Head cannon that Hatter just sorta refuse to drink out of normal cups so he drinks outa sippy cups. He has no reason to its just funny to be a tyrant (sorta) who drinks out of a sippy cup
The removal of the sexism pisses me off not because it just affects Sokkas character but because it has ruined almost every woman in the show.
Suki takes off her make up often, as if it isn't a large part of her cultural identity and personality, as if her being a kyoshi warior and her destinctly femenine clothes are something to be ashamed off or that hinders her. Because its only her that gets this treat amongst the warriors, and shes the only main kyoshi warrior for the audience.
Yue's entire character is removed. It is replaced with what I think is meant to be a sympathetic princess to the people, she joins the nans in the kitchens and make deserts for the children. Like a disney princess whose quirky and silly and held back only by her title of a princess. Gone is the battle between her desire to help and her duty to be a water tribe ideal woman. Gone is her realising that the best way to help her people is to not be an ideal woman, but to take action and to do what no one else can, to become one with the moon so that she can forever help not just her tribe but the entire world. It is depressing, it is deep, it isn't fair to her but when has the world ever been fair?
Katara aswell. Her bending is forever unlocked by men (Aang and Jet), her defiance of authority is lessened and her naievety is also changed. A lot of her motherhood role is also completlty gone since they have changed Sokkas sexism into elder brother smothering. Her fight with Paku holds a lot less significance since she has no RAGE behind her. No rage that has built for YEARS as time and time again people have said no to her face for being a woman, for being weak, for not being enough simply because of who she is. that doesn't exist for her anymore because the water tribes are just...nice. We see one bad person in the water tribe and its Hadoka and he's mean to sokka! Kataras rage comes from Paku saying no to her, and whilst thats swell, it changes her entire "I'm a master now" moment into just...lame girlbossery. Thats kinda how the entire last 2 episodes felt like for her character. A common girlboss character without the emotional depth to make it femenism.
I think my main issue is that both shows set themselves up as being femenist by nature. The og show wanted to tackle issues with sexism, using book 1 as its main demonstration with it, but the theme still follows throughout the narative. netflix's show outright said they were removing the sexist elements. When you place youself onto that pedastal, any sexist writing you have becomes emphasised.
The og show undoubtably has sexist moments! Irohs comments to June are the most obvious to me, a long with a couple comments from Zuko later on. You can certainly argue that the extreme lack of GOOD mother figures is an issue (Kat and Sokkas mother is dead, Zukos is 'dead', and Toph is awful and rather quite compared to her father). Theres other examples, although currently my brain cannot think of any since I don't often write indepth critisms.
The live actions main point of sexism is its female main characters. we literally meet Yue in the kitchen! Women can be in kitchens but that is certainly a choice! Theres this strange hatred for make up aswell, yes with Suki but also with Sokka. His war paint is removed. Its like saying make up cannot be worn by strong fighters which is rather sexist. Speaking off: not putting Sokka in the kyoshi outfit is just...dumb? If you want to show him learning the style, having him wear the outfit. Its an aspect of the style and philosophy. A man wearing make up and a skirt doesn't emasculate him yet the show makes it feel that way with the refusal to do it. "Oh but then you'd have Sokka and Suki kiss in the kyoshi outfits" who cares. "it will look like lesbians" it won't. Even if it did, who cares? you can't be 'femenist' and anti-lesbian. Putting Sokka in the Kyoshi outfit, having him respect it, is just as important as having Aang learn the other elements, or Iroh creating lightning redirection. Why? because it shows a respect of culture, and how you can blend that into your own way of thinking. It's cultural extchanged based on respect.
When you name yourself femenist, yet have explicitly sexist writing, your GOING to get dogpiled with critism based on that 'femenist' msg.
Usagi painting stars across Arisus cheeks, some bigger than others, becuse he wants to remember all those that died in games with him and wants them on his skin (but tattoos hurrrrrrt and low-key probs arnt great to get in borderland) so paintitn them on in white face paint is what he has to do.
Just her softly holding his chin in one hand as she slowly angles his head to the side to get a better view. Chewing on her lip slightly as she concentrates on getting the lines right. The well used brush like ticking Arisus nose because yall have you ever been face painted??? Fucjing tickle hell.
Hatter wears a Burger King crown as his proclamation of being the ruler of the beach.
When a new person is raised to executive status he also does like the having them kneel at his feet and does the shoulder tap on either side with like a mop handle.
