#air nomad genocide does not make sense

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Perfect argument! I agree 100%. LOK really highlighted some of ATLA's flaws. I was ok accepting all the airbenders were gone as a kid until that dumb harmonic convergence happened.

Especially when I read the headcanon about Ty Lee being an airbender descendant, it made way more sense that airbenders had mingled with fire nation and earth kingdom people and had mixed race kids.

I wish we had book 4: air where Aang found hidden airbenders. That would have been a way more satisfying payoff that Korra messing up and being dumb for the millionth time and accidentally bringing back the air nomads. Curious that all the new airbenders were from the earth kingdom...I wonder why... :(

Even though the genocide is dumb in hindsight, I don't mind putting my disbelief aside since it does send a sad message about the horrors of war. Sometimes cultures are lost and it takes decades to somewhat recover. I wish LOK had committed to that sad reality of the burden being on Jinora, Ikki and Melo to continue air nomad tradition. See how Korra and they navigate the world. But no! Bryke are crap writers!

The Airbender Extermination Is Dumbo and I Refuse to Accept It

So I’ve been thinking about re-watching and finally finishing The Legend of Korra, weighing the pros and cons of subjecting myself to that frustrating jumble of half-baked ideas all over again. And while I was doing that, I remembered the precise moment when I went “no, you know what, fuck it, you people lied to me, the show in fact doesn’t get better, it’s doing the exact same thing it’s always done and I’m fucking tired of it.”

“Oh, why would you ever say the protagonist is a static reactive disaster who never learns or progresses or stops being jostled around by the actions of others while the narrative keeps praising her as a wise empathetic person who eventually makes the right decisions? BTW, the last decision Korra made with no thinking whatsoever was a doomsday level of apocalyptically bad but it did bring airbenders back, somehow, outside of anyone’s control or intentions. I mean, it’s not like this was ever on the table and Korra had to purposefully think about whether to bring back airbenders in exchange for infesting the world with uncontrollable spirits, or keep it as was, with no spirits and only three elemental nations. But in case you were wondering how in the hell can airbenders returning be chalked up to Korra being a good Avatar and not a monumental fuck-up, here’s Tenzin praising her for the umpteenth time!”

And as I was rage-quitting the show, I kept thinking, “Man, they really screwed themselves over with the worldbuilding all the way back in ATLA if this was the only way they could think of to bring airbenders back.”

Because while the majority of ATLA’s problems is rooted in the developments of Book 3, there’d been some questionable stuff baked into the show’s fabric right from the beginning.

Like the idea that there having been a complete extermination of Air Nomads bar Aang is totally plausible and shouldn’t be treated by viewers as a red herring for an eventual revelation there’ve been pockets of them hiding around the world the whole time.

So let’s run down the list of things which needed to happen in order for the notion to be even remotely acceptable, shall we?

Keep reading

[soosth]

AANG ＆ OZAI PARALLELS: DEBUNKED

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Because apparently the true villain is the sole survivor of a genocide of his entire nation, and not the imperialist colonizer.

Where do I even begin?? Because I’m genuinely holding in laughter writing this, it’s absolutely insane how certain people can make such egregious parallels that aren’t even found in the first place. 

AH, so a little backstory on how this fucking shit stained idea even came to existence, well our dear z^tara fans pissed their pants over Zuko and Katara not tying the knot, so, as a way of retribution for their supposed “honour” They take any chance to jump on the Aang hate train and make him into some irredeemable abusive demon, aaand they got that perfect opportunity because the LoK decided to take a lick out of the great “Main Characters Must Be Bad Parents In The Sequels” Trope. Which personally, does absolutely nothing to the protagonists resolution aside from cheap family drama but I digress. 

Now, I’m not behind the idea of the writers trying to make Aang a “flawed” Parent, I think it really makes no sense by how they went about it, (I might touch on this in another post) 

((And it’s so very clear that they’re trying to give it a soft “retcon” And even taking extra steps saying that Kya and Bumi just “remember wrong” Which I’ll actually take, because season two of LOK was hell on earth anyway so you might as well give it some saving grace.)) 

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There’s three main parallels that they got from Ozai and Aang: (god help me)

Favouring a child

isolating the rest

leaving pressure On the golden child

I’m going to debunk all three of them while trying not to fall into complete lunacy over how ridiculous they are. 

Favouring a child + Leaving pressure: 

OK, so people are clearly blind with context clues and media comprehension, got it. No surprise whatsoever. I can’t be disappointed if I didn’t even have any expectations to begin with. 

Let’s compare the treatment on how Ozai treats Azula, and how Aang treats Tenzin. (Holy Shit)

Beginning with Ozai, well.. It doesn’t take much of a rocket scientist to understand that Ozai essentially could not give two fucks about Azula, as she in essence, serves the role of an attack dog, as long as it does its job, it’s worthy. 

Ozai favoured Azula because she was molded to match his ferocity and hunger for power, she was a prodigy bender, and was cunning and calculated, all traits that Ozai found endearing and someone worthy to be crowned the next “fire lord.” His “favouring” Of her didn’t come out of genuine love or care, she is his tool who serves a purpose. In short, she showed more competency and more ruthlessness and callousness in comparison to Zuko. Which earned her, her place as the “Golden Child.”  

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None of this is even remotely similar to how Aang treated Tenzin and his kids, aside from the fact he supposedly “favoured” Tenzin more, but that is such a baseline statement and has absolutely no relation with Ozai's reasons.

You have to understand that an entire FUCKING NATION IS DEAD. History, Culture, Tradition, is at the BRINK of being wiped out, Tenzin is quite literally the only Airbender that will be left after Aangs passing. Why do people devalue this concept so much? 

“B-BUT THE AIR ACOLYTES1!!” Still have limited knowledge, airbending is so heavily tied to its spiritual roots, you LOSE your ability to AIRBEND, if you aren't inclined to your spiritual side. Which is a core part of the air nomad culture. Tenzin is... Literally the only god forsaken part left of that, so yeah. It’s a pretty big fucking deal. Aang values his culture and teachings to such a high degree, he is literally the survivor of a genocide. His favouring of Tenzin was done out of necessity and love, not out of a need for power and a new attack dog to send orders around. 

Tenzin will literally be the future “Director” Or guide for the next avatar to learn airbending, people still forget this, and it’s hilarious. He needs to know all the moves, all the teachings because he will be the next avatar's personal guide. 

Aang constantly reassures him, and apologizes for the pressure that may be put upon him but he always reaffirms that he’ll be there to guide him and they’ll “learn together”

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So yeah not the same thing at all. Fuck you for being so inept at understanding the different reasons and perspectives of those situations, just for some petty ship discourse, genuinely disgusting.

Isolating the children:

OK this part, I have to say that the writers definitely messed up with aangs characterization, but I think the execution came out way differently than the intention, so I will try to look more into the intention of each decision.

Ozai isolated Zuko, mistreated him, belittled him, PHYSICALLY ABUSED HIM, but yeah totally on par with Aang actually. 

I don’t wanna touch on this part much mainly because his treatment was literally explained all throughout the show, and granted, while I understand most of these people haven’t touched the show aside from reading fanfic 300000 Where Aang is revealed to us as satan himself, but perhaps, even a small peak at Ozai's parenting would reveal the laughable contrast between the two.

Zuko was a slow learner, and much more of a softie, and a “mama's boy” To Ozai’s heavy dislike, he was thus treated as such, he was belittled, turned down, and literally burnt alive for showing “weakness” He is meant to serve as a direct contrast to Azula, ”The everything he isn't.” 

