#and could be used as an Aang plot idea

[zuko-always-lies]

This is interesting. In The Blue Spirit, Aang's main priority is getting medicine frozen frogs for Sokka and Katara in order to cure their serious illnesses. Aang goes through a great deal of effort and danger trying to save his friends. Notably the episode time and time again emphasizes how bad Sokka and Katara's condition is and how bad they need Aang to return with a cure.

But at the end of the episode, Aang chooses to prioritize saving Zuko, his enemy, watching over Zuko until he wakes up, and then trying to befriend him over getting back to Sokka and Katara. He spends a significant amount of time on these Zuko-related tasks, maybe a couple of hours, he could have used on rushing back to the water siblings.

It's an interesting character moment, to say the least. I'm not sure what it says about Aang, other that he really wants to help everyone, and that sometimes that can interfere, for good or ill, with the personal responsibilities he feels toward the people he loves.

[deusvervewrites]

I’ve been working my way through your stories and your lore posts. I’m also finally catching up to the end of the MHA manga. My thoughts on the endings of various character arcs is something you might vibe with. Sometimes, mercy to the guilty becomes cruelty to the innocent. It’s great writing when the villains are people you can sympathize with, but it’s weird that the heroes are this focused on saving the villains that are causing so much death and destruction. Your thoughts?

The entire point of My Hero Academia is saving people.

From the first page of the first chapter until now that has never changed.

I've seen people criticizing Midoriya for not going out onto the battlefield to personally and deliberately murder Shgiaraki and I wonder if they're the same people who think Aang should have killed Ozai.

The idea of mercy to the guilty leads to cruelty to the innocent is what caused the entire plot. Had the people at the Dawn of Quirks not immediately started murdering children for being born "wrong", All For One wouldn't have had to cope by doubling down on their propaganda to justify his own existence to himself. But those people were "guilty" of being born wrong, and if they showed mercy to them, then what? What if those people turned on them? No, no. Better to not take that chance.

If Kotaro had forgiven his mother, Shigaraki would never have happened.

If the Togas had accepted their daughter, Himiko would never have become a murderer.

Spinner never left the house because he was seen as "guilty" of the sin of being a mutant. People were massacred for that sin.

Civilians nearly murdered Ippan Josei, a civilian herself, because they believed that mercy to the guilty is cruelty to themselves.

The greatest flaw of the Hero System is that it dehumanized everyone under it. The Heroes were flawless paragons who could never live up to their own hype and swiftly abandoned for failing. The Villains were deemed to be inherently bad and punished for it.

Endeavor was allowed to abuse his wife and all four children and faced no repercussions. Because he's a Hero and Heroes are good. Touya wasn't born correctly enough and was punished over a one-sided feud a generation before him.

Nobody was seen as human. That's literally the point of the final battle. Midoriya, Uraraka, Todoroki, they all had to recognize the humanity of the people they were fighting and remind them of it.

The thesis of My Hero Academia, of every single arc of My Hero Academia, is that Heroes are not "good" and Villains are not "evil." That failing to recognize that fact leads to dark places, like a government that doesn't bat an eye at murdering its own citizens to maintain power. Laws that strip you of your own bodily autonomy.

During his battle against All For One at Kamino, All Might states the the reason Heroes never lose is because they have people to save. The chapter titled Bakugou Katsuki: Rising, his origin chapter, is about 300 chapters into the manga and the first time he saves someone.

All For One and the HPSC are both cruel relics of the past doing their best to manipulate their way to power, viewing everyone in their way as disposable pawns. They're the same. You could even make an argument that the laws against Quirk use means the HPSC is literally giving and taking away Quirks via licenses. And they both completely crumble in large part because of their refusal to see people when it is so much easier to see the enemy.

My Hero Academia is a story about extending your hand to those in need.

[sokkastyles]

Just saw a comment praising Toph for being "mature" for blaming herself for Appa getting taken in the desert and internalizing Aang's anger at her, by someone who is notorious for trying to stir up shit in "defense" of Aang.

And like, first of all, yes, Toph is incredibly emotionally mature, but it's actually really sad how she blames herself here. And it's not that Toph should not be sad, it's not that no one understands how close Aang is to Appa, it's that Aang's reaction is really unfair, not because he doesn't have a right to be upset, but because he directly blames Toph for what happened and literally accuses her of wanting Appa to get taken.

And it's never actually something Aang ever apologizes for, while Toph constantly beats herself up about the fact that she couldn't save Appa and the gaang at the same time.

And part of the reason this bothers me isn't just related to how Aang is never really forced to grow by the narrative, but I also see this trend of people assuming that Toph's feelings don't actually matter here. Yeah, I know she's presented as the rough and tumble tomboy, but as a disabled person, it bothers me that Aang takes Toph's discomfort with Appa, that she has because of being uncomfortable when she can't have her feet on the ground, and uses it to blame her and accuse her of secretly wanting him gone. And honestly, this is an overlooked plot point that pretty realistically shows the prejudice and suspicion towards the disabled, the idea that they might actually be faking their disability and could have actually done more if they tried, and because they didn't overcome their disability, they must not really care. Plus as I said, there's a very real assumption that Toph's feelings can't be hurt because she's blunt and unfeminine. Toph is emotionally mature and empathetic, more than people give her credit for, but she's also a child, and she should not have to deal with that burden alone, while Aang takes advantage of her caring and her friendship here.

"The Desert" is not one of Aang's shining moments, and it could have been a good opportunity to show how people can act their worst when they are under stress, and have Aang realize that his grief over Appa should not allow him to take it out on his friends, who are just trying to help him.

[oneatlatime]

The Blind Bandit

I had honestly forgotten that the Gaang were trying to find an earthbending teacher, so the 'previously on' segment was actually useful instead of spoilery.

Nobody's face is having a good time.

Look at this sweetheart. You go ahead and treat yourself honey. You've single-handedly escorted a pair of earth-shatteringly overpowered tweens around the world for months; the least you deserve is a shopping trip.

"You kids like earthbending?" Has the same energy as "wanna buy a sun dial?" from that animated Hercules movie.

This guy is one of those strip mall karate types.

I take back everything I ever said about Zuko's season 1 haircut. This guy has a dust bunny poop on his head.

Momo's bag now.

My absolute favourite girl power: incredible violence!

The acoustics at this earth rumble place must be great. I don't see any microphones.

"That's what I paid for." Sokka is a simple creature at heart. Likes food and violence.

Something very strange about this guy's face. I think his mouth moves but his eyes don't.

So apparently earthbending gets you mad air.

Oh! I get it. This is a WWE parody. Somebody on the writing team did their homework too. Don't ask me how I know, but this is a very accurate parody.

Sokka thinks listening to big muscles is a very good idea actually.

And here's the heel. Complete with russian accent. And oddly homoerotic anthem. And cowardice when challenged! Yep, total heel.

I LOLed at the zamboni badgermoles and hockey organ.

She's like two feet tall!

I'm. in love.

I could watch little girls beat up grown men all day.

Earthbending sonar?

Omigod it predicts. She can see moves before they happen.

Well it's a good thing Bumi said to look for someone who Waited and Listened rather than Watched.

"I don't really want to fight you. I want to talk to you." Says the guy who just volunteered, in front of a full stadium, to FIGHT her. Time and place, Aang.

Get back on the ground you flighty airbender. She sees with that ground. No fair.

This is about the face I made when Aang pulled that move. Does this boy think at all? I love him, but what part of stealing her well-earned title is supposed to convince her to talk to him?

You messed up.

I love sartorially inclined Sokka. It's a tiny an innocuous little trait, but it rounds out his character so well.

I get to watch two different girls terrorise idiots this episode. I am blessed.

So I'm guessing the two idiots at the earthbending academy are doing that excercise where kung fu people stick their hands in sand (I've seen videos of it) but it really looked like they were in the 'beat back the dough' phase of making bread.

In this universe of plot-convenient clothing blindness, how do Dumb and Dumber recognise Aang as the one who beat the Blind Bandit?

