#ITS BEEN 16 YEARS SINCE ZUKO

[pinacoladamatata]

if they Tamlen solas' ass, that might just be IT for me

[livrere-green]

ATLA x Omegaverse AU

Part 1 | Part 2

I've been thinking about an omegaverse atla au a lot recently, so I'm gonna vent about it cuz it's getting tiring just to have it spiralling in my head ngl

So, the only thing that I need to mention now it's that the standard age at which someone presents is around 13 to 14 years old. Knowing that, lets talk about the main characters.

Aang (12) would be unpresented by the time of the show. Also, I don't believe that being the avatar makes him an alpha perse. I mean, there's a possibility he presents as one (but he could also be a beta), and it wouldn't have anything to do with his avatar status (historically there could be a higher rate of avatars being alphas/betas, but there are some important exceptions... iykwim). Well, I think he'd present at age 13 almost 14.

Katara (14) is one of the characters that confuses me the most in this aspect, but just to add fuel to her fury and her personality, I'll make her an omega, not the kind that rejects her nature but the kind that embraces it and doesn't see it as something that makes her inferior or helpless. Katara would fight against the life society wants to impose on her in the same way she does in canon, maybe even more. She would resent the people who doesn't respect her because of her gender and at some point, she'd get frustrated about it, but she would think that hating herself would mean letting her oppressors win. About her presentation, there's two option: 1. She presented some months before they found Aang, 2. She presented during the first months they were traveling to the NWT (in this case, I think the ideal place would've been Kyoshi Island, because there's people able to take care of her there).

Sokka (15) would be an alpha, he probably presented after Hakoda left (14), he fits the type and the stereotypical personality at the beginning of the show. But I think he would get over it sooner rather than later, because the why he acts has to do more with his perception of himself and the expectations set upon his shoulders than with unshakeable beliefs about the ability of betas and omegas. He would learnt to respect and don't underestimate them quickly. Also, I think that Sokka would scent the Gaang to protect them and particularly to cover Katara's scent as they travel or run away from trouble.

Toph (12) would be unpresented by the time of the show. She'd present as an alpha some time after the end of the war (13). There's not a lot to explain here (talking about her at that age, except for the fact that even during her time with the Gaang, she probably hated Sokka's essence, just as an early hint about her gender). I consider that there's a lot to discuss about her as an adult and how she managed her relationships, but that's a discussion for another time.

Zuko (16) would be an omega, and also a late bloomer, probably presented a couple of years after his banishment (15).. Zuko would be determined to hide his true nature under any circumstances, letting only his Uncle know about it. Ozai would've been informed that his son is a beta, which was already a disappointment for the Royal Family (historically alphas), but it wasn't nearly as negative as being reduced to be treated as an omega. Zuko would end up causing himself a lot of damage in order to disguise as a beta, either by using too many suppressants or other medications, or even hurting himself. He would stop hiding after joining the Gaang but It'll be complicated, since he'd be distressed all the time and even Aang and Toph would be able to notice (their senses are not totally develop, so it'll be kinda alarming).

Suki (15) would be a beta, presented at 14. In her case, the characteristics of its gender would be especially helpful to mediate conflict or get out of it. The scent of a beta has calming effects in both alphas and omegas, so she would use it with her friends, or even in battle, to make her opponents lose focus, particularly if they are driven by rage. The fans are particularly helpful for that.

Azula (14) would present early as an alpha (12/13). At that age, one of the traits she would manifest the most is assuming the position of head of the pact with her friends, she'd probably scent them with the intention of establishing superiority and control over them. In this context, Mai would be a beta and Ty Lee an omega or a beta as well.

That's all for now, I still have some things in mind for this, but I'll share that later, and if you have questions, I'll be happy to answer!

[yikes-kachowski]

Hey Yikes! I hope you're doing well!

What's the world like by the time Sakari ascends to the throne?

Hello friend! This is long and detailed so, settle in, get some water, maybe a snack. I consulted my esteemed colleague and co-writer/lore master to make the most comprehensive post possible since I've got a lot of ideas. If you have any further questions you can ask either of us :)

Here goes:

They are primarily working through economic and parliamentary reform. While they’ve been slowly liberalizing and democratizing, officially getting a parliament eight years after the war, the Fire Nation under Fire Lord Zuko is still fundamentally an autocracy (Zuko will later be known as an ‘enlightened despot’ by future historians, as will King Kuei), a Parliament works to delegate certain tasks to, and field research. All laws and reforms are still ultimately up to the Fire Lord, though Zuko has been putting in place laws that have been slowly decreasing monarchic power and influence in the Fire Nation.

The Parliament (and other official positions) are appointed through an examination process, which is completely free, and open to anyone in the country who chooses to try it. The examinees are numbered, so there can be no bias when grading, or when they are brought to officials to be appointed into whatever roles they may qualify for. Local officials—like mayors—are elected, but there is rigorous oversight in the election process, because elections are still pretty new to the Fire Nation, and a lot of people don’t see the point in voting. The oversight is to try and mitigate local lords/landowners from pitting elections to be in their favor. Elections will expand under Sakari, though democratization is a decidedly slow process in the Fire Nation.

The Fire Nation has traditionally been a command economy, since the times of Fire Lord Yozor. Currently, they are trying to find a balance between privatization and socialization. Either way, the Fire Nation invests most of its resources into infrastructural development and social services. A big recent push has been outreaches to the Outer Islands, that have been traditionally overlooked by the monarchy, and tended to get far less funding than they needed, even under Zuko. Sakari is looking into simplifying they’re bureaucratic and bloated social service programs, and simplifying (some of them) into a universal basic income.

They’re also working on reforming their tax system into a far more simple land value tax. The dividends made with this system will be used for a universal basic income.

They are converting to a decimal monetary system, since they’re current system is incredibly complicated, and much harder to do international trade with.

Sakari will probably be remembered as having strong environmental protections, which will be somewhat of a roadblock to economic development in the industrial sphere, and for Cultural Demilitarization. Meaning, kids aren’t expected to go to military schools from the ages of 11 through 16.

True democratization won’t be implemented until the next Fire Lord.

And coronation sketches that I probably won't finish but never say never

[djemsostylist]

Since starting this blog as a Vampire Diaries blog back in 2012, I've gone through a number of iterations. After my stint as a TVD blog for the better part of three years, I expanded out into a multi-purpose, whatever is my current hyperfixation blog. There are, of course, always the long running staples (Star Wars, Warhammer, LOTR) but I have gone through some pretty specific weird ones. The summer/fall of Mad Max: Fury Road, my years long Steve Rogers obsession, my summer of The Musketeers, that month of The Originals. The year I lost my mind and started watching dizis (lol, thank god that one is over).

The point is, I've had many throughout the years, but I haven't had one ongoing and deep since maybe the first season of House of the Dragon. (That one ended abruptly when I finished reading Fire and Blood and realized that the source material was stupid as shit, the writers were possibly dumber and this show was going to make me mad sooner than later.) In addition to an extremely busy past year or so and the disappointment of the end of The Siege of Terra, I haven't really had anything that has captured my interest for a long period of time. (Decimus Androndinus Felix, Lord of Vespator and the Eastern Marches is the current love of my life but he was only in four books and now they are done and I am SAD).

Welp. This summer I spent a week with my brother @bonesingerofyme-loc as I do every summer, and in light of the extreme heat and our extreme laziness, we decided to binge watch the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender. He's been a fan for a long, long time, but since I was like, 16 when it came out, I wasn't exactly the target demographic. And its taken me a while into adulthood to truly embrace certain interests, and he patiently waited to spring this one on me.

And buddy. This show got me. It's got everything I love in a show, in a children's show (I love children's media that isn't just mindless entertainment, and there is a particular type that just does it for me) and it's the sort of thing that is just beautiful as it's written and also really needs no explaining. It reminds me of Bantam Star Wars (it's best era), and that sort of unique blend of magic and mystery and family and despair and hope and love and everything in between. Aang is just so Luke, with his love that is greater than the world and also for the world, with the breathless way he uses his power but with so much thought and care. With the family that they build, with the truly excellent writing. I could go on at length, and probably will in later posts on in later drafts, but this show. This fucking show man.

And then, of course, bc he can never leave well enough alone, he tells me about his ship. The ship. And it's a rarepair, which is insane because I NEVER ship rarepairs, both because rarepairs are usually silly, often more infuriating than not, and so limited that the full scope of fangirling and obsession is hard to fully realize. But like, it's fucking perfect and I'm handling it about as well as you'd expect lol. (It's Zuko/Toph, because of course I would fucking fall in love with that pairing.) Anyway, expect Avatar span for at least the next two weeks until work starts again (or even more if I'm stressed enough to need an escape lol).

