Jademaximoff - Chris - Tumblr Blog
Close enough. Welcome back Daenerys Targaryen.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (2022-?) 2.07 | The Red Sowing
YOUR BROTHER JUST GOT MURDERED AND YOU'RE SERVING CUNT⁉️
Cries in ‘pls god I need to phase’
*Violently presses button for ability that's on cooldown*
Wanda being a villain of an avengers team would’ve been bad. Avengers: Disassembled is one of THE WORST things that has ever happened to Wanda’s character it would be literally no different if she had ended up being a villain of an avengers movie, she’d be irredeemable if she killed any of her Ex teammates and there is NO WAY that she could’ve made it thru the film without doing so, so, yeah, a Doctor Strange film was the best place for that to happen.
I know everyone was pissed at Wanda being the villain of Multiverse, as was I. But you know, I think it actually could have worked if Wanda had been he villain of an Avengers film or Special Presentation like what was originally planned, NOT a Doctor Strange film.
Because my biggest thing isn’t that Marvel decided to make Wanda a villain, it’s that they played their hand too early and now they’ve missed the opportunity to adapt the classic Nights of Wundagore arc from the comics.
And instead of doing that, Feige lets Waldron make Wanda the villain without any build-up or time to breathe from Wandavision, thus pissing everyone off. It’s almost like if they’d just stuck with Nightmare for the villain they wouldn’t have had this problem.
…
Yeah, I’m still bitter my boy didn’t get to fight Marvel’s flamboyant, dream warlord. What of it!?
Bestie you should’ve watched WandaVision. It explained her powers 😭
remember in the doctor strange end credits when they established baron mordo as an upcoming villain and then they forgot about it in favor of having wanda destroying the multiverse?? yeah
Why is it so hard for you weirdos to respect non-binary people’s identity…
bloodhound is transmasc and queer i dont make the rules
HELP ME SJDJFKGKFJFJFKFKFKFKG
This is foul KDJKSFKKSMFJSKCKS
Palm cockatoos regularly live to their 70s and 80s but go awf
albatrosses will wipe the floor with any species of bird you choose to compare them to. they’re the Most, or at least Extremely, by almost every metric
THIS IS SODNFJSKNJKSNFKS
And which Roma character could you possibly be referring to? 😭 bc I’ve checked the cast and none of the characters are originally Romani. touch grass. It’s named after the source material.
I'm not going to pretend like I know anything about Marvel shit much at all, but purely surface level it does seem kinda gauche as hell to name a series prominently featuring a Romani character "Secret Invasion" especially in today's day and age like yikes
Saying this about Wanda (who was corrupted by the darkhold) and about Steve (who’s a better man than Tony ever was) WHILE STANNING TONY STARK IS WILDDDDDDDDDDDD. He’s the embodiment of entitlement. Miss me with this.
Periodic Reminder That:
• Sylvie is an unnecessary OC created by the authors to get out of delving into Loki’s trauma. They give almost 100% of the narrative sympathy that should’ve been his to her because it’s easier to create a new backstory for someone than try to reconcile the complex one the previous writers/directors made for an existing character. Her existence was unneeded and did nothing but muddy up the plot and detract from aspects of the story that could’ve benefited from being given more time/effort.
• Wanda is a spoiled little entitled brat that murders people when she doesn’t get what she wants, and then gets rewarded for it by the narrative constantly treating her like an innocent child.
• Captain America perfectly represents his namesake, in that he is an entitled asshole with a hero complex, who thinks it’s perfectly righteous to barge across the sovereign borders of other (poorer) countries and inflict his will (“his will” being murdering a bunch of civilians and causing billions of dollars of property damage just so he gets to feel like their saviour) and then act like they’re being ignorant and ungrateful because they have the audacity to want him (and his allies) held accountable after the fact.
Felt that 😭
Man it's wild af to actually be excited for Apex again
!!!!!!!!!! Yes to all of this. Every. Single. Bit.
An ATLA Rant: Imperialism & Nuance
Just to start off, this is coming from a girl who’s grandmother was Filipino. No, I have not personally experienced imperialism in my lifetime, but it is a subject that I think is very serious and important to me because of my heritage.
That said, I have absolutely zero idea how you could watch avatar: the part airbender and come out of it saying that it is pro imperialist. Absolutely zero.
I agree because this is a pan Asian inspired show that was written was created by two white men (with the help and advisement of several poc as well but that is a topic for another time), people, especially people of color, have every right to be critical of it. But this argument that the show is somehow pro imperialist just doesn’t make sense to me.