Kya and Bumi on the other hand, don’t show any actual signs of trauma aside from some petty jabs they threw at Tenzin, 

Bumis talk with Aang at the statue was *very very* Clearly, meant to highlight his own inferiority complex that he internalized growing up. His need for proving himself to be capable of doing just as much if not more than a “bender” Probably happened because his two parents were both prodigy benders and him being a first born son who was a non-bender must’ve hit pretty hard for him, and I’m so sure that katara and Aang reassured how special he is but that kind of thing doesn’t really go away.

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Kya: [while healing Bumi] I told you those rocks were slippery. You're lucky you didn't kill yourself.

Bumi: You done with the lecture, mom?

Kya: Oh, grow up. You haven't changed one bit since we were kids. You're still trying to prove you can do everything a bender can. Well, you can't. Deal with it.

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 That talk with Aangs statue was very much meant to unveil an internal struggle rather than a conflict he had with his father. Kya even doubles down on this, telling him “of course he’d be proud of you” Basically spoon feeding to us, the viewers, that this is much more of internal than an external conflict that he has to overcome along the show. 

“Why Didn’t he share his culture with them 1!!1!” 

He most definitely did, or tried to, but it’s clear they didn’t show much interest so he didn’t pester, this is shown many times throughout the show. 

“You know I could never keep all those gurus straight… There were like a million of them!

remember that long boring story about the guy who never ate?”

This is literally Kya’s remark to Tenzin just after he tried teaching the airbender students this story, basically telling us that Aang DID try to tell them about his stories and culture, but much to their disinterest, didn’t try any further. 

And Bumi, literally could not pay attention to the story to save his life, and instead decided to fool around in his literal 60’s!! I mean Imagine what he was like when he was a kid!! 

I could imagine their dynamic was very similar to Jinora with Meelo and Ikki, Tenzin being the only one with actual interest and care, whilst Bumi and Kya goofing off and not putting much focus onto it. WHICH IS FINE BTW!! 

It only goes to reiterate that Tenzin was the only one who was actually giving interest and attention to the air nomad culture, and it was of Kya and Bumi’s own personal choice to not partake in it. To each their own I see. 

“BUT WHAT ABOUT THE VACATIONS” 

This.. I agree, weird for the writers to decide this, but given how they low-key are retconning it in interviews, my best guess is that each of those trips were side-quests during their journey to teach an important lesson that might’ve just drowned out because Tenzin may not have remembered it as well. 

Also keep in mind that Tenzin was put into a lot of pressure, Aang probably saw this, and as a way to still keep it enjoyable, he took him to trips that would help ease the mind for a little kid whilst also learning something valuable. That seems pretty on brand for Aang actually

And given that Kya and Bumi are literally in their fucking 60’s it wouldn’t surprised me if they didn’t have the greatest memory. Hell, they didn’t even fault Aang as a parent until Tenzin started boasting about “trips” That Kya and Bumi gave petty jabs but weren’t actually showing genuine hurt, just annoyance.

Kya even comments how Aang was too busy “Trying to save the world, and doing his duty that he didn't have much time for them” 

Phrasing as if it wasn't anything "important" But it's clear that this was Kya's own personal irritation towards Tenzin rather than an actual evaluation on Aang's duties.

A continuation comic best explains it in a deeper way:

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Literally showing that “neglecting” His kids wasn't up to him, and was out of a sense of necessity, trying to cram as much knowledge onto Tenzin, the only one who was basically putting his lessons into practices. Kya and Bumi were left feeling neglected. But that wasn’t out of his decision; he still loved them dearly.

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This. Literally highlighting how much pressure was forced upon Aang, so yes, as any person would, he struggled with making time for everybody. Holy shit who knew?? 

GASP!! IS THAT… A REALISTIC BUT UNDERSTANDABLE FLAW!!?? HOW DARE YOU! ITS OZAI #2 

The fact that the smiley energetic person forgets to SMILE, is a big deal, man was put through hells amount of stress but he never cracked.

So tell me, how is a genocidal freak, who treats his golden child like a tool and abuses the other both physically and emotionally for showing “weakness’ 

Even remotely comparable to

 the sole survivor of a genocide, trying to withhold his teachings and culture onto literally his only child that showed actual effort in doing so, while also maintaining the balance of an entire fucking world and being literally the biggest “advisor” And “Mentor” For society, OH! And also building and managing a literal city, but along the way struggling to make time for his children. 

Guess what, they’re not. And if you think they are. You are an idiot, with bias and headcanons.

So the conclusion is, Aang is a flawed parent, but he isn't a "bad" Parent - confirmed by the literal writers.

Comparing him to Ozai a literal dictator, is absolutely sickening, just for your petty shipping discourse when this show's been over for a decade is insane. Indulge in what you enjoy, but stop projecting delusions like they're canon.

:D

[bluespiritshonour]

I started Reckoning of Roku against better judgement and I have to say: does ATLA want me to suspend my disbelief a la monarchy or not?

Like, Zuko being crowned Fire Lord was considered to be a good ending—whereas through real world logic, toppling the monarchy would've actually been more egalitarian.

So I've always suspended my disbelief with regards to that—and now Gyatso actually confronts Roku about it. He also says there have never been female Fire Lords and how the word Fire Lord is inherently masculine (so Izumi becoming Fire Lord is actually very real world equivalent of, say, a woman becoming chairman/woman).

But I'm just really hung up about the monarchy aspect of it: because if we were to apply real world logic to it a traumatised 16 yo being crowned a monarch of a post-war nation that should (again, realistically speaking) take years to stabilize is tragic, not happy.

But if I do apply real world logic to ATLA world as Reckoning of Roku wants me to?—then I'd say I LOVE GYATSO!!! HE'S A RIOT!!!YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE WHERE AANG GOT HIS SASS FROM!!!

And everything Gyatso says about class difference and autocratic governments is so correct and valid of him.

He served cunt.

Also, the Air Nomads being accepting of gender fluidity? Amazing.

While I still think gender segregation of the temples wasn't a good thing let's get this straight: victims don't have to be perfect. We can consider it a flaw of Air Nomad society, that is no justification for Sozin going genocidal on them!!! And you know that's not the reason he did for duh 😒 (as if anyone colonises anyone because tHey'Re bAckWArd) It's very similar to how South Asia has a gender segregation culture, but we have very rich trans history. Which, again, in no way means we're free of transphobia. (Although Air Nomads do not feel transphobic from the text) It's nuanced.

As for Fire Nation culture being so militaristic at this point. It makes sense. (I wish I had read Kyoshi novels first so I'd know what Fire Nation was like during her and Rangi's time, especially because ATLA tried to hammer in how Fire Nation has lost a lot of its real essence to imperialism too).

My reading of this is: Sozin didn't just wake up one day and decided to colonise the world. It must have happened gradually, especially the cultural shift. Roku lived on the precipice of the war. He was the reason it didn't break out even earlier. So it makes sense that we see these tendencies in the Fire Nation already: political atmosphere was already shifting. Gyatso sees it too and he doesn't like it. Remember how the Air Nomad council was debating whether to tell Aang he's the Avatar?

Because they anticipated a war was coming.

Another complain I have is Gyatso using language that, say, in a few years Fire Nation is going to use for Air Nomads after they genocided them. Words like ‘backward’ and all. Because everything Gyatso means to say is RIGHT—making him use that language was a wrong writing choice.

