I see the Clockwork so Khronos HC and I raise you Vortex is Zues

Immediate thought? "Why go to therapy, when you, a God, can LITERALLY rip out the Problematic Parts of yourself and just kill um! There, honey! Problem solved! :D this can in no way EVER come back to bite me in the ass!"

Cause I mean... killing your problems worked against his DAD. And most OTHER problems he's had. Why not? When you are a hammer etc etc...

So... yeah. Technically! He IS part of Zeus! The ASSHOLE part that Hera was threatening to divorce FOR REAL this time. The HAS No Chill, part. The THROW STORMS AT EVERYTHING 5EVA RAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Part.

Kronos did the same thing but in reverse. Killed off his Calm n Reasonable self who just wanted to be a mischievous Time Dude. Cause THAT does not a King Of God's make. Didn't turn out well for Kronos.

N Clockwork got stuck with THAT assholes reputation.

It's like making a twin brother out of yourself only to kill um. Vortex has eternal beef with Zeus. He was a GOD. An INFANT. Born only to IMMEDIATELY be butchered. Yeah, he was an angry God. Made to be the wrath to Zeus' peace. An Angry Sky to his Tranquil Sky.

But that did NOT give Zeus the right to MURDER HIM in cold blood for the crime of being INCONVENIENT.

He didn't even get a NAME.

Had too, IN DEATH, Name HIMSELF.

Ffffffuck his Father/Brother! Zeus is gonna get what's coming to him! Infant murdering BASTARD!

Yes plz what would you change about the headband?

Short answer: TOPH.

Long answer: She plays a non-existent role in that episode, and that is an utter shame. I would have easily made her Aang's "conscience" in the form of making sure he doesn't blow their cover. He has never been known to be good at cover stories, or keeping secret identities secret. To me, it makes no sense for Sokka and Katara to trust that he can keep the secret going. (this is before the Painted Lady, so nobody try and throw that back at me. This would have allowed for some trust to be built. It would have made the Painted Lady episode just the next step on his growth rather than a fluke.)

They could have sent Toph as Aang's "blind sister" and she could have both kept an"eye" on him. We know she can play a role and keep it (see: the runaway). She would have been able to call him out on his crap surreptitiously, because noone else would know that she could "see" him. It also would have secured them as colonials, with a green eyed girl (product of a mixed marriage too?) as his sister, and that they were inept at FN routines together.

(it also could have lead to a healthier relationship between them, platonic or otherwise)

Aside from Toph, the other thing I would change would be On Ji. I think I would have found a way for her to be Kuzon's granddaughter or something. Have her comment that Kuzon's an old name- it was her grandfather's. This would connect back to the episode prior with the whole "some friendships can last lifetimes".

And that's my short dissertation, haha....

Also, thank you for distracting me from your own fic.... 😉

I’ve seen some people say that it was OOC for Zuko to hire Combustion Man in “The Headband,” but I disagree. I do agree that Zuko never wanted to kill anyone, but once he gets back to the Fire Nation, it becomes increasingly clear that, far from getting what he wanted, he’s trapped in a situation where he isn’t safe, and this causes him to behave in desperate ways.

As soon as he gets home, Zuko is worried about confronting his father, and we know exactly what is on his mind when he talks to Azula about it.

Zuko: I haven’t seen Dad yet. I haven’t seen him in three years, since I was banished.

Azula: So what?

Zuko: So, I didn’t capture the Avatar.

Azula: Who cares? The Avatar is dead … unless you think he somehow miraculously survived.

Zuko flashes back to when Katara explained about her vial of spirit water in the Crystal Catacombs.

Katara: [During flashback.] This is water from the spirit oasis at the north pole. It has special properties so I’ve been saving it for something important. Back to the present.

Zuko: No. There’s no way he could have survived.

Azula: Well, then I’m sure you have nothing to worry about.

All this time Zuko believed that his honor, and by extension his father’s love and acceptance, depended on him capturing the Avatar. This was his way of coping with the abuse his father put him through. It’s not that his father doesn’t care, it’s just that Zuko needs to prove himself. It’s not that his father hurt and permanently scarred him, that happened to a boy who refused to fight for his honor. Coming back without the Avatar, without restoring his “honor,” means that he has to face the reality of what happened to him. Not only has Zuko failed to prove himself worthy, the above dialogue also tells us that Zuko has reason to suspect that the Avatar might still be alive. 

And facing his father doesn’t help matters, either. 

Ozai: I am proud of you, Prince Zuko. I am proud because you and your sister conquered Ba Sing Se. I am proud because when your loyalty was tested by your treacherous uncle, you did the right thing and captured the traitor. And I am proudest of all of your most legendary accomplishment: you slayed the Avatar.

Zuko: What did you hear?

