bro how does zuko just immediately get to katara? he’s literally sat the farthest away that means he literally got up and like…booked it to her

He's had practice.

Or, the moon and the sun always know how to align with each other.

Also, the others would have absolutely seen him do this and decided not to comment on it at all

Periodic reminder that you are not immune to reactionary radicalization through fandom.

We all know the “jokes” about how old bronies either came out as queer or became fascists - except they’re not really jokes, and a lot of the queer ones admit to having been in the pipeline before they came out (some in a way that implies they never totally got out of said pipeline and don’t understand the gravity of it),

GamerGate was an entire right-wing reactionary movement that was - and this is not hyperbole - partially responsible for turning fascism into a “legitimate” position by the American Overton window, composed entirely of people who feared losing their fan spaces,

We’ve had terfs right here on tumblr dot com BRAGGING about how useful fandom is as a recruiting space,

TJLC was a big pipeline for acephobia on this hellsite in particular, when people argued that headcanoning Sherlock as ace was inherently homophobic because it was denying a TOTALLY GONNA BE CANON (while the creators were promising that it wasn’t going to be canon) gay pairing, and puritanical, and just HAVING that headcanon was saying that people COULDN’T ship Johnlock, all in the interest of a “fake” sexuality and “pretending to be oppressed” and oh whoops there you went,

We see people who all but center their fandom activity and identities around figuring out which people in predominantly queer fandom spaces are SECRETLY PEDOPHILES AND GROOMERS, acting consciously or otherwise under the assumption that predominantly queer fandom spaces are just massively infested with them in a way that other spaces are not for SOME reason, who twist the definition of “pedophilia” in these spaces until it covers shipping a 17-year old fictional character with an 18-year old fictional character, or a 30-year old with a 45-year old, or including an autistic character in a ship, and drawing two 17-year old characters kissing constitutes “child porn”, and who unironically say we should bring back the Hays Code and Censorship Is Good Actually And Our Problem Is We Don’t Do It Enough and this often becomes a pipeline to “sex ed is child abuse; people shouldn’t even know what sex is until they turn 18; you need my consent to wear certain outfits in public if I see them as sexually charged, and Pride SHOULD be an assimilationist sideshow for our corporate overlords family-friendly party with no sadness or anger or ESPECIALLY acknowledgement of sex allowed”,

We’ve seen otherwise progressive people defend literal hate symbols in fanart when pushback against the above brand of reactionaries gets corrupted into zero-nuance “it’s us vs. them so anything they don’t like is Good”,

Even outside of those examples some of the most vicious, unapologetic, blatant queerphobic abuse I’ve seen in recent years hasn’t come from right-wingers but from LGBT+ people, dressing their deep, violent, seething hatred for queer people who aren’t exactly like them in a thin veneer of progressive language, who have become so convinced that they’re the main character of the fucking universe that they think writing or enjoying a queer story that doesn’t resonate with them is more queerphobic than sending a queer person who writes or enjoys such a story countless rape and death threats and denying their identity,

We’ve seen these examples again and again and again, and we keep seeing it again and again and again, so I am once again on my knees BEGGING people to recognize that this is not Something That Happens To Other, BAD People, or Something That Happens To People In BAD Fandoms, or Something That Happens To People On The OTHER Side Of Perennial Drama; this is something that CAN happen to you.

These things are the result of the fact that fandom is, by nature, a place of heightened emotion and if you don’t know what to look out for that is very exploitable; you need to know the methods people use to do this, simply Being In The Right Fandoms or Liking The Right Ships is not enough.

