#ask-maiko

[unemployedstonerlizard]

Heres Mai! I'm very proud of this, I was practicing detailing and structure of the clothes. Her, Ty Lee, and Azula are very square circle and triangle coded.

Also, I'm a Maiko shipper till I die, but her and Ty Lee are also a cute pair 🩷

Once again, inspired by @soncee. Their probably really annoyed about me talking about them, but really their art is very beautiful! Please please please check them out 🩷 also inspired by the character sheets from @chiptrillino-art, also amazing 🩷

[terikanae]

Your art is amazing Can we please get some more firelord Zuko and Firelady Mai? Thank you so much!

Thank you!!! and yes, I think we can

[longing-for-rain]

What do you like about Mai? I'm pretty neutral about her but curious to hear your opinions.

My favorite thing about Mai is that she’s unapologetically herself. I know she gets a lot of hate for it, but come on, she’s a fifteen year old girl.

I actually find it pretty refreshing to see a female character who isn’t constantly falling over herself to appease other people. She’s snarky, sarcastic, gloomy, and she owns that without conceding to anyone else’s standards of how she should be. I love that about her.

And then she still retains her beautiful edgy emo charm when she gets with Zuko at the end. I love to see it. Mai doesn’t change who she is, she doesn’t have some stupid “makeover” so she’s more conventionally feminine and bubbly—no; she gets to remain Mai.

I also think she’s funny af and so cool. Just look at her style.

10/10 fit, fingerless gloves, black nail polish, knives. Truly an icon.

[memopmiff]

do you have any maiko headcanons? i love your artstyle btw <3

Thank you so much I'm glad you like it!

Here's some maiko headcanons

- Once everything is all settled (fire nation is stable, no threat to the throne) they can finally relax and be more open freely towards each other, that includes more kisses in hallways, laying near the pond and the occasional quick makeouts etc.

- They understand each other very well like the silent communication type. They also learn from their mistakes and get better at expressing their feelings as they grow older

- Zuko has the dopiest grin looking at Mai and she melts inside every time

- He’s the only one who knows that Mai is quite an affectionate person when they’re in private

- Mai reveals her pregnancy at the fountain (since izumi means fountain) and Zuko stops breathing and falls into it

- Even though they get better at communicating and expressing their emotions as they mature, their main love language is always touch

- Mai does Zuko’s hair in the mornings but sometimes Zuko offers to do her hair too and he’s pretty good at it!

- Mai is NOT am early riser. She also steals pillows

- And blankets

- Zuko loves cuddles. He would be very happy if Mai’s the one who initiates the cuddle (she’s the more timid of the two)

- Zuko thinks he got every sigh of her figured out but then he completely misread it, obliviously making things worse. Their relationship has bumps and it’s not always perfect, but they always make up for it

- Being firelord keeps Zuko up late at night, Mai lets him work until she thinks that he needs to rest that she forcefully drags him to bed

- Sometimes Mai falls back into her old habits and completely shuts off, but Zuko always gets through to her

- They’re the happiest with each other. She is his anchor and he is her world

- Shortly after Izumi was born, Zuko entertained the idea of having another kid. Mai gave him one look and Zuko went ‘Yep. 1 is enough.”

I like them in a specific way that's hard for me to describe into words but here's the light stuff! Sorry if these are cheesy, thanks for the ask!

[glamaphonic]

Is this you???

If so, as the first and Original Maiko shipper what were your thoughts on the beginning of s3 and what are your thoughts now

LOOOOL MY LEGACY

Yes, that is me.

My thoughts were, are, and ever will be: fuck yeah, Mai/Zuko slaps.

[punkeropercyjackson]

You can't be talking about asian characters like that westerner baby

[prying-pandora666]

I can see why you voice Azula. Your manipulative and a liar just like her.

You say you have nothing against Zutara but you defend Aang anytime we have valid criticisms of his sexism and racism.

You are highly critical of Maiko and yet you claim to love both Zuko and Mai. If you loved them so much you’d want them to be happy together.

