#ink rambles

[squinkreblogs]

ILY little terrified looking pomni plush

#ink rambles #the amazing digital circus #pomni #shitpost #? #im just messing around and being silly so #tadc pomni #tadc #the amazing digital circus pomni #amazing digital circus #pomni plush #I literally just put on things I have next to my bed onto her #whenever I’m just chilling she’s always next to me

[bluespiritshonour]

Water Siblings and Fire Siblings as Foils

Katara and Sokka are peak sibling rep: they bicker, they hurt each other, they take turns being the voice of reason while the other goes batshit crazy—and they'd die for each other.

And very clearly Sokka's daddy's boy and Katara's momma's girl: and for most parts, they seem to be content with that dynamic.

Look, parents have favourites, let's establish that first: don't come at me for it.

But in a healthy environment, where all of the kids’ emotional needs are met irrespective of which kid gets along with which parent, they're less likely to tear themselves apart yearning for parental affection.

Sokka and Katara's family was a normal one, a healthy one—as healthy as one can be in a war ravaged world—and Sokka and Katara are normal siblings. Even after their mother died Katara doesn't seem to care much that Sokka gets more time with their father. And everytime she brings up their mother Sokka gets this weird look on his face, which, I think is later explained by the fact that he feels guilty that he doesn't even remember what their mother looked like. And it's not because Katara seems to know more about their mother despite being younger.

Neither of them grudge the other for having been close to one of the parents—let's call it ‘being close to’ instead of ‘dad/mum loved you/me more’ because that's what would come up with Azula and Zuko.

One can say that Azula's daddy's girl and Zuko's momma's boy... Except it isn't like that.

Azula wasn't loved by her father; neither was she close to him. If anything she had the illusion that she's close to him. But children can sense when they aren't loved, which can explain why she took her mother being close to Zuko so hard. Because she didn't get that from her father and isn't she supposed to be daddy's girl? But dad's good to her; mum... isn't. Dad lets her do what she wants... As long as she obeys him or she'd end up like Zuko.

For Ozai, both his children are pawns. He uses Azula to abuse Zuko, which in turn is to get at Ursa. And honestly, Ursa was a bad mum and an abuse victim and not the villain are takes that can co-exist.

A lot of mums in primarily patriarchal cultures end up abusing their own kids while trying to protect them in an environment where they themselves hold little power.

Ursa and Hakoda can be compared in this.

Katara haters can look away: she isn't whiny. And even if she is, well, she takes responsibility when no one else does so I guess she deserves to complain if that's what it takes. Katara is extremely mature. When she was mad at Hakoda, she still had the critical thinking skills to point out that yes, she understands why he left. He had to! She doesn't blame him for that, it wasn't his fault that there was war going on—but it still hurt!

And what does Hakoda do? He hugs her and apologises. He doesn't defend himself, because he doesn't need to. She understands! She said she does and he doesn't insult her by making excuses. He acknowledges and validates her pain.

Unlike Katara, who grew up in a healthy family with parents and grandparents and a whole community—Azula was isolated and under the influence of Ozai. And she was so young! If you remember being that young, you'd remember thinking that parents are always right. You don't realise that parents make mistakes too—and while her emotional needs weren't being met by Ozai, she turned to Ursa—but Ursa was at her wits end trying to undo the damage of Ozai's abuse on Zuko.

If she had given attention to Azula, Zuko, who thought that Azula was perfect and already had father's approval would have gone off rails—and since she didn't... Azula went off the rails.

Which was exactly how Ozai would want it. I don't like the comics much but it made sense that Ozai would hold both the children as bargaining chips against Ursa. Ursa made her choice, or rather, the illusion of her choice and Azula had to pay for it: the real reason Zuko could turn over a new page while Azula couldn't was because from the very beginning, Zuko had his mum and uncle.

Azula had no one!

Like Hakoda had to go to war and leave his children behind, Ursa had to choose between Azula or Zuko; Ozai orchestrated it as such.

But while there were people to pick up Hakoda's slack, there was no one to guide Azula. Sokka and Katara raised each other and they had Gran Gran.

