#kill it. kill it with fire

[millionmovieproject]

[muffinlance]

Consider: Post-canon Zuko wakes up in the body of his childhood self, the morning of That War Meeting. Would he still speak against the plans, knowing his fate? What do you think he would do differently the second time around?

"Turned away at the doors, Zuzu?"

"Shut up, Azula," her brother sulked. But sulked weirdly, after staring at her too long and too wide-eyed, not like she'd surprised him but--

But like he hadn't expected her to be there. At all.

He turned away. ...He turned back. "Hey, Lala? Do you think you could help me practice that one set?"

He didn't meet her eyes.

She narrowed hers. "Which set?"

"The one I'm bad at."

She scoffed. Pushed away from the wall she'd been leaning against. "That's all of them, Dum-Dum."

He didn't shout or stomp or yell about the nickname. His lips twitched.

"It's okay," he said. "If you're afraid you won't be a better teacher that my instructor..."

It was the most obvious manipulation ever.

Perhaps if he proved an adequate firebending student, she'd work on his courtly survival skills next. Honestly, it was good that not even Uncle Gets-Cousins-Killed had been fool enough to take Zuko into that war meeting. She could only imagine how terribly that could have gone.

"Keep up," she said, and turned her steps towards the training grounds.

He did. There, and during the katas she ran him through.

Azula kept her eyes narrowed.

"Hey," he asked, "do you know how to bend lightning yet?"

As if he could have missed it, if she'd been able to get more than sparks. "I will soon," she said.

"You will," he agreed, and flowed through his next set. The one she'd only just mastered.

Father didn't notice how weird Zuzu was being. Uncle never noticed anything. Zuko ate dinner and asked a servant for seconds and didn't stutter or flinch or lose his appetite when father asked, coolly, what he'd done with his day. Azula's shoulders tensed, because one mention of how she'd squandered her own training time teaching him--

"Azula hogged the training grounds. For hours," Zuzu scowled, exactly like a petulant thirteen year old.

Exactly like he hadn't been acting all day.

By the time Father was looking her way, Azula had her usual smirk in place. "I'm sure there would be room for both of us," she said, "you're not afraid of a little friendly fire, are you, brother?"

Zuko sulked. And ate his seconds, like he was enjoying each bite. There was something in his eyes, like a joke no one else was getting.

---

Father died that night. A heart attack. There were the faintest of burns to either side of the treacherous organ; the royal physician hypothesized that he'd grabbed at his chest, fingers burning hot in his final moments; so hot they'd only exacerbated the problem.

The royal physician would never have been brought any victims of lighting strikes. Those that occurred in the capital did not generally require a doctor in the aftermath.

Zuzu ate a hearty breakfast.

He didn't order seconds. Azula gave him points, at least, for not being tacky.

---

The sages named Iroh as regent.

They named Zuko as Fire Lord.

"No," the tiny Fire Lord in his perfectly miniaturized Fire Lord robes said, sitting at the head of his war council. "We're not doing that. And I'll be reviewing all recent battle plans, as well. What's this I hear about a division of new recruits being deployed to the front?"

He did not mention how he'd heard of the 41st Division. No one asked.

"Prince Iroh, surely--" one of the generals tried to appeal.

The young Fire Lord's regent was looking as startled as the rest of them, for a moment. Then he sipped his tea, and smiled.

"Your Fire Lord is correct, of course. A change in our leadership--a change the other nations may mistakenly view as weakness--will necessitate a change in our strategy."

"Now," said their lord, "what, exactly, is our overall objective in this war?"

War, the new Fire Lord decreed, was not an end unto itself.

---

The new Fire Lord continued to have time, to pretend to be trained by her. Azula watched him. Adjusted her footwork. Did not tolerate, and was not offered, any commentary on who was teaching who.

"What did you do with my brother?" she asked, as they flowed from one set to the next. As her hands, poised to throw fire, just so happened to be pointed his way.

He missed a step. It didn't look like an act.

"I'm, uh. Right here?"

She didn't bother to dignify that.

He didn't bother to look worried about her hands, one movement off from a true attack.

He looked around, then grabbed her sleeve, and tugged her further from any walls that may hide ears. The royal family's private training grounds were wonderfully large, and wonderfully open.

"It's me," he said. "It's still me. Just. More of me? Longer of me?"

She narrowed her eyes. A familiar expression, by this point. "Explain."

"...I found the Avatar," he said. "And this is definitely his fault, but--but I guess it started at a war meeting, when I was thirteen."

Azula listened. It was a very Dum-Dum story.

[blodeuweddschild]

Beaten cuphead btw (not the dlc though) and I gotta say. Beppi the clown is fucking evil and I hate him

[vintrage]

can someone please get this girl her dog back

[nando161mando]

Rehabilitation, not Devastation. Fuck The Police.

[flwrrico]

flustered wind

[starrrbakerrr]

i read this really insightful post by @thesmileykate and it made me realize how sunrise on the reaping adds a whole new layer to snow’s “convince me.” katniss easily “convinced” the majority of panem and all of the capitol of her love for peeta in the 74th games. but not snow, because he thinks all covey women are deceiving to their lovers. he thought there was no possible way katniss truly loved peeta. he wanted to believe all of her choices were for her own self-preservation. but when he saw katniss’s reaction to peeta’s heart stopping in the quarter quell his belief about covey women was proven incorrect. and once peeta was captured he knew he couldn’t take away katniss’s love for peeta, but he could take away peeta’s love for katniss.

