boomerangguy

[boomerangguy]

Fire nation kids 🔥

[boomerangguy]

Also, the complete erasure of Azulon in this comic is sending me🤣 you're really saying that Sozin and Ozai made contributions to the academy, making sure that the children were being taught the "correct way" and Azulon was like "fuck them kids"? Lmao ok

[boomerangguy]

One is a hero for invoking their Powerful Grown-up and the other is evil, evil I tells ya and that's literally in the same comic

The double standard could not be more clear

[boomerangguy]

Completely agree that Aang, Zuko, Sokka, and Katara all have coherent arcs — didn’t mean to sound as if I was discounting them (except Zuko’s but that’s not to say he doesn’t have one at all). For the main protagonist trio, they all become better versions of themselves by the end of the show. Zuko, at bare minimum, seems to learn the importance of consulting his conscience (on occasion at least…lol).

Since ATLA has that emphasis on change being possible for anyone, I’m specifically disappointed in the way they’ve bucketed characters as Good Guys and Bad Guys (mostly post-canon, but also during the original series to some degree). They’ve done arcs where the heroes become more heroic (Aang, Katara, Sokka), which is great as its own thing, but a fully transformative arc where a clear-cut villain (like Mai) sheds their villainous traits and becomes a hero, we’ve yet to see. Now, they’ve even fumbled Azula’s childhood corruption arc, bucketing her as a Bad Guy way back to kindergarten. And of course the willy-nilly retconning is insult to injury.

Flameo Hottake

After browsing some insightful analyses (A, B, C) on Ashes of the Academy, I’m starting to wonder if the ATLA writers — from Bryke to Hicks — are incapable of executing a transformative character arc (i.e. turning a Good Guy into a Bad Guy or a Bad Guy into a Good Guy with minimal reliance on off-screen explanations).

Sure, Zuko got a “redemption” when he switched sides at the end of the series…but in terms of behavior/traits, he acts the same way in Book 3 as he does in Book 1 — just fighting as a Good Guy. He’s still short-tempered, rude, and resorts to violence as a matter of impulse. If you watch Sozin’s Comet and then restart the series with The Boy in the Iceberg, you won’t say, “Wow! Zuko sure came a long way! He’s completely unrecognizable!” Because other than the ponytail, he’s very much recognizable. Same guy, really.

Anyway, back to Ashes of the Academy. Ursa’s dialogue at the start of the comic frames the (ostensible) conflict: the Academy changed Azula for the worse, and it could very well do the same to Kiyi. Except…we aren’t shown any of that. There is no flashback corruption arc for young Azula, and Kiyi doesn’t start to slide in that direction either. Apparently, Azula is a Bad Guy — always has been. And Kiyi is a Good Guy — always will be. It’s like they’ve been…flattened.

That’s a problem which other franchises might be able to tolerate better, but given Avatar’s thematic emphasis on the ability of anyone to change, the writers seem awfully determined to cram every major character into either a Good Guy Bucket or a Bad Guy Bucket then ignore established canon and previous characterization to justify why they always belonged in that bucket.

The handling of Mai’s past, especially her friendship with Azula, may be the best example of this. In ATLA Book 2, Mai is an antagonistic villain. She’s not nice. She does not have noble motives. She is clearly a Bad Guy, albeit a cool one. So writing her in AotA as if she was truly a Good Guy all along, just pretending to be friends with Azula to please her father — an explanation which makes no sense in broader narrative context or given that Azula is an insightful ‘people person’ who would’ve sniffed that out sooner or later — is utterly incoherent. (Oh, and Mai was never into the Fire Nation imperialism thing either, making her about one in a million lmao.) She belongs in the Good Guy Bucket now…so she was always a Good Guy? She never aligned herself with the Bad Guys because she, too, was once a Bad Guy? That seems to be how they’re operating.

