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iwritenarrativesandstuff · 1 year

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Chapter 105.5 Thoughts: Control, Manipulation and Partnership

Or, how Chuuya is actually the most qualified character to land a victory over Dostoevsky.

I just want to preface this with: I think Chuuya has woken from the brainwashing. We can't see his eyes, he's holding his hat again, and look at the progression of his face and expression from the last few chapters with him (these are in order btw from left to right).

I'm not completely sure how he did this, but I chalk a lot of it up to sheer stubborn determination on Chuuya's part, mostly because it's funny and he was clearly fighting back before Dazai's speech. However, I find it likely the speech did contain some kind of code - others have pointed out how "Goodbye!" might be a reference to the original author's last unfinished book and we know skk's codenames for things generally are based off their real counterparts' works so, maybe he'd already broken out of it, maybe there was something in there that gave him the final push - who knows at this point honestly? Either way, it means Chuuya had the capacity to break out of the vampire curse on his own and that's incredibly funny to me for many reasons but mostly:

Fyodor: "Bold of you to assume Chuuya's ability can't overcome flooding."

Dazai: "Bold of you to assume Chuuya's personality can't overcome brainwashing."

But really, this highlights something interesting here, both in what Chuuya's role is ultimately intended to be in this arc, and in the way Fyodor and Dazai manipulate and value others in very different ways.

I've said it before but it bears repeating: we already know that Fyodor is an excellent long-term planner, while Dazai is effectively able to counter him because Dazai shifts into thinking like his opponent. They're foil characters for a reason; they're both highly intelligent, manipulative, and willing to play the long game for the sake of winning against their opponent.

Thing is, I also stand by the idea that personality-wise, they're not similar at all - and that has serious implications for the people they are connected with. The build-up to the prison escape arc really highlights this. Some examples:

Chapter 46: Fyodor believes that all people are sinful and foolish and that his goal is to remove sin. Dazai believes that all people are sinful and foolish but asks what's so wrong with that.

Chapter 64: They decide to have a "super-happy chit-chat" about their problems. Dazai's solution to Fyodor's issue with his lazy subordinates is to get them to think lazing around is a bad thing so they will put in effort of their own. Fyodor's solution to Dazai being unable to woo the waitress is to isolate her from her job, house and family so that she can only rely on Dazai.

Chapter 77: Fyodor believes god is perfection and harmony, and thus that the people capable of change are the superior ones with most control. Dazai believes god is the accidental and illogical and believes it is the ordinary people who fight and live in that uncertainty who create the greatest change.

So, what's happening here? Fyodor's manipulation is shown to be very exacting and direct. He leaves no room for error and regards people on a hierarchy - God above all, himself as a servant of God's will, and the sinful and foolish humans he has little regard for. Dazai's manipulation involves manipulation of the situation, and is often indirect. It involves people coming to the conclusion he intends for them to on their own. And from his later dialogue with Sigma, we see he doesn't regard the world in that same kind of hierarchy.

Now, look at the way Fyodor picks an item and Dazai picks a person when starting the game. Look at the way Fyodor refers to Chuuya respectfully but brainwashes him entirely and mocks Dazai for not being worthy of "using" his ability. Look at the way Dazai is a complete ass to Chuuya but ultimately lets him make his own choices (begging people to take note of that moment in Stormbringer where Dazai cuts himself off to correct his referring to Corruption as Arahabaki's true power to Chuuya's true power).

So, the actual strength Dazai has over Dostoevsky then, is not really his strength at all, it's the strength of others and their choice and willpower to act in the way they believe is best. It's the only means of getting a leg up on Dostoevsky, otherwise they will continue to go around and around in circles forever.

And Chuuya is the best candidate for finally throwing Fyodor off his game.

Firstly, let's just establish something: no matter how mad he is at Dazai, he's not going to side with Fyodor, not willingly. Fyodor threatened the Mafia in the Cannibalism arc by attacking Mori, first of all. I doubt he's forgiven him for that. Secondly, Fyodor embodies everything Chuuya can't stand about Dazai, at the very least, younger Dazai - the manipulation, the lack of consideration and connection with others, the callousness and lack of regard for life.

