Fanon Azula vs Canon Azula

Azula: Well, I'm intrigued. What is this about after all-

Fanon crazy!Azula: *shoots lightning next to Canon!Azula while mannicly laughing* Haha! I almost got you, mother!

Azula: excuse you?

Erhaz's canadian!Azula: Oh, sorry about this. Gosh, this is so embarassing. She's not okay, sorry about this. *turns to crazy!azula* now come here, it's okay! It's okay, mother isn't here see? She's not here!

Yang's Azula: *wrapped up in asylum clothes and in a wheelchair humming some creepy version of children's songs*

Fanon Evil!Azula: This is so pathetic. I would pity you if I had any actual feeling. Did you see Zuzu, that insufferable pig whom I hate with all my non existent heart?

Azula: ...I choose not to be offended by this.

Fanon powerlust!Azula: Didn't see him, but if I had, would've tried to kill him again. He stole that throne from me, the bastard!

Azula: Now that's just unrealistic. I've never on my right mind purposefuly tried to actually assassinate him. Only as a prank when we were kids. Isn't there any version of me with a somewhat okay relationship with my brother?

Zucest Azula: I'm here. Zuzu and I are good.

Azula: Oh thank spirits-

Zucest Azula: We're in very, very good terms, actually... excelent terms I'd say...

Azula:

Azula: okay that's enough for me bye.

— 𝐒𝐔𝐘𝐈𝐍 + 𝐓𝐎𝐊𝐊𝐀 — '𝑪𝑨𝑼𝑺𝑬 𝑰𝑵 𝑴𝒀 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻 𝑺𝑯𝑬'𝑺 𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑰𝑹𝑺.

we ALL know…🪃

me not actually knowing what canon is anymore because i haven't seen the show recently, a review:

is the wani the canon name of zuko's ship? we'll never know

is the chinese name of jasmine dragon moli long or li long or moli hua long???? and can we get etsy/redbubble to agree on one pls

what's jee's rank? in fact, is jee even a canon character?

is bakoda canon??

is fire nation anti-homosexuality law canon???

did toph actually become a cop or was that just a nightmare i had

is zuko's scar actually handprint shaped??

(does zuko's scar actually consume his ear???)

((does zuko's scar actually impact his eye's ability to open or its color??))

is toph the only one with a last name??

how does one become a bender??

(like is it genetic?? it'd have to be recessive since kya/hakoda were both non-benders??)

((but if it's not genetic why were no air nomads born???))

(((or did they discover more air nomads at some point post-atla????)))

[gestures broadly at uncle iroh] what????

is "monkeyfeathers" "motherfucker" or

I have a question, I know we know that shipping does not equal morality. And I get that, and I really like that. However, on my other blog, that should have been my main blog (yes I am that dumb). I have talked about Aang's non-consensual and criticized how Kataang is written, however, if you ship Kataang I won't come for your throat because that's not my style. I know the few misogynists/antis on here and on Twitter, and I don't want to let a few bad apples be my impression of a fandom, that's not fair, So now I'm side-eyeing myself over my past remarks. Likewise, I know shipping is not equal to morality, but I also want to criticize Kataang because of how flawed it is and how wrong that kiss was (and other things). I have no idea what I'm saying because at this point I'm rambling. What do you think?

Well, there is a difference between criticizing a ship and criticizing canon. I don't honestly care what people ship. I use the antikataang tag because I don't want to argue with people who do ship it, but that doesn't mean I won't be critical of what is in the show. I think expecting people not to engage critically with media is absolute nonsense. But there is a difference between engaging critically with the actual media and criticizing people's fanon or headcanons, which is where you get away from critically engaging with canon and move into the area of criticizing other people's opinions, which is how arguments start.

Like, there isn't really any actual concrete argument you can make to criticize zutara, because zutara does not exist in canon. It's all fanon and headcanons and speculation. And criticizing other people's opinions just makes you look like a dick.

You also have to take into account the intention behind something. The thing about the way Katara's relationship with Aang is presented is that we're supposed to root for Aang to get Katara, and every obstacle towards that end is just there to create dramatic tension for the male point of audience identification. That's the real problem with the noncon kiss, and people who are critical of it are right to point it out.

