#atla kuei

[lily-alphonse]

So I’ve been rewatching ATLA...

and LADIES WHAT THE FUCK? Tell me why we havent been talking about the earth king. Excuse me? Look at him. I NEED EVERYONE TO SIT DOWN AND HEAR ME OUT ABOUT THIS.

The very first time I saw Kuei appear in his little fuckass glasses I was smitten. And that SMILE? There's a freak in there somewhere I just know it. He needs to be cracked like a glow stick.

He's probably like a 35 year old virgin, there's no queen. He is kind, sheltered, loves animals (he has a pet bear he dresses up and feeds only the finest cuisine) I AM FERAL.

I'm cooking up an explicit fic for him right now against my will because he has like maybe two on AO3 and neither of them are an arranged marriage reader insert / OC and I need it.

I NEED IT.

But also if you feel inspired to create anything for him yourself please tag me fr.

Also also sorry to my followers for the most random hyperfixations lmao

[maxiemumdamage]

Although far from the most heinous of villains, there’s one Avatar: the Last Airbender character whom I still harbor a very generous amount of hatred for:

King Kuei, aka the ruler of Ba Sing Se, aka the Earth King who somehow managed not to know his kingdom had been under siege by a foreign power for over a century.

And I know most people, the narrative included, forgive him for his ignorance due to the fact it was Long Feng’s conspiracy that made it so. But for a man in King Kuei’s position, I think the ignorance is a cruelty and abuse of power, even if not at the same level as Long Feng, the Dai Li and their conspiracy.

Because in order for Kuei not to know about the war, he had to not knos about anything that was happening in his kingdom. To not know about the war, he also had to not know about the refugees pouring into his kingdom. He had to therefore be clueless about things like housing, food, water, citizenship/immigration, foreign policy, and trade. He had to not know anything about the general standard of living of his people, in addition to their safety — and we see that in action when Team Avatar takes him outside the palace!

And MAYBE Kuei was just tricked by faked documents, if you really wanna give him the benefit of the doubt — maybe he just read the summary reports saying all was well and believed them, or made whatever allocations his advisors suggested without looking at the data personally or confirming through a secondary source. But Long Feng made it sound more like the king just runs museums and cultural preservation programs and delegates all the rest. Which just circles back to him not looking closely enough at what’s happening to actually see it! That is not good leadership.

And if you wanna talk about what Kuei does after he learns the truth about his loyal advisor and tries to take charge himself…uh.

He immediately spills the invasion plan and all its details to Azula, which led to the eclipse invasion failing. (Yes, she was disguised as an allied warrior, but she was still a total stranger and a random teenager from an arguably foreign island. A good leader wouldn’t have told her everything he did, even with good reason to think her trustworthy. And sure, Azula might’ve learned of the invasion regardless, but Kuei definitely made the situation worse.)

Kuei does nothing to help with the modified solar eclipse invasion, either — he tells Team Avatar to do what they want and fucks off to travel the world with his pet for a few months. Maybe acceptable behavior from an influencer, but not from a king whose country has been invaded and colonized by a hostile, genocidal nation. Kuei completely abandoned his people during their worst hour, which he helped bring about! Instead of trying to make up for his failure, he shrugs it off and moves on, then comes back and retakes his throne once someone else has done all the work of getting rid of those pesky invaders.

Kuei doesn’t show up when the White Lotus retakes Ba Sing Se — he doesn’t even know it’s happening, which speaks to his apathy towards the well-being of his people. The invaders are finally being kicked out, the war is about to end, and King Kuei has no idea. If word hadn’t reached him after the war ended, would someone else have been installed as king? Frankly, I think it might’ve been for the best, had they not needed to make it seem like the Earth Kingdom was going back to normal.

Like, at the end of the day, Jeong-Jeong, Piandao, and Iroh — all three Fire Nation deserters, and one a former enemy general who once pillaged the city and a BROTHER OF THE CURRENT FIRE LORD — did more to help Ba Sing Se than its king. And you can’t even blame the White Lotus for not making an effort to find and include Kuei, because he would’ve just been dead weight for them. He wouldn’t actually know enough about the infrastructure to be an asset, and it’s not like his face is known by the people enough for him to grant morale to local earthbenders. For all its tragic Kuei had no clue his city was being reclaimed, he would’ve been unable to do anything if he knew. Because Iroh knew more about Kuei’s city than he did!

And then in the comics, once he’s back on the throne he immediately almost restarts the war. The HUNDRED YEAR WAR that ended like a MONTH ago. Because Zuko says “hey actually these Fire Nation colonies existed for almost a century, it’ll be hard to tear them apart without hurting a ton of people and splitting up families. let them stay while we sort things out.” Kuei then goes to war (he mobilized his army and everything) because Zuko the teenage Firelord does one (1) mean and slightly concerning thing that.

