#and disclaimer i think you can like. interpret shadow however. because he's a VERY complex character

[onestepfcrward]

i saw a take on shadow’s character by a fandom blog that, while it wasn’t necessarily wrong, still really irked me because i dislike the idea that shadow is just an apathetic asshole who does not care for the betterment of humanity, a lot. i feel like that’s really glossing over who he is as a character and what his character arc sa2-06 established for him, and over all just. is putting him into one bland, boring 2dimensional box where he’s just an edgy asshole who hates people and thats it.

don’t get me wrong, i totally agree that he has a disdain for humanity especially considering literally everything humanity has put him through emotionally, physically, and mentally, and will CONTINUE to put him through well into the future. he really has no reason in particular to care about humans other than the fact that his best friend was a human and that he was created by humans. that’s it. and one of those facts is reason enough for him to grow resentful on the notion that humanity loves to play god and mess with forces beyond their comprehension (and like, shadow’s life sucks. should he really be thankful for humanity giving life to him for that??)

but! at the same time, i think that he can hold disdain for humanity / resent them for what they did while still being able to acknowledge his purpose and what he’s meant to do in life. i think shadow can still be curious about humanity and still be curious about people while having an overall apprehension towards those in power. because he does! because he’s mature and wise enough to recognize that, while the main portion of humanity sucks - especially the ones making all the rules that govern, there are still good people out there who want to help one another and make the world a better place. people like maria, who share the same hopes and dreams as her. people like amy and like sonic, hell even rouge is a good person deep down. like, to say that shadow flat out hates humanity would be hypocritical of one of his defining character aspects which IS the relationships he’s formed with people. (i include sonic/amy/rouge under the humanity bracket because they have human level intelligence / sentience and it feels weird excluding them even if they’re technically mobian)

and like, it’s fine to have preferences for how you wish to see shadow portrayed. me personally, i LIKE seeing shadow have a softer, compassionate side. even if it represents itself in a weird, estranged and subdued sort of way given just who he is as a person and how he expresses himself, clearly he has SOME compassion for humanity. otherwise, would he be going through all of this bs to actualize his promise to maria? would he have just left rouge to die all those times he’s saved her? would he of become enraged by the idea that some unknown force harmed his teammate omega? 

i think, personally, shadow can get pretty wrapped up in his resentment towards humanity. he still has a lot of strife to overcome and may never fully let it go. but i think it’s that mentality that contrasts so nicely with when he IS faced with people who don’t represent what he’s had to deal with over and over in his life. people like maria who appear to remind him that, while it’s true that people can be very selfish and fight over frivolous things, most people are good and want to lead happy lives. it’s those moments like his confrontation with amy at the end of sa2 that get in touch WITH his compassion that’s become buried over time, and draw out that softer, more human side to shadow. and to ignore that aspect of his character, well, he may as well of just let the planet be destroyed by the space colony all that time ago then.

#i am some of me. — ✦ ooc. #one track mind‚ one track heart. — ✦ ramble / study. #literally could ramble forever about how he's not just an apathetic asshole who doesnt care about anyone #and disclaimer i think you can like. interpret shadow however. because he's a VERY complex character #so it's absolutely awesome seeing all the different takes #it's just the idea that he has no compassion at all that bothers me becaUSE THERE'S CLEAR EVIDENCE HE DOES.. #you just have to have the right circumstances to bring it out #okay #rant over

[beyond-far-horizons]

Katara’s potential in LOK and importance of older female role-models in life and fiction

This was not meant to turn into a meta and yet has done! Just a disclaimer I’m still working my way through The Legend of Korra but have mostly been spoiled by reading some great analysis on here. So this isn’t meant to be a comprehensive take and also isn’t meant to disrespect the people who like Legend of Korra or this particular aspect of it. It’s just a subject very close to my heart and my work as a creative practitioner, student of psychology and media analyst, so I really wanted to discuss it. 

Contains some spoilers esp for Season 1.

So I’m biting the bullet and getting into LoK despite reservations. I overall really loved Avatar the Last Airbender and Katara is one of my favourite characters. I admit one of my biggest issues with starting LoK was hearing how her character and agency were drastically reduced compared to the original series.

Now I know LoK gets a lot of flak for a variety of reasons and it was always going to be hard following such a beloved series as A:TLA and trying to do something different. However I’m actually enjoying certain aspects including Korra herself, despite the fact she can be bratty and immature at times (which squares with her age and upbringing). I also find the premise of the Equalists and especially their mysterious, terrifying leader Amon really interesting and I just wish the creators had done more with that plot line. (I forever seem to be going on about missed potential in the stories I consume!)