In contrast, when I say shipping isn't morality, I'm talking about people who write, let's say, dubcon zutara fics. Fanfiction as a genre is largely female-centered fantasy. Yes, even those lurid fics you're thinking of. People write and read these fics for completely different reasons and have completely different expectations than when watching a series like ATLA. Trying to say that someone can't criticize the way the show presents Aang kissing Katara after she said she was confused as a mistake to be glossed over (that is forgotten as soon as it happens) because they also happen to like reading darkfic is nonsense. There's also a long history of women's interests being policed that informs my views here, vs the fact that consent has only fairly recently become a conversation in mainstream media. You have only to look at the way the show itself portrays Katara having interests (especially in boys) outside of Aang as dark and dangerous to see this happening in ATLA itself. Or the way the creators got away with saying that zutara shippers are doomed to end up in abusive relationships while painting Aang as a typical Nice Guy stereotype who expects Katara to magically become his girlfriend (and gets angry when she doesn't) and seeing nothing wrong with it.

The thing is that zutara, if we look at the way it's written in canon as a metaphor for a romantic relationship, follows the same tradition of how fanfiction has historically existed as an exploration of romantic and sexual dynamics. Those conversations about consent are actually happening and being explored in fanfiction, even the dark stuff, whereas relationships that are presented as "wholesome" often push us to NOT have those conversations. So when I say shipping isn't morality, what I actually mean is that noncanon shipping and darkfic actually has more of a moral leg to stand on than uncritically engaging with relationships on the grounds that Aang is the hero so his goodness and worthiness to get the girl should just be assumed. Zuko has to work for his right to be in a relationship with Katara because he didn't start out from a place of goodness, and that, on its own, is very female centered because instead of starting out from the perspective of the male hero deserving a relationship by virtue of being the hero, we see the idea that a man has to work to gain a woman's respect and affection.

So it's not so much that I hate KA, but I hate the idea that we should engage in it uncritically. And that would be true even if it really was the most wholesome relationship in the world. The same thing cannot be true of zutara because even the darkest of darkfic are about women centering themselves in the narrative and engaging with power dynamics in ways that are subverting patriarchal norms about relationships by definition.

Do you think Kataang will ever get retconned for Zutara? I can see Bryke/Avatar Studios/Paramount/whoever tf is in charge now for the upcoming movie being like, “To drive up sales we should reintroduce Kataang vs Zutara discourse. Let’s make it so that Katara never actually loved Aang and only settled for him because she couldn’t have Zuko.”

short answer: highly doubt it

long answer: bryke had the chance to give in to fanon and make zutara canon at the end of atla; they didn’t. bryke again had the chance to make zutara canon in the legend of korra; they instead gave confirmation that katara and aang got married and had three children. bryke could have made zuko and katara end up together in old age; we have not seen one instance in which they even interact. bryke could have had them date in the comics, especially now that zuko is currently single. instead, katara spends her time helping rebuild the world with aang. any supplementary material from avatar studios could have indicated that they were spending time together - but the only thing i’ve really seen is stuff like legacy of the fire nation reiterating their friendship during the series. so if bryke never made it canon all these times, they’re probably not going to reverse their decision now. especially not when it’s been 15 years and the canon ships have a lot more support now.

in fact, one of the writers who had wanted zutara even said, “they’re definitely together in an another universe.” and offered no follow up as to whether they canonically had feelings for each other in the current atla one.

i mean, mike dimartino doubled down on braving the elements by stating that the moment in which katara offered to heal his scar wasn’t intended to be romantic. for context, when zach tyler eisen stated that the scene of katara bringing aang back to life was more romantic than the zutara moment, mike offered no denial. mike even confirmed one of my fave kataang parallels in that episode. so, the chances of kataang being retconned for zutara happening with avatar studios content are very slim. and isn’t that the whole point of avatar studios; so that bryke could tell their stories in the ways that they want to?

while kataang is probably going to be retconned for zutara in the live action adaptation, I highly doubt it will in any animated content (not going to say no because if the past lives can be completely removed in avatar lore, anything is possible. but it just wouldn’t be consistent with the canon that they’ve spent establishing over the last 15 years).

