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comradekatara · 12 days

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Hi! Been reading through your blog, and I really appreciate the nuanced way you discuss the themes and characters in atla. So I was curious about your thoughts on a take I’ve seen floating around (that I feel conflicted on).

I’ve seen people argue that, particularly in season 3, Zuko’s perspective and arc are prioritized at the expense of (all the characters, but especially) Aang’s perspective/internality.

For example, in the Western Air Temple episode, any complicated feelings Aang might have about Zuko’s role in his death and in the fall of Ba Sing Se (two events that shaped Aang’s struggle at the opening of the season) are hand waved, entirely untapped and unexplored. Everything that Zuko did in Ba Sing Se goes unmentioned in the episode, to facilitate the necessary next step of Zuko’s journey (joining the gaang), and the episode is primarily framed through Zuko’s POV, exploring his fears regarding whether the group will accept him and his desire for redemption through them.

Similarly, the focus of the succeeding episodes is on integrating Zuko into the group, leaving little space to expand on/build up to Aang’s central conflict for the season, meaning it’s crammed into/abruptly introduced in the very final episodes.

I think there is some merit to this critique (Aang aside, I also would have liked a bit more space for Toph in this final season too, her fraught relationship with her parents feels like a thread that’s left hanging). On the other hand, I think that one of Aang’s strengths as a MC is that he doesn’t overpower/dominate the entire narrative, and that other characters (Zuko, Katara, etc.) are allowed just as much significance and importance within the story, so…idk. Would appreciate another perspective, sorry for the long ask :)

forgive my slightly reductive claim, but I actually see each season as belonging to a different main character. book 1: water is very much katara’s season. she is the narrator who introduces us to the world, the catalyst for the inciting incident, and the entire journey to the north pole is her idea, her goal, her quest to master waterbending. most episodes in book 1 center on katara, her escapades, her blunders, her triumphs, her adventures; aang is also featured prominently, of course, but she’s by far the hero of this story.

then book 2: earth shifts focus, and focalizes aang instead. katara has achieved her primary goal of learning waterbending for a master, and now she’s mostly just along for the ride. she still has episodes where she is central to the plot and truly shines (eg, the chase, the desert, lake laogai) but she’s mainly playing second fiddle to aang, who has to contend with his position as avatar and the immense power he wields, learns earthbending (his most personally challenging element), suffers inconceivable loss as he grieves appa, the triumphant joy of their reunion, works through his emotional state with the guru, and finally, his defeat at the hands of azula. book 2 is, first and foremost, aang’s season.

so it stands to reason that book 3: fire is zuko’s. zuko has been focalized before, most prominently in the episode “zuko alone,” but this season is not about zuko in isolation, but rather his integration. the goal zuko has been striving for and the changes he has undergone and lessons he’s learned in the previous two seasons all culminate here, finally realizing the character arc they’ve been laying the groundwork for in the background of aang and katara’s journeys. so of course zuko is prioritized in zuko’s season. of course episodes like “the beach” barely even focus on the gaang whatsoever, with their only sparse scenes just there to establish combustion man as a threat.

and it’s not that we don’t get the gaang’s pov in “the western air temple,” because we very much do. we see them respond to their defeat at the invasion, we see them argue over whether to let zuko into the group, and yes, we do see katara acknowledge what happened in ba sing se, very emphatically, I might add.

and the following episode is literally about aang. yes, zuko is still the character whose point of view is centered the most, but it’s also a direct response to aang’s conflict in “the deserter,” and it provides a crucial aspect of not only zuko’s character development, but also aang’s. then, the episode after that is all about sokka. zuko features, of course, but he knows this is not his journey and he is happy to follow sokka’s lead. it’s a necessary episode as it marks the apotheosis of sokka’s arc. then, “the southern raiders,” which serves as katara’s apotheosis. yes, zuko is the one who orchestrates the plot, but but it’s katara’s emotional journey every step of the way. “the ember island players” is equally about aang, katara, and zuko’s horrified responses to this play. and then in “sozin’s comet” aang, katara, and zuko are each given equal weight in their final moments in the narrative.

i don’t think that aang’s central conflict feels rushed or abrupt whatsoever, because it was already addressed as far back as in “the avatar state” when he expressed fears regarding the scale of his power and the damage it causes. aang’s conflicting duty to the world as the avatar and duty to his people as the last airbender has been established time and time again since book 1, and is especially focalized in book 3 in episodes such as “the awakening” and “the day of black sun.” even a sort of dismissible episode like “nightmares and daydreams” centers his point of view and elucidates his anxiety.

but aang, katara, and zuko have always been positioned as a sort of prism that narratively refract and reflect one another, ever since the very beginning. each season focalizes one while still giving the others the necessary space to grow and develop, but if zuko does feel like the protagonist of book 3, it’s because it’s his season, and that doesn’t minimize aang or katara’s importance, because he is reflecting them each step of the way, just as they are reflecting him.

and as a sidenote: toph’s fraught relationship with her parents is actually explored sufficiently, in my opinion, via her dynamics with the rest of the gaang. her conflict with her family is resolved through finding unconditional and mutual support through her friends, and both her tension with katara as explored in “the runaway” and her vulnerability and faith in sokka (especially in “sozin’s comet”) illustrate how toph still struggles in some key ways, but has also grown so much since first escaping her abusive home.

#alphatwin999 #asks #analysis #katara #aang #zuko #I need a tag for like…. their triangle #and #toph #I guess

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cooking-with-hailstones · 15 days

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A theoretical framework of how arranged marriage, and reproductive politics could work in the Avatar universe.

(Mostly focusing on the ATLA era, but can extend to TLOK as well)

Why? Because I am a sucker for a good arranged marriage story, I’m fascinated by the politics that they necessarily entail, and I am deeply curious about the ways that same-sex arranged marriages can work diplomatically, socially, and politically. Also, no one can stop me!

(There was an excellent thread about how same-sex arranged marriages could work, esp in a feudal political system, that I cannot track down for the life of me, but I’m drawing heavily from what was discussed in that thread. If you know what I’m talking about, please send it to me.)

So: realistically, humans are gonna human, and during peace times, humans fraternizing with other humans leads to unions, and, well, babies. I imagine among border communities and non-benders, relationships with people outside your nation would be fairly commonplace. The hardline intra-nation relationship standard seen in ATLA would be mostly a product of the 100 year war, rather than anything particularly inherent.

Canon has also established that arranged marriages, especially among the leadership and nobility of each nation, is not unusual (Ursa and Ozai, Yue and Hahn, etc.) We see political alliances through marriage a few different times through the series.

We also know from canon that strong benders most often hold major leadership roles - not always, but boy it sure helps. This would incentivize intra-nation marriages to ensure that strong bending prowess stays in the family, if you will. Furthermore, it means no one who’s got the wrong flavour of bending for your nation would end up in a position of political power.

The importance of leaders being strong benders seems to matter less in the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom, but there is still the implication that these leadership roles wouldn’t go to a bender of a different element. And again, since the leadership and nobility of the Northern Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, and Fire Nation all seem to be inherited titles, there might be extra pressure to ensure that the blood “stays pure”.

The Air Nomads and Southern Water Tribe seem to be the notable exceptions. I do not know enough about Air Nomad culture to really factor them in here, but I have some ideas that I’ll save for another time.

So, in our world, arranged marriages have had and continue to have lots of political and cultural importance - it’s a way of integrating families, a means of consolidating wealth and power, ensuring peace between warring or disputing factions, etc. However, in the Avatar universe, this presents issues for benders. We know from Mako and Bolin in TLOK that two parents from different nations can have children who can bend either element. If an earthbender were suddenly a viable contender for the chieftainship of the northern water tribe, or a firebender inherited a high-ranking position at the Earth Kingdom court, that might become problematic very quickly! (And by the time we get to TLOK - entirely viable as a premise! I would love to see this idea explored more, but I’m getting off topic)

Thus, my proposal: same sex political marriages.

Any political union that crosses the boundaries of the nations could be between same-sex spouses, to ensure that lines of succession do not become complicated by virtue of the Wrong Flavor of Bender being born, while retaining all of the political, diplomatic, and strategic advantages of an arranged marriage. As with arranged marriages in our world, I imagine there would be a spectrum of parents who would want their child’s active involvement in choosing their spouse, to children who grit their teeth and marry their parents choice of spouse in the name of Duty (hi Yue), to children who are forced kicking and screaming into the union their families chose for them.

An example: Imagine a wedding between two daughters, one of Fire Nation nobility and one from a Water Tribe leader. This union could be MAJOR for shipping and trading, strengthening economic ties between them and ensuring dominance over favorable shipping routes for select fire nation and water tribe merchants. (Now I'm imagining an au of fire and water bending seafaring merchant houseboat lesbians…)

Now there are two diverging ways to pursue this: A. one where these marriages are still expected to produce children, and B. one where these marriages are expected to NOT have children.