I think the voice actor for the dumb kid with actual hair did a bunch of voices in season 1. The soldier who gives Aang Bato's map comes to mind.

Have I said recently how much I love Sokka and Katara?

These wrestling guys keep switching between first and third person. Too many rocks to the head.

This could be a board for a murder mystery board game. Or a map for a DND dungeon.

It's her hair. I thought the Blind Bandit had a cap type thing with a little brim for her costume, but it's just a pile of her hair? Like a beehive?

A lesson in character writing: if you want to make someone look super dumb, have them earnestly believe in the credentials and authenticity of a guy you have previously set up as a borderline con artist. Lookin at you, Blind Bandit's dad.

"Basic forms and breathing exercises only." That line is just so funny. And they're all so stupid. She snapped like half a dozen spines last night and this guy is preaching breathing exercises.

Wow! I hate her dad!

I hate him more!

Sokka going ham on some rice rather than listen to the idiots. Good priorities.

This passive aggressive fight between the girl and Aang at the dinner table is so fun.

Looking for somewhere to store your meal after you've face planted into it? Try the top of your head!

I need to get a hold of some of those magic napkins. Wiped up a whole multicourse meal in like 5 seconds.

That is indeed the appropriate reaction to this pint sized badass. Glad Aang is learning. (Also this episode needs more Appa. The last couple have been sadly bereft.)

Called it. Earthdending sonar. Or is it more like echolocation? No! Whiskers!

How does this pint sized badass - who if I am understanding correctly, is not known to exist outside the walls of her house - have more emotional intelligence than the entirety of the Gaang put together?

So much for the guards in the garden. They'd actually be useful now.

Sokka. Priorities. Although given how many times Aang has escaped custody/kidnapping he's probably ok to take a minute to fangirl over an autograph.

These idiot parents don't know their daughter at all. That chafes.

"I'm not smiling." I LOLed at that too. Perfect delivery.

Hippo man having a snack before he gets down to business. No wonder he's missing teeth.

All this blind and tiny and helpless and fragile talk is really making me hope someone smacks the crap out of the dad. What an awful thing to say, nevermind saying it where your daughter can hear.

SMACKDOWN INCOMING

This is gonna be good.

If this girl does join the Gaang the writers are going to have to nerf her in every major conflict. She's too powerful. I bet she could take on the firelord now.

And that's why you don't announce sneak attacks.

So remember how Sokka was absolutely losing his shit over the Boulder? That's me right now.

She waits. All these idiots are losing because they're getting impatient and attacking first. Which means that, to her senses, they're telegraphing their moves. That is so cool. And so is this visual.

Here's your chance Dad. Are you going to mess it up?

"I love fighting. I love being an Earthbender. And I'm really really good at it." me:

I don't have words for how much I LOVE when little girls STAND UP for THEMSELVES and THEIR INTERESTS. This would have had me HOLLERING if I'd seen it as a kid. It was a message I needed to hear too.

Wow I want to kill her parents.

OH FUCK OFF

COME ON

You made my girl cry.

Get wrecked belt stealer. I LOLed at this too.

Sokka just beaned a blind girl on the head. Not a good look. I laughed though.

Fun fact: everyone in this picture is a piece of shit.

I haven't been this steamed since Zuko's dad burned half his face off.

Final Thoughts

IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, this episode feels like it's movie quality. This show is usually excellent, but this feels like a cut above. I feel like I could sense the love the writers, animators, voice actors, everyone had for this episode. They had a good time making it and were enthusiastic about it. And there were lots of tiny background details in this episode too. I'm sure I missed quite a few. Oh No! I'll have to rewatch it!

New team member! That hasn't happened since Momo. Actually, no wonder the episode was so good. Introducing the first new team member in at least a season's worth of episodes is a delicate operation. I bet they were workshopping this episode since early in the first season.

And Toph! (thank you credits for how to spell that - I was really hoping it wasn't Toff). Be still my heart I love Toph. She may well take Sokka's spot as my favourite character. Strength of character, self-assurance, emotional intelligence, badassery, mastery of violence, what's not to love!!!

How did she get so emotionally intelligent and articulate if her parents have kept her caged her whole life? I don't know but I'm not complaining!

How did her parents get away with caging her for her whole life? I do know (money) and I am complaining. Very much so. And yet Toph can still find it within herself to have an honest conversation with them, including apologising for leaving said cage. I never would have had the maturity to do that in a similar situation. I would have gone the Katara explosive rage route.

A little girl who stands up for herself. Against HER PARENTS. I just. Do you know how amazing that is? Especially in a kids' show? I was ROBBED by not being able to see this show when I was Toph's age.

Does bending work like a muscle, in that you build up stamina? Because if so, then Toph is the strongest human earthbender in the world by default. If she's using it in place of seeing, then she's using it 100% of the time that she's awake, all day every day. By the time she was like 5 years old she'd probably used her bending more than the average earthbender does in their whole lifetime.

My one complaint is Toph's voice. Nothing wrong with it; this is a me thing. It fits her perfectly, but my ears do not play well with nasal voices, which hers is. I had to rewind quite a few times and resorted to subtitles by the end. Hopefully I'll get used to it like I did Zuko's.

Sokka! My soon to be demoted beloved! He shone in this episode. I love that he has fashion sense and is not afraid to show it. I'm thinking, what with how hung up he was on masculinity at the start of the show, that the water tribes have a different conception of masculinity: one that classes fashionability as a masculine or gender neutral trait. Even back in season one it didn't take much to get Sokka into the Kyoshi warrior uniform, and he's shockingly good at applying face paint symmetrically. Which I still cannot do with winged eyeliner.

Katara! Not headed for a career in diplomacy but so satisfying to watch. I would love to have a Katara in my pocket that I could unleash on people. And her and Sokka bouncing off each other this episode was great. Every one was at peak performance this episode, except Aang. Not at his brightest this episode.

Checking for typos before I post this and I realise I'd already forgotten that Toph is blind! Just like in the Northern Air Temple, this is how you do disability right: as just a part of who they are, rather than an entire personality. This show is so good.

In sum, Toph:

[hummingintheback]

Another Fic Idea that I will never write

I saw this fan art of Lin in Pinterest and it sparked yet another stupid fic idea. I have read this LB fanfic on FF.net that basically has a plot of Lin rumored to being dead or dissappeared since discovering a shocking subending of the Earth Element (so she is the not the chief of police and basically dissappeared around 2 and a half decades. So this lin is a little bit younger than canon lin). And here's where the story comes in, what if after avatar korra arrives at RC is also the time the rumors about Lin Beifong ressurfaced, it would start as hushed whispers on the alleyways until media would be involved. The blue spirit would make itself known, hiding from the shadows and all that stuff. Instead of two swords, this version of blue spirit would use Sai as its weapon of choice.

It would help people during the equalization of Amon but of course other people would misinterpret the idea, assuming the blue spirit is helping Amon. After Amon's death, the blue spirit made itself known again, causing fear to RC's citizen.

Zuko would definitely hear about this. He would send fire nation agents to investigate this "person" behind the mask. And Izumi? What if Izumi knows who could be the person behind that mask but unsure if its really her👀.

I think the conflict would evolve around the Beifongs of course and the Gaang's. I feel like Toph would be the main reason of this two decade dissappearance of her daughter. It would be a similar scenario of Suyin scarring Lin, where Su was sent to Goaling. But instead Lin just decided to vanish from the surface or that's what they think👀

In this story Lin would still have her scars (thanks to su) and it would happen way back than the canon time. This is where the story of how Lin discovered the new subbending and also a forbidden type of bending before the 100 year war.

Might include Yun as the founder of this bending and Kyoshi was the one who had to forbid this type of bending before it goes out of her hand as the avatar and also to stop Yun

Mstery, Angst, Drama, Violence name it this fic will have it all🙃.

Anyway, I feel like just like Zuko's arc this Lin would definitely start as a bad guy after what happened to her face, having blamed by her bending that she cannot control, why not add the break-up of Linzin for more drama and of course the constant deterioration of her self confidence when it comes to being a great earthbender and an heiress.

