#Fire Nation fleet
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maaruin · 9 months ago
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Atla worldbuilding thought: In Atla steam engines and ships with metal hull exist. Guns, on the other hand, do not exist.
There was a short time window in our history in which guns were ineffective against Ironclads. In one battle they tried the solution of ramming and it worked surprisingly well. But it didn't become common practice because gun technology caught up.
But in the world of Atla, without guns, naval battles would be ramming focussed.
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skipppppy · 7 months ago
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I love how despite not being a bender, Sokka is the biggest embodiment of everything the Water Tribe values in the show, both good and bad.
Change. Sokka who humbled himself when the Kyoshi warriors proved him wrong and took their teachings to heart. Sokka who always had a plan, a few hundred backup plans, and could still get out of a sticky situation on the fly. Sokka whose friends became bored and aimless without his quick wit and initiative.
Kindness. Sokka who went to save Aang before Katara even had to ask him to. Sokka who saw the humanity in an old man from the fire nation. Sokka who gave Jet a second chance despite being the first one to be suspicious of him. Sokka who showed Zuko to his room and held no resentment against him. Sokka who shielded Toph from falling debris with his body.
Ingenuity. Sokka who invented airships and submarines. Sokka who took down the drill. Sokka who broke into a Fire Nation prison rig and out of the highest security prison in the country. Sokka who levelled Ozai’s entire sky fleet in one tactical manoeuvre.
Love. Sokka who couldn’t remember his mother’s face but carries the grief of her death so deeply that he protects every woman he meets with the same unhealthy hypervigilance. Sokka who instinctually jumps to defend his sister despite their constant bickering.
Community. Sokka who gave up his childhood to become the sole protector of his village and dedicated his time to training the younger boys in combat. Sokka who learned to let go of his hypervigilance and put his trust in the people he’a afraid of losing so they can protect him like he protects them. Sokka who stood alone guarding the gates of his home as Zuko’s ship towered over them.
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papasmoke · 6 months ago
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This evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.
This took place while UNRWA and other UN Agencies’ staff were on the compound.
While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage to the outdoor areas. The UNRWA headquarters has on its grounds a petrol and diesel station for the Agency’s fleet of cars.
Our director with the help of other staff had to put out the fire themselves as it took the Israeli fire extinguishers and police a while before they turned up.
A crowd accompanied by armed men were witnessed outside the compound chanting “Burn down the United Nations” (see video below 👇 from Israeli media).
This is an outrageous development. Once again, the lives of UN staff were at a serious risk.
In light of this second appalling incident in less than a week, I have taken the decision to close down our coumpound until proper security is restored.
Over the past two months, Israeli extremists have been staging protests outside the UNRWA compound in Jerusalem, called by an elected member of the Jerusalem municipality.
This week, the protest became violent when demonstrators threw stones at UN staff and at the buildings of the compound.
Over the past months, UN staff have regularly been subjected to harassment and intimidation. Our compound has been seriously vandalized and damaged.
On several occasions, Israeli extremists threatened our staff with guns.
It is the responsibility of the State of Israel as an occupying power to ensure that United Nations personnel and facilities are protected at all times.
UN staff, premises and operations should be protected at all times in line with international law.
I call on all those who have influence to put an end to these attacks and hold all those responsible accountable.
The perpetrators of these attacks must be investigated and those responsible must be held accountable.
Anything less will set a new dangerous standard.
-Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA
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melzula · 5 months ago
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My HC is that since Zuko is royalty, the heir, and also commanded his fleet on his hunt for the avatar, he’s used to taking charge. But the way I’m thinking of it is him being casually dominant with the y/n. Things like using a soft but firm voice to make sure they eat enough, that they’re warm, putting his hand on their thigh to keep it from shaking, etc. the gaang would start to notice how it takes one look from Zuko and y/n complies. Wrapping his hand around their hips to bring them down to sit in his lap, subtly tugging their skirt down when it rides up, stuff like that.
Could I please request some of your amazing writing for casual dominance with Zuko?
pairing: Zuko x reader
notes: okay so this was actually pretty challenging to write just bc i had to be careful about not making zuko come off as too controlling while also still fulfilling the details of the request. however i think it came out pretty good !
summary: Zuko shows his love for you the only way he knows how to
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To those on the outside, your relationship with Zuko appeared to be… odd.
No one could quite determine whether he saw you as an equal or as someone who needed to be taken care of. Everyone knew you could handle your own; you’d been a skilled swordsman during the war and a master at hand-to-hand combat. No one doubted your ability to fend for yourself, but it seemed once you began dating the Fire Lord there was no longer any need for you to do so. Zuko took care of you, and being with him meant never having to lift a finger and never having to worry again. You were his prized jewel, and he took it upon himself to care for you in the only way he knew how.
Growing up, the Prince had never properly learned how to show affection or lovingly nurture a relationship. His parents weren’t the greatest example, and his father’s coldness left much to desire. However, his upbringing as a royal and his time commanding a fleet during his search for the Avatar allowed him to grow into a leader. In his younger years he’d been hotheaded and impulsive, but with time he had learned to be firm yet fair. He was a benevolent leader who only wished to do what was best for his people, and this same thought process extended to you.
You’d missed dinner one night and left him waiting in the throne room, too engrossed in your studies to realize how much time had passed or just how hungry you were. Your stomach growled incessantly and your head was beginning to ache, but you were adamant about finishing your book. Having recently been proposed to by the Fire Lord, you took it upon yourself to read up on the history of the Fire Nation and your expected duties as Fire Lady. You were overwhelmed, and eating dinner was the last thing on your mind.
“Y/n,” he had called, startling you out of your focused state as you rested your gaze upon his figure in the doorway. “We were supposed to have dinner together, remember?”
“I’m sorry,” you uttered bashfully, using your book to shield your embarrassed features. “I must have lost track of time. Let me just finish this last page and then I’ll-“
“Y/n,” he repeated with a pointed look, one that had you slowly lowering your text.
“Yes, Zuko,” you had finally relented. You couldn’t ignore your growling stomach any longer, and so you’d tossed your book aside and taken the arm he’d offered for you before allowing him to escort you to the dining room.
Zuko wasn’t strict, wasn’t cruel, just firm. It was his way of showing he cared for you, and you took no offense to how he so often liked to be the one in charge. Whether it be in his actions or in his tone of voice, he took the lead and you followed. This wasn’t to say that you didn’t have a mind or will of your own, but often times Zuko took it upon himself to step in whenever he felt you weren’t taking care of yourself the way he believed you should be.
His love could be conveyed through mundane actions such as wordlessly slipping your shawl over your shoulders without you having to ask to ensure you won’t be cold during a stroll in the palace gardens or resting a comforting hand on your thigh to stop the nervous bouncing of your leg during an important meeting. Anyone and everyone could see the influence he held over you, the dominant role he’d taken in your relationship, and you happily fell into place with him.
“Don’t you think it���s just a little weird?” Sokka had noted once to his sister after watching Zuko carefully wrap his fingers along your hips and delicately pull your figure into his lap as if he were handling a porcelain doll. You looked radiant in your silk robes and ceremonial makeup, a look picked out by Zuko to ease your anxieties over your lack of knowledge of traditional Fire Nation fashion, and as the Fire Lord’s fiancé you were the talk of the ball.
“Maybe it does seem like Zuko is usually the one in charge,” Katara had agreed thoughtfully, her gaze carefully resting upon your features to search for any sign of discontent or restlessness. Of course, she found none. “But I know y/n, and if she had a problem with it she would have stood up for herself and said something about it.”
The siblings watched as you conversed with various guests, your smile sincere as you spoke with the people you would soon help rule over as Fire Lady. Shifting in your seat as you crossed your legs, Zuko took note of the way the slit of your skirt had partially opened to reveal your bare leg. Wordlessly and without interrupting your conversation, the Fire Lord shifted the fabric so that your skin was kept from prying eyes. He didn’t care in the slightest if anyone saw, but he knew you would be embarrassed if guests began to question your way of dress, so he took it upon himself to fix the problem for you.
“I think it’s a love language thing,” Katara had explained after removing her attention from the scene and returning it to her brother. “He’s showing he cares through actions instead of words. Maybe it’s the only way he knows how to.”
“I guess you’re right,” Sokka relented, though his features still displayed a mild sense of disgust. “But that doesn’t make it any less oogier.”
Maybe no one on the outside ever truly would be able to comprehend the dynamics of your relationship with Zuko, but it wasn’t for them to understand. He took care of you and loved you in the only way he truly knew how to, and you appreciated him endlessly. With Zuko as your soon-to-be husband, you knew you’d always have someone looking after your best interests. All the same, Zuko knew he’d always have someone to love and accept him for who he was.
You were a perfect match.
| zuko tags: @ilovespideyyy @yiyibetch @eridanuswave @lammello @a-monsters-love @taeeemin @livelaughlovekuni @lovialy @alexatiu @heartfully10 @creationcitystreet-em
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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 months ago
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Boeing’s deliberately defective fleet of flying sky-wreckage
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I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW (May 2) in WINNIPEG, then Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), Tartu, Estonia, and beyond!
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Boeing's 787 "Dreamliner" is manufactured far from the company's Seattle facility, in a non-union shop in Charleston, South Carolina. At that shop, there is a cage full of defective parts that have been pulled from production because they are not airworthy.
Hundreds of parts from that Material Review Segregation Area (MRSA) were secretly pulled from that cage and installed on aircraft that are currently plying the world's skies. Among them, sections 47/48 of a 787 – the last four rows of the plane, along with its galley and rear toilets. As Moe Tkacik writes in her excellent piece on Boeing's lethally corrupt culture of financialization and whistleblower intimidation, this is a big ass chunk of an airplane, and there's no way it could go missing from the MRSA cage without a lot of people knowing about it:
https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-04-30-whistleblower-laws-protect-lawbreakers/
More: MRSA parts are prominently emblazoned with red marks denoting them as defective and unsafe. For a plane to escape Boeing's production line and find its way to a civilian airport near you with these defective parts installed, many people will have to see and ignore this literal red flag.
