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I don’t think Ozai is a bad name because 敖 is the surname of dragon kings In Chinese mythology, and 载 means year/carry/write down depend on how you read it. It’s a pity that he chose to call himself Phoenix King instead though, even if the dragons kings are water dragons and king of sea. Hmm

In the show, Ozai's name is written with two characters that roughly translate to "full of arrogance", but was most likely chosen for its similarity with Mandarin 火災 (huǒzāi), meaning "conflagration", or more literally "fiery disaster". Iroh's name, meanwhile, sounds like a shortening of the Japanese name Ichirō (sometimes romanized Ichiroh), meaning "first son".

Azulon literally named his sons "firstborn" and "disaster".

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I have no problem with Azula have a redemption arc, but after seeing how her stans talking about what they think Azula’s so called redemption arc should be like or how she is just a poor innocent little girl who get hurt by everyone around her too much times, I doubt her stans will happy when she really get a decent redemption arc.lol

Hi,

Hope you are doing well. Thank you for the response on the previous query regarding TSR.

I have seen Azula stans talking about Azula 'deserving' a redemption arc, as well. I was wondering, what does 'deserving' mean in this case? Why should Azula 'deserve' a redemption arc? Is it because of her tragic backstory or her breakdown at the end of book 3?

This is something I have seen in a few other fandoms as well, that some characters deserve a redemption arc as well, but the problem is that these characters do not feel sorry for their actions. Azula also feels the same, so I am not sure why she 'deserved' a redemption arc.

I would like your thoughts on this.

The very idea that redemption is "deserved" is an oxymoron itself. A lot of people who say this about Azula focus on her age, and what they mean is that she deserved to have an opportunity for redemption, which I agree with in principal. But you're right, she was never sorry nor understands the need for change, so the idea that she just didn't have the opportunity is a false premise.

Also, on the age discourse, some people don't seem to understand that Azula isn't a real child, but a fictional character who exists as part of the larger story the writers are telling. Her story is somewhat about her age and the tragedy of someone so young being manipulated and abused and then turning around and doing the same to someone else. But her age is also informed by the fact that she is a character in a children's show. If we're going to say it's wrong to have kid villains, then it also has to be wrong to have kid heroes. Isn't it unfair to place the burden of being the Avatar on Aang's shoulders? Doesn't he deserve to be a kid? I think we would all say the answer is yes, but we also recognize that there is a story being told here. To say that that story is morally wrong for existing under some guise of "protecting children" is weird because these stories exist FOR children. And yes, that means some of those stories involve children experiencing pain, because children (real, not fictional ones) deserve to see their struggles validated and reflected onscreen, in a way that is ultimately harmless because Azula and Aang are not real children. Would these people want to take those stories away from real children in defense of fictional ones, just so that they can feel better as adults consuming children's media? Because really, that's what all this "think of the children" nonsense is about. Adults trying to shield themselves from having to view the world from a children's perspective that doesn't always portray adults (or children) in the most flattering light.

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It is also a sin for a monk to lie, you know. Everyone can be a pacifist and vegetarian without being a monk, but a monk must be celibacy and always tell truth. Wonder why they never come up?

Besides the two main types of romantic story between a monk and a woman is where the monk will give up his beliefs and culture for his lover and become just a common man, that is the charm of a monk’s love story, or the monk realizes that seeking a lover’s love is too selfish and decides to seeking spiritual fulfillment and saving the world instead, neither happened.

It's sad that the Kataang fandom, which used to stand on its own, has been redelegated as a sideship to a fanon pairing in the past few months.

At least the Zutara and Kataang ship wars were about two relationships with a woman of color. Zvkka sidelines this relationship in favor of two men with zero canonical chemistry, rather than highlight a canon biracial relationship with a brown woman and monk.

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sometimes I hope they realize that if demonize Zuko to rapist or as bad as Azula is the only way to make Zucest to work, it speak more about what kind of character Azula is, you know, at least in their own mind.lol

I'm sorry, I'm just really morbidly curious about how Zucest shippers have beef with Zutara shippers? What's the lore?

