Just a Guy Talkin on his Likes
245 posts
Turbin-merlin - Turbin Limited Word - Tumblr Blog
i don't really understand why you would be pro-zoo. like i understand nature reserves and sanctuaries where people can observe from afar, but it doesn't seem right to me when they're locked up in generally small confined areas for people to watch them do nothing all day. idk maybe i'm getting this wrong, and i still really respect you, i just don't understand this. like i interned at a zoo and felt uncomfortable with how small their living areas were and how they had no stimulation
Zoos don’t look like this anymore.
They look like this:
Good zoos do not keep their animals in “tiny spaces” with no enrichment. I’m not pro-roadside zoo. I’m pro-accredited zoo. Zoos are incredibly important for conservation and education.
Are Zoos Necessary?
The Importance of Zoos: Resource Post
Why Zoos and Aquariums Matter: Assessing the Impact of a Visit to a Zoo or Aquarium
Why I Want to be a Keeper
Why I Believe in Zoos
I would really appreciate it if you reblogged this because I did, in fact, accidentally spend 40 hours on it!!
Whu...?
Sam's on a bogus journey now.
Support me on Ko-Fi
(Read the full post before donating anything)
Since my job isn't paying me much and Brazil's money ain't worth a damn thing, my best friend @dragomer has finally managed to convince me to have a Ko-Fi page that he kindly set up for me.
You guys can now assure this unhinged ao3 writer/tumblr user will have enough money to always have acess to wi-fi and provide you guys with fics, metas and memes. You can give me monthly or sporadic donations of at least one dollar ($1) and it'll already be a big help for me.
IMPORTANT
If you can't donate anything at all, don't feel bad and don't panic, I'll be fine. If you're using someone else's money ask their permission first.
You will NOT get any exclusive content or see what I'm working on ahead of time if you choose to donate. All of my content, both on ao3 and tumblr, is going to remain completely free for everyone.
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I'm still doing this stuff mostly for fun and intend to only write the stuff I want/am comfortable with, and I WILL reject some ideas/set up my own deadlines (because again, I have an actual job) no matter how much money you're willing to give me. Basically don't expect me to write a fic for a pairing I don't like, or to have the fic you want ready to go in one or two days, and, more importantly:
DONATING to me is not the same as COMMISSIONING something from me so, once again, message me privately first if your intention is to try to get something specific instead of just giving me a little help because you like my nonsense.
Sorry I wasn’t trying to deflect from the real issue or anything , I just didn’t know if that point was factual or addressed in the Roku book.
That's the thing though: it doesn't have to be adressed, because what we already know about the Fire Nation just from watching the show - hell, just from watching the introduction of every episode - already makes it quite clear which nation, and which leader(s), is the obvious bad guy that is disturbingly comfortable using violence towards vulnerable people to get what it wants.
Even if the Fire Nation was this "utopia" zutarians pretend it was, where everyone who was born there gets a great life and women are totally treated as equals to men - that doesn't erase the fact that they commited genocide against the air-nomads, that they've been conquering places all over the Earth Kingdom and killing millions of innocents, or that they commited genocide against Katara's tribe.
The Fire Nation wants well over half the world dead for the simple "crime" of not being the same race as them, and Sozin was the one to make it that way - yet Zutarians are acting like because that fucking book acknowledged "Oh yeah, and the Fire Nation also sucks if you were NOT a foreigner because it was a deeply unfair society from day one" they're being retconned to be the evil, violent and intolerant.
Every time these people throw a fit over how "the Fire Nation doesn't get enough recognition for being fair to women" (because it WASN'T), they casually ignore the fact that they commited genocide - and act like all the women and little girls that were killed somehow don't "count" as victims of the Fire Nation because they were of a different race.
As if it makes a difference to these women if they're being abused, imprisoned and killed for their race instead of their gender. As if a queer woman who saw the love of her life be killed by the Fire Nation would give a fuck that at least her lover wasn't killed for having the "wrong" sexuality, just for being born in the "wrong" nation.
As if it made a difference to Kya that a man invaded her home with the intention of kidnaping/killing her daughter because she was a waterbender but not because she was girl.
As if it would make any difference to Katara if the man that killed her mother would never think to hit or so much as raise his voice to his own mother or wife or daughter.