However the more I continue the more I’m annoyed because I realised we were robbed of Badass Grandma!Katara and also more matrilineal mentoring/bonding between her and Korra. 

Spoilers but I wanted to see Katara go toe to toe with the villains esp give her being intimately connected to their history. I wanted to see her deal with the shadows of the past, the history of trauma associated with bloodbending and the Fire Nation and also the very intriguing points Season 1 was trying to make about the role of bender vs non-bender and the Avatar themselves. All things Katara was deeply involved with as someone who experienced inequality firsthand, fought relentlessly to abolish it and was the previous Avatar’s finder, teacher and later his wife. 

Katara being Aang’s first mentor and implied to be Korra’s waterbendering tutor adds yet another dimension and potential to explore. That whole relationship must be strange for everyone involved but I’m always a sucker for female bonds, found family and intergenerational friendships.

I know LoK is about the new cast taking over - Tenzin fills the role of Korra’s mentor figure onscreen and is loved by many. There are lots of ways to tell a story and the creators focused on Korra’s issues with airbending to contrast her personality and development with Aang’s, as well as to flesh out Aang’s family and the rebuilding of the Air Nomads. 

Yet I miss the potential of seeing wise fierce mentor!Katara on screen. We fans love callbacks, so seeing Katara in action as she used to be would be a joy, and older more powerful characters need not overshadow younger ones. For example Uncle Iroh was beloved and integral in A:TLA despite the fact we saw very little of his backstory. He didn’t take over Zuko’s journey, he aided and complemented it. Plus Toph gets her chance to shine.

There was so much to play with, especially in Season 1 (and would have been a nice reference to Aang meeting Katara first and then Zuko and Toph later). So much contrast between Katara’s experience with Hama, her thoughts about her mother, Gran Gran and the reintroduction of South Water Style. The trauma of bad parental/mentor relationships vs the good examples one can use to alchemise negative patterns that A:TLA was known for (see Iroh, Zuko and Ozai for reference). I don’t want to get too far into spoiler territory but all of this links back to Katara, Hama and Water Tribe and I would have loved to see a further exploration of that and a contrast between her loving bond and fear for Korra vs the villains’ and their education. This would have created more depth between Korra and Amon and co (and wow do I wish that dynamic was explored further - does she even know what happens to him??), and between Katara and Korra and their respective journeys to shoulder their burdens and mature as people and women.

Just think about all those juicy, angsty callbacks we could have done to Hama’s haunting episode! How Katara could have decided to be a better mentor than Hama was to her. (Katara was always a good mentor but if there was any issues in her relationship with Korra re Aang etc this could have been a good place for dramatic tension and resolution.) Of course for all we know this did happen but we don’t see it because we don’t get to see Katara’s training with Korra or much of Katara at all in LoK apart from her failing to heal Korra.

Plus I adore badass ladies and badass grandmas, I have loads in my original fiction. I love people defying stereotypes and sadly there is still a lack of stories not only depicting a range of female role-models but female mentoring and matrilineal bonding.

Read the incredible bestseller Women Who Run with the Wolves by Jungian analyst Clarissa Pinkola Estés if you want to learn more about the power of storytelling, myth and female hero journeys and initiation. A key part of that book is how women have been historically and psychologically undervalued and harmed by the prevailing culture for centuries. Also how it has broken matrilineal lines of wisdom and support and distorted cultural values of how girls and women (not to mention boys and men) view the Feminine. This leaks down into our modern day stories via inherited psychological conditioning and unexamined tropes. 

For example - how many ‘wise old men’ figures can you think of in pop culture, myth, fairytale, religion? Quite a few I’d imagine. Now contrast that with the ‘wise old woman’ archetype...I guessing not as many. I’m sure you’ll find a few but I bet more often the words that come to mind are ‘witch’, ‘sorceress’, ‘crone’ etc. 

The Fairy Godmother (I gave you that one for free;) ) is an exception but she is a watered down version of the powerful, ambivalent figures of folklore such as Baba Yaga. Trust me if the Yaga was your mentor, as she was to Vasalisa in the fairytale Vasalisa the Wise/the Beautiful, you ain’t coming out of that encounter with a crystal slipper, you’re coming out it with a burning skull that incinerates your enemies and I’d like to see that tale popularised!

