#he's an antagonist to Team Avatar for much of it yes but he's also in a dual position as we follow his exploits as much as the Gaang

[autumnslance]

In reference to this post I reblogged earlier, but don't want to muck up UC's activity:

#i think it's more important to see that redemption is in the eye of the beholder #not everybody (characters or real people) will accept the same type or amount of repentance for the same sins #some people might not care at all if the person who wronged them feels sorry; only if they materially repaid their crimes #others can feel the opposite #and either way that's their prerogative #you can disagree with the characters or the fans or the writers about who “deserves” OR has “achieved” redemption and that's okay #because it's ultimately a complex philosophical issue #like i agree with OP!!! but there's media literacy in accepting that not everyone will

I'm going to disagree with many of these tags, especially it being "in the eye of the beholder" and would argue it's more media literate to recognize when a character has a workable redemption arc even if one disagrees they "should" get one. It took me a long time to learn this cuz of how we're usually taught redemption = forgiveness in Western (especially very Christianized, and especially if explicitly raised Christian) culture:

It doesn't rely on anyone but the person seeking redemption.

Yeah, it's the wronged party's prerogative to never forgive, to think the perpetrator's atonement (and/or punishment) is not enough and never will be. Anyone (characters and actual people) who sympathize, and who are on their side, can agree it's not ever enough and that character/person's sins are unforgivable.

And that still doesn't matter to their redemption.

We have an example of a workable redemption arc that not all accept in Final Fantasy XIV with Fordola's situation, through the Endwalker healer role quests. She was raised a collaborator of Ala Mhigo's imperial occupiers, and thought the best way to help her people was to soldier for the empire, becoming their Butcher.

In the Stormblood patches, Raganfrid says he will never forgive her; he thanks her for the aid she gave in the throne room that day, but that's all. And even in the EW healer role quests, their interactions are complicated. He still can't forgive the collaborators, even as he works to reintegrate them into Ala Mhigan society. He recognizes many thought they had no choice. He can't, won't, forget the pain of losing his own loved ones to them. This is stated multiple times.

And others, like M'rahz, Sarisha, and M'naago also struggle, also say they won't forgive...but reluctantly agree they can understand how for the sake of their families, the collaborators felt pushed against a wall, and what lengths have they themselves gone to for their own families? M'naago even scolds Fordola: she doesn't get to give up, she has to keep working--or she dies as exactly what everyone said she was.

Fordola starts out as the one punished for her sins. Through the story, she makes her choices to change and fight and work for her people as a free woman. There are still those who despise the Butcher, and always will. Redemption comes from Fordola's actions, Fordola's choices. Who forgives her and who doesn't can't change that she has changed, and continues to do so.

And in the interest of fairness, for the opposite of Fordola, we have Laurentius. In A Realm Reborn, he collaborated with the empire, selling out his nation. He came out of his punishment wanting a new chance, so joined the Crystal Braves...and immediately fell under Ilberd's sway. While others remained loyal and stuck to their morals (and paid for it with imprisonment or even death), Laurentius went along with all of Ilberd's plans. And in the end, the player gets an opinion in the punishment he and his comrade face, but it's clear from talking to Raubahn there isn't much hope. Laurentius had his chances, but he didn't make any effort to actually change--so faced the consequences.

For Reference for the Healer Role Quests: Garland Tools Healer quest text starting with "Far From Free", and my own saved text in Gdocs (raw, not very organized compared to my later saved/updated docs).

(Nero's the war criminal who...didn't even get a slap on the wrist, he just waltzed into a leadership meeting 15 mins late with Starbucks and has been helping us save the world since. Gaius is the war criminal that went through traumas, saw his privileged preconceptions torn apart, and is starting down that road in the wake of Werlyt to clean up his mistakes and not let his children's sacrifices be in vain. None of these characters "need" punishment to decide to change; some of it simply happens as part of their stories, but they make their own choices and actions toward atonement.)

(Also redemption is usually an ongoing process, which is why "Death Equals Redemption", like how Yotusyu's situation is framed, is so dicey and often unsatisfying; are they actually changed, or they just getting out of putting in that effort to? Nothing indicated Yotsuyu actually cared to change, as sympathetic as she was in the end! But she has her redemptive moment for her fans, and the people who hate/won't forgive her also "win"--the trope is a "have your cake and eat it too" writing cop-out IMO at this point.)

[mdhwrites]

So, do you think they do a good job connecting redeemed Zuko with the competence and skills he had when he was an antagonist?

So what's kind of funny here, as someone pointed out to me recently, is that Zuko dominates my mind as impressive but... He actually isn't the most competent villain in the world. Many of his schemes fail, he has plenty of losses that would fit right in with Team Rocket, etc. like that. So first we have to ask if he was competent or had skills while as a villain. After all, both General Xiao and Azula beat him in scope, danger, etc.

Yes. Because no one was willing to go as far as him.

Zuko's greatest character flaw is also flipped around to be his greatest strength as a person: Stubbornness and Dedication. A lot of his failures come from being so focused on one goal as to end up tunnel visioned and failing to fully utilize all that was around him, which Aang was far better at. However, that conviction also came from the fact that once he chose a goal, nothing could stop him except killing him.

For it to be fully a strength though, this fervor needed to be tempered. Luckily, a lot of Zuko's growth in Book 2, and what would allow him to give wisdom like Uncle Iroh could by Book 3, is about genuinely being able to read a situation and swap square pegs to round ones when he needed to. One of the best examples is the contrast between Zuko Alone, where in order to win a fight he resorts to firebending to win a fight handedly despite it being an objectively wrong move for his goals, versus when he's found by Jet in Ba Sing Se. By then, he's learned to read the room and so adapts, having to fight WAY harder than he would have had to if he had broken out his bending but winning much more because of it too. A character with less conviction to his ideals and goals would have resorted to the easy victory if they ever thought they were losing.

He never accepts defeat. He struggles to even compromise on how complete his victory can be. It is all or nothing for Zuko at all times and that sort of tenacity allows him to achieve things no one else in the series does. Even back in Book 1, his need to be the one to capture the Avatar leads to him infiltrating and taking down his own people, even working with Aang just so no one else can claim his prize. Then by Book 3, we see stuff like him not allowing Katara to compromise who she is for something as petty as revenge, or the fact that rather than try to compromise with Aang on Ozai or have a soft talk to him, he attacks Aang with enough ferocity to make it clear to everyone just how bad of a position they're in when he tells them what the whole problem is. Heck, one could easily say that it's his dedication that makes him understand that beating Azula by letting her kill Katara, still wouldn't be a victory because his goal at that point isn't to just beat Azula. It is to fight for better, more peaceful future and letting someone die for his victory would be counter to that. So jumping in the way of the lightning bolt was easy for him because no other option even crossed his mind at that point.

As a note: Yes, Azula has similar drive but her breakdown in Book 3 actually is extra satisfying in contrast to Zuko's fall because Zuko could have lost all of his allies and had his one victory turn to ash and gone "Alright. Time to get up and figure out how to fix this." Because that is just who he is. It's part of what makes their final fight against each other so good as we have someone who appeared to be an unstoppable force going against someone who is an actual unstoppable force.

I... Will pull back on this for a second though. If not for Mother's Basement's top Avatar fights, I wouldn't have had the comparison of Zuko's Book 2 fights ready and while I feel confident enough about my knowledge of Avatar to talk about the broad strokes of Zuko's character arc, this sort of analysis, how one's strengths and weaknesses as a villain can transfer over to them as a hero, is something that requires a lot more specificity. I need to remember him better as a villain in order to better judge how those traits transferred over. I'm still confident enough to say that it did happen, especially since Zuko is still recognizably himself as a hero versus as a villain, but it's one I wanted to include a disclaimer for anyways.

What do you all think though? Do I make a good case? Am I maybe overlooking some other strengths he carried forward? Let me know and I'll see you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[hils79]

Hils Watches The King's Avatar - Ep 40

It doesn't feel like 5 minutes ago that I started this drama. It's so very bingeable.

It's been a real journey. None of this has been what I expected beyond the very basic concept of 'it's a drama about esports'. There have been so many wonderful surprises. There are characters that I hated that I now love, characters that I loved that I now love even more, and more ships than I ever expected to ship.

While I'm at it I want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has popped up in the replies to my posts or in my asks to either answer my questions or just yell about their favourite characters. I can tell this drama (and the novel and donghua) are so well loved and liveblogging this has really felt like a community experience. Thank you for not laughing at all the stuff I got wrong and for not making fun of me for shipping everyone. It's really been so wonderful and I almost don't want to press play on the final episode because I don't want it to be over.

But I need to see what happens so let's go!

Ah, okay. I misunderstood what happened at the end of the last episode. I thought they'd lost the game but no they could still win they just didn't have enough points to win the championship.

Is there going to be some loophole like the whole 'oh the ref's watch broke so actually you won'

HAHA! I fucking knew it! They got an extra two points for beating a league record. Because apparently that is a rule that has never been mentioned until now.

Eh, whatever. There was a nice moment with the fans before the found out they'd won

Ye Xiu finally gets the hug that he's needed since episode 1

Good lord how is there 30 minutes left? What's going to happen now that they've won?

God I hope Sun Xiang punches him

Except of course he won't because he's all grown up now. Also, typically it's the coaches/managers that get fired when a team does badly. I hope he gets booted

Love Shaotian dragging Wenzhou to his feet so he can cheer

Remember when their entire fanbase was just this guy. I'm definitely not crying at all

Look at that little half smile. He's grown so much considering they only lost on a technicality. I do think he's at least a little bit happy for Ye Xiu as the better player (for now)

GDI I can't believe I'm crying over Sun Xiang AGAIN

LOL remember when I thought he was going to be the antagonist of the drama when I watched the first episode. How wrong I was

Haha yes let's have a little joke about the time when I nearly banned you for life in the middle of an important game and caused your team to lose as a result

I have in no way been thinking about writing some King's Avatar fic with one based on the fact that Ye Xiu passes out after one drink

HAHA! Mo Fan pretended to pass out too so he doesn't have to talk to anyone. He is such a mood

Oh shit! I did not see that coming!