The MRSA cage was a special concern of John "Swampy" Barnett, the Boeing whistleblower who is alleged to have killed himself in March. Tkacik's earlier profile of Swampy paints a picture of a fearless, stubborn engineer who refused to go along to get along, refused to allow himself to become inured to Boeing's growing culture of profits over safety:
https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-03-28-suicide-mission-boeing/
Boeing is America's last aviation company and its single largest exporter. After the company was allowed to merge with its rival McDonnell-Douglas in 1997, the combined company came under MDD's notoriously financially oriented management culture. MDD CEO Harry Stonecipher became Boeing's CEO in the early 2000s. Stonecipher was a protege of Jack Welch, the man who destroyed General Electric with cuts to quality and workforce and aggressive union-busting, a classic Mafia-style "bust-out" that devoured the company's seed corn and left it a barren wasteland:
https://qz.com/1776080/how-the-mcdonnell-douglas-boeing-merger-led-to-the-737-max-crisis
Post-merger, Boeing became increasingly infected with MDD's culture. The company chased cheap, less-skilled labor to other countries and to America's great onshore-offshore sacrifice zone, the "right-to-work" American south, where bosses can fire uppity workers who balked at criminal orders, without the hassle of a union grievance.
Stonecipher was succeeded by Jim "Prince Jim" McNerney, ex-3M CEO, another Jack Welch protege (Welch spawned a botnet of sociopath looters who seized control of the country's largest, most successful firms, and drove them into the ground). McNerney had a cute name for the company's senior engineers: "phenomenally talented assholes." He created a program to help his managers force these skilled workers – everyone a Boeing who knew how to build a plane – out of the company.
McNerney's big idea was to get rid of "phenomenally talented assholes" and outsource the Dreamliner's design to Boeing's suppliers, who were utterly dependent on the company and could easily be pushed around (McNerney didn't care that most of these companies lacked engineering departments). This resulted in a $80b cost overrun, and a last-minute scramble to save the 787 by shipping a "cleanup crew" from Seattle to South Carolina, in the hopes that those "phenomenally talented assholes" could save McNerney's ass.
Swampy was part of the cleanup crew. He was terrified by what he saw there. Boeing had convinced the FAA to let them company perform its own inspections, replacing independent government inspectors with Boeing employees. The company would mark its own homework, and it swore that it wouldn't cheat.
Boeing cheated. Swampy dutifully reported the legion of safety violations he witnessed and was banished to babysit the MRSA, an assignment his managers viewed as a punishment that would isolate Swampy from the criminality he refused to stop reporting. Instead, Swampy audited the MRSA, and discovered that at least 420 defective aviation components had gone missing from the cage, presumably to be installed in planes that were behind schedule. Swampy then audited the keys to the MRSA and learned that hundreds of keys were "floating around" the Charleston facility. Virtually anyone could liberate a defective part and install it into an airplane without any paper trail.
Swampy's bosses had a plan for dealing with this. They ordered Swampy to "pencil whip" the investigations of 420 missing defective components and close the cases without actually figuring out what happened to them. Swampy refused.
Instead, Swampy took his concerns to a departmental meeting where 12 managers were present and announced that "if we can’t find them, any that we can’t find, we need to report it to the FAA." The only response came from a supervisor, who said, "We’re not going to report anything to the FAA."
The thing is, Swampy wasn't just protecting the lives of the passengers in those defective aircraft – he was also protecting Boeing employees. Under Sec 38 of the US Criminal Code, it's a 15-year felony to make any "materially false writing, entry, certification, document, record, data plate, label, or electronic communication concerning any aircraft or space vehicle part."
(When Swampy told a meeting that he took this seriously because "the paperwork is just as important as the aircraft" the room erupted in laughter.)
Swampy sent his own inspectors to the factory floor, and they discovered "dozens of red-painted defective parts installed on planes."
Swampy blew the whistle. How did the 787 – and the rest of Boeing's defective flying turkeys – escape the hangar and find their way into commercial airlines' fleets? Tkacik blames a 2000 whistleblower law called AIR21 that:
creates such byzantine procedures, locates adjudication power in such an outgunned federal agency, and gives whistleblowers such a narrow chance of success that it effectively immunizes airplane manufacturers, of which there is one in the United States, from suffering any legal repercussions from the testimony of their own workers.
By his own estimation, Swampy was ordered to commit two felonies per week for six years. Tkacik explains that this kind of operation relies on a culture of ignorance – managers must not document their orders, and workers must not be made aware of the law. Whistleblowers like Swampy, who spoke the unspeakable, were sidelined (an assessment by one of Swampy's managers called him "one of the best" and finished that "leadership would give hugs and high fives all around at his departure").
Multiple whistleblowers were singled out for retaliation and forced departure. William Hobek, a quality manager who refused to "pencil whip" the missing, massive 47-48 assembly that had wandered away from the MRSA cage, was given a "weak" performance review and fired despite an HR manager admitting that it was bogus.
Another quality manager, Cynthia Kitchens, filed an ethics complaint against manager Elton Wright who responded to her persistent reporting of defects on the line by shoving her against a wall and shouting that Boeing was "a good ol’ boys’ club and you need to get on board." Kitchens was fired in 2016. She had cancer at the time.
John Woods, yet another quality engineer, was fired after he refused to sign off on a corner-cutting process to repair a fuselage – the FAA later backed up his judgment.
Then there's Sam Salehpour, the 787 quality engineer whose tearful Congressional testimony described more corner-cutting on fuselage repairs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP0xhIe1LFE
Salehpour's boss followed the Boeing playbook to the letter: Salehpour was constantly harangued and bullied, and he was isolated from colleagues who might concur with his assessment. When Salehpour announced that he would give Congressional testimony, his car was sabotaged under mysterious circumstances.
It's a playbook. Salehpour's experience isn't unusual at Boeing. Two other engineers, working on the 787 Organization Designation Authorization, held up production by insisting that the company fix the planes' onboard navigation computers. Their boss gave them a terrible performance review, admitting that top management was furious at the delays and had ordered him to punish the engineers. The engineers' union grievance failed, with Boeing concluding that this conduct – which they admitted to – didn't rise to the level of retaliation.
As Tkacik points out, these engineers and managers that Boeing targeted for intimidation and retaliation are the very same staff who are supposed to be performing inspections of behalf of the FAA. In other words, Boeing has spent years attacking its own regulator, with total impunity.
But it's not just the FAA who've failed to take action – it's also the DOJ, who have consistently declined to bring prosecutions in most cases, and who settled the rare case they did bring with "deferred prosecution agreements." This pattern was true under Trump's DOJ and continued under Biden's tenure. Biden's prosecutors have been so lackluster that a federal judge "publicly rebuked the DOJ for failing to take seriously the reputational damage its conduct throughout the Boeing case was inflicting on the agency."
Meanwhile, there's the AIR21 rule, a "whistleblower" rule that actually protects Boeing from whistleblowers. Under AIR21, an aviation whistleblower who is retaliated against by their employer must first try to resolve their problem internally. If that fails, the whistleblower has only one course of action: file an OSHA complaint within 90 days (if HR takes more than 90 days to resolve your internal complaint, you can no have no further recourse). If you manage to raise a complaint with OSHA, it is heard by a secret tribunal that has no subpoena power and routinely takes five years to rule on cases, and rules against whistleblowers 97% of the time.
Boeing whistleblowers who missed the 90-day cutoff have filled the South Carolina courts with last-ditch attempts to hold the company to account. When they lose these cases – as is routine, given Boeing's enormous legal muscle and AIR21's legal handcuffs – they are often ordered to pay Boeing's legal costs.
Tkacik cites Swampy's lawyer, Rob Turkewitz, who says Swampy was the only one of Boeing's whistleblowers who was "savvy, meticulous, and fast-moving enough to bring an AIR 21 case capable of jumping through all the hoops" to file an AIR21 case, which then took seven years. Turkewitz calls Boeing South Carolina "a criminal enterprise."
That's a conclusion that's hard to argue with. Take Boeing's excuse for not producing the documentation of its slapdash reinstallation of the Alaska Air door plug that fell off its plane in flight: the company says it's not criminally liable for failing to provide the paperwork, because it never documented the repair. Not documenting the repair is also a crime.
You might have heard that there's some accountability coming to the Boeing boardroom, with the ouster of CEO David Calhoun. Calhoun's likely successor is Patrick Shanahan, whom Tkacik describes as "the architect of the ethos that governed the 787 program" and whom her source called "a classic schoolyard bully."
If Shanahan's name rings a bell, it might be because he was almost Trump's Secretary of Defense, but that was derailed by the news that he had "emphatically defended" his 17 year old son after the boy nearly beat his mother to death with a baseball bat. Shanahan is presently CEO of Spirit Aerospace, who made the door-plug that fell out of the Alaska Airlines 737 Max.
Boeing is a company where senior managers only fail up and where whistleblowers are terrorized in and out of the workplace. One of Tkacik's sources noticed his car shimmying. The source, an ex-787 worker who'd been fired after raising safety complaints, had tried to bring an AIR21 complaint, but withdrew it out of fear of being bankrupted if he was ordered to pay Boeing's legal costs. When the whistleblower pulled over, he discovered that two of the lug-nuts had been removed from one of his wheels.
The whistleblower texted Tkcacik to say (not for the first time): "If anything happens, I'm not suicidal."
Boeing is a primary aerospace contractor to the US government. It's clear that its management – and investors – consider it too big to jail. It's also clear that they know it's too big to fail – after all, the company did a $43b stock buyback, then got billions in a publicly funded buyback.
Boeing is, effectively, a government agency that is run for the benefit of its investors. It performs its own safety inspections. It investigates its own criminal violations of safety rules. It loots its own coffers and then refills them at public expense.
