#the fact that they aren’t canon is extremely disappointing!

[whatabunchofalices]

more lizzie and kitty photos!!

❤️💜

#part 2 of lizzie and kitty being gfs in the background bcuz i love them! #if you literally watch any episode you’ll see them in the background! #i just love them a lot if you couldn’t tell #kitty cheshire #lizzie hearts #the creators not giving them a matching accessory was such a missed opportunity! #the fact that they aren’t canon is extremely disappointing! #should’ve let them kiss AT LEAST once in the series! #or go a date! #the lizzie heart’s fairytale first date episode should’ve been w/ kitty instead of daring… #i need what they have <3 #ever after high #eah #kitty x lizzie #lizzie x kitty

[hartlesshart]

I have something to say - If you aren’t going to read the whole thing, then skip it. But I really hope you do. My intention is not to cause drama. I just felt this was important to say because I love this community and I want it to be the best it can be.

A few days ago, a very unfortunate thing happened on a certain post about Talanah and Seyka. I called someone out on what was a case of weaponizing a racist incident. Instead of having a meaningful discussion, my comments were deleted and called “inappropriate accusations.”

Long story short - several reblogged and commented on this post about how Talanah was constantly being tagged as Seyka. To be clear, this is not a good thing and I believe every single one of those post to be valid in their frustration. But I have also seen it happen the other way around to my own work (Seyka tagged as Talanah). None of this is okay but while it is exhausting, remember that mistakes do happen.

So I made a comment about my experience and my comment was dismissed because apparently it “hadn’t been seen.” I responded to this with an honest truth of how dismissals of experience affects people like me.

The thing about racism is that it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You don’t get to pick and choose who it happens to just to fit your narrative. Dismissing it because you didn’t personally see it is harmful, especially to fans from marginalized groups who may not feel comfortable sharing their experiences in the future.

My comment was deleted and later referred to as an “inappropriate accusation” and “harassment.” Was it an accusation? Yes. Was it inappropriate? No. Was it harassment? Absolutely not - I took time to respond so it wouldn’t be seen that way. However, the comments involving Talanah mistags were kept. The comments defending a fictional character. To be clear, I am not saying these comments are not justified. It is incredibly frustrating to work so hard on a piece only for it to be tagged as another character. However, the fact other comments (including my personal experience), that challenged the narrative that these mistaggings were only happening to Talanah, were being deleted is problematic and a form of silencing. Intentional or not - this is a racist microaggression - and yes, I do deal with stuff like this in real life.

It became immediately clear to me that the goal here wasn’t to raise awareness or do anything about the racist misnaming but instead use it to put down a group in this community. And judging a whole group by the actions of a few bad apples is literally where prejudice begins. All of this pettiness stemming from - let’s face it - an unnecessary shipping war in a FICTIONAL STORY. I was incredibly disappointed and saddened because I know we are better than this.

I am not speaking out because I want to cause drama. Undoing systemic racism is something I am deeply passionate about because it affects so many people in my life. If someone calls you out on a problematic take, please take a moment to listen and reflect, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Do not follow the impulse to block or delete. This work is extremely exhausting for everyone, but it is SO important. We all carry prejudices and biases. We are human. But we can also learn because we are all human. I have been called out many times in life by my friends. I have made so many ignorant comments and mistakes. And I will still make them. Hearing I have is not easy at all but it is all part of growing.

Speaking out like this isn’t really my thing but I felt the need to make a comment that can’t be deleted by anyone. I love the Horizon community and I want it to be a safe and inclusive space for everyone no matter where you are from. That is what these games are about. Understanding people from different backgrounds, opinions and traditions in order to work together. 

You don’t have to be fans of the same characters. You can love or be disappointed with the canon. You can respectfully give and listen to critiques of these characters. And you can celebrate representation even if it’s not the direction you wanted Horizon to go in.

Whatever these games have given you is yours to keep.

Just don’t be an asshole about it (at least in public, what you do in private is none of anyone’s business so…) -> that goes to all fans in all groups. It is never okay to harass or hurt anyone - and especially over fictional characters.

(Also please respect the devs - we are lucky they are able to pour their hearts into this game for all of us to enjoy and frankly the direction is their creative choice)

This vibrant community is full of so much talent and love for this amazing series. I have made some truly incredible friends, worked on some hilarious and delightful collaborations and have seen wicked talent come together to make something special. Just look on the horizon, and you’ll see a certain 100% fan-made game coming soon, which has a little something for everyone!

Keep creating. Ignore the bad apples. Don’t be an asshole. I’m going back to drawing silly things. - from the hart 

#horizon zero dawn #horizon forbidden west #horizon critical #horizon fandom #talanah #seyka #burning shores #fight racism #microaggressions #be antiracist #horizon #hfw

[the-crimson]

I was gonna make a comment on someone else’s post but I’ll just make a new one cuz I don’t wanna derail theirs XD

(This is aimed at the fandom, the characters being confused about 4halo is perfectly fine lol)

In regards to 4halo, I think the fandom needs to keep in mind that cc!bbh has said q!bbh is aromantic. That means that you will never be able to put any of his relationships into neat little boxes of platonic or romantic.

I’m aromantic and I’ve had people tell me my relationship with one of my closet friends has to be a romantic one because of how close we are/how we act with each other when it’s not in the way they are imagining. We aros often joke that we’ve unlocked a “secret third thing” but a lot of times relationships aren’t as cut and dry as you’d like to believe even between allosexuals - especially within the queer community.

A romantic relationship is not defined by what people do with each other or how they act around each other but by their attraction to each other. Q!bbh has made it pretty clear he has no romantic or sexual attraction to anyone so trying to put his relationships in those boxes is going to leave you disappointed.

As an aromantic person, it’s difficult to classify my relationships into these simplistic categories so I usually just avoid the question or change the subject. Q!bbh does the same.

Part of it is that cc!bbh is a troll and is obligated to always chose the dialogue option to create maximum drama but the other part is q!bbh probably doesn’t know how to explain the nature of his relationship with Forever in terms of romantic or platonic because it doesn’t fall into either.

It’s just like his relationship with Skeppy. They are immortal soulmates who are extremely possessive and codependent but good fucking luck trying to put their relationship in a box.

I think trying to look at 4halo through a purely romantic or platonic lens is doing yourself and the characters a massive disservice. You cannot forget or ignore that fact that q!bbh is canonically aromantic when analyzing this ship. Yeah go on a write ur romance or smut or what ever but when looking at the cannon, do not forget it or you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

#qsmp #crimson speaks #4halo #forever player #badboyhalo #idk if this is discourse but it’s something people gotta remember #we are probably never going to get a clear cut declaration from q!bbh on the nature of their relationship #and that’s how a lot of aro relationships work #that’s how mine work #it’s honestly really refreshing seeing an aro character being explored also well #our relationships are confusing! they don’t follow standard norms! #that’s just how we work!

[electric-friend]

wait hang on 😭😭 are people seriously debating “he’s a complicated man” right now??

i agree that izzy’s an unreliable narrator, and i think that some of the things he’s said about ed aren’t necessarily true, much as many other things he’s said are also not necessarily true. he’s not really aware of the full picture the whole time, poor duck, as much as i adore him.

but like… besides the fact it really doesn’t have anything to do with wether or not you think izzy’s doing complex evil shit to ed on purpose, and people seem to be making it about that…

ed is VERY MUCH a complicated man. as someone who relates to ed probably more than stede or izzy… he’s absolutely a complicated man. ed can be violent, and suicidal, and he clearly experiences some form of emotional dysregulation, and he’s done things to people that weren’t justified. the crew was traumatised by ed’s behaviour and how much violence he placed them in a position to commit.

the way ed responds to rejection is so violent and out of proportion, his consecutive raids, his suicidal antagonism towards the crew… and for me and my personal issues, that’s extremely relatable… but it is NOT mentally well behaviour.

ed also exhibits patterns of disordered alcohol use, and his anger often causes him to lash out (yes, often at izzy who pushes his buttons, and yes, izzy’s behaviour is a factor in this. but it’s also worth noting ed has agency as a character and his violence is still violence, provoked or not) and one of his most integral traumas is how an act of violence saved him from the violent alcoholic who was his father.

there’s nothing about ed that’s not a complicated man. he’s done bad things that weren’t justified. that doesn’t make him a bad man. it makes him a complicated one. it’s very clear he knows how to be a better person. and that he can be. that the show left out a lot of that journey is really disappointing, but ed feels like he’s a monster and he does bad things to become the villain he thinks he deserves to be treated as, you know?

he is SUCH a complicated man. that doesn’t mean he’s irredeemable or bad, it doesn’t mean there’s a moral obligation to dislike him either. none of that’s the case. but izzy got it right when he called ed complicated. i think in some ways izzy had finally realised that he wasn’t always going to understand ed because ed wasn’t always going to think the way he did, but he was coming to accept that he didn’t need ed to be someone he could understand as long as ed was happy? does that make sense? i know that’s a sappy outlook on a canonically toxic relationship but i just cannot believe that there’s a genuinely widely accepted take going around which boils down to people thinking it’s wrong to call ed a complicated man. like, huh???? girl….

#izzy hands #ofmd critical #i mean the thing is that often when people point out how ed has moral complexities he’s done bad stuff #that he wasn’t necessarily justified for but he’s ultimately a sympathetic character #who can be a much better man than his father made him feel like he could #they’re often criticised for that #and particularly for the use of the word “violent” given ed is a man of colour #even though ed does do violent things onscreen #but the people who believe racism is holding ed accountable for his own actions #and suggesting he has agency outside of responding to izzy or being infatuated with stede #start to say it’s wrong to call ed a complicated man… dude. #WRONG TO CALL HIM C O M P L I C A T E D #i’m just saying 💀💀 #how are more people not deciding that THAT is racism actually #why are we dehumanising ed by insisting he doesn’t have complexity and hasn’t done bad things ever #like guys. why the fuck are we doing that???