In scenario A: Each member of the marriage could be expected to have children via a surrogate or sperm donor from the appropriate nation. The inheritance of each parent would go to the child they sired, but the expectation would be that the offspring are raised by both parents, and share aspects of both cultures. These children would be considered the legitimate heirs of the parents whose genes they share, while having the advantages of being raised with parents and siblings from both cultures: they would be highly sought after diplomats, traders, mediators, and negotiators. The inclusion of surrogate/sperm donor genetics also helps diversify the gene pool among the nobility. I imagine the surrogate or sperm donor would be from a suitable family - not nobility, but not peasantry. Ideally people with a family history of bending. There could be high levels of cultural cache in helping to sire the nobility’s children, even if you cannot legally claim them as your own child.

In scenario B: If the expectation is that these unions won’t have children - or at least any children that would be recognized as legitimate - then this is a convenient way of, uh, well, pruning the family tree of undesirable genetic material. This could include weak benders or non benders. The children who are considered strong benders/desirable would be expected to marry and reproduce with someone of the correct nationality, with the correct flavor of bending, while the non bending, weaker bending, or otherwise undesirable members of the family are convenient tools for families to use for political unions where they don’t risk weakening the line of succession with… whatever it is that the family might not want. These married-off members of the family still hold significant power and influence, they're still considered useful. They just don't get to pass on any inheritance to any children they might have.

(Both of these feature flavors of eugenics that are gross in their own unique ways! I am not endorsing this! Eugenics is bad! This is an exercise in world building, and hoo boy the eugenicist potentials in the Avatar universe are something I think about a LOT, and on a related note I'm still mad about the handling of the equalist subplot in Korra…)

Anyways, those are my thoughts as they stand now. I fully welcome any feedback, further ideas, headcanons, etc!

#avatar the last airbender #atla #atla au #atla arranged marriage #arranged marriage #arranged marriage au #the legend of korra #tlok #zukka #atla zukka #yes this is part of the zukka agenda #more on that to come #emily talks #same sex arranged marriage #long post

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arlana-likes-to-write · 3 months

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Lightning Bug - Chapter 26

Masterlist

Warning: fluff, a little bit of angst, swearing, a little jealously, (honestly, I don't think there are many warnings in this)

Word Count: 3.1k

“Lady-” the God of Thunder paused. You tilted your head at him as he put his hands on his hips. Thor was deep in thought; it was a little funny. “Are you going by Lady Maximoff or Lady Romanoff now that your adoption is finalized?” Oh. You weren’t sure, and the idea of changing your last name was something you never thought about. But it made sense; you were no longer an L/n. You were a Romanoff. Or a Maximoff. Or a weird combination of the two.

“I don’t know Thor,” you said. “I like both.” The God nodded.

“Alright, let’s continue.” Thor was looking for you when you exited your room, ready to eat breakfast and relax. The God wanted to compare your powers to his, which worried you. Thor could create lightning from nothing while you focused more on electricity. It was different, but you remembered Kamala called you ‘Mini Thor.’ So you stood with Thor in the training area, Mjolnir in the air, and a bolt of lightning shot down at him. While you watched, the lightning-caused something to stir inside of you. The normal tingle happened in your palms, but a new warmth filled you. It was hitching to try it, to gather up lighting and throw it back. Thor was smiling at you.

“Can you throw that at me?” His jaw dropped. “What, you wanted to see if our powers are similar?” You were bouncing on your feet. “So throw some lighting at me.”

“I mean no disrespect when saying this, Lady Romanoff jr,” you giggled. “Are you out of your mind? I could teach you how to summon lightning, not me throwing it at you,” you pouted and glanced at the door as it opened. It was America, Kamala, and Peter. America waved at you, and you waved back. They went to their corner, and you faced the God.

“Come on, Thor!” You whined. “This is the best place to do it! It will be safe.” You hopped, at least. You saw a lip on the internet of Iroh teaching Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender how to redirect lightning. Move it through your stomach. Don’t cross your heart. Easy. “Please.” Thor looked down at the floor; you could see his internal debate. You felt a little bad that you were the reason behind it.

“I’ll show you how to create it before I throw it at you.” You nodded. It was a good compromise. You learned that electricity and lightning were related phenomena but differed in source, scale, and characteristics. Electricity was the term used to describe the flow of electric charge, while lightning resulted from the buildup and discharge of electrical energy in the atmosphere. Thor told you had to concentrate on the discharge. It was still a lot harder than you thought. No matter how many times you mimicked Thor’s movement, you couldn’t get it. Still, sweat poured down your back. “Look, Lady Maximoff jr, I don’t expect you to get it today,” Thor said. “It would be impressive.” You stood up straighter, allowing more air to get into your lungs.

“One more time,” you said. Something felt different about this. There was a pressure on the base of your skull. It felt different than the normal feeling. “One more time,” you repeated and closed your eyes, hands outstretched. You felt a gentle vibration fill the air, almost like a heartbeat. You opened your eyes at the scent of petrichor mingled with the crackling energy that emanated from your fingertips. You looked at Thor, who had a smile and nodded.

The air seemed to hum with anticipation as sparks of electricity danced along your fingertips. With a swift motion, you brought your hands together, and a radiant glow enveloped you. Threads of lightning began to coil and weave around you. You felt the energy reach its peak, and you redirected the coursing energy toward Thor. Bolts of lightning erupted from your fingertips, arcing and weaving through the air.

Thor caught the energy quickly and, without thinking, redirected it back to you. Your right hand was still stretched, and the lightning connected with your fingertips. Your body seemed to pulse with energy as you felt the lightning travel through your body. It should have scared you, but you felt oddly calm as you guided the electrifying force away from your body and back to God. The room fell silent once Mjolnir collected the lightning and contained the energy. Your chest was heaving at the sudden display of power you weren’t sure came from.

“Lady Maximoff, Lady Romanoff,” you turned around to see Natasha and Wanda walking over to you. The room was filled with your friends, but they seemed to be watching you and Thor rather than focusing on what they were doing. Even the couple had a look of surprise on their face. “Your daughter is a quick learner and powerful.” The way he called you their daughter made you feel warm. You ran over to them, legs feeling a little wobbly, but you hugged Natasha. She smiled at you, whipping your sweaty hair out of your face.

“That she is,” she said. “Where did you learn how to do that?” You shrugged, stretching out your arms and legs.

“I don’t know,” you said. “Maybe training with Maria is helping. I feel stronger. Can I keep going?”

“Yes. Go easy on her, Thor,” you gave her a salute and turned to leave, but you looked at Wanda. She seemed lost in thought. You carefully grabbed her hand, squeezing it. That pulled her out of whatever thoughts circled in her mind, and she forced a smile. She nodded, a silent confirmation that she was okay. But she wasn’t, and why did she look so worried?

Kate watched America, looking towards the God of thunder and Y/N. Everyone was looking at her with a stunned and astonished expression. Everyone was surprised by this new influx of power. “Did you know she could do that?” America asked her. The archer shook her head. “Should we be worried?”

“Wanda and Nat are with her,” Kate said. “Come on, let’s go again.” America wanted to improve her hand-to-hand combat skills, so the duo were spending a few moments together in the training area. She couldn’t help but watch America and Y/n during their private gift exchange. It was cute, but she was suddenly brought back to the moment she interrupted in the changing room at Macey’s. She grabbed America’s hand as she swung at her. It was quick work to pin her to the ground. The teen struggled at first but then tapped out. Kate smiled and sat down. “You’ve gotten better.” America sat up, rubbing her shoulder.

“Thanks, I feel like I got my ass kicked,” she mumbled. Kate laughed. It seemed like second nature as America’s eyes went to Y/n. The young girl was focusing on creating lighting with Thor.

“Have you guys spoken about what almost happened in the dressing room?” America’s body tensed up. “Yeah, I figured that was about to happen before I walked in.” America brought her knees up and leaned back in her hands.

“We did talk and I apologized.” That shocked Kate more than anything. She wasn’t expecting to learn that America apologized. “I should have asked before leaning in, but I think she wanted to kiss me.” There was no missing the hopefulness in her voice. Kate smiled.

“I bet she did.” She saw the way Y/n looked at America when she wasn’t looking. She fully supported them if they chose to try a relationship with one another. Still, Kate was nervous and a little worried. The world they were in could be dangerous and unforgiving at times, especially with the powers both of them had. She cared deeply for both of them.