Ozai: Azula told me everything. She said she was amazed and impressed at your power and ferocity at the moment of truth.

The imagery in the scene parallels Zuko’s first agni kai, with Ozai looming over him. This time, Ozai is showering Zuko with praise, but Zuko is clearly wary of his father’s praise, not just because he knows that Azula lied but because he knows what his father is capable of doing should he become displeased with him. He carefully measures his response, asking his father what he heard, because he knows that saying the wrong thing could get him brutally punished.

Zuko then confronts Azula with her lie about him killing the Avatar, because he knows that between his father and his sister, he can’t let his guard down. Azula picks up on Zuko’s uncertainty that the Avatar might not be dead during their earlier conversation, and uses it to her advantage. We know that she told Ozai that Zuko killed the Avatar after her first conversation with Zuko where he expressed his uncertainty because she says she did it because he was so worried. Her motives are more utilitarian than that, though. Zuko knows she’s not being altruistic but he can’t figure out her reasoning, but it’s pretty obvious why she does it, because if it did turn out the Avatar was still alive, then Zuko would take the fall and not her.

Interestingly, it wasn’t Azula who started the talk of the Avatar being dead. Lo and Li announce publicly that Azula and Zuko slayed the Avatar at the beginning of “The Awakening”. So once Azula talks to Zuko and realizes the Avatar might not be dead, she realizes that she has a lie that she has to maintain. It was sometime after that that she spoke to her father and decided to give Zuko the credit in case things go sour.

That Ozai and Azula talked about this without Zuko’s knowledge puts Zuko on even more shaky ground, and that’s the way Ozai wants it to be, despite his words of praise. An abuser like Ozai enjoys having power over his victims, and one way to maintain that power is to keep the victim guessing through manipulation and gaslighting.

So Zuko is left feeling trapped, and scared, and confused, with the knowledge that one misstep or one wrong word, or information about the Avatar being alive, could result in him being hurt like he was before, or banished again, or worse. He’s also lost the support system he had in Iroh.

Zuko: I admit it, I have everything I always wanted, but it’s not as all how I thought it would be. The truth is, I need your advice. I think the Avatar is still alive, I know he’s out there, I’m losing my mind. [Iroh does not respond. Desperately.] Please, Uncle, I’m so confused I need your help. [Iroh still has nothing to say to him. Angrily.] Forget it, I’ll solve it myself!

Iroh previously was a source of wisdom for Zuko, but now, because of Zuko’s actions, Iroh won’t talk to him. He’s desperate and he doesn’t know what to do, so he does the only thing he can think of.

Zuko: You’re sure you weren’t followed? I’ve heard about you. They say you’re good at what you do, and even better at keeping secrets. The Avatar is alive. I want you to find him, and end him.

It’s a low point, for sure, but one that was motivated by desperation and fear, just like a lot of Zuko’s villainous actions were in book one. Although unlike book one, Zuko is back in the abusive situation and without the support, wisdom, and safety that Iroh had given him, so he’s in an even worse place than he was before.

It is to Zuko’s credit, however, that he takes responsibility for his actions and ends up fighting against the assassin he hired and stopping him (with some help from boomering). So no, I don’t think this was too dark or out of character.

Someone pointed out to me that the idea that Zuko needs to unlearn Fire Nation propaganda about Air Nomads being weak because they were peaceful makes no sense because in “The Headband” we learn that the Fire Nation propaganda about the Air Nomads portrayed them as more of a martial society, the teacher’s question was about Sozin defeating the Air Nomad army and Aang says they didn’t have an army. Which is what you’d expect of propaganda meant to justify a war. The idea that Sozin defeated the Air Nomads because they were weak fighters, or because they were a threat, instead of wiping out a peaceful nation, is an obvious way to justify genocide. Ozai says Aang’s people were weak and deserved to die but he doesn’t say they were weak because they were pacifists.

And I still maintain that when Zuko said what he said in “The Southern Raiders” about how “this isn’t Air Temple preschool, it’s the real world,” it was not really about Air Nomad beliefs. First of all, it was about Zuko defending Katara from Aang, who was being hugely condescending about her confronting her mother’s murderer. To shift the conversation to Aang defending his beliefs is missing the fact that Aang was the one who was telling Katara what he thought she should do. He wasn’t just speaking about his beliefs. And neither Katara nor Zuko contradicted Aang’s beliefs, but I’ve seen fandom accuse both of them of doing so.

Back to what Zuko says, though, I don’t think it’s the Air Temple part but the “preschool” part that is important. Zuko isn’t saying that Aang’s beliefs are wrong. He is saying that what Aang is saying is naive, and we can agree or disagree on that, but Aang was making a simplistic dichotomy between forgiveness and revenge and comparing Jet harming innocents to Katara getting justice for her mother’s murder. What he says does lack nuance and both Katara and Zuko are mad at him for it, and they have a right to be. Wanting justice against the guilty is NOT the same as harming innocents. 

