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So while rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender recently, I noticed a trend

A number of spirits we see have an animal form, specifically animals we recognize as "normal" for us. For example:

- Wan Shi Tong is an owl and his knowledge seekers are foxes

- Tui and La are koi fish

- Hei Bai is a panda

-The guardian of the mother of faces is a wolf (The Search)

Heck there's even the talking Baboon spirit and the monkey missing its face that we see in the Spirit World at the end of Season 1.

Basically every time we've seen a "normal" animal, they've been a spirit.

My point? I argue that Bosco is a spirit bear that's chilling and living the good life in the mortal world just because he can.

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my favorite piece of avatar lore i’ve ever learned is that piandao apparently also deserted the Fire Nation military, but instead of going on the run he just. went back the Fire Nation. built a fucking mansion about it. and then when the army sent 100 guys to arrest him, he kicked the shit out of them so hard they just fucked off forever.

jeong jeong is out there in a hut in the woods living his most bitter life meanwhile piandao is sitting in his palatial estate sipping tea, fully daring the fire lord to fuck around and find out. bad bitch behavior

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best thing about uncle iroh is that if you pay attention he is actually just as much of an idiot as zuko but has just mastered the art of coming across as a wise old man. the even better thing is that zuko is the only one on the planet who somewhat realizes this and no one would ever believe him because he's zuko

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Avatar: The Last Airbender 1.05 | The King of Omashu

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One piece of Avatar lore I don't quite believe is that most avatars don't learn they're the avatar until they're told on their 16th birthday.

like, POV you're some Earth Kingdom kid who knows the previous Water Tribe avatar died suspiciously close to the time you were born. You CANNOT tell me that that entire class-year of starry bright-eyed children doesn't spend every waking moment trying to prove they're the avatar. "Shut up Hang Lee you're not the avatar I'M the avatar. That stream just moved toward me." "Nuh-uh a fish did that and Avatar Tepek died on the summer solstice and YOU'RE a winter baby." "All the seasons are opposite in the water tribe Hang Lee!" "Nuh-uh"

You're 8 years old with all your other 8-year-old friends at your first day of How To Throw A Rock Class you CANNOT tell me that every kid present doesn't waste half the class trying to catch grass on fire with all the sincerity and conviction of a gas station hopeful snagging a mega-millions lotto ticket with their Mars bar and $30 gas fill-up.

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@paragonrobits @veryever alright, here we go. Technically-not-swears to give your writing a punch that "oh spirits" does not.

@terulakimban, @mikaslilworld, and @589ish were asking for this too so I'll mention them so that they're sure to see it.

Adjectives:

Misbegotten. Implying that someone is of questionable parentage is generally seen as in poor taste at best or incredibly insulting, vulgar "fighting words" at worst.

Cursed. Implying something or someone has done something deserving of a curse and have all the bad luck and unpleasantness that comes with it. Probably the most mild example here.

Damned. Considered more severe and material than "cursed" and often refers to a spiritual sentence or a fated misfortune. Whether or not this is an actual swear can depend on the person and the circumstance.

Poxy. This one is a little spicy because while on the surface it's just referring to illnesses like smallpox, cow pox, or chicken pox, historically, it referred to what English speakers euphemistically referred to as "the French pox" aka syphilis.

Nouns:

Animals. Referring to someone as an animal, especially one associated with unsavory personality traits (snakes and rats come to mind as a prime example), is often considered insulting and even dehumanizing. Note that asses and jackasses are actual animals and how off-limits those words are entirely depends on context

Witch. Often used in place of "bitch" becsuse it rhymes and can be used just as insultingly.

Scum. Refers to just about any icky substance that won't go away

Son of a ____. Insulting one's parentage is again in poor taste or straight up fighting words. The blank can be filled by anything: animals, unpleasant or unwanted things, people of any profession considered disgusting or demeaning. Have fun with it.

Inupiat words:

Honestly, if a fantasy version of Inupiat live in this world (and given two characters from this fantasy culture are named after Inupiat villages in Alaska, specifically, I'm going to specify Inupiat and will appreciate it if folks don't generalize it as Inuit) it only makes sense for Inupiat words to be used in other parts of the world. Influence and cultural exchange doesn't have to be a one way street where the "more advanced" only affect the "less advanced" and indigenous languages have always left traces behind.

Inupiat culture, and therefore language, is very matter of fact. Euphemisms aren't really used because no topic is really considered "too dirty" to talk about with any particular group. Insults are a way of showing love and familiarity. Offense is mainly conveyed through tone and context.

The phrase "anak niģiiñ" (anak meaning "poop," niģi meaning "eat," and -iñ being a suffix which in this case makes a verb a command aimed at one person) has been suggested as an Inupiat translation for the English phrase "eat shit." The words themselves are not bad words as you may think of them; the insult comes instead from how they're used to express anger at and disdain toward the person. Lots of words can be used this way, including any of the words for hell or for things I've alluded to on this post already.

If you're worried about this coming off as appropriative or insensitive, you may be lacking some cultural context for this to feel at home. Feel free to read through my "eskimo on main" tag for inspo on that. I'm willing to answer any other questions you may have as well, though be warned, I'm not exactly the quickest at responding.

Getting Creative - Basic Mode - Curses and Oaths:

We call bad words curses because at one point, they were exactly that. You were cursing someone and that was the greatest offense of it. Common curses include wishing death, illness, or injury on someone, sometimes milder but still unpleasant or uncomfortable experiences to befall them, and more rarely things like natural disasters. In a fantasy universe with fantastical abilities and animals, there are plenty of opportunities to customize this format into something exclusive to the Avatar verse.

