outofprinciple

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Rivalshipping + FAKE DATING!!!!

Okay I JUST SO happen to have a truly elaborate post-canon post-DSOD rivalship fake dating fic outlined, literally from top to bottom... but rather than spoil all the details for that one, here's a new one:

Kaiba and Yuugi are traveling around doing press and promo during the Spherium launch. And they've been vibing. They're having a blast! Yuugi is NOT aflame with a sickening crush on Kaiba, who has been friendly but remains a little aloof the entire time! anyway someone asks a question about Spherium and he's like, sweating and babbling under the pressure of the press tour, "oh, you know, it's a labor of love. Like Wordle, you know? Like that guy made Wordle for his partner. Like you really have to have your ideal player in mind when you make a game, someone who really gets it, and Kaiba is my ideal player - "

The reporter jumps on this. "You mean you made this for Kaiba? Out of love?"

Yuugi is scrambling. "I mean, I hold Kaiba in very high esteem, we made this game together, it's the result of OUR love... Um, for games...."

Beside him, Kaiba is stone-faced. On one level he's thinking he should've had Yuugi prep more for the press tour. On another level, this is an excellent opportunity. Yuugi did in five seconds what the marketing department couldn't do in five months: create a juicy little mythology around Spherium that makes it more than just a game. It's a symbol now. Oh yes, the game is a love letter. To each other. Taj Mahal, goldfish crackers, Spherium: the things you make for love.

"Our love for each other," he adds, which is a truly easy lie, because it's the truth. He has ALSO been burning up with secret pining. The press pit goes fucking wild.

So they agree to fake date, for the sake of the game, and then they can just quietly call it quits in a few months. that's the end of their fake relationship. Right? RIGHT???

OF COURSE NOT.

Points of contention:

- Yuugi doesn't like the idea that they're turning love into a marketing ploy to sell the game. Feels fake!! But his love IS real and he DID make Spherium as a love letter to Kaiba! Fuck!!

- It was Kaiba's idea but he regrets it pretty much immediately, cursing his own mercenary instinct. He doesn't want a fake relationship, he wants a REAL one. But he's never backed out of a challenge before and he's not stopping now. He becomes extremely hot and cold because he doesn't know how to deal with his own feelings.

- Both of them hate feeling like they're using the other person as a means to an end. Kaiba doesn't want Yuugi to feel that way, and Yuugi definitely doesn't want Kaiba to feel that way. They kiss on stage at SDCC and can't look each other in the eye for the next six hours. What have they done. They are truly a hot mess of emotions. The mutual pining is insane.

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bear with me because i only know this in makeup terms. But green color corrector/concealer is known for hiding red spots and acne right? So isn’t it fascinating that Ming started off with no green:

but as she grew up, she started to wear green more:

Until she becomes an adult, wearing all green, even her makeup:

Since she was Meilin’s age, she’s been learning how to hide her red. All the emotions and thoughts and actions that make her ‘imperfect’.

Edit: so i originally used photos from a gif set someone else made so i changed it to my own screenshots

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Suki Appreciation

THE GANG: Sokka's sexist.

Suki: Let me fix that.

THE GANG: Toph's going to drown.

Suki: No she isn't.

THE GANG: Appa might be hurt.

Suki: I'm helping him.

THE GANG: We need the warden.

Suki: Already on it.

THE GANG: Help me fix this play.

Suki: Here's your ticket backstage.

THE GANG: We're gonna die on this airship.

Suki: Not on my watch.

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- Blythe Baird

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In highschool I wrote a story about a middle-generation of stellar travelers. Their parents were born on earth and left as children, and the middle generation will not live long enough to see their destination. They live their entire lives on the ship and I wrote about them trying to find their place in everything. They will never know blue skies and warm beaches and open fields with warm breezes. They’ll never know birdsong or crickets or frogs. They’ll never hear the rain on the roof of a dreary day. I never could find the right way to end the story. I wanted it to be a happy ending, but I didn’t know how to do it.

I realize now that it was a book about me dealing with depression before I even knew it. Looking back at how blatant the projecting was, it’s obvious now. It wasn’t then.

In the story, the middle-generation people are lost. They’re apathetic. They’re just a placeholder. The only job they have is to keep the ship running, have kids, and die. As the middle generation of people began becoming adults, suicide rates were skyrocketing. Crime and drug rates were jumping. This generation was completely apathetic because they felt that they had no use.

In the story, a small group of people in the middle-generation create the Weather Project. They turn the ship into a terrarium. They make magnificent gardens and take the DNA of animals they took with them and recreate them and they make this cold, metal spaceship that they have to live their entire lives on into a home. They take what little they have and they break it and rearrange it into something beautiful. They take this radical idea and turn the ship into a wonderful jungle of trees and birds and sunshine.

And I realize now how much it reflects my state of mind as I transitioned from a child into an adult while dealing with depression. You always hear “it gets better” and “when you’re older things will be easier” and I was so sick of waiting for it to get better. I was in the middle-generation stage. And I was sick of it. I was so sick of waiting.