You reblog any Zuko ship that isn’t Maiko. Casually scrolling your blog I have seen you support Zukka, Jinko, Toko, and Zutara but that last one is obviously fake because you also criticize the pirate scene.

Meanwhile you hypocritically support Azula ships like Sokkla, TyZula, and Mailee. You don’t call out Zucest either just like your TERF icon Grey.

Your obvi a Kataang shipper in disguise. Zutarians have been fighting this battle since the beginning. We won’t fall for your Trojan horse.

Azula always lies.

I can see your entire post history behind your eyes. You were born with nothing. And you’ve had to troll, and plagiarize, and drama-post your way to the top.

But true power? The divine right to multi-ship? Is something you’re born with.

Your followers (if indeed you have any) may not know how this is going to turn out.

But I know.

And you know.

Those allegations against Grey Delisle were false. Katy Perry stans made them up because Grey called Katy out on voting for anti-gay politicians.

Whoops. Guess you’re not as informed as you thought.

Don’t flatter yourself.

You were never even a shitposter.

[maiko-coy]

Stop cooking so hard with your art I can't eat that fast I'm (not) literally begging you remind me of my aunties and grandmas you absolute menace you shrimp shrimp shrimp

I'M BEING CALLED A MENACE AND SHRIMP??? HOW DARE U??? you know what. For that, I'm making more.

[burst-of-iridescent]

You can go back in time and add one extra Zuko and Katara interaction scene into the show (unfortunately everything else stays the same including the awful canon endgame pairs.) What kind of scene between them would you add?

a post-agni kai conversation.

it always drives me fucking mad that zuko literally throws his life away for katara and then apart from ONE THANK YOU (which is beautiful and perfect, don’t get me wrong, but certainly not enough) they just??? never speak again????? like there is no way in hell katara of all people would just fucking dip after zuko sacrificed himself for her you know she was sitting by his bed 24/7 & changing his bandages & fussing over him day and night & i refuse to hear otherwise.

ideally, i would’ve liked the conversation to be at the jasmine dragon in ba sing se (bringing it full circle from the first time they ever connected in the very same city), out in the balcony before the entire gaang comes to join them and hinting at a future relationship, but since i unfortunately have to keep to canon, i would insert it after the mai.ko “reconciliation” and before zuko’s coronation.

maybe zuko opens up to katara over how nervous he is about becoming fire lord, she reassures him, and then he tells her that he wouldn’t be there without her, and thanks her again — and that segues into them talking about what he did, and why he did it (and if we want angst, we can see the hints of feelings that neither of them yet realize or can admit they have, not till it’s too late) and then we end with another hug just to wrap it all up with a nice bow <3

[calliopieces]

whats a maiko moment you wish to see in the new zuko/avatar movie

honestly I'll take anything we can get because we've been starved of maiko moments for so long lol

BUT it would be nice to see canon confirmation that Mai is the Fire Lady and Izumi's mom... so maybe scenes of Maiko working together as rulers???

[aquatint-101]

Modern AU careers for the Gaang

Aang: elementary school teacher and stay-at-home dad when his kids are growing up. He makes for a splendid househusband for Katara when he doesn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Katara: lawyer who runs a legal clinic and an outspoken activist. She was studying for medicine, but she pulled an Elle Woods when Sokka told her she was too "girly" for Harvard Law. Zuko: kind of specific but he drops out of Wharton to become a firefighter, and I'm undecided on whether it's during his bachelor's or MBA. (He also totally did DECA as a high school student but never got past state level). Sokka: engineer who went to a huge college (MIT or Caltech) when nobody expected him to. He's either a civil engineer or an aeronautical engineer. Toph: blind martial artist is the most obvious one, but I raise you: concert pianist. The former is more in character but the latter just cracks me up because the best pianist I know is blind. Suki: Olympic-level athlete in a solo sport measured on performance. So she'd be into running, pole vault, javelin, something along those lines. I think running is the most likely. Sokka is her biggest fan. Bonus: Mai: goes to the same college as Zuko for cybersecurity/informatics, but drops out at the same time as him. She works a day job as a florist and does freelance work as a white collar hacker. Ty Lee: an actual circus performer in the Cirque du Soleil. All her sisters are either doctors, lawyers, or engineers. Azula: has a high position in whatever business Ozai is running and is poised to be his heir. Post-redemption starts one of the most bougie but affordable bakeries in the world.