The same is true for Azula, just inversed. How did the Academy make her worse? ‘Worse’ implies that she was better before she attended, so are we shown that moral regression anywhere in the comic? Or was she always an irrationally cruel psychopath, a la The Bad Seed? At this point, we’ve seen too much of her humanity and vulnerability for them to sell us on that — even as recently as the Spirit Temple comic — but AotA pushes her in The Bad Seed direction again, contradicting itself (Ursa’s dialogue) and, more egregiously, Azula’s characterization in the original series. I’m starting to hear Oprah’s voice in my head: “You get a retcon! And you get a retcon! And you get a retcon!”

Who’s next? Well…I think we can guess…

As the ATLA story creeps and bounds (first in the comics, soon with the Adult Gaang Movie) towards the LOK timeline, they’re going to have to confront a bigger problem: How did Zuko, the teenage usurper of his father/sister’s widely popular regime, manage to completely reorient the ideologically imperialistic Fire Nation? That’s kind of a big deal. It’s the major overall conflict throughout many of the comics, and he’s (understandably) not seeming to make much progress. But just from a writing perspective, if they can’t show a couple of small children being twisted by a bad school system, how could they possibly pull off the moral redemption of an entire nation?

All this to say…

…prepare yourself for the whole Fire Nation to get retconned into the Good Guy Bucket. They were always good people! They didn’t want imperialism! They weren’t warlike! It was all Ozai and Sozin! Azulon? Who’s Azulon?

Seriously, though, it’s coming — unless they manage to get some competent writers who know how to effectively move a character from A to B.

[boomerangguy]

That’s a great point — there really is a predestination element going on here. The word ‘deterministic’ popped into my head while writing that post, and now I get why.

Iroh…his characterization is so shifty throughout the series that I’m not sure which is the real Iroh. They try to play the “started as a bad guy and eventually changed but was never really that bad” game with him and Zuko, and it only halfway works with Zuko because he’s a troubled 16 y/o with a horrible upbringing. But the Iroh who helps Zhao besiege the North Pole isn’t consistent with the Iroh who gives Zuko that big “What is it that you want?” speech under Lake Laogai.

Ursa had an Empire-class battleship’s worth of potential to confront her own assumptions/flaws while in exile, but instead she just got a new identity, literally and figuratively…so maybe she’s not the only one who’s been visiting the Mother of Faces post-canon.

Flameo Hottake

After browsing some insightful analyses (A, B, C) on Ashes of the Academy, I’m starting to wonder if the ATLA writers — from Bryke to Hicks — are incapable of executing a transformative character arc (i.e. turning a Good Guy into a Bad Guy or a Bad Guy into a Good Guy with minimal reliance on off-screen explanations).

Sure, Zuko got a “redemption” when he switched sides at the end of the series…but in terms of behavior/traits, he acts the same way in Book 3 as he does in Book 1 — just fighting as a Good Guy. He’s still short-tempered, rude, and resorts to violence as a matter of impulse. If you watch Sozin’s Comet and then restart the series with The Boy in the Iceberg, you won’t say, “Wow! Zuko sure came a long way! He’s completely unrecognizable!” Because other than the ponytail, he’s very much recognizable. Same guy, really.

Anyway, back to Ashes of the Academy. Ursa’s dialogue at the start of the comic frames the (ostensible) conflict: the Academy changed Azula for the worse, and it could very well do the same to Kiyi. Except…we aren’t shown any of that. There is no flashback corruption arc for young Azula, and Kiyi doesn’t start to slide in that direction either. Apparently, Azula is a Bad Guy — always has been. And Kiyi is a Good Guy — always will be. It’s like they’ve been…flattened.

That’s a problem which other franchises might be able to tolerate better, but given Avatar’s thematic emphasis on the ability of anyone to change, the writers seem awfully determined to cram every major character into either a Good Guy Bucket or a Bad Guy Bucket then ignore established canon and previous characterization to justify why they always belonged in that bucket.

The handling of Mai’s past, especially her friendship with Azula, may be the best example of this. In ATLA Book 2, Mai is an antagonistic villain. She’s not nice. She does not have noble motives. She is clearly a Bad Guy, albeit a cool one. So writing her in AotA as if she was truly a Good Guy all along, just pretending to be friends with Azula to please her father — an explanation which makes no sense in broader narrative context or given that Azula is an insightful ‘people person’ who would’ve sniffed that out sooner or later — is utterly incoherent. (Oh, and Mai was never into the Fire Nation imperialism thing either, making her about one in a million lmao.) She belongs in the Good Guy Bucket now…so she was always a Good Guy? She never aligned herself with the Bad Guys because she, too, was once a Bad Guy? That seems to be how they’re operating.