As if, in the middle of becoming a child soldier because she has no choice but to fight for her life, she'd think the Fire Nation is so "egalitarian" because Azula gets the "privilege" of being a child soldier too.
As if she'll think oh so highly of Zuko for hiting her so hard she lost consciousness, and he then kidnapped her best friend to either be killed or kept barely alive in a cell for decades - after all, at least he didn't refuse to fight her like Pakku did! How considerate of him!
As if all the airbender girls that were burned alive gave a fuck if the soldiers that were murdering them were all men, all women, or if it was a 50/50 split.
As if droping a nuke on a bunch of civilians is only a human rights violation if some insane ruler does it to his own country instead of someone else's.
These people are literally saying that systematic violence towards women somehow only "counts" if the woman is of the "right" race - and that's a DEEPLY racist belief that they just spew out casually and we HAVE to focus on that, not because "Hahaha, more things to mock zutarians for" but because that is a very dangerous belief to have.
You have merely started your journey.
I was born here.
All the cringe. The humor. The poor spelling in fanfics. That one guy who got weird.
I was there. And I can't to see you grow into it.
“Ew you’re an adult why are you in fandom” Kid, if being mocked for fandom shit wasn’t enough to stop me when I was an actual 15 year old, hearing it from a 15 year old when I’m 30 is genuinely hilarious
Blue Claw (on youtube) dropped the hardest Kataang edit ever
this is so devastating. laois should have just shot him with a gun
Avatar Fandom: You’re Not Supposed to AGREE with Ozai and Sozin!
So many posts misrepresenting or even flat-out lying about Aang to make him seem like the worst person imaginable.
I am begging you to remember - THAT’S LITERALLY WHAT THE FIRE NATION DID TO THE AIR NOMADS!
Lies, misrepresentation, propaganda, and brainwashing to justify their hatred.
If you spread that kind of anti-Aang misinformation, you’re not an ATLA fan. You’re a fan of the Fire Nation in ATLA.
Which is a problem considering they’re genocidal imperialists. No matter how sympathetic their individual child soldiers (who are also victims of their nation!) or citizens may be, the nation itself is a monster.
Please stop and self reflect.
Preferring a different ship doesn’t require acting like the villains’ propaganda wing in a story about war, conquest, and genocide.
Re-Blog if you want to see Azula get her Redemption Arc!
Come on. Look at that face!
AO3 IS IN TROUBLE IF CALIFORNIAN AGE VERIFICATION LAW PASSES
An upcoming Age verification bill centered in California will be voted on Monday-- And as always,instead of actually protecting kids, it will lead to more online censorship and privacy risks, as it will force websites hosting to verify their users age by sending their ID, your browser history would be linked to it. if you live California, call your reps and tell them to oppose the bill AB3080 as it highly unconstitutional.
They also deem LGBT content harmful to minors, as well as mentions of weapons and tobacco, putting them on the same level as NSFW content.
Since AO3 headquarters reside in California, much like Reddit, Twitter,Discord and Youtube (and others) who knows how bad the effects would be. Instead of just effecting Californians (even then its concerning.) the effects would be US or even worldwide. VPNs wont help.
Please take actions here (a script is included to help you) https://www.defendonlineprivacy.com/ca/action.php
Find your rep here https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/
You can also send faxes using this https://faxzero.com/
If you don't live in California, please talk about this,tag your friends and urge others to take actions, make posts and tweets using the hashtags AB3080 and NoOnAB3080
More info HERE
the tears man. They fall for all that were lost.
i’m sure you’ve talked about this before, but did azula abuse zuko?
No. The Azula-Zuko relationship was extremely toxic, but Azula didn't act in an abusive manner or out of abusive motivations, and in fact it's almost impossible to construct reasoning which supports "Azula abused Zuko" without the same reasoning also supporting "Zuko abused Azula." It's important to consider all of Azula's actions toward Zuko within context:
1. Yes, Book 2 Azula lied to him, manipulated him, used violence against him, etc. None of this is good. But she did this within the context of Zuko being a declared traitor(whose very status made him a massive implicit threat to the throne, and who is traveling with another, even more dangerous traitor) who she's been ordered to hunt down by the Firelord, absolute ruler of her country. To put this in modern terms, it is as if your sibling was an exceptionally dangerous terrorist and it was your responsibility to hunt them down. An awful situation to be in, but you using violence would not make you "abusive." And it's worth noting that Azula doesn't strictly prioritize her mission against Zuko and Iroh, like you would expect she would if she was obsessed with controlling and/or hurting Zuko, but instead prioritizes other objectives for most of the season.
