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ghostlytuxedo · 3 months

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This is a Toph appreciation post explaining why I think Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the best, and least offensive, blind characters in popular media, from the perspective of a blind person with ADHD who sucks at explaining things.

This would've been more fitting when I was seeing a rise in "inclusive" media adding blind characters as some kind of uncomfortable attempt at comic relief, but I'm making it now.

Limitations:

While Toph does follow the "'blind' character who can 'see' via powers" trope, she still has some physical and social limitations due to her blindness. I normally wouldn't give super senses or alternative vision a representation pass without major physical limitations despite it, but I'll defend Toph because of how well-written her character and how her blindness is relevant to her was.

Physically, she can't see visual details such as pictures or print. Print being the only in-universe medium, she can't read or write. Even with bending, she is essentially nearsighted, and she can't feel anything she isn't vicariously in physical contact with through the earth. Other elements, loose material such as sand, and wearing shoes also block her ability to feel. That ability being blocked causes her distress, but so does taking away blind people's canes, their substitute 'eyes.'

Socially, she has to prove to her family that she isn't as helpless as they think she is. She proves it by using her bending equivalent to vision, but let's imagine her bending as an accommodation. Being held back by overprotective parents who don't understand that she can do most of the same things anyone else can, she just has different ways of doing it, is a realistic situation.

After being made fun of for her makeup, she glumly claims one of the good things about being blind is that she doesn't have to worry about how she looks. However, she does care about how others view her, even if by all logic appearance shouldn't matter. When you can't see yourself or others for comparison, you have to rely on what others say, and trust they'll tell you the truth whether you stand out or not. It can be very stressful.

Comic relief:

Most blind comic relief characters are varying degrees of incompetent, infantilized, nutty buffoons, who lack caution or awareness of their actions, and don't know how to adapt or preform basic tasks non-visually. The audience is expected to laugh at them rather than with them.

Toph, on the other hand, is witty. Her blindness isn't the focus of her character, and presents comedic opportunities naturally in the form of her own sarcasm when people forget she can't see, and snarky remarks similar to 'blind jokes' many blind people make on a regular basis. I could make a whole post dedicated to examples, but for now, I'll list a few.

When they're looking for the library, she gets irritable and shouts, "There it is!" When the group looks over, she says, "That's what it will sound like when one of you spots it," waving a hand in front of her eyes to remind them that she can't see. When asked if she wants to go into the library, she says, "I've held books before, and I gotta tell you, they don't do it for me," referring to how she can't read them. When Sokka holds up her wanted poster and rhetorically asks what it is, she retorts, "Well it sounds like a piece of paper, but I guess you're referring to what's on the piece of paper." When Katara calls her makeup pretty, Toph says she'd return the compliment but she can't tell. When Sokka makes bad art, Toph says she thinks it looks perfect. And, while using a disability to cheat security in real life is bad, come on. Seeing eye lemur? Sign me up.

What makes these moments funny, though, is that they aren't the majority of things she jokes or talks about. They come up because they're just the type of thing she'd say, similar to making fun of people or praising being back on solid land before making a snow angel in literal rock. She's genuinely a great character on her own. And when she does fail to catch things because she can't see them, or put wanted posters up facing the wrong way, or complain about her feet not being able to see, it's still funny because, unlike characters in other media, it isn't overdone, it's realistic, and she is well aware of her actions. She works because 'blind dumbass' isn't 90% of her personality, and she isn't the only character taking on the role of comic relief.

Conclusion:

I want to see more Tophs in fiction. Give me more blind characters who are confident in their abilities and act like normal human beings who just happen to be blind for effing once.

#atla toph #toph beifong #atla #avatar the last airbender #blind character #blind characters #disability representation #long post #laully's posts #disability

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 11 months

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Is funny to me how the crew in She-Ra always talks how important is for them to make the cast with body diversity, but them they have three male characters with the same body type

If you pay attention you can notice that Sea Hawk, Bow and Mikha all have very similar body types (broad shoulders, small waist and descent amount of muscle) which is funny for a show that cares so much about representativity

And the LGBT representation seems very disgenuine, it doesn't seem natural like the writers or animators were having fun on making the characters gay, just look like they made them like that for obligation, it doesn't look genuine. And then we have the cultural and racial diversity that is...lacking, to say the least

Like, yeah we have a bunch of characters with different skin tones, but they never seem to be an actual ethiniciy? Like, Catra aparently is supposed to be latina but nothing in her character actually looks latina other than her skin tone and Mermista i guess is indian? I always headcanon her as indian because of that dress she uses in princess prom that looks a lot like a Sari, but we also never see anything in Selinia culture that may indicate that. I know that is a fictional world, but Avatar was able to mix real life culture with their shows lore, so She-Ra could also do the same, the characters would really benefit for that cause would make them more unique and would make Etheria actually look like a planet with different people and countries instead of a fairyland straight out of a child dreams

oh yeah. i've noticed only female characters seem to have some diversity in the body types, while all the male characters look pretty much the same. i guess micah has a slightly wider body than bow and seahawk but it's still not a huge difference. hordak and horde prime also have the “standard male body”. kyle is skinny but that's not really breaking any norms, especially since he's portrayed as a weak loser who doesn't matter to the plot.

it is nice to have female characters who are chubby or muscular or different from the norm, but why can't we also have that for men? (and non-binary people but the show literally only had one enby character so..)

the ethnicity thing is a little more tricky since it's a fantasy story, and a lot of fantasy shows tend to go this route since it doesn't take place in the real world, so for example, we can't really say a character is asian if asia doesn't exist in a fantasy universe.

but yeah, the thing with spop is that the worldbuilding is really poor. we don't get to see much about the cultures of the different places in etheria. if they had taken more time with the worldbuilding and differentiated each culture, we could have gotten a more compelling storyline. other than avatar, the dragon prince also does this pretty well. the different types of elves are shown to have different cultures, ethics and practices. they also show how these cultures sometimes clash with the human cultures and norms, it's pretty interesting.

but yeah, it feels like spop just added diversity for the sake of diversity. it's not that they're interested in representing people of different ethnicities or sexualities, they just did it for the brownie points.

#spop critical #spop #spop salt #spop criticism #spop discourse #she ra #anti spop

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the-peruvian-whovian · 1 year

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An alternate Barbie movie ending *spoilers, obviously*

What if instead of choosing to become human, Barbie decided to become Weird? The story was already leading up to "weirdness" as complexity and depth, and setting up a very common womanhood conflict: being pretty vs. being expressive.

Weird Barbie isn't "pretty" anymore because she's been played with too hard and mutilated. But what if we establish those "alterations" of Barbie as creativity instead of destruction—little girls cutting and coloring their Barbie's hair and tattooing their skin with markers as a form of self-expression? That would tie perfectly with the theme that it's more important to "be yourself" than it is to "be pretty". In the original movie, even though her human (Gloria) wasn't chopping up her hair or burning her clothes, she was still altering her by imbuing "weird thoughts" in her like death and depression.

What if Stereotypical Barbie (Gloria's Barbie) and Weird Barbie (let's make it her daughter Sasha's Barbie) worked together to heal the mother-daughter rift? Like, let’s say Gloria finds Sasha weird and creepy for chopping up her Barbie’s hair and coloring it green and scribbling over her face as a kid, and for being brooding and off-kilter as a teen because she, Gloria, prefers a more traditional expression of femininity for herself. And Sasha thinks her mom is sterile and uncool, hates her girliness with deep reactionary internalized misogyny because the mere presence of her mother's traditional femininity feels like an expectation and a box for her. But their Barbies make them realize they are both strange and out-of-the-box in their own ways, and that they are both capable of hurting each other with mutual misogyny and contradictory expectations. Through the story, they find a way to appreciate each other’s different expressions of femininity, and their different rejections of it.