[shadelorde]

My earlier argument on here has me thinking about Aang’s development. And it’s true that his development isn’t quite what a lot of people think would happen with a main character.

But saying that his core beliefs weren’t challenged just isn’t true.

This difference with Aang is that he’s the last of his people. By chance, he survived, completely unaware of the genocide that happened to the Air Nomads for one hundred years.

The thing is also that Aang’s core values ARE constantly being challenged. There is someone always impatient with his pacifist approach, there’s someone always scoffing his beliefs. He’s even been blackmailed into resorting to violence like in the Avatar State, where the general became so impatient with him that he triggered the Avatar State by making it seem as if he killed Katara. (Why do I see so few people talking about this?) Zuko belittles him in The Southern Raiders, calling him “Guru Goody-Goody,” and saying “That’s nice, but this isn’t airbender preschool.” Aang’s past lives push him to kill Ozai, and after reading the novels it makes sense why they would, but they’re still pressuring him to give up what he’s been taught.

Aang’s arc wouldn’t make sense if the resolution is that he gives up on his Air Nomad teachings and murders Ozai. It would be disappointing to say the LEAST and have some pretty weird and gross connotations.

Aang’s arc COMES FROM his values, it comes from him choosing to keep his values even when pressured by everyone else. He DOES change and learn more about himself, but it comes from his own motivations and not other people telling him what to do. There’s nothing wrong with his values, despite what others say and how they belittle him. This internal motivation to keep these values is in large what DRIVES his arc.

So by saying that he should have changed them destroys the point of Aang’s character and destroys the point of the show, “The Last Airbender,” itself. You might have watched the show, but you didn’t get the point.

[avatarfandompolice]

So in the absolute pile of slop that is Netflix’s ATLA, there is a universe-breaking plot hole that no one is really talking about. And the best part is that it’s something the show added that wasn’t in the original.

When Aang is being told that he is the avatar in flashbacks, he and others mention “defeating the Fire Nation.” This is before the genocide, and obviously before Aang runs away, right?

Well, this creates a whole slew of problems. Like, a LOT of them.

First off, the lore of the real ATLA timeline (real = cartoon because it actually matters, unlike the Netflix crap), the world is vaguely aware of Sozin’s moves towards world domination, but the genocide during the comet is largely unknown. The air nomads themselves stay out of global conflicts as much as possible, so this would not be on Aang’s mind in any way. If the Netflix show was trying to follow that, then this is just some strange addition that doesn’t make any sense. They would not be worried about “defeating the Fire Lord” if so far not even the rest of the world has raised high defenses against him.

Let’s go the route of “since they removed the comet from being relevant to the story of NATLA, they plan on making this different” now. So now we have the issue of this: what is the threat towards the air nomads? If there’s no upcoming ticking clock to where they know they will be confronted with fighting Sozin, then why does Aang need to focus on defeating him? The other issue with this scenario is that the air nomads willingly and gleefully all gather in one place in NATLA to get slaughtered, yet they apparently knew the risk of Sozin attacking them going in? And the gathering was based around the event that made the firebenders more powerful? Huh?

Let’s continue beyond that too! If the air nomads were known to have been wiped out during the comet in NATLA, then why is it NOT a ticking clock in the story? What were the AI writers thinking?

So essentially what we have here is a lose-lose situation where we not only have yet another useless NATLA addition that makes no sense, but it actively undermines Aang’s character too. One of the biggest points with Aang is the emotion of seeing the world he loved falling to pieces. A great microcosm of this is his friend Kuzon, who was a Fire Nation citizen. He now has to deal with the Fire Nation being the #1 enemy when he had a strong connection with someone there. He has to see a world where ALL Fire Nation citizens are seen as evil when the Fire Nation he knew was not that. And again, Aang’s knowledge of the Fire Nation being bad before the genocide completely undercuts this because now he already knows they’re bad and his worldview after being unfrozen is not any different.

The only emotional impact you get now is him knowing that Gyatso was killed by the Fire Nation. You could say that this is him coming to terms with how bad the Fire Nation really is, but it’s still an entirely deflated impact compared to the original. Imagine waking up to find that an entire nation you loved is now killing and colonizing everyone else AND you lost all of your friends and family to it. Tragedy isn’t a contest IRL, but the weight of this is so much heavier than “bad nation did bad thing but now bad thing affects ME!”

This show is a fucking trainwreck from beginning to end, and the fact that a lot of it is due to the additions shows that no one actually cared. They added things like this huge fumble because they wanted to make it just different enough to get away with not being seen as a shot-for-shot remake. They took zero care in making any additions make sense. There’s no issue in adding things to adaptations, but if you’re not going to work them into the story, then just give up and do something else.

This show fucking blows.

[sokkastyles]

Hi,

Hope you are doing well.

I have come across the reblogs of The Reckoning of Roku and three things hit me.

The fact that the Air Nomads believe that the world would be better if everyone was a pacifist like them feels a bit like Sozin's thought process. This one is a reach, but I feel there is a small similarity.

I didn't understand the shot at the Fire Lady thing, because we are not shown anything about the Air Nuns mentioned in this novel. Is it a shot at fans? Because if so, this is a stupid attempt.

The novel feels like a deifying of the Air Nomads. That they were these pacifist people, but come to think of it, till book 3, I doubt it was implied that the Air Nomads were pacifist, to my recollection at least. And I doubt Aang's word can be taken into account, because no twelve year old will have an understanding of his culture.

I would like your thoughts on this.

The main problem with the "the world would be better if everyone were pacifists like us" thing is that it isn't inherently wrong. The world WOULD be better if everyone worked to end violence. The problem is that the novel and the series as a whole have a very shallow view of what pacifism actually is. They seem to think it means not eating meat and having a hands off approach to violent conflicts, while what Roku calls for is actual activism and bringing peace through justice. Gyatso declaring that wars would not exist if everyone were like the Air Nomads, while simultaneously advocating for not getting involved, does reek of the same logic Sozin used when he said that the world would be better off if the Fire Nation were to spread its greatness. Neither view is actually doing anything to promote peace.

And of course that doesn't mean Gyatso is just like Sozin, and it certainly doesn't mean that what happened to the Air Nomads was justified (a view I have seen expressed by no one except Aang stans accusing Zutara shippers of saying so in entirely bad faith). But a central theme of atla is that the Fire Nation thought they were the good guys. Their entire ideology was about the belief that they were making the world a better place, and any ideology that assumes the world would be better off if these other people were more like us, while not actually addressing conflicts, is an inherently flawed ideology.

Which would be great if, as I have seen some Aang stans say, also in bad faith arguments to hate on zutara shippers for pointing out bad writing, any of this were actually intentional. But the series is not actually interested in making Gyatso or any of the Air Nomads actual human beings. We're supposed to believe Gyatso is right simply because the Air Nomads are the good guys. And that's why what he says is dangerous. Nobody is saying the Air Nomads are not the good guys here. But it is glaring that the show put these words in the mouth of a character we are supposed to idealize, when the original show explored the dangers of that idealization as one of its main themes. It's because Gyatso is a good guy and a victim of genocide that the writers making him say this is so offensive.

The fire lady mention is absolutely a dig at zutara shippers, who invented the term because of the original show's deficit in depicting the lives of women. It feels like the creators are trying to dodge any accountability for their own sexism, something they have a history of doing. And yeah, it's telling that we still know nothing about Air nuns except that, according to Gyatso, there are "good reasons" for gender segregation. It reeks of "our sacred traditions vs their backwards sexism" as well as the creators once again trying to make excuses for their own sexism.

