///discourse ///

my pet peeve is azula fanart that draws her sexy af. short schoolgirl skirts and cleavage out and bold lipstick 24/7. and like. i get it. her color is red. she’s intimidating to u. she’s #meangirl #darkacademia #trustfundkid to u. she’s an east asian girl and you’re having some trouble w metacognition right now, to say the least.

but this is a 14yo girl who is TERRIFIED of displeasing her father in any way or any amount. ozai is tyrannical, prone to violence, w black-and-white vision where you’re loyally in or you’re permanently out of his in-group, and prone to taking any actions of his children as personal attacks, statements, embarrassments, and injuries. he is a narcissist who nearly killed her older brother in front of her, then tossed him out to sea for an entirely age-appropriate social mis-step, who inhabited a world of domination and violence, likely displayed some level of domestic and spousal violence in front of and possibly against azula when she was younger. ozai regularly treats and respects azula as a possession of his.

all that and you think 14yo azula is dressing sexy?? azula is wearing dad-approved jeans and plain solid-color t shirts. azula is begging to get her ears pierced. canon azula is dressed, advised, served, and socialized by adults. she has no comprehension of how to do makeup or her own hair. she lives in a massively, toxically radically masculine world of logic, violence, dominated/dominator duality, career-focused, emotionless, loveless lives, and u think that this girl, raised by her violent and possessive father, without a mother or single older woman around, can do anything for her hair besides a ponytail?

azula uses st. ives apricot facial scrub and neutrogena grandma lotion her elderly housekeepers buy for her, she wears ponytails and buns she learned exclusively from youtube tutorials that she watched in secret, she wears practical polo shirts and dark wash jeans that ozai approves of his daughter wearing outside, and for occasions she has a stylist that puts her into designer blazers and adult black dresses. on those occasions she looks so 14 trying to be a real adult, like the soulless and joyless ones that surround her. she’s intimidating in spite of/with her non-sexiness. not because of it.

and i do see azula going high femme as an adult. and i do think when she wants to rebel against ozai, in scenarios where she’s taken in by iroh as well, she goes for daring teenage tiktok looks (“one positive side to my first guardian being put in jail is that apparently my new guardian is willing to let me download social medias, so I have a tiktok now. he even fired the intern in charge of my official instagram and let me be the one to delete it.”)

but like. cmon guys. azula, as we know her in canon, will not rebel an inch. she is safely, terrifiedly sitting in her approved corner, and that’s not where sexy is. where’s that post abt how zuko is an iroh-advised grandpa sweater polo shirt prep kid. real after-school kumon/mathnasium core. that’s azula too. she’s wearing lots of gold jewelry and a halter top in the beach episode but don’t let that fool you. that’s her first time dressing up “to be a normal teen” and she coats herself in the equivalent of head-to-toe gucci because that’s how other #teenz dress, right??

and like. how come the nerdy dorky sheltered traumatized brother is often acknowledged as the grandpa sweater polo shirt prep he is, w thirst traps, as is his human right, but some ppl view azula, who shares most of those traits, as constantly seductive? how come it’s this character, an east asian teen girl, who wears the miniskirt and the red lipstick of the gaang to some of u? let’s think abt it for 2 seconds

okay rant done i have a capri sun now :)

Zuko is An Artist: Part 1

Zuko became an artist at a young age. Painting was encouraged by Ursa and Uncle Iroh, so he did it to keep himself occupied.

Eventually, it became more than a hobby. He was an artist down to his core, seeing things through a different lens than his family members.

Azula hated that there was another thing that Zuko was better at than her. However, Ozai didn’t like it, so she didn’t. It was that simple.

Under his sleeves, there were often ink writings and drawings.

His favorite things to draw, ironically, are dragons. Twisty shapes, fangs and wings.

Ozai, again, doesn’t approve and tries to keep Zuko occupied on something that he finds productive.

It doesn’t work.

After Zuko’s exile, most of his art is halted.

But sometimes, he starts rambling about ink and paper and dragons, and suddenly he feels a lot lighter.

Around a year and a half into his exile, he gets new brushes and waterproof ink from Uncle Iroh.

He vanished for about two hours, but when he was next seen there was ink on the walls like a fresh coat of paint.

‘“Mako, have you seen the Prince?” Firenze hummed from his spot on the deck.

“No, honestly. Maybe we left him at the last port?”

The captain laughed. “We can dream, Mako.”

Iroh raised his eyebrow. “He’s painting the hallway. If you’d like, you may join him.”

And so, Zuko gained two new painters. Over time, the entire crew painted the boat black and silver.’

Yeah, the crew painted with Zuko sometimes. It became ritual to paint over it when the salt began to wear away at it.

Zuko still has his whole honor complex, but it’s slightly detached from his actual personality due to the relationship that he had with his crew.

So when the Avatar shows up, he’s shocked instead of insistent to catch him. The sooner that he catches the Avatar, the sooner that he’d get locked away from the world.

So he may or may not have deliberately played cat and mouse with the Avatar.

When Zhao takes the crew, they all visit the prince one-on-one. Some with tears, others with somber hearts. They have a group hug and then they have to leave.

The first time Zuko saw the Northern Water Tribe, he felt a flurry of emotions.

First, awe at the beauty that the people had carved from the ice.

Then, anger that the fire nation was going to knock it down.

He craves the feeling of ink on his hands again.

And once they’re declared enemies of the state, he hopes that he’ll feel that again.

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dadriusstan

1 year ago

Maria didn’t give Ellie a diva cup and new clothes and a new coat and trim her hair and warn her off the dangerous man she’s obviously bonded with and take her to the movies for us to sleep on her. She saw a feral orphan child and said ‘this kid needs to be MOTHERED’

imagine that video of a mother dog who keeps pulling the weird yellow feathered puppy (duckling) back into the bed

Ellie is a bit put off by Maria’s attentions at first, but as Maria gets bigger, and people are joking to her about ‘nesting’ and being a ‘mother hen’, Ellie’s like OH, she needs this. Its a little bit easier to let herself be taken care of then, becomes a way she can take care of what she’s starting to see as her little family, Joel and Tommy and Maria and the baby.

Joel getting a LITTLE jealous of how close Ellie and Maria get, like what are they talking about over there???? Why doesn’t she trust me to tell me about it??? Turns out there are some things it’s really hard to talk to your dad about, and how to act in front of your crush when you’re already the weird new kid is one of them.

Maria telling Ellie about how AWKWARD Tommy was when they first met/started liking each other, lol. Ellie will never let Tommy live it down

19 notes View Post

dadriusstan

2 years ago

June 9: Role Swap (Firelord Roku/Avatar Sozin)

As you can see, the avatar's powers are only being used responsibly

Defiantly not used to be taller then your bf

147 notes View Post

dadriusstan

2 years ago

Shinsou's cat, on a tree: Me-ow.

Shinsou: Maybe we should throw something at him.

Monoma: Good idea.

Monoma: Midoriya, toss some of your trophies at him.

Monoma: Oh, sorry. Trophy. Just one.

Midoriya: Why don't you toss yours, Monoma?

Monoma: >:(

Midoriya, condescendingly: Oh, that's right.

441 notes View Post

dadriusstan

2 years ago

favorite atla fics are the ones where the gaang finds out roku is zukos great grandfather and aang’s immediate reaction is to start hollering “GREAT GRANDSON!!!” at zuko like. aang’s 12 but is canonically the embodiment of embarrassing grandpa it’s perfect

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