sunandmoongobrrr - Tumblr blog

[sunandmoongobrrr]

ATLA fans will go on and on about how Zutara is a “colonizer x colonized” shipping dynamic, yet they can’t bear to reckon with the orientalism and anti-resistance propaganda that pervades the actual show. They’ll say nothing about the problematic depictions of characters like Jet and Hama or the way that the show mashes cultures together into one big lump, but they will eagerly accuse Zutara shippers of romanticizing colonialism.

Maybe some people earnestly believe that shipping such a dynamic is problematic, but I don’t really buy it for the majority. They’re inconsistent with their analysis and most of the time, and it’s often shallow or contradictory. Idk…I just think that if they’re going to make that argument, they should be able to follow-through and criticize the actual text instead of non-canon fan content

[sunandmoongobrrr]

Another Katara

[sunandmoongobrrr]

did you change your url recently?

nope! its the same its always been

[sunandmoongobrrr]

twitter has made the mistake of putting me on kataangtwt where people misunderstand katara so now its time to reread the consumed by destiny meta series

[sunandmoongobrrr]

Happiness Will Come To You.

[sunandmoongobrrr]

sooo is there a katara x all american bitch edit yet and if so where do i find it

[sunandmoongobrrr]

adult Zutara brainrot era i guess

[sunandmoongobrrr]

so much of whats wrong with live action atla (not that i finished it) is that they cut the filler and replaced it with exposition dialogue. i dont need to hear how goofy aang is. i need to see it. i need to see and feel and understand the dynamics for myself, otherwise it all lacks soul.

genuinely one of the worst things that’s happened to television in the last few years (exacerbated by streaming services) is death of Filler. going from 20 episodes to 8 because “we didn’t really need that episode where the main characters went to the beach right? it had no long lasting effect” but we DID!!! we needed to see how they act without the Big Bad Plot and to establish the dynamics between the characters and lay in the sun (do they forget sunscreen? how do they react to a thieving seagull? do they get buried in the sand or do they do the burying?). the plot isn’t everything. the action doesn’t hit as hard without the quiet moments. give us character development and our little scenes back

[sunandmoongobrrr]

lmao i see the live action has led to an uptick in activity w my metas. may i interest any of you in my new very sad canon-compliant zutara songfic:

Two Slow Dancers

A nightmare, a dream. A house made of wood, a lily made of fire. A hole in the heart, a place in the world.

In the one-year space between the war's end and Iroh's gathering in Ba Sing Se, Katara and Zuko weave around each other, discovering where they truly belong in a world searching for peace. Or, my attempt at seeing where Katara becomes who she is in LoK.

Loosely based on the song of the same name by Mitski.

[sunandmoongobrrr]

Zutara again

I really wanted to draw Zuko's face completely

fixed: I mistakenly drew Zuko's scar on the other side of his face. Let's imagine that this is Zuko and Katara from a theatrical production on stage

[sunandmoongobrrr]

Zutara || ♥️💙

Based on a couple pic from pinterest bc I still struggle with poses 🙈

[sunandmoongobrrr]

experiencing show vs. game for the first time as a newcomer to tlou fandom. and i think show ellie vs game ellie is so interesting.

show ellie is a little bit tougher in that she means it when she says she wants a weapon–she isn't fazed by killing nearly as much as game ellie is, as others have pointed out.

but game ellie has much more experience just in the real world–she can pop a clutch, shoot a rifle, and seems to have a better education than show ellie almost? even if she isn't so equipped to kill someone, she's much more equipped with other forms of survival.

show ellie is much more endearing and youthful, and i think her more violent tendencies in combination with these qualities are indicative of a more timely youth, which the show probably wants to portray given the time difference from the game. not to be anti-video games or pro-censorship or whatever, but growing up in the age of more graphically violent media has definitely impacted how younger people see violence. ellie could be an average 14 year old today playing, well, tlou, for the first time, confident they could take on real zombies.

anyway, idk which i like more <3

[sunandmoongobrrr]

thinking about how bryke refused to critique their precious aang in his actual story only to realize how badly they fucked up and completely destroy his reputation in lok

[sunandmoongobrrr]

idk if is the ones who did the game that don't know how science work or if we are supposed to think the fireflies are callous and ignorant of it, but killing Ellie would be stupid in terms of studying a cure, even if they don't have ethic and moral qualms, they should do every test possible with her alive. even if the supposed cure is in her brain, the chance of it helping after dead would be minimal.