Which doesn't make any sense from a cultural perspective, but again, the franchise is not interested in depicting the Air Nomads as real people beyond the Shangri-La stereotype they've been running with. They don't even do a good job of trying to be progressive, because that line about how Air Nomads can move temples if their understanding of their gender shifts actually raises more questions than it answers, and just gives a gender essentialist and heteronormative view on lgbtq issues.

[paintingpuff]

Netflix ATLA and the Air Nomad Genocide

I've started watching NATLA, and though I'm not really enjoying it, I've found it really interesting to compare its writing decisions to the show as a way to break both down and see how their parts tick. Since NATLA is trying to be more faithful than some other adaptations, the changes it does make stand out more and reveal the mechanics of the storytelling.

While I overall think a lot of NATLA's changes--even the minute ones--made the story execution weaker, the more complicated and interesting change of theirs is the intro, showing the day the Fire Nation ambushed the Air Nomads.

Pacing Criticisms

Cards on the table, I think that putting this sequence at the very beginning was a mistake. Watching Aang's emergence from the iceberg in NATLA made me realize how much the original cartoon imbues its beginning with mystery that makes for a much more active viewing experience. Aang doesn't know much about the present, Katara and Sokka don't know much about Aang's origins, and in their back and forth of information, we the audience organically learn both. Watching Katara and Aang piece together how long he's been frozen in ice was more satisfying and natural than Grangran deducing everything immediately when Aang showed up.

But Sherlock Grangran was kind of the only decision the writers could do, because if they tried the build up the cartoon did, it would just feel tedious to the audience, because we already know everything from the start. They kind of wrote themselves into a corner there.

But let's ignore that problem. We could imagine in another draft that this sequence of the Fire Nation attack shows up as a flashback, kind of like what happened in ATLA with The Storm.

That then begs the question: How does this sequence’s inclusion change the audience's experience, and is it for better or worse?

Facing Vs. Hiding the Horrors

Both series portray very dark and horrific situations, but the way they try to evoke horror from the audience are very different approaches, and for me raises a question I've been asking myself for a while: When wanting to display discomforting violence, is it more effective to imply/hide it, or to show it in detail? Somewhere in between?

(I specify discomforting violence, as opposed to violence meant to be catharsis or spectacle.)

There are arguments for both. Explicit violence can create a visceral, physical reaction to an audience member (especially the squeamish ones), though for some it can come across as gratuitous and even exploitative.

Whereas hiding the violence can horrify the audience by leaving a lot to the imagination (insert that quote about fear of the unknown from Hack Penmanship Lovecraft), or give the sense that the events are so awful that even the camera has to look away. Some also say this gives the characters more dignity, though others think this softens the emotional reaction almost as a form of self censoring (there's a reason kid's media often tries to show horrific stuff off screen, such as the original ATLA).

Ultimately I've come to the conclusion that the former approach works for some stories, whereas the latter works better for others, all of it based on a ton of factors.

So I don't think NATLA's choice to delve into more detail about the Air Nomad genocide is an illogical decision. I wasn't sure about it when I heard it, but I thought that maybe I'm just attached to ATLA's off screen approach, so I kept myself open.

And dialogue issues aside, I don't think the scene is that poorly done. But it did ultimately solidify for me that ATLA's narrative is stronger without an explicit depiction of the Air Nomad genocide.

The Grief of Never Knowing

The image of Gyatso’s skeleton from ATLA has haunted me ever since I saw it as a kid. It was an emotional gut punch in a very well done episode, but this particular screenshot has stuck with me, and that is because of the Fire Nation soldiers. A lot of people have pointed this out, but there are a lot of bodies here, and it implies that Gyatso managed to not only kill these soldiers, but do it when they were strengthened by the comet. That image is very discomforting--Gyatso is always seen from Aang’s perspective, and thus we only see him as the gentle old mentor and friend, one who cheats at games and throws pies he meticulously baked.

It also puts into Aang’s position and the grief he has to face. From his perspective, he was gone only a few days as 100 years passed. He never gets to see the interim, and thus neither do the audience. He is left with the same implications as we are, and has to face the realities of grieving the fact that sometimes you’re not there when they leave.

An excellent point from @endless-nightshift here is how one of ATLA’s core themes is coping with the aftermaths of atrocities and war, analyzing their long-lasting affects rather than just the initial shock of violence--something I had never consciously realized but once said out loud makes a lot click into place for me. There is a reason the show starts a full century into the war rather than just a few years. 

François Truffaut once said that “there is no such thing as an anti-war film,” because the medium of film is inherently better at elevating and glorifying what it shows rather than deriding or deconstructing it. While I don’t think it’s impossible to do the latter, the extended action sequence that is the intro to NATLA causes that sentiment to echo in my mind as I watch, rather than invest me into the story. 

The implied atrocities of ATLA draws me in to empathize with the wounded characters and world, whereas the explicit action of NATLA pushes me away. 

…and that’s where I was planning to end this analysis, but there is one thing NATLA’s intro adds into the canon that I think is actually genius--if they take advantage of it in the future. 

The Air Nomads are Joy

When I first saw the addition of the Comet Festival, I saw it as a purely mechanical decision to have all the Air Nomads in one place for the attack, as well as to make the act even more scummy. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized how it could tie into one of my favorite themes of ATLA: the Air Nomads (and especially Aang) as the joy and hope of the world. 

(I saw an old tumblr post about this theme that inspired this section. I wish I could link it but I can’t find it anymore, I’m very sorry and if anyone can help me find it tysm)

There is a recurring motif of associating the Air Nomads with humor and fun. Iroh mentions their good humor; Gyatso baking pies just to prank the other masters with it; Roku’s first airbending flashback being him using it to mess with his friend. This is a core tenet to Aang’s character as well. The first line he has in the show is inviting Katara to go penguin sledding with him. Half the stops he makes in Season 1 is purely to have fun. He excites Kyoshi island with an airbending party trick. The humor in ATLA’s tone isn’t just there because it’s targeted towards kids, but is the bedrock of the series’ themes. 

(On a personal note, the humor is also what got me and my family into the show. We saw the intro sequence with Aang crashing into the statue and it made my mom laugh so hard that we watched the whole series, and years later we’ve rewatched it dozens of times and own all the DVDs)

Joy and fun and hope were the first things to die when the Fire Nation attacked, and part of Aang’s job is returning that to a world that has been scarred by decades of war. You may already be seeing where I’m going in regards to the Comet Festival. 

A core conflict in the cartoon finale is Aang wanting to keep to the principles of the Air Nomads while still finding a way to stop the war (side note: I think the resolution and Aang’s decision to spare Ozai was a good one, I just think the execution was a little janky). Beyond the surface level conflict of who wins in the battle between Aang and Ozai, there is the additional tension of who will win ideologically. The return of the Avatar State is an interesting development in this dynamic, having Aang suddenly physically winning the fight, but spiritually losing up until the last moment. In the end, it is a triumph where Aang manages to find a third option to win both conflicts, despite them seeming diametrically opposed. It is about defeating Ozai and the Imperial Fire Nation by wholeheartedly rejecting their ideology of violence and might-makes-right. 

But now I see a really cool opportunity for NATLA with what they’ve established in the intro sequence: What if Aang reclaimed the symbol of Sozin’s Comet for his people? That day of the Fire Nation attack, centuries of the Comet Festival were wiped over in history, with people now naming that event as Sozin’s Comet and the beginning of the war. Wouldn’t it be poetic for Aang to mark the ending of the war by wiping away that stain done to his culture, taking it back from the Fire Nation in what ways he can? To turn a tool for genocide into an event of joy and fun once more. 