So, if you see someone trying to convince you that you have the ONLY valid approach to any specific character, or ship, or show, or whatever, that your ship is activism and your fanfics are praxis, and liking something else or liking the same thing differently is Only For Bad People, that is the single biggest red flag that YOU NEED TO RUN, THEY’RE TRYING TO SELL YOU SOMETHING THAT YOU DO NOT WANT

Seeing people reblog this with mile-long DNI pages that talk about about “irredeemable media” and “you’re a pedophile if you like XYZ mainstream piece of media and I hate you” and “if you like these things that are bad irl happening in fiction in any context that’s apologism for them in reality and you should be ashamed” and “if you’re okay with consenting adults having weird sex and talking about weird sex with other consenting adults and putting weird sex in appropriately tagged fanfics that means you support rape and pedophilia and bestiality and incest and you’re evil” and “terfs and exclusionists and gatekeepers gtfo BUT combination labels aren’t valid and trans men aren’t really oppressed beyond collateral damage and fuck off if you think they are lol” and doing the biggest facepalm of my life like

👏 THIS 👏 IS 👏 ABOUT 👏 YOU 👏

👏 THIS 👏 IS 👏 ABOUT 👏 YOU 👏

👏 THIS 👏 IS 👏 ABOUT 👏 YOU 👏

👏 THIS 👏 IS 👏 ABOUT 👏 YOU 👏

👏 THIS 👏 IS 👏 ABOUT 👏 YOU 👏

👏 THIS 👏 IS 👏 ABOUT 👏 YOU 👏

👏 THIS 👏 IS 👏 ABOUT 👏 YOU 👏

So I sincerely hope, if you’re one of those people reblogging this, you’re taking it as a call to seriously reflect on those beliefs and how you came to hold them, and not just sitting there smugly thinking that when I said “YOU are not immune to this” I meant “YOUR FOLLOWERS may not be immune to this, but YOU are, oh great and glorious Knower of Pure from Irredeemable, holder of the True Correct Media Opinions”

Let’s simplify it a bit: No one is immune to doing evil, period. Always reflect on what you are doing and saying and why. Becoming complacent, thinking that you’re a “good person” and thus can only do “good things” is the fast-lane to the worst kind of evil: that which tries to justify itself as good.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, indeed.

Tumblr users are already frothing at the mouth to kill that old man for the 2000th time

“kat is the worst katara nickname!” extremely loud incorrect buzzer i would like to introduce you to the atrocity that is the unironic use of kitty kat

More Toph ahaaa

WHERE IS SHE?

WHERE DID THEY TOOK HER?

my creative writing prof also HATES fantasy. as in if she asks for an example of symbolism in a book, and you give something from a fantasy novel, she’ll ask for an example from a “non-commercial book” instead.

I dunno man, people can have preferences, but the second you discount the artistic merit of sci fi and fantasy I stop taking your opinion seriously. and there’s such a big culture in Canada of only valuing literary fiction, to the point where one of our biggest authors, Margaret Atwood, refused for a while to classify her books as sci fi or fantasy. she said they were “speculative fiction”, which is entirely separate and very highbrow (sarcasm).

and I could go on about how Octavia Butler and Ursula Le Guin wrote books every bit as intellectual (and honestly, even more so) than their literary counterparts, but I am also an enjoyer of schlock!! I think there’s artistic merit in animorphs, and in isekais where a japanese schoolgirl reincarnates into a magical spider who has to level up like it’s a video game! it’s like with everything, you can’t draw a clean line that separates ‘art’ from ‘non-art’ or even ‘lesser art’, and pretending you can do so just makes you look ignorant and goofy. in my opinion.

Terry Pratchett did a really good interview about this.

the sweet and humble sudoku: here’s some numbers to get you started :) please enjoy my puzzle <3

the nefarious minesweeper: why don’t you just Guess. fucking Guess.

katara for my friend 💧🩵

this is fred, the dot.

fred wants to grow into a beautiful tree, but sadly has no branches

reblog to give fred a branch

i will post fred status updates as he grows

look at him go!

he's figuring out how to tree!

35 reblogs, he's growing so good :D

75 reblogs, fred continues to grow

reminder to spread out your branches (ie. dont spam reblogs on one post), he's starting to get a little crowded near the trunk :(

At 1788 Reblogs, Fred is spreading nicely... But We Can Do Better :)

the frustrating thing about azula discourse is that i LOVE her as a character. she is very well-written and there is very little i would change about her arc in the show. the trouble is that certain azula stans will take any discussion about like, things she did and the narrative role and function she was supposed to serve in canon as “hate.” it’s not hate to talk about the things the character did and was and said in canon. it’s not hate to call her a villain because she is a villain in the narrative. she’s a villain we can have sympathy for, sure, but still very much a villain.

