used to play with sparklers

I think people don’t realise that Zuko’s arc doesn’t mean he is healed - it means that he’s now in a place where he can start healing. You don’t recover from trauma that quickly.

What we saw in ATLA was him recognising and acknowledging how bad his father was, and then working to separate himself from his dad and to bring some good in the world. His journey was to get to a point where he can start healing. ATLA is 61 episodes long and it took 51 of those for Zuko to realise how bad his father was - that in itself is a massive achievement!! 

But that’s not actually healing. We just watched him go through anger, denial, depression, hopelessness, bargaining, pain, loneliness, guilt and acceptance and hope. Healing is a completely different thing that has its own set of difficulties, pain and set backs.

The series ends with Zuko and the fire nation beginning the healing process together and, for me, the comics highlight how difficult, confronting and fraught that process can be.

It also means that Zuko can have the best intentions for his sister, but he is STILL dealing with the trauma of growing up with her in their family. Additionally, I think it takes a lot of nuance and understanding to see how much of a victim Azula was and how much she suffered, as well as how her actions were a result of Ozai’s abuse. It took 51 episodes for Zuko to see how bad his father was, something that the audience was convinced of by episode 12 when we found out about the Agni Kai, and that’s after being mutilated and banished for 3 years. It’s probably going to take just as long, if not longer, for him to drop the resentment against Azula because for so long, he saw her as someone to be afraid of. 

I don’t think he’s capable of realising how much Azula had suffered by the end of the series and I really don’t think he’s capable of accepting or helping her yet, either in the series or the comics. Additionally, I don’t think Azula is currently ready or willing to receive his help or any acceptance from him. I think that’s very realistic for both of them currently in their stories.

Having said that, Azula is incredible and I would love to see a continuation of her story. But I don’t think she’s in a place where she is ready to heal (which is completely understandable!!!). I’d like to see her get to a place where she is though and I have high hopes for her upcoming comic. I think that a healed Azula would be a sight to behold (and I want to behold that!) and the healed fire siblings working together would be unstoppable.

Why Zuko's arc falls flat for me

One of the biggest things that makes up Zuko's character is his inferiority complex when it comes to his sister being better than him at firebending. As we know, he's like this because for years, Ozai made Zuko feel inferior to Azula by constantly putting him down and comparing his skills to Azula's. Zuko came to resent Azula because of this, not realizing that she wasn't the one at fault.

When Zuko defects once he realizes that Ozai was an abusive d-bag who wasn't worth the time of day, I was hoping that meant he would finally let go of his resentment that he had towards Azula. Since the only reason why it was even there was because of Ozai's abuse. And since Zuko finally realized that Ozai abused him, surely it would mean that he would finally stop blaming Azula for how his life turned out, and would let go of his resentment.

Only...he never does. Zuko still seeks out the rivalry with Azula. At the Boiling rock when Suki says "this is a rematch that I've been waiting for" Zuko responds with "yeah, me too" in regards to Azula. In the finale, he wants to "put her in her place" because she was better than him and was unapologetic about it and had the audacity to flaunt that fact in his face. If the writers really wanted to convince me that Zuko had grown? One of the lessons that he should have learned was that he doesn't HAVE to be perfect at everything. That he was just fine where he was at. That everyone learns at their own pace, and that's ok. It doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you. He should have learned that he didn't have to prove that he was better than Azula. For all the praise he gets for "breaking the cycle of abuse" in his family, he really didn't break it as much as people think he did. Because part of breaking that cycle? Would be letting go of his resentment towards Azula, and learning those lessons that I mentioned. The narrative validating Zuko's feelings towards her instead of calling them into question and calling Zuko out on this was just a disservice to his character arc. And it only gets worse in the comics.

Contributing to art trend and the Mai fandom.

Take care of smol Mai please.

It’s Zutara Week

Briefly reactivating my fandom account because it’s Zutara week.

As someone who lived through the worst of the Avatar: The Last Airbender shipping wars over 10 years ago, it’s both surprising and not surprising to see that the term #Zutara still creates an involuntary shudder of disgust to run through my body.

Here’s to the ship (and the shippers) that killed shipping for me.

Racism isn’t always hating a Black character and misogyny isn’t always hating a female character, sometimes racism & misogyny are arguing against the narrative that those characters are evil and villainous in order to prop up and excuse the behavior of the white male villain.

“I think a lot of people live on the borderline of racism. I work in a machine shop with about thirty older guys. I don’t think there is one bad guy in the group. You’d like them if you met them. All of them love their families. But I’d say that I’ve heard eighty percent of them make racist comments of some sort. A lot of the older guys drop ‘n bombs.’ But if a black guy walks up, they’ll be friendly. They’ll even go out to lunch with him and share a meal. I honestly don’t think they see themselves as racist. Every one of them will deny it. They’ll point to the black guy that they’re friendly with. They won’t point to the things they say when he’s not around.”

Ghostbusters Halloween Appreciation Post

Sometimes people use “respect” to mean “treating someone like a person” and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone like an authority”

and sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say “if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you” and they mean “if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person”

and they think they’re being fair but they aren’t, and it’s not okay.

I belong to Oceania - or, at least, I am rooted in a fertile portion of it - and it nourishes my spirit, helps to define me, and feeds my imagination.

Albert Wendt, Towards a New Oceania (via beautyofoceania)

Can we please stop acting like mixed people are watered down versions of their ethncities

What people think it means when we say "Language is evolving": This pejorative term isn't bad anymore because it's funny to me and I say so.

What it actually means when we say "Language is evolving": English has developed a specific verb for tricking people into listening to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up"

Shoutout to all the forgettable but nice enough girlfriends/boyfriends in romantic comedies who had their marriages CANCELED and had to deal with emotional recovery after assumed months of planning because some former flame or old friend who does quirky shit like collecting their Snapple fact lids came back into their fiancé’s life for two days