#guess all my non atla art will go here

[canadianlucifer]

I'd like to thank you for single handedly carrying the tg tumblr scene rn.

any fic recs?

preferrebly gen but i'll take anything atp

i feel like atlas carrying the world now jk jk, tysm!! I couldn't do it without everyone else in the fandom keeping me motivated and inspiring me to make content tho!

As for fic recs, I honestly don't read much so I don't have a lot to recommend, but I do have a few!

The only gen one that comes to mind at the moment is The Black Tapes, it's a canon divergence story where Yamori recorded what he did to Kaneki on VHS tapes which the CCG then found and watched, leading Amon to realize that Kaneki was not actually born a ghoul and that the CCG might not be as just as he once thought...

As for non-gen/ship fics, Tokyo is a no-ghouls au by @just-another-tokyo-ghoul-fan about Kaneki getting roped into a toxic relationship with Rize and Hide being a bat-shit insane but also really good friend who also happens to be crushing on him

@tg-headcanons has a series of fics set in an awesome au where Kaneki is rescued from aogiri very quickly the Anteiku raid never happens, They Left His Arm is my favourite because hey, I'm a seiakimon shipper, what did you expect? Haha, but they're all super good!

Other than that... well, I guess I'll self promote my own current fic project, Yellow Roses. It's about Takizawa escaping aogiri and going back to the CCG against his will bc Akira fucked up and she's trying to apologize but he's traumatized and pissed off and she doesn't know how to use her damn words lmao (and while yes I do ship them, I wanted this fic to focus on their friendship so there's no romance at all here!) (also yes I know the art is broken i just haven't had the energy to fix it lol)

That's all for long-form fics, though there are a couple of much shorter one shots I could recommend if you're interested!

[metavandetta23]

nobody is going to read this, so I am just gonna put it out there warning: rambling from some fucking guy ever. you have been warned.

life sucks, blah blah blah, but instead of just complaning about that, how about I give you bit explenation as to why. so sit down there one of my 121 followers. If anyone of you read that is and not just clicked follow on one art I made and buzzed off (no offense there, just saying.) Okay so you might ask, why now out of sudden i blow like up that. Here is the answer: See, I have been doing creative stuff like, be it art, writing, music or whatever for past..... lets say 4-5 years. As you might guess, some of these ventures didnt pan out in the end. i mean, its given. It happens. Let me mention some of the things I tried over the years. I tried making a homestuck comic on mspa when I first started doing creative stuff. I managed to get pretty far compared to most projects I will mention, but I didnt finish in the end. Why? I got burned out, because I worked on it full non stop. Then I tried having a cool rp campagin session with pals from discord server I known. That ended in tragedy, especially after one of them out of fucking blue, send a fucking gore of dead person. None of us expected this to happen. Earlier I tried music, couldnt do that thing earlier unless you call "music" by swapping midis with shitty piano font. Well, atleast it didnt end up with a gore.

Then I tried working on some ut aus. Did it even work? HAHAHAHAHAHA, what do you think? Ofcourse, not. Didnt peak interest, because I didnt capture interest basically. Anyways this goes on and on. Deltarune au there, some another rp server there and there (one turned into glorified horny rp out of college setting that I tried initially, pal if you are reading this, sorry but this server just sucked ass) I think you might start seeing a pattern here. You would think eventually. That being "Gee meta, thats sure lot of failures, you must have atleast succed one time BIG right?" Haha, no. Okay I did manage to finish some of my stuff but like. really really low bar stuff. so essentially in the eyes for everyone, nothing. See, most of the failures from these projects came from me doing solo. You would think me teaming up with someone would help? Not really, unless I literally pay them money for it, tough fucking luck. Out of 5 years of me doing creative shit, only 4 people helped me out that I recall. they couldnt helped me out for long in the end, but i appreciated for them when they could. all rest of people? Fucking went ghost and then I was left alone, figuring this shit out myself. It isnt fun knowing that you put trust in someone, only in the end to be alone in this in the end. I wish I was so fucking talented, creative, witty or self efficent as the people i asspire to, the artists i admire who make works of artm writers who can write witty, fun but touching stories. I wish I could be at thier level, so I could make great works of art. But atlas, I am not. I dont seek glory or fame, even if it would be nice. No, I just want people to enjoy creating what I make, to feel like I have impact on the world, that people can share with. to make connections with. Look in the end I am just 20 year old guy from europe, that isnt much good at anything, including social life, apperantly. Only thing I am good at is pixel art, but just barely. I am very much uncreative person. and unconfident and rather hopeless one these days, despite how much I try to hide in fake smiles.

I dont have much better way to end this sort of ramble, besides mentioning tobys recent post from spring newslettter and my view on it. "There's times where it feels like your hopes and dreams are simply slipping away from you. That the things you wanted to achieve are floating away from you in the sky while you lie there, fallen in a crater, your wing torn off, never to grow back. Bitterness grows, and you feel like you may never leave the ground again.

But

That's not true.

You can still fly.

Even if you lose a piece of yourself, even if it feels like you can't get up anymore, you can. You can fly with one wing. You can fly without any wings."

Can you really even fly, even if you feel like a part of yourself was torn off? That it happened right before you could even took off. No matter how much you struggle, scream and rage. You can still never to be able to fly like others, much even take off from ground. No matter how much you try. You feel shackled to ground, to the bones of earth. While you look towards as sky, as other people dance in the air beyond your wildest imagination. Its so beautiful, yet so out of your reach. Cries of helps can be heared coming from you from miles in the air. But they all fall on the deaf ears. Or maybe its just out of bliss ignorance? You cant say. You want to join them, join them so badly. To feel like you could finally be a part of something greater. To feel like you could belong somewhere. To be cared. But you just cant. It wasnt meant to be made. Resentment grows inside your soul. As that feeling rots inside you more and more. Part of you wishes this feeling to be gone, to never be felt. But the other part, says otherwise. It wants that liberty desperately, looking with its green eyes at them. Why they? Why not me. Why not me at all!?. You just want what they have yourself. It grows inside you more and more as you allow it to. You eventually consdering tearning off other people wings. Even if you cant ever fly agian, doesnt mean you should be the only who suffer like this right? And why do they deserve to fly, anyway. They would be better off without that, you think. Plus, even in this state. You know you can do this option. To cripple someone, just to make yourself feel better even if its only for a moment. But then you realise. If you ever would reach to that point. Whatever drive you initally, would be just gone. In fear of your insecurities and weakness. You decide to lie up, instead. Rendering your shackled and vulerable. Locked inside, with no way or out. Perhpas in the end.... Its better if you dont fly at all...

[rowrowknowa]

ABOUT ME :D

Basics

✮ name - you can just call me E

✮ age - 23

✮zodiac - can you guess?

✮ gender - i use she/her pronouns, but don't mind being referred to with they/them and use of pretty much any gendered words (bro, dude, man, boss buddy, sis, girl, etc) doesn't bother me [[[dont call me sis if ur not black tho]]]

✮ mbti - ENFP-A consistently for the past 6 years (was INTP-T in HS)

✮ studies - huge into science ask me what kind; i also like music theory/history, art history, philosophy

Interests

✮ games - nintendo fan (no matter how much they piss me off). love pokemon, fire emblem (obsessed with fe3h), zelda, animal crossing etc. HUGE sonic the hedgehog fan

✮ anime - too many to make an exhaustive list without forgetting some. obviously my favorite is One Piece (i think my favorite show in general). i started watching it when i was like 4 with the 4kidz dub and here i am almost 20 years later still going oda and i locked in fr. also love attack on titan, naruto, death note, fairy tail, jjk, knb, hxh, black butler and so many more this is stressing me out trying to think of what ive watched so im gonna stop... ask me about what i've watched lets yap

✮ non-anime shows - gotta big ups to ATLA a modern masterpiece of western artistry. don't ask me about the live action bc i don't wanna talk about it. same deal here i cant think of all of them without short circuiting but top of mind i LOVE the good place, scandal, htgawm, grey's anatomy (before it crashed out), bridgerton, BREAKING BAD (not caught up in better call saul), superstore, vincenzo, crash landing on you, goblin, anything with gong yoo and/or lee dong wok in it tbh, strangers from hell, bad and crazy, attorney woo

✮ used to be super into marvel and the mcu (and i know thats a thing people say but it was so so bad for me) but its not what it used to be and also i think i started outgrowing it once my media literacy improved its ties to military propaganda couldn't be ignored lmao (also sabra being in the mcu is sosososo crazy) .. some of the comics still bang tho i wont lie

✮ music - not to be one of those "oh i listen to everything" people as a cop out but i truly do listen to so much disparate types of music *insert laugh crying emojis* but my overall favorite genre is jazz, i love 70s-00s black american music so much (i was a 9 year old motown stan it was so serious to me), love afrobeats, amapiano, baile funk, r&b, rap (meg thee stallion is literally my wifey), pop, country, classical, VIDEO GAME OSTS (in true sega stan fashion) -- recommend me your favorite song!