I’m reminded of moments from the cartoon like Suki commenting how beautiful the comet looks. It would just tie everything up beautifully, and I really really hope the NATLA writers--if Netflix does give them enough seasons to get there--take advantage of this.  

So, to sum up what I think of NATLA so far: I think a lot of its changes have made the story weaker, but I don’t want them to stop trying changes. If I wanted a 1:1 copy of the cartoon, I’d just watch ATLA--it’s also on Netflix, after all. With more work, I can see the writers making changes that accentuate and build on the beauty of the original. 

(Note: These are the thoughts I’ve accrued from just watching the first episode. I plan to watch more, but it does exhaust me at the moment. Still, I hope I can do more of these kinds of analyses, it’s a really fun writing exercise for me)

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

I was talking about the last Airbender with one of my friends and how the whole "ending the cycle of violence" actually works really well and serves the story and the message it wants to send. it's one of these only instances where the choice of not killing the big bad guy makes SO much sense beyond the "murder bad".

It's the air tribe SURVIVING the genocide the fire nation despite all the hurt. It's so thematically powerful.

But having the supposedly anti imperialist show KEEP the military at the end? Is misguided at best. We're talking abt the same military that is built upon the blood and exploitation of others. Like the point is RIGHT THERE, and yet...

And gen I think that's what Arakawa is; misguided.

Cause she gets so many things right in her works that I don't get how else she could've chosen to end Scar's arc like *that*.

I just think she hasn't been properly introduced to intersectionality and radicalism and thus she's stuck in the liberal limbo. But then again, I might be wrong idk ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

ATLA shares a similar anxiety towards the oppressed who become "too violent" ala Jet and Hama. Pulls the classic "make the radical/angered victim of genocide behave cruelly to their fellows in order to equivocate the violence of entrenched power with those lacking".

Though I can give it to ATLA that, narratively, Aang defanging Ozai rather than killing him is an act of reclamation of his culture, as the sole surviving Air Nomad. Though we can ask how the meta-narrative uses this cultural context to soften the blow against an empire. But, given the homage to existing pacifist practices and ideologies, it feels more earnest and less nakedly protective of imperialist institutions compared to mangahood. But the cycle of violence is the growth of the Fire Nation as an imperial power, not the retaliation against the war machine; if Aang had chosen to kill Ozai, that's not a perpetuation of a cycle. Empires don't arise simply because someone took one down, and empires don't conquer and slaughter people because an empire had been quelled. The cycle of violence doesn't really map onto such things as imperialism, not without flattening all violence to "bad always".

It's been a long time since I watched the show; contrasting it to Brotherhood would work well, but who has the time? If nothing else, ATLA at least follows the victims and survivors of the Fire Nation's imperialism and massacres, rather than mangahood which largely stars genociders and imperial citizens. From what I can recall, it also has better pacing, doesn't squander its more serious and sombre moments with ill-timed gags, and the comedy/gags are more seamless/less intrusive than Brotherhood in particular. So hey, there's that too.

The supposedly "leftist", "anti-imperialist" show (Brotherhood) sure does a lot of excusing, coddling, and valorizing the military as an institution. It rests on a juvenile conception of noble idealism that, surely, all proud upstanding soldiers want to achieve for the nation. Positive nationalism! That's good and righteous, yeah? (No.) We sidestep the fact that no amount of 'noble' propaganda changes the exceptional violence that a military is literally meant to wield against those the state governs/wishes to govern/wishes to eradicate because, actually! It's the homunculi! Father makes the military and the nation it controls bad!

So there, problem solved. Anti-imperialism achieved.

We can only speculate on Arakawa's personal political beliefs. One's works are not necessarily indicative of every thought, belief, and action you hold or wish to see in the world. So no doubt she is simultaneously misguided on some things, liberal/nationalist/reactionary in others, and perhaps holds some quality beliefs as well. People are multifaceted messes, all of us. But, at least while looking at the politic of this one work of hers, it is boldly pro-military, pro-nationalist via reformism and the maintenance of the hegemon of powerful nation, and, frankly, racist towards brown people. Arguably mangahood is orientalist in its treatment of Ishval (exotified and negative/"savage"/"primitive"), Xerxes (exotified and 'positive', excuses and exemplifies the protags and their heritage, "advanced"/"civilized"/tragic in contrast with Ishval which is seen as aggressive on par with Amestris), and to an extent Xing.

Tbh, my biases prevent me from shaking the thought that she hated that Sho Aikawa et al had Amestris be shone in the hideous light of its systematic cruelty. That she resented Scar being made to be the enemy of Amestris as an entity, and a direct enemy of its military. (Oh no, he's an enemy of all the "~good~" that militaries stand for! 😱😱😱/immense sarcasm)

Perhaps she always planned for her version of her character to be 'reformed' (I have to hold in my bile). Perhaps that plot beat only blossomed in her mind after witnessing Scar kill off 7000 soldiers in his final act, 1) because she thinks that's cruel to the soldiers (🙄🙄🙄), and 2) because waaaah Scar died 'evil' (🙄🙄🙄🙄). As Brotherhood carried forward in its plot, all I could see were direct inversions of 03. And Liore (as well as Scar) is a prime example. Look at how Brotherhood assures us that actually the Liorans are fiiiiiiiine, they all banded together to work as a team to rebuild, they just got all turned around and violent but it's no one's fault except the nebulous sins of humanity, haha whoops! They're super happy, their outlook bright and cheery! No more military aggression here, and all without the violence of resistance fighters! We don't even blame the guy who upended the theocratic rule of the city, no sirree. All is well! Rose even thanks Ed for showing them "the way". All of this is a direct rebuttal to the horrific violence of the military invasion shown in 03, of the mass slaughter, of the rape, of Ed being shown the part he played in this destruction. Edward surrounded by the crowded graveyard of murdered Liorans as Scar stands above him, having been right all along about the role people working in the military will play, is one of 03's clear-eyed condemnations of the sabotage and subterfuge powerful states use against their targets. Rose doesn't thank Ed for what he did, for what happened to Liore, and the mass suffering caused on behalf of the state, for which his meddling accomplished.

It couldn't be more clear that Arakawa was not ok with any of this. I could chalk it up to "she simply wanted to set her manga apart from the first anime" which I know to be the case more broadly, given her statements on the matter. But it's the way she ignores Liore in her version of the story, the way everyone is oddly... fine. The way Rose assures Winry that they've improved as a people as a result. And the way Scar is just routinely tarred and flogged until he bends to the military while decrying his own actions as "terrorism" (I won't dive into the numerous meanings of such a loaded term for now). It's all of that that makes me see her work as a more active, intentional political statement rather than an accidental, incidental one.

As I stated before though, neither of us can be certain on what she believes within herself, let alone what she would claim. (People have a tendency to feel one way but their actions and reactions may claim otherwise. You can say you're against imperial violence while making millions of excuses for imperial nations.) It's still worth dissecting what can be seen, directly stated, and interpreted from mangahood itself, sans the author. Because regardless, the works themselves do have a voice. And that voice is often heard without the context of 03. Because I'm sorry, but mangahood would not be so stringent on its reformism without 03's more stark, relatively realistic take on militarism and imperialism.

