Hey! I'm Snow! My blog shifts between personal and multi-fandom! I hope you enjoy following me or just scrolling through my blog or just my posts you randomly see in tags!
It seems that the staff is actually going to go forward with their decision to remove reblog chains, where reblogs will basically work like regular comments on other websites.
This doesn’t just make the site completely unusable, it removes the soul of the community that has managed to build up here over the years, and that I’m so happy to have recently joined.
It makes impossible the creation of great posts where many people build up a single thing, until it is a gem of expressed human creativity.
There will be no more world heritage posts, no more messing around with your mutuals, no posts worth remembering.
There will be no more Tumblr, and the Tikblr or TumbTube or whatever monstrosity is born from its corpse will soon die, as is probably the best. And then there will never be another place like this on the internet, no place anymore to run to, no more fun, no more community.
I recommend a simple course of action. When these changes get imposed upon us, stop using Tumblr. Get your mutuals’ discords, your favourite artists’ websites, and leave. If the Tumblr we have once known returns, we well too. If not, better let it die quickly than suffer a long and painful decline.
I beg you to reblog this, for the more people see it, the higher chanses are for this to work.
And add something, so we can show them what Tumblr is really for.
when the math teacher shoots you for experimenting on his little brother and blames you for his death
when your school doctor turns you into a biological weapon because he was obsessed with your dead father
when your only friend and tutor kills you and steals your identity to track down and murder a school doctor
When you have a deadly disease so you kill yourself but your brother blames himself for your death and shoots the doctor that was trying to kill everyone with your disease
when your death threw your assistant into depression, causing him to kill a boy, a spy hiding as a student, almost kill your son and nearly caused a genocide but you’re living it up in bird heaven
When all you want is some dang PUDDING and to meet GOD
Re-watched AtLA recently for the first time in years with my partner since he hadn’t seen it in full.
One thing that really gets to me is how the show treats Katara in comparison to… every other character. Like… Katara gets JUSTIFIABLY angry? No. Bad. Don’t do that. But if someone else gets mad? It’s validated. Katara tries to do something she believes is right? No, you’re JEOPORDIZING THE MISSION… until someone else backs her up. But if Aang, Toph, and Sokka wanna fuck around? Completely fine and she’s villainized for not condoning it. If Katara expresses her own trauma and lashes out, she’s a villain, but if Zuko or Aang do the same they’re understood. Like… did the writers just… hate Katara?
Another thing that I couldn’t really express as a child, but I am able to do so as an adult: my dislike of the Kataang relationship. Aang does not respect Katara’s boundaries, especially in season 3. This is most apparent when he kisses her in Ember Island Players after she says she doesn’t know what she wants. We can make the argument that he’s 12 years old, but… he’s old enough to tell right from wrong. Aang also consistently treats Katara poorly. Early on in season 1, he intentionally tries to make her jealous because he feels she isn’t paying enough attention to him. In season 2, he tells her he’d rather kiss her than die which, yeah, he’s a kid with a crush so awkward wording is bound to happen, but… that’s just insulting and kinda disrespectful and very hurtful since she literally put herself out there and he just… said that. In season 3, he villainizes her for wanting revenge against the man who KILLED HER MOTHER. And to MAKE IT WORSE, he compares her to fucking JET who attacked anyone who was a part of the Fire Nation regardless of if they were a soldier or not which Katara did NOT agree with. Like that’s just straight up insulting since Katara herself never attacked indiscriminately, she always had a reason for going after someone. And when Aang does similar shit like when he attacked the sandbenders because he thought all of them were involved with Appa’s kidnapping, she’s supposed to be endlessly compassionate and understanding? Wtf? There’s more reasons I don’t like that it’s canon, but I am tired.
There’s a slew of things I have issue with now as an adult (like GranGran and Pakku apparently getting married at some point during seasons 2 & 3 since I highly doubt her feelings towards things changed, unless she’s just like, “oh, you taught my granddaughter to waterbend? I love you now since I guess that’s proof you’re not a complete asshole”), but I am tired.
The fact that Katara is the only one Zuko allowed to touch his scar… Even Mai has never been seen doing that ! The music and framing as Katara touches the scar screams raw intimacy and romance ! Also, the drawing of Katara’s hand makes her touch Zuko’s lips, not just the scar… And that Katara was literally ready to use her magic water on lifelong enemy Zuko, without knowing if it would work. and therefore that she would waste it for nothing. But she felt that Zuko and his scar were important enough, at least worth taking such a big risk. Knowing that in addition there is all the Omashu subtext behind this scene… How am I supposed, after this scene, to think that Kataang is obvious ? Worse, that Zutara is a relationship of pure compassion or even brotherhood ?! Imagine Sokka instead of Zuko, you will surely find this scene very weird and unhealthy…
Obviously Kataa-ng is endgame. Didn’t you see the look Aa-ng gave Zuko immediately following his moment with Katara? That clearly tells us he has a claim on her over other men.. ya know, like romance.
I just watched Avatar for the first time all the way through, and yeah, it’s great, but the one thing that surprised me was how different Katara was compared to the fandom interpretation I’d seen and internalized before watching.
