#and by telling her he loves her he's completeing the arc setup in episode 1

[marlenacantswim]

"Well do you?"

"Yes!"

"Well say it, then!"

"I want you to stay!"

"Okay!"

"...You know I love you, don't you?"

Tim Bisley and Daisy Steiner from Spaced (1999)

— (Part one) Part two (Part three)

[in-g-major]

ATLA Unpacked: Kataang is Reactive, not Constructive (Part 2)

(Part 1) Still no Kataang in sight (B1:E11 - B1:E13) As of B1:E10, we've been given no text or subtext which demonstrates Aang and Katara having a romantic bond. Beyond that, all of the romantic subtext involving Katara has been with three boys other than Aang, and Aang is completely uninvolved in all three dynamics. With this in mind, we can dismiss the argument that Kataang was an integral part of the show from the beginning. This will continue for another few episodes, until we come to our first instance of bringing romance into Aang and Katara's relationship The Fortuneteller (B1:E14): Strike One This is our first Kataang episode, and it doesn't put us off to a good start. What seems like a fairly innocuous episode about young love has some serious problems in terms of romantic agency and sexist double standards. So we establish Aang as now developing a crush on Katara with another shot of her from his POV.

(Oh hey, Aang made Katara a necklace! It disappears later in the episode because it wasn't really important to anyone involved) Now this does make sense in terms of Aang's perspective. Aang is young and this is probably the first time he's had these kinds of feelings for anyone. He already has a rather idealized view of Katara as established in B1:E1. However, in the context of how Katara has previously been depicted in her interactions with Zuko, Haru, and Jet, how she's depicted in this shot is a step backwards. Those interactions gave her agency and depicted her as the wonderfully well-rounded character she normally is. Here, by contrast, we're seeing Katara an an ideal, not as a person. One image alone can't fully explain what I'm getting at, so let's proceed through the remainder of the episode. Once we get Aang's new perspective on Katara, something immediately presents itself as an obstacle: Katara simply doesn't see Aang the same way.

Sokka: Smoochie, smoochie, someone's in love! Katara: Stop teasing him, Sokka! Aang's just a good friend. A sweet little guy. Just like Momo. Aang: Thanks. Putting my own personal annoyance with this trope aside, it creates a serious disconnect which hinders communication between Aang and Katara. With this disconnect, the problem of Katara seeming less like a character in the context of her relationship with Aang only grows. Already we're only seeing Aang's side of this anyway. After some shenanigans involving a stranger in the woods who tells our young heroes of a fortuneteller named Aunt Wu, they go and see this fortuneteller. The one most excited about seeing Aunt Wu is Katara, which could have been the setup for a story about a character flaw we've already seen from Katara: she doesn't have much confidence in herself. - In B1:E6, Haru encourages her to take credit for helping him and his fellow earthbending prisoners stand up for themselves after she downplays her role in the prison break. - In B1:E9 she's insecure about her lack of waterbending skill to the point of getting quickly upset when Aang learns techniques faster than she does. - In B1:E10 she's easily wooed by Jet's charisma to the point where she becomes naive about any possibility that he's not what she thinks. Despite not being fully honest with her, Jet does encourage her to have faith in herself, which she later uses to turn against him. What made those episodes with Katara and the dark-haired boys in her life compelling was seeing Katara overcome various challenges and develop in her journey of becoming a remarkable young woman. Before we come to how "The Fortuneteller" backtracks on Katara's character arc so far, we experience something extremely revealing about this episode's contradictory approach to Aang's one-sided crush.

Everyone, say hello to Meng! She's Aunt Wu's assistant, and her only purpose in this episode is demonstrating that someone in the writers' room realizes what's wrong with the Kataang dynamic but can't stop the powers-that-be from going ahead with it anyway. There's a term I haven't used yet but is extremely relevant to both this scene and the POV shot of Katara: the male gaze. Put simply, the male gaze describes how women and girls are often depicted in stories written from a male point-of-view. Since ATLA fits the category of an action/adventure fantasy aimed primarily at boys aged 12-16, written and directed mostly by men, we can easily apply the male gaze as an analytical tool here. So from Aang's POV, we get an extremely idealized view of Katara rather than the more complex reality of her as a person. From Meng's POV, we get what's framed as an idealized view of Aang, but what we see is far closer to who he actually is. The double standard is extremely telling, and more than a bit concerning given how the episode ultimately turns out. Moving on, the first member of the Gaang who gets their fortune from Aunt Wu is Katara, and it establishes a pattern for the remainder of the episode. Katara becomes dependent on Aunt Wu's predictions, even going as far as asking whether she should have mango or papaya for breakfast.

(Mango >>> Papaya) Having Katara be this gullible isn't automatically a bad thing. Again, the show has already established that she struggles with confidence in herself. Had the episode gone in the direction of having her realize this flaw and work to overcome it, it would have been far better. Let's head over to our young airbender for a bit.

The prediction Aang gets from Aunt Wu mentions nothing about love. Seeing Aang's reaction to this, Aunt Wu concocts a platitude to help him feel better. Once again we get a double standard: compare what Aunt Wu tells Aang to what she tells Katara. Aunt Wu (to Aang): Well, look! I must've missed something. Right here. It says "trust your heart and you will be with the one you love." Aunt Wu (to Katara): I feel a great romance for you. The man you are going to marry. I can see that he's a very powerful bender. Aang is given a message that encourages him to be proactive in finding the one he loves. Katara is told whom she will fall in love with, and simply accepts it. This double standard is only reinforced when our heroes save Aunt Wu's village from being burned down by a volcanic eruption after Aunt Wu incorrectly predicted that the volcano would not threaten the village.

Aang: You didn't really see love in my fortune, did you? You just told me what I wanted to hear. Aunt Wu: I'll tell you a little secret, young airbender. Just as you reshaped those clouds, you have the power to shape your own destiny. For all the many problems with "The Fortuneteller," I do find Aunt Wu extremely relatable. Besides my own experiences in customer service, I've befriended two middle-aged Asian American small business owning women in my life. Now I can't watch this episode without thinking of them. Her being voiced by Tsai Chin, a veteran actress with an incredible career, is a huge bonus. So, what revelation does Katara come away with after this awe-inspiring experience?

Sokka: Man, sometimes I forget what a powerful bender that kid is.  Katara: (surprised) Wait, what did you just say? Sokka: Nothing, just that Aang is one powerful bender. Katara: ...I suppose he is. Not only is Katara much more confused than enthused by the prospect of Aang being the one Aunt Wu predicted, both in the way she's drawn and in Mae Whitman's delivery, but we're ending this story with no indication of how she feels about Aang other than him being a friend and "sweet little guy." She had an obvious crush on Jet, who was quite a different type both physically and in personality. Nothing we've seen from Katara so far indicates a mutual attraction to Aang, which ultimately makes her nothing more than a "prize" in Aang's "quest" to win her over. If you think later Kataang focused episodes rectify this, I have some very bad news. What's especially frustrating is "The Fortuneteller" could have been an easy setup for Katara learning more about what kind of boys she's into and seeing Aang more in a romantic light over the course of the episode. Them actually interacting and becoming more aware of each other's feelings would have kept Kataang from being completely insufferable and sending a pretty lousy message to its young viewers. Piling on the insult to the injury is that there is a truly good message within "The Fortuneteller" which is ultimately ignored. Until now I haven't commented much on Meng's cute but ultimately shallow crush on Aang because all that's worth addressing is how it's established and how it's resolved.

Meng: You don't like me, do you? Aang: Of course I like you. Meng: But not the way I like you. Aang: Oh, I guess not. Meng: It's okay. It's just really hard when you like someone, but they don't think of you that way. Aang: I know what you mean. Meng: She's beautiful, by the way... that Water Tribe girl. I can see why you like her so much. She's sweet, she's a bender, and her hair seems so manageable. Aang: Don't worry. You're going to meet a great guy who's going to completely fall for you. I know it. Now this is good! It brings up what having a one-sided attraction feels like and gives a positive example of resolving it. There's no vindictiveness, or jealousy, just Aang being as reassuring as he can. It's not just a good message for ATLA's target audience, it's something relevant to people in later stages of life too. This could have also been a great setup for Aang realizing later on that the advice he gives Meng here is just as relevant to his relationship with Katara. Alas... In conclusion, "The Fortuneteller" sucks. I didn't even get into the most misogynistic moment in the episode, which is the underage slut shaming from Meng that destroys her wonderful moment with Aang earlier. Ultimately it's a symptom of the lousy romance tropes which plague this entire episode and undercut what could have been a good story. Easy fix: have this be an episode where Aang and Katara discover feelings about each other they didn't anticipate. They're given conflicting advice on their romantic prospects by Aunt Wu, and they help each other resolve their respective dilemmas. Aang helps Katara become more independent and not simply depend on everything Aunt Wu tells her. Katara helps Aang not be so anxious about deciding his future and instead allow things to happen more "naturally." By the end they begin seeing something "more" between them, and it teases the possible beginning of a love story. As it stands, B1:E14 contradicts Katara's established characterization, ignores her romantic agency, and sets a very bad precedent for how Kataang will be handled going forward. Fortunately, Kataang is no longer relevant to the remainder of Book 1, so next time we'll skip right ahead to Book 2. Get ready, because this is where the story puts Kataang through a stress test it's absolutely not prepared for. Related Meta & Additional Reading - Romantic subtext in "The Fortuneteller" by marsreds

[raayllum]

The Coin / Moon Fam plotline: a Structural Analysis

There's been some stuff in the tags recently about people being bummed over how long the Moon Fam / coin plot line has taken, and while it's an understandable perspective (particularly with how long hiatuses can feel between seasons), when looking at TDP as one complete story... the Coin / Moon Fam plot line hasn't actually taken that long, and is one of the most consistently developed plot threads / relationships in the show - and here's why.

This meta is broken down into three subheadings labelled, "Series Layout," "Plot Relevancy," and "The Trio('s emotional arcs)".

Series Layout

First things first, the fact of the matter is that the only season that didn't continue the coin plotline at all has been S2. Every other season has had something. This is pretty unique as outside character journeys or relationship development, not much besides overarching plot carries between season to season. Callum's arc is a mage and Ezran as king is ongoing, but the coin plotline has developed more consistently per season than emphasis on Ezran and Rayla getting one-on-one scenes together (which they haven't since S2). So the official breakdown is this:

1x01-1x03: Runaan and his relationship with Rayla are developed. He is taken prisoner while she goes on the mission with the boys.

1x05: Rayla shares the backstory of her parents failing to protect the egg. This is the first and last time she talks directly about her family until S3.

1x08: The coins are introduced in relation to Aaravos and the mirror, specifically. Runaan knows something of what the mirror is. He is coined.

3x03: While Runaan is believed to be dead, it is shown to the audience that he is stuck between life and death in the Lotus pond.

3x08: We see Lain and Tiadrin. It is implied they are coined.

3x09: Viren has the coins, taunting Rayla about them. This likewise teases that her parents were coined and reminds us that Runaan is too.

4x07: We learn about the quasar diamonds, which is set up for S5. Rayla also mentions how Runaan used moon opals to create illusion spells.

4x08: Rayla offers to sacrifice her blades and explains their connection to Runaan and Ethari, and how she believes she won't ever see them again. This is pretty blatant setup for the next episode in which

4x09: Rayla tries to save and then receives the coins from Claudia. This is also when it is finally confirmed that Lain and Tiadrin were coined as well. She and Stella escape Umber Tor (this is also how Rayla learns about Stella's portal powers).

5x01: Rayla investigates the dungeons to find out what happened to Runaan / how the coins work. She finds a 'mystery human' in a 4th coin. She determines that while she wants to help her family, she can't bring herself to prioritize it while the world is still in danger and that Callum and Ezran need her.

5x02: We meet the mystery human and find out that he is Kpp'Ar, Viren's old mentor. Rayla uses Runaan's bow and Ethari's arrows (thanking the latter) to defend herself against a corrupted banther.

5x04: Rayla tells Callum the truth about the coins and her pain concerning them. He immediately wants to help her and finds a potential solution concerning the coins: quasar diamonds at the Starscraper. Callum intends to personally free them himself and risks all of their present lives to get the information.

5x05: Karim summons the Bloodmoon Huntress, Kim'Dael, to do his bidding. As we know thanks to the graphic novel of the same name, she has history with Rayla, Runaan, and Ethari.

TDP loves to set things up, add to it a little for a season, and then make it a major focus.

