#avatar country era

[riotineveryone]

How?? Like listerine🙈 He's just crazy, in so many different ways, but I love this dork so much🥹❤️🖤

Johannes making a brief demonstration of the king’s special sauce. Video by: Avatar Official Facebook

[kibutsulove]

As much as I want the victims of fire nation imperialism to receive their justice, I think it’d be a way better storytelling route if the fire nation’s war crimes were swept under the rug just as bad as japan’s crimes were

[rimouskis]

okay thought about it too much for a bit and I actually think biz's "THIS IS BIGGER THAN HIM!" rageout actually really perfectly exemplifies how The Canadian Hockey Machine has used, still uses, and needs to use Sid as an avatar for Canadian Hockey At Large.

McDavid hasn't won yet and until (...if?) he does, Sid is still the head of Canadian Hockey in the national imagination, especially for men/players of biz's age, and flying off his handle on the internet about Sid frittering away the final years of his career (...on the team he loves, captains, and has dedicated most of his life to) instead of going off somewhere else [cough, Canada] to chase another victory represents a real ending, a metaphorical death, to the cultural institution of hockey!

like biz is literally right in that The Country's Construction Of Itself As A Nation Of Sport, yeah, Sid's career is bigger than him. There is a real national mythology that has always used sid, since he was 16, to tell Canada's stories about who they are and what it means to be a Canadian through sport. Literally an enormous portion of the Sid/Ovi rivalry revolves around this, and as Ovi, a Russian, closes in on a record held by the Canadian God-King of the sport, there is a real desire to tighten that grip on Sid, to elevate him as continued proof of Canada's solvency as a nation of hockey. McDavid fell to an American in the Cup finals. Gretzky is about to lose his record to a Russian. There's smoke in the air.

Sid has committed himself to a struggling team. He's not succeeding at a rate anymore to continue his role in propping up that national mythology. "It's bigger than him," and yet Sid has opted out! Hark, the twilight of the era is upon us! And a media personality flipping out on Twitter about it is funny but also a very real finger pointed at something fading into the past in front of his, and our, eyes!!! I love myths!!!

[l00se-can0n]

anyone who simplifies the popularity of zuko to people liking "dark bad boys" is showing a sign of low media literacy. even before i watched atla, my friends recommended that i watched it solely bc of zuko. and after i watched it, i understood why. in the first episodes, most of the audience perceives him as this hot-headed jerk who's obsessed with capturing a 12 year old boy. but then we get to the episode "the storm" and we learn that the reason zuko wants to capture aang is because he was banished by his father; it doesn't excuse his actions but it is a reason. and then in the 2-parter of "the siege of the north, we learn that he has a sister and that their father often pitted them against each other, making him more sympathetic to the audience. from book 1, it is established that zuko will be more than just a villain. we don't see much of a change in zuko's character until book 2 after him and uncle iroh are branded as fugitives by the fire nation. throughout the season, we see him have an identity crisis and grappling with who he is. by the end of book 2, zuko seems to be content with his life in the earth kingdom and figuring out who he is by himself. that's why in tcod, the audience expects him to join the avatar especially after bonding with katara and confronting his uncle about teaming up with aang. but the show defies our expectations by having zuko join azula in her takeover of ba sing se. some people have a problem with this since he showed a lot of growth in book 2 and thought his betrayal was made to not make zutara a possibility but i think it make sense because zuko was more content being a neutral bystander and joining the avatar would be more risky especially he still wasn't on friendly terms with aang. when we see him return to the fire nation, we see that he's gotten everything that he ever wanted, he has father's approval and is hailed a hero by his country, but he isn't happy. this is why his confrontation with ozai is so satisfying, he realizes that not only the way his father treated him was inhumane and his approval is meaningless, but that his nation's century-long war was never a noble pursuit. when he joins the gaang, he tries his best to atone his past mistakes and demonstrate his sincerity of wanting to end the war and ends his arc by becoming the new fire lord ushered in an era of peace and kindness with the help of his ally and friend, aang. i think this why zuko is more popular compared to aang, the protagonist of the show. while aang and zuko are constantly portrayed as narrative foils to each other, aang doesn't have this constant inner turmoil that zuko does. this is why a lot of fans and casual viewers have an issue with gaang's confrontation with ozai. aang talks about how he struggles with killing ozai since it goes against the principles of his culture, a culture that is basically extinct, but this is never brought up until the series finale! it's not like there aren't any episodes where aang struggles with fulfilling his duties as the avatar, there are plenty and it does make him a sympathetic character. it's even more frustrating when you learn that aang not killing ozai was the plan since the production of book 1. there were countless opportunities where aang's struggle between wanting to maintain his identity and be a full-fledged avatar could've been addressed! i think this what aang stans who are resentful of zuko's popularity don't understand, aang's character arc is a lot more disoriented compared to zuko's.

