#also fuck i just realized that this is sokka's book 2 Look but i gave toph her metal bracelet

[comradekatara]

they are best friends each other’s ultimate ride or die forever and i love that for them

#id in alt text #atla #avatar the last airbender #sokka #toph #sokka&toph #art #mart #they are BEST !!! FRIENDS !!! #whenever i see ppl say that sokkas best friend is anyone other than toph or that tophs best friend is anyone other than sokka i am just like #ok NOPE incorrect !! #like ok yes they certainly have other friends whom they love very much #but their bond is. the ultimate #it makes me so sad how no one wants to acknowledge their friendship outside of weird shipping shit #bc their dynamic is just. so good. so important #also ignore how lazy i got w the feet #i overcompensated w the lighting so lets just appreciate that instead thaaaaaaaaanks :) #also fuck i just realized that this is sokka's book 2 Look but i gave toph her metal bracelet #oh well. that meteorite bracelet is important & symbolic so who cares !!!! #dont overthink it there is only one thesis here and it is that I Love Them !

[cavehags]

i realize this will probably bring up old drama so you might not want to answer it. but do you ever regret, however on purpose or on accident, bringing all that unnecesary hate towards Katara? i'm really sad and dissapointed tbh. i'm a woman of color and katara was so important to me growing up. my favorite animated woman ever. and then this resurgence comes and theres so, so much unnecesary hatred for her and everyone ignoring everything that makes her a good character.

(2/3) 2- and you know, i expected this from the male side of the fandom. they were misogynistic to her and the others even back then so i would expect it to be even worse with how internet culture is more mysogistic now that ever. and i wasnt wrong. male atla fans had some truly horrible takes and views that just came across as racism and misogyny. but, i expected these circles to be better. to be a safe space for us woc who love this character. but i found the same weird hatred for her.

(3/3) 3-i just, i cant believe i feel less welcome now that i did even back then. and back then i didnt even paricipate really. but at least i could enjoy fandom content without stumbling into misogyny and racism every other post. also sorry for sending this to your personal blog b i just wanted to let you know you controbuted to that too even if it wasnt your intention. at least you realized that and arent contributing to it anymore right? cause honestly the hate has only gotten worse not less.

hey anon. thanks for asking this question, because i hadn’t addressed this topic previously and this gave me an opportunity to do so. 

no, i don’t regret publicly interpreting a character whom i love through a nuanced and human lens. and i don’t regret combating the one-dimensional interpretation of this character, which posits that she’s merely an vaguely defined object of attraction for some boy or another, and a singularly gentle, mature, maternal figure whose sole purpose in life is to nurture others. those interpretations suck. they rob her of the humanity and complexity that make her character unique and they stem from misogynistic tropes that reduce women to the services they can provide to men. the thing in the world that matters most to me is fighting misogyny, and this trend to diminish a proud and powerful and angry teenage girl by exaggerating only her most socially acceptable traits is misogyny. 

unlike you, i did not grow up watching avatar: the last airbender. the shows i watched growing up did not have a lot of girls who felt real to me. the girls i saw on tv growing up were simple. they were the main characters’ crushes. they were simple, desirable, usually sweet and loving, and not much else. if they had a flaw, it was that they were, at best, “awkward.” whatever that means. or if they were the protagonists, which was rare, they were nice enough and tried to do the right thing, but they never had strong feelings like resentment and anger. they weren’t allowed to be unfeminine which meant they weren’t allowed to be bitter, angry or in any way flawed. they didn’t look like the version of girlhood i knew to be true for me personally, which included a lot of anger and frustration and powerlessness. 

that crappy representation left me with internalized misogyny that chased me for longer than i’d like to admit. i did not learn to think of girls as humans who could be as interesting and flawed and messy as the boys were. i did not value myself as a girl, and later a woman, because i thought the best thing a girl could be was... bland. boring. pretty, but empty. passionless.

it would have meant the world to me to see a character like katara. 

because katara is angry. she has every right to be: she’s had so much stolen from her, including her mother, her people, and her childhood. katara has a short fuse. she yells. she snaps. she fucks up. sometimes she makes mean jokes! i never saw a single one of those dreamily perfect cartoon love interests make mean jokes when i was a kid. she is extremely idealistic--it’s her defining character trait--but we see the bad side of that as well as the good. we see that her need to help others  leads her to act rashly, to get herself into danger, to put others in danger too. 

and she has her very own arc. it’s not about her love for another person, either (what a snooze of a storyline); it’s about growing up and learning to break down some of that stubborn black-and-white thinking that we all indulge in as children. it’s a true coming-of-age arc and it belongs to a fourteen-year-old girl. 