And then the climax could have been the CEOs forcing Stereotypical Barbie into the box to keep her pristine and sterile and pretty to be admired for all time, but never again be an extension of playtime, creativity or an avatar for a young girl's imagination. For a double whammy you could even make this be an allegory for Gloria’s (and many mothers') anxieties about aging (!!!), which is once again about the conflict between being pretty vs. being expressive. You can have Barbie's big moment be her choosing to be present for the human women she cares about instead of a future where being looked at is the most important thing!

We could still have the interaction with Ruth Handler at the end, but instead of Ruth giving Barbie her blessing to become human, she gives her a blessing to become Weird. A creator giving her creation the blessing to become something beyond what she intended—paralleling Gloria's experience of motherhood with her daughter. Both Ruth and Gloria navigate misogyny/oppression while being the imperfect creators of autonomous beings who choose to become something they didn’t intend. This way, we even take a little corporate responsibility for the way Barbie has been used to enforce femininity on young girls, but it still keeps that tender moment that makes women feel like they can be anything they choose to be, beyond patriarchy's expectations, and even beyond their mother's imaginations.

We could have that scene edited alongside a conversation between Gloria and Sasha where they accept each other and heal their rift. Since Barbie is sort of a representation of Gloria's inner child, that gives this moment a intergenerational feel: an older woman blessing a mid-adult woman, a mid-adult woman blessing a teen girl. I loved Gloria's "being a woman is literally impossible" speech in the original movie, but I wish the story had shown Gloria and Sasha go through any of the struggles she listed in her monologue to make it hit more emotionally for me within the narrative. In this version, maybe Gloria is a stay-at-home mom and Sasha is angry that her mom isn't feminist enough, or maybe Gloria is a career woman and Sasha is angry her mom doesn't spend enough time with her. Maybe Sasha wants to express her fashion choices and sexuality and Gloria acts out against it because is afraid Real World patriarchy is going to eat her alive. But in that weird nether world between Barbie World and the Real World, with Ruth Handler and their Barbies looking on, they can come to have grace for each other and accept that their choices are both valid and impossible. That they've both just trying to cling to each other to survive the contradictory expectations of women, and that ultimately their best allies are each other.

If you end THAT with a montage of moms and daughters throughout time, with that sad Billie Eilish song, I would ABSOLUTELY cry.

#barbie #barbie movie #barbie 2023 #barbie spoilers #alternate ending #rewrite #I obviously have strong Toy Story 2 and Everything Everywhere All At Once influence in here #ALSO IN MY VERSION SASHA IS GAY BYE *COUGH COUGH* WHO SAID THAT #make either of them trans and the story's message elevates even more #make all the Barbies canonically non-binary since they are representations of women and not actually women themselves #and also keep the 'I don't have a vagina' joke that was so funny #diana's writing

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scribble-dribble-writes · 2 years

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So apparently it's because "it was eligible for the jury to watch" which is just stupid imo. Also these award shows are heavily hypocritical, racist and biased as hell AND AND AND it's cause James Cameron has his named tied to it 🙄 im tired of them

I'm not discrediting James Cameron's status as a good director. He's made some good movies, Avatar was phenomenal when it first came out. But don't get me wrong, I don't remember anything from it apart from the animals, the beauty of Pandora and the mild thread of human beings going to destroy yet another indigenous planet and then some guy saves it.

Now if way of water had been released before Wakanda forever and it did well or I got to witness what it was all about, like yeah I'll be ok with any nominations they get. BUT the movie hasn't even come out yet? It's needs to make 2 billion to break even? All while we have this stellar movie, that dealt with the loss of a larger than life person and character, indigenous representation, stellar performances by women of colour, amazing scores when Ludwig researched and collaborate with Mayan musicians to recreate a SOUND that had been lost YEARS ago???? Can you believe how beautiful that is??? This movie should win purely for that alone

But wait there's more! The costumes, all the people who worked on each of those dresses, they're all works of art. The VFX team who did such a great job on the whole Talokan sequence? Making me believe that it actually exists. The screenplay, the sets, the BLOODY EFFORT??

I watched the behind the scenes for Way of water, the actors were submerged, yes but they didn't wear heavy ornaments. The monologue of Namor's speech to his people was filmed under water with the whole head piece. Alex's head piece for Attuma was literally so heavy. Mabel was underwater as she wore that beautiful ceremonial outfit? Like most of the scenes we see, were captured as they are.

And yes a movie's merit is that the people love it and we cherish it but it also feels nice to see the actors, directors and literally everyone else you've supported, get their chance to win. I get sore with all these awards, because I get reminded of that time La La Land didn't win because I was rooting for it. And by all aspects it was amazing, the songs, the cinematography and the writing. So I've learnt first hand that these award shows are a farce.

But with this movie it feels so apparent, because it's not just marvel or anything like that. This movie represents so many things for so many people and technically award shows, marketing and media should be behind it cheering it on. Except what I've seen so far is it trying to demean this movie's quality at every turn 🙄

#shuri x namor #tenoch huerta namor #namor #mcu namor #namor x shuri #queen shuri #shuri black panther #shuri #black panther wakanda forever #mcu #marvel mcu #marvel movie #ryan coogler

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limeade-l3sbian · 1 year

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i couldn't get behind the lesbian ending of lok because it felt like an ass-pull for representation after they both went for the same guy earlier, especially with the cattiness between the women before then. i also couldn't get behind kuvira because she was a cop, and because her character existing implied toph slept with a man (and was also a cop), especially when kuvira also went for men, romantically.

more than that, i'm bothered by the shitty plot, especially the way they threw out basically everything important to the world of atla. atla very strongly supported things like harmony with nature and portrayed much of industrialization as a bad thing for the world (due to both the harm it does to humans AND the harm it does to the environment), but the "better world" of lok is steampunk? only about 100 years or so have passed iirc, and the world has become a completely industrialized, westernized, capitalistic place. it's depressing. the destruction of the avatar cycle combining with that really grossed me out.

plot wise, it just felt infinitely less cohesive and controlled than atla. atla felt like it had things to say (many of them based around social justice and environmental justice), and built a strong story around those things without faltering for even a moment. lok felt like a sloppy anime that clumsily tried to forcibly inject social justice talking points into the plot. it's unfortunate because there are a few impressive character designs and concepts, and i would have loved an atla sequel following a female incarnation of the avatar (and actual, solid gay representation would be nice too), but it just failed to be anything actually impressive, imo.

on the downlow, i kind of feel it paved the way for the steven universe era of cartoons, where children's cartoons are heavily marketed to adults (who they rely on for an audience more than the actual kids the show is meant for) using nostalgic references and weirdly inserted social talking points and instances of representation that feel more like the creators are saying "LOOK HOW STUNNING AND BRAVE AND SUBVERSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE WE ARE" rather than actually trying to tell stories, convey messages they feel strongly about, or represent people authentically. i know a lot of right-wing people use that sort of argument in bad faith, but a lot of these pieces of media with gay representation or therapy talk make me feel like i'm a brand or a market audience rather than a normal type of person.

LISTEN ANON LISTEN AUGHHH

Okay! One, you're right! the lebsian ending meant a lot to my coming out development, but i was literally trying to tell people, like, "didn't this shit feel a little rushed?" like, yes they did write to each other and all that and oh, asami said she liked korra's hair (you know, like girls do).

