain-protag team that you feel slightly bad loving the escapades of, the Cinnamons are the rainbows, fluff, sunshine, (secret crippling depression and anxiety), and pep-talkers of the multiverse. They’re the deuteragonist team as opposed to the “villains” of the story. They also have eight “leaders,” but they were picked up a little less quickly than the WHAM ARMY founders, instead coming together over the span of a much longer quest. These people are:

Sora (Kingdom Hearts): Heart of the team and the person who pulled them all together, because Sora loves everyone. He, Riku, and Kairi witnessed the WHAM ARMY wreaking destruction on both Radiant Garden and Disney Castle, and Sora decided no one gets to treat his homes-away-from-home like that and get away with it! Between Mozenrath and the still-looming threats of Maleficent and Xehanort, he’s now collecting pals from all worlds to fight against evil and do as much good as they can do! (While having sleepovers.)

Ruby Rose (RWBY): Before she, Nora, Ren, and Jaune could get into Mistral, Sora interrupted them on their path and directed them right back around to Vale with the news that Roman Torchwick was back in action. After an incident involving the Destiny Trio and Team RNJR having to team up and actually kill the massive Grimm unleashed in the V3 endgame, they all headed out to Radiant Garden together to continue their mission.

Papyrus (Undertale): Sora found him while exploring worlds and they clicked immediately as pals. Then the WHAM ARMY, who was living in Mt. Ebott at the time, sparked an anti-monster racist sentiment through the town, and Papyrus was advised to leave the world for his own safety, so he went traveling with Sora.

Stork (Storm Hawks): Maleficent, who is also an active player in this game, made a power play by destroying the Condor with the entire Storm Hawks team onboard while they were on the Far Side of Atmos (post-series). Stork, believing himself to be the only survivor, attempted to take his own life – only for Sora to show up just in time and offer him something better: hope that his friends survived, and new friends to tag along with until they could prove either way.

Jasmine (Aladdin): The Cinnamons came looking to Agrabah for more information on Mozenrath. When Jasmine heard he was causing chaos, she decided to get personally involved.

Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender): Post-ATLA, no LoK. Sora made a trip to the Fire Nation to see if he could head off the WHAM ARMY’s latest scheme, and ran into the Gaang along the way. After helping Katara, Aang, and Zuko protect the Fire Nation from a very near miss, Sora invited them to come travel with him. Only Katara accepted at first, the other two wanting to clean things up on their homeworld.

Kazuichi Soda (DanganRonpa): Post-SDR2, no DR3. Xehanort requested Izuru Kamukura be used as a vessel, and Kazuichi went in Izuru/Hajime’s place so his buddy didn’t have to. But the first chance he got, Kazuichi turned and ran from the Castle That Never Was…where Sora had just crash-landed. Kazuichi patched up Sora’s ship, and immediately became part of his crew. (Worth noting: in this AU, the Remnants of Despair were never brainwashed and were completely aware of what they were doing. Kazuichi is basically a redemption story, trying to be a better person to make up for the hell he caused. Also, while on the Despair side, he’d hacked off his leg to sew Junko’s in its place, disabling himself – that leg goes through an arc regarding what prosthesis is in its place.)

Rapunzel (Tangled): After the Vardaros arc of S2 of Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. Rapunzel was targeted by the WHAM ARMY because she was essentially a living MacGuffin for one of their spells. Sora showed up, and Rapunzel decided to go along with him for safety AND fun, leaving Cassandra to continue the pilgrimage to the Dark Kingdom. (Wrote this before KHIII was out. And before the Evil Cass twist.)

And just like the WHAM ARMY, these folks have a huge B-squad that lives in the Radiant Garden castle and helps them deal with the various tragedies they have to clean up after. Riku, Kairi, and Jaune Arc in particular get a decent amount of stage time.

As you can see, Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty/Kingdom Hearts) and her forces are another big set of chess pieces on the board! After she sent Mozenrath to gay baby jail and it didn’t stick, she’s been trying to continue plans for domination as usual but ALSO wipe the WHAM ARMY off the face of the multiverse. She, Jafar (Aladdin), Ursula (The Little Mermaid), and Hades (Hercules) all came straight here from KH. But I’m working to model that team’s inner circle on the team in “Quite a Glittering Assemblage,” the sister fic by gavillain (it’s basically this premise but Maleficent gets a team to start instead, but similarities end there, his is a whole different, fresh, and fun flavor). I’ve just gotten all these characters intro’d instory, but the other biggies are Loki (Marvel – I based him in the Cinematic Universe but he’s kind of just an amalgamation of Lokis), Dr. Doom (Marvel), Captain Hook (Once Upon a Time), Russell Edgington (True Blood), and Fish Mooney (Gotham). Currently, they operate out of the Forbidden Mountain in the Enchanted Dominion.

There’s also a very new addition as of the 140’s chapters: the Heathens. This is a squad of villains with moral lines in the sand (and some antiheroes or corrupted heroes). Basically, these aren’t your killers for fun. These are the people who steal candy from the gas station and think they’re slick, but the point is they’re enjoying themselves so just let it happen. The four founders of this one are Harley Quinn (DC – based on The Batman but an amalgamation of Harleys that leans sympathetic), Yang Xiao Long (RWBY), Giovanni Potage (Epithet Erased), and Velvet Crowe (Tales of Berseria). Currently, they operate out of the old mansion in Twilight Town.

The Xehanorts are here, and that team is largely who you think it is – though I stripped away Vexen, Demyx, Marluxia, Larxene, and Luxord in order to replace them ALL with Xaldin. More crossover shenanigans to come on this front. This team isn’t very active – they’re waiting for the Keyblade War – but they’re operating out of the World That Never Was.