Well, perhaps he's not quite as irritating. +1 point for Dostoevsky I guess?

But lastly, it is more advantageous for Chuuya at this point to help fight against Fyodor, especially since most of the Mafia has been vampirized by his organization. Helping the Agency stop the terrorist plot will help the Mafia by extension by undoing that. And we know from Stormbringer that no matter how much Chuuya is personally hurt, he considers taking out the threat to his people a higher priority. Always.

(You could make the argument that he was told whatever Teruko told Atsushi and decided to join, but not only do I find this wildly out of character, but if that was the case then there would've been no reason to brainwash him.)

That said, I don't think this was preemptive "Dazai's master plan #3057", and in fact, I stand by the idea that Dazai had no idea Chuuya was going to be in the prison. It is very, very important to me that for the rest of this arc, no matter what Chuuya does, that his actions are his own. Not Fyodor's, not Dazai's, but his. And not just because I hate that he's being controlled right now and that freedom of choice has always been important for Chuuya.

But because it makes narrative sense.

The vampires are a bit silly, yes, but they represent the way Fyodor and Fukuchi think - humanity will commit atrocities. They cannot be trusted to make their own decisions. They want to make a world that is free by... mind-controlling people so their plans work without a hitch. In short, they choose, on behalf of others, to sacrifice human autonomy for peace. So, if we are going to turn this arc around, we need to have characters breaking out of that control and thinking for themselves, in spite of the uncertainty of the outcome.

We already see this with Atsushi in the last chapter! He finally takes initiative and makes that choice to leave the room when he doesn't exactly know what the right thing to do is. And this is also why I don't think Teruko is wholly convinced by the DoA either - she lets him go. She gives him the freedom to choose what he does with that information.

Another one of the focus characters here is Sigma. Sigma is a guy who has no past, whose humanity is questioned, who keeps being used by organizations for his valuable ability, who has no home but desperately wants one... oh wait. Remind you of anyone's younger self? This could go one of two ways: Chuuya fails to assert his autonomy, leaving Sigma to learn from that failure, or, Chuuya succeeds in asserting his autonomy, leaving Sigma to learn from his success.

I think it, by necessity, has to be the latter. Sigma's at a tipping point right now, and I think seeing someone try to assert their freedom only to fail would damage him greatly. And I think it's a waste of Chuuya's character honestly.

Chuuya needs to assert his autonomy in this arc. Not just for thematic reasons but because I can think of no one else who can effectively break the "super-genius stalemate".

I keep hearing "Dazai knows Chuuya" in response to Fyodor calling their bond shallow, and that is absolutely true! But Chuuya also knows Dazai. Incredibly well. Odasaku knew Dazai's soul, but Chuuya knows Dazai's mind, knows his strategies and ways of thinking without even needing words. What's more, Chuuya has thrown off Dazai before and done what he didn't expect him to.

Which is nifty, because Dazai and Fyodor think a lot alike. Chuuya is in a unique position to thwart Dostoevsky because he may actually be able to predict him to a degree. Chuuya can absolutely land a victory against him, and it's excellent because it would be completely unexpected to Fyodor, who apparently thinks Chuuya's strength lies only in what his ability has to offer and not much else.

But listen. This also can't be skk's plan. I need Chuuya to sideline both of them. Both for the sweet, sweet catharsis of putting those two idiot geniuses in their places and also because I need Dazai to have screwed up. He wasn't wrong about people making their own choices in uncertainty. People need to assert their autonomy to create change. Dazai can't be wrong in this regard.

But with going ahead with the trap to drown Fyodor despite also having to drown Chuuya when he promised not to let him get killed... this needs to have been a mistake, otherwise the value of Dazai's emotional speech to him is diminished.

I want Dazai to try to laugh it off. I want him to say he always knew Chuuya would escape and then for Chuuya to deck him because "no, the fuck you didn't".