Like, before you watch Avatar, you’ve seen all these memes about Katara and her mom, and based on those memes, you assume it’s one of those lines you have to get used to hearing at least once every episode. But then you watch the show and realize that she only talks about her mom maybe five or six times per season and you also realize she only brings her up when she’s trying to comfort someone or empathize with them because that’s how she processes her grief and that’s one way she connects with people.
Or you hear the infamous line, “then you didn’t love [our mother] the way I did” and you prepare yourself for one of the worst character assassinations ever only to see the scene after nearly three seasons worth of context and realize she was kinda right. She’s been the mother, the nurturer, the comforter. She’s been patient, gentle, and accommodating where everyone else has gotten to be insensible and reckless and childish, and the one moment where she allows herself to feel her grief, suddenly she’s this evil bitch and not, y’know, a 14 year old girl whose been thrusted into adulthood in a way no other character has. A 14 year old girl who should be allowed immaturity and raw emotion and anger instead of the patience and grace she’s been forced to extend to every character without even the smallest amount of gratitude or even consideration in return.
Or you see all of the clips where Katara puts Aang in the “friendzone” and you expect to have this wishy washy back and forth where Aang is putting his feelings out there only to have Katara neither commit nor express any clear reciprocation or rejection. Then you watch and realize that, as cute as the ship is initially, that there’s never a point where Aang returns any comfort or grace to Katara despite her always doing this for him to the point of coddling. That for as much as Aang says he loves her, he never seems to outgrow his perception of her so he can recognize her as someone who feels grief, anger, and pain as much as she expresses love, kindness, and maturity. And instead of having moments where he learns to see her beyond her strength or compassion, you’re instead given moments where Aang forces his feelings onto her, both romantic and non-romantic, and Katara is expected to just…shoulder those feelings the way she shoulders everyone else’s.
Katara is the most misunderstood character in the show. As much as people recognize the complexities of Zuko, Sokka, and Azula, they struggle to do the same for Katara because they see her struggles as somehow lesser, and therefore, less deserving of sympathy. They can handle her so long as she’s being endlessly patient and loving and kind, but the moment her endless love, patience, and kindness runs out, she’s suddenly this annoying bitch who can’t shut up about her mother or reciprocate Aang’s feelings. But Katara’s trauma does matter as much as anyone else’s. No, she wasn’t banished from her kingdom. No, she didn’t lose her entire community, and no, she isn’t the only one who lost her mother. But the difference between her and everyone else whose experienced loss because of the Fire Nation is that she’s never given time to process her trauma. Aang gets to lean on Katara constantly. Toph gets to express her feelings to Katara, and yeah, Sokka also lost their mother, but unlike Katara, he isn’t put in the position of being a substitute for everyone’s parent. He even admits that he sees his sister as a mother. The only characters who ever comfort Katara or allow her to vent is Zuko and her father and that’s, like, three scenes in a show where the other characters are consistently given opportunities to seek out Katara for unconditional support.
The fandom interpretation of Katara has been so bastardized that even those who haven’t watched the show know her for this fanon version and not for who she is. She’s such an interesting character beyond her fandom limitations, though. She’s brave, hot-headed, and hopeful as well as gentle and caring. She wishes to learn waterbending, not only because she wants to fight in the war, but because she wants to continue her culture’s practices because, and people often forget this, she also lost an entire subculture within her already fractured tribe. And she wants to defeat the Fire Nation both because of her deep love and empathy for other people, but also because she wants to avenge her mother. But because some of the fans have reduced Katara to a bitch who constantly whines about her mother and friendzones Aang, you wouldn’t know any of this, and it sucks because she’s the only character whose been dumbed down to such an extent.
When Zuko apologized to uncle Iroh in the tent cause he was so
ashamed of his actions and what he’d done to the only person who
unconditionally believed in his ability to do good >>>>>
So okay, I’ve given this rant before but this is another good time for it.
Structurally speaking, ATLA did something important with Zuko that, in a purely mechanistic sense of narrative development, I think a lot of people don’t notice immediately, and that even fewer people who want to emulate what was done with him get.
Which is Zuko is made a protagonist VERY early, and the show goes out of its way to continually place Zuko into situations where the audience empathizes and roots for him.
This happens in literally the second episode of the series, if we count the two-part premiere as a single episode, which I think we should. The A-plot of that episode, “The Southern Air Temple,” is Aang reckoning with the genocide of his people… but the B-plot?
The B-plot is the introduction of Zhao, and more specifically, his introduction in a way that is calculate to shift the audience, whose introduction to Zuko did NOT engender a ton of sympathy to him, directly and forcefully onto his side. They want Zuko to kick Zhao’s ass.
This continues all through book one and book two. Remember, Zuko is never, ever the main villain of this series. That’s initially Zhao, followed by Azula and Ozai. (Plus various temporary players like Long Feng.) Whenever Zuko isn’t placed into direct conflict with the other protagonists, he’s always written and presented in a way that is careful, VERY VERY careful, not to make him too monstrous, and to make us root for him. He’s placed right next to Iroh, who is designed for people to like, and that reflects back onto Zuko; we want Zuko to be better than he is because we want Iroh to have good things.
