#a:tla analysis

[chunkula3]

Someone else has probably said this better by now, but I think the biggest reason why the new a:tla show seems so wooden and kinda dead to me is that the characters are already “perfect”. They don’t have any flaws or quirks or notable character traits. They’re all perfect and moral and upstanding and boring as hell. Beyond the fact that all the filler episodes were cut (which is a whole other issue that I find annoying. Showing us who the characters are in their downtime, when they’re relaxing, is how we get to know characters. We don’t get that in the new show and it suffers) any defining moments of the characters that HIGHLIGHT WHO THEY ARE are gone. Poof. Vanished. The characters are boring and generic. They’re already perfect ideals and there’s no room to grow.

[starlight-bread-blog]

My Interpretation of The Last Agni Kai

(Disclaimer: This isn't critisism of Zuko as much as it a small breakdown of the tragedy of the royal family. This post was also editted and it may not appear in reblogs).

Do you hear this language? "The showdown that was always meant to be". It's somewhat true, but I'd argue that it's not because of who they are as people. It's because of Ozai.

It's because they're the golden child and the scapegoat. It's because they've been put against each other by their abuser.

I would argue that she is sorry. She does love her brother, and she didn't want it to end this way. Zuko cannot see that, and he isn't sorry.

In The Beach, Zuko burns a picture of them, as a family.

To him, the picture resresents the perfect past. Before everything went to shit. But he no longer fits there. Even though he's back. He's frustrated, he hates the world, and wants to burn it all.

Especially after he has redeemed himself, he is sure there is nothing for him. His mother is gone, his father is abusive, and Azula: the prodigy, the favored one, who belittled him from the day Ozai began to favor her. She left him in the dust while making it extra dirty. She's barely his sister anymore, she's the untouchable force making his life worse.

In Zuko Alone, Azula practically taunts him over his planned murder.

This is what Zuko sees. Not a human, not a sister, but a boogeyman. After all, Azula always lies. What he doesn't see is Azula's reaction when she realizes the situation is serious. She'll never let him see that.

Azula could have burned the bridge all those years ago, when he was banished. But she didn't. She is the reason he's back home, on that beach. Ozai was her God, she was disciplined to him and only him, even more than herself. And she lied to his face so Zuko could come back home. She's cunning, manipulative and dangerous, but she loved her brother.

Zuko can't see that. Even when "she's slipping", he can't see that. Of course he wouldn't, her love for him is overshadowed by the damage she caused him, and his envy of her. She's above him, the demon haunting him. As Ozai and their history led him to believe. And he sticks to this belief, until it's disproven.

(Author's note: Azula's face here makes me want to cry, props to the animator)

She's human, his sister. And she's trurly sorry it had to come to this.

The Last Agni Kai is a tragedy. It's the story of two siblings who grew up in an abusive household, with a dad who played favorites. One made all the wrong choices, while the other could not fathom the other's humanity. They don't reconcile, they put themselves against each other. Because it's the showdown that was always meant to be. And he only recognizes it wasn't, after it's over. Now, he too, is sorry.

[teaandcrowns]

This is not fully fleshed out or formed particularly well, but I, of course, had More Thoughts as I do my annual "it's turning toward spring, therefore AtLA" rewatch and re-obsession. Maybe I could eventually be bothered to come back to thing and put in proper context/references, but for now all I got are thoughts.

So, I watched the Ember Island Players episode earlier this evening and had some more thoughts on the play and what it tells us about Fire Nation views on Zuko. Obviously it's made clear that they're supposed to not like him, as the audience in the episode applauds when he is killed by Azula, but even before that we can see the setup of this dislike for him, namely in the rendition the Players do of the crystal catacombs of Ba Sing Se. We see Katara and Zuko's characters in the catacombs sharing a moment, where it's then "revealed" that Katara has "always had a thing" for Zuko, and then they are implied to hook up.

What's interesting to me, with my Literature Degree™️ lens and what I learned in my theory class about the positioning of Nature in relation to Man in Western philosophy (which really reached its epoch during the Enlightenment) makes the subtext here really fascinating. Hooking Zuko up with Katara serves to undermine him to the FN audience with their implicit biases against not only anyone who isn't FN, but against people of the SWT in particular: people who they consider peasants and savages. We see this in our own world with indigenous people, or "less civilized" people like Africans, because they are "closer to nature" and therefore "sub-human" in a way, being positioned closer to animals. (This way of thinking also is applied to women in our world through this Western philosophy, but I don't think that vector actually applies to the FN perspective because of all the nations they are actually shown (in the show) to be the most equal between the genders.)

So by putting their "civilized" prince with the "uncivilized savage" who is not deemed anywhere near the level of even the lowliest FN citizen (and perhaps considered even lesser as a waterbender than a nonbender would be, but that's pure conjecture), the play is subtly setting up and prepping their audience to be more and more okay with the "betrayal" of Zuko first when he joins the Avatar's team, and then finally when he is killed near the end of the play. He's already been "tainted" by the less civilized Katara in the second act.

If the writers of the episode were worth their salt, they would have realized that's also what they were doing when they put that in, beyond it being "hur hur zutara" (according to the creators, it was ostensibly supposed to make fun of the zutara shippers, though in my, and many others', opinion it…… really failed to do that), but I'm not entirely sure they would have, considering that it's very on par with the implicit biases that plague us in the Western world today

[angstandhappiness]

FASCINATING

Fighting Styles: Toph Bei Fong

Today is Earth Day and since I can never pass up an opportunity to make a good pun, I’m going to analyze the physicality/fighting style of everyone’s favorite earthbender, Toph Bei Fong. 

Toph is unique in her usage of Chu Family (Zhujia/Chugar) Southern Praying Mantis Style (tanglangquan/tonglongchuan) kung fu, as opposed to the Hung Gar style kung fu (a popular style that is used by one of the most famous martial artists of Chinese folklore and protagonist of many a wuxia film, Wong Fei Hung) every other earthbender in the series uses. Unlike Hung Gar, which is heavily external and thus relies on physical strength, Chu Gar Tonglong is an internal style that emphasizes turning your opponent’s strength against them. This synchronizes with Toph’s preferred method of combat, which is deeply rooted in counter-attacks. 

Chu Gar Tonglong is a very unique martial art, characterized by its bizarre rhythm and unconventional movements. It’s been compared to the Drunken Fist, only without the seemingly off-balance aspect. Unlike Azula’s Chachuan, Chu Gar Tonglong is not a particularly elegant or beautiful style (in fact, some martial artists even refer to it as the fighting style of the undead due to its off-putting movements),  which also makes sense given Toph’s rough exterior.  