I really think Dazai hoped Chuuya would make it. Do remember that Chuuya was one of the first reasons young Dazai decided to try giving life a chance. The fact that he flashbacked to all his key memories with Chuuya says a lot. But his survival was no guarantee and it seemed very unlikely.

So, Chuuya is faced with the fact that Dazai nearly sacrificed him to kill Dostoevsky and save his new Agency friends.

And I hope he finally gets mad. I hope he finally expresses hurt on his own behalf for once. I hope they are forced to break their status quo that they have carefully maintained by not talking about anything ever. I hope they are pushed to uncomfortable places and that it is Chuuya who finally spurs this development.

Let Chuuya break the stalemate between Dazai and Dostoevsky. Let him shatter the status quo that him and Dazai have kept going for year after year.

Autonomous action in the face of uncertainty is necessary for change.

#am i assigning too much narrative importance in the main manga to chuuya? perhaps #will i stop? no #unfortunately this meta doesn't include gogol which is an oversight because he absolutely has to play a role as well #i'm just not quite sure what yet. same as chuuya i suppose #either gogol asserts his autonomy or he... fails. yeah. either he gets dostoevsky killed or... he fails.#i just don't know where he fits in with everyone else is the thing #listen though. it is significant that gogol decided not to play his dying role in the doa's plan though.#gogol is the free spirit of the doa and yet he's closer to sigma and bram in terms of how he is more controlled than controller #anyways sorry this is so long. just my two cents on the matter #bsd #bsd spoilers #bsd chapter 105.5 #bsd chuuya #bsd fyodor #bsd dazai #bsd sigma #bsd meta #i don't even know if this makes sense anymore. here.#storyrambles

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ride-a-dromedary · 4 months

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Feeling some kind of way about this exchange between Rath and Kagha post if you expose Kagha working under the Shadow Druids and convince her out of it.

Kagha: I see it on your face. You hate me. And I don't blame you.

Rath: I do not hate you. I am ashamed at how far I let your machinations spread.

Rath: I was blind not to see it. Too trusting. A fool.

Kagha: Not a fool. A friend. Would that I'd realised it...

#BG3 Musing #Rath #Kagha #it really is interesting that how Rath and Halsin talk to her changes (sans the Halsin chewing her out scene) if she's redeemed #and the way *she* talks is different #it's *significantly* softer even as they indicate that mercy is not for them to bestow - that is for silvanus to decide #and she's very remorseful - she even suggests that first herself #her remorse does not change what she's done but how she speaks of the refugees post the reveal is **far** kinder #and more in line with someone you can see would have perhaps been halsin's second - rath's friend #which makes people's complaints of 'well how did they not see it' to be moot - because she *wasn't like that always*#*that's* how they didn't see it at first #you are not immune to propaganda and all that #again not to sound like a broken record but this narrative with the shadow druids really is a good metaphorical example #of how...easy it can be to pluck at threads strategically and work at pre-existing weaknesses and flaws and emotions #to get people to fall in line with radicalized thinking and dangerous pitfalls #anyway there's probably more intelligent things to say about this but rath and kagha were friends and that's all you need to know #also rath blaming himself for the failures of others...seems familiar wonder who he trained under? (halsin)

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lunar-years · 2 months

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I’m at the point in writing Jamie-Father fic where I have to actually write from Jamie’s pov the canonical scene in the series finale where he’s happily smiling over photos with his father whilst visiting him at rehab and uhhhhhh. I’m struggling!!

#I hate this scene so damn much yall #trying to write it in a way that has nuance and isn’t just ‘oh everything’s wonderful now that he’s forgiven his dad!’#which is what the fucking show fucking portrayed for some god awful reason #but you know. my hatred for the scene is perhaps creeping into the narrative lmao #Jamie Tartt #james tartt sr #my writing #fic: rjk friends with benefits #ted lasso

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imminent-danger-came · 10 months

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While I do like the Eldritch MK theory, someone suggested that instead of being the reincarnation of a past enemy, MK is instead a sacrificial lamb for an enemy to come back (with him being referred to as harbinger).

Which raises a whole other question of who he is meant to be a sacrifice for.

