Treating Katara's new bloodbending abilities as a bad thing was some weak sauce shit. Acting like Zuko couldn't just sneak her into the fire nation and have Katara snap, crackle and pop Ozai's spine like a fucking glow stick and win the war.

people misunderstand what ‘gifted kid’ actually means but it’s ok it’s fine it’s cool it’s good

it’s not about actually being gifted, it’s about an initial higher scoring on standardized testing that means little to nothing or being good at learning in the way elementary and middle school wants you to, so you get marked as ‘advanced’. in reality, maybe you had faster development in certain areas, but the issue with being a gifted kid isn’t that “everyone told me I was so cool and special for reading and then I actually wasn’t :(” it’s “I wasn’t properly taught to handle things not coming easily to me, but the adults around me were counting on me not being a ‘difficult’ child in school.”

people who use it as some weird bragging method or interpret it that way are ignoring the way a lot of school systems force certain roles on students to simplify the learning process. If your kid doesn’t need to take notes to understand a science concept bc they get it naturally, well that’s good, but now you’re not teaching them how to take notes and they’re not learning that important soft skill. but because ‘gifted’ kids are easy and don’t show that they’re falling behind in learning in other categories that are harder to quantify, they eventually fall behind after that catches up to them. It’s about the failures of a one size fits all school system trying to compensate in the worst way possible.

And also the thing where ‘gifted’ kids are super likely to also be neuroatypical, which they don’t get screened for because they appear to be doing well in school. Or “You can’t be ADHD/autistic/etc, because you’re doing so well in school!”. Or being shamed for developing mental health issues/generally not being able to keep up with school work later, because you USED TO BE able to do it just fine.

Or the assumption that just because you can read well or you like math class, you’re somehow more EMOTIONALLY mature than your little kid brain is actually capable of being.

Or gifted kids whose parents and teachers put immense pressure on them to Do Great Things and Save The World and you’re like. “I’m 10 and I have no idea how to do that, but everyone is saying that’s my job?”.

This is the best “gifted kid” post out there. I never took notes until college because I didn’t have to, snd when it got challenging I had to literally teach myself note taking at age 18. It also fucks with your perception of asking for help - you’re advanced, you’re competent, you should be able to understand every topic easily. Asking for help/going to office hours/asking for a tutor feels like failing when you were praised in your early years for not needing to do that.

rick riordan has his faults but he does know how to handle a main character who is like. supremely op. like yeah percy can make hurricanes with his mind but he'd rather go smoke weed with his girlfriend and his mom so he's not that big of a threat .

Percy pre last Olympian: I don’t like Annabeth. We are FRIENDS. My feelings are FRIENDLY. Stop looking at me.

Percy post last Olympian: My beautiful, talented, wonderful girlfriend Annabeth. Light of my life, the sun rises and sets with her smile. My greatest accomplishment is being her boyfriend and I killed a titan once.

Zutara, romance novels, and the female gaze

Okay so I’ve been thinking about the female gaze a LOT so I checked out a subreddit about romance novels, despite never having read one. I came across this meme (which was initially a Tumblr post and then got posted to Instagram and then to Reddit and I’m now bringing back to Tumblr — Internet telephone, pls never change):

And…what is The Southern Raiders, if not a platonic grovel? Katara’s pain is central to the episode. It’s central to Zuko. Zuko asks Katara what he can do to make up for his betrayal; she demands the impossible. He reads between the lines, cockblocks her brother to get the necessary information, and then waits outside her door overnight (which he also did for Iroh, the one person we know for sure he loves). He basically makes himself a receptacle for her rage, and he holds space for her by coming with her on her revenge quest and carrying their bags and not saying a damn thing about what she should and should not do beyond like…asking her to rest. And obviously the grovel works! She forgives him and then they’re thick as thieves, bantering and fighting and saving each other’s lives, etc.

