#i have no idea what the earth nation is gonna be based on

[trivial-writing]

So, this isn’t the Pokemon Fantasy au, but this my own story I came up with. This takes a lot from Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Zelda Series, Miraculous Ladybug, and Genshin Impact/Honkai Star Rail(is this the correct spelling).

Basically, people can manipulate different elements. Water, Earth, Fire, Wind/Air, and Electricity (technically polar forces ex. Magnetism). Like Avatar, each element has a nation that only has people who can manipulate that element (ex. Earth people in the Earth nation).

Also, each nation has at least one person who has “divine favor shone upon them.” This person/these people can go beyond the limits a person has. For example, the people with electric manipulation have to eat a lot because their power uses energy from food, unlike other people’s elements.

Taking from he Jin Yuan trailer for Honkai Star Rail, the blessed person/people can also have this aether power or such (i haven’t decoded yet) that goes with the philosophy of each nation (like Genshin or Avatar). Earth people’s Aether power is being able to be discs. These can be a shield of some sort. The others? I am going back and forth on the rest.

Each nation will be reminiscent of less white based (wtf am I saying?) nations, and more of minority group nations. I should really stop saying nations, they’re more like races, and each ethnic group has a nation. For example, the earth people are a mixture of all the Roman Catholic Church’s territory in the Middle Ages(? I suck at history), and the Fire (which is really just heat) race is more based off of Africa. The wind race and electric race are a conglomeration of Asian countries. The water race are based off of the Americas and Inuit peoples.

I have a bunch of ideas for this. There’s gonna be different blessed people from different generations. Think about if Avatar’s (…) Avatar cycle paired with, like, the Genshin Impact time loop theory.

[earthstellar]

Brave Bang Bravern!: A Review for Transformers Fans

I've seen so much about this on my dash that I had to give it a try, and I gotta say, as someone who hasn't watched any new anime series since around 2008 at the most recent and I also hate the fucking military, this is a pretty good show.

THERE WILL BE SOME MILD SPOILERS. Nothing major. I'm not gonna spoil anything critical or mention characters that are introduced later etc. At of time of writing, only 6 episodes have been released.

Understanding Genre: The Trailer is A Lie

Now, while there is a trailer here, I want you to largely disregard it.

Why is that? Well, we need to talk about the "big two" robot show genres in Japan, which are as follows:

Real Robot -- This refers to a typically military setting or other serious setting, in which robots are handled as realistically as possible in terms of how they work and how they are applied. There tend to be less individual/sentient robots and more "suit" type mechs right along side human-made, more realistic machinery and mech designs, although that isn't entirely unique to this genre. Usually this stuff is labelled as sci-fi/action outside of Japan.

Super Robot (THIS IS THE SHIT TRANSFORMERS FANS GENERALLY WANT) --Essentially borderline seemingly magical robots with their own rules and in universe backstory for how they work, which isn't necessarily tied to realism. Usually this stuff is labelled as sci-fi/fantasy or space fantasy outside of Japan, since a lot of these tend to be space robots. They can be "driven" by pilots or just straight up sentient robots who are vibing with some human companions, although it's not exclusively that. It can be both, it can be neither, but no matter what, Super Robot shows are less about strict realism and more about really cool shit with robots that are basically their own people and exist according to their own rules.

Now, the trailer for BBBB (the acronym for the show is based on the Japanese title, which is Bang Brave Bang Bravern) is a COMPLETE FUCKING LIE.

It wants you to think this is going to be some dumbass GI Joe shit.

While there are elements of dumbass GI Joe shit, this is largely just to set up the premise for why shit is happening in the first place, and to help introduce the main threat (alien space creatures with fucking light beam lasers) as well as bring in our main characters under the premise of everyone having to work together to address this alien threat to Earth.

What we care about here amongst Transformers freaks is gay space robots, and this show delivers.

Getting Into Bravern: First Episode, Mild Plot Spoiler Summary

It wants you to think this is a Real Robot show.

The first episode sets things up as though it will be a Real Robot show.

There is a threat to Earth, a mystery space alien mechanical enemy, and nobody knows what the fuck to do. A military exercise between multiple nations using Titanostriders (which look very much like Shiro Masamune Appleseed-style mechs, human made in nature) to practice battle drills who are now instructed to swap over to real ammunition and go to fucking town.

Nobody knows how to do that.

They're skilled with the Titanostriders, sure, but it turns into a shit show. The alien mechanical enemies are using fucking space laser shit, it's a disaster---

--And then Bravern drops in from the fucking sky and it IMMEDIATELY TURNS INTO A SUPER ROBOT SHOW.

There's a "get in the robot, Shiji" moment where one of the Titanostrider operators, Isami Ao, is encouraged by Bravern to get inside of him.

He does. And immediately has no idea what the fuck is going on, Bravern is largely in control, and starts to blast his own theme song inside his cockpit as diegetic music while Isami is generally losing his shit, as one might do.

Humanity's reaction to Bravern is Real Robot genre type, where it is handled seriously by all the characters and organisations involved in universe, however Bravern is very much a Super Robot genre character who brings more of a Super Robot energy to the show at large.

The serious elements are mostly balanced by how fucking silly Bravern is, and there are some excellent moments in this show (currently only 6 episodes have been released) which make it entirely worth a watch.

Fun Things About Bravern Himself

Braven is very, very, very gay for his pilot.

Chances are, you've seen the screenshots of some of these moments on Tumblr already, but the delivery of these lines is magnificent.

Bravern sings his own theme song. It's the voice actor for Bravern doing the vocals, and the song itself is reminiscent of 1970s orchestrated big band energy mecha themes. For Transformers fans, it has a very Transformers Victory theme kind of vibe to it.

You gotta hear it, it fucking rules. The album cover shows Bravern holding a giant microphone.

Bravern is generally light hearted, doing his best to motivate his pilot while not hesitating to enter the action and try to defend humanity.

Now, why does Bravern care about humans so much? We don't know, but we'll talk about some mysteries in a later section below.

He is surprisingly insightful at times, while also fucking around and enjoying himself. (You may have seen screenshots going around Tumblr of Bravern with a loop of hot dogs strung around one of his chevron points on his forehead. This follows a scene in which he wants his pilot to take a break and associate with his peers for once, as a way to relieve stress. So they go to a bar, it turns out reception is positive and someone even brings weenies out for Bravern since he's too big to fit inside, lol.)

Generally, he's a very interesting mech, because we have so little information about him. He's fun, and clearly vibing, but he's also borderline if not outright obsessed with his pilot and has unknown origins, which has lead to some darker interpretations and audience discussion.

A lot of people have compared Bravern's energy to Rodimus, and generally I would agree with that. He has his high-energy silly moments, and his more serious personal moments (primarily with Isami, but also with Smith), and I think these aspects of his character work well to create a fun mech with the potential to be deep in a believable and effective way, with an equal capacity for being a doofus.

Bravern is obviously the number one reason to watch the show for most people, and I would say that if you're purely here for a giant gay space robot, then this is going to be a decent watch.

The Military Sucks: There Are Militaries Involved Yet Somehow This Is Still Watchable

I hate the fucking military, so at least the military here is depicted in an acceptable way (so far, at least). In episode 2, they waterboard Isami to interrogate him for information he doesn't have regarding Bravern, which is a realistically shitty and awful thing for the military to do-- They don't sugarcoat how fucked up the military is. These people very much have the capacity to harm their own staff, and they will do so if it means they might get an edge over the enemy.

At the same time, the actual characters in the military are depicted as primarily doing this shit out of a genuine personal desire to defeat these horrendously destructive space entities, which have attacked at least some of their home towns and home countries, so it's more personal rather than purely being a military directive that people are being forced to follow.

In this way, it's not really realistic, but everyone is on board for their own largely humanitarian aid type of reasons (there is a mission which is basically just locating survivors of an attack and then getting the fuck out) which makes the military context feel less oppressive and shitty.

Part of why this is more OK than other military depictions is because the military forces involved here are international (collaborating to defeat a global threat rather than kill each other's civilians) and because the military is clearly losing this war.

Because it's an international effort, this brings more diversity to the show-- There's a surprising amount of English interspersed between dialogue in Japanese here and there, and the military board consists of representatives from multiple nations, including some Germans who at first believe Bravern is some kind of secret American operation, lmao.

Bravern calls the military out on its shit, and essentially tells the military board to stop with the suspicious infighting bullshit and drop the internal tension because otherwise they'll all die to this mechanical nightmare creature threat.

They actually listen, which means this is an unrealistic portrayal of the military, lmao. I think they struck a good balance so far between showing that the military sucks and has problems, while also making sure that you're not really cheering for any given military force, but rather, you cheer for individual characters who just happen to be stuck doing this military shit as a premise for anything to be going on in the show at all.

So it's not the worst when it comes to the military shit; At least so far, it's watchable, which as someone who passionately hates the fucking military, is surprising to me.

It's less GI Joe and more "we just needed a reason for these characters to be involved in this situation".