Yet mangahood purists would have us believe that it exists not in conversation or rebuttal to 03 but instead in a vacuum. Pure. At best some fans see mangahood as a 'correction' of the 'mistake' of the 2003 adaptation, simply because the source material is king even when that source material doesn't fully predate the 03 anime. And that's fucking ridiculous and warps the chronology of fma's history as a franchise all for the convenience of ignoring mangahood's glaring contrivances and issues.

[zuko-always-lies]

hey there!

can i ask why you think 'the firebending masters' ep is cuttable from book 3? i think it highlights a pivotal part of the fire nation's ancient culture and its later violent erasion to enforce the new regime's ideals. also, it finally shows the viewer that fire is not just destruction but "life", which echoes one of the show's main sentiments that "Everyone, even the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation have to be treated like they're worth giving a chance" (a quote taken from 'the avatar and the fire lord' ep).

also... the ep is generally liked for its entertaining dynamic between aang and zuko.

so, yeah, i guess i'm just wondering why you think it is so futile. this is a genuine ask, the reason why i stated my arguments was that so you could reflect on them.

thanks for answering if you do, cheers!:)

Sure:

You could cut the episode out of the narrative completely without any overarching narrative arc really being affected. The Western Air Temple, The Boiling Rock, and even The Southern Raiders serve longer plotlines, but the Firebending Masters does not.

The episode is redundant. The point of the "life-changing fieldtrip" episodes is to show Zuko "getting good" with the members of the Gaang, but Aang was already super-nice and friendly to Zuko, so he really didn't need an episode about "becoming friends" with Zuko. If you wanted to do such an episode, it should probably be about Zuko learning more about who Aang is and what his cultural background is, because that would be a real shock for someone like Zuko who grew up in the imperialist Fire Nation. Instead, "The Firebending Masters" is primarily about Zuko and the Fire Nation, and Zuko apparently never learns to respect Air Nomad culture.

The episode includes a lot of whitewashing of Iroh, some of which has been seized upon by fans to argue that a genocidal warlord "never was a bad person."

The continued existence of the Sun Warriors doesn't make much sense. Generally, cultures aren't preserved in amber over thousands of years. If the Sun Warriors are ancestors of the Fire Nation, then the "modern" Sun Warriors should be the Fire Nation, or maybe they should be a sister-culture which is descended from the Sun Warriors but is very, very different nowadays. Having a couple hundred guys hanging out as remnants does not make much sense.

The big theme of this episode is "Zuko learning to firebend without using hatred and anger." However, almost every time we see Zuko firebend after that point, he's clearly filled with rage. That makes the episode largely pointless.

[prying-pandora666]

Aang the Segregationist?

I keep seeing this terrible take regarding Aang’s role in “The Promise” claiming he’s some xenophobic segregationist.

Guys, I know we have our grievances with the comics, but this one’s kind of a stretch, don’t you think?

No, Aang wasn’t pro-Harmony Restoration Movement because he hated the Fire Nation or because he was a bad friend to Zuko or because he was brainwashed or whatever other arguments I’ve seen.

It’s because he’s the last survivor of a genocide. As he’s coming into his mid-teens, he’s starting to grasp the depths of what he’s truly lost in a way his 12 year old self couldn’t. He’s desperate to cling to his culture before it’s lost forever, and his fears are well founded! Air Nomad culture could well die out with him.

That’s why we get the plot point with the Avatar Aang fan club. They inadvertently offend Aang by appropriating and misapplying his culture (however well intentioned) and this triggers Aang’s fears of how his culture is being lost. All that will be remembered is a watered-down caricature.

He flat-out says as much to Katara! Saying that the reason the Nations need to be divided is because the stronger Nations will always dominate the weaker nations either through conquest or imposing their culture. Aang is afraid directly as a result of the terrible trauma he’s suffered.

Time-stamped so you can see for yourself:

To try to paint Aang as some kind of xenophobic segregationist is a pretty terrible reading of the text. Especially when the point of the story is that Aang learns he was wrong to try to force the colonies to separate, and that he can better preserve his culture by teaching it to others while he lives rather than keeping it away where no one can potentially corrupt it.

Let’s also not forget he was being advised by Roku, who was also deeply impacted by the genocide and war that followed his failure to stop Sozin. Of course Roku is taking a hard stance! He tried to be reasonable and diplomatic in his time and it led to the 100 year war and the loss of the Air Nomads!

Aang is 14 tops. He’s trying to make sense of an unfathomable atrocity that was committed against his people while the whole world looks to him to mend the rifts of a bloody 100 years of conflict.

To ignore how that’s impacted him just so you can paint him as a bad guy relative to Zuko or whatever is not only a pretty lousy reading of the text, it shows a complete disregard for a horror that, tragically, does happen in the real world too.

[neechees]

that atla post doesn't make sense considering everyone was on board with killing the fire lord, and also killing fire nation soldiers. like i haven't watched it in years but i distinctly remember sokka being a key part of the strategies surrounding The Day of Black Sun invasion (which like. people definitely died during), and also i distinctly remember several fire nation airships being downed in the finale. (this is in addition to what you're already saying abt atla reflecting its creators whiteness)

Yeahhh also a big part Sokka's character reflects him trying to be (& being) a warrior same as his Father & Bato & being proud of that like, does that person think his dad has never killed any Fire Nation soldiers? How does one be a warrior in a warrior culture if they never consider killing as an option for resistance? What do they think warrior cultures do lol?

Zuko straight up asks Aang to kill him if he ever became like his dad (but he doesn't because he's not a genocidal maniac). The only reason why Aang didn't kill the Fire Lord is because his character SPECIFICALLY is a pacifist and it was his decision not to (and because he was 12/13, it makes sense he wouldn't want to), but besides that literally everyone else was on board with killing him.

Like there's a whole meme culture of joking that Avatar Kyoshi stands on business & will kill people left & right (which is a bit of an exaggeration of her character), & there's dead Fire Nation soldiers at the Air Temple where Monk Gyatso's body is (giving rise to the popular theory that he air bended all the oxygen out of the room to fight back when the Air Nomad genocide happened, thus killing everyone in the room including himself), and I don't see anyone demonize Ursa for killing Sozin or Iroh for being a war criminal the same way people demonize Hama & Jet. That person's post literally does not add up at all, like did you even watch the show

[chaotic-tired-bastard]

what are your opinions on zeisan (Sozin’s sister from the avatar board game)

I don't know her very well, as I haven't played the game and nor do I plan to, but I feel like she had a lot of missed potential. The writers used her as a cop-out for everything bad Sozin does, like why he outlawed homosexuality and why he killed the Air Nomads, and if you don't believe that, here's an article doing that exact thing. "Uhh, it wasn't because it was a good strategical move, but it was because his sister was in love with a girl Air Nomad!!! And he just hated her so much that he committed genocide and banned gay people!!! Because that makes sense, right?" I can kind of see him banning homosexuality because of her, but there would have to be another reason boosting it.

Instead of making her her own character, they just made her "Good, Calm Sozin" and Sozin's biggest hater, and then switched her over to The Fire Nation's biggest hater. I feel like it would have worked better if they leaned into Zeisan and Sozin's rivalry and the hatred that would have stemmed from it, making Zeisan's goals seem like it's for the good of the world but, at heart, being about her and Sozin and this eternal competition they've ended up in. I'm always going to favour complex sibling relationships over whatever Zeisan ended up doing, and there's nothing you can do to stop me.

[azure-firecracker]

I thought I’d do a liveblog reaction to the ATLA live action so this is just a chaotic stream of my thoughts as I watch. Spoilers ahead (fyi I’m going to be tagging these as “atla stream of consciousness”)

Episode 1 (Part 1)

The fire nation theme already got me excited lol.