The same is true for Azula, just inversed. How did the Academy make her worse? ‘Worse’ implies that she was better before she attended, so are we shown that moral regression anywhere in the comic? Or was she always an irrationally cruel psychopath, a la The Bad Seed? At this point, we’ve seen too much of her humanity and vulnerability for them to sell us on that — even as recently as the Spirit Temple comic — but AotA pushes her in The Bad Seed direction again, contradicting itself (Ursa’s dialogue) and, more egregiously, Azula’s characterization in the original series. I’m starting to hear Oprah’s voice in my head: “You get a retcon! And you get a retcon! And you get a retcon!”

Who’s next? Well…I think we can guess…

As the ATLA story creeps and bounds (first in the comics, soon with the Adult Gaang Movie) towards the LOK timeline, they’re going to have to confront a bigger problem: How did Zuko, the teenage usurper of his father/sister’s widely popular regime, manage to completely reorient the ideologically imperialistic Fire Nation? That’s kind of a big deal. It’s the major overall conflict throughout many of the comics, and he’s (understandably) not seeming to make much progress. But just from a writing perspective, if they can’t show a couple of small children being twisted by a bad school system, how could they possibly pull off the moral redemption of an entire nation?

All this to say…

…prepare yourself for the whole Fire Nation to get retconned into the Good Guy Bucket. They were always good people! They didn’t want imperialism! They weren’t warlike! It was all Ozai and Sozin! Azulon? Who’s Azulon?

Seriously, though, it’s coming — unless they manage to get some competent writers who know how to effectively move a character from A to B.

[boomerangguy]

Nuance! That actually sums up this whole post in a single word lol — they really have disposed with all nuance post-canon. Tragic, honestly.

Everyone gets a retcon!

Everyone gets a Good Guy/Bad Guy Bucket!

I swear if they make Sokka a vegetarian in the Adult Gaang Movie…

Flameo Hottake

After browsing some insightful analyses (A, B, C) on Ashes of the Academy, I’m starting to wonder if the ATLA writers — from Bryke to Hicks — are incapable of executing a transformative character arc (i.e. turning a Good Guy into a Bad Guy or a Bad Guy into a Good Guy with minimal reliance on off-screen explanations).

Sure, Zuko got a “redemption” when he switched sides at the end of the series…but in terms of behavior/traits, he acts the same way in Book 3 as he does in Book 1 — just fighting as a Good Guy. He’s still short-tempered, rude, and resorts to violence as a matter of impulse. If you watch Sozin’s Comet and then restart the series with The Boy in the Iceberg, you won’t say, “Wow! Zuko sure came a long way! He’s completely unrecognizable!” Because other than the ponytail, he’s very much recognizable. Same guy, really.

Anyway, back to Ashes of the Academy. Ursa’s dialogue at the start of the comic frames the (ostensible) conflict: the Academy changed Azula for the worse, and it could very well do the same to Kiyi. Except…we aren’t shown any of that. There is no flashback corruption arc for young Azula, and Kiyi doesn’t start to slide in that direction either. Apparently, Azula is a Bad Guy — always has been. And Kiyi is a Good Guy — always will be. It’s like they’ve been…flattened.

That’s a problem which other franchises might be able to tolerate better, but given Avatar’s thematic emphasis on the ability of anyone to change, the writers seem awfully determined to cram every major character into either a Good Guy Bucket or a Bad Guy Bucket then ignore established canon and previous characterization to justify why they always belonged in that bucket.