[two-hands-toward-the-sun]

and to be completely honest i don’t even think the majority of the show!sandman fandom on tumblr would even like a game of you! dream barely shows up. there aren’t really any (human) male characters to ship, only—qué horror—canonically queer women. hell, who’s the white dude people are gonna latch onto? fuckin’ george, the asshole whose face gets sliced from his head, brought back to life, and nailed to a wall while the rest of his corpse hangs out in the bathtub? and aside from the tumblr fandom, imdb ratings went down significantly when season 1 pivoted to focus on rose, and reviewers complained about how there wasn’t enough of dream. multiple factors point to the idea that a game of you would have an extremely disappointing audience response, and unfortunately that might reinforce the idea to executives and such that people don’t want to see wlw stories at front and center. and our girls deserve so much better than all of this potential bullshit. so i would in fact prefer for a game of you not to get adapted in full, because it would break my heart a little to see people hate on it.

#the sandman netflix #the sandman #the sandman comics #a game of you

[temunitu]

So I just watched tmnt 2012 for the first time and honestly, kinda disappointed. There was also a lot of things that pissed me off. One thing I don't see talked about though is just Mikey's portrayal off ADHD and just how problematic it is.

In his original bio he is confirmed to have ADD which just makes the treatment of him in the show, the way he is written, and the infantilization of him.

Everyone just gets so annoyed and aggressive over his ADHD traits and he is treated like an idiot by the writers and characters. It's one thing to be coded but the fact it's canon just bugs me so much as someone with ADHD. I'm glad at least Rise has good canonical ADHD rep in its version of Mikey.

Understandable! 

portraying neurodivergent characters is perhaps one of the trickiest things simply because you don’t want to water down or brush off any struggles they might face, but you also don’t want to demonize or romanticize the trait. it’s especially tricky if you don’t have first- or secondhand experience with it, if you don’t do the research, or if you view neurodivergence as a character flaw rather than a trait. 

in universe, Mikey is usually brushed off at best or outright hit in the worst of circumstances. it’s... really sad. given that there’s no real closure for him where he gets diagnosed, or even his family realizing “there’s something very different about you, but that’s not a bad thing.” the kid’s 15-16 and doesn’t know why he thinks so differently from everyone else around him! the least his family could do would be to try to be open minded and understanding about it. 

on the other hand, i don’t think the writers were taking it seriously or had any sort of plan to do anything with it. it feels sort of like an afterthought. “haha what if Mikey had ADHD, wouldn’t that make him so much weirder?” which... feels insensitive and insulting. like, at the very least, do some research rather than taking the stereotype as the final result, give Mikey some ways to grow and learn to cope in healthy ways. geez. IT’S NOT EVEN THAT HARD?*

most versions of Mikey, the fandom has headcanoned that he has ADHD. i haven’t heard anything about it being canon in Rise, but i can definitely see it! and i’m so so glad he doesn’t get pulverized for simply saying something silly. just cuz he thinks differently from others doesn’t mean he’s stupid! he’s got a big heart and can be a bit naive, but those aren’t flaws unless taken to the extreme. 

#this is why i hate tmnt 2012 #you're right anon it isn't talked about as much as it should be #*it's not that hard to do the BARE MINIMUM for a proper portrayal. doing extensive research would be more of a challenge #BUT. IT'S STILL ACCOMPLISHABLE AND WORTH IT #i hope we keep getting better and better representation for adhd mikey in the future #anon #ask #tea answers

[minetteskvareninova]

Homies I just saw the funniest take. It was really long, but it basically boils down to “actually, Vanya coming out as trans is homophobic, because it implies that because she’s attracted to a woman, she’s a man, thus erasing the fact that she is in fact a lesbian”. Never mind the fact that THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT ELLIOT EXPERIECED IRL. Like for the longest time he lived as a lesbian, before coming out as a trans man. Author also adresses the fact that Sissy is canonically gay, and continues to be gay after Viktor leaves, and is just... Bewildered by it? Like, “why does cannon refute this point that the authors never intended to make?” I can’t, this is just so funny.

The author of the piece also takes umbrage with the fact that being with Sissy made Viktor realize he’s trans, and claims this is because Sissy was a woman and because Viktor had sex with her, then he obviously must be a man... Never mind that Sissy’s bravery in admitting her queerness to both herself and others might’ve inspired Viktor to question his identity in ways that he never dared before. Never mind that Viktor’s relationship with Sissy was the healthiest and most emotionally honest that he’s had, maybe ever. I mean, we saw enough of Hargreeves household and Viktor’s life in it. He also didn’t seem to have any friends, and his only relationship outside of his family that we saw was his romance with Harold Jenkins, which lasted like a week and ended with Viktor so unhinged he destroyed the fucking world. Which is to say, not exactly a healthy environment for self-exploration.

The author is then bewildered that everyone in the family is so supportive of his transition, and why is none of the siblings like “no, you’re a lesbian, actually”, which... The projection here is just too funny not to mention. Like I don’t know, these people are from 2019 USA, maybe, just maybe, they think being trans is OK and not a big deal? Maybe they want to support their little bro now that their family kinda works as a unit?! Author also claims that noone ever shows this amount of support towards Viktor on any other occasion, which... No?! ALLISON continues to hate Viktor, but never deadnames or misgenders him (which is a bit weird, but honestly what is your point here, that Allison isn’t enough of an asshole in season 3?!). Everyone else tries to have a normal sibling relationship with him!

(The author also calls Luthor’s sexual assault “non-consensual PDA”, which... I AM SORRY WHAT)

The only point I will give the author is that Viktor’s transition was extremely rushed and not foreshadowed at all, which is a bit disappointing, but under the circumstances understandable. Yes, I would love to have it foreshadowed more, especially in season 2. But I get that the showrunners didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, to contribute to the culture of “being trans is OK and totally normal, actually”. It’s very tricky to handle this kind of thing well, especially with the bajillion other plot points to get to.

There are three things that shed a whole new, somewhat tragic light on this post. a) author is very clearly a TERF, like, this very post has a hashtag “terf safe” *surprised pikachu face* b) author supposedly battles gender dysphoria, calls themself a “lesbian” (that, is they are AFAB) c) author is a big fan of Elliot, whom they still call Ellen, and clearly considered him a role model back when he presented as a woman and lesbian

YEAAAH... So turns out there is a kinda sad story burried under the mountain of bad takes and TERF shennenigans? Which is why I am not going to reblog or @ this person. Maybe they will find my post and realize it’s about them, but I’d rather they don’t. This post really has nothing to offer them, really. If they ever realize the grass is greener for people like them on the other side (not saying everyone with dysphoria MUST be trans, but I am pretty sure it warrants at least an exploration of one’s gender identity, and her TERF friends sure as hell aren’t going to let them have that), it sure as hell won’t be trough a post roasting their bad Umbrella Academy takes.

#the umbrella academy #terf #transgender #bad takes with minette

[gallifrey1sburning]

Hi, I've seen your reply to jalesidor's post on how fandom becomes ever more important the more one realises how disappointing jkr is. In it, you spoke about how both Harry and Draco are queer-coded in canon. Would you mind to expand on that? Or if you already have, would you mind linking that post or the tag under which I can find it? Absolutely no pressure to do so, just if you like! Thank you!

Hi anon! Sorry for the delay in answering; I wanted to do the question justice. I could have thrown some stuff at you off the top of my head, but that didn’t feel right—at my core, I am a Ravenclaw, and I could not bring myself to half-ass this. (For those who haven’t seen the referenced post, you can find it here)

Before I get into my personal analysis, I want to note that there has been a lot of discourse on this topic over the years, so many of my ideas didn’t actually originate with me, they just got incorporated into my mental cache of HP analysis. If you search the tags “canon drarry” or “drarry in canon” or any variation thereon, you’ll get a bunch of posts where people pull excerpts and explain how extremely not heterosexual the things happening in them are. @iamnmbr3 in particular has written a ton of these (which I didn’t realize were all by the same person until I started trying to track them down!), a few favorites being Arthur Weasley clearly thinking Harry’s got a crush, this hilarious list of canonical interactions, Narcissa’s very accurate understanding of how aware Harry and Draco are of each other, and that time Harry got beaned in the head by luggage because he was watching Draco change. Others classics include when @big-draco-energy got an ask about how Harry assumed that Draco must be a Death Eater if he was preoccupied enough to not care about their rivalry (and was right) and when @northward had a great observation about their obsessions with each other.

Seriously, this scene, y’all!

Possibly the most quoted line in Drarry fandom

And now, on to my own thoughts!

So first off, I want to say that some of the things that I’m going to flag as unintentional queer coding are rooted in stereotypes, and that that doesn’t mean that I believe in or condone said stereotypes. However, media often uses stereotyping as a lazy shorthand, and I think that that should be taken into account in this context, because it means there’s a reasonable assumption that people would interpret some character traits and scenes through that lens.

Secondly, so much credit to my amazing friend @mxmaneater, who actually HAS A FOLDER of photos of super gay moments from the books, which saved me a lot of time trying to dig up quotes that I knew existed but wouldn’t have been able to easily track down.

And finally, these are my personal interpretations. I’m not any sort of academic, and we’re all aware that JKR does not believe that she wrote Harry or Draco as queer. I’m hoping folks can be chill and take this in the spirit that it’s intended: as one possible reading. Your beliefs about the series and the characters are your own, and I’m not here to tell you you’re wrong just because they aren’t mine, so please extend me the same courtesy!

Now, without further ado, here we go:

Let’s start with Harry, because that’s the easier lift here. The Harry Potter books are written from a third person limited perspective, which means we only see things from Harry’s point of view and are privy to his thoughts. I can’t find a link, but I know that it’s widely quoted that JKR at some point used the fact that the books are from Harry’s perspective as justification for the ways in which some people or events were portrayed. The answers on this Quora post about pro-Gryffindor bias in the books do a good job of explaining the idea of Harry’s point of view skewing the point of view of the series.