when i, to use a phrase i find crass, “entered the fandom,” i quickly realized that other fans’ perceptions of katara did not line up with the things i valued most about her. other fans seemed to valorize her most socially acceptable feminine qualities: her generosity, her kindness, her dedication to helping others. and of course i love those parts of her--i love everything about her--but what is really remarkable about avatar: the last airbender is that katara’s many important virtues are also counterbalanced by equally significant flaws. a good character has flaws. katara is a good character, and a deviation from the characters who made up my formative media landscape, because she has flaws. her temper, her idealism, her stubbornness--these are flaws. flaws make her seem real and human and challenge the mainstream sentiment that girls are not real or human.

it simply did not occur to me that celebrating these aspects of katara that make her a realistic and well-written teenage girl would spark ire from other adult fans. it absolutely did not occur to me that i would then be blamed for somehow causing misogynistic interpretations of this character, particularly given that misogynistic interpretations of this character are the very thing i sought to correct when i began to blog about this television show.

i’m told there are “fans” on instagram and tiktok who think katara is whiny, annoying, and overly preoccupied with her trauma. i do not use instagram or tiktok, so i wouldn’t know, but i’ll take your word for it. respectfully, however, they didn’t get that from me. misogynistic takes on katara have existed since before i came along. i have never, ever called katara whiny. and seeing as i have been treating my own PTSD in therapy for nine years, you can safely conclude that i don’t think anyone, katara included, is overly preoccupied with their trauma. that’s not a thing. do i think she’s annoying? of course not! as a character, she’s a delight. does she sometimes find real joy in aggravating her brother and her friends? yes, because she’s 14. i, an adult, am not annoyed by her. sokka and toph often are, because that is katara’s goal and katara always succeeds in her goals. she’s not “annoying.” 

if there are “fans” who are indeed following lesbians4sokka and somehow misreading every single post and interpreting them to mean that we hate katara and they should too, i don’t really know what you want me to do about that. l4s has over ten thousand followers and we have already posted so many essays disavowing katara hate. our feminist and antiracist objectives in running the blog are literally pinned with the headline “please read.”

furthermore, you cannot reasonably expect my co-blogger and me to control the way our words will be received. we should not have to, and are not going to, add a disclaimer to every post saying that when we critique or make jokes about a teenage girl we are doing so through a feminist lens. our url is lesbians4sokka, and we are clearly women. if that alone doesn’t make it obvious, then refer back to that pinned post. 

it is indescribably frustrating, and really goddamn depressing as well, that people are so comfortable with the misogynistic binary of Perfect Good Women and Flawed Wicked Bitches that they perceive any discussion of a woman’s flaws to be necessarily relegating her to the latter camp. if that is how you (a generic you) perceive women, then i’m sorry, but you’ve internalized sexism that i cannot cure you of. and it’s unjust to expect my friend and me to write for the lowest common denominator of readers who have not yet had their own feminist awakenings. we do not write picture books for babies. we write for ourselves, and with the expectation that our readers can think critically. reading media through a feminist lens is my primary interest; i have no intention of excising that angle from my writing.

as i go through my life, i am going to embrace the flaws of girls and women because not enough people do. as long as the dominant narratives surrounding women are “good and perfect” and “unlovable wh*re,” you’ll find me highlighting flawed, realistic, righteously angry women in the margins. and for what it’s worth, it’s not just katara. i champion depictions of angry girls in all sorts of media. that’s sort of my whole thing. my favorite movies are part of the angry girl cinematic universe: thoroughbreds, jennifer’s body, hard candy, jojo rabbit, et cetera. on tv, in addition to katara, you’ll find me celebrating tuca and bertie, poppy from mythic quest, tulip and lake from infinity train, korra, and more. i adore all these women and see myself in them. i hope you find this suitably persuasive to establish that i have sufficient Feminist Cred, according to your standards, to observe and write about these very flawed and human fictional women. 

what i’m saying is this: i decline to take responsibility for the misogynistic discourse orbiting a children’s cartoon. as someone who writes about that series from a perspective that seeks to add humanity and nuance to the reductive, one-dimensional, overwhelmingly sexist writing that already exists, i am pretty taken aback that i am the one being blamed for the very problem i sought to address. except not that taken aback because i am a woman online, haha! and this is always how it goes for us. 

finally, i think it sucks that you’ve chosen to blame me for a problem that begins and ends with the patriarchy. i can’t control the way this response will be perceived, just like how i can’t control the way anything will be perceived because i am just one human woman, but i do hope you choose to be reflective, and consider why you’ve chosen this avenue to assign blame. 

#anyway! this answer is too long and it's undignified to answer ''fandom drama'' queries on le blog #but here we are in 2020

[allmight-amiright]

Simp List Tag

I was tagged by the incredible @add-a-teaspoon-of-heroism​ :)

RULES: List 10 different characters from 10 different fandoms that you like.  Pass it on by tagging 10 other people!