[14th-century-verona-queer]

Sokka HC’s (trauma edition)

just some stuff that I think is true abt Sokka idk

I haven’t watched ATLA in literal years so please correct me if some of my info is wrong

Some of these are probably obvious but I just wanted to give my take on them lol

Ever since the night of the fire nation raid, he’s terrified of fire and even more scared of the smell of bodies burning and the sight of ash. Because although fire is what took his mother and a lot of the tribe members away, the smell of bodies burning and the sight of ash reminds him of the sight he saw that night, and how he was useless to do anything about it, that now burns forever in his memory. Because while Katara is traumatized at seeing the death of Kya, Sokka is traumatized of seeing his tribe members killed and burned in front of him. He’s the kind of guy to break down after the fact of whatever just happened, so he can still fight fire nation soldiers and everything. But the minute he gets off of the battlefield and the adrenaline wears off and hes alone? He makes some excuse about “needing to plan where they’re going next in the peace and quiet because fucking toph and aang make it hard to focus with their earthbending lessons” he breaks down, sobs racking his body and an inevitable panic attack coming as he relives the worst night of his life over and over again for hours, acrid smoke and burning flesh all he’s able to smell, screams of pain and heartbreak all he’s able to hear. (when Zuko comes along it gets a little bit better because he can remind himself the Zuko is a fire bender and hes safe and warm and would never do anything to hurt me. So he just kind of melts into his best friend’s boyfriends arms and it becomes a routine for them. More on that on the zukka post i will get to writing..eventually)

He has abandonment issues because of how unexpectedly Kya died and left him to take care of Katara while she was grieving, and then Hakoda left him to take care of the entire tribe by himself. This is probably why in that one episode (i dont remember which one and im too lazy to find it) Sokka was so adamant about refusing to let Katara go and try to save Haru and his dad, because he was scared that she wouldn’t leave until she got everyone off of the ship, eventually get captured, and spend the rest of her days there, leaving him behind.

(This ones cannon I think but here’s my take on it) He has self-worth issues because of his constant expectations that have been set on him, by himself and by other people. A lot of people reading this are gonna be like well yea he had to take care of the entire tribe by himself! Which, true! Not exactly the best move Hakoda, but what’re you gonna do i guess. But i think his self-worth issues stem more from his need to be the perfect “chief”. What i mean by that is that if he’s doesn’t catch enough fish for the tribe (even if they probably have enough to survive because always working too hard) he hates himself because he isn’t doing enough and they look so skinny and its all my fault because i just can’t catch enough fish. And if the people are cold, or if they’re sick, they expect him to take care of them, but they dont see that he’s a 16 (or younger, he was acting as chief for a couple years before Aang came along i think) year old boy trying to do everything himself with no help. Every day he hears the same thing: “Sokka, we don’t have enough ______! Can you please get more?” So he never ever thinks he’s good enough no matter what he does because there’s just never enough. even if he catches 100 fish for the whole village to eat, he’ll still beat himself up about it because sure they were able to eat today, but they’re not eating enough and he still needs to get more furs for everyone because the winter is only getting colder and they’re getting sicker and they’re all going to die because he’s so useless and can’t do anything right

because of him having to do everything himself, he absolutely hates being offered help. He refuses it practically every single time, because he’s so used to people younger than him counting on him to do something, and if they’re counting on him that means that he cannot fail, and asking for help (to him) is one way of failing. If he asks for help that means he couldn’t do the one thing Hakoda asked him too. It’s super simple Sokka, just take care of the village of like 15 people. And he can’t even do that.

He’s an absolute control freak and micromanages everything, and Katara (the hypocrite, smh) hates it. He needs to be in control of everything because that means that nothing can go wrong unless he makes a mistake. (Which he knows he will make a mistake but at least its his fault and he can find a way to fix it) If he relies on other people that means they’ll make mistakes which means something that needed to get done won’t and he’ll fuck up again and he’ll be worthless, because planning and fixing and engineering and fighting is all he has, all he thinks hes good for. He would rather be solely blamed for not being good enough and screwing up than letting someone like Zuko or Katara or Aang be told that. He was never in control of the war or his mother’s death of Hakoda leaving or anything, so he find some kind of solace or coping mechanism in being able to at least control the village and having some semblance of control (idk how else to explain this! Im so sorry!)

Also because he doesn’t trust anyone else to do it right lol. He’s been taking care of the whole village for such a long time that there’s a very specific way you supposed to do this Katara! It took him such a long time to finally get a rhythm going, get used to how to take care of 15+ people at a time, so any little change to his routine pisses him off and makes him panic because he’s lost the control of the situation and now he’s in an unknown territory where he doesn’t know how to do anything which makes him a liability.

(I’ll probably continue to update this post because im probably not done, and/or make a pt 2 if y’all wanna see that. Won’t be restricted to just trauma next time!)

[sokkastyles]

The comics are shit so don’t ever try to mention them to me again, also if there was somehow a “canon” story about about Aang murdering people with a Glock, you’d probably defend it with your life

I’m pretty sure Iroh just grabbed a doll from a store he burned down and then gave it to Azula because he wanted her to act like a “proper woman”, both of his gifts were wrong to give, thank god Zuko gave it back to a rightful owner, Azula was an 8 year old with fire in her blood, and it’s not like Zuko or Ursa or Iroh (who was busy trying to commit genocide) really cared all that much, people have been calling other people fat for ages, it’s only you woke snowflakes that are afraid of it, and Azula called him fat 6 years after the gift 

This is Iroh’s face when Azula shows up, before she even got to her point 

That is the face of utter contempt and hatred 

What would you do if you were surrounded by 6 dangerous people? You don’t understand what “war” and “battle” mean

The worst things that Iroh says about Ozai to Zuko is that he isn’t very understanding and that he doesn’t tend to regret his actions. He also encouraged Zuko to keep trying to capture the Avatar, so he can go home to his abusive father, while also am saying that getting captured by Azula is a fate worse than death, and that she’s mentally insane 

Iroh and The White Lotus conquering Ba Sing Se does not change anything in the finale, you can cut it out and nothing changes, Ba Sing Se could have been taken back on any other day before the comet, Iroh should have changed his plans to help with the defeating the airships which would kill everyone (or whatever Ozai’s stupid plan was) but instead he sends 3 children (only 1 of whom could bend) to do it and they almost fucking die, he wants to conquer Ba Sing Se because he it was his “Destiny since birth”, and also because he wants to relax in his tea shop instead of helping the world, and he wants to use the comet to cause more destruction, achieving his goal in a way before he “changed” and its not like the city’s suffering more than when Long Feng controlled it.

Leaving your traumatized 16 year old nephew to become the ruler of a county, while also going to another continent to rest in a tea shop in a city you tried to burn down, is the definition of abandonment, Iroh easily could have opened the tea shop in The Fire Nation

Azula is far from selfish, she cares deeply about Ozai, Zuko, Ty Lee, Mai, and Ursa, and she is a dedicated patriot who does things all in name of The Fire Nation 

I think Ursa SHOULD help Azula, AFTER she rejects Fire imperialism and admits she wasn’t the best parent, I think Ursa had good intentions, but was too harsh on Azula. 

That's all this is, just the completely ridiculous ramblings of someone who overidentifies with a violent bully because it feeds your own white woman Karen victim complex.

Again, this is why the Zuko fandom can't have nice things, and that I can’t ignore your incorrect opinions. 

Or you could just get out of my inbox, you troglodyte. I didn't read past the first sentence, but it's funny how the comics don't exist unless you want to (badly) try to use them to make a (nonexistent) point.

Iroh's face in that screenshot is my face right now. Because bullies who show up to harass others deserve contempt. Keep proving that this is what you and your ilk deserve, because I don't have as much patience as Iroh does.

[magnorious]

Review: The Last Airbender Episodes 2 & 3

I still need to watch this show in a pitch-black room to see anything on screen during night scenes. Did you not learn from Game of Thrones?

Jet’s here! He shouldn’t be, but he is! Teo’s here! He shouldn’t be, but he is! And they’re both fantastic. Azula, Ozai, Mai, and Ty Lee are here! Wait a second….

—

Something I didn’t touch too much on the last episode that I’m going to now: This crippling addiction Hollywood has to ~reimagining~ beloved cartoons in live action consistently has the same flaw: It’s so *boring*. 

On the one hand, yes, I love the live action costumes. I love all the detail that can now be added since it doesn’t take tediously intricate details drawn frame by frame. However, cartoons, especially anime-inspired cartoons, take full advantage of the medium and frequently don’t draw *realistic* humans, they emphasize the features that matter like caricature.

