I think a lot will depend on the situation and point in the timeline. Are we talking about relatively young and inexperienced turtles that just begin their adventures outside sewers? If yes, then whatever was Tang Shen’s reason for possession, of course all will be freaked out. If we talk about the older turtles, the ones that already faced a vast number of crazy stuff, like literal aliens, magic, or time travel, the reaction would be more moderate for the simple reason it is nothing that new or special anymore.  

In general, some turtles may be freaking more than others, all depending on who is possessed, in what situation and if the ghost can communicate with the possessed turtle or did it violate their body and override their will to get what it needed. However, the same as with Oroku Nagi (as I mentioned in a previous ask), none of the turtles personally knew Tang Shen or were familiar with her character. They know about her only through Splinter - they have respect for Splinter’s master and his lover/wife but that is practically it, no real emotional bond. Which is why I think that turtles are of course willing to help the deceased woman, if not from empathy for her then out of respect to Splinter, but I think the safety of their possessed brother would take priority no matter what is Tang Shen’s purpose.  Especially if we talk about the older turtles, as I suspect they are already done with the naive, idealistic idea of self-sacrificing themselves for the good of mysterious problems.

Avatar The Last Airbender: North and South

If sentient hair attacked Cyrax and Sektor for a stupid comment and kept trying to kill them, I don’t think the same hair would react any better to the idea of cutting them. RIP Lin Kuei, Smoke’s hair brought you doom. All because Tomas couldn’t use a normal conditioner and picked a magic one...

Zuko (and Sokka) in Avatar Chibi Short - Bending Battle

Watching the Avatar Chibi Short - Bending Battle was such a weird experience. The animation itself is nice and cute, but there is something truly messed up when Book 1!Zuko - the antagonist - is the only one non-abusive bender toward Sokka. And Katara, Aang and Toph are literally Sokka’s family and friends!

The short animation is about an argument between Katara, Aang and Toph whose element is the best (Sokka tried to join their bender game but his boomerang skill wasn’t taken into account). 

To prove her point, Katara - Sokka’s younger sister - froze him and literally shattered into pieces.

Toph used Sokka as a ball in a flipper-like game created by her earthbending. 

When Sokka outright said he is tired of being used as everyone’s dummy,

Aang used his airbending to turn him into a balloon.

and once Sokka fell down into lake, Aang was just laughing, so proud of himself and his element.

And there is Zuko (and I can't stress enough, in his Book 1’s outfit of the antagonist) who joined the argument by throwing a flame at Sokka…

except there is no visible sign that Sokka was scorched. Only the fish he held in hand catched the fire and was burned (cooked). 

And there is something to say about that scene, because the animation could easily mark that Sokka was burned in a comedic way - a bit of smoke or smoldering flame here and there - but it didn't. And yeah, in previous scenes there is no permanent damage done either, but we can see Sokka's distress (and pain in cause of Toph's bending?) but it is absent from the fire scene; Sokka's expression does not change at all, while the fish is literally on flame. Which is why I think Zuko's bending did not harm Sokka, and fire was actually aimed at the fish.

A fish that Sokka actually ate at the end of episode.

And even once the benders had another contest whose power/skills is the best, when Zuko was using his fire, he is the only one to actually warn others to stay away

while Aang, Katara and Toph just used their respective elements without any warning.

Look, I know this is chibi and not serious animation but damn, it truly hits hard how Zuko (and by extension, Iroh) is the only one person that did not use his element to abuse Sokka, the one non-bender in the group and actually seems to be caution of how dangerous the fire is (and how he couldn’t be aware if his face was burned with fire?) which fits nicely to the original source material and how Zuko did not use fire to burn people on purpose (as could be seen with Zhao during Agni Kai and how he apologized to Toph for burning her feets by accident).

All while Zuko is presented in his Book 1's outfit, when he played the role of antagonist.

On side note, this little animation would be great propaganda material for LoK's Amon and his Equalist movement, wouldn't it? Benders proving their might by abusing non-bender person? Oh yeah, that would be perfect propaganda.