Ready or not, here’s my Simp List in no particular order:

1. Kirishima Eijirou (MHA)

That Ghost series really messed up my MHA simp list.  He’s just such a precious bean and I would do anything to protect him.  Even though he would absolutely end up protecting me because. you know.  ROCK.  ugh just look at his cute lil smile and i think we need more headband!Kirishima.  TL;DR 10/10 would simp again.

2. Makoto Tachibana (Free!)

Awwwww I just adore him so so so much.  Look at his lil puppy eyes!  And that hair flop? *SOBS*  But, I have genuinely loved watching Makoto grow as a character and just a young man in general over the past three seasons. He will absolutely always have a special place in my heart because he never fails to make me smile except for that one time when he went for a swim in the ocean in the middle of a storm and nearly drowned but i don’t wanna think about that

3. Viktor Nikiforov (Yuri On Ice!!!)

I have one word and one word only: GOD.  No, but seriously, I adore him so much.  He’s genuinely so passionate about everything and his love for skating and Yuri just leaves me crying all season.  I love love love his accent and everything about him as a character.  He and this show are just absolutely stunning.  I find myself rewatching it pretty often.  In conclusion, Viktor could cut me with his skates and I would say thank you.  Yuri would too, let’s be real.

4.Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter)

Draco Malfoy deserved better. I ADORE him so so much.  Is it mainly because I find Tom Felton insanely attractive?  Oh yeah.  But, also.  Draco is such a complex character and I could go on for days and days about why I don’t think he deserves a lot of the hate that he gets.  He was 16! 16! And told to murder his headmaster! That’s fucked!

5. Sokka (Avatar the Last Airbender)

I think I love him for the soul purpose that he’s the comedic relief character??  And because he’s used for comedic relief it’s really easy to forget that Sokka is actually really intelligent and just as capable as any of the other characters in the show.  His character development is *chef’s kiss* and his protectiveness over everyone in the Gaang is really sweet and worthy of a simp.

6. Link (Legend of Zelda franchise)

I think it’s just because BOTW is my absolute favorite game and because this franchise in general just means a lot to me.  But, I love Link.  We’ve been on so many adventures together and I’ve thrown him off of many cliffs out of sheer frustration sorry bb 

7. Asra Alnazar (The Arcana)

I remember seeing him in an ad for the game and was like “Yeah. I’m sold.”  I loved his route so so much.  The writers ( @thearcanagame​ here on tumblr) did an amazing job at portraying his emotions and had me wanting to do everything in my power to get the upright ending just so I wouldn’t have to hurt this fluffy magician.

8. Joker (Black Butler: Book of Circus)

Book of Circus is absolutely my favorite spin off of Black Butler.  I loved the story line.  If I’m in a Black Butler kick, I always rewatch Book of Circus instead of the actual series??  Is it because I love Joker?  Likely.  He was just a super interesting character and I really enjoyed watching his development in such a short span of time.

9. Kazuma Hashimoto (Cheer Danshi)

Awww looking at this gif reminds me just how much I miss this anime.  It’s really sweet and wholesome.  If you’re looking for a new sports anime, I 10/10 recommend Cheer Danshi.  This show honestly throws any gender roles out the window by centering around an all male cheer leading team and Kazu is always so positive and you can tell that he really loves cheer leading and bringing the positive energy to the squad.  Yeah. I simped hard for Kazuma.

10. Bokuto Kotarou (Haikyuu!!) Best for last oya oya 

I had to find a gif that included all three of these guys because I am a complete WEENIE for all of them.  My Wattpad readers know just how conflicted I’ve been trying to figure out which of them tops my simp list.  I love them all for very different reasons, but since I called out Bokuto, let’s talk about my sweet sweet owl baby.  He’s a weenie and a simp and no one can tell me otherwise.  He would love you with every fiber in his being and god damnit i love him with every fiber in my being too.  I’m big sad that we’ve been robbed of beefy bokuto with shoulders so wide you could land a plane on them but the animators gave him some mad cake so I guess we’ve compromised.

This was actually super hard?? I never realized just how few fandoms I was actually in.  But searching for gifs of all of my sweet beans was really fun, so it was worth the literal hours of deliberating to compile my simp list.

I’m tagging: @draco-malfoy-simp @foreveralwaysfabulous @thecardsimagine @bakuhoe-is-my-bakubro @band-obsessed-loser-blog @come-on-shitty-boys @madison-2018 @tanakasrightfoot​ @viktor-icedaddy-nikiforov27​ @togas-knife​

If I didn’t tag you and you want to participate, feel free to join and tag me! I’d love to see who you’re simping over.  Don’t want to make a full post? Drop your simp list in the comments!

#not mha #author chats #im a simp #haikyuu #black butler #mha #legend of zelda #cheer danshi #arcana #atla #harry potter #yuri on ice #free

[kdinthecity]

Confessions of a Teenage Sugar Queen: Going Out

This piece can be found on Ao3 and ff.net or by following the links below.