But one thing is for sure, the blue spirit is there to seek justice and also like grew to help the avatar along the way.

Why justice? That is unsure but I have this idea that after Lin was cast away, after she went through a lot of stuff (i know white lotus would try to imprison her just like what they did to the red lotus), someone would definitely help her. Probably taught her how to control this forbidden bending and that someone was killed by either Yakone, Red Lotus member or the white lotus themself. But what if it was the Gaang?(the mysterious sifu of lin, contributed to the death of Avatar Aang😉)

Credits to the artist of the art: @aleesatana

Thank you for this wonderful fan art🫶 and thank you to @dont-blame-it-on-the-kids for finding the artist❣️.

[luminousdryad]

to make things brief cause I suck at organizing what I have to say, the live action was definitely Something™.

Cast: 10/10 kinda biased personally but yall can't take this from me

Gordon as Aang and Dallas as Zuko were the standouts imo. Gordon needs some direction on line delivery and the angstier scenes but overall he's very charming and I'm so proud of him for getting so much exposure!

Ian as Sokka was great, I just wish he was allowed to be more...messy? like Sokka pretends to be chill and all that but he's actually dramatic so I hope that gets improved in the next season if there is one

speaking of improvement, Kiawentiio as Katara brought out a softer side to the character but sadly diminished her spark and passion. I like that Katara now actually feels like a younger sister, it makes sense within the context of the story that Sokka and Gran Gran would shelter her after what happened, but as someone said, her anger is so central to her character and I just wish that got shown more. It's more of a script and direction problem tbh, if you look at Kia's interviews she has the sass and feistiness Katara needs

Lizzy as Azula is great, the writing is a bit clunky though so she did the best she could with it. Can't really comment on Mai and Ty Lee yet because they're kinda just there but it's a nice setup

Maria as Suki? perfection show stopping never the same she is a queen and I love the tidbit of Suki backstory which she never really had in the og show. I love her being such a loser around her crush we love to see girlfailures girlfailing. I wish the writers didn't make them KISS though 😭 slowburn ftw

the adults were great

Writing: 6.5/10

There were genuinely good moments and I love the concept of mixing up certain plot points to condense the story

But they just suffered from too much Telling instead of Showing WRITERS PLEASE LISTEN TO THE CRITICISM YOU HAVE TIME TO IMPROVE PLEASE

Omashu, mechanist, and Jet plot mixing as a concept was fine, but it dragged on and my friends and I got bored of it. I like it in theory but if it was going to take THAT long couldn't they have just separated one of those storylines for a different episode?

I appreciate that they tried to develop the water siblings' relationship by making them the stars of the Secret Tunnels, but I would've changed the way they "conquered" the problem (really? badgermoles respond to love? cute in theory but like why). If anyone's watched Barbie: A Fairy Secret there's a part where Barbie and her frenemy accuse each other of why their friendship failed, and it helps them make up and breaks the curse put on them. So that's what I would've done, force them in a life or death situation in which they have to say the unsaid things, maybe hug it out and boom

The way they handled Koh and the Spirit World was a Mess™ but the effects were decent

Zhao meeting horrible ends in every incarnation is so deserved

Yue having more agency was a welcome change AND I LOVE THAT SHE WATERBENDS. Then waterbends even when the moon is gone. It's such a nice visual nod to the fact that she has the moon spirit within her

That said, the show could definitely use more visual storytelling, less weird dialogue. Like it's so strangely common for shows or adaptations these days to exposition dump. Like they did not have to make Yue say that the ocean spirit was angry, literally just show me the dead moon fish and I'll get the idea. Then Iroh says "That's Wrath" that's just redundant now isn't it

I like that they saved Katara bringing Aang out of the Avatar State until last even if it could've been done better

HOW DARE THEY MAKE ME LIKE HAHN HE WAS A JERK IN THE SHOW BUT THEY MADE HIM A GENUINELY GOOD CHARACTER. Yes to brown men not being portrayed as jerks but also in the original it was a nice contrast to how far Sokka had come because Hahn reflected who he used to be. But live action Hahn </3

I like that they showed the deaths and blood. I wanted a live action that was both lighthearted but more realistic when it came to the injuries and death, and that'd kind of what I got

Other thoughts + overall

You can tell they put so much heart into this show, watching the bts, the bending boot camp with the correct martial arts, the easter eggs, the nods to the comics, the beautiful adaptations of Cabbage Merchant and Secret Tunnel nomads, there's so much passion behind the show it's a shame it suffered in its writing

which is why if they read reviews and criticism from the bigger name fans (TheAvatarist, HelloFutureMe, etc.) it would really help them improve for future seasons! The cast is stunning already and they have great chemistry (hopefully gets improved too!)

The live action is just a different angle to the show. And I'm saying this as an Avatar fan–the original wasn't perfect, either. I had some problems w it but the overall show was genuinely so good and heartfelt, those problems weren't glaring enough to put me off (unlike The Dragon Prince, sorry). The live action definitely wasn't perfect, but it tried to give us a new look into Avatar. Again, no adaptation will ever be a 1:1 remake and none should be. Where's the fun in that? But while the show is so full of heart and with actual fans working behind the scenes, I doubt if they listen to any criticism that they can't pull this off better next season.

[usernamesuggestionsarefunny]

Possibly unpopular opinion (Or perhaps not idk): I love what they have done with Zuko and Ozai's relationship in the live action Netflix Avatar show.

In the cartoon we never get the ~vibes~ that Zuko has a complicated relationship with his father, only that it is abusive and one-sided in the sense only Zuko craves Ozai's approval, while Ozai straight up hates him, wants him dead or has no problem with him dying (Why doesn't he kill him if he has Azula? We don't know, plot has to happen, he sent Zuko to find the avatar in order to get rid of him, probably, or actually canon idk or remember), clearly prefers Azula to him as successor, etc, etc, etc (+ later the comics literally overkilled this trend "she was born lucky while..." omg stfu). Zuko is basically the perfect character to prove the fire nation is not all evil (Oh look, they hate him too, he is inherently their victim too from the very beginning).

So when Zuko switches sides in the cartoon, what I see as an adult rewatching is someone giving up on luxory, physical safety and... that is pretty much it. Sure it is a big deal to give up on those things to do what is right (Few would) and still awesome that he did the right thing in the end, but if you really think about it, he is not giving up that much, he is not giving up anything truly valuable to him. Respect? Honor? Sure he is said to have received it back after Azula "killed" Aang, but we never truly see it. For all intents and purposes his sister has that and wayyy more of it. His father's love and acceptance? Never had it, so he didn't truly "loose it" when he spoke up for those soldiers, got the scar and was banished, it is not really shown to have suddenly popped into existence when he was said to have killed the avatar. He literally had nothing in the fire nation, literally nothing. This could only make "doing the right thing" a lot easier for him, and for the adult audience (At least for me), his arc is just him realizing what is almost irritatingly obvious for us: That no one in the fire nation truly loves and respects him so might as well switch sides (Basically if we weren't also shown that Zuko is compassionate and does care about the horrible things the fire nation is doing, Ember Island Players would have gotten a bit of truth in it).

Now, in the live action, where do I even start? It has been so good so far when it comes to Ozai and Zuko. That man, if he hated Zuko in a cartoonishly evil way almost from birth, he sure doesn't show it. Don't get me wrong, he is just as abusive (Creepily so in many scenes, made me feel so protective of Zuko and Azula), but he is also shown to "care" about Zuko as in having some hope left that he can mold him into another powerful genocidal mini me. Is Azula winning by far? Ofc, she is still the prodigy, I am sure I am going to see flashbacks of favoritism later on. But Ozai doesn't yet seem to favor her in a way that makes Zuko's craving for his approval (Or even Ozai's hope in him as heir) hopeless. It seems, from his scenes with Azula, that Ozai foments the rivalry and competition between the two siblings not only because he personally thinks Azula is the best (Which he also might in this version), but also as a way of control through fear (Especially for prodigy Azula), and to make them (Especially comparatively weaker Zuko) "better", something this version of Ozai appears to think is possible EVEN when he banishes Zuko. Now, he might have done this "to get rid of him" as in the original, but in the live action he seems super open to and genuinely believe the idea that the exile could make Zuko stronger and better, not to mention worthy of the throne if he succeeds. Ozai treats Zuko like the heir despite favoring Azula is all I am saying. Zuko's actions are therefore almost impossible, yes, but not hopeless or even naive. And if this trend of Ozai's respect and "love" (Super on quotes) being achievable continues, Zuko's eventual turn to the good side will be much more powerful. He will have to give up much more after spending a summer with his abusive parent love bombing him for "killing" the avatar. Zuko's choice will be solely based on his findings about the horrors the fire nation has committed and not wanting to be the cause of more suffering even though he could have it all. Even though it was his fate to be his father's "mini me"-> Something terrifyingly likely and not so quickly discarded by the narrative itself as it was in the animated series.