As mentioned Katara did feature in Korra’s life as a support, a vague mentor figure and a healer - in fact she is the one that initiates Korra’s heroine journey by supporting her decision to leave the stifling confines of her compound, go to Republic City alone and learn airbending. She also offers emotional and medical support during Korra’s traumatic recovery later on in the series. But mostly Katara’s involvement is at the peripheries of The Legend of Korra except when she was failing to heal her.

This isn’t to say that comfort and softness in female relationships are lesser than battle prowess or mental fortitude. Or that failure always bad, it is human and can be a powerful narrative tool for character development. I’m not interested in the infallible ‘Strong Female Character’ stereotype and neither is Estés. Her book illustrates that the Feminine encapsulates all of these qualities and many more and looking at the original Katara she was a perfect example of that. She was empathetic, intelligent, powerful, fierce, devoted, flawed, playful, angry.

I guess what I’m saying is that I miss that Katara and I miss the opportunity of  seeing Korra interact with and learn from that Katara, especially as they have so much in common in terms of shared history, powers, culture and even looks. I’m also missing the opportunity of seeing that Katara battle Amon and all the drama and backstory that could have ensued from those encounters! After all Katara took on her mother’s killer, Hama and the Fire Nation (including one angsty honour-obsessed Fire Prince and his powerful sister), you’re telling me she would have just let Korra, her family and friends be in grave danger in the name of ‘leaving it to the kids’ ESPECIALLY since her own history turned out to be so deeply connected to all of this? Nah...

It’s important for girls* to see a range of wholesome female characters and dynamics play out in their media from an early age, especially to rework and combat the historic negative tropes that our culture is still steeped in. It’s also important to address the devaluing of the elderly, in particular elderly women. The Legend of Korra does in fact build on this from Avatar the Last Airbender by having an even greater range of capable women and girls across ages and morality spectrum. Korra herself (who I’m liking a lot more than I thought I would), is a real stereotype breaker. Toph I’ve heard fulfils the ‘wise old (crotchy) woman’ archetype later in the series. I just wish, given how much I adore A:TLA’s Katara, that we could have seen her shine in an elder role too. 

(*I use terms like ‘girls’, ‘woman/women’ and ‘feminine’. I mean these to also include a broad interpretation of the Feminine than just the hetero/cis-normative one, but sometimes it helps when critiquing something to narrow things down esp something so already psychologically complex in a simple meta.)

#katara #legend of korra #lok #atla #pro katara #my meta #meta #my writing #jungian psychology #korra #amon #feminism #storytelling #avatar the last airbender #I just wanna see Katara fight Amon damn it I don't care who wins as long as it's a MASSIVE fight #also want to see either Katara save Korra or Korra save Katara #and some proper bonding and badass tuition #and then dunno waterbenders both hero and villain learn and grow and rebuild the Tribe

[solaciummeae]

Disclaimers:

This is merely my interpretation of things post series. I own nothing but my protrayals and original content added, but please please please be respectful. Know that this is a plot I worked on for quite some time and this is the plot I’m going with in the Post Series for my muses. I write John, Cara, Stephen, Jedikiah, Astrid, Marla, && Luca, as well as a host of OCs. I will be turning this into a drabble series so please don’t come at me telling me I’m wrong or should change anything about it. I’m finding what works best for the story I’m attempting to tell. I welcome anyone who wants to take part in it.

                                               PART THREE

With more and more homosuperiors flooding into New York all the time, there’s been a great influx in the population of the state overall. Not all of those seeking the source of the beacon choose to reside in the city, but they remain in contact with the leaders of the underground. The increase is so felt even amongst the human world that reports of this migration briefly reach the televised news.

With greater numbers the responsibilities of those in leadership is greater. The original council becomes the high council to smaller groups delegated authority for each certain region of people. At the advisement of Stephen, Cara decides to take on certain new partners as the head of their people. She gives authority to both Emma and Zoey, creating a unit of four ranked as leader. The intent behind this being, that should one of them fall there is still someone else to lead their people.

As the community grows, the alliance with the west coast underground only grows. In fact, the connection is secured and trips are taken to and from in order to fortify that alliance. With new players in the game, they’ve got to be ready for whatever comes next. There are even efforts to push further out along the east coast to other states in search of their people. The hope is that they as a species in this country are acting more offensively at this point rather than just defensively.