ALTA not only uses caricature but the slapstick, rubbery physics of a cartoon world to hand-wave away the consequences of elemental fisticuffs. The expressions the characters make, their peak character designs, the exactness of every frame, even the less-detailed background shots of little gummy people with undefined details, these define the show.

So while the casting has been great so far, Gyatso, Iroh, Bumi, Zuko, Sokka, Gran Gran, through no fault of their own or the fault of the medium, lack the cartoonishness of the original characters. The cartoonishness that makes this show so beloved so the live action scenes feel… lesser. 

Also, because it’s anime-inspired, the fight scenes storyboarded and drawn in anime are incredibly dynamic. The way the camera sits and follows the action is beholden to no real-world physics because it’s all drawn and anime is particularly good at making spectacular, intense fight scenes. This show’s fight scenes, while well-choreographed, aren’t filmed like a live-action anime, and that also makes it feel lesser.

—

I can’t be the only one disappointed that every episode doesn’t begin with Katara’s narration, can I? They went through the trouble of CGI-ing the whole thing, so why not?

I was holding out hope that they’d still find the avatar statue room, because it was so well-animated and hauntingly beautiful with the buildup and all the eyes glowing. They kept tiny versions of the statues, it just lacked the oomph.

Or the foamy-mouth guy and all the kids enamored with Aang on Kyoshi Island, and Aang reveling in the praise and attention. That dude has become his own meme. He’s hilarious.

Still not satisfied with Iroh’s voice (not the actor’s fault), or Zuko’s, for that matter. He doesn’t quite hit the “I’m an angsty 16 year old stuck with an uncle whom I do not respect or take seriously in any way and refuse to admit that I care about” vibe. Zhao also doesn’t sound intimidating (though he tries and his physical acting is great). When casting all these roles, I wish they would have paid as much attention to the voices of the live-action actors, as much as their faces. There’s zero grit in anyone’s voices, even Gran Gran’s. Zhao sounds his best when his voice lowers as he narrates his letter to Ozai.

Humor-wise, this show sits in a weird spot where it’s trying to be funny only with one-liners (like Marvel) and zero situational humor. Sokka is the best attempt the show makes at being funny and sometimes it lands, I just wish there was more of it. It’s like this show is afraid to lose its “gritty” badge if any scene dares to be legitimately funny.

I do like the nod to the cartoon’s title sequence with Aang air-scootering into that statue. That’s the situational humor I’m talking about.

—

Kyoshi island (and their costumes) was good, lacking humor and giant koi notwithstanding. Kyoshi herself making an appearance giving Aang some sagely wisdom 50-odd episodes early is a treat, even if he’s suddenly excellent at handling the Spirit World with zero effort. They didn’t turn the Kyoshi warriors into insufferable girlbosses, remaining incredibly competent warriors that happen to be women.

In attempt to make it more adult, they’re starting to fudge some backstories and motivations, like Aang now having too much power to the point where the other kids were afraid of him, and the Sokka/Suki romance being far less subtle, and a lot more physical. It’s less sweet and more “wow, these teenagers are horny”. Katara did not witness Kya getting burned alive, her mother would never have let that happen. She’d left the tent to find her dad, and by the time she came back, Kya was already gone. It was tragic already, why make it worse?

**Side note, Momo is a lemure, not a monkey, please don’t give him generic monkey noises. They already gave you plenty of sound design for Momo, just use it.

Aang fumbling around in the Spirit World at the worst possible moment is so true to form, it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious. Him ending that trip by manifesting into Kyoshi totally kneecaps the moment during the Winter Solstice where he becomes Roku, even if it looked cool.

The Ozai reveal, though. Why? Just why? Did Daniel Dae Kim have X amount of minutes contractually obligated? Ozai wasn’t revealed for two entire seasons, not his face. They waited and waited and waited, leaving him silhouetted by flames and shadows, only drawing him from behind or from the neck down. This was a *reveal* because we didn’t know what to expect. Would he be as ugly as his soul? Handsome? Pretty? Scarred himself, like his son?

Oh. Azula’s here, too.

The writers of this show and Percy Jackson went to the same school of “Mystery be damned, let’s shoot our load right f’ing now!”

Also, Mr. Kim should have been Zhao, not Ozai. He would have made a fantastic Zhao.

—

The more Ozai is on screen, even if his scenes are good, misses the whole point of why he was barely a character. I’m trying not to use “the cartoon did X better” too much, but the cartoon did it better and here’s why:

Ozai is basically a non-character. Who *he* is doesn’t matter, he’s a bad guy doing bad things because he’s an evil narcissist. His actions and his orders are felt across the globe, though. So the Gaang doesn’t meet him (some ever) until the finale, but they still feel the impact of his actions the entire series.

Who’s Ozai? The guy who burned and banished his son and sent him on a wild goose chase.The guy who’s admiral murdered the moon spirit. Who continues to lay siege to the Earth Kingdom and whose daughter orchestrates its downfall. We don’t need to see who he is for him to be one scary dude. He doesn’t need all these extra scenes to prove how terrifying he is.

The original perfected “less is more” and Ozai (and Azula, and Mai and Ty Lee) just don’t need to be here. Not yet.

With that said, Azula’s great, what little we see of her. Ozai is great. They really seem to be having fun with their roles.

Episode three leaves me curious if all the kids watched the original and wanted so badly to make this show funny, and all the adults told them to tone it down. They’re trying so hard. Props to everyone doing their best with an IP as beloved as this one, and the massive shoes they all have to fill.

More missing humor: Bonzu Pipinpadaloxicopolis! But at least they kept the cabbage merchant.

Episode three decided to combine the Northern Air Temple with Omashu and Jet for reasons. These were two entirely separate plots and locations, but Teo and the Mechanist are incredibly entertaining even if they’re early. They filmed only eight episodes and I feel like a broken record when I say: If you hadn’t given us the wrong filler, you could have properly adapted the missing content. You can skip the Great Divide, though. I hope you skip the Great Divide.

The filler is entertaining. I like the easter egg of the Yu Yan archers training in the background with Azula, implying that she’s as good as they are. I don’t think Azula would bother mastering archery when she’s a firebending prodigy, but the scene is nice. The original Omashu and Northern Air Temple would have been nicer.

Can’t say I miss the original Jet episode and the second I saw this scruffy boy with emo hair in his eyes on that wagon, I thought, “This is Jet, right? It’s gotta be Jet. He’d make a perfect Jet.”

And I was right!

Wrong time, wrong place, but this is the first character who, upon seeing them completely out of their episode, even if he looks nothing like his cartoon version, he fits that character’s vibe perfectly. Excellent casting.

“Omashu” is so far divorced from the original, it might as well be its own thing and it’s buckwild, but it combines elements from three independent episodes and it works incredibly well, even if the plots still feel disjointed from each other, each stays their welcome as long as they need to.

The freedom fighters are amazing. Their costumes are amazing. As each one showed up on screen I was grinning from ear-to-ear. My only detractor is the slight-fanservicey nature of it all once Jet starts naming his team. No notes on Jet dropping his disguise and the slow-mo of the reveal of his hook-swords. One more re-write and it would have been flawless. Can’t wait to see this guy ambiguously pass away beneath Lake Laogai. He’ll be great.

—

I’m liking Iroh less and less every time I see him. He’s just not Iroh. He doesn’t act like him, doesn’t talk like him, doesn’t wax poetic like him, which is a shame because, behind Zuko, I’m pretty sure Iroh is the fan-favorite character. He was an entire generation’s mentor and this just isn’t him.

Zuko’s dickishness was also tempered by him being an awkward turtleduck. Here he’s just aggressive with zero moments for second-hand embarrassment. He doesn’t get bullied by Sokka in the premier, doesn’t bicker with Iroh, he just yells and screams. He’s not endearing in the slightest.

The VFX as well – I know the underpaid and overworked artists did their best but it’s very distracting when they’re so obviously standing in front of a greenscreen.

This show still does not need to exist, make no mistake, and I can see why the original writers left. There’s scenes I’ve legit fast-forwarded through because they just won’t end and I am bored – the massacre of the Air Nomads? Skipped.

With that said, it’s not the worst adaptation in the world, and everyone still showed up to do their best with the script they were given. Does every line land? Heck no. Are the fight scenes cool? Ehhhh, kind of? Is it funny? No, not really, not compared to the original. Is it for kids? I think no less than 20 people have been burned alive at this point so, no, not really. Not like the original was for all ages.

Once again we have a “but was it better than the first attempt?” bar two feet into the topsoil. Yes, so far, it is. At least it’s not like that other horrible adaptation that forgot it was an action-adventure story.

But Jet was awesome. If he carries this review solely on how awesome he was, so be it.