I think the best part about this subtle change in the father-son dynamic (If it was the intention of the writers, I am aware it could have been unintended) is that the scar tm was a direct result of Zuko's compassion for those soldiers and not just the excuse Ozai used to banish him or "final straw" because he preferred Azula sooo much more, as it is pretty much implied later on in the animated series and comics by focusing so much on how much of a perfect victim Zuko was pretty much from birth. The addition of the 41st surviving because of Zuko was also pretty nice, and so is Zuko's relationship with them, he will need fire nation allies when he gets to the throne and this is a good start, something the animated series never touched upon much.

I am on episode 6 btw so my opinion might change. I will edit this post if that is the case. BUT my thoughts on these first scenes doesn't change, they are good imho

EDIT (And spoilers): I just watched Zhao’s revelation where he tells Zuko that Ozai would never let him return and he just wanted to use him to motivate Azula. It does change things and invalidates most of what I said, but taking out just this one scene, as I said, the Ozai-Zuko dynamic is great in this show, and also, Zhao is obviously not the most reliable source, because he was allied to Azula and obviously wanted to hurt Zuko, as he was losing the fight with him. There is also the fact that Azula wasn't watching Ozai and Zuko when Ozai told his son that he was being banished and that it was in part so he could get stronger etc, that was all for Zuko and had little way of serving as motivation for Azula (Unlike the scenes where Ozai praises Zuko in front of her, those could have totally been him bullshitting his daughter to motivate her to work even harder). So all in all this scene doesn't ruin the overall impression I had of the Ozai-Zuko father-son dynamic in the life action show. In fact, it could be taken to confirm one of my impressions which was that Ozai likes pitying his children against each other to push them harder.

EDIT 2: Ozai's reaction to Zuko's possible death is further proof imo that his “test” was very much real (even if almost impossible) and everything I said earlier still stands. He wouldn't mind that much if he died, it would just prove his “weakness”, and he is very pleased with Azula, but he didn't look happy or even indifferent when he learned the news.

[tumblingxelian]

How does RWBY's worldbuilding hold up for you?

Ooh fun question, and one I can answer in a short amount of time!

Long story short, yeah it holds up quite well, I don't need to make any significant leaps in logic or desperately headcanon things to compensate the way I might with some other settings.

For instance most super hero settings don't hold up to scrutiny, or present themselves consistently/coherently once they starts whipping out the more ridiculous sci-fi tech and or magic.

This isn't to say its perfect, nothing is, or that there aren't more details I'd like to see explored or various minor nitpicks I could probably pull out if I felt so inclined.

But as it is, I don't, but its not because I just love the series.

See, as much as I love world building, I do think it gets too easily used as a cudgel by bad faith critics.

Let's be real here, even some of the worlds best authors do not have Tolkein's patience to create a whole new language, & I imagine even his stuff raised questions or inconsistencies.

The absence of local languages/accents, them not explaining the praying statues in the V4 trailer don't bug me. Cos their absence is not harming the story.

Meanwhile if there's an inconsistency or question, that too is fine as they are watched enough to avoid any real issues & so I can focus on having a good time.

Hell, let's bring up ATLA, the golden calf for critics who never watched anything else in their lives without asking "Where's the Zuko though?"

Off the cuff & late at night I can name many ATLA world building issues.

The writers one hundred percent do not grasp the philosophical ideas they are trying to espouse, showing a grasp of "Letting go" almost as wrongheaded anti Jedi people.

The origins and nature of bending is inconsistent even just within the first series, being and or coming from education, gifts, blood, spirits, some combination there-of or what have you.

If we jump to Korra the Spirits themselves are weird, initially presented as physical manifestations of a given land, they instead become essentially alien invaders & stuff like the Lion Turtles, Koi, Badger moles & more are just left as ???? Plus again spiritual misunderstanding.

Or heck, one of my biggest gripes ties into the plot as well but would be the introduction of "Bad firebending" and its counterpart "Good Firebending" introduced very late in the game at season 3.

The problem with saying it was meant to be a surprise is we've seen every Bender tap into anger when bending. Toph cracks the ground, Katara broke an iceberg, Aang goes into the Avatar State, ETC.

Anger & fire was only tied to two characters, Zuko during his season 1 lashing out period & Zhao where it was specifically cited as being unique to him and something to exploit.

Worse still, we've seen people happily Firebend, Aang;s issues with Firebending comes from having too much fun, getting careless with it & accidentally burn Katara. & we have seen sad or direction-less Zuko Firebend like a champ before now.

The 'revelation' of "Good Firebending" is the wrong solution to Aang's issue cos it does nothing about fires tendency to burn, & a solution looking for a problem that had to be tailor made for it to fix & did not exist before, Zuko.

The thing is though, while I will happily harp on the last one as part of a greater collection of issues in season 3. The truth is people are not bothered by these things if they watch a show in good faith.

One doesn't even need to like a show to do this, its just part of the deal when watching fictional media that some stuff is not always going to add up perfectly.

What matters is if the writers made it interesting, feel like it fit coherently within the world and kept it consistent enough that it didn't break the story.

Which CRWBY very much do.

They created a wide, vibrant, varied and interesting world, where a multitude of stories could and do take place that can be expanded upon if one wants.

They created and kept consistent its internal logic as best as it can be conveyed to we the audience when the characters also don't know everything.

Above all they used it to tell a interesting and engaging story, where skill & strategy matter so much in combat Where its so easy to believe bandits and criminals can thrive in the wild. Where the introduction of something like the Ever After can actually fit and feel like a revelation rather than break the story!

So yeah, I really enjoy RWBY's world building :)

[loopy777]

Is Zuko a Gary Stu? A lot more people are becoming anti-Zuko especially after the comics. Thoughts?

Well, it depends how we're defining "Gary Stu." I tend to prefer a strict definition for it and "Mary Sue," that of a self-insert wish-fulfillment character. I also don't personally consider it to necessarily be a negative; one of my favorite fictional characters is George Lucas' Flash Gordon Gary Stu, Luke Skywalker.

But the common internet usages for the term typically translates to "character favored by the narrative and/or storyteller(s) to a degree that harms the story." So I'll address both definitions.

I don't think Zuko is any kind of wish-fulfillment character in the AtLA cartoon, nor do I think the narrative shows him any favoritism. In fact, I'd say the story goes out of its way to make things harder for Zuko than the basic character arc demands. It could've had him switch sides at the end of Book Earth, and I don't think there would have been much complaining. Likewise, the story could have had gAang come around to him a lot sooner in Book Fire, rather than spending entire episodes (and in Sokka's case a two-parter) reconciling him with the gAang one-by-one. I think his character arc is improved and given more impact by the desire to cover this extra rocky ground, although I also think 'The Boiling Rock' didn't need to be a two-parter and all of early Book Fire's filler episodes with the gAang should have been relocated to after Zuko's defection so that they'd have the added interest of showcasing the expanded gAang's new dynamic.