Chpt. 1 | Chpt. 2 | Chpt. 3 | Chpt. 4 | Chpt. 5 | Chpt. 6 | Chpt. 7 | Chpt. 8 | Chpt. 9

This discovery inspires me to get up off my ass and find out more information about Noriko—no, Ursa. I’m still hesitant to read Crashing Blue Spirit for fear of what it might reveal that I’m not ready to accept, but according to the author’s bio in the back, Professor Noriko has written several publications. So I will be making that trip to the university library after all.

Someone else had the same idea.

Zuko is tucked away in a nook of the library’s research section with a stack of books, the same ones I’m looking for, no doubt. He doesn’t acknowledge me, so now what? I should apologize. No, I should leave him alone. He should uncover the truth on his own. He doesn’t need me. It’s not like I’m a real investigator anyway, who was I kidding?

I only make it to the end of the aisle in my attempt at retreat.

“Katara?”

I don’t turn around when I speak. “I wasn’t following you. I was just—“

“I’m sorry,” he says softly—because that’s his usual demeanor, not because we’re in a library.

He has nothing to be sorry for, but he’s probably used to taking the blame. I know I should set things straight, but the shelves are narrowing, and the room is too confining.

I don’t understand what I’m feeling because this building is huge, but I need to get out. Now.

But then, the sun is too bright, and the wind has a bite. I want to run as far and long as I can, but I am so tired. I am trapped—spinning in circles, falling, crashing…

Right into Zuko.

When he catches me, I bury my forehead in the cleft of his shoulder and pound my fists on his chest. I am furious at myself for crying again because I vowed to stop this nonsense and actually do something constructive. Why is Zuko the one comforting me? His father abused him, his mother abandoned him, and I’m altogether useless to him.

He doesn’t say anything. He just holds me and rubs gentle circles on my back like he did the first time he gave me a ride home. Because he knew even then what I needed before I would allow myself to receive it. I pull away, overcome by a sudden wave of alarming clarity.

“Zuko, what do you need?” I may not have his gift of intuition, but I also never thought to ask.

He flashes the smallest of smiles. “I need you.”

That’s not the answer I expected. “But I’m too… needy.”

“It feels good to be needed,” he says with a shrug. “It’s like… what I do matters to you. It sounds stupid, but I’m not used to that. Having someone who cares.”

“I do care, Zuko. I care a lot.” About you is implied here, but maybe I should say it out loud. Because during my personal pity party earlier, I promised to be more upfront with him, too.

“I’m sorry I took off,” he continues. “I just... I thought that my mom would have…” He clinches his jaw and sighs dejectedly. “I thought I mattered to her. I thought she cared. I guess I was wrong.”

“We don’t know for sure. Maybe she stayed away to keep you safe.”

He points at his scar. “Yeah right. Safe.”

Tears well up again, and I realize this is why I’ve been crying so much lately. I’ve been craving safe. It’s something you’re supposed to feel around family, but I haven’t since Mom died. When I’m with Zuko, he grants me that sense of security I’ve been missing, but when I look at his face, I hardly feel it’s fair. The same man who hurt him so badly is hunting us now. Zuko has never felt safe. He probably never will.

Zuko interrupts my reverie by stroking my dampened cheeks and lightly kissing my forehead. “Can we go somewhere to talk? Like a tea shop.”

Funny. I didn’t know Zuko liked tea.

He’s not satisfied by the Yelp ratings for the tea shop near the NPU campus, so we hop on the bus to find “the best tea in town.”

“Only five stars will do,” he says with a smirk.

“You do know that tea is just hot leaf juice,” I tease.

His expression turns solemn. “Whatever you do, don’t ever say that in front of my uncle.”

“Why?”

“Because he really likes tea,” Zuko replies. “And… he really likes you. Don’t give him a reason not to.”

I straighten up in my seat and give a fake salute. “I won’t let you down, sir.”

He rolls his eyes and ACK! He tickles me! Right there on the bus! Oh boy, is he gonna get it now!

We become that touchy teenage couple that everyone finds annoying. We’re even getting disapproving looks from a group of older women sitting toward the front. I’m sorta lovin’ it. I mean, let the kids whose lives are in mortal danger actually have some fun, OK?

What I love even more is Zuko’s smile. It is so pure.

Hot damn, I think I’m falling for this man.

I literally go weak in the knees when we arrive at the tea shop. Zuko leans toward me and shows me the Yelp reviews on his phone.

“Only four stars for tea, actually. But five for the view. What do you think?”

I swallow a few times to release my tied-up tongue. “I’ll have jasmine, please.”

He quirks his brow. “Uhh, I’m sure they have that blend.”

He scans the scenery, and something familiar passes across his features. At the tide pools, I read it as distance. But this time, I see it as loss. The ocean is tied to his mother’s disappearance somehow. I figure he brought me here because he knew I would love it. But I also wonder if he’s looking for some reconciliation, too.