Meanwhile, the company has filled our skies with at least 420 airplanes with defective, red-painted parts that were locked up in the MRSA cage, then snuck out and fitted to an airplane that you or someone you love could fly on the next time you take your family on vacation or fly somewhere for work.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/01/boeing-boeing/#mrsa
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Image: Tom Axford 1 (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_sky_with_wisps_of_cloud_on_a_clear_summer_morning.jpg
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
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Clemens Vasters (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:N7379E_-_Boeing_737_MAX_9.jpg
CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
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mesapies · 7 months ago
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Canon lgbtq+ avatar characters
Korra and asami - bisexual
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Kya - lesbian
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Kyoshi - bisexual
rangi - lesbian
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Zeisan (sozins sister) and her lover Rioshon - sapphic (I think zeisan is a lesbian but I'm not 100% sure)
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Mingxia and her gf Melin - sapphic
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Zenko (left) and his named husband - gay
Katara saved zenko and their daughter chio from a fire nation attack
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Akuudan and tayagum - gay
Akuudan and his husband tayagum were water tribe warriors that helped avatar yangchen
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Hua and Rose - sapphic
from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - core book. Rose was a wealthy girl who purse was attempted to be stolen by Hua a firebending criminal but they later fell in love
Dalja Rose - trans(I think)
from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - core book. Attended fire academy fir girls when they realized they didn't truly feel like a girl.
Jiang - gay
From adventure booklet: the burning fuse. He's a detective from republic city who gained airbending through the harmonic convergence
Junyi - gay
from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - core book. He was a earth nation Outlaw during the time of roku. Hes was swordsmith who fell in love with one of his clients. The two men were set to run away together, but his lover's wife, the mayor of the town, discovered their affair. She had her husband killed and pinned the crime on Junyi. (Messy as hell)
Makittuq - trans woman
from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - core book. She's northern water tribe girl from the tims of roku who knew she assigned the wrong gender since birth. When her family didn't accept her she connected with sports who did
Massak and nyn chei - sapphic ex lovers
from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - core book. During the time of roku, Massak was a swt boatwright and inventor and he ex lover nyn chei was a fire nation inventor and engineer who'd inventions helped create the new fire navy coal fuled fleet.
Mayu - trans man
from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - republic city. From republic city him and his friends Yuka and Saya ran away together after mayu came out to his traditional fire nation family who didn't accept him.(im think Yuka is non binary as well)
Mosi and his husband sayako - gay
From adventure booklet: pirate of crimson sails. From a fire nation colony as a earth nation guy. Mosi as an adult became a pirate working to go against azulon. He later fell in love with a firebender, sayako. They married and had a daughter, lily
Sunlin - non binary
from the avatar legends the roleplaying game - quicksart. They were a joyful and idealistic orphan from Harbor City, and a former member of the Fire Finches during the late stages of the Hundred Year War
Wen - non binary
From avatar generations. Wen was an Earth Kingdom archaeologist broadly interested in relics. They explored the four nations in pursuit of their studies.
Netxflix Oma and shu - sapphics
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Aiwei (left) - said to be gay but I couldn't find anything confirming
Jargala (right) - her artist said that she's pansexual but there's nothing confirming it
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Unnamed gay air nomads and fire nation sapphics(getting arrested) from when kya was explaining to Korrasami the different views on gay ppl in the different nations
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taecherries · 3 months ago
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the princess bride | jungkook ( 1 )
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synopsis. soon to be betrothed to a neighbourhood kingdom, you escape into the woods toward your freedom. there you find your calling in the hold of a dark and troublesome stranger instead.
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pairing. jungkook | you + yoongi | you
genre. royal au, angst, smut, fluff
word count. 1.2k
rating. M
warnings. ❗️so far yn is only angsty about changing her fate❗️
a/n. chapters will be coming out whenever I'm able to post and they may vary in word count greatly ♡
chapters. 1 × 2 × 3
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You had been waiting for this little escapade since you’d heard your father announce your marriage to the King of Ilya earlier that day.
The world came tumbling beneath your feet as soon as you heard it. No matter how much you protested your father, the King, was irresolvable. You were not shielded behind your title like your brothers… Unlike the youngest heir of Keirn who wanted nothing to do with the crown besides partying and living it up to his rake title, you would give a finger to rise to the throne. And yet, the oldest of you, your brother Seokjin, who would eventually sit atop of it wanted nothing to do with it as well.
You did not doubt that if you had been announced as a boy as soon as you’d been born your father would have done whatever it took to put you on the throne. He had always favored you. And not because you were a girl, but because Seokjin did not possess the natural leadership you demanded whenever you entered a room, and because Taehyung did not possess the cold heart needed to rule a kingdom.
And yet your father did not think twice before offering you as a form of alliance with the powerful kingdom of Ilya.
He did not think of his daughter but of the kingdom. He put the nation of Keirn first, as you still wage a war with Arden’s great warriors and struggle to advance on territory.
The worst part is as a born ruler you can understand why he made the trade. With Ilya’s help, the unfortunate middle position on the map of your kingdom becomes nothing but a past worry. The soldiers can concentrate on upholding only one side of the borders.
But as a daughter, as a woman of your own, you can’t fathom why your once-loving father would deny you the only thing you ever dreamed of having—your freedom.
The flickering candlelight cast dancing shadows across the stone walls of the tiny cottage belonging to your secret lover. You met him years before this, thanks to his father’s high-rank position in your dad’s order.
Like his deceased father, Yoongi is also a commander; a general. His scars tell tales of many battles, yet his eyes, the soft ones he has only for you, tell you of everything he wishes your lives could be instead of this. That’s why in your rampant need to escape your newfound obligations, you found yourself atop your trusted horse, riding toward this. Toward him.
The air inside is thick with the sweet scent of pine and the lingering warmth of the fire. Your breath comes in soft, heated gasps as you press yourself against Yoongi. Your fingers tangling in the dark hair you worship, his hands roaming your back, pulling you closer, as your lips meet in a fervent unyielding kiss.
Breaking the kiss you rest your forehead against his, your eyes brimming with determination. “We could leave tonight,” you whisper, filled with hope, much different from the condition you arrived at the cottage. You had been a storm of betrayal and raging tears before Yoongi dwindled everything with his caress and soft-spoken words. “We could escape the castle, make a life for us in the woods… Just the two of us. No one would find us past the clearing.”
Yoongi’s eyes search for yours, his expression a mix you know of too well. Longing and apprehension. You could bet your own eyes were telling the same secrets. “Y/n, your father would never stop looking for you.” His knuckles caress gently your cheeks. “He would send all of the fleet to every damn corner of the kingdom, you know that.”
“They wouldn’t find us. You’re the best at what you do and I—”
“My love,” he pins you down with his eyes. There’s nothing but sadness in them. “You’re now to be-” He stiffens, if only ever slightly. “You’re to be Ilya’s queen. They won’t ever let you go.”
He won’t fight for this, for you. Why won’t he fight for you?
“But we’d be free,” you insist, your fingers tracing the line of his jaw. “Free to be together, to do whatever we want of our lives.”
Yoongi’s eyes close in a thoughtful wish. Maybe his resolve could wave after all. He pulls you into another kiss, deeper this time as if trying to pour all of his emotions into this very moment. “I want that more than anything,” he murmurs against your lips. He sighs and eyes you closely before adding, “We’ll have to be smart about it if we’re even to attempt it.”
You smile against his lips.
You didn’t think your heart could possibly be more his, and yet…
A sudden noise from outside breaks your wishful dreams. Your intimate bubble bursts as the unmistakable sound of boots crunching on gravel reaches your ears, followed by the clang of armor.
Yoongi is up in a second, his grip on you tightening as he steps to shield you even if the enemy is still outside the cottage.
“No,” you whisper, your voice trembling. The only person to have ever known about you and your knight in shining armor was Taehyung. If your father’s soldiers were here… “They- They found us.”
Your spirit is crushed.
Not letting you dwell on what could have happened, Yoongi turns to face you, his expression hardened. This wasn’t your Yoongi, this was the general demanding your attention. “You have to go,” he says urgently, his eyes locking into yours with fierce intensity. “I’ll find you. I promise I’ll find you no matter what, but you have to escape. Now, Y/n.”
Tears well up in your eyes. You can’t leave him, you don’t want to. But you learned the same techniques as Yoongi did when little. You know that if you don’t split now they will catch you both. And you also know that it’s your freedom put in jeopardy, not his.
There’s no time to argue.
Yet you do.
“I can’t leave without you-”
His large hands are cupping your cheeks in a second. All of the resolve in the world swirling in his cat-like eyes. “No one will ever set us apart, My love. You’re blood of my blood,”
You are caught by surprise as he chants the words. But there’s no time to spare, and so you finish reciting the vows you know by heart. “…And bone of my bone.” You answer him gently. “I’ll give you my body, that we two might be one.”
“I give you my spirit until our life shall be done.” He finishes with a bittersweet smile.
As you rest your forehead on his cheek, inhaling for one last time everything that he is, he places a cold piece on your palm and a kiss on your temple.
“Please be safe,” you whisper close to his lips, your voice breaking.
Yoongi gives you one last, searing kiss before pushing you towards the back door. “I’ll find you,” he repeats reassuringly.
You can still taste him on your lips as you slip out of the cottage, your heart pounding in your ears as you sprint into the dense forest. Behind you, the sound of soldiers crashing through the door and Yoongi’s defiant shouts fill the air.
You don’t dare look back, trusting in his promise as you disappear into the darkness, praying that once the sun rises yet again, you will be not only reunited but in charge of your fates.
In your palm rests the reassurance.
A silver dagger in the form of a wedding ring.