With more of Zoey’s people arriving, they take it upon themselves to provide support to the former lair dwellers and anyone else who like them is new to this home. They spend time helping people find their feet, getting accustomed to living less in the shadows and having real lives.

New systems are put into place as they as a people become more organized. They settle into a semi-regular life of work and balancing their duties to the underground, all the while ready to move at a given notice. There’s a sort of emergency alarm in place, a psychic currant given off by Stephen who remains one of the most powerful of them all. It’s designed to reach a certain distance among their people, therefore by proxy setting off the alarm in the minds of those which then reach a greater distance and continues spreading.

During this time, Stephen struggles to find some semblance of normalcy with his family. His mother is often around but determined to keep her youngest son safe, she’s never far from him. Luca continues growing up, now faced with a completely different lifestyle than the one from before that now seems so much simpler. They remain in their family home, as Marla is hell bent on fighting Jedikiah should he try anything.

Cara has her own demons to battle when Jordan finally convinces her to confront her father after all this time. It’s an awkward and uncomfortable situation but necessary. On this trip she gets to spend a fair amount of alone time with Jordan who– quite frankly, has become one of the closest to her. After her sister died, the rift between herself and Stephen crippled the once seemingly romantic fate ahead of them. She now finds herself feeling a familiar kind of attachment to Jordan– seeing much in him that she used to see in John. Likewise, he’s become that similar kind of family to her. She trusts him with her life, but with the knowledge that John is out there and the complexity of her relationship with Stephen– it causes her to feel conflicted.

On Jedikiah’s end, he continues to manipulate John against his people while John lies to him about seeing Emma and certain others. In this time, he’s come to meet and briefly get to know both of his half brothers, Caelan and Cameron who have been in the city for some time now.

However, it would seem that he has yet another brother. A man by the name of Marshall Quade, who like so very few– is someone that John remembers from before his “accident.” Marshall too, grew up in Ultra being to Roger what John was to Jedikiah. After John left Ultra and with Roger seemingly dead, Marsh was left to take his place with Jedikiah. He too had been Anaxed but with a longer kill list than John under his belt.

When John returned to Jedikiah after the fall of Ultra, he found Marshall still working for the older man, having only gotten worse than his memory served. They found that they had a great many things in common, not the least of which being that they were both hiding things from Jedikiah. John– his obvious connection to Emma and the underground, and Marshall– his strange connection to a somewhat mysterious woman named Genevieve who seems to know an awful lot and is well connected.

The two younger men bond over years of brutal experience growing up in Ultra, the ability to kill, and wanting desperately to be out of Jedikiah’s influence. Really no one knows John like Marsh does. It’s because of this long history and their aligned interests that Marshall is the only other person that John trusts aside from Emma. He knows that they both have much to lose and is quite protective of the younger man, seeing him as a little brother.

In this time, another potential major player emerges from the shadows. The woman mentioned earlier, Genevieve Knight. Having spent months keeping to herself and observing what she could from both sides of the supposed war, she’d made her decisions carefully. She comes from a wealthy and influential family in a similar realm as Bathory but with far different pursuits. Whereas Bathory focused on this country and manipulation of their kind, Genevieve’s family are members of a couple international organizations for homosuperiors and are in the opinion that he only sought to exploit their people.

She was raised to be not only a warrior, but a diplomat. For this reason, she has many assets at her disposal and took her time to decide where it was best to dedicate those resources. She of course, supports her people but having grown up out of state she’s seen a different side of their world. Ultra never held a threat to her and even now, she’s all but untouchable to Jedikiah. With her abilities and resources, given hard evidence that she is who she says– she’s made a member of the high council. But she isn’t without her own secrets.

Early on in her arrival in the city she’d been followed by the very same soldier of Jedikiah’s mentioned earlier, Marshall. When he’d caught up to her, upon their eyes connecting, there seemed to be a psychic bomb that had gone off. Suddenly, neither of them– while both normally more than adept at mental blocking– could keep the other out. She’d, of course, tried to sever the connection and keep her distance from him, but even when they were apart she could feel him and hear his thoughts.

Still, he persisted in seeking her out at times when he knew she was alone, claiming curiosity over their bond. It wasn’t until some such occasion where he told her they needed to stay together because it was safer that it occurred to them both that it was more than they’d thought. That they were in fact, in love after the months of spending every waking moment with the other in the back of their minds.

Genevieve keeps this relationship concealed to everyone she knows for fear of what would happen to him. Even with her high rank among their people, she can’t risk the others finding out that she’s involved with someone who is the left hand to John’s right when it comes to Jedikiah.

