#are they planning on making Sokka a feminist? lmao

[redemptiionss]

The atla live action Does Not Exist in my mind

[feiquacker]

I genuinely don't get why people say that Sokka and Zuko are gay and Katara is a token straight. Toph is a lesbeen and Aang is pan; I have seen people be like: "Zuko is gay; Sokka is gay; Toph is gay" and I have nothing against it, but could you please consider the fact that Sukka is a better ship than Zukka (in my oppinion!!!) and that it is canon, stripping Suki out of Sokka's life leaves us with a sexist bitch and Maiko did happen, they were in love and probability still are; (it does not mean I don't respect your fave ship though; be gay do crime)

I headcanon Sokka as bi because he is very feminine and he is amazing and gentle and he just gives me that vibe, but I think he preferes girl more since he did in fact communicate with girls only and had like 3gf (Yue, Suki and the girl from Toph's metalbenders who isn't really a girlfriend but a kid lmao)

Let me stay with the water siblings: Katara. I generally think that saying she is a token straight is like saying she is firenation. (cs it's the opposite) Katara falls in love with Aang because of how cute and childish and nice he is. She loves him cs he is wise and cs he helps her as many times as she helps him. Think about this for a moment: what if Katara wasn't darksinned and wasn't asian/inuit, we have a white girl, ok and now tell me her sexuality... My friends in rl say she would be a 100% pansexual (or bicon) Why? Cs it just fits. They literally say she is straight bc she is inuit. Wtf?!?! (we aren't friends anymore :D) If you still don't see the point let me tell you that Katara is pan. Just. Pansexuall, and no this is not a pun, don't tell me that she likes pans because she cooks, grow up - that's stupid and rasist and sexist

...Toph, people often make her ether a buch le$been (this is a joke and you spell it ledollarbeen, I thought it was funny...) or weird straight but that is rare, and I have mixed feelings about that, Toph is blind, she is disabled, please don't forget that; she doesn't know what the people look like, she will have to fall for their caracter if she even was interested in romantic love. In my oppinion I think Toph is ether asexuell and bi romantic, or she is just bi. Please don't forget that she did in fact have a crush on Sokka and also had two daughters with two different men. That doesn't mean you can't hc her as lesbian. You can hc her as ace/pan/straight/gay/a melon/omni if you want to.

And the same goes for Zuko. He is interested in girls, he had Mai and he loved her with all his heart. Please don't say she was the reason he found out he was gay. Zuko may give you gay vibes (idk how but k) but he is bisexual or demisexual, it just. feels right; See... he is not pan... He just isn't.

Azula: She is, in my oppinion, a le$been but I often forget about... Chan... So a) she is in fact hella gay cs no heterosexuell could be so scary and hot at he same time, here Chan was her gay awakening or b) she is bisexual but with a preference for girls (you know 1% boy and 99% girls) I like a more :D

Since we're here let me continue with the rest of the angels (they are not Ozai's angels they are just the angels I don't know who had the idea calling them after Ozai it is discusting; if they needed a name Azula's angels is more fitting or the best one is just fire angels)

Mai is the bisexual/demisexual. She was in love with Zuko and they were and are in love (I refuse to be ive the shit the comics tell us)

Ty Lee is bisexual but with a preference for boys since she did like Sokka, and she liked the boys in the beach episode simping for her (untill it got to stressful)

Ok our king and queen. Let's start with Aang cs Suki is my favourite and I will save her for last. Aang is a cool dude. He is amazing and soft but also badass and sassy. I think that hcing him as pan or straight is ok. Because it both fits. I personally hc him as omni. With a preference for girls (if that's how you call it) because he did only have a crush on Katara the whole time

Before the grande finaly of my baby and the cutest person alive let's talk about the goddess: Yue for a bit. Princess Yue. The moonspirit. The imoral spirit. The one that sacrificed herself. Yes. Bi with a preference for girls. She would just be a cottagecore le$been if Sokka wasn't there. Like. He was the only one she actually loved. And being the moonspirit is pretty gay you know... Or pan. Bi would fit her more. But pan is also good. Since she likes Sokka cs of his caracter.

