LANI !! 𑣲

Hello! I'm Lani! I'm currently 17 years old! ( 15 and under DNI )

Okay, heres the deal. I really love cartoons and I LOVE geeking out over fictional characters. I tend to always find myself yapping about small insignificant details about them and even doing deep analysis's why they act the way they do. So I figured, instead of making my friends ears fall off with how long I can go on I'd make it the internet's problem!!! Yay!!

I'm in far too many fandoms but my main one is..

★ The Amazing Digital Circus★

I was just looking at south park stuff on youtube instead of sleeping (as per usual with me..) and something I saw in a comment section just left me to wanna at least get this out of my system before I go to sleep.

So, Chef's death really upset me when I first saw the episode and I think the reason that it was so disturbing was the fact that despite all of Stan's gang coming from (to SOME extent) unhealthy households they didn't have stable parents they could 100% rely on while growing up. And despite how grown they act they're still 8/9. So to see Chef reduced to a corpse, blood guts and everything was so unsetting. I know the reason he was written out was due to his voice actor (Issac Hayes) not being able to support & be apart of the show after the episode critiquing scientology. I've heard the story is a bit more complex than that but that's a whole separate ramble, I'm here to analyze the canon right now not anything behind the senes .

Even in a comedic series like South Park, I always liked the comfort Chef's levelheadedness & parental treatment to the boys brought to the table. For me Chef's death symbolized a shift in the series. I feel like this is also the point in the show where the jokes start feeling less lighthearted and more "Haha rape funny, haha this is so fucked up" rather than the previous, very witty joke that so happens to be fucked up.

I at first intended to leave my thoughts there. An internal rant I had in my head and never a full on tumblr post... untill now. I just saw someone mention in a comment section that Chef's passing whilst difficult on everyone must have been even harder on Cartman. All of the boys grew up with fathers, he didn't. Despite how evil Cartman is and putting aside how I'll never defend any of his actions. Developmentally he's still 8, and as much as his mom DOES care for him (Albeit not doing the BEST job at raising him) It's not too out of the ordinary for children growing up in homes with single parents tend to try and find someone to fill in the the gap that's missing..

Cartman is evil, and HARDLY ever cares about anything or anyone that doesn't involve his own benefit. But when CHEF is the one to go, he can't believe his eyes. Seeing his clearly DEAD corpse on the ground his instinct is to immediately make excuses. Clearly in pure denial that Chef is gone. Cartman usually wouldn't care, he'd move on.. and probably forget about you (tadc nation wya 👀) but he CANNOT accept the fact that Chef's gone, and the only other person he'd have this level of loyalty to is... well, his mom

When he can't fight the truth on Chef's passing anymore. For a rare moment in the show's history he's GENUINELY SAD. Not to manipulate them, not suppressing it.. but he's ACTUALLY sad. Even developing a somber tone while saying "Oh.. never mind"

I do think a cool detail is, is that as all the other boys walk away shortly after discovering chef's dead. Cartman stays there for a bit longer. He's taking extra long to process what he had witness because it was HARDER for him to process what he had witnessed.

Whether Cartman knew it or not, he probably did depend on Chef in a way... or maybe it's 4am and I'm overthinking a cartoon 😹

This right here though.. Is a perfect concept for South Park angst. I swear I would KILL for a scene where Cartman is vulnerable at the funeral & opens up to someone (likely Kyle..) just for a moment show HOW his daddy issues affect him. At the end of the day, Cartman is a little shit we all know this.. little is an understatement quite frankly. But part of me craves to see moments where he's just as human as us, especially since the writers based on the jokes they've made KNOW very clearly how the psychology of this boy is... honestly I don't even want this in canon the tonal shift would be too jaring and it wouldn't feel like SOUTH PARK yk? I just want a really good fanfic depicting this what can I say </3

If you continued to read past that warning I assume you've already seen the leaks and as the ATLA mega fan that I am I went a lil (very) feral while watching these clips. I could go on and on about my thoughts but I really wanted to talk my theories on Zuko & the type of arc he may go on in this. Truthfully, I may be very incorrect as I'm working with limited knowledge & lack of a trailer which would help us get a general idea of the plot but I needed to get this out somewhere.