Of course, your mileage may vary, but personally I found it easy to tune out or just skip through any military shit that got grating and I didn't miss anything important by doing so. At the very least, you can skip around and ignore a lot of this stuff and get right to the gay robot if that's all you want to do. It becomes clear pretty quickly what's going on if you skip around a bit, so no worries there.

Fun Speculation: What is Bravern?

Only 6 episodes are out at the moment, so there's tons of shit we don't know yet.

Bravern has a notable resemblance to a type of enemy in the show, called a Death-Drive.

Death-Drives are mecha who are distinct from the "minion" type enemies (which almost resemble flying saucers with laser gun arms and light shields), and have their own unique character designs and names.

Why these things are here, how they are here, why they are interested in Earth, and everything else is currently unknown.

Bravern looks like he could possibly be of the same mechanical species, although we don't know if that's true (yet). He has abilities that the other mecha don't seem to have, but how far this goes and what it might mean is not yet clear.

Bravern also seems to have knowledge of human media (he references The Abyss at one point and he likes 3D printing figures of sentai show characters lmao), and was immediately able to speak to the humans using language they would understand, so it's unclear if Bravern may have been studying Earth for some time before his arrival or why.

He is obsessed with his pilot and cares for him so much that he extends some care towards others purely based on their relation to Isami as co-workers; Why? What makes Isami special?

How does Bravern know seemingly every human language? How does his piloting system work? How similar is he to the Death-Drives-- Are organic beings critical to them in some way? If so, why are the other mechs killing so many of us? (These are big questions especially by the end of episode 6, due to some spoilers and a spoiler character who shows up later.)

We know little to nothing about a lot of the key elements of the show, including any motivations for the Death-Drives or what they are, what's up with the fucking UFO looking laser things, etc.

There's more to speculate on, but that would be getting into deeper spoiler territory so I'm gonna hold back on that for now.

Summary: It's Gay and Cool and Has Interesting Ideas

Bravern's not the sole source of gay vibes in this show, but it's fun that he is also a source of gay vibes in this show.

The designs are great, the Titanostriders remind me of Appleseed style mechanical suit designs which is nice, the Death-Drives are super interesting, Bravern is fucking fabulous but he's not too goofy to take seriously, and the military is unfortunately present but it's clear that they suck and are generally losing (and since the conflict is not between different groups of humans but rather is about human collaboration to defeat a non-human shared threat to our entire planet, this goes a long way to make the military shit tolerable).

It pretends to be a Real Robot show but has so much Super Robot show sprinkled in that you might as well consider it a little bit of both which the show balances pretty well.

I haven't watched an anime since around 2008 at the very latest, so I don't know how this might compare to any other robot animes since then and I am certainly not an anime expert by any means LOL, but this has been a fun show to watch so far.

It does have its problems, of course, but if you can get past the setup for the first episode (when it's still pretending to be a Real Robot show), from the moment Bravern arrives towards the end of that first episode, the show gains momentum and starts to get interesting very quickly.

It has some issues. But we're only 6 episodes in, so at the moment, they have plenty of time to potentially address those issues and we'll see where things go.

I'd recommend it if you want to give it a try!

I think there's enough here to appeal to the usual Transformers crowd and you might end up liking it, or at least having fun while watching it in the background.

If you end up wanting to to tap out then no worries-- I think it's worth giving it a shot and if it's not your thing, no problem.

Each episode is around 25 - 30 minutes, so while the first episode might feel like a slog to get through because fuck the military, once Bravern shows up the show actually gets started and I wouldn't blame anyone for just skipping to that point in the first episode and going from there, because there's nothing in that opening that you won't be reminded of or be able to figure out. It mostly just sets up the intro to the human characters and the collaboration training session, introduces the Titanostriders as a thing, and you can always go back and watch that part later if you want to.

All in all, pretty decent! Obviously we're Transformers people so we're here for the robots, and the robots are interesting and fun, and that's all I need to have a good time.

Hopefully this was a useful summary if you're interested or have seen Bravern stuff on your dash! :)

Thanks for reading!

BONUS: I forgot to mention this somehow, but there's a lot of overlap between Transformers and other Brave shows involving actual Transformers re-used in Japan for these shows; There's a good video about it here on YouTube which explains some of this, but if anyone's wondering, yes Bravern has a grounder alt-mode and it's pretty cool. Will we get a transforming Bravern figure??? We can hope!

There's another video here which mentions some of the Transformers elements in other Brave shows/Yuusha, which might be interesting for those of you who are unaware. :)

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Katara would’ve been such a good diplomat (it’s canon)

everyone rightfully hates on the ATLA comics because the politics are baffling and the characterization is even more so…but if there’s one thing we can take away from the dumpster fire that is The Promise, it’s that Katara was BORN to be a diplomat and an international force for peace, okay? Especially since her besties, the Avatar and the Fire Lord, aren’t actually very good at this.

If you haven’t read The Promise, the Wikipedia summary is pretty good. The TL;DR is that Zuko and Kuei agree that the Fire Nation colonies need to be returned to the Earth Kingdom. The colony of Yu Dao is not happy about this because the people of the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom have been mixing together (under inequitable conditions) for more than a hundred years and “just kick out the Fire Nation” is not as straightforward as it seems, since there are blended families now. Zuko refuses to kick out the Fire Nation people from Yu Dao, Kuei wants to play hardball, and they almost launch another war. Oh and there’s a weird plot about Aang debating whether to put Zuko down like a rabid dog

For all that the Wiki page does a good job of summarizing the events, it forgets some key facts: 

It’s Katara who first starts thinking about new solutions after witnessing the situation on the ground, and then comes up with the idea that Zuko and Kuei should meet and talk about the colonies:

It’s Katara who tells Kuei that Zuko has legitimate concerns (without saying that Zuko is right), when Aang tries to hedge and sugarcoat the truth: 

And it’s Katara who says to Kuei, wait, what the hell do you mean that you have no idea what your people want, that Yu Dao is just a dot on the map for you? We’re getting you out of this stupid blimp and you’re gonna talk to people before you make a decision that affects their lives, you coward

To recap, Katara demonstrates some pretty freaking key political skills, like: 

finding out what people want before making a decision for them 

seeing people as people first and foremost, not as fire nation or earth kingdom 

encouraging her loved ones, the Avatar and the Fire Lord, to resolve a conflict by beginning negotiations instead of brawling like a couple of drunks at a bar / kids on the playground (both analogies fit btw, 13-17 is a weird combination of ages)  

realistically reporting tricky disagreements without sweeping them under the rug

kidnapping a king to the middle of a battlefield to give him a reality check about listening to the people he’s trying to rule

Anyway, Katara is hyper competent at both war AND peace! We see this in the show, with her compassion for the prisoners of the Earth Kingdom (by inciting a prison riot) and the suffering people of the Fire Nation (by committing ecoterrorism), only now that compassion is backed up not only by her fighting prowess and speeches about hope, but actual ability to manipulate the levers of power. 

And have I mentioned that she has the ears of both the Avatar and the Fire Lord and her dad is Chief of the Southern Water Tribe? Even if Katara didn’t get a diplomat position based on her skills, or her status as a war hero, she could nepo baby her way in. The fact that she does not pick up a career in international diplomacy is a crime & a colossal oversight from the creators. At minimum you know Katara would’ve established Healers Without Borders or something. She deserves to be yelling at people at ATLA UN and then drafting world-changing resolutions. 

And as a bonus, Katara demonstrates her gift for diplomacy by not smacking Zuko up the head for attempting to legitimize colonization through the argument of economic progress…

…and by not smacking Aang up the head for seriously considering anti-miscegenation as a viable political solution: 

This patience is a new development because show!Katara did not have this in her, but maybe this is what growing up is all about and not just yet another strike on the “comics are wildly OOC” tally

TL;DR: ATLA boys lost their brain cells post-canon. All hail Katara, Sugar Queen of international diplomacy. 

[audioroleplayconfessions]

CW: 1 bullet point that mentions NSFW

I'm going to rant about the Desmond ASMR universe buckle up:

‐I am annoyingly biased about the war between the Empire and Intacia (partially because I am latin american myself) and everything Captain Dolian said was absolutely on the spot. Like??? The Empire SHOULD be paying reparations and SHOULD be getting a trial for war crimes. I'm pretty sure the war lasted several generations and since the Empire had literal benders on their side I cannot imagine the damage they would have caused to Intacia. There's a *reason* as to why most Intacians feel resentment towards Imperials and y'know what? I get it!!! Rhett and his Queen are way too idealistic, they're gonna withstand a BUNCH of revolutions because uniting the nations after everything that happened is NOT a good idea.

- Talking about uniting the nations, WHY? AND HOW? In the third (?) ep of Castin's series the guy butler guy from the Empire says that Rhett is both the King of Intacia and the Emperor of the Coastal Empire. Is Rhett both at the same time??? Are they gonna truly unite the nations or are they gonna stay separate??

- Why has not the Empire taken over the entirety of North America? I know they're the *Coastal* Empire but that dosen't mean they should only make their territory the Coast. There is a bunch of land that is unoccupied west to what is labeled as the Coastal Empire. Why isn't that land part of the Coastal Empire? Does anybody live there? Is it a no-man's land? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.

