Okay, last Katara drawing of January

Like, before you watch Avatar, you’ve seen all these memes about Katara and her mom, and based on those memes, you assume it’s one of those lines you have to get used to hearing at least once every episode. But then you watch the show and realize that she only talks about her mom maybe five or six times per season and you also realize she only brings her up when she’s trying to comfort someone or empathize with them because that’s how she processes her grief and that’s one way she connects with people.

Or you hear the infamous line, “then you didn’t love [our mother] the way I did” and you prepare yourself for one of the worst character assassinations ever only to see the scene after nearly three seasons worth of context and realize she was kinda right. She’s been the mother, the nurturer, the comforter. She’s been patient, gentle, and accommodating where everyone else has gotten to be insensible and reckless and childish, and the one moment where she allows herself to feel her grief, suddenly she’s this evil bitch and not, y’know, a 14 year old girl whose been thrusted into adulthood in a way no other character has. A 14 year old girl who should be allowed immaturity and raw emotion and anger instead of the patience and grace she’s been forced to extend to every character without even the smallest amount of gratitude or even consideration in return.

Or you see all of the clips where Katara puts Aang in the “friendzone” and you expect to have this wishy washy back and forth where Aang is putting his feelings out there only to have Katara neither commit nor express any clear reciprocation or rejection. Then you watch and realize that, as cute as the ship is initially, that there’s never a point where Aang returns any comfort or grace to Katara despite her always doing this for him to the point of coddling. That for as much as Aang says he loves her, he never seems to outgrow his perception of her so he can recognize her as someone who feels grief, anger, and pain as much as she expresses love, kindness, and maturity. And instead of having moments where he learns to see her beyond her strength or compassion, you’re instead given moments where Aang forces his feelings onto her, both romantic and non-romantic, and Katara is expected to just…shoulder those feelings the way she shoulders everyone else’s.

Katara is the most misunderstood character in the show. As much as people recognize the complexities of Zuko, Sokka, and Azula, they struggle to do the same for Katara because they see her struggles as somehow lesser, and therefore, less deserving of sympathy. They can handle her so long as she’s being endlessly patient and loving and kind, but the moment her endless love, patience, and kindness runs out, she’s suddenly this annoying bitch who can’t shut up about her mother or reciprocate Aang’s feelings. But Katara’s trauma does matter as much as anyone else’s. No, she wasn’t banished from her kingdom. No, she didn’t lose her entire community, and no, she isn’t the only one who lost her mother. But the difference between her and everyone else whose experienced loss because of the Fire Nation is that she’s never given time to process her trauma. Aang gets to lean on Katara constantly. Toph gets to express her feelings to Katara, and yeah, Sokka also lost their mother, but unlike Katara, he isn’t put in the position of being a substitute for everyone’s parent. He even admits that he sees his sister as a mother. The only characters who ever comfort Katara or allow her to vent is Zuko and her father and that’s, like, three scenes in a show where the other characters are consistently given opportunities to seek out Katara for unconditional support.

The fandom interpretation of Katara has been so bastardized that even those who haven’t watched the show know her for this fanon version and not for who she is. She’s such an interesting character beyond her fandom limitations, though. She’s brave, hot-headed, and hopeful as well as gentle and caring. She wishes to learn waterbending, not only because she wants to fight in the war, but because she wants to continue her culture’s practices because, and people often forget this, she also lost an entire subculture within her already fractured tribe. And she wants to defeat the Fire Nation both because of her deep love and empathy for other people, but also because she wants to avenge her mother. But because some of the fans have reduced Katara to a bitch who constantly whines about her mother and friendzones Aang, you wouldn’t know any of this, and it sucks because she’s the only character whose been dumbed down to such an extent.

The process of recruiting someone into a cult is fairly simple, a series of small steps. A target is gently led through the process, one step at a time, with each step being not very far from the last.

Step 1: Invitation

Cult recruiters will never tell the truth about their group. A potential recruit might be completely unaware that the cult exists or that they are being asked into a known one. In simpler forms, it is just to get the target to say “yes” to small things that build up little by little. At some point, the target will be invited to a seemingly innocuous event.

Step 2: Love-Bombing

At the event, cult members shower the target with praise and attention. They will try to create a positive association to the event in the target’s mind. This causes the target to be more likely to accept the next invitation because of the good feelings instilled in them at the first visit.