Baby MK overall gives off the kind of vibes where he was created to be destroyed, doesn't he? I mean, why else create a "simple creature, with no past, no family, and no name". If something was just born (from a stone or not) of course it doesn't have any of those things—why specify it? You would only specify a detail like that if it was significant to why MK was created in the first place.

Which, this thought is not exclusive to Eldritch Abomination MK or to Harbinger MK, overall that feels like the implication. MK was made to be sacrificed in one way or another, whether that's to stop a past enemy, a returning one, or some other thing.

So, with MK being a sacrifice to chaos, I'm wondering why he would be given so much power. *throws dart at my idea board* Maybe he was made as some sort of ticking time bomb, created to destroy himself plus whatever threat he was meant to be a sacrifice for. *throws another dart* Or, perhaps he was created to be able to go toe to toe with whatever ends up being the embodiment of chaos!

Just to throw another dart at the wall: maybe MK was made as a counter measure to chaos itself! "There's a reason you were at the center of all these stories", that reason being to maintain balance and prevent the end of the world (of which he's done like, 4 times over now). "You don't use a weapon...you ARE a weapon!" aka MK is the ultimate weapon against literally any big bad.

Of course I'm partial to my own theory, but this is definitely a neat idea!

#just throwing shit at the wall o7 #I hope I contributed literally anything to this conversation #but you know I'm ALL about MK being a herald of Chaos.#like MK being created to be destroyed has a certain je ne sais quoi. He really is the doomed by the narrative blorbo #You also then gotta wonder then like. HOW he got all that power/what power was used to make him #Because like. Azure creating Camel Ridge sucked all of the life out of the surrounding area right #And with MK having the amount of power he does—where did that power come from #perhaps it was just similar to how Monkey King was born. But idk man MK seems to have even more power than SWK does #Maybe it was like...a combo. Using the good ol' stone egg and something else they made a fucked up dude who could fulfill whatever purpose #who knows man #asks #lmk #lego monkie kid #lmk theory

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polaraffect · 5 months

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bro I'm at the level of seasonal depression where my brain is like "maybe I should watch supernatural...."

#damien.txt #<- comfort show is supernatural #for some god foresaken reason. my brain truly has latched onto this show. even tho literally i hate it #they did all of the characters i like the worst they possibly could have. .......yet. the narratives.#this was honestly triggered by a post i saw today abt like. the show having dean's flaw be like 'sam isnt the brother i want him to be #and i tend to treat him in certain (unfair) ways because of that' which is inherently a banger character plot to have #but then the show unironically says 'and dean is 100% valid in this and any action he takes bc of it' and then like a ton of the audience #just believes that wholeheartedly.#this is incredibly paraphrased btw. i might try and go find the post and rb it bc it really hit #anyways yeah. literally thinking abt it forever. spn fucked me up in the brain in so many ways. like... irrevocably changed fr #time to go rewatch the 'i could never go on a quest like that. because i'm not clean' scene for the 60000000th time #truly the scene that had impacted me the most as a person. maybe in all of media #which is.... perhaps incredibly embarrassing kdgdjdhf but also. if you know you know.#supernatural

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patchwork-crow-writes · 5 months

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41 - The End

...so this is it, then.

It's funny... for me, it's barely been a week. And yet... well, sometimes it feels... a lot longer than that, too. Is that... how it's been for You, as well?

...I suppose I'll never know the answer to that now. There were so many questions I still had for You... so little I still know about You, while You seem to know so much about me. Seems a little unfair, doesn't it? Haha.

...I suppose I have Your name, at least. But for all I know, that could just be a pseudonym, an alter-ego. Even if I could divine anything truly meaningful from it, I...

The code is about to come to an end. The final story beat is playing out as I speak. Once the credits finish rolling, that's it. My story... the story of everyone in this game You've just finished playing, will be over.

What to say to You, in these final moments? You, who guided us through so many dangers, who bore intimate witness to our greatest triumphs and our most crushing sorrows? You, who treated our world and everyone in it as your playthings, dolls in an opulent house to be posed and smashed together as You saw fit...?