The handling of Mai’s past, especially her friendship with Azula, may be the best example of this. In ATLA Book 2, Mai is an antagonistic villain. She’s not nice. She does not have noble motives. She is clearly a Bad Guy, albeit a cool one. So writing her in AotA as if she was truly a Good Guy all along, just pretending to be friends with Azula to please her father — an explanation which makes no sense in broader narrative context or given that Azula is an insightful ‘people person’ who would’ve sniffed that out sooner or later — is utterly incoherent. (Oh, and Mai was never into the Fire Nation imperialism thing either, making her about one in a million lmao.) She belongs in the Good Guy Bucket now…so she was always a Good Guy? She never aligned herself with the Bad Guys because she, too, was once a Bad Guy? That seems to be how they’re operating.

The same is true for Azula, just inversed. How did the Academy make her worse? ‘Worse’ implies that she was better before she attended, so are we shown that moral regression anywhere in the comic? Or was she always an irrationally cruel psychopath, a la The Bad Seed? At this point, we’ve seen too much of her humanity and vulnerability for them to sell us on that — even as recently as the Spirit Temple comic — but AotA pushes her in The Bad Seed direction again, contradicting itself (Ursa’s dialogue) and, more egregiously, Azula’s characterization in the original series. I’m starting to hear Oprah’s voice in my head: “You get a retcon! And you get a retcon! And you get a retcon!”

Who’s next? Well…I think we can guess…

As the ATLA story creeps and bounds (first in the comics, soon with the Adult Gaang Movie) towards the LOK timeline, they’re going to have to confront a bigger problem: How did Zuko, the teenage usurper of his father/sister’s widely popular regime, manage to completely reorient the ideologically imperialistic Fire Nation? That’s kind of a big deal. It’s the major overall conflict throughout many of the comics, and he’s (understandably) not seeming to make much progress. But just from a writing perspective, if they can’t show a couple of small children being twisted by a bad school system, how could they possibly pull off the moral redemption of an entire nation?

All this to say…

…prepare yourself for the whole Fire Nation to get retconned into the Good Guy Bucket. They were always good people! They didn’t want imperialism! They weren’t warlike! It was all Ozai and Sozin! Azulon? Who’s Azulon?

Seriously, though, it’s coming — unless they manage to get some competent writers who know how to effectively move a character from A to B.

[boomerangguy]

Flameo Hottake

After browsing some insightful analyses (A, B, C) on Ashes of the Academy, I’m starting to wonder if the ATLA writers — from Bryke to Hicks — are incapable of executing a transformative character arc (i.e. turning a Good Guy into a Bad Guy or a Bad Guy into a Good Guy with minimal reliance on off-screen explanations).

Sure, Zuko got a “redemption” when he switched sides at the end of the series…but in terms of behavior/traits, he acts the same way in Book 3 as he does in Book 1 — just fighting as a Good Guy. He’s still short-tempered, rude, and resorts to violence as a matter of impulse. If you watch Sozin’s Comet and then restart the series with The Boy in the Iceberg, you won’t say, “Wow! Zuko sure came a long way! He’s completely unrecognizable!” Because other than the ponytail, he’s very much recognizable. Same guy, really.

Anyway, back to Ashes of the Academy. Ursa’s dialogue at the start of the comic frames the (ostensible) conflict: the Academy changed Azula for the worse, and it could very well do the same to Kiyi. Except…we aren’t shown any of that. There is no flashback corruption arc for young Azula, and Kiyi doesn’t start to slide in that direction either. Apparently, Azula is a Bad Guy — always has been. And Kiyi is a Good Guy — always will be. It’s like they’ve been…flattened.

That’s a problem which other franchises might be able to tolerate better, but given Avatar’s thematic emphasis on the ability of anyone to change, the writers seem awfully determined to cram every major character into either a Good Guy Bucket or a Bad Guy Bucket then ignore established canon and previous characterization to justify why they always belonged in that bucket.

The handling of Mai’s past, especially her friendship with Azula, may be the best example of this. In ATLA Book 2, Mai is an antagonistic villain. She’s not nice. She does not have noble motives. She is clearly a Bad Guy, albeit a cool one. So writing her in AotA as if she was truly a Good Guy all along, just pretending to be friends with Azula to please her father — an explanation which makes no sense in broader narrative context or given that Azula is an insightful ‘people person’ who would’ve sniffed that out sooner or later — is utterly incoherent. (Oh, and Mai was never into the Fire Nation imperialism thing either, making her about one in a million lmao.) She belongs in the Good Guy Bucket now…so she was always a Good Guy? She never aligned herself with the Bad Guys because she, too, was once a Bad Guy? That seems to be how they’re operating.