Oh no he looks so sad to see his former team like this, and it's understandable. He built that team from the ground up and put so much time and work into making them the legends they were

Yes, good. Baozi is cuddling one of his boyfriends as he should

Ah, yay, I'd forgotten about the team graphic. Time to add one more person right before the end

And finished! That was wonderful! Definitely in my top 5 dramas that I've watched this year. Might even be the number one, actually. I definitely should have watched that years ago when people first told me to give it a try. But, you know, I firmly believe you find things when you were meant to find them. Now was good.

I'll be starting a new drama tomorrow. If you were just here for my King's Avatar posts it's been lovely to have you. If you're sticking around for other liveblogs I'll see you tomorrow for more yelling :D

[universestreasures]

@thcsevoices Sent: 'Stand up, Vanguard!' for me to tell you what Cardfight Vanguard character I'd think you'd write and why. (Accepting!)

Character Description:

Kyou Yahagi, voiced by, Akeno Watanabe, is one of the minor antagonists throughout the original series (but is also featured in the V series as well). The self-proclaimed 'Crusher Kyou' is one of the four members of Team Asteroid / AL4, the two-time champions of the Japanese Vanguard National tournament. He is the lowest-ranked member and the youngest of the four, making people easily look down on him despite his skill. Compared to his teammates, Asaka Narumi and Tetsu Shinjou, he has no respect for their leader, Ren Suzugamori. In fact, he wishes to usurp Ren and take control of the Foo Fighter/Asteroid organization.

Yes, Kyou has a ton of pride and an ego that rivals Seto Kaiba. He is very much the kind of person who will be a menace and do whatever he can to achieve his goals. This includes pulling schemes and infiltrating tournaments to get back at those who wronged him. Yes, he's very driven by revenge against his enemies and loves laughing and humiliating others. However, he harbors a fear of PSYqualia, the mysterious power made famous by Ren that grants him his overwhelming strength in Cardfights.

Kyou uses primarily a deck featuring the Spike Brothers clan, a group of athletes inspired by American Football and Rugby consisting of ogres, demons, giants, warbeasts, succubi, and workroids. He has had various boss units throughout the series, but his main avatar to me is Exceptional Expertise, Rising Nova, who bears some resemblance to him.

Why Do I Think You'd Write Them:

L, you always have a love for smol gremlins, antagonists, and characters who get misunderstood by the cast and even fandoms, so Kyou seems like the perfect match for you. We do not have like any information on his backstory either, and I know you'd cook up something amazing for him. Plus, he can be a bit of a tsundere and is very aggressive, matching the vibe of some of your other muses. He also is very similar to S0 Mokuba and Noa, so there's that too. Overall, I think you'd grow very attached to Kyou and would have a ton of fun writing him!

[juniperhillpatient]

one trope that really pisses me off (& it comes up surprisingly a LOT lol) is the narrative holding only one character responsible for the actions of multiple characters. I’m not saying a manipulative character’s manipulation or leadership role shouldn’t be acknowledged at all but it annoys me when everyone around them ALSO behaving badly is treated by the story as a victim as if they’re not at all capable of making their own choices.

like I noticed this a lot when my family was watching Spirited & yeah it’s not a movie meant to be taken that seriously but it still annoyed me. Octavia Spencer’s character digs up dirt on this teenager as part of a plot to get Ryan Reynold’s niece elected class president & the story treats her entirely like a victim because Ryan Reynolds asked her to do it but like… she could’ve said no? yeah he’s her boss but this isn’t even part of her job duties it was just a favor she 100% could’ve said no yet she’s treated as a victim of Ryan Reynolds’ manipulation & so is everyone else who does bad things for him & it really annoys me like… no one can think for themselves here? you all just do whatever Ryan reynolds says & then it’s suddenly not your fault it’s his??? …..actually.. eh actually that’s fair if Ryan Reynolds asked me to commit atrocities I’d simply do it too, bad example.

ok or like…. what about in Carrie? why are Chris Hargensen & Billy Nolan (mostly Chris) treated literally like the devil as if Sue & the other girls didn’t ALSO throw tampons at Carrie & spend 4 years calling her a freak? yes sure Chris’ plan is evil but she has accomplices it’s not like she’s in this alone. or Heathers - I can’t stand a Heathers fan who thinks any of the Heathers were helpless victims! sure Chandler was the leader but McNamara & Duke were evil too & yea I’ll joke about McNamara being “the nice one” but tbh she wasn’t!! she was a bully too! & depending which canon you like she purposefully helped put Veronica in a situation to be sexually assaulted! like that’s still evil???

and of course the example that my followers will really get behind - Azula, Mai, & Ty Lee. This is probably the example that annoys me the most but less so in the actual show & more in the fandom. y’all know all 3 of them hunted Team Avatar right? yea Ty Lee was manipulated but like, she did still make her own choices I’m not saying her position didn’t suck I’m saying it’s boring to strip her of all agency. like all 3 girls are still loyal to the Fire Nation & acting just as antagonistic to the heroes!!!

idk man I don’t care about “holding fictional characters accountable for their actions” or whatever so much but I do care about the narrative making cohesive sense so like, this is a pro “evil sidekicks are evil too” blog!

[aceofsheeps]

Sonic Forces should have been Sonic Frontiers

Alright here's my little mess of an opinion and idea:

As someone who’s only played the video games, I think the two most recent games are lacking compared to past games but could have easily been more interesting had they combined both ideas.

Sonic Forces and Sonic Frontiers had a similar vibe and similar mission layouts. However, Sonic Forces is by far the worst Sonic game I have ever played. Forces was basically an angry overconfident jackal gets mad he got smacked once by Shadow and decides to destroy the world. While Infinites character design is interesting and the voice acting was amazing, I think his motive is lacking greatly. His battle with Shadow could’ve had a little more of something. A second fight maybe. Or perhaps show how devastating of a loss it was for him to lose his team. We have an idea of his background but we see nothing and feel nothing about him other than he looks and sounds cool. What made him the ultimate mercenary? And yes I know there’s a comic, I haven’t read it, but I’m going solely off the games.

Then we have the custom character — Avatar — who serves no real purpose to the story. Alternate sonic also served no purpose to the story and felt completely random. This game could’ve been made better had they replaced these characters with Sonic’s team. Whiles Sonic escapes early on, Tails or Knuckles could have gone to save Sonic and eventually split off for their missions.

The missions themselves were extremely short and easy. Especially the boss fights. I’ve struggled in other Sonic games with at least one or two boss fights but I ran through Forces without a problem. It felt almost like a Mario boss fight to me. Overall the game was fast, easy and short. It could’ve easily been fleshed out more.

Now Sonic Frontiers, while decent, was what Sonic Forces should’ve been without the taking over the world bit. It had a similar vibe, alternate reality with the phantom ruby vs cyberspace. It’s missions were clustered with past Sonic game references much like Forces. However, the storyline brought back the Ancients from Sonic Adventure and a bit of their story before going extinct. I wish it was explored deeper though. A majority of the game was collecting the chaos emeralds 4 times, talking to Sage and Sonic’s friends without getting a whole lot of information, and helping little stone dudes (Koco’s) move on to the afterlife. The game was a little on the tedious side with the collection of hearts, wrenches and medals to talk to your friends. The missions were a little longer than forces but with added sub goals a little like Sonic and the Secret Rings but on easy mode. The boss fights were a step up, but still rather easy once you know what to do. For example, the fight with the second titan, Wyvern, required you to parry and then beat the shit out of it. Same with Knight. The only real way to struggle here is to not level up your attack and defense.

Now here’s what I think should’ve been done…more or less.

Sonic Frontiers could have done away with cyberspace and instead combined the ideas of Forces to it’s plot. Perhaps the Ancients created the Phantom Ruby, or an original one that eggman later replicates. Infinite becomes a deuteragonist with the main antagonist being The End. The End would be a being who can warp time and/or space, would still have been trapped by the Ancients but this time in the Phantom Ruby which grants Infinite the ability to manipulate reality. Infinite could have been sent to find this ancient relic, remove his ego pre-Infinite and show us the despair he felt losing his team so that his search and lust of power can make a little more sense, maybe he hopes to achieve reversing whatever had happened in the past and save his team.

It could play out with Sonic’s friends being imprisoned in a warped reality/time-space much like how they’re trapped between cyberspace and the real world in Frontiers. The titans still seal The End within the Ruby, Sonic can have his very existence warp between realities and non existence as he’ll be jumping through realities to save his friends, instead of cyber corruption which frankly makes little sense. Infinite could use the titans against Sonic, unknowingly breaking the seal upon the phantom ruby. This could either be purely accidental or through quiet manipulations from The End. Sonic Ultimately prevents Infinite from saving his team from their fate so that their current reality doesn’t crumble. However, with the destruction of the Titans The End Breaks free. Throw in Sonic popping into the ancient past to witness the fall of the Ancients every once in a while throughout the game. Lastly, while I liked Sage, I think she played a rather small role in Frontiers as she mostly gave us the run-around for about 80% of the game. I think she could’ve been saved for a future game. But if she would play a part in a Forces x Frontiers fusion, maybe she’s an AI with a physical body — or not — who somehow discovers an anomaly and goes to Sonic for help. She can still be mysterious with her intentions but she’ll play like a support character much like Merlina (Sonic and the Black Knight) and Shahra (Sonic and the Secret Rings).

And bring my boy Shadow in!

[paragonrobits]

some other stuff from the original outline of Avatar The Last Airbender’s plot that’s kind of interesting:

- Zuko’s character development is ultimately the same, indicating that his character trajectory was always the same, but it seems to have functioned differently; he would have come to sympathize with Fire Nation citizens driven to poverty by the war, and during the early bits of Season 3 at that. This is a contrast to how Zuko’s season 2 development is all about him learning the same lessons, through people in the Earth Kingdom victimized by the war, which i think most would agree is a better reason for him to turn against the whole cause of the war; feeling more bad for your countrymen, rather than those hurt BY your countrymen, is fundamentally more selfish and less worldly.