Sure, the ships share a character but they're wildly different in everything. I would never guess a little ship war would break out here.

There is a group of Azula stans (small, but with a lot of free time) that also ship KA, whether due to hating Zuko and thus also hating zutara on principle, or due to the fact that Aang feeds their victim complex in the same way that Azula does, because of a perception of being wrongfully hated in the fandom, or a combination of both, I don't know. My guess is that these ideas feed off of each other, but I absolutely think these people only really like Aang/KA because of how it feeds into their Azula stanning. Their hatred for zutara isn't so much about a ship war as it is that zutara makes Zuko look good, because it's one of the relationships that most highlights his growth in the series. And because Azula's downfall serves as a foil to highlight Zuko's growth, this group of Azula stans can't have that.

You see, it isn't so much that they ship Zuko with his sister, it's the way they do it. All their ideologies are about making Azula look better, and feeding that sweet sweet victim complex. The way they do this is by headcanoning Zuko as an incestuous rapist. Either to demonize him or to make him seem "just as bad" as Azula, it varies, but both come from the same place.

Even though (or more likely because) in canon, it's actually Azula who abuses Zuko. Not sexually, but she does try to use his relationship with Mai to control him in a way that's pretty skeevy, and is emotionally abusive and manipulative towards him. So a lot of this is just basic DARVO behavior.

Although I do think some of them have been drinking their own kool-aid so long that they genuinely think that Zuko is an abuser, which explains why they think zutara would be abusive, if you tilt your head sideways and chug a gallon of whiskey.

I also think there's some fascinating misogyny at work in the belief that Zuko raping Azula is hot whereas poor Katara must be protected from the bad man even looking in her direction.

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To be fair, Azulon order Ozai to kill Zuko always seems illogical and odd to me not because he want to kill a family member, that’s happened in real life, but he order Zuko to die, yet leave Ozai, who piss off Azulon so much that he consider parricide, to live. If Azulon is a real life Chinese Emperor and he want to teach Ozai a lesson, logically, he should kill all Ozai’s political allies like Zhao, tell the public Ozai’s bad friends turn him away the family, then imprison Ozai in the palace under the name of self-reflection until Azulon no longer angry at Ozai. Or if he really think killing family members is the only way to go, he likely should kill Ozai first, Zuko and Azula though, their fates can be death, banish, become peasants, stay the same or imprison in the palace where their only worth is to making more babies, depending on what kind of grandfather Azulon is. But order Ozai to kill Zuko yet spare Ozai’s life? That seems illogical to me and make me think that yee, dude is kinda crazy.

But then again, Avatar is a western show for western children and it kinda hard for me to identify what the show want to tell us sometimes. Like when I first watch Zuko Alone, I find Ozai and Azula act really stupid during Lu Ten’s death. Like no Emperor want to see his children thirsty for the throne so openly, because if they are willing to stab Iroh’s back for the throne, who said Ozai won’t stab Azulon’s back? And for Azula speak about Azulon’s death so openly, what if somebody report to Azulon? Did she want her father to die? Is Ozai too stupid to warn Azula that it is not safe to say that things in the public? If Ozai is really smart, he should act like Ursa, and make Azula copy Zuko, show he cares, use Lu Ten’s death to build a strong relationship between him and Azulon and Iroh, plant the seed of giving up the throne in Iroh’s head, make Azulon come to the conclusion that he should replace Iroh with Ozai himself! That is the smart thing to do! But I doubt the writers want you to think that Ozai and Azula are shit at political affairs, they just want to tell you that the fire nation royal family is a mess in a personal way. And maybe Azulon act illogical just because the story needs him to be and we don’t need to think too hard for why.

i don’t begrudge people interesting aus, and i get why someone might be interested in exploring a plot where azulon didn’t really order ozai to kill zuko and that whole series of events went differently from what zuko was told and what the narrative says (and the comics, contentious as they are, further cement.)

that being said: when it comes to canon, i strongly dislike the argument that it can’t really be that azulon ordered ozai to kill zuko because it’s illogical when he just berated ozai for disrespecting iroh and lu ten after lu ten’s death…

because like… yes. it’s illogical, and unfair, and absurd, especially when he’s ostensibly doing it in the name of love for iroh and respect for the family line (which is not actually what it’s about, but more on that in a minute.)

it’s not logical or reasonable. that’s the point.

abusers don’t care about logic, not as it pertains to them. abusers will often give illogical orders or make unreasonable demands and then treat everyone else as the problem when they can’t live up to them or else point out the flawed nature of them.

