#butch Zuko is so personal to me

[pokidokieships]

*hits zutara with the yuri beam*

[comradekatara]

Genuinely asking—what changes would you make to the adult gaang designs? :)

this is such a fun question thank u for enabling me. i mean i draw them as adults sometimes so also check out my /oldergaang tag if u want visuals (altho i also change my designs a lot because my art is nothing if not inconsistent) but if i was just going with like standard character designs like if i could redesign that hideous “old friends” poster for example…

aang: get rid of that fucking. chinstrap. don’t give him white man features because what the hell is that. and let him wear his off the shoulder monk robes from book 3 because he was slaying with that fit. actually the way aang is drawn in imbalance is basically perfect i would retain that design into adulthood. thank u peter wartman for all that u do….

katara: i don’t mind the older katara design (from the little we see of it) but it’s also not nearly as cunty and slayful as i would like. katara is genuinely interested in fashion and loves experimenting with clothes and hair and makeup, i refuse to believe that as she ages and has more resources to tailor her style to her own personal tastes she wouldn’t get a little funky with it. like she kind of just looks boring and uninspired in her older design, and that’s unacceptable to me because she should be hot. adult katara should be the hottest woman you have ever seen in your life. and she should be buff, also. shredded, even.

toph: any signifiers of copness are obviously unacceptable to me. but even more that than, it’s very important to me that older toph is distinctly butch. i think she would cut her hair the second she realizes that there is no reconciliation to be found with her parents and that there is no reason to adhere to those confucian values. and she would wear a lot of sleeveless outfits (sort of like the shirt korra wears in “korra alone”) to show off her biceps and also space bracelet (spacelet) that is her prized possession forever. and she’s just kind of a hot hippie butch legend . period.

zuko: in the old friends poster he literally looks like a lizard so just like. no. wtf. and i like his long hair in theory but i don’t like that it’s styled after ozai and not ursa, i think his hair would be shwoopier and frame his face more. and his robes should be less spiky and militaristic and more designed for comfort because that’s what makes him feel most like his true authentic self and he deserves that. also weird for a guy who is trying to demilitarize the fire nation to wear an armor-adjacent type of outfit. so mainly he’d just look softer and more like his mom.

sokka: i hate buff goatee whitewashed sokka that is some kind of demon. lok did so little with him and yet said so much (all of it egregiously wrong, ofc). sokka would be fairly tall (although not as tall as aang) and have defined muscle but in a sinewy, lanky way. and despite always having enough to eat he’d still look somewhat malnourished just because he’s constantly overworked and exhausted and never takes care of himself. and his ponytail would be longer but he’d still shave the sides. and the older he gets the darker his clothes get until he basically just wears black all the time because at some point he realizes that it’s more advantageous to remain culturally ambiguous if he’s gonna be a cosmopolitan. and he wears glasses (which were a gift from kuei). and sometimes he uses a cane because he didn’t sufficiently take care of his broken leg after the war ended and now he’s paying the price for it. and his cane has a blade inside too, but he rarely ever even pulls out the blade because he can incapacitate someone with just a wooden stick anyway. so he looks like if a nerd was a shadow was about to collapse at any given moment was secretly ruling the entire world. and he’s not in any sort of front-facing position of power whatsoever but he’s actually pulling all the strings from behind the scenes, and it’s exhausting. his eyebags are visible from outer space.

suki: i don’t even think there is a “canon” adult suki character design besides her in her kyoshi warrior armor and makeup but to me casual suki just starts dressing more like sokka. like the loose baggy sleeveless shirts (except in a lighter shade of blue bc kyoshi island colors) and tight pants and boots. it’s a very dykey look already and they’re basically girlfriend twins so their styles would merge even more than it already has within the show itself. like sometimes people think that sokka and suki are siblings because they dress so similarly and give off such a similar vibe and they’re just like “but we’re literally different ethnicities??? and also we are currently making out????”

okay bonus round bc i can’t just neglect them

azula: she cuts her hair really short and as an adult leaves it to shoulder length for the most part because that’s more comfortable for her. like zuko, she also starts dressing for comfort, and for a period in her late teens stops wearing makeup altogether. she gets back into wearing makeup as an adult, but she stops caring about whether or not she leaves the house with lipstick on, and it becomes more about the process for her than the result. she’s comfy and cute and dykey.

mai: sokka is her lesbian style icon so after her first haircut that was inspired by toph’s haircut to piss off her parents, she gets an undercut and starts wearing her hair in a ponytail like sokka. as she gets older she also gets more confident in her body and doesn’t feel like she needs to wear baggy long-sleeved clothing at all times or she’ll die. and she isn’t rail thin as an adult either because she starts letting herself eat more than a single grain of rice at a time. also, she gets a sword.

ty lee: she becomes a kyoshi warrior so she starts incorporating more blues and greens into her wardrobe, but also more oranges and yellows after she embraces her air nomad heritage. and she just dresses very colorfully and has a vast rotation of different cute little outfits. and i think she’d also experiment with different hairstyles once she has the freedom to define herself outside of the aesthetics expected of her. she looks beautiful always

haru: he finally shaves that thang

[ididgettomeetyou]

i want to give my 2 scents on that infamous shipping video bryke put out in i think it was what 2008/2012??? im unsure.. anyway my thoughts are this... One it was def immature/ not great to use kids artwork to demean them.. As a lazy artist taking peoples art to insult them really bugs me.. its why i hate when people here grab zutara art and bash it.. artists put their heart int their works. talking about it in ims is one thing but posting it/bashing it is just meanspirited.

what im saying is i totally can understand why people were upset with that video..

personally as an azulaang crackshipper i thought that part was kinda funny.. but i enjoy weird darkships. and as mutliszutara shipper i obv dont think people shipping it are dooomed. while i find it a bit amusing it was def meanspirted/uncalled for.. beause at the end of the day they are adults and you dont bully children over ships. its why im mad at grey for bullying kids some years ago/ and being very weird to em in general.. im happy her adult va is gonna be different.. im hoping one day daph will too.

BUT anyway its been what 14 years now? i see no point in still being bitter over that video after 14 years.. i see zero reason to be bitter over a ship for that long.. doesn't seem healthy its more fun to just enjoy your ship and not act like the creators robbed your house and stole everything you love. this fandoms attachement to being robbed/ is riduclous.. the creators didnt owe me zutara at 2008 back when i shipped it its their show.. they can have whatever ship they want. I wanted danny/valerie i got danny/sam.. it sucked but it wasnt the end of the world.. plus Butch acutally sucks as a person..

i think its just time to let the bryke hate die cause .. its been like 14 years. and without em the show wouldn't even exist. there be no zuko/no katara... there be nothing.. ive never see a fandom hate a creator so much its just insane to me.

esp with a bazillion other writers involved. who shockling wrote for kataang/maiko. . zutara was a fun crackship but thats all it was man.. a crackship no one was robbed.