When I was in highschool I didn’t know how to end the story. I didn’t know how to have a happy ending. I didn’t have the life experience then to finish the story in a meaningful way. I didn’t know how to make it better for these middle-generation characters.

But now that I’m older, I’m learning. That if you sit and wait for things to get better, it never will. You have to take your life and break it apart and rearrange it into something beautiful. You have to make the cold metal ship into the garden that you deserve. You have to make your own meaning. You have to plant your own garden.

You have to teach yourself that being happy is not a radical idea.

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atla au where instead of toph becoming a cop she becomes a professional scam artist and every time she gets caught and cant earth/metalbend her way out she just gets zuko to come bail her out since you cant say no to the fucking firelord

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The story arcs of Avatar: The Last Airbender pt I Original Art by Devin Elle Kurtz (me) Twitter | Instagram

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can you imagine how the whole energybending scene must have looked to Sokka and Suki

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People say Zutaraang is for people who can't choose between Kataang or Zutara. But we really know what's going on. Zutaraang shippers can't choose between Kataang and Zukaang.

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The Avatar and the Firelord: Aang and Zuko Parallels

Avatar: The Last Airbender gives us two juxtaposed storylines.

The first storyline, focusing on Aang, tells the story of an Air Nomad monk who, at the age of 12, finds out that he’s the Avatar. Faced with this burden, Aang runs away and accidentally freezes himself, eventually waking up one hundred years later in a world that has been ravished by the Fire Nation. With the coming of Sozin’s Comet less than a year away, Aang goes on an epic adventure as he tries to master all four elements so he can defeat Firelord Ozai. 

Alongside this storyline we have the story of Ozai’s son Zuko who, at the age of 13, is burned and banished for speaking out of turn at a war meeting. Exiled from his home, Zuko is told that he can’t return until he finds the Avatar. When the Avatar finally reveals himself, Zuko begins chasing him, and we see how these two characters interact as the series progresses until Zuko ultimately joins Aang to defeat his father. 

With that said, despite being two very different storylines, the experiences that these two characters go through have parallels and connections that help tie them together. Thus, this post will look at these two characters, as well as multiple Avatar episodes, to demonstrate the parallels between them.

But, before we get started, let me explain how I plan to go about this meta because, let’s be real, if you’ve been following my blog, you know that we have a lot of ground to cover. 

Therefore, I’m going to start by going over some of the general themes, parallels, and contrasts that follow Aang and Zuko through their adventures, as well as going over some of the thematic trends that follow them too. 

With that out of the way, I’ll get into the specifics—talking about the parallels that take place episode-by-episode and season-by-season. I won’t go through everything, since not all the parallels are important plot wise (like this one) but, I’ll go through the really important ones that help establish the storyline of each character. 

So, with that said, let’s begin!

Keep reading

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I have always loved the way Aang says “okay. okay. sorry.” in this scene. So, let’s talk about this brief little moment. Because this brief little moment says so much about Aang’s character.

This is the scene in which Zuko figures out that he needs to find a new source for his firebending. He has spent the entire last episode being vulnerable with the gaang and owning his mistakes. But, here, he is reminded of a mistake that he cannot own because he did not commit it. But he still has to bear the burden of it. Zuko’s ancestors hunting dragons is not something that Zuko can apologize for the way he apologizes for other things. It truly wasn’t his fault. But it is still something that he carries around with him. When he is confronted with this unpleasant realization that there exists a wrong that he can’t right, his reaction is to be defensive and angry.

Aang did nothing wrong in this scene. Zuko is being reactive. But, look how quickly Aang forgives that. Not only is he not offended that Zuko yells at him for asking a very reasonable question, he apologizes for having set Zuko off. Aang knows that there is something wrong, but he doesn’t want to see Zuko be upset about it. He already has so much faith that there is more to Zuko than just being the angry jerk. So he diffuses the situation and waits until there is a better opportunity to try and find out what is bothering Zuko.

Structurally, this episode is the first in the lineup of life-changing field-trips with Zuko. But it is the first. All we and the gaang know of Zuko at this point is what he showed us in The Western Air Temple. But they don’t really know what this new Zuko is like. Is he just as angry as he used to be? As hot-headed? They know his motivations and intentions are different now and that is what they are placing their trust in. 

Aang and Zuko being the first in the lineup is significant. Why is it Aang, to whom Zuko has done the most harm, whom Zuko has wronged the most, who goes first? Why does Aang have to be the one to test the waters with this new guy, who, yeah, is now on our side, but has been known to periodically explode over tiny things?

Because it is his character. It is his skill. There are two distinct aspects of Aang’s character at play here.

#1. His belief that no one is beyond redemption

Aang has a deeply founded belief that no one is beyond redemption. He doesn’t see people as simply good or simply evil. And it is clear that even in Book 1, he did not see Zuko this way. 