He has a beach chair for a thrown near the pool and no ones allowed to sit in it. You know it’s his becuse it has a #1 sprayed onto ut messily
I’m realising how many ‘chat acts like a cat’ head cannons and fanfics and how few ladybug acting like a ladybug fics and whilst I know why it would be funny if she just randomly started crawling or mid fight she’s like startled and just secrets a sour fluid from let joints…. Ok yeah maybe it makes sense to not have many ladybug being ladybug fics
I love how you went straight to Greek mythology because originally I was itching to talk about it but I held back since…well I always go to Greek mythology. BUT! you have given me reason.
Focusing on how you connected werewolves into this (I love it) I'm thinking of the myth of Lycaon where he sacrificed a child on an altar/ tried to feed Zeus human flesh (strangely common occurrence I'll add) and was punished by being turned into a wolf. This myth also then was MAYBE used to explain a festival/ceremony that involved sacrificing a wolf that was maybe thought to be a werwolf. What I'm saying is that theres defo a basis for the idea of werewolves steming from atleast a goddly curse whether that is a greek god or not.
Linking to that: I THINK its at that same festival I mentioned but it's written that people would turn into wolves after performing sacrifices towards Zeus. If the wolf managed to not consume human flesh whilst living as a wolf they would return to human form 9 years later, if not they'd remain that way forever. I think this idea of consuming other people being what keeps this beastly form is (yes symbolic of the idea of stepping beyond the lines of civilisation and into the 'barbaric' act of canibalism) very intresting when we view it as a link to vampires and how when they first taste human blood they shift from fledgling to propper vampire. Even though the wolves in mbav don't have that same "bite a man and your a wolf forever" it would make perfect sense for that to have been a sure thing somewhere within their genetic history. Alternatively maybe the wolves DO still have that ability but we just never saw it cuss Ethan was cured within days and the other guy…well he bit Ethan so it isn't looking good in terms of healing.
moving away from werewolves and focusing on Apollo (kind of) I think it's really interesting to see the vampires ability to wolf in sunlight as a blessing from Apollo. I haven't currently got any thoughts to add to that beyond its a great idea I just wanted you to know I loved it.
You also mentioned how if Ethan would take on the role as an Apollo 'child' (or follower) then Benny would be the Hermes/Dionysus pairing. I offer you this: Ethan as Apollo, Benny as Hermes, Rory as Dionysus. I put Rory with Dionysus since Dionysus is twice born, he's heavily linked with the idea of walking beyond the line of society which as a vampire works pretty well with Rory. Also wine and blood. Benny as Hermes is a slightly awkward fit (like putting a square into a rectangle hole on a baby toy. yes it works, but is the BEST choice?) but I think it works well from the idea that Hermes is like Apollo in how people just went "ahh shit we got another territory…let's just slap it on hermes and carry on with our day" so as such he has a collection of kinda random things, which I think works pretty well with how unorganised Bennys magic is and how random the spells he uses. Like theres no rhyme or reason as to what Benny learns he just goes "yeah I wanna do that today" and he does it. Also as a trickster (thinking of the myth were he steals cows by turning their hoves backwards) Hermes and benny work well. This paragraph has no reason to exist I just love rambling.
ANYWAY onto what I was actually going to add: I always have a bad habit of linking seers to Tiresias specifically (which….actually kind of sucks cuss the main Tiresias myth I see is his origin where it's ZEUS who gives him prophecy in response to Hera blinding him). This linkage for me always added to that vampire seer mixed genetic makeup since my introduction to him was through Oedipus and the Odyssey (I'm not gonna expand to much but Oedipus is actually usefull here aswell since it's Apollo who sent the plauge and also the prophecy and both Tiresius and Delphi. Plague, healing, society, prophecy, it all blends well and shows that shared connection). The odyssey is always the fun one cuss we meet him when he's already dead. Odysseus sacrifces a lamb when he's in Hades to allow the souls to drink the blood and for a moment regain both their human memorys and their feelings. WIthout that blood the ghosts walk as shadows of their formers selves, barely recognisable as human beyond their forms. This idea of humanity being regained through the consumption of blood is SO intresting and tricky from a symbolic pov but for this theory I'm just gonna say that this is where I link vampires in specifically since its perfect.