- There was no original idea for anyone ending up with anyone, romantically. There were no endgame ships. I think in some respects it might have been more useful to go this route, much as i love Katara and Aang winding up together, since leaving it open ended might ironically have headed off some shipping wars. (After all, a definitive ending didn’t curtail any ‘it SHOULD have happened this way!!’ complaints.)

- The fate of the Air Nomads was more open-ended. At the end of the series, Aang would have journeyed on his own to find surviving Air Nomads that he believed survived in remote, unexplored parts of the world, and honestly i REALLY wish they’d done this, since its the most simple explanation for how the Air Nomads could be reborn in some way or another.

- Toph and Azula were both boys (named Toph and Azul); with Azul seeming to have a MUCH smaller role in the story, only being mentioned a few times as a strict antagonist, and Toph being a love interest for Katara who would inspire Aang to be tougher to stand up to him and look cooler to Katara. This is particularly interesting since the Toph we got doesn’t have the massive ego the beta product Toph was implied to have; yes, she’s proud of her power, but its largely treated in-series as a running gag at worst, and she’s a lot more spiritual and wise to the point that her wisdom is more a pat of her character.

- Iroh was ultimately an antagonist here! He was meant to teach Zuko bad firebending on purpose, so that Zuko would be unable to teach Aang properly. Aang would have learned Firebending on the spot during his battle with Ozai, observing his movements and how he fought. The Sun Warriors did not exist in any form. Ultimately i think the series did better on this one, since we got more of an interesting ethical issue with the Fire Nation practicing a corrupted, inherently flawed form of Firebending that nicely illustrates the error of their imperialistic philosophy. Also Iroh being a bad guy all along is WEIRD, I do not like it

- It’s also pretty likely, given the elements mentioned with Iroh, that the show’s use of him as a father substitute, loving parent and wise guru of sorts were not present in this original idea. It’s likely that Iroh was originally going to be a much more morally ambiguous figure and probably not the Zuko’s role model we ultimately did get.

- Aang did not bond with the Ocean Spirit to save the North, instead he just flooded the navy with water tornadoes, driving them away.

- Wan Shi Tong and his library don’t appear to exist in any form here. Instead the plan was one belonging to the Emperor of the Earth Kingdom (an early form of King Kuei, i think) Spirits as a whole seem to have much less of a role in this version of the series.

- Appa was captured by Zuko at the beginning of season 2 and given to Ozai as a present, thus forcing the team to travel on foot. This goes to show that the original plot arc of Appa going missing was present the whole time. Apparently nothing bad happened to Appa since I infer he showed up again later.

- Zuko doesn’t seem to do a lot in season 2 otherwise??

- Energybending is briefly referred to as a special technique only the Avatar can perform. This means Ozai’s method of defeat was always on the table; at no point was he to be killed, or otherwise defeated in a more conventional manner, at least from the POV of someone who usually sees a series where ‘slay the villain’ is the default end.

- Zuko joins Team Avatar significantly earlier than he did in canon; he apparently was intended to join up near the beginning of season 3, but given that he cannot teach Aang Firebending, a lot of elements core to his dynamic are not present.

- Zuko and Katara don’t appear to have any real dynamic or are mentioned to interact with each other much in this pilot series of events, if at all. This casts some doubt on the assertations by cast, or those who CLAIM that cast said it, that they were meant to get together at some point. The only relationships ever brought up are Katara with Aang (with him having feelings for her) and Toph (with Katara having a rush on Early Boy Toph).

- Toph’s original concept has shown up a few times over the franchise as a whole; Roku’s Earthbending mentor is explicitly based on Toph’s original personality and design, and other elements of him was reworked into Bolin in Legend Of Korra.

- at the end, as mentioned, Zuko reigns as Fire Lord (as per what they ultimately went with), Katara and Sokka go home to rebuild, and Aang journeys off on his own to find the Air Nomads. (I don’t recall if they specify what Toph does or not.) All of these are things that make for good endings, and I think they can be logically inferred as what they all most likely did after the events of the series, and I’d be lying if I said i didn’t prefer these in some way. A good, romantic ending is great and sweet, but again these all feel like good responses to the war ending.

[itsclydebitches]

re: that ask you posted a couple days ago about the male and female representation in RWBY, part of what makes RWBY's whole 'girl power' thing ring exceptionally hollow to me is the fact that there are like... no women in positions of real power in remnant. like at all. except the big bad.

winter is second in command to james. glynda is second in command to ozpin. all of the headmasters are men (for no discernible reason, imo; why theodore and not dorothea?). the leader of the ace ops was a white man (and then winter seemed to take over clover's position instead of either of the women of color on the team, and she was still second to james). RWBY is an all girl team, but JNPR was led by a boy despite a girl arguably being far more qualified (pyrrha). the happy huntresses are all women, and robyn had no real power to speak of--she didn't even manage to win the election, because jacques rigged it, and then the council ceased to matter. there was one (1) woman on the council, but she was so inconsequential that i can't even remember her name. (i suppose we're lucky it was the guy and not her who james shot lol) jacques controls the SDC instead of willow, even though he's not even a schnee by blood and actually married into the family for power. (and we don't even know how he got it over his wife.)

and then there's the white fang, which ghira led and not kali--and it's ghira who leads menagerie itself, while kali seems to be a housewife. sienna had five minutes of screentime before being brutally killed and her position assumed by adam, a man. cordovin is basically a one off lackey we haven't even thought about before or since. neo was second to roman. you have cinder, sure, who is a second but to salem, a woman, and raven as the leader of the branwen tribe--but what does it really say about your 'girl power' narrative when the only women with genuine systemic power in your world are villains or antagonists with massive bodycounts??

atla has the same sort of problem--a couple great female characters, but all the leadership positions are men (except the kyoshi warriors, an all girls group, and even then the leader of their island is an old man) and the one female mentor figure also turns out to be evil--but it at least has some great writing to help overlook that fact, and it came out in the mid-00's and so has some sort of excuse of being a product of its time. but rwby didn't even start until 2013 and it's still going and still making these kinds of decisions well into 2021.

where is this supposed girl power, exactly? am i really supposed to overlook the very patriarchal worldbuilding just because the title characters are girls?

That's an excellent summary of the situation, anon, and as with so much in RWBY, it comes down to the full context. Any one of these examples isn't necessarily going to mean much on its own. It's when you look at the pattern that you can start making a case for those conclusions: Why is the show marketed on "girl power" set in a world where men hold the vast majority of that power? And, more importantly, why is that setup not the point? We could easily have a story where that lopsided gender dynamic is the problem that the girls are looking to fix, but... that story doesn't exist. Like the problems discussed with Jaune, the supposed point here exists only on the surface. Dig just the tinniest bit — the above — and you hit on a lot of structural problems with this "girl power" world.

To add just a few details to what you've already said:

Salem indeed has power, but she's never allowed to fully use it. Each volume the frustration with this grows as Salem accumulates more abilities and then just sits on them. From literally hiding out for a thousand years to worries that she won't use the Staff in Volumes 9-10, Salem really isn't allowed to be the threat she's presented as on the surface. And yes, this is absolutely due in part to the "She's too OP and the writers don't know how to let her be that powerful while still having the heroes win" issue, but again, context. That problem doesn't exclude others occurring simultaneously.

Same double explanation with Summer. Yes, dead moms are an incredibly common trauma to dump on a protagonist, but it still left Yang and Ruby with Tai as their primary influence. And Qrow. The uncle becomes the extended family influence while Raven is the absent one/eventual antagonist. It's personal power as opposed to political power, but Tai, Qrow, Ozpin, formerly James... most of the mentors are men. Maria, a key exception, has been ignored in that regard. The story announced that she was Qrow's inspiration, setup her being Ruby's new mentor, and then... nothing. Nothing has come of that. She disappeared for a volume and then went off to Amity and was literally forgotten by the story when evacuating everyone was the finale's whole point.

Like that Endgame moment I mentioned, the Happy Huntresses feel a little too forced to me. Yes, it's the same basic idea as in ATLA, but ATLA, as you say, has a lot more going for it. The Happy Huntresses feel... on the nose? Idk exactly how to explain it. Like, "Here they are! Another team of all women! Isn't this how progressive storytelling works? Just ignore how this is a one-off team of minor characters compared to the world building issues discussed above." And if you're not paying attention, you miss just how insignificant they are, with a side of Robyn being, well, Robyn. The Kyoshi Warriors, at least, are based off of Kyoshi. A woman avatar who is a significant part of their history. That is, presumably, why they're an all women warrior group (but who notably still teach Sokka). The Happy Huntresses are all huntresses because...? There's no reason except that meta "We want to look progressive" explanation. Just like having all the women superheroes team up for a hot second so people get excited and ignore the representation problems across, what? 21 films? Don't get me wrong, I love that May is among the Happy Huntresses. I think including her in the explicitly all-women group was one of the better things RWBY has done in a long time, but the rest is still a mess.

RWBY is arguably about these smaller groups as opposed to systematic power (despite the writers trying to work that in with things like the White Fang and the election. Not to mention the implication that everything in Atlas is fine now that evil Ironwood has died and taken the symbol of wealth (the city) with him. We saw a human holding hands with a faunus after all. Racism and corruption solved, I guess.) So yes, our group is dominated by women... but Whitley is the one saving Nora, helping to defeat the Hound (plus Willow), thinking of the airships, and providing the blueprints they need to escape. Salem is our Big Bad, except Ironwood is the one the volume focuses on. Ruby is our leader, but Jaune is the one leading the group into the whale and getting praised for how heroic he is. Ren does more to shake things up, even if he's painted as the one in the wrong. Oscar gets to confront Salem and destroys the whale threat. Ozpin provides the information they need to evacuate. Meanwhile, when the girls do things in Volume 8 it's almost always followed by a long-stint of passiveness. Nora opens the door so she can be unconscious for most of the volume. Penny keeps Amity up so she can also be unconscious for a good chunk of time. Ruby sends her message and then sits in a mansion. Blake fights so she can tearfully beg Ruby to save her. Weiss, as said, takes a backseat to Whitley (and Klein). They forward the plot, absolutely, but comparatively it doesn't feel like enough.