[leantailean]

Izumi being Toph’s daughter could be the reason for her glasses.

No, really.

Okay just follow my crazy for a moment.

No one in Zuko’s family wears glasses, right? And Mai throws knives which requires sharp eyesight to do accurately. So why does Izumi have vision problems?

Let’s consider what probably caused Toph’s blindness. She says she was born blind, so we know it’s congenital. Her eyes appear opaque which sounds like cataracts. Toph mostly likely has congenital catatacts.

Predispositions to congenital cataracts do run in families. If Izumi inherited this condition, she would need immediate surgery to save her sight. Delaying surgery results in the eye never developing properly due to missing out on sunlight, which still results in blindness. But if Izumi’s was caught earlier, they could’ve surgically removed the cataract.

It may sound too advanced but there have been rudimentary catarcter surgies in India since 5th century BC. In ATLA they could even use bending to improve the prognosis!

If all goes well, the only long lasting side effect would be the need for corrective lenses.

Like glasses.

Hello! And thanks for the question!

This is a very interesting theory, but I believe that Izumi is Mai's daughter. She and Mai are practically look like the same person. She also resembles her grandmother.

Unfortunately I don’t know much about  hereditary eye problems, (but if happens that someone who reads it knows some factual information about it and can give some links I would be very grateful.)

I don't consider the comics and LOK to be a canon (in fact, you're talking to someone who doesn’t even consider the atla third book to be completely canon because of some terrible writing decisions or how the writers treated some of the characters in the third book, especially Zuko , Iroh and Aang, lol🤓). I like to think about LOK as of some sort of AU. And in general, I have almost no doubt that Toph and Zuko actually have a common child in LOK. Like, just look at Lin. She looks like someone from the FN. Her facial expressions, movements, her stubborn, strong personality. Do I at least doubt that Lin is Zuko's daughter? No, for me this is the canon. It's possible that Toph and Zuko got together around the time he and Mai had broken up for a while, or it's even more likely that Zuko widowed and after that he could have got into a long-term relationship with Toph. I don't want to think about Zuko being a widower, or that Mai died - I adore Mai, she's my best girl, my second favorite female ATLA character after Toph. And I LOVE maiko. But we know that in LOK Sokka died early, and Aang died quite early, so anything is possible. But, in any case, Zuko and Toph could have had a long relationship, nothing in LOK contradicts that version. As I recall, Toph mentioned that Lin's father's name was Kanto. Imagine: Zuko secretly dating a woman who doesn't want to be drawn into FN court undercover games, so he sends her love letters and sign them as "Kanto", and there is someone who reads these letters to Toph. God, I love that.

However, Izumi is definitely Mai's daughter.

But this is a very interesting theory, thanks for sharing it!

[peculiaritybending]

Do you think that Maiko were in a relationship* before Zuko was banished? Or atleast were aware of their feelings? The getting together after S2 seems to be approached very casually in a way that a new relationship wouldn't be

* relationship here meaning a silly middle school one where they hold hands and cute stuff like that

OH YES I DEFINITELY THINK SO !!

I actually think their relationship would have been kind of similar to how it is shown in s3, being casual but very supportive and loving too (not without some disagreements and silly arguments though of course) but more awkward and childish. I also think they would have been less guarded and closed off with each other, being younger and it being before Zuko’s banishment and all. I think that’s part of why Zuko is often trying to get Mai to open up and express herself more. He remembers when they trusted each other and would confide in each other a lot as children and wanted that security back. This isn’t to say I think he was unhappy with their relationship in s3 or that Mai or, Zuko for that matter, was ever super open with their feelings. I think Mai is naturally a very closed off person and so is Zuko to an extent. What I mean is I think they would probably be the type to complain about things together in a very dramatic pre-teen and/or early teen way. Very emo/goth and dramatic like “Life is a prison. There is a black void inside me. The world is a dark and miserable place. Wanna write poetry and hold hands about it?”

