#[ atlas : aesthetics. ]

[exactlyonespoon]

[avatarrdd]

Can we appreciate comics Mai😌

[belle-keys]

The Ultimate Dark Academia Book Recommendation Guide Ever

The title of this post is clickbait. I, unfortunately, have not read every book ever. Not all of these books are particularly “dark” either. However, these are my recommendations for your dark academia fix. The quality of each of these books varies. I have limited this list to books that are directly linked to the world of academia and/or which have a vaguely academic setting.

Dark Academia staples:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Dead Poets Society by Nancy H. Kleinbaum

Vita Nostra by Maryna Dyachenko

Dark academia litfic or contemporary:

Bunny by Mona Awad

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

White Ivy by Susie Yang

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates

Attribution by Linda Moore

Dark academia thrillers or horror:

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Dark academia fantasy/sci-fi:

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The Betrayals by Bridget Collins

Dark academia romance:

Gothikana by RuNyx

Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Dark academia YA or MG:

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Crave by Tracy Wolff

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Dark academia miscellaneous:

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip

[jryno]

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)

Katara vs. Master Pakku (1x07) - Zuko vs. Fire Lord Ozai (1x06)

[rvieskie]

girls just wanna have fun an academic year with a ridiculously small class that might be considered essentially a cult in a field that’s tragically pretentious and consists of only the best of the best - the elite in their particular field where everyone is hot, evil and gay, everyone fucks everyone but they all hate eachother and hurt eachother yet are bound together with this inexplicable need and entanglement up in eachother, someone prophecized to die, power and knowledge driving each of them to a state of madness, found family in a sense but the family is fucked up and the chemistry and connection between all of them is so bright that it might burn all of them alive and they’d be happy to burn because this was the precipice they were reaching for anyways, so much power and so much obsession and so much passion and mania with the academia and even more so eachother and they fuck eachother up and fix eachother all at once and ohmygod GIVE ME IT

[vxmpire-vxlle]

[bluespiritshonour]

reposting (again, duh) 'cause i'm just—not satisfied with this. will leave it alone now, i promise. Since Zuko was too hurt to even dress himself I bet Mai did his hair.

Edit: y'all my mother said I didn't fuck up the hands this time HAHAHAHA—

[yennthehen]

atl

[daughterofchaosstuff]

bold of you to assume Avatar isn't an important piece of literature you uncultured member of the species.

[lovegrowsart]

it's pretty wild to me that people don't see that aang running off to save katara in CoD is his luke in empire strikes back moment, where he runs headlong into his want and attachment and he's narratively punished for doing so and not learning his lesson - aang runs after katara despite guru pathik's warning, like luke runs after leia and han from yoda on dagobah despite yoda's warning; similarly, as a result, things go to hell in ba sing se like they do on bespin - aang enters the avatar state before he's ready and gets killed, and ba sing se falls to the fire nation, luke fights vader before he's ready, loses a hand, and symbolically commits suicide after vader tells him he's luke's father.

the difference between their character arcs is that george lucas and co. actually went thru with luke's hero's journey and understood the fundamental difference between attachment and love, whereas I don't think bryke understood this difference and then dropped this from aang's arc pretty much completely and replaced it with aang digging in his heels into his want and attachment and he gets rewarded with energy bending from a lion turtle, the avatar state from a random pointy rock, and his forever girl from the self-indulgent white men that couldn't bring themselves to give their hero a compelling character arc that meant he might not have gotten everything he wanted at the end.

[stingrayextraordinaire]

Aesthetic Moodboards // “Saturn” by Sleeping at Last

I'd give anything to hear you say it one more time: that the universe was made just to be seen by my eyes.

(requested by @seasidefantasies)

[thoughtkick]

You can be happy wrapped up in things that are bad for you. And things that are good for you can make you absolutely miserable.

Katy Atlas, Moving In Reverse

[avatarrdd]

As an only child I'm crying🫡

[hyunjin-amore]

Zuko x Top male reader

🔥 Zuko had always been drawn to the mysterious and brooding nature of the Fire Nation prince. His scar—an eternal reminder of his turbulent past—made him more alluring. Though he had always loved Zuko, the most educated M/N had never taken the chance to approach him out of dread of being turned down.

🔥 But something changed in Zuko's private chambers one evening. Their anger erupted like wildfire, and Zuko's normally composed exterior started to break. With a hunger in his eyes that matched M/N's own yearning, he gazed at them.

🔥 Zuko closed the gap between them and planted a scorching kiss on his lips without saying anything. As they lurched toward the bed, M/N melted into the touch, putting his arms around Zuko's neck. Their clothing was swiftly thrown aside in a flurry of desire as their bodies connected in a surge of heat and yearning.

🔥 Zuko's hands left trails of fire against the M/N's flesh, his touch demanding and intense. The M/N experienced chills with every touch, kindling a longing deep within him. In return, M/N caressed Zuko's slender, strong frame with his hands, enjoying the sensation of his warm flesh.

🔥 As they came to a rhythm, their bodies united in a dance of ecstasy and love; their movements were raw and urgent. M/N was driven insane with need by Zuko's groans, which filled the room. They had finally reached their peak ecstasy, calling one other's names and collapsing into a tangle of entwined limbs and tangled breaths.

🔥 With a rare tenderness in his voice, Zuko whispered quietly in the M/N's ear as they lay exhausted and satisfied in one other's arms. With anguish and longing in his eyes, he said, "I've wanted this for so long."

🔥 M/N planted a gentle kiss on Zuko's damaged cheek while grinning. "I've wanted you for just as long," he said, his heart brimming with love for the flamboyant royal.

🔥 They both understood at that very moment that they were just getting started in their intense love affair and that it would only get better with time. And as they lay wrapped in one another's arms, they rejoiced in the realization that they had at last found comfort and joy in one another's company.

[abiding-by-the-laws-of-color]

Week’s been a bit rough but thank goodness for me procrastinating on watching Atla for like 70 years this shit slaps. Anyways. Pretty straightforward post, I have brainworms and I made an AU :]

also made the other two elements w/ my takes on May and Brendan that I’ll yap about sooner or later…

-ghost

[experimentfae]

Books to read if you are a fan of ATLA