finally, the whole “katara secretly wants zuko while being married to aang and maybe could cheat with zuko behind aang’s back” is an insult to katara’s character in general, but it is especially insulting for the version of her character that’s a married adult women with a political career and a baby. even if for some reason she hated being married to aang and/or secretly wanted zuko, I’m pretty sure the version of adult katara that we’re going to see will be way too busy with her own affairs to even contemplate cheating. quite frankly, i should hope that there’s a ton of plot lines that bryke plans on doing with adult katara that isn’t “having a secret affair with her husband’s best friend.”

now here’s what i think will happen (and you can revisit this in two years time if i’m right): i think the marketing of the movie might have zuko and katara stand beside each other. y’know, hype it up for the loudest portion of the fandom who is relying on content from 2008. emphasize on the Fire and Water and red and blue and whatever.

the actual movie content will consist of aang and katara - as lead characters - being politically involved while navigating early parenthood. i think zuko will get a little bit of screen time, enough to build-up events for the rumoured zuko movie (which will likely be a sequel to the adult gaang movie). i think the adult gaang movie will confirm zuko’s relationship with mai. zuko and katara might talk with each other, could even share a nice platonic moment - but that’s about it (and that would be enough to stir up zutara shippers).

meanwhile, for kataang, I think the movie’s plan is to break popular misconceptions that:

aang is a horrible father and husband

katara is a SAHM (not that there’s anything wrong with that)

and i’m not saying that as, like, things that i want to desperately see. i’m saying that based on all the comics that have come out in recent years and all the content from avatar legends. of the two, the second misconception is the one that i’m most confident about that. we will definitely, no doubt in mind, get to see katara’s career and legacy (which I’m super fucking excited about!!!). and the movie will 100% contain a plot surrounding katara. this i can guarantee you, based on everything that I’ve read behind the scenes. remind me to one day finish writing out all the evidence i have surrounding this.

but anyway, anon, I hope this helps give you hope and anticipation? long story short, you’ve got nothing to worry about. look at how beautiful the happy couple looks.

1, 6 and 7 for the choose violence ask game

1. the character everyone gets wrong

I was going to say Raava and Vaatu, but unfortunately I think that doesn’t count because I’m comparing to my own convoluted headcanons, not canon. Although I think they’d be far more interesting if Raava was treated as an unreliable narrator and LoK explored more on Vaatu’s impact on the seasons past 2.

As far as fandom vs canon, I’d say Azula. I find the two popular stances on her are either that she’s inherently evil and deserves the awful ending she had, or that she’s an innocent cinnamon roll who did nothing wrong. I find both stances to be pretty ableist-because one demonizes her, especially with the kind of language and arguments those fans use, and the other infantilizes her. I think she’s a far more complex character than that.

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

I have to say that most popular ships in the AtLA fandom have really insufferable fanbases (except sukka, which I find to be really chill), but Zutara fans bother me the most.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because of how the fandom acts about them?

Hmmm I must say Zuko, unfortunately </3. I do love him still but his fanon self is incredibly out of character-I fear he suffers HARDCORE infantilization from his fans. Either that, or people treat him like he’s an irredeemable shitbag and redemption arcs are Bad actually in retaliation to the first fans. So I guess I don’t hate Zuko, but I dread all conversation about him.

im a zutara multishipper though i often feel like a fake cause im not as hardcore as most of em.. i forgot all about that scarf scene its not as memorable as I'll save you from the pirates is that probalmatic imeaniguess but it was a fun scene in the cartoon ..

. so many zuts are celebrating over a silyl scarf scene but i can tell there's higher chances of hell freezing over than zutara and i dont look forward to them going again We were robbed when it doesn't happen. i love being a multishipper though cause i was very well fed with zukaang

im begging shippers not to bully gordon over shipping and it is interting to note how uncomfortable zutara makes the actors prob cause they recognize Kia is a teenager and Dallas is 22 year old.. theres hooplah over how the age gap is fine cause she' ll be 18 and theres a difference with 11/14 vs 15/ year old met guy when he was 20. of course kia is uncomforatble with zutara she met dallas aas a child. but here we got people treating her like she's an adult already.

the way kia is talked about creeps me out and i still think about the people telling me im a fake fan bec i think maybe we dont talk about kias age like shes not even real. i do enjoy the fanart comig from promo pics cause people are super talented but sometimes . it feels that people are shipping Kia/Dallas more than zuko/katara

Hi!! Honestly it's fine if you ship even if things for the ship are considered 'problematic'. I mean I ship Zukka and both of them have genuinely wanted each other dead or gone for a good chunk of the show lol.