Ah, but then we get to the comics. I'm going to assume we're talking about Gene Yang's comics specifically, since Zuko has not appeared substantially in anything written by anyone else. It's easy to harp on these comics' use and treatment of Zuko, but I want to be clear that they're poorly written on pretty much every level. The dialogue is bad. Major plot threads are abandoned without comment. Everyone is mischaracterized. The humor is more juvenile than anything in the cartoon. What stories are told spin their wheels until they get wrapped up in a rush. There's bad, racist, pro-colonialism messages baked into them all. Etc and so on.

And yes, I do think these comics favor Zuko to their detriment and his. Gene Yang has admitted that Zuko is his favorite character in the cast. But even if he hadn't, we can see in 'The Promise' that the presentation has a lopsided preference for Zuko over Aang, the other main character of the story. Zuko is not portrayed as wrong for pressuring Aang to promise to kill him, despite Aang being uncomfortable with it and the whole idea being against Aang's major beliefs; compare that to the cartoon, where Zuko was portrayed as wrong and bullying in his attitude to try to get Aang to kill Ozai. In the matter of the former Fire Nation colonies, Aang and Zuko have opposing approaches, but rather than the story taking the stance that they need to compromise and mix'n'match their ideas, Zuko gets to utter the line, "I was right all along," while Aang has to be lectured by Katara, admit to being wrong, compromise with the Air Acolytes, and break off his relationship with his ghost mentor.

In 'The Search,' Zuko goes on to find his mother and learn her backstory, something that ends up not troubling or challenging him at all. She gives up her new identity to become his doting mother again and Zuko doesn't have a single doubt about it. He gets an adoring little sister in the form of Kiyi, despite her having a real problem with her mother choosing to become Ursa instead of keeping her familiar form. And his questionable treatment of Azula is not addressed; like Aang in 'The Promise,' she's the one who has to compromise (or in this case refuses to compromise).

You can see the pattern here of Zuko's presentation. This is where we can start to question if Zuko is Gene Yang's self-insert, but to do so, we would have to assume a lot of stuff about Gene Yang. For example, he breaks up Zuko's romance with Mai and then starts hinting at something with him and Suki; does that mean Gene Yang wants to date Suki? Then why bring Mai back so prominently in 'Smoke & Shadow' and then both go easy on her mistakes and break her up from Kei Lo at the end? Maybe Gene Yang wants a harem with both Suki and Mai, but if that's the case, then it's pretty odd that he ends his run on the comics with Zuko dating neither.

We could do the same for other aspects of Zuko's presentation (Does Yang want a tiny powerful Firebender as a little sister? Does he think all colonizers are awesome? Does he advocate denying first-amendment rights in times of danger? Is his favorite food to eat at winter time extra-spicy fire noodles?) But we'd probably run into similar questions we can't answer, leaving us to either assume way too much that would likely be wrong or admit that it doesn't matter.

Which brings us back to the much simpler idea of the character being favored beyond what is warranted. That helps with examining 'Smoke & Shadow,' where Zuko is actually portrayed as making some wrong choices for once in all of Yang's run of comics, like ordering his people's homes invaded and trashed on a vague hope that he'll find some information about Azula- but before that, he's somehow enlightened enough to make rainbow fire, and afterward, he solves everything with a quick apology to his people.

Usually, the narratives ignore Zuko's flaws and twist themselves into weird shapes to justify things. It's like Gene Yang started with the intentions of having Zuko make mistakes and grow over the course of the various stories, but then chickens out, so we're left with themes that feel incomplete or outright harmful. Zuko doesn't need to grow beyond his desire to have a Fire Nation elite (and their pet Earth Kingdom spouses and servants) rule over the former colonies forever, he gets to say, "I was right all along." He starts by locking Azula away in a straight-jacket, but then doesn't find a way to reconcile with her and treat her more humanely, because she goes fully homicidal and then runs away so he doesn't need to deal with her. But in 'Smoke & Shadow,' we get one example where, probably because Yang doesn't see it as that bad in the first, Zuko is allowed to temporarily be wrong before returning to a state of grace.

I think Gene Yang is trying to tell good Avatar stories. But, among his (many, many, many) mistakes, I think he's letting his favor for Zuko influence the stories he's trying to tell. He's trying to give his favorite character juicy dramatic material that lets him grow into an even more awesome character- but then he shies away from depicting his favorite in too harsh a light, ruining the whole thing.

The stories don't feel like they're going anywhere with him, despite him being a main character.

So if that fits with your definition of "Gary Stu," then yes, Zuko has become one in the comics. But he didn't start as one in the cartoon, and I don't think Gene Yang writes stories out of a desire for his favorite to marry Suki because Sword Girlfriend > Knife Wife.

Perhaps that's why he never got Maiko back together; he likes Mai too much to make her the one in the wrong, but then that would mean Zuko needs to learn and grow, and that can't be right. ;)

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Would you say that the show itself doesn't respect/understand Katara's trauma?

Let's see:

The first voice we hear in the very begining of the show (not just in the first episode, but in EVERY SINGLE ONE that followed), is Katara's. The first character to explain the show's whole deal, HOPE, is her.

Right away she explains to us through narration the whole conflict of the story, and the series itself immediately shows us how it has affected her and her family personally, with the death of her mother, the departure of her father as he goes to fight in the war, her and her brother struggling to get food, the tribe having no defense.

She is the first person to interact with Aang, the protagonist - and we find out about HER life, HER trauma, and see a bit of HER personality before we even see Aang or find out his name. The show introduces us to KATARA as a character, while Aang and his backstory are still always a bit of mystery until episode 13. For fuck's sake, the reason Aang becomes so endearing so quickly is because he brings the fun of childhood back to Katara and HER village.

The idea of traveling to the Northern Water Tribe is introduced because KATARA wants to be a fighter. And even when it goes from a promise of adventure between two friends to an official mission, Aang is happy that they will learn TOGETHER. Hell, excluding the opening, Katara is the first character we see using any kind of bending on screen, in the actual story.

The death of Kya and how it has severely traumatized Katara is brought up three more times in the first season - when she's comforting Aang, and bonding with Jet and Haru.

The first situation is one of the many times the show will make clear parallel between Aang's anger/grief at what was done to his people and Katara's anger/grief at what was done to hers. She comforts him about Gyatso's death by mentioning the death of her mother, managing to make Aang come back for the Avatar state. In the start of season two, we hear her mention just how tough it is to watch someone she loves be in so much pain. She comforts him again when the Sandbenders take Appa. And then in the Southern Raiders, when Katara wants to murder her mother's killer, Aang EXPLICITLY recalls these moments to explain that he DOES understand what she's going through (same thing she said to him the very first time) and still thinks that this is not what she needs to heal - much like Katara telling him not to weaponize the Avatar State, aka his pain.

Katara's grief over her mother is explicitly shown as a reason why she wants to protect the innocent, to help anyone who needs her. In the Haru episode, she's explicitly shown as a figure that symbolizes hope in the darkest situations, just like Aang is too her. Once again, the show lets her have some time in the spotlight, even in a plot that could have easily been filled by Aang since the dude is basically a messiah. And in the Jet one, while she's being lied to, she IS trying to do something good - and Aang is there with her. Once again, Katara's hero journey, and all the grief that comes with it, is literally being written alongside Aang's.

The show also places great emphasis on her journey to become a poweful warrior, even openly challenging (and giving some trouble) to a master that is unfairly refusing to teach her solely because she is a girl. She gets to hold her own in a fight against Zuko in the season one finale. In season two, when she expresses the desire to be given the title of Sifu like Toph, Aang immediately accepts. Katara is constantly shown to be pretty badass - including in the Southern Raiders, where she looks the man that killed her mom straight in the face and says she's not a helpless little girl anymore, exposing one of, if not THE, main reason why she wanted to be a fighter so bad. To regain power, to protect herself and those she cared about.

And while the show DID highlight these moments of strength from Katara, it also let her be vulnerable. We see her crying after thinking she saw her mother in the swamp, and when she believes her friends see her more as a motherly figure than a kid because she was forced to grow up too fast after Kya's death - and then Toph comforts her because they DO see her as their friend, not just a replacement mom. There's also the beautiful scene of her and Hakoda, in which she is allowed to admit how badly it hurt to suddenly no longer have her dad around, even if it was necessary/for a good cause.

