Nobody:

Let’s take a look at society.

       BNHA | unofficial scans | meta 

Huh. So, this started as a casual Hawks study, but it ended up as a analysis of how heroes and villains are perceived, the concept of dehumanization, among other things.

So, you know?

I kind of have a pet peeve when it comes to the phrase “Hawks would do anything for the Hero Comission”.

Because, well, I look at it, and I’m completely sure that its’s not true, that it’s not expressed correctly. Hawks didn’t let civilians die during the High End even when the HPSC told him that he could ignore casualties. And then, he went to Dabi, put a sword in his neck, and said this:

He was, in a way, protective.

Thing is, I didn’t knew how to correct it. The phrase isn’t completly wrong, it’s just on the wrong direction, because there is something that he would do everything for. It’s been implicated that Hawks knows that there’s something wrong with the HPSC or Hero Society, so I don’t think that he is particularly blinded in that sense. He isn’t surprised when they tell him to ignore civilians, only disgusted, and then a few months later, with Twice, he proceeds to talk about the cage he is in. So, he still goes against their orders, therefore… he isn’t completely resigning to them. 

Which means, that the possibilities of doing everything for them is low, a generalization. My chances were in the fact that he could only be attached to the HPSC because their interests align.

And one week ago, when I read the same phrase it came to me, and I don’t even know why I didn’t think about it before because… it’s so simple, and yet I’ve never truly saw anyone mention it.

It’s not “Hawks would do anything for the Hero Comission.”

It’s “Hawks would give anything for the society.“ 

or “for the sake of the society”, which is just slightly different from the HPSC one, “for the greater good”. 

But instead of focusing on doing what’s necessary for the greater good, he gives the things that are part of him for the greater good, because I believe that taking is his last priority.

He doesn’t usually takes from others. He gives from himself.

Hence, his name, or his desire of being free. A part of his morality (feelings related to it, depends of how you interpreted it), when he felt the need to commit a homicide, or when he had to lie to everyone because of his mission. But despite his own feelings, he just kept pushing himself harder.

Willing to corrupt himself in the process if it’s necessary, when he doesn’t have any options left.  Being a hero even if he feels trapped… Caring so much about society that he can’t stop doing these things. All of these are personal decisions.

Hawks giving everything of him for the sake of society, I truly believe that’s what his character is about. The type of self- sacrifice, of selflessness that he represents. The kind of tragedy he represents, in a way, because to this point, he’s rejecting himself.

It’s what happens when you are so willing to do something that you would corrupt yourself for it without even doubting it. Like a mother who would kill for his daughter, or an adult who is starting to steal so he can gain something for his family.

Selflessness is something that tends to be admired. But, as humans, we tend to forget that being selfish is important. We need a balance to function properly.

But, hey. 

When I say society, what does it mean?

It means, civilians. It means, heroes. It means everyone else, but villains.

The guys Hawks has to protect the others from. It makes total sense, because, well, villains are criminals. The people who need to be stopped, and heroes can’t really accept that because stopping them is their job. Without heroes, the world would be a darker place, and without villains, there wouldn’t be any heroes.

I have to mention that there is a reason why villains are outcasts of society after all.

They were rejected, they escaped, or maybe they never really belonged. The League of Villains, the victims who became the perpertrators, the ones who are creating destruction, are a good example and the one I will be mentioning the most.

I covered the words, because it’s not necessary. Just focus on how gruesome is everything now because of the battlefield. And this is just a part of Machia’ doing after Shigaraki’s order. I don’t enjoy how Horikoshi is putting this here and a lot of people ignored it, but I understand why since emotions were running wild during this chaper. In this perspective, heroes motivation to stop villains must be clear.

Dehumanization of heroes

I’m using the term dehumanization in almost every part but I think there’s a better one. I’ll correct it if I remember it.

Society, conformed by civilians and heroes, what Hawks protects and what he is so willing to sacrifice for. And while other heroes have different ideas, if simplified, they have the same ideals.

Heroes are protectors of society, they are supposed to help what would be main victims, and those are civilians and/or other heroes, from villains. Things like attacking the route of the problem should be recognized by bigger organizations, per se, HPSC or the Goverment, because heroes are only there in case of damage, either to prevent it or stop it, when it’s at the hands of villains.

