Tumblr crosspost (4 November 2019)
Jun. 19th, 2021 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineI reblogged a post I made in July of 2012:
On Noatak and Tarrlok’s last words to each other as children—
They totally shaped each other’s lives at that moment. Noatak broke down and abandoned his downtrodden brother, ignoring his pleas—then went on to reinvent himself as defender of the downtrodden. Tarrlok broke down and was condemned by his brother as a weakling—then went on to reinvent himself as a heroic pillar of strength. And neither of them were quite what they were pretending to be.
…That, incidentally, makes it pretty easy to see why Noatak, who’d had such grand aspirations for himself and non-benders, was content enough to run off with his little brother. Non-benders were always standing in for Tarrlok, anyway. Protecting them probably made up, in some small way, for failing to save his brother, all the more because Tarrlok himself turned out so badly after his departure. Sure, it didn’t work, but in the end it was him and Tarrlok, together again, and free. That was what he wanted, really.
On Noatak and Tarrlok’s last words to each other as children—
They totally shaped each other’s lives at that moment. Noatak broke down and abandoned his downtrodden brother, ignoring his pleas—then went on to reinvent himself as defender of the downtrodden. Tarrlok broke down and was condemned by his brother as a weakling—then went on to reinvent himself as a heroic pillar of strength. And neither of them were quite what they were pretending to be.
…That, incidentally, makes it pretty easy to see why Noatak, who’d had such grand aspirations for himself and non-benders, was content enough to run off with his little brother. Non-benders were always standing in for Tarrlok, anyway. Protecting them probably made up, in some small way, for failing to save his brother, all the more because Tarrlok himself turned out so badly after his departure. Sure, it didn’t work, but in the end it was him and Tarrlok, together again, and free. That was what he wanted, really.