[allgremlinart]

The Most Underrated Line In All Of ATLA/TLOK And Its Many Worldbuilding Implications - A Ramble

In S2E7 of TLOK we get this dialogue from Wan and The Aye-Aye Spirit: "There are other Lion Turtles?" "Of course there are - dozens of them!" [timestamp 3:38 in this video]

It's such a quick line it's easy to miss, but there's one thing about it that made a LOT of things click into place for me about the Avatar universe's worldbuilding; the fact that there are (or were) dozens of Lion Turtles. NOT four, with one for each element, like you would assume. Dozens.

What does this mean in terms of the Four Nations? What connections might this have with other previously established lore? Well uhm follow me on this journey. I guess.

Pre-Unifications - A Global Warring States Era?

A warring states era on a wouldn't be nearly as compelling if there were only four Lion Turtles. If this were the case, everything would be perfectly balanced; why would there be disarray, violence, cultural disparity and struggles for power within each elemental group if the world was already perfectly divided into four solid groups? Why would a national identity be in question at all?

But the fact that there are more than one Lion Turtle per element... that means different groups of people being isolated from one another for long periods of time. This means different bodies of identity, regardless of element. Different city states, regional Kings, Queens, fiefdoms, dynastic power struggle, etc etc, before any sort of inherent loyalty the ones element as a national and cultural identity was established.

We know the Avatar world was not always divided into Four Nations. In Chapter 21 of The Rise Of Kyoshi we learn that Guru Laghima - a name you'll recognize from TLOK S3 - was from an era when the Four Nations had not yet been formed. We also know from Zaheer that he lived about 4,000 years before the events of TLOK (for context, thats about 6,000 years after Wan became the first Avatar).

There's further confirmation of this in Smoke And Shadow, where we learn about the first Firelord and the Fire Nation's unification wars.

However there's implications of this even in the original series; it's not some sloppy ret-con from the books and comics, it fits. Think Omashu:

In S2E2 of ATLA we get the story of Oma and Shu - and we learn that they come from "warring villages." Now why exactly would their villages be warring if The Earth Kingdom already existed? Why the need for a power struggle? Why is it not presented as a civil insurrection or civil war, but as a conflict between two distinct groups of people? The answer is that the "Earth Kingdom" as we conceptualize it did not exist. I'd go further and say that we can assume that after Omashu was established it became a powerful regional kingdom, and created strong sphere of cultural influence. Think about it - Bumi is King Of Omashu. King. NOT the Earth King, King Of The Earth Kingdom, but still King Of Omashu.

[Now there's some debate about where Omashu's founding sits on the timeline but to me it HAS to be post-Wan, probably very nearly immediately post-Wan. The line that calls them the "first earthbenders" and that they "learned earthbending from the badger moles" has caused some to question if they fit in with the "Lion Turtles bestowed bending" lore, but to me it fits pretty easily. The Lion Turtles may have bestowed the power but the actual technique was learned from the badger moles and dragons and blah blah blah.]

I also find this line from Jianzhu in The Rise Of Kyoshi very illuminating:

VINDICATION !! And Jianzhu's moaning over the cultural diversity within his country brings me to the second part of this post...

FC Yee And Gene Luen Yang Accidentally (?) Make Avatar's Cultural Mish Mash Make More Sense

Avatar's cultural gumbo of visuals has always been a little hard to parse. If you follow @atlaculture then you know it'd be kind of fruitless to try and apply any one single ethnicity/culture to one nation. A common, and very valid, criticism of Avatar is the pan-asian approach it takes to worldbuilding. I'm not here to defend that lol. I think people who dislike Avatar on that basis are well within their rights to do so, and I also think it's important to enjoy things critically.

HOWEVER, from a worldbuilding perspective, the mish mash becomes easier to swallow when you think of it in terms of multiple groups of people being unified into different nation states over a very long period of time and slowly intertwining their cultures into a single(ish) identity.