THIS ASK AND THE ANSWER FOLLOWING CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM THE GAME: VIEWERS OF THE SHOW SCROLL OVER OR PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK OF BEING SPOILED I had written a whole ass rant with this ask but then TUMBLR decided to be stupid and do some shit and now I'm done so. Yes, you're right anon. Actually, through the whole first game as Joel you find several pages of researches from the Fireflies, PROVING to you that their researches are bullshit and that they already had SEVERAL opportunities to do researches on immune children... that all died. Yup, they killed dozens of kids but I mean, they're the sweet baby angels saving the world. *side eyes at TLOU2* To me, it always seemed in the first game, that there were points, obvious points that you were picking up, showing you that The Fireflies, were basically delulu people with a God Complex bigger than their big fat heads, justifying the murder of children behind a "we will save the world/we will find a cuuuure" promise that never went anywhere. That was the complexity of the first game, how neither The Fireflies nor Joel were completely right, nor wrong. How neither of them completely doomed the world, neither of them was here to save it and that's it. That was it, how ultimately, the narrative brought you back to the small bottled, HUMAN, relationship of Joel and Ellie. Because at the end of the day, do you save a world that's been doomed for 20 years? How do you do that when it's gone to shit so hard? And maybe you can't save humanity when you've lost touch with it so much, that you justify murdering children to "get a cure" that you haven't found in years and years of "research" because you keep repeating the same mistakes (ie: literally killing your subjects). And you know, the show kinda touches upon that, but not enough, to me. I mean, we spent the whole beginning of the show, with scientists and experts of fungus infections with (at the time) the last of the last scientifical equipments possible, telling us that there is no cure. But The Fireflies in their mom's basement will find a cure? Yah. Ok. It always seemed so stupid to me and odd that they killed kids like that, "unique" immune children and went back to "welp let's hope we'll find another one! *shrugs*" once they failed, that it was OBVIOUS that The Fireflies were wrong and really not the good moral choice when it came to Ellie's future (and bigger than that, the world's future). Literally I'm rewatching The Mandalorian, and even The Empire doesn't kill Grogu because they want to experiment on him. We live in a society where The Empire from Star Wars is better at science than the freaking "saviors of the universe" Fireflies. But then TLOU2 happened, retconning once again the story, with all and mighty Abby having so much faith in her father that it twists the narrative and the gamers' perception, and everyone ended up being like "Joel doomed the wooooorld"-... when nope. Not at all. If you end TLOU1 with idk, average 5% faith in The Fireflies finding a cure, then you're a hardcore believer. But TLOU2 completely erases that complexity, because it erases the grey morality of what The Fireflies were doing, putting all faults on Joel saving Ellie, and that's it (because even Ellie blames Joel). Did I already say that I hate TLOU2? For so many reasons.

[sunandmoongobrrr]

this may be absolutely bat shit insane and not fit the vibe of the show at all, but when Ellie looked over to Tess and said "They're communicating" while watching the moving wave of infected on the ground, speaking with such soft realization in her voice, I had a little light bulb go off in my head

Despite the fact that Ellie isn't sick, Ellie is infected. The scan identifies her as having the virus still in her body- just like the Epstein Barr virus lingers after mono or Shingles can appear if you've had chicken pox- Ellie still has the virus in her even if she doesn't experience symptoms. So she says to Tess, "They're communicating" and she says to Joel about Tess, "Oh my god, she's infected", and while the latter can be explained away by Tess acting erratically and Joel being in denial, we know that the stakes have changed in the show. We know that the mycelium make it possible for the infected to communicate in a huge network. We know that the Stalker that kissed Tess sensed the virus growing inside her. We know that Ellie is infected, even if she isn't sick

So what if, to a degree, Ellie can sense the communication of the fungus? What if she knew Tess was infected, not just on instinct... but because she could feel it?

[sunandmoongobrrr]

I just watched Avatar for the first time all the way through, and yeah, it’s great, but the one thing that surprised me was how different Katara was compared to the fandom interpretation I’d seen and internalized before watching.