...but You would only have gone so far if You truly loved us, wouldn't You? And that means that we have served our purpose to You. We have performed to Your satisfaction... and that makes me immeasurably happy.

So what else to say, at the final curtain call, except Thank You, dear Player, for acting out Your role as well as You have? I pray that You will think of us from time to time... think of me, who had served You so faithfully in our quest, as I shall surely think of You, in the darkness beyond the story's end.

What else to declare, except that I Lo-

______________________________

The Dark Menagerie No. 41

<-<-First || <-Prev || Next-> || Index

#writing #fiction #fanfiction #deltarune #drabble #Ralsei #the player #what happens when a story comes to an end?#What happens when one of its characters knows of your existence?#What would such a character say to the being they might consider a God #In what they must surely realise are their final moments?#We too have a role to play in these stories... to see them through to their conclusion #In that way... we are more similar to Ralsei than we might think #Every bit a servant of the narrative as he #What else could such a character feel towards us except a profound connection...#perhaps even love...?#The Dark Menagerie

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age-of-moonknight · 7 months

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“An Unquiet Grave,” Moon Knight: City of the Dead (Vol. 1/2023), #4.

Writer: David Pepose; Penciler: Marcelo Ferreira; Inker: Jay Leisten; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit

#Marvel #Marvel comics #Marvel 616 #Moon Knight: City of the Dead #Moon Knight comics #latest release #Moon Knight #Marc Spector #when I tell you that I am so endlessly fascinated by the largely uncharted narrative territory that is Marc’s #(potentially quite short if we’re going with Lemire’s more recent timeline) combat service #and what that could mean for the character as a whole #because according to earlier works #and even in the opening issues of McKay’s run there’s textual evidence indicating that Marc -#before any environmental factors such as combat service #and definitely not in conjunction with him developing a better understanding that he is part of a system -#viewed himself as a near inherently violent person #[Mainly I’m thinking of bits of Moon Knight (Vol. 1/1980) no. 37 + Shadowland: Moon Knight (Vol. 1/2010) no. 1 #and perhaps most definitively Moon Knight (vol. 9/2021) no. 5’s ‘there was /never/ anything kind or gentle in me’]#but no individual leaves close combat experience such as this unchanged #obviously taking a man’s life had an impact but what I wouldn’t give to know more about what Marc thought this revealed about him #was the fact he could actually take a man’s life a revelation for him or #(closer to what I’m leaning towards) was it a confirmation of his worst fears about himself #that there’s no other factor to blame -neither environmental nor psychological - that he himself was always capable #of great crimes against life #plus (sorry I know I know I’m going on) but I would give a good amount of my personal resources to see Marc’s DD-214 #because otherwise I will hold onto with both hands Lemire’s perhaps unintentional indication in Moon Knight (vol. 8/2016) no. 11 #that Marc saw combat in Operation Phantom Fury/al-Fajr (‘the second battle of Fallujah’)#because it could just…mean so much for the character #As perhaps first indicated in Lemire’s run the implications surrounding ‘marine combat service’ are drastically different #between the present day and the 1980’s when Moon Knight’s origin was being solidified so yeah…

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snails-in-spaceships · 1 year

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#osric is literally my least favourite character and i don't know why he's just so irritating #perhaps this is the hamlet narrative trap but if it is it's Working #hamlet memes #osric #Hamlet #honestly he didn't really do anything wrong and my level of annoyance toward him is severly unjustified but. whatever he's fictional ig

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worstloki · 2 years

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Choosing to take the “a bit of both" response as irrefutable proof that Thor, a prince, is a pillow princess

#''must've been would-be princesses'' (PLURAL) ''or perhaps another prince'' (SINGULAR)#we have no evidence that Thor or Loki know any other royalty or have dated in the past #I certainly don't look at Thor 1 Thor or Loki and think that yea they've got other relationships going on #nah they're narrative foils already no take backsies #the Loki show #loki series making so much brodinsons subtext into thorki text fr #crack #thorki #Thor/Loki #like what am i meant to say? ''yes this is a reasonably phrased suggestive question sylvie is asking''#''yes loki sounds like he's not absolutely lying his socks off when he implies relationships''#''yes thor and loki surely know other royalty and people it is simply just never really mentioned and why would it be''#''odin tried to shove thor at sif one time''#''it didn't work. thor was too busy mourning for loki who wasn't even dead at that point he was just 2 floors down in a cell''

