Teddie Hanamura
Mini-comic translation. A short story about names and family.
Source: pixiv.net
So. The Script.
(Just a quick post, long post will come later.) I spent 3½ hours (my husband, who was stuck outside, said it was more like four hours, but he’s exaggerating, anyway -) I spent 3½ ish hours in the Shavelson-Webb Library, aka the Writers Guild Foundation, digging through ATLA scripts for Zutara tidbits like a pig sniffing out truffles :P I am super busy for the next few days, as I am packing up and moving (permanently) from LA back to Melbourne, Australia on Sunday. So these next few days are going to be super tight - I will *try* to get a long post written up with all my findings, but it may have to wait till Sunday to be published (if I haven’t had time till then, I can type it up on the plane). To clarify one other thing, these scripts were submitted to the Writers Guild Foundation before animation/production. They are not first drafts; to my understanding it’s rare for the library to actually have those, but they are submitted early enough in the production process that typically there are differences between the library’s copy of the script, and the script we actually see on television. From here on, I’ll be referring to these scripts as “the original scripts” for simplicity’s sake, though whether that term is strictly accurate perhaps depends on what you consider to be true “original scripts”. I can confirm a few basic observations:
- The original script for the Southern Raiders is “shippier” than what we see on television. I was absolutely shocked to see that the ship name “Zutara” is explicitly referenced in one paragraph describing Zuko and Katara’s “synchronicity and cooperation”. Yes, these are direct quotes. (I will provide the full quotes in the long post).
- In the original script for Ember Island Players, Aang’s reaction to Actor!Zuko and Actress!Katara getting smoochy on screen is given larger focus in the script, and Aang is explicitly written as angrier/broodier - and directing these emotions towards real!Katara.
- Katara’s emotional reaction to the Kataang scenes in Season 2 and the first half of Season 3 (e.g. the Cave of Two Lovers maybe-kiss, the almost-confession in The Earth King, the Day of Black Sun kiss scene) are less ambiguous in the script, than on-screen. The script suggests a clearer picture of her feelings for Aang in these scenes, or at least, that she’s aware that something is going on between them.
- In contrast, the script for the second half of Season 3, especially Ember Island Players and the Southern Raiders, are written to suggest a deeper discord between Katara and Aang than we get on screen, and a “shippier” dynamic between Katara and Zuko than we get on screen. The final words acknowledge a ship war/battle between Zutara and Kataang, one that Kataang ultimately “wins”.
Based on these observations, these are my thoughts/speculations:
- Kataang was originally planned for
- As the show was being written, and the compelling/intriguing aspects of Zutara gradually unfolded (perhaps even unintentionally at first), the writers recognized that they had a choice of going with their original plan, or changing gears and writing Zutara instead
- Some writers (esp Elizabeth Ehasz) are/were clearly pro-Zutara
- Disagreement over the ships, or desire to capitalise on the benefits of dragging out a ship war in the fandom, or some combination of both, led to a greater ambiguity in the Kataang scenes (on screen) than were originally written in the script
- By the time the last half of Season 3 was submitted to the guild, it seems Zutara was being teased/considered as a legitimate contender in the ship war. At least, that’s my interpretation of the way the writers are explicitly acknowledging both ships, by name, and the fact that one of them ends up “winning”.
I will be making a long post with full quotes and more detailed analyses as soon as I can. Meanwhile, here’s a small crumb, from the Southern Raiders:
Katara: But we were too late. When we got there, the man was gone.
(Sobs)
And so was she…
Zuko is moved… maybe even has a tear in his eye.
Zuko: Your mother was a brave woman.
Katara puts her hand on her necklace.
Katara: I know.
Katara lies down and closes her eyes. Edit: One more thing! I will be heading back to the library this Friday, September 30th, to see if I can find anything else (I looked up a lot of episodes, but I’d like to do one more read-through and maybe look through some episodes I missed). If you’re an LA local, you’re welcome to join me there, read scripts and say hi! But you have to make the appointment TONIGHT, as they require a minimum of 24 hours notice.
