the-great-fusilli

[the-great-fusilli]

Maddie being introduced as this literal ray of sunshine and then being the first to beat along to Piltovers turn to martial law. Her interactions with Vi mystifying her as “one of the good ones.” One of the good Zaunites. She was always discriminatory toward Zaunites, they just didn’t make it overt at her introduction. The turn to fascism and discrimination can start with anyone. Including a literal ray of sunshine.

[the-great-fusilli]

Lebanon will never forgive nor forget

[the-great-fusilli]

[the-great-fusilli]

Megafires in the Amazon Accelerate the Risk of Biome Collapse

Increase in fires in native forest areas and extreme drought could lead to an irreversible situation

A fire that began on August 8 has already burned over 67,000 hectares in the Kayapó Indigenous Land, in the Xingu region of Pará. The data comes from the Servir-Amazonia program, run by NASA, which monitors the region via satellites. The size of the megafire is equivalent to that of Florianópolis and is just one of several fire fronts in the Amazon.

The classification "megafire" is used for fires exceeding 10,000 hectares —something that is becoming increasingly common. "We are not just entering the era of fire but the era of megafires. It's quite catastrophic," says Erika Berenguer, a senior scientist at the University of Oxford.

Continue reading.

[the-great-fusilli]

tumblr flagged a post of a girl eating berries so fruit is for whores now reblog if youre a fruit eating whore

[the-great-fusilli]

[the-great-fusilli]

I think ZKs really exaggerated Zuko and Katara’s relationship, and this is coming from a guy who actually really likes Zuko and Katara’s relationship, just not a ship (it’s not as toxic as some say, by the end of the show at least).

Isaw this one post about how Zuko and Katara have the most intimate relationship of The Gaang. How he’s the only one who supports her, understands her and validates her anger. Whereas Zuko is the only one Katara doesn’t have to look after, the only one she can depend on emotionally, the only one who she’s sees as an equal and matches her maturity.

I question this, because when did we see this in the show? Besides like 3 instances. ZKs act like Katara was never supported by Aang (or the others). I’m sure that everything they say Zuko does for Katara, Aang does for her and more. Everything Katara supposedly has in Zuko, she already has in Aang. I could list all of this, but this is already running long as it is.

What do you think?

This the full post: https://www.tumblr.com/theotterpenguin/738115696097116160/thinking-about-how-katara-is-the-only-person-zuko?source=share

not only are they exaggerating the depth of katara and zuko’s relationship, but they’re underplaying the depth of her relationship with literally everyone else. like they undermine how much all her friends mean to her by saying the guy she was on good terms with for like 4 episodes immediately became her closest companion and confidant

the only time we see zuko offer her support of any kind is during the southern raiders episode where he’s encouraging her to go kill the guy who murdered her mother. and he’s not doing it because he genuinely wants to be a supportive figure for her, but because he thinks this is what’ll get her to finally forgive him and stop treating him so coldly. and then the episode ends with him admitting that he was wrong in terms of what she needed—not violent revenge but the chance to let her anger out without compromising her morals in blind rage. other than that, we don’t see him act as a shoulder for her to lean on, and the one instance we do see him act that way, he’s bad at it and ends up realizing there are ways other than violence to move on from internalized anger

and sure you can argue that zuko still gave her the chance to confront yon rha even if she chose not to kill him like he encouraged her to, and that inandof itself is an act of emotional support, but the reality is he did that to get on her good side rather than to be a genuine friend. had she already been friendly to him, would he have ever brought up that he knows who killed kya? would he have even asked sokka about the day their mom died to get that information? in the show he only does this because he can’t fathom why katara is still mad at him when everyone else has already forgiven him. he wanted to speed up her process of forgiving him, so had she already forgiven him and they were friends, i doubt the whole “i can help you avenge your mother” convo would have ever happened because it wouldn’t have served him to do so. and in my opinion, any support that has ulterior motives and an end goal isn’t genuine support

but compare this to aang and sokka. we see these two go out of their way for her countless times throughout the three books, which makes sense considering the three of them are the ogs and went through everything together (incoming really long list lmao)

aang offers to take katara to the northern water tribe so she can learn waterbending under a master after knowing her for only a few hours at most. he also does this after she expresses her upset at being the only southern waterbender left. “katara! we’re going to find you a master!”

