lokgifsandmusings

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All I wanted from Fire Emblem 3 Houses was a Dorothea and Ingrid A bonding event. This has a lot more to it but yes.

Death and Dissonance

Ingrid/Dorothea, extremely gay and angsty! Took me like seven years to write an Ingrid story, but hey I got it done! <3

Ingrid was born to die. For her king, for her family, and her eventual children. Every feat and aspiration will inevitably be boiled down into how she spent her last few breaths. Were they noble? Righteous? Suffering for the greater good? Just like Glenn. Or will it be cowardice, born of avarice, abandoning her starving lands to kneel at the foot of that childish obsession with honor and idealistic heroes beyond her station? Again, like Glenn. Maybe she'll get lucky. Maybe she won't die at all.

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Korrasami is canon. You can celebrate it, embrace it, accept it, get over it, or whatever you feel the need to do, but there is no denying it. That is the official story. We received some wonderful press in the wake of the series finale at the end of last week, and just about every piece I read got it right: Korra and Asami fell in love. Were they friends? Yes, and they still are, but they also grew to have romantic feelings for each other. Was Korrasami “endgame,” meaning, did we plan it from the start of the series? No, but nothing other than Korra’s spiritual arc was. Asami was a duplicitous spy when Mike and I first conceived her character. Then we liked her too much so we reworked the story to keep her in the dark regarding her father’s villainous activities. Varrick and Zhu Li weren’t originally planned to end up as a couple either, but that’s where we took the story/where the story took us. That’s how writing works the vast majority of the time. You give these characters life and then they tell you what they want to do. I have bragging rights as the first Korrasami shipper (I win!). As we wrote Book 1, before the audience had ever laid eyes on Korra and Asami, it was an idea I would kick around the writers’ room. At first we didn’t give it much weight, not because we think same-sex relationships are a joke, but because we never assumed it was something we would ever get away with depicting on an animated show for a kids network in this day and age, or at least in 2010. Makorra was only “endgame” as far as the end of Book 1. Once we got into Book 2 we knew we were going to have them break up, and we never planned on getting them back together. Sorry, friends. I like Mako too, and I am sure he will be just fine in the romance department. He grew up and learned about himself through his relationships with Asami and Korra, and he’s a better person for it, and he’ll be a better partner for whomever he ends up with. Once Mako and Korra were through, we focused on developing Korra and Asami’s relationship. Originally, it was primarily intended to be a strong friendship. Frankly, we wanted to set most of the romance business aside for the last two seasons. Personally, at that point I didn’t want Korra to have to end up with someone at the end of series. We obviously did it in Avatar, but even that felt a bit forced to me. I’m usually rolling my eyes when that happens in virtually every action film, “Here we go again…” It was probably around that time that I came across this quote from Hayao Miyazaki: “I’ve become skeptical of the unwritten rule that just because a boy and girl appear in the same feature, a romance must ensue. Rather, I want to portray a slightly different relationship, one where the two mutually inspire each other to live - if I’m able to, then perhaps I’ll be closer to portraying a true expression of love.” I agree with him wholeheartedly, especially since the majority of the examples in media portray a female character that is little more than a trophy to be won by the male lead for his derring-do. So Mako and Korra break the typical pattern and end up respecting, admiring, and inspiring each other. That is a resolution I am proud of. However, I think there needs to be a counterpart to Miyazaki’s sentiment: Just because two characters of the same sex appear in the same story, it should not preclude the possibility of a romance between them. No, not everyone is queer, but the other side of that coin is that not everyone is straight. The more Korra and Asami’s relationship progressed, the more the idea of a romance between them organically blossomed for us. However, we still operated under this notion, another “unwritten rule,” that we would not be allowed to depict that in our show. So we alluded to it throughout the second half of the series, working in the idea that their trajectory could be heading towards a romance. But as we got close to finishing the finale, the thought struck me: How do I know we can’t openly depict that? No one ever explicitly said so. It was just another assumption based on a paradigm that marginalizes non-heterosexual people. If we want to see that paradigm evolve, we need to take a stand against it. And I didn’t want to look back in 20 years and think, “Man, we could have fought harder for that.” Mike and I talked it over