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i think part of the reason i maintain that hakoda didn't really intend sokka to be the leader of his tribe was that i think hakoda didn't expect it to be as heavy a responsibility as sokka took it. like, still some responsibilities on a twelve-year-old, but you know, sokka knew how to hunt and make sure his little sister didn't go fall in the ocean, y'know? like the actual one-warrior-defending-the-village situation that did happen and that sokka seemed to expect wasn't what hakoda envisioned. the water tribe raids happened because there were waterbenders in the south. he assumed after kya was killed the fire nation would leave the tribe alone, and even if they didn't, being out in the world might allow him and his fleet to find out about about potential raids and intercept them before they got to the tribe.
is that maybe a bit of a gamble? yeah. but the alternative would mean assuming his wife's death did nothing to protect the tribe and you can imagine why he wouldn't want to think that
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likealittleheartbeat · 1 year ago
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talk to me about the theme of emotional isolation for zuko and aang
It's the main reason I'm obsessed with the show tbh.
Can we overstate Aang's isolation within the show. He's not only a survivor--a sole survivor--of a genocide, he's also knocked out of time and history. These are the facts of his physical isolation. But his emotional isolation is such a different beast. It began before any deaths did. He is set apart by the monks and by the whole world as a savior. Shortly after his status as the avatar is made known, his peers exclude him, his power too great. His humanity is denied because he's too divine. Only Gyatso seems to still regard him for who he is rather than his gifts. Of course, that's why the council decides Aang needs to be further separated from worldly relations like that, and vote to send him off. For Aang, it's the last straw. He can't bear further exile from others. To regain some sense of control, he tries to run away from the heavy burden and those who have put it on him. At least this time, he's the one choosing his loneliness. It has become so clear that no one can understand his feelings about the Avatar State.
This is the emotional state he enters the series with, icon rather than human. He starts off concealing his revered identity in an attempt to indulge in simple pleasures, penguin sledding, coy fish riding, etc. But the shame is secretly right there at the surface. He's lovable but mercurial. Friendly and animated with everyone when he first meets them but in a way that's fleeting. The knowledge that he will have to leave the village, in an episodic fashion, having helped the members of the town, even having sacrificed himself for their well-being, is an understood fact of the plot and his life. At most he sheds some of his grief by putting it into words with Katara's encouragement. But despite the whole world fighting through their own grief from the fire nation and Katara's sole-survival of her own culture's genocide, they each have people in their families and cultures who, however bitterly, hold them and hold the broken memories together with one another. No one is as physically isolated as Aang, but, more importantly for his character development, no one is as isolated by their significance to the world.
No one, except Zuko. Zuko, the banished prince. Isn't that what Aang as the Avatar is in many ways: a spiritual prince, an heir by birth to power and legacy, who has been banished from his inheritance. Only, Aang's inheritance would be peace. Zuko's would be the Fire Nation, but because of his humanity, Zuko, like Aang, is without a nation. This is one reason Zuko and Aang are such incredible narrative foils. Aang is rejected from humanity's compassion because of his divine status while Zuko is rejected from divine rule because of his human compassion and failures to demonstrate perfection. (If you're interested in this dynamic in media, Fruits Basket has fantastic explorations of these themes with Kyo vs. Yuki and Tohru vs. Akito.)
How early did Zuko start to notice the disappointment he brought to his father and grandfather? As early as we can see, Zuko seems alone. The episode with that phrase in the title reflects back on his childhood, which, noticeably, lacks the friends Azula manages to keep. He mimics and mocks her cruelty, as well, in an attempt to impress his mother. His insecurity seems already set, a sense that no one can understand. While Aang recognizes that everyone thinks he's too good to belong, Zuko lives in an environment in which he's not good enough to belong.
The reactions to their rejections correspond, too. Zuko's reaction of antagonistic pursuit of anyone and everyone--like Aang's reaction to run away (literally and sometimes emotionally with a smile or joke)--helps keep others in a framework of enemies so he can control his exile rather than the other way around. Yet these behaviors put them in dynamic relation to one another--Zuko is drawn to the endless pursuit of the strangely kind Aang, whose instinct is to behold others while remaining untouchable, while Aang becomes clearly intrigued by the person who refuses to treat him like an untouchable hero, the person who refuses to give up on the possibility that the Avatar can be flawed and fail, no matter how many times he slips away proving his divine destiny.
It's obvious that Zuko is supposed to hate Aang, as the Avatar. "The Headband" illustrates how education in the Fire Nation portrays him if the fact that Zuko's only possibility for regaining his title under his father is bringing the Avatar back isn't enough evidence for you. But Aang ought to hate Zuko just as much, if not more. Instead, they are drawn toward one another with an remarkable intensity, established within the first half of the first season, "The Storm" x "Blue Spirit" combo punch! In fact, the blue spirit episode really reveals what they can mean to each other. Not only in Aang's question at the end that invites Zuko back into the past with him, but in the way that Zuko is made to be the divine entity for a brief period while Aang is helpless in the fort. Then, that question at the end: "Do you think we could have been friends?" Isn't that the opposite of the isolation they feel. In the woods, without a nation or an allegiance, Aang, remembering the people and time that he was forced to leave asks Zuko, who has just betrayed the people who banished him, in another version of life where they were both simple people rather heirs of vast power, if they could have formed a kind of union that would have dissolved the loneliness that consumes both of them. But it's momentary and they have to return to the world that defines them as the Avatar and the Banished Fire Prince.
This becomes one of the cores of the show, as echoed in the finale, where Zuko and Aang consummate their friendship, but by then, through traveling the winding road toward one another and aiming to take on a part of what the other person represents, they have found a balance that refused the binaries of divinity and fallibility that had previously separated and defined their lives, binaries that exiled them from connecting with others, binaries that built towers to isolate them from the world. The victims and survivors of genocide, the subjects of colonial violence, nor the sufferers of abuse need be pure to claim their pain, nor must the people who want and work towards justice be saints to do that work. Harder for many audience members to absorb, despite their love for Zuko who's arc is meant to emphasize the point, there is a spark of divinity in everyone, from the most unloved to the most violent and tyrannical. This second fact must exist alongside the first, or else the premise won't hold. How you choose to act and engage with that spark of divinity is a human choice we each make on our own, but that does not deny it's existence. The divine ideals must be allowed to fall apart into comedy and tragedy, while the mundane, the profane, and the cruels horrors of life must be allowed to be seen as something that hold the possibility to become beautiful and part of a grander design. The Avatar must be allowed to be Aang and Zuko must be allowed to be the Firelord so that we can have Avatar Aang (the last title of the series) and Firelord Zuko (the most celebrated character arc of the series). They need one another to assuage the fear, isolation, and dread that black-and-white perfectionist thinking boxes us into.
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atla-confessions · 3 months ago
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It's really telling with Zuko stans are like "Zuko can't be a colonizer and never ever was, he's an innocent 16 year old boy who doesn't know what he's doing and had an abusive dad! You want a colonizer, look at Azula!"
It really gives away the game. Azula had the exact same abusive parents and is even younger.
They're both Fire Nation Royalty and colonizers, but for Zuko, well, yes he leads a militaristic fleet with one of the most powerful retired generals on a quest to murder the last survivor of a genocide and purposeless terrorizes water tribe settlements and kyoshi island villages with that militaristic force, yes he physically assaulted an old woman to pressure the village to give someone else up like the fire nation systemically did while it was culling them of waterbenders a few years back, and yes he made the fully informed decision to team up with Azula to capture Ba Sing Se and reaped the rewards and glory of it, and he hired an assassin because he really, really wanted to make sure kill that genocide survivor he set out to hunt down. But boys will be boys!
But Azula, that's a 14-year-old grown woman who is the embodiment of all that is evil, so when she does those things, it counts for real.
No analysis of intent or material harm. Only vibes. And also misogyny.
X
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hadesisqueer · 1 year ago
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I think it's funny and sad that Avatars always think super highly of their past lives and wonder how they're gonna be able to live up to their legacy. Like, we had both Kuruk and Kyoshi idolizing Yangchen and thinking they'd never be worthy of her legacy. Kuruk unfortunely was remembered by most as the failure Avatar (even though the poor guy was far from that; Kuruk deserved way better). But Kyoshi, who felt unworthy, who was even discovered late, who was part of a freaking gang (lmao)? She lived over 200 years and she became one of the most respected Avatars, just like Yangchen.
Korra had big shoes to fill after Aang. How is she gonna live up to the legacy of the guy who once was possessed by the Ocean Spirit and efortlessly destroyed a Fire Nation fleet, who ended the conspiration of Ba Sing Se, who defeated Firelord Ozai and ended the Hundred Year War at age twelve, and then helped create a whole new nation? The pressure must have been bad.
And I imagine the Earth Avatar after her will also feel a lot of pressure, because regardless of how we saw some people treating her in the show, Korra is also gonna be remembered as one of the great, respected Avatars, as the one who stopped a dangerous bloodbender and made sure the nonbenders had a voice, the one who defeated a large force of evil from destroying the world and brought back the spirits, the one who brought back the Air Nation and literally sacrificed herself for them ending up badly hurt and traumatized and yet still came back and stopped a dangerous fascist empire and then created a whole new spirit portal... All that by the time she was only 21? Yeah, Korra will be respected too. The Earth Avatar is also gonna be like how the fuck am I gonna live up to that? And then they will, because every Avatar always does.
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thisisnotthenerd · 7 months ago
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The Legend Lore Database
This is another use of the Legend Lore spell. All information herein is only that of legendary importance.