[limeade-l3sbian]

NOT AANG. "the hero gets the girl" is a bad narrative, and i'm not particularly fond of either "childhood friends to lovers" (in most contexts) or the specific "fated to be together by destiny" path they went (where she isn't really into it but goes with it in the end, anyway). but it's repeatedly shown aang's affections are not something she wants or reciprocates until the very end, when he saves the world, as if saying "yes, that unattainable woman WILL become attainable if you do a good thing and/or change her circumstances." it's really gross, especially when she had already spent a large portion of her life having to provide for men, and define herself in relation to men (both in terms of allegiance and opposition), and even more so because it's clear she views him as a child (or even a brother) for a significant amount of the plot.

i think zuko would have been a good candidate. i don't necessarily ship it (because they were kids...), unless we reimagine zuko as the (still autistic) butch lesbian i would have preferred him to have been, but they have a lot going for them. both of them are siblings of two who had to grow up too fast after losing their mothers, both of them had siblings who disrespected them, they fire/water dynamic is a very good one, they both had pressure to fill certain roles in their families (katara facing misogynistic expectations to be a caretaker and not much else, and zuko facing expectations to be the perfect heir to an imperialist nation). honestly my main issue is less with the content and more with the fact that most people who ship zutara seem to make fanart depicting them as wayyy too adult for their ages. the way they draw katara (who is 14 years old iirc) in particular has always really creeped me out.

but i also agree that katara should probably not settle with any boys/men for a long time, and try to learn how to live her life as her own person as thoroughly as possible instead of committing herself to anyone (especially not a male, considering her story) so early on in life. idk how long that would take her to do, because she has a lot of baggage to sort through, but i truly believe it's what is best for her and what would make her happiest. she's strong, so i think she could maybe work through the bulk of it by her mid 30s and start dating then? but it's all just headcanon.

Let me lick your brain, anon. You've taken the words right out of my mouth.

[low-budget-korra]

My controversial opinions on Avatar #3

-Katara and Azula are best parallel in the Avatar verse. And yet so overlooked.

-Uncle Iroh failed Azula and I it was because of two things. First is misogyny and second and maybe the most important one, he saw his son in Zuko. He already was closed to Zuko because he was the male nephew, but after Lu Ten died, he saw in Zuko a chance to be a father again.

-Since we are talking about her. No, Azula wasn't pure evil or a psychopath. She did care, she loved, she suffered, she feared, she felt empathy...and even with all the manipulation Ozai did to her, sometimes she was able to show all that. And stop comparing her to Kuvira. Azula was a 14'old who was abandoned, manipulated and emotionally abused. Kuvira is a grown ass woman who knew better.

-No, it wasn't Suyin duty to rule The Earth Kingdom after the queen death, or wherever some of y'all demanded. Her duty was with the Metal Clan. And I know it may be selfish and all but her duty and responsibilities was with the Metal Clan. And especially in that time of caos, is logical she would choose to stay and take care of her city. She could have helped? Sure but I'm being realistic here and even tho I don't agree I also don't think is her fault that Kuvira raised to power like I've seen some people commented

-This one may trigger some people but here we go. It bothers me how most of the Korrasami fandom go way too fast assuming that Korra is the masc/butch of the relationship just because she is tomboyish. Like yeah, let's ignore that she literally wore dresses on the show and seems hella comfortable with wearing them. And that Asami was way more close to wear a suit than Korra ever was.

Personally I think Asami gives more masc energy than Korra, I think Korra is something in between. Like, def not a femme but still not a masc.

And also bothers me that some of people in the fandom treat Korra like she was a savage. She is always being portrait as this brute, super impulsive, aggressive and dumb. And it feels racist u know?! Especially because we know she is smart and caring and sweet and def not a savage. So why people keep portraying her that way? Stop treating Korra like she was just a pile of muscles, she ain't, she is way more than that.

Ps: It's okay to do shit (fanarts and fanfic) with Korra losing it for a moment, or wearing suits and be masc wherever. This is to the people who only portrait her like that, ignoring the canon

-99% of the characters in tlok are developed or have at the very least a closed arc. Don't compare them to tla characters because tla have the double episodes to develop them, and don't compare with shows that don't have half of the characters tlok had. Considering the time and number of characters to work with, they did a amazing job.

When development ain't the same as time screen. And with tlok, half of the development had to happen off screen, with them just suggesting stuff too us complete in our head. And development happened either you like or not. The same goes with them being deep or not, I think they are, but again, a lot os things is suggested and not showed to us. That's why people keeping saying tlok characters aren't that deep or that they didn't have development

[sxpphicazula]

something I’ve noticed about the atla fandom is how willing people are to strip the meaning from toph’s character entirely. while her distorted and exaggerated androgyny plays a part in this—I often see her reduced to a caricature of a “strong, butch woman,” which I recently reblogged a post about—but I think people are glossing over how her disability factors into these prejudices. we are already reduced to subhuman, even alien in the eyes of society, and many people refuse to go to the lengths required to understand toph’s character. she’s powerful, but her bending is equivalent to a mobility aid, therefore her relationship with it is far more complicated and nuanced than the relationships of other characters with their bending. there was a time when her own parents overprotected her to the point of crushing her, which leads me onto a question.

when writing toph beifong, do you infantilise her? stereotype her? reduce her to a strong, well-adjusted disabled person whose disability simply does not matter or affect them? as a severely deaf person who lipreads, I’ve been asked thousands of times how it affects me by people (some well-meaning, some not) with both curiosity and disgust in their voice. to what extent am I like them, and to what extent am I an alien from a world they refuse to learn about?

this is one of the reasons I constantly find myself hyper-adjusting to the world around me. if I’m sitting out of view of my teacher’s face, I will resign myself to the inevitability that I’m going to miss content, straining my eyes and aid for hours which results in migraines instead of asking if I can move—which, while outwardly an easy solution, has never done anything except incite irritation and cause my teachers to see me as helpless and subhuman. which I’m not, obviously!

so you have to understand that while toph seems “well-adjusted” and “high-functioning,” the effort she puts in to appear that way defines her daily life. after being controlled by her parents for so long, of course she would hate to be caught needing help. (this is exemplified in the western air temple when zuko burns her feet). many disabled people, as well as myself, have anxiety disorders connected to this fear of needing any kind of help or awareness.

I’m not asking you to create insightful metas and headcanons relating to toph’s character, but I am asking you to check yourselves and do real research when writing about her—especially in modern AUs. our society is so, so incredibly ableist right down to its bones and this affects disabled people every day of our lives. (and maybe reblog this, if you can?)

I didn’t mean for this post to get so long, so I’ll end it here: please, do not strip toph’s character of nuance and meaning by falling back on harmful stereotypes that have been used to dehumanise us for centuries. do not belittle disabled people in fandom spaces. do not take away toph’s importance.

[harmonytre-reblogs]

“This is how I think of “shipping”: When you start shipping someone, it starts out as a little sailboat. As hints are seen (in the actual show, movie, book, game, etc.), the sailboat slowly grows larger. When it becomes canon, the boat becomes a giant pirate ship with cannons (get it?). If the people suddenly break up, that means the ship ran into a giant Broken-Love-Iceberg.“

-me (HarmonyTRE)

(P. S. All of these I ship platonically too, and the younger couples are only wholesome. NONE of these I ship in more than romantic ways. And some of them I don’t ship now, but shipped when I was younger so they feel nostalgic. So if the ship seems odd, it’s probably that asdfghjkl.)

Key:

Fandom/show/movie/game/short film/etc.

Ship

Semi-ship

!:OTP

*

Index:

Never Draw

Commission Only

Shows

Movies

Games

Other Media (short films, comics, etc.)

Live Action

Steven Universe AUs

Undertale AUs

Not Finished/Caught Up

(long, so I’ll put under the cut)

*

Never Draw:

Frisk/Sans (fr.ans)

Keith/Lance (kl.ance)

Shiro/any of the minor paladins

Papyrus/Chara (?)

Papyrus/Sans (fon.tcest)

Steven/gem ships

Steven/Pink Steven

*

Commission Only (won’t do for requests, challenges, etc.)