[a-still-small-vox]

So I never got around to actually publishing this in 2022 (oops) so I’m going to publish it now for the record, then release the current one for 2023 immediately after.

Fics written in 2022, and their word counts:

A Royal Holiday | Homestuck | DaveJade | 4,901 words (Homestuck Secret Santa)

None But The Brave | Redwall | Mattimeo-centric | 9,146 words

Honey | FFXV x Dragon Age | Promptis | 4,802 words (FTH)

Poison Paradise | The Witcher | Geraskier | 2,524

The Immortor | FFXV | Promptis | 9,078 words

Tomber La Chemise | FFXV | Promptis | 1,088 words

Falling Water | FFXV | Promptis | 15,116 words

The Adventures of Prompto Argentum, Cyborg Mechanic | FFXV | Promptis | 9,615 words (Book Club Discord exchange)

Mountain Guardian | FFXV | Promptis | 5,838 words (Promptis discord holiday wishes event)

Irons In The Honey | Homestuck | Katnep | 5,603 words (Homestuck Secret Santa)

Because You Are My Friend | FFXV | Promptis | 7,906 (Promptis discord holiday wishes event)

The Painting Of Mao | No. 6 | Nezushi | 2,613 words (No. 6 Secret Santa)

Unreleased fics

Excerpt From The Chronicles of Bleaklow Monastery | 7,005 words - this was written for the No. 6 discord’s OC exchange

Four Slices | Avatar: the Last Airbender | Zuko & Iroh | 11,982 words - for the upcoming Forged In Flame zine

The Council Of Six | No. 6 | Nezushi | 2,753 words - for the No. 6 Zine by Kerminty, which is still available to buy digitally!

Other:

Blossoming Souls | FFXV | Promptis | 56,061 - this was a fic written for the FFXV Book Club Discord’s round robin fic writing event. I wrote roughly 1/3 of the word count. (~18,687 words)

High School And Forever | Avatar: the Last Airbender | Ty Lee-centric | 2,266 words - for the Crossroads Zine

Chapters 20 and 21 of Leviathan by SayNevermore - translation from French to English (1,990 + 1,288 words)

Total fics: 16 Total word count: 118,657 

Wow! Absolutely blew 2021′s word count out of the water! In fact, my most productive year to date since I’ve been doing these wrap-up memes. The next highest is 98,382 words from 2020.

Specifics:

Best/worst title?

Best: Falling Water

Worst: Irons In The Honey - what a dreadful mental image, lol

Best/worst first line?

Best: Sunlight trickled through the branches of the forest, beamed down from the clear blue sky to kiss the leaves and ground. (Falling Water) Why?: This image is very romantic and vivid. It isn’t the best constructed sentence I’ve ever constructed, but most of my other first lines were more serviceable than punchy or evocative. The runner up would be the first line from None But The Brave, which sets up a mood and conflict instantly --  “No one who had not been to the Kingdom of Malkariss could understand how utterly devoid of hope it was for the slaves who toiled there.”

Worst: Jaskier was well aware that Geralt had too much potion toxicity in his blood. (Poison Paradise) Why?: BOY is this clunky. RIP.

Best/worst last line?

Best: When they eventually left the valley, stocked with flower seeds, seedlings, secret potions, and triumph, they flew back to Ferelden in style. (Honey) Why?: LOOK! A ZEUGMA!!

(The one for Because You Are My Friend is pretty good too: “Noctis laughed and Prompto did too, heart so light he didn’t need his wings to fly.”)

Worst: Against Prompto’s new lips, Noctis felt perfect. (The Adventures of Prompto Argentum) Why?: It’s not horrible or anything, I’m just kinda Eh on it. Maybe because perfect is such a vague word. It just isn’t as strong as the rest of the fic, I feel. I’m also not super fond of the last lines of High School And Forever and The Painting Of Mao.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted? Definitely more. I never in a million years expected Blossoming Souls to reach 56,000 words all on its own, let alone to outstrip the preceding years I’ve been doing this meme.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? The Witcher - I haven’t seen the show, and I’ve only read one book. But I was inspired by a piece of fanart I saw on my dash.

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest. This is a hard one. Probably Blossoming Souls, although I also really like Falling Water and The Adventures of Prompto Argentum.

Okay, NOW your most popular story. By kudos it’s Poison Paradise. By hits it’s Blossoming Souls.

Story most underappreciated by the universe? Irons In The Honey doesn’t have any comments on it :( At least I know the gift recipient liked it. Story that could have been better? I’m really not thrilled with A Royal Holiday. It’s okay, but I feel like it just doesn’t work in the way that some of my other AUs do. Can’t figure out what it’s missing or what’s wrong with it. I did my best but I wish it had had a beta. Sexiest story? Poison Paradise

Saddest story? The Immortor Most fun? Blossoming Souls. Just writing in the fast-paced, group environment was so fun, especially given how much I vibed with the rest of my team. Story with single sweetest moment? Probably Four Slices. It’s about Iroh realising how much his darling nephew loves him, so hard to beat that in terms of fluff.

Hardest story to write? Also Four Slices. I’ve never written something from Iroh’s POV before, even though he is the best. It took me a while to complete, even though it’s fairly simple in concept.

Easiest/most fun story to write? In a way, Blossoming Souls was super easy. Words came out and they had to stay there. But of the more conventional fics, I’d say The Painting of Mao. I came up with a concept and put it to paper with no real stress.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters? Four Slices forced me to do a little more research into the lore around Zuko and Iroh’s relationship from the comics. Reading Mattimeo and writing None But The Brave did shift my perception of some of the characters a bit. I had to find the sympathy in both Cynthia and Vitch in order to redeem them.

Most overdue story? The Immortor was from an older concept, but I can’t say that any of these fics were necessarily overdue as such.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? It was definitely a risk to participate in a group writing project. If everyone else had flaked, that would’ve been the end of that. I don’t know what I learnt from it exactly, but I sure had a good time. It probably helped my ‘planning on the fly’ skills. I also got to flex my angst muscles a bit with The Immortor, which is good, because I don’t use them too often.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

My writing goals for 2023 are:

1. Once again, write more original fiction. 3 short stories by 2024 is definitely doable. 2. Writing a story or fic in French. 3. Making progress on one of my unfinished works on AO3 (Perchance to Wake, OFF-Script, or Fateswap Beyond).

And if I had to pick one fic from my list of unwritten dream fics to complete, it would be Day by Day.

*

That’s all, folks! If anyone else wants to do this wrap up like it’s a meme and tag me, go right ahead. Happy New Year!

[ao3feedzukka-blog]

Fanning the Flames

https://archiveofourown.org/works/48458911 by Arson_Avian Its been 5 years since the end of war. Zuko has found himself in a lonely palace, drowning in work and only seeing his loved ones a few times a year, the rest of his life is just rebuilding an entire nation with almost no tools but his famcy words and his brain. On top of all that, he has also been the subject of many attempted assassinations! So naturally he calls up the Kyoshi Warriors and asks if any ofthem would be willing to keep watch so he could get some quality sleep. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So Sokka gets this invite to a Kyoshi Warrior meeting in the Fire Nation, right? He hasn't visited Zuko in a while and the girls are always fun to be around so he dons the uniform and make-up and goes. What he wasn’t expecting was a preliminaries test to be the bodyguards of the Firelord. Neither was he expecting Zuko to not recognise him in uniform(Because of his bad eyesight) and legitimately select him for the position. And because Sokka signed up under a fake name, to prank Zuko, ZUKO DOESN'T KNOW IT'S HIM. Cue identity porn, idiots that are so helplessly in love and all of the women in the cast taking bets on who will propose first. Words: 1473, Chapters: 1/16, Language: English Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: M/M Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Suki (Avatar), Toph Beifong, Aang (Avatar), The Gaang (Avatar) Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko, Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Sokka & Suki (Avatar) Additional Tags: Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Secret Identity, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Let toph say the fuck word July 09, 2023 at 01:11AM

[milonavarroo]

IC TASK 005: THE HART OF THE MATTER

There was one reason Milo was here, and one reason only. And that was his own public image. News was spreading more and more outside of Ogden and the surrounding area about Greer being missing, about Penny's death. He'd started getting questions about it. Fans tweeting at him with questions - especially the ones who followed him closely enough to put together that 'Greer Morrison' was the girl who had been his tennis partner. He'd shared tons of pictures of them on his instagram. Sports reporters asking if he could give some insight on what was happening. Things like that. He hadn't, yet, of course. He thought it would be a really bad fucking idea. His team agreed as well. 

However, the more publicity this situation was getting the less he could remain silent on it. That was what his team had said. Especially with how poorly his interrogation with the police had gone. No one knew about it. Yet. But how long until they did? He had to get in front of this. Do this interview with a popular daytime TV personality and be on his best behavior. Make people sympathetic, and whatever the cops ended up saying, if they ever ended up saying anything, would not effect his public image. 