Two, I think you've got Kuvira and Lin mixed up, but your point is no less valid since I completely understand what you're saying. i think the move to turn toph into a cop was supposed to be a funny little "isn't that crazy that the most rebellious member of the group became a cop?" but it's like, yeah, it is crazy. Two point five? If you want to tell me that Toph isn't a lesbian, I might lose some support but I can kind of understand that. To me, Toph is just a tomboy who doesn't like to be restrained. But at the same time, I also don't think that woman is one to just have sex with a cop, have fucking kids, and ugh. Like, I understand they wanted the fun of writing the offspring of a fan favorite, but honestly? Maybe Lin and Suyin should have just been adopted under some strange circumstances because I have never been able to buy that Toph slept with a man. I think that woman cares about herself and helping out when need be.

Three! Kuvira and Lin being straight is another example that another anon said about the writers not being able to fully commit. You know damn well those women aren't straight and you damn sure didn't draw them for the osa gaze. THAT WAS FOR US.

I NEVER THOUGHT OF THIS

I'll be honest, I wondered how they would go about portraying the future of this world since something that really drew me to it was the necessity of bending. To be a bender was a true boon in the original series. So much so that an entire city functioned off of it. I thought it was so cool the way the fire nation stole the concept of the hot air balloon and were able to create something arguably better around their bending. Bringing more tech advancements into the mix always felt like it would sort of ruin a little of that magic, and to me, it did. Seeing them driving and stuff, I was kind of flat faced. Like nah, what happened to the cool ass animals they ride on and stuff? It definitely took a little bit of the magic away. There had to have been a better way to push the plot into the future (if you really felt so inclined) without completely turning it over on its head.

I stand by the fact that I liked the series, but people often think that means you can't talk crap about it at all, and that's simply not true. But this is. I think what I enjoyed about this continuation was the inclusion of more fight scenes. I liked seeing the different ways people used their bending. I've always loved that. I'm an action gal lmao. Plot wise, tho? I understand your point completely.

Damn, that's true. The only thing I'll say is that I don't even really think it did that either. I can't tell you any lesson I learned or was told through LoK except "gay ok" and I already knew that.

You've got some really dope perspective, anon. <3

#ask

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dragonfly0808 · 2 years

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Your rant about fate is just so so true. As a show I enjoyed it as much as I could any basic Netflix show but as an adaptation it was a massive failure. I know you didn’t talk abt Musas white washing but to me even after all these years is still so icky to me. I know the excuse that the actress is apparently 1/8th singaporean is what is used to justify the casting? But still she is white passing and also lmao singaporean is a nationality not an ethnicity💀 the country is literally called multiracial because there is no fixed race. But honestly as a girl in Asia who is of Chinese ethnicity, the casting really was a big blow to me. Musa was the first ever character i saw on screen who looked like me and from the beginning she was my favourite. I feel like the fate writers didn’t realise how many problems and complaints they could have solved with racially accurate casting. They could have gotten away with the trashy magic system if the cast was somewhat accurate. The white writers obviously don’t get the cultural impact Musa had as a character and how important she was to so many little girls who grew up watching winx (every person I’ve asked who grew up watching winx have told me that as a young Asian child their fav was Musa) U can tell this disregard from the way her dolls (and tecnas) are always underproduced and how she mainly is a China exclusive doll anyway. Netflix has shown with their avatar last air bender casting that they have connections and outreach to gorgeous Asian women so nothing can tell me that they were incapable of casting a fully or even half Chinese/ Asian actress. I can’t tell if it’s because the actress they casted for Musa was that phenomenal in auditions or that the “Chinese appearance” didn’t fit their “aesthetic” for a magical British school. I sincerely hope iginio didn’t have a say in casting for fate if not I’ll be so disappointed and I hope that in the future live action reboot of winx/ Live action movies, racially accurate casting will be a priority for the whole cast. Representation was really what gave winx an edge for an early 2000s show and it’s a pity and ironic that it’s newer adaptation is more regressive than its older counterpart

I did mention very quickly that I hate the fact that she was white washed cause, it was VERY obvious that she was supposed to be Chinese. Her parents names in the original dub are Ho-Boe and Wa-Nin, we see her wearing qipaos and other Chinese inspired pieces of clothing and Melody is very much inspired by China.

It’s different but as a latina I was furious about Flora’s whitewashing. Getting to see a latina-coded character that wasn’t the ‘spicy latina’ or portrayed as stupid or impulsive or shallow or any other latinix stereotypes I constantly saw growing up was priceless and it was just… tossed out. And I don’t count season 2 Flora cause we all know they only included her as an attempt to save their asses and didn’t even give her a coherent plotline.

It just sucks to have that iconic representation just… not be there

#winx club #winx rewrite #winx #winx headcannon #winx flora #winx musa #winx headcannons #winx fate #winx headcanons #fate the winx saga

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walks-the-ages · 2 years

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Hey I just wanted to say that Avatar 2 did have a warning sequence for photosensitivity and that most people with Epilepsy are actually really happy for the representation because people just assume that Seizures are always caused by flashing lights (which is bullshit) when actually there are a wide range of triggers which was something they spoke about in the movie.

Okay this anon is hilarious.

Sure, there's probably little paper warnings posted NOW, in February, that Avatar 2 may cause seizures. Probably even in more than one theater location or theater brand!

Except when we went to see it there WERE no warnings posted anywhere at all for it, which is why the post was made!

and even if she's representation for people who have seizures from non-light sources, you literally cannot escape the fact that they included a character with Epilepsy in a film where they STILL went out of their way to have flashing lights THAT CAUSE SEIZURES IN PEOPLE WITH PHOTOSENSITIVE EPILEPSY.

If you're going out of your way to have representation for epilepsy, maybe you should consider NOT having flashing lights in your shitty 3 hour film that triggers seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy, considering that's the one most people know about to begin with so he should have been more than aware of how dangerous his "cool flashy lights sequences" are.

There's been discussions about flashing lights in films everywhere for the past decade more and more often.

If James Cameron actually cared about disabled people, which, pro tip: he doesn't. Please see avatar 1 and Jake's disability being magically cured even at the end of the film when they did the direct transfer when a much more interesting concept would have been the injury transferring over and Jake still being disabled but with an actual community of people who care about him now enough to support him, instead of being alone on earth.

anyways, if James Cameron actually cared about people with Epilepsy, step one is literally to not give people seizures for the sake of shitty, uncessary aesthetics.

James Cameron is a racist piece of shit, there's no point in trying to defend any part of his movies to me lol.

#bold text #walks replies #Avatar 2 #lololololol #amazing #stop coming to my inbox to defend this shitty movie and shitty director #James Cameron #capslock

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likealittleheartbeat · 3 years

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a subtle detail among the cultures in atla: the water tribes have extremely limited depictions of written and visual culture although it’s clear throughout the series the characters, at least from the southern water tribe, are perfectly literate in the lingua franca and use it in messages and on maps to communicate when necessary. As opposed to the secular uses of writing and image prevalent throughout the Earth and Fire Kingdom (used for advertising, government propaganda, and policing of citizens) symbolic depiction seems to have spiritual relevance in the Water Tribes. Even compared to the murti-style statuary representations in the air temples, the water tribe’s visual culture seems particularly ascetic.

Refined symbols are painted over the ajna (third eye) chakras during rites of passage and warrior ceremonies. Pictograms also reside on the gate in the Spirit Oasis, along bridges, and on the protective wall to the NWT, suggesting a mystic significance, even power, to these rare images. This aligns with a number of indigenous belief systems that historically restricted symbolic depiction to impermanent forms during community ceremonies (for a really complicated and interesting example of controversies around this iconoclasm in the face of colonial tides, see Hastiin Tlah, a nadleehi/non-binary spiritual leader and weaver in the Navajo Nation in the first half of the twentieth century). In fact, even much of their architecture has a temporary quality, being made of snow and ice or tents of animal hides. When you observe the significance of visual representation in the Water Tribe culture, it adds to the importance of the Waterbending scroll Katara finds in the first season. It’s not simply a book someone took from a library. Katara likely saw it more as a pillaged sacred relic that wasn’t supposed to be seen by those outside the community.