2. Azula gives Zuko a 100% chance genuine chance to regain his status and to prove his loyalty. It's worth noting that this is one of the times that being Azula's sibling works in Zuko's favor, because she would not have done that for anyone else, and no one other than Azula would have given him a second chance.
3. Azula responds to realizing that Zuko might be lying to her and throwing her, the Fire Nation, and their father under the bus by setting it up so that if Zuko was in fact lying, he would suffer the consequences for it, while also giving Zuko an opportunity to fix his mistake. "Abuse" is not a good paradigm to understand this, especially since the safest thing for Azula to do would have been to tell Ozai that she suspected Zuko was lying(but Zuko would not have had good things happen to him then, so you can see why she didn't go down this route).
4. As a result of #2, Azula destroyed the power-imbalance between the siblings and gave Zuko an equal, if not superior, status to her by getting him back in favor with Ozai and by getting the Fire Nation to regard him as a hero(remember, Zuko was seated at Ozai's right hand at the war meeting). There's every indication that, had Ozai chocked to death on a cheery pit, she would have supported Zuko's accession to the throne and loyally supported his regime. Again, these are not the actions of an "abuser."
5. First half of Book 3 Azula was generally kind to Zuko and made a serious effort to look after his emotional wellbeing. She's actively defensive of his status in "The Beach." And yes, she sometimes made fun of him and went too far in this, but that's normal in a sibling relationship.
6. After Zuko betrays her and throws her under the bus, commits massive amounts of treason, and joins up with a group which aims to overthrow the Fire Nation's government and kill Azula's father, yes, Azula treats him as a traitor and enemy of the state. But that's not "abuse," that's just being reasonable at that point. And yes, she's also extremely angry at Zuko in this period, but their relationship is mostly defined by being on opposing sides in a war.
In contrast, Zuko is almost continually motivated by his desire to violently "put Azula in her place" and/or kill her because he can't stand the idea of her being better than him. I need to make a more detailed post about this, but in almost every Zuko-Azula fight scene, Zuko actively pursues or seeks out the fight, or at least has an easy opportunity to retreat, but chooses to fight her because he wants to inflict violence on his sister. However, I wouldn't call this abuse because it's ultimately motivated by Ozai's abuse, and more importantly because it's not clear how far Zuko would go without the context of the war. Still, it's Zuko's personal motivations which drive him to try to hurt Azula contrast a lot with Azula's motivations as discussed above.
And it's not like we can take what happened in #1 out of the sibling relationship, especially since it played such a big role in the relationship being as toxic as it got, but it's important to understand Azula's motivations there.
Domino's luck powers save her everytime, allowing her to come back with as many puns as she wants. Truly the most dangerous mutant.
Check my Patreon out if you’d like to support the comic, even a little bit helps. Or just to check out the reward tiers, there’s some neat bonus stuff and I tried to make them fun: https://www.patreon.com/waitingforthet
how is tdp justifying ethnic cleansing?
The show tries to present itself as "both sides in the wrong" conflict, completely ignoring that the situation presented does not call for it. (One group kicks an entire race out of their home and forces them to relocate. Hmm. If only there was a historical event that mirrored that.. OH WAIT)
The show has a huge bias against the humans and refuses to acknowledged how WRONG the Elves are. All while painting the elves as misunderstood victims, and humans as encroaching colonizers (oh the irony).
The show tries to sweep away the Elves' actions by going "But dark magic is evil 👹 and lazy 😞 and if the humans didn't use it, they wouldn't have been kicked out".
The way the show frames Dark Magic is even creepier. It condemns it while also ignoring how it came to be. Its treatment gives me huge "Other Religion BAD, Christianity GOOD".
"There is only way to use magic and that's define by the people in power"
-The Elves and the Dragons define the morality of magic in the show, despite having a history of attempting to genocide another race for practicing it in a different manner and when that fails, ethnically cleansing them.