That was the plan. "Good afternoon," he said, as he took a seat across from Donovan Hart, a pleasant (and fake) smile on his face. He'd been doing things like this since he was about sixteen years old. This shouldn't be a problem. 

“It’s a tough year to be a student at Ogden College with the tragic passing of Penelope Klein. And of course, we can’t forget the ongoing missing persons case surrounding beloved student, Greer Morrison. I know that Dean Zuko insisted on free on-campus counseling set up for all students. Have you made use of it?”

"I am already seeing somebody," Milo said, slowly, giving a bit of a smile. He had been seeing a therapist since he was 16 and his public image went into the toilet after throwing a tennis racket so hard into a fence it smashed. His PR agent told him he needed to make a show of 'getting better', so that was what he'd done. Turns out … he kinda fucking needed it, so he kept going even after the storm had passed. "Mental health is very important to me," at least that was the line he'd been given, "so, I think it's a great idea to offer it to students who are unable to see professionals out of pocket. I'm sure they've been busy." He doubted anybody who really needed the help was actually spending their time making use of any on campus counseling. Frankly, he wouldn't trust the people the Dean had hired for it anyway. He doubted they were really prepared for the problems that Ogden students had to offer.

“There was that nasty storm that knocked out the power at the resort, I remember. That got a little dicey, huh? Parents and staff all congregated in the faculty chalet, but you kids were on the other side of the resort. We’ve been told that Penelope organized some things for people to complete to make it through that night together. Were you one of them? What did you get up to during the blackout?”

"Yes, I was partnered with Ollie Inoue to go check the kitchen pantry for supplies," Milo explained. As long as he was being tossed these softball questions then maybe this wasn't going to be too terrible. He was getting the strong feeling Donovan Hart was phoning it in, anyway. "We didn't know how long any of this was going to last, and there was the possibility of us getting snowed in. So, Penny wanted to make sure that we were stocked up on food in case the worst happened."

“In the wake of tragedy, it can be hard to recall things in detail. The brain has its own ways of protecting itself in high-stress situations, and I know that the police have been a near-constant presence on campus this year. This is not that; I want you to feel safe and comfortable enough to share whatever you want about that night. Did you see anything? Hear anything?”

Yes. Milo didn't say that though. But yes, he had heard something. He'd heard footsteps, and he heard someone closing the door on him and Ollie to lock them in the pantry together. He thought about it often. What was the real reason for that? Had somebody been trying to make sure there was no possibility of witnesses for whatever happened to Penny? Milo hadn't mentioned any of those thoughts though, because … Well, he didn't want to get involved. And the last person he was going to tell about it was Donovan fucking Hart. "No," Milo said with a casual smile, "Ollie can be pretty chatty, so mostly I just heard him talking."

“Obviously, we all want to get to the bottom of this and work through whatever lingering effects it might have left behind. If you were paired off with anyone that night, can you remember what they were doing? Would it have been possible that they might have been behind anything you saw?

"Not possible," Milo said, simply. Not even in any stretch of the imagination. "Ollie and I weren't let out of the pantry until the lights turned back on. We were together the whole time."

“Now, if you’ll direct your attention to this screen here, I have something that— barring appropriate authorities— no one has seen until now.” A picture of Greer suddenly appears on screen, all eyes trained on this new piece of information. All eyes but Donovan’s which are locked onto the face of the person he’s interviewing, watching for any and every reaction. “This photo is shocking, I know. It was found in the faculty chalet the night of the blackout. Do you know anything about the day it was taken or who might have taken it?”

Milo was not the sort of person who hid his feelings well. That made the fact he'd been strong armed into this interview by his team extremely unfortunate, because he was supposed to be making himself look good in the court of public opinion. It didn't matter what the police thought if everyone else thought he was an innocent bystander. Which he was! But it meant that he had to keep his anger in check. He knew how these things went. He knew how much in interviews ended up on the cutting room floor just to show what the producers and people in charge wanted to show. Milo knew how these things always went, which was why he hadn't wanted to do this in the first place. Unfortunately here he was, and now he just had to make sure that he didn't give them anything that could be used against him in any way what so ever. 

There was a difference between knowing something intellectually, and being able to follow through with that thing, however. 

There was that hot feeling of anger that flashed through Milo. Outraged that anyone thought it was a good idea to do this. Show that picture, or do this interview. "How the fuck would I know?" Milo snapped. "Isn't more likely that you or one of the faculty members must have taken and vandalized it? If that's where it was found." Why was this on the shoulders of him, or his peers at all? 

“Do you have any idea why this photo might have been left with faculty that night? Or, most pressing, what reason someone could have for vandalizing it in such a horrible way?”

Milo glared at this joke of a fucking TV personality in front of him. "Ask. The. Faculty," he said through his teeth.

"Finally, it's been discovered that Penelope, shortly before her untimely death, had mentioned to someone that she knew why Greer had left. Do you think that has anything to do with this photo? Do you know why she might have left? Even though being honest about it may seem scary, I promise you, it's the right thing to do. It's the only way we can protect you."

'It's the only way we can protect you.' "What are you the fucking cops?" Milo snapped again, unable to help himself though he knew the moment it left his mouth it should not have. "This interview is over. I know bad faith questions when I hear them, I know when I'm being steamrolled. Don't fuck me with, Donovan." He said, standing up from his seat and heading about as far as he could get away before he was stopped by some staff to remove his mic, and whatever else they needed.

[pyrriax]

1, 14, 15, 16 and 23, for the artist ask game

1. Show your most recent WIP

^ wip artfight attack! its in the ugly stage of coloring, lol

ignore the blocked out bit, i am Not doxxing myself today thank u

14. How has your art changed over the years?

really, the biggest change has been the fact i've gotten more comfortable drawing things that were previously completely outside my comfort zone!

my improvement has mostly been a slow change after i decided to completely change my style, abandoning clean linework for a textured brush that works better for my shaky hands

i'm still getting a grasp on anatomy and stylizing it, since it's something i never really learnt and instead just half-assed in a believable fashion, but i do think i've improved in that regard :)

15. Biggest artist pet peeve?

when people erase major character traits / ethnic traits in their art of someone else's character!!!

(but also a smaller one is just when people use pitch black to shade saturated colors, since it muddies the tones in a way i'm not a fan of)

16. What's the most daunting part of your process? (Ex: planning, sketching, lineart, rendering, etc)

mostly just the sketching / planning, since i can't usually get the concept in my head on the paper adequately, lol

23. Do you listen to music or watch shows while you work? If so, what’s your favourite?

oh yes!! i listen to a variety of music while i draw, though i tend to just listen to things like chirpin' by prince zuko or eat your salad by ceti zēni (basically just "songs that make you question your sanity after you've listened to it for two hours straight")

sometimes i watch minecraft videos or random shows, but usually its just music (i was watching branzy's year on lifesteal video for the third time while i was writing earlier, lol -- last show i watched while drawing was cyberpunk edgerunners im pretty sure? my memory's spotty ok)

[ao3feed-zukka]

Fanning the Flames

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/v43YGEI

by Arson_Avian

Its been 5 years since the end of war. Zuko has found himself in a lonely palace, drowning in work and only seeing his loved ones a few times a year, the rest of his life is just rebuilding an entire nation with almost no tools but his famcy words and his brain.

On top of all that, he has also been the subject of many attempted assassinations!

So naturally he calls up the Kyoshi Warriors and asks if any ofthem would be willing to keep watch so he could get some quality sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So Sokka gets this invite to a Kyoshi Warrior meeting in the Fire Nation, right?

He hasn't visited Zuko in a while and the girls are always fun to be around so he dons the uniform and make-up and goes.

What he wasn’t expecting was a preliminaries test to be the bodyguards of the Firelord. Neither was he expecting Zuko to not recognise him in uniform(Because of his bad eyesight) and legitimately select him for the position. And because Sokka signed up under a fake name, to prank Zuko, ZUKO DOESN'T KNOW IT'S HIM.

Cue identity porn, idiots that are so helplessly in love and all of the women in the cast taking bets on who will propose first.

Words: 1473, Chapters: 1/16, Language: English

Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: M/M

Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Suki (Avatar), Toph Beifong, Aang (Avatar), The Gaang (Avatar)

Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko, Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Sokka & Suki (Avatar)

Additional Tags: Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Secret Identity, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Let toph say the fuck word

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/v43YGEI

[purrincesskittens]

Star Eyes, Zuko is mistaken as Water Tribe.

Gift for @muffinlance based off this post and this one

......................................................................