The fire nation is in the wrong. The show makes that VERY clear. Their actions towards other nations is called out by several characters (Zuko, Roku, etc). Their destruction of other cultures (southern water tribe, air nomads, attempted earth kingdom) are seen as diporable and downright inhuman. Not only that, but we see the devastation this cultural genocide brings upon main characters like Katara and especially Aang and how they must heal from it.
Moving on, the show absolutely was not teaching people to stand docile and peaceful against their oppressors. Katara and Aang literally destroy a whole fire nation factory!! When the fire nation was attacking the northern air temple, they were kicking their asses off the cliff!! They planned a whole invasion to attack the fire nation capital to end the war!! (Let’s not forget Katara incititing a riot against the fire nation in the imprisonment episode with the earth benders). I could on and on about all the times the gaang meets the fire nation with violence and encourages others to fight back against them, but that would be going wayyy too in depth.
I think where people get far too simplistic here is that they think that atla is telling people to not use violence against their oppressors because the show is critical of people like Jet and Hama. First of all, the characters are given a lot of nuance in the show. Both are introduced with tragic backstories of the horrors that the fire nation inflicted upon them (I still get chills with the scene when Hama explains her story).
Despite this, both characters have every chance to use their abilities to fight back against the fire nation in a way that helps. You know, like fighting against the army and not innocent people who have no idea that the fire nation is actually in the wrong. The narrative is not that violence is bad! Peace is the only way! I think it’s that you can’t let your veagance lead you away from fighting the right people. That’s the issue: neither Jet and Hama were fighting the right people.
And we first see both characters fighting soldiers in their first scenes. Hama in the flashback when she’s defending her home (and rightfully uses violence to do so) and Jet when he helps the gaang take down some fire nation soldiers in the forest. This is just violence directed at the right people. But instead, both attempt to murder and in Hama’s case, torture people who take no part in the atrocities the fire nation has committed. Are they ignorant? Well of course they are because as we very obviously see, they’ve been fed propaganda their entire life while also living under an authoritarian regime, something that’ll give you no will to think other than the things that are spoon fed to you.
So let me ask you this, was it right for Jet to try and murder an entire village of innocent people, literal children included? Was it right for Hama to imprison and torture lord knows how many innocent citizens just because they belong to an nation that they have no actual knowledge of its evil? I’m hoping your answer is no, and the show would also say no as well.
When both Katara and Aaag choose not to kill, the narrative is not saying that they shouldn’t kill these men. The narrative allows both characters to make their own choice in what ways they wish to do, and it has nothing to do with what is actually right or wrong, because ultimately it is up to what each character wishes to do. Katara sees Yon Ra as the pathetic old man that he is, so she sees no purpose or healing for herself in taking his life. This is a personal choice made for herself, and that is all that matters.
The same goes for Aang. This poor boy is desperate to uphold the beliefs of his people, so he finds another way. A way that still upholds his beliefs while still ending the tyranny of Firelord Ozai. It is ridiculous to say that this is a passive take to imperialism, because yes he doesn’t literally murder someone but he still takes the dude out. And honestly, Ozai’s fate is worse then death (especially considering who Ozai is). Once again, the narrative is not saying be passive to your oppressors and don’t use violence. Its saying that because Aang is living in a world where his beliefs have been forcefully removed and disrespected, he has every right to continue to defend them in the ways he sees fit.
While some may see the narrative as more sympathetic to Iroh and Zuko, I think it’s just because they ARE some of the main characters of the show, as compared to those like Jet and Hama. We see much more of their story just as we see much more of the gaang’s story. Not only that, but their narrative purpose is far different from these two other characters. Iroh and Zuko are meant to show that despite them being from the fire nation, they are not inherently evil people. Jet and Hama are meant to show that even while they are against the antagonistic force of the show, they still can commit evil. Not only are Iroh and Zuko’s actions never justified, but they both must go on a journey to unlearn the hateful propaganda instilled into them, and remedy their ignorance. The narrative never says that neither Jet and Hama cannot also redeem themselves, but Hama feels no remorse for her actions, and Jet does attempt to redeem himself, but ultimately falls back into old habits (I believe he could’ve redeemed himself, but I’ll agree the writers were a bit sloppy in his end, like I’m not sure why they had to kill him other than to make him a tragic character but whatever).
To finally wrap up this essay, ATLA is not a black and white show. The show is not pro imperialist for condemning the violent actions of two characters who happen to be victims of imperialism. The show is not pro imperialist for allowing two children to decide for themselves whether or not they want to end the lives of someone. The show is not pro imperialist for not making the antagonist of the show a one note and one dimensional bad guy.
I’ll end this with the speech that Zuko makes to Ozai when he prepares to leave on Day of Black Sun:
No, I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own! Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the War was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.
