#this isn't just about azula btw | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wilcze-kudly · 23 days

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I think the reason I'm a bit iffy about most zutara shippers who call themesleves "pro Katara" (and lets be honest the tags pro katara/katara deserved better are mainly people building themselves a moral highground of "if you disagree with me, you clearly dilslike Katara and want her to suffer") is just the hypocrisy of it all.

Katara's consent was violated by Aang, yes. But Zuko threatening her and being a fucking creep in the "I'll save you from the pirates" scene was sexy and not at all the nightmare of any sane woman.

Katara's role as a healer is treated as her acting subservient and her loosing her feminist icon status. Unless she's healing/offering to heal Zuko.

Aang is immature and childish. But we will handily ignore Zuko, a whole ass 16 year old who's heir to a country throwing a temper tantrum because his girlfriend dared to speak to another man. [Frankly, in my opinion, Zuko isn't really ready for a serious romantic relationship, but yall arent ready for that conversation]

Aang is supposedly misogynistic, but Zuko's many instances of actual misogyny are swept under the rug. Aang is shown in canon to be incredibly supportive of Katara defying the patriarchy.

Supposedly Aang makes Katara do all the housework. Despite there being evidence to the contrary. Zuko has just recently learnt to brew tea.

Katara being the Avatar's wife is supposedly degrading. But if she were Zuko's wife, I'm sure she wouldn't be just a baby maker. (What a horribke thing to call a woman btw. Tall call your own mothers baby makers too???) Despite the fact that Izumi's mother hasn't even been mentioned by name in tlok. But yeah. She'd be afforded the respect she deserves I'm certain.

Aang is, on most accounts, supportive and respectful of Katara's opinions, even when he disagrees with them. Zuko openly mocks people who oppose him. I am going to make a longer post on the Southern Raiders episodes and how all of you watched that episode blindfolded or smth.

Aang comparing Appa being kidnapped (his last connection to his genocided people, the last vestige of his happy past) to Katara's anger over her mother is bad. But Zuko comparing mommy leaving his ass to Katara's mother getting brutally slaughtered in front of her ? Silence.

Aang supposedly needs Katara to mother him and that's a bad thing. But Azula, Mai and Ty Lee having to gentle parent Zuko almost everytime they interact is never talked about, despite the uncalled for verbal abuse that trio goes through from him.

Aang and Katara's 2 year age gap is creepy. But Zuko and Katara's 2 year age gap is fine. My bigest gripe with Zutara lovers is them completely erasing Katara's childishness and immaturity, in order for her and Zuko to have this mature, sexy relationship. She's 14, guys. 14.

This post really isn't meant to decry Zutara. I just want people who ship Zutara to get off their high horse of feminism and to accept that they're no better than the rest of us ship loving freaks. Wanting the main girl to bump uglies with the broody emo twink doesn't make you a modern day suffragette. Disliking a main canon pairing isn't a measure of your love for a female character.

Grow up.

Enjoy your ship like a normal person.

#caring for zutara doesn't equal caring for katara sit down #anti zutara #pro kataang #pro aang #pro katara #<this is the stupudest tag known to man #anti zuko #i didn't mean for it to come off like that but oh well #avatar #katara #aang #zuko

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ilikepjo24 · 7 months

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We all know that Ursa couldn't solve all of Azula's problems if she tried...

...But she could solve some of them.

People love to say that Ursa was a victim of Ozai (which is true) and the fact that she has a bad relationship with Azula is exclusively Ozai's fault (which isn't). Ursa also shares blame. You can't act like she holds no responsibility when she's the one Azula keeps hallucinating. She's the reason behind Azula's abandonment issues.

"bUT iT WAs oZai tHAt foRceD hEr to leAvE, sO IT wAs hIS fAuLt 🤡"

Ozai did force Ursa to leave, but did he also force her not to say goodbye to her daughter? Did any of you ever heard Ozai say "You can wake up Zuko if you want, cause adding abandonment issues on top of all his other flaws would make him even more unbearable, but don't you dare disturb Azula, she needs her beauty sleep."? I don't remember that scene ever happening, in the show or in the comics.

"BuT azULa coUlD hAve snItcHeD oN heR 🤡"

Blaming the child I see, but you're forgetting sn important detail. Snitch on her to who?

Ozai? He already knew she was leaving.

Azulon? He was dead.

To some guard? The guards would just report to Ozai, who would do nothing because he wanted her to leave.

Iroh? In what universe would Azula willingly go to Iroh if she had a problem? Was Iroh even there at the moment or was he still in the spirit world? We don't know, we never saw him!

There was absolutely no reason whatsoever why Ursa couldn't wake Azula up. No reason whatsoever. Plus, Azula is baby, if Ursa were to wake her up in the middle of the night, Azula would tell nobody (at least not immediately) because she would just fall asleep again, just like Zuko did, because she's nine!

Do you even know what kind of natural disasters nine year olds can sleep through? You can't possibly believe that, Azula, a nine year old, would leave her comfortable, warm bed, in the middle of the night, to go find her scary dad, or scary grandfather, or walk around until she found a guard (where were the guards btw? How come nobody saw Ursa? It's possible that there wasn't even any guards patrolling in the inside of the palace) to tell them that her mom came to hug her in the middle of the night, when, realistically, her mind was still fuzzy from sleep and she didn't even know that the hug meant goodbye, since Ursa had no reason to give away that detail, since she didn't tell Zuko either.

But let's pretend that you're right, and Ursa couldn't wake Azula up for some reason. That still doesn't change the fact that Ursa could still do other stuff to be close to her daughter. Ask her to do an activity together or something.

"bUt ThE tuRtlEdUCKs...- 🤡"

Stfu about the turtleducks. Feeding the turtleducks is an activity Zuko likes, that Azula has no interest in. Just like with the walks in the ganders. That's not how responsible parenting is done. This is "I will send some quality time with one child and drag the other one along to not look bad, but during the quality time the second kid can buzz off, I won't even be paying attention to them." This is exactly what is happening in this picture:

And don't go all "What chance would she have? Azula would push her away!" Because that just indicates that you don't understand shit about Azula's character. She wants her parents to be proud of her. She wants her power to be recognized. That's canonically what she craves the most:

So no, if Ursa gave Azula a chance to feel like she's making her mother proud, Azula would rather die than waste it. And under what circumstances could Ursa give Azula a chance like that without being interrupted you may ask? Well that's very simple. During Azula's training.