I think, and I'm not going to generalize and say EVERY Zutara shipper, but one thing I've encountered as a pattern of difference between Zutara shippers and every other ATLA ship shipper, is canonicity. Zukaang, Zukka, Jetko, MaiLee, TyZula, Tokka, Taang, none of them are of the mindset that their ship will be canon so no one has any real problems with these ships. But a lot of Zutara shippers I've seen on twitter at least are convinced that Zutara was meant to be canon, and this inability keep fanon and canon separate is what's getting people's hopes up. And when it's made clear that these ARE separate, there's upset. I've seen the same thing happen with multiple other shippers and ships across fandoms.

Being a multishipper sounds fun anon, and I hope you're doing well <3

You're so right on the way people act about and treat Kia. Dallas has on interview said Kia is like a little sister to him, and yeah people keep forgetting that these two met when Kia was a child and he was an adult. It's why Dallas and Ian are fine when they talk about Zukka or can joke about "shipping" them.

I've noticed that people are doing the thing again(in 2024 dear GOD), where they keep waiting for young girls to be "legal" to be fucking creeps. People did it with Billie Eilish, the Olsen twins and a bunch of other female celebs and artists. I just feel terrible for her and Gordon, and I wish people would stop being weird about the actors and take a hint because Kia, Dallas, Gordon- none of them are being subtle about being uncomfortable about zutara. The only way they can be more obvious is plaster it on their foreheads. I didn't know about people talking about...ugh I can't even say it, Kia and Dallas like a ship GROSS. Leave Kia and Dallas out of it gosh. I got an ask a while back basically saying people will stop being mean to Gordon if Zutara becomes canon and I was flabbergasted. Like, you won't treat a child, with respect and dignity, because your 20 year old ship isn't real???

I've said this before, but people are just jumping to make Kia out to be more...older? People saying she looks like Gordon's mom(I will hunt these people on sight she looks like a child). And it's this, intermixing of sexism and racism and colourism (I've seen people be extremely disgusting about Dallas and Gordon too about their appearance. Pretty much everyone who doesn't fit into Western beauty standards are receiving awful hate- Thalia Tran playing Mai, Elizabeth Yu playing Azula).

People seriously need to get a grip and start learning to differentiate between fiction and real human beings or this is going to hurt EVERYONE involved, but especially Kia and Gordon. It doesn't matter if Kia is 18, she DOES NOT LIKE IT. DALLAS sees her as a sister, like i wish people would keep that in mind.

Hi! First of all I wanted to thank you for the posts you've made about the racism in the TMA canon, especially in regards to the handling of Annabelle, Daisy, and Basira as characters. There were some things that always felt off to me about canon but since I'm white I didn't have much experience at putting together all the pieces. You've really helped. The idea you had of switching Basira and Daisy for Julia and Trevor is so cool too!

Anyway, it's not your job to teach me so you obviously don't have to answer this if you don't have the inclination or energy to do so. I was wondering something about the fandom racism you often write about. You've given examples of how fandom makes Jon ambiguously brown and Martin white based on (flawed) interpretations of canon personalities. I get that part, but besides it I haven't really spotted any other racism that isn't already in canon. Obviously there's additional instances of fandom racism here that I simply can't spot yet. So I'm mostly wondering if you could give any tips on how to see it? Like are there any specific tropes in TMA fanfiction, fanart, or fan analysis that are especially bad? I would hate to unknowingly hurt people with my own work.

As I said before, you can disregard this ask if you don't want to answer. That’s totally ok. Take care

i typed out a whole response to this and tumblr ate it; i'm going to try and remember everything i said aslfjsdjkjfa

anyway hi!! thank you for the question! definitely a lot to consider here.

in my experience, the thing with fandom racism is that it's often (though not always) hard to see in individual instances, but more something i notice in patterns and overall trends with how diff characters get treated. it's very insidious in this way, and it allows perpetrators of fandom racism to shrug off specific instances of it happening because it's not that big of a deal, you're making this about race, etc etc

fandom racism is most often visible in the treatment of white characters vs nonwhite characters (in the case of tma or other non-visual, whether that race is canon or fanon). it looks like characters of color getting called "dumb" and "stupid" more often than their white counterparts, even in the face of canon evidence to the contrary. it looks like characters of color getting shafted, ignored, or even outright villainized because they get in the way of a ship between white characters. it looks like fandoms being more than willing to write nuance, backstory, and personality into white characters when it isn't there, but never afford the same grace to characters of color, or even actively ignore existing characterization of POC in favor of focusing solely on expanding on their white faves. or excusing white characters for the same actions they villify characters of color for.

