#sometimes your nostalgic childhood show isn’t as woke as you remember and might be problematic in certain areas | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theweeklydiscourse · 5 months

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It’s a bit funny when ATLA fans who are so deeply attached to the show blame the fandom for the problematic elements of the actual text. They’ll say: “You missed EVERY message that the writers included! I can’t believe that you’re unable to understand the deliberate messages woven into the show!” And then the “message” in question will be a flaw they noticed in the text, an unresolved narrative issue, or an instance of the writers’ biases seeping through the story.

I just wish that certain fans would consider the idea that perhaps the writers were not as all-knowing as they thought they were and that those gaps manifested in the story. Blaming fandom for misinterpreting the story (according to your own interpretation of it) is so ridiculous and indicative of the reluctance to critique a beloved childhood show. ATLA was ahead of it’s time in a number of ways, but we have to stop acting like it is beyond reproach.

#sometimes your nostalgic childhood show isn’t as woke as you remember and might be problematic in certain areas #it’s not the fandom’s fault that we are engaging with the text that was presented to us. Some people’s issues with the fandom are really #just issues with the text itself. Like with Zuko’s supposed *mocking of Aang’s dead culture* They’ll complain that fans never address that #but if it is truly an instance in the story that you find insensitive #shouldn’t you take it up with the text? considering that the text is the thing that left it unresolved?#why is the fandom your priority when it comes to criticism? It sounds like the issue lies in the way the story was written as opposed to fan #reception of it #avatar the last airbender #anti bryke #atla fandom discourse #atla fandom salt #atla fandom critical #pro zutara #pro zuko #atla discourse #atla #fandom discourse

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