#i feel like that also represents yue quite well

[forabeatofadrum]

Thank you @aroace-genderfluid-sheep​, @artsyunderstudy​ and @captain-aralias​ for the tags. I too hate losing an hour because of daylights savings time.

Well folks, it’s still Kill Your Darlings, thesis edition! I usually try to find six, or ocassionally seven, sentences for the SSS posts. I know it’s not a hard rule, but I like doing it. Unfortunately I had to kill quite some darlings for my thesis, and as a result I have a lot more sentences today, so here we go.

Conforming to the heterosexual order is also referred to as homonormativity (Duggan, 2002). Homonormativity shows that the heterosexual norm is superior and as a result the queer community seeks inclusion and recognition of heterosexual institutions. This is done by disowning anything that is seen as abnormal. This can be done through media representation, among other things. Homonormative representation can lead to a victim role and to assimilation with heterosexual culture (Dhaenens, 2013; Yue, 2014).

This is actually 4 sentences. And yes, “homonormativity” is a weird term. You kind of assume it defines the opposite to heteronormativity, but nope, it is an extension of it.

But next darling that I needed to kill (kinda), is long, so let’s move this under the cut.

To understand how queer representation leads to societal consequences, it is important to look at how queer representation came to be. Queer characters appeared in media from the early 1920s, but new regulations in the 1930s and 1940s made it illegal to show explicit queer characters in America. As a result, a lot of subtext and symbolism was used. Not only that, but these characters were used in a negative way, linking homosexuality to immorality (Rodriguez, 2019). Gay men were the dorky “sissies” (Rodriguez, 2019) and the lesbians were the ugly, sneaky “dykes” (McNicholas Smith, 2020b). Often a storyline for a queer character ended in death, something that still occurs and is known as “Bury Your Gays” (Birchmore & Kettrey, 2022; Bridges, 2018; Waggoner, 2018). From the 1970s, things gradually changed and around the 1990s, the era of modern queer representation arose. Since the 1990s, the number of queer characters has increased and representation is becoming more diverse (McNicholas Smith, 2020b; Rodriguez, 2019).

However, the queer community is still under-represented and limited in the roles in which it is portrayed (Waggoner, 2018; Woods & Hardman, 2022). The queer community is always portrayed in a heteronormative way to show that heterosexuality is the norm (Allen, 2022; Avila-Saavedra, 2009; Dhaenens, 2013; Marwick et al., 2014; Weber & Weeks, 2022). When Ellen Degeneres came out, it was an important moment for the community, but the moment was also criticized, because everything queer about Ellen was taken away for the heterosexual viewer, because queerness is seen as something abnormal (Dow, 2001; McCarthy, 2001). Thus, representation of queer characters must appear very standard, non-political and non-sexual: the characters must adhere to traditional values such as family, monogamy and stability (Avila-Saavedra, 2009), or they are portrayed as a victim to let see that it is easier to be cisgender and straight (Dhaenens, 2013; Rodriguez, 2019).

On the other hand, normalisation is seen as a positive thing. Dhoest and Simons (2011) criticise the idea that simple, standard queer representation is always bad representation. They say that it is wrong and oversimplified to claim that there is only one right way to represent the queer community. Viewers also acknowledge this by stating that even if they do not feel represented by some depictions of queer characters, that those queer characters can still be important to others (McInroy & Craig, 2017). Some studies show that viewers appreciate normalisation (Dhoest & Simons, 2011; Gomillion & Giuliano, 2011). While some viewers like a more abnormal queer representation (Sender, 2011), others even reject this “overkill” and “extreme” queer representation (Dhoest & Simons, 2011).

Yeah, this is a big darling. As I said, I sort of have to kill it? First off, I have to shorten it. But I can save some parts of it and I need to put it in another section of the thesis. Basically, I have to restructure my entire theoretical background, which honestly was valid criticism (I talked about this on Wednesday). But this means that even after I trim it down, I need to be able to split it up and put the relevant parts under “recognition”, “respect” and “identification”.

Unfortunately, I love all of this section, so shortening it is going to be rough. My supervisor also said that this is all too “subjective”, but I am not entirely sure I agree with that criticism. As in, this isn’t my opinion. I put the sources right after it. My supervisor tells me to summarise earlier research and I did and these are the results from those earlier studies. This happens multiple times, because she said that my usage of the terms “positive” “negative” and “better” representation is subjective, but I also take those terms from the sources. Hmmm.

And now, the weather: @quizasvivamos​ @blurglesmurfklaine​ @coffeegleek​ @esperantoauthor @otherworldsivelivedin @caramelcoffeeaddict​ @sillyunicorn @bazzybelle @dragoneggos @raenestee @tectonicduck @nightimedreamersworld @urban-sith @thnxforknowingme​ @you-remind-me-of-the-babe​ @takitalks​ @justgleekout​ @cerriddwenluna​ @tea-brigade​ @ivelovedhimthroughworse​ @moodandmist @whogaveyoupermission @bookish-bogwitch​ @confused-bi-queer @ionlydrinkhotwater @1908jmd​ @special-bc-ur-part-of-it​ @larkral​ @chen-chen-chen-again-chen​​ @cutestkilla​​ @nausikaaa​​/@wellbelesbian​​ @martsonmars​​ @facewithoutheart​​ @shrekgogurt​ @boyinjeans​

#six sentence sunday #tagged in #thesis lol

[whaleofatjme1920]

Good day!! I may be called fluffyyellow but another nickname you can call me by is Sky. (She/Her, 21, SCP foundation, Romantic)

Now.. something about myself, first thing is, I'm a very shy and introverted person who often keeps to herself, and when engaging in conversations, initially im very awkward and quite cautious since I often think about unintentionally making the other person uncomfortable. I'm often seen alone and it takes a few times to get a conversation going with me but once I get used to the other person, I become more and more talkative and engaging as time goes by. Being a lil chaotic, cracking a few jokes here and there, and just laughing around and talking about just anything with the other person.  I'm very understanding, empathetic and a really good listener. I'm the type of person that would gladly walk a mile for my close friends, an example would be to listen to my close friends' rants, stories, info dumps or whatever they basically have in mind that day, staying up late just for them, assisting them with academics, checking up on them and making sure they eat or sleep well, etc etc. (I'm also not afraid to use my "Savageness" as my BFF calls it, to speak up/defend them too). I usually find it hard to express my emotions and or words, but upon opening up, i tell myself "I'm not really great with my words but the people close to me deserve to be appreciated so ya know what? Screw my awkwardness".

That being said? I may not look like it due to my initial aloof or awkward vibe but My love language is Physical touch, quality time and acts of service. to be honest? I guess you could say im touch starved. Then again, due to my shy and cautious nature, I only have a few friends in my circle, but these are the people that stuck with me for years. Yeahhh I'm very emotional and sentimental too. Another thing? I'm normally a home-body and a chill at home type of person, but once in a while I enjoy a stroll or a walk here and there to get my creative juices or inspirations running

Speaking of creative juices, I'm very much an artistic person and someone who loves to draw/make sketches, take photographs,illustrate, design, etc etc.  Now..for the offering? I offer snacks (Basically an assortment of Candy/sweets plus biscuits/cookies) in a cute box I painted/designed/sketched myself. because it represents one of the ways in how I express my affection to those close to me alongside my love for art.

Sincerely Sky

I really hope I got this right and I also hope this isnt too wordy? Yep :')

[Disclaimer: The Red String of Fate event is a special event I'm running from August 12th, to whenever I feel it necessary to end - right now, I'm giving it to the first week of September! Check out rules HERE]

Yue Lao's fingers gently trace over the lovely sweets you've given him in the box you designed yourself. He admires the artistry and takes note of each little thing you've painted on it. He counts the brushstrokes as he eats the snacks, smiling that they are once again, not too sweet. His cat sniffs the treats a few times too and she purrs. It seems Bao is happy just like him.

Now, just who shall he pair you with? He strokes his beard a few times and thinks about it. It really shouldn't take that long, and in fact, the moment he read over your thoughts on who you want to be forever yours, he had a match! But it can't be that easy, can it? The God hums softly to himself before deciding that yes, it really was that easy. He looks to a man that's not too tall, and not too short that claims he goes by many names, but Alto Clef being the one he responds to the most.

It seems like such an odd match, the God things. Yue Lao never makes mistakes when he pairs people, never, but he knows you might certainly be surprised! What he wants to achieve for the two of you is balance, harmony, something that Clef lacks. He believes that you two will love true and good. He attaches the string to your pinky, and then Clef's as the man works on goading an SCP into a migraine. His cat mews softly as the string begins to glow between the two of you. Clef's expression slowly shifts from the poor skip to his pinky, where the string tugs slightly like you're on the move.

Yue Lao watches with a knowing smile as joy blooms on your face that he's answered your prayer for someone to love. He watches as you hop up from your desk, startling your coworkers before hightailing it out to find the one he's paired you with. He laughs softly, and you can hear it in your ear like something warm and paternal. Your eyes are glued on the string, watching as the light flutters brightly with the pounding of your heart.

You eventually come to a string of containment rooms, most of them for euclid, sentient skips that really pose no harm. You've been here a few times to run tests yourself. You watch the staff that pass around you, some giving you questioning glances as if to ask if you're alright as you look like a mad man searching for the person on the other end. You know that this is outside your normal behavior, but the excitement, it's almost too much! That and well, the string compels soulmates together. It's something that's unquestionable, and no force can remove it but the Gods themselves.

Clef is admittedly just as scatterbrained as you in the moment. He's a tired man. Underneath his whole façade, the things he keeps hidden are near crystal clear. He never thought he was capable of love. He never thought something good would ever come to him, or a person would ever be able to put up with him for more than what was necessary. So, when he sees you, he smiles. The string that connects the two of you glows brightly, something akin to raspberries in late summer, feels like plush grass, and smells sweeter than honey, it draws the two of you together.

Your hearts are beating in synch. All that's left is to meet in the middle.

#red string of fate the event #alto clef x reader #dr alto clef x reader #scp x reader

[divinumetinfernum]

                              𝐒𝐲𝐦𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧                                    𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐌 𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐔𝐌

I don’t know why I wanted to describe the symbolism and imagery that I’ve kneaded into my story. Perhaps because I use it a lot in my writing, even for replies, to give it more depth. However, it’s also because it’s fun.

What we’ll cover

The Sun —  Who is Amira? Space — Who is August Wang?   The Sky and Flight — Amira, Freedom, and Divinehood The Moon — What is The Essence of Evil? Reflections — How Evil Seeps Through Night —  Vampires, Demons, and Things That Go Bump in The Night Snakes —  Villains Other Minor Symbols   

The Sun

Divinum et Infernum was Solis et Lunae, so my story always had the sun and moon symbolism. Amira represents the sun and it’s in her surname— Shams is Arabic for the sun. Though Amira is technically more powerful, it’s more about what the sun represents. So, for me, the sun represents life, vitality, happiness, and the reason why we exist. Without the sun, we’re likely to feel hopelessness and misery. When the sun dawns warding off the darkness of the night, it symbolizes a new day and the dawning of hope. The sun is why everything exists and is the center of the story.

This is what I hope I can convey about Amira through my writing. She’s she represents the light of humanity, the hope humans need, and the golden vitality of the sun. It’s why golden is one of the colours that represent her.

The sun also represents power and Amira’s coming to terms with power is an important aspect of the story. What happens to her happens because she is one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse. She doesn’t want this power and funnily, she doesn’t want this responsibility. Summer days when the sun is at its brightest, represent childhood, and Amira is stuck in the golden glow of her childhood. She doesn’t want to grow up — the reluctant hero.

In saying that, the sun is also glaringly in your face and self-centered, this is also represented in Amira. Not only does she have an intolerably annoying personality, but she can also be quite self-centered at times.

Space

Curiosity, intellect, and vastness are traits we associate with space. It defies time, restraints, and borders and that goes beyond comprehension. That’s who the king of the gods is — he is beyond comprehension and beyond time. He walks where no one can walk and he exists where few others do.

Though I use some space imagery for Amira as well, August represents cosmic entities for me. He is more powerful than Amira is simply because he has the depth to contain his powers better. He has a lot more depth than her and he is the sage that guides the hero and she needs him in more than one way.  

The Sky + Flight

The sky represents infinity, eternity, immortality, and transcendence — it’s a symbol of the universe. Nonetheless, it also represents freedom and flight. The lightness of air and the freedom of flight nestles in Amira. She takes flight and rarely touches the earth, it shows her lightness and childishness as she lacks the ability to ground herself in practicality. However, it also illustrates her connection to her divine self, the thing that severs her from earth.

The Moon

If Amira is the sun, then there must be a moon in the story. It represents enigma, emotions, loneliness, the night, spirituality, renewal, and transition. Moreover, it represents the eclipse.  

That moon is represented by different characters throughout the story. The most obvious one is Cintinv, the higher power serving under Amira and August who betrays her after the Celestial Wars. Then there is Xariyah, the higher power that waged the Celestial Wars to take August’s throne and attempted to kill all deities as a means to her end.

You’d wonder why is that? That’s because the moon represents the essence of evil itself in the story. It’s represented in an unnamed personification of evil who takes the name Shen Yue. She’s the one that “gave birth” to evil and is the reason why evil even exists. She’s not a being but an essence that exists in everything.

However, this essence can only tamper with human emotions as it’s intangible, a concept. So, it can’t appear on earth unless powered by a spiritual force. That’s where reflections come in.

Reflections  

In many ancient cultures, things that cast reflections are considered doorways to spirit realms. The moon reflects on earth via its reflection in water bodies. Shen Yue makes her way through our world via her reflections in her preferred vessels (lakes and rivers). When we look at our reflection in water bodies, it’s half what we perceive rather than what’s real. Shen Yue has the power to tap into our darkest side and emotions. She mangles them until they blind us and lead us to ruin. Think of Narcissus and his reflection in the lake or sirens luring sailors to their deaths.

Though why does she choose water? Quite simple really, water bodies are an incredibly powerful spiritual energy. It’s perhaps the only spiritual energy on earth that can rival heavenly dimensions in power. They are actually connected to many spiritual realms. It’s why Amira remains wary of water bodies without knowing it.

It’s imperative that I note here that water in itself doesn’t represent evil in my story. It actually represents spirituality and life. Like the sunlight, water is essential for existence to flourish. (Besides, water-based muses are my favourite from an oh-so-excellent mun!)

The Night

The night is when demons, vampires, and other supernatural creatures are at their strongest. In my lore, vampires and demons are creatures linked to hell dimensions. Their blood is diluted from the primordial beings roaming the lower dimensions. Therefore, the night symbolizes hell, monsters, as well as mysteries, secrets, and intuition. Shadows and darkness are extremely impotent dark spiritual energy (but we love hell muses here, this is a we-stan-the-king-of-hell dimensions house)

Snakes

In fiction, snakes represent lies, and deceit, but also renewal and immortality. In my lore, many hell beasts take the shape of a serpent. Snakes represent Phillipa, a hell beast and a devout follower of Shen Yue. She is a ‘cold-blooded’ creature who enjoys causing pain and is essentially a pet of the moon, tying snakes to the moon.

It’s vital to note that Amira has a severe phobia of snakes.

Other Minor Symbols

Acoustic guitar: August’s love for Amira Ballet-related objects: Sabrina Black cats: Percival Blood splattered on white surfaces: Cintinv   Blue: Shen Yue Bubblegum: Stella Cars: Jack Cherries: Aaliyah Clocks, hourglass, metronome, anything time-related: August Cosmic things: August and Amira Daisies: Darlene Earphones: August and Amira Earth and dirt: Jack Fallen Angel (painting): Cintinv Fireworks: Aaliyah Golden and pink: Amira Graveyards: Cintinv Green: Phillipa Howl’s Moving Castle (book and movie): August and Amira Knives and daggers: Cintinv Lakes and rivers: Shen Yue   Orange tulips: Pinar Piano music: Taewon and Amira Pink and white roses: Amira   Red roses: the vampires of Los Angeles Summer mornings: Amira’s childhood and her love for Taewon Sun shining through leaves: Amira and Taewon Stars: August and Amira Violin music: Amira’s love for August Waterlilies: Shen Yue Weather phenomenon (rain, sunshine, breeze, hail, snow, lightning, etc.): Amira White azaleas: Shen Yue White: Shen Yue Wolves: Cintinv Yellow: Tate more to be added

#dni please #lore tag tbt

[comradekatara]

and I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.