Other characteristics of Chu Gar Tonglong include:

1. Striking in rapid succession, without withdrawing your limbs to their initial position

2. Bent elbows, like those of a mantis, hence its namesake (Unlike Northern Praying Mantis, Chu Gar Tonglong does not commonly use the “mantis fist” that most people associate with mantis-style)

3. Stances usually involve the feet separated wider than shoulder-width apart, with the majority of your weight on the front leg. The back leg is slightly curved and enables maneuverability. 

4. Close-range combat with a heavy emphasis on arm and hand strikes. Typical uses of the hands include…

Slicing strikes

Exploding fingers from the fist

Claw-like raking actions

Hooking and deflecting hands

Elbow strikes

Outward strikes of the knuckles

5. Simultaneous offense and defense with every strike. Again, this is very fitting with Toph’s preferred method of counter-attacks. 

In contrast with Northern Tonglong, Chu Gar Tonglong is very grounded and places almost zero emphasis on kicking techniques. The few kicks there are are very low to the ground, and usually aimed at the opponent’s ankles.

This suits Toph well, due to her blindness and her need to “see” with her feet, as she would require both feet on the ground as frequently as possible, which would make high kicks and flying kicks not ideal for her to use.

In short, Chu Gar is a close-range internal style well-suited for those who don’t possess particularly high physical strength, are fast with their hands, and prefer to remain grounded. Its no-frills approach to fighting and equal emphasis on both offense and defensive maneuvers make it a very unique martial art, and perfectly suited for Toph’s  gruff and belligerent personality. 

I’ll write more on Toph’s non-combat physicality some other time. 

Random Trivia!

Even though Bei Fong sounds very similar to the Chinese phrase meaning “north” (beifang), Toph uses a Southern fighting style.

Chu Gar Praying Mantis is a dying art. There are very few teachers left in the world who know this style and even fewer who are willing to pass it on. Martial arts enthusiasts and Toph lovers should go seek out a Chu Gar master and learn the art while they still can. 

Happy Earth(bending) Day!

[cooking-with-hailstones]

Statistical analysis of the most popular A:TLA fics on AO3

(All of this is accurate as of May 27 2024)

I like numbers and statistical analysis and for some unfathomable reason I find it calming. So last night I made this spreadsheet!

DISCLAIMER: This is not a judgement of the quality, value, or merits of any of the fics on this list. It's just me being curious about what's popular with the A:TLA fandom on AO3. I was genuinely surprised at some of the results!

Observations and analysis under the cut:

TL:DR, the fandom fucking loves putting Zuko into Situations.

Methodology: I'm including all fics from the first page of results from the most kudos'd, commented, hits, and bookmarks tagged under the Avatar: The Last Airbender (cartoon, 2005) tag on ao3. I am deliberately not including any larger multifandom flash fiction or drabble collections because I don't think they're super relevant. This ended up including 38 fics in total.

I put all the fics into one single spreadsheet in order to compare the differences between fics that are really high on the kudos count but not the hit count, or what has a lot of comments but fewer hits. Basically, I'm throwing a lot of things together to observe what gets engagement and looking at patterns that emerge!

Top 5 most popular fics by hit count:

Salvage - MuffinLance

Fractures - EvieNyx

Embers- Vathara

Towards the Sun - MuffinLance

The Art Of Burning - hella1975

Max: 1,407,170 (Salvage -MuffinLance)

Min: 78,168 (Risking it all - Sreeder)

Average: 349,442

Top 5 most popular fics by kudos count:

Salvage - MuffinLance

The Family You Choose - TunaFishChris

where the stars do not take sides - WitchofEndor

Fractures - EvieNyx

The beginning of a new and brighter birth - aloneintherain

Max: 59,947 (Salvage - MuffinLance)

Min: 3293 (Risking it all - Sreeder)

Average: 19,868

Top 5 most popular fics by number of comments:

The Art Of Burning - hella1975

Salvage - MuffinLance

Fractures - EvieNyx

Towards the Sun - MuffinLance

War Games - Lovely_Elbow_Leech

Max: 13,469 (The Art Of Burning - hella1975)

Min: 358 (Hallowed - Haircrescendo)

Average: 3634

Top 5 most popular fics by number of bookmarks:

absence of heat, excess of destiny - theycallmesuperboy

Salvage - MuffinLance

where the stars do not take sides - WitchofEndor

The Family You Choose - TunaFishChris

The beginning of a new and brighter birth - aloneintherain

Max: 150,317 (absence of heat - theycallmesuperboy)

Min: 430 (Risking it all - Sreeder)

Average: 9297

Highest kudos/hit ratio: Safety First - Haircrescendo (20.36%)

Lowest kudos/hit ratio: My Heart Burns For You - alwaysZutarian (0.89%)

Average kudos/hit ratio: 8.25%

Fic Ratings:

G: 9

T: 18

M: 6

E: 2

Unrated: 3

Popular authors (people who showed up more than once):

Aloneintherain (3)

Haircrescendo (5)

MuffinLance (4)

WitchofEndor (2)

Characters:

Literally all of these fics are Zuko-centric. Not all of them are Zuko-pov but every. single. one. focuses on Zuko as a main character. At least one of the following tags is on every single fic in this list: "The Gaang & Zuko", "Zuko & Zuko's Crew", "Zuko & Iroh" "Zuko & Azula" and "Zuko & [insert gaang member here]"

Relationships:

Ok this is what actually shocked me the most. I fully expected to see more Kataang, Zutara, etc in the top rated fics, but NO! Only 21 out of the 38 fics had any relationship slash tag, and of those, 20/21 were Sokka/Zuko (shoutout to My Heart Burns For You as the token Zutara fic to make it into this list). I did NOT realize Zukka was so popular! Now I'm super curious about what it would be like to run these numbers on FF.net because I know so much A:tla fanfic was written before ao3 existed and most hasn't been cross-posted, and Zukka wasn't a popular ship until more recently.

Other random observations:

There seems to be a pretty even split between post-canon firelord Zuko fics and canon-divergent "Zuko joins the Gaang early" fics.

Only one modern au as far as I could tell! (shoutout to "The Good Vanilla")

We all seem to love a Dadkoda fic

There is a very strong correlation between one-shots and a high kudos/hit ratio.

Seemingly no correlation between word count and number of kudos. The top kudos'd stories were mostly under 10k words, while all the other catergories were dominated by fics in the 100k+ word count.

I didn't really see much correlation between hits, kudos, and comments overall.

