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beauty-and-passion · 2 years

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Man Streaks! was great! I seriously cannot get enough of your writing and ideas.

Honestly I think you did pretty good on Logan's chararerization. It caught me off guard how well it was, in a good way! I think you caught that lack of understanding to emotions well. You're appraoch of his mindset with things being step by step was interesting and your characterization of him isn't one I've seen done this way.

Janus & Logan interacting in your fics are always welcome. The way they interact seems so mature. Like, just two people sitting down and having a conversation without any drama. It's kind of nice if I'm honest. Not to mention how Logan was willing to listen to what Janus wanted and add that into his plans for Thomas' life was wonderful. Heck, he even made a compromise with Remus! I dunno I just really like those details.

So, you've mentioned in your fics, both this one and the ones that have come before how Logan & Janus can see into the future. But what is interesting is that how they see into the future is different, this fic showing how Logan's future sight sort of works.

Logan's view is very much methodical, step by step, like him. As you emphasized in this fic. He sees more of the cause and effect of things assuming they follow along the same pattern. The "step by step", "actions have consequences", etc. And it's interesting how Logan accounts for the tribes and tribulations, works to get past them, but is then the one unable to see where things were heading. I like it.

Janus on the other hand sees things more out of order. He saw that vision of Roman making him a tree 5 years before it happened. With Patton he saw two possible paths that he could go down; two things he could become. So he also sees differences in how things can go; not just one solitary path, but multiple- maybe all?- the possibilities of something. Which is a neat distinction.

Janus saw a brief glimpse of what I believe is the aftermath of Logan tearing apart his room in A Canticle In Steps with the mention of a raging storm and a lighthouse. Also a few words of dialogue in that same scene, future Janus using the title 'Logic' instead of 'Curiosity'. All of that in the same scene, pertaining to the Side he was talking to at that moment. Which to me implies that Janus' visions aren't random. He gets certain ones and are connected to something relevant, whether Janus sees it then or not. Or maybe not and I'm drawing connections where they aren't lol.

Regardless, your writing is a joy to read. And I enjoyed this dip into Logan's persceptive and seeing he and Thomas interact. The scene where Logan wrecks his room after Thomas telling him he quits? Intense. Your descriptions sold the emotions and what was going on in Logan's head.

*chef's kiss*

Awww, thank you so much! Your comment was so welcomed, I couldn't stop reading and smiling. My week just became 10 times better and I am more than happy to reply to your beautiful words with a long answer <3

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About Logan's POV

I knew from the start that it wouldn't be easy. We are talking about Logic, so his pov should lack the vivid imagery of Creativity and emotions shouldn't even be mentioned. That means creating a pov mostly devoid of huge metaphors and imageries, but a lot more focused on reality: the attention should be on the details, on every gesture and movement, on symmetry and repetitions. And focusing on a detail more than another, would hint at the kind of emotion Logan is feeling - emotions that should never be associated with him, but only with other people/things.

It hasn’t been easy, because I am more used to vivid imageries and to mention emotions. Nevertheless, this has been a fun challenge and I am very happy that I managed to show Logan’s character and give a good insight on it!

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About compromising

Considering the kind of character Logan is, I firmly believe that, if he was the one in charge, he would definitely try to find a compromise with every Side.

However, I also think that this compromise would be less like "I accept your ideas and will introduce them (and you) to Thomas", but more like "let me do my job and I will give you something in return".

The thing is: Logan wants to be in charge, he likes to be the leader. But he also knows there are powerful, instinctive forces inside Thomas that can get in his way. So, since he is a clever guy, he chose the easiest solution: to keep these forses quiet and, possibly, bring them to his side, rather than against him. After all, Logan has big plans for Thomas and he cannot fulfill them, if he's not free to do what he wants.

This kind of approach is a bit better compared to Roman's (which is more like "just ignore they exist and everything will be fine"), but it's far from the perfect solution of cooperation. Still, I imagine it worked well for years and it kept working for some time under Roman’s “rule”... until the forces inside Thomas decided it was time to finally introduce themselves.