So if we accept that the books reflect Harry’s thoughts and feelings about things, we’re left with the unmistakable fact that he frequently observes how handsome various boys and men are. We have physical descriptions of Cedric Diggory, Bill Weasley, Sirius Black, and even Tom Riddle that clearly illustrate admiration. Additionally, although it’s largely unflattering, it’s often noted amongst fans that we get full physical descriptions of Draco extremely regularly—we know his hair and eye color pretty much from the get go and hear about them often, as well as his outfits, his swagger, his smirking and ‘leering’ (yes, she really uses that word), etc.

Some very heterosexual observations on men from the perspective of one Harry James Potter

Sure, Harry never explicitly says he’s into men, but let’s keep in mind the time period the books were placed in and the type of family that Harry was raised by: there is a very real chance that Harry wouldn’t have been aware of the idea of bisexuality and therefore would never have questioned his own orientation. Because he knew he liked girls, so of course he wasn’t gay! To many folks who later realized they were some form of not-straight, particularly bisexual and/or pansexual folks, this is a pretty common experience: not really registering that checking out people of multiple genders is not actually something that everyone does. *Stares vaguely into the distance while pondering all of the girls I didn’t realize I was crushing on until many years later*

Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, there’s the symbolism of the whole ‘literally being raised in a closet, abused for being a ‘freak’, and forced to keep his truth a secret because the people he lived with were ashamed of him’ thing. To queer people raised by homophobes (or anyone who knew people in that situation), this isn’t even the slightest bit subtle, and the fact that JKR either didn’t notice or is in denial about it is truly bizarre to me.

Draco is a little harder to pin down without delving into stereotyping, so I’m just gonna go for it: Draco is a textbook Drama Gay™. He’s performative in his speech, using a lot of flamboyant gestures; he constantly performs over the top reenactments for his friends; he makes buttons and sews costumes and does drawings and generally just goes through a lot of effort to pick on his ‘rival’. The only scenes where we see him in something that could be read as a heterosexual romantic relationship are with Pansy Parkinson, whom he doesn’t seem remotely interested in; she reads more like a prop that he puts up with to project a particular image. Also, at one point we see him flopped across her lap to have his hair pet, which is definitely a thing that I remember happening during rehearsals back when I was involved in high school theater (and almost never by people with compatible orientations).

And then there’s this scene:

Someone once made a post about just how gay this whole thing is: pointedly grabbing the biggest bowtruckle, whispering in Harry’s ear, smirking over his shoulder while walking away, etc. (If anyone can find it, please send me the link and I’ll add it to the list of other people’s thoughts that contributed to all of this.)

So, that’s what I’ve got for you! Someone could probably write a whole research paper on this (and hell, maybe they have), but hopefully this at least somewhat explains my assertions of queer coding. As a reward for reading all of this, please enjoy a bonus scene of Harry NOT being attracted to a man:

Poor Ron. Maybe next time, buddy.

#harry potter #draco malfoy #queer coding #queer hp #bisexual harry potter #gay draco malfoy #harry potter meta #drarry #canon drarry #this is so long but I had so many thoughts

[lostboiking30]

Legend of Korra Rant about queer representation, capitalism and police

Okay...so if you have been following me or liking/reblogging my stuff then you know that I was an OG Korra stan. Last year when Avatar and legend of Korra came back on Netflix a lot of queer people watched, anticipating the queer representation only to be disappointed in the surprising lack of overt on screen queerness As a side, I still just don’t understand how people think that Korra is straight or cis. Idk, there is this theory/head canon I have that Korra is Two-Spirit because she is indigenous, exudes both masculine and feminine energy and literally had hundreds of past lives inside of her for the first 17 years of her life. 

Anyway, a lot of queer radicals that I have met who have watched the show have complained about Legend of Korra being queer bait and pro police-state, and pro capitalism and it kinda pisses me off, because that’s not true.  This show doesn’t take a side. For better or for worse, It shows the complexities of a city in the middle of an industrial boom, but that doesn’t mean it is pro-capitalist. The show wouldn’t have even touched what hoarding wealth does to communities if that were true. There would have been no representation of poverty or how KIDS get caught up in gangs in order to survive, nor would they have shown how Hiroshi Sato’s alliance to the Equalists almost destroyed his company or his daughter’s WHOLE LIFE. Like Asami was straight up on the verge of financial ruin in Book 2. THATS A LOT FOR AN 18 YEAR OLD TO DEAL WITH.  Concerning the Metalbending police force: I don’t know why people tend to forget this EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AND PIVOTAL SCENE in Book 1 where the police cut the electricity to the homes of nonbenders. Police Chief Saikhan was kettling the nonbenders and  threatening them with violence if they didn’t go home and follow that ridiculous curfew instated by Tarrlok that SCREAMED McCarthyism DESPITE the police INSTIGATING the situation. One of the nonbenders says “Please help us, You’re our Avatar too!” and Korra steps in threatening both the police and Tarrlok before he has Asami arrested for breaking curfew and throws Mako and Bolin in Jail for good measure.  That’s police brutality. And that scene in Book 1 should have been enough to show that this show was not pro police or pro police-state (See: Kuvira being an evil dictator -_-) 

The police aren’t shown in a good light in this show. In fact they are almost always seen as an oppressive force, even when Lin Beifong is Chief.  

As far as queer representation goes, it was 2014. Gay Marriage wasn’t legal in the USA. Nickelodeon was fucking with the creators. They gave us what they could without having the show be outright cancelled. Korra and Asami holding hands while walking into the spirit portal was SO important to us! 

ALSO it wasn’t like Mike and Bryan pulled a JK Rowling and was like yep Korra’s gay and then NEVER delivered. Not only did they immediately deliver Korrasami content, they told people that Korrasami was canon and everyone who disliked that could die mad about it. Then They gave us the continuation of the story in comic book form with LOTS of sweet Korrasami moments, and THENturned around and said YOU KNOW WHAT? KYOSHI’S BI TOO! HAVE SOME BOOKS ABOUT IT.  Mike and Bryan and the whole creative Team Avatar have delivered some of the most culturally aware content that I have ever seen in my entire life, and I hope they keep creating more. Avatar the Last Airbender, Legend of Korra and The Rise/Shadow of Kyoshi are gifts that we should be so lucky to have. 

#Avatar The Last Airbender #legend of korra #atla #TLOK #lok #asami #korra #mako #bolin #aang #avatar #korrasami #kyoshi

[nat-20s]

for @jonmartinweek day 8! (which I definitely realized was happening and for sure did not forget lmao). The prompt was free day/au, so I picked my own theme of “pets”. The last few fics have been pretty loaded, so please enjoy some pure post canon (literal and figurative) fluff

~*~

“I can’t believe I married a dog person.”

They weren’t even supposed to be in the shelter. They had made no plans to visit a shelter. However, as Jon has been learning over the course of the past couple years, a Martin not under duress and given free time outside will inevitably end up trying to befriend any living nonhuman creature in the immediate vicinity.

“I’m not a dog person.”

“The lapful of beagle puppy would indicate otherwise.”

“Just because I appreciate the company of a very good boy, yes you are, doesn’t mean I’m a dog person. Dog person implies I have a preference. I like cats equally as much as I like dogs. Unlike some of us, my heart is open to all manner of furry friends.”

“I don’t...hate dogs.”

“Uh-huh. Is that why you won’t pet Rufio here?”

“He’s nippy, I don’t trust him. And it’s just that dogs are A Lot. I find most of them a bit overwhelming. And needy.”

“Pff, that’s no excuse. You’ve been best friends with overwhelming, and you married needy.”

Martin lets out a distracted giggle as Rufio finally gets in a lick on his face. Okay, maybe it is a pretty adorable sight, but that’s hardly sufficient enough evidence to actually let such an energetic ball of fluff into their home. Still, it’s enough to convince Jon to sit down next to them, and give Rufio a very tentative scritch behind the ears. “I think we both qualify as the needy one in our relationship.”

“Pretty sure that’s called codependency. What would our therapist say?”

“She’d probably say that’s a bit harsh. And that we still need to work on our separation anxiety.”

“Hey, you know what helps with separation anxiety?”

“No.”

“A dog!”

“No!”

They get a dog. Their flat is decently sized and they both have steady incomes and enough free time between them to take proper care of her. They don’t get Rufio, but instead a 7 year old mutt named Daffodil who is, admittedly, the most gentle and sweet creature Jon’s ever met. They also get a cat, a rambunctious 2 year old tabby named Jack (“We can change the name.” “Jon! How dare you! Jack responds to his name, clearly he likes it!”) who had already decided Daffodil was his mom, and they couldn’t possibly bear not adopting them together.

~*~

“You know, we could get a tarantula.”

“Fuck off.”

“I’m serious! They’re not, like, evil in this universe, and some of them have cutest little pink toesie woesies.”

“You’re not serious, you’re being a bastard, and I hate you.”

Martin wraps his arms around Jon’s waist and presses a kiss to the side of his face, which Jon gives a half-hearted swat at, because, again, the man’s being a bastard. Stubbornly ignoring Jon’s pout, Martin presses his cheek to the top of Jon’s head, cheerfully replying, “I’m fine with that, as long as you promise to hate me for the rest of our lives.”

“Well, I certainly can’t make that promise. I won’t even hate you ten seconds from now. I suppose you’ll have to settle for love instead.”

“Hmm. Deal.”

“We’re still not getting a fucking tarantula.”

They do not get a tarantula. Their home remains admirably spider free.

~*~

Martin’s gasp is loud enough to echo, and Jon can feel him begin to vibrate next to him. The excitement is perplexing at first, they’ve been to this bookstore dozens of times, and it’s never elicited this sort of response. Then Jon looks over to the front counter, where a medium-sized cage and a “For adoption” sign have been put on display. With a wild, jubilant glee, Martin asks, “Sonja! Are those baby. Dumbo. Rats?!”

“Sure are! I’ve got a friend who’s a breeder, I take it you’re interested?”

“Yes, absolutely, 100%, we’re getting two immediately.”