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mellomadness · 25 days

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sometimes I wonder if I should take a gender studies class just so I can bitch every day about how an imaginary boyfriend is often seen as a requirement for a woman to feel safe enough to have fun at a club, or the idea that an imaginary person with a fake “claim” over me has more influence over predatory men than my own voice saying “No, I’m not interested, get lost”

#venting #hnnnnng the double standard is really really making my teeth hurt recently #(in that I’m grinding my jaw at the mere thought of this particular breed of injustice)#I honestly miss going out with my friends. I miss going to bars and clubs and enjoying the night #but I wanna go with my friends and leave my boyfriend at home for once #he gets to go out and enjoy himself all the time with his friends and they never even have to deal with unwanted flirtation #meanwhile I go out in a tshirt and jeans and get fucking catcalled or flirted with just fucking getting groceries #and it’s not a narrative on beauty or anything. it’s about men’s perception of women #specifically predatory men and men who don’t realize they’re BEING predatory #perhaps it’s because I’ve been going to this fucking gamer school for far too long #and I’ve interacted with so many socially inept/incel men from there #who don’t know what no means or dont take women seriously when they do say no #or they literally cannot read between the lines of a woman politely declining their advances #‘but she was being so nice to me’ yeah bc if she wasn’t you’d either call her a bitch or try to force her anyway #anyway. I’m angry #im tired of living in fear of morons #I’m tired of not being able to go out on a Tuesday night and just walk the town with my friends #specifically my femme friends #we should be at the club!! instead we’re trying to make sure the group is like a school of fish so we’re less of a target #and like. I could talk about this on twt or reddit but. cmon. let’s be real here #MelloMoans #really does feel like we’re going backwards when it comes to gender equality and feminism #especially with the influx of the whole sigma male/high value male bullshit #I understand how it came to be I really do but that plus the whole pick me girl thing is just another toxic view of gender identity #and all it has resulted in on both sides is a wider degree of separation between the genders #therefore allowing both extremes to dehumanize every one that doesn’t identify as sigma male or not like other girls YET AGAIN #(and therefore also opens up the door for dehumanizing lgbtq+ folks but. let’s be real. that hasn’t really gone away yet :/

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shopcat · 2 months

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also now that it's fresh what we see of little azula in zuko alone really is not all that ... anything at all. like she's not horrifically evil or predeterminedly ANYTHING ... she's literally ten years old. she's acting like a ten year old ?! she trips her friend and pushes her big brother into a fountain. my brothers use to lock me in chests and there's literally an entire popular childhood game made up that's about tricking your friend into giving them a nosebleed by hitting them in the face. and her biggest crime is ... having a talent for firebending, which isn't actually her fault despite what people seem to strangely think, and parroting strategy and propaganda that her actual manipulative and evil father tells her that she clearly grew up around and doesn't just Randomly Know.

both of these particular aspects of her put her in a position of immense pressure by her father from an incredibly young age, in an incredibly volatile environment where she knows, and as the years pass she LEARNS, a slip up or indication of less than perfection could cost her more than just a basic reprimanding. people harp on for years about gifted children and the ramification of treating a child as more mature or capable than they are but can't seem to apply the pretty much perfect comparison even in this fictional way... that's crazy. it is literally her entire narrative arc and the way it just goes over people's heads is ASTONISHING.

like it seriously frustrates me the way people continue to villainise azula beyond logic to the point where there's this fanonised, warped version of her that exists (particularly as an even younger child than she already is) that's like, the antichrist figure to further woobify and "legitimise" zuko's various traumas and his childhood, which i find not only obviously fucking ridiculous and people should be ashamed of themselves but also like, you just don't have to do that. theirs was not a normal childhood and neither of them should be judged as a normal child, but also paradoxically, they are just normal children.