✮ kpop - a separate bullet because i know where the overlap in interests comes in lmao. honestly ive fallen back from kpop a bit, not as into it as i was like even 6 months ago but groups that i still actively follow and listen to are ateez (ot8 but strong swing for mingi) and nct. also know alot about bts, txt, seventeen, exo, and shinee if you ever want to chat about them, but i listen to mostly individual songs from them and other groups and don't follow their releases

Where is E in *insert work here*?

✮ pls i hate all spoilers but these are the ones i strongly care about pls take note pls :(

One Piece: ep. 1085 ... i avoid catching up because i get sad when there's no more to watch

FE3H: Finished Golden Deer and Blue Lions, please don't tell me anything about the Black Eagle story line

GOT/HOTD: caught up!

[glummar]

a redraw of kazuha for my ego :p

[whentheynameyoujoy]

So the ATLA Movie Is... Good, Actually?

Just kidding, of course it’s not, it’s so bad it sucked the paint off my walls. But after ten years of people pointing out its glaring flaws, why would anyone bother talking about this garbage heap if not to go the other direction? So here’s a very brief and very superficial list of things the movie does get kinda... not atrociously wrong.

And they won’t be fake hipster pokes, like “It’s fun to laugh at”, “The Rifftrax for this is OK”, or “Kudos to the actress for managing to say we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in theirs with a straight face”.

(though now that I mentioned it, it is fun to laugh at, the Rifftrax for this is OK, and massive props indeed.)

Rasta Iroh

Yes, I know it’s not exactly the aesthetic of the real Iroh or that it makes no cultural sense for him to sport this do when no one else in the racebended Indian “OMFG what were you thinking Shyamalan” Nation does but goddamn, long-haired dudes are my one mortal weakness and I will ogle the hell out of him.

Jesus is that a man bun I see that’s it mum I’ve been deaded

Yue’s hair

No.

Now we’re talking. Yue’s hair turned white when the Moon spirit gave her life, so it makes sense for it to go black again when she sacrifices herself to revive the koi fish. It’s a neat detail I find myself expecting whenever I rewatch the scene in the show. Yes, I realize it’d be a pointless hassle to animate since she, unlike in the movie, immediately goes on to become the Moon herself but still. I like.

The Blue Spirit’s mop

Zuko, hun, what’s with the dance-off?

First of all, I want to imagine that Zuko the Theatre Nerd was about to leave his ship with just the mask like in the show but then stuck his head into the cleaning cupboard and went, “Yeah, more coverage might be good, even though it do seem mighty fried to shit”.

Which makes me giggle. I like to giggle.

And secondly, the hair’s movement is what makes the static mess of the Blue Spirit’s solo fight scene appear at least bit more dynamic because God knows the cinematography isn’t doing it.

Any particular reason why it’s at the edge of the action, shot all boring-like?

Now, I get why circular shots would be reserved for Aang while he’s in the practice area and then used once the two join forces. What I don’t get is why Aang’s part of the action scene has a defined visual style while Zuko’s delegated to a few stationary wide shots from afar as though he’s a tertiary goon, meaning that when the time comes to combine the respective pieces of cinema language and visually convey collaboration, there’s not really much to combine.

But as long as Zuko is stuck in this static mess, it’s that awesome disaster on his head flopping about that draws the eye, helping me understand that something even is going on over there.

It also prevents me from paying much attention to how the extras are mostly just staying put and a lot of the hits don’t land, so that’s good.

The music slaps

James Newton Howard is too good for this.

Pls ignore that the word “gods” is used in the ATLA universe

I can’t be the only one who constantly uses this piece to daydream about writing specific fanfic scenes instead of, you know, actually sitting down and writing them. It’s just so good at communicating a sense of sorrow while speaking of rebirth that I find myself getting misty-eyed whenever I listen to it. Unfailingly, the soundtrack as a whole manages to break through the mile-thick crust of horrible acting, confusing writing, and uninspired cinematography and make me feel things. And considering how everything on screen is working against it, that’s no small feat.

Imagine what a powerful experience it would be if the score was used in service of an actual movie.

Dev Patel

No wonder since he’s the only one in the film occupying that crucial intersection between “is a good actor” and “was given something to work with”. It also doesn’t hurt that he breaks with the trend of actors starring in martial arts flicks despite never having done any martial art.

And all EIP-jokes about “stiff and humorless” aside, he’s a pretty decent Zuko considering how abridged this version of the character is. A while ago, I remember hearing a reviewer say that with his comedic chops, Patel should have been cast as Sokka. And on one hand, yes, god, absolutely, I need to see that asap. But on the other? He captures all layers of Book 1!Zuko, the desperate obsession, rage, and self-loathing, and at the same time gives you a peek at the soft momma’s boy dork that’s buried underneath. For Christ sakes, he exudes intensity and ambivalence even when acting against an emotionless hunk of wood that’s giving him nothing in return.

Oh, and I guess there’s a tree in the frame.

Ba dum tss

What can I say, the guy’s good.

Showing vs telling

OK, so this movie is all tell and no show, except for one single moment. And it’s the exact moment where the original goes in the other direction in terms of how information is conveyed.

See, I never liked this. The revelation is preceded by Iroh giving advice to Zuko who scolds him for nagging. Iroh then apologizes, moves in to say the line above, and is interrupted by Zuko who seems rather uncomfortable with Iroh laying his feelings out like this. And once they’re out, Zuko verbally confirms that he knew already and Iroh didn’t need to bother.

All this extraneous information and pussyfooting ends up weakening what should be a profound scene that reveals to us, the viewers, how deep the relationship between these two in fact runs.

Compare to the movie where Dadroh acts like a parent by fussing and worrying, with Sonion needing a single look to tell him and us that he understands what it’s all really about.

It’s genuinely efficient and just good.

No Cataang

Fine, a bit mean-girl bitchy from me since I only start minding the ship in Book 3. And probably unintentional on the part of the creators since there are moments where I think they’re trying to set the romance up? There’s a, well, an attempt to recreate the famous introductory shot of fateful meaningful destiny of meaningness, there’s some slight note of saving each other’s bacon going on, I’m pretty sure they’re the only ones in the film who smile, and oh, right, Katara’s shoved into her post-canon useless role where she doesn’t ever do anything, and is all about Aang right from the get go.

Yes, I will blame the “executive producers” because a) I’m incredibly petty, and b) it’s perfectly in line with their vision of the character so why the hell not.

Hilariously, none of it reads on screen because the actors are just... yeah. These poor kids are struggling so much with delivering their own lines and portraying their own characters they don’t seem to have any strength left to create something between them. To be fair, the bare-bones shot-reverse shot style of their scenes doesn’t exactly lend itself to the idea they occupy the same universe, let alone are friends or each other’s crushes.

And I enjoy this immensely because it allows me to forget the depressing horror show Katara’s life turns into post ATLA.

Yes Zutara

I need to delve into this because it’s fucking hilarious. So in a movie which fails to establish the original’s central romance so spectacularly that if Aang got lost in a crowd I don’t believe Katara would notice, SomEOnE thought it’d be a good idea to add an utterly unnecessary non-canon moment where Zuko for some reason feels the need to pause his character-defining hunt for the Avatar which otherwise has him ignore everything and snap at everyone, and explain his central conflict to an unconscious peasant he doesn’t know, complete with gently pushing the hair from the pretty girl’s the soulmate’s the Water Tribe Ambassador’s the Fire Lady’s the love of his life’s her face away, AFTER his uncle nagged him twice to find a girl and settle down.

I just wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page and this is what we really saw.

Celibate Avatars

I have no idea why the decision was made, if TPTB thought expecting viewers to understand the story through the lens of Buddhism would be too much, or if the “executive producers” already worked their retconny magic. What I do know, however, is that there’s a big shift in worldbuilding and Aang’s struggle with his role as the Avatar stops being a personal conflict defined by a) his grief for Air Nomads, b) his notion of being robbed of the loved ones in his life, and c) the selfish attachment to Katara he confuses with true love. Instead, what he has a difficulty to accept is apparently a general notion of who Avatars are supposed to be, i.e. a fantasy version of Catholic monks, no family and worldly relations, period.

I guess either someone understood the original’s portrayal of de/attachment as “hermit no freaky”, or thought the audience would so why not go there outright.

Now, do I like this on its own? No, God no, it makes the world infinitely poorer and changes the story from an exploration of ideas which aren’t all that ingrained in the West, to a cliché tropester about a Catholic priest going Protestant so that he could be with a girl.

At least I assume that’s where they were going to take this eventually.

I mean, I think the direction was “look conflicted, this isn’t the final stage of your journey”?

But consider this—the show went there, it built on the concepts of Eastern philosophy and touched upon the ideas of spiritual awakening, only to swerve in the end and strongly imply they’re bullshit and Aang should have never wasted his time with them.

So honestly, I much prefer scanty worldbuilding to an insulting retcon by a damn rock.