The same is true for Azula, just inversed. How did the Academy make her worse? ‘Worse’ implies that she was better before she attended, so are we shown that moral regression anywhere in the comic? Or was she always an irrationally cruel psychopath, a la The Bad Seed? At this point, we’ve seen too much of her humanity and vulnerability for them to sell us on that — even as recently as the Spirit Temple comic — but AotA pushes her in The Bad Seed direction again, contradicting itself (Ursa’s dialogue) and, more egregiously, Azula’s characterization in the original series. I’m starting to hear Oprah’s voice in my head: “You get a retcon! And you get a retcon! And you get a retcon!”

Who’s next? Well…I think we can guess…

As the ATLA story creeps and bounds (first in the comics, soon with the Adult Gaang Movie) towards the LOK timeline, they’re going to have to confront a bigger problem: How did Zuko, the teenage usurper of his father/sister’s widely popular regime, manage to completely reorient the ideologically imperialistic Fire Nation? That’s kind of a big deal. It’s the major overall conflict throughout many of the comics, and he’s (understandably) not seeming to make much progress. But just from a writing perspective, if they can’t show a couple of small children being twisted by a bad school system, how could they possibly pull off the moral redemption of an entire nation?

All this to say…

…prepare yourself for the whole Fire Nation to get retconned into the Good Guy Bucket. They were always good people! They didn’t want imperialism! They weren’t warlike! It was all Ozai and Sozin! Azulon? Who’s Azulon?

Seriously, though, it’s coming — unless they manage to get some competent writers who know how to effectively move a character from A to B.

[boomerangguy]

Avatar- The great wave off the Northern Water Tribe Commission, Parody of Hokusai's great wave off Kanagawa

[boomerangguy]

I think he loves his dad guys

Sketch from last year, just finished it since my obsession cycle came to a full circle and I'm back to ATLA

[boomerangguy]

Great post — and I just have one small addendum to offer:

Even Combustion Man suffers a deserved, karmic fate!

As a bounty hunter hired to kill the Avatar, the only reason he’s after the Gaang in the first place is because Zuko recruited him…but during their final confrontation at the Western Air Temple, Zuko threatens not to pay him if he doesn’t back off. When that doesn’t work, Zuko offers to pay double. Combustion Man just turns on him.

If Combustion Man set aside his personal vendetta and accepted Zuko’s offer, he would’ve walked away with a fat stack of cash. Instead, he abandoned the job to settle his score for free and was willing to annihilate his employer to do so. Ironically, being an unscrupulous bounty hunter doomed him to a grisly death at the hands of Sokka and Boomerang — only made possible because he tried to combustion-bend at them one last time.

All that to say…if the narrative can give a one-dimensional-killing-machine-plot-device ample opportunities at redemption — even a thrifty, cynical redemption — why not the fourteen year-old girl? 🤨

(On a tangent, enjoy this screenshot of Sokka snatching Boomerang out of the air. 😁)

What makes a villain's fate "deserved" in the context of ATLA

Aang: [Cut to Katara, Toph and Sokka from the behind, as Aang speaks.] Roku was just as much Fire Nation as Sozin was, right? If anything, their story proves anyone's capable of great good and great evil. [Cut to an aerial shot of the hardened lava wave.] Everyone, even the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation have to be treated like they're worth giving a chance. [Shot cuts to a close-up of Aang's face.] And I also think it was about friendships.

There's little more common in fiction than villains suffering deserved, karmic fates. However, ATLA is a show which heavily focusses on the themes of redemption, which argues that everyone deserves being given a chance to do better. In this context, a villain's fate can only be truly karmic if they were given a chance to do better and rejected it. We can see this play out in the series.