“Well…”

Martin snaps his head over to look at Jon with a look of betrayal the likes of which Jon hasn’t seen since the panopticon. “Jonathan, no!”

“Um.”

“You can not tell me you you don’t like rats! Dumbo rats especially!”

“I…”

Ticking off on his fingers, Martin lists, “They’re adorable, they’re smart, they’re cleanly, they’re extremely empathetic, they’re tickilish, which is stupidly cute, they can be trained to use a litter box and do tricks, they’re snuggly and playful and perfect! They’re all the good parts of dogs combined with the best parts of cats in one tiny portable package! Look at their little ears, that are like that because of a slight difference in skull shape that has no negative health effects! Plus, we can set them up in the project room, since Captain Jack isn’t allowed in there anyway. How can you dislike rats?”

“I don’t know! They just sort of..freak me out. Or not all of them, just their feet. I don’t like their little man hands.”

Martin throws his arms in the air, proclaiming, “Their little man hands are one of their best qualities! Look, Jon, are you genuinely afraid of them, or just slightly discomfited?”

“I would say mediumly discomfited. This isn’t like spiders.”

“Cool. ‘Cause in that case, we’re getting the light tan one and the solid white one, their names shall be Peaches and Cream, and you will love them as much as you love our dog and cat children.”

“That’s a rather bold claim.”

“It’s an accurate one. You’ll see.”

Within a week, Jon is transporting Peaches ‘n’ Cream in the pocket of his hoodie, and he can feel Martin’s smug aura from two rooms away. Damn him.

~*~

“Did you know snakes don’t have an amygdala?”

“Okay? You didn’t have to bring me to a reptile store to tell me that.”

“I didn’t bring you to a reptile store to tell you that. I brought you to a reptile store because I want to hold a cornsnake.”

Jon rolls his eyes, but the fondness in his voice somewhat undercuts it. “Of course you do.”

Martin makes a scaly acquaintance in less than two minutes, and as the snake coils around his fingers, he continues, “Anyway, if they don’t have amygladas, do they feel fear in a way similar to us, or is it only a recognition of threats and instinctual response?”

“Martin, my love, I have no idea. Is this going somewhere? It’s fine if not, I’m just checking in.”

“Yes. Because if they don’t feel fear, I’m getting this snake and naming her Georgie.”

That makes Jon let out a sharp bark of laugh, and, for a moment, he’s able to reminisce without any pain. “You know, I think she’d actually love that? She also had a proclivity for all creatures great and small. And a terrible sense of humor.”

“Wow, you really have a type, huh. Also hey! My sense of humor is fantastic! It always makes my husband laugh, and he has very exacting standards.”

“Liar. Your husband finds joy with you at the slightest provocation, no good sense of humor needed.”

“Hmm. He is a bit of a softie, isn’t he? Which is why he’ll let me get this snake.”

“He most certainly will not.”

“But….look at her….”

“It’s not a matter of how cute she is, dear. It’s a matter of you made us get pet rats less than a month ago, there’s absolutely no way you’re going to be able to feed mice to a snake.”

Martin looks at the cornsnake, looks at Jon, looks back, and his shoulders slump. With a wince, he asks, “Maybe frozen mice won’t be too bad?”

“What if she’s picky?”

“...There are species of snake that only eat bugs.”

“Cornsnakes aren’t one of them.”

Waving over an assistant, Martin puts the cornsnake back with a defeated, “Fine. When you’re right, you’re right.”

Jon doesn’t particularly feel like he’s won an argument. In fact, he’s a bit disappointed himself, he always liked snakes. Big fan of reptiles in general, actually, which is probably what drives him to say, “Lizards don’t usually eat mice.”

That’s how they walk out of the store with three leopard geckos.

~*~

Jon’s helping Martin set up the gecko tank in what can now be affectionately called a zoo when all of the sudden it strikes him. Some of the animals in their home right now have life spans of 10-20 years, and never once had the necessary longevity of care come up as a reason to protest against them. Jon had felt so at ease with the concept of a future that he hadn’t even thought about it, hadn’t been steeling himself for the other shoe to drop. He’s stopped having bated breath every time something good happens, instead taking reassurance in a sense of permanence that he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel again. Martin must hear his breath hitch, because he immediately stops what he’s doing to take Jon’s hand into his own. “Something wrong, love?”

Jon shakes his head. “No, nothing. I suppose I’m realizing that we have time, don’t we?”

Martin must know exactly what he means, the weight behind the words, because he brings Jon’s hand to his lips and says, “Yes. Yes, we really, really do.”

#jonmartinweek2021 #jonmartin #jon sims #martin blackwood #tma #post canon #THIS IS JUST ME PROJECTING ON MARTIN FOR 1500 WORDS LMAO #also to anyone that spots the song lyric: :3 #also also the leopard geckos names are kirk spock and bones #or as jon calls them #captain first officer and CMO

[thelittlemermage]

Some of you wanted an essay

So I’ll do my best with what we know so far. 

I do think it’s interesting the reboot seems to want to acknowledge the unhealthy codependent nature of their relationship. They kind of touched on it in the OG PATB during Megalomaniacs Anonymous, specifically in regards to Pinky, because once Brain got to a better place mentally he was better able to see Pinky’s codependency issues and understand how he contributes to them (though never quite grasped that it takes two to tango with codependency, meaning he was not only a perpetrator, but a participant). So let’s start there.

Really interesting how Pinky says he enables Brain to be emotionally and physically abusive. In overall canon, Pinky’s issues aren’t as outwardly explored because they don’t seem to have as much of a...soul-crushing impact on him as Brain’s issues do for him. That much is true. Pinky is more emotionally functional at the very least, and I don’t think he feels like he’s experienced trauma (though he quite possibly has due to the nature of being a lab experiment). Regardless, he has a lot of issues in terms of a deep-seated need to be useful to those around him. I’d go as far as to say he bases his entire self-worth on what he can do for others. He’s happiest and feels most fulfilled helping Brain take over the world because he’s needed. And while Brain very rarely has any kind words of encouragement to give him, that does not matter as much as knowing that at the end of the day, Brain is totally reliant on his help and is incapable to getting rid of him. He is functionally irreplaceable (Brain has tried and failed to do so). And because their arrangement suits his needs so well, he will allow pretty much anything else Brain wants to throw at him. He only ever feels the need to stand up against him when he feels like his morals are at odds with something Brain is doing or is asking him to do. Issues aside, Pinky has a pretty solid core and knows himself very well as a person. He is lightyears ahead of Brain in that department. 

Brain is uh...oh boy. There’s a lot to unpack between the original and this one. The poor guy has...what, four backstories now? Though I guess we can summarize it all by saying he experienced a severe trauma as a child (along with continuous abuse through adulthood) and it has left him with a lot of control issues and trouble processing his feelings. He’s been betrayed by both strangers and people he cares about. And to add insult to injury, he takes a lot of pride in his intelligence and for some reason no one else will. He’s this really amazing and talented guy, but he has nothing to show for it except a lifetime of disappointments. I think the reboot really hit the nail on the head during his monologue in episode 13. He needs to control himself, the people around him, and the entire world. Because he can’t take not knowing when or how he’s going to be hurt again. And he’s really taken it to the extreme with the whole world domination thing when he really should have gone to therapy. One qualm I have with the reboot is they lean him too far over the villain line. They should have been more explicit about the fact that Brain doesn’t want the world as a revenge thing, but in order to make it better. He truly wants to fix it so that no one will have to hurt as much as he did. This is how Pinky is able to help him without compromising his morals, it’s because Brain’s motives really are pure at heart. He’s not a bad guy, not really. He just has a habit of bottling up his emotions and lashing out. It’s easier for him to do that than deal with his issues. 

So then we have to two of them together, and for better or worse they’re constantly feeding each other’s vices. Pinky wants to be needed, Brain wants control. Brain tells Pinky what to do, Pinky does it: Yay Pinky is useful! Yay Brain has power over someone! They’re happy with that arrangement. But while they probably feel fulfilled by it, it also halts any growth they could have. And possibly exacerbates these issues as they fall further into these habits. Even so, being without each other feels worse. If they were to go off without each other, I think Pinky would feel uncomfortable without an establish power structure, and Brain would be...kind of absolutely lost. It’s been shown he just really needs Pinky. In the Halloween episode of PATB Pinky sells his soul in exchange for Brain to have the world, but Brain is miserable without him. To undo it he has to give back the world as well as his ability to ever have it again...and he still chooses Pinky. Of course this was undone when Pinky found a loophole in his contract, but at the time Brain really thought he was making a permeant, definitive choice between the world or Pinky. So, interestingly, I think Pinky believes he could live without Brain but doesn’t want to, but Brain feels he cannot live without Pinky. 

Additionally in the reboot, they added on two specific facets that can play into their relationship. They gave Pinky daddy issues for some reason. I...am not complaining, but I’m also not sure why. Regardless, he mentions at least twice I can recall of never having felt love from his father, and really wanting that. Kind of more reason for Pinky to crave approval from others to an unhealthy degree. And Brain is particularly emotionally stunted. As in, the man wanted to comfort Pinky when he was crying and legitimately did not know if he should hug him? Kiss him? Either way he recoiled from both, even as he was trying to engage in it. He seems unable to give physical affection in any capacity. This kind of creates a contention between them where there are also needs they may want to fulfill for each other, but can’t. So now we have You perfectly fulfill me vs. You aren’t capable of giving me what I need both existing together, which is very tumultuous. I wonder if they’re explore that at all going forward? 

So at this point you’re thinking, “Gee, that all sounds very unhealthy,” and you’d be correct. But if it helps, I also think they aren’t that much better off with other people either. As listed above, the issue starts with them as individuals. And they have good things going with each other as well. What Brain needs more than anything is someone who cannot and will not betray him. And Pinky is loyal to a fault. He also has a knack for seeing all of Brains best traits. This is best highlighted in the Christmas episode. Pinky’s letter to Santa describes Brain as kind and hard working, the emotional impact of which brought Brain to tears. And Brain really does love and value Pinky. He’s puts Pinky before even the world, and has affectionately stated that he thinks Pinky has a big heart. So they’re really capable of bringing out the best in each other as well. 