(we also see how it affects zuko and azula, who have both been taught this behavior both by example (and, in zuko’s case, by being on the receiving end of it. the demand he endlessly search for a deity-like figure no one’s seen in a hundred years and most people believe to be forever-dead springs to mind.) in the storm, zuko unreasonably demands that they continue their search for the avatar and that the safety of the crew doesn’t matter, but the whole episode is about deconstructing that mindset and showing how he got there, and in the end, he chooses to do the right thing, saving a crew member and deciding to get the ship to safety instead of following aang. azula, by contrast, orders her own soldiers to pull in the ship despite the tides, and only doubles down (and violently threatens) when questioned, showing a lack of respect for the laws of nature itself. this is her first proper episode, and she never truly grows out of this mindset. see also: cherries accidentally left un-pitted being treated as evidence of high treason.)

there is a story about intergenerational trauma and the cycles of abuse being told here. azulon is contradicting himself. he’s a hypocrite! abusers often are! he doesn’t care, though, because why should he, when he defines what’s right and wrong—just as ozai does and as he teaches azula to—not through any consistent moral conviction or code but through what he decides to do and therefore what he perceives as his right to do? in his mind, the only ‘right’ is his final word, and the highest ‘wrong’ is going against it.

and while he couches his outrage at ozai’s attempt to usurp iroh’s place in the line of heirs in language that suggests it’s about loyalty to iroh and respect for the family line—it’s not really. it’s outrage that ozai, the son he clearly doesn’t care for, dares to question iroh’s place, and therefore azulon’s judgment and authority, as the rightful heir, the respected general, the golden child.

but it’s not even about genuinely respecting iroh or what he would want, whatever azulon may tell himself. iroh, who, even at the height of his imperialist indoctrination and military power, i very earnestly believe would have been horrified to learn azulon ordered zuko’s murder and that it was done, ostensibly, on “his behalf”—even though he never and never would have asked for it. and, especially coming just after lu ten’s death, i think he would hate for his grief at the loss of his son to be twisted and used in this horrendous way.

anyway. azulon’s order doesn’t match up with what he say he values and is trying to defend, but that’s because those things are not what he’s truly so angry about. it’s about control. he has it, and he will make any illogical, cruel, sadistic order he wants when someone challenges it, because he can.

which, by the way, is ozai’s whole MO as well.

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Speaking about genre conventions, I also see people cry about how dare Iron leave Aang to deal with Ozai, he should do it himself! Which is hilarious because image Zuko’s speech at the end going like “the real hero is the Avater, who find a way to make imprison my father a lot easier after my uncle defeat him.”

I feel like the people who get worked up about Zuko being Fire Lord at 16 are also the people who get mad about the concept of Robin and other teenage sidekicks in comic books. They'll accept aliens, demons, and mutants but apply real-world standards to only the sidekicks. It's ridiculous

I feel like the deconstruction of the Robin character comes from The Dark Knight Returns and other grimdark interpretations of Batman, but they're grimdark on purpose, they're twisting the genre and aren't meant to be actual criticisms. Which is funny because a lot of these kinds of fans hate grimdark but will absolutely apply grimdark standards to cartoons.

There's also a context to apply. Robin is one of the youngest characters in Batman, but in ATLA, Zuko is the oldest of the child heroes. Sixteen is actually not that young to save the world or inherit a throne, by fantasy standards. Which again, doesn't mean it can't be fun to deconstruct things, but be honest that that is what you're doing, instead of acting like some kind of crime is being committed.

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the Hulk is Tony’s bff and Natash's lover，of course Team Ironman leave him behind

How can Bucky be a bad guy if Clint is a hero?