It's that pattern then, no one specific example. More and more the personal power, not just the systematic power already built into Remnant, seems to be coming from the men. Not all the time, but enough that scenes like the tea drinking moment feel like a part of a much larger problem. Pietro taking control, Watts hacking, and Ambrosius literally remaking her when Penny is supposed to already be in control of herself and her fate. Winter being presented as the active mentor to Weiss, only to turn around and claim that Ironwood was actually responsible for everything. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and May straight up commenting on how awful things are out there while Yang, Jaune, Ren, and Oscar lead the charge against Salem — with the latter three doing the most to forward that mission (no fear, semblance, cane). As others have only half-joked, Yang's supposedly badass moment was bringing up a mother she's ignored for six volumes and briefly blowing up the immortal woman for a couple of seconds (with Ironwood's bombs). Even Marrow is arguably the most significant Ace Op after Clover. Vine isn't actually a character, Elm slightly less so, Harriet is there to go crazy and try to drop a bomb (notably before admitting to never-before-existed feelings for Clover), but Marrow? He's the one who breaks out. Who is meant to heroically stand up against Ironwood. Who comments on how awful it is that teenagers are fighting and, regardless of how messed up the moral messages are, is supposedly pushing for active change while all the women in his group, including Winter, insist on maintaining the status quo. Look at all these choices as a whole, it makes throwaway worldbuilding choices like "All the Maidens are women" feel pretty hollow. Why does it matter if Amber is a Maiden if she dies in a flashback so Ozpin can struggle to pass on the power? If Pyrrha dies before becoming one so Jaune can angst about it? If Raven is one and then disappears from the story entirely? If Winter has enough power to break Ironwood's aura, but supposedly had no power throughout every other choice she made getting here? If Penny is one, but is continually controlled by men and then asks another man to help her die? It's just really unconvincing, once you look past the surface excitement of a woman looking cool with magic powers.

When you do consider the whole of the story — both in terms of our world building and who is forwarding the plot in the latter volumes, getting the emotional focus, being proactive, etc. — there are a lot of problems that undermine the presumed message RT wants to write. They say, "girl power" by marketing RWBY with these four women, but too many of the storytelling decisions thoroughly undermine that, revealing what's likely a deeply ingrained, subconscious bias.

[shadowpuppetteer]

Yes, hardcore characters with dark backgrounds are good. But I also tend to like good cinnamon roll characters. They are kind, they are caring, and they have big hearts.

But they also learn to set healthy boundaries for themselves. They learn that despite the world being full of dark things, they can still be good to people. They give edgy anti-heroes second chances. And eventually the right people come along and appreciate the living heck outta these cinnamon rolls. I especially like it when they have to make really tough decisions. They have good hearts but the world is not as black and white as we are taught so they really have rack their brains and come up with a clever solution that doesn't break their big warm huggable hearts.

Aang was my favorite character in ATLA because he was a pacifist, vegetarian, monk who loved animals and found joy in life, but he had this great destiny that went against a lot of that. He came to accept and master the avatar state so he wouldn't hurt the people he loved. He even found a new way of bending so he wouldn't kill the antagonist of the show. He found out about energy bending because he was looking for a different solution to a big problem. Rather than doing the usual slaying the baddie or bashing your problems, he found a middle ground.

Big scary armor on the outside, sweet, polite, cat lover on the inside. This is one of my favorite "don't judge a book by it's cover" examples in anime. He's a good balance to his brother, taking a moment to think things through and try to reason with their enemies. He's excited about all the food he's gonna eat when he gets his body back. He believes in the good of his brother and father. He gives people second chances. And it's much more heartbreaking to learn about how this big sweetheart is alone at night because he can't sleep with a metal body. It makes the Elric brothers bond that much more powerful in seeing what they would sacrifice for each other.

Okay, I can't really choose a favorite character from Voltron because they all work so well together, but when it comes to cinnamon rolls, we gotta talk about Hunk. He may be a scaredy cat with a nervous digestive system, but he's also smart, talented, and his cooking has solved a bunch of problems. Like making those crystal cookies that helped fix the ship's wormhole generator temporarily. Being there for Keith when they all found out he was part Galra. Making cookies for the mislead Altean colonists when they attacked the voltron team. That gesture that reminded them of home opened them up to help out the team. And he's the only dude to make the space goo taste good to the humans in the castle.

Bow is such a big sweetie that has a large amount of passion, intelligence, and patience. He teaches Adora about parties, horses, and all the things the Horde was lying to her about. He makes non-lethal trick arrows, is a great balance for Glimmer with his compassion, and he learns that he can't fix everything. He learns that being a friend can be hard and some things take time to heal. That's an important skill that's not really talked about in stories. Also he speaks dad and that's a great skill to have when deciphering puns.

Thank you She Ra for giving us two cinnamon rolls! Scorpia has got so much to offer with her strength, enthusiasm, and loyalty to her friends. But she also learns about how to identify toxic relationships and to value herself. I loved her story arch because that's a lesson most people have to learn in their lives. And he's not mean about it, she simply tells Catra that she's being a bad friend and leaves. There's no punching, there's no revenge, there's just honesty. Not to mention she gives the best hugs.

Yes I like edgy characters that learn the value of friendship. Yes I like the everyday characters who learn how to fight. Yes I like the shonen protagonists who persevere through failures and hardships to get to their goals. But I adore kind characters who learn about different types of relationships, learn to value themselves, and try to find different solutions to big problems because the lives of others.

[renegadewangs]

Van Zieks - the Examination, part 12

Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).

Disclaimer: (see Part 1 for the more detailed disclaimer.) - These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I’m outlining stems from my own views and experiences. If you believe that I’ve missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly. -The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. - I’m using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what’s said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent. -It doesn’t matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11

Let's bring this thing home! It's time for the conclusion of the essay series!

Conclusion With a stupidly long essay series behind us, it's time to look at what we've learned! Let's go back to Part 1 and review what we needed from Van Zieks's character development for a fully rounded redemption arc, shall we?

1) Present an antagonistic (possibly immoral) force who personifies Ryunosuke’s biggest personal obstacle/weakness, in this case racial prejudice. 2) Humanizing traits begin to show. OPTIONAL: A backstory to justify any immorality he has. 3) Over time, Barok has his realization and sees the error of his ways. 4) Barok atones for his immorality, not simply through apology but by taking decisive steps. 5) The cast around him acknowledges his efforts and forgives him.

And looking at the main game (plus additional dialogue), we have...

1) Antagonistic force:

Etc. etc. I have many of these. We can all agree that as an antagonistic force, he does his job quite well. CEO of Racism and White Privilege in the flesh. It works, since we as the audience get very frustrated and want to see him defeated.

2) Humanization:

Giving him an old friend to be a defendant was a brilliant move, really. Albert's reflection on the friendship and the person Van Zieks used to be really helped flesh him out and make him appear more like a human being with, y'know, emotions and weaknesses. The little snippets of dialogue in his office really help too. Presenting evidence can also lead to fun tidbits. All in all, considering how gruff and distant Van Zieks is, they really did their very best to humanize him. The writers were given very little to work with but they exploited every opportunity to come their way.

OPTIONAL backstory:

Again, I don't think we needed a tragic backstory to have a well-rounded, redeemable character. Still, it ties in very expertly to the game's plot and the motivations of quite a few other characters. The story of Klint van Zieks and his death isn't necessarily Barok van Zieks's backstory, it's the center of an intricate web which also holds Kazuma, Stronghart, Gregson, Jigoku, (S)Holmes, Mikotoba, Sithe, Drebber- I could go on. A LOT. So because of how very integrated it is into the main narrative's recurring themes and characters, I'll give it props for being relevant and well thought out. The bigger question is: Does it justify his immorality? Not entirely. I think the game could have gotten more out of this if they'd involved the other two exchange students in this tale just a bit more. They could have given more attention to how Jigoku's aggressive behavior in the trial impacted Van Zieks, and explained whether he might've suspected Mikotoba of sabotaging (S)Holmes's investigation. If the narrative had done that, all three Japanese people to come to London would have been ‘the bad guy’ in Van Zieks's eyes and it would have given more credence to his racial generalization. They could have also given more attention to how the people around him reacted to Genshin being the Professor, because I'm sure Stronghart and Gregson stoked the fire in terms of xenophobia. As it stands, there isn't really enough there to justify hatred of an entire race as opposed to just one person.

3) Realization/Redemption

We see him already start to realize the error of his ways around the end of 1-5, which is technically only about halfway into the full narrative. Unfortunately, thanks to 2-2 being played afterwards (but chronologically set before 1-5), any progress made in 1-5 can become invalidated in the player's eyes. Growth works best when it's done linear. Don't get me wrong, flashbacking to earlier times when a character is still more morally tainted can work well, but it needs to be executed properly. Barok's behavior in 2-2 is downright insulting towards the audience itself and therefore, it causes emotional friction when relaying the narrative endgoal of redemption. It also makes it extra jarring when we hit 2-3, and suddenly Van Zieks is meant to be relying on the protagonist's desire to expose the truth. How on earth can we as the audience trust that Van Zieks believes in Ryu's abilities when we just came fresh out of a case where this man actively sabotages Ryu's efforts?

Still, the line of redemption continues from 2-3 into 2-4 well enough. He admits that he was wrong- that his hatred was illogical and that he needs to change. This is the very definition of redemption. I need to stress once more this is not to be confused with atonement, which comes next.