Zuko and Azula were constantly pitted against each other by a war-mongering father.

I don't like this unrealistic expectations that fandom has of a family where both the siblings not only love each other equally, they also process emotions similarly (see: the Sokka vs Katara debate on how they both react to trauma) and parents who love all the kids equally.

Katara and Sokka are normal and realistic in the way that they are both different people: they process grief differently. Katara takes up responsibly and grows up too fast, it takes a toll on her and she's vocally expressive. She turns her grief into anger. Meanwhile Sokka internalises it in a survivor's guilt kind of way.

There's also gender involved in the way both pair of siblings interact. It's more subtle for the fire siblings than the water sibling. Plus, Suki makes Sokka drink his respect women juice, please y'all don't call Sokka sexist. That was character development for him which was addressed. I could make another post for gender and A:TLA.

And they both love each other dearly and they're okay with the fact that one is daddy's boy and the other is momma's girl. It's okay.

In contrast Zuko yearns for his father's affection and Azula yearns for her mother's. And while Zuko feels inadequate, for Azula it's “behave or you'll end up like your brother.”

She also learns to derive a sick sort of pleasure from watching Zuko suffer—which is entirely her father's doing. Because in rare moments when she doesn't have anything to gain by getting Zuko into trouble...she actually kind of looks out for him. It's extremely rare and sprinkled here and there to show us the Azula that could have been.

And I don't think Zuko really realised that Azula was abused too—not until he lets go of his father. Until the final Agni Kai. What I love about it is that despite portraying Azula as Zuko's tormentor for 3 seasons (and she was his tormentor) they did not frame the Agni Kai as some epic good vs evil shit.

Because from Zuko's point of view Azula was perfect. He's out here vying for his father's affection while she gets it freely. She's so lucky!—until he lets go of his father and realises what a monster he was... And he also realises that father never really loved Azula either...

They didn't say as much in words. But the final Agni Kai is proof enough. Zuko doesn't rejoice bringing Azula down (technically Katara did it). At this point, I guess, he realises that Azula's a kid too. Even younger than him—that their father couldn't care less about either of them.

Okay. I really do think that Zuko suddenly becoming invested in Azula's redemption would make sense after the Agni Kai. I also read this Twitter thread by Aaron Ehasz where he says he had plans for Azula's redemption and it was fantastic.

So yeah. Without being overt, the water siblings and fire siblings are contrasted by each other. Which is why I don't like the comics trying to do this brother-sister thing where they put Sokka and Katara and Zuko and Azula in back-to-back panels like... Even if I'm a huge supporter of Azula-deserves-redemption I didn't like those panels in the comics.

P.S. don't pit Sokka and Katara against each other. You aren't Ozai. They're different people who process trauma and loss differently and hence, react differently.

Adios.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #ink rambles #katara #sokka #zuko #azula #azula deserves redemption #katara defence squad

[paintbrushofjustice]

any interactions with the creepy squad you want to put out there?

yeah, I think randy is the dumbest name for a serial killer ever

imagine

“who are you, is someone there?”

“it’s me RANDY! prepare to die motherfucker”

#ink rambles

[splashink-games]

Interest Check!

hi friends!

I've been feeling like I should spend more of my time being creative/productive.

in addition to reviews, would any of you be interested if I decided to stream (games/writing/dev stream) or make videos (let's plays, reviews, dev logs, etc.)??

#ink rambles #poll time #been thinking a lot about this recently since I spend so much time like this anyways #might as well use the skills I learned to make my hobby more productive if there's even a little bit of interest

[inkovert]

im going to start tagging the last 5 people in my notes for tag games bc I feel like I keep tagging the same 2 people all the time. and I'm too lazy to make another 'reblog this if you don't mind tag games' post because every few months the pool of active writeblrs change and the post becomes obsolete. so yeah. I feel like most people are okay with tag games? and if you aren't and I tag you...I'm sorry?