In this panel Azula is speaking directly to Ozai about how her training went. Which means he wasn't there to see it. He wasn't the one training her. He wasn't observing her training. And he wouldn't be there to stop Ursa from observing Azula's training once in a blue moon. He wouldn't be there to stop Ursa from telling Azula that she has improved so much and she's proud of her. He wouldn't be there to stop Ursa from showing Azula how much she loves her. He wouldn't be there to stop Azula from growing up knowing that her nother does care.

And who knows? Maybe the presence of a parent that doesn't believe in burning people's pants when you're displeased with them would prevent Azula from misbehaving on those occasions.

So Ozai couldn't prevent Ursa from doing that. Azula wouldn't want to prevent Ursa from doing that. So what stopped Ursa from doing it? Nothing. Nothing at all. She could easily do it and chose not to. Because Ursa isn't as good of a mom as some of you like to pretend she is.

Ursa couldn't solve all of Azula's problems, but she could save Azula from a lifetime of thinking her mom didn't love her and she selected not to do it because Ursa is not a great person.

Thus proven.

#atla #Azula #ursa #ozai #ursa is not a good mom #ursa critical #azula deserved better

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anonymousotherworld · 1 month

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"korra is the worst avatar because she severed the connection with past avatars and almost ended the avatar cycle!"

actually, katara is the reason aang didn't end the avatar cycle all together. if she didn't have the spirit water/couldn't heal aang, the avatar cycle as a whole would have ended in ba sing se after azula (a 15 yo) shot him. unlike aang, korra was fighting against a her madman of an uncle who fused with vaatu and was quite literally an evil avatar (and who was very knowledgeable about the spirit world).

people shit on korra like as if she fell & lost the connection when in reality, raava was literally ripped out of her

this post isn't to hate on aang btw. i love aang but each avatar has their own strengths and weaknesses. the constant shitting on korra is really annoying & way too much. it's unfair to reduce korra to just her weaknesses.

#atla #lok #avatar korra #avatar aang #avatar the last airbender #legend of korra #anon other world: atla #anon other world: lok #anon other world

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likeabxrdinflight · 2 months

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episodes five and six need to be talked about together, I think, because they're very much a two-parter.

so this contains...a lot. we've got "winter solstice", zuko's half of "the storm", "the blue spirit", and a very bizarre mish-mash of koh's part of "the siege of the north" with, of all things, the fog of lost souls from the legend of korra.

it's...we're getting major deviations from the animated version here. first and foremost, it's not the worst change in the world, but splitting the backstories from "the storm" and presenting them in entirely different contexts completely removes the parallels from aang and zuko in a way that...it doesn't butcher their arcs but I do still miss the original version. that episode was top tier and here it's just...average.

meanwhile roku has been completely butchered. there's no way around it. I want to say something positive but I really don't think I can. this is the "HARRY DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIYAH" of avatar. bad choices all around here.

anyways, the plot is kind of...running away from itself, I think. the spirit world stuff was all recognizable, but they've made some changes that don't make a ton of sense. seeing wan shi tong was kinda cool, but also why? then koh shows up but he doesn't steal your face for making an expression anymore, he find them in the fog of lost souls and puts them in little cocoons to eat...whenever he feels like it? it's just a weird change, I guess. the entire purpose of this was to fridge katara and sokka to set up for "the blue spirit" which...sure, I guess they needed to raise the stakes a little higher than "my friends need frozen frogs" in this version.

of course katara and sokka both have visions in the spirit world while they're trapped in the fog of lost souls before koh captures them. katara's I know is her real memory because they show her mother's death and it's very close to the original version. sokka's...god I hope it's not a memory, but it probably is since katara's was. massive L for hakoda if so. not thrilled about that. at what point was hakoda ever disappointed in sokka? sokka always feared letting him down, but that wasn't because hakoda ever said anything so blatantly unkind- it's because the war left the weight of expectation on sokka's shoulders. his father left and he was the only "man" remaining. it had nothing to do with hakoda himself, just the impact of his absence.

it lacks subtlety. (also was the fox sokka saw yue? I feel like it was yue)

anyways this is ultimatley just the set up for aang needing to run to find roku at his temple, learn some shit that roku did to piss koh off and nothing at all about the comet (we knew that already tho), and then go try to correct it only to get captured by june who was hired by zuko and iroh but then actually no wait zhao comes takes him instead. this then lets "the blue spirit" play out as an almost one-to-one remake. which is fascinating because so little else has been preserved identically.

...arden cho was perfect as june btw. 10/10 casting.

interspersed with all this was zuko's backstory. and.......I knew they were gonna do this, I knew they were gonna have zuko fight back. there was too much indication in the trailers. and it just misses the damn point. the point is that he doesn't fight back, he refuses to fight his father out of loyalty and love, and ozai burns him for it. at the very least, ozai does still burn him intentionally, it is very clear that it was not an accident, and he still does it because zuko held back. but the impact is neutered a bit, the cruelty feels a little less. and there's no matching the mood of this shot:

(though azula doesn't smile evil-y in this version because she's just so EVIL so thank god for that)

focusing in on ozai does let daniel do some interesting things with his face in that scene, though. I know a lot of people are going to be upset that ozai isn't quite the same menacing, saturday-morning-cartoon villain he was in the original. but oh this guy is still a monster. "I burned and banished you because I love you" seems to be the vibe we're going for. I'm not against this at all, ozai's still a piece of shit, just a piece of shit who acts like a human being. the worst abusers justify their behavior as acts of love.

ummm what else. azula had a side plot in episode five and there is some fascinating stuff here. this adaptation is blowing up the golden child/scapegoat thing that the original had going on and honestly? kinda here for it. this azula is not secure in her position as ozai's favorite and she is gonna work her ass off to get that position if it fucking kills her.