I think they also seem like the type to play harmless pranks on people but specifically more the type that irritate or confuse people and not the like “bucket of water above the door way” type. I feel like they would do shit like make the guards think there was a ghost in the palace or move Mai’s parents’ belongings to weird places in the house and watch them get annoyed and confused about it. Both of them having an interest in blades is something I always thought would have been something they would share with each other. I can see them both practicing their skills together. There’s probably a tree in the palace garden with lots of long slashes in it from Zuko’s dual swords and deep indentations from Mai’s throwing knives and maybe even their names carved in it (twice because Azula stole Zuko’s knife and scratched it out once out of jealousy).

That’s all I have right now, I could probably spend hours coming up with cute and silly little scenarios of the two of them if I tried. Thank you for the ask I love having an excuse to talk about these two.

[longing-for-rain]

what do you think of the argument some people make that goes along the lines of "zuko was acting entitled towards kataras forgiveness and the betrayal at the catacombs was just a second thought to him"? According to them, zuko failed to understand that kataras anger at him was a direct consequence of his previous decisions and instead blames it on her resentment against the fire nation (the whole "i think she sees me as her mother's murderer" spiel). They also claim that he's a raging misogynist bc of the way he treated katara in the pirate episode, that he didnt remember her name when asking sokka abt the southern raiders, taunting her in the northern tribe by saying she is a big girl now that she's learned some new tricks, referring to the kyoshi warriors as a "bunch of little girls", yelling at mai and acting possessively, mocking ty lee... amidst many other things, including the toxic masculinity accusations ofc. They also condemn his selfishness in helping katara find some semblance of closure. I think a great part of this is just biased hate, but i just wanted to know your opinion. It's okay if you don't want to answer though!

Oh no of course, I think it’s definitely biased hate, because these kinds of superficial “criticisms” only seem to come up in response to people shipping Zuko with the incorrect character. I’ve seen the same people who make these arguments praise Zuko, say they love him, say his redemption is inspiring, etc. in other contexts.

There is a lot to unpack here, but I’ll touch on all these points because I find them interesting. Also, in regards to generally stupid anti Zuko takes from whiny anti shippers, a lot of those came up here which I addressed in detail.

Now, about these particular arguments.

1) Zuko wanted Katara’s forgiveness out of selfishness

Firstly, I never understood this take because in context…Zuko already has what he set out to get when he left the Fire Nation at the beginning of The Southern Raiders. Actually, let’s take a step back here: leaving the Fire Nation. Did these people collectively forget that? Zuko could have stayed in his life of luxury, watched the world burn, and inherited the title of Emperor from his father. But instead, he committed treason, risking his life in the process, because he knew in his heart it was the right thing to do. This is the character you’re trying to smear as a selfish monster?

Anyways.

The Southern Raiders. The scene which kicks off the conflict with Katara is when the group is sitting around the fire, praising Zuko for his heroism and saving them from Azula. He humbly admits he doesn’t feel he deserves the praise, to which Katara agrees and storms off. But the important piece of context here is that everyone else—including Sokka, Katara’s own brother—seems to be on Zuko’s side. If Zuko was purely selfish, he wouldn’t have cared what Katara thought of him. He could have laughed along with Sokka and agreed that Katara was just being dramatic. But that isn’t what happened.

Zuko doesn’t look angry or vindictive here; he looks hurt. He cares what Katara thinks of him; he later says those words verbatim to Sokka.

I also think the fact that Zuko made a special effort to reach out to Katara above the other characters shows that he recognizes that the catacombs incident was much more personal for Katara. Zuko even acknowledges this himself.

Zuko: Katara mentioned it before when we were imprisoned together in Ba Sing Se, and again just now when she was yelling at me. I think somehow she's connected her anger at that to her anger at me.

