#atla chakras

[balanceoflightanddark]

I've read several Azulaang AUs where Aang gets Azula to open and master all of her chakras. Each with their own take on what's blocking them.

What do you think is blocking all of Azula's chakras? What's your take?

Well, I'm not a huge expert on chakras, but I can think of a few things that might be interfering with Azula's if you want to go that route. Course this is gonna take a little bit to go through each and every one of them, so get comfy.

Earth: This one should be fairly easy. This chakra deals with survival and is blocked by fear. Fear and Azula go together like bread and butter. Sure, many people think of Azula causing fear, but you also have to remember that Azula is terrified herself. Particularly of failure and the consequences of failure. Especially poignant since...well, the price of failure could possibly be maiming or even worse. A very real possibility with Ozai as your father. Hell, in the novelization of Sozin's Comet, we get this particular scene:

Overcoming and opening her Earth chakra means overcoming her fear of failure. Which would be difficult, but also a major step since that means overcoming Ozai's conditioning.

2. Water: Another fairly obvious one. This deals with pleasure and is blocked by guilt. People often accuse of Azula of having no guilt for a lot of things. Which in many ways isn't entirely inaccurate (I mean, you can't exactly feel guilty over something you do that for your entire life is told to be correct). However, we do get a good idea of what might be blocking this particular chakra in the mirror scene.

We see in this scene that Azula admits that she did treat Mai and Ty Lee poorly, but also said she didn't have any choice because...well, fear is the only reliable way in her mind. Hell, she wouldn't be reacting this way if she didn't have any guilt over the whole mess. Even though, again, when you grow up under Ozai's shadow, that screws up how you view the world. Coming to grips with how wrong her worldview is and forgiving herself for how bad things got with some of the only positive relationships in her life can help unblock this chakra.

3. Fire: Driven by willpower. Blocked by shame. Azula has a determination that puts a lot to others to shame. To be the best firebender, the perfect daughter, the embodiment of what the Fire Nation should be. And her success was driven by that will (and less luck as Zuko puts it), particularly with firebending and being able to bend blue fire.

Unfortunately, the shame of her humiliating defeat at Sozin's Comet probably shattered that willpower. And I could see it affecting her firebending if she's as shaken as she was in canon about what happened. Learning that her loss doesn't necessarily mean she's a failure and learning to fall in love with firebending outside of the context of combat and competitiveness to just firebending for firebending's sake, to appreciate the effort it takes to be so good can go a long way to unblock this chakra.

4. Air: Embodiment of love. Blocked by grief. Azula and love...yeesh. What a complicated history that one is. Azula is undeniably capable of love, and did have love for her family members. She wouldn't have hallucinated Ursa and been shaken by her rejection if that weren't the case. She did care about Zuko enough to bring him home with his honor intact while warning him about visiting Iroh. And her love for Ozai is undeniable.

And they all left in the end. Ursa neglected her. Zuko took everything from her (taking one of the few genuinely compassionate acts she did and throws it in her face). And Ozai abandoned her to the wolves. Not to mention her ruined relationship with Mai and Ty Lee, and she's more than wracked with grief. Again, she wouldn't have broken down if she didn't love them. That is the meaning of loss and grief.

5. Sound: Embodiment of truth. Blocked by lies.

...

Yeah that goes without saying that Azula is a knack liar. More importantly, even to herself. Azula's convinced herself that she's some irredeemable monster. That her only choice is to play with the cards given to her and embrace that notion of being a monster.

Thing is...she isn't. As proven before, she's NOT a monster. She is capable of showing compassion and love. Even if she's bad at showing it, she's not the callous, heartless demon she tries to present herself as. Unblocking this chakra means accepting that her lie is exactly that: a lie. And embracing the truth that she is indeed capable of so much more than what Ozai or herself have taught her to be.

6. Light: Embodies insight. Blocked by illusion. We've talked about lying before, but this particular one can also mean her regards to the Fire Nation in general. Azula, like so many others, was raised with the belief that the Fire Nation was the superior nation. That fire was the superior element, and that their way was justified.

But just like Azula's lie, the illusion is just an illusion. The Fire Nation isn't inherently better than the others, and their drive, their cause was built on the ego of the Fire Lords and a misguided attempt to bring about a world in their own image. If the previous chakras are about breaking down Azula's self image and her relationship to Ozai, then it sets the bedrock for unblocking this chakra and discovering just what the Fire Nation truly has done.

7. Thought: Embodies pure cosmic energy. Blocked by earthly ties. This one is...unique. The others are at least defined by something concrete. Pure cosmic energy is something that's a bit more abstract. Azula's earthly ties are easy. They're all the blockages that we've just mentioned and shaped her as a person. And we've just talked about how she can overcome them.