...and we know how this ends for her. they're setting her up for her eventual fall. I think it's going to be much harder to watch this azula break. she looks so young, and they're showing her vulnerabilities so much sooner. the shots of her firebending late into the night while mai and ty lee sleep is so. sad??? and gyatso has a voiceover here that's just. someone please hug this child.

(also yeah aang gets to meet with gyatso in the spirit world and it is so so sad my heart T_T)

lots happened in these two episodes, some good, some bad, some just kinda strange. I also knew season one needed the most work when it came to adapting it into a serialized format but wow. they have really frankensteined this even more than I expected. it's...different. I still think it's worth watching though, but these two episodes didn't quite hit the highs of three and four.

#natla spoilers

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mostly-mundane-atla · 2 years

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Btw the fact Zuko or Azula likely misrembered or misinterpreted memories they had of Ursa from when they were little doesn't mean they're stupid or willfully ignorant.

When i was about that age i thought i saw Hell because i didn't know what an oil well looked like. I didn't have a term for suicidal ideation or a way to verbalize how I experienced it. I didn't know i had scoliosis or that it was the reason exercise was painful. I was convinced a flashback of something traumatizing that happened to me was just a nightmare i kept having and it was actually fairly recently that i learned that that wasn't the case.

Suggesting that children process things like children isn't the insult or attack some of you seem to think it is

#suicide mention #suicidal ideation mention #that traumatizing thing had a pretty deep effect on me and my subconscious and it kinda broke me to learn it was real #it also isn't ableist to say mentally ill or neurodivergent children can get their perception all fucked up thru adults manipulating them #as a survivor of that kind of abuse that point always felt condescending as hell

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goji-pilled · 10 days

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Best advice I can give for Waterfowl is to just run tf away, and to run towards her during the move starting on phase 2 so she misses.

Malenia, Blade of Miquilla isn't in her prime at all in the boss fight so that means she can very easily get staggered and bleed. The Black Knife mimic is great here as well as any weapon/move that has the hp drain effect they have.

Really for phase 2 my only big piece of advice is just run away during her clone attack. She's just as staggerable as she was in phase 1, and can still bleed just as easy.

Good luck on defeating the Blade of Miquilla, the Goddess of Rot, and have a swell time with the end game.

Btw, have you fought the Ferum Azula super boss, or did you not know it exists/how to reach it?

hey hey what the fuck do you mean clone attack

also yessss i do know about placiduseax or however it was spelled, i havent entered farum azula yet at all though since i wanted to do malenia first (bad idea? maybe. who knows.) but i am aware of his existence and want to try challenging him at the very least

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erisenyo · 2 months

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hiiiii I wanna play!!

16. How important is it to you to stay true to the original creator's vision while writing fanfiction?

26. How do you approach plot twists or surprises in your fics?

31. Do you prefer writing from a single character's perspective or switching between different viewpoints?

You’re amazing as always <3

16. How important is it to you to stay true to the original creator's vision while writing fanfiction?

Eh, middling important? I'm comfortable to change details or do AUs, but it's one of those "know the rules so you can then break them" situation. Every change is going to have a ripple effect, so for it to still feel grounded in the source canon, those ripples need to make sense from that canon.

Characterization is huge for me, too. I always want the characterization to stay aligned to canon. Even if I'm showing growth, or bringing them to places they didn't go in canon, I want it to feel rooted in their canon selves. Okay, Sokka would never [X] in canon--so what would it take to get him there? If I don't see that chain of 'what it takes' then for me it feels like it's drifting into writing an OC who happens to have a similar background, which isn't my interest with fic.

26. How do you approach plot twists or surprises in your fics?

I tend to know where they're going to be in advance, a twist or major surprise is generally a big emotional moment, moment of revelation, moment when the reader's and/or the character's perspective is challenged and shifts. So those tend to be some of the first scenes that coalesce as an idea is coming together, and then things get planned from a pre-reveal and post-reveal format.

So to use a fluffy example from a oneshot (instead of the big reveal in one of my longfics lol) - one of the pivotal moments in (With Wonder and Care) Reach for Far-Flung Dreams is when Sokka is surprised by the destination of the road trip and what the big vacation actually is (NASA, for him, no Disney, for everyone else).

So I have that as this big emotional height--so why is it an emotional height? Because Sokka is surprised by it. Why is he surprised? Because he thought they were going somewhere else. Why did he think they were going somewhere else? Because the Gaang is specifically planning this as a treat for him and it's a big secret they're hoping to pull off.

And now I have the front half of my fic, basically - all the initial setup, the initial dynamics and interactions and necessary exposition, that are building to this reveal.

And then I think about post-reveal--what changes because of this surprise? Sokka realizes the day is about him, instead of him facilitating a day for everyone else. Sokka is emotionally overwhelmed, because he wasn't prepared to seem cool and unaffected. Sokka feels cared for, and has to just let that soak in.

And then that starts to give me the emotional beats I need to hit in later scenes--Sokka being emotionally overwhelmed, realizing the extent of their preparation for him, feeling loved and cared for.

(I can do a breakdown like this for one of the bigger fics like To Open Every Door, if anyone wants, btw)

31. Do you prefer writing from a single character's perspective or switching between different viewpoints?

It depends on the story! I generally like to write from the POV of whoever knows the least, so that the reader can learn alongside them in real-time. Or if a scene is supposed to do some big emotional work for a certain character, I'd rather have their POV for the scene vs them reflecting back on it after.

So in a one shot, that's usually one POV (though sometimes I purposefully structure in external POVs because I think it puts a fun perspective on events). For longer works it tends to be multiple POVs, especially something plottier. In To Open Every Door To Night, for example, I needed dual POVs because I needed the reader to have knowledge that Sokka didn't, which meant I needed Azula's scenes.

But my Zukki series was also a longer work, and there I stuck to one POV because things filtered through Zuko's limited perspective with him misreading everything but the reader able to correctly interpret everything he was missing regardless was the vibe I was going for.