Take the Fire Nation for example: in FC Yee's The Shadow Of Kyoshi we learn that the government was much more decentralized and the country was controlled by different clans, like the Saowon and Keosho, who had individual spheres of influence and strong senses of identity. It makes me think about Mai and Ty Lee

They're both Fire Nation nobles and they both live in the Fire Nation capital - but their styles/clothes are completely different. Now, obviously that can be boiled down to personality-based character design but. There's a wide discrepancy between Mai's Edo Japan inspired hair and Ty Lee's Thai inspired performance outfit, and a little retroactive canon about them being part of different but powerful clans .. ? Yeah. That'd be fun, at the very least.

I could go on about this... was there a Water Lion Turtle at the north AND the south? How did the airbenders transition from relatively sedentary life on a Lion Turtle to nomadism? etc etc etc BUT in conclusion: TLOK and the comics have some very fun worldbuilding implications snuck in there !! Which makes up for a lot in my opinion. Personally I'd KILL for an Avatar series set in the warring states/unification period... I think that could be insanely cool...idk. The End. For Now.

[discordiansamba]

thinking about how they have small scale mechs in korra. hey would it be fucked up or what if the fire nation was secretly producing its own mechs in the jazz era atla au, but like. infinitely more fucked up. they're powered by a firebender's inner flame. the pilot is the battery. especially since ozai would be working together with long feng he would have access to the dai li's brainwashing techniques.

time to bring 'die for your country' to a whole new level.

(or, ozai runs a test by sending one to republic city. what a hell of a way for team avatar to learn that lee from the tea shop is actually part of the blue spirit.)

[zeno-zero]

Roku killing Sozin will still lead to war.

No matter the decisions that Roku possibly makes, whether it is to kill or to be killed, he and the world will still suffer under the wrath of his blood nation. How, and why killing Sozin still leads to war? Let's consider Sozin's speech in Book 3, Episode 6:

“How dare you, a citizen of the Fire Nation, address your Fire Lord this way. Your loyalty is to our nation first. Anything less makes you a traitor.”

Even though Roku is the Avatar (specifically a diplomatic Avatar), who has to keep balance among the four nations of the world, he can't argue with already established laws and politics. It doesn't help the fact that being called a traitor is also a synonym to commit treason. After getting into an argument with him and almost getting burned alive by Sozin's fury of fire, Roku gets into the Avatar state and destroys a large portion of the royal palace, a home of many past generations before Sozin and serves as the seat of the Fire Nation government.

So, Roku not only committed treason against his country but also massive government property damage. Killing the predominant leader of his blood nation and has an influential position in their government and state, a bounty will surely set right on top of his head or is expected to be executed by tomorrow. Even without Sozin's rule, other relatives will take his throne and follow through Sozin's nefarious plans. However, I will acknowledge that Zeisan did attempt to try to overthrow Sozin, and canonically can take his place as the righteous Fire Lord but sadly it is proved to be a failure along with the previous Fire Lord, Taiso, who strongly believes that the Fire Nation's elites would not accept a nonbender as their monarch.

I do think the only difference is that while Sozin only started war on the day of the Comet's Arrival, tension will rise once more not only between the Avatar and his nation, but to all nations involved: since it is the Avatar's duty to maintain harmony among the four nations and that same harmony will go up in smoke till there's nothing but leaving ashes and destruction. It doesn't help the fact that his era is also recovering from most of the nations becoming increasingly selfish and aggressive, causing numerous small-scale conflicts & diplomatic incidents in which that's where Dark spirits comes into the picture, and horrible natural disasters that almost escalated into a huge (armed) confrontation between the Earth Kingdom & the Watertribe due to pointing fingers at one and the another out of accusations.

Something important to note: I was hesitating to post this so I kinda sent them first in multiple servers before feeling confident enough to post it here, lol! I love Avatar Roku with all my heart.

[fishyupmywishy]

Zuko being Fire Lord has to be the funniest thing on earth because absolutely no one knows who he is in the Fire Nation.

Think about it: A 13 year old boy has been banished and had been gone for three years. As far as the Fire Nation is concerned, he no longer exists there.

When Zuko became Fire Lord (ignoring the comics because they’re just wrong) I’d like to imagine that there was a lot of pushback and there was definitely some sort of uprising that might have happened, or at least thought about among the people. The Fire Nation had just been freed from a terrible and cruel monarch, they don’t want or need another. So when this sixteen year old boy comes out of nowhere, despite being the prince, no one knows anything about him. He hadn’t done much of anything to prove that he would have been a good Fire Lord in any sense.

