Zuko’s backstory and desire for familial love is brought in way too early so he doesn’t have time to actually be a ruthless and cruel villain. Y’know, the thing that’s essential to his killer redemption arc? Because god forbid characters be unlikable.

One of Sokka’s main flaws was completely removed because god forbid characters be unlikable. And he’s not funny!

Katara is watered down to being just a little girl, her mature and nurturing side is gone. Her anger at injustice is also gone because god forbid characters have flaws.

Aang doesn’t act like a kid. He doesn’t try to run from his responsibilities while simultaneously feeling guilty about running from his responsibilities. Because god forbid characters have flaws.

You know, I’m seeing pattern.

“Yeah all the characters are completely different from how they are in the original, and the acting is flat, and the writing is shit, and the world feels dead, and the pacing is terrible because they insist on smashing like 4 important episodes together at the same time, and some of the best moments were completely cut out, and those that were adapted got butchered, and Aang doesn’t really even learn waterbending during the water season, but it’s still pretty good. I mean the cgi looks nice and it’s not the Shyamalan movie.”

The gods in this show don’t feel like gods at all. The gods in PJ are supposed to be humanized—to an extent. They have petty human emotions and somewhat human problems, but they’re always still portrayed as what they really are, deities. The gods in the show don’t feel like forces of nature and abstract concepts capable of tearing the universe apart in human forms, they just feel like normal mortal people. Dionysus I can give a pass to because of his unique circumstances. Poseidon and Hephaestus carried a somewhat enigmatic air to them, but it sure as hell wasn’t divine. Where was Poseidon’s gaze that contained the churning, untamed depths of the seas? Where were Hephaestus’ disfigured scars from when he had been tossed to the ground from mount olympus? Ares and Hades are the worst of it. Show Ares is intimidating, sure. As intimidating as a normal human biker, not god of war intimidating. In the books, Ares’ mere presence was enough to stop people in their tracks. He could cause blood to boil and fights to break out around him. Everyone is in love with Hades’ portrayal and I can’t even begin to understand why. Hades is supposed to be a god of the dead who wears the souls of the damned as his garments and his aura could tempt people to submit to him or give up their own life. He’s not some sassy twink you’d see at a gay bar in LA.

Venti: Jumpluff, Flapple, Leafeon, Floette, Altaria, Meloetta.

Furina: Primarina, Seadra, Swirlix, Milotic, Mareanie, Dewott.

Lyney: Purrloin, Salazzle, Male Meowstic, Torracat, Delphox, Zoruark.

Lynette: Female Meowstic, Espeon, Inkay, Polteageist, Chandelure, Delcatty.

Freminet: Alolan Sandslash, Absol, Prinplup, Pawniard, Klinklang, Froslass.

Fischl: Mismagius, Murkrow, Drifloon, Corviknight, Gothitelle, Shiny Pumpkaboo.

The game’s like oh you want to know more about Venti? You want to see him be serious and vulnerable again in a way he’s probably never had the chance to be before like in his story quest? You want a sequel to that quest? You want to know why he’s mentioned in the chasm and Enkonomiya? What his enigmatic connection to time and memory means? What his secretive relationship with Celestia is like? You want more information on pre archon Venti and Old Monstadt? You want to know his role in the destruction of Khanri’ah and how he felt about it? You want to know if he has identity issues from building his existence on the legacy of someone else? If he ever gets tired of playing the carefree bard? If there’s times when no one is watching where it all becomes to much and he just breaks?

Platonic love and feelings often get erased by fandom’s obsession with romance, but something I’ve never seen anyone else talk about is how it doesn’t stop there. Every group of fictional friends is called a found family. If two people who are close interact with one another and aren’t shipped together then apparently they’re siblings now. If an adult cares for a child/ younger character or gives them advice or is close with them at all then they’re automatically “parental figures.” It’s always “you’re not my best friend, you’re family now.” I’m sick of it. Family isn’t all its cracked up to be. This insistence in both fanon and canon fiction that family is always good and should be held above all and and everyone needs a family whether biological or honorary is almost as annoying as the insistence that everyone needs romance.

Why can’t people be friends? I’d kill for a group of people to just be friends with and feel platonic love for because to me that’s better than any family I could have or find. It’s like people think there’s a hierarchy, that platonic feelings are meant to be temporary. That if people form a close enough bond they become “more” than friends and are either romantically involved or become family.

Platonic relationships and feelings are not lesser than romantic or familial ones. They are not less important, less genuine, less impactful, less personal, or anything else inferior to romance and family.

I’m tired of them being erased. I understand that the desire to push the narrative of characters being family often comes from the de-stigmatization of adoption and fostering, of doing away with the nuclear and “traditional” family structures. It comes from people embracing that family is not something you’re stuck with by chance, but can be something you choose. It comes from queer people pushed from their biological families and finding solace in a community or group of people who finally accept them and become a real family to them. And I’m not demeaning or trivializing any of that, I just think that they can and should co exist with with platonic relationships and the idea that family isn’t the end all be all of relationships.

I’m also aware that the association of close non-romantic relationships with family predates the found family trope and fandom, but I’ve noticed that it’s become more of a problem as the trope grew in popularity.

Nobody can just be enemies either it seems. Every dynamic involving characters fighting or having a rivalry or otherwise unfriendly relationship gets reduced to “spicy sexual tension” and “hiding their true feelings behind a different kind of passion.” Hate, anger, fear, disgust, distrust, etc. are such interesting human emotions on their own. They don’t need romance to make them interesting. People can just hate each other sometimes.

I’m so sick of romance culture and it’s need to insert itself into everything to make things better, more interesting, or more complex. Maybe if you just stop and shut up for a second, you’d see that it’s already all that and more. People need to learn to appreciate emotions that aren’t love and lust, and types of passion that aren’t motivated by love or lust, and character dynamics that don’t revolve and love and lust.