- How on Earth did Rhett and the Ascendant become King and Queen, respectively? HOW? Did they stage a coup d'etat? I personally have my own theories but how did it exactly happen?

- How advanced is technology is that Universe? They have T.V's and phones as we saw in the last audio, but just how advanced are they?

- How much do the people know about the Old World?

- This is a bit of my own thoughts, but I am 99% sure that the Undercity has some sort of red district. The last audio just kinda cemented that for me. The guy mentioned brothels and it just popped in my mind, I don't know why.

- Talking about the undercity, thanks to the last audio we know that anti-slavery movements are happening in Steelgate (most likely thanks to Cupcake and her speech), and I'm just wondering, how is this gonna pan out? We know there's some slaves that fight in the gladiator arena for entertainment, and that people who are slaves BECOME slaves because they committed a crime (no matter how petty it is as we saw with Warren) Is the justice system in Steelgate just gonna, collapse?

- What happened to Warren's brother? I NEED TO KNOW!!

- Steelgate politics seems like such a boggle to me. It's based on Piltover and Zaun from Arcane, I know that, but the system just seems a bit weird to me? I can't explain it.

One last thing:

I need to know more about Leandra and the classmate that is obviously so prejudiced against Intacians. PLEASE. DESMOND YOU NEED TO BRING HER BACK. I BEG. I'M ON MY KNEES.

.

[shiny-jr]

Praise be the seven, I guess. Finally, I got Beans Day Azul. He was one of the first SSRs I was missing, mostly because I never wished on his banner when he first came out because I had no idea how twst’s gacha system worked. I was worried I was going to have to save and do every achievement I could to collect more gems to wish for him, but he came home on the last key I had. It was a little over 20, no more than 30, I think that’s a win. 

Anyways, I’m a little bored, gonna try to write for Scarabia (damnation) again and probably post the sneak-peek after I check it. But for now, here are some random twst thoughts I have. Enjoy?

- Do y’all think Twisted Wonderland might be a little more peaceful say, compared to Yuu’s world, if they’re from Earth? Think about it. There’s a lot of issues with this world like climate change, wars, pollution, etc. But I imagine in a world filled with magic, some of those issues may not be as big of a deal. Like, I imagine that there’s magic or some magical machine that acts as a resource and energy source and is much cleaner than using gas or oil. 

- Kinda related to the last point, but do you think the reason the “wand” happens to actually be a pen is due to the fact that because magic creates the hazardous blot, the pen uses up that blot when they write? 

- Not gonna get into this one too much, but I wonder if some people will obsess over a certain species or kinds of people and commit cultural appropriation. Example: A regular human wearing fake ears and a tail then claiming they’re a real beastmen.

- Thinking about the existence of Noble Bell College and the whole City of Flowers. The interior of the school was decorated a lot like a church, so that makes me wonder if it was like a religious school because of the movie’s close association with religion. Does that mean there’s a religion akin to Christianity in Twisted Wonderland? What about other religions? How would that even work? 

- I wonder how languages work in twst, since it doesn’t appear like there’s a ton of countries (makes sense if I was right about the war thing, so there wouldn’t be a lot of countries with conflict). Also, if there normally is a language barrier, how is everyone able to communicate perfectly fine on campus? Is there like a commonly used language, or is it some magic that allows everyone to understand each other?

- Obviously the Queendom of Roses would probably be the equivalent of the U.K. and Island of Woe being Greece with it’s connection to Idia and Hercules, but what about other places? Would Briar Valley be like France then, because it’s connection to Sleeping Beauty being set in France? But it’s mostly fae, does that matter? What about the Country of Pyroxene (Shaftlands)? That’s the home of Vil, Cater, Jack, Epel, Trein, and Vargas. But Snow White is supposed to be German, and Cinderella with Beauty and the Beast were supposed to be French. So is Pyroxene French, German, or just a land based off Europe? Is the City of Flowers somewhere here? Don’t forget the Land of Scalding Sands where Kalim and Jamil are, it’s obviously supposed to be inspired by someplace in the Middle East, is it just based off the region and not a single nation? Similar to the Afterglow Savanna, is it just based off the continent of Africa and not a single nation? Many many questions. 

- Kinda back to the language thing, I wonder how accents would be like. Riddle? Definitely British, there’s not a doubt in my mind about that. Maybe Trey too, I can see him going either way. Everyone else in Heartslabyul though? I cannot imagine them with a British accent. Deuce? Upper US east coast kinda guy, definitely used to reply with “ya mutha” in his delinquent days. Ace? Southern US west coast, along with Cater too. Cater definitely has the valley accent, says “like” all the time. Others I like to imagine are Azul, Jade, and Floyd. They’re from the Coral Sea, but they mention it gets really really cold so of course I’m gonna imagine it as the Nordic Sea and they have this subtle Scandinavian accent, but since they probably practiced a lot to cover it. Another one is Vil, obviously I imagine him with a German accent because his last name is Schoenheit. A while ago I was unsure about Epel because he says the most out of pocket stuff in the weirdest ways sometimes, but because of the Harveston outfit I’ve seen on him, I’m gonna say he has like this Russian accent. Rook... starting to think Rook isn’t even French since apparently he’s from the Afterglow Savanna. 

- Something that I personally wonder a lot, are there Latinos in this world?? Like, c’mon. I saw the tacos in the cooking event, I know they’re hiding them somewhere. You can’t hide them forever. At least I know there’s Mexicans. But who knows? Maybe if they add more villains like they did with Rollo, they’ll add a character that’s probably Mexican like Ernesto De La Cruz (Coco) or Peruvian like Yzma and Kronk (Emperor’s New Groove). 

- Sometimes I wonder, they say that everyone knows about the seven. Like apparently in Twisted Wonderland they learn about them when they’re young, and they’re not seen as bad guys. So if that’s the case, do some people learn about the good guys? Do their beliefs kinda conflict and clash or does it conveniently not clash? That’s something I wondered when thinking if RSA has statues like NRC does. 

- RSA would treat Yuu right, just saying. It might not be fun all the time, but it’s probably better than some aspects of NRC.

[abrthephantomq]

WIP Wednesday...?

I -- okay. Just like with any fic I post here, I have no idea how much of this I'm actually going to write. Or if I'll even finish it.

But this crazy idea is based off of a literal dream I had last night. Basic premise is "ATLA AU: 4 Nations' "Match Making" Tradition Revived to commemorate the ending of the near-100 year war. Sokka and Katara are sent as a show of good will from the Southern Water Tribe."

Oh, and Sokka is trans.

Sokka folded his arms over his chest, meeting his father’s eyes. ���So, Dad, let me get this straight,” he began, doing his best to keep his annoyance from creeping into his voice. “You want me and Katara to travel across the ocean, to the Fire Nation, in some – show of goodwill? For some – some contest that hasn’t happened in decades because the Fire Nation literally tried to take over the world?” 

Hakoda did not look away. Hakoda, instead, folded his own arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. “The war is over,” he said. “It’s been over for almost as long as you’ve been alive, Sokka.”

“That contest is a – a couples matching contest!” Sokka protested, waving his arms in emphasis. “And they specifically ask for women –” 

Hakoda’s raised eyebrow did not lower, though something did flicker across his face. “Well, technically, you were born a –”

“Don’t,” Sokka warned, pointing a finger in his father’s face. “Don’t ‘technically,’ me, Dad. I’ve done everything I can do to be the man I am today. Don’t – take that away from me.” 

Hakoda’s expression softened, and he placed a heavy hand on Sokka’s shoulder. “You’re twenty-one, now, son,” he said, offering Sokka an apologetic smile. “Tribe tradition says that you need to find yourself an appropriate suitor. This – contest, as old as it is, is a great way for you to meet someone, and it’ll help build good will between us and the Fire Nation… or us and the Earth Kingdom, or us and the Air Nomads…” 

Sokka’s teeth ground together. “I’m. Not. A. Woman.”

“You’re not,” Hokada agreed. “Yes, traditionally, this event – as it’s not actually a contest – only required visiting nations to send women. But this time, they’re opening it up to both men and women. All of the nations of the world suffered as a result of the war. If Avatar Aang hadn’t been discovered in the ice when you were a baby, it probably would’ve gone on for even longer.” 

That didn’t make it any better. Nothing about any of this made it better. “I’m going to be the only man there –” 

“The Fire Nation’s offering up their Prince as a – participant,” Hakoda said. 

Sokka narrowed his eyes at him. “You were gonna say ‘contestant,’ weren’t you?” 

“Nope,” Hakoda said with a quick cough. “I was not.” 

Sokka studied Hakoda for a moment longer. Then another, letting his absolute disdain for this whole debacle show on his face. “I don’t like this,” he hissed, slicing downward with his hand. “I really don’t like this. What if they make me –”

“They’re not going to make you participate as a woman,” Hakoda said, cutting Sokka off. “They don’t know that about you, Sokka – that you were born a girl.” 