Finally someone who handles and approaches this topic with nuance 😩 it’s rough out here watching 99% of the fandom oversimplify or misinterpret the writing 😭😭 the lack of media literacy and critical thinking skills is appalling, so I really am glad I found a post that actually takes EVERYTHING about these stories into account and approaches the topic the way you did
“Zaheer, Hama, and Jet all had the right idea with their mindset, they were butchered by the writers to make them seem evil!!!”
Sweetie, that’s called making relatable antagonists. No one relates to one-dimensional, “I’m evil because evil” villains because they don’t represent any realistic thoughts. These three do have the right idea, and they show what happens when the right idea is backed by the wrong actions.
And if it bothers you that the protagonists fought these people, keep in mind none of the good guys necessarily disagreed with their overall sentiment. If you think Aang and company fighting Hama meant they didn’t take her trauma seriously, that’s you oversimplifying, not the writers. Same goes with Korra and Zaheer, or the Gaang with Jet. They went against them because their methods were violent, reckless, and/or counterintuitive to their respective goals.
Sometimes y’all need to check in to see if it’s the writers making things too black-and-white or if it’s you grossly misinterpreting it as that.
The fandom doesn’t acknowledge it for a lot of reasons, and one those is so they (mostly newer fans I must say) don’t have to acknowledge the role that the genocide of southern waterbenders played in katara’s own trauma. People often forget aang isn’t the victim and survivor of genocide on the team. Also they want to ignore hama’s trauma, because acknowledging that trauma would take away their view of morality being black and white, when in fact Hama is neither in the wrong or the right. Obviously what she was doing in the fire nation was wrong, but it’s more complex than that, and Hama as a character is more complex than that. She’s been to hell and back, she was locked in isolation for decades, tortured for decades, being in conditions like that changes a person, for YEARS her only goal was to survive and escape, and if you ask me, it was her drive to escape that kept her alive in the prison as long as it did. It is only logical to assume that someone going through that would lash out if given the chance, which she did. The way she saw it, was she had a chance to make the nation that subjugated her for most of her life suffer, so she took it and inflicted the SAME methods on her own victims. She is such a tragic character for the way she let her rage consume her. She was, to her, the only survivor of a genocide, and it affected her outlook on life knowing that she was all that was left. The show is meant to show the effects of war and imperialism, and they did that exceptionally well in the case of not only Hama, but the southern water tribe as a whole.
Whenever I see people discuss The Puppetmaster, the focus is on blood bending and how it’s so horrifying and Hama is so creepy and evil – or alternatively, how Hama is not evil and the creator’s should have written/framed her differently.
But what I never see discussed is the Southern Water Tribe genocide??
Like a lot of people, I see the Puppetmaster as the most horrifying episode, but unlike a lot of people, it’s not because of blood bending.
Blood bending didn’t leave that strong of an impression on me. To be honest, I can’t remember my initial thoughts concerning it. What I can remember in startling clarity, though, is how shocked and horrified I was at the quite explicit depictions and descriptions of the Southern Water Tribe genocide.
To me, it seems like a large part of the fandom just ignores this? Or even like they completely missed it? If there wasn’t so much discussion surrounding Hama, I’d be willing to entertain the notion that a Netflix glitch made a lot of people unknowingly skip this episode, because it seems to have made no impact on people.
Even when discussing this specific episode, even when discussing Hama, it seems like people just leave the genocide and the waterbending prisons out of it. Why?
I’ve seen some people refer to blood bending as “the ultimate violation of a person’s autonomy” – which is a valid take, if you want to make it – but if you’re writing an analysis and come to this conclusion, it would certainly benefit if you at least compared and contrasted generations of waterbenders kept in suspended cages and where that ranks on the scale of autonomy violations.
It seems like that would be a very natural and obvious thing to include in your analysis. Like, very obvious.
I see so many people saying “Hama kidnapped innocent civilians, which is wrong and evil” but I have not seen a single person, ever, compare this to the way she herself was a kidnapped innocent civilian.
When people defend Hama, they bring up how she went through a lot of trauma, and how they don’t blame her for her actions, but I’ve seen no one draw this very obvious parallel.
Whether you want to defend Hama, or condemn her, or talk about her or the episode in a way irrespective of morality, it feels like bringing up the things that *happened in the episode* would be important for that. Completely ignoring half an episode is not generally conductive to analyzing said episode.
Like, even if you dislike the parallels, I’d think people would at least say something like “wow, these parallels are so bad,” but instead no one mentions them??
Honestly, the more I think about it, the more convinced I become that some people didn’t see the same episode I saw. When The Puppetmaster got translated into different languages, did they censor it? Cut out the worst parts? I actually looked at the episode transcript prior to writing this to make sure I didn’t just image these plot points 😭
The Southern Water Tribe genocide is such an important aspect of atla, and people just ignore it.