Step 3: Dangling “The Prize” in Front of Them

At some point, cult members will suggest that if you join them, you can attain something special. This prize will depend on the cult itself: happiness, answers, a “cure,” power. Anything that the target will find appealing.

Step 4: Extracting an Agreement from the Target that They Want the Prize

After introducing the prize, they get the target to agree that they want it. By admitting an interest in it, it seems safe to acknowledge because the target won’t see any obligation attached. A phrase used to extract an agreement could be anything. For example:

“You do want to become stronger, don’t you?”

“Would your life be better if you were no longer afraid?”

“What have you got to lose? Isn’t it worth it?”

Once the target agrees, the cultists know that they have sunk a hook into the target. They want the target to feel like that idea came from themselves, so in the future, the target will be less likely to argue. This is the first big step into identifying with the cult.

Step 5: Shutting Down Dissent by Threatening to Withhold the Prize

By this point, the target will be encouraged to do things that they might rather not, such as devoting more time to the group, recruiting, or adopt extreme beliefs. Naturally, the target might protest, but the group is ready for that. When a target shows any resistance, they simply threaten that the target will never attain the prize if they don’t stop being “difficult.”

Step 6: Establishment of Guilt

Once the recruit no longer asks difficult questions, the next step is to guilt them. Cult leaders shame their recruits in order for them to be more susceptible to further manipulation. It’s also used to guilt-trip recruits into getting more involved with the group. For the already-indoctrinated, guilt ensures that they remain committed to “the cause.”

Step 7: Rewarding Good Behavior and Punishing Bad Behavior

Behavior is reinforced by rewarding “good” behavior and punishing “bad” behavior. This is a powerful tool used by many cults. 

Step 8: Control of Identity/Information/Environment

This is how a recruit gets sucked in. Once the recruit has officially joined, more advanced techniques will be used to keep them in.

Something i’ve been kind of mulling over and thinking about in regards to Snape– and which I find frustrating, but endearing– is how… he is continually disadvantaged and disregarded by systems of power and persons of authority… but he chooses to work within their framework, anyways. 

Snape is Lawful-neutral, to his own detriment. Hear me out.

Like, as a student, he gets bullied. It’s 4 against 1, and he’d have a hard time picking them off if he wanted to go a more aggressive or lethal route. In any case, he tends to be reactionary, rather than necessarily going out of his way to find and attack them… So, he tries to get them expelled, because that would be a way to remove all 4 of his threats at once, and it’s not as if they don’t consistently break the rules… Shouldn’t people who break the rules and mistreat others be punished? So when he’s almost lead to his death at the Shrieking Shack, he appeals to the system of authority (of whom Dumbledore is the purveyor, in this case) with what he feels is a pretty airtight case against his bullies… 

…and he gets written off, and blackmailed into keeping his mouth shut.

If it were me, that kind of slap in the face would ensure i never respected another authority figure again in my life tbh. The Law and the gods that govern it would be dead to me. Anyways…

Being a werewolf does not inherently make Lupin a bad person. But being a good person does not make Lupin inherently safe. The point is: when you transform into a werewolf, you lose control of yourself, and that can result in you killing, maiming, or infecting other people. Lupin knows this. He’s known it for over 20 years,

As of 1993, there was this great new discovery: the Wolfsbane Potion, which helps to curb the effects of lycanthropy, right? It’s super expensive and super hard to make, but it’s an effective way to mitigate the more vicious effects of a transformation– it turns the drinker into a harmless wolf, rather than a werewolf, at the time of the full moon. A wolf, who is easier to control or subdue if one is confronted with it, and who seems to retain some semblence of control during the transformation (Lupin having described himself as curling up in his office during his transformations).

You may be thinking that wolfsbane potion is the closest thing to a preventative  that the Wizarding World has circa 1993, and you’d be right. It’s not a cure, and people who drink it can still infect others, but damn, it makes it way more manageable.

We know that Severus, on more than one occasion, goes out of his way to give Lupin his potion (whether Lupin continually forgets to take it, or purposefully “forgets” to take it as a small power play/intimidation game against Snape is up for interpretation). Either way, we know that Lupin regularly forgets to take the life-changing potion unless prompted, which kind of makes him out as reckless. A timebomb. 

Severus, who is not only a virtuoso on the Dark Arts and all that it entails (and thus, academically, very informed on the dangers that (non-medicated) Werewolves pose), is also intimately and personally aware of the threat Lupin poses to a school full of children as well as the staff, because of his experience in the 70s. Snape brings all of this up to Dumbledore… 

…who repeatedly dismisses his well-founded and logical fears. 