aang gives himself over to zuko and his fire nation crew to save katara and sokka’s village

aang completes all of bumi’s challenges to save katara and sokka

aang credits katara for haru’s sudden bravery in saving that old man. “wow you must have really inspired him”

aang and sokka willingly (and eagerly) participate in her plan to get arrested for earthbending

sokka comes up with the plan to get coal to the earthbenders so they can find motivation again, something that katara is very passionate about, thus showing his support in her goal

aang and sokka help fight the fire nation guards that are keeping the earthbenders prisoner, aiding in katara’s goal of helping them help themselves

aang weaves katara a brand new necklace after she had her mother’s stolen. this makes her smile

aang is quick to reassure katara when she begins to show signs of self-doubt at aang’s natural waterbending talent. “well you had to learn all on your own. i’m lucky enough to have a great teacher”

aang refers to katara as a waterbender, something that clearly means so much to her after she spent the whole episode insecure of her abilities

sokka steals the waterbending scroll for katara and aang to learn from

aang travels alone in search of medicine for katara and sokka, all while an entire nation is hunting him down with the intent to torture him to the brink of death, thus risking his life for their safety

sokka tackles aang after hearing katara’s cries of pain when he accidentally burns her. despite knowing and caring for aang, sokka can’t stand the thought of someone hurting katara even if unintentionally, especially with fire

aang explicitly states he will never firebend again after accidentally hurting her. he too can’t stand the thought of her in pain and hates that he was the one who hurt her (this is also him taking ownership of his mistake and punishing himself—for those of you who think he is never held accountable for his mistakes)

aang refuses to learn under pakku when he rejects katara and only lets up when katara tells him he needs to take this chance to learn waterbending

sokka is the one to suggest that aang teach katara everything pakku is teaching him, and aang loves this idea

aang cheers for her when she fights pakku. “go katara!”

the general is only able to trigger aang into the avatar state after he is made to believe that katara was buried alive, showcasing once again how much he cares about her safety

aang pushes katara out of the way of falling rocks when the aftermath of appa getting burned causes the tunnel to cave in

aang refers to katara as ‘sifu’ after she made an offhand comment about him never calling her that. this makes her smile

aang turns away from cosmic power immediately after he sees a vision of katara in danger

aang lets her go so he can unlock all his chakras and save katara from impending doom against azula, zuko, and the dai li

aang eagerly participates in katara’s plan to perform ecoterroism and calls her a hero

aang also eagerly participates in helping her scare off the fire nation general as the painted lady. sokka participates as well because “i would never turn my back on you”

sokka has a talk with toph after she blows up at katara for her motherly-attitude (and while i definitely have issues with this episode i still think it’s important that sokka sought out this conversation to sorta defend his sister and help toph see where katara is coming from)

aang and sokka hug and comfort her when she breaks down crying after becoming a bloodbender

after knowing her for so long (his whole life in sokka’s case—he’s her fucking brother) and witnessing the kind of reaction she had to bloodbending, aang and sokka both tried talking her down from killing a man. this is a 14-year-old girl in pain. the same 14-year-old girl who put her life and freedom at risk to save earthbenders from their metal prison and sobbed when she was forced to bloodbend to save her best friend from dying again and delayed their group’s traveling to relieve a fire nation village from fire nation pollution and control, was now demanding to kill a man in cold blood. aang and sokka were supporting her full on during this episode because they knew, more than fucking anyone, that killing yon rha would only hurt her once she came down from her blind rage. and to add even more proof of their unwavering trust in her to always do the right thing not just for others but for herself, aang allowed her to take appa to confront the man. appa, aang’s lifelong companion and animal guide, his only living reminder of his culture and pacifistic people, and who aang had suffered a painful separation from. aang trusted her with appa to go on this mission. because he trusts and supports her