There were LOTS of fics that only showed up in one category, which was really interesting! I figured each list would look pretty much the same, and there were several fics that did show up on the front page of every category (Salvage definitely sweeps the board for overall most popular fic), but there was a lot of variation between each list! Some fics had TONS of hits but very few comments, some had truly wild kudos/hit ratios, some were just massively bookmarked.

Thank you for indulging in my nerdiness, and feel free to tell me what I missed or anything you're curious about!

Update: I did it again, this time with Legend of Zelda

[rifari2037]

10. Do you have any other A:TLA ships?

Yes, I have another ships. Is not like I ship them like I ship Zutara, but they are my favourite. It would be long answer, but here my thought about them.

Sokka and Suki (Sukka)

In my opinion, Sukka is the best written canon couple. They have conflicts in their journey and resolved all of those very well.

When they met at the first time, Sokka was misogynistic and Suki taught him a lesson. Sokka finally understood his mistakes, learned from it, and throwed away his ego. After judging women badly, he humbly asked to be taught by a woman.

In the end, Sokka also said sorry after thinking she was 'just a woman'. Then she told him that she was a warrior but also a woman. It was very good way to resolve their conflict.

I'm not sure who Sokka's first love was, Suki or Yue? But, it doesn't matter, because Suki and Yue were important characters for Sokka.

When Sokka and Suki met again in The Serpent's Pass episode, Sokka still felt guilty and lost over Yue's sacrifice. Sokka became overprotective to Suki because of his guilt.

When they almost kissed in front of the moon, Sokka stopped it. That's as it should be because you shouldn't kiss someone when you're thinking about someone else. And again, in the end they resolve their conflict and kissed. Sokka could finally move on.

They not only looked good together, but also accept each other. Sokka was so funny that he could always cheer up Suki. Sokka always did efforts to Suki too - even it turned out very ugly - and Suki appreciated him. They show a healthy relationship more than other canon couples.

It really disappointed me that I didn't see Suki and Sokka together in TLOK. I read a headcanon that Suyin was Sokka's daughter, but then what happened with Sukka? Because, I really hope Sokka and Suki were actually happily together.

Also, even though I don't considering the comic ever exist, but I do know some people ship Suki with Zuko based on it. I got some of their moments, maybe there are more.

I don't mind with the shipper, but I don't understand the writers. Like why? I know the writers hate how well-written Zutara than their canon ship and they ruined Zutara potential in ATLA. But why the writers had to bother Sukka in the comic, the only well-written canon couple, to gave another love potential to Zuko?

But, well, whatever their relationship was, I don't read the comic anyway.

Toph and Aang (Taang)

Yes, I love Zutara, but it doesn't mean I hate Aang. I just don't think he's a good match for Katara for many reasons, there's a lot of meta and analysis about it - and it makes sense to me.

Meanwhile, Toph and Aang have more potential than canon. Their arc is actually interesting if only the author would dig deeper and not be too obsessed with 'the hero gets the girl'.

Just like fire and water, air and earth are the opposite element. They are different, but they need each other.

Air is the element of freedom. In fact, Aang was Toph's first friend and he was also the one who offered her freedom, something she really wanted and needed.

Earth people are persistent. Aang wasn't weak, he was strong, but he was too soft. While Katara kept Aang in his comfort zone, Toph was the one who taught him to be tougher and stand his ground.

Aang has a connection with Toph, because he saw a vision of her before they met in person. While Sokka and Katara saw visions of their past, Aang saw visions of his future.

What if at that time Aang was actually seeing a vision of his future and his past?

Because in his dream, he saw Toph had no face, it parallels with his past life (Avatar Kuruk) that lost his lover when Koh stole her face.

It wasn't my original thought, I read this meta from a fanfic and I was stunned with this potential!

I learned that earth was an element that Aang often used in battle after mastering it, even though it was a difficult element for him at first.

Not only that, earth was the element that re-opened his chakra and made him enter the Avatar State. Maybe it's a coincidence, but it still shows that Aang has a connection with his opposite element.

But I think I know why they didn't plan on making Aang and Toph canon even though it would've been a great arc.

Like, no way the writer's inserting-self end up with character who originally a muscular sixteen-years-old boy.

Zuko and Katara (Zutara forever)

I know the question is about ships other than Zutara, but I couldn't help myself to include them on the list.😅 Zutara is too addictive to be missed. 💙❤️

[deepdive-zutaraverse]

(via kataraandzuko-blog-blog)

[atla-confessions]

The play was not calling Aang a “trans man” you moron 😭😭😭 Read the episode commentary… Aang being played by a woman was an inside joke because of how common it is to have little boy characters voiced by women in the cartoon/animation industry (b/c you don’t have to worry about an adult woman’s voice changing).

And the A:TLA writers are great at not ever having any accidental implications in their writings. The meta commentary, sometimes writers can accidentally touch on real issues, such as the emasculation of east Asian men, without realizing. This doesn't mean we cannot be aware of them in our analysis. The meta commentary does not give reason that Aang is upset by it, so there isn't actually a 'word of God' canon one, so people aren't obligated to go with whatever your take on the matter is.

X

[dieauster-und-diegarnele]

A:tla - water meta and theories

water/earth/fire/air/general

Katara healing herself

Sokka is great

Sokka is great 2

Sokka is bitter most of the time, not happy

Katara and the legacy of her bending

Sokka and Katara’s beautiful sibling relationship

About Kanna

Sokka is a child

Sokka was right about the rainbow

Sokka secretly rules the world

Cultured Sokka

Sokka respecting women

Sokka's responsibility for the Gaang

Sokka preparing for his first battle

Sokka vs. Wan Shi Tong

Did Sokka really care less about Kaya?

Defending Pakku

Attractive athleticism in Water tribe women

Sokka and Yue: separated by the new moon

Sokka and Yue: power imbalance between the tribes

Sokka and Yue: dialog analysis

Sokka: tears

Hakoda's characterization is conveyed secondhand

Water tribe: ghost stories about smoke

ATLA fandom and removing Katara’s agency and POV all on their own

Sokka’s incredibly low self-esteem

Hakoda - petting Momo and Appa

Theory: Sokka can't write

Katara could be misunderstood as the new Avatar

I can't help but wonder if Sokka blamed Iroh for Yue's sacrifice

Bloodbending is evil - here’s why

If waterbending healing was just mostly a Northern thing? - on bloodbending invention

Katara is also a survivor of genocide

Kanna and Katara

Paranoid Sokka

Sokka thoughts: masculinity as service to others

Sokka and Yue: the foils

Inuit facial tattoos

Katara and the power of her hope

[yurayuramiharin]

Tagged by @armchairaleck, thank you!!!!