Snape is still beholden to Dumbledore’s insistance that he keep his mouth shut. Which he does for most of the year. The very explicit parameters of the system are: do not tell anyone that Lupin is a werewolf. 

So, being the logical thinker that Snape is, he looks for (and finds) a way to achieve his desired outcome (informing people that Lupin is a werewolf) in a way that does work within those parameters. He can’t tell anyone outright that Lupin is a werewolf, but like… what if someone figured it out on their own?

Then we have Snape in the Shrieking Shack with the kids, Sirius, and Lupin. 

Harry, in the moment after Black disarmed them all, straight-up wanted to kill Sirius. He gets his wand back, and he is about to fucking murder this guy, until crookshanks sits over his heart.

Snape comes up the stairs to the 2nd floor of the shack, right? He’s wearing the Invisibility cloak. No one knows he’s there or hears him coming. He could have killed Sirius in an instant, without anyone knowing. He could kill Sirius AND Lupin if he wanted to, and dump the corpses on the ministry steps, and convince the minister that he had deduced that they were working together months ago. 

He could easily explain to the minister that he knew they were childhood friends, that Lupin started working at Hogwarts at the exact same time Black “wanted to infiltrate” Hogwarts, and that his speculations were dismissed. He could say all of this with the kids and Dumbledore to corroborate his story (since he arrives at the Shrieking Shack BEFORE the kids get the low-down on Pettigrew) and he would STILL get his order of Merlin (maybe 2?) But instead of killing them… 

…he disarms and restrains them. 

He’s like “Yeah, I’m handing you off to the Dementors, dickhead” but it’s important to remember… he disarms them, restrains them, and is willing to turn them over to the “authorities.” Even though, at this point, he whole-heartedly believes that 1. Black is a murderer, who killed like 23 people, and who broke out of wizard prison and 2. Lupin, a werewolf who has consistently not taken his potion and whom Snape believes has conspired to kill him in the past, is aiding and abetting said murderer… Severus Snape does not take the law into his own hands. He’s not about Vigilante Justice.

And… he gets disarmed, thrown against a wall, and almost ends up attacked by a werewolf for it later. heh

This is just up to the first 3 books, because i just finished re-reading them, but i’m certain there are more examples of these types of exchange in subsequent books. In any case, I love how the books have this consistent theme of “Harry distrusts authority, disrespects it, and challenges the system,” that’s all very good. 

That kind of mentality really pisses me off because its not just idealistic, its unrealistic and impractical. Rules aren't (or shouldn't be) just bureaucratic details, especially when talking about a school full of children with magical powers that still don't control their abilities. Rules are designed to prevent disasters, to protect, to guide and to organize, so breaking them should have serious consequences not only for the protagonists but for all of Hogwarts: Harry's luck is that no other student gets involved in doing the same things he does, otherwise he would be shocked when noticing that his actions were encouraging other students to disobey school rules and challenge the Headmaster's authority.

But, of course, for those students there would be much more serious consequences, either because they would die or because they wouldn't have the same differential treatment that Harry has with the teachers (with the exception of Snape). Either way Harry would be frowned upon by both the students and the teachers (Snape you're a visionary).

Okay, so, part of it is the fault of the worldbuilding and the way the show simplifies culture because it was made to be understandable by American children. So all the Water Tribe people always wear blue and are easily recognizable, all the Earth Kingdom people wear green and brown and yellow and are easily recognizable, etc., and there's no mixing of bending abilities or cultures when realistically there would be. Where are the Water Tribe people who fled to live in the Earth Kingdom for protection from the war? Where is the trade between the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom? Where are the women who left the Northern Water Tribe fleeing from arranged marriages and became assimilated into the Earth Kingdom and had children who could bend both elements? Where are the pockets of the Earth Kingdom where Air Nomads lived and settled and bred?

Why is Katara's only waterbending child the only one who looks remotely Water Tribe? (Also, why does her waterbending child have to be a girl? Gender essentialism, much?) Katara and Aang's children are a mix of weird cartoon sexual dimorphism (think Lady and the Tramp) and cultural essentialism.

It's cartoon logic, but when applied to this particular plot it gets into some weird implications.

Also, I can't help but imagine the thought process for poor Bumi. Like, what, you're a nonbender so you get to wear green? It's not just the color-coding, why does the style of Bumi's clothing look nothing like either his father or mother's culture?

Severus Snape killing Nagini