Multiracial Air Nomads

Probably the most substantial “no hint of irony” point on this list and a genuinely good addition to the universe’s worldbuilding.

See, the notion of the elemental nations being perfectly separate and never mingling before Sozin has always been sketchy but it’s especially ridiculous in the case of airbenders. It never made sense to me for all airbenders to be Air Nomads and for all Air Nomads to be monks and for all monks to be chilling at the temples all the time to facilitate a quick everyone-dies genocide should an imperialistic warlord ever decide to commit one.

Because committing everyone to a single way of life at a handful of places kinda goes against the central philosophy behind airbending. Like the freedom and nomadism part.

Instead, there should be more variety to the airbending culture, with some staying at the temples as monks, hermits, and teachers while others live as nomads, travelling the world and creating more airbenders, with the resulting children in turn being influenced by the non-airbending cultures they grew up in.

And thus, not only should airbenders not be modeled after a single culture to create a one-size-fits-all lifestyle, but they should have the most diverse and dynamic culture out of the four nations.

And it’d be precisely this diversity which would pave way for an eventual reveal that some of them survived, that their complete extermination is impossible.

Because they’re everywhere.

You know.

Like air.

[welcome-to-the-cafe]

SHANG-CHI (2021) Review Pt. 3

This section will focus more on the potential cultural impact and reflections of the movie.

Good things first. This was a great movie for Asian-American representation. On face value, it was a huge rather well-promoted movie (in my opinion, but that could just be my algorithms) under arguably the most internationally renown franchise today, Marvel. It featured empowered and attractive Asian male leads, empowered and attractive Asian female leads, a glorious, dreamy romance between two of them, and multiple humanizing familial relationships that don't simply recycle the old "modern freedom vs oppressive tradition". Each Asian character is a fully fleshed person, as is due, and clear authentic effort is made to celebrate their backgrounds, from the action to settings to costumes to language to the jokes.

And the Asian-American jokes land very well, especially the ones that highlight how different each individual Asian-American 's experience, and familiarity with their heritage, can be. Central to this is Katy, of course, essentially the audience surrogate, the audience being both nonAsians and "standard" Asian-Americans. She is bad at Chinese, even as her own grandmother speaks it. She defies her mom's (gentle) expectations of her, she is amazed and somewhat intimidated by her heritage in full form. The other characters who are closer to their native culture are gentle with her unfamiliarity: Shang-Chi walks her through pronunciation, Ronny Chieng's character assures her "Don't worry I speak ABC", and even Wenwu treats her kindly as a guest, and doesn't put her down for her Americanness. Well other than the patronizing storytelling tone, but that's the villainous patronizing, not the "you are uncultured" patronizing. Even in the village, they look down on her mostly on account of her not having martial arts skills and being ambitionless, than of her Americanness.

Similarly, Shang-Chi's struggle with his father did not use his time in America, and his potential Americanizing, as much of a pain point. I appreciate this, and the gentleness to Katy, greatly, as it dances around the culture conflict narrative that so frequently plagues other Asian American media (looking at you Crazy Rich Asians). As such, Wenwu is not evil because he is more Chinese/traditional, he is so because of the very human pain of losing his wife. Also he was a ruthless immortal warlord. And his children are not good due to their separation from their heritage; they are good because of their ties to each other and their mother, and her heritage from the village, which also traditional. Like an equation, the culture on the good and bad sides cancel out, and you are left with a largely culture-neutral narrative, while Chinese culture itself is shown off more.

Most of the characters are Asian, the non-Asians are very tertiary. In this, the movie functions as normal Asian media does; in removing the racial differences, the characters level with each other as people, instead of as representatives of their heritage. Speaking of native Asian media, I will now explain how this movie, for all of its virtues, will still serve the same ultimate function as Crazy Rich Asians and Mulan in terms of cross-national relations.

This was an American movie. Featuring Asian culture, yes. But an American movie nonetheless. Its action scenes would probably stand up well against native Chinese media, but its overarching presentation would be seen as incredibly cheesy, and probably somewhat patronizing, to a Chinese viewer. What are those costumes? What are those Ta Lo "traditional clothes"? Straw Huts? Why the fuck does Death Dealer have face paint? What are those ridiculous hook swords and tassle helmets? Oh hey its the mythical beasts they see in every wuxia fantasy movie.

I liked a comparison I read on social media; it is like presenting orange chicken as a dish specially made for your Chinese guest. The dish may be good, but that is besides the point; it is insulting for you to expect them to appreciate your facsimile of their culture. In this metaphorical scenario, you may be a Chinese-American, but your weird attempt to reference your heritage only highlights the divide. They eat better Chinese food all the time anyways, this orange chicken may be a direct downgrade. Did you expect them to be happy just because you, the American, made it for them? Are you looking down on them?

It is better for you to make a pizza or a fettuccini alfredo for them. This equivalent would be the World of Warcraft movie, with no Asian references whatsoever.

I remember when Avatar: The Last Airbender came out, and my 3rd grade self was so excited to see the Chinese armor designs on the fire nation, the kung-fu inspired bending styles, and more. But now, I feel a bit strange seeing how much obsession is given to this series by the Asian-American community. For all its acclaim and AsAm representation, it is virtually unknown to native Asians, unlike the notorious Resident Evil live-action movie series. I wonder, if most Chinese-Americans had watched more Chinese wuxia and fantasy, they would be as excited about ATLA?

This is also related to how Westerners are discovering Tony Leung for the first time, and some Asians say "we been knew". But how many AsAm actually did know? For how many Asian-Americans did it take Shang-Chi to introduce them to this legend, and his previous body of work?

Why was I so excited to be represented in a cartoon, even if I did watch Journey to the West growing up? Could it be because finally it was something with Asians in it that the kids around me also watched? Maybe. I could go on and on about Sun Wukong, but nobody cared, while Prince Zuko was somebody everyone knew and rooted for.

So in this way, Shang-Chi, despite being mildly offensive to the motherland (for which the movie does not even have a release date), is still very important and positive to us stateside. I feel a little bad for Simu that his homeland may not appreciate his greatest work so far, but maybe it doesn't bother him that much; he is now a hero to almost the entire Asian-American community. I hope Tony Leung can be the movie's saving grace for native markets. I also hope that Chinese watchers would understand why this movie is important for the diaspora, even if they don't enjoy the movie itself.

Oh, and finally, I hope Chinese-Americans don't hold their motherland in contempt for disliking this movie. It's not for them! Cut them the slack! And go watch their movies and media! It may not have jokes about the immigrant experience, but it is effective representation. Watch Asian movies! With your family, with your friends! Western media is not the center of the universe, and it never deserved to be. Put more people who look like you on your own screen.

I saw a lot of Tiktoks of nonAsians (and Asians) doing kung-fu moves coming out of the theater. I...am not sure about this? I guess martial arts is once more the vehicle by which we get positive representation in Western media, as is tradition. The legacy of Bruce Lee, of Jackie Chan, of Jet Li. Should I celebrate? Martial arts are dope as fuck but...that's not all we are...well. The appropriate tropey thing to say is: "This is just the beginning."

Part 4 will be my rewrite ideas. I will write it on my blog and link it here later.

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

I just want to say, before I say anything, I'm not accusing you of saying this and I understand that you feel how you feel. I'm just asking this in a very general way and was wondering your thoughts. Why is it so verboten to think Zuko might have had a slight crush on Katara? There seems to be a rush to not just deny it but to treat it like it's some sort of horrible thing to even suggest it and I'm not sure why that is?

Katara is presented as a beautiful, lively girl who is a powerful bender. Why wouldn’t Zuko be a little starry eyed over that? It doesn’t mean she likes him back. Idk, I’m not exactly sure where my point is, except that being shouted down for just advancing the idea that maybe Zuko had the hots for Katara is a little frustrating? I’m not saying he was wacking off in his bunk thinking about her or expected to get some while they were hunting Yon Rha.

Also, unrequited crushes happen in ATLA-verse? Toph/Sokka anyone? Why does that never get screeched on but saying “Hey, Zuko loved Mai but he was probably looking at Katara and thinking ‘noice!’ a couple of times” the worst thing in the world? Is it the Water Tribe/Fire Nation thing? I mean, if it’s that, I wish people would just say that and stop screaming at people for their headcanons and whatnot. [theend]

Lol do not worry anon I know this isn’t an accusation!! Not only have I myself never perpetuated this rhetoric, but I don’t think I’ve really heard it before! Maybe once or twice?? I might just keep to chill parts of fandom, lmao, and that’s why I’m not very familiar with it. But I’ll do my best to theorize what may spark conflict based on the info you provided me!

(I’ve talked very briefly here about Zuko having/not having a crush on Katara before, if you were wondering.)

