moons

I used to be a mod on here when the show was airing (as @rashaka).

I read recently that Livejournal may be soon taken down entirely as a platform. It hasn't been itself in 15 years but I will be sad to lose all of the fandom content that existed there through the 2000s. Zutara fandom was a huge part of my fandom experience and I have a soft place in my heart for it.

If anyone wants a time capsule, look at this ship community and go back to the dates when the show was airing. See what people thought about the ships, the showrunners, the fandom.

Some highlights

Episode discussion: Cossroads of Destiny

Episode discussion: The Southern Raiders

Episode discussion: Ember Island Players

Episode discussion: Sozin's Comet

rec: large rec lists

fan-fiction

On a related note, you may enjoy the ATLA tag for the ship-manfiesto community, which has two Zutara manifestos and some for the other major pairings as well.

For reference, here's the tags on the katar_zuko community:

⚠️: Do not download anything from the ads on this site. Livejournal has been compromised as a platform owned by the Russian government for years now.

That was the last sunrise I ever saw. Perhaps the kindest thing the dark gift has given me. // It was the last time I saw my brother. It was the last time I saw the sun. It was the only time I ever felt free.

“This blood is alien to me.”

I believe that the gold on Mel's skin are sigils. Not tattoos or armor, but sigils. We get an understanding of sigils from Rell's bio, that sigils are painfully grafted onto the skin. This would explain the agony Mel was in during her transformation. The more sigils one has, the more powerful they become, because sigils amplify magic. Which is interesting, because the Black Rose has been experimenting sigil magic.

Now you may ask, what the heck is a sigil, and what does it do?

Sigil magic seems to be type a branding, and seeing as Mel's power was awakened in the Black Rose's hands, does this mean the additional sigils she gained were branded upon her by the Black Rose? Just as they did with Rell? Amara mentions that Ambessa stole is more precious than any gold. So perhaps the thing Ambessa stole from the Black Rose were the sigils on Mel's neck, back, and thighs in season 1, and they served to protect her magic, but now they empower it.

This theory makes more sense when you consider how Mel did not have any markings on her skin in the 1.08 flashback. She was not born with the sigils, and I don't believe she needed the sigils to use her powers, she uses them in BS&T to protect Ambessa from death.

However, if her powers were awakened before her exile, Ambessa who before had not known of Mel's powers before this, might have stolen the sigils from the Black Rose in an effort to grant Mel the extra power she might need not only to protect herself, but to serve Ambessa's purposes. ("Your birth, the entire course of your life, was no accident. She hid you because you are that which she covets most: a weapon.")

I do believe the additional sigils (gold on her skin) might have been a Black Rose addition from LeBlanc, especially because after Mel is awakened, her jumpsuit is decorated with thorns. So perhaps, in her awakening, it is Leblanc who brands Mel with the sigils to finish the work Ambessa started. To make Mel into a powerful weapon at her disposal. After all, LeBlanc does comment on how swiftly Mel's talents have developed, which is possibly because of the sigils that helped to channel and focus Mel's magic.

But now that Mel is no longer in league with the Black Rose, I wonder if and when Leblanc will come to collect. Of course, I could be wrong, because these sigils do not resemble anything the Black Rose does. They look more Solari, which might be the kind of magic Mel inherits from her father, if she inherits any magic from him at all. So the sigil could have taken form according to her expression of magic.

In the face of the nobility's discontent with Jayce's anti-corruption measures, Mel sought to appease them to stave off retaliation. Through her lesson to Jayce, Mell didn't just help potentially enrich her colleagues but also the woman and by extension the organization that KILLED HER BROTHER AND STOLE HER FAMILY'S ASSETS.

Can you imagine the horror and disgust she would feel at having trusted Piltover to be different? Mel thought she understood the game but she wildly underestimated the machinations of the nobility in Piltover. Mel accepted Piltover's corruption as a means to avoid violent conflict, only to indirectly enable the recent violence harped upon her own family. And the worst irony is that even though politics and corruption have largely been viewed as a cynicism game, for Mel this was an avenue she genuinely believed conflict could be avoided but in fact it was just more insidious.

The opera scene was a lesson for Jayce in politics, but the effects should be the real education for Mel as she heads to Noxus. From what I can tell Noxus is in its pre-Trifarix but post-First Invasion of Ionia, which means Swain has his demon powers but he hasn't overthrown the emperor yet. She will probably ally with him as they're both opporpsed to the Black Rose's existence, however once he's in power he will alienate a large portion of the nobility as they root out the Black Rose's influence.

Fuck yeah put some respect on my woman’s name

Edit bc it’s playing as I scroll thru the tag, I just think this is such a Mel song

[ SPOILERS! ]