and decided it was important to be unambiguous about the intended relationship. We approached the network and while they were supportive there was a limit to how far we could go with it, as just about every article I read accurately deduced. It was originally written in the script over a year ago that Korra and Asami held hands as they walked into the spirit portal. We went back and forth on it in the storyboards, but later in the retake process I staged a revision where they turned towards each other, clasping both hands in a reverential manner, in a direct reference to Varrick and Zhu Li’s nuptial pose from a few minutes prior. We asked Jeremy Zuckerman to make the music tender and romantic, and he fulfilled the assignment with a sublime score. I think the entire last two-minute sequence with Korra and Asami turned out beautiful, and again, it is a resolution of which I am very proud. I love how their relationship arc took its time, through kindness and caring. If it seems out of the blue to you, I think a second viewing of the last two seasons would show that perhaps you were looking at it only through a hetero lens. Was it a slam-dunk victory for queer representation? I think it falls short of that, but hopefully it is a somewhat significant inching forward. It has been encouraging how well the media and the bulk of the fans have embraced it. Sadly and unsurprisingly, there are also plenty of people who have lashed out with homophobic vitriol and nonsense. It has been my experience that by and large this kind of mindset is a result of a lack of exposure to people whose lives and struggles are different from one’s own, and due to a deficiency in empathy––the latter being a key theme in Book 4. (Despite what you might have heard, bisexual people are real!) I have held plenty of stupid notions throughout my life that were planted there in any number of ways, or even grown out of my own ignorance and flawed personality. Yet through getting to know people from all walks of life, listening to the stories of their experiences, and employing some empathy to try to imagine what it might be like to walk in their shoes, I have been able to shed many hurtful mindsets. I still have a long way to go, and I still have a lot to learn. It is a humbling process and hard work, but nothing on the scale of what anyone who has been marginalized has experienced. It is a worthwhile, lifelong endeavor to try to understand where people are coming from. There is the inevitable reaction, “Mike and Bryan just caved in to the fans.” Well, which fans? There were plenty of Makorra shippers out there, so if we had gone back on our decision and gotten those characters back together, would that have meant we caved in to those fans instead? Either direction we went, there would inevitably be a faction that was elated and another that was devastated. Trust me, I remember Kataang vs. Zutara. But one of those directions is going to be the one that feels right to us, and Mike and I have always made both Avatar and Korra for us, first and foremost. We are lucky that so many other people around the world connect with these series as well. Tahno playing trombone––now that was us caving in to the fans! But this particular decision wasn’t only done for us. We did it for all our queer friends, family, and colleagues. It is long overdue that our media (including children’s media) stops treating non-heterosexual people as nonexistent, or as something merely to be mocked. I’m only sorry it took us so long to have this kind of representation in one of our stories. I’ll wrap this up with some incredible words that Mike and I received in a message from a former Korra crew member. He is a deeply religious person who devotes much of his time and energy not only to his faith, but also to helping young people. He and I may have starkly different belief systems, but it is heartwarming and encouraging that on this issue we are aligned in a positive, progressive direction: “I’ve read enough reviews to get a sense of how it affected people. One very well-written article in Vanity Fair called it subversive (in a good way, of course)… I would say a better word might be “healing.” I think your finale was healing for a lot of people who feel outside or on the fringes, or that their love and their journey is somehow less real or valuable than someone else’s… That it’s somehow less valid. I know quite a few people in that position, who have a lifetime of that on their shoulders, and in one episode of television you both relieved and validated them. That’s healing in my book.” Love, Bryan

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Almost got into an argument with my mom because she was convinced that Lin Beifong from Legend of Korra had a fire Nation girlfriend in canon????

I went through every fire bender in Korra and she denied it was them. I suggested she was mixing up the popular ship with her and Kya and she insisted it was a lava bender. I mentioned the lava bender guy and she said no, it was a woman. She also said they went to the fire nation when she was introduced. What alternate universe version of Legend of Korra did my mother watch??? Am I getting gorchoved by my mother????