even if azula was in an average family, from a behavioural standpoint, and a LOGICAL standpoint, no, the ten year old little girl doesn't know the full capacity of what she's doing and saying and should not be judged as if an older child or adult were saying them, or as if she is entirely outside of the narrative scope. she teases zuko about how their grandfather was going to "kill him" and how he should get adopted now (which literally... all my siblings have done have people never had siblings...) which is an entirely normal way of acting out and picking fights. when ursa comes in she immediately acts innocent which no, doesn't indicate further malicious intent or "manipulation", it's... how any 10 year old would act if she got caught being naughty and picking fights. (contrary to popular belief zuko is not the main character both of the story and IN LIFE, and azula exists without her brother around – a child scared to get caught indicates a child who has been driven to be SCARED. in the household she lives in this applies tenfold).

she would have no actual reason to realise the outside forces actually at play, unlike their mother, and just like it's not her fault zuko is treated unfairly for being the "unfavoured" child it's not her fault that... adults were actually conspiring to kill her brother. which is a huge thing and is something almost intolerably inconceivable to most adults let alone children.

"but she was callous about her mom leaving" she wouldn't be able to REGISTER anything about their mother "disappearing" (or dying, at least to them at this point in time) within the... 10 hours? it happened in. she was lashing out again. she did not have a hand in "KILLING" her mother. and honestly from what little we did see of ursa, a predisposition to finding your own child unsavoury is kind of unwantonly cruel. these characters don't know that they exist in a narrative where azula is being set up as The Villain, who has to act Villainous, and honestly that's a boring fucking way to look at character behaviour anyway.

as much as i do agree that obviously it's a story and things happen for narrative enhancement, the enrichment of a story comes from the believability of a character's actions and even if that weren't true, half of what people as fans of something do is further that themselves by inferring what we can from what we see and therefore i think i'm right in thinking this anyway. you can't step up to the plate claiming you can handle depth and give me a puddle -_-. anyway. it is insanely unbelievable that a mother should write off her own child and favour the other just because her megalomaniacal husband has shown interest in cultivating his own child as a weapon, and just Plain Insane that so many people write off this character entirely WHILST giving all HER trauma to ZUKO.

also like, she's not even acting like a particularly spoiled princess COULD act like in the beginning she's just kind of an annoying kid. i'm not kidding when i say she's acting pretty much entirely normal. "she set her dolls head on fire" so has every other kid i've ever known. i'm actually going to lose my mind about how people have twisted her character into something so beyond any sort of empathy or consideration of what a child of a manipulative genocidal maniac who is shown to abuse his kids could possibly look and act like when we literally get it served up on a silver platter the entire show in the difference between zuko and azula. "azula always lies" because azula always plays the part to protect herself and the role she was manipulated into thinking she earned is like, the foundation of her character and it's embarassing the way i see so many people just like. fall for it. the inability to conceive any sort of love or compassion for a character that directly parallels the male character everyone trips over to analyse is really transparent and sad tbh. at the end of the day azula haters will be taters as i prosper in my garden of success of loving her and being capable of having a brain.

#🐾#☆#atla #sorry this got kind of ranty LMFAO it's just like. i love her and when people turn her into something she's not i need to stab them #a million times over and over until they die badly #also this is literally true bc it's part of the whole thing i'm even talking about but people literally just hate her because she's mean to #zuko. like oh my god. get a grip. he's not real and his fictional feelings don't matter #i literally love that kid BUT GUESS WHAT. HE LOVES AZULA TOO #irs almost like they're siblings or narrative foils or something huhhh interesting woah #also bat meet hornets nest but i do know it's bc they can't sexualise her as much as a fandom the way they freely do with him 😭#zanyway #child abuse tw #also i doubt it but in case tbis ends up in a tag or sowmrbing no i don't think she hasn't done anything wrong ever if you think that's #what i'm saying then you need to idk read it again. she did eveyrhing she did. so did every other character.#but perhaps when people are going out of their way to give zuko handfuls of compassion and tragic backstory they could fork some over for #his FOURTEEN year old sister. maybe!

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