#id in alt text #yue #atla #avatar the last airbender #art #mart #experimenting with brushes #i think im gonna stick to my beloved wet acrylic brush tho #shes so sexy & versatile... #watercolors & ink brushes (on procreate at least) just arent doing it for me! #oh well. at least i tried #anyway i really like that quote #out of context the imagery is so beautiful #and in context its emily dickinson writing to her friend about the hassle of moving houses #being her usual witty good-humored self #i feel like that also represents yue quite well #who is seen/presents as this ethereal untouchable entity #(both as a princess & as a spirit) #but is really just a weird silly girl who is clever and insightful and appreciates a good joke #:')) #also the process of moving in a larger context #as a metaphor for yue's transcendent moving #of planar houses #between the corporeal and the spiritual #and what she leaves behind #ugh. its all so fitting. assuming u are also aware of all of this context #but if youve read these tags you are now! #i love emily dickinson so much #my all time favorite poet #and i think yue would really really love her too

[narutakijune]

About ATLA Relationship Arcs

So, this is me, finally trying to write some meta after lurking in my little tumblr corner for months! Hi!

Although I’ve tried to tag properly, if you are a Kat*anger and just want to enjoy your favourite couple in peace, this might not be the post for you. I am not trying to bash characters but I do have a lot of critical stuff to say about the writing.

Anyway, you have been warned and here is my story about my personal first Atla experience: I watched the show this year for the first time, and after the end of Book 1 I decided to look up spoilers, because after what happened to Yue, I wanted to make sure that Zuko and Iroh would be ok. So I knew what was going to happen: Kat*ang endgame and absolutely no Zutara at all. Still, by the end of Book 3, I was convinced that I had read wrong - that there would be an epilogue with a different ending or at least that Aang would only get together with Katara post-show- in that Korra series or something - because anything else wouldn’t make sense- right?

….

After I got over my shock and surprise, I went online and found out about that decade-long aggressive passionate ship war and how even the showrunners got involved.

And then I really worried that I might have missed a few points. Apparently ”Aang and Katara were the DNA of the show”, according to the creators themselves, and “Zutara could never have happened”.

Another popular anti-ZK argument I found was: Why do you always go on about Katara and Zuko? Just look at Zuko and Aang! They are the hero/ anti-hero and each other’s foils, their relationship is much more meaningful!”

So I tried to find out what it was that I apparently couldn’t see.

(Another disclaimer: I love analysing stories (like many Zutarians apparently) and this will get long and rambly. If you get bored to tears when people start talking about “narrative structure” you will probably not like this.)

Talking about narrative structure, I do believe that, in order to let your story, your characters and their relationships really shine, a good basic structure is important. There should be a recognizable development and individual parts of the story that build upon each other and lead to consequences and change, until there is a completed arc - because it is all about the journey that takes you to a satisfying ending, right? So that’s what I tried to do, with my personal Kat*ang vs. Zutara take, I tried to look at the structure and development of their relationship arcs.

The argument that threw me off track for a while is that compared to Aang and Zuko, Zuko and Katara’s relationship is not supposed to be that relevant for the plot. After all, Zuko is the foil, the anti-hero, the deuteragonist to Aang, who is the hero protagonist.

This is all true of course. But then why is it that in every finale, Zuko’s main opponent (and later ally) is not Aang but Katara? Why is it that their sun/moon, red/blue, fire/water dichotomy is so obviously highlighted?

I think one reason why Zuko and Katara are paired off so frequently in the story - as opposite elements, as opponents and as allies - is that they BOTH are Aang’s deuteragonists. While Zuko also acts as antagonist and Aang’s foil/mirror, Katara takes over the more traditional deuteragonist role of confidant / best friend/ narrator.

Protagonist Aang is what connects them, although they are on opposite sides: Both need Aang because he represents their hope to save their world. Very simply put, Katara protects him, so he can make the world a safer place again, and Zuko wants to capture him, so he can go home and be safe again. That rivalry between them is already established in the first episode, even before they meet each other: Katara, who hopes that the Avatar will return (as she tells everyone in the intro), and Zuko, who seems to be obsessed with finding him for more sinister reasons.

And just to make sure, I am not talking here about the characters’ feelings and emotions! This is just about the abstract roles they have been assigned within the narrative.

When regarding Zutara’s special connection to Aang and their rivalry with each other, it makes absolute sense to stress their “same but different”ness as well, visually and metaphorically: Red and blue, fire and water, sun and moon, arguably Painted Lady/Blue Spirit, and, when you put into account their story arc, also Oma and Shu.

With this basis, which puts them together and sets them apart simultaneously, their relationship already becomes very dynamic and interesting, even before you consider any romantic potential.

And here’s another thing, Zuko and Katara also have their own story arc within the main plot. Although they don’t have many scenes together before Zuko joins the Gaang, when they do meet there is always a new shift in their relationship and in quite a few cases their interactions are important for the main plot as well. If you just look at their “end fights” at each book’s finale, there is an obvious and consequential build-up, like any decent story arc should have:

Book 1 starts with Zuko as the powered-up enemy and Katara as the weak newbie waterbender. Both are battling over Aang. At the end of Book 1, they are finally established as equally powerful fighters but still fundamentally different (You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun!)

In CoD at the end of Book 2 happens the next step: they realize that they are not different at all! But Aang still doesn’t represent the same for them and they end up on opposing sides of the war again.

In the Book 3 finale, when Zuko has completed his own (anti-) hero's journey and Aang represents the same “hope” for both of them, they do not only join forces: Their “same but different”- traits make them such a uniquely suited match that they are even able to save each other’s lives during their fight with Azula (who in turn happens to be Katara and Zuko’s antagonist/mirror/foil).

And in addition to their own story arc they even get an individual recurring theme, which also appears in every book whenever their relationship status changes: The lost mothers, especially Katara’s mother.

In Book 1, Katara’s necklace (the symbol of Kiya) plays not only a major part in two of Zuko’s capture attempts, it is the reason for their very first one-one one encounter in the story.

Their first friendly connection in COD in Book 2 happens because they start talking about their mothers. And in Book 3, their final reconciliation (sealed with a very cathartic hug) happens after their life-changing trip which is, of course, all about Katara’s mother.

Again, I am not even trying to analyse their characters and motivations within the story - there are many metas that have already done that much better, more detailed and with screenshots. This is just dry structure and tropes and themes. But I think people recognize and connect with a well-structured arc, even subconsciously, which is one of the reasons that makes Zutara such a compelling couple. They complete and contrast each other, their relationship dynamic constantly changes, builds up, falls apart, reconnects. Such a setup is the perfect playground for a lot of creative takes on what-ifs and alternative scenarios and of course, shipping them romantically is extremely tempting - think of all the possibilities! It’s no wonder that the Zutara fandom is still so active decades after the end of the show. And it’s also no wonder that the Zutarians are known for “over-analysing everything”. You can only over-analyse if there is anything that gives you enough food to analyse to begin with. Which brings me to

KAT*ANG

I just go right to the top and take the quote from Br*yke themselves:

Kata*ng was in the DNA of the thing from the start…. [Zutara] was just dark and intriguing.

If you read this quote and then start watching the show, I would (grudgingly) agree that:

Aang and Katara understand and complement each other really well. Aang gives her the chance to have fun and go on adventures and in turn, Katara is his fiercest supporter from the very beginning, something that he really needs after he lost all his people AND has to find out that the world thinks the war is sort of his fault. In turn, the journey to the North Pole is as important to Katara as it is to Aang, because it is her dream to learn waterbending properly. That’s what she literally says when Sokka & Co try to banish Aang: (Sokka: Where do you think you’re going? Katara: To find a waterbender. Aang is taking me to the North Pole.) In that way, they are friends who give and take equally and are equally taken care of. They even have the last Airbender/ last Southern Waterbender status that connects them. The few times they have a fight, Aang does something in the end to redeem himself (perform some heroic feat) and Katara sees that she is right to believe in him.

Aang has this very sweet crush on her and it will be very sweet and wholesome when Katara will return his feelings at the end of their adventure after he has hit puberty. On the other side, there is also some heavy shipbaiting with Zuko: I save you from the pirates. The betrothal necklace. June and her excellent shipping taste. But in the end they are enemies, they barely know each other and, come on, it would be too dark and intriguing! There is no real threat against friends to lovers Kat*ang, the soft heart of the story. It’s very straightforward and there are a lot of simple “the hero saves the day” scenes for Aang but that’s fine! It’s not really my kind of ship but that’s not the point, it works for the story they want to tell.

End of Book 1.

In my - probably harsh- opinion, everything you really need to know about the Kat*ang relationship has been told by this point. If you want to be really mean, already by Book 1, episode 3.

That explains maybe why many (not all! but many) pro-KA arguments sound as if their shippers have not watched Book 2 and 3 at all. The Book 1 synopsis also perfectly sums up Bry*ke’s quote above. But then Book 2 and 3 are still there and I don’t know what happened but it seems as if they somehow decided that the Kat*ang story does not need any new and lasting input. Maybe because they were afraid that too much new development and change would stray too far away from their original Kat*ang vision. But there are still 2 more books and more adventures and Kat*ang somehow has to be kept apart until the finale.

So the tension in their potential romance is based largely on the question whether or not Katara will return Aang’s feelings. In general I don’t have a problem with that will-she-won’t she-technique. It works well in books where the love interest is not a POV or in shows/ movies where the love interest is not one of the main characters. But Katara is not only the female lead but also arguably the narrative voice of the whole story! As a result, this kind of writing makes Katara look as if she doesn’t have any agency in their relationship, which is not surprisingly a very popular anti-KA criticism.

Additionally, since her dream - learning waterbending - has been fulfilled by the end of Book 1, the relationship work becomes a bit one-sided. Of course Aang is the hero and his journey is the heart of the story. But in order to highlight their special connection it would have helped to give Katara another personal agenda, which Aang could have supported in some way. She is still the last Southern Waterbender and he the Last Airbender but this is not really explored in the Kat*ang relationship. And her other personal agenda, her mother, is already reserved for the Zutara arc.

Instead, in Book 2 and 3 the Kat*ang story is somehow all over the place. Of course there is new conflict and a few romantic scenes as well. But obstacles are either introduced too late or just dropped when not needed anymore, conflict is not resolved and their flirty, romantic moments never lead anywhere- and if they do, they lead to more conflict that is not resolved (yes, I am looking at you, EIP Kiss!).

Take for example Katara’s very sudden argument that they cannot be together now because there is a war going on. We hear her saying that for the first time in the very last episode (EIP) before the 4-part finale. That is too late to have any impact! That she has these kinds of thoughts was never even alluded to before. Not once.

Or the pattern Aang runs away/ is flaky - Katara is upset - Aang comes back and does his hero thing - Katara is relieved. In regards to their relationship arc, nothing changes here between Book 1 and the finale, only the stakes for Aang’s heroic performances get higher.

Or Katara being the one who is able to calm Aang down when he cannot control the Avatar state (which, in my personal opinion, is neither romantic nor healthy). This is also connected to the problem with the seventh Chakra, that Aang needs to let go of his attachment for her. I will be angry forever with how they wasted this for a possible relationship development! That Aang has to decide to either do his duty or save his forever girl (because let’s be fair, he did try to let go and only ran when he had the vision of Katara in danger) - that’s a fantastic setup!

But no, it doesn’t have any real consequences for Kat*ang at all. Instead there were only half-baked attempts – Aang does lie about his failed practice with Guru Pathik but the ultimate reason why his chakra is blocked is Azula, not his decision to run. Aang does try to let go of Katara for a little bit but then Azula shoots him. Nothing in Book 3 shows any change in his feelings that could have been a result of his instant let-it-go. If anything, he gets weirdly obsessive - which could have been used as a side effect of his blocked chakra but – again, no, nothing happens.

I suspect the whole thing was just introduced to create temporary drama for poor Aang, but it is never explained why Katara holds him back, what aspect of the attachment is blocking him or what would happen if he did let her go. Maybe they tried to make a statement about how love is more important than Avatar rules – which would have been fine but it’s also never properly explored. Instead, as soon as that plot point becomes inconvenient it’s simply dropped like a random rock™.

Compare all that to the Zutara arc, where both characters’ feelings about each other are always very much in the open, and where every interaction causes lasting effects in their relationship. Yes, it is unfair to compare that to Kat*ang, because up to the end of Book 3, Zuko and Katara almost never meet, while Aang and Katara spend almost every episode together – of course they cannot do meaningful things all the time. But on the other side, with Kat*ang, there would have been a great chance to show a subtle, gradual build-up instead.

It also doesn’t help that the Zutara arc seems hellbent on sabotaging every romantic moment Aang is allowed to enjoy:

There is Kat*angs first maybe-kiss in the dark before the background of the Oma and Shu legend. But it does not lead anywhere. Instead, Zuko and Katara almost reenact the legend itself in the Book 2 finale as two real enemies to almost-friends, including a glowy rocks-backdrop and the right costume colours, just so nobody misses the message.

In Footloose The Headband, Aang and Katara have a really sweet dance together, and everybody can see how they almost intuitively know each other's moves. This could be a great hint on how well they will fight together in the finale. But is it plot-relevant? No, because the final tag team is Katara and Zuko! While Aang gets paired off with random rock™.

Then there is Aang’s riding off to battle- kiss in DotBS, which Katara is not even allowed to enjoy, because keeping her feelings vague is apparently more important than character development at this point. It is the only romantic moment that gets mentioned again, but in a way that sinks the former cute and wholesome ship into the deep ocean, and the reason is - Aang is jealous of Zuko!

If all of this was only done for the sake of shipbaiting, then it really went out of control at some point.

In the end, the showrunners still had their reasons to choose Kat*ang, maybe because that corresponded more to their own vision, and there are still enough people out there who agree with them. Which is absolutely fine! In the end, what matters most is how you personally connect to the characters and nobody needs to defend their personal taste. But the typical anti-ZK claim, that all the Zutarians with their crazy analysis and rambling meta essays are reaching and delusional and that they desperately try to construct something that isn’t there, is not only a very lazy argument but simply not true.

And I’d claim that in spite of the canon choice, Zutara is technically the better written relationship. By far.

#zutara #antikataang #anti kataang #anti-kataang #atla critical #atla writing critical #long post #atla meta

[tossawary]

I'm sorry this feels real weird, but I love PINTWILF a lot, and the fact that you really expanded on SQH's role and everything. And I really loved that you added the other unnamed peaks and melded them in, everything that you wrote about the peaks actually really fleshed them out and their roles. So what did you name the three other peaks, and what are their roles? I think I only really understand that Xi Jiao is an animal/beast peak?

It’s not weird! I’m quite pleased with the sect logistics I’ve been writing in PINTWILF (from a humor angle, not a realism angle) and so I’m happy to talk about it. This is the order of peaks I’ve been using in PINTWILF: 

(1) Qiong Ding Peak - Peak Lord: Yue Qingyuan (Canon) 

Apparently they’re responsible for general affairs. I’ve always assumed they’re also responsible for dealing with other sects and politics, outside of peak-specific specialties where another peak lord has the authority to represent the sect. 

(2) Qing Jing Peak - Peak Lord: Shen Qingqiu (Canon) 

Peak of scholars and strategists. I assumed from there that they would also be responsible for a lot of library and archive-related duties, and that they would have some talisman and seal experts, etc., and that QJ and QD would be closely tied in many matters. 