Lance/Allura (Allurance, Cotton Candy, Mr. and Mrs. Blue Lion)

Au Sanses (unless listed, and only if they have clearly different personalities, appearances, and names)

Allura/Shiro (Shallura)

*

Shows

Voltron: Legendary Defender

!Pidge/Lance (Plance)

Keith/Allura (Kallura)

Hunk/Shay (Hunay)

Romelle/Matt (Romatt)

Pidge/Hunk (Punk)

Hunk/Romelle (Hunelle)

Keith/Axca (Kaxca)

James/Ina (Leiffin)

Keith/Pidge (Kidge)

Ryan/Nadia (Kindia)

Lotor/Allura (Lotura)

Krolia/Tex (Krolidad, Krolitex)

Zarkon/Honerva (Zanerva)

Krolia/Kolivan (Kolivan)

James/Veronica (Jamonica)

Miraculous: The Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir

!Marinette/Ladybug/Adrien/CatNoir (Love square, Marichat, Adrinette, Ladynoir, Ladrien)

!Alya/Nino (DJWiFi)

Mylene/Ivan (Myvan)

Penny/JaggedStone (Jaggenny)

Plagg/Tikki (CheeseCake)

Nathaniel/Alix (Nathanix)

Kim/Ondine

Rose/Juleka

Steven Universe

Steven/Connie

Ruby/Sapphire

Sadie/Lars

Pearl/Bismuth

Volleyball/Spinel?

Pearl/Volleyball

She-ra and the Princesses of Power (SPoP) {Double Trouble, Glimmer, Entrapta, Wrong Hordak}

!Glimmer/Bow (Glow, Glimbow)

Seahawk/Mermista (Seamista)

Entrapta/Hordak (Entrapdak)

Catra/Adora (Catradora)

Scorpia/Perfuma (Scorfuma)

Spinerella/Netossa (Spinnetossa)

*Star vs. the Forces of Evil (Marco, Janna, Tom, Star}

!JanTom

!Starco

Eclipsa/Globgor

Jackie/Chloe

Trolls

!Branch/Poppy (Broppy)

Phineas and Ferb

Phineas/Isabella (Phinabella)

Candace/Jeremy (Candermemy)

Baljeet/Ginger (Baljinger)

RWBY

!Ren/Nora (Renora)

Ruby/Oscar

Sun/Blake (BlackSun)

Pyrra/Jaune (Arcos)

Weiss/Neptune (Iceberg)

Velvet/Fox (Zootopia)

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

Troy/Benson (Trenson)

Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

Yadomi/Anjo

Yukiatsu/Tsurumi

The Dragon Prince

!Callum/Rayla

Amaya/Janai

My Little Pony (MLP)

!Fluttershy/Discord (Fluttercord)

!YonaYak/Sandbar (Yonabar)

DerpyHooves/DoctorWhooves (DerpyWhooves)

PinkiePie/CheeseSandwhich (CheesePie)

BigMac/SugarBelle

Ember/Thorax (Emberax)

Sunburst/StarlightGlimmer (StarBurst)

ZephyrBreeze/Treehugger

HTTYD (How to Train Your Dragon) (any show besides Race to the Edge, because I haven’t seen it)

Hiccup/Astrid (Hiccstrid)

Fishlegs/Heather (Feather)

Toothless/Nubless (Nightlight)

Pokemon {seen all but seasons 8-15, 21+}

!Jessie/James (Rocketshipping, KojiMusa, JAJL)

Ash/Misty (Pokeshipping, Sakashipping, Gakishipping, Bikeshipping, Sushishipping, AAML, Twerpshipping)

!Serena/Clemont (Geekchicshipping)

Lana/Sophocles (Sparksurfershipping)

Butch/Cassidy (Neoshipping)

Serena’sSylveon/Clemont’sBunnelby (Fairybunnyshipping)

Brock/Lucy (luckshipping, squintshipping, blushshipping)

Casey/Georgio

NurseJoy/Nicholas (from Celebi episode)

Hal/Elisa

May/Drew (Contestshipping, ShuHaru, DAML, Mew, Day)

Togedemaru/Pikachu (SpikyPika)

Serena/Jimmy

Brock/Wilohmena (Sissyshipping)

Glitch Techs

Zahra/Five (?)

Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA)

Sokka/Toph (Tokka)

Zuko/Katara (Zutara)

Katara/Aang (Kataang)

Suki/Sokka (Sukka)

*

Movies

Rise of the Guardians

Jack/ToothFairy

Big Hero 6

Gogo/Fred (Gogozilla)

HoneyLemon/Tadashi (Tadahoney)

Your Name (Kimi no na Wa)

Taki/Mitsuha

Katsuhiko/Sayaka

Miki/Tsukasa

A Silent Voice

ShoukoNishima/ShoyaIshida

Leap! (Ballerina)

Victor/Felicie (Felictor)

Inside Out

Riley/Jordan

Anger/Disgust (Angust)

Wreck-it-Ralph (and Breaks the Internet)

Felix/TamoraCalhoun (Hero’s Cuties)

Trolls

Branch/Poppy (Broppy)

Hotel Transylvania

Jonathan/Mavis (Jonavis)

Smurfs: The Lost Village

Smurfette/Hefty

PapaSmurf/Smurfwillow

Brainy/Smurfblossom

Clumsy/Smurfstorm

Zootopia

Judy/Nick (WildeHopps)

Coco

Hector/Imelda

Pepita/Dante?

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (and 2)

SamSparks/FlintLockwood (Sparkswood)

Lego Movie (and 2nd)

Emmet/Lucy

Tangled

Rapunzel/Eugene

Frozen

Anna/Kristoff

Megamind

Megamind/Roxanne (Megarox)

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

Miles/Gwen

*

Games

Undertale

!Toriel/Sans (Soriel)

Undyne/Alphys (Alphyne)

Muffet/Mettaton (Muffaton)

!Nice Cream Guy / Burgerpants (Nicepants)

Sans/Grillby (Sansby)

Gaster/Asgore (Kingdings)

Toriel/Asgore (Asgoriel, Torigore)

Asgore/Rudy (?)

Grillby/Muffet (?)

Royal Guards

Deltarune

Noelle/Susie (Suselle)

Henry Stickmin

Henry/Charles (Chenry, Stickvin)

Riddle School

Phil/Smiley

*

Other media (short films/comics/etc)

Paperman

Meg/George

*

Live Action

Psych

Juliet/Shawn (Shules)

The Space Between Us

Gardner/Tulsa

The Goldbergs

Erica/Geoff

Barry/Laney

Adam/Jackie

The Greatest Showman

Barnums

PhillipCarlyle/AnneWheeler

The Librarians (tv series)

!Cassanda/Ezekiel (Casekiel)

Eve/Flynn (Fleve)

Jacob/Serina

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Klaus/Fiona

Violet/Duncan

Jacques/Olivia

Alex Inc.