Because, while some say that the villains are victims, heroes can’t allow themselves to dehumanized the people who have suffered in their hands. 

Heroes are scrutinized, too.

They have the popularity of being the helpers, the ones who have to be a shining light for everyone, always winning, with a heart of gold and always ready to extend a hand. A hand to everyone.

With those expectations, when that narrative shatters a little, civilians are really quick to judge, because heroes are always expected to be perfect. 

This is a mentality that, in my opinion, can even be appreciated in villains when they blame heroes for not saving them, even unconsciously. But, theorically, heroes aren’t supposed to intervene in a lot of situations, they are simply expected to because of how popular the concept of heroes being always there to help has become.

This post gives a good explanation about hero celebrity culture and how it affects the heroes. 

And these images are an example of how heroes are easily judged and dismissed once they fail.

There is an standard for what a hero is, and for what a villain is, even before they become that. We noticed this with characters in the manga, too.

Bakugou and Shinsou are great examples.

And then we have Shinsou, whose quirk used to make others put him in a box.

People whose value was determinated by their quirk, at least once in their life. We can include Toga, Hawks and Dabi by this definition.

The way quirks are treated… seems pretty similar to how beauty is perceived in certain places, maybe?

There’s also a standard for how a battle between these two should be. Flashy, interesting, fun, but at the same time, an easy job.

The black and white thinking or polarized mentality is something that in my opinion, civilians have.

So.

Society. Civilians. Heroes. Outcast of society. Villains.

There is a structure in their society. Two, actually, I would say.

The first one is how everything is perceived by civilians, and the second one is based on the list of priorities of heroes. I will only touch the first one for now.

I forgot about graphs. Everything. I will study graphs again after this, but for now, just see this.

So, there is a line. The further apart you are from the middle, the more expectations are placed over you. This would represent heroes and villains, who are two extremes. While vigilantes are in between, either rejected or accepted in society because their influence fluctuates, villains are refered as someone who is bad. 

Common civilians are in the middle, but, for the moment, there’s stability. There are expectation of civilians but those are a mix and it depends of how your quirk is perceived. 

The plus and minus symbol are wether you are perceived in a positive or a negative light. The equal symbol is because you aren’t stricly perceived in a good or bad light.

I think that the difference would be that, while heroes deal with these expectations in the form of pressure from the public, villains tend to lack that since the public doesn’t know villains in that level.

My guess, is that quirk discrimination is what most of these heroes and villains suffered from at some point in their lives, but they had different reactions, situations, and their metality varies.

Now that I’ve talked about this, let’s think about Tartarus.

Tartarus

If heroes are considered angels, then the villains are demons.

There are villains that are sent to the Tartarus, right? Let’s look into that. 

We have a lot of interpretations of this place, but the basics are the same.

The original idea of afterlife is that once the soul is separated from the body, it goes to what is called the Greek underworld. The Greek underworld is something only made for the dead. Here, good people and bad people would separate in, basically, two places:

The Elysium, that is on the Island of the blessed. Good people go here, when their soul is pure. Once there, an easy life is guaranted.

And then there’s Tartarus, when you are considered a bad person. Here, you will receive your punishment. Tartarus, in Greek mythology, is a deep abyss, used as a place of suffering or torment, or as a prison of Titans. This is the place where souls are judged after death.

Tartarus, in the original wiki, describes their criminals as those whose death won’t be enough. 

Tartarus, then, for the outcast, the villains, the ones who could have suffered much, but who have wronged in a great level, is supposed to be a place worse than the death.

You aren’t supposed to escape from Tartarus, because you are already dead. You are dead, or hated, and therefore just more of an outcast. Someone who never existed.

The possibilities of the LOV going to Tartarus, if they aren’t arrested… probably high, considering the actual situation. Of course, I actually don’t think it will happen at 100%. Maybe, the plot changes, there are more advances in story, prejudice and maybe there’s going to be a different prison, too. Who knows.

We have to remember that even though this is based on greek mythology, it doesn’t mean that it will follow it to the letter. I don’t think it is that bad, because Tartarus is a high-level prison. I do believe, however, that it shows how the worst villains are perceived. 

We also have to keep in mind the crimes that these villains have committed.

Villains that we know that are in Tartarus, include: Overhaul, All for One, Stain, Muscular, Moonfishn and Kurogiri.