Three Ships: currently obsessing over Jude x Cardan from Folk of the Air series, Sokka x Zuko from A:TLA and Soren x Corvus from TDP

First Ship Ever: Grelle Sutcliff x Sebastian Michaelis from Kuroshitsuji... enemies (to lovers) who paved the way for all the others...

Last Movie: Some random netflix-produced Spanish romcom... I love stuppid romcoms, they kill my braincells so well

Currently Reading: Other than my notes on forensic analysis, I've just finished reading "How the King of Elfhame learned to hate stories" and "The Stolen Heir" is up next (both by Holly Black)

Currently Watching: Brooklyn 99 bc my more than a friend but not yet a partner has brainwashed me with it

Currently Consuming: chamomile tea my beloved

Currently Craving: inspiration to finish my sorvus fic

Tagging: @earlgreyscentedgarbage, @abliafina-18782, @perlelas and anyone else who would like to do this!

[ilre-writes]

Masterlist of everything I’ve written and posted*

*I’ll try to update this after every fic I’ve written but no promises on immediate... yeah.

A:TLA

Two Guys on a Raft Who (don't) Want to Be There - part 1 of The Raft AU [FINISHED]

Hakoda and Zuko end up on a raft AU. Inspired by an ask by Muffinlance which said that this was apparently the OG premise for Salvage.

Hold Me Close (and hold me fast) - part 2 of The Raft AU [FINISHED]

By water, by blood, and by right.

An analysis of Zuko as Hakoda's adopted... something, told in three parts throughout canon. The next installment of my Hakoda and Zuko on a Raft AU.

Ang mamatay nang dahil sa 'yo - [FINISHED] "To die because of you [the country]".

Essentially a writing exercise talking about death throughout the series.

Dishonor on Ozai's Cow - [UNFINISHED AND DISCONTINUED, chapter 10 onwards is/will be a plot synopsis]

Based on this tumblr thread. Ozai must capture the Blue Spirit to restore his bending

ship of fools - [UNFINISHED]

Based on this tumblr thread. A banished Zuko and a not-banished Azula aboard the Wanyi. Slice of life/episodic

I only say morning - [NO GUARANTEES]

One must wonder how in the show, Zuko and Iroh manage to survive on a raft seemingly without food or water. or AU where during his banishment, Zuko… befriends the ocean I guess? (inspired by muffinlance's breakfast friendfish au)

Good omens

Under The Sun - [FINISHED] standalone crack, honestly this was supposed to be posted after an overarching work as a oneshot in that universe, but I don’t think that overarching work will ever exist so...

I will rise like the ashes from a building as it burns - [FINISHED*] specifically Book Omens

*Was supposed to be longer, I lost interest in finishing the concept so I just wrapped it up and made it coherent

He could- he could do anything he wanted now. No adversary. No clandestine meetings in parks and cafeterias, no one tutting at him about his cool watch and his fast car and his weekend activities. He could run over every pedestrian in London tomorrow. He could burn down the Louvre next week then leisurely have a cup of tea.

take a tour of babylon - [FINISHED] 1st installment of a Crowley-is-Satan AU where instead of ruling Hell, he leaves and spends his time hanging out with Aziraphale

après moi, le déluge (caesura) - [UNFINISHED] 2nd installment of the Crowley-is-Satan AU where he left 2000 years early (s2 edition)

Ace Attorney

Mainline

A Beginner’s Guide to Faking Your Death (ao3) - [FINISHED]

1. Understand why you must die.

There was no other recourse after all the horror that was done to him, and through him.

wait of the world - [FINISHED]

Franziska has never been her age. That takes her a while to rectify.

DGS [DGS 2 SPOILERS FOR ALL FICS]

I’ll await that trumpet’s wail (ao3) - [FINISHED]

POV you are Kazuma Asogi searching for answers.

and alum for mouth sores - [FINISHED] drabble series

Two men met one night. Two men walked away. This changes more than they wanted, yet less than expected.

bridgeburner - [FINISHED]

He was a damn fool at the time, dazzled by the blinding, ruby glint in the lamplight as he played hero—

Hold it!

Mister Asogi only had that one ring.

But how could—Klint was dead already.

PJO

in the wake of poseidon - [FINISHED]

It’s four in the morning and the husband isn’t home yet from his night out. Sweet married life, cried the newspaper comic from this morning.

[cheswirls]

a:tla la thoughts 1.2

so i guess instead of a bucket list, aang's leaving it to zuko's notebook of info to guide their journey which really is different from the original and i'm not sure i like it. it seems more like a typical american drama plot segway instead of everything atla is. like uhhhh

atla was so meticulously crafted and everything had a thousand different meanings. it's why there's so many analysis videos nowadays on every possible angle in the show and why they're so long every time. the writing has been praised so highly and for good reason. changing elements just to change it and having them be less intentional and less meaningful than the original is not great and it reflects. like, using the notebook isn't a big deal, but at the same time, why couldn't they just have gone the bucket-list route? especially if it took up the same amount of time? now there's most definitely gonna be a long scene of zuko getting the notebook back instead of, like, something they could've fit in that they didn't.

the water scroll is fine. but if they're cutting the pirate episode, it makes me wonder how they'll handle certain things. the pirates come back later bc zhao hires them to blow zuko's ship up before heading to the north pole. iroh's white lotus tile is given attention in a way that's not in-your-face abt it's later importance. there are little things in each episode that come back later.

sokka saying momo would taste like chicken i get is a joke but it rly took me out of the moment. is there poultry in your ice village???? are there regular chickens like anywhere in your world???? afaik the only non-combined animal is bosco the bear and the main cast thought that was weird. the joke still could've been made while actually using an animal sokka would've eaten before and, y'know, exists in the atla universe. like why was that necessary. that line was really approved? no one questioned it all the way thru post? what?

okay after watching the whole thing :) it's ten minutes shorter than the first and i didn't like the writing but the acting was noticeably better. the director in charge of this one is clearly different bc no one is reading lines like they're reading lines. that being said, a lot of the dialogue itself is... not great. through the episode.

i think what i said abt episode 1 applies here too: i don't mind the changes, but i hate the additions. zhao being at kyoshi island is fine. maria zhang is super pretty and i love her as suki. but i don't like what they did with suki's character in this episode. the village being closed off and her mother being in charge and such like yeah it's a change but it's not bad?