(And yes, if Logan was still the one in charge, I think the dark boys would've found a way to introduce themselves anyway: meeting their person is just a primordial need for every Side, no matter what.)

Speaking of the compromise between Logan and Remus, I even have a vague idea about how things went! I imagine Logan visits Remus' room to talk directly to him. And he expects something weird as usual because, you know, Remus is Remus.

What he finds instead is the most harmless place ever: a nice field under a clear sky, a forest a few meters away and fluffy little bunnies hopping around. Even Remus is completely different: all dressed in pastel colors, flowers around him, a white umbrella to protect him from the sun, cute pastries and two cups of tea in front of him, as if he was having the most innocent tea party ever.

And while Logan walks towards him, he knows that everything, from the field to Remus’ own appearance, is just a façade of feigned innocence Remus set up just to mess with him. It makes him very uneasy, but Logan still tries to not show any weakness and makes Remus the same offer he made to the other Sides: if he lets him do his job, Logan would give him something in return.

It’s very risky to do this kind of deal with Dark Creativity, Logan knows that... but Remus, with a sickeningly sweet smile, simply agrees and all he asks in return is some knowledge of dangerous chemical materials.

Logan walks away: he should be relieved things went well, but everything about the whole situation makes him feel very uncomfortable. He turns back and sees Remus smiling at him, at the center of this perfectly innocent picture of fields and bunnies and overly-harmless things.

And this makes even clearer that everything is just a huge show: Remus set the stage and played a role of faked innocence. But he didn’t do it just to mess with him: he knew Logan would’ve seen past the façade and saw his true, darker essence. And he did it on purpose, to send him a clear message: I might cooperate, but never underestimate me.

(Yes, I think this is something Remus does a lot, I really want to talk more about him in the future and I will because I love the rat man.)

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Two kind of foreseeing

I love to make Janus and Logan interact, because there is so much going on in their minds and so little desire to talk about it, especially from Janus XD

But I am not him, so I will offer you a little more insight on how these works and I will start by saying that you are right about almost everything and wow, I love ya <3

As you said, Logan’s future sight is more of a “consequence” of a clever mind. If Logan knows the causes, he can assume the effects. If he knows the actions and the rules of everything, it's easy to imagine which reaction is most likely to happen.

The only problem with this kind of ability, is when emotions cloud Logan’s judgement. I know, it's paradoxical that the logic guy is the one blinded by emotions, but Logan has never been truly able to understand them, therefore he's not able to recognize them either. So, since he cannot see them, he cannot imagine that what he is foreseeing has been altered either. Like here in Streaks: he has been too blinded by his plan, to not realize it was already falling apart.

You got a lot of details about Janus’ foreseeing ability as well. This kind of ability is different from Logan’s, because its nature is different: Janus got it from the mind itself, so this foresight goes far beyond the simple "cause-effect" reaction. It's something more visceral, more "already written in the genes" rather than “empirically understandable”.

For example: in A Canticle in Steps, the mind already knew Thomas would have a lot more Sides in the future, because this is something that naturally happens in every human's mind. It's part of what makes us human, it was destined to happen. And the division between planes was destined to happen as well, because, again, it's something all human minds have: in a way, it's written in our genome that should go like that.

But not all things Janus can see are so straightforward. Most of the time, he sees a kaleidoscope of different possibilities and it's up to him to try to make the good one to happen. Still, he can't do it every time: sometimes, what he sees is so vague he needs to let things unravel, before realizing what he exactly saw.

A different thing is the first vision about his fellow Sides: since A Canticle in Steps, I showed that, every time Janus meets a new Side, he has a vision about them. The vision works as an introduction of the Side, of their functions, of their importance and, in general, it’s a way to warn Janus/to make him better understand who he's dealing with.

When he met Patton, Janus saw the two possibilities of what he could become, thus realizing the guy was an extremely powerful Side within the mind. When he met Logan, the mind presented him as a very important Side especially for Thomas, a Side who can thrive or wither. When he met the two Creativities, Janus saw the perfect future that could've been if Thomas used them together. And when he met Anxiety... well, I haven't talked about this yet. But part of what he saw is hinted in In Te Domine: the possibility of a Side so dangerous, to lock him in the depths of the mind.