My main guess is that it’s not the headcanon itself that makes people frustrated, but how some shippers probably treat the HEADcanon as canon-canon (not an issue exclusive to Zvtara, btw; all big fanon ships have this problem - Zvkka, anyone? lmao). I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with headcanoning that Zuko had a crush on Katara! But in that same vein, there’s nothing inherently wrong with others acknowledging that the headcanon has no basis in canon either, if that makes sense. And headcanons don’t need canon basis! Headcanons are fanon! That’s why they’re so much fun! I ship Kuzaang like there’s no tomorrow, but I can also acknowledge that there wasn’t anything in canon that demonstrated Aang having a crush on Kuzon. Kuzaang is strictly fanon, and I love that about the pairing! It means I have incredible free reign, hehe.

But yeah. I don’t think it has anything to do with their different nations! Like I said - it’s probably solely an issue of some shippers (and undoubtedly just a loud minority) treating the headcanon as canon.

I don’t think saying “Hey, Zuko loved Mai but he was probably looking at Katara and thinking ‘noice!’ a couple of times” is the worst thing in the world, lmao. I do want to make a distinction here, though; this example you provide is actually an example of aesthetic attraction, which is not the same as a crush (crushes are indicative of romantic attraction)! So saying/headcanoning that Zuko thought Katara was pretty (as anyone with a brain would say, let’s be real) does not actually equate to him having a crush on her.

But back to the crush headcanon. I mentioned that I (personally!) don’t think it has canon basis. I will admit that I am not alloromantic, so crushes in themselves are a little confusing to me (I mean,, people just randomly like someone?? based on their appearance?? without even knowing them?? hell nah), but even disregarding that, I don’t think it would make much sense within canon for Zuko to have had a crush on Katara.

Again, disclaimer: there’s nothing wrong with the headcanon! Fanon is meant to contradict canon! To expand canon! To rewrite canon! Fanon is transformative. That’s the entire purpose of fanon. Go wild with that headcanon!! Make art!! Produce fics!! Support content creators!! Hell yeah!!

So what do I mean when I say that I personally feel there’s no canon basis for Zuko having a crush on Katara? Well, for one, he joined the Gaang in episode 12 of Book 3. That’s episode 52 of 61 overall. So in everything prior to that, Zuko not only has no idea who Katara is but he is also neck-deep in imperialistic rhetoric (you know, racism, superiority complexes, all that jazz. not fun for anyone non-FN). No possible crush there. In “The Western Air Temple” episode itself, Katara (understandably) threatens Zuko. She means what she says, and I think Zuko recognizes that. A crush there wouldn’t make sense - they’ve only properly met this second time and Katara (understandably) hates Zuko’s guts for what he’s done to the Gaang and to her personally.

Episode 53 is “The Firebending Masters” - Zuko’s too hung up on his firebending not working to think about anything else (Katara obviously still does not trust him yet, either, meaning Zuko is pretty much on edge around her. again, she threatened him, and Zuko no doubt took her threat seriously).

54 and 55 are “The Boiling Rock” episodes; not only are these Maiko-heavy but also in general… I mean, Katara’s not really in them. At least not from Zuko’s POV. So nothing implies a crush there. And then after those episodes, it’s worth considering that Zuko probably thinks Mai is dead. That he left her, the girl he loves, to die at Azula’s hands. We know Zuko tends to hold guilt to his chest, so concluding he blamed himself for Mai’s “death” is not illogical. Why would he all of sudden switch his sights to Katara, even if it was just a simple crush? While he’s grieving? That doesn’t track to me.

And then, of course, “The Southern Raiders.” This episode has been talked about to death, so I’ll keep it brief, lmao. I will draw attention to only one line, spoken by Zuko:

This isn’t fair! Everyone else seems to trust me now! What is it with you?

As we all know, TSR was not a flattering episode for Zuko. He was a racist asshole to Aang and - as aforementioned - acted as if he was entitled to Katara’s trust. Obviously, Zuko grows through the episode, and we see by the end that he respects Aang’s wisdom and respects Katara’s decision to walk away from Yon Rha (which is awesome!! I adore this brief but incredibly crucial arc of his!!). But my point is that nothing demonstrates romantic interest from Zuko to Katara. If anything, his initial motives are pretty damn selfish (i.e. demanding her to trust him because he feels like he “deserves” it already).

Emphasis on “initial” motives, of course. Obviously he grows more sincere!! (Tis the point of the episode for Zuko.)

So they end TSR on new, peaceful terms. Personally, I don’t think their relationship would be magically sunshine and roses after that (Zuko did some fucked up shit to the Gaang, lmao), but I do think things are getting better between them! Still, there is nothing indicative of a canon crush.

Next episode, in EIP, they scoot away from each other at the possibility of being together, yk? That doesn’t mean they hate each other’s guts, lmfao, but EIP is meant to depict imperialist Fire Nation propaganda - who wouldn’t be uncomfortable with that? Like, the entire Gaang is demeaned in that play. There’s nothing romantic about it. It’s a similar situation later with June - this is a lady that doesn’t know anything remotely personal about Zuko or Katara. Of course they’d react in a horrified and flustered manner when this - for all intents and purposes - total stranger suggests that they’re together! That’s creepy as hell! Definitely not indicative of a crush, lmao. And considering that the Gaang never teases Zuko about having a crush on Katara (compared to how I think Toph teases Katara about Haru?), i.e. the people who know them the best, there’s no reason for the audience to think anything is going on between them.

For other references, here are a few addressing EIP, June, etc.

And after all that… Well, now we’re in the finale. What time is there for romance? There’s a reason the canon couples don’t reunite until after the war is won! (Minus Sukka, I guess, but they’re not professing their love on the battlefield, per se, lmao.) Zuko chooses Katara to go with him because she’s a powerful waterbender and the only person who’s been able to handle Azula in the past (besides Aang, arguably, who’s obviously occupied with Ozai), not because he “likes” her in a romantic sense.

All of this is to say that to me, Zuko having a crush on Katara is strictly fanon. Which is awesome! Fanon is fantastic, and I actually really like these types of headcanons (like, Teo having a crush on Aang? GOOD SHIT). Some people are just jerks about it. That said, I can still understand why people might get frustrated by those who preach this headcanon as if it’s pulled straight from the text itself. I absolutely think it’s ridiculous to harass others over a headcanon (which unfortunately you see on both sides of the ship war), but in that same vein - of course it’s frustrating when those loud few act like their fanon is canon and proceed to shove it down others’ throats, lmao. It’s an imperfect situation, basically.

TL;DR - The headcanon in itself is great, and no one should be getting freaking harassed over it. But it is strictly fanon, so when some shippers treat it like canon, that’s understandably going to frustrate the rest of the fandom. Headcanons are a double-edged sword, lmao.

So that’s my personal theory as to why people get pressed over this headcanon. If anyone else has a different idea, please feel free to rb/comment with it!

[astro-inky]

I’m bored so here’s what bender roles I’d assign for an atla One Piece au

Luffy — He’s the Avatar, duh. I think he’d be pretty similar to Aang, where he’s from the air temples and has the tattoos but this boi has Anime Protagonist Syndrome so that means he’s the avatar. I think earth would be the hardest element for him to learn tho.

Zoro — A non bender from the Water Tribe. He uses swords to fight duh. Literally just Zoro but from a Water Tribe. He just has water tribe vibes. I’ll explain a bit more on the next one below.

Nami — OK, i like to think in this au Nami and Zoro would take on similar roles as Katara and Sokka. They grew up in the Southern tribe together as kids but grew closer after the raids it suffered from the fire nation (both losing people they loved from it, Nami losing Belemere and Zoro losing Kuina). So yeah they grew up like siblings. Nami is a water bender too, the last one in the tribe, like Katara in the show. I think it fits her navigational abilities and her personality. She’s very much like Katara in some senses too lol

Usopp — Also a non bender. He’s from and earth village tho and is knowledgeable on plants and rocks and shit. Uses a sling shot much like canon Usopp.

Sanji — oh boy here we go. I like to think that he’s a runaway noble from the fire nation, being a fire bender himself. I’d imagine the Vinsmoke siblings would be much like Azula and her team as one of the main antagonists but he ran away from that life and was like “fuck that lets find the avatar and not be apart of this”. So yeah, he cant lightning bend well, but he’s pretty good at using his fire bending with his marital arts

Chopper — assuming that there are sentient animals who can talk in this au, I’m gonna say non bender. Just Chopper, my boy, my son. If thats not the case i would assume he would take on an Appa role (I’m sorry Chopper my baby boy)

Robin — Now THIS is difficult. I honestly think she would be an earth bender tho. She’s pretty grounded as a person after all. And it fits with her “flower” theme and with the fact that she an archeologist

Franky — He’s a metal bender!! I’m not wrong. He is a Metal Bender. Not sure if he’d still be a cyborg tho. Oh well

Brook — air bender!!!!! He likes bending the wind to make a song sometimes. Also not sure if he’d be a skeleton, but I guess it would make a bit of sense if he was. Like he got a curse or something that made him immortal and survived the air bender slaughter. It would make an interesting dynamic for him and Luffy in this au.

