Some Things Never Change. 

Der Tod/ Rudolf

Uwe and Andy

there are a lot of bad takes in the atla fandom (like, atla fandom may as well be a bad take generator) but something that has really been pissing me off lately is the assumption that you can categorize the fire nation royal family into good guys and bad guys. first of all, obviously, they're all bad guys. they are imperialists. but the idea that "sozin ozai azula bad" and "iroh lu ten ursa zuko azulon(?!) good" is actually insane.

lu ten died attempting to conquer the earth kingdom. lu ten was there because his father, iroh, was leading the siege. ursa laughed when iroh joked about burning ba sing se to the ground. zuko laughed too, mirroring his dear mother who taught him about the wonders of imperialism. and the fact that some people think that azulon was a good guy because he favored iroh is crazy. he favored iroh because iroh was the better imperialist, was more charming and tactically savvy as he bent the world to his will. people who think that azulon didn't like ozai because ozai was cruel literally have it backwards. ozai was cruel because azulon didn't like him. sozin shaped azulon, and azulon shaped iroh and ozai. azulon reigned for most of the war, and he was responsible for decimating the southern water tribe and colonizing the earth kingdom.

iroh only realizes the error of his ways well into middle age, after spending a majority of his life colonizing the world. he only stops to reconsider once he experiences the adverse effects of war for himself through the loss of his son. likewise, zuko can only gain empathy for the victims of the war by being one himself, as a refugee in the earth kingdom, and bonding with people who have been hurt by the fire nation. azula doesn't get that chance. ozai doesn't get that chance. azulon, lu ten, and ursa are dead, so they will never get that chance. but it's not like there is some ontological moral divide separating azula from zuko. zuko was a sensitive child whereas azula was better at embodying fire nation values of power and cunning. zuko was punished for his outbursts whereas azula knew how to keep her mouth shut. therefore, zuko experienced circumstances that led him to disavow fire nation imperialism.

but that doesn't mean that azula is ontologically evil. azula was the iroh of her generation to zuko's ozai, and iroh (eventually) disavowed conquest as well. there is no inherent divide between good and bad, monster and human. ursa was a warm and loving mother to zuko, just as iroh was a warm and loving father to lu ten, but they both laughed at others' suffering. their values were shaped by their circumstances and experiences. their ideologies do not make them less human, or less capable of change, just as their interpersonal behaviors do not negate their abhorrent ideologies.

“Sorry.”

-

Bloodbending bro hug requested by anon.

Vander: I've always liked the name Violet. Silco: *snorts a line* Hey, you know what I like?

TdV

Mozart Das Musical

Rudolf Affaire Mayerling Hungarian production narrators (Comission)

Quick Naga sketch that turned into a quick inking, that turned into a watercolor.

HI THIS IS A LONG RANT ABOUT A VERY OBVIOUS REALIZATION I CAME TO EARLIER TONIGHT DISCLAIMER I AM NOT BY ANY MEANS A JAGERIST AND THIS MIGHT NOT MAKE ANY SENSE

maybe im reading into things too much or maybe this is just common knowledge and im just really slow to find out about it but i just realized that there is some sick and twisted manipulation going on between eren and floch. like. eren really saw the one person who lost everything so abruptly and violently and was like "im gonna convince him the only way to keep his current living friends and family alive is to join my mass murder supervillian genocide plan" and holy shit i just put two and two together

OF COURSE floch's a jagerist he has arguably been through more than (most) of the main cast!!!! and eren's cause promises that he'll never have to suffer that again!!!! its so fucking obvious to me now ohhghhh my godd

OF COURSE he's gonna side with a violent plan he has no lived experience of conflict being solved with diplomacy none of these characters really have but its about how violently his worldview was flipped on its head

i cant remember if he was garrison or mp but either way the fucking whiplash of relatively cozy interior life to literally his first mission HE COMES BACK THE SOLE SURVIVOR OF (that side of the shinganshina wall) YEAH THATD FUCK SOMEONE UP

he is a bonkers good representation of radicalization as a result of trauma and i will not shut up about him

tldr: eren knew what he was doing targeting floch (and floch's probably pretty fragile mental state) into joining his genocide club