The final step would be to finally break ties from them. To accept that no, she's NOT defined by Ozai. She's NOT a monster. And she can be more than what Ozai or the previous Fire Lords had wanted her to be. This is the critical point. It's accepting that she can be good and do the right thing no matter where she came from. Thus, coming to terms with her past, and choosing to move on and forge a new future for herself. At least how I'd interpret this.

So...yeah. This is how I'd view Azula's chakras, what's blocking them, and what can be done to clear them. It'll take time, but I do believe she's capable of it. I mean, she has addressed some of the issues herself. Now it's a matter of capitalizing on what she's learned and putting them into practice.

Thanks for the ask, anon! This was actually a bit of fun. Maybe this can be a sort of roadmap for anyone interested in writing an Azula redemption fic or something.

[katydoodles]

Posting this again for those who didn’t see it.

[nikolaiar]

Back in my Avatar AU bag. We should probably talk about how sandbenders were portrayed.

Anyways meet Iften, he don’t wanna be the Avatar! He’s too busy being a dad and trying not to think about he past it’s always there anyways.

Also all Avatars have a spirit guide, and his is a sandstork. They are basically huge storks that live in the Si Wong Desert. They’re kinda like a mix of ostrich I guess? I imagine the sandbenders would’ve rode them instead of camels before they invented sand sailors or whatever the fuck the boat things are called.

[impossiblycolorfulpanda]

The choice is clear to Aang yet impossible to make. To stay attached to Katara would mean the death of her and the end of all balance. To stop the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation and save Katara along with balance itself would mean forsaking his romantic love for her forever.

[atla-confessions]

I think people take what guru patik said as word of law when I don't think it is. We have a past avatar tell aang he can never let go of wordly attachments cause his duty as avatar is to the world. which directly contradicts with what guru patik wanted aang to do. And I think it's because he was teaching Aang how he knew best to open his chakras that method might have worked for an airbender like Zaheer to fly but wouldnt have helped aang with his avatar state in the long run because being the avatar is about the balance of worldly connections and the spiritual connections.

X

[shifuaang]

@azulaang-chakras requested Tysuki + spring colors

[traumatizedjaguar]

When I was 8 I did not understand Avatar like I do now. When the Lion Turtle says “The true mind can weather all lies and illusions without being lost. A true heart can tough the poison of hatred without being harmed” I now get the message, it means to stay true to yourself. That’s the challenge Aang faces throughout the whole show. Trust your gut and what you know to be true. Aang doesn’t think defeating violence, abusers, vengeful people works by using/adding more violence, abusive actions, vengeful behaviors to the mix; he doesn’t believe in killing, so he stays true to his beliefs. That’s why each time everybody around him says “kill Ozai” or “violence is the only way to win” he questions it bc it feels off. That’s how he learns to take trauma, abuse and suffering away from the world so people don’t have to go through that separation from themselves and each other anymore.

[solgazelle]

Alignment, Foot Sole Energy Center

The root chakra is the chakra of stability and grounding. This is embodied by strong boundaries and an unshakable knowledge of self. Your mindset is the core of this energy center.

Affirmations

I am strong

I am the artist of my own life

I am on the path of my most successful life

I am happy

[lovegrowsart]

was the plot hole of aang unlocking his chakra by coincidentally hitting a rock ever addressed by the writers/creators of the show? i always felt like the way they went about things in most of s3 felt incredibly rushed, particularly this and the lion turtle bc they just gave aang the solutions on a silver platter

off the top of my head, i can't think of any interviews or extratextual commentary from bryke and/or the writers about aang's botched blocked chakra plot.

the closest thing we have to knowing what was going through their heads re: aang's chakra/energybending are the final production scripts of the finale (check the end of the post!), which definitely imply that, yeah, a bunch of things about book 3/the finale were rushed and not properly thought through/scraped to grant aang easy physical solutions to difficult emotional and spiritual problems :/.

[beatlesandbards]

So in The Chase, Tai Lee disables Sokka's arms and strikes Sokka on the head, and he makes the quip, "Good try, but no."

I always read that as a haha, isn't Sokka hard-headed

But watching it again yesterday, it occurred to me that while Sokka doesn't know/intend this interpretation, his thought chakra, at the crown of the head where she strikes him, is probably already blocked to shit.