Moonfish appears to be awaiting for death penalty. I’m not sure how Law in Japan works for mentally unstable people so I won’t comment on this.

The idea is that since the criminals in Tartarus are a danger to society, they have to stay here. 

Heroes’ priorities

Now, let’s talk about heroes, and their priorities. This is based on the concept of victimization.

Of course, it’s just about when the victims become victims, about when their experiences started or ended. I won’t count indirect pain or emotional one. The list is related mostly related to disasters, villain attacks, quirk discrimination, or just bad circumstances that could have changed someone’s life to great levels. 

It’s also inconsistent. Sorry.

Future victim: a person who hasn’t become a victim, yet. Civilians are mostly included.

Present victim: a victim who is currently under constant danger or a form of oppression. We can include heroes and heroes in training.

Past victims: Victims whose experiences ocurred in the past. It can be divided in two: 

Passive past victim: Those who let go or try to let go of their experiences. Victims in the process of healing and who reintegrated in society. Better examples would be Midoriya, with bullying, and Todoroki, with domestic abuse. With time, they become future victims or present victims.

Active past victim: Victims who internalized their experiences. These ones didn’t heal correctly, either because they didn’t knew how or didn’t try to. The experiences of this type of victims mostly inspire their future decisions. Most villains or vigilantes are examples of this. These are the ones who end up becoming perpetrators.

So… when it comes to the saving, it would be like this:

Future victim  > present victim  >  active past victim

(passive past victims here)

Future victims and present victims could be interchangeable and hold at the same standard depending of the situation.

I think that the best way to express this is with Hawks and Twice battle, actually.

Hawks was in a situation where he was against two villains. One with a dangerous quirk that represented a threat to society and appeared to be willing to act upon it, namely, Twice, and one who had a quirk that represented a threat to him since he was weak to fire, or specifically, Dabi. Under the assumption that Twice (active past victim) was going to hurt civilians (future victims), he decided to eliminate him, at the cost of himself (present victim). So he put the future victims over himself and the active past victim, that was Twice.

The responsability of a victim

There is a phrase that I read in an article related to this, while investigating s topic. Sadly, I can’t find it, but it goes like this:

“When we have the courage to deal with our pain, we have the opportunity to assist others with theirs. Our heartache can become the source of our hope.“

I think that this is something that should be mentioned and it is often ignored. Probably, most of us know that your circumstances of the past, even when they give an understanding of your actions, they would never justified what you are doing now. That includes good ones and bad ones.

Which means. As someone who has suffered, it automatically becomes your responsability whether or not you take care of yourself or internalize the feelings that acted when you experienced on x situation. Especially as an adult.

I can notice how this can be perceive as something unfair. It feels unfair, because you probably weren’t asked to be put into that situation, and for the most part, it’s not even your fault. It is not a child’s fault that their parents ignored their needs. It is never a person’s fault that they suffer from sexual assault. It will never be your fault that someone bullies you in school, and yet, when you are experiencing it, it probably feels like it is. Once you are out of that cycle, the things start to make more sense, but your feelings and mentality could get in the way of your recovery.

The problem is that you are the only one who can decide if you take care of yourself. The only one who can try, and this translates as a responsability.

In my opinion, everyone can be redeemed. Everyone can change and decide to become a better person, even those that would even be considered inhuman because of their deeds. If someone else wants to forgive them, it’s on them. The problem is whether you want to change or not, and whether you are willing to live with the consequences or not. I think Endeavor, who I would categorize as someone who didn’t take care of those feelings and proceeded to become a perpetrator to his own family for two decades and then had an atonement arc, could be included in this specific case. It doesn’t matter if you perceive this in a bad light or a good one, because I’m just showing how someone who doesn’t takes care of their feelings could end.

Notice–  I’m in no way excusing what an abuser do. They still have total responsibility for themselves and their decisions. The biggest test starts when you are facing the consequences of your actions. However, in addition to this, victims also have a responsibility, and that is taking care of themselves. Not doing it can even result on becoming the one who hurts others, on hurting yourself and even gain a false sense of security.

I think Shoto and Dabi are, also, great examples of this, being both victims. Both internalized their feelings, but while Shoto changed, Dabi didn’t.