More prevalent and important to Water Tribe epistemology, especially in the moment of their history the audience finds them, is the oral tradition. Since visual representation is instilled with dangerous power, the passing of culture through stories and relationships takes a central role in their culture. “Earth. Fire. Water. Air. My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days.” That’s the first line of the series, and those first four words can be understood as an established tradition to opening an oral story (and the written Chinese characters alongside images of benders that accompany it point us to a kind of traditional/spiritual storytelling incantation in this practice rather than simple communication). The Water tribes’ oral traditions and limits on recording knowledge, on one hand, made the water tribe’s knowledge vulnerable to erasure through means of genocide, a fact the Fire Nation takes advantage of in their sieges of the SWT--especially directed at the women who served in that community as the maintainers of spiritual knowledge, not to mention their connection, too, to healing practices. But the intangible qualities of oral epistemologies make them elusive, too. They adapt and persist within the broad community in the face of formal attempts by conquerors to eradicate individuals through acculturation and violence. It’s this quality that opens the series and makes Katara’s faith in the Avatar’s existence and return possible. Her mother gifts her life, a grandmother gifts her the stories, and she holds them, embodies them, and shepherds them out for others into the world as a form of resistance.

#atla meta #water tribe #swt #nwt #katara #also the way the show structures a lot of storytelling into the series too #it's really lovely

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wen-kexing-apologist · 3 years

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Thoughts on Comfortable Queer Rep

So I've been on a bit of a queer media kick recently, and by that I mean that in the past month I have listened to The Bright Sessions, Greenhouse, The Infinite Noise, and Look Up and I have watched The Owl House and Young Royals and there has been something embedded in these stories that has been really jarring to me personally, but in a really good way. And it's literally just that in each of these stories there is at least one character that is just able to openly, genuinely, and simply state (or express) their sexuality.

I think of this in The Bright Sessions with Caleb being like "I don't care that he's a boy", with Adam and his "depressed gay kid" comment to his mother in The Infinite Noise, with Lincoln's Dad just being happy for him and with Emmet's aunt asking him if he was gay in Look Up. And the same thing for the shows I've been watching too, in Young Royals, Simon looks at his father and says "I'm gay, Papa" and it's not even a coming out, it's just a reminder, and his father just...apologizes for getting it wrong and corrects the language. It's no big deal, Simon is comfortable, Simon knows who he is, and there is no hesitation and no tentativeness behind his statement. In The Owl House Luz shows her bisexuality from the start, she isn't embarrassed that she has a crush on Amity, she's only nervous to ask her out because she thinks Amity might be too cool for the theatrics. And it's just...

Every time I hear a character be completely open about their sexuality with their family, it soothes something that I didn't realize I was carrying. It marks me as strange, that they can simply say it. It makes my heart twinge, and it makes me happy for a literal fictional character, that they are able to just...know who they are and not be worried about what their family will think. In The Bright Sessions, in The Magnus Archives, in The Owl House there hasn't been a coming out, and until this month I never realized how much I needed to see that.

When I came out, I started as many do, with my closest friends, people I knew I could trust, people who I knew would celebrate it. And then, when I found a label I liked, that I felt suited me, I made a post on social media...and I never talked about it again. From time to time I mention to my mother that I have a meeting for LGBTQ+ students, or that I went to a gay bar. But we have never sat down and talked about it. My mother has had exactly one discussion in any level of detail about sexuality and what different labels in the LGBTQ+ community means, and that was before I came out. When she saw my post she literally left a comment "glad I figured out how to check social media or I would have missed the fun!" and then we literally never talked about it again. She never asks questions and honestly that's fine, but there is some twisted and warped part of me that believes that she isn't fully comfortable with the idea of me being gay. And I know she loves me, and that that love is unconditional and I am extremely lucky for that. That said, I don't necessarily feel ashamed of being LGBTQ+ when I'm with her

But with my father that is a whole 'nother story. I never came out to him, I'm not sure if he saw the posts I made when I did come out and we barely talk as it is. But while he has definitely gotten better over the years with his homophobia, I can't say that growing up in his household I ever got the impression that he was comfortable with gay people. If there was ever a queer character in any show we were watching, his reaction to their love, was less than ideal, and while I didn't realize my own sexuality until I was years and years outside his house, I think knowing him and know the company he kept, that it delayed any desire to do a deep dive into my own identities. Even now, as I am questioning my gender identity, the distain he has for my "boyish" haircut really proves to me that he is not someone that I could ever come out to about maybe not being cis.

But, that's all besides the point. The point is, I am coming to terms with whatever internalized homophobia I have been carrying that makes it hard for me to even verbalize my sexuality or gender identity to the people around me. Most of my coming out has been through screens, through social media, or private messages, because I'm too much of a fucking coward to say it to people who aren't already a part of the community. Because there are people in my family, cousins, uncles, etc. that hate people like me, that are disgusted by people like me, that don't know about me and don't know the harm they are causing.

I have no disillusions about their impressions of me, I know most people in my life were not surprised when I came out to them. I think most people knew before I did that I was queer. But still, it took me listening to this newer wave of media, where gay characters are allowed to be comfortable, where their crises are not knowing if their crush likes them back, where their conflicts or emotional turmoil is because they are an avatar for an ancient evil, and not because they were outed to a homophobic relative. (and yes, that part doesn't really apply to Young Royals for Wilhelm, but Simon's openness about his sexuality to his family is a gift imo) Its late, and I'm tired, and I don't really know exactly what I'm saying here, but the point is that every time I see a character that is open, out, and confident in their sexuality, and can just easier than breathing say they are gay, or that they have a crush on someone of the same gender, or just state that they are in a queer relationship, I keep getting stuck on this feeling that that isn't supposed to happen. That the other shoe has to drop. And there is a part of me that is surprised that they say these things with conviction, and that there is no hesitation in saying the words. It just makes me happy and I'm so so glad that so many queer people have these characters now. That they can see a different generation of storytelling that allows queer people to exist, to be open, to not be ashamed, to not have to face homophobia. I wish I had had more examples of that growing up.

TL;DR: It still surprises me when queer characters are allowed to be secure in their sexuality and I didn't realize how much I needed that kind of representation in my life until now.

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enlightenedrobot · 3 years

Text

On Shame

Alright, I'm writing this off the cuff. No outline, only the mildest idea of where I wanna go with this, but I'd like to talk a bit about myself for a moment.

Earlier today, Lindsay put out a video titles mask off, where she basically addresses various accusations put up against her in bad faith. I don't want to talk too much about her, but I do have to mention that I largely agree with her and kinda sorta share her frustration with the culture created by Social Media.

Anyways... at about 1:20:00 in a video, Lindsay Ellis starts talking about how bizarre it is that we have so many campaigns against minor left-leaning barely celebs while actual racists somehow manage to keep their platforms.

"Are there not enough out and proud racists that you feel the need to unmask the My Little Pony Youtuber?"

"Because you can't impact people who are actually doing your community harm, you can't shame the shameless... So you shame those who can't be shamed those who can be shamed. And if you call one of us bigoted enough times, people will start to believe it. And then you can feel like you solved racism by spreading lies about a person you have never met, and never will, and was doing you and your community no harm. Well done."

That... resonates with me.

You guys don't know it... but I've been falling off my social media game. I had an ongoing blog, I shared my opinions and hot takes, and every now and then I'd make a post that would take off. I never became an influencer, or even necessarily even popular, but I had a thing going on that I was proud of.

And even better, it's how I was teaching myself to write. The word "writer" is literally in my bio.