Think of how Claudia and Soren didn't see their dad again after 1x06 until 3x03 - that's about 14 episodes, roughly half of Arc 1! Or how nothing that Viren does in S1 or S2 affects the trio at all until his kids catch up with Callum, Ezran, and Rayla in 2x02, or his own actions until close to 3x04 and 3x08 - once again, seasons apart.

Thus, the breaks in between the Moon Fam development makes sense, even if as laid out before, Rayla's relationship with them and the coins are developed 4/5 seasons. In particular, Rayla's relationship with Runaan and Ethari are more developed and emphasized, additionally, than her relationship with her biological parents. And what's more, thanks to both the Nova Blade and the Quasar Diamonds being rumoured to be at the Starscraper, let's talk about

Plot Relevancy

As soon as we'd learned there was a fourth coin, I assumed that Kpp'Ar was imprisoned inside it, simply because 1) he's close to Viren, 2) he 'mysteriously disappears,' and 3) his name sounds like fucking copper. It is implied in the Book Two: Sky novelization that Kpp'Ar has Plot Relevant Information about Aaravos (and possibly the relic staff) as well as whatever Viren did to save Soren (and his own dark magic misdeeds).

The novelization confirms that Kpp'Ar had a box that perfectly matched the one Aaravos uses inside the mirror for the bug pal spell. Kpp'Ar is also a master of puzzles and could very well be the descendant of the Jailer, who created the now infamous puzzle of the prison, in addition to having a wide berth of magical knowledge.

This implied connection to the prison would make the most sense if Kpp'Ar gets out before Aaravos is freed, and Aaravos will have to be freed in season six. And if Kpp'Ar is getting out of his coin, then the Moon fam are also getting out of theirs before the season finale.

There's also the Kim'Dael plotline to consider. While she is a menace in S5, Janai implies that she is not at her full powers, claiming, "This is a monster you do not want unleashed." Given that Karim has the sun seed and an army, he will likely become King of Lux Aurea and able to free Kim'Dael in S6 as well. This sets up the Moon fam all working together with Rayla to defeat her in S7.

So thanks to Kpp'Ar and Kim'Dael, the Moon fam is tied to two ongoing plotlines that have to get underway sooner rather than later. They are also three of the few characters to have presumably known what the mirror was. Runaan seems to outright know something ("That mirror? You have found something worse than death") and for Lain and Tiadrin, it is implied, as it seems they stayed behind ultimately to guard the mirror > Zym's egg (given that they tried to have Hendryr take the egg with him) because they knew it falling into the wrong hands could be dangerous. This means that when the three of them do come sprawling out of the coins, they will immediately understand the stakes of Aaravos' imminent or potential release.

The "two relevant plotlines" is under the assumption as well that Callum's pursuit of Star magic in order to free them is not what ultimately leads to him 1) him being possessed (with Rayla being called upon to kill him again, generating a potential interesting conflict with Runaan) or 2) snowballs into being what releases Aaravos. In which case they'd be tethered to Three Plotlines. But in some ways, they already are, because of how Runaan in particular is going to impact each of

The Trio

or why the "Ezran short story indicating Ezran is going to have lots of big nasty feelings about Runaan's rescue and survival is the best thing that could've ever happened, thank you" section. You can read the short story here if you haven't already (and I highly recommend it).

Okay, but why is this a good thing? Well...

We know next season that Callum and Rayla are heading to the Starscraper, likely now that things with Aaravos have resolved enough and/or to get the Nova Blade because things have escalated very quickly. However, as previously discussed, while Callum might do some plot relevant snowball shit to get them out of the coins, from an emotional arc standpoint, he's more likely to struggle with Runaan once the assassin is out. As of now, Callum is wholly dedicated to helping Rayla get her parents out of the coins (as he states and reaffirms in 5x04). The fact the Starscraper also has the Nova Blade is a nice preventative bonus. But this current lack of 'big feelings' means that Rayla was our main emotional tether to how people are Feeling about the coin plotline, from a character standpoint.

Enter Ezran and his anger. Not only does it expand his character, it gives the audience another piece of emotional investment and complication in the coin plotline, even if we're still inclined to be more for freeing Runaan than not (which is where Ez may fall). And it also introduces that complication for Callum.

Rayla and Ezran, and Ezran and Callum, rarely argue. Now Ezran is going to be presumably pitted against something Callum wants to do for Rayla, being torn between the two people he loves the most, with Ezran possibly feeling betrayed by the two people he loves the most.

So now there's an emotional investment with all three of the main characters - for Ezran, his anger in contrast with his hopes for peace; for Callum, devotion to Rayla and more importantly in this vein at least, disagreement with his brother; and of course, Rayla being caught up in magic that may have a steep price to pay in order to free her family (and what Runaan may encourage her to do once he is freed, re: killing Callum).

The brothers have to resolve their conflict; Rayla has to get her family back; Runaan's responses to each of these things, and indeed being freed, opens up a lot more avenues. TDP has never taken the easy way out when it comes to character development and complicated emotion. Viren was saved from a similar fate to his former prisoner so that he could develop further - otherwise why keep a character alive? Runaan (and the others) are going to be freed by the end of S6 if not earlier than the finale by a decent margin, and have enough time to change, stumble, and grow alongside their daughter and her friends - while defeating Kim'Dael together as a family, I think. #Justformerassassinthings

Conclusion

S6 is go time and it's gonna be great, Runaan and Ethari are gonna get a good chunk of screentime together, Runaan is one of the most important driving forces within S6's setup, and they all still have places to go as characters. Thank you goodnight

[mattoidmeerkat]

as the number #1 brain parasites truther on here, i'm curious on your feelings about the upcoming bobby plot. do u trust that they're gonna do right by our boy? or do u think it's possible the brain parasites might strike again? 😭

obviously i'm sooooooo excited to get more bobby lore, but there's just a tiny little part of me that's scared we might end up getting some bullshit ass story that's entirely ooc for bobby. ik he's been safe so far w/ the characterization, but idk man. i always get a little anxious when i hear a character's getting new lore drops

Not sure how I feel about that title. 😅️

I have been unhappy with a Bobby arc before. This was at the end of Season 5 after we had seen him struggle with being there for everyone, clearly heading to a breaking point, and then the resolution of his arc was basically a footnote in Eddie's storyline. (With Athena's visible concerns just being forgotten about completely.) This was the first time I was really disappointed in a storyline involving Athena and/or Bobby. (Sure, never dealing with any of his injuries considering his past has always been annoying, but this felt different.) I told myself it was the end of the season, and they just ran out of time to address Bobby's arc properly. The episode still annoys me, but I've made my peace with it because it left enough space for us to fill in the gabs. (There are some amazing writers out there who wrote their takes on how Bathena managed to go from 5x18 to 6x01, and I'm so grateful!)

Then Season 6 aired and that just felt very thought through. The setup for the Tanya storyline was great and 6x03 amazing. While focused on Athena, the story still showed and developed her relationship with Bobby as well. Hoover (my beloved) then also helped explore their new dynamic as empty nesters. We got episodes like What's Your Fantasy? showing us how comfortably they'd settled into their empty nest leading into the Wendall arc (that we all wished had been set up earlier for more emotional impact of his death) which really showed us how far those two have come together and individually. (Athena's approach to addiction and AA in Season 4 vs. attending a meeting with Bobby; Bobby trying to keep Athena out of his AA life vs. inviting her into his this part of his world)

The back half of Season 6 showed us even more of their development and growth. The blind faith in Recovery? Excellent. The adorableness and sexiness of Mixed Feeling? Perfect. The bitter-sweet anniversary in Love is in the Air? What an amazing way to show us how far they've come. Pay it Forward? *chef's kiss* We saw them really grow into a deep, stable relationship where they enjoyed spending time together not only around others but especially finally also just by themselves.

And then 7x01 happened. Abandon 'Ships. What a fitting title. This episode was no comparison to 5x18 because back then the end of the season productions stress and time constraints played a big role. None of that really applied here. They came off the longest hiatus ever. The actor's strike was still going on when the writers came back. It was the beginning of the season. There really was no other explanation for what they did with Athena, then they actively and purposely decided to put a plot they wanted to tell (Athena's increasingly erratic behavior confusing Bobby for what I assume was the laughs?) above who the characters were at that point in time. And that really struck me. This was the old showrunner coming in and just not caring about the previous episode(s) and season(s).

So now we are here, looking forward to (or bracing ourselves for?) this new Bobby arc at the end of an extremely condensed season, with them still filming much later than usual. With a showrunner who under much better circumstances just recently has shown that he will blatantly ignore established timelines and character development when it stands in the way of the particular story he wants to tell. (And I'm not saying he's not entitled to do that. It's his show.) So I'm setting my hopes and expectations very, very low. Because I'd rather be positively surprised by a brilliant continuation of Bobby's character arc than be deeply disappointed by another case of the brain parasites.

[regarding-stories]

Hilarious, well-researched, dragging its feet: "My Dress-Up Darling"

When I picked this one off my watch list, I was a bit concerned. This was due to the vague synopsis Crunchyroll had provided - I couldn't tell whether this would be a romantic story or something of a fetish thing or what. Would it be overly dramatic, funny, light-hearted, no idea? Welp, no better way to know than diving in and finding out.

Wakana Gojou is a high-school first-year living with his grandfather, apprenticing with him to make hina dolls. He became deeply fascinated with the beauty of this work as a young boy and dedicates serious effort in learning the craft. An incident in his youth made him think that all the other children will think of him as weird for adoring dolls so much. He doesn't have any friends and spends lots of time honing his skills.

All of this changes when Marin Kitagawa comes into his life - a trendy beauty from his class. She finds out what he kept hidden so well from everybody else and her reaction is... pure delight! Because Marin wants to be a cosplayer and make her own costumes, but she lacks the skills, so she calls on Wakana to make her a costume to truly embody her favorite character.

(After this point I will drop spoilers, but I think all of that above was fair game because it's in episode 1.)

The lively and sociable Marin is of course the perfect counterpoint to the reclusive, devoted Wakana. She's bursting with so much genki and passion that she struggles with keeping the serious faces and poses needed for taking good cosplay in-character pictures because she's so damn happy about it. It's quite infectious.

The tongue is deep in the cheek

Wakana gets drawn into the cosplay world and begins to develop his own utter infatuation with it - with how to make a perfect outfit down to the smallest details, or how to do makeup. When he goes into creator mode, Marin becomes the canvas on which he projects art. At the same time he's also dealing with the fact that he's suddenly all the time involved with a lively, good-looking girl that isn't the least bit shy. It's a great setup.

One of the hilarious aspects of the story is the light it shines on many parts of otaku culture by being just a tad over the top with them. Her first outfit choice is based on a hypersexualized computer game named Saint ♡ Slippery's Academy for Girls - The Young Ladies of the Humiliation Club: Debauched Miracle Life 2, a game apparently featuring girls as BDSM subs just as a starting point. Adults overhearing the casual conversations the characters have about the game are deeply shocked, given that the intro scene features a character who can't stop ejaculating or a major plot arc in this "high school" game is the Spurts Festival.

Or take the light novel they draw a character from: It has a title spanning several lines, putting everything about the main plot/setup into the title. This shines a spotlight that even good Japanese works might have lousy or at least completely on-the-nose titles. (Seriously, even German movie titles have nothing on it!) After all, right now I'm reading the wonderful Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway and have in the past talked about Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious...

Where there is absolutely no tongue in-cheek is the absolutely wonderful depiction of the world of cosplay - the relation to the fans, the effort that goes into costumes, the growing industry behind it, the techniques and tricks, the resources, people who "crossplay" to a different gender... all is handled with great respect. I don't know much about cosplay, and I found this aspect of the anime and manga quite unique, and in many ways, educational.

It's actually a teenage love story?

Remember the title above this article? There's a reason why I said this show and manga drag their feet. I watched all of the wonderful season 1 and dove right into the manga after. And boy, is it indeed dragging its feet on the love story. And love it is!

Yes, Marin and Wakana become friends. Fast friends, people that spend lots and lots of time together. Marin is not in the least shy about her body around Wakana (we learn later that she also models as a part-time job)... until she realizes she has a crush on him. This is actually played funnily and wonderfully, and I find it very enjoyable.

This part of the story seems at least "on track" until the anime finishes, with things escalating in a love hotel that Marin booked as their "studio" backdrop mostly by accident. A rather believable series of events lead almost to a kiss as they are both dropped into a situation that gets all their hormones going, and yet it completely lacks the contrivance of "boys falling on girls" and similar anime tropes usually employed to bridge the physical distance. I loved it.

