Tumblr crosspost (3 November 2019)

A Tumblr anon said:

Whenever I'm feeling down, need a good laugh, or end up seeing it so much of it myself, I search Lieumon on your blog and end up getting back to 100% due to your posts being funny/awesome. I completely concur with you on it, and wonder if you still have irrational seething hatred for it.

I replied:

yES

I was just thinking about this because I was trawling for Tarrlok content and UGHHH LIEUMON STILL INESCAPABLE.

The undying resentment is a bit silly (lol, a bit) because … you know, ship and let ship, at least the Lieutenant seems to have been devoted to him, and ships have sailed on less than that. (Though ships have also been crushed on less than Noatak’s response to the Lieutenant’s discovery of his true nature, lol.) It’s just. Personally, argh!

ETERNAL NOTP.

Tumblr crosspost (3 November 2019)

I reblogged a screenshot of Noatak/Amon's waterspout in the finale, and added:

Noatak producing the coolest waterspout to date by complete accident, outing himself in the most public way possible: badass and failtastic, all at once.

(2021 addendum: that's kind of him in a nutshell!)

Tumblr crosspost (3 November 2019)

I reblogged this old photoset:

 

and added:

*looks at notes* [as of 6/10/21, it has 4,151] afk;jdaf;fdk 

If this is my legacy to the Avatar fandom, then so be it. 

Tumblr crosspost (3 November 2019)

A Tumblr anon said:

A few people have said that Noatak should have burned his face to be more convincing, like how Tarrlok electrocuted himself with an Equalist glove. Someone asked that on TV Tropes' Headscratchers page, and someone else explained in detail why that would have been a TERRIBLE idea.

I replied:

Hah, I usually avoid Headscratchers pages like the plague, but I have heard it a few times.

I think there are really two issues at play there: what Noatak, the character, should have done in-universe, and what Noatak should have been written as doing.

As far as the first goes, well … burning your face is a bad idea on general principle. Not that electrocuting yourself is great either, but at least the gloves have a specific purpose and, presumably, setting. They are specifically designed to disable people. Fire, not so much.

In terms of writing, though, I also don’t think it would fit his character. Noatak believes in The Cause, but at the end of the day, he’s using the Equalists and is perfectly ready to ditch them when things go south. Setting the matter of fire aside, I really don’t see him as someone prepared to permanently sacrifice his good looks to the charade. It seems eminently characteristic and suitable to me that the scars are artificial, because Amon himself is so artificial. Real scars would suggest a level of commitment that Noatak doesn’t have.

Tumblr crosspost (3 November 2019)

I reblogged a gifset of Noatak and Tarrlok's next-to-final conversation, in the Air Temple prison, with the dialogue overlaid:

TARRLOK: Noatak.
NOATAK: It's over, brother. I'm sorry for what I had to do to you.
TARRLOK: Our father set us on this path. Fate caused us to collide. I should have left with you when we were boys.
NOATAK: Be with me now. We have a second chance. We can start over together.

I added:

I felt more about these few seconds of conversation than pretty much anything else in the series. Also, I love Tarrlok’s expressions here, especially the sort of ambivalent hope at the end. And what do you bet that’s the first time Noatak has apologized for anything in … the last thirty years, or so?

 

[2021 addendum: I'm still not over this scene. ;_;]