There's also little things like her being allowed to bond with Bato and reconnect a bit with her tribe's way of life after some time away from it, or the show explictly having her tell Hama that it would be an honor to be allowed to learn more about her culture and heritage, which the Fire Nation obviously has robbed her of as the tribe is struggling to just survive. She also is clearly overjoyed when Pakku says it's about time for the North to help rebuild the South.

And, of course, when she's face to face with the man that killed her mother, she is allowed to stay her compassionate self - while still not forgiving him because, surprise surprise, the writers knew what they were doing and did not want to force her to suddenly ignore all that trauma just to half-ass a lesson about forgiveness is ALWAYS the way to go.

Katara is allowed to be strong AND vulnerable. To help AND be helped by others. The show clearly demonstrates, repeatedly, that she isn't just struggling to deal with the death of a parent, but with having to sacrifice her own childhood, not having BOTH parents around, seeing her home be destroyed both literally and figuratively, the feeling of helplessness as this century old war is taking so much from her and others (both dear friends and strangers). The writting for her wasn't perfect, but it was clearly not an after-thought like part of the fandom claims.

Just because she didn't kill a guy and wasn't okay with using bloodbending unless 110% sure there was no other alternative, it does not mean the show didn't take her character and it's struggles seriously. And if this fandom cared about her half as much as they claim they do, they'd recognize that instead of complaining non-stop about how one of the kindest characters in the story didn't suddenly do a 180 turn and go "Murder is great actually"

[natlacentral]

Avatar Netflix Season 2 Will 'Condense' Original Storyline (Exclusive)

Season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender will follow in the footsteps of the first season's storytelling "condensing." 

Each season of the animated Avatar series had twenty episodes, most of which followed their own adventures. When it came to the live-action show, the first season only had eight hour-long installments.

This led to many elements of the original storyline getting condensed, such as the combination and relocation of a handful of plot threads to the team’s stay in Omashu—meeting the Mechanist, Jet, Bumi, and venturing into the Secret Tunnel.

As one might imagine, these types of changes did not always land well with audiences.

Season 2 Will Condense Original Avatar Storyline

Speaking with The Direct at Paleyfest 2024, Avatar: The Last Airbender Seasons 2 and 3 executive producer Jabbar Raisani confirmed that they will need to condense some of the original story as the Netflix show moves forward.

Raisani pointed out how their handling of Seasons 2 and 3  which will conclude the live-action series - will be "a lot like Season 1," which also means "some condensing" has "to take place:"

"I think it's a lot like season 1. There's a lot of content in the animated series. And we will be looking at all that content. But we don't have the number of episodes that we have in the animated series. So, certainly, there will be some condensing that has to take place."

While speaking to The Direct about the possibility of more original moments in Season 2 for his character, Uncle Iroh actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee shared that he "[does not] know how they’re going to remix the stories" going forward:

"I wish I could; I have no idea what they have planned for us... I know we're getting an opportunity to finish telling the story. Obviously, the animated series is going to be the template for us. But other than that, I don't know how they're going to remix the stories. Nobody tells me nothing. So I'm just gonna show up. And yeah, hopefully, we get a better, clearer sense of where we're going with that in the future. But right now, I have no idea what's going to happen."

While the original animated series has been finished for nearly two decades, the story of those characters will continue in a new animated film called Aang: The Last Airbender.

Currently, not many details are known about the project, but fans do know it will follow team Avatar as they are older following the events Avatar.

As for whether its story will have any influence on future episodes of Netflix’s The Last Airbender, Raisani admitted it will not, at least "not at this point:"

"No, not at this point. We are really looking at the animated series at what came before and less of sort of what they're currently doing on the new movies."

As for whether or not he would be interested in potentially adapting Legend of Korra for live-action, he firmly responded:

"Certainly, I'd be interested in anything that is in this universe."

[ Avatar 2025 Movie: Last Airbender Release, Cast & Everything We Know About Adult Aang Film ]

Remixing Season 2 Episodes Was Inevitable

When it comes to adapting the source material, condensing is unavoidable. Avatar: The Last Airbender fans shouldn't be surprised the same will be happening for Seasons 2 and 3.

Simply put, 20-minute bite-size adventures do not work well for the more extended episode structures of the Netflix show. If the original episode is a self-contained, isolated story, odds are it may not make the cut—or be weaved in with other plot threads.

Hopefully, at the very least, fan-favorite episodes such as the desert spirit library and how Appa got stolen can see the light of day in live action.

One thing that will make it notably more difficult to stick to the original episodes, though, is how behind on Aang’s bending lessons he is. Book 2 is all about him learning earthbending from Toph—however, in the live-action Last Airbender series, he hasn't even started lessons for waterbending.

The show is ahead of the game when it comes to Azula’s storyline, however, as she doesn’t originally appear until Season 2. That alone could save some episodes from the chopping block.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Wait a second what are we doing with Lu Ten in Miraculous Gaang?

Is he alive? I know he got like really sick at one point, but are we letting him live? If so, how old is he and what is his relationship to the Gaang? Because I imagine him being quite a bit older and seeing the Gaang as his much younger siblings that he has to mentor. He's probably away at university during most of the events of this, but Zuko and Azula call him in to save their hides for some of their civilian problems. Assuming he's alive

And how did he get sick? Did he like use the peacock or did he just get really ill and it woke Iroh up to the fact that he was being kind of a neglectful parent?

Also, other named kids you can use for miraculous if you want:

Song, the chick that saved Iroh from poisoning, tried to bond with Zuko over being hurt by the fire nation, and then he stole her ostrich horse

June, but she's probably a bit older than the rest of the crowd, maybe even Lu Ten's age.

On Ji, the girl that Aang talks to when he goes to Fire Nation school and consequently gets into a fight with her boyfriend Hide.

Shoji, another kid from the fire nation school, very nervous type.

Chan, the guy that Azula tries to flirt with in The Beach, and then they burn his house down.

Meng, Aunt Wu's assistant who keeps trying to flirt with Aang in The Fortuneteller, and who gets utterly blown off, only to eventually tell Aang at the end of the episode that Katara is really pretty and they deserve each other, and also gives them the cloud-reading book for their plot (because she's been stalking Aang, and HEY that's on brand for ML).

Of this selection, the only ones I have any particular attachments to are Meng and Song. I think I'd give Meng the goat if we keep your usual Dreamwalking powers, due to her fortune teller associations. Song could honestly have any of them, but I'm leaning Dog. But yeah, it's interesting that most of the Gaang's allies seem to be adults. Between the white lotus, various world leaders, and assorted other Randos, the significant adults in this show probably outnumber the significant children.

Yes! So!

We decided that since this is taking place in a Miraculous-esque Universe, a chunk of people get to live. Like, there's no war fucking up the world and we're axing the Bending (like if they had Bending on top of the Miraculous then OOF.) and also this is a modern world with better healthcare capabilities.

So yeah some people live. Lu Ten was never on the frontlines of a war. Kya never had to protect Katara from raiders looking for a Waterbender. Yue won't have to sacrifice herself to save the Moon Spirit, etc.

Not to say everything's perfect because there's going to be injuries and close calls and some of these fuckers can get killed off.

So since I can change things and let characters live, I am!

Anyway. Lu Ten!

So we're going with some kind of car accident type deal for him. He was in a coma for a few months. (During this we had the drama of Iroh falling apart with worry, Azulon 'dying', Ozai taking over the family company, and Ursa disappearing).

He's alive but has some medical problems. Mostly mobility issues. Usually in a wheelchair, though he can use a cane for short distances if needed. His hands are bad too, but he can still get stuff done.

He's a good decade older than the Gaang. Like in his mid-to-late 20s.

Between the age and mobility thing he's probably not getting a Miraculous himself (I mean the mobility isn't stopping Teo but he's the 'I'm gonna use the Miraculous Transformation to give my wheelchair jet rockets and fly' type of guy).

He's very much the older brother figure! Especially once Zuko gets kicked out.

As for the other character suggestions!