I suddenly have the urge to make a pilgrimage to LA…
This is my heaven 😍
Look how proud and in love she looks at him 😭😭😭
@cutieshinya I’m not sure if you’re planning to play Royal anytime soon… but I can’t fully answer this without spoiling. If you don’t want to be spoiled about Royal, please don’t read the rest of this post.
**P5R SPOILER WARNING AHEAD**
Short answer: Akechi’s confidant is manual in Royal. If you max out his confidant, Akechi will stay alive. If you don’t, he will stay dead. Royal do have a lot of ShuAke content/moments compared to the vanilla game.
————————————
Long answer:
Akechi’s confidant was automatic in the vanilla game, but in Royal, Akechi’s confidant is manual. Joker has the option to spend time with Akechi to boost his confidant throughout the story. The moments they have together during those times is something I will explain later in this post.
If you max out the Justice confidant, Akechi will stay alive. I have 2 pieces of evidence for this:
True Ending Post-Credits scene
There is a short scene that happens after the True Ending credits are finished. This scene is where Joker is in the train and is about to head back home. There are also 2 versions of this scene. One where Joker just goes home and the other where Akechi appears.
The other version only happens if you max out the Justice confidant. This is where Akechi appears for a brief moment in the train station walking with two guys in suits. Players tend to believe this version of the scene is the Real True Ending and that Akechi will come back in a future P5 Royal spin-off game (Hopefully P5 Arena).
Akechi helps bail Joker out of jail scene
There was an unused scene in Royal that didn’t make it in the game, but dataminers found this. This scene happened after Maruki is defeated and everyone went back to reality. Joker complied with Sae’s request and gets put in jail until the Shido case is finished.
This is the part where every maxed confidant gets a scene, trying to help bail Joker out of jail. Akechi was supposed to have a scene like that too if you maxed out his confidant.
The scene involves Akechi currently laying low in a Ryokan (Japanese traditional style hotel) in a rural town outside of Tokyo. He is currently working there, because his mother used to take refuge in that place and probably worked there too before she died. In Japan, some Ryokans, especially in the countryside, offer live-in jobs for single mothers. I think this was the type of job Akechi’s mother took after she quit being a sex worker.
So in this scene, Akechi planned to travel back to Tokyo to help bail Joker out of jail. I think the P5R devs didn’t put this scene in because they wanted to keep Akechi’s status ambiguous to the players.
No I am not making this up. This is real. Take a look at the datamined scene for yourself:
Note that these scenes where Akechi is alive, can only happen if you maxed out the Justice confidant. It other words, you need to make Joker and Akechi have a close bond in order for Akechi to stay alive.
*coughs* the power of ShuAke revived him* *COUGHS*
ShuAke moments in P5 Royal
Speaking of ShuAke, yes P5 Royal does have a lot of ShuAke moments. They have moments before the 3rd semester too.
A lot of their moments happened during Akechi’s confidant scenes. The places they hang out in, look like dates to me 😆
This is going to be very long list so I’ll put this under the cut.
Mysteries of Love in Space #1 - “Glasses” (2019)
written by Jeff Loveness art by Tom Grummett & Cam Smith
I’ve gotta reblog this again because it’s honestly fantastic “he could be anyone and he chooses to be kind” shows such an amazing understanding of Superman as a character, who I think a lot of people who don’t understand him really struggle to write, Jeff Loveness continues to kill it, inhumans spiderman special, groot, he’s written so little and yet I remember like every moment, I really really hope he gets a series soon he more than deserves it
I accidentally started drama with the Z*tarians again 🤦♀️
This person says this in their tags
When they went on a zutara artist’s post unprovoked (and deliberately, not accidentally at all) to say this:
I’m neutral on zutara myself, but I recognize bad behavior and disingenuous excuses (“say things that seem oh so completely innocuous to me”) when I see it.
