junotter

[junotter]

People keep calling my modern Mai goth but she's not 😭 she's inspired by Mana and visual kei😭

#i get why people are though

[junotter]

interlibrary loan is a beautiful name for a baby girl

#i miss my library job...

[junotter]

Same anon as the Thai atla ask. I just remembered I wanted to say THANK YOU FOR BEING THE ONLY OTHER SAMURAI HATER I'VE EVER SEEN!!! YOU'RE SO REAL FOR THAT

Thai atla anon.. you get me so bad. If I never have to hear about samurai again I would live a happy life...she says living in the country of samurai. Glorified landlords...

[junotter]

Hi I absolutely love how much thought and research you put into your ATLA designs! Especially when it comes to Japanese imperialism and it's portrayal in ATLA world building. I saw you were discussing whether or not to keep the Thai influences and since I'm from Thailand and Burma I just wanted to let you know that I absolutely encourage you to keep them! As you've obviously already mentioned, Thailand was somewhat allied with Japan during ww2, but also from what I've read before Japan went into seclusion they were on pretty good terms with Thailand and there was even a small Japanese population in Thailand. This next part is just a suggestion you're totally fine to discard but I also think it would be really interesting to bring in more Burmese influences (they're already somewhat there but are pretty ambiguous on whether or not they're just Thai or not, but the angular shoulder pads have always read as more Burmese then Thai to me). I understand why you might be uncomfortable due to Japanese imperialism in Myanmar, but as someone from there I always drew connections between how historically Burmese kingdoms have (and the modern Burmese junta continues to) oppress all the many other ethnic groups in the region, wether that's through cultural assimilation, slavery, or outright genocide. I'm specifically Karen/Kayin and father's birth village has a church bell made out of a defected Japanese bomb dropped on them during WW2 since Karen people were majority British aligned then, but when I've watched ATLA it's always been the Burmese oppression that my mind thinks of after the obvious Japanese imperialism. Anyways, sorry for the long ask but I love your work and hope this made you more comfortable using Thai elements for you designs <33

Anon I could kiss you. Thank you so much for this I actually really appreciate it!! My area of expertise really only is in Japan and is why I want to be so careful in these depictions.

In the end I did decide I would keep Thai influences because I think there's balance between being culturally aware and not removing what influence is already there but having someone with the actual background weigh in is really really useful. I'm not sure if you're super interested in how I'm applying it but I'm basically making the Thai influence far more apparent in the non-nobility while the Japanese influence is heavy in royalty, largely as a way to represent how the elite tried to separate themselves from those below, which once again ties back to Japan. I think there's actually a lot of really interesting ways to blend Thai and Japanese design aesthetics, especially with how things are worn, fabric types, and peating techniques. The Burmese influence is also such a great idea and truthfully not something I know a whole lot about but it gives me further research to do!! Thanks!!

[junotter]

Part 1 of my modern avatar au, the fire nation

#avatar the last airbender #atla #atla azula #atla zuko #atla mai #atla ty lee #mailee #because they in messy yuri in this au #atla modern au #technically all of them work under ozai's company in some form #azula of course is very close to power zuko is at a lower position than her #mai is under her father's department which is in ozai's company #ty lee is in an idol group sponsored by ozai's company #mai visual kei girlie in her free time duh #zuko also depicted when he finally gets out of ozai's company and works at Iroh's cafe #ive got like a decent amount of lore built up so far around this AU so dont worry sokka katara aang toph and suki have places in this world #also its set on our earth so real life locations not the nations

[junotter]

The modern atla au I'm cooking is just Azula and Zuko as Shiv and Roman

#it's just such a perfect fit imo #the image of zuko accidentally sending a dick pic to ozai its making die #i have no idea how much of an overlap these two fandoms have

[junotter]

Palestinians were still suffering and dying by the thousands long before October 2023 so it makes absolutely no sense for you to bend over backwards to defend bigoted behavior towards us under the excuse that it “happened years ago” - Palestinians didn’t start suffering once you personally became aware of it. What xyz did and said in 2021, 2018, 2014, 2009, 2008, etc. still is bigoted and genocidal. Supporting Palestinian suffering is not excusable after a certain date, assholes.

[junotter]

Okay actual last thing but I also struggle with the idea that kyoshi island is ainu because fundamentally what do we see of ainu there? Clothes? Hair styles? It'd be cool if there was a greater influence going on there but when it's just looks the notion kyoshi island = ainu falls apart. With the heavy japan influences, it's impossible to not be reminded of the current issues facing ainu and the way the Japanese government has been using the rising interest in ainu culture as more "Cool Japan" fuel and the theme parkification of ainu tradition while failing to commit to any demands especially body returns. Japan is already trying to paint Ainu as "Japanese" because increased interest. Idk this isn't to say there's anything morally wrong with viewing kyoshi island as ainu but just adding to why I've been stuck on designing suki and putting her off. I'm really just problematizing this because half of what I think is within this subject field. Simply put, I'm very conflicted on what and how I wanna do it.

Pretty pretty please tell me you have a suki design as teen and aged up , you can’t spell gaang without suki 🥺

i might sometime. i just hate samurai on a fundamental level so i've put off designing her.

#if this sounds pretentious and self rightous you shouldve heard me debate with myself on going to the ainu museum in hokkaido #fyi this isnt even targeted at the question asker or anyone because ive been talking about this to myself for like 3 weeks now

[junotter]

Been thinking more of this...I also have to deal with my feelings about an island with some ainu inspirations with a group of protectors based on samurai... I like suki I just, gotta think about things and do research into the ideas floating around in my head. I'm not sure if completely redesigning the kiyoshi warriors is the right path as I still need things that signify they are kiyoshi warriors but I also hate samurai so I'm not sure.