#ink rambles

[splashinkling]

writeblr re-intro.

hi friends! this intro is partially because there's a lot of new people around and partially because I wanted to refresh a little bit.

so who am I?

call me splash or ink or some other nickname!

unfortunately, unequivocally both a writer and a gamer

and therefore I run my gaming blog (@splashink-games), where I post reviews, devlogs, and (sometimes) reblog other works

sometimes I'll reblog something from there by accident (or on purpose)

you'll also find me reblogging art or memes here.

I write basically just fantasy, but want to try my hand at sci-fi

tag/ask game/DM friendly! talk to me about stuff!

I'm actually very bad at reading things without a dedicated time to do so, so if I reblog your work with tags like "cool stuff" or something real short or general, I do actually really really love your work

meet my wips below the cut!

Shining Shadows. (title's a work in progress)

His target was only ever the Hero of Cyreth. The others didn’t matter. And what happened after didn’t matter either.

newest wip. intro coming soon-ish (whenever I get to it)

Progress: first draft

uhhhh. revenge gone wrong. revenge also gone right?

Memories with the Witch.

"Family... I'm not sure. I know I have one, but it's fuzzy. I don't know if they're even still alive."

you can find the intro here!

Progress: who knows really

(it's actually 46 chapters in progress, 18 to edit, 5 to check, 1 otherwise ready to post but I don't)

originally planned as a non-linear weekly webnovel, it's the most disorganized little thing I've got

if you like D&D, this wip is based on it!

Lyzandir regains his memories with Eryn, then found family vibes.

first-person narration along with diary/journal entries

two POV main characters across generations

Demons in the Den.

Demons have always run amok. For as long as I can remember and even before then.

the OG, my first wip I posted here.

Progress: second draft of book one, first draft of book two

supposed to be a trilogy but I was bad at planning

so what if the two leads liked each other but one's a demon and triggers bad memories?

and then they're dragged into a continental crisis?

#writeblr #writeblr intro #wip intros #ink rambles

[inkbloto]

Both of my TADC posts have popped off on here, so now I have to draw Pomni and Ragatha holding hands and Caine in a maid dress to celebrate.

#ink rambles #TADC #idk what to tag this as

[inkcaviness]

LEECH

#sticky little thing #I'm sorry i dont know how to tw this bc i genuinely have no idea what that tw could be #leech #leeches #worm #tw worm #i hope that works jdvkgbk #ink rambles

[ink-wells-and-feathers]

Guys its pride month! We forgot that Gorgug is legally allowed to be bi for pride.

#ink writes #ink rambles #ink says something stupid again #gorgug thistlespring #fantasy high #d20 fhsy #bi gorgug

[flowinginqq]

i hate people who will use the anon button as a mask to comment hate??? like don’t be a coward show your real account if you want to comment this badly 😭

#im literally thinking about turning off anonymous asks for this reason #ink rambles

[inklver]

50% of the server is actual writing

the other 50% is unhinged shit like this

@dutystricken

#ink rambles #i love it here lmfao

[squinkarts]

This is truly a Pomni moment

#squinkarts #tadc #the amazing digital circus #tadc pomni #pomni #ink rambles #the amazing digital circus pomni #also hiii I’m alive #I’m still here and active but I’m just busy working on some other projects now

[paintbrushofjustice]

DO YOU HAVE AN OPINION ON THIS

cuz like i would've said atleast a 6??

dream's a 10 that's all i have to say

#ink rambles

[inkthecat]

shoutout to tma for instilling the habit within me of cautiously saying "hello" to the dark when i wander the house at night, in case theres a ghost waiting to jumpscare me. listen im a jumpy guy but id be down for having a nice conversation about my mortality and insignificance to the greater world and perhaps extradimensional beings if youre polite about it

#tma #ink rambles

[inkovert]

why oh why did I decide to be edgy and cool and give my chapters chapter titles

why oh why did I decide to also accompany each chapter with a quote encompassing the character's emotions/experiences during the chapter

why oh why did I make life harder for myself

#it used to take two seconds to upload a chapter. no effort. #now I gotta do all this extra labor #to find ze perfect quote #and all that #I've already committed I can't turn back #sigh #ink rambles #glaring at my past self rn