To be honest, her so called fans are the ones who seem to hate who she is in canon, because they constantly deny it or make excuses and are the ones preventing other people from having meaningful discussions about her.

I've had people tell me that I "shouldn't judge her" like what do you mean????

Azula's age is pulled out as a mitigating circumstance so often in those particular discussions, too, and it's like... first of all, very telling that this grace (and the idea that Azula 'deserved' a redemption arc/that it's a failing of the show that she didn't get one) is extended to Azula rather than, say, Jet, for whom I think a much better argument could be made; and secondly, all the main characters are kids! If Azula shouldn't be termed or treated as a villain because she's 'a child' then what are we doing venerating a 12-year-old child as a hero?

The fact is, these characters aren't treated like children within the narrative because if they were, we wouldn't have a story. Azula is a villain because her narrative role is that of a villainous antagonist who impedes the progress of our protagonists--including Zuko, against whom she is specifically set because she serves a further purpose to his own character arc (and Katara's). The show can't offer her redemption, because not only would the notion of her accepting such an offer require a completely different character than the one we see on screen, but doing so would take away from Zuko's character arc, and he is the deuteragonist! She is largely there to serve as an obstacle to and a symbol of his own growth as a character, not the other way around.

Is it tragic that she was so warped by her father to the point where she was sadistic and cruel even as a young child? Absolutely. But she's not more 'deserving' than anyone else of a happy ending just because she's young. (Jet was young too, and I'd argue for a better ending for him before I'd even touch Azula's canon story!) And, narratively, there was no place for a redemption for her in the original show.

They also won't extend the same grace to Zuko despite him being only two years older. I've seen people point out that Zuko acts younger than Azula (especially when he's around her) like it's also a failing of the show, when it's literally the point. Almost like abuse warps your psychology or something. But then they'll tear Zuko to shreds for not acting like an adult when it suits them, and then praise him for being naive enough to be manipulated by Azula when it suits them and act like this makes him more moral than the adults who know better than to trust Azula and try to protect him from her.

Also, yes, so many of her stans seem to not understand her primary function in the narrative not only as a villain, but as Zuko's sister, which is where most of the emotional impact of her story is. When people say that she deserves redemption but they still think she should be cruel to Zuko I'm like...where is the redemption again? The way she treated Zuko is also tied up in the way she treated everyone in her life, her perception of herself and her country as superior and her willingness to participate in a genocide. There is no redemption scenario for Azula where she still gets to think of herself as better than the brother she abused.

I know that my opinion is by and large unpopular (at least from what I see), but I honestly believe that Azula should not get a redemption, and not because I hate her but because I love the tragedy of her story. There is value in tragedies being allowed to be just that.

But I feel like I am in the minority.

I agree with the "value in tragedy" aspect, which is so often lost in fandom these days with the push for everything to be nice and cozy and easy, and, frankly, boring. I am not opposed to Azula redemption, but what I am opposed to is this ridiculous moral posturing where we attack anyone who interprets the story as it is as "hating children" or being sexist or whatever. It's nothing but purity culture bullshit and it's a prime example of how purity culture and virtue signalling can actually be misused to defend those who cause harm rather than to protect people. The prime example is people saying that Azula needs help because she is a child but their idea of "help" is actually focused on enabling her to hurt other children. That's where the buck stops if you really care about protecting children, or any vulnerable group of people.

@loveamongdragons I also don't personally think Azula should narratively get a redemption, mostly for the reasons @firelxdykatara mentioned. Narratively, her character arc would be unsatisfying if she were given a redemption. I'd say, "unless it was done just right," but I feel like there is little chance for that. Her role wasn't really to be a character that could be reformed—this doesn't mean we can't empathize with her in some ways, and it doesn't mean she can't be or isn't a complex character, but not every villain needs to have a redemption. Not every morally grey character needs a redemption, either. I honestly dislike the "redemption" of Mai and Ty Lee as they were handled (or essentially dropped on us) in canon, but that's mostly because I would argue they needed more substance to them for me to really care why they would seek redemption when it impacts nothing and is simply to make things the slightest bit tidier at the end.

