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[artandhijinks]

*deep breath* Okay. Here we go.

I don't think the Netflix Avatar show likes women very much. It's a great show for fans of Aang, Sokka, Zuko, and Iroh specifically. All four of those characters get a ton of great material. In fact, it's super great for Sokka stans, because the show takes him ultra-seriously and can't go five minutes without one character or another (usually a woman) praising him.

But the way it handles its female cast is troublesome.

Katara

So, all three of the main trio got some changes made to their stories. They changed Aang's story so that he wasn't running away from his responsibilities; He was just clearing his head and somehow accidentallied himself into a tsunami. Whoopsy-dooodle. Aang did nothing wrong.

They changed Sokka's story so that him being a leader of his people and a great guardian warrior is treated with complete seriousness. Multiple times, characters stop to talk about how brave and noble Sokka is for taking on such an intense responsibility, and tell him to his face what a great warrior and a wonderful leader he is. Also his misogyny is erased.

And they changed Katara's story so that she directly got her mom killed because she sucks at waterbending.

Katara tries to waterbend to attack the Fire Nation soldier but couldn't manage it, provoking the soldier to start actively searching for her and forcing her mom to fake a waterbending attack and draw his fire. They changed Katara's story so that her bad decision making fucking got her mom killed.

This is treated with the same level of severity as "Sokka was bullied by mean kids and also his dad doesn't think he's good enough to be a leader."

"I hoped Sokka would do better but not everyone is meant to have people's lives in their hands," Sokka's dad says of him.

Yeah, you're right, that's totally comparable to watching your mom get barbecued because you tried to waterbend in a situation you shouldn't have and then failed.

In fact, they give Sokka's greatest trauma more weight because it gets examined again with Yue next episode, while Katara actively getting her mom killed isn't brought up again at all. We get traumatized glimpses of it throughout the season leading up to the reveal, but after this scene in episode 5, it never comes up again.

But to be fair, Katara was a child. An event this significant would surely have motivated her, driving her to become the great waterbender she is now, right?

No! Katara sucks at waterbending and needs men who aren't even waterbenders to teach her how to waterbend. She requires instruction from Aang in episode 1 to learn how to waterbend, then from Jet in episode 3 to learn how to waterbend better.

And unlike the show, her relationship with Aang isn't a give-and-take; Katara doesn't teach Aang a single goddamn thing. He never learns to waterbend. She is a strictly a pupil throughout the whole season. Though she at least gets officially labeled a master in episode 8, so there's that.

In any case, the whole traumatic memory thing isn't even the only time she's directly compared with Sokka. Episodes 3 and 4 see Katara and Sokka bicker over whose morally dubious side character is better. Sokka likes the Mechanist and Katara likes Jet.

Ultimately, Katara is forced to eat crow when Jet turns out to be the worst, while Sokka is vindicated when the Mechanist sees the error of his ways and reforms. But not before two separate arguments where Sokka calls Katara childish and accuses her of acting like a little girl.

Arguments ultimately resolved when Katara apologizes to Sokka for not adequately respecting his very serious and ultra important role as village protector and leader. Gives him a whole speech about how great and glorious he is. And Sokka... appreciates Katara learning to respect him properly, I guess, because he never offers any similar sentiments back to her.

The show just... They need you to know how important Sokka is, okay? It's very important that you respect Sokka.

Suki

Suki suffers tremendously from that whole "Sokka's misogyny was removed" thing. Y'know, because they need something else to do with that episode. The show is deeply aware that Suki is Sokka's love interest, so they just do that right off the bat. Suki falls madly in love with him from the moment they meet, and spends the entire episode making goo-goo eyes and trying to get him to Notice Me Senpai.

They still do the "Suki Trains Sokka" stuff. But Sokka is a serious, dignified manly man worthy of the deepest respect now, so of course they don't make him wear the Kyoshi uniform. Instead, the main purpose of his training is to allow them to flirt some more. It's less martial arts training and more an excuse to grope each other and near-kiss.

Suki's just a waifu now. She still fights real good, but all of the stuff that made her relationship with Sokka interesting has been erased.

Yue

Yue, similarly, leaps straight to shipping from the word go. They write out her fiance, Hahn, by having Yue briefly meet Sokka earlier in the season. She spends one minute talking to him in the Spirit World about Spirit World lore; In that time, she falls so desperately, madly, unfathomably in love with him that she breaks off her marriage to Hahn and devotes herself to waiting for him to one day come to her.

"Never have I known such joys as that time you let me explain the spirit bear Hei Bei to you. Truly, we are destined to be together for life."