And for Zuko, specificially, this conversation becomes personal in a certain way because Zuko is a victim of abuse. Zuko didn’t get to grow up in a temple, safe, and protected, and loved. Of course, the Air Nomads DID hurt Aang, unintentionally, but it wasn’t out of maliciousness. It makes sense that Zuko thinks Aang wouldn’t be able to understand why getting justice against this man is so important. Katara’s experience is different from both Aang’s and Zuko’s, but she and Zuko share the same trauma not only of losing their mothers, but of having grown up having to fear and experience constant violence. It’s not the same, since Katara was never hurt by people who were supposed to protect her - Zuko and Aang actually share that, although it’s still not the same because again, the Air Nomads didn’t mean to hurt Aang, and Katara and Aang share the similarity of their people being victimized by the Fire Nation. 

But that anger that comes from growing up afraid that Zuko and Katara share, that’s what Zuko thinks Aang won’t understand, and I think that’s what he means when he talks about “Air Temple preschool” and “guru goody-goody,” both terms that connotate the innocence of childhood, innocence that was taken away from both Katara and Zuko. Of course, this also hurts Aang because he should have been allowed to keep his childhood innocence, and it was something he had that was so brutally taken away, but the difference between those losses is that Aang had, at least for a while, a happy childhood. I think that makes Zuko feel hurt and angry, not necessarily at Aang, but what Aang is saying about how being angry and wanting justice makes you a bad person. Especially since we know that Zuko struggles with anger because of his trauma. But being angry doesn’t make you a bad person or mean you condone violence. And since Zuko would have been taught by the Fire Nation propaganda, incorrectly, that the Air Nomads were a military nation, it doesn’t make sense to interpret this as Zuko being against Air Nomad pacifism or beliefs specifically because he needs to unlearn Fire Nation propaganda, which would not have taught him that the Air Nomads were pacifists. And it’s especially silly to make that argument about post-redemption Zuko, who WAS shown unlearning propaganda about the other nations and specifically disagreeing with his father’s genocidal agenda.

I love that, out of all of the amazing moments, the Netflix preview for Avatar just shows this random scene from The Headband:

Like think about this out of context: If you had no idea what Avatar was about, you’d assume it was about some dancing boy called Kuzon, who lived in a colony, and went to a typical anime-esque high school with his friend, On Ji, where he got into everyday fights with bullies.

That was one episode and most of the fandom agrees that it was one of the weaker filler episodes because, while the world development and messages about propaganda were great, it had no connection with the rest of the show. We never see On Ji again. We never learn what happened to those kids. Aang never uses the alias ‘Kuzon’ again. This part of the episode was supposed to parody these other slice-of-life animes by showing how much Avatar usually deviates away from these typical tropes.

And this is the scene that’s supposed to lure new fans in.

Flame-o, Netflix, flame-o.

Many, many years after Aang the Avatar, like thousands or so, people try to dig up who The great leader Firelord Zuko was married to only to be met with mass confuson. 

Some are of the theory it was Ambassador Sokka of the water tribe, best friend of the Avater

Some say it was the only male Kyoshi warrior, who was said to be protecting the firelord for some times,

Some even say it was A normal devorcee soldier Wang Fire. 

only, there are proof of them all being involved with the vigilantie Blue spirit, and a tea shop worker called Lee. 

with much thinking to be done, the historians decide they were involved in a polyamorous relationship

can’t stop thinking about the avatar comic where Sokka joins the fire nation army as Wang Fire and then deserts but then when they find him pretends he was hunting a group of water and earth benders, and the other army people are like ‘we don’t believe you’ so Katara and Toph bend from inside the cave, and the army people are like 'what the fuck you were telling the truth!’ and then 'Wang Fire’ is like 'Don’t worry,I’ll deal with this!’ and marches into the cave to 'fight the benders’ and they stage fight noises whilst escaping on Appa and collapse the cave behind them so the army people think 'Wang Fire’ died tragically and the general who hated him is like 'I will make sure his memory lives on’ and has a portrait of Sokka in the fake beard with candles lit in front of it 'in memory of Wang Fire’ and like

Do they ever find out that it was Sokka?? That this weirdly short adult man with full beard was actually a water tribe spy?? Who just??? Faked his death???

I just want their reactions to seeing him after the war.

Wang Fire: I believe you already know my youngest son, Kuzon, and my wife, Sapphire. May I present to you my eldest son?

Headmaster: but that’s just Firelord Zuko.

Wang Fire: don’t be ridiculous, his scar is clearly on the wrong side. This is my son, Lee.