“But – the medicines I have to take, and –” he gestured to his chest. The chest currently hidden underneath his thick coats designed to keep out the freezing temperature of the South Pole. “It’s – not cold there, Dad. Not like here. What am I gonna do about my…?” He couldn’t say it. Not in front of his father. 

Hakoda gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Katara said she’d help you with that.” He stepped away from Sokka, pulling up a scroll. “I also checked with the Fire Nation’s palace physician. They have the herbs needed to make your medications. Katara said she’d make as much as she could before the two of you left, too. So you might not even need it.” 

Sokka’s mind reeled. “When did you get to talk to Katara?” he asked, his brow furrowing. “You just told me about this five minutes ago!” 

“She and I’d talked about it this morning,” Hakoda said, moving on to another scroll. He offered Sokka a crooked smile. “She seemed to think you’d be ready to get on the boat tomorrow, since it’ll allow you to get to see parts of the world you haven’t seen, yet.” 

Sokka cursed underneath his breath, which earned him a sharp look from his father. Of course Katara would think that – he’d only been bitching about how neither one of them had been allowed to travel past the revived Southern Air Temple since they were teenagers. 

“But – the Fire Nation?” he managed eventually, though even he could hear how weak his voice sounded compared to his earlier ire. “The same Fire Nation that almost wiped out all of the Air Nomads? And forced them into hiding? You wanna send us there?” 

“They’re the ones hosting,” Hakoda said with a shrug. “The Northern Tribe has already sent word that they are sending a small selection of participants.” 

“And the Earth Kingdom?” Sokka pressed. “What about the Air Nomads?” 

“Avatar Aang himself will be participating,” Hakoda said with a quiet hum. “The Fire Nation made that abundantly clear in their invite – they’d even said it was his idea to revive this world tradition.” 

Sokka noticed his father hadn’t answered about the Earth Kingdom, but – considering Avatar Aang himself was going to be participating in this stupid tradition….

“Fine,” Sokka said. “I’ll go – but you owe me!” 

“Of course,” Hakoda said, as if he hadn’t expected anything less from Sokka. “Let me know what it is you want when you come back.” 

Sokka knew a dismissal when he heard one. Or maybe he was just absolutely done with this entire conversation – with the entire idea of traveling to the Fire Nation to mingle with a bunch of people from across the world and maybe, just maybe, hit it off with any of them. Either way, he stomped his way out of their home and out into the icy cold. 

He needed to find Katara, anyway.

[starry--blossom]

I am BREAKING the norm of my profile being specifically Kyman related and I am making this post to tell y'all that I have a K2 AU circling around in my head based on the anime Lost Song.

If you don't know what Lost Song is, essentially on the base surface it's about two people having magical abilities with the power of songs at their disposal. One being a child called Rin, the other a songstress called Finis. Rin wants to make an orchestra to perform at the kingfom capital and Finis is being used as a tool of war and later on becomes immortal from one of her songs attempting to end the world. I won't spoil the rest in case you want to see it for yourself but it is pretty dark in parts.

Anyway watching the anime I ended up getting an idea of a K2 AU with this concept LOOSELY. I'm not gonna copy the whole thing but having Kyle and Kenny be the two people with the rare song ability seemed interesting to me.

So here are the bullet points for the AU setting woo

- Fantasy setting. Similar to SOT with two differing nations but apart from that it's all new.

- Kenny and Kyle both have the rare power of songs ability, the more Kenny sings the more it adds on to his immortality and he becomes scared of leaving the castle grounds in fear of being treated like a freak for not being able to die.

- Kyle's more sheltered with it, his parents not letting him sing because they know the truth about his power. At this point he doesn't know about Kenny's existence.

- Kyle goes around the continent with Ike to find other people to perform with him at the castle at the upcoming moon festival after having an argument with his parents.

- They end up running into Stan, Eric and Butters on the trip who become a part of their troupe.

- They overhear about Kenny's existence and Kyle is convinced that he needs to find him as they both have the ability.

- Kyle ends up getting dreams after finding out about Kenny and they start talking to each other through the dreamscape whatever you want to call it.

- In the dreams Kenny eventually always keeps telling Kyle "help me". Kenny is sick of being immortal so he plans to sing a forbidden song at the moon festival to remove his ability and bring down the moon to wipe the earth completely.

- Kyle ends up at the castle a few hours before the festival preformance and sees Kenny's also there, getting prepared for his plan. They see each other and instantly find a connection between each other.

- Kyle tries to talk Kenny out of the plan, and eventually succeeds with a bit of difficulty at first.

- The two of them sing at the festival together, and the joined voices end up lifting the immortality curse on Kenny and the two end up using their abilities for good. Eventually they end up growing a stronger bond and end up together.

IT'S STILL A BIT ROUGH IN PLACES BUT I'M JUST TRYING TO FIGURE THINGS OUT AS I GO ALONG HONESTLY.

[piandaoist]

Sometimes, I get stuck on Iroh's siege. Like, it spins in my head like a microwave plate. Weird, I know. After all these years, why am I still thinking about this bullshit siege?

I just… The walls of Ba Sing Se are made of stone, and they're in a kingdom filled with people who bend stone and dirt. It seems like the least viable option would be to attack these massive walls that your enemy's children can bend at you. Yet the Fire Nation kept "hammering away" at the Outer Wall as Azula put it. We can tie this nonsense 'strategy' into things like stupidity, hubris, greed, ambition, ego, the Fire Nation's unwavering belief in its own Exceptionalism despite all evidence to the contrary… And, let's be honest, there are a lot of real-life examples of people who are, frankly, just doing all kinds of stupid things for reasons rational people wouldn't understand. Personal reasons we aren't privy to, for example. Coercion and mental instability can also play a factor. Then there is the fact that some people truly believe they're smarter than the rest of us. But I don't want to speculate about the motives of every Fire Nation knob who tried to take down Ba Sing Se's Outer Wall because 'It seemed like a good idea at the time.'

For what it's worth, Iroh's motivations are both clear and uninteresting. He said he had a 'vision' of conquering Ba Sing Se. Which is…whatever. (Imagine you're the top general and you make all of your decisions based on Destiny.) I would have preferred canon give us something more interesting than 'destiny', but here we are. Who are we to dispute this claim from a guy who can see into the Spirit World? Not to mention, 'destiny' is one of ATLA's core themes. Personally, I always found it suspect how 'destiny' always seemed to line-up with ambition. It was Iroh's destiny to conquer/liberate Ba Sing Se (to further an agenda). It was Zuko's destiny to become Firelord (even if that meant he had to take down his own sister). Is destiny really on their side, or is it just bullshit Iroh was making up as he went along? Another discussion, another time, I suppose.

I'm more interested in the siege itself. How did Iroh ever get through the Outer Wall which, again, is made of easily-bendable earth? This next part is all speculation. No idea if any of this is covered in supplemental materials because I haven't been keeping up. But I needed to develop this for a story I'm not writing, so I have thoughts…

I think Iroh's siege was always meant to fail, just not in the way it happened. It was a trap. The planning went something like this…

A siege takes a lot of preparation--months, even years of planning. Logistically speaking, it requires moving around a lot of resources to get the resources and manpower ready for a huge push. There are a lot of moving parts. EK spies would have noticed things like resource reallocation, uncharacteristic troop movements, shipments of wood and other materials for the building of siege forts, a lot of weapons and artillery being moved to a specific location, maybe they'd gotten some inside intel… It's a bit of an undertaking to keep something like that a secret.

There's a good chance Iroh didn't know about the Dai Li presence in Ba Sing Se. Maybe he had an idea of some secret police in Ba Sing Se from some intel received decades earlier from some infiltration team, but he had no idea of their scope or reach. It's pretty clear they call the shots, not General How. How gets his walking orders from the head of the Dai Li, probably Long Feng. So, what happened? And why?

In the Five General's War Room, in Ba Sing Se, How confirms the intel that the Dragon of the West is going for the wall. A smart-ass makes a comment about how they should let Iroh's forces knock down parts of the wall and then they raise it like "Psych" until he gets tired and retreats. ;)

How looks at the general who always thinks he's the funniest guy in the room and says "Here's what we're gonna do. You're not gonna like it. We need you to take one for the team…"

A siege is probably one of the worst types of warfare. They often drag on for weeks, months, years… Resources are depleted and, if the enemy cuts your supply chain, you're looking at starvation and the rapid spread of disease as well as a shortfall of more men, weapons, ammo, and other materials. It's bad for morale because time erodes the men's resolve and frays their nerves. Iroh probably knows this but, you know, it's his destiny. Whatever. EK generals would know this, too; they're counting on it.

After six hundred days, due to various unpleasant circumstances, Iroh's army drops to an acceptable number of tired and broken men--a number the Dai Li is prepared to fight. Also, the Dai Li had to make it look like they were actually putting up a fight hence the timetable. But now it's time for the wall to come down.