Eddie/Deidre

Scrubs

JD/Elliot (Jelliot)

Turk/Carla

The Office

Pam/Jim (PB&J)

Michael/Holly

Dwight/Angela

Drop Dead Diva

Stacy/Fred

Stacy/Owen

Jane/Gracen

Jane/Ian

Stranger Things

Mike/Eleven (Mileven)

Nancy/Jonathan (Jancy)

Joyce/Hopper (Jopper)

Lucas/Max

Chuck

Chuck/Sarah

Timeless

LucyPreston/WyattLogan

RufusCarlin/Jiya

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist

Zoey/Max

*

Steven Universe AUs

Feral Beast Steeb

Feractus

Pink Steven AU

Connverse

Cactus Steven AUs Blog

Feractus

LISTEN ALL NIGHT (suf-fering)

Connverse

*

Undertale/Deltarune AUs

Timetale AU (Punny Skele-scientist, Allesia the Hedge)

Sans/Alphys (Salphys)

Paper Trail (lynxgriffin)

Susie/Noelle (Suselle)

Overtale (yuramec version)

Sans/Toriel (Soriel)

*Underswap

Sans/Napstablook (Napstasans)

Underfell

Sans/Toriel (Soriel)

Payryus/Mettaton (Papyton)

Alphys/Undyne (Alphyne)

*Outertale

Sans/Toriel (Soriel)

Sans/Grillby (Sansby)

Handplates

Gaster/Alphys (Bi-entists)

Crossover

Insans/Sappy

Rain/Imposter (platonic)

*

Not finished/caught up

Fruits basket{season 2}

Tohru/Kyo (Kyoru)

Ritsu/Mitsuru

Wild Kratts {quite a lot to catch up on}

JimmyZ/Koki (Joki)

My Hero Academia/Boku No Hiro Academia {recent season}

!DenkiKaminari/KyoukaJirou (Kamijirou)

IzukuMidoriya/OchakoUraka (Izuocha)

EjirouKirishima/MinaAshido (Kirimina)

ShoutoTodoroki/MomoYaoyoruzu (Todomomo)

FumikageTokoyami/TsuyuAsui (Tokotsuyu)

MashiraoOjiro/TooruHagakure (Ojitooru)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) (TMNT) {half of final season}

April/Donatello (Apritello)

Raphael/Mona

Leonardo/Karai (Leorai)

Mikey/Renet (Renetangelo)

The Flash {recent 1-2 seasons}

Barry/Iris (Westallen)

!Kaitlyn/Cisco (Snowmone, Snowvibe, Killervibe, Frostvibe, Vibefrost)

Joe/Cecile (Joecile)

HRWells/TracyBrand

Ralph/Izzy

Digimon Tamers {missed quite a lot because my brother watched without me}

Juri/Takato (Jurato)

Rika/Ryo (Ryuki)

Kingdom Hearts

Sora/Kairi

Once Upon a Time (OUaT)

CaptianHook/EmmaSwan (CaptainSwan)

Belle/Rumpilstiltskin (Rumbelle)

Regina/Robin (OutlawQueen)

Doctor Who

TheDoctor/Riversong (Twiver)

Amy/Rory (Ponds)

God Friended Me {just part of 1st season}

Kara/Miles

Heroes {just starting season 2}

Hiro/Charlie

[army-of-mai-lovers]

Re: misogyny in atla fandom post. I’m a butch/gnc woman and there’s so few representation for women like me. I really relate to toph and admire her for being androgynous and masculine but still being a woman. She shows that there’s no “wrong” way to be a woman and that you can reject gendered expectations and still be female. She’s the only character I’ve ever been able to relate to for this. I feel like it’s kind of misogynistic when people HC her as a trans guy or non binary with they/them pronouns. I’m all for HCing characters as trans, but with toph it feels weird.

She’s constrained by the expectations put upon her for being a girl in a patriarchal society and also being disabled, and how those two intersect. But her acceptance of being disabled & and a girl and breaking the stereotypes pushed upon her for those facets of her identity is the whole point! And as a disabled gnc woman, I feel like stripping her of her womanhood bc she’s masculine/androgynous is the same as stripping her of her disability because she’s strong. Idk

This is a really interesting perspective, anon! Outside of tumblr, I’m a prospective gender studies minor, and in my gender studies classes we have this practice called situating. Basically, I explain who I am, so you know where I’m coming from. Esp wrt things like race, gender, and sexuality, you can read and learn and listen to other people, but you’ll only ever truly know your own experience, and it’s important for people to know that’s where your perspective on a certain debate is coming from. So, hi, I’m Arthur, I’m an afab nonbinary person who uses they/them pronouns, my gender expression is very much in a period of flux because I don’t have the ability to socially or medically transition as much as I’d like, so, at least for right now, most people interpret me as a sometimes gnc cis woman. Because I’m most often interpreted as a cis girl, even though that is not who I am at all, I experience misogyny, and that is unfortunately part of my trans experience. That doesn’t give me the authority to speak over women at all, but I do think it was a large part of me noticing the misogyny in this fandom and deciding to write what I did (and I’m so glad it resonated with you!) All of that colors the way I view gnc characters, as well as trans/nonbinary characters, and misogyny, within fandom and without. 

So, now that you understand where my thoughts are coming from, here they are. I definitely think it’s transphobic to hc Toph as a trans guy if you are not transmasc yourself. I’ve never seen trans guy hcs for Toph, but the idea of cis ppl equating this canonically cis girl character to someone who is unequivocally, indisputably, a guy, makes me super uncomfy. If there’s a trans guy out there who really relates to Toph and wants to create and develop that hc in a way that works for you, be my guest, but I do not have the authority or the desire to make trans guy Toph hcs. 

As for the nonbinary thing... I will admit, they/them Toph hcs make me feel seen, probably the same way you feel seen by Toph as an unapologetically androgynous/masculine cis girl. I answered some asks a couple weeks ago about lesbian hcs, and in that I talked about how since both lesbians and bi girls are underrepresented in media, hcs that might make one group feel seen and valued are gonna make another group feel erased, and I’m not really sure how to resolve that. The same goes for hcs around androgynous afab characters: butch women and afab* nby folks have so little representation that hcs that make one group feel seen are going to make another group feel erased. As a afab nonbinary person who uses they/them pronouns, who has never connected with any concept of womanhood despite sometimes having a pretty femme gender expression, I do relate to Toph a whole lot. I’ve also had to navigate (and am still navigating!) a minefield of gendered expectations in a patriarchal society, and talking and listening to and reading about other trans people, it seems to be a pretty integral part of the trans experience (not that there is one sole trans experience, we’re all very different, but that’s a topic for another time). The gender binary is, after all, a central feature of Western white supremacist patriarchal constructions of gender, and if you deviate in any way, whether it’s through being gender nonconforming, or through being trans/nonbinary, you’re probably going to have to fight really hard to exist and survive and feel confident in your body and your expression, because society is constantly sending you the message that you are deviant and thus not worthy. And it’s nice to think of your favorite character as having some of the same experiences you do. 

I will say, I see they/them Toph headcanons more often than I see they/them Katara or they/them Yue, and I’d encourage people to really dig deep and think about why they’re more comfortable hcing an androgynous character as being nonbinary than they would be a more obviously feminine character (especially since nonbinary folk come in all gender expressions). I also would just love to see more transfem hcs! People for whatever reason seem way more comfortable hcing male characters as trans guys than they do hcing female characters as trans girls (and the reason is transmisogyny--Mae @transtenzin made a post about this a couple months ago about how most transfem atla hcs are characters like Smellerbee, while transmasc hcs can center around more major characters like Zuko or Sokka--a wonderful post that I would link to if tumblr’s search function weren’t absolute shit.) 

But at the end of the day, I am going to have to disagree with you on thinking of nonbinary Toph hcs as misogynistic, because I know as a disabled afab nonbinary person myself, I’ve dealt with a lot of the same struggles that Toph deals with in the show, and I’m sure there are a lot of other afab nonbinary folks who feel the same way. However, I understand feeling frustrated by people hcing a canonically androgynous female character as nonbinary. I hope what I’ve said here can offer you a little insight into the other side of this, and I so appreciate you offering me insight into your side. 