Also I’ve hated it in the past when people added ship discourse to my art posts. It’s just so rude and uncalled for to leech on to artists’ posts like that. The people who do things like that are the ones who really, really suck.
^PREACH! 👏🏼
Zutara Month 2021: A Farewell Kiss of Longing and Good Luck
In case Tumblr can’t play the video, here’s the Vimeo Link
Happy Zutara Month! (It’s funny, I was overwhelmed at the idea of Zutara month… like 30 different drawings?! No way… * proceeds to do over 100 panels for an animatic * @-@ )
And for more Zutara month fun, check out @ifyouwereamelodymeg’s Zutara EP Where the Water Flows (updated post with information about saving to spotify here) which I made art for along with @favlie and @doodleladi.
A big thank you to my friend @fictionissocialinquiry for help with the story!
This animatic came to me in a hazy naptime dream a month or so ago, but I finally had time to sit down and finish it recently. I just had a vision of Zuko and Katara in the Southern Water Tribe with Zuko about to head out on a hunting trip with Sokka and Hakoda (a la stories like the-badger-mole’s Traditional Series ), and then Katara sends him off with a giant, warm fur and a goodbye kiss. Ultimately, I wanted an excuse to do some cute domestic SWT Zutara fluff and kissing. God, I want to work on an animated romance show so bad (even though drawing kisses is so flipping hard help). ToT On one hand I wish I had it in me to do more grand animatics, but really, I like making calm fluffy things and I’m alright with that.
Music:
The Journey to the West - Princess Mononoke (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
No monetary gains are made from these animatics. I make these for free and fun, and I want to keep it that way. They are purely fanart.
PLEASE DO NOT REPOST.
More rants and ramblings below the line
hayleynfoster
Oh yeah and here’s the drawing from the end. I gave up halfway through. I don’t think I have the patience for coloring/digital painting ToT but here it is, Zuko cooking a meal for Katara after the hunt n.n
@zutaramonth day 9 + 8 : scars + Druk
“write about your father”
I rushed this again, and I didn’t sleep last night :’)
This is the same Bebe from my day 1 post Izumi (泉美), the text is basically a short class work she wrote. Here’s the translation of the card:
父皇, (the king/emperor/lord called by their children, can be literally translated to “father-lord”)
父親節快樂 ( happy Father’s Day!)
每天都要用！(use it everyday!)
泉美(izumi)
The gift is a salve btw :)
PS* I used the two word version of izumi because since there doesn’t seem to have last names (except beifong), and since zutara counts as an au then ill used a different version from canon :p
Anyways hope you like it!
Came back to tumblr to say if you have anything bad to say about punkzukka you're a dumbass and can suck my balls ❤️ They didn't do any of the shit they're being accused of and shipping Zukka is not a crime. Y'all are such sensitive ass babies that do not need a tumblr account.
Lmao imagine being this stupid, defending someone who openly sends dead threats and has such little life that they have such little life that all they do is insult minors and wish them death just because they ship different cartoons together. Then baiting about their ethnicity and still being proud of it. Lol what an adult thing to do
gods, ok, apparently i’m not done.
atla fandom? we need to have a chat.
(….ok that made me sound pretentious as fuck. and maybe i am, but this needs to be said, cause i’m getting….real, real tired of a Certain Corner of this fandom and as a result, this is gonna be a discourse-heavy post so feel free to scroll past if that’s not your bag. as always, my salt posts all carry the catch-all #salt for ts tag, which you’re free to blacklist/filter at your leisure. i’m Very Annoyed at the moment, which will probably come through in the following post, so just. yknow. be prepared for that. or ignore it, that’s perfectly valid too.)
under a cut bc i do care for my followers and their sanity i swear lmao
Day 9 - Scars
i always wondered how he would react if someone unknowingly pointed out his chest scar.. its such a powerful reminder. so of course i proceeded to make a short angsty comic about it because i love suffering :’)
So, Zukka fandom.