An oath, in this sense, is a literal swear. English speakers may be familiar with "I swear on my mother's grave" or the more serious "for the love of god" being said when one is confronted. Here the offense comes from something sacred being invoked so flippantly. I think this is what people are trying to go for with "oh spirits" but it falls short for a few reasons. It doesn't invoke any one thing specifically. Anything can be a spirit and a spirit can take the form of anything. Are you invoking spirits of gentle breezes or torrential downpours? Of tadpoles or lions? Saying something like "by Koh's stolen faces!" or "lightning strike me down!" will make more of an impact than "Oh spirits" ever will.

Getting Creative - Advanced Mode - In-Universe Reference as Self-Censoring:

This one can be a little difficult to figure out, but it's probably my favorite one. Basically, you come up with, say, a historical incident or a bit of media that the people in-universe would know about because of its vulgarity. You don't have to explain it, because the whole point is that the audience doesn't know, just the characters. And you have the character's reference it to suggest vulgarity without having to spell any of it out. Allow me to provide an example:

"And then, well, let's just say I recited the last verse of The Earth Kingdom's Ode to the Firelord, almost word for word."

"The Kyoshi version?"

"The Omashu version!"

"And you got away with it?!?!"

Like most of them, this relies on the other character's reaction to sell it. It's loads of fun once you get it figured out because it feels like you got away with a lot when it's functionally just gibberish.

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One of the little details I love about The Storm is how Lieutenant Jee angrily refers to Zuko as, well, “Zuko”.

Then, after Iroh tells them all what Ozai did, Lieutenant Jee uses the respectful title, “Prince Zuko”:

And then, of course, this scene:

And then this parallel:

Before learning what Ozai did:

After learning what Ozai did (+ after Zuko helped rescue the crew):

I’m just a really big fan of their development.

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I simply think we deserve more scenes of naga acting stupid as hell, because she may be the avatar’s loyal animal guide but she’s also a giant puppy. Some options:

naga chasing after a squirrel with korra and asami, out on a date, hanging on desperately to her saddle

naga eating random garbage off the street while very stressed dog-sitter mako looks on

naga peeing on the air temple island bushes and horrifying tenzin

naga getting belly rubs from the airbender kids

naga falling asleep and doing that thing where dogs kick in their sleep, accidentally knocking out unsuspecting white lotus dudes

naga chewing on lin’s metal lines and absolutely demolishing them

naga naga naga

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tired: Sokka is a bad artist, the paintings he does in canon are goofy, look at the untalented man

WIRED: Sokka comes from a culture where stories are preserved orally, and art forms are face paint, beadwork, making clothing, carving, etc. The times he is shown painting in atla are probably the first handful of times he's even used ink on paper, and so his art is not BAD because he is a BEGINNING ARTIST stop SAYING Sokka is a bad artist. And don't bring up his carving for Yue that's just not baby's forte, did u see his war paint in the first damn episode? U wanna say the guy who did that is not an artist?? was the first thing u ever drew a masterpiece?????? Cowards

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ty lee: so what are all your skills?

katara: i’m a master waterbender and skilled healer

toph: i’m the world’s greatest earthbender and inventor of metalbending

zuko: i’m a master firebender who learned from literal dragons and a sword fighting prodigy

suki: i make good life choices

ty lee: that’s not really-

aang: no trust us. she’s our most important member

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ok but if bruce wayne somehow came upon zuko fresh out of banishment he would lose his mind.

black hair? check. bad parent(s)? check. trauma? double check.

bruce: how’d you get your scar?

zuko: my dad got mad at me for saying that killing people is wrong so he lit my face on fire and banished me.

bruce, vibrating with excitement, already pulling adoption papers from his utilility: that’s terrible. how do you feel about capes.

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What never fails to amaze me is that the avatar has literally lived a thousand life times and still tries to make things better for humans in every single one of them. Despite everything they have seen and encountered, they still believe that there is kindness worth protecting, love worth giving and a good worth fighting for. And if that is not incredibly powerful, I do not know what is 

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do you think earthbenders often see water and fire benders obsessing over night/day/eclipses/temperature/cycles of the moon and air benders talking endlessly about spirits and lightness and go bitch,, just fucking,,,, bend,, stop with this nonsense,,,

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like yeah she has muscles and her bending is cool but can we please talk about korra

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ok but if bruce wayne somehow came upon zuko fresh out of banishment he would lose his mind.

black hair? check. bad parent(s)? check. trauma? double check.

bruce: how’d you get your scar?

zuko: my dad got mad at me for saying that killing people is wrong so he lit my face on fire and banished me.

bruce, vibrating with excitement, already pulling adoption papers from his utilility: that’s terrible. how do you feel about capes.

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You know what we need to talk about? The potentially different styles of music across the nations. Does the music of the fire nation (once no longer under the restrictions of a fascist regime) have a tendency to sound dramatic and build into powerful crescendos ? Do musically pieces in the earthkingdom usually rely on strong basses and are they potentially more traditional? Are many songs from the watertribes telling stories and have a great chorus? Did the airnomads have the most diverse and experimental music ? In this essay I will….

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Hakoda and Bato really went all around the world to find a bunch of random people Sokka recommended for the invasion and just kind of hoped they’d be up for it.