Another thing to note: while I haven’t seen trans guy Toph hcs, I have seen people hc Toph as a he/him lesbian. He/him lesbians are of course a valued part of our community, and I applaud any and all he/him lesbian Toph hcs. Pronouns =/= gender. 

Tl;dr don’t hc Toph as a trans guy unless you are a trans guy and even then I would tread lightly, gender and transness and representation is complicated and I’m not entirely sure how to resolve conflicts between different groups of marginalized people who are trying to find rep in opposing hcs of the same character, and imo hcing Toph as nonbinary is not misogynistic (but my opinion is not the final word on any subject!) Also, we stan he/him lesbians. 

*amab nby folks of course also receive very little rep, probably even less than afab nby folks, and that is a very important conversation to have, but seeing as 1) this ask was about hcs for an afab character, and 2) I am not amab and therefore very unqualified to lead a conversation about hcing certain characters as amab or the larger field of amab nby rep, I thought it best to focus on afab nonbinary people in this post. 

[iphisesque]

spare sexuality headcanons for the atla characters ma'am? yours are always so on point I swear

why thank you! I do have Quite Some Headcanons about their sexualities, namely "these bitches gay"

Aang is a gnc icon and he's definitely bi. I feel like he would canonically say "I want to make sure I keep my options open, who knows who I'll fall in love with :D" and I love that about him

Sokka is of course our disaster bi king. where would we be without him

Katara gives me straight vibes but this is not an insult I promise 😭 I have a straight best friend who is very wholesome and she reminds me a lot of Katara so she's the good kind of straight also statistically speaking at least one of them will be straight

Zuko is DELIVERING the bisexual emo icon realness. I was not a person yet in 2007 but if I had been Lord help me because the gender envy I would have felt for this bitch is unspeakable

Toph is a nb butch lesbian (LISTEN I HADN'T EVEN THOUGHT OF THE STONE PUN UNTIL NOW. THIS IS UNINTENTIONAL) and Katara is her gay awakening

the Kyoshi warriors are of course an elite sapphic militia which means that queen Suki is bisexual. we been knew tho you can tell by her haircut

Azula is my sorely needed mean dyke representation ❤️ finally I feel seen as a lesbian who's an absolute dick but unironically everything about Azula OOZES dyke energy especially those "romantic" interactions with men where she's literally selecting those who could serve her the most. truly a snapshot of me in fourth grade deciding to fake a crush on the popular kid

Mai is of course also serving bisexual emo realness except she like a true emo also makes sure to pretend she has no feelings, unlike that poser boyfriend of hers (also her and Ty Lee are goth/prep, or if you're Italian emo/truzzi, RIGHTS)

Ty Lee leaves me genuinely undecided because I don't know if I see her as a clueless lesbian or bi. either way she's a sapphic goddess stan Mailee for clear skin ✨

[zuzuslastbraincell]

Toph? (For the ask thing) ❤

Sexuality Headcanon:

tbh maybe its the baby tombody thing she's got going on but i find it hard to imagine her as not gay? toph is gay. toph is a lesbian.

Gender Headcanon:

either a butch woman or a non-binary butch. I like interpretations of her as gnc as much as i do as non-binary (also love transfem toph too). I reckon toph doesn't have the words for it at first and that's something she learns and discovers over time - like the vocabulary here that i'm using is something i have difficulty imagining toph placing as much importance on (but she's still very clear: i'm a butch lesbian. deal with it!).

A ship I have with said character:

tbh i feel weird *seriously* shipping twelve year olds because there's still lots of development and growing up to do, but i do like the chaos potential of katara/toph (scam queens forever! plus with budding anarchist katara and toph, who always says ACAB, they'd destroy half the governments in the world lol, and the world should thank them)

A BROTP I have with said character:

i know everyone says toph & zuko but honestly i'm really partial to toph & sokka? i love toph & sokka because he's her big brother and he just always supports her (except that one time he cheered on the boulder lol) and is the first person toph allows to protect her (thinking of that moment in sozin's comet always). toph also thinks the world of sokka and thinks he's super cool (& i think she gets over 'lol sokka can't bend' over the course of the show) and i think sokka's not used to that and that's great for his confidence. I think they make lots of dumb jokes together and are just bros.

also i think toph & suki as well has GREAT friendship potential (i think since suki saved her and toph accidentally kissed her, she's kinda been in awe of her too, pretty sure she had a brief unrealised crush on suki as you sometimes do when you're young). I imagine post-canon they go on a bunch of hikes together and hang out in the woods, and i think suki supports her figuring out gender & sexuality stuff a lot. i think toph insists she doesn't need a weapon at first but she DOES one day get her own fans, learn how to use them, and loves them, even if she won't admit it to everyone.

A NOTP I have with said character:

oh toph/zuko, that age gap is way too yikes for me (4 years is not normal between kids guys). i don't like toph/sokka either just because i feel like sokka puts himself in this big brother protector position around toph, they're not peers and sokka certainly doesn't see it that way.

A random headcanon:

toph says ACAB and means it. chief of police who? she kicked that guy's ass months ago.

also i think she's the only member of the gaang to keep travelling with aang after the war. her feelings towards her home are something she's still yet to resolve, unlike everyone else. imo i like the idea that she and her parents eventually come to some kind of understanding but it's not a perfect thing.

General Opinion over said character:

I really like Toph! I think she was underdeveloped more than the rest od the gaang (barring Suki, who was barely there and didnt get the time) which is a shame - I wrote a post recently about why I think that is, and how it would have been great if Toph over the course of s2 became more invested in the Earth Kingdom. Tbh, I feel like I have the least developed understanding of her and I don't really get her as well? So she goes a little unloved on this blog but I love her a lot.

[bastardbutch]

Thinking really deeply about Zuko and his chemistry with other characters in Avatar and like... Honest to God the only person I felt like he had chemistry with was Katara. They clicked together well and brought out one another's passion, strengths, and weaknesses in equal measure. That's probably mostly the hurt/comfort loving slut in me but I love that they were both so opposite in so many ways, and yet they're also both stubbornly principled. I think she would have helped him grow to a gentler, more compassionate version of himself, and he'd have helped her grow to be more wizened and less black and white in her morals. They also sparked this sense of hope that can only really come from being in a dark place - they shared an understanding and accepting of that dark place and processing grief in a way Aang and Katara lacked because Aang handles his trauma by being unwaveringly optimistic. It didn't really leave room for Katara to sort out her anger and drive for vengeance and justice without him coming off as preachy.

Katara and Aang brought out one another's goodness and compassion and matched each other's sense of idealism from the get, so I always knew they'd wind up together, but lowkey I wanted Zutara to be a brief thing before that happened. However, I ALWAYS hated Zuko/Mai because they just... Made no fuckin sense. No chemistry. A broken sense of love split between two emo kids with stunted ass emotions. Where's the balance? Where's the challenge? Where's the longing? That's not a love meant to last fam, that's the equivalent of high school sweethearts who eventually grow out of one another. Also, Mai always gave me strong lesbian vibes and I'll die on that hill

Sokka is such a straight boy PLUS he and Suki are so sweet together that I can't picture him with anyone else. I don't see the chemistry between him and Zuko at all besides as bros. Zuko, Aang, and Sokka is a trio I'd pay money to see a buddy episode revolving around tho. And maybe Toph too because she got that butch energy that mixes well with all the rest of them

Kinda bums me out that Zuko doesn't have any real romantic chemistry with anyone besides the chick who was destined to love the Avatar tho, because he is easily the most relatable character for me and I'm also a huge romantic nerd who likes to believe in finding happiness with your ~Tru Luv~ or w/e. Does Zuko even have one??

