dunkpilled daeroncel

Forest Lovers

Artist: John Young Hunter (British, 1874-1955)

Date: 1902

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Private Collection:

Description

Painted in 1902 and exhibited that year at the Royal Academy, Forest Lovers is an enchanting scene representative of the profound influence that the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had upon John Young-Hunter. Indeed, the art critic and painter A.L. Baldry described Young-Hunter and his wife, Mary, as the ‘new Pre-Raphaelites’. This phenomenon of a late flowering of this style, half a century after the Brotherhood was founded, was celebrated in a landmark exhibition staged at the Barbican in 1989, entitled The Last Romantics.

Structurally speaking, ATLA did something important with Zuko that, in a purely mechanistic sense of narrative development, I think a lot of people don’t notice immediately, and that even fewer people who want to emulate what was done with him get.

Which is Zuko is made a protagonist VERY early, and the show goes out of its way to continually place Zuko into situations where the audience empathizes and roots for him.

This happens in literally the second episode of the series, if we count the two-part premiere as a single episode, which I think we should. The A-plot of that episode, “The Southern Air Temple,” is Aang reckoning with the genocide of his people… but the B-plot?

The B-plot is the introduction of Zhao, and more specifically, his introduction in a way that is calculate to shift the audience, whose introduction to Zuko did NOT engender a ton of sympathy to him, directly and forcefully onto his side. They want Zuko to kick Zhao’s ass.

This continues all through book one and book two. Remember, Zuko is never, ever the main villain of this series. That’s initially Zhao, followed by Azula and Ozai. (Plus various temporary players like Long Feng.) Whenever Zuko isn’t placed into direct conflict with the other protagonists, he’s always written and presented in a way that is careful, VERY VERY careful, not to make him too monstrous, and to make us root for him. He’s placed right next to Iroh, who is designed for people to like, and that reflects back onto Zuko; we want Zuko to be better than he is because we want Iroh to have good things.

1.) 

He made a deal with Aang to leave the Southern Water Tribe alone if Aang went with him. When Aang escaped with help from two of those tribe members, Zuko didn’t demand they go back and destroy what was left of the tribe as revenge. He didn’t even think of it as an option. There was no split second where he went, should I/shouldn’t I?

2.) 

This is repeated. He corners the Avatar somewhere, causes some damage to the area in the ensuing fight, but does not stick around to raze the village/monastery to the ground and kill the people when he doesn’t get what he wants. Doesn’t consider this a necessary action even once.

3.) 

The Iroh&Zuko relationship is juxtaposed with the Zhao&Zuko relationship. Both older men have more power over him. Iroh is a retired War General and Prince who is not banished. Zhao is a Commander in favor of the Firelord, who is also not banished. We could tell early on that Iroh is wise and despite being on the bad side, seems to be pretty chill. We took a liking to him immediately. Zhao is the opposite. He is very much like early!Zuko. Impulsive, rude, loud, cocky, etc… But why is he more annoying? Why do we root for Zuko as opposed to him? 

Because we see what Zuko is like with his Uncle Iroh. Iroh does not rub in the fact that he’s banished. He doesn’t use that when reprimanding him for his attitude or his failings. That is a hot iron and he knows it. It’s to the point where Iroh can bend fire in Zuko’s face and Zuko is perfectly relaxed over it and doesn’t once believe his uncle will hurt him. There is a lot of faith in Iroh, from this angsty teenager, and it’s very obvious with their interactions.

Zhao is not trustworthy from the start. We’re shown this by how both Zuko and Iroh are hesitant to interact with him and don’t want to linger in areas he has control over, for too long. They even lie to him despite him obviously having more favor in the Firelord’s eyes than either of them do. Zhao’s personality opposes both Zuko and Iroh. And as we like Iroh, we want him to win and have nice things, as stated above. But Zuko&Iroh is a package deal. And as Zhao reveals himself more and more to be nasty even if it’s subtle, we want Zuko to win even harder.

