andtheclockstruckthirteen

[andtheclockstruckthirteen]

The difference between Steve and Tony in CA:CW will always boil down to this:

Tony stands up to authority because he was born into immense wealth and privilege and has never had to answer to anyone. He defies authority because he knows he'll never have to face actual consequences for doing so.

Steve stands up to authority because he was born into poverty and grew up a poor, disabled Irish-American during the Great Depression. He defies authority because he knows what it's like to be dismissed, undervalued, and disenfranchised and never wants anyone to face that.

Tony pushed for the accords because he knew he could just break them and nothing would happen to him (which is exactly how it went down).

Steve refused to sign the accords because he would never sign away his human rights and the rights of other people to an authority he knew would abuse them (which, again, is exactly what happened).

So in a way, they were both right about the accords. Tony was just also infinitely more wrong.

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[ID: A digital illustration of Fire Lord Zuko holding a golden egg, his cheek against it. The atmosphere is dark, the egg lit up gold, along with Zuko's eyes and scar. End ID]

found a wip from a year ago ill definitely never be touching again

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guess who just went to write a prequel fic to a fic I'm currently writing which focuses on the air nomad genocide from Gyatso's perspective only to find out there's an avatar roku book that potentially explores exactly what I wanted to explore in this fic???? (guess my prequel fic has been delayed lol)

count me in, I've been seeing a lot of discourse about the book on here and I'm hesitant to engage because a lot of people can be very narrow minded about the nuance to these sorts of things but I'm kind of keen to read it!

if anyone has read it and would like to give their thoughts please share!

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Air Nomads / Airbenders headcanons

The temples served three purposes.

Raise children until they’re old enough to travel by themselves at 16 and house expecting Air Nomad women who were too far along to travel anymore.  

Certain sections were reserved for reproducing that happened every couple of years or so to keep the population going.

Gathering spots for important holidays and observations like The Great Comet. (Sozin’s Comet).

They operate with rank/caste system.

Top are the Elders give themselves fully to spiritual teachings.  

Next are the Monks and Nuns who are the teachers and caretakers of the children and animals.

These top two ranks are the only ones that are celibate.

Third rank and most common are the Airbender nomads who travel from town to town helping out people and spreading their philosophy. 

Fourth are the nonbender Air Nomads. They take care of the menial chores of the temple like cleaning and cooking in exchange for being taught scared knowledge. Once you reach a certain level of knowledge, you’re allowed to travel with the Air Nomads as a Wandering Zephyr. Some nonbenders chose to leave the lifestyle all together because of the biases towards them.

Hundreds of years ago, Air Nomads were more prone to violence and traveled in packs raiding villages for supplies. After a devasting Civil War, the old lifestyle was discarded and a new way of peace was vowed to never harm a living creature. The temples were built with the help of Earthbenders and violent airbender arts were sealed away as forbidden knowledge. The same knowledge the Elders wanted Aang to learn to protect them from the Fire Nation. Speaking of which, Firelord Sozin spread the stories of the Civil War as anti-Air Nomad propaganda and warned they were planning a new war to wipe out the Fire Nation.   

The few Air Nomads to escape were the Wandering Zephyrs and nonbenders who left the temples. During Sozin’s dynasty, they learned to hide their traits and traditions, thus the original Air Nomad way was wiped out. Even after Aang returned, it was never truly restored to its previous state but shifted and changed with the new era.

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No but I do find it extremely performative when certain parts of the fandom are like "this part of atla and this nonwhite culture is symbolic for the bad parts of white American imperialism but this other nonwhite culture represents the good parts."

I'm talking about the people who say with their whole chest that Aang should use his power as Avatar to abolish the fire nation monarchy or destroy them as a political entity and culture, without recognizing that Aang is as much a creation of white American authors as Zuko is. And what's more, Aang is the hero. His power and authority is never questioned the way Zuko is forced to question his.

Even if we use the fire nation as a 1:1 representation of Japan - which doesn't work in any case because it's a fantasy show that pulls from so many different cultural influences - even if we did pretend the fire nation was Japan, though, like I guess we all forgot the atrocities America committed in Japan in the name of world peace.

"Aang should use his Avatar powers to destroy the Fire Nation" sounds a lot like "let's nuke them" at a certain point.

