yaltha-the-fangirl:

watertribe-enya:

yaltha-the-fangirl:

watertribe-enya:

fannishcodex:

fannishcodex:

lunarblue21:

fannishcodex:

pteropus717:

konthelion:

pteropus717:

I was going to point out how ridiculous it is that Tarrlok needs an office large enough to span five full-length windows.

Then again, he ended up being the only council member to actually accomplish anything, so I guess he earned it.

Tarrlok really was the only council member who did anything. As much as I like Tenzin he really did not accomplish that much if any at all. And the other three council members acted more like a flock of sheep so they don’t deserve a five window office.

Spur-of-the-moment headcanon: Tarrlok’s office (and extravagant private bathroom which is only accessible through a secret panel in the wall) used to be the other three council members’ offices. He proposed to knock down the walls and combine the offices into one super-office for himself. He offered them rooms in the basement to compensate.

Predictably, none of them had a problem with his decision.

Seriously, though. Tenzin used to be my favorite character, and I’m glad he spoke up against Tarrlok, but…that’s really all he did. He pointed his finger and called Tarrlok a meanie, then he grumbled and folded his arms whenever Tarrlok got his way.

Though that might have something to do with the fact that passing a law in Republic City requires only a majority vote among five people between the ages of 37 and 600.

took me a while to realize how young tarrlok is compared to the rest of the council, those three clearly don’t give a damn what goes on in the city, do they even know there’s a city outside the courthouse?, and tenzin only seems to care on principle, but he doesn’t ever do anything to help, he doesn’t even have to live in the city. he doesn’t experience the blend of cultures which was kind of the point, right? that’s pretty much why zuko and aang founded it, so it could be a focal point of harmony and peace among all the nations, but tenzin has to be on his island and immerse himself in air nomad culture, because he’s the only one left who can teach it, tarrlok was the only one who had any clue what was happening in the city

Excellent commentary so far on this. I’d also like to add to these facts that unlike the other, older council members, Tarrlok doesn’t just sit around and talk. If he wants a Task Force created to be watch for the city, he makes sure it happens. And when it does happen, he doesn’t appoint someone else to lead it - he leads it. 

I can’t recall any politicians in our world or in most fiction who are willing to get down and dirty to ensure the safety of their city like Tarrlok does - it was something I really admired about him in watching and rewatching “The Voice in the Night” my first few times! :D 

It’s also quite astonishing how much younger he is in comparison to the other council members, which means he probably worked hard for the city before achieving such a seat within the council. And when he does, he sees the issues that are plaguing the city such as the Equalists and the nonbender oppression, and, however misguided his ideals were, he attempts to better the situation. 

he really is young compared to the other council members, he is thirty-seven whilst, the others, including tenzin look to be in their fifties or older, and since I have this headcanon thingy that Tarrlok lived on the streets for a time and got to see the world through those lenses he’s mo…, most emotionally prepared to lead the city through the council whereas the others can’t, tarrlok, tarrlok appreciation blog and pretty much life

#OMG #I’M LAUGHING BECAUSE OF HOW WONDERFULLY TRUE ALL OF THIS IS #I’M STILL HOLD PRIDE IN BEING A TARRLOK FAN FROM THE START #TARRLOK4LYFE

Reminds me of the novel about the first six episodes that tried to make us believe that the other council members actually have own ideas.

Tenzin: Let’s bring the Equalists to the table and try to find some common ground.

Tenzin…you can’t even convince the people that are on your side..how are you going to work with the Equalists (and Tarrloks brother btw)?

I’ve always found it quite odd that Tenzin seemingly suggests trying to reason with the terrorists. He’s quite possibly terrified at the thought of another war starting, being both an Air Nomad and a son of war veterans, so he tries to avoid confrontation. But still, there are some things that don’t really make sense.

For instance, why does he say that actions against the Equalists will somehow make the conflinct between benders and non-benders (if there was one before the Equalists started their propaganda) worse? Doesn’t that sound a bit offensive? The Equalists are terrorists, so every sane person would condemn their methods. We actually saw at least some non-benders who chose to oppose them. And Tenzin’s statement sounds like he implies that all (or the majority) of the non-benders support these terrorists.

Agree. What government in history ever tried to cooperate with terrorists? Why not instead offer the Non-benders to elect some represantives who would work together with the council (and maybe the Avatar) to solve at least some of the problems?

The comment about the worsening of the conflict would only make sense iif the conflict between the two groups was already that bad, that the nonbending part of the city would take every move against someone who iis seemingly try to help them as an offent. But I guess that wasn’t the case.                                                                                                         

And I have that vaguely feeling that if they actually managed to arrange a discussion with the Equalists, the situation would have ended with the five councilmen tied up and chained on a stage.    

In fact, he wasn’t suggesting even that (he didn’t propose anything). But it’s hard to believe that he didn’t have the opportunity - if he came up with the idea better than Tarrlok’s, the other councilmembers would’ve probably listened to him. But he was just criticizing Tarrlok without formulating what exactly is wrong with his proposals (if he thinks that it would divide benders and non-benders, he has to explain why).