Real talk, though. What’s the reasoning? How can the MCU think Bucky should be punished for his actions while under Hydra’s control, but Clint doesn’t need to be persecuted for his actions while under Loki’s control?

They were both sharpshooters working for the US government who were manipulated into killing/trying to kill friends, allies, and civilians. The only difference is that Bucky endured decades of physical and psychological torture along with the mind control, and Clint was freed after only a few days.

Natasha cut Clint off halfway through asking how many people he’d killed with a curt “Don’t do that to yourself, Clint. That was Loki.”, but she supports Bucky being tried for treason, murder, desertion, assassination, as though he were acting of his free will?

Tony is totally chill working with Clint, but will try to kill his friends to see Bucky punished?

The MCU media was mum about Clint’s time as Loki’s puppet after the Battle of New York, but is making Bucky’s trial a national spectacle?

It wouldn’t bother me if I thought Civil War was going to acknowledge the double standard, but I really don’t think they will, so I’m just like…

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lets not to say about natasha fall in love with bruce， who had destory a part of city while he is hulk and natasha is totally ok with it in aoc and stilll pining aftdr him？

About the post that compare the actions of Bucky with Clint's I'd like to add Natasha's killings for the soviets. Which she did in total control of her own free will but no one ever questioned anything about what she did. We are blaming people who did things under influence of magic or brainwashing and we don't spend a single word about the woman who killed men, women and children just because she was told so.

I think some of it has to do with the fact that marvel (and fandom to a point) holds up characters like Steve, Tony, and Natasha as automatic good and wants to see them as perfect, so anything they do do just gets glossed over. But mcu Bucky has always been treated differently by marvel and fandom. He’s often highlighted as Not As Good as Steve (which is bullshit) and as such is morally suspect. There’s a weird need to try and find something in his personality, some defect or moral deficiency that explains the WS. Marvel does this just as much as fandom - the problem has to lie within him, and not the brainwashing. I really wish I knew why this is with this character. Is it a reflection of our negative feelings toward soldiers? People often site the fact that he was a sniper. Is it some backward dark ages shit that because he has the physical “flaw” of a missing arm he must be morally flawed as well?? Idk. I wish I knew because it’s so weird. But people really seem to need to believe in his moral deficiency in a way they just don’t with Natasha or Clint.

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So if Nat seem complete forget Bruce in Cap 3 for no reason，can we use the same line because a lot of time have been passed？

Yes, because there have been developments and healthy interactions in those relationships - especially ClintNat, in which the relationship was friendly, and in which both parties saved each other’s lives. In ‘Avengers Assemble’, Natasha was AFRAID of the Hulk, and you could tell that they had an odd relationship from the get-go, what with Fury sending her to recruit Bruce and all. Then, all of a sudden, they’re flirting and being all coy around each other in AoU? Also - was there any need to have a male character ‘FALL’ into a woman’s breasts? Talk about bad humour, Joss Whedon. I’m so glad the Russo brothers are in charge from now on.

+ Stevebucky had/have had a friendship since childhood, and Clint went so far as to let Natasha in on the fact that he had A WIFE AND TWO KIDS, - something that none of the other Avengers knew about. Nothing of the sort happened with Brutasha, except for the fact that he’s the stereotypical “angry guy”, and she’s the only woman on the team, which, according to Joss Whedon, is a good enough reason to have them together? I don’t think so.

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He said she is a “complete whore", "leaning everybody on", buzzfeed even have pictures.

Okay I don’t hate Chris Evans. The mass thirst for his dick was always kinda lost on me because I never thought he was the least bit hot, but that’s okay. What he said was gross. Calling women sluts and whores is gross, especially in such a public way like that. Hopefully he’s realized this. I mean he’s always had like a dudebro vibe, but he seemed like a good enough guy, the little I know of him. Which is admittedly very little. I know he was drunk during the AoU press or something and that he has anxiety, but that’s about it. I know even less about Renner.

