katara’s role as the show’s narrator is so underrated because no one really seems to understand just how deeply katara is impacted by the nature of stories, with regards to their craft, their promulgation, and their cultural significance, so they don’t truly register the sheer metatextual brilliance of having her be the resident storyteller of the narrative itself.
the first thing atla establishes about katara is that she is someone who is fueled by dreams and fantasies, and believes in a return to a world where “all four nations lived together in harmony” (which is obviously an illusory ideal, as there was always geopolitical strife even if it wasn’t as overt as the devastating imperialist project they are now subject to), described to her by kanna’s stories about the old days.
katara is someone who indulges in fantasies of adventure and heroism, projecting these ideals onto both herself and others. she is an idealist in the truest, purest sense of the word, and what is an idealist if not someone who tells themselves stories about a more beautiful world to survive?
it’s no coincidence that the episode where katara successfully scares everyone with a very compellingly narrated campfire story is the same episode that she must contend with her heritage, the ominous lacunae in her stories, the pitfalls of her own naive idealization. it’s also not a coincidence that the story she tells was first told to her by her mother.
katara grew up hearing stories passed down to her from kanna and kya, and those stories gave her hope and brought her the possibility of happiness in a bleak, cruel world where she was ultimately alone. there used to be people like her, said the stories, and they were brave, and they fought til their final breaths to hold onto their culture, their love for their people, their humanity.
well that’s who i’m going to be, says katara. someone who fights, someone who cannot be knocked down (because there is no one else left to take her place), someone who will never cease to have faith in the capacity of others for good, for truth, and for justice.
stories are her heritage, they are her culture, they are how she defines herself and how she understands the world around her. stories are how she copes, how she survives; they are all she has left to cling to. and sometimes they are reductive, and sometimes they are outright false, but that’s okay too. she grows, she adjusts her narratives, she learns to leave room for more grey in her neat tapestries of black and white. stories can define a tragic past, but they can also pave the way for a better future. she keeps telling stories.
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coughs
wow no way drawing my farmer after 84749583 years of inactivity…
hi guys.
okay. bo revamp.
You ever wanna see a farmer with mommy issues?? And a strong distrust of adventurers??? No?? too bad
heres bo
An ex-con, an ex-xman, and ex-adventurer!!! (minus the ex-con and ex-xman).
Bo had gone to a boarding school for kids with traits like he has, aka kids that have magic abilities, or come from a long line of adventurers and are going to work in the same profession. Despite the fact that he has the ability to cast magic, and use magic, he was not raised as such. Bo wasn’t raised to be a witch, wizard, spellcaster, whatever you wanna call it
no.
he was raised around the sword and shield, the good ol’ classic hardwork of pigsticking a slime with a sharp ass metal. yeah. that one.
There’s a reason for this, obviously. i mean. its not just cruel acts by the head of the school, no. No, Bo’s magic is. finicky. It’s not as easy as elemental magic, such as dealing with fire or water. It’s not as easy as generic, or written spells, or potion work, or the whole shebang.
His magic, if left untrained or unattended, is capable of fucking with his own mana levels, and others’. as well as, if strong enough potentially kill a bitch,..
call it whatever you want, vampiric, yin and yang, the reaper’s touch, soul sucking, what EVER, it doesnt matter its all the same.
“well…, dave!! you just said bo wasnt raised to control his *snort* magic..!! so. uhm. how is he working on a farm if, *snort* hehe, he could potentially kill all of his crops *gurgle burp*” well. you disgusting. disgusting. icky. thing,
thats the irony. bo cannot control it properly, but it is under maintenance using an old relic the school had, conveniently, on hand (i lief they went searching for it)
so, no, he cant kill a guy, but he can make them exceptionally tired if bo’s running low and needs some gogo juice. he can, however, kill plants. which makes formwork exceptionally hard for him, and is why he sticks to more animal work than using plants.
anyways.
that story with amelia is the same. bo’s cousin, died in battle over in galdora, affected him deeply, he left midway through his training over in gotoro, went TOTALLY off the radar.
came back to the farm per rodney’s (amelias husband) request, was handed a bunch of amelia’s old stuff, and the deed to the farm should he want it.