Zuko is coming out of the closet

I don't think I ever headcanoned him as queer before but there was this one interaction in the leaked scene that's been making the gears shift. When the Gaang (god I missed spelling gang like that) discover a man with tatoos frozen in ice.. that shockingly isn't Aang this time. Toph with her seismic sense instantaneously claims that the mystery man is attractive. She asks for confirmation and it causes all of Team Avatar to bicker back and forth until Zuko cuts them off with the simple sentence

"He's very attractive"

All their expressions shift instantly. Sokka looks disguisted but I'm pretty sure that he'd be that way if ANYONE said that creature of a man was hot Especially since this movie is most likely going to at LEAST have some element of Tokka.

Toph is caught off guard. Switching from her more relaxed stance w/ leaning her head back to instantly being alert. Katara's expression is hard to read for me, my Autstic ass is struggling 🥀 we should just ignore her.

Aang though.. he's incredibly shocked. But I don't think it's in a neutral or disgusted way like other have responded. He if anything seems like a mix of surprise and awe. (And no, I'm not elluding to Zukaang I'm no freak) And that's where I tie in.. something revealed in the legend of korra comic: "Turf Wars"

in Air Nomad Culture, Queer couples were embraced and treated with the same kindness as Hetro ones. There wasn't a difference in their eyes just as long as pure love was shared between the individuals. This was the culture Aang was born and raised in.

I genuinely, believe Sozin was evil for the fun of it.

Anyways, Zuko was growing up not just in this era but was the heir to the throne so a lot of expectations were placed on his shoulders. He could have very well suppressed any thoughts he had towards men & his attraction towards them.

Since Aang grew up in such a distinctly different environment than Zuko. He has no problem with the fact that he might be Bi/Pan (or maybe even another micro label, as he did seem to actually love Mai and Jin) Maybe Aang in that moment realized after years of knowing his best friend that he wasn't straight, he finds it beautiful really just wants to help Zuko embrace that side of him. It really reminds me of this comic

Crazy how close this comic as become to being canon.

I also would like to briefly mention that this could also be the reason we never know who Izumi's mother is, Zuko could have married a man in secrecy & had someone be a surrogate to continue the Royal Bloodline.

Crazy thing to start this on, I know. But I was rewatching a couple of episodes earlier today and I dunno, something snapped into place..

Anyways, I do have evidence to prove my case... staring with

BEAUTY MARKED:

THIS fucking face...

At first, I took it less of him having a full blown crush & more of just the adolescent shallowness liking the feeling of a conventionally attractive woman giving him attention. Especially with her kissing up to his every desire because he's the judge of a pageant she's participating in. That is.. until I rewatched

FRIGHTMARE:

Danny finds himself in a dream created by a dream themed ghost named Nocturn. And this Dream is catered to his every desire. Danny's the coolest kid in school, His grades are exceptional, Dash admires him instead of being a bitc- I- I mean bully... And Danny even gets his (not so) secret desire to go out with Sam. So it's VERY apparent that every single thing that happens in this dream was intentionally set up to cater to his every whim, right?

The show has clearly established Danny's fat crush on Paulina before. So to have Star here blushing with Paulina HAS to be an intentional decision.

I mean, it could be playing into the whole "Danny likes female attention, despite who it's coming from" theme but at the same time like.. two times is enough PACK IT UP BRO WE'RE ONTO YOU

ALSO, leaning more into headcanon territory but. What if the reason he didn't make a move on her was because she's (presumably) in a relationship with Kwan, at least post Lucky in Love.

I mean, every female he expressed his feeling towards (Paulina, Valarie & Sam) were all single. So maybe Danny's a respectful king!