Zuko remembers their conversation very well. Katara’s anger towards him was different than the others because she felt betrayed on a more personal level. She shared something deeply personal with Zuko and connected with him, and felt deceived when he betrayed her.

In Katara’s mind, Zuko talking about his mother was fake. She tells herself it was just him lying to her and manipulating her to gain her trust, because that’s easier than the idea that he didn’t care. I believe this is why Zuko finds it so important to make it up to her…and specifically why her mother was involved. Obviously Zuko was wrong to side with Azula. But he wasn’t being manipulative or uncaring. He was manipulated himself by Azula, the person who knows how to control him better than anyone else.

So, in this episode, Zuko is not setting out to prove that he’s “good” (he’s already done this); he’s setting out to show Katara that he does respect her trauma, he does understand and respect the weight of what she told him about her mother. Zuko can tell she’s deeply hurt and that he’s part of that hurt. That’s why he wants to demonstrate that his care for her was and is genuine. He never lied to her. And that right there is the opposite of selfishness. This is once again Zuko acknowledging his own faults and taking responsibility for fixing them. He doesn’t even seem to demand or expect forgiveness in the end.

Look at his face. He’s surprised. He did not expect this gesture, although he graciously accepts it.

If Zuko was this selfish, entitled monster people want him to be, he wouldn’t react this way. He wouldn’t even care about any of the points I just went through.

If you honestly believe that Zuko’s motivation was selfish and he was just manipulating Katara’s feelings this whole time, you fundamentally missed the point of one of the show’s most critically acclaimed episodes.

2) Zuko didn’t know Katara’s name (?)

This one is just stupid. I’m sorry. I didn’t know people actually used this argument because it originated as a joke post and you should be embarrassed if you genuinely think this is canon. It comes from the scene in The Southern Raiders where Zuko says “your sister” rather than “Katara” when asking Sokka about their mother.

There is absolutely nothing about this scene indicating that Zuko doesn’t know Katara’s name. The word choice is most likely to emphasize the sibling relationship between Katara and Sokka to explain both to Sokka and to the audience why Zuko sought him out specifically.

And think about it. Zuko has been hanging around 24/7 with them for probably two weeks at this point. There is no way he didn’t catch Katara’s name, if he didn’t already know it. And given how diligent he was in his Avatar hunting days, he most likely did already know it.

3) The pirate episode

Okay I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again…I’m so tired of people projecting some weird, creepy sexual undertones onto this episode. There was absolutely nothing abusive or misogynistic about the character interactions here. It was a very standard (and honestly a bit cheesy) example of a cartoon villain and hero interaction. The fact that you see a female character in any kind of distressed situation and immediately project sexual implications onto it is the real misogyny here. I never see people complain about similar scenes involving male characters:

I could dig up even more examples but can you see my point? The argument that there was any abuse or sexual misconduct on Zuko’s part this episode is absolutely misogyny—but it’s audience misogyny; not Zuko’s. The canon scene would have gone exactly the same way if Katara was male. The only difference would be much fewer disgusting sexual over-analyzations of it by fans.

4) “Little girls”

For this one, an important piece of context to keep in mind is that this script was written in 2005 by a creative staff of mostly men. So we need to ask the question, is this meant to reflect misogyny on Zuko’s part, it is it the bias of the writers?

Another prime example of this is Iroh’s interactions with Jun. Obviously, that was severely creepy behavior and absolutely misogynistic. However, most fans (including myself) tend to overlook that. Why? Because it’s jarringly inconsistent with the rest of Iroh’s character and his purpose within the narrative. In context, it’s pretty obviously something the writers thought was “funny” at the time but aged like rotten milk.

Also, in regards to sexist language during fights, consider all the stupid lines like…

Azula: Who are you? The Avatar’s fan girls?

Ty Lee: You are not prettier than we are.

…in the Kyoshi Warriors vs. Dangerous Ladies fight. Seems like this is just a writer bias issue, personally. When have men ever been normal about teenage girls? Right—never.