Zhao

Zhao wants to kill the moon to become a legend. The heroes and Iroh explain to Zhao why this is a very bad idea, and nearly convince him, but ultimately he kills Tui anyways. Thus, when the Ocean Spirit kills him in retaliation, it feels appropriate and karmic.

Zhao is even given a second chance, if he's willing to put outside his hatred of Zuko, but he refuses to. That makes his fate even more appropiate

Long Feng

Long Feng fits this idea less well, but it's still there. When he explains that he's really in charge of the Earth Kingdom, the Gaang tries to tell him about the eclipse, but he refuses to listen, leading to their continued efforts to contact the Earth King personally. If he had just put aside him "no war in Ba Sing Se" rule for five seconds and promised to help them, he never would have faced his downfall. And, of course, he responds to losing power by allying with Azula, a sworn enemy of his nation, before trying to backstab her. His end is appropriate but perhaps not fully karmic.

Zuko

Zuko is someone who manages to avoid a bad fate in canon. However, given how many chances at redemption he gets that he rejects, how many chances the heroes give him, if he had rejected redemption yet again and suffered a very sad, tragic fate because of it, it would have felt very appropriate and karmic within the confines of the story.

Combustion Man

He's basically not a character, so this concept doesn't apply to him.

Ozai

Even though Ozai is the big bad of the series, the concept still applies to him. It's important that Aang gives him a chance, and it's important that Ozai rejects that chance. After that, Ozai's fate feels fully appropriate.

Azula

Azula faces one of the saddest fates in canon, but it doesn't really work within the themes of ATLA. Azula is a bad person who does some really bad things, but she's mostly just doing what she's supposed to. She's serving her father, her Firelord, her family, and her nation and following the path a young Fire Nation royal is supposed to. She lacks the sheer egomania of Zhao or the selfish corruption of Long Feng.

But she is never given a chance, never given a choice, either by the narrative or by the heroes. She is never shown kindness by the heroes. She never has her life saved by them. No one ever tries to reason with her or tell her she can pick a different path. No one ever tells her they don't want to fight her or that they wish they could be friends with her. She, through her actions, tells her brother she doesn't want to fight him, but he never really reciprocates.

In the end, she tells one of the heroes, her own brother, that she wishes things could be different, and he tells her to get fucked, instead of offering his hand the way he did for Zhao.

This is why Azula's fate can't be karmic, in the context of ATLA. She was never given a chance to chose otherwise.

[boomerangguy]

I hate rendering so much but everything for Sukka🥰

[boomerangguy]

Monkeyfeathers…your art style is just so simple and clean and beautiful that I keep scrolling up and down your blog to keep looking at it. Can’t get enough.

*If* you are still taking requests and *if* you have the time and *if* you are so inclined…might I suggest some Hakoda/Ursa cuddles? (The parents don’t get enough love and those two would be so sweet together. 🥺)

No pressure at all of course! Either way, thanks for making beautiful art!

big sad gold eyes hypnosis

theyre not exactly my cup of tea but i remember reading a fic with this pairing and it was adorable. i have a soft spot for them

thank you so much!! :D

[boomerangguy]

Felt like some Suki/Sokka art was well overdue here. Enjoy! 🩶🩵

[boomerangguy]

hakoda and kya doodle for strawpage that i never posted here

[boomerangguy]

Sokka: Hey can you whistle?

Suki: Of course I can! You've seen me do it.

Sokka: Hmm. I don't know. I might need you to prove it

Suki, suspicious: ...Okay

[Suki puckers her lips to whistle and Sokka swoops in and kisses her]

Suki: Wha-Oh, oh!

Suki, laughing: You dork! You can just ask me!

[boomerangguy]

last minute valentine thing!! With Sokka and Suki

I tried replicating the style the best I could :V

(Suki brought him a gift too, some weapon for him she’s hiding)

Sukka is so adorable, but I find the ship name hilarious because it sounds like a swear in Russian 😭 I hope I got the hanzi on the scroll right?

[boomerangguy]

Sokka Suki Prom vibes 💙💚

Love the live action of these two 😘👌✨️

Wanted to draw them like their cartoon selves, but I got lost in the details. My semi-realism artist past is trying to take over! 😵🫣