“You know,” Tony said, eyes glued to the tablet. It wasn’t on his to-do list to be in the training room after the part, but when FRIDAY informed him that almost everyone was in there, he decided to tackle his to-do list. Right now, Maria and Steve were doing a workout wearing heart monitors. Tony wanted to compare the data between a super soldier and an average human. “I had an idea.” The agent groaned.

“That’s worrying,” Tony flipped Maria off. Maria gasped. “Steve, he did a bad word gesture.” The super soldier sighed, took a sip of water, and walked over to the billionaire.

“What’s your idea, Tony?” Steve asked. He glanced around the room. Peter was training with Riri, and Y/n was no longer with Thor but messing around with Shuri and America. Even Val was hanging out with Yelena, comparing different weapons. This was the next generation of heroes. When he was done being Iron Man and Steve passed down the shield, these kids would take up the title. It was exciting but also terrifying.

“I think we should do this again,” he gestured to the room. “Maybe not for a birthday, but getting them together could be. We could reach out to Cassie and Shang-Chi, too,” Maria stared at him, whipping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.

“That’s not a bad idea,” she said. “Which is strange coming from you.” Tony rolled his eyes. “We could call it the Young Avenger Initiative. All of you could run a different training course, and at the end, we could do a mock battle between old and new.”

“Did you just call me old?” Tony gasped.

“I think she called all of us old,” Steve crossed his arms as Maria laughed. “What brought this up?” He shrugged.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want to be doing this for the rest of my life,” Tony said. “We need to make sure they are ready.” Some of them were ready; he knew that, but if he could help them to prevent any of them from getting hurt, he would.

Wanda rapidly knocked on Vision’s door. She was impatient to speak with the man. Something was coming. The only evidence she had was the new power Y/n developed. “Wanda,” Vision opened the door. “How-” she pushed into his room. “What’s the matter?” The witch began to pace his room, hand resting on your chin. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what you think.” She stopped.

“The stone,” she said. “Has it revealed anything?”

“Is this about our young friend?” Wanda nodded. “No, it’s been oddly quiet as if it’s waiting.” She bit her lip and sat down on the edge of his bed. “Wanda,” Vision sat down next to her. “What happened?”

“I went with Natasha to the training area, she was with Thor, and,” maybe she was reading too much into it. Perhaps she was growing stronger due to her training, or the tower was letting her heal. “Her powers are changing. She can create lightning like Thor and redirect it. I’m worried-”

“That the stone granted her these new abilities to help her fight whatever is coming,” Wanda nodded. “Does anyone know about this?”

“Natasha suspects something-” she sighed, running her hands through her hair. She was the mind reader in the relationship, but Natasha always knew when something was bothering her if she was holding something back. “Do you think I should tell her?”

“Why haven’t you told her?” Vision countered. That was a good question. Maybe she wanted to shoulder this stress alone and not worry her girlfriend. Natasha had a lot on her plate, always being asked by Maria, Tony, or Steve to give her opinion on missions. Some nights, Natasha would be up late, hunched over mission reports. “Would you like some advice or a shoulder to lean on?”

“Advice.”

“You and Miss. Romanoff makes a great team. You’ve officially gained guardianship of her. You both need each other now more than ever,” he explained. “So tell her what’s going on. Together, you’ll figure out how to protect her. I know it.”

“There you are,” Natasha opened the door to her room to find her girlfriend sitting at the edge of her bed. “Where did you run off to? You missed an interesting idea that Tony came up with,” Wanda wasn’t sure if the words interesting, idea, and Tony could be used in the same sentence.

“I went to see Vision,” Natasha raised a questioning eyebrow. Wanda knew her girlfriend had some underlying jealousy towards the android, especially when they found out Vision had some feelings for her. “Can you sit with me?” She extended her hand. Natasha took it and sat down next to her. “I have been hiding something from you. It’s not about our relationship or my position on the team,” she added quickly, knowing Natasha’s anxiety.

“Moya lyubov’, you’re scarring me,” Natasha said. Wanda sighed.

“A week or two ago, Vision came to. Y/n asked to touch the stone, and he let her do it.” Natasha’s eyes went wide.

“What the fuck was he thinking?” She sighed.

“I don’t know, and I already yelled at him for it. The stone has been interested in her. However, unlike when the stone warned him about Thanos, it won’t show him anything.” Natasha was quiet as she let Wanda’s words sink in. “Vision thinks a danger is coming.”

“He thinks?” Natasha questioned. “What kind of cryptic shit is that? At least with Thanos, we had some shit to go on,” Wanda understood her frustration because she had them too. “What a useless hunk of metal?”

“Hey,” Wanda snapped. “I know you are worried, but calling him that was uncalled for,” Natasha nodded, but Wanda wondered if the Black Widow even heard her as she paced back and forth. Wanda knew her girlfriend well but needed to walk off the nervous energy.

“I don’t understand why you are telling me now,” Wanda opened her mouth, but Natasha stopped pacing and looked at her girlfriend. “Her powers today,” the Black Widow said slowly, putting the pieces together in her head. “You and Vision think the stone gave them to her so she can face this mystery threat.”

“That’s the working theory,” Wanda said.

“Jesus Christ,” Natasha mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. “What the fuck do we do?”

“We,” Wanda said, took her hand, and brought her back to sit on the bed. “Keep doing exactly what we have been doing. We love, protect her, and keep her happy.” Natasha seemed lost in her thoughts. “What was Tony’s idea?” Natasha hummed in question.

“Oh,” she said. “Tony thinks bringing all the young Avengers together would be beneficial. They are calling it the YAI, a week-long get-together for all of them to train and learn how to be a team. It may be a good idea to have Y/n join,” she explained. “If something is coming, it would be the best way to prepare.” Wanda nodded. It was a good idea, and the next group of Avengers needed to be ready. Natasha groaned and flopped on her back. Her arm rested across her eyes. “Why is it when things are going well, the universe likes to fuck with us?” Wanda giggled and rested her head on Natasha’s chest, staring up at the ceiling until she was moved on top of her girlfriend. A frown was edged on her face. Wanda used her finger to trace every line, and she watched the tension to leave.

“Maybe we should get away for a few days before this YAI,” Wanda suggested. “We could go visit the Bartons. I know they were pretty upset they couldn’t attend her party or visit Alexei and Melina,” the Black Widow groaned, head falling back dramatically. The action caused Wanda to laugh. Her hand fell in the crock of her neck. “I know, but they’ve been dying to meet her.” Suddenly, Wanda was flipped on her back, Natasha’s face pressed to her neck, and she felt her lips kissing her skin.

“Have I told you how much I love you?” Wanda laughed.

“I could be reminded now and again,” she moved her hand through her Natasha’s red hair and forced her to look at her. Seeing a smile on her girlfriend’s face was good, but her green eyes were still filled with worry. “Hey, no matter what happens. Our family will stay together.” No one was going to drive them apart.

You needed a break. As much as you hated leaving the training area while everyone was messing around, you needed to recharge your social battery. Besides, your room required to be recognized, so it was the perfect time to do it. Much to Natasha and Wanda’s disapproval, Val gifted you a switchblade, but she claimed a young girl in NYC needed to have a knife on her at all times. You were mimicking how you saw Bucky flip the knife when he spared against Yelena. He used a fake knife, and the blade on this one was sharp. You had to drop it a few times on the group to protect your hands. “Hey, kid,” you hissed at the knife and cut your thumb. “What the hell are you doing?” You sucked your thumb to stop the bleeding.

“Cleaning my room,” you picked up the knife on the ground. “What do I owe the pleasure?” The cut wasn’t deep, so you weren’t worried.

“Sorry it took some time,” he handed you a file. “It’s everything NYPD has on those missing people.” You closed the knife and sat down.

“Do they have any leads?” You recognized some of the names in this file.

“No,” he sighed, leaning up against your doorway. “To be honest, I’m not sure they are investigating. They pulled this out their ass when I threatened to go to the commissioner.” That sounded about right.

“Thank you for this, Tony,” you closed the file. “I appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it. If you need anything, let me know,” you smiled, and the billionaire left you alone. Sighing, you tossed the file onto the floor and laid down on your back. You kept opening and closing the switchblade. You weren’t sure what you were going to do with this information. All Caesar said was to keep your ears open and listen, but what the hell were you listening for? You weren’t an Avenger. You weren’t a superhero. You were a kid finally thriving instead of surviving.

“I knew Val getting you that knife would be trouble,” you sat up quickly and saw Natasha in the doorway.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you teased, closing the switchblade. The redhead rolled her eyes.

“Do you think you are up for a trip with Wanda and me? Maria and Fury approved the week off.”

“Yes!” You jumped to your feet. “Where are we going?” Natasha smirked.