what was bad was all the stuff with kyoshi herself. aang is only able to connect with past avatars at their shrines???? o.k. i didn't like any of kyoshi's dialogue. i really really hope that wasn't the spirit world her and aang were talking in bc 1) no explanation to a critical aspect of the atla universe and 2) it looks awful. the purple filter would be fine without the strange blur lighting effect that makes everything hard to look at. not to mention that if that rly was their attempt at the spirit world, it just looked bad bc i could tell that it was a plain regular forest they were standing in. it didn't look otherworldly at all, it jus looked like a poor attempt at a filter. when hei bai was introduced, the spirit world aang enters into is still the village, but we know it's not exactly because he's outside his body and he can't interact with anything in the physical world, which sets it apart even if it looks the same. i'll give it another chance but uh. not liking it rn.

also i rly don't like the direction they're taking the show in. so they're going to the north not to find aang a waterbending teacher but to stop some impending conflict he was given cryptic flashes of. getting a teacher is only a pro of going in the first place. which means it'll be a race to get there in time to stop whatever's coming instead of a journey, which imo sucks all the life out of the show. atla is supposed to be an adventure travel too, not just cut-and-dry solving the 100 year war.

i said earlier cutting the pirate episode is fine, but i did forget a key detail that they didn't add back in at all when showing katara practicing the forms in the scroll: she doesn't have her jealousy spat with aang. katara hasn't been immature at all so far, and i hope that changes bc it's such a key part of her character that she has to overcome and it rly shows how much she's grown through their journey around the world. aang's holdups abt practicing bending makes me think they're gonna cut out jeong jeong and aang being impatient to learn firebending which causes a world of conflict for him later on but is also a host of other things of importance that first get addressed - the first renegade firebender, katara's healing qualities, zhao's stubborn and head-first tendencies that cause problems later, and our first look at fire being not only destructive but an element that is full of life.

side nitpick but i liked sokka's outfit this episode (under his coat) but not katara's. idk if it's the pants on sokka's that sets his apart, but katara's looks too new. it's not worn at all, it's a lot more complicated than her outfit in the original show (which i get cartoons are simplified, but realistically, it rly does separate the two later on from the prestige of the north and the northern water tribe's people) and it looks out of place in some parts bc it doesn't seem authentic. like, it looks like fake material. if that makes sense? it needs to be rougher.

i hope they show roku at some point bc it seems like we're hauling it to the north so i wonder if they'll do the winter solstice stuff at all.

speaking of the writing tho! i finally know what's off about iroh. it's not paul and it's not his look or his voice or his mannerisms. it's all his speaking lines. some of them are not good. most of them are passable, i guess? none of them are iroh, though. it doesn't feel like things iroh would say. two full episodes in, and iroh hasn't said anything thought-provoking or even that would be deemed wise at all.

the sets are stunning still and the choreography is good, so again, it's really the writing direction that i have the biggest problem with. like, it's so easy to tell that bryke left early into production and that the letflix adaptation doesn't have the writer's room that the original atla did. the changes (mostly) would be fine on their own, but i feel like it's people getting in over their heads and deciding they want to add so much content that is ruining this adaptation for me.

also for a whole entire episode spent on kyoshi island, they sure didn't meld any other stuff into it as much as i thought they should've. and idk that i like the direction they're going with zhao.

omashu and haru's village are supposed to be stops before the winter solstice stuff, so i'm hoping they're done right if done in the same episode (hopefully not concurrently but they can share run time perhaps?)

real quick list of things i hope are given focus and not written out

katara's mother's necklace

the structure of omashu not being a flat city

katara getting haru caught by trying to help someone and this coming back to bite them in the ass

^ despite this, katara again trying to help someone to make up for her mistake (in a way that shows her resilience and compassion)

some nod to momo earthbending would be cool bc to me that is one of the funniest moments in atla s1

i want bumi to be silly goofy and trap katara an sokka in rock candy bc that was visually cool in the cartoon and i'd love to see it in live action cgi

bumi having aang guess his name and figure out for himself who the king really is :)

[squarebracket-trickster]

I know this is the absolute most random post to make this connection on but it also reminds of the common criticism of Avatar: the Last Airbender that Ozai was not an interesting villain.

You see, I saw a YouTube video essay once talking about how, no, Ozai actually is a pretty interesting villain if you change your perspective. Don't look at him through Aang's eyes, he barely has any screen time with Aang. But you know who does spend a lot of time with Ozai? Whose lives are completely shaped by the terror of surviving this man's manipulations? Azula, and, even more obviously, Zuko.

Of course, these are the two actually interesting villains that carry the antagonist department of the show. It would be a pretty boring conflict if it was just Zhao, Ozai, and some other random Fire Nation guys.

Ozai is a great villain when you look at him from Zuko's perspective, and from the perspective of the impact he has on Zuko and Azula.

So my point is, I think sometimes we look for the antagonist in the wrong places. Like, criticize Sauron and Ozai all you want but the fact is, the conflicts in both A:tLA and LotR work anyways. Which means there much be a compelling antagonist somewhere. Something is creating interesting conflict. And whether you are analyzing a piece of media for analysis' sake or whether you are trying to learn how conflict works so you can write your own stuff, being able to identify what is actually making the conflict compelling is kind of important.

Like, the thing you think is the obvious antagonist or conflict might actually be just a side effect.

Hello I’m here to talk about an opinion that isn’t so much unpopular because people don’t like it, but because it is splitting hairs and basically an argument based in semantics that sane people reasonably do not waste their time caring about it.

I am neither sane nor reasonable and therefore think about this a lot, and get ready to pull out a soapbox and type the Text Wall of China any time I hear people offhandedly contradict this opinion, and so I have come here today to die on this molehill, and write the over-long post of my dreams, because fuck it, it’s my blog.

Drumroll please:

Sauron is not The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is the main antagonist though, so furthermore,

Sauron is not the main antagonist of The Lord of the Rings

I internally go insane every time someone says “Sauron, the eponymous Lord of the Rings” or “The antagonist never actually appears in Lord of the Rings” or uses Lord of the Rings as an penultimate example of having a flat ‘evil for evil’s sake’ villain. This is mostly in YouTube videos so I’m not calling out anyone here.

So who is the Lord of the Rings? Where do I get this shit? Why should anyone care?

I will tell you in far too much detail under this cut, because I told you I was gonna be extra about it and this is already long enough to inflict on my followers without their consent.

First and foremost, Frodo is not the Lord of the Rings either. Let’s get that out of the way. Gandalf explicitly tells us that in Many Meetings (the first chapter in Rivendell in Fellowship), when Pippin greets a newly awakened Frodo with quintessential Fool of a Took™️ swagger.

‘Hurray!’ cried Pippin, springing up. ‘Here is our noble cousin! Make way for Frodo, Lord of the Ring!’