[witchlingcirce]

When your 55 years old and your first friends ever are a 15 year old who you told to kill his grandpa, a 300+ year old witch who has odd intentions and has probs been drugging you, and an old man who spends all of his castle funds on new outfits and being sassy.

[glassshine]

Moon and Kinkajou kill a man

[batcavescolony]

Red Hood: Kill the joker!

Batman: I can't kill the joker

Jim Gordon:(who only heard Batman say kill the joker) *busting in* NO! WE'VE BEEN OVER THIS. Batman doesn't kill, I fired bullets at you last time to get you to stop. You did this for me Im doing this for you! Back away from the clown and-

Red Hood: ???

Batman: it's not for lack of trying

Red Hood:...

[duraante]

so thrice dante has killed him. first, above temen-ni-gru. then, at mallet island.

and now a third time. it is the ultimate homicide: he has slaughtered vergil’s character, his very spirit.

[burningcheese-merchant]

Thought.

The Soul Jams are sentient/capable of independent thought and action. We have seen them converse (and even argue) with their owners. It's heavily implied that they themselves actively chose the Ancients as their new holders.

The Ancients and Beasts are complementary forces. Not just because of each pair embodying one side of their shared coin, but in other ways as well. Example: Pure Vanilla's gentle, patient and sincere demeanor perfectly contrasts Shadow Milk's bombastic, conniving, insincere one. Treading the same path ultimately, but in different ways. Only Pure Vanilla could have succeeded against Shadow Milk in episode 8; had it been any other Ancient, or even any other character period, they would've failed and perished. Pure Vanilla's triumph, as well as his relationship/connection with Shadow Milk, was born not just from the Light of Knowledge/Truth/Deceit, but from his within own spirit. They're attached to one another as the individuals they are and always were, not just because they share a power source. It could never have been anyone BUT Pure Vanilla to unify with, then defeat, Shadow Milk the way he did. It's from a man exactly like Pure Vanilla that Shadow Milk needed to face, needed to hear from.

Same exact thing with the other Beast/Ancient pairs. Who would've been able to see through Mystic Flour's extreme pessimism, stoicism and self-loathing if not Dark Cacao, who is more or less exactly like her and thus understands those feelings? Who would've been able to strike back against Burning Spice's bloodthirsty tyranny (and in the exact way he always wanted but never got) if not Golden Cheese, who has also suffered through the cycle of change (watching a civilization she worked so hard to build and protect be destroyed and forgotten, exactly like him) and whom also seeks to turn its tide in her favor? Who would ever have matched the Beasts better than these 5? Who ever would've made better foils for them?

The Soul Jams knew all of this. They knew, as soon as the Ancients came into contact with them, that they were their new and rightful wielders. Not just because they have what it takes to be great, uncorruptible heroes. But because they, their countenances, their characters, work so, so well with the Beasts'.

THE SOUL JAMS CHOSE THE ANCIENTS BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO PLAY MATCHMAKER FOR THEIR ORIGINAL OWNERS. SEND POST

[afrognamedsparrow]

Ouuuh samurai dragon ooouhhh

[mikurinkuwu]

miku wanted to try out a new haircut and rin helped him out :3

[jojolightningfingers]

the specific tragedy of marineford's events aside ace is just a wild character to watch. he's the coolest big brother on the seas. he's a fucking dork. he's hated himself his whole life. he goes around tits out all day every day. it's because he's tattooed his devotion to whitebeard on his back and wants everyone to see it. he can solo a buffalo with a metal pipe at age 10. he cannot shut up about luffy even when he's in jail waiting to die. he's narcoleptic. he's a serial dine-n-dasher. he's the patron saint of daddy issues. he learns manners specifically to thank shanks for saving luffy. he's kinda shit at them. he doesn't run from fights. he doesn't let himself run from fights. he doesn't think he CAN run from fights. he crashes a party on buggy's ship out of nowhere and steals the food. he infiltrates a marine base and doesn't even bother to hide the very recognizable tattoo on his arm. he steals THEIR food. he immediately blows his cover because he decks the shit out of someone for dissing his captainfather. he's still eating while he gives them the slip. he goes to kill kaido and bonds with his son instead. he knows how to make a kasa. he forgets he's fire and keeps accidentally burning them. the narrative doomed him and yet his love and the love for him refuses to die. the world loathes him on an existential level. he chooses to be kind to the people in it, even so.

[novelconcepts]

Something about that moment as teenagers, the confirmation that Van really is stacking the deck, that every single death is going to be on her hands most of all. No wonder she ran. No wonder she fled it all. No wonder she died without bloodying her hands further. How could she do more, after all that? After actively trying to distance Taissa from murdering Ben? Not being able to do the same for herself? After everything, so much is on her shoulders. Hers. Nat’s. Lottie’s. Maybe the three of them most of all. God, my kid. And she still got to go out a hero. Kind to the last. The same kid who pulled a sheet over Melissa’s humiliation and led her away. The same kid who only ever wanted to go home. Running into a not-quite burning house she couldn’t escape from.