Lol, Mine Is Apparently, Maximum Risk (1996)Welcome To The Other Side Of Safe.

Lol, mine is apparently, Maximum Risk (1996)  “Welcome to the other side of safe.” 

im all of the above

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Today in chemistry we did a lab where we burned different chemical compounds to see what color flame would be produced and my group mixed all of the compounds together, and this was result

Thoughts on Fire Lord Ozai

Every time I watch ATLA,  I appreciate Fire Lord Ozai more and more.

First of all i am 90% sure he was added to the show just as a treat for the moms forced to watch it with their children.  Dear god that body.  Flameo hotman.  What’s not to appreciate?

But as a character I started to understand the brilliance in his seemingly inane simplicity. 

The first time i watched the show I noticed that Fire Lord Ozai actually works as a villain.  He’s extremely scary.  I had nightmares about him when I saw the show for the first time.  I was 19 when I saw the show for the first time by the way.  The way he’s framed, the way they keep him in the shadows, the way the other characters react to him, Mark Hamill’s stunning charisma.  Like this is a scary motherfucker.

The second time i watched the show I noticed that Fire Lord Ozai is uhm… a few logs short of a bonfire.  He doesn’t have a backstory.  He doesn’t really have that many scenes or dialogue.  We don’t learn anything about his beliefs and values.  We don’t explore his relationships with the other characters in depth.  He kind of exists to look scary and throw his weight around.  And as a second time viewer this made me feel a bit cheated.

Legend of Korra after all had villains with clear beliefs and values.  They were humans first and villains second.  they had backstories.  They had arguments that were used to develop the story’s themes.  They weren’t exactly well-done characters.  The writing in LOK is uhm.  also a few logs short of a bonfire.  But they were at least interesting.

Ozai has pretty much no personality what soever.  He is as generic as cartoon villains could possibly get and still work as a story telling element.

The third time I watched the show, the fear and the disappointment had worn off, and I could appreciate this sexy sinner for who he really was.  Like, honestly what’s not to love.  All he needs is a toe-tapping musical number and he could easily fit among the ranks of any of Disney’s most entertaining baddies.

The CHARISMA.  

Dear lord.  The snark.

“Maybe he can teach you the ways of tea and failure.”  DAMN.

this motherfucker RIPS OFF HIS CLOTHES.  IN MID AIR.  AND THEN BURNS THE CLOTHES.  AFTER HE JUST GOT COORDINATED IN THOSE CLOTHES LIKE 20 MINUTES AGO.  NO.  FUCKS.  GIVEN.

He’s just having so much fun.  He loves his job so much.  I kind of want to be him, you know.

Or at least be one of his palace mistresses and get pregnant with his bastard child.

But none of these things really explain why Fire Lord Ozai as a fictional character created as a tool for telling a good story ascends to the level of brilliance.

Why is he brilliant? 

A lot of fans of the show are okay with the fact Ozai has the personality of a hamster with the fact that he does his job.

His job is to provide conflict for the characters to overcome, to raise stakes, to create tension.  That’s what villains are supposed to do, and Ozai gets it done with efficiency and effectiveness as if he were being payed to do it.

I like to argue that Ozai is not so much a character in his own right but more of a symbol.

Ozai is hyper masculine, solves problems with aggression when it really isn’t appropriate to do so, loves war, seeks power.  He basically is the embodiment of the Fire Nation cultural values that caused the nation to engage in a hundred years of senseless imperialism.  He was raised with those Fire Nation cultural values.  He adopts them in his own life in how he treats his children, and he leads his nation in acting them out when he assumes the throne.  He IS the Fire Nation.

I also think it’s worth noting that the imagery surrounding Ozai is unambiguously Satanic.  He has an ugly goat’s beard.  He wears red and black.  He sits on a throne surrounded by hell fire.  Contrast him with Aang, who is a devine entity that the world has been waiting for in hopes he will deliver them from evil, who is undoubtedly a Christ hero.  

But what I really love about Ozai, what really just gets my goat, and makes me laugh my ass off, is that he is REALISTIC.

Think about the people in the real world who cause pain and suffering to others.  Think about their “Tragic Back Stories.” You will find that a lot of the real world’s super villains, your Trumps, your Bezos, your Ted Cruzes and Kavenaghs, are normal ass dudes with normal ass up-bringings.

They weren’t beaten as kids.  They didn’t suffer unspeakable traumas.  And if they did suffer such fates, that isn’t what drove them to their villainy.  They chose villainy as a profession.  They worked hard for the opportunity to become villains because of the wealth, power, and prestige it would bring.  And they dress up their villainy with titles like “President, or Judge, or CEO.”

These assholes in real life are not Kuviras or Amons or Zaheers.  the are Ozais.  They are motivated by power and money.  Not ideology or perverted sense of duty or a need for revenge against the world.

Fire Lord Ozai is exactly the person you think he is.  He is the dumbest Jock in the entire school.  He has spent his whole life getting by on his good looks and his daddy’s money.  And due to the shear dumb luck of being born into a ridiculous amount of privilege, he was placed in command of a military superpower.

And you and I can name a lot of people in real life who are exactly like him.

And that, my good dudes, is why Fire Lord Ozai is brilliant.

people really need to stop making fun of young trans boys who go through the “im a soft plant boy uwu” phase, who dye their hair pastel colors, who go through the space prince phase, who dresses very feminine. realizing you’re trans can be pretty tough so staying “soft” can be a good middle ground for these young boys who were previously raised feminine. making fun of young trans men that call themselves soft/soft boys is so harmful. let them find themselves, grow out of it on their own. if you consider yourself an “elder” and make fun of these kids you’re a terrible role model.

if you’re cis you can rb this just don’t speak on the subject

Phone wallpapers

Some more soon