🤷🤷🤷

Brandon Sanderson is always like this character has immense guilt for something that's not completely under their control. This character is self isolating to protect others from their own pain. This character was raised under such strict rules or for such a narrow purpose they can hardly view themself as a person. This character punishes themself for wanting "indulgences" like freedom or fun or friendship. This character is still so kind

When Zuko apologized to uncle Iroh in the tent cause he was so ashamed of his actions and what he’d done to the only person who unconditionally believed in his ability to do good >>>>>

So okay, I’ve given this rant before but this is another good time for it.

Structurally speaking, ATLA did something important with Zuko that, in a purely mechanistic sense of narrative development, I think a lot of people don’t notice immediately, and that even fewer people who want to emulate what was done with him get.

Which is Zuko is made a protagonist VERY early, and the show goes out of its way to continually place Zuko into situations where the audience empathizes and roots for him.

This happens in literally the second episode of the series, if we count the two-part premiere as a single episode, which I think we should. The A-plot of that episode, “The Southern Air Temple,” is Aang reckoning with the genocide of his people… but the B-plot?

The B-plot is the introduction of Zhao, and more specifically, his introduction in a way that is calculate to shift the audience, whose introduction to Zuko did NOT engender a ton of sympathy to him, directly and forcefully onto his side. They want Zuko to kick Zhao’s ass.

This continues all through book one and book two. Remember, Zuko is never, ever the main villain of this series. That’s initially Zhao, followed by Azula and Ozai. (Plus various temporary players like Long Feng.) Whenever Zuko isn’t placed into direct conflict with the other protagonists, he’s always written and presented in a way that is careful, VERY VERY careful, not to make him too monstrous, and to make us root for him. He’s placed right next to Iroh, who is designed for people to like, and that reflects back onto Zuko; we want Zuko to be better than he is because we want Iroh to have good things.

Put aside for the moment whether any specific character, including Zuko, deserves their redemption. If you’ve decided you’re going to do that, you have to erect the proper narrative scaffolding around them, and it extends to far more things than “did this person not do things that were too horrible” and “is this person genuinely sorry and is working really hard to atone.” There’s a difference between protagonist and white hat, but if you want someone to eventually wear that white hat, you REALLY need to establish them as a plausible protagonist early on.

Yeah, it was made obvious from the get go that Zuko is definitely nowhere near Zhao’s level of nasty, which in turn means he’s nowhere near Azula’s and nowhere in the scope of Ozai’s.

1.) 

He made a deal with Aang to leave the Southern Water Tribe alone if Aang went with him. When Aang escaped with help from two of those tribe members, Zuko didn’t demand they go back and destroy what was left of the tribe as revenge. He didn’t even think of it as an option. There was no split second where he went, should I/shouldn’t I?

2.) 

This is repeated. He corners the Avatar somewhere, causes some damage to the area in the ensuing fight, but does not stick around to raze the village/monastery to the ground and kill the people when he doesn’t get what he wants. Doesn’t consider this a necessary action even once.

3.) 

The Iroh&Zuko relationship is juxtaposed with the Zhao&Zuko relationship. Both older men have more power over him. Iroh is a retired War General and Prince who is not banished. Zhao is a Commander in favor of the Firelord, who is also not banished. We could tell early on that Iroh is wise and despite being on the bad side, seems to be pretty chill. We took a liking to him immediately. Zhao is the opposite. He is very much like early!Zuko. Impulsive, rude, loud, cocky, etc… But why is he more annoying? Why do we root for Zuko as opposed to him? 

Because we see what Zuko is like with his Uncle Iroh. Iroh does not rub in the fact that he’s banished. He doesn’t use that when reprimanding him for his attitude or his failings. That is a hot iron and he knows it. It’s to the point where Iroh can bend fire in Zuko’s face and Zuko is perfectly relaxed over it and doesn’t once believe his uncle will hurt him. There is a lot of faith in Iroh, from this angsty teenager, and it’s very obvious with their interactions.

Zhao is not trustworthy from the start. We’re shown this by how both Zuko and Iroh are hesitant to interact with him and don’t want to linger in areas he has control over, for too long. They even lie to him despite him obviously having more favor in the Firelord’s eyes than either of them do. Zhao’s personality opposes both Zuko and Iroh. And as we like Iroh, we want him to win and have nice things, as stated above. But Zuko&Iroh is a package deal. And as Zhao reveals himself more and more to be nasty even if it’s subtle, we want Zuko to win even harder.

And even when Zuko wins and he’s in the prime position to do to Zhao what Ozai did to Zuko for also ‘speaking out of turn’… he doesn’t do it. He walks away. He is the bigger man in that scenario. And Iroh further puts shame onto Zhao when he goes against the sacred rules of the Agni Kai because he can’t handle a loss to a banished teen. We are shown that Zuko follows rules and has honor, which is reinforced by Iroh’s, ‘even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you’. Iroh’s Word is basically Law at this point. Sf he says it is so, then he must be right and the audience accepts that. He knows Zuko better than us and hopefully we’ll get to understand more as the story progresses.

Already by the 3rd episode, we’re shown that Zuko is in no way the worst person from the Fire Nation. In fact, we’re given a sort of scale now from the four major Fire Nation people we know of. Iroh–Zuko——-Zhao–Firelord.

We’re also hoping that Iroh rubs off on Zuko enough for him to also become wise and learn to chill out.

4.) 