But I’m seeing a lot of comments that seem to blame this on him and Renner being white boys. And, what, like Mackie didn’t say that gender roles/”make daddy a sandwich” shit that makes me never want to see his face again? Don’t pretend grossness is just something limited to the white boys. I’m Hispanic. I’ve seen a fair share of it from my own people. In fact, growing up all I heard from relatives is basically marry a white man because they’re less sexist. Obviously that’s stereotyping and not something I condone. But I don’t see how it helps anything to act like it’s just the white guys who act like this. When it comes to finding reasons to call women whores pretty much every group in the history of ever is guilty.

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As much as I hope what you said is true, the big problem is that Marvel it self only care about money, not about some character's story arc or the plot line, or Avengers2 would not just drop out the search Bucky thing with only a mention that most people will miss.

Appropriately enough, Captain America: Civil War is the result of a conflict within Marvel Studios itself.

Variety reported last year that in earlier drafts of Captain America 3, Iron Man had a minor role. But Robert Downey Jr., a notorious shark when it comes to contract negotiations, demanded more screentime. Something similar happened with The Avengers, when he leveraged Iron Man’s popularity (and his own status as an irreplaceable star) to get a $50 million paycheck while at least one of his superhero co-stars got a mere $200,000.

At one point the Captain America talks got so fractious that the CEO of Marvel Entertainment requested that Tony Stark be written out of the film, but things were eventually ironed out to everyone’s satisfaction. Downey got the lead role he wanted, and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige decided to introduce Civil War, a storyline that will impact every earthbound Marvel movie for years to come.

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Steve Rogers, annoying morning person.

[From Avengers #212, 1981.]

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You just notice it now? I got it the first time I watched it, yet every time I saw someone talking about Yui and Rei and clone, they always said that Gendo is the who did it and I was like, did I remember it wrong?

Fuyutsuki calling Rei “The product of my despair, and the vessel of your hope even now."

And the sign on Fuyutsuki’s door when he was a professor (or something like that) started with “metaphysical biology,’

Was he the one who made Rei to look like Yui?

"The product of my despair," sounds like...

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Anno on Eva Otaku

I began to hate the anima fans in the middle of the show, I hate the people who never let the anima go until their death, Tv show is an entertainment that makes people happy, why can't these people just watch it like a normal person? Why did they become this rabid? They are such emptiness people in my eyes, I can't believe they can devoted themselves to a fiction world and still happy with it, this kind of zealot will get them nowhere, it is unhealthy, they don't understand that their happiness only exist because other people give them this, and they are still criticizing the ending. They get mad just because the story doesn't happen in the way they think it should happen. I think EVA end like that is for their own good, I'm teaching them that they can't dependent on entertaining themselves too much, you can't get what you want, the world doesn't work like this. So the fans who treat the anima, or at least my EVA as a refuge so they can escape from reality? I get angry everytime I think about it, they think that everything in my anima is just there to help them escape from the harsh reality, and say that then can't return to the real world, they even think my anima is their only refuge , it is so unreasonable, I don't want these people become even more negative, that's why I rewrite the story. I think industry about Otaku will become more and more corruption, these people are too extreme and autism, they even go to buy Eva video tape just because Miyamura Yuko voiced a character there, this is the only reason, nothing more. Today's animas are following the same pattern to flatter them, and the anima fans think that the world revolves around them! ——From Anno's Animage intervew in 1996.

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That Valvrave's ending.

So Haruto's eyes, L-Elf's eyebrows, Haruto's idiot hair and L-Elf's hairstyle......

......Congratulate?

Also, the staff calls the boy "Prince".