Yet the show never makes any of the characters have to reflect on this. ACTUALLY. Rayla ends up agreeing with a racist, genocidal maniac and the show never punishes her for this. Her dismissive view of humans is never challenged. Because the show doesn't disagree with her.
There's other users who have delved deeper into this issues, far better than I could. They are under the tag Tdp critical.
I blame Mattel.
Zuko would make a terrible puppet Firelord
I have seen the idea thrown around that Azula must have intended to use Zuko as her puppet Firelord and that must be the only reason that she brought him home. On the other hand, we have people talking about Zuko potentially being a White Lotus puppet. Yet it’s pretty clear that Zuko would not be a great choice as a puppet Firelord.
Zuko is impulsive, stubborn, opinionated, and arrogant. Once he settles on a course of action, he will let nothing discourage him from it, whether it be the weight of circumstances or the advice of others wiser than him. He often disregards the opinions of even those he acknowledges to have great wisdom. Throughout the series Iroh struggles, with little success, to make Zuko listen to him, and at least once Azula shows great frustration about how impossible it can be to make Zuko listen to reason. He’s no King Kuei, and a “puppet-manipulator” would struggle both getting Zuko to follow their “guidance” in the first place and in preventing him from spontanously flying off the handle and impulsively changing policy. And of course, Zuko is not the sort of person to accept playing second-fiddle when he’s the official Firelord.
Meanwhile, for Azula in specific, trying to use Zuko as a puppet would have obvious drawbacks. First, he strongly dislikes her, and legally and symbolically empowering people who strongly dislike you is generally not considered to be a good move when you are trying to perputuate your own power. Second, figureheads and pupper rulers are normally used because they have some form of legitimacy that the “real” ruler lacks and cannot easily acquire. Yet Azula has an extremely strong claim to the throne in her own right, and, due to her embodiement of many Fire Nation values, she’s also more popular with the court and the public than Zuko is. Zuko literally complains about how “ everyone adores her,” after all. Azula has little to gain from trying to use Zuko as a puppet.
With all of that said, I think it’s possible to imagine a circumstance where Zuko finds ruling to be tedious and boring, and thus leaves most of the work and responsibility of ruling to others. However, that’s very different from situations where where people imagine someone trying to intentionally use Zuko as a figurehead.
i just never understand why peeps are defending companies.
Tale as Old as Time…
Bryke: Netflix created a hostile work environment so we left. What they’re making isn’t ATLA.
Ehasz: I reached out to Netflix to help with writing but they ghosted me and didn’t invite me to the premiere despite Kim’s best efforts. Every Recognized Cherokee Nation: Netflix disrespected our sovereignty by casting a registered member of a “pretendian” scam tribe which lets you pay to pretend you’re Cherokee regardless of whether you are or not, to facilitate the stealing of resources set aside to help disadvantaged indigenous people. Netflix responded by launching an aggressive propaganda campaign to misrepresent our objections as “just some Twitter user with no proof”. NATLA Apologists: Season 1 was really good! You guys just wanted a 1:1 remake! They did the best they could! Some things about NATLA are better than the original, even! Fans are just whining! Bryke only left to make Avatar Studios - ignore their angry parting statements about Netflix stifling creativity! Ousley is LITERALLY Sokka-coded and anyone who shares the Cherokee Nations’ objections are haters! Ignore that they brown-faced him with darker makeup! The only problem was too few episodes! The next two seasons will be even better and then haters will eat their words! I believe in Kim’s vision!
Albert Kim: I did what I was hired to do. I’m moving on and have no desire to show run two more seasons of this.
Netflix:
We told you.
Corporate cash-grab.
You’ll get the show you asked for.
I don’t know how to say this tactfully, but I’ll do my best.
If other fans online have convinced you to see the gentle, optimistic, empathetic, fun loving, whimsical, forgiving, wise beyond his years genocide survivor, as a sexist, racist, xenophobic, abusive, pro-colonization, sexual assault perpetrator who doesn’t care about anyone else and doesn’t understand trauma…
You have been LIED TO.
Please just think for a moment!
