After School Ghost Theory 101 with Professor Fenton
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[Image ID: A four page comic that starts with Danny Fenton standing in front of a whiteboard holding up a white cat. “Question: Do ghosts purr?”
Tucker: “Danny when was the last time you slept?” Danny: “Irrelevant.”
Danny info-dumps:
“The answer is yes, but also no. Technically, all beings that possess a core are constantly “purring”, a.k.a. Core Vibrations. Core Vibrations are a nonverbal, emotion-based communication system between Ghosts, similar to how some living species use pheromones to communicate. The exact tone of each ghost is different the same way people’s voices are different.
Humans can only hear these vibrations when the frequency passes through
their audible range (20Hz - 20KHz), hence the ‘purring’ sound. When the
range dips into infrasound (16 - 20Hz) it can cause feelings of fear and
unease in humans that they often associate with ghosts and the
supernatural. Also known as the ‘Heebie Jeebies.’”
Danny, wiping off the whiteboard: “Any questions before we move on?“
Danny’s audience consists of
Wes Weston, Tucker Foley, Sam Manson, Danny’s clone Ellie, and Dash Baxter in a classroom. Wes is seated at a desk at the front taking notes. Tucker is sitting on Sam’s lap playing on a Switch, Ellie is sitting on a desk behind them. Dash is asleep at the back of the room.
Ellie, now holding the cat: “Is this Vlad’s first cat!?” Wes: “Could you tone down the floating eyes before the next part? They’re kinda distracting.” Danny: “What eyes?” Wes: “Please stop gaslighting me.”
A transparency trick on the last page reveals dark shadows and eyes all around Danny when viewed in dark mode.
/.End ID]
An Extended Image ID is available under the read more because it’s over 1k. Side by side light and dark mode versions of the transparency trick is also available under the cut.
Look in all seriousness you can’t redeem a character without showing them being pathetic, deep loser energy. There are no cool redemption arcs. They have to be in the trenches. They have to hate themselves for the mistakes they made. They have to apologize and take whatever is given be it forgiveness or a punch to the jaw. ONLY then will the redemption arc be actually good because it will be cathartic. And then they get to see the good things, they get to be touched gently and held while they sleep.
These things can overlap, even into a circle but without the pathetic loser boy saga your redemption arc will feel hollow.
my sister said to me that she doesn’t think Azula would’ve killed Aang if not to bring Zuko home, and that made me realize something very interesting.
Azula doesn’t have a reason to want to capture Aang.
Not anymore than the rest of the Fire Nation. She wasn’t ordered to, but she was ordered to bring Zuko (and Iroh) home. Which she does, by killing Aang and giving Zuko the credit.
And you know what’s interesting? During the main four interactions Azula has with Aang during the second season, she sends Mai and Ty Lee away. She leaves them to fight Katara and Sokka, she leaves them to chase the bison she knows doesn’t have the Avatar, she fights him solo on the Drill and she leaves them to guard a bear and an empty throne while she takes on the Avatar in the catacombs.
She separates herself from them to fight Aang four different times.
From anyone else, it could be a pride thing. But Azula has shown on multiple occasions that she does not value pride above all else. She is insanely strategic, and she’s fine with making it look like someone else is winning if it means she has the upperhand. She admits when she needs help, hence having Mai and Ty Lee in the first place and Zuko in Ba Sing Se. She even apologizes to Ty Lee that one time. Azula does not value pride over results.
She doesn’t celebrate prematurely, either— during the Drill episode, she’s practically the only one who isn’t celebrating the victory. Azula doesn’t celebrate a victory until it’s final. Whereas Iroh in his flashback, a prideful man, had been boasting about burning Ba Sing Se to the ground.
Pride. It’s the food of the wise man, but the liquor of the fool.