‘Hush!’ Said Gandalf from the shadows at the back of the porch. ‘Evil things do not come into this valley; but all the same we should not name them. The Lord of the Ring is not Frodo, but the master of the Dark Tower of Mordor, whose power is again stretching out over the world! We are sitting in a fortress. Outside it is getting dark.’

So that’s my theory busted right off the bat! Gandalf straight up tells us the Lord of the Ring is Sauron (‘the master of the Dark Tower of Mordor’ which is Sauron).

But I already told you, this is a hair-splitting semantics-based theory! He said Sauron was the Lord of the Ring. Not the Lord of the RingS. Yes, this whole theory revolves around a single letter difference between the title of the series and Gandalf’s statement, WHAT OF IT?

But in all seriousness. Tolkien was a linguist. There was no way this choice was not deliberate, not on something so important to the narrative. And there is a very important difference between what he is referring to when he uses ‘The Ring” singular, and “The Rings” plural. The Ring that Frodo carried to Mordor has it’s singular nature highly emphasized by the language that surrounds it. THE definite article Ring, the ONE Ring. Just the One. Singular Singular Singular.

The Rings (plural) refers to the rings of power which Celebrimbor wrought, with Sauron’s help, but Sauron is objectively not the Lord of those rings. Not the three Elven ones at least, which he never touched and only suspects the location of. Without his One Ring he has no power over the Three, and a big problem with him regaining his Ring is that he would gain power over those rings, the ringbearers, and the safe realms that had been wrought with them, basically crippling those with the power to resist him.

Him NOT having the Ring, and therefore NOT having lordship over all the rings, is a pretty major plot point. Like, it’s not a reach to say Sauron not having the Ring is what drives the entire story. And he is NOT the Lord of the Rings without it.

And he never gains it, so is the whole series named after Sauron’s aspirations, that the main characters are trying to prevent? I mean, from an angle yes. But also no.

Because while Pippin and Gandalf’s exchange is the closest we come in the text to seeing the title, let me show you the only place within the covers that “The Lord of the Rings” is presented, at least in my beat up third hand 70’s edition. It may not be formatted like this in other editions, but I still think it says something about how we are supposed to read the title:

[Image ID: Masking tape can clearly be seen holding together my poor abused copy of Fellowship, open to the title page. THE LORD OF THE RINGS is written across the top of the page in all caps, directly below it is the Ring Poem, as if The Lord of the Rings is a the title not only of the series but of the poem. /.End ID]

The One Ring is the Lord of the Rings, not Sauron, who is the Lord of the Ring.

“What?” Say imaginary naysayers in my head, “How can a Ring be a Lord? And why does this matter, if Sauron is the Lord of the Ring, doesn’t that make him the Lord of the Rings by proxy? Why are you wasting your and my time making an argument about this?”

I’m glad you asked imaginary naysayer, let me speak to your first point. How can a ring be a Lord? Well, like any good first time speechwriter, I’ve turned to Miriam Webster, and asked it to define a word we already know, in this case ‘lord.’

[Image ID: Screenshot of the Miriam Webster definition of ‘lord.’ The ones that are relevant are 1: One having power and authority over others. 1a: A ruler by hereditary right or preeminence to whom service and obedience are due. And 1f: One that has achieved mastery or that exercises leadership or great power in some area /.End ID]

In the poem, it is the Ring that is spoken of as ruling, not Sauron. Sauron is actually listed in the same position as all the others who receive rings, “The Dark Lord on his Dark Throne” occupying the same place in the sentence structure as the “the Elven-kings under the sky” and “the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone” and “Mortal Men doomed to die.” It is the One Ring, not Sauron, who rules them all, fulfilling our first definition “A ruler by hereditary right or preeminence.” In this case it would be by right of preeminence, or superiority. The One Ring outclasses the other rings and thus dominates them, binding them to obedience and service. Gandalf calls it “the Master-Ring” when it is first revealed for what it is in Bag-End with the words appearing from the flame.

The Ring has it’s own will too. It’s repeatedly stated to be in control of Gollum when Gandalf is first telling us about it. I’m literally so spoiled for quotes about this that I was paralyzed with indecisiveness over what to use but let’s keep it simple with this one. It’s from Gandalf explaining why Gollum didn’t have the Ring allowing Bilbo to come upon it in the chapter “Shadows of the Past” from Fellowship:

‘It was not Gollum, Frodo, but the Ring itself that decided things. The Ring left him.’

So if Sauron is the Lord of the Ring, and the Ring is the Lord of the Rings, isn’t he Lord of the Rings by proxy? Yes, when he has the Ring. But also being the ruler of a lord doesn’t make the title of that lord your title, if that makes sense. People don’t call Aragorn the Prince of Ithilien, that’s Faramir’s title, Aragorn is King of the Reunited Kingdoms, he rules Ithilien, sure, but by proxy. Ithilien reports to Faramir who reports to Aragorn (I should be calling him Elessar since I’m talking about him as king, but whatever). If Aragorn lost the ability to contact Faramir or Ithilian, he would still theoretically be king there but he would have no practical control, just like Sauron with the Rings of Power.

Why does this matter? It mostly doesn’t. It does not change anything practically in the story at all.

But it matters to me, because it might help change perspective on the antagonist of LotR. It’s the Ring. Sauron is a force in the world, one the Ring is closely allied with, and from whom many of the obstacles come, but the entity that our protagonist is really fighting on every page is the Ring.

If Gandalf were the main character, or Aragorn, or almost anyone else on Middle Earth, Sauron would be the Primary Antagonist. But they are not. Frodo is the Primary Protagonist, and his struggle is NOT against Sauron, it is against the Ring.

If destroying the Ring had not destroyed Sauron, would Frodo have kept fighting in this war? NO! He had his task, and once it was done he was done, even if the world ended afterwards. Everything is driven by the Ring. The threat to the Shire comes from the presence of the Ring, so Frodo takes the Ring to Rivendell. The danger of the Ring is not neutralized by it being brought to Rivendell, so he continues his journey to destroy it once and for all. He doesn’t fight Sauron, he fights the Ring. He fights with himself to keep going in spite of the despair it levels on him, the poisonous words it whispers in his ear, the physical toll it takes on his body. He fights Boromir and Sam (not to the extent he does in the movie, but still a bit) and Gollum over the Ring. He negotiates with Faramir over the Ring.

