Ozai is so pathetic, like that “take his bending away haha he’s harmless now” trick would never have worked on Zuko, if you took his bending away he’d just grab his swords and come at you twice as hard, Azula doesn’t have swords or anything but she’s pretty good at hand to hand and amazing at talking her way out of problems, Iroh bust himself out of prison with no bending at all, meanwhile Ozai? Gets his bending taken away and then just collapses, doesn’t even try anymore, then just sits in prison and tries to get into Zuko’s head some more, he could have trained up and tried to break out too! But no! Bet he can’t break steel bars with his bare hands. Bet he can’t kick a steel lever in two. Bet he can’t even do a flip.
Also we never really see him do any really impressive firebending apart from when he has magic comet power, I guesss he shoots some lightning at Zuko, but that’s it and Azula is still better at the lightning thing. Azula has blue flames. Zuko can do firebreakdancing and bend with his swords. Does Ozai, who is not 14 years old, have blue flames? No he doesn’t.
He didn’t even do his coup himself, Ursa had to kill Azulon for him! Could have just challenged Iroh to an Agni Kai for the throne but he didn’t bc he knew he’d lose.
And then he only ruled for like 6 years! He lost a war that had been going on for 100 years bc of a bunch of kids.
I can’t stand jokes about how young people are more politically radical than past generations cause they erase the history of activism, it just feels so disrespectful even if it’s a joke.....like bro you would be nowhere without the black panther party and other past liberation movements I hope you know this....
I loved your panel at ECCC! My favorite audience question came from a PK who asked who “your” Bev Keane was. I had considered asking you the same question because every exvangelical I’ve watched it with has asked the same question: “woah, who is this guy’s Bev Keane?” You don’t have to tell us, but how does it sit with you that a character that you felt might be too over-the-top apparently exists in every single congregation to such an extent that most people can name “their” Bev Keane?
I think Bev Keanes are everywhere, unfortunately. They've been normalized. The real Bevs are men and women in the Senate, they're in Congress - they're judges, they're lawyers, they're politicians, they're CEO's, they're running megachurches and banning books and demonizing science and propagating batshit conspiracies and stinking up PTA meetings and making scenes in coffee shops, fast food joints and parking lots. They've infiltrated all walks of American life, used the internet and social media to multiply like the viruses and they've only been emboldened, amplified, and reinforced.
I don't really have "my" Bev Keane. She was a fictional character who I considered a bit of an amalgamation (and a lot of an exaggeration) when I started working on this story over a decade ago. Today, my Bev seems downright moderate compared to some of the absolute lunatics I see frothing their bile on the evening news... and that sits very uneasily with me.