Let’s have a talk
It has come to my attention through various sources that @japanese has taken my Old Friends edit without my permission, did not credit me, and made a joke out of it in this post that now has more than 3.6k notes. I also can’t tag this person or speak to them directly because they have me blocked :)
I want you all to know that this is unacceptable fandom behavior and that you should do nothing but condemn it. You do not take someone’s fanwork with their ships and use it as the butt of a joke for your ship and personal headcanon, especially not publicly like this.
The way the Zukka fandom has repeatedly failed at acknowledging that other fans of ATLA have different sexuality headcanons for the characters is a tell-tale sign of their idea of activism and representation in media. You guys have shown time and time again that you don’t understand what actual representation is, and you would rather target real people from marginalized communities over FICTION than understand that “Hey! We have different headcanons for these characters, but that’s okay because they are fictional and don’t have confirmed sexualities, so we can interpret them however we like in fanon.”
And don’t even get me started on how you have treated Zutara shippers like myself. You have called me and multiple other shippers “homophobic” “colonizer apologists” “misogynistic” and accused us of being identities that we are NOT or invalidated our own. You have serious issues that you need to come to terms with as a fandom and change your behavior, because you are doing nothing but hurting people.
This person took my edit, most likely from Twitter, edited into their unfunny meme, and played it for laughs. It was quite obviously not an official artwork, meaning this person knew that it was fanmade, yet they still decided that it was okay to use and mock. They did not ask me permission or credit me like I asked y’all to. There is nothing okay about this and I hope you’re all ashamed of the fucking assholes that your fandom has an abundance of.
Didn’t Bryke pull a similar stunt a couple of years ago? Two grown men using zutara fanart made primarily by teenagers to publicly mock the zutara fandom. And then trying to pass it all off as a joke when called out.
Keep in mind it’s also not the first time ZS’s think it’s nice to take someone else’s art and modify it to what their ship, they proudly say they modified someone else’s art and when I tried to point it put its disrespectful to the artist she deleted my comment
Watch "Zuko Rap Song | ATLA animatic (audio @bustinbantos tiktok)" on YouTube
…In other news, here’s part #1 of something I’ve been working on for 65 million years.
I was Katara’s age when ATLA first aired. As a fourteen-year-old girl, I did not see the appeal in a K@taang relationship. I would have never considered a twelve-year-old in a romantic light at that time of my life. Nor would I ever encourage ANY teen to consider a twelve-year-old in a romantic light. Plus, his crush on her came off as total puppy love.
That said, I developed an appreciation for Zutara as the series progressed. It was never something I shipped from the start. But as their relationship developed, I grew to love the potential they had. Before I knew it, I was rooting for them to end up together. Their stories intertwined and were so well-written (I have thoughts about Katara’s storyline as a feminist, though) that it would have felt like a natural progression.
I have a degree in creative writing. To this day, what was pulled with the ending of the show infuriates me. It’s poor writing and self-insertion at its finest. (For so many reasons, many of which have been reiterated hundreds of times over. Not just the shipping.) For one of the greatest cartoons of all-time, the end of it was poorly handled. Had I ever written a story like that, my professors would have ripped it to shreds and told me to try again from a place of really understanding my characters.
But I digress.
I, like so many other Zutara shippers, grew to appreciate the pairing as their knowledge of one another evolved. They were complex. They challenged one another, supported one another, and learned from one another (which is what you want out of a relationship. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my s.o. coddling me, undermining my decisions, or refusing to see me for who and what I am). There is evidence for it littered throughout the series. Evidence founded in solid writing.
Bryke’s insistence on perpetuating K@taang robbed the hero of their story a true and complete character arc, stole the autonomy from Katara, and ultimately weakened the ending of the series. Had they not included that last moment of the show, the whole thing would have been (passably) better. (Incomplete hero’s character arc aside.)
One Zutara painting–six different ways! I just love them!
By yours truly!
Please do not repost, but reblogs are welcome!🥳