Ok the queen herself. Badass warrior, preasonbraker, feminist, girlboss and all the other good stuff... SUKIIII. First of all: Suki would be so gay of not for Sokka. She litherally dressed him up like a woman and kissed him (even Sokka sais it when he explaines the invasion!!!) But since she does actually like Sokka I was thinking about pan Suki. She would never have fallen in love with him if he stayed a sexist bitch. She would have just killed him if Katara didn't interfere. I just. The facs tell me that she is pan. But my brain tells me that she is bi and I constantly don't know what she is. Plus she is the she/they highness. (But I will continue using she/her :c cs not everyone agrees with that and I totally see it and respect it.) in ny conclusion: Suki is queer, she doesn't care about her gender nore her sexuality so she just tells people she's queer and let's them guess never telling them what she actually is cs she herself still hasn't figured it out and isn't planning to uwu

Oh wait my bad Suki's gender is warrior and her sexuality is adorable badass.

!This is my oppinion! And I don't mean to harm or hurt anyone. I used examples as arguments for why I hc them like that. If you hc them as something else it's totally fine. I support it! (just not straight Katara, lmao)

(PS: Please tell me if I was/am disrespectful to any culture or rasist in any way!!!!)

[koishua]

I am not great at theorizing but I would love to hear about your favorite characters from atla!

oh my, i am SO down for this. let me take a look, okay

i wont rank them or anything bc i love them all, but my top five would be uncle iroh, sokka, toph, suki, and azula.

UNCLE IROH. is the story's source of lesson and of wisdom. he is such an icon and he is loved by all istg he is the best man ever i love him so much i wish i was related to him as a niece like zuko or something. he truly is so wise and kind against all.

he is one of a kind, he was such a gem and held a strong view of what was wrong and what was right. i think people underestimate how great of a bender he is, tho. he was a member of the order of the lotus (eyyy the oldies but goldies gang basically lmao) aka the strongest people ever hello?? he represented the fire nation in that group and my GOd is he an amazing one.

he is different from most, because unlike other firebenders, his skills and abilities aren't directly derived from anger and fury. that's why he isn't as hot headed as regular firebenders and even teaches zuko about this (which works bc zuko is considerably calmer later in the series)

and then there is his legacy. mans beat an entire dragon in a battle of flames?? he breathes fire too so that's always the coolest thing ever and his diligence while working himself back to prepare for war in that prison absolutely took me out omg the way he strategizes??? explains why he was a general. he has a heart of gold unlike any.

SOKKA. now for him, i have the biggest amount of respect and adoration for. let's adress the elephant in the room here. he singlehandedly devised a ginormous plan to defeat am empire that has been raising tyranny for over a century. how fucking awsome can one get?? mr sexy brain amirite?

plus, he was completely skilless the first part of the series and his entire growth just blows me away every single time. sure, he had his little boomerang but that was it. after they created gaang tho, his potential was so fully exploited i cant even express how proud i am oml he was diamond in the rough.

he acted so brash and was the comedic relief character a lot of the times, so his subtle feats of intelligence didn't get noticed a lot, but oml the way i am down bad for him. his determination and desperation to become god at a skill is so enjoyable to watch like,,, the piandao episode where he learns how to wield a sword is one of my favorite episodes of all time!! anyways, this is getting alittle long so lets move on to....

TOPH BEIFONG. listen. lis-ten. thats my girl right there. i was eight when i first watched atla and she was twelve and the amount of confidence she instilled in little-me is just- *sobs* (also i realized that she is literlly the only character in this with an official lastname lmfao)

toph is forever going to remain as THAT icon. her mindset is as stable and stubborn as they go because of her earthbending lmao i love how self-assured she is. she is the definition of born into riches, growing to become greatness.

her heritage is not at all important to who she is as a character and most people even forget that she is insanely wealthy because she never mentions it. but anyway that is beside my point idk why i touched on this aspect. moving on!!

i feel like they portrayed her childish nature so well in this series like?? sure, she was the greatest earthbender of all time and still is, she was also a twelve year old tween lmao she was something else istg

and her sass, humor and just her entire attitude was so solid oml she was THAT bitch and i mean it in the most awed way possible. i can talk about her more but imma keep it short for this post's sake.

