Jazz was, at her core, a pessimist.
Oh sure, she wanted the best outcomes and strived to always see the best in people.
But listening to her parents talk about and share crime scene photos of someone who was brutally murdered and who may haunt the place they were headed to while true crime podcasts played instead of road trip tunes as they traveled to whatever graveyard had caught their interest had dulled young Jazz's faith in humanity.
Jazz still had memories of a young her standing in an abandoned insane asylum (or abandoned hospital, or old house, or graveyard, or whatever place they dragged her too) holding a small torch with shaky hands and begging to leave because she was terrified "Can we go? Please? this place is scaring me" only to be told "In a minute Jazzy, we down want the ghost getting away."
They had settled down after Danny was born, choosing to stay in one placed instead of traveling all over the country.
She still expected them to unexpectedly announce that they were going on the road again, she had plans in case they did (saying she'd stay behind with the van to take care of Danny was better then both of them getting used as ghost bait)
But surprisingly they didn't.
And Jazz was thrilled.
Sure, she and Danny were known as the kids of the towns crazy ghosthunters, and sure, she basically had to raise her brother since her parents would rarely leave their lab let alone focus on something not ghost related, and yes, she did have to carefully plan out how to use the family's money so that none of them starved.
But no more sleeping in cheap hotels or their van, no more making friends at playgrounds that she'd never see the next day, no more countless hours spent in places where people died, no more English lessons while on the road.
She went to school now, she had friends that she saw more than once, she had a home that wasn't filled with cockroaches and the sounds of a argument from the room next door.
She had a semi-normal life.
In this time of normality, she relaxed, she let her guard down.
Then Danny died and only came back halfway.
And Jazz was back to being that little girl who was scared of ghosts, only this time she was scared for a ghost.
Danny didn't tell her at first, and even though it hurt she understood, and so while she waited for him to tell her, she planned.
She took job after job, from mowing someone's lawn to working at a checkout.
Money had been put aside in bags filled with clothes and a pair of new id that she had gotten from Tucker, ("Just in case our parents get classified as supervillains and we need to flee" She said not giving anyway that she knew of Danny's ghostly problem, Tucker had made the id anyway even if he thought she was joking and did not in fact have a plan should that situation happen)
One of their neighbors was willing to let her buy their old car despite her family's driving history.
A safe house (more like safe apartment) was bought in the only place that was willing to let a teen buy property, Gotham City.
Danny fought numerous enemies until the only enemy that was left was telling their ghost hunter parents that their son was half dead.
Compared to her, Danny was an optimist, seeing the best in everyone without even having to try like she did.
Believing that the best would happen like if he didn't, he would break into a million pieces and not know how to put himself together again.
Even though he was scared Danny believed that their parents wouldn't react badly, Jazz hoped they wouldn't but was prepared if they did.
And finally, after many nights spent wide awake in case her parents tried to rip Danny apart molecule by molecule while she slept, the shoe dropped.
Their parents loved them, but their work came first, it always came first.
Jazz loved her parents, she truly did, but she loved Danny more.
And in the end, that made her choice of driving all the way to Gotham with nothing but their go bags all the more easier.
And that was how Jazz and Danny ended up as the neighbors of one Jason Todd.
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I was rolling around this post in my brain, considering the manhole cover-shield scene and I had this...thought about a fun, semi-angsty off-screen scenario after the general hullabaloo from Bowser's incursion into Brooklyn has calmed down.
We know from the movie that Mario is injured during the final fight with Bowser, that he had a plethora of cuts and nasty bruises that would need attention. We also know from the movie that Luigi, our unhinged king, picked up a metal manhole cover to block fire.
Basic science would tell us that this manhole cover likely reached some excruciating temperatures rather quickly, and that Luigi's gloves/outfit (which, considering their junked-up van), were probably not the highest quality. Meaning, I have a feeling our green hero might have accumulated a few burn injuries and, given what we know about his character, might have neglected to say anything about this.
Anyway, cue Mario and Luigi getting ready for bed after the whole crazy day, and Luigi, who is so tired he isn't even thinking about what he's doing at this point, absently changing into his sleeping shirt. That's when Mario notices the burn marks. That's when Mario freaks out like the highly protective older brother he is.
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katara’s role as the show’s narrator is so underrated because no one really seems to understand just how deeply katara is impacted by the nature of stories, with regards to their craft, their promulgation, and their cultural significance, so they don’t truly register the sheer metatextual brilliance of having her be the resident storyteller of the narrative itself.
the first thing atla establishes about katara is that she is someone who is fueled by dreams and fantasies, and believes in a return to a world where “all four nations lived together in harmony” (which is obviously an illusory ideal, as there was always geopolitical strife even if it wasn’t as overt as the devastating imperialist project they are now subject to), described to her by kanna’s stories about the old days.
katara is someone who indulges in fantasies of adventure and heroism, projecting these ideals onto both herself and others. she is an idealist in the truest, purest sense of the word, and what is an idealist if not someone who tells themselves stories about a more beautiful world to survive?
it’s no coincidence that the episode where katara successfully scares everyone with a very compellingly narrated campfire story is the same episode that she must contend with her heritage, the ominous lacunae in her stories, the pitfalls of her own naive idealization. it’s also not a coincidence that the story she tells was first told to her by her mother.
katara grew up hearing stories passed down to her from kanna and kya, and those stories gave her hope and brought her the possibility of happiness in a bleak, cruel world where she was ultimately alone. there used to be people like her, said the stories, and they were brave, and they fought til their final breaths to hold onto their culture, their love for their people, their humanity.
well that’s who i’m going to be, says katara. someone who fights, someone who cannot be knocked down (because there is no one else left to take her place), someone who will never cease to have faith in the capacity of others for good, for truth, and for justice.
stories are her heritage, they are her culture, they are how she defines herself and how she understands the world around her. stories are how she copes, how she survives; they are all she has left to cling to. and sometimes they are reductive, and sometimes they are outright false, but that’s okay too. she grows, she adjusts her narratives, she learns to leave room for more grey in her neat tapestries of black and white. stories can define a tragic past, but they can also pave the way for a better future. she keeps telling stories.
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