(3) Wan Jian Peak - Peak Lord: Wei Qingwei (Canon) 

Peak of sword masters. I assumed that this meant both martial weapon specialists and sword smiths. I also assumed that this could be expanded to many kinds of metal work. Where WJ and AD meet is probably where a lot of non-weapon-related fabrication happens. 

(4) An Ding Peak - Peak Lord: Shang Qinghua (Canon, minus #?)

I’ve seen people put An Ding anywhere from 4th to 12th. I’m not sure that An Ding has a canonical number. I prefer An Ding being 4th because of 1) how closely Qiong Ding and An Ding’s work would be tied and the importance of logistics, but 2) mainly how funny I think it is if SQH is only three murders away from being the sect leader. 

SQH: “Wei Qingwei, you cannot die. The chances of Shen Qingqiu and Yue Qingyuan offing each other is too high for you to die on me. YOU’RE MY LAST LINE OF DEFENSE. DON’T MAKE ME BE SECT LEADER.” 

(5) Xian Shu Peak - Peak Lord: Qi Qingqi (Canon)

It’s unclear what specialties XS has, probably because it only existed in PIDW as the “hot lady peak” (and MXTX never actually expanded it post-transmigration). It’s never come up, but I kind of dig the idea of XS doing some textiles work, anything from weaving fine fabrics to rope-making. (Who makes stuff like Immortal Binding Cables? It could be Xian Shu.) 

(6) Xi Jiao Peak - Peak Lord: Tang Qingling (Non-Canon) 

Yes, this is an animal/beast peak, because I’ve seen it brought up in a few fics, and I thought it would be funny for SY to be entranced by the idea, only for SQH to go, “Bro, I hope you have the stomach for blood and literal shit, because that’s where they butcher monsters for parts and collect crap for fertilizer.” 

I also like the idea of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect having actual pipelines based on the specialties, which make it a very profitable and efficient sect. (Also, where are they getting their food? Do they have livestock? Do they buy it all from the surrounding towns and cities? Xi Jiao is me deciding that, yes, they have livestock.) Liu Qingge brings in a monster, it goes to Xi Jiao, then the parts go out again to Wan Jian, Qian Cao, Zui Xian, and others. to become armor, medicine, potions, etc.. Or maybe just to An Ding to sell. 

(7) Bai Zhan Peak - Peak Lord: Liu Qingge (Canon) 

They make people who fight good. 

(8) Qian Cao Peak - Peak Lord: Mu Qingfang (Canon) 

Trains healers and makes medicine. I assumed that they would grow as many of their own plants as they could and do a lot of plant breeding. Medicine could also be a great source of income for the sect (another reason why QC is one of Shang Qinghua’s favorite peaks). 

(9) Ku Xing Peak - Peak Lord: Wang Qingjie (Canon, minus # and peak lord) 

The peak name is canon, but I can’t remember if they have a canonical number and they don’t have a canonical peak lord. They’re all all-male peak with an ascetic lifestyle, living akin to monks. 

I think I decided that they specialized in talismans and the creation of other spiritual tools, including and as well as ceramics. So, they work closely with many of the other peaks, but especially An Ding in supplying other peaks. I can’t remember why I decided this. I think maybe I decided that Ku Xing might have a philosophy that “to create purifying objects, the maker must also be free from impurities”? Hence the ascetic lifestyle. 

I also thought it would be funny if Ku Xing and Qing Jing had a little bit of a rivalry going on. Shen Qingqiu makes very good talismans and Wang Qingjie is NOT angry about it (in the way of someone trying not to be angry). 

(10) Zui Xian Peak - Peak Lord: Zhang Qingyan (Canon, minus # and peak lord) 

Again, the peak name is canon, but I can’t remember if they have a canonical number and they don’t have a canonical peak lord. This is the peak that apparently specializes in alcohol. 

So, I decided that they might as well be responsible for brewing other potions and solutions. Maybe they have people who specialize in alchemy. Qian Cao and Wan Jian and Xi Jiao (and nearly every other peak) probably do their own brewing of certain things, but it probably helps to have someone else dedicated to brewing on a large scale. Qian Cao grows the plants for a common medicine, then ships them to Zui Xian for mass-production, and the An Ding takes the result and sells it to all the nearby towns and cities. 

Zui Xian probably saves and makes Cang Qiong so much money. 

(11) Long Sheng Peak - Peak Lord: ??? (Non-Canon) 

This is a newer invention and I haven’t come up with a peak lord yet, but they’re named after “The Dragon’s Backbone” and they specialize in plants and agriculture. This is my “this is how the sect gets fed” peak, alongside Xi Jiao. 

Maybe they don’t grow all the sect’s food themselves, but they support and work with the surrounding towns and cities to make sure that the local harvests survive all of PIDW’s horrible plants and monsters. Sometimes you need cultivators who can tell you why this year’s harvest is haunted and what to do about it! Maybe Airplane invented the equivalent of magical locust swarms and didn’t think twice about it, so someone has to deal with that! Maybe they grow the materials for Xian Shu’s textiles work! 

They work closely with Xi Jiao, Qian Cao, Zui Xian, and An Ding. 

(12) ??? 

I haven’t actually named the last peak. I haven’t really seen a need to invent one yet and it’s kind of been a in-joke with myself. It’s fun to imagine people being like, “Cang Qiong has twelve peaks, right? What’s that last one called again? I can never remember what that last peak is called.” 

Notes: 

I imagine that most of the peaks’ specialties overlap in one way or another. An Ding, Zui Xian, Qian Cao, and Long Sheng each do some agricultural stuff, but Qian Cao and Long Sheng (especially LS) do most of it. And so on. 

Cang Qiong Mountain Sect also doesn’t have to do everything in-house. Shang Qinghua also has to make orders from other sects and merchants for stuff that Cang Qiong either can’t make or don’t have the space/time to make. I just like the idea that CQ is so powerful partly because they’re so independent. 

If I keep the details loose, I can get a lot of fun humor out of it. 

#lightningparadox #ask tossawary #tossawary svsss #pride is not the word #shang qinghua

[alfredolover119]

zukka fic rec list (post-canon)

howdy! i’ve been collecting zukka fics i like since uhhh june and now i am sharing my lists with the world. i’m splitting it into three posts so it hopefully wont be too long. this is the second one: post-canon fics! the other two will be canon era and modern au. [side note!! if youd like a specific type of rec list,, i.e. soulmate au, fake dating, ambassador sokka,, hmu and i’ll post a list !!]

within this post, the fics are in word count order! also, if you’d like a soundtrack for your reading, i might recommend my zukka playlist :^) happy reading!

speak ill by @moonsongdotmp3

-4111 words, teen

-developing/established relationship, ozai hate <3

"I hate your dad so much,” Sokka considers for a second. He tries to mix it up as often as he can when they play this game. “That I have considered starting an official petition begging Aang to reconsider his commitment to nonviolence.” // It’s quiet for a beat. He’s afraid he’s miscalculated, but Zuko laughs, broken and sincere. // (Or: 5, 8, 15 years after the war, Sokka talks shit about Ozai.)

Friends Don’t Let Friends Fake Date Each Other by @d-naggeluide

-5349 words, general

-fake dating, coming out, kinda crackfic

Toph demands that Zuko fake date her. This goes just about as well as can be expected. Sokka steps in to show them how it's done, and this goes a bit better than expected.

Oh, How We Find Our Way by @donvex

-6043 words, teen

-bed sharing, hurt/comfort, domestic fluff

In which Zuko doesn’t sleep nearly enough once he takes up the throne, and Sokka isn’t having it. And maybe they get to fall in love on the way, as a treat.

(let me be) there for you by @bisexuallsokka

-8471 words, teen

-friends/idiots to lovers, mutual pining, getting together

Sokka pulls out a clean piece of parchment and starts to write: Reasons Why Sokka Would Be A Great Bodyguard for Lord Zuko // He smiles in satisfaction at the title. Seeing it in writing only makes him feel more confident in this brilliant, two-minute-old idea of his. Zuko is one of his closest friends, and Sokka is a great fighter, he would be the perfect bodyguard! He has the entirety of his trip in the Fire Nation to prove it to Zuko. This is going to be a piece of cake.

This Isn’t My Idea of Fun by @khaleeseas​

-8921 words, explicit

-royalty/moon spirit!sokka, childhood friends to lovers, no war au, mutual pining, fluff and angst

If you asked Zuko, he and Azula saw far too much of Chief Hakoda of the Northern Water Tribe’s children growing up. It wasn’t until they were older, and Azula pointed out that - duh - their families were trying to set them all up, that he realized why. // He was told by his mother to be polite. These people were their friends and allies, and though their nations were as different as they came, harmony between nations was the most important thing. // It wasn’t his fault the Chief’s children were so annoying.

the thing about dancing by anodymalion

-9713 words, teen

-trans sokka, family angst

The first time a attendant spills Zuko’s tea and doesn’t immediately fall to her knees, begging the Fire Lord’s forgiveness, it is not anger but a resounding warmth that fills his chest.

Will You Fake Date Me (But This Time For Real)? by AlyssiaInWonderland

-10520 words, not rated (teen, i think)

-fake dating, mutual pining, idiots to lovers

Zuko is determined to convince his Uncle that he is not, in fact, pining after Sokka. // Sokka is desperate to convince Katara and Aang that he is not, in fact, pining after Suki. // When Sokka's scheme to avoid pity means Zuko and him must fake date for an entire diplomatic event, shenanigans, realisations and confessions ensue.

i could (never) give you peace by @zukkababey​

-10540 words, mature

-ambassador!sokka, friends to fwb to lovers, angst with a happy ending, miscommunication

Zuko almost said it. He almost said the words I think I’m in love with you, but he choked them back down at the last second. // Zuko would never be able to be what Sokka wanted. They might have needed each other during the summer, when two boys with too much weight on their shoulders found comfort in each other in the only way they knew how. // But now Zuko was Fire Lord, and Sokka was leaving.

Operation: Get the Fire Lord a Boyfriend by @rejectscanon 

-10679 words, teen

-established relationship, attempted matchmaking, fluff, hurt/comfort, 5+1

5 times the people of the Fire Nation tried to get Zuko and Sokka together, and 1 time they realized they already were.

a study in matchmaking by @verdanthoney​

-12218 words, general

-friends to lovers, mutual pining, idiots in love, bg bakoda and kataang

Zuko and Sokka try to play matchmaker, but things don’t go exactly as planned.

Always read Your Peace Treaties Carefully by preciousbunnynoiz

-14039 words, teen

-arranged marriage, miscommunication, found family, fluff, non-linear narrative, angst with a happy ending

Zuko and Sokka have been engaged to be married since the peace talks. Only they were the only ones who didn't know. // Everyone else thought they not only knew but that they had already been dating the entire time. // This is also news to Zuko and Sokka who have definitely NOT been dating but maybe they aren't as uninterested as they are protesting.

this love burns so yellow (becoming orange and in its time, exploding) by @meliebee​

-18767 words, teen, major character death (NOT ZUKO OR SOKKA OR ANY OF THE GAANG)

-found family, slowburn, fluff and angst, hurt/comfort, mutual pining

Ten months after Zuko is crowned at seventeen, he faces his first coup.

All the Little Things by @voidcenturyscholar and @romancedawning

-23575 words, general

-fake dating, friends to lovers, mutual pining, bed sharing, fluff, miscommunication

Sokka receives an offer of an arranged marriage from the Northern Water Tribe. On the one hand, accepting would strengthen ties between their tribes. On the other hand, Chief Arnook has suggested Hahn as a potential match, and Hahn sucks. But with the future of the Southern Water Tribe Reconstruction project relying heavily on the good will of the North, Sokka doesn’t know how to say no. // (Katara doesn’t have to deal with this. Katara is dating the Avatar.) // Zuko has a solution. Sokka just wishes he’d realized he was in love with the Fire Lord before he agreed to pretend to date him.

isn’t this the vision that you wanted by @goldrushzukka​

-34633 words, teen

-pining, matchmaking, coming out, friends to lovers, bed sharing, internalized homophobia

Firelord Zuko - ender of the Hundred Year War, ruler of the Fire Nation, payer of respects and reparations - takes advice and counsel from representatives of every nation, division, and specialty. // But teenage boy Zuko - friend of turtleducks, wielder of fun looking swords, stumbler over words and feet in the presence of cute boys - only listens to two people, and they are conspiring together to ruin him.

(do you take this jerk to be) your one and only by @jatersade​

-55855 words, teen

-enemies to friends to lovers, (not actually) unrequited love, slowburn, sharing a bed, alternate universe, arranged marriage, huddling for warmth, fluff

Under the leadership of Fire Lord Iroh, the Fire Nation has made every attempt to restore peace and make amends for the harm they inflicted during the Seventy-Year War. Their newest proposal is a literal proposal: a marriage to unite the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes. // The Fire Nation offers Prince Zuko’s hand. // The Water Tribes offer Princess Yue’s. // Sokka is apparently the only person in the world who has a problem with any of this.

Wooing the Water Tribe by @dameferre​

-56839 words, teen

-didn’t know they were dating, i mean IDIOT idiots to lovers, ambassador!sokka, mutual pining, himbos istg

Zuko is courting Katara, and with every passing day finds new and insane ways of showing that he would quite literally move the spirit world and earth to make her happy. // In hindsight, it probably would've been better if Sokka had realised he was in love with Zuko at literally any time before this. Or preferably, never fallen for his best friend in the first place.

In the Soft Light by @voidcenturyscholar and @romancedawning​

-83901 words, teen, graphic depictions of violence

-moon spirit!sokka, ambassador zuko kinda, hurt/comfort, slowburn, pining, canon divergence, miscommunication, sickfic, huddling for warmth, angst with a happy ending, enemies to lovers, underage drinking

As the newly appointed cultural liaison to Northern Water Tribe, Zuko is the first Fire Nation Citizen to step foot inside the city's walls in nearly a century. He's determined to prove himself—to the Fire Lord and to his father—even if the Water Tribe's spirit-touched prince seems to want nothing to do with him.

#zukka #zuko #sokka #atla #avatar: the last airbender #fic recs #zukka fic recs #fanfiction #rec list

[lilover131]

Chapter 58 Analysis

Hey there everyone!! I’m still alive, I promise!! The new chapter is slated to come out in a few days, so I wanted to get out my thoughts on the last chapter, Chapter 58, before it was too late!

This chapter felt very similar and had a lot of similar themes to the last chapter, but it definitely gives me a feeling. To explain what I’m talking about, let’s waste no further time and dig right in! Under the cut due to spoilers and length!

As usual, I’ll start off talking about the color page! It is so refreshing to see Ruby Moon and Yue on a page together! They look absolutely fabulous, as usual, but I love how it expresses their relationship with each other too. They fought of course during the final battle in the Sakura Card arc, but once things were cleared up, it was like nothing had happened at all. The two of them seem to get along quite nicely now and Yue has never really seemed bothered by Ruby’s presence at all. He doesn’t necessarily seem excited about it either, but he’s just overall calm, and that says a lot about how he views them.

 Anyways, this chapter begins with continuing a bit of the Twin Alice story, and we learn in particular more about the cat that Alice has befriended. This cat has been described again as a guide of sorts, and Alice finds that in these places she goes in her dreams, she is able to speak the languages and even read their books as well. This sounds almost eerily similar to Akiho, since she is able to read Alice in Clockland, which no one else can do. She also has travelled to many places, and I imagine that she might have been able to speak the languages in those countries as well as she does in Japan. That, or she has a mobile translation device like Mokona in Tsubasa. Haha!