All he had was the Avatar to back him up but even then, Aang is just a 12 year old boy. A 12 year old boy that had been trapped for a hundred years. So he doesn’t know anything about politics or ruling a country, especially in that era.

Zuko becoming Fire Lord was also straight up terrible for the Nation because he most likely didn’t keep up with Fire Nation politics either due to being so focused on capturing Aang.

Realistically, the Fire Nation would have been in shambles because there’s no way a 16 year old with no knowledge of politics or on how to lead would have ever managed to keep an entire country together.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I found it. The worst Katara take.

https://www.tumblr.com/illycanary/748146862907867136/kataras-entire-arc-was-about-her-becoming-someone?source=share

Her entire arc was about becoming someone who could lead the Fire Nation!? The nation that GENOCIDED her people!?

Please… please I need to hear your take on this. It hurts my soul. Give me peace.

Zutarians: It's so disgusting how Kataang completely reduces Katara to just "The Avatar's girl."

Also zutarians: Katara's entire arc, trauma and struggles are not actually about herself, but about her Totally Real romance with Zuko and how she'll be great for his nation.

And she used to hate said nation because it was an elusive concept to project her insecurities onto. It was totally not because said nation had in place a socio-political AND military system that was hostile to her, her loved ones, and her culture by design.

It wasn't Zuko and the Fire Nation that had to understand that everyone else in the world was as human as they were, oh no. It was actually Katara and the rest of the world that had to understand that the Fire Nation ain't as bad as they thought - even though they WERE doing all the horrible things they thought they were doing, and ruining their lives by taking away everything and everyone they loved.

#UnhingedZutariansShutTheFuckUpChallenge

Also, can the fandom as a whole stop it with the bullshit "Characters like Jet and Hama existed to teach Katara and Sokka not to be racist against the Fire Nation"?

They were NEVER okay with killing, or even mistreating, someone just because they happened to be born in the Fire Nation or were under their control. Everyone they hated had done something to earn said hate: killed someone they loved, attacked their tribe, chased them around the world, held people prisoner and forced them into slave labor, etc.

You might think it was wrong of Katara and Sokka to do something like try to convince Aang to leave Zuko to die in the North Pole (and the show was very clearly saying that was the case) but you cannot act like that was based on some unearned hostility to anyone vaguely associated with a nation they "didn't understand" and not on, like Sokka said, not giving the guy that was trying to kill them a chance to try again and maybe succeed - hell, Katara gave Zuko a chance in Ba Sing Se, and look what fucking happened. Her best friend died right in front of her because Zuko jsut had to go help Azula take control of the city, and then he sent an assassin after them.

No one is fully good or evil - but people CHOOSE to do bad things, even if they have sympathetic reasons, and a political system CAN be inherently cruel, unfair and EVIL. And the Fire Nation under Sozin, Azulon and Ozai's rule very much was. And since Zuko went out of his way to keep that political system in place, he was doing something evil, and thus the people that were being victimized by him had every right to hate his guts for it.

Once again, let's hear it from Zuko himself:

"Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the war was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness."

The Fire Nation screwed up. Zuko screwed up. They need to get their shit together (and Zuko did), and the responsibility to do so is on THEM, not on the people that are quite literally fighting for their lives because the Fire Nation gave them no choice.

It's not Katara's job to make Zuko, and an entire country, see reason. And her arc was about HER journey, HER struggles, HER accomplishments, HER life, HER culture, and HER loved ones - just because Zuko would eventually be part of the last category, that doesn't mean that it secretly all about him the whole time.

And Zuko knows all this. That's why his arc, and his friendship with Katara, works. The show already gave you the perfect scenario to turn that friendship into a romance in fanfics and headcanons, you don't need to pretend the Fire Nation wasn't the obvious bad guy in the war THEY chose to start.

You can respect the beautiful arcs both Katara and Zuko went through, or you can make excuses for the Fire Nation's choice to commit genocide by saying "Well, EVERYONE had something to learn from it." You cannot possibly do both, because their arcs are all about showing this "both sides" thing is NOT TRUE.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Kirima vs Gyatso: The tale of the Hot(wo)man

As cute and as much as I like Gyatso making up Flameo Hotman and it looping back to ATLA (cause hey! makes sense!):

Kirima technically did it first. TT0TT (the hotman/woman part at least).