I get this is a slippery slope, so my approach is to compare Zuko’s lines like this to everything else we know about Zuko and ask the question: is there anything about Zuko’s character that indicates he views women as inherently inferior or lesser?

Well, no.

You know what is a trend for Zuko? He focuses on putting down his opponents by acting like they’re younger and weaker than him. His first reaction to Aang is “you’re just a child.” This is consistent with his attitude towards Katara and the Kyoshi Warriors. Zuko canonically treats male and female opponents no differently. He fights and moves on. No creepiness, nothing like Iroh and Jun, etc. If they were male, it wouldn’t have gone differently. That’s why I think it’s a reach to say these comments by themselves indicate a misogynistic attitude.

Besides, why would Zuko see women as weaker and lesser when this is who he grew up with?

That’s another thing. For as much anger and resentment Zuko harbors for Azula on the basis that she’s Ozai’s favorite and born lucky—not one comment is made about her sex. If Azula was male, nothing would inherently change about this dynamic. So yeah, I’m not really buying this whole “Zuko is a misogynistic incel” narrative. If you’ve ever dealt with incels in any capacity, you know they’d absolutely jump at the opportunity to whine that their (female) sister is so much more lucky and privileged and loved compared to them.

5) Zuko, Mai, and The Beach

I’m working on a longer analysis of this but to summarize…people on both sides blow this issue way out of proportion. Mai wasn’t abusive. Zuko wasn’t abusive. They were a pretty standard angsty teenage couple having angsty teenage drama. Zuko called Mai a big blah and shoved some dude into a vase. Mai told him he was out of control. That’s literally such a minor issue, that they resolved by the end of the episode.

But to dig into this more, consider the point this is in Zuko’s story. He’s at rock bottom. The premise of the entire episode is to show how abnormal and out of place Zuko feels among people who should be his peers. His issues with Ruon-Jian aren’t even about Mai to start. Zuko was beefing with this dude before the party even started, remember?

Why is Zuko mad at him? Because he’s making Zuko feel freakish. He’s making Zuko feel like he once again is an outcast, and Zuko hates that. He’s insecure. That’s…the point of the episode.

I’m not going to excuse his tantrum over Ruon-Jian talking to Mai, because that was toxic, but consider the context. Zuko isn’t some crazy possessive freak. In his mind, this is just icing on the cake, another example of why he’s an antisocial freak compared to other Fire Nation teens and he hates how it makes him feel.

But interestingly enough, I do think Mai and Zuko’s interactions in that scene give some insight into their dynamic and Zuko’s character—believe it or not, in a positive way. Just consider the context and body language.

I’m just stating facts here. Zuko is more physically threatening than Mai. He’s bigger, stronger, male, and he’s a firebender while she isn’t a bender. And yet, Mai has absolutely no trouble getting in his business to tell him off. Why? You can argue that it’s just because she thinks she could knife him—but we’ve seen how she reacts to an actual physical threat (Azula) and it isn’t like this at all. Mai is confident because she knows Zuko wouldn’t physically harm her. He’s angry, but he never once uses his figure to physically intimidate her. He clearly doesn’t make a habit of this behavior either judging from Mai’s reaction. Also think about the fact that the only physical altercation here is between Zuko and another man. The primary target of his anger isn’t the woman he’s allegedly acting possessive over unlike another character in the Ember Island Players and several comics…

Not to mention the way they reconcile around the fire. Zuko’s behavior doesn’t at all reflect an angry, entitled misogynist who thinks he owns his girlfriend. Quite the opposite. He clearly holds a lot of love and respect for her. It’s just that…this episode is literally displaying Zuko at his most tortured, his most self-hating, his most insecure as he realizes he no longer has a place in the home he’d desperately been chasing for years after being brutally mutilated and banished. With that in mind, I think he actually handled himself very well.

The thing about Zuko is that he takes accountability for his wrongs and works to improve himself. He has flaws and even when they’re understandable, he still takes responsibility for fixing them. That’s the trait of his that sets him apart from…certain other characters.