 The story tells us of how Alice fought against strange things like wind, water, and even sweets, and the images seem to show similarities to Sakura’s battles with Gale, Aqua, and Appear. But occasionally, Alice would find herself trapped, and when in those situations, her cat would rescue her using time magic. The time magic use certainly points to Kaito once again, but I certainly didn’t miss seeing Kaito’s magic circle used specifically under the cat in this panel!! It seems confirmed that the cat is meant to represent Kaito (Yunya D Kaito!! XD), and that these rescue situations might be related to the times he has had to come in and stop her before the magic inside her got out of control (ex: after Akiho went to Fujitaka’s library, at the school pool, or in the courtyard at school before Momo intervened).

 However, even though Alice was able to do these amazing things in these other worlds and see impossible things that could only be explained by magic, she was sad because the people she loved were not with her. I think Akiho and Sakura can both resonate with this idea. Sakura uses magic all the time, but she’d rather have her loved ones over all the magic in the world. And Akiho, knowing of magic and being judged for not having it, also feels the same. I imagine she would much rather have a loving family and Kaito by her side than any magic.

Further showing the connection between the two girls, the next panel has them reading a line out loud at exactly the same time, by accident it seems. The two of them are so in tune now, and it’s probably only a matter of time before ‘that time’ comes around. I think the plan all along was to have them connect in this way, and I think that if you were to change their appearances, it’d be awfully difficult to tell who is who in some circumstances.

 This is eerie on its own, but it’s what Naoko says to them that I honestly find way more terrifying. She brings up reading “Ten Nights of Dreams”, and if you remember, this story was brought up much earlier in the series, but done rather casually as a story being read in class. Those of us who are familiar with CLAMP’s works, the way it was written in seemed as if it would be relevant at some point and mean more than just a random story read in class, and it seems like now is the time that this is finally being brought up again. Naoko talks about how the final part of the story is that the last night itself was a dream as well and that the reader never wakes up. She mentions how she thought it would be awfully terrifying if you could not wake up from a dream you were having, and that this was part of the inspiration of her story. This is a haunting thought, because it seems to imply that one of these girls might find themselves trapped and unable to escape, or god forbid already in this situation. I am sincerely praying that this is not going to turn into a situation where the entire story was one big dream. I would honestly be really angry if that happened, because that was a theory early on in the series’ serialization often thrown around, and I hated it. I had thought we were in the clear for that one until now, but again the ‘it was all just a dream’ theory shows its ugly head! Don’t let me down CLAMP! You’re better than that!

 Next comes an incredibly important part. Who will play who? This may seem trivial to some, but CLAMP seems to be expressing its importance, which means that right now, the role they are choosing may mean far more than just a role in a play. They may very well be choosing what future they choose for their actual life. We don’t actually get to see them work out this decision in real time but rather in the future when the girls are talking to their protectors, Syaoran and Kaito. Sakura is confirmed to be playing the role of the Alice lost in the dream world, and Akiho playing the Alice who cannot find her way back home. Sakura explains that initially she wanted to play the role of the other Alice, but Akiho insisted on playing this role instead as she felt she could resonate with this character and understood how the girl must have felt to not be able to find her way home.

 Now, when Akiho says this, I don’t think that she means she can’t actually find her way home as it doesn’t really seem like she has any intentions or desire to go back to England. I think the issue here is that she has still yet to actually find a place that feels like home. So far, Japan may be the closest thing, but she may still be thinking in the back of her mind when she might end up being forced to leave this place and all the friends she made behind. When will she lose all of these wonderful things she’s come to know? All she’s ever really known is suffering, so it’s natural for her to probably be frightened to some extent upon good things actually happening to her.

She looks incredibly sad when she says this, and again Kaito’s hand seems to reach out subconsciously to comfort her, but he stops himself. Compared to the last chapter, this one seems much more uncontrolled and blatant. It’s so much so in fact that Kaito even has to make up an excuse this time to try and cover up this ‘slip-up’ of his. He even holds it behind his back like he’s trying to hide the evidence that it ever happened.  It seems more and more his heart is trying to speak and he is struggling to keep it locked away. I don’t think it will be much longer before he finally starts dealing with some actual feelings instead of shoving them down. He can’t go much longer like this.

But Akiho can’t be fooled by this and knows him too well, stating that she wants him to rest. The way Kaito reacts rather surprises me, as it seems almost a rather extreme reaction to what she says. However, it’s also so super sad. He says to her that he must be a failure as a butler to have worried her so much, and although one could see this as a way to try and end the conversation quickly, I genuinely think that in some respects, this is how he actually feels. I think he sees her worry, especially over him, as a failure. He’s working so hard to make her feel secure and happy at any cost, but Akiho is even more sad than ever over her worry for him. It makes me wonder if perhaps he has intentions of trying to erase himself in the future in thought that she’d be happier without him….and I know that is a really heavy and dark thought to think about. Maybe this is why it’s so difficult for Kaito to face these feelings of his, because he’s had them so bottled up for so long, that they’ve become something real scary to look at. There is almost nothing scarier than having to face yourself, and that’s something I’ve learned from personal experience over time.

 Poor Akiho appears to be dealing with insecurities of her own, feeling like she is a bother to him with her worries. It’s clear that he is uncomfortable when she discusses it, and seeing as she was rejected by so many people before, it’s honestly heartbreaking to imagine just how damaged these two are that these discussions cause so much pain, and I feel like a lot of us out there can relate to one or both of them.

 Kaito responds by telling Akiho that he only wants her to think of herself above anything else, but honestly what he’s asking of Akiho is impossible for her. She is far too good a person to think only of herself, but I know that Kaito’s main concern is that she often doesn’t think enough about herself. Kaito is the one who likely needs this advice the most though!! Beautifully, Akiho responds that she does think of herself, but that she wants to think of him too. She understands that it’s important to care for oneself, but it’s also important to care about others too. There is a healthy balance, and maybe she’ll be the one to teach him how to do this. Ultimately, I think Akiho is the only one who can get through to him as she may very well be the only person Kaito genuinely cares about right now, so her words will mean so much more.

 In the next page, we see Sakura dreaming for what seems like the first time in a while, or at least it somehow feels that way (I also realized I literally typed this myself before realizing Sakura says the exact same thing herself. Twinsies! Haha). Sakura doesn’t seem at all afraid anymore and seems very comfortable digging right into the conversation and asking very direct questions. I honestly really like this more direct Sakura who doesn’t beat around the bush. It’s also really nice seeing her actively working things out in her mind, and it really goes to show how much she’s paying attention and observing things. Our baby is growing up and learning! I was a bit shocked when she came out and just asked if it’s Akiho, though I can honestly see how she came to this conclusion now. Since she knows Kaito can use magic and Akiho lives with him, it’s reasonable to come to this idea at this point in time. Had she not yet known about Kaito, I can see her continuing to really struggle to try and identify this cloaked figure.

In the end, we never got a true answer on that one, but it does bring more questions for us. So since Syaoran isn’t exactly the same height as Sakura and the cloaked figure in this dream is, that certainly does seem to imply Akiho. However, obviously we’ve had plenty of situations in which Syaoran has been clearly identified as the cloaked figure. Naturally, this is confusing and makes us question a lot (this also explains why CLAMP was okay with the director making the cloaked figure Akiho in the anime), so it seems fitting and also almost taunting in a way from CLAMP that Sakura wakes up with the creation of a card called “TRUE OR FALSE”. It’s definitely the longest and most unique card name so far, and it seems like it is a Clear Card version of the anime only card ‘LIBRA’, but I think the question CLAMP is trying to present to us here is “Which one is the truth?” (and again, I literally typed this before scrolling to the next page and seeing Sakura literally ask herself this question. Lmaaoo). I think, much like the twin Alice story, it’s going to be up to Sakura to decide what the reality ends up becoming. Even Kaito said in his battle with Syaoran that “It is for the strong to decide what the future holds in store for all of us”. I believe that a very important decision is about to be proposed to Sakura very soon, and maybe even possibly it has already been made….

Sakura goes downstairs and sees Touya there, who tells her that he was still up due to working on a paper due the next day, but knowing Touya, he already knew this was going to happen and has no paper at all. He then rather assertively tells her to sit down and gives her warm milk and honey to drink. For those who are not aware, this was something their mother used to make for them, particularly when they were sick, and Sakura has even made this for Syaoran when he came down with a fever in the Honey Milk Tales. It’s rather nice to see them drinking this in the regular series but not being sick. I suppose it can even just be used as a source of comfort.

 Sakura decides to confide in Touya a bit and asks him how you can tell when something is true or not. He brilliantly answers “True? According to who?”, going on to say that if he were able to determine what was true or not, then he’d go with whatever protected the things he doesn’t wish to lose. I think this pretty much confirms the thought that Sakura will be the one making the decision of what is true or not. And I think Touya provided her comfort by reminding her that everything will surely be all right, because ultimately she can decide her destiny and choose to go with the answer that protects the things she cares for. It does sound simple in theory, however I think it will become much more complex in nature when it comes down to it. After all, what do you stand to lose if denying the other choice? What if it comes down to her having to choose between losing Syaoran or losing Akiho? She can’t forsake either of them, after all…so how would she fare in a situation where no matter what, the choice will be painful?

Since these last two chapters were incredibly calm, and this next one is going to be the last chapter of the volume, I have a feeling that something dramatic is going to happen VERY soon. I predicted not long ago with chapter 56 that I felt like something bad in particular was going to happen to Syaoran within 4-5 chapters, so we’ll see if I was way off base or not in the next 3 chapters. But this chapter definitely has a ‘calm before the storm’ feel, and I feel like ‘that time’ is very very close now. I’m buckling myself in already for the emotional roller coaster, so I’m super excited to see what happens next!!

#cardcaptor sakura #clear card #chapter 58 #sakura #akiho #touya #syaoran #alice #naoko #true or false #spoilers #manga #leave it to CLAMP to leave us questioning everything all the time #chrissy talks a lot #theory #analyzation #analysis

[hella1975]

oh!! so this doesn't really go on a specific chapter but i realized something darling and oh!! oh!!!!

(spoilers for uhhhhh up to chapter 23? i think)

!!!!!!!!!HELLA YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!!!!!!!!!! YOU APPLE OF MY EYE, THE MOON IN THE SKY (on par with yue <3) YOU DELIGHTFUL FUCKING BASTARD OF A WRITER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i just realized something!!!!

zuko is constantly thinking that not being emotionally attached is a good thing, that being numb is good, that it keeps him *alive* and for the most part maybe that's true! either way he's lived this long

but what was it that saved his life when tovah came for him?

the lotus piece

and why did he have that?

BECAUSE HE WOULDN'T FUCKING LOSE IT FOR ANYTHING AFTER HE GOT CAPTURED BY THE SWT. he jumped off a bowsprit for it. he hid it in his clothes and he treasured it when he got kidnapped and he kept it CLOSE and WHY??????? WHY????

because he fucking cared.

him caring about his uncle, about lee, and even to some extent the swt, kept him alive

not being detatched. it was him caring that saved him in the end, when he couldn't care anymore.

anyways, enough of my exhausted ramblings!! i hope you sleep well and wake up refreshed (and whatever drinks you had, that your hangover isn't bad-)

much love and many fuck you's <33333

yeah. YEAH. this. a lot

This is one part of taob that i've always loved, because it's one of the few things that has quite literally been in every single chapter since the very first. Zuko's white lotus piece represents how much he cares, that gentle side of him that became so important to his character. And through everything, through pain and hardship and fear, Zuko kept his white lotus piece close. It was only in the boiling rock and fire nation chapters that he separated from it, and these are strangely enough his Apathy Chapters. There's a quote i've used twice now in taob, once in ch19 and once in the most recent chapter, that is 'people like Zuko didn't do things in moderation'. It's his entire character. Zuko is renowned for his duality because he is both extremely angry and brash and also gentle and compassionate, and his entire arc surrounds his struggle with balancing the two sides within him, both in canon and in taob. He just cannot moderate himself.

In book 1 when he's supposed to be the ruthless Fire Prince fighting back against the Water Tribe, he still finds himself caring. He cares about Lee, and then about the crew, and he does not part from the white lotus piece, not even when it might be safer to do so (made into a metaphor with the bowsprit scene; you can almost see this as foreshadowing how Zuko's caring nature gets him in trouble in book 2). In book 2 when he's sure he's evil and ruined and unsalvageable, he tries to part from the white lotus piece, but finds himself coming right back to it, because he realises this apathy and coldness he's trying to don just isn't him, because he can't moderate himself, he has to feel things 'in their entire inferno', be that good or bad.

Zuko has gone through horror after horror, and through it all, he still cares so deeply about the world and those around him. He can't quite figure out how he feels about this. He was raised thinking it was a negative part of himself, and he still sways into that a lot, but these days, he's also seeing the positives of it, seen here; "[The white lotus piece] was one thing that was so utterly, obnoxiously Zuko’s. It had been Zuko’s on the Erlong and on the Ullaakut and in Fong’s base and at the White Lotus camp and now at the Western Air Temple. It saw Lee’s death. It saw the Water Tribe’s gradual acceptance. It saw Oro and Renmin. It saw every torture. It saw Zi Se." He lists everything he's been through, and there's a mixture of good and bad. Because his caring nature is what led to him being accepted by the Water Tribe, and what reunited them at the Western Air Temple, and what introduced Zi Se into his life etc etc. But his caring nature also led to him being on the Erlong after trying to defend the 41st division, and it led to him surrendering to Oro and Renmin and his subsequent torture. It's a massive internal struggle that Zuko has tackled ever since chapter 1 and is still coming to terms with in recent chapters, and that's probably why I like it so much. It's the most consistent symbol in taob and I still have some plans for it to come

#hey zuko i know i clown on you but i actually love you a lot i hope ur having a nice day king #*glances at ch37* .... or not #felony sorry this took me so long to see quite simply my inbox is a MESS but ur thoughts are always godlike and i love them #(and you but shhh) #ask #taob asks #taob analysis

[bao3bei4]

girlbosses, male wives, and other lesbian genders

a post about jing wei qing shang. but also mostly about another unrelated movie. spoiler-free.

for a lot of people, mulan 1998 is their definitive “ohhh i’m a chinese woman dressing as a man for contrived reasons and i get absolutely nooo erotic pleasure from this” movie. 

however, because i am very special and unique, for me it’s the love eterne 1963. it’s the shaw brothers adaptation of butterfly lovers, the classic chinese folktale. here’s how i’d summarize the movie: 

zhu yingtai, an aspiring scholar, convinces her parents to let her dress as a man to attend school. on the way there, she meets liang shanbo, another prospective student, and they become sworn brothers. they study together for three years, growing closer, until zhu yingtai returns home. liang shangbo accompanies her for the eighteen-li journey home while she hints she’s a woman, but he remains oblivious. by the time he learns her gender, her parents have engaged her to another man. he dies of grief, and while she mourns at his grave, it splits open, and she buries herself inside with him. two scraps of her torn outfit turn into butterflies and fly away.

it’s worth noting here that like. this movie is made in the huangmei opera style. so both zhu yingtai and liang shanbo are played by women (betty loh ti and ivy ling po respectively). because of this, basically every level of the film is preoccupied with gender: if we take zhu yingtai’s male performance as credible (as the characters in the movie do) the leads bond through male homoeroticism; the text is ultimately about a heterosexual romance; it is acted out by two women, in a performance that is difficult to mistake as heterosexual or even feminine; and the dialogue of the movie can’t help but remark on this.

basically it asks: what if lesbians could be gay both ways? wouldn’t that be based? 

like opera was traditionally made by single gender casts, so roles tended to be genderless, in that the gender of the actor doesn’t determine the gender of the role they play. roles are instead typed into four categories: dan (fem), sheng (masc), chou (clown), and jing (painted face). it’s a sick gender quadinary. each of these roles has further subtypes that are represented through stylized patterns of singing, makeup, costuming, movement etc.

so in butterfly lovers, betty loh ti plays a dan, and ivy ling po plays a sheng. but because of the textual cross-gender play, you end up with a woman playing a woman playing a man who falls in love with a woman playing a man.

i’m going to make a brief digression here into talking about like.. acting theory. in the european tradition, you see it evolving out of early concerns (from stanislavski, brecht) about the fourth wall, and its permeability or lack thereof. in chinese opera tradition, the fourth wall didn’t ever really exist. and mei lanfang, the legendary fanchuan performer, claimed that his success wasn’t just due to his appearance, but rather, his mastery of some nonliteral feminine subjectivity. 