So it begs the question........... Was Hotman/woman a term before? (and just fell out of fashion 200 years later?) Was it just another annoying nickname that Kirima chose? (most likely) or BOTH? (aka it IS a term, it means "ma'am/miss/madam" but she's using it a mocking tone/not using it right).

We don't get to see Rangi's reaction so hard to say if she's as annoyed by it than the hair related ones.

Anyway. While it COULD just be another nickname, because they called Rangi "Hairpin" before they seemed to settle on "Topknot". They only use this (once), and it's AFTER they've established Topknot for a good bit. So it's a big weird (not really but eh) for them to fling out a new possible nickname when they finally established one, AND it's one they know they can get a rise out of Rangi with (literally just happened).....

So like....what if it's NOT a nickname, but she's just insulting Rangi with a word from her country and using it in a mocking manner. Like what if it translates to:

Kirima: You're not setting a very good example for the baby Avatar, Topknot. Too much rage will stunt her growth. Rangi: Stop calling me that! Kirima, bows: As you wish, madam.

Which, if read like that would make sense. But it'd mean it's not a nickname made up by Kirima with the sole purpose to piss off Rangi. It means that there is a cultural/linguistical significance to Rangi and her Nation. Which means it's a word that DID exist.

BUT....then again.... "Hotwoman" is capitalized like how Rangi's other nicknames are.....so maybe it IS a nickname? Or maybe it's just a writing stylization choice that differs between Yee and RR?

"Ok what's the post about then?" Other than demanding we give Kirima her due😤 And reminding people they already made this joke before Roku's novel 😤

Ok ok, but for real, here are my theories:

Theory 1:

It was a nickname made by Kirima just to piss Rangi off. Maybe Kirima got reincarnated as an Air Nomad named Gyatso (that'd be so fucking funny) and decided to bring that oldie but a goodie back to annoy Roku with. OR, maybe Gyatso read a diary of Kirima's and that's how he got the hotman/hotwoman idea. And made the flameo thing up himself.

Theory 2:

Hotman/woman WAS a normal word back in Kyoshi's era, but had since fallen out of use by Roku's (maybe Rangi/Kyoshi had a hand in that? jfkdlasjfd). So far out of use, Roku is just ????? confused???? (that or the Flameo part is what's confusing him, not the hotman/woman). Gyatso found some old scrolls/history books that mention the hotman/woman part and decided to bring it back (with his own spin).

Theory 3:

Either part of Theory 1/2 are right (it's either made up, or just such old slang). BUT....Gyatso didn't know about it, and thought he was inventing the wheel. Great minds think alike kinda mentality going on here.

(of course maybe they do still say hotman/woman, or even flameo hotman/woman......but they don't say it as a greeting fjksldjf)

I dunno I had some thoughts on the matter and the implications. Maybe RR and the ATLA team forgot Yee already made the joke. Maybe they remembered and didn't care/have a reasoning behind it that I don't know about jfklsajfdl I just thought it was an interesting thing to chew on.

[very-grownup]

Hikaru no Go DRAMA TIME LET'S GO

WHAT IS IT?

Hikaru no Go was a Weekly Shounen Jump manga written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi "Death Note" Obata that ran from 1998 to 2003, totaling 23 volumes. It had a 75 episode anime adaptation from 2001 to 2003. The story of Hikaru, a young boy who finds himself haunted by Sai, the ghost of a go player from Heian era Japan and acts as an avatar for the ghost to continue pursuing his passion. Hikaru becomes more interested in learning go and playing for himself, eventually setting his sights on becoming a professional under the mentorship and friendship of Sai. It follows the same formula and plot beats as tournament battle or sports manga for the same demographic and is one of my top five sports series.

In 2020, there was a Chinese drama adaptation that you should watch, whether you're a fan of the manga or not. It's more of a coming-of-age series than a sports series, but the heart and soul of the series remains intact.

LET'S MEET OUR FRIENDS (AND ENEMIES)!

There are a number of characters who also play a significant part in the drama with source material characters who were only relevant in a chapter or two and I could not find manga panels searching online. Dedication to format does not permit me to use screenshots from the anime and also, let's be honest, early '00s Jump adaptations did not have the highest quality of animation, especially compared to where Obata's art was by the later volumes of the manga (which I have almost all of in Japanese, but can't currently access [it's under my bed]).

After the first few episodes, there's a time-skip that brings the main characters into their teens. That's probably one of the reasons for certain characters being more fleshed out and some

PLOT ADDITIONS & ABSENCES

There's now a summer training camp arc!