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100%. And I'm very with you on the comics as a whole as well.

no but it really is crazy that lok all but states that the fire nation succeeded in their imperialist project in every way that mattered, but because the avatar was allied with the firelord and helped facilitate the maintaining of their colonial outposts in the name of global unity, and because said firelord is nice now, it’s fine actually. and the only people who point out this contradiction are power-hungry bloodthirsty autocrats who are being unreasonable and greedy when they point out that the “united republic of nations” is earth kingdom land that was colonized by the fire nation, and in every way but in name, still is.

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Wasn't there a comic that addressed this specifically? The original plan was for the colonies to be dissolved and reabsorbed into the Earth Kingdom, but after 100 years of occupation the culture had shifted dramatically and would have caused more harm to those living there than establishing an independent country?

Don't get me wrong; there's tons of times this universe absolutely bungles the implications and even fully endorses imperialism (see: all of North and South), but I had thought this was one area that they at least tried to cover, granted incredibly simplistically.

And then the United Republic never had problems again 👀

no but it really is crazy that lok all but states that the fire nation succeeded in their imperialist project in every way that mattered, but because the avatar was allied with the firelord and helped facilitate the maintaining of their colonial outposts in the name of global unity, and because said firelord is nice now, it’s fine actually. and the only people who point out this contradiction are power-hungry bloodthirsty autocrats who are being unreasonable and greedy when they point out that the “united republic of nations” is earth kingdom land that was colonized by the fire nation, and in every way but in name, still is.

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saying Asami was Korra’s emotional confidante makes very little sense given that we literally saw only one scene where that description could apply, and she made sure to point out why she wasn’t talking to Mako and Bolin instead there. korrasami was a last minute retcon thrown at the last minute. they were barely friends while the narrative pointed to makorra getting back together. asami showed she couldnt support korra the way she needed in remembrances while mako showed he could in b4

You know it's 2023, yes?

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is it safe to assume this blog is pretty much dead? i just noticed you deleted your incomplete definitive rankings for Book 1 at some point. there hasn't exactly been a wealth of Avatar content recently anyway, so i'm not meaning this in a passive-aggressive "you should post more" way. though i'd love to read your takes on the Kyoshi books. and this live action disaster-to-be.

Ahh, this gave me a minor panic--I never deleted those! From what I can tell the round-up post got axed some how, but if you check the tag they're still there: https://lokgifsandmusings.tumblr.com/tagged/book%201%20ranking

If I get a sec I'll try and reproduce the round-up post. I had some really weird posts get deleted by tumblr back whenever it was that they put the nudity sensors in. Half of OllyNodsAtThings went away, for instance. But no, I love those, as incomplete as they are.

The truth is just that I haven't really consumed any new Avatar-verse content in a long time. If/when I do I will likely post thoughts about it. But I've also been a touch on the busier end of things in life between my career and new sonion.

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For anyone curious about what I've been up to (in addition to growing a human)

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I‘m still unsure about the significance of Asami‘s „… or anything“ (3x13) because I can’t read between the lines lol. Care to elaborate on that, because I read your answer somewhere else mentioning it as a sort of love confession? How so? Thanks!

I believe the post you're talking about is here, which is admittedly a *very* Watsonian read on it.

What I really meant, now with some distance and a stronger grasp of literary analysis, was that entire 3x13 scene was written in a specifically intimate way. Keep in mind, this was Bryke trying to hint at a romance they didn't think they could show at all, until Bryan woke up from night sweats during Season 4's production like, "we have to go for it!", and then we got you know...the hand hold of emotional significance. I'm seriously not trying to understate it; in 2014, having that hand hold that specifically mirrored the Varrick/Zhu Li matrimony pose *was* really significant. Or should I say...a significant inching forward in representation (though notably not a "slam dunk").

So yeah, back to the 3x13 scene. We had the close-up on Asami's lips, which is basic cinematography for an intimate, romantic scene. We had the declaration of unconditional support in it, that Asami was very much acting in a supportive partner role, that Korra was willing to drop her brave face around Asami and be vulnerable, etc. And please please don't make me re-litigate the bad-faith "Asami was predatory" argument here. What we were shown were two women with a deep emotional connection in a clearly supportive and healthy way, even with Korra being in a very dark place.