There’s also another side villain faction: the Morbians, led by Mirage (Aladdin: The Animated Series). These are the demons of fear, the stuff that lurks in your nightmares, and…the villains I really like but who I don’t quite think fit in with the WHAM ARMY or any other more prominent group. But to give you an idea of what the flavor of this team is, she’s recruited not one but TWO Boogeymen – Pitch Black (Rise of the Guardians) and Oogie Boogie (The Nightmare Before Christmas).

There will be more villain factions to come, and I kind of want to splinter the Cinnamons to multiple bases as well. Obviously it’s easier to split villains up because they’re fun to write at war with each other – when I have hero teams come up against each other, usually they end up becoming best buddies instead of fighting, and that’s how I like it, but that’s why there’s just ONE BIG HERO TEAM as opposed to the many villain squads rattling around.

THE SETTING

So as you have probably gleaned, the multiverse setup is largely based on Kingdom Hearts, which is one of my favorite things (in the KH1 through Fragmentary Passage era anyway). There are many worlds that can be visited either by Gummi Ship or Corridor of Darkness. Basically any evil-aligned sorcerer can use Corridors in this ‘verse – they’ve opened their souls to Darkness and have magic, so they can do so.

The implication is that every world represents a separate “story” or part of one. As in if it’s a work of fiction HERE, it’s a world THERE. Some characters are actually savvy enough to know they’re fictional (e.g. Megavolt from Darkwing Duck, Xayide from The Neverending Story). Most of them aren’t built to handle the news, though, and just shrug it off if told. (No, really, the cosmic order prevents them from taking that news seriously if they’re not from something that regularly leans on the fourth wall anyway.)

But sometimes, things get AU’d in without their full worlds. I was inspired by how Final Fantasy is treated in canon KH, and once I started bringing in more FF stuff by the same method, I felt motivated to do that with MORE fandoms if I felt the characters could be divorced from their settings and histories easily. I’ve done it for most Disney Channel non-animated properties as well as Satellite City (ain’t that the worst combo you’ve ever looked at). I’m planning to do it for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn because I’m coming up on a location I want to delve into the civilization of but don’t have many canon characters for, so guess what, you get the FE cast now.

Major worlds or relevant locations in play are the Cyclonian warship, Radiant Garden, Twilight Town, and occasionally the Enchanted Dominion, but we move from plotline to plotline with journeys to many, many, MANY worlds of things I want to play with the settings and casts of. Also, the Cyclonian warship is about to get replaced with another WHAM ARMY base; we’ll get there.

THE STORY

For the first major “book” of TBTC, the WHAM ARMY has found a spell that they think will let them conquer the entire multiverse by giving them control over Kingdom Hearts itself. All they have do to is collect a bunch of MacGuffins that correspond to twelve elements: fire, water, earth, air, light, darkness, life, death, time, space, entropy, and aether. In order to do this, they visit the worlds of KH, RWBY, Avatar, Storm Hawks, Okami, Undertale, Wakfu, The Legend of Zelda, The Neverending Story, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and many many more. The Cinnamons catch wind of what they’re doing and start assembling. Meanwhile Maleficent is on the hunt for the Book of Prophecies and starts hiring villains on her team as well. After many madcap adventures and some devastating tragedies near endgame, the Cinnamons accidentally put the Book of Prophecies in Maleficent’s hands at the same time that Maleficent finally captures Mozenrath and gets him under heel. The WHAM ARMY and Cinnamons both launch attacks on Maleficent’s forces, and each walks away with what they came for. This is also the part where we slowburn up to the four major WHAM ARMY ships and many Cinnamon ships. In the end, the WHAM ARMY actually gets all the ingredients for their spell, but what they don’t know is it will actually cause the DESTRUCTION of the worlds. So an outside force intervenes (Discord from MLPFIM, who later joins the WHAM ARMY because he wants friends who actually appreciate him as a villain and won’t make him change) to stop them, and the next thing they know, they’re starting from square one.

We’re now in the second “book” of this story. The Cinnamons are gathering up all lost friends – the rest of Team RWBY, the Gaang, the Storm Hawks (who did in fact survive the explosion), the lost KH characters. The WHAM ARMY, on the other hand, is gathering up more villains to bolster their forces for a new evil plan: to conquer the worlds one by one, starting with Atlantis (Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire) and using portals to link to other territories of interest. While the WHAM ARMY is essentially working through a to-do list of what they need before they can launch such a massive invasion, the Cinnamons are finding strength in numbers because the writing’s on the wall that between Mozenrath, Maleficent, Mirage, and Xehanort, things are going to get worse before they get better, and as evil builds, good will need to rise to protect the innocent. As for Maleficent, she’s no longer able to chase the Book of Prophecies, and so, because she’s got Hades, Loki, and Salem (RWBY) there and they’re all like “Even though we’re pretty godlike, we are not that happy with how the gods we knew have run things,” Maleficent’s new goal is to slaughter the gods of all pantheons (minus those in her care) and replace them with her allies.

Anyway, as I had said in the post you saw, Anon – I basically take everything fictional I love and shove it into this AU for daydreams because it lets me imagine my faves having CROSSOVER INTERACTIONS and doing cool epic stuff on a multi-world scale. (But as much as I’ve talked up the epic aspect, a lot of it is just…like…people fucking around and hosting karaoke nights.) Anyway, I hope this gave you a good sense of the madness, and I hope it serves as a reminder to everyone that they can and should just. Make a daydream and/or fanfic universe that’s indulgent as hell. Just do it.

#wham army #tbtc #long post #i considered a read more #but i hate the tiny text on my blog #i need a new blog theme

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