(obviously, there are more overt instances of fandom racism, but it doesn't seem like that's what you're asking about, so we'll stick with stuff like this for now)

i'm far from the first to talk about or notice these issues; there are many folks out there who've dedicated years of work and study into documenting and discussing fandom racism. stitch and saathi are two that come to mind off the top of my head, but there are many more.

an example of this from the ATLA fandom is how often I've seen sokka get characterized as "dumb" or the "himbo" of the group, when he is canonically the "plans" guy/the team strategist, and literally invents multiple complex machines over the course of the show. every character in ATLA get their dumb, silly, funny moments, but sokka, the visibly brown man of the group, is the one who constantly gets reduced to only that being a defining character trait. again, despite canon evidence to the contrary.

that's the thing, i think: it's fine to call someone dumb for a specific decision or say they did something stupid. ur not inherently racist for calling a character who happens to be nonwhite dumb. but are you reducing that to be their defining trait?

in TMA, fanon racism looks like a lot of things. it looks like people bending over backwards to create headcanon and backstory for minor white (often male) characters who really don't have all that much (og!elias, michael shelley), while completely ignoring the complex and dynamic characters of color (salesa, oliver, annabelle).* it looks like people widely depicting jon as (ambiguously) brown and then regularly referring to him as dirty, stupid, "feral," being unable to take care of himself, pathetic, etc etc.** or people comparing a jon they've portrayed as brown to animals, especially rats (genuinely, the number of times i've seen that specific comparison is insane). it looks like Tim getting broadly cast as East Asian and also broadly reduced to "dumb flirty sexual himbo" as his only character traits, even though he canonically is very intelligent (nothing wrong with being flirty or sexual, but when that is all that tim is allowed to be, that's a problem). it looks like people making excuses for characters who are killer cops, agents of a deeply violent and racist state institution. it looks like people highlighting and exacerbating the more "monstrous" traits (physical or figurative) of a brown jon while simultaneously flattening a white martin to be more pure, good, and "human" (give me more monster martin designs it's hot i prommy). or people not taking the time and care to draw their characters of color properly. it looks like people ignoring that characters like jonah/elias, daisy, basira, and peter are white supremacists. etc etc.

generally, i think it's just good to be mindful of how you think and talk about characters of color vs white characters. it's good to be aware of what your gut reaction is to a nonwhite character (canon or fanon) vs a white character in the same situation. how much agency are these characters given? are they allowed to exist as whole people, or reduced to fun memey tropes? which tropes are getting assigned to which characters? i guess insofar as tips on how to see this stuff, I don't really know how to answer that question because for me, as someone directly affected by it, i just... see it, yaknow? but these are some patterns to be on the lookout for. i think in general, just being mindful and aware of the fact that there is a discrepancy between the way fandom talks about, engages with, and treats it's nonwhite characters and white characters will go a long way to spotting those discrepancies in action.

anyway, genuinely hope this helps! thank you for asking. I hope you're doing well!

*because i always have to clarify this, it's not a bad thing to like these characters. or to headcanon things about them. but it's frustrating to see fandom over and over again latch onto white male characters -- some of whom, like og!elias, are deliberately written to be boring (literally guys the whole point of elias is that he's a privileged white dude and that's it) -- while simultaneously refusing to engage with characters of color or offer them the same grace.

**again, nothing wrong w making jokes about characters being dumb or poor pathetic little meow meows etc etc. that's fine (in moderation). i find those funny! but like. there is certainly a line where people take it too far and completely strip POC (in this case Jon) of their agency, and act like they are completely helpless and incapable. often doubled with them needing a white character to come "save" or fix thim (in this case, often martin).

Fanon vs Canon

Fanon Katara 1: Oh my, who am I gonna date next? I am so sad and in need of a male savior to take away my misery!

Katara: *physically cringes*

Baby machine fanon Katara: Did someone see Aang? We gotta fuck one more time, who knows if the next baby's gonna be an airbender?