If I kept my male feelings, even just a trace, it will betray my true self; then how can I compete for the audience’s affection for feminine beauty and guile?

i’m not going to argue that there’s like, an essence to being a woman because i’m not a fucking idiot. but there’s something to be said for the idea that the gendered interplay between the audience’s perception of the actor, the actor’s perception of themself, and the character they play is a massive part of the appeal of fanchuan performance.

this is echoed by david hwang’s m. butterfly, in which gallimard memorably says, “i’m a man who loved a woman created by a man. everything else—simply falls short.” btw sorry for having the type of brain disease where i constantly reference chinese crossdressing related media. you already know why i have it. 

anyway. parallel to that (but far less morally detestably), jin jiang argues “young male impersonators in yue opera embody women’s ideal men—elegant, graceful, capable, caring, gentle, and loyal.” so, trivially, 1) the eroticism embodied by fanchuan performers is distinctly different from their “straight” counterparts, and perhaps less trivially 2) it’s way better. 

back to the love eterne for a bit. one of the many reasons it’s lodged itself into my psyche is because there’s something more interesting at play than just all that. normally in opera, to compensate for any perceived residual femininity in the sheng, the dan camps it up even further. so this is how zhu yingtai first appears, this bratty femme pastiche of womanhood. yet within a couple minutes she’s dressed as a man, which she’ll stay as for the bulk of the movie. they do however make compromises with the makeup--more gently lifted eyebrows than the steep angles of the sheng opera beat, and an improbably masculine smoky eye. 

that’s right. they performed girlbossification on her. 

i don’t want to suggest that she’s straightforwardly feminine. i could write an entire other thing on her relationship to masculinity. instead i want to highlight the erotic interplay not just between the “girl” and the “boss” but also between her and her counterpart: the male wife. 

liang shanbo is ostensibly straightforwardly male, but his relationship with zhu yingtai isn’t gay in the ahaha what if i was into my bro way-- it’s a what if i was into my bro and i was his wife way.

that’s right. they performed force fem on a cis woman-man. like when zhu yingtai tells him he can’t watch over her as she recovers from an illness because “boys and girls can’t sleep together,” liang shanbo asks “are you implying that I’m a girl?”

there’s a lot of shit like this that builds up over the course of the movie. it all culminates in that final 18 mile journey. along the way, zhu yingtai compares them to a pair of mandarin ducks, one male & one female. liang shanbo sputters “i am a man inside out-- you shouldn’t--” before graciously conceding, “you may compare me to a woman.” 

this is like. a simple punchline. but it’s incredible. it’s true! liang shanbo isn’t a man inside out in that he’s a man and only a man, but rather that he’s a man seen inside first, built for desiring, by a woman & for a woman. as a perpetual object, he becomes a more believable woman than zhu yingtai. and at least in his view, it seems more likely that he could be a woman than her. but beyond that, his permissive tone reads as a kind of wanting in itself--recast, if she wants, “for you, i’ll be a woman.” 

obviously this is a classic lesbian mood. who among us has not seen “no gender only lesbian” posts. and speaking of classic lesbians, you might ask. did you just tiresomely reinvent butches and femmes but with a more annoying name? yes. no. okay. well. 

first, like butch/femme dynamics have both historical specificity and a classed character such that it’s not rlly that appropriate to impose them on the love eterne. and i guess more importantly, i wanna talk about stuff that isn’t real.

we fight all day about people who confuse performance with performativity, (i use we lightly here. for instance, i go outside every day so i don’t care about discourse) but what if we actually wanted to talk about the former for once? something specifically, whether we choose or are forced into it, that we pretend to be? 

anyway. what the hell does all that have to do with jing wei qing shang. i’m going to start by first making the argument that there’s no such thing as a naturally occurring girlboss. i think, honestly, she’s a product of capitalism (“boss” should be the tipoff here) but because both of these stories are set in ambiguously historical china, i’m going to say, instead that she’s a product of uhhh primitive accumulation.

semantics so that i can be canon compliant with marxism aside, if girlbosses are made not born, can you choose to be a girlboss? sheryl sandberg says yes. i don’t disagree, i guess, but i will say: stop glamorizing it! humans only become girlbosses when they’re greatly distressed. 

you become a girlboss when you have no other choice not to be one. when your wants are too great to be a woman, when the things you want are not things that women should want-- whether that’s something that really no one should want, like being a ceo, or whether that’s just something like loving a woman (or, as it is quite often, both) -- you have to become something else. 

another important part of being a girlboss is that other people are not. your excesses mean that not only do you lose something in the process, but your bosshood comes at the expense of others. the girlboss necessitates a girlworker, or so to speak. 

now we’re getting to jwqs. i’m assuming that you haven’t read jwqs, because most people haven’t. that was me until like four days ago. in broad strokes, the novel is about a woman, qiyan agula, who was raised as a prince, and her quest for revenge against the kingdom who slaughtered her people. of course, this involves marrying one of the princesses of that kingdom. it’s all very exciting (lesbian). 

what’s striking about jwqs is that both of them seem to fit the girlboss paradigm, in vaguely similar ways. qi yan (agula’s assumed name) seems to follow the lineage of zhu yingtai, who pretends to be a man to achieve her goals. she’s forced to give up much in the process, and also sacrifices a, uh, lot of innocent people. similarly, nangong jingnu, the princess, is inherently a girlboss because royalty sucks. but also, qi yan girlbossifies her over the course of their relationship. 

but i wouldn’t say jwqs is girlboss4girlboss. there’s something a little more complicated happening. qi yan isn’t zhu yingtai in that she’s a dan pretending to be a sheng. it seems more like that she was a sheng all along. it’s something that the women of the novel return to often: qi yan seems to be better than a man.

for instance, nangong sunu, jingnu’s older sister, reflects on this. 

Nangong Sunu had seen many foolishly loving women who sacrificed everything for the sake of their husbands, but there were rarely any men who would do the same for them. 

(...) 

Thinking it through, Nangong Sunu felt that Qi Yan was truly becoming more interesting. She intended to observe discreetly for a while, to verify if such a man truly existed in this world. (ch 221) 

and i forgot to write down the citation for this, but nangong jingnu also seems to argue that not only is qi yan prettier than a man, but she also seems to be prettier than a woman. (it’s the bit where she’s watching qi yan sleep. help me out here.)

moreover, the way qi yan relates to nangong jingnu is suggestive. jingnu brings out the elements of wanting to be a woman in her. it’s jingnu’s body that makes her wonder what she would look like if she was more feminine. it’s jingnu’s happiness that she resents, wishing that her people could have that as well. it’s her desire for jingnu that makes her a woman. 

(another important distinction i suppose--while one person can’t be both a butch and a femme, because the girlboss and the male wife are things we pretend to be until we embody them / them us -- there’s greater slippage between the two.)

anyway, the girlboss/male wife dynamic is reversed wrt who’s actually dressing as a different gender. that suggests an inversion in the implications we see from the love eterne, if we are to take the love eterne as the paradigmatic girlboss text. which i do, for no reason in particular. 

so then, is qi yan pretending to be a man? under the opera framework, we’re forced to say no. she’s not pretending to be a man any more so than liang shanbo (as acted by ivy ling po) was. but that, of course, feels incorrect, just looking at the text. is she, then, pretending to be a sheng? i’d strongly say no. the things that others see in her, they authentically see; and she does authentically feel the same things as liang shanbo wrt femininity.

so it has to be the opera framework that jwqs is subverting then. if qi yan kept some trace of her once-womanhood, if qi yan reveals her true self, and yet she still can compete for the audience’s affection-- jwqs’s inversion of the opera framework seems to argue instead that it’s that true self that allows you to compete. it’s being masc that lets you be a desirable woman; it’s being feminine that lets you be a desirable man.

there’s an increased gender ambivalence to jwqs, which make sense, i guess, seeing as it’s not meant to be a het story the way that the love eterne was. for instance, nangong jingnu crossdresses to go out in public, and qi yan remarks that jingnu’s disguise fooled her on their first meeting. when qi yan and jingnu go out in public, both disguised as men, they’re repeatedly perceived as a gay male couple. there’s freedom in that: they could be gay women only privately, they could be straight officially, but they could be anonymously gay publicly. 

so it’s through the gay male pretense that they can be gay women; it’s through the qi yan pretense that agula can love women; it’s the qi yan caring husband persona that coaxes jingnu in caring for qi yan in return-- jwqs, more precisely, argues that you can’t be a woman if you’re going to love them, and even less so if you’re going to be loved by one. 

this is perhaps well-trodden ground for anyone who has read wittig & certainly many people who haven’t. but it’s the layer of pretense that for me complicates these two narratives. 

i think it’s a relatable feeling: wanting something anticipating getting something, or wanting something for yourself anticipating knowing that you already had it. that is, desire in itself being constitutive of that reality. 

or less abstractly, knowing that you’d want to be a lesbian if you could, knowing that you’d want not to be a woman if you could-- anticipating any realization of either. 

the dramatic excesses & wants of the girlboss, i think, are a decent literary stand in for being a lesbian. 

i wanna note here that this is rlly just based on my experience being a transmisogyny exempt nonbinary diaspora lesbian lol. it’s fun & cathartic to overread this history & place myself in the accidental implications.

i don’t think most of the things i say are literally true. and i don’t want to overstep & say any of this can be generalized. please lmk if something here doesn’t read right! ok kisses bye

#x

[catie-does-things]

Patterns in Given Names in the World of Avatar

Or, Naming Your Avatar OC’s: Beyond Baby Name Lists

Naming an original character in any fantasy setting can be a tricky business. Do you use a real name? Do you make one up? Either way, it has to sound like it fits into the established world - but you don’t want it to sound too similar to the names of canon characters, either. In this post, I will offer an analysis of canon names of major and minor characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, looking for discernible patterns in the names of each of the fictional cultures of that world, and offer some suggestions based on my own experience for how to choose or create names for original characters in that world.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with using a “baby name list” for inspiration or even taking a real name from one of the cultures the show is based on and using it. But since the fictional cultures of the show are not complete carbon copies of real cultures, just picking a name from a list of Inuit or Japanese names won’t always give you one that actually fits in with the Avatar world. And maybe you’ve seen enough Water Tribe OC’s named Nanook (I’m guilty of this one myself) and want to get a little more creative. In that case, welcome to the advanced OC naming class.

And yes, there will be color coded spreadsheets.

Methods and Goals

To get a feel for what sort of names will sound like they fit into the world of Avatar, we of course have to look at the names of canon characters. For our purposes, I chose to exclude characters who only appear in spin-off material such as the comics or Kyoshi novels, and only look at the given names of characters from the two shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. I have sorted the characters by nation, as well as into cultural subdivisions where applicable. LoK characters from the United Republic of Nations have their own category, since in most cases we do not technically know the specific cultural origin of those characters’ names - though based on the patterns below and other context clues, we can make a reasonable guess for many of them. Characters whose names appear to be nicknames or pseudonyms (such as Longshot and Lightning Bolt Zolt) have also been left out. 

The aim of this analysis is to look for phonetic and other patterns in the names of each cultural group within the world of Avatar. We will be looking at the names as spelled using the Latin alphabet, since this is how most fan fiction is written, and how the character names are given in official material, but keep in mind that within the world of the show, all nations use the Han Chinese writing system, so names or syllables spelled differently in the Latin alphabet might be represented by the same character in-universe, or vice versa.

Finally, my guidelines and suggestions for how to choose or create OC names are just that: guidelines and suggestions. These are not rules. It’s your OC, you do what you want.

Without further ado, let’s start looking at some names.

The Water Tribes.

We don’t have quite the sample size for Water Tribe characters that we’ll see for some of the other nations, but 28 names is still plenty to look at. Notably, we have far more male (18) than female (10) names, a pattern we will see repeated without exception. Draw your own conclusions.

Water Tribe names appear to mostly be two or three syllables long, with most of the one syllable names being from the Foggy Swamp Tribe. Hahn from the Northern Water Tribe is the only other one syllable name. Two syllable names are the most common with 19 names, which is about two-thirds of the total. Three syllable names account for 5 out of the total 28, or less than one fifth - still, this makes them more common than names of the same length in any other nation, and more common than one syllable names in the Water Tribes, especially if you exclude the Foggy Swamp. If you’re looking to use an authentic Inuit or other Arctic indigenous name for your Water Tribe OC, I would be wary of names longer than three syllables, though, as we have none of these in canon.

Consistent with Inuit names, we do have a lot of /k/ and /g/ sounds. The letters K and Q are pronounced the same in Water Tribe names, though in Inuit they represent different sounds. 18 out of the 28 names have at least one of these sounds, with /k/ being far more common than /g/ (17 vs. 2 names). Of course, having the letter K in your Water Tribe OC’s name is by no means necessary, and especially if you are creating a lot of Water Tribe characters, you probably want some variation.

The digraphic consonant sounds /ch/, /sh/, and /th/ are almost totally absent, with the exception of one name from the Foggy Swamp, Tho. The /r/ sound is also never found at the beginning of a name, and the /j/, /l/, /w/, and /f/ sounds are totally absent. The /v/ sound is absent from all given names, but notably appears in the surname Varrick not included above.

Regarding gender differences, both male and female names can end in -a, but this is much more common for female names, with 3 male names compared to 8 female names having this ending. Notably, this accounts for all but two of the female names, and all of the female names end in a vowel. Consonant endings appear to be exclusively masculine, with final /k/ sounds being common, whether spelled with K or Q (8 out of 18 male names), though masculine names can also end in vowel sounds.

There do not appear to be major differences between the Northern and Southern Water Tribe names, however the three names we have from the Foggy Swamp Tribe are definitely distinct - all one syllable, and all open syllables ending in vowels. These sound more like Earth Kingdom names, as we’ll see, which makes sense given the location of the Foggy Swamp.

To my knowledge, only handful of the Water Tribe names are authentic Inuit names, and they are all characters from LoK: Desna, Yakone, Noatak, Unalaq, and Tonraq, or 5 out of the 28 total names. Yue is an authentic name, but a Chinese one. The main Water Tribe characters such as Katara, Sokka, and Korra all have invented names. So yes, you can pick from an Inuit baby names list (and Nanook does fit the patterns we see above), but you are by no means limited to this.

The Earth Kingdom

Since the Earth Kingdom is the largest of the nations, it makes sense that we have the most names to look at here, with 79 names total, including 56 male names and 23 female names. I’ve included Jet with a question mark, because he may be using a pseudonym like the rest of the Freedom Fighters do, but his name is also plausible as the one his parents gave him. Macmu-Ling, the name of the haiku master in Ba Sing Se, may also be a surname, but this is unclear given the limited information on the character.

One syllable names are much more common in the Earth Kingdom, accounting for 30 out of 56 male names and 10 out of 23 female names. This is roughly half of all Earth Kingdom names, or 40 out of 79. Two syllable names account for 34 out of the 79, or about 43%, with three syllable names being rare overall, just 5 names or 6%. Overall, Earth Kingdom names tend to be shorter, which is consistent with a basis in Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese names.

Unlike with Water Tribe names, there do not appear to be specific sounds that stand out as distinctively Earth Kingdom. Notably, nearly all names begin with consonants, with only 6 names beginning with a vowel, and always A or O. All of the consonant sounds found in English are represented in at least one name. The /ch/, /sh/, and /th/ digraphic sounds are all present, though not abundantly common. The Earth Kingdom being large and diverse, this greater diversity in names also makes sense.

