so the besties got me to watch atla+lok for the first time with them and i had a fun mini-game of ranking characters after each book (with lok, forgot for atla and only did a full one after finishing lmao) to track how i felt about character development and such, then i found a tiermaker that combined both shows into one so here's a post to preserve my 100% factually correct opinions feat. bestie-named categories. i kinda treat the tiers as a gradient up until emergency meeting, there's some crossover to be found and a few people who could probably swap if i spent long enough thinking on it but who has the time

+ some ship opinions bc i saw this one while searching for the others

a little bonus for fun since i still have the file: lok after b4

assorted tidbits:

asami was in S tier for each korra book simply bc i liked her vibes but i couldn't keep her there for the overall rankings bc i feel like the writers did her wrong. she is my daughter tho, i adopted her

meelo went from C > B > A > S thru each book bc he's the icon that kept on slaying

emergency meeting explanations: general iroh is the og bc i heard his voice and screamed impostor / wu i simply could not stand and i wanted to throw him out of an airlock / that's not my katara it's not who took my daughter and did this to her

i only started to like varrick during that last book, so i technically wanted more screentime w just that version of him lmao

i was assigned jinora stan before we started lok and it was correct. she's my actual daughter, i gave birth to her myself, actually

kuvira would be S++ if i'd liked her ending more

mako was the top of C for the entirety of his run. i saw the vision but it was not made real

Let's Talk About Pavitr Prabhakar

Preface: I know nothing about Marvel. I've never been a marvel fan and the only things I know about the franchise is stuff I've gotten second hand from friends or generally existing on the wider internet, with the exception of Across the Spider-Verse. I'm gonna be honest I haven't even seen ITSV all the way through, I just saw the character designs for ATSV and knew I needed to watch it and now I'm obsessed with specifically only the sony animated spider-verse movies.

Further preface: I am only speaking from the standpoint of an angst writer and reader. In addition to this, please understand that the following is typical behavior from me about all my comfort characters, not just Pav. When I get emotionally attached to a character, I want to see them get emotionally damaged and broken down. Don't ask me why, it happens with every character I obsess over.

The potential angst for Pav in BTSV is set up perfectly. P E R F E C T L Y. I want to see Emotional Damage in BTSV bc it is right there, set up just right for maximum effect. Before I get into the actual grit of what I'm itching to see handled in the movie, let's go over the setup. 1. Pav's universe is slowly falling apart at the seams because of the canon break, as far as we're aware right now. 2. The canon event that was interrupted was the one that would set him up to better cope with this. It was the wake up call, the 'you can't save everyone', the 'there WILL be casualties you cannot stop', the 'you are not invincible and all-powerful', the 'this job isn't fun and games'. Pav is noticeably more optimistic than the rest of the characters because he hasn't had his wake up call and thinks he can do it all. He's experienced the joy of saving people without the crippling guilt of being unable to save everyone. He didn't have to come to terms with being unable to save one person he loves. And because of that, because he's still living in this mask of optimism and always being able to make things right, he's going to fall even harder when everything goes wrong. He still thinks he can do it all. He still thinks he's responsible for anything that goes wrong. He still thinks that if he stretches himself thin enough, if he just tries hard enough, he can make everything turn out okay.

I want to see him trying to cope with watching everything crumble around him. I want to see him scramble around trying to save people and fix things all while keeping up that bubbly, optimistic persona we've come to expect from the admittedly very few minutes of screen time he has. I want to see denial, so much denial, insisting that he can fix it, everything can be made right, everyone can be saved. I want to see the situation slowly--or quickly--get out of hand as he struggles to keep up with the deterioration. I want to see him running everywhere, pushing himself to his limits, trying to save as many people as he can. I want to see him have to be pulled away kicking and screaming and crying by one of the other characters literal seconds before what's left of his universe collapses on him. I want to see him on the other side of that portal in someone else's universe grasping on for dear life to the few strands of denial he has left before losing it because he finally comes to terms with the fact that because he didn't get the chance to learn that he can't save everyone, he ended up saving nobody. I also lowkey want Miles to be there to witness that so he has even more pressure behind the fact that saving his dad might cause the collapse of his universe too. I want to walk out of that movie theater emotionally broken.

I also want to see him get back up afterwards. There's definitely not enough time in the movie to properly show even part of the never ending, lifelong grieving process that comes with literally everything you know and love being glitched out of existence, but I want to see him reach out for a support system. I want to see him allow himself to lean on his friends. I want to see him surrounded by all this indescribably heart-stopping loss, and I want to see him take a deep breath and keep walking despite it. Keep surviving. Keep pushing through, keep helping his friends, keep breathing through the anguish and torment.

Why? Am I a sadist? Am I a masochist? Probably. Am I insane? Also maybe, idk, the second psychology referral (after the first one got rejected, fuck you Blue Shield) will take months to get an actual appointment for. But this is what I specialize in as a writer. There's nothing I love writing more than emotionally charged, vulnerable, or gut-wrenching scenes. And I see perfectly before me how wrong this can go for him. I haven't actually had the energy to write or think about writing for so long, but the gears are turning in overtime now.

I would like to note that I do not want him to die. That would be so unsatisfying of an arc... with the possible exception of him glitching out slowly until he fully disappears with his friends around him bc that would be a gut punch. But for the most part, I want him to live through this.

This could also tie in really interestingly with Miles' predicament, between saving his dad and preserving the canon--if that's even a real thing, bc from the get-go Miguel is breaking canon since he wasn't technically bitten, but that's another rant. This could serve as a warning, or as further motivation to find a loop-hole. Or maybe it is a multi-dimensional hole from The Spot after all and Miguel is talking out of his ass, which I wouldn't be surprised by (y'all're simps, but I have been Judging that man from the first minute I saw him).

Ok thank you for coming to my crazy-ass sadistic(?) TedTalk, pls tell me if I'm actually crazy for this bc I think I might be. But also if I don't walk out of that goddamn movie theater crying and speechless I will be asking for my money back. And then I will be probably writing it out myself...

wtf is wrong with me jfc okay i'm leaving now to go scrub my brain with bleach goodbye