Like, before you watch Avatar, you’ve seen all these memes about Katara and her mom, and based on those memes, you assume it’s one of those lines you have to get used to hearing at least once every episode. But then you watch the show and realize that she only talks about her mom maybe five or six times per season and you also realize she only brings her up when she’s trying to comfort someone or empathize with them because that’s how she processes her grief and that’s one way she connects with people.

Or you hear the infamous line, “then you didn’t love [our mother] the way I did” and you prepare yourself for one of the worst character assassinations ever only to see the scene after nearly three seasons worth of context and realize she was kinda right. She’s been the mother, the nurturer, the comforter. She’s been patient, gentle, and accommodating where everyone else has gotten to be insensible and reckless and childish, and the one moment where she allows herself to feel her grief, suddenly she’s this evil bitch and not, y’know, a 14 year old girl whose been thrusted into adulthood in a way no other character has. A 14 year old girl who should be allowed immaturity and raw emotion and anger instead of the patience and grace she’s been forced to extend to every character without even the smallest amount of gratitude or even consideration in return.

Or you see all of the clips where Katara puts Aang in the “friendzone” and you expect to have this wishy washy back and forth where Aang is putting his feelings out there only to have Katara neither commit nor express any clear reciprocation or rejection. Then you watch and realize that, as cute as the ship is initially, that there’s never a point where Aang returns any comfort or grace to Katara despite her always doing this for him to the point of coddling. That for as much as Aang says he loves her, he never seems to outgrow his perception of her so he can recognize her as someone who feels grief, anger, and pain as much as she expresses love, kindness, and maturity. And instead of having moments where he learns to see her beyond her strength or compassion, you’re instead given moments where Aang forces his feelings onto her, both romantic and non-romantic, and Katara is expected to just…shoulder those feelings the way she shoulders everyone else’s.

Katara is the most misunderstood character in the show. As much as people recognize the complexities of Zuko, Sokka, and Azula, they struggle to do the same for Katara because they see her struggles as somehow lesser, and therefore, less deserving of sympathy. They can handle her so long as she’s being endlessly patient and loving and kind, but the moment her endless love, patience, and kindness runs out, she’s suddenly this annoying bitch who can’t shut up about her mother or reciprocate Aang’s feelings. But Katara’s trauma does matter as much as anyone else’s. No, she wasn’t banished from her kingdom. No, she didn’t lose her entire community, and no, she isn’t the only one who lost her mother. But the difference between her and everyone else whose experienced loss because of the Fire Nation is that she’s never given time to process her trauma. Aang gets to lean on Katara constantly. Toph gets to express her feelings to Katara, and yeah, Sokka also lost their mother, but unlike Katara, he isn’t put in the position of being a substitute for everyone’s parent. He even admits that he sees his sister as a mother. The only characters who ever comfort Katara or allow her to vent is Zuko and her father and that’s, like, three scenes in a show where the other characters are consistently given opportunities to seek out Katara for unconditional support.

The fandom interpretation of Katara has been so bastardized that even those who haven’t watched the show know her for this fanon version and not for who she is. She’s such an interesting character beyond her fandom limitations, though. She’s brave, hot-headed, and hopeful as well as gentle and caring. She wishes to learn waterbending, not only because she wants to fight in the war, but because she wants to continue her culture’s practices because, and people often forget this, she also lost an entire subculture within her already fractured tribe. And she wants to defeat the Fire Nation both because of her deep love and empathy for other people, but also because she wants to avenge her mother. But because some of the fans have reduced Katara to a bitch who constantly whines about her mother and friendzones Aang, you wouldn’t know any of this, and it sucks because she’s the only character whose been dumbed down to such an extent.

[sunandmoongobrrr]

Here it is!! My very angsty mitski-inspired WIP for the past three years or so. I hope y'all enjoy, I certainly am glad I'm done writing it <333

A nightmare, a dream. A house made of wood, a lily made of fire. A hole in the heart, a place in the world.

In the one-year space between the war's end and Iroh's gathering in Ba Sing Se, Katara and Zuko weave around each other, discovering where they truly belong in a world searching for peace. Or, my attempt at seeing where Katara becomes who she is in LoK.

Loosely based on the song of the same name by Mitski.