There is evidence of unisex names in the Earth Kingdom. Wu is used by both a male and female character (Prince Wu and Aunt Wu), and the name Song which is listed as female above we will see again as the name of a male earthbender in Republic City. Other names could also be unisex, but as most are only used by one character, we have no way to know. The only noticeable gendered pattern seems to be that several female characters have English names, which I separated into the fifth column above. This seems to be exclusive or near-exclusive to Earth Kingdom women. Jet could also be interpreted as an English name, but as previously mentioned, this is possibly a pseudonym anyway.

The few named characters we have from Kyoshi Island all have authentic Japanese names, or at least names taken from the Japanese language - oyaji is an affectionate term meaning “old man” or “father”. Kyoshi is distinct from the rest of the Earth Kingdom in many other ways, including a history of isolationism which Japan also has. As for the sandbenders, we only have two names, but Ghashiun stands out as rather distinct in its spelling. Visually, the sandbenders resemble the Tuareg people of the Sahara region, so that might be the direction you want to go if you’re looking for authentic names to use for your sandbender OC’s.

The curious name Macmu-Ling is based on the surname of the writer for the episode she appeared in, Lauren MacMullan.

Fire Nation

We have 13 female names and 33 male names, for a total of 46 known Fire Nation names. 

Two syllable names are most common, with 20 male and 6 female names, accounting for 26 out of the total 46, which is more than half. 15 names have one syllable, which is about one third of the total. Only 5 names have three syllables, or just one tenth, and once again there are no names longer than that. 

The letter Z stands out as appearing in 8 names, while it’s much more rare in the other nations - though notably the Z in Zhao is pronounced differently than in the other names. Also worth noting is that all the names with Z other than Zhao - that is, all the names where Z is pronounced as it would be in English - are names of members of the royal family, with the exception of Kuzon. The digraphic sounds /ch/ and /sh/ are both present, but /th/ is not. Other absent sounds include /v/ and /w/.

The Fire Nation gives us our only example of gendered variants on the same name with Azulon and Azula. This implies that the -a ending is generally feminine, though we only have two female names that use it. Ilah ends with the same sound, albeit spelled with a silent H. There is also one masculine name, Yon Rha, that ends in -a, though with a different pronunciation (/ah/ vs. /uh/). The -on ending may also be masculine or generally masculine, but again, only two names use it. Female names are also more likely to end in the /ee/ sound, whether spelled -i or -ee, with 6 of the 13 female names ending this way. Only two male names end with this sound, and one of them, Li, is unisex. 

In terms of basis in real world cultures, the Fire Nation often gets heavily identified with Japan in fanon, because they are an island nation with a history of imperialism, but what we see in canon is much more of a blend of Asian cultures, like the other nations. Some names, like Izumi and Roku are Japanese in origin, but some are also Chinese or Chinese-based such as Chan and Lu Ten. And as with the Water Tribes, the main characters like Zuko, Azula, Iroh, and Ozai, tend to have invented names. (Zuko especially would be odd as a Japanese name, since the -ko suffix in Japanese is feminine.) The name Ursa, curiously, is Latin - the feminine form of the word for “bear”. So while you certainly can use Japanese names for your Fire Nation OC’s, as with Inuit names in the Water Tribe, you’re not limited to that by any means. In fact, based on what we see in canon, I would say that if you’re creating several Fire Nation OC’s, you should have about an even mix of Japanese, Chinese, and invented names.

Air Nomads

With only 13 names, of which 9 are male and 4 are female, this is the smallest sample we have for any of the nations - understandably, since the Air Nomads are all but extinct for most of both shows. We’re even technically assuming that all of Tenzin’s children have Air Nomad names, but this is probably a safe assumption.

Two syllable names are still most common, with 9 of the 13, or about three fourths of the total. There are three names with three syllables, or a little less than one fourth. Aang has the only one syllable name.

With so few names, it’s hard to draw firm conclusions about phonetic patterns. The -a ending is seen on one name for each gender, as is the -i ending, and the -o ending appears on two male names and one female name. The -u ending only appears on one male name, but given the small sample size this doesn’t necessarily indicate a female Air Nomad name couldn’t have the same ending.

We do have clear and distinct real world basis for several Air Nomad names. Tenzin and Gyatso are both taken from the religious name of the current Dalai Lama. Rohan is an Indian name, and Laghima is a Hindu term for the spiritual power of becoming weightless. (Coincidentally, Rohan is also a French surname, but it was presumably the Indian name that the show meant to reference.) Pasang is a Nepali name, though a female one as far as I can tell, whereas it is used for a male Air Nomad. Tibetan, Nepalese, and Sanskrit names would thus all be good places to look for inspiration for your Air Nomad OC’s - though again, don’t feel limited to that. Chinese inspired names would also fit in, and Aang, like all the main characters, has an invented name.

United Republic of Nations

This group of character names, all from The Legend of Korra obviously, has to be considered differently. While we can make educated guesses as to the fictional ethnicity of most of these names, the fact is that many of these characters may be of mixed heritage and we can’t say for sure what the origins of their names are. In the chart below, I have color coded the names according to my best guess for nation of origin, rather than by gender. Names left in white, in my opinion, could be either Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation, and nothing about those characters gives us further clues.

With 31 names, we do have a decent sample size. Presumably Mako is a Fire Nation name and Bolin is Earth Kingdom, and based on the sound they do seem to fit in with those nations respectively. Raiko has a question mark because it is unclear if this is a given name or surname, but it does seem to follow the Zuko and Mako pattern and thus be most likely Fire Nation in origin. We also have the name Yasuko, for a character who is supposed to be of Fire Nation descent, using the -ko suffix on a feminine name.

Ginger and Buttercup I have designated as most likely Earth Kingdom because they are English names, and as we previously saw, only Earth Kingdom women seem to have names of this variety. Pema is presumably of at least partial Earth Kingdom descent based on her green eyes - this is also a real Bhutanese name. Characters like Lu, Gang, Daw, and Chung are all shown wearing green, and have one syllable names of the kind which are most common in the Earth Kingdom.

Hasook has a very distinctively Water Tribe name, and is of course a waterbender. Tahno and Ming-Hua are both waterbenders as well, though their names are less distinctively Water Tribe. These could simply be less typical names from one of the two polar tribes, or they may have Foggy Swamp Tribe heritage. (I believe this was a popular headcanon for Tahno, at least.) The possibility also exists that they have mixed heritage and may have Earth Kingdom or even Fire Nation names in spite of being waterbenders.

Conclusion

Like everything else in the world of Avatar, the names of the characters are inspired by and based on many real world cultures, primarily Asian, but no one fictional nation in the Avatar world corresponds exactly to a real world culture. When we look for or create names for original characters in this world, we want to respect the real world basis of these fictional cultures, but simply picking a Chinese, Japanese, or Inuit name from a list may not always jive with what we see in canon, in addition to running the risk of being a bit stereotypical.

With the canon patterns outlined above, fan fiction writers and fan artists should feel free to expand their search for names to other Asian, Arctic, or North African cultures, such as Thai, Burmese, Nepalese, Yupik, Aleut, or Berber names. Baby name lists can be helpful, but are often dubiously reliable, especially for non-Western cultures. Personally, when I want to give an OC an authentic name, I prefer to use Wikipedia to find real people from the culture or cultures I’m drawing on. I’ve joked about my own tendency to pick names of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean saints for my fan fiction, but searching for Wikipedia lists or categories of artists, philosophers, or scientists from a given culture can also be useful.

Wherever one chooses to look, name lists are best treated as a starting place - a name from a given real culture won’t necessarily fit into a given Avatar culture, and a name from a certain Avatar culture does not have to come from any particular real world culture. Fans should also feel free to invent names of their own, as the creators of Avatar did. Of the 20 major OC’s in my story Fate Deferred, half of them have real names or variations on real names, and the other half are invented.

And if you want to have a female Earth Kingdom OC named something like Jasmine or Crystal - these are also perfectly in line with canon.

#avatar the last airbender #legend of korra #atla #atla meta #fan fiction #catie writes things #y'all wanted it now here it is

[thereisnowarinbasingsee]

south asian and hindu influences in avatar: the last airbender

as a south asian hindu myself, something that’s always interested me is the huge influence of south asian culture and religion on the a: tla universe. hope you learn something new!

disclaimer: most of this information is just what i know about my culture and i’ve also used the a: tla wiki as a source of different elements to comment on. feel free to add anything or correct me!

the concept of the avatar itself

the whole idea of the “avatar” itself is directly from hinduism itself. the wordcomes from the sanskrit “avātarah”, meaning “descent”. in hindu scriptures, the deities come down onto the earth in times of great evil to restore balance to the world. sounds familiar, right?

“My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads.”

one example of is the lord vishnu, who in hindu scriptures comes down onto earth multiple times: most notably as krishna, and as rama, who features in the ramayana. ( which is the story behind why hindus celebrate diwali, basically. )

chakras 

chakras in both hinduism and buddhism are very important. guru pathik teaches aang about the importance of chakras, and in hindu and buddhist teachings are centres of energy that affect our wellbeing. which makes sense that aang needs to ‘unlock’ his chakras to get access to the avatar state once again.

“The water flows through this creek much like the energy flows through your body.”

elements 

even the elements in a:tla are influenced by hinduism. there are five elements: air, fire, water, earth and space- or aether- which is close to the concept of energy bending.

katara’s clothing 

katara and yue’s clothing both closely resemble vietnamese ao dai, but when i first saw katara’s clothing i was instantly reminded of the south asian kurta. both men and women wear kurtas: women usually tend to wear them more casually from personal experience. i practice a type of indian dance, and oftentimes i’ll wear a kurti to practice because it’s quite comfortable to dance in well. 

king bumi

in the language in which i speak with my parents- and quite a few indian languages, actually- “bhumi” means “earth”. as well as that, the hindu goddess bhudevi, also known as bhūmi and bhūmi devi, is representative of mother earth.

agni kai 

the agni kai is essentially an honour duel, which is prevalent in south indian and sri lankan warrior cultures. ( something i really think you should watch if you’re interested in indian martial art are videos of kalaripayattu, which is a martial art originating in kerala, a southern state of india. it’s believed to be the oldest surviving martial art in india, and - fun fact- legend has it that parashurama was the creator of kalari, who is actually one of the avatars of lord vishnu. ) 

the word “agni” itself is derived from the sanskrit for fire, and agni is the god of fire in hinduism.

“Just you and me, brother. The showdown that was always meant to be. Agni Kai!”

the old masters 

the creators confirmed that the part in sozin’s comet, part 2: the old masters where aang talks to his past lives is influenced by the bhagavad gita. the gita is a dialogue between the prince arjuna and the god krishna who is his charioteer during the battle of kurukshetra, where the pandavas ( the side which arjuna and lord krishna are on ) are fighting against the kauravas, who are actually their relatives. arjuna is reluctant to fight- there are mutual friends and family on either side- and the two discuss what constitutes fighting and arjuna’s duty. 

“Only justice will bring peace.“

combustion man and p’li 

the third eye on combustion man and p’li that they use to firebend closely resembles the third eye of lord shiva, god of destruction. i think it’s interesting that both combustion man and p’li’s third eyes cause destruction just like lord shiva’s. 

#avatar the last airbender #atla meta #idk does this count as meta #i just though it was interesting #zuko #katara #agni kai #p'li #aang #energy bending #avatar bumi #atla #guru pathik #fire nation #earth kingdom #water tribe #south asia #hindusim #i wrote this during physics

[akatsuki-shin]

Review: Scum Villain’s Self-saving System (SVSSS)

Notes:

(Very) long post ahead

Contains spoiler

This is my personal review and does not represent the entire audience, you are free to agree or not agree with what I’ve written here

Feel free to reply/send me a message if there are things you want to discuss

Summary:

SVSSS tells the story of Shen Yuan, an avid web novel reader - particularly the stallion genre - who died suddenly from food-related incident after having just finished reading a famous (yet controversial) web-novel "Proud Immortal Demon Way".

Upon his wake, he discovered that he had been transmigrated into the world of that very novel, moreover into the body of the story's most-hated scum villain, Shen Qingqiu.

In his previous life, Shen Yuan had frequently criticized the "Proud Immortal Demon Way" and its author, "Airplane Shooting towards the Sky", for he found the web novel full of wasted potentials. Now having been sent to live in that novel's story, a mysterious system assigned him with a mission to fix the very plot he had been denouncing - and of course, to save himself from the tragic end of the original Shen Qingqiu, who was fated to be mutilated into a human stick by the story's protagonist, Luo Binghe, his own disciple.

STORY: 7/10

I personally have not read a lot of "isekai" stories. However, what makes SVSSS interesting to me, compared to most transmigration stories I've seen in the past, is because the main character was not thrown into a completely strange, unknown world, but rather into the universe of a novel he had been closely following up until the very last second of his life.

And what's more? He does not have complete freedom in modifying the story however he wants, but supervised by a mysterious system that will reward him for correct decisions, and punish him for wrong choices - with being deported to his original world as the ultimate punishment should his points fall below the set limit (a.k.a. he would really lose his life because he is already dead in his original world).

The fact that Shen Yuan, now living as Shen Qingqiu, possessing complete knowledge of the original story, yet still unable to foresee what butterfly effect his actions will cause to the plot and characters is perhaps the most appealing aspect of this novel.

Shen Qingqiu in his previous life was no different than us - a normal, modern young man from the 21st century. His thoughts and opinions on the situation, the way he reacts on certain matters, his internal monologues are all realistic and easily relatable. It feels as if I myself have partly become Shen Qingqiu, as well, looking at how the story progresses from a first person point of view, because if I were to be in his shoes, I would probably react in the exact same way as a modern person thrown into an ancient fantasy world.

Nevertheless, this "omniscient reader" point of view is not without a flaw. Although Shen Qingqiu himself is gradually blending in, accepting his new life in the ancient cultivation world and no longer seeing the other characters as mere "fictional characters", because his mindset is that of a modern man, I find it difficult for myself as the reader to perceive the world of SVSSS as an actual, stand-alone world. Until the very last page of the story, I still feel like I'm looking at a fictional world, feeling detached to the universe and characters because I'm not "living" in it.

Another aspect that I think could've been improved is the romance development between Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe. I have full confidence that post-story Shen Qingqiu loves Luo Binghe with all his heart, but I seriously have no idea when and how he reached that point.

In the first half of the story, upon having accepted his new life as Shen Qingqiu, his feeling towards Luo Binghe is more like fondness and endearment. Perhaps he does like the character Luo Binghe, and considering that he, along with the rest of the web novel's readers, hated the original Shen Qingqiu to the core, of course he wants to treat Luo Binghe and the other characters better (otherwise, how could he save himself from that nightmarish fate as a human stick).

Later on, he learns of his mistake, how he could've made better decisions, and tried to understand Luo Binghe better, redeeming himself. Perhaps his love towards Luo Binghe began to grow along this path, but I honestly don't see it being told to me, as the reader. All of a sudden he is willing enough to "offer" himself to calm the maddened Luo Binghe. He's been proclaiming himself as a straight man all this time and never once did I see him agreeing with himself that he is going to accept his feelings for Luo Binghe. When I read this later part, I feel like I've just jumped over a huge chunk of development. Because up until that point, Shen Qingqiu still only gives me the feeling of a teacher who adores and cares for a special disciple of his.

All in all, if I were to summarized the plot, I think SVSSS is an interesting, curious story. The fact that Shen Qingqiu was tasked to fix the original novel's flaws makes me want to continue reading for as long as I can. What change is he going to make? What effect will be caused and what chain of events will follow? Furthermore, if you're looking for comedy, then you've come to the right place. With an internet-literate modern man experiencing living in an ancient, fantasy novel, Shen Qingqiu's reactions will never be boring to see. Even the banters and exchanges between characters are so realistic to the point that it is almost possible to imagine them visually.

Also, BingQiu is cute, I take no criticism.