Pretty pretty please tell me you have a suki design as teen and aged up , you can’t spell gaang without suki 🥺

i might sometime. i just hate samurai on a fundamental level so i've put off designing her.

#im considering adding more ryukuan influence into them but theres a real void in pre colonial stuff #this is the point where i know way more about ainu than ryukyuan and my school library barely has anything not in regards to military

[junotter]

I love that I'm literally going to have a field trip to one of the red light districts nearby for a class this is real academics

[junotter]

i really hate the videos going around that are like "INTERVIEWING JAPANESE PEOPLE TO SEE IF THEY CHEAT" and then countless videos like "In Japan they don't think getting a prostitute is cheating😳😱" and then every video on Japan is filled with comments about how all Japanese people cheat.

its like holy shit y'all would buy into "we must fix this culture because its barbaric" so quickly its insane.

[junotter]

Pretty pretty please tell me you have a suki design as teen and aged up , you can’t spell gaang without suki 🥺

i might sometime. i just hate samurai on a fundamental level so i've put off designing her.

[junotter]

Little gay boy Zuko can mean so much to a person

#best avatar headcanon

[junotter]

My redesigns for aged up gaang

#avatar the last airbender #the legend of korra #atla #tlok #atla fanart #my art #avatar aang #atla aang #atla katara #toph beifong #atla zuko #atla sokka #zukka #implied because why else would they be posed like that #I HATE HATE HATE the aged up gaang designs why the fuck do the boys all have the same face?????? why are they all so skinny #they dont look like themselves or like the adults in the show its so ugh #i spent so long on the lining theres like 4 sketch layers before i finalized anything #if anyones interested in my heights none are in the 6ft idc #sokka: 5'8ish zuko: 5'6 toph: 5'0 katara: 5'3 aang: 5'10ish #they might not accurately translate to their heights in this piece but thats how they are in my mind #i dont think any of them are crazy tall idc idc idc idcidc

[junotter]

just some designs mainly created because I wanted to draw hakama and then it spiral out from there

bald zuko under the cute

#avatar the last airbender #atla redesigns #atla #atla fanart #atla zuko #atla azula #atla sokka #atla katara #atla aang #avatar aang #toph beifong #my art #I also have some wip designs for summer clothes for most of them and before anyone says anything for the fire nation theyre thai inspired #doing research for this spiraled into reading 3 fairly big books in the span of 2 weeks just cause #i ALSO have adult designs cooking #this was really inspired by all the girls on campus in their hakama a few weeks ago...wahhh so pretty

[junotter]

projecting my want to be in an outdoor onsen rn on them

#zukka #atla zuko #atla sokka #atla #avatar the last airbender #atla fanart #my art #my entire world shifted after being in an outdoor onsen in 20°F and in the snow #hhh i want it back

[junotter]

sometimes researching for avatar redesigns has you 6 layers deep into the Japan's Meiji era allies wiki

#im trying to mess with some of the stuff that feels weird about the ways the fire nation is depicted idk #like i do not feel optically it is good for like them to be so heavily based on japan's imperialist actions #while dressed in clothes that come from places japan colonized #but i dont want it to just be solely japanese though i did draw zuko and azula in hakama but its largely cause i wanted to draw hakama #and like the only place with strong japanese influence being kiyoshi island and my own frustration with the modern day samurai depiction #i think fundamentally it isnt a choice that had as much thought as i am putting in put into it but it does raise an eyebrow for me #anyway i think keeping the thai influence is fine despite the brief invasion japan had into thailand due to thailand then allying with japa #and further allying with the axis due to allying with japan #ugh and ive been told not to think this much about it because its fiction but its also fiction so so so heavily based on real places #and when you base fiction on real cultures you fall into some unintentional pitfalls #i also fucking hate the royal fire nation robes they look so meh and the most costumey out of everything in the show #they look like heavy blankets despite being a supposedly hot nation #theres ways to have heavy robes (heian era japan) but they look like i make them out of fleece and velvet blankets #back to kiyoshi island i think the really only aesthetically japanese reference in the show being an island of noble warriors is lame #plus over done #it feels like nowadays theres a lot of people who get all whiney about people saying fire nation is based off japan #but like dude the creators in the comics and korra like go even more into the japanese influence and clearly it was the original intentions #also i do think you could do some pretty interesting world building by having say there be an older cultural influence on kiyoshi island #from the fire nation especially if the place is established as a central port area then you tie in some okinawan or even hawaiian reference #and gives an explanation that makes sense to why kiyoshi stands out from the rest of the earth kingdom you have long term cultural trading #and it establishes interesting relationships even pre kiyoshi time thereby drawing back onto some real historic references #cause for awhile ryukyu china and japan used to be this trading triangle which could explain some of these various influences going on #i think you can get a really interesting harmony when you create the fire nation out of a mix of japan and thailand #i mean both have these floating buildings due to living on some pretty wet lands and theres harmony in that mix #god i did see one person go like “fire nation is more based on china because theres a lot of red and red is important in china” #my brother in christ red is also important in japan #red is important in like many many asian cultures #i mean of course a lot of that importance stems from china and cultural exchange with china but idk kinda silly to say with your whole ches #like if you want to bring china in then the dragons are the biggest thing like sure some mythos has dragons in japan #but a lot of those comes from china in some way