4) Atonement

Here it is. It's not enough to simply acknowledge mistakes; one needs to work hard to fix them. Since Van Zieks is the defendant for two whole episodes, equaling roughly 20% of the full narrative and 67% of the time following his first true realization (chronologically), there isn't much that he can actively do to atone. Because remember, not only do these actions need to fit the situation he's currently in, they need to fit his personality. These two limitations ensure the atonement mostly takes the form of dialogue. Of apologies.

One might want to point out that he never apologizes specifically for his racism, but there's a reason for that. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that there isn't a single character who ever uses a word like “racism”, “xenophobia” or even “racial prejudice” in this game. It's for the same reason you'll never see an Ace Attorney character utter words like “alcoholism”, “drug abuse” or “depression”. These things may be implied very strongly, to the point where you'll know for certain a character is suffering from it, but it's never given these exact labels. It has to do with the tone of the game. In Great Ace Attorney's dialogue, Barok van Zieks is only ever described as holding “a deep hatred for Japanese”, which is then the only thing he could apologize for. And he does, so long as you aren't looking for a literal phrasing of “I apologize for my deep hatred of your people”.

Regardless, he can't take more active, decisive action until he's freed from prison and two scenes with Van Zieks later, the game has ended. He still manages to take two actions, though! The first is to publicize the truth of the Professor, taking the blame of the mass murders off Genshin's shoulders (and losing his own privilege in the process). The second is to take Kazuma under his wing as his disciple. I'm not certain there's anything else the narrative could have had him do. What is decisively missing, however, is the following:

5) Acknowledgment

The above aren't good examples of cast acknowledgment that Van Zieks is taking part in a redemption arc, rather, they're the best I could find. Characters are acknowledging that he's changing- that he's being kinder to them and they can get along with him now, but they're not acknowledging that he caused hurt in the first place. This, in my opinion, is the Great Ace Attorney's biggest narrative flaw. I've talked before about how Ryu's reaction to Van Zieks's racism is 'indirect communication', a typically Japanese manner of dealing with negativity. I've also talked about how Ryu is not in a position to speak up, as he's a literal minority who is there to represent his country in an official capacity and can’t afford to make enemies. However, characters like Susato and Kazuma are far more outspoken in their opinions, as is Soseki. The only one who ever calls Van Zieks out on his racism is the British judge, and even that is done very meekly. When an old crusty white guy is the one who condemns white privilege in a cast full of minorities, you've got a problem. The Japanese cast's refusal to acknowledge that Van Zieks's words were harmful is like Team Avatar telling Zuko that sure, he can join since he's a good guy now, but never once acknowledging that he burned down villages or betrayed everyone's trust in Ba Sing Se. There's something very vital missing, see? If indeed the cast had called Van Zieks out more actively on his harmful ways and how necessary it was for him to change, he in turn could have taken more atonement steps in response.

So, for the conclusion: Does Barok van Zieks tick all the necessary boxes for a complete redemption arc? Yes. In a very technical sense, all the requirements are there. But does that mean it's a successful arc? Not necessarily. The game has a few slip-ups, a few things not executed as well as they could have been. For that reason, whether the audience is satisfied with the arc is entirely up to them. Taking into consideration that they had to cram a whole lot of story into just two games- the second game in particular, I can acknowledge they did their very best with the limitations that were there.

And there we have it! That’s all I could think to say on the matter. I hope everyone who read this till the very end enjoyed it, maybe even learned a thing or two. I’m always open to questions, input and constructive criticism!

[natequarter]

ok but imagine if aang woke up like... 30 years earlier

elaboration below the cut

- he gets woken up in a fairly similar situation to the original series, but instead of katara and sokka, it's hakoda and kya

- they're just kind of flirting in their canoe because yes there is a War but c'mon!!! they're kids

- they are pretty Surprised that this is, yknow, the avatar. and he is apparently 12? they're also pretty worried about another raid coming so they go to kanna and are like 'hey mom can we steal a canoe and run away to the north?'

- kanna thinks this is a romantic pursuit of lovesick teenagers & then sees they have a twelve-year-old airbender in tow and is just like. 'what the fuck did you do this time'

- she agrees to let them go, giving them exactly one warning: 'if you run into a guy named pakku, punch him'

- hakoda and kya are perfectly happy with this

- when they get to the southern air temple kya makes fun of roku's beard

- the rest of the episode goes similar to how it did in canon

- they stop at kyoshi island at some point and aang Insists they have a break. the kyoshi warriors are cool! it's Fun!

- and then they see a fire nation ship and are just. *internal screaming*

- what they are not expecting is said fire nation ship to have one (1) angry fire nation prince on it

- cue a lot of fire, several boomerangs and the current head of the kyoshi warriors kneeing Prince Jerkface in the dick

- cue teenage ozai yelling 'my father will hear about this!!!'

- at this point aang hakoda and kya are pretty much just 'fuck it i'm out' and leave

- instead of meeting haru aang runs into a younger prisoner and kya 'accidentally' stages a revolution (hakoda in the background: yes you go!!! i love you)

- when they escape one of them agrees to be aang's earthbending teacher

- cue kya & hakoda being like 'wait aren't you meant to learn the elements in order?' and aang going 'well if one of you were a waterbender this wouldn't be an issue'

- they have a pretty good banter by now and earthbending companion (i'll give them a personality at some point) is like 'do you guys hate each other??' no this is just besties arguing over the fate of the world. it's fine

- roku contacts aang meanwhile hakoda is complaining about how warm it is!! what the fuck!! the entire time

- when they eventually reach the north pole they are welcomed by a young man called pakku. kya instinctively punches him and he starts yelling

- she's horrified and immediately apologises

- secretly however she thinks it was funny

- so do hakoda and aang

- iroh takes zhao's place as annoying b1 antagonist

- except he has like 1 jot of respect for the spirits

- he's about 30 here

- various cuts to ozai monologuing about how Terrible his life is

- various canon adventures happen i don't have the energy

- iroh is, uh, A Jerk. not quite as bad as his scheming father who has been hinted at through flashbacks but still hasn't been shown but like... definitely a grade a jerk

- ozai tries to kidnap aang

- this fails and ends up with a confrontation between him, hakoda, kya and iroh

- there's a brief shouting match between the fire bitches. is ozai freezing to death? yes. will he accept help? no

- is the siege of the north failing once aang escapes? yes. will iroh back down? fuck no

- he's finally forced to leave when hakoda, kya and pakku team up to break his nose

- ozai gets hypothermia

- (in a hospital) aang: whew that was a lot!

- pakku: uh YEAH you nearly died kid

- aang, pointing at shivering miserable prince: he seems miserable

- ozai: you would be if you nearly froze to death and got humiliated and upstaged by your brother

- kya: that was your BROTHER? i thought that was your father

- ozai: oh no my father is a git

- aang: your family doesn't seem very... familial

- ozai: i got sent to hunt you down

- aang, hakoda and kya: yeah we guessed that

- ozai: it's all my brother's fault my father will hear about this

- it becomes very evident very quickly that azulon does not give a shit after they send a ransom letter and the response is 'you can keep him lol'

- pakku: okay i'm a jerk and this guy seems... even jerkier

- ozai: my father says iroh was born lucky. can't say the same for me my mother died giving birth to me

- everyone, collectively: ouch

- ozai: it's fine she was a jerk too *runs away before anyone can stop him*

- hakoda: well that was. dark

- kya: yeah after we fix this war can we get that kid therapy?

- hakoda and kya together: aang's paying

- if people are interested i can elaborate more on this later

[seyaryminamoto]

Why does the fandom think Azula never lost a fight before the Agni Kai? She is shown constantly loosing, after all the good guys have to get away. Really out of all the fights Azula was in she only won two: the coup of Ba Sing Se and The Day of Black Sun.

I do not know, and I love her to pieces, but I seriously don't understand it any more than you do, anon.

I'm assuming you came to me because I've frequently pointed out she's lost a lot more times than she's won? xD I think I've done several analysis posts where I literally break down Azula's actions through the show and it almost blows my mind to realize that Azula looks like such a great threat all along, and yet she DOESN'T win a single fight until Appa's Lost Days. All her fights until then either end in dubious draws because the enemy got away, or she's outright defeated and escapes :'D and yes, I love her, I absolutely love her, and I have no problem with admitting this. Why would it be a problem to accept that she didn't win nearly that often?

What I love about her victory in Book 2's finale is that it's a MEANINGFUL victory. It doesn't really feel like the typical case of throwing a bone at the antagonist halfway through a season as a misdirection, so that the good guys come through and defeat said antagonist at the end (the way it always happens in LOK's every season...). The best correlation for Azula's victory in Book 2, that I can think of, is Darth Vader's big victory in Star Wars Episode V: funny, though: what antagonist also loses pretty much all his fights in every confrontation before and afterwards? :'D very often he wound up either losing or his opponents escaped from him, if my memory serves right. Curiously, both Azula and Vader are very much the most memorable antagonists in their respective franchises :'D funny parallels between them...

But anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that there's really no reason to pretend Azula won all the time. That she DIDN'T win all the time is actually even more important for me because it's an actual case of show-don't-tell: the show tried to make us read Azula as someone that gets everything handed to her on a silver platter and then failed to present her character that way, at every point in time. She fails, she fails often, she actually is written as being miserable in the Book 2 novelization after the Drill operation goes wrong: that was her THIRD encounter with Team Avatar, and they've either escaped from her or defeated her in all of them. She hasn't captured her brother and uncle either. She hasn't achieved ANYTHING important yet: the choice of writing her miserable about it is actually great because it makes perfect sense. We don't see her miserable on the show because we only see very specific moments of Azula's journey, but the fact that she didn't win ONCE until she fights the Kyoshi Warriors is undeniable. Whether you love her or hate her, it's the truth!

And yet she didn't give up at all, in fact, Azula came up with very different strategies upon every hurdle, gave herself two bonus missions on top of the original one her father certainly gave her, and she pulled them off, to varying degrees of success, but she did! And that's very damn cool for her, as a character, very damn terrifying for the majority of the audience who thought she'd just go down easy and she did NOT... but it's still very much something that only happens after she fails and stumbles many times until she finally achieves what she set out to do.