[mithrilwren]

Tagged by the lovely @drinkingdeadpeopletea ! I’ll tag in @soullistrations, @fivie, @charliesdayoff, @kookaburrito, and @walkthegale - haven’t got time to come up with a full 10, so anyone else who wants to join in, go for it!

Name ten favorite characters from ten different things (books, tv, film, etc.) then tag ten people. [Do different Star Trek series count?? Hmm.] I also added special mentions for the top five, since I couldn’t truly choose.

1. Beauregard from Critical Role - I loved Beau from her first words, and that love has only strengthened with time. A person who believes they are not good while trying SO DESPERATELY to be, her reckless disdain at the beginning of the show reminded me of who I used to want to be, and her hard-won trust with her teammates reminded me that there are gentler, more freeing paths to take. Plus, she’s given me an avenue to explore things in fic writing I’ve never been able to before, because I so rarely encounter lesbian characters in fiction, let alone ones who are (soft) butch, with short hair and strength and an absence of apologies to those who don’t deserve them. She inspires me in so many ways.

Special mention: Fjord

2. Garak from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Though he only shows up in a handful of episodes, I think Garak’s introduction is instrumental in setting the tone for DS9 apart from the other series. In many ways, he’s emblematic of the ambiguity of the show, where morals are not so clear cut and every person may be playing two sides without truly being dishonest in either. He’s also just a genuine joy to watch - charismatic, witty, biting, as queer as you were allowed to be on network tv in 1993 (”I need to know that someone forgives me”, goddamn it Garak/Bashir will always be the true OTP of my heart)

Special mention: Kira

3. Fem!Shepard from Mass Effect - We can debate the ending till the cows come home (and god knows I was as unhappy as the rest of you) but Mass Effect took me on a journey, y’all. And most of that journey is filtered through the eyes of Shepard, the intrepid naval commander and saviour of the universe. It’s so incredibly rare that I’ve gotten to play a video game with a female protagonist who actually has such a vibrant personality, all the more so because I got to help shape that personality through my actions. She was one of the few video game protagonists PERIOD I’ve ever came out of the game feeling like I truly understood. When the final goodbyes happened, I felt her pain, because I’d watched and lived her struggle for three games, and felt the gravity of all her actions up till that point, both ‘good’ and ‘bad’. She was a fully-realized creation.

Special mention: Garrus

4. Magnus Burnsides from TAZ - On paper, I would have expected Taako to become my favourite character of THB. And I do still love him dearly, but Magnus’s simple and constant drive to be good, to be better, to be a light of positivity and love in the world captured my heart like no other.

Special mention: Taako

5. Seto Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh! - Oh look, it’s a villain-turned-antihero with an asshole father who swears he doesn’t care about the gang but still manages to  always (reluctantly) put his life on the line when it really matters. All I’m saying is Zuko had a predecessor and he had twice the sass despite being just as dumb - seriously, his 4kids dub dialog is top notch. I was obsessed with this stubborn child-billionaire when I was 10 (and 13, and 17, and 21 and let’s be real, I will be til I die).

Special mention: Ryou Bakura

6. Sam Tyler from Life on Mars (UK) - Never has an actor’s performance on a TV show given me so many heart palpitations as John Simm’s portrayal of Sam Tyler, the time-travelling detective stuck in 1973 Britain after being hit by a car in 2006. His angst over the situation was visceral, despite the relatively silly premise, and his decisions in the final episode landed me in a fog of emotional processing for days after I finished the series. 

7. Bones from Star Trek TOS - (I’m ruling it counts as different shhh). Bones is everything. Probably the first fictional character I remember deciding was my “favourite”, back when I was a kid still watching old Star Trek episodes on VHS. Wry humour mixed with a depth of humanity and just a whole heaping helping of curmudgeonliness, what a great guy.

8. Makise Kurisu from Steins;Gate - MY SCIENCE GIRL. Incredibly smart, both in terms of academics and emotional intelligence and despite her all-too-relatable struggles as a woman not receiving her due respect in academia, she always manages to keep pushing forward, driving the rest of the crew towards the truth in any timeline. Just, the coolest person.

9. Marcus Keane from The Exorcist - Give me all that good queer religious angst! It hurts! It’s relatable! I need more! Marcus is a man who deeply wants to do the right thing with layers upon layers of guilt and pain stacked on top of his shoulders. I want only for him to finally be able to rest.

10. Ani from The Goose Girl - From one of my favourite books of all time, Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee is a princess with magic that lets her to talk to animals, which I mean, come on. But it’s was her journey that really had a big influence on me when I was a kid. I loved her for the way she was written, as admirable and imperfect and magical without realizing it, strong and self-reliant but only after learning how to be. The amazing prose by Shannon Hale is just the cherry on top.

[cruelangelstheses]

11 questions meme

i was tagged by @arcanedagna like a month ago and i kept forgetting to actually do this so !!!

Rules: answer the questions of the person who tagged you, come up with 11 new ones, and tag 11 new people.

1. What’s the first fandom that you remember joining? avatar: the last airbender baby!!!

2. What style of clothes do you prefer to wear? i like to refer to my style as “fuckboy butch” lmao. i like a lot of sporty “boyish” clothes, jackets, baseball caps, as well as punk fashion, like patches and pins and spikes and that kind of stuff

3. Do you like making playlists? What kind of themes do you use when making a playlist? yeah i do! depends on what i’m using it for. if it’s songs that remind me of a certain thing lyrically (like a character) then i don’t really pay attention to genre, but if i’m making a playlist for myself when i’m in the mood for a certain type of music than obviously the genres are usually similar

4. What’s your favorite OTP and why? oh god oh fuck. i think my biggest ones are zukka and fenhawke. zukka was my first same gender ship back in like 2011 and i’m so glad it’s getting more popular now because zuko and sokka honestly balance each other out perfectly, they bond really quickly and have impeccable teamwork and are a PERFECT example of enemies to friends to lovers and. kind of lowkey hoping they’ll do something with it in the live-action atla remake djfsdkdslkfk. as for fenhawke. idk i just love both characters a lot and seeing fenris actually have a positive relationship with like, anyone is super important to me and the way it’s written is super important too, how he recognizes that he’s not ready and takes time to himself to heal, how hawke is understanding and patient and loving and kind, and how fenris is so fucking loyal and devoted and passionate when he’s actually finally ready.....im soft. im soft!

5. What’s the video game quest that you hate the most? Why? oh god fighting thunderblight ganon in botw was so fucking hard dude sdfhkjdsk i actually had to learn how to block/parry which i’m never good at in video games

6. Who’s your favorite video game character? f...fenris...uwu

7. Are there any “tropes” that you love seeing in games/books/series you like? Things like the “found family” trope or stuff like that. I FUCKING LOVE THE FOUND FAMILY TROPE!!!! also like idk enemies to friends to lovers is Good, and so are a lot of supernatural tropes, like “immortal falls in love with a mortal” or something lol

8. What’s your favorite class to play in fantasy video games? ROGUE ALWAYS

9. What are some fictional characters that you personally relate to? oh lord time to expose myself as a kinnie lmao. anders, sera (!!!), hawke, alphys from undertale, roger davis from rent, nico yazawa, robin from fire emblem, and also fenris and zevran. lol!

