HE BURNT HIS MOUTH ON HIS COCOA 😭

This dude.

Here’s the thing about the air nomads.

I introduced a friend to ATLA a few nights ago, and they had only known two things about the entire show: the cabbage meme, and that Aang apparently wants to ride every large and dangerous animal he can possibly find. We got through the first five or so episodes, and my friend noted that Aang is exactly what a 12-year-old would be like if given godlike powers, and that this is literally just what he could do with airbending. He can’t even wield any of the other elements, and he’s one of the most powerful people on the planet, because he’s an airbender.

And that got me thinking.

This snippet from Bitter Work is one of the few pieces of concrete information we get about the airbenders, at least in ATLA. Iroh is explaining to Zuko how all four of the elements connect to the world and to each other.

Fire is the element of power, of desire and will, of ambition and the ability to see it through. Power is crucial to the world; without it, there’s no drive, no momentum, no push. But fire can easily grow out of control and become dangerous; it can become unpredictable, unless it is nurtured and watched and structured.

Earth is the element of substance, persistence, and enduring. Earth is strong, consistent, and blunt. It can construct things with a sense of permanence; a house, a town, a walled city. But earth is also stubborn; it’s liable to get stuck, dig in, and stay put even when it’s best to move on.

Water is the element of change, of adaptation, of movement. Water is incredibly powerful both as a liquid and a solid; it will flow and redirect. But it also will change, even when you don’t want it to; ice will melt, liquid will evaporate. A life dedicated to change necessarily involves constant movement, never putting down roots, never letting yourself become too comfortable.

We see only a few flashbacks to Aang’s life in the temples, and we get a sense of who he was and what kind of upbringing he had.

This is a preteen with the power to fucking fly. He’s got no fear of falling, and a much reduced fear of death. There’s a reason why the sages avoid telling the new avatar their status until they turn sixteen; could you imagine a firebender, at twelve years old, learning that they were going to be the most powerful person in the whole world? Depending on that child, that could go so badly.

But the thing about Aang, and the thing about the Air Nomads, is that they were part of the world too. They contributed to the balance, and then they were all but wiped out by Sozin. What was lost, there? Was it freedom? Yes, but I think there’s something else too, and it’s just yet another piece of the utter brilliance of the worldbuilding of ATLA.

To recap: we have power to push us forward; we have stability to keep us strong; we have change to keep us moving.

And then we have this guy.

The air nomads brought fun to the world. They brought a very literal sense of lightheartedness.

Sozin saw this as a weakness. I think a lot of the world did, in ATLA. Why do the Air Nomads bother, right? They’re just up there in their temples, playing games, baking pies in order to throw them as a gag. As Iroh said above, they had pretty great senses of humour, and they didn’t take themselves too seriously.

But that’s a huge part of having a world of balance and peace.

It’s not just about power, or might, or the ability to adapt. You can have all of those, but you also need fun. You need the ability to be vulnerable, to have no ambitions beyond just having a good day. You need to be able to embrace silliness, to nurture play, to have that space where a very specific kind of emotional growth can occur. Fun makes a hard life a little easier. Fun makes your own mortality a little less frightening to grasp. Fun is the spaces in between, that can’t be measured by money or military might. Fun is what nurtures imagination, allows you to see a situation in a whole new light, to find new solutions to problems previously considered impossible.

Fun is what makes a stranger into a friend, rather than an enemy.

Fun helps you see past your differences.

Fun is what fuels curiosity and openmindedness.

Fun is the first thing to die in a war.

OP went and ended hard with the last line.

Oh hell that last line legit made me instantly tear up

So happy this post is making it’s rounds again!

Wait, making the rounds…again?

Dang y’all

introducing your gf to your dad moment

My thoughts on Elemental and how one scene spoke to me deeply.

Elemental, aside from its poignant depiction of what it entails to live as a first generation child born of immigrants and the challenges faced related to it, has also seemed to have touched on another subject, maybe accidentally. But, regardless of it’s intentional depiction or not, the movie also touches on the complexity of romantic relationships for people outside the common denominator.

A few days ago, I saw a lot of activity on social media about the movie coming from Aro/Ace people. As an effort to avoid spoiling myself, I skimmed the few posts that showed up in my feed. Now that I have seen the movie, I understand with clarity why it resonated so strongly with these particular communities, despite not being the intended broader target with its messaging.

As a person in the Ace spectrum, as well as someone with Autism, I can testify to the fact that we navigate very different waters in terms of human connection outside our family nucleus.

We hold value on the soul, the personality and the abstract connection that results by having “chemistry” with someone above physical displays of attraction. The same goes for many neurodivergent people. In short terms: It’s a lot harder for us to “touch” and go beyond it. For us, it needs to matter. It needs to be genuine.

In the “touch” scene where Wade and Ember join palms, she hesitates. Ember struggles with allowing herself to try. Wade is calm, patient and understanding of her limitations without holding back his own desire to connect. Showing genuine affection towards her.

When she realizes she can touch him, his contact starts to ground her and she relaxes. Finally allowing herself to fall into his embrace.

They dance and sway and for a few minutes, simply enjoy each other’s proximity. What’s been an emotional connection has now been proven to also be able to be present physically. In their own terms, without having to morph it into anything else. It ’s genuine. It’s unique and it’s entirely theirs.

To someone like me, who struggles with allowing my walls to come down. To be touched, it’s a beautiful scene. One that displays the yearn many of us have: To connect with someone on such a level. To find the person we can touch without feeling uncomfortable and who accepts and respects the way we are.

To me, modern dating culture expects physical displays of attraction as a genuine demonstration of connection and when you are somebody that doesn’t follow those “rules” you struggle finding the connection you seek.

To see these characters find so much calm and comfort in a simple embrace is a visual testament to what we value. What we seek and hold dear to what constitutes us as a person.