So a lot of words to say basically , no preference, it's what carries the story best :)

From this Questions for Fic Writers game!

#asks and answers #ask games #fic writers ask game #fic writing #This is fun!

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akiizayoi4869 · 2 years

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Do you think people who say they're happy the Fire Nation aren't depicted as complete villains would actually say that if the narrative didn't write them that way?

I mean, I do appreciate the nuance, but it feels like some people refuse to look outside the narrative and use everything they can to reinforce it. I can't imagine them feeling bad for say the Uchiha Clan, and many of these people also say '"it's tragic but Azula turned out horrible and needed to go down" or "I understand Jet had trauma but he was a monster" and so on.

It feels...token? Or empty really because they refuse to apply this mindset to characters actually suffering on the basis that they were too angry or too far gone or doomed to be evil. They will bend over backwards for character the narrative excused but act like it's such a great act of compassion to lightly condemn characters who do the very same things or even less and at times are actually justified.

Sorry if this isn't making sense XD

Btw I love your anime reblogs :)

Honestly I feel like if the narrative didn't spend so much time with making the fire nation sympathetic up to the point where it made the majority of the fandom sympathize with them more than the actual victims of the war, the fire nation would probably get a lot more hate (or at least I hope it would). I can't even remember the last time I saw anyone defending the Uchiha clan. Only remember that it was rare to see it happen. Which sucks because when you think about it? They had every right to be pissed at the Hokage and planning a coup.

Yeah, I will forever be annoyed that characters like Azula, Jet, and Hama constantly get demonized because they were "evil" or "too far gone", despite the narrative showing us why they turned out like that. And yet you got characters like Iroh, who gets a pass despite the fact that he did way worse shit than the three of them combined. Narrative framing truly is a bitch sometimes. But I suppose that this is what happens when you frame the damn colonizers in a sympathetic light, and demonize the actual victims of the war just because whatever it was that they did was fucked up. Even though it was the colonizers fault to begin with. Funny how that works.

Thanks😁 I just really love anime a lot so I can never not reblog those posts whenever I see them.

#asks #atla #fire nation #narrative framing #innocentimouto #aki answers things

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tuiyla · 2 months

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Not sure if you spoke about this yet and if so, sorry for asking . I just really always enjoyed your thoughts on avatar. Would love to know your thoughts on all the sneak peaks that we’ve seen so far like the trailers and everything. Also your thoughts on the changes made to sokkas character. I don’t know if you heard but it apparently they want to get rid of some of his early Scenes because of his sexism. Also just recently they are changing some things about Katarina because I guess they don’t think some of her personality will translate well in live action.

Oh hey! Sorry it's been so long, sorry I've basically disappeared off tumblr. But I still love Avatar of course and warms my heart to hear people like it when I talk about it.

Sigh, the live action. I'm going to watch it when it comes out tomorrow, of course, and I remember being cautiously optimistic when it was first announced. But between Bryke leaving and the info we've been getting, idk. Visually, it looks really solid. The CGI is a bit too plasticky at times for how much it allegedly costs but the costumes are great, the cast seemed good from the beginning and bending itself, I have to say, looks sick.

But these are just aesthetics. Sure, the infamous movie didn't even get that right but being faithful to and respecting the source material is a lot more than just looking great in live action. Since you've sent this ask, more interviews have come out where they talk about changes made to not only Sokka's character but pretty much everyone's. Aang is less of a goofy kid escaping responsibility. I fear the larger presence of Ozai and Azula will make Zuko too sympathetic too early. Not to mention, apparently he's more so doing what he's doing to win the war not to regain his honour? A rumour I've heard.

I haven't heard much about changes made to Katara but, being Katara's no. 1 fan forever and always I'm sure I wouldn't be happy with any changes haha. With her my main fear is just making her less significant, missing the point of her being a sort of POV character and deuteragonist, and missing important beats such as Imprisoned and The Waterbending Scroll. Some variation of especially the latter may appear but come on, it's 8 episodes trying to tell the story of 20. Unfortunately, Book 1 Water is by faaaar the hardest Avatar book to adapt to modern and live action TV and even though the episode list seems solid, it's those quieter ch centric episodes that will suffer the consequences. That's where Katara thrives. Jet is included so I wonder how they'll handle that crucial storyline and it sets in motion a TON for Katara that all culminates, of course, in her magnum opus The Southern Raiders. I just don't see them doing it justice.

I'll inevitably be at least a little more active with the premier of this show and will share thoughts; idk about a proper review but might vent here or there. I'd love to share thoughts on particular topics people are interested in haha. But until then, on this last day before the Fire Nation attacks and everything changes, I will say this. I think the things they've said so far about character changes are misguided. Sokka's sexism isn't a bug storytelling-wise, it's a feature. It's called character development, look it up, Albert Kim. Now, I'll have to admit that his sexism and the larger gender politics of the Water Tribes is actually an aspect of the show, one of the very few aspects that I think could use quite a bit of improvement, so I wouldn't be against the Netflix show doing this differently. But if they do just omit it that's a grave error. Despite the flashy visuals it doesn't bode well so far, but we'll see. I'll watch it as soon as I get home from work and then probs rewatch the original then rewatch the Netflix one. Oh, the Avatar megafan in me awakens. Btw guys lol I never even updated y'all, I went to the London concert of the soundtrack and it was doooope.

Also Suki looks super cute I'm ready to simp.

#anon #avatar asks #what was my tag for the netflix show #what tag are people using #netflix avatar #? will do #atla #NATLA #i'm sorry people but natla??? that's so hilarious i love it

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timur-pannonicus · 2 years

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Azula and Buddhism

I recently saw on ask directed at @chaoticsandstorm (who posts awesome stuff btw) about whether Azula could become a Buddhist. I want to give my thoughts on that since those two topics are my main interests and preoccupations.

Firstly yes, the Air Nomads seem to be the only explicitly Buddhist culture in the show but Tibetan Buddhism isn't the only form of that religion that exists in our world so it's possible that other forms exist in the Avatar world. I don't consider the Tibetan tradition heretical or unorthodox but I will hone in on the tradition I personally study and follow, which is Zen. I will presume some familiarity on the reader's part with Buddhism overall as I continue.