Jinbe — water bender. This is obvious. I’d imagine he would be in the north tribe and teach Luffy and Nami more about water bending.

Thats all i got. Some are obvious (like ace and sabo being fire benders lol). You can add on to this if u want I’m not making an actual au of this probably but i thought I’d write it down anyways.

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

BFCD Story Concepts by Nesha

Story Concept 01: No Saviors in the Wild Pt. 5

Read Pt 1 | Pt 2 | Pt 3 | Pt 4

I Am Light by India.Arie plays in background, as it is Shani’s theme.

A Savior is Born: The Rise of the Rebels 02 - A Cage Big Enough for Hundreds

Shani knew what it meant whenever she was escorted back to the dormitories and her files were pulled up and changed. She knew what it meant for the administration to remove her arm cuff, explaining to her that the government had given her a full scholarship for the rest of her studies. When her record was expunged and she was allotted a grace days to recuperate and get back to her regularly scheduled classes with her tuition and lodging paid in full and no sign of the unjust sentence in her history, she knew.

They wanted her to shut up and move on. To just forget about not only what happened to her in the woods, but to the others. To Atlas. She tried to see if she could look him up whenever she got back to the library. The directory didn’t cover Wasteland citizens, so she had to give up after a few days. 

Since she now had free time, not having to work for her education, she decided to get a part time job, for a life skills practice and a few non-academic pleasures that weren’t covered in the tuition + nutrition supply. She started a beret collection, and learning various hobbies as a distraction from thinking about the woods every time she wasn’t involved with a school project.

She bought every single type of M&M that she saw in the store, then grabbed jars to separate them - all plain reds in a big jar, smaller jars for other reds - peanut, almond, etc, and the biggest jar had all of the excess red M&Ms of all sorts put into it. Then... she had several bags of several M&Ms that weren’t red. Researching what to do with them, besides toss them, she found a few recipes for cookies and other treats. Maybe this was a nice time to learn how to bake!

She went knocking on doors of other dorms in her building and nearby buildings, "Hi, I brought you some M&Ms cookies." and they're like... You know what idec. Yes, thanks. Because, the dorms weren’t where the rich students lived. It got her a few suspicious folk, but mostly, people were grateful for something to eat that wasn’t a strict and cheap meal or an even cheaper and far less appealing meal paste. It was the first time that people seemed to begin liking her.

She thinks about getting a tattoo, but they're ridiculously unsafe and very expensive, so instead she gets a tattoo art piece, which is a realistic painting of your body part with a tattoo on it. It's relatively costly, but safe, and hers is an Atlas tattoo, holding the world on his shoulders, on her back, because Atlas had had her back.

She researches Atlas and then goes and finds Greek mythology books in the useless books depository, and takes on learning about it as a hobby. Greek mythology, baking, school, part time job doing data entry, and collecting berets. It kept her occupied, though her mind was frequently on what happened. Months had passed, years were beginning to. She thought for sure that one day, her pain had to be numbed and so she tried not to harp on it. But, how do you just forget somebody who was willing to throw away their life for yours?

18 marked the legal age of adulthood. Shani immediately had a job, right out of school as an interpreter and translator. She was hired at a firm that also allotted her to take more college level courses to advance herself in the field and she began saving up for a place in the city that wasn’t a job related lodging when she had the most important appointment set up for her that she would ever have.

“Hi. I’m Shani, I’ll be helping you today with your assessment. Have a seat.” The wasteland woman looked at the chair that Shani gestured to and smiled, her canines showing and the smile wider than Shani was comfortable with. “Ummm... Sit down?” The woman laughed and nodded. 

“Have a seat. Sit down. Yes. Yes, that makes sense. It took me a moment. You might guess, the wasteland isn’t very prim and proper.”

Shani didn’t want to talk about the wasteland. Instead, she began typing into her computer, “So, Miss... Free... What is your first language?”

“I don’t believe that you have a word for it. I’ll call it wolfen. I doubt it is in your machine.” 

Shani furrowed her eyebrows. “No. I’ve never heard of that before. Where did it originate? If you know...” 

“Hmmm... The Epic of Gilgamesh, maybe.” 

Shani frowned and clasped her hands over each other. “Ma’am. What is this meeting about?”

“I remember you, but you don’t remember me. It’s because you didn’t see me. You didn’t know to look for me. But, I knew to look for you. I’m here, because I have finally found you... Did you think it was right? For them to come in that way? They sent us food. We ate, then they attacked and took my people, took your people, took the wolf with the hair like flames...”

“What are you talking about?” Shani whispered.

“Your mate. He was torn open, then he tasted blood. He became as we are. Not fully, but enough. He became a man who is no longer a man, a man who is now a wolf.”

“Atlas.”

“They took my people. They took your people. You.. were special, somehow. You didn’t go where others went. Why were you special? Why were you spared?” Shani had never considered that she had been either of these things. She lamented over Atlas for so long, she figured that she, too, had been made to suffer. “They were taken to a cage. Some as beasts, some as feed. You were taken to a cottage, and given gifts. Are you a queen?”

“Far from it...” Shani tried to remember what happened in those moments. She vaguely recalled a voice saying, “She was falsely accused. She shouldn’t have been there in the first place, much less get taken to the Kennel. She’s got an arm cuff. She belongs to somebody.” The school. She had been property of the school. She still owed them money and had their equipment on her person, to indicate such...

Her schooling was paid off, not as a means to keep her quiet... but to keep the school quiet. To ensure that they got what she was worth and not ask questions about potential damages she faced while serving a bogus sentence. Sure, she made the most of that, but it had less to do with her and more to do with money.

“They... took them to a cage?”

“A cage big enough for hundreds.”

Tears poured from her eyes and Free took the initiative to offer the woman’s own tissues to her, as she must’ve forgotten that they were on her desk, in her... emotional release. Shani snatched two and tried to clean her face up. They took Atlas to a prison?  “A prison! They... took Atlas to a prison?”

Whenever Free said this, her dark brown eyes glowed amber and at that moment, Shani knew. This... is a wolf. This woman is what she described. A person who is not a person, but a person who is a wolf. “They took everyone there. Everyone but us.”

NOTES: I enjoy the idea of Free being far removed enough from human society that she doesn’t know anything about mannerisms and only has a limited amount of English, that she’s picked up since she’s been scavenging through the wasteland, but that she’s smart (I’d say the smartest wolfen in the series), and she’s adaptable and quick. She’s like a wolfen counterpart to Shani, and that’s why they eventually get on so well. They’re in similar positions, but with vastly different backgrounds. @tiarathief (You are still the first name that comes up whenever I at somebody. Let me know if you don’t want to be tagged to these, please. @shslargue @jacksope-lives

[orettile]

ok my avatar stardust crusaders au. i had to draw at least some basic stuff for it because its been living in my head for like a month now! I imagine a mashup of jojo and atla canon of sorts 

100 years ago dio took over and became the firelord. Then the plot vaguely follows the schemat of phantom blood: jonathan and dio fight, jonathan dies, dio somehow manages to get himself frozen, not unlike aang, and is presumed dead for 100 years . Plot begins the moment dio comes back and takes back his previous position as a firelord and starts the war anew.

rest of character headcanons/descriptions under the cut

jotaro

 avatar, oryginally earthbender.

 his whole life he has been living in a quiet town somewhere in an earth kingdom, before he discovered that somehow he is able to bend other elements and therefore he’s the avatar. It happened around the time dio became the ruler of the fire nation again. Then he gets dragged by joseph to learn all the bending arts and defeat dio

i imagined him as an earthbender both because of his fighting style and personality - he is straightforward, strong, stubborn and knows when to strike

joseph

he’s a firebender, i imagine he’s been living somewhere in an earth kingdom though. During the war he usually travel in earth kingdom clothing or at least something neutral. Wants to kill dio to avenge his grandpa jonathan and end the war once and for all

along the way he teaches jotaro firebending as his first foreign element. jotaro is not very keen on lessons with his grandpa but knows he’s lucky to learn an enemy’s weappon from someone he can at least trust

avdol

yeah i know he’s basically a firebender in canon already and i like firebender!avdol, but i think he fits airbending just as well. He’s a spiritual, fun person and also i think he would look great in the tattoos

in this au i guess that airbenders haven’t been completely wiped out because dio disappeared before he was able to go thorough with the plan

he teaches jotaro airbending and jotaro finds it a bit hard since air and earth are opposite elements, but avdol is a great teacher so its not bad

polnareff

ok so he is a non-bender sent by dio, the rest pretty much the same as canon (i didn’t really think through the fleshbud thing but i think it can still be present here)

i had a problem to translate his frenchness into atla universe and still have no idea what nation he fits best but ultimately i’ve decided that he’s just from some weird island on earth kingdom territory that is known for how its citizens speak weird.