It’s as if Azula is trying to capture/eliminate Aang specifically just to give Zuko the credit. The lack of witnesses, the way she seems to pursue the mission as a personal one. She intends to bring Zuko back to the Fire Nation as Ozai requested, but she intends to bring him back her way and get him unbanished.
there’s a little detail that i didn’t notice about “the blue spirit” when i first watched it. when zuko returns to his ship after his misadventures at ponhuai, avatar-less and honorless and still puzzling over aang’s speech and having made an enemy of zhao and probably severely concussed, iroh is there on deck.
music night happened the previous night. and yet it’s morning when zuko returns, and iroh is still playing the tsungi horn on deck.
iroh waited up all night for zuko to come back.
it’s such a small detail, but speaks volumes about their relationship. iroh not only allows zuko to sneak out in order to free the avatar in order to preserve his chance at regaining his honor, iroh actually subtly encorages zuko to free aang from ponhuai, even though he clearly knows that there’s every possibilty that zuko will be caught by zhao and iroh will not be able to save him.
as the guardian of a teenager, iroh’s influence over zuko is limited. iroh must allow zuko the freedom to chase after the destiny he thinks he wants, iroh cannot always protect zuko or keep him out of danger, iroh cannot even demonstrate affection to zuko in the way he would clearly like to because zuko is too hurt and guarded to be able to accept it from him -
- but iroh can wait up for him.
iroh can sit up all night, just to make sure that zuko gets home safely.
and it is such a striking element of their relationship, because I waited up all night for you becomes the unspoken love language by which they communicate caring and affection for each other.
iroh waits all night for zuko to return safely from ponhuai stronghold. iroh stays up while zuko sleeps on the ferry and waits up for zuko to return home from his date with jin. iroh sits up all night watching over zuko when he is sick and feverish.
and it’s not one-sided, because zuko waits up for iroh.
zuko waits up all night watching over an injured iroh after azula blasts him with blue fire. zuko sits up all night waiting for iroh to wake up when they reunite at the white lotus camp.
and this gesture becomes so important to zuko that it even becomes the way he demonstrates caring and concern for the members of the gaang. zuko waits up all night in appa’s saddle, knowing that sokka is planning a rescue mission. zuko waits up all night for katara to wake, knowing she needs to confront her own deeply-felt anger before she can understand and let go of it.
and this even is the gesture by which aang first demonstrates friendship to zuko. after zuko is knocked out by an arrow to his blue spirit mask, aang sits up with zuko for the rest of the night until zuko wakes up, just to make sure zuko is all right.
and the concept of sitting up all night for you is such a poignant contrast to zuko’s memory of his mother, who vanished out his life in the middle of the night, waking him up for a last goodbye.
it’s pretty clear that iroh sitting up all night with a sick child was far from an unusual occasion. i think it was probably really important for zuko to be shown, again and again and again, that he has someone who will be there when morning comes.
one parent left zuko in the night - but one parent will always wait up for him to come home.
This flashback in ATLA, Azulon becoming enraged with Ozai for disrespecting Iroh and the recently deceased Lu Ten, is usually interpreted as Azulon then ordering Ozai to kill Zuko. I disagree with this for two reasons.
1: We don’t actually hear Azulon say that, it’s only referred to by Azula (who was around seven or eight at the time and might have misunderstood what she heard) and by Ozai, years later, when he is taunting Zuko on the Day of Black Sun. Neither Azula nor Ozai are reliable narrators.
2: Azulon is, at the time of this flashback, the ruler of the Fire Nation who has just lost one of his only two grandsons and heirs. What kind of monarch loses one heir and then turns around and demands the death of another, especially when losing Zuko would hardly bother Ozai?
My interpretation of this situation is Azulon ordered Ozai to give Zuko into Iroh’s care, replacing Lu Ten as Iroh’s heir, neatly removing any argument Ozai had about Iroh’s line having ended. Ozai of course would never accept this. He either lied to Ursa, claiming Azulon wished Zuko dead, or outright told his wife he’d kill Zuko before seeing him get ahead of him in the line of succession, thus manipulating Ursa to help him assassinate Azulon. I think this theory makes far more logical sense than ‘Azulon ordered the murder of his nine-year-old grandson’.