Firstly I will say that I genuinely believe and feel justified in thinking that religion and spirituality are some of the most powerful tools ever created for influencing human thought and behavior for good or for ill and I think the concept is underutilized or ignored in the vast majority of Azula stories I've encountered.

Firstly, why would Azula even consider a different philosophy from the one she was raised with? I'd say it's a mixture of desperation and pragmatism. She's shown capable of appreciating the talents of non benders and the strength of earth benders. As a fugitive in the Earth Kingdom or the Colonies she might encounter a temple or monastery and use the charity traditionally provided to wanderers for a night, learn a little what it is about and decide to try their brand of meditation just to see what happens, she has nothing to lose.

The thing about Zen meditation when properly instructed is that it provides a small yet very tangible feeling of peace and comfort very early on, something Azula hasn't experienced in a very long time at that point and something she'll likely come to crave very quickly. So, she stays to figure out just enough to deal effectively with the turmoil in her head.

This would be her first lesson and goal, to realize that all the stuff going in her head and heart no matter how upsetting and horrible cannot last forever, that it's transitory and impermanent and that there's something deeper inside her that cannot be destroyed or disturbed so easily, something that is GOOD.

This something is usually called Buddha nature or original enlightenment and all beings posses it. That's the key part, her redemption and healing wouldn't be about destroying who she is but realizing there's more to her than she thought. It's about her genuinely and first hand experiencing that she was and is capable of being more than a monster. In her initial meditation practice she would learn to neither suppress her feelings nor let them control her, not to condemn herself for feeling what she feels nor abandon the desire to overcome them. Being aware of your thoughts and emotions in a truly attentive way for long enough does lessen the power they have over oneself. Over time you learn an important trick when it comes to resisting your bad tendencies and impulses, instead of letting the pain of denial torture you you learn to take pleasure and delight in the act of resisting temptation which I can see Azula taking great pride in.

Now that she can better resist doing what she should not do there arises the question what she SHOULD do. Fortunately monasteries have thought of that. Azula is a person who works well in an environment of structure, discipline and clear hierarchy, something Zen monasteries emphasize. Clear codes of conduct exist even down to detailed explanations on why something is good or bad. More importantly, if the rules are broken there are clear procedures on what has to be done to be forgiven. Moreover, Zen ritual and prayer is designed to help students internalize both the desired behaviors and the mental attitude that goes with it. Being a good person is a teachable skill and not something nebulous and ineffable and I feel such an assurance and blueprint would be a great blessing for Azula. Plus being in a community full of people who want to be the best they can be would positively kindle her competitive instincts. Also Zen teachers do not shower students with flowery praise, a nod of the head of a respected master feels greater than all poetry in the world.

Now, the goal of Zen isn't to give you the chance to feel high all the time, that's not what enlightenment is. It's about realizing that your normal conscience is perfectly ok, you don't need to feel one with the universe at all times, that you're not defective for being human. The sense of peace one feels eventually isn't as sparkly as what we usually think of as happiness but it's way more effective, beneficial and sustainable. It can be described as a state where you neither feel craving, nor repulsion nor indifference. At glance it seems paradoxical but life and reality are paradoxical and the goal of Zen is to help you deal with it successfully. Which leads to the next aspect, the intellectual.

Many may be familiar with the concept of koans, sayings or questions that are designed to break you out of standard patterns of thinking and let you see reality in a new way. They actually tend to work better and have more effect on people who are very good at being very logical. If presented with such a challenge Azula likely wouldn't give up until she found a solution that would impress her teacher. Yes, she'd totally try to be the teacher's pet xD Though, Zen is firmly based on the treatises of ancient Indian masters but in practice they are often condensed into proverbs. Knowing Azula's distaste for vaguely wise sayings she'd insist on reading the full long texts, memorize them fully and come up with her own summaries.

Also there IS something very fire bender about Zen, it values and often requires absolute and fierce dedication. One of the standard prayer chants is basically a creed of badass:

My flaws are endless, I swear to fix them all. The suffering of beings is endless, I swear to help them all. The teachings are immeasurable, I swear to learn them all. The way of Buddha is unsurpassable, I swear to walk it to the end.

Also I want to add that despite some unfortunate history of sexism women still are considered capable of full and complete enlightenment, there's veneration of women who achieved that state and texts that firmly reject that women cannot achieve the ultimate goal.

There is more I can add and talk about but I might save it for another time. I do not however claim to be an absolute authority on Zen. I'm merely an Eastern European who feels greatly indebted to what little I know about Zen for it definitely and tangibly changed my life for the better and is still improving it.

Hope my pet idea of Azula becoming a Zen practicioner was entertaining to read.

#azula #avatar the last airbender #philosophy #human psychology #zen #Buddhism #redemption #healing

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rotisseries · 8 months

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‘he is haunted by the specter of the women who came before him’ rin girl trauma is genuinely so good do you want to explain your thoughts

YESSSS!! this got long lmao

ok so some obvious things straight up. he's azula, he's lady macbeth, (which. very interesting because these women could easily be considered masculine figures in their stories but tbh villainy in media always includes some level of the character acting in ways incongruent with expectations of their gender.) he's reaching for a goal that is unachievable and he's losing everything in pursuit of it and when he realizes he's done it all for nothing he loses his mind entirely. out damned spot out

he's not a physically strong or imposing character, he's sly and cunning, traits often given to female villains, also his weapon choice, I said this to hella in an ask gathering cobwebs rn but he uses poison!! poison is his weapon and poison is a woman's weapon, all the way back to like, medea. I actually found this really interesting thing real quick just by taking a quick google search for poison as a woman's weapon:

it's a weapon of intelligence and elegance, it doesn't leave a mess, it's for a death that's clean and pretty (also so often the reality of death by poison is a brutal and choking one, which. ughhh you get me) however women also die more by poison, which is interesting but idrk where to go with that. also in general it's a weapon of betrayal and intimacy of COURSE it would be rin's weapon.