ATLA was banned in China from the beginning for a reason. Because they didn’t want anyone empathizing with a character based on Tibetan monks. Why? Because they are an actual oppressed and persecuted minority IRL. Their religious leader lives in exile. Their second most important spiritual figure is the youngest political prisoner ever taken (and to this day no one knows if he’s alive or dead!). China has actual prison and labor camps. Tibetan people get sent there for “re-education”.
Can you please think about what these “fans” are saying when they stomp all over this allegory in TLA and try to frame Aang as the oppressor?
Do you really think it’s appropriate or these people who call Aang all these horrible (and inaccurate) things are being in anyway fair when they call Aang “white coded”???
Even without the real world context, Aang is explicitly the only survivor of a genocide. The last of his people. He has lost more than anyone else in the entire franchise. There’s a reason he clings so hard to Appa.
Do you think it’s fair to compare a 12 year old misreading signals and trying to kiss a girl who already consensually kissed him before, and immediately backing off and giving her space when she says no, to rape?
Tweens and teens miscommunicating and trying to comfort each other with kisses, only to realize that’s not what their friend needed and immediately backing off is the same as having your body violently violated against your will? The same as having your “no” ignored?
How do you think this makes survivors feel? To see people use their experiences as a shield and cudgel for ship discourse? It certainly upsets me as someone who experienced intimate partner violence, let me tell you! And I know I’m not the only one.
And how is it in anyway feminist or pro-Katara to ignore her own agency and deep love she shows for Aang? Yes, that includes her own crush on him! It IS reciprocated!
Lastly, you don’t need to demonize Aang to ship whatever you want to ship. Please understand that the majority of these takes are bad faith and born out of bitterness and insecurity over a friggin FANON SHIP.
And none of it is necessary! You can ship whatever you want! You don’t need permission or excuses. You can just ship them! You can make your case for why you like another pairing better without misrepresenting what happened in the show and what these characters are like, let alone what they represent.
There’s already plenty to work with in the show as it is! Otherwise why bother?
I’m imploring fans taken in by persuasive and manipulative metas to please just think about it. Get off social media and rewatch the show for yourself thoughtfully.
It doesn’t need to be like this.
Neat critique. I never knew peeps had issues with the runaway like that along with Sokka's "when I think of mom...I see Katara's face". I didn't think much of it besides sokka trying to patch a hole between the two.
Also find it a weird coincidence that of the Gaang that's a cynic, it's the nonbender. I doubt a deeper statement goes into it but it's kinda funny to see
notes on “the runaway”
the more i see people discuss how strangely sokka’s character is portrayed in “the runaway” the more i cannot help but feel that all my ad hoc rationalizations and justifications as to why he would contradict himself so greatly might actually be meaningless. why would he allow the gaang to endanger themselves for foolish reasons when he is the overly paranoid voice of caution in literally every other episode? why would he be so easily swayed by toph’s manipulative promise of buying him a fancy atlas when he’s literally holding her wanted poster? and most crucially, why would he say that he sees katara as his mother when no other episode in the show indicates that this is remotely the case?
this episode is great for katara and toph, whose hangups are compellingly explored here. i won’t get into the common misconceptions about katara being “motherly” or why they’re even at loggerheads to begin with, as i’ve discussed this at length in the past, but it’s actually undeniable that the assumption that katara is the de facto “mom friend” stems primarily from this episode, where toph all but outright accuses her of fancying herself their collective mother. however, katara becoming “the mother” of the group is very much a post-toph shift in her character, and you see her femininity being accentuated in contrast with toph’s deliberate lack of femininity also being linked to this sort of maternal role that she occasionally adopts, especially around toph. but i don’t actually think the issue is one of katara being a smothering, maternal figure towards toph, but rather a miscommunication regarding power, gender, class, and community vs independence. when katara and toph fight, it is for far more complex and nuanced reasons than the notion that katara is simply too overbearing. if anything, it’s the way in which she is overbearing that irks toph, just as toph’s rudeness is not the central issue, but rather that toph’s values (those of total independence and freedom) are misinterpreted as malice by katara (who values community and collaboration), and vice versa.