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Also, Shinji in Anno's mind from Tsurumaki's interview:

-- That's also my interpretation, and, I think, the interpretation of countless viewers.... Tsurumaki: [There must be a] "however," right? When I was doing the storyboards for "Break," and went to confirm with Anno-san that portraying Shinji like this was good, I was emphatically told, "What are you talking about, Makki? This is completely wrong!" What a shock I received! (Laughs) Anno-san continues, "Shinji really doesn't want to pilot, and that's what he says." From my point of view Shinji's declaration "I won't pilot" was half a hate campaign against his father, a child and "da-da" type situation. It was the same as a child who had quarrelled with his father saying "If that's the case, I won't study!" Emotionally, Shinji doesn't want to pilot, but he understands that he has to. To that extent I had thought he was a "grown-up" character. However, when I seriously thought over what Anno-san had said, I understood that Anno-san's Shinji is not like that. I understood that he was a character who, if he feels he doesn't want to pilot, absolutely will not pilot. Shinji is the exact opposite of what the conventional impression of him is. He is not cowardly and indecisive; he is obstinate and doesn't pay any mind to other people. --- In short, a character who will not pilot, no matter what? Tsurumaki: Exactly right. According to Anno-san, "He pilots because he wants to pilot, and as long as he doesn't want to pilot he won't pilot." But I remained unsatisfied. "[That would be acceptable if this were a trvial argument over something like studying. ???5] However, if he doesn't pilot Eva, humanity will be destroyed, Misato will be in great difficulties, Rei Ayanami will have to undertake a suicide attack, and so on; even if he knows this, will he still not pilot Eva?" When I again tried to ask Anno-san this, he replied, "Because Shinji is extremely angry there, his heart is closed and he doesn't notice those things."

This is Shinji, he is not a bad kid who want to destory the world, he is a good but selfish kid who don't care about other people when he catch up in his own little world. Even the people he cared are mostly because they have something to do with him. Remeber when he first sae Rei Q? He was not "Thanks gods you are alive!", he was thinking about "Misato lied to me! I did save her!" And he didin't even think there was something wrong when Rei Q asked him what is like. DId he ever worry about something maybe happend to Rei and asked her "Are you all right?" No! He is too busy butthurt that Rei didn't act like what he think she should act.

Shinji can only snap out of his self-pity when the ones he love died in front of him, like Misato in EOE, Rei in break and Kaworu in Q, but when he realized that his own actions also play a part in their death and there is nothing he can do about it? He just breakdown harder because he can't face the reality.

Rebloggable by request.

Things linked [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

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Don't forget Mari is bleeding all over in front of Shinji and use her last strength to send Shinji somewhere safe, and Shinji's reaction? "I don't wan to pilot Eva!" He also leave Rei to fight the angels alone with a broken Unit 00 which cause her death, and if he really care about her, why not ask Rei to run away from him? And Shinji can beat down the angle all by his own, he only awake the Eva because unit 01 run out of power, which wouldn't happen if he stays. And Gendo is surprise he came back, so even though Gendo plan to awake Unit 01 in the future, he didn't except Shinji to awake it in that time and 3I is all Shinji's doing, kid even not pause a moment to think that why the sky suddenly turn into red and all this weird light show come from.

I laughed hard when Shinji is upset that Asuka doesn't pay her mind to him and everyone thinks Asuka is mean to Shinji in Q because this is just what Shinji did to Asuka in break! Also, everyone give Shinji cold shoulder and treat him like a stranger? That's what Shinji planed to do when he decide to run away, and in a sense, he finally get what he always whined for "Don't pilot Eva and leave everyone behind", but of course Shinji is hurt that they are mean because only Shinji himself is allowed to do it, right? Shinji's treatment in Q is what he tried to do in break to everyone, and now he finally know what all his friends felt like when he decided to leave. Don't tell me they should treat him nice for the sake of the world, than Shinji should never left Nerv for the sake of the world,too.

And speaking about Shinji seeking help, I'm sure we all agree that Kaworu try his best to help Shinji and we all know how it turns out. Shinji's selfish is not about him seeking help, it is about he never try to change himself and just wish the other people solve all his problems for him, and when they can't do it(Asuka in Eoe) or the way they do it is not what Shinji want(Kaworu told him not to pull the spear in Q), Shinji wouldn't listen and he get mad, he either killed them or didn't care about their safe until it is too late. Kaworu is wearing Shinji's choker for him for god's sake, and Shinji treat it like nothing and never once consider his actions carefully because maybe he will cause harm to Kaworu. Because nothing is more important to Shinji than his own feelings.

Rebloggable by request.

Things linked [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]