“Can’t tell you it’s a surprise,” you sighed and fell back onto your bed. “Don’t worry,” she laughed. “It will be fun.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” A family vacation! What could be more fun than that!

taglist: @aestruvx, @toouncreativeforausername, @modedddd, @julilamoment, @mythixmagic, @yourmamacom, @vicmc624, @cherlenovix, @liliesandrosies, @whitewidowsbite, @clintsbigtoe, @blackbirdv98 @arualdcg@yoyo-w @natbelovasblog, @johnnyhulu, @blackwidow-3, @theenglishswiftie, @faith-olsen

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azure-firecracker · 2 months

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I have the threads of an Azula theory.

Disclaimer: This is about the Last Agni Kai, which I haven’t watched in a while because it makes me cry. Also this is a theory. It’s a train of thought. I’m not proclaiming it to be absolute truth or anything.

But I was thinking about Azula shooting lightning at Katara. Now, Azula isn’t exactly making the most strategic decisions here since she’s having a…rough time, to put it mildly. But I was also thinking about what her thought process could have been (since her exterior only really goes to show that she’s…having a rough time).

Now in Azula’s eyes, she knows she’s not winning this fight. Between Zuko having improved and her being a mess, she’s clearly fighting an uphill battle. She’s going to lose and she knows it. She also probably thinks Zuko won’t kill her. Although they’ve battled before, it would take really specific and clear intent to kill on his part since they’re not like…on an airship or a gondola. They’ve been shooting big up until this point, but they’ve also kind of been toying with one another.

Then Zuko asks her where her lightning is. Something she probably hasn’t considered using, because up until this point, she didn’t think she would have to. And she sees Katara. But here’s the thing: did Azula plan to have Zuko jump in front of the lightning and fail to redirect it? You have to keep in mind that Azula hasn’t seen the majority of Zuko’s interactions with Team Avatar. She hasn’t seen him be this selfless, hell, he’s never BEEN this selfless until now. Azula also, as we’ve seen, struggles to understand real, unconditional love. She certainly wouldn’t jump in front of lightning for anyone except maybe Ozai, and that’s…not unconditional. So would she understand this? Maybe not. And Azula doesn’t know anything about lightning redirection. What makes her think that Zuko wouldn’t be able to redirect the lightning if he jumped in front of it. After all, he did redirect quite a bit of it.

So if we follow these theories (and again, they’re only theories), this leaves one possibility: Azula was actually trying to kill Katara. But why? Azula doesn’t care about Katara. We’ve never seen her delight in violence for the sake of it. Why not focus on the fight at hand? If I were her, I wouldn’t want to risk involving Katara at all. She’s struggling enough as is, and even she should know that Katara’s a powerful opponent. They were evenly matched in Crossroads of Destiny.

Let’s think about Azula’s mental state right now. Her brother and her best friends have all abandoned her. Her father’s love, the one thing she hung onto, is meaningless and she’s only realizing this now. At her lowest point, she’s been reminded of her mother: the first person to call her a monster, and that is what she believes she is. No one loves her. She has nothing left to fight for. And the one scrap of validation she has left, which is being better than Zuko, is slipping away. What’s left? Why stay around in this state?

So: what if Azula was trying to kill Katara so that she could make Zuko furious enough to kill her?

Just a thought.

#atla #atla meta #azula #atla azula #azula avatar #tw suicidality #zuko avatar #atla zuko #zuko #fire siblings #atla theory #azula meta #katara #last agni kai

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papiliomame · 9 months

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Finally I read the new graphic novel too and it was very enjoyable. I went in with zero expectation so I was pleasantly surprised with the big thing everyone is screaming about. Amazing art, amazing story amazing everything! Gabriela Epstein is a genius. She managed to solve many problems with the show and expands the lore in a cohesive way while also be in line with the humor and tone of the original show accompanied with wonderful illustrated panels!

Under the cut are some of my thought about it:

SPOILER WARNING!

First things first: Phantom Planet retconnned! Now the series can continue with the loose threads of the original show and the new one from this novel without making some brain gymnastic to make the events from the episode fit in these stories.

Techonological progress: Everyone upgraded to a smartphone and they even have internet and social media( which makes it funny that Vlad used an old fat destop PC for his research as a (former?) billionaire)

RIP Tucker's PDA.

Danny mentioned that Vlad terrorized him for the past few years, that means Danny is at least 16 or 17 years old in this?

Ghosts don't need to breath. Vlad didn't have a helmet on while in space in his flashback .

Clockwork doesn't shapeshift in his other forms for some reason.

And he was quite reckless to put the thermos with Phantom just there in the open, you would think you would seal an apocalyptic threat somewere safe away or something like that.

Clockwork's staff is part of the timeline itself. interesting...

Also Clockwork is really the emodiment of time not just a random ghost with the title passed down by the oberservants( read some fanon about that)

Ghost Speak is canon! Well atleast the language of the ancients is. It consist of basically of old dead languages.

The translation of Vlad's rubbings is incomplete I wonder if there is more to it.

Hmm not sure how I feel about this but the Fenton parent are still bad parents in this, like how they not care about Phantom although Jazz said that this is Danny from another timeline. Now I wonder if they would even adopt Dani with this attitude.

Badass Valerie and badass Jazz!

The Source is a beautiful place.

The truth about ghosts which is revealed in there is so deep and give so much material for worldbuilding

But one thing is sure: Ghost are souls/emotions/ energies of people or beeings who ones lived and not monsters.

Implication that ghosts are immortal. Does this count for halfas too?

Danny got a new power: fireworks

Obsessions are canon!

The fight scenes are wonderful illustrated!

Danny is really much more powerful after his newfound purpose. He didn's retransformed after the ghostly wail, he can create ice glaciers with his ice powers and his shield withstand Phantom atomic explosion attack.( also RIP A-Listers and Lance Thunder from this timeline and everyone else who was there and wasn't protected by Danny's shield.)

Phantom insisted that he is not Danny but much more than that, however while he was falling apart he glitched out and we saw Danny Phantom's face and Phantoms face but not Plasmius face in there, I wonder why.

Danny becomes the avatar!

The Valerie cliffhanger: Phantom was falling apart without an anchor, does that mean Valerie will also fall apart if she doesn't wear Clockworks medallion anymore?

The last scene: Clockwork encourage Vlad to do more with the clones and the scene is also a parallel to the ending to " The Ultimate Enemey" how the observants shift the responsibility over Phantom to Clockwork.

#danny phantom #a glitch in time #agit spoilers #agit #a glitch in time spoilers #danny phantom a glitch in time #danny phantom spoilers

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bonefall · 6 months

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Screaming crying throwing up at the Thunder spoiler thread because

-THUNDER SPOILERS-

Frostpaw coming to the realization that the Park Cats have a culture that she likes better than the culture of the clans, and wanting to bring elements of it back home with her? That COULD be an actually good use of a traveling book, and it WOULD be an actually nice change to see the clans do any kind of self-reflection on the violence of their culture. Unfortunately, I don’t trust the Erins even a little bit to follow through in any kind of satisfactory way on that plot thread, so I worry it’s going to result in the Clans once again looking at an outside culture and taking a very xenophobic lesson away from interacting with it.

I'm still trying to work out my feelings on the return of the Park Cats... overall, I think I'm feeling pretty frustrated, and it's coloring my perception of them

I also really disliked Riverstar's Home, though. I hated the traveling, I didn't find the Park very interesting in practice, was annoyed by a ton of small things. It felt like the book only got good once we were back in the forest, so, maybe I'm still tasting my sour introduction to the Park cats.

I also don't have any faith in the authors to handle Waffle and Wasp well, or any of the practices Frostpaw is planning to bring home. At this point I'm expecting it. What's really on my mind is... why?

Why did they create a whole little unchanging cultural bubble, a group under glass, exactly the same as it was during the dawn of the clans... when they were just going to blast Frostpaw with The Avatar State anyway?

She can talk to Riverstar whenever. And every ancestor who served under him. And you don't even have to waste 6 chapters on travelling. Could we not have learned about meditation from Riverstar, if the Erins are soooo eager to shove the ancestors into this and write him as her spirit guide?

Like, all this time dedicated to a culture whose one trait is meditating. I have frustrations with the Sisters and Tribe, but they're interesting concepts, with their own spiritual beliefs, government, and customs. So far, the neo-Park has been bland.

Like Guardians, a bare-bones group that showed up once in an SE and just existed to serve the Clan cats for a while, and send Tigerheart back with new characters.

But like, back to the Lesson of the Park Cats, whatever thing Frostpaw could bring home

I just... man, I go off about Clan Culture and its violence literally all the time, but this arc has been ridiculously peaceful. We are 4/6ths of the way through and there was one major battle, at the end of a book, which was bloodless. All the fighting has been arguments.