[a more complete database. i took some artistic liberties. see here for the updating document]
Legendary Individuals
Deities / Deific Entities
Ankarna
Infernal Deity of Fire, Rage and Conquest
Formerly the Giant Deity of Summer, Justice and the Harvest, Patron of the Giantkin of the Mountains of Chaos
Sister to Ruvina, Giant Deity of Winter and Sorrow
Spouse of Cassandra, Sylvan Deity of Mystery, Magic, and the Night
Cassandra / Nightmare King
Sylvan Deity of Mystery, Magic, and the Night, Patron of the Tribes of Sylvaire
Formerly the Nightmare King, the King of the Dark Dreaming, Rí Aisling Olc
Raised from their Undead form by the Blessed Saint Kristen Applebees
Sibling of Galicaea, Elven Goddess of the Moon, and Sol, Human God of the Sun
Spouse of Ankarna, Infernal Deity of Fire, Rage and Conquest
Stark Father of Baron from the Baronies
Eidolons
Seven Sisters, Elemental Spirits of the Universe and Hands of the Gods
From Eldest to Youngest
Chronoa, Eidolon of Time, of the Astral and Ethereal Planes
Terra, Eidolon of Earth, of the Elemental Plane of Earth
Pyrria, Eidolon of Fire, of the Elemental Plane of Fire
Nera, Eidolon of Water, of the Elemental Plane of Water
Zefira, Eidolon of Air, of the Elemental Plane of Air
Anima, Eidolon of Life, the Beginning of All Things
Talura, Eidolon of Death, the Ending of All Things
Trapped in Enchanted Mirrors created by Logran Soulforger, of which the only way out was Infinity
Galicaea / Lida
Elven Deity of the Moon, Patron of the Elves of Fallinel
Patron of Lycanthropes in her aspect as Lida
Sister of Sol, Human God of the Sun, and Cassandra, Sylvan Deity of Mystery, Magic, and the Night
Struck her Sister from memory by way of the Sylvarian Heresy
Helio
Human God of Corn
Son of Sol, Human God of the Sun, and a mortal woman
Followed by the Cult of the Harvestmen, who sought the Apocalypse through perditional contradoxy
Jane Wren
Pirate Goddess of New Horizons, Freedom, and Adventure
She who stands atop the Ramble, overlooking the City of Leviathan
Kahaerin
The Storm King, the Wrathful Primordial of Storms
Perpetually in search of his lost Daughter
Logran Soulforger
Dwarven God of the Forge, He who Makes the World
Created the Enchanted Mirrors to capture the Eidolons in Finite Form, While Leaving Escape in Infinity
Did not Commune with his Followers after the Capture of the Eidolons, until Ostentatia Wallace, Prophet of the Forge, Joined him in his Workshop
Night Yorb
Speak Not of the Night Yorb
The Manta Ray of Darkness, they who would herald an age of darkness through a slow apocalypse
Currently Sealed by the Solar Lasso in the Hangvan
Ollie
Rad Dwarven God of Shredding, Patron of Skateboarders
Ruvina
Giant Deity of Winter and Sorrow, Patron of the Giantkin of the Mountains of Chaos
Sister of Ankarna, Infernal Deity of Fire, Rage, and Conquest
Sol
Human God of the Sun, Patron of the Humans of Highcourt and Solace
Father of Helio, Human God of Corn
Once ousted from his position by Arthur Aguefort, who proceeded to never leave his office and shit in a corner
Umberlee
Goddess of the Deep Sea, Patron of that which lies in the briny depths
Punisher of Sinners who Enter Her Waters
Prohibits artifacts which control the weather
NPCs
Aelwyn Abernant
She who assassinated the first Elven Oracle, Eleminthindriel
She who sank the Harpy, Flagship of the Fleet of Kalvaxus
She who determined the second Elven Oracle, Adaine Abernant
Caused the initiation of war between the nations of Solace and Fallinel
She who dispelled the Nightmare King’s Plague of the Shadow Cat
Acting Mistress of the Compass Points Library, in lieu of Ayda Aguefort
Arthur Aguefort
Founder and Principal of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy
He who caused the Sun to Fall
Paramour of the Last Phoenix
Former Paramour of the previous Elven Oracle, Eleminthindriel
Founder of the School of Chronomancy
Father of Ayda Aguefort
Asha Hammerheart
Saint and Cleric of Logran Soulforger
One of the Three Pilgrims to the Temple to the Earth Defiant
Ayda Aguefort
The Mistress of the Compass Points LIbrary, Quartermaster of the Knowledge of Leviathan
Paramour of Figueroth the Infaethable, the Archdevil of Rebellion, the Dark Mistress of the Bottomless Pit
Creator of Adaine’s Furious Fist
Bakur / Athenriel
Infernal Servant of Ankarna, the Deity of Fire, Rage, and Conquest
Formerly Athenriel of the Faeth Lineage
Former Owner of the Armor of Pride
Cathilda “The Black” Ceili
Legendary Pirate, the Widow in Black, whose daggers flash with death and destruction
Crewmember aboard the Hangman
Elder of the Ramble, who defended Leviathan amidst the wrath of the Storm King
Chungledown Bim
Legendary Mouth-Shitter
Archnemesis of Fabian Aramais Seacaster
Survivor of Captain James Whitclaw's attack on the Cult of Bill Seacaster
Braved the Forest of the Nightmare King alone and escaped unscathed
Highest-level Warlock of the Cult of Bill Seacaster
Court of Elders
Leaders of the Tribes of Sylvaire and the Great Unicorn
Destroyed the Name of the Goddess of Mystery in the Sylvarian Heresy, in league with clerics of Galicaea
Eleminthindriel
The First Elven Oracle, succeeded by Adaine Abernant
Member of the First Council of Chosen
She who prophesied the second rise and fall of Kalvaxus
Garthy O’Brien
Prodigious Descendant of Zajiri Celestials
Impresario of the Gold Gardens, Leviathan’s hub for pleasure and sanctuary 
The Curse Breaker who fought the effects of the King of the Dark Dreaming
Child of Ayda Aguefort
Guardian of Ayda Aguefort
Name contains an anagram for the Night Yorb
Gilear Faeth
The Chosen One
Current eldest male descendant of the lineage of Athenriel
Penultimate Inheritor of the Curse of the Armor of Pride
He who stopped three Apocalypses with wishes from a Puppy
Gorthalax the Insatiable
Prince of the Nine Hells and former ruler of the Bottomless Pit
Formerly Gorthiel, the Seraph of Eating the Right Amount of Food / Temperance
Father of Figueroth the Infaethable, Archdevil of Rebellion and Dark Mistress of the Bottomless Pit
Grafmy Rootdrinker
The Druidic Leader who pushed back the Curse of the Nightmare King on the Forest of Sylvaire
Hallariel Seacaster née Lomenelda 
The Greatest Fencer to Ever Live
Daughter of Telemaine Lomenelda, Heir to Kei Lumennura
Widow of William “Old Bill” Seacaster, the Scourge of the Nine Hells
Jamina Joy
The Bosun of Leviathan
She who keeps the City afloat
She who contains a Wish for the Welfare of Leviathan
Kalina
The Shadow Cat
Right Hand of the Nightmare King
Familiar of Cassandra
The Cursed Plague of the King of the Dark Dreaming
Kalvaxus
Former Emperor of the Red Waste
Allied with the Nightmare King and the Undead of the Necronomikron
Prophesied to rise once more at the word of Elven Oracle Eleminthindriel
When Kalvaxus once again beholds his glittering treasure And seven maidens once more are chained at the mouth of his lair When war befalls the realm And a king and queen are crowned anew in Solace Then will the Emperor of the Red Waste be released from bondage His destruction will know no bounds The sun shall fall from the Heavens And the world as we know it shall perish forever
Former Vice Principal of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy
Currently the Goldenrod, the Infernal Vessel of William “Old Bill” Seacaster
Karl Cleaver
Legendary Adventurer and Member of the Pact of Kyburus
Of the Cleaver lineage of Adventurers
Kora Ironbrow
Saint and Cleric of Logran Soulforger
One of the Three Pilgrims to the Temple to the Earth Defiant
Lydia Barkrock
She who sealed Bakur in her body with rage and rage alone
The Curse of the Armor of Pride was used to excise Bakur from her body
Nuathera
The Awakened Familiar of Grafmy Rootdrinker
Leader of the Town of Arborly and Protector of the Border of Sylvaire
Octavio Costello Gainglynn
He who sailed off the edge of the World and into the Heavens
Paramour of the Solar Zarael
Pok Gukgak
Premier Agent of the Lower Planar Reconnaissance Task Force of the Plane of Bytopia
He who brought the Plague of the Shadow Cat to the nation of Solace
The first Solesian to be slayed by Kalvaxus personally in centuries
Father of Riz Gukgak, Slayer of Kalvaxus
Telemaine Lomenelda
The Greatest Elven Swordsmith, who forged Fandrangor and the Sword of Sight
Lord of Kei Lumennura, the Guardian of Elven Teens
Tectonya Karkovnya
Superintendent of the Larger Solesian School District
Legendary Wizard and Scholar of the Eidolons
She who stole the Legendarium Extrordia
Tracker O’Shaughnessy
She who dispelled the Nightmare King’s Curse on Sylvaire, the Forest of the Nightmare King
She who dispelled the Nightmare King’s Tree
Reformer of the Faith of Galicaea, Leader of Wolfsong, the Lupine Cleric of Lida
The Vulture King
Father to all Vultures, King of the Vulture Dimension
He whose body became the Royal Artifacts of the Vulture Dimension
William “Old Bill” Seacaster
He who struck down the Pirate King and Hung his Head in Gibbety Square
Captain of the Hangman
Married to Hallariel Lomenelda, the Greatest Fencer to Ever Live
Current Captain of the Infernal Wastes, Scourge of the Nine Hells
Captain of the Goldenrod, the Infernal Vessel carved from the body of Kalvaxus, Emperor of the Red Waste
Yvonna of the Sundering Hills
Saint and Cleric of Logran Soulforger
One of the Three Pilgrims to the Temple to the Earth Defiant
Zaphriel
Spirit of Endless Sky Towards Late Afternoon on a Day at the Beach with Your Feet in the Warm Sand, Just Being Chill as Hell
The Possessing Spirit of the Hangvan
PCs
Adaine Abernant:
The Second Elven Oracle, preceded by Eleminthindriel
Established the right of the Elven Oracle to be paid, via dance battle
Patron of the Oracle of Dance Fabian Aramais Seacaster
Current wielder of the Sword of Sight, Sword of the Elven Oracle
She who invoked the name of Ankarna and broke Obliviati Mori
She who sealed Bakur with the power of the Curse of the Armor of Pride
Creator of Ayda’s Comprehend Subtext
Kristen Applebees:
The Chosen of Helio, God of Corn
The Creator of Yes!/Yes?