What I don't love is how season 1 leaves us hanging. I then read the next three translated manga volumes (all there is until July). And I'm getting annoyed that there hasn't been any development since. It's as if that incident didn't happen - almost. The story is back in the jail the author designed to prevent things from happening. I guess if the cat was out of the bag too soon, this would remove a lot of tension from it. But come on - Wakana is so utterly clueless, there would be plenty of things to put after a first kiss or a confession for these two to navigate.

But so far, nothing happened.

Fridge Logic that cools down the love story

You know what fridge logic is? It's those gaps in the logic behind a story that you notice only after you disengage with a medium - like on your way from the couch to the fridge after watching a movie. And boy, this show has its fair share!

The basic setup between Wakana and Marin is that he is shy, has been raised by his grandfather (and therefore might have outdated standards on what is "inappropriate"), he definitely was sheltered and had no link to youth culture, his age peers, or even events in his area (come on, he never went to the local fireworks festival!!). Marin may be all genki, lively, sexy, but we seem to catch her in the time of her life - remember first year of high school, I think it's mentioned she's 15 - before dating entered her life for real. But that's only part of the setup.

The trauma of feeling ostracized about his passion for dolls and doll-making - and it not being what a boy "should" do - and his lack of friends has left Wakana with low self-esteem. In spite of how he feels about Marin, he cannot imagine that she would want him. Whenever people mention that they look good together or assume he's her boyfriend or ask if they are dating - after all, they have an awesome energy together - he goes into denial mode. Because Wakana thinks it would bother Marin. He can't even see that she actually wants him to consider the possibility.

Both of them are not helping. Wakana's denials are taken quite literally by Marin who thinks Wakana might not reciprocate her feelings. Marin in turn tries to flirt with and tease Wakana, but she always escapes into "just kidding" the moment it has even a chance to get serious. (She cannot own the boldness or the tease she puts forth, which is actually quite adorable as well.) This locks both of them into a stalemate because neither of them can make a move - either not contemplate it or not pull through with it.

After having finished Volume 8 I have to say this has become frustrating. Because the fridge logic is so apparent! Yes, Wakana essentially has nobody to talk about this, but Marin has friends. Friends that know about Wakana. Friends with an increasingly good impression of Wakana. Friends who think they actually would make a cute couple! There's nobody trying to get in between them out of jealousy. Nobody trying to mislead them.

All it would take for this to move forward is for Marin to confess her crush on Wakana to a friend because she cannot keep it in anymore, and that friend would set her head straight and say: "I think you need to make the first move. Wakana is too shy. He probably cannot even imagine that you want him. Have you any idea how out of his reach you must seem?" And things would go from there. There's no way a 15 year old girl can not spill the beans on this to a friend. (As long as she has friends, mkay.)

Missed opportunities

The other disappointing thing is that the story never makes use of or make explicit the other possible hindrance. His low self-esteem hinders Wakana. So does his childhood trauma. But he never seems to speak these out loud so anybody can engage him on them. Marin never gets a chance to say "Hey, you're wrong." Nor does his grandfather.

Even worse, it never makes use of a potential dramatic setup that the show naturally created. Marin is Wakana's only real friend, the channel for his passion. Can he actually risk all of that for the potential to be more to her? It's never even addressed or spoken out loud that risking losing Marin might seem losing everything he loves in one go. Now that's a high bar to clear, but I didn't find a hint of this rather natural development in the manga.

He learns valuable lessons - that there are people who will not think less of him because of his passions. That it can actually be cool to be skilled when most teenagers have barely any actual skills or all trained to acquire the same ones. He learns to lean on others, to not burn himself out or take on too much - and I appreciate his growth arc in this regard.

But if you make a damn romantic anime/manga, you need to get things moving at this point. And you can't act like both of them are utterly braindead. They both know they almost kissed. How can months pass after that without anything happening? That feels like The Simpsons continuity where everything resets after the episode ends. And I don't like that.

So, I'm bummed out having to wait until July and October to know how the story continues. I hope the show will get more episodes, it was a lot of fun. And I wouldn't be bummed out if I hadn't enjoyed it to begin with.

Now throw us a damn bone!

[juniperhillpatient]

Okay, takeaways from "The Avatar Returns" :)

-The scene showing Sokka putting on warpaint paired with Zuko getting on his Fire Nation armor is fun :) Zukka rights

-I forgot that Sokka...wasn't that good at fighting when the show started lol. Seeing him get kicked down by Zuko was an oof moment. But then seeing Zuko get bonked by the boomerang & immediately after that knocked down by Aang was pretty funny xD

-That said...Sokka just STANDING there & not moving as this big ass ship comes toward him is honestly heartbreaking. He probably had a lot of guilt over how the last raid went. You're just sitting there as the audience & begging him to move & he won't, he's just standing there, trying to protect his village :(

-I also like how Sokka asking Katara if she's willing to choose Aang over her people is the thing that gets Katara to turn back. This episode drills in that Sokka & Katara have a lot of loyalty to their people & to each other.

-Zuko yelling at Aang that's he just a child & Aang responding "you're just a teenager" & Aang saying "have you ever tried?" when Sokka tells him they can't fight the Fire Nation with fun & Aang coming up with a list of fun stops for them on their journey the North Pole....<3 <3 <3 <3 Aang's persistent reactions to everything as a CHILD & determination to always find the fun <3 The way he recognizes even his enemy as "just a teenager" <3

-Gran Gran telling Katara that she gave her hope & telling Sokka to "be nice to his sister" as her parting words before their journey is a really interesting moment. It's sweet & both siblings hug their grandmother & she's showing support for their mission to save Aang. It's a nice moment, I don't want to undermine that but it also poses an interesting setup where we see that Katara is considered special because of her water bending & Sokka is constantly subtly (though NOT purposefully) put down because of it. The insecurity over Katara's bending & powers that Sokka feels is something that's prevalent throughout the entire show. Despite this inherent competitive nature to their relationship & the jealousy, Sokka feels toward his sister, their loyalty to each other shines through & they work together to go & save Aang. I'm sure there are no parallels any of us can draw there or anything, just an observation :)

-APPA FLYING <3 That is all. I just really love that moment. I love Sokka flipping his shit & then seeing Katara smirk & trying to play it cool. Love it so much <3

-I like the parallel that Aang plans to "go home to look for the other Airbenders" not even remotely having processed the news that they're extinct & Zuko is talking about how this is his chance to "go home" & we'll later learn that home is a dysfunctional & toxic mess for Zuko. Aang/Zuko parallels my beloved <3

-Speaking of Zuzu - Villain! Zuko my beloved <3 I think the show does a great job making Zuko & Iroh intimidating & scary but also funny & relatable. It's really good writing & I just love when shows do this with their villains, tbh whether a redemption arc is in the books or not it's just fun & improves the story.

-Aang gets his first "oh shit he's so cool" moment in this episode. In episode 1 he's sweet & endearing sure & I like him right away but in episode 2 we get to see badass! Aang make his debut. "I guess you guys have never fought an Airbender" followed by Aang just kicking the shit out of Zuko's crew is so satisfying. Plus I love how it's true - Aang uses it to his advantage that these guys have never met an Airbender & completely shocks them with his powers & it's so fun to watch. Also, the first Aang Vs. Zuko fight is a lot of fun.

-Avatar State! Aang!!!! I fucking loved Aang just BLASTING out of the water & scaring the shit out of Zuko lmao :D

-Iroh going "oh this is great the avatar is just a kid" at the end & Zuko having to point out that Aang wrecked their shit & most of the crew is frozen or unconscious....Okay Iroh...

Anyway another fun episode :)

[homielander]

(rape tw) im so annoyed that they made homelander a rapist because it just seems so shock value at this point. now i'm not allowed to like a complex character even to cope because he's crossed such a moral horizon. i say this as a victim of sa, the weird fascination and oversaturation of rape in media and tv is almost gratuitous, an easy way to entice fear and disgust in the viewer while simultaneously being something people fetishize and exploit. trauma should not be used like that. pain should not be used like that, especially pain in the nature of sa. it doesn't fit in homelander's arc or just the person he is that he would rape anyone, but sometimes i feel bad for thinking that way. i wish the writers took a more delicate care of how they handled these characters and themes, because now you can't erase it, only amend it :(

i'm right there with you! the way rape and sa are used in media is almost always so flippant and careless (and often purely for shock value :/ ). i honestly feel that if your story does include rape or sa, it should be something that carries significant weight and resonates throughout the narrative.

and weirdly, the boys has the perfect setup to accomplish this, considering that along with a-train running through robin, homelander and becca's encounter is the inciting event of the show. but the whole plot line was just so badly mishandled, it's astounding. there's the obvious problem that any analysis of homelander that goes beyond "evil man do evil things" will point to the fact that this was out-of-character for him. it's equally horrible that the writers squandered any opportunity they had to make becca her own character. (i HATED her season 1 flashbacks that presented her as nothing but the object of billy's affections. i stupidly believed season 2 would fix this once she was revealed to be alive, only for her to be wasted in all 8 episodes. seriously, i laughed in 2.08 when the boys fell in love with becca two seconds after meeting her because it seemed like such a lazy, last-ditch attempt to get us to appreciate her right before she died. it was literally one of the most egregious examples of "tell, not show" i've witnessed in recent memory.) i even read that kripke and the writers deliberately framed the s1 plotline to be ambiguous, so that viewers would question whether becca was raped... which is awful for all sorts of reasons. 

and i apologize in advance for this tangent, but -- i absolutely DESPISED the way they referenced starlight's sa in season 3. it seriously seems like one of the writers had just learned the term "mouth rape" and wanted to squeeze it into every conversation possible. i understand people can be extremely crude and disrespectful while referencing something of this nature in real life, but i think they had three different people use this exact phrasing in multiple eps. it felt super inauthentic and i'm seriously questioning what happened in the writers room this season because if you compare these conversations to starlight speaking up about her sa in s1... there's a world of difference. (i also have a lot of thoughts about how they've been playing out the gimmick of the deep/sea creatures but that's for another post)

i also completely understand what you mean about feeling bad for even questioning whether this is in-character for homelander -- i've wondered that too. in real life, the line of thinking that "this person can't be a rapist because it doesn't fit with my view of them" is insensitive and naïve, because we don't ever know the whole of a person. crucially, this is where fictional characters are different, because we do know them -- in the sense that the character is the sum of what is presented to us on page or on screen.

homelander is still my favourite character, mostly because i subscribe to the idea that you can take what you like from canon and leave the rest. but aghhh it's incredibly frustrating because it would have been so easy to not do it this way and come out with an even better story as a result.

[narutakijune]

About ATLA Relationship Arcs

So, this is me, finally trying to write some meta after lurking in my little tumblr corner for months! Hi!

Although I’ve tried to tag properly, if you are a Kat*anger and just want to enjoy your favourite couple in peace, this might not be the post for you. I am not trying to bash characters but I do have a lot of critical stuff to say about the writing.

Anyway, you have been warned and here is my story about my personal first Atla experience: I watched the show this year for the first time, and after the end of Book 1 I decided to look up spoilers, because after what happened to Yue, I wanted to make sure that Zuko and Iroh would be ok. So I knew what was going to happen: Kat*ang endgame and absolutely no Zutara at all. Still, by the end of Book 3, I was convinced that I had read wrong - that there would be an epilogue with a different ending or at least that Aang would only get together with Katara post-show- in that Korra series or something - because anything else wouldn’t make sense- right?

….

After I got over my shock and surprise, I went online and found out about that decade-long aggressive passionate ship war and how even the showrunners got involved.

And then I really worried that I might have missed a few points. Apparently ”Aang and Katara were the DNA of the show”, according to the creators themselves, and “Zutara could never have happened”.

Another popular anti-ZK argument I found was: Why do you always go on about Katara and Zuko? Just look at Zuko and Aang! They are the hero/ anti-hero and each other’s foils, their relationship is much more meaningful!”

So I tried to find out what it was that I apparently couldn’t see.

(Another disclaimer: I love analysing stories (like many Zutarians apparently) and this will get long and rambly. If you get bored to tears when people start talking about “narrative structure” you will probably not like this.)

Talking about narrative structure, I do believe that, in order to let your story, your characters and their relationships really shine, a good basic structure is important. There should be a recognizable development and individual parts of the story that build upon each other and lead to consequences and change, until there is a completed arc - because it is all about the journey that takes you to a satisfying ending, right? So that’s what I tried to do, with my personal Kat*ang vs. Zutara take, I tried to look at the structure and development of their relationship arcs.