Pretending Azula never failed at all is honestly a pretty lousy choice, all around. Acknowledging her failures, pondering how they affected her and how she reacted to them (always coming up with new strategies after the first ones fail, always ready to think outside the box and resolve problems other people couldn't figure out (such as, indeed, how to take Ba Sing Se effectively)) actually enrichs her character for me. Fans who want to fool themselves into thinking she was always winning, whether for good or ill, end up committing a mistake that I just don't care to... and that mistake is dehumanizing Azula, of course. Pretending she can't ever lose and that her losses don't discourage or affect her takes away from her potential complexities, complexities very easily seen in her perfectionist nature in her very first appearance, and in her scenes of vulnerability, during Book 3. Whether people do this just to put her on some sort of pedestal or they do it to pretend she was a much worse person and threat than she was... both are, in my opinion, doing her a pointless disservice. She doesn't need to win them all to be a daunting character and a genuine threat, let alone does she need to win them all to be a complex and compelling character...

[supercasey]

Dumb thoughts on the Child Avatars AU

I dunno, just some dumb ideas I’ve had since I started talking about the AU online/brainstorming about it. (Putting it under a readmore for everyone’s sake)

The “Daisy kidnaps Jon” situation in this AU is Daisy riding her bike to Simon Fairchild’s mansion, holding a water-gun up to both Mike and Jon’s heads, and ordering them to ride with her to the grocery store to buy soda and hang out at a nearby playground for the day. Cue Elias flipping tf out when Jon isn’t at Simon’s place when he goes to pick him up later, Simon being half asleep because he was napping while the kids hung out, and Mike getting soaked by Daisy before he agrees to go with her, and since this happens in, like, late fall or early winter, he gets pneumonia afterwards and can’t hang out for awhile, leading to the kids jokingly saying he’s dead. Btw the only reason the trio was found is because Basira was invited after they made it to the park, and she convinced Daisy to let the boys go home. Daisy literally only kidnapped them because she wanted to play with someone.

Also the Buried!Daisy arc is Daisy getting eaten by a Buried controlled sandbox and Jon jumping in after her. The rest of the kids, who thankfully witnessed this, spent the next three hours digging for them, with Breekon & Hope eventually joining in to help since they were in the area. Daisy and Jon form a trauma bond afterwards and are now best friends.

Jon keeps getting marked by shit and it’s stressing Elias out because hE’S NOT READY FOR THE WATCHER’S CROWN YET!!! He needs more time to prepare, but his son is literally getting marked faster than fucking Sonic.

Speaking of Sonic, seeing as the “Console Wars” (Sega vs Nintendo) are happening during this time period, the kids take the rivalry Very Seriously. The biggest arguments are had between Sasha, Daisy, Julia, and Mike, who are all on Team Sega, and Jon, Martin, Tim, and Danny, who are all on Team Nintendo.

Sasha, close to tears she’s so angry: “Sega DO what NintenDON’T, Tim!!!”

When Martin was born, he only had one thick clump of curly hair that was white, but as he’s grown older and entered the Lonely multiple times, more of his hair has begun to turn white. As of the time of the AU “starting” (so when he’s 8 years old), he looks like he has white highlights in his hair.

Trevor isn’t a fully-fledged Hunt avatar yet, but the girls more or less are, so if you’ve ever watched Wolf Children, that’s pretty much the situation Trevor is currently trapped in. His daughters keeping changing into wolf pups and running wild as he frantically tries to hide their powers from anyone who isn’t Gerry.

(All of the kids secretly know already, even Basira.)

Basira is pretty much the only “normal” kid of the avatar children, save MAYBE for Tim, but he’s been deeply marked by the circus and has a few tiny powers (think S3 Jon as he was figuring out some of his powers, but wasn’t a full-on Archivist just yet).

The season 1 gang (including Danny) are the closest group of friends in the AU, save for Daisy and Basira’s friendship, and they hang out a lot at each other’s homes on the weekends.

Adelard usually brings Jane with him for his “trips” away from the institute, so it’s not unusual for her to be gone for long periods of time. But she always sends postcards and gifts to the institute for everyone!

Helen is three years old, so theoretically she should be able to talk, but she rarely does so, preferring to communicate via giggles and laughter. Only Jon, the Stoker brothers, and Michael can understand her, and they take turns translating for everyone else.

Whenever she’s brought to the institute, Helen takes to toddling around after Jon and Martin, giggling up a storm the whole time. Jon finds it a bit annoying while Martin is endlessly amused by her antics.

A list of the guardian’s/adult’s ages before I fucking forget (as of when the AU “starts” in 1994): Gertrude Robinson - 62, Elias Bouchard “Jonah Magnus” - 51 (200+), Peter Lukas - 55, Simon Fairchild - 83 (300+), Gerard “Gerry” Keay - 30, Michael Shelley - 32, Alfred Grifter - Unknown, Adelard Dekker - 48, Nikola Orsinov - 30ish (100+), Annabelle Cane - 34 (Unknown), Trevor Herbert - 47, Agnes Montague - 25ish (60+), Jude Perry - 35, Jared Hopworth - 29, The Admiral - 10.

The “good” parents all keep trying to set up some kind of PTA meeting so they can actually talk about how to raise these supernatural kids properly, but it keeps going horribly wrong; last time they tried, Alfred Grifter and his band showed up and nearly made Simon go deaf, so no one wants to initiate the next attempt at a meeting.

Tbh, at this point the Fear rituals are more successful than Elias’s shitty attempts at forming a PTA.

At some point in the AU Gerry, Michael, and Trevor all pitch in to buy a decently big house together, which leads to some serious Shenanigans now that Melanie is around Michael and Trevor’s kids/wards... let’s just say there’s gonna be a lot of knife related accidents.

Gerry taught Melanie how to fight when he took her in and it is the single worst decision he’s ever made in his short, goth life, even if he’ll never admit it. Melanie can now beat the shit out of everyone but Julia and Daisy, and it’s pure chaos every time. Tim puts up a decent fight, but he’s been spoiled on easy wins over his brother all his life. Jon tries and fails to so much as push her. Martin runs away crying before Melanie even throws the first punch. Needless to say, the other kids are very cautious about playing with Melanie now.

None of the kids have an education of any kind except for Mike. I’m serious; the only kid who’s decently educated is being raised by Foxy Grandpa Off His Shits McGee! Julia and Daisy have had some public education but not much, Elias refuses to do anything but home-school Jon yet he sucks shit at math, Tim and Danny don’t even know what a school fucking looks like, Melanie and Jane were too young to go to school when they became avatars, Martin has only recently been allowed near other kids so fuck public school (Peter can do math but Nothing Else), Annabelle fucking forgot to give Sasha any kind of an education outside of Web stuff, and Helen is still a very small child. None of these kids have gone to school for more than a few years at most and dear g-d is that gonna suck for them later down the line.

As a result of this, Basira has taught the other kids a few things when she’s come over and insisted on playing “school” with everyone, but she’s still just a kid and can’t always get them to pay attention during her lessons.

Because of this Rosie, Gerry, Michael, and Gertrude have all started making an effort to more or less home-school all of the kids, which has gone... well enough, I suppose. However, things have recently taken a weird turn since Jon keeps giving everyone the answers to assignments/tests via telepathy.

Jon: Whoa, you can make tea all by yourself, Martin!? Martin: Yeah, I’ve been doing it by myself since I was a toddler. I can also do laundry, mop floors, vacuum, and cook a few things, too! Tim: Wow, that’s really cool, Martin! I wish I could do stuff like that. Gertrude, off to the side: *Gives Peter a horrified look* I’m sorry, but did Martin just say he’s been making tea on his own since he was a toddler? Peter:  ╮(╯ _╰ )╭  Unfortunately, I’m severely depressed.

Yeeeeeeeah, Martin’s in a similar childhood situation to his canon one, but at least there are people actually willing to help him out of it in this universe. Also, Peter will clean himself up at some point here, he’s just still dealing with more or less disowning himself from his family and learning hoe to not be so lonely.

Speaking Of Which, the Lukas family are pretty big antagonists in this AU, primarily through Peter’s mother (I’ll come up with a name for her later if I can’t find it on the wiki), who is trying to kidnap Martin and more or less feed him to the Lonely so Peter will get over his “childish feelings” and return to being her favorite child.

And yes, she DOES accidentally kidnap Jon instead at some point... this kid can literally not avoid getting kidnapped.

I like to think Mike and Julia are really good friends in this AU, being the closest in age and all. They hang out a lot since their dads are both so chill and won’t get upset about it, the two of them mostly just playing video games, watching movies, and biking around their respective neighborhoods together.

(Also they may or may not be responsible for a statement that involves a woman seeing a “flying wolf” passing over London... they’ve yet to confess to it, but Elias is dead certain they’re behind the incident.)

The worms incident is 100% Jane’s secret worm collection getting fucking loose... she was keeping them in the walls “for safe keeping” and No One Fucking Knew, not even Elias, until Jon saw a spider, punched the wall, and Revealed them.

Jon and Tim got their scars because Jane lost control of the worms and they burrowed into the kids. Cue a very panicked 999 call from someone in the institute and Child Services almost getting involved, but Elias managed to cover it up.

Afterwards, Jon is incredibly self-conscious about his worm scars, but Martin tells him “now we both have freckles!” and it honestly makes him feel a little better about the whole thing.

Also Adelard makes an effort to track down a child psychologist/counselor with institute ties so he can get Jane some therapy/help controlling her powers. He loves her to the moon and back, and he’s terrified of her getting traumatized by what she accidentally did.