Honestly, I think Makani put it best in her tags on this post, which was to say that 3x13 simply was the "Korrasami is canon" moment. Obviously it was more understated given constraints that Bryke assumed in what they could portrayal (or possibly constraints that were explicated to them too), but yeah. Essentially a love confession.

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I have more words to say about this! 

I know I’m considered biased here, but this fic is beyond exceptional. Once @progmanx​ finally shared with me his umpteen google docs that comprised it, I couldn’t do anything else but read it and reread it for, and I kid you not, three weeks. It’s just a really, really excellent story about a really, really, really, excellent ship. I’d go as far as to say it’s one of the best stories I’ve read.

Like, they are unequivocally my OTP now and you know I don’t toss that around lightly.

Now, yes, this is based on a game series that would require playing 9 titles of ~60+ hour games to understand the full context. Though for what it’s worth, at least one reader on AO3 jumped in without background and enjoyed it (which is somewhat mind-boggling). And also yes, this game series (should you choose to partake) is 95% excellent, 5% the worst trash you can possibly imagine. Imagine what I’m talking about...it’s worse than that.

But the other 95% will love you back and not hurt at all, and it involves complex political stakes, unique world-building, and some neato characters, all while handling heavy topics with nary a drop of grimdark. I should write an article on why it’s worth the investment, if that’s something you have time for. For my own part, I begrudgingly began the series after seeing my spouse’s engagement, and it was very worth the ride, unofficial translations and all. 

Would it help if I said Claire is Asami-esque? Kinda? And that she and Sara work with the red/blue aesthetic everyone is such a fan of? These things are true. 

So am I telling you “hey, go devote 600 hours to a jrpg series so that you can read an exceptional fic and join me and like 5 other people in shipping these two characters”? No, of course not! But I’m not telling you to not do that either.

Just...please, some one else come ship these two dinguses with me!

Mere hours before the final push, Sara is roped into regaling her students, and really anyone else who feels like listening, the tale of how she reached A-Rank.

It's a story of maddening morality, child soldier epidemics, absentee bloodlust, recursive intra-national espionage, industrial reams of red tape, good ol' fashioned class warfare, and how doing the right thing, no matter how pointless or futile it may seem in the moment, is always worth doing.

For Sara, though, it was just that fateful summer of 1201 when she met Claire Rieveldt, kinda fell for her, and, against all conceivable odds, knocked the Jaeger King on his ass.

Short Version: Five year hiatus, nothing to write about, COVID, got bored, remembered an article about this intriguing JRPG series. Loved it so much that it got me back into writing fic, and I spent six months writing a canon-compliant 250k+ word rarepair (they're foils and have parallel arcs, so it shouldn't be) femslash Byronic romance epic (@lokgifsandmusings's words, not mine) starring quite possibly the single greatest character I've ever come across in fiction.

Even if you don't have 600+ hours free to play every currently localized title, you would not be the first person to read this fandom-blind, as it were. Apparently, it's still pretty great!

(Also regardless of your feelings on this fic, please play Trails in the Sky. Do it. It's amazing, and you'll love it.)

Long Version: (Under the Cut)

Hey, so, five year hiatus. That happened. Became a teacher. Got married to @lokgifsandmusings (no, really!) Had nothing else to write, COVID happened, I got so bored I remembered this article I read on Kotaku about this intriguing JRPG series that I read four years prior. Somehow. So, I played it, and replayed it, and then went back and played it in the correct order, and played it again, and...I loved Trails so much that I wanted to write fic for it.

Except you kind of can't, because it's so airtight and exceptional that the world-building and characterization answers every question you could possibly have that isn't "what happens next"? With one notable exception: "Why are Claire and Sara so WEIRD about each other?"

Trails always circles back, but this is the ONE time it didn't. Through four games, and literally hundreds of hours, not to mention a direct point of comparison that's truly bizarre in how Sara interacts with Sharon, they are so consistently weird around one another that I couldn't stop thinking about it. They'd worked together A LOT before, that much was clear, but due to their particular roles in this universe, the context by which that could happen was...rather narrow.

