#unless someone wildly misinterprets a favourite character of mine in which case i will BITE

[hella1975]

Hi hella now that it’s been a while I have to be honest.

I didn’t understand the last line in what I think is the most recent chapter, the one about picking from his fingernails. :(

I really really want to understand I LOVE your writing you’re just so talented ugh. Please explain it to me I want to understand so badly but I’m afraid I’m not as profound as everyone else.

hi anonstie!!!! thank u for the compliments <3 but please dont beat yourself up and say you're 'not as profound as everyone else', that's so unfair and also not true! one thing i love about my writing style is that it's very pretentious. it's the kind of style a hater would read and go 'what the fuck is she even saying'. and the fun of it is, even when im writing very specific metaphors, i tend to be so hand-wavey with my writing that you can interpret it any way you like! in fact, i actually think that's why so many people appeal to my writing, because i cover topics that a lot of people can relate to but i do it in a way that encompasses niche sub-experiences without actually getting into them, if that makes sense? idk i think it's v neat for something i dont actually do on purpose most of the time.

so the line you're on about is 'he would be picking his home from his fingernails all his life'. MY interpretation of that comes from a very personal habit, which just further solidifies what i said before about no single interpretation being the 'correct' interpretation, because otherwise id be expecting every single reader to just Know about a habit of mine, and that would be a bit weird lol. so this thing i do a lot for no particular reason is like... flick my nails? it's hard to explain but for example ill put my thumbnail under the nail of my middle finger on the same hand and just? flick it up? and it's basically the same mannerism as what a lot of people do when getting dirt out from under their nails but for me i just do it bc i find it satisfying. like my mum gets SO annoyed about it lmao. and so i was doing this one day and i got on a weird train of thought about how even though im constantly doing this, i still always manage to have dirt under my nails, and that's just very human i think. like it's a very subtle but universal truth of being alive that your body, in all its tiny ways, will show proof of that life. having dirt under your nails isn't fatal or dangerous or even incredibly bothersome, it's just a bit annoying and is a permanent upkeep we will ALWAYS have to do.

so yeah, for me, this line is zuko acknowledging that, even though he's healing, even in a future where he's entirely healed, he'll still hold tiny signs of his upbringing. he'll never entirely be washed clean of it. but in a very quiet, inexplicable way, that's also a little comforting, because it just shows he's human enough to be troubled by it.

however i also had people in the comments telling me what that line meant to THEM, and they are just as right in their interpretations as i am. im truly someone who believes in readers each having their own take on lines. there's no 'wrong' interpretation. go with whatever YOU think it means.