The argument that threw me off track for a while is that compared to Aang and Zuko, Zuko and Katara’s relationship is not supposed to be that relevant for the plot. After all, Zuko is the foil, the anti-hero, the deuteragonist to Aang, who is the hero protagonist.

This is all true of course. But then why is it that in every finale, Zuko’s main opponent (and later ally) is not Aang but Katara? Why is it that their sun/moon, red/blue, fire/water dichotomy is so obviously highlighted?

I think one reason why Zuko and Katara are paired off so frequently in the story - as opposite elements, as opponents and as allies - is that they BOTH are Aang’s deuteragonists. While Zuko also acts as antagonist and Aang’s foil/mirror, Katara takes over the more traditional deuteragonist role of confidant / best friend/ narrator.

Protagonist Aang is what connects them, although they are on opposite sides: Both need Aang because he represents their hope to save their world. Very simply put, Katara protects him, so he can make the world a safer place again, and Zuko wants to capture him, so he can go home and be safe again. That rivalry between them is already established in the first episode, even before they meet each other: Katara, who hopes that the Avatar will return (as she tells everyone in the intro), and Zuko, who seems to be obsessed with finding him for more sinister reasons.

And just to make sure, I am not talking here about the characters’ feelings and emotions! This is just about the abstract roles they have been assigned within the narrative.

When regarding Zutara’s special connection to Aang and their rivalry with each other, it makes absolute sense to stress their “same but different”ness as well, visually and metaphorically: Red and blue, fire and water, sun and moon, arguably Painted Lady/Blue Spirit, and, when you put into account their story arc, also Oma and Shu.

With this basis, which puts them together and sets them apart simultaneously, their relationship already becomes very dynamic and interesting, even before you consider any romantic potential.

And here’s another thing, Zuko and Katara also have their own story arc within the main plot. Although they don’t have many scenes together before Zuko joins the Gaang, when they do meet there is always a new shift in their relationship and in quite a few cases their interactions are important for the main plot as well. If you just look at their “end fights” at each book’s finale, there is an obvious and consequential build-up, like any decent story arc should have:

Book 1 starts with Zuko as the powered-up enemy and Katara as the weak newbie waterbender. Both are battling over Aang. At the end of Book 1, they are finally established as equally powerful fighters but still fundamentally different (You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun!)

In CoD at the end of Book 2 happens the next step: they realize that they are not different at all! But Aang still doesn’t represent the same for them and they end up on opposing sides of the war again.

In the Book 3 finale, when Zuko has completed his own (anti-) hero's journey and Aang represents the same “hope” for both of them, they do not only join forces: Their “same but different”- traits make them such a uniquely suited match that they are even able to save each other’s lives during their fight with Azula (who in turn happens to be Katara and Zuko’s antagonist/mirror/foil).

And in addition to their own story arc they even get an individual recurring theme, which also appears in every book whenever their relationship status changes: The lost mothers, especially Katara’s mother.

In Book 1, Katara’s necklace (the symbol of Kiya) plays not only a major part in two of Zuko’s capture attempts, it is the reason for their very first one-one one encounter in the story.

Their first friendly connection in COD in Book 2 happens because they start talking about their mothers. And in Book 3, their final reconciliation (sealed with a very cathartic hug) happens after their life-changing trip which is, of course, all about Katara’s mother.

Again, I am not even trying to analyse their characters and motivations within the story - there are many metas that have already done that much better, more detailed and with screenshots. This is just dry structure and tropes and themes. But I think people recognize and connect with a well-structured arc, even subconsciously, which is one of the reasons that makes Zutara such a compelling couple. They complete and contrast each other, their relationship dynamic constantly changes, builds up, falls apart, reconnects. Such a setup is the perfect playground for a lot of creative takes on what-ifs and alternative scenarios and of course, shipping them romantically is extremely tempting - think of all the possibilities! It’s no wonder that the Zutara fandom is still so active decades after the end of the show. And it’s also no wonder that the Zutarians are known for “over-analysing everything”. You can only over-analyse if there is anything that gives you enough food to analyse to begin with. Which brings me to

KAT*ANG

I just go right to the top and take the quote from Br*yke themselves:

Kata*ng was in the DNA of the thing from the start…. [Zutara] was just dark and intriguing.

If you read this quote and then start watching the show, I would (grudgingly) agree that:

Aang and Katara understand and complement each other really well. Aang gives her the chance to have fun and go on adventures and in turn, Katara is his fiercest supporter from the very beginning, something that he really needs after he lost all his people AND has to find out that the world thinks the war is sort of his fault. In turn, the journey to the North Pole is as important to Katara as it is to Aang, because it is her dream to learn waterbending properly. That’s what she literally says when Sokka & Co try to banish Aang: (Sokka: Where do you think you’re going? Katara: To find a waterbender. Aang is taking me to the North Pole.) In that way, they are friends who give and take equally and are equally taken care of. They even have the last Airbender/ last Southern Waterbender status that connects them. The few times they have a fight, Aang does something in the end to redeem himself (perform some heroic feat) and Katara sees that she is right to believe in him.

Aang has this very sweet crush on her and it will be very sweet and wholesome when Katara will return his feelings at the end of their adventure after he has hit puberty. On the other side, there is also some heavy shipbaiting with Zuko: I save you from the pirates. The betrothal necklace. June and her excellent shipping taste. But in the end they are enemies, they barely know each other and, come on, it would be too dark and intriguing! There is no real threat against friends to lovers Kat*ang, the soft heart of the story. It’s very straightforward and there are a lot of simple “the hero saves the day” scenes for Aang but that’s fine! It’s not really my kind of ship but that’s not the point, it works for the story they want to tell.

End of Book 1.

In my - probably harsh- opinion, everything you really need to know about the Kat*ang relationship has been told by this point. If you want to be really mean, already by Book 1, episode 3.

That explains maybe why many (not all! but many) pro-KA arguments sound as if their shippers have not watched Book 2 and 3 at all. The Book 1 synopsis also perfectly sums up Bry*ke’s quote above. But then Book 2 and 3 are still there and I don’t know what happened but it seems as if they somehow decided that the Kat*ang story does not need any new and lasting input. Maybe because they were afraid that too much new development and change would stray too far away from their original Kat*ang vision. But there are still 2 more books and more adventures and Kat*ang somehow has to be kept apart until the finale.

So the tension in their potential romance is based largely on the question whether or not Katara will return Aang’s feelings. In general I don’t have a problem with that will-she-won’t she-technique. It works well in books where the love interest is not a POV or in shows/ movies where the love interest is not one of the main characters. But Katara is not only the female lead but also arguably the narrative voice of the whole story! As a result, this kind of writing makes Katara look as if she doesn’t have any agency in their relationship, which is not surprisingly a very popular anti-KA criticism.

Additionally, since her dream - learning waterbending - has been fulfilled by the end of Book 1, the relationship work becomes a bit one-sided. Of course Aang is the hero and his journey is the heart of the story. But in order to highlight their special connection it would have helped to give Katara another personal agenda, which Aang could have supported in some way. She is still the last Southern Waterbender and he the Last Airbender but this is not really explored in the Kat*ang relationship. And her other personal agenda, her mother, is already reserved for the Zutara arc.

Instead, in Book 2 and 3 the Kat*ang story is somehow all over the place. Of course there is new conflict and a few romantic scenes as well. But obstacles are either introduced too late or just dropped when not needed anymore, conflict is not resolved and their flirty, romantic moments never lead anywhere- and if they do, they lead to more conflict that is not resolved (yes, I am looking at you, EIP Kiss!).

Take for example Katara’s very sudden argument that they cannot be together now because there is a war going on. We hear her saying that for the first time in the very last episode (EIP) before the 4-part finale. That is too late to have any impact! That she has these kinds of thoughts was never even alluded to before. Not once.

Or the pattern Aang runs away/ is flaky - Katara is upset - Aang comes back and does his hero thing - Katara is relieved. In regards to their relationship arc, nothing changes here between Book 1 and the finale, only the stakes for Aang’s heroic performances get higher.

Or Katara being the one who is able to calm Aang down when he cannot control the Avatar state (which, in my personal opinion, is neither romantic nor healthy). This is also connected to the problem with the seventh Chakra, that Aang needs to let go of his attachment for her. I will be angry forever with how they wasted this for a possible relationship development! That Aang has to decide to either do his duty or save his forever girl (because let’s be fair, he did try to let go and only ran when he had the vision of Katara in danger) - that’s a fantastic setup!

But no, it doesn’t have any real consequences for Kat*ang at all. Instead there were only half-baked attempts – Aang does lie about his failed practice with Guru Pathik but the ultimate reason why his chakra is blocked is Azula, not his decision to run. Aang does try to let go of Katara for a little bit but then Azula shoots him. Nothing in Book 3 shows any change in his feelings that could have been a result of his instant let-it-go. If anything, he gets weirdly obsessive - which could have been used as a side effect of his blocked chakra but – again, no, nothing happens.

I suspect the whole thing was just introduced to create temporary drama for poor Aang, but it is never explained why Katara holds him back, what aspect of the attachment is blocking him or what would happen if he did let her go. Maybe they tried to make a statement about how love is more important than Avatar rules – which would have been fine but it’s also never properly explored. Instead, as soon as that plot point becomes inconvenient it’s simply dropped like a random rock™.

Compare all that to the Zutara arc, where both characters’ feelings about each other are always very much in the open, and where every interaction causes lasting effects in their relationship. Yes, it is unfair to compare that to Kat*ang, because up to the end of Book 3, Zuko and Katara almost never meet, while Aang and Katara spend almost every episode together – of course they cannot do meaningful things all the time. But on the other side, with Kat*ang, there would have been a great chance to show a subtle, gradual build-up instead.

It also doesn’t help that the Zutara arc seems hellbent on sabotaging every romantic moment Aang is allowed to enjoy:

There is Kat*angs first maybe-kiss in the dark before the background of the Oma and Shu legend. But it does not lead anywhere. Instead, Zuko and Katara almost reenact the legend itself in the Book 2 finale as two real enemies to almost-friends, including a glowy rocks-backdrop and the right costume colours, just so nobody misses the message.

In Footloose The Headband, Aang and Katara have a really sweet dance together, and everybody can see how they almost intuitively know each other's moves. This could be a great hint on how well they will fight together in the finale. But is it plot-relevant? No, because the final tag team is Katara and Zuko! While Aang gets paired off with random rock™.

Then there is Aang’s riding off to battle- kiss in DotBS, which Katara is not even allowed to enjoy, because keeping her feelings vague is apparently more important than character development at this point. It is the only romantic moment that gets mentioned again, but in a way that sinks the former cute and wholesome ship into the deep ocean, and the reason is - Aang is jealous of Zuko!

If all of this was only done for the sake of shipbaiting, then it really went out of control at some point.

In the end, the showrunners still had their reasons to choose Kat*ang, maybe because that corresponded more to their own vision, and there are still enough people out there who agree with them. Which is absolutely fine! In the end, what matters most is how you personally connect to the characters and nobody needs to defend their personal taste. But the typical anti-ZK claim, that all the Zutarians with their crazy analysis and rambling meta essays are reaching and delusional and that they desperately try to construct something that isn’t there, is not only a very lazy argument but simply not true.

And I’d claim that in spite of the canon choice, Zutara is technically the better written relationship. By far.