What exactly is Frostpaw going to learn from the Park cats? How to be passive? Is that going to help RiverClan get rid of the occupying army? Will the power of mindfulness help them un-forget all of their battle training and remind them how to do their own laundry?

If (if.) The Erins have planned all this out, then what they're going to do next is have Frostpaw take what she's learned, and use it to help un-divide RiverClan.

Which TO BE CLEAR would be good for Frostpaw as a character!

But that's not addressing the violence of clan culture or even leaning into it. That wouldn't really be a cultural change, so much as Frostpaw having learned leadership skills... which, again, makes me wonder what the point of a culture frozen in time really was, when they blasted her with this super strong, unprecedented magic connection to StarClan.

Idk. Just, generally not vibing with this book if the spoiler thread is to be believed.

#Asc spoilers #Thunder spoilers #No.. nO WAIT... I just fucking realised #If we DO get froststar... The spaying plays right back into how women leaders have a double standard about having kits!!!!!#UGHHH HELPPP I DONT WANT THAT #PlEASE JUST BE NORMAL ABOUT POWERFUL WOMEN #Anyway. Im thinking about how im gonna retool the park guys #Because the park culture is just as foundational to early BB!clan culture as tribe culture is #Because unlike these writers i actually care about sociology and the evolution of culture through time #I'm thinking about that one bog body lmao and king sacrifices #Maybe I'll take a look at the Beaker people nearby for inspiration

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ash-pile · 11 days

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Starting a thread for myself of theories and ideas about tmp. Gonna update it as I listen to episodes.

I’ve listened to 11 as if this first post. Also I think it goes without saying but there will be spoilers here, I might not have a ton of info but I do have and reference stuff in the episodes

Jon/chester/computer bois:

I think that Jon is using the cameras and things to see and listen, which is why he’s able to give statements that are very close to what’s happening with the characters.

Also I think he is trapped, but idk if he’ll ever get out. Maybe if he and Martin get out then Jonah Magnus can too so they’ll have to choose.

I wonder if they’ll be the same if they escape?

Or if there is a jon and Martin in the world too?

The entities:

-I saw someone else say this (don’t remember who or where tho) but I think that when the web and Jon pulled the entities thru the crack in reality in tma, they got squished and melted together.

- It would explain why statements often multiple fears now.

- They are so squished/interwoven that they litterally can’t separate.

Can they still do rituals/summonings?

Alice

-Another thing I saw but makes so much sense. Alice used to hold Lena’s job/she’s secretly the boss-boss of OIAR

-would explain why she and Lena got the message that Sam was trying to access restricted files.

-I mean why would Alice of all people see that. Lena make sense but Alice would only see it if she had the same kind of access

-also It might not end up being canon but I want Alice, Sam and Gwen to end up together as a poly. The whole scene with the mocha and Alice being confused but not hostile to Gwen was sweet and I want more of that trio

Celia

-I think she and the others who weren’t in any fear domains were brought here, so Georgie and Melanie could be there too.

-Would also explain why she seems to know more about the archives that most, cause she would have heard about them from those two.

-Maybe she ends up in random places regularly hence the ‘not again’ because the world recognizes she isn’t supposed to be there

-or she’s like Micheal. Tma 198 did reveal that the cult was taken back to their domains, maybe Micheal/something like him got to her before the end?

So she’d be able to jump around with doors. Probably not on purpose tho.

-either theory explains why she’s looking into dimensions and space and physics things

Lena/OIAR

-I think that when Jon and Martin and Jonah and the fears came through, they came through at a different time but same space. The explosion from the gas destroying the building would have been brought over at the same time and thus destroyed the archives in this world

-and maybe if it was an important place for the eye/the eye is ‘staying’ there/leftover energy from the panopticon, maybe thats why redcanary was so affected and pulled out their eyes. They were forced to by some kind of eye powers

-so with that, I think OIAR formed to document what changes came about after the fears came through. And their database doesn’t work with the fears separately cause they aren’t separate any more

-I haven’t figured out what Lena’s deal is yet, I just think she’s aware of the fears in someway and uses them/avatars/whatever the monsters would be called now to control the amount of fear being spread

#the magnus protocol #the magnus archives #tmagp #tma podcast #tmagp spoilers #tmagp speculation

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zutarasbuff · 8 months

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Bound by the Threads of Pain: Zutara & Their Energies

Have you ever wondered why Zuko and Katara are quick to bond with each other in the Crystal Catacombs? It’s because both of their energies amalgamate with each other within the Catacombs, as both have gone through the same type of childhood trauma i-e the early loss of their mothers that made them bitter and responsible.

If you find clearly, both have a controlling nature (I know it feels a bit harsh to say this, but that’s true), and that’s why their energies feel enormous whenever they come together. You must be thinking that I am talking so much gibberish about what is energy and what is not. However, I would like to give a scientific opinion to validate my beliefs too.

We know that us humans are made of both matter and energy. This explains why the background radiations are always there and shaping up our ideas or opinions about people and those energies are what we call “vibes”. We get to find a heartfelt moment between Zutara initially within the Crystal Catacombs. A little fun fact is that earth has a unique power of absorbing the energies that we leave as it tends to work like a healer. Plus, we know where the two are; the Crystal Catacombs.

Of course people use crystals all the time to shun away any bad types of energies because Crystals are considered the purest form of Earth. That’s exactly why we find Zutara most vulnerable over there to the extent that Katara agrees to use her mystical water to heal Zuko’s scar. It’s because as a healer, Katara can feel the waves of sadness (we also see this ability in full-fledged form when Toph can tell whether a person is lying or being truthful just by feeling their energies).

Not only this, but even Zuko tends to feel that there is so much in common between them and therefore we find for the first time someone else touching his scar other than himself and that’s Katara which is symbolic of “showing his deepest and darkest scars” to the one he trusts the most.

She’s the person who even confessed later on that she was the first to trust Zuko because she finds not just the influence of the physical injury, but the pain behind it as well because their energies resonate together. This explains why only Zuko can see how important it is for Katara to face her past and go for revenge because he knows that this can get her closure just the way he gets when he joins Team Avatar.

They are two people who have seen the worst of each other and felt that in unknown ways. What more can make you believe that they are the perfect partners who can not just discover the scars of each other, but can go to any extent to eliminate the pain???

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circlique · 2 months

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Say her name three times, and she will appear.

Another teaser for my fic! I swear I'm gonna post it. It's done, it's ready. I'm just trying to work up the courage ahaha.

#avatar #atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar: threads of power #atop #juno #avatar oc #atla oc #avatar ttrpg #avatar legends #circe draws #art #digital art #illustration #artists on tumblr

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mightymizora · 3 months

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I think the reason we get Mizora hanging around the camp and in the cover art and and that stuff is that in EA drafts there would have been a point where you could choose between her and Wyll when doing his personal quest.

And if you chose her you got some cool powers and some cache in Avernus but a massive hit on your social standing in the city, and if you chose Wyll you would get additional cache in Baldur’s Gate and potentially could unlock special allies and bonuses. And you know. You would have done the right thing, to free him from his bond and let him grow as a man.

And this was redrafted for obvious fucking reasons of 1. The relationship between Mizora and Wyll in EA was an interesting metaphor for damaging relationships on paper but the moment you bring a wider critical eye to it (Mizora’s human form as you can see from my avatar is a pale white woman come on) it becomes very 😬 and 2. People would also not choose Wyll because racism. We saw it in EA, loads of people picked on him particularly for being “underdeveloped” when he wasn’t any less in draft than anybody else to me.

I have zero actual evidence for this, there’s no data mine just vibes from the threads set up in EA (I was a Wyll Scholar lol, I loved him so much) but this is my two penneth.

Edit: oh and also adding that I still think a lot of both Wyll’s silliness and the emotional push and pull of the relationship was given over to Gale. EA Gale was much more serious and quite suave and his relationship with Mystra, though still the same at its core, wasn’t quite so transparently still emotionally charged in the way it ended up.

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hel-the-growl · 1 year

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Cultural Annotations on New Gods: Yang Jian -Part 1-

This is the companion piece to my long-ass thread about the same topic on twitter.

Light Chaser really outdid themselves with the visuals and research this time, and with Yang Jian out in NA theaters, it's totally worth seeing on the big screen.

There were so many historical references packed into this movie, I thought I'd do a deep dive into the characters, motifs and lore associated with Investiture of the Gods scene by scene.

Background

Yang Jian is the second instalment of the New Gods series of animated films (after Nezha Reborn), that are loosely based on the 16th-century Chinese novel Investiture of the Gods (IOTG). IOTG shares some canon with other Chinese classics like Journey to the West, Classic of Mountains and Seas, Lotus Lantern etc. so there may be crossovers.