For a lot of this last year, I've been trying to find out why I fell off. Why it's so much harder for me to write down my thoughts and post them. and thanks to Lindsay, I think I finally figured out why.

I'm a coward. I'm terrified of better-than-though social justice gatekeepers who will pick apart every little thing you say to find some sort of hidden racism. They'll call you out for liking and relating to a black character in a cartoon created by a black man because that character "isn't black enough", or refer to a post I make about a Hip Hop artist I happen to really like as "white-nonsense".

Here's the thing. I'm not white.

I'm also not straight or cis or able-bodied. I would not consider myself among the most oppressed people in the world... but dear god, it's not a contest and I'm sick of pretending that I'm not a victim.

I'm so scared of this mob of people who just don't matter, that I'm letting them literally silence me. Keep in mind, these are the same people who are always "Elevate POC voices" and "don't let white people silence you."

If you people really want to elevate POC voices, then you have to realize that also means recognizing POC as people. We're not some monolith shouting racism at Disney movies, we're individuals of different backgrounds and cultures and thoughts.

And yes, we do have shared experiences. To be a member of any culture means you'll inevitably come across situations where you experience similar microaggressions or are harmed by the same institutions you guys have to realize... I can't talk for anyone other than myself.

Anyways, The entire situation wind Lindsay Ellis apparently started with this tweet:

For whatever reason, people thought Lindsay was negatively comparing Raya to Avatar, and by extension she was also implying that Southeast Asians were the same as East Asians.

She wasn't, she explains her POV in her video, and frankly... I kind of agree with her.

And look... I'm literally Filipino. Raya the Last Dragon is my representation, and like literally everybody else who saw the trailer when it first came out, my thoughts were "Oh. So Disney's doing Avatar now."

I bring this up because... wow was this a weird situation to follow. Lindsay posts a very luke-warm take on twitter, gets cancelled, and deletes her account, all the while people are making claims that Raya the Last Dragon is some kind of pinnacle of Southeast Asian representation, and that somehow, her lukewarm, often repeated take on a Disney Movie, a take which I, an actual Southeast Asian, happen to share... that's what's silencing us?

Like... the people stopping us from speaking up isn't some milk toast breadtuber.

I'm confident people will disagree with me, but I've never been victimized by Lindsay Ellis or her peers. If anything, I just get more excited to voice my own opinions. She's just out there doing her thing on Twitter and Youtube, and if I had any sense, I'd be trying to pursue my own thing.

And let's be real here, the reason why I stopped pursuing my own thing is the same reason Lindsey was canceled in the first place. We're scared of being shamed.

I don't even have the same hatedom Lindsey does, and I'm still scared of it. Even after I post this editorial, that fear's going to continue to linger. I'm worried that people are gonna read this entire thing and start calling me a Lindsay Ellis simp or whitewashed or whatever bullshit racist nonsense they're gonna project onto me.

But if I ever want to continue living my life, producing the content I want to make, writing the posts I want to write, then I'm gonna take a page out of Lindsay's book.

Shame is cancelled. I have no brand. All that's left is me.

#Lindsay Ellis #Racism #Twitter #Tumblr #Editorial #opinion #hot take #cancel culture #breadtube #contrapoints #jenny nicholson

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apparentlyaswarmofbees · 4 years

Text

Deaf MC vs Devildom

A HUGE thanks to @jaywalk-on-me for reaching out to me about this subject. I really hope I have given this it some justice.

Also, to avoid some of the controversies inside the Deaf Culture: I will not be referencing cochlear implants.

And a note for my fellow hearing people, there is definetelly not much difference between us and deaf/hard of hearing people, in fact, after reading about it, I can hardly consider it a disability seeing it can actually allow them to percieve the world in a much different way from ours and would not have any problems in their life if only us, hearing peers, were cooperative and understanding. Everything we need to do is literally minor details and does not hinder our own lifes in the slightest, in fact, it can even help us too! An example is captioning, there is literally nothing to lose, and honestly, even I put captioning on movies of my mother lenguage because sometimes I just can't understand what is being said and captions really help me with that and enjoy whatever I am watching to the fullest! So let's be more understanding. We are all humans, and can all learn from each other's perspective.

And as always

Warning: Uncensored swearing lol, and reference to lesson 16

Lucifer

Ah, yes, he knew about it, was in your files, nailed it, he learned your local sign lenguage, all good.

Except his expressions are so damn stiff.

He signs a 'Welcome to The Devildom' and I kid you not, you will not be able to tell if he is trying to be welcomingly polite (and failing miserably) or threatening you.

It was definetelly both

He gets better at it-

Perks if you like classic music though, because you will be able to give him a whole different way of enjoying it.

He won't force you to speak if you choose not to, but he sure will never stop being delighted to hear your voice if you do.

It still baffles him how observant you are, may start trusting you to find details he missed on certain things.

Mammon

He definetelly forgot everything he learned on sign lenguage the moment he stepped out of the tutoring Lucifer made him and all his brothers, except for Levi and Satan, go through.

Yes he will mistake around 5 signs per day on the first week of your arrival in the Devildom.

And he will often forget that you most likelly cannot hear him (if his voice frequency doesn't match your hearing that is) and go off blabbing without signing and then just go "oi why ya ignoring me" and he definetelly is this close 👌to being wacked with the closest thing at range.

Again, he gets better too.

In fact, once he warms up to you (and that's like, real fucking fast) he will make so much effort to get things right, and he always pays attention to have captions in movie nights even without you asking??

He tries lip reading once when you told him it's not easy and, I will let it to your imagination what on hell he managed to lip read.

Leviathan

As mentioned above, he didn't need the tutoring. Why? Guess what, he already knew at least a few sign lenguages, all because of the many animes, games and shows he has watched portray it, even though the ammount of representation is small.(btw I recomend DARK, there is a deaf&mute character and oh boi she's awesome, it's on netflix)

So he definetelly had no problem communicating with you, in fact, he was almost relieved.

He doesn't need to speak verbally?? He basically would rather spoon his eyes out than talk on the phone so on drug levels texting instead is like heroin????

And oh lord you NEED to invite him to the music festivals on the human world catered towards deaf and hard of hearing people, be will LOVE it.

A little bit of downside though, some of his expression changes are very subtle, but as he spends more time with you, he will start incorporating character voices into expressions and body lenguage instead, and you bet he enjoys doing it.

He will definetelly make music just for you. You only hear high frequencies? Or maybe only low frequencies? Or just nothing at all but you enjoy the rythmic vibrations? He definetelly has spend an entire night making a full fucking album just for you.

Satan

Seriously, he knows so many sign lenguages it actually made his way of signing pretty unique!

Another fake ass who will give you gentlemany smiles at first. He may be a way lot more smoother than Lucifer but you bet his fake ass is not passing your vibe check, not with the way his eyes just feel a little bit not right.

Another one who gets better though.

It's kind of nice how he grows so used to signing while speaking that his hands often give off a sign or two even when he is speaking to hearing people.

He will definetelly roast quite a few half assed interpreters.

Also he may or may not have gotten a new obssession after you two watched a few silent movies together??

Asmodeus

Oh boy this one needs to chill out a bit.

If you can't interpret signs when done too fast then good luck because his hands will literally be able to spell a full fucking paragraph in 20 seconds.

And oh how he explores your other senses.

Definetelly goes to you first to judge how he looks.

Also he is the best option to keep yourself informed?? I mean, it's also something he can relate with, it doesn't matter if someone killed somebody or just broke their nail, he needs to know about it.

He may be a bit disappointed if you don't speak but he gets over it quickly.

Will ruin many people's carreer if they so much as refuse to attent to you just because you're deaf. There's just nothing wrong with it??? Stop being so petty!