———

now onto the claim that zuko is more mature than everyone else and therefore matches her in maturity. i just bust out laughing LMAO

for starters, let’s not act like katara is the epitome of maturity. yea, she’s the mom friend, but she’s still a kid and acts like one. yall just refuse to acknowledge the moments where she makes mistakes as her acting her age and being human. instead yall hold these mistakes over her more aggressively than the other characters or yall pretend they don’t exist in favor of idealizing her so she fits into your “she’s so mature and is a mother figure to everyone” role (her telling sokka “then you didn’t love her like i did”, blowing up at aang for picking up waterbending so quickly, antagonizing toph out of pettiness by making fun of her blindness—“too bad you can’t see them toph!”, etc.)

zuko is a whole other story lol. that boy wouldn’t know maturity if it hit him in the face, and when you compare his behavior to other characters in the gaang it becomes all the more obvious (incoming another—shorter—list)

aang when presented with his mistake in “bato of the water tribe” -> he accepts the consequences—katara and sokka leaving him—and admits he was wrong. he doesn’t blame anyone else nor does he beg for forgiveness or try convincing katara and sokka to stay. he accepts he was wrong and lets himself sit with the consequences of his actions. from then on, we never see aang selfishly hide information from his friends again

katara when presented with her mistake in “the waterbending scroll” after yelling at aang -> she apologizes immediately and punishes herself by handing the scroll over to him, claiming she wants nothing to do with it. she recognizes the mistake and quickly accepts a self-punishment to regulate her own behavior

sokka when presented with the issues of his sexism -> he gets on his knees in front of suki and respectfully asks that she train him, using the word ‘honor’ to communicate his sincerity. he admits his faults to her at the end of the episode and his behavior is different from then on. he reflects on a part of himself, deems that he needs to change, and then makes those changes without having to be forced into doing so or guided repeatedly into making the right choices along the way. he arrives there by himself after being presented with evidence that proves his original way of thinking wrong

now compare that with zuko’s journey of unlearning his prejudiced ways

when he is shown extreme kindness by song and her mother, he repays them by stealing from them

after having been on a good-streak while living in the earth kingdom, zuko sides with azula the moment his integrity is put to the test in front of the avatar, betraying his uncle in favor of “his honor”

when iroh stops talking to him, zuko screams at him and places blame on iroh for this change in their relationship

when mai is seen talking to another guy, zuko storms over and throws that guy across a room. she, understandably, breaks up with him

when katara gives him the cold shoulder, zuko demands “what’s your problem?!”, asking how it can be that she still hates him but everyone else has forgiven him, as if he hasn’t given her—and everyone else—plenty of reason to be distrustful of him for lifetimes to come

when aang is goofing off instead of training, zuko—instead of communicating—attacks him with blasts of fire, forcing aang to retaliate

the only reason why zuko is given this extreme maturity label is because his worldview was challenged and changed. whereas the other characters in the gaang already had correct worldviews and didn’t have to go through a series-long redemption arc to become good people. they were already good people, so their mistakes and shortcomings are held to higher standards than zuko’s because his are viewed as stepping stones to a pending redemption. never mind all the times in which he backtracked and hurt more people. those times were all “necessary” for his redemption to happen and be well-done. yall can excuse all of zuko’s flawed behavior by saying “but he was redeemed! that wasn’t really his true self!” and all that bullshit, so everything he does that’s good post-redemption gives yall this delusion that he was always this good person who is capable of making mature decisions (never mind the fact that he is still incredibly immature post-redemption and still has a long way to go in terms of unlearning his prejudices by the time the show ends)

in conclusion, yall have a weird obsession with isolating katara from all her relationships with the other characters in favor of making her zuko’s one and only, and yall have deluded yourselves into thinking either one of them are incredibly mature

that’s all i gotta say ✌️

[the-great-fusilli]

Aang is probably one of the most healing and simultaneously heartbreaking characters ever written and also one of my favorites. All that joy, curiosity, love and light-heartedness despite all the trauma, pain and loss…and he’s 12. THATS ENOUGH TMBLR FOR TODAY IM GONNA LOG OUT

So, iroh told korra that the spirit world is a reflection of the avatar’s inner emotions.....

....oh

[the-great-fusilli]

Courage the Cowardly Dog

“THE MASK”

“Dogs are EVIL”

I will never shut up about how Courage the cowardly dog gave the kids a full episode of a “Bisexual x Man-hating Lesbian” trope.