I would like to conclude this essay be saying that couples therapy would do them a lot of good. Somebody please knock Brain out and drag him there if needed, he has got to go. Thanks. 

#a!spoilers #pinky and the brain #animaniacs #all you kids out there asking me where the essay is #here it is #I don't know if it's what you wanted I'm kind of just rambling about mice

[shihalyfie]

What went down with the DigiFes situation, from the community and translator perspective

I think the events of the last few days have gotten everyone in a huge fuss, and because everything got caught up in a lot of chaotic social media stuff, there’s been a lot of questions about what came from what and who knew what at what time. Fortunately, I happen to be:

Someone who’s a veteran in this fanbase and thus has a small handful of friends in this community, who also have their own friends

Someone who understands a little Japanese (although not as much as others in this community do) and therefore can read things in Japanese myself to some degree without needing someone else to translate it for me

So hopefully I can shed some light on what kinds of things were being discussed, and what was known and not known at what time in this fanbase with all of this.

The most important thing I want to establish is that there was no organized coalition or smear campaign. (Kind of ironic I have to say this when the topic at hand has so much to do with conspiracy theories.) I’m a veteran, I know friends who are veterans, they know other friends who are veterans but don’t know me at all. My friends usually agree with and like the same things I do, and I give them advice and assistance with my skillset when I can, and they return the favor. We pass things along through the grapevine, not through some super-secret club grapevine, just via the nature of social relationships and some Discord servers (multiple; again, not everyone knows each other). So these are my impressions of what happened, based on said grapevine.

How it all started

Konaka’s blog is long. Like, really long. Which is only natural, because he was recapping basically the entire 51 episodes of Tamers in excruciating detail, so no translator in this fanbase would be able to translate all of that and not lose their mind! So for the most part people who couldn’t read Japanese had pretty much given up on reading it (with maybe a few dedicated people using machine translation), and some people who understood Japanese would point out parts they found interesting, but for all intents and purposes it remained untranslated and not super-accessible to the mainstream. (Even the Japanese fanbase itself wasn’t super aware of the blog’s existence.)

So when that first post in May about 9/11 dropped, the people who did read Japanese started going “uh...”

At the time, the DigiFes stage reading hadn't been announced yet. So, in other words, everyone reading it only knew it as, functionally, him namedropping an alt-right YouTuber and praising his observations. The reaction from anyone reading the blog at the time was something along the lines of “disappointed and mildly concerned.” (Note the mildly.)

The posts in June about the Great Reset and the anti-vaccine sentiment were when people keeping an eye on the situation started to get really worried about how far this was going to escalate. At this point, I want to make something clear that may not be apparent to those who weren’t keeping up or who are outside the fanbase: Most of the translators and Japanese-reading people deliberately chose not to be too public about this at this time.

Why?

This is the irony surrounding the fact that said translators are now being accused of trying to further “cancel culture”: cancellation was absolutely not what anyone wanted back then! If anyone wanted to create a smear campaign, 9/11 conspiracies, the Great Reset, and anti-vaccine statements are already more than enough to make a starting case. But at the time, this was a blog that very few people (Japanese or otherwise) knew about, translating it would basically just boost its platform more than it would have had in the first place (which would be counterproductive), and -- well, let’s be real, it’s not hard to imagine that people might get reactionary over it, and people would go nuts. Was there any real benefit that would come out of that? Not really, no.

So at the most, those keeping an eye on it might have vented a bit on their personal accounts, but some even tried to self-censor with “[redacted]” or vagueposting, because this was a matter that needed to be handled with delicacy. Thus, there were “mild rumors through the grapevine” about what was going on, but those who knew were trying to hold back with restraint and mostly inform people quietly in the hopes of this not needing to become some kind of huge social media campaign.

(Also, to be a bit blunt about it, it’s really hard to be in front of someone who loves Tamers and is gushing about it and showing admiration for Konaka, knowing all of this and wanting to say something, but feeling like a jerk if you pop their bubble like “also, he’s probably an alt-right conspiracy theorist now.” Not to say that the ignorance-is-bliss concept is always a good thing, but...)

But since the blog posts in question were discussing the prospect of having his sentiments in fiction, everyone reading them was on edge anticipating what might be in store for DigiFes. The hope was that it might blow over. Hopefully, everything would be in the form of subtle themes with plausible deniability, it would all stay within the realm of “it’s not worth causing a fuss over this,” that would be the end of it, and we’d all move on with our lives.

Unfortunately, “Political Correctness is activating Cancel Culture” isn’t exactly subtle.

DigiFes and the aftermath

I think it’s too easy to assign too much responsibility to the fansub group that was indirectly responsible for breaking the news for all of this, but actually, the truth is, this would have gotten out anyway.

Even when the stream itself was going on, there were Japanese livebloggers, and there were also English speakers who caught on that something was happening with “the Tamers fighting political correctness”. Some hours later, an upload of the stream went live on YouTube, and quite a few people started watching it and caught onto what was going on. If the fansub group that released the now-infamous version hadn’t done it, I’m absolutely certain someone else would have eventually (perhaps in a different language first, but nevertheless). And even before then, information about what the hell was going on was already starting to circulate in broken and incomplete forms. That fansub solidified what was going on, and perhaps accelerated the moment the bomb dropped on everyone, but if it hadn’t been there, it would have happened much more gradually and chaotically.

On top of that, while the use of Western alt-right rhetoric (seriously, please do not try to bring the “injecting Western politics into Japanese media” argument here when all of us are asking him to take the Western politics out) meant that it went over most of the Japanese audience’s heads (hence your answer to “who approved this?”), there was at least one Japanese person who was politically savvy enough to call it out for what it was in disgust. (I’m not linking them here because I’m not dumb enough to fling them in a place where some of you trigger-happy people will go after them.) They didn’t even need to be super in-tune with Western politics to get it; they understood enough to tell that there were some pretty alarming extremist views in there. If they understood that much, it was naturally going to follow that the Western side was definitely going to become aware one way or another.

Even all that aside, at the very least, said fansub is accurate; imagine how much worse this situation would have been if someone else had taken it up and confused things further with a misleading translation, or, worse, deliberately messed with the contents. Basically, this debacle could have easily been a lot worse.

I don’t think anyone expected this to get as big as it did (as in, to the point mainstream anime reporters outside the fanbase picked up on it). There was a similar tri. reading back in 2016, but even a lot of the hardcore fanbase barely remembers it exists! These aren’t even supposed to be canon, either! But when you have that disclaimer at the front, and the contents are really like that, it was probably inevitable for it to become a social media sensation. I mean the contents...sure are a thing.

One thing I should point out about the disclaimer is that it only mentions the program itself. It doesn’t bring up the blog, and it doesn’t bring up who wrote this scenario, just the fact that the program contains alt-right rhetoric and conspiracy theories. Because it does! It’s not even technically praising or condemning the content within, it just says “we don’t agree with it”! What the group did condemn was...approaching staff about it (and especially starting a fight). Because, in the end, that’s what the disclaimer was for: a heads-up about what was in there, and an added reminder that the people translating this are just translating it for the sake of informational purposes. Or, in other words:

It was a content warning. Even without the disclaimer, there were many, many people who would have recognized the contents for what they were and been caught by it unawares, and become upset by it. There were many people who said that they were glad to have that there because it at least gave them some time to mentally prepare for what they were about to be slapped with!

It really, really was a disclaimer. When you have something that level of extremely politically charged stuff, it’s only natural to start suspecting that the translation group had an agenda (official translations tend to get this a lot when content is remotely political). But no, the translation group did their due diligence, even if their opinions were starkly opposed to what was in there.

I was not personally involved in that translation, but I’ll give you this (copy-pasted with permission, from someone who wasn’t technically involved directly in it but was privy to discussions while it was being done):

no we brought up all of those questions like the fact that Yamaki's clearly off his rocker and this isn't supposed to be taken seriously in the first place or that maybe if we're lucky he'll just sound like a fake woke boomer but no matter how you slice it the plot is about him "convincing" the unbelieving Takato and co. into rallying up against the true enemy of Political Correctness and that's just literally the alt-right playbook in a nutshell

the thing even made it to YouTube, we were basically racing against the clock

I mean I really want to say this is plausible deniability but I don’t know how you can get any less subtle than this, this is not something you can mince words

like I really wish we could pass this off as “as long as you don’t know the blog you can take this innocently as political commentary or something” but I honestly don’t think this is something you can take innocently even without context

tbh the Political Correctness part is the most cringeworthy but Yamaki’s rant about fact checkers being evil and all that is probably a lot more worrying when you think about it

tbh I’ve never felt as conflicted about what’s the right thing to do as I do now

So in other words, it was not a reckless decision to just tack on a political label; it was done after a lot of consideration about the consequences to put the label on and what people would think of it with or without context, whether there might be a glimmer of light possibility to try and pass this off as more innocuous as it was, and eventually a determination that, in the end, there was indeed alt-right rhetoric in the program, and should be labeled accordingly.

The result was that, of course, everything broke out on social media, chaos burst out, a lot of hearts were unfortunately broken, and a lot of alt-righters started invading spaces accusing people of proving him right with cancel culture. Ironically, my personal observation is that, while there were exceptions, most people in the actual fanbase did honor the requests to not harass people about it, and this may actually be the most solidarity I’ve ever seen from the Digimon fanbase in my life, which is saying a lot considering how we usually tend to be a drama magnet most of the time. The ones who were actually directly messaging him were his newfound supporters locking down on offering him “support against people trying to cancel him” (I think they were more heartbroken and upset at him than anything...), and most of the harassment came from alt-righters not even in the fanbase, namesearching and sending harassing, accusatory messages to anyone involved for as much as expressing mild dismay. (You want to talk about harassment and being attacked for having an opinion? Pot, meet kettle.)