All this to say, I know I've seen tweets of Aaron Ehasz saying he wanted a redemption arc for Azula, and I would be interested and open to seeing what he had in mind for that, but I don't know that it ultimately would have been the most satisfying.

atla but blue eye samurai au

You are not safe from this. You, the person reading this, are not safe from this. No matter how educated or open minded you think you are, you are not safe from this. The moment you think you are safe from it is the moment you become the most susceptible.

Its similar to why you cannot put bad people in a class of their own. The moment you do that you stop being able to see the bad things that the people closest to you do a la "my best friend couldn't have said that racist thing, they're not evil."

The moment you think you are immune from this type of backslide into right wing nonsense is the moment you stop questioning yourself enough to keep yourself from backsliding into right wing nonsense a la "I mean im not antiscience, im vaccinated, I just think that fluoride in our water supply is imparting children's ability to learn as fast as they otherwise could without it."

Remember, being progressive means progressing, its about always moving forward. The moment you rest on your laurels and stop putting in effort to keep the progression is the moment you start becoming left behind.

teashop zuko was peak

god keep ur fucking kink meme shit out of ao3 tag y'all make this fandom even more insufferable than it already is and thats saying something!!! The kind of shit y'all post require a fucking trigger warning it doesnt belong in a safe space

Hello! I see there’s been some confusion! Allow me to clear something up: AO3 is not a safe space.

Let me repeat that. Archive Of Our Own is not a safe space, not in the way you mean it.

From the AO3 Terms of Service:

Why does the Archive have a goal of maximum inclusiveness?

What kind of content do you allow?

The ratings/warnings policy is really minimal. Why is this?

The stated desires/goals when AO3 was conceived and initially developed can be found here, on a livejournal post from @astolat (founder of VidCon, Yuletide, and AO3, and all around fannish legend). In short, the goal was “allowing ANYTHING – het, slash, RPF, chan, kink, highly adult.” 

And that, in fact, is precisely what AO3 hosts. You see, AO3 is a safe space for fanfiction. It’s a safe space for people to explore all kinds of fannish content without fear of banning, deletion, or legal reprisal. It was founded, designed, and developed to be a safe space for fandom and fannish works.

There also seems to be some confusion about the nature of safe spaces vs. trigger warnings. A fannish work that merits a trigger warning isn’t something that doesn’t belong in a safe space. The trigger warning is what MAKES something a safe space despite the presence of fannish works that merit warnings.

Something else to consider: there are many other things that include het, slash, RPF, chan, kink, and highly adult material, in addition to incest, pedophilia, infanticide, necrophilia, rape, bestiality, sadism and violence, adultery, and all manner of other things. 

So holding individual women (because that’s what fandom primarily is, women exploring their sexuality in a safe forum filled with other women doing the same) accountable for their fictional exploration of things that a) exist in real life in genuinely damaging forms, b) have significant impact on women themselves, thus leading in some part to the urge to explore those things safely, and c) have existing in movies, television, popular culture, the Bible, and in all of literature since literature began? Well, that’s just an extension of the same culture that polices women’s sexuality in the first place and drives them to find safe ways to explore it.

Ding ding ding we have a winner 🙌🏼

AO3 was pretty much meant to be a safe space …  FOR WRITERS.

FOR WRITERS TO POST PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING AS LONG AS IT IS ADEQUATELY WARNED FOR AND MEETS THEIR CLEARLY POSTED CRITERIA.

IT LITERALLY EXISTS TO PROTECT FANWORKS FROM BEING CENSORED, THREATENED BY LAWYERS, OR TAKEN DOWN OR ALTERED AGAINST THE WRITER’S WILL. THIS APPLIES TO ALL WORKS THAT MEET ITS TOS. ALL OF THEM. YES, INCLUDING AND ESPECIALLY THAT REALLY ICKY ONE.