We meet Kitty at the start of the episode when she beats the living hell out of Courage saying “Dogs are evil.” Her “best friend” Bunny, is in an abusive relationship with a dog. Which is why Kitty beats courage. She says the dog Bunny is dating “treats her like a slave.” The entire morning Kitty is trying to get her lick back at Courage because of what she witnessed happen to Bunny.

Kitty wears a mask, and makes Ustace and Muriel uncomfortable because she can’t eat the food or drinks they give her. After they ask why she wears it, she says it’s because she “simply doesn’t wish to face reality.” When Muriel and Ustace tell Kitty she HAS to face reality, she exposes them for the realities they refuse to face. She does this to show everyone is “hiding” a part of themselves, and no one should be able to criticize her for what she’s choosing to hide. This reminds me of the whole topic of “coming out.” Why is it that queer people have to tell the entire world what they like or who they are just so everyone else will be more comfortable? I’d Imagine this is exactly how Kitty felt during that conversation.

Courage takes a stuffed mouse that Kitty has with her while she’s asleep in the attic, locks her in, locks Muriel and Ustace in their room, and drives away to a dinner. When he gets there he realized the mouse says “To Kitty, From Bunny.” He then meets a rat working at the dinner named Charlie (I think him being a rat was very intentional.) Charlie tells him that “Bunny’s in a bad way without Kitty,” he goes on to say that Kitty and Bunny were the sweetest girls he knew, but Bunny’s boyfriend “Mad Dog” thought they were too “friendly like.”

We later see Mad Dog verbally abusing Bunny saying Bunny is acting as if she doesn’t love him anymore, and that it must be because she’s thinking about Kitty. He talks to Bunny as if he made her everything she is, and then makes her cry after saying “If I even smell Kitty I’ll burry the two of you.” As Bunny starts crying in his arms she uses it as an opportunity to connect his collar to a light hanging on the wall so she can run away. She ends up getting caught at the door by the other dogs that stick around Mad Dog.

Courage is outside of a window watching all of this go down. His sole reason for even being there is because despite being afraid of Kitty he decided to look for Bunny. He thinks if he doesn’t return with her mouse, that Bunny gave her AND Bunny herself that Kitty is going to kill him, Ustace and Muriel…

Eventually Kitty jumps out the window, after going crazy from being locked in the attic. Especially without the only thing she has left of Bunny (which at this point she’d realized Courage stole it.) While this is happening Bunny finally escapes with Courage. While running away Mad Dog finds the two of them… In a chase scene Courage ends up driving Mad Dog’s car into a moving train (with Mad Dog still inside.) Bunny thanks him for saving her life, and coincidentally Kitty is on that same train that just hit Mad Dog. Bunny hears her and Jumps aboard telling Kitty “THAT DOG HE SAVED MY LIFE !” to which Kitty replies “I was wrong, not all dogs are bad.” She thanks courage from the train and hugs Bunny while saying “Now we can be best friends forever.”

The reason i typed out the plot of this episode was because: 1. HAPPY PRIDE, and because 2. the symbolism in the show in my personal opinion was done so well. I didn’t get it as a kid, even though I was happy to see Bunny and Kitty go away together, but now that episode means so much to me.

The “man-hating lesbian” stereotype only exists because so many women have been wronged tremendously, countless times by men. Whether it be before or after discovering their sexuality. Violence towards women, fem presenting people and non men is normalized, so naturally many of those women and non men struggle to trust men in general and even hate them. The problem is never that women love other women, it’s that most men do not respect women. Not only did this episode show why so many women (lesbian or not) hate men, but it also showed that there are brave men out there with the courage to stand up to the shitty ones abusing women. By the end of the episode Kitty is no longer wearing her mask, but she never made a huge announcement to anyone that she would be taking it off she just did before running away to go find Bunny. What i loved THE MOST was that upon having that “not all dogs are bad” realization, Kitty and Bunny still ended up together because they were always meant to.