Tea is served with a side of awkward silence. Is this back-and-forth normal for all couples early in their relationship or are we just special because of our circumstances?

Are we even a couple?

That would be a good place to start. “So, umm, Zuko? What are we? You know… like… to each other?”

I expect Zuko to avoid the question, but he doesn’t at all. He reaches across the table and places his hands over mine. “Katara, I really like you. And if things were normal, I would ask you out. I wouldn’t even think twice.”

“If things were normal, I would say yes. But… they’re not normal, are they?”

“No. Someone in my family killed someone in yours. We can’t just ignore that. And if something happened to you, Katara, because of me…”

“Zuko, you didn’t kill my mom, and I don’t blame you for it. Your dad is seriously fucked up, and I want to help you take him down! Not just for what he did to my family, but what he did to yours, too. We’re in this together no matter what… as friends or… as something else… but I don’t think friends usually kiss and stuff, so…”

I am flush and rambling and would rather be kissing than talking. Why is Zuko looking at me like I’m crazy?

“You’re crazy, Katara.”

Oh.

“Let’s go to the beach,” he says suddenly.

Now who’s the crazy one?

The beach is nice, but it’s getting late, and we should head back before Dad and Sokka arrive.

Zuko has something else in mind, though.

“Can I read you a little from the Blue Spirit book?”

I’m taken aback by this suggestion, but I oblige. He leans against a rock, and I tuck myself under his arm, relishing his warmth. Alaskan summers are nice, as I recall, but coastal winds always carry the chill of the Pacific current.

“Your mom was amazing,” Zuko starts.

I let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t think the book would convey anything otherwise, but uncovering so many secrets in such a short amount of time has taken a toll on me.

“When her son was born in Alaska, among family members from their native tribe, everyone congratulated her on the birth of a fearless warrior. In California two years later, when she shared her pink bundle with mostly strangers, everyone congratulated her on the birth of a beautiful princess. Kya made two promises to her daughter that day. One, she would teach her the ways of their people. And two, she would teach her to fight.

It was likely no coincidence that at age three, the young girl’s favorite game was to adorn herself in tribal paint and play ‘warrior princess.’ It amused Kya, but her greatest hope for her daughter’s fiery passion was finding a cause worth fighting for.”

I place my hand on Zuko’s forearm, signaling for him to stop. “So, this is a biography… about my mom?”

“Yeah, it starts from her early career, when she covered the Valdez oil spill. As best I can tell from the Painted Lady files, that’s how our mothers met. My mom reached out because she wanted to write a story about her.”

“Oh. I thought it was because your mom knew about what your dad was doing and wanted my mom to investigate?” I muse.

“I think it was the other way around—your mom knew first about my dad then told my mom. Maybe something my mom said in one of their interviews for the biography prompted the investigation. But the report your mom compiled was dated the same day my mom went missing.”

“Do you think she left because your dad found out somehow?”

“I don’t know. He knew, though, because he sent someone to… take care of it.”

“Right. Yon Rha.” My inner warrior princess flares at the mentioning of Ozai’s hired henchman who killed my mother.

“I turned everything in to the police. Your mom’s files were very thorough. I even gave my own statement.” Zuko’s breath hitches. “I spoke out against my father. If this goes to trial, I’ll probably have to testify, I don’t know if I—“

He stops abruptly and pulls his phone out of his pocket. Even though I am reading over his shoulder, he dictates the text messages out loud.

“Noren says your dad and brother are at his house. And so is Uncle.”

“Not Noren,” I correct. “Ikem.”

#zutara #zutara week #zutara week 2017 #zkweek #zkweek17 #hs au

[destiny-smasher]

So I did the “get to know me” meme on Twitter but because of how Twitter functions now it’s a hard to follow mess of a thread. Decided to post it all here -- and hey, if any of ya’ll are curious, feel free to read.

1) When I was 10 my abusive stepdad threw a spray at me. I ducked -- it scraped my head. Sent to school bleeding b/c he was too stoned to realize it'd get noticed and I'd get pulled out of that environment immediately. This moment changed my life, left a scar on head.

If I hadn't ducked, would've hit my stomach. No cut. Whole childhood would've been different. My first Butterfly Effect Moment.

2) I started writing fiction about Pokémon. First-person, from the Mons perspective. Rotating point of view each scene.

3) I moved on to crazy crossover fanfic where I constructed an entire war, personal and political motivations, so many ideas I still like?

4) Part of this involved detailed drawings of Mario-themed Keyblades I wish I still had.

5) Paper Mario 1&2 are some of my most influential inspirations. expanded such a simple world so much so fluidly. (Harder than it looks)

6) When I was a kid my sister would wake me st like 6am to watch dubbed Sailor Moon. Bothered me they all sounded like same person.

7) I can recognize voices very well and even specific sounds and songs. Couple years back my roommate ran a test - playlist of 100 NES tracks, he'd play the first NOTE, singular, and I could recognize exactly where it was from if I'd played the game.