Even after all those attempts at capturing him, Aang still chooses to save Zuko’s life. Twice. And those were not Aang acting on his “all life is sacred and therefore must be preserved” belief. No, Aang choosing to save Zuko’s life twice in Book 1 is him demonstrating his understanding that even someone who has made so many mistakes is capable of reform. He has always had that faith, not only in Zuko, but in everyone he encounters. He even gives Ozai multiple chances to redeem himself during their fight. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Thus, when he and the gaang first meet Zuko in The Western Air Temple, Aang’s reaction is distinct from the rest of the group. Zuko picks up on it when he asks Aang,  

Aang is clearly conflicted here. His immediate reaction to Zuko isn’t the disbelief of Toph or the anger of Sokka and Katara. He would really like to believe Zuko here, because he has faith that what Zuko is saying could be true, whereas the others dismiss it as an outright lie. But, ultimately, Aang gives in to the rest of the group and rejects Zuko here. 

But, we know that all he needs is just a little push. Just a little more evidence of Zuko’s honest remorse. And he gets that when he sees Zuko try to defend them from Combustion Man and again when Zuko apologizes to Toph. And again, he is the first person to accept Zuko. 

#2. His ability to express true forgiveness

This brings me to my main point which is that Aang possesses an incredible skill – true forgiveness. He coaches Katara on his methods in a later episode, but we can see his philosophy at play here. When Aang makes the decision to forgive Zuko, he does so completely. He lets his anger out and then lets it go. And it is truly gone. After the end of The Western Air Temple, we never see Aang harbor any residual grudge toward Zuko. He is as carefree and fun-loving as we have ever seen him, despite the fact that he is now on an adventure with a former enemy. But, Aang doesn’t see it that way. He sees it as another adventure with a new friend. 

He jokes; he pokes fun. He is simply being himself and in doing so, he is allowing Zuko to be himself. And that’s why the bond between them forms so quickly and so easily. Because they can both be their true selves. But, this wouldn’t have happened if Aang hadn’t had the skill, self-assuredness, and courage to forgive Zuko completely.

Aang has always had these qualities for as long as we have known him in the series. The other characters have to learn how to do these things. 

SO BASICALLY,

Anyone else in this scene would have either challenged Zuko for getting angry or simply ignored him. But neither of those things would have been productive the way Aang’s response was. 

tl;dr Aang is an incredible character whose unshakable core beliefs allow him to bring out the best in people.

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I just realized in the scene where Iroh and Zuko reunite, Iroh has no idea about the things Zuko has done to redeem himself. He doesn’t know Zuko joined the Avatar, taught him firebending, risked his life several times, etc. All Iroh knows in the moment is that his nephew found him again and is sorry, and that’s enough for him to forgive Zuko everything. 

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Zach Tyler Eisen just did his first interview in 10 years, letting us hear what Aang sounds like in his twenties!

The original voice actor of 12-year-old Aang is now 26 and has done his first interview in a looong time. He’s always been pretty secretive, not doing much acting since Avatar. But now with ATLA hitting #1 on Netflix he’s back and we can hear what his– and Aang’s– voice sounds like!

I cut together some parts where he speaks in first-person about the events of the show that you can kind of imagine as Aang talking! Zach is definitely not voice acting, but it still ultimately sounds like Aang’s voice. Just hearing him say Sokka and Katara’s names… 😭

40-year-old Aang was voiced by D.B. Sweeney in The Legend of Korra. Interestingly, their voices match pretty closely!

You can see the whole interview/podcast here. It comes in at 33 minutes long.

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So it’d be a real good time for you to come back. INTERSTELLAR (2014) dir. Christopher Nolan

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Aangsty Aang fic idea.

I remember that in the Rift comics, there is a flashback scene in which Aang and Gyatso are at Yangchen's festival and when Aang asks about the tradition, his mentor tells him he will learn more with time.

But...he never did, because he was young when he got stuck in the ice berg and the Air Nomads were massacred.

So a few years after the end of the war, Aang sees his friends talk about traditions and is invited to festive celebrations all over the world and he has to deal with the fact that even with him as a survivor, a chunk of his people's culture might be lost to history for good.

Imagine if during a meeting with the air acolytes, someone asks a question that Aang realises he can't answer, doesn't know the answer to. He would be crushed. He throws himself headfirst in historical studies about the Air Nomads, tries to find as many sources of information as he can in the empty Air Temples.

His friends are concerned, Aang has been into a sour mood lately and they aren't sure what to do to make him feel better.

Zuko and Katara talk in shushed whispers about the situation during political meetings. They try their best to spend time with him and show their support, but they aren't sure how to address the topic. A strangely quiet Toph talks about how no teasing seems to get a rise out of Twinkle Toes these days and Sokka's attempted heart to heart talks seem to go nowhere.

Aang in the meantime is looking at relics he doesn't know the use of with a bittersweet nostalgia.

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he’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit

angsty bonus:

after a long and heartfelt hug he and Iroh had The Talk™ gay edition

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kids shouldn’t be fighting your wars