chromeknickers
Bender
I'm somewhere where I don't know where I am!
Posts: 216
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Post by chromeknickers on Nov 18, 2012 17:51:56 GMT -6
Character Bashing - Basically anything that bashes Aang. I love Aang, and I think it's very possible to have Zutara happen without turning Aang into some whinging or rage-filled homicidal douche. I feel the same about Mai, but especially so with Aang. I absolutely adore Aang.
Pointless Smut In Chaptered Fics - Yeah, I do understand when it's necessary to the plot (hell, I'm guilty of using dubcon like a mofo), but it has to have a purpose. (I am fine with PWP in one-shots, though.)
Zuko Always Saving Katara - Uhm, yes, I love it when Zuko sacrifices himself for Katara, but let's not forget that Katara is the most powerful Waterbender in generations. How about have her be the badass, how about her save Zuko for once?
Abusive!Zuko - Just no. NO. (I especially foam at the mouth at the thought of Abusive!Mako, but that's another story.)
Forgetting That There Are Other Characters In AtLA - Having Zutara-only moments in one-shots and short chaptered fics is more than understandable, but if you're writing something relatively long, please don't ignore the other characters in the AtLA world that Zuko and Katara are a part of. (Again, I understand some stories involve just Zuko and Katara, like just the two of them searching for Usra, but don't forget the gAang.)
Ignoring Politics - In chaptered post-war fics, I will never understand why politics is ignored or forgotten. The Fire Nation is a virtual powder keg. Quite a few probably want Zuko dead and even more don't like the fact that the Avatar and a peasant Waterbender have his ear. Please don't forget that.
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Post by kathrynlacey on Nov 18, 2012 18:08:11 GMT -6
I agree with most, but not all, of these. The one I don't agree with is the whole "killing off Aang/Mai" to make way for Zutara, but that is only in the event that they actually touch on the emotions that the living character go through concerning that and/or have enough span of time between the death and the Zutara that it wouldn't be an asshole move for them to just get together.
Hm... One thing I absolutely hate in smut!Zutara is feet play. I am so disgusted by feet that it can potentially ruin an entire piece for me if they mess with each others' feet, but it will, at the very least, ruin the entire scene. I can't even finish reading it... I just have to skip over a large portion and potentially leave the rest of the reading for later when I am no longer feeling queasy. I can totally see feet play for Toph and whoever her love interest is because she loves the whole foot thing, but I don't read Toph stuff, so I don't have to deal with it. Just... NO! No feet! It makes me feel gaggy.
Second, I hate when Katara can redirect lightning. She's a waterbender. The move may be based on waterbening forms, but it requires an ability to move lightning through the body which only a firebender can do. If a waterbender tries that crap, the lightning hits them and it goes where IT wants to go, not where the waterbender wants it to go. It just... doesn't make sense... at all to me. Maybe others disagree with me, and that's fine, but it's over the line of my ability to suspend-my-disbelief... I mean... I can take a lot, too, like Mrs. Pettyfer making Katara a non-automatic-healer because it worked better for her story, but I cannot take lightning-redirector-Katara. It doesn't work, in any scenario, ever.
Another thing that I dislike but doesn't make me rage so much as just makes me feel meh... When writers say that Zuko wasn't able to redirect Azula's lightning when he saved Katara. Yes, he did. There is a whole shot showing the lightning leaving the volcano after Zuko takes the hit. That lightning didn't all just stay inside him. He shot it away, but he did it wrong, and he got majorly hurt for it.
Fourth, I hate when Zuko is a pathetic little bitch in his romantic relationships. Yes, he was easily influenced by the women in his life (his mother, his sister, Mai), but he wasn't a little bitch... Maybe a little with Mai, but he wasn't some submissive loser who just constantly took crap from them. He stood up for himself, and he found his own way. No, Katara/Mai do not always top. That's just stupid. I like to see them all more as equals in these relationships. Maybe Katara/Mai tops sometimes and Zuko tops others. No one, in either Maiko or Zutara is a little bitch, so I don't understand why people are constantly writing them one way or another.
I totally agree with that political-ramifications thing because there are going to be issues no matter what Zuko does. He wants peace when this country has prospered as a strong War Nation for a century. Regardless of whether or not Zuko marries anyone, there are going to be some major issues, so if everything is just shiny after Zuko takes the throne and marries, it's just highly unrealistic and quite boring.
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Post by kathrynlacey on Nov 18, 2012 18:28:23 GMT -6
See, the fanfiction that I've read that deals with that scene pretty much always, specifically says that he didn't redirect it at all. I can't even remember which ones do it and how many do it, but I can't remember reading more than one that deals with that scene and doesn't say he didn't redirect it, that all of that lightning just stayed inside him/flickering around his body. Yep, some of it did, but most of it was redirected, and the only reason it doesn't piss me off when I read it is that I can see why people may have been confused.
Even so, I still don't really like reading works where he apparently wasn't able to redirect it unless it's AU.
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Post by emletish on Nov 18, 2012 21:15:31 GMT -6
I am guilty of not writing the redirection as well. Sorry hon!
I honestly didn't connect the scenes in ATLA with the redirection thing. To me it looked like he got shot - then we have a Katara reaction shot - then he falls. and then the scene cuts to a panorama where some lightning goes up. it took me a while to figure out that was meant to be the lightning being re-directed - mostly because I am always concerntrating on the feels that Katara's reaction shot brings out in me.
so when I wrote my fic, I wrote like he didn't redirect most of it. I assumed he got hit in the chest (because of the big old chest wound) and tried to redirect some of it, but then the lightning did what lightnig does and continued on its route into the ground.
