it's MY throatal flap

[lunabee34]

1. OMG, Avatar is so good. I can hardly stand it. So, after we watched the episode where Zuko defects, Fiona predicted that he would ingratiate himself to the group by cooking them surprise breakfast. I wonder if that would have gone over better. *dies laughing*

Okay, I straight up got teary-eyed at the revelation that Uncle Iroh was deemed worthy by the dragons. UNCLE IROH IS BEST CHARACTER NO CONTEST.

I've been having thoughts about Azula. I think the show intends to portray her as monstrous, as someone who's just been born wrong, and on my first watch, I didn't question the narrative. After all, Zuko, Mai, and Tai Li might have swallowed the Fire Nation propaganda, but they're not cruel; they're not sadistic. They're fighting on the wrong side, but they're not bad people. So something must be wrong with Azula beyond her upbringing.

But on this watch, I'm feeling differently about it. Azula is Zuko's flipside in that she shows the consequences of an abusive upbringing for the golden child. Her father is no less abusive to her because he favors her; her sadism is constantly rewarded. What chance does she have for growth?

The one moment of humanity for Azula so far is in the Dawson's Creek episode where she says that their mom favored Zuko, but I don't think that we can blame Azula's cruelty on that. IDK

I don't like her, and I think she's a villain, but I also think she's Draco who has awesome tea parties with Voldemort instead of being terrorized by him, you know? LOL

2.

The Industrial Muse: A Study of Nineteenth Century British Working Class Literature by Martha Vicinus

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was really interesting. I've read the classic Victorian novels written by middle-class writers about the working class (Dickens, Gaskell, Disraeli, etc.), but I've not read literature written by the working class. This consists of a discussion of mostly poetry and song with a handful of novels. Very informative about Chartism and the music hall in particular.

FYI: There is a typographical error repeated throughout the book; in just about every paragraph, there are words smushed together that should have spaces between them and don't.



View all my reviews

3. Fiona has started testing for the gifted program. We went for the first round this morning. The teacher is testing a small group at a time for like an hour over a period of days so they can be socially distanced. Fi wore her little mask my mom made her. *my heart* This is the first time she's gone anywhere since March 15. Part of me is worried that she won't do as well as she would have if they had tested during the school year, but it is what it is.

4. Some poems I liked that I encountered in Women of the Beat Generation:

Helen Adam "Last Words of Her Lover"
Hettie Jones "Welcome to Our Crowd" and "Sonnet"
ruth weiss "For Madeline Gleeson" (reminds me of Atwood's "You Fit Into Me," which is quite possibly the best poem of ever)

Comments

[forestofglory]

Uncle Iroh ❤️

And good thoughts on Alzua too!

[lunabee34]

I enjoy the kids, but he has my heart. I just want him to be happy, and I want everyone to recognize what a good person he is. What a different world if he'd inherited the throne.

[kass]

I've read some great Azula fic; I should look for the links for you.

I adore the revelation that Uncle Iroh was deemed acceptable by the dragons and has been lying to protect them this whole time.

And oh, man, the ep where Zuko waits all night in Iroh's tent (in the White Lotus encampment) and in the morning begs for forgiveness and Iroh hugs him and says "I was never angry, only sad that you had lost your way" -- it gets me every. single. time.

[lunabee34]

I don't remember that one; I may not have seen it. I can't wait to get there. That sounds like it will be exactly my jam. :)

I love how it's clear to the viewer that when Iroh is refusing to speak to Zuko in jail that he's trying to protect him, but Zuko interprets it as rejection. Iroh knows he has to wait for Zuko to come to the realization that he does not want the life he's reclaimed before he reaches out to him. And as soon as he sees Zuko is heading in that direction, he goes all Sarah Connor. *loves*

ETA: also, I'd love any fic you'd like to rec; I don't think I've read a single fic for this fandom

[lunabee34]

OMG, KASS! We just watched that episode, and it just gut punched me in the feels. I love it!

And all Iroh wants to do is reopen the best tea shop in Ba Sing Se. *hearts in eyes*

[kass]

My kid's first piece of fanfic is about Iroh opening that tea shop. :-D

And I just love that episode so much. It's one of my favorites.

[lunabee34]

I remember reading that! So adorable.

[china_shop]

Her father is no less abusive to her because he favors her; her sadism is constantly rewarded. What chance does she have for growth?

I'm having those feelings about one of the bad guys in a Kdrama I'm watching. He's awful -- a cruel bully who thinks none of the rules apply to him because he's rich -- but he's been raised so terribly. His dad basically bullied his awfulness into him. So I kind of feel bad for him and want to see him redeemed somehow (while also wanting him to stay far far away from the good guys).

[lunabee34]

I'm not sure how I feel about Azula redemption. I should say that I don't remember exactly what happens to her in these last few episodes, so my feelings are likely to change as I continue watching.

I do feel sympathy for her and for characters like the one you're describing.

I wish there was some middle path between villainy and redemption. Generally the bad guy either stays the bad guy or is redeemed (or commits one good act and conveniently dies like Vader or Kylo Ren). I'd love to see some middle choice, but I don't even know what that would really look like.

[sholio]

I really go back and forth on Azula. I think I got burned on Azula redemption narratives by running into a few too many people in the fandom who genuinely believe that she's never done anything wrong and Team Avatar are the real baddies. I also really appreciate that it's one of the few instances I can think of on TV of sibling abuse, that's clearly portrayed as abusive and wrong, in a way that isn't excused by Azula being smaller and younger. Children can be cruel bullies at a very young age, and I like that the show shows that. There's some part of me that doesn't want Azula to have a redemption arc because it's relatively rare for female villains to be portrayed as flat-out cruel with no redeeming features, unsoftened by love for a male protagonist.