“I’m so lucky” he says while holding her and my heart swells.

It’s like hope and maybe also reassurance. That one day, we will find the person we can allow in. Their touch won’t feel foreign and we’ll not deny ourselves in how we connect with them.

Dragonfoxgirl.

Do you think the science side of tumblr could explain why we asexuals are fawning over an animated romantic comedy?

Reblog if ur a true Entrapta-head

Also Reblog if you love tiny food

THE GUYS!!!! (And their pre-evo)

Dex entries below! <3

Zuko seems to be shipped with just about everyone under the sun except Mai. So lemme POINT OUT

Mai had a crush on him BEFORE THE AGNI KAI THAT GOT HIM BANISHED

I.e. back when he was more himself than we see for most of the show until halfway through season 3.

She liked him for who he really was. I think that’s often glossed over.

A lot of people point to The Beach as an indicator that their relationship is bad, but that’s kind of the point? Zuko is struggling with himself and it’s affecting his relationship with Mai. He’s not who she fell in love with anymore but she’s trying to stick with him despite that. (A lot of their body language in the episode is them turned away from one another.)

Then in the Boiling Rock Part 2, despite him breaking her heart, she still protects him from the prison guards and Azula because he’s finally acting like the boy she knows and loves again.

And of course in the finale, when he’s truly himself again, they fully make up and look genuinely happy together.

I’m not bashing anyone who doesn’t ship them, but aagghhhhh they’re so cute together and I love them and I had to get this off my chest

Remember that part where Froggy legit went "Man, fuck that hedgehog", and immediately chose violence for like 20 seconds?

I definitely do and am fearful of what he is capable of after that mess

Froggy really just did not give a flying feather

Anyway Chloé’s character was never assassinated, at least not in the way a lot of people are claiming, because that would require actually going against her established character

From the start, Chloé was a spoiled bully with attitude problems. Her behavior escalating in later seasons doesn’t go against that. It’s consistent with her character and follows the natural escalation of stakes in the show, even if stupid.

If anything came close to assassinating her character, it was the beginnings of her supposed redemption arc wherein she went from being a fun-to-watch antagonist to another troubled sad rich white kid whose sob story made them a drag to watch and analyze. Her actions were already perfectly explained by her spoiled upbringing, adding an abusive mother into the mix was just a cheap attempt at making her sympathetic and excusing her actions. It was so cheap, in fact, that it made her look worse. It was so obvious what they were trying to do, and doing badly at that, that when they finally put the “arc” to rest with her choosing to be evil, I was relieved. They finally stopped beating the dead horse. She was close to completely ruined by her “redemption” and if they’d kept on the path they were taking, I would’ve just been all the more annoyed.

Of course, the previous paragraph is my personal opinion, but I think objectively the point still stands that Chloé’s personality was always “obnoxious spoiled snobby bully” and the show kept that all the way until she was written out.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t think she deserved what happened to her and strongly disagree with the crew’s stance on the okayness about the circumstances under which she was written out, I just think that her characterization remained relatively consistent and therefore no assassination took place

I disagree. It wasn't necessarily about her being redeemed. It was more so about her having layers, only to then dismiss these layers in season 4. In seasons 2 and 3, they never contradicted what was previously established, only building upon it. That's not inconsistency, that's development.

It only became Character Assassination when, instead of carrying on with her twisted logic and complex motivation, they radicalized the character without showing us her train of thought. Instead of being someone who couldn't fathom a life outside of the way her parents raised her, they instead have her shout to the audience "I'm a mean mean person." They began to make her a mustache twirler and then took it even further by making her a nothing burger in season 5. We get it. She's mean. But she stopped being fun to watch after season 3 because the writers became obsessed with shoving the idea of her being "irredeemable" down our throats instead of letting her develop down a dark road naturally.

I liked watching Chloe be a bully, and I like complex characters. Chloe's complexity came in multiple episodes. Antibug, Origins, Zombizou, Malediktator, Miraculer, etc. It was through different relationships, not just her mother.

If anything, I think the show manufacturing sentiment is a relatively newer thing that's happening to our "heroes." Marinette, Chat, Gabriel, and Zoe seem to be the worst in this.

At least Zoe is the most consistent character among them. The rest are super transparent and often flip on a dime.

Bottle rocket under ice

rad 

I’m pretty sure that the reason the ice fractured into six slices is the same reason snowflakes are often six sided and it has to do with the shape of a molecule of water and I just think that’s so freaking cool.

How would it even stay lit though?

!!!!! it IS actually because of the structure of water molecules! Water molecules are fuckin weird, as are lots of other liquid substance molecules, because theyre shaped like fuckin HEXAGONS! hexagons are those weird, six-sided shapes that re very sturdy, but they dont tend to sit very well when stacked together. thats why, when you fill up a glass of water to its full capacity, it can go OVER the brim a little and not spill over. It’s also why water beads.

anyway, so since water is essentially made up of a gazillion little hexagons, it tends to gather into larger hexagons as it shapes together. this is not visible unless the water is in a solid form, aka ice. when the water is split, it tends to crack around the established hexagons. that bottle rocket exploded in the PERFECT place to show this phenomenon and its geeking me out.

ALSO! the bottle rocket stays lit because the fuse was definitely waterproof and made with magnesium and an oxidizer of some sort. this means that they will burn underwater because they dont need the oxygen from the air to stay lit. thats so fucking weird isnt it. im tipsy and its the 4th of july. sorry for the science haha

Don’t you dare apologize for science

Reblogging for science, explosions, and cool hexagons!

In Brazil people were like this waiting to see across the spiderverse

Source

(bonus)

Bad romance

The video version is shared below 👀

sonic prime season 2 ladies and gentlemen