8) My first computer was a PC I bought w/$ saved up during an entire summer of custodial work in HS. Had no Internet.

So I'd use the public library's very slow connection to download things to floppy disk and copy them over.

Eventually, I was able to graduate to a USB. Obtaining music was hellish so I treasured each song I could download -- most from OC Remix.

9) We had this tiny rabbit ears TV that could get WB and Fox sometimes if it was set up in a specific corner of my sister's room

And so I would desperately use it to try and stay up to date on Pokémon and Digimon, it was so bad

10) Teen Titans was arguably the most influential piece of media for my teenage mind. It formed the base of so much I care about re:stories

Fleshed out, varied protags who grew together and each had their times to step up and step down. Action w/character dev context.

Fantastic themes important for growing humans; awesome moments "between the panels" instead of all comic book melodrama and action.

Then everything changed when TT GO attacked and pissed on everything smart and thoughtful because MONEYYYYY

11) Cowboy Bebop was the first "good" anime I ever saw and blew my mind open about what animated stories could do -- i.e. Not just kid stuff

I don't like "anime" in general because most of its common tropes but the shit out of me even worse than most western toon tropes

And yet like 50-75% of my most favorite shows ARE anime because thoughtful animated storytelling has so much potential.

11) I predicted months before Last of Us came out that you'd play as Ellie but when it happened I had to stop, cry happy tears.

I predicted the second I saw the Left Behind trailer what was going on w/those two and again, still had to stop and cry happy tears.

(I seem to have pretty good gaydar now but I also don't like, ship everyone together all the time)

It just hits me so hard when actual canon queerness happens in mass media and is done well, but we're still so bad at following through.

12) Favorite m/m ship: Troy and Abed in the Morning. Favorite w/w ship: Max and Chloe BFF Pirates 2008.

ATLA ships: Tokka the most, also Katang, also Smellershot. ATLA makes me more open to shipping than any other series?

Like, Zutara makes me feel kinda gross and some of the crack ships like Sokka/Azula scare me but otherwise I'm pretty chill w/ATLA ships?

13) When I was a kid, and we'd role play, I always wanted to play the girl characters. I was surrounded by boys so they always were weirded.

It was weird to me, too, honestly.

Now it makes perfect goddamn sense.

14) Apparently I was kidnapped as a baby by some mobster or something but it's hard to tell with my mom what's real or not.

15) Smash Bros. Melee was the first game I ever got genuinely hype over before launch. I still remember being startled to discover it --

-- existed via E3 trailer on GameTrailers back on my goddamn dialup connection in 2001. I had to wait all fuckin' day for that thing to load

And when it did, it was GLORIOUS (and had FZero music, which at the time I did not recognize) and I was FLOORED.

The screenshots made the game look too good to be real, and I was instantly sold on the GameCube, the first time I NEEDED new hardware Day 1

I got SSBM as an Xmas gift before my grandpa's GCN present arrived, so for a week or two all I could do was stare at the box/manual/disc

That game kind of changed my life -- SSB64 was the first time I'd gotten so invested in a multiplayer game, and SSBM crushed it.

A fire was born in me -- competition, something I'd never been much interested in w/games before, not against actual humans.

Those months between E3 2001 and finally getting to play SSBM felt like forever. And thus did I post online fiction for the first time.

That's actually how I met @SDiDuro , my first 'Internet friend' and what I'd consider to be my first proper 'reader.'

16) After college, I ended up working at a call center because it was  the only job I could find and I needed to support my disabled wife.

DURING college, I gave up on writing fiction and had focused on gaming editorial through a site where I'd engaged with an online community

But that empty space between phone calls eventually got filled in by writing fiction on a notepad, with a pen, inspired by Street Fighter 4.

Eventually, this evolved and radically changed into what is now (still in dev) DownRight Fierce.

Back then, I had no idea I'd be motivated to DO this, though -- write original fiction -- but the fire had been re-lit.

I wanted to write.

I was sickened by my "naive" adolescence crossover fics and wiped them from my http://FF.net  profile and started anew.

Having just come off of ATLA 1st time, I knew I wanted to explore that world/characters more, so I wrote a story about Toph & puberty.

That serving as "practice," I then went on to write SRU, and...well, that...changed EVERYTHING.

17) My biological dad (who I have never met) has OCD, to the point where he apparently washed his skin raw trying to avoid germs?

So as soon as I showed enthusiasm in gaming, my parents FREAKED and worried I was exhibiting OCD and they brought the hammer down.

They made me feel BAD for writing about video games when I wasn't playing them, but they never READ anything I fucking wrote.

Even now, my mom tries to comment on what a good writer I supposedly am, yet when I ask for her thoughts, I ask what she's read?

Silence.

I wasn't writing fiction based on games because I was THAT addicted to games.