It was night when they found him. A quick examination showed blood on the back of his head. As they pounded on his back someone noted his eyes. “Gold eyes.” They called. “Are you fire nation?” The boy lifted his head and the light of the lantern caught his eyes reflecting back at them. “Of course I am.” The kid snarls. “Star Eyes.” Someone breathed. Shit this kid was one of theirs. “Could be the child of a war bride.” Was suggested by someone. “At least he’s not a fire bender.” There was a laugh that was quickly interrupted by the star eyed boy himself. “Yes I am.” “Well that was.... honest.” 

Star eyes were only something seen in the water tribes though. Even if this kid was a fire bender he had to be water tribe. More then likely the result of a woman stolen from her tribe during a raid and raised as Fire Nation since he looked enough of the part. But he was young, probably just recruited or practically forced into joining the military. There was a easy way to figure out how dangerous this kid was or rather how much more dangerous he was considering he was a fire bender. 

“Have you ever killed someone?” Hakoda asks crouching before the boy lifting his chin in one hand so the boy had to look him in the eye with those gold colored star eyes. “What? No ... I don’t think.... No.”  The kid seemed confused the blood on the back of his head suggested a head wound but this kid was young probably just assigned to a ship only to get knocked overboard by either by a storm or by another soldier. Those eyes probably didn’t make him popular or the fact that this kid’s eyes kept sliding away from Hakoda’s own suggested he may be a fey child. 

“What do we do with him?” Somebody asks as they watch the kid cough up water, curling and uncurling his fingers against the wood of the deck his eyes cast down. “We keep him for now. His mother is probably Water Tribe war bride if he is star eyed. Have Kustaa check him over and if he survives we figure out what to do from there." Hakoda announces to the crew. They took care of their own and until they figured out who his mother was and could turn him over to her family if she had any left the crew of the Akhult would take care of him for now. Half Water Tribe and the child of a war bride was still Water Tribe and like hell were they going to turn him over to the Fire Nation to continue using as a weapon.

Kustaa later informed him the boy had hypothermia as well as potentially severe head trauma it was hard to tell right now. The kid mistook him for his uncle. Which uncle they weren't sure. It's possible the boy's mother had a picture of her family she either managed to take with her or she drew herself or he could be thinking Kustaa was his father's brother. The escape attempts didn't help some of the crews opinions on keeping the kid but considering he was raised as Fire Nation and was in a strange place so its expected that he would try to escape although climbing the mast was something Hakoda really wished he didn't do along with scaling the side of the ship.

Kustaa had mentioned the boy called for his mother while delirious along with begging his father for forgiveness pledging his loyalty to him and pleading no to the man which didn't paint a pretty picture of the man or gain much favor of the fire nation in the crews opinions. "Tell me about your mother." Hakoda suggests sitting up on the mast beside the boy. Glowing gold eyes blinked at him. "I remember trailing robes. She favored long sleeved robes with delicate embroidery. She had long hair I remember her brushing mine when I was little. I would sit in her lap and she would brush my hair talking to me about theater or turtleducks or plants. Different things she liked. I think I would sometimes tell her about my day or what I had done recently I don't remember clearly its... faded almost. Fuzzy. I barely remember what she looked like."

Hakoda frowned the boy was water tribe he had to be with those star eyes of his but why wouldn't his mother tell him about her people, her home. Maybe she couldn't? Maybe the boys father was so controlling he made sure she never spoke of home to their son? Then the boy said something that made him rethink everything he knew about the kid. "Uncle said my hair is alot like hers. Or it was. I don't even remember why I shaved it." The kid frowned obviously struggling to remember rubbing his head with one hand. The head wound had left him confused he didn't rember his name or much of anything recent but he remembered he had been burned for cowardice supposedly or partially for that but what did the fire nation consider to be cowardly? Kustaa suspected the boy's own father burned him based off what they gleaned from fever dreams and night terrors.

“What did she look like?” Hakoda questions softly holding his breath hoping he was wrong with the hunch he had. “Elegant, beautiful, she had long straight black hair that was so soft and amber eyes with flecks of true gold in them she wore long sleeved red robes with elegant embroidery. The sleeves would bellow and she would hide me in them when I was little.” The boy continued to talk about his mother someone he remembered fondly although all the details suggested the hugs, the turtle duck kisses and every else stopped when the boy was small. Something happened to his mother and Hakoda was beginning to suspect it may have something to do with the boys true parentage. But how to suggest it to the kid without breaking the poor things mind? The whole crew already suspected he was spirit touched as the water tribe liked to call those who were different mentally the earth kingdom called them fey and not all of the earth kingdom where kind to them. 

“If I promise no one on this ship will hurt you and we won’t turn you over to the Earth Kingdom will you stop with the escape attempts?”Hakoda asks when the boy falls silent picking at the grain of the wood under his hands not meeting Hakoda’s eyes. The kid blinked up at him startled. “Okay.” Getting the kid down the mast was surprisingly easy after that and a few more rules were hashed out before the kid was sent to see Kustaa again and the crew was gathered. “The boy’s mother was fire nation. He remembers her more clearly then anything else.” This drew murmurs from the crew some wanted to toss him over board then since he wasn’t the child of a war bride. “But he’s star eyed he has to be Water Tribe.” Toklo says tilting his head in confusion. “Exactly. We know he seemed to have issues regarding his father and Kustaa suspects he may have been the one to burn the kid. I learned his mother also disappeared or may possibly have been killed when he was young.” This gained more murmurs from the crew. 

Panuk pulled in a sharp audible breath. He had figured out what Hakoda was getting at. “Does any one here know where they were about 16 to 17 years ago? If they were around the Earth Kingdom or the colonies anywhere?” Their chief had to ask if none of the men on this ship was the boys father he would have to send messages out to all the others in the fleet see if anyone remembered if maybe had met a pretty woman in the Earth Kingdom or in the colonies and spent a night with her. If the kids mother was Fire Nation and he was star eyed that meant his real father had to be Water Tribe. His mother had to have married or started a new relationship soon after and the boy looked fire nation enough to pass him off as her husband’s but the husband probably suspected what with the star eyes. There was silence followed by an uproar. “You can’t be serious?!” Aake shouted in outrage. “I’m not judging anyone but the boy is water tribe and with his mother gone we most definitely are not giving him back to the Fire Nation so we need to figure out whose he is. We take care of our own.” Hakoda soothed the crews ruffled feathers listening as the men scrambled to remember where they were and what they were doing all those years ago.

Slowly they managed to clear the majority of the crew those who couldn’t remember were left struggling valiantly to justify why they couldn’t possibly be the boys father while their youngest two crew members watched with glee obviously in the clear themselves due to their age. Once Kustaa cleared the boy Hakoda set him to work and had to add no breathing fire to the list of rules. Toklo and Panuk made friends with their newest crew member over laundry and the boy was very shouty about women’s work. And then the issue over the kid not having a name he remembered came up. Names like Siqinq, Kallik, Cupun, Tulok, Yuka and Tulugaq were tossed around. He is pretty sure they settled on Tulok simply because they already have a Tuluk and Toklo on board and that name is almost a combination of the two plus it had a star meaning behind it. The boy just wanted to fit in.

Reds were changed for Toklo’s blues and the boys hair shaved to regrow properly after Kustaa managed to break it to the kid that a real father wouldn’t abuse his son, biological or not. They picked up Bato who sympathized with them for wanting to keep the star eyed child, teach him his real culture, and find his real father but the kid was still a fire bender. A fire bender on a WOODEN SHIP!! The boy, Toluk looked like a kicked polar puppy being denied sleep in the hammock he was used to and his usual snacks when ever he wanted. They still had a lot of work cut out for them when the kid thought he would be killed over a bending accident because he didn’t fully remember he needed to mediate to control his fire. His memories were still patchy at best. So Hakoda ended up with his temporary foster star eyed child sitting in his cabin breathing with a lantern holding a dog.  

The kid liked sea prunes proving he was Water Tribe at heart. He was good at using his fire bending for non evil purposes even if he protested it. He proved he shouldn’t be left alone in port either by himself or with his friends. He gained a piercing, two rusted swords, a theater scroll and a cabbage? No one seems to know about the cabbage. He can cook as it’s proven despite how spicy his cooking is and nearly gets kidnapped by prostitutes. Sex workers were not on the list of people Hakoda thought he would have to fight for custody of Tulok with. He nearly gets himself kidnapped by a Earth Kingdom solider they are allied with who seemed sure their boy was then dead prince of the Fire Nation. Never mind that the prince was dead and their boy was star eyed. The solider was surprisingly unfazed by the heat of the kids cooking. He didn't end up kidnapped despite his best efforts.. The kid really needed to stop climbing the mast. “Prince Zuko?!” Hakoda’s kids seemed to also mistake Tulok for the dead prince. 