Put aside for the moment whether any specific character, including Zuko, deserves their redemption. If you’ve decided you’re going to do that, you have to erect the proper narrative scaffolding around them, and it extends to far more things than “did this person not do things that were too horrible” and “is this person genuinely sorry and is working really hard to atone.” There’s a difference between protagonist and white hat, but if you want someone to eventually wear that white hat, you REALLY need to establish them as a plausible protagonist early on.
Yeah, it was made obvious from the get go that Zuko is definitely nowhere near Zhao’s level of nasty, which in turn means he’s nowhere near Azula’s and nowhere in the scope of Ozai’s.
1.)
He made a deal with Aang to leave the Southern Water Tribe alone if Aang went with him. When Aang escaped with help from two of those tribe members, Zuko didn’t demand they go back and destroy what was left of the tribe as revenge. He didn’t even think of it as an option. There was no split second where he went, should I/shouldn’t I?
2.)
This is repeated. He corners the Avatar somewhere, causes some damage to the area in the ensuing fight, but does not stick around to raze the village/monastery to the ground and kill the people when he doesn’t get what he wants. Doesn’t consider this a necessary action even once.
3.)
The Iroh&Zuko relationship is juxtaposed with the Zhao&Zuko relationship. Both older men have more power over him. Iroh is a retired War General and Prince who is not banished. Zhao is a Commander in favor of the Firelord, who is also not banished. We could tell early on that Iroh is wise and despite being on the bad side, seems to be pretty chill. We took a liking to him immediately. Zhao is the opposite. He is very much like early!Zuko. Impulsive, rude, loud, cocky, etc… But why is he more annoying? Why do we root for Zuko as opposed to him?
Because we see what Zuko is like with his Uncle Iroh. Iroh does not rub in the fact that he’s banished. He doesn’t use that when reprimanding him for his attitude or his failings. That is a hot iron and he knows it. It’s to the point where Iroh can bend fire in Zuko’s face and Zuko is perfectly relaxed over it and doesn’t once believe his uncle will hurt him. There is a lot of faith in Iroh, from this angsty teenager, and it’s very obvious with their interactions.
Zhao is not trustworthy from the start. We’re shown this by how both Zuko and Iroh are hesitant to interact with him and don’t want to linger in areas he has control over, for too long. They even lie to him despite him obviously having more favor in the Firelord’s eyes than either of them do. Zhao’s personality opposes both Zuko and Iroh. And as we like Iroh, we want him to win and have nice things, as stated above. But Zuko&Iroh is a package deal. And as Zhao reveals himself more and more to be nasty even if it’s subtle, we want Zuko to win even harder.
And even when Zuko wins and he’s in the prime position to do to Zhao what Ozai did to Zuko for also ‘speaking out of turn’… he doesn’t do it. He walks away. He is the bigger man in that scenario. And Iroh further puts shame onto Zhao when he goes against the sacred rules of the Agni Kai because he can’t handle a loss to a banished teen. We are shown that Zuko follows rules and has honor, which is reinforced by Iroh’s, ‘even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you’. Iroh’s Word is basically Law at this point. Sf he says it is so, then he must be right and the audience accepts that. He knows Zuko better than us and hopefully we’ll get to understand more as the story progresses.
Already by the 3rd episode, we’re shown that Zuko is in no way the worst person from the Fire Nation. In fact, we’re given a sort of scale now from the four major Fire Nation people we know of. Iroh–Zuko——-Zhao–Firelord.
We’re also hoping that Iroh rubs off on Zuko enough for him to also become wise and learn to chill out.
4.)
When “The Storm” finally rolls around, we’re pretty invested by then in the Iroh&Zuko relationship and that episode gives us so much more info into Zuko’s character and we are shown that Iroh is right. He has honor and he cares for others. And yet it’s obvious the Firelord doesn’t because we see Zuko do the right thing(protesting the plan to treat new recruits as cannon fodder) in the wrong place, and then his face gets burned off by his father because of it. And further, he’s banished for refusing to fight his own father. What sane parent wants to do battle with their own child? What sane parent banishes their child for speaking out of turn at the defense of their own peoples’ lives? What the fuck is wrong with the Firelord?
Zuko was punished severely for showing compassion and having a kind heart. And Iroh(and the ship crew even) is properly mortified by the punishments his nephew received for it, which in turn affects the audience’s perception of this situation. Iroh doesn’t like it, it’s especially bad then.
Now we start wondering why does Zuko wants to go back to the guy who burned his face off?! Iroh, talk some sense into him! PLEASE!
Halfway through S1, they got us to the point of wanting Zuko to have a redemption arc.
Making the audience want a character to be redeemed is also very important in this. We were shown he has redeemable qualities. We want that pay off! Do it justice!
It’s midnight, I made a Phineas and Ferb quiz, and now I’m going to bed. Goodnight I love y'all
A tragedy in two parts
Everyone taking this quiz, getting Buford, and going “No I don’t want that answer,” and then retaking the quiz to get the answer you DO want - I hate to break it to you, but that is a very Buford thing to do.