I did it because a storyteller was awakening within me --

-- and I told stories through the worlds and characters I was familiar with.

(And my first genuinely "serious" fic was Teen Titans, anyway)

But even now, it really hurts that my parents will sometimes try to guilt me over not calling or whatever the fuck, when they never READ

never supported, and actively DISCOURAGED my writing, my storytelling, refused to understanding why I loved games.

18) I never watched Avatar until after college (years after it had finished), and I watched it because of the live action movie.

I watched halfway through the season 1 of the cartoon to get "read up" on it. Then the movie. Which was horrible. Then the rest of season 1.

At that point, the movie utterly baffled me. My wife and I proceeded to marathon the rest of the series. And it became my fav story ever.

But I ironically owe it to that terrible live action movie. ^_^;;

19) My taste in music is really weird. I couldn't tell you what my favorite genres are, and even fav musicians is hard.

Like, every year my top three fav musicians "change" because I just add more to the pile and spend the year focused on their music.

But music inspires my storytelling more than any other medium, I'd say -- in terms of me actually planning and growing ideas.

I didn't just give Nishiko and Seiko last names of my two fav game composers as tongue-in-cheek. In fact, that's not why I did it at all.

I gave them those names because I wanted some element of their very design to express how Japanese composers inspired me in my teen years.

#get to know me #personal

[firelxrdazula]

what makes Azula your favorite?

I’m just going to this as an opportunity to go in-depth about Azula’s character, in hopes that you will understand why I like her so much for her complexity and depth…

Okay, well, I’m just first going to establish her base personality.

Azula’s personality is all about control. She’s a great villain, and an even more dangerous leader at aged 14. That’s precisely because of her establishing control in every situation she’s in. She establishes her control in almost every situation, and we only see her lose control of the situation three times.

Namely in The Chase when she was cornered by Sokka, Katara, Aang, Toph, Zuko, and Uncle Iroh. And in this situation, she chose the bitch way out. Basically, she lost control of the situation and her first impulse was to escape this situation. Basically, her bitch way out was to attack one of them directly to distract the group so she can escape.

The next time we see her lose control was in Ba Sing Se, Crossroads of Destiny. Now, this is one of my favorite episodes. She was losing control of the situation when she was against Katara and Aang. Now, had Zuko not stepped in, she would have lost. Even after Zuko stepped in, she was still losing control with Katara. Katara had the upperhand again, had Zuko not stepped in she would have lost yet again.

The last time we lost her lose contol was of course, in Sozin’s Comet. She starts losing control of herself, not the situation. This whole losing control of herself took her whole character into a whole new route. It basically gave her so much depth, and because of that it caused people to question her whole character than answer it.

She establishes control and dominance in every situation she’s in. That much is visible in almost her every scene, but the most notable one for me would be when she was in Ba Sing Se taking it down. You see that when she got the opportunity to control the whole city, she took it. Long Feng and her are very similar. They both are less on the fighting, more on the manipulation but both are actually kick ass when it comes to fighting also. Basically, Long Feng starts out as a normal kid, growing in the Middle Ring of Ba Sing Se who had to crawl his way into power, until he became the Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se in which he took control of the whole city. The whole city doesn’t even know about the war, and he has control over the Dai Li agents. So much can be said about Long Feng’s ability to control situations… However, Azula’s control was JUST so much more. Long Feng achieved everything in years and years whereas Azula took over the whole city in less than a week!Now, she established her control and dominance in her interactions with Long Feng at the throne room. Where she said “don’t flatter yourself, you were never even a player.”

Now, onto her friends, and how she establishes control over them. Basically, she uses fear and manipulation. Not much can be said about Mai because she doesn’t exactly suck up to Azula, and went with her just because she was bored. Now… As for Ty Lee, that’s where Azula’s manipulation and fear is really visible. She uses fear to manipulate Ty Lee into joining her, and Ty Lee is obviously scared of her and is always trying to get into her good side by always sucking up to her. Although her friendship with them was not fake, it was based on sheer manipulation.

The next thing about her control is her fire as I’ve discussed in another ask. But I’ll discuss it here briefly. Basically, she has so much control over her fire that she can control its intensity while still bending it like the normal yellow-orange fire.

Second, I’m going to compare her to Zuko. Since Zuko was first introduced, we already know much about him. We already know that all his life, he’s had to struggle and that Azula didn’t(totally not true, and ill discuss that issue later), and basically we start seeing from Zuko’s perspective because he talked about her, and basically gave us the idea of how she was a person.

“And Zuko is her brother, they basically grew up the same, right? So, then, how did two siblings grow up to be so different?” that question is what first intrigued me about Azula. I wanted to understand her as a character, as a person.Mainly in Book 2, we see her from his perspective. But we first saw her from his perspective in Siege of the North. In Zuko Alone, we saw the whole episode was about Zuko. We basically see that Azula as a child has always been kind of a bully of some sort to Zuko. She always lies, she always is mischievious. But then, we also see that Ursa didn’t treat them the same way. Ozai also didn’t treat them the same way. So, we kind of see how these two diverge from each other.