“That’s the Prince of the Fire Nation, dad he chased us all over and tried to capture the avatar numerous times. His sister did capture Aang.” His kids argued trying to convince him that their new foster brother was some evil prince. The kid in question for his part had more headaches then usual and just seemed more confused and angry. He remembered something. A little sister named LaLa. It takes a while but after watching their new brother and listening to the crew, “His name is Zuko, he is the prince of the Fire Nation, his father is Fire Lord Ozai does no one care about that?!” Sokka asks in outrage staring as the kid in question does laundry like its a perfectly normal thing for a prince to do. “His mother may be fire nation but his father sure isn’t.” Panuk comments dodging a wet shirt thrown by their resident fire bender.  This earned laughter and calls of “Good for her!!” And “She could do a lot better!” Followed by “At least a water tribesman would treat her right!!”. Sokka groaned in frustration and confusion. 

“Why is my nephew wearing blue, convinced Ozai isn’t his biological father and that he is water tribe?” General Iroh the Dragon of the West questions calmly. Tulok seemed to recognize Iroh and even called him Uncle and recognized some of the crew but he still didn’t have complete clear memories although his headaches grew worse until Kustaa told him it didn’t matter if he remembered or not he was water tribe and nothing was going to change that spirit touched or not. “He is star eyed you can’t possibly tell me the fire nation has star eyed kids that’s a water tribe thing only.” Iroh considered it briefly before dismissing it. His nephew looked similar to a young Ozai, so Ozai had to be his father even if he wasn’t much of one and his nephew deserved better then Ozai. But surely Ursa couldn’t have had an affair while married to Ozai it was impossible. Iroh tried to do the math off the top of his head of when Ursa and Ozai married vs when Zuko was born. “Look the obvious answer here is that the boys mom met with a Water Tribe beefcake and had a one night stand that lead to the boy. It’s the only thing that explains why his supposed father hated him so much and why he struggled with fire bending and is star eyed.” Bato explains grinning. “Beefcake?” Hakoda and Iroh question. 

Azula finds this all far to amusing. “That just means I’m the rightful heir after all. You can stay here with your little water tribe family and I can be the next Fire Lord after Uncle.” Somehow things get worked out that their star eyed fire bender’s fire nation sister will be staying with them along side her two scary friends and the kids supposed Uncle will become the next Fire Lord once they take down Ozai. The kid is still confused and there are still gaps in his memories but they aren’t giving him back now he is their’s and the fire nation can’t have him. They still call him Tulok since the fire nation does consider the sun to be a star after all. He seems to like it better then Zuko. He still does their laundry still wears beads in his braids in red, blue and one gold. In all that’s happened no one thought to alert the rest of the fleet about what they learned leaving them in for one heck of a surprise when they reach Chameleon Bay where the rest of the men from the fleet scramble to try to remember where they were sixteen-point-nine years ago. 

[child-of-the-danube]

I was scrolling through Reddit and saw someone say that the Gaang's kids in LoK still being hung up over some of their parents' faults was a bit tiresome and uninspiring to watch and of course I've got shit to theorize and comment on.

(following text is almost entirely copied from my Reddit comment)

I'd disagree on saying it's tiresome or uninspiring that they're still somewhat hung up on their parent issues. They are after all the children of the people who saved the world. That comes with its own set of expectations and limitations.

I don't believe that anyone from the Gaang was truly a bad parent but because of their status, their children did experience (or didn't experience) certain things. And the Gaang had its own set of parental issues - Katara and Sokka having lost their mom at a young age and having an absent father that they could have lost to the war at any moment, Toph's parents who in their overly strict ways didn't acknowledge Toph as a fully realised human being, Zuko who lost his mother at a young age, had an abusive father and a sister nobody would wish for, Aang lost everyone from his own nation and his youth and all of them carried the weight of the world on their shoulders at the tender ages of 12, 14 and 16. Of course they themselves were fucked up by all of that and certainly had PTSD from the war and of course it partially reflected on their children.

1. I don't believe Aang didn't love Kya and Bumi or that he didn't show them affection, but he was more focused on Tenzin due to Tenzin being the only other airbender beside him and it was Aang's dream to rebuild the air nation. Of course Kya and Bumi would have noticed that dad was more devoted to him than he was to them.

Tenzin carried the weight of being expected to be a master bender, continuing the rebuilding of a whole nation AND the weight of the fact that that was his own father's dream.

Bumi was the only non-bender in his family that was pretty much made up of the best benders you could find at that time. That on top of his dad devoting more time to his younger brother than to him as the eldest son must have hurt.

I can't write a lot on Kya since we didn't get to see her or her development much in LoK.

I'm sure Katara was a more than loving mother but we've seen how overly motherly she can be and that probably stayed the same when she actually became a mother.

Theoretically, I could see Katara overcompensating as a mother due to her having lost her own at a very young age and that having more than clearly affected her a lot.

2. I don't think Toph didn't show love or care to Lin and Suyin but take in account that Toph's trauma from her parents manifested on her own parenting style in the way that she gave her children too much freedom and was absent a lot. Lin had every right to be mad at both Toph and Suyin. I'm sure Toph was beyond proud of Lin but Lin didn't see that due to Toph's way of expressing emotion and thought that Toph didn't acknowledge her worth and hard work. At least, not in a way that would have been clear to young Lin. And then her sister, the rebel she practically had to raise and leave a part of her young years for, scars her face, a part of her that is always visible to both the outside world and herself, luckily missing her neck cause that could have killed her, and basically gets away with it.

Working in the police force that was established by her own mother must have carried a whole set of expectations as well. Then later, Aang, whom she was canonically close to, dies, Tenzin leaves her for a younger woman, her other childhood friends Bumi and Kya (don't know if she spent a lot of time with Izumi so I won't name her here) leave each on their own journey, Suyin is god knows where and Toph fucks off to the swap. Basically everyone either fucks her over and/or leaves her. She has every right to hold a grudge and preventively distance herself from people emotionally.

Suyin, on the other hand, despite all of us thinking she got off easy, is sent to her, as we know they are, very strict and snobbish grandparents, away from her mom and sister and away from her friends as punishment. That must have sucked too. And she suffered the same thing as Lin - having her mother be absent + being raised and occasionally scolded by her sister that wasn't much older than her.

Toph was the greatest earthbender alive, the inventor of metal bending, the one who established a metal bending academy and the police force of Republic city. That was a legacy on its own. I'm sure she wouldn't let anyone other than herself teach her daughters how to bend and knowing her teaching methods, despite being sure she would go easier on her own kids than other people, they couldn't have had it easy even in that regard.

+ Neither of them know who their father is. They basically grew up with no parental figure at all. Even at the age of 50-ish, Lin doesn't get a proper answer to who her father is and it's not her but Bolin, a random boy Toph just met, that gets the question somewhat answered. The question she and Su have probably asked a million times before...

3. The only child we see not having any parent related trauma is Izumi but that's cause they basically gave her only 10 seconds of air time during the whole of LoK.

For me, that wasn't tiresome or bad for the storyline because all above mentioned gave complexity to the characters and made them more relatable. Which I especially like since I got the feeling that beside Korra, none of the younger ones were psychologically presented to a proper extent.

And since most of them managed to overcome those things and grow from it, it ended up being inspiring in a way that shows that it's never too late to mend old wounds.

[runephoenix6769]

Why Netflix aging up the Characters could spell disaster.

Ok, so I’ve tried to find confirmation that this is true and kinda found bubkiss so far.  But.... Zuko being aged up by two years does not bode well his motivation or Azula (or Sokka for that matter), narratively speaking and will massively change how their stories/character arcs hit.  It’s my belief that by aging up the characters they’ll kinda lose some of the soul of the show AND the poignancy of just how much pressure has been laid on the shoulders of Gaang and Azula's trio. The nuance of Children fixing a world broken by adults. (I shall preface by saying that anyone under 18 is a child and therefore even joining the military at 16 is still awful, but this post is being written within the context of the avatar universe, its societal norms and customs.)