[the-great-fusilli]

Happy Pride Month

[the-great-fusilli]

this pride month i pray for free and safe Palestine for all my fellow queer Palestinians and for everyone

[the-great-fusilli]

speaking of kaang, i’ve been doing a loose rewatch of atla (as in that’s my default when i can’t find anything to watch), and yesterday i got to the desert episode. GIRL. during the scene where aang goes into the avatar state after hearing what happened to appa, there’s this moment right when katara grabs him that he whips his head around in anger and she just powers through until she can hold him completely. i literally turned to my sister like “people are obsessing over zutara when he have this right here???” because obviously as you’ve said before, narratively i just don’t see zutara touching kaang. there’s plenty of angst within kaang—so many layers. and just as a side note, i honestly feel like people don’t talk enough about how much trust she has to have in aang to touch him while he’s a in avatar state. like this boy has demolished an entire fire nation fleet and leveled several cities and towns during this state, and even sokka’s first reaction is to grab toph and run. like idk who anyone ships especially on a children’s show where zuko was a lot of folks sexual awakening as kids lol. but no one will be able to tell me that kaang is boring or lacks depth because the material is right there. but of course the live action movie will make it A Thing.

there’s plenty of angst within kaang—so many layers. and just as a side note, i honestly feel like people don’t talk enough about how much trust she has to have in aang to touch him while he’s a in avatar state.

EXACTLY. And it links back to how he went into the Avatar state when he thought she was killed

and then tells her that he hopes she'll never have to see him like that again??

People always criticize when Aang tells Katara not to seek revenge

without taking into consideration that Katara acts as the same kind of voice for Aang

and the point is that they keep each other centered and balanced and give each other hope? There is so much to Kataang.

[the-great-fusilli]

When i see people say an argument that i just got to is dead i feel a little upset 😭 . I didn’t get to watch a lot of the shows my peers did growing up… So now that i’m finally getting into these fandom spaces as an adult who can watch whatever I want... I WANNA TALK ABOUT IT. Maybe it’s the gemini sun, mercury and venus, but I always have an opinion to share because it’s fun. Even when it’s a popular opinion that’s been said before I feel like I’ve been robbed of my opportunity to speak. Everyone’s like “womp womp be quiet no one cares anymore” but I care😔. Like geesh sorry guys it’s not my fault i’m late to the party take that up with my mom…

[the-great-fusilli]

I’m pro-delulu and I too believe in shipping characters that don’t canonically end up together BUT… I will never get behind Zutara (my mind changes often, but rn no🙅🏽‍♀️.)

Maybe it’s because I don’t take colonization and eithnic clensing lightly, or maybe it’s because I disagree with the “Katara is like Aang’s mom” statement. Either way they should not be end game. People often bring up how Zuko helped Katara release a lot of pent up emotions concerning her mother’s death and who killed her, but the Fire Nation (his people) were responsible for that death. And up until that specific arc Zuko was upholding the beliefs of those people.

“Zuko doesn’t need Katara to be his mother like Aang and the rest of the group do, they’re on equal footing.” Except Aang and the rest of the group don’t need Katara to be mother either. People just view Katara as a maternal character because of her personality and that’s the only role they’ll acknowledge her having in the group. Katara’s mother showed her a love so deep and protective that she died so Katara could live. Of course the trauma of losing her mother in that way at such a young age would cause her to take on the role her mother had. Whether it be because of obligation, or simply because that’s all she knew.

Aang and all the other characters have experienced a lot of trauma, but Aang was raised by monks. He doesn’t need a mother figure because he’s never experienced gender roles in the way the other characters have. His idea of a family is being shaped as the show progresses because aside form Monk Gyatso, they are the first real family he’s had. He’s curious, fun-loving and light hearted because that’s how Monk Gyatso raised him to be, not because he’s an irresponsible little 12 yr old without a mother. His people were eradicated, so Katara doesn’t raise Aang she guides him through grieving the loss of his people. A loss she knows all too well.

Toph is blind and her family is overly protective. They don’t give her the space or freedom to be her own person or earth bend. Another experience that Katara knows all too well. Her grandmother never let her leave the southern water tribe or water bend so she gives Toph the same thing she gives Aang. Sokka is Katara’s brother… he also experienced the loss of their mother except Sokka is a boy. He’s been made painfully aware of gender roles because he watched their father leave to fight in the war instead of staying to help him and Katara. He wanted to be more like his Father because be believed that was his role in the family (to fight). So the responsibility of taking care of the both of them fell on Katara.