10. What video game moments have made you cry because they got you emotional? a lot of fenris’s cutscenes always get me lol, especially his romance cutscenes, and i got really emotional (in a good way) finishing butterfly soup bc it made me soft :0 also the last few chapters of FE fates conquest :-(

11. If you could teleport and visit three video game locations, which would you pick? Oh Lord Uh. the mushroom kingdom at the end of super mario odyssey made me rlly happy so that’s one, hateno village in botw, and uhhh im really pumped for animal crossing new horizons so im gonna say the island you go to in that game !!! :D just let me go to a nice peaceful place with magic and anthropomorphic animals

———————————

uhhh i tag @feiandaris @caed-nua @ghostmage @courier76 @ovinkype @will-and-her-fandoms @sparklingdwarf @fandomn00blr and uh !!! i can’t think of anyone else!! you don’t have to do this obviously i just thot i would tag some ppl lol. also if you want to do this and i didn’t tag you, you can just say i tagged you! (i know people probably feel awkward doing that, i know i do, but seriously don’t be shy if you want to do it lol)

and here are the questions i came up with:

1. How would you describe your “aesthetic”?

2. Do you have any pets?

3. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you want to go?

4. What was the first video game you remember playing?

5. Do you collect anything?

6. What was the last book you read?

7. If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would you want to meet?

8. What’s your favorite meal?

9. What video game has your favorite gameplay?

10. What is your least favorite color, and why?

11. Who is your favorite band/singer?

[thepriestthinksitsthedevil]

Tattoo

the wip i’m currently plugging away at is so young that i haven’t even fully introduced louis yet so the word tattoo has not yet come up!! but this fic involves pop punk butch fem louis so u know harry’s pov is gonna wax poetic about some tattoos real soon

i have an older wip which i have kind of put on the back burner does though, so i’ll share the paragraph it’s in for that one. shockingly, it’s another paragraph introducing louis lol

(this one is a uni theatre club au fic i started a couple years ago in which harry meets louis because he’s playing sandy in grease opposite louis as danny zuko)

In the dim lighting of the room Harry didn’t immediately recognize Louis Tomlinson. His hair was held back off his face by a black headband and he had been clean-shaven when Harry had last seen him, now sporting the scruffy beginnings of a beard. When Harry recognized him he watched him closely, sipping at his drink contemplatively. Louis Tomlinson looked good – he’d looked good last time, but this time he was absolutely stunning in very skinny jeans, so tight they looked painted on, and a loose-fitting tank top that showed off the multitude of tattoos that littered his upper chest and arms. Harry’s tipsy-ish head supplied him with a wish to get up close and personal with some of that ink, sink his teeth into the words on his inner bicep, leave marks on the cursive over his collarbones.

well folks you heard it here......that’s some gay shit

(thank you so so much for sending me this ask!!! i never get asks from people for these things unless i pm them to tell them to send me asks lol)

send me words and i’ll post a paragraph it appears in in one of my wips!!

[casadekeith]

I've had these thoughts going for a while, and I finally decided to put them to paper. Or, digital paper. You know. Typing. Voltron shipping is difficult to discuss for a lot of reasons (fear of harassment, doxxing, death threats, you name it). But I'm going to talk about something that's been on my mind a lot.

Something that gets my skin crawling is when people supplement ATLA names for things in VLD, aka "space Sokka" or "alien Ty Lee". It's something that legitimately bothers me as a creator, that folks will only forever see this staff for creating one successful IP. I don't do it often with TV, where it's more prevalent in children's shows (Butch Hartman, anyone?), and I try to do it less often with film (though directors do tend to have their own aesthetic and narrative style that carry from film to film). 

One thing I will say that is the same though? The ship wars. The ship wars from ATLA and Korra are not actually all that different from the ship wars in Voltron, and I'll discuss my experiences with both.

Oh, you. You thought this would be like a fake essay meme? Nah.

To start with, let's get some actual facts out of the way.

Joaquim dos Santos was a storyboardist for ATLA's season 2, and director on season 3. Lauren Montgomery also came on as a storyboardist during season 3. For the Legend of Korra, its sequel series, Joaquim returned as a director and Lauren returned as storyboardist and supervising producer.

Legend of Korra was animated as a collaborative part between Nickelodeon animation; Studio Mir, a studio in Korea; and Studio Pierrot, a studio in Japan (fun note: Korra is Studio Pierrot's only outsourced animation credit! Otherwise they seem to function strictly for Japanese animation and have done some of my favorite works).

Joaquim, Lauren, and Studio Mir (and some staff, Ki Hyun Ryu for example) stepped up and wanted to do an updated Voltron adaptation/remake. They've been successfully partnered with DreamWorks and Netflix starting production in 2014 to its successful 6th season to date (summer 2018, for potential future readers).

"What does all this have to do with ship wars?"

Well... Kind of everything, to be perfectly honest.

My experience with ATLA came a little late. When it started airing in 2005, I was already in my second semester of college. I was just-turned-17, a theatre major (for my scholarship), having to take at least 32 credits to keep my grant, and working part time while also being an art student. (Advice: Don't do that to yourself. Make better, healthier choices than I did.) So I didn't get much free time to sit and watch tv. I think of that first season, I saw maybe 5 episodes. I did manage to catch the first episode when it aired, and enjoyed it! I didn't catch much of season 2 at all ("Secret Tunnel" was the only episode that I can remember of that season I caught). By the time season 3 was airing, I'd already left college and had made the first of many cross-country moves by myself. And while I didn't have cable TV where I was, I had the internet. And I had a lot of friends who lived and breathed ATLA, and subsequently its shipping culture.

I wasn't new to shipping then (come talk to me about how riled I get with the Magic Knight Rayearth anime or Sailor Moon sometime), but the level of passion in the ATLA shipping culture threw me back a bit. LiveJournal and AIM chatrooms were the place to be at that time, and I saw so much hate thrown back and forth between two specific ships: Aang/Katara and Zuko/Katara. I saw arguments, I saw some mild hate campaigns, I saw harrassment, I saw pedophilia accusations toward Aang/Katara shippers, I saw accusations that fans were "baited" for Zuko/Katara by the production staff.

This type of thing kept me from ever watching ATLA until several years later on my own when a lot of it died down. And looking at it from an older, more critical eye? It was clear to me from episode one that Aang/Katara was going to be the ship if romance were to happen. I honestly to this day don't give much care for any ships in ALTA (except Sokka/Suki those sweet summer kids), but by film language alone, I could tell. "How, Jack? How could you tell from episode one?" Because it's a very common thing in both film and television (and now video games as it progresses more into a serious storytelling medium) to have a soft lingering shot of a character's face from another's POV.

Namely, these two specific shots:

Katara being the first person Aang sees when he's rescued from the ice and wakes up. That shot alone pretty much told me "oh if there's romance, it'll be these two". I'm begging you, go back and watch some of your favorite long-series romance and pick out when this happens to any canon couple. It's very common! Film studies, it's fun, and I highly encourage folks to get into it.

So what does this have to do with VLD?

Besides some of the same staff, a lot of people have gone into VLD expecting it to be another ATLA or Korra. They came in with expectations, some that are just not being met anymore. Not much has actually changed since ATLA ship wars: I still see harassment, death threats, accusations of pedophilia. The only thing that has changed is our means of communication and how shippers put it to use, and the climate of the internet itself.

