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Sokka may not be a misogynist, but the Netflix live action ATLA is:

There really is no cartoon/anime for female empowerment like the OG ATLA and LOK cartoons.

The creators of ATLA wrote the manifesto on how to create a masterful series on female empowerment and equality that is not cheesy or hocky.

In this show, women and girls are not a monolith but immensely diverse. There's no correct way to be a powerful, talented and bold woman or girl within the avatar universe.

You can be hyper-feminine like Ty Lee and Asami.

You can embody more traditionally masculine qualities like Korra and Toph.

Or you could just be a typical woman or girl falling more in between like Azula, Mai, or Suki.

You see the exact same thing for the male characters. There's no right way to be a man. There's many ways to be a man, and this idea flies in the face of patriarchy.

I say that the Netflix version is misogynist, because it's not enough to be a powerful woman. One must be allowed to be unapologetically, unabashedly and boldy powerful.

Which is what happens in the OG ATLA. Sokka's misogyny was actually a part of his character arc, because every time he was misogynist his misogyny was met with the answer that women and girls are phenomenal, that women and girls are living their lives and largely unconcerned with the opinions of men.

If you read the Kiyoshi novels, you learn that surprisingly enough, the least patriarchal amd misogynist nation in all of Avatar is the fire nation, and the misogynistic nation in all of Avatar is the northern water tribe.

The reason I say that the women in these shows are unabashedly powerful is because aside from Sokka and the master from the Northern Water tribe, no one ever questions why or how they are powerful. They expect it.

Zuko is Ozai's first born son, yet Azula is his pride. When Ozai imagines the future, he imagines it with Azula as the fire lord. He names her after his father. He trusts her to go find the avatar once he knows the avatar has returned.

Sokka and Katara effectively lost both of their parents, but Katara the youngest steps up as the mother and becomes the glue of the group. She's the one who becomes both an immensely powerful bender and healer.

Suki loves Sokka, but when we are introduced to her. She is unconcerned with him. Her and the other Kiyoshi warriors are the protectors of the village who go out into the world to do good into the world.

We see the revseral of all of these tenants in the Netflix show.

Ozai has hope for Zuko at the expense of Azula who he sees as a nuisance. She is no longer am obvious prodigy.

Katara is seen as a child who will not grow up by her brother who is now behaving as a father figure.

Suki is infatuated with Sokka and she follows him around Kiyoshi island when he arrives.

These woman are powerful but restrained and undermined in this power. Suki becomes concerned with the opinions of a man, and a random man at that.

What the OG ATLA taught to all women, girls, boys and men is that you never have to apologize for being powerful, intelligent, kind empathetic.

This is a very critical point that cuts to the heart of the OG ATLA that Netflix has missed.

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Messy

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popular opinion: there was too little mix in the show

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maybe im just a words of affirmation girly but like i need to hear kanghan apologize to sailom like why can’t he say sorry for anything????????

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🥰🥰

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I don't get why people are so shocked that Sailom quit school. He was already in debt with gangsters breathing down his neck. His brother was their main source of income. Sailom has to quit school so that he won't get a bullet to the head or die from starvation.

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Kang has made it clear that his love for sailom (or at least his treatment of sailom) is conditional

Sailom deserves better don't kill me

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......tbh I need more of an apology from Kang for his behavior towards sailom to forgive him. Like I kinda get sailom forgiving him easily (although I think he'd be more confused first) but I sure as hell wouldn't

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Dangerous Romance Colors Ep. 9

I'm freaking out. I'm screaming into my fist. I'm experiencing eighty emotions at once. I'm going insane. The robbery in Dangerous Romance is finally happening, and episode nine gave me so much color! This is what heaven feels like.

It feels like Saifah in blue, and Name is bloody red.

I don't know what I did to deserve this crumb, but thank you, God! ROB THAT HOUSE 2023 IS ALIVE!

Then Nava (Nawa?) and Guy were a light vs dark color scheme (sidenote: Pawin was looking fine)

But when they met outside, the barrier between them blended their colors.

Then they put on their helmets and exchanged colors looking at stars together.

On the note of helmets, Kanghan and Sailom started off in their colors [Kanghan is a Blue Boy; Sailom is a Red Rascal]

They wore them various times throughout the episode.

But they also wore each other's colors (a color exchange)

THEN THE COLOR EXCHANGE MERGE!

Y'all know that water is PURPLE! You see it too. Red + Blue = Purple. Nid, you did it again, you big brain genius. I FUCKING LOVE YOU, SIR! I love you so much.

Then, Kanghan went to play snooker, and played a couple. The red x blue are dating. I don't make the rules.

And I love that it was snooker since it has 15 red balls and the blue ball, pink ball, and black ball have the highest point value, so basically it's a color-coded dream for our Blue Boy and Red Rascal.

Because they are definitely in love!

So I'm thrilled that next week Kanghan will trust Sailom, and by extension Saifah, and stick by Sailom's side.