As for why I think Azula turned out that… I think it’s mainly because of Ozai and Ursa. She has severe issues with both her parents, but she only seems to acknowledge her issue with Ursa. It’s established that Ursa favored Zuko, Ozai favored Azula. And, that took a toll on both of them.

Keep in mind that as kids you look up to your parent of the same sex. So, for Azula not being accepted by her mother messed her up. The same thing happened to Zuko, it literally fucked him up. The way Ursa treated Azula messed her up so bad, and she was only able to get her father’s acceptance got her to act as the Fire Nation’s heir to the throne. Personally, I think that because of Ursa not treating her as the “fire nation princess,” descriminated her, picked favorites… Then it got instilled in Azula’s mind that “ALRIGHT I am going to BE the Fire Nation’s heir. I AM GOING TO OUTDO ZUKO”

Another cause for this would of course be her father, Ozai. Ozai was an abusive father to both of them. It’s definitely not true that because Azula was favored that she had it easier than Zuko. In fact, to some degree, she had it worse. Being Ozai’s favorite prevented her from being with her mom. It prevented her relationship with her mom so much, that’s mainly why Ursa didn’t agree with Azula all the time. It’s because of all the ideas that Ozai instilled in her head.

So, basically, it’s Ozai who’s more at fault about Azula’s traumatic childhood, although Ursa is still to blame. They both were very shitty parents, but Zuko and Azula had different versions of the same parents. However, when Ursa left, Zuko and Azula were left motherless but Zuko still had Iroh whereas Azula completely lost the good influence in her life. Even then, Ursa wasn’t even a good influence to Azula in the first place, but she could’ve done something for her. I believe that in The Search Ursa realizes that Ozai raised Azula not as a daughter but like.. A basic henchwoman who he could send out to do the things he didn’t want to do and he had complete control of because she was his daughter. Anyways, Ozai didn’t teach her the normal things at all, how to make friends, and how to react to things.

And basically, the biggest factor that caused her fall was Ty Lee and Mai’s “betrayal” which is really more like them realizing her faults more than “betrayal.” But I suppose that their friendship really was real, but as soon as Ozai really took control of Azula, that’s when their friendship changed. I guess it turned more into like Azula being more controlling and using them like soldiers where they had to be loyal to her or else. Basically, Azula treats them like tools she could use, and that’s what she learnt from her father because her father treats her the same way. But the real cause of her spiral was that she couldn’t exactly understand that there’s anything more powerful than fears. Azula has always manipulated them by playing on their fears, and it has worked so well. And since she’s never exactly been showed love, she couldn’t understand why Mai would do that so she couldn’t react properly. I mean, I said a few paragraphs ago that Ty Lee sucks up to Azula, but you can see that it’s genuine admiration, but Ty Lee at that moment kind of realizes that Azula isn’t being friend to her. So, this is such a big moment for Azula because she lost her control over both of them. Like, they’ve been her friends her whole life, and she couldn’t do anything about it. There was nothing more powerful than what they felt at that moment, and Azula couldn’t exactly understand that.

Then, there’s Zuko who’s getting more and more powerful, and he’s not backing down anymore. So I guess that’s when Azula started losing it more and more just  because one thing went out of control.

Because yes, Azula does have a great ability to contol people, but she doesn’t know how to adapt to situations when she’s lost control because she lacks the other factors needed.

The factors she lacked were shown in The Beach. (I’ve already talked about this episode but I guess i’ll give an overview of my whole viewpoint of it)Anyways, in here, it’s given so much emphasis that she does not know how to be proper friends with people, she only knows how to manipulate them, how to control them. And you can see that she TRIES so hard, but it’s totally out of her control and she doesn’t know how to adapt to it at all. And that episode was not filler at all because you get the hint that there really is more there than Azula the villain when they’re all around the campfire, talking about their own issues. But Azula accidentally blurts out her own issues.. But shrugs it off, saying “oh but i dont really care lol” but she does. And I guess this is foreshadowing her downfall, wherein her mother’s hallucination kinda of pushed her more out of control because she doesn’t know how to deal with situations out of her control, so she went bonkers over it in the finale.

tl;dr her character kinda had the most realistic downfall of any other villain, and at age 14 she was a remarkable character with so much depth and complexity. her introduction was very very intriguing and so it kinda made me so interested in her that it made me ask complicated questions like “how did her and zuko turn out so differently”, “why was she like that” and many many other questions which i chose to answer as i was watching the whole show. Analyzing and reading her was the best experience. I could go on and on about her characteristic being so intelligent and militaristic and always being the better child blah blah but that would just drag this already really really long post

Anyways, thank you, anon for giving me a reason to discuss Azula’s character because everything about her makes her my favorite!