6) Zuko being rude to Ty Lee

Again, see above. Yes, Zuko was mean to her. But again, this is Zuko at rock bottom. This is Zuko venting his frustration about nobody being able to understand what he’s gone through and how isolated and freakish he feels. None of them had their faces burnt off in front of an audience. None of them were banished and forced to live as refugees. Zuko blew up at Ty Lee in the first place after she made a comment about bad skin.

Like yes, he’s rude, but did you miss the point of that episode? If you think this has anything to do with misogyny you’re just delusional, sorry. That interaction had nothing to do with Ty Lee being female. It had to do with her (and every other character that episode) living a privileged lifestyle while Zuko is (literally, too) feeling the weight of the scars his trauma has left him with.

So in conclusion, yes, I really think these takes are all shallow and unfounded jabs at Zuko’s character that either don’t understand or outright ignore critical parts of his development and story. And considering I’m #canceled for my based misandry in many circles, it should say a lot that I’m defending a man of any kind ✌️

[royjshkocreal]

Kids (missing two)

[flameohotwife]

So I always thought the canon pairings in AtLA had good writing/development but all the Aang and Mai bashing has made me decide to rewatch the series because shippers of a certain other ship called them "abusive" and Aang sexist. But honestly, I love how Mai calls Zuko out on his jealousy and possessive behavior in "The Beach" and Aang is always supportive of Katara's dreams, even refusing to be trained by Pakku because he's sexist to Katara. I like that Sukka teaches kids watching the show to treat women with respect but also Kataang and Maiko in the examples I mentioned above are also good examples of feminist moments in the show too.

YES! Anon, say it louder for the people in the back! There are so so SO many amazing feminist moments in this show and honestly I loved watching it with my kids (multiple times, haha) for that reason. I don't remember growing up with media that showed SO may instances of how girls/women could stand up for themselves in those types of situations. I love how Katara stood up to Pakku (with Aang's support! His little "Go, Katara!" makes me smile every time) and also how she CONSTANTLY takes boys on in fights, from pirates and Rough Rhinos to the taunting kids that subsequently get frozen where they stand ("oh, a girl has her ways") and anyone who insults Aang. How SHE is the one to defeat Azula in the end. How the WHOLE SHOW starts with her rant against Sokka's sexism. How Suki finally put's Sokka in his place. How Toph had to be played by "a really BUFF guy" in EIP because the Fire Nation couldn't admit to being bested by a tiny, 12-year-old girl. How Mai won't let Zuko treat her like a possession with no agency of her own. How she is the one to save HIM in the end at Boiling Rock (how's that for a damsel in distress?). How Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee are trusted by the Fire Lord to perform tasks even the highest generals can't achieve. How the show is relentlessly turning sexist stereotypes on their heads and making viewers question what they think they know.

Beyond the feminism (which you all probably already know I adore so much), I love that each of the leading boys has learning experiences wrt less-than-ideal behaviors towards girls/women, because in real life boys (and girls, too!) are GOING to make mistakes as they're learning and it's important to show how they can move beyond those mistakes and not forever be defined by them. Zuko learns not to be a possessive asshat like he is in The Beach (at least, we don't see him act that way towards Mai again--he might as well have broken up with her via text and not given her the option to follow him to the "good side," but he never acts possessive again. Baby steps). Aang learns he can't just solve their relationship problems by kissing Katara when she's confused. He gives her space and she clearly thinks he's learned from it by the end (really, by the next episode). Sokka learns not to be sexist and that sometimes girls are going to be stronger/better fighters than he is AND THAT'S OKAY. Good, even! It doesn't make him "less of a man" or anything like that, and we don't hear those sexist ideas come out of his mouth again. ALL of these make great talking points for parents watching the show with their kids, too.

Kids make mistakes. They lean on stereotypes or prior experiences and sometimes that bites them in the butt. AtLA shows that we can teach kids hard lessons. Not only can we fight back against injustice but we can improve ourselves when we've been the ones to mess up. And I really think that's something special.

Thanks for sending in your thoughts, anon! You're so right.