When talking about physical pain, we’re told to go to the doctor. But when the problem is psychological, common thinking you should just keep pushing harder and ignore it. And everytime that something like this gets ignored, it keeps getting worse. And then everyone is surprised or brushes it off, and it’s just bad luck, or the person was weak. It’s better to stop following the crowd. It is possible to get help anywhere, because everything could help, especially if it’s a professional. Terrible situations will happen but it’s possible to get better.

Someone can, also, greatly change once their mentality is settled, even in just a few days. This video of rapid personality change and psychological rebirth will explain this at depth, if you are interested in knowing more about it.

What I do believe is that it is a general, national responsability to give access to resources and things that are going to help during your recovery. This is just natural. No one knows the magic cure to all of our problems because we are pretty different from each other, especially those problems who belong to the heart, because we don’t tend to pay attention to this. I will mention that, I also consider a responsability to take care of criminals.

It’s not only about humanity, it’s about how these little actions can play when it comes to the fact of crime rates, because… If people are unhappy with something, you can choose to ignore them, or you can listen to them and evaluate their reasons. If a lot of people share the same reasons or the same background, then there’s a problem that has to be addressed.

For now, I don’t really believe that BNHA (in-universe) takes this into account.

But we can’t forget that even if the goverment should give the resources, whether the victims change or not is a personal decision. If they don’t, well, it’s only going to hurt people, stopping being victims and becoming the abusers.

Dehumanization of villains

First, I want to mention that dehumanization doesn’t inmediately translates to violence, brutality, and other synonyms. In this case, it’s more about the way they are portrayed and how heroes see villains as a first instict.

I think that the best way to describe a villain is someone who is tired of the conservative system.

In consequence, villains have caused so much suffering to heroes, hero students and civilians, that they are often perceived as people who act without a reason. People in this universe have personal reasons to not trust them. Especially during a battle, where emotions are running high.

Heroes can’t allow themselves to stay back and listen to villains, because then, villains will probably just cause more damage. If they do, then heroes run at risk of not fulfilling their mission, and that is to protect society.

I don’t think that a hero first instict is to fight villains, or to save civilians, but to treat the villain like a villain, and from there, expect everything. Detach themselves from the situation, be level-headed, analytical of what’s happening, and remember that innocents are a the top priority.  

Now, this is a double edged sword.

It helps heroes to capture villains without getting any attachment, and, in consequence, help civilians faster and efficiently.

Depending of the villain, it could bring ignorance to both heroes and the system to the reasons why villains becomes villains, since this seems to get ignored for the most part. This backfires on people that could probably go back to being criminals or just create more hate for the society.

Heroes have personal reasons to not trust villains. And hero students have suffered so much that I wouldn’t blame them, either. But, when it comes to the system, never trying to understand the reasons can bring problems when something is being managed.

Humanization of villains

The system doesn’t always perceive villains as the worst, and I think that it depends so heavily on their crimes and how the villain stops being a villain, that completely blaming the system would be wrong.

An example is when the villain surrenders. This is about Gentle, la Brava, and the police. I personally enjoyed this interaction.

The second one is when a hero gets their feelings involved when it comes to a villain. I can mention three cases of this.

All Might and Shigaraki 

Hawks and Twice.

Aizawa/Hizashi and Kurogiri.

Villains are, once again, perceived as people once feelings were involved or the fight is over. Heroes aren’t supposed to afford that, because they need to prioritize society.

This is what Gran Torino says to All Might, after his words:

As a hero, this is true. 

They shouldn’t get their feelings involved. If a criminal is involved, the priority are the citizens and the criminal is supposed to go to jail. Once they are there, just go to the next problem and take care of it. You know, continue being a hero.

The problem is that depending of the situation (and right now I’m not talking about Shigaraki, but rather, more general circumstances because Shigaraki is a special case), it continues a cycle.

We see this with groups like the PLF or the use of trigger. 

When people aren’t getting any help, they get worse. When civilians aren’t getting answers, they get worse.

I’m not saying that heroes should take care of this, since I don’t strictly believe that this is their fault. But I think that the problem should be addressed by someone. Heroes can’t do it in battle and bringing it to the public would probably create a controversy. I believe that they can influence when the problem is presented, since my believe is that heroes can assist to these problems. Not that they have to, since the responsability isn’t really theirs. But doing it may help the system and could help in the future. Heroes were show to assist prisons like Tartarus, so minor ones shouldn’t be a problem.