he fights with a sword he made himself

kakyoin

waterbender who was taken from his village during one of the fire nation raids. He learned bloodbending while he has been kept captive by fire nation and tried to escape using it, but got caught. After some time the news of his ability got passed to dio, who thought he could certainly use a bloodbending assasin

got brainwashed and sent to kill the avatar, but his zuko-esque behaviour ends the moment his fleshbud is out. 

jotaro learns waterbending from him and this element is something that he quickly warms up to. he finds the calming (ocean man....)

they also have mud fights :)

the group needs to get healed after pretty much every enemy encounter and he as a waterbender is at first the only one with the ability to heal. hes  not very good at it, and he finds polnareff’s ability to get injured all the time annoying, but he tries his best. he tries to pass some of his knowledge of healing to jotaro

i drew him with the brown hair like in ova 

iggy

iggy is still a dog. thats thats on that

this sure got a bit longer than i expected

i am not usually eager enough to come up with elaborate au descriptions but there were some things i just wanted to draw and then it went overboard

[meggannn]

thank god im not the only other asian girl who came to realize how weirdly orientalist atla/lok is.

i hope you don’t mind me using this ask as a springboard to get some of my thoughts down (i edited this once and that fucked up the read more, so i tried several times to put this behind a cut again but tumblr hates me so i guess now everyone has to read my beef ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

my friend said last night that ATLA is like the new harry potter with the way people talk about it and..... yknow she’s not entirely wrong.....

like, not to keep pulling this card, but ~as a half-asian~, i have been struggling with this show a lot over the past few months; before even the show came to netflix, i was seeing a resurgence of ATLA stan culture. the hype of the live-action series and the release of the kyoshi novels have also amplified this. i reblog posts because i do still enjoy it, but i have been abstaining from reblogging commentary that so obviously glorifies it.

part of this burst-bubble effect is my problem, because i strongly dislike how people talk about certain characters and ships (and i admit that frustration is seeping through what ATLA did right) and observing fandom favorites makes me think that a lot of points were missed: people love toph, but hate korra (even people who think they love korra only because she’s one half of korrasami, actually do hate korra lmfao); people love zuko but completely ignore aang; don’t get me started on the fandom’s embracing of korrasami/subsequent forgiving of the patronizing, disrespectful, borderline racist way bryke did it. that is fan behavior, and it all bothers me and is no doubt coloring my judgment of the actual show, but beyond that, i also do want people to realize and accept “wait a minute, plenty of the things we criticize other media for also exist in ATLA, and it shouldn’t be different just because this show is full of asians.”

part of me wants to — and does — celebrate that a pan-asian show, in which NO white characters and NO trace of western culture exists, was a critical and commercial success in 2005! and had full network support and resonated with kids of different backgrounds. i can appreciate and be happy of that. but “no western culture” doesn’t mean “no western influence”: it’s an asian fantasy world created by non-asians, so the staff still ultimately wrote a pretty western story. the treatment of the fire lord imperialist dynasty is the big one (iroh was a war criminal who only left the warfront because his actions affected him/his family but now he’s a old friendly Good Guy and never acknowledges the lives he’s ruined! everything is ok now that zuko is fire lord! not like his new friends will have any direct trauma or conflicting feelings with how he is now heading a nation that burned two out of three of their homelands to the ground and tried to burn the third too! now here are all our headcanons about katara/sokka being fire lord/lady, toph being a fire lord advisor, and aang being an air nation rep to the fire nation! perfect ending!!), but also the themes of a pretty straightforward good kids v evil conqueror story, watered-down concepts of buddhism/taoism/others for child consumption — some of these are not strictly bad things, but they don’t make it the best story in the world. they are not worth saying “stop watching x problematic cartoon, watch ATLA, the BEST cartoon with the BEST diversity!!!!”

side note, my friend looked it up last night and there was a total of one asian writer on the staff, May Chan, who according to wiki, just wrote the Boiling Rock episodes. (at this juncture i want to keep in mind that someone in the writer’s or developer’s room might be in my situation, possibly mixed race but white-passing in both face and name... it’d be hypocritical of me to not consider that possibility, but as far as i know that’s not the case, and in any respect i think it’s important to have visible diversity, not because i think mixed people don’t have anything to say or shouldn’t be counted, but in the sense that poc who don’t get the luxury of being white-passing should be allowed control of depicting people who look like them. but that’s another discussion.)

honestly, i can look over some aspects of this show because i still do enjoy it. i like the use of martial arts as a fantastical magic device because it was used consistently and clearly they did their research, even if it does kind represent this idea of Asia, the Land of Magic Powers; i don’t mind because not everyone has the magic powers, the magic powers are deconstructed, people without the magic powers are still treated respectfully, the magic powers are diverse, and they are treated both practically and spiritually (so not everyone, like sokka, has the same awe-inspiring respect of them, which is realistic characterization to this world, and though he’s sometimes portrayed as incorrect in his disbelief of the spiritual, he’s never portrayed as wrong for being practical and realistic). honestly, i don’t mind the oohs and aahs of these magic powers because i still think the magic powers are pretty fuckin cool; it’s likely we’ve all pretended to be a bender at some point lol. and as a kid, i didn’t mind that ATLA nations blended cultures; i thought it was fun to look up later and see which sorts of things were made up and which were influenced by real things (i liked that not a lot if it was made up). i don’t mind that Lake Laogai was named after a real, horrifying place, though i understand and completely respect that plenty of others find the name disturbing and tasteless.

that said, as an adult coming to ATLA for the first time, I would probably not go this hard for a show that blends a bunch of real ethnicities together in a hodgepodge of culture clashes, at least not one spearheaded by a white developer team. i would be less willing to ignore the northern air temple episode, where aang, victim of a genocide, forgives a bunch of strangers who disrespected and destroyed his home (including the guy who was NOW INVENTING WAR WEAPONS FOR THE VERY NATION THAT DESTROYED HIS PEOPLE). i can mostly look over these things because of nostalgia. but the way people outright stan the whole avatar series (including LOK but i won’t get into that right now) without acknowledging ATLA is, ultimately, still a story with a pretty western handling of its themes just with asian faces, is..... frustrating.

a new coworker of mine, also an asian woman who was too old to watch ATLA at the time it was airing, has said that the more she learns about ATLA as an adult the weirder she feels about it and less inclined she is to watch it, which makes me think that maybe i’m not crazy.

[unfriendlyamazon]

tagged in this thanks to @dominocity and i spend more time looking at my ao3 stats then i care to admit...

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

36 works on AO3, plus one on my super secret (not really) second AO3 so I don’t contaminate my fandoms.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

165,078

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Baby Dragon - jurassic park if it was a romcom

Liking You and Me - this one is one of the earliest kaijou fics i wrote (besides the one i deleted), and i don’t even know if i like it anymore... but i get frequent kudos and comments so i guess it’s good!

In Awe of Flowers - they don’t even kiss!!! also @jadenvargen drew me a comic in the comments and i never thanked him for it because i was too scared to talk to him and tagging him now so long after the fact seems pretty ridiculous but um thank you jay for real.

Sweater Weather - kaijou for when you had a bad day

A Hand to Hold - kaijou hand kink this one i am actively embarrassed of (also, before i saw the light on trans joey)

4. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try really hard to! If the fic is really old I don’t (i don’t know why i can’t explain it), but I really appreciate when people take the time to comment and I want them to know it.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t... really have any?? I write plenty of angsty situations. Competitionverse (my duke/seto business business au) is probably the angstiest one and the one I have the worst plans for. I have some secret fanfic of 1930s gangster Joey that I’ve kind of put out in the world so maybe that?

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Haaahaha what drew me back to fanfiction after not writing it for at least a decade was domestic portraits of kaijou so, like, that’s what I write. Probably Baby Dragon or In Awe of Flowers.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Not crossovers but I write... a lot of AUs and in fact did an entire compilation one year for NaNoWriMo I never finished. Most niche is the Black Tapes AU that yes I do have a full outline for including timelines for every characters and how they intersect with the grand conspiracy, and maybe the wildest is Long Way to a Small Angry Planet just for making Joey a feathered reptile alien.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I’ve gotten some comments over writing Duke as non-binary and kind of a weird one on my super secret FE3H fanfiction fighting me on a plot point??

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I didn’t, but now I do. I don’t post 90% of what I write, which is maybe weirder?  It’s been really good to be pushed there by friends and develop that part of my writing, so maybe I’ll post more. Probably not tho. I feel like I’ve branded myself as the KaiJou hand kink person but I still don’t write it enough to be anyone’s go-to.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No?? I don’t think so???