Reading all this commentary about how hard Tarrlok must have worked and the good traits he must have had and how passionate he was about Republic City just reminded me how the show brought him from this to on-screen suicide because he was related to two bad people.

tarrloks-butt:

puppy tarrlok didn’t mean to pee on the floor, he only did it because he got excited when he saw you since he just LOVES YOU SO MUCH ;3;

i have officially gone past the point of no return.

I am reblogging this mostly because it makes me feel less alone in the horrifying perverted things I have contributed to this fandom.

You’re welcome, all of you.

(Terribad ILU never stop)

juliet-ascent:

Tradition

After recent assassination attempts in Korra’s adult career by new gun contraptions, Tarrlok reluctantly agrees to teach her bloodbending.

Lesson One: How to stop a heart.

Transparent png, feel free to color! It’s on me.

tarrloks-butt:

WHY is Tarrlok’s butt so big?  Find out now with this revolutionary new product, CREEP-O-VISION GOGGLES by Terribad, Inc!

juliet-ascent:

You’re an idiot if you thought I’d let you get away with this.

But thank you for loving me enough not to stop me.

juliet-ascent:

just the beat that my heart skips when I’m with you

You thought I was done.

thepeacockangel:

“Pretty boy” as an insult never fails to wrankle, and what’s with all these evil pretty men, like Tarrlok and Tahno?

…Avatar didn’t have this issue as much, I find this heavily discomforting and suspect.

Please tell me this gets better?

Yeah, really not loving the “being a woman is fine, being feminine is terrible” message. We even get that with Asami, who’s disliked by Korra for being feminine, until she proves she can be masculine too.

My remedy to this is just to ignore what the show is trying to tell us about femmey characters, love on them a lot, and ship Korra with them. 8D

Read More

anghraine:

or, thoughts on debending (tw: suicide)

Read More

I’m in complete agreement that being an ex-bender is a completely different thing from being a non-bender. I don’t want to belabor the disability comparisons, because I don’t think it’s really the same, but think about the difference between Toph being born blind, and if any of the other main cast had suddenly become blind. Toph being blind is her default state—she doesn’t want or need vision. A sighted character becoming blind would be devastating because they’ve come to rely on their vision in their day-to-day life, and would have to relearn everything.

I don’t really like the theory that it’s something specific about the process of bloodbending bending removal that makes people suicidal. I think that erases their legitimate pain and despair. Losing something that is a major sense (powerful enough that it was able to provide comparable functionality to vision in Toph’s case), a part of one’s identity, a means of support, and an integral part of one’s day-to-day life is devastating enough. And I think saying only Amon’s debending did that gives Aang a free pass on his actions. Ozai was a genocidal tyrant and needed to be stopped, and I’ll grant that Yakone was also dangerous, and I’m not saying Aang was outside his rights as the Avatar by doing what he did to protect people, just that there’s a difference between committing acts of justified harm to protect others, and saying there was no harm at all.

Statistically, people are likeliest to commit suicide soon after a major, intractable, and devastating life change, such as a major drop in socioeconomic class (possibly with added homelessness and daily challenges to survival) or going to prison. People who have been poor for a while or been in prison a while are less likely to commit suicide, showing that it’s not those states themselves that’s the risk factor—it’s the loss. We see Tahno, Lin and Korra not more than a few days after losing their bending. Of course they’re going to be in significantly worse shape than Yakone, who’s had years to make whatever peace with it he can.

I myself have written several fics dealing with the topic of suicide post-bending. Most of my fics at least make a nod to it, and two exclusively deal with it as a theme. I have another planned fic (based on a kinkmeme request) which is an AU where Korra does take that cliff dive. So it’s clearly a theme I like and feel is worth exploring!

But TBH one of the things that really disappointed me about canon was how characters were dropped once they lost their bending, since I honestly feel their headspace is one of the most interesting and compelling in the show, and that’s just flushing conflict and story potential down the toilet. They’re not dead YET, and they are pushed so far outside of their comfort zone, which is what makes characters and stories interesting. That’s not saying I want to see them as ass-kicking non-benders, because TBH that’s just kind of silly. It takes years and years of training to learn how to kick ass in a non-bending style, and it’s trivializing the pain of bending loss to say they could overcome it that easily, which makes the narrative weaker.

That’s WHY I write about their experiences so much, about what it’s like for someone once they lose their bending—because it’s interesting, and because the show sadly lacks it. Because even if they do end up killing themselves, they’re NOT dead the moment Amon touches them, and their stories do deserve to be told.

I hear the execution parallels, but I’ve also seen it argued that what he does is paralleled with rape (it’s pretty heavily coded in the scene where Amon captures Korra and fondles her face in ep 4, plus it’s a serious violation with physical and emotional consequences) and while I don’t really like that in some ways, the fact that the parallel was there and that the characters ceased to be important really bothered me. I see in a lot of stories where a character (almost always female) is repeatedly threatened with rape, but the rape is never actually completed because the implication is that rape would be as bad as death for that character, her story would be over, there would be nothing worth telling anymore, she would be ruined. While rape is an awful thing to happen to anyone, I don’t believe those characters would cease to be interesting or viable if they did get raped, and I resent the implication. (Which isn’t like, I think women should get raped in fiction more, because I don’t. Just, ugh, stop treating it as basically death for women because she can have no life after that.)

Tahno might die, but if he does, that’s a story worth telling too. He isn’t dead. Not yet.