There are fewer sub-arcs making up the journey from ignorant baby to professional.

There's a moving away from home young man arc!

There isn't an entire arc dedicated to a supporting character traveling to another country to find himself.

AND OF COURSE YOU MIGHT ASK

The Chinese adaptation of a Weekly Shounen Jump manga from 20 years ago ends up being queerer than some adaptations of explicitly queer source material.

(To those familiar with the source material: Yes, That Part happens. Yes, it made me cry in drama form. Embrace being wrecked.)

Watch it. You'll love it.

[the-iridescent-phoenix]

So guess what’s not gonna happen this go around

AVATAR US TOUR AVATAR US TOUR AVATAR-

[justanotherthrowaway1950]

(tw abuse)

Something I've been thinking about:

Sometimes I feel that there's not much we know about Azula. The only two episodes she's given depth beyond being a villain are Sozin's comet and the Beach. Even the time where she and Zuko were in the fire palace didn't show much.

I wonder if this contributes to multiple perspectives people have on Azula. Mainly anything along the lines of 'she shouldn't be redeemed, bc that was the point' and 'she wasn't abused'

The show implies many things about her. And there are many fabulous metas about her.

(I feel most of the ways Ozai abused Azula are implied. And this is another meta, but I find that a lot of people don't recognize that a character is abuse unless it's explicit and a point is made of it, especially if a character is shown to have some form of privilege.)

But what we are shown explicitly is a villainess who kept following her dad's orders until people turned on her because of it. Not much about why she is the way she is, beyond 'she was her dad's favorite' and does everything to please him.

Agreed. I've always felt that they should have removed or condensed some of the pre-DoBS episodes in S3 so they could have, among other things, given us an episode showing the events of ATLA leading up to Sozin's Comet from Azula's POV so her fall to madness wouldn't be so sudden, we could see how Ozai abused if her, if he ever did, and we would have had a definitive answer to the nurture versus nature debate that was only recently answered by her solo comic.

(If you want to see me go into details with my perceived issues with ATLA S3, please see this.)

But even accepting the "fact" that Season 3 had too much going to dedicate time to fleshing a character who was ultimately a secondary villain and foil to Zuko and Katara, it's really odd that they waited 15 years to finally fill in the gaps in the Azula's character and answer long-held questions by fandom, even if a non-insignificant portion of them view the answers as belated, fan-driven retcons. And even then, Azula's solo comic really doesn't really go into detail, either through flashbacks or dialogue, about Ozai's abuse of her, which leads to the problem you identified of people failing to recognize a privileged character as an abuse victim unless it is explicitly shown and directly pointed out by the text.

For example, in my opinion, based on my personal observation, a lot of fans view Azua's solo comic all but saying she is a product of nature who felt she had no choice but to become his monster after Ursa left the Palace as a retcon caused by the creators becoming aware that Azula had a substantial fanbase that saw her as a child failed by her country and father, instead of a irredeemable, psychopathic monster who deserved her fate.

Especially since the comic fails to show Azula becoming progressively more evil after Ursa left due to the pressure she felt from Ozai, making it seem like Azula was trying to justify being a bad person since she was young to avoid taking responsibility for her current lot in life.

Or in other words, a Draco in Leather Pants situation that managed to actually affect canon.

I know the comics' main goal was to depict the transition between Aang and Korra' eras, and then fill in the time period between Sozin's Comet and when Aang's movie is supposed to occur after Avatar Studios became a thing. But I wish the comics from the start focused on, among other things, fleshing out characters who weren't a main character in the show like Mai, Ty Lee, and Suki, among others.

In my opinion, it's a shame that we know so little about the characters and world in Aang's era despite the comics being a thing for most of time after the show stopped airing.

(Yes, I know the roleplaying game is filling out the lore. But most people haven't read it, so the above statement applies to most ATLA fans.)

[shadowjinx626]

I want to talk about this page really quick.

I find it wonderful that King Kuei only wants to get rid of the colonies for the sake of his citizens. It showed how he deeply cares about his people.

Which sort makes a good foil for Zuko, who not only is ruling a nation that hates him, but also has to fix the damage his nation caused. Zuko is so focus on restoring the peace for the other nations that he doesn't see how it could negatively affect his own people.

Specifically the colonies.

This makes sense for him to do when you considered his journey.