Like with Suki, they go out of their way to have Yue and Sokka already be a ship from the word 'go' so they don't have to spend time developing any kind of meaningful attraction.

They just. They really want you to know that Sokka is the manliest and most desirable man ever to walk this earth. It is very important that you understand how great he is. Women hurl themselves into his arms with zero effort whatsoever, because he's just so goddamn irresistible.

Fortunately, Hahn is super okay with this turn of events. He's the most chill guy ever, he gets along perfectly well with Sokka, and he completely supports Yue's right to dump him! In the famously misogynistic Northern Water Tribe, no less! What a swell guy. Aren't men swell?

June

June gets hit with that "rewritten as hollow waifu" stick too, but her eyes are set on Iroh. They rewrote June to be super attracted and flirty towards the man who was her unwanted sexual harasser in the source material. So that's fun.

Also, she barely does anything. Zuko hires her to find Aang, she succeeds, and then she fucks right off out of the show - But she manages to find time to express how unbelievably sexy Iroh is twice during that time.

She seriously just dropped into the show to flirt with Iroh and leave. She is unbelievably inconsequential.

Kyoshi

And then there's Kyoshi. They really want you to hate Kyoshi. She's constantly shot from below, as if looking down on Aang and the audience. Her voice takes on a demonic echoing reverb at one point as she's screaming at Aang that "THE AVATAR MUST BE A MERCILESS WARRIOR!!!"

She despises Aang, calling him a coward for running away from his responsibilities - Which, I remind you, is no longer a plot point because they unwrote that flaw from his character. So she's just a complete and utter asshole, shot from the asshole angle, yelling violently at him with asshole sound effects. They want you to despise this woman.

Azula

Awkwardly, they do not seem to want you to despise Azula.

There's a lot to be said for how Ozai treats Azula in the original show. The way the favoritism he shows her is every bit as cruel and manipulative as the unfavoritism that he shows Zuko. Ozai does not love Azula. He loves the reflection of himself he sees in her eyes, and his encouragement urges her to polish herself to ensure his reflection always shines through.

This is not that. The show instead erases the favoritism entirely. Ozai doesn't really care one way or another about either of his kids. He plays them against each other, bragging openly to Azula about how great Zuko is and unpleasably writing Azula off as weak and useless.

They've rewritten the dynamic between abusive father and his two abused kids in order to take Azula's pride away. Reimagining her from a gifted prodigy who excels at imitating the toxic behaviors of a father who doesn't truly care for her, to a put-upon overachiever tearing herself in knots to live up to the standards of her unpleasable father.

This results in a truly wild portrayal of Azula as insecure and jealous of Ozai's seemingly love for Zuko. Here, she is simply a browbeaten child constantly complaining to her friends about how mean her father is and conspiring to get one up over Daddy's Golden Child Zuko.

Which she fails at, because she backs Zhao. Zuko deftly defeats her without even realizing they're in competition.

Conclusion

The season ends well for some of these women. It ends promising that maybe we'll see Katara teaching Aang some day. It ends with Zhao bragging that Ozai just used Zuko to train Azula so maybe we'll see the more confident and misguidedly proud Azula some day. Yue becomes the moon like she's supposed to. June's still out there so maybe she'll get to do something again some day.

Katara gets to fight Pakku and lose, but she looks pretty cool. She gets to fight Zuko and lose, but she looks pretty cool. Azula learns to lightningbend because she's just so mad about Ozai's contempt for her and favoritism for Zuko, which isn't how you lightningbend.

But promises of future content fall flat when the content that exists is so underwhelming. This season made its feelings on these characters pretty evident, and it's unwise to expect better material from creators who've disappointed you with the material they already made.

The women of Netflix Avatar simply do not get to shine, outside of superficial moments like the "Women of Northern Water Tribe demand the right to fight and then fuck off and don't do anything for the entire rest of the episode" bit.

"In the midst of battle, we demand that you stop being sexist and give us permission to fight! This is a way better idea than convincing you to teach us to fight before the battle begins."

The characters of this show feel as if they've been reimagined to glorify the boys at the expense of the girls. The boys are treated with a great amount of care. They're dignified and made important movers of the plot, with their rough edges sanded off. While the girls are molded around them.

[artandhijinks]

It's a great show. I would definitely recommend it because now I'm reading the manga and it's also wonderful.

My Happy Marriage - By Agitogi Akumi (9/10)

The anime adaptation of this is also good. Go watch it.

Redemption and trauma don't go together often. Most of the time it's easier to kill off evil characters, and rush into a happy ending. This happy ending is slow and painful, and our heroine has to fight for every single shred of happiness she gets.