something very crucial to understand about this episode is that katara is not actually mad that toph endangered their group by pulling fun scams. katara has endangered their group countless times in the past to satisfy her own impulsive desires (and yes, she wants justice, but toph similarly rationalizes her scams through the lens of achieving moral vindication). katara would be all over toph’s scammery, would come up with scams of her own, would be having more fun than anyone—had she been included from the start. which is exactly the point. it is her exclusion that foments her critique, not the subject of their act itself (and the reason that you could not replace katara with sokka in this scenario is simply because toph would never exclude sokka in the first place). but katara would never admit that she is hurt by toph’s exclusion aloud, because katara is an extremely proud person. and a prideful, wounded fourteen year old is not going to thoughtfully use “i statements” as if in a group therapy session with the equally prideful twelve year old who deliberately excluded her; no, she is going to lash out. (lest we forget that in their first real episode establishing their group dynamic, katara literally mocks toph’s blindness. hardly an okay thing to do, in my opinion!) their conflict stems from their differences, but also from their similarities. they are both proud, angry, powerful, stubborn, and must assert their dominance at all times. it’s clear they both want to be friends with each other, and at times they are, but it is really only in this episode where they are able to cross a threshold that allows them to be truly honest about more meaningful insecurities than simply their looks (although i do of course find their exchange in “tales” beautiful as well). and you know who is instrumental (albeit reluctant to interfere) in facilitating that growth? sokka.
i’ve gone more in depth in the past analyzing why sokka’s speech in this episode regarding his mother and katara isn’t exactly as it sounds. i personally interpret his admission, that katara has always been there for him and that her face is all he sees when he tries to picture his mother, as an illustration of his codependent attachment to her, as she is the very locus of his identity. this interpretation is compounded by the fact that when kya’s face is finally revealed later in the season, she does bear an uncanny resemblance to sokka, which to me signifies the way in which sokka sublimates his own face for katara’s—which is also deeply unhealthy, but in a different way than an older brother parentifying his younger sister would be.
the fact is that there is simply no indication throughout the entire show (including this episode) that sokka views or treats katara as a parent. there are of course moments wherein she supports him emotionally or materially, but most of the time she is in fact teasing, tormenting, undermining, yelling at, or otherwise making life harder for him, at which point he is far more likely to act as her guardian figure and admonish her while simultaneously helping her get out of whatever mess she’s caused. and considering that sokka’s defining moment is when hakoda stakes his identity to protecting his (ontologically special) sister (which, as we know, as the bearer of kya’s face, in fact means dying for her), this dynamic makes far more sense than the other way around. i know that people commonly portray katara as the voice of reason who cleans up sokka’s messes, but besides a couple examples, it’s consistently the other way around. yes, it’s very easy to assume that sokka’s speech indicates that he sees katara as his replacement mother, but we cannot take this speech at face value if we are also to take the rest of the text into account, which we must.
but then there’s also the other glaring question that must be taken into account: why would sokka even allow all this? considering the first thing toph bartered was the sword he has painstakingly crafted just an episode prior, why didn’t sokka just pull the plug then and there? it really doesn’t make sense that sokka wouldn’t take katara’s side just for practical, logistical reasons. even if she doesn’t really care about the own point she’s making (as demonstrated by the fact that the scam she devises literally lands her in jail), sokka would see the logic in it. but... he does. he is the one to first discover the wanted poster, and he immediately points out to toph that their scams are drawing undue attention to her, and that they should put an end to it now that's it's putting them at risk. and yet, toph successfully bribes him, and so he continues to participate. why? what about the prospect of having money is so appealing to sokka that he’s willing to risk his precious rationality and caution for the potential of acquiring more of it? well, it’s actually quite simple.
toph is scamming for the thrill of the game. she loves proving the kind of men who undermined and demeaned her all her life wrong. she loves humiliating the people of the world who had once humiliated her. she’s not someone who values earthly possessions or really even understands that money is a finite resource. to her, these scams are a matter of ego. aang is also scamming for the thrill of the game. he loves a prank, a bit of mischief, getting into some tomfoolery. he loves spending time pulling hijinks with his friends. it’s funny, it’s fun, and it’s lucrative on top of that. but it’s clear that he views it as a game. now, sokka similarly enjoys pulling these scams. he adores toph and clearly finds it nearly as satisfying as she does to watch her destroy the egos of men thrice her size. but even more potent than his adoration for toph, is his appreciation for money.