The character Yang Jian, better known as the god Erlang, is a figure widely regarded as heaven's greatest warrior deity. He is recognized for having a third truth-seeing eye, and in IOTG, helped bring about the fall of the Shang Dynasty in 1046 BC.

The movie however, takes place during the Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties circa 5th century AD, some 1500 years after events of IOTG. We first meet Yang Jian as a rather lethargic but free-spirited individual, 12 years after losing his powers during a great disaster involving the three realms, scraping by as a bounty hunter.

A rough timeline

c. 1075-1066 BC: Yang Jian is born

c. 1060-1050 BC: Yang Jian cleaves Peach Mountain

1046 BC: Battle of Muye (Conclusion of Investiture of the Gods)

c. 9 BC-23 AD: Erlang defeats Sun Wukong (Journey to the West, Chapter 7 - Havoc in Heaven)

c. 405 AD: Disaster of the Three Realms; Yang Chan is trapped under Mount Hua

c. 417 AD: New Gods: Yang Jian

c. 1920s - c. 1930s: Nezha Reborn

Breakdown

Yang Jian’s crew all have backstories. In Journey to the West, Kang Anyu (康安裕) and Yao Gonglin (姚公麟) are two of Erlang’s six brothers of Plum Mountain, both supreme government officials in charge of military affairs. Maybe we’ll get to find out about the other four’s whereabouts in later instalments?

Xiaotian is Erlang’s dog sidekick who helps him subdue evil spirits and never leaves his side. The movie’s version of Xiaotian seems to be inspired by ancient paintings depicting her as a white hound.

The wanted bulletin printer seems to be inspired by a Hu Shi Ren You (虎噬人卣), a tiger-shaped Ancient Chinese wine vessel.

In Chinese mythology, Penglai is a legendary island for immortals. It has been reimagined to be the equivalent of the CBD of the divine realm.

The dice used in the casino are 18-sided Xing Jiu Ling (行酒令) from the Han Dynasty. It has the numbers 1 to 16, along with the characters for "wine" and "arrogance" engraved in gold and silver. The rat is the first animal of the Chinese Zodiac.

Shunfeng’er (顺风耳), who now goes by Old Gao and works at the casino, was usually accompanied by Qianliyan (千里眼). They are two temple guards whose names translate to “all-hearing” and “all-seeing” that could hear and see things from thousands of miles away.

Light Chaser is serious about its monkey business. The way casino monkey grabbed Yang Jian’s tally with his foot, the big ape miming and even in Nezha Reborn where the little monkey imitated Yunxiang.

Fun fact: The monkey is voiced by Yang Tianxiang, the same actor who voiced Li Yunxiang (Nezha) in Nezha Reborn.

Refresher - Primordial Spirit, known in Chinese as yuanshen (元神), is is a concept in Daoism defined to be a level of existence surpassing that of physical existence. In the New Gods universe, they manifest as giant glowing avatars.

New Gods also has a recurring theme of lost Astras - In Nezha Reborn, Wukong’s staff is nowhere to be found and Yunxiang has only recovered Nezha’s Sky Ribbon so far. Among Erlang’s many Astras, three are mentioned in the movie.

Yang Jian’s headdress is designed to resemble his signature trident, the "three-pointed, double-edged lance". Hence when casino monkey asked him where his weapon was, he clinked the headdress.

This weapon was later shown in a flashback:

Another one of his Astras is a golden bow with silver bullets. According to the director, it was melted into his harmonica (although this was probably retconned as in the teaser for the sequel, it was his mother who gave it to him as a child). The harmonica not only has the powers of his bow, but is also the ignition key for his ship.

The third weapon featured is his mountain-cleaving axe (开山斧). It is the axe he used to split Peach Mountain in half to save Yaoji. He is shown wielding the same axe in the opening montage 1500 years earlier and it is currently wedged inside the Lotus Peak of Mount Hua from the events of 12 years ago. Needless to say it is a powerful Astra with earth-shattering capabilities.

The Four Diablo Brothers - Mo Lihong, Mo Liqing, Mo Lihai, and Mo Lishou - were initially antagonists in IOTG, having launched an attack on the Western Foothills. This led to the introduction of Yang Jian, who helped defeat the brothers.

By the conclusion of the novel, they were enshrined as the Four Heavenly Kings - Vaiśravaṇa, king of yakṣas (多闻天王; Duowen Tianwang), Virūḍhaka, king of kumbhāṇḍas (增长天王; Zengzhang Tianwang), Dhṛtarāṣṭra, king of gandharvas (持国天王; Chiguo Tianwang) and Virūpākṣa, king of nāgas (广目天王; Guangmu Tianwang). In the movie, only Mo Liqing was addressed by his title when Shen Gongbao met him inside the lighthouse.

There's a PSA on the noticeboard with a picture of Nezha pissing. It reads "no urinating or defecating here." This might be a piss (pun intended) at the 2019 animation Ne Zha from a rival studio, and its hilarious promo. The shade 💀

Further supporting my theory that White Snake and New Gods are from the same universe, Precious Jade from White Snake is recruiting!!! And medicine boy plugging his illegal business lol.

Jinxia Cave (金霞洞), lit. Gold Sunset Cave is Yuding’s HQ. It is located on Jade Spring Mountain in the Divine realm.

The little disciple playing the flute is a tribute to the 1963 ink animation “The Bamboo Flute” (牧笛) produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

Yuding is one of the many disciples of Yuanshi Tianzun, one of the highest deities of Daoism known as the Primeval Lord of Heaven. Yuding is ranked 10th among the “12 golden disciples”, and among his peers are Jiang Ziya (the main character of IOTG who led the battle against Shang), Taiyi Zhenren (Nezha’s master) and Shen Gongbao etc. They are all practitioners of Chan Daoism, also known as Kunlun Sect, founded by Laozi and Yuanshi Tianzun.

In the tale of the Magic Lotus Lantern, Chenxiang was the son of Yang Chan AKA Goddess San Shengmu AKA the holy mother of Mount Hua AKA Erlang’s sister, and a mortal scholar named Liu Yanchang. This parallels the Yang siblings’ own origin story as the children of a goddess and a mortal.

Chenxiang literally means Agarwood. It is a revered wood valued for its use in incense and traditionally burned during meditation.

The place on Jade Spring Mountain where Yuding sealed the sect brother’s Dharmakaya (the embodiment of the truth itself, a transcendence of the physical and spiritual bodies) is based on the travertine pools in and around Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan. Notably, a scene from Journey to the West, a story associated with Erlang, was once filmed at one of the waterfalls here. I’ve been here and yes, it looks exactly like this irl.

Part 2｜Part 3｜Part 4

#erlang shen #new gods #new gods: yang jian #yang jian #新神榜 #二郎神 #杨戬 #新神榜：杨戬 #xin shen bang #jttw #investiture of the gods #lotus lantern #light chaser #xsb #still laughing at the nezha shade

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theresattrpgforthat · 4 months

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Hello, I wanted to ask if you know any games where magic system isn't that diverse? I mean, I like magic but it seems in most of games everyone can have tons of different spells which is a bit overwhelming for me, so is there any game where magic user could use only one type of magic like fire, water, illusion etc?

Theme: Specific Magic

Hello friend, I've got a few games for you here. All of these games come from very different houses of design. I hope you find a fit that is right for you!

Weave, by UFO Press.

A game about fashion, travel and everyday magic. You are mages who draw power from fabric, threads and garments. Your search for mystical power will take you to new lands and new cultures.

Fall in love with a local. Drink too much at a festival. Get entangled in town politics. Summon a spirit of yarn and tradition. Bargain for power, and try not to cause irreversible harm to your host culture.

Learn responsibility.

You've lived your entire life in the enclaves of your cult - until now. As a coming-of-age rite, you're travelling the world. You'll visit new cultures, find out why they value the fashion they do, and summon the spirits of garments to learn magical secrets. You're only novices, and things won't always go well. You might fall in love, get involved in local politics, or overindulge at a festival. When you summon spirits, be careful. You might twist them into a rampaging monster, or destroy the culture's relationship with the garment. What right do you have to power?

This is a diceless game focused on fabric-magic. The character sheet contains a series of threads dedicated to “protects”, “Conceals” “suffices” and “reveals,” as well as three abilities called Traditions. There’s also a number of areas drawn as blank graphs, for you to fill in glyphs.

I don’t own this game, so I can’t tell you how it works but the loops on the character sheet and the presence of the graphs tell me that you likely have limited resources, and you’ll also be expected to create your own magic. It looks like there’s plenty of possibilities within the magic system here, but limiting how you can use it in the form of glyphs tells me that this might be a game that is specific enough to provide limitations for creativity.

Sordid Truths of Fire, by Shouting Crow.