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but it’d be super cool.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I guess not technically. Me and @saggiclowns bounce ideas off each other, write fanfiction for each other’s fanfiction, and have definitely developed things together, so maybe that counts? But our IP is individualized.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I have almost exclusively written KaiJou so you think that’d be the obvious answer. I think my actual all time favorite ship that sends me to the moon is probably Marceline/Bubblegum from Adventure Time (the history!!!! the animosity!!!!! the friendship!!!!!!!), I just... don’t want to read AT fanfiction.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Hahahaaaaaaa. I am WIP queen!! Back in the day I’d start a hundred fanfics just to abandon them! The same’s true of today I just don’t post every thought that comes into my head. Star Trek AU deserves so much more of my attention and I do have a plan for it and I bought a special little Star Trek notebook to keep all my thoughts ideas and notes in and then when it comes to writing it I struggle.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Genuinely, to toot my own horn, I feel I write very naturalistic dialogue and for the longest time writing dialogue was the easiest thing in the world to me, to the point that sometimes I would skip over anything else. Also, gosh I love world building. I could go from a blank screen to a fully articulated society complete with maps, pantheons, and intricate histories for every location. The problem is then writing it.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I tend to get very stuck on things and struggle to skip over them. Last year’s NaNoWriMo was a testament to that, and I kept rewriting and getting frustrated and will inevitably end up trashing the whole thing. I pick up new ideas constantly and then discard them for the next thought in my head. It’s part of why I’ve only really let myself write one shots and short fic, but I do have some longer WIP I’d love to actually finish.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

This is a tricky one and I’ve read and listened to a lot of people talk about how other non-fluent languages are presented in all kinds of different art. I personally don’t have a strong opinion. Best practice is to find someone who is fluent in that language to help you translate it (and there used to be whole blogs dedicated to helping people with this, I don’t know if they’re still around), but that doesn’t mean I’ve never jammed anything into a translator.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

This... is interesting because the answer is YuGiOh. Back in my middle school days my friends were very into ygo and wrote silly like chat formatted fics that we posted on DeviantArt (???) that were just really bad and stupid and silly, and the only reason I even thought about ygo was because all my friends liked it. The first fandom I actually really got involved in was Teen Titans, and ATLA I was, like, a recognizable presence. I fell off extremely hard probably thanks to college and have spent most of my life focusing on original fiction and writing my own characters. Then my best friend sent me a piece of fanart that unlocked my childhood memories, and here we are now, in the only fandom.

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I wrote Bite Hard and it might be one of the best things I’ve written... and now I’ve kind of repurposed it into an original fiction??? I think the main characters might always be buddies no matter how much I’ve manipulated them, but it’s kind of spun off into it’s own thing? That’s what fanfiction’s for! Experimentation, playing with ideas, having a sandbox to build in! And then I EL James it and make millions! (jk)

@saggiclowns doesn’t post to AO3 that much, and i don’t know if @danieco even has an AO3 but they are extremely good writers!! also if you write fic, please share your own!

[a-lonely-tatertot]

Masterlist & About Me

Hello people who decided to check out this hectic blog 

I have a sideblog: @utheria-antics (for my ocs)

My kotlc insta, wattpad, and ao3 all have the same url (insta just doesn’t have the dashes)

Also I have a twitch!!

all of my fics have cursing and so do most of my posts fyi

DRAWING REQUESTS OPEN

About me :D

Call me Tater I am mostly a kotlc fan but sometimes reblog stuff from other fandoms

I ramble, a LOT please give me validation

I love talking about my ocs, if your interested in them check out my sideblog and I will always answer asks about them either there or on here

Come talk to me bitches Im lonely (we dont have to be moots)

If we mutuals you can ask for my discord, snap, or email for hangouts

I also love talking about my fics and art if you ever want me to go more into depth or explain any of those

I try to stay out of discourse

Give me music recs, fic recs, show (animated or live action) recs, or graphic novel recs pl e a se

If you’ve got questions about anything please ask 

ocs are tagged with tater’s ocs or Utheria

my writing is tater writes

art is i drew a thing

Masterlist under the cut!

Fics if you’re too lazy to look em up:

The Fire in Your Eyes and The Screams in Your Throat (marellinh, 1.4k, first person, panic attack/loses control of powers): ao3

“Did I Ever Tell You How Beautiful Your Eyes Are?” (Detz, 2.3k, third person, underage drinking): ao3

Girl in Red But Make it Sophiana (sophiana, 1.1k, third person, drinking, cigarettes why do i have so many questionable things in these): ao3

let me fall you cant save me now (keefex, 2.4k, third person, attempted suicide, happy ending i swear-): ao3

Your Soul On Walls (titz, 4.2k, third person, mentions of transphobia, incomplete ill finish it at some point): ao3

Cuddles (Kam, 500, third person, THE ONLY NON-QUESTIONABLE FIC): tumblr

Kiss me like it’s not allowed (keefitz, 3.1k, underage drinking, homophobia): tumblr ao3

numbers and i dont knows (titz, 1807, two swear words and one mention of alcohol): tumblr

The Nightmares Haven’t Left (titz, 1589, panic attacks, anxiety, mentions of burns, scars, injuries, and blood): tumblr

Finding Home (multiship, currently 27k, tw: talk of nightmares,mention of injuries and some phantom pains): wattpad, ao3, tumblr: 1, 2, 3 (photo update), 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Just Keep Holding Me, Cause This Entire Time You’ve Been My Life Line (Kam, 1715, tw: none): tumblr, ao3

Most of them on wattpad

Some headcanons cause i got those too

Artist!Keefe

Fitz’s Bakery 

Keefe + Touch

Character asks (1, katara, dex)

Titz hc (hair, confession)

Sophie (1, 2)

Fitz & Sophie Sleep

Corrupting the Vackers

Drawings cause why not

Marellinh (Marellinh Dancing)

Biana kelpie tattoo Stina kraken tattoo Wylie wyvern tattoo

Old Habits Die Hard (atla)

Tam braided hair

Biana  (Biana in a suit)

Tattoos (1,2,3)

Linh Drowning

Hello My Old Heart

Short Hair Linh

Fitz’s Bakery 

“Guess who just go injured”

Titz Cuddles

Keefex Request

Spiderverse au

Horned Sophie

Sophiana Angst for Secret Santa

Bronte Request

Kotlc Doodles

Insta Atla Request (1, 2, 3)

Hekster Sketches

Biana Animation

Sophiana Painting

Punk Keefitz

The Dame of Death

None Fandom Stuff

OC ART

Magic System: 1, 2

Confused Harper

OC doodles

Headshots

The Five

MISC. ART

Anon OC request

The Illusion of Music

Sydney the Ozzydoodle

WRITING 

My Infinity

Her

My Word

A Feeble Apology

Pictures

Love

Falling

This Coin

Holes

This Empty House

[crossedwithblue]

tbh i had forgot the katara as jane i just remembered the zuko being stupid haha the post being ss well makes it great (i suppose they mean the narrative function of being the support and a contrast with lizzy. but yeah comparing her to katara who has such strong independence and standing up values sounds '???')

I read a lot zutara mainly because katara and aang getting together was always super uncomfortable to me

i am always here for Dumbass Zuko headcanons lmao. however I did unfollow that blog just the other day because while I love their art (give me allllllllll the accurately drawn PoC. if you draw PoC (or white people for that matter) as button-nosed instagram girls with dark skin and make no effort to learn how to actually draw different types of facial features i will come to your house and make you eat your wacom tablet and draw my giant nose and square jaw with pen and paper until you get it Right, there are enough resources about this and i am tired) I didn’t love their hot takes which I obviously did not want to say in the tags on their post but idk,,, I was getting this really bitter vibe from their meta, idk how else to explain it. I can understand being bitter about aspects of media you like and of course people are perfectly entitled to their opinions and headcanons, but I just don’t want that bitterness on my dash lol, I come to tumblr to shitpost and look at pretty pictures. and their opinions on zuko were definitely part of it bc they felt really unfair to me and the Pride and Prejudice post is def an example of something where I was just like ??? this makes perfect sense until I actually think about it at all?? why are you being mean to zuko for no apparent reason????? is it.... because he’s the only major character from the nation that is most similar to white colonising cultures, even though he’s doing the work to a) be aware of the colonising mentality he’s internalised and work on it and b) as the ruler of said nation, flag up and eradicate this mentality from his own country, which is evidenced by the FN’s policy of non-intervention in Korra (I think the almost-going-to-war plot in the comics was absolute bullshit by the way, like not its existence but just it not really being examined in that sense)? I am 100% here to examine those aspects of ATLA and again, I totally understand being bitter about them, but it just tires me out in a website I consider a leisure space

I do need to find more atla blogs to follow now, recs would be fab if you have any :)

oh yeah i basically dont ship any of the endgame ships (in ATLA, as you may guess from my header being Korrasami lol) because as i have said before, nobody needs to find their One True Love at the age of 13 lmao (i do kinda ship Suki/Sokka because they are a little older (still kids by our standards but most probably near adulthood by their own, if not actually adults in the full sense, and yes I do think cultural context matters when ascribing adulthood to people outside the modern West no matter what ‘you’re a baby until you turn 18 and then why don’t you instatnly have a job and a mortgage’ internet culture says) and their relationship is just so cute and feels really healthy to me idk we were Robbed of enough Suki screentime, we should have got more Suki and also she should have had her character explored a Lot more than Cool Ninja Feminist Gal) (also, witness the nested brackets, they are here)

I think a lot of people have issues with Zutara (and presumably by extension Zukka? though I haven’t seen this discussed as much or like. at all) because of the issues associated with essentially the heir to a colonizing empire which has decimated the culture of the indigenous-coded woman he’s being shipped with (im sure you’ve also seen those discussions if you’ve spent like. any time at all in ATLA fandom lol) which I... kinda have mixed feelings about, I’ve seen fics where it is definintely completely ignored and done really really badly but I have also seen fics where that conflict is a really essential theme and that’s been quite interesting (would recommend Southern Lights on AO3 if ou haven’t come across it before as a good example of that though it is very long and currently being updated (pretty regularly)). I feel like I’m too removed from that part of intercultural conflict that I have the right to comment on it, though I’ve definitely faced shades of those issues in the past, but I also feel like it’s potentially an example fo knee-jerk Tumblr purity culture to just say its Bad And Wrong so idk I’m conflicted.