As I stated before, heroes, hero students and civilians have every reason not to trust villains. They have suffered because of them, I just believe that it would be dangerous to keep this behaviour.

So… conclusions.

We notice a pattern:

Quirk discrimination. 

The prohibition of quirks.

Dehumanization of heroes.

Dehumanization of villains.

This is my personal idea:

Maybe, society needs to adapt, first. Maybe, the priorities shouldn’t be repress quirks. Since criminality has been controlled, it would be ideal to make a change.

The hero profession appeared along with villains so society could keep stability. All Might gave hope to people, and new times appeared. Now, quirks weren’t perceived as something bad or as a way of controlling others.

But this failed to adapt, both with All Might and the HPSC, and heroes ended up being portrayed as people who needed to be admired, too. With this, they have the attention of everyone.

Why is the HPSC so obsessed with the production of heroes? My guess is that it’s a reaction to how needed heroes are, and how quirks keep getting ridicously stronger. The prohibition of quirks have also attracted attention to the hero career and to how your quirk can contribute to a dream career, and this influences in how quirks are perceived. People probably feel the need to use their quirk, or they will simply lash out. Toga is a great example. This also translates to quirk discrimination and how important it is to either have an useful quirk or a flashy one. A “heroic″ quirk, we could say.

Twice also says this, and I think that it is important to include.

I believe that heroes and villains fights are ridiculous, in a way. 

It goes like this: 

The battle is portrayed as heroes vs. villains and it seems to me that most fans are seeing it like that, especially casual ones, but my idea is more complex than that.

Villains are fighting because they had a bad situation in the system. While a lot of villains that are represented have such unique situations, some of them can be translated to society as a whole. Toga, Spinner and Twice would be the only examples in my opinion, with slight differences. This doesn’t mean that they are doing this correctly or that they want the betterment of the society, as we see with the LOV, where everyone has different motivations. 

Dabi and Shigaraki goals appears to be revenge and destruction, respectively. Toga wants to be free, to be herself. Twice ended up lonely and wanted to be with his friends, Magne wanted to be accepted, Spinner had problems with self-esteem and was isolated, and we still know next to nothing from Mr. Compress. Mostly, they aren’t really focused on the betterment of society, but rather, a selfish decision made out of the damage created by oppression or reject of people around them. 

Then, we have Overhaul, who wanted a society that was a equal. He saw quirks as illnesses. This is an unique situation, but it’s what he perceived as something that would help to the problems presented.

Everything tends to fall into heroes, the ones who have to stop them. But this isn’t heroes fault, this is about the society and the character’s unique circumstances. Because you can be a victim without becoming a perpetrator. As I stated before, victims have a responsability, and that is taking care of themselves. The heroes don’t seem to focus on the problems of the society because heroes need to keep civilians safe of villains and because of bad experiences with villains that they are still having. Bad experiences that just keep repeating again and again. Helping villains is not their job, but at the same time, there is hardly anyone who interacts with villains as much as heroes during battle. Then, this situation should get fixed when villains are being prosecuted and they fall into the hands of the police.

You also can’t help a person who doesn’t want to help themselves, because change is a personal decision. 

But if the society keeps producing unhappiness, then there’s obviously a problem that probably should be addressed. I think that the biggest criminal organizations are the best examples of this, even if the methods they use are less than ideal.

Heroes don’t need to strictly care about villains, but rather, the system. Or the system needs to notice it itself. I believe that in the most common cases, it all comes to the prohibition of quirks and how advertised heroes are.

The idea of helping a criminal, an adult who purposefully wants to keep being a criminal is kind of ridiculous, to me. So the best way is to prevent this. If we prevent this, maybe things are gonna get better. It may even help criminals, making then stop going back to the same life, or making villains surrender on their own. Toga could be an example of this, now that I think about it.

There is people who really had bad circumstances in life. Sometimes they change, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they are saved by luck. Sometimes they are ignored. 

There will always be someone who isn’t going to be saved. But that person is the only one who can decide if they’re going to change or not. Real life criminals are actually a great example of that, I guess.

Hmm, maybe that’s what life is about, actually.

but that’s just my opinion, I guess. 