I’m pretty sure all turtles would quickly notice the change of behavior if one of their brothers started to behave weird or aggressive against them and Master Splinter, however none have any way to connect such possession to Oroku Nagi. Shredder’s older brother was killed years before Splinter met his little (future) sons, so unless the possessed turtle outright calls himself Nagi or the possession happens in a place related to Nagi and Hamato Yoshi’s conflict, I don’t think they could connect dots that easily. Same with Shredder - he lost his brother when he was 7 years old and though Saki loved the much older Nagi, did he truly knew him that well to immediately know the enemy turtle was possessed by his brother’s spirit? Especially when literal decades have passed since his death - the original comics (via Splinter’s tale) pointed out that the Foot Clan used young Saki’s rage to bend him to their own purposes and it raises a question how much love or memory of Nagi he still had to connect possessed turtle’s behavior to his lost brother without any direct clue? To remember how his brother’s presence felt to be around?

I do not doubt that could be an interesting story to see Oroku Saki having a chance to reunite with his lost brother, even if just for a short time, but ironically I think Master Splinter has the best chances to connect the weird behavior of turtle with Yoshi’s old enemy, as he seems to be the only one character to truly remember Nagi as he was.

The smoke powers that were gained by learning magic is the only reason I can think of why MK1!Tomas is not affected by the cold the way any normal human being should be. Any other Smoke should be as much annoyed by and jealous of Kuai Liang and Bi-Han when it comes to winter time as the poor Cyrax and Sektor are. Period. I won’t take any criticism about that XD

Star Wars Darth Maul - Death Sentence Issue #4

Iroh's "I looked away"

“The Storm” [s01e12] provided us a great insight into Zuko’s character, one that undoubtedly helps to understand his motives and anger but also how Ozai’s physical and psychological abuse influenced the banished prince. There are plenty of things to talk about, many little details that build layers of a complicated relationship between Zuko and his father, uncle, or even his crew and how perception of Zuko changes once we learn the truth behind the scar. But the episode also shows us a great deal of insight into Iroh’s character and though I do love how “The Storm” challenged our perception of those characters, rewatching ALTA makes Iroh’s “I looked away” much more devastating to me. 

Because it is not just about his guilt over abuse Zuko was forced to endure. A guilt that won’t disappear no matter if he could or couldn’t do anything to prevent it, but… Iroh truly looked away from Fire Nation as a whole, didn’t he? Understandably, he was grief-struck after Lu Ten’s death and he did not fight back Ozai for the throne, as I suspect he either did not care anymore for it or did not want a civil war to destroy Fire Nation from inside. But he still was The Dragon of West, a very respected general and powerful political figure that others weren’t willing to openly challenge, including Ozai himself.

And no, I’m not wondering why Iroh did not interference with Agni Kai before Zuko’s face was burned to “teach him respect” but about the fact that he did not say anything at all against using the division of new recruits as a bait - and from the episode alone, we know he agreed with Zuko on that matter. It wasn't the right strategy - even if it has merit from a military standpoint, it definitely wasn’t moral or good for Fire Nation’s wellbeing. Beside Zuko, who openly challenged the strategy and called it betrayal, the only person that questioned it at all was an old unnamed general (“But the 41st is entirely new recruits. How do you expect them to defeat a powerful Earth Kingdom battalion?) while Iroh simply kept quiet and this detail makes me think the “I looked away” is as much about Iroh looking away from Ozai’s cruel abuse toward Zuko as about Iroh’s passivity during the war meeting, and in greater scheme, Fire Nation’s politics. I doubt Iroh could change Ozai’s mind and sure, I do not have an idea how the relationship between Fire Lord and ex-Crown Prince looked like, but the point is, Iroh did not even try to question the strategy and choose to sit quietly and dunno, it makes me wonder, did Iroh give up at this point of his life? Was he so afraid of the consequences for speaking his mind that he allowed Ozai and Fire Lord’s court to subdue him so much? Because if he did, his words to Zuko “[...] But you must promise not to speak. Those old folks are a bit sensitive, you know?” is as much warning to Zuko as to himself. 