He is now your biggest distraction in mid class and you will definetelly end each day carrying at least 10 paper notes in which he will try to speak with you. They definetelly smell like whatever he smells like at the time. And are definetelly written in colored pen. With glitter. And there are hearts. And possibly a kiss mark-

Beelzebub

Big boy definetelly has two types of sign lenguage he uses, and if literally depends if he is eating and what he is eating.

Normally he is just, normal lol. Since he is pretty much quite a bit of an amateur at it he will make use of speech filters a lot when he needs to remember certain signs.

If he's holding something big like a sandwich he will either just gulf it all in to have both hands free or try to make a simplified version with one hand. I'll admit the first scenario is quite amusing.

Yes some of the first questions he asks is how to spells certain foods.

And yes you bet you won't be able to know all of them because Devildom food is definetelly something.

Oh and get ready for a bit of chaos if anyone refuses your order because you're deaf.

Please tell him to flap his wings and proceed lay on him or hug him. The vibrations will be very much close to one of those massage chairs.

Belphegor

Oh boy.

First off, he did NOT know about you being deaf because thanks Lucifer.

You guys definetelly spoke in a lot of exchanged notes under his attic door.

He keeps them all hidden somewhere but he will never admit it.

If you're willing to teach him at least how to say 'hi', 'good night' or things like that, he will appear to not be very interested but once the entire lesson 16 fiasco happens they're definetelly the only signs he knows about for some reason when he finally gets tutored.

Still texts you instead.

Even in the same room.

That's what you get from the avatar of sloth I guess-

He does sign a few remarks at you per example commenting on how the new hairstyle Asmo decided to make made his bangs look like a poop behind his back.

Also this:

(The picture above actually happened and was translated to english from my mother lenguage)

#i literally spend DAYS brainstorming this #and then I searched for any other headcanons anyone else has made on deaf people on other fandoms and BOOM #I N S P I R A T I O N #obey me #obey me!#obey me! shall we date?#obey me satan #obey me leviathan #obey me mammon #obey me lucifer #obey me belphegor #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me headcanons #obey me scenarios #sanaulgi this one is for u #707 #707 mystic messenger #lolololololol

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thinkingisadangerouspastime · 3 years

Note

hi! i really like your posts and recently i came across some anti kataang arguments and i would like to see your opinion on that (if you want to answer because you must be very tired of answering those lol)

“i remember perfectly aang forcing himself into katara. not only once, but a lot of times. in that talk they were having during the play it was one of the moments aang was intrusive”

“i saw people saying that katara was jealous of aang with that kids in kyoshi island, which she obviously was not. she was annoyed at them”

“kataang had no development. it feels like a ship made out of nowhere”

“aang is completely obsessed with the idea of katara being his. proof is that episode were the guru tells him he has to let go of her and he choses to break the connection. it’s like: look what i did for you, you should stay with me. aang learning to let go would have been a evolution for his character”

“making them stay together in the end just because aang is the protagonist and has to stay with the girl is boring and adds nothing to the plot”

“he spend years after a girl that never felt the same for him”

hi anon! im very flattered you like my posts 🥰💛 and you’re not wrong that sometimes it gets a lil tiring addressing anti kataang arguments, but that’s because 90% of them are the same foolish rhetoric dressed up in a different costume, lol. i finally have some free time, so i’ll take a stab at these for you!

“i remember perfectly aang forcing himself into katara. not only once, but a lot of times. in that talk they were having during the play it was one of the moments aang was intrusive”

not gonna lie, this particular “argument” made me crack up laughing because they “remember perfectly… lots of times” but can only name one instance 😂 like i am on the floor, because trying to get away with that in a formal essay would earn them nothing more than a goose egg. you need evidence to support a claim, which this “claim” has none of. i mean,, when does aang force himself onto katara?? when katara initiates every cheek kiss they share?? when they are mutual participants in several shared hugs?? don’t get me started on DOBS - the Now or Never Kiss that falls under literally requires reciprocation from both parties, lol. but regarding the ever-so-infamous EIP episode they bring up:

This post talks specifically about EIP and the play’s portrayal of Aang and Katara (and how it cannot be used to define their relationship). This post explains the true source of Katara’s conflict in turning down Aang (i.e. the war itself and the risks the war presents for both of them) and why the EIP kiss did not “ruin” Kataang’s relationship. This post explains how the EIP kiss was resolved through narrative parallels. This post explains how the EIP kiss is so often blown out of proportion. This post explains how Aang did not “threaten” Katara in EIP (with some excellent commentary in the notes, too).

the fact of the matter is that yes, aang overstepped a boundary with katara there. no one has ever contested that because to do so would be to disregard canon, and here’s the thing about kataang shippers: we love atla canon. it gave us everything we wanted and more. (imo, that’s what anti kataangers don’t understand.) the EIP episode can be interpreted as a “low point” for many reasons, but the primary “takeaway” is that the play performed was imperialist propaganda that preyed on the gaang’s insecurities and demeaned them (much to the pleasure of the Fire Nation audience), which had negative consequences, one of which was aang kissing katara largely out of desperation. no one has ever excused that! thus, what i think isn’t clicking with anti kataangers is that aang and katara’s miscommunication in EIP is not a representation of their relationship being doomed to fail. aang made a mistake and immediately backed off without question or hesitation. katara has time to make her own decision and chooses to forgive him. doesn’t it strip more of katara’s agency away to conclude that katara could never ever ever forgive her best friend for a single mistake that - comparatively - could have been a whole lot worse?

(im just saying.)

“i saw people saying that katara was jealous of aang with that kids in kyoshi island, which she obviously was not. she was annoyed at them”

honestly, i have a question for whoever came up with this jfksjdasks. okay, yes, she was annoyed. that’s a given based on her exasperated eye rolls and sighs. but why was katara annoyed with them, hmm?

here’s my thing about katara’s feelings in this ep: jealousy and annoyance are not inherently the same, it’s true. a person can be annoyed without being jealous (obviously). as such, there are essentially two possible interpretations that have validity, although one in my opinion has greater weight in canon:

1. yes, it is possible to interpret katara’s annoyance that episode as being solely related to their delays on kyoshi island. one can reasonably argue that katara’s romantic feelings for aang were not as strong so early in the series (it’s only episode 4, after all, although lbr - she was Looking at aang’s tattoos in episode 1 lmao), and therefore the primary reason she was annoyed at the fangirls is because they were one of the causes extending their stay on the island when katara felt they needed to leave. it’s a fair interpretation.

2. a different and stronger interpretation, in my opinion, is that katara’s irritation was a product of both annoyance at their extended stay and jealousy of the fangirls’ obsession with aang. because here’s the thing about jealousy: it doesn’t have to be some extreme, exaggerated emotion/reaction! when katara gets jealous of on ji in book 3, she makes a single comment about aang and on ji dancing together. when aang gets jealous of jet in book 2 (because of sokka’s teasing), he, too, makes a single comment (i.e. that it would be a bad idea for katara to kiss jet). i bring these two moments up because they explicitly demonstrate within atla canon that reactions of jealousy do not have to be dramatique and outrageous, à la zuko throwing ruon-jian across the room in book 3, lmao. jealousy can be simple! kept to oneself! as such, katara’s disgruntled manner in that episode - which, might i add, is largely if not only shown in reaction to aang with the fangirls - can certainly be interpreted as a quieter form of jealousy akin to several other moments within canon.

more than that, however, if the writers did not at all want jealousy to be an interpretation on the table… why on earth would they have bothered to mention jealousy as a possibility? here’s the relevant excerpt from the episode transcript:

Koko: [Stomps her foot in annoyance and puts her hands on her hips, while another girl happily waves at Aang; irritated.] What’s taking you so long, Aangy?

Cut back to Aang and Katara; the former enthusiastically waves back at his awaiting fangirls, while the latter raises an eyebrow at the scene.