CHARACTERS: 6/10

The distribution of that overall score of "6" is actually as follows:

3 --> Shen Qingqiu

1 --> Shen Jiu

1 --> Luo Binghe + Yue Qingyuan

0.5 --> Liu Qingge

0.5 --> Everybody else

Notice that in the previous section, I barely talk about any other character than Shen Qingqiu? It's not just because he is the main character, but because the other characters are seriously that un-interesting. In fact, I regret to say that personally, I think the characters are this novel's weakest point.

Or to be more precise, the characters' depth.

Shen Qingqiu by himself is a great character. He is calm, logical, knows when and where to put his "omniscient reader" knowledge to good use. He is effortlessly hilarious even if he himself doesn't realize it, but at the same time, despite the mountain of curses he often uses, he is still a good person at heart. I think he is the sole reason that the story could remain interesting until the very end.

But sometimes he is a bit too ideal, almost always having the correct solution and/or countermeasure to every situation even if the plot has changed massively from the original web novel that he knows. Especially when it turns out that he has discovered a way to revive himself after self-destructing at Huayue City, it makes his initially heartbreaking sacrifice less......touching. Because it feels as if he's been scheming this to be freed from the current ordeal, maybe to escape the system, as well.

Furthermore, no matter how much of an expert he was of the "Proud Immortal Demon Way" universe, he still just passed away and was transmigrated into a foreign world. Although the system initially banned him from being OOC, other than some panicky internal monologue, there was almost no trace of him looking distraught when being faced with the unthinkable situation.

Plus, Shen Yuan was different from Airplane Shooting towards the Sky who, even if he were to return to his original world, would have nobody waiting for him. The description of his family was pretty clear. Not only he comes from a well-off household, his family seems to be quite a happy and harmonious one (especially how he used to dote on his younger sister). How come there is not one single moment when he thinks about the family he has left behind and simply carries on with his new life as if nothing happened?

Now Luo Binghe, the second main lead and the one paired with Shen Qingqiu.

Before he fell into the Eternal Abyss, his character actually seems pretty solid. But post-darkening, I don't know why I can't get a good grasp of his character.

The "clingy, crybaby boyfriend" aspect is pretty clear, no complaint there (although the moments of his crying feels too comical for me). Other than that, I don't really feel the "powerful Demon Lord" vibe from him.

Yes, there are descriptions of how powerful he is, how frightening he can be. But it's just not solid enough for me. I understand that he is supposed to be a character with unstable mental, but there are simply not enough part where he is shown to be a proper, powerful Demon Lord because he keeps breaking down each and every single time. The "glass heart maiden" aspect isn't bad, but when it's used in an overly comical way, the character simply loses the charm he's supposed to have.

Even Yue Qingyuan, who's only a minor character, had such a strong charm that slaps you with the biggest plot twist in the whole story when it was revealed (to us, the readers) who he actually is.

Ironically, the original Luo Binghe (Bing-ge) was able to present the character's true image and complexity even if he only appear in less than 10% of the entire story.

And even more ironically, the original Shen Qingqiu a.k.a. Shen Jiu, is probably the most complex character to have ever existed in there (and he only appears in, what, a couple of extra chapters).

(You know what? If MXTX just goes with the original Luo Binghe x Shen Qingqiu, including all of their complexity, I think the development, conflict, and resolution could've been more deep and complex - but yeah, it ain't gonna be "Scum Villain's Self Saving System)

Liu Qingge is okay and actually quite lovable. It's just that I feel it's too easy for him to appear anytime, anywhere there is a problem, as if he's some easy way out.

Other than those I've mentioned above, I literally don't have anything to comment on the other characters because... I don't even know if there's anything to comment. They really come and go just like that and leave no big impression on me.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS: 6/10

This here is basically just some technical things that were a bit unfortunate, because if only they were improved, the story could've been better.

1. The story is clearly written from Shen Qingqiu's point of view, but it will suddenly switch to Luo Binghe's inner thoughts every now and then, making it inconsistent.

2. Description of time and environment. Sometimes it's really difficult to tell in what kind of place the scene is happening, whether it was day or night, whether the characters still remain in the same place or have move elsewhere. Transition when switching locations is also not described enough.

3. As much as I love the story, I feel like it's progressing too fast without any significant crisis. It just ends like that with no massive ordeal or mystery to be solved. I think this is related to Shen Qingqiu's "omniscient reader" point of view because it makes me feel like "hmm yeah, it's just another part of the story, they're going to go through this just fine"

Still, I understand that this is MXTX's first novel. In fact, most of the aforementioned issues (including the characters) have undergone immense improvement in her second novel (MDZS), so I don't think I have anything to worry about.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.3/10

It's worth to read, really. If you just want to enjoy a cool, funny, and cute "isekai" story, I can definitely recommend this. But don't expect some deep philosophical shit, because half of this novel is made of shitpost (I shit you not).

Moral of the story though?

See how market demand kills content creators' freedom and creativity.

Airplane Shooting towards the Sky, the author of the controversial stallion "Proud Immortal Demon Way" literally told Shen Qingqiu at the final chapter of the main story:

He's actually written deep, aesthetic stories before, but they were all unpopular. Only when he wrote this harem novel full of fan-service - disregarding plot depth, plot holes, cheap characterizations - did he finally gain popularity and was able to obtain sufficient income to feed himself.

He was grateful to Shen Qingqiu for "messing" up the plot of his novel, changing it into how it is now, because it allows everything he originally wanted to write - but couldn't - to come true.

In previous chapters, he also said that he actually wanted to make the original Shen Qingqiu into a three-dimensional, more complex characters, but the netizens didn't appreciate it and were complaining instead. Hence he was forced to make the original Shen Qingqiu into a plain old scum villain with no redeeming quality at all - even though in his original script, this character has a complex background that causes his current known personality.

Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua might be talking about it in their usual, funny bantering, but who dares to say that this isn't an issue being faced by almost all content creators in the whole world?

How many content creators have been forced to sacrifice the creativity value and quality of their work in order to satisfy the taste of majority?

How many content creators have been made to revise their works by editors in order to fit into a certain agenda or market trend?

Unless you're a massively popular creator or a powerful individual, chances are you will never have the chance to create a content you truly want to make for a living.

In any case, there may be other authors who are better than MXTX in this world, but I love her works because despite the fictional content, the comedy, the silliness, etc, there are still at least one aspect that reflects the situation of the real, current world, and when you realize it, the realization can be quite a slap to the face like "hey, wait a minute, she's right you know?" See less

#Scum Villains Self Saving System #SVSSS #BingQiu #Shen Qingqiu #Luo Binghe #Review #Danmei #Mo Xiang Tong Xiu #MXTX

[comradekatara]

the gaang + joanna newsom? songs/specific lyrics/a certain album/anything u wanna do just joanna please!

yes!!

first of all may I direct you to this post: the gaang + do they stan jnew

aang is extremely diverscore, just like, in general. he more than anyone knows what it feels like to be displaced temporally as well as culturally, what it means to grapple with the passage of time and the inevitably of death when you have so much love to give and so much to lose. and he is constantly looping. I think “anecdotes,” "sapokonikan,” "waltz of the 101st lightborne," “you will not take my heart alive,” and "time as a symptom" are especially relevant.

“sapokonikan” is also a very katara song, what with her obsession with legacy and history, and her pain regarding the genocide of her people and their lost culture. in a way, this song could also apply to zuko, but experiencing that grief from the perspective of the colonizer. this song is just very thematically relevant in general.

“goose eggs” can represent mai’s ultimate acceptance of zuko’s abandonment of the fire nation, and even perhaps azula’s refusal to accept it. “a goose, alone, I suppose, can know the loneliness of geese / who never find their peace / whether north, or south, or west, or east / and I could never find my way / to being the kind of friend you seemed to need in me / til the needing had ceased”

“divers” reminds me of sokka/yue, but I couldn’t tell you which one is the narrator and which is the diver. a bit of both, I think.

“colleen” is first and foremost about toph about the repression and stripping of her true identity within the beifong house, only finally able to be and present her true self with encouragement. similarly, it also applies to all of the fire nation kids, and the repressive nature of their environment, forcing all of them to don masks to conceal their true identities and desires.

“sadie” is an EXTREMELY aang song. in fact, trying to explain my reasoning for this would be silly, since it’s so self-evident in its lyrics already. “and all that I want, and all that I need / and all that I got is scattered like seed / and all that I knew is moving away from me / (and all that I know is blowing / like tumbleweed)”

“en gallop” is a katara song for sure. what it means to abandon romantic fantasies and accept the harsh reality of living. what it means to cling to those fantasies in spite of it. “never get so attached to a poem / you forget truth that lacks lyricism”

"swansea" is also quite an aang (and katara) song, in a similar war to "sapokonikan," as it deals with being enticed by ghosts in the ruins of what once was, and now is gone. and tragically, to him, what is considered the ruins and ghosts of the past were only yesterday.

"easy" is a kataang song. sorry bout it.

"'81" is about zuko's relationship with the gaang, but most of all katara, who feels most personally betrayed by him and must work hardest to forgive him.........yeah :')

obviously the song is about a different matter, but i definitely think "jackrabbits" can be interpreted to be about sokka making the conscious choice to be with suki after losing yue.

"occident" reminds me of the way that katara and sokka feel abandoned by their parents dying and leaving for war respectively. while they know that they weren't intentionally abandoned, that doesn't make it hurt any less. "breaching slowly, across the sea / one mast / flash, like the stinger of a bee / to take you away / a swarming fleet is gonna take you / from me" and "I'll wait for you / alongside the ocean / and make do / with my no-skin" are especially relevant here.

i know that "soft as chalk" is about a lover but it reminds me primarily of zuko's relationship to ozai during book 3a when he's returned to the fire nation but conflicted about being "home." a lot of abusive relationships are similar, in this regard. "trying to sound out / or guess the reasons / I sleep like a soldier, without rest / but there is no treason / where there is only lawlessness. lawlessness" and "and now I am calling / in a sadness beyond anger / and beyond fear / who is there? who's there? / who is there?"

"kingfisher" reminds me of iroh and his journey. the tension within him between his warlike nature and his choice to lead a peaceful life. the love he has for his son(s). "and I saw that my blood / had no bounds / spreading in a circle like an atom bomb / soaking and felling / everything in its path / and welling in my heart like a birdbath // it is too short / the day we are born / we commence with our dying / trying to serve / with the heart of a child; / kingfisher, lie with the lion"

"cosmia" is about yue; sokka processing his grief over her. i especially love the lyrics, "water were your limbs / and the fire was your hair / and then the moonlight caught your eye / and you rose through the air / well, if you've seen true light / then this is my prayer: / will you call me, when you get there?"

"what we have known" is about all of them, all children sent off to fight in a war. dying and/or traumatized by the sins of previous generations, victims of abject horrors that they did not deserve to be exposed to. "and when they come back, broke and burned / those who return have not returned"

okay that's all i have for now, but lmk if you want me to elaborate on any of these points (i love this question, and would thus be happy to)!

#didnt go thru her discography in chronological order lol #sorry about that #this was rly fun just bc i love any excuse to pore over her lyrics #thank u for this question! #synthesis #the gaang and #ish #ilys #asks #atlamusic

[anambermusicbox]

September 29 Day Countdown (26/29): 2016-2018 Radio Interviews on 动感101《小畅翻牌》

2016/12/20

(2:00) Interviewer, knowing Ukraine has renowned music schools, thought Zhou Shen went to Ukraine specifically to study music before she found out he actually was in dentistry and then switched to music; she asks why he went to Ukraine to study.

Zhou Shen: Simple! Because it’s cheap. (T/N: it’s extremely extremely cheap compared to studying abroad in other countries, and Zhou Shen’s family was quite poor)

(3:00) How did you win your parents over?

ZS: I didn’t. I told them, “Hey, I don’t think I can do this” and they were like “What?” I said, “I really can’t do this.” At first, they didn’t really understand what I was going through at the time. They said, even if I had to retake a year or two, they wanted me to keep going. They said, then take some time to improve in the language. I said, “I really can’t do this anymore,” they said no, and later I went against their wishes and applied to the music conservatory anyways.

(7:30) ZS talks about how he didn’t talk to his parents for months after switching schools, until finally his parents told him, “Then in the future, whatever you do is no longer our concern” and then hung up on him. 

ZS: (8:10) They said, okay we’re not giving you money for school, you figure it out yourself. But parents are like this: they say things but don’t go through with it. So they gave me money for tuition but nothing to cover living expenses. (*laughs*) (Interviewer: They said, whether you eat or not is no longer our concern) Yup. (*laughs*) They said they’d give me money for living expenses only if I studied medicine or language. So I had to borrow money from a classmate for food. I held out for 2 months, starved for 2 months before they said, okay since you’re this persistent, even though we’re still against this- (Interviewer: They still don’t want their son to starve to death) Right, they didn’t want to lose a kid. (*laughs*)

Interviewer: (9:00) When did their attitude finally soften towards your decision? 

ZS: After the Voice. (T/N: ZS didn’t tell his parents before he competed on the show; they found out along with the rest of the public when it aired) [...] They thought, ah okay he’ll be able to take care of himself now, he knows what he’s doing.

Interviewer: (9:50) Are they proud of you?

ZS: Oh yeah, they’re absolutely embarrassing. (*laughs*) After the episode aired, my parents- they run a small business, and customers who came by, my parents would be like, “Look :) who this is :)” and the customer would be like “…??…uuhh who is-“ “ITS HUAN YAN, OUR SON SANG IT!!!” (*laughs*) and then the customer is like “uuhhh ehhrmm….” I wanted to die from the embarrassment oh my gOD, it was so awkward. So awkward. Afterwards, I started avoiding being with them when they were with people. (*laughs*) They- they’re parents; they were happy, and then they started to worry. (*laughs*) This career... how long would I be able to do it for...

(11:50) ZS talks about how surprised he was by how popular Big Fish was; after only a few days, a lot of covers started appearing online. The singers for Big Fish and Begonia’s other OSTs were very big names, Eason Chan and Lala Hsu.

ZS: At first, they planned to have another very big name singer to sing Big Fish (T/N: it was supposed to be Faye Wong!), but because of reasons, their plan never came to fruition. The song’s lyricist, Yin Yue, she’s really too good to me. She kept insisting to the director, “Zhou Shen can sing this song, you should let him try,” but the director honestly didn’t care. The production company and the director, they wanted someone had enough influence to promote the film. (Interviewer: But congratulations to them, they ended up choosing the right person for the song! :D)

(19:30) ZS: “[After Masked Singer], my parents, they posted a WeChat moment they was quite touching—they said “Our son sang so well and seeing him work so hard—we want him to continue singing.” (Interviewer: Oh so they go online often?”) Yeah, only because I spent years teaching them.” (*laughs*) 

(19:45) ZS: “Every time I come home, my parents play my songs non-stop. I asked them, aren’t you sick of listening to it? Later I asked my sister, and she told me they play my songs all the time everyday. I felt like, wah (Interviewer: “All these years of being a host, and my own parents are the most avid viewers of my program.”) Wow… auntie uncle, I’m very sorry… (T/N: LKJNASFDFA THIS MADE ME SPIT OUT MY FOOD I WAS EATING HAHAHA) they’re gonna hate me. [...] I think, being a parent is really such hard work.”

2016/12/17

(5:30) ZS talks about how he didn’t sing at all during in his middle school years. Interviewer asks whether he ever tried to conceal his being different from everyone else.

ZS: Actually, when you listen to me talk, I- all these years I’ve already gotten accustomed to making my voice lower, it’s a force of habit. I’ve forgotten what my regular voice is supposed to be like. If I relaxed my throat while speaking it would sound like this—thinner, higher. But now I can’t go back.

