Not Every Story Is About Seeing Yourself In It. Sometimes It’s About Learning To See Other People Too.

Artist Anastasia Trusova floods her canvases with vibrant colours and textures. "Textured graphic impressionism".

people have pointed out before that zuko probably didn't actually know any of the gaang's names before joining their group. according to the data i've collected, it is unclear as to whether zuko knew any of their names before "the boiling rock," in which he addresses sokka by name multiple times. at no point in the show does he refer to toph, suki, or momo by name.

i find it particularly funny that zuko only seems to refer to katara by name after sokka says her name during their conversation in his tent; the transcript for "the southern raiders" reads as follows:

Sokka: So what's on your mind?

Zuko: Your sister. She hates me! And I don't know why, but I do care what she thinks of me.

Sokka: Nah, she doesn't hate you. Katara doesn't hate anyone. Except maybe some people in the Fire Nation. No, I mean, uh, not people who are good, but used to be bad. I mean, bad people. Fire Nation people who are still bad, who've never been good and probably won't be, ever!

Zuko: Stop. Okay, listen. I know this may seem out of nowhere, but I want you to tell me what happened to your mother.

Sokka: What? Why would you want to know that?

Zuko: Katara mentioned it before when we were imprisoned together in Ba Sing Se, and again just now when she was yelling at me.

we can thus assume that zuko went into this conversation knowing katara only as "[sokka's] sister," heard sokka refer to someone named "katara," and finally connected the dots.

i think the gaang according to zuko is just "the avatar, the avatar's bison, the avatar's.... little rat thing, sokka, sokka's sister, sokka's girlfriend, and, yknow, uhhhhh, the little green one."

you’ll wish she didn’t!

For science, I collected what each of the Houses hears when Gideon speaks to them for the first time.

Seventh: “Yo. Step off.” (when Cytherea faints)

Sixth: “Then get off your ass and help me.”

Fifth: never got to hear her talk :(

Fourth: thee line of all time, which is to say, “Did you know that if you put the first three letters of your last name with the first three letters of your first name, you get ‘Sex Pal’?”

Eighth: “They had names, you lily-livered, tooth-coloured asshole, and if you want to make a thing about it, I warn you that I’m in the kind of mood that can only be alleviated by walloping you.”

Corona: “No. I thought their arms would all flop around.” (in response to Corona asking if she’s seen a necro hold a sword before)

Ianthe/Babs, probably also the Second: “Why?” (after they gather to confront Cyth about Pro’s head)

one thing about asoiaf is that it frequently invites you to have sympathy for characters who've carried out varying degrees of morally repulsive acts (most apparent with pov characters such as theon, cersei, tyrion, and jaime but also sandor, joffrey, and even viserys). and most of these characters have received some equivalent of, what may look like 'narrative comeuppance' : theon flayed by ramsay, cersei made to perform her walk of atonement, tyrion sold as a slave, jaime losing his hand, joffrey's painful, drawn out death etc. except the scenes really aren't framed like that since the series doesn't seem to buy into that idea. all these incidents are not just deserts but moments of horrible injustice against these characters. and that's a little series thesis statement in itself, no neat category of monsters whose misdeeds can be addressed by a single moment of karmic justice but people like you and me who hurt others and have been hurt and continue on living. it's saying, here's this person who is capable of great cruelty influenced and motivated by their experiences with the world, but will you also hold understanding and sympathy in your heart for when the world is cruel to them in return? given what most fandom discourse looks like... the answer to that question is unfortunately a resounding no for a lot of readers.

harrow the ninth is really like. what if orpheus didn't turn around. what if he wasn't going to turn around. what if he kept his face pointed resolutely ahead and trusted that she was there even not knowing what he was hoping for. what if orpheus had to be cajoled and threatened and eventually forced to turn around. what if eurydice hadn't been told the rules and also had a crippling fear of abandonment and spent the whole time pleading with him to look at her. what if orpheus trusted that she would follow him but eurydice couldn't trust that he would care. what if orpheus was told point-blank that eurydice was almost certainly not actually behind him and he chose to keep walking anyway. what if eurydice touched sunlight again and orpheus wasn't there. what then.

tumblr is about to be the social media equivalent of that olympic skater who won gold bc everyone in front of him fell over

Can’t believe hooty invented gay people

Tor sent out the full Nona the Ninth Poem today!

Join me in Chicago where the pigeons have their own mini fire pit.

Reuters

Five nations seek war crimes probe in Palestinian territories

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Friday said he had received a joint request from five countries to investigate the sit

Prosecutor Karim Kahn said the referral had come from South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti. South Africa said the request was made "to ensure that the ICC pays urgent attention to the grave situation in Palestine."

17 Nov 23