Katara: [Slightly mocking.] Aangy…

Aang: [Enthusiastically.] Just a second, Koko!

Katara: [Sarcastic.] “Simple monk,” huh? [Annoyed.] I thought you promised me that this Avatar stuff wouldn’t go to your head.

Aang: It didn’t. You know what I think? You just don’t want to come because you’re jealous.

Katara: [Close-up; angrily.] Jealous? [More high pitched voice.] Of what?

Cut to a broader shot. Aang moves back slightly, when an irritated Katara resumes to ferociously stuff the basket with more fruits.

Aang: Jealous that we’re having so much fun without you.

Katara: [Irritated.] That’s ridiculous.

(sidebar, but can i just say that seeing “ferociously stuff” to describe putting fruits away is arguably the funniest thing i’ve ever read sjkdhsjalks)

to me, this excerpt alone all but proves katara’s irritation is a mixture of annoyance at the girls’ (and aang’s) behavior/their delayed departure and jealousy regarding how the fangirls’ fawn over aang. katara clearly demonstrates frustration at aang’s seeming lack of concern for their time crunch and how he’s letting his status get to his head (and remember, y’all: this is very early book 1 aang, he’s barely begun to truly reconcile what it means to be the avatar and the last airbender, which is understandable and a-okay! can’t have growth if he doesn’t start somewhere!). that checks out. but next thing you know, katara’s reaction proceeds to dramatically heighten when aang teases the idea of jealousy to her. again: why include this moment if jealousy was never on the table whatsoever as an interpretation for her feelings of irritation? why make katara’s response intensify so strongly if she’s not jealous even a little bit?

in sum, while i don’t think katara’s aggravation is solely fueled by jealousy, the episode itself points to jealousy as at least a part of it. simple!

“kataang had no development. it feels like a ship made out of nowhere”

this take screams willful ignorance, like did they even watch the whole show?? it’s not worth addressing over and over, ngl.

This post and this post explain how Katara’s feelings for Aang develop throughout the series. This post explains how Aang consistently supported Katara throughout the series. This post demonstrates how Kataang is literally ingrained in every episode.

“aang is completely obsessed with the idea of katara being his. proof is that episode were [sic] the guru tells him he has to let go of her and he choses [sic] to break the connection. it’s like: look what i did for you, you should stay with me. aang learning to let go would have been a evolution for his character”

“completely obsessed” h e l p i weep for the lack of brain cells 😭 it is so hard to just say “kataang isn’t my cup of tea” and go?? seriously?? i thought we were past making stuff up to support shipping agendas. lord help us. real quick:

This post explains how Aang never acted like he was “entitled” to Katara’s affections. This post explains how Katara and Aang do not “idolize” each other. This post and this post talk about Aang’s chakra being blocked and unblocked, and how it had to do with fear, not attachment. This post talks about Aang and the Avatar State, explicitly discussing “The Crossroads of Destiny” and the notion of attachment/letting Katara go.

okay, let’s take this claim one sentence at a time:

“the guru tells him [aang] he has to let go of her [katara] and he choses [sic] to break the connection.”

first of all. FIRST OF ALL. can you imagine the hellfire that would have rained down if aang hadn’t chosen to go rescue katara? here is a piece of the episode transcript:

… Right before he is able to completely open the final chakra and master the Avatar State, however, he hears a shriek from Katara and sees a vision of her in chains. At this, he jumps out of the energy sphere and runs away from the Avatar Spirit. The energy bridge that leads him there slowly vanishes behind him until it catches up and falls from underneath him, causing his image to plummet toward Earth. This cuts his connection to the Avatar State, which forces him back to reality.

Aang: Katara’s in danger! I have to go! [Prepares to exit.]

Pathik: No, Aang! By choosing attachment, you have locked the chakra! If you leave now, you won’t be able to go into the Avatar State at all!

Aang hesitates but leaves anyway, leaving Pathik concerned and disappointed.

aang chose to leave because katara was in danger. if he had chosen to stay,, dear god. the vitriol that would have been thrown around. “aang doesn’t really love katara! he chose not to save her!” “aang is so selfish and greedy! he chose power over love!” it’s literally a catch-22. damned if he does leave, damned if he doesn’t leave. #fandomlogic

anyways, yes, sure, aang chose to leave, which at the time broke the connection. he was indeed in avatar state limbo for a Hot Minute. whoop de do.

“it’s like: look what i did for you, you should stay with me.”

logical fallacy: ad hominem, hasty generalization, ∴ not worth our time 💛

“aang learning to let go would have been a [sic] evolution for his character”

i have amazing news for those who perpetuate this take. aang did let her go! he would not have been able to enter the avatar state in COD if he hadn’t! point blank, it is utterly untrue to pretend aang did not “let go” of his attachment to katara. now, im not going to get into the concept of “attachment” here and what it truly meant for aang to have “let katara go” in the book 2 finale (if it was good, bad, etc. etc.). there is a lot of material to work with there that would require like,, an entire post to dig into, if not more. the fact of the matter is that aang did let katara go, and the proof is that he successfully entered the avatar state before azula killed him. the above claim thus sits in complete contradiction to canon and is a moot point.

“making them stay together in the end just because aang is the protagonist and has to stay with the girl is boring and adds nothing to the plot”

“making them stay together” again, is it so hard for someone to just say “kataang isn’t my thing, im gonna stick to fanon pairings, but y’all have fun” i mean that really, really does not seem so difficult to me! also, “making” is a hilarious word to use just because,, atla is a work of fiction. in that respect, the writers “made” everything happen. you cannot escape their sphere of control.

anyways. that’s just funny to me lmao

but no, aang and katara did not get together in a romantic fashion just because aang was the lead male protagonist and katara was the lead female protagonist. i refer back to these posts from earlier:

aang and katara got together because their relationship had been developed since episode 1, duh. reducing their relationship to “lead guy + lead girl” completely disregards the legwork done and the foundation laid for their romantic partnership. like, all someone has to do is rewatch the show 😂 and i hate to break it to whoever created that take, but to say kataang “adds nothing to the plot” again ignores how their relationship is one of the two most important in the show (the other being aang and zuko’s relationship as narrative foils). it is not a cheap coincidence that kataang embodies multiple complementary themes/motifs of atla: push and pull, yin and yang, air and water, oma and shu, etc. etc. their relationship adds emotional depth! how is that not relevant to the plot! atla is a show where just about every relationship is important in some regard (this post touches upon how aang alone transforms all of his friends - think of the bigger picture, then, and how every other dynamic weaves in a crucial thread to create the beautiful tapestry we call atla!).

my point is that kataang is relevant to the plot the way every relationship in atla is, whether or not someone ships/enjoys them. you cannot have a good show without having intimate relationships (emotionally, i mean). can you imagine if someone said zuko and iroh’s relationship wasn’t relevant to the plot?? there is a reason it is such a powerful moment when iroh and zuko reunite in the finale. similarly, there is a reason yue’s sacrifice and sokka’s consequential (and lasting) grief is so poignant. there is a reason it is so heartbreaking when katara and sokka have to leave behind their father at the beginning of tsr. to tie back to kataang, there is a reason it is so hard to watch katara dismiss aang in that same episode. there is a reason so many people are moved when katara pulls aang out of the avatar state when appa is stolen. there is a reason emotional reactions are incited during atla and it is because these relationships are so important!! i don’t care if someone thinks kataang is “boring” - that’s their opinion, they have a right to it. but to insist their relationship wasn’t relevant to the plot? to the story? when in fact it was a key component from episode 1?

are you kidding me?