She who Resurrected Herself
She who dispelled the Nightmare King’s Coin
She who destroyed the Crown of the Nightmare King
The Blessed Saint of Cassandra, Deity of Mystery, Night and Magic
Figueroth Faeth:
Mortal daughter of Gorthalax the Insatiable, Prince of the Nine Hells and former ruler of the Bottomless Pit
Current Archdevil of Rebellion, Figueroth the Infaethable, the Dark Mistress of the Bottomless Pit
Paramour of Ayda Aguefort, the Mistress of the Compass Points Library
Last of the Faeth Lineage to bear the Curse of the Armor of Pride
Currently holds dominion over the infernal domain of Ankarna, Goddess of Fire, Rage, and Conquest, due to the creation of Dawn of Justice, a song so metal it could claim an infernal domain
Riz Gukgak:
Fifth of the World of Spyre to summon the Night Yorb to the Material Plane
He who slayed the Dragon Kalvaxus, Emperor of the Red Waste
First living member of the Lower Planar Reconnaissance Task Force
The Investigator who Found the Prophesied Seven Maidens
Fabian Aramais Seacaster:
Mortal son of William "Old Bill" Seacaster, Legendary Pirate and the Current Captain of the Infernal Wastes, Scourge of the Nine Hells and Hallariel Lomenelda, the Greatest Fencer to Ever Live
Grandson of Telemaine Lomenelda, Swordsmith of the Elven Kings
He who killed William "Old Bill" Seacaster
Current wielder of Fandrangor, Sword of the North Star
Dance Champion of the Elven Oracle, the Oracle of Dance
Maximum Legend at the Aguefort Adventuring Academy
Gorgug Thistlespring:
He who discovered the Plague of the Shadow Cat
Creator of the Solar Lasso used to seal the Night Yorb into his personal vehicle, the Hangvan
Creator of the Barbificer Specialty, the first in the World of Spyre to combine barbarian rage and artificer spellcasting
The Greatest Wizard of Our Age, as titled by Ayda Aguefort, Mistress of the Compass Points Library
Danielle Barkstock:
Blessed of Anima, Eidolon of Life
She who assumed the form and gave voice to the Empress Anima, Eidolon of Life
One of Seven Maidens Chained at the Mouth of the Lair of Kalvaxus, the Emperor of the Red Waste
Katja Cleaver
Blessed of Terra, Eidolon of Earth
Daughter of Karl Cleaver, of the Cleaver lineage of adventurers
Friend to Horses, Rider of Cinnamon
Slayer of Jana Cleaver
One of Seven Maidens Chained at the Mouth of the Lair of Kalvaxus, the Emperor of the Red Waste
Zelda Donovan
Blessed of Zefira, Eidolon of Air
Battle Dancer of the Donovan Lineage, who was possessed by the god of wine and ecstasy in bacchanal
One of Seven Maidens Chained at the Mouth of the Lair of Kalvaxus, the Emperor of the Red Waste
Antiope Jones
Blessed of Chronoa, Eidolon of Time
She who killed Charity Blythe
Daughter of Athena and Hector Jones, of the Jones lineage of adventurers
Leader of the Reform of the Ministry of Adventure
One of Seven Maidens Chained at the Mouth of the Lair of Kalvaxus, the Emperor of the Red Waste
Penny Luckstone
Blessed of Nera, Eidolon of Water
She who revealed the Society of Shadows one of
Seven Maidens Chained at the Mouth of the Lair of Kalvaxus, the Emperor of the Red Waste
Sam Nightingale:
Blessed of Talura, Eidolon of Death, the Ending of All Things
She who released Talura upon Spyre for the first time in millennia
She who guided Talura to infinite form
One of Seven Maidens Chained at the Mouth of the Lair of Kalvaxus, the Emperor of the Red Waste
Ostentatia Wallace:
The first forge cleric to Commune with Logran Soulforger in millennia
Prophet of Logran Soulforger
Designer for the Gods
Blessed of Pyrria, Eidolon of Fire
One of Seven Maidens Chained at the Mouth of the Lair of Kalvaxus, the Emperor of the Red Waste
Barbarella Sasparilla Gainglynn
The Goddess of the Gold Gardens
Daughter of Octavio Costello Gainglynn and Zarael
She who struck down the Storm-Druid Alamaria
Myrtle (the Bitch)
The Priestess of Storms, Devout of Umberlee, the Sinker of Ships and Collector of the Treasures of the Deep
Jack Brakkow
Unlucky Jack, he who escaped the Bilge only to sink in the depths of betrayal
The Captain of the Late Bloomer, whose crew haunts the mast kept at his side always
Legendary Adventuring Parties
The Bad Kids (Adventuring Party):
Members: Adaine Abernant, Kristen Applebees, Figueroth Faeth, Riz Gukgak, Fabian Aramais Seacaster, Gorgug Thistlespring
Slayed Daybreak, leader of the Harvestmen, and averted the apocalypse of perditional contradoxy
Defeated Kalvaxus, Emperor of the Red Waste
Defeated Occularia, Queen of Sight
Defeated Captain James Whitclaw, the archnemesis of William “Old Bill” Seacaster and prevented the crowning of a new Pirate King
Demolished the Elven prison, Calethriel Tower
Defeated the Nightmare King, the King of the Dark Dreaming
Defeated the Cult of the Night Yorb
Defeated the Night Yorb
The Sole Survivors of the Sundering of the Synod of Spyre
The first adventuring party in living memory to survive the Last Stand-ard Exam
The Buccaneer Buddies (Adventuring Party)
Members: Sunny Biscotto, Jack Brakkow, Barbarella Sasparilla Gainglynn, Cheese Stormcrank, Marcid the Typhoon, Myrtle the Bitch
Prevented the Summoning of William Seacaster for the destruction of Leviathan
Saved Leviathan from Destruction at the hands of Langley Sheffield-Harrington, Clive Mardres, the Storm-Druid Alamaria, and the Crescent Moon Trading Company
Averted the Wrath of the Storm King by disrupting the ritual of Alamaria and returning the Daughter of Storms to the briny depths
The Seven / The Maidens (Adventuring Party)
Members: Danielle Barkstock, Katja Cleaver, Zelda Donovan, Antiope Jones, Penny Luckstone, Sam Nightingale, Ostentatia Wallace
The Seven Maidens Chained at the Mouth of the Lair of Kalvaxus, the Emperor of the Red Waste
Eliminated the Cult of Kalvaxus as vengeance for their capture
Cleansed the Temple of the Earth Defiant of the mutated monstrosities
Commandeered the Rombosa, the Pleasure Barge of Talcidimir Tallbreeze and kidnapped hundreds of nobles from the Baronies
Averted Project Reset, an effort by the Ministry of Adventure to cause world-ending disasters
Defeated Talura, Eidolon of Death, the Ending of All Things, by channeling the spirits of the Eidolons
Legendary Items
Sword of Sight
The Sword of the Elven Oracle, forged by the legendary swordsmith Telemaine Lomenelda
Currently owned by the Elven Oracle Adaine Abernant
Fandrangor
The Sword of the North Star, forged by the legendary swordsmith Telemaine Lomenelda and gifted to the Elven King Thristwin Eversong
Currently owned by Fabian Aramais Seacaster
The Armors of Sin
Seven Suits of Infernal Armor, each forged by a different Infernal Being and associated with the Sins assigned to them by name
Armor of Gluttony - Armor Carved of White Bone, armed with a massive spiked net. Chosen Armor of Gorthalax the Insatiable. 
Armor of Pride - Armor of Gleaming gold, armed with a Golden Halberd
Armor gifted from Ankarna to her follower Athenriel. After Athenriel took on the form of Bakur, the armor passed through his lineage patrilineally until it was gifted to Gorthalax the Insatiable. 
The curse of the armor transferred to the eldest male descendants of the lineage with the death of each previous holder of the curse. The most recent of these was Gilear Faeth. Upon reunification with the line of Athenriel, the curse was left in a flux state, until it was taken on by the Dark Mistress and Archdevil of the Bottomless Pit, Figueroth the Infaethable. 
The Curse was broken and sealed in the Sword of Sight, and later used to remove the containment of Bakur from the body of Lydia Barkrock
Armor of Lust - Armor of Jet Black Leather, stitched together with a zipper over the mouth.
Armor of Envy - Armor formed of Pure Mirror
Armor of Wrath - Armor of Bleeding Iron, armed with two double-sided flails/scourges.
Armor of Greed
Armor of Sloth
Owned by Gorthalax the Insatiable and kept in the Bottomless Pit until stolen by the Scourge of the Nine Hells, Bill Seacaster.
The Transubstantiations of the Nightmare King
Four symbols of the Unnamed Goddess’ power, converted into four curses which spread the power of the King of the Dark Dreaming
The Coin, a curse placed on the hoard of Kalvaxus that allowed the Nightmare King to possess those who had knowledge of their wealth’s origin (Dragon Madness). This curse came from the trans-substantiation of the spellbook of the Unnamed Goddess, now known as Cassandra. DIspelled by the Blessed Saint Kristen Applebees.
The Plague, a curse placed on the familiar of the Unnamed Goddess, Kalina the Shadow Cat. This curse converted Kalina into a plague that manifested as various illusionary powers, with additional strength within the borders of Sylvaire. Dispelled by Aelwyn Abernant.
