p r o f o u n d l y g r e y

write insane shit that’s way beyond your perceived ability and skill level even if you don’t finish it even if you think it sucks

You wanna write create some fantasy creatures but don’t know where to start? Go check out some videos The Weird Creatures Earth has Had.

Want some inspiration for your Super Evil Villain’s Villanous Deeds?

Or maybe you want some weird locations to kick start your Fantasy World Terraforming?

Or maybe you need knowledge of bunches of historical places and cities and cultures?

But maybe you’re basing fantasy on the modern world?

Okay but lets say you want to start from the same inspiration as GRRM? (and part two!)

That’s just the stuff I could quickly grab. Things I’m subscribed to, that I know offhand. There is So. Much. Stuff. Online.

Just let it sink in that at 13 years old, Zuko’s father mutilated him in front of an audience and told him he was worthless and unwelcome until he completed an impossible mission. Nobody stepped in to help him. Most onlookers thought he deserved it, and even Iroh was too afraid of Ozai to challenge him in Zuko’s defense.

Zuko went on for years believing Ozai was right, and didn’t recognize what happened to him as abuse. He thought his banishment and suffering were his own fault because something was wrong with him, and that it was his duty to change to become worthy again.

Then this scene? Absolutely incredible.

Zuko’s whole journey leads up to this confrontation, where he not only recognizes that he holds no responsibility for the abuse inflicted on him; he confronts his abuser and tells him he was wrong to treat him that way, that he doesn’t owe his abuser anything.

There's this (very wrong) depiction I often saw where victims of abuse or violation said something like how that abuse "made them stronger" which buys into a very harmful mentality that credits the abuser for the victim's strength. Abuse does not "make anyone stronger", it does the opposite. It is designed to make victims powerless and undermine them, to take agency from them. Like how Zuko had been undermined time and time again as "weak" and "worthless" and been made to believe that his empathy and kindness were somehow "weakness" he has to overcome. Yet, while the abuse Zuko suffered is part of his past and did have an effect on him that will always remain (like the literal scar on his face), Zuko became strong on his own (with some help from people like Iroh who truly loved him) despite the abuse, not because of it, and overcame it. The abuse does not define him, nor does it take credit for Zuko's strength which was all his own. When he said, "It was cruel, and it was wrong", he acknowledged that the abuse shouldn't have happened in the first place. When Ozai said, "then you have learned nothing", there's an absolutely favourite line of mine that Zuko said, which perfectly encapsulates what I'm saying, "No, I have learned everything! And I had to learn it on my own."