There’s a reason a sewing kit includes scissors, a wood shop has a saw, and a kitchen is full of knives. In order to build something, to create something on purpose, you have to be prepared to cut away what’s extra. A bolt of cloth does not a blanket make, a piece of wood a shelf, nor a loaf of bread a sandwich. When you snip off frayed bits of string, cut the wood into shape, or slice the end off a loaf of bread you are creating, with the act of removal, something closer to what you desire. 

Now let’s say you’re not sewing a blanket, you’re not building a shelf, not making a sandwich. Let’s say you’re crafting a life in which you are happy. You will end up removing things. You’ll leave partners, stop talking to family members, let go of friends. You’ll move apartments, lose jobs, change wardrobes. And you will feel their absence. You’ll look at the scraps of cloth, the odd angles of wood, the stale end of the loaf. But that cloth couldn’t keep you warm and that tiny corner of wood can’t store books. You wouldn’t be full from that little bit of bread or happy with that person. In the art of creating there is the act of removal and it is essential. 

Are you feeling kind of down right now? It’s not your fault that you forgot what baby cheetahs look like. Really. One time I did too.

But now you recall!

Look! Look!

They loves to play!

Rawr!

Their head is just one giant ball of floof!

I can’t even

How do they live? Being so cuTE??

Ugh!!

This has been a PSA. Baby cheetahs are everything good and pure in this world. Please imagine petting the floof head. Please feel better.

Hey if u like the ocean look at this its rly cool I think

This hc has been gnawing at my mind all night)) in the Fire Nation they propose with knives. we know that the NWT (and maybe SWT) propose w necklaces. I’m imagining Zuko giving Sokka this gorgeous knife but sokka doesn’t know it’s a proposal thing. So he’s like “thanks babe :)” and Zuko is just waiting for a yes or no. But sokka is oblivious. And so Zuko is like “he prolly just has to think abt it and talk to his fam”. Like a month passes and sokka mentions it to iroh and finds out the truth

Yes. Yes. YES!!!!

Okay, so

Zuko has been meticulously hand-carving the handle of this knife or weeks wanting to make sure it is absolutely perfect for when he proposes

and he’s so goddamn nervous and second guessing himself

like they might’ve been dating since the war ended but what if Sokka still thinks he’s moving too fast?

Or what if Sokka never actually intended for this to end in marriage?

(that’s crazy and Zuko knows it’s crazy but anxiety doesn’t have to make sense)

He’s so nervous he doesn’t even tell anyone his plans to propose because he’s so scared of failure and doesn’t want to deal with the ‘how’d it go?’ if the answer is ‘bad’

Zuko just decides it’s better if he kept this decision to himself until after he asks

Because then, if Sokka says ‘no’ well... Zuko won’t have to relive that every five minutes with everyone impatiently asking what happened

So he finally finishes the knife right before joining Sokka on a trip back to the South Pole

That’s where they met, after all (tho their meeting was definitely less than romantic lmao)

But it’s also where Zuko confessed his feelings for Sokka after the war

Where they had their first kiss

And where Sokka first said ‘I love you’ to Zuko

It only seems natural that he propose here, too

And it’s Sokka’s home

Like yeah, he might primarily live in the Fire Nation now but that doesn’t change anything

Their first day there is filled with catching up with Hakoda and Bato and Katara and Aang

So Zuko waits until the next day to give it to Sokka

It’s after dinner when everything calms down and the sun is setting that Zuko pulls Sokka outside over by the pier where he first confessed to him

And Zuko has this little speech that he’s planned out in his head which gets mangled together and bits and pieces thrown out until just the bare bones of it remain in a somewhat coherent form for him to say

Which essentially ends up being him rambling about how happy he’s been with Sokka and how much he loves him and recounting their first kiss that happened nearby several years ago

And he pulls out the knife and carefully presents it to Sokka while saying something hopelessly vague like

‘I wanted to give this to you. Please accept it.’ or ‘I hope you like this’ or even just nothing at all because this is Zuko we’re talking about lmao

And Sokka is like ‘wow - Did you make this?’

Zuko is just kinda like ‘yes?? it’s... tradition. Do you... like it?’