when katara put them all in danger countless times in the past, it may have been to enact righteous justice, but it was never materially beneficial to sokka. sokka is a very practical person, and growing up in a state of colonial abjection taking on the role of provider for a couple dozen people mostly comprised of elderly women and small children makes you appreciate the value of goods and resources in a way that an aristocrat and a monk do not. you may be asking, "are you really arguing that sokka would undermine his own values and endanger himself and his friends so readily for the prospect of financial security?" to which i would argue that you underestimate how truly cynical sokka is. of course he loves money and food he doesn’t have to catch or forage – see: his appreciation for the immediate luxury of ba sing se that everyone else finds so stifling. he is not spiritual; he is attached to earthly possessions and the immediate physical needs of those around him. so of course he loves a material object. in his own words: “i do believe in the power of stuff.” because even when sokka is supposedly being uncharacteristically foolish or naive, he is in fact nonetheless promoting the cynic’s agenda every step of the way.
“the runaway” is a good episode, perhaps even a great one. however, it has also lent to some of the fundamental misinterpretations i see of katara, sokka, and toph that are constantly thrown around (including the occasional citing of this episode to justify that aang apparently “sees katara as his mother”). so in some ways, i do resent this episode for begetting those strange and incorrect takes, even if i think that in a vacuum, it is well-executed. it is an episode that complicates our characters, adds nuances and shades of grey to their pre-established characterizations, but does not actually rewrite them. sure, if this was the only episode of the show i had ever seen, i too might assume that katara was the maternal and responsible figure of the group, toph was a careless and rude little bitch, and aang and sokka were idiots who relied solely on katara’s infinite well of long-suffering guidance. but even within this episode, that is clearly not established to be the case, and if that notion is not sufficiently undermined by the episode’s conclusion, it is quite clearly by the episodes bracketing it, which provide crucial context through which to inform our understandings of the choices made in this episode, and why they are indeed interesting, but nonetheless do not reflect the characterizations established in the series as a whole.
RIP Toriyama
https://x.com/DB_official_en/status/1765935471971213816?s=20
Farewell to the mangaka that shaped my kid years. One of my Toonami faithfuls and the first anime I ever watched. Thanks for all the years.
Reblog if you also think Toph shouldn’t have been a cop.
I want to see how “unpopular” this opinion really is outside cop-worshipping Reddit.
Post like these are what engaging with the fandom is all about. A new vision that makes you think and makes a rewatch all the more wonderful.
Thinking about how Aang is punished for choosing power over love and his own happiness, punished for sacrificing another part of himself for the world… shot in the back and straight through his heart, his Air chakra, by lightning. His Air chakra, which deals with love and is blocked by his grief. His grief over losing his entire nation, his culture, everyone he has ever known and loved. And how the battle he fights with Katara here, they are surrounded by green crystals, the color of the Air chakra.
Aang makes the wrong choice, he too comes to a crossroads in his destiny just like Zuko—they both choose wrong. He goes against Aunt Wu’s advice, that he should follow his heart and shape his own destiny. He blocks off his own heart because he thinks it’s the only way he can save the world, to literally tear himself apart. And how his entire character arc is about him trying to mend his grief, to allow himself to still feel love, even in the wake of such devastation. And how it is Katara who saves him, because she loves him, because love never leaves, it’s simply reborn.
Many thoughts head full.
To the dum and war hungry:
Ceasefire Good. Genocide Bad.
My new "favorite" kind of post: dumbass berating people for not being neutral on the Israel and Palestine thing. Like, my guy:
1 - One side is literally commiting genocide against the other. Hamas being terrible doesn't excuse Israel attacking civilians, kicking them out of their homes, kidnapign them, bombing hospitals, making human zoos, and then saying they'll not stop until all palestinians are dead.
2 - Literally EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE POSTS also get mad at people for wanting a complete ceasefire - not even wanting to free Palestine, just "stop murdering children and violating every human right imaginable". If you can only accept unconditional support of all of Israel's bullshit, you're not "neutral", you're just using "we should all be neutral" as an excuse to bully people into shutting up because there's no argument in the whole world that justifies what the side you're supporting is doing.