[splashinkling]

Another Get to Know Me

thanks @sleepy-night-child for the tag!

a band that you don't like that many others do:

I'm pretty amicable for music. it'd take a song I really hate for me to not like a band. on the other hand, I will like any song that will get me to sing along with it

least favourite animal and why:

bees. when I was a kid, someone told me to not move around bees so that they wouldn't bother you. outside during recess, I froze still cause a couple of bees landed on my shoulders/neck. the bell rang for us to go inside and I had to make a mad dash for the doors despite the fear I'd get stung. hindsight and common sense now tell me bees are generally harmless and wasps are the enemy, but I'm traumatized now and treat them the same

hot fandom take:

head empty, I don't really have any takes, especially ones that aren't already out there. also not really in fandom land, I'm just on my own island.

do you wear any jewellery, if so, what's your favourite piece:

not super devout, but I've got this necklace from elementary school that's a cross with a dove on it that I still wear. otherwise, the owl ring I got a couple years back that I wear as a necklace is the one

a movie others liked but you didn't:

honestly I watch so many movies with my friends nowadays and a lot of them are really bad lmao. I think a recent movie we watched was The Killer and I didn't like it, but it's rated highly for who-knows-why. like it's not even a comedic mess-up, the assassin was just bad at his job and it's not entertaining

three things you love about yourself:

I'm a relatively positive person, or more like I don't have that much hate in my soul. will try to be the best supportive friend you've ever had. and I've got a lot of creative outlets to use!

a place you hope to visit in the future and why:

Japan! I wanna see so many gamer things there. plus the tourist-y landmarks/activities. life-sized gundam is also on the list, if that's still around. and the food! (that I've been seeing because I follow this one guy on YouTube)

an actor that gets on your nerves and why:

the first name that came to mind was Dwayne Johnson for whatever reason, but he's doesn't actually get on my nerves that much

things you're excited about in the near future:

(slowly and surely) getting back to writing!! reviewing some of these games that I've been playing recently, because I've got Opinions on some of them. and getting used to this fancy new limited edition 8BitDo controller that I got. if this was a week ago, I could've said watching my friend finish the main story of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but that's already happened

least favourite ship in a fandom you're in:

again, not really in fandom land so I have no idea about what ships go around.

what's the most toxic fandom you've been in:

as a gamer and basketball fan, those are wildly toxic fanbases. gamers are so mean to the devs (sometimes rightfully so, other times not so much) and to other players. like literal death threats sometimes, it's insane. and then fans of basketball would literally boo their own players at times, like what.

list three things you find beautiful about life:

Space science (thanks Kurzgesagt)! Other people's works (art, writing, games, or otherwise)! Family, friends, and pets!

any dreams for the future:

finishing and publishing any of my works so that people can (hopefully) enjoy the experience I made for them

how are you feeling today?

another day of writing, gaming, etc. but it's grey and gloomy outside and it's sucking like half of my energy away, especially because I need to walk the dog later. and the NBA Trade Deadline is at 3pm so I might be spending more time than usual paying attention to player movement/trades between teams, especially because my team is Not Good and I'm expecting them to make moves this deadline.

no pressure tagging @talesfromaurea, @moonluringfrost, @ettawritesnstudies, and sleepy friend already tagged @oh-no-another-idea and @drippingmoon, but I'll tag as well if you'd like :)

#ink rambles #tag game #get to know me tag #saw the music question and went. I was listening to J-Rock but now I'm listening to K-City Pop and realized I'll just listen to whatever I #encountered at that time. or I'll just listen to the same 3 songs on repeat for like a month 🤡. plus game OSTs are just so great that #yes. I will listen to the Karaoke songs from all the Yakuza games. thank you. #a couple years ago the fans of my team decided they would boo every time this one player touched the ball because of something he said in #the off-season. like we traded him away and still they boo'd him when he was on the other team. like come on. the moment is over lmao #trying to do too many things at once has made writing this take more than an hour lol