The Fall Guy, General Funnyman, is there with his 'army', ready to surrender, giving Iroh his knife as a show of 'respect' for the unbeatable Dragon of the West. This gives Iroh's ego the boost it needs to convince himself that he can turn the tide in the siege. If, for a brief moment when Iroh's men were dropping like flies he questioned his destiny, that moment has now passed. He's within striking distance of his goal. The Inner Wall is literally within his sights, and an EK general is in his custody…

The remaining EK generals and several Dai Li have infiltrated Iroh's ranks. It isn't like Iroh knows the thousands of men under his command. How could he? And his command is in shambles, anyway. They're just running on desperation and hope at this point and no one is really looking at anyone else. They're all looking ahead, at this massive Inner Wall looming on the horizon, at the far end of a vast expanse of wide-open land.

All How and his handful of earthbenders needs to do is follow the last vestiges of Iroh's army inside the Outer Wall so they can close it behind, trapping Iroh's men between two walls. And those farms that maintain the land that feed the people inside of Ba Sing Se's wall and the structures built into the walls themselves are just crawling with eager earthbenders ready to take their pound of flesh from the Dragon's army. They can't wait to see the look on Iroh's face the moment he realizes it's a trap.

As Iroh is about the give the order to advance forward toward the Inner Wall, he gets word Lu Ten has died. You know the rest.

When Iroh abandons his siege, the commanders who are left realize they cannot take down the wall without him. Maybe some of them have figured out this is probably a trap? Others are doing the math on their losses thinking they just don't have the numbers or resources to mount a another siege on the Inner Wall? Maybe they think attempting to move across this landscape toward the Inner Wall is too great a risk? Some of them just probably want to go home. For whatever reasons, they retreat.

Iroh doesn't conquer Ba Sing Se and the Dai Li don't capture the Dragon of the west. Maybe the Dai Li capture Iroh's men, but they don't know where Iroh is because he just left… All that bloodshed and nobody got what they wanted.

Point is, things never go as planned. Life happens. Best laid plans, blah, blah, blah. Everybody just has to live with it. Everybody took huge risks with that engagement and thousands died and nobody came out ahead.

But at least General Funnyman got out alive. How was never gonna let anything happen to him even if he is super annoying.

Maybe when Iroh realizes how many Dai Li there are in Ba Sing Se, and of what the city is like, he realizes his siege was a trap. Maybe he realizes that Lu Ten's death saved his life.

[juniperhillpatient]

The Drill Re-watch

The Dangerous Ladies are back! And they have a big scary drill. I love how Mai is just happy to get something to do & I had honestly forgotten how consistently ecstatic Ty Lee is at any opportunity for violence. She's so adorable & scary at the same time. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Ty Lee? +1000 iconic behavior points to her for taking out all those earth-benders & scaring Katara. I had also forgotten just how scared of Ty Lee Katara is & how much she dislikes her. Katara yelling & calling Ty Lee a circus freak was a badass moment. +1000 iconic behavior points. Mai disobeying Azula just because she doesn't want to get muddy & popping up in the end like "we lost" in a deadpan voice was hilarious & very based of her, +500 iconic behavior points. Sokka's plan to take out the drill from the inside was pretty smart. +500 iconic behavior points.

My favorite part of the conflict with the drill was actually Ty Lee. I also really loved the flirty moment between her & Sokka, & Katara having to drag Sokka away. Honestly, I've never given much thought to Ty Lee/Sokka as a potential ship until this re-watch but their flirty banter during fights is so funny & cute. And I just can't get enough of Ty Lee happily kicking ass.

Surprisingly, I don't have that much to say about Azula in this episode which is rare for me but this was pretty much standard hero vs. villain "let's keep the Fire Nation out of Ba Sing Se" stuff. I mean, the Azula vs. Aang fight was badass, but I don't have any meaningful analysis of it. I think the most meaningful takeaway I have about Azula in this episode is regarding her relationship with Mai & Ty Lee. It's been commented on a hundred times that Mai disobeys Azula's order in this episode, but still, I'll comment on it again. I think it says a lot about the dynamic between Azula & Mai. Mai is a subordinate, & there is a power imbalance but Mai knows what she can & can't get away with & isn't afraid to do what she wants under certain circumstances. I think that the dynamic between these three girls is layered & this episode gives evidence to the idea that Azula does treat Mai & Ty Lee like friends to the extent that Azula can treat anyone like friends. Mai never felt coerced & if she was reluctant to follow specific orders, she simply didn't.

Jet & Zuko were my favorite part of this episode, actually. I can't believe it took me as long as it did spending time in this fandom to warm up to Jet/Zuko as a romantic pairing. Shocking & disappointing for me, really, I feel like I usually have good taste right away. SMH past me. Oh well, I see the truth now. They're literally Thee Template. Like, they met each other, said "be gay do crime" & had a touching heart to heart about both being traumatized & Zuko realized that he didn't always have to be alone & by the next episode Jet is following Zuko around like a lost puppy begging him to join his little found family. THEN freaking Iroh warms up his tea with fire-bending. Iroh, I was just warming up to you & starting to stand up for you, dude. What are you DOING? Zuko is right. For a supposedly wise old man, that's just.....really fucking stupid. I don't even know what to say. I guess Iroh got a little too comfortable? Like....what? Anyway....

Despite the rather contrived way in which it happened (yeah, sorry, I'm gonna say the writing is a LITTLE contrived like, I just don't get it is Iroh supposed to be smart or not?) I DO love a dramatic breakup between two characters who technically never even dated. Jet now knows that Zuko & Iroh are fire-benders. And MAN. A hundred smarter people than me have written fascinating essays & analyses & metas about the tragedy that Jet is right that they're fire-benders & more right than he knows because they're literally Fire Nation royalty & both personally responsible for a lot of harm inflicted by the Fire Nation but he's wrong because they are actually refugees now & not causing any new harm & also because he needs to let go of this obsessive hate because it will (& does) lead to his downfall like....We'll get to my thoughts on Jet's tragedy & his death when we get there but this set up for drama (by itself!!! pretending I'm watching for the first time!!!) IS excellent writing (if the specifics weren’t so contrived.) If only they ---- never mind, I'm done for now. I'm ending this ramble. Goodnight. Oh yes, Zuko & Jet get +1000 iconic behavior points for their quick little fling that will change them both forever & for having a dramatic breakup without Zuzu (king of drama on any other occasion!) even knowing about it.

Anyway, this was a great episode. I'm surprised I had so little to say about Azula & that she earned no iconic behavior points, but it's okay because she will blow everyone else out of the running in Crossroads of Destiny, I already know 100% for sure. Yeah, my favorite parts of this episode were the Dangerous Ladies & Jet & Zuko but I should also mention that I liked Sokka joking about the different group names even though "gaang" hasn't come up yet. And the hints about metal-bending & its potential were fun subtle foreshadowing.

[hathorik]

Rundown on the vocabulary of oppression - Ideology and Diplomacy

In the face of current events™, some of my students felt lost and confused and one of them asked me to help them understand what words such as fascism, nazism, antisemitism and zionism mean. My guess is they're not the only people feeling that way. So let's take a look at all those words being thrown around and what their actual meaning is.

This is gonna be a long post so all the material is going under the cut. I will, once again, be very serious about my sources and use Wikipedia because come the fuck on it's right THERE.

Fascism: far-right authoritarian nationalist political ideology, often suppressing any democratic aspect from political life (be it through forbidding all but one party or reducing the number and political range of parties available to make sure the result of any election will only further the political ideology and its goals). It entails a strong militarism, forceful suppression of political opponents, violent repression of protests and social struggles, and often has roots in racism (or simply white supremacy) to reinforce the nationalist aspect. Historical examples of fascism justified themselves through their ultimate goal to create a perfect society for perfect people; nowadays the blunt racist übermensch-creating ideas are a little too old-fashioned and we can reconsider the workings, ideological tennets and goals of fascism in a globalized neo-liberal world (tldr: protecting the people in power and reinforcing oppression of everyone else).

Nazism: German-flavored fascism created by an obscure Austrian painter. Despite it originating from "National Socialism", there is nothing social about Nazism; that was a PR stunt to bring in the communist voters after a strong communism diabolisation campaign. The idea was that a natural hierarchy or races existed and at the top of them was the mythical Aryan race the German people were supposedly the descendants of and that the farther a population strayed from the Aryan race ideal, the lower it was in the race hierarchy with, at the very bottom, Jews. Because why not, antisemitism was trendy in the 30's. They were however not the only targets of the Nazi movement and Nazis up to today's neo-nazi groups will indiscriminately attack all kinds of people they judge undesirable in their perfect society; foreigners, people from so-called "inferior races", queers, neurodivergent people, disabled people and so on.

Racism: discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity, be it social or enforced by a state and its laws (Apartheid). It relies on two ideological basis: good old xenophobia (discrimination and prejudice against foreigners) and the nazi race hierarchy theory (which itself rests on eugenics, which were very popular in the US in the 20's). It leads to direct actions or discriminative measures against people perceived as inferior or undesirable, the inaction of legal authorities when those happen and serves as basis to ideas such as Supremacy.

