overanalyzing media is my therapy

I'll keep this short and list out what I'm gonna post in this blog:

catra's "redemption" and what's wrong with it

concerns surrounding catradora

racist and ableist undertones in the show

bad writing and inconsistencies within the show

wasted potential of the show

memes about any of the above topics

reasons why c//a is abusive and romanticized by the narrative:

part 1

part 2

proof that catra and adora are adoptive sisters:

this is a safe place for queer people, disabled and neurodivergent people, poc and abuse victims. if you're a catra apologist or someone who thinks c//a is healthy, this is your cue to ignore this blog (unless you are willing to change your mind, in which case, congrats. you have more braincells than 90% of the fandom).

that's it for now!

no, not the original show but whatever new iterations they're putting out recently. apparently there's a show about the new Avatar coming out in Paramount (?) and everyone is super excited about it, but i just.. don't feel anything.

and you know i love ATLA. i am constantly bringing it up here as an example of good writing and i've mentioned Zuko's redemption arc at least a hundred times by now.

but idk if it's certain decisions they made in TLOK that retroactively ruined the original series, or the new movie that apparently erased all the characters' ethnic features and gave them same face syndrome, but i just don't feel excited to watch more of this universe anymore.

i feel like they dropped the ball right after the original series. TLOK had some good stuff in it but it also had a lot of shitty writing decisions and didn't really delve too deep into any of the characters other than Korra herself.

Kaufmo goes crazy trying to find the exit. and then he abstracts. it felt like a huge conspiracy, like there was something off about his situation. like there was someone trying to silence him.

to me, this seemed like maybe Caine was directly inflicting the abstractions upon members. maybe there was an exit and Caine was causing these people to abstract whenever they got dangerously close to finding out the exit.

but then it turns out, no. Kaufmo was just actually crazy. there's no exit and the abstraction is just indicative of an unstable mind, period.

idk it just feels like such a cop out. i wasn't entirely against a story where they couldn't escape and had to stay in the circus. but this was the laziest way to do it.

there was no indication that this was even possible, it felt like such a deus ex machina. the only possible canonical explanation is that since Caine was gone now, going into an abstracted person's mind was suddenly possible. but if that were the explanation, it wasn't very clear.

and if that wasn't the explanation and really they could have always gone into the minds of abstracted members and talk to them, that's just a gut punch to all the other abstracted characters. no one other than Pomni thought to do this??

TADC constantly feels like Gooseworx pulling new rules out of her ass, like an elementary school girl playing with dolls. anything goes in TADC as long as it all revolves around Jax.

that's a very good question!

i'm not an expert in this by any means, i did major in psychology but i haven't specialized in it, so take what i say with a grain of salt.

all abuse is toxic but not all kinds of toxic behavior are abuse. in my view, the one thing that sets apart these two things — power imbalance.

toxicity can happen from anyone to anyone. it doesn't necessarily require a person to hold power over the other person. but with abuse, there's usually a power imbalance of some sort that makes a person more vulnerable to getting abused. it could be age, it could be social standing, physical strength, privilege, or simply a difference in personalities.

i think one example i'd like to bring up here is Zuko and Iroh. i remember seeing some people say that Zuko was abusive to Iroh in the first two seasons, but this is where i bring up this distinction between abuse and toxicity.

Zuko was toxic to Iroh. he called Iroh names and insulted him, he lashed out at Iroh a lot, and he betrayed Iroh at a crucial moment.

but the reason his behavior cannot be counted as abuse is simply because he held no power over Iroh. and Iroh knew that. Zuko was not stronger than Iroh, he was not older or more privileged. Iroh was always in control here. sure, he felt hurt by Zuko's actions sometimes, but he was capable of standing his ground when he needed to. and he has.

children can be abusive to parents, especially towards the elderly. this is not an impossible phenomenon. but in this case specifically, Zuko's behavior could better be described as toxic rather than abusive.

compare that to Zuko's relationship with Azula and Ozai. both these people had some level of control over him. Ozai obviously dictated Zuko's life in a major way. he scarred and traumatized Zuko for life and yet, Zuko still wanted his father's validation. Azula constantly lied to Zuko and manipulated him, and even though he knew of her dishonesty, he still fell for it.

Ozai was superior to Zuko in age and power, and Azula was superior to him in power and privilege (as the child more favored by Ozai).

i think the time period is also a good way to distinguish between abuse and toxicity. toxicity, if gone on for too long, can turn into abuse.

for example, if your friend sometimes makes belittling comments about you, that could be considered toxic. but if you've been friends with this person for years and they've been treating you this way for years, it turns into verbal abuse.

so i like body swap episodes, body swap movies, all that jazz. i think it's so much fun when two characters have to figure out each other's roles and act completely different to how they normally would act.

but one thing i've noticed with a lot of animated shows specifically is that they do a cop out and just swap the VAs. so you got a body swap episode but the actors are just doing their usual roles, they don't really have to imitate the other character.

Gravity Falls does this, so does TOH. it pissed me off so much that they just swapped the VAs and called it a day. imagine how much more fun it would have been if Dipper's VA had to speak like Mabel normally would, so it's like Dipper's voice but extra energetic and enthusiastic. imagine how interesting it would have been if Luz's VA had to imitate King, and do all of his little vocal quirks, or if Eda's VA had to speak like Luz.

it's just something i've always been dissatisfied with. the most fun part of the body swap trope is seeing the actors play characters that are definitely not suited for them. like a middle aged woman playing a teenage girl, or a huge muscular man playing a femme fatale. it always cracks me up, and in a lot of cases, these actors do a terrifyingly good job.

i'd like to highlight that scene from the third Jumanji movie where Martha and Fridge swap bodies, and so Martha's actress has to play the role of this highschool jock black guy and Jack Black.. well, he's already played a very convincing teenage girl in the last movie, but yeah, he still gets to play a different teenage girl.