Katara and Zuko are not on “equal footing” especially not before he leaves the Fire Nation. He’s a prince from the Nation that has been opressing her family, her people and the world for 100 years…(he literally calls my good sis “water tribe peasant” meaning at some point he believed she was inferior because he had royal blood.) He has changed now of course and I love both Zuko and Katara, but them being end game makes no sense to me. Even in terms of chemistry… I don’t think they have any at all. Majority of their screen time together is just them fighting with each other (verbally and physically.)

People also like to use the episode where Zuko takes Katara to find the man who killed her mother as proof that Zuko was the only one who truly helped her grieve and get closure. Which honestly I don’t understand. I think he definitely aided in helping her move past what happened, but it could’ve went painfully wrong & I think it was a bit misplaced. For one, Zuko’s whole reason for doing that was to get on Katara’s good side. He said himself that everyone else had forgiven him already except Katara. He understood that his role in the group was teaching Aang to fire bend, and helping the gaang defeat his father. Which is why he couldn’t grasp why she wouldn’t put her personal feelings aside for the sake of the team. He needed to gain Katara’s trust for the sake of better team work when they fight. Katara was also extremely hypocritical that episode, and spoke from a place of anger and hurt. Aang wasn’t invalidating her feelings, he only did for her what she’d done for him. He reminded Katara that her rage and anger needed to be fueled into defeating the Fire Nation, NOT revenge. Because revenge doesn’t help you grieve & it wouldn’t help them achieve the REAL goal. {Not to mention she was so disappointed and upset with Jet for wanting revenge (a character who truly reflects her), but because the man she was going to kill wasn’t innocent somehow her revenge was different and therefore justified?…No.}

Katara would tell Aang all the time how much seeing him so enraged in the Avatar state genuinely hurt her. Yet for some reason she couldn’t fathom that he’d feel the same way seeing her blood bend in the same emotional state? No…I think in that moment she just didn’t care & wasn’t thinking about it. Zuko was counting on that, and he used Katara’s pain to get her to trust him (it was smart and it worked but still not cool.) Zuko understands Katara’s pain to an extent, but it’s not the same at all. Zuko’s mother was banished, but Katara’s mother was killed… and by Zuko’s nation at that. The only people in the group who TRULY understand Katara and that pain… are Sokka and Aang.

Aang and Katara to me are like 2 halves that make a whole. Their characters are tailor made for each other and I love it. I’ve believed they were soulmates since the moment she broke him out of that Iceberg. Katara felt a higher calling, not only to be a water bender fighting for her people, but also to be apart of something bigger than herself, fighting for everyone. Her first time experiencing freedom is when she was took on a mission to give that same freedom to others around the world as well. Its not a coincidence that in the first episode where she feels her biggest emotions, she showcase her strongest bending yet at that time in her life, AND she broke THE Avatar out of an iceberg he had been in for 100 years. It was FATE. Katara helps Aang grieve, gives him a family after losing the one he had, teaches him water bending, teaches him that the world may be counting on him, but the amount of death and pain he sees is not his fault and most importantly teaches him how to use his power to stand up for and fight for the people who can’t fight for themselves. She shows up when he needs her the most. Aang also helps Katara finally step into her own power. His arrival gives her the things necessary for her development… freedom, fun, opportunity to master water bending, a new addition to the family after the loss of her mother, and a partner in justice. The way Katara is capable of truly seeing and understanding Aang, speaking to his soul when they had just met… reflects how meeting him helped her heal. They connect so much because despite their differences they understand each other. Some of Aang’s own words were “Why would i choose cosmic energy over Katara?” He had an opportunity to master the avatar state land directly in his lap, but instead he chose her.