anyway girl trauma time. ok so admittedly some of it is just vibes like I was just sitting around like "hmm the specific way rin is impacted by kiva and lugalia and how he handles it FEELS very Girl Trauma™️" which is obviously not a very academic way of discussing that. and like obviously trauma and trauma responses are not exclusively linked to your gender but he doesn’t feel like a man with mommy issues he feels like a woman with mommy issues you know? he's full of grief, not hatred. also this is coming from me who does not have eldest daughter syndrome and does not know a man with visible mommy issues so. take it with a grain of salt.

anyway he's a middle son who acts like an eldest daughter and I don't just throw that around because I kinda don't love when people say "this man has eldest daughter syndrome" when they just mean parentified like you can just say parentified it isn't always eldest daughter syndrome but rin HAS eldest daughter syndrome and I actually feel like that's a bigger deal here because he's NOT really being parentified like kiva actually does very well with parenting drako so rin doesn't need to step in or anything. no, rin is an eldest daughter because he has to be uniquely aware of kiva's mental state in a way drako just. isn't. drako knows lugalia was awful obviously and that kiva hates her for good reason but drako doesn't really seem aware that it's made kiva. not the perfect mom. rin is bearing the brunt of it all, he doesn't know about lilla obviously but he has to sit with the knowledge that something is holding kiva back from him, he can tell. he's also being permanently held to this standard he'll never meet.

a firstborn in general but especially a firstborn daughter is supposed to be your perfect example, the child always going above and beyond meeting your every expectation which lugalia does to him in the most obvious sense but kiva is also holding him to a standard he can't meet. she's holding him up next to lilla. obviously she's not hoping to replace lilla with him in fact it's the exact opposite but the fact he ISN'T truly her firstborn he CAN'T truly be lilla is something that keeps kiva from loving him properly. he isn't lilla he can't bring back lilla he will never be lilla he will never be kiva's firstborn daughter and the impossibility of this standard is HAUNTING THEM BOTH. very interesting that being the middle child gave him eldest daughter syndrome btw lmao. (also I saw this tiktok (<- bad start) that I sent a screenshot of to hella in ANOTHER ask that's gathering cobwebs but supposedly older children coming out of their mothers leave dna behind in the womb that becomes a part of the next kid can we TALK about the rin+lilla and drako+rin implications of that???)

and then the way he HANDLES his issues. he doesn’t really blame kiva OR lugalia he doesn't even seem fully acknowledging that they've done him wrong he just keeps reaching for these standards he'll never be able to meet. if he can just be the perfect heir he will no longer feel the ghost of lugalia digging her fingers into his shoulder if he can just be the perfect son kiva will love him wholly but this isn't true and it's not his fault but he won't see that because if something isn't wrong with him then it means something was wrong with the women who raised him and if something is wrong with them he's spent his life reaching for something he can't have and if he's spent his life reaching for something he can't have then where does he even go from there? how do you move on? it's all been futile? unacceptable.

so he tries to meet the standards he's being held to. and he's haunted by the women before him. he's haunted by lilla, occupying a space in his mother's heart that he can never have. he's haunted by kiva, her gentleness standing in contrast to his learned pragmatism, her feeling like she's looking into a portait of her mother, horrified at his every action, when he does it all for her anyway. he's haunted by lugalia, crafting him in her image, the perfect heir, hiding everything under a calm and icy exterior. he's haunted by hammari, reaching higher and higher for an impossible goal, wanting, needing, to be good, to be loved, committing greater and greater sins in pursuit of it, until it's gone out of control, and it's too late to quit, because if you quit, what was it all for? you lost everything, and for nothing. and at the end of it all, with a knife in his hand and hair scattered around him, he's once again haunted by lilla, who was the perfect daughter he could never be, without even trying.

he is forever living in the shadows of the women from before him he is constantly shaping and reshaping himself to try and fit to their place in the puzzle he was sculpted in their image and now he continues to sculpt himself and he will NEVER BE FREE of his sister and his mother and her mother and her mother and yeah I just think that's very girl trauma of him

#I feel like there should be more to this I can't explain it but I don't have anything #oh wait he also feels ignored which. middle child syndrome but also very eldest daughter of him #to take on so much burden (like a sacrificial lamb) and feel ignored for it #anyway I think part of this whole thing going on with rin is just. hella's perspective that she's writing tbos from #like. (sorry hella if you see this I don't mean to psychoanalyze you but unfortunately i do follow your personal account too. so)#hella is clearly putting in a lot of her own experience with family trauma which obviously is coming from her pov #as a daughter with an older sister and a mother who was impacted by her mother #so like. of course rin's issues reflect a woman's when he is being written by a woman #but yeah he IS VERY INTERESTING TO ME!! GENDERWISE!!#ask #witch-of-aiaia #hi aiaia!#also like. I think in general when a child is done wrong by their parent of the opposite gender they grow with hatred for that gender #(as your parent is usually your first example of that gender)#whereas when done wrong by a parent of the same gender a child tends to have a lot of grief #(<- that’s again not academic I really should clarify that as someone who is blessedly not traumatized by my parents #most of what I say is coming from an outside perspective through mostly cultural osmosis)#and rin has grief. not hatred

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zalrb · 2 years

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I've read your posts on Avatar and saw that another anon said that Azula going crazy in the end made no sense. Now I love Azula and definitely didn't think the ending of her came out of nowhere but what do you think triggered it? Is it when she saw Mai and Ty Lee betray her? Or was it before that? Or is there no specific scene and it's just a combination of all the stuff taking place in s3?

When Ozai told her that she's the new fire lord, she started being even more cruel to her royal subjects and even decided to banish the Dai Lee.

Btw I found out about Avatar from you blog, so thanks a lot! I just wish there was Sokka in shows like tvd! "It isn't enough for good to be inside him! It needs to come outside him as well" this is the perfect advice for Damon! I was fooled by tvd saying Damon was good and after a while of scouring through tumblr I realized how horrible he was!