Speaking of his visions, you got them right again: they are not random, but always connected to something, relevant or not. If Janus asks the mind for a vision (like he did in Conversations in the mind), he won't get one. The visions should always be triggered by something specific for the mind itself. There could be no evident connection at all and Janus could still have a vision, just because the mind thought it was the right time.

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My my, someone is connecting the dots~

Not only you read more than one of my fanfictions, but you also found the connections between them and this doesn't make me just "happy": I am beyond happy, I am honoured you spent your time reading, analyzing and (hopefully) enjoying my works <3

Yes, they are separate works. I purposely try to keep them like this, so every reader can enjoy them as they are, without being forced to read everything.

But they are still part of the same universe. A Canticle in Steps, Conversations in the mind and Streaks are the most connected so far, while the other fanfictions are like "satellites": they are still connected, but the connection isn't as strong and clear as the one between the main three.

In this plan, Fitting Pieces and all future fanfictions involving a ship can be considered parallel universes: there are still some recurring elements from the main universe, but the main one will not have any ships, just friendships and familial relationships. And Remus' sexual urges, because I firmly believe in Remus being the Side who embodies Thomas' sexual aspect: therefore him having sexual thoughts about everyone else is normal and part of the main universe.

Said that, the connections you found are very VERY interesting and definitely not something I want to talk about ;)

First of all, the moment you mentioned from A Canticle in Steps, chapter 4: I am more than happy to confirm that yes, this was the aftermath of Logan tearing apart his room in Streaks.

However, I want to clarify that the aftermath doesn't happen in the span of hours. A Call of Salt and Sea made it a bit clearer: Logan tearing apart his room lasted for quite some time.

This event was a pretty big thing for the mind: first of all, because there has been a huge switch in the leading role, from Logic to Creativity. And if Logan ran the mind in a certain way, Roman would do it very differently. A lot of changes were about to happen, both in the mind and in Thomas' life.

In addition to that, the logical Side didn't handle the switch too well: he locked himself in his room and unleashed a huge storm that kept going for weeks and no one knew how long it would've lasted.

Of course this huge event would have affected the other Sides: the Others probably met several times, in order to find a new way of working under the new "regime" - and maybe this is when Janus started thinking about introducing all Sides to Thomas.

Roman, on the other hand, got immediately to work and put all of his energies into this new role. There was a new plan: making Thomas famous.

Patton was probably the one in the worst position: he adores Roman and he's immensely happy he got the recognition he deserves. But he loves Logan too and he cannot bear to see him alone in his room, surrounded by a storm of anger and resentment. He is on Roman's side, but he wants Logan's happiness as well. He's torn between his feelings as father and as friend. He has just so much to offer emotionally-speaking, I can't wait for the day I will finally write a fanfiction by using his POV. It will be a pain, but worth it.

The second connection you found is the change from Curiosity to Logic. I still haven't got the chance to properly talk about what happened in that moment, when past Janus heard the title 'Logic' from his future self and used it to name the Side in front of him. In a way, that moment was the first piece of the domino effect that would happen over the years and that would lead to Logan leaving his curiosity behind to fully embrace his role as Logic.

I really, really want to talk about this in the future - and by "I" I mean "Logan and Janus will definitely have a brief chat", because they have very different emotions regarding that moment.

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tobiasdrake · 2 months

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*deep breath* Okay. Here we go.

I don't think the Netflix Avatar show likes women very much. It's a great show for fans of Aang, Sokka, Zuko, and Iroh specifically. All four of those characters get a ton of great material. In fact, it's super great for Sokka stans, because the show takes him ultra-seriously and can't go five minutes without one character or another (usually a woman) praising him.

But the way it handles its female cast is troublesome.

Katara

So, all three of the main trio got some changes made to their stories. They changed Aang's story so that he wasn't running away from his responsibilities; He was just clearing his head and somehow accidentallied himself into a tsunami. Whoopsy-dooodle. Aang did nothing wrong.