But at the same time, I think about how she's been as warped as Zuko by their father's abuse, if in different ways due to being the favorite. Zuko eventually figures it out, but Azula never does. But Zuko probably never would have without the experiences he had, forcing him to see the world from different perspectives and eventually to question what he'd been taught. Azula only ever had her worst impulses rewarded. She becomes monstrous, but she's had the monster side of her fed and fed by all the adults around her. I wish that she had at the very least gotten an opportunity to have more agency towards the end. It would be interesting to see if she'd eventually manage to make better choices if she had more opportunity to do so.

... I mean, I guess what it comes down to is that I don't tend to like redemption-arc villains before the redemption arc happens, because it's their choices during the arc that really make or break it for me; it's those moments of softness that take a character from "love to hate" to genuinely wanting something better for them. So if the show had also done an actual redemption arc for Azula, I think I would've really gone for it; it's just that in the absence of it, I can't really see the shape of it except in the abstract.

[havocthecat]

I think (on top of everything you've said) that Azula was supposed to be the shadow-side of Zuko, that side that we'd have seen if he had only ever had his monstrous side rewarded, and she was only ever used as, well, the first season Cordelia to the first season Buffy. She was the "this is who you could have been, this is who you could be, this is the choice you could have made."

The fact that they also made her a well-rounded character is pretty impressive, given that. I love Azula, not because she's terrible, but because she's an amazing antagonist.

Do I want more for her? God, yes, because she's such an amazing character. I want her to have that ability for self-reflection, that introspection that Zuko had, but she never had an Iroh to give her that chance. That space. That push away from anger and into gentleness. Or the chance to become something more, something different, to find it on her own without an Iroh.

Or to double down and become the most hellacious villain ever. I could go with that.

[lunabee34]

I agree with you that she is a well-rounded character despite being so cruel and villainous.

And she's a fantastic adversary. She's just relentless.

[lunabee34]

I am boggling at the idea of the Avatar gang being the actual bad guys. These are the same people who write Death Eater Ron, right? LOL

I also don't think I want Azula to be redeemed; she IS a bad person. But she also didn't get those opportunities for growth that you mention. Not only does she not have an Iroh, she never has a reason to question anything she believes. Without Zuko's banishment, he could never have come to the conclusions he eventually draws about the world around him. Without seeing first hand on the level of a regular person (not as a member of the conquering army or as royalty) the destruction the Fire Nation has wreaked, he would never have been able to change his mind. So I have sympathy for her while also thinking that she hasn't done anything to merit redemption. Like I said upthread, I wish there was some good middle road between cardboard villain and redemption.

I have to admit that I don't remember exactly what happens to her, so my feelings might change as I rewatch.

[conuly]

she's never done anything wrong and Team Avatar are the real baddies.

What.

[spikedluv]

Congrats and good luck to Fiona!

[lunabee34]

Thank you! *crosses fingers*

[havocthecat]

Is there a book full of poetry of women of the Beat Generation that I missed you posting you bought? I think that's an era of poetry that I have mostly missed, and the women receive no recognition at all and I need to know more!

Gifted testing! Do you know that there are prep classes for Gifted testing? OMG. Apparently a lot of kids here take the prep classes. /facepalm Don't get me started on the Gifted programs here, I have observations. Just...observations. (You can totally ask me via email. I just won't ever talk publicly.)

[lunabee34]

Yes! I posted about it here: https://lunabee34.dreamwidth.org/665193.html

OMG, that kind of stuff is nuts. I am not tutoring my seven year old in the hopes that she wins a Nobel or something. That's not the way it works here. Basically if you test into the program, all your classes are accelerated, and all your classmates are also in the gifted program. That's all it means.

[zulu]

I feel so bad for Azula at the very end, when she's chained to the grate; but on the other hand, I felt her descent into madness was rushed a bit. All her cold control deserts her within an episode (or two?) as if she can't handle responsibility. And maybe she can't! She was never allowed to envision herself as "in charge" and knowing that Ozai is alive and might come back to claim it from her is probably highly anxiety-making. Anyway! My point is, more episodes are clearly the answer.

[lunabee34]

Heeeee. I don't remember what happens to her very well, so I'm looking forward to refreshing my memory.

I am all for more episodes. :)

[amejisuto]

Good luck to Fiona for passing those tests.

[lunabee34]

Thank you! I suspect she'll do fine. It's just something for me to be anxious about that's not a global pandemic. Lol

[amejisuto]

It's a sad thing we have to include a global pandemic in our worrying.

[ariadne83]

You are so spot on about Azula. The thing about being the golden child is that you know it's conditional, and you live every day under the pressure of having to be perfect so you won't lose your place.

And then her worst nightmare comes true: she finally gets to a point where she *thinks* her father is rewarding her, but it turns out to be empty. And she gets left behind. And what does she say? "How dare he treat me like Zuko!"

That's what breaks her - she dedicated her whole life to something she could never 100% trust, and it left her unable to trust *anybody*. And when she's proved right, she snaps.

[lunabee34]

Yes! That's exactly it.

She sees that nothing she has built is sustainable. She can't even keep her friends. I think she realizes on some level that her cruelty means that no one really cares about her; she must know that her father doesn't genuinely care about her even when he's approving. I think that's why her hallucination is of her mother saying she loves her. Her dad might be pleased or proud or think she reflects well on him, but he doesn't love her.