Sorry for the long rant :)

No worries! I think that Mai and Ty Lee betraying her was the catalyst, which is why I didn't understand that anon, there's a clear connection between this

and this

but I also think there’s more to it, like there’s the fact it’s not only that they betrayed her, it’s that Azula had been successfully controlling people through fear

only to learn that that’s not as powerful, that she’s not as powerful as she thinks she is, not to mention that we also learn that while she projects a strong sense of confidence

she’s also insecure

that Mai choosing Zuko harkens back to what she said about her mother

but I also think we see the potential of a breakdown from pretty much the minute she's introduced because there’s also a connection between this

and this

that is not sustainable, combined with everything mentioned above plus I think it can be argued that the pressure of being Fire Lord itself caused a break because when Ozai gives her that title, it’s all up to her

she has no contingencies in place in case something goes wrong, like she did when they said Aang died

so I think it’s a bunch of things.

#azula #atla

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attackfish · 2 years

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Azula gets struck by lightning? Her own or Ozai’s (or Zuko redirecting Ozai’s on the day of black sun). Love your stuff btw

Continued from: [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], and [Link].

1. Katara stands there wearing her grandmother's necklace, standing in a place that looks like it's something out of one of her grandmother's bedtime stories. She stands there, a fourteen year old girl, who the rulers of this foreign country have been ordered to train by a being, who is simultaneously the primordial god of both their peoples, and a sixteen year old girl. She stands there next to a boy who is simultaneously a twelve year old boy, and another primordial god. She stands in front of people who who look and dress and move so much like her own people, but who are more foreign to her than any of the Earth Kingdom villagers they met on their way North. None of this makes sense to her, and the only choice she has is to keep going, to keep standing there.

2. One of the old men who rules the north, not the chief, the father of the moon itself, but one of his councilers, Pakku, sniffs at her and says fine. He won't train her but he'll allow one of the other master waterbenders to take her on, if she can find one. That's okay, Katara says, she doesn't want him to be the one to train her anyway. He demands an apology for her disrespect, and she demands to know why he's allowed to disrespect her but she she isn't allowed to do the same. She tells them that her father is the chief of the Southern Water Tribe, and when people start snickering, she goes on and says that if anyone had treated anyone in the Southern Water Tribe the way he treated her, her father would have been angry about it. So no, she doesn't want Master Pakku to train her, and she doesn't respect him. And she stomps out shaking.

3. But something in this burrows itself deep in Pakku's mind, and digs up a long buried, painful memory of another teenage girl telling him she didn't respect him because he didn't respect her. And the resmblence between the two girls, now that he looks for it, is uncanny. And this girl was wearing a necklace that looked so much like a Northern Water Tribe betrothal necklace. He can't help but wonder... He leaves at the end of the day shaken and torn.

4. When Kanna left a middle of a war, a teenage girl alone on the stormy northern seas, in a tiny boat, they all wrote her off as dead. There was no way she could have survived and made it south, and Pakku has spent years and years knowing that the girl he loved committed suicide rather than marry him. But Katara's existence, her presence here, raises another tantilizing possibility, the hope that she had lived, that she had had children and grandchildren, and lived the life he never could have given her. And he can't help but be afraid that he's delusional for even hoping it's true.

5. He has to know. He has to talk to Katara, to face her, and maybe, just maybe, face the reality of why Kanna left.

#avatar the last airbender #katara #atla kanna #atla pakku #posts i created #do you want to ask a question it doesn't have to be a question #five headcanons #katara is the answer

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seyaryminamoto · 1 year

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I know there's no way you have time to write another multi chapter story aside from gladiator (which is btw amazing) but can I just ask what is the supposedly plot or premise of Played by Fire?

Oh boy, well... that particular fic has been a thorn on my side for a long time, haha. I've never really managed to make it work, and I've tried multiple times, but I've never really felt fully comfortable with any of my different attempts of writing it. But I suppose if you really want to know...

Just to warn you, it's a bit of a relationship drama fest :'D so if that's not something you'd enjoy, don't bother tapping the read more, haha.

So, for starters, the plan here was for Sokka and Suki to still be in a relationship and for everything to look alright between them (to anyone outside their relationship, that is). Suki is serving as Zuko's guard, following what the comics established, and Zuko slowly develops feelings for her that he assumes she'll never reciprocate. Azula, redeemed and serving as his advisor, tells Zuko to get over his crush or do something about it, Zuko being the tortured drama king he is, doesn't want to hear it. Basically, Azula thinks he should get over Suki and marry someone else to secure his lineage, but he's too busy pining over a taken woman to care!

The conclusion Azula reaches is that if Zuko tells Suki how he feels and Suki tells him outright that she's not interested, Zuko will finally be free from his crush, pretty much. Zuko agrees to that eventually, knowing he'll wind up with a broken heart but knowing too that, once he knows there's no future there, he'll have no choice but to move on. Thus, Azula offers to distract Sokka (who's visiting Suki frequently in the Fire Nation, and he's there at the moment) so that Zuko can do this when he has the chance.

The four of them were to travel to Ember Island, not entirely sure why anymore, but they were. Azula found that to be the ideal situation for Zuko to get a grip and finally tell Suki what he feels... so she starts the Sokka distraction strategy by talking nonsense with him and Sokka is certainly entertained with Azula, but Zuko still fails and chickens out of confessing at the last moment because he's Zuko :'D

Anyway, Azula is frustrated but decides to enjoy her beach time because that's what she went there for, Zuko kind of gives up and decides that what matters is for Suki to be happy and that he'll get over her to do what Azula is asking, marry someone else...

... And when they reach Ember Island, Sokka and Suki break up with a big chaotic argument about I don't even know what :'D

As a result of the big, screamy fight she has with Sokka, Suki, outraged, leaves Ember Island and Zuko decides to go with her to make sure she'll be okay. Sokka thinks at first that Suki will change her mind, and he thinks Suki is the one who was out of line so he doesn't want to apologize to her and run after her, since he thinks she's the one who should apologize to him. Thus, he decides he'll stay in Ember Island anyway, even if Suki's not around. Zuko tells Azula to stay with Sokka in case he's just faking being okay and needs help, Azula tells Zuko that this is his chance to confess to Suki, Zuko tells Azula of course it's not...! But even so, Zuko and Suki take off together, leaving the other two behind.