"Aang should abolish the Fire Nation monarchy and establish a democracy" sounds a lot like what America did in the Middle East.

The thing about imperialism is that it never comes in announcing itself as the bad guy, it always presents itself in terms of the greater good. This is something that atla itself actually addresses but the fandom apparently forgot.

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"And then I found it, and everything was right." That's just not how it ends.

It's not about knowing where you're going—it's about knowing you're no longer where you shouldn't have been.

—Tyler Joseph

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Ok. But the level of gay in Captain America: The Winter Soldier continues to astound me. 

Like, not only do Steve and Bucky have a phrase like a wedding vow that they say to each other, which gets introduced to the audience in the context of Bucky asking Steve to move in with him, and that later is so emotionally impactful that it breaks through 70 years of brain washing and Bucky remembers it before he remembers his own name. Not only does Steve apparently spend his free time hanging out in his own exhibit in the Smithsonian, staring longingly at old photos and videos of Bucky. Not only does the issue of Steve’s love life get repeatedly raised in the set up before Bucky comes back. Not only do Steve and Bucky’s interactions fit really neatly into a lot of epic romance tropes. Not only is Steve literally willing to die rather than hurt Bucky more than he’s already been hurt, even though as far as he knows Bucky has shown no signs of recognizing him.  

But also on top of all that, there’s the whole “shared life experience” discussion (not “similar” - shared!!!) which could only refer to Bucky, which takes place shortly before the Winter Soldier’s true identity is revealed. I mean, it could hardly have been more obvious if they were like:

Steve: Believe it or not, it’s hard to find someone with shared life experience.

Natasha: Yeah. That makes sense. Where on earth are you going to find someone who lived through your childhood in Brooklyn and the war right along side you but who also understands what it’s like to get the serum and be frozen? I mean, I just have no idea who could possibly fit that description. Why don’t we ask that dude over there with the mask and the metal arm? Maybe he can help. 

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These three have to have a team name right? They can't be called the PowerPuff Girls...

(Left to right: Tylee, Azula and Mai)

(Reoccurring disclaimer for this art series: This is for fun, they are inspired by the show's costume designs and then extrapolated out with historical fashion or things I think will be fun to draw. These are not meant to be accurate, only inspired. I hope you like them!)

I am the artist! Do not post without permission & credit! Thank you! Come visit me over on: instagram, tiktok or check out my coloring book available now \ („• ֊ •„) /

https://linktr.ee/ellen.artistic

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My heart I want to write something

Do you ever think Aang wakes and forgets he isn't a hundred years in the past...

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One thing that I love about jinko (Jin/Zuko) is that Jin isn't badass and tough and violent (not a bad thing at all)

Like she's not the Avatars eathbending teacher or his waterbending teacher, she's not the princess of the fire nation or one of her two badass and highly trained friends, she's not the leader of a highly skilled group of warrior women or the princess of the Northern water tribe

She's literally just a random girl from Ba Sing Se who thought Zuko was cute and I think that's really cool

Like don't get me wrong, I can get behind Zutara or Zuki or Zue or Maiko when I'm in the mood (and if I have a good fic waiting for me) but sometimes I just want to read about Zuko falling in love with a regular girl who likes pretty fountains and cute boys and isn't involved with single handed ending the war

Especially since the peasant x royalty troupe is usually the male peasant x the princess so it's extra points to see it inverted

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The way jinko has a hold on me right now but there are barely any fics I'm literally dying send help

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I absolutely adore Katara with facial tattoos (I fully believe there's tattoos specific to mastery of a person's element in the atla universe)

Two new Katara drawings cuz I love her <3

-click images for best quality-

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Katara in The Earth Kingdom Chronicles said that she developed an attraction to Jet because she didn't have to mother him. She was so happy that she finally had someone she could rely on for support rather than being the one constantly providing it. Then she is punished by the narrative for liking "bad boy" Jet, and ends up with Aang, the boy she had to mother all the time.

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You know, I really love that Pacific Rim broke the trope of "guy has to be convinced that The Woman is his equal before accepting her as his equal." Instead it was "guy is convinced from the start that The Woman is his equal, appoints himself as her personal hype man, and spends the rest of the movie demanding that everybody put some respect on her name or else"