Azula is not the most powerful firebender in atla
Now before you shoot me in the kneecaps for saying something so controversial, hear me out
Azula is a fantastic bender. She's a prodigy, learning at a very young age and being able to bend blue fire despite the extra effort it takes. She's mastered lightning at 14, a skill that's considered quite rare. She also uses her acrobatic skills she learned from Ty Lee to her advantage to make her even better, swifter, lighter on her feet, not needing to be steady in order to bend like other firebenders. BUT:
There are arguably two benders in the show better than her. Ozai and Iroh. Iroh isn't that hard to explain; he invented new skills by observing other bending forms, something that can only make someone more powerful. He is also able to spit fire from his mouth without being roided up from the comet (the only firebender we know of to do it w/o the comet's help). He's also a master lightning bender, and was able to keep more than a dozen Dai Li plus Azula at bay long enough for Katara to escape the crystal catacombs.
Ozai does not have a lot of screentime compared to Iroh and Azula. We only ever see him in flashbacks or sitting down on his little throne. We see him fight twice, once against Zuko and once against Aang. The fight with Aang he was roided up by the comet yes, but he still portrayed amazing skill. Lightning, propelling himself with only fire, spitting fire etc. But it's the earlier fight with Zuko where things get interesting. Ozai was able to tell when the eclipse ended by merely closing his eyes and focusing on the sun. He sensed it. Even Azula needed a cue to understand the eclipse was done: "oh sounds like firebending's back on!" Furthermore, Ozai immediately fired lightning at Zuko, and not only did he manage to do that without having to 'charge' first, he shot it out of both hands, which is something neither Azula nor Iroh can do (or at least we've never seen them do it, Azula has always had to charge her lightning and only uses one hand to shoot it, same for Iroh)
Honestly while Ozai has definitely looked like a chump in the show, I'm not sure Azula or Iroh could take him in a one v one. That might be one of the reasons his rule was never challenged, because nobody dared to take him on. I feel like the fandom underestimates him bc we only saw him fight twice and he lost both times (once bc Zuko's unknown skill took him by surprise and once bc Aang's avatar state eventually overpowered him).
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Just For Him
Knowing Danny's family and his time as a hero you would think that Danny would grow up having a similar job, and so did he honestly!
That was until he put on a pair of skates and stepped onto the ice.
Maybe it had something to do with his ice core that made his movements on the ice feel more natural than any other kind of ground under his feet.
Once he was on the ice he felt like a completely different person, confident in every single step, in the way he would spin and jump- using a bit of his ghostliness to gain more air time in his jumps.
The entire sensation on that ice was freeing,
invigorating,
peaceful.
It was just him and the ice under his blades.
It felt like everything in his life was for someone else, his creations his protections all of it that he would gladly give to those who need it and to his loved ones.
But when was the last time he had anything that was just for him.
For him to enjoy
For him to find unrestrained happiness from
Just for him
So no, while it was surprising to everyone around him including himself at the direction his life turned to he couldn't be happier.
He now traveled a lot for his competitions & own fun, with a very happy Ellie tagging along to support him and enjoy what the world had to offer.
" We have arrived at our destination. Welcome to Gotham."
~
Just an idea
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Sometimes I think about how Adrien, throughout the series, constantly grapples with his fear of abandonment. Gabriel conditioned him to believe that any love he receives is purely transactional, and that to earn affection he has to prove his utility. Adrien is constantly trying to prove his worth to his father for scraps of affection, and Chat Noir infamously crumbles on-screen any time he feels as though he is replaceable to Ladybug. It's a constant insecurity of his, like everyone will just dump him like a sack of potatoes the moment they find out how useless he is.
Meanwhile, all Marinette wants to is ensure that Adrien is happy. Because she loves him. She doesn't give two shits about how """useful""" he is. She holds him and tells him that she will never abandon him (both as Ladynoir and as Adrienette), and her fantasies are about saving him, not about him being "useful" to her. Throughout their relationship, Adrien is forced to disappoint Marinette constantly for reasons outside of his control (amok commands), and yet Marinette is still there for him.
