Ganked from Various People

[beckyh2112]

Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

Upon request, I will post a random line or two from any of these you choose. Assuming that the file adds up to a full line, that is.

Feel free to pick another one after I answer your first bit, and feel free to ask for something someone else has asked for.

I've actually left out the files that consist solely of a title and a few notes.

- 7lies-liuchiro
- 50-kekaru
- alak-thanh
- book1-01
- book1-02
- book1-03
- butterfly-effect
- cateblitz
- daili-firebenders
- ebz-mespyri
- hakozai-aus
- howfeng-01
- kimlong
- lovecraft-rome
- madscience
- madscience-rewrite
- maikobigbang
- oraclezuko
- ozai-cyber
- piandao-sokka-01
- shortstory2-edit
- shortstory2-rewrite
- swan-angel
- warring-dragons
- wt-mai-01

Comments

[suzukiblu.livejournal.com]

piandao-sokka-01

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

"What's your name?" Piandao sat beside his bunk, checking his equipment. He kept careful watch on the Water Tribe boy, who had wedged himself underneath the bunk and refused to come out. He did, at least, eat when Piandao left food out for him.

The boy didn't answer. He hadn't answered the last six times Piandao had asked today, either, or the thirty times over the previous three days.

Annoying, but he supposed it wasn't unreasonable. The boy was still a savage and didn't realize how grateful he ought to be that Piandao had rescued him from that life. He likely viewed this as an abduction.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Damn. This is very interesting! I like how patient Piandao is... but his quiet brand of racism is kind of scary. Sokka's reaction to his situation is very understandable, I think, especially considering his age.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Writing that kind of quiet racism is much more interesting to me than writing overt racism.

Most of my Firefolk are racist to one degree or another, as are the Earth Kingdom folk. The Water Tribes mostly get the brunt end of the racism stick, though of course Fire and Earth have their own racist views on each other too.

The non-Fire kids tend not to have it in any measurable way, and certain of the adults don't - Long Feng, odd as it may seem, is one of them. But pretty much all of my Firefolk have gotten the imperialistic "we are better, we are bringing civilization" stuff since they were born, so it's taken effort on their part to avoid even this sort of quiet, reflexive racism.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"But pretty much all of my Firefolk have gotten the imperialistic "we are better, we are bringing civilization" stuff since they were born, so it's taken effort on their part to avoid even this sort of quiet, reflexive racism." That is pretty much my headcanon... and it is sort of implied in canon with those scenes at the school in "The Headband" episode. Dehumanizing the enemy is one of the best ways to justify a long war, especially if you're fighting to spread all that is good and wonderful (and ours) in the world. :(

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much.

Oddly, due to the sort of history we're taught in the Southern US as well as my own explorations into anti-racism through discussion in internet spaces, I am much more comfortable writing the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom's racism than I am in writing the Earth Kingdom's homophobia. I think it's because I feel most of my readers will get that the racism is bad and wrong without needing me to disclaim it, but I am not so sure about the homophobia. Even though they are both still active and prevalent problems throughout the world.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"I think it's because I feel most of my readers will get that the racism is bad and wrong without needing me to disclaim it, but I am not so sure about the homophobia." That's very interesting, and so true. Like, when you write racism people WILL (or SHOULD) feel uneasy, but when there's a homophobic character people who agree with them just... wouldn't question it. I can definitely see that, although I wish it were otherwise. :(

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

I had a whole long comment in my head about why Long Feng doesn't work that way (experience, for the most part) and how I view the role of sexism in the three nations but it is much too early in the morning to ramble like that.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

I think I will ramble about sexism anyway.

I view and portray the Fire Nation as the least sexist¹ of the three nations. This isn't to say that there isn't sexism there, but I think they'd be much more comfortable with a female Firelord than most people give them credit for.

The polar Water Tribes we know are sexist. The swampbenders don't seem to be - witness the female swampbenders being involved with Day of Black Sun.

The Earth Kingdom is not explicitly sexist onscreen, but there are a lot of little things that add up for me. Toph is the only female earthbender of note (the only other female earthbenders I can even think of are background characters in "Imprisoned"), how few women there are of any significance who interact with the Gaang, how none of them seem to be involved in the War, etc. Given that we spend most of two seasons in the Earth Kingdom, there should be more women of significance than Lily, June, and Song, and I am reaching with those.

Now, of course, this is a problem of the creators', but if you're looking at it from the point-of-view of worldbuilding, it suggests the Earth Kingdom is pretty darn sexist about how it treats women. Now, since the Earth Kingdom is not a mono-culture², you can argue that this isn't true everywhere. However, we've never seen it not true anywhere in the show, and like I said, we spent most of two seasons there.

How sexist I depict various areas of the Earth Kingdom depends on where it is and the class of the people depicted - there may be a strict divide of what is and isn't women's work, but with a war going on, someone needs to bring in the harvest especially if the men are off soldiering. Upper-class Ba Sing Se, on the other hand...

1. Evidence to back this up: Zhao's "sons and daughters of fire" speech in "The Blue Spirit", the female soldiers/guards in "Day of Black Sun", the Dangerous Ladies, Azula being crowned Firelord at all.

2. The different Water Tribes seem to be different mono-cultures, while the Fire Nation seems to be something of a mono-culture itself. At least every place we visit where the people are known by the Firelord as citizens has much the same sort of culture.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Yaaay rambling! Don't worry, you were very coherent despite writing while tired.

I think you're very right about sexism in these cultures. I'd previously thought on the subject of Toph being the only real badass female earthbender we've seen. In my head, it's because, well, earthbending, moreso than, say, waterbending, is very agressive and reads as "masculine" to me... although that itself was a very gendered comment.

I also think it says a lot about the Fire Nation that Azula was crowned Fire LORD, not Fire Lady.

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

In my lighter spots, female earthbenders in Ba Sing Se are taught 'decorative' earthbending. In my darker spots, there is a certain marriage market for female earthbenders to soldiers to help ensure earthbender sons.

That's just Ba Sing Se, mind.

But the thing is, Toph is pretty much the only female earthbender with a speaking part we see.

Yes. Which is why I give fics the side-eye when they have Zuko's first-born daughter/female Zuko being unable to inherit the throne because she has ovaries instead of testicles.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

"In my darker spots, there is a certain marriage market for female earthbenders to soldiers to help ensure earthbender sons." Creepy, but... in a nation that's been at war for about a century... Sadly, I can see it. D:

"Which is why I give fics the side-eye when they have Zuko's first-born daughter/female Zuko being unable to inherit the throne because she has ovaries instead of testicles." Exactly. Primogeniture, sure: that's why Azula needs her brother out of the way so badly. However, she's just as capable as her father is (at being genocidal ;) ).

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Primogeniture is, in fact, the sole factor I use for determining Fire Nation inheritance. Well, titles. Lands, I think Fire Nation law requires the majority to be given to the firstborn, but allows discretion in allotting the rest. But titles always go to the firstborn or eldest living child, unless said person has has some Firelord-approved reason for not.

[suzukiblu.livejournal.com]

. . . my heart, it is won. HOW HAVE YOU NOT FINISHED THIS FIC YET?

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

I started working on Water Tribe Mai instead.