Katara: okay wHAT THE HELL?! I'M NOT LIKE THAT!

Zutara fanon Katara: Yeah, I mean, Aang? Really? He's pratically my son.

Katara: *slaps her own forehead*

Meanwhile, Sokka.

Sokka: Can't wait to meet my other versions!

Fanon idiot Sokka: Wait why is there a mirror here?

Fanon genius Sokka: That's the original Sokka, obviously.

Fanon girl obssessed Sokka: Why are there no girls here? Oof.

Sokka: aren't you like, with Suki?

Fanon girl obssessed Sokka: Yeah.

Sokka: Oh.

Sokka: Well, better than nothing.

Bonus:

Watercest Sokka: Hey there, m'lady.

Katara: Sokka you won't believe it, my other versions are AWFUL and-

Wtcest Sokka: shhh I will make this day better for you *leans in for a kiss*

Katara: *screeches*

Wtcest Katara: oops that was for me!

Sokka: *jumps in with his sword to murder this version of himself* STOP TOUCHING KATARA!!!!

Azutara Karara: 👀

Zukka Sokka: 😋 hehe today we feast.

12, 21, 22 for the choose violence ask game 🔥

thanks for the ask, hotwife!!!

12. the unpopular character you like and why more people should like them

this is one i feel like kataang fandom in particular could use a little more work liking, if i'm being honest. actually, scratch that, i think everyone in fandom could use a little bit more work liking this character.

and that is... zuko.

not fanon zuko, mind you - canon zuko. because let's be honest, canon zuko is far less popular most people would want to admit. they hold up a woobified oc and claim that it's zuko, but fanon zuko is really just aang in zuko's body.

canon zuko, on the other hand, throws temper tantrums like a brat and is a racist, colonist piece of work. he's impulsive and reckless (in all the wrong ways) and berates everyone who's around him. he's crappy even to his friends and family, betraying his uncle for his sister and chasing after his perceived "honor," trampling everyone - even an extinct culture - underfoot.

so why do i like him? because of his friendship with aang.

i know a lot of kataangers dislike zuko because of how his stans scream his praises from the rooftops and demonize aang for things not even a thousandth of what zuko has done in canon. similarly, i know a lot of so-called zuko "fans" absolutely hate it when someone (rightfully) points out zuko's flaws in canon, hitting them with the "but he apologized for it!1!1!"

which... no.

instead, what i find beautiful about zuko is how his relationship with aang changed him, how his redemption arc was fueled in part because aang extended a hand of friendship out towards him. i also really, really enjoy delving deep into zuko's rightful guilt about being part of an imperialist nation, of helping his nation continue their conquest over the world, even if he didn't directly contribute to the air nomad genocide or fought as a soldier against the water tribes or the earth kingdom. and it's always aang, who should have more reason than most to hate zuko, who forgives zuko, and from that zuko learns how to heal and forgive himself and be better.

that's the zuko i like from atla. not the bad-boy, suave, blameless womanizer that fanon likes to uphold, but zuko, who has done wrong and will continue to do wrong, who will still stumble as he grows and learns, who may not ever unlearn some of the things he's been taught, but who will still try because his friends are right by his side and can help him back up when he falls... even if they have to call him out for it.

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

zuko's and azula's agni kai. i think everyone focuses on it because it involves two fire nation siblings duking it out.

even withholding the shipping lens, i've found that a lot of fandom tends to hyperfixate on the fire nation, from only exploring those characters to even explicitly defending them from anyone who points out they're an imperialist nation.

and we all know which ship fandom just loves that scene🙄

why not more love for aang vs ozai?? an epic battle betwee the last of an extinct nation and an imperial who wants to kill him off, a battle that was only won when aang held steadfast to his values as the last air nomad. in a world that told him he couldn't be both the avatar and the air nomad, he looked them in the eye and said, "i can, and i will."

and i think that's a beautiful message for everyone to hear.