In the politics of the world, I just don’t see how Katara being Fire Lady (ugh that’s a phrase that always makes me laugh, and not in a kind way), which is probs the most comon Zutara fic plot, would have Worked in any sense at all, and I definitely think she would have wanted to stay at he South Pole and rebuild her culture and bring bending back to them (as we see in the comics and obvs with her being Korra’s waterbending master iirc) and I can see Zuko wanting to help with that in whatever way possible because he rightly sees that as a really important part of the reparations owed by the Fire Nation. and obviously by the end of the series they were very good friends and definitely had better chemistry than fricking Kataang but yeah those reasons are basically why I don’t love Zutara but don’t necessarily hate it either

this was another ramble, not apologising for it this time because this is just what talking to me is like. I am very here for bringing back letter-writing because it lets me ramble to my heart’s content but also it would take up All My Time

[seyaryminamoto]

hi! can you recommend some azula-centric blogs? i stopped paying attention to avatar for yeeeeears but now i'm getting back into it and want to find where all my azula stan comrades are at these days.

Oh, hello, Anon! I’ll try to recommend a few then!

@orderofbluelotus is an Azula-centric blog, it kind of works as an archive, compiles as many positive Azula-related posts as it can, so it’s a good place to start.

As far as meta and analysis goes, there’s @non-bender-world, this blog has general ATLA content but is a STRONG Azula supporter with frequent meta about her, same as @the-firenation-gellary​, there’s also @wish-i-was-fiction. The last two are more Azula-centric I believe, but anyways, these blogs are given to analysis and most (if not all) their content about Azula is absolutely positive. I also met @cobra-diamond recently, another solid ATLA analyst with a positive take on Azula.

As for fic writers… @bellatrixobsessed1, @purpleplatypusbear21, @clarielparke, @salixj,  @gd2go2 (for some damn reason I can’t ever tag him properly?) all have written Azula-centric content with a variety of ships, so if you’re more given to multishipping than I am, I’m sure you’ll find something great to read in their repertoire. They delve in the occasional debate and analysis as well, but I figured I’d single them out as fic writers first of all since that’s (I think xD) their main fandom activity.

I don’t really delve much in RP circles these days, there might be a lot of Azula RPers but I don’t know for sure. Still, @firelxrdsdaughter is an RPer AND an amazing artist so that’s kind of a slam dunk as far as Azula content is concerned :’D 

Another artist that comes to mind who has made really nice Azula content (and general funny ATLA stuff) is @biorn21. There’s also @i-draw-azula who, as the URL suggests, clearly is a great Azula-positive resource xD And there’s @kigozula, who makes great edits of the show’s screenshots (and occasional fanarts). @fanwright hasn’t made edits recently but he made a few in the past, as well as fics… he’s another Azula fan worth following, responsible for soooo many quality art commissions, so that’s a rec too!

In other regards, @firelxrdazula shitposts a lot but quite often has Azula-related content in her queues (when they’re running), so that’s another good place to go. Another frequent shitposter (and crack fic writer) who loves Azula to pieces is @focusas, and I guess there’s a few other shitposters out there but I can’t really think of anyone else right now? Most other people I can think of only make occasional content about her… so I’ll probably stop here :’D 

Either way, I’d suggest you test the waters, look through these blogs and maybe you’ll find other artists and writers and bloggers I couldn’t remember to mention right now (it’s nearly 2 AM so I apologize to anyone I left out but I’m probably not in the best shape to answer these questions :’DDD). Still, this should be a helpful enough starting point sooo… feel free to dive into the pro-Azula corner of the fandom, and I hope you’ll enjoy yourself when you do! :D

(sort of a sidenote: @azulaweek is an event blog but it has a fair amount of Azula-related content as it is, you probably should go browse that one too :’D the next Azula Week is set in July so if you feel like joining in, go ahead!)

[ends-of-the-wayward-storm]

ROTBTD TAG GAME

Technically I was tagged by @ohlooksheswriting-wips​ in a fic rec (thank you for that, by the way. 😊) Soooo I thought it’d be fun to try this one out since I don’t really do these a lot. Also, word of warning this has the possibility of becoming long.

~~---~~

Name/nickname?

On here I guess Storm since my username’s kinda long. 😂

How did you get into ROTBTD?

Ahhh let’s see. I don’t really remember much about that other than it was around 2012-2014 and there was this super cool video I saw on YouTube with my sister which basically blew our minds. (It’s still cool even now.) Pretty sure that had a big influence on me getting into the community.

What made you stay/come back?

I had written at least two fic series about this group around 2012-2014, which I still have. They really just stay dormant in the back of my mind until something comes around and sparks up my memory of their existence. Which would lead to seeing what new content was out in the community and such. Also I love these four.

Out of the four movies, which one is your favorite?

It’s definitely a cross between Brave and ROTG. I love them both so much so it’s kinda hard to pick.

Dreamworks Dragons or Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure?

Ah gee another hard one. Again I like them both, but I guess if I absolutely had to pick I would choose Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. I haven’t finished the newer seasons of Dragons yet 😕 (don’t spoil anything please). 

Which one do you prefer to be made a sequel of, Brave or Rise of the Guardians?

ROTG for sure. There’s so much lore that could be explored and I would love it if they cracked down onto the book series some time. It’s amazing.

OTP/BrOTP(s)?

Oh boy. I really like the friendships between the four of them and whoever gets thrown into the mix. As for romantic pairings I’m sticking with the respective canon ones (Raps with Eugene and Astrid with Hiccup, for example).

Favorite character(s)?

Again, I love them all, but I have to go with Merida and Jack. Merida really captured my attention with her personality and the fact that she can fight really well (also she’s the reason I decided to do archery 😊). I also really like Jack’s personality too as well as his powers, and I have to admit he is kinda cute.

Favorite AU(s)?

I’m actually very very picky with AUs, and also I don’t really know very many. I do like the concept of the one with the seasons. And the ATLA one because those can be super cool.

Pick one! Favorite B4 house placement in Hogwarts AU? | favorite B4 nation/bending headcanons in ATLA AU?

ATLA AU for sure. Mind you I haven’t really sat down to think about this since I usually just look at other people’s interpretations and go “hey that’s cool!” (On a side note I really like ohlooksheswriting-wips’s interpretations for this.)

Aside from that, I guess I really like the idea of Jack in the Water Tribe (don’t know which one specifically, though) but again I really like the idea of him as an Air Nomad. And (just a thought) I guess we could play with the idea of him out flying when he somehow gets trapped up north and basically pulls an Aang (or Captain America?) with getting himself frozen in ice for a long time until someone finds him.

Now for Raps, I had always had trouble figuring out whether she’d be in the Air Nation or Earth Kingdom because of her personality and such. Ohlooksheswriting-wips’s route actually reminded me of the fact that Waterbenders can heal, so Raps could be a healer if she were in the Water Tribe (maybe Northern Water Tribe since the women there are healers if they can heal/bend).

Merida I guess could be a Firebender. Maybe she could also bend lightning since that takes a lot of concentration and skill, and if done incorrectly it could hurt or kill you. So I think that could be a thing. And she’s very determined which would also tie in with fire.

As for Hiccup I had also had trouble figuring out where to put him, either Earth Kingdom or Air Nation. Again, ohlooksheswriting-wips having him as a non-bender was something I never really thought of so I really like that. Maybe he might still find Toothless since dragons are basically endangered and not completely gone.

I hope I don’t sound like I’m stealing your ideas. I just really liked them and wanted to put in my two cents.

Pick one! Since this is 2020, any hot takes you want to give us? | what old fanon tropes that you still enjoyed to this day?

Ummmm I’m not sure I know any old tropes or how to answer the first question so let’s see. I am intrigued by them having an HQ of sorts, which I’m sure I’ve seen that somewhere here.

Any fic recs? Or if you couldn’t think of any, what was the last ROTBTD fanfiction that you read? (It could be an old work or a recent one, do share!)

I tend to look at art and gif edits more than fics so I kinda don’t really know any.

Also I’m tagging anyone that wants to try this out.