As time goes on she becomes more and more desperate to free Marshall from Jedikiah’s hold and so strikes a deal with him. The price being that she comes to work for Jed, full with Anax so as to properly replace one of his best and most efficient killers. Thinking it was the only way to save him, she’s ready to take his place. She tells only Trey and Emma that she’s doing it– making the latter swear to keep him safe in her absence.

It seems as though it will go as planned until John comes to the newly freed Marshall to explain that Gen is in danger and that they need to move quickly. As it turns out, Jedikiah had no intention of using Genevieve as a soldier but more for experimentation and the harvesting of her powers before rendering her human. The scientist being up to old tricks, thinks that if he cuts off her abilities, without their unique connection, she will be nothing to Marshall. This he hopes, will bring him back.

The two fight their way through any and all guards set between themselves and Genevieve in one of the many large warehouses Jedikiah now operated out of. It becomes more and more evident that they’re running out of time by the way Marshall depletes as they move through the building. You see, Marshall is so connected to Genevieve that he feels whatever pain she experiences– mental, emotional, and physical.

By the time they get to her, she’s already heavily drugged up, but conscious enough to feel the cuts that have been made and the shots that have been given. She’s sure she’s hallucinating when they come in, doing her best not to pass out on the table where she’s strapped down.

John simply wants to freeze time to get her out of there, but Marshall has other ideas. While the blonde is charged with freeing and helping Genevieve, Marshall takes his aggression out on the man he’s sure now that he hates more than anyone else he’s ever known. The only reason that Jed’s story doesn’t end here is because Gen begs him to stop so they can leave.

And so the three of them leave together, the two men now completely resolved to leaving their former superior behind. John and Marshall are placed in a safe house with Genevieve, Trey, Emma, and Marshall’s long lost brother Bellamy. Essentially all of those fiercely in favor of protecting the two men who might have once been considered enemies.

While Gen and Marsh recover from the incident, Emma tries to help John begin to adapt to being back among their people. It’s difficult for him to be back amidst so many people, some that he’d supposedly been close to and others still who he wouldn’t know anyway. He’s more than a little overwhelmed by his surroundings and still keeps to himself, trying to work through what he’s been through and where he’s going.

Emma and the others try to advocate for John and Marshall, both those on the high council and those in lower positions. However, it would seem that the majority of their people aren’t willing to so easily trust the two men who once conspired against them.

The frustration goes on for weeks, the two of them remaining mistrusted and not utilized for their skills. Until finally they speak up at a high council meeting specifically called to decide what to do with them. John all but lays it out in an ultimatum which Marshall then agrees with and reiterates. Use them or get rid of them.

Upon this ultimatum, Bell is the first to stand up for both of them, likewise Gen and Trey follow suit, and finally Emma with a clear message to all of them. That if they’d so quickly turn on their own for only doing that which they themselves would do to survive if put in their position, they’re doomed to fail. Three more rise after she speaks, both leaders from California, Will and Zoey, and Emma’s partner from Omega, Anthony.

With the majority of the high council willing to walk away for the sake of these two men, it’s decided that they stay and are treated as equals. They too are inducted into the high council for their knowledge of Jedikiah and his plans.

From this moment, changes are made. The community begins evolving again. A core group of their most skilled soldiers take over training larger groups of their people. Each are tasked with training those under them in a certain base set of skills, while each is also assigned a specialty that they train on. For example, Marshall specializes in hand to hand combat and the use of weapons. How to take hits that are less than fatal and won’t render them unconscious.

With there already being talk of taking out Jedikiah, with the knowledge of Omega’s existence, as well as people like Gen’s family– they need to be ready now more than ever for what comes next.

With clear alliances forming across the country, Cara and Stephen look to not only just unite their people, but to strengthen them. There are even hopes that if handled properly, they could be entering a golden age for homosuperiors in the states. This is only amplified when it is learned that in his last will and testament– Hugh Bathory left Omega and all of it’s resources to one Emma Harper.

{ mentioned: Jordan Reynolds @bloodbulletsandbytes Marshall Quade && Bellamy Reed @deadbeatcentral. All other muses mentioned are mine. }

#indie rp #ttp rp #the tomorrow people rp #indie ttp #indie the tomorrow people #verse: the tomorrow people #verse: post series #about: the tomorrow people #verse information: the tomorrow people #verse information: all