When “The Storm” finally rolls around, we’re pretty invested by then in the Iroh&Zuko relationship and that episode gives us so much more info into Zuko’s character and we are shown that Iroh is right. He has honor and he cares for others. And yet it’s obvious the Firelord doesn’t because we see Zuko do the right thing(protesting the plan to treat new recruits as cannon fodder) in the wrong place, and then his face gets burned off by his father because of it. And further, he’s banished for refusing to fight his own father. What sane parent wants to do battle with their own child? What sane parent banishes their child for speaking out of turn at the defense of their own peoples’ lives? What the fuck is wrong with the Firelord?

Zuko was punished severely for showing compassion and having a kind heart. And Iroh(and the ship crew even) is properly mortified by the punishments his nephew received for it, which in turn affects the audience’s perception of this situation. Iroh doesn’t like it, it’s especially bad then.

Now we start wondering why does Zuko wants to go back to the guy who burned his face off?! Iroh, talk some sense into him! PLEASE!

Halfway through S1, they got us to the point of wanting Zuko to have a redemption arc. 

Making the audience want a character to be redeemed is also very important in this. We were shown he has redeemable qualities. We want that pay off! Do it justice!

nooo tbe cigarete got gender dyspjoria :(((((((

i want a game that uses disco elysium’s same insanely well crafted narrative system and wonderful writing…. but it’s about a 6 year old named calvin and his stuffed tiger hobbes

PERCEPTION[SOUND]-The "WAP! WAP! WAP!" of hammer onto nail is consistent. You weild the tool with skill and precision.

HALF LIGHT- Oh, yeah! Destruction incarnate!

MOM- "Calvin!" She yells, dashing to stop you. "What are you doing to the coffee table?!"

YOU- You look at your handiwork. A dozen crooked and bent nails stick out at different angles in the wood. It feels pretty obvious as to what you're doing.

LOGIC[Trivial:Failure]- Is this some kind of trick question, or what?

Red Bed

Redemption

uncle aaron in spiderverse fucks me up so badly because here is a man who has done terrible, unforgivable things, and he loves his nephew very much

OOOH an excuse to talk about Aaron! I’ve been waiting for this!

The amount of complexity and sheer power Aaron gets in such a short amount of time is maybe the most impressive side-character writing I’ve ever seen. I am not an easy crier, but every edit I see of Miles and Aaron’s first conversation in ITSV makes my eyes misty, and his re-entry in ATSV gives me full-body goosebumps every time I watch.

I think most of the credit goes to Mahershala Ali for a masterful performance. He effortlessly slides between the edge Aaron keeps during work, the hardened criminal, and the effortless love he has for Miles. The shoulder touch and the expectations mural are effective writing, but part of their power is how Ali makes Aaron’s love and adoration for Miles bleed off his every word even with minimal dialogue.

And that’s why his dichotomy with his brother is amazing. Jefferson Davis is a great man and a great father. But, even if he could tell his wife or his brother or even a stranger how impressed he is with his son, he often struggles to look him in the eye and tell him he loves him.

Aaron Davis is not misunderstood, nor is he a good man. But he loves Miles more than himself, and he lets him know. Every single day.

Because when Miles and Aaron are together, the mentorship trope is inverted. Aaron is a role model for Miles, yes, but Miles is more of a role model for Aaron. Miles’ purity and sheer goodness makes Aaron want to be something he’s not, even if he never follows through when Miles isn’t around.

Part of why the initial Prowler reveal is so effective is because we know Aaron though Miles’ eyes first. Miles sees Prowler in Aaron’s apartment, with no reason to be there and a clear understanding of the layout, and it’s still unfathomable that it could be Aaron under that purple mask. The thought never even occurs to him until he looks into his uncle’s eyes.

Aaron thought The Prowler and Aaron Davis were two separate things, that what he did with the hood on could not change who he was with it off. And when Miles takes off his mask on that rooftop and he sees what he was about to do, the kind of life he was about to take, he realizes how much of a lie he was telling himself.

But in his last moments, when faced with the easiest kill of his life, he chooses to die as Aaron. Not to clean his slate or because he thinks he would deserve penance. But because, for the first and last time, he wants to be the man his nephew thought he was.

seeing a black and white cow is always so damn awesome it’s like Hey i know that guy.from my kindergarten abcs

Fantastic feature guys!

Fix this by turning "show upload progress" off in Account Settings 👍

Gotta love the tumblr time honored tradition of telling each other how to turn off fucking annoying updates 🤝🏽✨

obsessed with stories where the message is that you can’t bring someone back from the dead even if you can bring someone back from the dead

Don’t you dare leave this in the tags!

Every time I rewatch The Lord of the Rings I oscillate violently between “it’s important to show men having close, supportive friendships and I’m so glad Peter Jackson chose to show all the male characters being loving and physically affectionate with one another in a healthy, platonic way” and “damn, these bitches gay. good for them, good for them”

e

a lovely creecher

Kidd Gorgeous -Nightfish 

the walking polar bear gif is already one of my favourite gifs so can you imagine the noise I made when I saw this version

Jenny Bloomfield

seasoflife

I must have worms or something

birds planning their breakfast

hey man youve been taking a while putting your change back in your wallet and i just wanted to let you know we are kicking you out of the grocwery sytore forever. goodbye

Well sure, I mean if you insist on the inch. Hehe. Thanks. Hey UM actually do you mind if I have a mile. I need it now. Already walking away

getting wicked drunk on honeydew behind my shoe house and smoking a mint leaf that a caterpillar sold me for five acorns

the sun is like a guy riding a chariot. to me

that is such a great idea. and i have other guys too

yayyyy!!!!!! i can't wait to believe in all them