You are a pyromancer, an avatar of flame. Kleptothermic parasites have frozen your world.You must walk the line between fire and flame-- feeding off of and transforming into the things which feed off of your energy-- without losing your sense of self in the drifting snow.

Sordid Truths of Fire is a classless, rules-lite TTRPG. It uses a roll-under system and is basically the bastard child of games like Tunnel Goons and The Black Hack.

This game is for the OSR lovers out there. With three base stats and a roll-under mechanic, character creation is fairly simple. I especially like the events that happen when you roll a 1 or a 20. Rolling a 1 grants you burnout. A little bit of burnout isn’t too bad, but accrue too much, and cannot cast magic. You do, however, gain the features of a creature called a walking torch. Rolling a 20 grants you a point of frostbite - which also takes away your magic, and grants you the features of a monster called a Heat Vampire. You can sacrifice points in your stats to save yourself, and gain points when you roll just right. Will you burn too brightly or get snuffed out?

Nancy Druid, by 9th Level Games.

In Nancy Druid, you will play as a druid scout who solves mysteries along with a trusty animal companion! Your magic is drawn from the natural world, the day-night cycle, and the turning of the seasons.

Will you be a sun druid, who brings brightness and a warm glow to all, with the help of your scout troop's companion critter? Or will you be a moon druid, versed in all things celestial and able to transform into an animal yourself?

The Polymorph system assigns different kinds of dice to roles, based on the character you have. Your role determines what kinds of things you are more likely to succeed at, giving clear strengths and weaknesses among players. This system usually also eschews lists of abilities or catalogues of spells in favor of a special ability that expects you to fill in the blanks.

In Extremis, by Keganexe.

In Extremis is a tabletop roleplaying game designed for 2-6 players, about fighting back the man using necromancy, that uses the LUMEN system by Spencer Campbell. Inspired by The Locked Tomb trilogy, players take on the role of exceptionally powerful witches who use their mastery of life, death, and the human condition to keep them and their own safe from other planetary invaders who want to steal their land. As a Necromancer, you are one of a handful of hideously powerful death witches that protect the planet Hecate, the final holdout for The Coven, from the ever encroaching war of the Corvus Dominion.

This is a game for feeling like a badass. Every character option uses a different kind of necromancy, but you only really need to worry about your character. You get 3 stats: Muscle, Bone and Nerve. You get a passive and active social spell, a list of combat spells, and a weapon. The setting takes place on a galaxy-wide scale, as the game is heavily inspired by Gideon the Ninth. Your source of your magic is a resource called Wells: necromancers only have so many, but the amount you have at any given time is dependant on the phase of the moon. If you want your magic to be gritty and used in high-stakes situations where death is everywhere, this is the game for you.

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #dnd #game recommendations #asks #magic

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natlacentral · 1 month

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Secret Auditions Where The Actors Had No Clue What They Were Auditioning For, And 22 Other Behind-The-Scenes Facts I Learned About "Avatar: The Last Airbender"

Albert Kim, executive producer and showrunner of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, has a massive task on his hands. After M. Night Shyamalan's live-action film left viewers disheartened, fans have been craving an adaptation that truly captures the heart of one of the most popular animated series in history. I was honored to speak with Albert, who was warm and welcoming, yet protective and passionate about his live-action adaptation. We spoke in depth about the differences between the animated series and his Netflix show, the motives behind those changes, and what was important to leave the same. 🚨 There are spoilers ahead for ATLA Season 1 🚨

1. Albert wanted to strike a balance between the episodic format of the animated show and his more serialized motives for the live-action adaptation.

"We always used the original as our guide for everything. It wasn't like we were creating a whole new story out of whole cloth, we were looking at all the stories of the the first season of the original, regardless of whether they were episodic, or led to a more serialized narrative. And then we kind of laid them out in front of us at the beginning of the season, and said, 'Which ones help us in getting from the beginning to the end of the season.' Because we knew we were trying to create a narrative thread that took us on a journey from the Southern Water Tribe to the Northern Water Tribe. And so once we had that framework in place, certain elements just started clicking into place. We could see something like Jet. Jet is a great character, who has all the right intentions, but has been driven into a bad place by the extremes of war. And then we could see a character like The Mechanist; same thing. Good character, good heart, but doing some bad things because of the war. And you know what? He would be in direct conflict with Jet. So let's bring them together. That meant taking them out of their original locations and then putting them somewhere like Omashu. It was a little bit of putting a puzzle together in that way. And as we did that we realized we could preserve the feeling of the original in those adventures. It was a challenge, and we had to walk a tightrope to do it. But that's the case with pretty much everything in the show."

2. Albert has been a fan of the original show for years, because his daughter would watch the animated series when she was a kid.

"I was a huge fan of the original ever since my daughter started watching it when she was a kid."

3. Albert used references from the animated series to change how the Avatar State would work in live-action.

"There's an episode in the second season, "Avatar Day," when Kyoshi inhabits [Aang's] body. It's a very short sequence in the original series, and slightly more for comedic effect. But we thought we could use that, and combine that with what we saw on the Roku episode. Roku also manifests through Aang, and we used that early on, because we needed the audience to understand what the Avatar State was and how powerful it was. In the second episode, we were traveling to Kyoshi Island, so we said, 'Why not use Kyoshi to do that?' We can't wait until we get to Roku's Temple to do that, so let's use Kyoshi. There's precedent for it in the original series, and we can adapt our rules for the Avatar State. There are little tweaks we made to the canon here and there to help us understand a little more of why this was important for [Aang]."

4. Albert spoke with Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (the creators of the animated series) before embarking on his showrunner journey and was "bummed" when they exited the Netflix series.

"When I got the call [to work on the series], I was really excited just for nothing else [other] than the opportunity to talk to Bryan and Mike, and kind of indulge my inner nerd about the show. Our first conversations, were me just asking a lot of Aang questions, and stuff like that. And, that was great. And then we got into the process of talking about what the show could be and the visions they had for it. And what I thought I could bring to the table as someone who hadn't been so intimately involved with the original, or the development process they had been involved with. I really enjoyed that process. I enjoyed collaborating with them and working with them. At around the time I had written the pilot episode, they had decided, for personal reasons, to leave the project. And I can't really speak to those reasons. They had been involved, obviously, for some time before I joined the project. And I was bummed about it, because I genuinely enjoyed working with them, talking to them, all of that. And I had hoped we could continue. But again, that was their personal decision."

5. Albert has never seen The Last Airbender film by M. Night Shyamalan

"I haven't seen it and it just sort of fell through the cracks for me beforehand. And then when I started working on this project, I deliberately avoided it, because I didn't really want to have those images or the creative choices they made in my head. I wanted to be independent."

6. However, Albert was aware of the criticisms of Shyamalan's film.

"That's not to say I wasn't aware of the criticisms of [Shyamalan's film]. I knew what people didn't like about it. And I don't think we were reacting specifically to those criticisms, but a lot of the choices we were already organically making corrected a lot of that. For instance, I always knew that we were going to be casting all Asian and Indigenous for this. It wasn't in reaction to what Shyamalan did in this feature. That would have happened if the feature didn't even exist. I know how it appears in certain cases, it looks like we may have been doing something in reaction to what happened in [his] film, but I never saw it."

7. Michael Goi, who directed the first two episodes of Netflix's adaptation, is still trying to get Albert to watch Shyamalan's film.

"Michael, our director of the first two episodes, he keeps teasing me trying to get me to watch this movie. Now that we're all done, he keeps inviting me over to his house. He's going to put up a screening room so we can all watch together. I said, 'I've gone this long. I'm not gonna break the record now.'"

8. Although the animated series does not show the decimation of the Air Nomads, Albert felt it was "important" for him to include it in the Netflix show to set the stakes for the series.

"I felt it was important to see that event, which is discussed often in the original, but never seen because, for me, it sets the stakes for the world. It shows you what it is that Aang is trying to stop. And without actually understanding that viscerally, for new viewers as much as for the diehard fans, it was a little hard to go on the emotional journey with him. You have to know what he's facing. And what he's facing is this incredible attack. And when you watch it, you see both the power of the Fire Benders, as well as the struggle that the Air Nomads faced, as well as their destruction and the death. And when Aang gets to ask himself, 'How am I as a 12-year-old kid able to stop that,' you understand it a lot more. It'd feel a lot more abstract as a burden and responsibility for him if we hadn't witnessed that."

9. Albert also felt that starting the series with the Fire Nation attack on the Air Nomads narratively helped viewers understand that he wanted to expand and differentiate the feeling from the animated series.

"Narratively kicking off the show with [the Fire Nation attack] helped, in my mind, send the signal that this was not going to be a note for note translation of the original. We weren't going to tell the story in the exact same way, with the exact same scenes and the exact same dialogue. We were starting off in a different direction. And signaling that this is our version of Avatar: The Last Airbender."