White supremacy: the eugenics-based idea that North-Western Europeans and their descendants ("White" people) are superior to all other races/ethnicities/cultures/civilisations on Earth because they happened to develop technologies earlier and to have a clearly understood (to them) progression from idealized Ancient Civilisations to perfect "modern societies" (industrialized oppression-based capitalism). The whole thing being backed by religious ideas to make it even smoother. Reality is that Europe just had a very nice climate, plenty of easily available resources which boosted its development and a whole bunch of Intellectuals™ to affirm that yes they were superior and therefore meant to Reign Supreme on the Earth. Today, White supremacy can be seen in violent groups and institutions such as the Aryan Brotherhood, the United States Government and the Israeli military.

Minority: theoretically, a minority is a group of people within a population which finds itself in so small numbers they end up never getting their voices heard through democratic processes. The truth is that gerrymandering and state-enforced measures (such as Apartheid or race-targeted police brutality) make the demographic aspect irrelevant and really the people in power make the populations they don't like minorities in order to dismiss them or diabolise them even more easily. Think about "immigrants", "arabs", "pedophiles" (when referring to queer people) and so on. You must have stumbled upon it at some point.

Jewishness: to be Jewish, aka to belong to a matriarcal bloodline which can be retraced to the original 13 tribes of Israel. Jewishness is an easy target (see: antisemitism) because it affirms itself and its existence through both cultural/religious aspects and an admitted racial aspect. Following an important diaspora, Jewish people can be found in almost every country and within almost every culture; there are Jewish people of color and Arab Jews. Which is a problem to some (see: Zionism).

Antisemitism: Jew-targeted racism. Mostly found in non-Jews, there is however such a thing as "auto-antisemitism" which is antisemitism perpetrated by Jews upon Jews (See: Association of German National Jews, aka "Jews for Hitler"), be it as self-loathing of one's own Jewishness (Karl Marx and Henry Kissinger were examples of this) or as a way to distinguish between "good" and "bad" jews. Historically, antisemitism was first motivated by the old "They killed Jesus" argument and their often immigrant status, but in more recent times ideas such as Jews being parasites feeding on the societies of "good people" (the Aryan race, for Nazi Germany) or the fact that some Jews ended up in pretty important positions of power (see: Rothschild Family) gave traction to plenty of conspiracy theories, which only got backed by the rise of Zionism and the creation of the State of Israel, which is why antisemitism is often brought up whenever criticism of its policies and actions are made.

Originally, the term "Semitic" on which the word is based designated "Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians"; it has now been reduced to Jewish populations only.

Zionism: ideology born around the 1820's according to which the territory of the "Promised Land" (then: Palestine) had to be returned to the exiled Jewish population and a Jewish ethno-state be created there. Early on, acquisition of Palestinian land by wealthy Jewish families was the first ways of expression of Zionism, but after the Second World War the horrors of concentration camps were used as an argument by Zionists to ask for the creation of the state of Israel. Today, Zionism refers to the defense of the State of Israel, its policies and its legitimacy, as well as the existence of an "ideal Jewish population"; thus Zionists reject non-white Jewish populations and do no shy away from affirming their racism or comparing themselves to Nazis in a positive way. Zionism can be considered as the a flavor of Jewish Fascism.

Colonialism: derived from White Supremacy, colonialism is the ideology affirming that White people have the moral imperative to conquer the Earth, subjugate local "barbarian" or "savage" populations and bring them "civilization"; this resulted in countless genocides, forced conversion to Christianity and theft of land and natural resources from native populations, as well as settling of White people on said stolen land. Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Australia and Israel are examples of modern, still existing Colonial Nations, and all still enforce oppression of native populations in varying degrees, the worst being genocidal campaigns and apartheid laws.

Imperialism: practice of maintaining or extending power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultural imperialism). Imperialism focuses on establishing or maintaining hegemony and a more or less formal empire. While related to the concepts of colonialism, imperialism is a distinct concept that can apply to other forms of expansion and many forms of government. For example, the US interventionism in the Middle East (Gulf wars of 90-91 and 2003 onward) and its backing of Israel's expansion are imperialist measures, as well as the veto power of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States over the UN.

[ask-ozai]

You think the economy is gonna crash now that the war is over? I think the Fire Nation would base a lot on their economy in the war since they've waged it for so long.

I'm asking for a buddy of mine. He's a Texan cyborg.

I'm assuming Texan Cyborg is some place in the Earth Kingdom. Sounds like something they would call themselves.

It depends on what economic policies the new Economy Minister tries to replace the war industry with. All of those people will, no doubt, lose their jobs and we all know what happens next. Economic crisis and recession. Our economy has always been efficiently balanced to avoid a crisis, but when it comes to economic speculation, the value of a country's money has as much credibility as its ruler. And Zuko has as much credibility as Iroh swearing he's celibate. The upcoming collapse is inevitable.

Now, recovering from a collapse is not impossible. We have strong industries (which I developed) and if the new Economy Minister (Koph right? The dirty hooligan) has the good sense to support industries with low taxes, and banks with high interests, we will be fine in a few years. Unfortunately the last I heard from the Economy Minister is that she imported a thing called Earth Rumble from her city and is trying to establish it as our new national sport now that Zuko has banned Agni Kais (how can it be humanly possible to only have bad ideas? Blessed Agni, I know the nurses dropped him once or twice but this is too much). Thus Minister Beingfond has me, to say the least, worried.

(Is it too late to kidnap her father?)

[quibbs126]

So I heard recently that we’re gonna be getting a new Earth Avatar in 2025, and I just wanted to share this one idea I had a couple years back for a new Earth Avatar that I thought was pretty neat. Based on the silhouette we see, I doubt we’ll get it, but I just wanted to share

So I believe I called this new Avatar Gen, and he was a scholar, which we see are common in the Earth Kingdom (also when making this, note that I kind of ignored the fact that Korra was making the Avatar world closer to modern day, which would make this even closer. Just putting this here now in case there’s confusion on the time period. Assume that this closer resembles the original Avatar world because that’s what I more based it on, seeing as how I preferred that one). Gen was an avid scholar, and his big goal in life was to create a comprehensive encyclopedia detailing all knowledge of bending and its uses, which includes the offshoots of the elements, how various cultures use their bending in specific ways, what values each bending is associated with and their types of fighting style, and even how certain types of bending can influence other types, should one choose to do so (think like Iroh learning to redirect lightning by learning from the Water benders). He’s a relatively friendly and excitable young fellow, around 16-18, and he always carries his manuscripts around in a bit of a haphazard manner in his oversized bag. However, mess with his manuscripts and he will freak out, as it’s kind of his life’s work

Now, Gen is aware he’s the Avatar, and he enjoys this, but mostly for the fact that it makes his task of compiling everything on bending all the more easier, as he can practice every element. As for the duties of an Avatar, such as keeping the peace and fighting evil, he’s not very enthusiastic about that. He can fight, and chooses to fight in a more creative manner, using his extensive knowledge to fight more smartly, but he’d rather leave big conflicts to forces such as the nations’ militaries, as that’s what they’re meant to do. It’s not that he doesn’t care about the overall world, he does, he just thinks that an Avatar should do more than just fight. He sees what he’s doing as a benefit to the overall world, as learning everything and compiling it all into something anyone might be able to understand could prove immensely beneficial to the world, and even bring different bending cultures closer, and perhaps as something only the Avatar can do. But over the course of the story, he learns that there’s more to truly being the Avatar and that he does have to step up sometimes

I also imagined that with this hypothetical show, we’d get to explore the intricacies of bending far more than we did in prior series, given that that’s his whole motivation, to learn everything he can about bending. I think at the time I remember seeing some reviews of Korra and them talking about how Korra didn’t really go in depth with the four elements like they did in the original show, likely because we had already seen it there, and how it was a shame because it could have been a way to see how the world has developed since we saw it last, and how it can still be interesting because of that, and how it was a core part of the original show. I thought here, I could sort of rectify that

I think I recall that the story would have started at the Fire Nation, given how this is the nation we kind of know the least about, especially after the war. By this point Gen might have learned two elements, Earth and one other (I think it was Water), and was coming here to learn about fire. But right now though he’s only learned the basics of the elements, as he needs a foundation to start with before going deep into the complexities of them

That’s about all I remember, but I still think it’s a neat idea. How about you?

[tnc-n3cl]

Project 47 for the WIP game!

Thanks for the ask! Oh that's a popular one. Gonna summarize what I said for @zeawesomebirdie here (and probably reveal some new stuff in the process).

So "Project 47" is the codename for a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid story that can be described in Hollywood "High Concept" terms as The Expanse meets Final Fantasy. I believe I've mentioned it to you before, but it is based on some ancient FF/LoZ crossover ideas that I had, which became purely FF ideas, then got spun off into an original universe. (I did salvage some ideas for "The Realm Walker from this old idea.)

So, you've got humans (in universe sapient species (also commonly refereed to as mortals/mortal-kind/etc.) names are always capitalized) living along side multiple non-human sapients on two Earth sized moons around a gas giant twice the size of Jupiter. I strove for as much scientific accuracy as I could so there was a LOT of research into all sorts of things, from astronomical stuff when designing to solar system, to taxonomy when I came up with the taxonomy for the various peoples. And while I love Star Trek, I wanted to avoid the rubber forehead alien trope so most of the non-humans aren't very humanoid. For example, the Avestrens are even more bird than the Rito, they can walk upright, but when going into a run adopt a stance more like a mockingbird or velociraptor.