(I will freely admit: Zuko was also at fault, he did not handle that situation well by any means. And even if his conclusions were reasonable, he sure expressed them in a way that would made the nation they just stopped targeting the Earth Kingdom in war very tetchy. But Kuei doesn’t know enough about the war or Zuko or his own kingdom to actually know why this is bad! It’s not a trauma response nor fear for the well-being of his people, but a desire to prove his own worth that motivates Kuei to send armed forces to remove the Fire Nation colonies. He’s certainly not absolved for how fast he pulled the trigger and wanted to resume war, just to feel like he was doing something.)

Zuko’s bad choices were rooted in concern for his people and having visited the colonies himself and seen how difficult the situation was. Kuei just wanted to appease his ego by feeling strong and decisive even when it meant making an uninformed decision. “Well I was useless before so I gotta make sure I take swift actions now, even if that means being uninformed and using liberal violence. Soldiers move out!”

WHY DID HE HAVE TO GO BACK ON THE THRONE. CAN’T BUMI OR TOPH TAKE OVER RULING BA SING SE???

The fact most of Kuei’s sins are born of ignorance doesn’t absolve him, because a person in his position should never be ignorant to that extent. And Kuei knows it — that’s why he’s defensive, but also ashamed, when Team Avatar proves the existence of the war to him. Kuei has all the resources and tools to educate himself. He just…chooses not to.

The fact he makes one good decision when he trusts team Avatar over Long Feng ALSO falls short when you remember how long it took them to get there and how little that actually achieved. He goes right back to ignoring them after the war once they stop telling him what he wants to hear, anyway!

(Plus, if they’d NOT gone to him for help, the Invasion on the Day of Black Sun might have succeeded. The water tribe soldiers, mechanists, and earthbenders not from Ba Sing Se were the forces they actually ended up with — they didn’t need Kuei’s armies to get as far as the palace! — and they could’ve won if they’d had the element of surprise.)

Anyway. Kuei was useless and given his position, had no right to be. What happened to even noblesse oblige? All those privileges he earned from the labor of his people, and he couldn’t actually be bothered to know a damn thing about their lives. Much less protect them.

So yeah. King Kuei hate mail time.

For some reason extra incompetent people inserting themselves into political offices and then ignoring the well-being of their country makes me extra mad lately.

[theduckeminence]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Kuei/Long Feng (Avatar) Characters: Kuei (Avatar), Long Feng Additional Tags: Avatar WTF Weekend, Serious Injuries, Hand Injuries, Broken Bones, Ballroom Dancing, Unhealthy Relationships, Established Relationship, Toxic Kuei, Corrupted Kuei, Long Feng Gets What He Deserves, Secret Relationship, But also Kuei makes it too obvious and out in the open, Alternate Universe, Not Beta Read, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Power Dynamics, Power Imbalance, Digital Art Summary:

Avatar WTF Weekend - “Dance with Me”

The grip Kuei has on Long Feng suddenly tightens. His left grasps at the fabric, digging his nails into it as if to tear it off. His right tightens around the earthbender’s already wounded hand, shaking yet refusing to slacken even when Long Feng hisses in pain. He winces, though the instinct to take back his hand proves useless as it becomes partially limp in Kuei’s crushing hold. He bites his lip to cope with how harshly the young man holds out his hand— breathing sharply through his nostrils to ease the burning sensation in his left hand.The Earth King doesn’t stop dancing.