The thought chakra: linked to cosmic energy, and blocked by worldly attachment. That's got Sokka the materialist written all over it. Feels like a good layer of depth in this joke I missed for a long time :)

[magsmapsmtl]

#MERMAY2023 #4 - Avatar (inspired by my @loopsessionsldn submission ☯️)

Just in time for #AAPI Heritage Month, I decided to draw inspo not just from the koi fish Tui and La from Avatar: The Last Airbender, but from Guru Pathik who teaches Aang about chakras. His character being a stand-in for a Hindu in the ATLA universe I did my best to incorporate some of those traits into this rainbow fish mergoddix 🧜🌈 

Speed paint available on YouTube!  

[all-inmoderation]

if aang wrong choose katara,,, why universe show katara in danger to Aang 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 unless ?? universe want aang save katara 🤔🤔🤔 universe want aang die and katara save 🤔🤔🤔 universe say aang right to choose love over power😠😠😠😠🤯🤯👊🏼

[yellowumbrella134]

oh my*EXPLODES*

“ What did you think of that huh?”

I NEEDED TO DO IT!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH

Does it have a name? Azuki?

[impossiblycolorfulpanda]

Would you mind explaining why you ship Azaang? It seems interesting, but I can't put my finger on it. Since you dominate the tag, maybe you have some insights about the ship?

Short answer: It's a superior, more intimate, more suggestive, and more spiritually attuned version of Zukaang and a complete antithesis to Kataang. It mostly takes place in my Book 4: Air/Dark Avatar Ozai AU.

...

Long answer: I believe it all started when I read Aaron Ehasz's tweet about Azula having her own redemption arc with Zuko as her Iroh basically. I then read a fanfic called Azula's Redemption where she's redeemed through Aang by showing her how to open and master her own chakras. It ends with Azulaang being endgame.

It's commonly believed that Azulaang is another "opposites attract" thing but mostly with their personalities rather than elements, even though Aang can waterbend and that art was one of the easiest for him to learn. Azula also had a rather strong fixation on the earth kingdom and was able to bend the Dai Li to her will with ease.

It is often shipped along with Zutara because it gives Aang a love interest. Some fans also see the possibility of Azula reforming due to Aang. I've been studying both characters and their dynamics with other people. I came to the conclusion that Azulaang has as much narrative significance as Zutara.

Azula getting better is the ultimate goal in Azulaang but I wanted to complicate things a bit where Aang is mostly changed by Azula's influence as well.

I invented a little mechanic where Aang and Azula form a spirit bond. This bond unites them as fate, allowing them to understand each other better than anyone else and one will know when the other is lying. This bond is formed when Aang finishes opening his own chakras first and it gets even stronger once Azula completes her chakra session next. Why it didn't form in Ba Sing Se is likely because Aang's fire and light chakras weren't fully opened. Do you know how Katara was an earthly tether blocking Aang's last chakra? I picture Azula being something of an opposite entity where her presence keeps all chakras open.

I mostly place Azulaang within the Dark Avatar Ozai AU of mine. In case you're wondering about that, it's an AU where ATLA has a Book 4: Air but the story arcs from the back half of season 2 of Legends of Korra are put in Aang's saga instead. Some parts of the first 3 seasons are altered though, like when Aang meets Roku for the first time, he vaguely describes Vaatu but doesn't mention his name. In the Library, the gaang learn the names Raava and Vaatu but no more than that, at the beginning of season 3, Avatar Wan's two-part episodes debut while Aang is still in a coma, at the end of season 3, Ozai fights the lion turtle instead of Aang at a different location and his plans for the earth kingdom were a trick to keep the gaang distracted. Ozai wins by slaying the beast and consuming its soul.

The dark avatar doesn't just obtain all bending arts in the opposite direction of Aang's cycle but consumes/controls the very sources of the bending arts, the entire power system of the avatarverse, and the souls of all original benders after causing them to go extinct.

Again, I always imagine Azulaang taking place in that timeline because the reason why their spirit bond forms in the first place is because Ozai doesn't need to fuse with Vaatu, Ozai IS Vaatu. Vaatu is also the true orchestrator of the 100-year war through Sozin and is reborn as a human through Iroh's mother, Ilah. Another reason is that Azula will have every reason in the world to want to join Team Avatar, bond or no bond.

Aang is the one who loses his past lives but in return, after he's purified, Vaatu's natural abilities, instincts, and status are taken from him and combined with all of Raava's while still permanently fused with Aang.

There have been times when Azulaang was seen through a biblical lens with Aang as an angelic archetype and Azula as a demonic archetype.

I hope this makes sense and I didn't just ramble on.

[i-like-gay-books]

i cant believe i stayed up until 3am to read the most life changingly amazing fic last night and now (8am) i have to wake up and go to work for 7 hours like nothing happened and im not a walking zombie

[topnotanalysis]

Guru Pathik's fave food according to Nightmares and Day Dreams!