In The Storm episode, Zuko was very vocal about what was right for the Fire Nation.

"If I'm going to rule this nation one day, don't you think I need to start learning as much as I can?"

"You can't sacrifice an entire division like that! Those soldiers love and defend our nation! How can you betray them?"

"Please, Father. I only had the Fire Nation's best interest at heart. I'm sorry I spoke out of turn!"

Since he was thirteen, Zuko cared for the Fire Nation. He wanted to do was best for them. But that attitude for his nation led him to an Agni Kai against Ozai. There he was punished for refusing to fight against his own father.

Despite this though, Zuko still cares deeply for his nation. After all he wouldn't say this in The Blue Spirit:

How, Uncle? With Zhao's resources, it's just a matter of time before he captures the Avatar. My honor, my throne, my country, I'm about to lose them all.

But then his journey in season 2 happens and he gets a bigger picture of how the war truly is.

He meets Song. Who was burned by a firebender from the Fire Nation. He meets Lee and his family. Who had to deal with bullies taking advantage of the village, that needed protection from the Fire Nation, and whose family member fighting in the war against the Fire Nation. He meets Jet. Who seems alright at first, but hated Zuko so much once Jet finds out he was Fire Nation. He meets refugees. People who are in terrible situations thanks to a war against the Fire Nation started.

These people shows him how Fire Nation negatively affected them and how they view the very nation he cared for and taught was a great nation.

Which leads to Zuko's speech to Ozai in The Day of Black Sun Part 2:

"No, I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own! Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the War was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness."

This does not mean he hates his nation however, just that his views of his nation that he cared about is different now. And that's a good thing if he wants to right the wrongs, he, his family, and his nation did to the rest of the world.

So when Iroh says this to Zuko when it comes to ruling the Fire Nation:

"You restored your own honor, and only you can restore the honor of the Fire Nation."

He of course takes it seriously. Despite his insecurities, Zuko made it his mission to bring back the honor his nation lost by doing what he did to right his own wrongs. Working with the other nations and the Avatar.

So if the Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, and the Avatar want things to be separate, to be how it was before the war, then he'll do what is necessary. That's the trouble with this type of thinking though, things can't go back to the way they were. Especially not after 100 years culture built upon the war.

It also would make matters difficult when you remember one Zuko's flaws: he tends to be extreme with what he does. And sometimes that extreme attitude can cause others (and himself) to get hurt in the process. Even if it's not intentional.

On the contrary to Zuko, Aang was the one to acknowledges how this movement will cause disruption towards other people's lives. Though just like Zuko, who has flaws, Aang's also has flaws. He sometimes cannot see the full extent of how certain actions can hurt others.

In the show, we never see Zuko interacting with the citizens from the colonies, and Aang only went to one in the first season. So their views about the colonies is rather nonexistent or limited. It makes sense they be nonchalant about removing the colonies for the sake of peace and restoration.

[aufi-creative-mind]

Do you think the Twilight Crystal is still in Ordon? You know, the thing that let Twilight Link transform back & forth between Hylian & Wolf.

By present-day, no. The Twilight Crystal no longer exists in this version of Ordon. BUT it had played a big role in shaping the Ordon peninsula's history and faith.

-

The Twilight Crystal was originally the headpiece of the legendary Twili Empress, Midna's crown. She was the last Twili Empress who lived about 5000 years prior to the present-day and was considered as the figure who broke the curse of "eternal Twilight" that was inflicted on the Ordon peninsula by the Interlopers - aka her ancestors - and brought the four Light Spirit Guardians into the physical realm to help in Ordon's healing from her ancestor's twisted magic.

Midna has since acheived "ascension" and is considered as the "Patron Saint of Twilight" in the Ordonian faith.

The Crystal was similar to the Secret Stone in TotK, and was a kind of amplifer for Midna's powerful magic. After her passing, the Twilight Crystal became a sought-after treasure by thieves and treasure hunters.

One such treasure hunter used it to "recreate" the power of then extinct Twili people's legendary magic. And ended up causing the "Era of Great Darkness" where the peninsula was consumed by a shroud of darkness that twisted any unfortunate mortal's spirit into unspeakable monsters. This led to the rise of the Light Spirits and their Avatar vassals to vanquish the Darkness.

The Twilight Crystal was then destroyed by the Ordonian Avatar, Oron the Shepherd (aka this Ordon's version of Link, the Hero of Twilight) with the assistance of his Light Spirit, Ordonia.