And the Ring is SUCH a more interesting and nuanced villain to struggle with than Sauron. Sauron is representative of a force in the world. He controls events but never appears, because he acts as the source of all evil, it’s representation on earth (at least now Melkor is in the Void), but it is far more interesting to watch the effect he has on others than deal directly with a character that is so obviously in the wrong in every way. Making Sauron a physical character in LotR is like making the Devil a present character in basically any piece of media that deals with evil.

Evil at its purest isn’t that interesting, because it contains no conflict. Leaving Sauron as an offscreen player leaves us to see characters that are not pure evil struggle with that conflict.

The fascinating thing about the Ring is that it has no power outside of what you give it. But given enough time even the best people, like Frodo, will end up losing themselves to it, as it whispers in your ear with your own voice.

I want to go ballistic when people point to LotR and say it has a one dimensional villain. EVERYONE’S OWN VIOLENCE, DESPAIR AND THIRST FOR POWER IS THE VILLAIN OF LORD OF THE RINGS! Brought to the fore by a small unassuming golden trinket which just happens to also be the titular Lord of the Rings.

Honestly “The Ring is the Villain of LotR change my mind” should be its own big long post with lots of quotes and shit, the fact that the Ring is The Lord of the Rings just being a small point in it.

But unless you are a specific type of interested in story structure and stuff none of this is at all meaningful and it really, really doesn’t matter, so I’m gonna go.

Thanks for coming with me on this dumb journey.

[bluelady-atla]

Sokka is alone

He is his tribes last line of defence

Two years ago, his father and the men of his tribe journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to help fight against the Fire Nation.

Leaving him alone.

Here he prepares to fight and has to use his teeth to tie his wraps because this ritual is meant to be done with your tribes men.

but there is no one left to help him

He promised his father he would protect his tribe and has dedicated himself to it.

To the extent that he can apply their traditional war paint alone without a mirror.

At times this is played for laughs. Hes off playing soilder, as katara call it, trying to train small children to be wariors

But he was not much older than they are when the fire nation attacked and took his mother away.

now he's alone, the only male of age, raised in a society that says he is the only one left who can fight to protect his tribe.

He is preparing to die.

He's seen what happens, he knows what's likely to happen.

They took all of the other benders away before he was born and now they've come for his little sister.

and he is ready to have his last breath be in defence of the ones he loves. Even if it is all futial.

[kyrievali]

I've been reading your posts and in one of them you mentioned that Iroh in fact is very shady and Azula has every right to hate him, may you explain why?

Sure, I’ll go into it. 

Let me start off by saying that I actually really like Iroh as a character. I think he’s great and well-written. I think the fandom tends to gloss over his flaws and label him as “perfect”, which is not true. One of his greatest failings (aside from making two teenage siblings fight each other for the throne...or really not intervening at all where Ozai is concerned) is his treatment of Azula, and him saying “No, she’s crazy and needs to go down” and essentially writing her off when, if you compare Azula’s personality with Season 1 Zuko, they’re really not all that different. Azula, people tend to forget, is a 14 year old girl who was as much a subject of abuse as her brother. Zuko and Azula were essentially pitted against one another to both gain Ozai’s affection and, more importantly, avoid punishment. The only difference is that she was rewarded and praised by Ozai for her power and cruelty, while Zuko was punished for his “shortcomings”. Zuko’s entire storyline proved how important it is to have a good, guiding parental figure in one’s life, and it’s tragic that Azula didn’t have that.

Now, let’s talk about why Azula probably hated her Uncle.

1. She thinks he’s a failure and, worse than that, weak

And I don’t mean weakness in terms of his firebending skills. Let me explain - Fire Nation citizens are ingrained with Nationalistic pride and complete loyalty to the Fire Lord from a very young age. Iroh, once upon a time, was the heir to the Fire Nation’s throne and the favored son of the notoriously cruel Azulon. He laid a 600 day siege against Ba Sing Se during which his son, Lu Ten, was killed. This tragic event caused him to withdraw his troops, despite having breached the outer wall.   

Upon his return home, his father dies under mysterious circumstances and decrees that Ozai will be the heir to the throne. Instead of contesting it, Iroh leaves the Fire Nation and ostensibly spends his time traveling the world, meeting with the Dragons, and getting in tune with the Spirit World. Doing so gives him the knowledge and wisdom to see the error of his ways, at which point he returns to the Fire Nation and serves as a General in the army. 

Let’s look at this from the perspective of Azula, or really any other citizen of the Fire Nation. Their country waged a nearly 2-year long siege against the Earth Kingdom - and right when they make progress by breaking through the first wall, the Crown Prince gives up because his son died. Countless Fire Nation lives and resources were spent on this 600 day campaign, and they end up with nothing to show for it. If you look at the philosophy of Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai, they likely would have used the death of Lu Ten to galvanize the troops and double their efforts, in an attempt to exact revenge against the Earth Kingdom for daring to spill royal blood - and so that their sacrifices thus far would not have been in vain.

And then, not only does Iroh withdraw from Ba Sing Se, he also abandons his duties and his country completely. Iroh had a reputation as a fearsome Firebender and cunning strategist - and he just leaves. So now not only is he a failure, but he’s also a deserter, one who abandons his nation while it’s reeling from a humiliating defeat and the loss of its Sovereign, Azulon (who, by the way, ruled for about 80 years).

In Azula’s eyes, all of this amounts to weakness, and as we all know from how she was raised by Ozai, weakness is unacceptable. 

2. She is parroting her father’s feelings of resentment

Given that Azula was the favored child of Ozai, it’s likely that she idolized her father and thought he was superior to her uncle, the Crown Prince (for the first few years of her life, at least, Iroh WAS the Crown Prince) and should have been the true heir to Azulon. We don’t see a whole lot of Ozai or his backstory/characterization, but it’s not unreasonable to assume that he, being many years younger than Iroh (it’s never officially stated, but Ozai is around 45 at the time of the show and Iroh appears to be in his late 60’s/early 70’s) had an inferiority complex growing up, and probably some form of sibling rivalry. After all, Iroh is already an adult by the time Ozai is born, and the Crown Prince, who has been groomed from birth to be Azulon’s heir. Ozai is an afterthought; an insurance policy, who at the very moment of Lu Ten’s birth, is outranked by an infant. 

Ozai probably resented Iroh his entire life, so it is not unlikely that Azula would probably feel the same way. 

3. He’s a traitor to the Fire Nation

Azula is a Nationalist and Ozai’s most loyal enforcer. Iroh’s a traitor, and as far as she knows, a corrupting influence to her brother, Zuko. She also probably thinks that he’s committing treason because (she doesn’t know any better) Iroh wants to be the rightful Fire Lord, and she is not going to stand for that. 

