I WISH IT HAD ALL BEEN DIFFERENT!!!!!
Imo blood and cheese could never have went down exactly like in the book anyways because luke's death ends up being an accident (as a result of them trying to make both teams come off as not as bad and violent as their book counterparts), in order to make team black not viciously evil (because we the audience know the circumstances of luke's death), they went with the approach of removing haelena choosing which son to kill like she does it the book. And tbh it makes blood and cheese in the show work well.
While I still don’t think it was done perfectly, the more I think about it, the more I think Blood & Cheese was done well. With no Maelor, the change to “which one is the boy” makes sense, and even Helaena offering up her necklace, which I really didn’t like at first, makes much more sense now that I think about it. Cheese(?)’s “does she look like a fucking prince to you” line and all their talk of sons makes it clear to Helaena that offering herself up is not going to do any good, and doing so might risk making them angry and just make them kill both children. So then of course she offers up her necklace, they have to be doing this for money and it’s the only thing that might appeal to them. Then, once they make it clear both kids are dying if she doesn’t tell them which one is Jaehaerys, she points to him. They know she’s telling the truth because she looks so guilty and horrified but she has no choice, at this point she can only save Jaehaera. Even her running out makes sense, being unable to watch the fate her son has been doomed to, saving who she can save and wandering around, not even being phased by Alicent and Criston because she’s so guilt-ridden and so traumatized and so stunned and so out of it that all she can do is collapse to the floor and say “they killed the boy.” Not even Jaehaerys’ name, they broke her so thoroughly that she can only speak like them. Okay maybe it was actually done well.
2.07: Zuko Alone
“My name is Zuko. Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation, and heir to the throne.“ “Liar! I heard of you! You’re not a prince, you’re an outcast! His own father burned and disowned him!”
[Zuko offers the knife to Lee.] “It’s yours. You should have it.” “No! I hate you!”
3.08: The Puppetmaster
“Then you should understand what I’m talking about! We’re the last two waterbenders of the Southern Tribe. We have to fight these people whenever we can, wherever they are, with any means necessary!”
“I won’t! I won’t use bloodbending and I won’t allow you to keep terrorizing this town!” “Congratulations, Katara. You’re a bloodbender.”
I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I’ve always felt that Zuko Alone and The Puppetmaster are similar in the role they play in Zuko and Katara’s respective character journeys.
In Zuko Alone, Zuko learns the consequences of war and begins to question what he was taught about the war from the Fire Nation. He realizes that even actions of kindness aren’t enough to undo decades of oppression from the Fire Nation.
Likewise, The Puppetmaster shows Katara the complexities of war and how it forced Hama to invent bloodbending, and turn to hurting innocent people for revenge. Katara - who has always believed in the absolute goodness of her people in the war - realizes it’s not always that simple.
Both episodes also examine themes of identity and what it means to each character - Zuko’s identity as Prince of the Fire Nation and Katara’s identity as a waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe.
Even though Zuko has spent most of the episode hiding his identity, when he’s put in a position where he has to reveal it, he proudly declares himself as Prince of the Fire Nation - and quickly gets a reality check from the townspeople, who reject him because of his status. In contrast, Katara has spent most of her time embracing her identity and connecting with Hama over it. But Hama turns her identity against her - she tries to use Katara’s heritage as leverage to convince Katara to turn against her ideals. In the end though, Katara stays true to her principles and refuses to harm innocent people.
Despite this, by the end of the episode, the identity of bloodbender is forced onto Katara - a title she has never wanted. Similarly, Zuko is forced to confront the reality that he is no longer seen as a prince, but as an outcast from his family (and from the town).
Neither of these episodes have a happy ending, but Katara and Zuko have each gained a new perspective on the war and the events that transpire in these episodes have ramifications for their future actions.
(Of course, there’s also the obvious sun and moon parallelism and similarities in scene framing used in these episodes, which just further ties them together).
Also I REALLY hate that the writers decided to use the most lazy trope possible, the trope I hate with my whole heart
When we have a big war between two sides that was becoming worse and worse for so many years
And instead of actually resolving it, the writers just add another, BIG ONE enemy to unite those two sides
And now they don't need to think about how to resolve SUCH COMPLICATED conflict that was lasting for decades. No, now they suddenly have a peace bc "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". THAT'S SO FUCKING LAZY
I wanted to see how Zaun and Piltover resolve their conflict so bad and all I've seen was a fight against Ambessa and Viktor?? Seriously?? That's a such disappointment
Also the same thing happened in spop and I really hoped Arcane isn't gonna do it...and they did...
Like imagine if in ATLA instead of Aang stopping the fire nation, all 4 nations just united against spirits
That's actually insane
Reaching out to you
"never kill yourself" is perhaps my favourite meme these days. there will always be joy in your future and you just need to stick it out to find it
I was scrolling through the Gutsca tag on Twitter and found this gem from two years ago.
Thread by @treeism on Twitter
𝟚𝟙 | ⟟ A city where it always rains | Personal blog ig | ⚠︎ Not nsfw-free
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