My pet peeve is writing the characters without flaws - their flaws are why I love them.
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chromeknickers
Bender
I'm somewhere where I don't know where I am!
Posts: 216
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Post by chromeknickers on Nov 18, 2012 21:50:11 GMT -6
I'm fairly certain Zuko does redirect the lightning but not all of it. Some did settle in his chest, and that's why Katara had to heal him. Like Iroh said, the lightning would go for his heart. It wasn't insta-death because he did redirect most of it; however, he still absorbed it, which is why he was out. But I'm fine with people writing it like he didn't redirect it (in the moment) because I can assume that Katara didn't think he redirected it, and I'm sure that before Zuko blacked out he assumed the same. A bit of an "Oh shi--!" There's some realism to that.
Another pet peeve is when the romance moves too quickly, and this is especially pertinent during the series (S1 the most). They don't like each other most of the series, with Katara especially hating Zuko after CoD. I like an organic romance or, heck, just give me a build to an awesome friendship.
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Post by kathrynlacey on Nov 19, 2012 0:00:02 GMT -6
emletish, it's okay. Like I said, it's not even remotely rage inducing like some things I've read, and I can let it go with a simple shrug and a "meh." It doesn't ruin the fiction for me, I just wish more people realized he redirected it.
He didn't get hit in the chest because we see it hit his fingers as he's yelling "noooo," but he curls into himself almost immediately after that because he wasn't prepared to come at it from that angle, and he totally redirected it wrong when trying to move his other arm to shoot it out. I imagine when he tried to move his arm to pull it into himself then push it out, it probably burned that huge patch on his chest because he didn't guide it through his stomach the way he was supposed to do it. I think it almost went through his heart, actually, but he thankfully didn't botch it that badly or Katara never would have been able to save him because it would have been a pretty quick death like when Azula shot Aang in Crossroads of Destiny.
chromeknickers, I totally agree with having things progress at a more natural pace. Honestly, that sexual tension is so great anyway, and sometimes, it's like you lose something when you finally get to the actual lovey-dovey stuff. Maybe that's why the writers waited for so many seasons to have the leads act on their tension in shows like Bones and Castle. It works. You don't want to drag it out to the point where interest is lost, but keeping that unrealized tension is sometimes so great and offers so many feels!
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Post by likeadove on Nov 20, 2012 22:03:25 GMT -6
My pet peeves are small compared to the rest of this thread. Zuko always having "cinnamon breath". Is bro always chewing gum? Zuko always smelling or tasting like smoke and Katara liking it. Okay. As a non-smoker, I love my friends who smoke. I do. But they reek. Their clothes, their car, their house their bathroom, all of their stuff just stinks. And after they've had a cigarette? Please keep five feet away from me at all times. Since Katara is a non-smoker I'd assume she'd feel similarly. She probably wouldn't want to make out with someone who tastes like smoke when she herself doesn't smoke or deal with smoke. AND WHY WOULD HE SMELL/TASTE LIKE SMOKE ANYWAY? ? With that logic Katara should smell like the air after the storm which I have actually seen before but it's actually the dumbest thing ever. And anything to do with breath. "Her sweet breath" and "his hot breath on the back of my neck". Don't know about you guys but "sweet" isn't a word I'd use to describe someone else's breath. Just sayin'.
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Post by kathrynlacey on Nov 20, 2012 22:10:03 GMT -6
Honestly, if someone's breath smells sweet, it grosses me out. People's breath is unappealing if it has any kind of scent except for mint. Ugh... "sweet" scents actually make me feel queasy anyway. Maybe that's why I can't stand being near babies. Their formula or something always makes them have this really sickeningly sweet scent... but yeah... I can't stand when people where candy scented perfumes, either. Don't smell sweet! It's gross!
I agree that having Zuko always smell like a campfire seems super lame... I mean... first of all... Firebending doesn't burn anything other than air/energy, so it shouldn't produce a scent, so why would a firebender smell like anything other than a damned human? If anything, he should smell like singed hair. hahahah
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Post by advocaat on Nov 21, 2012 3:59:56 GMT -6
I dislike it when stories just gloss over Zuko telling Katara about his scar. Like:
Zuko: Mah daddy scarred me!!!!1one Katara: That sucks m0nkey ballz, dawg. But i leik ju better w/ teh scarz newayz. it's hawt.
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Post by dynamojacks on Nov 21, 2012 6:09:36 GMT -6
(Are we going to have to put a trigger warning on this thread? D8)
Adding on to what you guys have said before.. The idea of Zuko being a rapist at all just doesn't sit well with me. Even his S1 self who ties Katara to a frigging tree. He's more teasing and obnoxious than hypersexual and violent. And I don't see him as the kind of guy who takes advantage of women just because he tied one to a tree once. He took advantage of her in particular because she knew where Aang was, not because she was a woman and he wanted her sexually. Eesh.
Now he may have been ATTRACTED to her on top of that, but that's a different kettle of fish altogether. He doesn't act on that attraction to the point where he forces himself on her. He doesn't even have the experience of getting close to another woman sexually until Mai comes along (even then we don't know if they actually did it or not), so this kind of behaviour just doesn't gel with Zuzu. At all.
So, no. Zuko is not a rapist. EVER. Ever. Saw some artwork the other day that sent alarm bells ringing- Zuko in WAT pinning Katara against a wall with this horrible grin while she looked plain terrified. Uh. Backing slowly away now..
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