The Curse, a curse that bound celestials who attempted to enter the Nightmare King’s Forest and utilized their energies to power the mycelium web of trans-substantiations. This curse originated from the cottage of the Unnamed Goddess. Dispelled by Tracker O’Shaughnessy.
The Tree, a curse on the arcane focus of the Unnamed Goddess, a broomstick which became the Tree at the center of Sylvaire. This curse altered the shape of the Forest to suit the fears of those who entered–the more confident a traveler was in their path, the further they traveled from the center of the Forest. Dispelled by Tracker O’Shaughnessy.
The Crown of the Nightmare King
The last remnant of the Nightmare King after the Fall of Kalvaxus
A talisman capable of anchoring an extraplanar being to a world as if they were native to that plane
The Source of a great deal of power for the other trans-substantiations
Powerfully Cursed for mortal beings. Singular Curse broken by Garthy O’Brien
Dispelled by the Blessed Saint Kristen Applebees, through her Honest Worship of Doubt and her Resurrection of the Goddess Cassandra
The Daughter of Storms
Marble Relief that contains the soul of the daughter of Kahaerin, the Storm King, who calls the wrath of storms when it is brought above the surface of the deep sea
The Legendarium Extrordia
Divinatory Artifact that tracks the classification and progression of quests in the world of Spyre
Watches and Wards
Protective Ward created by the Elven Oracle Eleminthindriel, that prevents harmful summonings and conjurations on the grounds of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy
Only removable from the Aguefort Adventuring Academy Library by Arthur Aguefort and the Elven Oracle. Removed by Elven Oracle Adaine Abernant
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muffinlance · 2 years ago
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I saw your “Zuko brings home two dragons and becomes fire lord�� story (it was awesome :3). But what if Zuko got hurt somehow and the dragons went apeshit. (Cause they’re friends right?)
(Continued from this prompt.)
Hakoda’s fleet set sail six months ago. Fire Lord Ozai was assassinated in the middle of his own war council, by his own son, two months ago. The Earth Kingdom contacted Hakoda three weeks ago, with the proposal for a joint operation.
The new Fire Lord is traveling his lands, securing allies—rooting out opposition—in the wake of his regicide. A source close to his inner council, one concerned by violence uncommon even by the standards of Fire Nation nobility, leaked his travel schedule. Much of it is by sea.
They skirt the blockade to the South, between shifting glaciers. They work their way north, flying merchant flags. They strike at night. The deck crew is easily overtaken. Understaffed, even. Suspiciously so. But if this is a trap, it’s one they’ve already sprung. And if this is the work of the same traitor that sent them the prince’s schedule and ship plans, then Hakoda won’t waste the opportunity.
“Wait,” he whispers, as Bato catches a startled servant from behind. The kid is young. In his nightclothes. Freshly scarred by his nation’s own fire, in a way that doesn’t say good things about why a young child would be coming out of the Fire Lord’s own cabin in the middle of the night. Wide gold eyes stare at Hakoda over the top of Bato’s muffling hand. 
“Son of a—” hisses Bato, as quietly as a man can, when a child has just bitten his hand. The kid keeps struggling as Bato pins him against a wall. Hakoda shoves the Fire Lord’s door open, and—
Is greeted by an empty cabin, with mussed sheets, still warm from their occupant’s departure.
Hakoda steps back into the passageway, and crouches down to the kid’s eye level. “Easy; we aren’t here to hurt you. Where’s the Fire Lord?”
The kid glowers at him. “Did General Bujing hire you?” 
Footsteps down the companionway herald a much different general’s arrival. “That would be telling,” says Fong. “Excellent work, Chief. We’ll take it from here.”
…Facts click into place, and Hakoda does not like what he’s left with.
The kid is the Fire Lord. 
The Fire Lord is barely thirteen.
And Hakoda is realizing how much of their intelligence on the monstrous patricidal new Fire Lord came through Earth Kingdom channels, and how many details Fong did not find pertinent for the Water Tribe’s easily recruited Chief to know. 
“I think we can keep one kid contained on our ship,” says Bato, who also saw the cell General Fong had specially prepared. It had seemed a reasonable cruelty, at the time.
“I’ll bite you again,” growls the Fire Nation’s tiniest despot, not helping.
There’s a tense moment as Hakoda’s men, finished securing the ship, gather around him. Just as Fong’s men are gathering around him.
“Very well,” the general concedes, with a smile Hakoda no longer finds affable.
* * *
The new Fire Lord is a man of his word: he does, indeed, bite Bato again.
* * *
It’s dawn on deck. They hurry the prince off his own ship, partially to get away from Fong, and partially to move the boy past his dead countrymen as quickly as possible. The kid’s face had been—
Hakoda had not expected to find the new Fire Lord so young. But it’s even more of a surprise, somehow, to find that the new Fire Lord cares. Not all of the kid’s crew are dead. And it wasn’t the plan, but… Hakoda orders them left that way. Sends his own healer over to save as many as possible. 
“You didn’t use your fire against us,” Hakoda comments, as they stand on his own ship. Fire Lord Zuko’s eyes are fixed on the triage happening on the next deck over. But he takes a moment to look up at Hakoda, and finds a shade even paler than white to turn. 
The healing burn over his own face was a partial answer. The look on his face gives Hakoda the rest. 
“Good,” Hakoda says, even though the kid hasn’t said anything. “Fire shouldn’t be turned on people.”
“Fire is life,” the boy says quietly, in some kind of agreement. He turns back to watching his crew, his people. Those of them that can be saved. 
Hakoda knows that feeling. Has stood that watch. 
It’s dawn, so a streak of red in the sky can go unnoticed for quite some time. Blue as well, as the morning’s colors fade. Until both are rather too close to be ignored. 
Exclamations spread among the crew. He can hear them from Fong’s ship, as well. But it’s the cheering on the Fire Lord’s ship that sends the first chill down his spine. 
The new Fire Lord is barely thirteen. And he hasn’t been scared at all during this; not for himself. 
Hakoda realizes again just how little he knows about the new Fire Lord, just in time for two dragons to land. The blue one dives into the water. It barely makes a splash, but the force of water its titanic body displaces sends his ship lurching under his feet. It surfaces again, the great coils of its body wrapped around all three ships. It’s like something from a drunken sailor’s yarn about sea serpents; the kind that shouldn’t have left any witnesses alive to tell the tale.
The red one lands almost daintily, its four feet touching down on the only ship it doesn’t care about sinking, like a polar bear-ferret perched on a too-small rock. The rails of General Fong’s ship are forced down nearly to the waterline, his crew scattering and shouting. 
Two heads the size of a god’s dreaming loom over Hakoda’s deck.
The boy next to him huffs. “I’m fine,” he says. And then he looks up at Hakoda, with that same confidence he’s had, even when he was tackled by strange men in the darkness of his own ship. 
“The war is over,” says the burned child, with the force of two ancient dragons behind him. “We should negotiate.”
…Hakoda negotiates.
(Read more prompts || Longer ATLA fics || Original works)
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wileycap · 12 days ago
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THE TORCH (Headlines from the end of the Hundred Year War, as collected by the Royal Museum and the Military Historical Society)
The Torch was a newspaper founded in year four of Fire Lord Azulon's reign and shut down in year 16 of Fire Lord Zuko's reign. It had two purposes: to act as a mouthpiece of the current regime and to provide sensationalist entertainment. Due to the oft-conflicting nature of these dual purposes, examining the Torch can provide insight into Fire Nation society during the War and the spread of information within it. The Torch was occasionally permitted to gently criticize the government, leading scholars to believe that its true purpose was to alleviate public tensions and moderate criticism of the War.
Barbarians Destroy Grand Fleet At North Pole: Unnatural Powers Used, Fire Lord Ozai Vows To Protect Nation
Obituary For Admiral Zhao: "Not well-liked or particularly competent, but still mourned by 5-12 people in the nation"
Air Nomad Terrorist Sighted In The Earth Kingdom: "Possibility of Earth terrorism in the homeland", Cautions Top Official
Air Nomad Terrorist 'Oung' Sighted In A Swamp: Possible Drug Use?
Air Nomad Terrorist Kidnaps The Daughter Of EK Noble Beifong Amidst Rising Cries To Submit To The Fire Nation- "Helpless and blind"
Giant Drill Launched, Destroyed In The EK - Expert: "Definitely the best way to spend the equivalent of three years' GDP. All hail Fire Lord Ozai."
War Minister Caught In "Peace Conspiracy": Fired (Note: A correction was later printed, clarifying that the minister was burned to death.)
VICTORY! Fire Nation Covert Forces Capture Ba Sing Se, Led By Princess Azula
Disgraced Prince Spotted In Tender Moments With EK Sweetheart - "A travesty"
JUSTICE! Air Nomad Terrorist Uang Killed
Prince Zuko And Princess Azula Return To The Homeland
Prince Zuko Confirmed As Crown Prince: "Now that his official mission to strike out at our enemies is complete, the Prince will resume his duties"
The Most Eligible Bachelor? Prince Zuko Is Still Without Bethrotal
Royal Etiquette Trainer Slams Top Bachelorette Princess Azula: "Time to find a suitable match"
Renowned War Hero Princess Azula Has No Plans To Marry, And That's Okay
Former Etiquette Trainer Imprisoned For Defaming The Royal Family
East Coast School Life Disturbed By Cave Dancing
Fire Nation Factory Relocated In A Planned Way Without Any Explosions, Officials Report: "There are no river spirits in the Fire Nation"
Vicious Teen Arrested For Scamming, Destroys Part Of Peaceful Town: "This is why truancy laws are necessary"
Prince Zuko, Princess Azula Spotted Relaxing At The Beach: Six Injured, Luxury Mansion Destroyed
Spooky! Old Woman Keeps People Prisoner Under A Mountain
Two Ministers Jailed For Spreading Lies: "Prince Zuko was never banished and to claim that he was is a crime", Says Palace Spokesperson
Airship Fleet Unveiled, Thwarts Barbarian Incursion
Traitorous Former Prince Zuko, Who Was Banished For Three Years, Abandons His Nation
Front Falls Off Of Airship: "Highly unusual, I'd like to make that point"
Concerns Raised Over Fire Nation Engineer Uniforms: "Revealing and chafes my nipples"
Are Ancient Civilizations Still Here? "No", Says Expert
Escape At Boiling Rock! Two Prisoners Freed, Two Traitors Captured: "Really, the result is a net zero, if you think about it" (Note: No corrections were issued, despite a factual error in the number of escaped prisoners.)