The core of the story is that a nation on one moon (The Takara Alliance) builds an aerospace ship (basically a fantasy airship with rockets attached) to explore the other moon. They've known it was inhabited for a long time now and have been keeping an eye on it with telescopes and even have a network of satellites orbiting it.

They originally planed for a five year mission (cause Star Trek reference, possibly even in-universe as I'm certain in my musings on this there was an in-universe equivalent) to study the moon in person (like how the Federation disguises people to study pre-warp civilizations), but a probe they sent to the edge of the solar system captured images of a derelict aerospace ship.

Thanks to the alignment of the planets, they had a once in a hundred (or longer) years chance to investigate this thing in person. This results in the ground crew having to go it alone for eight years and stretches the crew on the ship to their limits. (For example, they've got hydroponics bays to grow plant based food, but the Avestrens are hypercarnivores, they can't really process plant based food very well. They've got something akin to a protein synthesizer but the goo it produces isn't very appetizing, so the ship's captain (an Avestren) grinds up strawberries in it (little nutritional value for him so kinda like junk food) to make it look a little more appetizing/taste like something.)

I had planed to post a series of oneshots more or less on DA to lead up to the main story but never got very far. The one thing I posted I took down cause I wasn't happy with it.

But lucky for you, I feel like reposting it! So here is "The Assignment", where a sapientologist (what Star Trek would call a xenoanthropologist, which would literally translate to "one who studies strange men" BTW) is recruited for the mission. (BBC America was rerunning X-Files a lot back when I was working on this, so the sapientologist (Dr. Zara Kaladi) ended up getting modeled after Dana Scully a little (visually at least, character wise you could make comparisons to Dr. Daniel Jackson from the Stargate franchise)). Gonna put it below the cut (disclaimer it's a little rough, and was the first thing I wrote in novel format since high school after years of writing in script format for my Trek and Stargate fics so perspective is a little wonky...)

An older Human woman with light skin, red hair, and blue eyes wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans sits at a table eating breakfast, a simple bowl of cereal.  She is reading something on tablet computer, a news report.  On the screen the date is visible, Merzav 1, 350 AF.  The headline reads “Prototype aerospace ship Korus set to launch soon.”  Before she read more a doorbell rings. 

The woman stands up, and we can tell she is 1.6 m tall and roughly 47 kg.  She walks out of the room and into a living room.  In the corner we can see some half-unpacked suitcases then a large bookshelf.   The room is somewhat larger than your average living room.  The doorbell rings again. 

The woman finally reaches the door, a wider than average door that is at least 2.7 m tall, and activates a screen off to the side.  The screen displays a pair outside the house, a Human woman about 1.7 m tall and 49 kg in weight with light skin, brown eyes, and black hair dressed in a black business suit and a 2.1 m tall, 48 kg humanoid bird with an eagle-like head and beak, an Avestren. 

The white feathers on its throat and grey feathers on top of its head and running down towards its back are a clear sign that it is female.  She has green eyes and a stripe of dark blue feathers extending from behind her eyes and running down the sides of her neck.  Her clothing is similar to a housecoat but one side appears to be fastened with buttons and it has short sleeves.   This garment is white in color with what looks like military metals attached to it, there is also a name tag but we can’t read it on the screen.  Rank insignia are visible on the tops of the shoulders; they are an aqua color with two gold four-point stars on top, a silver lightning bolt, and three silver stripes.  She is also holding a briefcase, her hand and arm are covered in yellow scales.

The homeowner presses a button on the screen.  “What is it?” she asks. 

The woman outside presses another button and replies, “Dr. Kaladi, we’re sorry to disturb you so soon after returning from your sabbatical.   I’m Dr. Jiwoo Byon from the Alliance Space Administration and this is Commander Zunala (Zu-nala) from the Air Defense Force.  We’re here with an exciting research opportunity for you.  May we come in?” 

“An exciting research opportunity?” Dr. Kaladi thinks to herself, “I’m a sapieologist and archeologist, what could the ASA and ADF want with me?”.   Dr. Kaladi opens the door and asks, “What kind of opportunity?”. 

“The kind that comes once in a lifetime.” Dr. Byon replies. 

Dr. Kaladi raises an eyebrow in interest and after a moment responds “Come in.”  She holds the door open and the two enter the house.  She closes the door.

Dr. Kaladi walks over to the couch and lifts up the cushion revealing a horizontal bar underneath.  She motions to the couch and Dr. Byon sits on the other cushion while Comm. Zunala perches on the bar and sets the briefcase on the table.  “Can I get you anything?” she asks, being polite.

“No thanks.” Comm. Zunala replies, sounding, and looking, not unlike a parrot mimicking Human speech. 

Dr. Kaladi sits in a chair next to the couch.  “So what’s this once in a lifetime opportunity?” she asks. 

Dr. Byon responds “I assume by now you’ve heard of the new ship we’re building.” 

“Of course, I have, it’s been all over the news for the past month.” Dr. Kaladi thinks to herself before responding “The Korus right?” 

“Yes.  We’re looking for specialists for its first real mission.” Dr. Byon replies.

“Specialists?” Dr. Kaladi asks. 

Comm. Zunala responds, “Yes.  As you know the Korus is a joint venture between the ADF and the ASA.   While the ASA does have a number of scientists suited to missions the Korus can accomplish there are a few positions left unfulfilled on a mission of this nature.” 

Intrigued, Dr. Kaladi asks, “What is the nature of this mission?” 

“A long-term survey of Serov.” Dr. Byon responds. 

“We already have several…” Dr. Kaladi stops mid-sentence, her eyes widen as she realizes, “…You’re going to land a research team on Serov!” 

“Indeed.” Comm. Zunala responds as she opens the briefcase and pulls out a tablet. 

She hands it to Dr. Kaladi, who asks “What is this?”

Comm. Zunala responds “A standard issue NDA, which you will need to sign if you accept this assignment.” 

“Why do I need to sign an NDA?” Dr. Kaladi asks, obviously annoyed. 

Comm. Zunala responds “First, we’re not ready for the general public to learn about this mission yet.  Second and most importantly, the Korus is a military research vessel.  As such during your time aboard the ship and on the ground team you may learn military secrets, it is vital to national security that you do not reveal these secrets.” 

Dr. Kaladi reads over the NDA for some time, “Wait, the Intelligence Service is going to look over any papers I write about research conducted during the mission?” she asks, visibly upset.

 “Yes,” Comm. Zunala responds, “We must ensure your compliance with the NDA.” 

“They won’t censor your research.  They just want to make sure you don’t reveal any military secrets.” Dr. Byon adds. 

Dr. Kaladi looks annoyed, after a few moments of awkward silence Dr. Byon looks at Comm. Zunala and says, “Why don’t you give the two of us a moment?” 

Comm. Zunala cocks her head to the right in bird like fashion while looking at the woman and replies, “Alright.” 

Dr. Kaladi sets down the tablet, “Fine, let’s talk upstairs.” She tells Dr. Byon.  The two Humans head upstairs while Comm. Zunala waits in the living room.

In an upstairs hallway Drs. Kaladi and Byon talk.  “Look, I know your uneasy working with the military.  A lot of us over at the ASA are too, but they are the only ones with the resources and interest in building a ship like the Korus.”  She tells Dr. Kaladi. 

“Oh, the ASA can’t build a spacecraft?” Dr. Kaladi responds sarcastically. 

Dr. Byon replies, “Not one with the capabilities of the Korus, we just don’t have the resources.  We’re lucky the ADF agreed to work with us on it and that Tiryraku (Tiri-raku) insisted on the Korus being a research vessel.  There’s just so much we can do with the Korus, first hand observations of Serov are just the tip of the iceberg here.” 

Dr. Kaladi knows Dr. Byon is right; the chance to find out what happened in The Wastelands of Damrov or find out how that continent on the near side was frozen over and what is keeping it frozen over; this is too important of an opportunity to pass up, “Fine.” She says and they walk back downstairs. 

Comm. Zunala is standing over by the bookshelf looking at a figurine on a table.  It is of a Human male wearing full plate mail armor holding a long katana up towards the sky in his right hand.  The figurine is made of wood and though it looks as if it was made with primitive tools, it is intricately detailed, especially the strange symbols on the blade of the katana.  Drs. Kaladi and Byon emerge from upstairs and walk over to Comm. Zunala, who asks, “Is this from the Zanik Islands?” 

“Yes” Dr. Kaladi responds with a confused look on her face, “How did you know?”

 “My grandfather is from the Zanik Islands.” Comm. Zunala responds. 

“Really?” Dr. Kaladi asks, genuinely surprised, the Avestrens living in the Zanik Islands rarely make contact with outsiders. 

“Yes,” Comm. Zunala responds, “He was fishing and got caught in a storm and was rescued by an Alliance fishing vessel.  My grandmother saved his life and they fell in love and he moved here.  He made my mother a figurine just like this one.  How did you get this?” 