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

i'mma be honest, despite shipping kataang... i don't really consider myself a shipper. i don't tend to look at media through the lens of my favorite ship, so as a result, i sometimes feel almost... disconnected from the shipping community as a whole.

the most notable example of this being the balcony scene with aang and katara during The Avatar State. a lot of kataang shippers love that scene because it shows how worried katara is for aang, which is great! don't get me wrong, everyone has their own lens and they are valid... most of the time.

but for me, it was less about that and more about the conflict between aang as the avatar and aang as a person and what it means for katara. because if you think about it, when katara grew up, all she has ever heard was legends of the avatar, this godly deity who could singlehandedly stop the 100 year war - only to find that he was just a kid, like her.

so for me, that scene wasn't so much that she was telling aang that she loved him as it was that she was worried about losing aang, her friend, to aang the avatar. she was worried that in the process of trying to stop the war, he would lose his humanity, sacrificing it for the "greater good" - something something similar to how he didn't want to lose his heritage as an air nomad for the sake of victory something something parallels something something. i could go on, but this ask is already getting long, so i'mma stop it here for the sake of your and my sanity.

choose violence ask game

nine people i want to get to know better!

tagged by @ghostlament thanks for tagging me! Okay this is not a very good representation of me I promise I am cooler than this!!

last song i listened to: (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher by Jackie Wilson

currently watching: How to Train Your Dragon 2 with the discord!!

sweet/savory/spicy: savory! :)

relationship status: taken! in a ldr

current obsession: ???? watching people pack everything in one bag for a long trip hahahahahahha

five things you could talk about for an entire hour: atla, purity culture, canon vs. fanon, how capitalism is ruining society, why we should say "transphobe" instead of "terf"

tagging @onehundredflamingos, @fiendishfyre, @ghst-boys, @thebibutterflyao3, @touchlikethesun, @kleinoede, @siyeonjisoo, @stationintern, @honeybcj and anyone else who is seeing this rn

I'm a bit confused about the difference between emotional energy and romantic tension LOL

I was having a discussion with someone about this related to MDZS and they were saying how JC and WWX had a lot of emotional energy with them serving as thematic foils to each other. Wangxian was told but not shown, which makes zero sense to me. Just because the major conflict is between two characters doesn't imply the existence of romantic feelings. I don't like misreading emotional energy as subtext because that never works out well especially if the author doesn't have the time to develop romance.

It kinda reminds me of the ATLA shipping war, which I didn't care for. I feel like you and your moots gave a good grasp of themes and characters, so I'm hoping you can explain this to me.

If I’m getting this right, you want 1) to know the difference (if there is one) between emotional energy and romantic tension, and 2) what the difference between chengxian and wangxian is, possibly with a discussion of subtext. I’ll answer these questions cause my brain is a little muddled at the moment.

So first up: emotional energy vs. romantic tension. For one, I’ve never heard of “emotional energy” before lmao, but on that note, emotional energy can be literally anything. You have emotional energy towards a parent that you love, or the really strict teacher whose voice you still hear criticism in, or that one asshole from your job you wish would get fired. None of that inherently opens the door to romance, and most people would balk at thinking of any of these relationships as romantic just because they’re relationships in which intense feelings are felt. Saying that feeling any intense emotion towards someone in which you are in a platonic relationship with = harboring (known or unrecognized) romantic feelings for them is ridiculous bullshit.

Now onto Wangxian vs. Chengxian. Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng have “emotional energy” because they are stuck in a relationship forged by Jiang Fengmian’s wish for his son to have a friend and maintained by the multitude of debts that the Jiang Clan pile on him via jfm and Madam Yu. However, a lot of these feelings are one-sided. Jiang Cheng feels inferiority, envy, and later on, hatred towards Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian in his first life felt a bond with Jiang Cheng that he seemed to feel for all his martial siblings: a bond of those learning under the same clan/sect. Later, that bond is replaced with debt, and in his second life, wwx only has mild pity left for jc. They mutually choose not to rekindle any relationship at the end, either negative or positive. Notice how none of these feelings are romantic. To say that Wei Wuxian harbors romantic feelings for Jiang Cheng is like someone saying you harbor romantic feelings for your childhood bully who you were forced to spend time with because his parents guilted you into being his only friend. Likewise, to say that Jiang Cheng harbors romantic feelings for Wei Wuxian is like someone saying you harbor a crush on the one kid that your mom always compared you to and said you’d never be as good as. Also that they may be your secret half-sibling and the reason your parents hate each other and your dad hates you, specifically. Also, jc is a canonical homophobe, so… For Chengxian, people can ship it all they want, but it is purely fanon not supported by any adaptation. Not every emotion is innately tied to love or romance, and throwing “subtext” around doesn’t give you legitimacy. Subtext is when a creator can’t or won’t explicitly name the thing but they drop enough clues for people to piece it together, anyways. Bubbline from Adventure Time is subtext for most of the show; we literally see then go on dates and blush around each other, but we only see them kiss in the finale and be a couple in the post-canon specials. The definition of “subtext” is not “these characters have a relationship, therefore I ship them romantically regardless of what the source material says about them.”