Which probably means that when Kanghan catches Sailom escorting, they are very much still together.

I LOVE THIS FUCKING SHOW!

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Just a baby boy blowing on the bubbles in the bath

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"Make sure to take care of what's already yours." "Are you talking about the big bike or yourself?" DANGEROUS ROMANCE (2023)

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OH MY GOD WAS HE ALWAYS THIS ADORABLE SKSKKSSK

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Thai Money always looks like a lot until you do the conversion math.

Kanghan withdrew ฿20,000 THB which is $753 CAD or $551 USD

Congrats Kanghan, you withdrew enough to buy a floor concert ticket.

Such a rebel.

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kang's hands that grabbed sailom's face with a force caused by jealousy are now cradling his head and cheek tenderly.

sailom's hands that gripped kang's shirt nervously are now pressed into kang's back with desire.

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Kang’s bids for affirmation

Since Kang and Sailom officially got together, I think Kang would leap to say that he’s happier than he’s ever been and that he feels loved and supported; I’m kind of shocked he hasn’t gone so far as to say that Sailom ‘completes him’ or is his ‘other half’ as those seem like the kind of ridiculously romantic things he likes. In the past two episodes, we’ve repeatedly seen him giggling and throwing out ridiculous pick up lines and draping himself over Sailom like an eager puppy.

But what’s stuck with me is the sheer number of times Kang has now asked Sailom for emotional validation. A little out of order—

First, the moment above. He was happy being cheesy and then abruptly got serious when he asked “Do you love me?” He even followed up to make sure Sailom understood he meant it:

He often asks questions like this, although that was probably the most explicitly he’s worded it to date:

(There is more happening in this ^ particular scene but he’s throwing Sailom’s own words back at him, so it’s clear he needs Sailom’s assurance specifically)

Those are all emotional bids. He also makes frequent requests for physical affection (asks for consent to be intimate), which are undeniably related on some level — but he’s also a teenage boy who wants to touch his boyfriend so they stand a little apart! I only captured two screenshots as I wasn’t initially looking for this so I know I’m missing more:

What all these asks tell me is that on some subconscious level Kang has recognized that Sailom is maintaining walls beyond them and it is making him anxious.

One of those walls came down last week when they had sex (putting in a screenshot just because I can and because I’m in love with this scene):

The bigger emotional walls — the ones that will be harder for to Kang recognize, let alone vocalize — remain, however.

The closest Sailom has come to admitting the depth of his feelings (that we’ve seen, not including the offscreen discussion about how long Sailom has liked him that I am STILL SALTY about missing) are these two moments:

But the first was truly a crisis situation. And the second one is a metaphor! He is not using the word “I” anywhere in there. He’s still keeping his feelings at a distance.

While Sailom is happy to be supportive and affectionate in many ways — cheering Kang on at football, coming on this trip with him, giving him so, so many hugs — those times are always focused on Kang. If Kang needs him for reasons that don’t have to do with their relationship, Sailom is there.

But Sailom has not given Kang the opportunity to repay that in any way (yet!). He pretty consistently acts like he does not need anything from Kang. He doesn’t admit to fears or insecurities or anything that makes him vulnerable.

In that very first scene above, Sailom never says “yes, I do love you”. He doesn’t even take a bite of the fruit Kang offers. Although he very much plays it off as a joke, this is what he says:

He’s now turned down Kang’s concerns about his debts twice. The first time, he left a door open — he focused it on his concerns about Kang giving up his football dreams and Kang was able to take comfort in the idea there was still a path for him to help Sailom:

The second time bears a deeper look because I think it genuinely upset Kang.

When they arrive at Khorat, Kang says this:

WE are super rich. He thinks of them as a package duo. What’s mine is yours.

But when Sailom shuts him down, he says this, with no further explanation:

Essentially — no, it’s YOUR money. (We are not a team in this)

And watch Kang. He physically recoils. He opens and closes his mouth like he wants to say something. And he’s silent for a pronounced period of time.

You can see him starting to think something along the lines of “I love you so much, why won’t you let me show you that?”

And then he asks what is an objectively bizarre question after Sailom has just TURNED DOWN HIS MONEY — ‘would you like me if I didn’t have any money’. He is starting to recognize that he needs more from Sailom — things he isn’t fully ready to put into words — and it misfires as this. It really feels — to me — like Sailom has been trying to prove, whether to himself or to Kang, that if he didn’t have Kang he would be “fine”. That he is self-sufficient and he could make his own way in the world.

On some level, this is admirable. But on another level, it’s drive by fear. He’s so scared of losing Kang that he’s actively keeping him at arm’s length.

And Kang is noticing.

When Sailom finally willingly lets Kang in — because he has to — I think he’s terrified that it’s going to scare Kang off. Instead, Kang is going to be so desperately grateful for the opportunity to be there for him. What Sailom thinks will ruin them will only heal an ever-increasing divide between them. It’s going to be beautiful to see.