Broken up as they are, Sokka is still assuming Suki will come back to him and realize she made a mistake eventually. After a few days of sulking, he starts to think maybe she won't come back at all and maybe this is the actual end of their relationship. Azula tries to needle him into accepting that he can be with someone other than Suki, that their relationship isn't the be-all-end-all of his life, but Sokka keeps sulking anyhow. Eventually, he decides he's going after Suki after all, and Azula knows her brother won't have had the guts to do anything about his stupid situation... so she decides she needs to keep Sokka in Ember Island.

As a result, Azula baaaasically decides to prove to Sokka that he doesn't have to be with Suki at all. She was supposed to seduce him through some, uh, unorthodox methods, which throws Sokka's head into complete disarray, and he has no idea what to do upon suddenly finding himself strongly allured by Azula. Azula tells him he's not in a relationship anymore, so what's the big deal?

Once Sokka decides to accept that reality, Azula becomes Sokka's rebound romance (at first). Their first night would have been a rather impulsive, messy thing, but by the next day, Sokka would have calmed down a bit and started to realize there really can be a life beyond breaking up with his girlfriend. This, then, translates to Sokka deciding to get to know Azula better. She's certainly interested in him on a physical level, but she's still putting up barriers so she's not really sure about the intimacy Sokka might have been looking for (also because she's started this for what she expects Sokka would think are the "wrong reasons). Still, after a few days of awkwardness (except for when they're banging, of course), Sokka actually starts to appeal enough to Azula for her to open up about things, her family's experiences in Ember Island, her childhood, and so on. She finds he's very welcoming and easy to talk to, so she opens up gradually and in doing so, opens the floodgates to falling in love with Sokka, who's also doing the same thing with her.

By the time their week-long vacation ends (or however long it is), Sokka and Azula are definitely intrigued by what they have going on, and they know that it's going to be awkward to explain, but they hope both Zuko and Suki will be responsive to it and won't jump to conclusions about how Sokka is shameless for rebounding so fast and so effectively (since he'd be pretty much over his earlier distress upon breaking up with Suki).

Cue their shock when they return to find that Suki is remorseful, ready and eager to rekindle things with Sokka.

Azula confronts her brother, who very honorably (and stupidly x'D) chose not to tell Suki about how he felt and instead encouraged her to go back to Sokka if that was what she wanted, helped her open her heart, examine her mistakes and acknowledge them, and so on. Azula is absolutely outraged and probably only realizes how much she likes Sokka when she finds she's at risk of losing him. Sokka isn't completely sure of how to explain to Suki that he's not interested in going back to her...

And this is the part where things would get particularly bad: Azula's insecurities would lead her to think Sokka is going to choose Suki over her. In a panicked bid to keep him with her, she'd tell Suki the truth about how Sokka barely grieved over their relationship before falling into bed with her, also revealing that Zuko is interested in her and that the only reason why Azula got caught up in all this shit was because she was trying to help her brother. Suki, of course, loses her shit, and the situation becomes extremely chaotic since now everyone's mad at Azula for pretty much airing everyone's dirty laundry as she did, revealing Sokka got involved with her when he was still getting ready to explain that and so on. Lots of drama. Too much drama. Excess drama.

Sokka and Suki would take off to Republic City to sort out their problems there, on their own. Azula tries to plead with Sokka before he goes, acknowledging she acted out but that she cares about him, Sokka tells her he needs time to sort out the mess he's in now, since most everyone he knows is bound to think of him as the disloyal asshole who ditched his girlfriend and got together with his friend's sister at the first chance (when the girlfriend in question was the one who ditched him, but life is unfair that way). So Azula ends up in wobbly territory, afraid that she's lost Sokka irremediably, and that her brother is going to be mad at her forever.

Suki and Zuko also have a conversation where Suki confirms that Zuko feels how he does about her. He admits the truth, but tells Suki that he wants her happiness more than anything, and that if she believes she can be happy with Sokka, that's all he wants for her. The thing is, Suki doesn't really think happiness with Sokka would be a possibility anymore, not after everything that's happened, and she's starting to wonder if maybe the break-up was worth taking more seriously than she had thus far.

So she goes to Republic City with Sokka, and they talk things over while Azula and Zuko sulk over their failures to be with the people they like. Sokka and Suki have some really earnest conversations and realize that they really are better off taking the break-up seriously and ending things between them. Suki has started to ponder the possibilities with Zuko, and Sokka already knows Azula makes his heart race in ways it never had before, so... they go back to the Fire Nation some time later, with Suki offering to test the waters with Zuko, since she and Sokka are decidedly done now. Sokka would go to Azula too, and her broken heart would finally begin to heal after he tells her that while her methods weren't the right ones, the outcome is the one it should have been and that he's come to realize a week with her wouldn't ever be enough and that he wants the full thing, pretty much?

AND THAT'S THAT.

... As you can see, it's a lot more relationship-drama heavy than I like for my content, generally. I didn't mind going wild with relationship drama back in the early years when I first came up with this idea? But I've aged and age means I've grown a bit jaded with excessive relationship drama. Therefore, I've actually tried to rework this mess into something a liiiittle bit less chaotic... but it still doesn't work, somehow. I've started this story at least twice and in neither case was I happy with the outcome (I outlined a much more lighthearted version of it for this year's Sokkla Saturdays, but even that didn't work for me at all and I ended up writing something else entirely...).

So... yeah, now you know what the plot was going to be. It's not really something I think I'm bound to write in the future, therefore why I was down for giving you the outline of what I wanted this story to be. I'd certainly say that for each their own, but I'm not sure this story would fall into the realm of things I want to write anymore, unfortunately.

But now you know! And I hope you're happy knowing what the soap opera-like plan was meant to be with this story :'D

#anon #played by fire #I know I wrote about this in the 'my fics' page of my theme #and I assume that's where you found it #I probably should take it down because yeeeeah I don't think it's going to happen #there it goes tho!

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