“I traded a gold necklace for it while I was doing my graduate work there.”  Dr. Kaladi responds. 

Dr. Byon inquires “Why would the Avestrens living there make a figurine of a Human warrior?” 

Comm. Zunala replies “It’s from an old legend.  They called him Kurakilas (Kura-key-laas), he was a senior warrior in the Drachegarde and lead a team that stopped a Gureri horde from invading the islands roughly 1,000 years ago.” 

“There’s a temple with giant stone statues of him and the rest of his team back on the islands.” Dr. Kaladi adds, “Seeing evidence of Drachegarde myths in such a distant and isolated place is what got me researching The Celestial War in the first place.” 

Dr. Byon asks, “Kurakilas?” 

Comm. Zunala looks at her “It loosely translates as Savior”. 

After a moment Dr. Byon breaks the silence “Well, should we get back to business.”  Dr. Kaladi and Comm. Zunala nod and move towards the couch.

Drs. Kaladi and Byon sit down in their original places.  Dr. Kaladi picks up the tablet, reads over it for a moment and signs it.  While setting down the tablet she queries, “So when does this mission start?” 

Dr. Byon responds, “The Korus launches on her maiden voyage in a few days, during that mission it will scout a camp site on Serov before returning home.  Right now, we’re aiming for a launch in the middle of Hirzav.  That will give you about two months of training for liftoff and reentry.” 

Dr. Kaladi asks, “How long is this mission?” 

Comm. Zunala replies, “We’re planning for three to five years, but we’re prepared to adjust that depending on how things go.” 

“Any more questions?” Dr. Byon asks. 

After a few moments Dr. Kaladi responds, “No.” 

Comm. Zunala takes the tablet and puts it in the briefcase and takes a folder out of the briefcase.  “This contains all that you’ll need to know before the mission starts.  We’ll get back with you when we’re ready to start your training.” 

Dr. Kaladi takes the folder and the three stand up and head towards the door.  Dr. Kaladi opens it and Dr. Byon and Comm. Zunala walk out.  After a moment she shuts the door and walks over to the couch.  She sets the folder on the table and lowers the couch cushion.  The folder’s cover is visible and says “KSSM-0147 Mission Briefing, Top Secret”.

---

Here's a link to my DA gallery for Project 47, which I also liked in the previous post that hopefully linked properly in this post... Contains lore articles as well as artwork (ships, weapons, crude maps, and alphabets!).

[evilkritter]

Author Wars: Primordial Age

I’m running into the “ocean of backstory” problem here. I wanted to do a Timeline Summary in a single post but it became more of a complete Timeline Recap, and since the working-timeline I have for personal reference is ~15k that’s too long for what I want this to be. Lore isn’t immutable, the canon gets reshaped for the story, and there are a LOT of ideas I’m playing with that might get the axe within a few books. Especially when it comes to the Ages. Early, Middle, and Late is a common historical analytical lens, but for the Tumultuous Realm specifically it is a based on the Dominions 4x series. Those are the playable Ages, and there is a progression with Nations changing over time and the overall technological advancement of the world. But before any gods get established the world has to exist, and that’s when the Primordial Age comes in.

The Primordial Age, literally the first beginning Age (it’s such a good word) is where the really weird stuff happens. I’ll have to backfit so many things here when I come up with ideas. Myths and legends in more classical style happen here, and very literally. The World Flame Spell creates the Surface in very genesis-myth style. Took some inspiration from the Silmarillion, such as hundreds of years passing with only Fire Children and magic providing light, the Suns being created at the Surface Capital after a few hundred years. Still playing with details about who makes which Sun, there might just be two at first sitting stationary in the sky and dimming for night.

The Elemental Races are created as a result of the World Flame spell, but they are all sub-surface and don’t really reveal themselves until after founding the Elemental Courts. Fire, Earth, and Water each have their own court and make up the Three Elemental Magics. Having Air be a type of magic but not an element, because it doesn’t spawn elementals, is very funny to me and I have some ideas of how to play with an Avatar crossover homage. Fire Children being more aligned with Life magic than Fire, maybe even having no affinity for Fire, is also funny to me.

A lot of things counter intuitively don’t happen here also. The Surface Capital (later to be the Frozen Capital) is established when the Citadel lands. The Ark of Souls is reactivated and it begins collecting the Souls of anyone who dies, and it begins collecting the Souls of Fire Children, though the Humans of Before don’t notice that until later. The major human afterlives don’t get created until the Middle Age.

Large chunks of story happen pre City-State, and anarchy/nationless thinking survives to modern day because of how recent that was. 3k years as opposed to 100k of humans existing. Not gonna get into how it still exists for populations in the real world, that’s a rabbit hole.

The earliest nations have roots in the Primordial Age but aren’t recognized by most diegetic historians until the Early Age. Pythium is established, the Snake/Hydra-Themed Rome analogue that becomes a Oligarchic disaster in the Middle Age, and Undead Apocalypse Nightmare in the Late Age. The Avkari Empire which is monkey-people with Dominions-based Hindi inspiration heavily diluted by all the Furry Shit that I am pouring in.

I pushed a lot of major players up to be Late Age newcomers so there’s not as much here as there used to be. I think that having major players be super ancient/entrenched is a writing decision that a lot of writers (myself included) make without considering the implications. Which doesn’t tend to bite them in the ass until they start writing prequels and then it bites their entire ass off. It’s a big part of why I went with the “new world made of magic” approach way back in high school. Now the artificiality and malleability of the world are major influences on the themes and concepts I want to write about.

The youth of Mother Nilra is the biggest story thread in the Primordial Age. Might get a book at some point but probably set in the Late Age with a lot of looking back/reference rather than being about the Primordial Age. Spoiler, she comes from the future and gives birth to herself, Old Mother Nilra mentors Young Nilra and then dies. The Tumultuous Realm: Goddess post covers that. Then Nilra gives (virgin) birth to the first of the Nagaran race, and her brother Oriro is weird and jealous about her having her first kids without him. Mother Nilra gives birth to many races, most of which can interbreed, then she marries Oriro because mythological Goddesses are all about that incest. Also she thinks it will help him chill. It does not. A bunch of important goddesses are born (worth noting that the default term is goddess rather than god, in reference and reverance to Old Mother Nilra), not gonna list them here and also the list will probably grow over time.

The marriage isn’t really working out and Nilra sort of wanders around practicing philosophy and religion while Oriro tries to bully people into letting him rule the world. Lots of sacred texts and lost sacred texts from Nilra’s early writings and the works of his collaborators/peers, any disciples or apprentices tend to move on to their own works fairly quickly or become groupies too awed to really appreciate her work.

Primordial Age ends when Oriro escalates to declaring himself the goddess over all other goddesses and declares himself Pantakrator. The creation of the title inspires his opponents to contest it. The Early Age dawns.

[aro-aizawa]

i love love love when i read atla fics that have a heavy focus on the spirits of it. it makes me wanna go develop my own fics and get them to a point where i post them

[kuadrat]

okay so, I have a fire squad in the white lotus but they all think it’s an actual pai sho club au

When Azulon says that Ozai will lose his first born and Ozai just accepts it, Zuko ends up Iroh’s responsability (right after Lu Ten dies), coincidentally the same day his dad gets poisoned (nothing letal) and his mother and sister vanish, Iroh decides that maybe Zuko needs the same answers he is chasing so he takes Zuko in his spirit journey. Also know as the story about how the blue spirit came to be.

Azula is taken in the middle of the night by Ursa and they spend a lot of time as refugees in the colonies, then the earth kingdom in general until Ursa finds a sudden interest in Pai sho and they move to an island in ruins. Apparently a new member of her little Pai sho club gave her the idea, In summary, Azula gets to meet actually good masters, a good relashionship with her mom, to be happy and a new pet.

When Ty Lee and mai’s best friend and her mom vanish, Ozai is hospitalized, the crown prince dies and Zuko goes on a long term “I don’t know when I’ll be back, sorry.“ journey in the span of a week, Ty Lee decides that if she’s going to actually run away, may as well run away now. She tries to convince Mai to go with her, it works until it doesn’t and they get separated. Mai ends up near a really prestigious military base that she can’t come close in fear of fire nation finding out who she is but also can’t really stay away, “Come on they have perfect aim”. So she finds a nice middle grund in a weird herbalist that lives nearby. She doesn’t really understands the long distance?? pai sho games she has going on from all around the world but she’s not going to question it at this point.

 Ty Lee on the other hand ends up finding a way to travel the world and distinguish herself from her sisters. In the geniality of her 11 year old brain she decides, “you know what? if I want to find Mai I’m gonna have to travel everywhere, so I might as well become a pirate.”. She does. She also ends up talkin to a lot of peple in the mean time, like a fortune teller really interested in her aura thing. She doesn’t really get what the woman was trying to tell her but she gets out of there with a couple of addresses and a white lotus because everyone know you don’t refuse a gift, it’s not polite.

Imagine their surprise when 3 years later the blue spirit, a pirate, a herbalist, a missing girl with blue? fire and a dragon find themselves in a pai sho “tournament”.