OR

Kuei asks Long Feng to dance with him.

~~~ Forgot to post this separately for @avatar-wtf-weekend TvT! Enjoy! 

[proship-polls]

Do you ship it?

Reasons:

None submitted.

[twin-azure-dragon-wave]

Avatar: The Last Airbender + Twitter Posts - Part 7

[Part 6][Zuko Edition][Part 5][Part 4][Part 3][Part 2][Part 1]

[a-todd-illustration]

King Kuei and Firelord Zuko friendship ❤️ 💚

They like to go see plays together, but they talk through most of it. The personal guards have gotten used to it and find it amusing.

[mugentakeda]

he thought redeeming himself took one day only!!!! he mad

[thebxghag]

A young Kuei looks up at his mentor and foster father figure, Long Feng, as the ministers bow and court begins.

ko-fi | comms | inprnt | bsky | cara

[longing-for-rain]

I’ve been thinking about The Promise again, and it’s really interesting to me how the narrative tries to frame Zuko as the “dark” character once again, despite the fact that Aang was the one considering banning interracial relationships and supporting the Earth Kingdom in invading Yu Dao (which most of the people living there did not want).

In canon, Aang only changed his stance on interracial relationships after realizing it would affect him personally. But consider this—what if Katara wasn’t interested in Aang at that point. What if she was with someone else?

It would be interesting to explore how that would change the plot.

[thegirlfromgonewiththewind]

So, I was thinking about something in LOK.

You know the Earth Queen Hou-Ting? You know, the woman who secluded airbenders and that Zaheer killed?

This one?

Well, as you all may know, she’s King Kuei’s only daughter.

I’m sure you all remember King Kuei, the puppet king with the bear.

This guy.

Well, I made some calculus. He must’ve been in his early/mid 20s in ATLA. And his daughter had to be in her 50s/early 60s when she died.

In the meantime, Zuko is 87/88 in 171AG, when LOK3 takes place. Since his daughter is commonly believed to be around Bumi and Kya’s age, I’d speculate that she’s around 60 in her appearance in LOK4, in 174AG and when Zuko is 90 (Tenzin is 51 in 170AG and Kya is roughly 4 years older than him, so Izumi must be between 5 and 7 years older than him, which places her in a range between 60 and 62 years old).

(See? Roughly the same age)

So, my point? I think during their diplomatic visits, Zuko and Kuei had to spend a lot of time in each other’s company because, monarch stuff. And given that they were both heirs to their respective thrones, Izumi and Hou-Ting had to spend a lot of time together.

I don’t know why, but I imagine those two having the wildest, silliest yet most hateful beef as teens. And given Hou-Ting’s despicable behavior and authoritarian politic in contrast to what shown of Izumi, a rational leader who cares for her people, I am even more convinced that those two despised each other.

So yeah, I can’t stop picturing Izumi and Hou-Ting insulting the crap out of each other while saving face in front of the subjects. And I can’t stop laughing

[acutemushroom]

Can we talk about a political consequence that Sokkla, Zutara, Zukka and Azutara could have ?

About the fact that the Earth Kingdom, especially Ba Sing Se, would be scared shitless of such union(s). The 100 Years war is still a very recent event all things considered.

That the literal Fire Lord and Chief of rhe Southern Water Tribes/Republic City council man are now husbands or brothers-in-law if not both. And that they are related to the girl who actually managed to conquer the capital and the man that had the most successful attempt before her.

Was I a politician or King Kuei, I'd be terrified. Because while I do not think they actually would, it would be pretty easy for them to ally and try to conquer the Earth Kingdom. And for good this time. They might even get the Northern WT on board !

They wouldn't. But it sure would be a fear in their head.

[zuko-always-lies]

Historically Accurate Polyamory and ATLA?

One thing that's inexplicably on my mind right now is that East Asian royal families were generally historically polygamous, so if you wanted to have Azula or Zuko or King Kuei or some other Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom royal or noble take multiple partners, that would actually be reasonably historically accurate. It seems like the Fire Nation royalty has avoided polygamy in recent decades (or you would expect the royal family to be much, much bigger), but isn't the point at the end of the series that they are supposed to return to old ways?

Interestingly, some of this applies to the Water Tribes as well. Although I don't know nearly as much about this subject as I know about East Asian royalty and I don't want to say anything too confidentially, I know some Inuit groups sometimes practiced polygamy. I also know that some groups sometimes practiced "spouse exchanges" where two couples would temporarily exchange spouses in order to create fictive kinship between them. Although the SWT is not identical to historical Inuit groups and the NWT in particular seems very, very different with it's city and state, I think you could definitely justify polyamory being in the tradition of both Water Tribes.

While the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Water Tribes might have traditions of polygyny (where one man marries multiple women), the Air Nomads might have a very different traditions. They are inspired at least in part by Tibetan Buddhism, and Tibet has it's own traditions of plural marriage. Historically, the most common type was fraternal polyandry, in which two or more brothers would take the same wife. However, apparently polygyny, conjoint marriages, and of course monogamous marriages were also historically acceptable in Tibetan society. Of course, there were specific economic reasons why fraternal polyandry made sense in Tibet, which might not apply to the Air Nomads and we really don't get a sense of how their marriages and family life might look like, but it's another reminder not to force their culture into "Western marriage norms, circa 2007."

With all the various forms of plural marriage that would theoretically be culturally appropriate, I think you can culturally justify just about any form of polyamory you are interested in writing.

[inbarfink]

[theduckeminence]

(ID in alt text!)

Kueifeng as Bingqiu 💚❤️

Inspired by the cover of the first novel of SVSSS!

[nayadoesstuff]

ATLA sexuality tier list

guys this is just my opinion btw; anyone can have different interpretations :)

[twin-azure-dragon-wave]

Avatar: the Last Airbender + Twitter Posts Part 2

[Part 5][Part 4][Part 3][Part 1]