Miyo is from the Saimori family. She was born for entirely political reasons. Her father had a beloved lover, who he had to abandon to marry her mother. He did his duty, but then his political bride died young.

He immediately brought his lover back into his life. He officially married her, and he gave her complete power out of guilt.

Miyo loses her right to...everything. Her new mother sees her as an obstacle who almost ruined her true love. When they have a daughter that new daughter is superior in every single way.

Kaya Saimori is beautiful. Smart. She also has supernatural powers, as a daughter of the Saimori family should.

Miyo didn't manifest, so the abuse her "mother" puts her through gets worse...until finally Miyo is completely degraded.

At 19 she is a soulless husk who only apologizes.

She also loses her only friend. Kaya gets to marry him instead of her. Kaya gets the family home. Kaya gets the spirit power. Kaya gets the love. Kaya gets the respect.

Miyo can't even be jealous.

She is so drained.

So tried of being ignored.

She "turns off" when her "mother" abuses her. She dreams of the mother who loved her. Of the love and future she cannot have because she is a useless...

Her father marries her off to a powerful stranger. The head of the Kudo family. He has burned through a half dozen fiances. He doesn't like rude, prideful, rich women. He lives on a small estate despite his wealth, and he protects the world from supernatural monsters that rarely appear. He believes his work is important, even if said monsters only attack once or twice a generation.

He is a VERY serious man.

Miyo wins him over by being serious too.

She does not look down on him for living a quiet life.

She thinks his job is cool as hell.

She doesn't think he's a boring, stiff man.

She thinks he will abandon her when he notices she has no powers.

He could not care less.

He thinks her cooking is delicious, and when she makes a hair ornament for him he wears it right away. They are both stiff and awkward, together.

They are a great couple.

When we see Kouji again he is miserable. He misses his only love. Here we see the illusion break. Miyo thinks Kaya is beautiful, irresistible and charming. She only thinks that way because of her isolated and awful upbringing. Kaya is actually an unbearable brat. Kouji isn't moved by her beauty or good breeding in the slightest.

In fact, he goes a little crazy.

He decides to pretend to like Kaya, so he can protect Miyo from her family. You see, they're all idiots. Miyo doesn't have powers, but she is her mothers daughter. Her real mother was from a family that can control dreams and minds. The most terrifying family. Her father realizes he gave away a very valuable bride for a low price, and now he wants her back.

Kouji has her back though. He is her shadow ally, even during his most crazy moments.

Kaya falls in love with Kudo because she's a superficial moron. She also knew Kouji is in love with Miyo. She just took him to make Miyo miserable.

....bitch...

Kouji resists her bullcrap, because he knows she's a liar.

Kaya's jealousy festers and explodes when she sees Miyo happy with her handsome husband. Her happy ending is at hand at last. Kudo storms to Saimori house. He demands an apology for Miyo before the marriage. He says she will be treated with respect from now on, or he will never use his considerable army influence to help them. He doesn't care if Miyo was given to him for political reasons. She is his now, and he has no real use for her family. He's strong enough on his own. Funnily enough he only accepted the proposal because he was tried of being nagged about marriage.

Now, he is a happy man who will protect his happy marriage.

Miyo, sadly, gets kidnapped. Kaya spews toxic crap. She says she is more suitable for the handsome and powerful Kudo. Her horrible mother beats the shit out of Miyo the whole time. Miyo does not apologize. She knows happiness is within her reach.

The Saimori family isn't that great.

Turns out their power is on the decline. Kaya has excellent supernatural sight, but no combat abilities. She's middle of the pack. She was never special.

Miyo doesn't want to be special.

She wants to be happy.

She doesn't apologize. She defys her "mother". She looks down on Kaya, and she says nobody deserves Kudo except her.

Kudo storms the house for real. He burns the gates with lightning. Kouji alerted him about the kidnapping. His plan to be a shadow actually worked great. He never once hesitated to be there for Miyo, even though he wasn't powerful enough to actually save her.

He stands back, and he watches Kudo crush the Saimori house. The awful house that abused his bride.

Miyo smiles.

She is proud of herself, because she didn’t even think of giving up her husband. The voices in her head didn’t win.

My Happy Marriage is very...complicated.

Miyo struggles. Her mothers powers do manifest. The darkness makes her depression worse. The abuse she went through doesn't go away. She still believes she is stupid, and unworthy. Kudo has to slowly help her heal. He says he will kill anyone that gets in the way of her happiness (basically)...and the story moves on.