They changed Sokka's story so that him being a leader of his people and a great guardian warrior is treated with complete seriousness. Multiple times, characters stop to talk about how brave and noble Sokka is for taking on such an intense responsibility, and tell him to his face what a great warrior and a wonderful leader he is. Also his misogyny is erased.

And they changed Katara's story so that she directly got her mom killed because she sucks at waterbending.

Katara tries to waterbend to attack the Fire Nation soldier but couldn't manage it, provoking the soldier to start actively searching for her and forcing her mom to fake a waterbending attack and draw his fire. They changed Katara's story so that her bad decision making fucking got her mom killed.

This is treated with the same level of severity as "Sokka was bullied by mean kids and also his dad doesn't think he's good enough to be a leader."

"I hoped Sokka would do better but not everyone is meant to have people's lives in their hands," Sokka's dad says of him.

Yeah, you're right, that's totally comparable to watching your mom get barbecued because you tried to waterbend in a situation you shouldn't have and then failed.

In fact, they give Sokka's greatest trauma more weight because it gets examined again with Yue next episode, while Katara actively getting her mom killed isn't brought up again at all. We get traumatized glimpses of it throughout the season leading up to the reveal, but after this scene in episode 5, it never comes up again.

But to be fair, Katara was a child. An event this significant would surely have motivated her, driving her to become the great waterbender she is now, right?

No! Katara sucks at waterbending and needs men who aren't even waterbenders to teach her how to waterbend. She requires instruction from Aang in episode 1 to learn how to waterbend, then from Jet in episode 3 to learn how to waterbend better.

And unlike the show, her relationship with Aang isn't a give-and-take; Katara doesn't teach Aang a single goddamn thing. He never learns to waterbend. She is a strictly a pupil throughout the whole season. Though she at least gets officially labeled a master in episode 8, so there's that.

In any case, the whole traumatic memory thing isn't even the only time she's directly compared with Sokka. Episodes 3 and 4 see Katara and Sokka bicker over whose morally dubious side character is better. Sokka likes the Mechanist and Katara likes Jet.

Ultimately, Katara is forced to eat crow when Jet turns out to be the worst, while Sokka is vindicated when the Mechanist sees the error of his ways and reforms. But not before two separate arguments where Sokka calls Katara childish and accuses her of acting like a little girl.

Arguments ultimately resolved when Katara apologizes to Sokka for not adequately respecting his very serious and ultra important role as village protector and leader. Gives him a whole speech about how great and glorious he is. And Sokka... appreciates Katara learning to respect him properly, I guess, because he never offers any similar sentiments back to her.

The show just... They need you to know how important Sokka is, okay? It's very important that you respect Sokka.

Suki

Suki suffers tremendously from that whole "Sokka's misogyny was removed" thing. Y'know, because they need something else to do with that episode. The show is deeply aware that Suki is Sokka's love interest, so they just do that right off the bat. Suki falls madly in love with him from the moment they meet, and spends the entire episode making goo-goo eyes and trying to get him to Notice Me Senpai.

They still do the "Suki Trains Sokka" stuff. But Sokka is a serious, dignified manly man worthy of the deepest respect now, so of course they don't make him wear the Kyoshi uniform. Instead, the main purpose of his training is to allow them to flirt some more. It's less martial arts training and more an excuse to grope each other and near-kiss.

Suki's just a waifu now. She still fights real good, but all of the stuff that made her relationship with Sokka interesting has been erased.

Yue

Yue, similarly, leaps straight to shipping from the word go. They write out her fiance, Hahn, by having Yue briefly meet Sokka earlier in the season. She spends one minute talking to him in the Spirit World about Spirit World lore; In that time, she falls so desperately, madly, unfathomably in love with him that she breaks off her marriage to Hahn and devotes herself to waiting for him to one day come to her.

"Never have I known such joys as that time you let me explain the spirit bear Hei Bei to you. Truly, we are destined to be together for life."

Like with Suki, they go out of their way to have Yue and Sokka already be a ship from the word 'go' so they don't have to spend time developing any kind of meaningful attraction.