“he spend years after a girl that never felt the same for him”

“years” lol doesn’t atla take place over the course of a year at most? pretty sure this person didn’t even watch the show 😂 for a third time, i refer to these posts:

i hope i addressed these (nonsensical) arguments to your satisfaction, anon! a lot of them are the same tried-and-failed anti kataang arguments, smh. not to incite new discourse lmao, but it’d be nice if there was at least some variety 😂 thank you again for your kind words, my friend! 💛

#kataang #aang #katara #aanglove #atla #avatar the last airbender #atla analysis #kataangtag #amy answers #anon #amy analyzes

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whythehellnaut · 3 years

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The secret brilliance behind Nickelodeon All Star Brawl‘s marketing

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the Nickelodeon fighting game after it was announced, progressing from mild interest to ironic excitement to unironic excitement for it. So many jokes and memes have been made about it that they’re almost impossible to avoid. But when I thought about it, I realized that that’s exactly what the marketing team for this game wanted. The idea of the game is so absurd that no one would expect it to exist, but they figured out a way to make absolutely sure that it would create just the right buzz to get people like me to take serious interest in it.

Watching the trailer again, I figured out that every character they picked to showcase in that minute and a half trailer were carefully and strategically chosen to cater to as many people as they could. Even the order of their appearance had deliberation behind it. Here are my thoughts:

Michelangelo comes first, establishing that the game is combat focused. After all, who better to show off first for a fighting game than a character that has already appeared as a playable character in at least two of them? Plus, the Ninja Turtles are the oldest characters in Nickelodeon’s library when you consider that they first aired in the 80′s, before Nickelodeon even started making cartoons. This is a character that everyone recognizes, parents included.

Lincoln Loud comes next, a more modern character that adults might not know but kids will. This is to quickly lure the kids, who have less patience than adults, into watching the rest of the trailer, assuring them that it won’t just be older characters like the turtles that show up.

Powdered Toast Man comes next to snatch up the other side of the equation, the adults/90′s kids who remember him from the original Ren and Stimpy show from 1991. I’m not sure if it’s still airing as reruns on Nick today, but considering I hear very little about the show online, I’m guessing not. This is a bit of a surprise to the adults who thought it’d be a kids’ game, so it lures those folks into staying for the rest of the trailer as well.

Sandy is important to show off early for a number of reasons. Spongebob is popular among kids and Millenials, and is arguably the only property here as well known as Ninja Turtles, so they’re luring in more fans. It also serves to imply that other Spongebob characters will join, as, even though Sandy’s passion for karate makes total sense for her to appear in a fighting game, you still can’t leave out Spongebob himself. Showing her first implies more possibilities of characters to come, proving it won’t just be a festival of protagonists like Jump Force was. It also shows off their female representation to keep women interested.

Patrick is just a fan favorite to get out of the way before the sponge shows up, so he’s only here to confirm that the game is going to be full of characters that people actually want to see.

Oblina was personally a shocker to me, as I barely remember Ahh Real Monsters from my own childhood, but I remember enough to know that she wasn’t the protagonist, necessarily. I also know it’s relatively obscure in comparison to Spongebob or Ren and Stimpy, so they proved that they are willing to take characters from more obscure shows that the young kids won’t remember. This solidified my interest as I could tell that they are doing more to cater to the 90s generation than just confirming Powdered Toast Man.

Nigel Thornberry is arguably their most important addition at the halfway point. Outside of Spongebob characters and maybe Stu Pickles, I would say Nigel is the internet’s favorite Nickelodeon character to use for memes. The marketing team had to have known this. After getting some of the core audiences hooked, they now have the memer crowd invested, ready to spread the word about the insanity of this game’s premise across the internet. This is exactly what happened, and why the trailer has 2 million views on Youtube right now.

Lucy Loud is shown off quickly to remind the younger crowd to keep watching, and to add a little bit more female representation.

Spongebob is shown off a little bit late, but since we were expecting him to show up, it’s just to make sure the casual fans who only know the big names stay watching.

Helga is an older character, but I recently saw a young kid wearing a Hey Arnold tee shirt at the supermarket, so I’m positive it’s being shown as reruns on Nick today, so most Nick fans of all ages will be excited about her. Moreover, since she came immediately after Spongebob, who is a protagonist that was introduced after Sandy, a side character from his show, it gives an implication that Arnold will also appear. Although he is not introduced in this trailer, it allows the fans to speculate that he will soon be showcased, perhaps in the next trailer. Also, she’s the fourth female character shown, confirming that the game is being fair and inclusive to both sexes and not simply catering to male gamers, like say, Jump Force or Dragonball Fighter Z.

Reptar is another shocker, because although Rugrats is very popular and well known throughout the generations, he is a very, very minor character in the show. He is literally a fictional character within a separate fictional universe. The marketing team threw him in to show off that just about any character from any Nick property, no matter how minor or obscure, has a chance of making it into this game. Again, this forces the fans to speculate about future announcements with even more creative thinking, as we now know that it won’t just be major characters joining the fray.

Zim is a well thought out choice because he caters to a specific crowd that I’d describe as the alternative niche. That is to say, there are people who are fans of Invader Zim who don’t watch other Nick shows, so they are luring in the folks you’d expect to see at Hot Topic and the like. It was an edgy show with a feel and fanbase unlike other shows of its era, so it’s important to use him to diversify the roster. They also showed off Gir as his assist, and although that may deconfirm him as playable, it still pleases the fans, who often prefer Gir over Zim.

Danny Phantom is the only character that comes strictly from the 2000s era, so they are making sure to maintain the attention of the teenagers who watched that show as kids.

Leonardo seems like an odd choice to end on, maybe even anticlimactic, since they started with Michelangelo, but it makes sense when you think about it. They couldn’t show just 1 turtle, or else it might imply that the game’s roster was small. But if they showed all 4 turtles, they would have needed to leave two other characters out of the trailer to make room for them, and they didn’t want to make it look like a Turtles fighting game with guest characters. So having exactly 2 turtles allows them to show off enough characters from other properties, while also confirming unofficially that the other turtles would appear later, since you can’t just have 2 of the 4 turtles in the game. By leaving it open like that, they’re giving an implication that the roster is going to be huge. So big that the turtles were just a small portion of it. They end the trailer this way to leave the crowd speculating again: how many characters will appear in total?

The only characters that curiously don’t show up in the trailer are the cast of the Avatar franchise, who are quite popular. However, one of the stages shown is clearly the Air Temple with Aang’s glider in plain sight, implying that Avatar characters will be announced later. Another smart move to instill hope in the fans.

Finally, the Rollback Netcode announcement that came afterward solidified a very important group- the serious/competitive gamers. For those who don’t know, rollback netcode is relatively new technology that speeds up online gameplay to cut down on input lag, which is super important for fighting games in particular, as they rely on strict timing more than other game genres. It’s so new, however, that not all competitive fighting games use it. Popular tournament fighters like Super Smash Bros, Tekken, and Dragonball Fighter Z have not implemented rollback netcode for their games yet, so of all games, Nickelodeon All Star Brawl beating them to the punch is causing a stir. This is a sign that the devs are putting serious effort into making the game enjoyable online, which could potentially help its chances to be taken seriously in competitive settings. Only time will tell if that truly happens, but it’s a sign of quality, nonetheless.

So ultimately, this short trailer and announcement manage to cater to dang near every crowd that may want to play it: Kids, teenagers, young adults in their 20s and 30s, parents in their 40s, men, women, memers, casual fans, alternative fans, and serious gamers, and opens up a ton of potential for speculation regarding new announcements. That’s a fantastic way to start off and explains why this game, which for all intents and purposes should have been nothing more than a thought experiment that people joke about in the car with friends, has been trending so much for the past two weeks. Congrats to the marketing team for what they put together.

#Nickelodeon #nickelodeon all star brawl #fighting games #fgc

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