Sokka’s answer to that one is ‘it’s beautiful, Zuko’ and a kiss on the cheek

And Zuko is very confused because Sokka did not react at all like he expected

Like any of the worst or best case scenarios that Zuko’s run through in his mind (and there were a LOT of them) were so completely different

But Sokka didn’t really say ‘yes’ or ‘no’

(It doesn’t cross his mind that maybe Sokka doesn’t know what the knife was for)

But he doesn’t want to pressure Sokka for an answer because he knows that marriage is a big deal and all

He tries not to be hurt by the lack of an immediate answer, though because well maybe Sokka just wanted to talk things over with his family

and that’s fine, Zuko can wait

so he waits

and waits

....and waits

and his hopes are slowly dwindling but Sokka also hasn’t returned the knife or even... said anything about it.

He knows Sokka still has it, he’s seen it with him

Meanwhile, Sokka is trying to plan his own proposal and figuring out if he should make Zuko a betrothal necklace or maybe go with the Fire Nation tradition which...

he realizes he doesn’t actually know what that is

But he wants to find out and weigh his options or maybe he can combine the two traditions together somehow to make it really special

So he goes to talk to Iroh to 1. get his approval since he is essentially Zuko’s dad since Ozai is less than trash and 2. ask what the Fire Nation tradition is as far as marriage proposals go

So he takes a secret trip to Ba Sing Se and drops in just as Iroh’s closing up shop and they sit and drink tea

Iroh is THRILLED when Sokka tells him his plans to propose which takes a big weight off of Sokka’s shoulders already

...and then he asks what the Fire Nation tradition is

Iroh starts talking about it but Sokka doesn’t hear anything past ‘hand carved decorative knife’

bc ohFUCK

and Iroh like stops talking when he notices Sokka’s not listening anymore and is like ‘are you alright?’

And, shaking, Sokka pulls out the knife and holds it up and is like ‘would - is... does this look like a uh - a proposal knife, maybe?’

and Iroh looks at it and is like ‘Yes! That’s an excellent example. Where did you get that?’

And Sokka goes quiet and sheepishly is like ‘...Zuko gave it to me. Like. Three weeks ago.’

And Iroh’s just like deadpans ‘You are an excellent match for my nephew’

Sokka’s not sure if that’s supposed to be a compliment or not but, hey, the Uncle approves!

Now Sokka has to figure out how to un-fuck this situation, though

He travels back to the Fire Nation as quickly as possible and like sprints through the palace until he finds Zuko and like drops down in front of him, knife in hand and already rambling a million words per minute

About how he didn’t know Zuko was proposing marriage to him when he presented the knife

and essentially his whole journey realizing this including the parts where he was trying to figure out how to propose to Zuko

and ends it with ‘So YES, of course I want to marry you I just... didn’t know you were asking me to marry you when you gave me this bc i’m a dumbass’

Zuko is like shocked and has no idea what to do but also hella relieved bc omg he seriously thought Sokka was just trying to figure out how to turn him down this whole time and ahhh

and then Sokka is just like ‘so... so um... Is that offer still on the table? Are - Does this mean we’re engaged?’

and Zuko realizes he hasn’t said anything and breaks into a grin as he pulls Sokka into his arms to kiss him

only breaks the kiss to say something sappy or - actually, no, he’d be snarky af about it now that he knows it was a misunderstanding

prolly something like ‘No - I really want to see how you were planning on proposing, actually’ 

And like he’s teasing, of course, but Sokka still surprises him a week later with a betrothal necklace right before they make the official announcement of their engagement

(which there’s been a LOT of talk and rumors about with Sokka walking around with that damn knife not knowing what it was for lmao so no one’s really surprised in the slightest) 

Iroh’s speech at their wedding consists of him recounting the moment when Sokka realized that his now-husband had just proposed to him... three weeks later sitting in the Jasmine Dragon lmao

“Okay, let’s do the interview with the vampire thing” “Jesus, is that really necessary?” “What about sunlight?” “Not funny, but it’s okay” “No bursting up in flames?” “No.” “No sparkling?” “No!” “Okay, no sparkling boyfriend.” “Did you just say boyfriend?” “I also said sparkling. Like a fairy. Or a leprechaun in your case.”

This is just my 2¢ as a nonbinary person but I genuinely think that cis people's gender is just as constructed as trans people's. Cis people love to accuse us of having making up genders or artificially modifying our appearance but....the entire makeup, fashion, diet, workout, and haircare industry exists so that cis people can maintain the illusion of two entirely distinct genders with no overlap.

This whole scenario is so funny to me– Like imagine getting outted by yourself from the future. 🤣💥💪💘

BASED ON THIS AMAZING TWEET