June is too old for the group, as much as I love her. Ji, Shoji and Chan never vibed with me. Song vibed with me more but we're also getting to the 'wow huh there's not a lot of kid characters that consistently appear huh?'.

Meng is actually a great idea and I love the Dreamwalker thing I'm keeping that.

[pinkandpurple360]

Season 3 plot idea without any romance.

Theme: class, travel, law, control, hierarchy, breaking down barriers.

Fizz and Blitz as a soon to be royal consort, and a business owner under asmodeus, have a conversation about the changing laws of Hell, how his business relationship ending with mammon has a far greater ripple effect as this means the sin of lust and sin of greed no longer have a trade relationship. Making travel between the rings far more difficult than ever before.

Asmodeus may have the support of Fizzs fans, but not everyone likes fizz and approves their relationship. The succubi native to lust strongly disapprove of this marriage for how it will affect their leader, and their ability to travel to the human world to leach lust from the mortals. As asmodeus has changed his policy to such a level that he no longer permits this.

Ozzie has made good of his promise saying “I’ll break them” if they resist. And while his love for fizz is stronger than ever, his mistrust of his own nature, and his own hellborn, have turned him more soft and nurturing to Fizzarolli, but to everyone else - cruel and angry. He is grappling with his past of rage issues and controlling possessive behaviour, and it’s starting to scare Fizzarolli and make him worried that another attack or ransom attempt may occur at their wedding. Asmodeus has cracked down security on fizz to a stifling exhausting level. Think Tophs life before Aang.

There is talk of a tax being charged for anyone using Asmodean crystals to travel, for further security. This opens up Blitz and Fizz discussing the power dynamic in the relationships they are in. The upper crust controls all travel to begin with, stolas controlled blitzos travel with the book and now to such a degree, that he was able to make the decision to pass jurisdiction of the business from himself, to asmodeus completely over Blitzs head. And before Blitz could even speak, stolas had placed the crystal on him. Sealing the deal. It reminds Fizz of how Asmodeus had invited Blitz to his event without his knowledge or approval for the purposes of using blitz to convince fizz not to go through with mammons performance. And all the times Ozzie exposed their relationship by his own choice, with no regard for how he shocked and embarrassed fizz with the life changing announcements. He remembers small powerless and stupid it made fizz feel. He’s lucky that asmodeus is benevolent to him. But he doesn’t want to feel lucky that Ozzie is feeling like being nice, or is in a good mood anymore. Fizzs anxiety in managing Ozzies emotional state, is worsening severely.

Blitz is similarly suffering with this pressure of appeasing overlord royals. He certainly didn’t sign up to be under the thumb of asmodeus, stolas was a lot more malleable even if he did have moments of terrifying violence and rage at Blitzs mistakes.

The four of IMP with some information from Fizz, create an illustration of hells hierarchy. And start to plan from the ground up. Fizz asks about the moments of rage and power from stolas. Moxxie explains the most intense example: how Stolas was able to manipulate DHORKs human corpses to force them to draw his sigil and facilitate his summoning into their works.

Of course.

The problem and solution was always so simple. The middle class is the answer. Organising with them is the only answer. Below imps, arguably, on the hierarchy, is the humans. Their humanity is subject to torment from all demons. Their world is exploited for resources. It’s time to seriously take a closer look at how IMP operates, and if it’s more hypocritical than it seems. This change might require going against what they always believed was their true nature: violence terrorising and killing.

It’s time for a new era of negotiating with humans.

The oldest form of travel for demons has always been human summoning rituals. In past eras humanity had a far better communication level with demons. Entire libraries of tomes dedicated to their study. The DHORK agents have only ever wanted to learn. They have recently built a massive portal to hell. It’s time to strike a deal with the humans, to further the communication IMP has already facilitated between humans and sinners.

The DHORK agents 1 and 2 prove they are a force to be reckoned with, humanity won’t allow themselves to be terrorised by demons any longer. Blitz agrees, but reminds them that imps are the least of their worries. Infestors, succubi, Goetia demons, they are what is to be truly feared. Imps aren’t so far from humans in terms of power. And they share the same fears.

Blitz knows the fear of possession that Agent 2 felt now. He disgustingly, has empathy for a human being. His ability to speak to this human woman will be a test of his change in character. The newfound ability to communicate with their deceased loved ones, with the imps as messengers, is what wins the agents over.

As an elite team, IMP will strike a business relationship with them. They will divulge information on demonology, and human afterlife, and in exchange, the human agents will regularly summon them to carry out hits not on humans, but on fellow demons terrorising the human world and destroying the balance. With asmodeus and mammons draconian policies, more demons than ever are fleeing hell to take their frustrations out on humanity. IMP are now extending a hand, and acting as protectors of humanity. Without a need for “generous” gifts from demonic princes, their mode of travel is secured with trusted human sorcerers.

Work in progress.

Fizzarolli’s relationship to his fellow imps versus the pressure of clinging to his comforts at their expense, is a big undertaking of a B plot.

[sokkastyles]

Hi,

Hope you are doing well.

Thank you for the answer on the Final Agni Kai. I had some questions regarding one of your favorite topics TSR.

Aang's line, "I forgive you, that give you any ideas?" which he uses when Zuko and Katara take Appa seems wrong to me in many ways. It really feels like he desperately wants Katara to forgive Yon Rah, not even realizing that its just not possible for Katara to forgive Yon Rah. In a way, it really shows his discomfort with Katara's darker emotions, but she had been feeling that way since her mother died, along with the fact that she had no idea she could even confront him till Zuko gave her that information.

Do you think that a huge moment of growth for Aang would have to acknowledge this side of Katara as well?

I would like your thoughts on this.

Yeah, that "I forgive you" line is Aang being desperate. It's also really condescending and tone deaf to even compare his "forgiveness" in this scene to Katara forgiving Yon Rah.

I put forgiveness in quotes because Aang absolutely does NOT forgive Katara for taking Appa. He just knows he can't stop her at this point. The sarcastic tone and "that give you any ideas?" make him look pretty hypocritical because he is neither being forgiving nor understanding, he's just being flippant and dismissive.

It's also really clueless for Aang to make this comparison in the first place because, once again, Aang thinks the way to get Katara to listen to him is to compare her to a murderer. People talk a lot about how hurtful it was for him to compare Katara to Jet, when Katara was strongly against the things Jet did and was hurt by him personally. But let's talk for a minute about how Aang's new tactic is to literally compare her to her mom's murderer and compare her forgiving Yon Rah to him forgiving her for taking Appa without permission after she repeatedly tried to get Aang to listen to why she needed to go and he shut her down.

It takes a lot less for Aang to forgive Katara here than it would for Katara to forgive Yon Rah, so this kinda puts a damper on his whole "forgiveness is hard" theme. And even so, as I said above, he's not really forgiving her, he's just making a sarcastic comment while still judging her. Aang is not being the arbiter of forgiveness here that he pretends to be.

Let's also look at the conversation in context because I have more to say here.

Aang is flippant and dismissive - while also implying that Katara taking Appa is comparable to her mother's murder. And I'm not saying it wasn't probably hurtful to Aang that Katara would take Appa without his permission, especially considering what Appa means to him, but it's not comparable to cold blooded murder motivated by genocide. In any way. And, like, considering how they left things in the previous scene, with Katara telling Aang she had to go, what did Aang think Katara was going to do?

I'm pretty sure I've also mentioned before how this plot point is manufactured to make Katara look worse. However, in the previous episode, Sokka tried to take Appa without permission and the only reason he didn't was because Zuko pointed out that it was a stupid idea and he happened to have a war balloon stashed away, which he conveniently no longer has as of TSR. This is basically a case of moral luck, where a character's morality is judged based on plot contrivance.

(I've also said before that Aang not killing Ozai is down to moral luck, but that's another conversation.)

So Aang is flippant and condescending, and Katara seriously and very directly tells him that yes, she is going to take Appa. Mae Whitman's voice acting is phenomenal in this scene, btw. She sounds so sad, because I think she does feel that she is betraying Aang by doing this, but she tried to tell him why she needed to do it. She tried. He didn't listen.