[obstinaterixatrix]

had a long convo w a pal abt structural and dialogue pacing in western animated shows that is too long to summarize and also I don’t remember it but the gist is I think the recent trend is pretty unforch for all types of pacing and I hear it even in shows I consider p good (•wl house, @mphibia) because it’s like. 1) even timing wise I feel like sentences happen too close together, 2) I think there are ways to carry over more complex developments *and* self-contained episodic arcs in ways I’m not necessarily seeing, & I’d want to hold up su and motorcity as examples; of course, ppl can make the argument that su had a lot of time that allowed for more extended setup & payoff, & motorcity had the full 20min instead of the 11min format, but it’s like… in motorcity there’s the arc where mike gets very mother hen and it gets resolved within the ep, which makes sense bc 1) has an inciting incident, 2) plays off established traits of Loves His Friends, 3) after resolved, makes sense for it not to come up again bc they were able to resolve it in a satisfying way. now consider chuck’s character arc, which you can map out in the three chuck eps (IF you watch them in order and not disney’s airdate) (😒)—blue thunder revealing insecurity, resolved within the ep in that the INCIDENT is resolved but the insecurity isn’t; fearless being a natural extension of that insecurity w chuck making up for what he lacks, then having to accept This Ain’t The Way; the larping eps has him swing into ‘yeah I accept that I’m just kind the extra and I’m gonna step out of the way for the for-real leader’ and then getting his strengths highlighted & acknowledged in a way that completes his character arc. this isn’t to say that toh and amph doesn’t do this, bc amph does a PHENOMENAL job setting up the dominos for the anne-sasha-marcy conflict, but I do think it suffers a bit from not having being able to have time to marinate in certain developments whereas in comparison su was able to have certain relational developments be background b plots rather than a plots (compared to amph which had the most important rx stuff as A Plots All The Time even when it was a chain in the domino and not resolved within its episode). my friend was specifically talking abt sasha & anne’s reunion & I deffo agree that I really wanted a lot more awkwardness and maybe a two-parter or full 20min rather than it being resolved in the ep its introduced in. and at the core of it I feel like the pacing issues that stick out to me is that the most compelling rx dynamics & developments sometimes have to *compete* w plot rather being *entwined* w plot, and sometimes it is but what I want the writers to do. is watch eeaao. it’s like the logistics don’t always match up w the emotions as well as it could, whereas in motorcity from what I remember there’s *always* an emotional link; e.g. julie being torn between her love for her father as a father and spearheading a rebellion to overthrow his tyrannical rule. actually on that, a great example is when they’re sitting opposite of each other and she’s telling the burners how to counter his orders as he’s giving the orders—the logistics are there, but mostly to push the emotional tension of the scene and serve as an INCREDIBLE compare-contrast with julie and her dad. actually what I’m getting from all of this is I want to rewatch motorcity. but you know what I mean, right? the logistics, the practical and structural story needs are INTRINSICALLY tied to character motivations and interpersonal dynamics and character consistency and character development, especially because the team has a diverse set of focuses and priorities (except texas) which means there’s no dearth of angles to play with to get that logistical/practical/structural looping back into the characters. oh and we were also talking about how gravity falls also had good pacing with the scale of episodic development and the family dynamics being the core of the World Ending Developments which allowed it to keep a good sense of pacing and focus (again like eeaao)

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

Loki’s Line About Betraying Everyone

I need to talk about this line (spoiler: I’m not happy about it). I was going to just include this in the full episode response post I’m working on, but it got long enough that I decided to make it its own.

First of all, here’s the full quote: "I betrayed everyone who ever loved me. I betrayed my father, my brother, my home. I know what I did. And I know why I did it. And that's not who I am anymore."

Y'all, I'm less emotional about it now but this line fucked me up when I first heard it. It hit me like a ton of bricks while watching the episode for the first time because I was actually doing fine and wasn't significantly bothered by anything up until that point, and then came that line and I suddenly almost felt physically ill. I actually wrote up a post about it that night but never posted it because it was essentially just a lot of screaming, so I've now taken pieces of that and formed a hopefully more coherent post (though it still contains a good amount of screaming). So, I get that the idea that Loki’s betrayed Thor over and over is a Commonly Accepted Thing. It's really a lot more complicated than that, and there are a lot of gray areas involved, but fine, I'll give them that one. But - when did Loki betray his father? When did Loki betray his home?? I’m not just mad about it, this is...a legitimate question. I mean with the father thing, I guess the only thing could be the nursing home in Ragnarok/taking the throne from him? Which is irrelevant anyway because this Loki didn’t do that and doesn't even know it happened in the main timeline?? And besides, it PALES, like, hilariously, in comparison to any one of multiple things Odin did to him before that (not counting any fanon here - just the canon things that we know of!) I am just so confused, especially about the betraying Asgard thing. WHEN? LITERALLY WHEN? Guys, there is no film in which that took place.

If I trusted the narrative, I would say the most logical thing to conclude - at least about the betraying Asgard part - is that this is a setup for Loki to later realize he actually saved Asgard by causing Ragnarok (because that's the closest thing I can think of to "betraying his home"), which could even tie into something about, idk, helping him realize he’s capable of being a hero? (or something) and it would be a good follow-up to the moment he found out about Ragnarok in episode 2, but...fuck, the way these lines were framed it really doesn't feel like anything like that is going to happen. I could be wrong, but these just didn't strike me as lines that are at any point going to be contradicted or even revisited.

And moving onto another part of the quote - "I know why I did it." Uh, I guess good for Loki for apparently knowing that...but the audience sure doesn't?? This is something we're just now being told and have not been shown at all?? I have a feeling Loki thinks he knows why but it unfortunately doesn't have anything to do with some of the biggest actual reasons, which are the abuses done to him that helped make him who he is. Even more unfortunately, I also have a feeling the creators are on roughly the same page as Loki here. So yeah, that's a real shame.

The core problem here seems to be where the writers are coming from, and @iamanartichoke worded it really well here, so I’m just going to quote her: “either the writing is being lazy by oversimplifying Loki’s motives, or it’s being deliberately misleading in order to retcon the character, or the writers genuinely believe that’s what happened, which implies a misunderstanding of Loki’s character kinda from the get-go - at least on what drives his villainy and what fuels his anger, which are pretty significant things.” I do think there’s a slight chance they were using Loki as an unreliable narrator here and the audience was supposed to pick up on the subtext (more on that at the end of this post), but I doubt it, and I think it’s very likely one or more of the options listed in the quote. 

Honestly, I can explain Loki's line about betrayal (and his general lack of acknowledgement of his own trauma/legit grievances against his family) pretty easily in-universe. It makes sense that Loki himself would frame things as him betraying everyone who's ever loved him as if they never did anything to wrong him first, or that he would try to ignore what Thanos did to him in favor of putting all the blame on himself (coping with his trauma and loss of control by denying it). Or hell, maybe he would even straight up subconsciously invent a betrayal that never even happened, like the one about his home. I can totally understand Loki seeing the events of his life that way! That all lines up with his complete lack of self-worth, and to have him 1) recognize his mistakes and take responsibility for them (which has happened at this point in the show), but then progress on to 2) realize he isn't solely to blame for literally everything, and 3) recognize the role of his family and others in understanding why he is the way he is - that would be a very satisfying arc and is the natural direction that the story should take in episode 6. The problem is, I don't think the show is going that way. I think we're either supposed to take it at face value that Loki did in fact betray everybody who ever loved him (as if Loki is a reliable narrator when he's most certainly an unreliable one), or the audience is supposed to figure out that Loki's an unreliable narrator here - but the latter won't work, because the creators have to follow through on that subtext at some point and actually do something to indicate that what Loki said wasn't 100% true, and it doesn't feel like they're going to. You can't expect your audience to put any weight on subtext or even pick up on it in the first place if you never actually confirm anything, and your audience won't know your narrator is unreliable unless you tell them. If Loki being an unreliable narrator in that specific moment was their intention, only a small subset of fans are going to pick up on it. So the way they're framing it so far, the audience is simply going to see it the same way Loki does and not realize it's incorrect. 

Unfortunately, as stated earlier, I think the most likely explanation is that the writers either don’t understand Loki, are being lazy, or are deliberately retconning. So while I take a degree of comfort in the in-universe explanation, it’s pretty damn infuriating to consider where the writer’s minds were probably at in reality, and how this set of lines is presenting Loki to the casual audience. 

Tagging @iamanartichoke and @delyth88 if you guys have any thoughts?

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Comics: Spies Like Us and Dime after Dime or Weblena: The Preschool Days (Lena Retrospective) (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Shadow Into Light, My Lena Retrospective, which fittingly has now come to Women’s History Month! I sadly do not have anything besides this arc prepared for the month. This month is pretty packed for me with two shows a week to cover, as while there’s only two weeks of Ducktales left final space starts up right after to take it’s spot, two arcs to cover, and two time specific movie reviews: animal crossing the movie and the 1990 TMNT film. I will try to get more than the currently planned top 12 superheroines list out there... but this month is very tight as is, so if I do not I deeply apologize.

Now that’s out of the way, it’s appropriate we start Women’s history month on some likely lesser known parts of Lena’s history, with some comics stories focusing on our faviorite emo lesbian duck and her 87 counterpart. Before I get started on that though Kev my patreon pointed out something intresting a few weeks back i’ve been forgetting to get to and since we’re looking into Minima, I felt this was the perfect time to do so: Lena’s Concept art. 

There’s quite a few things to gleam from this. For starters as pointed out in the reddit thread I got the image as a whole from this was made in 2015, meaning Lena was one of the first new characters designed for the series and was part of it from the VERY early stages, as evidenced by the fact that despite clearly having their new personalities established, Beakly and Webby still had the old designs. 

The other notable change is that her first design was way more like both Magica nad Minima, a bit more modern, but clearly far more obvious who she was related to. She also had all black feathers making the shadow twist a bit more obvious and was likely done away with both to avoid giving that twist away, the same reason for the fake lestrange name, and to avoid accidently black coding her, as while Lena being black would’ve been intersting, it also would’ve invited a firestorm of controversy given that their one black character in season 1.. woul’dve started off as a homeless, manipulative antagonist, and none of that would play well nor was it something the progressive crew of this show couldn’t spot from a mile away.  And even this early on they have an almost final design ready, simply changing the shirt to fit her personality more, and her hair to be pink because it honestly looked better She also had green eyes throughout, but for whatever reason they phased them out. That part I don’t quite get as they look nice but probably they were hard to translate to the reboot style once they settled on their own. Her purple eyeshadow and haircut though have stuck since and were good calls. 

One last VERY obvious note.. Webby was gay for Lena from minute one. While Dana helped it is now VERY obvious they gay coded this relationship from the design phase, and the crew was entirely aware the whole time and I gave them less credit than I should have. They clearly had this in mind, and it’s very likely ONLY subtext because Disney, while making more and more progress, is very reluctant to have queer characters as Owl House was a struggle and since they have a tighter leash on properites based on the sensational 6, that means Frank knew they had the same odds of making Webby or Della queer in anything but subtext that a pig has of suviving in a slaughterhouse. I bring this up because I fear the series getting accused of queerbaiting somewhere down the road instead of doing what they could with a bad hand and hoping they could make the show as gay as they could. Penny is as out as they posisbly could get her, and Violet and Lena’s dad’s got a full apperance, if no speaking role that made it obvious beyond a shadow of a doubt their gay and did it in a plot important episode. So they did their best and I want them to get credit for that. 

But while this is all intresting stuff, join me under the cut for the meat of today’s review as I dig into Lena’s only apperance in the tie-in comic that was never punished here, and the only apperance of her protoype Minima.

Spies Like Us:  As I mentioned this comic was never published here which is doubly weird to me because of how I knew this story existed. Since I follow comics weekly and buy trades reguarly, I read the solicits companies put out eveyr month to see what new series are coming, what the ones i’m currently reading are doing, and what trades are coming out. That sort of thing, and it’s something I love. I know their basically adds.. but their well put together adds that really pull you into the books you like. The big two and the indies are all very good at it and sometimes i’ts the only way to know a comic is coming if the company dosen’t make a press release for it ahead of time. 

So naturally given there are several comics I follow at idw, paticuarlly the TMNT comics, I read those solicits and found they were going to do an issue with Webby and Lena becoming spies, and was excited about it. I ended up forgetting about it and never really followed the Ducktales comic as it came out, and upon reading an issue or two recently, one for another comission by kev as one story, happy happy valley, was particularly terrible. For those who haven’t read the story or my review, it involved the family getting stranded on an island where their forced to partake in activites and smile..that somehow turned into an aseop about Louie wanting to be rich. It ended with this

Yes.. really. That actually happened. But even with this, I fully planned to cover the issue when I covered Lena, and brought it up to Kev when he commissioned the retrospective. He gave me the discord equilvent of a blank stare and had never heard of it. I soon found out why: the story was replaced as, and fair play to disney, it spoiled Beakly’s past from the agent 23 episode which wasn’t going to air in time.  What dosen’t work is they never reprinted the story in The US.. didn’t put it in a future issue and just swap it’s place didn’t put it in the nothing. And the story was fully complete as we’ll see, with a cover and everything so they had no excuse whatsoever to NEVER use it, even with what happened to Lena in the season finale, this clearly took place before that and it was weird to just shelve it because of that. But thankfully when a bunch of the stories were reprinted overseas, this and another one, also webby centric got published overseas. But not in english.

Lucky for me, I was able to find an english translation of an english story which you can read RIGHT HERE. It was translated by @neopuff and I thank them for it as without them this review would not be possible and want to give them all the credit. So was it worth all their hard work translating it? Well let’s take a look. 