amongst amelia items was a small vial that was broken by another witch in the country bo had moved to, and released two disgustingly slimy salamander things. (this is a change, cuz it used to be two human-looking demons)
you like familiars with witches? grear cuz bo has two.
its explained to bo that these “salamanders” are actually demons that go WAY back in the family bloodline, back to when the barabell family first got in touch with a higher being that could grant them magical abilities. these demons were the trade off.
both safairry (previously cain) and rarify (previously jack) make it their job to nitpick everything bo does and also try to convince him to preform a ritual to get them out of their salamander state and back into the demons they once were.
love that
anyways, you might ask “well now u have all this worldbuilding, but what about the other villagers?? huh?? and other people thingies, how does bo interact with them??”
bo keeps to himself a lot. he rarely goes into town beyond the essentials, so he’s not friends with a lot of people. however, he does get visits from sam occasionally, as well as sebastian, since they used to be friends from when bo, during points in which the boarding school went on long breaks and he needed a place to stay, would stay on the farm with rodney and amelia.
abby tags along too.
despite bos dislike of the adventuring field, he does have to go up into the mines and interact with people like magnus and marlon to actually get somewhere. after bo had (somehow??) found his way onto ginger island and (FOR SOME REASON???) got to the top of the volcano, he got himself tied into galdora
this, of course, was because lance had stopped by after their inital meeting, they chatted, and lance may or may not have let it slip that one of amelia’s (a good, but old friend of camilla’s) family members is in town.
and staying, from what it looks like.
also with romance shit or whatever, bo has to cope with the fact that he cannot genuinely care about his future boyfriends or his current friends. that. that was some self discovery on my bit, and now is getting forced into my farmer. i made his schooling time absolute hell, so ill make his love life hell too. fuck you bo.
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The One-Way Waltz of the Moth and the Wild Flame (and the Incident of the Authorial Intrusion) - A Good Omens Fic
Written by pokimoko
Chapters: 1/1
Word Count: ~25K
Fandom: Good Omens (TV)
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley & Muriel (Good Omens), Crowley & Nina (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens) & Original Character(s)
Characters: Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale (Good Omens), Muriel (Good Omens), Original Characters, (who is technically not an original character but I've got to keep some secrets ;) ), Nina (Good Omens), Background & Cameo Characters
Summary: A story in which Crowley does not prevent forest fires, a radio sends out thoughts and prayers, an angel misuses the emergency contact, the local duck population invents socialism, trees are threatened to varying degrees of success, a waltz is indeed played, and an author considers the nature of tragedies.
Tags: Ineffable Divorce | Aziraphale and Crowley Break Up (Good Omens), Post-Break Up, POV Crowley (Good Omens), Emotional Hurt, He/Him Pronouns For Crowley (Good Omens), They/Them Pronouns for Muriel (Good Omens), Crowley & Muriel Friendship (Good Omens), Angst and Humor, Crowley-centric (Good Omens), Canon Continuation, Post-Season/Series 02, Post-Episode: s02e06 Every Day (Good Omens), Pre-Season/Series 03, No Aziraphale Slander Here but it is also Crowley's POV so expect at least some Thoughts, Angry Crowley (Good Omens), Running Away, Both in the Emotional and Literal Sense, Because You Don't Have to Deal with Your Romantic and Personal Issues in Washington State. Obviously, (incorrect: you very much do), Crowley is a Mess (Good Omens), (even if he won't admit it), Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), (another thing he won't admit), Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), They're just being stupid, Not A Fix-It, References to God(s), Romantic Angst, America, United States, Fire Lookout, Remember Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires (Unless You Are Anthony J. Crowley), hey is it healthy to repeatedly relive a past trauma to deal with a breakup? asking for a friend, Scene: The Bookshop Fire (Good Omens), Fire, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Isolation, When You're Trying to Cope Badly in the American Wilderness but People Keep Talking to You, Radio, Inspired by Firewatch (Video Game), Character Study, Crowley and the Woes of Being In a Narrative That Won't Let You Go, (Fleabag voice) This is a Tragedy, But oh? What's this?, Angst with a Happy Ending, Ambiguous/Open Ending
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