Decorated Veteran Harrassed By Teen Girl, Own Mother
Hilarious! Ember Island Players Debut New Comedy
Fire Lord Zuko Ascends The Throne, Promises Era Of Peace
6 Reasons Why Fire Lord Ozai Is The Most Successful Ruler In History
Sozin's Comet Approaches, Officials Caution Against Firebending In Public
Four Things You Need To Do During Sozin's Comet To Ensure Prosperity For Your Family
Phoenix King Ozai Launches Surprise "Final Strike"
Ozai Of The Fire Nation Held For Crimes Against Humanity
Avatar Aang Brokers Truce
Is Fire Lord Zuko Still Single? Speculations Erupt
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demaparbat-hp · 9 months ago
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Even if zuko has a plan to end the war, making katara work amongst people who likely hold racism towards her and aided and supported the genocide of her people is still weird, especially since zuko benefits from the fire nations oppression of people throughout s1 when hunting the Avatar. Not good choices to make in a zutara au :/
Believe me, I've made these arguments against myself over and over again.
I know I'm putting Katara in an extremely difficult and unjust position in this AU with—from an outsider's point of view—little to no reason other than "I just wanted to see her in Fire Nation armor and kicking ass" and no consideration for the context. I'm not trying to somehow forgive nor redeem the Fire Nation's actions in war just because...well...just because. Not at all. People who've read Soundless (or any other of my wips, really) know that's not the case. On the contrary—I always do my best to see the war through a realistic, mature lense. And that includes everything that makes the Fire Nation so terrible in the first place.
That being said, there are some things I considered when deciding to make Katara side with them (even if her true motives lie elsewhere) in this AU. And they are not excuses. Just, different layers of context.
First of all, she was desperate. By this point in her life, her mother was dead, her father had left to fight the war, her brother followed behind a few years after, and she was left filling the empty spaces when, by all means, she wasn't ready for the responsibility. She had been feeling helpless and hopeless for years, and ached to do anything to help her people beyond doing chores and taking care for the children.
Let it be known that Aang's apparent betrayal comes from a place of trauma and misplaced anger on Katara's part. Much like how she put the Fire Nation's sins on Zuko's shoulders in S3. She is not on the right here, but this is her natural way to process and understand grief. There are many different aspects of her development as a child involved in how she views the Avatar—and, by extension, Aang—but more on this later.
Katara was young, and reckless, and she had just been "betrayed" by the first person who ever looked at her and saw more than the perfect caretaker she was forced to be. She was not in the right state of mind to make a decision like that and, to be honest, she couldn't have predicted the consequences. She saw a clear path to contribute to the end of the war, and by La she would take it.
On Zuko's end, you might argue that he should have known better than to let her join him and, well, you would be right. But there were many things about Katara's trauma response and state of mind that—unless he had known her for a long time—he couldn't have known. He will definitely blame himself later on, when the racism and cruelty towards Katara begins, and especially when word reaches her family at sea.
It's Katara's job to smack some sense into him from time to time and tell him that, yes, he should have tried harder to stop her (and she would probably be better off because of it) but what's done is done. And, by all means, the decision was hers to make. If anything, it's their fault, not his alone.
Now, Katara doesn't suffer the entire AU. That would just be cruel.
Zuko's crew was handpicked by Uncle Iroh, so you can expect dissidents, traitors and a few White Lotus agents who were smart enough to keep their true opinions quiet. There are...mixed opinions in that bunch, of course, but that's expected and, to be honest, rather easily dealt with. They are mostly honourable people just doing their best to end the war from the inside.
The real problem comes when they cross paths with, say, Zhao's fleet (or Hakoda's, let's be real).
And you may ask why Zuko is hunting down Aang, then, if he's secretly a goody-two-shoes himself... I'll explain that later in depth, so stay tuned.
In short, I know the decisions I've made, as a creator, are debatable at best, and downright blasfemous at worst. But they're deliberate.
I want the readers to feel conflicted about Katara's choices in this AU. I want people to have mixed opinions about the war, the (apparent lack of) morality, the characters, you name it!
I'm not trying to glorify a victim of war joining the side of the ones responsible for her people's genocide, even if it's just for show and she's actually set on destroying their government from within. Not at all.
Katara made a stupid, horrible decision, and she's going to suffer the consequences. But she's also going to fight to reach her goals, because she's stubborn like that.
I know most people may have a little trouble understanding where I'm coming from, because they don't have all the information necessary to make a full opinion.
I'm really thankful for these kind of asks. They let me explore these concepts and AUs in depth, and see what you think about them. I'm only human—my opinions are not infalible, nor The Right Ones, and this is a kind of discussion that I love to have.
So, keep the asks coming!!!
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dukeofdelirium · 6 months ago
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This has to quite possibly be the dumbest Anti-Aang I’ve seen on Tumblr. “Aang didn’t go out of his way for anyone”. Like that’s objectively wrong, factually incorrect. Like saying The Earth is flat, you can think it all you want, but it ain’t true. I ask you, I genuinely ask you, how can someone call themselves a fan of this show when they completely misinterpret it and hate the main character this much? This person’s crazy.
Aang never went out of his way for anyone? My god, if this take were true, Zuko would have been dead at the end of season one. Everyone aside from Aang was fine with the idea of allowing Zuko to freeze to death, leaving him to die. Aang was the one that saved him.
Holy shit, the first thing Aang ever offered to do with no expectation of anything in return was to offer Sokka and Katara a ride home before they died themselves stranded in the tundra. He then offered to take Katara to the other side of the world to fulfill her dreams. When he was banished from her village, he left without protest and even said he didn’t want to come between Katara and her family. Even when he was sad to leave because he had just made a first friend in who knows how long (seeing as we know he was ostracized at the temple), he still left.
He then came back not to break the banishment but to save their lives. He offered himself up, LITERALLY sacrificed himself for them, with no expectation of anything in return.
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Aang is an extremely compassionate, good natured person. He is the most “altruistic” character in the show, followed only by Katara who comes nearly as close (one of the reasons they are so good together).
He singlehandedly put the fires out on Kyoshi Island that ZUKO SETS, he protects the NWT from invasion in every possible way he can and singlehandedly wipes out their fleet when he gives himself over to the ocean spirit, he demands they search for Bumi NOT because he needs a teacher but because bumi is his FRIEND! He saves everyone in the cave by making sure they don’t get fucking crushed with its collapse, he is willing to sacrifice himself and force himself into the Avatar State to win the war because he is that guilt ridden even when the AS is extremely painful and traumatizing to him, he stops this only when it affects Katara because he loves her, he offers to let Toph run away with them not because he wants to use her as a teacher but because he listened to her life story and wishes to help her feel free, he fucking dies for Katara and sacrificed his own love for her to save her life
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he tries to shoulder every burden he feels on his own as a means to protect the other characters
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he supports Sokka when he voices insecurities, he is welcoming and friendly to Hakoda and even inquires about how Katara is feeling when he meets Hakoda, he sobs during the eclipse invasion because Katara and Sokka have to be separated from their father again and Aang blames himself for this defeat and is grief stricken because he is so upset they are losing their dad again (and he thinks it’s his fault)
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Why the actual fuck would Katara ever “choose” Zuko over Aang?
Katara was never deeply tied to Zuko. She always saw him as an enemy trying to take away the boy she loved. This is why she threatened to fucking kill him.
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Zuko helped his sister murder Aang right in front of Katara’s eyes. It was canonically the darkest period of her life.
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Katara’s anger and hatred toward Zuko is 100% justified. Of course, Zuko is a self absorbed ass, so he claims her anger isn’t justified and that she’s just projecting. Her anger toward him specifically had far more to do with what he did to Aang and far less to do with what the Fire nation and Zuko’s family did to her mother. Even still, she’s right to be angry about her mother’s murder too, and Zuko’s piece of shit family is responsible.
Why the fuck would Katara magically drop to her knees and suck Zuko’s dick? He’s literally a colonizer for over 2/3 of the show. He didn’t just have a passive role, he was an active player in the war and invaded the NWT with the FN as a means to capture Aang and take him back to his daddy, where Aang would have undoubtedly been tortured mercilessly and kept on the brink of death. He assaulted Katara during this and knocked her unconscious, he taunted her with shitty words and undermined her bending ability and threw some racial/classist remarks as well as some misogynistic ones her way.
When he eventually did get his shit together and join the group, he just used her mother’s death against her and Sokka because that’s all he ever did in regards to Katara and Sokka’s mother. He learned how she died, then had Sokka divulge trauma to then use said trauma to try and force Katara to forgive him by persuading her to go on a suicide mission of revenge and bloodlust. He also literally mocked Aang’s culture and genocided people to his face, when his family committed the genocide. Oh, and he also mocked Aang’s forgiveness despite begging on his damn hands and knees for that very forgiveness like 3 episodes prior.
And then at the end of the episode, Zuko states himself that he legit doesn’t understand Katara or what she needs in life. Cuz of course he doesn’t. He isn’t a survivor of genocide, he hasn’t suffered ethnic cleansing, he isn’t oppressed. For fucks sake, his mother isn’t even dead and he gets reunited with her a few years after the canon shows timeline. Everything Zuko loses, he has returned to him. His honor, his right to the throne, his mother.
But tell me again how Katara and Aang are a bad match when they are the only two who will ever truly understand the other
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