BUT! You mentioned Apollo, which to me my mind goes straight to Delphi. This addition isn't going to expand the genetic family tree but it is going to explain a bit on Seers specifically. Historically it's been understood that the oracles in Delphi were all experiencing brain damage and hallucinations from the volcanic gas under the area and also a nearby lake which released hallucinogenic vapour (they'd most likely wash in the lake either their whole bodies or their hands and feat as a religious cleansing. Some would also sleep outside near the lake to get dream visions). For the my babysiters a vampire universe I'll say that the Oracles were both real AND experiencing this damage since we know the supernatural exists. This idea of prophecy being directly linked to bodily harm from the outside world is brain itching when we assume that the seers of Ethans day have seem to evolved beyond having to evoke a God directly, almost as if they have evolved to do it off their own power OR the act of prophecy is the direct worship and evokation. Either way, it's evolved beyond Delphi, but if we watch Ethans reaction he almost seizes up and his eyes white out, it's a physical reaction. I would almost bet that as the visions became stronger or if Ethan found other powers the reaction of his body would worsen or even deteriorate. Which would then link to my earler thing of Seers functioning of the blood they create themselves which then leads to shorter lifespans than other supernatrual creatures or potential dysabilitys.
Also I love how mythology can be treated as an accurate source within mbav because of the mummy episode and the sun god episode. Though both those religions existing implies all religions potentially exist which makes for a very interesting and messy accurate religion which I will NEVER try to understand.
Even if we draw from Ancient Egyptian mythology (must admit, I am weaker in this than Greek since I'm not doing a degree in it so some of this might be a bit washy but we power through) theres a very interesting idea with Vampires (not as in literal vampires, just the thematic connections). Osiris is the god of death (after his own…not so peaceful death) with his son (who may have been conceived post-mortem….this has no baring to the theory I just need people to suffer this knowledge with me) Horus being seen as a god of healing, sun, and sky. You also then have Isis who was Osiris's wife and Horus's mother who was like…THE Goddess of healing. That connection just creates a very intresting cycle of life and death which vampires seem to be stuck in the middle off
This is gonna be a mish mash of cultures and ideas so bare with me. In eastern Europe (specificly slavic countrys) the vampire was an almost ghostly spirit rather than our common undead sexy friend. They were trixters to some extent, spread disease but in the way rats do rather than the specific bite we know. They also didn't consume blood. So this is the technical truth aspect of this idk 'theory' (but more headcannon I suppose). From this, I headcannon, it evolved into two specific paths: the vampire as we know and the seer. Both evolved to revolve around blood since blood is commonly seen as a holder of the human spirit and life force making it a very powerful energy source. Vampires evolved specifically as almost undead creatures, focusing on that ghostly aspect and almost making the souls haunt the dead body in such a way that it becomes 'imortal'. The sucking of blood is to create a constant source of energy to power the 'possession' and inturn their existence- like food for us. The 'infectious bite' then becomes a combination of corpse germs and supernatual infliction that continues to create vampires- something their ancestor obviously did not have due to the lack of biting and corperal form. on the otherhand, seers found their powersource in blood by creating their own. Specifically in having a functioning human body. The living body acts as a conduit for the supernatural power wich is displayed by divination and prophecy, what which ghosts being conected to the past and human life being seen as something of the future. This ghostly ancestor also explains why Ethan can see ghosts when touching their objects, he's channeling that energy. Of course if having a living body was such an easy way to have blood the vampire would have done it too, the problem with using your own body as a conduit continuously is that it starts to degrade over time either with natural circumstance like being old as shit and dying, or your body contracting ilnesses. It's has it's ups and downs. anyway the idea of a common ancestor is so intresting to me, especially since in the few mythologys I research prophecy and disease are strangely commonly linked. And I mean blood has ALWAYS been apart of seeing the future, think of literally any form of animal sacrifice amongst religions. Or how in some underworld storys the souls must consume the blood of a sacrifice (not necessarily human!) to be able to comunicate.
Joy absolutely brought fabian a shit-ton of fabs during the summer as a joke on his nickname. He’d be like “I’m so hot” and bam 5 minuets later she’s shoving a fab ice lollie in his hand cuss she’s just so kind
Arisu: even at the age of near 19 I still find nothing more I’d enjoy than a crisp glass of apple juice. Well other than college tuition. I guess that’d be great
Usagi: you didn't even go to college?
Arisu: I feel the debt in spirit
chishiya: And I feel it for real now shh
can we fall in love in the moonlight?
new drinking game: take a shot whenever they say the word "balance" in the new live action avatar.