Zuko, waving awkwardly: Lee Fire. Nice to meet you.

atla au but instead of putting a goddamn teenager on the throne, one of these things occurs instead:

-jeong jeong becomes firelord

-piandao becomes firelord

-piandao and jeong jeong are co fire lords

-the fire nation just exists as a lawless nation in limbo and eventually turns into a paradise culture that exists to entertain and create art and beauty and passionate things and coexist in harmony and also grow the dopest weed ever to exist

-ursa becomes firelord

-plot twist there is no fire nation at all because it was all a dream...

-ozai remains firelord but instead of being firelord™️ hes firelord: the antagonist in every staged WWE-style bending fight against the Boulder

-aang becomes firelord and renames the nation after momo. he disintegrates the political system of the fire nation and ushers im the first momo dynasty after handing over his temporary power to momo. this is the first of six momo dynasties throughout history.

-wang fire becomes fire lord

The Fire Family AU

Remember this?

[Image ID: Sokka, Aang and Katara as Wang Fire, Kuzon Fire and Saphire Fire, sitting together in the principal's office in the Headband episode.]

Now, imagine that at the Crossroads of Destiny, Zuko chose differently. Good for him! I'm really glad! He can give everyone a tour of the Fire Nation and help them all blend in!

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY I can ship Zukka in peace knowing that Zuko could be Saphire Flintfire Fire, a Fire Nation soldier deployed in the Earth Kingdom who fell in love with therapist and young aspiring artist Wang Fire and adores his cute son, Kuzon.

And, what's a better way to gather information? Zuko and Sokka are arguably the best actors, so they can protect their children friends and be useful this way, especially since they can easily get away from trouble without revealing any bending that could give them away.

And then when Zuko's crowned Firelord, everyone can be like:

"Isn't that Flintfire Fire?"

"No, idiot, that's Lee from the tea shop."

While that one guy points at Sokka and says:

"Um, that's my therapist."

Zuko, reading a report: "Private Wang Fire showed exceeding bravery, and has been honored on several local memorials. His wife and child apparently moved shortly after the loss, and none have been able to reach them to give them Private Fire's medals and compensation for his death. We humbly ask the Firelord to aid us in honoring this fallen soldier by finding his family's whereabouts. Included with this letter is a photo of the Fire family, Wang Fire, Sapphire Fire, and Kuzon Fire."

Zuko: What kind of name is Fire? Sapphire Fire? Whatever. If he was this liked by the locals, he must've been honorable. Maybe Suki can help.

Zuko: *takes out picture to see Sokka with a beard, Katara with side-buns and a 'pregnant' belly, and Aang with both hair and a headband*

Zuko:

Zuko: *deep, deep sigh*

Zuko: AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

The rest of the Gaang bursting through the door: Zuko, what is it‽ You said you were just reading mail!

Zuko: *stands up and stalks over to Sokka, who is no doubt the mastermind in the Fire family*

Zuko, now shoving the picture at Sokka: WHAT IN AGNI'S GRACE WERE YOU THINKING‽ WANG FIRE‽ SAPPHFIRE FIRE‽ YOU WERE WANTED DEAD BY THE FIRE NATION AND YOU JOINED THEIR MILITARY! DID YOU WANT TO ACTUALLY DIE‽

Sokka:

Katara:

Suki:

Aang:

Toph:

Sokka: In my defense, it started because Aang accidentally went to school, so you should really be getting angry at him.

Tubbo: Why have they changed it? These colors are awful. I– ew! I actually hate it! Where– what happened to the orange? Why’s it purple?

Tubbo: [Realizes] OH—

Tubbo: Oh, I'm actually– I'm actually a bigot, it’s Ace Race, I get it. Ohhh, ohhh that’s awkward. Ohhh, that's awkward. I’m a bigot. Oh, I'm a bigot. Oh, I'm a bigot. Ohhh. It’s crazy that they let bigots into MCC these days! Well actually, they’ve always done that.

Texts From Superheroes

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To whoever tagged me on TikTok to just a whole Garfield and friends episode

I appreciate you thank you

Texts From Superheroes

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no offence but the reason tumblr is “dying” is, well, yes, of course the cursed like/reblog ratio and the change in user behaviour (because of people being used to how instagram and tiktok work) BUT also the lack of weekly shows. i say it with my whole chest, they don't produce captivating and engaging stupid weekly tv shows anymore because streaming killed that so you have spikes of activity here when Something happens in general fandom or up to three days after a new season of whatever drops and then it's a wasteland. this is obviously an old woman yelling at a cloud missing supernatural and the vampire diaries and pretty little liars and all these other shows type of post but honestly give me back weekly tv shows where i have something to watch for 40 minutes almost every day of the week after work so then i can read and reblog it on tumblr give it back for the sake of my sanity