Kaya becomes a servant in a strict house, but she's still heir. She's still going to marry Kouji. Kouji has decided to better himself. He was thinking about killing Miyo, and then himself, so they could escape their hellish lives together. Now that she's happy he plans to move to the city. He's actually going to be with Kaya and rebuild the Saimori house into a respectable one, from the ground up. No execution. No gratuitous revenge.

Life goes on.

It's frighteningly mature.

Killing Kaya wouldn't solve a damn thing, because she's an immature idiot. Technically her mom was abusing her too. Kaya was pushed to be perfect and powerful. Her mother used to threaten her and say she would end up like Miyo if she didn't do well. So, in the end nobody in the Saimori family was happy.

Miyo still isn't completely happy, but she's trying.

[artandhijinks]

I think we have found a worthy challenger

my fav thing ever. tbh.

[artandhijinks]

Some of the other polls on @whoishotteranimepolls that Senshi is sweeping in Just to give everyone an idea and I think most of these are still active. If anyone wants to go vote

my fav thing ever. tbh.

[artandhijinks]

Propaganda is welcomed and will be reblogged as long as it's promoting your character and not dissing the other. Have fun. Please be respectful

[artandhijinks]

I was inspired by @onepiece-polls and their live-action fancast polls and noticed they didn't have any poll for Wyper and since I have just rewatched Skypia it got me thinking. Then I noticed my mother watching a little mini-series called The English and then I saw Chaske Spencer anyone recognize him from Twilight. He's fantastic in that show and his character looks shockingly similar to Wyper

Fancasting poll: Chaske Spencer as Wyper for the one piece live action series

[artandhijinks]

High fashion One Piece - part 1 of a series by Wisdm on Instagram

[artandhijinks]

One Piece High Fashion part 2 by Wisdm on Instagram

[artandhijinks]

Mihawk from One Piece LA

Well look what I drew instead of socializing with my family over the holidays. But can you really blame me? Because I regret nothing

[artandhijinks]

buggy the clown would cherish his harley quinn. not in the “you’re mine and what i say goes” but a “wow guys look at my hot gf isn’t she so cool and awesome” kind of way

[artandhijinks]

Yes, give this the baldur's gate 3 or Skyrim treatment and this could be the coolest thing ever. Me and my friends have discussed this. They could just add more islands as DLCs. So they don't have to have everything ready at first but if they do a Baldur's Gate 3 style RPG. I think it would be amazing

Because you could have three origins, the pirate, the marine and the Bounty Hunter. So three separate major story lines. Basically to assemble your own crew to either become your own division commander in a yonko crew. If you're a pirate, become a vice admiral if you pick the marine story, and also assemble your own team of bounty hunters. Plus have the occasional cameo appearance from your favorite one piece characters. So you're not playing as One Piece characters you're playing as your own character in the one piece world

I think it would be amazing and you could use the act structure like bg3 with like act 1 taking place in the east blue act 2 in paradise and act 3 in the new world.

But again, this is just my own thoughts I would love to hear other people's ideas.

But this would be a major undertaking and would require the right studio But seriously one piece could be an amazing RPG. I would use BG3 or Skyrim to be the model for it for my dream one piece video game.

When one piece ends they should drop all of the money and manpower into making the greatest adventure action video game known to man. Make sure to get a few super fans on that shit but also a few folks not as into one piece to veto ideas that would not work when they start getting pedantic.

[artandhijinks]

She really showed up tits out bussy shaved facing the world, clocked estranged husband's signature hat, recognised estranged husband's stray child, slayed the estranged husband's stray child's boyfriend, then fucked off hips swaying to Shakira Shakira like are you crazy she's a freako she's everything I NEED HER BADLY

[artandhijinks]

WHY ARE THIS TWO GIVING SO MUCH DIVORCED ENERGY WHAT IS GOING ON HERE

LIKE, THEY ARE SO PETTY FOR NO REASON?

IM A FIGHT RIGHT??

[artandhijinks]

Just the idea of Zoro age 16 getting shitfaced on straberry daikiris and other colorful drinks

[artandhijinks]

Zeff is over here like "i cant believe im gonna have to seduce vice admiral Garp to cover for the little eggplant and his friends"

And Garp is over there like "i cant believe im gonna have to seduce Red Leg Zeff to get information on Luffy and his friends"

Neither of them have to, but they're gonna

[artandhijinks]

We did it gang

[artandhijinks]

One piece fans are great cause no matter who you are, where you come from, what your age, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status is, 1 of these 4 middle aged men will inevitably become your blorbo. Margaritaville uncle, big titty mob boss, morticia addams, or assigned clown from birth. They're all hot, homeless and obsessed with a teenage boy. The world's worst polycule. Choose wisely.