At Adrien's lowest point, when he is forcibly torn away from everyone who had ever showed him genuine care, locked away in an all-white room and at his most "useless", right after disappointing Marinette and unable to even join the final battle or contribute in any way, she still saves him. She still loves him. Because he doesn't have to prove anything to her. Because he is loved and cherished for who he is, not for what he does, and that love is not conditional. Adrien's "happy ending" at the end of the first arc wasn't about him finally proving how useful he can be, because he never actually cared about being useful — he just saw it as the only means to feel loved and needed. Instead, in the end, he found out that he was loved and needed no matter what.
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I’m sure everyone remembers the article from 2020 where researches found three-ply cordage made by Neanderthals.^
But did you know that in the supplemental material for the article, it mentions that pine needles can be made into textiles?^^ As someone who works with textiles myself, I had come across pine needles as a dye stuff, but not as a fibre.
The source is listed as "L’acquisition des matières textiles d’origine végétale en Préhistoire" by Fabinne Médard. It talks about how other fibres, including brambles and broom could have been used prehistorically for a similar purpose, as well as flax. However, it contains only one metion of pine needles.
“Les aiguilles du pin sylvestre (Pinus sylvestris L.) fournissaient, après rouissage, une matière textile appelée « laine des forêts » qui remplaçait la ouate et l’étoupe dont on faisait également des tissus (Mathieu [1858] 1897)" *
The needles of the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) provided, after retting, a textile material called “forest wool” which replaced wadding and tow from which fabrics were also made.
So Scots pine needles were processed, spun and woven, or simply used directly after processing, potentially prehistorically.
If you follow the source for the quote above, it takes you to a book from 1860 called Flore forestière; description et histoire des végétaux ligneux qui croissent spontanément en France et des essences importantes de l'Algérie. It says:
“On fabrique depuis quelques années, avec les faisceaux fibreux, allongés, et tenaces des aiguilles, une espèce de drap grossier.” **
For several years, we have been making a kind of coarse cloth using the fibrous, elongated and stiff bundles of the needles.
So this processing of pine needles was also happening in the 1800s.
Another souce from the 1840s describes the texture of forest wool as resembling "...horsehair, and has been used for stuffing mattresses"** and that an industry sprung up in Humboldtsau, near Breslau for processing it. Manufacturies for forest wool then spread to Sweden, Holland and France, which may explain the mention in the 1860 Flore forestière.
Despite looking a bit more, but couldn't find much else on the subject expect a recent masters thesis in German (which I couldn't access) and an article on the designer Tamara Orjola.
Orjola's work investigates the modern use of pine needle fabric, showing there is still interest in it. She says:
"Forest Wool began with research on the forgotten value of plants. Valuable local materials and techniques are left behind due to the unwillingness of mass-production to adopt more sustainable practices. In the old days the pine tree was used as food, remedies, to build homes and furniture and for many other purposes. Nowadays, it is only valuable for its timber." ***
I find the line from prehistory to now facinating - that people have looked to something as mundane as a pine needle to spin, especially as researchers are discovering a lot of what they thought was linen fabric is actually ramie (from nettles).
As far as I can tell, only Pinus sylvestris L. and one other variety was used. I am not sure what makes that tree more suitable than other pine trees, or if it was simply a question of availability. In terms of processing, the answer as far as I can tell is retting, presumably followed by scutching and hackling - similar to how flax is processed. However I have not done that myself and cannot speak to the specifics.
It would be something intresting to try though.
________
^ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61839-w#MOESM1
^^ https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41598-020-61839-w/MediaObjects/41598_2020_61839_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
* https://journals.openedition.org/nda/602
** https://www.proquest.com/openview/276605d708970d416923b94e8856d20b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41445
*** https://lampoonmagazine.com/article/2021/05/15/recycled-wood-pine-needles-byproduct/
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