This leads us back to the question of the blog: if you’ll remember, I just said that the fansub in question did not bring it up at all. That’s because, at the beginning, there was no intention to bring it up if it wasn’t necessary; this was not intended as a smear campaign. The warning was attached to the DigiFes program because it was about the DigiFes program. But the resulting chaos had a lot of people bring up the blog because it better contextualized what was going on, and discussion led to people looking it up themselves and posting fragments of it on social media, sometimes even using machine translate.

Ultimately, that’s the reason this document was released: it was the same reason as the fansub being released at the time it was, which was “if it hadn’t been released, the alternative was watching things get disseminated more slowly and chaotically.” I will say outright that I was one of the people who got to lay eyes on that document before it was publicly released (and even helped out with some advice here and there); it’s no secret that it was being quietly passed around as an internal memo prior to the outbreak. The original version of the document had a request to not post it on public social media because of the chaos it would cause, and while I don’t know how many people got to see it before it was released, I’m under the impression that it was enough people that I was quite surprised everyone who saw it respected that request.

Why does the document contain a ton of analysis and debunking on top of just the translations? Well, when you’re translating those blog posts, you’re technically giving it a bigger platform (which was one of the reasons it was originally considered better to not post it publicly). Since the document exists primarily to inform people, especially about why certain things that may seem innocuous actually have wider context behind them, it’s going to need to contain an analysis like that.

The summary

There were a lot of decisions involved by a lot of different people through all parts of this ordeal. I think it’s fair to criticize whether they were the right decisions in retrospect or whether certain things should have been done slightly differently (including my small role in this), but nevertheless, it was one where the risks involved were thought through and taken into account in every step of the situation, with a desire to avoid chaos, or at least prevent it from getting too much worse. When you have contents like this, a controversy honestly is inevitable -- how on earth are you going to be able to put contents like Yamaki reciting off all the typical alt-right YouTuber talking points and ending in Political Correctness activating Cancel Culture and not expect that to make a stir at some point? -- and so, in the end, this wasn’t so much a conscious attempt at stirring the pot as much as it was the dam finally breaking, and a desire to keep it from spilling over too much. Nobody coordinated this! I think everyone just really hates drama.

Knowing all the steps and thoughts that went on behind all of this, I think being reactionary or accusatory for clout is the last thing anyone involved wanted to be. Considering just how many of these steps above could have easily been made into exposure, from the posts all the way back in May and June to the internal memo document that was made to keep friends quietly informed but could have been leaked to the public with only one bad actor, there was an active, common desire among people who didn’t even know each other to try and minimize the potential damage as much as possible. When you look at the situation now, of course it looks awful and hardly like something that came out of “trying to minimize damage”, but in reality there’s only so much you can do when the contents really are like that, and I personally believe everyone involved was doing what they thought was their best option as the situation kept changing.

I can’t speak for anyone else, especially since I don’t even know most of the people involved, and I didn’t have much of a role in all of this, but I think everyone involved, myself and my friends and everyone who’d been keeping tabs on this situation for months, has been going through a lot of heartbreak and conflict over what to do next, so please understand that there was a lot of thought put into all of it, and that it really was a difficult situation no matter how you look at it.

#digimon #digimon tamers

[hematomes]

I saw your post about ppl losing their shiz about Kaeya fanart being “whitewashed” when it’s literally darker than he is in canon. I agree btw I love like basically all Kaeya art out there I love one eyepatch man.

anyhoo, I have a story. I once saw a tiktok about a kaeya art. it was specifically labeled “IN PROGRESS” or whatever so you knew the artist wasn’t done. it was a gorgeous piece of art btw. So far, the only thing that had been colored was his hair and some of his clothes.

pretty much everyone in the comments started harrasing her about how he was whitewashed and the artist had to be a white supremacist and i think someone said “see I knew everyone who played genshin was racist just delete the game at this point.”

i was just like 😳 wow jeez it’s literally IN PROGRESS the artist legit said so.

the artist eventually posted the final version (after having to delete the first video and deal with several threats) it did turn out beautiful, but on the comments there and on every post of theirs after people are lurkign in the comments bad-mouthing them.

as much as I definitely am for characters not being whitewashed (especially Kaeya bc I love him your honor) I think some people take it way too far when the person they’re yelling at literally just wanted to get people excited about their WIP.

hi! sorry im so late this issue became quite sensitive lol i had to work up the courage to come back to it. it's gonna be a bit long, but i really need to say all this

if there's one thing i noticed about the genshin community on tiktok and twitter, it's that there is a whole, whole lot of social justice warriors and overall it's extremely toxic. it's something that surprised me because the people i interact with on tumblr are all super sweet and not one bit toxic so? idk, tumblr is just a different breed i guess

your story is extremely saddening. everytime there's a kaeya fanart, people forget about the color theory and the artists' style and claim it's whitewashed and i genuinely don't understand why. if someone could explain it to me, am i missing something? im not an artist so perhaps im mistaken, idk, but i've never seen a fanart where kaeya was whitewashed.

the thing that pisses me off the most is that most of the time it's white ppl calling something whitewashed. i'm not saying you shouldn't call out racism if you see it just bc you're white, just that these people aren't even right - and often you see poc coming into the debate and explaining it's not whitewashed/saying it doesn't bother them. moreover, i've literally seen fanart of beidou as a black girl, which isn't representation in my opinion - beidou is already a poc, and asian people need at least as much representation as black people, so it's plain racism. same thing with kaeya, i've seen edits of him with stereotypical african features, and it's really sad that no one is calling this out but yelling about whitewashing as soon as he isn't the exact same color as the official arts. hell, someone even said "so what if it's darker? it's still whitewashing" and i??? am flabbergasted. whitewashing is absolutely disgusting, but ppl keep misunderstanding what it means and just using it to gratuitously harass artists.

now, don't get me wrong. i believe that you can draw whatever you want. but the thing is - if you get mad when someone draws kaeya white (if they really do, i mean), you can't just applaud someone else's that draws another character black. racism goes both ways, and it's bordering on fetishism. i, as a poc (mixed-race, caucasian + african), am extremely uncomfortable everytime i see this double-standard.

but anyway, the fact remains that sjw have plagued the genshin fandom. and it's not just about kaeya's skin color (we don't even know if he's really a poc - we know he's tan according to paimon, and i believe she called him "exotic"? so idk) but also about the ships. everytime i see a shippy tiktok, there's plenty of ppl out here saying it's wrong, claiming their own ship is the most canon. if i'm not mistaken, kaeluc is the one that gets the most hate, and i genuinely, once again, don't understand why.

i talked about them before and explained how it's not incest bc they really aren't brothers, but i swear every now and then i see people throwing death threats and slurs anytime someone hints at them. idk if you are familiar with the eng va's fandom, but sometimes they play among us together, aether's va does some livestreams where he invites different voice actors. but diluc's va is never there, and i was wondering why - recently i learned that it's because he retweet a fanart of kaeya and diluc fighting alongside each other (not even a shippy fanart, apparently) and people harassed him and excluded him from the fandom. and now the same thing is happening to griffin burns, childe's va, bc he retweeted (or liked, idk) a fanart of lumine and childe fighting or something and people called it pedophilia bc lumine would be a minor. i'm not even gonna dive into this bc the travelers are canonically like 30 times childe's age, but what i mean is - people are so full of hate and i can't fathom living like this?

the point is, i totally respect anyone who doesn't ship something i ship. i myself don't like certain ships - like zhongli/xiao, jean/diluc - but im not gonna harass ppl who do just because i can? that's messed up, i just don't get it. i wish the fandom wasn't that bad bc i really enjoy this game

anyway, im really disappointed but still grateful, bc my followers & people i've interacted with here have been nothing but sweet and respectful. i hope none of y'all come across the toxic side of the genshin fandom. stay safe y'all!

#not a quote #answered #genshin impact #kaeya #genshin kaeya #whitewashing #racism #i'm so tired of the genshin fandom on tiktok you have no idea #and i don't even use tiktok that much #and im not even on twitter

[melzula]

Fire Lilies

pairing: Zuko x princess!reader

warnings: fluff, angst, forbidden lovers au

notes: this is my first zuko piece and also my first atla piece ever so pls excuse the fact that it’s a little clunky 🥺 this isn’t really canon to the show but the reader is princess of the southern Water Tribe and a water bender. also this may or may not have been inspired by the secret tunnel song... anyway, i may make a part two to this but for now enjoy!

summary: “Two lovers forbidden from one another. A war divides their people.”

Tensions between the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes had never been higher, and the possibility of war was a continuous threat that loomed over both nations. Constant efforts of parley and council meetings proceeded throughout the years, but neither side could ever seem to reach an agreement both deemed satisfactory. As chief of the Southern Water Tribe, such negotiations seemed to weigh heavily upon your father’s shoulders, and despite being the crowned Princess there was nothing you could do to help him.

“A council of negotiations is no place for a princess,” he would remind you every time you attempted to give your own insight and opinion on the troubles your people faced. Your father would leave you then in the care of your mother and your handmaidens, an apologetic kiss placed upon your forehead before his departure.

“The council is overrated anyway,” you would huff in an attempt to conceal your disappointment and annoyance at the unfairness of it all, “it’s just a bunch of angry old men who are too stubborn to set aside their differences for the sake of peace.”

And yet despite your renouncement of such a meeting, you always found yourself sneaking away from home and towards the council chambers where the negations often took place. Your people believed that women held no place in war, only meant to be gentle hands and spirits that served and guided their people. Such expectations were set even higher for Princesses, and so you were restricted to activities such as practicing your healing and providing aid to your people. You loved your tribe with all of your heart, but you found the traditions they practiced rather... well, for lack of a better term, stupid. You could be doing so much more to help if only your father would let you participate.