On a different note, I’ve been told that enemies to lovers is one of the biggest tropes in romance novels, similar to YA lit and fanfic. Here’s something else I found in the romance novel discourse:

And…yeah. In TSR, Katara really does show Zuko her worst self, because she doesn’t feel the need to perform for him. She doesn’t feel the need to perform moral perfection OR cold blooded vengeance. She bloodbends in front of him and he just goes with it. She doesn’t kill Yon Rha and he just goes with it. He doesn’t treat her any differently afterwards. Maybe they talk about it off screen, but I kind of like the idea that they don’t, because Katara doesn’t need to explain anything. And it’s so interesting, because some people in the ATLA fandom have a totally different read on TSR. They think Zuko was encouraging Katara to get revenge (by what, keeping his mouth shut?), and that Aang is the one who acts as her moral compass. I believe that either Bryan or Mike said in the DVD commentary that Aang is the angel on her shoulder the entire time. And this interpretation does make sense if you see it from the male gaze, where Katara as an object of affection is acting in an angry, irrational, threatening way. But if you see it from the female gaze, you recognize that actually it’s probably the most emotionally taxing experience Katara has to go through, and she doesn’t owe it to be nice or perfect to anybody. Katara’s formative trauma literally comes to a head, and she has to make a decision — no, a discovery — about who she is in relation to the tragedy that defines her life and even her identity (as a waterbender, as a parentified child who becomes the mom friend, as a genocide victim), and she’s accompanied by someone who trusts her judgement and validates her feelings.

I’m not saying TSR is explicitly romantically coded, but when it conforms so well to romance novel tropes…is it any wonder that so many people thought “yes this is her man?” And then he takes lightning in the heart for her and reaches for her when he’s literally dying, I will never be normal about that either

THEY DID THE GOOD KID REPRISE

Listen, let’s make a pact. Right now. No matter what happens. We meet back here next year. All of us. Right here. Deal?

percy immediately apologizing to luke after he hurts him even though he is literally being betrayed because his fatal flaw is loyalty and he cannot fathom hurting the people he cares about… meanwhile luke turning around and hitting percy back without hesitation… i feel sick

Percy Jackson but Hestia has a cabin. that is where the unclaimed go because she goddess of home and family. Demigods get claimed faster because when they show up Hestia glares at her siblings, nieces and nephews untill they claim them.

the adhd kids missing the deadline but saving the day anyway is so personal to me actually

I can't wait for when Percy finds out his own father has the british accent he gave to Athena, seaweed brain gonna lose his mind

percy jackson jesus parallels

god. hades saying, "ask me for sanctuary" after percy talks about kronos hits like a truck when you remember that he tried to do the same for maria, bianca, and nico.

“why don’t they ever suspect Luke why don’t they realize it’s Luke why are they so quick to suspect Clarisse and not a Hermes kid”

guys, Luke is the perfect child. Thats the whole point! He gave his offerings he said his prayers he went on his quest he proved his loyalty to Chiron, to the gods, to his dad. And he did it all with a smile. They have no reason to suspect luke! Luke is the best of them!

Ares could’ve come to that meeting waving a big sign that said “LUKES THE LIGHTNING THIEF” and they still wouldn’t have believed him.

Because they also don’t want it to be Luke.

They love Luke. Luke takes care of them Luke protects them Luke is everything they want in an older brother. It doesn’t matter how blaringly obvious the writers get about who the real thief is. They will ignore every sign, every red flag, every warning, until Percy is dying of poison deep in the forest and Luke is gone.

there’s something strangely gutwrenching about the solstice having already passed. there have been minor changes in the “side adventures” of the trio.

they know they’re entering medusa’s house. they go to the arch for sanctuary against echidna and chimera. they go to waterland to help ares and convince hephaestus to stop being like his family. they go to the lotus hotel to get help from hermes.

in the books they’re getting tricked and distracted and losing all of that time on their quest was an accident. but they still made it in the end.

but in the show? they did everything right. they were aware of where they were at all times. but then they go and ask for help.

they try to ask for athena’s help and she lets monsters into her temple because they “embarrassed her.” they try to ask for hermes’ help but he doesn’t tell them until it’s too late that the lotus hotel messes with time.

they basically did everything right on their quest only for their biggest failures to occur because of the gods.

but poseidon gives him four pearls. four, instead of three. one for sally too. but we already know that she gets left behind.

they tried so hard only for the deadline to lapse.