(7:50) Interviewer asks whether he’ll try out different styles of music:

ZS: I think right now, people don’t know me well yet. I want people to first know who Zhou Shen is, what kind of songs he sings, and then try other genres, and only then will people want to listen. If release a song, people will be like, who’s Zhou Shen and won’t try listening to it—and if they listen and it’s a genre I’m not good at? Wow, no one’s going to listen.

2018/02/03

(1:50) ZS: “Well for one thing, I really hate my voice. (Interviewer: Why?) A male with this kind of voice is really weird. (Interviewer: It’s unique! It’s memorable. Can you find other people with this kind of voice?) Yup. My dad. (*laughs*) One time, my manager called my dad and he- “Hello?” “Oh hello auntie-” I was like “wAIT WAIT WAIT that’s my dad” (*laughs*) (Interviewer: Can he sing too?) No way, he scares people to death when he sings, he can’t sing. (*laughs*)

(7:45) After Big Fish was released:

ZS: Everyone seemed to like it, it felt- Eh? This is great. After about two weeks though, comments started to appear like: “just found out a man sang this and I feel like vomiting, I deleted this song immediately.” And it wasn’t just this one, there were many comments like it. It was extremely upsetting. I felt like, one of those characters in a sad drama, the kind that gets abandoned and they’re crying like “what did I do to you to make you treat me like this? TT^TT”

Interviewer: It’s like, even if there’s a whole pile of positive comments, if there’s one negative, that’s the one you pay attention to. Even if there are 100 nice comments—

ZS: —if there’s one hurtful comment, that’s the one that sticks with you, exactly! Everyone has this tendency.

(7:20) ZS talks about his duet with Guo Qin again (see translation from another interview talking about it here), how he was just as nervous as he was in his own blind audition and how he would’ve blamed himself if she had lost: “She’s 17—super young, makes me so mad—and she was sitting so calmly; meanwhile, I was standing there, all my limbs trembling—like, who’s supposed to be helping who here?” (*laughs*)

(14:45) About how he’s grateful that he didn’t get popular overnight: 

ZS: If I got popular overnight, I think it would’ve been over for me. Because my singing really did need improvement. Also, I think my album is really important in that in helped me get through a bottleneck period. At that time, I felt like, no matter how I sang it didn’t sound good. I felt like, can I even sing? But the process of recording this album helped me to see where I needed to improve. 

So if I got popular overnight, it really would’ve been over for me, because my singing wouldn’t have improved. It would’ve stopped there. (Interviewer: And you would still believe that you’re really good.) Everyone around you is praising you like (*rapid clapping*) “You sing so well!! You sing so well!! Look at how everyone wants to hire you to sing, you sing super well!!” It’s over- it would really be over. […] I quite like progressing one step at a time.

(18:10) Zhou Shen talks about how, when he got eliminated on the Voice, he wasn’t crying because he lost, but because suddenly going from spending so much time together as a team and having such camaraderie to all but four eliminated was too heartbreaking.

ZS: (20:20) When I got eliminated, I was actually really happy. I don’t like competing, and I felt I didn’t have any pressure on me anymore. I felt bad for Li Wei because I knew there would definitely be a lot more pressure on him now, because now he has to represent our entire team in the future competition. 

After our PK, he—because we both cried so hard—he said (*shrill crying voice*) “Zhou Shen I’ll carry your name and compete to the end!! TT^TT” (*Interviewer laughs*) and I replied, (*shrill crying voice*) “You shouldn’t give yourself so much pressure, don’t carry my name just sing TT^TT” (*laughs*) 

You don’t understand how hard we were crying. After the PK, there had to be a 25-minute intermission because Na-jie had to cry too. So she’s there crying in the mentor area and I’m crying in the eliminated area and Li Wei’s crying in the advancement area. [...] During the blind auditions, every single person earned their place in the team one by one, and now all of them are being taken out one by one—it was quite brutal.

2018/02/10

(1:30) Zhou Shen talks about how he has a longer process to be accepted compared to other singers, because they first have to get over the fact that a man has this type of voice before they truly listen to him sing. Some people react like, WOW amazing!! while others are on the other end of the spectrum:

ZS: Once, I was at a restaurant and at that time, they were broadcasting the blind auditions of the Voice. The restaurant owner just happened to be watching it, and when I appeared, he was like “Eh? Who’s this- WAH-“ and immediately changed the channel. I was like ??? D’: ????? “…can I have some water?” (*laughs*) He changed the channel right in front of me, you know? He didn’t recognize me. It was- (*makes disgruntled noises*) It was really upsetting.

(2:20) ZS, about being on Masked Singer: “That was the first time I felt acknowledged by the sentence ‘wow this girl sings so well!’”

(20:30) In the three years since your debut, have you ever seen a fan who, because of your songs or your voice, their life changed?

ZS: Have I seen that personally? That would be impossible, but I have read about it in letters and comments. There was one comment, this person—they had depression, the kind that they were being prescribed medication for—but they started listening to my music and slowly started to become happier, their mental health improved. I was so astonished—music is really so powerful.

Another one was- to be honest, men with this type of voice are actually not uncommon. It’s really not just me. Once, I was at karaoke with an old schoolmate—middle school or high school, I forget—and he said, “because of you, Zhou Shen, because you sang in that competition [the Voice], I’m now brave enough to sing at karaoke. It feels like, even with this kind of voice, I can sing too.” That moment—I was so moved.

2018/05/19

(3:45) ZS talks about how Gao Xiaosong was really satisfied with how the album turned out, and how Gao Xiaosong is actually really thin.

Interviewer: Why do you always have to mention that? No one is asking about whether he’s fat or thin.

ZS, joking: How else do you think I got this album—I kept complimenting him as thin (T/N: HAHAHAHAHA)

#zhou shen #周深 #my translations #zs 29 #mine #puts this in the queue at 4 am 2 hours before the scheduled time....... #so much for fixing my sleep schedule OTL #so tired... i'll check for typos later asdfaADFAS #im just *chucks this at u* #this is why im only translating highlights LMAO #this interviewer is actually a host with shenshen as a guest on her show but im just using the same terminology to be consistent LOL #its definitely an interview anyways #check notes later for bilibili link! #edit: OKAY TYPOES SHOULD BE FIXED NOW HAHAHA THANKS EVERYONE

[jokertrap-ran]

(光与夜之恋 Light and Night) Main Story Chapter 1-3: 命运的拐点 Destiny’s Turning Point Translation

“Destiny is like a gust of wind… Red leaves flutter, flying away in the face of it.  And it is when the winds pick up ― That you meet once more…”

“And just where are you running off to now? “

*Light and Night Master-list *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Join the Light & Night Discord (＾▽＾)~ ♪ *Main story tag will be #For Light and Night

Police: Name?

Cindy: My name’s Cindy. My earrings are gone! I’ve spent an entire week on them. Please, you must help me find them!

The girl who was desperate to the brink of tears was none other than Cindy, the oldest contestant amongst us all.

Half an hour ago, Cindy had suggested reporting this to the police seeing as how many of the designers had their accessories go missing. Now, she was the first one to undergo questioning by the police.

Police: Earrings, you say? Alright, I’ve noted it down. Has anyone else lost anything?

Designer A: Me. I lost an Emerald hairpin.

Designer B: My pearl ring is gone too.

MC: I’m (Y/n), my brooch has also gone missing.

Police: I’ve gotten the gist of the situation here. All of your items were found lost after less than half an hour after having been left here.

Police: My colleague went to check the surveillance tapes. There was no one suspicious who entered and left the room during that time frame.

Cindy: How can that be…

Police: But there are blind spots where the surveillance cameras cannot reach. Plus, things don’t simply disappear for no reason at all.

Police: So, I’m asking everyone to think carefully about it again. Did any of you see anyone who was acting suspicious?

MC: A suspicious looking person…

The image of the figure dressed in black and wearing a mask flashed into my mind along with his skull pendant and flickering silver chains.

MC: I saw someone that I didn’t recognize walk out of the room, but I thought that he was a model…

MC: But now that I think about it, no model would come here.

Police: What did this person look like?

MC: He’s very tall and looks to be around 185cm. He wasn’t wearing a staff uniform.

Police: Can you give me a detailed description of his appearance and how he was dressed?

I nodded, trying my hardest to remember what I’d seen in that split-second.

MC: I couldn’t make out his features since he wore a black mask, but I remember his clothes…!

MC: He wore a black leather jacket paired with light grey jeans and a pair of studded boots.

MC: He had a long silver necklace with a skull pendant hanging from it along with a few silver chains hanging from his waist.

MC: His countenance is hard to describe. He appears to give off a very mysterious vibe, but honestly, the design of the pants he wore needs to be optimized…

I continued prattling on, unaware of how the policeman who’d been recording my descriptions down stopped short.

Police: Optimized?

Suddenly realizing what I’d just said, my face flushed in embarrassment.

MC: Sorry, but that’s pretty much all I saw…

Police: Alright. We’ll look further into the matter with this information.

Police: However, considering the large number of people here, the vastness of the venue and the small number of missing items, it’ll be quite difficult to find them.

Police: You’d best be prepared.

Everyone lapsed into collective silence after the police left. The solemness of the atmosphere in here was tangible, like a heavy cloud that hung over all of our heads.

Cindy had already succumbed to despair. She silently squatted down; head buried into the crook of her arm.

★Night Choice: Settle your own problems 

Even though I want to comfort Cindy, I know very well that whatever I do or say will only pale in comparison to how she feels right now.

Why don't we just spend the time to think our next step through, instead of being overwhelmed by negative emotions?

Most of the contestants around her have already recovered from the brief turn of events, returning to their tasks at hand.

The contest was just this cruel. Everyone couldn’t afford to be distracted in this race against time as they all raced to the finish line where the ultimate goal laid.

MC: How about just making another one since the chance of finding it is so slim?

MC: But there are only 3 days left… What if I can't finish it in time…

I subconsciously glanced out the window. The huge poster screen of Sariel greeting my wandering eyes once more.

MC: There's no time to be pondering over this.

MC: If it were Sariel in my shoes, he wouldn’t waste time worrying over things that may or may not happen.

The perplexing feeling of loss and the sadness I felt over this incident disappeared almost immediately as I immersed myself into re-making it. The light of the sunset shines through the glass window, bringing about a tinge of warmth.

☆Light Choice: Comfort Her

I walked up to her, gently patting her back.

MC: Don’t worry, I’m sure the police will be able to help us all find our missing accessories.

Cindy: You guys are all young and talented… you’ll have other things to fall back on if you fail here, so of course you wouldn’t be too worried about it… but such a thing doesn’t exist for me…

Her soft voice was distorted by her sniffling, so much that I could barely distinguish what she was trying to say between sobs.

I’d overheard the others talking about her before. Cindy was originally a white-collar worker who’d eventually resigned and got a loan to study design overseas. It was a do-or-die situation for her, in a way.

I didn’t know what I should say to comfort her, for everything I say right now would only pale in comparison to what she was going through. All I could do was to gently pat her back.

Cindy: Why did this have to happen now…? It took me such painstaking efforts to get this far…

All the doom and gloom that she exuded was contagious, and I soon felt my heart drop along with her worsening mood.

???: What are you crying about?

Wu Yue: Those who whinge and always feel sorry for themselves but do nothing to fix it will never succeed.

This was the first time I’ve ever heard her speak off-stage.

I couldn’t help but to be surprised at the look of dead seriousness on her face.

MC: There’s still another 3 days before the competition, so let’s hurry and start re-doing what we’ve lost.

Gao Cheng: I… I can help everyone fetch the materials they need. You can also ask me for help if any of you need an extra hand…

Designer A: I’ve already long since wanted to change my hairpin design! I’m sure the new one this time will turn out a hundred times better! You guys better watch out!

More contestants started inputting, and the gloomy atmosphere soon dissipated. Cindy had also stopped crying, vigorously rubbing at her eyes.

Cindy: You guys are right. I cannot give up here…

Despite all of us not knowing what results awaited us 3 days later, and despite all of us being fellow competitors, we were all teammates now, working hard with the same goal in mind.

After getting our moods in check, everyone returned to their own working space, making the best out of the remaining time left to continue with their respective creations.

❖☆———————————★❖

The hands on the clock had already moved past the 8 PM mark by the time if gotten up for a good stretch.

MC: The gown’s pretty much good to go, and I’ve also finished drawing out the new brooch design. Everything’s turning out pretty well~

Gao Cheng: Your design’s inspired by the starry skies, right? It’s really pretty…

Gao Cheng’s faze lingered on the draft of my design for a while before he seemingly snapped out of it. He raised his head, frantically waving his hands in front of him with a flustered look on his face.

Gao Cheng: S-Sorry, it wasn’t my intention to peek at your design. I just happened to get attracted to it when I walked past…

MC: Don’t worry about it, you came at a great time. Could you tell me what you think about it?

Gao Cheng: Is the brooch meant to represent the brightest star in the sky?

MC: Yup, it represents the north star.

Gao Cheng: But Polaris isn’t actually all that bright. It shines at 2nd magnitude, so you can use a darker gemstone to represent it.

It was as if he were an entirely different person when it came to the topic of stars. He gushed enthusiastically about it with unrivalled passion and seriousness.

Gao Cheng: Ah, I just like astronomy, so I know about it a little more than others. Please don’t get mad at me…

MC: Why would I be mad? I’m actually extremely thankful for your input!

I’d previously searched up pictures of the starry sky up on the internet to use as reference pictures, but what Gao Cheng said reminded me once again that even though the pictures captured by a camera’s lens turn out beautiful, it still isn’t as real as the real thing.

Nothing beats seeing it with your own eyes and ascertaining it for yourself after all.

MC: Maybe I should go up to the rooftop and check the stars out.

❖☆———————————★❖

The cold air of the night greets me as I push open the doors to the rooftop. The vast night sky was spread out before my eyes, the many little red dots beneath it denoting lights of the thousands of households below.

I held onto the railing with both hands raising my head to inhale deeply.

It was then that my phone rang to life as messages from An'an came pouring in one line after another.

An'an (SMS): I’ve gotten my hands on the guest list!

An'an (SMS): You won’t believe how elaborate this guest line-up is! Osborn’s actually coming, you know!? His club’s going to be collaborating with the Warson Group!

MC: …Osborn?

An'an (SMS): Please tell me you still remember him. I’ve shown you a picture of him before! He’s my favourite R1 racer who has won 4 consecutive championships!

I hadn’t yet had the chance to truly think back on it when I suddenly heard a faint noise. It was the familiar sound of metallic chains clinking against each other.

There had been no one here when I came up to the rooftop.

My heart leapt to my throat as I unwittingly headed towards the direction of the sound.

There was someone hidden within the shadows, standing silently in one of the corners where the moonlight never reached.

Seemingly having noticed my gaze, the person moved forwards, stepping out of the shadows.

❖☆———————————★❖

I finally managed to vaguely make out his appearance. He was tall and intimidating even from a distance away. He wore a black jacket across his shoulders, the moonlight glinting off the skull necklace that rested upon his chest.

MC: That’s the guy I saw back in the corridor!

I hadn’t yet recovered from the initial surprise of seeing him here when I suddenly noticed that he was holding a red earring between his fingers.

Cindy’s Earrings! So, he really WAS the thief!

The clouds blocked off the moonlight, darkening the skies as my heart raced, pounding loudly in my ears. Did I interrupt him in the middle of something? Am I going to be “silenced”?

All hesitation flew out the window the moment my thoughts stopped there. I immediately turned and made a dash for the exit.

However, just as I was about to pull the door open and make my escape, a well-defined hand pressed against the door, blocking off my escape.

??: And just where are you running off to now?

❖☆————— ⊹ For Light & Night⊹ —————★❖

Previous Part: (Chapter 1-1) | Next Part: (Chapter 1-5)

#光与夜之恋 #Light and Night #Otome #Translations #Tencent #萧逸 #Osborn #齐司礼 #Sariel #陆沉 #Evan #查理苏 #Charlie #夏鸣星 #Jesse #For Light and Night