10. Albert felt that including the Agni Kai between Zuko and Firelord Ozai, which was also not shown in the animated series, was needed to flesh out who Zuko is as a character.

"The Agni Kai is so important to Zuko's character, it really forms who he is. And that's the same in the animated series as well. They just didn't show it. And I can understand why, because it's very intense and emotional. And possibly a little too intense for say, a Nickelodeon audience. But for a Netflix serialized drama, which is intended to be for all ages of viewers from 10 to 80, it felt like it was appropriate to show that scene. To show exactly what it is that made Zuko into the person he is. That was something I always knew we were going to do. And I don't think anyone would argue that it isn't the linchpin to Zuko's character. Not showing it felt to me, a little bit irresponsible."

11. Tying Zuko's ship crew, and his intention of saving their lives, into the Agni Kai storyline was Albert's way of expanding on the original in a way that felt organic.

"That was a great example of our entire philosophy for this series, which is that we were drawing upon familiar elements from the original, but then pushing certain things a little bit further. Fans are gonna recognize a lot of the events and scenes in that episode from the original. But then we also extrapolated a little bit, and added elements that felt true to the spirit of the original, but hopefully adds a slightly new dimension. Making his crew the ones that he saved, it felt like it was right for the moment."

12. Changing the gender of Shu, and making the Omashu love story a tale of forbidden queer love felt "apt" to Albert.

"I remember even in the original when I was watching the tale of two lovers, I don't know why maybe I wasn't paying attention, I actually thought they were [both] women. And someone in the writers' room corrected me. So I said, 'Oh, well, it feels a little more right if they are women because it's supposed to be a forbidden romance.' Even in the original, there was a reason they couldn't be together. And they had to hide their love. Which ends tragically, but then leads to a piece of understanding. And for those reasons, it felt like making them both women actually was apt for this story."

13. When it came to casting, Albert wanted to make sure the actors were "ethnically and age-accurate."

"Our casting process was thorough. We saw a lot of great actors and great performers. We always knew it was going to be a challenge. Because we were all committed to making sure we were ethnically and age-accurate. We knew that we didn't want to cast a 20-year-old playing a 12-year-old, and we wanted to cast someone who was Asian. We always knew it was going to be tough."

14. The casting was done secretly, meaning none of the actors knew what they were auditioning for.

"It was even more challenging for them, because the casting process was conducted in top secret. They did not know they were auditioning for Avatar. And I had to write fake scenes for all of them. I think [the fake scenes] were about some math wiz applying to a private academy. Gordon, when he was auditioning, didn't know he was auditioning for anything."

15. There was never a doubt that Gordon Cormier should be cast as Aang, even after Albert auditioned several other actors for the role.

"When we saw people like Gordon, there was something about him that just captured the essence of the character. And we kept coming back to him even after we kept seeing other actors who were great. A lot of them were incredibly talented. But after every discussion I would have with the producers, we would always say something like, 'But what about Gordon.' And then we would come back to him, and we kept coming back to him. What we were looking for was a certain spark, a certain essence that said, 'This is who [Aang] is.' And that's what we kept seeing. It didn't matter what the scene was, it was just his personality, his overall character that was shining through. And I think you see that when you see the show. A lot of people I know are a little weary about our version of Aang. But when you watch it, and you see Gordon in his performance, I don't think there's any doubt. He doesn't even have to say a line of dialogue for him to be Aang. He could just give you a look, or a smile. And he's that way in person. He was like that on set every single day. I can't count the number of times crew members would come up to me and say, 'This kid is Aang.' Even when he's not on camera, he is Aang. Whether he was hopping on the back of a camera car, or running around with the other kids. We were incredibly happy that we found him, and all the others."

16. Although Sokka is less sexist at the beginning of the journey than his animated counterpart, Albert felt that they "preserved" his character growth in other ways.

"It wasn't a matter of, say, removing anything from his character. He still has a complex and nuanced journey. But in the process of going from an animated series, to a live-action, we knew that we wanted to portray his journey with a little more groundedness and subtlety. He starts out with attitudes that are the result of living in an isolated life and community. And yes, some of them are rooted in sexism. But he's not out there saying, 'Girls sew and guys hunt.' People have been reacting to comments without having seen the show. When you do watch it, I think it'll become clear that we've preserved Sokka's character, flaws and all. And he has a journey that's as complex as the one you saw in the original. It's just not a one-to-one."

17. Albert also felt that he had more room to build Sokka's character than his sister, Katara.

"Sokka was a character that there was a little more room to add to his character. Katara had trauma over her mother's death, and it's well told in the original. Sokka, we had to fill in the gaps a little bit more, especially for this first season. It was one of the things that struck us immediately. The question of imagining, if you're Sokka, and you're left alone by your father, to take care of your entire community at that young of an age. That's got to be a great burden. And what does that do to him, because his character is naturally lighthearted and funny, and a little bit goofy. But he's got this incredible responsibility to bear. And what does that do to someone? We play with that all season long until you get to the episode [with Koh]."

18. Bringing Azula into the first season as a main character, although that doesn't happen until the second season in the animated series, helped "dimensionalize" Zuko and his family.

"We had the benefit of hindsight, and we knew where the original series was going. And we knew what a great character both Ozai and Zula were going to be. And we wanted to pull a little of that into the first season just to balance out the storytelling a little bit. Creatively speaking, we wanted to use the characters of Azula and Ozai to help dimensionalize Zuko a little more, and then help us understand exactly how he became who he became outside of just the Agni Kai, and that traumatic event. Even though physically, Zuko and Azula are never together in the first season, it doesn't matter. You can still see how the dynamics of this family made him who he was, just like it made Azula who she was. In a way, the first season is a little bit of a prequel story for Azula because when she arrives in the cartoon in the second season, she's kind of fully formed as a character. Here we see a little more of her journey as to how she gets there."

19. Albert feels like the Zuko/Azula/Ozai relationship is representative of an Asian family dynamic.

"And to me, it's very much an Asian story, not that it's limited only to Asian families. But that pressure to exceed the parental expectations. The sibling rivalry all feel, from my personal point of view, like an Asian story."

20. The actors went through an intense six-week boot camp to train for their fighting scenes

"We're incredibly fortunate in that both Dallas [Liu, Zuko] and Ian [Ousley, Sokka] came to us as incredibly accomplished martial artists. Both of them are world-class in their fields. They already knew what they were doing. And even with that, we put all four of them through a pretty intense boot camp before we even started shooting. It was about six weeks, where they trained with the stunt team every day, in order to learn all of the bending techniques."

21. Kiawentiio, who plays Katara, was more "tentative" at first about her action scenes but acclimated beautifully, which helped her character's progression on screen.

"For someone like Kiawentiio, who didn't have a background in martial arts, she started out a little more tentative, in terms of physical movements. But that worked for her character because Katara is not supposed to be an accomplished water bender at the beginning, and as the season progressed, and as Kiawentiio got better and better, Katara got better and better. It worked really well in terms of the progression of her character."

22. The massive action sequences were hard to pull off, and took a lot of set building and choreography.

"Some of the epic action sequences were challenging to do. Whether it's the escape from Pohuai, where we built an entire wall of that prison, and then also had bamboo ladders, and an army of stunt people going through all of that. It was tough. Also, the fights in the finale; the giant battle sequences between the Northern Water Tribe. For those we built a huge section of Agna Qel'a, with the bridge and the wall and scores of extras running through it, and fighting, that was incredibly challenging, as well. The Southern Air Temple fight in the very first episode was another epic undertaking. Those were all really challenging. We relied on the skills of the stunt teams and everyone involved to pull that off."

23. And lastly, Aang's first meeting and conversation with Zuko was the hardest scene to capture on an emotional scale for Albert.

"Emotionally speaking, certain scenes where I felt it was crucial to the season, and would be challenging for the performance [was filming] the scene between Zuko and Aang. The scene between Zuko and Aang, after the "Blue Spirit" episode, when they're hiding out together, away from the Fire Nation soldiers. The first bonding of them. I'll be honest, I was a little nervous going into that scene because I thought it was so important. It's the first time the two of them get to really talk. But once Gordon and Dallas started getting into it, all my weariness melted away because they were so good at it. They did the whole scene all the way through, and it was incredible to watch. But for me, if we didn't get that scene right, a lot of things wouldn't have worked for the season. Or, frankly, for the entire series. We needed to understand who these characters were, how they go from being enemies to having certain bonds, and how that sets the stage for everything else to come."

#natla #atla #netflix avatar #netflix atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar netflix #atla netflix #buzzfeed #albert kim #article

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