Earthbending CGI is slightly sketchy. You can tell firebending got the whole budget

Firelord Sozin doesn’t have enough gravitasse imo. Like the music is out evil-ing him.

Oh shit they are getting graphic.

“Which is why we have to kill them all” that’s very on the nose.

I don’t recognize anyone bending in the intro but it looks cool (who’s narrating though?-they’re not doing a good job)

Air temple looks gorgeous!

AANG IS SO CUTE I CAN’T!!

I know people have complained about him being able to fly but it doesn’t really bother me. New universe, some new rules can apply (within reason).

“There may come a day where you wish you had spent more time with your teachers” THAT’S SO CRUEL (specifically cruel to me).

“Great comet festival” all I thought of was the musical.

I can see the Tibetan influences more evidently in the Air Nomads that’s cool.

Aang and Gyatso are so sweet omg!

I need to rewatch The Storm but does Aang know he’s the avatar or not in the original? Gyatso telling him feels new to me.

Edit: I’ve been told that he does find out but months before he runs away, and the thing that sets him off is being told to leave (thanks @ragnarssons !) For me it makes a little more sense the original way but I don’t deeply care.

Gordon’s delivery on “I never asked to be special” OKAY THIS KID CAN ACT.

This Aang and Gyatso scene has me emotional wow. Do more of this and less burning people.

I already knew that Aang didn’t run away and I get streamlining some stuff but I do think it was a pretty core trait to change and having him be slightly more morally grey would have been more interesting, especially because his monologue was already leading there.

The Fire Nation people do not need to say “we’re gonna kill everyone” so many times. Do they think we don’t understand?

Airbending CGI looks pretty good too.

I get why they’re showing people burning and it makes sense I just really have trouble watching it.

In terms of showing the Air Nomad genocide, I can understand why they did it. When you’re doing a reimagining, especially with the tonal shift, it’s good to have a new beginning or a new something to set yourself apart from the original. It’s a different story and that’s okay. That being said, I don’t like how gruesome everything is. I feel like a lot of the same fear factors could be achieved without showing everyone (especially Gyatso) burning, and it feels like it’s violence for the sake of shock value trying to be edgier or something (I also don’t like gruesome stuff generally so that may be me).

More to come! These are long so I’m splitting them up a lot because I have MANY thoughts.

[attackfish]

I think I might have an au you don't have yet — what if Zuko or Azula had been sent back to Aang's time when they were young because of spirit non-sense, and had ended up in the iceberg with him?

What I love, and also hate, about this prompt is that it's at least twelve different potential AUs wrapped in a trenchcoat, depending on exactly which sibling I choose to go back in time, how old I make them when they go, and how long they're in the past with Aang before they're frozen.

Let's say we start with Azula, who travels into the past as a toddler, barely old enough to know her own name. She grows up at the air temples, after having been found there, and like Aang, after everyone finds out he's the Avatar, she feels like an outsider, and she sneaks off with him when he runs away, and is frozen in the iceberg at fourteen.

Or let's say that she does not grow up at the Air Temples, but instead appears with Aang in the storm, and is frozen with him. Until he wakes up, he thought the baby in Appa's saddle was a halucination. Either way, back in the modern day Fire Nation, Ursa is griefstricken at the sudden disapearance of her child, while Ozai is furious at what he, understandably, is sure is a kidnapping. Each waits, desperitely hoping their daughter will be found, and as the years go by, and Azulon is unwilling to do more than a perfunctory search for his granddaughter, Ozai's outrage grows. Zuko grows up, not as an only child, but a child with a hole in his family, a gap where his sister should be and instead there are only terrible feelings of pain and grief, and fear from his parents.

Without a "perfect" child to compare him to, Ozai is both smothering and hypercritical of his son. Certainly he would never kill him on his father's whim, nor would he banish him. But instead, when Iroh returns home grieving his own lost child, this misery rubs against Ozai and he finds it unbearable, and he sends Iroh away. It's Iroh, who in the depths of mourning crafts for himself a new purpose, to find the niece that went missing so many years before.

Let's say instead Azula is eight when she disappears, not all that long after her mother vanished. Ozai is convinced Ursa stole her from him, while Zuko faces the sudden disappearance of his sister so soon after his mother, and to him, a little boy, lacking all knowledge of what actually happened to his mother, it just feels like someone, or something, is snatching away the people he loves, and he's terrified he could be next.

Ozai sends the army after Ursa, but nowhere they look turns up anything, neither Ursa nor Azua, and Ozai is left only with his worthless son. Is it any wonder he banishes him, and sends him away to hunt another person, vanished into thin air?

When Azula arrives at the air temples, she's old enough to know what happened to the Air Nomads, old enough to have swallowed a hundred years of Fire Nation propaganda. She knows she has to be back in time, but she's so young, and so convinced of the Fire Nation's inherent superiority, that she is less guarded than she should be, and she gives them the information they need to plan for Sozin's Comet. She doesn't mean to, but she changes history for the better, and staves off a total genocide.

Let's say Azula is eleven, and her brother has just been banished. He is sent to hunt the Avatar, and by providence itself, Azula finds him. She's old enough to know time travel is impossible, so she assumes she's in some secret hidden enclave of Air Nomads, who survived Sozin' Comet, and have hidden away the Avatar. Well they made a real mistake kidnapping her. She'll capture the Avatar and bring him home herself.

She doesn't know that her father assumes Iroh stole back in the night to kidnap her. She doesn't know he has Zuko's ship tracked down and searched. When Azula is nowhere to be found, and Iroh and Zuko are utterly baffled, and both demand to know if Azula is missing, her brother is given a new task: find his sister and bring her home.

Let's say Azula is fourteen. She has just been sent to find and arrest her brother and uncle, and had them both slip through her grasp. She knows what must have happened. The universe is trying to tell her something. But she doesn't care. She makes her own destiny. She will find and kill the young Avatar before he can be a problem.

Let's say it's after the war, and Azula is sliding in and out of reality. She finds herself back in the past, and assumes it's only a other hallucination. But this means when she unfreezes in the future, there are two Azulas, one cool and collected, one anything but. But neither mean Zuko or the Avatar anything but ill.

This has gotten very long, so I will save Zuko for a part two in another post.

[radarsteddybear]

I hit my reading goal for the year! 🥳

...of course, I did that by reading a whole bunch of Avatar: The Last Airbender comics today 😅  Unfortunately, I'm stuck now because Barnes & Noble didn't have North and South: Part Three and I have to wait until Saturday for it to arrive from Amazon.  In the meantime, though The Legacy of Yangchen is due to arrive on Friday (very convenient, since I finished The Dawn of Yangchen last night), and I do still have all* of the Legend of Korra comics to read.

*I read the first part of Turf Wars when it came out, but that was...quite a while ago, so I've gotta start with a reread.