We begin at the Manor where Lena is skulking around suspiciously.. though it turns out she and Webby are just playing hide and seek. Though Lena accuses cheating. The dialouge here is pretty flat though that’s not Neopuff’s fault at all. As I can attest from reading other stories a lot of the early IDW comics are just this flat in dialoguge no matter the writer as they were likely given character descriptions and basic info about the show they likely had written up for merchandising and Frank and Co were given no involvement and likely weren’t made avaliable to consult on the comics to help them be a bit more fleshed out. It’s very obvious to me Disney just tried to get these pumped out so they’d have a series in stores to tie in without carring about qualities and given Scrooge debuted in comics, their lack of care toward that side of things in general, but especially in the first american published original duck comics in a while, bothers me a lot. It’s inexcusable. 

That being said the story isn’t half bad nor is the setup as the two hear a beeping and find it’s Beakly’s phone going off with a mysterious message from Q, Webby thinks she’s been reactivated, and is encouraged by Lena to go look after her while she stays along. While Webby says in response

It just feels grossly out of character for both. Lena is far more subtle about manipulation as shown five minutes ago and Webby blindly trusts her. Because she has a massive crush on her and is naïve about how the world works. It just seems very odd of her to get suspicious as she never does on screen, and again it comes off as Disney having barely given the writers any materials on them when i’m sure Frank or Matt would’ve been happy to write up a thing for them to help outside of the usual press materials they were given. 

Though hte last line isn’t all that out of character and has an obvious answer as within a jumpcut Launchpad’s taking them to London and is told to blend in.. which he does with an australian flag and accent.. good gag. 

So our heroines do some heroic breaking and entering and look for the package, but soon find while hiding it’s already in transit.. and had obvious bows on int. Whoops. Our heroes trie the old follow tha tcar bit and refreshingly, it dosen’t pan out as the guy stops and tells them to get out. A nice twist. Unable to follow, our heroes instead find launchpad lost, as his map is upside down

So Lena dares him if he can follow that plane, a nice bit of character for both. I will give Joe credit. While the dialouge’s a bit flat and there was that out of character moment.. for the most part he does nail the actual character down and does use it decently enough. He’s just not given enough page room or actual details to work  with is all. 

So while our heroes follow they end up having to crash as they run out of fuel.. lucky their with the expert but end up near home where the package is delivered to. Turns out this wasn’t a spy thing, this was just a thing with her aunt. That’s fine and a nice gag.. it’s just ruined by just sorta.. ending. Lena leaves disapointed and Beakly scolds webby for “playing spy” and she’s sad. That’s it that’s how it ends. Which dosen’t fit the characters, as while Beakly would defintely scold her, it just dosen’t FIT that she’d be that tearse or not appricate the effort or give her an actual lecture and it feels like Joe had no idea how to end this after the gag and just.. ended it. 

Final Thoughts for Spies Likes Us: This was okay.  It is a bit of a disappointment as for the only story not available.. i’ts just okay and not really above an average Ducktales comics story, with some nice character bits but feeling a bit weak overall, as do at least the first half of the idw comics. I haven’t read the later stuff to see if it got better. It’s worth a read if you like Webby and Lena as characters and it’s not BAD, it’s just not anything impressive and is a simple hyjinks filled misunderstanding story. 

Dime After Dime:

So now  we go back a bit to the original. I didn’t do these in chronological order because frankly, Dime after Dime is the better story of the two and the bigger one at that, so I have more to work with here. But the original also had comics and honestly from the few i’ve read much BETTER comics. I chalk this up to two things: The Ducktales 87 comics seem to have come out AFTER the series was already a hit, and since Ducktales is pretty close to the original uncle scrooge comics minus it’s own tweaks here and there, it’s easy enough to just write the stories like you would a regular uncle scrooge story, just with Webby and Launchpad added, whereas the idw writers were staffed with writing for all new versions of the characters with noticable differences without much to go on.  It’s why to me with tie in comics you have two options: Wait long enough so you can put your story inbtween the episodes like the Steven Universe and Regular Show comics did or just make your own continuity entirely like the Adventure Time Comics and the Archie TMNT Adventures series did. The ONLY time i’ve seen a comic work like this is the Bravest Warriors comic, which had a talented writer and fit well enough in the margins until it sadly ended.. and honestly is BETTER in some cases than the series. I might get to it someday. The point is this comic shows why you need to have a deft hand adapting something instead of just falling your arms about and hoping it’ll work. 

So today’s comic was part of some Disney Series called cartoon tales, which clearly repackaged comic stories from wherever, and put them together. I don’t know much about it and the only other issue avaliable collects the disney adventures adaptation of “Just Us Justice Ducks”, which I might cover at some point. This book does have two other stories which i’d be happy to do on comission or on my own at some point, one involving gladstone the other gizmoduck, but for now, i’m just sticking to the title story and the reason you all came here. 

So we open with Magica gazing into her crystal ball from her Mt. Vesuvies base saying that Scrooge will never know what hit him I know exactly what and who wiil hit him thank you very much. 

Scrooge is seeing Webby off to her first day of day camp, getting all teary eyed which is touching. Beakly apparently goes with her as the story never SAYS Sshe does but she’s not also not around when the story moves on, as Launchpad says it looks like rain. Scrooge dismisses him, though Launchpad turns out to be right. Scrooge had good reason for once though, instead of just being a dick good on you comic for making me not want to punch him in the face, trust me that is a high bar to clear with the scrooge comics, as the weather was fine just a minute ago. Naturally it was Magica All Along! Nothing scrooge can do now that eveyrthing has gone wrong! Her entrance though is sadly not a catchy earwormy tune, but .. this confusing line

I think your thinking of Gladstone. And he’s still single so.. have at that but no Scrooge is the one who values hard work over anything else and brags about THAT or being rich. I .. I don’t get this line and frankly I don’t want to. Even in stories where the dime is supernaturally lucky and the source of his wealth he dosen’t boast about it because he’s not stupid and dosen’t want everyone knowing how to bankrupt him instantly. This line will baffle me until I die, presumably, given my life’s tragetctory, after reviewing an episode of mighty ducks and slipping on some a jerky wrapper. 

Scrooge asks what she wants... 

No this isn’t that kind of story sadly. Her plan is to.. zap the bin with lightning and take the dime. Really just went with your first draft didn’t you magica? But as stupid as this plan is Scrooge has prepared for it. He installed a lightning rod on the bin to save on power, and to power his new super soaker traps. So all Magica did was save him money. She flies off and nothing is acomplished. 

So we get back to Webby at the Teenie Weenie Day Camp.. and just so you don’t think that was a terrible joke on my part...

My theory for how this name got approved at all is the editor KNEW how that sounded and just wanted to see if Disney would actually print a comic with the phrase Teenie Weenie without getting what it means in slang or how hilariously inapproriate it is to namme a children’s camp after it. 

Your probably wondering who that grown woman calling Webby a dweeb is. Well story wise, she’s SUPPOSED to be another kid at the camp around Webby’s age. In practice, she looks like THIS in closeup

So it looks and plays like a 30 year old woman snuck into the day camp and no one’s noticed she’s not actually a children. Or their just humoring her because she had a week to live. I don’t know. I do know she doesn’t get to judge on names. 

Snippy Von Glitz, proof rich people really do hate their kids and this this comic is trying personally to give me material. Snippy is your average alpha bitch, taking a chair from Minma and being obnoxious and classist and all that jazz. Minima gets hers back by making the chair bouncy then returning it to normal so Snippy gets in trouble when she makes up things about the chair, with the lady in charge getting ready to call her Dad. You cannot convince me that her “Dad” is just what she calls her husband, this is how they both get off, and that the lady at the preschool only tolerates it because they pay her a lot and so far the kids haven’t noticed Snippy is 30. Webby likes minima finding her name pretty, proving that the ho yay is alive no matter the webby and magica relative, and Minma returns the favor by saving her from a block. 

Minma is reluctant to make an actual friend, finding they aren’t worth anything and given most of the kids here apparently pick on her and her aunt is well.. Magica, it’s understandable why she’d be so cold. But Webby presses on and says something from Scrooge about friends. Which given Ducktales scrooge has none goes weird but it gets Minma to find out she knows and lives with Scrooge, so she cons webby into taking the dime for show and tell, showing that she can manipulate them with her powers, and that he won’t notice it’s missing, getting her with “I thought you wanted to be friends” 

So let’s pause for a second and compare and contrast the two: Both are the niece, or at least sorta in Lena’s case, of Magica, both manipulate webby, and both are her first real friend: The 87 boys are little monsters and I don’t consider them friends or even brothers, while the 2017 ones are just that: brothers. Their her siblings in all but blood, not friends and have hteir own long complicated history. 

But otherwise the two are vastly different. Lena is a far more complex character as she’s been abused her whole life, is a rebel because Magica hardly gave her agency, and while she starts wooing webby out of self interest it’s clear even as far as the first episode she cares. Lena would gladly be part of the world if she could and this whole scheme is to gain that choice. 

Minma is still sympathetic but very different: She walls herself off because the other kids laugh and mock her for being herself and lashes out at them.. not unreasonably mind , but still feeling she needs no one else.. but as we’ll learn later she’s only helping Magica to finally feel accepted, to get all the fancy clothes and stuff that will make her popular instead of that grown woman masquerading as a kid for disturbing reasons. Minma is at her heart just a hurt kid desperate to fit in. And while Lena shares the desire for a place to belong.. it’s at it’s core much sadder. Lena.. wants a family. Someone to love her and to care about her and actually look after her. Minma has that she just wants to be loved. it’s similar but very diffrent and I can see why Lena evolved into what she did, as Frank and Matt ended up going in a far darker but ultimately more interesting direction. Minima is not a bad character at all though and without her I don’t think we would’ve had Lena, but at the end of the day the 87verse is just not that complicated, so the reboot needed something more and that more evolved into who we have now. 

Both kids excitedly talk about their new friends, with their respective guardians being distracted. Scrooge is distracted by the fact his car is a bit bumpy and Launchpad offers to fix it up for free with some parts from a buddy, which given the sentence “This won’t cost you anything” makes him erect, Scrooge agrees. Magica meanwhile, whose watching Minima while her mom is away which raises a LOT of questions we don’t have time for like who she is, is she’s poes wife or does Magica have other siblings... it’s a lot of questions we’re never going to get answers to. 

The next day Webby got the dime easy as Scrooge was distracted. so Minima swaps them while she’s distracted. But while swiping it was easy, which to be fair Webby is likely approved in his security so it woudln’t match her.. or the story just needed to progress. You make the call. 

Magica does the logical thing and goes and get sthe dime and the story ends there.. and i’m shitting you, she of course brags to scrooge, reveals minima as her spy, and offers to RACE him for it shortly after he realizes he has a fake.

The only major flaw in this story is Magica’s overconfdience, which isn’t BAD persay, but here has gotten to dumbass proportions. She just can’t plan for anything and a CHILD has a better plan than her that only dosen’t work for reasons we’ll get to. And that plan is almost ruined by Magica taunting scrooge!

So a race is on but Launchpad has transformed Scrooge’s old Model T into this

Damn that’s cool. Scrooge of course dosen’t like it, but honestly you get what you paid for. Oh that’s right you paid nothing for something you NEED to use every day for transportation. 

At  the rickity thickity bridge, Steve Buschemi’s worst roll and her minion ask Webby to roll with them and Minima mistakes this for betrayal planning to soak them all.. only for Webby to DEFEND HER, pointing out minma’s her friend, how she dresses is fine and she loves her no matter what.. the last part’s implied. The 30-year old asshole and her minon leave Webby and Minma is genuinely touched, as no one’s done that for her before. She put up so many walls... she didn’t realize someone could ACTUALLY care about her, so obessed with thinking she had to be like that soccer mom in preschoolers clothing, she just had to be herself: kinda werid but in that fun adams family way. Webby says she knows Minma would do the same.. so while she prepares to let’s get back to the race. Magica realizes Launchpad’s roadster is actually gaining and spreads some tacks, but Scrooge counters with some money.. because of course he has a lot of money in the trunk. But Magica takes out the bridge and while scrooge awesomely JUMPS IT... he’s still too late. 

As you probably guess though, Minima had a change of heart, and gave Webby the real dime back, and Scrooge confirms it. Minima TRIES to tell Magica, and Magica is horrified her niece is a goody goody “I”ll never hear the end of it at my astral aerobics class”.. I.. I want to see that. Let’s raise those spirit ladies and kick kick that soul, doge that shadow king punch them in the soul. Yes! Now eat it eat it and absorb it’s power!