THAT IS LITERALLY ITS PURPOSE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. IT WILL NOT CHANGE ITS PURPOSE AND SUDDENLY DECIDE SOME KINDS OF CENSORSHIP ARE OKAY NOW BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE YELL.

If this makes anyone personally uncomfortable, there’s a very easy way to avoid that. Just don’t use AO3. Problem solved.

I guess I should be glad that we have built a world where young fans can be so deeply ignorant of fannish history that they think that the mechanism of repression they’re invoking wasn’t originally built and used to silence them, and so easily could be again.  Their assumption is that they are entitled to have fandom feel comfortable and safe for them; it literally does not occur to them that within their own short lifespans you had to have separate and sometimes secret lists and archives for slash because “nobody wants to see that” and “it’s gross/against God’s will” and “what if the children see it!!!”  (I remember a man knitter having to quit the freaking knitlist because he took such shit just for referring to his partner as “DH/DB” (dear husband/boyfriend) the way the women knitters did theirs.)  And even within the slash community…the very first Smallville slash mailing list tried to ban strong language and graphic content.  A rebel splinter had to break off and found ClarkLex to publish all kinds of stories.  That was only in 2001!  

I know it’s a good thing that we’re now in a world where indignant young people have no idea how vulnerable they historically have been and still are in this particular context.  The time before: that was worse, for many people.  But it’s still very tiring to see.

Please, indignant young people, do start up your own archives where the Problematic Content is banned.  You’ll be setting each other on fire within the year over just where the line is to be drawn.  And advancing your actual cause not at all. 

AO3 is big and easy to use and I have seen some fucked up shit there.

Fandom is becoming mainstream. We need to reconsider if “because you CAN write it, no other reason necessary” is a good philosophy these days. It may be that AO3 needs to reconsider its philosophy and possibly change.

Excuse me? What’s wrong with writing something “because I can”? What other philosophy do you want us to adopt? Let’s see if this fits mainstream criteria of normalcy, of “good” and “moral”?  And the answer to that is: NO. A huge big NO. This is why AO3 was created after LJ strikethrough in 2007 - because we wanted a space where it didn’t matter how weird or kinky or fucked up a story is. Where it didn’t matter that it’s not mainstream. Where we wouldn’t be judged, nobody could delete our stuff and nobody could try holding us legally accountable simply for writing something that’s not to their tastes (as long as there is no actually illegal material). 

Why would they “need” to do that? For what reason? AO3 is precisely what we need - apparently now not only to ward off attacks from outside fandom as it used to be, but from inside fandom as well.

“It may be that AO3 needs to reconsider its philosophy and possibly change.”

NO. Ao3 doesn’t *need* to do a damn thing. If you (and plenty of other people, evidently) think that fandom needs a more mainstream, sanitized space/archive go ahead and make it happen, the source codes are out there (and good luck deciding about how clean is clean enough).

I have seen this exact response given over and over again -make your own space, go on and do it yourselves- and it’s always ignored or treated like a dismissal. It’s NOT a dismissal, this is how everything in fandom gets created. This is how ao3 was created: a bunch of people wanted it enough to make it happen. We donated money, time and workto make it happen. And the folks at ao3 did such a good job that the result is now the biggest and most well known fandom archive. But it was born from a bunch of people who wanted to give fanfics a safe space and were willing to work for it.

Every time I see people huffing and ignoring the perfectly logical suggestion to “get together and create the fandom space that you want” I can’t help but think that they just don’t care enough about their ideas to be willing to put in the work (and if so, why should we care enough to do their work for them?) or worse, are just in it for the joy of policing and shaming others

THIS.

We didn’t like how it was done elsewhere, so we built AO3. You don’t like how AO3 does it? WELL GO BUILD YOUR OWN SPACE INSTEAD OF DEMANDIG AO3 TO DO AS YOU PLEASE! DAMN IT!

This entitlement is so disgusting.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

As we say in Danish, “if you don’t like the smell of the bakery, you can eat somewhere else.”