During the incident, a Notthem gets loose from Artifact Storage and attacks Sasha, but seeing as Sasha is of the Web and the Notthem is connected to a Web artifact, it only manages to really hurt her, but thankfully not kill her. She ends up hospitalized for a few weeks, but comes out fine later on. The table mysteriously disappears afterwards, and no one knows if it was Gertrude or Annabelle’s doing, but either way, the kids never have to deal with a Notthem again.

At some point I wanna get into Jon’s paranoia in season 2 for this AU, but I’m considering changing it from being because of the Jane Prentiss issue to be because of Mr. Spider almost killing him. I dunno how exactly it’ll play out, but I think it has a lot of potential!

Okay, before I end this post full of weird rambling ideas for the AU, I wanna make a list of the powers that the kids have at the time of the story “starting”/the ones they develop down the line because Jonny Sims himself said that all avatars have different powers, and I really wanna infodump on my thoughts for the kids!

Current powers of Jonathan Sims-Bouchard: Can simply know things whenever he wants to (so long as the Eye lets him, but the Eye sometimes keeps him from knowing anything he isn’t mature enough to handle), can compel people to tell him things (the other kids are better at resisting it, and so are other people touched by the Eye), can survive on very little food if he’s fed mostly statements/other people’s trauma, can non-consensually feel the pain and emotions of the people around him, has some weak telepathy powers, and he can subconsciously summon tape recorders.

Future powers of Jonathan Sims-Bouchard: Increased healing abilities, can know most anything if he tries, ability to resist other Eye avatars’ compulsions, can survive purely off of statements/other people’s trauma, can choose whether or not to feel the pain and emotions of the people around him, has much stronger telepathy powers than before, can force himself into people’s minds and read their thoughts, and he can summon tape recorders at will (though some still show up without his knowledge sometimes).

Current powers of Martin Blackwood-Lukas: Can disappear into the Fog for several hours at a time (he cannot be seen by anyone but other Lonely avatars while in the fog), can summon clouds of fog that he can momentarily hide things in (including people), can “banish” most anyone into the fog, and has “Sea Captain Eyes” (he knows where the Tundra is at all times, and can lead someone to it without a map or compass).

Future powers of Martin Blackwood-Lukas: Can change his hair color at will (only to red, white, and a mix of the two colors), can see much better in the Fog and can find anyone he’s pushed into it, can more or less teleport using the Fog, and he has what’s more or less a pocket dimension of fog for storage/hiding his friends from danger (think the inside of Gems in Steven Universe).

Current powers of Tim Stoker-Orsinov: Can make small bipedal toys “come to life” for a few minutes at a time (they can’t talk or communicate; only move around and perform small tasks/dances), can tell when a Notthem is masquerading as someone else, is supernaturally talented at gymnastics, and can dance alongside the creatures of the Stranger without being fully corrupted by them.

Future powers of Tim Stoker-Orsinov: Better control over the powers he already has as well as a high tolerance for the Spiral.

Current powers of Danny Stoker-Orsinov: Can order around creatures of the Stranger against their will, can tell when a Notthem is masquerading as someone else, can dance alongside the creatures of the Stranger without being fully corrupted by them, is supernaturally talented at gymnastics, and can change his voice to anything he likes (not always intentionally, though).

Future powers of Danny Stoker-Orsinov: Can more or less “teleport” to other circus locations by walking into theaters, can now change his voice to whatever he likes with his knowledge and consent, can take over as the Stranger’s ringmaster if necessary, can trigger a mesmerizing dance whenever he’d like, and has a high tolerance for the Spiral.

Current powers of Sasha James-Cane: Can communicate with spiders and have them send messages to other Web avatars, can read minds if she tries really hard, can “trap“ other entities in large webs that she can summon (takes a lot of energy), and she has Spider-Man-like abilities (can walk on walls and ceilings, can carry much more than her weight should allow, etc).

Future powers of Sasha James-Cane: Can now read minds without too much effort, can navigate almost any area that’s being controlled/influenced by the Web, can create webs without nearly as much effort as before, can transform her body to have more arms, legs, and eyes, and she now has venomous fangs (which can thankfully be controlled and/or hidden).

Current powers of Alice “Daisy” Tonner: Can turn into a wolf at will/when she’s especially emotional, can smell blood from several miles away, and has supernatural senses/physical abilities.

Future powers of Alice “Daisy” Tonner: Can now track most any monster she’s hunting once she gets at least one good look at them, can communicate with other Hunters via howling, and can navigate the Buried if needed (though this is very triggering for her and will cause her to pass out afterwards).

Current powers of Julia Montauk: Can turn into a wolf at will/when she’s especially emotional, can smell blood from several miles away, has supernatural senses/physical abilities, can track most any monster if she knows their name, can communicate with other Hunters via howling, and she can shift into a bipedal werewolf when she feels like she’s in danger.

Future powers of Julia Montauk: All of her previous powers have drastically improved, plus she has better control of them now.

Current powers of Basira Hussain: She has common fucking sense, something almost none of the other children have.

Future powers of Basira Hussain: She common sense AND she has a werewolf GF now. :) ((No dating for the babies, not until they’re at least teenagers))

Current powers of Melanie King-Grifter: Can listen to Grifter’s Bone without being damaged in any way, the music of Grifter’s Bone makes her powers exemplified for a period of time after she listens to it, the smell of blood triggers her to become violent, she can summon sharp weapons (knives, swords, etc) from thin air, and she can see a red aura around other people who have been marked by the Slaughter.

Future powers of Melanie King-Grifter: She has much better control of her abilities now, she can perform Grifter’s Bone songs for people and keep them from dying/going feral, and she can now also summon other weapons from thin air (guns, baseball bats, etc).

Current powers of Oliver Banks: Can see people’s deaths a week in advance via his dreams, he sees dark tentacles around people who are going to die soon, can see but not talk to ghosts, and he can smell death on anyone who’s undead/controlling other people’s bodies.

Future powers of Oliver Banks: Can raise the dead and control them to do his bidding (takes a lot of energy), can speak cat (not End related; Admiral related), and he can cause people to die within the week if he touches them in his dreams.

Current powers of Georgie Barker: Can see a “death countdown” over people who are going to die within the next thirty days, doesn’t feel any fear whatsoever, can see but not talk to ghosts, and she sees a dark sludge staining the clothes of people who have been marked by the End.

Future powers of Georgie Barker: Can bring people back to life for a minute or so by touching them (think Pushing Daisies type powers), can speak cat (not End related; Admiral is best cat dad), and she can communicate with ghosts much better now.

Current powers of Jane Prentiss-Dekker: Can summon bugs of most kinds from her mouth and under her fingernails, can communicate with bugs, and can fight off most diseases without any trouble.

Future powers of Jane Prentiss-Dekker: Can now completely control bugs via a hive mind effect, can summon bugs from anywhere on her body, has much stronger healing abilities than Jon, and she can see invisible bugs crawling on the skin of those who the Corruption wants her to get rid of (it’s hard for her not to give in to it’s desires).

Current powers of Mike Crew-Fairchild: Can levitate/fly at will, can summon clouds of any kind (rain, thunder, snow, etc) in any conditions, has much higher resistance to the weather/temperature, and he can “banish” people into the Vast at will.

Future powers of Mike Crew-Fairchild: Same as before, but with slightly better control than he had as a teenager.

Current powers for Helen Richardson-Shelley: Can change the world around her to be more like the Spiral (adding more doors, changing the colors of things, causing hallucinations, etc), can change any door into a doorway into the Spiral, and she can amplify her voice (very hard to control as a baby).

Future powers for Helen Richardson-Shelley: Can now summon doors that lead to the Spiral from thin air, has much better control over her powers and abilities than before, can morph her body to be longer and sharper at will, and she can “banish” people into the endless hallways of the Spiral.

((Holy shit, that took awhile))

Anyways, here’s a playlist I made for the AU, feel free to scream at me for my very weird taste in music: Pinky Swear That You Won’t Go Changing

[tepkunset]

Season One of The Legend of Korra Thoughts, Because a Lot of People Said I Would Probably Hate It and I Actually Really Liked it Overall

Before I even finished Avatar: The Last Airbender, I had a few people ask if I planned on watching The Legend of Korra as well. When I said yes, I received a lot of warnings that I probably would not enjoy the show very much. While I cannot claim I enjoyed it as much as A:TLA, without judging it entirely based on how it lives up to its predecessor, I thought season one of LOK was pretty good. It is definitely not without things I didn’t like as well mind you, but the same could be said for A:TLA in that regard.

What I Liked:

I love all the main characters, and almost all the supporting characters. I think Bolin is my favourite, (although I’ve been warned he gets done dirty in subsequent seasons, so I’m bracing for that,) with Korra being second. I like that instead of just trying to make "A:TLA characters 2.0″, they all have their own unique personalities and backstories. 

The relationships between the characters—aside from the gratuitous and dumb love-square (see, What I Didn’t Like)—were great. I especially loved the brotherly moments between Mako and Bolin; I’m a sucker for positive sibling relationships. Tenzin becoming a mentor figure for Korra also stood out... and surprisingly, Amon and Tarrlok.

Speaking of Amon and Tarrlok, I found them both to be interesting antagonists. Their backstory also pulled at my heartstrings despite everything, although not without complicated feelings on the implication that what they went through with their father made them into villains. In the end, it’s just plain a tragedy how things turned out.

Just like A:TLA, a lot of the fight sequences are simply beautiful to watch. There’s no other way to describe it.

What I Didn’t Like:

The love square bullshit between Korra, Mako, Bolin and Asami was just that: bullshit. Nine times out of ten I hate love triangles, let alone love squares, or whatever. What only made it worse was that between all of them, the only chemistry I really liked between characters was Korra and Bolin’s very brief dating. I found the entire thing only clogged up what already felt like a very rushed season, since there were only 12 episodes.

I hate Republic City. This is something I can’t help but compare to A:TLA - the fact that the entire show takes place in one location, and a boring city at that, is so. Boring. Is this or is this not supposed to be an adventure genre? One of the coolest things of A:TLA was Team Avatar travelling to different locations. Hell, I felt like Ba Sing Se overstayed its welcome by the time the season two finale came around, but an entire season of LoK in the same dumb city makes that look like a brief stay. 