We end on a button joke as Webby apologizes for taking the dime., Scrooge accepts it and Webby tells them magica learned to carpet and they gulp for some reason. 

Final Thoughts on Dime after Dime: This story was decent. It has problems, some jokes don’t land and Magica is made horribly incompetent, but minima’s character arc is endearing, and Webby herself is precious as always and her winning Minima over feels genuine. And Scrooge is in prime adoring uncle mode with her and i’ts just so cute. And the roadster race is pretty awesome to watch honestly. It’s an exceptional and enjoyable tie in story.. and not the last ducktales 87 story we’ll be covering here. Wink wonk. 

Next Time: Things get DARK as Lena and Webby head into the depths of Scrooge’s hidden bin and Lena heads into the depths of her own soul. 

Tommorow: Woo-Ooo mofos as we go back to the very beginning of the reboot! A family restored, a lost city to explore, and a glomgold rises! Be here or be square. 

[crystalelemental]

“books-are-my-life-stuff: Yeah, as she was the one who spotted the meteor for the first time, she'd be the one to look for it as you said, but nope. Delta Episode and Dragon that Rules the Sky were very emotional for me, for showing Zinnia's effort, and failing, and succeeding, but this? She just suddenly can do it, and while that still made me emotional, not as much as Dragon that Rules the Sky. It's funny, yeah. I guess Deoxys is now stuck with Steven infodumping about cool rocks 24/7 now.“

Deoxys: “He’s been going for six Earth hours.”

Rayquaza: “Oh, you are not going to last here if that’s too much for you.”

I’d agree.  It’s a little bit of an under-selling when it just happens that quickly, without any real buildup.  But, what can you do, I guess?

“Yeah, I like Archie more for the same reason, though maybe my perspective will change whenever I get to play Omega Ruby--I only played Alpha Sapphire and only had that. The last part of the villain arc where Archie and Maxie finally become friends again made me smile and happy, though. I'm glad that they get along again, joining the team was also a bonus.”

I need to replay Omega Ruby too.  It’s been so long.  But admittedly, I don’t love ORAS as much, for potentially dumb reasons.  I hate the Mauville design, that place drives me insane now, and I don’t like that they make me wait until the bike to get Aron.

“I guess, when you look at the Team Rocket's scene that way...yeah, it's pretty bleak. No one knows what'd happen to the trainers that got their Pokemon stolen, and nobody was keeping watch because there were two legendaries fighting and a meteorite to deal with. Just so many things happening all at once, huh.”

I’d say thankfully Looker is here, but he’s been busy with Aqua and Magma too.  If only he had some backup.  HINT HINT

“God, I really REALLY hope Colress will eventually appear in Unova Villain Arc. It's not complete without him, not at all. I like the guy so much in B2W2. Pretty sure Ghetsis might be defeated, yeah, but probably not by Giovanni but by Colress and N? Lysandre is not the kind of person that's easy to be manipulated, so I'm sure he'll be an interesting villain whenever the villain arc drops.”

That’s my guess.  USUM did very much establish that Colress hates Ghetsis, so I can’t imagine they’ll get along.  And Lysandre will go down whatever his path may be, I just want it to be focused on whatever his deal is.

“Yeah, I'm rather wary at how Alola Villain Arc will turn out, especially because Masters Lusamine is USUM Lusamine. I kinda want Lillie to play as an active role instead of damsel in distress though. I have no predictions, I'm just going to say I feel rather wary.”

I go back and forth on Lillie.  On the one hand, I’d agree, I want her to be important.  But on the other, Lillie and Gladion being fine and safe and just part of the team means Lusamine is also fine, and I don’t want that.  My biggest issue with Redeemed Lusamine is that nothing happened to warrant it.  It’s a light switch that flips off-screen.  If she’d struggled more with the transition, or had any kind of arc to the progression, I’d be more inclined to support it.  Lillie being in danger does remove Lillie from the narrative temporarily, but I think they could set up Lillie’s kidnapping in part 1 and Lusamine’s rescue of her through extreme, Ultra Beast related means as the setup for Lusamine’s villain arc, and the second half being focused on Lusamine’s rampage of revenge and Lillie’s attempt to intervene and help her back on the right path.  It’d be something, at least.

“It's really hard to tell Steven and Zinnia's dynamic. They're not friends. They were kinda enemies in Delta Episode. Now they're in better terms, but not really friends. Hard to explain, I just like their dynamic a lot.”

Frienemies.  Or something like that anyway.

[itsclydebitches]

Honestly a lot of what you said about Yang applies to like, most of the cast. The main problem is that, honestly, the writers don't respect their characters, or at least don't respect their legacies and histories. They view their characters as tools, devices to augment to their will to keep a story going.

Yang just got this particularly bad in Volumes 6-8, only managing to course-correct somewhat in the later parts of Volume 8 before getting tossed off a cliff for cheap drama. I'm a major Yang fan as you can likely tell, and it's been nothing short of exasperating watching the writers blatantly ignore all the strong aspects of her character established in Volumes 1-5 for the sake of pushing the plot they want instead.

As one example, that Yang/Ren argument? It was apparently originally supposed to be an argument in Volume 7, between Ren and someone else (likely Nora). And I'll bet you anything they just copy-pasted most of it while just swapping Yang and Nora's names.

Of course there's more (like Yang going from strong arguments in Ironwood's favor to "alright let's go behind his back now" in the same scene just because Blake got sad), but that just speaks to me about how they don't really care about keeping their characters consistent.

Yeah, no one is really exempt from this treatment, with Yang perhaps standing out only because she's one of the main four and has one of the most vibrant personalities. As a comparatively prominent protagonist who - as the show itself says - shines brightly, she stands out in a way that the others often don't. Weiss, for example, has the same contradictory writing in regards to a lifelong struggle with abuse suddenly becoming something to joke about, but because it's one, humorous line and not, say, a full scene involving yelling and intense accusations, it doesn't sit with us quite as much, once the initial criticism has died down. Same with Blake, who despite being a part of the Robyn debacle is not the one to admit that to Ironwood, or later try to put blame on Ruby, or later still get mad at Ren - Yang gets all those emotional scenes. Ruby, meanwhile, is her own kind of mess, but a mess that, as we've seen lately, is expressed by sipping tea and quietly crying on staircases. Outside of giving angry speeches, Ruby's problems are quieter. And the others, despite being involved in the main conflict for years now, are still considered minor characters in comparison to Team RWBY, by both the writing and the fandom (Jaune's unique troubles aside). Yang, by virtue of being one of the show's stars with lots of screen time and bearing a deliberately bright, loud, in-your-face personality is in a unique position where the audience more easily remembers the problems with her writing. We can forget Nora quietly being contradictory in the background of one episode, less so Yang being loudly contradictory in the foreground of a whole arc.

But yeah, all of this is very interconnected. As your example attests: taking a scene meant for Volume 7, meant for another character, and then giving it to Yang in Volume 8 hurts her and Ren, and Jaune, and (presumably) Nora who goes from potentially having a legit disagreement with her boyfriend to... being mad he was upset about all this trauma and that her kiss didn't magically cure things? Honestly, I'm still not even clear on what Nora's deal was the last two volumes. The writers really don't care about consistency anymore, which by default means that they don't care to follow up on the new characteristics getting introduced. That's why Yang's growth was dropped so she could charge at Ruby again. Why Nora wants to be more than the bubbly girl who hits things, but immediately hits something to knock herself out. Why Blake must be devastated over everything with Adam, killing him, theoretically admitting feelings for Yang (to herself), and briefly losing her weapon, yet none of this is addressed. Why Penny is thrilled about being human despite never expressing an interest in changing - only being accepted - and then is killed off again before she can learn to live like this. Why Weiss is flip-flopping about her family every few episodes. She's terrified of her father. She's glibly arresting her father. She cares enough to try and evacuate her father. She adores her sister. She doesn't care anymore. She's back to caring the second Winter calls. She hates her brother. Wait, she loves him. Wait, she loves her mom too. When did that change?

Everyone's character is all over the place, with Ironwood himself being the most extreme turn imo, regardless of what some say about the setup always being there. The only characters who remain consistent lately are those who, frankly, the show isn't interested in developing, like Ozpin who seems to forever be the dubious, apologetic mentor who may or may not be merging with Oscar. But Oscar himself? He bounces from seeing first-hand how dangerous Salem's people are, to trusting them completely, from preaching about the importance of honesty, to keeping more secrets from the team, from being the weakest member to suddenly having a nuke in his cane... "development" has come to mean doing something new every few episodes, regardless of whether it makes any sense. I used to laugh at the fandom's "The only canon is the most recent volume" claims, just an exaggerated joke about RWBY's struggles, but now? It's honestly true. Whether we're talking about major plot holes, or the foundation of these characterizations, things not only change randomly from volume to volume, but episode to episode. Yang, sadly, has been hit by that particularly hard, but she's by no means alone.

[sparklelight3]

Hypothesis idea thingy for how Ash and Gou could get together (quickly dissolves into a poorly written fanfic because I’m a disaster)

So, I had a mental image of like a 2-3 ep. mini arc thing that ends with the two getting together. I apologize in advance for the fact that this gets progressively more and more detailed and eventually just becomes a semi fanfic. This is unedited btw, so enjoy that as well. 

Episode 1: Starts off with the two out on a mission like usual. Then we have another scene like in ep 3 where Ash just does something that completely astonishes Gou. They resolve the issue like they always do, but Gou is overall very flustered, even more so then usual. Ash could have like a dense Ash moment where he asks if Gou feels sick or something, Gou quickly denying it. Since it’s post ep 36, Ash takes note and dawns a concerned expression. Skip ahead a day or two, and Ash needs to go on a solo trip to Pallet Town for his mom’s birthday. This leaves Gou alone with his feelings for the first time in months. He has time to think about what happened on the last trip, and a couple other moments from past episodes might come up in his head as well. In this time, he fully realize that he’s in love. Koharu, who I image figured this out after her comment in ep 40 about Gou “becoming more and more like Ash”, notices that Gou’s been off. Prof. Sakuragi suddenly receives a big mission and informs Gou on it. Gou at first declines it since Ash isn’t here, but Koharu pipes in and volunteers to take Ash’s place. Gou’s thrown off by this, but accepts her request anyway. When asked, Koharu states that this mission interests her. The two have some small talk on the way there, leading up to Koharu asking Gou if he wants to talk about something, in which he denies. Koharu drops it for now, but picks it up later once they arrive. She eventually drives it out of him, and encourages Gou to tell Ash how he feels. After a bit more back and forth she comes up with a plan: once they get home, she’d have her dad find a local mission for him and Ash to go on alone. When Ash gets back, they go on said mission and Gou confesses to him. Flustered and annoyed, Gou agrees. They take care of the mission and head back. Ash hasn’t returned yet, giving them plenty of time to prepare. 

Ep 2 (technically optional, but not rlly fdgfdh): We get Ash’s side of the story. He heads out to Pallet Town solo to visit his mom for a few days for her birthday. Prof. Oak picks him up, and they drive through the country side. Ash looks longingly back as the city skyline vanishes behind the hilltops. Pikachu comes in for a nuzzle, which cheers him up. Oak drops him off at his house, in which Ash is greeted warmly by Delia. He hands her the gift he bought her. A flashback/ mental image could play of Gou leading him through a shopping mall said gift, making sure he doesn’t get lost or distracted. Pans back to Ash letting out a small giggle, dawning the same longing expression as before. Delia asks him what’s wrong, in which Ash breaks out of his gay daze and goes back to his chipper self. He enters the house exclaiming something along the lines of his mom’s cooking, or being excited about sleeping in his own bed again. Delia is still in the doorway, shooting a concerned/curious glance at her son. The entire episode contains moments like this where Ash recalls a moment with Gou, or expresses how his wishes Gou was there, and just thinking about him in general a lot.

Side note: I believe this is the same mindset that he had when he and Gou split up in the Darkest Day Arc. The difference here being that he’s in no immediate danger, distracting him from these thoughts. Anyway, I will now continue with my rambling esdtgdf.