Speaking of The Dawn of Yangchen, I liked it a whole lot and am very excited to see where the sequel goes. (Cut for length rather than spoilers)  

Interestingly, the book is split fairly evenly between the POVs of Avatar Yangchen and a boy named Kavik who becomes her companion. I found it fascinating to get to see both how the world views and interacts with the Air Nomads pre-genocide as well as what the Air Nomads themselves are like, though I do wish we'd gotten to see more of the latter. Something else I find fascinating in both this and the Kyoshi novels is that there are a lot of places in the world in which people of all nations** live together. Which makes a whole lotta sense, but idk, the original show sort of implies that most people stay in their home nations except for invading Fire Nation soldiers and Fire Nation nationals relocating to the colonies within the Earth Kingdom.  The Legend of Korra and the ATLA comics certainly make it seem as though places like Republic City are novel, uncharted territory when it turns out they're not.  Though I'm not sure how much intermarrying and melding of cultures is present in these eras; that's definitely a bigger thing in both Korra and the ATLA comics, the idea that you've now got all these people who don't belong in one Nation or the other, but that also may be because it's more plot-relevant (though one specific case does become very plot-relevant in the Kyoshi novels).  For all I know, there are scores of mixed-race people that I just don't see/notice because they're background characters or the fact that they're mixed-race doesn't ever come up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Anyway, if you like Avatar and/or Legend of Korra, I still recommend both the Kyoshi and Yangchen novels.

**Well, maybe not Air Nomads so much, because they're, you know, nomads and don't really settle down in one place very long.

[flameunquenched]

a'ight. let's talk about the netflix adaptation of avatar: the last airbender.

SPOILERS PRESENT THROUGHOUT UNDER THE CUT.

this covers eps 1-4 bc i need a break for food and stuff lmfao.

so i like probably many others went in braced with the expectation of it being...well, like a certain movie that we all like to pretend does not exist. i had seen some things, which i discussed on another post, that worried me greatly. i would consider myself an atla superfan; it was a huge part of my childhood and i can remember sitting on the floor of the living room watching sozin's comet with my brother as the finale aired for that first time. so while i was excited for the idea of a live action version, having been badly burned by the movie, i was wary.

i am pleasantly surprised to say that, other than some flaws that i will discuss, it actually was...good?

i was very concerned about the removal of sozin's comet, given how integral it is to the story. sure, you do have actors who will be aging, as it is gonna take at least probably 6 years for the whole story to wrap up. this is, of course, assuming that netflix does not yeet it after s2 as they so love to do. seeing that it was present in episode 1 was...a little confusing considering what i had read. but i'm glad that it was there.

seeing sozin himself was awesome tbh. i think that he is a really interesting character and i honestly would be thrilled to have an entire series dedicated to him and roku, with their friendship and the trials they suffered together as firelord and avatar respectively. that was always one of my favorite episodes in s3 because of the deep introspection we got and the history of those two characters. but uh yeah when he just casually burned that earthbender to death, yeah. that was kinda the first sign that this was not going to be an adaptation geared towards children.

which i guess does make sense, doesn't it? after all, those of us like myself who grew up with avatar are no longer children but instead grown adults with children of our own in some case. it's an adaptation: it has to adapt to the times.

seeing the actual genocide of the air nomads was...a lot. that is one thing i will say that the live action had over the cartoon; it is hard to show death in a cartoon intended for children which means that, in a way, it is harder to fully realize the gravity of the situation. by showing it, by showing the deaths of men, women, and children, you as the viewer get the chance to better understand what was actually lost. i think it was easier to see them not just as characters but as people.

i'll admit that the cursing threw me for a loop, lol. it was just strange to casually hear "ass" being used in the realm of atla. but, again, this comes back to the need for accepting the aging audience.

i know there had been some discussion of aging katara to 16 and de-aging sokka to 14. if that was done, there was no sign of it. i had also had concerns about the removal of sokka's sexism but, honestly, i genuinely feel like the story was made much stronger for the lack of it. i liked the replacement of his 'dad left me in charge, i'm the leader, this is all my responsibility' sooo much more because it made more sense, especially when the revelations from the episode called spirited away came to light. it worked. and it worked in a way that lent gravity to the situation rather than the rather comedic ties that the original sexism offered.

i think in terms of sheer characterization, sokka was probably the strongest overall. i feel like his actor really got the character. katara had a problem of, at times, feeling too flat, as well as lacking some of the passion that i felt the cartoon allowed her to have.

aang's actor did really well, i will say. my friend thought that he did not quite convey the joyfulness that cartoon aang had but, having had a few hours to think about that, i think that might have been purposefully done. the adaptation was, again, not aimed at young kids. it makes sense that aang should feel, especially based on his discussions with the other avatars and other central characters, more serious and concerned about the general state of the world. a century is a long time to be away and i liked the way they showed the struggle he had with the fact that his entire people were gone. he really was the last airbender and the adaptation made me feel that. sure, it came at the cost of some of that youthful joyfulness, but i think it was a fair trade overall.

i loved gran gran doing the initial intro lines with kyoshi doing the actual intro. gran gran doing it made it feel like a story, a legend, that had been told for decades.

something else i enjoyed was the way that the adaptation handled integrating in other plotlines. getting to see ozai and azula, as well as mai and ty lee, in the fire nation capital city was really interesting. to me, it was a reminder that even when other characters are focused on other things, there are always things happening. the fake out of azula being a spy for her father for rebellions was fantastic and i think a key to the beginning of her characterization as a whole. i will admit i had some concerns about azula but her actress was incredible. absolutely incredible.

sokka's chemistry with suki was SIZZLING. like that entire bit was just so good. them fighting together and training together was just. urgh. it was so good.

now a character i will say i strongly prefer in the cartoon over the live action was zhao. i felt like his actor was...just trying too hard. maybe it's because jason isaacs just has a villainous voice but the cartoon always felt scarier to me. zhao in the live action felt...cartoonish and silly. almost like his actor was not taking it seriously, if that makes sense? that was disappointing to me. zhao was meant to be the first real antagonist of the series, a villain we could really hate and root for his downfall. instead, he just sort felt cartoonish and cheezy to me. i'm not sure if that was a direction choice or just the actor failing to understand the character but that was one of my chief complaints overall.

on the opposite end, iroh was so good. let's all be real here for a moment: there was no way, no way in hell, that a live action iroh was gonna be better than the cartoon. it was not gonna happen. iroh in the original was peak character and they were never gonna recreate him. but they didn't need to! they didn't need to because the live action iroh was just so good. he brought the same sort of laid back, calm serenity that the original iroh did without feeling like a carbon copy - or worse, a caricature - of him. i loved absolutely everything about iroh.

i wanna talk about the funeral scene in e4 but i also don't wanna talk about the funeral scene in e4 because it made me BAWL LIKE AN ACTUAL BABY Y'ALL I WENT FROM PERFECTLY FINE TO TEARS STREAMING DOWN MY FACE SOBBING BROKENLY IN .2 SECONDS. as soon as i recognized the music that was it i was done, i was gone, almost had to pause to get myself back under control. it was bad.

i really liked how they did jet. it was a little strange for that to all be taking place in omashu but i understand the necessity of pulling everything down to fewer locations.

speaking of, to address something i spoke of at some length in another post, one of my key concerns upon learning that there was not going to be the 'running around to different locations' plots was that team avatar and by extension, us the audience, would miss out on seeing the effects of a century long war. i am very happy to say that those concerns were not valid. i actually think the live action did a better job of communicating those effects in a way that was truly shocking. think about bumi, for example. a character who in the show is, really, a sort of comedy break became instead a character who felt real, felt serious, and felt like he was bruised all over by the war that he has been fighting. i was on the fence a lot about that plot change, where bumi was sort of dark and gritty, but the more i have thought about it, the more i realize that it makes sense. a hundred years is a long time to battle an enemy that, frankly, is better equipped than you. is it any wonder that he was so angry at aang, even if that anger was misplaced? i don't really think so.

i am going to stop here, get some food, shower, and discuss the last 4 episodes a little later bc this is already unbelievably long lmao.

please feel free to let me know what you thought of it!!