They just. They really want you to know that Sokka is the manliest and most desirable man ever to walk this earth. It is very important that you understand how great he is. Women hurl themselves into his arms with zero effort whatsoever, because he's just so goddamn irresistible.

Fortunately, Hahn is super okay with this turn of events. He's the most chill guy ever, he gets along perfectly well with Sokka, and he completely supports Yue's right to dump him! In the famously misogynistic Northern Water Tribe, no less! What a swell guy. Aren't men swell?

June

June gets hit with that "rewritten as hollow waifu" stick too, but her eyes are set on Iroh. They rewrote June to be super attracted and flirty towards the man who was her unwanted sexual harasser in the source material. So that's fun.

Also, she barely does anything. Zuko hires her to find Aang, she succeeds, and then she fucks right off out of the show - But she manages to find time to express how unbelievably sexy Iroh is twice during that time.

She seriously just dropped into the show to flirt with Iroh and leave. She is unbelievably inconsequential.

Kyoshi

And then there's Kyoshi. They really want you to hate Kyoshi. She's constantly shot from below, as if looking down on Aang and the audience. Her voice takes on a demonic echoing reverb at one point as she's screaming at Aang that "THE AVATAR MUST BE A MERCILESS WARRIOR!!!"

She despises Aang, calling him a coward for running away from his responsibilities - Which, I remind you, is no longer a plot point because they unwrote that flaw from his character. So she's just a complete and utter asshole, shot from the asshole angle, yelling violently at him with asshole sound effects. They want you to despise this woman.

Azula

Awkwardly, they do not seem to want you to despise Azula.

There's a lot to be said for how Ozai treats Azula in the original show. The way the favoritism he shows her is every bit as cruel and manipulative as the unfavoritism that he shows Zuko. Ozai does not love Azula. He loves the reflection of himself he sees in her eyes, and his encouragement urges her to polish herself to ensure his reflection always shines through.

This is not that. The show instead erases the favoritism entirely. Ozai doesn't really care one way or another about either of his kids. He plays them against each other, bragging openly to Azula about how great Zuko is and unpleasably writing Azula off as weak and useless.

They've rewritten the dynamic between abusive father and his two abused kids in order to take Azula's pride away. Reimagining her from a gifted prodigy who excels at imitating the toxic behaviors of a father who doesn't truly care for her, to a put-upon overachiever tearing herself in knots to live up to the standards of her unpleasable father.

This results in a truly wild portrayal of Azula as insecure and jealous of Ozai's seemingly love for Zuko. Here, she is simply a browbeaten child constantly complaining to her friends about how mean her father is and conspiring to get one up over Daddy's Golden Child Zuko.

Which she fails at, because she backs Zhao. Zuko deftly defeats her without even realizing they're in competition.

Conclusion

The season ends well for some of these women. It ends promising that maybe we'll see Katara teaching Aang some day. It ends with Zhao bragging that Ozai just used Zuko to train Azula so maybe we'll see the more confident and misguidedly proud Azula some day. Yue becomes the moon like she's supposed to. June's still out there so maybe she'll get to do something again some day.

Katara gets to fight Pakku and lose, but she looks pretty cool. She gets to fight Zuko and lose, but she looks pretty cool. Azula learns to lightningbend because she's just so mad about Ozai's contempt for her and favoritism for Zuko, which isn't how you lightningbend.

But promises of future content fall flat when the content that exists is so underwhelming. This season made its feelings on these characters pretty evident, and it's unwise to expect better material from creators who've disappointed you with the material they already made.

The women of Netflix Avatar simply do not get to shine, outside of superficial moments like the "Women of Northern Water Tribe demand the right to fight and then fuck off and don't do anything for the entire rest of the episode" bit.

"In the midst of battle, we demand that you stop being sexist and give us permission to fight! This is a way better idea than convincing you to teach us to fight before the battle begins."

The characters of this show feel as if they've been reimagined to glorify the boys at the expense of the girls. The boys are treated with a great amount of care. They're dignified and made important movers of the plot, with their rough edges sanded off. While the girls are molded around them.

#avatar the last airbender #drake watches netflix last airbender #kyoshi #katara #azula #suki #yue #june

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