Ash then goes around the town, heading up to Prof. Oak’s lab. He passes by some neighbors, waving hello here and there, possibly running into Gary as well. Gary might pick up on the gayness Ash is unknowingly producing, but says nothing on the matter; maybe a chuckle before heading off. Ash reunites with all his Pokemon. Once again, he starts to think about Gou and how much he’d enjoy meeting his Pokemon. At dinner that night, Delia asks him about his recent adventures. As Ash describes them, Delia picks up on how much he’s talking about Gou. She asks how Gou’s doing, in which Ash starts going off about how many Pokemon he’s caught and how much he has improved in battling. He possibly mentions the events in ep 40, once again dawning a face of longing. Delia notices and points out how much Ash cares about him, leading into a mom-tangent about how she hopes Gou’s keeping up his promise to look after him and that Ash better be taking care of himself and not getting into too much trouble, etc. The next couple days Ash spends more time with his Pokemon; battling with them, introducing his new ones to them, and telling them stories. Prof. Oak comes out to tell him that he’s getting a call from Prof. Kukui. The Alola gang give their greetings as they chat for a bit. Kiawe brings up Gou, asking if he’s stayed true to the claims he made during their battle. Ash once again goes off about Gou, expressing stuff like how Gou technically caught Eternatus, along with the whole Zacian and Zamazenta thing. The ep ends with Ash saying goodbye to his mom and heading back to the city. On the car ride, he makes claims of excitement over going back to the lab. They arrive at the bottom of the lab near the steps. Prof. Oak drops Ash off and says goodbye before heading back to Pallet. Ash enthusiastically runs up the stairs and slams open the door to the main lab area. He’s greeted by Prof. Sakuragi along with the lab staff.

Ep 3: Ep 3 picks up right off from the last ep. After saying hello to the Prof. and the staff, Ash quickly asks where Gou is. The Prof. informs him that Gou’s with the Pokemon, then proceeds to stop Ash as he instantly tries to run off. The Prof. explains to Ash the mission that Koharu had him find, stating that it’s heavily preferred if they could address it as soon as possible. THEN Ash runs off. We cut to Gou and Koharu in the Pokemon garden area (idk what that place is technically called). Koharu is reassuring Gou while they feed the Pokemon their morning meal. Ash soon comes running in, spots them, and waves them down. He mentions the mission and the two just about leave before Koharu stops them and goes inside to get something. She comes back out with a picnic basket, stating that they’ll be gone most of the day and they need to eat. She gives Gou a smug look. He blushes in both an embarrassed and flustered manner. We then get a couple scenes of them traveling out of the city and into the hillside. These would be similar scenes as in ep 46 where they’re traveling on the island, creating silly and gay moments in the process. Gou would naturally be very nervous and easily flustered. This catches Ash’s attention, harboring some concern on his end. Ash therefore becomes visibly more protective. The two eventually reach a clearing, an area they instantly recognize. They find themselves standing in a field of vibrant flowers, the same area that Lugia had dropped them off when they first met. Ash takes the picnic basket from Gou, stating that this was good a place as any for lunch. They setup the picnic that Koharu had put together, or at least, the best that these two idiots could manage on their own. Ash starts going in on the sandwiches that were packed. A flashback plays of Koharu suggesting that Gou should confess when they stopped for lunch. They release their Pokemon to wonder about as they eat; Lucario and Cinderace join them at the picnic. Cinderace (who’s in on this) notices how nervous Gou is and goes in for a hug to reassure him. He returns the hug and whispers a very quiet “thank you”. After letting go, Cinderace would motion for Lucario to follow. The two Pokemon walk out into the forest, leaving Ash and Gou alone. Gou asks him about his trip to try and ease into a conversation. Ash would briefly tell him about it, and ends stating that he’ll take Gou along with him next time. At that, he stares caringly into Gou’s eyes, dawning a smile. Gou then starts the beginning of a sentence, starting to heavily blush similarly to how he did at the end of ep 3. His words begin to stutter and his hands start to stim nervously. He finally gets it out, confessing his feelings. Ash is clearly taken aback, but not in a bad way. Then a wave of realization washes over him. He laughs softly under his breath, having a similar reaction as THAT scene in ep.40 where the clouds clear away from behind Gou, you know what I mean. Still paralleling that scene, Ash makes a similar statement along the lines of, “I really am an idiot, aren’t I? I mean, it took you telling me that for me to even realize that I have feelings for you,”. Something like that. Gou, who has been a mess this whole time, freezes at this and looks up at Ash. After a few moments of eye contact, they both burst into laughter over how big of a dumbass they each are. They calm down, Gou gently grabs onto Ash’s hand, and goes in for a quick and nervous pec on the lips. Ash doesn’t expect this, but accepts it happily; he gives Gou a big, caring smile of reassurance. Cinderace comes bolting in, tackling Gou to the ground in a big, prideful hug. Lucario walks in from behind them, giving Ash a sly little grin. A montage plays of them finishing up the mission, displaying their new habit of frequently holding hands and overall being very adorable. We then cut to the lab. It’s going on to twilight, and Koharu’s just getting home from school. She walks in and puts her stuff down before exclaiming how Ash and Gou aren’t back yet. Not having the chance to do so until now, Prof. Sakuragi asks her what this whole arranged mission thing was about anyways. Shortly after a quick explanation, Wanpachi/Yamper is heard barking outside the front door. Koharu jolts up, telling everyone to stay calm and to be supportive. The two boys walk through the door with a noisy Wanpachi barking and running around their legs. The first thing Koharu notices is the fact that their hands are intertwined. Glancing up, she’s met with a grinning Ash and a very exhausted but very happy Gou; he looks as if he could burst out crying at any moment. She lets out a sigh of relief, stating that she had told him he had nothing to worry about. The staff and Prof. start clapping and cheering in congratulations. The narrator starts talking, stating something along the lines of “they became boyfriends” as the show freezeframes on Ash giving Gou a kiss on the cheek.  AND THERE THAT IS. I apologize once again for the poorly written fanfic this became.  

[winxwannabe]

Oh let me try on the hard level too! Okay Your Choice

Top 5 unpopular opinions of winx club

or

Top 5 least favorite design of the winxs (the girls i mean and that include casual, formal outfits, and transformations)

Hey sure let’s make some more enemies with unpopular opinions!

1) Oritel and Miriam should have stayed dead.  While I get why they’re brought back, and I do think Bloom deserved a moment in Secret of the Lost Kingdom to meet them and tell them she loves them, I think it could’ve worked as a better character moment for her.  Instead of thinking she had to do this to complete her destiny, her destiny was more about herself and finding her place in the magic dimension.  Domino could’ve been resurrected, just without the population.  It certainly would’ve given Bloom something to do.

2) I like pixie-centric episode in Season 3 (Little Big Shots/The Pixie’s Charge).  I know it’s bad, it’s so obviously a filler episode and it comes right after another filler episode (why does Rainbow not sprinkle their filler episodes up throughout the season?), but it’s just a stupid, camp-y episode that I find so bad it’s good.  This may be not only the most unpopular opinion, but also the most controversial.  And you know what? I’m not sorry.

3) I like the Tynix transformation.  I’m not sure how unpopular this one is nowadays, but back when S7 premiered it wasn’t a favorite.  I actually really like the designs, I love the wings, and I prefer that the girls have different stylized outfits instead of the same recolored dress.  Idk, maybe it just reminds me of the Winx on Ice outfits.

4) Diaspro should’ve gone full villain.  I realize that Seasons 1 and 2 had the setup for a great redemption arc, but sadly Iginio Straffi loves to fuck his character arcs up. And even then, she could’ve been a great main antagonist, they could have done so much with her and made it work.  But now she’s just like, Sky’s wacky ex girlfriend doing dumb shit!  Haha Diaspro, so zany and so funny! (I know this was just recently brought up too but I stand by it. No redemption!  Plus they made her stupid which I hate.)

5) Tritannus goes out like a Mo Fo at the end of S5 and I absolutely love it.  Season 5 is bad, don’t get me wrong, but at the end this dude is defeated and he’s facing his family and Ron Stoppable or whatever the hell Will Freidle’s character is called (because legit I don’t remember) offers him this chance to make things better, and this fucker just goes ‘im just sorry i didn’t kill you all.’  How badass!  It’s great, it’s such a good villain moment, and then even though he’s scared he swims through that banishment gate.  We could’ve gotten that kind of villain all season, but Nickbow hates us.

[chispas-and-broken-bindings]

I just say your tags on the gifset of Jon looking at Dany like *that,* and I'm super curious what you imagine the finale would have been pre rewrite. Did they just add in the Tyrion convincing Jon to kill D scenes? Might they have explicitly confirmed pol!jon or sacrificial!jon in some version? Do you think there was ever a version in which Jonsa was canon? I can never make up my mind about what they changed/exactly what happened, only that something did.

Warning. This answer is all over the place. I think they cut some scenes from episodes prior to the finale, but the finale feels the most butchered (though I think we’ll never know and I probably sound like a total crackpot). 

I really think they were going hard for pol!jon during the filming of season 7 and it almost feels like they started doubting that strategy in post-production. Or maybe not, and they thought that the dark!Dany turn was obvious enough in that season that they didn’t need to make pol!jon explicit then, and they could have that be the big reveal of season 8. 

But of course, the general audience didn’t pick it up. So, I think they for sure started doubting the pol!jon shift when they realized how badly most viewers interpreted season 7 and D’s character arc… so maybe when they started putting together the season 8 scenes, they didn’t think they could pull off both Dark!D and Pol!Jon in a way that was palatable to most of the audience, especially when the audience wasn’t primed in the correct way to view Dany as the Big Bad™. 

I think they correctly anticipated the blow back about what a bad look it would be for Jon Snow to have purposely manipulated D within a romantic relationship and then go on to kill her when most viewers went into season 8 seeing her as a protagonist, and that a lot of viewers (including many women) would hate it. They weren’t going to pull away from D breaking bad, since the groundwork was too obvious and that was ALWAYS where her story was heading, but I think they lost faith in their ability to reveal pol!jon. I think they made the mistake of not making Jon’s political movements clearer in season 7 and I think from the very beginning they weren’t very good at making Jon a morally grey character. They didn’t commit to it early enough. He is far more grey in the books than they ever made him in the show, and that hurt their ambitions for pol!Jon quite a bit, I think.  As much as I love subtext, it was too much subtext in season 7, especially for an audience that couldn’t even pick up dark!Dany (even though it was hammered in EVERY SINGLE SEASON). 

I realize I haven’t even started answering your actual question. 

I don’t know what they actually filmed (obviously, lol), but I think they started season eight filming with the intention to make pol!jon and maybe jonsa explicit. The pre-season setup was already there, and then when you look at the first half of season 8, there are too many things that don’t make sense if that wasn’t where they were heading. The Jon/Sansa scene in episode one (was that ep 1?), jealous Sansa at the feast, and then even the Tyrion/Sansa conversation on the ramparts all point to Jonsa (though I suspect the Tyrion/Sansa conversation was a last-minute addition too).  

I’m less frustrated by the lack of explicit Jonsa than I am about the butchering of the pol!Jon plot. The pol!Jon plot was sooooo good. It completed the Stark arc. It was the answer to all of the Stark men who died for honor in the south. It made contextual sense. But...I can also imagine the many, many think pieces that would have been written screaming misogyny and sexism. LOL. 

Those got written anyway. 

I don’t think they inserted many scenes. I think it was more that they cut scenes or left scenes out. I think they cut stuff out of Jon revealing his parentage to the other Starks. That scene felt only half-finished and the transition was so odd. I definitely think the scene where Tyrion convinces Jon to kill Dany was added at the last minute. It made no sense, especially not after the Arya and Jon conversation about Dany being a killer and Jon telling Arya to wait for him outside the city… like what?

I also hope that they filmed something better then the dragon pit scene where Bran becomes king and Tyrion becomes Hand. I hated that scene so so so so so so so much. It was so sloppy and bad. That and the Tyrion/Jon scene felt the most out of place. Those are the two I suspect were added and maybe the Tyrion/Sansa scene in the previous episode. 

It’s harder to figure out what may have been cut, but if I could guess anything,I think they scrapped part of Arya and Jon’s reunion in the godswood (that Sansa conversation was very strange and stilted and if they were going to make Jonsa explicit, a hint there would work) and I think they cut short the scene where Jon revealed his parentage to the other Starks. That is where the pol!Jon reveal makes the most sense, especially right after the scene where he backs D and not Sansa in the war room. If they filmed that scene, it also makes sense that it would have been cut if they decided to scrap pol!jon. Its hard to imagine them intentionally cutting short the parentage reveal to the people it would matter to most (besides D) unless most of the footage was unusable because of last minute change in direction. 

I’m not sure any of my ramblings make any sense, but thanks for the ask @esther-dot