This occurred about 3000 years prior to present-day.

Oron's descendants would go on to establish the united Kingdom of Ordon, the predecessor to the present-day country of Ordon.

[pynkhues]

Heyy! Would you mind if i asked u to explain to what extent is lestat and his mother’s relationship incestuous? I havent read the books but i keep seeing everyone talk about lestat’s fucked up relationship with his mother altho they never talk about specifics and i’d like to know bcs i love lestat and i wanna know everything about him!!! And i also i dont trust just anyone to know bcs some people on twt just lie about having read the books😭 so yeah i trust you lol i hope it’s okay Thank you!!

Hey! Of course! It's - - mm, kind of a how long's a piece of string question to ask how incestuous they are, because on the one hand, very, haha, and on the other hand, it's more complicated than something like, say, Jaime and Cersei? I think what Anne was interested in exploring between them was an already unclear identity dynamic born out of isolation and trauma - mother-son, lovers, and avatar - and then reversing the parent-child with maker-fledgling.

In that sense, context is pretty important. To give you the short version, Gabrielle is an Italian woman (her gender identity is totally up for discussion, but I'm going to use she/her pronouns here just because Anne does) who's both highly educated and pretty independent for her time. She's an avid reader, well-travelled and wealthy, when her family marries her off to a French aristocrat from the Auvergne countryside. The Marquis - as his name implies - is titled, which means something in this era, but he's otherwise totally destitute, and also very abusive. Gabrielle is - in this sense - the total embodiment of a gothic heroine where she's isolated in a foreign country with a cruel man who basically bleeds her dry financially.

She has eight children to him, only three of whom survive childhood (and I tend to think this feeds into Gabrielle's complex relationship with her own body). Lestat's the youngest, and is pretty much immediately Gabrielle's favourite although she struggles to show this. We don't know how much Gabrielle's detachment from her children and her unwillingness to show affection stems from the years married to the Marquis, how much she's divorced herself from her body and role as mother as a result, and how much is just her, but it definitely shapes how Lestat receives love (which absolutely feeds into his relationship with both Louis and Nicki). He's desperate for Gabrielle's attention, and she loves him but neglects him to the point where she doesn't even teach him how to read, despite literature being her only solace in the Marquis' house.

Gabrielle and Lestat basically become emotionally enmeshed at this point, especially as Lestat's brothers follow in their father's footsteps and become further vectors of his abuse, and that enmeshment leads first to emotional incest and then a physical attraction that's acted on at least in kissing if not more (it's ambiguous). Their sense of intimacy is in a lot of ways perverted through trauma, but Gabrielle's really unclear with boundaries with Lestat which also leads beyond emotional incest to a sort of identity bleed. As I mentioned above, she also sees Lestat as avatar - he's her masculine self, she literally calls him her phallus in the book - which as a parent, is manifest of her own abuse of him. She, in those moments, can and would deny him his own personhood and independence and see him only as an extension of herself.

There's a reading there that that's reflective of Gabrielle being either non-binary or a trans man (and a number of parallels that Claudia and Gabrielle were both turned in the wrong bodies - Claudia as a child, Gabrielle as a woman), something amplified by the fact that she predominantly wears men's clothing after she's turned into a vampire. I can and do overall agree with both those readings, but I think it's also reflective of Gabrielle recognising Lestat has social power that she never will and that dressing as a man gives her greater freedom and mobility in an era where women had little.

Their relationship actually becomes a bit less incestuous when they're less isolated in Paris and Lestat starts whatever weird psychosexual thing he has going on with Armand, haha, and Gabrielle tries to help Nicki adjust to a vampire life he's never going to adjust to. She and Lestat have a pretty loving departure from one another where she goes to travel the world again, and they spend a long time out of touch as a result because Lestat can't communicate with her as his fledgling (and still can't read or write). They only actually reunite when she realises Lestat's in danger while on tour towards the end of TVL, and then teams up with Louis to try and save him from Akasha.

So yeah! It's a really complicated relationship and in a lot of ways I think goes beyond just incest and feeds into trauma and abuse as something that perverts family dynamics, but also has profound impact on personal identity. She's kind of the worst in a lot of ways, but I honestly love Gabrielle as a character and she's often really fun (her and Armand hating each other's guts is very funny) and I can't wait to see her on screen. There's a reason she's the character Sam and Jacob are both the most excited about, but I do think she's probably going to be a very polarising character for audiences.