I'd already wanted to write some sort of story of how Sara finally hit A-Rank (because it took an oddly long amount of time, considering her circumstances), and knew that was the perfect opportunity to explore this element, too. Okay, maybe they're exes? Nope, dug deeper. Doesn't make sense. I dug even deeper, and...the simplest explanation is that they've been together the whole time.

I shit you not, in a universe filled to the brim with many, many complex explanations and histories and stuff, "they're dating" was actually the simplest explanation.

Which is baffling because Trails is very much a series that is...Inverse Sturgeon's Law. 90% solid gold, and 10% utter garbage. Okay, well, it's more like 5% trash, at most, but it is TRULY TERRIBLE. Thankfully, it's the kind of terrible that has literally no bearing on anything and you just sorta forget exists the second it leaves the screen.

So, anyway, already neck deep in research and silently thanking whoever thought of compiling the game scripts into an easily searchable database, I wrote...something truly absurd. I wrote a canon-compliant (you have no goddamn idea how hard this was) 250k+ word femslash rarepair (they have parallel arcs and are foils, c'mon!) Byronic romance epic that is "so exceptional it's intimidating" (also @lokgifsandmusings's words). It is niche to the sixth power, but honestly I just love Sara Valestein and Claire Rieveldt so damn much that I really don't care.

If anyone wants to give reading a fic where the "barrier for entry" is 9 80+ hours of JRPGs a shot without playing any of them, go for it. Trust me, you're not the only one. If not, that's cool, too.

Without further adieu, please look forward to enjoy Thunderstruck. Or don't. Whichever.

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Welp, based on the very lovely and positive feedback from my last post, I have gone ahead and compiled my “Seeking Sato” editing plan into a google doc. I also added rather personal end-notes to the fic proper for those interested.

I likely will do this for some of my other planned fics, but I always meant to give an author’s note to this one anyway. And hopefully at least one person may find something here amusing.

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I've been re-reading your Seeking Sato series every now and then since 2016, and I was wondering if you have any unreleased/demo chapters that you would be willing to share? Or concepts/ideas you didn't get around to writing? I figure you are kind of out of the fandom at this point, but I miss your writing so much and would take any scraps T_T hope you're well btw!

Hi! I am doing well :)

Oh man, I actually have a full-blown Seeking Sato rewrite completely outlined where I tighten it all up, make things more consistent, fix Future Industry's corporate governance (it was such a MESS), make the company turn-around a bit slower, get rid of some of my cringy early writing mistakes, and improve on the thematic consistency. Heck, I even have about 3 half-chapters done for it.

Thennn Progman and I have a Yasuko fic outlined, we have that "Frost/Nixon" inspired Hiroshi interview fic in our brains that we meant to put on paper, I have a Beifong family drama Book 3/4 gap-filler fic outlined ("A View from the Rails"), I have an absolutely *brutal* ATLA/LOK gap filler fic outlined called "Death of an Avatar" with POVs from Katara, Pema, Lin, and Kya outlined with choice scenes written, and then an entire "fic droppings" document where I wrote out some poly!Sukka scenes (was toying with another Toph fic during Suyin's pregnancy), some post-canon scribbles that sorta clash with Retrofits, Repairs, and Upgrades but I felt inspired to write here and there.

I'm sad to say I'm not at a point in my life or career where I reasonably have time for any of it, but it's not for a lack of interest, I can promise you that. Ugh, just writing about the roads not taking is bumming me out.

I'd actually be willing to release all of this into the ether--at this point, why not--but would this stuff actually be interesting? If so, what parts?

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Also lokgifsandmusings turned 6 yesterday! On a wildly unrelated note, “Long Live the Earth Queen” aired August 8th, 2014

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Forgot to share Part 1 earlier in the week, but I had a blast remembering Bryke politics

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Hope you guys liked s5 of She-Ra, because I loved it=)

I’ve been pacing myself on it--maybe 1-2 episodes each day. So far so good, for sure!

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

It’s never too late for a Valentine’s card!