While folks on the internet have always rallied for social change, in recent years it's become more and more prevalent. The only way to safely consume a media is to make sure it has no problematic elements whatsoever, otherwise you're a hypocrite. The only safe way to be a fan of a celebrity is to make sure they've never said anything that can be construed as problematic, or you're a hypocrite who stands for the very things they believe is an issue. Nowadays, with the rise of internet being weighed down with the struggles of real life people all over the world, actions certain governments are taking that make everything seem bleak, a lot of younger folks feel the need to couch their fandom experience in purity politics. If they aren't consuming the purest media, then they're as bad as oppressors (nevermind which oppressors, or what their own personal life experience is or isn't).

What I'm saying is: the reactions, harassment, threats, the salt channels, and overall arguments of shipping for VLD are the same as they were for ATLA. The difference is how it's presented. With ATLA, it was fan entitlement through and through, interpreting some scenes to mean something, then upset when it doesn't pan out the way they had predicted. With VLD, it's still the same fan entitlement and unhappy shouting when the show doesn't follow expectations, but now with the pretense of morality.

One other factor that's changed over the years is the public connection between studio staff and fans. Before, it was maybe possible to see or speak with staff at a convention or press meeting, but you would otherwise send fanmail to the studio. Nowadays, everyone's plugged right into most social media networks together with no one to filter harassment before it gets to the staff's eyes. With that ability, the rise of attendance in large conventions, and the animation industry having more information available about its process and upcoming seasons, fan entitlement has only grown and a lot of the more vocal fans feel the series is theirs rather than a story someone is sharing with them in a visual medium.  

The reasons behind ship wars 10 years ago are the same as they are now, just dressed up in a new outfit in an attempt to be more legitimate than "I don't like that ship".

What I'm getting at ultimately is this: your ship hate isn't new, dressing it up as morality isn't profound, and literally nothing excuses harassment or death threats sent to other fans or production staff. Thanks for coming to my ted talk from an older fandom person's perspective.

*Disclaimer: In no way am I saying someone is or isn’t allowed to ship a thing. Ship it! Ship what you want! Just don’t be an asshole about it to other people, y’know? 

[dynared]

Honest Voltron Characterizations

@alluraofaltea posted something similar and while I don’t agree with some of her items, I did think it sounded like a fun idea, to see what people’s interpretations of the characters were. Special thanks to @fenfishtrap for pointing it out to me.

I’d love to see others do this too -

Keith - Hi, I’m the main character...I think. The show really can’t decide. I mean, I fit all the requirements, I’m the best pilot, my character design looks like it was pulled right from a Go Nagai manga, but I’m also a complete hothead, make the same mistakes over and over, and don’t learn from my experiences. One second I’m being told I should lead the team, the next I’m put out of focus for an entire season because my actor got a role that paid more. I would have a Freudian excuse for all this, except the only people who saw my moping about my mom were hardcore fans that watched an internet exclusive blog entry. Thanks to that everyone thinks my lack of character development means I’m flaming gay. Well, this season I’m going to try moping about not getting in the f*cking robot. Maybe at least that will lead to fans hooking me up with a hot redhead girl.

Also I’m half Galra which means either nothing or I have Hitler genes baked in.

Shiro - I’m the main character when the executives are done with the script editing. I’m also, depending on the fan describing me, either a shell shocked prisoner of war that just wants to sip a Corona on a beach and really should be out of the line of fire, Optimus Freaking Prime and the Chosen One, or a gay pedophile. My relationship with the Black Lion is about the same. Also I may or may not be a clone. I’m pretty sure that I’m supposed to be the Roy Fokker to Keith’s Hikaru/Rick Hunter, but I kinda suck at it on screen. Thankfully there’s fanfic because Shiro loves you baby. ❤️

My robot arm makes for a killer Winter Soldier cosplay at least.

Hunk - I’m the FOOD GUY. Get it? Because I’m fat which means I like to eat and literally have no other character traits. And yet out of everyone, I’m canonically the most successful with the ladies, so I have that going for me. Chicks love a guy that can cook. I’d mention my other skills and personality traits, but they’re kind of nonexistent, while my Japanese counterpart in GoLion was a judo master because over there, heavyset, stocky frames are common in sports like judo and sumo. Nope, I’m all about the food, and looking like an idiot. Usually because of food.

Pidge - Hi, I’m Katie, although everyone calls me Pidge, and it took four seasons to explain the nickname. Better late than never, right? Thanks to progressive writing, I’m now a girl, but everyone thinks I’m either trans or gay because I don’t have D cups. Yay being progressive. When the show bothers to focus on me, I’m actually pretty kickass, but the fandom still treats me like I’m made of porcelain. I may or may not have a crush on Lance (not that I’d ever admit it) but the fandom is also quick to label anyone who thinks so a pedophile. Even though he’s only two years older. Progressive! At least my brother thinks I’m cool.

Lance - Thank you, thank you. I am clearly the favorite character of the entire fandom even though most of said fandom portrays me, the confident ladies man and bundle of issues, as either a self loathing gay man or a male Disney Princess. The best way for the fandom to gay up something is to add me to it when I would rather find a hot girl to take with me on my lion. Then again, this is the same fandom that thought “hey man” was me flirting with Keith. More essays have been written about how I’m the real hero of the series and Keith’s alleged love for me than on the root causes of the US Civil War. I just want a girl to know the real me, you know?

I’m also canonically Cuban (not that it’s ever acknowledged in the show) which makes me one of a very few non-sterotypical Hispanics in animation alongside Miles Morales. And yet my fandom often portrays me as a MEXICAN stereotype instead. No, I won’t sing “Gasolina.” Shut up.

Allura - My original incarnation was the grandmother of shipping cartoon characters together, but because I’m the same age as Keith as Lance, as well as, let’s face it, my “character design change”, I am now a Strong Independent Black Woman That Don’t Need No Man, or a butch lesbian stereotype. This is despite two characters declaring me beautiful on screen. I may or may not have feelings for Keith but they’re about as consistent as who the lead character is. A lot of fans wish I just stayed in the castle ship even though I’ve gone on and on about wanting to honor my fathers legacy by being a pilot. People keep calling me “Space Mom” when I am terrible with kids. Again, probably because of my “character design change.” Without it, I’d probably be everyone’s waifu.

Lotor - The show can’t decide if I’m supposed to be Prince Zuko to Keith’s Aang or the Char Aznable to his Amuro Ray. Probably the former given the show’s complete hatred of all things mecha. I run things for about six episodes before being kicked out of the command room because it’s easier to write Zombie dad. The showrunners complete hatred of giant robots means I get to fly in a series of increasingly silly looking ships. Also I am NOT a rapist! Sincline was, and I am not Sincline! My old crush on Allura is gone, but let’s face it, it would never work out here. Also someone made a homemade body pillow of me, am I’m not sure if it’s flattering...or incredibly disturbing.

Zarkon - I make Cobra Commander look nuanced, and I am literally a zombie. I’m also the only one of these idiots smart enough to fight Voltron with a robot of my own, which you THINK would mean my dumbass son would make more of them.

Voltron - I’m supposed to be the latest incarnation of what Americans think of when they think of giant robots like how Mexico thinks of Mazinger Z and France thinks of Grendizer. Instead I’m a glorified cannon that is woefully out of place in this super cereal space opera. My five lion components apparently have minds of their own...maybe? Most fans (and the writers) forget I even exist even though the damn show is named after me! The show itself seems to have no idea how to use me, so I guess we’re all in the same boat. I’m pretty sure there’s more fanfic starring Shay than there are about me. Fans don’t even want me in a hypothetical video game, and Japan would rather bring back Combattler V for the next Super Robot Wars.