#g1ga-byte

I mean. the animation is. rough. and that red thing at the end looks suspiciously like Vaatu, and oh man do I not need any more of Raava and Vaatu :))))

i decided to set this like immediately after ark cradle (though aki decidedly does NOT tell divine about it because can you imagine if she had to mention yusei to that man). i also posted it on ao3 because i am determined to become the majority of the divine tag lmao

I'm kinda scared tbh, the games don't exactly have the best track record for a balanced depiction of the Arcadia Movement.

the Divine I envisioned crawling up to Aki's door hasn't recollected his followers, he hasn't rebuilt his movement. he just broke out of prison, is without means, at the end of his rope, barely managed to make his way over to... checks notes... Germany...??? and he's searched out Aki cause she is the only person left who he thinks he can trust.

that means for the first time, Aki compeltely has the upper hand in their dynamic, and I think Divine is painfully aware of that fact.

unfortunately, he might be physically incapable of asking for help. instead, he's a manipulative douche, so I think he would try to tap into that emotional dependency he knows is still lingering deep within Aki, no matter how mature and put together she is now. so he'd try and reduce her back to the young girl who fell all over herself just to please him, cause that's the only way he knows how to interact with people: make them dependent on you, then work with that.

and I can imagine a part of Aki might respond to that! even in the show we see that after everything Divine has done, Aki's unconditional love for him remains completely unchanged!

but I also think too much time has passed, Aki's come too far and grown too much to let that control her. so while I think Aki would take him in, Divine is going to have to grow accustomed to something entirely new: Aki setting boundaries.

and from there on it could go so many different ways! do they work out a new connection and grow closer again, this time at something approaching equal terms? does Aki's constructive and idealistic approach to the society's problems clash with Divine's revolutionary world view? does Divine influence Aki or does Aki manage to win over Divine? or do they break apart entirely?

the possibilities are endless! what I would love to happen in any case is for Aki to grow more accepting of her own psychic powers and what she considers her "dark side" through seeing the humanity in Divine. that's always been my favorite part of the ship!

I like the designs way more than the ones in Scarlet/Violet! Urbaine, Taunie, Emma, Mable, Naveen, Lida, lots of cute characters already!

the thing is, Amon is actually a perfect example for what I mentioned in that previous ask wrt stories dealing with systemic oppression. Amon also was completely correct about the marginalization of non-benders. but every time they bring up this issue, writers like Bryke pull the "alright but this guy was ~*~too extreme~*~ about it" card. and all the problems magically disappear as soon as the evil activists are dealt with. it's the defense of the status quo that a lot of people way smarter than me already have talked about especially when it comes to Marvel movies.

I don't knoooow on the one hand I'm hooked to that Pokemon IV on the other hand I just can't support the slop GF has been putting out recently. I only got myself Violet because of a yearly real life Pokemon event where I'm part of the staff, and even then I got it secondhand.