The stars are bright on this particular evening, a glimmer of hope that hangs over the dark blacks and reds of the Fire Nation ships arriving at the docks; it’s the southern tribe’s turn to host the meeting. You can’t see much from where you stand other than the outlines of the soldiers, guards, officials, and the royal family, but you know for a fact that the minacious figure leading the procession is none other than Fire Lord Ozai. You’d only ever crossed paths with the man once when you were four, and it had purely been an accident on your part, but you knew that if you hadn’t been the Chief’s daughter you would definitely have marks to show for the encounter.

Considering the fact that you’re the only Princess and heir to the throne, it’s surprisingly easy scaling down your balcony and sneaking off into the night without a second thought. Though you found the underestimation of women in your tribe extremely insulting, the “helpless princess” front sure kept suspicions off your back. The nation is quiet with everyone either tucked inside for the night or present at the meeting, and there is no one to stop you from hiding yourself amongst the shadows outside the meeting hall and taking a peek inside.

Various political figures sit at the long table, your father and the Fire Lord sitting at opposite ends. The atmosphere is heavy and thick, the air silent as each side dare’s the other to speak first, and perhaps part of you is glad that you don’t have to sit through such a meeting.

“What are you doing?” A voice calls, and you’re grateful for the fact that you’re able to contain your startled gasp so as to not blow your cover. You whirl around with a murderous glint in your eye and the intent to blast whoever almost gave you away with an icy cold wave of water, but your demeanor changes in an instant as you realize who the voice belongs to.

“Zuko!” You squeal, all caution thrown to the wind as you fling yourself into his arms. The sheer force of your impact sends you both toppling back onto the snow, but the prince can’t help the laugh that leaves him as he winds his arms tightly around your waist.

“I guess I don’t have to ask if you missed me,” he teases. The two of you sit up from the ground once you release him, and he watches with a fond smile as you carefully brush the snow off of his clothing.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come. Things have been so tense.”

“You know I’ll always come see you,” Zuko comforts before pressing a delicate kiss to your temple. Your relationship with the Fire Nation prince was a complicated one, but there was no denying the love you two shared.

You had first met when you were four and Zuko was five. Originally you were meant to be a playmate for Princess Azula, but she had made it clear that she would much rather torment the white hamsters than spend her time pretending to be your friend. It was Zuko who took interest in your companionship, sledding on the otter penguins with you during the day and sharing secrets at night.

“Princesses aren’t allowed to water bend, but sometimes when no one’s looking I practice my combat skills,” you had told him. “I can also do cool tricks.”

“Really? Like what?”

Zuko watched in awe as you used the water in the air to swirl the snowflakes that fell from the sky into the shape of a butterfly, delicately flapping its wings so that it landed on tip of the young prince’s nose. Joyful laughter escaped him at the sensation, and it was then at four years old that you knew the Fire Nation boy would always hold a special place in your heart.

You kept your courting a secret for the sake of making things less complicated for the both of you. It wasn’t necessarily against the rules for the two of you to be together, but it was just easier to keep it to yourselves. Keeping politics and prying eyes away from your relationship was what made it so strong; you weren’t the Fire Prince and the Water Tribe Princess when you were together, you were simply Zuko and y/n. And it was nicer that way.

“Close your eyes, I have a surprise for you,” Zuko smiles, rolling his eyes at the way your eyebrows immediately furrow in protest. “Just do it.”

With a reluctant sigh you shut your eyes and let out a small hum, waiting for whatever prize may come your way. Something gentle and sweet smelling is placed in your lap, and you open your eyes to see a bouquet of flower lilies resting upon the skirt of your dress.

“Oh, Zuko!” You gasp, picking the bundle up and admiring the beautiful petals. “They’re gorgeous.”

“I knew you’d like them,” he grins. “There aren’t many flowers around here.”

“The snow prevents anything from growing,” you agree with a small smile. “You’re so thoughtful.”

“Anything for the Princess.”

“I love you,” you profess, sighing happily as his lips meet your own in a tender kiss. Times like these were few and far between considering you both came from opposite sides and only saw each other once a month, so you liked to savor the feeling for as long as you could. However, your moment of bliss ended much sooner than you had anticipated.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Your father’s voice bellows from the entryway of the meeting hall. You’re quick to scramble onto your feet and away from Zuko, but the fire lilies are still clutched tightly in your hands.

“Father, I-I can explain,” you begin to say only for him to take hold of you by the elbow and yank you away from a terrified Zuko. The bouquet of flowers falls from your grasp and drops onto the snow.

“How dare you try and soil my daughter!”

“I-I didn’t mean any harm, sir,” Zuko tries to say, “I love and respect your daughter.”

“Love,” your father scoffs. “Fire Nation monsters aren’t capable of love. They only bring pain and heartache wherever they go. For as long as I live I never want to see you near her again, is that clear?”

“Father, you can’t!” You cry, but the deterrent glare he sends your way has you backing down in an instant. You know better than to argue with him when he has that crazed wide eyed look on his face; your father was a good man and a great chief, but he could be ruthless when it came to his people and his family- especially with you.

“Yes, sir,” Zuko utters quietly, eyes cast downward and refusing to meet your gaze. Fighting your father’s decision would only make things worse, and he doesn’t want you to suffer any more than you have to.

“Now run along child,” your father instructs gruffly, “and don’t come back.”

Zuko takes one last longing look at you, and the pleading you look you give him that begs him not to go has his heart breaking into two. Chances are this is the last time he’ll ever see you again, and he wants to commit the details of your memory permanently to his mind. He wants to remember the curve of your lips and the smoothness of your hair, the red of your cheeks from the cold and the tears that brim at the corners of your sparkling eyes. You are beautiful, ever since you were children he thought so, and in his mind he’d always remember you as the Princess with the snow butterfly and the bouquet of fire lilies.

Tears steadily fall down your face as your father guides you home by the elbow, carelessly stepping on the lilies in his path. They crumple and wither under his boot much like your heart had at his banishment of your beloved Zuko.

“Your mother should have kept a better eye on you,” he mutters harshly, glancing sideways at your trembling form. If he holds any remorse for breaking your heart he doesn’t show it, and it makes you feel all the worse. “It was for your own good, y/n. You may not see that now, but someday you will.”

“What happened to keeping the peace?!” You cry in protest. “I thought you wanted our nations to come together in harmony? Zuko and I are proof that it’s possible!“

“There will be no peace,” is your father’s solemn reply. “The Fire Nation has declared war.”

A small gasp leaves your lips at his confession, your stomach tying itself into knots so tight it almost makes you want to vomit. Your father says nothing more as he hands you off to your nurse maids and orders extra guards to ensure you can’t escape again. Everything feels as if it’s come crashing down upon you, and there isn’t a single thing you can do about it.

Snow begins to fall with the departure of the Fire Nation ships, and your forgotten lilies are suffocated underneath the clean sheets of ice.

*part two

#zuko #zuko x reader #prince zuko #prince zuko x reader #zuko imagine #prince zuko imagine #avatar the last airbender #atla x reader #atla imagine #angst #forbidden lovers au #secret tunnel

[autisticcassandracain]

I have many thoughts on the weird phenomena in the DC fandom and the Batfam fandom specifically where probably the majority of people just straight up. haven’t interacted with the source material. and almost all of those thoughts can be summarized as ‘lmao that’s weird and mildly concerning’.

and because I’m annoying I will list them all here right now <3

1. To preface this post, I mean, obviously, comics are inaccessible as all hell, both in the disability kind of way and the ‘you need to understand the concept of hypertime to fully comprehend the DC timeline’ kind of way. Because of this, even if you don’t have a disability that prevents you from reading comics, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to look at the amount of comics you need to read to have even a base understanding of a character and go ‘no thanks <3′ and just enjoy fanart and fanfic in a vacuum. Ultimately, this is fandom, this is supposed to be fun, it doesn’t really matter.

2. That said, it’s VERY weird to me that the majority of this fandom just straight up hasn’t interacted with the source material, and moreover, that it’s considered rude to tell people that they should do so. It’s especially weird considering the amount of fanon-only fans I’ve seen who straight up have a superiority complex over canon. The idea that it’s gatekeeping to tell fans of something to actually interact with canon is just. so weird, and a fundamental misunderstanding of what ‘gatekeeping’ actually entails. 

3. But honestly I’m less interested in discussing the ways in which canon and fanon fans should interact with each other (personally, I think it would be helpful to create separate tags of some kind, but that’d require quite a big overhaul of the current fandom state) than in figuring out how this actually happened in the first place. On the one hand, it’s obvious; long-running superhero comics the way DC writes them have made themselves so thoroughly inaccessible that most people are simply too daunted to even try. Most media has a cohesive beginning and end (or at least, a planned end somewhere). Comics just... don’t.

But I do think it says something that, even among people who are clearly interested in the characters (since they have, you know, entire blogs about them), the effort to get into comics just seems to be too much to even bother. This really doesn’t bode well for the future of DC Comics. Obviously, I am no expert on anything at all ever, but I’d personally be surprised if DC survives beyond the few decades, at least in its current form/without a big overhaul.

4. But on the other hand, I don’t think the confusing state of DC Comics is the only thing to blame here. Fandom has a well-known problem with reducing any character down to archetypes to more easily ship and write fic/make content with. This problem is particularly prominent in fanfic, which, if you read enough of it, you’ll eventually start seeing not just the same tropes and trends, but essentially the same fics over and over again. And not just within the same fandom; everywhere, or every large fandom, at least. 

Fanon Batfam is entirely built on a bunch of those tropes; insecure/depressed sadboy Tim, team mom with optional hidden trauma/emotional problems Dick, bad boy with a heart of gold + sadboy combo Jason, abused sadboy Damian/angry easily-villified-for-fic-reasons monster Damian, good dad Bruce for found family fic and bad dad Bruce for angst fic, etc. This all culminates in a found family dynamic that’s generic and malleable to whatever fic the writer wants to write.

(This isn’t getting into the ship fic, which I avoid like the plague because the vast majority of it is incest, but I’d bet real actual money that the tropes in those fics fall under what is often preferred by the Migratory Slash Fandom.)