Hear me out.  Within the show, all the main cast of children are supposed to be outliers and exceptionally skilled, even surpassing many of the adults in that world in terms of mastery of their elements and ability to execute strategy.   At 16/17 Rangi had her first commission after graduating from the Junior Corps in record time, to eventually become one of the youngest Lieutenants in Fire Nation Army service, during peace time.  400 years later we are in the midst of a global war, meaning the goal posts within the various societies would have shifted considerably. (Apart from the Earth Kingdom, they seriously need to get with the times.) Zuko is the heir to the throne of an imperial expansionist country, where military service is expected of many of the aristocracy. (If not every citizen doing something towards the war effort.) And has been since the reign of Sozin.  Being the heir, he would naturally be expected to take a military commission at 16/17, as precedent has been shown to us via Rangi. This would serve to foster loyalty from his soldiers, train him in ways of command to prepare him for taking over the Nation, etc etc.  Lets say that Netflix keep the rest of his story the same, so he is still ousted at 13 sent on a mission of folly as a cruel punishment. Well that just casts his 4 years at sea and his behaviour towards his men in an awful light. In four years he has not learned regard for the safety of his men? It makes the treatment of his men look callous instead of being a child who doesn't quite grasp how much his crew do for him, that they too have been ousted and separated from their loved ones! Four years of shite treatment would surely land a mutiny on his hands?  If anything, it serves to make him look whiny, and incompetently oblivious to the needs of others.  And what does it mean if they move the timeline of the Agni Kai up by two years, to 15?  It doesn't have quite the same impact. Remember what sits at the core of this show. It is ultimately about children trying the fix the world that the adults broke, violence, cruelty, child soldiers and the effects of war upon them, under intense pressure to succeed.  Zuko is supposed to be a child who hasn’t even begun to figure out what he wants.   His character arc in the show is supposed to be that journey!

Which brings me to Azula!  A child prodigy, who took down Ba Sing Se in a relatively bloodless coup at 14! Its meant to be an awe inspiring Herculean feat! A top notch military strategist, she is meant to be unmatched by any of her peers.  Her age in the OG show certainly explains her behavior, her not being developed enough in many ways. This contributes towards the deterioration of her mental health when she cannot reconcile the heavily cultivated sense of self with the reality culminating in the tragic and heart wrenching mental breakdown at 14! At 16/17, it makes it look like a huge ass hissy fit! OG Azula’s inflection moment begins in The Beach episode. She is begins to ask questions of herself in the form of small experiments. It takes the form of her hiding their identities on Ember Island.  It is as if she is trying to feel out if she is as witty and charming as she believes, but she comes to learn that she is woefully socially inept, people don’t like her for her, beginning the spiral of insecurity and self doubt. We are also told that Azula’s mother thought her a monster and she is massively hurt by that, though she plays it off as nothing.  This insecurity is blown wide open on the Boiling Rock cemented by Ty Lee’s betrayal and culminates in Azula, who is truly terrified that he might burn her in a way similar to Zuko, seeing her being sidelined by Ozai.  She takes as a form of punishment for her ‘failure’, a form of banishment, that she has been discarded like Zuko, when she had imagined being by her father’s side as they burned the world in celebration of their mutual victory rather than for what is truly is which is Ozai being a glory hog and reaping all the benefits from Azula’s hard work.  Which brings me to the suggestion by Azula to burn the world in the first place. A child suggesting that you ‘Burn the World’ smacks a whole lot differently when you think of it as a kid not quite grasping/understanding the ramifications of such a suggestion, but a 16 year old? Such a thing tips her from confused mentally unwell child with a crippling fear of failure raised without a lick of compassion to full blown villainy with nothing remotely sympathetic about her! The way the last Agni Kai is framed you are supposed to feel sympathetic towards her! Which makes me wonder if they are gonna paint Azula as unhinged straight from the get go? Her unravelling at the seams is supposed to be her journey!

Sokka.... at 17!  In the OG show, Hakoda does the right thing by telling Sokka to remain behind to look after the village because at 13 he is too young to go to war.  Why leave him behind at 15? Would that not serve to feed into feelings of inadequacy, that he was deemed too weak to leave and fight with the other men and boys of the tribe?  Now, I would argue that Sokka’s OG arc rivals Zuko’s redemption. He does feel inadequate and overcomes it. He also unlearns a shit load of misogyny! What 17 year old doesn’t take responsibility for his own clothes, in a tribe were adults are few and far between? What 17 year old expects his little sister to be his mother and bear the brunt of the domestic? How obtuse and unfeeling would that make Sokka? It would propel him to the side of boorish, lazy and entitled rather than the sweet teenage boy who grows to realise he has a lot to learn.  OG Sokka is humble as hell and not afraid admit when he is lacking! He will go and openly admit his flaws and learn from others who he had previously written off.  Suki gives him a glass of respect women juice and he keeps on chugging, only adding to the Sokka we know and love.  This is supposed to be his journey! 

OG Sokka is just as much of a genius as Azula!  They are both supposed to be exceptional. Having them sit at 16/17 figuring this all out within a war torn world were it would be totally normal for them to participate in the generational war machine kind of robs them of this. Their more child like behaviours, grappling with concepts and truly understanding their consequences is supposed to remind us that they are children, being asked to do something no child ever should! Aging them up casts these things in a whole other light, skewering the what makes this show so beloved!  If you change the core characters to the point their journey’s don’t make sense within the world they inhabit, or they become unrecognisable to the audience you’re trying to milk then really.....what’s the point?  

[light-miracles]

Yes finaly someone who is willing to rent about suki alone! AAAAH. Rent to me about litherally everything you can. Hc. Theories. I don't care tell me xD. Its awesome isn't it?? I think it's canon that she's an orphan now cs like. Her parents weren't mentioned and stuff. Also what did you think of Biyu? The traitor bitch. Suki angst D:

OKAY YES, LITERALLY, THANKS

Okay first of all, yes, Suki is definitely an orphan. It was a popular headcanon before but this comic even reinforces it. No parents and the only one in charge of her and her 'sisters' (foster sisters, I'm sure all those girls are orphans who live together) is the old leader of the village. He's the one who 'grounds' them when they stole those buns. If those girls had parents, he would have said 'I'm telling your parents'. But nope, Oyaji himself sent them to clean the floors.

One of the things that I'm glad we learned is that not all the Kyoshi warriors went with Suki. In fact, only a small part because in 170 years, Kyoshi Island remained isolated and technically they're still isolated. Suki pulled a Wonder Woman and left because that was the right thing, and only her closest friends/sisters went with her. This is important to me because: one of the other popular headcanons to explain why all the Kyoshi Warriors were like 16 was that the older ones died long ago in the war. Now we know that couldn't happen because Suki's village has been totally isolated for 170 years. And in fact we actually saw older Kyoshi Warriors: Suki watches them train when she's little. So, in conclusion, there are older Kyoshi Warriors, they just stayed in the island. Why is Suki, a 16 years old, the leader then if there are older and probably more experienced warriors? Who knows. Maybe the Kyoshi Warriors vote for their leader instead of choosing her by age or experience. Suki seems to be the most respected and popular of her group, kind of a well loved golden child, so easily she'd win if they vote for their leader.

Now to her prison time. After Biyu's (that bitch) betrayal Suki spent 14 days alone in the dark for trying to cultivate food in a secret garden. Fuck. And when she goes out she's so traumatized that she pulls a Katara vs Yon Rha and almost murders Biyu. THIS is the great climax of the story and honestly a great one. The whole comic is about exploring Suki's character and this scene let us see that she's stronger than her rage, and still clinging to the person she was when she joined the war: the good person, who wanted to help and wouldn't murder an unarmed jerk not even if she spent 14 days in hell for her fault. Biyu even mocks her after it, but Suki didn't forgive her life for mercy, she did it for her Kyoshi warrior moral code, the only thing she still had.

Now, Kyoshi. Other of the things I liked about this story is HOW MUCH emphasis it makes on what Kyoshi means for Suki. Why Suki clings to Kyoshi's image so desperately. (Now, this is just my take on the things and how I understood them): Suki is so devoted to Kyoshi because, as an orphan, she was the imaginary mother figure she never had. Her superhero. When Suki is finally in her cell and she breaks down for the first time, it's Kyoshi who appears to her. But is it really Kyoshi?? Past Avatars only have appeared through Aang. Only know what Aang knows. And Aang is currently sleeping in the temple since this is immediately before The Boiling Rock episode. So unless they're breaking canon (wouldn't be the first time, tho) Kyoshi is an hallucination. She tells Suki what she wants to hear and gives her the comfort she so desperately needs. That the person Suki aches to see in her worst moment is a long dead Avatar is certainly interesting.

(Maybe it was the real Kyoshi tho. If someone can break the veil of death to go and comfort someone is Kyoshi, that dork).

In conclusion: this story was made to develop Suki's character and in my opinion it did. Suki is the only member of the gaang that doesn't have a sad backstory. She genuinely had a happy life before going to the war. Probably didn't have parents, but she had a lot of friends she loved and a place in her community and seemed to be satisfied with what she had. Suki was loved and loved in return. She doesn't join the fight as penitence like Zuko or to run away from something like Toph. Suki realized she could help people and left exactly for that.

Basically like Wonder Woman, yeah.