SUKI. my idol right here y'all. this is my og feminist queen right here. badass woman i love her so much. embodies courage, hard work and strength in oneself. man, kyoshi warriors are super awesome i literlly do not have any other words about her other than "woah"

obviously, she couldnt bend at all but growing up on kyoshi island, one made by avatar kyoshi herself by literally parting an entire section of land away to carry them back to make an island by spouting out lava hundreds of miles down the ocean floor is just???? but we aren't here to talk about the blood-thirsty woman rn-

she learned how to deal damage on benders who dared to attack their homeland and she is just- just- idk ugh she is so gorgeous too like?? forget about sokka please, come marry me instead i beg you ;-;

suki is so quick to react to danger and doesn't wait for anyone to save the day. she knows what she can do and she does her best to help ;-; im thinking about that once moment when toph fell into the ocean and suki was the first one to dive right in their to save her while everyone else was just literally standing there lmao even katara who could literally bend water

AZULA. now, this is where shit goes down. i lover her as a character that has been developed to show what a bad childhood environment could lead to in children who are particularly cunning and born a little sharper than others.

azula was a threat to all at the age of fifteen. fif-teen. she was a mastermind in countless incredible plans that overtake populations and she is so incredible quick-witted. perfectly evil for the sake of being evil, but also not at the same time.

the azula we last see in the agni kai between her and zuko, her own bilogical older brother whom she had tormented pretty much their entire life, was the product of accumulated trauma and pressure that she had been subject to ever since she had learned bending fire. blue fire.

she had shown from the start that she was gifted and strong and was on a league of her own compared to other kids. all of her childhood was spent garnering the approval of her father and grandfather who were toxic and evil and bad role models for her. anyone who grows up in bad environments are guaranteed to turn out messed up.

her mother preferred the softer zuko than her sadistic daughter and not receiving her mother's affection enough really showed its consequences in the last few episodes where you get to see her breaking down. she hallucinates about her mother and it was so heartbreaking to watch for me as a seventeen year old. i didn't really get the extent of her pschotic breakdown as an eight year old.

for heaven's sake, she was a devil. idk my thought are so scattered rn but i feel like i can make a post about her complicated character later when i gather my thoughts properly bahaha

tldr for azula: gifted child gone horribly wrong

anyhow, this was super fun omg

[volkswagonblues]

P for the ask game (esp as it relates to the firebender's guide?)

@nonbinary-crafter-aang and @space-feminist and @princess-aziza

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

oh boy. I’m like...a very architectural gardener. My process (as much as I have one) is that I get very clear ideas for snippets, often when I’m doing something mundane like washing dishes or going out on a walk. So I’ll get a very clear idea for a scene, or maybe just one turn of phrase, or an exchange of dialogue, then I’ll rush over to my laptop and I write that down as best as I could. Then, when I actually sit down to write I’ll copy and paste and move stuff around and re-work it to fit in the plot.

But for plotting, I start off an architect and then become a gardener. Firebender’s guide was initially very, very carefully plotted, but then as I started writing I liked lingering on some of the scenarios or the characters so much I disregarded my plot outline and just...went for it. That’s the fun of writing fic, I guess, is that you’re motivated by the love of the characters and the world, so fic get the “freedom” to hover longer over those things than an original work might.

And here’s how I did the plotting: firebender’s guide was originally constructed in an excel spreadsheet (YES I KNOW...). It’s the Elizabeth Davis’s Save the Cat Beat Sheet Spreadsheet for Novels (link). So by chapter1 I knew what the big theme was going to be -- how the shadows of the past haunt the present, and I knew who were all the major characters I had to introduce or hint at. I also planned what my midpoint was, which was Sokka getting falsely accused and put in prison, and then how the final bad guy fights would go in ascending order of villainy. So that’s why the big fights in the last few chapters go Qyu->Kizia->Zuko confronting the undeniable evidence of the air nomad genocide, aka. the final “villain” wasn’t a person at all, but the structural racism and colonialism embedded into his society.

I also thought about the monomyth/the hero’s journey when plotting, especially in the final chapters.. That’s why the last third of firebender’s guide takes place in the catacombs - it’s a very heavy handed way of literally showing the descent into the underworld part of the cycle, and then Zuko’s metaphorical death+resurrection comes at the end (when he passes out and wakes up again). 

This all sounds very complex, but it’s actually much easier to write this way than you’d think. There’s bit of a paint by numbers feel to it, like I’m just slotting characters and world-building where they need to go. It also helps keep narrative tension and makes sure you finish longfics, because the conclusion naturally gains momentum as your plot advances. And finally, LMAO i plotted a whole bunch of stuff out and then THREW IT ALL AWAY once I stared writing (see gardener approach up top). I don’t think it’s important to actually adhere to a spreadsheet. Once I got the general idea I stopped even referring to it...