By having a decent excuse not to get into canon (the inaccessibility of comics) and a, by now, well-established fanon fandom, many fans feel free to use the batfam fandom as essentially an excuse to write whatever fic with reduced archetypes and tropes they personally feel the itch to write, without having to bother with even consuming a canon. This is compounded by the fact that canon itself is often contradictory and frankly bad, meaning that whatever interpretation of a character you want/need to go for your fic is at least theoretically backed up by canon (for example, you can just as easily cast Bruce as an abusive shithole dad who his kids need to get away from as a loving father figure who cares deeply for his children), which you can always use as a defense if people question your characterization.

5. This focus on fandom trends and tropes over actual creativity or care for the characters is also visible in the way bigotry manifests in this fandom; namely, in literally the exact way you’d expect. The female characters and characters of colour are shuffled to the side, non-existent, vilified, and/or reduced to harmful stereotypes. 

Barbara is probably the one I saw the most often in fanfic, but usually just as ‘Dick’s girlfriend’, and even then, she was often vilified for Dick angst (especially in fics about examining Dick’s trauma from his canon sexual assault; Kori also often gets the short end of the stick in those). After that, probably Stephanie, who fanon fans don’t really seem to know what to do with, so she’s basically just there as comic relief waffle girl, most of the time, though sometimes she can be used to either further Tim angst or further vilify Tim, whatever the fic calls for. Cass has gotten included more in batfam fics as of late, likely in response to critiques of fandom racism for leaving her out, but again, it’s clear people don’t actually know what to do with her. She’s often reduced to a racist stereotype of a quite, stoic therapist for whatever guy du jour needs it. That, or she’s in Hong Kong and just not there. Duke especially gets left in the dust in fandom, usually just being non-existent, but when he’s there, he’s almost always nothing more than the straight man for the actual fun characters to play off of. Talia probably has it the worst, though, and almost universally gets vilified by fanon stans in order to write sadboy Damian.

All of this is extremely predictable behaviour and falls entirely in line with general fandom misogyny and racism; ignoring or vilifying women and characters of colour, or using them as very minor characters at best. The only two characters of colour who aren’t regularly left out of fic are Dick and Damian, who are both also conveniently the two characters most often drawn and written in a whitewashed manner. In addition, there’s a real trend of demonizing Damian in fanon fics where he isn’t written as an abused sadboy, which I’d argue is in no small part due to fandom racism, considering Damian’s behaviour is in no way as bad as Jason’s, who doesn’t get anywhere close to the same demonization and gets woobiefied instead. I also find it convenient that Damian is probably the batboy who receives the most vilification in fic, when he’s the most obviously non-white of the batboys they’re willing to acknowledge.

Fandom often cries for more diversity in canon, only to ignore the diversity already there and focus on the same generic white guys. The batfam fandom is a brilliant example of this.

Which is not to say that fandom racism and misogyny isn’t present in the canon parts of the fandom (and canon itself); it absolutely 100% is. But I’ve found that canon fans are also more likely to like and care about at least one of the characters I’ve listed as ignored/vilified, and are willing to create and consume content for them, whereas fanon fans... aren’t, really. I’ve never seen a fan of fanon Cass the way I’ve seen fans of fanon Dick, for example. Obviously, this could just be by coincidence, or I’ve just surrounded myself with people like that, but it’s been a trend I noticed. Racism and misogyny is present in every part of this fandom and should be addressed as such, but I feel like it manifests the most blatantly in the fanon parts of this fandom. 

(I’d also recommend the articles Migratory Slash Fandom’s Focus and Beige Blank Slates, which expand more on the type of fandom racism I think is especially prominent in the batfam fandom, as well as literally every article in the What Fandom Racism Looks Like series.)

6. All this leads me to conclude that the majority of fanon fans don’t actually like the characters all that much; they’re convenient excuses for them to participate in fandom. Which I also think is, in no small part, a reason why so many of them react so negatively to being told to pick up a comic; they came to this fandom specifically to consume it as a fandom, because they wanted the fandom experience without having to consume a canon. 

This is not a phenomena unique to the batfam fandom (again, see the Migratory Slash Fandom), but it does fascinate me. While fandom is often said to be an experience focusing on transformative art, I think it’s also safe to say that, especially as fandom has become more mainstream, an increasing amount of people are looking to it less as a way to engage with their favourite pieces of media, and more as a type of media in and of itself. I think the reasons for this are similar to the reasons mass media entertainment like the MCU are so popular; you gain a lot of enjoyment out of it with very little risk involved. 

By consuming the same fics of the same characters (or the same archetypes) over and over again, you are rarely at risk of being challenged or even disappointed. It’s often very clear right from the start whether or not a fic will appeal to you, and if it isn’t, it’s easy to just look for another one. It requires less emotional investment than most other types of media, even ‘popcorn media’ like the MCU - or, yes, DC Comics. It’s safe, it’s enjoyable, it’s comforting, like McDonalds, but just like McDonalds, it’s ultimately bland and unsubstantial. 

7, TL;DR. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s like, wrong to enjoy the fanon version of the batfam without wanting to engage with canon, and I certainly don’t think it’s okay to harrass people over it. But I do think it’s in large part based on a desire to interact with fandom rather than other pieces of media because people are scared of being let down by those pieces of media (or worse, just uninterested in actually thinking), which is mildly concerning. 

#long post #my posts #infodumping #btw i say this as someone who also has trouble consuming much more than popcorn media/fanfic due to emotional exhaustion #but it's not a healthy habit and it's something people can and should try to break out of #also obviously this isn't about EVERY fanon fan specifically so if this doesn't apply to you specifically great then move on

[bidisasterforzutara]

What Already Is

*Deep breath* ok...so I read this article quite a while ago and wanted to discuss my take on it but never found the time to (and mostly bc I’ve been afraid to do so) but I feel like now is the time, especially as zutara month nears its end

As everyone who follows me knows, this is a blog for zutara positivity and I try to spread this and search for it often. While there are some things I agree with in this article, I thought it was simply...too depressing for the most part and wanted to write a new take on it for anyone who’s willing to listen.

Keep in mind, this is my opinion, and you’re free to disagree and simply ignore this post if you do. But like pretty much all my posts, if this can spread even a little positivity and help even one person, that would make me extremely happy. So...here goes:

Firstly, I’d like to address that it’s ok to be disappointed at the ending. I myself cried. But then I stopped and thought: can’t we just ignore Kataang? Why should bryke have free reign in our minds? Is it so wrong so create our own canon in which zutara is happy together? Because being “gutted” after so many years is...very saddening to me. It’s just allowing bryke to win in my eyes. As if the original ending was the ONLY possible way Zuko and Katara can be happy together, when this simply isn’t true. And the “painters” who DO in fact finish the “second eye” are the fan artists, fanfic writers, and fans you go on to praise in the next few sentences

THEY are the artists who make zutara canon. Not bryke. So I ask: how can they have “squandered” potential when they’ve got so many amazing artists complete their story? Why do bryke need to apparently be the only ones to complete their story?

With all this content that you admit we have over the course of so many years...it just seems wrong that you still believe zutara was squandered.

As much as I love Dante and as amazing of a person he is...I really wish he’d said “canon is what we make of it” or something along those lines instead of the quote he says here, because i honestly think this fandom as a whole would be MUCH more positive if he said so, including this article writer.

I’m sorry...we’re NOT bound by a shared ache of zutara’s “squandered” potential. We’re bound by their beauty, their parallels, their perfection as a couple. We’re not aching. We simply want to spread love for this beautiful ship. And like I said before...is their potential really squandered if we’ve got COUNTLESS fan artists creating content for them in countless different ways?

Sure as hell doesn’t sound squandered to me.

“Rather than bemoan what could have been” therein lies the issue, you ARE bemoaning them rather than stating the fact that canon is what me make of it. You continue to be upset but...there’s really no reason to be. Just because one interpretation aired on Nickelodeon with a large budget doesn’t make it ANY less valid than fan works. Zutara is VALID. and canon. And we certainly weren’t robbed. Not “could have been”. Rather, “what already is”

These last few lines are SO INCREDIBLY CLOSE to understanding the point I’m trying to make. Fan artists and fans are the ones who complete the portrait. WE are the ones who breathe life into this ship.

But again...this is NOT an issue of “what could have been”. It’s “what already is”. Why should our fan works be considered nothing more than fantasies? Isn’t the original show a fantasy as well? Aren’t these characters all just pixels in the end? They’re fictional. And as such, we have the power to decide the outcome for them. Fan works are EQUALLY as valid as the source material and shouldn’t be considered as a simple “what if”. If you want them to be canon, they are! Ik this is a nuclear take but canon really is what we make of it, and the sooner every fandom realizes that you don’t have to be bound by one specific interpretation, the healthier our experiences will be.

We create art year after year not bc we’re depressed over zutara, but because we love them so much and want to create countless stories for them that the original show never could. Doesn’t mean we were robbed. Doesn’t mean zutara is doomed. It just means we’re an extremely talented, dedicated fan base with a hell of a lot to offer

Also...idk if this writer is aware of the live action but they seem to value on screen confirmation (who doesn’t?) so if they somehow end up seeing this post and weren’t convinced by the first half, bryke left the atla live action. We’re most definitely going to get zutara. They will have a happy ending (especially since the show runner has a good enemies to lovers track record... 👀)

And one last thing...some of you may think I’m overreacting and maybe I am, but zutara is a HUGE hyperfixation and has been for almost a year. I’ve never gotten this attached to a fictional ship. So pls refrain from any “it’s not that deep” comments. This is my opinion, and you’re free to ignore. But for anyone who reads this and agrees, I hope this helps and I hope I’ve offered a more positive perspective to this otherwise well-written article. This is NOT by any means an attack on the writer, just a rambling opinion of mine :)

It’s like I’ve said countless times before: canon is transformative 💜

#zutara #atla #zutara is canon #ri rambles #long post #wanted to get this out for a looooong time #Zuko #Katara #canon is transformative #canon is what we make of it #fanon #transformative works #I really hope this doesn’t upset anyone... #anti kataang #atla live action