Iroh said to the crew that Zuko was right but it wasn’t his place to criticize the strategy, but who else was supposed to speak against this plan, if Iroh himself chose to stay quiet on the matter? If all generals - then and three years later - didn’t have any respect for life, whatever for their own subjects or civilians of other nations? And I think this is what truly kills me about this situation, that 13 years old boy had courage to speak against this dehumanization of Fire Nation’s citizens when Iroh, our good uncle Iroh, kept quiet and looked away again and again from what was happening until he couldn’t do that anymore because too great damage was already done.

(And isn’t it ironic that Iroh gave little Zuko a knife with the description never give up without a fight - words Zuko adapted as his life motto - but Iroh himself gave up? First at Ba Sing Sai, after Lu Ten’s death, now here during a war meeting and maybe, just maybe it is Zuko that unexpectedly pushed him back on the right track to actually do something, to make a choice and fight for what he believed was right instead of passively watching all the abuse done to an innocent child and young soldiers serving loyalty to their country. Was Iroh already a White Lotus then or did the travel with Zuko give him an opportunity to join it because he couldn’t anymore look away from how messed up Fire Nation became?)

I feel a lot could depend on the timeline and/or circumstances of how Bi-Han turned into a girl. Are we talking about the original/alternative Lin Kuei that were assassins for hire or the new version of the clan that started as the allies of Liu Kang only to fight now for their own independence and freedom? Because Bi-Han’s role is different in those timelines and thus his change could affect differently his social position in the clan, alliances and rivalries, and in result, how others react to the change.

That said, I don’t think Bi-Han alone is someone who would be too much concerned about the change, maybe beside how different body could affect his fighting skills and be irritated by the unwanted attention of the male characters who like sexy women (like Johnny or Kano or Erron) if female Bi-Han would fall into this category. Then again, Bi-Han already thinks the majority of people are in fact morons, so dealing with idiots is nothing new to him.

As for other characters, I don’t think Sub-Zero changing into a woman would influence his relationship with the closest allies - it may be a bit of a freaking out experience at first but his cold, abrasive personality won’t change, so he is still Bi-Han at heart and no less dangerous than before (or maybe even more, if anyone would be stupid to underestimated his new female body). Hard to say how his brothers would deal with the change, as I doubt original/alternative Kuai Liang would care that much, not sure about the new version, because current Scorpion is kinda a mix of Kuai Liang and Hanzo Hasashi, so hard to predict his reaction. Current timeline Tomas could be confused a bit, Sektor may not care either way. Shang Tsung is already interested in Bi-Han, either in previous timeline as considering him better than younger Sub-Zero or currently making an alliance with the man, so Bi-Han changing into a woman could be just an interesting occurance to explore but otherwise not shaking the already existing relationship. The biggest torn in Bi-Han’s back will be of course Johnny, mainly for all the stupid jokes and flirting, something I imagine would annoy Bi-Han to no end. 

I guess, Bi-Han turning into girl would be more shocking in a world similar to us, however in Mortal Kombat universe turning into a woman doesn’t make him any less dangerous and I guess with the whole magic and gods and messed up timelines, there is plenty weirded stuff than having different body shape/gender to worry about.

Avatar The Last Airbender: North and South

Star Wars Tales of the Jedi - Redemption Issue #2

Avatar The Last Airbender: North and South

Star Wars Republic Issue #50

Avatar The Last Airbender: North and South

Small update: in a few hours I have a plane to visit my sister living abroad and I'm starting my two-week vacation. Unfortunately, I'm not taking my laptop with me this year, so I may not be able to respond very quickly. The queue on this and my side blog archeo-starwars is set up though so have a fun :)

Dunno about MK1 Tomas, but I feel MK9!Smoke would be capable of telling what shade of grey his hair is dyed and then go with the most crazy explanation he could think of just to troll the poor stranger XD

Star Wars Insider #95