Then she says "don't try to stop us," and Aang says he wasn't going to and that "this is a journey you have to take," but, again, it doesn't feel like he's saying this because he really believes it. It feels like he's saying it because he has realized at this point that he can't stop them from going, short of attacking them. But if he thought he could, he definitely would have continued to try to stop them.

Which brings me also to Zuko's sarcastic comment. Because Aang's the one who sets the tone for this conversation. Zuko simply responds in kind. Katara, by contrast, continues to speak in the same sad, hurt, but firm and direct tone, and thanks Aang for understanding. She thanks him. For understanding. When Aang is offering none of that to her.

I actually think Aang could learn more from Katara about forgiveness, given how much restraint she uses towards Aang here and the way he's treating her.

I think Zuko saw that, too, and that's why he responds angrily to Aang here. Not because he disagrees with Aang's beliefs but because Katara keeps quietly but firmly telling him what she's going to do and he keeps ignoring her and acting like she's being irrational.

I've said this before, too, but that would also be triggering for Zuko to watch this happening, considering how he's been gaslit by his family. Notice how he's quiet until the end of the conversation (and didn't say much in the conversation before that, either.) Aang's language, even if well-intentioned, would probably set off something in him and he's not wrong to defend Katara.

[oneatlatime]

Let's look back at my season 2 predictions!

When I got to the halfway point of season 2, I made a post detailing my predictions for where the rest of the season was going. They were delightfully subjective and conformed more to my hopes than to any legitimate foreshadowing.

I made 9 predictions (one per main character), and then I predicted three ways that the finale could go. I went into some detail in some of my predictions, so I'd recommend checking out the linked post. Keep in mind that I made these predictions before the Ba Sing Se arc started, and it shows.

For Azula, I predicted that she would be the finale's big bad, that she would be defeated, and that the Fire Lord would be introduced as next season's big bad. I'm giving myself one third of a point for this one. Azula was indeed the big bad.

For Toph, I predicted that she would get a subplot that revolved around either something she excelled at being challenged by an external force like those wrestling idiots, or something that she needed to work on that tied into her noble background. Once again giving myself a third of a point, because those wrestling idiots were involved and she did meet an obstacle that she beat by inventing metalbending. I correctly predicted the pieces involved but I got them in completely the wrong configuration.

For Appa, I predicted that he would come back after having many adventures and running into other sky bison. (What's the plural of sky bison? Devastated to say that I've never had to use it) I was right that Appa came back; I was wrong that he ran into remnants of sky bison(s?), but he did end up running into remnants of the Air Nomads, and dreaming about other sky bison(s?), so I'm giving myself three quarters of a point.

For Zuko, I predicted that he would be coaxed/dragged into being decent via a swordbending girlfriend, and that he would be redeemed by the end of Season 2. Hilariously, my prediction smashed Jin and Jet together, which breaks my brain a little. Also, he did the polar opposite of being redeemed by the end of the season. I'm going to give myself a quarter point, for getting the sword bit and the girl bit.

I predicted that Sokka would split from the rest of the Gaang and go on a multi-episode Appa hunting arc that focused heavily on his ties to his family. I was 100% wrong with this one. No point for me. Which is too bad, because I really liked the idea I came up with.

I predicted that Momo would do aerial reconnaissance for the Appa hunt with Sokka. I'm giving myself a full point for this one, because what was he doing in the Tale of Momo? Flying around looking for Appa. Admittedly Sokka wasn't there, but whatever, I need this point.

For Katara, I predicted some sort of moral crisis. Something to add some nuance to her world view. A good yet unapologetically patriotic firebender, or a downright evil waterbender. I was completely wrong on this one too, unless you count being talked into listening to Jet. No points for me.

I predicted that Aang would have to do some type of Avataring that involved delegating tasks to his friends, or putting his status as avatar first, probably due to unrest in the spirit world. This was by far my most broad prediction ("hey maybe the avatar will have to avatar it up" is a very safe statement), so no points for that. I was wrong about spirit world involvement, although I was right that his Avatar duties would conflict with his personal convictions. I'll give myself one quarter point.

For Iroh, I predicted that he would call on old resources to get himself and Zuko into a better situation. I got this one almost completely right, except two bits: I thought he would use blackmail or intimidation, when he actually used something more like the power of friendship, and I also thought that particular plot point would last longer than a single B-plot in a single episode. But what the hell, I'm giving myself the point.

All three of my predictions for how the finale was going to go were incorrect. There was no strike against the Fire Nation, there was no immediate dismissal of the eclipse as a possible time of attack, and there was no relegation of the eclipse to a single episode plot point. No point for me.

So, out of a grand total of 12 predictions, I scored:

3.91!

Ouch.

I'm going to be generous and round it up to 4, which is a third correct. Still ouch. I am less reliable than a coin toss.

But! I actually had a lot of fun both coming up with predictions and reviewing them. So I'm still counting this exercise as a win.

[the-badger-mole]

There's A Difference

I think I've said this before- in fact, I'm almost certain I've said this within the last few months- but the reason I can't let Aang's actions be dismissed by his age is because his worst traits are never addressed in canon. The reason why I personally find him very incel-ish is because the grown men who created him and project onto him strike me as incel-ish (and yes, I'm aware that at least one of them is/has been married. Incel is more of a frame of mind than an actual state of being). Aang could have had a growth arc, but instead Bryke chose to either ignore his flaws or make them out to be virtues. I'm judging Aang as a character, not a child. Because Aang is not an actual child. An actual child might have been confronted on the things Aang did. Aang is a character whose creators want fans to think is perfect, even when they themselves introduce the idea he might not be (Aang's being a terrible father is not that surprising to me, but even then Bryke had to scramble to tell us he wasn't actually that bad 🙄)

I am a lot less harsh with Zuko because he actually faced the consequences of his poor decisions. He worked to make amends not only for himself, but for his family. I empathize with his losses and his personal tragedies because the narrative actually cared about how those things affected him in just about every episode, unlike Aang, whose devastating losses are only touched on when they're convenient to that episode's plot. Otherwise, he is the picture of unbothered to the point that I question if he even knew most of the time that he was in a war (the answer, it would turn out in the penultimate episode, was no, apparently not). There's not much I can criticize Zuko on that wasn't already touched on within the show. Why would I judge Book 3 Zuko based on Book 1 Zuko (who btw, I still think was a much better rounded character than Aang in any of the series)?

When it comes to Katara and the misogyny inherent in how she was treated in her canon ship? Well, I can only point to canon and aks to be proven wrong. Katara had very little to do with the development of Kataang during the series, and that little was usually prompted by someone or something outside of her own thoughts and feelings bringing the idea up. Meanwhile, we know from the beginning that Aang likes Katara (well, he likes how she looks anyway). His feelings matter to the narrative: Katara's not so much. Then the disastrous comics where Katara's character from the show is completely stripped from her and she ends up being the cheerleader girlfriend of the Avatar. I know some of that is walked back in the more recent comics, but we already know how it ends for Katara and her kids. Also, the post LoK scramble to give Katara more agency honestly just makes me think that my original assessment of her relationship with Aang was spot on.

Zutara, in my opinion, would have been a great relationship for them both. They would've been just about perfect together, because as hot tempered as they can both be, they also both get really good at communicating with each other, which is something that Katara never really has with Aang. That's why it doesn't surprise me to find out how dysfunctional their family is. Katara and Zuko know how to work together as a team. In a relatively short time, they got comfortable opening up to each other. They are both passionate to the point that they can be really hot-headed, but they are both also extremely empathetic and compassionate. They are a couple that would've helped each other grow, and would have been so much more interesting than anything that happened with their actual canon relationships.

I get that there are people who would rather believe that Aang could outgrow his selfishness. That's totally valid, and has made for some great stories. However, I don't think saying the way he was written in canon has shades of incel is wrong. Especially by Book 3. I could see that guy growing up to be a viciously obnoxious narcissist. I bet those of us who know an "Aang" IRL can picture that, too.