IM TEAM KAANG TIL I DIE

Also I think personality wise Zuko and Katara are too much alike for it to work romantically imo. They’re both sassy as hell, sarcastic, stubborn momma’s babies, who resent their fathers a lil and went through hell for a couple years because of their siblings (+ losing their moms.) In some ways they ARE opposites (especially their bending & colors,) and i agree they have character development arcs that fit together like puzzle pieces…BUT they are more alike than they are opposite. I absolutely LOVE both characters, but I fear people look at Zuko with rose colored glasses on alot of the time. Especially when it comes to Katara. Zuko did what needed to be done for the world’s sake, but he’s no super hero when it cones to Katara and she has a deep wound related to getting revenge on people people who harm her family. The main reason Zuko broke her trust in the first place was because he helped Azula kill Aang after letting Katara believe he was on their side… Aang is her family It was never about her mother when it came to Zuko’s forgiveness. She even said she would kill him if he even thought about hurting Aang when he first joined the gaang.

With that being said… I don’t have a problem with people who just like to see them together, but pls stop with the justifications because… It genuinely makes no sense to me at all.

[the-great-fusilli]

The Great Fusilli Theory

Every Courage the Cowardly Dog theory I see is some kind of psychological horror theory about Muriel and Ustace being dead and Courage being insane. When i’ve always thought that every Courage episode was trying to teach children a lesson about the horrors of real life situations through allegory. A lot of my friends said courage was too scary to watch as a child, but I thought it was hilarious, and now that I’m older its far more scary than it ever was when I was younger.

My theory is that “The Great Fusilli” episode is about becoming a slave to the entertainment industry. When Fusilli arrives near Courage’s home he ask Muriel, Ustace and Courage “Have you never dreamed of the excitement of being on stage? Have you not dreamed of putting on the makeup that takes away all the cares of life? Muriel goes on to say that she is too shy, but Fusilli believes that she can be a star. “Just you stand on the stage, you hear the applause, the cheers, the magic, all your fears they go…. And then, you stay forever.”

You see I believe Fusilli was using his personal experience with fame to lure in more people and make his dream come alive. The way we’ve seen many people in the industry do. He found a family out in the middle of nowhere, told them they’d all be rich from touring the world and that being on stage was magical. When in reality, the magic they would experience on stage was all manufactured because the audience was empty (a figment of fusilli’s imagination.) They would soon lose their autonomy and all for fake applause. He wanted to live out his own dream using other people “Do not deny Fusilli’s greatest pleasure to see the stage come alive,” so he ends up turning them into puppets.

What did Doja cat say that one time? “I’m a puppet, I’m a sheep, I’m a cash cow.” (I think you can look at any fallen star and see exactly what this episode is insinuating.) A puppet by definition is “A moveable model of a person or animal that is used in entertainment and is typically moved either by strings controlled from above or by a hand inside it.” This definition is very straightforward, but it is also very symbolic. Lots of artists in the industry have came forward about being puppets for their companies and labels to sell whatever image or idea they want, ignoring the artistic expression and identity of the artists. As someone who was a serious Kpop fan, I was forced to see the darkness of the entertainment industry in a way that made me question if I even wanted to be a performer anymore. From slave contracts, to full on abuse and assault we watch idols go through some of worse things imaginable just to go on tour, just to be on stage, to preform and see their dreams come alive. They become puppets to their labels and companies, but at least they get to hear the applause and feel the magic of being on stage right? Putting yourself in the shoes of an idol and putting all the good and bad things into perspective… it starts to feel eerie. I imagine it’s what courage felt this episode.

By the end of the episode when courage is trying to save Muriel and Ustace, he’s covered in powder, Fusilli thinks he is a phantom and jumps from above the stage where he is controlling Muriel and Ustace. I’ve never seen “Phantom of the Opera” but, the phantom that Fusilli is so afraid of is Courage (the dog), but also LITERALLY courage. He needs the courage to address the false identity he has created in his own subconscious mind. After courage gets away with Muriel and Ustace, Fusilli realizes he is on stage and the spot light is on him. He does his act and turns into a puppet himself, continuing to read the same script over and over…meaning he did not have the courage to face himself and in turn became a slave to the stage.

(Crazy how Fusilli’s dream was to see the stage come alive, and in the end he winds up being fully controlled by the stage… technically he got exactly what he wished for.)