I personally don’t inherently dislike the technological advancements in the world since A:TLA. What I do dislike is, what I feel like at least, lazy worldbuilding in the technology itself. There’s no creativity; it’s all just exact replicas of old fashioned cars, radios, etc. from real life. What happened to things like the vertical climbing tanks from the Fire Nation, and centipede tanks from the Earth Kingdom? But I kinda wanna make a separate post about this sometime, so I’ll leave it at that.

Of course there’s other things I liked and disliked too, but those are the big ones that come to mind. And the things I enjoyed outweigh the things I didn’t.

Now, I’ve gotten tenfold the amounts of messages saying season two of LoK is really, really bad. So even though I enjoyed this one, I’m still nervous to start the next. But we’ll see how it goes.

[juniperhillpatient]

"Imprisoned" re-watch takeaways :)

KATARA MY BELOVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 (that's the most important takeaway)

This episode is....dark. It feels very bleak & hopeless for the majority of the episode. That old man turning on Haru after Haru saves his life is pretty damn dark & the majority of the episode seems to be about how hopeless everything is in this war, & how the Fire Nation has already won. This just makes the hopeful ending all that much more powerful. The gaang really are spreading tiny seeds of hope along their journey <3

Haru is one of those characters I can't find anything to latch onto about him per se but I do enjoy him when he's onscreen. Hopefully, that makes sense. Sidenote, I'm always saying the only valid guy to ship Katara with is Jet, & I mostly stand by that but I guess Katru can have some rights. As a treat. Also, I've been informed the ship's name is Harutara, but I like the sound of Katru better.

Also, we got "that lemur, he's earth bending!" this episode, which is notable :)

Aang is a little annoying when they're making the plan to fake Katara's earth bending, it's definitely an odd time to not pay attention. But I forgive him because later he makes that nifty tornado that shoots coal :D

Seriously though, Katara immediately going to GET HERSELF imprisoned when she realizes Haru has been taken is SO badass. Also just - the way she refuses to leave the prisoners behind - this episode is where we're introduced to Katara's best trait - she never gives up on people. She is dangerously idealistic but unlike a lot of idealistic people, she's not afraid to back her arguments up, no matter how dark shit gets. She says at the beginning that Haru should fight back, & that might come across shitty & tone-deaf from someone else. But not Katara. This bitch straight up chooses to get imprisoned & then REFUSES to escape without helping the other prisoners, putting herself in direct danger to help.

I just love Katara so much

The prison break itself is SO good & I loved Haru throwing that first little rock. Earth benders fighting fire benders with COAL is just a great way to fuck shit up. Also, I am gonna be a little annoying about this throughout my entire rewatch but uh, some of those Fire Nation guards definitely died in that battle. There's even the line at the end where the warden goes "I can't swim" & Haru's dad responds "that's okay, I hear cowards float" before dropping him in the ocean. Annnnnd Aang doesn't bat an eye? I'm not actually on team "Aang should've killed Ozai," like, at all, to be clear. BUT I can't help but get nitpicky when shows aren't consistent about no-kill rules. I'm just as annoying about all the humans who die in the crossfire in Buffy the Vampire Slayer when I re-watch knowing how annoying she is about Faith committing one little accidental murder. I just feel like if you're gonna get upset about murder, you should be consistent about it, that's all.

Side rant aside, I think this was a really good episode. Every episode where Katara gets to put her foot down & be slightly insane but also incredibly badass is SO good.

Also, if I were doing a jerk point competition of my own, Zuko would get 800 for picking up Katara's necklace. No, he doesn't know that it was her mother's. Yes, he's just tracking the Avatar like a good antagonist. But because it's personal to Katara & I'm not obligated to be fair, I'm gonna say he needs to get his Fire Nation hands off her necklace >:(

Alright, that's all for that episode :)

TLDR: I'm a Katara stan first & a human second

[lovestrucklyuniverse]

Villain Redemption Arcs (at least in animation) [Spoilers for a lot of cartoons]

So, I don’t post rants/character analysis a lot on here, or really anywhere since I like to keep them private, but I feel like this is something I think needs to be talked about. Because redemption arcs, especially in cartoons, are a very mixed bag. 

Disclaimer: Everything in this rant is just my personal opinion so please be respectful. 

Here’s a list of cartoons that I will be spoiling so if you haven’t seen these and plan to watch them or you don’t care, just skip the bolded section for each part:

She-Ra: The Princesses of Power (2018)

Avatar: The Last Airbender

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic/Equestria Girls

Steven Universe

Now onto the rant. The order will go from best to the worst, at least in my opinion, and only the ones that I want to talk about. 

Avatar: The Last Airbender

As we all know, this series is known for having one of the best redemption arcs in not only animation, but television history. With Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. So he has a very tragic backstory from his childhood, which gives the audience instant sympathy points. His father neglected him and scarred him for life, his mother disappeared, and his sister was the favorite child. And once his father burned his face, he set out on a mission to find the Avatar in order to restore his honor, or as it’s strongly implied, to gain his father’s love. 

As the series goes on, we learn more about Zuko as a character, and he had done some very bad things. Like, he’s kidnapped Aang twice, he betrayed Katara in the cave, and sent Combustion Man after the group. But we also see through his relationship with his uncle that he’s actually a very nice person who is very awkward around most people. 

And the moment where he finally confronts his father is so powerful, because he acknowledges not only the things that their nation has done, not only what his own father has, but also everything that he had done himself. 

Now to where he asks to join Team Avatar. While he does apologize, he does understand why they don’t trust him at first. And something that makes the scene where Aang accepts him as his firebending teacher so powerful is that while he’s allowed to stay and help, they don’t forgive and accept him just yet.

Something that I like about his arc in S3 is how he goes on an individual mission with each of the three people he’s hurt the most/don’t trust him the most: Aang, Sokka, and Katara. Each episode, we learn about their dynamics and how they play off each other.

There is so much more to Zuko’s arc, but these are just the things I think work best about his overall story/arc in the show. 

Equestria Girls

A lot of people reading this are probably not fans of MLP at all or have never heard of this spinoff franchise, so just keep that in mind.

In this franchise, there is one character that keeps everyone engaged with Equestria Girls. And that is: bacon-haired Sunset Shimmer. She is a very big fan favorite amongst the pony fandom, and she’s one of my favorite characters of all time. 

Anyways, when we first meet Sunset, she’s the antagonistic bully who was just as powerful as the main character, Twilight Sparkle. She does everything in her power to frame Twilight and keep her getting ahold of the crown from Equestria. Everyone’s afraid of her and she very much uses it to her advantage. 

However, once she gets defeated by the HuMane 6, we see a very different side to her for the first time the whole film: A vulnerable side, because she has tears streaming down her cheeks as she apologizes to the whole student body that she’s tormented for years. 

In the next film (Rainbow Rocks), Sunset has a very different personality: She’s kind, willing to help, and an overall sweetheart. But here’s the thing, basically no one in Canterlot High trusts her, not even the HuMane 5. Throughout the film, we see her trying to make up for her past actions in every way possible, but she’s often left in the background due to their distrust of her. Every now and then, her temper flairs up but then immediately regretting it. 

Once her friends have no way of being able to defeat the villain, Twilight (her previous enemy) calls out to her for her help. For a spit moment, we see Sunset’s fear in her expression before she looks determined. She throws her jacket off and sings. The group sings in harmony, which is what finally takes down the three baddies. 

Throughout the entire franchise, Sunset still faces issues with her temper and her struggles about her past. Sunset’s arc is probably my personal favorite, as its one that I personally relate a lot to. And what makes it even more impactful is how she helps others learn to get through the mistakes they’ve made similar to hers. 

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Now onto the original, where EG came from. 

In MLP, it has a long list of redeemed villains. Such as Discord, Starlight Glimmer, Diamond Tiara, Gilda, Thorax, Trixie, etc. But I feel like the most controversial one would have to be Starlight, who actually becomes Twilight’s student and even meets Sunset. 

So, Starlight starts out as a villain who wants to take away everyone’s individuality (such as cutie marks). Once the Mane 6 defeat her (with help from those who were once loyal to her), she stays in hiding throughout the season until the finale. Where she goes back in time in order to ruin Twilight and her friends’ potential meeting in the future. 

But it ends with Twilight extending a hand, or rather hoof, in friendship which somehow convinces her to put a stop to her villianous ways. 

Starlight’s arc for the rest of the series is fairly mixed, which goes for how the fans feel about it as well. She is fairly impulsive and doesn’t really think things through until she gets the consequences later on. I still enjoy her character in some ways, but I completely get why it’s mixed in the fanbase. 

Steven Universe

Okay, I personally don’t hate these as much as everyone else, considering I love Peridot and Lapis’s arcs. 

However, even I can admit that the redemption arcs for the Diamonds was way too rushed. These are dictators who had used their powers on their subjects for CENTURIES and then suddenly they just decide that they don’t want to do it anymore? 

It was badly executed and I can tell that it’s going to annoy people for the rest of time. 

She-Ra: The Princesses of Power

Before you all kill me, please just hear me out. I love Catra as much as the next person, she’s my favorite character. But I also can’t let my love for her get in the way of how poorly executed her redemption was. 

Yes, she was mentally and physically abused as a child so it made her clinge to Adora more than anyone else in the Horde. And yes, it was understandable that she felt betrayed by Adora. 

But it does not justify her kidnapping several characters, taking advantage of people’s vulnerability, lying to people, pulling the lever to end the world just to prove a point to Adora, and putting all of the blame on Adora for her turning out this way. She and Double Trouble were in the right to call her out on her behavior. Everything she did was her own choice and Catra never once showed that she regretted anything she did before joining the Best Friend Squad in the last season. 

It was way too rushed and easily the worst way to redeem a character. I love S5 Catradora, but the arc should’ve started much earlier than it had.