pretentious moment incoming but why is everyone's idea of fashion so fucking boring these days. why the fuck did my manager just ask me "what's with the scarf". "what's with the scarf" fuck man do I need a reason to wear a faggy little scarf now? you could just say "nice scarf man". what's with your attitude
Yeah, I will definitely be joining that cliff jumping group, thanks
Andrew Minyard makes me wanna rip my heart out, seriously
girl who just remembered andrew was so used to not being cared about or seen that he genuinely thought he was hallucinating neil's behavior. who wants to join my jumping off a cliff party.
But according to incels, Marvel has gone woke and now only has shes, gays and theys (I wish)
Just yes
Same vibe
And I will die on this hill
THE DRAGON PRINCE SEASON 7 | HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
Why do all the beautiful, colorful vintage bathrooms end up in the wrong hands. Come here. I would treasure you
Then proceeds to say he hates Kevin
I love them both so much š„ŗš„ŗš„ŗ
Their interactions make me wanna hug my pillow, crawl in fetal position and just stay there forever. At the same time I wanna punch a wall, bc how could Riko and Tetsuji hurt so much those two beatifull souls and also make them hurt each other just to survive
I swear, I cant
the way jean speaks about and interacts with kevin is so⦠*gestures vaguely*
āhe has earned the right to be arrogantā SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK
āstupid, beautiful kevinā oh! ok i didnāt need my heart anyway
āyou are supposed to be better than thisā āyou have always known what i amā well thatās great for you two! meanwhile i am clawing at the walls of my enclosure
āunspoken: you cannot refuse meā hit like a blow to the head tbh
Was just rereading Azula in the Spirit Temple again last night, you know, as one does, and I was struck by the function Mai and Ty Lee serve throughout the narrative. Over and over, they serve to remind her that what she's seeing isn't real, even if what she's seeing is really nice and enjoyable. (There's definitely at least a hint at both Ty Zula and Maizula but I think at this point Repressed Lesbian Azula isn't so much subtext or text as a giant neon sign across everything Azula has ever done.)
However, as the comic progresses, both Ty Lee and Mai get harsher and harsher about delivering their reality check-ins. Azula of course is someone who at this point in time is going to be a seasoned pro at not taking reality at face value, anyway, though the spirit says something to the effect of, "Why not get lost in a dream if it's pleasant?" multiple times to her (a pretty good indicator early on to the reader that this is not a spirit to be trusted, particularly around Azula, and whatever reason it got called to her, it was not ultimately to offer redemption). Anyway, the turning point for when Mai and Ty Lee's check-ins go from mean to downright hostile occurs in the following two panels.
This is after Azula and Ty Lee are talking about "the old days" which, according to the Ty Lee Subconscious mouthpiece were stressful and anxiety inducing (like, literally S2 of the show) to which Azula verbally counters that they all "loved it" although she does note that then Mai had to go and "ruin it" for a "stupid boy" (emphasis hers, she doubles down on this and says, "stupid Zuzu" as well). How super duper straight of you to say, Azula. We're all buying it. Then Subconscious Mouthpiece Ty Lee says, "Maybe you should get help?" and that specifically is what sets Azula to attacking her.
So of course it's not the phrasing here that's harsh or over the top but the suggestion itself. It's notable that Azula's mind puts it in Ty Lee's mouth and not Maiās (we'll get to that in a bit). But Azula has at this point been running from help and instead fomenting domestic terrorism for years for her own twisted and convoluted reasons and not because most of the comics are shit. And she's a noted liar. Of course, she's not the liar the show builds her up to be, or the liar she herself brags about being. We don't actually see Azula lie all that often in the show and when we do, there's usually a pretty decent explanation (like she's overthrowing an enemy city).
It's important to note that Zuko is being ridiculous in his flashback in Zuko Alone - that's my favorite episode but eight years olds developmentally cannot control when they lie or often even distinguish that they've done so (ten year olds can usually distinguish when they're lying better, but not by much). Zuko at ten and 16 gets a pass because he knows nothing about child development and I'm sure his little mantra didn't spontaneously generate; I suspect Iroh or Ursa handed it to him at some point. But we as viewers know better and cannot take, "Azula always lies," as any kind of proof of anything beyond the abusive nature of both of their childhoods. And given that the nature of these "lies" at the time probably mostly consisted of either ways to avoid punishment, or things she legitimately didn't even do but nobody believed, I think eight year old Azula gets a pass at the time. I had a childhood that was in many ways similar to Azula's. It creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the people around you decide you're lying all the time, you're like, "OK, bet."
But that really gets to why Ty Lee's words are so harsh in these panels. Because when you grow up like that, as Azula has, the person you end up lying to the most is yourself. And she's still not ready to face that even by the end of the comic. She's aware she needs help, but it's too scary to reach out for it when in reality nobody is there for her and she's all alone, by her own doing (another thing the comic drives home).
In fact, Azula's subconscious chooses to drive that fact home through Mai. And Subconscious Mai is a lot less nice in her phrasing than Subconscious Ty Lee. I don't think that's an accident. Irl, Azula probably looked to Mai as a gauge for when she was going too far. "Oh, Mai wouldn't go in the slurry... well, okay, fair. I can see by looking at Ty Lee that that was pretty disgusting... And she got stuck in it by that Water peasant anyway, so it was pointless too." "I hated that stupid bear too." Etc etc. Essentially, she could trust Mai to call her on her bs. Which is what Mai did at the Boiling Rock, and Azula's subconscious knows it (but who's our princess best at lying to? Say it with me! Herself!).
And there's nobody she hates more than herself, either. (Actually, given Mai and Ty Lee's roles in this comic I think it's pretty clear that at least on a subconscious level, Azula really wants to make amends with them, which hurts, because... they don't.) The whole thing made me really just want to give her a hug. She needs one. I've been there.
I'm curious to see if she'll make an appearance in Ashes of the Academy. I actually think, given what was presented in Azula in the Spirit Temple, that she wants to change and grow into a better, more healthy person. Obviously that's going to look very different from Zuko's arc. Villain to antihero is not the same arc as antihero to hero. I think she's ready now to start walking that path, though, if she is approached by the right person. (Ty Lee or Mai.) Mai seems to be the more likely of the two to be willing just in terms of how their relationship has always been, how she currently feels about Azula, and given that she's prominent in the upcoming comic. Fingers crossed for some good material!
Kay, so obviously weāre never getting an AFTG tv show, but can you imagine the comedic gold of some of it being shot in the mockumentary style as āThe Officeā
Like, obviously not the more traumatic or gory scenes, but, like the first tv interview with Kathy? The āyou know I get itā speech? Getting everyoneās first thoughts on Neil joining the team? Watching Wymack realize that Andriel is a thing? Do you see the vision
Just YES
need Jeremy to narrate more of Jean and Kevinās divorced couple psychological torture mind games
Yup, pretty much sums it up
jean with cat/laila/ jean with kevin and jeremy: neil:
i love that cat took a look at jean (tortured 6ā2 huge strong bisexual frenchman sad grey eyes elite athlete tragic homoerotic situationship victim) and said i will make him even hotter. get on this motorcycle.
-22 summers on this planet -Brazilianš§š· -Pansexualš³ļøāš -AuDHD -Here just for the fun of it -Currently hyperfixating in AFTG
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