And even when Zuko wins and he’s in the prime position to do to Zhao what Ozai did to Zuko for also ‘speaking out of turn’… he doesn’t do it. He walks away. He is the bigger man in that scenario. And Iroh further puts shame onto Zhao when he goes against the sacred rules of the Agni Kai because he can’t handle a loss to a banished teen. We are shown that Zuko follows rules and has honor, which is reinforced by Iroh’s, ‘even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you’. Iroh’s Word is basically Law at this point. Sf he says it is so, then he must be right and the audience accepts that. He knows Zuko better than us and hopefully we’ll get to understand more as the story progresses.

Already by the 3rd episode, we’re shown that Zuko is in no way the worst person from the Fire Nation. In fact, we’re given a sort of scale now from the four major Fire Nation people we know of. Iroh–Zuko——-Zhao–Firelord.

We’re also hoping that Iroh rubs off on Zuko enough for him to also become wise and learn to chill out.

4.) 

When “The Storm” finally rolls around, we’re pretty invested by then in the Iroh&Zuko relationship and that episode gives us so much more info into Zuko’s character and we are shown that Iroh is right. He has honor and he cares for others. And yet it’s obvious the Firelord doesn’t because we see Zuko do the right thing(protesting the plan to treat new recruits as cannon fodder) in the wrong place, and then his face gets burned off by his father because of it. And further, he’s banished for refusing to fight his own father. What sane parent wants to do battle with their own child? What sane parent banishes their child for speaking out of turn at the defense of their own peoples’ lives? What the fuck is wrong with the Firelord?

Zuko was punished severely for showing compassion and having a kind heart. And Iroh(and the ship crew even) is properly mortified by the punishments his nephew received for it, which in turn affects the audience’s perception of this situation. Iroh doesn’t like it, it’s especially bad then.

Now we start wondering why does Zuko wants to go back to the guy who burned his face off?! Iroh, talk some sense into him! PLEASE!

Halfway through S1, they got us to the point of wanting Zuko to have a redemption arc. 

but then when jon DOES finally give in to ygritte’s advances, she teases him for being a “maid”, which he counters with “I was a man of the Night’s Watch” (he was a man. is he still a man? who is he if not a man?). of course the question is, how is jon supposed to have had any experience with sex if he took vows of celibacy under penalty of death at the age of 15? (“No one had ever told Jon just what lords did with their ladies”). how are women expected to get married, have sex, and undergo pregnancy/childbirth when no one ever prepares them for what that means? (see: sansa’s entire storyline). jon did his duty by not asking questions, but he’s still laughed at/emasculated for not knowing the answers. so jon tries to convince himself that it’s all going according to plan (“I had to make her trust me”) and that he actually holds the power in their relationship, despite being keenly aware of how little choice he has (“If I refuse her, she will know me for a turncloak”). but the power clearly lies with ygritte to spare his life, to accept him as one of the free folk, to teach him about sexual pleasure based on her own experiences as an older woman (“Ygritte had been his teacher”) while constantly reminding him that she holds all of the knowledge that he needs (“You know nothing, Jon Snow, but I can show you”). by westerosi standards, jon is her wife. the only time that he actually takes her by surprise is when he performs oral sex on her, which is both the complete centering of female pleasure (finally!) and another instance of jon playing the woman who “gives” pleasure to ygritte.

and ALL of this is happening while jon is simultaneously learning what it means to be a woman who doesn’t fit into a song (via gender inversion with ygritte and his time among the spearwives and other free folk women). he’s playing the part of the “ideal” westerosi woman while being surrounded by women who refuse to conform to that mold, but who are clearly still existing within a different brand of misogyny (based on what we know about the free folk tradition of “stealing” women and even ygritte’s complete unfamiliarity with oral sex being performed on women). so if jon is a woman by westeroi standards, what is he by free folk standards? can he still be a man with ygritte? will he still be a man when he climbs back over the wall?

of course the difference is that jon is not in fact a woman, so when he gets the chance he can simply escape back to the safety of the all-male order of the night’s watch where ygritte (the “man”) can’t follow him. and when she dares to try, a fellow man kills her and leaves jon to hold her as she dies…before jon regains his power as a man and ascends to the role of lord commander. it’s also notable that what permanently “taints” him is not really the fact that he had sex despite his vows, but that he did so with a free folk woman (the “other”, the “unnatural”, the feminine).