In the case of Wangxian, though, this is not subtext and is explicitly romantic. Wei Wuxian constantly thinks of Lan Wangji as the most beautiful man he’s ever met. He constantly wants his attention and to be in his presence as a teen. He daydreams about living with Lan Wangji on a little farm. In his second life, he actively flirts with the man, even after his cover is blown, and he is the one to kiss Lan Wangji during drunk shenanigans #2 and tip the boundary into having sex in drunk shenanigans #3. We don’t get a lot of Lan Wangji’s thoughts from wwx’s first life as it happens, but we see later that he always tried to stick up for wwx, kept everything wwx ever gave him (most of which were just offhanded objects wwx only used to tease him), he adopted the other man’s son. He tells his brother that he wants to bring wwx home to hide him in the exact mimicry of his parents most definitely not platonic relationship. None of this is platonic, none of it is subtext, and none of this is “only told.”

In short, tell whoever it is you were talking to—if you’re even still talking to them at all—that they don’t need to justify shipping by pretending that there’s proof of it being canon. We’d get a lot farther in these discussions if people just accepted that they like certain relationship dynamics over others instead of twisting a source to legitimize their likes/dislikes. Chengxian is not canon, was never meant to be canon and therefore will never be canon. Wangxian is the couple the book is written about. Don’t like the wangxian couple, don’t read the wangxian book.

By contrast, what would their haters dislike about your character? Is it a petty complaint? A mischaracterization of the character or their intentions? Are they just a woman in a largely male-centric series?

Are there any tropes fandom would put upon your character, for better or for worse?

META ASKS: If Your OC Was Canon.

By contrast, what would their haters dislike about your character? Is it a petty complaint? A mischaracterization of the character or their intentions? Are they just a woman in a largely male-centric series?

For Doc! I think in The Hypothetical Fandom™️, he generally wouldn’t be too disliked (I rarely see any genuine hate towards the Eccentric Old Guy characters but that could just be the small online circles I stay in) BUT!!! I DO THINK that the more his history with ATLAS is explored in the story, there would be RIOTS IN THE STREETS about whether he’s an irredeemable bastard vs poor old man who did no wrong.

In truth, he’s neither of those things. At his core, Doc is and always was a good man— but good people can allow horrible things to happen by turning a blind eye to save their own hide. His story (I hope) reflects both coming to terms with how your own actions (or inactions) can hurt others as well as learning to forgive yourself and make change going forward, as that’s all we can strive for at the end of the day.

Ophelia……….[shivers] ……..she needs her own post for this question 💀

Are there any tropes fandom would put upon your character, for better or for worse?

For Ophelia! They’d take her general, overall-life-inexperience and RUN with it. Fanon Ophelia would end up leaning WAY TOO HEAVY into the fish-out-of-water trope (ie what is this “c e l l phone you speak of?”) and some would even unironically fall for her facade, thinking she is too naive, too gullible. too smol too sweet too pure for this world

And her whole schtick IS gentleness found through unspeakable violence AND there is quite a lot she’s still learning about life. Ophelia is playful and loving and soft.

— BUT. Her perception is more often than not, in a constant hyper vigilant state. She’s a trained killer. She plays the fool so she can get the upper hand for any potential ambush if needed. She understands cruelty all too well, and can be just a cruel if needed.

^^ i also think the opposite would be true, where people can make her out to be MUCH MORE cruel than she actually is but this got long enough already so You Feel Me. Layers™️ 🧅

Fanon: “Azula’s relationships with her ‘friends’ were always fake”

Canon:

Not like there's a theme in atla of pictures not showing the reality of abusive relationships or anything!

Or characters confronting their memories of someone vs how dysfunctional that relationship was in reality and deciding to leave them once and for all.

It's not like Azula ended up alone because everyone in the photo with her got tired of being threatened or anything.