4. He reminds her of her mother

Azula is used to being the golden child - a prodigious Firebender, the favored daughter of her father, representative of everything the model Fire Nation child should be. And yet, her own mother does not appear to love her. Her Uncle has stated distaste for her. She thinks she’s doing everything right - because according to Sozin and Ozai’s philosophies and the emphasis of power and loyalty to the Fire Nation - she is; so why do two of her own family members prefer Zuko, the “screw-up” of the family - to her? 

It’s clear that Azula craves the love and adoration of others, but she doesn’t really understand it. I think as she grew older and saw more of the world and how people behaved toward her, she understood on some level that she was considered a “monster” and that people were afraid of her; but that’s how she was raised. Fear was power, and power was everything. And growing up, she was only ever positively reinforced for her ruthlessness and cunning by her father (of whom she is very much afraid, by the way...that is made perfectly clear in her attempts to bring Zuko home and also give him credit for allegedly killing the Avatar. Part of it is actually probably due to some level of affection she has for him, but part of it is definitely motivated by having someone else take the heat off of her in an abusive household) and she witnessed firsthand how perceived weakness was punished - so she did everything she could to achieve the ideal of perfection that Ozai, Azulon, and Sozin had proliferated. So she probably never really understood why her own mother and Iroh didn���t like her. And the fact that they both seemed to prefer Zuko, who she’s been taught to think she’s better than, would only further that resentment.

She thinks she can earn people’s affection by being a perfect Fire Nation soldier, because that’s what works with her father - and when it doesn’t work with Ursa or Iroh, two important adult family figures in her life - she doesn’t understand why and, even worse than that, it makes her feel inferior to Zuko. 

5. My final point is purely speculative, but...He didn’t do anything to directly stop Ozai’s rise to power

In the years after the war, after recovering from her mental break and maybe rehabilitating to become an advisor to Zuko (let’s be totally honest, a Nation whose entire economy for the past 100 years has been built on war and imperialization is not going to have an easy transition into peace, especially when they are expected to give up their colonies and play nice with an equally corrupt government that was controlled by the Secret Police force which has no qualms about brainwashing its own citizens...also the new Fire Lord is a banished Prince who is the apprentice of the Disgraced Prince and who returned to defeat the pride of the Nation, Princess Azula, Ozai’s Chosen Heir and the Conqueror of Ba Sing Se), Azula’s going to be pretty pissed that her supposedly wise and worldly uncle did not intervene in her megalomaniacal and abusive father’s rise to power. 

If my uncle, who never liked me, lost countless Fire Nation lives and resources in a battle that ended with him retreating, abandoned the Crown to go on a sightseeing tour of the world, returned and became a traitor to the nation by foiling the Admiral’s conquest of the Northern Water Tribe resulting in the loss of more Fire Nation lives, escaped from you multiple times and went on to become a tourist and small business owner in an enemy nation, turned your brother against you, did nothing to stop his own brother whom he knew was deeply abusive even after he came back after gaining all this supposed wisdom, and THEN also left you alone with your abusive father while taking your inferior brother under his wing and helping him become an extremely powerful bender who eventually defeats you with the help of a Water Tribe peasant...yeah, I’d be pretty pissed at him, too. 

To be fair, she probably never would have willingly gone with them because they were basically just sent on a wild goose chase at that point...but he never even tried to help her.

Anyway, that’s why I think Azula hates Iroh and honestly, she has every right to hate him. He abandoned her Nation and wrote her off completely, so there’s no reason she wouldn’t do the same.

[cobraonthecob]

The Beach was more of a Zutara episode than a Z.umai ep

anyways this was born from me staring at some pebbles on the beach while i was taking a break from surfing

so I was thinking about the line from Li and Lo where they go "even the sharpest of rocks can be smoothed by waves" and I'm like "water is the element of change - afajwkfjw OMG WAS THE BEACH MORE OF A ZUTARA EPISODE THAN ZUMAI ON ACCIDENT LMFAOOOOO"

so i really started thinking - and yes, it is

The Beach shows exactly how dysfunctional Zuko and Mai's relationship is - it's basically a mirror for actual high school relationships that are off-and-on again. Zuko at that point in time is having a lot of emotional trouble, but is ordered around by Mai to do things for her. Furthermore, Mai does nothing to quell Zuko's growing distaste of her attracting the attention of other boys (she can talk to whoever she wants but really she could've been like "I can talk to whoever, I hate them all lol" rather than just,,,not doing anything about him getting frustrated). At the campfire scene, their morals and personalities are further exposed - Zuko is highly empathetic, while Mai is highly apathetic.

We've seen Zuko throughout the entire show - it's his show, along with Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph (with support from Suki, she deserved more eps tbh) - so we KNOW Zuko has a massive moral compass. From what we can glean from Mai, she...is the exact opposite of Zuko. No moral compass, is a follower, doesn't take initiative, and does things just for herself.

(this is only considering all characterizations in the show up to The Beach, we will not be examining the show comic or post-series comics)

The Beach shows the two at their worst, and ultimately draws us a picture of the worst possible route Zumai could take if they ever married as Fire Lord and Lady

now where's the Zutara aspect? it's coming

Now, Katara and Zuko don't interact at all in this ep, but symbolically? YES

Li and Lo talk about how the waves smooth the edges of the roughest rocks, Zuko may not be from the Earth Kingdom but he did spend plenty of time there, along with having a rather prickly personality for a good majority of the series

Katara does not handhold Zuko throughout his redemption arc, she's more like a checkpoint (bolded in case people misinterpret the previous line. Zuko comes to everything on his own conclusion, Katara is there to compare him from season to season). The Northern Water Tribe battle - a demonstration of how much Katara's power has become, while showing how drive Zuko is to capture the Avatar Crossroads of Destiny - Zuko is at a crossroads, Katara representing the choice to move forward and leap into the unknown, Azula representing the choice to go home, something he hasn't seen in three years, along with the love of his father. (also contrast between the Song and Li scar moment and the Katara and Zuko scar moment) (not particularly relevant but still worthy because this is the redemption arc we're talking about) The Last Agni Kai - Zuko rationally thinks about his options on how to fight Azula (a duel for the throne would be more viable politically, along with keeping Katara as safe as possible because there is a comet increasing every firebender's powers) and in the moment that mattered most, threw away his chance for the crown to save Katara, the girl who challenged him, who was there along his journey to push him, and he'd push back

Katara pushes Zuko, and he pushes back, challenging her bending power (B1), her views of the world (B2), and then in an arc that we'll never get, how powerful a relationship can be

anyways I've probably missed a lot but that's the word explosion that's been bonking around in my head this past day